Sushi Adventures. - The Unkown Fire in the Red Lantern.

Hello again,

Today's blog will be about one of the greatest things in the world......Sushi! 

I've recently been to Shira Nui (which I've been to before) and a new place in South Yarra called Akachochin. Shira Nui means unknown fire and Akachochin means red lantern, so I got a bit creative with this post's title. haha

This time at Shira Nui they let us sit on the side so we could see all the chefs at work. I didn't take pictures of everything because the set menu hasn't changed TOO much but here were some of the favourites.

Kingfish, as usual a delicious whitefish..

The most incredibly tender beef.

Tuna steak, you can't go wrong with Tuna. We ordered seconds of this!

This is swordfish. It was my first time eating it and it DEFINITELY won't be my last. It was amazing, it melted in my mouth like butter.

Some lovely Ocean trout belly, I loved the look of this sushi. It reminds me of a beautiful mermaid's tail.

We were also given a little surprise treat from the chef, it was some fried and seasoned fish skin. It was really tasty and crispy.

As usual we ended our meal with dessert, a green tea creme brulee with a little complimentary sorbet served in a shot glass. So cute.

I really love this place. The chef is so ridiculously friendly! He's always so nice to chat with. I learnt more about him this time around.....He's been learning about sushi WAY before I was even born, about 40 years and deep down he's a country boy who likes open spaces over the city. 

******************************************************

The second restaurant came highly recommended from the Age for the best sushi. It's a new place in the South Wharf called Akachochin. It's a lot more modern and stylish and some of the food is pretty amazing. We sat at the bar and I had a cute mini bottle of Choya Umeshu.

I was most impressed by their sushi. Just by looking at the photos, you can see how fresh and high quality the sushi is. I didn't even know salmon could be that amazing and fresh. We also had kingfish, tuna and ocean trout. Yum yum!

We also ordered some Pork Belly.

Wagyu Tataki, which was tender and delicious especially with that sauce.

Some grilled Chicken.

And a Black Sesame Panacotta with Green tea Ice cream. The consistency of the Panacotta was perfect, I ended up eating most of it even though I was supposed to share. 

As usual, I have a habit of  making friends with the Sushi chef, it's really good practice for my Japanese. They always turn out to be SO friendly though, despite their appearance. I think he was from Kanagawa and has been in Melbourne for a couple of years. He was really animated and had a great sense of humour. He gave us a few tips for our Japan trip later this year and said with my level of Japanese we would be okay.

*************************************************

I definitely plan on returning once the weather warms up even more, it'll be really good to go there on a hot day to relax with some fresh sushi and umeshu by the river. 

When I think about it though, I much prefer Shira Nui.... the variety of sushi just trumps any place and I like that it's not all cold. A lot of people are under the impression sushi is ALWAYS cold but at Shira Nui a lot of them are served warm. Shira Nui will destroy any Sushi Sushi roll anyday. haha

The Unknown Fire.

Hi Everyone!

I'm back with another food blog today. Let's start off with Cafe Vue. Just in case there's any confusion, there are actually 4 Cafe Vue's in Melbourne. The one I took my mum to last time was in St Kilda, this time I went to try out the Collins Street one with my boyfriend.

Both Cafe Vue's have the same menu so I opted for something I hadn't tried yet and ordered the Duck egg quiche whilst my boyfriend had the Wagyu burger. In all honesty I was a bit disappointed.....Although I always enjoy a nice gooey egg yolk, the quiche lacked flavour. I was also saddened when the boyfriend said his burger was dry and bland as well. I don't think it helped that we were seated into a really awkward corner either.

So in my opinion, if you want to experience the best of Cafe Vue make the extra journey out to the St Kilda one. The Collins st one is more for your business types on their lunch breaks, The St Kilda is a lovely Sunday brunch place.

**********************************************************

Now for the exciting part!

This Friday night, the boyfriend and I tried a new restaurant in Glen Waverely called Shira Nui (which means the unknown fire). 

It's a modest looking Japanese restaurant that has its windows all covered up so it barely even catches your eye, but believe me this place is like a hidden treasure.

Highly recommended by my boyfriend's workmate, I was really eager to try this place out. If you wanna know what the sushi is and hover your mouse.

OH MY GOD! I am so glad we tried this place out. We managed to fit into their 6pm sitting as their 8pm was fully booked and we sat at the bar (which I recommend you do) for the Omakase, which is the Japanese version of the chef's menu, I suppose. I only took photos of some of the dishes we had but we had 9 courses of sushi all up. Everything from tuna, beef, oyster, kingfish, cod, japanese pike....We even found out that they had Ootoro and asked for an extra slice just before we tucked into dessert. Woo!

Speaking of dessert.....

Here it is! It's the most adorable Black sesame and Green tea Crème brûlée ever. The Crème brûlée was exactly how one should be, with that delicious tap tap sound on the top and a gorgeous consistency of custard on the inside, accompanied with a small bowl of fruit and ice cream cubes. Need I ask for more?

**********************************************************

Now the head chef's name is Hiro Nishikura and he is a very delightful man!

Nishikura-san's knife work is very impressive and together with his team works with great speed and diligence.  Needless to say he was quite intimidating at first but towards the end of our dinner service, the orders stopped piling up and he began to relax! He's actually super nice and said my Japanese was quite good, he gossiped with me about his regulars and I found out that he even knows my old Korean lecturers. Such a delightful man!

Before we left he gave us a gift each, it was a pen with the restaurant name on it. I was so touched, I just love how he is so friendly even with new customers like myself. If I could afford it, I'd become a regular too!

**********************************************************

Finally a little extra food porn. (Especially for Hieu read his movie blogs, they're sick)

Salt and Pepper Pork spare ribs.

An amazing slice of pork belly made by my freaking masterchef boyfriend.

The crispiest potatoes I've ever had also made by the boyfriend.

Some tapas.

And finally, finishing this blog just like I do with my meals in real life with some tea.

Bye for now!