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While waiting to collect a takeaway set lunch of beef teppanyaki I thought I ought to try a California hand roll with avocado, fish roe, rice and vegetables wrapped in crispy seaweeds. They looked irresistible when the waitress wheeled away an order to a nearby table.
A young chef who hails from Sarawak set to work and in a few minutes, he had the hand roll before me at the sushi counter complete with ginger, wasabi and soya sauce. The waitress set out a plate and chopsticks ready for me to eat.
But as it turned out the chopsticks and plate was unnecessary really because you have to eat the roll with your bare hands. Occasionally I dipped it into soya sauce mixed with the spicy wasabi holding my breath because it could run through your nostril sometimes. Then I chased down every bite of the roll with a gulp of hot green tea served by a very polite waitress, bowing the Japanese bow with one hand over her heart.
As I ate, I chatted with the Chef from Sarawak and the sushi counter head who recently arrived from Tokyo and was not very conversant in Bahasa or English. But we got by with broken English and some Japanese that I picked up from the brief time I spent in Tokyo years ago.
The California hand roll is tasty. So tasty in fact I had to have another since the takeaway teppanyaki took 20 minutes to be ready.
Rakuzen Hartamas is the closest to where we live and the first nearby Japanese outlet I ever patronised since it first opened almost 20 years ago. But we do visit their branches in Publika and Bangsar Village too from time to time.
The food at Rakuzen is always consistent no matter which branch. The staff too is eaqully friendly at all outlets. Eating at this establishment is always a pleasure.
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