Kakizashi Sushi

 Kakizaki San. Sushi Expert Chef. Formerly of Hyatt. Opened several Japanese restaurant for Hyatt Hotel in Asia.

The treasure chest. His inventory for the night. Just good enough for 8 to 10 people.

 The Otoro - (Bluefin Tuna belly) the most prized of all tuna. This batch was never frozen.

 Fresh creamy "uni" or sea urchin roe. Not runny, not smelly and not at all fishy. Heavenly!!

 The other "uni". I prefer this one. It has a slightly more pronounced urchin taste. I will grab any opportunity to get another taste of this delicacy. It was my highlight for the night.

This is it!! The best meal I ever had in my whole life!!  Sushi at it's best is the pinnacle of all meals!!!  Especially done by a "master" sushi chef. Not just any chef who knows how to ball rice, puts a green paste and places a raw fish on top.

This so unlike the sushi that we've grown accustomed to. This was no Dynamite, Rock and Roll, Spider fucking sushi. No fucking mayo and mango allowed. Take that shit away please.

This is what it's all about. Sushi in its most basic and simplest form.

A great sushi chef starts with his ingredients. The freshest and the best ingredients of that day. He knows the season when a particular seafood is at its best. He knows the the best time and place in which a certain ingredients is at its finest. He establishes a relationship with the supplier to give him the best. That intimate chef-fishmonger relationship takes time. It takes a lot of time to gain the trust of the purveyor for him to give you the best. The purveyor should be assured that you know what your doing and will be skilled enough to do the best for his goods.

Each ingredient (pardon my cliche) tastes like the sea. Every bite is like an explosion of flavors reminiscent of the sea.  Each particular ingredient has their own unique taste and flavor but one thing that is consistent is the fresh "sea" taste. I honestly cant put in words. It's just that fresh raw seafood is amazing.

His attention to detail starts from his ingredients, the type of rice, the doneness of the rice, which vinegar is best, the kind of soy sauce and finally the use of fresh as in grated wasabi. 

Our host, Marc Handl, Hotel Manager for Tokyo Peninsula, is a sushi expert. Having lived in Tokyo almost all his life, he knows his sushi. He knows the most passionate sushi chefs. He taught me that a great sushi chef pays attention to every aspect of the sushi. The ingredients and the season in which the seafood is at its best. The rice, how its cooked and its doneness. The vinegar used. The vinegar they use for the rice is sometimes even more expensive than wine. Same with the soy sauce and the nori. Attention to detail and an eye for quality should be a sushi chef trait. 

I learned that great sushi is so unlike what we have here in Manila or probably anywhere else. Uncomparable. 

Food Truths:
1. Seafood used for that meal should never have been frozen. It should be served hours after it has been caught or harvested. Expert food handling is a must.
2. Sushi rice is kept at room temperature.
3.It should be bite sized and fit in ones mouth easily. 
4. Soy sauce should only be a hint. It shouldn't mask the great flavor of the sushi. 
5.Fresh grated wasabi is still the standard. It's not even in the same planet as the powder and paste variety we get.

Sushi might be simple but when done by a master sushi chef it becomes an amazing sometimes surreal food experience.

Unforgettable, awesome and amazing!!!

Tsunahachi Tempura

 Tempura master preparing his light frothy batter. It looked like pancake batter but a little more frothy. Well beaten perhaps.

 The shrimp tempura. Kuruma Ebi!!

 UKOY!! Shrimp cake tempura. Nice crispy shrimp cake. Small shrimp still crunchy and not well done. Nice!

 Clam tempura!! Really great.

  Tempura is one of the culinary  influences of the west that was widely accepted by the locals. It is a recent food trend for the Japanese starting at the turn of the 20th century. Nowadays, tempura restaurants are all over Tokyo.

Tsunahachi is an 80 year old Tempura restaurant in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I've seen their name in almost all of the Tokyo food guides that I've read. This was one of my "must" eats for my trip to Tokyo.

Tempura is relatively simple. Here are a few things to consider when eating tempura:

1. The batter wrapping the tempura should be light and crispy. If you dip it in the sauce, it absorbs the sauce quickly and it breaks apart easily.

2. The tempura shouldn't be rancid and shouldn't taste of oil. A good tempura restaurant always bear in mind to change and replace old oil with fresh ones.

3. The tempura shouldn't be overcooked. The seafood and the vegetables should still retain its fresh taste. The shrimp or ebi should still be crunchy not chewy or tough.

