Yusuke Shimoki runs Engawa, a tiny bar in Kaga, in the Ishikawa Prefecture of Japan, on the mountainous north- central coast, near the Sea of Japan. When he recently came to America for a visit, he packed bottles of local sake into his luggage. He also brought six styles of glassware to serve it in, as well as a bottle of his favorite soy sauce and, for no particular reason other than he is proud of it, a framed certificate naming him a qualified sake sommelier in Japan. There was little room for clothes.
We met by chance in Brooklyn, at a dinner at the home of Hannah
Kirshner, a food writer and recipe developer who publishes the small magazine Sweets and Bitters. Though he was as much guest as host, Shimoki was dressed for the meal in his work uniform: black trousers and vest, a white shirt, a tie and an apron marked with his bar’s logo and name. We communicated haltingly as he poured sake and Kirshner cooked, our words translated by Hiroshi Kumagai, Kirshner’s fiancé.
The name of Shimoki’s bar translates as ‘‘porch’’ in English, a place to gather and hang out as we did — drinking sake, talking sake and eating excellent food.
Kirshner prepared grilled oysters beneath miso, and fish wrapped in banana leaves, at a grill set up near the chicken coop she keeps in her yard (because: Brooklyn). There were steamed clams with miso, steamed short-grain rice and a tangle of vegetables.
Image and content Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/magazine/drinking-food.html?action=click&contentCollection=magazine®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0