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

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.

The quest for the best Japanese in Perth starts @ Hanami

I’ve propably mentioned this about a thousand times, but I really really love Japanese food.

I’m not sure how to explain why I love Japanese food so much, I love how the Japanese toil over the perfect ingredient, their love (or perhaps obsession) for fresh, healthy  and seasonal ingredients, the sweat and tears of honing the best techniques( watch the movie Tampopo about perfecting the ultimate ramen and you’ll get a clue), the sharpest knives, the gorgeous utensils, the delicate portions. When it comes to Japanese food, it’s the whole picture, it’s not just about the food, it’s also about respect for the ingredient, for the season, presentation is the key to everything, not only must it taste good and be good for you, it must also look beautiful.

When I went to Japan, I was only a young kid and wasn’t very excited about Japanese food. Now that I’m older, I can only imagine how fantastic the food in Japan must be, just looking at the pictures from my sister’s annual Japan trip transports me into throes of wonder and amazement (plus salivation). Japan is my ultimate ‘must-go’  foodie place before I die, maybe year 2010? Here’s hoping.

In Perth, there ‘s quite a bit of Japanese food around, but none that transport me into foodie heaven.  Sadly, a lot of Japanese restaurants either fall into the ‘not authentic Japanese (more like Malaysian chef) but good for a quick sushi fix’ category or into ‘overly expensive need to eat McD afterwards’ category.   So I’ve decided to start on a quest for the best Japanese in Perth, first round, is Hanami at Mount Lawley.

Jo and Hieng Chiong at Hanami, the surroundings are not particularly posh, more of a family restaurant feel I suspect. I’ve been to Hanami twice now, but am always reluctant to blog about it because I take the most ugly pictures here. I don’t know what it is, dodgy lighting or just my shaky hands, everything looks ugly, so here’ a warning in advance. The food tastes better than it looks.

Beef tataki or raw beef salad entree. I’m not such a fan of beef tataki, but Gill is, and she said it was one of the better ones she’s had. The dressing was nicely vinegary and tangy, the beef tender and nicely pinked in the middle.

Teriyaki beef bento. I can’t remember most of the prices now but most of the bento boxes are under the $20 mark, so pretty good value for money. I remember comments that the teriyaki beef was tasty and tender.

Mixed sashimi platter, thick slices of sashimi, all fresh and good.

Prawn tempura sushi. I know the sushi was made by order, because the rice was still rather warm when it was served to us, a bit odd, but still tasted quite good nevertheless.

Hanami serves teppanyaki, on two separate occasions we ordered the teppanyaki beef and chicken (featured above). The beef was alright, not very flavourful but nicely grilled. Teppanyaki chicken felt like homecooked food, saucey and sweet, went well with rice but didn’t feel very grilled to me.

Mixed sushi platter, not outstanding but not bad either.

My must-order at all Japanese restaurants, the chirashi sushi bento. Generous portion, good sticky sushi rice but not as good as Zen’s chirashi sushi.

A close up shot of the chirashi sushi.Thick slices of sashimi.

Jo’s must order at Japanese restaurants, the unadon. The unagi here was alright, a little bit chewy I thought, I wonder what unagi from those specialised unagi shops in Japan taste like? Yums.

Mixed seafood and vegetable tempura . Nice mix of vegetables and tempura, I think they had pumpkin and sweet potato tempura which are my favourite tempuras, I didn’t eat any of the seafood tempura so not sure whether they were any good, comments Jaso?

Overall, Hanami falls into the pretty affordable but might not be overly authentic category.This is a good place to go to when you’re craving a nice substantial bento box, tasty Japanese food which won’t break the bank. It’s not a  ‘flowers and stars coming out of the head’ experience, but  like I’ve said, I’ve yet to experience Japanese food of that category anywhere in the world, still, I would definitely return.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food : 6.5/10 daitaohas

Service: 6/10 daitaohas

Hanami Japanese Restaurant
685c Beaufort St
Mt Lawley 6050
Tel : (08) 9371 9855