Harajuku Gyoza

Hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's Eve! It is 2014 now, can you believe it???

On this particular night (still in 2013 ><), me and Bun walked pass this restaurant called "Harajuku Gyoza" at Potts Point. What comes into your mind when you thought of "Harajuku" (a place in Tokyo)? The first thing come up to my mind is fun, a place that's full of creativity and vibrant culture, and somewhere with loads of unique surprises. So when we saw this huge Kawaii ("cute" in Japanese) dumpling character on its exterior wall, we thought it would be cool to check it out!

The restaurant is actually in "Izakaya" style (a casual Japanese place for after-work drinking, usually attended by businessmen), with a bunch of bar chairs surrounding the centre (cooking area) and a few tables scattered around the room. The whole restaurant was mainly decorated in black and red colours, giving that modern and mysterious feeling. The staffs were very friendly and attentive (notice the kitchen staff doing the "peace sign" in the last picture? LOL), and the food actually came pretty quick.

We found those photos printed on the plates :)

Here are the sauces of soy sauce, vinegar and chilli oil. I prefer to use these separately although you should combine all 3 together to get the best flavour.

Pork Belly Kakuni $13.00

This is one of their popular dishes, and it came in 4 chunky pieces on the plate. Our first impression of this dish was...SO JUICY! It was absolutely fulfilling. We loved how the fat took up half or more of the proportion, yet the whole bite didn't feel too oily at all. It was a really good dish to accompany a bottle of beer too!

Pork Gyoza (poached) 5pcs $8.00

Since we were getting the Lobster Tail Gyoza as grilled, we decided to pick a poached set of Gyoza. This little dish of Pork Gyoza certainly allowed us to enjoy and appreciate the ultimate combination of the sauces. Personally, my favourite is still the chilli oil ^^

Lobster Tail Gyoza $12.00

The name attracted our attention, as we were curious of what it would taste like. We found the lobster tail was a little bit light in terms of flavours, although it was nice and chewy. To us, we probably still preferred Gyoza with whole loads of meat + vegetable inside, so we actually liked the pork Gyoza more than this one.


This will be a pretty cool place to hang out after work for drinks, or for those who don't have too much time and just wants to fill the stomach in a rapid speed. I loved how they can incorporate such a cute dumpling character to be the logo of the restaurant and how creative their Gyozas were. For a personal comment: I think the grilled Gyoza always tasted more interesting than the poached version!


PS: For our next post, I will write about my first home-made Gyoza with recipe (Yes, thanks to the inspirations from Harajuku Gyoza!!!) ^^


Address:
9-15 Bayswater Road, Potts Point NSW 2011

Phone number:
02 9356 3834

Opening time:
7 days - midday to late for lunch and dinner


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2013 Japan Expo & Matsuri in Sydney

Matsuri (祭り) means "festival" in Japanese, and this year the Japan Expo & Matsuri event has once again being held at Darling Harbour in Sydney. Comparing to last year, it seems like the crowd has gotten bigger and there were more individuals dressing up in Cosplay or Yukata (informal summer kimono).

There were several stalls displaying travel brochures and information to Tokyo and the rest of Japan, as well as stalls with traditional Japanese food, beverage and fun activities for the crowd. The main stage at the middle have several shows running from morning till evening, this year I managed to catch "The art of Sashimi in action" (see video below). This is where a HUGE tuna was sliced and then handed to Ocean Room's executive chef Raita Noda to cook it on the spot. There were also other shows including singing, dancing, Sumo, Karate and fashion throughout the day.

One other reason I was there at the Matsuri was because me and Bun are heading to Tokyo in Feb 2014!! They had so much handy information on Tokyo at the Matsuri so that was good, we just couldn't wait now!!!

 

 

I always find those little decorations at Matsuri mesmorizing...

 

 

After the show, I decided to go try out calligraphy! Here is where the Sensei (teacher) is showing me how to write "Happiness" in Japanese Kanji.

