Japanese and Oriental ingredients: Sake/Nihon shu (Japanese rice wine)

Sake/Nihon shu (Japanese rice wine)

Nihon shu, known as Sake in English world is a rice wine produced from Japanese rice in Japan.
It has sweetness and slight dry taste. Compare to regular wine, it does not have that much fruitiness and the gorgeous flavor. It doesn't have strong smell or flavor, that allows the liquor to supports the ingredients original taste stronger. It can be used for cooking as well as you can drink it cold, warm and hot.
It has variety of grade per the complication of the way to produce it, who produce it, and what kind of rice and ingredients are used. It is not always better the taste when the price is higher, it is selected by how you like the taste, much like general wines.
Typically the one produced by pure rice (Jun-mai shu) has more sweeter taste, the one longer processed one (Sei shu) has more dryer taste.

Be aware that the "cooking sake" we call is not a plain sake; generally it has been seasoned and flavored.
I would rather buy a cheapest sake to use for cooking rather than using the cooking sake for my dish.

<Example products you can find in UK>
Good: Sawano tsuru
I'm amaized and didnt know that Waitrose sales this product today and so reasonable price! Before, ASDA had carried a smaller bottle of below Takara product but apparently they don't do that anymore.
This one does really fit to your daily drink and for cooking.

Daily use: Takara ShoChikuBai (find in TK Trading and many Japanese groceries shop)

Just barely fit for your drinking (in my liking) but good for cooking.

Too good for cooking, just for drinking!: Hakkaisan

This is my best selection I can find in reasonable price in UK. It is a kind of Jun-mai shu so has light sweetness than dry ones but in a good balance.

Serving for drink
Because Sake has very light taste in general, it is better to be serve in the room temperature to enjoy its full flavor especially for the good ones. You may find it more dryer the taste when it is cooled; I like to serve very sweet flavor ones from refrigerator. Nice to serve it in cold with sushi or sashimi, that also reduce the smell of fish remains in your mouth (just like a grass of wine for a piece of cheese).
Serving sake in hot has totally different affect, it make the sake more stronger flavor and warms your body quickly. Nice to be served in this way with dry foods, strongly flavored meals (like yakitori, teriyaki).

For cooking
Commonly used for marinating meets before cook and making source (e.g. soba noodle source, nimono source, teriyaki source etc.). It is also used for cooking Sushi rice.