How to taste sushi - this is not as stupid as it sounds !

How to taste sushi? "Just put it in your mouth !" most of you think.
Easy right?

Well, there is a difference between simply eating sushi and knowing how to enjoy it properly.

As I said in my previous post, sushi is an art. Japanese people are dead serious about it. When they eat bad sushi, they feel the same way a French person reacts when they taste a "pain au chocolat" made with margarine:
"Yuk".

So today I am going to try to give you a few tips so that you are sure to know how to recognize what makes good sushi.

1. Try the tamago yaki (a slightly sweet omelet).

This is a simple and pretty radical way to know how the rest of your meal is going to be when entering a sushi restaurant. In Japan this simple sushi is considered one of the most delicate ones and it requires great skill to be perfected. If it is soggy and too sweet, either run out of the restaurant or be prepared to even more disapointed by the rest of the meal.


2. The second easiest way to know if you are facing a good Itamae is to focus on the rice: 

How does it taste? How does it feel? The rice should not be too soft nor too firm, and the balance of seasonings should be just right. If it’s too sweet or tastes of vinegar, you are screwed. Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult to cook.
Rice the very foundation of sushi (by the way sushi litteraly means rice in Japanese), so you should be sure to watch out for it when eating out at a Japanese place.

3. Sushi is like wine: it is about balance. 

Inspect your nigiri-sushi (not the maki roll, the one with a little clump of rice and fish over it). In a quality establishment, you shoul not find huge hunks of fish on top of three grains of rice. Although this might seem like good value for money, it will destroy the proper balance of the meal. Japanese food is about discipline and craft, it is not about supersizing your food. For that there is McDonald's. 


4. Look for fresh wasabi. 

You know that green mustard? If you are lucky what you have in your plate is just plain horseradish with food coloring. If you're unlucky... who knows. 
Real wasabi - the fresh sort - is immensly rare. If your restaurant is a real deal, you should have a waiter come and grate you a little bit of the wasabi rhizome in your plate. I know it doesn't sound very appetizing when I say it like that but trust me, the taste is entirely different. Not nearly as harsh and strong, it almost has a nutty flavor. It's like comparing real parmesan and the canned thing you buy at your supermarket. It's just not the sae product. 


5. Look for interesting seasonal items. 


This is not really necessary but it may indicate that the sushi chef pays extra attention to the particulars of the foods he offers, and seeks out something when it is available and fresh. It will mean your food has not be stuck in a freezer for the past 6 months. 




These 5 little tips should help you out to know if the restaurant you are eating at is a true Japanese establishement.
Of course, I don't expect these requirements to be met in all the restaurants I go to but for the ones that I anticipate to be good, I make sure to look out for them.
But what a joy when I find the real gem that complies with all these elements!

Why foreign women and wine have a bad reputation in India - Part 2

Now -or if not check this out - you know why foreign women have a bad reputation in India. The reason, basically, is ... Bob Dylan

But what about wines? 

Why is everyone so adamantly – and wrongly for that matter –convinced that Indian wines are disgusting?

Goa.

Again. I know, it is starting to get nerve wrecking.

The city of sin has done it one more time.

The reason why Goa is at the center of the international despise towards wine is not because Hippies used to produce wine along their hashish plantations.

Neither is it because Saint Xavier and the Portuguese Inquisition viciously pored wine on the wounds of the poor Hindus they had just scorched.

The reason is much simpler. 

And not as entertaining unfortunately for you (and for this site’s bounce rate).

But first, let me take you through a little history:

Experts believe the grape vine was introduced in India from Persia around 2500 BC as wine is mentioned in the Vedic texts as Soma and Sura. Throughout the middle-ages and modern times, wine was the drink of warrior castes (the Kshatriyas), along with beer and other spirits made of wheat, barley or maize in the North and rice in the South.

The Mughal emperors developed and maintained vineyards in the Deccan region as did the British during the 19^th century.

However, almost all of India’s vineyards were wiped out by phylloxera in the 1890’s. 

After the independence, the Indian Constitution strongly deterred the consumption of alcoholic beverages and imports were severely monitored. These principles were expanded with the graduate prohibition of imported alcoholic beverages throughout the country and the introduction of constraint licensing under the control of the Central Government.

Despite these heavy constraints some areas continued to produce wine such as the state of Goa where vintners used ‘Bangalore Blue’ grape to make cheap wines.

Now this is the interesting part for us.

Bangalore blue wine has the status of wine, it has its color, its alcoholic content and its name.

But that’s about it. All other similarities are pure fantasy. Some say even drunkards don’t appreciate it and that its sole purpose is to get you wasted. And it succeeds in doing it very nicely.

The problem is that Goan wine was basically the only wine available in India for 25 years. So of course people now believe Indian wine means cheap, yuky, undrinkable grape juice.

But that is far from the truth. 

As I explained it in a previous article about selling wine in India, Indian wineries have developed throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s and now produce some very decent wines. It all started out with Indage – known as Champagne India now – who built a first winery in the valley of Nashik in 1985. From then on, other players stepped into the wine industry and wineries continued spreading in the valley of Nashik, Maharashtra. There are up to 65 wineries in the state of Maharashtra today, producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Chenin, Zinfandel and even Viognier. 

I tasted wines I actually enjoyed very much here. Like Sula Dindori or Nine Hills Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. Actually, I was even surprised at the level of achievement of these wines. 

I'm not saying they are perfect but they surely are enjoyable with a nice curry masala dish. 

Here's one of my tasting note for Nine Hills, Chenin, 2009

Nose: nice fruity tanginess. Orange, passion fruit and pineapple. 

Mouth: the structure is really straightforward. The wine doesn't drop in the mouth, its crisp yet full and the length is good. 

Overall this is a very easy wine to enjoy. Perfect for beginners in wine drinking because the fruitiness is really appealing to the palate. 

So you see, its like I explained it in my previous article, there's a misconception about Indian wine. 

In the same way as Goan based westerners don’t walk about naked smoking hash and pot all day anymore, Indian wine is not the low-quality grape juice it used to be. 

Yet they still suffer the reputation Goan history has cursed them with. Shame.