happiness & texts

Yesterday was my birthday, and from 6:30am the text messages started arriving . . . thank you to my family & friends for the birthday greetings . . . especially my mom who, as usual, woke me up on my birthday.

And as per tradition, Malc planned and plotted a surprise dinner. The chosen restaurant was actually the restaurant that started the birthday tradtion, I surprised Malc to this restaurant several years go. Without further ado, I present my birthday dinner . . . at Yoshii Restaurant (115 Harrington street, Sydney 2000, ph +61) 02 9247 2566).

Appetiser: Cuttlefish marinated with white miso, Deep fried Japanese taro & chicken mince, Daily fish Nanbanzuke wrapped with potato mousse and Duck foie gras and kelp seaweed tsukudani



Zucchini flower tempura filled with cuttlefish mousse with cuttlefish ink salt



Milk fed veal sashimi served with forest mushroom dressing


Spanner crab mousse wrapped with long net mushroom in edamame bonino



Slowly braised wagyu beef cheek in red miso and red wine



Sushi



Dessert (mine): Mascapone



Dessert (Dr Malc): Smoked ice cream

staple diet

Our last meals in Tokyo were the most traditional. For dinner, we met up with good friend David and his wife Shima who we met for the first time. Dave & Shima took us to the sushi restaurant on top of of Shibuya 109, quite a popular place for young Tokyoites.

When Dave asked where we wanted dinner, I told him I wanted to go to a cheap but good kaiten sushi, where Dave & Shima took us was a new-style sushi restaurant, Shitsune (Level 8, Shibuya 109, 2-29-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, ph +81 3-3477-5111).

The ordering process was most interesting, we were given a few sheets of paper containing a list of sushi dishes and we wrote how many number of plates of the dishes we wanted. So, instead of the dishes going around in conveyor belts, our sushi dishes were "made-to-order". And each of our dishes were incredibly delicious, we kept ordering and ordering and ordering and between the 4 of us we probable ate more than 100 pieces of sushi.

Of course it was fantastic to catch up with Dave and meet his wife, and we happily recounted old war (kendo) stories as well as keeping up on what has been happening since Dave moved to Tokyo.

The next day, Dr Malc had to go to work, so I was left to do some sight-seeing and omiyage shopping. After a trip to Burberry in Ginza to procure the goods my friends asked me to get for them, I went back to Ebisu and explored the neighborhood. I was absolutely thrilled to find the Tokyo shop of Maison Martin Margiela and did some hip designer clothes browsing.

Further on, on the same street was a small ramen shop, Yottekoya Ramen (2-3-15 Minami Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, ph +81 3 5725 1030). Since it was past lunch time I went in for some food. And, when my bowl of chashumen arrived, it was absolutely heavenly. Instead of just plain dry roasted pork, what rested on the bowl were freshly grilled, marinated pieces of pork. The broth was thick and full-flavoured. Lastly, the ramen noodles, which was thinner than the ones we get in Sydney, was perfectly al dente (if ramen noodles can be described as al dente). Wow!

our local

When Malc & I moved to Sydney, one of our first tasks was finding our "local Japanese." In Canberra, we normally troop to our 2 favourite Japanese restaurants, Tasuke for quick and affordable feed or Iori for special events.

So, we were overjoyed when we discovered Akaneya (28 King Street, Sydney NSW 2009 ph. 02 9279 1141). This restaurant has the familiar feeling of the small family owned restaurants we used to frequent in Urasa. So, after our first meal there, this became our "local."

Tonight, we were once again in our "local" to have our favourites. I had chirashi sushi don, the freshest pieces of kingfish, salmon and tuna with grilled eel, omelette and a prawn, all on a bed of lightly vinegared rice. Absolutely delicious!

Malc had yakisoba, a peppery concoction of soba noodles with vegetables, chicken, eggs and pickles. It reminded him of picnics in Japan.

After our meal, we walked home with a feeling of quite contentment.

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.