Birthday "Chirashi" Sushi Cake, デコちら

It is always nice to have something special for a birthday. A pleasant surprise for a special occasion. That is something I can do and I am always so happy to do.
Doesn't matter what it is. We, chefs, are entertainers in a way and will give 100% to make our guests happy.

So, here is something I have prepared for my guests' birthday dinner. Instead of just giving away an ordinary, common birthday cake, I made a cake looking "Chirashi" sushi.
The birthday lady and her family were so surprised and happy.

Dazu -a day off in Chongqing- 大足石刻

The General Manger of JW Marriott Chongqing has told me about the great rock carving site in Dazu right after we have arranged the schedule of my task force in Chongqing. He was generous enough to offer me a day trip to Dazu Rock Carving site on my day off.

Dazu country is located 60km west from the central city of Chongqing.

It was heavy traffic on Monday morning, of course, and it took 2.5 hour drive to the rock carving site on Mount Baoding! But, I must say, it worth spending the time.

Those carvings were begun back in 6th century AD, during the early Tang Dynasty, influenced by Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist beliefs. And the carvings were listed as a World Heritage Site in 1999.

Unfortunately, the sculpture of Bodhisattva with Thousands Golden Hands was under preservation process and could not see clearly this time... but, other than that, all the carvings are stunningly beautiful and it made me think of the people who made those sculptures over 1,000 years ago... 

Rock carvings of Buddhas and Circle of Life 

Buddha, Entering Nirvana

"All Japanese Buffet" in JW Marriott Chongqing

Last three days of Task Force in Chongqing, from Sep.1st to 3rd, Special promotion "All Japanese Buffet" had been held in Marriott Cafe. 

Decorations for the event. Sake barrels, a little "Geisha" doll, etc.

 

It was a first "All Japanese Buffet" event in the history of 5*hotels in Chongqing and was very successful event indeed. I also had opportunities to meet people from Japanese consulate, Japanese companies and also people from other 5*hotels in Chongqing. I didn't forget to tell them about the new menu project in the hotel's Japanese restaurant "Mikado"! 

Service staff in Japanese style uniforms and Live "Tempura" station

Cold appetizers and salad station,

Japanese sweets -"Kuzukiri" noodles with black sugar syrup-

Live sashimi station with fresh seafood

"Niku Jaga" -Simmered beef and potato in savory soy sauce broth-,

"Oden" -simmered fish cakes and vegetables in bonito broth-,

"Bara chirashi sushi" -dice cut sashimi and vegetables on sushi rice-

Marriott International | Business Excellence Magazine

Here is something I found on the web site...
It talks about Marriott International's future growth in the Middle East and Africa.
"Marriott International has identified enormous growth potential in the Middle East and Africa...."
Marriott International Business Excellence Magazine

JW Marriott Hotel Chongqing, JWマリオットホテル重慶

JW Marriott Hotel Chongqing has opened in 1999 with 472rooms.

It's located in the middle of down town Chongqing -liberation monument area-.

30minutes drive from the airport. *Note; if it's weekday rush hours... it takes forever!

Chongqing is an old, hilly city and all the streets are very narrow. Also, it is intersected by the Jialing river which runs into Yangtze(揚子江) -or Chang Jiang(長江)- River.

So, I could understand why people say it's like Hongkong. 

 

Hotel lobby.

12years old hotel, but it still looks very nice.

All Japanese Buffet Promotion's poster and decorations in the lobby.

Living room and bathroom in the master room.

Bed room with nice view of down town Chongqing.

Thanks to the hotel GM let me and my wife stay in the sweet room.

Task Force in Chongqing, 重慶出張

I am going to JW Marriott Hotel Chongqing
for "Task Force" from Aug.26 to Sep.4

I will be helping out their promotion in all day dining restaurant.
"Original All-Japanese Dinner Buffet in Marriott Cafe"
Only for 3 nights special dinner event from Sep.1 to 3.
(* See "News" for more details!)

And also, menu change and staff training in their Japanese restaurant "Mikado".

That will be a very busy 10days in Chongqing.....

However, I am excited to see a different city in China!
Chongqing is a major city in southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. (Other four are Beijing, Shanghai, Guanzhou and Tianjin)

One of my friends from Hongkong told me that Chongqing is called "Little Hongkong" because both cities are surrounded by water. Though, the size of Chongqing is much bigger than Hongkong.
Chongqing is bigger than Hokkaido -Hongkong is only half the size of Tokyo- !!

Universiade Shenzhen 2011, ユニバーシアード深セン

People here in Shenzhen have been talking about it for so long...
The Universiade is now in Shenzhen!
Check it out → Universiade Shenzhen 2011, Official web site

Signs and posters are all around the city of Shenzhen!

So many new streets and buildings are built for the game.

