Sake Lees: This is what is left after the sake has been pressed out of the mash. It is called ‘sake kasu’ in Japanese and it is used in home cooking in many ways to create wonderfully complex flavored dishes during the winter sake brewing season. Many traditional Japanese confection, cracker, snack companies and so on use a lot of kasu to flavor some of their products. Non-traditional things like ice cream, chocolate, bread and so on are flavored with kasu these days.

Sake kasu is a common sight in the fresh vegetable section of any grocery store in winter in Japan. The fragrance is quite fruity. Mechanically pressed sake kasu comes in ‘boards’, hard sheets of kasu, hand-pressed (teshibori) is looser and cumbly. The pictures below are of hand-pressed sake kasu. This was kasu made premium daiginjo sake and is made with Yamada Nishiki variety rice from Hyogo prefecture.

Teshibori Sake Kasu

Again, teshibori means ‘hand-pressed’.

Sake kasu can be eaten as is, the texture is quite like cheese but the taste is fruity and obviously tastes of sake. This hand-pressed kasu still has quite a bit of alcohol content in it.

Opening 2 kilos of Teshibori Sake Kasu

Kasu-jiru (kasu soup): Base for soups and stews
Kasu-zuke (kasu marinade): Marinade fish and meat before grilling
Amazake (sweet sake): Melted in hot water, served with shredded ginger

Kasu can be lightly toasted and served with honey. Narazuke is pickled dark brown neri-kasu, kasu that has been allowed to age for several months.

In the next few days we will do some recipe articles based on sake kasu. We are calling the series, Sake Kasu Zanmai. Zanmai means to be luxuriously absorbed in something. Last year we did buri zanmai, a number of ways to enjoy yellowtail.

The food courts of department stores in Japan are a near other-worldly experience. The offerings are exquisite in taste and beauty and nearly boundless in regional and seasonal variation. In addition to the regular stores, there are ‘demise‘, small stands that sell a product from a different region or local, small shop and these demise change every week. Paku found some amazing narazuke from a tsukemono house in Nagoya the other day at Takashimaya Department Store. Her favorite is ginger.

Narazuke (Nara pickles), as you might guess are originally from Nara, but they are made in other regions of Japan now. Yamatoya Moriguchizuke Honke (大和屋守口漬総本家) is a long established maker of narazuke from Nagoya and they have a demise at Kyoto Takashimaya several times per year.

About Narazuke

With narazuke various kinds of vegetables are pickled in a mix of sakekasu (sake lees, what remains after pressing sake mash), mirin, sugar and salt. Narazuke requires a minimum of 1 to 3 years to make.

Narazuke, originally from the ancient capital of Nara, has a history going back at least 1,300 years! That makes narazuke even older than the ancient city of Kyoto. The typical narazuke is often so strong in alcohol content that you feel a bit drunk after eating a few bits, especially if not eaten with food. A pickle that intoxicates!

Peko has been a fan of narazuke since he first washed up in Japan, because it’s a ‘drinkin’ man’s pickle’. To connoisseurs it goes especially well with Japanese winter cuisine, rice and of course beer and sake. Paku, like a lot of gals in Japan is no fan of narazuke.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke’s narazuke is much lighter in taste and more accessible to modern palates.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke’s Narazuke

Moriguchi Daikon: A daikon radish reaching more than 1.8 meters in length! That’s a big one! A rare vegetable and longest daikon in the world. Originally from Osaka but now mainly grown along the Kiso River near Nagoya, this daikon is used exclusively to make this tsukemono. (see image below)
Uri: A cucumber like gourd, translated as Armenian Cucumber or Japanese gourd. A very popular spring vegetable pickled in various ways. Peko is quite crazy about anything with uri.
Ginger: Traditionally an unusual vegetable for tsukemono. This ginger narazuke was exceptional.
Baby Watermelon: Another ‘modern’ narazuke. This is Peko’s all time favorite. About the size of an egg, this narazuke is very, very soft, yet still crunchy.
Cucumber: Another classic for narazuke. Tasty.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke ‘Demise’ Stand

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke ‘Demise’ Stand – Narazuke Offerings

The very long ones are moriguchi daikon.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke – Narazuke

From left to right, uri (a kind of gourd), ginger and cucumber. Notice they are still covered in sakekasu paste, which has turned brown with the fermentation process.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke – Narazuke

Left to right, moriguchi daikon, baby watermelon and cucumber.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke – Narazuke
Moriguchi daikon and uri.

Moriguchi Daikon – a LOOONG Veggie!

This is a scan of a pamphlet distributed by the shop.
credit: Yamatoya Moriguchizuke (大和屋守口漬総本家)

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke Honke

This tsukemono house was established in the 1920′s and has been serving the Imperial Household since 1948.

Yamatoya Moriguchizuke website (Japanese language)

Honten/Main Store (Japanese language)
The honten includes a restaurant that serves many tsukemono and tsukemono inspired dishes. (We haven’t been there, but the pictures on the webpage look very good! Nouveau tsukemono cuisine!!)

Shop Locations (Japanese language)
There are many shops around Nagoya and several in the Tokyo area. Well worth checking out if you are in the area.