“The image of ‘Yakiniku’ may be strongly associated with Korea, but in fact, the yakiniku we are familiar with today is believed to have originated in Japan. Korean-style yakiniku is made by cutting the meat off the bone with scissors and eating it wrapping it in sanchu (Korean lettuce) along with punchy, spicy sauces. On the other hand, Japanese-style of yakiniku is characterised by the use of tare sauces and the precise slicing of the meat. The way the meat is sliced is particularly characteristic, with each slice being cut at a sharp angle to create a beautiful, high-quality cut that is unique to Japanese-style yakiniku.

Yakiniku Jumbo is a famous yakiniku restaurant that prides itself on its carefully selected cuts of meat. It has branches in Shinazaki, Edogawa-ku, and Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, and has an impressive list of celebrity fans. The skilled butchers carefully select the highest quality Japanese black beef from all over Japan. They use their experience and discerning taste to ensure that only the finest beef that meets their exacting standards is served.

In order to draw out the maximum flavour and quality from the meat, Yakiniku Jumbo is extremely particular about the thickness of the slices. Norimitsu Nanbara, the president of the three Yakiniku Jumbo restaurants, explains, “”For example, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between 1mm and 2mm slices if you were to touch them with your fingers. But when you put it in your mouth, the difference is obvious. That’s why it’s important to check the marbling and other factors, and to be delicate enough to slice the meat to the nearest millimetre while imagining how it will feel in the customer’s mouth.””

Another thing that has helped to cement the reputation of Yakiniku Jumbo is its secret sauce. Nanbara says, “”Yakiniku that doesn’t use sauce is not really yakiniku””, so the sauce is an important part of the restaurant’s identity. At Yakiniku Jumbo, the sauce is made using a secret recipe that was passed down from Nanbara’s grandmother. They have two types of sauce: Momi-dare (marinade sauce) and Tsuke-dare (dipping sauce). Momi-dare is sweeter and richer, while Tsuke-dare is sweeter but still has a good sharpness. . The marinating sauce is sweeter and richer, while the dipping sauce is sweet but also has a sharp tang. This is why it goes well with all kinds of meat, from the lighter cuts such as tongue and hatsu (heart) to the richer cuts such as kalbi and harami (skirt steak), and the more you eat, the more your appetite is stimulated.”

“At a yakiniku restaurant, most people will start with a beer. Then, for their second drink, they will probably move on to makgeolli. The carbonated, bitter beer stimulates the appetite, and the mellow sweetness of the makgeolli softens the spiciness of the sauce. Yakiniku with tare sauce and white rice is a classic combination. Therefore, I think there’s no reason why sake, which is made from rice, wouldn’t go well with yakiniku, too,” says Nanbara.

Igarashi, who is the manager of Yakiniku Jumbo Hanare in Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, which is part of the Yakiniku Jumbo group, is a certified sake sommelier. For this reason, when asked by customers for a recommendation, he sometimes advises them to try sake. “However, many young people in particular feel that sake is difficult to drink or that it doesn’t go well with yakiniku, so they tend to be put off, ” he says. “So most people end up choosing makgeolli or beer instead.”

However, most of the Korean makgeolli currently on the market is sweetened with added sugar, so it is difficult to drink large quantities. At Yakiniku Jumbo, they stubbornly continue to use the production method that has been passed down since the Goryeo period, and serve Japanese-made ‘Tora [Tiger] Makgeolli’, which is freshly pressed without pasteurisation. As it is made from just rice and water, this makgeolli isn’t overly sweet and goes down smoothly. “However, as a sake sommelier, I think it would be better if it had a little more sweetness to go with the yakiniku. The yakiniku sauce has a complex spiciness, with garlic and chilli, so it would be better to have a little sweetness to balance it out,” says Igarashi.

Nanbara of Yakiniku Jumbo selected the Sakura City, Tochigi Prefecture sake brewery Senkin, famous for its eponymous sake brand, as a partner to create the perfect sake pairing with yakiniku. His reasoning was that ‘Senkin Yukidaruma’ (Senkin Snowman), one of the brewery’s most popular seaasonal products, looks similar to makgeolli, so that if he made sake based on ‘Senkin Yukidaruma’, he would definitely be able to make something that surpassed makgeolli.

