A few more photos from a recent foray to one of our rainy-season Kagurazaka hang-outs (I wrote it up before here). A few of our favorite tipples too...
In the foreground that's Arikatou — a wonderful junmai-daiginjo from a very old and firm favorite of ours, Eiko Fuji. The name is an homage to the president of this kura, whose name just happens to be Ariyoshi Katou. There's a whole range...
The sake on the left (above) is a yamahai from Rihaku (Shimane), a perennial favourite with us. But it has to be confessed, we have a lot of old favourites that are available here. Here are two more: Kudoki-jozu Super, a wonderful junmai ginjo from Yamagata; and (on the right) the one and only Tedorigawa, from Ishikawa-ken.
And in case you didn't get an eyeful over at the JT (pretty hard at the resolutions they give out), here are a few more of the food pics from our latest forage. Starting with that maguro yukke, with raw quail's egg, shiso leaf, chopped negi scallions and redolent rich-toasted Korean-style sesame oil.
And then there was that ayu, deep-fried in tawara-age style. The somen were cooked within an inch of their lives, dark but not quite burnt. And the fish was wonderful, soft and (apart from a few of the more intractable bones) absolutely melt-in-the-mouth...
Did I mention the sashimi? I believe I did. Here's a pic of that poor sweet aji plucked straight from the tank and served still quivering...
OK, small confession, something got lost in translation: the ebi-shinjo (apparently introduced here at Kamozou after I extolled their merits on Nozaki's menu in Shinbashi) are not served in broth at all. They are more like large versions of takoyaki balls, with crisp outsides, molten interiors and little lumps of ebi shrimps inside (in place of octopus)...
And finally, probably our favourite item on the menu, as long as we're sipping sake — which is indeed most of the evening: the shichirin burner, over which we grilled up salmon jerky and lovely tender fresh squid (other alternatives included dried chinmi squid and tatami-iwashi, although these are probably at best minority interest items)...
One final clarification: in the newspaper it probably gave the wrong idea. The poster on the wall behind the bottles shown in the photo is actually a guide to which kinds of sake work best warmed as atsukan, and at which temperatures and with which foods...
The blackboard that picks out and promotes breweries that have women brewmasters, owners or warehouse workers is this one:
And here is one of the brews on that list, which we drank with great pleasure: the daintily-named Nene, a junmaishu from Hakuto in Wajima (Oku-Noto, also Ishikawa)...
Wonderful stuff. And all power to Kamozou's manager, Mayumi Yamashita, for promoting them.
Here is the map link...
