Episode 90. What better way to kick off a new year on the show than to have a reunion with two ultimate VIPs who are indeed “married to sake”. This time, we get Myshell and Scott, the Sake Revolution Spouses, back for another episode but this time… together! How did they feel about their previous episodes? What is it like to be married to a sake-lebrity? Do they mind being locked away every week while John and Tim Record? John and Timothy also break out a Hiyaoroshi-style sake to taste with their better-halfs. Listen in as we enjoy this fall nama in the middle of winter and muse on some fun pairing ideas for this special sake. You won’t want to miss this fun behind-the-scenes episode!

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Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy

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Skip to: 01:10 Married to Sake Reunion – the Ultimate VIPs

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Skip to: 20:13 Sake Introduction and Tasting: Gokyo Hiyaoroshi Namzume Junmai

Gokyo Hiyaoroshi Namzume Junmai

Acidity: 1.9
Brewery: Sakai Shuzo
SMV: +2.0
Seimaibuai: 60%
Classification: Hiyaoroshi, Junmai, Namazume
Prefecture: Yamaguchi
Alcohol: 15.0%
Brand: Gokyo
Rice Type: Nihonbare, Yamadanishiki
Sake Name English: Five Bridges
Yeast: 9E

View On UrbanSake.com

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Skip to: 33:33 Show Closing

This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!

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John Puma: 0:22
Hello everybody. And welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s first sake podcast. And I’m your host, John Puma from the Sake Notes. Also the admin over at the internet Sake Discord. Your favorite destination for sake chitchat. Hi-jinks

Timothy Sullivan: 0:42
And I am your host, Timothy Sullivan. I’m a Sake Samurai, sake educator, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website. And every week, John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand.

John Puma: 0:59
that’s right, Tim.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:01
Hey John, how are you doing?

John Puma: 1:02
I’m doing good. I’m doing good. So, um, how are we going to be making sake fun and easy to understand this week?

Timothy Sullivan: 1:10
Well, we have two very special VIP’s on the line, It’s been a long time since we’ve had these VIP’s in the studio. But, uh, we are going back to married with sake and we are going to have a little reunion with our spouses. The ultimate VIP’s.

John Puma: 1:30
so this is the, a revolution reunion. Meredith Zakiya reunion.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:35
Married to sake reunion. my life with a sake nerd.

John Puma: 1:38
Yes.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:40
I would like to welcome Myshell Puma. John’s better half and Scott Hirose my better half. Hey guys.

Myshell Puma: 1:47
Hello.

John Puma: 1:49
All right. four people online? This is going to be a very fun episode to edit. So.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:56
So were you guys traumatized from your sake revolution episodes or was it fun for you?

Myshell Puma: 2:02
I had a lot of fun. Um, I think this time is almost a little bit more nervous.

Scott Hirose: 2:08
Yeah, I, I had fun, but I think I had more fun listening to Myshells episode. I was, so I was just like, Gosh, Myshell is amazing.

Myshell Puma: 2:18
That’s so funny because your episode is my favorite episode on the last post that they did, they asked, like, what was your favorite episode of last year of this year? And that mine was yours, but that was actually 2019. So I just didn’t say anything.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:35
Well, it’s interesting. I think you guys might have a lot in common because you put up with Puma and myself all year round.

Myshell Puma: 2:45
That’s true.

John Puma: 2:45
Yeah, it was a lot to put up with, I think, uh,

Scott Hirose: 2:50
no no comment.

John Puma: 2:51
Hmm. No comment.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:55
So I have a question for both our VIP’s. So Scott and Myshell, honestly answer honestly, are you both weekly Sake Revolution listeners?

Scott Hirose: 3:07
Yes. I listened to every week. And in fact, um, our family had a little trivia contest and one of the questions was how many episodes were there in 2021. And I did not have to cheat. I actually knew that there were 49 episodes.

Timothy Sullivan: 3:25
Wow. All right. And we have, we have to say that Scott, you’re a podcast guy, right? Like you have tons of podcasts you listened

Scott Hirose: 3:33
I probably, I think I told you seven a day. It’s a little nuts.

