I was invited to a Cook & Dine Session Event by OpenRice (http://sg.openrice.com/). It was a cooking demo held at La Galerie De Detrich (The Cendex @ 120 Lower Delta Road, #01-04) from 11am to 1pm. We learnt about modern Japanese cooking with Chef Tadashi Takahashi.

I'm allowed to bring along another friend, but I chose to bring along my smaller aunt. She's a great cook and she loves Japanese food (sounds rhyme eh?). Anyway, she is so excited that she woke up early in the morning and gave me the "morning" call.

We learnt and tasted the following simple yet complicated dishes:
1. Salmon Sashimi with Japanese Shiso Sauce
2. Beef Sirloin Misozuke
3. Japanese Sakura Mochi






















































































































Reviews of the food:
Salmon Sashimi with Japanese Shiso Sauce (9/10)
I really liked the sauce. The taste is somewhat spicy, sour and sweet. It just tantalizes your tastebuds, a real cool way to have Salmon Sashimi with. I've always thought that Salmon Sashimi goes only with wasabi and I didn't thought that it goes so well with this self made Shiso sauce! The alfafa and the rest of the raw veggies goes so well with the salmon. Thumbs up!

Beef Sirloin Misozuke (7/10)
I felt that the beef was a little too hard to chew on. However, as the beef has been marinated in sweet miso for a day, it tasted somewhat like "Charsiew" (sweet roasted pork). The sweet miso sauce tastes a little peanut flavored, with smoky taste. The salad is made up of only arugula (which some calls it as the rocket) and the whole dish was drizzled with the handmade special sauce. Overall, I liked the sauce with arugula more than with the beef.

Japanese Sakura Mochi (8/10)
This is a real eye-opener, I've always known the mochi to be those chewy kind with fruit fillings wrapped inside (like Taiwanese mochi) or those with soy powder on the exterior and nothing inside. But this one, it's sort of like glutinous rice with red bean filling and wrapped with a sakura leaf on the outer. You can get those sakura leaves at Japan supermarket, like Meidi-ya or some Japanese cuisine stores would sell them. They come in a pack of 50 pieces and the leaves are salty by default. For less saltiness, you can choose to soak the leaves in water for more than 10 minutes and change the water, then do the process again. I loved the taste as the saltiness first hits your tongue, then the sweet glutinous rice and the sweet tasty red bean. But you can't have one-after-another as you'd get sick and tired of the taste after 2 or 3 pieces. I think you're feeling that I'm being contradicting but you know, some food you can't have alot at one go?

If you wish to have a copy of the recipe, do leave a comment here with your email address and I'd email you with it!

OpenRice has a personal interview with him, wish to know more about him, click here: http://sg.openrice.com/singapore/restaurant/article/detail.htm?article_id=400

Labels: Food, Japanese Cuisine

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