Omakase

Omakase means "It's up to you" (from Japanese 任す, entrust). It's when the patron leaves the choice of dish up to the chef himself. Last night, Lima Bean and I celebrated the last day of his Birth Week with his actual present. An Omakase experience at Shira Nui. Chef Hiro Nishikura's Omakase comprises dishes made up of two pieces of sushi or sashimi, served at just-the-right moment, although, depending on how hungry you are, you can stop any time. This style of dining allows Nishikura to show off his considerable skill.T he chef will generally present a series of plates, beginning with the lightest fare and proceeding to heaviest, richest dishes. Omakase is not exclusive to the serving of raw dishes and simmering and frying is also an option.

The implied undertone of Omakase is that the chef will use the very best ingredients at his disposal, and his very finest skills to present you with a perfect morsel of food.

And Nishikura did not disappoint. From the very first dory seasoned lightly with lemon juice and salt, via marinated tuna on sweet yam and wakame, with a taste-gasm segue to peppered seared Wagu, gliding home through red clams to the pinnacle of the experience, the fried oyster, every single piece of the Omakase menu was exquisite.

I have a photo of every dish, but with Lima Bean pretty much yelling at me "Put down the camera and eat", some of them were pretty dodgy.

Lima and I, being the ridiculously obsessive foodies that we are, pretty much talked about nothing except flavours and textures and mouthgasms all night.

The highlight of the event MUST be the final portion, a perfectly fried oyster, wrapped in nori, seasoned with light soy. Every single thing.. from the temperature at service, to the creaminess of the texture was perfect.

I simply cannot rave about this highly enough. The service was perfect, the food sublime.

SOLE Butcher.

Kerrie Road Butchers
6 Kerrie Rd
Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
(03) 9802 0857

I often rave about my local butcher. When I first started shopping SOLE, he was the first person I approached with my tentative "Where is this stuff actually from?" questions. Instead of withering my budding SOLE shoots, he enthusiastically answered me, and gave me the confidence to delve deeper, and become more confident in approaching my providers. And it recently occurred to me, that I talk about him a lot, but I've never given him a shout out. I've reviewed spices from interstate, olive oil from overseas, but never given my humble, local butcher a shout out.

All snags made on the premises

And here's the thing. A few people who've gone to John, as a result of reading this blog, get back to me surprised that it's so "normal". I don't quite know how to respond to that. Maybe any butcher associated with me should have Nag Champa burning, statues of Amateratsu in the window, Baba Yaga flavoured sausages and wrap their roasts in Feminist coloured paper.

And here's the thing. In offering to take some snaps and do this post for the guys, I realised how absolutely bloody normal the place is. It's a bog standard suburban butcher shop. There is nothing overtly SOLE (whatever that means) about it.

It's the questions that you have to ask, that unlocks this unprepossessing shop's SOLE.

All the beef and lamb are sourced from Cardinia, the chooks from the Mornington Pen. They stock free range chooks and eggs from Lilydale, and their pork comes from Hastings. They smoke all their own small goods on the premises, make their own snags (we're having the chicken and asparagus tonight), corn their own beef. They do a sensational range of boerwors sausages and biltong (dried jerky, South African style). They stock the ubiquitous marinated chicken wings and schnitzels, but their standard T-bone is some of the best beef eating around.

All pretty bog standard stuff. The difference with the guys at Kerrie Road, is that they have realised that "We travel all over Victoria to bring you the best!" ISN'T necessarily the answer the punters today want to hear.

Jells PArk Farmers Market.

Well.. on a cold and wet Melbourne day, young Joon and I headed off to the inaugural Jells Park Farmers Market. You enter from the south side of the park, via Ferntree Gully Road. The council, in its wisdom, is doing road works at the entrance at the moment, so actually finding the entrance is a bit of a nightmare, but that will be a temporary set back. We got there at 8.15, and parking was plentiful and free.

There were about 20 stall set up, and all the stall holders I spoke to were friendly and cheerful.. and knew their stuff. They were all very accommodating to me, asking to take photos and pestering them with my tricky SOLE questions!

First stop was Nar Nar Goon Fruit:



Nar Nar Goon is probably only 20 mins from Glen Waverley, and the stall had a good selection on in-season fruit, both first and second quality, and had samples for snackage.



Next stop was Jeni's Eggs.



Owner Adrian guarantees that his chooks are not de-beaked, free to roam, hormone and antibiotic free, and are fed natural grains, as well as being free to scratch around and eat natural chook tucker.



I think they're prices are excellent and definitely on par with a similar quality egg bought at the Spewpermarket! We'll be having Jeni's eggs for breakky, in fact Furry is working on that right now!

They're from Yabba North and can be contacted on 0448 328 418 or jeniseggs@bigpond.com

Next stop was Cocoa Rhapsody for some NASAA certified and guaranteed Fair Trade chocolate.



All their chocolates are hand crafted in Melbourne, and their farmers market special contains 70% Mount Buffalo hazelnuts



Their web site is wwwcocoarhapsody.com.au, or you can call Floyd Millar on 0407 290 176 or email at floyd@cocoarhapsody.com.au

Next visit was the WE LOVE CAKE flavour station (0432 588 348, email at flavour-station@hotmail.com). Joon purchased their choc mud cake



and a date loaf which apparently you can heat and serve just like a pudding.



