Identifying sake, tea and spices from pics
 

Just came home from my very first trip to Japan, and fell in love with the japanese food. Of course I bought home different stuff, and of course I have forgotten (or never was told) the name of the different items and how it is used. I hope someone in this forum could help me out on identifying and how to use them.

First off is 2 bottles of Sake. The salesman at Nishiki market in Kyoto didn't speak too much English, but he pointed out these when I asked for "best sake".
Name and grade (daiginjo, junmai etc...)


Then there are the green teas. Should be sencha, houji-cha, genmaicha and maybe gyokuru. Also any other info you have on these particular teas would be greatly appreciated:


Spices. Think the first one is smoked flavour and the second is green tea. To be sprinkled on rice if I recall right?


More spices. For noodles?


And the last two. The first is Yuba furikake, which I understand is soymilk film spice to sprinkle on rice? and the second I guess is a wasabi product.


I appreciate any replies I can get!

-Jambalaya

for the green bottle in the fourth picture, it's sanshou, 'japanese pepper' i believe. the raw/unprocessed leaves of the sanshou are like uber fragrant and i consider it to be one of the best things i've ever had the pleasure of tasting/smelling.
goes great w/ grilled items such as anago and unagi x]

the red bottle, i believe, is ichimi togarashi. If you're familiar w/ 'shichimi togarashi' it's just the pepper flakes w/o everything else (ichimi - one spice | shichimi - seven spice)

Sakes

Left: "Kyoto Sen-nen" ("Kyoto 1,000 years"). Grade = Junmai Daiginjo (highest grade)

Right: "Momo No Shizuku" ("Peach Drops"). Same grade as above. OMG!

Teas

From left to right:

Uji-cha (regular green tea from Kyoto). For daily use, maybe. I'm sure that you eat salmon often. Get a small bowl of cold rice (preferrably short-grained). Place (flaked) salted, roasted salmon on top and pour hot tea made from this. You can also use Japanese pickles instead of salmon. This is called ocha-zuke. Our favorite quick meal here in Japan.

Sen-cha (broiled tea from Kyoto) Should be quite nice.

Genmai-cha (brown rice tea) Robust flavor. Try drinking this cold, too. (my own preference)

Upper-grade Sen-cha. I'd serve this one to special guests.

Flavored Salts

Left: deep-water salt + powdered bamboo shoot charcoal. Not sure how to use this. Never seen it before.

Right: deep-water-salt + powdered green tea (the kind used in tea ceremony)
Only top restaurants use this. Try eating tempura with this (with no dipping).

Spices

Left: Sanshou (Japanese pepper). To be sprinkled on Japanese-style BBQ eel. The other use I know is to sprinkle on Nagoya-style red-miso soup. Doesn't taste good on other type miso soup.

Middle: Ichimi (red pepper). Good with any kind of miso soup. Great on Udon and Soba and also Yakitori.

Right: Pepper. Good on ramen and just about anything non-Japanese. This you could have bought at home!

Furikake

On left is Yuba. Wasabi on right. Each can be sprinkled on hot white rice. Again, preferrably short-grained.　Should be good for onigiri as well.

That's interesting Nagoyankee.

I used to live in a town named Fushimi Momoyama.

It was famous for Sake production and we had many original type breweries in our area down near the little canals.

Not far away was a town named Uji. Uji shi was famous for Green tea and also had a beautiful river.

I would often take a short ride on my Yamaha Jog with lunch udner the seat to sit by the river.

Ahhh. all this talking of memories really makes me feel like coming back, unfortunately it cannot happen..

yuujirou and Nagoyankee, thanks a lot for a very informative and thorough reply. Now I have a better idea how to use the different items. Have found a lot of info on the net after knowing what to google for. :) Am looking forward to try the Kyoto Sen-nen sake chilled for my next sushi meal.
Have tried the uji-cha on my new kyusu, that was nice. And will of course try your tip on using the tea for ocha-zuke, thanks a lot for the tip!

Hehe, had to laugh when you told me I had bought ordinary pepper home all the way from Japan. :) I was hoping I had bought home shichimi togarashi, but missed that one. I have seen I can order shichimi at online stores.
Do you think it is that good?

-Jambalaya

Yuujirou and Nagoyankee, thanks a lot for a very informative and thorough reply. Now I have a better idea how to use the different items. Have found a lot of info on the net after knowing what to google for. :) Am looking forward to try the Kyoto Sen-nen sake chilled for my next sushi meal.

Have tried the uji-cha on my new kyusu, that was nice. And will of course try your tip on using the tea for ocha-zuke, thanks a lot for the tip!

Hehe, had to laugh when you told me I had bought ordinary pepper home all the way from Japan. :) I was hoping I had bought home shichimi togarashi, but missed that one. I have seen I can order shichimi at online stores.
Do you think it is that good?

-Jambalaya

hmm.... not sure about your area
but around here, most places sell them in the asian/japanese isle (asian in american markets, japanese in oriental markets)

i normally wouldn't go too far out of my way just to get shichimi.. but
if you're that keen on getting some... buy a lot of other stuff w/ it >.>'''