Japanese again....

I was meeting up with A for lunch today. Since she lives in London for the time being, I let her choose what she would like to eat. She came up with a few ideas yesterday, Katsura or t sate, both at Plaza Senayan. Though I love A to bits, she is a mess when it comes to deciding what to eat... Okay, okay, I confess I am also a mess at deciding where to eat at times... I love her flexibility, but it is that characteristic too that makes it hard for us to make a decision on where or what to eat!

She called me at 10am this morning.
“Hey, so, what do you want to eat?”
“You’re the one that doesn’t come home a lot, you pick”
“Well,... I heard there’s this Japanese pasta place...”
“uhmm... no, have that in Singapore already...”
“oh ok... I kinda want to have miitem”
“... i just had that....“
“hmm Katsura then?”
“ok, you don’t want Nagamare?”
"..........japanese... again?"

The above conversation continued for another 10 minutes and I have nothing against Japanese food, its just that I always always always end up eating Japanese food lately. We finally decided on Katsura. Katsura is a speciality Japanese restaurant in Shabu shabu and sukiyaki. The seats are propped up and made especially to make having shabu shabu easily. However, since I had my breakfast late, I decided to have the set menu “Arashiyama”. It caught my eye not only because it reminded me of Arashiyama, one of my favorite place when I was living in Kyoto but also because it is the only set menu with the steak! What can I say, I love meat...


Arashiyama Set

We both ended up ordering the Arashiyama set. When it came, presentation was elegant as I have expected. What I didn’t expect was the sakura mochi like dish that came with it. The tray came with a picnic-basket-like set that the waitress unfolded, revealing our munchies. The tiny little colorful flower bowls contained the cold dish of horenzo in soy sauce and mirin, to fish with edamame. The other other one of course held my sakura mochi like savory dish, assorted mushroom and edamame, and kyoto sushi like tamago, eel, fish cake, and more. These dishes really reminded me of Kyoto taste, soft, fine, and thin, allowing you to really taste the vegetables, the fish, the eggs, the main ingredient that is being served to you.


Cold dishes

It came with tempura moriawase: mint leave, prawn, eggplant, and fish. Crisp and crunchy. The tempura sauce came with the grated radish and ginger, yummmm... By this point, I really wished I didn't have that breakfast! But of course, I have to taste the steak! The beef was sliced and cooked with onion and mushroom. I thought it tasted like a breed between sukiyaki and yakiniku. It made me wish there were more gravy on the plate. I also wished I had started with the steak instead of the cold dishes. Word of advice, if you do come and get the arashiyama, eat the steak first, then the tempura, then the cold dishes. Don't let the steak get cold. Do come with an empty stomach so that you can munch it all. Remember, a set is not a Japanese set without the miso soup.


Tempura Moriawase and Sliced Beef Steak

Just as you thought your stomach was about to explode, or at least I did since I had that damned breakfast, the waitress cleared the set and brought the dessert. I was torn between glutton and resisting temptation. Gluttony won. My hand took the spoon and digged into the little pie and the ice cream. The pie was sweet but the strawberry and chocolate sauces made it much too sweet for me. I devoured the ice cream instead as the logic is that ice cream will melt and seep into the spaces between the fish, eggs, horenzo, edamame, etc. Yeah, yeah, it's not a real logic, but it works ;)


The Dessert: Vanilla Ice Cream and Fruit Pie

Lucky A and I hadn't met for a while so we had plenty to talk about after lunch as I couldn't move for a good while. It was a good choice of place and good choice of set. I do want to come back for the sukiyaki one day. That day I would make sure I have room in my stomach to store all the food.

Katsura
Plaza Senayan P4

Jakarta Selatan
+62 21 572 5226
www.katsura-restaurant.com