disgraceful and distasteful and distilled

[wildestranger]

I have a question about sake. I am writing about a character (Eames, to be precise) who is drinking sake, with a meal, at a restaurant in Japan, and am in need of more information. I've sadly have never had this drink myself and research can only go so far, so I would be grateful for any thoughts you might have.

Stuff wot I want to know:
What does it taste like? A variety of descriptions would be great.
What food goes well with it? What might clash with the taste, what is traditionally acceptable/unacceptable?
Any traditions associated with the drink?
Any experiences you might have had drinking it in Japan?

Your thoughts and experiences would be much appreciated. It's for science PORN!

Comments

[wildestranger]

First, thank you so much for taking the trouble. As mentioned, I've never tasted sake but it seems like I'll need to rectify this soon, as it sounds delicious.

Eames is eating at Saito's house (I assume you've seen Inception?) so he would have access to high quality everything. Not a restaurant, though, and they would be eating the same food, which Saito is pairing with fancy red wine. So the food would need to fit with both, however:

1) I understand from my preliminary research that one can either match sake with food, or go for a contrasting effect. Eames needs to go for a contrasting (and surprising) effect, as this is a conversation point. So something that would be strange but potentially delicious?

2) An average person's view would be much appreciated, as I'm hoping to say something that will be both intelligible to people who've had sake and informative for those who haven't. I'm structuring the fic around five drinks Eames has with other members of the team, and while I know enough about the other drinks to make them serve the plot, I'd like to be able to say something about sake that presents it as an interesting point of contemplation. Or, I have Deep Thoughts about wine which I'm going to share in this story, but none about sake, so please help? :D?

No deadline as such - I had vaguely hoped to finish it by the weekend, but I suspect this is going to take longer than that so no rush!