Sakura A Japanese Fine Dining Experience

"YOU cannot eat raw fish," demanded Satoshi Tanaka, the divisional head of the Hotel Nikko New Delhi. He had a comical air of amazement and worry about him and to avoid his gaze, I busied myself in studying the Sakura menu. But Tanaka had not finished. "If you cannot eat raw fish, then you are giving up lots of options to enjoy Japanese food!" That was said with an air of finalty.

Nikko is the capital's newest five-star deluxe, a 175-room, 10-storeyed property near Connaught Place. The hotel has Japanese management ethos and Indian hospitality. It is the latest addition to the international Nikko hotels chain, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines Limited. And Sakura is the hotel's signature Japanese restaurant.

"Nikko believes that work contentment amongst employees leads to greater guest satisfaction and delight," said Tanaka. I believed him. Not because he was mine host, but because I could see that Nikko was an efficiently run hotel. Each employee was his or her own boss, their power was recognised by the others, and nobody tresspassed on anybody else's territory.

I got first-hand experience of this. I wanted to see Sakura's kitchen. And Tanaka nearly had a fit! Sanjay Sharma, the hotel's F&B divisional head, and my friend from earlier in Bombay, explained: "Chef Yoshimi Igarashi will not let anybody enter his kitchen. Nor have viewers while he cooks. He takes utmost care of his area of work. He's very careful about hygiene. Separate knives, separate chopping boards, for raw and semi-cooked foods. Only in special cases will he come out to meet guests."

Mine must have been a special case. For Chef Igarashi, whose name in Chinese means "50 storms", suddenly appeared to take our order. He was as stealthy as a Japanese Ninja. And he stood there unsmiling, as impassive as a Samurai warrior, wiping big hands on his apron. Tanaka made the introductions, we all bowed to each other (I was about to offer my hand), the dinner order was discussed in Japanese, and my dislike for raw fish was made known.

Chef Igarashi glared at me, then, like the 50 Chinese storms, he whooshed out. Tanaka poured out glasses of Umeshu, which is Japanese plum wine with ice, said "Kampai" which means cheers. He then talked about Sakura. The restaurant is named after the Japanese cherry blossom, he said, a most beautiful, white and pink flower. The sakura's lifespan is three weeks. It blossoms between March and April. And Japan declares a special national holiday, "Hanname", just so that people might see the sakura blossoming!

I had not heard anything like this. However, the Sakura in New Delhi is assured of a long and healthy life. Of this I'm convinced. It is the most expensive restaurant in the country today, the best Japanese, and very popular and successful. You cannot just walk in and expect to get a table. The restaurant's pretty kimonoed managers, Miss Yamada and Miss Takahashi, will simply not hear of it. And their writ runs large in Sakura, so wear your best smile when you enter.

Sixty per cent of the restaurant's clientele is Japanese. Most are house guests. The rest are tourists, embassy staff and corporate chiefs. A lot of Indians dine here too. Most high-profile visitors to the capital do. Also expats. And for some strange reason, the Sakura draws in a huge crowd from Pune. I believe the Deccan city has a dense Japanese population, though I was under the impression that they all came there to meditate at the Osho Ashram. The dining here is very costly. Dinner can cost upto Rs. 2,000 per person. And if you are sitting in one of the private dining rooms at Sakura, then more, around Rs. 3,000. "Even with a company expsnse account, it is expensive," agreed Tanaka. I looked the 54-seater restaurant over carefully to see why. Not because of the interiors, certainly. For Sakura is the height of simplicity and refinement. Sophisticated to the core, yet minimal in decor. I would even say stark.

We sat in one of the private dining areas. Plain wooden chairs and a table. A half-curtain hung over the entrance, like a swing-door in the side room of an Irani restaurant, offering modest privacy. Tanaka said, "We are expensive because we have to pay extra duties to clear perishable food items in New Delhi. We get consignments every one-and-half months from Tokyo. The frozen items come by air, 300 kg at a time, the rest by sea. All our ingredients, 20 varieties of fish that are deep-frozen at 50 degrees C, our dry goods, everything comes from Tokyo. We have a thousand suppliers. We want to give people authentic Japanese food without compromising."

