3 new Japanese eats in Metro Manila

Get your chopsticks ready, a new wave of imported Japanese restaurants is about to hit the local food scene and it is oishi good: tonkatsu so tender you can slice it with a chopstick, cheese tarts baked according to your preferred doneness, udon so filling a bowl is all you’ll need. 

Three Japanese restaurants will hit Metro Manila in a few months care of Suyen Corporation, the same group that’s brought you St Marc Café and Paul Boulangerie — we traveled all the way to Tokyo and Osaka to check the source of all this goodness and here is the lowdown.
 

 

marugama

1. Marugame Udon House

Based in: Kobe, Hyogo, Prefecture

Soon to open: Fourth quarter of 2015, venue to be confirmed

Winning formula: This self-service and affordable udon-only restaurant serves it Sanuki style — thick and firm noodles served in a bowl of soup. Head up to the bar, take a tray, line up as you would in a cafeteria, choose from 10 types of udon, pick your fixings (fish or vegetable tempura, fried chicken or what have you), then slurp. The restaurant’s simplicity matches its affordability. It’s still early in the game, but Suyen is looking at having the basic udon — just wheat noodles and soup — for around PHP100. Partner it with your fixings and your PHP250 should buy you a super filling meal. 

marugama

Watch out for: Kamaage Udon, the very basic of the lot with just wheat noodles and broth. It’s simple but you can dress it up with condiments. Curry Udon is hearty and perfect for rainy nights. Mentai-Kamatama Udon has egg to go with fish roe toppings.  

Don’t forget to add: The breaded bamboo shoots as a side!

Hot tip: There is a city called Marugame in the Kagawa prefecture, which specializes in Sanuki-style udon.

pablo cheese tart

2. Pablo

Based in: Osaka

Soon to open in: Robinsons Place Manila (July); Trinoma, Quezon City (August); Greenbelt 5, Makati (September); UP Town Center, Quezon City (October).

Winning formula: Cheesecakes inspired by steaks 

The story: The light in Masamitsu Sakimoto’s brain switched on during a business trip to Hamburg while observing how customers ordering steak were asked how they wanted their meat cooked. The fashionable 35-year-old CEO of Pablo realized he could do the same with cheese tarts. He’d also ask his customers: rare or medium? He named his company after Pablo Picasso because “I want to revolutionize cheese tarts the way Picasso did with art,” the Osaka native says. That was in 2011 and, in four years’ time, Pablo has become the best-selling cheese tart in all of Japan.

pablo cheese tart

The goods: The rare cheese tart, which is Sakimoto’s personal favorite, is light and airy, almost comparable to an egg tart — a really light, very delicate egg tart. It is held together with pastry similar to puff, but thicker. The medium cheese tart has a more solid cream cheese build inside. In Japan, the medium cheese tart is served during summer.

Hot tip: Apart from the rare and medium tarts, Pablo offers new flavors that Masamitsu himself develops every three months. Keep an eye out for those “specials” which will also be available here.

maisen

3. Maisen Tonkatsu

Based in: Aoyama, Tokyo

Soon to open in: Greenbelt 5, Makati (July); SM Megamall (Mandaluyong), and SM North EDSA, Quezon City (September).

Winning formula: Hardcore tonkatsu fans have long considered Maisen the holy grail of tonkatsu, and at its flagship Aoyama location, we learn why. Apart from its triple charm offensive — special pork, panko coating, and terrific sauce — Maisen tonkatsu is most famous for being so easy to eat even, and especially, for children. 

The story: From 1940 to 1950 in Japan, meat was a luxury, reserved for special occasions. In the 1960s, when the country hit an economic boom, a humble homemaker by the name of Mrs. Koide thought, why not make tonkatsu an everyday thing? She developed a recipe for pork cutlet so tender and soft even kids could slice it with a chopstick. A few years later, Mrs. Koide sold her shares to the Suntory group — of for-relaxing-times-make-it-Suntory-times fame — which made her tonkatsu accessible to the rest of the country. To this day, Maisen’s tonkatsu meister, Mr. Matsuoka, is still very much in touch with Mrs. Koide.

maisen

Must-try: Hands down, tonkatsu is front and center of all things Maisen. Pork cutlet is carefully covered in panko (bread crumbs mix) that’s shaped long and lean like a sword you’d mistake it for grated cheese, then fried in original Maisen sunflower oil. It is served with bells and whistles: a mound of cabbage, rice and pickled vegetables. Don’t forget to take notice of the sauce, which doesn’t use a thickener. The ingredients are organic and it uses water from the Nikko area, which is said to be softer, purer and contains less minerals. 

Watch out for: The Maisen lunchbox items, like the tonkatsu mini-sandwich pack (six pieces), which you may underestimate but shouldn’t. You’d also want to try the kurobuta pork siomai (five pieces) — minced black pig wrapped in silky siomai paper. 


SPONSORED — BENCH/



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