Sexy Sushi

Of all the food I have ever photographed, sushi is the only food I never satisfied of. In front of camera lens, sushi crafted with creativity to the detail is like a model on the catwalk, like an expensive bag on store display. It is charming, and never run out of angle.

One of our favorite sushi establishment is Sushi Tengoku. The best thing about this place is, the lightings are perfect for a photo. The black table helped the bright color of sushi material to stand out of the background.

Another lovely restaurant we found is Sakura Restaurant. Set up at different ambiance from Sushi Tengoku, the lightning setup also provide a perfect light to the sushi, with the wooden table background.

Driving further out of town is Umaku, one of the youngest of the pack. This place is not so big, which provide intimate communication between patron and the chef. Of course, the perfect place would be seated at the sushi bar, from which we can see the skill of the chef who craft this sexy food, similar like a make up artist preparing the model.

Thankfully, preparing a sexy sushi is not the luxury of professional chef. Something that is already good will only need little touch to make it perfect. The problem is not on the preparation, but how to have the correct lighting and background to make the perfect photo.

I certainly will never have enough for this food

Nigiri Sushi Mold

Each time I went for sushi dishes, I'm always full of amazement with how the food presented. It is more than beauty, it is an art of a skillful sushi chef. And it took years to master. It shows dedication towards profession, which me as amateur chef will never have.

Fortunately for me, there are nigiri sushi mold sold in local grocery store. There are various shapes, from standard box shape, heart, round and many more. Sure that this mold won't match the work of a professional chef, but would definitely makes our sushi looks better.

We bought the box-shaped, and made 3 kind of nigiri sushi afterward

Instruction is provided clearly in the packaging. Whatever you want to put at the top should come first into the mold. Then fill in enough rice to cover up to the rim of the mold. The Kani Stick shown in bottom right is a little bit tricky, since the rice need to be pushed to fill in the space between the stick and the mold.

After the mold has been filled, press the lid gently to shape the bottom part. Remove the lid and flip the mold on clean plate, pressing gently to push out the sticky rice. Arrange it on the plate with dash of Wasabi, and you're good to go

We didn't forget our favorite traditional Maki Sushi. Unfortunately, there are no mold yet for this type of sushi, which leave us to satisfy ourself with slightly broken roll. Well... at least the taste does matter

Caterpillar Roll

If I worked at Japanese restaurant, I would be fired immediately for making this dishes. This thing was never been a favorite dish, even in form of Sushi. Well, my intention is to make another attempt for Dragon Roll, but I can't argue when my friend came up with the name: Ulet Roll, or in English: Caterpillar Roll


Learning from previous experience, I bought a relatively large Udang Pancet (Black Tiger Butterfly Prawn) for the tempura fillings. Cutting the tail of the first one, I arrange 2 of them in one roll, so that the head of the first prawn, and the tail of the second prawn will extrude from sushi roll.

It would be easier to use Tobiko, but inspired from Sushi Cooking Book I read few days ago, I decided to experiement with Ainori, crushed form of Nori sheet. We bought a ready-to-use one, which is not crushed, but shreded. Rolling the sticky sushi roll on top of the Shredded Nori.... there we got the Caterpillar Roll.

Well, at least we are successfull in making the head and tail of the Dragon, and it was a good experiment as well.....

(Suppose to be) Dragon Roll

We're not really in the mood for sushi actually. I strolled through old photos, among them are the Sushi Photo Session several years back. Then it came, a very inviting dragon roll. Tempted, I propose to make one to Kiko, which she agreed.

Rice were prepared as usual, but the Prawn was not. The recipe books make it easy to straighten a prawn for Tempura: using a toothpick. We only find out latter that toothpick was too short. Nevertheless, out of 10 prawn, we manage to fry 3-4 prawn, straight enough to be rolled in sushi. The rest of it goes with a traditional chili sauce :D.

Kiko laugh when I told my idea of using half tobiko, half sesame to cover the reversed sushi. "Martabak?", she said, referring to traditional food, where we can order different fillings for each half. I wasn't moved, and goes through with the plan....


OK, it wasn't look like a proper Dragon Roll. The prawn wasn't long enough for its tail and head to pops beyond the sushi. But as we chew it in, the taste made us happy enough. The white sesame is not a perfect match, black sesame might do better. The prawn, fried with a ready-made tempura flour, was great.

We still have another plate of Gyoza after that, plus some tempura prawn....

Scarcity of Nori

It might not makes the headline on the news, but the scarcity of Nori sheet last January has made us a little bit panic on one evening. We have Salmon and Chu Toro Sashimi freshly cut from our favorite sushi shop, and fresh Tobiko in hand, all might be wasted without Nori.

But this Japanese food are proven to be the most versatile food. Using a small leftover sushi, we made a small hand-rolled, topped with mix of Tobiko and Mayonnaise. When all Nori has been used, we made Nigiri Sushi - not the best Nigiri, but well, practice make perfect.


Kiko even make a hearted-shape Nigiri sushi, from the rice leftover :D. At the end of the day, we happily finish the plate.

Umaku Japanese Restaurant, Cibubur

The opening of Umaku Japanese Restaurant at Citra Gran Cibubur definitely adds some variation of taste in southern suburb of Jakarta - Finally a Sushi Restaurant worth mentioned. I myself never prefer a big restaurant to enjoy plates of sushi or sashimi, and Umaku fits my preference. It is small and homey.

