Takazawa - Eating ART

Takazawa is known for his innovative and imaginative ways with food. Just google “Takazawa” and you’ll get multiple links to pictures and descriptions of his signature 15 vegetable ratatouille that is an exquisitely crafted vegetable terrine that represents his Japanese influenced take on a classically French dish. Other than the stylish plates of food that he presented through the night, what I learnt and really respect about Takazawa and his wife is the passion that they have for what they do and the incredible humility in the way that they perform their craft.

Takazawa’s food celebrates life. His menu is all about imagining and celebrating nature, the seasons and Japanese culture. From his amuse of roasted soy beans which was part of the celebration of Spring Setsubun where it is customary to eat your age equating number of roasted soya beans to sake lee based sauce in his MONOTONE dish. The stories that he plates are simple and they keep pointing back to the seasons and nature through the selected seasonal ingredients and the inspired imaginative plating.The meal had a good progression, the first courses were light and more vegetable centric and it then progressed to the heavier tasting dishes –goat, foie gras, lamb. All in all it was a magnificent meal where I appreciated the high level of culinary technique that was required to execute the dishes, the clean and interesting flavor combinations and the whimsical plating.

Amuse 
roasted soya beans and baby sardines

In celebration of Setsubun (bean throwing festival). And according to tradition, you are also supposed the same number f soya beans that corresponds to your age.

curry and milk
Liquid Japanese curry in milk film. A good show of technique and it tasted as described - japanese curry and milk, but just as a personal preference I like my curries hot and spicy.


seasonal vegetables - tempura of sansai (mountain vegetables) and "snow" carrot
This was a fun amuse. We were instructed to first eat the tempura of wild vegetables (seasonal vegetable), then to forage through the ice for a hidden treasure. The foraged treasure under the ice was a piece of raw japanese seasonal winter carrot - the carrot is cultivated in a particular way where it matures under the snow during winter that enhances the natural flavour and sweetness of the carrot.

Ratatouille (2005)


Sesame and charcoal bread with pork pate
 
Seriously yummy!

The crackle of a Snow-hidden ice-skin (NEW)

Raw pieces of himemasu (hokkaido river trout) in ice cold water and a liquid nitrogen created ice covering. To eat, you have to go ice fishing with your spoon - crack the ice and enjoy the trout with the garnishes and salt, much like what you need to do when fishing for this trout in the Hokkaido river. A very mild tasting fish with firm flesh.

Vegetable Parfait (2011)

A cornucopia of ingredients and textures - tomato jelly, tomato water, cucumber jelly, paprika, basil, parmesan foam, crispy black cabbage, caviar, edible flowers and sprouts - that came together for a very refreshing gazpacho-like dish.
[GREEN] tea (NEW)

A two part dish.
Part one - green vegetable consomme made from steeping cabbage, fava beans, asparagas, garden peas, snow peas, edamame, mizuna and radish to form a very fresh, green vegetable taste.
Part two - the green vegetables that still retained their structural interity and taste that we enjoyed with a squirt of sudachi and matcha salt. 

Carpaccio (NEW)

Smoked young hokkaido goat carpaccio with rabe, pistachio, pistachio oil. I've never had smoked goat. It was smoky and salty and it wasn't too gamey and tasted close to beef.

Candleholder (2007)

Foie gras creme brulee, mango and kamquat jam with raisin and walnut bread. The foie gras that was buttery and the sweetness from mango and kamquat jam helped to cut through the richness to give the dish a good balance. One of our favourite dishes of the night.

Potato and Butter (2012)

A fluffy mashed potato ball (very gourmet pomme noisettes) that the chef hand split at the table and then topped it with shaved truffles on a "soil" made from miso, gorgonzola and walnut. Cute and tasty.

 

MONOTONE (NEW)

Shiro amadai (white tile fish) from Nagasaki with turnip on sake sediment and truffle sauce. The fish had a smoky tasting skin and sake sediment sauce was very good. It has a complexity that was probably developed during the sake fermentation process and when used in the sauce, the sauce had many dimensions - sweetish, efferversant and zing. Another one of our favourite dishes of the night.

