Hakata Gensuke Ramen Professionals

Hakata Gensuke Ramen Professionals

Two days in a row we went to Glenferrie Road for dinner but we went somewhere completely different this time. We have not had ramen from this place before but our friend suggested it so we thought why not as usual?
Its a smallish restaurant but the staff are polite and it does not do a huge selection of food but what it does it does well.

You pick what you want and mark the sheet of paper. I ordered the black tonkotsu which was a broth with black sesame paste. I have not had a black tonkotsu before and it was different. The flavor was not what I expected, it was a strong sesame flavor with garlic and spring onions.

 I ordered the special toppings option but they forgot to put it in the broth so they brought it to me in a separate bowl, the egg was runny in the middle and the pork was a good texture but a bit cold but once it heated up in the broth it was great.  We ordered the hakata gyoza which was pork I think but it was light and juicy.

The other dish was special fried chicken and it had a msg / chicken salt type mixture with it which was addictive but made you really thirsty. The chicken was tender and the batter was crispy but not over done.

The food is fresh and worth a visit, we will be back.
Kind E-gards
Dale

Nishikian

Nishikian

After coming back from Japan we really wanted Okonomiyaki so after some googling and research we decided to go here. It is a New Zealand franchise which was surprising to us and has only been open for about a year and it was busy. It was a petrol station once but since then converted to a restaurant. 

It is a large brightly lit restaurant and they made you feel welcomed when you entered. They had a wide variety of food to choose from.

We ordered a range of food and the first thing we ordered was skewers, we had beef tongue the other was Pork belly with onion and garlic salt. The tongue was a good texture and not tough. It had a different seasoning so I enjoyed it as i don't normally like tongue. The pork belly was juicy and soft and mixed well with onion and garlic.

We ordered the large sashimi platter which had Salmon, Snapper, Tuna and Kingfish and a few other fish. The fish was all really fresh and melted as you ate it. The wasabi tasted like it was home made and not the tube ones. I almost felt like i was back in Japan.

The Okonomiyaki was really good but not sensational like Japan, it was just missing something and i don't know what.

The Takoyaki was sweet and the octopus was tender, it tasted fresh not like some places that give you frozen ones that become very tough to eat.

The tempura vegetables included beans, eggplants and massive mushrooms. The batter was light and crispy, and the mushrooms are juicy. I was happy with how they tasted.

The Eel on rice was yum , it had no bones and the sauce was not much but enough for the Eel. We decided to order some dessert as we were still hungry.

There was Green Tea, Strawberry and Custard Daifuku with Ice cream. Mochi is a rice paste cake that is the outside, when you fill it with something like ice cream or red bean then it is Daifuku. It is very sweet and its hard to find good Daifuku as if it has been frozen thawed out then refrozen you get ice crystals in the middle and it looses its flavour and texture.

Nishikian is a lovely little place but servings are a bit small for my liking but the food is great and we will go back.

Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart

Sushi

Sushi

Last night Kim decided to make some sushi it is very time consuming but tasted better than the franchises.

 

The ingredients you need are Sushi rice and Seaweed for Sushi, the rice has a different texture and taste to normal rice and sticks together a lot better. Also buy a sushi mat which costs $2 to help shape the sushi and pickled ginger if you want. Once you cook the rice you need to let it cool down so it does not make the seaweed mushy.

  You slice up carrots and cucumber, i mixed tuna with mayonnaise. We also had packaged smoky salmon.

Put a layer of rice with the vegetables then a thin layer of tuna or salmon strips. You can put what ever you want on it. Use the mat to roll the sushi then you end up with long sushi rolls. Cut it to the size you want.

Put some soy sauce and wasabi in a small bowl and add pickled ginger on top. Next time we make it i will buy some roasted duck and pork.
Would you try to make it?

Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart




 

Deko Boko

Deko Boko

This is my 100 Blog so i am really happy as i have persevered this long... Anyway  Deko Boko has only been around for 7 months. We had been invited to go try this place so we thought why not. I would not call it completely traditional but it had that aspect to it. It is a narrow restaurant that is long and can fit a fair amount of people. It was very quiet when we arrived but got busier when we left.

 I normally worry about parking in the city / Richmond but after 6:30pm parking is free out the front so we had no problem at all.

It is a very clean restaurant with random displays to which i did not expect.

I ordered a Japanese rice lager beer which was very light and not bitter so it was easy to drink. Kim ordered a Whisky Sour and i was impressed with it as it tasted like a Whisky Sour should,  as some places use cheap alcohol so it not sweet or have that Whisky taste.

