Goldfish sake from Japan and a brewery visit

 

What a wonderful bottle. With the goldfish design. It costs £110 in the UK. It is cheaper in Japan. However, still expensive, even in Japan.

A cheaper wine at about £30 -35 is export dry black.

Another is called Ima, meaning now, is a sweeter one. It goes with oysters, around 12% alcohol. This is the one which I preferred at the lower price.

In Japan you can visit the brewery, in Niigata, prefecture, region, nw of Tokyo.

Imayo Tsukasa Sake Brewery Co Ltd

Useful Websites

www.shop.sakecollective.uk

Dishes I Probably Won't Try - Dancing Squid and Oysters in July

Dishes I probably won't try for the first time or again:

1 Oysters - eaten live. England and the USA and elsewhere.
2 Dancing squid (from Japan) just like what they sound like. Found in Japan. See YouTube.
3 Suckling pig.
4 Snails. (Escargot in France, also from some speciality restaurants in London, England.
5 Horsemeat (France).
6 Bird's Nest. Soup or otherwise.
7 Locusts. (All sorts of insects are available bottled for Christmas as novelties or gourmet gifts in speciality food stores such as Jackson's of Piccadilly in London.
8 Dog (China).
9 Wichita grub - actually I've had this in Australia. Ground up and white like potato soup or puree.
10 Snake steak. (I've had this in Shanghai. Looks like sliced up salmon, a circle with a bone or hold in the middle, but salmon has better flavour.)
11 Puffer fish. Poisonous if not prepared right with the poison removed. Why would you risk it? Admittedly whenever a restaurant prepares your food, you have to trust your chef to take every care.
12 Crocodile. I have a certificate framed on the wall which assures me that I ate this in Florida some years ago. As they say, the past is another country.
13 Durian. The fresh fruit tastes and smells dreadful. However, the ice cream or cake made with a tiny amount tastes delicious, like chestnut.

No thanks. No comment.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer 

More on Oysters, crabs and prawns

 I'm allergic to shellfish so all my information is from family, friends and restaurants and websites.

Oysters differ from different areas.

So do crabs which are different in different areas of the world, such as Alaskan king crabs, Sri Lankan crab.

Prawns vary. Pacific Prawns which are much larger - than the little shrimps in the favourite first food of the restaurant meal of the Sixties, prawn cocktail.Why was I able to eat prawn cocktail, then violently sick after my first meal of Pacific crabs? Some say its something in the water, that the tiny creatures eaten by the Pacific fish leave a residue in what eats them.

American Oysters
American oysters come from the East or West coast (as well as the south, Texas).

European and French oysters
The European ones are another group.  The French ones are Belon named after the French river.

English oysters
From England the Colchester oysters are bigger with some say a better flavour.
Photo updates from London, England shortly. I have them on a thumb drive and am trying to find how to upload them into iPhoto and then the blog. More later today, I hope. Come back and follow my posts.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.