Signs inside the subway stations, remind people to behave in a civilized way... 

Also, new subway lines have just been opened before the universiade in June.

地震後の影響は？

先日行われた中国国内の日本人向けフリーペーパー「ウェネバー広東」による取材が7月号の記事として紹介されました。

今年三月の日本、東北地方での大地震、原子力発電所の爆発、それに伴う放射漏れ。。。
その影響は隣の中国、そして世界各国にも広く及んでおります。
今回の記事は、現在の広東省における日本食事情を詳しくつづったものです。

自分も海外日本食事業に携わる者の一人として現状の報告と一個人としての意見を述べさせていただきました。

日本国外にいてたいした手助けもできませんが、被災地の方々、そして各方面で影響を受けている日本国民にいち早く安らかな日々が戻ることを心より願っております。。。

がんばれニッポン!!

Special dish for a VIP guest

Tonight, our VIP hotel room guest came to "Shizuku" Japanese restaurant for dinner with friends.

He asked me to make one dish which is not on the menu for him. And he told me he liked "Sanma" -pacific saury-.

It was very busy night but how could I say "No".
When someone come challenge me, my answer always is  "Yes, no problem". I just told him "please give me a little time"...
Then, I started think what I could do with "Sanma" to give them "WOW" while running back to the kitchen.

Thanks to my previous boss who is a great chef and specialized in tempura. So, I came up with the idea of deep frying it then mix with sweet and sour sauce. He taught me a lot....



Clean the fish and fillet it into 2 pcs and one piece of middle bones. Put a bit of salt over both filleted meat and middle bones. Leave them for a while then rinse them with water and dry them with kitchen paper. 
Cut the meat into 2-3cm wide pieces, put corn starch around it and deep fry them.

This time, I also deep fried the middle bones and julienne sweet potato (with lower temperature) and cut green asparagus.
Heat up the sweet and sour sauce (mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, rice vinegar, chopped onion, ginger juice) in a pan, add cut small tomatoes, deep fried "Sanma" meat and green asparagus, then mix them well.

Put them in a orange cup then julienne spring onion and deep fried sweet potato on top.
Pour little bit of the sauce with small tomatoes around the cup. Put deep fried bone on the side.
Garnish the dish with some spring onion, then "Voila!" done!!!

I succeeded to give them "WOW" and they left the restaurant with smile :)

Hotels in Macau, マカオホテル事情

It only takes one hour by boat trip from Shenzhen to Macau.

It has been handed over back to China from Portugal on Dec. 1999 but under the policy of "one country, two systems", its unique European atmosphere still remains the same and keep attract millions of tourists every year.  And the numbers of those tourists keep growing due to Chinese economy growth -over 50% of the visitors are from mainland China and 30% are from Hong Kong-.

Of course, the main reason which attracts those tourists is the casinos.
In 2006, Macau's gambling business has made 6.95 billion US dollars revenue, surpassed Las Vegas and made it the world's top casino market.

One of the oldest casino & hotel is the Lisboa -one of Macau's icon, the hotel with 1071 rooms- in the middle of the downtown Macau peninsula. It's opened in 1970 and the new hotel "Grand Lisboa" design as lotus flower with 431 rooms 52F, just opened next to it in 2008.

Newly opened Grand Lisboa, original hotel Lisboa and the casino. 

Some other hotels opened in Peninsula side within a past 5years are;
MGM grand with 600 rooms 35F opened in 2007, Sofitel with 408 rooms 20F opened in 2008, Mandarin Oriental with 213 rooms -without casino- opened in 2010.

Across the bridge to islands of Taipa and Coloane.
In between those two islands are now connected by landfill forming the Cotai Strip.
This area is booming now!

Four Seasons Hotel and the Venetian

Macau's new icon the Venetian is opened with 2,874 rooms (!) in 2007 and Four Seasons just right next to it opened in 2008 with 360 rooms. Grand Hyatt across the street opened in 2009 with 791 rooms. New casino complex Galaxy is just open this year, 2011, in May which includes hotels from Japan -Hotel Okura-, Thailand -Banyan Tree- and its own Galaxy hotel with 1,500 rooms.

GALAXY MACAU

And soon, another complex is going to be opened just across from the Venetian and Four Seasons.
Scheduled to open early in next year, 2012. It includes hotels by Starwood group -Sheraton and St.Regis- and others (it was planed to be Shangri-La and Traders but the agreement between the hotels and casino complex was terminated for some reasons in March. -see the news on "Macau Daily Times").

New complex is under construction.
The building in the left was supposed to be Shangri-La's and you can still see it's logo on top.

Those luxury hotels are opening with casinos after Macau's new law.
In 2002, the Macau government ended the monopoly system and opened it to other companies from outside. Since then, casino complexes' opening rush is continuously going though it was slowed down for a period of time after American economy corrupted by "Lehman Shock" in 2008.

