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.