Designed to appeal to discerning palates, MIRAI (which means future in English) signifies a new age for sake since this style has never been seriously pursued in sake making’s 2000-year history. The name MIRAI celebrates sake’s growing popularity outside of Japan and its place in the wider culinary world. In making MIRAI, Shiroki wants to inspire sakemakers everywhere to expand their creativity and push the boundaries of innovation.

Artisan SakeMaker has been bringing sake making to new levels through its mandate, ‘Authenticity with Innovation’, by respecting the traditional methods of handcrafting small batches of sake using natural production processes. We know that tradition and culture evolve over time and are challenged by the ever-changing nature of the way we live and think. Artisan SakeMaker believes that authenticity must be respected, and innovation must exist to adapt to the changes, and that this can be achieved through the artisanal spirit and creative thinking.

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Rice is my comfort food, my carbohydrate weakness.

We all seem to have one – pasta, potatoes, bread – a basic staple that is often associated with our childhood and linked to our heritage. Rice takes me back to my obaachan’s (grandmother’s) cooking, to a rice cooker always ready with my after-school snack, to memories of being the only family at a barbeque on the beach making a pot of ….

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Date: Tuesday February 28, 2012

Time: 17:30 – 19:00

Place: JUNO VANCOUVER SUSHI BISTO

572 Davie Street (at Seymour St.) Downtown Vancouver

604-568-8805 www.junobistro.ca

Menu: Tuna and Spinach Goma-ae paired with Nanzanju Dai Ginjo

Chicken Karaage paired with Bizen Junmai Ginjo

Beef Tataki paired with Jungin Black Junmai Ginjo

Toro Nigiri and Chicken Liver Nigiri paired with Junmai Koshu 2005

SakeKasu plum infused Cake paired with Junbaishu Plum Sake

View Sake Menu

Ticket: $40 (HST included)

Format of the event: Casual and Seated

Tickets are available at Artisan SakeMaker at Granville Island and JUNO Vancouver Sushi Bistro. Please call to reserve a seat or pick up a ticket at Artisan SakeMaker or JUNO. Payments can be made by credit cards by phone or debit cards and cash in person.

Artisan SakeMaker at Granville Island (Commercial Winery & Retail Store)

1339 Railspur Alley Vancouver, B.C. / Canada V6H 4G9

Tel: 604-685-7253 info@artisansakemaker.com

http://www.artisansakemaker.com

Home of Award-Winning “Best White Wines of 2012” Vancouver Magazine International Wine Competition

Date: Tuesday, Nov. 9th

Time: 8:15pm to 10:15pm

Where: Shuraku Japanese Bistro, 833 Granville St. Vancouver

Cost: $30 (+tax&tip)

RSVP:  by Nov. 5th to:  granvillerobson@yahoo.ca / 604.687.6622

Artisan SakeMaker, Canada’s first sake producer, is proud to offer a handmade non-alcoholic “Kasu Apple-Yuzu” and “Kasu Cherry Drink” in time to refresh for summer. This drink is made by hand at our Granville Island studio with our Artisan Kasu and is 100% natural. Great for both adults and children!

KASU (Sakekasu) is the “lees” that remain after the moromi (fermented rice mash) has
been pressed during the sake-making process.

This Kasu drink contains abundant essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Please ensure to stop in and try our new drinks. You can try our new beverage on the tasting bar for $2 or purchase the bottle for $2.75.

Artisan SakeMaker is now open 7 days a week from 11:30am to 6:00pm. Our tasting bar is always open where you can try a sake sample for $2 or our Junmai Trio for $5. We offer 6 different styles of sake now and all are in stock!

Thank-you for your continued patronage and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Kampai!!

Sincerely,

Masa Shiroki & Staff

What – Junmai Sparkling Sake

Where – Granville Island, Vancouver

Why – Writing about Masa’s special Artisan Sake winemaker’s dinner coming up at The Mark reminded me about this sparkling sake I had stashed away for a special occasion. Well – happy September! This is about as far away as you can get from the burning, heated, high-alcoholic potion you got with your sushi at your neighbourhood joint. Thanks to Masa, premium and handcrafted sake has flooded the Vancouver market like a tsunami. This is his newest creation to the lineup – released last December. Lively and lightly sweet with tropical fruit, citrus, a whiff of anise and a whack of pear – with gentle bubble action and a smooth lingering finish.