We will see all new Macau within a couple of years....   

Wax berry / Bay berry / 楊梅 / 山桃(やまもも)

June is the season for "Wax berry (or Bayberry)"

It is native to eastern Asia, such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan.
It's grown in a warm climate area, in forests on mountain slopes -not higher than 1500m-.
It tastes sweet and sour. It can be eaten raw, cooked for jam or marinated in alcohol as same as "Plum wine".

One point!
Before you eat, you must soak them in a salted water for a while and let the small worms come out from the berries!
The worms are white and about 2-3mm long. People say it is harmless to human body, but... it is better we clean them off.



This time, I made "Wax berry wine" as I did with plum in April.
It was first time for me to do it with wax berry, so I didn't make too much.


Wax berry x 600gm, Rock sugar x 150gm, Shochu (35% alcohol) x 1080ml 
If it is successful, I will make more in next season!!

 Left: first day                        Right: 5days later

P.S. Let's see what happened to the plum wine I made in April..

Color already has changed to nice amber color! Almost ready....

Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel

Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel -one of the Marriot's sister hotels- is located in Hong Kong island, just next to Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, 5 minutes walk to the subway island line Wanchai station and 3 minutes walk to Wanchai Ferry Pier.

Enjoy the view from the hotel and around the hotel!!

Entrance of the hotel, Guest room and the views from 37th floor

Take a ferry ride to Kowloon side and enjoy the sun set view

Hotel view from the ferry at night, beautiful night views of Hong Kong Island

HOFEX 2011

Yesterday, I visited HOFEX -the Asia's leading food and hospitality tradeshow- in Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre with my colleagues (F&B director, chefs, Chief Steward, Purchasing manager).

I also have visited similar food exhibition in Taipei.
I have met many Japanese supplier, helped them find importers in Taiwan in order to get the products for the restaurant.

I found visiting those exhibitions are very useful for chefs.
We can see some new ingredients and equipment, meet new people and get some new ideas.
So, I strongly recommend to all the chefs that try to take some time and participate those events though you are busy at operation.

How to make "Umeshu" -plum wine-, 梅酒の作り方

My mom used to make homemade plum wine every year. 
I kept her recipe that handed over to her from my grandma, and made my own plum wine in Taipei, Taiwan last year. That was very successful and many people enjoyed it.
So, I decided to do it again this year in Shenzhen, China. 

In Japan, a season for fresh plum is in June.
It was in late March to early April in Taiwan and now is the time for here in Guangdong province.



Prepare;
A glass jar, Fresh green plum x 1kg, Rock sugar x 700gm,
Japanese white liquor "Shochu" (or vodka, if you can not get shochu) x 1.8L,

Note;
* Plum should be unripened and no damaged ones are preferred.
* Amount of sugar can be adjusted to your preference
* Sho chu is preferred to be the one with 35% alcohol. if the alcohol is lower, it takes more
   time for the plum wine to be matured and also it can not be kept for long time...

Clean the plum and leave them in a bowl with fresh water for a few hours in order to take off their bitterness. (if you only have half yellow plum, it should be only for an hour or so...)

Take the plum out from water, leave them in a strainer and let them dry.
Remove the black stems by using a bamboo stick or tooth pick and gently wipe them by towel.   

Clean inside of the jar and sterilize with small amount of shochu.

Put the cleaned plum and rock sugar one after another into the jar.
And pour shochu into the jar at last.

Keep it in the cool place, avoid direct sun light. 
For the first one week or two, mix them by gently moving the jar once in a while.

Be patient! 
Wait at least for 3-4 months then you can enjoy the umeshu with admireable aroma of fresh plum.
(In earlier stage, 3-6 months, it tastes.still bit bitter) 
You can also keep it for over an year and it taste gets richer and richer.

Cheers!

Staff Training -Hygine-

Last time, I talked about staff training, I as a "trainer", but this time, I as a "trainee".



March 21 &22, the hotel invited trainers from out side company for two days training.
Trainees are over 20 people of chefs, restaurant managers and engineers from JW Marriott Shenzhen, Marriott Guangzhou, Ritz-Carlton Shenzhen and Guanzhou.

From 9am to 5pm, it is not so easy to stay still and study whole day, especially for people like us who usually stand whole day, running around a kitchen & restaurant...
Traditionally, chefs didn't have an office, stay in a kitchen, no need to make recipe cards or any other documents... but nowadays chefs need to be smart, be able to send out e-mails, handle many paper works, reports and  documentation by computer. Just to keep our qualities meet the guests needs and global standard.