John Puma: 3:37
Uh, seven a day. Wow.

Myshell Puma: 3:42
Um, I listened to. Half the episode every week. And by that, I mean, I hear John through the door, his house, and, um, I used to hear a lot more when he would be editing, uh, without headphones, but now he edits with headphones. So not as, quite as diligent as Scott is, but you know, I get the behind the scenes.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:06
Absolutely. Now that reminds me, uh, you guys have both suffered with being shut away while we’re recording. Right? So sometimes you have to go into the bedroom and close the door while John and I are recording. Is that, that Banished, that must be super annoying, right?

Myshell Puma: 4:25
Yeah, I was, I was joking with John. I was like, oh, maybe Scott. And I should like do our own zoom and like do yoga or like watch

Scott Hirose: 4:32
That would be so fun. I would totally.

Myshell Puma: 4:35
would be really fun.

John Puma: 4:38
uh, so said we’ll be doing podcasts and you guys do a yoga together and, uh, we’ll see, who’s finishes first and who’s in better shape at the end.

Myshell Puma: 4:46
We’ve actually, John and I have talked about like, you know, if we move into a different apartment, like getting an extra like bedroom space where he can have his own studio so that I can like, you know, use the TV, go to the kitchen, do things.

Scott Hirose: 5:01
Yeah, we actually, um, it’s not so bad for, for me getting shut away because we have a TV in a different room and the kitchen. I don’t think I could cook there, but I could definitely snack. Well, Tim’s doing his podcast.

Timothy Sullivan: 5:15
the recording space I use and the room where Scott gets shut away, they’re on opposite sides of the apartment. So the layout was just, we were lucky with our place.

John Puma: 5:24
Nice. Yeah. At some point, at some point when we, if we look for a new place full, uh, well, we’ll keep that design flaw in mind and see what we can do about it to make things a little bit easier. as we mentioned earlier, we’re in 2022 now. did you guys outside of, outside of our little show, hi-jinks have any, uh, great food or sake adventures in 2021.

Myshell Puma: 5:50
I guess it’s hard because there weren’t very many sake events or anything like that. Um, we were lucky and able to go to Hawaii. And so we tried, Hawaiian made sake, like we went to a brewery there and that was really cool. and they were able to import sakes on that coast that we don’t get here. So that was. probably a little bit more for John than for me. Like he actually knew it. He’s like, oh, this importer doesn’t bring it to New York. They only do it here. So, um, got to hear a lot about that.

John Puma: 6:21
Got to air quotes. quotes

Timothy Sullivan: 6:25
a long flight. It’s a long flight.

Myshell Puma: 6:28
yeah, so like, you know, we’re in, it was actually a Quijote, which is a Japanese chain, but they have that in Hawaii. And so we’re in the grocery store and they have aisles and aisles of sake. Like if you go to like a liquor store, it just aisles of only sake and I’m holding the basket and I’m like, oh, I like this one. Or maybe this one. And then John’s like every bottle, like pulling out like, oh, this one we had this time and this place, and you know, you can’t get it here anymore. And they stopped importing it. And oh, this one, you know, you can only get this in Japan. Like, this is amazing. So like, I’m like holding the basket and like listening to the. History of all of them. So that was really interesting because

John Puma: 7:05
As the basket’s getting heavier and heavier.

Myshell Puma: 7:08
all new experience with a different coast of

Scott Hirose: 7:10
How come so much more sake and Hawaii, like, yeah, we have these places, but you have to seek them out like Mitsuwa in New Jersey.

John Puma: 7:20
I don’t know if was necessarily more, but it was different. You know, there was plenty of stuff that we get in New York that they didn’t have in Hawaii. But I wasn’t looking for that. I was looking for the stuff I can’t get in New York and I was stuck it up and it was a lot of fun.

Myshell Puma: 7:34
Uh, to have a store that had that much sake in one place, it was like a mitsuwa.

John Puma: 7:38
Yeah. It was a lot like a mitsuwa. Yeah. Just a little bit bigger.

Myshell Puma: 7:43
They have a very large Japanese population there. so maybe that’s part of it.

John Puma: 7:47
Yeah.

