Simply Kai
June 12, 2003 | 12:00am
My wife Mary Ann and I first heard of Kai while it was still in the planning stage. We knew it was going to be Japanese food with a twist. Actually, I’m rather wary of a new place promising to serve food with a twist. Fusion, oftentimes, leads to nothing but confusion: An oriental dish with a European accent, you know what I mean. There are limits to what can be done with some traditional dishes. Some don’t lend themselves well to fusion tinkering. I kinda like my food prepared the traditional way – meaning, the usual way – cooked to perfection, if there is such a thing, or close to it. Think of good old Chinese food, like sweet and sour pork, Yangchow fried rice and Peking duck. Well, that’s me.
Still, I cannot resist the idea of trying out new dishes and new eateries, whether recommended by friends or reviewed in the papers, and, of course, other people’s cooking, be it in a hole-in-a-wall or from a visiting foreign chef in a five-star hotel. Once, we drove for over two hours to try the sinigang highly recommended by some foodie friends. The monobloc tables and chairs were on wet soil, and there was a pathetic looking dog that kept going under the table and brushing our legs with his tail, waiting for whatever bones we would throw away. Unfortunately, we remembered the dog more than the sinigang.
Sometime ago, we lunched at the three-month-old Kai on Greenbelt 2 in Makati. We deliberately arrived at around 11:30 a.m. to avoid the lunch crowd and get a good table. Surprisingly, even for a Monday, some tables were already taken.
Entering the place for the first time, one is certainly awestruck at the serene minimalist interior, which is warm and very calming to the senses, much like entering a Zen temple in a hush-hush manner. Mary Ann, who loves capiz very much, admired the walls lined with mini capiz pieces. "I hope the food will be more memorable than the capiz," she whispered.
Browsing through the menu, we noticed the usual traditional Japanese dishes mixed with a lot of items that were alien to us. Fresh oysters granite, raw oysters with apple and sampaguita-scented granite; matsutake dobin mushi soup, matsutake mushroom-scented broth; pan-seared sea bass, asparagus, sautéed mushrooms and shiitake-truffle scented broth. As I scratched my head (at the same time salivating), I was certain of one thing: "If these dishes don’t taste good, they must at least smell good," I mumbled. Remember, this is twisted Japanese food, my wife reminded me.
The very amiable chef, Gilbert Pangilinan, came to the rescue. He must have read our minds (or perhaps eyed me scratching my head) and helped us with the menu, pointing out his recommendations but leaving to us the final decision.
When undecided, go for it. It’s all or nothing. And that’s precisely what we did. After all, it was our wedding anniversary. We had every reason to celebrate.
For starters, we had the wasabi oyster tempura. The oysters were fresh and firm, and served with a balsamic-dynamite sauce. It had a perfect tempura batter, crumbly and light, yet crisp to the bite. The wasabi was hardly discernible though, and personally I would have preferred the oysters with more wasabi, the strong kind to clear my sinus. Of course, that’s a matter of taste.
A small plate of grilled portobello with foie gras (giant French mushrooms with goose liver) with mixed green salad and maple ponzu vinaigrette followed. It was a wonderful balance of taste and texture.
Mary Ann and I were craving for more of the foie gras, and so we ordered the panko-crusted goat cheese, tomatoes, orange segments and mixed greens in dalandan-basil vinaigrette. Oh, it was heavenly, as well! The creamy sharpness of the goat cheese, encrusted with the crispy breadcrumbs, blended well with the melt-in-the-mouth richness of the foie gras.
Then came the hamachi carpaccio, slivers of raw yellowtail fish, splashed with citrus and ginger and topped with basil oil and sea salt. The simplicity of the embellishment came as a fitting tribute to the revered fresh hamachi.
I thought we were ready for the main course, but Mary Ann, who is partial to crabs, asked if she could just try the soft-shell crab sushi since it was new to her. Though we do have our seasonal lunuk (molting crabs) back in Pampanga (from the fishponds in Sasmoan), Kai’s crabs are imported from Malaysia.
To clear our palates and perhaps an assurance that we were indeed dining in a Japanese restaurant, we had the matsutake dobin mushi, a clear broth of seasonal mushrooms. It was truly a refreshingly clean-tasting soup, leaving the palate ready for the next assault.
By the time we were to start with the main course, we were almost full. We had to decide between Kobe ishiyaki and duck leg confit. Of course, we went for the Kobe beef hands down, maybe to assure ourselves that we were indeed in a Japanese and not a French restaurant. The thin slices of exceptional quality beef were cooked on a hot stone plate right on our table. Though the order came with three interesting sauces, we grilled the beef ever so quickly, simply salting it slightly, and ate it as it is. The 100-gram serving went quickly in a jiffy, not that we devoured it fast, but because it just melted in our mouths we hardly noticed eating it.
We spied a group of six seated next to us, who seemed to be repeat costumers, as they all ordered without perusing the menu. They were all having buta kakuni, tender braised pork belly. It looked very tender as they were simply cutting it with their forks. Chef Gilbert told us later the pork is simmered slowly for close to eight hours. It was truly tempting but this time we had no more room for it. Perhaps on our next visit.
Then, out of the kitchen sprung the chef again tempting us with a dessert of tofu cheesecake. We were shaking our heads in surrender, but he insisted. "Come on, it’s healthy and it’s on the house," he said. We just had to oblige and we did not regret doing so. It’s a light version of the usually heavy dessert.
So, what’s Kai? Is it Japanese or Japanese with a French accent? Does it matter in these days of globalization and borderless, cross-cultural marriages?
Its five Filipino chefs, who conceptualized the menu, succeeded in creating a gastronomic sensation with their exciting inventions. Leading the team are Ricky Estrellado (quite recently promoted to executive chef in Nobu New York), Gilbert Pangilinan (also chef/owner of Stix, a traditional Japanese restaurant in Robinson’s Pampanga), Rex Soriano, Pierre Angeli Dee, and Michael Yap, who all trained and worked at Nobu Restaurant in New York under the internationally-acclaimed Japanese chef Nobu Matsushisa, exponent of Japanese-Peruvian cuisine.
There are some hype joints that are just worth one try, but diners will surely go back to Kai, as its dishes are not served anywhere else.
Mary Ann and I will certainly do. Definitely for the buta kakuni and grilled hamachi kabutoni (yellowtail fish head) which are my fave. Well, among others.
On our way out, I asked my better half if she wanted a second look at the capiz wall.
"What capiz wall?" she replied.
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