Classically hidden – Kabuki Shoroku

Not that I’ve been to Japan (yet), but I’m told the out-of-the-way location and serenely calm interior of Kabuki Shoroku in the Sydney CBD is very Japanese.

In a quiet arcade between Clarence and Kent Streets, pass through traditional noren into a very zen garden with stepping stones amid pebbles on the ground, into the restaurant where you’ll likely be greeted by a kimono-clad waitress.

Entrance to Kabuki Shoroku, off Clarence Street, Sydney

She leads us to seats at the sushi bar with an elegant deferential air, while the busy sushi chef welcomes us with a smile and “irrashaimase”. Handed menus, we agree that sushi and sashimi are a must, especially from our prime vantage point, so we simply ask the chef for sashimi to start.

Sashimi (l-r, salmon, kingfish, tuna)

He sets us each up with wooden stands on the sushi bar itself and proceeds to slice thick pieces of salmon, then tuna and kingfish; depositing each pile of fish on the stand after slicing.

The fish is exceedingly fresh, with the simple dip into soy sauce and wasabi barely necessary. The tuna is my favourite on this occasion, and I think the chef delights in seeing us so thoroughly enjoy our sashimi.

Some other tables' garfish dish

Garfish sashimi

Mackerel aburi sushi

We request sushi next, and the chef is a little bemused when we seem keen on mackerel done in the aburi style – a blowtorch blazing the surface of the fish as it sits on rice nigiri style.

Unusual as it was, it was really tasty with the heat seeming to release oils and thus more flavour from the fish, pairing well with the drop of mustard sauce.

The sushi chef blowtorching the scampi

Next we get a taste of luxe with the scampi aburi sushi. I remember the sad times when I didn’t know what scampi was – but now enlightened for many a year I adore the shellfish, preferably closer to raw than cooked.

Scampi aburi sushi

This is how it was served here, with a spicy mayonnaise sauce that enhanced the creaminess of the soft, yielding scampi, and flying fish roe for more texture and saltiness. I get shivers thinking back to it and would have continued having these all night if I thought my budget could extend that far.

Deep fried whitebait

The pile of pale fried whole whitebait, with seafood flakes in the batter, are impressively crunchy while subtle in flavour. This is one of the few stare-at-you foodstuffs that I can handle.

Soft shell crab

The magnetic attraction of soft shell crab prevails again – here four halves standing upright, showing off their gangly legs. Seasoned with the side dish of a salt mixture and not oily, this is a fine example of the ubiquitous dish.

Wagyu beef and vegetables

While Kabuki Shoroku is known as a Japanese seafood restaurant, we couldn’t go past the wagyu hot rock option on the menu. It arrives as a small dish of meat and vegetables, and a tabletop ‘hotrock’ stove, heated and ready to go.

Wagyu on the hot rock

After delicately laying the highly marbled beef slices onto the hotrock, sizzle and smoke ensue as did an oil splat-dodging game while waiting for it to cook. It doesn’t take long to reach a medium-rare state, and when it does, it’s immediately dunked into waiting dipping sauces and then my mouth.

Wagyu sears on the hot rock

After a few cautious chews of the hot-off-the-grill beef, the fat hits with buttery caresses of the tongue, followed by some lip-smackingly beefy yet tender meat. We break it up with some grilled vegetables and do it all again with the beef.

A rich, filling dish – ideal with rice – that I would definitely order again when I'm not wearing light-coloured silk.

Green tea ice cream

Ice cream as dessert is actually included with the meal, and we elect one each of the green tea and black sesame options. The latter is actually light on flavour despite its speckled black appearance, while the green tea seems to have double the usual flavour – not a bad thing, actually.

Black sesame ice cream

Served unfussily with a wafer biscuit and a spoon cut on an angle – very cool, a little sci-fi – the ice cream was a lovely, simple and cooling wind-down to an unexpectedly big meal.

Waddling back out to the zen garden and passing back out through the noren, we leave the arcade back to a quiet Clarence Street like nothing had happened – except for some high quality, genuinely traditional Japanese hospitality and food. Perhaps best to keep that hidden.

It’s all good at Sabbaba

Those all-too-rare moments when all is good in the world – why can’t they happen more often? It was a cruisey Sunday with a nice bit of sunshine followed by a cruisey early evening.

All was good in at least my bubble and rather than to tempt fate into the kitchen, we headed out to Newtown for a casual dinner care of a Jump on It voucher.

