fish Archives - The Wifey's Corner

May 29, 2018May 28, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 15

And finally we are here: the last full day of our 2017 Japan trip! On Day 15 we went to Tsukiji Market and spent the rest of the day shopping and packing. 15-day is far from enough for this trip, but we had really great time and enjoyed Japan much these past two weeks dearly!

Day 15 – 16

The first place we went to this morning was Tsukiji Market, is well-known as one of the world’s largest fish market. Note that the inner market, where the wholesale fish market and tuna auctions take place will close on 6 October 2018 and move to a new location at Toyosu from 11 October 2018. The outer market, where the retails and restaurants are open to public will remain at Tsukiji. For more information, please read here.

One of the alleys at Outer Tsukiji Market

We did not come that early to watch the tuna auction, so when we came around 9am, the market had already packed. The lines outside all those famous restaurants were already very long. We walked through all the alleys of the outer market and finally decided to join one of the shorter line. Perhaps it was not the best in the market, but we still had a great meal. But, would I come back and queue up early for the most famous restaurant there? Probably not, just because we feel the restaurants there mainly sell the same dish and being in the market, most likely they all use fresh ingredients anyway. So, yes we were content with what we had at Tsukiji.

The restaurant where we had our sashimi rice bowls 🙂

From here, we went to Tokyo station next. Originally planned to walk to Tokyo Castle, but ditched that plan due to shopping being in the higher priority. I will not bore you about how that went in the post 🙂

That’s pretty much covers our Japan trip! I always praise how good their public transport is and how punctual they are, etc. Wait until the last day when we travelled to Haneda Airport: the train actually delayed! And it was not for just 5 minutes, stopped at Shinjuku for about 10 minutes, another 6 minutes at Shibuya and we gave up. We ended up took a taxi to Shinagawa station then took another train to Haneda airport. And that drama with train literally wraps up our holiday at Japan just before we headed back 😀

What we ate on Day 15

We got this sweet tamago roll from Tsukiji Market while deciding which restaurant we should queue up. The tamago roll is slightly sweet in taste and very fluffy. Yummy!

Looks like they specialize in tamago rolls and pudding (or egg products :P). Sadly, we did not try their puddings.

And, these were our sashimi bowls and grilled tuna. Delicious and super fresh sashimi!

Sashimi salmon, tuna, (steamed or boiled) crab leg, scallop and sea urchin – ¥3,500

Sashimi salmon, tuna, (steamed or boiled) crab leg, scallop, and fatty tuna – ¥3,500

And, we thought since we had not tried Japanese curry since we arrived and it’s our last day, we should go for this. We went into this curry restaurant after shopping at Akihabara. It was not a wrong choice, great tasting curry – mind you they were really hot!!! Cannot recall the exact amount these costed us, but pretty sure it was under ¥2,000.

Bacon curry rice, very nice and tender bacon pieces

October 29, 2016

Kobe Jones Riverside Teppanyaki, Melbourne

We did the 13-course Spring Renewal Degustation at Kobe Jones finally. Have been wanting to do that for a while now and went for it while we were at Melbourne. You’d ask why do a Kobe Jones degustation at Melbourne while we also have Kobe Jones at Sydney. Well, we were looking for something special for our anniversary dinner and remembered I still had that Best Restaurant gift card which is expiring really soon. Then hubby said why don’t we go to Kobe Jones, something we have already been want to do. And as it happens our anniversary was while we were at Melbourne, hence the Riverside Melbourne branch.

Booking was easy enough through their website or phone them. We booked for 6pm thinking we’d have lots of spare time after dinner to catch the Melbourne Star ferris wheel ride. Obviously 6 pm is early for dinner, the restaurant was pretty much empty when we got there. The restaurant is made up of two sections, a larger section (our guess is the main section) consists of their kitchen and teppanyaki style seating; then on a separate smaller section is the sleek riverside seating area for Kobe Jones dining.

One of the great thing about degustation is that we don’t need to make any decisions, no fuss over which menu to order etc. And on top of that, you’ll get to taste a little bit of many dishes, excellent! The original Spring Revival degustation is a 12-course, but we upgraded to include their famous lobster and glass of champagne. Without further ado, let’s get into our courses of the night:

kobe-jones14 — Glass of Möet & Chandon Brut Impérial NV

Number One Special - crab salad with avocado wrapped in Hiramasa kingfish and nori, baked in a secret sauce and topped with bittersweet soy glaze — Number One Special – crab salad with avocado wrapped in Hiramasa kingfish and nori, baked in a secret sauce and topped with bittersweet soy glaze. This tasted soooooo good…. My second favorite of all dishes that night.

