Harajuku Gyoza: Happy face dumplings

I love the way the Harajuku Gyoza menu gets diners in the mood: "You are like a hungry salaryman in a Japanese izakaya. You are thirsty and your appetite is big like Godzilla." All Japanese quirk and just a little bit of sense.

Harajuku Gyoza logo, Bayswater Road, Kings Cross

From Brisbane's Fortitude Valley comes this cute-as-a- button dumpling and beer joint, specialising in all manner of Japanese gyoza dumplings in the heart of Kings Cross, a couple of doors down from Hugos Bar Pizza.

While more a cutesy, recognisable name than anything representative of the Harajuku area in Tokyo, the Sydney outpost of Harajuku Gyoza has a fittingly fun fitout that’s all wooden furniture and colourful plates and service that hint at the sometimes crazy Japanese pop culture.

Sake being served

One unnamed type of sake is served chilled, with great ceremony and noise, traditionally into a glass sitting in a masu box to catch the overflow.

There's also Kirin beer on tap, beers by the bottle (including the pricey but one of my favourites – Hitachino Nest White Ale), Kirin's new Fuji apple cider and a few select wines.

Cucumber and miso salad

Food arrived pretty quickly after ordering, and you get the feeling it's really not a place to sit and linger over drinks.

We started, healthily, with a small salad of peeled, raw cucumber dressed liberally in a sweet, strong yellow miso soybean paste, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Gyoza condiments

Seated at the counter, we had a direct view to the gyoza cooking stations – both poached and grilled versions.

Made daily and then frozen to avoid sogginess, the meat and vegetable fillings wrapped in dough were either dropped into a boiling pot or lined up into a custom gyoza grill press with a fair bit of oil for crisp bottoms.

Grilled lobster tail gyoza 

We sampled the special of lobster tail grilled gyoza: thin, chewy and crisp wrappers with a coarsely chopped filling that somewhat resembled lobster in texture though less so in taste. From the condiments selection, I added vinegar sauce and chilli oil.

Poached duck gyoza 

From the regular menu we went with poached duck gyoza and traditional grilled pork ones – both versions unexpectedly meaty.

The duck gyoza were ideal poached, with a slight gaminess to the filling differentiating it from usual styles and quite tasty with the condiments.

Grilled pork gyoza 

Pork gyoza are about one of my favourite things in the world and it was probably high expectations that let me down.

As odd as it may sound, I found Harajuku Gyoza's pork variety too meaty, with insufficient cabbage and other seasonings – minced pork overload, if you will. The dough wrappers though, I adored and could eat on their crisp lonesome.

Tenpura eggplant

To more substantial but still izakaya style dishes, we started with "tenpura" eggplant: lightly battered, pre cut into wedges for easy eating. Soft and squishy within, the oily fried eggplant was served in a pool of a vinegary sauce.

Pork belly kakuni

An impressively-sized serve, the pork belly kakuni comprised four blocks of rich, braised pork belly in layers of fat and meat, the latter unfortunately dry.

It was heavy eating, even with steamed rice on the side, while an acidic condiment, mustard even, would have helped cut through the fattiness.

Harajuku Gyoza exterior 

We ended up having to take leftovers of the pork belly home, and it turned out a little better the next day. There wasn't room for dessert gyoza on this occasion, but that joins the basket I'd rarely touch anyway, along with dessert pizza.

They make no apologies for being an eat-and-run venue, and I can see a fair few spontaneous meals and dumpling cravings getting sorted at Harajuku Gyoza, despite there being better dumplings around town.

"It must be perfect or we get your sad face. We want your happy face," says the menu. It's gyoza and it's pretty darn adorable – you get the happy face.

Food, booze and shoes dined as a guest of Harajuku Gyoza.

Christmas lunch, David Jones style

I've always wanted to do the full Christmas table decorations and theming, but large family, outdoor Christmas lunches aren't really conducive to such festive pomp and finery.

Nonetheless, I got to admire a few fabulous examples last night at the preview of David Jones' Christmas Lunch in The Lacquer Room; a fantastic event space on Level 7 of the Elizabeth Street, Sydney store that overlooks lush Hyde Park and onto St Mary's Cathedral.

Christmas table settings on display in The Lacquer Room, Level 7, David Jones, Elizabeth Street, Sydney

For the very first time, the David Jones Sydney store is putting on a Christmas Lunch from 18-23 December 2013.

The Lacquer Room will be open to the public with lunch, morning tea and high tea offerings by Pearl Catering. The bright, airy space will be set for a maximum of 60 diners, serviced by a concealed pop-up kitchen.

The Lacquer Room

With Champagne Pommery on pour for the preview evening (normally $18 per glass; David Jones American Express Platinum Card members receive a complimentary glass on arrival), it was a fantastic opportunity to not only admire the Christmas table settings but also the Hyde Park tree-top views and classic herringbone parquetry floor.

From the lunch menu there are four mains options - vegetarian pumpkin and ricotta tortellini, pan fried snapper, roast turkey breast and a grilled pork cutlet - and three dessert options.

Crisp skin snapper with fennel puree, asparagus, sugar snap peas and sauce vierge

The meaty snapper looked an absolute delight, fragrant with fresh dill and micro herbs. The skin pan fried crisply and the fish gorgeously moist, it was served with an interesting puree of fennel and green vegetables on the side.

Roast turkey breast brushed with herb butter, potato puree and a terrine of macadamia and brioche with Cumberland sauce

The roast turkey was served as two slices of tender breast, juicy even without the fruity Cumberland sauce and melting pat of fresh herb butter.

