Umami cocktails and canapés at Saké Restaurant & Bar

It’s always exciting to be invited to dine somewhere which you haven’t, but also slightly intriguing when you read “Umami Cocktail/Canapé” as being offered on the evening. A cocktail is a cocktail, right? And though I know little about specific cocktails, I do know what flavours I tend to like in mine. However, paired with my limited knowledge of foods high in umami, my imaginings for what we would be treated to went a little something like this:

I would’ve actually found it quite funny had we been presented with a mushroom-flavoured martini, but thankfully a lot more creative thought and work had gone into these new menu items created by Saké’s Head Sushi Chef Shimpei Hatanake and Bar Manager Wayne Shennen. Much like food and wine pairings, the Umami Cocktail & Canapé menu offerings ($25 each) are designed so that the drink and food flavours balance and complement each other but whilst maximising umami-ness.

‘The Nightingale Song’ made with umeshu, pear vodka, white wine, bianco vermouth and lemon juice gets my vote for the evening with its sweet, fruity flavours and slightly dry finish. Savoury flavours aren’t really encountered in the cocktail until you get to the settled umeboshi bits at the bottom, whose flavours remind me of dried Chinese plums “wah mui/hua mei” (話梅). This cocktail is flanked by a delicate ‘Scallop Ume Spoon’ with scallop sashimi dressed with grape seed oil, white soy, lime, pickled plum paste and finely cut shiso leaf, sitting on a paper-thin cucumber slice providing crunch. ‘Yuzu Snapper’ is the other accompaniment where snow pea sprouts have been rolled into a slice of snapper sashimi dressed with olive oil, yuzu, shio-kombu (salted kelp) and tobiko.

‘The Honey Dragon’ is what I can only describe as a manly cocktail with its combination of honey, single malt Scottish whiskey, cinnamon, lemon zest and hint of chilli. Whiskey and I have yet to get to know each other beyond acquaintance level, but I am more than happy to devour the pieces of salmon belly served with yuzu soy alongside.

We are served a selection of food from Executive Chef Shaun Presland for the rest of the evening which is great for picking at alongside some drinks. Little portions of ‘Char-grilled Octopus Sunomono’ are tender and dressed with a kiwi sauce which surprisingly doesn’t taste of kiwi, and ‘Steamed Prawn Dumplings’ are a light “har-gow”/”siu-mai” hybrid but with a shaggy, shredded-skin outer.

The ‘Teriyaki Burger Balls’ are tender, meaty fun on sticks with an ever so more-ish sweet teriyaki glaze. And who can ever say no to crispy, deep-fried chicken? Served with jalapeño oil, spicy mayo and tomato salsa, it is the perfect partner to a Hitachino Nest Beer White Ale. I’m not a beer-drinker but this is light and smooth enough for me not to be turned off by what I usually perceive as a yeastiness about beer, plus the bottle sports a cute owl logo (heh!).

A DIY hand roll sushi session ensues with an array of ingredients at our disposal and leaves us wondering whether we can nab the idea for use at future dinner parties. We are shown the basic technique for making a hand roll and are told that the result should be tight enough to not fall apart but loose enough to (theoretically) let smoke through! This is, of course, much easier when watching it being done by a professional and more of a challenge when it’s our turn, and in maximising our fillings end up with exploding sushi.

Mini portions of ‘Buttermilk pannacotta with raspberry coulis’ topped with toasty coconut round off the evening of umami cocktails, with more innovative pairings to come soon. A concept bloody Mary and a miso/yakult combination were mentioned – both quirky and exciting to look forward to!

Mademoiselle Délicieuse dined as a guest of Saké Restaurant & Bar and Lindy Thompson.

Saké Restaurant & Bar

12 Argyle St (near cnr Harrington St), The Rocks NSW

Tel: (02) 9259 5656

Opening Hours:  Mon-Thurs  12pm-3pm (lunch)

                                          6pm-10:30pm (dinner)

                        Fri  12pm-3pm (lunch)

                              6pm-12 midnight (dinner)

                        Sat  12pm-3pm (lunch)

                               5:30pm-11:30pm (dinner)

                        Sun  12pm-3pm (lunch)

                                5pm-10pm (dinner)

happy eating!

Lucy’s Espresso Bar

We park the car and are just about to set foot into Lucy’s Espresso Bar when we hear, “So, are you happy with it?”

We look up to see a shaven-headed man who proceeds to strike up a conversation, asking us about our car as he is thinking of buying the same make and model for his wife. Ahhh, such is the casual friendliness of Shire locals!

We are down in this neck of the woods to catch up with my beloved Wifey and Mistress who are already seated inside when we arrive. Lucy’s Espresso Bar is tucked in a small shopping alcove surrounded by houses – you know, the sort that has a fruit and veg store, a newsagency, an all-purpose grocery store in place of a supermarket, perhaps a dry-cleaner, a post office and an Anglicised Chinese takeaway. The cafe is full-house on this particular Sunday and we discover the food is better than its removed location would otherwise suggest. Shade umbrellas offer coverage for families sitting in the winter sun, and orders are placed at the front counter from the blackboard menu.

Wifey and I have a long history of brunching together. And coffee dates. I often feel a little seedy on Sunday mornings so it’s eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and a BLT panini for sharing between Monsieur Poisson and myself. Eggs have magical soul-restoring powers in my world and Hollandaise sauce just helps it go down that much easier. Bacon never requires much justification for its smoky, salty presence but the creamy mayonnaise and pillowy bread do make it that much more comforting.

