First Day of 2012 + Nine Fine Food

So it’s the ninth day of 2012 and I’m finally finding some time to blog about the first few days of the new year.

2012  started with a giant bowl of char siew ramen from Dokusui in Freo. Just how the boys like it.

WA Maritime museum at sunset. We didn’t actually visit the musuem, it wasn’t open anyway. But this was our fishing ground! We ended up with 30 mackerels and even some crabs. It’s so odd to think that Christmas Day and New Year Day was spent fishing, and I don’t even fish during the year!

A week later R and I were in Nine Fine Food for my early birthday celebration. We chose Nine Fine Food because I love Japanese food and I’ve been wanting to try this place for ages. We both decided on the four course set menu, R’s first entree was the goose mousse which was foie gras mousse with tobiko caviar. It was also our favourite dish of the night, gorgeous taste of foie gras and I love the crunch of tobiko, yums.

Apologies for the bad photos in advance. It was a very dim restaurant and we didn’t do the food any justice with blurry photos. My entree was the Sashimi Nine Style which included squid, salmon, tuna etc. The sashimi wasn’t too impressive, but I’ve never been very impressed with the quality of sashimi in Perth. Otherwise I liked all the sauces on the squid, the prawn, very moreish.

R’s 2nd course was the Lamb and Scallop (picture too blurry so not up) which was marinated grilled sliced lamb round steak, blended spiced miso braised lamb shoulder, seared scallop with balsamic, soy & truffle oil dressing. The lamb was very tender and flavourful, scallop was pretty good but not outstanding.

My 2nd course was the Kinocho Caviar Pasta. More caviar for me please!I was really surprised at the taste of this pasta, it felt oddly familiar, like the rice wine chicken soup that we have for Chinese New Year, but there was this creamy and rich texture to it which must have been cream. The mushrooms were silky and lovely, giving it that extra Asian flavour. I loved the extra tobiko crunch too. Now looking back at the menu description, it says sake rice wine cream sauce, so my guess was right. This was pretty heavy so I felt quite full afterwards.

My main was The Land which was a special of the night and consisted of all things meat. There was lamb cutlet, lamb steak, beef tenderloin steak and pork belly. The pork belly wasn’t as tender as I would have liked it to be and not very well spiced. Beef tenderloin steak was tender. In fact, besides the pork belly, everything else was very flavourful to the extent that I found it slightly too salty, heavy, I think everything would have tasted great with a bowl of rice

Blurry pic again R’s main was also a special, Oceans East which included all things from the sea. There was unagi (eel) which was nice, barramuni in miso and soft shell crab. We were most impressed with the soft shell crab which was lightly battered and crunchy but not in the overly deep fried sort of way that you get at many Chinese restaurants.

Final course of the night, I had a green tea brulee which tasted nice (strong green tea flavours) but texture wise was a bit lacking. R’s tiramisu was a surprise as it didn’t come out looking anything like tiramisu, but it sure tasted like one and was very nice with strong coffee flavours, very refreshing.

Overall we had a really good time at Nine Fine Food! In terms of the food there were hits and misses but I had lots of fun trying everything and like the idea of modern Japanese ‘fine dining’. Plus service was good and that’s a definite plus for me.

Nine Fine Food
227 Bulwer Street Highgate
Tel (08) 9227 999
BYO, corkage $3.50 pp

4 more days till Jo, HC and I fly home, but who’s counting? I’ve been cooking up a storm over the past few days and freezing everything. I don’t know why I think R will be starving when I’m not around, he is actually a pretty good cook and was functioning perfectly well before he met me. I think it’s really because I feel sorry for him that he’s alone this Chinese New Year and food is my soothing balm for everything.

I wish it was Friday already …..

Sushi Fuji Station is back!

I can’t remember whether I’ve ever blogged about the dearly departed Sushi Fuji Station. I have fond memories of this little gem in Victoria Park, always popular and buzzing with patrons,we used to snag seats by the sushi bar and watch the chef at work while sipping on a glass of wine, enjoying bowls of yummy udon and soba.

To our surprise, Sushi Fuji Station suddenly closed down for no obvious reason and we could never find such a good, conveniently located Japanese restaurant again.

