Non-Threatening Chatter

Are you a gay or just want to surf the internet like one? Then you should really join my groups on the website GLEE.com. It's a social networking site that's an acronym for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone Else. I'm working with them to bring more people to the site and am in charge of the Cocktail Chatter and Wine, Beer, and Sake groups. So go sign up and say howdy (it's free, of course) and then not only will I look better to the boss-man, I won't be having conversations with myself on the bulletin boards anymore. I hate to be (typing about) drinking alone.

Goodbye, Boozy Tuesday

Today the Japanese Brewer's Association was in town. True Sake sponsored a tasting event, which was first open to reporters from 2-4PM, so that's when I went. I had some very good and some very mediocre sakes there. The event seemed geared towards restaurant buyers and trying to get them to carry some sakes.

I was on my way out when I ran into W. Blake Gray, staff writer for the Chronicle. He also writes for the wine section, but I'd never met him in person. He seemed like a mature, put-together grown-up, which isn't that rare for wine people but is for newspaper writers.

On my way out, I decided to procrastinate going home and finishing my story (on sake) by going into Marlena's. I wrote about the bar this winter having 700 Santas as decoration. Owner Garry McLain walked in carrying bags and bags of stuffed rabbits from Thrift Town, which are to be the next holiday decorations for the bar. I had two beers and by this time the sake had really hit me. Long story short: messy Camper.

On my way home it was 5:30PM and I was hungry so I stopped into Little Star Pizza near my house. I ordered a beer that I did not need and ate a pizza that was delicious as always. Then I came home and slept for a couple of hours, not finishing my story, and surely making me stay up too late tonight when I need to get up early in the morning and finish my sake story and start my whisky wood story. It's gonna be rough.

North Side Dining

Tonight I went out for drinks and dinner with a rep from the Hime restaurant in the Marina. Though they have an interesting cocktail menu (bigger than what's online), we stuck with sake. We started with a sampler of 3 nama (unpasteurized) sakes not normally on the menu. The first one, Harushika, was our favorite, being smooth, round, and only slightly fruity.

After that , we compared the ginjo and daiginjo versions of the same sake- Wakatake. Ginjo sake has its rice polished to a certain percent, and daiginjo is further polished. The ginjo had the rice (an almost gamy, slightly overripe flavor that's usually present in sake but not my favorite flavor in the world) ever present in the taste, whereas the daiginjo opened with a fruity floral taste then followed with the rice flavor.

After that, we tried two junmai sakes: the very dry Otokoyama which was only outstanding for its dryness, and the Akitabare which was bold but didn't make a strong impression. Our server recommended we move from Daiginjos down to junmais since the palate gets tired, but I found that's not really true for me. The junmais just seem so bold as to be boring.

Anyway, they offer over 30 sakes total, with several seasonal or rotating off the menu.

The food we had was creative and pretty darn tasty. They asked me a ton of questions about what I do and don't eat since I'm a vegetarian- is fish broth okay? how about eggs? and so on. I was worried that they really didn't have anything vegetarian on the menu and were desperate. However, they brought us so much food we couldn't eat it all, from a mushroom salad to asparagus wrapped in something fried that tasted like peas altogether, to fried tofu topped with yuzu sauce, to tempura served as vegetable popsicles on long wooden skewers, which was a great touch. With the effort and presentation on the veggie stuff, I'd bet the fish is good too if you're into that sort of thing.

Afterwards we went for a cocktail at Mercury Appetizer Bar a good walk up the street. We had a dessert there, which was a chocolate and butterscotch pudding combo where the butterscotch is made from real scotch.

WAIT A MINUTE, YOU CAN MAKE BUTTERSCOTCH FROM SCOTCH? How did I not know this?

Anyway, I had their Green-tea'ni that is only vodka mixed with Zen Green Tea liqueur. At first I hated the drink, then liked it by the end, but maybe my taste buds were tired like the waiter said they would be earlier in the night. We also tried the Chai Iced Tea that has Phillips Union Vanilla Vodka (yuck) with Voyant Chai Liqueur (yum!) and iced tea and cream. It was really a drink built around the flavors of the Voyant, but I really like those flavors so I was all for it. Worth checking out.

Then I stumbled to the bus stop and took the 49 all the way home. One hour later I'm still a little tipsy. Occupational hazard, I guess.

Booze for Gays

My first story on booze for Out Magazine is in the February issue, hitting newsstands soon. I just finished a second assignment for them and have a third due on Monday.

In the February issue I talk about sake, the misunderstood beverage. The story relays the basic facts and fallacies about sake and tells you what to look for when you order it in restaurants.

They put my picture on the contributors page but cut out my quote about how I want to make the Sour Apple Martini illegal. The gays would probably take offence to that, but that's why I'm writing this column- they need to learn that sweet and fruity are so last century. Now it's all about sour and bitter.

Finally, drinks to match my attitude.