2017.07.11
Guide and text: Fumiko Yamauchi Photograph: Yuji Ishii
Fukube proprietor Masao Kitajima and travel writer Fumiko Yamauchi, who earned the nickname Itto-chan (18-liter girl) for her reputation as a voracious drinker.
Over the past few years, the world of Japanese sake has become increasingly lively. One after the other, delicious sake brands have declared their intention to distribute nationwide, and I hear that the total number of brand varieties has reached as many as several tens of thousands. Not only that, sake’s flavor can change richly depending on the snacks that you consume with it. Not only such seasonings as salt, soy sauce, or miso but also differences in food ingredients ensure a great variety of flavors blossoming inside the mouth when you take a sip.
There are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. My nickname derives from the Japanese units for measuring sake, sho (1.8 l) and to (18 l). I am known as Itto-chan because of my reputation as a voracious drinker with a stomach of iron, but even for me, it would be almost impossible to cover all the sake brands and combinations even though I can continuously eat and drink huge amounts. It would be like aiming to become the master of the universe. It’s a little sad that life is limited.… With the intention of finding new nighttime friends while continuing to deepen my love for sake, I parted the noren curtains outside the door of Fukube, a Japanese bar in Yaesu that opened in 1939, and ventured in.
Dyed an amber color by the passing years, the bar’s walls are lined with rows of sake product menus, these also faded into a welcoming color. The bar stocks around 40 different sake varieties. Snacks include kusaya (fermented, sun-dried fish), tarako (spicy cod roe), shimesaba (vinegared mackerel), oden (Japanese-style stew), tatami iwashi (dried sardine sheets), and ika natto (squid with fermented beans). Just looking over the names of the snacks you see there is an impressive lineup of dishes that make the perfect accompaniment for drinking sake.
That’s wonderful! But also troublesome …
While mulling over which menu items to choose also provides a pleasant moment, the drinker in me wants to start drinking as soon as possible. The solution here is actually very easy! With just one simple phrase—“What do you recommend?”—the door will swing open. Especially if you are visiting the bar for the first time, you are sure to have a much more joyous experience if you follow the flow of the bar rather than keeping to your own style.
Accordingly, I ordered the best-selling Kikumasamune (Hyogo) cask sake and waited for my kusaya snack (JPY 702) to be cooked. Bar proprietor Masao Kitajima joked: “The sake is forest-bathing in that cask!” But just as he suggested, the sake’s contours were refreshing. In addition, I completely agree with his suggestion to turn to the person sitting next to you and ask them, “What are you drinking?” if you are not sure what to choose. So true! When a sake tastes delicious, you want to boast about it.
Beginning with the kiri kombu (simmered sliced kombu) appetizer, all of the snacks had an elegant, deeply delicious flavor. No matter which snacks you order, they are the perfect accompaniment for sake. However, taking kusaya as an example, fully prepared kusaya snack gives Kikumasamune an even deeper flavor. Shimesaba gives the sake a refreshing image, while snacks with natto give the sake a more rounded taste. Narrowing your selection down to a single brand and then trying it with a variety of snacks is also very enjoyable.
The bar stocks sake from production regions throughout Japan, and the reason for this is to enable people who have come to Tokyo from regional areas and who have become nostalgic for their hometowns to drink sake from home. The sake lineup has hardly changed since the late 1940s. That is to say, although there are also people who purposely avoid sake produced in their home prefecture, preferring instead the Standard Classics, sake is evolving on a nationwide scale at a pace that could be called dramatic. The same goes for brands that have not been seen for a long time, despite being old friends. When you come across a familiar sake after a long absence, there is an extremely good chance that you will fall in love with it all over again.
All of the sake are served cold or warm (room temperature). It can also be fun to enjoy a cold sake first, and then follow it with warm sake and compare the flavor. Although warm sake can also relax and warm you even in summer when your body is frozen to the core by air conditioning, the warmth is not the only purpose for warm sake’s existence. Heating the sake is a delicious trick you can use to awaken the unique properties of the sake that fall asleep at low temperatures. In other words, bring me another bottle of sake!
Kawaguchi Saketen in Nihonbashi was a bar where you can experience even more clearly a beautiful evening that blossoms through sake and snacks. Commanding the top of the menu is sashimi, but what is interesting is that this seafood can also be served pickled or seared, enabling you to enjoy one kind of fish two ways. Having come from a family that operates a sushi restaurant, bar manager Takayuki Yamada is a seafood connoisseur who refuses to use anything other than natural ingredients! Will the golden sea bream sashimi really be plump and mildly fatty? Ooooh, this is delicious!
