on my plate: akamaru tonkotsu ramen @ Ippudo, Osaka

While waiting in line at Ippudo in Osaka, my friend confronted me with a Sophie's choice dilemma last night: If I had to get rid of one food from my life, would I choose ramen or souvlaki?

Assuming that no more souvlaki in my life also meant none of its cousins, the schwarma or the kebab, I foolishly chose ramen. My justification at the time: There were way more noodle dishes that could maybe try and fill the void of ramen, whereas meats wrapped in flat bread with garlic sauce is a much more difficult thing to substitute for.

Hmmm, yeah, about that decision. I might have to reconsider that after waiting in line  for 20 minutes for Ippudo's akamaru ramen. I didn't think you could top tonkotsu ramen: the deliciously garlicky and creamy broth made from pork bones is unsurpassable, but then again, I had never tried it with the addition of miso paste and black garlic oil. I could even dedicate another post solely to the thick tender cuts of charsiu pork and - perfectly runny egg, but that may just have to wait another day.

on my plate: ama-ebi sushi @ Nipponichi, Osaka

It's a sign of being spoiled in Japan by cheap ¥100 a plate sushi when ¥130 a plate seems a little excessive. But unlike the cheap, sushi trains I've been visiting lately, this one was manned by actual sushi chefs, not just part timers.

And damn, was it worth the extra ¥30 yen. Freshly prepared fish that just melts in your mouth. While the chu-toro had me back for seconds, it was the creaminess of the ama-ebi, or sweet prawns, that made me glad I wasn't as tight with my purse strings as I've been lately.

no fuss lemonade scones

Breakfast really is the meal for champions. Eggs benedict, pancakes, and french toast- it just seems like a shame that these foods are relegated to just the one time of the day. Unfortunately, my daily fantasies of a feast of a breakfast are soon dashed when I realise it requires getting out of bed earlier than desired just to fumble around in the kitchen.

on my plate - una-ju @ Kissho, Osaka

What better way to beat the heat of summer than with unagi? Well, if you ask me, I would have suggested Maxibons, gelato, an ice cold bear, or just about anything other than steaming hot eel with rice. How unagi came to be associated with summer is still debatable (some say it's because the fattiness of the eel gives you more energy to last in the humidity compared to regular fish, others say it's because foods starting with the character 'u' are connected to winter, and so its winter-associations are meant to counteract the heat of summer), but being in Osaka, I felt the need to do what Romans do, and gave it a shot.

My aimless wandering around Osaka finally paid off when I stumbled upon Kissho, a restaurant famed for its Edo-style (a.k.a Ye Olde Tokyo style) unagi. Yes, eating a Tokyo style dish in Osaka is essentially the same as going to Sydney to try South Melbourne dim sims, but my previous experience with unagi involved buying the discounted stuff from convenience stores, so my ability to discern quality eel from the regular stuff is probably quite low anyway.

Not the cheapest lunch I've had in Japan (about $28), but I guess there's no use complaining when the meat is rich, juicy, and slathered with sweet soy-based kabayaki sauce. I am still highly suspicious of its reputed summer-beating qualities, however, unless the food coma that occurred on the train immediately afterwards was pure coincidence.

Kissho
8-47 Kakuda-cho, Kita-ku
Osaka city, Osaka

on my plate - pintxos @ Naked for Satan

It might be an obvious statement, but tapas sure isn't the same in Melbourne as it is in Spain. Don't get me wrong, Portello Rosso, and from what I hear, the Mo Vidas offer quality food, but if you're looking for food that compares to Barcelona or Madrid, expect to pay a pretty penny for that privilege.

With Naked for Satan's weekday 80 cents per pintxo, at least I know now that I don't have to break the bank every time I get a hankering for some tapas. Maybe it was just the shock of food being that cheap, or the sheer amount of food that I kept piling onto my plate, but I forgot to take note of what exactly I was eating. I vaguely remember some tasty garlicky prawn pintxo and the croquettas. Did I like the jamon one more, or the second one? Then again, does it really matter when each bite costs 80 cents?

fancypants mac & cheese

I distinctly remember being ten years old and looking forward to Tuesday tennis lessons not for the tennis itself, but for the post-training visit to McDonalds. Needless to say, I was slightly, *ahem* heavy as a kid. Fast forward to now, and I find myself forgetting how exactly drive-through works as I head to Maccas for the first time in more than two years.

While their burgers just aren't as appealing to me as they used to, one bite of the piping hot fries reminded me why so many others in keep coming back. It reminded me of all the other guilty pleasures from childhood that I can't seem to quit, even after my tastes have changed.