But Sushi Fuji Station has returned! Only this time it’s named Buen 151 and has shifted to St James. Not too far away at all. The menu is still the same except for the new addition of ramen. Buen’s ramen is heavy on the pepper and tasty, I liked how they managed to get the half boiled egg right, lots of Perth ramen stalls seem to get that wrong.

Jo was happy that her favourite nabeyaki udon was still on the menu. This piping hot udon is a good dish to have on a cold winter night

This sushi was quite interesting in the sense that it had fish powder in it. Buen’s sushi may not the best sushi in Perth but it’s always consistent.

My favourite soba is still on the menu! This soba wasn’t cold enough but still as yummy as I remembered it last. I love soba (*__*).

We’ve already been to Buen a few times since we rediscovered it. I think it’s going to be a comfortable favourite again.

Buen 151
26B Chapman Rd Map
St James, WA 6102

Our visit to Buen inspired the homemade chirashi dinner that weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve made my tamagoyaki rolls and happily they still taste good! I feel like eating this again …

Sapporo

Sapporo is located along my homebound train line. During my train journeys home, I would look out of the train and stare at the white dilapidated building with the big Sapporo sign and think ‘I wonder what that’s like?’

Turns out it’s like going back to many many years ago. It  reminded me of the tiny smoky diner that we had lunch at in Kyoto. The bad ventilation and oily atmosphere permeates this little shop too. The old Japanese ojisan and obasan man the little shop by themselves, the cute uncle is in charge of the cooking while aunty deals with the customers. She prattled to us happily in Japanese until she noticed our half embarrassed and perplexed expressions, then she laughed and apologised.

The food is a little slow, but worth the wait. I’ve never had an agedashi tofu with clear broth before. This broth was very tasty and a little too salty but perfect with rice.

My sisters and I love korokke (croquette) and this one was gorgeous. It was the best korokke I’ve had in Perth , crispy on the outside, yummy and delicately flavoured mashed potato on the inside. I would order this again and again.

Can’t go to a Japanese restaurant without trying the ramen. This was the shoyu ramen. I asked R for comments for the blog, he said two words ‘hao chi’ (meaning yummy!). They also have butter corn ramen on their menu, a Hokkaido specialty apparently, can’t wait to try that.

I loved Sapporo. Yes, the oily atmosphere wasn’t great, the little shop was dilapidated and shabby. But the cute aunty and uncle, the homemade style food was comforting and reminded me of the Japan that I visited in 2010. I really hope to return to wonderful Japan someday, but for the meantime, Sapporo will do (^__^).

Victoria Park
186 Rutland Ave
Carlisle, 6101

Baking of the week was pandan and coconut milk muffins. Muffins with a Malaysian twist.

Oyster sauce beef noodles.

I used up the last of my mum’s rempah to make this curry. It was so nice and I am now so sad that I don’t have my mum’s rempah anymore. Sigh…. .

Two more days to the weekend …

New ramen find! Kai @ Bullcreek

I’m always interested when I find a Japanese restaurant in Perth that serves ramen and it is almost always a must order for Richard the Ramen King.

I am still hard pressed to find a really good Japanese restaurant in Perth, maybe someday I’ll try the big restaurants like Ha-Lu or Satsuki which I’ve heard good things about, but so far, the places that I keep returning to are the little Japanese restaurants that seat about 20 patrons max e.g. Sushi Fuji Station (I think it has closed down! so sad ), Kanta etc. I like the intimacy and authenticity of these little shops where the cooking is usually a one man show.

Kai is another such place and my newly discovered Japanese ‘little restaurant’. They don’t take bookings and possibly have around 5 tables in the entire space. Their menu listed the usual favourites, the teriyaki dishes, beef tataki, unagi, agedashi tofu etc. Best of all, Kai serves ramen! And not just plain soy or miso ramen, they serve tonkatsu ramen too, how exciting. For less than $10, this big bowl of tonkatsu ramen was great for Perth standards, the pork broth was flavourful, they made a pretty good attempt at a half boiled egg, there was sliced pork (pity it wasn’t fatty pork but lean pork) pickled ginger and fungus strips in the broth and the ramen was real ramen (we had been fobbed off with instant noodles disguising themselves as ramen in the past). Not bad at all, now I’m going to return to try their miso and soy based ramen.

Maggie had the unadon which was not bad and not too sweet. I like unagi so much that I usually like most unadons.

