Hello Kitty

As I grow older - I hope not to get jaded in the been there, done that way.  Travel, live music, and new foods and drinks - it's still a thrill to find unfamiliar things that I like.  

The good thing about facing middle age is that we have friends who have non-overlapping, complimentary experiences to share - so we learn from them.  Three friends - two new, one old - have re-introduced me to sake recently.

My first foray into the new sake tasting world was in Santa Fe. We had sushi tapas and a big bottle of sake to accompany a really long discussion of changes in our lives.  I kept stopping the conversation and asking, what is this sake again - this is really good.  Unfortunately that brand is lost in my increasingly forgetful memory and embarrassing lack of Japanese language skills.

More recently a sommelier friend of ours introduced us to sparkling sake - his wife calls it Hello Kitty sake - so I'm forever cursed with not knowing its proper name either.  But since we now have a couple bottles in our possesion thanks to the WineSellar in Sorrento Mesa - I can report it is Ho Ho Shu.  It's a very happy replacement for champagne (I don't like champagne very much).

Most recently an old friend ordered Dewazakura ‘Daiginjo’ to accompany a really high-end, adventurous sushi feast in San Jose that featured things like fuzzy shiso salad and monkfish liver (both excellent and surprising).  He says, "Dewazakura is in Yamagata and makes a line of very good sakes.  I had originally asked for Toranoko, which is almost as good but about half the price; also worth looking for."  Will do.