1. Japan and Italy both have people
2. Both countries look long and skinny on a map
3. Both countries have capitals that start with either the letter 'T' or 'R'
Two sides of the same coin. Birds of a feather. Kissing cousins.
Thus, it was only a matter of time until some master of the obvious created a restaurant featuring both of these sister cuisines. That someone is the Aqua restaurant group of Hong Kong.
Located on the 29th floor of the One Peking building in Kowloon, Aqua Tokyo/Roma/Spirit has an enviable location offering perhaps the city's best nighttime skyline view. But don't spend so much time looking out that you miss the beauty of the swanky modern interior.
The menu is organized into two halves - The Italian side on the left (read in the typical Western fashion, front to back) and the Japanese on the right (read Japanese style - back to front). As I began to drool over the sushi section, I read that Aqua flies in fish daily from Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market, so I was expecting good things.
I started out with a nod to my Italian heritage with a buffalo mozzarella pizza with fresh cherry tomatoes and arugula. This pizza was more Italian rather than American in design. The crust was perfectly thin and crispy, and the three topping elements were perfectly balanced, with the arugula adding a nice peppery kick to play against the mild, creamy cheese. I thought that this pizza would be perfect paired with a light, crisp Junmai Daiginjo sake, so I ordered a bottle. Premium sakes like this one should always be served cold, but you already knew that. It was a surprisingly excellent way to start the meal.
Now that's a good looking pizza.
Next up was the Aqua Tokyo sushi platter - the restaurant's signature offering of nigiri sushi. As a contemporary twist, Aqua seared some of toppings and toasted some of the riceballs to accentuate certain flavors in the ingredients. Some pieces were also topped with iteresting items such as caviar or avocado. Standout favorites were the uni with toasted rice ball and the seared Japanese beef. All in all, I found each piece a well thought out and tasty combination of flavors.
A feast for the eyes as well. Starting from the left we have crab with caviar, uni (sea urchin), grilled eel, hamachi, salmon, tuna with avocado, and Japanese beef. In the center is a grilled prawn maki roll.
After the sushi, we were presented with salt grilled hamachi (yellowtail) collar. This is an item that wouldn't seem strange perhaps anywhere in the world except, of course, the good old USA. Don't be afraid, people! The meat around the collar bone was extremely delicate and flavorful, and the salt and soy based dipping sauce were the perfect accoutrements to bring out the richness of the fish.
This outstanding fish just melted in my mouth.
After this, a plate of king prawn tempura seemed a little pedestrian, but was nevertheless well executed and tasty. On the side was a dark green seasoning powder that was somewhat salty (konbu, maybe?) which was an interesting touch.
Beautifully crisp and not very oily - the mark of a good tempura.
Finally, I couldn't pass up a Yuzu sorbet, served iside a frozen, hollowed out Yuzu fruit skin. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit that can best be described as a mixture of lemon and lime, but a little more pungent. The sorbet was a nice way to finish up the meal.
Fresh yuzu is almost impossible to find in the States.
With a full belly, I left the restaurant as a very happy customer, hoping I would have a chance to return and sample more of the vast offering of menu items. Suddenly, the duo of Japanese and Italian didn't seem so strange.
In all seriousness, there are many things about these two cuisines that really are similar - chief among them is the dedication to using the absolute freshest ingredients possible and preparing them in such a way as to show off their natural flavors. Of course, each culture has applied it's own unique traditions to this principle, yielding wildly different results. But maybe... Just maybe they are not so different after all.
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