I was wondering whether to try the more exciting things on the menu like grilled mackerel or octopus, but couldn’t go past the teriyaki fish set (came with miso soup and rice). When you cook lots of teriyaki dishes yourself, you get really curious how other ppl make their teriyaki sauce. This fish set came with a giant side salad which was nice and refreshing, the fish itself was freshly fried thus making it warm and crispy on the outside, flaky and oily on the inside, yums.I think I still prefer the teriyaki sauce at Kanta’s, but this one was not bad at all.

The california sushi that we ordered to share wasn’t cut very prettily, but was tasty, the sushi rice was nicely seasoned with a nice not too sticky bouncy texture.

Overall we had a really nice dining experience at Kai and will definitely return to try more ramen and other dishes .

Kai
Shop 4/110 Parry Avenue, Bull Creek
Bull Creek, 6149

Our Melbourne long weekend

It started with a late night flight out to Melbourne.

A stolen snapshot from the runway. Tiger Airways btw, is terrible for domestic flights. I still slept most of the way to Melbourne, I was that tired.

First morning was all about Queen Victoria market which was located right opposite our hotel.

Loved the market, it was huge, had rows and rows of butcher shops displaying their fresh meat beautifully, cheese and dairy products, pastries, fruit and veggie stalls, everything, it was a feast for the eyes and lover of fresh produce.

The rest of the morning was spent discovering city streets and hunting for our hidden Japanese restaurant Yu-u. Like entering into Aladdin’s cave, the very bare door led the way to the secret basement below which wowed us with their posh and dim interior.

The lunch bento itself wasn’t bad at all. Mingling amongst the business crowd  swirling their wine glasses, I felt like an imposter watching a show.

A very quick power nap and it was dressing up for R’s birthday dinner at Maze, Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant located in Crown Metropol. Dinner was exciting, impressive and fun.

2nd day started with exploring Chinatown and eating yummy ramen for breakfast and lunch!

Watching street performances in the city.

Melbourne is great because they have MENTAIKO onigiri!!!!!!!!!

Spot the couple exploring the Melbourne Convention center.

We finally find the DFO (Direct Factory Outlet)!

We love the free City Circle trams.

Late night dinner along Lygon Street, Melbourne’s famous Italian restaurant strip. I loved the lively atmosphere of the street and the city in general after dark. It is warm and alive, unlike the dead city of Perth after 5pm. We need extended trading hours, really.

Gorgeous tortellini tartufo at Tiamo 2, the soft tortellini was filled with fresh ricotta in a gorgeous creamy mushroom and truffle sauce, it was lovely.

A cold and rainy stroll to Melbourne Central for a late night movie.

Day 3 was luscious and tasty raw beef and beef tendon pho at Mekong along Swanston Street.

Drinking in the city sights and stopping by the Melbourne institution Pelligrini’s bar.

I wish I had space for their very rustic looking spaghetti bolognese but had to settle for coffee and a slice of tiramisu.

The trip wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to the Eureka Tower for a 360 degrees view of Melbourne.

View of Melbourne from the 88th floor.

Suddenly the sky cleared up and a rainbow appeared!

It was goodbye Melbourne but not complete without a sushi takeaway for dinner. We spotted so many sushi takeaways throughout the trip, we had to end with a box for dinner.

R bought an entire Strawberry Gateau cake for our farewell dessert! And he ate it all too (^__^). There was something really special and fun about huddling behind the Hudsons (their coffee chain store in Melbourne) cafe in the airport and eating a cake out of the box with plastic forks.

Arrival at Perth was a bit of a drama when Gerry’s car broke down and there was a spot of car pushing at 2.30am in the morning. I must say the traffic warden at the airport really enjoyed himself.

Monday was spent sleeping and sleeping with a homecooked steak and mash dinner. Melbourne was an eye opener, really fun and lovely, but being home ain’t so bad too.

2nd day in Osaka: Our first sakuras at Himeiji Castle, okonomiyaki and mentaiko

By demand (actually only one request, and that’s from my sister who went to Japan too -__-”) I bring you the 2nd Japan post!

It was our 2nd day in Osaka but also our first ‘full’ day in the Land of the Rising Sun. Only it didn’t feel very sunny at all because despite being spring, it was pretty chilly in Japan.

