Megu

On my last visit to the Cape, I was sitting in his restaurant praising his food and actively encouraging him to boast about his own work and instead he spent the afternoon telling me how much he liked the creations of Japanese chef Munetaka Kimura at Megu in Paarl.

So I hot-footed it to see where it is that Reuben spends his days off. Paarl is not the most obvious spot for the best modern Asian restaurant in South Africa but that is where it is. Chef Kimura came to work at the Grande Roche, liked what he saw and never went home. From the moment that the amuse bouche of blanched green beans topped with sesame paste arrived it was clear that Riffel was not wrong about this being an astonishingly good restaurant.

Sushi addicts be warned - there is no raw fish, seaweed or rolled up rice on the menu. Instead Kimura presents an array of Asian treasures crossing borders and culinary eras without ever slipping into inauthenticity. The pork dim sum were heavenly one-bite moments of pleasure presented with minute slivers of lemongrass and spring onions. The flavour of the udon noodles stood out robust and clear. These were noodles meant to be enjoyed in their own right not just relegated to the status of accompaniment. And all this culinary fabulousness occurred before we even got to the chef's signature cooking style.

Kimura is primarily a yakiniku chef specialising in charcoal grilled delicacies. Diners order a range of raw ingredients which are then cooked at the table on a portable brazier. Perfect strips of rosu, beef loin, melt in the mouth morcels of karubi boneless short rib and achingly elegant flakes of squid flesh arrive at the table. The waiter presents each diner with tiny tongs and you sizzle your supper into existence. As you go along, the ingredients are dipped in tare sauce which is redolent with soy and sesame. Extractor fans above each table prevent diners from smoking out later arrivals.

There are also occasional forays into Korean cuisine. Sensitive souls should know that when chef Kimura cooks Korean he becomes heavy handed with the garlic and polite kissing is impossible after exposure to the Kimchee vegetables. But who needs polite kisses when they can have Kimchee?

I have a distant but mildly unpleasant memory of being taken to a Japanese restaurant in Paris by a very unsuitable man when I was young and stupid.
The trauma of bean curd ice cream has stayed with me long after the horror of the Frenchman passed. As a result I have spent the last decade steering well clear
of Japanese dessert menus.

The astonishing pear and lemongrass sorbet with Umeshu ume fruit wine has lifted a veil and cured me of my phobia. The sorbet had the texture of newly fallen snow. The blissful pear and lemongrass combination erased the bitter taste left by the Frenchman and his bean curd monstrosity.

Umeshu is often mistranslated as "plum wine" but an ume fruit is not quite a plum and its sake base makes for a truly unique liquid moment. The sweet-sour taste made an ideal full stop to the meal.

The small selection of mostly Paarl produced wines is written up on a chalkboard without descriptions or vintages but waiters are well trained and well informed about food pairing combinations.

The menu is so extensive in its scope that the selection of wines by the glass is a God-send. Those like me, who basically want everything on the menu, can order a glass to match each course.

This restaurant is an education in what modern Asian cuisine should and can be. Simple and without pretension but never less than perfect.

Two-course meal (excluding wine): R120.

 

By Anna Trapido