Exceeding expectations at Sakana-Ya

Crows Nest is littered with eateries, especially Japanese ones, and you’ll find Sakana-Ya just down the road from Ju-Rin. With its unassuming and slightly dated entrance, it is hard to gauge what style of Japanese food Sakana-Ya serves within and what type of market they’re catering for. But venture through the blue curtains and the sliding glass door, and I can guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The décor within matches the doorway and is somewhat non-descript with wood panelling halfway up the walls and dark brown café-style furniture. Apart from the paper lantern light fixtures and the odd fishing rod and paper fan affixed to the walls, it could just as easily be an eatery which serves neither Japanese nor seafood but rather a different cuisine altogether. However the aromas upon stepping in are unmistakably Japanese – being those of pickled ginger and sweet sukiyaki sauce.

We are seated and served small complimentary dishes of edamame, each containing several pods. Whilst perusing the menu, we notice how “fishy” the place is – the aforementioned fishing rods on the wall, the fish painted on our sauce dishes and the two little guys printed on the paper placemats hiding underneath the serviette and chopstick setting. There is a serious amount of seafood offer and Monsieur Poisson politely complies by ordering, first up, one of his favourite things: sea urchin.

The uni sashimi is presented attractively in an open abalone shell surrounded by sides of colour, and is the largest we’ve ever seen. Monsieur Poisson attests to their sweet freshness, whilst a particular food blogger may or may not have been seen dangling a piece between her lips to resemble a tongue. (All photographic evidence of which has been destroyed. Ahem.)

This is followed by ‘Tuna Tar-tar’ which we feel required more lubrication. Whilst the ingredients and especially the tuna are fresh, the raw egg yolk when mixed through doesn’t provide quite the amount of creaminess of which we had hoped. Perhaps mayonnaise might have been a welcome addition?

Their tempura and sashimi platter doesn’t disappoint with its fresh, cold and bouncy fish slices and light, crunchy tempura. I do wish we’d been afforded the other half of that soft-shell crab though!

The ox tongue is thinly sliced and well seasoned, and we order a bowl of green tea soba in hot soup simply because there aren’t enough places which serve flavoured soba. The noodles are slippery with a slight bite but don’t top those made in-house at Ju Ge Mu & Shimbashi.

And because we greedily wanted to try too many things, we are already quite full by the time our bara-sushi is brought out to us. Lifting the lid off the lacquerware box reveals masses of shredded egg omelette shielding the seafood and rice underneath, apart from the cooked prawns and strategically placed salmon roe on top. Digging in, we discover a delightfully high topping to rice ratio but can only make our way through half of it and take the remainder home. The rolled egg omelette branded with Sakana-Ya’s name in Japanese is a cute touch, as are the serving plates again emblazoned with fish – one of which is of a fugu.

But there is somehow always room for dessert! The ‘An-mitsu and green tea float set’ proves much better value than ordering the two separately, and we are rewarded with a bowl of green tea and vanilla ice-cream sitting on a base of chewy discs of mochi and springy cubes of agar jelly alongside a generous scoop of azuki paste. All this is washed down with a slightly unattractive, aloe vera-tinged green tea drink which becomes enjoyably creamy when the large scoop of ice-cream bobbing about is allowed to meld into it.

Admittedly Sakana-Ya is on the pricey side, but in exchange you do receive quality, freshness and simplicity which respects the true flavours of the food. The service is polite and it has been around for years, which serves someway of attesting to its enduring standards.

Sakana-Ya

336 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW

Tel: (02) 9438 1468

*Bookings are highly recommended, especially on weekends.*

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  12pm-2:30pm (lunch)

  6pm-10:30pm (dinner)

                        Sun & Sat  6pm-10:30pm (dinner only)

happy eating!

The Bicentenary

A wardrobe full of clothes, yet nothing to wear. A folder full of – no, bursting with – photos, yet no idea what to blog about.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Of course there’s always plenty of blogging fodder, just nothing that jumps out as appropriate to mark the occasion of two hundred posts. Throw in my sometimes laziness mixed in with the sporadic interruptions and busyness of life, and I have a myriad of material of which some is unfortunately now outdated. (There really is no point talking about a place which has closed down, is there? Or of a place where the menu has changed 3 times since you visited.) So many delicious memories, so little time! *sigh*

And so goes the life and times of a food blogger. When those around you are so accepting that they wait for you to take photos. And apologise if they’ve “disturbed” the food prior to said photo-taking. They ask you why you’re not taking photos when you don’t. They make you take photos even when you say you won’t.