That night we were seated at the sushi bar, where we can see the dexterity of the chef preparing our dishes. His friendly nature makes the whole dining experience more personal, as if we were served by friends at home.

My first order was Sake Sashimi. I believe that a good Sushi Restaurant should have fresh raw material to start with. And my first bite of the sashimi confirms that Umaku worth a second visit. "The fish just came this morning", Chef Uki said, while preparing our 2nd dish.

He then served the 2nd dishes, Grilled Tobiko Scallops. The scallops and tobiko is mixed with Mayonnaise, then grilled in round brass foil. If any competition for favorite dish, we would vote this as the most favorite food. The chewy nature of the scallops mix perfectly with Tobiko, and the Mayonnaise add the richness of taste to the dish.

Next came the Saba Sashimi. I'm not big fans of Mackerel, due to its look. But this one is definitely worth to try.

Our first sushi came in form of Vulcano. It is made from Kani stick rolled with sushi rice. On top of it is a slice of fresh salmon, then a mix of Mayonnaise and Tobiko. The roll is then torched, giving black notch from the burnt tobiko. Although it taste great, we feel that the sushi rice is a little bit soft.


A small plate was served before we can finish our food. Baby Octopus, dressed with red sauce and served cold, fresh up our appetite, which is pretty much used to the sushi and sashimi. Our next order then served: Inari Sushi and Tako Sushi.

Closing our dining that night is Spider Roll. We were slightly disappointed when ordering Matcha Ice Cream, which is unavailable, and we have to be satisfied with complimentary watermelon. But after such great food in a great atmosphere, who can be disappointed for long?

Umaku - Restoran Jepang
Citi Walk Blok CW 1 No.26
Citra Grand Cibubur
Phone: +62 21 84303732, +62 21 84303733

Photo of the menu mentioned here can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/bennyc/umaku

Experimental Maki Sushi

Following our success at Nigiri sushi, and a small practice rolling sausage and bread, we finally decide to make sushi roll, or known as Maki Sushi. We have no time to buy the fish from our favorite supplier, so we use Kani Stick, Zuchini, Lettuce and some Tobiko. The bamboo mat (Makisu) rolled, the sushi cut, and we have our first Maki Sushi, topped with Tobiko.

We still have lots of cooked sushi rice left, so we decided to make another roll with slight variation – nori rolled in rice.

And we have a nicer look of Maki Sushi, although taste more or less equal to our first plate.

Gochisou-sama Deshita

"It was a feast!", the direct translation of the Japanese expression in the title of this post. It is usually said as appreciation when someone has a very good dining experience. When we taste our homemade sushi, we definitely have to say Gochisou-sama deshita to each other.

Sushi is one of the most complex food to really feast on. A good fresh sashimi is not enough when enjoying a plate of sushi. The term sushi means vinegared rice, which state the importance of rice for sushi. Finding a restaurant which is able to served the best sushi rice and sashimi is one in a zillion. So we decided to give it a try to make a proper sushi rice.

We trust our sashimi source to Sakura Restaurant, where we ate few months ago and happy with the salmon & maguro sashimi. Also thanks to a friend, we know which rice are good, a good vinegar, and the correct way to make sushi rice. The whole process took around 3 hours, from soaking the rice for 2 hours, cooking it in rice cooker, mixing with rice vinegar, then shape it to form nigiri sushi, topped with fresh sashimi.

The result is sushi feast enough for the day. The sushi rice is sticky enough without losing its texture when formed into nigiri. The rice vinegar need some tweaking by adding pinch of salt and ordinary vinegar to neutralize its sweetness. The thin layer of wasabi and slice of maguro/salmon give a real feast to your taste.

We are even more happier when we see the bill. The whole experience cost less than 1/4 of a decent meal at sushi restaurant. Plus that we have 2 meals instead of one.

Our Sushi Rice (Su-Meshi) Recipe
makes +/- 20 pcs

• 1,5 cup Japanese Rice (Kokuho)
• 3 tbsp Sushi Su (Japanese Sushi Mixture)
• 1 tbsp Vinegar (we used distilled white vinegar)
• Pinch of salt
• 75 gr chu toro (maguro)
• 75 gr sake (salmon)

Direction

• Soak the rice 2 hours in advance, then bring to cook using rice cooker. Water vs rice should be 1 cup rice : 1,2 cup water.
• When cooking was done, plug off the cable and start mixing the rice with sushi su, vinegar, and salt evenly to fold all mixture into the rice. Close the cooker lid and wait for 10 minutes.
• Spread the rice strictly over flat wooden base (we used “tampah” anyway) and let cool off. Start forming the rice with your hand comparing to fish size.
• Rub a small dab of wasabi over the rice, and press the fish firmly onto the rice. Served.

Tips

• If the rice sticks to your hand, wet your hand with mixture of water and white vinegar.
• Don’t worry if your su-meshi don’t look very neat. It takes at least 2 years practice in sushi kitchen restaurant.
• Trust yourself, and enjoy your try out.
• Wasabi should be assumed to have a very strong flavor unless otherwise proven (Translation: don't put too much wasabi between the rice and sashimi)
  

~~~~ Gochisou-sama Deshita ~~~~