The assonance works, and apparently the mix of flavors too. In Milan, the “Japanese”, a restaurant which, as the name suggests, offers a Japanese-Apulian fusion cuisine and which in a short time has already climbed the heights of approval on TripAdvisor, positioning itself in 12th place out of 6.619 restaurants in the Lombard capital.
Apparently this unprecedented reinterpretation, made for example by salmon and burrata tartare or yaki udon, the typical oriental spaghetti, replaced by the traditional Apulian troccoli and served with prawns, courgettes, bean sprouts and grated hard ricotta, pleases the public, who also have the triple possibility of eating either classic sushi, or “Apulianised” sushi or directly Apulian cuisine, with the classic orecchiette with turnip tops together with other first and second courses, such as pepata di cozze, or desserts such as the Salento pasticciotto.
The idea came from Maurizio, a restaurateur with 20 years of experience behind him who had already worked in a similar restaurant, with Chinese partners: “The problem is that not everyone likes sushi. I wanted a place that gave the possibility to eat Italian and that wasn't the classic fusion where there is both Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Our goal is to rediscover the flavors of oriental cuisine with recipes revisited and enriched by precious contaminations of the Apulian culinary tradition. It could have seemed like a gamble the combination of two cultures so distant from each other, but we have studied and perfected our proposal in an innovative way”.
So at the end of October, together with four other partners, Maurizio opened the "Giappugliese": chefs, cooks and raw materials are strictly Italian, and the formula chosen is that of the All you can eat, both for lunch and dinner, to be able to try a little bit of everything (although of course it is also possible to eat à la carte). The encounter with oriental dishes has given rise to curious and amusing names: the salmon tartare with mango, avocado and citrus sauce becomes Tartare Mamma Miij, while the Taranta is made up of tuna, avocado, stracciatella and bergamot. Attention also to the Uramaki: "U Dragon" with rice, salmon, grilled zucchini, avocado, stracciatella and dried tomatoes, or "U Bastardooon" with rice, spicy salmon, glasswort, pistachio and peanuts.
