Slideshow

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

This is why the Japanese live longer in average!!

The traditional Japanese diet is said to be one of the healthiest in the world. Have you ever wondered: well, is Japanese food really that healthy? If so, why? And just what do they eat anyway?

According to UK Daily Mail in 2002, “96% fewer men suffer coronary heart disease in Japan than in Britain” AND
“Only six in 100,000 Japanese women contract breast cancer - 20 times fewer than in Britain”
The two most common causes for health problems in relation to obesity and heart diseases are animal fat and sugar.
The traditional Japanese diet does not include meat (or at least ‘red’ meat), except in rare examples and those dishes are considered as foreign dishes anyway.
Traditional Japanese meals include alot of fresh vegetable, tofu, and fish, either raw or cooked in very little fat. Small portions of rice or noodle is consumed 3 meals a day.
The magic of Japan-style eating is a healthier balance of filling, delicious low calorie foods and the beautifully displayed dishes. In other words, you are also "eating with your eyes", which results in the cutting down of the speed and quantity of food consumed.

MUSASHI Japanese dining bar



MUSASHI is a a popular Japanese dining place near Central station. It is well known for it's great range of delicious foods and drinks, and also for the incredible number of customers lining up outside almost everyday. So, here are the reasons why they, (and myself) love Musashi;



The menu include all of the Japanese dishes you can think of, such as a variety of teppanyaki, sushi, sashimi, noodle and original Japanese drinks. The mains are $15 - $25 and I would strongly recommend the set meals as they are just great value for great tasting food. All cooked meat meals comes with salad, miso and rice. The sushi and sashimi deluxe set is $22 which includes miso soup, udon, salad, carlifornia rolls, eels and a choice of sashimi and sushi rolls is definitely worth to try!

The foods always comes quickly, waiters are always friendly and helpful and the environment is relaxing and clean. Not to mention there is also a nice outdoor dining area.
Visit Musashi and tell us what you think!

More information on Musashi:
Address: 447 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000 (Near Capital Square, 3min walk from Central station)
Here is a MAP to help you.
Phone: 92800377
Fully liscenced
***Testament to the retaurant's popularity, booking are only taken 11:45am-12:15pm, and 5:30-6:15pm.
Opening hours: 5:30pm-10:00pm Mon-Sun
Lunch:11:40am-2:30pm Mon-Fri
***It is always better to go dinner at 9:00pm as the peak hour has passed, last order is about 10:00pm, closing at about11:00.

Friday, December 18, 2009

SUMINOYA Japanese BBQ restaurant

Hello everyone, this is Ying~~~ 
Lets dig into some of the most finest Japanese dining restaurants around and here's one of my favorite Japanese BBQ restaurant, SUMINOYA 
The first time I went to the place, I was a bit shocked by the price. However, within a few minutes, I was really impressed with the large range of meat, seafood and sashimi to choose from. It is a BBQ buffet restaurant with 2 price choices, Gourmet Buffet: $41 and Premium Buffet is $7 extra . Order the Gourmet Buffet and you've pretty much get most of the dishes on the menu. 
The service is friendly and fast, and food quality is excellent. However, the communication can sometimes be a barrier (all of them are non-native english speakers). Just point at the pictures on the menu ^.^

My personal favorites are the beef tongue, garlic prawns, corn butter and yuke raw beef. The green tea ice cream and coffee jelly for desert are also a must. To those of you who don't like the smoke, it IS a BBQ restaurant, so just enjoy the food and bring your change of clothe if you are going out afterwards. 

Here is more information on the restaurant:
Lunch: 12:00pm-3:00/ Mon-Fri
Dinner: 6:00pm-10:30pm/ 7days
Fully Licensed
Phone: (02) 92312177
***Just an advice on booking, remember to book atleast 1 day in advance because it is VERY busy!
Adress: 1 Hosking Place, Sydney, NSW
Is is in a small street on the way to Circular Quay from Martin Place. It might be a bit hard to find the first time, but here's the MAP to help you.

