Updated on:
22/9/2000
A Translation From The "Eat and Travel Weekly" magazine by Jason
Charmaine Sheh (Ah Sheh) said she is a Japanese-food craze, and she has started easy Japanese food since she was 10 years old and has loved it ever since, eating Japanese food for a full 15 years. Also, she said that she has become even more picky these days. In eating sushi, she only eats "Uni" (Hoi Dam Sushi); when eating "cold noodles", she would only choose "Do Ting" noodles; when eating tempura, the best place to be is the "octopus tempura" from a Tokyo restaurant...after numerous searches, Charmaine even opened a Japanese eatery herself, along with some other friends (the one that On Duck Juen opened with her), so she can eat all the Japanese food she wants. This day, we also have Japanese chef "Yuk Ji Leung Sam" to test this new restaurant owner (Ah Sheh), to see if her knowledge of proper and original Japanese food is "up to standard"!
"Test #1--Proper way of eating "lai meen"--Pass"
What Charmaine said: "When eating noodles, you have to have loud sounds of "shhh"...the louder, the more polite you are. After eating the noodles, it is best to also drink the soup."
Judge "Yuk Ji Leung Sam"
Chef head of Charmaine's Japanese eatery, has been in this business for 17 years, came to HK 4 years ago with his Chinese wife.
Chef said, "Japanese people like to have three sips of clear broth before eating "lai meen", then as quickly as possible, they would finish the noodles, so that the noodles will not inflate in size. Lastly, to be most polite when eating noodles, they would drink all of the soup that came with the noodles".
"Test #2--Manner in drinking Japanese wine--Fail"
Charmaine's reply: "First, take a sip, then drink after sensing the "taste" of the wine (to feel "jau heung")."
Chef said: "When filling the wine to the cup, it must be filled to the very top, as if the wine would spill over. Then, use the lips to sip a little bit of the wine, so as to taste "jau heung". Afterwards, Japanese people would slowly drink the wine. However, drinking wine has different "levels". In terms of wine, there are "muk siu" and "Japanese wine", with the former being more "hot" and thus proper for complementing meat, while the latter can be further sub-divided into "rice wine", "raw wine", and "sui siu". The more taste of rice in the wine, the more "shun", while the better the wine is, the less likely one would get drunk. As an aside, Japanese wine is more suitable for complementing sushi and sashimi."
"Test #3--The proper way of eating sushi--Good"
Charmaine's Answer: "Using hands, turn over the sushi, and dip the sashimi into soy sauce."
Chef said: "The way Hong Kong people eat sushi is totally wrong, a lot of people only care about wasabi, but wasabi's use really is to take away the "seng" taste in the sashimi part of the sushi. The rice on the sushi already has a little bit of wasabi, so when eating sushi, one would only need to take the sashimi part of the sushi, and dip it to the soy sauce. Then, put the sashimi back onto the rice and eat the whole thing all at once. This way, the sushi and the sauce would complement each other best, thus giving the best tasting sushi."
"Test #4--Sashimi site test--Perfect"
We (being the reporters) gave Ah Sheh a plateful of sashimi, asking her what's on the place. Using a lightning quick 3 seconds, Ah Sheh was able to reply perfectly and said that the plateful of sashimi included "toro", salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, and "jeung but pong" sashimi. With these perfect answers, the reporter also titled Ah Sheh as "sashimi king/queen".
Chef said: "Good, everything was answered correctly! As a matter of fact, it is important to identify which types of sashimi's are on the plate, and it is equally important to eat the sashimi properly. First, put a little bit of wasabi on top of the sashimi, then dip a little bit of soy sauce. Doing these would help sashimi taste best."
"First time tasting Japanese food at 10 years old"
Ah Sheh's craze for Japanese food originated when she was in grade 4 (10 years old), when she went to "Sui Gue Oak" (a Japanese restaurant in Hong Kong) along with her parents for "siu yeh".
"The first time I had Japanese food was in Tsim Tsa Tsui's Sui Gue Oak. At that time, the feeling I had was like going to Ocean Park, for there was "water car", "water shrimp", etc. I was already pretty full just by looking at the restaurant's decorations. It was really fun".
Thinking of her taste of Japanese food, Ah Sheh smiled and said, "At that time, I'd rather die than eat sashimi, so all I ate was "egg sushi". Thinking back, I really think I was dumb at that time". After so many years, the picky Ah Sheh's tastes have jumped by three levels, for what (the sushi type) she eats now is the expensive "Uni" (hoi dam sushi).
"Good "Uni" needs to be fresh enough, while the rice must be soft enough and not be too hard". Having eaten so many times, Ah Sheh has unconsciously become a Japanese food "specialist".