Resisting the urge to gobble the sashimi down all at once, I paired it with the Sohomare sake (Tochigi) that was recommended, and this was a blissfulness giving birth to a different drama. The sake itself has a soft taste with a light, luscious afterglow. When this sake is consumed with sashimi, the remaining flavors tighten, and in the case of pickled fish, the flavor of the golden sea bream are highlighted.
Shiroika (white squid) is paired with Sukigokoro, (Ehime), a sake with a deep, rich flavor but also hints of gentleness. As sashimi, the squid has a strong presence, while seared it joins hands with the sake and they melt beautifully into each other. Mmmmmm!
Another menu item you cannot miss is the delicious tempura (deep fried fish and vegetables). With the Ajibainiku-maki (horse mackerel and pickled plum rolls), I ordered the robust Shinkame sake (Saitama). The delicious umami flavor of the fish and the acidity of the plums spread in the mouth, each flavor elevating the other tenderly, so now it is firmly a contest between four flavors. In contrast, the eggplant tempura colored the sake elegantly, highlighting the light sweetness even more.
Left photo: Sohomare Kimoto Special Pure Rice Sake 120 ml (JPY 860) paired with an assortment of golden sea bream sashimi and pickled golden sea bream (JPY 500 each). The sauce for the picked fish is slightly sweet and strongly flavored with garlic. This snack pairs perfectly with firmly flavored sake.
Middle photo: Sukigokoro Junmai Ginjo Unpasteurized Sake 120 ml (JPY 900) paired with white squid sashimi and seared white squid (JPY 500 each). The type of seafood differs depending on what seafood is purchased that day. Sake can also be ordered in 220 ml and 400 ml sizes. At the standing bar of the first floor you can also drink-and-compare three 60 ml cups of different sake types.
Right photo: Shinkame Agefune Nakagumi Unfiltered Unpasteurized Undiluted Sake 120 ml (JPY 1,100) paired with ajibainiku-maki tempura (JPY 800) and vegetable tempura such as eggplant, okura, and Chinese scallions (JPY 300 for two pieces each). The first serving of tempura comprises different vegetables for each season. Food dishes also include tamagoyaki (Japanese-style omelet) (JPY 400) and iwashi no maruboshi (whole dried sardines) (JPY 600).
The bar handles around 30 different kinds of sake from all over Japan. From standard classics to up-and-coming brands and from smooth light sake to rich heavy sake, the bar provides a diverse range of flavors. The building in which the bar is located was originally the storehouse of a sake shop, and it has been renovated so as to preserve this atmosphere, creating a stylish and charming space. Since the first floor is a standing bar, another attraction of this bar is that it is easy to try various different sake. Experimenting is great, and I would like to pursue unusual pairings of sake and snacks. The easy-to-understand approach balances out the mutually powerful flavor punches of the sake and snacks, but if the balance were different, the story would also change—lightly encompassing and delicately drawing out each other’s flavors. As a consequence, the night grows long. The more you drink, the deeper your happiness grows. And so … “Another glass, please!”
Profile of the guide: Fumiko Yamauchi
A heavy drinker and a travel writer who often appears in the gourmet magazine dancyu (President Inc.). Born in Aomori City in 1966. She graduated from the Department of Literary Arts, Nihon University College of Art. After being in charge of promotion at Penguin Books in the UK, she became independent. She is self-satisfied to stand on the stages of historic remains and tell stories at home and abroad, and drinking excellent alcohol at bars at night is what she lives for. She is a heavy drinker since she is called Itto-Chan as used in the units of 1-sho and 1-to (1-sho is 1.8 liters and itto or 1-to is 18 liters). Her books include Eikoku Kizoku no Yakata ni Tomarru (Stay in the Mansion of an Aristocrat in the UK) and Eikoku Fantasy wo Meguru London Sanpo (Strolling in London to Go Around British Fantasies) (both of them were published by Shogakukan), Akage no Anne no Shima he (To the island of Anne of Green Gables) and Harry Potter eno Tabi (Travel to Harry Potter) (Hakusensha), and Nippon Sake no Tabi (Travel to Find Good Sake in Japan) (Yosensha).
Kawaguchi Saketen manager Takayuki Yamada and travel writer Fumiko Yamauchi. Ms. Yamauchi was in fine spirits thanks to the delicious sake and food dishes recommended by Mr. Yamada.
Tsunin no Shuseki Fukube
Address: 1-4-5 Yaesu, Chuo-ku
Tel: +81 (0)3-3271-9748
Business hours: 4 to 11 p.m.
Regular holidays: Every 2nd and 4th Saturday, Sundays, and public holidays