It doesn't matter, whoever it is working for a small restaurant, big food manufacture, an international 5* hotel or anything related to food, keeping hygiene standard is must!
We all have been doing it for entire our career but we still need to be reminded once in a while and remind our staff as well...

M9 Earthquake, Tsunami and Radiation Leak......... 大地震、津波、放射能漏れ

It's been a week after the catastropohic earthquake on March 11.

(See the below link. You can see how much difference between before and after the quake.)
Before and After by sina.com.cn

First, the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Japan's northeastern coast offshore, it unleashed 10m (or 32feet) high giant Tsunami which swept all the cars, houses and, literally, everything!
Not only that, the Tsunami also attacked the nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture.  That triggered the explosion and knocked out their cooling systems. Then, radiation leak....
What a chain reaction.... 

Now, everybody is worried about the safety of food and water from the region.
It is difficult to get a right information, specially in outside Japan.
People here in China are going to Hongkong and Macao and buy up all the Japanese products. They are not only worried about the safety of the food but also rise in the price of Japanese items in the future.

Some international 5ster hotels in Hongkong have announced that they stop using all the Japanese product for the time being, in order to protect the safety of their guests' health....

But, think about it... How is it possible that any fresh seafood or vegetables which are potentially contaminated from that region have been exported to any other countries after the earthquake?? All the fishermen from that region have lost their fishing boat and most of the roads were destroyed.

I don't see that they have stopped using Japanese product because they concern about "guest's health".
To me, they are just causing another unnecessary muddle...

Japanese Coffee Break

Some ideas for Japanese Coffee Break...


Three types of new style sushi, Sesame tofu, Marinated mackerel wrapped in sliced daikon radish

Food for a coffee break should be light, clean and comes in one bite portion. 

So, actually, Japanese food is perfect for that. Like sushi or skewered grilled chicken...etc

Just need a little twist to make it more appealing and stylish!

Staff Training

I have been working on the staff training for the new menu.
(Please click on "News" and see what's on the new menu!)
Most of the dishes are new to all of my staff. They have worked without chef for quite few months and I see they are pretty lost... It is not so easy for me...
On top of that, I found Japanese kitchen staff's standards, here in China, are much lower than Taiwanese. Their knowledge and techniques of Japanese cuisine are nothing to compare with Taiwanese...
(Luckily, I mustard their language in past several years and here it comes very handy!)

California rolls. Easy to see what ingredients are inside of the roll on the left picture
 and how it should be presented on the right picture.

Steamed cod fish, tofu and vegetables with crab meat sacue.
See what ingredients come first on the left picture, cod fish on top of it in the middle picture,
 then pour the crab meat sauce over it after steam it for 15mins on the right picture,

I prepare the recipe cards, taking pictures of each dish, print them out for each staff....etc.
Then I look back what it was like when I was an apprentice in Japan, 15-20 years ago...
There was no recipe cards, no pictures, no written instructions, NOTHING!
My master back then would whack me if I asked for a recipe. He would say,
"Recipe? What recipe, you idiot! There is no recipe. Didn't you see what I was doing? Do you really wanna learn? Keep your eyes open and memories the taste of each dishes I make!"

So, things change....
Nowadays, Chefs need to prepare everything for their staff, ask them and please them to learn properly...
huh...

Photo shooting, 写真撮影

Yesterday, I had to go through a photo shooting, total of 20shots, for the new menu.

A photographer and his assistant came in the hotel at 9:30am and we finished at 4:30pm. 7hours!
It was very long tiring day indeed, but always interesting to see how the professional photographers take  pictures of the food...
What makes us -amateurs- different from them -professionals-?
Cameras? Yes, they do have nice cameras. A single-lens reflex Canon or Nikon....
But, could I take a nice picture as they do, if I had a same camera as theirs?? 
No, I don't think so... it is more than just a camera.
I found the angle and lighting are very important factors to take a nice picture of food.Hopefully, I find some time to learn more about how to take nice pictures... 

Pictures from a photo shooting in Taipei, June '10

the picture on the left; the photographer with a big nice camera!

on the middle; the picture taken by the photographer

and see pictures on the right taken by me with an ordinary camera;

still looks good because I took it from the place where the photographer was...

Hello, Shenzhen!

Shennan Boulevard, Futian District, Shenzhen

What I thought of Shenzhen before I actually come here was that full of factories and cheep fake brand goods... well, both of them are still here but it is completely different from what I have imagined!
A city in china grows very fast. Most of the factories moved out to the suburbs and there are a number of subway lines and many new tall commercial & apartment buildings all over the town!

Shenzhen is a very unique city in a way of it's location. 
Easy to cross over to Hong Kong. It takes approximately 40mins by train.
Go to Macau by ferry takes 1.5hours and also to Guanzhou city takes only 1hour by bullet train!!

I can see, within the few years, this city will become one of the international cities in Asia...