Sake, the smooth rice wine which is more Japanese than sushi, has been put on UNESCO's list of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.” This list names products and practices of different cultures that are deserving of recognition, as against UNESCO's World Heritage List, which includes historical and centuries-old sites such as the Taj Mahal in India, the Pyramids of Egypt, and more.
At a meeting in Luque, Paraguay, members of UNESCO’s committee for safeguarding humanity’s cultural heritage voted to recognise 45 cultural practices and products around the world, including Brazilian white cheese, Caribbean cassava bread and Palestinian olive oil soap.
“Sake is considered a divine gift and is essential for social and cultural events in Japan,” Takehiro Kano, the Japanese ambassador reportedly said to UNESCO, as the Japanese delegation welcomed the announcement in Luque.
I once had the opportunity to taste this celebrity-favourite wine, brewed in centuries-old mountaintop warehouses, savoured slowly and at leisure. It was poured into my champagne glass and served slightly chilled, as we raised a special toast to celebrate the 20th year of Wasabi, the famous Japanese restaurant by Chef Masaharu Morimoto at the Taj Mahal palace and Towers in Mumbai.
Beforehand, Wasabi's seniormost server inquired if I'd like my sake warm or slightly chilled. Helping me to choose, he said chilled sake will help you enjoy the meal and digest it better and since we had just begun a seven-course spread, he said I could start off with the chilled one and then move on to the warm sake towards the end.
Going along with his suggestion I must admit it was very sound advice.
Morimoto - the founding chef of Wasabi, best known for introducing Japanese cuisine to India via India's iconic Taj hotels, in Mumbai and New Delhi - was in the city to lay out a specially crafted Omakase menu as a way to mark the celebration. Omakase, in Japanese, translates roughly to 'I am leaving it up to the chef. We were seated on the round table for a longish eight-course Omakase on a languorous Saturday afternoon and it was then that we learnt that sake was the most recent entrant to Morimoto's line of cookbooks, knives, grapeseed oils and beer.
‘A divine gift’
Made from polished rice, sake, the fermented rice beverage that is the foundation of drinking culture in Japan, where it is called ‘nihonshu’, beautifully accompanies the food. It was sharp and mellow in equal measure, making it a fine starter sake and excellent to serve chilled with seafood.
Later, by the time we were expecting our last course, I switched to the warm sake, which again soothed and calmed the mind and the body.
The Japanese have been drinking it since around the eighth century, originally believing that it warded off evil spirits. The basic ingredients of sake remain a handful - rice, water, yeast and koji, a rice mould, which breaks down the starches into fermentable sugars.
The process of steaming, stirring, fermenting and pressing goes over to close to 60 days; yet, only some manage to get the taste just right. The only ingredient that can make or break the deal here is the innately Japanese variety of rice used in the preparation process of the alcoholic brew.
Alongside the drink, the sushi was the highlight of the lunch and we were served a whopping five different varieties of it all in one platter. What's more?
Morimoto himself took the blow torch to freshly grill the tuna before it arrived on our plate. He did the same for all guests. Immaculately dressed in a white shirt, black trousers and a long flowing jacket, with his hair neatly tied back, the chef asked, after about 30 minutes into the main course, "Did you enjoy the sake? It is one of my country's pride and I hope it is enjoyed in every part of the world." Indeed, hopefully, now it will be.