And so to the authentic Japanese fine dining experience, over to Chef Igarashi. But before that, a little explanation about Japanese food and cooking methods. The cuisine is simple and borders on the austere. There is perfection in preparation, cooking and presentation, because the Japanese believe in eating with the eyes first. And the chef's artistic skills are as important as his knowledge of seasoning and the combining of ingredients. The cuisine is elegant in its use of garnish, the arrangement of food, selection of tableware, choice of ingredients. The cooking methods are not so different from each other. Food is boiled or it is broiled, sometimes it is shallow-fried, but mostly it is served raw. There are no spices or masalas in this cuisine, but they use soya sauce, sake (the Japanese rice wine), salt, sugar and miring. Miring is a by-product of sake. If a dish is simmered, then each item of food is simmered separately, pieced together and served, so that they are all individually flavoured in one dish. The food is served all at once on a tray, or presented as various courses, depending on the occasion. I was eating a Kaiseki meal, which is what the emperors of Japan used to have, and that came in courses.

Tanaka clapped his hands and when the beautiful Yamada arrived, he said, "Hashi!" She produced a pair of flat, wooden chopsticks. He looked at me. "You don't eat with chopsticks? No!" He clapped again. "Waribashi!" And this time, Yamada came back with chopsticks held together with a rubber band and a wedge of paper in between. I could use them like tongs and get at my food. And the food was already on the table. I'm afraid, I did not eat much, so I cannot describe the food to you. But I will tell you about it, and what you may order at Sakura when you go there, even if Chef Igarashi and Tanaka are not around to help you.

They do breakfast, lunch and dinner at Sakura. For breakfast, there is one set menu, I did not see it, but I know it is there. Lunch, they have eight set menus, and the Shoukadou-Bentou lunch box with its goodies of grilled fish, raw fish, prawn and vegetable tempura, simmered vegetables, steamed rice, soya bean soup and pickles. Lunch is as cheap as Rs. 650 a menu and as expensive as Rs. 1,100 for the lunch box. Dinner is a la carte. They do appetisers, sashimi (the sliced raw fish), a simmered dish and a grilled dish, something deep-fried and something vinegared, and with this, you may have noodles, rice and soup, and come away after tasting the Japanese ice-creams.

The most popular fish on the menu are the salmon and tuna, and the most expensive is the eel. They do a grilled eel and arrange it on simmered vegetables with whisked egg. Sakura gets about 20 varieties of fish from Japan that are not available in India. Otherwise, it is happy to source its fish from the warms waters of Cochin, Bombay and Chennai.

Five of these 20 varieties of fish go in the sashimi. "If you only taste it, you would be able to describe the difference," Tanaka tried to tell me. "One is chewy, one is moist, one is flavoursome, it feels as if you are eating something different." The fish was arranged according to taste, from weak to strong, some marinated with vinegar, others flavoured with soup stock, and some with wasabi, the horse raddish sauce. Tanaka pointed out the colour combinations, "Green, purple, ivory (a yellow tail fish), red and pink... look, smell, then eat, everything is edible except the chinaware!"

The Japanese have no custom of eating meat, therefore you will not find meat on Sakura's menu, but there's a little pork, some chicken and there's duck. I don't know if these are best-selling dishes. I was under the impression that the Japanese are crazy about fresh, raw seafood, and about Kobe beef, the most expensive beef in the world. But no, there was no beef on Sakura's menu at all. Vegetables, hmmn... greens like raddish, shitake and inoki mushrooms, yam, lady fingers, asparagus, which go under the heading of exotic vegetables.

I fooled around with my plate, pretending to dissect the food like a science student in the laboratory, while Tanaka sat clicking his tongue and Sanjay Sharma watched amused. And I fell upon the three flavours of ice-creams (white, brown and black colours!) to discover that they were corn, some berry and sesame. Then it was time to leave. And we were bowing our way out past Yamada and Takahashi. Tanaka whispered in my ear, "Tell the ladies 'Go chi so sma deshita!'." "What's it mean," I asked, intrigued. And he replied, "Thanks to the chef for a wonderful meal!"

Sakura, The Metropolitan Hotel Nikko New Delhi Bangla Sahib Road, New Delhi 110001. Tel: (011) 334 2000.