Ocha! Ocha! Ocha!

A couple of weeks ago, A friend and I went to Ocha!! It is a modern Japanese restaurant located on 3 Church Street, Hawthorn. The old Ocha was in Kew and it has since moved here since February/March 2010.

Our dining experience started with 2 different types of oysters.

Yuzu sorbet and Wasabi Mornay Oysters

The Yuzu sorbet was so refreshing on the tongue and its sort of like the preserved lemony taste but not really. Yuzu is a citrus fruit originating in east Asia. It is as tart as a pomelo but more like a sour mandarin. The rind and juice is mainly used for cooking and apparently is not that nice eaten normally as a fruit like other citrus fruits.

The wasabi mornay was creamy in texture and a little hit of wasabi..clears the nose I say!! =)

Sushi and sashimi combo, soft shell crab roll

I love raw fish and seafood in general. Everything on the plate was so FRESH. We started with the tuna, salmon, scallop and kingfish sashimi. And then we had the tuna, kingfish, salmon and eel sushi. The soft shell crab roll was just crunchy and soft and delicious!! There was also a layer of thinly sliced daikon around the roll. YUMMY!!

Abalone Special

The night we went, they had abalone on as a special. Battered abalone strips, braised abalone and abalone sashimi. The abalone was very tender in all. It had a very sweet texture and flavour. We had to fight for the last pieces hahaha

Crab tempura

These were the most delicious rolls ever!! Better yet, I didn't have to use my hands to pick out the crab meat from their shells!! Each mouthful was of crunchy nori seaweed and tempura batter with a soft sweet taste of crab meat! Absolutely delicious!! I am salivating thinking of it and I want some now!!

Miso marinated fish

After a few dishes of delicious entrees, we chose 2 mains. We had the grilled marinated black cod fish on salad. It was so soft and cooked to perfection. I loved every mouthful!! We were starting to get full and then came the...

Teriyaki Duck

It was thinly sliced roasted duck breast with bok choy. I had forgotten to take a photo before digging in..so apologies to the half eaten dish. The meat was very tender and the sauce a little too over whelming. We were getting very full at that stage and struggled to finish the dish.

However, there is always room for desserts!!!

Fresh fruit with plum wine jelly (vanilla ice cream)

Sticky toffee pudding, cream (vanilla ice cream)

The desserts were to die for!! Simple and refreshing was the jelly and fruit. All time favourites for all the diners   was the sticky toffee pudding. Can never go wrong a sticky toffee pudding.

Thanks to our waiter Alec, Chefs Paula L and Matt C, and the owners Michelle and Yasu.

It was a great dining experience and the food was so so so SO SO SO SO 'to die for'!!

Xx

www.ocha.com.au

Roy Choi Continued!!

It has been four months since Roy Choi has stepped foot into the CODA kitchen and I still think of him and the girls Natasha, Alice and Caroline. I think about the food, find them randomly on my phone when I'm scanning my gallery, and salivate on how explosive the flavours were on my palate! I need to visit KOGI!!!
As promised (better late than never), here are pictures from behind the scenes of the 2 dinners he cooked back in March this year. (Refer to my March page for the details of the food), because this post are all about pictures which happened on the nights we were graced with Roy Choi's presence.

The Menu

The diners

The chefs

First Course: Hot Boxin It

Second course: Tacos, Beachside

Third course: Parking Lot Prawns

Fourth course: Notorious: Juicy

Fifth Course: 2Pac Chops

Sixth Course: Og Status

Diners getting 'smoked out'..due to the steak on the grill!! hehe

Dessert: Gracias Sujunggwa

Speeches!!

Roy having beers with the Front of House staff afterwards

Roy and I

Caroline, me, Alice and Natasha

Lucy and I

Some shots were missing due to me lending a hand during the plate up hahaha can't slack off now can I?

These are such great memories of Coda staff and Kogi peeps bonding!! See you guys in LA!!! These food shots are making me hungry!!

Go to www.papichulotown.com to see Roy Choi and his chefs in action!!!

Xx

My birthday cakes!!! (yes not one..But 2!!!)

I love MY SISTER!!!! I love making desserts but seriously..cakes are not what I specialise in.. hahaha but I love EATING cakes nonetheless!!

I know how girly I can be, but when it comes to my baby, my car... Girls can love cars right??

