Japan Day 2008
This morning, anami and I were trying to decide what we should do. Since we're around so much good stuff, she said we should try to do some exploring at least one day out of every weekend. We considered going to the San Jose Jazz Festival. We also considered going to True Sake, the world's first all-sake-all-the-time store. I just finished reading the owner's book, and so it seemed sort of appropriate.
Instead, we decided to go to Berkeley, CA, to the Takara Sake USA manufacturing and bottling plant. But Berkeley is far away, and so naturally we got distracted along the way. The Google Maps directions sucked, and accidentally sent us over the Bay Bridge to Yerba Buena Island. Once we got turned around though, it was time for lunch. So we went to Tacubaya for lunch. I had the pork taco and chips with salsa - it was super good. Anami had the pork tamale and the fish taco. Guess what? Also super good. And the Mexican Coke? Better. The cane sugar wasn't as sweet as HFCS would be, and it made the Coke taste almost a little like tea. Nice.
Just outside Tacubaya is a tea shop, called Teance, which I thought was just too clever to skip. It was, indeed, a place that channeled the spirit of tea. Very Chinese oriented, but covering the gamut from green teas to black teas. We didn't stay long, but I bought a small (2 oz.) package of Assam, and grabbed a brochure of their tastings and classes. I think I'll probably go back.
Then, finally, we made it to Takara. In a way, it was anticlimactic. You go in, you go to the second floor, and there's this big tasting room, done up to evoke the mystery of a Japanese tea garden. But of course, it was all far more commercial than that. But I have to admit, I went into the place sold. I really like Takara Sierra and Cho Shiku Bai Nama Sake, so I figured they had stuff I would like. The crass commercialism I can deal with.
So we walked through the museum, and we marveled at the 19th century-style presses and rice ovens and whatnot, and then we watched the ridiculously 80's 7-minute video about the sake making process (on a back-projected screen that flickers horribly). And then... we tasted sake. I think we had four or five different kinds, covering junmai, ginjo, dai ginjo,and nama varieties, and then we started tasting flavored sakes and plum wines. It was great. Ultimately, we decided to buy a bottle of Sho Chiku Bai Fuji Apple Hana flavored sake, and one of the lychee. Yummy.
After coming home, we took the dogs to Coyote Point for a while. And then we were hungry for dinner.
Dinner. Where to go?
Eventually, after trying some places that were closed, we ended up at Tokie's. We had been once before, but this time it was different. We decided to emulate weirdo513, and sat at the sushi bar. I looked the chef in the eye and said, "So. What's good?"
This started a multi-hour odyssey of flavor, including tea and sake, three or four distinct different kinds of tuna, and several things I didn't order but which John, or sushi chef, thought I'd like. And sake, and tea. It was slightly expensive (though not ghastly for the SFBA) but wow. Amazing dining experience.
Then we came home and noticed that I had three different 300 ml bottles of sake in the fridge, from several different companies, and I didn't actually have any idea what any of them were. So Anami and I poured them out and tasted. And tasted some more. And I'm drunk now, and writing a blog post. And life is good. I mean, Jesus. I'm so lucky; my life is unreasonably good.
TIA.
((P.S. Did I mention I got some good Assam today? I mean... good. Yes. Life is good.))