July ‘07 Sake Reviews

Here are four unique Junmais I’ve reviewed in the month of July. Click through to the Full review page to see more. If you’ve tried any of these, please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
Ohyama Tokubetsu Junmai Nama

Sake Grade: Junmai
Brewery: Ohyama
Prefecture: Yamagata
Ricetype:
Seimaibuai: 60%
Alchohol Content: 15.5%
Sake Meter Value: +3
Acidity: 1.5
lightly [...]

Sake Scene at Soba-ya

Down old East Village way is a little soba place called Soba-ya that is just the bees knees. I’ve been there twice now, so it’s finally time to post on the sake happenings at this terrific soba joint. First thing to know - there will always be a wait to be seated if [...]

Oh! Taisho

In December 2005 I tried that Saint Mark’s stand-by Yakitori Taisho. That experience left me feeling like i’d been run thru the Maytag spin cycle and was also my unfortunate introduction to rough and overpowering taru sake. Recently, I discovered however that Yakitori Taisho had opened a sister restaurant down the [...]

Tsukasabotan: A Space Odyssey

Sake Captain’s Log, Stardate 1215.6 — I was recently invited to join some friends at awesome Sake Hana (265 E. 78th St btw 2nd and 3rd Ave 212-327-0582) to try Tsukasabotan “Space Sake”. Sake from outer space? Well, not exactly… It’s actually sake made from yeast that was blasted into orbit. Houston, do we [...]

Secret Password: Tsukushi

I always had a feeling that there were japanese bars and restaurants out there that were hidden speakeasy type places that you had to know a friend of a friend to learn the Japanese password and find their secret location.
My recent trip to Tsukushi restaurant (300 East 41st Street; 212-599-8888) hinted at this kind of [...]

Saké Bar Hagi

The phone in my office rang bright and early last week. It was Scott asking me “Did you see the Times?!?!” well, at that point in the morning I’m usually just staring down at my iced coffee, not the newspaper. Scott proceed to inform me that the coveted “$25.00 and under” food column in the [...]

Touch and Go at Tomoe…

“Japanese Roulette” is a dangerous game. This is what I call the act of blindly picking unkown sakes off the menu just to “try something new”. The highest risks can have the best rewards, but sometimes things don’t quite go your way.
Scott and I have been to Tomoe several times, and it’s our open little [...]

Movin’ on up, to the East Side…

Just like Weezie and George Jefferson, I made my way on up to the East Side last sunday afternoon. It’s not a common haunt of mine, but predictably, it was sake that lured me out of my geographic comfort zone.
My Sake Buddy KC organized a really fun and relaxed B.Y.O.S. event at the ‘De-luxe apartment [...]

April ‘06 Sake Meetup

The Sake Meetup group, well, ‘met up’ last night at Landmark for a private tasting. It was quite fun as usual. This night was a study in old friends and new friends… this goes for both the sake AND the people!
I knew two of the sakes that were served on sight. [...]

It’s so ISE to fall in love…

Have you ever seen that show Survivor Man? It’s about this MacGyver-type survival expert guy that gets dropped by helicopter into a remote, harsh and desolate area (mountain top, death valley…) and he has to survive for a week and film the whole thing showing his survival tricks along the way. I felt a little [...]

Shochu Superiority Complex

Sometimes, you just have to believe in good omens. On my first trip to Uminoie Japanese restuarant (86 E. 3rd St.) the neighboring table handed me a piece of their birthday cake just after Scott and I were seated. I took it as a sign that our experience at this place was going [...]

Rihaku Tokubetsu Junmaishu

I had the pleasure of getting another chance to try the excellent Yakitori Totto on W. 55th Street. If you have not gone yet, give it a try. trust me. Scott and I were out with friends recently and we quickly powered through a carafe of Wakatake and thought it was time to [...]

Man’s Mountain. HOOWA!

Ok, I have to admit, the english name of Otokoyama’s Tokubetsu junmai reeled me in. MAN’s MOUNTAIN! I just had to give it a try. This could be the very same Otokoyama I had at Menchanko-tei. So, having scaled the heights of man’s mountain and returned with an empty bottle, I [...]

International Habitual Drink

I am coming to love japanese websites translated into english! I am starting a japanese class in march, so I’m sure it won’t be so funny when I need to translate Japanese into english myself. Be that as it may, when I was researching this sake called Otokoyama that I sampled last [...]