International Sushi Day: An exploration of Nikkei cuisine
Take a seat at any bustling restaurant in the heart of the city and skim through its menu. On its appetiser or small plates section, you’ll probably find ceviche—a punchy dish of cubed, citrus-cured fish garnished with chopped cilantro or sliced chilli. This may seem like a refreshing start to a meal or a nod to one of Peru’s national dishes but, in fact, epitomises centuries of multicultural influence.
Peruvian cuisine took shape with potatoes, Andean grains, and corn before Spanish settlers introduced onions, garlic, and new cooking techniques. Fish dishes entailed lengthy curing processes and stewed in citrus, sometimes overnight, until ‘cooked’. It wasn’t until the arrival of Japanese migrants in the 19th century that plates of raw fish saw drizzles of citrus juice right before serving in what we now know as Nikkei cuisine.
Read more: A food lover’s guide to Peru
Heirloom corn and potatoes formed the foundations of Peruvian cuisine before colonisation (Photo: Getty Images)
The end of the 19th century brought about a cultural exchange between Japan and Peru, with many Japanese migrants travelling to Peru to access its silver mines. Japanese migration to South America swelled, with Peru now housing the second largest Japanese population on the continent after Brazil. Close to 23 thousand individuals in Peru have Japanese or Nikkei ancestry.
Roti canai being prepared (Photo: Getty Images)
Diaspora in any country relies on adaptation. Take, for example, roti canai. It is a dish so entrenched in our culinary heritage and one that would not exist without migrational influence. Indentured Tamil labourers brought to Malaysia by the British conceptualised roti canai, reinventing paratha through a distinct kneading process.
Despite some arguing the dish’s name is linked to Chennai, a state in Tamil Nadu, order the dish in India and expect to be met with a confused response.
Ceviche, a Peruvian dish of cubed and citrus-cured fish (Photo: Instagram / @boteco_india)
Seabass tiradito with aji amarillo pepper sauce (Photo: Instagram / @sucre.london)
The same can be said for Nikkei cuisine. As the cultural makeup of Peru began to shift, so did its culinary traditions. Japanese diaspora faced with a scarcity of culturally specific ingredients were tasked with preparing familiar Japanese dishes with unfamiliar Peruvian produce, marking the birth of an entirely new cuisine. Tiradito, an offshoot of ceviche, borrowed the foundations of Peru’s national dish and fused them with Japanese cooking techniques.
Sliced like sashimi instead of cubed, raw fish was coated in a fiery dressing of Peruvian aromatics—aji amarillo peppers, lime, and coriander. The dish was sauced just before serving to prevent curing, staying true to certain Japanese seafood preparation styles. Contemporary incarnations of ceviche you will find in restaurants today may unknowingly take inspiration from Nikkei cuisine, curing fish for minutes instead of hours.
Pulpo al olivo, octopus coated in a botija olive sauce (Photo: Instagram / @inticocina.pe)
Japanese migrants diversified Peruvian eating culture in more ways than one. To consider Nikkei cuisine fusion would be to diminish its significant impact on Peru. The waters of Peru remained largely unexplored before Japanese influence introduced the country’s cuisine to the bounty of the sea, incorporating eel and octopus into its dishes.
Pulpo al olivo, a popular seafood dish of octopus smothered in a Peruvian heirloom botija olive mayonnaise and sometimes served on a bed of potatoes now exists because of this.
See also: Tatler Dining Guide 2024: The best Japanese restaurants in Malaysia
Nikkei cuisine soon began transcending the boundaries of modified dishes with second and third generation Nikkei peoples refining the cuisine in dishes neither Japanese nor Peruvian but entirely their own. Nikkei food saw a more unapologetic embrace of both Japanese techniques and Peruvian ingredients, resulting in creations like the acevichado roll.
A type of Peruvian maki or sushi roll, acevichado rolls see prawn tempura and avocado encased by sushi rice and a coating of mayonnaise and leche de tigre, a citrusy marinade typically used in ceviche. Matsuei, the first sushi bar in Peru, invented the now emblematic roll and also happened to employ a pioneer of promoting Peruvian cuisine—Nobu Matsuhisa.
Yellowtail jalapeño and tiradito at Nobu (Photo: Instagram / @nobu_kualalumpur)
Nobu Matsuhisa, the mind behind one of the world’s most recognised fine dining chains, laid the groundwork for the rise of Japanese-Peruvian dishes. Despite Matsuhisa insisting Nobu’s dishes are separate from Nikkei cuisine, its most popular offerings have undoubtedly been influenced by it.
From its yellowtail sashimi garnished with jalapeño to shishito peppers served whole, its Kuala Lumpur menus feature both ceviche and tiradito. With Nobu spearheading the globalisation of a once obscure cuisine, Nikkei dishes came to be some of the trendiest plates in the fine dining world.
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A seafood dish with leche de tigre from Maido (Photo: Instagram / @mitsuharu_maido)
In Peru, Nikkei cuisine saw itself in cevicherias and neighbourhood haunts but also on the dinner tables of some of the country’s most venerated restaurants. Opened by Lima-born chef and owner Mitsuharu Tsumura in 2009, Maido stands as one of the world’s best spots for Nikkei cuisine and one of the world’s best restaurants, currently coming in fifth on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Its menu injects sophistication into traditional Nikkei dishes, seeing tiradito de toro of fatty tuna coated in leche de tigre and zarandaja bean cream and nigiris a lo pobre, thin slices of Angus beef and quail egg infused with ponzu.
Our local dining scene has not been immune to the popularisation of Nikkei cuisine. Longstanding and upscale restaurants like Nobu can offer you the best of Japanese precision and Peruvian boldness but more specialists of the cuisine have emerged in recent years.
We’ve compiled a handful of restaurants that focus on these time-honoured dishes so you can try them for yourself, whether you’d like to celebrate International Sushi Day with a lesser known product of Japanese and Peruvian exchange or simply indulge in some tiradito.
Nobu Kuala Lumpur
Dishes influenced by Japanese and Peruvian cuisine at Nobu (Photo: Instagram / @nobu_kualalumpur)
The restaurant took Nikkei cuisine to new heights and was one of the first outside Peru to do so. At Nobu Kuala Lumpur, you can experience traditional sushi while indulging in dishes informed by Nikkei influence from its signature yellowtail jalapeño to cold dishes of ceviche and tiradito.
Feliz
A relatively recent addition to KL’s culinary scene, Feliz is home to one of the most expansive collections of Nikkei dishes in the city. Each dish is a nod to Peru’s diverse culinary heritage, platforming Nikkei cuisine with ingenuity. Find Nikkei-style ceviche of Misaki tuna and leche de tigre and acevichado gunkan topped with fresh uni. You’ll also be able to find multiple iterations of tiradito using whitefish, octopus, or tuna.
Its menu goes beyond cold dishes, housing substantial plates of octopus with white corn and mojito andino, arroz con mariscos or Peruvian seafood rice with aji amarillo, and lamb shoulder served with steamed rice and criolla, a Peruvian salsa.
Sushi Mastro Nikkei
As its name suggests, Sushi Mastro Nikkei is a Kepong sushi bar guided by Nikkei cuisine. Acevichado rolls take on a new form here, crafted with yellowtail and ginger oroshi. Its ceviche stays true to the cuisine with Ikejime barramundi doused in leche de tigre and slices of habanero, while its Salmon Mango Nikkei, sashimi wrapped in fresh mango, proves an entirely unique take.
Cold dishes and sushi are in no shortage here and can be followed by mains of Sabah sea king prawns with potatoes and aji amarillo sauce, Argentinian-style steak, or pan-seared barramundi.
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