Tengu - Sake Night

I attended my first "Sake Night" at the Tengu restaurant in downtown San Jose last night. Tengu is a small restaurant (caters more to the college students during the day) that hosts a private boutique sake tasting once a month. They also pair it with some type of Japanese inspired food.  I'm not a big sake fan because back in the day of my grandparents, it was a really harsh drink, hence why it had to be heated.  The new generation of sake makers have gone back the original version of making sake, which makes it very smooth.  We started with a citrus sake (photo) which tasted like Fresca.  It was paired with edamame (soy beans) with light sesame seed pepper oil.  The main course of sushi and abalone was pair with a more traditional sake that had a malty taste. Then we had a sake margarita which was super good.  That was paired with 3 Japanese tacos.  Yep tacos, pulled pork, teriyaki beef and chicken. To finish everything off, we had a peach sake, which was my favorite. Very fun night and interesting to try something a little different.