ACME - Rushcutters Bay, NSW

One of the benefits of being a couple is that you can have a differing opinion from your significant other and it can be totally okay!....most days. This logic applies almost in every superficial facet of your life: clothing, music tastes and of course, food. To give you a little context on why I'm going the #deep introduction: I can get somewhat salty (sensitive) when things don't go my way...for example, when I put a lot of effort into planning and thinking about where to take the Mrs on a special day and when it doesn't turn out to be absolutely perfect. In retrospect though, after thinking about it for a few days, our differing opinions about our meal actually helps me to appreciate my experience a lot more.

Such is the case with our recent visit to ACME. Now, to make things clear: I'm not trying to say that we had a bad meal at ACME. In fact, we had a comparatively good time and were very well taken care of but throughout, there were a couple of things that did throw the Mrs off (more on that later). I've personally known about ACME for a while now but the Mrs only really found out about it when we watched the first Sydney based Chef's Night Out video from MUNCHIES. In the video, you sort of get a glimpse of head chef, Mitch Orr prepare the signature dish: the macaroni with pig's head and egg yolk (which he described as sorta being like filipino sisig). Being the proud Filipina she is, she became rather interested in the dish and thus really wanted to try it. Since then, I guess the idea of eating at ACME just kept stewing in our heads, slowly but surely getting us more and more excited about eventually eating there. So, sure enough, the perfect opportunity came up when I was tasked with finding a venue for our Valentine's day dinner.

Unfortunately however, the only option for night was a pre-paid $100 per head dinner for a special chef's "crush me" menu. Not deterred by that fact that we wouldn't be able to try the dish that we'd been craving, I quickly made my reservation and paid for the meal, thinking that "hey, if they're so highly rated and well liked...no matter what they serve, it's gotta be good!". Valentine's day being a Tuesday, the Mrs and I decide to meet in the city after work and head over to Kings Cross station where the restaurant is just a short walk (do not ever try to find parking in the area...near impossible)

We're one of the first couples seated as we walk in 6pm on the dot. To my surprise, we're given an almost ideal position at the restaurant: this little island in the middle of the dining room right by the stairs where we get a perfect spot to watch the dishes come off the pass. The staff are super attentive and make us feel right at home where we quickly get settled, order some drinks and quietly anticipate our meals to come.

First course to come was a small appetiser called Jat'z Amore (such a punny name...I love it!) which consisted of basil pesto, sliced bocconcini, a slightly roasted half of a cherry tomato on a Jat'z cracker. I personally loved this dish as I could see the humor and ingenuity of the name and the pure simplicity of this dish but I believe this is one of the things that threw the Mrs off a bit. As she puts it, she felt it little odd to be served Jat'z biscuits on a $100 per head meal when a box of Jat'z costs $2 at Coles.

After that, the second course to come was fried chicken wings ala Moon Park. Now, I never got to try Moon Park before they permanently closed down but if this was any indication of how good they were, I had a definite feeling that I would have loved to dine there. The outside coating was crunchy and savoury whilst the inside was succulent, juicy and very flavoursome. The coating was intensely umami packed which led me to believe there may have been some sort of soy-based glaze used....or it could have been the sesame seeds.

The third course consisted of figs, stracciatella cheese and wakame. Compared to the previous course, this dish was milder but creamier and in terms of overall, each individual component and flavour profile is allowed to be more pronounced. It was at this point that I was able to identify a bit of an ongoing theme for that night's dinner...the composition of each dish had been thoroughly thought out with each element engineered in a way which highlights the individuality and natural flavours of the ingredients. This alone, to me, justified the premium I paid for the meal.

The course after had to be the absolute highlight of my night: marron with tomato butter and caviar. I mean, come on...how could you not love marron? Truly, it's the royalty of the crustacean world with flavours so intense it rivals the mud crab and with flesh so tender and meaty, you would almost believe that you're eating lobster or scampi. I guess that's why any restaurant who's doing anything spectacular with food is currently serving this stuff....never comes cheap either but always totally worth it. The butter had a really intense and almost bisque-like quality to it which was really accentuated by the herbaceous flavours of the chive and the luxurious yet mellow salinity of the caviar.

