- Posts tagged Restaurant
- Explore Restaurant on posterous
Homemade Tantanmen
Is ramen addictive? I think it maybe is. There is something about the deeply savoury broth, slippery noodles and fresh toppings that results in me having withdrawal symptoms if I don’t indulge at least once a week. I’ve had conversations with Weepix along the lines of ‘Well we could move back to the UK, but where will we get decent ramen?’. Suffice to say I’m a bit of a ramen junky.
Before I even came to Australia I was drooling over blog posts about Sydney ramen shops and noodle bars. Ryo's Noodles in Crow's Nest became almost like a second home when I lived just round the corner. It was right between my apartment and the library; not much can compete with the double pleasure of a new book and a deep bowl of miso ramen.
Alas we've now moved away from Crow's Nest and Ryo's isn't as regular occurrence as it once was.......so it's just as well that my office is five minutes from Ichi Ban Boshi in Galaries Victoria. I take it as a good sign that both Ryo's and Ich Ban Boshi have long queues outside them every single day without fail. A restaurant must be doing something right if people are prepared to wait for an undetermined period before being allowed in. I've got to say it's a master stroke in heightening the anticipation; there we stand waiting for our number to be called, the smell of broth and tapping of chopsticks nearly driving us crazy. As soon as you're called there is an instantaneous change of mindset from 'hurry the hell up!' to 'I'm going to savour every minute of this and who cares about those still waiting'. If you want to witness basic human nature then simply observe the queue outside Ichi Ban Boshi.
Despite the current quality noodle abundance I'm still worried that at some point in the future I may have to do without. The only solution is to learn how to make some of the best dishes myself. At Ichi Ban Boshi I'm a freak for the Tantanmen. A quick Google search results in about a hundred definitions and recipes for tantanmen, but basically it's a spicy pork ramen (often tonkotsu) with sesame, pork mince and various veggies. It's actually a Szechuan dish but usually served in Japan as ramen.
The recipe I used was a bit of a hybrid of many different sources and I've no idea how authentic it is, but the end result was not too shabby.
The Means
Stock:
- 900ml of torigara soup stock (or chicken stock)
- 2 Tablespoons of red miso
The Rest:
- 1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1 minced piece of ginger
- 1 minced dried chile pepper
- 1/2 Japanese long onion, minced (substitute scallions)
- 200grams minced pork
- 1/2 of a small bamboo shoot, minced (I missed this out)
- 1 teaspoon tobanjian (Chili bean sauce)
- 2 teaspoons tenmenjian (Chinese sweet black miso)
- Noodles
The Method
First cook the noodles, drain, rinse well in cold water and set aside. Then prepare the stock, add in the red miso, give it all bit of a stir and let simmer for a while.
Next you need to heat up the sesame oil and stir fry the garlic, ginger, chili and scallions. Give them a minute or two and add the pork mince. Stir fry until the mince browns and add in the tobanjian and tenmenjian and about 200ml of the stock. Let it simmer for about ten minutes or so, until the mince is cooked through.
To serve put the noodles in a deep bowl with your favourite toppings (I like corn, boiled egg, pak choi, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots....not generally all at once though). Pour over enough stock to cover the noodles and then add a few spoons of the pork mince.
I'm afraid my lack of skill as a photographer is evident with these shots but the final dish was damn tasty. It didn't have the depth of flavour of the store bought tantanmen but then they actually know what they are doing and simmer stock for hours. I might try to make some genuine (free range!) pork stock next time and report back how it goes.
Sashimi at Masuya
- Posted from Sydney, Australia
Japanese Hotpot at Dontack
When Weepix and I decided that we were going to move to Australia our first choice of new home was Melbourne……stay with me Sydneysiders, for my story gets better. Neither of us had ever been to Australia so we had no personal experience to draw upon. When we consulted friends and various internet forums both cities got a great write up. Both cities are often judged to be in the ‘Top Ten Cities’ in the world with regard quality of life. Sydney is more beautiful people said. Sydney has better weather said others. You’ll get paid more in Sydney some suggested. Melbourne has better food said most.
