Japanese Foods-- nomimono

[torakris]

Sapporo just released a new beer on 9/3 appropiately called

FIBER!

http://www.sapporobeer.jp/product/happo-shu/fiber.html

Worried about your Fiber intake?

drink Fiber beer!

every 100ml contains 1.8 mg of fiber ( you might not want to over do this stuff!)

The can (and I am not making this up) actually says (in English) "the choice for a truly refreshing feeling"

[goyatofu]

Just returned from a 2 week vacation in Japan...perfect time to reminece about the drinks...

I tried the Fiber beer, it just tastes like regular beer!!! I'm all for putting some nutritional value back into beer! One can is equivalent to 1/4 of your daily recommended intake....so drinking 4 would be doing your bowels a favour, no?

As for Yebisu, more than one person has raved about it, but it was quite disappointing. I think because it's got a fuller body (like wheat beers you can get here : Big Rock and Grasshopper comes to mind) that it's "different" from most dry Japanese beers...Is it the regular Yebisu or the Black Yebisu that's all the rave?

CC Lemon!!!!! I'm just glad they make it in dried packets so my sis can send me care packages!

Shu-Hi---basically Sho-Chu with flavour added; all the rave whereever I went....in all kinds of flavours: Calpis, Peach, Grapefruit, Grape, Lime, even Oolong Tea flavour!!

Royal Milk Tea!!!! I must have drank it every single day on my trip.....so good.

Any cold green tea.

[torakris]

Shu-Hi are great!

I can't really drink alcohol but I can occasionally hnadle about 1/2 of one of those, it seems as though new flavors are coming out every week. I had a lychee flavored one that was wonderful. My husband bought the Calpis one two days ago, but it was much too strong for me!

[goyatofu]

Yeah, those Shu-Hi's look all pretty and benign but packs quite a punch! I usually quite enjoy Calpis but found the Calpis Shu-Hi very medicinal tasting. I prefer grapefruit or peach, apple is good too (on the rocks!)

[helenjp]

yup, mugi-cha...I take it for granted until I'm out of Japan!

Ebisu beer...people have been known to marry one another when they find out that they both prefer Ebisu!

Unfavorite new happoshu..."Herb and Half" or is it half and herb, I think from Sapporo...shame on their name for coming out with this stuff!

Ume-su...like ume-shu, but made with vinegar. This is incredibly good stuff, but when I made my last mega-batch, I didn't label the ume-shu and ume-su bottles, because I thought any idiot could tell the difference between shochu and vinegar. Two or three years later, "any idiot" *can't* tell , because the vinegar has mellowed so much!

[smallworld]

As for Yebisu, more than one person has raved about it, but it was quite disappointing. I think because it's got a fuller body (like  wheat beers you can get here : Big Rock and Grasshopper comes to mind) that it's "different" from most dry Japanese beers...Is it the regular Yebisu or the Black Yebisu that's all the rave?

Goyatofu, Sorry you didn't like Ebisu so much. But hey, that leaves more for me!

Ebisu is not really that popular in Japan, in fact it can be hard to find. But it has a small and dedicated cult following. The regular one is what most people love, but the black is nice too. Ebisu does have a fuller, more European flavour, so if you prefer lighter beers you probably won't like it much.

My parents went home yesterday from a two-week visit to Japan, and my Dad just couldn't get enough of Japanese beer! He liked most of the regular draught beer by the big makers, and he really liked all the micro-beers and lesser-known beers we were lucky enough to find.

The only beer he didn't like was one he bought at random- Kirin Green Label, which is a low sugar (or low something) beer. It was so bad he had to pour it down the drain, which he's only done a few times in his life! He learned to stay away from any kind of beer that was supposed to be healthy- leave that crap to dieting OLs looking for a cheap buzz. Yuck.

We even did a brewery tour, at the Suntory brewery in Fuchu (western Tokyo), which he said was the best, most sophisticated tour he's done. And he's done a LOT of brewery tours, so that's high praise!