We stopped for a bit of breakfast before heading on our long train ride to the Himeiji Castle. Choco cro wasn’t planned (unlike a lot of our other meals, my sister is a great planner and fantastic foodie), the popular bakery chainstore  just looked warm and inviting and already I was craving coffee. Turns out, their coffee wasn’t very good but their baked goods and croissants were yummy! I had a strawberry croissant which was warm, sweet, flaky and crispy, very nice. I like Japanese pastries, especially Mister Donut  (T___T) which is non-existent in Perth.

The train journey to Himeiji castle was quite long but I didn’t feel it because I dozed along all the way. Throughout the ride we pointed out at sakura trees dotted throughout the neighbourhood, little did we know, those little trees would soon pale in comparison once we saw the sakuras at Himeiji castle. Did I mention that my sister named our travel itinerary (yes she made one up! very professional too, my mother was memorising it and referring to it every day like a travel bible, hilarious) the Sakura viewing trip?  This Japan holiday was really about the sakuras.

And how pretty they were at the Himeiji castle.

Everywhere. Sakura petals floating in the air. Sakura petals all over the grass. Sakura trees waving gently in the breeze. Sing along with me ‘sakura .. sakura ..’ Hahahaha. Pink blossoms everywhere. Jo went into sakura fever immediately.  Once we walked into the grounds of the Himeiji castle, she went ‘WAAAAAH’ and ran towards the trees and sat on the grass with sakuras surrounding her. I wish I could show you the video, but that’s how we all felt, or at least I felt. Like ‘waaaaaaaaaaaah’.

If you were contemplating about going to Japan for cherry blossom viewing *looks meaningfully at Wendy* , these pictures don’t do the sakuras justice (btw, should mention that any pretty pictures are probably all taken by Jan, my sister)

Japanese people were picnicking under the sakura trees, I think they call it ‘hanami,  meaning flower viewing, what a nice spot to ‘flower view’ don’t you think?

Himeiji castle was really very pretty, the castle itself creating a beautiful and majestic backdrop to the sakura trees. I think we took about a million pictures here. But I didn’t know then that we would take EVEN MORE pictures once we got to the sakura viewing at the Osaka mint. Maybe because the cherry blossoms season is so short (they only bloom for about 1 – 2 weeks), so pretty and so treasured by the Japanese people, we were totally swept up in the cherry blossom viewing and sakura fever. It was fantastic and so fun.

After all the flowers it was time for food. It was late in the afternoon, we walked around the shopping centre not knowing what to choose or where to eat. In the end we settled for soba, buckwheat noodles. While I’m not a noodle person, I really like soba a lot. It just seems so simple and easy to eat, I especially love eating cold soba dipped in tsuyu sauce, light and tasty.

Mine came in a set with tempura. It wasn’t outstanding, but still very nice. I finished my portion of soba easily.

A lot of friends and colleagues who know that I’ve been to Japan ask me ‘are the portions very small?’ Maybe because Japanese food here is rather expensive and of smaller portions, everyone expects Japanese food to be of tiny portions. My answer to their question, have a look at Jo’s spring soba set! It had everything, soba noodles in soup, rice, pickles, tempura and dessert, a jelly of some sort.

I can’t remember what we did after our late lunch. It’s possible that we went shopping which we did quite a bit (^___^). Sigh sigh Shinsaibashi ….. I miss shopping in Japan, I haven’t bought a thing since I’ve been back in Perth, somehow everything looks grey and drab, or maybe that’s just me.

I finally remember what we had for dinner, thanks to my mum who reminded me in the comments. We had the Osaka famous okonomiyaki! Jan will have to tell you which shop we actually went to for okonomiyaki, obviously it was a well researched popular okonomiyaki specialised restaurant which she chose well in advance. Because the okonomiyaki was yums …

In Perth, we hardly see okonomiyaki on the menu, sometimes it’s there as a ‘starter’, a little Japanese pancake made of flour batter, cabbage etc. and includes condiments such as pork, or seafood, kimchi etc. But okonomiyaki in Osaka is serious business, they have restaurants specialising in this grilled/panfried pancake, serving a variety of creative versions and styles. I remember we tried kimchi, prawn..

These ones came with noodles, called a modanyaki. Everything was really delicious. I love okonomiyaki topped with generous servings of okonomiyaki sauce and mayonaise.

But okonomiyaki isn’t perfect until you add the all  important toppings of aonori (seaweed flakes) and bonito flakes, then it’s perfect!

