You Really Shouldn't Order Sake With Sushi, Here's Why

Those unacquainted with Japanese cuisine will likely be quick to believe that few foods go together quite as well as sushi and sake. As two popular exports from Japan, non-Japanese people often enjoy them at the same time. However, that's not the best course of action to take if you want the ideal food and drink combination. In fact, drinking sake is one of the most common mistakes you can make when ordering sushi. This is because sake is brewed from rice — hence its classification as a rice wine — and sushi is, of course, a rice-based dish. Because of this, the sake takes away from the flavors of the sushi and vice versa.

This rule is not heavily enforced in the United States, and there are plenty of sushi restaurants that will gladly serve you sake alongside your sushi. However, if you ever travel to Japan – ideally Osaka and not Tokyo, if you're a foodie — you're unlikely to find the pairing at high-end restaurants. In fact, the combination was unheard of in the country until the middle of the 20th century. Today, while not completely rejected in Japan, the practice of serving sake with sushi is still generally unpopular.

While sake and sushi are not the combination you may have thought them to be, both do have plenty of perfect sidekicks at their disposal. In the case of sushi, white wines like chardonnay, pinot blanc, and pinot grigio work well, as do sparkling wines like Champagne. Sushi is also often paired with one of the many delicious Japanese beers out there like Asahi or Sapporo. Fair warning, though, since Japan is relatively new to consciously pairing alcohol with food, drinks are traditionally seen as palate cleansers more than anything else.

As for sake, pairing the drink with sashimi — which is raw fish without the additional white rice — is an ideal choice. This is because the clean-tasting sake compliments the fish's delicate flavors. When the sake is served cold, it can also add an extra degree of freshness to the experience. Alternatively, fried foods such as tempura also go well with sake, especially those sakes that have been well aged.