The first time...

I can’t remember my first taste of saké, but I do remember the first time that I had saké that was extraordinary. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it was. It was in 2003, the first time I ate at Kai, one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. I was on my own that night, so I decided to indulge myself and I ordered the 8 course menu with the saké pairing. I can’t remember what I ate or drank, but I’ve been obsessed with kaiseki ever since, and from that evening, I’ve progressed to the point I’m at now: obsessed with saké.

Previous to that evening, I had wanted to like saké. I loved that it is such an ingrained part of Japanese culture, that it is served from cute bottles, in cute cups, that it seems exotic… But, up till that night at Kai, I had never had a saké that would tempt me to try it again.

After the first revelation, things proceeded slowly. I had a lot of super hot saké at my local Japanese restaurant and that seemed fine to me. I started reading saké descriptions on menus and paying a little bit closer attention to what was available. My total and complete conversion into a saké fanatic took place just this year, on a trip to Japan. Before the trip, I somehow found out about Fukumitsuya, a saké shop and bar in Tokyo. I was able to visit and, luckily for me, the man behind the counter spoke great English and he was very willing to talk to me about saké and recommend some that I might like. I did find some that I loved, in fact, I brought 4 bottles home with me. Ever since then, I have been on the hunt for all of the saké and all of the information about saké that I can get my hands on. This blog will be my place to keep and organize some of that information.