 

Just before I left the Matsuri, I spotted this group of One Piece Cosplayers so there's no way I'm going to miss a snap shot of them :D (Yes I am a super fan of One Piece anime)

 

 

Now here's a video I filmed of "The art of Sashimi in action" show at the Matsuri:

 

 

 

Time: Summer (2013 festival was held on Sat 14th December)

Place: Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, Sydney

Web: http://matsurisydney.com

 

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Crane Bar Restaurant's first birthday party 2013 - The Golden Age

Thanks to Simon again, "My Hunger will go on" was invited to attend the Crane Bar's first birthday celebration. The Crane Bar Restaurant's location was actually just diagonally opposite of Buns and Balls! The theme for the party is "The golden age", and it was perfect for this party as gold colour always tend to represent wealth and prosperity.  The waitresses were in gold dresses, along with gold balloons floating all across the rooms and outside the bar.

The Crane Bar Restaurant was very crowded when we got there, with busy DJ and bartenders on the spot to bring joy and laughter. The whole bar had a warm glow with candle lights and gold decorations. The lighting behind the alcohol bottles at the bar just added an extra fancy touch to the evening.

We found lots of Sake standing neatly on the shelves, and the range at Crane Bar Restaurant was quite impressive. I wondered if they had Umeshu somewhere? (My favourite Japanese drink - Plum wine)

We saw a huge line behind the bar area, then we realised the live action of Sashimi making. They were really fresh and thick, which added the ultimate satisfaction of swallowing them. The chefs were quick and steady in cutting, slicing and arranging the Sashimi. We could see that the crowd were very pleased at these at the Crane Bar Restaurant, as the queue seems forever non-stop. The rice was very soft too, with just the right amount to give a good proportion.

We also found some skewers and fried chicken circulating around, and we decided to take a photo of this juicy one.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the event early and did not get a chance to explore as much as we would like to. Nevertheless...Happy first Birthday Crane Bar Restaurant!!! Now...why not have your own party/function here? And enjoy the delicate Japanese fusion cuisine and endless choices of cocktails and Sake :)

Here's is a short video clip of the night at the Crane Bar Restaurant:




It's getting extremely busy for us before Christmas time, but "My Hunger will go on" definitely have a few more exciting posts scheduled and looking forward to share with all of you soon!


Address:
32 Bayswater Road, Potts Point NSW

Phone number:
02 9357  3414

Opening time:
Mon & Tue Closed
Wed - Sun 5pm - 4am


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Dog Dog Japon

We saw a cute lady standing outside the Skyview Shopping plaza the other day, waving a board with pictures of different hog dogs. This certainly caught our attention when we were having difficulties deciding what to eat at the time. So we walked into Skyview Shopping plaza where the other popular Japanese cuisines located such as Pepper lunch and Menya Mappen. Then we saw this small and colourful shop, presented almost like a doll house with the cute name of "Dog Dog Japon". Seeing how Japanese hot dogs eventually gained its popularity in USA, this new place in Sydney is definitely worth a try (Another place at Chanoma Café also had a small selection of hot dogs).

Dog Dog Japon had a small amount of tables and chairs for a quick meal or snack, although most probably prefer take away. We thought it was going to be easy to decide what to eat, until we saw the menu board and ended up seeing hallucinations of hot dogs swirling around in circles. The range of selection at Dog Dog Japon was absolutely great, we felt like trying out every single one of them!!! Reluctantly, I landed on Cheese hot dog while Bun had a Beef Hamburger dog, along with our chips with chilli tomato salsa topping and a coke.

Chips with chilli tomato salsa topping ($4.90)

It seems like we have seen a lot of chips with topping these days, such as Lord of the Fries and Batch Burger & Espresso. Both of us really liked this one at Dog Dog Japon as we love Mexican style toppings. It wasn't as chilli as we thought, but rather with that bits and pieces of sourness and sweetness from the tomato.

Coke $2.50, Cheese hot dog $6.60, Beef Hamburger dog $6.90

I was staring at the melting cheese, lying lazily on the top, smiling right back at me. I loved everything about this, although I do find it a little bit hard to eat at first due to the size and width LOL. It was very satisfying to swallow every bit of it, and the ingredients were fresh and tasty. The Beef Hamburger was less complex in its flavour, and Bun loved the juicy Beef Hamburger as always.


