A Breeze Of Japanese Flavors Near The City Center Of Izmir: Kurochan

Those who are familiar with me know well, when somebody mentions the Japanese cuisine, the world stops!

 

Although some may exaggerate the difficulty in travelling to the Far East, I always get so excited about going on business trips to Tokyo.

 

Only this time there won’t be any need for me to travel anymore in order to have a bite from those tastes I’m enthusiastic about. Because the Japanese restaurant “Kurochan” in one of the relatively new resort hotels in Turkey, Mandarin Oriental Bodrum was successful enough to put a smile on my face.

 

In Turkey following the city of London

 

Mandarin Oriental Bodrum started to serve beneath the crystal clear waters of the Cennet Cove in last July. I already visited the hotel upon an invitation so as to give my feedback. In my visit, I also had the opportunity to try Assaggio Restaurant and shared with you an article about my experience as well.  In my second visit, I was also bombarded by the wonderful dishes created by the Italian Chef Roberto Stefani. Only this time, we learned that the young chef, thanks to the fantastic job he pulled off, was promoted to be the Executive Chef of the new hotel project of Mandarin Oriental in Milano that will open its doors soon. So we agreed to meet again in Milano in the first quarter of 2015. Assaggio will welcome the new season in May with a new chef. I hope it will keep on preserving the same quality standards and its place in my list of the recommended places in Bodrum.

 

Today, I’m going to introduce you to another star in the cove where you won’t take your eyes off of thinking “The heaven should be a place like this!” (Referring to its name which means heaven in English): Kurochan.

 

The chef of the restaurant, Scott Hallsworth offers a menu mostly based on tapas based on the Japanese cuisine. As a 39 years-old Australian, the chef is actually a cross country runner who won numerous medallions so far. As he happened to get interested in the culinary world, he first started to work for the Nobu restaurants, but he won his fame by opening the restaurant “Kurobuta” in London during the year of 2013.

 

 

I previously mentioned the Wagyu and Kobe cattle which are raised with some special massage techniques. As for Kurobuta, I’d say it’s the Kobe of the pigs! As it is a different breed of the Berkshire pig which is raised in a different region and yield the most valuable pork meat, Kurobuta is usually of black color. It is also the name of the popular restaurants in Marylbone and Chelsea run by the Chef Hallsworth.

 

For the restaurant is located in Turkey, the crew changed its name a bit by adding “-chan” at the end and managed to fit in with its new name.

 

Kurochan has a minimalist design as Assagio does. Outstanding with the high-quality yet basic materials used in its arbor, the restaurant is complemented by the sweeping view of the Cennet Cove.

 

The menu offers a variety of tapas ranging from sushi, sashimi, tempura, fresh fish, seafood and beef to robata and vegetarian dishes.

 

We made our start with “beef steak tataki” which was accompanied with crispy garlic and ponzu onion. It had a wonderful balance of taste and look. The only problem with the picture is that the phone couldn’t capture the candle light good enough.

 

Garnished with quite thin strips of chive, rice spaghetti has a harmonious taste with the salmon on the top.

 

 The following dish, salmon sashimi pizza had a thin and crispy bread like the Mexican tortilla or lavash. In my opinion, it was a quite nice amuse bouche flavored with ponzu truffle and wasabi tobiko.

 

One of the most interesting dishes of the night, duck with watermelon was composed of crispy duck skin, “hijiki” that looks like glasswort, pomegranate, chili and slices of watermelon. As the dish had a fine nuance with an unusual mixture of ingredients, it got a good mark from us.

 

 The following was a seafood dish: gadus fish. Since its taste was almost the same with the ones I had at Nobu and Zuma, I can say, I found it an average taste.

 

One of the best of the night, Japanese risotto was, again, starring wasabi tobiko which is basically made from a type of flying fish. With all the jumbo shrimp pieces in its recipe, this unusual risotto was one of the most impressive tastes of the menu.

 

But if you ask about the masterpiece of the night, lamb chops would be the obvious answer! With the smoked green tea on the top of an eggplant and miso sauce, the wonderful interpretation of lamb chops deserves a round of applause.

 

Although I found the maki sushi an average dish and would like an improvement to be made on it; garnished with yuzu, kosho mayonnaise and pieces of king crab, nigiri was rather successful.

 

A Note for the Next Season

 

Mandarin Oriental Bodrum is the best resort I’ve visited in Turkey so far and the one which offers the highest quality facilities as well as it redefines the Far Eastern hospitality in keeping with its title. In my opinion, since it opened a bit earlier, this brought about some shortcomings in the services. I believe the hotel will overcome such deficiencies and alter the meaning of vacation for Bodrum. However with the way it is now, it is still worth a try.

 

This is the reason why I wanted to share my experience with these flourishing restaurants (Assagio and Kurochan). I highly recommend you to note them down in your agenda as they are going to be serving between October and May.

 

Although its sushi dishes were open to improvement, Kurochan fared better than Nobu and Zuman in the rest of its menu. I wish it would extend its roots to Istanbul after it achieves its goals in Bodrum.

 

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life…