Kenji (Revisit)

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I love the Japanese food at Kenji and go there regularly for a fix.  See previous Kenji post here. Since I have been clocking up the Kenji miles lately, a little update is in order.

Unagi bento is one of my favourites out there.  For $17 you get a generously stuffed bento with big slabs of melt in your mouth unagi (eel). Accompanying the bento is a cup of miso soup, side salad with a sesame dressing, edaname beans, chicken karage (fried chicken), gyoza, tempura prawn, fried squid on a stick and a corn and potato croquette.  Phew!  That's a lot of eating.

Miso soup

Fried squid on a stick

Gyoza!

Corn and potato croquette

Tempura prawn

On a separate occasion, I stopped by for a sushi snack ($6.80) and a couple of hand rolls as a take away.  My favourites are the spicy chicken and the avocado hand rolls ($2.80 each)

Spicy chicken and avocado handrolls

Sushi pack

All the ingredients were very fresh.  I would recommend the sushi here over any food court sushi any day.  If you haven't been to Kenji's yet, it is definitely worth a look-in.  Go here for Kenji's contact details.

Until next time...

Shizuku Ramen

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I was the lucky plus one guest for lunch at Shizuku which is a modern take on a traditional ramen restaurant.  By modern take I mean, they had many creative spins on typical noodle house fare.  For instance, we ordered a cha su souvlaki which was all that you would expect of a Greek souvlaki (wrap, lettuce, salad elements like leek and cucumber) but with the Japanese roast pork interior and with an Asiatic bent of chilli mayo and sichimi sauce.  It was absolutely delicious and as an entree, a great starter to share.  It tasted very similar to a Peking duck pancake eg roasted meat, slightly sweet sauce, egg pancake....mmm....

Cha Su Souvlaki

To further demonstrate their creativity, the green tea came with a little nibble on the side.  These were savoury popcorn.  It tasted like they have been lightly sprayed with soy sauce or similar.

For mains we both ordered the ramen...for how could we not as this was their specialty?  There were many creative versions of ramen.  Of note was the ramen burger.  But being a ramen traditionalist, I decided to try their kimchi ramen.  I loved the juicy slices of pork with just the right amount of fatty to lean meat ratio.  The egg was wonderfully boiled, just setting on being gooey.  The kimchi itself wasn't the fiery hot type so very enjoyable to eat.  The soup was hearty and comforting.  Apparently the broth has been boiled for at least 10 hours to get the concentrated flavours.  The noodles had a nice bite to them which was in a whole different league to 2 min noodles.

Kimchi ramen

My friend ordered the Shoyu ramen.  The broth for this one was mind blowing.  It was tasted very complex.  I suspect a variety of meats were used to create the broth.  The broth of the Shoyu tasted like a labour of love.

Shoyu ramen

The interior of Shizuku was all about glossy black walls and statement lighting.  It had great ambience.  It is situated on the same strip of Victoria St as the pho shops and offers an alternative to the usual noodle shops.  

Until next time...

Waya Japanese Restaurant.

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I stumbled onto Waya quite by happy accident.  I was practically hallucinating with hunger and I was cold and being rained upon.  It was like a beacon in the night beckoning to me.  Waya is a Japanese restaurant.  Now I know I have previously ranted in a previous post about being a purist when it came to Japanese cuisine.  Here is where I admit my hypocrisy.  Waya is a Japanese restaurant run by Chinese and guess what?  It was good.  Continue reading...

Kenji

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Kenji Japanese restaurant in Camberwell is a favourite weeknight haunt of our's.  What I love about it is that the establishment is run by Japanese people.  Authentic Japanese cuisine is hard to come by in suburbia Melbourne and often you would go to a place serving Japanese food only to encounter everyone working there speaking in Mandarin.  You can read about my previous post at Ajisen Ramen where the waitress had no idea what bonito flakes were.  Call me quick to judge but already I am apprehensive about the authenticity of the cuisine if you don't speak the language from which it hails from.  It's a weird discrimination of mine which only occurs with Japanese food.  I have no concerns with Mexicans running a Moroccan restaurant or Swedish knocking up Indian cuisine.  But when it comes to Japanese cuisine, I am a purist. 

Rant aside, we are creatures of habit and order the same thing each time we visit Kenji's.  Bubbachuck has the Kitsune Udon which is a vegetarian noodle soup dish.  It comes with a raft sized fried tofu and abundant seaweed.  The broth is savoury and sweet at the same time.  A decent sized serve at only $8.  Bubbachuck chased it down with their thickshake.  They do green tea thickshake as well.  Today we ordered the strawberry. 