Dog Dog Japon is somewhere we will definitely go back to, and it might be a good idea to drag more friends next time and share the flavours. There are just way too many choices, and we are totally going to try them all! (This is like when you played Pokémon and you have that mission to accomplish...*grin*)


Address:
Shop 6, 545 - 551 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (Skyview Shopping plaza)

Phone number:
02 9261 8814


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How to make Takoyaki

Ingredients:
1 spring onion
3 crab sticks
200g of Takoyaki flour
2 eggs
3 cups of water
Takoyaki sauce
Mayonnaise (or Japanese Mayonnaise)
Bonito flakes

Serving:
About 24

Level:
Easy


I have always been a super fan of Japanese cuisine, and I always wanted to try to learn how to cook them. On this lazy afternoon, I decided to give a shot on cooking my very first set of Takoyaki. So I have got most of the ingredients from a Japanese grocery store in the city called Maruyu.




(Left to right: Bonito flakes, Takoyaki sauce, Takoyaki flour)


It's really hard to find a proper Takoyaki pan in Australia, so I bought this pop cake pan from Kmart instead.




I am only a beginner, so I have only included 2 very simple ingredients as fillings. That was 1 spring onion, and 3 crab sticks (proper ingredient is actually boiled octopus, but I ran out of them so I have decided to use crab sticks that I found in Asian grocery store instead) being chopped up to small pieces (I have seen many people adding tempura pieces and Japanese ginger into the fillings as well). I like to separate each ingredient into different bowls, that way makes it easier for me to pick them up and start cooking.




To start off, I have measured 200g of Takoyaki flour into a large bowl and cracked 2 eggs into it, then mix with 1/2 cup of water.




Afterwards you can add in 1/2 cup each time and mix well until it all finishes, then the mixture should turn into a watery state.




You can then get a brush to brush oil evenly into each hole on the pan, and then pour the mixture into each hole. Then quickly add on the chopped up spring onions (leave a little bit left for garnish later) and crab sticks into each Takoyaki. After the edge of the Takoyaki is cooked, use 2 sharp sticks (or tooth picks) to turn each of the Takoyaki about 90 degree. Repeat the rotating step until all Takoyaki are cooked (turning into golden brown colour).




Place each Takoyaki on a plate and squeeze on the Takoyaki sauce and Mayonnaise, then add on the Bonito flakes and the rest of the spring onion pieces (you can also choose to add on seaweed flakes instead).

TA-DA! It's all done and time to enjoy the Takoyaki!!


PS: Feel free to drop me any comments or suggestions on the recipe, I would love to learn from all of you guys :)

Chanoma Cafe

We first noticed the beautiful vine hanging down the window, and the light green chairs that appeared gently in the eye sights. So here we are, at this small but crowded Chanoma Café.

We heard this café had a lot of Matcha (green tea) related food, so we decided on this visit to try out their beverage and dessert. The café itself make you feel like you are outdoors, and somewhere near a secret garden.



Matcha Latte $4.50

I couldn't resist the sound of Matcha Latte, the craving for a combination of green tea and milk allowed me to make the decision in less than a second. I enjoyed that vegetal taste initially, with that freshness from the natural green colour. Then the bitterness hits in, with that milky mixture and tiny bit of sweetness. The taste lasted about 10 seconds or so, and I quickly took another sip without much hesitation. If there was something to be noted about, it had to be the amount of bubbles appeared on the surface of the Latte...




Matcha Anmitsu $6.50 (Agar jelly, Matcha soft ice cream, sweet red bean paste, rice cake and brown sugar syrup)

This was a bowl of dessert that Bun had ordered, and he was anticipating the soft ice cream. I loved how chewy the mini rice cake was, and the adorable taste after soaking it in the brown sugar syrup. Bun didn't like the Agar jelly as they had absolutely no taste except for its coldness, so we added those into the syrup as well. The soft ice cream remained a little bitter than the green tea ice creams we have tried elsewhere, but it mixed well with the sweetness of the red bean paste. There were also some small pieces of fruits inside, which compensated the lack of sweetness for Bun.


We felt it was a nice café with quite a fair range of Matcha related desserts and beverage. We actually quite regret that we didn't try the parfait, after seeing the next table ordered a huge one with fancy toppings. If you are not so much of a sugar fan, their soft ice cream can be a quite pleasant afternoon treat.



Address:
501 George St, Sydney (Regent place)

Phone number:
02 9767 5465

Opening time:
7 days  9am - late


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Zenya Noodle Bar

On one of those not-so-exciting weekdays, we wandered around the streets of Eastwood together. After going through a few Asian restaurants, we paused in front of Zenya.

