A bento box on the go
> Chef Daniel Wong of Pullman Kuala Lumpur’s Japanese restaurant Enju has prepared seven varieties of these tasty meals as takeaways
restaurant Enju in Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre Hotel & Residences. Enju’s chef Daniel Wong enlightened his audience on why the bento box is divided into various compartments. Wong said they are used to house the salad, pickles, appetizer, rice and main dish separately.
Wong explained that the Japanese enjoy the food in each compartment individually, with the rice essentially taken with the pickles while the other dishes are eaten on their own.
However, Malaysians like the mains with the rice and consume the various mix as a whole.
Wong later demonstrated how to prepare three bento boxes with different mains – a teriyaki chicken, a teriyaki salmon, and the vegetarian mushroom sautéed in butter and finished off with some teriyaki sauce.
This vegetarian bento box also came with a special vegetarian spring roll that has a sautéed burdock root filling.
Enju is currently having a Bento Lunch on the Go promotion.
Just call to place an order and then collect the bento box of your choice.
Wong is the man behind this concept. The chef has worked in the food industry for 25 years, from upmarket Japanese restaurants to Japanese cafes serving home-style food and even in the Japanese fast food industry.
This Penang boy got into the food business at a major hotel after he’d finished Form Five and was given the option of working in either the Japanese, Chinese or Western kitchen.
“I had never tried Japanese food before. I thought it was something different and decided to give it a try.”
From then on, his interest grew while working in various restaurants in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
Though Wong spent most of his career in Singapore working under the tutelage of various Japanese masterchefs and also with major Japanese restaurant franchisees, he has also gone to Japan to train with masterchefs there to sharpen his skills in preparing the cuisine as well as to soak up the Japanese culture.
For the Bento Lunch on the Go, Wong has prepared seven varieties to choose from, including shredded beef, freshwater eel (unagi), salmon, chicken cutlet and vegetarian.
These bento sets are priced at RM40 upwards.
For more, visit the Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre Hotel & Residences website.
(left) Chef Wong preparing three Bento boxes that offer different mains such as (clockwise, from above left) teriyaki salmon; teriyaki chicken; and the vegetarian sautéed mushroom with burdock root spring roll.