Myshell Puma: 7:48
Easier to get stuff. I guess it’s a little bit closer.

Scott Hirose: 7:52
Oh, that’s true.

John Puma: 7:53
And that was hard, like, yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 7:55
Yeah. it’s halfway to Japan. Isn’t it

John Puma: 7:57
Yeah. Just about.

Timothy Sullivan: 7:58
like the geography of.

John Puma: 8:00
Yeah. And that was like our, since we couldn’t go to Japan, so we went to Hawaii, it was the closest thing we can get to go to Oahu where it is very, there’s a very strong Japanese influence. We got to go to that were very, uh, authentic feeling and tasting. Myshell got to make most of the reservation in Japanese.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:21
Wow.

Myshell Puma: 8:23
we literally went to Hawaii to like practice Japanese and do Japanese things. it was a little stressful. It was a lot of pressure. Um, but it was nice knowing that if I couldn’t do it in Japanese, we could always fall back on English. So it was like a little headstart to.

John Puma: 8:39
Right. And how did that attempt go?

Myshell Puma: 8:42
So have you guys seen terrace house? The Japanese like reality show? Oh my gosh, it’s so good. But there is a season where they go to Hawaii. It’s actually the worst season. I don’t recommend it, but we learned a lot about like the cool Japanese izakaya places to go in Hawaii. And those were all on our list and there was one that’s. Only Japanese, like the name of the places in Kanji. Like if you don’t really speak Japanese, I don’t even know how you would find it. So I prepped myself, I had some notes, I’m like bullet points of what words to hit, to do the reservation in Japanese. And I messed up. I just like, I started going with the flow and like messed up on one word and I said, Aitemasu instead of Arimasu, I immediately corrected myself. It just kind of came out the wrong way. I fixed it. He switched English right away and I was like, no. Oh.

John Puma: 9:38
She had been going for like a couple of minutes back and forth with the, with the person on the phone. And I was like, yeah, you got this, you got this. And she’d be that one little mistake. And the guy was immediately like, so what time?

Myshell Puma: 9:49
I was like,

John Puma: 9:52
But it was still was still a really good experience though.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:56
Well, that’s very, that’s very brave of you. Myshell, I lived in Japan for one year, the most terrifying thing, like literally number one was having to call somebody to ask about reservations or, you know, I lived out in the country and if I wanted to get to the train station by myself, I had to call. Uh, taxi company, there was no Uber, no Lyft. So I had to make a phone call in Japanese to the local taxi company and they had to send the taxi to my place. And no matter how many times I did it, I’d have to like psych myself up and like do some breathing exercises because it was so scary. I was so nervous to say something wrong.

Scott Hirose: 10:36
yeah. I was just thinking Myshell, that I know that you would go into bars in Japan with no fear and even talk to them about what kind of strange sake that they have. And I guess I’m thinking like learning Japanese is probably going to be so helpful for getting to explore new sakes.

Myshell Puma: 10:56
That is a huge driving force for me. Like when it gets really hard and I’m like doing these conjugation shape tables, I’m like just picturing myself going back to these places and like being able to like speak and, you know, they were always so nice to like, try to put up with me and I just can’t wait to like give back and actually like, make it a better experience for them too.

Scott Hirose: 11:16
That is great. That’ll be a lot of fun to maybe come back to the podcast again and talk about your new adventures in Japan.

Myshell Puma: 11:24
Oh, maybe I’m nervous. I hope it goes well. I, I, I try so hard.

John Puma: 11:29
let’s say, Scott, what about you? A adventure.