They bring back gifts of food, cookbooks, magazines, crockery even from their travels; for nothing but out of respect for your love and pursuit of food.

They bring you a whole chicken and a tub of vampire-deterring sauce from a famed charcoal place, when all you asked for was to pick up some dip “somewhere along the way”.

They compliment the foccacia you make, even when you made the silly move of covering it with paper towel for the second prove and have to ask for their help to pick off all the little bits of paper adhered to the dough before you can stick it in the oven.

They think of places for shared meals as suggestions for you to blog.

They do all this and much, much more.

Thank you for sharing my meals through eating, reading and allowing me to feed you. Thank you for making me laugh over food, about food, and many other things.

You all know who you are.

happy cooking & happy eating!

The beginnings: Garfish Kirribilli

The afternoons are sunny, the evenings are balmy and the shadows are long. You don’t feel like cooking and a great way of celebrating the Australian summer is by enjoying a meal of well-cooked seafood. Of course, it’s even better when you can eschew the cooking process and have the food presented to you, quite literally, on a platter.

Some months ago when the weather was similarly warm, we enjoyed dinner with Weirdo and Ms Sourdough at Garfish Kirribilli. They had heard good things about it from a friend, while Monsieur Poisson and I had already had a pleasant experience at Garfish Crows Nest. Garfish Kirribilli is where the trio of restaurants started and, with Ms Sourdough in tow, how could we not but start the meal with her namesake.

Served with extra virgin olive oil and za'atar for dipping, the bread is chewy and crusty and great to share whilst chatting. Monsieur Poisson and I are rather full from a late lunch that day and choose to share an entrée and main dish between us for the evening. We start with ‘Scallops with spinach, lime butter and matchstick potatoes’. Plump and golden seared scallops lay alongside wilted spinach in a pool of creamy lime butter adorned with crunchy straws of potato which remind me of pre-packaged foil packs of French fries.

This is followed by ‘Crumbed red spot whiting with chips and tartare’ which Weirdo has also ordered. I’ve always preferred fish being crumbed over battered as it always seems less greasy (or perhaps I could just be fooling myself here) and reminds me of childhood frozen fish fingers. With whiting fillets being quite small and narrow in shape, this is a dish of fish fingers of a more refined kind served with a tangy tartare.

Ms Sourdough has the ‘Barramundi with beurre fondue, kipfler potatoes, iceberg lettuce, lardons and chives’. The mention of beurre fondue and lardons has me completely sold but the lettuce is the surprising star, along with the crispy skinned fish of course, being only slightly wilted while still retaining plenty of crunch.

Dessert sees the ordering of several Belgian waffles, a permanent fixture on Garfish’s menu – with hokey pokey ice-cream, caramel and almonds; a special with strawberries and white chocolate ice-cream; and with chocolate ice-cream, mocha sauce and peanut brittle. Monsieur Poisson, however, has the ‘Pear tarte tartin [sic] with cinnamon ice-cream’ which is not quite as flaky as we’d like.

The waffles are thick and doughy and generously sprinkled with various toppings for textural interest, with the peanut brittle being particularly good. They make for an aptly sweet ending to a meal which, perhaps due to being seafood, leaves us full and satisfied but not clutching our bellies in discomfort.

Garfish Kirribilli

2/21 Broughton St (entrance around corner on Burton St), Kirribilli NSW

Tel: (02) 9922 4322

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  7:30am-11am (breakfast)

  12pm-3pm (lunch)

  6pm-9:30pm (dinner)

                        Sun  9am-11am (breakfast)

                                12pm-3pm (lunch)

                                6pm-8:30pm (dinner)

happy eating!

Chinese New Year 2011

Growing up many years ago in Sydney, Chinese New Year had very little impact on me as there were hardly any festivities about, plus all the family we have lived overseas. Mother had drummed the cultural importance of it into me but, with it being as much a celebration of family union as it is the new (northern hemisphere) spring season as well as the new year, well, it was somewhat lacking in atmosphere and excitement which made it hard to appreciate the significance.

