Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Special Equipment

• Non-stick fry pan with a lid

• Spatula (that is safe for your frying pan!)

Ingredients

For 2 servings:

Hamburg Steak:

• 300g beef mince

• 1/2 a white onion - finely diced

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 egg

• 20g panko bread crumbs (normal bread crumbs will do fine)

• 2 tbsp milk

• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• Pinch of salt

• 20ml water

Pan Sauce:

• 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• 1 tbsp tomato sauce

• 2 tbsp sake/cooking wine

• 10g of unsalted butter

Method

1. In a small microwave safe bowl mix your finely diced white onion and vegetable oil. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. After, mix the onions to ensure even cooking and microwave again for 1 minute. Save a tablespoon of onions for the pan sauce later.

2. Allow the onions to cool off before adding the egg, bread crumbs and milk. Mix to combine evenly.

3. In a separate larger mixing bowl add the beef mince, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Wearing rubber gloves or with clean hands, pre-mix the meat until the mince is smooth in texture.

4. Add the onion mix from step 2 and continue to mix vigorously with your hands. You can squeeze the mince in your hands to incorporate the onions evenly and then stir in a circular motion till the mixture binds and becomes tacky. See notes on why this happens.

5. Wrap the bowl and place it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to cool. It’s easier to handle when the mix is colder and slightly firm.

6. When it’s time to cook, take your mixture out of the fridge. With oiled hands (rubber gloves optional) divide the mixture into two and shape one half into a ball.

7. Pass the patty back and forth between your hands. What this does is achieve a smooth surface and push in any onion from the exterior to the interior. Do this at least 20 times or until you achieve a smooth meatball. Lay the patty down into your cold fry pan. Repeat with the remaining mince.

   

8. Take your pan to the stove on medium heat. Once the patty/patties starts sizzling, cook for 3-5 minutes. During this time you should rotate them in the pan with a spatula (or your kitchen tool of choice) to achieve even browning.

9. Once you achieve a nice even brown, flip each patty over and cook for another 2 minutes before adding 20ml of water into the pan. Cover the pan with a lid to steam-cook it for 5 minutes.

   

10. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat and leave the lid on for 2 minutes. This is to allow residual heat to cook the steak and absorb some more moisture from the steam.

11. Take out your Hamburg steaks and set aside on a plate to serve.

12. Reheat the pan on medium heat and add in the onion, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, sake/cooking wine and butter. Swirl it in the pan to reduce the sauce slightly till it thickens.

13. Dress each Hamburg steak evenly with the pan sauce and serve with rice and a side of steamed vegetables or salad.

Enjoy.

Just check out how juicy this is.

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Cooking notes

Note 1 - tacky and sticky mince

This is a sign that proteins have started binding tightly after lots of mixing. Essentially this is how you make “sausage”, that is, mince meat that has been thoroughly mixed with some salt such that the proteins bind and give the mince a more firm texture once cooked. Many cultures do this in many forms - Asian fish cake, sausages from all around the world, and the Japanese Hamburg steak.

This is a technique that we use to achieve a bite that’s not just crumbly mince in the final product. With hamburger patties we try to avoid mixing them too much, otherwise we have a chewy patty. But the Hamburg steak is supposed to be toothsome and substantial.

Note 2 - What do all the ingredients do?

The texture that we’re aiming for when making this Hamburg steak is a juicy patty that’s got a substantial bouncy bite but not too chewy. How do we achieve this?

1. Egg - additional liquid protein that acts like a glue that when evenly dispersed in the mixture and cooked will form bonds that prevent the mince from crumbling apart. This in combination with;

2. Onions and milk - creates a mixture that is relatively high in hydration. This means that the final product will be juicy rather than a dense ball of protein. Onions and beef have always been the best of friends.

3. Bread crumbs - from absorbing liquid in the mince mixture from the egg, milk or mince, it becomes a binder because of the starch in the bread. Panko bread crumbs are larger in size compared to standard milled breadcrumb. I find that they hold and creates better pockets of moisture in the final product, but standard bread crumbs will do the trick. Note: there is a point where too many breadcrumbs will interfere with protein binding and the mixture will begin to crumble when cooked.

Note 3 - How to level this up

Grill this on some charcoal to get a good char. Be patient to make sure that it releases from the grill mesh without crumbling. Take it to a lower heat to make sure it’s cooked through and melt a slice of Swiss or tasty cheese with a torch.

Note 4 - Storage

Once ingredients are added to beef mince, it does not store very well as it has been exposed to oxygen and salt. This will result in the meat turning grey and weeping moisture. At most you can store the raw mince in the fridge for 3 days, and shape them into patties (step 7) when it’s time to cook.

Otherwise, I recommend you cook them all and store them in the fridge. Sure it might not be as juicy but gently reheating them in the microwave will make sure the inside is warmed up without toughening the steak.

How we got here

I’ll say it again. Hamburg steak is truly an underrated meal in Japan. Perhaps even amongst Japanese people it may carry an image being from the kid’s menu, the patty donning a cute small flag.

But I had my first true Hamburg steak at a chain only in Shizuoka named Sawayaka. This was served on a sizzling hot plate with a side of rice, sauce and salad. A staff member would come over and cut it into pieces before further pressing the patty into the plate for a good sear.

