Sake To Me: Yakitori Boy Debuts Educational Sake Tasting, Tapas and Celebrates 8 Years

Story, photos by Cassie Hepler

Everyone knows Yakitori Boy is one of the best places in the city for karaoke (and the other being on this epic Chinatown eating guide).

Leading the way for eight years now as of Wednesday, Dec. 2 with a VIP bash (Happy Birthday!), the drinks are reliable, tasty, strong and potent… but what do you know about sake?

We went to one-time only sake school with Heather Lee from Young Won Trading, Inc. who taught us a thing or two while tipsy, which the best way to learn.

First, what is sake? Sake (pronounced Saw-Kay not Saw-Key) is brewed from rice. It’s not rice wine, or rice beer. Sake is sake and allegedly does not produce pounding hangovers.

One very common myth is that all sake should be served hot. Actually most sake should be served chilled. Heating most sake is the same as boiling your chardonnay before drinking it (gag!)

Who says only Japanese people drink sake? Heather Lee knows her sake customers are diverse. Finally, Americans are becoming quite educated about sake.

Sake only goes with sushi. Sike! Sake goes with seafood, chicken, steak, vegetables and cheese. Sake has half the acidity of wine. And everyone had their wine preference but don’t hate all wines. Keeping an open tastebud palette is key.

“That’s like trying a wine cooler and deciding if they like wine or not,” said Heather Lee. “Then you just have not had the right sake yet. Most people have had 1 or 2 hot jet fuel experiences and decided they do not like sake. It’s not logical!”

Don’t over think it. Sake is gluten free and sulfite free (the no hangover part!) and is brewed fermented beverage consisting of: Rice, Koji, Water and Yeast. Brown rice is polished to remove fats and proteins, minerals, and other impurities that would contribute to “off” flavors.

Polished rice is then washed, soaked, steamed and cooled. About 20% of the steamed rice is then inoculated with a special mold called Koji. The fermentation process includes Rice, Koji-Rice, Yeast and Water being combined. The Koji-rice gradually converts the rice starches in the whole batch in to fermentable sugars which are converted to alcohol by the yeast. This natural process lasts 20 days until the mix reaches 20% alcohol.

The fresh sake is then filtered, pasteurized and aged for six months to mature. After aging, the sake is blended, filtered, diluted with water to about 15% alcohol, and bottled.

Rice polishing has the most to do with determining the quality of the sake. The outer part of the grain contains proteins and fats while the center part contains starch. There are over 65 varieties of sake rice! Below are some of the best, broken down into sake soaked terms.

Daiginjo – Highest quality 50% or more of the rice milled away
Ginjo – Any sake polished 50%-60% of its original size
Junmai – Any level sake made with out added alcohol
Honjozo – Small amount of brewer’s alcohol is added to the fermentation to enhance flavor, aroma
Niogri – Unpressed, unfiltered, or cloudy sake
Namazake – Unpasturized sake
Namachozo – “Draft” aged as a nama, pasteurized just before bottling

But the most important way to learn is by doing so drink up! All the sake we tasted are always on the menu and some you can’t find anywhere else in Philadelphia.