Memoirs of a Sushi

The city welcomes the return of a Japanese restaurant known for its poetic cuisine

Going to a Japanese restaurant while in the midst of a Murakami novel? That too a dearly loved one in a brand new outfit? Thats about as poetic as one of the Japanese authors passages. And the food at Guppy by Ai turns out to be just that,poetic. When Ai the Love Hotel shut its doors nearly a year ago,both the cognoscenti and the chic heaved a bitter sigh. Now with Guppy,happy days are here again.

The restaurant interiors are like a Tokyo postcard,cloaked in pastels with red picture windows. Apart from a fuschia of pop as well as objet darts and coffee-table books on Manga,there are big blow-up heads of Tinky-Winky,Dipsy and other antennaed oddballs,confirming our opinion that the best Teletubby is a decapitated one. The one jarring note was the colonisation of the adjacent table by that most dangerous beast in restaurant circles,the kitty party,where each member of the herd competes with the other for the highest decibel levels. Thus our meal is punctuated with comments on the pathos of mothers-in-law and the ruinous prices at B: Blunt.

We begin our meal with Prawn Gyoza and Chirashi Seafood Salad. The salad featuring pickled prawn,beautifully textured salmon and tuna,crab,baby greens,amid a forest of greens bejewelled with tiny flying fish roe is crafted like a haiku,not a syllable,er ingredient,out of place. The Gyoza,aka pot sticker colloquially,comprises tiger prawn dumplings with a caramelised bottom,a mingling of soft and crispy textures,with a gentle shellfish flavour.

For our mains,we bump into an old friend from our days at Ai,the Signature Pork Belly,as well as strike up an acquaintance with the Tenderloin Cube Steak. While the pan-seared tenderloin,sliced into cubes and served with asparagus and scallions in a sesame sauce,makes for a pleasant dining companion,its unsurprisingly the soy-glazed Belgian pork belly,served cubed on wooden skewers,that dominates both our palate and the table. The plot line of this dish is the coming together of two textures,crispy and fatty in soy circumstances leading to a denouement of flavours too delicious to be metaphorically described. Caught up in this orgy of meat,we avoid apoplexy in the form of rice and noodles,though the Chashu Ramen smiles beguilingly at us. Comprising homemade egg noodles in a pork and soy broth simmered for 72 hours and served with boiled egg,pork crackling,spinach,seaweed and corn,this one is a story by itself. One we plan on immersing ourselves in next time.

Meal for Two: Rs 2,500 (with taxes,excluding alcohol)

Address: 29,Main Market,Lodhi Colony. Tel: 24690005

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