Japanese food and wine

Lionel: Our regular wine group met up this month in a Japanese restaurant out in the "burbs"! Subang Jaya to be exact. Now this wasn't the first time we have had Japanese food for our monthly dinners and Japanese food with wine is actually a given as it is light, clean and pure in its flavours and pretty uncomplicated on the palate.

Generally white wine is ideal and reds would definitely be of the lighter variety with the exception of certain meat dishes. But most importantly would be wines with good acidity as this works well with food the ensymes from the predominatly sea food cuisine.

We started with a Sashimi platter(raw fish) which had from the lighter more delicate fish right tru the Toro( Belly of the Yellow fin Tuna) which has an uncanny resemblance with a excellently marbled meat. This was served together with a version of shrimp toast. We paired this with a Sake but it would have been excellent with a Riesling as well.

Grilled chicken breast served with pickled Yuzu was paired with an Anura Sauv Blanc from South Africa, this is a lovely wine that is made in a very Sancerre style but with much riper grapes, lovely, not as perfumy as the N.Z. Sauv Blancs but defintely more minerally and savoury, excellent with food.
We also had a pretty rare white wine, a St Aubin from Roux Pere & Fils. This is a Chardonnay of course from Burgundy, minerally and a bit austere but wonderful mouthfeel.
Of course we had a German Riesling as well, I always am of the opinion that this is possibly the best type of wine to handle shellfish. In this case, we had a Riesling Kabinett from St Urbans-Hof, Mosel. A wine thats fruity on the front palate, slightly spritzi but finishing med dry.
We were all stumped when we tasted this wine blind, no one guess it. A very nice Verdelho from Sirromet, Australia.
A localized version of a Japanese roll complete with Chilli Padi inside worked really well with the Riesling Kabinett.
The pic right at the top of this post is a rare dish, a braised Angler Fish Liver, lovely textured and slightly similar to foie gras but firmer mouthfeel, we paired this with a great value Corton Charlamagne Grand Cru from a negotiant in Burgundy named Louis Max. Buttery, toast and nutty and mineral flavours abound in this lovely Chardonnay.