Yu-u and yakitori

Despite talk about it having some of the best Japanese lunch sets in Melbourne, there's a lot of mystery that surrounds Yu-u. A quick google will find some Urbanspoon reviews and a couple blog posts about it, but don't expect to find an official website or any pictures of the food. Yu-u has earned the reputation of being one of Melbourne's best kept secrets, and judging by its nondescript entrance off in a side alley in the CBD and strict no photo-taking policy, it seems intent on keeping it that way.

on my plate - betel leaf topped with chicken @ red spice road

Places like Red Spice Road in the city make me glad I work in the city. Sure, the 45 minute commute on the train after the daily struggle to find a parking spot can be tough, but it makes being surrounded by hundreds of restaurants makes it worth it. Whether I actually have the money to afford eating at these places, is another story. 

I ended up bringing my lunch for two weeks in the lead up to my Red Spice Road lunch banquet, just to make sure I wouldn't feel guilty about the minor splurge. And guilty, I do not feel at all. The much-anticipated pork belly was not overhyped at all, and the watermelon and barramundi salad was also pretty good. Before all the mains arrived though,  came the betel leaf topped with chicken, coriander, and chilli.  Small, light, with a slight kick from the chilli, it had my mouth watering and excited about what was to come next. 

Red Spice Road

27 McKillop St, Melbourne

omurice

I don't know why Japanese people seem to be the only ones to have stumbled on the secret formula for amazing food - the addition of rice to other foods (Japanese or otherwise) will increase the awesomeness exponentially. 

Don't trust me? Then you have to try their taco rice. Or if you're looking for a more 'Italian' influence, maybe, some doria, which is essentially a gratin with rice in place of the pasta. And people in Nagasaki swear by their Toruko rice (Turkish rice). 

on my plate - xiao long bao @ Hutongs

I must admit - these became one of my favourite dumplings at yum cha purely because of the novelty - I love the idea of biting into a dumpling only to find it filled with steaming hot soup. That being said, I'm usually disappointed when I do order them since nine times out of ten, they're not as juicy and full of flavour as I had imagined them to be. Unfortunately, I've found out the hard way that places that do a mean Shanghai pork bun are few and far between.

After hearing that xiao long bao was Hutong's speciality, there was a part of me that was expecting them to be overhyped. Could they really be bursting with that much soup?

It took a couple visits, but I can now safely say yes. I couldn't tell if they were that juicy or I was salivating that much, which is why I had to go for a second time. And order two serves. You know, just to be sure.

Hutong
14-16 Market Lane
Melbourne

ga prow gai thai basil chicken

In hindsight, one of the benefits of working at the family restaurant when I was younger was the free meals that came with every shift. Request anything on the menu (and sometimes off the menu), and the cook would whip it up on the spot. Of course, being raised on Thai food my whole life meant I never really appreciated it, and just thought of it as 'food'. It was only when the restaurant closed down and my mum returned to Thailand did I then start to miss Thai food, and also realise that some of the other local Thai restaurants didn't really cut it for me.

It's been almost nine years since the restaurant closed, but I still remember the look the cook would give me every time I requested my meal: Khao Ga Prow Gai, hold the basil. With my limited Thai, I didn't realise what I was saying, and only on a recent trip to Thailand and talking to my mum, did it finally click.  I was asking for 'Basil chicken and rice' without the basil.

Those strange, judgemental looks I received finally make sense.

on my plate - chocolate cream tart @ le petite gateau

"Urgh. Chocolate."

It's not what you'd normally expect to hear from someone who thinks about food 24/7, but I've found that recently, I'm not as pro-chocolate as I used to be. I don't hate it, but I usually find myself choosing fruit-based desserts over cocoa ones. I don't know why - maybe because my taste buds are maturing. Or maybe it was the excessive chocolate binging that would happen on a weekly basis for about a year. I guess we'll never know.

But add coffee to the equation, and all my aversions to chocolate will soon be forgotten. This coffee chocolate cream tart found that happy medium between cloyingly-sweet and overly bitter. The vanilla bean-infused cream balanced out the bitterness of the dark chocolate and coffee filling. And true to the shop's name, the cake was quite petite. It's probably a good thing. I'd hate for me to lose my taste for mocha-flavoured things too.

Le Petite Gateau
458 Little Collins St
Melbourne

on my plate - rotisserie wagyu steak @ Rockpool

I should've expected it after seeing the painted portrait of a cow that hung beside the main entrance and also on the menu. A few red flags should have been raised after seeing their menu listed 11 different types of steak, ranging from wagyu, grain-fed, and grass-fed. And even with my brother's continued insistence that Rockpool's steak is one of the top five steaks he's ever had (he certainly takes his beef seriously), I was still slightly unconvinced about it being that good. This is also despite the fact that Rockpool is one of the restaurants of universally acclaimed Australian chef (and Iron Chef) Neil Perry.

