I had my four wisdom teeth out yesterday afternoon. The procedure went fine – it was under a general anaesthetic, so I went to sleep and when I woke up I had four less teeth! In fact, the hardest part was having to fast with no eating after 8am or drinking after 10am. Particularly not drinking – it was HOT yesterday. I must admit that I was naughty and took a few tiny sips of water to wet my mouth after 10am.
Today I’m not feeling too bad. The inside of my mouth is swollen and is a touch uncomfortable. The discomfort is not bad enough for me to take painkillers yet, although I do have some on hand if this changes. I also made soup to get me through the next few days – pumpkin, and beef and vegetable. Soup is okay, but I can’t wait until I can eat normal food again!
Before my surgery, Bro and I had another lunch together. I felt like cheap Asian food again, and we went into the Mid City Arcade on Bourke Street and came across Kaneda Japanese restaurant.
They had a good selection of bento boxes on the menu, so we both selected one.
I had the Unagi Tempura Set, which came with the unagi tempura, sashimi, fried chicken, a spring roll, green salad, miso soup and rice ($13.50). You can’t really go wrong with something deep fried – certainly not with me – and the unagi was great! The batter looks a bit darker than you normally see, but it was still nice and light. And it had that yummy unagi fattiness… mhmmmm….
Bro had the assorted sushi and salmon sashimi set, which came with salmon sashimi, assorted sushi, fried chicken, spring roll, green salad, miso soup and rice ($13.50).
With all the deep fried items it wasn’t a particularly healthy lunch, but it was quick, casual and a reasonable price.
Kaneda Japanese Restaurant Shop 6 Mid City Arcade 200 Bourke Street Melbourne Phone: (03) 9663 8802
Bro had a day off recently, and came into the city to have lunch with me. We went to ITO Japanese Café on Bourke Street. When we entered I found that the restaurant was somewhat like the Tardis – it seemed much larger on the inside than the exterior suggested!
I choose an item that was on a specials sheet – the steak don set. The set came with miso soup, salad, a side dish and wafu steak on rice ($14.80). Good stuff.
The side dish was strange however – it tasted like it was soaked in tea or like pickled plums. I couldn’t quite place it, but it was oddness. Fortunately everything else hit the spot.
It was a stinking hot day, so I also had a green tea smoothie ($4.80). It was cool and refreshing, with that slight green tea bitterness.
Bro had the Nabeyaki udon which came with prawn, chicken and a raw egg in a hot pot ($12.50). He was sold by the raw egg!
After he finished his meal, Bro then proceeded to demolish everything that was edible on the table – the remainder of my salad, rice, pickles, AND the orange slice on my drink. I do believe he was hungry!
Japanese ITO Noodle Cafe 122 Bourke Street, Melbourne Phone 9663 2788
UGH. I’ve been sick this weekend. Rather than being productive and doing useful stuff, I’ve been low in energy and moping around. I would’ve liked to have done some blogging this afternoon, but there was no way I could concentrate. Fortunately, I’m feeling better now (just in time for Monday – wahoo) and feel able to finish off this post that has been sitting in my drafts for a couple of months (!).
Regular readers may recall a meal we had in Wellington earlier in the year, where we had stone grill. When I found out that Ishiya Stonegrill, a Japanese restaurant on Little Bourke St, did something similar, I was keen to try it out. It was the same concept as the one we tried in Wellington (meat cooked to your liking on a hot volcanic stone) but with a Japanese bent.
I had been to Ishiya for lunch before (they do some good lunch specials for $12-$15 – not stone grilling though) and was interested to see what the stone grill meals were like.
Going back on a different occasion, with Bro and some of our friends, we went for dinner one evening specifically for the stone grill meals. The menu has other options with the usual Japanese restaurant classics, such as sashimi, sushi, and udon but we were there for the stonegrill.