The next course was another great dish...spaghetti and meatballs alla "Lady and the Tramp". Perhaps the most impressive part of the dish was how incredibly well prepared the pasta was. Al-dente is not even apt enough to describe the amount of spring and chew the pasta had. The sauce of the pasta had a simplicity and purity about it...sweet, tangy and refreshingly tart. Finally, the meatballs were rich and deliciously meaty...sorta wished there were more of them.

After the carbs came the protein...unfortunately, this is probably why the Mrs didn't enjoy her dinner as much as I had anticipated her to. I made the assumption that she genuinely liked duck meat since she never seems to have a problem eating peking duck at my Parent's place. Turns out, that's the only duck that she seems to like. Traditional western preparation of duck (medium rare) is a bit too gamey and chewy for her liking. As a result...I ended up eating both pieces of the duck but I actually have no problems with it since I'm accustomed to eating French cuisine. I actually found this a rather interesting dish as I could have sworn that there was some Chinese black vinegar used in the sauce....it had a rather familiar pungent fragrance and taste to it which I found really enlightening!

Dessert happens to be where I was a little bit let down. Dessert consisted of two dishes: assorted fruits with champagne jelly as well as a chocolate fudge slice. I'm guessing the intention of the first dessert was to replicate the taste of a flute of high class champagne but I found the jelly to be a bit heavy on the alcoholic flavour. Have it with the fruits though and you start to appreciate the natural sweetness of the fresh produce. The chocolate fudge came as a welcome bit of richness as the deep, bittersweet flavour of cacao really helped round off the meal in a nice way.

Without a doubt, the Mrs and I had a wonderful meal at ACME. Despite not being able to try the dish we had anticipated for some time, it was our (my) choice to proceed with the dinner plans and I can definitely say that I wasn't disappointed in the slightest with the quality and presentation of the items. For the Mrs, I believe that it was truly the duck dish that threw her off and being the frugal, value conscious consumer she is, she's reached the point in her life where it takes more for her to justify the cost of eating out at slightly fancier venues. For me though, I think every dollar I paid at ACME was well justified. In the video Foraged, Mitch explains the difficulties and costs of running a restaurant. Coming from a family raised on my father's hard work as a chef and myself having worked a large portion of my younger years as kitchen staff....I understand the hardships of running restaurants and how little the staff get paid comparative to how hard or how many hours they work. We do live in the 2nd most expensive city in the world so even if it seems like a high premium to pay, I just think of it as paying for the hours of hard work and dedication Mitch and his team put into getting to where they are.

2016 Japan Trip!!!

God, I can't believe it's been almost a month since the Mrs and I had our holiday to Japan. Almost a year of planning and anticipation, all leading up to 9 days in the beautiful, amazing and fascinating country that we both fell in love with. Whilst I'd like to say that I made full use of my leave, I unfortunately did not because I got taken out almost immediately after that (more on that later) but overall, though it wasn't my longest or easiest trip to the land of the rising sun, it definitely has to be my favourite so far since this is the first time the Mrs and I travelled to Japan together.

We both adore Japan and it's culture. I watch anime almost daily, we both majored in the study of the Japanese language and to cap it off, I have a Japanese ramen tattoo on my right arm. So, needless to say, this trip was very, very important to the both of us...almost (exactly) like a second honeymoon. Not only that, it was my first time in Osaka which is the foodie capital of Japan! A week prior to the trip, I was so excited and anxious that I spent most of my time watching videos from Erwan Heusaff and Mark Wiens to prepare myself for what was to come. I had mentally prepared myself time and time again to indulge in at least five meals a day...that was the plan!