What can I say? I'm a little slow on the uptake. All doubts I had about their steak were quashed after this rotisserie wagyu steak served with chimchurri sauce. The medium-rare beef was unbelievably tender and full of flavour. I could've eaten it as it was, but the chimchurri sauce added just a bit of flavour without overpowering the taste of the beef. I may not be a chairman Kaga, I'm pretty certain about whose cuisine reigns supreme.

Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne
Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex
8 Whiteman St, Southbank

on my plate - sakata coated prawns @ izakaya den

To say Japanese is a difficult language to learn is a bit of an understatement. After this amount of studying, I still don't really understand the subtle nuances. Take some words to describe crunchy foods: paripari for thin crispy things like chips,  sakusaku for crumbly foods like cookies, and karikari for foods that are harder. Yeah, I still have no idea how they all work exactly.

And I've been trying to wrap my head around the concept of puripuri. I've heard it being used to describe ikura or caviar - the way that the bubbles pop in your mouth and release the liquidy centres when you bite into them. I can understand if its used in that context, but how do people use that word to describe prawns?

My moment of clarity came last night while sampling these at Izakaya Den last night. Prawns in a rice cracker coating deep fried and served with a citrus mayonnaise. The prawns were plump and firm to bite,  but once you bite through the crunchy coating and the flesh, the juiciness and sweet seafood flavour explodes in your mouth. It was a puripuri moment indeed.

Izakaya Den
114 Russell St
Melbourne

on my plate - linguine with baby octopus, chilli and garlic

Has baby octopus always been this cheap? Had I known I could find it for $6 a kilo, as opposed to $25/kg calamari I would probably be more inclined to cook seafood more often. I was searching for tuna to try out Gary Mehigan's linguine with fresh tuna, chilli & garlic recipe, but I at that price, I'd be stupid not to buy octopus, right?.  Linguine tossed in a garlic and chilli-infused olive oil sauce, topped with rocket and pangrattato. I've tried making olive oil-based pasta sauces without much success, but this one has converted me - full of flavour without tasting too oily. That, coupled with the subtle kick of chilli, the crunchy texture of the thyme pangrattato breadcrumbs, and the tender octopus is seriously amazing.

Questionable Asian buffet experiences aside, it has once again confirmed my theory that you should never really pass up on cheap seafood.

on my plate - hiyashi chuka @ ramen-ya

"Really? Ramen-ya again after a second trip to Earl Canteen?" What can I say? I'm a creature of habit. Especially when it comes quality cheap food.

While steaming hot bowls of ramen remind me of dark, cold, dimly lit alleyways in Tokyo, hiyashi chuuka (lit. chilled Chinese food) takes me back to humid summer nights in the middle of the country with constant buzz of cicadas filling the air.

Noodles topped with slices of omelette, ham, cucumber and tomato, topped with crispy nori seaweed, and served with just a touch of soy-based broth. While it lacked the Japanese mayonnaise and mustard I'm familiar with, it was still a welcome change on a fairly warm day. It almost makes me miss the muggy August nights in Japan, stepping outside for just a moment and almost immediately being drenched in sweat. Well, almost.

homemade pizza

Aaah, pizza. Even the greasiest, cheese-laden pizza from a dodgy local pizza joint will still hit the spot on a lazy Sunday night. And, as I just found out today, it's also a pretty good idea for Sunday afternoons with a fridge filled with leftovers, too.

on my plate - slow cooked lamb baguette @ earl canteen

I have a tried and true method for judging the quality of a new restaurant: if the vegetarian options on the  menu sound as appetizing as the meat ones, then it must be good. Being a proud meat-eater, I'll always inevitably choose the meat option, and will probably never try the meatless offerings, but it really says something when a place makes me consider (albeit momentarily) the idea of becoming a vegetarian. Earl Canteen's last visit for a pork belly baguette already had me salivating about my next visit. Should I get the roasted mushroom & goat's curd ciabatta with pesto, or the local organic asparagus baguette with taleggio cream and slow cooked egg?

But c'mon, it is me. I ended up going for the 12 hour lamb and honeyed carrots, topped with gremolata and served in a crusty baguette, and do not regret it at all.  Although next visit I might try one of the vegetarian sandwiches. Or the lunch box. Or maybe duck confit sandwich...

Earl Canteen
500 Bourke St
Melbourne

on my plate - tonkotsu ramen @ ramen-ya

Is it wrong that one of the reasons why I'm thinking about moving back to Japan is because of the food? Melbourne certainly has its fair share of quality restaurants, and a fair proportion of them offer some near-comparable Japanese food, like Ramen-ya's tonkotsu ramen. Bamboo shoots, spring onions, tender chashu pork and slightly chewy noodles served in a a rich, creamy pork broth. Sure, it was good, and at $6.50, definitely hard to beat, it felt like something wasn't quite right. Maybe it was that the egg yolk could've been a little softer and more runny. Or maybe it just needs to be ordered with a ticket-dispensing vending machine and eaten in a narrow, dimly lit alleyway in Tokyo.