Scott Hirose: 11:31
I was trying to think about any adventures we have. We probably had some good food adventures, but, um, maybe the one that is most memorable for me is, I get to supervise Some, psychologists and training. And this year, they all wanted to go out with Tim and learn about sake. So at the end of the year, we picked a place in the east village and, we went there. Tim was educating about sake, and then, uh, it was right across the street from decibel where you had a podcast episode before, and it was packed at decibel. And right before we were going to go home, Tim was like, I really should stop by there. But, it’s so crowded. There’s a line and everything. And we were about to leave when I think it was a manager of decibel pops out and say, So it’s very loud. Hey, you can’t leave now. And he, he brings us in front of everybody to the front of the line and gets us a table. And it was just like, oh my gosh, this is such a crazy experience to be. This is really married to sake

Myshell Puma: 12:40
was just thinking you should probably change the name of this series to marry to a sake celebrity. Because happened to us too, where there’s been a line of decibel and then they’ve seen John and they’re like, oh, come on, come on in. And you’re like, oh

Scott Hirose: 12:53
It’s crazy. Right. But, it was just like, oh my gosh. And, and I think, I can’t remember that we had any unusual sake circuit pairings, but that was definitely a memorable experience.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:06
Myshell we’re, we’re technically known as “Sake-lebrities”. Okay.

Myshell Puma: 13:10
yeah,

John Puma: 13:10
Is that, is that, what is that? What we’re calling it, rephrase

Timothy Sullivan: 13:14
Just kidding.

John Puma: 13:15
is that what you’re calling it?

Myshell Puma: 13:19
that’s what it is at this point, for sure.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:21
Well, that was a fun experience, Scott. That was really, that was really great. And, um, you just talked about Japan a moment ago. Michelle likes studying Japanese to get back to Japan and John and I talk about that all the time on this show that our desire to get back to Japan, to have another trip, to visit a brewery. And I know that both of you enjoy visiting Japan as well. When we are able to get back there, do you guys have any wishlist for what destinations you want to go to, like for your next trip to Japan and he placed a special you’d like to visit?

Myshell Puma: 13:57
So we always are talking about where do we want to go next? Where do I want to go next? And usually that’s a place we haven’t been yet, or a location that has a brewery. You want to go to something. But we haven’t been in so long and we, it’s almost like we’re a homesick. And so for the next trip, we’re talking about going just to our favorite places and just going back and doing the things that we love the most and not really so much worrying about traveling all over. So we want to do Hiroshima and Tokyo mostly, and just go to our, favorite bars, see all of our people that we know, that sort of thing.

Scott Hirose: 14:33
That sounds so fun

John Puma: 14:34
Yeah.

Myshell Puma: 14:35
What about you guys?

Scott Hirose: 14:36
I don’t think we’ve talked about going back to Japan, but definitely want to go. I don’t know for me, for us. I think it’s I got so interested in going back to Japan for the food. And I think Tim is interested in maybe the pairing of food and sake. So I’ll go kind of go wherever Tim wants to go. Although I think I have a small list of places. We listen to podcasts and watch TV, and sometimes our restaurants that are highly recommended. So maybe we would resurrect that list and check off some of those restaurants.

Timothy Sullivan: 15:12
Yeah, and I lived, I lived in Niigata for a year, so Scott hasnever been there. So I really want to show Scott the area where I lived and some of the culture that I experienced during that year. And Scott, I think that one of your grandparents is, was

Scott Hirose: 15:27
Right. My mother’s mother was born in niigata.

John Puma: 15:31
Uh,

Timothy Sullivan: 15:31
I I’ve wanted to take Scott there and show him around and try some of the local cuisine and sake. And I think that would be a really fun adventure for us.

John Puma: 15:40
hi.

Myshell Puma: 15:41
like like a homecoming for you too.

Scott Hirose: 15:44
Yeah.

John Puma: 15:44
when you, when you first said, like I spent a year in Niigata, I was half expecting you to be like, and I’m over it. So let’s go someplace else. But I did not know that Scott had a, had a familial, uh, origin story there. So that’s

Scott Hirose: 16:00
Yeah, I actually, I have, uh, obviously four grandparents and they’re from different parts of Japan. it’s Niigata Tokyo. Um, I want to say Yamagata and, uh, kumamoto. So, I don’t know what the sake scene is in Tokyo. Niigata a little bit, but the other two, I don’t know anything about,

John Puma: 16:21
Yeah, we got this pretty nice.

Myshell Puma: 16:22
I was going to say Yamagata is.

Scott Hirose: 16:24
oh, wait. I think it’s Yamahai. I said, I think it’s Yamanashi

John Puma: 16:29
Oh,

Timothy Sullivan: 16:30
that’s a different. ball of wax

John Puma: 16:32
That’s It’s not bad. It’s not my favorite. Like, you can only have one favorite.