 HIDE and SEEK (NEW)

 

Roasted duck breast and gobo (burdock) with hazelnut oil and pink peppercorns. Instructions to eat - the duck is hiding, we have to look through the forrest and to shake off the 'snow' (hazelnut oil) off the leaves to seek out the duck. Very well cooked duck with the bite of peppercorns. The gobo however stole the show from the duck on this one.

Grated Cheese ? (2009)

Shaved frozen apple with cinnamon and vanilla. Too airy to get some solid apple taste for me.

Ice CHOCOLATE Needles (NEW)

Chocolate mousse and vanilla ice cream with sugar glass shards. The main play on the dish was the sugar shards that look like ice needles during the Japan winter. I've haven't had that many winters and sugar isn't my thing, so this dessert was a little lost on me.

Petit fours

chilli chocolate, miso cookie, matcha cake and meringue.

After the multi-course tasting menu, I emerged with a smile having being a part of the theatre for that day. 

Takazawa
Sanyo Akasaka Bldg. 2
3-5-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Tel: +81 (03) 3505-5052

Harumi's Carrot and Tuna Salad

I wanted something really fast and simple for dinner today. So while milling around the supermarket Harumi’s Carrot and Tuna Salad came to mind. The mental cooking plan was simple, buy carrots and tuna, prep, microwave and eat. I’ll have dinner in 30 minutes. Perfect for a Monday evening! What I had failed to remember was that the last time I cooked this I had a mandolin at hand so getting the carrots into uniform julienne cuts was easy. This time I decided to practice my cleaver knife skills on my carrots and my carrot sticks turned out pretty decent but it took me a good twenty minutes or to hand cut my carrots ... so dinner still made it to the table but it took twice the time to make. Not such a fast dinner but still dead simple and delicious.


Carrot and Tuna Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 medium carrots, peeled
½ red onion, finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 Tablespoon sunflower or vegetable oil
1 tin of canned tuna, drained

Dressing:
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
Soy sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Slice carrots thinly on a diagonal then stack three or four carrot slices and then slice lengthways to form long julienne cuts.
2. Mix julienne carrots, onion, garlic and oil in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave for 2-5 minutes, depending on your microwave, until the carrots are lightly cooked.
3. Mix dressing ingredients. Add the drained tuna and then dressing and mix well. Serve hot or cold.

K is for …

K is for kool.
Well not exactly …but K is for Kinako ice cream– my food discovery of 2011.
K is for Kyoto, where I discovered Kinako ice cream.
And lastly, K is for Kinana, the kool ice-cream shop in Gion which churns out
freshly made ice cream that has a voluptuous texture.



The parfaits are popular but I prefer to stick with the basic flavours to enjoy it as it is. Go for the freshly made flavour of the day - the plain 'original' flavour is to me the best.

Gion Kinana
Kyoto-shi, Higashiyama-ku,
Gion-machi Minami-gawa 570-119
(京都市東山区祇園町南側570-119)

Xenri No Tsuki

My past two visits to Hong Kong have been rushed. I’m in and out of the city in about 36 hours and with only that amount of time, so much to do, a couple of people to catch up with and loads to eat, planning and multitasking is important. The best way to do it, is to share a great meal with the people you want to see, that way the warm comforts of familiar company and conversations helps to season the whole meal.

One of the first things that come to mind when I think about going to Hong Kong is Kau Kee’s beef brisket noodles and seriously the last thing on my mind is Japanese cuisine. But when an offer of two local foodies was made to bring us to their regular sushi place, I couldn’t say no, and it’s been a long time since I had sushi.

I hadn’t realised how long I hadn’t sat at the sushi counter until the night before my flight and I was lying in bed and muttering to myself, “oh man, I can’t wait to get to lunch, I can’t wait to eat sushi” and with those wonderful thoughts, I eventually drifted off to sleep, woke up in a daze, got myself to the airport in the wee hours of the morning and I made it to lunch.

