On a few occasions, I have been served sake from a small cup overflowing into a wooden box. My question is - how am I supposed to drink this? Do I dump the sake from the cup into the box and drink it all from the box? Do I drink it from the cup, then the box? Or the other way around? I'm sure there must be a "correct" way to do it, but I'm clueless... does anybody out there know what I'm talking about?
posted by:
|
-
Re: sake-in-a-cup-in-a-box
Sat, January 12, 2008 - 5:07 PMwhat kind of occasions are these? what kind of place?
is the cup ceramic? if it is, then it is probably meant to be your preferred choice.
i have never had that same experience, but if it comes with a box then
pour it in the box(masu), drink in from a corner,...
go get another -
-
Re: sake-in-a-cup-in-a-box
Wed, January 16, 2008 - 12:43 AMsince it is considered rude to ask a guest what kind of cup (or even drink) he would like, I would also guess that is done to give you the choice between the two.
when in Japan I always found it the hardest to figure out what to do when the Japanese adjusted their behaviour to the Gaijin, and did things in a way they felt was "more agreeable" to a foreigner..some sort of hybrid- which then meant I could neither apply western nor japanese codes of behaviour,- haha!
let us know what the deal was when you have figured it out ;-)
-
-
Re: sake-in-a-cup-in-a-box
Wed, January 16, 2008 - 7:20 AMHmm. My cousin thought maybe it was a symbolic thing... cup runneth over and all that...
The cup was ceramic, a normal ceramic sake cup, and the box was a normal cedar sake box. I like the smell of the cedar when I'm drinking sake (or even when I'm not), so I drank from the box. Still it left me with the feeling that there was some sort of ritual involved that I wasn't in on. I should have just asked the server at the time. I guess this will continue to be a mystery... -
-
Re: sake-in-a-cup-in-a-box
Wed, January 16, 2008 - 7:26 AMHold the presses!
A little googling turn this up:
www.chowhound.com/topics/331015
Sounds like drink from the cup, then pour the overflow into the cup and drink that too... but then I don't get to stick my nose in the lovely masu! Sigh.
-
-
Re: sake-in-a-cup-in-a-box
Wed, January 16, 2008 - 8:16 PMIn the feudal days of Japan it was always a problem, some people would get their glass more full then others and fighting would erupt... to combat this problem the cup was placed into a square wooden box and filled to at least overflow from the cup into the box, often more. As the measurement was by cups in sake ya's and yakitori ya's there was no more problem.
Lift the cup out of the wooden box and empty the cup. The refill from the wooden box ! -
-
Re: sake-in-a-cup-in-a-box
Thu, January 17, 2008 - 4:18 AMhow interesting!- Is this a regional thing perhaps? I did not come across this in Tochigi-ken.
-
