At a dining table transformed into a makeshift sushi station, slices of carrots, cucumbers and avocado are laid out beside bowls filled with dark sauces and pretty pink Gari (Japanese pickled ginger). The air is laced with a potent combination of aromas that tease the appetite — the fragrance of freshly-cooked sticky rice combined with undertones of soya and pickled ginger. It’s a complete sensorial treat — equivalent to a walk through a healing Zen garden.

With a bamboo mat laid out in front of him, Tikaram ‘Tikka’ Subbu, who learnt how to make Sushi at the now defunct Southeast-Asian cuisine lounge-bar Zenzi, nimbly wraps vegetables and meats into compact rolls, slicing these into eight equal-sized pieces. If you’ve tried your hand at making sushi, you know it’s not nearly as easy as he makes it seem. The man’s a veritable sushi samurai.