Sake & Beer Expo

As many of you know by now, I love beer. But Sake? Not so much. Then again, it’s wine isn’t it? Actually, no. It’s really closer to beer as it’s not made of grapes and it’s brewed. That’s right. For the sake newbies out there, much like myself, sake is run by breweries in Japan and elsewhere much as beer is brewed everywhere else.
So in order to appease the growing US taste for this burgeoning market, JFC International, a major importer of anything and everything Japanese food and drink wise started a series of Sake and Beer Expos in both New York and LA. Well, the Valley. Close enough. Wonder if they do their S&B Expo in Seacaucus, then? It’s not open to the public, but thanks to a fellow Unilocaler who couldn’t attend, I got to go see what it was all about and improve my Sake knowledge big time.
Actually, the signs inside and outside of the hotel said ‘Sake and Shochu’ instead of Sake and Beer and maybe there was a good reason for that. There’s only one brewer of the sudsy stuff here. Sapporo. Which brought along their Light, Reserve and Draft brews. That was it. No Tnigstao. No Tiger. Nothing.
Now I know why it’s not a Sake and Beers Expo.
As for Shochu, it’s like sake but not distilled. So it’s smoother and more like vodka. In fact, straight up it tastes almost like vodka. Or is that chicken. Maybe chicken and potatoes. Whatever the case, the first drink I tried was shochu mixed with a fruity drink concoction. Consider it the Japanese Margarita and probably the best drink I had all day. There were also a couple of sparkling Sake’s which is like Japanese Champagne. Very good.
As for the sakes, they ran the gamut. Most were distilled and I also tried unfiltered for the first time which is thick and a bit gnarly. But tolerable.
There was food but it was Marriott’s answer to Japanese cuisine. Which isn’t saying much beyond bad but not Trader Joe’s bad sushi and better Seafood Cakes and Bay Scallops wrapped in bacon. Kikkoman provided a lot of sweets. OK, low end sweets consisting of mainly cake logs that were so bad the chocolate didn’t exactly taste like chocolate. Or chicken. They also had lots of their Pearl Soy Milk, Edamame, Miso Soup from a vending-​like machine (soup on tap?) and the world’s worst green tea from this powder that was so bad it could make Tang palatable.
Knowing this was an event mainly for the Asian restaurant and hospitality industry, I kept thinking, «Will I be the only Caucasian there?» and while there were people from many of the major sushi bars including Katana, Sushi Roku, Gyu-​Kaku and Katsu-​ya attending, many were about as white as what’s left of the Wonder Bread supply in Southern California. That tells me that a lot is changing in this industry as the rest of the culinary field has been entering this avenue and likely changing things around drastically. After all, when I lived in New Orleans, Acme Oyster House had Cajun Sushi (fried oysters or shrimp around rice) and I’ve been to places in LA where I’ve had BBQ Chicken rolls among other weird combinations. Even non-​Asian restaurants like Señor Fred, Cut, the Four Seasons and Marmalade attended. Showing how much interest there is in non-​Asian restaurants wanting to carry these unique beverages.
Finally, prizes were doled out throughout the afternoon. When you entered the event, you got a program (along with a fan… I guess they thought the Valley would still be super hot. Which it wasn’t) which had a ticket stapled to it. Most of the prizes were sake (surprise!) but also cookies and a lot of air purifiers. Don’t ask me where they got those. Maybe OJ stole them too. I got lucky and thanks to a friend of mine from the press who had to leave early and gave me his ticket, I won twice. An expensive bottle of Shochu called Beniotome Goma (anyone Shochu experts out there? Is this really any good and pricey) and a box of Japanese cookies called Bourbon Veneti which sound and look more Italian than Asian. They did have a lot of no show numbers although I think the reason was most attendees didn’t even know they had a ticket because of where it was attached. Or they were just too drunk on sake to care.
We all got to take gift bags home. No booze but a lot of non-​alcoholic drinks with names like Party Pop and Calpico and food like instant Miso Soups and Brown Rice. Fortunately, none of those chocolate log rolls although after this event you could probably roll out of the Courtyard on all the sake/​shochu/​beer you end up drinking.
Fun event and with just 250 or so attendees it was an intimate event and you pretty much get to meet everyone so it’s very social. As I mentioned, it’s really for the food and booze biz but who knows? Maybe someone will offer up their passes on Unilocal next year. If I don’t grab ‘em first!