Sushi go round, Sapporo.

In Sapporo for a little business, theres alwys time for a little eating. Farmer Dennis is kind enough to show us to Kaiten Sushi Kirali down in Tanukikoji.



Quickly seated we got straight down to business. We're slowly learning the names of all our favourites so we can order straight from the chef rather than hope for one of them to wind it's way past.

Samba with a little minced pickled cucumber



Lightly torched marinaded beef with negi



Yummy yummy Salmon belly



My personal favourite, marinated mackerel with negi, theres just something about the slight vinegariness and firmer texture



Crispy fried octopus.



Kats favourite, minced toro with negi



A new one for us, the next size yellow tail up from Hamachi, Buri. It was really good, nice fatty slices from the belly.



Torched salmon



Torched eel with Japanese bbq sauce, oishi.



Salmon nigiri



A nice little trio of salmon, flatfish and mackerel with a good whack of wasabi



Bonito with minced ginger, awesome



And on top of all the awesomeness of the sushi was the awesomeness of the bill coming in at just 1500 yen each. Sweet.

It's a force ... pulling us in! Back at Cyan, the Met., Bangkok

Only hours have passed and we find ourselves drifting back towards the Met. for todays lunch. Also hard to beat the fact that they too are offering crazy lunch deals like we had been finding here and here. Cyan was offering a 3 course lunch set for around 700B. We like lunch deals like this, it let's us go crazy on wine and other extras ..... to which we started out with a glass of white and of red wine.



They came in cute little cylindrical glasses, the white even in it's own ice bucket. These were then poured into our wine glasses waiting on the table, which allowed us to share first the white wine, and follow with the red.



A basket of bread is then placed in front of us, with 2 slices each of sour dough, rye and 7 grain. So soft and fluffy, a scraping of soft butter the perfect accompaniment.



We then tackle our choices. The first choice, salmon carpaccio. The salmon beaten out to a perfect this circle, topped with lemon, capers, parsley, olives and 2 slices of grilled bread. Another familiar dish from our days in paradise but a fine example of great produce speaking for itself.



Next up, an incredible salad of buffalo mozzarella, grilled zucchini ribbons, roasted peppers, parsley, basil pesto and pine nuts. The pesto running down through the salad and coating each bite. Another fine example of exemplary produce.



For main course we choose the chicken and the beef. The chicken is a perfectly cooked breast supreme, crispy golden skin but so moist and succulent on the inside. It's sliced into long lengths, and layered with pieces of crisp prosciutto and a salad of rocket, red grapes, pine nuts, herbs, more pesto and pearl barley. A very satisfying dish, so tasty and delicious. Great comfort food!



The beef, Australian Angus cooked to a blush pink in the centre but the taste of the coconut charcoal grill apparent on the crisp outside. There are 3 'chips' of golden polenta, fried to a golden crisp, but encasing a creamy centre with a touch of parmesan. A medley of grilled vegetables is sitting underneath, including asparagus, red onion, red & yellow peppers, mushroom and a few leaves of fresh rocket give it some life. A caper and anchovy butter giving a nice little bit of saltiness and extra richness as it slides down and over each component.



We had selected our desserts, but Shannon brings out 2 little coconut pannacotta with strawberries, and to hello. A few other 'special' things are on the way ....



The blueberry cheesecake, oh wow !! A biscuit like base but full of nuts holds a creamy cheesey centre, resembling a curd ... plump blueberries are then suspended in a rich blueberry syrup, sprinkled with roasted pistachio nuts with a scoop of blueberry sorbet adding to the decadence.



Sticky date pudding. A classic, but often stodgy and way to heavy. What graces our presence is indeed a show of Shannon's genius; a super light, fluffy, cloud like pudding. A piece of pudding is resting on a chunk of grilled pineapple with caramel sauce and ice-cream. Wow, the pudding though, how to describe the lightness ... definitely some molecular gastro-geniusness.



