Family Li Imperial Cuisine (厲家菜 Reikasai)

Our good friend Arufa visited Shanghai.  One of his favorite dinner was at Family Li Imperial Cuisine (Reikasai 厲家菜) in Huangpu Park (上海灘 黄浦公園).  He sent us his dinner menu and a set of photographs.

10 SMALL DISHES 手碟

Stir-fried fresh green bean paste with fresh scallops 翡翠豆腐

Deep-fried bean cake炸咯喳

Sweet and sour rib糖醋排骨

Stir-fried mung bean paste with pork 炒麻豆腐

Crisp-fried prawns wrapped with egg 鼓板大蝦

Beijing smoked pork 北京熏肉

Boiled Chinese cabbage with mustard seed 芥末墩

Fried beef with chili sauce 麻辣牛肉

Deep-fried duck meat and shrimps paste with sesame 芝蔴鴨子

Mixed vegetable (Shredded carrot, pickled vegetable, bamboo shoot, coriander) 炒咸什

6 MAIN DISHES 熱菜

Deep-fried fresh scallops 青松鮮貝

Braised abalone in sesame sauce & Julienned braised abalone and cabbage & Braised abalone soup 麻醬鮑魚 + 鮑魚絲拌白菜 + 鮑魚湯

Steamed snow frog with egg 清蒸蛤什螞

Fried grouper with soy sauce 焌油石班魚

Stir-fried eggplant with soy sauce and minced pork, served with white rice 小炒茄子 + 米飯

Double boiled “fish lip” thick soup 三絲魚唇湯

3 DESSERT 点心

Baked fresh milk 宮廷奶方

Walnut kernel 琥珀桃仁

Fried egg custard 三不粘

                                                                                  

Five small dishes (Clockwise from top):

·         * Deep-fried bean cake炸咯喳 – A traditional Beijing snack.

·         * Stir-fried fresh soy bean paste with fresh scallops 翡翠豆腐 – Minced fresh Australian scallop and green soy bean are mixed together and stir-fried; served with red chili pepper specks.

·         * Sweet and sour rib糖醋排骨 – Tender and fat free, sweet and sour without the neon orange red sauce.

            * Stir-fried mung bean paste with pork 炒麻豆腐 – Another Beijing specialty; it is the left over after separating the “milk” and “juice” from fermented paste of ground mung beans and water.

·         * Crisp-fried prawns wrapped with egg 鼓板大蝦 – Flaky crispy egg pancake wrapping around tender prawns.

The second round of small dishes (Clockwise from top):

·        *  Boiled Chinese cabbage with mustard seed 芥末墩 – Crisp Napa cabbage spread with mustard, rolled up into a cylinder and topped with sesame seeds.

·         * Fried beef with chili sauce 麻辣牛肉

·         * Beijing smoked pork 北京熏肉 – Pork belly braised in special broth, colored with natural vegetable juice and slow smoked with wood of fruit trees.

·         * Deep-fried duck meat and shrimps paste with sesame 芝蔴鴨子 – The white layer between the sesame “skin” and the meat is shrimp, not duck fat.

·         * Mixed vegetable炒咸什 – Shredded carrot, pickled vegetable, bamboo shoot, and coriander.

 

Deep-fried fresh scallops 青松鮮貝 – Australian scallops in a special batter, and pickled green vegetables, are both deep fried.

Braised Japanese abalone in sesame sauce, Julienned braised abalone and cabbage, and Braised abalone soup 麻醬鮑魚 + 鮑魚絲拌白菜 + 鮑魚湯

    

Steamed snow frog with egg 清蒸蛤什螞 – The English name of this dish is misleading as it contains no frog meat.  “Snow frog” refers to the Fallopian tubes of a kind of frog from Manchuria that hibernates under frozen ground, lakes and rivers (thus the name).  It is a Chinese delicacy with a reputation for being  beneficial to women’s beauty.

Fried grouper with soy sauce 焌油石班魚 – Fish cooked in very hot oil.

   

 

Stir-fried eggplant with soy sauce and minced pork, served with white rice 小炒茄子 + 米飯

 

 

Double boiled “fish lip” thick soup三絲魚唇湯

   

Dessert (Clockwise from top right):

·         * Baked fresh milk 宮廷奶方 – Smooth and fragrant sweet and sour yogurt.

·         * Walnut kernel 琥珀桃仁

·        *  Fried egg custard 三不粘 – The ingredients are thoroughly mixed and then whipped over 600 times before it is cooked.  The resultant mass does not stick to the plate, the spoon or the teeth of the diner, thus the Chinese name of “Three Not Sticks”.

