Kurashiki Japanese Restaurant First Floor MFL Building Cnr Colombo and Gloucester Streets Phone 67-092 Licensed

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 21

Kurashiki Japanese Restaurant First Floor MFL Building Cnr Colombo and Gloucester Streets Phone 67-092 Licensed

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LES BLOXHAM

The Japanese have for centuries held the view that their food should not only taste good, but also look good. Anyone who has had the good fortune to visit this mystical country of the East will know that to dine out there is a culinary treat to be savoured like vintage wine. It is an experience punctuated by a flow of attractively presented dishes. Indeed, a Japanese meal is traditionally a work of art; each dish a masterpiece created by chefs with a deep-rooted ability to arrange their food to appeal to the eye as well as the palate. The very best of these traditions have been adopted by Christchurch’s Kurashiki Restaurant. Although tucked away on the first floor of the MFL building, the restaurant exudes all the style and serenity of the best restaurants in Japan. The reception area is set in a miniature garden with pebbled courtyard surrounded by a framework of natural woods. The main dining room with western-style tables and chairs (a blessing for those, who like me, find squatting at a low table hard and uncomfortable on ageing joints), is beyond a double sliding door. The menu is effectively divided into three sections offering a choice of set meals, nabe mono (dinner cooked at the table), or an interesting range of a la carte dishes. The kiku set meal ($45)

caters mainly for the taste of the Japanese tourist. The tachifuji set ($3B) is more popular with Europeans. Nabe mono requires a minimum of two people and includes sukuyaki — sliced steak served with raw egg which, at $3B, must seem like a gift from the gods to touring Japanese hardened to paying three times that price for steak back home.

We, however, concentrated on an a la carte meal, selecting six dishes beginning with miso shiru, a tangy slightly fermented bean-curd soup served in a covered wooden bowl. Then followed a sampling of sushi titbits: salmon, prawns and egg rolled with balls of vinegared rice wrapped in seaweed. Regrettably, there was no fish sushimi, apparently because the restaurant cannot get the fish it requires for the dish.

Tempura, vegetables and fish lightly battered and deep fried, has always been a favourite of mine, but this was my first taste away from Japan. I was not disappointed by the serving of prawns, asparagus, pumpkin and potato lightly fried to a golden brown.

This dish is a must and, in my view, an excellent way to introduce a delicate palate to Japanese cuisine.

Our order of pork shogayaki — barbecued strips nestling in a rich

ginger sauce — was served with a bowl of gohan (boiled rice) which we found to be a lot moister than other Asian rice dishes. Being “gooey,” however, does have one advantage — it sticks to the chopsticks in communal lumps. Ice cream served in square wooden dishes brought our meal to a sweet end. There was a reasonable selection of mainly New Zealand wines ranging from $l3 a bottle to $25. Sake was available for $5.50. Japanese beer also cost $5.50 Service was efficient, but not rushed. The Japanese waiters and waitresses had a reasonably good grasp of English.

Our meal, including one bottle of wine, cost $7B. (By the way, prices quoted on the menu do not include GST.)