Sake and Washoku Pairing at Tako Grill - Part 3

The last three courses of the Tako Grill / Hakutsuru sake tasting dinner (sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Washington) encompassed sushi, soup, and a parfait.

The sushi, a sampling of tuna, mackerel, and sweet shrimp, would have been good but not special if it weren't for the sweet shrimp. The creature itself had been previously frozen (a lot of sushi is made from frozen inventory and this is not by any means an indictment); the specialness was in the presentation. The chef did not discard the head, and instead deep fried it to a crispy perfection. The crunchy tempura-like texture perfectly balanced the sweetness of the shrimp and presented an almost addictively good blend of umami/crunch/salt in its own right. It was paired with a full-bodied Dai Ginjo sake, which I think (given the "dai" prefix) was the most extravagant of the sakes. I liked the Dai Ginjo quite a bit, but still preferred the Nama-zake (draft sake) from a previous course as my favorite. The fact that I could still keep track of them at this point is positive testament to the pacing of the meal and the conviviality of the company.

The last true dinner course was, in traditional Japanese style, a soup. This was a delicate red snapper and clam soup made with the head of the snapper from Course 3 and decorated with a single clam and a couple of pieces of mint. The soup was amazingly umami-heavy but with very little else by way of in-your-face flavor. Our table agreed that of all the dishes, this would be the least likely to appeal to a traditional Western palate, because it was so mild and subtle. We all really liked it, though, and found that its taste grew on us and appeared to strengthen as we had it. We did not, however, care for the sake pairing. This incredibly delicate soup had been thrown into a liaison with a coarse-filtered Nigori sake, which was very distinctive and strong and threatened to entirely obscure the soup. Fortunately, we were allowed to save our sakes for later drinking, as this soup was best savored without anything stronger than water as a side.

To end this wonderful evening, our hosts presented a plum wine parfait. The parfait was made from two different plum wines (one in the ice cream itself; one in the gelatin) plus some sweet red beans that reminded me of the candy "Boston baked beans" I had as a child. I generally like Japanese desserts as they tend, in my limited experience, to be less sweet than their Western counterparts, and this was no exception. A light and satisfying end to a hugely wonderful meal.