Izakaya (いざかや)

An izakaya is an ideal group dining venue. We settled a number of meals at Teyandei at Nishi-Azabu, Ogikubo Ichibe at Ogikubo and Galali at Omotesando. They serve enough variety of food at a decent quality to satisfy all tastebuds. Many of us don't take the red meat and chicken, so it's pretty cool to have grilled seafood and vegetables.

However, the point of the friends dragging us there, was for the sake, or nihonshu. At each joint, the friends would insist on a full lesson to Japanese sake. I don't know anything about Japanese sake, but am forced to not have the brain shut down at each session! It would help if I could read more of the labels! At least understanding the complexity of sake is more intuitive than wine. The processes are fairly similar to whisky-making. I'll never get wine.

The bottles, oh the bottles. 5 big bottles at each meal at an izakaya, to be shared among between 6 - 8 people. ARRRRGH. Not that easily done! We noted that we would be tasting ginjo in all forms. First, genshu would be plonked on the table, followed by nigorizake, seishu, tobingakoi, and ending with a sweet-ish koshu. I'm definitely no expert to remember all these names. As I pen this post, I've to look at my photos and google to see what we skipped and those that went down the throat.

With copious amounts of sake in sight, I will ask for a bowl of rice with the meal to share with someone else. Without the carbs, it's impossible to line the stomach for all the drinking. Food alone is fine, but my stomach requires a tad of carbs to balance the effects of any possible hangover. I haven't had any. Heh. TOUCH WOOD!