First issue is ingredients, The Japan Centre let us down big time in this on-line world, it took them a whole week, with no customer service telephone number in working order, to deliver the parcel well after we had finished our meal! Fortunately our local Salisbury's did us proud and had nearly all the ingredients we were looking for, except for the centre-piece dish, where, without the dried Bonito flakes, we had to do a last minute substitution. It was okay.
Secondly, as there are a lot of little dishes, there is a great deal of preparation. The cooking or assembly times are very quick, which leads to the next problem these dishes do not take to standing around they have to be served immediately, they lose their freshness very fast. This then is a big issue, unless you have hired hands, how do you cook, serve and play host to your guests all at the same time, unless you are fortunate to have an island cooking stand with guests seated around it. Haven't cracked that problem yet.
We served, no time left to present or photograph!
- firecracker rice
- beef tatki and wasabi potato
- okonomiyaki pancake
- wakame and cucumber salad
- nirgiri with marinated trout
- marinated fish and steamed pak choi
- gyoza with three fillings
- maki and ISO with trout, chicken katsu and avocado fillings
The gyoza were much too thick and too big, the beef was cut far too thin, 8mm rather than the 3mm, the firecracker rice started to discolour as soon as the soya went in and the pancake burnt and did not have enough egg and or flour to hold it together. Generally the recipes worked well but the quantities given were way out of proportion so masses of sauces, garnish and additional ingredients left over.
Inspiring, will definitely do again and next time be more adventurous in what I think works together and not just blindly follow the book.
