Shanghai chefs' late-night bites

Brad Turley, Goga

The smell of fish and lemons permeates the air at Goga, where Brad Turley has been prepping his Cali-Asian-Mex line-up since 2 p.m. He's in a strip of show kitchen that is so narrow, it frames him like Styrofoam trays around a prize piece of toro. At 5:30 p.m. diners come in and leave their appetites in his hands.

At the end of the night, it's no wonder that Turley opts for something simple but tasty.

Lamenting the lack of after-hours Shanghai chef haunts in the city, Turley takes matters into his own pan when late nights cravings hit, whipping up a chirashi-style rice with slices of seared tuna.

Brad's Shanghai recipe: Torched tuna

Ingredients for main dish

• Fresh, sashimi-grade tuna (buy at the Japanese supermarket in Jing'an Temple Metro station)
• Salt
• Pepper
• A few drops of soybean oil

Ingredients for the rice

• Steamed rice
• Japanese Furikake (a rice seasoning made of assorted dried ingredients, including seaweed, sesame and dried bonito flakes)

Ingredients for the sauce

• A few heaped tablespoons of Coleman's mustard powder, with just enough drinking water to form a thick paste
• 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp of soy sauce
• ½ cup Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise, red label

Method

1. Season the tuna with the salt, pepper, soy bean oil.
2. In a very hot pan or with a butane torch, quickly sear the tuna on all four sides
3. Slice like sashimi
4. For the sauce, combine the mustard paste with rice wine vinegar and soy sauce. Add to the Kewpie mayo.
5. Serve the fish over your steamed rice, drizzle sauce and sprinkle furikake generously.