Sometimes those luxury products get a bit out of hand. For example, this "sake-infused shave cream"... 6oz for $35!!! Shipping and handling not included! Channeling my inner "Mrs. I can make it at home for nothing", I made it at home for nothing, and I didn't even require a small aubergine.
Mix sake kasu with a little sake, to liquefy, melt the soap, heat to pasteurize, and pour into your mould.
Poured into my shaving bowl and allowed to set. Looks like, well, sake kasu.
Nice feel, good resistance.
Coats well, glides well.
Clean and smooth. Unsurprisingly, this is much better than your standard drugstore product, the equal of any luxury creme I've tried. I must say though that my skin feels even softer and more moisturized than I expected. So, there might just be something to this sake-infusion. Maybe I should take orders...
Philly Tweed Ride today.
Lots of two-wheelers and tweed. Tricycles and tweed. Penny farthings and tweed...
For the last of this round's Protocols, finally got to meet M.-san, J's wine-shop wunderkind (and who provided the Donati and the Munjebel, and was trying Musar for the first time.)
N.V. Donati Malvasia Frizzante - this was unusual! Is it lambic-ish? Maybe... a little... it's... it's... unusual! Not as severe, not as acidic, not as funky, but possibly just as elemental.
1995 Chateau Musar Blanc - so, last year, Serge Hochar said the '89 is the youngest wine that's ready to drink. I don't completely agree, but I can sort of understand - I think I really like it on release, it's got a bit of wildness, as it does when it gets older. This didn't seem to have that, a sort of dormancy. Well, dormant is relative for Musar, no? But then again, as J. suggested, pop and pour might not be the way to enlightenment here.
2007 Rietsch Passage - I'm going to say that the VJ descriptor J.'s been using doesn't do this justice - it is very much its own, lovely thing. Whereas VJ seems to be an almost overly demanding wine at times, this is very much for drinking.
To sum up, we finished off the Kracher from the other night, and popped all three Nøgne Ø sakes, the Yamahai Muroka Junmai, the Yamahai Nigori Nama Junmai, and the Yamahai Genshu Muroka Shiboritate Nama Junmai. And then... the singing began...
You want sparkling sake? No problem. Some home-made awashu coming up, thanks be to SodaStream.
Since this was our first experiment, sacrificing good stuff was out of the question. Instead, we went the other direction, with barely sake-like liquids. First, Gekkeikan from California. Second, Tatsuuma-Honke's Kuromatsu Hakushika, a not particularly interesting nigori-zake from Hyogo Prefecture.
Nonetheless, it did get carbonated. The taste didn't improve, but it certainly wasn't any worse.
Moving on to the nigori. Since the smallest SodaStream container is 500ml, and the "Snow Beauty" was only 300ml, we topped it off with the rest of the Gekkeikan.
This time, there was barely any action on the pour, and the carbonation was only barely noticeable. Not really convinced by the viscosity argument, we thought that perhaps the liquids weren't cold enough, even though they had been refrigerated - this is a common SodaStream problem. So, we tried putting both bottles into the freezer for a bit so we could try again. Around this time though, it occurred to us that perhaps the gas canister was simply running low... doh! The simplest explanations are really most often correct! New canister in, and on to round 2!
Looking for excitement, we started with the nigori this time. And the bubbling was definitely more vigorous.
And as you can see, the sake was solidly carbonated. Proper awashu. Unexpectedly, the taste was actually much improved too!
In case you missed it before, here it is again..what is there to say, really? Willit be better than Quick Gun Murugan though? One wonders:
Look like winners, no? It's true, the new reigning national champions. This past Saturday, unprecedented "team" winners of the 2010 Brompton U.S. Championships, "Best-Dressed" category.
Bikes in car. Many thanks to Michael McGettigan from Trophy Bikes for lending me an extra bike, and of course, organising a great event!
Pre-prandial pipes.
Now ready to ride.
Meeting up for the parade to the course. Contenders or pretenders?
Numbered and ready to win. It was in the bag people, in the bag.
Courage, gentlemen! No prizes for guessing what with.
Le Mans-style start.
Just before the "sprint" start.
Victory lap.
Victory drinks. Good thing R. had come along with refueling supplies.
The awarding of prizes. Never in doubt!
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