Gonpachi - Nishi Azabu

28 February 2009 19:30 (Saturday)

Gonpachi is a bit of a legend over in Japan. When the former US president, George Bush, came over to Tokyo, the former Japanese prime minister apparently brought him here for some bites. For those of you who are into Quentin Tarantino films, you will find this restaurant highly familiar.... yes, that's cause the set for the scene in which Uma Thurman decapitates Lucy Liu and her Crazy 88 gang was based on this restaurant. Have i gotten you a little excited yet? :)


This is a view from our table on the 2nd storey of the restaurant. Doesn't the restaurant look so cool! It's always packed so reservations are a must! Gonpachi is a bit of an Izakaya, where people have small bites, drink huge amounts of alcohol and talk as loud as they can. And to reciprocate, the waiting stuff are always shouting some greeting whenever someone walks into the restaurant. The Chefs will then reciprocate with more shouting.... It's noisy, but it's oh so cool!


What's a good meal without sake right? Isn't this Sake pot so cool!


Starters to stimulate the stomach....


Errr.... i think this is the pork belly with a dose of Wasabi... Yuuummmm.


Grilled Beef... Mmmmmm....


Can't remember what fish this is but trust me, it taste better than it looks!


Black Miso Cod fish..... Meat so soft, Meat so smooth, Meat so tasty......


This one was our favourite of the night.... grilled Foie Gras with Strawberry. The liver melts the moment you pop it into your mouth. WHOA... i think i just fell into a 10 second trance just writing this bit about the Foie Gras....


More grilled meat.... too much alcohol to remember what is what....

Ok, i'll be honest. Gonpachi is a restaurant you gotta visit when you go to Japan.... but just once will suffice. It's a must in my books only because of it's decor and the electrifying atmosphere. You cannot find anything remotely close over here in Singapore. The food is great but it isn't fantastic... Don't get me wrong, it's very nice but you can have the same quality of food here in one of the better Yakitori restaurants in Singapore. We were looking for uniquely good in which we found in the atmosphere.... food was good, just wasn't unique. Still it's a must go... and you can quote me on that!

Gonpachi
1F,2F
1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku,
Tokyo 106-0031
Tel: 03-5771-0170

Tsukiji Market - Sushi Sen

28 February 2009 11:00 (Saturday)

It's been 28 hours since we arrived in Japan and we haven't sunk our teeth into any sushi yet. Sacrilegious!

Sushi Sen @ Tsukiji Market wasn't exactly where we had in mind. I did a lot of research prior and apparently the best sushi places in Tsukiji market would have been either Sushi Bun or Daiwa Sushi. For some reason, the map printout i had was completely useless cos it was probably drawn by an eight year old where the scale and the navigational indexes were wrong.... either that or we simply didn't know how to read maps!

Anyway to gut a long story short, we didn't manage to find either and that's where our dear friends Kevin and Pauline decided to bring us to Sushi Sen cos this is where they usually have their Sushi in Tsukiji market and they swear by it. It wasn't going to be long before we realise that if Kevin and Pauline swears by a restaurant, you better believe it's goooood!


Sushi Chefs behind the counter..


Being the uninitiated in a foreign land, we decided to let our friends, the local foreigners, do the ordering. First up was this plate of Aburi Sushi. I hear some of you asking "What on earth is Aburi"... well, it's similar to Flambe.... what the chef does is to blowtorch the sushi for a few seconds before serving. If done correctly, you will end up having a slightly cooked surface but with all the freshness of the raw fish. I can't quite remember what each piece in the photo is but they were all .... what's the word i can use here.... AWESOME!


Next up was the mixed plate of Sushi. Ok, here's where i admit i am a wuss.... yes, i almost cried when i placed these little pieces of goodness into my mouth. Back in Singapore, we probably eat more Japanese then the usual local delights. But never in the most vivid of our imagination did we imagine that the Japs in Japan can do it so much better than in Singapore. Ok, i guess the freshness of the seafood used helps but still.... how can anything taste so good?!?