The last sweet treat to grace our table, something that looks rather familiar. At first glance looking like a profiterole filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce. But it was so damn good, I was seriously in a daze of gastro-pleasure and can't really remember what it was but it wasn't as it seemed. There was some delicious hazelnut, some praline, flavored pastry cream and mmmmm



Another outstanding meal had within the Metropolitan hotel. But now I need to lie down ..............

Cyan Restaurant
the Metropolitan Hotel
27 South Sathorn Road
Tungmahamek
Sathorn
Bangkok 10120
Thailand

Scoot 'n' slice sushi

So where were we? Ahh yes sitting at the pad Thai street stand eyeing off the meals on wheels that had pulled up to the curb. Now there's a million of these mobile mini restaurants across south east Asia but we had never seen one plying sushi.



Of course we were very sceptical at first, I mean how good could sushi off the back of a bike be? We wandered over for a look see, the layout was super organised and very cleverly thought out, when the chef stopped, a bench folded over from the cart onto his seat doubling his bench space and giving him a place to put his cutting board and assemble the sushi, that's right assemble. The sushi was not pre-made but made to order to your specifications.



On the side of the cart a menu with photos of all he could do and it was not a small amount, maki, nigiri, handrolls, sashimi you just tell him what you want and it is done. The several Thais were immediately at the side of the cart ordering so we got to watch a few things being made before we made a decision whether or not to order ourselves. Rice appeared from little Tupperware in the front tray but where was the fish we were wondering. Ahhh of course, under the cart was a tray holding a Styrofoam box with all the fish on ice, sweet. Each order the box was opened fish removed sliced then replaced.



After watching for five minutes or so we decided we could not pass up the opportunity to order sushi off a scooter. We ordered lightly keeping in mind this would our third meal/snack tonight; one California roll some salmon nigiri and a couple of wakame gunkan-maki (battleships). First the chef knocked out the gunkan and nigiri before proceeding to whip up an inside out California just like that (I think he'd had a bit of practice) all packed into takeaways with soy and wasabi for the grand total of 180 baht, bargain.



We took the sushi home to give the noodles time to settle, sitting at home with the sushi between us we each tentatively took a first bite, not so hot quality fish is not a thing I enjoy, but much to our surprise and delight it was good, at least as good as many a sushi train sushi we have had.





Now I know sushi train is not the highest rating of sushi but it can be good and we were ordering off the back of a bike people. It was good enough if we felt like sushi and the sushi scooter was in the neighborhood we'd go again. From the amount of locals lining up sushi dude is cleaning up, good on him

Bistro CBD, Sydney

It's Thursday afternoon and we swing by the stylish CBD hotel for a quick lunch.  We're headed for Bistro CBD, located on the first floor of this CBD hotel which is part of the Merivale empire. Bistro CBD has been awarded one chef's hat from the SMH for a few years running.

Simun Dragicevich is the man behind the stove, a friend of ours from my time at est. and we're actually popping in to say 'Hi' to him as well. Unfortunately (for us) he's back home in New Zealand for his birthday. We take a nice quiet seat in the corner and browse the menu. We remembered seeing something about set lunches on offer at CBD on the Merivale website (which I'm looking at now, and they are indeed offering the 'Fixed rate feast' of 3 courses for $40) but we don't see this anywhere on the menu and weren't verbally notified of any such thing, so just decide to go al a carte. I have trouble selecting my appetizer as there's a few things I like the sound of. I start with King salmon with spiced melon and ginger. There's 2 generous slices of salmon that are crusted with fresh herbs and resting on a nice avocado and lemon mix, with some spiced melon slices and fried ginger off to one side. I have trouble trying to work out what has been done to the salmon ... it didn't appear smoked, but was slightly cooked, perhaps sous vide. The flavors are all nice, it's just nothing exciting.



Kim chooses a classic, Jamón Serrano with Manchego, fresh figs, witlof and escarole. There's 3 slices of Manchego, a few slices of Jamon draped delicately, a black fig cut in 1/4's and a escarole and witlof salad. An extra slice of sourdough is in order, and I do manage to get a pick. All beautiful ingredients, and a classic combination.



