What do people drink with sushi?

originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:
What do people drink with sushi?Chidaine, say something like the Tuffeaux?
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Champagne; and not Blanc de Blanc. Something with a decent amount of Pinot Noir (Rose) loves salmon and tuna. And, although I don't like RS, a little bit helps with the spicy stuff.
 
i forgot that america is the land of invention, where chefs unshackled from tradition feel free to put everything under the sun on top of a bit of rice, or inside a roll. for anyone visiting japan, you will be hard pressed to find even the most basic california roll, and the only spice (if you want to call it that) is wasabi...so no need to go the rs route for heat reasons.
 
Well, mr. zenmeister, your list missed one noteworthy answer: well-aged, lighter bodied, off-vintage Bordeaux from the pre-spoofy era.
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This is why I should never take vacation.

But now I have a terrible sushi yen ...
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Very different approach here. Growing up in Hawaii sushi was comfort/junk food, fifty cents for cone sushi at Woolworth's. Get some decent nori, a nice cut of fresh aku, rice, inamona, toss in whatever else you feel like, roll it up, slice, dip in shoyu/wasabi, pop it in your mouth, repeat until full.

Not that I don't sometimes enjoy the expensive production values in Manhattan venues, it just seems a bit absurd for something so basic.
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I understand your aversion to expensive fish for sushi, but most of us don't have the East river to use as a source.
 
Fishing regularly here involves an investment of time that I can't make right now. I did look into it when I first moved, the local fisherfolk all seem like they're having such a good time. I even sought out the advice of professional angler Andrew Lloyd Scott on the matter, but I didn't have the sticktoitness to follow through. Plus, it seems like there's a lot of beer involved, and I don't really like beer.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
We'd be glad to hear more when you have a moment.
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Well, lemme' see...the thing is, I am sure any of the orderlies living in Japan could supply better information than me, but here goes:

Generally, as I mentioned, the Japanese patrons drank beer. Generally, we are talking about groups of men here. The beer was drunk from chilled glasses or cups of a pretty small size. Sometimes the cups were clay, sometimes they weren't, always they were in the fridge. I saw Hinoki wood cups as well. I was told those were generally used for ceremonial occasions, and generally just used once (after which they were crushed). I was also told that in Japan, the very wealthy have Hinoki wood bathtubs, which I thought was very interesting. Sometimes people get the Hinoki cups inscribed on the outside with their name. Back to the beer: the Japanese have no problem sharing a bottle of beer. That is pretty routine in fact. So you take a couple beers and pour say five cups, and then repeat for the next round. Usually the person who orders is not the guest of honor, usually the person who orders is more like the head capo. If you try to pour for guests in the wrong order, hands will come up and gestures will be made to who it is that should be poured first. Women usually get poured last. Usually the beer we are talking about here is of the Asahi, Sapporo type. There might be a microbrew revolution going on in Tokyo, but when Japanese dudes get together for a brew and some sushi in NYC, they usually skip the Hitachino Nest, etc. for a cold Sapporo. This I found discouraging. That is until I remembered that the interplay of beer and sushi calls for beer that does not taste like anything, but rather acts as a sort of intermezzo palate wiper. When I tried the Hitachino Nest White Ale (a Belgian style brew) on the owner/head sushi chef he said it was too sweet. He let me list it, though. I also had a beer made from rice (Koshihikari Echigo, not the Hitachino Red) that I liked a bit.
Older Japanese man (by which I mean 70 or 80 years old) would often go for warmed sake with their sushi (year round). This was pretty much confined to the old timers, although I was told by more than one coworker that it is common for all sorts of people to drink warmed sake in the winter months.
Japanese women generally stayed with the Japanese teas. This is what my girlfriend in fact drinks with her sushi when we go to Soto or somesuch. I personally developed a deep fondness for Soba cha, but this was used more as a digestif at my place of work than as a meal time tea.
Americans often drank sake. And truth be told, many of my coworkers liked sake quite a bit as well. We always ate together as a sort of group at the end of each service. If sashimi was served then beer or sake was often de rigeur. We didn't really serve sashimi to guests at that restaurant, so I couldn't really tell you if beer or sake is the pick of choice when sashimi (rather than nigori sushi) is served to customers.
One of the older, very experienced waiters took me under his wing a little bit when he saw I was going to have to start ordering the sake. He explained it to me thus (this is a true story). The lights were out in the dining room, and he took me to the center of the room after service to look at the water there. In that particular dining room there was a pool of water in the middle of the room, with large bamboo posts reaching from the pool to the ceiling. The pool of water shimered in the light shed from the hall. My host explained to me that excellent, first class sake should shimmer in the body like that pool of water. That it should seem like water from the purest spring. And that it should radiate through the body. He said that everything should be clear which such a sake. That one should feel that one could see inside of it, to the very bottom. And that your body should feel pure when drinking it. He went on to define a sense of beauty that the Japanese had as like that of the bamboo. Not fancy, or ornate, but (how should I say?) no more and no less than needed to be sturdy and to reach to the rafters.
Actually it is near impossible to properly convey what that old server was trying to tell me, partly because I'm sure I didn't fully comprehend myself, but there was a definition of a great beverage in there. It struck home with me, and later when I had the opportunity to taste some amazing sake, it made a lot of sense. And so I have kept it as the definition of great sake.