That said, I can't say that I particularly enjoyed the flight to Japan. The flight was from Sydney to Cairns and then from Cairns to Japan with a 3 hour layover in between. (urghhhh). This was the very first trip I've had where I had a layover...as a kid (and all the way through high school), I was fortunate enough to have been provided with annual trips to Hong Kong. Always a direct flight and always with a separate destination planned on the trip.We chose to fly with Jetstar so being a budget airline, you get what you pay for.

My arrival at Kansai International Airport was mind-blowing though....it brought me back to the time when I was a child, setting food in Japan for the first time. A clean, neatly organised and mesmerizingly efficient place unlike anything I had known. A place where almost everything had architecturally clean lines and flashing signs, loud sounds and exciting prospects. We were famished after our long flight so we immediately set off to find some grub. Fortunately, Kansai Airport is choc-a-bloc full of options! More than you can even count on two hands! After a long deliberation process, we settled for Tonkatsu as our first meal so we entered Tonkatsu KYK and grabbed a table.

The Mrs decided to start her trip the exact same way she started her last Japan trip: with Katsu Curry. I have to say, no Japanese curry I've had in Sydney even compares to how rich and delicious the curry in Japan is! It's the same stuff but just...more? More umami, more ingredients, more time, love and energy spent on producing the food. Whatever it is, it made for a delicious meal! The tonkatsu was also amazing since it was juicy, tender and cooked perfectly with a super crunchy exterior! Rather than having curry, I opted to order the pork loin set which came with miso soup, rice and pickles.

After having mildly satisfied our hunger, we set off to our accommodation which was an AirBnB apartment in the middle of Namba at Nipponbashi DenDen town. Navigating the public transport in Japan was a breeze! I had anticipated that I'd need my 4 years of Japanese to get me by but that was not true at all! The subway system was rather easy to understand and very, very efficient. My only gripe: we had purchase the JR pass which I quickly found, didn't apply to a lot of Japan's privatised rail system. Osaka mainly runs off the Nankai company's rail line and the subway (neither of which the JR pass worked for). Still, transport was affordable and we quickly got to our accommodation.

Where we lived, we were about 10-15 minutes walk from Dotonbori, Osaka's most well known eating district. Wasting absolutely no time, the two of us set off immediately to locate our next feed. Dotonbori is amazing....the sheer amount of choice you have is staggering! Every craving and desire can be satisfied...with super convenient massive signs to help indicate to you where. That being the case, we quickly found ourselves walking up and down the street with absolutely no direction or idea what we were going to have. Fortunately, I came upon a familiar green and red sign and I immediately made up my mind. Yes....Ichiran Ramen, the super popular chain of ramen restaurants that provide you with individual booths to "enhance" your focus on the food and "elevate" your dining experience. Unfortunately, said booths were closed for the day so we settled for the yattai section where it was standard tables. Nonetheless, it was a very satisfying bowl to start my trip with. Medium everything meant that the soup wasn't too thin or thick. The chashu though wasn't particularly impressive though I did enjoy the noodles.

On the second day, we set off for Kuromon Ichiba: Osaka's most popular wet market. Again, living so close to Nipponbashi, we were literally a short walk from the market which was amazing! I feel like I lost some weight due to all the walking I managed to do. In Osaka (or Japan even), you'll find a common theme where you're just plain confused by the amount of choice and variety that's available to you. This was also true for the market as you can literally walk up to any store and purchase your choice of fresh seafood whereby they will prepare the item for your immediate consumption. After taking in the whole market, we stopped at one of the stores in the middle and purchased two skewers of scallops along with an oyster to grill. Each item was ever so lightly brushed in a soy glaze which caramelised onto the surface of the seafood as it cooked over the grill. You pop the piping hot morsels into your mouth and just let it sit there on your tongue as it relinquishes the natural flavours into your mouth.