Their tempura is truly exceptional. The batter is light and crispy when fried. The seafood they use are fresh. They have "live seafood" aquariums similar to those found in Chinese restaurant. The eel and shrimp that they used are live and gutted in the counter. The eel...l that they used put up an exceptional fight but eventually the cook won!!

The combination of a good oil nice crispy batter, fresh seafood and exceptional skill makes the difference!!

 I will be honest. Among all the high-end japanese dishes I ate in Tokyo, Tsunahachi was the one restaurant  that wasn't too far-off from the ones we have in Manila. I can compare it to the tempura of Little Tokyo in Pasong Tamo. Thier ebi tempura isn't that too different from the ones in Tsunahachi.

It was the eel and the clam tempura that was really exceptional. The eel was soft and buttery. The clam tempura with the mushrooms was also very good. Like what I always say, you start with really good ingredients and you can't go wrong.

Imahan Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki Myth

1. It's a stew.

2. All the ingredients are all served at the same time in one big bowl in a simmering broth.

3. any beef can be used just as long as its sliced thinly

I love sukiyaki. It's always been one of my favorite Japanese dishes. It's nice sweet broth is very pleasant and comforting. The leeks, carrots and radish is ok. compliments the broth. The thinly sized beef is also very good. Combined into one big stew it provides a very hearty and rustic meal. 

I've been to Japan a few times before when I was younger. I wasn't a chef yet and my understanding of food wasn't that refined yet. But I think i already had a heightened sense of food appreciation. We ate in a sukiyaki in which they prepared sukiyaki table side style. It was worlds apart from the sukiyaki I had here in Manila. I never forgot that.

In my recent trip to Japan, I made sure that I would have that unique sukiyaki experience again. 

I went to Imahan at the 14th Floor of the Takashimaya Bldg at Shinjuku.

http://www.imahan.com/e-guide/takashimaya_shop.html 

Imahan Sukiyaki Restaurant. A decades old restaurant that specializes in "nabe" dishes or soup/hotpot dishes.

Sukiyaki done in Manila and done in Imahan has some similarities. The vegetables and condiments we use are the same. Leeks, carrots, vermicelli and silken tofu. Nothing astonishing about that. 

Thats where the similarities end. The method and recipe is really different.

Beef served in this resturant are high-quality Kobe/Wagyu  beef. Probably not A5 but the marbling is still exceptional. Marbling is what makes the beef flavorful.  The beefs flavor and it's "melts in your mouth" texture is what makes it above all the local beef that is served here. Local Filipino beef has no marbling at all. And that makes the world of difference. 

They don't serve the sukiyaki all cooked at once and in one bowl. All the ingredients are served raw. They dont use a broth but use a poaching liquid. I'm sure its soy and sugar based. It's slightly syrupy. they don't use a lot of it. Just enough to cook the beef. To prevent thickening and scorching, they add a little water in order not to burn the sugars in the liquid. Timing is very essential. Too much water too early kills the syrupy flavor, while adding not enough liquid into the almost burned syrup will make the liquid bitter.

First step is that they pour just enough liquid into the shallow pan to "just" immerse the beef in liquid. Take note, not completely submerged. Just enough liquid to cook the beef. Similar to pan frying if using oil.

 Second step, the beef is simmered in the broth and is taken out the millisecond that the last pink coloration of raw meat is done. Never overcooked! Just done perfectly. The cooked beef is still succulent and is coated with that nice sweet syrupy liquid. Then is dipped into a raw beaten egg. To all westerners, this is a salmonella and e.coli double red flag so you can skip this step. I didn't and it was worth it. eggs add another dimension into the meat.

The same cooking method is  also done with the vegetables. They are never left too long in the simmering broth. Just cooked enough but still retaining its fresh flavor.

Food Truths

1. It is cooked in just enough liquid. It is not left in the broth to disintegrate or be overcooked. 

2. All of the ingredients are not overcooked. Cooked only until its just right. Vegetables are removed form the broth just as soon as its done right.

3. Beef makes all the difference. 

4. It is not a stew. The broth is only the medium to cook the meat and the vegetables. They are removed right away and eaten instantly.

Food Truth!

Globalization has brought different cuisines to our doorsteps. If you look at our malls there are a myriad of cuisines available to us. Japanese fast food restaurants line up the ground floor of our malls. There are usually 2 or 3 Chinese restaurants in any given mall. There are even a proliferation of far away cuisines like Brazilian churrasco, Portoguese, middle eastern cuisines and other exotic countries cuisine.

