Suzukagawa & Zaku Sake + Food Tasting @ Elegant Inn Hong Kong Cuisine, KL
Sake is the Japanese rice wine that is made by fermenting the rice that has polished to certain ratio. That’s always the drink I will order whenever I am in a Japanese restaurant or izakaya. Often, I will only pair it with Japanese food. When I was asked to attend this sake pairing with Chinese food, I was overjoyed. My mind was playing around; sake + Chinese food, Hong Kong cuisine to be more specific. How interesting!
This was happened in late April. Thanks to this pretty for asking me to tag along. She knows me well, for the love on sake and their beautiful characteristic. Thanks to MFD for inviting us to this event. It enhanced my knowledge on sake a lot!
I learnt that, in wine pairing, wine is often the main character. However, when you dine and pair with sake, sake will magically touch up the flavours of the food, enrich the tastes as well as the savouriness on the palate. Hence, your food in the plate will be the star of the meal!
Suzukagawa & Zaku Sake + Food Tasting
We were introduced to Suzukagawa and Zaku Sake from Suzuka, Mie prefecture. Mie is located near Kyoto and Nara, in Kansai region. The born of Sake from this prefecture is due to the translucent clear water supply from Suzuka Mountains and good quality of rice from the Ise Plain.
Started off with appetiser that was paired with Suzukagawa Junmai; a sweet flowery scent on the nose, and a crisp and fruity hint of lychee on the palate. Best served chilled. I couldn’t stop myself from sniffing it, continuously, non stop. Took a sip before digging into the beautifully plated appetizer, pretty much love its aftertaste.
Golden Cuttlefish Prawn Cake
Elegant Inn Crispy Vegetarian Rice Roll
Homemade Salted Egg Yolk Tofu
Couldn’t choose which I love most among the 3 of them because I love them all! The flavours were very ohmp! The mini size tofu(s) were coated evenly with the salted egg yolk, puffy and savoury. I’d thought it was deep fried lard due to its puffy crispy texture. The prawn cake was deep fried into perfection and they used the sugar cane as skewer. So, you must bite on the sugar cane that will give the extra sweetness to the prawn cake. And the vegetarian rice roll was crispy on the outside and flavourful on the inside. Love the special sweet soy sauce to go with this vege roll.
Next up was Zaku range which carries the meaning of “to create”, “to produce” or “to make”. Started with Zaku Megumi No Tomo, which carries the aroma of pear and a solid sense of wine. Served chilled or warmed. I prefer my sake served chilled.
Steamed Grouper Slices with “Tung Choy” & HK Dried Prawn
Plated finely. The grouper slices were succulent and tender; the eggplant absorbed all the essence of the fish. Finally to slurp up the glass noodles that was touched with savoury Tung Choy. Balance was what I find in this dish!
Third course was to pair with Zaku Miyabi No Tomo, that has the vanilla scent aftertaste. Very well balanced with a smooth finish. It was best served chilled.
8 Treasures Chicken Wing with Cucumber in Spicy Sauce
One of my favourite dishes!!! I believe it was pretty tedious as there were 8 kinds of ingredients stuffed inside the partly deboned chicken wings, deep fried into perfection and voila, that yummy fragrant chicken wing was something I can’t hold. Too good! Will definitely return for this. That tangy spicy cucumber worked great as a palate cleanser to get ready for the next course.
Coming up next was a rich flavourful dish. We had the fruity aroma Zaku Ho No Tomo to pair with. It was well balance with a smooth refreshing with rice aftertaste. This was my favourite after the first Junmai Ginjyo.
Pan Seared Spanish Chestnut Fed Duroc Pork
The chestnut fed Spanish Duroc Pork has got a special distinctive flavour. The texture was sweet and juicy with chewy texture without any addictive added in. best pairing with Zaku Ho No Tomo.
Braised HK E Fu Noodles with Sea Tiger Prawn
Flavourful braised HK noodles which was softer and less greasy than what we had over here.
Pairing with the earlier Zaku Megumi no Tomo
As for Sweet Ending, we had it with the star of the meal, Suzukagawa Junmai Daiginjo; is complex and vivacious, has a jazzy fragrance and velvety smooth depth of flavour. Amazing!
Golden Elegant Inn Custard Cake
Eggy and delicious
Chilled Sea Coconut & Logan with Fresh Lemon
Was a little over sourish to my liking yet a good ending to refresh us from all the alcohol before going home.
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If you are interested in getting/buying these sake, check out MFD. If you are interested in sake pairing, always stay tune at their site. Once a while, there will be sake pairing session or wine pairing session for the public to sign up!
雅轩 Elegant Inn Hong Kong Cuisine
Menara Hap Seng
19-07, Jalan P Ramlee,
50540 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +60 3-2070 9399
Opening hours |12pm to 2.30pm & 6pm to 10.30pm
