Dining

An education in sake at Andrea’s

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Melissa Nguyen at Andrea’s at Encore.
Photo: Karl Larson

Wine, absolutely, of course. Beer? Happens all the time. Cocktails? Matching creatively mixed drinks with food at pairing dinners is a rising phenomenon. But what about sake? The fermented Japanese rice wine doesn’t seem to get as much play as its boozy brethren, at least not in this regard.

If Melissa Nguyen has anything to do with it, that could change. Nguyen, sommelier at Andrea’s at Encore, recently became one of only about 180 Level 2 sake specialists in the world, a certification that comes from the Sake Education Council. To achieve Level 1, a professional must pass an exam. For Level 2, the advanced professional must pass another exam as well as a tasting exam, and those tests are only held in Japan in order to accommodate guest speakers from within the sake industry. It’s serious stuff.

Wagyu beef tartare on King’s Hawaiian bread crostini.

Wagyu beef tartare on King’s Hawaiian bread crostini.

Nguyen knows her sake. She guides guests at Andrea’s through the ordering experience, sharing helpful tips and knowledge, and she demonstrated those skills at a recent pairing dinner at Andrea’s where she collaborated with chef Joe Elevado for five courses of food and drink. The opener was appetizers of scallop sashimi with parsley salsa verde, lemon and crispy shallots and beets, and Wagyu beef tartare on King’s Hawaiian bread crostini with mustard seed, pickled burdock root and yuzu-dijon aioli. Nguyen served Dewazakura Green Ridge Junmai Ginjo, from Yamaga, which has a mellow, softly fruity flavor with notes of tart green apple.

Next up was pan-seared sea bass with rich makhani lentils, paired with Kamoizumi Autumnal Elixir Junmai Daiginjo, from Hiroshima. Daiginjo refers to the process where 50 percent of the grain of rice is milled away, resulting in a more pure, higher quality of wine. The Kamoizumi was unlike any sake I’ve ever tasted, smooth and yet full-flavored with surprisingly earthy, mushroom-esque notes. Who knew sake could taste rich? It was a sublime complement to the beautiful fish.

Yoshinogawa Junmai Daiginjo <em>sake</em> was served with a Thai-inspired dish of duck confit.

Yoshinogawa Junmai Daiginjo sake was served with a Thai-inspired dish of duck confit.

The third course was a Thai-inspired duck confit salad with frisée, cucumber, radish, arare rice cracker and Panang curry, matched with Yoshinogawa Junmai Daiginjo from Niigata. Aged three years in stainless steel tanks, it has a robust fruit-and-spice flavor yet remains as clean as you expect sake to be, holding up well against Elevado’s wondrously balanced duck dish. Silky smooth, too ... you could drink this stuff all day long.

The big meat course was Snake River Farms Wagyu beef, a New York strip seared to perfection and served with a veal reduction sauce we had to stop ourselves from licking off the plate. With such a strong dish as a challenge, Nguyen chose Tedorigawa Kinka Gold Blossom Daiginjo Nama, a sake from Ishikawa. It was a risky move, as the sweetness and acidity of this drink is tailor-made for a meal of sushi and sashimi, and yet here we were, drinking it with beef. Somehow it worked well, perhaps cutting through the richness.

Dessert was a home run pairing of Hou Hou Shu Sparkling sake from Okayama with a delicate dish of pineapple-lime gelée, coconut mousse, angel food cake, fresh fruit and tropical sorbet. The Champagne crispness of this sake with the cool, sweet treat couldn’t have been a better match, another fantastic flavor that had us all rethinking our impressions of sake.

Tags: Dining, Booze
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