Sushi Train @ Bondi Junction

I still remember the first time I went to Sushi Train Bondi Junction was two years ago. The massive queue out the front attracted me. Curiously, I decided to spend some time to have a taste of its food. I spent ten minutes waiting in the long queue and I found the reason--- food is fresh and delicious; service is efficient and friendly; fun ambience as the unique decorations and the yelling chefs. The restaurant is a little pricier than the average sushi trains, however, the quality of the food is definitely worth it.


The range of dishes is fantastic. My personal favorites are the grilled eel, scallop and the wagyu beef sushi, but everything I've had has been great. It reliably delivers fresh sushi treats that are paraded right before your eyes on a conveyer belt, like a moving smorgasbord. If you're not full enough from California rolls or miso soup, Sushi Train also offers desserts including green tea mousse, tiramisu and jelly.
Various Dishes


Crunchy Roll



Grilled Salmon



Grilled Scallop




Miso Soup






Prawn with Special Sauce




Tuna & Avocado



Sushi train is sure enough one of the best sushi restaurants in Sydney I have ever tasted. Till now, even though there were more than 3 Japanese sushi restaurants opened in the same street, I’d rather spend ten or more minutes waiting to be seated outside of this immensely popular sushi joint in Oxford Street Mall. Sushi Train, probably one of the biggest sushi trains that I have been to, spacious yet still can't fit in the people who are waiting. That says something!





  • Address: Shop 4 183-193 Oxford St Bondi Junction 2022 NSW

  • Phone: (02) 9387 3774

Friday, December 11, 2009

How to use chopsticks (筷子)

So, after a brief introduction of Japanese cuisine history, you might find it the chopsticks plays an important role in asian food culture. It is always interesting to watch people using chopsticks for the first time, so if you are not familiar with using chopsticks, get yourself prepared so your friends won't laugh at you!




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Chopsticks originated in ancient China as early as the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BC). The earliest evidence of a pair of chopsticks made out of bronze was excavated from Yin Ruins's Tomb 1005 at Houjiazhuang, AnyangHenan, dated roughly 1200 BC.



There are several styles of chopsticks that vary in respect to:
  • Length: Very long chopsticks, usually about 30 or 40 centimeters, tend to be used for cooking, especially for deep frying foods. In Japan they are called saibashi (菜箸). Shorter chopsticks are generally used as eating utensils but are also used for cooking.
  • Tapering: The end of the chopsticks for picking up food are tapered to a blunt or a pointed end. Blunt end chopsticks provide more surface area for holding food and for pushing rice into the mouth. Pointed chopsticks allow for easier manipulation of food and for picking out bones from cooked fish. Pointed ends are also helpful in spearing the food, if the proper technique cannot be mastered. Spearing is seen, however, as improper etiquette.
  • Material: Chopsticks are made from a variety of materials: bambooplasticwoodbonemetaljade, and ivory.
    • Bamboo and wood chopsticks are cheap, low in temperature conduction and provide good grip for holding food due to their matte surfaces. They can warp and deteriorate with continued use. Almost all cooking and disposable chopsticks are made of bamboo or wood. Disposable unlacquered chopsticks are used especially in restaurants. These often come as a piece of wood that is partially cut and must be split into two chopsticks by the user (demonstrating that they have not been previously used). In Japanese, these are known as waribashi (割り箸). Natural wood chopsticks, like natural wood food preparation surfaces, have an innate antibacterial property absent from other materials.
    • Plastic chopsticks are cheap, low in temperature conduction and are resistant to wear. Due to their composition, plastic chopsticks are not as effective as wood and bamboo chopsticks for picking up food as they tend to be slippery. Also, plastic chopsticks cannot be used for cooking since high temperatures may damage the chopsticks and produce toxic compounds.
    • Metal chopsticks are durable and easy to clean. They tend to be more expensive.
    • Materials such as ivory, jade, gold, and silver are typically chosen for luxury.
  • Embellishments: Wooden or bamboo chopsticks can be painted or lacquered to decorate them and make them waterproof. Metal chopsticks are sometimes roughened or scribed on the tapered end to make them less slippery when picking up foods. Higher priced metal chopstick pairs are sometimes connected by a short chain at the untapered end to prevent their separation.

