Amazing lunch in Ginza

Zuimei and I had lunch with a couple of his friends from Taiwan at a fancy restaurant called Ukai-tei.  Our hosts took us for teppanyaki, which for those unfamiliar with the term is the Japanese style of cooking where the chef cooks on a hot grill at your table.

Accompanying the salmon was a small dollop of herbed sour cream, finely diced onions, diced egg yoke and caviar. I have only had caviar a few times but this was by far the best.

The second appetizer was fois gras on bamboo root with a demiglaze.  It was an interesting combination of textures.  The fois gras had been fried so the edges were browned and crispy-ish while the center was soft.  This was juxtaposed to the bamboo, which was much harder and less yielding.  It was also milder in flavor taking up the sauce of the demi-glaze for taste.

At this time our chef, Sung Lee, began preparing the live abalone.  Now this was the first time I had ever had it and I know that it is expensive, but I don’t think I am a fan.  The cooking technique was fascinating however.  The chef started by putting the four abalone on the grill and placing shredded asparagus, herbs and lime on top.  He then laid four pieces of seaweed on top of the pieces.  The seaweed was large enough to completely cover the abalone and then some.

You can see the salt on the grill in the background.

This was then topped with a mound of salt which was in turn soaked with that I believe was water.  The whole pile was then covered and left to steam while the chef prepared the sauce.   The sauce started with butter and garlic, which then had morel mushrooms added, along with some white wine.  This sauce was stirred continuously while some sliced cabbage was steamed along side the abalone.

The abalone was then uncovered, each one removed from the shell and cleaned.  The livers were separated and abalone crosshatched with a knife. The entire plate was put together with the abalone sitting nicely on a small bed of cabbage and then coated with the mushroom sauce.  While the flavor was excellent I found the texture of the abalone to be strange and somewhat reminiscent of Chinese desserts.  Perhaps that is why they prize it so.

The last dish the chef prepared was the steak.  I have never seen a piece of meat so marbled with fat. I swear that cow must have been obese. Chef Lee started by putting some oil on the grill and adding thinly sliced garlic.  These slices he separated until each one was frying on it’s own and not sticking to any of the others.  He kept the garlic moving so as to not allow the pieces to caramelize.  This resulted in these garlic chips, which were set-aside until later.

The beef was presented in two squares about 5 by 5 by .5 inches. First fresh oil was put down and once hot the meat was placed with a sizzle.  It did not require much time to cook and you could see from the side how it was going.  The chef chatted with us about his career while this was going on.  How he is actually Korean, but studied in Australia, France and England before coming to Japan.  When he flipped the meat he used the metal scraper tools, reminiscent of putty spatulas for fixing drywall to pull the meet and prevent it from curling.  This ensured the meat remained almost perfectly square.

The steak was then cut into cubes and placed on the plates.  Along with the steak were freshly ground wasabi, fresh cracked pepper, tiny-diced onions, special soya sauce and a fresh green salad.

To be fair to the chef I already ate a piece before I took the picture.  I couldn’t wait!

The wasabi, we were told, only grows a few centimeters a year and only in the freshest water.  As a result it was very expensive. We were asked to first try the steak by itself before flavoring it with the other items and to tell the truth it didn’t really need all the other stuff, it was excellent on it’s own.  I was however very fond of the wasabi.  It has the distinct flavor of wasabi but didn’t have that sinus blasting pungency; instead it was mild…heat if that is what you could call it.

The meal was finished off with some lovely soup.  I guess it was a miso but not like any I’d ever had before.  It was dark, with the dark “witch’s hair” type seaweed in it which made it more…nuttier that most miso.  This was accompanied by some pickled daikon radish and fried rice.  The rice was very interesting.

Chef Lee started with minced garlic in oil, which he roasted on the grill.  Once brown he placed the rice on and began using his spatulas to mix it.  The catch hover is to ensure all the rice gets roasted on the grill without breaking the grains.  I’m quite sure it is harder than it looks.  He then dashed some soya sauce on the grill away from the rice and waited for the water to evaporate.  Once that was done be moved the rice over and remixed everything on that.  The end result was nutty, garlicky fried rice that wasn’t oily, salty or thick.

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Once the meal was finished we retired to another room for dessert.  Hand made chocolate ice cream with a scoop of fresh vanilla ice cream topped with crunch little chocolate things.  A dessert cart was then brought over and I contained myself to just a square…and a cookie…and some tiny chocolates.

All in all a very memorable meal.