Yoshoku is Japanese western style cooking. In my experience, every dish that the Japanese adopt and alter ends up being more delicious than the dish they started with. Yoshoku translates literally as “Western style cuisine”, as opposed to Washoku 和食 which translates to Japanese style cuisine. During the Meiji period (1868-1912) after more than 200…
Tag: Japanese Food
Hamburg Steak (hanba-gu sute-ki) ハンバーグステーキ
The first two times I visited Japan I was a pesce pollotarian. I ate fish, but not meat and so I had never tried many of the iconic Japanese dishes because of this. When Super Sake Boy and I started seeing each other, I had recently begun eating meat again. I had been dreaming about…
RAKU- A sublime dining experience.
When I looked up “best Japanese restaurant” in Canberra, Raku was the obvious front runner, with many people extolling its virtues. I always look up the best local Japanese when we travel, as we love eating Japanese food and I am always interested to see how other places do it differently. We are lucky in…
Love in the Time of Coronavirus… or The Quiet Ryokan
Twenty five days ago I wrote a blog about our impending trip to Japan. It feels like a year ago. Needless to say our plans have been completely disbanded and even if we wanted to leave the country, we could not. I am somewhat relieved we were not stuck in a difficult situation of being…
Chotto Motto, a little more…..
Walking through the door at Chotto Motto is like stepping through a time tunnel. An incredible space that looks like it is straight out of Tokyo in the Showa Era, maybe circa 1975? There is Ultra-man, Godzilla and retro pop-culture everywhere you look. So many Peko-chan and Anpanman, a haven for lovers of Japanese collectables….
Tamura Sake Bar- A Haven in Fitzroy
Earlier this year, a wonderful little bar opened near the top end of Gertrude Street in Fitzroy. Dark and mysterious, but cleverly illuminated with a welcoming glow from inside, Tamura Sake Bar has all the wonderful things a sake bar in Japan has, namely great sake, great food and wonderfully generous hospitality, here in Melbourne….
Shishito Yakitori
Last weekend we stopped past a local veggie market on our way home from stocking up our sake supplies. We don’t go very often, as it is usually so busy, but they have excellent and difficult to find ingredients and I wanted to buy some new shiso micro-greens to grow on my kitchen window ledge….
Bento Wars
I love to make bento box lunches for, and with, my daughter when I have the time. It is fun and strangely satisfying, to put together a cute and edible creation which tastes yummy and looks super appealing. When I am able, it is for fun, and she likes to show her school friends what…
Adam Liaw, ambassador of Japanese Cuisine
Last Friday night, the 31st of March, I went to Melbourne University to see Adam Liaw speak. Adam was the second winner of Masterchef Australia, in 2010. He was born in Malaysia, his mum is Singaporean-English and his dad is Hainese Chinese. Formerly a lawyer for Disney in Tokyo, Adam started learning Japanese in order…
WabiSabi Deliciousness
Last week I visited my very favourite Japanese restaurant outside of Japan. I felt the need to write about it here, so those of you living close by, or visiting, can go give it a try. Also, I just wanted to share the photos of the food. It is truly stunning, and always elicits a…
Eating out in Japan
When you go to a Japanese restaurant in Australia, or Brazil or Dubai, you are offered a veritable cornucopia of feasting options, including many different types of food. I had no idea that when we got to Japan that all of these delicious foods would be segregated from each other, in restaurants which specialize in…
