Eating in a box

Finally getting around to posting our second fabulous meal in Tokyo. We met another friend for lunch near in the Ginza area. She suggested Aya and booked us a seat for an Omakase lunch.  We had a little trouble finding the rest aurant, as you can see the front door is a little tucked into the building and just like the other place you probably wouldn’t have thought the door lead to a restaurant. Inside the restaurant sat a total of eight people. The Chef worked in the center and as you can see there was a wall of beautiful dishes that he plated his creations, the space was very efficiently used. There were two waitstaff that assisted with bringing out things from the back as well as tending to your needs. I really like this style of eating, you feel very close to the restaurant and the people designing the wonderful food and ambiance that you are enjoying. Although the chef didn’t speak much english between ingredients and words I was familiar with (and gestures) ...

I took the Missus for her birthday dinner over to Aqua Dining . It was located right off the water on the north side of the bridge next to Luna Park (literally). I was so delighted with the meal I had to share. Aqua is located in same building as the North Sydney Olympic Pool. It's got a great breath taking view of the harbor bridge and opera house. It's situated over the main pool, I'll say it's a little weird having dinner overlooking a bunch of people in their speedo's doing laps it's a very busy pool. Since you're sitting above the pool it kind of fades into the background, eye level is the harbor view. The staff were very attentive (our waiter noticed the table was wobbly and brought over cork shims to immediately rectify the problem) and did a great job of checking on us without being intrusive. Normally this isn't worth calling out, but in Sydney service is a bit less attentive than what you might be use to in the US. On to the food: I ...

So in Austin we have two dedicated Ramen shops. To most of us growing up ramen was a 10 - 50 cent (depending if you go with the good stuff or not) package of fried noodles with a delicious hypertension inducing soup base. It's the mainstay of surviving on a budget in college so you can still have fun on the weekends. I hadn't had "real" ramen before trying it at  Freddy's truck Michi  (now a  restaurant ). It was a life changing event. I recommend the meat lovers in stout broth, on a cold winter day (heck even in the heat of summer) it'll do you good. To my delight Australia is apparently full of ramen shops, granted quantity doesn't mean quality but just like most things I've encountered "down under" things are just a little bit different. One of the things I learned is that a lot of the shops here serve "thick" style broth. Now, being a fan of Michi's stout I figured "ok thick that's the stuff I want". Thick...

We recently took a weekend to explore south Austin and we had such a fabulous dinner that I couldn't help post it. Barley Swine is a small restaurant south of the river, it sits about 50 (my wife counted) and has been quite a hotspot over the past few years. The chef/owner started out with Odd Duck trailer and ultimately opened brick and mortar restaurants, first Barley Swine and later Odd Duck. It seems when Odd Duck opened Barley Swine converted to a nightly prix fixe menu. They offer a wine/beer pairing to accompany each course (which I highly recommend). Above is a picture of the amuse bouche of a sea urchin lettuce wrap with fried buckwheat groats. It was a lovely blend of textures (crunchy and creamy) it was paired with a sparkling wine which offset the richness of the uni. Our favorite (and first) dish of the evening was this red snapper with strawberry ponzu with toasted quinoa. The pickled abalone mushroom with trout roe and green gaspacho was delicious, the fried ka...

I have to admit I was a bit curious about my invitation to Haddingtons for another foodblogger event. I felt like the last one was only a few months ago and checking my post, yup March was my last visit. Turns out Haddington's has relaunched with a new chef so there's new items to be had! I have to apologize in advance about the blurred picture i'm still getting the hang of my new camera and although it all looks good on the tiny LCD i should have re-checked it. I may have to reconsider either carrying an LCD booklight or using the flash (or try to find a lower light lense). It didn't help that the party room was dimly lit, but were it not a photographing event it would have been considered a cozy pub so you can't knock the lighting that bad :). The decor is the same but apparently the guys in the kitchen and bar aren't. I guess that's why we were invited. New ideas and new menu items and this time I got a chance to speak with our host, Chef Jimmy Corwell (a...