Rediscover the Profound Food Culture : Akita’s High Quality Fish to Complement the Great Sake Choices!

Kyukamura’s annual dinner event of Akita’s local sake and food has been taken place in January and February. January event is just ended last weekend. These beautiful and delicious dishes were specially designed to complement the rice wines presented at this event.

The meal started with a glass of your choice of Daiginjo shu, each crafted by two brewers, Hideyoshi’s Suzuki Shuzo and Ranman’s Akita Meijou.

Fukuochoko cup with a special design
of Tatsuko and her dragon

After toasting, a number of small dishes are delivered to our table in a traditional Kaisaki manner – starting from appetizers, sashimi, soup, steamed, fried, roasted, marinated, rice dish, palette freshener, and end with a desert – which makes it in total of 11 times.

The food is themed in fish caught off the coast of Akita during the kan (coldest) season. The dinner included ingredients of 7 different seafood: codfish, bonito, anglerfish, yellowtail, crab, red trout, and salmon.

It is nearly impossible to show you every detail in here; we also want to keep it secret for the February event, so here we give you just a few glimpses of the unique dishes:



One of the first 3 appetisers:
Yosedofu Shuto-ankake

The appetizer plate featured 3 different dishes. Yosedofu Shuto-Ankake (picture right) was silky and flavorful tofu hiding a few chunks of yams covered with flavorful Shutou sauce made with bonito’s stomach. Another dish was a small cake of anglerfish with some miso.

At the height of season, codfish was served as sashimi: the meat seasoned with Konbu seaweed and roe seasoned with citron. It was presented in Akita’s famous Kamakura. 

An absolutely mind-blowing dish was Soy Milk Shabushabu of Yellowtail and Vegetables. A hint of Sakekasu (sake lees) was added to give the soy milk a wonderful flavor. Parboiling the fish and veggies made the broth so tasty that we just couldn’t stop!

Yellowtail was served again later as cooked and in accompaniment with radish, creamy sauce, and some red trout roes. Codfish also returned to the table – now steamed with Japanese turnip. This dish was served on the turn of “Shiizakana,” literally means “forcing you to make you drink more.”

In another dish, salmon meat and roe as served in Ochazuke style (with rice and tea).

A scoop of dried persimmon and Tofu with a goji berry was refreshing! And so as the 11th dish, sakekasu mousse with mint jelly and strawberries.

The meal could not be more satisfying! Every single dish perfectly matched with the characteristic flavor of Akita’s sake – it did not only compliment the subtle but rich flavor of sake but also left us a strong impression of how beautiful and profound Akita’s food culture is.

The February event will feature different dishes as it reflects the most delicious ingredients of the season. For more information, please inquire Kyukamura Nyuto Onsenkyo.