The Fine Art Of Making Dashi

WHOEVER SAID SIMPLICITY is the hardest thing to achieve must have tried to make dashi at some stage in his life.

Why is something as straightforward as simmering a piece of seaweed in water and dumping in a handful of fish flakes to make a broth so maddeningly difficult to perfect at home? Either you get tasteless water, an underwhelming brew or a decent broth with an underlying bitterness. Nothing like the delicate umami-rich bowl of goodness at a top-end washoku restaurant, the discreet sweetness of kombu (or dried kelp) enhancing the distinct flavour of dried fish.

In the same way that it takes decades to train to be a sushi chef, mastering the art of dashi took chef Shigeo Akiba of Shangri-la Singapore's NAMI restaurant some 20 years of working under his mentor Masami Honda of Nadaman in Yokohama, Japan.