Interview with Seigo Nakamura

What is your inspiration for Miku?
I want to use very traditional techniques and styles. But as a business strategy – innovate and do something different.

What do you cook?
I love to cook everything! My job is company management but cooking is my hobby. I like to cook for my family and my partners and employees and invite them to my home. Chinese, Japanese, Italian…everything.


What is your advice for people that starting to cook home?
Don’t be afraid to take on the challenges. You’ll make food that tastes bad sometimes. You have to keep cooking and learn and work at it. There will always be people who will eat your food, so don’t worry if it tastes bad.
You should enjoy it. Enjoy is best!

What is your favourite tool in the kitchen?
My hands. My hand is very very important…

What’s next?
We will be opening another restaurant in North America by end of this year.

Chicken Nanban

From our talk with Chef Takuya and Seigo Nakamura, I learned that sushi is not commonly eaten in most Japanese households but only saved for special occasions. I wanted to learn more about what is cooked at home in Japan. Miku features a common comfort food dish from the Miyazaki prefecture called chicken nanban. It’s deep fried chicken served with different sauces like tartare or mayonnaise-based sauce which can be found everywhere in Japan and Vancouver. The Chefs informed me that what makes the Miku one special is that the chicken nanban is marinated after it is fried. Also, it helps that Tora Corporation comes from Miyazaki where it is their featured regional cuisine.

Miku Secrets

Sauces are important at Miku and also a secret. The unique thing about eating sushi at Miku is that the pieces are seasoned enough that you don’t need to use soy sauce or wasabi. We could not get our hands on the special Miku sauce recipe which is found on many of their dishes. Seigo informed us that he came up with the sauce by accident when trying to make something else. They can tell us the ingredients but the process of making the sauce takes special care and effort. Even at the restaurant, not all the chefs know how to make the sauce.




Another closely kept secret at Miku (and all other Japanese restaurants and households) is the Rice. I noticed that the rice texture at Miku is very different from other restaurants and asked about it.

Our sushi rice is very traditional. The method has been passed down from generation to generation. It doesn’t change and only a few of the chefs know the exact recipe. The amount of water, the amount of time, the temperature – everything has been calculated and done like we do so in Japan.We get the rice directly from Japan which is more expensive but it’s such an important component of our sushi. It’s so special that not everyone here is allowed to cook it.

I found a great blog post on how to make rice like the Japanese do and it sure is way more time consuming than making Uncle Ben’s minute rice. There’s a lot of time and care taken to soak and clean the rice. I asked Chef Takuya if they get Shinmai (newly harvested rice) but he said that it’s not the only factor in making good rice and does not necessarily make the best tasting rice.

One more not so secret recipe for success at Miku are the fresh ingredients. Miku participates in Ocean Wise and indicates which fish is Ocean Wise certified on their menu. They also get fresh fish right from the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo! If only we could get such fresh fish at home…