KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 – I'm a big fan of Japanese food so I was all fired up when I was introduced to Miwa Matsutani via a friend.
She had taken cooking classes from the Japanese native who settled down in Malaysia after her marriage to a local. In the early part of the year as cooking classes came to a halt because of the pandemic, she started off just selling her gyozas. Those beautifully wrapped morsels with a juicy chicken filling blew me away.
Sadly she told me that due to some personal circumstances, she preferred to keep her cooking efforts within a small group.
As I watched every Instagram post through the months, she introduced her Iro Iro bento box. It looked so tempting that I recently got in touch with her again to place an order. As things have changed, she is now ready to be introduced to the world.
As everything is done in small batches (only 20 bento boxes per day) by her, you may have to patiently wait your turn. For instance, December's orders are almost full.
The bentos are available every Wednesday and occasionally on a Saturday. It's simple fare but executed well with a lot of heart, which is what Japanese food is all about. Even the packaging is straight from the heart with a handwritten personalised message from Miwa.
The Iro Iro bento is available at RM35. You get a variety of items to tempt your tastebuds, hence the name "iro iro" which means variety in Japanese.
The items change accordingly so you may get surprises in your bento that are entirely different from what I had. The bento I enjoyed had eight items that included a salad, rice and miso soup.
The staple items include shio musubi or rice seasoned with salt and shaped into the triangle shaped onigiri. The rice has a nice, soft texture so eat it with the other dishes. There will always be a small paper cup with their misodama wrapped in a cling film.
Just pop that in a bowl and add hot water to make a deep-tasting miso soup. As I enjoy eating my meals with soup, this was a great addition. It also gave a much needed hot element to the meal since the bento is served at room temperature.
Pick from a nicely seasoned hijiki seaweed salad. Usually hijiki tends to be a bit salty but the salt levels were fine here. You get to nibble on a prawn and corn kakiage while you dig into an interesting anchovies potato gratin. The gratin is made with sliced potatoes with a slight grilled top. It's simple but the addition of anchovies gives a nice savoury taste to the creamy potatoes.
I love tamago and this version, according to Miwa, is atsuyaki tamago which is from Tokyo and slightly sweeter. This was fluffy and moist, making me wish there was more. You also have a piece of grilled saba fish with a nice, fine flesh. This was paired with a small piece of lemon to cut through the rich taste. I left the chicken karaage to relish at the end, enjoying each bite of the juicy meat.
In addition, there are also gyozas (20 pieces for RM52). These dumplings are beautifully pleated, using a recipe Miwa learnt from a gyoza specialist back at her hometown in Kobe. You can taste the texture of the vegetables that are hand chopped rather than machine processed. She only uses minced chicken thigh meat that gives it a nice juicy bite.
As these gyozas can be stored in the freezer, just bring them out and cook straightaway. That is how I usually enjoy them but I rarely have the patience to slowly pan fry them so they don't look great. Never mind, as long as they taste great. The order for gyoza is for Sunday where pick-up is from 3pm onwards.
You can either pick up your order from Miwa directly or arrange for your own third party delivery provider.
Miwa also can cater to requests for private events. For instance, she recently supplied deluxe bento boxes for a Lexus event.
All the food is prepared using halal ingredients.
Masak with Miwa, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, KL. You can WhatsApp Miwa at 019-5751021 to place orders. Instagram: @masakwithmiwa Facebook:@masakwithmiwa