Timothy Sullivan: 16:41
Yeah. So I think that’ll be fun. We can, definitely have some food adventures. And if there’s one thing that’s, I don’t know if this is true for you, Myshell, but there’s one thing that Scott and I learned in Japan is that pretty much anywhere you go, you’re bound to have good food and we have. Amazing amazing cuisine, any level of restaurants, we went to a diner or a Michelin star place. We had great experiences with the food across the board,

Scott Hirose: 17:09
Yeah.

Myshell Puma: 17:10
Uh, I mean, that’s true. I know the food is very good, but I think you guys are a lot more adventurous than we were with food, or you enjoy a lot more types of food than we do. I only learned, I think our last. That there is good food everywhere, but for me, that is magical word potatoes, salad. Every izakaya potato salad, even if it’s not advertised. Um, so that was kind of a way for me to get food to places that I couldn’t read the menu or anything like that. Ask for potato salad and they’re like, yep. Got it. Nope. But you guys do like Alma, Casa and everything all the time. Right? Like you really are into that sort of stuff

Scott Hirose: 17:48
Oh, yeah, definitely here in New York city. Yes. I don’t think, I don’t think I’ve ever done an omakase in Japan

Myshell Puma: 17:56
really?

John Puma: 17:56
Put it on the list.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:58
That’s going on the list.

Myshell Puma: 18:01
I think for a while there, I think most of our meals were omakase only because the only thing we knew was osusume. So it would just be, it would just be a whole, whatever you recommend.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:13
Yeah.

John Puma: 18:14
That’s one way to do it.

Scott Hirose: 18:16
Myshell. I remember you talked about a ramen with cheese on it and you fill it and I still haven’t tried it, but I would love to.

Myshell Puma: 18:25
It’s amazing. They do a whole like mini Parmesan wheel that like, you can see it go through the glass and they just like create it right on top. It’s like a mountain of Parmesan cheese over miso style, like missile based ramen. So good. We would go out of our way to just go to Ebisu just to have that ramen and then like go back to shinjuku or whatever.

Scott Hirose: 18:45
it sounds so good.

Myshell Puma: 18:47
But that on your list,

John Puma: 18:50
They have non cheese ramens as well. For those who perhaps are a little less inclined to have cheese like me.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:58
Yeah.

Myshell Puma: 18:59
Scott said a Timothy that you like to do sake pairing when you do restaurants in Japan, is that like. You pairing foods with more options for sake or seeing how they pair their food and sake.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:14
Well, some omakase places have a fixed pairing. Usually if they have a sommelier on staff, the som is going to pick for this course. I recommend this sake and. You know, polite to go along with what they recommend to pair with, but sometimes they have a menu and you can pick. And that for me is the most fun because I know once I figure out what all the names are, like, I know most of the brands that are generally available and, it’s fun to pick and choose. And you know, if we’re on the sashimi course, Maybe finding something a little cleaner, lighter dryer. And then as we move to maybe grilled meats or something like that, maybe a Kimoto or Yamahai and when you travel around, they very often have hyper-local sake. So it may be from the local region or from the brewery down the street. And you get opened up to these experiences that you can’t normally have. And That is really what is the most fun for me.

Myshell Puma: 20:11
That sounds so fun.

John Puma: 20:13
well, I think it’s time for us to, to have a drink.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:18
Now John and I put our heads together and we wanted to pick a sake that we thought both Scott and Myshell would enjoy.

John Puma: 20:30
Yes. On my end. I picked this. sake. Because it is a hiyaoroshi, and that is the, that is Myshell. And I’s favorite seasonal type of sake. Way back on episode 24 of the show where we talked about hiyaoroshi and I also, told the story about how Michelle and I first encountered hiyaoroshi in Japan. And it is the autumn seasonal sake it’s, uh, it comes out in the fall, but it is originally prepared in the winter with everything else, but there’s a catch and Tim I’ll let you go into that little.

