Are you a sushi fact whiz? Test your food trivia smarts with this fun sushi trivia and facts quiz.

• Eric Vellend outlines the ins and outs of biscotti making, and shares 3 international recipes.
• Old pros like vodka are getting side-lined for sake cocktails at Blowfish.
• Wine: Aliança VISTA TR 2005 Tinta Roriz, Cookoothama 2007 Chardonnay, and Inniskillin 2006 Reserve Pinot Noir
• Recipes: Garlic Shrimp, Zucchini and Corn Sauté, Barley and Mushroom Stew, and Apple Snow
  

• Food to eat while you enjoy The Kentucky Derby.
• What happens when a food lover finds out she's allergic to gluten?
• Should we be drinking more sake?
• Mmmmm...egg sandwiches.
• Uno Chicago Grill is now trans fats free.
• Who won the 2008 Mushroom Fluff Contest?
• Reviews: Banq and the Ahla Brookline Food Tour.
• This week's recipes: Sauerkraut in Hard Cider, Brownies, and Matzo Brei.

I'm not exactly sure what makes this drink a martini, and I'm also not sure if this has anything to do with Prince and his fancy outfits and his motorcycle, but it sounds rather intriguing.

It's the Purple Rain Martini, and it's made with pomegranate-infused sake, which I bet is something a lot of you have never had (I certainly haven't). Full recipe after the jump.

At the bar, shake up a Golden Orange Sake-Tini, Java Mojo and sip the Wine Pick Of The Week, a 2004 Torres Coronas Tempranillo, making sure to note How To ... Store wine better.

In the kitchen, the Seattle PI is quick cooking Quick Moussaka and seven different recipes, one for each day of the busy week, including Salmon with Lemon Olive Oil Sauce and Walnut-crusted Drumsticks. There's also a recipe for Catalan Fish Stew.

Ballerina Brunson doesn't give up good food for her art.

I'm a sake fanatic and I just have to tell you about the Joy of Sake: New York, an event celebrating the art of sake brewing will be held this year on Thursday September 27, 2007 on two floors of the Puck Building in New York City. These annual events are held once a year in Honolulu, San Francisco, and New York, and are the largest sake tasting events in the US. More than 300 sakes will be tasted and enjoyed by over 3,000 guests in a bash that makes sake lovers swoon. Some of the best NYC restaurants supply the food including Bao Noodles, Bond St, EN Japanese Brasserie, 15 East, Geisha, Kai, Kyotofu, Matsuri, Megu, Nobu, Oms/b, Riingo, Sakagura, SushiSamba, Tocqueville, Woo Lae Oak, wd-50, and more.

The sakes are absolutely fresh and in peak condition with many being ones that aren't available in the US. So this may be the only time you will get to try them unless you go to Japan. There will be silver and gold award winning sakes from the annual U.S. National Sake Appraisal blind tasting competition and every style imaginable like pure junmai, premium ginjo and daiginjo, various makers tonkubetsu sake (special/exceptional sake) and some of the more unusual ones like sparkling sake, aged sake, etc. I can't wait, especially since I missed the Joy of Sake the past two years. This year I am driving over 400 miles, so I can sip the night away with fine sake and fine food.

Tickets tend to sell out so if you are interested go online right away or give them a call. Tickets are $75 in advance, $90 at the door (if there are any still available) and may be ordered online at www.joyofsake.com or by calling 212-799-7243.

The Gaijin is a beautiful, sexy cocktail that incorporates raspberry and peach into a not-too-sweet, yet fruity, drink that is ideal for Valentine's Day. The word gaijin means foreigner in Japanese and can refer to the concept of something foreign in more than one situation. In the case of this cocktail, it refers to the presence of nigori sake, a cloudy unfiltered type of sake that gives what would otherwise be a straightforward flavored martini an unusual flavor and an exotic look.

It could be served before dinner, but we like our Valentine's day cocktails with dessert, so feel free to try this with something fruity, like a bowl of berries and whipped cream.

The recipe is after the jump.

In spite of a 2,000-year-old tradition, sake is declining in popularity in Japan. Consumers there are opting for wine, beer and cocktails -- Western drinks -- at home, at bars and at restaurants, causing a 10 percent drop in sake's alcohol market share in the last year alone and an almost 50 percent drop in total sales in the last decade. The home sales are particularly flagging, something attributed to the increasing popularity of Western cuisines and the desire of cooks to match them with appropriate drinks. This trend works in reverse in countries where Japanese cuisine is still seen as hip and trendy, like in the US.

To renew interest, brewers are turning more and more toward premium sakes and cutting-edge ad campaigns, not unlike the ones commonly seen for beer or luxury spirits, to attract younger drinkers to their products. They don't want the trendsetters of the nation to see sake as "what grandma and grandpa drink" or as "what your boss forces you to drink in a smoky pub in a sticky glass." In pursuit of hipness, they are also touting the drink as being low in calories and a good stress reliever.

Part spa, part amusement park - the Yunessun Spa in Japan offers guests the chance to experience green tea, sake, red wine and even coffee in a way that is truly unique. Instead of drinking any of these beverages, visitors to the spa can bathe in them. The sake spa is continuously filled from a huge cask and is said to be good for the skin. The green tea spa is brewed with tea grown at the "foot of the Tanzawa and Hakone mountains" and contains a powerful anti-oxidant that is reputed to enhance the immune system. The wine spa is filled with real red wine, inspired by the fact that Cleopatra loved to bathe in red wine as a rejuvenation treatment in ancient Egypt. Perhaps the most interesting is the coffee spa, which is filled with coffee that is brewed with the natural hot spring water at the spa. Not only will it energize you, but it will energize the skin.

