Kamimura pt II, The Lunchening

We have blogged Kamimura before, but we had returned to take advantage of the great lunch deal taking place over summer. Five courses for three thousand yen...bargin. We met up with the Soaring Arrow and headed over. We met the manager, Michael at the door and have a bit of a chat. Summers been going well and the lunch deal is very popular. Seated and served very quickly, we are soon enjoying the sublime taste of creamy soft egg and caviar on toast as a little taste awakener.



Next up a cute little martini glass layered with silky smoove (sic) potato puree, black truffle and veal consomme. Tasty!



The following dish perfect for the summer, Seasonal white fish crispy skinned and draped with lardo, sitting in a puddle of gazpacho, with peppery mustard greens and shaved parmesan. This is SO summer.

The last of the savoury dishes succulent roast Japanese pork with spinach, pancetta and mushrooms. Perfectly cooked still with a blush in the meat the feeling of umami ran rampent in our mouths long after the food was gone.



The finale not something you see often here, poached red rhubarb with creamy vanilla ice cream and a summer snow storm of white chocolate. Rhubarb, seriously cool.



With such a great experience I wish we had more time off over summer to return and confirm our great experience feelings were correct.

Kamimura Restaurant
1st Floor Yamashizen West
185-8 Aza-Yamada
Kutchan-cho, Hokkaido
044-0081, Japan

Telephone: +81 (0)136-21-2288
Fax: +81 (0)136-21-2288

One of the hardest things to find on our travels ...

And what would that be? A humble home-cooked meal. Home-cooked by a loved one, a friend, a Mother, a Father, an Uncle, an Aunty. Yes eating pho in Hanoi, amazing. Eating a rich coconut curry in Southern Thailand or a bowl of Khao Soi up North, amazing.

But now being able to go and enjoy a home-cooked meal, something we're familiar with and grown up with is a real treat. It is sometimes the case that these people get nervous cooking for us, because we're chef's, and think we like all that fancy stuff. But that's so far from the truth ... okay, maybe at work we have the luxury of spanking industrial kitchens with all the gadgets under the sun, crockery galore and also a whole team of people behind us to prepare these meals, but some of our most satisfying meals are cooked at home, and most importantly shared with someone/'s we love.

Our first stop while down in Nowra we were treated with a delicious beef stew. A stew where you could taste the love and care that went into chopping the vegetables, cooking for hours and adjusting the seasoning just so. Served to the side, some mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and peas. Ahhh.

Then on another occasion, my Mum and Aunty cooked a delicious Morrocan braised chicken dish, with roast almonds and chickpeas with an orange, avocado and rocket salad and lemon and raisin cous cous. So, this is not something I grew up with, but the flavours and components were familiar, and I was so impressed to see the effort and thought put into this delicious meal. So delicious, that it was finished before I even thought about taking a photo. But, just to put the cherry on the pie, home-made crumble.

The crumble was made with local Shoalhaven rhubarb and apples. They were stewed with a touch of brown sugar and some lemon. The crumbly topping revealing the delicious sweet pink stew underneath. All with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream melting down through it. Just divine!

Now matter how far or wide we roam, we still enjoy a good meal at home.

Hey Mario, howaboutapizza??

Back in the day, oh those heady whirling big Sydney daze, Pizza Mario used to be about twenty meters away, in the Republic 2 court yard. It was the best not only because it was one of the best but with minimal effort we could be eating fantastic pizza in the very stylish and comfortable surrounding of our own home, without any of the pitfalls that usually accompany travelled food.

We returned to find they had moved location (maybe they needed a new market after we left) up into the restaurant farm that is Surry hills. (seriously how many eateries can you fit in one burb?) When we met up out the front I was a little minty, no hon seriously my hair cut will only take two hours....... ........ ....... but that all melted away as the woody, smokey pizza aromas wafted around us as we walked in past the open kitchen with its wood fired oven, piled fire wood and hanging meats.





Seated we look over the specials board, a little sad to see a couple of choices we would have gone for already sold out but still we manage to secure a plate of fried zucchini flowers. Served simply on brown paper the flowers are stuffed with seasoned ricotta, mmm crunchy and cheesy, we balanced it out with a simple butter lettuce and tomato salad.





Followers and card carrying members of the associazione vera pizza napoletana, the pizzas all have traditional toppings, there's no variations, no pineapple, you won't find your chicken tikka pizza here, be off with you, a pox on you I say.

We order one pizza with Gorgonzola and radicchio and the other with salami and olives, but we made the amateur mistake of ordering two white pizzas, and not realizing until they were delivered to the table, oh well they were still both as good as we remembered the pizzas to be.
The Gorgonzola's salt playing well with the radicchios bite.



The salami splashed with a little, OK, a lot of chilli oil (there's no chilli addicts anonymous, so there's no problem)



We rounded off the night with a little something something from the sweeter selections, a scoop of fantastic hazelnut and pannacotta gelato and stewed rhubarb with marscapone over the top of some crumbled savoiardi biscuits. Both winners on the night.





Who knows when our travels will bring us back to Sydney again, but when they do we'll find Marios in whatever neighborhood they've moved to.