Timothy Sullivan: 21:06
And I wanted to pick something for Scott. Scott really loves Nama sake or unpasteurized sake, some sakes that are fruity. And very, very full of flavor. And those are something he’s always attracted to. It’s not really the height of Nama season right now in January, but, I also picked, uh and we ended up picking the same sake for both of you. So we’re all, we’re all gonna enjoy the same sake. John do you, do you want to introduce this?

John Puma: 21:39
I would love to. So this is the Gokyo Junmai Hiyaoroshi Nama Zume. in this case, the Nama Zume means that it was pasteurized one time. In this case, it was passionate. Back in the beginning when it was first brewed and then it sat for the summertime and then was bottled in autumn. And on this particular one, which is from Yamaguchi uh, which is not Yamagata or Yamanashi

Timothy Sullivan: 22:09
Too many yamas!

John Puma: 22:11
Is a from brewery called, uh, Sakai Shuzo and. It uses Nihonbare and yamadanishiki rice he writes the same idea why the rice milling percentage is 60% remaining. The sake meter value is just plus two. The acidity at 1.9, uh, and in English, a Gokyo is a five bridges.

Timothy Sullivan: 22:35
Yes. And I’m going to show our VIP guests a picture of the five bridges, and this will be in the show notes.

Scott Hirose: 22:46
Oh,

Myshell Puma: 22:47
Oh, I’ve seen this.

Timothy Sullivan: 22:48
Yeah. So this is in Iwakuni, Japan. This is, uh, one of the most famous bridges in Japan and it is five arches that go over this river and. It’s really, really beautiful. And the brewery Gokyo is located very close to this bridge. So that inspired the name five bridges, and it is a really super picturesque place to visit.

John Puma: 23:16
So let’s get some of this into our collective glasses.

Myshell Puma: 23:22
is my favorite part.

Timothy Sullivan: 23:27
All right. So our VIP spouses, you should have your sake prepared, so let’s give it a smell. I smell a little bit of pineapple. I don’t know if you guys smell pineapple.

John Puma: 23:46
I got a little bit of like a faintly almost cherry.

Myshell Puma: 23:52
Now that you’ve mentioned pineapple, I do get like a tropical sort of smell to it. I wish I had a, um, more narrow shaped class. I think that would help cause it, the smell isn’t like very strong. It’s more light to me.

John Puma: 24:06
Yeah, it’s not, it’s not overwhelmingly, uh, aromatic.

Scott Hirose: 24:10
Maybe a little citrusy to me now, as it warms up a little bit,

Timothy Sullivan: 24:14
I think we should also mention that we talked about this being a hiyaoroshi, which is a fall Nama or fall release sake. And here we are in January. So this has also aged slightly. At the shop. Uh, this one’s mine has been refrigerated at the shop where I picked it up. So this is a hiyaoroshi, but it’s slightly aged. So I think that may mature the aromas and the flavor a little bit.

John Puma: 24:39
Makes sense.

Timothy Sullivan: 24:40
Okay. Well, let’s give it a taste.

John Puma: 24:43
All right.

Myshell Puma: 24:44
Yeah,

John Puma: 24:45
Oh, I like that.

Myshell Puma: 24:47
it’s a lot richer than I thought it would be the, at least in the glass that I’m drinking it out of the smell was so faint. So I’m surprised by how much flavor there is actually here.

Scott Hirose: 24:55
Yeah, I actually kind of tastes a little plummy flavor too.

John Puma: 25:02
um,

Myshell Puma: 25:03
I am getting some dryness, like maybe it’s like 50, 50, like going back and forth, trying to some sweetness.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:11
I think the finish is very dry.

John Puma: 25:13
The finishes nice and dry. The um, the texture is really nice. I guess not cloying. It’s just kind of like light, but the taste is, has a lot of depth to it.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:25
And there’s a good amount of complexity there too.

John Puma: 25:27
Hmm. Yeah. I think, I think. You’re going to find that a lot of time with the hiyaoroshi. and then also the fact that as you mentioned, like this is a little bit, uh, aged after the fact going to pick up a little bit more depth than a little bit more complexity to it.

Myshell Puma: 25:43
It seems like it would go really well with food. Is there something that comes to mind for you, Tim?

