1 October is also known as 'World Sake Day' or 'Sake Day'. This is an annual event held in the celebration of sake (酒), a well-beloved alcoholic beverage. One of my favourite in fact. Was invited by the good folks at Grand Copthorne Waterfront to join in the KANPAI! event in celebration of Sake Day.
Had fun tasting the sake and shochu from the different breweries and prefectures, and of course, enjoyed the delicious food available from Grissini. This year's food theme for the KANPAI event was local favourites. There were buffet style small plates of chicken rice, roast pork, Singapore laksa, rojak, satay and various kuehs such as ang ku kueh (紅龜粿) and kueh dadar.
The first sake tasted was the Daiginjo Tokugawa Ieyasu (named after the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and one of the three unifiers of Japan). The Tokugawa clan crest is printed on the box.
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| Tokugawa Ieyasu Daiginjo (Maruishi Jozo) - 徳川 家康 大吟醸 |
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| Daiginjo Tokugawa Ieyasu |
The taste was a balanced sweet with a smooth mouthfeel. Lovely!
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| sake set |
Next up, was Apple Chan. Cute, right? I believe this was the first time am trying a Nama Sake (生酒) which is said to be the freshest sake because it did not underwent any pasteurization. A Tokubetsu Junmai (特別純米) is a high quality sake. Apple Chan (Ringochan) tasted light, dry and slightly fruity. It was almost as if the sake was imbued with the fragrance of green apple.
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| AZAKURA RINGOCHAN TOKUBETSUJUNMAI NAMA (秋田酒こまち) and DAINA TOKUBETSU JUNMAI 13 GENSHU (山田錦) |
Let's move away a little while from the delicious sake to sample the food from Grissini's kitchen. There were live stations for Singapore Laksa, Satay and Chicken Rice.
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| Singapore Laksa - one for you and one for me |
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| Satay |
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| Steamed Chicken Rice with Roast Pork |
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| Peking Duck |
With food in the belly, it was then time to sample more drinks! This time round, shochu. Shochu is distilled while sake is fermented. Shochu can be distilled from rice, sweet potato, buckwheat (soba) or brown sugar. I've tried all except the ones distilled from soba.
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| Shochu (焼酎) |
Be forewarned that shochu has higher alcoholic content than sake and wine but weaker than whisky. One could have it neat, on the rocks, with water or mixed with oolong tea or fruit juice or mixed with soda and other flavours such as yuzu/ume.
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| these two were pretty potent (the one on the left strongest!) |
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| can't resist |
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| so many to try |
And at the appointed hour, everyone raised their glasses to toast for a bountiful year ahead! Kanpai!
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| 乾杯 |
Thank you Gilbert for the invite and Grand Copthorne Waterfront for hosting the event. It was enjoyable and educational as well. Learnt more about sake (and shochu) and still discovering the characteristics of the different types and specialty of the breweries.
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