‘Senkin Yukidaruma’ is a seasonal product that is released every winter. Although it is a nigori (cloudy) sake, it is not the thick type that has a lot of coarse, undisolved rice, it has a silky, smooth texture which is achieved by repeated filtration. According to Nanbara, “there is certainly a deliciousness to ‘Senkin Yukidaruma’ that Tora Makgeolli does not have. Tora Makgeolli is easy to drink, but – to put it another way – it has a simple flavour, and if I could make a wish, I’d like it to have a little more depth of flavour. In contrast, when you take a sip of ‘Senkin Yukidaruma’, a soft sweetness spreads in your mouth, followed by a refreshing bitterness, and the finish is dry. It is this rich flavour that is its greatest appeal.”

Yakiniku Jumbo’s Nanbara and Igarashi thought that as ‘Senkin Yukidaruma’ has both sweetness and acidity, it would be perfect for pairing with yakiniku. That said, they also thought it was too ‘clean’. For yakiniku, which has a distinctive tare sauce, wouldn’t it be better if it had a rougher flavour? As the brewery partner entrusted to make the ultimate sake for pairing with yakiniku, Kazuki Usui, the managing director of Senkin, along with his younger brother and toji (master brewer) Masato Usui, listened to Nanbara and his colleagues’ ideas and decided to create a new sake based on ‘Senkin Organic Nature’, another popular product from Senkin, as well as ‘Senkin Yukidaruma’.

‘Senkin Organic Nature’ is a ‘super natural’ kimoto sake made from ambient yeasts that exist naturally within the brewery, rather than the addition of commerical yeasts that are used in modern sake brewing. Furthermore, ‘Senkin Organic Nature’ aims to replicate the traditional kimoto method of sake production, which did not involve polishing the rice, and so it takes several times longer to produce in comparison to regular sake, and yet it is fresh and light on the palate. Above all, the flavour is complex, and the robust nature of the Kamenoo sake rice is truly brought to life. Kamenoo is an ancient rice that is the parent of Koshihikari, Sasanishiki, Hitomebore and other well-known rice varieties, and is known as a ‘legendary indigenous rice strain’.

However, there was also a weak point in Nature that made it unsuitable for pairing with yakiniku. That weakness was umami. Toji (master brewer) Masato Usui says, “the appeal of the kimoto brewing method used to make ‘Nature’ is that it produces a good balance of the five tastes. However, in order to pair it with the rich flavours of yakiniku, it would be better to have a stronger umami taste. So, this time, we used a method that was the opposite of our usual approach to draw out the amino acids and create a sake with a robust, complex flavour.”

The next consideration was carbonation. Each bottle of Senkin Yukidaruma is hand-bottled, and the secondary fermentation that takes place inside the bottle gives it an enjoyable bubbly sensation when you drink it. Tora Makgeolli, which was the first point of reference, also has a refreshing, slightly fizzy taste. The bubbles cut through the rich taste of the yakiniku tare sauce and refresh the palate, making it easier to move on to the next dish.

However, getting the right amount of carbonation was a challenge. In sake, which is easily affected by temperature, it is extremely difficult to create the fine, long-lasting bubbles of champagne through secondary fermentation in the bottle. Conversely, when you add carbonation, the sake becomes drier and the aftertaste is better, but it is still difficult to create fine, long-lasting bubbles. So, secondary fermentation in the bottle or carbonation?

While many breweries are currently trying their hand at making sparkling sake, Senkin has been experimenting with various methods and aiming to create the best possible bubbles using a unique and unprecedented approach. As a result, they have succeeded in creating fine, persistent bubbles that are just like those of champagne.

“I think this challenge was not just for us, but for the sake industry as a whole,” says Managing Director Usui. Meanwhile, Nanbara of Yakiniku Jumbo was also satisfied, saying, ‘’the richness when you drink it, the umami that spreads in your mouth, and the sensation of the bubbles cutting through at the end. All of these qualities go perfectly with yakiniku, and together we have created a sake that I can confidently recommend to our customers.