Crab croquette - creamy crab and corn croquettes shallow-fried in soybean oil with jalapeno salsa and tonkatsu sauce — Crab croquette – creamy crab and corn croquettes shallow-fried in soybean oil with jalapeno salsa and tonkatsu sauce. Love the crispy outside and creamy inside texture, not oily at all.

Wagyu Tataki - seared, chilled and topped with bush herbs and soy onion dressing — Wagyu Tataki – seared, chilled and topped with bush herbs and soy onion dressing. The wagyu are tender with delicate seasoning, a very refreshing dish.

Dragon Egg - tuna tartare sushi mixed with chipotle mayonnaise on a shiso leaf, topped with avocado and finished with ponzu sauce — Dragon Egg – tuna tartare sushi mixed with chipotle mayonnaise on a shiso leaf, topped with avocado and finished with ponzu sauce. This is hubby’s favorite dish of the night, actually this picture really didn’t do justice of the taste. It is very delicious.

Volcano Roll - oven-baked scallops layered on a crab salad avocado roll with special cream sauce and sesame seed and shallot sprinkle — Volcano Roll – oven-baked scallops layered on a crab salad avocado roll with special cream sauce and sesame seed and shallot sprinkle. Another pretty dish, but also delicately delicious!

Somen and tofu salad - somen noodles and crispy tofu with mixed leaves and soy dressing — Somen and tofu salad – somen noodles and crispy tofu with mixed leaves and soy dressing. Love the dressings and those crispy tofu. Up to this point, I started feeling full and yet we were only half way through.

Kobe’s Miso Soup - housemade dashi with a blend of red and white miso to create the perfect umami flavour — Kobe’s Miso Soup – house made dashi with a blend of red and white miso to create the perfect umami flavour. We love that the miso soup is very well seasoned, not too salty as you might find it in many places.

Whiting Slyder - tempura sand whiting served in a brioche bun with shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, Japanese pickle and egg — Whiting Slider – tempura sand whiting served in a brioche bun with shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, Japanese pickle and egg. Honestly, I’d prefer to have it without the brioche 🙂

Yakitori - robata-grilled skewers of marinated chicken with baby leeks and teriyaki sauce — Yakitori – robata-grilled skewers of marinated chicken with baby leeks and teriyaki sauce. This is probably our least favorite dish, we both found it too bland and not enough sauce or not marinated enough. But, the chicken is well cooked and succulent.

Wagyu hot rock - self-cook your own wagyu sirloin AA5+ just the way you like it, with dipping sauces — Wagyu hot rock – self-cook your own wagyu sirloin AA5+ just the way you like it, with dipping sauces. This dish is a bit of fun dish where they were delivered raw sitting on top of the hot rock and you can cook them to your liking. Probably we left ours a tad too long, hence slightly chewy beef.

Miso Citrus Lobster Tail - baby lobster tail lightly cooked in a wafu thermidor sauce, drizzled with miso citrus sauce and served on a bed of steamed vegetables — Miso Citrus Lobster Tail – baby lobster tail lightly cooked in a wafu thermidor sauce, drizzled with miso citrus sauce and served on a bed of steamed vegetables. My favorite dish for the night! I love everything about this dish, yummy lobster tail with yummy sauce.

Flaming Anko - green tea crème brûlée with red bean served flaming to the table for a caramelised finish — Flaming Anko – green tea crème brûlée with red bean served flaming to the table for a caramelised finish. Now this one is definitely theatrical, it is served flaming – we were too amazed to take pictures and by the time we remembered, the flame has gone. This dessert is a great way to close the degustation, very creamy and has the earthy matcha flavour, not overly sweet. I would have eaten a lot of this, had I not been too full.

It was a superb experience for us, we enjoyed almost every single dish they have. And don’t be fooled by the size of each course. We left with super full and heavy stomach ლ(´ڡ`ლ) For me, I was already so full after course 8 and for the rest I just tasted a little, except the lobster tail. It is evident that they have used fresh and good quality of produce, not to mention the beautiful plating up. Definitely give this a try if you are into Japanese fusion meal, and lobster upgrade is absolutely a must!

Kobe Jones Riverside Teppanyaki

G16/18-38 Siddeley St, Docklands VIC 3005

(03) 9329 9173

kobejones.com.au

September 12, 2016August 20, 2023

Krisna Kuliner, Tuban

Here we came to (probably) the last post for our most recent Bali trip now, at last! My apology that it took forever to come to this post since I started it about two months ago 😛 The last dinner we had before departing Bali was at Krisna Kuliner in Tuban, just across the 24 hours Krisna Oleh Oleh shop.

Honestly there are too many other places to try, but we somehow landed at this place. Originally we planned to try Warung Subak for seafood, but once we got there and walked around, we ended up with other food instead. Nonetheless, most of them are satisfying to both taste buds and wallets!

