{"id":15576,"date":"2014-10-21T13:30:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.extrawdwmagic.com\/?p=15576"},"modified":"2014-10-21T11:40:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:40:50","slug":"second-sake-food-pairing-at-tokyo-dining-epcot-international-food-wine-festival-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extrawdwmagic.com\/?p=15576","title":{"rendered":"second Sake & Food Pairing at Tokyo Dining – Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Epcot Food & Wine Festival dining experience took place on Thursday, October 16, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n

This was our second visit to the Sake and Food Pairing at Tokyo Dining this year. We arrived early enough for Nick to get some photos of the set-up.<\/p>\n

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Nick spoke with Garin, there are 32 guests pre-registered and 2 more walked up and asked to join in<\/p><\/div>\n

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the tables at Tokyo Dining always look so elegant for this event<\/p><\/div>\n

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Garin told Nick that the event is limited to 40 guests, they haven’t had a sell-out yet<\/p><\/div>\n

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each place setting included sake set-up, sake description card, cocktail napkin, menu, cloth napkin, and chopsticks<\/p><\/div>\n

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sakes for pairings and plum wine for dessert<\/p><\/div>\n

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sparkling sake, sake 1, sake 2, sake 3, and plum wine<\/p><\/div>\n

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the dining room for the Sake & Food Pairing<\/p><\/div>\n

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sushi chefs (and one is male!)<\/p><\/div>\n

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we will be tasting three sakes – gold flake, dry wave, and otter festival<\/p><\/div>\n

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the menus always have a higher level of detail than the menus at the other food pairing lunches (so far)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Garin and our service team (did you notice the rather small child? yes, really… bring your baby to a food and alcohol pairing, we really want to listen to them shriek with boredom!)<\/p><\/div>\n

Our server was the tallest girl – Mami (prounced Mommie). She did a good job, but relatively speaking, the service this year overall wasn’t as good as in past years. There were a few times when we had to signal the servers with sake that our table wanted more.<\/p>\n

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Garin is an excellent host<\/p><\/div>\n

We don’t have photos of the aperitif – Peach Flower Sparkling Sake HANA FUGA (from Oseki Brewery). Again, Nick thought it was too sweet and I wasn’t massively impressed either. Our table mates proved to be delightful companions – they’re also Southerners AND originally from Alabama – ROLL TIDE! The wife really liked the sparkling sake and the husband was okay with it. This wasn’t their first Sake Lunch during Food & Wine, they typically attend this event and it was rather nice to share our table with someone who really likes this event too.<\/p>\n

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Hiko’s Kira Kira “Gold Flake” – sake with 24K gold flakes in it<\/p><\/div>\n

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drinking gold is said to bring you good fortune and money – we should drink this all the time!<\/p><\/div>\n

The nose of this sake was a lot of marshmallow today. I thought the taste was nice, smooth and mellow with slightly creamy fruits. Nick got a lot of alcohol on the palette, but not rough alcohol. This is the only sake we took photos of, it has gold flakes which you can see; the other sakes were just clear sake, not much to see.<\/p>\n

All of us at our table ran out of sake before we finished this course.<\/p>\n

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Osaka Style Sushi<\/p><\/div>\n

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Futomaki – tofu, white fish, wild parsley, crab, eel, yama gobo<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hako Sushi – this was our favorite<\/p><\/div>\n

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Inari Sushi – most challenging, texture and taste<\/p><\/div>\n

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lovely presentation<\/p><\/div>\n

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Garin explaining how the halo sushi (box sushi) is made<\/p><\/div>\n

We weren’t that crazy about this next course when we were here with Nevie (review<\/a>). Unfortunately, it still failed to impress us. Chef explained later that this sort of dish is very popular in Western Japan – to us, it seems like bar food. There’s a variety of fried foods sitting on top of fried Japanese sweet potato noodles.<\/p>\n

The sake for this pairing continues to be our favorite – it was also the favorite of the gentleman sitting at our table. The nose on the “dry wave” was dry (no surprises), the taste was melons and chocolate. This is a honjozo, it has extra alcohol added for flavor and can be served hot, warm or cold.<\/p>\n

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starting at 12:00 and going around clockwise: Chicken, Tomato, Cheese, Scallop, Pork Belly, and Quail Egg<\/p><\/div>\n

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some of these items are tasty and some are just unremarkable (to our tastebuds)<\/p><\/div>\n

Quick Rundown<\/p>\n