A filling Far Eastern trip

Tas T. Budds rides an elephant into seriously good food territory

Beach Centre, Dubai
Golden Elephant

Chef Jerry danced up to the Teppanyaki table, bowed low and took out salt and pepper cellars from his cheerful red hat. He smiled widely, flourished his two-pronged fork and flat knife and beat them together in a quick rat-a-tat. Welcome, he said in his soft voice, I will now prepare for you a Teppanyaki.

We were at Golden Elephant, a neatly turned out restaurant at Beach Centre, Jumeirah, the trendy mall near Dubai Zoo. The restaurant offers a varied menu of Japanese and Thai dishes. We had chosen our meal and were now sitting back, ready for the show.

Chef Jerry spooned some oil on the white-hot Teppanyaki table. He let it sizzle for a second and then placed a sliced zucchini, chopped mushrooms and a handful of bean sprouts, plus a fat ring of giant salad onion. He sprinkled salt and white pepper; sautéed the veggies in a scoop of garlic butter; drizzled it with some soya sauce and a handful of sesame seeds and turned them a few times. They were done nicely within minutes and he served them on our plates.

We took a forkful and closed our eyes. Delicious. Just brown, still crunchy, with a lingering aftertaste of soya and garlic. Meanwhile, Chef Jerry had placed a lobster, its pretty banded shell split open, on the table. Plus some fillets of fresh red snapper. He pulled out the flesh from the shell and with a quick tap of his fork sent the shell flying. Into his cap. We applauded.

A dash of salt, a squeeze from a plump yellow lemon, a turn. A smattering of white pepper. A spoonful of garlic butter and some sesame seeds. The lobster had turned a very light brown just bordering on golden. A final drop of soya sauce and it was on our plates, the flesh juicy, just rightly spiced.

Our red snapper was cooking nicely all this time. Now it also came to our table, our fork piercing neatly through the succulent white meat.

Chef Jerry took a final bow, cleaned his Teppanyaki table and left. We got down to the serious business of eating.

We ate steadily through appetisers and main courses, loving every dish. My companion began with some sushi and sashimi, enjoying the raw fish hugely with the palate-tingling wasabi. I watched.

I came into my own with the tempura. Light golden-yellow, the shrimp, hammour and veggies were fried to a crisp. We shared a bowl of steaming hot and sour soup and a plate of Chicken Wings Gyuza. We also had a couple of tasty Shrimp Suimai.

His main course was the Nua Pad Parik Thai Sod and the Kaeng Pad Yang. The first was stir-fried strips of tender beef in a creamy peppercorn sauce fragrant with Thai herbs. His second course was roast duck in a splendid Thai red curry and grape sauce.

I chose Pla Gao Lard Prig, a whole hammour cooked lightly in a Thai chilli sauce tempered to suit my palate. Very good. I also had some Pad Pak Je, crunchy stir-fried veggies barely cooked with a hint of soya sauce. There were cauliflower, broccoli, baby corn, button mushroom, carrot, bell pepper and snow peas. Every vegetable retained its colour and texture and yet I could taste the sauce. We ate our main dishes with very good Royal Fried Rice (flavourful rice with crab meat, shrimps, eggs and veggies) and slender Singaporean fried mixed noodles. I washed everything down with glasses and glasses of creamy Virgin Pina Colada; he stayed with orange juice.

We had eaten too much — too, too much — but still wanted a taste of dessert. I chose something totally non Far Eastern. Banana split. I just had room for a tiny spoonful of chocolate chip and vanilla ice cream and one slice of banana before we wiped our hands with fragrant warm towels and staggered out. Totally full and satisfied.

The food at Golden Elephant was seriously good, cooked with care and served with warmth. The service was excellent without being cloying; the portions generous and prices reasonable. The restaurant also offers lunch buffets on Thursday & Friday for Dh40 and gives 15 per cent off on the Teppanyaki menu on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Good to have a stand-alone restaurant offering Far Eastern, particularly Japanese, food of such high quality.