Okinawan Diner Nirai-Kanai @ Liang Court

Liang Court is one of my newest hangout simply because it fulfils my criteria of being a less congested but yet still lively place.

Another big reason is because there are so many Japanese restaurants there!

One that i have recently gone with fish is an Okinawan Diner at the basement of Liang Court.

It seems to serve very homely and authentic Japanese food. This is not a restaurant you go to if you are looking to eat sushi, sashimi and the likes thereof.

One of our favourite items that we have tried is …….

This is a type of gourd which is called silk gourd translating directly from its chinese name si gua 丝瓜. I love this – it’s basically si gua and tofu simmered/braised in a miso based broth. Delicious! I would so get this in a set the next time i’m there.

This is … seaweed tempura. Yumm! It’s not completely crunchy since seaweed obviously isn’t. This is not the thin crunchy seaweed you buy in packets. It’s the soft version. We really liked this since we love adding extra seaweed in our ramen usually. Definitely will order this again!

This is really delicious! Deep-fried mincemeat patties! A little on the salty side, but oh! so delish!

 
This is what  got for my main dish. It’s fried noodles in a salt-base with a poached egg on top. So i poked the egg yolk and mixed the egg with my noodles! Love it! But i would try something else next time. just for variety sake.

This is what dish ordered – a pork belly set since we heard that their pork belly is awesome. but, we were unfortunately disappointed with this. It wasn’t as soft and tender as we had wished. Fish also changed the rice to okinawan rice which is flavoured rice with mushrooms and vegetables – we like this rice but it was i think $2 or $2.50 to change to this rice.

The presentation is really good though. See how they arrange the veggies to look like a tree?

Definitely worth a visit if you go to Liang Court!

Beef Mince & Tofu Curry w/ Cheese!

I came across runnyrunny999’s video on youtube and just nice, i had a pack of 500gm of minced beef in the fridge thawing.

Ingredients

300g Firm Tofu
250g Ground Beef/Pork
150g chopped onion
2 tsp flour
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
a knob of ginger (grated or minced)
6 cloves of garlic (grated or minced)
200ml canned diced tomato
1 tbsp sugar
*You could also put carrots into the curry, but if you do, leave out the sugar.
Shredded tasty cheese

(Fish added a little okonomiyaki and yakisoba sauce which made it taste even better – so if you have them, add a little of both!)

Directions

Brown the onions first in a large pan or wok.

Add in the garlic and ginger. Fry till fragrant. *If you’re using carrots, add them in too.

Add in the beef/pork mince and fry till all the liquid has evaporated and the mince is browning.

Add in the flour and curry powder and fry to remove the raw flavour of the flour.

Add in the canned tomatoes, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and sugar (omit if using carrots)

Mix to combine.

Leave it to simmer for as long as you can.

Eat this over cooked Japanese rice topped with shredded cheese.

YUM YUM YUM!

Pepper Lunch anyone?

YUMMO!

Okonomiyaki!

Me and a great friend of mine, Yuki, who happens to be a Japanese, were talking one day and we started talking about Okonomiyaki!

Fish loves Okonomiyaki and we wanted to try making it here since it is difficult to find and if we can, it is quite expensive.

So, we bought a packet of okonomiyaki flour. and it was all in Japanese! i forgot to get Yuki to help me with the translation, but luckily, i searched online and someone had the same problem and some kind soul posted a translation.

You can really choose what ingredients you want to add, but the basic ingredient is definitely cabbage!

 
Ingredients (Stuff i used)

Okonomiyaki flour
Shredded/Finely sliced cabbage – i think i used about 250gm
Bacon
Eggs
Okonomiyaki Sauce
Japanese Mayo

Directions

To the flour, add water according to packet instructions.

 
This is the amount of cabbage i used, cause that's all i had, the recipe actually called for double the amount of cabbage, but i really don't think you need that much cabbage.

To the cabbage flour mix, add 2 eggs.

Bacon! This brand's not too bad, just don't buy from David Jones – prices are way too inflated.