When we sat down, we were given a drinks menu, which was explained to us. After our drinks order was taken, the food menu was explained, and mention was also made of the other options that were on separate cards to the menu, such as the wagyu stone grill set. We could’ve done without so much talk to be honest……
Along with being very talky, service was a little muddled. We ordered warm sake to share, along with other drinks, and only received one glass! We asked for more glasses, but this request got lost, and it took about 10 minutes before we could wave someone down to request more glasses. The warm sake had cooled quite a bit in this time! But apart from that, there were no major issues although it did feel like there was pressure to up sell items. When we mentioned casually to the waiter as she removed the sake glasses that we didn’t really like it, she suggested trying a different one. We took her up on her recommendation and tried a “spicier” one that she suggested. This was a touch nicer than the first one we tried, but still had that slight mushroomy sake flavour – or is it that just me?
We all ordered stonegrill meals. There is a selection of sets, ranging in price from about $26 to $36. Options are for beef, chicken, shrimp, seafood or lobster. I had the Porterhouse and Prawn set ($29.90) and Alastair had the Ishiya Deluxe ($33.90) which had a bit of everything. We also ordered rice for an extra $3.50 a bowl.
The sets include a small plate of sushi/sashimi, the protein of choice, and 5 dipping sauces.
First out was a small plate of sushi/sashimi, which came with the set. It was okay. Not amazing, but not terrible either.
Next came the five dipping sauces, all rather cute little bowls. The sauces were ponzu; sesame, tofu and crab roe; garlic butter and miso; wasabi and black pepper; and teriyaki.
My porterhouse and prawn set
There was a bit of a wait before the main part of the meal came out. When it did, the staff explained how to cook on the stones (pretty obvious!) and the stones with the meat on top were set in front of us.
Alastair’s Deluxe set
The stones, being volcanic rock heated to 400°C for several hours, had the meat sizzling on top as we got them. A couple of people ordered seafood sets, and there had been discussion about how the seafood might overcook in the time taken to get to the table. So it was good to see that the seafood was presented separately on a plate rather than the hot stone.
We probably had enough food to not need the rice. The rice had a fishy, salty furikake on top and it was very moreish. I love rice at the best of times, and the furikake was super tasty.
It was interesting to contrast this meal with the stone grill meal we had back in New Zealand. It still seems quite gimmicky, so if you’re after a meal that’s a bit different, then it’s a good thing to do.
Ishiya – Japanese Stonegrill 152 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Phone: (03) 9650 9510
I’m one of those people who like lists. I like writing them, and ticking items gives me a little frisson of satisfaction. I’ll even add completed items to my lists so I get the pleasure of marking them off!
So it’s no surprise that I have a list of restaurants that I’d like to eat at. Due to lack of time, money, and lack of energy to organise a meal out, I tend to add more and hardly ever cross ones off! The fact that I don’t have strict criteria for places to make The List doesn’t help. Do other people like it? On The List. Does the food sound interesting? On The List. Do I like the name? On The List.
Okay, so that last statement isn’t true, but you get the general idea.
Hako was one of the restaurants on The List, and I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to tick it off! Alastair and I went for dinner several weeks ago, after a few hours wandering around a home ideas show (how terribly domestic and rather tragic for a Friday night!).
It was a rather chilly evening, and I was happy to see that there were free tables. The split-level premises is quite impressive, being a rather large and roomy space. The room’s white walls are offset with a very high matte black ceiling and dark floorboards. It all seems rather simple, but very cool.
(Terrible photos courtesy of my mobile, as my Bro borrowed my little camera when he went to Vegas!)
We started off with a plate of sashimi ($17.80 entrée size, $27.80 main size). We received salmon belly, tuna and some white fish…. We weren’t told what the fish was, and I neglected to ask! Nevertheless, the mystery fish, as well as the salmon and tuna was lovely and fresh. We could’ve happily eaten the main size (even with more food to come).