                

 

“Petits Fours” 菓品

From Arufa’s photographs, I can see that the service at Family Li is similar to that at high-end Chinese restaurants in Japan.  To those expecting a “family style” Chinese meal with large plates of food serving at the same time, the individual portion size of each dish looks awfully small.  I wrote “looks small” because I think it is a perception issue for people not used to being served Chinese food in this fashion.  You may see my point if you consider how much food one gets if a dish at a Chinese banquet is equally divided among the 10 or 12 people at the table.  Anyway, with the large number of dishes on the menu, even just a few bites per dish should keep most diners well fed yet not uncomfortably stuffed.  Of course for those with the appetite of a sumo wrestler or a growing boy, it would be a different story.  

Most of the dishes look deceptively simple.  One often does not realize how much work is necessary to deliver those simple looking dishes.  The restaurant claims that it does not use artificial coloring and flavor enhancement.  Instead it relies on careful sourcing of quality ingredients, careful blending of seasoning and sauces, painstaking preparation and perfect cooking.  However, delicate and balanced flavors could be interpreted as bland to diners whose palate has been conditioned to liberal use of MSG or strong flavored sauces and spices.  So I suppose Reikasai is not to the liking of everybody.  Our friend Arufa has a refined palate.  He says that the dishes at Reikasai were very good and I accept his verdict.  

An obvious weakness of Reikasai is its presentation of food.  For a restaurant that charges as much as a Japanese ryotei or an haute-cuisine restaurant, putting a slice of meat or a glob of custard on a plate without appropriate garnishes is lackluster.  Plain white plates, bowls and cups do not help either.  It is an area that not only Reikasai, but also most Chinese restaurants, can work on.   

Reikasai is expensive.  As far as value goes, I cannot say since I have not eaten there.  I would like to taste the food first hand one day to judge on that myself.

NOTE:  For the story of Family Li Imperial Cuisine, visit this link www.theworlds50best.com/a-chat-with-chinas-only-grand-chef-ivan-li-of-family-li-imperial-cuisine/12385/

Be Careful What You Wish For - Lunch at Sukiyabashi Jiro (すきゃぱし次郎)

 

I have always wanted to eat nigiri zushi made by the master Ono Jiro (小野二郎さん), long before he became famous around the world.

His restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro (すきゃぱし次郎), came up when I went through books and magazines long ago for information on top sushi restaurants in Tokyo.  In the book “Sukiyabashi Jiro Makes Seasonal Nigiri Zushi すきゃぱし次郎 旬を握ゐ”, the author Satomi Shinzo explained Jiro-san’s sushi in great details with photographs and illustrations, from the nigiri of the four seasons, everything-you-want-to-know-about Hon Maguro (本鮪Japanese blue fin tuna), preparation of fish, nori and rice, to the technique of making nigiri zushi.  NHK (Japan’s public television organization) produced a series called “Professionals” and one episode featured Ono Jiro as a sushi shokunin (鮨職人).  A shokunin (職人) is an artisan who has mastered the skills, achieved the ability to create beauty and developed the attitude that it is his social obligation to work his best.  Jiro-san well deserves the title as he has dedicated his life to make the “perfect” sushi.  He went to Tsukiji Market every morning to buy the best quality fish until he turned 70.  Even though he is 86 now (2012), he works behind his sushi counter everyday because of his commitment to his quest.  It was his shokunin spirit, not his fame, which fueled my desire to eat his sushi.  

    

We had not eaten at Sukiyabashi Jiro until recently because it was very difficult to get a reservation.  I tried twice over the years without success.  It did not, and does not, take walk-ins.  First timers, I heard, were required to have an introduction from regular customers.  After it was awarded three Michelin stars in 2007, foreign television travel and food show hosts and foodies flocked there despite its well known unwillingness to serve non-Japanese speaking customers.  Interestingly, Sukiyabashi Jiro is not rated high on the Japanese restaurant review site 食べ口グ (literal translation: “Eat Blog”,  http://tabelog.com/ ).  Its rating is below Mizutani (水谷), Harukata (青空), Sushizen (すし善) and Kyubei (久兵衛), just to name a few other sushi restaurants in the same part of Tokyo.  None but one of our friends want to eat at Sukiyabashi Jiro.

Hashimoto-san, our good friend who has eaten there, is in the restaurant business and she gets the inside scoop on the industry.  Knowing our interest in Sukiyabashi Jiro, she updated us from time to time.  She would say, “You better hurry, Jiro-san is getting old.”  When Jiro-san was absent from his restaurant, she would sound a warning, “Jiro-san did not go to work today; he did not feel well”, followed a few days later with the good news that “Jiro-san is back but you should really hurry.”  Eventually, Hashimoto-san scored a lunch reservation for us.

