Sake to Me

We want to be a part of our community. So when Japantown has a festival, we attend. And the latest festival was the Sake Festival. So, of course, we went. I know almost nothing about sake and have only had it on a rare occasion. I do know that it is made of rice and usually served with Japanese food. But I didn’t know that there were over 1400 varieties and that only about 600 are imported to or made in the US. And I didn’t know that sake can be dry or sweet or fruity or bubbly. But after attending the festival, I learned a lot. I bought our tickets early – 700 were sold before the event with another 200 expected to be sold at the event. Once we turned in our tickets, we were given a map of all the places serving sake – 28 to be exact – and a bracelet saying we were over 21 (they never asked us for ID so I guess we look old enough). While registering at the Senior Center, we were entertained by a Japanese drumming group that competes in the area. Then at 5:30, we headed out to taste.

Now, I have shared the “Hop and Shop” phenomenon that NoCal seems so fond of. There was the quilt hop and shop, the wine hop and shop and now the sake hop and shop. When you reached a station – usually in a store or restaurant – you were given a small plastic cup (like the ones used in McDonald’s for catsup) with some sake. You tasted and then had your booklet stamped. When you had visited ALL 28 stations, you could turn in your completed booklet and be entered in a drawing for a mixed case of sake.
We started at Station 15 to avoid the crowds. We were handed our little cup and took the first sip. Now, I have learned the proper etiquette for sipping wine – the twirl of the glass to aerate the wine, the sniff of the bouquet and then the sip. I wasn’t sure what to do with the little catsup cup of sake. If I swirled, it would all end up on the floor. So I passed on the swirling and went right to the sniffing….. which is hard to do with a catsup cup. And as I quickly noticed, no one else was sniffing. OK, so no swirling and no sniffing. On to the sipping…. And, with wine, I would swish it around across the palate and suck air through my teeth (trying hard NOT to leak anything out of my mouth) and then spit or swallow contemplating the flavors – a little hint of blackberry, some oak from the barrel, nice finish – all the while staring off into space with a very intellectual look on my face. So I sip the sake and start to swish – and OH MY GOD this stuff tastes like turpentine! But trying to maintain the intellectual look, I try to suck air and that doesn’t help matters at all. And I’m sure I’ll start to dribble any minute. Forget the swish and suck! I just hope I can live through 27 more of these. And then we find out that this sake is probably one of the best we will be tasting. The gentleman overseeing the pourings is from a sake store in San Francisco. He starts to explain to Mark all about the process of making sake and what makes this one so incredibly amazing. I listen half heartedly as I am still sipping. We get our station stamp and move on to the next station. And after about 10, the taste is beginning to grow on me. We taste one sake that tastes like lychee nuts – very sweet, like fruit juice with a kick. Too girly for Mark. And then at the Hawaiian crepe store, we tried a bubbly one that was pretty tasty. And the little deep-fried chocolate filled goodie they gave us was even better. Oh, did I forget to tell you that there was FOOD at every tasting station. So you nibble and sip…. Nibble and sip as you wander through Japantown. One of the stations was in the brand new Japanese-American museum that will be finished the end of August. A local ukulele band was playing while we sipped several different brands of sake. And another station was in the old hospital that has been converted into offices. The hospital was mainly used for deliveries and is a beautiful old building with a lovely garden in back. As we got to the half-way point, I was determined to finish all 28 stations. AND to make sure that we put our tickets in for the drawing. But as I got closer to the end of the list, I realized that I’m not sure I really like sake. One station encouraged us to go BACK to the stations we really liked for MORE sake. Oh dear. I wasn’t sure I’d get through them all once. And then Mark asked what we would do if we WON the case of sake. Oh dear again. But being a Type A person, I just HAD to get all my stamps. And we did. And, thank goodness, we did NOT win the drawing. Better luck next year….. NOT!