Lunch got off to a late start. There was some mix up in our reservation, the chef thought we were coming for dinner and so was terribly surprised and embarrassed when the four of us turned up and the sushi counter was full. So instead the four of us sat tight in a corner with a bottle of sake and waited for the seats at the counter the open up. Sake, not a bad way to start a holiday and as S puts it, “having sake in the middle of the day is so decadent but I love it!” I love it too but it is a terrible combination with hunger and travel exhaustion.

C-jie, when she invited us told us that this is her regular joint - they have loads of fresh fish and the chef is not Japanese. Chef Andy Li, the man behind the counter, sure he isn’t Japanese, he is a local Hong Kong boy and he explained to us his cuisine, Japanese technique but tuned a little to the local Hong Kong palate. Well, I’ve no problem with that. We are finally seated sushi counter and I’m really ready to eat. So to quote Kaga Takashi, “a la cuisine” (I’m neither French nor Japanese).



We started off with what I shall term as the cold and creamy courses. Shirako, Cod milt or bluntly put cod sperm followed by akimono, monkfish liver and lastly oysters. The Shirako that we had was just coming into season but this was the best I’ve ever had. It looks twisty and brainy but when cooked perfectly brings out the creamy custard like texture, we had it cold and lightly seasoned, this forgave the wait for the seats at the counter in an instant. Following that we had akimono, another cold creamy dish but rich and fattier and more luxuriant topped off with ikura. Splendid start!

Following that we had focused plates of sashimi that showcased beautiful presentation, technique and freshness.



Chef Andy’s personal and latest creation that he was testing on us, a oshizushi, box sushi of Aji, sesame seasoned sushi rice, konbu and topped with truffle, was well-balanced, creative and delicious.



Amaebi served in its sauce made from its own head juices. Head to tail eating, prepared simply with the focus of highlighting the merits of the amaebi.



Triple decked uni gunkan sushi, this was just crazy. It was so tall I could barely fit it into my mouth without losing any of that glorious uni that had just arrived. This was just pure indulgent and generosity from the chef in wanting to pleasure and feed.

Negi toro, labouriously hand chopped that gave the toro a good texture but also maintained the fatty flavours of toro and and garnished with spring onions. Again, this piece of sushi was presented with a generous top flavour, awesome.

Throughout the meal what I felt most of the passion and gentleness of Chef Andy’s love for food and for feeding us. The food was prepared with integrity and had a big focus on flavour. So…so what if he is not Japanese and he is presenting sushi, it still is technically beautiful and a feast for the eyes and the stomach, and he has the magic that what anyone in the hospitality industry should have, a desire to serve and entertain, to bind and to comfort people through his expression of food.

Xenri No Tsuki
6/F, Jardine Centre
50 Jardine's Bazaar
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
+852-2576-1880

Robatayaki - Akanoya & Takumi Tokyo

In my very loose definition, a Robatayaki is a Japanese grill over charcoal where the menu of fresh ingredients are laid before you and you point and choose what you want for dinner. The thing about authentic Japanese restaurants is that sometimes the menus are built in a way that exclusive to the Japanese speaker so the best part about this type of Japanese restaurants is that in terms of ordering, it is hard to get lost in translation. So if it looks like a scallop, it is a scallop, if you point at it, they will serve you a scallop. Just remember to smile and to bow politely when you enter and when they shout Irashaimase.

Great robatayakis outside Japan should do two things. They should firstly transport you to a different world - one that will loudly welcome you and maintain this rustic noisy lively atmosphere and slightly overwhelm you with the beautiful meticulously arranged display of food that you will sit in front; and they should always present the best and the freshest ingredients.



