Sanbashi’s Marge Yang says that, contrary to popular belief, there are rules to Japanese cooking.
One is that women are not allowed to come near the sushi bar. There is an old Japanese custom that only male chefs roll the sushi. The closest women can get near a sushi chef is to hand him the ingredients. However, everything else – from the slicing of sashimi, the filling of the nori wrapper to the rolling of the sushi – is domain of the male chef.
"That’s the first thing I learned when I worked at a Japanese restaurant abroad," she says.
Yang was on a four-year stint in the United States for personal reasons, when she thought of working at a Japanese restaurant.
"I have always been interested in Japanese cooking, ever since a friend of mine gifted me with a Japanese recipe book," she explains. "I loved looking at how the dishes were assembled. That’s why I thought it was a godsend that when I went out to look for a part-time job, the first opening was at a Japanese restaurant."
In the four years that she worked for Sumo Japanese Restaurant in Orange County, CA, she found herself at home with a crew of Asians. The master chef was Japanese, and the crew were an assembly of Californians, Chinese and Japanese. She was the lone Filipino on the staff.
She learned everything from that restaurant including all the customs that are important in Japanese cooking.
"There are rules to serving Japanese food," she says. "You don’t just dump everything on a platter and serve it to your guests. There are rules regarding the way the fish is laid out on the platter, as well as the platter’s orientation. Hindi mo lang siya basta ilalapag na lang sa table."
She also adopted one innovative idea from that restaurant and made it her own. This is Sanbashi’s signature tempura roll.
"I actually improved on Sumo’s tempura roll to make it more appetizing for Filipino diners. Kasi the California roll is a bit ordinary na," Yang says. "I rolled the sushi in the tempura crumbs to give it a crunch, and I added the roe topping because I always hear diners asking for more of it. Then I poured a sweet sauce on top of it para mas malasa."
And there’s nothing like Sanbashi’s tempura roll. The sushi rolls are jumbo-fat. Each roll has a chunk of ebi tempura and some kani salad. Each six-slice order is equal to three servings of ebi tempura. With the rice rolled around it, it is a complete meal in one.
Yang describes Sanbashi to be a Japanese resto serving good traditional food with a few modern touches. She conceptualized Sanbashi in 1999 based on what she learned during her stint at Sumo. Add to this her own personal observation of Filipino diners and she arrived at the winning formula for her Japanese restaurant. It has been in operation for more than two years now.
"I just mixed a little bit of Western ambience with the traditional Japanese," she explains. "The waitstaff also wears colorful Japanese-inspired modern uniforms and not the traditional kimonos for a modern touch."
And she doesn’t hesitate to declare that their portions are huge and that these are presented innovatively.
"Our first customers here were family friends, and I didn’t want them to leave complaining that they were shortchanged. That’s why we’ve made it a point to really serve big portions. Many of our guests can afford to pay for good food. There’s really no reason to scrimp on our servings," she explains.
If you order Sanbashi’s gindara teriyaki, you will be served a thick slice of imported cod fish liberally topped with sweet teriyaki sauce. The chicken teriyaki is likewise generous with deep-fried, breaded boneless tender chicken strips that are served with a siding of salad and topped liberally with teriyaki sauce.
Then, there’s Sanbashi’s Kobe beef hohbayaki. Instead of serving Kobe beef teppanyaki on a sizzling plate, it is served on a hohba leaf that is placed over a clay pot filled with live coal. As the hohba leaf burns from the heat, it imparts a unique nutty flavor to the cooking beef. As the sauce cooks and dries up, it doesn’t burn and add a bitter flavor to the dish.
"We originally thought of serving isshiyaki, or stone cooking, here, but we didn’t have enough space. The hohbayaki is a rare alternative to sizzling cooking," she adds.
One thing that Sanbashi has improved on vis-a-vis what most Japanese restaurants serve is its dessert selection. Like Chinese cooking, there isn’t much by way of sweets in its cooking. Dessert would mean fresh fruits or ice cream.
Yang concocted her own Japanese Symphony as a sampler of sweets that are the perfect end to a Japanese meal. It includes single servings of ice cream, nata de coco, leche flan and ripe mangoes.
"It’s everything that most Japanese diners will like," she says. "Since we have all of it in the Philippines, I thought of combining all of them in one platter for the perfect dessert."
The food is good and filling, and in the evening the ambience is even better. Since the restaurant occupies the second floor of the Pantalan Seafood Restaurant complex, it also commands a good view of Manila Bay. When the weather is cool, guests can sit out in the patio and enjoy the cool sea breeze and, maybe, the moonlight.
Yang is proud to say that what Sanbashi serves of Japanese food, it serves well.
"If I have to compare our food with that served in Japanese restaurants in five-star hotels, I think it’s comparable," she says.