Sushi Hotaru

If you are a regular customer of Kinokuniya book store in Sydney you'd notice the brand new Sushi Hotaru on level two The Galleries Victoria around Town Hall station. That's how I found this new Sushi bar's 'opening soon' sign few weeks ago  on my way up to Kinokuniya and today I was the first customer on the queuing line at  11.30 when the staffs greeted us with their 'irrashaimase..'

They have a good variety of sushi with some kinda fusion nigiri sushi, all priced at $2.5 during the opening special and $3 for the side dishes.  The quality and the freshness are good and I'd be happy to comeback for a $2.5 nigiri sushi but if I compare with my favorite sushi in town, I'd definitely stick to my favorite Makoto's sushi. They have a good location inside the Galleries Victoria and the ambiance is ok, the service is good but not 'excellent' as I always expect from an authentic Japanese restaurant, or maybe I am just a fussy patron. 

(Tuna sushi)

(Grilled salmon sushi)

(Scallop sushi)

(Inari)

They also have a wide variety of side dishes on the menu but unfortunately most of them were not available, I was expecting to have agedashi tofu and deep fried salmon's skin but they didn't show up at all so I ended up trying the drum stick karage and mini okonomiyaki.

(Mini Okonomiyaki)

(Drum sticks karage)

(Green tea latte with red bean ice cream)

A beautiful Okonomiyaki

I've got a few posts about Okonomiyaki, and here is another one, my latest Okonomiyaki from Ju Ge Mu and Shimbashi. First time I went to Ju Ge Mu and Shimbashi I tried their famous Soba and did plan to go back there for their Oknomiyaki. I rarely venture up north there only to find something to eat, but for Japanese food? furthermore it's Okonomiyaki, one of my favorite foods.

It was a beautiful Okonomiyaki! The most beautiful okonomiyaki I had to admit, even more beautiful than the ones I got in Japan, and it tastes great too! but if I have to choose, my favorite Okonomiyaki in town is still the one from Emon.

Beautiful Okonomiyaki

To accompany my seafood Okonomiyaki, I picked croquette set and a glass of Umeshu, my favorite Japanese wine.

Croquette set

Umeshu

Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima vs Osaka?

Here are two different styles of Okonomiyaki, Osaka-style and Hiroshima style, which one would you choose?

Osaka-style Okonomiyaki from Fugetsu at Yodoyabashi camera building in Umeda

Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki from Okonomimura in Hiroshima

Both are yummy and have their own unique taste..

Perinaise

Do you like mayonnaise? I do! Especially Japanese mayonnaise, I just love this creamy dipping sauce for most of grilled meat, seafood, omelette etc. I just tried a new kind of mayo sauce called Perinaise, a unique creamy blend of mayonnaise with Peri-Peri sauce from Nando's, my favorite grilled chicken. I got the Perinaise original which means one with medium heat level but if you are an extreme hot chili lover there is also Perinaise Hot ready to burn your tongue.

Today I just cooked my okonomiyaki with mixed topping of Japanese mayonnaise and Perinaise, yum..!

(My okonomiyaki with perinaise)

Okonomiyaki

It's my third post about Okonomiyaki, well I do love this 'Osaka soul' food, and this morning I cooked my own Okonomiyaki for brunch.

I called it Kansai style Okonomiyaki minus aonori (seaweed flakes) and katsuobushi (fish flakes) since I run out of those ingredients. It's prepared much like a pancake, using the pancake flour, grilled on both side then put some shredded cabbage, bacon, egg and topped with the okonomiyaki sauce and Japanese mayonaise.

My plain Okonomiyaki..

Okonomiyaki

Today I really want Okomiyaki for my brunch, unfortunately my favorite Okonomiyaki in town closed on Sunday so I went to a Teppanyaki Resto in Sussex Street, Chinatown. I knew it’s not an authentic Japanese Resto as soon as I got there, reading the menu and looking at some photos outside the resto, I asked my self “should I just find another Japanese restaurant?” but I still walked down the stairs and grabbed my seat though! I ordered beef okonomiyaki and seafood okonomiyaki, one of each, as soon as the chef finished cooked and served both of them, I asked “which one is the seafood one?” surprised by my question but then simply said “dunno..“. Surprised with that unexpected answer, I decided not to expect much from this restaurant run by unauthentic Japanese chef. The okonomiyaki itself wasn’t too bad, but their way servicing customer is just way too far from the way they should be.

The authentic Okonomiyaki I had in Osaka last december was really different from the one I got this morning as you can see below:

This is today's Okonomiyaki:

This is my yummy Okonomiyaki in Osaka: