Learning Japanese

Learning Japanese: Wine by Wine; One Fish at a Time...


I thought I knew sushi and sake: I knew I loved them!

I knew from age 16, when the Suyehiros served sushi and wine on New Year's Day, that wasabi got my attention, cleared my senses, chased my allergies away. That all other oenology terminology aside, the textures of these fish were silk, satin, velvet, slick. That something in the reverence of preparing and sharing this food and these wines struck a right chord in my soul and mind.

I won't insist I was the first to blend wasabi with mayonnaise. Or to drink warm sake before skiing. But maybe?

I do know I was an early adopter and big supporter of the first sushi restaurants in MD, DC, NYC.

Yet despite what I consider a rare intersect of spirit, science, art and indulgence, for a time, my development was arrested and found me...savoring sake too hot and once trying a Philadelphia roll -- the seaweed-wrapped cream cheese and lox).

Happily, I'm on the grow again, THANKS TO:


1) Shigeko Fuke's Japanese Culinary and Cultural Association of America dinner on September 19, at ONO, NYC, where artistry included pine needles made of noodles and some of the finest sushis, sashimis, dishes and wines I've tasted in a long time.

2) New York Mutual Trading Company's October 1 event at which I learned, from Michael-John Simkin, that sake can be served at temperatures ranging from sleet cold (mizorezake) and snow cold (yukihie) to body temp (hitohadakan) and much higher, but with flower-cold (hanahie; assciated with drinking sake under cherry blossoms in spring) and mildly cool (suzuhie) being best.

3)Sophia Gilliatt and our many meals, including, most recently, exquisite Kumamoto oysters at Raku II.

4) Harris Salat's Japanese Food Report, which is drilling down on the meaning of rice, even as I am branching out into biodiesel.