By Sherwani Synon

Nihonbashi restaurants celebrated its 15th anniversary recently and to mark the important milestone, founder and owner of Nihonbashi Dharshan Munidasa whipped up the world’s most expensive Sashimi dish.
 

The event took place at the main Nihonbashi restaurant at Galle Face Terrace amidst a gathering of media and special guests, on July 6. The world’s most expensive tuna sahshimi dish, apart from celebrating the restaurant’s 15th anniversary was created to promote Sri Lanka through the fine art of Japanese cuisine and philosophy.
 

In creating this dish, Dharshan used ‘rubies of the ocean’ tuna and ‘rubies of the mountains’. The bowl which was made of ice and 6 star rubies was exquisite and the sashimi dish was worth more than 50,000 US dollars (5 million rupees).

“To celebrate Nihonbashi’s 15th anniversary, I decided to make an exquisite dish to mark this milestone and also to promote Sri Lanka. This exquisite tuna sashimi dish which I made using fresh tuna and 6 star rubies is the first of its kind and this will be the only time this dish will be prepared,” an enthusiastic Dharshan informed guests at the event.

The gem stones were provided by Premadasa Jewelers exclusively for the event and weighed a total of 99.65 carats. The luster of the 6 star rubies which glistened within the ice dish and the slices of freshly sliced tuna marked yet another landmark of Nihonbashi’s journey to provide the best of Japanese delicacies.  

Set up in 1995, Nihonbashi is the brain child of Munidasa whos origins are a mix of Sri Lankan and Japanese. For Munidasa, setting up an authentic Japanese restaurant in Sri Lanka meant creating a bridge between his two worlds. 15 years since its inception and the bridge has not only brought him closer to these countries but it has also enriched the palate of everyone who has graced Nihonbahsi.
 

Today, the restaurant offers over 250 items and 95% of the dishes are cooked. Set courses and dinner menus comprising a minimum of six dishes and goes up to eighteen are also available. Dharshan’s experimenting in fusing Sri Lankan ingredients with Japanese cookery is remarkable. Dishes like ‘karapincha tempura’ and ‘sushi infused with lotus roots’ are some of his popular fusion dishes. 

 Pic by Waruna Wanniarachchi