Kabuki

[Rogelio]

Last week Silly Disciple was in town and we choose to visit Kabuki as one of his must visit restaurants in Madrid. I know that most of you won't think that a visit to Madrid must include a Japanese restaurant, but maybe you will consider after taking a look at the pictures.

Kabuki has moved from being the best traditional japanese restaurant to an innovative japo-spanish fussion restaurant with dishes that combines classic japanese sushi techniques with traditional-regional spanish dishes.

We told Ricardo Sánz, chef and owner to send us what he wanted until we said, that's enough. Here's part of the menu:

-Sashimi

John Dory with truffle

Urta (local rock fish from the Cadiz Bay) with adobo (andalusian marinade)

Lemonfish with papa arrugá (local canarian potato) and mojo verde (canarian green sauce)

Tuna with pa amb tomaquet (bread and tomato) Catalonian signature dish.

Spicy Maguro (no spanish influence in this)

Toro

-Sushi

Espardeñas (Mediterranean sea cucumbers)

Concha Fina (fine clam from Galicia)

Meat stew filled Zuccini Flowers. This was the weakest dish of the night.

Red Prawn from Denia (raw body and fried head)

Butterfish with truflle paté

Fried quail egg with truffle paté

Eel and cucumber maki

- Main Dishes

Ortiguillas (deep fried sea anemones) and Guernika Peppers Tempura.

Esla Valley veal (From the Vega Sicilia winery cattle)

Bone Marrow niguiri with cabbage leaf (Hommage to the madrileñian cocido)

And ended with an oyster, sea urchin and dessert that I failed to picture.

Would you consider Madrid as a japanese dinning destination?

[pedro]

Indeed any serious fish lover should seriously consider Kabuki when visiting Madrid. Ricardo has great ingredients and right now he's developing wonderful combinations as the pictures above show.

If my memory doesn't fail me, I think the concha fina was from Málaga.

[Culinista]

Would you consider Madrid as a japanese dinning destination?

I think I would now, but the proof is in the rice

Actually, a Japanese restaurant featuring Spain's spectacular seafood would be a dream come true.

[pedro]

Culinista, you have a deal: you'll have the rice and I'll have the rest.

[athinaeos]

after looking at the very good pictures i began wondering whether a seafood restaurant can get any better than this!

as i will be in madrid at the end of the month, i will give it a good try

[vserna]

Well, Madrid is one of Europe's best and most unknown destinations for exotic food. Sometimes as exotic as Olsen's (cutting-edge Scandinavian cuisine... via Buenos Aires!) or Sudestada's (southeast Asian cuisines... via Buenos Aires again!) Sometimes as unexpected as genuine Cajun/Creole at Gumbo, modern Peruvian at La Gorda, down-home Mexican at Taquería del Alamillo or serious Armenian at Sayat Nova. And indeed Kabuki is one of the very best restaurants in Madrid - exotic or not.

Some more news - and, remember, you read it here first, as you read about Zaranda - even though it's not so exotic: the cook at Adoc is Belgian, and his long Spanish experience (he was the no. 2 chef at La Broche) shows in an interesting albeit short seasonal menu. Adoc's is one of the most interesting openings in Madrid in recent months, with Sudestada and Zaranda.

Edited February 14, 2006 by vserna (log)

[anyavon]

But one can't really compare Madrid with London, Berlin, Amsterdam, or even Paris, immirgant cities where foriegn cuisines have long stopped being considered "exotic" and firmly entered the culinary mainstream. Or Brussels where you can completely immerse yourself in an African neighborhood. Isn't Zapatero pursuing a more open immigration policy? Curious to see how it might play out in the food world...I might be completely wrong but immigrants always seem much more integrated and less ghettoized in Spain than elswhere in Europe. Are there actual immigrant enclaves in Madrid aside from a bit in Lavapies? Barcelona seems a bit more globalized...

[pedro]

But one can't really compare Madrid with London, Berlin, Amsterdam, or even Paris, immirgant cities where foriegn cuisines have long stopped being considered "exotic" and firmly entered the culinary mainstream. Or Brussels where you can completely immerse yourself in an African neighborhood. Isn't Zapatero pursuing a more open immigration policy? Curious to see how it might play out in the food world...I might be completely wrong but immigrants always seem much more integrated and less ghettoized in Spain than elswhere in Europe. Are there actual immigrant enclaves in Madrid aside from a bit in Lavapies? Barcelona seems a bit more globalized...

