Jay Eats Worldwide

The 25th Annual Mutual Trading Co. Japanese Food & Restaurant Expo Pasadena Convention Center October 19. 2013 I've been going to the Mutual Trading Co Show almost every year since 2000, I even attended their show in the NY/NJ area.  Mutual Trading is one of the oldest Japanese food distributors in the U.S.  Based in the Los Angeles, MTC has sales offices in Honolulu, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Boston, New Jersey, and New York.  Mutual Trading has beautiful showrooms in Los Angeles and New York City.  I should do a post on their showroom one of these days... Ready for the breaking of the  sake barrel  to open the expo  Once inside, lots of food, beverages, equipment, knives, and products of all kinds. With 88 vendors, 30 from Japan, this event had over 2,000 registered attendees. At the entrance, I ran into my friend  Tommy Kosaka (chef/owner - Sushi Dragon )  and Mr. Kosei Yamamoto...

With the popularity of sake over the last 10 years, you can imagine how many sake training sessions I've taught to the service staff at numerous restaurants.  Having attended the recent Mutual Trading Restaurant Expo and sampling many different sake, it was good to be able to compare with today's Shochu tasting.   But I have to admit, I really don't know much about Shochu... Over the last 5+ years, I've heard talk about Shochu, but it didn't sound like they knew any more than I did.  So when I was invited to "The Biggest Shochu Event" by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), I jumped at the chance to learn more and be able to share with you. The Biggest Shochu Event by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) First, the difference between sake and shochu?  In a nutshell, sake is a fermented alcoholic beverage and shochu is a distilled alcoholic beverage.  I always thought of it as a Japanese vodka, since it's distilled.  ...