For Entrees we ordered the Pork Gyoza and it came with three sauces, light soy sauce , chili mayo sauce and a sesame sauce. The gyoza skin is light and the filling was juicy. I love chili so i added it but it did not really need sauce as the flavours inside were perfect.

We also ordered a Bao to share We ordered a vegetable croquette and the bao was light and fluffy, the croquette was crispy and that sauce added a bit of sweetness. Normally we would order Pork but we wanted something different and we were happy with our choice.

 

For my mains i ordered the Wagyu beef curry and it was not a spicy but a sweeter curry and the beef was cooked really well as it melted in your mouth and was an amazing dish.

We had a concoction of a dessert that had green tea ice cream, red bean ice cream and black bean ice cream i think. It had fresh bananas and strawberries, it was a very refreshing dessert and the ice creams did not have that icy taste like some that have been defrosted then refrozen.

 

The staff are very pleasant and i was happy with the restaurant overall i will go back in the future.

Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart

Burgled

Burgled

While at work yesterday I was talking about about important things like beer, burgers and coffee. My customer told me about this burger place and said it was good. I was trying to decide between Cultural Commons in Springvale or somewhere different and even though i had a burger for lunch we decided to go Burgled.

The decor'is very random, they call it a sports bar. It has afl memorabilia  and just other random pictures all over the walls.

I was told its always packed, yes it was busy but we did not have to wait for a table.

I ordered a beer and with my luck they stopped stocking it along with my other three choices. The waitress suggested i try something not on the menu, sounded suss but why not.  The drink i ordered was a Blue mak

It said it was a lager but it tasted different to a normal larger, it was sweet and malty. I really enjoyed it for something different.

We ordered burgers and I got the Samurai, It had a panko chicken patty with asian slaw and wasabi aioli. Panko is wheat bread crumb so it is lighter and crispier than other types of bread crumbs. 

It was sweet yet satisfying, the slaw was really tasty and the panko patty was not over cooked and had a little bit of that wasabi taste to it. I don't like english mustard or wasabi but this was not over the top so i would recommend this burger.

Kim ordered the Berlin, it had Kransky sausage, sauerkraut, pickles, cheese, tomato, mustard and ketchup.

Its a crazy looking burger and we had no idea what to expect. It was very random and kim enjoyed it. I guess you can turn a hotdog into a hamburger? They are very creative here at Burgled.

You can't have burgers without chips and the reviews said you need to try them, so we did. 

They chips came with tomato sauce and aioli  sauce. The chips were fresh and very crispy and had some coating that gave them a different flavour. We could not pick it but they had lived up to my expectations.

More photos here

Its well worth a try if you are close to the area

Please check out my Vlogs and Subscribe as over the next few months i will vlog more Cafe's we go to.

Thanks for reading

Kind E-Gards

Dale Stewart

Izakaya Jiro Grill & Sake Bar

 We have behaved lately and not gone out as much because we are saving money for our next holiday, but on Tuesday I really wanted Japanese for dinner so we went to Samurai but it was closed for renovations. There was another Japanese restaurant called  Izakaya Jiro and on urbanspoon it had 89% so that was good enough for us to give it a go. It is  more expensive than Samurai but was still good. The serving sizes weren't as big but i think they went for the higher quality than quantity.

 

 

  It is a big place but from the front it looks really small, the decor is lovely and it has a good selection of beers, wines and sake.

 

 For starters we ordered the lotus root chips and they were crispy and lightly salted, they are probably the best i have ever had.  Our friends ordered a selection of skewers because the sounded different. They ordered some vegetarian and beef. some vegetarian dumplings and some other random dishes

For my main dish i ordered the Beef Yokisoba, it has egg noodles, beef, a selection of vegetables and Katsuobushi (fish flakes). The beef just melted in your mouth and the sauces tasted really good but it was not big enough for me.

Kim ordered the tempura udon and it had the usual udon noodles, tempura battered prawns and mixed vegetables. She said it was very good and plenty of food for her. 

I was still hungry after so we ordered desert. We ordered strawberry mochi, we always enjoy mochi and it was fresh. The skin was not hard and was not easy to take a photo because of how white it was but it was a tasty desert and a great way to finish the meal. 

The food was good and the staff are friendly but it was expensive. It is good to try somewhere different for a change.

Thank you Kathy for the pics as my phone had died again.

If you like the pics please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading.

kind E-gards

Dale Stewart