Two shops down, I noticed a rather familiar (and popular) store which sold only tuna. I recognised it as the store where Erwan Heusaff (mentioned above) ate his tuna collar. Obviously, I had to make some room for chutoro nigiri. No regrets here: despite being a fish shop and not a specialised sushiya, the rice was impeccably done with a perfect balance of softness and bite, vinegar and sweetness. This complimented the thick slices of fatty tuna on top which literally just melts in your mouth as you chew! So delicious.

I won't go into too much detail about what we did in between but after a full day of tourist-ing and sight seeing, we were hungry again! Heading back to Dotonbori for round 2, we started with some grilled crab legs from Kani Doraku. Then, we moved to Takoyaki, which as you know, are hot, piping balls of crispy batter and octopus. Topped with sauce, seaweed and dancing bonito flakes, this is the quintessential snack of the kuidaore (eat-till-you-drop) experience.

This not being enough, we decided to finish our dinner with a sit down meal. The Mrs had visited Osaka in her last trip and knew exactly where to go. She took me to a Okonomiyaki restaurant right on Dotonbori called Mizuno Okonomiyaki. Little did I know, Mizuno was one of the most popular okonomiyaki restaurants at Dotonbori (award winning, even). After taking the first bite, I knew exactly why...you eat this saucy pancake straight off the hotplate (which is kept there to keep it hot) and the more you eat, the less you can stop eating. Each bite is an explosion of varying textures and flavours...salty, savoury, sweet, crispy, soft and much, much more.

STILL not yet satisfied, we also opted to have an order of proper yakisoba as well. The yakisoba isn't necessarily cooked in front of you (like the Okonomiyaki above) but still good! The noodles sat on the hotplate long enough to become half crispy like chow-mien. Tossed with chopped cabbage, meat and a egg easy over. Mix it all up on the hotplate for a nice, saucy noodle dish!

After finishing dinner, it was only 8pm, so we decided to keep kicking on with some shopping. During our shopping trip to Shinsaibashi, we stopped off at Pablo's to grab some cheese tarts. I was surprised to see that a much bigger tart than the ones we can purchase in Sydney. It was also different in that the crust was made much thinner making it less crumbly and most...crispy. The creamy centre had a more tart (as in citrusy) flavour to it and was more visibly more viscous and wobbly than our Sydney ones. Very interesting!

The third day saw us leave our accommodation (temporarily) to take the bullet train to Tokyo. This is where I believe our JR pass came in handy. With the pass, you can take the bullet train up and down as many times as you can which worked rather well for us (because we needed it for our return trip). We had planned to eat a bento on the train but on our trip to Tokyo, we didn't understand the station layout too well so, we kinda missed it. Fortunately, we had some tempura for lunch before our train. I don't know how it is that food in Japan is so much better (actually, I do but I won't go into it here) but it is. The tempura had more depth of quality and flavour than I generally have anywhere in Sydney. Oh, if I could just have it again, that would be amazing!

Our time in Tokyo was very eye-opening. A far busier place than Osaka (and much more crowded), it made for a faster paced sight seeing experience. Unfortunately, at this point, "jelly belly" had hit me full swing and I was reduced to only craving one small meal a day (goodbye, eating-till-I-dropped). Nevertheless, we did manage to eat quite a bit through our visit to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum (more like...giant complex of ramen restaurants), eating at the high-tech sushi train: Uobei, Yakitori at chain-izakaya: Torikizoku, a visit to DiverCity Odaiba to see the Gundam statue and eat Tsukemen and Omurice as well as some very impressive pizza at Tokyo Station.

For me personally, the most memorable and meaningful meal I had in Tokyo had to be my visit to W.P.G.B or Whoopie Gold Burger. Roughly 4 years ago, I first saw an episode of VICE Munchies Japan (show below) where we saw the owners, Kushima Taiji and Kamishima Shogo, go out and party. I think that was the point where I found my desire to return to Japan reinvigorated. I mean, I'd studied Japanese for ages but for a while...after graduating, I'd lost any interested in travelling. Since that day, I'd watched the video again and again, anticipating the day I'd go back to Japan and enjoy this humble burger. So obviously, walking into this place was a huge deal for me.