I have eschewed my usual cup of tea in favour of a flat white and am rewarded with a robust cup of Toby’s Estate. Wifey digs into her generous serve of ‘Smoked Salmon Salad’ – look at all that avocado and ricotta as well as the salmon! – while Mistress goes for the ‘Fetta & spinach omelette’. The fetta is mild and creamy, but still delivers that requisite salty punch.

We linger for quite a while, cradling our coffees and then glasses of water, whilst the conversation flows and never are we hurried to leave.

Lucy’s Espresso Bar

4/284 Belgrave Esplanade, Sylvania Waters 2224
Tel: (02) 9522 4433

happy eating!

Sushi Bar Rashai

A dinner date with Toyboy leads us to Sushi Bar Rashai which came recommended to us by Mistress who has frequented it over the years. Situated on a non-descript section of Parramatta Road more known for its nearby bridal wear stores, Sushi Bar Rashai looks like it’s been around for some years judging from the décor.

Although there’s nothing standout about their sushi, with the rice being a little dry and compacted when we visit, nor their beef tataki, and an order of ‘Kingfish Carpaccio’ from their specials menu is a little light on punch with its dressing, their chicken karaage is juicy and not at all oily. I was tempted to order the ‘Ninja balls’ (hello Ninja!), which is a deep-fried dish of some sort, purely for the novel name factor but we appeared to be over-ordering as it was.

The hot rice dishes are much more to our liking, with the ‘Katsu curry don’ being simultaneously crunchy and comforting with its crispy, panko crumb-coated chicken fillets swathed in a thick curry sauce on rice. The ‘Beef teriyaki don’ is redolent with sweet soy flavours and both rice dishes are generous in their serving size. A pleasant surprise is found in munching on the Japanese pickles on the side – being neither too tart nor too sweet and offer palate-cleansing relief.

Dessert time sees Monsieur Poisson ordering the ‘Tempura Banana’, partly because bananas are one of his favourite fruits and partly because bananas are currently still pricey that ordering something with it feels that tiny bit indulgent.

The bananas arrive encased in a smooth batter with nothing distinctly tempura about it. Toyboy and I, however, have gone with the distinct option of wasabi ice-cream – and two scoops of it each! In hindsight it would probably have been a better idea to order a scoop of wasabi ice-cream flanked by another flavour, but we were going the whole hog here. The ice-cream looks innocent enough when it arrives, with the scoops only having the palest pastel green about them, and the flavour is quite mild...to begin with until you hit what taste like little pockets of packet wasabi! It’s sweet and hot at the same time, but not like the combination of chocolate and chilli where the chilli offers an after note of warmth.

Neither of us finished each of our two scoops. We were well and truly defeated.

Challenge?

Sushi Bar Rashai

241-243 Parramatta Rd (near cnr Macquarie St), Annandale NSW

Tel: (02) 9560 3007

Opening Hours:  Mon  CLOSED

Tues-Sun  5:30pm-10:30pm (dinner only)

happy eating!

Breakfast banquet at Kazbah Top Ryde

*beep beep beep beep...*

It’s 7am on a Sunday morning and my alarm is going off. (Insert preferred expletives here.)

It’s early. Extra early if you take into consideration Sunday standards of general laziness. But there is the promise of good food, copious amounts of it, and good company – what better way to start a Sunday morning! Some of us even choose to start the day with a bloody Mary. As you do...

At only $25 per person, our epic breakfast feast begins with a range of sizeable sweet dishes: Warm rice pudding, saffron poached pear, cinnamon & hazelnut; Date & banana porridge; Sweet couscous with nuts & dried fruits; and ‘Stewed rhubarb, milk, brown sugar & cardamom milk’ as condiments to accompany the lot. The eight of us pace ourselves with these and hardly make a dent into them. Personally I’m more a fan of savoury food for breakfast so I was definitely keeping in mind to conserve precious stomach space for what was to come.

And then it all gets a bit hectic with the arrival of two tagines – one of ‘Lamb mince, sucuk, feta, spinach, roast capsicum, caramelised onion, roast tomato, eggs’ (top left), another of ‘Pumpkin, feta, spinach, roast capsicum, caramelised onion, roast tomato, eggs’ (bottom right), and both with which I’m familiar through a previous visit to Kazbah on Darling. Then there’s the arrival of the ‘Hash browns, bacon, roasted tomato, haloumi, Merguez sausage’ platter and soon to be followed by a platter of poached, scrambled and fried eggs. The hash browns are crispy and contain a bit of spice within, and who can say no to haloumi? Sides of mushrooms, spinach and housemade baked beans along with a bowl of toasted pide and flatbread accompany the lot, plus the eggs themselves are sitting atop yet more slices of toasted Turkish bread.

As if this is not a scary enough amount of food already, the banquet ends on a sweet note of pancakes which are thick and fluffy with a crusty top which are more like thin cakes cooked in a pan, rather than American-style fluffy pancakes. The ‘Chocolate & raspberry with butterscotch sauce & choc fudge ice-cream’ makes for a nice sweet/tart combination whereas the ‘Banana & strawberry with maple syrup & double cream’ is definitely the lighter of the two.

For this price it is an insane amount of food to be served so make sure you go with some seasoned eating partners. There is a required minimum number of diners for the breakfast banquet and make sure they all turn up on the day.

Kazbah Top Ryde

La Piazza, Top Ryde Shopping Centre, corner Devlin St & Blaxland Rd, Ryde NSW

Tel: (02) 9555 7067

Opening Hours:  7 days  from 8am

happy eating!