In Which the Blogger Enters the House of Katsu…

Come to the House of Katsu…

The original plan for the lead-up to Labor Day was to head on to Ace Water Spa for some much longed-for and seriously much hankered after therapy.  Unfortunately, a bit of ill-health and the usual stresses all came into play and my date with the spa will have to be moved to yet another day.  On Labor Day itself (today), I decided to give myself a break and hauled both my brother and sister off for some serious eats – and oh, what eats!

“Have you been to Yabu?” my brother asked a few days before.

“The tonkatsu joint?” I replied.  ”Nope, but I hear it’s been getting really good press - and I saw your pictures on Facebook.”

That Yabu House of Katsu has been getting good press is an understatement: do a Google search for Yabu House of Katsu and you get over twenty pages of hits, mostly restaurant reviews and blog posts from happy, satisfied customers.  So, with all that glowing praise in mind, we trotted off to Yabu’s newest branch in our neck of southern suburbia (SM Southmall in Las Pinas, just a couple jeepney rides away) for a spot of lunch.

Les accoutrements

Once you’ve been seated at your table, notice that there is a nice selection of condiments: three tall bottles of salad dressing – beige sesame (goma), pale green wasabi, and a soy (shoyu) vinaigrette, bottles of chili oil, shichimi togarashi [seven-spice powder], and shiso (pepper mixed with delicately floral shiso leaf), a salt pig, and a jug of house-blended tonkatsu sauce.

The dressings are there for the unlimited helpings of shredded cabbage that come with most of the items on the Yabu menu, pretty much allowing you to make your own coleslaw.  They’re pretty ace dressings, too: the sesame is deliciously sweet and nutty, the soy vinaigrette pleasantly tangy, and the wasabi is creamy with just enough nose-tingling kick to make it interesting.

And then, this is brought to your table:

Grind to your desired coarseness or fineness…

You get a mortar of toasted black and white sesame seeds with a shiso-wood pestle that you’re supposed to hand-grind (not pound, hence the grooves in the bowl) till the intense, nutty aroma comes out.  Afterwards, you add about a couple wee ladlefuls of the house-blend sauce, plus a sprinkle of salt from the piggy, and your choice of sparkers.  (I opted for the shiso powder; it lent a delicately floral tang and a subtle heat to my sauce.)

Starters

Once you’re all set, whet your appetite with some appetizers.  For P 195.00, you get a choice of two off the menu.  I’d say go for the wakame salad which is absolutely refreshing and tastes deliciously fresh with a mix of wakame seaweed, sesame seeds, a hint of salt, and tobiko (cod roe).  Edamame (green soybean pods) are also nice, but we seriously prefer the chive-sprinkled spin on potato salad.

You know you want it!

As this is the House of Katsu, you should definitely order the tonkatsu.  (I question the culinary integrity of anyone who even thinks about ordering the bloody vegetarian platter!  There’s one on the menu, but really…)  The house specialty is kurobuta - the creamy-colored, beautifully marbled, exquisitely tender pork from the fabled Japanese black pigs.  Yabu pitches this premium meat as the “wagyu of pork”, an appellation that does it little justice because it is a far sweeter, more tender, utterly moreish sort of meat that shouldn’t be compared to any other.

As the kurobuta cuts are a touch on the pricey side, first-timers would do well to opt for the regular tonkatsu just to take measure of Yabu’s capabilities.  You are given the choice between rosu (a slightly fatty loin cut) and hire (trimmed pork tenderloin).  I’d say go for the former: the fat gives a savory edge to the sweet, tender meat which is covered by a thin, crispy, golden panko crust.  Having been drained properly after frying, the cutlet isn’t greasy at all and the crunchy outside gives way to the delectable softness within.  Definitely the gold standard for tonkatsu in my book…

The menchi katsu set

If you’re more of a burger-and-fries sort, my sister’s menchi katsu set is definitely for you.  Menchi katsu is a thickish patty of ground pork and beef, rolled in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried.  In most versions of the dish, mashed potatoes are added as an extender; in this case, however, the mixed mince is wrapped around a core of cheese that melts and oozes unctuously.  The patty itself is nicely seasoned and the texture tender without being mushy.