Fry it off in a little oil in a non-stick frying pan. I cut up the bacon to layer on top. You could definitely use much more bacon!

 
Almost-final product!

Add the Okonomiyaki sauce and Japanese Mayo and you're done! (Fish is studying really hard at the background!)

There ya go. Really quite simple.

Try it!

Japanese Curry Bun - カレーパン

I decided to make this a few days ago and i am so happy cause it can be considered a success!

I chose a recipe from hidehide's home cooking.

I won't repeat the recipe here – go to her website to check it out!

This is the starter dough before rising.
The dry curry mix. Recipe taken from Sumo Kitchen. I used 200gm of chuck mince. It was just nice for 8 fat curry buns. This is the starter dough after rising. It looks so ugly! The starter dough with other ingredients added in. before rising.  After rising. It was cold here, so it took a long time to rise. I left it in a warm oven to help it rise faster.  My 8 curry buns after shaping, stuffing and covering them with egg wash and panko.  before rising. After rising, i also had to place it inside a warm oven to rise.  After deep frying. It doesn't take long. Cutting in!

I have to take a better picture than this. but for now, we have only eaten one and it tasted quite good. I was also quite satisfied with the texture of the bun.

So i'm happy! YAY!

Gamushara Ramen + Hainan Chicken Rice, Haymarket

Gamushara was recommended by Yuki when we had dinner with her at Miso because she learnt that Fish liked thick tonkotsu soup.

We went there the very next day. and Fish found his version of heaven.

You can choose a thinner version of the soup – which i did. but i think sticker to the original one might be a better choice.

Tis mine. I had the garlic ramen with an added egg. Yum Yum. I almost couldn't finish it though. and the chasu pieces were delicious! They were very tender.

Fish had his with All Toppings. That mountain there is pickled veggies and it is very spicy. but very delicious. I liked it a lot.

When reading reviews online, i found out that at this same food court, there is also Hainan Chicken Rice that people have said to be quite authentic.

So, hui had that for lunch. It wasn't bad. I think the rice could be slightly improved. The flavour was there, but the rice were a little too mushy. It is expensive though. AUD$8.80

 
Fish will definitely be back for his ramen again!

Thanks for the recommendation Yuki! :)

Miso with Yuki! + Dessert – World Square, Sydney

Me and Fish met up with Yuki for dinner. and i decided we should go Miso. It's a Japanese restaurant we have been to many times before but Yuki had not tried it before.

I had the special bento for the day – Crispy Salmon with a butter sauce.

I didn't manage to get a picture of Yuki ate though. but she liked it.

Both fish and yuki had unagi and both said that it was very good!

 
We had 2 sides to share. This is Nasu Dengaku (if i'm not wrong). It's fried eggplant in a rich miso sauce. Delicious!

Chicken Karaage of course. Fish likes his fried chicken!

We then went walking around in Chinatown and decided to have some dessert at the taiwanese dessert place called Meet Fresh Taiwanese Dessert House.

I couldn't finish mine, so fish helped me finish it. It was called Taro Mania or something like that. It had herbal jelly, pearls, shaved ice, sugar syrup and 2 types of yam.

 
This was Yuki's. I think it had shaved ice, pearls, coconut jelly, jelly cake and yam.

Fish wanted something warm, so he got red bean with black glutinous rice and there's a piece of yam in the middle. He liked it!

That pretty much concluded our day out with Yuki! We had a great time!

Yuki learnt that Fish liked thick tonkotsu soup. So she recommended Gamushara. More about that on my next post!

Kasumi Izakaya, Sydney – Our Current Favourite Place

We love Kasumi. It nice and cozy and the food is quite good and the only place i get to drink alcohol. haha

  
So, something that we must order is the Beer Braised Beef Tongue. It is delicious. Ocassionally you get a piece that isn’t as soft as you like it to be, but overall it is great. We always have 2 bowls of this.

Eating this with the leeks, spring onions and seaweed is delicious!

