Salaryman - Surry Hills, NSW

I've always, always wanted to be a cook or a chef...I never made it but I still dream about it day and night. It was only in the last couple of years that I'd found what I was truly passionate about and that's ramen. It all started when I had my first legitimate bowl of ramen in a tiny shop in the heart of Tokyo a little more than a decade ago. Since then, I haven't had enough of the stuff. One day, when I have enough incentive and nothing to stop me, I'll fly to Japan and sign up to ramen school (yes, that exists). For now, I'll need to live vicariously through my dining experiences of which, my most recent was Salaryman (last night).

I managed to separate myself from the Mrs and had the opportunity to eat out with a mate. Knowing that he is as much of a foodie as I am, I decided to set the location at a place I assumed we both wanted to try out. We arrived at roughly 6:30pm and got seated right at the bar where the open kitchen was situated. My mate is a really, really chill guy but I genuinely felt horrible since my focus was split between maintaining concentration on the conversation we were having, and being distracted by the magnificent work of the brilliant chefs who were just an inch from where we were seated. Seeing the chef delicately and meticulously slicing bonito just fascinated me to no end. So clearly, it was the perfect seating arrangement.

Once we'd made our decision on what we wanted, we promptly placed our our orders and waited patiently for our dishes to arrive. I find that it's nice to occasionally catch up with a friend you haven't seen in a sometime. It breaks the  monotony of daily life and gives you a bit of context and insight into theirs. As we got into our discussion, our first order arrived: oysters! A dozen of them! I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for decadent, luxurious things...foie gras, caviar, uni and oysters...I love it all. Salaryman does this particularly well which is great.The oysters are super fresh and still retain that briney flavour, but are light enough that I think even people who don't regularly enjoy oysters could appreciate this. The vinaigrette has hints of ginger and rice wine vinegar (I think) which is great for cutting right through it and opening up your appetite.

Shortly after our oysters, our order of prawn toast okonomiyaki arrived. This was a really, really interesting dish to me as I'm a Chinese guy who has a palate way more in tune with Japanese flavours. This dish felt like the best of both worlds. Prawn paste is sandwiched between two slices of white bread, crumbed and then fried for a really crunchy texture. Next,  they just pack on the umami by adding okonomiyaki sauce, kewpie mayo, bonito flakes and aonori. Flavour wise, it tastes just like your favourite do-it-yourself Japanese pancake but texturally, it's definitely a prawn toast (minus the excess of sesame seeds and overused, greasy oil).

We finished up our starters and watched as the kitchen prepared our mains. The first to reach us was our order of the bone marrow with duck ham and fried milk bread. Seriously, this dish was impressively delicious. It's fatty, rich and beefy but has so many different elements that come together and make it great. The bone marrow is legit just that: two pieces of beef fat roasted over an open wood fire. You then eat it with soft, pillowy fried bread and the duck ham which gives it this savoury, salty element. I'd be able to down one (or three) of these by myself.

Finally, my most anticipated dish arrived: the pork and pipi ramen. Visually, it looks nothing like any other ramen you've had: it's much smaller which can be confusing because of the price they charge, but straight away, you can tell that a lot of thought went into this humble bowl of noodles. The soup stock isn't gravy thick like other Sydney ramen establishments but had an almost equivalent meaty depth to it. The pippies were cooked in the wood fire until they'd just opened up, yielding that delicious meat as you tear the pippies from their shells. The thick cut pork belly was super fatty but could have been a bit softer or more tender in my opinion. The noodles were wavy and clung to the soup well with a delicate yet springy snap. Finally, the black garlic and sesame oil rounds out the whole bowl by giving it that additional layer of moreish, aromatic flavour. The best bits of the ramen were actually the two ajitsuke eggs that sit on top. Eggs in ramen are usually just salty and molten, whereas Salaryman's rendition has a defined acidity to it which really helps cut through the richness of the whole bowl... It's an experience and a half eating one of those eggs. It's a really, really great and interesting bowl of noodles but the combination of all the heavy flavours can leave you a bit stuffy even much later into the night.

Salaryman claims to be the best ramen in Surry Hills (on their website) and while I personally don't think I can attest to that (at least until I've tried Komachi) I certainly think they do what they do really well. They've sold Surry Hills (and greater Sydney) on the idea of delicious, well-done Japanese inspired dishes. The flavour of the ramen they create isn't the traditional type of ramen that makes you reminisce about the streets of Tokyo. Instead, they are edgy and dynamic, which in my opinion is more reminiscent of the David Chang/Momofuku Noodle Bar movement. With that in mind, I very much like the direction that the Sydney food scene is going.

