Nikkei Cuisine – Japanese Food the South American Way

Chef Tsuyoshi Murakami hands me a small plate – in it are two slivers of salmon sashimi, lightly blow-torched, in an amber-coloured sauce. I am sitting at the sushi counter of this elegant Japanese restaurant taking in the muted chatter of diners and the delicious smells around me.

This might have been one of the many fine-dining establishments in Ginza or perhaps Shinjuku in Tokyo, but as I take the first slice of salmon, the flavours of butter, Tahitian lime and soy sauce linger on my tongue. So wonderful, and yet so un-Japanese, for I am at Kinoshita Restaurant in Vila Nova Conceição, one of the swankiest districts in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Chef Murakami is one of millions of Japanese men, women and children who, over the last 100 years, have crossed the oceans to Brazil in search of a new life. Today, Kinoshita is regarded as one of the top restaurants in the country.

Chef Tsuyoshi Murakami at Restaurant Kinoshita, São Paulo, Brazil

On June 18 1908, the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil after a 7-week journey from Kobe on board the Kasato Maru. Immigration was encouraged to help solve the farming manpower crisis in the Brazilian coffee plantations caused by the abolition of slavery in 1888. Most of these early Japanese immigrants imagined their trip as a temporary endeavour – a way to achieve prosperity before returning to their native country. However, the advent of the Second World War and the demise of Japan resulted in most of them considering Brazil as their permanent home, including my grandparents.

Fast forward 100 years, and today the Japanese community in Brazil is the largest outside Japan, with most people of Japanese descent (known as Nikkei) living in São Paulo. Peru is home to the second largest Nikkei community in South America, where Japanese immigration started 9 years earlier in 1899.

An old family picture in Brazil, 1930s

I was raised by my Japanese grandmother, who unknown to me or anyone else at the time, was a true pioneer of what has lately become the fashionable Nikkei cuisine. This is the cooking of Japanese emigrants who, out of necessity, adapted local ingredients to the cooking techniques of their homeland.  

My grandmother's passport used when she immigrated to Brazil in 1927

Nikkei cooking is an integral part of the culinary heritage of countries like Brazil and Peru, and more recently in the USA and Europe, it has gained popularity due to the influence of chefs like Nobu Matsuhisa. Several Nikkei restaurants opened in London including Chotto Matte and Sushi Samba. In Barcelona, Albert and Ferran Adria from the late El Bulli opened their own Nikkei restaurant Pakta, earning rave reviews.

‘In Peru, Japanese immigrants must have been shocked by the enormous difference between the diets they were so used to and the new products they were consuming. They were forced to adapt in a thousand different ways’, explained chef Mitsuharu Tsumura. We were chatting over one of the signature dishes at his restaurant in the upmarket district of Miraflores in Lima –Maido is currently number 7 on San Pelligrino’s 50 Best Restaurants of Latin America, and is also considered the best of its kind in the city.

Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura at Maido Restaurant, Lima, Peru

To many Peruvian Japanese, Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura’s Nikkei ceviche is possibly the dish that best conjures up the marriage of these two culinary traditions. He says ‘It has Japanese ponzu and dashi to counter the intensity of the lime and the aji [Peruvian chilli]. Two attitudes meet and complement each other here: serenity and spice’. And indeed they did - it was a delectable and well-judged dish.

Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura's Nikkei Cebiche

Japanese Chef Toshiro Konishi, regarded by many as the father of Peruvian Nikkei cuisine, is a national treasure. Arriving in Lima in the 1970s to work alongside Nobu Matsuhisa at Matsuei, Konishi-san fell in love with the Peruvian people and the wonderful native ingredients of the land and sea, never returning to live in Japan.

Chef Toshiro Konishi handing me a plate of tiradito at his restaurant Toshiro's, Lima, Peru

I met him at Toshiro’s in San Isidro, Lima, to talk about Nikkei cuisine and try one of his creations – tiradito. Today, one of the national dishes of Peru, this is the Nikkei answer to another local favourite, ceviche. Tiradito was invented by Chef Konishi who decided to slice the fish thinly, sashimi style rather than cubed, and serve it raw with leche de tigre, not marinated in lime or with red onions and corn. Much as I love a well-made ceviche, Toshiro’s tiradito was truly sensational –lighter, more delicate and the excellent quality of the local Peruvian fish really shone through.

Chef Toshiro Konishi's Tiradito (Peruvian-Nikkei Sashimi)

Back in São Paulo, at Momotaro restaurant, third generation Japanese descendent chef Adriano Kanashiro served me his most popular Nikkei dish – a sushi of tuna, foie gras and figs that is one of the finest I have tasted. Perhaps the most avant-garde of Nikkei chefs in Brazil, Kanashiro explores the fruits of the Amazon for culinary inspiration.

