Who doesn’t love a bowl of good unagi rice? This was something that I sometimes treat myself at Japanese restaurants, the sweetness of eel with it’s soft, creamy texture on a bed of steamed rice, yums. They can get a bit pricey at the restaurants, but here’s an idea – why not make this at home?!
To be honest, this was more of an assembling of food rather than actual cooking, since you can get these eels frozen and ready to eat upon heated up from your favorite grocer or online shops. Anyway, here goes –
Ingredients:
- a slab of frozen unagi
- an egg
- spring onion
- a piece of seaweed (optional)
- for extra sauce – brown sugar & mirin (or chinese rice wine)
- rice
Instructions:
- unagi really needs to just be soaked in hot water, or microwave for a couple minutes
- onsen egg – 63 degree for an hour on sous vide
- sauce – on low heat, stir 3-4 tablespoon brown sugar into 1/2 cup rice wine, until thickens
- spring onion & seaweed are for deco, see pics above
As a bonus, did you know that these eels have a life cycle complete opposite of salmon? They were all born in a very specific yet unknown location somewhere in the pacific ocean near Guam, then swam up to the various rivers in Taiwan, Japan, and such to live their entire lives until a time when they go back to that specific spot in the ocean again to have an orgy.. that or end up on our stomach.
Yums.
We Malaysians love buffets, but more often than not, most buffets around Klang Valley offers a variety of many different cuisines, much like the cultural make up of the country, which allows us to sample many varying dishes at the same time. Now that’s not a bad thing, but sometimes, you just want to concentrate on (mostly) one single cuisine, and you want it buffet style.
If that’s your calling and your choice of cuisine happens to be Japanese food, then Tatsu’s Saturday dinner buffet may just be something you want to check out.
Authentic Japanese Buffet at Tatsu
The Saturday dinner buffet featuring authentic Japanese cuisine started at on the 6th of August and will run through 26 November 2016. We were among the few fortunate invitees to be sampling the spread on the first day of its offering at Intercontinental Hotel.
The all-you-can-eat deal is priced at RM 118 nett per adult and RM 69 nett for children between age 5-11 years.
Sushi or Sashimi anyone?
The spread is concocted by Assistant Chef Tommy Kuan and comprises of some 75 items, and obviously, we got the night started at the raw bar with some sushi & sashimi.
Here you find a selection of salmon, tuna, and butter fish sashimi in pretty generous cuts. There’s ebi, tamago, inari, sake, and maguro sushi as well as some sushi rolls to pick from. Quality are more than decent, though lacking some of the more premium ingredients like amaebi or otoro, this is to be expected at this price point I suppose.
onsen egg, baby octopus, and other small dishes
Other dishes from the “appetizer” bar includes those perfectly prepared Onsen eggs, salad, baby octopus, and a selection of small Japanese vegetable dishes which I really enjoy.
some pre-cooked Japanese dishes too
For those who likes pre-cooked items, there are a few selections too. Udon, soup, chawamushi, edamame, spicy tofu, miso soup, and even Japanese curry. To be honest, these aren’t my usual dishes to go for in a buffet such as this, because what I really enjoy more is up next…
made to order teppanyaki dishes
The live teppanyaki cooking!
Here you pick the ingredients (salmon, prawns, squid, butter fish, chicken, beef, mushroom, vege etc) and have the chef cook on the spot. They’re usually ready in 5-10 minutes and then you can enjoy the piping hot teppanyaki dishes. I thought their chicken teppanyaki was particularly delicious.
“ala minute” dishes – ebi tempura, saba, kaki furai, sawara teriyaki
In addition to teppanyaki, there are also a selection of “ala minute” dishes you can order to be served to your table. These includes ebi tempura hand roll, California hand roll, salmon teriyaki, saba shioyaki, sanma shioyaki, chicken teriyaki, sawara teriyaki, tempura moraiwase, and kaki furai.
Some of these dishes tend to get tepid & tired looking on a buffet spread if they’ve been left there for a while, so having them freshly made to order is a great idea.
beautifully crafted desserts
Then of course, there’s Japanese desserts such as shiratama zenzai (red bean soup with mochi), manju (traditional Japanese confection), and assortments of ice cream, including one of my favorites – black sesame flavor.
fresh fruits, black sesame ice cream, onsen eggs, Haze & KY
I really enjoyed the buffet spread, and though it offers pretty decent value for the price at a up class hotel restaurant in the heart of KL. If you’re up to some authentic Japanese buffet, do not that the last day to enjoy this at Tatsu is at the end of November 2016, don’t miss out.
Address:
Tatsu Japanese Cuisine
Intercontinental Hotel
165 Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.159767, 101.718045
Tel: 03-2161 1111
Web: www.intercontinental.com
