tenno heika ~ banzai ! ! !

December 23 is the birthday of Emperor Akihito of Japan, and earlier this month, Malc & I were invited to His Majesty's birthday celebrations at the residence of the Consul General in Sydney.

The Consul's residence is in the posh suburb of Darling Point with the back garden and pool overlooking the harbour. Quite a number of the guests where already there when we arrived . . . diplomats, bureaucrats and other "friends of Japan." Drink in hand, Malc and I did the rounds looking for familiar faces when we bumped into Brian and Miko from the Canadian Consulate. After a quick catch up, announcements were made that the speeches were about to begin.

The Consul General gave an interesting speech on some historical aspects of the Japan-Australia relations, like the first Japanese immigrant to try out rice cultivation in Australia. But what caught everyone's attention was his announcement that genuine Japanese Wagyu beef (rather redundant, wa=Japan and gyu=beef) and dried shiitake mushrooms have been imported specially for the occassion. I'm not sure about the other guests, but all I could think of after that was the buffet table being set up beside the pool.

Finally the speeches were over and off we trooped to the table. The line was a bit long, with some guests chosing to hover over the table causing delays in the queue. Good thing I was rescued from eternal anticipation by Rick, the Consul General of Canada, who was excellent in getting us through the queue.

True to what Consul General Kawada said, the wagyu sushi absolutely melted in one's mouth. Malc was a big fan of the rehydrated shiitake mushroom sushi, the soft, fleshy texture and understated flavour was quite surprising. And of course there were the other favourites: sashimi, nigiri sushi, chirashi sushi, karaage, nikujaga, potato croquette and lots more . . . all prepared by the Consul General's personal chef.

Malc and I were absolutely in heaven and would have done a second round of the buffet but we had to head back to the city for the screening of 'Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,' which turned out to be one of our favourites from this year's Japanese Film Festival.

double take

A few weeks ago, I took Malc & Khariss out to celebrate my new job. Khariss was the one who told me about the job opening, which turned out to be a dream job! So, to thank her, we headed off for one of the best Japanese restaurants in town . . . Azuma (Chifley Plaza 2 Chifley Sq Sydney ph (02) 9222 9960)

Reading through the menu, Malc could not contain his excitement . . . "white fish with chilli ponzu sauce, white fish with chilli Ponzu sauce" he kept repeating, as if in a trance. So, with not much choice, white fish with chili Ponzu sauce was first on the list. No wonder this is Malc's favourite, the sweet flavour of the fish first hits the taste buds and then the hot/spicy sauce kicks in creating an explosion on the palate.

Next we had the special sushi platter consisting of tuna, salmon, salmon belly, salmon roe, prawn, scampi, scallop, oyster, eel and white fish. The sushi were all first rate, the fish were incredibly fresh and sweet. Malc's description of the scallop sushi was "the flavours of the ocean exploding in your mouth."

Next we had seafood and vegetable tempura, served with a dipping sauce and a set of Tempura salts. The dipping salts were rather interesting, we had a choice of regular salt, curry salt and green tea salt. This dish probably scarred Khariss for life, let me explain. There is tempura and there is TEMPURA, the latter being the freshest fish and vegetables, perfectly coated with thin, light and fluffy batter. And, by experiencing exquisite tempura, Khariss will no longer look at any old tempura (oily and thickly battered ones) the same way.

Then we had the luxurious wagyu beef steak with Azuma’s garlic soy sauce. This was incredibly tasty, the beef just melted in your mouth and the sauce was pefectly balanced, just a little bit salty and a littly bit garlicy, if we were in a not so classy restaurant, I would have poured every last bit of the sauce onto my rice.

We were pleasantly contented . . . but there were desserts to try. Malc begged off and only had coffee, but us girls were not about to miss the best looking desserts ever. Khariss had caramel ice cream affogatto with cigarette cookies, the best she ever had. I had green tea cake, and it was the best I ever had, too.

Azuma was so good, that Malc & I kept talking about the sushi the next day, and the next day . . . and three days later we were back re-living and re-tasting our Azuma experience.