Recently, my wonderful girlfriend took me on a dinner date to a very nice restaurant in Redondo Beach. The restaurant in name is Japonica Dining. An Izakaya style restaurant, with a great selection of Sakes. I personally have a somewhat limited knowledge of sake. My favorite sakes being typically 2-3 stand bys that I can usually find at most good japanese restaurants (Hakkaisan, Otokoyama, Takenotsuyu). While at this particular Izakaya restaurant I was able to partake in quite a few different sakes. The manager, Yasu, was very gracious in making sure to provide a sampler of sakes he thought I might enjoy, and would provide with me a full glass once I chose from one on of the many samples he provided.
As we all know, sake is a rice wine, made from different kinds of rice from different japanese prefectures. Each prefecture has a different flavor based on the rice they happen to grow there, unbeknown to me was that some sake brands actually mix two kinds of rice to come up with a even more unique flavor to their sake..
This brings me all the way back to the Arabashiri Seasonal Sake (a brand, but also in general to mean “Seasons First Run Sake”)…I have/had never known sake to have somewhat of a fruit sweetness of flavor to it, but somehow this particular sake has captured that feeling. It seemed itself more of a dessert sake, to finish a meal, and enjoy what one just had, rather than a meal sake, something to try with seafoods or meat and poultry. Please do yourself the favor if you happen to have the chance, I would highly recommend taking the time to visit this restaurant to enjoy this sake before its gone from their selection, seeing as its only a seasonal sake that we were told is only available for a short time.