We learned some facts from Hashimoto-san on eating at Sukiyabashi Jiro.  No alcohol was served during the meal because drinking dulled the taste buds and prevented the diners from appreciating the sushi.  The prix fixe meal, consisting of about twenty pieces of sushi with different neta (fish topping) served rapidly one after another, lasted about 20 minutes.  The diners ate the sushi as soon as it was placed on the serving plate so that the fish and rice would be at the optimal temperature and did not get dry from sitting around.  The reason of serving sushi in rapid succession was to keep the diner focused.  “If they want to drink and talk, they should go somewhere else,” according to Jiro-san.

On the way to lunch, I was filled with excitement and apprehension.  I was excited because finally my dream of eating at Sukiyabashi Jiro was coming true, and apprehended because I feared how our lunch would turn out.  We had been disappointed by some very well regarded restaurants in the past, and would this be another one?

 

When we arrived, we were seated before the son Ono Yoshikazu (小野禎一).  Jiro-san was making sushi for four other customers.  There was a menu for each diner announcing the order of sushi being served that day.  The meal went exactly the way described by Hashimoto-san.  There was just one surprise – Jiro-san did not make our sushi!!  He made it for the four customers who came before us and the customer after us, but not us.  (A note: it was the son who cut the fish; Jiro-san had stopped doing it for a while).

We were disappointed beyond words because the whole purpose of going there was to eat sushi made by Jiro-san.  Otherwise, we would have gone somewhere else for a lot less money and no hassle.  We could have gone any time to its own branch in Roppongi Hills (operated by his second son) for ¥10,000 less per person.  Mrs. Akujiki was angry.  She was going to tell Jiro-san that either he made our sushi or we walked out.  I stopped her because I believed that her protest would be futile, and it would just embarrass Hashimoto-san.  After three or four pieces of sushi, Mrs. Akujiki stopped eating.  She sat there with her back straight and a displeased look on her face.  She was staging a diner’s strike.  The poor piece of sushi on her serving plate sat untouched.  To lessen the tension, I continued with my course at machine gun speed.  When I finished, I started eating her piece, and eventually finished her course as well.  As bad as it sounds, our experience was not the worst at Sukiyabashi Jiro.  Someone reported on the internet that when his wife could not keep up with the speed and requested for a brief break, the chef simply took away her sushi.  Now, that was BAD.

Our disappointment was severe.  But what really ruined our meal was the stern demeanor of Jiro-san and his son.  The whole time there was not a faintest trace of smile, not a slightest nod of the head, not any sign of acknowledgement.  They came across as arrogant, cold and indifferent.  We have never been to a restaurant that we felt so unwelcomed.  

As a rule, Mrs. Akujiki always complimented the chef at the end of a good meal.  In return, the chef and staff always smiled, bowed, and thanked her.  At Sukiyabahi Jiro, both sides ignored each other when we left.  I had brought along my copy of Sukiyabashi Jiro Shiyunwonigiru for autograph, but I saw no point to ask for it.  

That was how one of my most anticipated meals went.  Mrs. Akujiki said to me afterward, “Be careful what you wish for”.  

I thought a lot about the whole affair afterward.  What had happened?  Were we unreasonable to be angry? 

The sushi made by Jiro’s son was good, although with my unsophisticated palate I honestly could not say that it was better than what we had at other well respected sushi restaurants.  I wonder if I would feel differently if our sushi was made by Jiro-san.  That we will not know.  We felt that we were badly treated.  I suspect that the unfriendly service is driven by Jiro-san’s attitude that he only wants to make sushi for those who he thinks can appreciate it.  That could very well explain why he delegated first time customers like us to the son.  I can understand that sort of thinking.  I can accept an artisan being proud.  But I do not think that can justify the father and son, as restaurateurs, be so arrogant and rude to their customers.  

Will we go back?  I think not, unless we are in the company of one of Jiro-san’s valued customers.  Otherwise, I’d go to Mizutani or Harukata instead.   

EPILOGUE

We ate that evening at Bird Land, a yakitori restaurant in the same basement across from Sukiyabashi Jiro.  When the chef owner, Toshihiro Wada san (和田利弘さん), chatted with us after dinner outside his restaurant, Jiro-san emerged from his own place.  Wada-san knew that we had lunch at Jiro that day but he was unaware of our experience.  He told us about Jiro-san’s incredibly soft hands.  Before we knew, Wada-san was introducing us to Jiro-san, and the four of us bowed, smiled and shook hands.  Jiro-san’s hands were indeed incredibly soft; we could not feel any bone.  We stood there for a few minutes making polite conversations before we bid good night.  The whole time during that brief encounter, we wondered what went through Jiro-san’s mind.  For sure he remembered us.  We sat at his sushi counter just a few hours earlier.  We staged a strike; we stayed longer than any other customers.  He had completely ignored us.  And yet, a few hours later, with a twist of fate, he had to smile and shake our hands.  How strange sometimes life’s events could be.  We called it our “revenge on Jiro”.