The decline of civilization.....
Jul. 27th, 2007 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyI took the long way home via Jack London Square so I could pick up a nice bottle of sake, as I have been invited to visit A Certain Japanese Clan at Pennsic.
To my utter horror and disgust, the JLS branch of BevMo had (a) moved its sake shelf over next to a window - showing ignorance or indifference to the fact that sake is light and heat sensitive and (b) did not have a single bottle of Rihaku Wandering Poet. (Which begs the question, what is my boss going to end up giving me for Christmas when he walks into HIS local BevMo this December.)
No, I cannot call myself a connoisseur of sake or even a sake snob. I am still educating myself and my tastebuds - but I know what I like and I know what I don't like and I know that Wandering Poet is bottled heaven.
There were a bunch of Momokawa sake (but only the Asian pear flavor of the fruit infused Momokawa Moonstone line), a few Takara products (gotta have Takara, they brew in Berkeley) and a few other varieties I am not familiar with. Considerable shelf space was wasted on fourpacks of something called Sake2me. Dammit, I cannot present a bushi daimyou and his people with fruity girly wine-coolerish sake for trendaholic Silicon Valley yuppies that comes in a frickin' four pack! It is Just Not Done.
I finally found something that I knew was good because it was served to me at Estrella - Murai's Nebuta Honjozo. It also has a wonderfully ferocious ukiyo-e samurai with beetling black eyebrows on the label, which may amuse The Daimyou. A friend is driving out to Pennsic and has agreed to transport it for me so it doesn't get smashed in my checked luggage. BevMo has been duly emailed with a plea to bring back Wandering Poet, even if it's only the 300 ML bottles. If they don't, I'm just going to have to make special trips up to El Cerrito or into San Francisco to buy sake I know I like - because BevMo's promotions never ever seem to apply to sake anyway!
To my utter horror and disgust, the JLS branch of BevMo had (a) moved its sake shelf over next to a window - showing ignorance or indifference to the fact that sake is light and heat sensitive and (b) did not have a single bottle of Rihaku Wandering Poet. (Which begs the question, what is my boss going to end up giving me for Christmas when he walks into HIS local BevMo this December.)
No, I cannot call myself a connoisseur of sake or even a sake snob. I am still educating myself and my tastebuds - but I know what I like and I know what I don't like and I know that Wandering Poet is bottled heaven.
There were a bunch of Momokawa sake (but only the Asian pear flavor of the fruit infused Momokawa Moonstone line), a few Takara products (gotta have Takara, they brew in Berkeley) and a few other varieties I am not familiar with. Considerable shelf space was wasted on fourpacks of something called Sake2me. Dammit, I cannot present a bushi daimyou and his people with fruity girly wine-coolerish sake for trendaholic Silicon Valley yuppies that comes in a frickin' four pack! It is Just Not Done.
I finally found something that I knew was good because it was served to me at Estrella - Murai's Nebuta Honjozo. It also has a wonderfully ferocious ukiyo-e samurai with beetling black eyebrows on the label, which may amuse The Daimyou. A friend is driving out to Pennsic and has agreed to transport it for me so it doesn't get smashed in my checked luggage. BevMo has been duly emailed with a plea to bring back Wandering Poet, even if it's only the 300 ML bottles. If they don't, I'm just going to have to make special trips up to El Cerrito or into San Francisco to buy sake I know I like - because BevMo's promotions never ever seem to apply to sake anyway!
