Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Japanese and Mexican

The first Japan Day was held on Sunday. Did not intend to go but after a little research and realised that there would be food stalls I was excited...

The location was a bit strange and cramped. Very cramped. There were so many people there! I didn't get to enjoy myself or take pictures like I wanted to because I was stuck at the takoyaki stall for an hour.

Normally I am patient but by the end of it I was just angry and about to abuse everyone. The stall offered cheese and takoyaki balls. 80% of the customers wanted takoyaki yet they made excessive amounts of cheese so the line wouldn't get smaller and people could randomly buy the cheese balls without lining up so they could get rid of them. It took 20 minutes for the takoyaki to cook, I don't understand why the vendor sold them in lots of 8 when that meant they could only cook about six batches at a time so basically they could only serve a maximum of six people per 20 minutes?! Then there were the people who didn't know how to line up or pushed in and a group of friends who took up a lot of room when only one person was paying. The thing is, it wasn't even worth it, in the end they weren't exceptionally great but when you wait so long for them, giving up was not an option!

Okonomiyaki Stall
Sashimi on Rice, Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki
The okonomiyaki was decent. We ended up with two kinds of sashimi on rice but I only managed one photo. Wasn't too sure what the leafy green stuff was but I presume it was shredded shiso leaves, something that I have always bypassed, leaving it to sit there in it's whole form on the sashimi platter. A little strange tasting but interesting. Oh my, I just realised looking at the photo that they left out the mayo on the takoyaki... not cool man. Not cool.

Pineapple and Passionfruit Margarita
Chilli Con Queso Starter
Our Mains
Had a lovely dinner and catch up with Danni at The Flying Burrito Brothers. Definately weren't as busy as the time Jack and I went, but it was a Monday. Danni ordered the beef burrito and I ordered the fish taco because last time Jack had it, it was lovely. It was also in a hard shell taco and the fish were pan-fried. I don't know what happened this time... the deep frying of the fish left it oily, dry and in Chinese cooking one reason we choose to deep fry is because it is not fresh enough to steam...and judging by the fishy smell of it, I don't think it was too fresh... the salsas and salad were lovely though! A positive! We started with a pitcher of the daily special margarita for drinks and when we ordered a pitcher of the other daily special, it looked exactly like the first one, except it was meant to be strawberry and peach flavoured... I thought strawberry was normally red?

Minor things though, after Sundays horrible experience, it would take a whole lot more to disappoint me... and we were done with dinner in an hour with plenty of chatting time in between, how amazing is that?! So much can be done in an hour, I hope to never waste it again on mayo-less mediochre takoyaki balls!
Friday, March 9, 2012

Quick Dinner at Cookai

Had an awful day at work. The highlight of the day prior to dinner were the half price chicken nuggets from McDonalds I snuck out to get. They probably weren't that great but in regards to everything that had happened it was amazing.

Sushi/Sashimi Platter and Sashimi with Sauce etc?
Tofu Salad, Fried Rice, Soft Shell Crab and Tempura Sushi
Assorted Tempura, Sashimi and Yakitori
Cookai used to be my favourite Japanese restaurant before I discovered Kinji and Tatsumi. Due to a slight addiction and possibly love for the latter two, it was almost a betrayal if I went elsewhere unless it was a new or unchartered eatery. Tatsumi as I've mentioned is gone and technically in a new location it can be classified as new so no betrayal was made tonight!

I would go back. I wasn't blown away, Jack made a few complaints about some of the dishes *fried rice, weird sauce sashimi, softshell crab* but it wasn't too bad. Their yakitori was good, the barbecue smell that wafted outside was devine. Apparently they are in the process of hiring a proper sushi person so I will look forward to that. They get brownie points for having more than two types of raw fish in their sashimi platter though!

Hello Kitty road trip!
Work has been über busy and stressful (I've decided to get back into my German as a "hobby", thus the über). Jack is pretty much in the same situation with his studies and job hunting. I wish we could just leave everything behind and go on a long long holiday with no worries. Even a little road trip would be nice right now but sigh, so many responsibilities. One day...
Sunday, March 4, 2012

Zest Noodle House

I spent nearly half an hour with my sister watching two cats not battle. Neither were risk takers and the fat bully cat was not very attentive and missed the whole part where the black cat sneaked away very slowly. So basically it was a bit of a non event but filled in time as I made my beef noodle broth.

I have no photos of the noodle soup. People were hungry... and I am tired. It's been a busy few weeks. So I leave you with these...

Dumplings, Cold Entrees and Zha Jiang Mein
One of the best places at the moment for dumplings... soup dumplings anyway... their hand pulled noodles are good (ha! better than mine, working on it...) but they need to work on their actual noodle dishes because they miss the mark a bit there.... 
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