Sake is designed to pair with food. While it has the highest alcohol by volume of any brewed, non-fortified drink, sake can make meals more enjoyable. Experience that yourself on Sept. 27 at Kai in Plano's Legacy West.
Kai and the other Lombardi Family Concepts host pairing dinners, giving guests a chance to have deeper dining experiences.
Director of Beverage Andrew Stofko tells Local Profile, "We try to accomplish a few things with our pairing dinners: showcase creative versatility and skill in our kitchen, pay homage through food, drink and hospitality to the Japanese and pan-Asian influences behind Kai, and give our guests an incredible and immersive dining experience."
The dinner's featured sakes are: Eiko Fuji Honkara honjozo (rich and robust, classic dry-style honjozo sake), Eiko Fuji Ban Ryu (light and fruit-forward, crisp and clean honjozo sake), Eiko Fuji 'Glorious Mt. Fuji' (yeasty aroma, delicate fruit character, higher proof namazake junmai ginjo), Seikyo Takahare (a mellow and mild, balanced junmai sake that pairs well with fried foods) and Maboroshi (a dry, spicy, clean junmai ginjo with very light apple notes).
Sake is made from rice, water, yeast and koji (koji is rice that has been inoculated with koji spores — a type of fungus that is used to make miso, but the koji spores used to make sake are a specialized type). Sake can be junmai (brewed only from rice) or honjozo (a style of sake that adds additional alcohol to the brew). The term ginjo refers to sake made with rice that has been milled to sixty percent. The sakes at the upcoming Kai dinner will be paired with oysters, prawns, snapper, wagyu and even green apple sorbet.
Previous dinners at Lombardi Family Concepts' restaurants have featured fascinating and unexpected pairings, and the sake pairing looks to be yet another enlightening (and delicious) experience.
For those interested in attending, check the official Kai site for more information. Seating is limited, and it's $125 per person.