Pasta Zanmai

The origins of pasta be damned. It really doesn't matter much anymore whether Marco Polo brought pasta from China. Today, young children the world over have a taste of spaghetti bolognese before they even learned how to pronounce it.

When something becomes as globalised as pasta, then authenticity becomes a little harder to figure out. Not that it matters too much. The Japanese have a way of appropriating elements of foreign culture and making it uniquely their own. Whether it’s cheese cake, curry or coffee, the Japanese completely reinvent it.

At Pasta Zanmai, the chefs behind the glass wall of the kitchen look like they could be making bowls of udon or frying up tempura—which they are—but they're mainly making pasta dishes. A thinner version of spaghetti, specifically, to be eaten with chopsticks and enjoyed with miso soup.

Not surprisingly, it works. Whether in sauces based on cream, tomato or meat, the flavours are often clean and fresh—much like Japanese cuisine in general. And pasta can't possibly get more Japanese than the salmon sashimi with pasta (RM22). An exercise in Zen-like simplicity, it's as the name describes—thick slices of salmon and spaghetti in a wafu-based sauce (the broth commonly found in many Japanese noodles). Also available are spaghettis topped with cod or salmon roe.

Cream sauces are usually popular in the Klang Valley, so the Japanese mushrooms in cream sauce with hot spring egg (RM18) will definitely appeal to many. Combining Japanese mushrooms like shiitake and shimeji with cream sauce is delicious. The hot spring egg (basically a perfectly prepared soft-boiled egg also available on its own) added a richer dimension to the sauce. For a more Japanese twist, there are also spaghettis in sesame cream sauce.

Pasta Zanmai also serves its pasta in good old tomato sauce, of course. The eggplant and avocado in tomato sauce pasta was more than Japanese—it was like a Italian and Japanese with a hint of a California roll. The Asian side of the restaurant truly reveals itself with the pastas that are stir-fried and in soups. The clam pasta (RM25) comes in a very sweet and tasty broth.

Compared to some more dubious combinations of cuisine, this Japanese-Italian hybrid does work very well. The flavours are all familiar—pasta, miso, sesame and seaweed, for instance—but it’s been a while since eating the ubiquitous spaghetti been such fun.

Address G210B, Ground Flood Promenade, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, 1 Lebuh Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Train N/A Tel 03-7728 1210 Open 10am-10pm (Sun-Thurs), 10am-10.30pm (Fri-Sat) Cuisine Type Japanese/Italian (Halal) Price Range RM15-RM40 Credit Cards Master, Visa Smoking Yes Food 4/5 Service 4/5 Order this Japanese mushrooms in cream sauce, salmon sashimi with pasta Skip this N/A

Text Brian Yap