There is no corner of the modern, liberal world that is untouched by Japanese pop culture. Anime stores have popped up in Angola and Pokemon tournaments are held as far as Peru. I am the furthest thing from a weeaboo, but many of my formative experiences have been shaped by art that reached me through the forces of globalisation (and heavy Japanese government subsidies!). My love for video games started by playing Super Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Country Returns on my family’s Nintendo Wii. An obsession with Wii Sports influenced my decision to become a baseball fan in my late teens. Most warm summer afternoons in Amdavad were spent lazily watching dubbed versions of Doraemon and Shin-Chan after school.
The explosion in Indian weeaboos has created a market for Japanese restaurants all across the country. Some of these operate from a place of genuine cultural and culinary interest. Most of them are hopping on a trend for a quick buck, and are quite mediocre. One of them once served me ready-made, re-heated processed ramen! These restaurants get away with serving below-average food to an enthusiastic and gullible young audience. If a million people watched an Instagram reel about the quirky Naruto posters on your walls, how many of them will care if your sushi is buried under a slab of mayonnaise?
Asagao by Yuhi does not fall into this trap. It is positioned as an eatery for Japanese salarymen who work in the Indian automotive industry, which is also why most of their outlets are in rural location away from urban centres. They do not perform for an Indian audience. The loud anime posters of Instagram-friendly places are replaced by a menu that reads in Japanese, a collection of Japanese manga (not translated into English), and an imported set-top box that runs Japanese news.
We started off with a Kushi Katsu, skewered and breaded fried pork cutlets. Not many flavours competed with each other which felt slightly unnerving to someone who is used to an Indian flavour palette. Despite this simplicity, I relished its contrasting textures, a crunchy outer layer hiding tender pieces of meat.
The Ebi Yaki featured juicy, grilled shrimp skewers flavoured with a mild portion of sweet and spicy sauce. The seafood was not overpowered by the sauce, and if you wanted a more intense bite, you could always roll your skewer on your plate for a few more seconds. I loved the cold buckwheat noodles served on the side which soaked up the sauce really well. Much like a Miyazaki film, the Ebi Yaki crafted beauty out of the mundane, relying on a mastery of basic techniques and limited ingredients, rather than a complicated mish-mash that falls flat in your mouth.
Their Salmon Teriyaki sizzler was outstanding. The rich, savory and slightly sweet Teriyaki sauce allowed the fish to play an equal part in the dish, much like the Ebi Yaki. The smokiness of the sizzler plate tied the dish together. I wasn’t a big fan of the salad on the side, but the almost-burnt buckwheat noodles helped me scoop up the remainder of the sauce.
Their Pork Miso Ramen was the star of the show, and it sums up the ethos of Asagao, a home away from home for a small Japanese diaspora in rural Amdavad. The comforting, rich broth was the kind that tastes better on a rainy day, evoking memories of a My Neighbour Totoro re-watch after a bad day at school. The concoction was a delectable blend of flavours: savoriness from the miso, meatiness from the tender pieces of pork, umaminess from the seared mushrooms, and slight nuttiness from the white sesame, all powered by an intense kick of garlic. Just as Miyazaki creates worlds where the magical seem to effortlessly co-exist with the ordinary, this supernatural broth merged seamlessly with the simple, thick, bouncy noodles that absorbed the broth’s flavours and became one.
I’ll definitely be coming back here on each of my future Amdavad visits. Any future helpings will be added after this line.
Recommendations:
Pork Miso Ramen (9.25/10), Salmon Teriyaki Sizzler (9/10), Ebi Yaki (8.75/10), Kushi Katsu (7.5/10)