It was a quite typical setting inside, with rectangular wooden chairs and tables sitting neatly across the restaurant. We saw a lot of students and business men having their dinner there at the time, and it was quite full too. We looked through the menus briefly until something caught my eyes, and it was the "Mini Ramen & Mini Curry" set at $17.80. You get the mini curry, mini Ramen (with choice of chicken or pork soup), a drink (choices of coke, diet coke, lemonade etc) and a Vanilla ice cream with a choice of topping.

Mini Curry
Curry has always been one of my favourite dishes, especially Japanese curry. When this dish arrived, I immediately inhaled the nostalgic scent. This was a cute little dish, although not too much meat and vegetable pieces can be found. Regardless, I loved mixing it with rice, as it totally evokes your appetite.

Mini Ramen
The bowl was tall but relatively small, and the soup was about half way of the bowl. I noticed the usual sheet of seaweed, egg, spring onions, pork, bean sprout etc swimming comfortably in the pool of pork base soup. The bowl was generally acceptable except for the egg...in which I could not understand why it was so salty!! Oh well, there goes the yolk again.


It was probably not the best Japanese restaurants we have been to, but the idea of the combination dishes was brilliant! It gave people (like me!) who usually want to eat a variety of foods a chance to do so. There were also other combinations of 2 dishes and the usual Japanese dishes to select from.



Address:
217 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW

Phone number:
02 9874 2122

Opening time:
Monday CLOSED
Lunch: 11.30am - 3pm
Dinner:
Sun - Thu 5.30pm - 9pm
Fri and Sat 5.30pm - 9.30pm


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Ramen Ikkyu

On this raining weekday, we decided to visit the Ramen place that we have been hearing over and over again recently. We have gone to some places such as Gumshara and Ippudo, but we were still searching for more Ramen. So when we heard about the irresistible Paitan soup (signature soup) and the unbelievable Cha-Shu (soy braised pork), we knew that this visit will be memorable.

It was located at the end corner inside Sussex centre food court, along with loads of other food stalls and large amount of people. The orders can be taken from these touch screens, unless they had special ones such as the ones we have seen below...

On the night they had 2 special Ramen, and Bun landed his eye on the Hokkaido Ramen with Miso flavour and Salmon topping. I was being indecisive of whether to try the signature Ramen or the Chilli Oil Ramen, but in the end I couldn't resist the sound of "Chilli Oil" and the imagination of the flavours in my mouth.

Hokkaido Ramen with miso flavour and Salmon topping $14.00 (Daily special)

Bun's eyes were locked on these 2 floating Salmon as soon as they arrived on the table, and it came with corns and egg etc. It was simpler comparing to the rest of the Ramen on the menu, and Bun said the bowl made him full and satisfied. I loved how soft the Salmon were cooked, as they seemed like they were going to fall off as soon as you picked them up with chopsticks.

Chilli Oil Ramen $11.50 + Extra 3 slices of Cha-Shu $3.00

As we heard the Cha-Shu here was SUPER good, I have decided to order 3 extras for us as side dish, and I am so glad that I did!!! I was staring at the Chilli Oil floating on top of the soup, and ready to drool from eyes, nose and mouth. The creamy broth actually made the chilliness more tolerable, and I totally enjoyed the tiny bit of sweat drops emerging from my forehead. The noodles were lively, like as if they were dancing around when you chew or break them off. I liked the addition of seaweeds and black fungus as they added more textures to the Ramen. Surprisingly I really loved the egg too (as I usually don't really eat the egg inside Ramen), the soft and flavoursome yolk reminded me of the feelings of "home" from my memory, and the only time I actually enjoyed yolk more than the egg white. But of course, nothing can beat the impression of Cha-Shu here, they were incredible. They truly melt in your mouth, and you will get so addicted to the juicy fat bit.


Free Kaedama
The initial serving of Ramen in the bowl can be a bit small for some people, so if you are still hungry, they allow additional order noodles per each Ramen as long as you present the receipt of your order at counter.


After the meal, I felt like this place was special. That feeling was like...when you walk on a road full of dry grass, and then come across that one little, sweet, and colourful flower standing there firmly as if it had lived a thousand years. Well, there goes another place to add to the favourite list.