I always have fun at robatayakis. You ogle at the food in front of you and point at whatever you fancy (but this can be dangerous for your wallet), the order gets shouted out and the chef shouts a confirmation, then you sit back and wait for your food to get served on a long wooden paddle to you. It entertainment factor is quite cool. Entertainment aside, I like the idea of the robatayaki, it is rustic and more importantly, it is very ingredient driven.

This dining concept has been around for a few years and in those few years I've been to two and have had reasonable meals with shell-shocking bills.

At Inakaya robatayaki, now known as Akanoya Robatayaki, (correct me if I'm wrong) was the first robatayaki to open here, my dining companion and I went a little overboard with the pointing we started at the vegetables, pointing to corn, sweet potatoes, matsutake and then moved on to the fresh array of seafood where we couldn't decide what to have to we decided to just order everything that we wanted from the crabs to the scallops and added chicken and beef to the list... before we knew it, we ordered almost one of everything. Plates of food kept coming off the grill, onto the paddle and directed at us. We, there were three, unabashedly finished everything, and having tasted almost everything, I thought it was good but not outstanding and my main issue is that it freshness quality did not hit the mark for me. What it missed with freshness it did not in the bill and that I didn't feel that was justified.



On another part of the island or Keppel Bay to be exact is Takumi Tokyo offers a great view, as opposed to a conventional dark wooden atmosphere, and fantastic tasting sake. Like the other robatayaki, the freshness - near pristine ingredient - quality missed the mark but there were some bright sparks in the meal that we had. At Takumi Tokyo they have set menus but my preference is the pointing method. Overall, food was good and the great items that we had were the homemade cream cheese as part of the appetizers, seasonal fava beans that were cozy up in their thick cocoons, the glistening mackerel and the onigiri that was seriously aromatic from the toasting treatment and very crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Finished with a crisp floral sake, very lovely.

So, where does robatayaki stand? On entertainment and experience value, it ranks very high. On food, good to very good. On service, very good. My suggestion, if anyone is reading, the vegetable section is a little neglected, I would like to see more seasonal = more freshness = more flavour.

Akanoya Robatayaki
1 Tanglin Road
#01.01 Orhard Parade Hotel
Tel: 6732-1866

Takumi Tokyo
2 Keppel Bay Vista
#02-01 Marina at Keppel Bay
6271 7414
www.takumitokyo.com

Itacho Itacho ...

In Tokyo, there is Midori where the snaking line is one indication that they have found the perfect balance between quality and price. In Singapore, Itacho which has made its way here from Hong Kong tries to fill those shoes. Admirable but the problem is that the balance isn’t quite there yet. When it comes to price versus freshness the quality seems right but with regards to some, the execution quality needs to play catch up. That being said, the value is still evident.

We snacked here, so our sampling size of the menu small. We started with the delicious lobster and mango roll and then got a little carried away with the aburi section, which at Itacho is known as roasted sushi. Sadly, most parts of the roasted sushi section was a letdown with often the fish served over-scorched and other time, an unbalance of proportion of fish to rice or in one case scallop to cod liver. So maybe next time, when I’m in some cute flat shoes and find myself in the line again, I think I’ll start with my traditional favourites and then explore the rolls a little more.

Craving Chirashi

Oh how I badly wanted to eat this today but I couldn’t get anyone to meet me for lunch and I had all these groceries and marketing to get done today. This was the last bowl of Chirashizushi that I had and possibly the best one this year. The chef’s choice for this bowl had lovely nuggets of abalone “skirt”, marinated pieces salmon, tuna, scallop, topped with uni, ikura and something that I fell in love with at Mizutani - tamago castella. Why didn’t anyone tell me earlier that they were topping their chirashis with tamago castella?!

Aoki
1 Scotts Road #02-17
Shaw Centre
Tel : 63338015

Killer Style Teppanyaki

My memories of Teppanyaki are family dinners. For some reason there was a period when I was less than three-feet tall that we used to have weekend dinners at this particular Teppanyaki shop that now closed. And then, since the proliferation of the quick and dirty version of teppanyaki at food courts and I haven’t been to a teppanyaki for a long long time.
There is so much beauty in the simple things.

