Sake and Washoku Pairing at Tako Grill - Part 2

Courses 4 - 6 of the Tako Grill Sake and Washoku dinner (sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Washington) included pickled bonito intestines (the menu simply called it "bonito fish"), smelt and beef. The dish, shown above, had the bonito topping a slice of fresh mozzarella and itself hidden by a perfect mint leaf; a red shiso (beefsteak plant) leaf served as the base for the whole. The mozzarella and mint did their best to balance the bonito's saltiness, but my assemblage had a bit too much of the bonito for my taste and was extremely salty. Apparently, I wasn't the only one reaching for the Junmai Ginjo sake served with the course, as we were informed that the kanji for pickled bonito also translates as "sake thief." In this case, the sake was clean, dry and smooth, cutting through the salt without leaving any aftertaste of its own.

Next up was one of my favorites of the evening, fried smelt with citrus sauce on a cucumber and seaweed salad. The presentation was perfect - two whole deep-fried smelts (it's hard to gauge scale from the picture above, but they each were about 6" long) laid out on a plank of cucumber, with tendrils of seaweed and a rising lemon sun. I was expecting the whole smelt would present a bit of a chopstick challenge, but (as can be seen if you look closely at the bottom smelt in the picture) the lemon slice hid the fact that the smelt were each sliced into two perfect bite-sized pieces. The chef explained that the smelt had been marinated overnight in a vinegar marinade, and fried in the vinegar also. I couldn't quite understand what that last half meant, but the finished product worked. The vinegar was very mild, so the combined flavor was all umami and tang, with different kinds of crunch provided by the crisp fish, raw cucumber, and seaweed. The only disappointment was the sake served with, Hakutsuru's Junmai-zake, which I thought was a bit strong and masked the fish. Instead, I finished off the draft sake from a previous course.

Course six was the only mammal dish - seared meso marinated beef. I don't know if it was kobe beef, but it was a very delicate meat, accented by having been marinated overnight in a sake/mirin/miso rub, lightly seared and served very rare with Junmai Ginjo sake. Each piece was topped with its own accompaniment; from top to bottom in the picture, arima sanshou (sliced red shiso leaf), pickled black peppercorns, and miso. Our table's consensus was that the pickled black peppercorns best complemented the slightly smoky taste of the beef. We were told that the Junmai Ginjo sake brings this smokiness out, but by this point we were on our 6th sake, and I'm not willing to commit one way or the other.

Next up: sushi, soup, and dessert.