Sushi Sawada – Sublime Sushi

I’m not quite sure if I can describe it. I have no pictures and no proper words. The best way I can think of saying it is - Mind blowing sushi.

The sushi counter is an immaculate single piece of wood that sits only six and behind the counter stands Sawada with his stunning knives, his ice box refrigerator where he ages his fish, a small charcoal burner and also a clock that is 30 minutes too fast (we found out this was to ensure his alcohol enriched guest don’t miss the last train home).

For the few hours at the sushi counter, it is an opportunity to connect with Chef Sawada and for him to demonstrate his skill and passion. The meal is an eye opening experience and these are some of the things that I learnt ...
- My idea of “freshness” was turned upside down. For me fresh always meant – this fish was caught earlier today/ we bought this at the market today/ this just came off the boat – and fresh was always best, but here old is gold and the aging process of the fish is a very large part of making exceptional sushi here because the texture and flavor improves.
- Aburi sushi should always be done the traditional way for the best result. Here at Sawada, he does this by holding a piece of bincho charcoal over the fish for the skin the crisp and the oils to develop. This sounds like a really DUH statement to make but up till then, all the aburi sushi I’ve had have been done aburi-ed with a blowtorch which have always left a lick of butane flavour, in contrast, Sawada does this by holding white hot bincho charcoal which produces a pristine tasting piece of sushi.

This is the rundown of what we had ...
Sashimi
Hirame
Engawa
Chu toro

Squid and abalone with uni (squid aged 10 days)
Aburi saba (aged 2 days)
Aburi toro (aged 2 weeks)
Barracuda maki
Steamed seasonal kisu white bait
Smoked buri o-toro – bacon of the sea
Otoro (aged 5 days)

Nigiri Sushi
Sayori
Mirugai
Steamed Kumura ebi
Akami maguro
Chu-otoro
O-toro (aged 2 weeks)
Aburi o-toro (aged 2 weeks)
Spring Katsuo with smoked rice
Ika
Hokkaido bafun uni (uni ice cream as Sawada jokingly described)
Anago with yuzu salt
Saba
Tamago

Gooseberries to end

Eating here is a very beautiful experience. Sushi Sawada is small and intimate and everything is personal - the napkins that are painted by his wife, the fish that is hand-picked, broken down and carefully aged and the whole meal service is done with so much grace, humility and humour that nowhere else that I have dined at comes close to this experience.

Simply sublime sushi, thank you Sawada-san!

Sushi Sawada
MC building, 3F
5-9-19 Ginza, Chuo-ku
Tokyo

Lunch at ManWah

I’ve been to Man Wah for lunch twice since I’ve started living here and it is one of the best dim sum places that I've been to. Fook Lam Moon is a very close second for me, and what makes these two places that I have had really good dim sum at is simply really good execution of food.



My first lunch here was just a small sampling of their dim sum and to my surprise everything that we had was really good. I expected it to be good and for some dishes to fall short but I’m glad to report that everything that we had was GOOD. One of the best things that we had was their signature Black pepper beef puff pastry and this was probably the best thing that we had that lunch. The beef is pepper with a bite and pastry is paper crisp and not greasy, and well layered to for enough textural bite but light and airy, really amazing.

 

 My second lunch here was during the hairy crab season where they featured a hairy crab menu. The menu featured some of their signature dim sum – black pepper beef puff pastry and hairy crab dishes. Whilst the roe is the most prized of the crab and was featured against a bowl of white rice – I felt that there wasn’t enough of it to enjoy it because much of my hairy crab fest experiences are more like "death by hairy crab until the next season", the other dishes used the overlooked parts such as the crab legs that were sautéed with Shanghainese rice cakes. In addition to the menu, we ordered a serving of crab meat and roe tart and this was the highlight for me. A little over the top tiny tart, flaky pastry cup packed with probably the amount of roe and crab that almost equated to a crab. Concentrated hairy crab flavor, now this is what I’m more used to with hairy crab – excess, over the top and now I had my fill to the next hairy crab season. Man Wah didn’t disappoint.





The food is excellent and the XO sauce condiment is something that I could pile on to most things. In addition to that, it is a room with a view and with fabulous service. All in all this is a very good restaurant.

Man Wah
(at Mandarin Oriental HK)
5 Connaught Road West
Tel: +852 2825 4003