Curry Cutlet for one

My brother went for the chicken katsu curry which features a tender chicken cutlet drenched in a mildly hot Japanese curry.  As with all the rest of our orders, the curry came with miso soup, Japanese pickles (takuan [sweet pickled radish] and cucumber), refillable bowls of rice (the wait-staff will come ’round to your table with a clay pot of it), the previously mentioned unlimited shredded cabbage, and bowls of fruit for dessert.  (Incidentally, both the pineapple and watermelon slices we got with our meals were beautifully sweet and perfectly ripe.)

Normally, I don’t believe much of the hype that revolves around most new restaurants, but Yabu definitely deserves all the praise it has received and I sincerely hope the quality remains great and consistent.

 

 

 

In Which a Flurry of Green Tea Treats Lands on the Blogger’s Desk…

Green tea is a gorgeous flavor

Some colleagues recently flew over to Japan, ostensibly to enjoy the fleeting, ephemeral beauty of sakura [cherry blossom] viewing season.  (Lucky ducks!)  As a result, I found myself accepting bits and bobs of omiyage (homecoming presents/souvenirs) from their trip to the Land of the Rising Sun – and all of them featured matcha (powdered green tea) as the main flavoring.

By now, you’re all aware that matcha is the finely pulverized green tea used for making green tea lattes and green milk tea drinks; it’s also used to flavor a number of sweet treats from mochi and daifuku (stuffed mochi) to castella (Portuguese-style sponge cake) to French macarons.  Its rather bittersweet and nutty, almost almond-like flavor has made it popular even among those who would rather have something much sweeter as its flavor profile is close enough to that of either coffee or dark chocolate.

The Japanese have gone the extra mile and have added it to everything from traditional sweets to KitKat bars – and, in KitKats, they shine: the bitter-almond flavor keeps the white chocolate coating from tasting too sweet and balances the vanilla tones in the crunchy wafer.

Oreo cakesters, soft-batch cookies, AND a blossomy version of green-tea KitKats…

It’s one of my favorite flavors, so you can just imagine how happy I was to see the following items on my desk:

• Oreo Soft Cookie (sold as Oreo Cakesters in the West) in Matcha Milk - This was very much like a miniature dark chocolate whoopie pie filled with a nutty, creamy matcha latte creme that threw the dusky flavor of the chocolate into high profile.  It’s wonderful for people like myself who love good, strong, flavors that are more bitter than sweet.  However, this Oreo variant isn’t for everyone, I think: a junior colleague took one bite, turned greener than the matcha filling, and tossed it into the trash without bothering to offer the leftover cake to any of the rest of us; we stared at this act of wanton wastefulness and ingratitude in sheer horror, the wasteful little gastronomical Philistine!
• American Soft matcha chocolate-chunk cookie with macadamia nuts - While the cookie itself was a wonted green from the matcha in the dough, the flavor of the tea was overpowered by the chocolate and vanilla.
• Limited Edition [Spring Only] Sakura Matcha KitKat - Now this was lovely: the matcha was balanced out by the cherry-vanilla notes of the sakura extract used to flavor the wafer, so the resulting bittersweetness also had an appealing bit of fruit and blossom to it.  Definitely something to savor slowly together with an iced matcha latte.

It was, to be perfectly honest, like having a little bit of Japan in the heart of the tropics.  :)

In Which a Restaurant Named After a Kitchen God Delivers in a Big Way…

The kitchen god Sanpou Kojin (The Butuzou Museum Collection)

In Oriental Buddhist mythology, the god Sambokojin (Sanpou-Kojin in some translations) looks after home kitchens and families.  He makes sure that the home-fires never stop burning to ensure that peace and prosperity will never leave the household.

In the Philippines, the name is synonymous with a new chain of all-you-can-eat yakiniku restaurants where the grills are kept good and hot, the offerings are certainly bountiful, and diners emerge from their meal totally at peace with the world since their bellies are totally stuffed – and stuffed well, as a matter of fact.

Roll, roll, roll…

The thing about Sambokojin is that it is run by the Triple-V Group, a company long known for running some of the Philippines’ biggest and most successful all-you-can-eat chains, namely Dads’, Kamayan, and Saisaki.  That said, you know that it’s run by people who know their stuff and make sure that everything is of good, even exceptional, quality.

The buffet is laid out in such a way that display counters are built around small, modular kitchens that ensure the immediate refilling of empty trays almost as soon as they’ve been emptied by voracious diners.  The sushi/maki station, in particular, is a fairly busy one with the two chefs behind the counter rapidly rolling up rice and fresh fish in seaweed together with other ingredients, slicing up sashimi, and mixing bits of fresh tuna and salmon with mayonnaise or other dressings to make fish salads.  As shown above, they do a pretty dandy job of it.

