Archive for the ‘Japanese’ Category
V Rating: VV After a six month absence, I rejoined Book Grub, my Asian themed book club, last Wednesday at Matsuri in Surry Hills. The neat thing about Book Grub is that each month we read a book set in a different country in Asia, and then meet to talk about it at a restaurant from the same culture. This month’s book was Across the Nightingale Floor, which is set in Japan. I was feeling very sheepish that I hadn’t found, let alone read, the book - so much for making a good impression on my return.
Our themed venue was Matsuri on Crown Street. Happily, for a Japanese restaurant Matsuri offers a decent vegetarian choice, with a selection of vegetarian entrees and sushi, if fewer options for mains. My friends were Matsuri regulars, and recommended the edamame beans and the agedashi tofu entree. I think that would have been a good choice. Stupidly, I distracted everyone with the specials menu and we ended up with the agedashi eggplant, and a tofu dish that I don’t remember the name of (this veneer of professionalism, it’s very thin). We threw in the spinach with soy and sesame from the regular entree menu and had some miso each.
These dishes were nice, but not as good as Japanese food I’ve had at Musashi or Naniwa-Tei. The eggplant was soft but quite oily and hadn’t fully soaked in the agedashi flavour. The fried tofu cubes had an interesting presentation, but I found the dish a little dry.
My friends also shared a plate of sushi and sashimi. Even though there was a wide range of vegetarian sushi to choose from, I short-sightedly decided I had enough food to eat with the entree dishes.
This was a pretty dumb decision on my part. As regulars know, Matsuri is famous for its sushi and sashimi and my friend’s plate looked amazing. I wouldn’t normally write about non-vegetarian dishes, but I’m posting this photo to remind myself not to be such a fool and overlook the sushi next time I try Matsuri.
V Rating: VV Today my lovely boss A. suggested we go out for lunch. I directed her to Asuka, then coyly confessed that I’d left my purse at home. Oops! Asuka is tucked away in a small mall behind the Shelbourne (but don’t hold that against it). The roof slopes, the pipes are exposed, and patrons cram in. The staff are Japanese and the menu is displayed in Japanese and English on the walls. So, y’know, it’s authentic in a Tokyo street kind of way. Like most Japanese restaurants, many of Asuka’s dishes are based on meat and seafood. However, there are some vegetarian bento boxes (agedashi tofu box and potato croquette bento box), and interesting noodle dishes. I was hopeful that the soy ramen noodles in a soy based sauce would be vegetarian. Apparently they weren’t, although I’m still not sure if the waiter and I just misunderstood each other. He did confirm that the baby buk choy, vegetarian tempura and wild grass udon were all safe for vegetarians. Faced with a choice like that, who wouldn’t have the wild grass for lunch. I’m not sure what the ‘grass’ was. It was like a combination between snake beans and morning glory. But it tasted good! I enjoyed the noodles. The broth was light and not too oily and there were lots of tasty ingredients like sliced garlic, seaweed, shallots, ginger and other shoots. To wash it down I had a calpis (insert giggle) water. A. and I agreed it was like lemonade creaming soda. Officially it’s a mix of water, non fat dry milk, and lactic acid. That tastes like vanilla yoghurt. And has health properties. All good. Asuka is a good, cheap choice for lunch in the city - but go early because it fills up real quick.
V Rating: VVV I’m a bit of a newcomer to Japanese since I always believed it to be a vegetarian nightmare, what with all that fish and stuff. But after being dragged to a Japanese restaurant for a friend’s birthday last year I’ve been Japanese food’s biggest fan. Recently I’ve been bugging my wife to try out the couple of Japanese restaurants down the road and Iku Yakitori was our first target. There’s a great range of veggie fare available, with the many smaller dishes looking so appealing that on the next visit I might order a bunch of them, Tapas like, instead of a main. But this time, how could I go past the vegetarian banquet, which for $24 per person was outstanding value. First. A steaming bowl of miso soup to soothe those winter chills. Second. Organic tofu with spring onion, chili powder, ginger and soy sauce, with a seaweed salad. Third. A tofu-wrapped rice ball and a plate of sushi. Fourth. Scrumptious vegetarian dumplings. Fifth. Grilled skewers of mushroom and eggplant. Sixth. Green tea ice cream (although, this was replaced the night I was there with red bean ice cream — yummy!) Phwoooar… So full now I can barely finish my second beer. But the smallish room with the smells of cooking all around make it the perfect place to let a great meal settle before heading off home in the rain. The filthy carnivores looked happy with their food too, so, everyone’s a winner. Reviewed 28 May ‘06, SDEB.
V-Rating: V-ware Musashi is hard to find, and hard to forget. The restaurant is open plan with a modern, striking design. Huge cylindrical lampshades hang from the ceiling and light up long communal tables, and more intimate lounge style dining. The open kitchen is bordered by an eating bar from which you can watch the chefs prepare intricate sushi rolls and deftly grill seafood and meat.
Musashi is always full, and unless you eat early you can’t book a table. Helpfully, there is a row of chairs outside the restaurant for the inevitable wait. Musashi is the full package - the great food-and-bucketloads-of-atmosphere-restaurant that is fun for visitors. Andy and I use to eat there on such a regular basis that we had a Musashi frequent diner card. Unfortunately, in the last couple of years our visits have petered out as the vegetarian dishes have slowly disappeared from the menu.