Rather than traditional stuffing, the turkey was served with a clever bread-y terrine of macadamia nuts and brioche, with potato puree filling up the festive plate. A dressed green salad to share among the table was served on the side.

Summer berries and mascarpone trifle

We got to sample all three desserts on the menu, starting with the very light and subtle trifle of summer berries. Topped with chocolate shavings, I think the light mascarpone cheese made it an airier dessert than traditional custard would be, while there was also minimal cake in the stemless glass.

Dark chocolate tart with Cointreau strawberries and chantilly

On the other end of the dessert scale was the exceedingly rich dark chocolate ganache tart served as a thin wedge with a crumbly, short pastry.

The Cointreau-steeped strawberry segments were a revelatory delight of fruit and booze, while the vanilla bean chantilly cream added even more luxe richness to the silky ganache tart.

Steamed Christmas pudding with brandy anglaise

Just right was the steamed Christmas pudding, packed full with sweet dried fruit. The warm cake itself was light and airy perfection, particularly when drizzled with the thick and creamy crème anglaise with just the tiniest hint of brandy.

Christmas table setting display in The Lacquer Room

The table service was exemplary, but you wouldn't expect any less from David Jones. Combined with the unbeatable view, thoroughly charming surrounds and a live string quartet playing Christmas carols (and oddly, songs from "The Sound of Music"), I feel like I've already had my traditional Christmas dinner for the year.

See more photos on my Facebook page. For full details and tickets for the David Jones Christmas Lunch, see the website.

Food, booze and shoes attended a preview of the David Jones Christmas Lunch in The Lacquer Room as a guest.

Popolo: Bringing southern Italian to the people

The emergence of regional cuisine in recent years - from Italian to Chinese to Thai - signals a maturation of the Sydney dining scene.

Being less common and familiar to us Sydney-siders, it was with excitement and intrigue that I visited Popolo in Rushcutters Bay, which opened to rave reviews earlier this year with its southern Italian offerings.

Bellini at Popolo, McLachlan Avenue, Rushcutters Bay

Popolo's two co-owners, formerly of Fratelli Paradiso, have taken on a space beneath a block of apartments in the pricey inner city suburb, introducing produce and wines from emerging regions in southern Italy to the people.

Bright and airy during a Sunday lunch, it was entirely appropriate to start with a bellini, made with peach puree and topped with prosecco and an orange zest garnish that tried to poke the drinker's eyes out.

Bread and olive oil

A bowl of bread was brought to the table, foccacia and a hole-riddled white bread, with salt and an adorably small cast iron frypan filled with olive oil.

Principessa pizza

Continuing on the carbohydrate path, we chose a pizza to share given Naples in the south of Italy is regarded as the home of the modern pizza.

Despite the base and crust of the pizza being a little thicker than I was expecting, the pizza still went a little soggy with the load of fresh and tasty tomato sauce and so was best eaten with cutlery or folded over.

The stretchy, melted buffalo mozzarella cheese was an absolute highlight, of the day even, with the pretty but impractical whole basil leaf garnish.

Carpaccio di gamberi - prawn carpaccio with housemade sour cream, capers, freeze dried mandarin

The entrée special of the day was an irresistible carpaccio of prawns. Served raw and flattened, the prawns had a wonderful creaminess, enhanced with dabs of Popolo's house-made sour cream and and salty capers.

Oil and a hint of vinegar lightly dressed the prawn carpaccio with segments of freeze-dried mandarin adding the finishing citrusy touch to an unusual but spectacular daily special.

Fregola with blue swimmer crab and tomato

From the pasta menu, offered in the one mains size, the fregola was the popular pick for its promise of crustacean goodness.

Featuring picked blue swimmer crab flesh and a crab leg, the hearty and firm fregola pasta basked in a fresh tomato sauce with delectable hints of the sea and soft, squishy cherry tomatoes.

Squid ink tagliatelle with heirloom tomatoes, poached tuna belly and bottarga

I didn't taste the inky black tagliatelle which was a striking dish of wide, squid ink noodles in sauce of yellow-orange heirloom tomatoes with poached tuna belly hidden beneath and sprinkled atop with bottarga cured and dried mullet roe.

Pesce - market fish of Spanish mackerel with cauliflower and white bean puree

I chose the day's market fish of Spanish mackerel, which I was looking forward to as my only prior tasting of the fish has been in its raw nigiri sushi form. The Spanish mackerel was served simply pan-fried on a creamy white bean puree, circled by cauliflower florets.

The thick fillets of Spanish mackerel were very well cooked with crisp, golden skin and its meaty flesh retaining moisture. While a beautiful fillet of fish, the mackerel dish could have used some bigger flavours and even a cheek of lemon wouldn't have gone to waste.

Rocket and grana padano salad

A medium sized bowl of oil-dressed rocket and grana padano cheese shavings completed the meal as our shared side dish.

N & C - coffee-scented white chocolate, hazelnut mousse, hazelnut crumble

Popolo's exotic list of Italian cheeses tempted me more than any cheese list I've come across in Sydney, but being a little too keen on the pizza earlier, I just couldn't do it.

I could barely manage one mouthful of the deceptively petite dessert of chocolate cream, hazelnut mousse and nutty praline. It was both one of the smallest and richest desserts I've tasted, felling the rest of the table with its intense sweetness and creaminess.

We could have sat and lingered with the chilled Sunday lunch crowd, drinking the afternoon away people watching, although there isn't too much of a view other than the well-heeled locals. While it's not a trip to Naples or the Amalfi Coast, Popolo's bringing a part of southern Italy to the people of Sydney.