Some of the most delicious Japanese food in south Wales is available from a takeaway which operates from a house in Barry.
Ren Japanese Food is run by Yuko Harris, who originally hails from Tokyo but moved to Wales over 20 years ago with her husband and daughter.
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Yuko’s husband, who’s from Wales, used to teach English in Japan and that’s how they originally met.
"I was looking for an English teacher because I was just about to go to Australia to study abroad. He was a regular customer at my mum's restaurant and so she introduced me to him. She never ever imagined that we'd start going out. We've been married for 30 years now,” said Yuko.
Yuko’s passion for cooking is also something she has her mum to thank for.
"My mum was a cook, so I learned quite a lot from her without realising I enjoyed cooking.
"Her food wasn't fine dining, it was very much home cooking. She made generous portions that covered the whole table.
“My most popular dish is karaage, Japanese fried chicken, and that's a recipe from my mum. Also, we don't really make sushi very much in Japan; it's very much for special occasions. Sushi rolls are more the kind of thing we cook at home and I learnt how to make them from her too.”
Whilst Yuko is a teacher by profession, when she first moved to Wales she started working in the kitchen of Cardiff’s first Japanese restaurant, Izakaya, which was located in Cardiff Bay.
She found that people’s attitudes towards Japanese food at the time were very different.
"Twenty years ago Japanese food was still really alien and nobody knew what it was like. People thought Japanese food was raw food.”
Sadly, Izakaya closed soon after Yuko started working there, but it was a valuable experience.
“That gave me the inspiration that cooking was perhaps something I could do alongside my teaching job,” said Yuko.
Keen to turn her passion for cooking into something more than a hobby, she approached Kasim Ali, the owner of Waterloo Tea about the possibility of running a supper club in 2015.
"I asked Waterloo Tea because I think they were the first tea house to start selling Japanese tea. So, I went in and asked to speak to the owner Kas and he was so brilliant. I didn’t have any supper club experience but he trusted me and said go ahead and use our kitchen.”
Whilst her Japanese supper clubs were to become a big success, and a regular occurrence at Waterloo Tea, her first event wasn’t without its hiccups.
"I was too ambitious so I made a five or six course meal for about 40 people in this really tiny kitchen with only one or two hobs. I started to serve at seven o'clock and the main course was served at nearly 10 o'clock!”
It was as a result of Covid that Yuko’s supper clubs came to an end. But, keen to continue her cooking she set up a takeaway, Ren Japanese Food, which she runs from her home in Barry.
Open on Saturday evenings only, Yuko serves set meals which include sushi, katsu curry, miso salmon and Japanese-style fried chicken.
Yuko, who’s not much of a fan of social media, was encouraged by her daughter to get online and spread the word about her takeaway.
"My daughter was really keen for me to use social media, which I really hated. She said 'mum, you really have to use social media.’ So she set-up my Instagram account, took my photos and did everything. And she just started following everyone and that's how my name slowly started to spread by word of mouth.”
Ren Japanese Food has built up a loyal clientele over the last couple of years, but Yuko is happy to keep on opening her takeaway for just one night a week because she finds her day job so rewarding.
From Monday to Friday, Yuko teaches autistic children independent life skills, including cookery, at a Cardiff secondary school.
"Helping the children to be more independent through learning to cook is very important to me, more so than what I do on the weekend.”
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