616588 Fri May 01 19:26:45 -0700 2009 0 13 New England 0 4647269 Just got back from a pleasant dinner at Yooki Yama, the local Japanese restaurant on the green in Branford. The rolls and sashimi were, as usual, quite good, and even the tempura dishes are fine by US standards (tempura in this country never comes close to what is served up in dives in Tokyo, but that's another story). But the sake list! This is the only serious sake list I've seen anywhere around here, and in fact I can't recall anything as comprehensive anywhere I've eaten in San Francisco in recent years. There are nearly 100 sakes (some much more generic than others, but still, a hell of a lot of diverse ones) on this list. And Seiko tells me he's got more coming, with a target of ca. 130 sakes on offer. For those who don't just drink the unbranded kind hot, sake is as diverse as most other drinks. I don't know if there are as many distinct tastes as there are for wines, but there's a lot of difference, and it's really fun to try various sorts: see if you can tell the difference between similar junmai ginzo and junmai daiginzo, try a nigori against the others, etc. All of the other Japanese restaurants in the area ( a surprising number of which are in Orange, for some reason) have a set of about 3-6 sakes from one or two shippers, plus the generic kind. Even Miso in New Haven only has about a dozen or so. As far as I know, Yooki Yama is unique in having a genuinely interesting sake list, across a number of different styles, prices ranges, sizes, etc. OK, so are there any competitors? Fri May 01 19:26:45 -0700 2009 178139 linguist