Our other starter was a plate of chargrilled chicken wings with plum paste ($10.88). The plate of 3 juicy wings were perfectly grilled and had a hint of sweetness along with a lot of smokiness. In fact, they had quite a distinctive taste…. Think smokey, sweet and grassy…..
For mains, Alastair had the ebi tempura ($17.80) which was soba buckwheat noodles in soup served with prawn tempura. The prawns had been stretched out before being battered and deep fried, which I thought made them resemble worms! They were served separately to the soup, which kept them crisp. However, Alastair dunked them in his soup as he ate them – heathen!
I had the unagi don – char grilled eel with rice and miso soup ($22.80). A generous portion of eel came to the table on top of rice. The eel was rich and tasty, with the fillets glazed in a sticky, sweet, dark sauce. I was rather satisfied with my meal and hunted down every last piece of rice and eel.
Service was charming. It wasn’t perfect, but the wait staff were likable and eager to please. We had such a pleasant evening that it made me wonder why it took me so long to get there. Hopefully I won’t wait so long to go back!
We went to see the Priscilla musical the other night and it was fabulous! If you enjoyed the movie you will love the musical. The singing was magnificent, particularly by the three main female singers (who sang all the songs that Bernadette, Mitzi and Felicia lip sync to). The costumes were gloriously OTT. I couldn’t believe the amount of work put into some of them, particularly when several were only shown on stage for less than a minute. I was also happy to see that they had included the bus, Priscilla, on stage!
As we were going to be hanging around the city after work, we decided to go to Horoki for dinner. Horoki has been extensively reviewed, and considering what everyone has had to say about it, I have wanted to go there for quite some time. Even though it was still early when we showed up, all the tables were reserved, so we nabbed two of the red stools at the counter.
Not knowing the size of the dishes, we started with three.
Tuna carpaccio – tuna sashimi served in a light soy dressing sprinkled with a good parmigiano reggianio topped with a touch of mayo ($13.80)
The tuna was nice but I wasn’t sure about the cheese. I tried a couple of pieces with cheese but ended up brushing it off for the remainder. The combination of cheese and soy didn’t work for me.
Crispy soft shell crab with lemon sour cream mayo ($13.80)
The crab was fried in a very light batter and was beautifully crispy. This was probably my favourite dish. We squeezed the lemon juice over it but I think we could’ve done without – there were a couple of patches that were a bit too sour. I still loved it.
Beef Tataki
The Beef Tataki was a special that night. The meat was seared, thinly sliced and then covered with the sauce. It was brilliant.
After our three dishes, we still wanted more. So more we had!
Diced scotch fillet steak and potato with onion and wasabi sauce ($14)
Scattered amongst the tender morsels of steak was little pieces of fried garlic. When I ate a bit of steak with some garlic and wasabi – whoa! Hello flavour explosion!
Korean style pancake. Calamari and garlic chives mixed in Korean pancake batter and lightly fried. Served with a sesame and soy dipping sauce ($11.60)
I am a lover of crispy deep fried items (which partly explains my hot chips obsession) and this didn’t disappoint. The pancake was crispiness punctuated by moments of calamari.
Roasted duck and eggplant. Slices of oven roasted duck and a bed of eggplant smothered in a delightful miso and honey sauce, with a hint of Japanese mountain pepper ($16.80)
I’m not a big fan of duck, but as duck goes, this was pretty good. It was tender and moist and I loved the eggplant, which was soft but not mushy. However, I thought the sauce was a tad salty, although if we had been eating it with rice it possibly would’ve been perfect.
Alastair was quite keen to keep ordering after all this (I think he’s come back from our trip with worms) but despite the speed of the service we didn’t have enough time.
We asked for the bill, and with it came a small serve of mango mousse. A little bit of sweetness to send us on our way. We were sweet on Horoki already, but what a lovely gesture.
Horoki 19 Liverpool St Melbourne 3000 Phone: 9663 2227
