Happy Noms

Chef: Yoshii Ryuichi
Website: http://www.yoshii.com.au/main.html

Date: August 14, 2013

I haven’t posted at all on this blog for months, and I apologize for that. I’ve been traveling a lot, and I just got lazy. I’m going to try to update a liiiiiiiiiiittle more often now!

For most of August, I traveled around New Zealand and Australia. I went to Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, and Melbourne, and it was pretty awesome to be able to check out those cities. I already did a post on Sidart (Auckland), and I’ll be doing Yoshii, a pretty high-end Japanese restaurant in Sydney, here.

I found out about the restaurant by googling around to see what the top Japanese restaurants in Sydney were. Both Tetsuya’s and Yoshii’s came up the most frequently, but Tetsuya’s was booked for quite a while. I called and made a short-notice reservation, and next thing I knew I was at the restaurant! The restaurant was actually fairly empty. Maybe this was because it was a Wednesday evening. Still… I’m not sure how they’re making money; I only saw about four or five other customers while I was there.

I ordered a set menu that consisted of appetizers, sashimi, a few mains, sushi, and dessert! I asked for no dessert, though; I was way over my caloric budget for the day. I had to cut my losses somewhere…

Amuse-bouche:
Edamame chawanmushi topped with prawn, goji berry, and edamame bean.

The edamame taste actually wasn’t very strong. The prawn was definitely noticeable, but there was only a hint of edamame in the chawanmushi. It was a pleasant start to the meal, though; the flavor wasn’t too strong or too weak.

4-part Kobachi (appetizers):

Top left: Shiroai (white tofu mix). (My spelling is definitely wrong here…)
Top right: Pacific Coast oyster from Tasmania with white radish, ponzu sauce, and lime juice.
Bottom right: Akami (lean tofu) marinated in truffle sauce with asparagus.
Bottom left: Deep-fried silverfish tempura from Australia with yuzu and pepper.

The white tofu mix on the top left looked a bit strange but was VERY delicious; the rest of the appetizers were good but not special/distinct.

Sashimi:

Right to left:
1. Bluefin akami (lean tuna).
2. Ocean trout wrapped with radish.
3. John Dory.
4. Hiramasa (kingfish).
5. Kisu (Japanese whiting).
6. Hotate (scallop) wrapped with seaweed.
Served with squid ink salt on the top right.

The sashimi was fresh and tasted like what I’d expect for a restaurant of this caliber.

Main 1:
Pan-fried duck breast with Port Wine sauce and deep-fried leek.

This was DELICIOUS. The breast was tender and flavorful, and the sauce added more richness to the dish. It wasn’t a large amount of food, so the richness of it all wasn’t too overpowering or anything. Still, I wish that there was something acidic to help cut down on the richness. The leek just added to it…

Main 2:
White miso–marinated gindara (black cod).

Honestly, this tasted like any other miso-marinated gindara that I’ve had at a high-end Japanese restaurant. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. At least they got it right—I wonder how much more you can do with it… Or maybe I’m just missing something.

Sushi:

(Pairs will be listed from right to left.)

1. Kisu (Japanese whiting).
2. John Dory.

3. Hiramasa (kingfish).
4. Akami (lean tuna).

5. Ocean trout.
6. Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino / golden eye snapper).

7. Akami marinated with soy sauce.
8. Grilled hotate (scallop).

-I’m not quite sure why these two were served together. Hmm…

9. Grilled hiramasa (kingfish).
10. Grilled ocean trout with sea salt.

11. Unagi (freshwater eel).

12. Ocean trout and cucumber rolls.

Post-sushi Miso Soup:

This was meant to be a post-sushi and pre-dessert course, but I asked for more sushi. (I’m a fatty…)

I was still hungry at this point, so I asked for some extra pieces. (You’ll see some repeats.)

Extra:

13. Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino / golden eye snapper).
14. Grilled kinmedai engawa (fin of the splendid alfonsino, or golden eye snapper).

15. Ocean trout.

16. Hiramasa (kingfish).

17. Hotate (scallop).

This was the best sushi I’d had in weeks, so I’m not sure how well I can critique the nigiri. Honestly, I don’t remember much about the rice—I had just gotten off my flight and was extremely hungry for the meal. I just remember the seafood being very fresh. I don’t think the sushi was better than the sushi I had for lunch at sushi e the next day, though.

There was also supposed to be dessert after this, but… I ended the meal there. I had way too many calories for the day!