Izakaya Kasumi

My friends have raved about this place and I finally got to try it for dinner on Saturday night. Luckily we booked as it was busy but the food came out really quickly. Basically all our dishes came out at once which is good if you're really hungry, but not good if you want to relax and catch up with friends.
Still the service was very friendly and the higlight dishes were the okonomiyaki, chicken karage, sushi and sashimi platter. Love the sunken boothes and I'll definitely be back!!

Japanese women don't get old or fat!?!?

I was surfing the net about few weeks ago and just happen to come across this really interesting book called "Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen", written by Naomi Moriyama, a girl who grew up in Tokyo, Japan. When I first read the title, I laughed. It seemed like a quite obvious attempt to cash in on the success of "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure". So, i decided to get the book to read.
The diet and weight loss points made in this book could be summed up in a few bullet points:

Don't overeat - observe the hara hachibunme rule (eat until you are 80% full)
Eat a lot of fresh vegetables.
Eat a wide variety of foods.
Eat more whole grains - eat brown rice rather than polished white rice.
Eat fruit for dessert, or small portions if you must have cake etc.


Obviously, it is not necessary to eat Japanese food to accomplish these goals. But I do agree with the point made in this book that traditional Japanese food is inherently healthy. According to the book, traditional Japanese food centers around rice (gohan, which is also a synonym for a meal), with small portions of okazu, savory things that go well with the plain rice. A typical Japanese dinner would have, besides the rice, 1 small bowl of soup (miso or clear), 1 protein dish such as grilled fish, and 2 or 3 other mostly vegetable-based side dishes. A popular dietary guide in Japan that has been around for decades is to try to eat 30 kinds of food items a day for nutrional well-roundedness. This may sound impossible, but in Japanese cooking it's not that out of reach.

Interview with nutritionist, Edward Yuwono

In order to prove the many benefits of the Japanese diet, I have decided to conduct an interview with a nutritionist I knew. Please go to our playlist to listen to the full version of the interview on G-cast. Edward Yuwono is a qualified nutritionist who is currently employed by Nature's Own, a well known vitamins and supplement company. He deals with customers daily to informing customers about the company's products and helping them with choosing the most appropriate supplements to take as well as aiding them with their daily dietary routines. 
Mr Yuwono's views in this interview can be summed up in these points:

• He rates the quality of the average Australian diet as only a 4/10 as he recognised an increasing amount of consumers face their problems due to an increase in energy intake, along with an increase in sedentary lifestyle. This is because consumers are fed ready available energy at a low cost price, as we know the takeaway and junk foods, which are high in saturated fat and high carbohydrate levels, and rarely include the amount of nutrition and vegetable intake we need. 
• Health issues in Australia in relation to unhealthy diets and eating habits includes short, medium, and long term problems such as obesity, diabetes, liver problems, osteoarthritis, reproductive problems and cancer formations. 
• There have been enormous amounts of articles and commotion about how the Japanese diet is a prime example of a healthy, nutritional diet. The Japanese diet has been known for centuries as maybe one of the healthiest diet in the world due to its high levels of nutrients and antioxidants. The life expectancy of Japanese people is known as the highest in the world, and obesity has only recently become an issue with the infiltration of western fast foods. 
• The Japanese consume about five times the amount of cruciferous vegetables as the average westerner in their daily meals, the Japanese diet is fish based which helps to reduce heart disease, lower cholesterol, and improve brain function. The Japanese eats a lot of tofu in their meals, which is a good source of protein and is packed with nutrients necessary for good health. One other essential part of the Japanese diet would be green tea which has been linked with a reduced risk of cancer in both men and women. Green tea consumption is linked with a reduced risk of stroke and heart disease.
• Most Japanese dishes are cooked in little or no fat and salt, which are the main causes for all health related diseases. 
• “eating with your eyes”. This is where consumers eat slower as they are attracted to the food that they eat. Japanese food is always nicely presented so that people eat slower, which makes them feel full faster.

Now, even the professional has proved how healthy the Japanese diet is, not to mention he is also a big fan of Japanese food himself, what are you guys waiting for? Let's eat the "Japanese way"!!

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.

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