Japanese sake traditionally matches well with—of course—Japanese food, however, in recent years there have been more instances of matching sake with various styles of cuisine from all over the world. On this particular occasion, we saw Japanese-French fusion cuisine matched with sake. The Sake x French matching event took place at the Clarion Suites Gateway Melbourne, where a 5 course sake tapas menu would be served.
Pictured (left to right): Chef Ikuei Arakane, Chef Yoshitaka Kojima
The menu, prepared by Clarion Suites Gateway’s Executive Chef, Yoshitaka Kojima, consisted of:
Fresh Oyster with lemon confit and gel
Paired with Sparkling Sake
Seafood and Vegetable Terrine
With prawn, scallop, crab, asparagus, baby corn and cabbage
Paired with Junmaishu
Yakitori with Yuzu Gel
Wasabi flavoured chicken breast, rolled in seaweed with yuzu gel
Paired with Daiginjo
Saikyou Yaki Braised Raddish (Pictured above, bottom right)
Saikyou marinard cod with dashi braised raddish
Matched with Honzoushu
Nasudengaku with Roast Duck (Pictured above, top right)
Grilled eggplant, miso dip and roast duck
Paired with Koshu
Attending the dinner event were members of the Japanese food importing and distributing company Tokyo Food. Among them, Managing Director Harumasa Murayama, General Manager Nobuyuki Nomizu, and the Purchasing & Adminstration Department’s Junji Taki, were present. Other special guests included Owner of Takahoko Sake Brewery, Soji Sakai, who attended to taste the matching for himself, introduce and talk about his own sake that was up for matching with the tapas dishes for the night. Chefs Akito Kurokawa and Ikuei Arakane.
The guests from Tokyo Food mentioned that they were impressed with the quality of the dishes and of the sake, noting that most of the sake they tried were on the sweeter side, and there weren’t may dry varieties, however mentioned that each of them were delicious. Another comment regarding Takahoko Brewery’s Junmai Ginjo Genshu in the beautiful green bottle was mentioned to be the favourite and that it is a sake with a taste that would suit any occasion or cuisine! Overall the members from Tokyo Food thoroughly enjoyed this sort of event as they felt it was a fairly uncommon that they had the chance to try and match different sake with various types of cuisine and enjoy food in a different way.