Enjoy you meal!

Japanese-style Rice Dishes

Hello everyone, today Nicole is going to introduce various kinds of Japanese rice dishes~

Firstly, i'd like to recommend a brand of raw Japanese sushi rice--- SunRice Japaneses Style Sushi Rice. As a sushi lover, I have to say that, rice choosing is the most basic yet important thing that you have to pay much attention on it.














SunRice Japanese Style Sushi Rice is a soft and tender short grain rice ideally steamed to accompany Japanese meals. When cooked it is clingy enough to be eaten with chopsticks. It is perfect for sushi, and is also great for rice desserts. Often mistakenly referred to as "sticky rice" which is not true. Sticky rice is a glutinous rice used mainly for desserts. For best results, rinse 3-4 times before cooking and do not cook with salt, to preserve the delicate flavour. SunRice Japanese Style Sushi Rice is available in 750g packs and you can find it in any Japanese/ Chinese/ Korean convenient supermarkets.
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NOW, here are some SPECIAL Japanese dishes based on rice.. I know you will love them! ^o^

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  • Japanese-style plain Rice













Properly cooked rice is the foundation of a traditional Japanese meal, and you absolutely cannot skimp on the steps detailed here if you are aiming for anything approaching authenticity.

Rice is the staple of Japanese food, and making it just right can be rather difficult if you don't know how. If you think you will be preparing rice regularly, an electric rice cooker will make your life so much easier.

Japanese rice is a very particular variety. For traditional Japanese dishes you simply cannot substitute long-grain rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice, Carolina type rice, and so on. I sometimes hear people saying things like "But I can make onigiri with jasmine rice just fine, as long as I cook it so it's mushy and the grains stick together". No no no no no. A good onigiri, a good sushi roll, a good nigiri-zushi, and most of all a good bowl of rice does not have mushy rice.

Ideally, the rice should be quite fresh. The best rice is new rice called shinmai, purchased within 3 months of harvest. Unfortunately, it's just about impossible to buy rice that fresh outside of Japan. Just buy the best rice you can afford, such as the SunRice Japaneses Style Sushi Rice. Once you learn how to make rice properly, you will really taste the difference between different kinds of rice.

Some popular 'first grade' Japanese rice varieties include Sasanishiki, Koshihikari andAkita Komachi. They tend to be expensive.

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  • Smoked Salmon Temari Zushi

This is another type of sushi which is great for parties. Temari are small cloth balls made from leftover scraps of kimono fabric, and temari zushi are meant to look like these colorful toys. You can make temari zushi with any number of things, such as thinly sliced sashimi grade fish, boiled and butterflied shrimp, thinly sliced and cooked or uncooked vegetables, and even thin slices of cheese. It is made by thinly cut slices of pale pink smoked salmon and tiny amount of cream cheese inside. It seems quite non-traditional but it’s a great combination. The key is to make the temari zushi on the small side since they are quite rich.
As with the hamaguri-zushi, these don’t require any soy sauce for dipping.











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  • Shell-shaped sushi (Hamaguri-zushi)


As be shown, the first is hamaguri-zushi or clam sushi is supposed to look like a clam, but to me it looks just as much like a little yellow flower. It can be filled with any kind of sushi rice and, with lemony smoked salmon, mitsuba or flat-leaf parsley and white sesame seeds, wrapping in a usuyaki tamago or thin omelette. It’s related to chakin-zushi, where the omelette is wrapped in a bag shape and tied, but slightly less fiddly since all you have to do is fold it into quarters.
Besides making a very pretty spring party dish (for an appetizer maybe, or as part of a buffet), these work very well as bento items too since the sushi rice has good keeping qualities, and the omelette keeps the rice from drying out. Plus you can just grab them with your hands to eat.











