Ai- Japanese restaurant

Last night I went to a beautiful lounge on the Terrace of Metropolitan Mall in Saket. It is caled Ai. It serves Japanese cuisine. Ai in Japanese means Love. It had opened few days back.

Of course, since I am fasting during Navratras, so all I had was a fresh juice, but I was awestruck by the ambience and music.
I also saw the menu and healthy food options available. Arjun Rampal was also there (not on the menu. I mean live). But he politely refused to oblige Yours Truly with a picture. His Loss- I must say.

Now coming back to our main topic- Japanese food and how healthy it is. Do you know that- Life expectancy in Japan is the highest in the world. The Japanese diet includes foods with very low cholesterol content and is practically free from the saturated (“bad”) fats. Instead, the Japanese diet abounds in seafood: fish, rich in polyunsaturated (“good”) fats (in particular, eicosopentaenoic acid, EPA), and the seaweeds Kombu (from warm waters) and Nori (from cold waters) . These contain high amounts of iodine as well as minerals and microelements which are both healthy and also impart to Japanese food its inimitable flavor.

Some basic ingredients of healthy Japanese cooking are- Tofu, Shiitake mushrooms, Prawn - shellfish, Soba noodles- made from buckwheat flour, Wakame - seaweed. Japanese food offers seafood, vegetables, and noodle-based dishes. Japanese food offers seafood, vegetables, and noodle-based dishes.

If in doubt, looked for an entree that is described as steamed, grilled or roasted. It is also possible to request brown rice at Japanese restaurants.

If you like sushi, you're in luck because maki sushi, salmon, and tuna sashimi are all excellent choices.

An interesting and smart choice at a Japanese restaurant is to share shabu-shabu. This is a dish that multiple diners share by dipping meats and vegetables into a simmering broth. It's similar to eating fondue, but a lot less fattening since the broth takes the place of cheese.

Japanese food can be flavorful without adding extra fat with the use of diet-friendly sauces such as ponzu, soy sauce, rice-wine vinegar, wasabi, ginger, and mirin.

The dish to avoid at any Japanese restaurant would be tempura. Tempura is a battered, deep-fried dish consisting of vegetables or a seafood and a variety of dipping sauces.

If you're interested in the true Japanese experience, why not try chopsticks? Each time you take a bite, you'll be eating less because you can't grasp as much food with them. You will automatically eat more slowly (which will help you eat less and enjoy your food more). You will also be more likely to realize when you are full and stop eating due to the slower pace.