Starting this week and extending over the next few months, we will occasionally be posting entries related to our coverage of FOODEX JAPAN 2025, the venue for which was Tokyo Big Sight (TBS). The picture above is that of the partially buried saw, a sculpture that appears outside TBS. We like to think of it … Continue reading FOODEX JAPAN 2025: Coffee Cherry Beer
Simply Beautiful The title of this entry is taken from American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Still Will I Harvest Beauty Where It Grows.” The subtitle is a reference to our presence at a lecture by Dr. Hiroshi Konno, which was delivered at the Japan Sake and Shochu Information Center (JSS) in February of this … Continue reading “I Tell You Beauty Bears an Ultra Fringe”: An Evening with Japan’s National Fungus
The pejorative word devil is sometimes applied to things that are quite good. Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary is a case in point. Consider its definition of mausoleum: “The final and funniest folly of the rich.” See what we mean? Then there is that nefarious musical instrument once widely denigrated by the holier-than-thou types as … Continue reading Amorphophallus konjac Beer
Eminence Grise, Jean-Leon Gerome Last week we discussed Kyokai yeast #14. This week we will switch from the specific to the general. Noteworthy sake is the result of a number of factors coalescing at the right time and in the right way. The strain and quality of the rice used, the all-important water, that UNESCO-recognized … Continue reading Who Has Seen the Yeasts?
Have you ever lifted a glass of nihon-shu to your nose, sniffed, and asked yourself why it smells like bananas? Has the brewer decided to jazz up his product and give it a bit of confectionary appeal by adding a little banana extract perhaps? Well, in the ungrammatical words of that hit song from way … Continue reading “Yes! We Have No Bananas.”
Just before the holidays last year we were given this bottle of sake from Toyama, which caused us to think about that prefecture and its production of nihon-shu, and to open the bottle, of course. The latter was a very pleasant experience, and, as is our custom, a sensory evaluation will be included later in … Continue reading A Taste of Toyama: Sanshoraku’s Junmai Ginjo
Many years ago, there was an interesting commercial running on American television channels. It showed ketchup emerging ever so slowly from its bottle, while the Carly Simon song “Anticipation” played in the background. The unstated message was that this product is so thick and rich that it just has to be delicious, and, naturally, one … Continue reading Anticipation: Moritami Sou Honke’s Nigorizake
Drinking Japan 