Curry leaves in Tokyo: sounds like a very hipster band’s name. But that’s literally what U-zhaan is doing. “I came to Chennai 19 years ago, and stayed in Triplicane. I would go to Ratna Cafe for meals and idli-sambar at least four times a day. I love South Indian food, and the essential ingredient, curry leaves, are very hard to find back home. So last year, I started growing my own,” says the 39-year old Japanese tabla player.
He came across the tabla quite by accident at a neighbourhood store in Japan. “Stuff like this usually never happens! I thought it was cute and round, so I bought it. Then in 1996, I came to Kolkata to learn from my guruji Anindo Chatterjee, and later in 2005 to Mumbai to study under Zakir Hussain,” says U-zhaan, whose real name is Hironori Yuzawa.
While this trip to India is on behalf of a travel magazine — for which he will document various music traditions in India — he isn’t too fond of travelling.
“But I do love trying out various cuisines. I cook more of Bengali food back in Tokyo, because I have a reference of how the food is supposed to taste. It turns out quite close to the real thing. However, I’m not so familiar with South Indian flavours, so it is quite difficult to replicate,” he explains.
And so, through a mutual friend, he set up a private cooking class with food traveller, TV show host and musician Rakesh Raghunathan. The day after the class, we meet at Amethyst. Rakesh quizzes U-zhaan: “What did we learn to make yesterday?” The student quickly answers — pineapple rasam, pachadi, raw mango kosumalli — but stumbles on the rather complicated arachuvitta sambar. “What I really liked was the homemade lime pickle,” grins U-zhaan, adding that he likes strong flavours.
Rakesh says, “While putting together the workshop, I was leaning towards more subtle flavours. But considering they love their wasabi — and in U-zhaan’s case, mustard — we included tamarind and other pungent flavours to the mix.”
Now that U-zhaan has a better idea of what South Indian food tastes like, will he be cooking up a storm back in Tokyo? “Yes, but I probably won’t be dry-roasting and grinding spices. I already bought a packet of readymade sambar powder to take back home,” he says with a smile.
