Sokyo // November

So you may recall that sometime ago,  i’ve blogged about Sokyo before. This was during their September seasonal “absolutely crab-ulous” monthly special .

Midway through exams is not the best time to dine, but i still think about their amazing Crab Chawanmushi steamed egg (above) stuck at the back of my mind. Like i’ve mentioned before, too much of a good thing is always a good thing. So i caved into temptation to try their November Seasonal “Amazing Crays” crayfish special.

I love a good food pun, and really, that seasonal food cray. Lobster was unavailable tonight but following the chef’s advice we go with the Scampi, seared foie gras torchon served with apple mizuna salad, lime and white soy.

You might find it a bit strange but i’ve never really gotten into the excitement about foie gras. However, combined with sweet scampi and refreshing apple it was delicious and you get a nice balance between the flavours. Yes please.

Following this came a number of hot dishes such as the above Dengakuman of miso marinated fish. For me this is usually a stable option i like to order at Japanese restaurants and i prefer this one due to the sweeter miso marinade. The rest i didn’t bother to capture, because that was not the highlight of the show tonight.

Now to the highlight, this is the real deal – Blue Fin Toro tuna straight from Japan.

My guess is that if you tell someone that you’re visiting Sokyo they’ll tell you to order the Crispy Spicy Tuna nigiri or the Queensland roll. There’s nothing wrong with that because they’re both really good but there’s a lot more than just that such as, Blue fin toro straight from Japan. This is probably the closest i’ll get to having a taste of a bit of Japan in Sydney.

The nigiri sushi comes quite quickly, the chef asks if we’re full and smiles when we politely ask for more. We were a little bit hungry and greedy i believe.

A compilation of the dishes we had.

Our meal concluded with something sweet. You must be confused, but it’s not what you think. I’ve been meaning to slow down on sugar but the special Tofu Cheesecake was just too hard to resist. It’s not offered on the menu as it is made in limited quantities as a special but the waitress whispers that she’ll see if theres any left. Sometimes you get lucky and this is what you get.

It looks like a block of tofu moulded into the actual shape of box, but taste wise was unexpected and definitely incredible. There was no tofu taste as such, but it was a a very light and smooth cheesecake. The added tofu created a very silky smooth custard texture. The dessert was balance and light, not of the rich heavy kind like what you would expect usually. I want more.

And if you’re interested in trying the seasonal crayfish special, the November special concludes end of month on the 30th.

E.

Sokyo at The Star.

I have a confession to make, of the food kind. Up until last year or so, i was under the false impression that “fusion” cuisine was nonsense and that in reality, was just a shortened term for food confusion. The idea of it came across as amateur chefs mixing elements from two (or more) cuisines together (not knowing how to cook either properly), passing their dishes off as “fusion” or as a “modern” style of cooking. But my first proper fusion experience at Sokyo a year or so ago, proved me wrong. Very wrong.

I’ve been back to Sokyo a few times since then, but the reason for my recent visit was because they were doing an “Absolutely Crab-ulous” Special Seasonal Crab menu for the month. I love seafood and i love crab, so i definitely didn’t want to miss out on this one.

The Sashimi platter arrives to impress with cuts of different types of fresh fish, four different sauces and a smoking cup of dry ice for the visual effect.

The next was our first dish from the special crab menu, a Chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) with burnt butter and spanner crab (15).

We ate this in complete silence, the silky savoury egg custard with generous chunks of crab meat was just too good for words. We were later informed by the waiter that there is only one dedicated chef in the kitchen who is allowed to make this and this is the only dish he makes all evening. This was definitely the best Chawanmushi i have had so far, all thanks to the one dedicated Chawanmushi man in the kitchen.

I dont usually like the idea of uni (sea urchin) and the Robata special came at an expensive price tag of $40 (for two bite sized pieces), a lot for something i usually wouldn’t like. But it was amazing. The King crab meat was topped with smokey creamy uni seasoned with shiro dashi and Japanese Pepper.

Our dinner continues with the rest of their usual menu with the John Dory as the first main to arrive. The interesting and slightly humorous part of this dish is that  the star of the dish is not the fish itself, but the vegetables underneath. The fish is good but for some reason, the sauteed vegetables underneath is so incredible it could be served up as a dish in itself.

The “Kobe Cuisine” Wagyu Tenderloin follows with tender melt-in-your-mouth pieces of wagyu beef.

Apart from the two mains we also ordered sides of tamago (because we couldn’t get enough of the egg,) and as recommended by the waiter we ordered grilled mushrooms, which were so simple but delicious.

Between two, we had a lot to eat and dessert was out of the question. Apart from being very full, usually we are not too much into sweets or desserts but having seen another tables order we caved in and decided to share the Peanut Butter Chocolate Fondant….

And there was absolutely no regrets.

The fondant flows out with peanut butter accompanied by a scoop of sesame icecream. My friend tells me over dinner that Sokyo recently gained a hat and i can definitely see why. I’ve left behind my confusion over “fusion”, and i’m definitely a very happy convert now. Food was good, dessert was delicious and service was excellent.

To follow this post, will be an experience of Black’s version of the Absolutely Crab-ulous menu.

E.

Melbourne: Golden Fields

To say that i ate a lot on my first day in Melbourne, is an understatement. After baked eggs at Hardware Societe, a second coffee at Patricia Coffee Brewers, we headed off to Golden Fields in St Kilda for lunch. My friend swears that they serve the best lobster rolls, and so we ended up here for our “light” third meal of the day.

Golden Fields is a restaurant offering broad selection of food dishes focusing on Asian flavours. The dishes are served as small sharing plates, which was the perfect amount as we were still relatively full from the previous two places. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted with a spacious minimalist interior with a clean decor. I really liked the simple interior design of the restaurant and to the right there was also large marble bar area that overlooks into the open kitchen.

Our orders were taken, cutlery was placed and instead of bread, toasted pumpkin seeds arrived on our table served in a small metal plate. The strangely addictive seeds were good to nibble on and didn’t take up much stomach space, leaving room for the food dishes that were soon to arrive.

The raw cold entrees were first to arrive with fresh oysters, a beautifully presented plate of Duckfish (served with salmon roe, ginger and lime), aswell as the Bonito (served with white miso).

The Bonito is to be eaten with a nori seaweed wrap and dipped in a light ponzu dressing. These were all very light and refreshing dishes before the more substantial hot mains arrive.

Onto the real reason we came here, because my friend is completely obsessed and addicted to their famed lobster rolls (15). The rolls came with cold poached chunks of crayfish meat served with watercress and kewpie mayo, sandwiched between a hot buttered brioche bun. The amusing part of this was while everyone really enjoyed it,  someone mentioned that they could taste a McDonald’s “fillet o fish” taste to it. One or two others also agreed, which leaves me a little confused, but none the less it was still a good lobster roll. There is not much that can go wrong with kewpie mayo combined with fresh generous chunks of crayfish.

By the time the last dishes arrived, we were reaching a really full stage not much to our surprise. The last to arrive was the Glacier Toothfish served with clams, spinach and salted radish (39) aswell as a really deliciously fragrant dish of Wild cultivated mushrooms stir fried in miso butter (16). The mushrooms were really tasty and i would’ve finished the dish alone if i had not been so full.

This was my third stop out of seven on my first day in Melbourne after the Hardware Societe, and Patricia Coffee Brewers. A lot was consumed and still a lot more to go in just a little span of 48 hours.

E.