Japanese immigration, although in smaller numbers, still takes place in South America. In São Paulo, I was charmed to meet chef Shin Koike at his restaurant Sakagura A1 and learnt of his arrival in the country as early as 20 years ago. “Brazil is my adopted home; I embraced its culture, people and food wholeheartedly” he said. His kids were born there and as their parents, are truly integrated in Brazilian society – “I will never live in Japan again” he concluded.

Chef Shin Koike at Sakagura A1 Restaurant, São Paulo, Brazil

We shared a splendid Nikkei meal at Sakagura A1 ending it on a high note with his Rapadura ice cream with Cachaça and coffee jelly for dessert. Here, Chef Koike pays homage to two of the most popular of Brazilian flavours. Rapadura is Brazilian unrefined sugar cane in solid form, much akin to his native kokutō (Japanese muscovado sugar) it was the perfect base for his Nikkei creation together with Cachaça, the national spirit of Brazil, enjoyed in many Caipirinhas across that nation and beyond.

My grandmother was no Nobu, but she used what she could find in Brazil to create the most delicious Nikkei dishes. I was lucky enough to grow up in her house eating this style of cooking, and am pleased to see it reaching out beyond South America. Until now, Brazil and Peru were perhaps the most unlikely places you would visit for top-quality Japanese food. But if you would like to try Nikkei cooking, Japanese food the South American way, head down to São Paulo or Lima and check out some of these dazzling restaurants for yourself.

A day in São Paulo zoo with my o-baachan (grandmother)

Alternatively, why not experiment cooking Nikkei dishes at your own home? My cookbook ‘Nikkei Cuisine – Japanese Food the South American Way’ will be published on the 22nd October 2015, it can be pre-ordered on Amazon here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikkei-Cuisine-Japanese-South-American/dp/1910254207

Peruvian-Nikkei Cuisine Comes to London!

Name: Lima Restaurant

Where: Lima (Peruvian) - 31 Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1JH
                 Maido (Nikkei) - Calle San Martín, 399 (esq. calle Colón), Miraflores, Lima, Perú

Cost: Set lunches and the pre-theatre menus in Lima (London), available on weekdays, cost £20 for 2 courses, or £23 for 3 courses, plus £4 for a glass of red or white wine. From the à la carte menu, starters cost from £9 to £14, mains from £20 to £29, and desserts are all priced at £8.50.

About: Lima opened in 2012, the third restaurant of Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez, whose Central Restaurant in Miraflores, Lima I visited recently (to be reviewed soon).  After a degree in law, Martinez studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London, and trained at restaurants in New York and Catalonia, and was executive chef at Astrid y Gastón in Lima before opening Central in 2010. Central quickly hit the San Pelligrino's 50 Best Restaurants in the World list, and in the latest 2014 list is ranked number 15.

That's quite a pedigree, and so perhaps it is not surprising that within months of opening, the menu devised by Martinez and delivered by Robert Ortiz at Lima was awarded a Michelin star. The menu at Central focussed on authenticity, local ingredients and seasonality, and this is also the philosophy at Lima, where a number of dishes developed at Central are also featured.  Most of the produce at Lima is from the UK, but it is supplemented by a range of native products from Peru's hugely diverse landscape.

Virgilio Martinez & Pia at Lima, London

This special event was to introduce Peruvian-Nikkei cooking to London. Nikkei is the cooking of the Japanese diaspora, adapting the produce these migrants found in their adopted countries to traditional Japanese culinary techniques, creating their interpretation of Japanese dishes with a local twist. This cuisine is very dear to me because as a Japanese-Brazilian, it is what I ate growing up in São Paulo, cook at my home in England and occasionally serve as part of my Japanese Supper Club menu in Islington.

Nikkei Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura at Lima, London

Nikkei cooking can be found wherever there is a Japanese migrant community; these communities are significant in Brazil, where the largest Japanese community can be found outside of Japan, and also Peru, home to the 2nd largest community.

It is in Lima that arguably this style of cooking has reached its highest expression, pioneered by Nobu Matsuhisa and his colleague Toshiro Konishi, followed by the next generation of outstanding Nikkei chefs like Mitsuharu Tsumura (known as Micha). Micha's Maido Restaurant (Latin America's 11th Best Restaurant 2013)  in Lima is another wonderful spot I visited on my recent trip to Peru which will be reviewed shortly. Micha has written an entire book on Nikkei cooking published last year "Nikkei es Peru" and is undoubtedly an authority on the subject.