That night, most of the other diners were locals, so I almost felt like it was odd that we showed up. Nevertheless, we ordered our meals and some drinks and sat down for my most anticipated meal....which did not disappoint. I ordered the Sunnyside Kevin Bacon which was essentially this massive burger with two thick slabs of chunky bacon and a runny egg in the middle. The beef patty was cooked on a binchotan grill which I thought, helped lend a charred, smokey element to the meat. See my instagram post for more details but after the meal, I wrote a sincere thank you note with my kindergarten grade Japanese under the photo. If the guys ever read it (or this)....thank you for fulfilling my 4 year long wish.

Unfortunately, one of my only highballs in Japan....

Burgers for you, burgers for you! I'll have a burger! You have one too!

The sunnyside kevin bacon

So, all Tokyo'd out, the Mrs and I pack our stuff and head back to Osaka for our final leg of the trip. 7 days into the trip with consistent "jelly belly" everyday, I struggled to see if I was getting any better or any worse. This really annoyed the Mrs to the point where she literally said to me "I miss your normal glutton self....". I felt bad for her that my illness was ruining her trip to I agreed to go to Kyoto for a day trip.

Finally got our train bento (ekiben)

I'll say this right now: Best. decision. ever.

Soy milk donuts!!

To be perfectly honest, I'd never had any fascination with historical Japan. I've always been enamoured with the quirky, cartoony vision of modern Japan (Akihabara etc) that I never paid attention to the classical sensibilities and the natural Japanese beauty. I will openly admit to being an idiot after this short day-trip to the heart of Japan. This place is BEAUTIFUL...the serene nature of every neighbourhood and corner just washes over you like an invisible wave of clarity and inner-peace. This mentality or methodology is even reflected in their food: clean, simple and clear flavours exemplifying the natural beauty of the ingredients and delicately layering each flavour so that you enjoy the natural essence of each element before moving on to the next. 10/10 would return to Kyoto!

Japanese style pasta with clams, yuzu and mushrooms. Apparently, a very popular item in Kyoto.

Wafu Pasta with soy milk base

Aburi Salmon Bowl in Kyoto

Gyoza from the famous shop on Dotonbori. Worth the wait (they were closed due to water issues on our first leg)

Final bowl of ramen @ Kamakura Honten...was so out of it that I couldn't even appreciate it....

On our very last day, we had to check out of our AirBnB lodging again to lug around our luggage for a short, final venture of the namba area. There, we hit up Gram Cafe and Pancakes for the most instagrammable pancakes ever, headed over to Namba Walk for some out-of-this-world sushi.

Fluffy, wobbly pancakes!!

My Deluxe 8 piece sushi set.

The Mrs' Chirashi Sushi Meal

With absolute reluctance, we headed back to Kansai International Airport for our flight home where we made the nooblet mistake of entering the terminal thinking there were more food options beyond....there were not. So note to future travellers: always eat before you pass that customs gate. Our very last meal in Japan involved a luxury/deluxe sushi and tempura set from Ganko Sushi which was right near our gate. It wasn't bad but...I'd have the sushi I had in the afternoon over that anyday.

We had quite a bit of Japanese Yen left over so we decided to splurge on the most luxurious meal available.

Overall, my most recent trip to Japan has been another wonderful one. My Japanese got better again, I indulged in quite a bit of Japanese food (till the point where I wanted to avoid it for one meal) and I got to see two cities I'd never before set foot in. Japan is a fascinating place with it's stark contrast of old and new. It's values are intertwined so perfectly in the fabric of it's society that you just can't help but want to explore and understand it. As always, the best way to start understanding a culture is through it's food and with Japan, you will have no shortage on variety or quality. Don't even bother with reading Michelin guides (unless you're only interested on places like Den) and just explore...I guarantee you that you will never have a bad meal in Japan.