Then we spent it in Hong Kong one year when I was around the age of 7. It was a complete revelation – celebratory foods which I had never seen, smelt or tasted graced storefronts and markets in colourful packaging which could be purchased by the pound. Hong Kong is a place steeped in Chinese culture with Western influences and relics of British colonial rule; pre-packaged goods appear in metric units, but fresh goods at markets or older style grocery stores are still purchased by the pound or by the “gun” (斤) which is equivalent to around 600 grams.

The days leading up to the new year saw a flurry of activity I had never witnessed beyond my own household – cleaning the home, having hair cut and buying new clothes all to welcome the new year and a fresh start in the best possible way. There is also the practical reason of making sure your home and its people are presentable for receiving visitors during the new year period. We either had family visiting us or we ourselves were off to various relatives’ places which made it seem like a party which stretched on for several days. For the very first time, I laid eyes on a “chuen hup” (全盒) – a Chinese candy box used to present sweets to guests who visit your home during Chinese New Year. Us kids, of course, looked forward not to the traditional Chinese sweets such as dried and sugared coconut and winter melon or lotus seeds, but rather the inclusions of chocolates and fruit lollies. And now, with Monsieur Poisson and I married and with our own home, a Chinese candy box is one of things I’d like to add to our household inventory.

That trip also marked the first time where I was surrounded by family on the eve of Chinese New Year for “tuen nin fahn” (團年飯) – a family reunion dinner where togetherness, completeness and abundance are celebrated. Our dinner this year was held at Fook Yuen (馥苑) with the feast officially beginning when ‘Ginger and spring onion crab on a bed of e-fu noodles’ (薑蔥蟹伊麵底) is brought to the table; its lengthy noodles symbolising longevity. A whole steamed parrot fish with ginger and spring onions soon follows and the head is offered to my mother-in-law out of respect as she is most senior at our table. Fish cheeks happen to be prized as there is so little of it per fish and are incredibly smooth in texture.

‘Crispy skin chicken’ is a favourite of my mother-in-law’s, and especially on occasions like this as chickens mean eggs and eggs mean further chickens – it’s all about offspring and the continuation of family in Chinese terms. The water spinach stir-fried with chilli and fermented bean curd (椒絲腐乳通菜) is much less symbolic and purely for the purposes of us needing some vegetables as part of the meal!

A dish which has graced our family dinners in recent times is deep-fried milk (炸鮮奶) – cubes of milk with eggwhite coated in batter and deep-fried. A plateful of these are usually served with white sugar for dipping but, on this occasion, acts as a side to stir-fried prawns. Not Cantonese in origin and not found on menus all that often, I urge you to try it if you come across it.

An eggplant hotpot offers more vegetable relief (aubergine!) as do stir-fried garlic shoots with wood ear fungus and pork strips. “Hoi tong tofu” (海棠豆腐) is a textural delight with a steamed soybean milk and eggwhite base topped with a jumble of prawns, dried shiitake mushrooms, pork and sliced Chinese broccoli ‘gai larn’ stems.

Complimentary red bean soup (紅豆沙) rounds off our meal along with a fruit platter (unpictured), as well as the new year’s addition of deep-fried sesame balls (笑口棗). Crispy on the outside, they have a bready-biscuity centre and their burst open appearance are said to resemble smiling mouths.

This year heralded the introduction of a few new year traditions to the Délicieuse/Poisson household. The first involved buying a Chinese new year’s cake “nin go/nian gao” (年糕) as it’s something my mother has always done. The second was the making of peanut cookies, but I’m afraid the deep-fried glutinous rice balls (below) were store-bought. The third involved a vegetarian meal on the first day of the new year – something which is done to appease the gods and also to cleanse the body following heavy eating on the eve of the new year, as well as prior to the feasting which follows.

Hairy melon/gourd (節瓜) which had been scraped of seeds and poached in stock were topped with stir-fried vegetables and wood ear fungus. The poaching liquid then became the base for a light soup with tofu, ‘choy sum’ and konjac/konnyaku jelly threads. 

Regardless of whether the meal appeased the gods or not, hopefully it will become a part of our own yearly ritual and something that can be passed onto our future children to deepen their understanding of Chinese New Year.

Fook Yuen (馥苑)

Level 1, 7 Help St, Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9413 2688

Opening Hours:  7 days  around 10am-3pm (yum cha lunch)

            around 5pm-11pm (dinner)

happy chinese new year & happy eating!