We tried three kinds of beer during the tasting, all of which he liked: Magnum Dry, Malt's, and especially Premium Malt's:

http://www.suntory.co.jp/beer/premium/index.html

We took home one of their new ones that wasn't on tap, Akairono Houjun Table Beer, which he loved:

http://www.suntory.co.jp/beer/tablebeer/index.html

Other favourites:

Kinga Kogen Beer:

http://www.gingakogenbeer.com/index.html

The autumn beers:

http://www.suntory.co.jp/beer/akinama/index2.html

http://www.kirin.co.jp/brands/akiaji/flash.html

And a whole bunch more that we'll never be able to remember. I told him to keep the bottles/cans of stuff that was especially good, but I think the maids just kept throwing them out. Oh well.

Hope some of you in/ coming to Japan can try some of these!

[torakris]

I guess I have been in Japan too long because I don't find this idea strange at all. Actually it is not to bad, especially in a warmed can......

Anyone else drink milk tea or buy any of the numerous milk tea flavored products?

there was some discussion of this in the engrish thread:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20442

[Sinbad]

I guess I have been in Japan too long because I don't find this idea strange at all. Actually it is not to bad, especially in a warmed can......

Anyone else drink milk tea or buy any of the numerous milk tea flavored products?

there was some discussion of this in the engrish thread:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20442

You have been to long in Japan when you don't find things strange anymore

I never got the (milk) tea and coffee in a can craze in Japan. The variety is just astonishing and there are new labels and flavors popping up all the time. I just can't understand how people can drink it?

[elyse]

I think the reasos why it seems so gross is because we hope all tea and coffee we drink will be fresh. The fresher the better. And have you ever saved coffee and tea with milk already in it? Yuck.

[torakris]

Oh dear, I am ashamed to admit that I like the milk tea in the can better than the milk tea I make at home.....

Here is my favorite

http://www.cocacola.co.jp/products/lineup/kotyakaden/

the first one in the short blue can

[margaret]

Oh, I used to love this stuff. Still do, actually, although I don't drink it as much anymore. Should I be ashamed?

My favorite was always Kirin's Gogo no Koucha milk tea. I used to drink this after lunch at school all the time - milk tea or else ko-hi gyunyu (coffee milk).

You know, it totally never occured to me that canned milk tea and coffee are weird. Are they really?

[torakris]

a "tasting" of the new winter beers/chu-hi

http://www.japan-zine.com/Feature.htm

[Jason Perlow]

I like the Maxwell House ice coffee with milk in a can. Kinda weird that an American brand name would produce such a version for the Japanese market. Probably some weird American GI influenced thing.

I'm not sure if its Korean or Japanese, though, as I buy it locally here at Han Ah Reum, which is a Korean supermarket chain that stocks Korean and Japanese items. I'm sort of under the impression though that a lot of these trendy weird convenience items are popular in Tokyo and Seoul simultaneously. I've seen Korean as well as Japanese versions of the same type of items, particularly as it goes with these tea and coffee beverages in a can.

[Sinbad]

Ginga Kogen is actually a very nice beer, there are quite a few nice microbrews in Japan. Yona-Yona is another one that is also reasonable priced and there are a few others as well.

My last few years in Japan I never puchased a single bottle of any of the mass-produced crap from the big four (Asahai, Suntory, Kirin and Sapporo). Their standard beer are all at best "mama-desu", and they have an irritating habit of throwing out mediocre seasonals with silly names like "Winter Snow Flake Santa" or whatever they might call them.

Japan is a great country to eat in, but I do have one complaint and that is the selection of beer at restaurants which is uniformly bad (if you like me dislike the big four choices). I have extended my personal consumer boycott of the big four to include meals at restaurants, I always ask for a microbrew and if they don't have it I settle for Sake (which is pretty much always the case except in Fukuoka where quite a few places surprisingly carried local brews). Life is to short to waste on the big 4 and with sake in Japan being so good it usually doesn't feel like too much of a sacrifice.

[Jason Perlow]

Love Sake. Especially the stuff from Nara.

[Sinbad]

I have yet to start getting a preference for Sake from a certain region. I look at the grading, but I never actually worry to much about the region (unless they would claim that the brewery is in Kawasaki or another industrial hub).