Nikkei Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura at London Lima

I met and interviewed Toshiro Konishi and Micha while I was in Lima, and so was very excited to see Peruvian Nikkei cooking featured in London, and to have the opportunity to see him and Virgilio once more on home ground, as well as Virgilio’s partner and head chef Pia.

Arturio Gaston of Astrid & Gaston (pictured left)

What We Ate: The menu was structured with Pia, Vergilio and Micha’s dishes to show a wide range of Peruvian native ingredients, as well as Nikkei techniques and flavours by Micha.

  

To kick off proceedings, a platter of appetisers was served, which included Micha’s octopus with botija olive tofu and black quinoa, porcon mushroom with squid and wakame, and a steamed bun with fish chicharron (deep-fried battered fish) and zarza (or salsa) criolla made from onion, lime and coriander.

Pía cooked langoustine and huarango tree, a native tree from the desert in South Peru and whose sap tastes sweet like maple syrup, while Virgilio presented a dish called 'corn diversity', one of his creations at Central with four types of Peruvian corn including choclo (soft white fresh corn) and chulpi (dried and crunchy), presenting myriad flavour and texture contrasts.

We were then presented two takes on Peru’s national dish, ceviche.  Micha’s version was one of the most beautiful interpretations I have encountered, served in a striking purple sea urchin shell, combining rock fish and clams, sea urchin, tobiko eggs and yuyo (an Andean cooking herb), and topped with tempura(ed) samphire.

Virgilio's ceviche was also outstanding, with scallops, chia seeds and tumbo (a Peruvian passion fruit). This was refreshing and zingy, with delicious acidity.

Micha’s selection of nigiri-zushi came next - scallops with an emulsion of maca, cushuro and chalaca - featuring some uniquely Peruvian ingredients, like cushuro  (aka Andean caviar), a freshwater alga that grows only above 3000 metres. Rich in protein, it looks rather like the spherified chlorophyll beloved of molecular gastronomy, but is a naturally occurring foodstuff. Maca is another native of the high Andes, grown for its nutritious and allegedly healthgiving root - some even joke that maca is the Peruvian natural Viagra!

Silverside fish, with nori and leche de tigre emulsion was another Nikkei nigiri-zushi. Leche de tigre (tiger's milk) is a typically Peruvian sauce used in ceviches and tiraditos, which in its purest form is simply the juices of the lime and fish marinade.

The last nirigiri sushi featured very tender skirt beef with ponzu dressing (Japanese citrus dressing) topped with a fried quail egg. This was deliciously flavoursome, and visually quite stunning.

The main courses, titled 'Diversity' included a wagyu short rib nitsuke with potato cream and purple corn from Micha. Nitsuke refers to the Japanese technique of simmering fish or meat traditionally in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar and sake. The short rib was yieldingly tender and delicious, and served with an intense and glossy reduction. Purple corn is ubiquitous in Peru, and is used to make the hugely popular chicha morada (a purple corn soft drink).

Virgilio’s main course was a dish of avocado, Andean pseudocereals and tomato tree. Grown between 2000 and 4000 metres, Andean pseudocereals including quinoa and amaranth, are noted for their high anti-oxidant content, and worked a treat in this dish, imparting a nuttiness and crispy texture to the creamy avocado, making a fabulous dish.

To wrap up our Nikkei lunch, we were served two desserts - Micha’s ice cream of bahuaja nut (native to south-eastern Peru, and similar to Brazil nut), with crispy bahuaja nut and mango while Virgilio served 'Hoja de Coca' Jungle, or coca leaf jungle – both were creative, using intriguing and unusual Peruvian ingredients that were a delight to discover in this part of the world.

What We Drank: Lima serves probably the best Pisco sours this side of the Atlantic, and we enjoyed a couple of those as aperitifs. We also drank some fine Clos des Andes 2007 by Bodega Poesia, from Mendoza in Argentina.

Likes: Sophisticated Peruvian-Nikkei cooking, with some truly unusual and delicious native ingredients from the Amazon and the high Andes. The sea-urchin ceviche was truly outstanding and for me the highlight of the meal.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Lima is a wonderful restaurant, fronted by Virgilio Martinez, one of the most talented young chefs in the world.  I cannot think of a better place to introduce Peruvian-Nikkei cooking to the UK and to discover on our very doorstep why there is such excitement about Peruvian cooking throughout the world right now. Highly recommended.

Nikkei Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura and Hosting Chef Virgilio Martinez at Lima, London