Melbourne it was then.
I’m not being flippant here. Ultimately the decision to go for Melbourne over Sydney was made purely on the basis that we’d heard better things about the food in Melbourne. Folk said that coffee was better, the café culture was more prominent and that Melburnians just simply cared more about their food. When you’re making a blind move to the other side of the world you need to get your priorities straight.
As it turns out I was offered a job in Sydney and not Melbourne. And you know, for a little while we were slightly disappointed by that. Seems crazy, but we’d formed a bond with Melbourne based on restaurant reviews, foodie websites and reports of the Queen Victoria Market. We hadn’t invested that time in Sydney.
Well we’re eighteen months in now and I’ve not been to Melbourne yet, but it would have to be truly sensational to trump the foodie experiences that Sydney has offered to date.
The food here is cheap and of an extremely high standard. The first time I bought a leg of lamb for $20 I nearly fainted. It cost that in pounds back home (and it wasn’t as good). We’ve gone from eating out maybe once a week at home to eating out two or three times a week here. And why not when a good Thai meal in Sydney is about a third of the price we used to pay at home? The range of cuisine is incredible; within five minutes walk of our apartment we’ve got Thai, Spanish, French, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, Greek, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Modern Aussie, Mexican, Chinese, American…the list goes on. With several of these cuisines, Japanese for example, we have a choice of five or six places within walking distance. Good job too as we both love Japanese food and in Edinburgh it’s a) rare b) crap and c) expensive.
(I feel bad reading this first bit back as I’m painting a pretty bleak picture of back home. That’s not my intention as the standard of food in Edinburgh can be extremely high; it’s just that when it is the price tends to be too. We don’t seem to have the knack of providing high quality food for a reasonable price in Scotland. That’s sad as the produce available is fantastic.)
Anyway, I’m going to start writing a bit more about my food experiences in Sydney as there have been loads of recipes of late and not a lot else. To kick us off I’m going to wax lyrical about Japanese food and particularly nabemono, which is better known as Japanese Hot Pot and is one of my favourite discoveries since moving to Sydney. It comes in a few different varieties but the basic idea is a big pot of tasty stock to which you add veggies, tofu, noodles and meat.
The other night we went to Dontack, a little place just up the road. We ordered the sushi and sashimi platter ($19.50) and a Sukiyaki hot pot for two ($35).
The sushi and sashimi are great as always. The sashimi (salmon and kingfish) is fresh as can be and the sushi is delicate with a good proportion of fish to rice. A bit of wasabi and soy and it’s all good. This is the sort of sushi and sashimi that would have had me dancing with joy 18 months ago and now I just accept it as par for the course. How quickly we adapt.
The nabemono is why we’re here though. The sweet sukiyaki stock is a mix of soy sauce, sugar and mirin and comes with a huge platter of thinly sliced beef. The big cast iron stock pot arrives at the table already stuffed full of veggies, noodles, tofu and the stock and is sat on top of a little portable gas burner. Now we have to sit and wait as the stock starts to bubble and the veggies cook down a little. The smell is so incredible that the wait is a real challenge, but as the veggies are raw and the pot stuffed to bursting point waiting is the only option available.
After ten maddening minutes, when there is a little room, the first few slices of beef are tucked into the stock alongside the veg. It doesn’t take long to cook and is soon fished out and dipped into a little bowl of raw egg before being eagerly scoffed.
This moment right here is what makes the wait worth it.
The taste of the beef, sweet stock and raw egg is, and I pick my word carefully, sensational. The egg is rich and buttery in direct contrast to the savoury beef and the delicious sweetness of the stock. It’s a hell of a combination. Dig into some noodles and veg and then it’s time for more beef. At this point I realise we’re eating in almost total silence. Not in an uncomfortable way, we’re just both completely absorbed in the ritual in front of us. That’s a sure sign of good food.