When – Don’t make the mistake and limit yourself to sushi only. Try this sake with crab, smoked salmon, or a salad of beets, pear and hazelnuts.

How (much) – $23.90 for 500ml

Winespeak of the Week – Junmai is a quality level indicating only rice, water and special sake yeasts are used (no alcohol or flavouring agents added).

[via Edible BC]

Not satisfied with making his award-winning sakes only from imported rice from Japan, Shiroki began, several years ago, to research the possibility of cultivating sake rice in British Columbia. “Since I started Artisan SakeMaker, the ultimate goal has always been to eventually grow sakamai in BC or, if necessary, elsewhere in Canada, so I can use the rice crop to make truly Canadian sake,” Masa claimed. “So I’m really happy that we’ve completed the first small but important step. We’ve proved that sake rice can be successfully grown in BC. Now we just have to grow enough to make my wine.”

Shiroki’s quest to cultivate sake rice crops in BC began with identifying and obtaining the right Japanese rice variety that would grow in BC’s climate. It also entailed extensive research in finding close matches of climatic conditions between areas in BC and Japan where sake rice is grown.

A couple of trips to Japan – including one that took Masa to the most northerly sake maker – and several site-scouting forays into BC’s interior later and finally two sites – one in Ashcroft and another in Kamloops – were chosen for the experimental plantings. Between May and early September this year, Masa, his wife Yukiko, and Shisuke, an Artisan SakeMaker employee, made more than ten trips to the areas to monitor the growing conditions. The latest trip brought good news and bad. While both Ashcroft and Kamloops plots proved to be successful in producing fully ripened rice seeds, the latter was decimated by an unexpected flock of migrant birds. The crop at Ashcroft, however, is healthy and expected to be harvested on or around September 20.

If all goes well, Masa has plans to cultivate sake rice in a larger area which he hopes to lease and prepare by next spring. It is his hope that he will be producing special batches of “BC cuvee sake” made from 100% local ingredients in the Fall/Winter season of 2010. Eventually, Shiroki hopes to interest local farmers in these areas to grow sake rice to supply to Artisan SakeMaker so that his entire production can become truly local, and his outlook is bullish. He estimates his current production requires 5 tons of imported sake rice which contributes to an annual production of 1000 cases or 9000 litres. He believes this volume can be supplied from a mere one hectre of land (25 acres) making sake rice one of the higher value crops compared to other agricultural crops such as hay or feed production.

[via Edible BC]

By DENNY LEE
NO wonder Vancouver is often heralded as one of the world’s most livable cities. It is blessed with a snowcapped mountain backdrop and crystal blue harbors. It is also a gateway to the Inside Passage — the marvelous maze of glacier-carved fjords and forested islands that are a cruise lover’s delight. But what really sets Vancouver apart is its urban density. With sprawl kept in check by geography, the city thinks vertically. Neighborhoods overlap, apartments rise. That seems to heighten the city’s international mix, and not just when the Olympic Games are in town.

Friday

4 p.m.
1) CANADA SQUARE

Blame the great outdoors, but Vancouver lacks a central square — a place for citizens to turn inward and for visitors to feel that they have arrived. A quirky standby is Mount Pleasant, a working-class district near Main Street and Broadway that is becoming cooler by the minute. Scattered among dingy bingo parlors is a parade of trendy boutiques like Lark (2315 Main Street; 604-879-5275; lark.me), which carries fashion labels like Chimala jeans from Japan, and Jewellerbau (2408 Main Street; 604-872-7759; jewellerbau.blogspot.com), where Dina González Mascaró makes modern industrial jewelry. An anchor for the area’s young bohemians is the artist-run center Western Front (303 East Eighth Avenue, 604-876-9343; front.bc.ca), which has galleries, stages and arch architecture. Look up before it gets dark: those are the North Shore Mountains looming over the faux cornice.

