Last Thursday, my sister Goldee invited me to lunch at Inagiku at the Shangri-la Makati. Being my number one fan (and eager to exploit my food writing profession), she willingly allowed me to intrude on her catch up session with a friend.
Inagiku has always had an eminent position in my mind's hierarchy of restaurants not because it is presently located at one of the country's leading five star hotels but because my first encounter of this restaurant was, as a blessed teenager, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, which my parents had built up to my teenage mind as the best hotel in the world (although in my adolescence I vehemently disagreed and remember disliking the concierge for being such a snob). There was no Makati Shangri-La yet at the time. (Incidentally, there is no more Inagiku at the Waldorf but this review by Ruth Reichl for the NY Times in 1997 review by Ruth Reichl for the NY Times lives on).
Other Japanese restaurants had since taken over my heart - considering my admittedly shameful pedestrian taste and equally pedestrian pocket - but Thursday's lunch made me understand why Inagiku is located in the best hotels in the world. They serve nothing but the best and the experience is so unbelievably luxurious it's surreal.
The menu capitalizes on the freshness, quality and rarity of the ingredients. These are what make the prices expensive (approx USD 50 - 60). We were advised that the Japanese Unagi Kabayaki (grilled Japanese eel with kabayaki sauce) uses eel that is special because it is flown in from Japan, unlike the other eel served at other Japanese restaurants, which would be from neighboring Taiwan. There is a distinction, for the seafood connoisseur, as to the smell of the eel. Same treatment for the grilled Japanese rainbow trout (although in my baseness I joked that this is just high end galunggong). As well as the Japanese corn (sweet corn sooo yummy with just a little salt and butter).
The creativity, to begin with, is astounding. Have you tasted popcorn? Ok, who hasn't had popcorn? Inagiku serves popRICE. They put a vase in the middle of the table with rice stalks. From each stalk, as if they were flowers, are popped rice. Some of the popped rice, on a plate at the bottom of the vase, are like flowers that have gracefully fallen to the ground in autumn. So beautiful. So artistic. Yet functional; its purpose is to keep the customer from getting hungry while the next dish is being cooked.
Speaking to the General Manager of Inagiku, Mr. Yoshio Ishikawa, we learned that in Japan, a seven course meal is not categorized into appetizer, soup, salad, sorbet, poultry, fish/meat, dessert but categorized in terms of methods of cooking. So it's starter, mixed appetizers,clear soup, sashimi, grilled, boiled/steamed, fried, rice or noodles, dessert. Everything in moderate, i.e., small (not giant American) proportions. Maybe it's this studied order of the menu that keeps the Japanese so lithe while owning to a profound appreciation of food nonetheless.
Speaking to the General Manager of Inagiku, Mr. Yoshio Ishikawa, we learned that in Japan, a seven course meal is not categorized into appetizer, soup, salad, sorbet, poultry, fish/meat, dessert but categorized in terms of methods of cooking. So it's starter, mixed appetizers,clear soup, sashimi, grilled, boiled/steamed, fried, rice or noodles, dessert. Everything in moderate, i.e., small (not giant American) proportions. Maybe it's this studied order of the menu that keeps the Japanese so lithe while owning to a profound appreciation of food nonetheless.
Mr. Ishikawa, General Manager of the Shangri-la's Inagiku Japanese Restaurant, indulges us with a pose with his samurai sword
We did not follow this menu but ordered at random, thanks to Mr. Ishikawa's recommendations for the just released Japanese Summer Collection menu, which features creations using ingredients that are now in season in Japan. This is a culinary enjoyment we are unfortunately without as we don't have four seasons and the fish in our sea are there all the time, driven away only by pollution or illegal fishing!
But before anything summery, the first thing I noticed on the menu is the incorporation of foie gras into three dishes. Thought bubble: since when is foie gras Japanese?! But when we were served the Foie Gras Chawan Mushi, I was blown away. They had erased the greasiness out of the gras!
The menu capitalizes on the freshness, quality and rarity of the ingredients. These are what make the prices expensive (approx USD 50 - 60). We were advised that the Japanese Unagi Kabayaki (grilled Japanese eel with kabayaki sauce) uses eel that is special because it is flown in from Japan, unlike the other eel served at other Japanese restaurants, which would be from neighboring Taiwan. There is a distinction, for the seafood connoisseur, as to the smell of the eel. Same treatment for the grilled Japanese rainbow trout (although in my baseness I joked that this is just high end galunggong). As well as the Japanese corn (sweet corn sooo yummy with just a little salt and butter).
Other dishes, such as an appetizer of sea urchin laying beneath a soft, thin blanket of egg (so soft you could mistake it as cheese upon first sight!) and the Ginmutsu Kama Miso Yaki or grilled bluefish jaw with miso paste were so intricately prepared. Ditto for the sushi (pictured above) prepared by award-winning sushi chef Wataru Hikawa: one was ornamented with chili threads, effecting an ever so slight punctuation of spice as you swallow; another used scallops, so soft you just stop in your tasting tracks.
Inagiku gently but firmly reminds us that the culinary experience is an art form that the Japanese really take seriously. At the end of the meal, you will not hesitate, but profusely bow and ever so sincerely say arigato!
INAGIKU Japanese Restaurant.
Level 2, Makati Shangri-La, Ayala Ave cor. Makati Ave.
840 0884
Reservations recommended. Major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible via elevators.
There is no sincerer love than the love of food. - George Bernard Shaw
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