This Japanese Deli Will Nourish And Comfort You

If you ever travel to Japan, please take time to explore the depachikas. These department store basement food halls are a food lover’s haven, packed with the most delicious and topnotch food items, from fresh fruit and vegetables, to premium meats and sushi. You can find everything from expensive, high quality sake to dainty, French-style desserts. Best of all are the tiny stalls that sell handmade meals sold in bento boxes. This is what Cuddle Kitchen is, a Japanese deli serving fresh and healthy Japanese home cooking. 

Inspired by the Japanese delis that serve busy salary persons in that country's busy cities, convenience and quality are essential here. Cuddle Kitchen has a streamlined stall with a well-lit, glass-encased display that lets you feast your eyes while you make your selections. Currently, there are 12 appetizers to choose from, in addition to main dishes. The idea is for you to mix and match, and basically create your own bento box meal. And while the dishes are quite simple and classic, like most Japanese home cooking, they are handmade and designed to reflect Japan's regional and seasonal flavors. In short, this is a selection of the ultimate comfort food. 

The concept was a pandemic pivot by Yukiko Sanei, a third generation kappa chef whose family owns Sanei, a Japanese kappou restaurant in Kagoshima renowned for its authentic Japanese food since 1933. Kappo cuisine is a traditional style of cooking that can loosely be described as a casual kaiseki. 

“Several years ago, I had a vision of creating a brand and logo with the hope of providing something useful and supportive to people's daily lives through food. Until just a few months ago, I couldn’t even imagine that "cuddle" would make its debut in Manila," she wrote in an Instagram post after the launch of Cuddle Kitchen in Taguig. The concept was brought to our shores by Alyanna Uy, owner of Food Revolution, which also operates Prologue and Dough and Grocer. 

The ethos of Cuddle Kitchen is to nourish through delicious, well-balanced meals made with nutritious ingredients. There is emphasis on seasonal components, quality produce, and healthy cooking techniques. The dishes are gorgeous in both flavor and texture, encompassing the full range of flavors from sour, sweet, saltiness, bitterness, umami, spiciness. Quite frankly, I think they offer the most delicious explorations of the many ways vegetables can be served and cooked. 

Chef Sanei says, “I would be so delighted if people in Manila could conveniently eat the delicious and healthy-ish Japanese comfort food unique to "Cuddle," which is made with original fermented condiments, dashi and selected seasonings, and used with plenty of vegetables, into their everyday meals.

There are wonderful hidden nuggets in the appetizers beneath the glass display. Each dish is made with pristine ingredients, carefully sourced for the best quality, its elements allowed to shine. Like the Simmered Kombucho, a classic comforting dish of pumpkin, chicken and edamame. The already-sweet pumpkin is gently simmered in a stock of savory dashi broth with, I would guess, a little mirin and sake for delicate flavor. In Japan, this is a popular side dish.

The Nasu no Agebitashi is rich and flavorful deep-fried eggplants soaked in a dashi broth marinade. It is a vibrant dish of complex flavors, and one you definitely should try.

A stellar find is the Steamed Onion Ponzu made with newly-harvested white onions, where the ponzu sauce seeps into the onion's inner layers creating an unexpected and utterly wonderful contrast of rich and tart flavors that work to draw out sweet notes from the onion itself. I tell you, you will never look at the simple onion in quite the same way again! 

Another favorite is the Inari Sushi, a traditional sushi of vinegared rice stuffed inside deep-fried tofu pockets cooked in a dashi-based broth. The sweet-salty pockets are filled with simmered shiitake mushrooms, red lotus roots, snap peas, crab sticks and egg. 

And while the displays are very appealing, be careful not to bypass those dishes that may appear a little dull. The potato salad, for example, looks ordinary but is extravagantly dotted with a superb Iberico bacon smoked in-house. 

If the appetizers are not too familiar, the main dishes are easily recognizable. There is crispy golden Chicken Karaage seasoned with calamansi for a very nice touch of local flavor. There is Grilled Salmon that comes with sautéed ponzu seaweed and grated daikon, and Fried Shrimp Stuffed Shiitake where the mushrooms are stuffed with Vannamei shrimps, grated hanpen and edamame.

Cuddle Kitchen's menu allows vegetables to shine, but the dishes are not fully vegan as they make use of ingredients like chicken, beef and dashi broth. It is possible, however, to request for vegan options in advance. And yes, they can even make the dashi broth vegan. 

If you've ever said to yourself, while eating meat: "If only vegetables were this good, I'd eat more vegetables!" If you've ever said that, then come to Cuddle Kitchen. Nourishment was never so delightful or delicious.

Basement 1, Mitsukoshi BGC | IG: @cuddlkekitchen.ph 

Photography by Jar Concengco