With the trouble I had choosing which appetizer to order, and no main taking my fancy, course #2 for me is another appetizer. I settled on the seared scallops with cured duck breast, celeriac puree with fennel and watercress salad. I see a bit of Peter Doyle in the plating of this dish. The scallops were okay (I guess after now being spoilt with Hokkaido Diver scallops nothing really compares) the cured duck breast, celeriac puree and little salad were a nice combination though.



A big hunk of beef! That was what Kim was after. We both really miss just having a good steak. That's one thing we haven't got to indulge in since being in Japan. As wagyu is the standard breed of cattle, the beef is just so rich, that no one would sit down and eat more that 60 or 80g at one time. It's another classic, simple bistro pairing of grilled fillet of Angus beef with jerusalem artichokes, green shallots and red wine jus. I know it's lunch time, they're super busy and want to churn through the guests, but the steak wasn't even rested. We would have been more than happy to wait an extra 10 minutes while the meat was rested. With a combination this simple and classic, it needs to be executed perfectly, and it was not. To boot, the side order of fries that got sent to our table were horribly undercooked, so we sent them back. It was terribly disappointing to see that the bowl of fries, that was already seasoned with salt, was thrown back into the fryer for a few minutes before being returned to us. The result, a horribly oily, semi crisp shoestring chip. Eew.



With the way lunch was going, we didn't decide to stay for cheese and dessert, which we had full intentions of doing.

Simun's pressence was definately missed in the kitchen on this paticular visit, as his passion and enthusiasm shines through his food, usually elevating these classic bistro staples to something sublime.

Salmon Prosciutto

Iwani is a small town on the rugged west coast of Hokkaido. It's a beautiful craggy coast swept by the piercingly cold Siberian winds, jagged rocks peaking out of the snow on the beach.



Just the place if you were looking for someone who perhaps was in the business of producing amazing air dried whole Hokkaido salmon. We were, which is why on this particular blustery morning we were driving along the coast road to meet with such a man. Having no idea other than it's somewhere along the coast road made for an interesting ride but we got there in the end. As we drive slowly along the coast we see a three story frame on the side of the road, the hundreds of salmon swaying in the wind kinda gives it away as the place we're looking for.





One side of the road is the processing shop and the other the drying frame. We're warmly welcomed and given a quick tour of the processing shop. While we were there they were stripping the skin from Hoke that had been cured in rice bran before drying. Some flakes were produced for tasting, the taste is not overly fishy as I had been fearing but salty and with a hint of the cure.





Across the road and it's a slightly worrying climb up some very haphazardly constructed ladders to the goodies.



The first level containing more of the hoke we had just seen being cleaned.



The second and third held the whole salmon, washed in a brine before being left for up to two years. The end result could be likened to prosciutto made from salmon. Mellow salmon flavor highlighted with a salty lick.







Here and there also were thin strips of salmon dried jerky style.



The forth floor was just for the view, if you squinted into the wind you could almost see Russia.
Back into the shop and a look at a few of the other products; cured octopus, monk fish liver pate with miso and a range of smoked fish, all so tasty.





........ is part of a dying art, not many young'uns want to live the life of a coastal salmon preserver when there's big city lights to be seen.



Still while it's around we want to promote and use the products as much as we can. We'll definitely be stocking and using his fish in the summer.

Raclette is a semi-hard salted cheese from Switzerland

Tonight is one of the very few occasions I am dining without Kim.  I have the night off and Akeme has asked for a dining partner.  We're headed half way up the hill, to what used to be B's cafe.  It's just in front of Bang Bang's.  It has re-opened this season as 'Le Foyer', a French style restaurant.  We walk on in and it feels as though you're walking into an old European house.  The walls are planks of wood with artwork adorning them, rose colored table cloths and even a leg of Jamon displayed in the middle of the room.



