What?s the big fuss about boiled rice topped with raw fish you may wonder. But the fact is that Japan?s traditional delicacy, sushi, is tingling taste buds in such large helpings that there might soon be a shortage of tuna in the world. Turn any street corner in New York and there?s a sushi bar waiting for you. In Europe they aren?t getting enough of it. And the swish set in India has woken up to this feast for the eyes.
Actually the well-travelled Indian woke up to sushi long ago. It?s just that now this hand-rolled wonder?s equation in India works out to something like this: sushi = style. But style quotient apart, let?s be honest. First mouthful ? there are usually two camps ? those who love sushi and those who can?t stand it. In fact, many would go to the extent of saying ?take it away?. Perhaps it?s got something to do with the steady ?currified? diet that Indians grow up on, which contrasts hugely with the subtle, oil-free taste of sushi. But fret not, with determination (remember it is ?in? to have sushi?) it can be an acquired taste.
As Chef Hiroyuki Hashimoto at Shangri La, New Delhi says with a benign smile: ?Sometimes Indians order sushi at the restaurant, wanting to try out something new. But when they see raw fish on their plate, they just can?t bring themselves to eat it.? So there are adaptations. You can be ?with it?, safe, and yet not sorry. If you are squeamish about raw tuna, salmon, prawns or octopus, there is the vegetarian version that you can settle for. It?s a later-day invention by the Japanese, but now there is vinegar-flavoured rice (from which the name sushi originates) with vegetable stuffing like raddish, carrots, asparagus or mushrooms that you can help yourself to.
In India, it was The Metropolitan in Delhi that first introduced a complete traditional Japanese meal in 2001 through its restaurant Sakura. Tracing the changing face of its clientele, Master chef Nariyoshi Nakamura says initially it was 90% Japanese and 10% Indian. But now there is an equal number of Indians and Japanese patronising Sakura. Of the Indians, a large proportion comprises young professionals and businessmen who have travelled abroad and have already acquired a taste for sushi. There is also handful that trickles in that want to experiment with new tastes and pleasures.
Keeping in mind the north Indian partiality for tikkas and tandooris, Nakamura has tried his hand at fusion sushi too. ?We have Paneer tikka maki or Tandoori chicken roll. But they are not part of our regular menu and are available only on request. We introduced them just to remove inhibitions from the minds of Indians,? he explains.
The graduation to authentic raw-fish stuffed sushi usually takes the following trajectory for most Indians: deep-fried, grilled and then raw. Some say it is the sushi bar at threesixty? in The Oberoi, Delhi, that got the who?s who hooked on to this foreign flavour. Chef Augusto O Cabrera, who has been there since its inception in 2004 says he regularly introduces 10 new kinds of sushi every three months under his signature ? Cabrera Spice. ?Not traditional but contemporary,? is how he would like to classify the menu at the bar. He notes, though, that most Indians tend to make their dip for the sushi extra spicy, probably to camouflage the ?fishy? smell. An extra dash of the light green wasabi (horseradish paste) to soy sauce adds the zing. But it takes away from the subtleties of the sushi, which just might defeat the purpose.
Despite having been in India for a few years, sushi continues to be available only in rarified surroundings. The high cost is one big deterrent for the hoi polloi. Most of the ingredients are flown in from Tokyo?s famed Tsukiji fish market (though now there are some shops in India where the dry add-ons can be purchased), so that adds to the cost.
Apart from that, there is the salary that an expat sushi chef would charge (as most Indian chefs are still not totally competent to dish out the authentic stuff) which is high. But Varun Modgill, CEO, Sushiya, has worked round these bottlenecks. He runs a home-delivery sushi outlet on the outskirts of Delhi with four Indian chefs and a Japanese master chef who flies down periodically. ?My only concern is maintaining a temperature of less than seven degrees within the delivery box when it is a blistering summer of 45 degrees outside. But because our overhead costs are low, we can sell 10 pieces of sushi for as low as Rs 250, while in a starred hotel it wouldn?t be less than Rs 600.? And, he says, he is doing brisk business.
So we now have some first-timers, who are taking tentative steps towards their first mouthful of sushi and then there are others who are hooked on to it. Going by the number of 5-star hotels opening Japanese restaurants (Oberoi has opened one in Mumbai and another in Gurgaon; Taj is going to open one in Delhi after the success of Wasabi, its restaurant in Mumbai) Indians sure seem to have become discerning as far as sushi is concerned. They also realise it?s good for the waistline. But sushi has a long way to go before it hits the Indian streets.