During my trips abroad, I always see to it to try the local fare. I've eaten dim sum in Hong Kong. I've tried a Peking Duck in Beijing. I've eaten sushi in Japan. My realization is that most of the time or almost all the time, the food we eat here from these restaurants are just pitiful variations, second rate versions or even renditions of the original thing.

For example, if you eat a roast duck here in a high-end chinese restaurant, it is still good but way below par from the roast duck in Hong Kong or Beijing.  In Hong Kong/Beijing the Roast Ducks skin is crispier and detached from the meat. It looks like and tastes like it has been lacquered and varnished by this special sauce that makes the skin parchment crispy but also sweet and succulent. The meat inside is still flavorful and tender.  It's miles apart from the roast duck that is served here. The roast duck served here lacks the most important factor or thing to consider when eating roast duck. The skin. It should be crispy. The fat should be cooked thoroughly. You should taste the lacquer (malt sugar and vinegar). The meat is often tough and that happens when it is hurriedly cooked and the outside burns but the meat inside is still raw. Real Peking Duck should be roasted slowly in a moderate fire. Cooking the inside but not scorching the skin, leaving it evenly cooked.

My quest is to venture out and try food that we have learned to love from its ORIGIN. In it's virgin state. Not adulterated, revised or revamped. It's original and authentic form.

For example, we have learned to love pizza. There are hundreds of Italian restaurants that have sprouted all over Manila. They serve traditional italian favorites  like pizzas, pastas and calzones.  We even have our own preferences. They also offer different variations such as   thin crust, thick crust, stuffed crust, and other versions or if I might say abominations.

But in me, there is a skeptic, I always ask myself what does a Pizza Margarita taste like in Naples or in Rome? Chef's here might think that we have all the ingredients to make a Pizza Margarita here in Manila. It's very basic. Flour, water and yeast makes the dough. Tomatoes, garlic and onions make the sauce. Mozzarella cheese is spread on the top and is finished by a basil leaves. That's it!

It's not. Bakers would say that the flour from Manila is different from the flour they use in Italy. The wheat they use is different and how coarse they want the flour  is also different.  The water they use have a different acidity thus making  the end product for the dough different. The texture is different. It reacts differently to the fire. Next, the vegetables for the sauce are worlds apart. The Philippines is not really known for their produce. The heat and the climate is very unforgiving to our producee. So, I can honestly say that the tomatoes, garlic and onions we use are not the same. So i can suffice that the end product will also come out...different. Lastly, would be the cheese, real Italians use Buffalo Mozzarella. It is miles apart from the pre-packaged and vacuum packed variety that we use here in Manila. Some are imported but aren't even Italian. We use danish mozzarella mostly because its cheaper.

So there goes, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the efforts done by restaurateurs who opt to open internationally themed restaurants here in Manila. Filipinos should be exposed to what the world has to offer.

But for me the quest only begins here. I WANT TO SEEK THE TRUTH. I want to taste what a real sushi tastes like in Japan and compare it to what we serve here. I want to eat real Fish and Chips from England and see how the batter is like. Is it crispy? Chewy? Do they really serve that sweet mayo and pickles shit with that thing? I want to try what a real Tom Yung Gung tastes like. All I've tried here is a glorified version of sinigang with a hint of lemongrass and the special "patis" (fish sauce) that they add!!!

I wanna know the truth!! What real food tastes like when they are made in its origin, using local ingredients, local centuries old methods and made by  local chefs.

I want to know what makes it different from the versions they serve here!

Truth VS Myth!!That's my quest!

I want to know the truth so at least I can sleep well at night thinking that the Hainanese chicken I had from the restaurant in Binondo is true!It's not some boiled chicken shit that they force down our mouths and claim that its Hainanese Chicken or Hong Kong White Chicken. I've had White Chicken and Hainanese Chicken in Singapore and in Hong Kong and the fat chef with the dirty apron served it to me yellow and it had slighly pinkish meat with red bones!!!! It was hella good!  If you think it was raw, go ahead, tell the chef and see where that cleaver goes!


I've experienced my share of food truths. It's exhilarating and amazing. I want to spread share the truths I've tasted! You deserve the truth. I don't care if you can't handle the truth. The truth will always set you free!!