Fuji Review
Sunday 28 December 2008 by nalika
Fuji is a Thai-owned chain restaurant serving Japanese food in Thailand.
It's supposed to be the archetype of the Japanese food as Thais like it.
I had a grilled mackerel set meal sometime last year, and it left me with no impression, so I didn't go back,,,, until recently.
In between my trips to the mountains recently, I just had one night stay in the city.
After rushing through running errands, I ended up in a shopping mall, and it was a dinner time. I was too tired to be creative. So, I just went into Fuji and ordered a tendon set and hot green tea.
It was, actually, pretty good.
Nicely trimmed shrimp tails, not so instant-tasting miso soup with enoki mushrooms and tofu, no sugar in green tea, and nice onion tempura.
But of course, I had been eating the country Thai food for a week right before I went to Fuji, so it might have factored in that my pickiness for Japanese food was very low, in favor of Fuji.
One funky thing was it came with kimchi, which is spicy Korean pickle, not Japanese style tsukemono. I guess ready-made kimchi in jars are much easier than maintaining Japanese nukazuke, which is a particular pickle usually accompanies tempura in Japan. That's okay, ready-made kimchi is probably much better than bad nukazuke. Fast-fermented fake tuskemono's are one of those things not worthy of eating.
Another funkiness: travel thermo mug used as a hot green tea server.
Of course those mugs are not made to pour the content out, so you make a little mess on the table. I like it that it keeps the tea warm though.
With the upgraded impression of Fuji, I went there again at a later date.
This time, I ordered a Fuji bento set with tempura and chawan-mushi.
Not as good as tendon. I think it was too meaty overall for me.
Good: shrimp tempura, grated daikon raddish in tempura dipping sauce (important details), ginkgo nuts in chawan-mushi, inari-zushi, ito-konnyaku, enoki mushroom and tofu miso soup.
Not so good: imitation fake crab in sushi rolls (why can't they just use cucumbers if the cost is the issue?), bread crumb fried mackerel, cold chicken teriyaki, salmon tempura, Thai-style overly sweet "salad cream", artificially colored kamaboko in chawan-mushi.
Thai style: takoyaki was an odd addition to bento... it's like squeezing in a mini hot dog into a dinner plate.
They have a New Year gift promotion which goes: "this coming year of oxen, we are presenting the Neko (cat) set," for those spending more than 1,000 baht until January 5.
Yes it's kind of cute...and Akemashite Omedetou (A Happy New Year, in Japanese) is spelt correct... but... why a Neko set for a year of oxen??
It might make my hobby to go to Fuji from time to time to find a little oddness here and there.
Have a Happy New Year of oxen, 2009!
It's supposed to be the archetype of the Japanese food as Thais like it.
I had a grilled mackerel set meal sometime last year, and it left me with no impression, so I didn't go back,,,, until recently.
In between my trips to the mountains recently, I just had one night stay in the city.
After rushing through running errands, I ended up in a shopping mall, and it was a dinner time. I was too tired to be creative. So, I just went into Fuji and ordered a tendon set and hot green tea.
It was, actually, pretty good.
Nicely trimmed shrimp tails, not so instant-tasting miso soup with enoki mushrooms and tofu, no sugar in green tea, and nice onion tempura.
But of course, I had been eating the country Thai food for a week right before I went to Fuji, so it might have factored in that my pickiness for Japanese food was very low, in favor of Fuji.
One funky thing was it came with kimchi, which is spicy Korean pickle, not Japanese style tsukemono. I guess ready-made kimchi in jars are much easier than maintaining Japanese nukazuke, which is a particular pickle usually accompanies tempura in Japan. That's okay, ready-made kimchi is probably much better than bad nukazuke. Fast-fermented fake tuskemono's are one of those things not worthy of eating.
Another funkiness: travel thermo mug used as a hot green tea server.
Of course those mugs are not made to pour the content out, so you make a little mess on the table. I like it that it keeps the tea warm though.With the upgraded impression of Fuji, I went there again at a later date.
This time, I ordered a Fuji bento set with tempura and chawan-mushi.
Not as good as tendon. I think it was too meaty overall for me.
Good: shrimp tempura, grated daikon raddish in tempura dipping sauce (important details), ginkgo nuts in chawan-mushi, inari-zushi, ito-konnyaku, enoki mushroom and tofu miso soup.
Not so good: imitation fake crab in sushi rolls (why can't they just use cucumbers if the cost is the issue?), bread crumb fried mackerel, cold chicken teriyaki, salmon tempura, Thai-style overly sweet "salad cream", artificially colored kamaboko in chawan-mushi.
Thai style: takoyaki was an odd addition to bento... it's like squeezing in a mini hot dog into a dinner plate.
They have a New Year gift promotion which goes: "this coming year of oxen, we are presenting the Neko (cat) set," for those spending more than 1,000 baht until January 5.
Yes it's kind of cute...and Akemashite Omedetou (A Happy New Year, in Japanese) is spelt correct... but... why a Neko set for a year of oxen??It might make my hobby to go to Fuji from time to time to find a little oddness here and there.
Have a Happy New Year of oxen, 2009!
ake-neko-mashite omedetou gozaimasu!
nekochirakoso yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
heheh...i LOVE these wordplays. It appeals to the morphologist in me
ウシawase, ne...
koto-ushi-mo yoroshiku!