Edo

After Harima, I've been wanting to have sushi and sashimi for the longest time. With ITC Gardenia opening in the city, and with it an authentic Japanese restaurant Edo, it was high on my 'to-do' list, and eventually I got to go there. The image to the right is quintessentially Japanese, representing the most well-known dishes.

Edo is about as authentic as it gets when it comes to Japaense cuisine (at least in India). The restaurant, one among 6 at Gardenia, is quite truly spectacular. Soft, mellow (and yellow) lighting, along with a display of some of the seafood, well spaced-out tables, a spic-n-span appearance, and comfortable ambiance makes Edo a wonderful location for a celebratory meal of sorts. Or if you've got the money and enjoy Japanese food, you could just go there to enjoy some good Japanese food. I was there to celebrate the birthday of an extremely close friend, and we were quite excited about the evenings meal. We had opted for the Kyoto fixed meal (the other two being the Tokyo meal and the Nara meal).

While the Nara meal was a vegetarian meal, the Kyoto and Tokyo fixed meals were non vegetarian. The fixed meals consist of 7 courses, so it's quite elaborate and you'd do well to go to Edo to spend some time there and get pampered. The Kyoto meal costs Rs 3200 + taxes, Tokyo Rs 5000 + taxes, and the Nara (vegetarian) will set you back by Rs 2500 + by taxes.

The 7 course meal can be broken down into the following categories: zensai (appetisers), sashimi, yakimono (grilled items), nimono (steamed), agemono (deep fried tempura), sushi, shokuji (staples - rice or noodles), and mizugashi (desserts, numbering 3). The zensai served to us consisted of crab, fish, and egg.


While the fish and egg were pretty decent - the fish nice and soft and the egg, almost like a cake, thick yet fluffy.

Sea bass
Egg
The crab seemed to be the 'just like crab' meat available at Spar and other supermarkets. It tasted good, but no different from what's available frozen.

Crab, or just-like-crab meat?
The second course, sashimi, consisted of salmon and tuna, was quite simply fabulous. The fish were fresh, plump, and fleshy, and the staff also come up to your table and grate fresh wasabi (horse radish) at the table. Also, the wasabi is grated using a paddle that has shark skin - apparently the authentic tool for grating wasabi for sushi and sashimi.

Salmon (orange), and tuna with seaweed and wasabi
Shark skin paddle to grate wasabi, with wasabi root
The third course, yakimono, had grilled chicken and sea bass, and was quite tender and wonderfully flavoured in a teriyaki sauce and was served with a spice mixture of 7 spices that went wonderfully well with soy sauce.


Full view
Ginger, in the form of a fish tail
The next course, nimono, which was a steamed dish, again, had sea bass along with the broth of 4 other steamed vegetables, separately steamed to maintain their individual properties in taste and flavour. Carrot, lady's finger (okra), pumpkin, and brinjal (egg plant/aubergine). The reason for steaming the vegetables separately and then adding everything together is so that the flavours are retained intact. The sea bass itself was quite fabulous - thick, juicy, fresh. I'm guessing so many dishes consisted of sea bass 'coz they must've bought sea bass fresh that morning, which is an excellent plan of action - using the best fish you've got for the meals for the day.

Sea bass
The fifth course was the tempura, and it was perhaps the only disappointment - not because it was bad, but compared to the rest of the food, it was extraordinarily insipid.


The sixth course was a dish that has become synonymous with Japanese cuisine - sushi. Little maki rolls with salmon roe, and then of course, there was salmon itself, along with red snapper. The quality of the fish, in all the dishes thus far, was quite simply superb. And they weren't miserly with the portions that they served either...well, they'd better not have been. After all, we were paying a small fortune for them.


The seventh course (and at this point I realised that desserts would make it an 8 course meal) was shokuji, or the staples. You can select either rice or noodles mixed with chicken. This comes with a bowl of miso soup. Boy, do I love a miso or what! Thin, light, packed with flavour, what more can you ask for in a soup. Needless to say, it's comforting. Check out the steam coming out from the bowl in the snap to the left. There are some scallions that are chopped and sprinkled on the top. Normally, I'm not a big fan of too much of green flotilla in my soups, but in this case, since the greens were very easy to chew and send into the labyrinth that was my stomach, I was OK.

