Now you can get the Wagamama taste at home, in a new cookbook written by Hugo Arnold
In 1992, in a back street in London, a fast-food restaurant opened its doors to the public. Behind the venture was a man who had never opened a restaurant before. It was in a basement, had a no-smoking policy, customers sat on benches, and your order was fed into a hand-held computer. Your food arrived randomly, and initially you couldn't order desserts. It was an overnight success. Following a favourable review in the Evening Standard, queues formed round the block.
Alan Yau modelled Wagamama on the noodles stalls of Japan. He revolutionised fast food, transforming it into something freshly prepared, well sourced, nutritious and delicious. There are now Wagamamas in Sydney, Amsterdam, a host of UK cities and Dublin, with plans for more expansion.
The Wagamama Cookbook is launched next week. With more than 120 recipes, it covers almost all the dishes on the menu, along with a range of additional recipes. Most are quick and easy to prepare, and many rely on store-cupboard items coupled with a few, easily sourced, fresh ingredients.
A skewer of chicken marinated in yakitori sauce is just the thing with a beer, and while gyozas - dumplings filled with vegetables, prawns or duck - may take a little time, they are moreish combined with sweet and sour gyoza sauce. Mussels are steamed with ginger, sake and soy, while beef is seared and served with shredded vegetables, more ginger and soy.
Main course dishes feature lots of ways with chicken, from tama rice (the meat served with oyster sauce and stir-fried vegetables), to the ever-popular cha han, stir-fried chicken with rice and vegetables.
There is a chapter on fish, featuring ebi yakitori, skewers of prawns and vegetables; ebi chilli men, stir-fried prawns with green pepper, carrots and soba noodles; the hugely popular sweet miso cod; and a smoked haddock ramen. More rusticity appears in pork belly hot pot; there are pork and beef cabbage rolls; and more gutsy flavours in pork char siu men, five-spice roast pork with pak choi and noodles.
Vegetables have a chapter of their own: stir-fried vegetables with tofu and soba noodles; pumpkin curry from our own branch of Wagamama in Dublin; and yasai cha han, stir-fried vegetable rice with soy sauce, miso soup and pickles.
The Wagamama Cookbook by Hugo Arnold (Kyle Cathie, €19.95)