One of the many wall murals inside Sabbaba, King Street, Newtown

I often pass Sabbaba in Newtown while in transit; its bright yellow signage standing out from the hustle of King Street. From the street it looks lively and vibrant, and on this Sunday evening, they were handing out samples of their popular falafels to passersby.

Graffiti portrait art lines the walls where diners sit in to dine, while Sabbaba also does a busy takeaway trade as Jack Johnson casually strums away in the background. Some also just walk in for a piece of two of baklava which is made onsite.

‘How to Sabbaba’ is explained to us, and it’s a new experience for me. Select your meal to be served in a pita pocket, plate or bowl, and then select a filling to go with an array of dips and/or salads.

Little Creatures Pale Ale and Original Pilsner

Our voucher included a beer or glass of wine; the former option quite posh with Corona, Pure Blonde or two brews of Little Creatures. We opt for the latter two, a clean and refreshing Pilsner, and a sweet and fruity Pale Ale.

(A bit of beer trivia: the Pale Ale has 5.2% alcohol content while the Original Pilsner has 4.6%; I never would have guessed by taste.)

Cutlery holder and menu on the tables

Within only minutes of ordering at the counter, our meals are brought over looking very large and every bit as vibrant as the restaurant itself.

I was informed that the pita pocket was the lighter feed, the plate the biggest while the bowl was salad-heavy – something for everyone and every occasion it seems.

Bowl with crumbed fish

I offset my healthy salad bowl with a crumbed fish filling – the fish of the day being barramundi. The crumb outer is fried to a dark tone, zingy with lemon and herbs, but the thin slice of fish inside is still silky smooth.

Pita bread

The bowl includes one dip of tahini, one halved pita bread and an abundance of salad: mixed leaves, shredded red cabbage, a village salad of diced tomato and cucumber, tasty chickpeas, salty pickles and super-fresh tabouli.

It may well have been the largest bowl of salad I’ve ever eaten and also probably the healthiest main meal (fried fish aside) ever. The chickpeas and tabouli were the favourites although the cabbage was also surprisingly flavourful.

Dips from the plate

The plate included all the same salads except the mixed leaves, and mostly smaller servings. This was made up for by an extra pita bread (making four halves!) and other dips of hummous, babaganoush and a fiery red salsa that stood out in a sea of beige dips.

Plate with lamb shish

This plate had the lamb shish filling; cubes of could-be-more-tender lamb in a mild spice seasoning. The meat wasn’t dry, especially when dunked into one or more of the dips, but the slight chewiness made it a little bit of hard work.

And if the giant plates and bowls weren’t enough, dessert followed as part of our voucher. Sabbaba has a surprisingly large variety of desserts, from a tonne of different rum balls to Turkish delight to cookies – but there was no going past the baklava, especially as we were sitting right next to the syrupy pastry-laden cabinet.

Tulip baklava (left) and log baklava (right)

The most popular is the log baklava, we’re told, though I have a thing for the shape of the tulip ones. The baklava are made fresh on premises while some of the other nutty slices and the pistachio nest are bought in.

My tulip baklava is perfection. I bite from the crispy, syrup-doused, layered corners of filo pastry and am rewarded with an immediate sugar hit, a touch of natural saltiness from the nuts and instant happiness. The centre is crumbly and I make sure to pick up every last bit of falling filling – with the sticky bottom of the baklava.

The main dine-in area

Dinner at Sabbaba was fun and new, and it was a great venue to freshen up Middle Eastern cuisine and my own dining-out experiences. I’m keen to try the chicken shawarma and lamb or beef kofte next time, maybe in a pita pocket, just to change things up. However it’s served up, I'm sure it’s all good.

Asia tripping - part VII: Hanoi (still)

This is the seventh of several brief posts of my recent trip to Asia: photos, food and a few thoughts.

Saint Joseph's Cathedral, French Quarter, Hanoi

There are little hidden temples all throughout the Old Quarter of Hanoi
- much fun to discover and respectfully stumble in

Ca phe nau nong - hot milk coffee

One afternoon, weary from a day of walking we decided the join the locals at a street side coffee shop, strewn with discarded pumpkin seed shells, for an afternoon caffeine fix.

We somehow managed an order through the giggling shop girls, and landed ourselves with two cups of hot black coffee, and instructed to stir the condensed milk that gathered at the bottom of the cup. It was strong, warming and sweetly creamy - a sugar hit and caffeine hit in one.

Scooter traffic is insane - though not really deadly

Scooters, bikes, cars, people everywhere

No rules - just beep

Building containing Legends Beer

All the walking and eating through the day led us to a seat on the balcony of the third floor Legends Beer overlooking one of the busiest intersections around Hoan Kiem Lake. A German style microbrewery in the heart of Hanoi, it had a slight Contiki feel to it, but it must have just been the crowd.