Personal favorites from this section of the menu were:

• Practically anything with fresh salmon, so there were Alaskan Beauty rolls, fresh salmon chunks in wasabi mayonnaise, nigiri-zushi topped with salmon, and salmon sashimi dressed with spicy sesame oil;
• The fresh tuna in a spicy dressing;
• The Miss Saigon roll – an uramaki (inside-out roll; principle similar to a California roll) filled with chili-spiked crab salad and wrapped in rice paper with some lettuce.

Fried and fabulous

Other sections feature a variety of both Japanese and Korean dishes, crowd-pleasers all.  Anyone heading to where the fried treats are will be especially delighted because of the array of battered or breadcrumbed things on offer.  The ebi tempura is crisp on the outside and beautifully cooked within, as are the sakana furai (breadcrumb-crusted fish sticks) and the creamy salmon croquettes.  Another moreish delight is a spin on torikatsu (breadcrumb-crusted chicken fillets) with paprika-and-chili-spiced cornflakes as a deliciously crunchy crust.

A number of Japanese dishes were also done beautifully: the tofu steak was light with just a thinnish wrapper around it and the mushrooms in the sauce were properly meaty and succulent.  The gyoza was also pretty good, being fatly stuffed with pork and leek forcemeat; and the sakana chiizu maki (creme dory fillets rolled around slices of mild cheddar before being coated in crumbs and deep-fried) was nothing to sneeze at.  There was also a fairly interesting casserole of mixed seafood cooked with a deliciously cheesy Mornay sauce; it was good and quite substantial.

There were also several Korean dishes, including old favorites like pa jeon (leek and squid pancakes), chap chae, and spicy twice-fried chicken.  But, save for a slab of pa jeon, I stuck to most of my Japanese favorites.

Spinach, chawan mushi, and second helpings…

If you’re into banchan, those savory little nibbles that come with Korean meals, you’re in luck because Sambokojin makes sure that there are fresh, flavorful ones on hand along with steaming tureens of miso soup, sukiyaki, and a steamer loaded with cups of savory chawan mushi.  

If you adore kimchi, then the banchan counter will definitely put a smile on your face with Napa cabbage, jicama (singkamas; it’s a refreshingly sweet, tangy, and spicy thing to crunch on), cucumber (finely sliced or chunky), and white radish varieties.  I went for the sikeumchi – chilled sesame spinach – and some sweet, soy-glazed marble potatoes; both were delicious.

Incidentally, you may not always have to go hit the buffet if you want refills of one item or another.  The staff at this particular restaurant is exceptionally attentive and are happy to bring in more iced tea or soda, rice, your choice of soup, and some even go around carrying platters of fast-disappearing items like tempura, dropping off ample helpings to diners at their tables.  And speaking of tables…

Goods on the grill are good to go…

Table-top dining is top-notch here.  You go pick your choice of meats, veg, or seafood from another chilled section of the buffet.

Unlike other buffets where the food is pre-seasoned and the platters they’re on are just left on serving ledges, the raw ingredients for the Sambokojin buffet are placed on trays in an open-top chiller case so the temperature is constant.  Plus, these are basically unseasoned save, perhaps, for a bit of salt; seasoning depends on you and you can do that by brushing your food with any one – or more – from the jars of sauce/marinade already at your table.  That said, everything comes in fresh and stays fresh till you’ve got the grill at your table all fired up.

Interestingly, no butter or oil appears for greasing the yakiniku grills; instead, you get a fresh bit of beef suet to help grease and season it.  Not, I daresay, for vegetarians, but a-okay for all the rest of us.

I recommend the marbled beef, king prawns, and sliced squash, by the way.  All of them are very good.

Dessert? Yes, please…

And, if your belly’s still up for it, the desserts are also great.  Fresh fruit is nice, of course, and anything served verrine-style (in wee shotglasses) that isn’t pink is, too.  (The banana-caramel parfait and mango yogurt cream above?  Fab, very much so.)  And they do serve the usual petits-fours, cakes, and have chocolate fondue stations on hand.  But really: just end your meal with a wee bowl of Big Scoop ice cream which is so much richer in terms of both texture and flavor – can there be anything better?