Shall we start with a brief tour of Krisna Kuliner? As the name suggests, it is indeed managed by the same group as Krisna Oleh Oleh chains with same purposes. It is like a huge food court where you can find many favourite Balinese food or restaurant brands. I think they have a very smart concept that attracts tourists, where people can enjoy shopping for all those Balinese souvenirs then cross the street for a Balinese meal. Kind of like a one-stop-shop!

Here is the list of restaurants that can be found at Krisna Kuliner:

Bebek Tepi Sawah
Be Sanur
Warung Krishna
Mbok Limbok
Warong Miyabi
Betutu Men Tempeh
Warung Subak

We ended up ordering food from Mbok Limbok, Warung Krishna and Be Sanur. Be Sanur is famous for its fried fish (similar to Warung Mak Beng); whereas Mbok Limbok specialises on fried chicken with crunchy flakes aka kremes. Warung Krishna serves Balinese style food, such as nasi campur bali etc. Here are what we had for dinner:

mbok-limbok2 — Fried chicken with crispy flakes (Ayam goreng penyet kremes) @ Mbok Limbok

mbok-limbok — Fried cabbage @ Mbok Limbok

mbok-limbok3 — Grilled Chicken with sambal matah @ Warung Krishna

The fish tasted ok, a tad too dry but hot sambal saved the day. Both fried and grilled chicken were tasty – unfortunately the crunchy flakes (kremes) wasn’t as crispy as we had hoped for. The fried cabbage was soggy and oily, I’d imagine it will taste really good had it been fried correctly. It seems like they fried the cabbage before the oil got hot enough. But, all in all I wouldn’t say the food was inedible or horribly, it was ok, we got to taste a bit of everything. By the way, you can get your own rice and lalap (Indonesian salad) from the bench – so help yourself to the amount that suit you.

Total bill for the meal including two iced tea was IDR 154,100 (approx AUD 15), ain’t that wallet friendly? 😀

We were impressed with the food options, how convenience it is, and not to mention cheap! As the result, we have decided to come back here again in the next Bali trip, to try Warung Subak 🙂

Krisna Kuliner

Jl. Raya Tuban, Tuban, Kuta

Phone: +62 361 768077

http://www.krisnabali.co.id/krisna-wisata-kuliner/

September 4, 2016March 9, 2023

[Review] Lia Cafe, Jimbaran

On our previous Bali trip, we went to Warung Mami and it was mind-blowing and definitely great place for seafood lovers! On this trip to Bali however, we decided to try on another one that is listed as top 5 on TripAdvisor, Lia Cafe. We’d like to see how good it is compared to all that we have tried before that it deserves such high ranking 🙂 Also, hubby craved for crispy deep fried squid, which unfortunately is not available at Warung Mami.

We left from the hotel around 4 pm on motor bike and set to Cafe Lia directly. The trip took about 40 minutes (includes some wrong turns and some light traffic along the way). We got to the restaurant before the dinner rush, so there were still plenty of beach seating available. And we are being not much of a romantic. chose the more practical seats inside the restaurant but looking out to the beach.

We chose type of seafood we’d like and how they are cooked as we walked in to the restaurant. And soon after we sat down, the waiter brought over our drinks, complimentary fish soup, fruit salad and nuts. And not before long, our order came out together, yeehaaa!

lia cafe — The fish soup, surprisingly refreshing and tasty

lia cafe7 — The condiments – garlic oil, sambal matah and sambal terasi

The seafood are fresh and well-cooked, but we think both the marinate and sambals are lack of punch. It just felt a little too bland to our liking, but then again, I guess they adjust the spice to suit many international tourists hence they cannot be too spicy.

Overall it was a nice dinner, great view and we had good shares of seafood feast albeit didn’t taste as great as we had hoped for. The total spend for the dinner around AUD 44, pretty good right? But for the reasons we mentioned above, we may not be coming back, would love to try other places or just go back to Warung Mami 🙂

Lia Cafe

Jalan Pemelisan Agung, Jimbaran, Kuta Selatan, Kabupaten Badung, Bali

Phone: +62 361 709002

July 22, 2015January 1, 2016

Baked Salmon with Garlic, Lime, and Dijon Mustard

That one Friday night where we were too lazy to cook or dining out either and it was my turn to prepare dinner (arrrgghhhh…). I got home and looked into the fridge, freezer, and pantry; hoping I can make something really quick. Once I saw the three pieces of salmon fillet sitting in the freezer, I decided that would be our dinner! ~(˘▾˘~) (~˘▾˘)~

This dish is very easy and quick to make, one of those truly effortless recipe. I think the only challenge would be just how long and the oven temperature to cook the salmon. Overcooked salmon can be too dry just as not enjoyable as if it is undercooked. Unfortunately that every oven is not the same, you will need to work out the time and temperature to cook the salmon for best result. Know your oven and practice makes perfect!

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