Legends lager

Beers weren’t cheap compared to the local mass produced stuff (Bia Hanoi and even Bia Saigon), but to expected given the style of beer, and of course the view.

Memorable Hanoi traffic

I hadn’t expected vegetarian food to be difficult to find in Vietnam just generally, given the presence of Buddhism.

I suppose it wouldn’t be that hard to have a salad or noodle dish adjusted to be meat-free (probably not soup/stock though), but a couple of pescatarians I’d spoken to had trouble finding pure vegetarian food. One was even offered chicken when she enquired about “no meat” dishes.

Huc Bridge in Hoan Kiem Lake

We happily ascended the stairs of Green Gecko Restaurant on Ma May street after seeing a separate vegetarian menu out the front, to the level one dining area (with balcony seats) that much resembled a backpacker’s hostel lounge room.

Looking at the menu and around, it seemed most dishes had a westernised approach. But at least there was vegetarian food, including the curious faux meat kind of gluten.

Mango juice and lemon juice drinks at Green Gecko Restaurant, Ma May Street,
Old Quarter, Hanoi

The mango juice was arguably fresh – it was definitely the stringiest juice I’ve ever sampled, but true enough to taste. The lemon drink was the usual cordial-like beverage, this time served warm.

Sweet and sour gluten

The vegetarian sweet and sour gluten (see, I told you westernised) was a typically red combination of capsicum, pineapple and gluten, which I didn’t sample but was supposedly satisfactory.

Steamed fish

The steamed fillet of fish was a pretty sight but ultimately disappointing; bland and filled with small bones. Even the addition of soy sauce couldn’t really help its cause.

Seafood noodles

Slightly better were the seafood noodles – nothing special but at least registering some flavour on the palate.

Fruit stall at the night markets

We ended that night on a better flavour with fruit bought at the night markets. Guava and strawberries, sprinkled with a red spice mix that added zing to the already sweet fruit. So there we were, eating guava with toothpicks while haggling over undies and coats.

Trishaw rides - remember to bargain

Seafood on display

Our last lunch in Hanoi before rushing off to the airport was one to remember. Although I can be a bit cautious when it comes to seafood, especially when it’s just sitting there on the footpath, we took it as a good sign that there were several tables of locals in at a late lunch hour.

Cooked crab legs

It was also a good opportunity to use up the last of our Vietnamese dong in a seafood splurge. We were handed a laminated menu with English translated dishes, and easily ordered up a seafood storm.

We only later noticed that locals were given Vietnamese menus with about three times the amount of dishes available. Oh well.

Live prawns in a tank

Nonetheless, we were ecstatic with what we ordered, including live crabs and large prawns fished out from the nearby tank.

Bia Saigon at the seafood restaurant

Perhaps not regionally patriotic, my Bia Saigon went down extremely well despite the cool weather outside.

Cooking the crab

First up were the crabs, apparently the chef’s signature. Closely resembling blue swimmers (or indeed, actually blue swimmers), these reddened crustaceans were swimming in a spicy tamarind sauce, having come straight out of the chef’s street facing wok at the front of the store.

Cua ghe - crab in tamarind sauce

As always, they were a bit of work but the sweet/sour/hot combination of flavours from the sauce almost made licking the shells and our fingers more rewarding than trying to extract the flesh.

Muc nuong - grilled squid

The whole grilled squid was another tantalising treat, with char-blackened edges of the surprisingly tender rings. Garnished with a spicy fresh herb, the squid was utterly divine with a squeeze of kumquat juice.

Mi xao - fried noodles with seafood and vegetables

For carbs we had the seafood noodles, which turned out to be instant noodles in a sweet, spicy sauce. I find instant noodles quite comforting every now and then, especially when travelling (though certainly not everyday if it can be helped), so this steaming hot dish was wolfed down without complaint.

Tom nuong - grilled shrimp

Last to arrive were the grilled, jumbo-sized prawns which were swimming about in their tank next to us less than half an hour ago. Skewered straight then grilled, the prawns had a fantastic crunch (with and without their shells, though obviously more with) and were basted in yet another mildly spicy marinade that was finger-licking good.

With crabs and prawns, it was certainly a messy meal – and a relatively pricey one by local standards. But, nervously ready to head back to Noi Bai International, it was the best possible goodbye we could have had to Hanoi, its fabulous food and its friendly faces.

More Asia tripping posts to come, in Hong Kong and Malaysia.