A delectable trip to land of the rising sun

PUNE: It was a quick, delectable trip all the way to the land of the rising sun and back. Right from the sweet-and-salty 'California temaki' and the fresh crabstick salad to the tasty 'teppanyaki' and the signature egg fried rice. The Japanese feast proved to be a gastronomic delight for participants at the Times Pune Festival's Cooking Fiesta at Hotel O's Harajuku on Friday afternoon.
Lined up for the cuts and mixes were an array of exotic salads, greens, condiments and sauces. Chef Alex's presentation skills were enough to keep the audience engaged in dishes foreign to them, yet easy to understand and all the more delicious to taste.
'Temaki,' or hand roll, is a large cone-shaped piece of nori on the outside with the ingredients spilling out from the wide end. Some fresh nori, or Japanese seaweed were rolled with boiled Sushi rice - a short grain rice that becomes sticky when cooked, and topped with cucumber, avocado, lettus and crab stick. "Serve it along with Wasabi (Japanese horseradish), pickle ginger, pickle radish and light soya," said Alex.
He went on to mix freshly-chopped Iceberg lettuce, lolloroso lettuce and crab stick with some fine Japanese mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce. Tossed in a serving bowl, the salad was garnished with prawn roe and found many a connoisseurs among those in attendance.
The teppanyaki is a fine blend of tuna, salmon, scallops and prawns with onions, green and red capsicum, broccoli and leeks. "It's a seafood combination, a typical maincourse dish usually consumed as a maincourse dish along with the 'temaki' and crabstick salad in most Japanese homes", he said. Sake, or the traditional Japanese rice wine, flowed freely, too. "Sake goes well with teppanyaki," he added.
Sushi rice was used yet again, this time to be mixed with finely chopped capsicum, carrot and spring onion, and whisked egg, and later flavoured with white pepper powder and garlic soya. "Sushi rice mixed with vinegar and all these ingredients tastes even better," said Alex.
"I loved the salad. It was very tasty. The dish is quite easy to prepare," said Beena Ghodke, who watched every step of each of the recipes with intense focus . Much of the ingredients were sourced from specialty grocey stores within the city or abroad.
For Sally Burby, the dishes will provide much curiosity. An avid cook, who looks to try out different cuisines in her kitchen, Burby said, "Sourcing these ingredients may not be easy, so it would be a bit difficult to make Japanese dishes at home. But I liked what I tasted here today. I totally loved Alex's presentation skills."
Known for offering an impressive Japanese menu, Harajuku provided a glimpse into the very heart of Japan: its food culture.
"We are seeing an increasing number of Indians savouring Japanese food here," said Alex.