Fresh treats

It is said that a good chef is not restricted to one kind of cuisine, so it should not come as a surprise to learn that Jacky Yu Kin-chi, founder of Chinese restaurant Xi Yan and host of multiple TV programmes, feels right at home on his regular visits to Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant in Causeway Bay.

"The essence of Japanese cuisine is its freshness. The dishes in Tomokazu are definitely fresh as they airfreight ingredients from Japan directly almost every day," Yu says.

"I love the sushi by their chef, who's been creating Japanese cuisine for more than 20 years. Dining in Tomokazu makes me feel like I'm in Japan and tasting the most original flavours."

Yu says he orders pin mackerel and sea urchin sushi during every visit. "Making sushi is not as easy as it may seem," he says. "Every piece has to be of [a] similar size and has [a] similar amount of rice grains.

"It's not like you knead a handful of rice casually. In addition, the sushi cannot fall off when you pick it up with chopsticks. It requires the chef to be very skilful. The sushi here attains all these standards."

Yu adds that in Japan, when making sushi, chefs mix an amount of wasabi which they think is the best proportion with the rice, so that diners don't have to add additional spices. He says he has only seen Hong Kong diners use extra wasabi. "If chefs see you add wasabi, they would think that you doubt their skills, which can be disrespectful," he says.

Abalone is another signature dish at Tomokazu. Yu says it is very different from traditional braised abalone one finds in other restaurants. "The abalone here is braised with turnips, katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna), shiitake, celery and sake," he says.