HARMONY OF FLAVOURS
A kaiseki menu reflects a Japanese chef’s skills to create a gastronomic dining experience, writes Tan Bee Hong
NO, you cannot select from the menu. Why? Because there is no menu. At Xenri Japanese restaurant, diners who come for the Kaiseki Artistry experience have total faith in chef Patrick Ho’s skills to give them a meal to remember.
Ho says: “There is no menu but we use the freshest ingredients. There is no MSG, no artificial colouring and no preservatives. The kaiseki is a procession of small courses served with exquisite plating.”
Step into the restaurant and you immediately feel a wave of serenity wash over you. There’s open seating but most of the tables are cleverly hidden from view with curtains of thin bamboo.
Look down and you’ll see colourful koi dancing in a moat of water.
ART of THE food
For us, Ho has crafted a six-course Kaiseki Artistry menu. It starts with Aburi Hokkaido Mukimi Hotate or Hokkaido diver scallops in purple sea urchin sauce glaze. The succulent scallop is lightly seared to retain its sweet juices. It’s topped with black tobiko, crunchy tatami iwashi, a sheet of dried baby sardines and shredded shilgocu (red pepper). But it is the creamy sea urchin sauce that makes the dish shine. Though sea urchin (uni) is best served raw, Ho has created a sauce that can only make diners go “Aww... hmmmm”. Words can hardly describe its unique flavour and rich, custardy texture that shoots the dish to gastronomic heights.
With such a kick-off, we are eager to see what other tricks he has under his torque.
The next dish is a no brainer, the chef’s selection of sashimi for the day. Served on ice shaped like an igloo, there are two types of fish and botan ebi (pink shrimp).
Then we are served a smoked saba bisque. The fish packs a light smoked flavour and the soup gets a kick with the addition of sansho pepper.
The meat for the day is slow-cooked French meltique beef, which slices to a delightfully red centre. But since I don’t eat beef, Ho makes me a substitute dish with sliced duck breast on French beans with baby shallots and sauteed himeji mushrooms on the side.
We are feeling pretty stuffed but there’s more. Ho’s award-winning houba meshi is rice flavoured with sansho and chirimen jyako (dried, salted tiny sardines). The rice is wrapped in a houba leaf and steamed.
Mild in flavour but totally satisfying. For dessert, we have warabi mochi with kinako (ground roasted soya bean) and kuro mitsu (Okinawan syrup). It comes with pretty stalks of freshly puffed rice. The mochi, made from bracken starch, is a bit too soft in texture so I coated it with the whole rice puffs for added crunch.
A LA CARTE
From the a la carte menu, we selected unagi kama meshi (RM55). This is a rice dish, cooked in an iron pot with vegetables and topped with grilled eel. To eat, just stir it up. It’s comfort food at its best. There’s plenty here for two people to share and is served with miso soup. This dish is also available with grilled beef, salmon or vegetables.