It’s a wonderful way to eat and, when you’re not staring in silence into the depths of the stock pot, very social. Despite the large amount of food we left feeling sated as opposed to stuffed and that has to be the best way to end a nice meal.
A Day in Surry Hills
What a beautiful day it was today; blue sky, temperature in the high twenties and a nice breeze. Perfect day for…..the beach? Nope. Perfect day for wandering about in Surry Hills and visiting various foodie outlets.
I was out last night at the free Bertie Blackman gig at the Wharf restaurant and may have had one or two more glasses of wine than was strictly necessary. It was that sort of night. Still, we were enjoying the Ben Glatzer Dolcetto and all good things come at a price.
So, when Weepix and I arrived in Surry Hills this morning I was in rather urgent need of coffee and baked goods. To that end, the first place we stopped was Taste on Foveaux Street.
There was a host of pastries, bread and cakes on offer but I can rarely look past pain au chocolat in the mornings and the ones on offer here looked particularly good. Complimented by a long black for me and a pot of peppermint tea for Weepix and we were in business.
The long back was grand but the pain au chocolat was a tad disappointing – it had a nice flaky crust and chocolate was good, but the inside was too dense. Tear off a bit of the inside and squash it and you ended up with a little lump of white dough. I guess they needed a little longer in the oven.
After an hour or so of wandering it was time for some proper lunch so we headed over to Bird Cow Fish.
The menu is cracking and I pretty much wanted everything on it, but the recently consumed pastries dictated restraint. We ordered the prosciutto and salami plate with some mozzarella and grissini to share while we narrowed down the choice. One of my favourite things in the world is wrapping big slices of prosciutto around grissini and chomping away.
Given that this sharing plate was huge we decided that a starter each would be sufficient for follow up and blow me if they weren’t enormous too!
I had the sauteed fresh pasta sheets with braised oxtail, roast pumpkin, currants & parmesan ($18.50) and S went for the gnocchi with sautéed prawn meat, burnt butter, verjuice, capers & crispy sage ($18.50). Both dishes were fantastic.
The braised oxtail was obscenely rich but incredibly good. The earthy, autumnal flavour of the pumpkin combined with the sweet parmesan and the meltingly tender oxtail was sublime.
The glass of Gruner Veltliner I choose was completely mis-matched with my food but was suitably minerally and zesty and made me feel a little better (hair of the dog!). S had a glass of the Castro Martin Albarino and a glass of the Torrontes. The Torrontes was fantastic; a deep gold colour it looked like a sticky dessert wine and had a lot of honeyed fruit on the nose that followed through to the palate.
Another long black was ordered and despite passing on dessert it arrived with a slice of Panforte on the side that I manfully tried my best to polish off.
A very nice lunch indeed and we will most definitely be returning for an evening meal and to take advantage of the cheese plates. All this for bang on $100. That’s about 45 quid. Even after a year I’m still bemused by the high standard of food in Sydney for the price that you pay.
Next we headed across to the Bourke Street Bakery to pick up some bread for later in the day.
I’ve read about this place (and the Broadway shop) a fair bit (Not Quite Nigella and Grab Your Fork) but I haven’t ventured down before. Glad I did today! I’ve never seen a photograph of the Surry Hills store without a queue stretching out the door and today was no different. The tables up the side of the bakery were packed with people enjoying the sun and some of the tasty treats from just inside…
We picked up….I’m almost embarrassed to say….a couple of pain au chocolat (well it had been a good couple of hours by this point), a croissant, a rhubarb and almond tart, a loaf of sourdough and a loaf of sourdough with fig and sour berry. Got to make an effort with these things after all!
The breads are both fantastic; the fig and sour berry is stuffed full of fruit and is absolutely incredible with nice sharp cheddar and the sour dough is suitably tangy.
Not tried the pain au chocolat yet (will update when I do) and the rhubarb and almond tart was consumed when I was asleep this afternoon, but I am assured that it was delicious (and am filing for divorce).
All in all a very pleasant way to spend a day. Good food, good wine and several places on the list for next time.
