Wasabisabi and a flying omlette

Another wonderful weekend, more wonderful blog fodder!

My sisters and I conspired to plan a fun filled weekend for my mum. We wanted to take her somewhere special and a bit different to celebrate her birthday and decided to buy tickets for her (and us :) to see 'Joseph and his Technicolour Dream Coat' at the Lyceum in Sheffield.

So, I had a little look for a restaurant in the area where we could enjoy ourselves for the afternoon before the early evening show (which was really great by the way...'close every door to me...')

I discovered a little Asian gem on Sheffield's London Rd. Wasabisabi!!!

A Japanese Teppenyaki and sushi restaurant where the food is cooked in front of you as a kind of spectacle while you wait. Sounded fun. I had to sneak in to pay a little deposit for the Teppanyaki table on the Thursday, and the atmosphere and cute paper lantern decor was really funky and sweet much like the advert!

We went for the lunch menu where it turned out there was less atmosphere, but more value for money and a little more privacy as and we were actually the only people at the Teppanyaki table at that time. Some other people were eating in the restaurant from the regular menu, but we had chosen to experience the food up close and personal.

We sat on comfortable high chairs around the large cooking plate, and tentatively discussed what we thought all the sauces were on the side. We didn't really know what to expect and felt a little self concious being the only ones eagerly awaiting the good looking young Japanese chef!

The friendly Japanese waitress brought us some miso soup which is pretty much the same as the Korean dwenjjanjiggae. It is soybean soup so that makes sense!

Jennifer and Mum with their miso soup.

Me, Mum and Victoria.

We decided to order some rainbow sushi and seafood dumplings from the normal menu for starters. Glad we did... the rainbow effect on the sushi was created using the varying pinks in the raw salmon and tuna and this was wrapped around rice along with some creamy avocado which was pleasing to the eye. It went down really well with some wasabi and soy, and a dash of jasmine tea! It was difficult getting used to the wooden chopsticks as I have been using the silver kind with grippy ridges commonly used in Korea. The wooden kind were a little bulky and harder to control. I am out of practice already!!

After our shared appetizers, the chef brought out the teppanyaki steaks, salmon and shrimps. We had each chosen two from the menu, and of course I chose the second and third options. My word, the guy really prepared his work space, moving his spatulas around in a swift sweeping action. He also made use of half a kitchen roll wiping his surfaces thoroughly in an efficient manner!

He salted the prawns and salmon and set to, with fire!

Watch your eyebrows!

The prawns were chiseled and flipped, and finally landed on a rectangular plate neatly presented with some Japanese mayonnaise, which was a delicious warm and thick dressing. Seriously amazing flavour. Cannot recommend enough!

Mum and Jen had the Salmon for start which I had for main while the others tucked into their steak (pic to follow). The chef continued to flip and juggle and then seemed to gain a little confidence. He asked if we would like to play a game, catch the egg?? Me feeling brave gestured, ' Yes, Jen will' and he then turned on me, poised to throw a whole 'fresh from the chicken' free range at my face! Luckily this was a joke. He quickly cracked three eggs, whisked them about on the hot plate, and rolled it up like a pancake, roughly slicing it into pieces. He then launched the egg pancake pieces at my face 3 times in all, and each time, I completely let the side down. The poor waitress ran about picking up bits of egg off the floor for the next 15 minutes as we each attempted time and again to catch the egg! Hilarious table tricks, not sure I would have been as enthusiastic if we were not the only ones there for lunch, but it was really fun! I think Jen had the best skills. Victoria caught hers mainly in her hands, and mine flew past me as I shielded my nose like a girl, (Quote clueless ''my plastic surgeon says I am not allowed to take part in any activity where [eggs] fly at my nose).