SimplyAbuDhabi XII

8 7 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I D ining out is a pleasure we all enjoy. It adds variety to our days and can also, quite literally, spice up your life. And there is a great plethora of choices available, especially in the UAE, where you can eat the finest cuisine from the four corners of the world. Yet herein lies the problem sometimes. Jordana and I are often hit with choice paralysis? We’ll go to a fine restaurant and get stuck pondering over expansive menus all alluringly describing the rich cuisine on offer. It can sometimes take longer to choose the meal than it does to eat it. Which is why Tori No Su, located in the Jumeirah Hotel at Etihad Towers on the West Corniche in Abu Dhabi, is the ideal selection for those who may suffer from bouts of indecision. Why? Because this fine Japanese restaurant is offering the highly convenient and exciting option of bespoke dining. Known in Japan as Omakase, this idea is a wonderful practice that takes the pressure out of ordering and lets the person who knows best do the hard work for you! That person in Tori No Su is Chef de Cuisine Takashi Ando – a warm and gregarious man who not only made choosing our meal easier, he was also charming and really made our night. Omakase in literally means, “leave it up to the chef”, and we both took pleasure in doing just that. Chef Ando explained to us that Omakase dining is actually a long held tradition in Japan, and many high-end restaurants throughout the country offer connoisseurs of cuisine and celebrated chefs the chance to meet and connect over their love and appreciation of gastronomy. It is also pleasing to hear that a core element of Omakase cooking is seasonality, something which is quite rightfully getting more attention. There is a deep respect for seasonal produce and flavours and the ingredients used in the cooking change along side what is in season and most suitable to eat at the respective time of the year.