I love my car which is made of chocolate cake!! haha and as I'm born in the year of a Tiger, my sister Susan added a chef jacket onto the tiger figurine. It's So funny how every time my nephew sees it, he would go "meow" hahaha

THANK YOU bro in law TAN, Susan and Lachlan for helping me with the preparations for my massive 25th!! The spit was very awesome!! And thank you cousins Carpell and Kelly for lending a hand!! Thank you all who had attended and I loved every moment of it!!

Then I had a surprise birthday cake made by Renee and Lucy at work which was awesome!!!

Chocolate ripple cake with crushed peppermint crisps!!

I LOVE YOU RENEE AND LUCY!! THANK YOU FOR A WONDERFUL MEMORY TO ADD TO THE MANY OTHER MEMORIES WE'VE SHARED AND STILL SHARE AT CODA!! PARTY!!!

Xx

Mamasita, Cumulus Inc., Izakaya Den and Movida Aqui

My birthday was amazingly spontaneous! Having the go PT training at 7:30am, I decided to catch a 10am movie session to watch Bridesmaids with a packed brunch of chicken wings, sausages, dipping sauce, a quarter of a baked new york cheesecake (to die for!!! Still craving it now!!) and a juice box prima! Then I felt like a massage and went for one at Sabai Thai Massage (sorry guys..no happy ending and they were not lady boys!) in South Yarra. They are awesome and nice and OMG I wanted a relaxing one and it was like another work out!! But felt good afterwards. After that I treated myself to LUXBITE (more sugar)!

So at night, I decided to go restaurant hopping! Eating 2 or 3 dishes from each restaurant and moving along to the next!

My friend Nick and I started off at

we had the

Elotes Callejeros: 'Street style' chargrilled corn, queso, chipotle mayonnaise and lime 

I would eat a million... they are so tasty, and creamy, and cheesey with spices and a tang on lime juice!

Ceviche de Yucatan: Market fish, green tomato, chilli, mint, lime and coconut milk

The fish that night was trumpeter and the dish as a whole served with corn chips was very refreshing! (my tummy just grumbled..I'm salivating thinking about the taste).

Helado de Maiz: Sweet corn ice cream, caramelised popcorn

Ice cream was delicious, but I would of enjoyed it if I didn't overload myself on Sugar the whole day!

Next we visited..

We started off with some..

Oysters and some bread

Cumulus Inc. has a selection of oysters on their menu and they are perfect if you are an oyster lover. I tasted the rusty wire oyster and the moonlight en surface oyster. Each oyster on the menu has their description of where they're from. 

Raw king salmon on wood sorrel

Wood sorrel is a plant that has heart shaped leaves folded through the middle. They come in threes atop a brown green stem. It has a slight sour taste. The fish was fresh and the dish is quite nice, however, I felt it a bit bland overall.

Tuna tartare with crushed pea salad

This dish was very refreshing. The tuna so fresh and tasty. But it was not a 'wow' factor because as a dish overall, I wanted it to be more flavoursome.

We ended it there because I couldn't store anymore sweets even if I wanted to..and then we took a little stroll down to Chin Chins..they were packed so we strolled down to Izakaya Den. 

we ordered..

Wagyu beef tataki

It was tasty, soft and tender and wasabi and daikon

'Corn cluster'

I forgot what they are called on the menu and these are yummy with the green tea salt

Persimmon salad

I love persimmons and have only eaten it raw as it is or recently blitzed it to make ice cream out of it. So I was curious to see it on the menu and what the chefs have done to it. Persimmon is a sweet fruit and the salad was just refreshing. The flavours blended in and became a refresher to cleanse the palate.

After that, I wanted to finish at Movida. Except we got turned away because it was so busy (even for a Monday night), so Nick and I got into my Subaru and drove to Movida Aqui where we finished our hoping trip eating..

Carillera de Buey: Slow braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez on cauliflower puree

Rich, sweet and satisfying on a cold night

Bocadillo de Calamares: Calamari sandwich w Basque guindilla and mayonnaise

And this always makes me smile because it tastes so great!!

So, after a wonderful night going around town pigging out and stuffing my face full of awesome food.. I feel I should go back to these restaurants and fully look (and eat) into the menu. 

The good thing about Movida Aqui is it is located very close to Chaplins Karaoke Bar (korean asian bar) so I got to sing the night away as well. KIDDING!! hahaha

I was in a food coma after all that...

Xx