Dining Out editor Maya Silver had the chance to sit down with Yasu Kizaki, one of the sushi masters behind nationally-renowned Sushi Den, to get the inside scoop on his SLICED! sushi classes and she definitely delivers the goods!
In 2015, Yasu taught 1,000 students how to roll temaki, tatemaki, uramaki, and nigiri, and this marks his 10th year spreading the sushi gospel. Yasu co-owns Izakaya Den, Sushi Den, and their newest venture, OTOTO, with his two brothers: Toshi, master chef; and Koichi who visits the fish market in Japan everyday to hand-select the fish that will arrive at his brothers’ restaurants less than 24 hours later.
The secret to the remarkable success of Yasu’s sushi classes lies in an epiphany he had after the very first one, which he dreamed up after a loyal customer asked him to think of a creative Christmas gift. After the inaugural lesson, Yasu asked his wife Elizabeth, who had sat in on the class, if she had enjoyed it.
“I love you, darling, but …” she began, which Yasu immediately knew was precursor to criticism. “I couldn’t believe how boring it was.”
Yasu was shocked. He had been so excited about the idea of turning his customers into sushi chefs, and now he felt disillusioned by his wife’s cutting honesty.
But then something made sense to him…
“I know!” he said during a revelatory shower. “I need to make fun of my customers.”
And the rest is, more or less, history. In the first year, he offered three classes and didn’t promote them at all, only letting people know about them if they asked. Eventually, he ramped up to one class per month, but when demand grew even more, he increased the classes to weekly. Now, he hosts everyone from mother-and-daughter pairs, to couples and groups of friends, to politicians and businesspersons entertaining their clients, to corporate staffs seeking team-building experiences and professional hackers. Yes, professional hackers love sushi, too.
Yasu draws a diverse audience for good reason. The two-and-a-half-hour experience is one you’ll never forget, and if you do want to learn how to make sushi, there’s simply no substitution for learning from a master in-person. Part sushi-themed stand-up comedy, part storytelling, and part instruction, the class goes by faster than you can say “sliced.”
A few of the things to know before going to one of Yasu’s classes include: It’s Yasu’s way or the highway, prepare to sweet-talk your roll and come hungry!
Now that it’s almost spring and the weather is getting warmer, it’s the perfect time to travel. Don’t worry though, going on your next vacation doesn’t have to mean breaking the bank. There are ways to travel on a budget and still have a great time. That’s why we’re sharing the tips to make your dream vacation happen without emptying your bank account.
Do a lot of research on your travel destination
Google the places you’re interested in going to and find which sounds the best and most affordable.
Check out AAA for information on destinations and accommodations.
When you choose a location, buy a used guidebook – it might have some good tips in it!
Join as many loyalty programs as possible to get discounts on hotels and accommodations.
Ask friends who have traveled to the same location for their thoughts.
Find ways to save on your accommodations
Check with your credit card company to see if you have rewards or discounts on hotels.
If you are traveling to a well-known city, stay outside the city limits. It’ll be cheaper, and you’ll get a more culture-rich experience.
If you are traveling with more than one person, consider splitting the cost of a two-room suite rather than two separate hotel rooms.
Look for hotels that include free breakfast. Even if it just a bagel and some fruit, it is one less meal that you have to pay for during the day and you can even snag stuff to-go (shhh!).
Look accommodations with kitchens. This way you can save money by cooking some of your own meals, but still experience the cuisine by using local products.
Pack some of your favorite on-the-go snacks that travel easily. This way you won’t splurge on something expensive because you’re starving.
If there’s a to-die-for, but pricey restaurant, go for lunch rather than dinner. You will get a lot of the same service, but the food will be cheaper.
Find the best deals on events and must-see sites
Connect with locals who are happy to show you around for free instead of booking expensive tour guides.
Once you get to your destination, go to the welcome or tourist centers to gather more information, and maybe discounts, on events and sightseeing.
