Published on November 23, 2005

Oishi chain stirs up a seasonal feast. Oishi Buffet and Oishi Buffet Express, beloved by hungry but cost-conscious fans of Japanese food, are upping the pleasure quotient with affordable, all-you-can-eat “Emperor Menus”.

Salmon, snowfish, eel and sushi are fine for everyday meals, by the folks at Oishi want to celebrate the opening of their 10th branch and New Year too by offering customers a rare chance to sample dishes fit for an emperor.

Oishi Buffet Express has just opened on the ground floor of refurbished Laksi IT Square (formerly Laksi Plaza), and director of operations Sam P Aowsathaporn is introducing the special dishes.

“The promotion continues through the end of December – on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays only,” he says.

“The five Emperor’s Menu dishes are Alaska crab stirred in black soy sauce, abalone in Chinese red sauce, stir-fried bamboo clams Shanghai-style, soft-shell crab in XO sauce and deep-fried prawn cakes.”

Sam, who was an executive chef in the US for 19 years, says the chain creates special, limited-time menus every two months, using ingredients scouted by a team from the central kitchen in the Nawa Nakhon industrial estate near Bangkok.

Oishi’s regular menus are 60 per cent Japanese dishes and the rest from elsewhere, particularly Chinese and European. The most popular are imported seafood like salmon, snowfish, eel and ebiko.

“Most of the seafood is imported from Norway, with some from Japan and Australia, but if it can be found here, we prefer to use local products,” Sam says.

The most expensive menu on the Emperor Menu is the Alaskan crab – which actually comes from Norway. For Japanese gourmets it’s right up there with Matsusaka beef, whale and the fatty belly meat of the pearly nautilus.

“Alaska crab is sublime,” Sam agrees. “It’s one of the world’s biggest crabs, rarely caught in the wild, and the meat is in their huge legs. The price ranges from Bt2,000 to Bt5,000 per kilogram.”

The Chinese regard the abalone shell, Sam says, “as one of the four treasures of the sea, along with fish maw, shark fin and sea cucumber. Fresh abalone was chosen for our menu because it’s much rarer than the canned variety and tastes much better.”

Bamboo clams aren’t popular in Thailand, but Europeans and Americans savour the meat as a form of sashimi. The five-inch-long clam is only found off California, Japan and Australia.

The taste of Oishi’s dish is similar to stir-fried baby clams in roasted chilli paste and basil, but the meat is sweeter and chewy like squid.

The deep-fried prawn cake with plum sauce can make a nice dim sum appetiser, while the soft-shell crab is deep-fried and stirred in an XO-flavoured sauce, just the way the Chinese prefer it.

Oishi Grand and three branches of Oishi Buffet are offering all five dishes, while Oishi Express has only the clams, crab and prawn cakes.

The new branch at Laksi IT Square on Jaeng Wattana Road has “Japanese Modern” decor, with zen’s less-is-more approach. It has seating for 250, plus a pair of VIP rooms.

Juthamas Cholthavornpong

The Nation

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