Steak and sake

As with most ingredients the best pairing for steak is going to depend on the way it’s cooked. For the most part you're probably going to reach for a red wine but we were in Japan and so the automatic go to was sake.

The accompaniments were more important than the steak itself though that was a couple of magnificent cuts of heavily marbled Kobe beef which we were lucky enough to enjoy twice - at Medium Rare at the Hotel Oriental in Kobe and Biftek Kawamura in Akashi

There were two elements of the dish that particularly kicked in with the sake we were drinking, both umami-rich: fried garlic chips and soy sauce. On both occasions the steak was followed by fried rice.

The style that worked best was Akashi Tai’s Honjozo Genshu Tokubetsu* a full-flavoured sake with, at 19%, a higher alcohol content than some lighter more delicate sakes. (Honjozo generally indicates a higher degree of alcohol, genshu that no water has been added and tokubetsu that it’s a premium sake where the rice has been polished to 60% of its original size. It can be served cool (which is how we had it with the steak) or warm.

Serving steak this way is actually a great way to enjoy it as the garlic and soy enhances the Maillard reaction you get from grilling meat and umami-rich sake amplifies that. 

*there’s a good explanation of the style in Sake Times 

For wine matches see The best wine pairing for steak.

I travelled to Japan as a guest of the Akashi sake brewery.

Okonomiyaki and orange wine

Our experience of Japanese wine is so limited in the UK that it came as quite a surprise to find three wines I would never have expected in a small restaurant and natural wine bar called Pasania in Osaka - a pinot noir, a kerner and an orange koshu.

Koshu is the variety that most often makes it over here but is on the whole relatively unexciting, or has been in the past at any rate. Maybe I need to revisit it as this orange version - Coco Farm & Winery's F.O.S. (fermented on skins) - was luscious, as aromatic varieties so often are.

It went perfectly with the restaurant’s speciality, okonomiyaki - a delicious umami-rich pancake made with cabbage and in this case, pork, squid, shrimp and octopus. (If you're unfamiliar with it - and a Brit - imagine a cross between bubble and squeak and a tortilla.)

Pasania is one of the restaurants in Osaka that is listed on the Star Wine List website. You can find the others here.

By the way you need to make a reservation as they don’t have many seats or take walk-ins. There’s a full explanation on their website  but don’t be put off - it’s worth it, especially if you're a natural wine fan.

Strawberries and white zinfandel

I think it’s good to re-examine your prejudices so every so often I go back to wines I don’t much like, white zin being a good example.

I had to taste some as part of research for an article recently and by and large it confirmed my impression that it wasn’t a wine for me. Not with savoury foods in any case but maybe sweet ones would show it off better?

I’d suggested in the past it might go with strawberries and hit on the idea of a perfect snack to pair with it - a riff on scones and cream without having to make the scones.

Ritz crackers, generously spread with Philly or other cream cheese and topped with a couple of slices of strawberry. There's a lovely contrast of salty cracker, smooth creamy cheese and sharp, fruity strawberry. A little freshly ground black pepper if you like, makes it even better IMO.

Serve the white zin (not sure why they don’t call it a rosé these days) well chilled or even over a couple of ice cubes. It’s only around 10% so perfect teatime drinking even if you don’t have a sweet tooth. Berry-topped cheesecakes or Eton mess would would work too.

Mezze and a Palestinian white wine

Finding a Palestinian restaurant in London is unusual enough but discovering a Palestinian wine to go with the food is beyond all expectations

However at Akub in Notting Hill which bills itself as a modern Palestinian restaurant they have both.

The wine I particularly liked was called Nadim and comes from the Tabeh winery. It’s made from the local Zeini grape and is deliciously dry, nutty and slightly herby - the perfect counterpoint to the selection of dishes we ordered.

They included some labneh balls rolled in sumac, zaatar, turmeric and Aleppo pepper, a watermelon, black olive and mint salad, a chopped tomato salad with chillies and Mafghoussa, a dish of courgettes with smashed courgettes, garlic yogurt, pine nuts and mint. Oh, and an amazing collection of breads but they didn’t really need matching.

I imagine unless you go there you won't come across a Palestinian white but there are some quite similar Lebanese whites or try a Greek Malagousia.

I ate at Akub as a guest of the restaurant.