Walk instead of paying for transportation. Not only will you get more exercise, but you can see a lot more locations and save money!
When done right, traveling does not have to cost a lot. With a little extra preparation and some deal hunting, you can get away without breaking the bank. So, start planning your next vacation asap, use these tips to save money, and get some of that R and R that you deserve!
It’s that time of year again; the gift-giving season is upon us. And while some have no trouble finding a perfect present, others may need a little assistance. So, to lend a helping hand, here are 20 gift ideas for the alcohol enthusiast. Whether it’s a taste for wine or liquor, knowledge or gadgets, we have them here.
These whiskey and wine glasses, blown in Fort Collins, Colorado by Ben Belgrad, are great examples of hand-crafted love and attention. Belgrad, a Chicago-born glass-blower puts careful attention into each glass and offers individual glasses as well as full sets. Whiskey drinkers love having their designated whiskey glass, so give them what they love while supporting local art.
Terry Theise’s “Reading Between the Wines” is a perfect gift for wine enthusiasts. This expansive yet accessible book reflects on the beauty of wine culture and the intricate, refined industry. These goes deep into the wine experience from tasting and pairing to cultivation and technique. “Reading Between the Wines” is a tribute to the elaborate, emotional connection that we have with wine and offers an in-depth look at how the industry has grown and blossomed.
Experience whiskey at its full potential. With these whiskey stones, made from Vermont soapstone, get the cool temperature in your bourbon, scotch or whiskey without diluting the taste. Simply freeze these cubes in your freezer and use them as you would ice cubes. The perfect gift for the whiskey aficionado.
For the white wine drinkers out there, enjoy your beverage without compromising the taste by watering it down with ice cubes. These wine pearls are a great addition to summer drinking experience. Freeze these stainless steel pearls in your freezer and use them to cool down your wine.
Dazzle your friends and family at your next cocktail party with this ten-in-one, all-purpose bar tool. This Swiss Army knife of bartending tools includes a jigger, zester, muddler, strainer, channel knife, corkscrew, bottle opener, stirrer, reamer and bar knife. Have everything you need in the palm of your hand.
Discretion has never been so convenient in this portable flask with stow-away shot glass. Perfect for when you’re on the go, this flask is a handy way to measure your consumption. Take it camping or use it for your backyard barbecue.
Decant your wine straight into your glass with this innovative self-aerating wine glass. Simply pour the wine right into your glass and let it do all the decanting for you. This new technology allows you to aerate the wine, as you would in a decanter, through the inner cell, releasing the aroma and tannin equally into your glass.
Paul Clarke, Editor of Imbibe, has nicely distilled a decade of accumulated knowledge to provide some 200 recipes along with snapshot-like essays about cocktail history and the evolution of the American bar. Cocktails covered range from the oft-quaffed (daiquiri, old-fashioned) to the newfangled (Chartreuse swizzle, Fort Washington flip), and will easily provide a year’s worth of exploration for those forging deeper into the thickets of bottles and bitters.
Give the gift of beer. The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club is one of many places to get this perfect gift for beer lovers. Buy your loved ones a subscription to the Beer of the Month Club and let them sample some of the best craft beers in circulation.
A veteran columnist for the Wine Spectator, Kramer wants to establish fresh guidelines for assessing the quality and character of individual wines and to toss aside the two most common critical tools: the 100-point rating scale and the trusty array of fruit, vegetable and mineral wine descriptors. The better way to get at a wine’s attributes, Mr. Kramer argues, is via seven simple words: texture, insight, harmony, finesse, nuance, layers and surprise.
So you think you’ve tried them all? Prove it. With this 50-state beer bottle cap map you can let your beer lovers prove their wide-ranging love of beer. Fill the map with a beer from each state and feel a strong sense of…accomplishment.