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  • Kurama Mixed Rice
Kurama Mixed Rice is an amazing Japanese rice dish mixed with soy sauce-infused chirimen jako (dried, salted, tiny fish, a fantastic ingredient we'll get to in a minute) and sansho (intensely aromatic, seductive accent, ditto about getting into in a minute). In addition, chirimen jako are tiny young sardines or anchovies that have been boiled then salted and dried, thus naturally preserved. You reconstitute them with boiling water and add to an omelet or quickly deep fry and sprinkle over salad or, well, rice.











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  • Chestnut Rice


Chestnut rice is another incredible Japanese style rice with a play of delicate flavors. You steam the chestnuts with rice, brings out their natural sweetness in a much more subtle. The rice is a mixture of Japanese short grain rice and sticky (glutinous or sweet) rice, which creates a delightful texture and infuses even more of that natural sweetness. Finally, the sake and the salt here nicely pop all these tastes. The complexity of flavor you find in this simple dish is just amazing.

















YOU HAVE TO TRY THEM!!!

In addition, both Kurama Mixed Rice and Chestnut Rice are selected from the blog The Japanese Food Report, it introduces lots of delicious Japanese special dishes and provides recipes, come and vist it!!















The History of Japanese Cuisine (日本料理)



Hi there! It's me Wesley again! So today I would like to introduce you the history of Japanese food. Since there are so many Japanese restaurants in Sydney nowadays and most people are really familiar with sushi and tempra, I think wouldn't it be nice that we start with the traditional style of Japanese food? So let's begin with the history of national cuisine, shall we?


Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes. Back to the ancient era of Japanese history, the cultivation of rice was introduced from China. Rice was commonly boiled plain and called gohan or meshi, and, as cooked rice has since always been the preferred staple of the meal, the terms are used as synonyms for the word "meal." And also with the use of chopstick.  


File:Chopstick.JPG



Chopsticks, at first were used by nobility at banquets; they were not used as everyday utensils however, as hands were still commonly used with which to eat. Metal spoons were also used during the 8th-9th century, but only by the nobility. ining tables were also introduced to Japan at this time. Commoners used a legless table called a oshiki, while nobility used a lacquered table with legs called a zen. Each person used his own table. Lavish banquets for the nobility would have multiple tables for each individual based upon the number of dishes presented. Upon the decline of the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, Japan made a move toward its individuality in culture and cuisine. The abandonment of the spoon as a dining utensil is one of the marked differences, and commoners were now eating with chopsticks as well. Trade continued with China and Korea, but influence en masse from outside of Japan would not be seen again until the 19th century.



Japanese food is also influenced by some political reasons. For example, during the Kamakura period, the cuisine of the samurai came distinctly from their peasant roots. The meals prepared emphasized simplicity while being substantial. Specifically the cuisine avoided refinement, ceremony and luxury and a shedding of all further Chinese influence. One specific example is the change from wearing traditional Chinese garb to a distinct clothing style that combined the simplistic clothing of the common people.


File:Tamagokake-gohan.JPG



Today, Japanese cuisine is still heavily influenced by the four seasons and geography. Seafood and vegetables are most commonly eaten. Whilst to some westerners, the food may seem almost bland, freshness, presentation and balance of flavours is of paramount importance.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Sydney International Food Festival 2010! COMING UP EVENT!



