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5 Sake Pairings to Elevate Your Dinner Experience

Pairing is a gateway to gastronomic adventures. Even the flavours in your usual dinner meals can be enhanced by pairing them with the right drink to end the day on a great note. We often jump into the conclusion that wine is the best option for this kind of set-up - but there’s more to pairings than that. It’s time to expand your knowledge and learn more about by sake pairing for your next dinner.

But isn’t Sake best served with Japanese food? – nope. Sake is versatile like wine; less the aggressiveness that fights off flavours. It’s clean, smooth, and brings out the umami of the dish. In fact, even simple dishes will be elevated with the right Sake pairing. To help you start venturing into non-Japanese Sake pairings, here are 5 dinner dishes you can try:

1.    Braised Pork Ribs

Enjoy soft, tender, and deeply marinated pork ribs by matching it with the full-bodied Saito Junmai Daiginjo. Nothing beats experiencing the elegant entanglement of pork and premium sake that will leave a gentle and smooth finish on your palate. Surely enough, its fruity aroma will tickle your appetite into craving for more.

2.    Fried Seafood

Most fried seafood dishes, whether in Japanese cuisine or not, have strong flavours that linger in the aftertaste. We would recommend pairing it with Saito Yuzu Hikari, a sparkling sake with a hint of citrus flavour. Its semi-sweet and sour taste blends perfectly with the seafood dish and finishes by washing away the oiliness from your palate, ending the experience on a refreshing note.

3.    Stir-fry Chicken

Turn “simple” into “sophisticated” with the help of Sake. Stir-fry chicken is a popular quick and easy dish to have alone, with friends, or with your loved ones. Make the meal memorable by adding a hint of zing to the atmosphere with abottle or two of Sake. The mildly strong taste of our well-loved comfort food will be given depth with Saito Premium Junmai. This sake pairs beautifully with meat due to its semi-dry taste, its little bit of acidity, and long finish.

4.    Pizza

When we’re too tired to think of what to eat, we rely on quick take-out pizzas to fill our empty bellies and lazy minds. Tap the hidden potential of this hearty dish topped with rich tomato sauce and melted cheese with Sake. This pairing has a great chemistry that brings out the best from each other. Saito Junmai enhances umami flavours present in the pizza, and finishes with a long dry tail to ready your palate for another bite. With this pairing, you’ll experience your go-to pizza like never before.

5.    Barbeque

Savour the smoky earthy flavour of barbeque in an amplified level. The dry and full body of Saito Junmai Ginjo Genshu matches the strong taste of the dish. Having such high alcohol content, this drink will seem to overpower the meat at first, but once the interaction between the food and drink starts, the flavours will burst with richness that will end in a long and satisfying finish.

After a long day, it’s always great to treat yourself with good food along with a perfect pairing of food. Sake never fails to turn the simplest of dinners into something satisfyingly complex and refreshing.

If you're ready to explore the different ways of food pairing, browse the plethora of Asiaeuro's fine wine and spirits, and find out the most ideal drinks to pair with your favourite dishes. With this said, we end this short but educational read with the famous saying: You'll never know till you try.

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