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...  

Happy New Year, 2011!!

再見、台北！ 

Good bye Taiwan! Thanks for the nice memories in past 6 years and 2 month...

New journal starts from Shenzhen, China, as the new year starts!

I had very comfortable, happy life in Taipei and I do love Taiwan and people in Taiwan, but I just could not finish my career there.... Over 6 years, It was about time.. I needed to change the environment and start new life.

So, I am in a new town, Futien, Shenzhen, got a new job in JW Marriott Hotel, working with new people.

There will be a new challenge also, but the challenges always excite me and I believe that makes people grow!

Take care all my friends in Taiwan and see you again.

Shangri-La Tokyo and others...

Shangri-La Tokyo has been opened in March, 2009, in the middle of downtown Tokyo.

As the last one to end the opening rash of 5star hotels in Tokyo.

Seven international luxury 5star hotels have been opened within 8 years.

Started from Four Seasons Tokyo at Marunouchi in '02, Grand Hyatt in '03, CONRAD in '05, Mandarin Oriental in '06, The Ritz-Carlton and The Peninsula in '07.

There was a debate about opening so many hotels in Tokyo within such a short period of time... Many people from the industry worried about too much competition in business and loosing talented staff from their hotels.

Why so many hotels have been opened recently, anyway?

After Japanese economy crashed in late 80's, the real estate price in Tokyo dropped down drastically and Japanese government has eased the regulations for mixed-use development in '02. So, it was easier for the investors and developers in Tokyo to invite those international hotel brands to open up their hotels in Tokyo and revitalize the economy.

Somehow, most of the hotels, both the old ones and the new ones, managed  to keep their businesses because of the different needs in the market and growing number of foreign visitors in Tokyo. And also, they have managed to train their staff to replace those talented staff who moved to new opening hotels.

By the way, the luxury 5star hotels have been opening up in Taipei as well! Hopefully it brings the same result as in Tokyo...

Memoirs of Tokyo -Tsukiji "築地"-

Last September, I went back home, Tokyo, after 1 year and 9 months...
So many new things happening! New restaurants, hotels, subways, highways,etc..., 
I felt like I was a visitor in my home! 
So, I would like to share my experiences in Tokyo with you all...

One morning, woke up at 4:30am. I went to Tukiji Market, the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, with my father who is the owner chef of sushi restaurant in Nakano, Tokyo.

I found very nice scampi and took a picture of it. Then, suddenly, someone from behind shouted at me!!
"Hey, you! No picture! Go!"
The guy obviously thought I was a Chinese tourist and I could see he didn't like them....
I don't know about the manners of the tourist in the market but the way how the guy in Tsukiji market treated me was very rude! I was very shamed... He could have just told me that I should not take pictures instead of shouting. And also, he should have known that the business in Tsukiji market is no longer good as it used to be and it relies so much on the tourist... 

"Shizuoka" sake dinner 静岡銘酒と季節懐石の宴



We have invited a fine sake brewer from Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, to introduce their one of the best sake from the celler which have never been to Taiwan before!

So, I have created a seasonal "kaiseki" set menu to go with those four different types of fine sake.

This time, we have limited the guests only up to 20 in order to keep our quality of food and service standards high. Those lucky 20 guests of ours had enjoyed both of sake and the dinner, and even got souvenir of a bottle of sake and a sake cup. So, all of them left with big smile on their red face! (^^;)

 

"肉じゃが -Niku jyaga-" simmered potato and beef with vegetables in savory broth

"Niku jyaga" is one of the most popular and well known Japanese dishes.
It can be a signature dish of a restaurant and also can be a taste of Japanese "Mother".
Every mother (or even grand mother) of Japanese family has their own taste and recipe.

It is quite simple. Usually sliced beef, chunks of potato, carrot, onion and some other vegetables simmered in a bonito and konbu flavored "dashi" stock with sugar, rice wine and soy sauce. 

So, I have put a little more thoughts into it and tried to make it different.
Yet, it still makes you remind of your mother!

Outside is grated potato mixed with sticky rice powder, make it as a skin of the bun.

Inside is dice cut beef and vegetables, simmered as same as regular "Niku jyaga"

Special Bento Box for Japanese VIP guest

        

We are expecting top VIP guest who is a chairman of big Japanese company. He will be staying with us, Shangri-La Taipei, for a few days in the end of the month.

Today, prior to his visit, a couple of his employees came to my restaurant to see how is the bento box for their chairman looks like and also taste ok or not. As most of hoteliers know, Japanese guests have very high demands for every details....

So, they took some pictures to bring them back to Japan and discuss with their supervisors for final confirmation. They do anything to please their boss and it takes a lot of work, many processes and time...

I am Japanese myself, but seeing like this, it makes me feel happy to be outside of Japanese society! 

Well, actually we do too anything to please our guests each and every time but... Or, just not being a Japanese "Salary man" (white-collar businessman) making me happy!?

Anyways, one of the guys who tried the bento box was so happy with the taste. He didn't even take 5mins to finish them all, though he just had lunch before came to the restaurant!!

So, I was very happy to see them happy and I believe their chairman will be happy too!

First box:

"Kanpyo maki rolls with Inari sushi" "poached Zuwai crab meat with Tosazu jelly"

"Poached spinach with bonito flavored savory broth"

"Homemade Japanese sweet omelet and mixed grated radish with soy sauce on top

Second box:  

"Teppanyaki assorted vegetables"

"New style Nikujaga, (simmered wagyubeef, potato and vegetables staffed in potato bun)"