7:30 p.m.
2) PIGGING OUT

With salmon-rich waters out front and heritage pig farms out back, locavore is a way of life. The barn-to-bistro ethos is buoyed by Refuel (1944 West Fourth Avenue; 604-288-7905; refuelrestaurant.com), a casual restaurant that opened two months ago in the affluent Kitsilano district after its acclaimed predecessor, Fuel, went belly up in the recession. Still run by the tattooed chef Robert Belcham, the open kitchen features a leaner menu for your wallet, if not your waistline. Start with a irresistible bowl of spiced pork ribs and offal, rubbed with cayenne, citric acid, paprika and other spices, then deep fried to crunchy bliss. Your cardiologist won’t understand. For the main course, a recent favorite included salmon (wild and local, of course), grilled and served in a pool of fragrant leeks and clams. Dinner for two without wine, approximately 60 Canadian dollars (about the same in U.S. dollars).

10 p.m.
3) CLUB CORNER

Vancouver isn’t known for nighttime debauchery, thanks partly to tough liquor laws. If you insist on getting dolled up, a party train of 20-somethings forms along Granville Street, a still-seedy strip with a cluster of velvet-roped bars like Granville Room (957 Granville Street; 604-633-0056; granvilleroom.ca), with a handsome interior of brick walls and chandeliers. A skip away is Davie Street, the city’s gay strip. An easygoing spot is Odyssey (1251 Howe Street; 604-689-5256; theodysseynightclub.com), a roomy and unpretentious club with an outdoor patio, cheap drinks and chatty locals.

Saturday

10 a.m.
4) GRANOLA ISLAND

Ferry across False Creek to the tiny peninsula known as Granville Island (granvilleisland.com), which has a popular food market brimming with farmers, butchers and fishmongers. It also has a hippie side — from yoga and crafts studios to a pottery gallery and theater. Grab a multigrain loaf at Terra Breads (terrabreads.com) and stroll through the island’s jampacked aisles and alleys. Standouts include the Lobster Man (1807 Mast Tower Road, 604-687-4531; lobsterman.com), with its tanks of kayak-size lobsters, and the Artisan Sake Maker (1339 Railspur Alley; 604-685-7253; artisansakemaker.com), which makes small batches of junmai sake on the premises. Sake tastings start at 2 Canadian dollars.

12:30 p.m.
5) CREATIVE CURRIES

Mark Bittman, a food columnist and blogger for The Times, once called Vij’s “among the finest Indian restaurants in the world.” It’s certainly among the more expensive. For a cheaper thrill, pop in next door to its colorful sister, Vij’s Rangoli (1488 West 11th Avenue; 604-736-5711; vijsrangoli.ca), which looks like a takeout diner. Memorable combinations include a goat meat and jackfruit curry with a coconut cabbage salad (15.50 Canadian dollars).

2 p.m.
6) PHOTOCONCEPTUALISM

Before Vancouver’s film industry was nicknamed Hollywood North, the city’s cultural highpoint may have been the Vancouver School of post-conceptual photography, led by artists like Jeff Wall and Roy Arden, who blurred the line between documentation and artifice. The school lives on at a pair of galleries in the South Granville district. Monte Clark Gallery (2339 Granville Street; 604-730-5000; www.monteclarkgallery.com) represents Mr. Arden, Stephen Waddell and others. Down the block is the Equinox Gallery (2321 Granville Street; 604-736-2405; equinoxgallery.com), which recently concluded an eye-catching show of Fred Herzog’s vintage photographs, reprinted using color-saturated inkjets.

4 p.m.
7) THREE DESIGNERS

The Gastown district, with its cobblestone streets and imitation gaslights, might seem touristy, but its old brick warehouses still are home to some of Vancouver’s most fashion-forward stores. The local designer Hajnalka Mandula spins lacy and brooding finery for “Twilight” goths at Mandula (214 Abbott Street; 604-568-9211; mandula.com). Treana Peake, the wife of the Nickelback guitarist Ryan Peake, offers sensible, office-smart styles at Obakki (44 Water Street; 604-669-9727; obakki.com). And at Killa (46 Alexander Street; 604-681-7550; killa.ca), the streetwear designer Dennis Arriola makes interactive hoodies with iPod controls sewn right into the sleeve.

