First Published in The Edge Malaysia, Options, 19 January 2015
It’s back to basics
with fresh food and charcoal grilling, elevated to a culinary style
Sometimes, it’s refreshing to get back to basics: fresh food
simply cooked to highight natural flavours and textures, undisguised by
sophisticated sauces and food enhancers. A basic style of cooking using fresh
ingredients allows the food to speak for itself – after all, what can beat the
pleasure of freshly-caught fish, grilled over a fire on the beach?
This is the idea encapsulated and formalised by the Japanese
robatayaki, a traditional style of
cooking over a charcoal hearth fire. The
emphasis on stark simplicity and freshness of ingredients make this a popular choice
in Japan, with many robotayaki outlets scattered throughout the country.
In Petaling Jaya, Robata Monkey specialises in robatayaki cooking. Ensconed within the recently-renovated Jaya
One complex, the restaurant exudes a warm, welcoming ambience, with pale wood,
bamboo and bare cement surfaces. An
inner dining area with raised wooden flooring and cut outs for the legs,
Japanese style, complements bench-type seating in the main dining area and
outside the restaurant. Whole Bamboo-poles,
informal bench-style seating and warm spotlit lighting all contribute to a rustic
air. The kitchen is exposed, pride of
place belonging to a vertical charcoal fired grill, sunken into a raised sand
pit, an approximation of the traditonal Japanese irori.
Catching the eye is a row of fish, butterflied and dangling from a bamboo beam, as well as wooden display buckets filled with ice and fresh seafood for selection.
The menu displays a selection of seafood and meat items,
prepared in various styles - tempura, robatayaki, kushiyaki (skewered and
grilled), and rice preparations. A goodly selection of sakes, wines, cocktails,
beers and other drinks makes up the other side of the menu sheet.
We had roasted barley tea and Paulaner draught malt beer after ordering a few of the restaurant specialties. The dangling, butterflied fish were baby salmon and mackerel that had been dried overnight. When ordered by a guest, a fish was selected from the line, carefully impaled on a metal skewer, sprayed with oil and and treated to a pinch of coarse salt before being stuck into the sand pit inches away from the coal fire.
A separate horizontal charcoal grill, much like a
traditional satay grill, was used for other items such as the kushiyaki. An old fashioned palm fan, powered by hand,
provided an air flow to the charcoal embers.
Our order of Ebi Avocado Maki (Rm18) was presented in a
lacquered rectangular plate: vinegared rice, rolled around avocado and prawn,
topped with pearlescent orange fish roe, and accompanied by pickled ginger
slices or a smear of wasabi. It was fresh,
with a rounded, full taste from the avocado-prawn combination.
We couldn’t resist the darkly luscious giant eggplant, and half a grilled Yaki Benasu (Rm15) found its way to our table, almost smoking hot with a dark oily sheen and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. The eggplant had been cut into cubes and treated to a thick sweet shoyu sauce. The eggplant scooped out cleanly with a small spoon, and it was hot, sweet, soft, sticky and wonderfully succulent with that melt in your mouth quality of grilled eggplant.
All at once, our small table became crowded as the other
orders arrived one after the other. The
Saba Fish (mackerel, Rm45) looked irresistable, a bisected fleshy topedo that
had been slowly roasted by the heat of an open charcoal flame. It was served
with a bowl of sweet and sour plum sauce and a few slices of boiled lotus
root. The difference between the
conventional electric grill and the charocoal grill was apparent at the first
bite. The fish was slightly crispy on the outside, and the meat thick and oily
with that distinctive mackarel taste which is fishy heaven if you’re partial to
it. I fancied that it had a more
wholesome, pungent flavour, with a hint of smokiness to it compared to the
electric grilled version, with the plum sauce enhancing the flavour of the fish
without smothering it.
The orangey-red Baby Salmon (Rm48) wasn’t as thick, and the meat was more delicate and slightly more neutral than an adult salmon would have tasted, but although it was thinner and more delicate, it was still moist and slightly crispy, and wonderful with some hot rice.
The Salmon Belly Yaki (Rm16) came in strips that looked like
a pink eel when cooked. It was fleshier and juicier than the baby salmon, with
a stronger salmon flavour, with a squeeze of lemon and minced radish enhancing
the taste.
Finally, we had the unadorned Ika (Rm28), a thick squid tube
with the mottled outer skin intact, grilled on a wire mesh over the open
charcoal fire. It couldn’t have been
simpler. It was testimony to the
freshness of the squid and the timing of the grilling, that it was chewy and
moist inside, with some parts just slightly charred for that nostalgia-inducing
smoky flavour.
For desserts, there was a choice of Haagen-Daz ice-creams or
“Bloody Delicious Frozen Cheesecakes”. We opted for the latter. The
cheesecakes, from Purple Monkey (www.purplemonkey.com.my)
were a visual treat. We had the Mango, Strawberry and Toblerone (Rm9 each), and
they quite delightful, essentially fruity cheesy ice-creams, neither too sweet
nor too strong.
Just as the perfect barbeque on a grill looks much easier
than it actually is, cooking seafood robatayaki style appears deceptively
simple, but the results speak for themselves, in food neither over nor undercooked,
in flavours amplified and marshalled by slow exposure to the charcoal fire,
instead of being denatured or charred by it.
The restaurant reminded me of a wintry night outside, and the warmth and
convivality provided in a rustic Japanese diner over traditional
charcoal-cooked seafood.
Robata
Monkey Bar and Grill, Japanese Restaurant,
L-12A-G Palm
Square One
72A Jalan
Universiti,
46200
Petaling Jaya,
Tel:
03-79325168
Fax:
03-79324168
Open: Daily, 5pm-midnight and 12-3pm (from October onwards).
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