Timothy Sullivan: 25:47
Hm,

Myshell Puma: 25:48
Our resident pairing expert.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:52
not really well, John, John chime in as well. If you have any pairing recommendations.

John Puma: 25:58
Now I have the pressure, for me, I’m not going to be afraid to pair this with some, with a little bit of a stronger Western foods. Although I don’t think I’m not thinking spicy, but I’m thinking I can stand up to. You know, heavier items like, um,

Myshell Puma: 26:16
Like meat sauce, chili.

John Puma: 26:18
not the chili so much, but I can have this with meat sauce. I think, I think this will go fine with, uh, with some Italian. Yeah. I can have this from Italian. I can also have this with some like, like grilled chicken with vegetables, like, you know, kind of a roasted chicken with vegetables. Maybe that sounds good. That sounds really good with.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:36
Um,

Scott Hirose: 26:37
what about, pairing it with, chicken? Marvea that chicken with prunes that on a garden just

Timothy Sullivan: 26:43
Um,

Scott Hirose: 26:44
Um, she didn’t just start up, but she, uh, changed the recipe.

John Puma: 26:48
I would I try that

Scott Hirose: 26:50
I was thinking something fruity and, uh, you know, some may need main protein with some fruit, either citrus or plum or something.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:59
Yeah.

Myshell Puma: 27:00
It’s not a sake. You have to worry about getting lost. which is nice.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:05
Yeah. it’s pretty out there. We tasted this once before on the show in episode 36 and when we tasted it before we talked a lot about melon and a little bit more fresher tropical fruits. And it was interesting that we’ve talked about citrus and plum and things like that. So it feels like that’s the transition of aging through and Scott and I did something last night, we made soba at home,

John Puma: 27:34
You remade the

Scott Hirose: 27:35
No, we,

Timothy Sullivan: 27:37
we, we bought soba. Yeah, But even that is something that we’d never really done at home. And I think. I was just thinking, You know, it was so good and we didn’t have tempura, but we were saying last night that we’d love to try to make tempura at home, which is a big challenge and really difficult. But I think that this sake, if we made soba and homemade tempura, I think the sake, it would pair really well with that. The, the fried little bit of greasiness in the tempura, the dry finish on here is really going to clean that up and just make it. very delicious together. Right. But I also like Scott’s idea of a protein, a main entree that has a bit of a fruit note in it. And we don’t think about incorporating fruit too much with savory foods, but that recipe Scott was talking about with the prunes when they’re cooked down. Bring in, uh, just a hint of sweetness to the overall complexity of the dish. And that’s something I think is really smart to look for hints of what you might find in the sake, in the food. And that thing. I often talk about salads that have fruit in them. Like if you cut up a grape or a orange and you mix it into the green leaf salad, those salads pair really, really well with sake.

Myshell Puma: 29:04
Wow. That’s a good tip.

John Puma: 29:06
We’re going to see them getting tips or getting data. Good information. it’s almost time for us to wrap up, but. There’s one last question that we wanted to, uh, to ask you guys. And that is, um, you know, we’re, we’re very uncreative around here. So do you guys have any show ideas for us that we could use and pretend they’re ours?

Timothy Sullivan: 29:29
Yeah.

Myshell Puma: 29:32
Um, I do. I used to like write in my show ideas of my questions. Then I got, I got banned for harassment I thought it would be really cool if you did an episode about how sake is. Is certified kosher, because there are a lot of people who do stick to kosher only whether it’s for holidays or all the time. There’s this whole world out there that maybe they haven’t heard of before. I think that’d be really cool.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:59
Hmm. That’s a great idea.

Scott Hirose: 30:02
I think for me, maybe a couple ideas. One would be pairing it with. Non Western foods like the, I think we talked about it before, how we discovered a Nama or a nigori. It goes really well with the very spicy foods, like Indian food or Thai food. Um, but other exciting parents as well. You know, you could think of that. It would go with, but the other part, just academically, always like it when you teach us about the history of sake. And I was sort of curious, and I’ve asked him this before, so I know, you know, something about it is why the Buddhist monks started, um, brewing sake. Like why would it be, a divine thing or a spiritual thing? why in their hands.