Moving out! - Peakhurst, NSW

There's been a slight slowdown of posts lately and there's a very good reason for this....it's because I've just moved out of home! For the first time in my life, I've branched out on my own and started living independently from my family. Aside from not initially having electricity, gas or internet for the first half of my first week...I think I did well! Just before I moved out though, the parents decided to give me a proper send off by cooking all of my most requested dishes. Although they didn't explicitly specify that it was for me, when every dish is your favorite, it's pretty obvious.

The way my family interacts is weird one: we don't really verbally show any affection towards one another. Instead, you learn to take in little hints here and there and slowly, you pick up how to interpret each other's true feelings and motives, That night, it was very obvious that my family loved me very much and were feeling sentimental. My dad cooked up a storm as per usual but he made sure that each and every dish was one that I would thoroughly enjoy and remember...I'd always appreciated that about him.

As with most Chinese banquets, there's no particular order in which things come out. Instead, everything is laid onto the table as they become ready and you just dig in when we all come to the table. With that in mind, I'll speak about the dishes in no particular order. Firstly, dad prepared oysters two ways: deep fried and steamed with ginger and spring onions. I love oysters in all shapes, sizes and forms but I have to admit, fried is probably my number 1 most beloved way of consuming these bivalves. A super crunchy exterior coats the piping hot and creamy oyster flesh which makes each bite a hazard and a joy. The steamed oysters were also amazingly fresh tasting and delicious...the aroma and taste of fresh spring onions and ginger complements the oysters so well.

Aside from the oysters, dad also made XO sauce pipis served with a side of crispy egg noodles. On a normal day where my appetite has been piqued, I can single handedly down a whole dish of these with no issues...that's how much I love XO sauce pipis. Adding in the carby, chewy noodles makes the experience so much better as the crispy exterior clings to the sauce and makes it easier for you to sop up that hot and spicy gravy.

By the time I'd gotten around to gorging on the third item, I was most definitely getting full. Still, my stomach will always make room for Peking Duck. I recently had an experience where I had authentic Beijing style Peking Duck with my friends and for some reason...it just didn't taste right. It's something about how Cantonese chefs do this dish that make it so, so good...it's probably the grease but I'm not complaining. Juicy, succulent slices of duck in the perfect ratio of meat to crispy, spiced skin wrapped in a chewy, doughy chinese flour tortilla and consumed with slices of cucumber and hoisin sauce. When I was a kid, there was no greater joy to me than to eat out with friends and family and be able to get parental approval to eat the two or three extra plates of Peking Duck wraps. I still feel the same nostalgic happiness when my dad decides to make this for me.

Not to disappoint the other family members, dad also decided to make steamed fish (his favorite). There's something rather elegant about this dish's simplicity: it really is just a fresh fish that's steamed and then served with ginger, spring onions and special soy sauce but it's just irresistibly good. I'd never really learned to appreciate this dish until I started dating the Mrs...fish can sometimes be very hard to appreciate (especially for picky eaters) since they can be "fishy" and boney but when you have something as fresh and delicious as this...you learn to get over it.

As if there wasn't enough food already, dad also decided to make Chinese style braised pork as well as a dish of woodear mushrooms marinaded in a chinese chilli vinaigrette.  The pork was tender and fall-apart which made it wonderful to have with rice. The accompanying veggies were also great in that they soaked up all that braising liquid and added a layer of flavoring. The woodear mushrooms were crunchy and fresh and the vinaigrette was super appetising which worked really well since it cleansed the palate and allowed you to consume more delicious food.

When reminiscing about this meal (that occurred a week and a half ago), I find that I'm filled with a sense of regret and sadness. Regret in that in my time at home, I'd never been able to verbally show or even just tell my family how much I appreciated their support, kindness and care for me and sadness in that although I can always head home and have the same kind of meal every Tuesday, that familiar care-free feeling will forever be lost to me as that chapter in my life closes and a new one starts. But with that sadness, I'm also filled with a sense of excitement and renewed energy with the upcoming events that are about to unfold. For now: I'm proud to announce that chopsticks headquarters has officially moved and settled into North Parramatta.