A different kind of Sukiyaki
MILLIE: The holiday frenzy has died down, but the workload continues with cleaning and clearing up activities and endless post-Christmas meetings with our team to revisit problem areas as well as plan for the New Year 2025.
For two months, Karla and I were just focused on work, with hardly any time to celebrate the festivities with family and friends. It was time for a mother-daughter bonding and Karla took me out for a sukiyaki dinner at Inari at SM Aura.
As we entered Inari, the place was full and we were ushered to a small private room where we were served a refreshing welcome drink of iced guava lychee jasmine tea. I don’t normally enjoy sitting at the counter on wooden stools, but since we were the only guests in the tiny room, it wasn’t so cramped and there was space to move and breathe. Seeing I was a bit uneasy, Karla remarked, “Practice na for the Japan trip!”
For starters, we chose the sizzling salmon and king prawn aburi roll which happily popped in my mouth! The spicy tuna roll was a little too spicy for my taste buds but Karla enjoyed the lingering taste. The next course was the house special, an exceptional ebi tempura with a twist, served with lumpfish caviar, ebiko, sukiyaki reduction, and Japanese mayo.
Sukiyaki always makes me remember my dad because he loved to cook sukiyaki for the family on Sundays at home! Little Karla was his chef assistant, thrilled to do a cooking tandem with her Lolo Joe.
KARLA: As Mom said, sukiyaki always reminds us of my late grandfather, Joe Reyes. He loved sukiyaki and enjoyed cooking it himself. I would assist him in adding the vegetables, he would tell me which ones to put in first, while he always took care of cooking the beef. He liked it slightly cooked only and enjoyed dipping it in a raw egg.
All my life, the sukiyaki I knew had soup and glass noodles until we tried out Inari Sukiyaki. Here, they serve a dry sukiyaki where the meat is cooked in sauce and served with rice, noodles, and miso soup on the side, which they call Kyoto-style sukiyaki while the traditional style, as we know it, is called Tokyo-style sukiyaki. Both versions are served with onsen eggs for dipping.
Inari Sukiyaki features quality beef for their dishes. When ordering either Kyoto or Tokyo style sukiyaki, you can choose the type of meat used for your dish. Meat options available are USA Karubi, a 150-day grain-fed black angus boneless short rib cut with strips of fat, and AUS High Choice Striploin, 190-day grass-fed, for the classic sets. The premium sets are a choice of USDA Black Angus Misuji, 270-day grain-fed with a marbling score of 5-6, USDA Black Angus Rib Eye, 270-day grain-fed with a marbling score of 6-7, and OMI Wagyu A5, 700-day premium grain-fed 100% Black Wagyu cattle with a marbling score of 9-10.
Inari Sukiyaki prides itself on a counter setup, so the chefs can cook the sukiyaki right in front of you, which also gives a more informal atmosphere. This arrangement may be difficult for larger groups as it would be hard to share or talk to each other but would be convenient to eat and go. At SM Aura, they are conveniently located near the cinema where you can have a quick full meal before catching a movie.
MILLIE: As a perfect meal ender, we were offered homemade gelato for dessert. Karla’s choice was the Nama Chocolate and I was satisfied with my Yuzu calamansi sorbet! I had a pleasant evening meal with Karla and secretly wished we could have spent time walking around the mall, but we had to rush home to join a Zoom meeting.