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Note from the host: Let's try to keep answers on topic and confine them to food related aspects of immigration. Posts that drift off that directive will be deleted. Thanks for your cooperation.

[vserna]

Anya doesn't seem to be as familiar with Madrid as with other places in Spain. (Plus, one fact about Spain's immigration situation - over the past decade, Spain has been leading the whole European Union in immigrant inflow. There are now more than 4 million foreigners living in Spain, and the one region in Spain with the largest immigrant population is Madrid. This is not politics, Pedro: I'm trying to set the scene for an entirely new situation in which not only the increasingly cosmopolitan tastes of the Spanish population play a role, but the critical mass of the non-Spanish component of the population is enough to explain an explosion in mom-and-pop ethnic restaurants, sometimes as good as the inimitable Don Lay of Madrid, a dim sum heaven.)

Foreign restaurants are Madrid's hidden gem - one category in which this city can confidently consider itself the leader in Spain. And there have been excellent ethnic places for a long, long time, even though the explosion is more recent.

Two years ago we had a discussion here about Ken Hom's enthusiastic Financial Times report on the Asian cuisine scene in Madrid, in which he wrote:

"Asian ingredients such as five spice, star anise, ginger and sesame oil appeared throughout the menus of some of the top restaurants in the city.

What I found surprising, however, was the explosion in numbers of oriental restaurants in Madrid. In the past, it was probably the last city in Europe I would think to go to for Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese or Malaysian.

But times have changed - with delectable results!"

The discussion is here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...aded&show=&st=&

In two years much has happened in Madrid and there are many places that are possibly superior to Ken's then-favorites, including Sudestada, Oam Thong, Yuan, 19 Sushi Bar, Miyama, Shiratori, Asia Gallery... and Don Lay, of course.

[Culinista]

Culinista, you have a deal: you'll have the rice and I'll have the rest.

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NOT a deal, Pedro

That fish looks wonderful! And beautifully cut, as well. I'm so tired of seeing chefs "saw" their fish instead of slice it.

But does this mean I have to choose between sushi and the grilled mollejas of milk-fed lamb I've been craving?

[podolski]

Would you consider Madrid as a japanese dinning destination?

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After this...why not?.

Was it very expensive?.

What about the wine list?

R

[Rogelio]

Prices are on the expensive side, 60-100€ always depending on the wine.

The wine list is not big but well selected by Juancho Asenjo and has some interesting champagnes and white burgundies.

[Culinista]

Call me provincial, but it has never occurred to me to have sushi with wine. (Actually, sushi purists don't even have sake with nigiri-zushi or rolls, since sake is considered redundant with rice. Sake is considered OK with sashimi.)

I can see champagne and white Burgundy maybe working with sushi, but red wine not at all. I can't imagine drinking a fine wine with soy sauce and wasabi. What is that like?

Friends took us out for sushi once in DC at a place that it turned out specialized in pairing sushi with Bordeaux, but I didn't know about that while we were there. Darn-missed my chance

60-100 euros is not bad at all for quality sushi. Masa in NY and Urasawa in LA cost upwards of $600 a person. Where did people get the idea that sushi should be cheap fast food?

Edited March 13, 2006 by Culinista (log)

[vserna]

Call me provincial, but it has never occurred to me to have sushi with wine. (Actually, sushi purists don't even have sake with nigiri-zushi or rolls, since sake is considered redundant with rice. Sake is considered OK with sashimi.)

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I have travelled extensively in Japan with my importer there, and we've had wine all the time in very traditional places - including hallowed sushi shrines in Tokyo. Of course not red wine with sushi, and neither white Burgundy, because generally fat, oaky chardonnay is not the ideal accompaniment to raw fish. But the great white wines of Alsace, the Rhine and Austria are fabulous with sushi and sashimi, with riesling naturally at the top of the list, but the spicy gewürztraminer and Austria's great grüner veltliner also work extremely well. Also, in Kabuki's case one of its strong points today is its dazzling array of raw or briefly seared meats, and a good syrah-, mencía-, monastrell/mourvèdre- or garnacha/grenache-based red is perfect with that part of the menu.

[Hiroyuki]

Call me provincial, but it has never occurred to me to have sushi with wine. (Actually, sushi purists don't even have sake with nigiri-zushi or rolls, since sake is considered redundant with rice. Sake is considered OK with sashimi.)

