Meet a Japanese culinary master
Wagyu beef and foie gras with a sesame peanut butter sauce.
By Eu Hooi Khaw
OCT 17 — When I was told Japanese chef Tetsuya Yanagida was now at the Benkay Japanese Restaurant at the Nikko Kuala Lumpur, I was eager to go there. I’ve always had a good meal when Tetsuya is at the helm, and that goes for the places where he has worked in.
These include Zipangu at the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur, which he turned into an award-winning Japanese fine-dining restaurant, and Mizu (in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur) where I had some great meals. His food is always about something new and I like that a lot. I still remember his braised wagyu cheek at Zipangu.
Chef Tetsuya was beaming at me like an old friend when we took our seats at the sushi counter. I have had some super experiences sitting at this counter, and I felt at home there. In a jiffy, the chef placed before us a salad of scallop with plum dressing. The scallops were fat, half-raw and sweet, and the mildly tart dressing was fragrant with shredded shiso leaves. There was a slice of octopus and crabmeat on top as well.
Next, there was a pinkish roll of meat on a square of tightly packed shaved ice laid on a bamboo leaf. It was wagyu, lightly shabu-shabu-ed, rolled up with fine shreds of spring onion. Atop it was foie gras, then a sauce of sesame with peanut butter.
Teppanyaki baby sea bream with Malay spices.
Wow! I had to make that wonderful moment last when I put it in my mouth. The wagyu just melted away with the foie gras, together with the light, nutty and fragrant sauce.
Prawn Teppanyaki in Teriyaki Sauce wasn’t as simple as it seemed. The prawns had been “deep-fried very fast”, said Tetsuya, “then move on to the teppan and sauté. So it’s different.” Indeed. The texture was just perfect, so springy and succulent they were. He placed these over asparagus spears, with a light teriyaki sauce over them.
Another cooked dish was the Grilled Baby Sea Bream with Malay spices. It’s the chef gathering all his food experiences of his nine years in Malaysia (he comes from Chiba, a seaside town near Tokyo), then deciding on a spiced approach to his fish. I tasted cumin and a little fennel which had been steeped in bonito stock and poured over the fish. It didn’t quite work: I had to stop myself asking for chilli with it.
I cannot tell you how much I like teppan fried rice. We just had to have some. The rice was just delicious: I kept turning up scallop and prawn bits, and crunchy asparagus among the sticky, tasty rice.
The chef’s timing was so spot on. How did he know we needed a bowl of soup? And there it was, the traditional mushroom soup of bonito stock, with the sublime yuzu (Japanese lime) strips in it.
Macha ice-cream in mochi... delightful.
The dessert was what you would expect of Tetsuya. It was macha (green tea) ice-cream wrapped in a thin mochi skin and topped with red bean. You have to take quick bites before the ice-cream melts. I loved the mochi parcels, and the sticky sweetness of the red bean with them.
There are some things that leap out of the menu: the Assorted Wafu Cheese which is camembert with beanpaste, marscapone with gut, and cream cheese with sour plum. Definitely for the adventurous. But I’ll be very inclined towards his Jibuni Stewed Wild Duck, Stewed Beef Tongue and Grilled Mrinated Cod with Saikyo Bean Paste.
There are affordable set lunches here, such as the Grilled Cod with Teriyaki or salt, at RM55, Assorted Sushi at RM65, Assorted Sashimi on Vinegar Rice Set at RM65 and the Wagyu Beef Teppanyaki set at RM120.
Benkay is in the Nikko Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Ampang. Tel: 03-2161 1111.