More pictures of the pools after the jump.

[via neatorama]

P.F. Chang's, the company that brought Chinese food to the masses, has decided to dip its toe into new waters with a Japanese concept.

Taneko Japanese Tavern opened two weeks ago this month at The Borgata, an upscale mall in the company's hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz. Taneko is P.F. Chang's take on one of my favorite types of Japanese eateries, the izakaya. To my knowledge no chain restaurant company has yet attempted to remake one of these Japanese bars that serve sake, shochu and small plates.

I'm usually more than a little concerned that when a chain tackles an ethnic concept that's unfamiliar to them that they'll rob it entirely of its soul. But I must admit that from what I've read P.F. Chang's sounds like its heart is in the right place. Taneko will have an exhibition kitchen and a robata grill. The menu will include wood-roasted yellowfin tuna, American kobe beef and Kurobuta pork chops.

Taneko takes its name from a combination of Tanuki, the raccoon-faced dog that is Japan's God of gluttony and sake, and maneki neko, the welcoming cat seen in front of Japanese businesses ranging from pachinko parlors to ramen shops.

Wines aren't the only things that have "terroir" - the term used to describe the environmental factors like soil and sun that give a wine its particular flavors. Sake, the Japanese alcohol distilled from rice, has terroir, too.

The Wine Selection of the Week is Syrah from Sonoma County. About half are from the Dry Creek Valley and the other half from the Russian River Valley. Just about all of their picks rated two stars (**). The Bargain Wine Selection is from the southern hemisphere, where the grape harvesta have long been over in Argentina, Australia, and Chile.

Just in time for Labor Day festivities, Pulled Pork Sandwiches that go great with the Syrah selection, and Clisson, a French goat's milk cheese that's been rinsed in Sauternes.

To change up a margarita, try Greek ouzo instead of tequila.

I recently learned from one of our sister blogs, Gadling, that there is a museum devoted to sake, one of my all-time favorite libations. That such a place exists is no surprise. There are several sakaguras, or sake breweries, that offer tours, but most are in Japan. The cool thing about this sake shrine is that it's in Berkeley, Calif., and it's free.

The museum is the creation of Takara Sake USA and features tastings, brief tutorials on sake making and exhibits of sake brewing equipment. It is my sincere hope that such a place will help broaden the tastes Americans whose only experience with the fermented rice wine has been hot sake or overly alcoholic and nasty tasting cheap cold sake. There's a whole world of flavor out there to experience in premium cold sakes. Among the many notes that can appear in a good sake are: licorice, peaches, cherry, herbal grassy flavors, and, of course, rice. If you're curious about sake and live outside the Berkeley area, seek out your local izakaya, or Japanese pub. Another good place to learn about sake is John Gauntner's Sake World. Kanpai!

From the mouths of the experts, the San Francisco Chronicle has some tips on how to order wine in a restaurant. The article also has each sommelier's two choices for one bottle under $35 and one bottle over $35.

Just in time for Mother's Day brunch this weekend, rosé wines are on the testing block. The Chronicle picks their Top 16, and four of them won three out of four stars (***), and all of them are under $15: 2005 Bieler Pere et Fils Sabine Vin de Pays des Maures Rosé is only $10, 2005 Domaine de Pellehaut Harmonie de Gascogne Rosé  for even less at $9, 2005 Domaine de Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris  for $13 and 2005 Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Pinot Rosé at $15.

A Croque Mom-sieur will go well with those rosés at brunch. The cheese of the week is Silver Mountain, a cow's milk cheese made by Bravo Farms in the Central Valley.

Sake is on the rise. Beau Timken of Hayes Valley's True Sake offers tips to enjoying the Japanese wine. There's also a recipe for a pasta that pairs well with one of the sakes. 

A Japanese sake company noticed that its master brewers always had such nice skin! So Ozeki asked 11 employees to drink sake (270 millileters, to be exact) and measure the moisture in their skin before and after. Moisture content of their arms grew by 30%, compared to no change when drinking another alcoholic beverage.

The employees may have gotten sloshed, but it was for a good cause! Now several Japanese companies are developing sake-based skincare products. Evidently, there are 36 active substances in the sake-derived extracts produced by Yushin-Brewer, which contains koji mold, lactic acid bacteria and yeast. Yushin-Brewer is also making an anti-ulcer product. And I have no idea how that relates to having moist skin, but there you go.

I think I'd rather just get the lovely skin effects from drinking the sake. You?

Most people are probably familiar with hot sake, served in a shaped earthenware carafe and tiny cups. People are also becoming increasingly aware of cold sake, understanding that in many cases, sake that comes out piping hot from an electric sake warmer is of lesser quality. Heating sake covers up inferiority. This, of course, is not always the case, since there are plenty of premium sakes that taste great slightly warmed. Heating sake is also a more traditional way to serve sake.

If the hot vs. cold sake question is too much to worry about when you're already having trouble deciding on what sushi to order, try nigori sake. "Nigori" translates to "cloudy." Nigori sake is whitish in color. The cloudiness comes from particles of rice that did not ferment during the sake making process. Regular sake is clear because these rice particles have been filtered out. Nigori sake, which is often just referred to as "unfiltered sake," is white because rice particles are left behind.

Now technically, the clear sakes are much more refined, since the sake brewmasters have used great care and time to filter out particles. However, nigori sake certainly tastes just as good. It's very different, as it does have a creaminess in the mouth as compared to the clear sakes, the way a lowfat milk may taste creamier than plain water. Nigori sake also tastes much sweeter. I don't like to drink it along with a meal, but it's a great way to start or finish.