We went to Musashi last week with a group of friends. The atmosphere and food were still great, and our friends rhapsodised about their seafood and meat dishes. However, it was the first time I’d been there and felt that there weren’t enough vegetarian options to both sate my appetite and share with other people. There is still a lot to love about Musashi - but don’t go there expecting a vegetarian feast.
V-Rating: VVV Last year I was invited to join Book Grub, a Sydney-based book club devoted to books about different countries in Asia. The neat part is that every month we eat at a restaurant that corresponds to the book’s country of origin. This time around we were reading Peter Carey’s Wrong About Japan so naturally we had to find ourselves a suitable Japanese restaurant. Someone in our group suggested ‘that good, inexpensive Japanese place near Circular Quay’. A further email narrowed it down to ‘the one near The Basement?’ But even though a few of us had eaten there, no one could name it.
Once we turned up we realised why the name eluded us: it’s only written in Japanese characters over the door. This is typical of Naniwa-Tei, which has an understated, authentic feel. Glowing red lanterns hang orb-like over the front door and are the only give away as to its location. A narrow wooden staircase leads to the first floor restaurant, and home-cooked smells greet you from the kitchen. I’m always nervous about eating Japanese food in a group situation. Often there are only a few vegetarian options, and they come in small portions. This makes me a tad begrudging towards other diners.
Fortunately, Naniwa-Tei had a good selection of veggie food which the Book Grubbers were happy to sample. Our hands down favourite was the deep fried eggplant in sweet miso sauce. It was served as half a large eggplant still in its skin. The flesh was tender and beautifully cooked in the sauce. We also tried the edamame beans, the miso soup, seaweed salad and agedashi tofu. This came standard with fish flakes on top, but the restaurant was happy to serve these on the side. We rounded off the meal with green tea icecream, which has a lovely creamy, bitter taste. About four hours after arriving we finally left (to the relief of the polite owners who were going through subtle closin’ up the shop routines). The consensus was that Naniwa-Tei scored a 7-8/10. Wrong About Japan fared less well, just scraping in for a 6.
V Rating: VV Come 7pm the business district in Sydney’s city becomes a dining wasteland. You can wander down to the beautiful Circular Quay, however the view adds a significant premium to restaurant prices. Alternatively, you can eat at Wagamama on Bridge Street. Wagamama is a fine place for veggies and vegans to eat. The Wagamama menu is divided into sections (ramen, katsu, teriyaki etc.). Each section has at least one vegetarian option, helpfully marked by a V. I went for the moyashi soba, a vegetable soup with noodles and tofu.
The ingredients were all fresh. I’m sure that it was genuinely vegetarian because the soup base was relatively tasteless, suggesting that it hadn’t be seasoned (where’s the msg when you need it?) Unfortunately, some of the vegetables were chopped in large chunks that weren’t quite cooked. I ended up drowning my dish in soy sauce, which helped. Wagamama is certainly better than your average chain restaurant. There are some things I really like about Wagamama, such as their communal tables and well-presented food in large clay bowls with helpful Asian style soup spoons. However, I think the concept behind Wagamama is outdated. For example, as soon as you’re seated the waiting staff come over and ask if you’ve eaten there before. If you say you haven’t, they proceed to explain how the menu works. It’s not rocket science. Wagamama don’t have entrees. They have sides, which you can share. The mains and sides will come out at different times because they are cooked fresh. Just in case you miss the initial explanation, it’s written on the placement. Maybe the didactic approach makes sense for people who’ve never eaten at a Japanese, or other Asian, restaurant. However, this is Sydney. We have an abundance of Japanese and Asian restaurants. I’d venture a guess that most Wagamama customers have eaten at one these and they get how the menu works. I don’t mean to be overly critical - it’s just this is approach is a bit patronising because it assumes Japanese food is exotic and needs to be interpreted for the average customer. Approach aside, Wagamama represents reasonable value for money, and is probably the most reliable option if you find yourself stranded in the business district of an evening. Reviewed 20 March 2006.
V Rating: V-ware Furusato is a vegetarian conundrum. You ask for a vegetarian udon, you’re told you’ve got vegetarian udon and yet something about the dish just doesn’t feel right. Say, the white seafood cake garnish? I went to Furusato with some friends for the special lunch menu (certain dishes for about $8). While undeniably good value, nothing on the menu was ostensibly vegetarian. Also, the waitress didn’t understand the word vegetarian. This caused me some anxiety which wasn’t allayed by the arrival of the fish cake. Despite this very V-ware lunch experience,a check of the Furusato menu suggests that it does cater for vegetarians. There are two veggie entrees, and a few vegetarian mains (tempura, teriyaki and sushi). Combined with the pleasant outdoor courtyard and authentic Japanese food, I initially decided to give Furusato the benefit of doubt and allocate them a VV rating (just). However, I recently went back to Furusato and tried to order the vegetarian teriyaki for the lunch special. There are four teriyaki dishes on the main menu (three meat and one veggie). While you can get the three main meat dishes for the much cheaper lunch special, you can only get the vegetarian as a main. Even when you explain that you are vegetarian and don’t eat meat. So, for price disrimination against vegetarians, Furusato gets a V-ware. |
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