Bentoya - Hardware Lane

Gaz bought through Groupon, a voucher for a 9 course Japanese dinner for two at Bentoya Restaurant recently. The voucher cost $50.

When we redeemed the voucher, what we did not expect was a good quantity of good quality food. With these types of promotions, I had come to expect a big selection of fried foods (maybe because it is easier and quicker to prepare) and ordinary items such as rice and miso soup for example, contributing to the count.

At Bentoya, we were provided very prompt service. The dishes were served in quick succession,  which was good because we did not have to wait long in between courses.

The first dish was salmon carpaccio. Thin slices of salmon were topped with seaweed, finely sliced Spanish onions and surprisingly, finely grated cheese. With all the different ingredients in the dish, the taste of salmon was a little lost. It was more like salmon salad, which is not a bad thing.

Pork gyoza, which was deep fried to give a satisfying crunch to the gyoza skin.

The other entrees were takoyaki and endamame, which were not pictured. We were also provided rice and a beverage each.

One of the four mains were the fish pot, a dish I enjoyed very much. The broth was sweet, and the abundance of veges and tofu made it a very satisfying dish to eat with rice.

Wafu steak is the restaurant's specialty. It was served medium rare with a side salad of seaweed and cucumber and onion salad to add acid to the dish. It was a good combination.

Pork katsu which was liberally battered and fried to crispy heaven. The pork was still juicy inside.

The other main was chicken curry. Gaz thought it was not really special as we cook it often at home. Another dish was the vegetarian croquette.  Although it was listed on the menu, we did not receive the dish but we did not mind because by the time the third last dish arrived, we were already very full.

To end our dining experience,  we had green tea mochi which looked to be store bought, and green tea.

Overall it was a very good dinner experience.

Update: This restaurant is now closed.

Supernormal - CBD

Supernormal is a restaurant we have wanted to visit for some time so when we had some spare time this week, we took the opportunity to dine here.

Supernormal is open all day without a break between the lunch and dinner services. It is great for people like us who do not mind eating at any hour of the day. Lunch at three? No problems. Dinner at five? Yup. Snack at four, supper at seven? Perfect.

We arrived at Supernormal at three, well past the lunch rush. We were ushered to a booth table in no time at all. I did not like the cold steel topped tables and the rustic little metal plates they used to serve pumpkin seeds in. But they fit in with the industrial theme of the restaurant and the pumpkin seeds were complimentary.

We ordered steamed grouper, clams, soy dashi and wakame $35. See the muslin like clump on top of the dish? It's wakame layered upon wakame to form a block then dried and shaved. It melts in the mouth to nothingness, leaving only a sweet taste and a sense of wonderment and curiosity of what it is.

The broth so delicious and tasty that we almost licked the bowl clean.

New England lobster roll $16. I placed a pumpkin seed on the plate for size comparison. The roll is roughly half the size of my palm.

After hearing so much about the lobster roll, I had high expectations for it. It was good, the brioche was sweet and buttery and I liked the mayo in the bun but I found the lobster meat to be quite chewy.

Gaz thought the smell and taste of the bun reminded him of McDonald's Fillet O' Fish burger and it did too for me! Perhaps it was because of the mix of sugar and smell of mayo.

The rice cracker with pickled onion and Tasmanian sea urchin was a special of the day. It was $5 per cracker. The cracker was light and crunchy. The sea urchin I thought should have been creamy was more gelatinous but went well with the pickled onion.

Spanner crab salad, cabbage hearts, watercress, and miso dressing $18. We liked this dish very much, it was light and refreshing. There were actual chunks of crab meat in the salad.

The food was fresh, innovative and of good quality. But like most fancy restaurants, we did not feel full afterwards.

Kotaraya - Oakleigh South

Kotaraya in Oakleigh South is a restaurant we visited recently. It has a classier decor than most suburban Asian restaurant. Down lights, a bar, nicely painted maroon walls is classy when put into context with the predominantly $17-18 dishes served.

Kotaraya serves a mix of Malaysian and Thai food. There is also a full page dedicated to Malaysian hawker fare.

We noticed a few dishes in the menu that had won an Asian food festival award 14 and 15 years ago. Perhaps they were trailblazer dishes during that time in Aust... but 15 years is a very long time. Perhaps it is time to ditch mention of the year from the menu?

We ordered the Thai fish (award winner from a decade ago) which was fried fillets of fish topped with sauce reminiscent of tom yum flavour $18. The waitress who took our order tried to explain the dish in Mandarin. She did not look Chinese so when she started speaking in Mandarin I could only gape because it threw me off completely so much so that she asked the question I was going to ask her, 'Are you Chinese?'

The other dish we ordered was the coconut butter chicken $17. We did not expect this dish to turn out also fried. I liked them both but the meal turned out quite dry though.

The restaurant was adequately staffed unlike the typical Asian restaurants where wait staff are scarce and it is considered very fortunate if one did not have to wait ten minutes for any attention.

We give this restaurant a thumbs up for the value for money dishes and friendly service.

Chicken or the Egg?

Meet Cream, that laid these eggs for my breakfast today.

Glossy fresh eggs. Also free range!

A friend very kindly gave me half a dozen eggs from her hens. The difference between supermarket eggs and backyard hen eggs I noticed is that the shells of the latter are thicker. The shells are also glossier.

Gaz can't really taste any differently and neither could I. I doubt there is really any difference in taste, but people always think free range eggs taste better. 

When I was cooking them though, I can see the difference. Fresh yolks are firmer and the whites did not spread as much when broken into the pan. The yolks were a deeper orange. 

We also have the peace of mind knowing the eggs were from a healthy hen raised in a clean free environment. My friend's chickens eat rice, grass from her lawn, worms, and her vegetable patch. Happy hens, healthy eggs. 

Japan Komo - Mitcham

Have you ever caught someone looking at something on the street and you just can't help but look in the same direction so you can see what they're looking at? Well, a similar thing happened to me recently.

We were at Japan Komo in Mitcham ordering our dinner when the occupants of the next table started snapping pictures of the interior, the kitchen, and everything in no particular order. I looked around to see what they were snapping at but could not find anything really outstanding. 

Japan Komo is just an ordinary suburban restaurant. What I did take pictures of were the dishes we ordered, just so when I get the craving for fresh raw fish, I can look at the pictures and salivate over them. They make really nice rolls and there are pictures of these rolls all over the walls of the restaurant. They also serve a nice raw fish which was my order that night.

Gaz ordered the panko bento $14.90 which also came with miso soup. He thought it would be something like tempura but it was just lots of crumbed fried food. The crumbed fried calamari and prawns were just a little too 'processed' for us.

This is my favorite.  Raw salmon don $13.90. Meltingly soft fish on seasoned sushi rice.So delicious!

                                      
Fried prawn gyozas. $5.90 for five. No guesses for who got too hungry before the picture could be taken!

Update: This restaurant is permanently closed