On this day, i decided to try something new – Mimigar

The flavour is good. the presentation is beautiful. However, i didn’t finish this. It’s description says that it is pork skin with spicy shallot sauce. The dressing is very nice, the skin itself is crunchy – i couldn’t help it, but i kept thinking that this isn’t skin, this seemed more like the texture of pig’s ear. So if that’s what you like – you would like this. I liked the flavour, but there was only so much of this i could eat.

 
This is something we also had for the first time. It’s Cod Roe Spaghetti. and i love it. It is so simple. The roe i believe was just a touch spicy and the dashi and bonito flavour was so strong in this dish and i’m not sure where it was coming from, but it was definitely very flavourful and delicious. Because of the roe i guess, there was a richness and creaminess about it. but it wasn’t gluggy or heavy like a traditional cream pasta would make you feel. It just came with a a few thinly sliced pieces of shabu shabu pork i believe. I really like this. I’m so eating this again!

Kaarage Chicken with spicy shallot sauce (i think – don’t quite remember the exact name of the sauce). I usually don’t eat this – fish eats all of this. but since he always orders this, it must be quite tasty and good!

 
Teriyaki Chicken Ball w/ Egg Yolk. This is really quite nice. We stopped ordering this in between, but i asked for it this time. The only thing is, it does get a little too salty after a while because of the teriyaki sauce i guess. But i do like it.

 
We also always order their broiled salmon sushi. I love broiled sushi, or they can also be called aburi salmon sushi. With this sushi, there is no need for wasabi or soy sauce, although they still provide them. All you need is the sushi, with the sauce and the green onion and it is delicious! They put a little pea of wasabi below the fish, but it is hardly noticeable and i believe it adds to the flavour. A must order!

  
Another must order for fish. Premium Wagyu Steak. The marbling of the steak is delicious. You can taste the fattiness and oiliness of the beef itself and we love it. It comes with an onion sauce if i’m not wrong, and a bowl of rice. The sizzling plate comes really hot, so even though the beef looks really rare now (this is when i will steal a piece), it can be cooked till well done as the picture below – the way fish likes it. This also isn’t as expensive compared to other restaurants. and much more flavourful.

By now, you should know that i don’t eat much meat, so this is definitely a fish dish – i just steal a piece or two. :)

I forgot to take a picture but what alcohol do i drink here? It can be barely considered alcohol. I always drink 1-2 mugs of Green Apple Chu-hi. It is a shochu based cocktail. i’ll make sure to take a picture next time. I describe it as a beginner drink. Very little hint of alcohol. but i like it. hehe

….We love it here, they are open till very late. and on the weekends, they have bands playing. We usually catch a movie around 6+ then head over here to have dinner and this time, we finished at 11pm. it was a sunday night, so it was very quiet.

I do think we will be returning soon! :)

Ton Ton Ramen Again!

Hehe.. so many agains.

Somehow, we always think of Ton Ton Ramen as a lunch place – i’ve never had dinner there.. it just doesn’t seem to be a dinner place to us. but the food is great.

remember i mentioned in facebook that i wanted to eat Spicy Nira Ramen but it was on a weekly menu and that week that i went it was not available. So i ate Gekikara Ramen which was delicious.

But this time. i went at the right time and Spicy Nira Ramen was available!

How delicious does that look. It’s not a soup.. rather a nice thick saucy gravy. spicy with minced meat and loads (as you can see) of thinly sliced spring onions. Fish also added a boiled egg – just because.

I really like this and somehow, because of its texture – it always seems like there’s a lot more noodles then the rest.

Spicy Nira ramen has minced meat while Geki ramen as nice pieces of fatty pork belly.

I can’t make up my mind. I can’t choose between this and geki ramen. I really can’t choose between the 2. I love both. love love love. how?

Fish always eat the same ton ton ramen. He likes it.

and obviously. Chicken Karaage. 4 big pieces.

To end this all. a baby sized mixed (Vanilla and Green Tea) frozen yogurt.

yum yum yum.