The inverted hour shape glass, with luminous yellow text and bright red bottle cap, has always been a staple product in my home. Being an Asian family soy sauce is used everyday to help add, the “saltiness” into flavouring our food. The Kikkoman brand is practically like family to me. The distinctive bottle can be seen in restaurants and supermarkets globally.
Mr Bing of Kikkoman, held a press event at the wonderfully Matsuri St James. We were greeted with a “festival of senses”, authentic and innovative Japanese food using Kikkoman soy sauce.
Kikkoman soy sauce is made of 4 simple ingredients
Soy bean
Water
Salt
Wheat
It takes over 6 months to process and the results are a dark reddish brown, transparant liquid. You can taste the all-natural goodness from the product with no added bits.
The evening kicked off with Michelin star chef Simon hulstone, cooking a simple dish of vegetables and scallops. The marinade was simply soy sauce, saki, mirin, and sesame oil.
For starters we all had assorted sushi and rolls, the head chef Hiroshi, demonstrated how sushi is made. With speedy hands and accuracy our dinner was prepared in a flash.
Next up was assorted tempura, fluffy coated batter prawns, squid and vegetables accompanied with a light flavour dip.
For mains the teppan grills installed in the tables were used to cook our food in front of eyes. Guest was given a choice of ginger marinated Alaskan black cod or a Scottish dry aged Angus steak. The food was sizzling and fizzed as we waited eagerly for food to be ready.
There was a great marbling on the steaks, and I was lucky enough to taster a piece from someone next to me. The Alaskan black cod had a rich soft velvety texture that melted in the mouth instantly. The ginger marinade married perfectly to bring out the rich succulent flavour.
The best was saved to last as the meal ended with a spectacular theatrical performance of the “fire ball ice-cream”. Crepes were lightly toasted, along with chunks of pineapple. Then huge blocks of ice cream were added to the teppan grill and Grand Marnier was poured over it. Then the chef dimmed the lights and shouted ready. The place explored with flames and the rooooof was on FIRE!
Surprisingly, none of the ice cream was burnt, and we happily devoured our desserts.
Matsuri st James has to be one of the best teppanyaki places I have been so far, the highlight of the meal was the ginger black cod, and I shall be returning to dine here once again.
here’s a video I made from the night on youtube
