Fall is here and sanma, or Pacific saury, along with many varieties of mushrooms are now in season and available at Japanese supermarkets. Seasonal changes are very important to Japanese food culture. But in America, particularly in California, we rarely feel the change of seasons. Now that fall seasonal foods abound, I suggest we enjoy this season with in-season foods and some delicious sake.

Mushrooms: The delicate umami flavor of mushrooms generally goes really well with sake. There are many dishes that can be prepared fairly easily using mushrooms: Enoki mushrooms wrapped in foil and cooked with butter and ponzu sauce (citrus flavored vinegar), shimeji mushrooms sautéed with asparagus and bacon, various mushroom soups, grilled mushrooms with lemon and soy sauce, etc. Mushroom dishes go especially well with junmai-kimoto (a pure sake brewed in the traditional way using no artificial additives) or yamahai-zukuri (sake brewed using a simplified kimoto method) types of sake from the Tohoku region or Nagano prefecture. Drink these types of sake at room temperature or slightly warmed.

Modori Katsuo or Migrating Bonito: Bonito travel north during the summer until they reach the waters of Miyagi prefecture in northern Japan. And they return south in fall when the cold Oyashio current gains strength. Japanese call the bonito in fall traveling southward “modori katuo.” The mere thought of fresh bonito served with shredded ginger and green onion and dipped in soy sauce from Kochi prefecture makes my mouth water. In spring, before the bonito begin their annual journey, they are very lean. Now in fall the bonito are fat and rich, so you have to take this factor into consideration when choosing the type of sake you drink with modori katsuo. Dry sake with a little acidic taste normally goes very well with modori katsuo. It is hard to choose one specific region for the sake, but you cannot go wrong as long as the label says “dry.”