If I win the lottery I might stop by when I visit – until then, I may never make it to Japan so you are my virtual guide!

Hello Arun, Yes, I have pan seared before. I finally got this torch a few days ago. Previously I have seared fish two ways. One is to put it in the freezer for 30-60 minutes then sear it in an extremely hot pan, then plunge into ice water. The other way is to sear it over the open flame of our gas range. That works ok, but it doesn’t get hot enough to sear it properly. The oil in the fish kind of turns sooty and sticks to the fish flesh. Most of it washes off when it is plunged into ice water, but the sooty taste does remain. So, I would say that the torch is the best method (but you do need a more powerful flame than you might expect, a propane torch, the kind plumbers use, from a hardware store ought to work), next best would be searing in a smoking hot pan.