Joon was having morning tea with a friend, and I will get back to you with a review when we catch up next week.

Next stop was:



Boosey Creek Cheese is from Northern Vic, just out from Katamite, and is run by three generations of the Cameron family (sorry guys, the photo of both of you didn't turn out! Maybe next market when my hands aren't shaking with anticipation!)

Newborn calves are hand reared, and then left to the open paddock until they can be milked. All cheese are made on the family farm from the Fresian-Holstein herd



I samples the Oma's favourite, a gouda-style cheese with cumin.



But what I walked away with was a bag of Burramine Blue, the cheese that won the DIAA Victorian Dairy Product Silver medal this year!



What happened with the last batch was, that on tasting, it was found to be luscious and flavourful, but too hard.. so the Cameron's grated it up and sell it in bags for $5.00. I am planning a pork roast with sauerkraut, apple, walnut and blue cheese stuffing!

Boosy Creek Cheese is at 734 Grinter Road, Boosey, 3730, email is info@booseycreekcheese.com.au or call 0409 307 320.

On to The Gourmet Provider (mathesonclan@yahoo.com.au)



They provide a range of meats and cheeses from King Island, Lilydale free-range chickens, Otway free-range pork and Timboon farm bred rabbits. The couple behind the jump were just lovely and none of my pesky SOLE questions stumped them... we got talking so much, I forgot to get any of the pork, and nearly walked away without paying for my one purchase!!



What I DID buy was a Timboon farm bread, hormone-free rabbit. They come frozen, as TGP get a once a week delivery. At $14 a bunny, I want the very best, and was provided with a recipe sheet. Look out for Sauteed Rabbit with Sour Cream and Bacon next week! Poor Joon, who keeps bunnies as pets couldn't even stand to be next to me, as I made my purchase! She did however, get a slab on King Island beef for roasting, and at $20, was outstanding value.

Next stop was



Little Creek Cattle Company. I had heard much about these guys, and was chuffed to find them at the Market. They are from Coldstream, in the Yarra Valley, which is about 45 mins from Glen Waverley. I purchased a topside roast for $14! Thet are members of the Yarra Valley Regional Food Group and guarantee no hormones and no organophosphates. All meat is dry aged and they deliver to your door. You will find them at http://www.littlecreekbeef.com and on 0419 887 712. I did the topside roast for dinner last night, just a plain old-fashioned roast with jacket potatoes, kumara and vine tommies and it was divine! The texture of the meat was silky and tender, and the flavour was outstanding!

I was also thrilled to find The Convent Bakery from Abbotsford was there, and I bought a ciabatta. I had heard so much about the quality of their wood fired oven bread, and I wasn't disappointed! The ciabatta was dense and chewy, and will be perfect with my egg and bacon breakfast that Furry is currently conjuring up!



The last purchase was from Blue Bay Cheese, a very sharp Cheddar.. it was divine, but pricey at $9.00 for 250g

So here are my goodies!!



Next market is September 20. Mark it in your diaries and GO THERE!!!

Proud Peacock.

Last night, fellow blogger and all round funny guy, Thanh, from "I Eat Therefore I Am", popped up to Proud Peacock Vietnamese restaurant in GW for a quick bite.

I told Thanh that I new a lovely young SINGLE Vietnamese girl who ran a resto, so what male, single foodie WOULDN"T jump at the chance to hang out with Furry and I, and also check out some luuuurve ack-shawn???

Proud Peacock

Ph: (03) 9560 6661; shop 6, 53 Kingsway, Glen Waverley 3150

I freely admit I am an inveterate match maker. It's the wog in me. Along with telling Thank he was **insert elderly Greek lady accent** "too skinny", I also told him he was about to meet the mother of his children.

Well, imagine Thanh's suprise when we walked into the resto, and this delightful young woman walks up to him and says "Hi!! apparently we're getting married and making pg and Furry lots of babies".

Ummmm, yeah.. we'd kinda... maybe mentioned Thanh to her. Maybe.

Ahem.

To the food.

I apologise for the quality of the photo's, but Thanh and I had shared a bottle of THIS before we headed up to the resto, so most of the photos were a bit dodgy.

The Proud Peacock (the restaurant, not Thanh!), is a little hole in the wall, in The Kingsway, GW. Formica tables, concrete floor, a few posters of Vietnam on the walls. In short, MY kinda place. The food is hearty, simple, made by Mum and Dad out the back, and the portions are huge. And it's cheap. Under $50 for the three of us.

We ordered a plate of bai cuon, spring rolls and goi cuon, and everything came out with a huge plate of various dipping sauces and condiments.



goi cuon (shrimp rolls)



dipping sauces:



My pho:



I didn't manage to get a decent shot of what Furry and Thanh ordered, as hunger overrode my command not to eat until I'd taken a pic, and all the photos were blurry action shots.

A complimentary fruit platter, complete with warm gulag jalmuns completed our meal!




Thanh won't be blogging much over the next few months, as he'll be off awoo-ing and making Auntie PG and Uncle Furry lots of beautiful Vietnamese/Chinese babies to play with.

I'm wearing purple to the wedding.

What about you??