We ordered noodles as we were both fans of noodles. The noodles were glazed in a teriyaki-like sauce and the chicken in it actually had falvour, as opposed to the chicken pieces one normally finds in fried rice or noodles, which are usually flavourless and dry. I was busy picking the chicken pieces with my chop sticks.



Finally, the dessert, or mizugashi, that consisted of three things: sesame flavoured ice cream, a Japanese yuzu lime cheesecake (thanks to Gautam John [@gkjohn] for helping me with the name), and green tea tiramisu.


Sesame ice cream
Japanese yuzu lime cheesecake
Green tea tiramisu
While the ice cream most certainly had an acquired taste to it (in my opinion, it was way too strong), the cheesecake was more subdued (or subtle) in flavour, and actually felt quite light as opposed to ones with heavy cream cheese in them. The tiramisu, we felt, should have been sweeter, or at least, we'd have liked it sweeter because among the trio, there wasn't a single dessert that was 'sweet'... I mean, desserts, come on! There needs to be something a little sweet, especially when you're having three. Playing with various levels of sweetness among the three would have made the perfect end to the meal. Overall, an excellent meal, one worthy to be eaten on special occasions.

Food: Excellent.
$$$: Expensive; 5 star rates. The Kyoto meal is Rs 3200 + taxes, Tokyo meal is Rs 5000 + taxes, and the Nara (veg) meal is Rs 2500 + taxes.
Service: Very good, and they explain the dishes really well.
Verdict: Must visit if you like Japanese food.

Edo, ITC Gardenia, #1 Residency Road (Field Marshall Cariappa Road), Bangalore. Phone: 22119898

Harima

I was told sometime back that Dahlia on Church Street served better Japanese food than Harima. Unfortunately, by the time I started making enough money to visit joints where I'd have to pay in excess of Rs. 500 (per person) for a meal, Dahlia had closed, and so Bangaloreans like me have to settle for Harima (unless you consider Zen at The Leela Palace and Shiro in UB City as 'authentic Japanese'). Without a doubt, Harima is miles ahead of it's nearest competitors (in Bangalore at least).

Seven of us (deadly sinners) went to Harima on Saturday for lunch, and we weren't disappointed one bit.

Sake 'shot' glasses

One of the lamp shades, snap taken by The Professor

My sake glass

Tempura

Harima Deluxe Platter (sushi & sashimi)

Beef noodles

One of the 'bento' boxes - like a thali, or a set meal

Okonomiyaki - Japanese style pizza-pancake

Another bento

My bento box

Green tea ice cream - me not likey!

Wasabi ice cream - the wasabi can really explode inside your head, so take smaller spoonfuls

Overall, great experience, especially for someone like me who's always game to try on new food. Someone at work asked me how could I get myself to eat "such kind of food", with an expression of pure revulsion. To which I gave my standard answer - if it's good enough for humans in a different part of the planet, it ought to be good enough for me. I don't believe in a lot of our societal barriers like caste, religion, etc., but what I've noticed is that a lot of people belonging to, let us say, a particular section of Hindu society that places them right on top, seem to be clinging onto the caste system because it's the only way they can have the sense of being 'important'. A few hundred years ago, yeah, but today, when we're in an era of being able to send man to the moon and send data in a few seconds over several thousands of miles across the globe, I'm at a loss at how to react to such people when they make such obnoxious statements. In any case, this is a different discussion, not for my food blog.

At the end of the day, we're all human, aren't we? I'm not eating food that a South American vampire bat or a tape worm eat, I'm eating what other civilised humans are eating. Don't forget that.

Food: If you're ready to appreciate the food and cultural philosophy behind food from a foreign land, then this food is superb.
$$$: Very expensive - we paid Rs. 1100 per head, but mainly because of the Rs. 3000 sushi platter. Well worth the money since this isn't a daily or monthly thing that I do.
Service: Good
Verdict: Like I said, it's the only Japanese restaurant in town, and it's worth a visit if you're game for some exotic food. May not be suitable for vegetarians, although if you eat egg, then you may just be able to have a few things to eat besides sea weed :)

Harima, 4^th Floor, Devatha Plaza, Opp. Bishop Cotton Boys School, Residency Road (Field Marshall Cariappa Road), Bangalore. Phone: 41325757