Notes from the Far East

Chicken Sushi, Lamb Yakitori and Yasai Takia Wase…sound interesting? It most certainly is an adventure at Ohri’s Fareast, as they host a Japanese Food Festival.

Japanese food by itself is an acquired taste, and only the brave have an appetite for it. While it may not be completely palatable for the ginger-garlic-onion-garam masala-eating kinds, it is an adventure indeed. Unfortunately, not many restaurants in the city, even fine-dining ones, boast of an all-out Japanese menu, and only a handful others serve sushi.

Celebrating the Tepanyaki style of cooking, Ohri’s Fareast is hosting the Japanese Food Festival, with much pomp and fervour. From Sushi to Tempuras to Udon Noodles to piping hot soup for Japanese cuisine lovers, this is a welcome change.

Served as part of the dinner buffet, the food festival has much to look forward to. So what if they don’t serve the traditional style of sushi? The tweaked sushi are amazingly good, if not better. I was looking forward for a really good Japanese dinner, and I found it.

As any traditional meal in Japan goes, I started with a generous dose of Chicken Sushi as well as Vegetable Sushi. Now, I have had the ‘original’ sushi before, but I never quite enjoyed it. But this, well, it was bliss. The sticky rice rolled in seaweed and flavoured with wasabi sauce, and stuffed with the cooked chicken was really, really good, though very different from what one might perceive of a sushi.

This was accompanied by Lamb Yakitori — well cooked meat in a soy sauce marinade, and grilled fresh right before your eyes. The sweet bitter taste was an experience in itself. Bracing myself, I headed for the soup. Soba Noodle Soup, it was called, with noodles and tofu in a dark broth. If you like the flavour of tofu, you will like this one. It was definitely fun slurping the noodles though.

I had the prawns and avacado salad next. It was refreshing and the avacados mashed to give a rich, creamy consistency went brilliant with the prawns. For the mains, I

had an option of Lamb Teriyaki and Yasai Takia Wase. While the first is more heard of, the latter was something new—vegetables, mostly bok choy, in a flavoured gravy. Needless to say, the Lamb Teriyaki was really good. On the other hand, Yasai Takia Wase was for people who really know and appreciate, Japanese cuisine.

The Udon Noodles were looking really good on the buffet and I grabbed a generous portion of it. Yes, it was good, and no, it wasn’t like any Chinese noodles that I ever had. Sprinkled with a generous dose of vegetables, it was oh! So yummy! Really, it was that good.

Just when I thought this can’t get any better, we were served Tempura Fried Ice Cream— soft round sponge cake with a filling of vanilla ice cream, fried and sprinkled with chocolate sauce. I kid you not, I was craving for more… and the more I wanted, and more I got. Heaven.

This treat was made by Chef Jojo, who has been called especially for the food festival. She is a master of the cuisine. If you think this buffet is only about Japanese food, you can’t be more wrong. It was a Chinese and Thai dishes as well, but the Japanese dishes stand out the most.

Name: Ohri’s Fareast

Buffet price: Rs.499+ taxes

Address: 8-2-682/3, Road Number 12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

Tags: Chicken Sushi, featured, full-image, Japanese cuisine, Lamb Yakitori, Ohris Far East, Yasai Takia Wase

Category: Food & Drink, Life & Style