Home drinking, daiginjo taruzake, and Katsuho

If you want to drink your favorite sake to your heart's content while sharing its pleasure with friends in a relaxing mood, the best way to do so is to hold a drinking party at someone's house. You know, preparing foods and drinks by yourselves does not cost too much, everyone can bring one's favorite sake or any special sake in which she/he has found significance, and everyone can enjoy the party without caring for the time.

The question is who kindly offers a good room or place. A desirable room or place should be big enough to accommodate the guests, and everyone should be able to enjoy the party there without feeling too great a delicacy about the presence of family members of the host. After all, I always reach the conclusion that using the irori cabin is the best solution.

The irori cabin, built by my father just for amusement in the yard of our house, has the interior having a raised floor and an earth floor. The raised floor is furnished with an irori fireplace and has a space enough to place two low tables beside the fireplace. In addition, being equipped with an extractor fan, we can discharge smoke when we make some fire in a table-top hibachi etc. Beside the cabin, there is a small kitchen with gas and water supply, allowing us to cook some simple foods. Also, hot water supply from the flash water heater is convenient for washing dirty dishes and tableware after the party. In a nutshell, the irori cabin seems a perfect facility for a home drinking party.

Last Saturday, I invited friends to this irori cabin and held a sake drinking party.

At first, I planned that we would leisurely drink sake while grilling some dried fish and vegetables on a shichirin brazier. However, since someone said he would kindly bring some lamb meat, so I prepared a tabletop BBQ hibachi.

We used the shichirin brazier and BBQ hibachi to cook dried salmon, shiitake mushroom, green onion, komai fish, etc. Also, we cooked some lamb meat and oysters on the BBQ hibachi.



As to sake, there were Kirinzan, Ofuku-masamune, Yoitashuu, and Katsuho from Niigata Prefecture, Daiginjo Bon Bingakoi, Daiginjo Taruzake, and Oomiki from Sawanoi of Tokyo, and Kikuhime Nigorizake from Ishikawa Prefecture. In addition, someone brought us some mysterious white liquid (I can't tell details of the contents for some reason, though).



By the way, what was the Daiginjo Taruzake? Normally, they fill regular sake or other low-priced sake in a wooden sake cask to make a taruzake. After several days, the sake will take the scent of the cedar used for the cask and make sake with a fresh cedar scent. So, it is quite strange to use aromatic sake such as daiginjo for making a taruzake.

Anyway, if there is sake in front of us, we cannot help but drink it. Each of us, of course, had a try of this special sake. After a sip of it, the taste was not bad but with a strong scent of cedar cask. According to the lady who brought this sake, this daiginjo taruzake seemed to have been prepared by a sake shop from curiosity. Wow, they are quite an adventurous sake shop! However, we all agreed that using expensive daiginjo for taruzake was wasteful.

By the way, I must tell Tsubame san in Nagaoka City, Niigata, "Thank you for the bottle of Katsuho, we all enjoyed your sake. It was very nice."