The Japanese Food at Zen gives you an introduction to Japanese cuisine in their ongoing food festival. The menu embodies home style cooking. If you thought that would only be sushi rolls and ramen, think again. Or visit Zen to sample the taste of Japanese cuisine.

Chef Boonlurah Panchai, the Speciality Chef at the hotel says he has created this menu from his experiences as well as from what he learnt from his Master Chefs. The food on the menu is authentic but of course, panders to guests requests. But the focus on the meal is to make it an experience.

The meal starts with a Miso Corn Soup that has been a big hit with guests in the past. The shimeji mushrooms give the soup a flavourful taste when combined with the miso and corn. The miso is Japanese but the corn is American.

Similarly, the appetizers are dishes like the Tuna Tataki that is made with seared tuna with truffle and wasabi flavoured soy and Baked Unagi that is a more of a New York style baked fresh water eel.

The entree like the Chicken Katsu Curry is a dish that is made in most households in Japan by the woman of the house. There is also a Pan Seared Salmon.

Chef Panchai believes in preserving the authenticity of the cuisine as the base but has built on top of it with Western influences to make the menu more relatable. He has worked with the best of ingredients to make this menu an authentic experience.

His trivia bit is: Japanese food is engineered to feature a lot of ginger and wasabi because they are great digestives to digest the raw ingredients that Japanese food entails.

Even the dessert on the menu is a Ginger and White Miso Creme Brulee.

This menu is available at Zen at the Leela Palace till 18 July, 2017 for lunch as well as dinner.

Average price for two is Rs 6000 plus taxes.