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The Japanese can have sushi with beer.

I can have sushi with sake and even with shochu.

[Hiroyuki]

Kabuki has moved from being the best  traditional japanese restaurant to an innovative japo-spanish fussion restaurant with dishes that combines classic japanese sushi techniques with traditional-regional spanish dishes.

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I had noticed this thread long before my first post here. I must say I've been quite impressed.

Could anyone tell me why Kabuki has switched to a fusion restaurant?

[Rogelio]

I had noticed this thread long before my first post here.  I must say I've been quite impressed.

Could anyone tell me why Kabuki has switched to a fusion restaurant?

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Because the restlessness of Ricardo Sanz who have learned all from chef Masao Kikuchi, in the now closed Tokio Taro, but also has a formal occidental cooking training this has lead him to mix the best of both worlds, the sensitive and respect for the product and japanese technique and the tradition and ingredients of the place where he cooks,ie Spain.

[Hiroyuki]

I had noticed this thread long before my first post here.  I must say I've been quite impressed.

Could anyone tell me why Kabuki has switched to a fusion restaurant?

←

Because the restlessness of Ricardo Sanz who have learned all from chef Masao Kikuchi, in the now closed Tokio Taro, but also has a formal occidental cooking training this has lead him to mix the best of both worlds, the sensitive and respect for the product and japanese technique and the tradition and ingredients of the place where he cooks,ie Spain.

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Oh, thanks, Rogelio. I have yet to learn Spanish cuisine, but some day I will.

[Bux]

. . . .

Where did people get the idea that sushi should be cheap fast food?

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From the conveyor belt sushi places in Tokyo? That sort of thing wasn't invented in NY. As a matter of fact it hasn't really prospered in NY as it has (had?) in Tokyo. What is popular is the AYCE sushi bars. That's All You Can Eat for a set price. I really don't know the specifics, and I'm not even sure they are popular, but I've heard about them. I've been told you can't get more until you eat all you have--no picking off the fish and leaving the rice.

By sheer coincidence, lunch today was at Sushi Yasuda where we had what may have been the smallest squid I've ever seen. I guessed they were from Spain, but Yasuda said they are from Japan, which really should have been my first guess.

[Hiroyuki]

Nigiri zushi started as cheap fast food in the Edo period.

[Culinista]

Finally, we settle the score with the long-awaited Kabuki lunch!

I would not call it Japanese nor Spanish but a very interesting and well-balanced mix of the two. It shows the shared interest in wonderful seafood presented in a Japanese idiom but with a strikingly European accent. The rice revealed it was not Japanese, but it was fusion in the richest sense.

Speaking of rich, that tuetano nigiri was to die for.

I'd banish all soy sauce from the table, however. It would ruin the balance of the dishes.

We didn't have any wine, but maybe we should have. I can see how it would complement the Spanish element of the dishes perfectly. Beer would have been good if I liked beer.

They need to reduce the amount of vinegar in the rice just a touch, however.

Edited January 19, 2007 by Culinista (log)

[vmilor]

Finally, we settle the score with the long-awaited Kabuki lunch!

I would not call it Japanese nor Spanish but a very interesting and well-balanced mix of the two. It shows the shared interest in wonderful seafood presented in a Japanese idiom but with a strikingly European accent. The rice revealed it was not Japanese, but it was fusion in the richest sense.

Speaking of rich, that tuetano nigiri was to die for.

I'd banish all soy sauce from the table, however. It would ruin the balance of the dishes.

We didn't have any wine, but maybe we should have. I can see how it would complement the Spanish element of the dishes perfectly. Beer would have been good if I liked beer.

They need to reduce the amount of vinegar in the rice just a touch, however.

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Was the raw fish fresh or frozen? Is the new law under effect?

[pedro]

Of course the law is under effect! Does that mean that it has to be observed?

[Culinista]

Yes, the new law is in effect. I did not ask about the fish being frozen, but I may on Monday. I assume asking will not really get answers, as there is the official answer and the truth. Most sushi quality fish is frozen anyway--almost all tuna, for example. The question is about the local catch.

The cutting technique of the fish was quite different from the Japanese way. I'd like to see his knives.

And just to make you envious, V, we are heading off for both cochinillo AND lechazo!!!

I love this place.