Kitsune udon comes with a raft sized tofu

I always order the sashimi bento box.  It comes with a bowl of miso soup which I forgot to take a photo of as Bubbachuck downed it in the blink of an eye.  I love the sashimi bento box because it comes with fresh sashimi, edaname beans and salad (healthy) then it also has naughty bits such as a tempura prawn, gyoza, chicken karage, potato croquette and a fried squid on a stick.  All super fresh. 

One pit fall of this place is that it is crazy busy and a there is a constant stream of takeaway orders which they for obvious reasons cook first.  As a consequence if you are dining in, your meal ends up coming in fits and bursts.  Be prepared to sit and watch the rest of your dining group eat while you wait forlornly for your order. 

The deets:

Location:
Kenji Japanese Restaurant
10/1405 - 1411 Toorak Road, Camberwell VIC
ph:  03 9889 1084

Cost:
$28 for two main meals and a drink.  Tea free. 

Ambience:
Casual dining and takeaway

Nom again:
Always. 



Until next time,
Nom Seeker, Glutt

Ajisen Ramen

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Today we came across a dud in our nom quest.  This will just be a quick post to tell you all, 'don't bother' with Ajisen Ramen in Glen Waverley.  I have been there several times before and it has been consistently of reasonable quality and the service though not stellar, has not been poor either.  I am not sure whether there has been a recent change in management because this place has gone downhill. 

The food was awful.  The meat in my ramen was fridge cold as demonstrated by the white layers of cold fat being visible in my photo. The cabbage in my ramen was raw.  They could have made the effort to blanche the meat and cabbage to warm it through.  But no, they could not be bothered. 

Abysmal ramen with fridge cold fatty pork and raw cabbage

Obelix's ramen looked somewhat better.  But he also had the raw cabbage. 

My eggplant entrée was missing half it's ingredients.  I had eaten this before and I distinctly remembered having a mountain of bonito flakes sitting on top of my miso covered fried eggplant.  I had previously enjoyed it immensely however this time my eggplant was bonito flake-less.  When I enquired with the waitress about my missing bonito flakes, she did not know what bonito flakes were.  How could you work in a Japanese restaurant and not know what bonito flakes were?!  The conversation basically ended with her stating she had no idea what I was saying. 

My miso eggplant sans bonito flakes.  Robbed!  I tell ye!

Speaking of saying things.  The waitress was decidedly lacking in the speech department.  We were grunted at and at most she managed to utter singular words.  She looked really displeased as our presence interrupted her girly chats with the other waitresses huddled by the pay station. 

Obelix had the gyoza which were decent.  But I suspect these were not made on site but bought frozen from a manufacturer then pan fried by the restaurant. 

So-so gyoza. 

The deets:

Location:
Ajisen Ramen
82 Kingsway, Glen Waverley
ph:95609018

Cost:
Approximately $35 for two inclusive of drinks

Ambience:
Casual dining specialising in surly service. 

Nom again:
Never!


 

Until next time,
Nom Seeker, Glutt

Sushi Izu

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Have you seen the sushi stalls set up in most Woolworths lately?  Have you been drawn to them by the delicious smells emanating?  It smells like a pie in the oven which is strangely incongruent to what I associate with sushi smells.  When I was growing up we used to have a local newsagency which pumped out synthetic aromas of baking bread to lure in customers.  Makes me wonder whether Sushu Izu is doing the same, luring hungry shoppers and enticing them to an impulse buy of sushi!

Consider me lured.  I bought a packet of six dumplings from them.  Sushi Izu does fusion sushi.  They do have other offerings which are their take on the traditional Californian rolls, sashimi, nigari, etc.  But I baulked at their prices.  A teeny tiny serve of Californian roll was $10.  I could get similar at an actual sit-down Japanese restaurant for less!  A tiny tub of seaweed was also over $10.  I'm sorry, but I could get the exact same in a food court for half the price.  So I bought their cheapest offering. 

The dumplings come packaged like so:

It is a heat and serve affair.  As there was no ingredients list, I assumed for the price it would be a pork and veggie dumpling.  I was surprised when I bit into it, how mingy it was on the filling.  It had no discernible meat.  I say discernible because it may have some mystery meat within but I couldn't tell as the texture was a mashy mess.  I could taste some vegetable element however.  It was carroty and bamboo-shooty.  It was also very oily as you can tell from the flash back from the grease on the plate.  A very disappointing meal.  '

The deets:

Location:
Sushi Izu - within selected Woolworths stores

Cost:
Most packs starting at around $10 for very small serves

Ambience:
Take away

Nom again:
Never!