PS. Chef Harunobu Inukai was there greeting and chatting with customers, he seemed like such a cheerful person :D ( I really should've got a photograph!!!!)



Address:
Shop F1A, 401 Sussex St Sydney NSW

Phone number:
02 9281 0998

Opening time:
7 days, noon-8pm until sold out (150 bowls a day)


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Yebisu Izakaya

"An izakaya (居酒屋) is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. They are casual places for after-work drinking." (Wikipedia)



Most people probably already heard of this term "Izakaya", you can probably see lots of business men gathering up in such places after work in Japan. It's a good place for quick snacks, drinks and catching up with casual conversations. When "Yebisu" opened up in Regents place in Townhall, I was amazed of how much this corner has become so similar to what's really in Japan. There were huge paper lanterns, quirky graffiti (there was a giant Totoro!), neon light as shop signs etc. All of these attracted many people to surround this place over the weekends and evenings.

There was a long bench right outside with customers sitting there for a few drinks, just like the setting in Japan. The interior was tidy, and full of wooden furniture just like the traditional designs. Although with all these traditional looks, don't forget the high-tech aspect of touch-screen ordering menu, just like Japan, there will always be a mixture of the olds and new. The waiter and waitress are as polite as always, and they will always make sure the plates would be cleared away as soon as they are finished.


Sapphire Blue $6.80 and Tequila sunrise $8.80



Pork & Kimchi (Salt) $4.80

This is probably one of the best skewers we tasted so far, the combination was perfect in terms of taste and texture, and the sauce was incredibly flavoursome. I love how they rolled the Kimchi inside the pork, so that you get this layer of juicy fat pork and then the crunchy bits of Kimchi.




Pork belly (Teriyaki or Salt) $3.00

Both of us love Pork belly! However when this was compared with the Pork & Kimchi skewer, it seemed less appealing. They were still a nice little dish, and one thing I love about Japanese skewers is that they are never too oily.



Chicken meatball with Porched egg (Teriyaki or Salt) $4.80

This was something new to us, and it looked interesting. I couldn't quite figure out the correct way of eating this, but I tried eating the meatballs alone and as well as soaking it in the Porched egg. The meatballs actually didn't taste too much like chicken, but it was very fulfilling. The Porched egg was very cold, and fully slipped down my throat like a kid on a slide at the playground. Funny little dish I must say, and I'm just so obsessed with the bursting moment of Porched egg these days.




Takoyaki

We always seemed to have picked a Takoyaki dish whenever we eat Japanese food, it's becoming like a habit. The Takoyaki was extremely hot (always becareful when biting them!!) but full of octopus, it has always been a nice Entrée dish for us.

Yebisu Omelette rice $14.80

Mmmm...the scent of this dish has always been amazing. We loved how fresh the ingredients were and the perfect mixtures. The egg was a little bit runny, and I must say that is probably the perfect state to go with steamy rice. We quickly finished this whole bowl and it still felt like we needed more...mmmm....



Ice cream with Daifuku $3.80

Daifuku is a mochi (sticky rice cake) which is usually filled with red beans. But in this case, it's filled with ice cream!!!! Before I go into details, I must mention the purple fluffy candy floss on the top. We ate this and then found out there were those exploding lollies hidden inside the candy floss (I forgot what you call them, but I'm sure we all had one when we were kids), this made us laugh instantly and as well as having a bit of nostalgic moment. The combination of ice cream and mochi is a genius idea, and the Daifuku was extra soft and stretchy!



Cream puff ice cream chocolate $3.80

Comparing to the Daifuku, we didn't enjoy this as much. The texture of the puff and the cold ice cream didn't seem to go very well together. It was like eating ice cream with bread or toast, which diminished the taste of the ice cream.


The dining experience was wonderful, and we were impressed by their wide range of beverage selection especially the cocktails. We loved the atmosphere and surroundings, and it can get pretty crowded around dinner time. However, it was a little pricey comparatively, but a few skewers and a drink here would definitely be worth the visit.


Address:
Shop 7-10
501 George Street, Sydney

Phone number:
02 9266 0301

Opening time:
Sun to Thu  noon - 3pm, 5 - 11pm
Fri and Sat  noon - 3pm, 5pm - midnight


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