CHENNAI: I came to India in 2016. It’s been a year and six months now, but it didn’t take me longer than two weeks to love the cuisine here. Initially it was strange because there was too much spice in everything. People would ask me to add more spice. Now, even I like the food spicy. My favourites in India are biryani and tandoori. At our kitchen, after service, the boys make south Indian food and I love it.
I’m 31, and my three children and wife are back at home in the Philippines, which is exactly eight hours from here by flight. When I started my career in 2005, I specialised in Mexican cuisine, but it wasn’t challenging enough. My father was a teppanyaki chef. He ran a Japanese cuisine restaurant, and asked me to train under him. That was the best thing that happened to me.
A year after that I travelled across the Philippines, worked at different restaurants, and in about three years I moved to Europe to set up my own place specialising in Japanese. I then moved to Suriname in South America, worked for four years, and felt I needed a change of place. That’s when I moved to India.
I didn’t think I’d find this job; I applied along with many others, through Facebook!
The culture in Chennai is something I am still getting used to. During my first few days, things like men and women having separate seats in buses struck me. And in the restaurant, everything is separate for vegetarian and non-vegetarians, including sushi bars! That was very unusual for me. Because sushi is always a mix of both.
In my time at the Teppan restaurant here, we had three festivals. In all of them, yakiniku sauce — its sweet, savoury and the flavour from sesame, was a big hit. I, of course, added a little more spice to it than usual. It’s a change I have loved to make for the people here. They also love teriyaki and wasabi sauce.
The people of Chennai are also recognising me as the man who makes Japanese food with fire shows. I love how excited my customers get when I use machine gun, juggle with a spatula, or the best — basketball trick, where a slice of egg is thrown into their mouth, and they yelp in excitemtent. Children, especially, love these tricks. The tricks have become a part of my daily routine here.
But my specialities are beef, lobster, and pork dishes. Grilled lobster, nikumaki and shifudo maki made with rice balls, sushi platter, rack of lamb made the teppan way, thongarashi ebi yaki, and yasai tempura moraiwase — they are most loved by people of Chennai, and are a must try!
Tips
● Do not add ajinomoto to any Japanese food
● Slicing your meat thin is key to cooking it right
● Anything that you saute, take it off the flame as soon as it cooks
● The best mizcan vinegar can be made only with the equal amount of sugar, salt and vinegar
● If you want more spice in your Japanese food, add fongarrashi and wasabi
Shiffudo maki
Ingredients (1 roll)
● Vinegared sauce for 120 g to 150 g of sticky rice ● 200 ml of mizkan vinegar ● 1 tbsp of sugar ● 1 tsp of salt
Method: Put in the small pan with slow fire and mix it well in 1 to 2 minutes. After simmering, mix it in hot sticky rice and mix it until the rice turns more sticky and shiny.
For seafood marination
● Salmon: 15 g ● Tuna: 15 g ● Boiled shrimp: 2 pcs ● Seabass: 15 g ● Japanese mayo: 5 tbsp
● Tongarashi: 3 tsp ● Sweet chilli: 2 tsp ● Scallion: 1 tbsp
Method: Cut all sea food into small pieces, and mix it with mayo, tongarashi, sweet chilli and scallion. Place a maki mat and half sheet of dry sea weed, and put the sticky rice on the seaweed. Now place the seafood mixture in sticky rice and roll it.
Grilled Lobster Robusuta Teppan
Ingredients (1 roll)
● Lobster tail: 180 to 250 g ● Soya sauce: 1tbsp ● Salt ● Pepper ● Tongarashi: 1 tsp ● Sweet chilli: 1 tsp ● Sake: 1 tsp ● Half slice lemon ● Butter: 15 g
Method: Remove the head of the lobster, and skin the sides and tail. Remove the meat inside. If you don’t have a grill at home, use a pan, and add a slice of the lobster meat on medium heat. Saute it with lemon, soya, butter, and remaining ingredient. Add tongarashi, sweet chili, and sake for fire.
Yasai Moriawase Tempura
Ingredients
● Carrots: 10 g ● Zuchini: 10 g ● Sweet potato: 10 g ● Onion: 5 g ● Eggplant: 10g ● Tempura flour: 2 cups ● Water: 1/2 cup ● Ice cube: 200 g
Tempura sauce ingredients
● Soya sauce: 1tbsp ● Sugar: 1tsp ● Mirin: 1tsp ● Grated ginger: 5 g ● Grated raddish: 5 g
Method: Slice the vegetable in any design, as long as it can easily cook or fry. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to the slices, and coat it with tempura flour.
In a separate a bowl, mix tempura flour, water, and ice cubes. Make sure it is not sticky not watery. Now add tempura butter to the mixture, add the vegetables, and fry in 1800 or 2200 temperature.