I’m a big believer of simplicity, pure simplicity. And here, they keep it simple. Very simple – quality ingredients treated with the highest respect (excellent knife skills are a pre-requisite).




As with a lot of eating that we did in Tokyo, there was a close physical proximity to the man that prepares your food. The chefs here have their personal groove; they work with the hot plate and they do things well. Part of the experience is the dramatized cooking, a little flame a little steam and a “smell-track” that is designed to whet your appetite.





Our order included both surf and turf – both exceptional, so if budget and diet permits – have both. The cooking here is cone with commitment and integrity. After the live prawn are presented, they slide onto the hot plate and are gently held down, then deftly beheaded, shelled and de-veined. Special attention is given to everything. Care is taken to flatten the tail shells, removing the unsavoury bits from the head and then coated in oil and left to fry up to a crisp. Head to tail eating. Yum, the crunch and the intense flavours that were concentrated at these extremes were even better than the sweet crunchy flesh. A little salt, some heat and a fresh piece of sweet flesh and all carefully orchestrated on the shiny hot plate – so deliciously simple.



Teppanyaki Akasaka
Tokyo Zennikku Hotel 37F,
1-12-33 Akasaka,
Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel: +81-03-3505-1437

Eggs&Eggs&Obsessions

I don’t know what it is or how it happened but I love eggs. When I read a menu and I see poached egg, usually everything else fades into the background. When I’m seated at the sushi counter and I spy a block of tamago, I'll have to have a piece or when there is an onsen tamago on the menu, I’ll have an order of that too please, thank you.

mentaiko tamago

Then there is something about an egg and egg combination that is classic and more seductive – I keep thinking about the cover picture Jean-Georges Vongerichten Simple to Spectacular cookbook of his signature egg caviar dish. Over dinner last week, I discovered another egg on egg combination that I loved – Mentaiko Tamago. I had this at Mimigar last week and it was perfectly satisfying. The tamago wasn’t too sweet or too greasy but moist and deliciously punctuated with the tang and distinct mentaiko flavour. I think they should put this on the regular menu.

Mimigar
1 Nanson Road,
#01-08, Gallery Hotel
Tel: 6235-1511

Tenshin: An Art Mastered

I have a deep fear of deep fat frying and most frying for that matter. A pot of hot fat coupled with my usual sense of clumsiness, are a bad combination together. As a matter of fact, I just managed to land a few splutters of hot oil yesterday and so I’m nursing some burns. And so, with regards to cooking, I love most of it but if someone else could do the frying for me, please be my guest.

Tenshin I would say is a confident restaurant. In this age where we praise super foods and organic, deep fried is generally relegated to bad food; you have to be really confident that what is served is top quality deep fried food that has nothing to do with the greasy tag that can make you feel sick in the stomach.



Here frying is an art form. The work is hot, intense and precise. It starts with a basket of fresh ingredients that are then lightly coated with a barely there tempura batter. Working in pairs behind the copper shield the tempura masters swiftly drop the ingredients into the hot oil and then pulled up at an exact moment and then instantly set in front of you. Each item so perfectly fried. Hot, light and crispy and integrity of the ingredient preserved through the cooking process that allows you to taste its absolute essence - I don’t think I had ever really tasted a matsutake till I ate at Tenshin: I could almost taste and imagine the earth that it grew in.

Seasoning is left up to you. Sea salt or flavoured salts – curry, green tea – or swish your tempura around in tempura sauce with grated daikon. And then wash all the goodness down with hot tea, this helps to aid the digestive process.

Bits and pieces of my lunch:

The mini kaiseki set that consisted of a salad, a sashimi plate, tempura of three types of seafood and three types of vegetables + separate order of uni, scattered tempura rice served with pickles and miso soup and dessert.

Tenshin
1 Cuscaden Road
Regent Hotel #03-01
Tel:6735-4588