We both start with a glass of red wine while we navigate our way through the part English-part Japanese-part French menu.  We settle on 2 starters to share.  The first to arrive, a plate of house-cured and smoked salmon.  The brilliant orange slices generously covering the plate.  There's a squiggle of mayonnaise, a beetroot reduction, a herb oil and some tiny picked dill leaves and baby chard.  The salmon itself is nicely cured with a nice hint of sugar and salt and the smokiness is just an underlying flavor.  The beetroot reduction is awesome, going very nicely with the mayonnaise and dill.



The recommended appetizer selection is next to arrive.  We do our best to divide it equally, so as we both get a taste of everything.  There was a pork terrine sitting on mixed leaves, smoked chicken breast with tomato and black olive tappenade, sliced smoked salmon with potato salad, a jellied prawn consomme with creme friache and a slice of marinated mackerel.  Everything was nice, all be it not too memorable.



When we were browsing the menu, Akeme mentioned she'd never tried confit duck.  So, tonight was her night.  The duck arrived accompanied with a bit of salad, some braised daikon, cherry tomato and a few battered onions rings.  Then there was a little plate of sauces, red wine jus, a Japanese sauce and herbs de provence as well as a plate of shoestring fries.  The duck had great flavor, but was a little dry.  It had perhaps been confited but then deep fried.  Whatever the Japanese sauce was, it went really well with the duck and the fries all ready seasoned with herbs de provence a nice accompaniment.



The last of the sauces and fries were all mopped up with a basket of crusty baguette.



A chalkboard placed beside the Christmas tree is then spotted advertising today's cake.  Charlotte of framboise brings back some college nostalgence, Akeme not even knowing what it is so putting her trust in me.  



The first thing I notice as the plate is put in front of us is the textbook feathering.  A puddle of custard is decorated with a swirl of chocolate and strawberry syrups into a beautiful spider-web design.  There's a sprig of chervil, which we've noticed the Japanese use a lot for garnishing desserts and cakes.  Oh, yeah, the charlotte.  The layers of sponge are separated  by a delicious berry ice-cream with some fresh berries on top.  Very yummy!



We're happily content. We sit and chat and let our meal digest a little when what should be wheeled out from the kitchen .....  A raclette cheese melter, with half a wheel of the delicious Swiss cheese sitting under the hot lights.  Raclette is a semi-hard salted cheese made from cow's milk that originated in the Swiss canton of Valais.  The cheese is heated either in front of a fire, or in this case, under a specially designed heat light then scraped onto plates or over vegetables.  The word raclette derives from the French racler which means 'to scrape'.



We watch, mesmerized, as the whole thing is conducted about 3m's from where we are sitting.  As the top of the cheese is melted, the stand is spun around and slightly tilted, a spatula like device is then used to scrape the hot melting cheese down over a plate of waiting vegetables.  As all of this is done, the smell fills the room, like toasted cheese sandwich.



Well, we thought we were done.  Who's going to pass up the opportunity of fresh grilled Raclette?  Certainly not me!  We're so pleased we just sat for a while after we were finished, because neither of us remember seeing it on the menu.  We call over the waiter before the trolley is wheeled back into neverland to never be seen again, and asked for what they're having ....



The anticipation is too much.  The lights on waiting to melt another layer of the beautiful cheese.  And that smell just filling the whole room.  All of a sudden we're both so hungry again!  It's such a joy watching the melted cheese scraped from the wheel over the awaiting vegetables.  The plate arrives a big gooey delicious mess.



There's a few steamed potatoes, roast eggplant, cheery tomatoes and lots of cheese!  We twirl our forks into the gooey melted mess and forget for a moment we are in Japan.

But then as we make our way through the top layer of goodness, the biggest surprise of the night.  A beautiful coil of pork sausage.  This lightly grilled sausage pairing brilliantly with the salty cheese.



And I thought this was just going to be another okay dinner, but the surprise at the end of the night making it a night I won't forget.