Perfect for the aspiring bartender, Mittie Hellmich’s book, “The Ultimate Bar Book”, contains over 1,000 cocktail recipes and techniques. From simple, everyday cocktails to old-time favorites, Hellmich covers everything you need to know to make all the important drinks. This in-depth look into bar knowledge and form will help anyone become a better bartender and hone their skills.
Add some character and hilarity to your drinking experience. These beer mustaches simply hook onto your beer and bring joy to you and whoever gets to watch you drink.
Whiskey enthusiasts unite over this beautifully written guide to some of the worlds best whiskies. Buxton’s book takes you on a global tour of some of the most famous and most interesting whiskey varieties while peppering in some new and rare brands that you may have overlooked. If whiskey is your game, this is your book.
Never confuse your drink with someone else’s again. With the chalkboard glasses, easily etch your mark on your drink to ensure that you never forget which one is yours. Perfect for parties and narcissists, chalkboard glasses are a fun way to keep track of your drink and bring some added fun to drinking.
Nothing says “I love you” like a fridge full of beer, but a fridge that IS beer, that is above and beyond. The kegerator lets you joyfully express your love for beer with a built-in tap and easy-to-use filter system. Blow the minds of your loved ones with this ideal gift for the beer drinkers in your family.
The wall bottle opener will ensure you always know where your bottle opener is. Perfect for your bar at home or wherever you do your drinking, the wall opener is a convenient way to add style and show your priorities.
These creative coasters give you the perfect place to put your wine corks. Simply place the corks in the wood from and glue them down and you have a perfect set of usable coasters. Recycle all your favorite wine corks in a simple and fun art project, making a perfect gift.
Ever wonder where bars get those huge ice cubes for your Old Fashioned? Look no further with this simple big ice cube mold. Just fill it with water, toss it into your freezer and pop out the cubes for a better whiskey experience. The perfect gift for those post-work, wind-down drinks. Whether you’re drinking your whiskey on the rocks or mixing a drink, do it right using the whiskey cube mold.
Pay homage to Oktoberfest with this boot-shaped beer glass. This playful and unique vessel will take you back to the beer gardens in Germany and prove your love for beer. Don’t forget to twist the glass at the end so you don’t splash.
Besides celebrating with friends and family by eating delicious food all day long and binge watching football, leftovers is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, but only when done right. So to help, we gathered the best thanksgiving leftover recipes we could find that will be sure to please everyone!
Thanksgiving Croquettes
Recipe by Serena Cosmo from the cooking blog Rustic Plate
These puppies offer the pillowy comfort of mashed potatoes, the savoriness of ground roasted turkey meat and the satisfying crunch of perfectly pan-toasted panko breakcrumbs. And the filling, which consists of cranberry sauce and a tiny piece of French triple cream cheese, adds the slightest hint of tartness and creaminess to boot. Get the recipe here.
Once the big meal is over, even after the late-night refrigerator raid (you sneak in and pick at the turkey in the refrigerator too, right?!), we’ll always have more than enough leftover turkey for Turkey Gumbo. It’s a lighter, milder version of gumbo than what you may be used to, a little more broth-y and no mouth-burning cayenne pepper or hot sauce, but feel free to douse your version with as much hot chili pepper as you like! Get the recipe here.
For those who love turkey on Thanksgiving, but then need to take a little break from it for a while, this is the perfect recipe! Plus, it’s a great dish to save in the freezer for later. Tossing the turkey breast in olive oil keeps it tender and moist, and the shallot, lemon zest, parsley, and vermouth give the final pie a little extra sparkle. Get the recipe here.
Jam those leftovers (meat, veggies, stuffing) into a bowl of carbs (leftover rolls work great) and chow down the day after Thanksgiving with this recipe. They’re customizable, so just toss whatever you’ve got left right on in! Get the recipe here.
