Note: This venue has now closed.
Head to the pop-up sake bar at Japan Food Town to sip on the Dassai brand of rice wine. The bar seats 25 and features premium junmai daiginjo sake – Dassai 50 ($88/720ml), Dassai 39 ($15-$114), Dassai 23 ($25-$194) and Dassai Beyond ($170-$1,100) – served in wine glasses so that drinkers can better appreciate the colour of the sake.
Produced by Asahi Shuzo brewery, all Dassai sakes are brewed with Yamada Nishiki, a variety of short-grain Japanese rice. Sakes are differentiated by the final polish of the rice used – polishing removes fat and protein from the grain, leaving behind only starch and resulting in a smoother, clearer sake.
So the Dassai 39, for instance, uses rice that has been polished until 39 percent of the grain remains, resulting in a starchier profile compared to the fruitier and lighter Dassai Beyond, which uses rice that has been polished so that less than 23 percent of the grain is left. We recommended starting with the lighter sakes, and tasting sets ($15-$60) are the best primers.
The bar also serves Dassai 23 Centrifuge ($24) and Dassai 39 Centrifuge ($15), both of which have had the lees (dead or residual yeast) separated from the completed sake, and the Dassai Sparkling 50 ($14-$100), an unpasteurised and naturally carbonated wine. Also available is the Sakura Sling ($28): concocted by Raffles Hotel to celebrate the ties between Japan and Singapore, the cocktail draws inspiration from the Singapore Sling and features Dassai 50, Calvados, and elderflower liqueur. For nibbles, try the sake-infused Dassai cheesecake ($8) or the rice cracker ($1), made from the residue of the polished rice grains.