What else should I tell you? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Well, although I devised a list heavy in Riesling, Muscadet, Burgundy, Nebbiolo, and friends, I was shocked to learn that a number of Americans and also sometimes Asians (not necessarily Japanese) want to drink Cult Cabernet and first growth Bordeaux with sushi. That they are somehow all related to "living the grand luxury experience" and that one famous sushi restaurant in NYC (not the one I worked at) is the number 1 seller of Bryant Family Cabernet in the city.

I guess I would also mention that there is something about taking sushi to your mouth from the hand of another, where you can still feel the warmth of the palm on the rice, that reminds me of drinking a great wine and finding the earth's resonance there.

But maybe I should have kept some of this to myself.
 
Thanks Levi, great stuff.

I guess the milky, unfiltered version of Sake wouldn't pass muster with the old server.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
there is something about taking sushi to your mouth from the hand of another, where you can still feel the warmth of the palm on the rice, that reminds me of drinking a great wine and finding the earth's resonance there..
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The palm but also the rice being served warmer than in these oft-disparaged Mid-Range places where it's all too cold to taste.

Sounds like a fun place to work although from what I gather your current Italian restaurant gives you a wider range of wines to work with.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Sounds like a fun place to work although from what I gather your current Italian restaurant gives you a wider range of wines to work with.
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If I may: oh, yes. Gorgeous wines with Levi.
 
I haven't experimented much, and I rarely eat sushi; but I am a sashimi fiend. With sashimi I like to drink a (dry) Junmai Daiginjo sake. It seems to clean my palate just right.
 
originally posted by Jack Everitt:
I haven't experimented much, and I rarely eat sushi; but I am a sashimi fiend. With sashimi I like to drink a (dry) Junmai Daiginjo sake. It seems to clean my palate just right.
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Sake, and not orange wine? Jack? Somehow I feel....disappointed.

To get even further off topic, lovers of orange wine should really try Isastegi, a dry, cask-aged Basque cider. I'm hooked on the stuff lately.
 
Levi that was a great post...your impressions of how the typical Japanese hedonist approaches sushi and libations is pretty right on. Loved the tutelage episode as well. Purity is a common denominator amongst hardcore sake lovers. Just came back from a mixed Japanese meal with sashimi as a starter (salmon toro, flying fish, horse mackerel-unpickled, young yellowtail) and was poured two opposing sakes: kokuryu and tokushiro. the former was straight up pure and clean but also solid and masculine. the latter was soft, aromatic and surprisingly alsatian, with fatter body and floral notes...until the finish, when the strings tightened, pulling everything together into a vanishing trick of clean and dry. pretty interesting. both worked well with the foods, but i can guess which one my "teachers" would go for.
 
originally posted by The Fish:
Funny that noone seemed to have mentioned moderately aged Saar or Ruwer Riesling. These wines are made for Sushi.
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I actually like German Riesling with Sushi....probably better than anything else.
 
Indeed now I see it! And focus as well on Saar and Ruwer!

Do I understand well from your message that you never had it? Then try it, really. If you can get a Kabinett from von Hvel or von Schubert or even from Zilliken. Works very well and even better once the sugar has integrated after a couple of years in the bottle.
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Very different approach here. Growing up in Hawaii sushi was comfort/junk food, fifty cents for cone sushi at Woolworth's. Get some decent nori, a nice cut of fresh aku, rice, inamona, toss in whatever else you feel like, roll it up, slice, dip in shoyu/wasabi, pop it in your mouth, repeat until full.

Not that I don't sometimes enjoy the expensive production values in Manhattan venues, it just seems a bit absurd for something so basic.
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My grandmother used to make the cone sushi at Woolworth's in Waikiki. She died in 1986 but had quit working there a few years before.
 
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