This is one part of the store's commitment.
There are three kinds of biryani in total: mutton, chicken, and lobster. The photo shows the mutton biryani with raita as garnish.
It's interesting that you talk about the science of deliciousness. I would love to hear more about it.
For example, I think that one of the conditions that makes food taste good is that it is easy to absorb nutrients as an organism. For example, it is not the taste of the food itself, but the biological state in which the brain is happy when this food is ingested. I think that is what "Jiro Ramen" is all about. When a large amount of glutamate is added, it may be appealing to the brain in a way that makes it impatient for salt to be carried to the mouth.
Anyway, the state in which something tastes good is fairly narrowed down, so I create dishes by deriving the direction to reach that point from various angles.
You are doing some kind of research to see what kind of results you can get by changing the conditions?
That's already from the beginning, not at the stage of starting a restaurant. Recently, another trend has finally emerged, but until now, the goal set in the spice industry has been the authentic taste of India. But as long as we were doing it in Japan, it would be a degraded version of that. At first, I also wanted to reproduce the taste of India in Japan and make it available to everyone, but then I thought, why not just go to India and eat there? From that point on, I simply started researching how to make biryani tastier. So, my goal is simply to make delicious biryani.
That's a simple answer.
Before I go any further, let me explain that there are two kinds of "tastiness": the tastiness of habit and the tastiness of food itself. Taste of habit is something like miso soup, which gives you a sense of security when you eat it. The taste of the food itself is something that even first-time eaters find tasty. I think that biryani is a dish in which a large percentage of the taste of the food itself is delicious, and if the taste of the food itself is properly pursued, it can be tasted by anyone, whether Japanese or Indian. That is what I am aiming for.
I'd like to dissect the secret of its deliciousness a little bit. When Osawa-san's biryani is served on a plate, there is quite a bit of white rice left that has not been dyed yellow, which is unusual.
Biryani is supposed to have a sense of unity, but if the taste is the same no matter where you eat it, you will get bored, so we create layers so that you can enjoy various flavors in a single dish. In fact, the taste of biryani varies by region and city in India. We do it intentionally because of the way we serve it, and because the pot is so large, it simply doesn't mix (laughs).
You fry a lot of onions as part of the preparation. Instead of frying them.
Deep frying at high temperatures causes bitterness, but by frying at low temperatures for a long time, all the bitterness can be converted into flavor without producing bitterness.
When you look inside the pot after cooking, the rice is standing up! And when you eat it, the rice is really fluffy.
The rice will stand up when the steam is released. Also, we lay the rice down when we cook it. To do this, the rice is placed in the pot about 40 times.
Coke is strongly pushed as the beverage to match. Moreover, Mr. Osawa determines when to serve it to customers.
I take the spice and serve it when my mouth is just right. It used to be minus 1 degree cola, but now it is minus 2 degrees.
I heard that you also use spoons coated with enamel on purpose.
Metal would interfere with the taste, and plastic would transfer the smell. Enamel, on the other hand, is tasteless and does not transfer odor.
The system of facing the biryani only at the counter is also unique.
It's fine, but when we served biryani at our previous restaurant, there were quite a few times when customers talked with each other for a long time and the biryani dried out and became crumbly. To prevent that from ever happening, we made it a space where there is no choice but to eat the moment it is served; there is no background music, and the maximum number of people who can make a reservation at one time is three, so the maximum number of people who can know each other is three. The rest will be strangers, so it won't be like talking too much.
You also worked at Garam Masala restaurant in Kyodo, so you are capable of making various other spice dishes. Did you ever consider expanding the menu to include other spicy dishes such as garnishes?
The reason we put so much into biryani is because we believe in the potential of biryani. There is nothing else that can offer such satisfaction in a single dish. For example, when the restaurant is open at night, the regular size mutton biryani is 2,200 yen and the full size is 3,000 yen. The same goes for the Saturday chicken. The lobster biryani is 5,500 yen per person, but for that price, which is not cheap, all you get is a plate of rice dishes. But we are proud of the satisfaction we are able to provide. I think that biryani is the only dish that can do that. Well, we may go out of business in a year (laughs).
(laughs). Well, but it means you don't need other dishes.
Biryani is a dish with great potential, so if you can make it deliciously, you can offer great satisfaction with just one dish. It is actually easy to serve something other than biryani. Even if the biryani fails, as long as the other dishes are tasty, we can satisfy our customers. On the other hand, if we fail to cook rice, it's the end of the world. So, in my opinion, it is spoiled to have other dishes besides biryani. A famous sushi chef once came to eat here and said, "This is a restaurant on the edge. If you fail to cook it, it's the end of the line." That is certainly true.
That's a challenge every day, every time. Maybe that's why I feel a sense of tension in this restaurant (laughs).
Yes, I put my life on the line when I make them. If they are not tasty, they will soon go out of business.