Many Japanese tell me that sake from a certain region is the best, but it usually happens to be their hometown so I usually take it with a grain of salt.

Any reason for Nara? Preference cold/hot? I prefer cold sake, even in the winter.

[Jason Perlow]

Cold.

I like Nara because I've been exposed to a lot of them from that region.

[Hiroyuki]

Many Japanese tell me that sake from a certain region is the best, but it usually happens to be their hometown so I usually take it with a grain of salt.

You are right. But believe me, kome dokoro wa sake dokoro.

I said, 米所は酒所.

Translation: A (good) rice-producing district is a (good) sake-producing district.

That's why I recommend the brands produced in Niigata prefecture, especially the ones produced in Shiozawa!! The best brands in Japan!!

***

Take it with a grain of salt, of course.

Edited May 7, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[Sleepy_Dragon]

I'm allergic to alcohol, but sake is one of the very few alcohols I can actually drink without getting sick. Just one glass though. It goes so well with briny oceanic foods, mmmmm.

I like C.C. Lemon too. And the hot coffee can vending machines seem like such a great idea. Buy one to stick in your coat pocket to keep hands warm!

Otherwise, I'm generally a tea drinker, and green tea is among my favorite things to drink.

Pat

Edited May 10, 2004 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[redfox]

Is ume-su something you would plan to drink normally, or to use in more normal vinegar applications?

[torakris]

Is ume-su something you would plan to drink normally, or to use in more normal vinegar applications?

I would say it is more common to find ume-su (plum vinegar) in cooking, but there is a recent trend now of vinegar drinks (black vinegar being very popular) and it wouldn't be unusual to find it in a glass watered down with either water or some type of liquor.

I have seen recipes mostly called for it in salads but also simmered dishes, rice dishes and deserts.

and then there is ume-shu, the plum wine.....

[Hiroyuki]

I used to drink regular beer in my 20s, except on those very Japanese festive occasions such as New Year's Day that made me want to drink sake. I made the switch to low-malt beer (happoh-shu 発泡酒) in my mid-30s partly because it was cheaper and partly because it was improved to have almost the same flavor and taste as regular beer. And, finally, last year, I made the switch to shochu BECAUSE it is the cheapest. I mean koh-rui 甲類 shochu, similar to white liquor, not otsu-rui 乙類 shochu, which has gained popularity recently, such as imo-jochu.

As I already mentioned in another thread, I'm a heavy green-tea drinker. I can drink 2 liters of green tea or more. I rarely drink juice except tomato juice.

[Hiroyuki]

and then there is ume-shu, the plum wine.....

I'm afraid that the expression "plum wine" is misleading, since ume-shu is made by putting plums and then rock sugar in a jar and then pouring white liquor in it. I'm blaming dictionaries not you, torakris.

[torakris]

and then there is ume-shu, the plum wine.....

I'm afraid that the expression "plum wine" is misleading, since ume-shu is made by putting plums and then rock sugar in a jar and then pouring white liquor in it. I'm blaming dictionaries not you, torakris.

Actually I hestitated to use that word, but ended up with it because it is the word everyone outside of Japan is familiar with and because I couldn't think of anything else to call it....

EDIT:

I am looking foward to the green plums coming into the markets in a couple weeks to I can make my own ume-shu this year!!

Edited May 11, 2004 by torakris (log)

[Hiroyuki]

I'm allergic to alcohol, but sake is one of the very few alcohols I can actually drink without getting sick.

I found your remarks interesting for two reasons:

1) I have never heard of anyone allergic to alcohol. I suppose that you simple mean you can't hold your liquor, which means that your liver cannot decompose acetaldehyde fast enough. You can become allergic to pollen, house dust, buckwheat, eggs, and other substances, but not to alcohol. Or, am I wrong?

2) In Japan, sake is said to be more likely to give you a hangover than other types of alcohol such as shochu. After running through several websites, however, I have found that this is not necessarily true. All types of alcohol give you a hangover if you drink too much of it.

***

Addition:

A message to torakris:

Oh, women! My wife, my sister, and my mother all love ume-shu. And you too.

Edited May 11, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)