Japanese sake met its perfect match at a special tasting event, “Seafood and Sake, Match Made in Heaven,” held at Manhattan’s Zusik restaurant last month.
The star of the event was “Strictly Dumpling” YouTuber Mike Chen, who boasts over five million subscribers across all his channels, joined by two additional guests: American actor Adam Richman, the original host of the Travel Channel show “Man v. Food,” and fellow YouTube personality Andrew Rea, of the popular cooking show channel “Binging With Babish.”
The trio walked guests through a seafood and sake pairing menu designed by New York City-based PR company Sake Discoveries, intended to showcase the Japanese rice wine’s many pairing possibilities. Sake is often used to help neutralize overly fishy flavors of seafood, making it an ideal, balancing accompaniment. It is also richer in amino acids than wine or beer, which gives it a savory, umami flavor. The higher a sake’s level of amino acids, the stronger the umami—and the more it intensifies the umami flavor of the food that it’s eaten with, in turn.
Featured pairings included Ninki-Ichi Sparkling Sake with raw oysters; Nanbu Bijin ”Southern Beauty” with bluefin tuna and caviar; and Sohomare “Tokubetsu Kimoto” with spicy king crab legs.