Ramen-ya

Shop 25G Melbourne's GPO

350 Bourke St

Melbourne

sushi - Shira Nui

It was a warm summer night, and I was hungry. I had no craving for KFC, pizza, or one of the other cheap Chinese places around the corner. Just as my dad and I were about to give up our search for somewhere good, we saw the "Now Open" sign on the new restaurant. It was small, and nestled between a real estate agent and other small shops, you wouldn't expect to find a restaurant there. But it was brand new, and glancing in the window and spying the simple, minimalist decor, it seemed more than your standard, run-of-the-mill take away restaurant. Interests piqued, we stepped inside, and have not looked back ever since.

Hard to believe that that night was eight years ago. But once you've tried their sushi at Shira Nui, it's not hard to believe that I still remember that night so vividly, or why the tiny restaurant has still managed to stay around and be successful.

on my plate - mirage @ laurent patisserie

Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting older, but my sweet tooth just isn't what it used to be. Decadent chocolate cakes and rich crème brulées have now been demoted to 'sometimes' foods, as opposed to something I could have eaten every other day of the week.

But seeing this Mirage cake from Laurent Patisserie - Lime, raspberry mousse with a coconut dacquoise (No, I didn't know what a dacquoise was either) - I knew my sweet tooth wouldn't be happy with me if I didn't order it . The tart, tangy coupled with the sweet, refreshingly light raspberry mousse and crunchy base was the perfect after lunch treat. I could definitely see myself eating this on a regular basis.

Laurent Patisserie
703 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn

my coffee confession

Like almost every other person around the world, I love a good coffee. The only thing better than a mid-afternoon latte as a pick-me-up would be the lively conversation among the company of friends that usually goes with it. Then again, maybe it's just the fact I've just had my daily caffeine hit which makes the conversation seem livelier and less cranky.

But I have a confession to make. Well, two actually. I find myself in stuck in the middle of two opposing sides, trying to appease them all, trying to avoid all the hurt feelings of betrayal that may arise when I finally come clean. 

on my plate - norwegian eggs benedict

I have a love/hate relationship with breakfast. Under everyday circumstances, I loathe it. Maybe because it’s part of the whole ‘get up early, get ready for work’ scenario (from which I’m currently blissfully detached). Usually, breakfast is just something I stuff in my mouth so I’m not starving by the time I get to school or work, and can remain cognisant until lunchtime. Cereal tends to work best for this purpose: easy to prepare, easy to shovel into mouth, easy to clean up (or abandon in the sink).

But occasionally, when life is particularly good, I adore breakfast. This tends to be during holiday periods, such as now. It’s times like these when breakfast becomes brunch, and acquires a more glamorous identity. For me, breakfast is the ugly stepsister to brunch’s Cinderella. In her ball gown. If you know what I mean.

Anyway. Earlier this week I spent a few days holidaying at a friend’s place on the Mornington Peninsula. One morning, we joined the beautiful people in Sorrento for brunch, picking Sunny Side Up Café as the site of our gluttony. In my experience, anything involving hollandaise sauce is usually a winner, so I settled on the Norwegian Eggs Benedict: lightly buttered English muffin topped with slices of smoked Tasmanian Atlantic salmon and poached eggs, drizzled with the mighty hollandaise. It tasted at least twice as good as it looks.



I’m tempted to try making Norwegian Eggs Benedict at home, but something tells me that’ll just shatter my brunch illusions. I have hazy memories of once attempting to poach an egg, which ended up as a cloudy, watery mess in a pot. Maybe preparing brunch is best left to the experts. Especially when part of the point of brunch is to wallow in your privileged laziness.

Sunny Side Up Café
3297 Nepean Hwy
Sorrento

on my plate - honey soy chicken drumsticks

As much as I enjoy cooking pasta dishes, meat, and desserts, I still have days where I crave the flavours of my mum's home cooking, which for me, involves a lot of Asian food. The moment I saw Curtis Stone's recipe for chicken drumsticks marinated in honey and soy, memories of my mum's baked honey soy chicken wings came flooding back - slightly salty and sweet, juicy wings on a bed of steaming hot jasmine rice to soak up all the deliciously sticky sauce - and knew I had to make this the next day. 

While I stole a page from my mum's book and baked them instead of grilling, they still turned out just fine. The coriander and squeeze of lemon juice were just icing on the cake.... Well, icing on the chicken, anyway.