Pizza Mario
@ St Magarets
Shop 9, 417-421 Bourke st
Surry Hills, NSW
Tel : 9332 3633
Take away : 9332 3320

Open 7 nights, closed public holidays

Hofe, Sapporo

We're in Sapporo on a mission to find some kitchen supplies and scope out some of the local Hokkaido produce on offer. It's an 8am departure from Hirafu and we're only on the road for about 20 minutes before we start passing these amazing little street-side fruit and vegetable vendors. We stop and browse their goods, with everything from Japanese mushrooms to wild Hokkaido walnuts. We get maybe half way there when we stop at a little roadside (it's actually on both sides of the road) fried potato place. The car park is packed with buses and weekend drivers, all stopping in for a hit of fried potato early on a Saturday morning .....



This carries us through the morning and we manage to look at a few places after arriving in Sapporo. But then, it's lunch time! We are with M1 & M2 today who are doing the deed of showing us around a bit... We pull up somewhere on the outskirts of the city and park the car. There's not too much around, I'm almost wondering what's planned. But then we arrive at a little shop front, writing on the windows with the recognizable words "Lunch" and "Drink" on the door, and what appears to be a list of wines on the window. Nice!



We walk in, there's a table of four downstairs and a minuscule open kitchen. We're lead up a small flight of stairs to a cosy little room with another 14 seats.



The table is set with a lunch set menu and the knife and fork resting on a very cool little 'hashi' rest.



We get some much needed help from M1 & M2 deciphering the Japanese menu as there's not a word of English. There is the option of 2 starters, pate or marinated saba (a Japanese mackerel). Kim, myself and M1 choose the pate. It arrives a very generous slice, wrapped in thin bacon with chunks meat, liver and nuts. We are all intrigued by the accompanying puree, it's a rich, intense but slightly sweet banana puree. I really like it! It has such an concentrated banana flavour, and seems to cut through the richness of the pork quite well. There's a couple of little cornichons, as well. Yum!



The M2 goes for the saba. It's so beautiful, 3 slices of the marinated saba nestled between pieces of roasted apple and a blush pink apple puree. We all manage a tiny taste, and it is just divine!



Then arrives the soup course. Hokkaido bean soup with chorizo. The soup is rich and nutty, with a touch of creaminess. There are a few pieces of sauteed chorizo floating in the bowl, a little virgin olive oil and some toasted cumin on top. A tremendous soup and a perfect size portion.



We're chatting away, sipping away at our glasses of wine for only a few moments when our cutlery is reset, with some very cool Laguiole cutlery, and our main courses arrive.



There were four options, so we chose one of each, with the idea of sharing and sampling each one. They are all so good, that whatever we ended up with in-front of us, aside from allowing the others a little taste, was polished up in no time. Kim had the Mulloway, arriving with crispy scored skin on a little bed of cabbage, what we think was salsify and a few mussels.



M2 has the chicken hot-pot, arriving in a pretty little Staub La cocotte. It is filled with bits of roast chicken, Hokkaido potatoes, cabbage and some clams. It smells divine! and taste fantastic! The juices in the bottom require some more bread, as four hands devour the lot...



M1 has the roast lamb rump. It's roasted MR with a very pink centre, served with a few mild but floral roasted green chilli's and a chunk of caramelised pear.



I definitely end up with the pick of the bunch. Roasted pork (Wow, have I mentioned how amazing the flavour of Hokkaido pork is?) that has a nice layer of crispy fat and a deliciously moist rosy flesh. There's a few pieces of roasted Hokkaido sweet potato, deep purple skin with a velvet yellow interior. Then there's a roasted pumpkin puree, with a nice little hint of sweetness and a piece of caramelised fruit, maybe apple? maybe pear? maybe apricot? A winning combination none-the-less, with Autumn written all over it.



This amazing ¥2200 lunch set, which also includes a glass of wine and coffee or tea, also includes dessert. It's another hard choice to make ... There are 6 options! Kim takes the salted hazelnut semi-freddo. Two little squares come piled high with a splash of Frangelico sauce underneath.



I go for pure simplicity, poached rhubarb with fromage frais. Delightful!



M has the chocolate. It's just that, a slice of a rich set chocolate, with a hint of chilli and a star anise ice-cream to accompany....



Then there's the tea brulee. It's a roasted green tea, so the brulee is a nice caramel colour. It's in a beautiful wide dish, so the crisp sugar topping is there for each mouthful. There's a scoop of vanilla ice cream slowly melting on the hot sugar....



As we're leaving, and offering our best thanks in Japanese, we get a chance to survey the tiny little kitchen from which this is all produced. There is 1 chef, a 4 burner and barley enough room to swing a tea-towel. And all of this spectacular food is being produced by this guy in this tiny little space, and he's cooking main courses as he sends desserts and plates pate's. Very impressive! Very delicious! Very much looking forward to visiting here again soon ......



Hofe
Tel: 011 272 1118
Lunch 11am - 3pm, last order 2pm
Dinner 6pm - 11pm, last order 10pm
(Sorry no address, it's written on the back of the card in Kanji :))