On my second day this week in Manchester I thought I'd stick with the healthy eating theme and go for Japanese. Fish, rice, nourishing broths and vegetables. That sort of thing.
Japanese food remains a bit of a mystery to me, I keep intending to give it due attention but I'm so easily distracted by the more obvious, dirtier delights of Sichuan, Thai or Indian that I've never really learned to appreciate its subtlety and elegance.
With those thoughts in mind I rocked up at Yuzu and ordered the epitome of health, subtlety and elegance: deep fried pork, or tonkatsu to give it its proper name.
Each of a concise list of lunch specials comes served with rice, miso soup and garnish (some lightly pickled cucumber and daikon), mine being the most expensive at £7.95. The tonkatsu was an enormous pork cutlet, expertly fried. They really do know how to deep fry things the Japanese. The crumb coating was grease free and crunchy, the pork within beautifully moist.
There was a little jug of sauce to go with it (I wasn't sure whether this should be poured on the pork or rice, so opted for both), which tasted like sweet, thick Henderson's relish. The internet tells me this is Tonkatsu sauce, and it is indeed a Worcestershire sauce type confection.
I did enjoy this meal, but it didn't quite give me my Japanese food breakthrough, just seeming a bit too plain for my tastes, like the meat and two veg of the Asian food world. It could just be that my palate has been beaten into submission by aggressive spicing over the years though.
The restaurant itself is plain but rather nice, with wooden tables for four and a long sort of bar with stools making it a comfortable place to dine alone. Service was efficient and prices look to be very reasonable at dinner as well as lunch. I'd like to return in the evening, this might just be the place where I learn to love Japanese food.
7/10
39 Faulkner Street
Manchester
M1 4EE
http://www.yuzumanchester.co.uk
Japanese food remains a bit of a mystery to me, I keep intending to give it due attention but I'm so easily distracted by the more obvious, dirtier delights of Sichuan, Thai or Indian that I've never really learned to appreciate its subtlety and elegance.
With those thoughts in mind I rocked up at Yuzu and ordered the epitome of health, subtlety and elegance: deep fried pork, or tonkatsu to give it its proper name.
Each of a concise list of lunch specials comes served with rice, miso soup and garnish (some lightly pickled cucumber and daikon), mine being the most expensive at £7.95. The tonkatsu was an enormous pork cutlet, expertly fried. They really do know how to deep fry things the Japanese. The crumb coating was grease free and crunchy, the pork within beautifully moist.
There was a little jug of sauce to go with it (I wasn't sure whether this should be poured on the pork or rice, so opted for both), which tasted like sweet, thick Henderson's relish. The internet tells me this is Tonkatsu sauce, and it is indeed a Worcestershire sauce type confection.
I did enjoy this meal, but it didn't quite give me my Japanese food breakthrough, just seeming a bit too plain for my tastes, like the meat and two veg of the Asian food world. It could just be that my palate has been beaten into submission by aggressive spicing over the years though.
The restaurant itself is plain but rather nice, with wooden tables for four and a long sort of bar with stools making it a comfortable place to dine alone. Service was efficient and prices look to be very reasonable at dinner as well as lunch. I'd like to return in the evening, this might just be the place where I learn to love Japanese food.
7/10
39 Faulkner Street
Manchester
M1 4EE
http://www.yuzumanchester.co.uk
Tonkatsu is amazing - you can buy Bulldog sauce in the Asian supermarket which is basically what it is :)
ReplyDeleteCheers Becs, will look out for bulldog sauce when I'm next in the Asian supermarket.
ReplyDelete