On the way back to the hotel, we tried another Osaka famous specialty, takoyaki (tako balls, octopus balls)  at one of the popular red devil stalls. It wasn’t the best we had in Osaka, I’ll blog about that when we talk about the takoyaki musuem (quite paiseh and yet proud that we went to all these foodie musuems, hehe).

That’s all you had? And you call yourself a foodie? I hear you ask. Of course we didn’t stop there. No night stroll or dinner around the Dotonbori area was complete without our final stops at our favourite combini stores, there was Family Mart which stocked Jan’s favourite coconut fruit jellies, and Lawsons which was conveniently located right opposite our hotel. It was there that I bought my first onigiri and started my life long love affair with mentaiko.

According to Wikipedia, mentaiko is marinated roe of pollock, meaning marinated fish roe/eggs. Sounds gross? You don’t know what you’re missing. It’s slightly spicy, salty and so so so tasty. Wrapped up in a rice ball with seaweed, it is really really nice.. sigh. really nice. After that, Jan and I sort of went on a mentaiko everything hunt, we ate mentaiko snacks (remember those round rice cracker things Jan? So nice hor), mentaiko pasta, I didn’t bother buying any other types of onigiri except mentaiko onigiri.

Come to think of it, I even bought one to eat on the flight home. My last mentaiko. (T____________T).

Ok lah, this blog is depressing, I miss sakuras, okonomiyakis and mentaiko already!! Time to sign out .. stay tuned for Day 3, I think we’re going to Kyoto for a philosopher’s walk and an unforgettable ‘smokin’ lunch, hahaha.

First day in Osaka : Dotonbori & 130 yen conveyor belt sushi

Our trip to Japan started from our transit point in Hongkong where Jo and I met up with my parents. My mum gave me a prettily wrapped present, guess what was inside?

Yummy St.Honore bakery eggtarts which she bought from outside the terminal, yum yum yum, I love Hongkong eggtarts. The holiday was off to a good start.

By the time we arrived in Osaka, it was late afternoon. We travelled by train to reach our hotel which was located in the famous entertainment district of Namba. I just read that Namba has Japan’s best food culture ‘Kuidaore’ meaning  ‘eat till you drop’ , now I know why my foodie sis chose Namba as our hotel spot, excellent choice Jan!

We were located on Dontonbori which is a fantastic area filled with eateries and lots of shopping. Sigh.. I miss Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi, our favourite shopping arcade in Osaka. The giant moving crab billboard of the crab restaurant Kani Doraku is a famous landmark in Osaka. We actually had a crab meal at Kani Doraku a few days later but that’s a whole other post.

The first night of walking the streets of Dotonbori was  so exciting, there were lights everywhere, people, so many cute things to see and things to eat. We couldn’t stop snapping photos and pointing excitedly at everything and anything.

My father’s first meal in Japan was ramen of course. Both he and my brother in law bought their ramen via vending machine outside the stall, this is pretty common in Japan and very convenient too.

It wasn’t the best ramen we had in Japan but better than anything to be had in Perth or England. My father was satisfied.

There’s something comforting about eating piping hot ramen out in the open by the street on a chilly night. I wish we had nice outdoor ramen restaurants around Perth, I would love popping into one during a cold winter night and having a huge bowl of ramen, ahhh…

The rest of us girls didn’t have ramen because we were hanging out for something even better. First meal in Japan? Sushi of course! And fantastic, fresh, 130 yen for all plates conveyor belt sushi too. 130 yen is around $1.50 AUD, I was expecting food in Japan to be expensive, so  was pleasantly surprised at how cheap and affordable the sushi was. Best of all, it was so good, the quality of the sushi, the fish and seafood was fresh and wonderful, the range available was wide and plentiful, there were many things on display that I had never seen or tried before.

One of the highlights was raw horsemeat, my sister dared me to try it and I *gulp* did. It was interesting. But I wouldn’t try it again. It felt very raw, didn’t taste very strong of anything in particular but I kept thinking ‘I’m eating raw horse’, so it didn’t go down very well. I had to gulp lots of strong green tea after swallowing.

The maguro toro (tuna belly) was very very good, best tuna I’ve ever had, so fresh and just gorgeous.