Without discrediting any of the other sushi on the platter, my favourites were the Uni Sushi and the Aburi Salmon Belly Sushi (next to the Uni Sushi) with a droplet of Japanese Mayo. I'm lost for words to describe just how good they are..


Yes, they were this good we had 2 more orders of the Uni Sushi...


Anago Sushi (Sea Eel), So so so so so so so goooooooood.....


Hotate Sushi (Scallop). If i were to blindfold you, put this piece of hotate in your mouth, have you savour it, then i place a piece of the freshest hotate we can get in Singapore in your mouth, your natural reaction would be to spit it out simply cos your mind tells you the hotate has gone bad. For some reason, the hotate in Japan just taste ultra fresh and ultra sweet. The texture is so different from what we get around here!


Clams cooked in Sake Soup... MMmmmmm...


Can't remember the name of this Sashimi but boy was it good..... even though the picture does look a little barbaric, wouldn't you say?

First Sushi we had in the land of Japan and we were thoroughly floored by the experience. It's just our second day and we are thinking we want to consider spending the rest of our lives here... yes, we are simple people.... we gravitate mindlessly to where good food is....


Tsukiji Sushisen
6-chome jogaishijo ten
Akimoto building 1F, 6-23-12,
Tsukiji, Chuo-ku
Tel: 03-3549-1136

*Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me if there is a plural for Sushi?!? This one had me baffled...

Home Bento Box - Attempt 1

Alex, my army reservist buddy, sent me this amazing website called "The Adventures in Bentomaking" which features this amazingly creative individual who whips up gorgeous looking bento boxes. Wen has always been one to take pride in her work so when she cooks, she doesn't just make sure the food taste good, she makes sure it's visually glorious as well. The only time when it becomes an exception is when she is making simple home cooked chinese dishes in which case it ends up like how every Chinese family cooks it.... one communal plate for each dish cooked.

So after visiting "The Adventures in Bentomaking" website, we were inspired to try and make the simple dishes look good. Problem is, we ain't got no Bento Box to decorate the dishes in. On well, first attempt, we try with a nice looking clay bowl...

The Dishes:
1) Luncheon Meat, Onions and Potatoes fried in Tomato Ketchup and Chilli Sauce
2) Brocollini stewed in Oyster Sauce

Under normal circumstances, the Dishes would be served in separate plates. Each diner will get a bowl of rice and we eat in the traditional Chinese way. But we decided to do it Bento style!

The Idea:
1) Place the rice in half of the bowl (Vertically half, not horizontally half)
2) Place the Brocollinis in a quarter of the bowl with the leaves upwards
3) Place the Luncheon Meat and Potatoes in the remaining quarter of the bowl
4) Decorate the rice with a piece of Strawberry or Cherry for visual effect

The Result:




Haha, as you can see, not quite what we had intended for....

Bento Box attempt 1 - Lessons learned:

1) You need a nice looking Bento box, not just a bowl that looks semi nice
2) Better to use Japanese rice cos they are stickier and can clump up better
3) Portions need to be right... in this case, too much rice, too much luncheon meat

Well, at least the meal was fantastically awesome tasting and we had a nice 07 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc to go with it :)

Land of the Rising Sun - 朝日の土地

It's been a long while hasn't it?

Due to work commitments, life changing events, chronic compulsive laziness, this food blog has been left empty and unattended to but in 10 days time, this blog is going to be set ablazed!

Food and drinks have always been a large part of Wen's and my life and in 10 days time, we are going to the Land of the Rising Sun..... the Land of Sashimis, Tempuras, Bento Boxes, Sushis, Yakitoris, Teppanyakis... and we are going to be there for 17 days and every delicacy that is devoured shall be featured here. I salivate just at the thought of that.....

Oh such exciting times.....