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yakitori

Amami Island: Week One

February 24, 2018 by Chuck Malone 1 Comment

Amami Island: Week OneHad I known it was the last time I’d be sleeping in a bed for the next 10 weeks, I would have enjoyed the moment more. I found myself at 5 a.m. wide awake staring at the ceiling in my small hotel room in Amami City. It still hadn’t hit me how much different Amami is than the Japanese mainland.

Filed Under: Shochu, Shochu Adventures, Shochu Misc. Tagged With: Amami, amamioshima, Atreyu!, Billy Joel, black sugar, Chuck Malone, chuhai, House of the Rising Sun, Jazz, Just the Way You Are, Kana, kokuto, Mayasco, Nishihira, onigiri, Rock, Sango, squid ink soup, Sukiyaki, sushi, yakitori, Your song

Day 7: The Shochu Project in Fukuoka

October 12, 2013 by Stephen 2 Comments

Day 7: The Shochu Project in FukuokaThe yakitoriya was an small place with old men smoking and drinking bottles of shochu while watching American sports on a tiny TV over the bar. We sat on a tatami and tucked into lots of yakitori and a bottle of shochu. The strangest food was cod intestines in Korean red pepper sauce. Goes great with shochu once you ignore what you're eating.

Filed Under: Kyushu 2013, Shochu Tagged With: Fukuoka, hakata ramen, Nagasaki, The Shochu Project, yakitori

Izakaya Honda Ya

November 27, 2012 by Stephen Leave a Comment

Izakaya Honda YaIzakaya Honda Ya is a gem in an unlikely place. It sits on the 3rd floor of a shopping mall in Little Tokyo just east of Downtown LA. When the taxi dropped us off we thought we had the wrong address. There's nothing on the outside to suggest an izakaya awaits inside, but we went into the mall full of closed up boutiques, and took the escalators to the 2nd floor. From there we saw the neon Kirin Beer sign and a gaudy neon “open” sign beckoning to us from the level above.

Filed Under: Izakaya Reviews, Izakayas Tagged With: Honda Ya, izakaya, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, yakitori

Tori Shin

June 14, 2012 by Stephen 1 Comment

Tori ShinThere are few places in New York City where you legitimately feel like you could be sitting in Tokyo. Most places are either too big or too small or the proportions of the space are just off in some subtle way. Perhaps there's a Latino bus boy or English signage. There's almost always something that gives away that we're in the U.S. At Tori Shin you have to look very, very closely and the evidence only appeared in early 2012.

Filed Under: Izakaya Reviews, Izakayas Tagged With: beer, chicken sashimi, ichiyaboshi, izakaya, New York, review, sake, shochu, Tori Shin, yakitori

How to Izakaya

May 17, 2012 by Stephen 5 Comments

How to IzakayaEssentially an izakaya is a Japanese tavern. But it's also Japanese tapas. And it's a Japanese gastropub. So perhaps the way to think of an izakaya is as a Japanese gastro-tapas-pub. Don't plan on having a 45 minute meal before a movie. Don't plan on going and having a starter, a main, and a dessert. Go planning on having a long, lingering meal over good drinks and better conversation with a group of great friends. Make an evening of it. Once you're in that mindset the rest is easy.

Filed Under: Izakayas Tagged With: beer, bottle keep, buta kakuni, buta no kakuni, edamame, Ei Hire, Ei No Hire, fried rice, izakaya, ohitashi, okonomiaki, oshinko, ramen, sake, shiso, shochu, sushi, tako wasa, takoyaki, yakisoba, yakitori

Village Yokocho

April 4, 2012 by Stephen Leave a Comment

Village YokochoAs you climb the stairs you hear the buzz of happy diners. More than likely before you reach the top of the stairs you're met with a line of waiting customers, red Kirin lanterns hanging overhead. Squeeze to the top and you enter the large multi-roomed dining hall of Village Yokocho.

Filed Under: Izakaya Reviews, Izakayas Tagged With: East Village, izakaya, New York City, Village Yokocho, yakitori

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Retweet on TwitterawamoriXshochu Retweeted
rickHKTRick@rickHKT·
11 May

Tonight’s the night I finish off the bottle of shochu I received a little over a year ago.

Here’s to you @LymanTweets.

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Shochu Reviews

iichiko Saiten

After winning some awards on the international spirits circuit (including double-gold at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition), there's ample evidence that iichiko Saiten deserves serious consideration by bartenders everywhere.

Shochu Reviews

Tasting Notes: The SG Shochu IMO

The SG Shochu IMO is a clear invitation to create the classic imo cocktail. If you get it right, it will resonate and cascade around the world until you can't not have sweet potato shochu on your menu if you consider yourself a proper drinking establishment.

Tasting Notes: Nankai

Nankai Shochu
At first whiff, Nankai smells faintly grassy, which is common in kokuto shochu owing to how kokuto sugar is made from fresh cut cane and that fresh grassiness is a sign of well made kokuto sugar. Sugar cane is, after all, a tall perennial grass. It is still pretty wild that they can capture that after fermentation and distillation.

Tasting Notes: The SG Shochu KOME

Putting your nose in a glass of The SG Shochu Kome shows you just how complex a vacuum distilled rice shochu can be. Ginjo sake aromas from the yeast, pineapple, melon, and a faint hint of dairy-like lactic acidity are all present.

Shochu Reviews

Tasting Notes: Lento Shochu

Lento is the top selling kokuto shochu in Japan, and it is available internationally as well. Try it on the rocks or with sparkling water for a refreshing taste of the Amami Islands. Kanpai!

Tasting Notes: The SG Shochu MUGI

The SG Shochu MUGI Label
The SG Shochu MUGI wraps several barley shochu identities into one. It's lightly barrel-aged and carries the associated sweet notes. But there's also a graininess that is revealed when the temperature of the drink drops. It's a versatile barley shochu that can be enjoyed a variety of ways.

Mizu Lemongrass Shochu

Mizu Lemongrass Shochu may not be an authentic honkaku shochu due to the use of lemongrass, but this is a case where a beautiful spirit breaks the rules.

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