John Puma: 30:48
Well, I might have to go and do a whole little depth on the origins of sake at some point tim,

Timothy Sullivan: 30:54
Yes, the ancient history.

John Puma: 30:56
origins of sake and kosher sake. sake.

Timothy Sullivan: 31:00
Yes.

Myshell Puma: 31:01
You, um, had asked us, how things have changed for us after, you know, being married to someone starting a sake podcast, that sort of thing. How has your sake tastes changed after you started a sake podcast? Like you were already talking nerds, but now you’re like extra nerds, like a sake celebrity even.

John Puma: 31:18
Um, Hmm. I don’t think my tastes have changed a tremendous amount, but I do get, and this is something that we kind of talked about a little bit on our end of year wrap up episode. You know, we do get exposed to a lot of sake that we normally wouldn’t taste.

Timothy Sullivan: 31:36
For me very much what John just said, but also every time we do a show, you know, I need to research the brewery when they were founded. Look up all the details about the sake. Is there some unique point to talk about? So for me, it’s like continuing education constantly, and I’m always refreshing what I learned before or learning something new and revisiting sakes that I just wouldn’t reach for on my own, but because it’s part of a lesson for the podcast or something, we’re going to talk about, it brings it back into my orbit and it’s really been great to keep all these ideas and all this information kind of fresh and alive. So that’s something I’ve really, really.

John Puma: 32:16
Nice. One thing that Myshell has noticed. For me that I didn’t even notice because sometimes you, you, you know, you taste things, you don’t even really notice that your tastes have changed or that you’re doing different things, but apparently I’ve had a bunch of situations where I’ve tasted something and I really liked it. I brought it over to Myshell and she’ll taste it and she’ll be. You like this. And so I’m assuming that, that my taste is also evolving, but because it’s all the same to me, I can just, oh, this is just another sake, like, um, yeah. Michelle, would you think about that? Is that something that’s been happening a little more frequently?

Myshell Puma: 32:54
Yeah, definitely. I think that I’m surprised by things that you like. I can see how, since you’re doing these podcasts frequently trying so many things that you wouldn’t normally choose to reach for, like, if it were on the menu right away, you’re trying more things opening up your palate, that sort of thing. So that is pretty cool.

Timothy Sullivan: 33:11
Awesome. Well, it’s, it’s been so great having both of you on the show again, and I have to ask, will you come back for another reunion?

Myshell Puma: 33:19
Yes, definitely.

Timothy Sullivan: 33:21
Uh, thank you guys so much and it wasn’t this great, John. This is really

John Puma: 33:26
Yeah. I love having them on this is great. It also, you know, we, we get to talk a little bit less, take some of the pressure off. like that.

Timothy Sullivan: 33:33
All right. Thanks to Scott and thanks to Myshell for joining us. It was an absolute pleasure to have you back on the show. And we’re so happy to get those show ideas. We’ll get right on those. So stay tuned. And I also want to thank our listeners so much for tuning in. We really do hope that you’re enjoying our show. Now, if you’d like to show your support for Sake Revolution, one of the best ways to help us out would be to back us on Patreon. You can join our community. There have listeners that. support the show And, all the donations we receive on patreon. Go to supporting the editing hosting and bringing you this podcast. Every single.

John Puma: 34:11
and you’re going to go over to Patreon.com/SakeRevolution, uh, where you can, become one of our patrons and support our show. Other ways that you can support our show. Include what you’re doing right now. Just listening. Uh, you can also go out and tell your friends, tell your family, and get them to. Subscribe, get them to comment on their podcast platform of choice. All of these things really help get the word out about the show and drive that needle.

Timothy Sullivan: 34:37
And as always, if you would like to learn more about any of the topics or sakes we talked about in today’s episode, be sure to visit our website, SakeRevolution.com and there you can check out all the show notes.

John Puma: 34:49
And if you have sake questions that you need answered, or, you know, just some show ideas that we can pass off as our own. We want to hear from you. Please reach out to us. The email address is [email protected]. So until next time, please remember to keep drinking sake and

Myshell Puma: 35:12
kanpai!