Bok choy with black mushrooms. PHOTO | KADUMUKASA KIRONDE II
At the expense of being pedantic, before delving into our wonderful experience at the Asian Fusion Restaurant over at the Fairway Boutique Hotel, a discourse on what is fusion cooking would be entirely in order.
Many have come across the term ‘fusion’ bantered around in culinary circles or fusion cuisine in marketing terms and yet you have scant idea of its full meaning.
In essence, the term fusion cuisine is a catch all phrase that brings together ingredients from different cultures and melds them into existing recipes. This technique of joining culinary forces can offer truly novel and exciting combinations and extraordinary menu offerings that become unique to the establishment.
The downside to this novel school of cooking is that there is no universal standard. Fusion food has a complex history whose origins are not easy to trace. In all probability, it has been around since time immemorial and never shall the twain meet.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that many dishes that we know as belonging to a certain culture actually originated from an entirely different family of cuisine.
The best example of this would be our very own luwombo.
It is a known fact that cooking meat in banana leaves was widely practiced in South East Asian dating back many centuries ago, while our own luwombo dates back to around 1887. Spaghetti was perfected by Chinese chefs before it was discovered by the Italians.
Fairway Boutique Hotel located in Nakasero is one of Uganda’s oldest hotels dating back to February 1971, when it was opened by His Highness the Aga Khan.
One of the greatest challenge of having a diversified menu such as the one that obtains at the Asian Fusion, is having a consistent and ready market, which in this case is mitigated by the restaurant being part of the hotel, which has 100 rooms leaving little doubt in my mind that a good percentage of residents dine there.
We recently had the pleasure of dining at this lovely al fresco centrally located establishment and we can only marvel at the wondrous detail to attention and overall preparation of different items.
For starters my all-time favourite Chinese soup has to be the remarkable and much maligned hot and sour soup, to which I was first introduced in New York’s China Town, back in the 1960’s.
Luckily Fang Fang Chinese Restaurant used to do a credible rendition, much to my delight but since closing shop a couple of years ago it has been a missing item on my menu. Memories can never be exact or replicated nevertheless, compliments to the chef for having produced a variant of ‘pepper hot soup’ with just the right amount of taste, body, heat and aroma.
Bok choy is another one of those items which personify the best of Chinese vegetables and trust the Asian Fusion restaurant to bring out the best of it in the form of stir fried black mushrooms and garlic sauce. Over to the not so exotic but seemingly mundane, are the local runners such as the whole fried fish or the goat muchomo ever so tender and generous in portions two can do it justice.
Asian Fusion Restaurant is a veritable tapestry of many standard delights that are fused with a subtle hint of spicing here and there bearing in mind not to deviate too far from the original.
Taking the Kung Pao chicken as an example is laced with a slight hint of sugar which manages to temper the hot spicy chilies of which it is renowned.
The fairest description of Fusion is to divide into two categories viz. the Asian Fusion Restaurant such as described above and rather than being more definitive embraces subtle nuances of motifs from the culinary arena, which in essence leave the main recipe with its integrity non-compromised.
On the other spectrum is the more popular type of fusion such as Tex-Mex, which is a blend of traditional Mexican foods like beans, meats and cheese with Texas inspired cooking method such as frying tacos in order that they don’t get crispy.
Cajun hailing from the bayous of Louisiana is another example of French inspired cuisine which is popular in the American South. Finally we look at Indo Chinese where they take aspects of Indian food like vegetables and spices that are merged with an array of Chinese sauces and tossed in a wok and achieving amazing results.
Address: Fairway Hotel, Kafu Road, Nakasero
Smoke-Free Zone: Strictly prohibited in the restaurants and public areas
Recommended items: Hot & Sour soup
Service: On the money
Ambience: Mainly al fresco
Menu: An assortment of sharing plates such as chili paneer or chili chicken, guacamole and naan chips, crispy corn, masala chips/garlic. Small bites including samosas, spring rolls, omelet and bread, soup such as hot and sour. Chicken wings, chicken lollipop. Continental viz. grilled chicken, goat muchomo, fried whole fish et al. From the tandoor oven including the much loved traditional tandoori, tandoori broccoli. Burgers. Indian curries: paneer tikka masala, aloo gobi. The Great American Burger etc.
The Bar: Coffee tea Beer, freshly squeezed juice, smoothies and milk shakes, cocktails and mocktails, spirits, wine per glass and by the bottle as well as premium wines. These include Bordeaux Chateauneuf des Papes Chemin and a limited selection of champagne.
The damage: Expect to pay at least shs 150’000 per couple or more
Sound level: Good
Rating: Not to be missed
Parking: Available and very secure
If you go: daily
RATINGS: Not to be missed, worth a visit, OK/so so, don’t waste your time.
