Sampling Japanese-Peruvian Cuisine in Juhu, Mumbai

With the pandemic, much has changed, including my hope of visiting the Latin American continent any time soon. So, when I come across Crisol, an affordable restaurant in Mumbai that is serving Peruvian cuisine, I am elated. On surfing through its menu, I discover Crisol serves Japanese-Peruvian.

Later, I see a few more restaurants in Mumbai serving Japenese-Peruvian. “Why can’t they just serve Peruvian?” I think to myself. I realize there is a story here. I also notice one ingredient that is common throughout the menu, “leche de tigre.” Equipped with elementary knowledge of Spanish, I know that it means ‘tiger’s milk’. Now of course that can’t be literal!

The Nikkei Cuisine

Human migration is at the core of this food story. Many Japanese people had migrated to Peru in the late 19^th century. During the Meiji era in Japan, migration to Peru was in fact encouraged. Even though most of the Japanese people landed in Peru in search of a better future and lifestyle, they did not get what they dreamed of. Unfortunately, many of the Japanese diaspora ended up working as bonded labours in sugar farms.

However, the Japanese people in Peru and their descendants kept their heritage alive through food. They used Japanese techniques on Peruvian ingredients to cook food. This is what is known as Nikkei cuisine. It is not a made-up food created in a chef’s lab but a culinary style that kept the Japanese diaspora in Peru connected to Japan.

The Nikkei cuisine is certainly catching on and going global. Maido, a restaurant in Lima that serves this cuisine was recently named in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

My experience of sampling Nikkei cuisine at Crisol

At Crisol they have a set menu along with an a-la-carte. We take our sweet time and decide against the set menu as many of the things that we want to taste are not in this set menu.

Of course, I must taste the ceviche and tiradito— the two items that use leche de tigre. This leche de tigre is a classic Peruvian lime-based marinade that can contain a gamut of other ingredients and spices. My companions decide the other two items that we will sample. So, we zero in on:

• Ceviche crisol with Norwegian salmon, passion fruit honey, crispy strips
• Sea bass tiradito marinated in yuzu tiger’s milk.
• Hamachi nikkei nigiri (yellowtail fish on sticky rice served with wasabi, ginger and lemon)
• Stir fried soba noodles in rocoto sauce.

The ceviche, one of the most popular foods of Peru is chunks of fish that is marinated with leche de tigre. The acidity considerably cooks the protein and alters its taste. I enjoy the tangy salmon dish very much but my companions are not so sure.

Tiradito is somewhat like sashimi—bite sized cuts of raw fish, sea-bass in this case. It is dressed in the acidity of Yuzu lime-based leche de tigre just before serving. While working on a story on the gondhoraj lime for The Juggernaut, I came across Yuzu limes. The source I was interviewing told me he has made yuzu lime-based cakes in Kolkata. So yes, I was very excited to taste fish cooked in Yuzu lime’s acidity. We all like the tiradito.

The Hamachi is Japanese amberjack or yellowtail, a fish bred in Japan. Nigiri are small balls of sticky rice topped with raw-fish. So Hamachi Nikkei nigiri is essentially like sushi served with wasabi and ginger. It’s good but very expensive.

Soba noodles are thin Japanese noodles made of buckwheat. I try to eat as less gluten as possible so I am glad to find noodles made of buckwheat—a gluten-free grain. The noodles are good, but there is nothing experimental about having noodles.

Complimentary delights

Crisol surprises us with its complimentary fare of food. They serve us an appetizer—a disc shaped sweet potato and mushroom dish served on a spoon. I guess the idea is to eat the food as a whole and feel the burst of flavours in your mouth. It is probably the most flavourful part of the meal.

The desserts are on the house as well. We selected a matcha flavour cake, a cheese-cake flavoured with yuzu lime and a regular cheese-pie(I think). You cannot expect a restaurant to give you more than two complimentary dishes, so when their third and last one, a mint drink is served at the end of the meal, we are smiling like kids—beyond overjoyed.

Final Notes

Crisol is just about good food minus any pretentiousness. During our visit the air condition was set at such a low temperature that it was extremely cold. My friend who was wearing a dress was freezing. Thankfully I was wearing jeans so that saved me. Oddly, no one else was complaining. We conjectured that the rich people of Juhu probably live like this, lol. Later I thought maybe it is a marketing tactic to increase liquor sale.

Crisol is worth visiting for the food it serves.

*****

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