 

In Which We Have a Different Sort of Prawn Curry…

Prawn curry, anyone?

Prawn curry has long been one of my favorite dishes, though we rarely have it at home because of my mom’s allergies.  From richly creamy Malaysian curries to smooth and soothing prawn laksa to fresh-tasting Thai curries redolent with lemongrass and ginger, I adore them all.

So I really pounced when I saw this dinky wee item over at JiPan: the ebi furai curry rice.

It involves crunchy breaded prawns - ebi furai – doused with heaps of rich Japanese curry gravy with potatoes, sweet onions, and chunks of carrot.  The beefy curry gravy is spot-on perfect: meaty, spicy – not enough to set your mouth on fire, but hot enough to set your tastebuds a-tingle.  The prawns were perfect – and I’m not exaggerating!  Breaded with their heads on, the prawns are dredged in a deliciously crunchy panko coating so they’re crisp on the outside, just al dente within and are beautifully sweet.  Be sure to scrape out the fat from the prawn heads – distressingly fatty, ’tis true, but totally delicious.

Cheap but totally toothsome!

Incidentally…  The deadline for my first-ever contest - The 100-pesos or less lunch challenge – ends on October 27th!  Click on the link above for more details.  :D

In Which There is a Swanked-up Fast-Food Combo for One…

*Insert sound of serious chewing here*

After two months’ worth of pigs’ breakfast-level stress, I was finally able to get some serious time for myself over the weekend and found myself traipsing over to the Alabang Town Center where, in the two months and more that have passed since I was last there, a number of new restaurants have sprung up for the enjoyment of the dining public.  (And the new Metro Gaisano Supermarket is open, too.  Dear Lord, what a wealth of gourmet goodies they have on stock!)

I’ve been meaning to try Hapadog, the Japanese-Hawaiian fusion hot dog stand for ages – except, at the time, the only known branch was far off at the SM City – North EDSA on the extreme northern end of Manila’s MRT route!  I’ve tried the wannabe version over at Sumo Dog (which, alas, has closed its doors), but felt it was somewhat soulless because all you got was either a sarnie or a tube-steak on rice and nothing in the way of either drinks or sides.

It looks rather quaint…

I decided to check out Hapadog’s ATC outlet despite the other new eateries in the area.  (I mean: FINALLY!  We southern suburbanites are getting branches of those cool nosh-joints that used to be found only in the QC/Mandaluyong/Greenhills zones!)  The shop itself is a tight, wee place: a couple or so tables, a high bar with chrome and plastic stools, faux-bamboo paneling, and a projection screen where they flash J-pop/J-rock and anime videos during peak hours.

Not sure what to eat? Pick a combo, any combo…

Part of the wall is dominated by a pictorial chart featuring the store’s combo meals which can feed everyone from a solo diner to a whole gang of hungry folks clamoring for some Japanese (or Japanese-inspired) grub.

The Hapadog

I opted for a full-sized version of the eponymous Hapadog, a sarnie that brings together an American classic and throws in some serious Japanese flavors.

Here, a grilled pork sausage gets snugged into a fluffy-textured wheat bun like any classic Yankee dawg.  However, in lieu of ketchup, mustard, and relish, this one got dressed with sweet caramelized onions, a generous shower of shredded nori, minced spring onions, and a splash of the store’s signature Hapa sauce – a condiment that brings to mind a sweet and peppery teriyaki marinade.  The waitress will ask you if you want standard-issue Kewpie mayo or the wasabi-infused mayo; go for the latter.

What you get is a richly porky sausage that goes beautifully with the sweet onions.  The seaweed shreds add a bit of smokiness that amps up the charred taste of the grilled dawg and the wasabi mayo adds a refreshing sharpness.

Fried spuds, anyone?

The fried potatoes (furaido-poteto as it’s written on the menu, a phonetic rendition of the words in katakana) are the perfect partner for the sarnie as these are magnificently chunky spud slices deep-fried till crunchy on the outside and fluffy within.  (Brit-style chips, not scrawny Yank fries for the win!).  They come to the table with a generous dusting of crushed nori and a wee dish of nori-dusted Kewpie mayonnaise.

Lychee iced tea – with an actual lychee bobbing in it.

One last thing: don’t order a canned soda with your meal.  The sweet and refreshing lychee iced tea is the only way to go – and, yes: there’s an actual lychee floating in it.  :D