I went out on Friday night to a part of Tokyo called Roppongi Hills. This is an ex-pat heavy location that's about a 15 minute walk from the Temple Campus. Roppongi Hills is incredibly nice. This is in stark contrast to Roppongi which is incredibly foreigner heavy and relative to other ares of Tokyo, criminal heavy. Locals often say every foreigner should go to Roppongi once... and only once - I've been more than once. Ropongi Hills, however, is clean and new and for Americans who having a hard time adapting to life in Tokyo, it is the place to go. I am having no trouble adapting, but this was the location of a Sake Tasting.
I come to learn that Sake is not a hard liquor, but more like a wine. It is created through a fermenting process rather than a distillation process. Also there are thousands of brands and kinds of sake. The reason I know this (and a lot more) is because prior to the tasting, was a mandatory instructional session. I say mandatory, because they sake was not passed out until the lecture was over.
Apparantly the 3 things that will increase the taste of sake, are the type of rice used, the level of grinding off of the fats and proteins from the rice, and the amount of the process that is done by hand (rather than by machine). The conclusion is that as the price of sake goes up, the quality also increases... however this correlation diminishes when you hit about 50 dollars.
I thought the sake was much better than sake I've had in the States. And no, there was no sake bombing involved. I am not a huge fan of sake to begin with, so it was nice to sample some really good sake. Now I know my dislike for sake is not just because I have been drinking cheap sake.
After sake, I traveled up and down roppongi and roppongi hills and found a couple watering holes. One was called heartland and the other is called Muse. I was at heartland for a long time and Muse only for a short while. Heartland has inexpensive beer, because it is there own variety. Apparently heartland is brewed throughout the world - someone from NYC said they had it there too. Muse was great, it's a really chill place with a lot of seating. I will definitely go there again. Heartland was fun, but it was overcrowded.
I am working on having my videos uploaded to a friend's website, if I can get that to work, I'll just link directly to them on this blog. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
I come to learn that Sake is not a hard liquor, but more like a wine. It is created through a fermenting process rather than a distillation process. Also there are thousands of brands and kinds of sake. The reason I know this (and a lot more) is because prior to the tasting, was a mandatory instructional session. I say mandatory, because they sake was not passed out until the lecture was over.
Apparantly the 3 things that will increase the taste of sake, are the type of rice used, the level of grinding off of the fats and proteins from the rice, and the amount of the process that is done by hand (rather than by machine). The conclusion is that as the price of sake goes up, the quality also increases... however this correlation diminishes when you hit about 50 dollars.
I thought the sake was much better than sake I've had in the States. And no, there was no sake bombing involved. I am not a huge fan of sake to begin with, so it was nice to sample some really good sake. Now I know my dislike for sake is not just because I have been drinking cheap sake.
After sake, I traveled up and down roppongi and roppongi hills and found a couple watering holes. One was called heartland and the other is called Muse. I was at heartland for a long time and Muse only for a short while. Heartland has inexpensive beer, because it is there own variety. Apparently heartland is brewed throughout the world - someone from NYC said they had it there too. Muse was great, it's a really chill place with a lot of seating. I will definitely go there again. Heartland was fun, but it was overcrowded.
I am working on having my videos uploaded to a friend's website, if I can get that to work, I'll just link directly to them on this blog. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
3 comments:
Wow, that saki tasting looked awesome. What a great experience you are having out there. Very smart decision! Anyway, I'll continue reading so keep posting. Talk soon...
Jenni
by the way, I am using Ricky's google account hence why I show up at "Shaffren" :) Don't get any ideas...
never been a fan of saki, but maybe I should try it in Japan
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