8 p.m.
NEO-FUSION

From Tokyo-style izakayas to banh mi cafes, the flavors of Asia are well represented. The large Asian population has also raised the bar on fusion. For haute interpretations of humble Thai dishes, Maenam (1938 West Fourth Avenue; 604-730-5579; maenam.ca) has drawn comparisons to the Michelin-starred Nahm in London. In fact, Angus An, chef and owner, apprenticed there. Opened last May in the Kitsilano district (yes, that’s Refuel next door), the pink-and-bamboo spot draws a foodie set with playful dishes like spicy braised duck with sweet longans, confit potatoes and cumber relish ($18). Also generating a lot of hype is Bao Bei (163 Keefer Street; 604-688-0876; bao-bei.ca), an upscale Chinese brasserie in Chinatown that opened just before the Olympics.

10:30 p.m.
9) DRINK SETS

A smattering of high-concept watering holes — the kind serving wine and beer flights — have opened in Gastown. Popular with the Hollywood North set is the Alibi Room (157 Alexander Street; 604-623-3383; alibi.ca), a loft-like space with wooden tables and a long list of bottled and draft beers. Wine imbibers head to the Salt Tasting Room (45 Blood Alley; 604-633-1912; salttastingroom.com), a cellar-like bar with a large chalkboard menu that lists eclectic wines, cheeses and exotic cured meats.

Sunday

10 a.m.
10) BACKYARD SKIING

There is more to skiing than Whistler. Three slopes — Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain and Mount Seymour — lie within 17 miles of downtown Vancouver, which means you can ski in the morning and have time for errands in the afternoon. The most challenging is Cypress Mountain (Cypress Provincial Park; 604-419-7669; cypressmountain.com). It is also the most atmospheric, with awesome views of the city. Strap on some snowshoes (rentals for 18.75 Canadian dollars) and scrunch along wondrous trails till you reach the Hollyburn Lodge, a wood-plank cottage that was built in 1926. It’s as cute as a red button. (Closed for the Olympics, the trails are scheduled to reopen in March.)

2 p.m.
11) FINAL STRETCH

Guess where Lululemon Athletica got its start? When the fitness-crazed locals aren’t carving moguls and conquering couloirs, they can be found toning their minds and bodies at the city’s countless yoga studios. A lithe and fresh-faced troupe stretches its way to YYoga Flow (888 Burrard Street; 604-682-3569; yyoga.ca), a huge and sleek studio that opened last August in downtown Vancouver. Drop-ins start at 15 Canadian dollars. Run by Terry McBride, a music mogul, the white and airy space features three roomy studios, sparkling showers, a calming cafe and an infrared sauna, packed by young snowboarder types who seem to strike a balance between work and play.

THE BASICS

Air Canada and Cathay Pacific fly nonstop from New York City to Vancouver. A recent Web search found an Air Canada flight starting at $475 for travel this month. Although Vancouver has decent public transit, a car is recommended if you plan to do much exploring.

A flurry of hotels opened in downtown Vancouver in advance of the Olympics. The Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver (1128 West Georgia Street; 604-689-1120; shangri-la.com/vancouver), opened in 2009, offers 119 Zen-like rooms and polished service in a new skyscraper. The hotel also has a well-equipped gym, a heated outdoor pool and a Market by Jean-Georges restaurant. Rooms start at approximately 300 Canadian dollars, about the same in U.S. dollars, for stays in March, though specials as low as 230 were recently found on its Web site.

For slightly hipper digs, try the Loden Vancouver (1177 Melville Street; 604-669-5060; theloden.com). Opened in 2008, the 77-room hotel features floor-to-ceiling windows, handsome marble bathrooms and large plasma TVs with easy computer hookups. Voya, its restaurant, serves high-end Pacific Northwest cuisine. Rooms start at 229 Canadian dollars.

[via New York Times]