Usually if we have conveyor belt sushi in Singapore or Australia, we look out for raw salmon sushis most of all. But in this shop, we didn’t even bother with the normal salmon sushis but only ate salmon toro (salmon belly) instead, why settle for average salmon cuts when you can have delicious, melt in the mouth salmon belly instead? Best of all, everything was only 130 yen!

Oiishi sushi of such gorgeous quality that was amazingly affordable and so fun to eat (I love conveyor belt sushi, what to pick, what to pick..), what a great way to start our holiday in Japan.

Maggie comes to town

Last weekend Richard’s younger sister  Maggie came to Perth so we had a whirlwind tour of Perth during the weekend.I think we managed to capture the highlights of Perth pretty well in that short span of time but Maggie must be suffering from indigestion now because we ate and ate and ate ( = ^ ^ = )

Dinner started with our favourite Italian in town, Ciao Italia. We ordered the usual suspects, the risotto marinara, chilli mussels, but I tried a new dish at Ciao this time, the penne alla vodka which wasn’t as good as Il Ciao’s but still very tasty. It was a case of over ordering again so we had to ‘dapao’ quite a few things home at the end of dinner, but everyone still had space for a bit of tiramisu.

It was still light out when dinner was over so we headed over to Kings Park and UWA for a bit of photo taking. I always like it when people say that my alma mater is very pretty because it’s possibly one of my favourite places in Perth, besides Matilda Bay of course.

Day 2 Richard had to work so Jo and I brought Maggie out for a spot of shopping at Harbourtown. Perth was going through a heatwave then, it was so hot that all of us were kinda listless and tired. Luckily Japanese food at Hanami perked us up a bit and the guys all enjoyed their bento boxes. Brought Maggie to Burswood for some gambling but mostly we just took photos and basked in the atmosphere of whistling bells and chiming token machines.

The heat wave reached a peak on Sunday but the heat didn’t stop us from visiting the Fremantle sea port. This was the day where we over ate because we kept trying to hide in coffee shops, ice cream shops, any place with air conditioning . There wasn’t a cloud in the sky but it was so hot that even fish and chips were unappealing No one had much of an appetite but I did enjoy my usual soft cone twist.

We couldn’t go back without stopping by the famous Cottlesloe beach. But everyone in Perth had the same idea to go to the beach on that day and it was hard to find parking. I don’t understand why people flock to the beach on summer days, it’s still hot! I pretty much gave up by then and cowered under my umbrella while the brave sister and brother took photos around the Indiana Tea House.

No one had much of an appetite for dinner but S & T Thai Gourmet saved the day with their yummy curries, sweet and sour salads and sticky rice. Most importantly, they had strong air conditioning.

Monday it was back to work for Richard and I, Calv dropped Maggie in the city and I met up with her for lunch. Then it was dinner at home where Richard cooked scotch fillet steaks with sweet potato mash. My contribution was a new recipe of tofu topped with ricotta cheese, basil, bonito flakes, sesame seeds and drizzled with  a sweet sauce. Interesting combination which I would try again.

It was a very hot four days but I enjoyed showing Maggie around, she’s a cute girl with lots of funny lame jokes with mannerisms that are surprisingly similar to her brother’s. Hopefully it won’t be so hot the next time she visits Perth!

Shop till you Drop

I’m back in Kuching! I haven’t had my first kolo mee yet but I did have fried kolo mee for dinner.

Singapore was really fun, the itinerary ran like this ‘ eat, shop, shop, put down shopping bags in hotel, go out again, eat, shop’.

What did I eat? Chicken rice. And I mean every single day.

I also ate Breadtalk pork floss buns. Every single night. Why can’t they have bread talk in Perth? Why?? Or really good chicken rice, or chwee kueh, or Gindako takoyaki…

Or really fresh sashimi. This sashimi was melt in the mouth good.

For my last meal in Singapore, I requested that we have old fashion kopi with kaya and butter toast and soft boiled eggs. My mum really enjoyed her kopi and said it reminded her of her childhood where her grandmother made her this for breakfast everyday. The kopi-o is as far removed from Velvet flat whites as possible, but  so fragrant and gorgeous in its own way.

It’s so nice to be back in Kuching. One of the first things I did was visit my grandparents which was so nice and yet sad in a way because they’ve grown so so old. My grandmother was delightfully predictable, saying the same things ‘mama ju lao ju eh, lu ju lai ju guang’ (grandmother gets shorter as i grow older, wheras you’re growing taller and taller). She also told me that I could afford to cut off some of my long hair because it ‘eats blood’ which is something she says every year. (^____^).