Our beloved Sydney International Food Festival will be back in October 2010 and hopefully, i mean defintely it would be bigger and better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can confirm that there will be another
Barbecue Madness launch day at the October Sydney Morning Herald Growers' Market (October 2, 2010), a new World Chef Showcase (October 9 and 10) and of course, the Night Noodle Markets (October 11 - 15 and 18 - 22).
And Let's Do Lunch, Let's Do Brunch, Cocktails, Sugar Hit, Hats Off dinners, tours, classes and fabulous community and regional festivals will all be back on the program, along with all the other popular Festival events and many more.
Most part of this event would be held again at The Coopers Beer Garden is the number one destination to relax, eat noodles and enjoy a Coopers ale. The eco-friendly beer garden represented the average Australian backyard, with a focus on sustainable food production and community gardening. It embraced the notion of re-using, recycling and sustainability, all part of the Coopers credo.The garden featured solar panels, a rainwater tank and a Chinese herb garden, plus some clever uses of old woks.

And again, we will be digging our heads into finding more information about any Japanese food events and showcasts in the festival as they have always been fantastic and yummy ^^

Remember to keep an eye on our blog to find out what will be happening this year at the Sydney Internationl Food Festival and for Japanese food lovers out there, please inform use about any informations we have missed, as we do not want to miss out on this major event !!!!!!!!!




First lesson! Learn the Japanese table manner!

Hey guys, it's wesley. I've been wondering about this actual first post for a long time. what should i introduce you guys? but when i saw this clip on youtube, i believe it would be a perfect introduction on japanese dining culture. So, hope you enjoy this video and don't forget to leave comments.



Ok, you might find this video a bit funny. well don't take that seriously, i just want you to have a easy start. Here's something more helpful.

In Japan, some restaurants and private homes have low tables and cushions on the floor, rather than Western style chairs and tables. These are usually found on tatami floors. Please visit our information page about sitting techniques and rules for more information.

itadakimasu and Gochisosama

In Japan, you say "itadakimasu" ("I gratefully receive") before eating, and "gochisosama (deshita)" ("Thank you for the meal") after finishing the meal.

Individual versus shared dishes

It is not uncommon in private households and in certain restaurants (e.g. izakaya) to share several dishes of food at the table rather than serving each person an individual dish. When eating from shared dishes, move some food from the shared plates onto your own with the opposite end of your chopsticks or with serving chopsticks that may be provided for that purpose.

Chopsticks

The proper usage of chopsticks is the most fundamental element of Japanese table manners, and therefore, we have assigned them a separate information page.

Some Table Rules

Blowing your nose in public, and especially at the table, is considered bad manners.
It is considered good manners to empty your dishes to the last grain of rice.
Talking about toilet related and similarly unappetizing topics during or before a meal is not appreciated by most people.
Unlike in some other parts of East Asia, it is considered bad manner to burp.
After eating, try to move all your dishes back to the same position they were at the start of the meal. This includes replacing the lids on dishes and putting your chopsticks on the chopstick holder or back into their paper slip.
Drinking rules

When drinking alcoholic beverages, it is customary to serve each other, rather than pouring your own beverage. Periodically check your friends' cups and refill their drinks if their cups are getting empty. Likewise, if someone wants to serve you more alcohol, you should quickly empty your glass and hold it towards that person.

While it is considered bad manners to become obviously drunk in some formal restaurants, for example in restaurants that serve kaiseki ryori (Japanese haute cuisine), the same is not true for other types of restaurants such as izakaya, as long as you do not bother other guests.

Do not start drinking until everybody at the table is served and the glasses are raised for a drinking salute, which usually is "kampai". Avoid using "chin chin" when drinking a toast, since in Japanese this expression refers to the male genitals.

I'm sure a lot of people might already know this, but, wouldn't it be great to make sure of it, so you can "sure" sure XD

Friday, November 27, 2009

Our obsession with Japanese food

Hello! こんにちは! 


 WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!

Our team, consists of 3members, Wesley, Nicole and Ying. As huge fans of Japanese food, we just want to spread the words on all the benefits of 'eating the Japanese way' and where and what's good to eat in Sydney's Japanese restaurants! Besides all the exciting food we'll introduce, we will also provide the history and culture informations you will need to know while enjoing your meal. Please feel free to comment and suggest!! Enjoy your stay ^^