MGM and Mitsuharu Tsumura to Bring Nikkei Cuisine to Macau

Photo: Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura will bring Macau's first Nikkei restaurant to the MGM Cotai next year

The word aji may mean nothing to you, but to Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura it has two meanings: chili (in Spanish) and flavor (in Japanese). This time next year, it will have a third meaning for the chef, as it will be the name of his brand new restaurant in the MGM Cotai.

Tsumura is a Nikkei from Peru (Nikkei translates as “of Japanese descent” but the word has also come to describe the delicious hybrid of Peruvian and Japanese cuisine), and he will be the first chef to bring this type of food to Macau. While the MGM Cotai won’t open until the latter part of 2016, Tsumura was in Macau this past week and we were lucky enough to get a preview of what AJI will offer.

With a vague understanding of what Nikkei is, namely Peruvian dishes prepared using Japanese ingredients or methods (or the other way around), we were intrigued when we glanced over the menu.

Photo: An artfully presented starter

We started with crispy chicken skin with pachikay sauce, which was followed by rice crackers topped with Peruvian sausage, roasted plantain and an emulsion made from sachatomate (a fruit that is also known as the tamarillo).

​Photo: Abalone ceviche

Following this was abalone ceviche and avocado that was swimming in a shallow bath of yellow aji leche de tigre and sprinkled with chullpi corn.

Our favorite was the sushi trio: steak and egg with ponzu (which was interestingly paired with sake); scallops with maca; and sweet shrimp with chia sauce. The flavours of all three worked very well, with each piece bursting with its own unique flavor combination. (Interestingly only fingers and spoons were used for each course which leant a very down-to-Earth feel to the meal).

Next up was a dish of regional beans presented on top of an avocado cream, and with cilantro, ponzu gel, crispy quinoa and coffee crumble. Both the complimentary flaours and textures made this one stand out.

The main dish was Nitsuke Short Rib. Cooked for 50 hours it was served with a smear of potato cream (made from Peru’s native purple potatoes) and topped with crispy garlic. The heartiest dish of the day (although the portions are small so don’t picture steak and mashed potatoes), but we do wonder if the 50 hour cooking time really makes for meat that is two, three or even four times as tender as meat cooked for considerably less time.

The banana ice cream spiked with soya sauce and served with 70 percent Amador cacao (the best in the world we are told) was absolutely divine, and a great way to end the meal.

Roughly half of the menu at AJI will be made up of items from Maido, Tsumura’s award-winning restaurant in Lima, Peru. There will also be a pisco bar, a ceviche bar and a hibachi grill.

For those of you that can’t wait a year to try Tsumura’s brilliant dishes, Hong Kong’s El Mercado also serves Nikkei (or at least Nikkei-inspired) cuisine. A little further afield is Above Eleven in Bangkok, which has been very well received.

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