So far the holiday has been fantastic. But I have a phone interview tomorrow (T___T). The last time I had a phone interview in Kuching, last year there was a thunderstorm and the electricity went out so I had my interview in darkness. Surely it won’t go as badly this year? *fingers cross* Wish me luck ok? Because I really need it!

Ok I shall be good and try and read my notes for the interview tomorrow, goodbye and good night from Kuching!

The Grey Hoodie Boy Part 10 : Dinner at Seizan

I was the first person at work today.

I walked into the office and it was all darkness. Since I brought my camera today, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the empty office. The weather was terrible today, raining heavily and strong buffeting winds.

My favourite  ledge in the lunchroom, I like sitting there chatting to T while she makes her cup of tea and drinking my glass of water. But T wasn’t at work today, she’s off sick, so  it was a very busy, hectic work day with no friendly colleagues around (-___-).

I wanted to shop around the city before meeting up with Grey Hoodie Boy, but I only managed to leave work late and was rushing to meet him on time. Luckily he was off work late as well. We walked to Seizan together. Seizan is Grey Hoodie’s Boy top three favourite restaurant in Perth, in fact, he told me that he only went there last week. I thought it was interesting that he booked us for seats at the teppanyaki joint instead of a normal table, he told me that he had never tried the teppanyaki there so thought it would be special.

He greeted the chef in Japanese but he was from Malaysia (=^^=), in fact, from Kuching! Still, he was a very skilled chef and entralled us with his skills and twirly utensils. Really fun to watch.

Grey Hoodie Boy ordered as a Seizan Teppanyaki set each ($65) which in hindsight we should have just ordered one set to share because there was so much food. First up was the simple salad which was light and vinegary, a real eye opener.

Tempura with sweet potato, pumpkin and prawn. I thought the tempura wasn’t great because the vegetables weren’t tender enough, but the batter was light so that was quite good.

Sashimi which Grey Hoodie Boy loved because he said it tasted really fresh. I couldn’t tell really. He is the second person I know who is a salmon fanatic, the first being Richard, so maybe we can try the sashimi here next time Rabbit?

Teppanyaki seafood which had medium rare salmon, scallops, oysters, prawns and beansprouts. I’ve never been a real fan of teppanyaki (or any form of grilled food really), all the seafood was tasty but I think next time I’ll try their normal menu.

Teppanyaki crayfish which lots of grilled garlic. This was quite tasty but not much meat. Grey Hoodie Boy was very puzzled and stared at the crayfish saying ‘emm this crayfish is very weird, it’s very small, more like a baby crayfish’.

There was also rice, miso soup and dessert which was vanilla icecream, very ordinary stuff. Grey Hoodie Boy was so stuffed that he rejected dessert. It was a rather nice dinner, I think Seizan is actually a nice quiet place to have an intimate cosy dinner with friends, I’m sure their ordinary menu will be much better so I would love to return some day.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food 6/10

Service 6.5/10

Seizan Japanese Restaurant

566 Hay St
Perth WA 6000
(08) 9325 5980

I know it was suppose to be a Grey Hoodie Boy post but I couldn’t resist blogging about the food . Truly, I had a nice time with Grey Hoodie Boy, he is still the perfect gentleman, letting me in through the door first, ordering for me etc. He also refused to let me pay the bill telling me that I can treat him next time.

While waiting for the cashier to round up the bill, he made him atm card disappear from his left hand and appear in his right .

During dinner we chatted a lot about different cultures, cooking and I told him that I think Indonesian girls are very pretty. He said ‘I think Malaysian girls are prettier.’

It was raining heavily when we left the restaurant and we had to share my teeny umbrella which he carried for me. We still ended up getting drenched anyway. Even though I told him that my house was a short walk from his place, he insisted on going over to his place first, picking up his car and driving me home. It was either that or he walked me home from my bus stop.I was so tempted to take a photo of him in his grey hoodie jacket but I thought he would think I was mad, so here’s a side shot of him instead. I think he’s pretty cute.

We had to wait for his windows to defrost, so we sat his car for a while listening to Fang Da Tong and the heavy rain outside.

He sent me home and I thanked him for dinner and the ride. Will we go out again? Maybe. I think I’ll bring him for Chinese next time.