Still got mounds of mashed sweet potatoes? Too many spoonfuls of cranberry sauce? Try this recipe for a sweet and easy breakfast-take on Thanksgiving flavors. To make sure the pancakes are fluffy, use sweet potatoes that were whipped for the big meal and up the ‘lifters’ in the recipe. Add more egg and baking powder than a normal pancake recipe…to keep them in the fluffy category. Get the recipe here.
Sure, you could make a parfait with apples or pears, but whether or not we’ll admit it, we all want pumpkin as much as possible this time of year. And post-thanksgiving, when leftovers are plentiful, is the perfect time to get your fix. This parfait made with leftover pumpkin pie and yogurt has it all: pumpkin (obviously), cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup! Get the recipe here.
The colors of Denver’s bursting restaurant scene shined brightly last night at the 2015 Chef and Brew Festival. The festival featured some of Colorado’s most prominent restaurants and breweries teaming up to form unique amalgamations of craft beer and fine food. From sour beers and ramen to pork belly and Gotlandsdrika, 21 local restaurants and breweries flexed their creative muscles to reinvent the art of food and drink pairing.
What made this event so unique was that it not only reflected the innovativeness of Colorado’s craft beer and food scenes, but also the daringness exhibited by the teams in pairing esoteric beer and exquisite food to accent the flavors of each.
Each restaurant offered both a savory and a sweet option, allowing for a variety of pairings with the breweries. The chefs and brewers flipped the conventional notion of food pairing on its head by meshing unlikely flavor profiles together, a stark contrast to the ever-so-predictable wine and cheese pairing.
While beer and food pairings are nothing new, Chef and Brew took the game to a whole new level by introducing uncommon approaches to highlighting taste. Darrell Jensen, Executive Chef of Samples World Bistro, exemplified this edgy experiment. Teaming up with the Great Divide Brewery, Jensen prepared a dashi-marinated shrimp lettuce wrap to pair with the brewery’s Titan IPA. It may sound like an odd pairing; a light and fresh dish with a hop-heavy IPA? But however odd it may seem, it worked! The hops accentuated the dashi broth in the shrimp while the crisp finish of the beer combined with the dish’s bib lettuce, pickles and carrot made for a truly delicious experience.
The pairing presented by Acorn and River North Brewery was the epitome of the night’s uniqueness, serving a chicken and pork belly ramen with the ‘Oud Bruin’ Belgian-style brown sour beer. Having won the contest last year, Chef Amos Watts and River North picked up where they left off by masterfully masking the dominant sour taste of the Oud Bruin with a hearty, savory ramen soup. Amos’ success in dismantling the structure of a sour beer with opposing, yet somehow complementary flavor profiles demonstrated the creativity illustrated at the event.
On tap were some of Denver’s most experimental and new-age beers. Jagged Mountain Brewery provided two of the most intriguing beers, a Swedish-style smoked-malt Gotlandsdrika called “Men Who Drink from Goats” and a Grizzly Peak session porter. Teaming up with Anthony Smith and CY Steak, Jagged Mountain accentuated Smith’s pork belly and arugula dish, delivering a powerful blow of lasting smoky richness when combined with the Gotlandsdrika.
The session porter, a prime example of the event’s innovative beer technique, reflected the dynamic world of Denver craft brewing by taking a traditionally heavy beer and transforming it into a light, low-alcohol-content session beer to be paired perfectly with Smith’s sweeter dessert.
The inventiveness displayed by all of the participating restaurants and breweries most definitely showcased the bountiful talent and enormous originality of Colorado’s food and brew scenes.
For me, the Chef and Brew Festival opened my eyes to the developing identity of Colorado’s food and beverage industry. With a vibrant craft brewing community rapidly taking root here in Colorado, the local restaurant industry is taking advantage and leveraging peoples’ propensity for unique beers by catering their tastes to match. Festivals such as this clearly demonstrate that this is what the future holds for the food and drink scene. As a Colorado resident, I am eager to see this trend continue and watch as the restaurant and brewing industries form a new and intertwined culture.