I was most surprised by just how juicy it was even after what seemed like the patty having the life pressed out of it.

In a land where beef comes at a premium, this was a great option to fill that craving, but that brings another thought to mind. It is because beef is not so abundant that this meal shined.

Here in Australia where beef is abundant in all kinds of cuts and packages, I don’t think I’ve seen or even rather felt the desire to have something like this. Hell, I’m guilty of this, I never thought to have Hamburg steak until I was taken to Sawayaka and had the push from a friend to try it.

Because where I’m from, beef mince usually turns into pasta sauce or a burger patty and it this felt too adjacent to the latter. It’s a shame to think that these kinds of perceptions may very well shape what food we have available in our local restaurants.

Now that I’ve seen the light, I would definitely pay some decent money for an excellent Hamburg steak at a restaurant. Sadly, I haven’t even found a restaurant that will serve this.

I also have this feeling that the only way it would make it onto the menu is if it was made with super expensive beef, served extra fancy, but I don’t think this is what the Hamburg is supposed to become.

It’s a humble and delicious, usually sold at Teishoku (set meal) restaurants or cooked in smaller sized patties at Izakayas to snack with your beer. This is the kind of meal where just a few ingredients and a little bit of time and care becomes, what I believe to be, the closest thing to alchemy.

So give this recipe a try, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

Hey everyone, thanks for reading till the end. Please let me know if you tried this recipe out and feel free to leave a comment with feedback.

Click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox on Tuesdays. Happy days, and until next time, take care.

Paul.

Today we got another recipe for my side project, The Taste of My Home. It’s a project I’ve started for my future self preserving my mum’s recipes. You can find the living document that I’ll be adding to here in Mum’s Recipe Catalogue.

Che chuối (Banana che) is one of many Vietnamese desserts which leans on a coconut cream base. It’s best served warm and can be whipped up within 30 minutes.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

Make roughly 5 servings:

• 400ml coconut cream

• 250ml of water

• 30g of sugar

• 20g of small tapioca pearls

• 5 lady finger bananas (around 500g of banana by peeled weight. You can use normal bananas but it won’t be as fragrant)

• 10g pandan leaf (optional)

• 5g of vanilla extract (optional)

• 500ml 1% Salt brine (500ml and 5g salt)

• 30g roasted peanuts

• 15g toasted white sesame seeds

Method

1. Peel bananas and cut into thirds. Soak in salt brine for 10 minutes then strain and set aside.

2. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add tapioca pearls and par blanch them for approximately 1 minute to remove excess starch and slime. After a minute strain into a fine mesh sieve and set aside.

3. Into a medium size pot, add coconut cream, sugar and water. Turn on a medium heat and stir to combine.

4. Once you start to see steam from the coconut cream mix, add your bananas. Lower the heat and gently cook for 10 minutes. There should be some occasional bubbles but not a simmer or boil. Stir occasionally to ensure no burning.

5. Add in the tapioca pearls, and pandan leaf or vanilla extract if you have it. Stir to distribute the tapioca pearls and cook for another 5 minutes on low heat. Afterwards shut off the heat and allow to cool. This will thicken the coconut cream mixture and allow the banana flavour to infuse.

6. In a small ziplock bag, add your roasted peanuts and toasted white sesame seeds and crush them. You can use a wine bottle or pot. The peanut chunks should be small but not a powder.

7. Serve it warm - scoop a few pieces of banana, along with a generous amount of coconut soup into a small bowl and sprinkle the peanut and sesame mixture on top.

8. Enjoy

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How we got here

Che is a Vietnamese word for desserts that are like sweet soups or puddings. Many of these dishes use coconut cream as the base of the sweet soup before having a specific ingredient cooked to infuse its flavours into the coconut.

This banana che is best made with lady finger bananas. If you’ve never seen them before here’s a photo.

They’re firmer, denser and have a stronger aroma. My mum used to tell me how it was so hard to find these bananas in Sydney when she first moved here over 30 years ago. But nowadays you can find them in abundance at asian fruit markets and they’re definitely not the size of a lady’s finger after all these years of selective growing and farming.

If you can’t find lady finger bananas, don’t worry, you can use normal bananas. It will just be a different flavour but still delicious if you’re a fan of coconut cream and banana.

We soak these bananas in a salt water brine to up the sweetness of these bananas but also the salt water causes this banana to turn slightly red/purple on the inside. I’m not sure what the significance is but it’s a nice contrast of colours in this dish.

When I asked my mum how to make this, I was surprised at how easy it was to make. It gives me a little bit of comfort to know that it’s not so hard to make something that tastes so comforting.

The next time you’ve got too many bananas, instead of reaching out for that banana bread recipe, maybe give this one a try.

Hey all, again thanks for reading. Happy to get another one on the board for mum’s recipes. I hope you all get a chance to try it out and let me know in the comments below if you did.

Click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox on Tuesdays. Happy days, and until next time, take care.

Paul.

This technique is from America’s Test Kitchen. It’s a little more involved than the usual recipes you might find online but it achieves a results that are consistent and so different from the rest that I think it’s definitely worth the effort to reward ratio.

I’ll be adjusting the seasoning process to produce something closer to Chinese BBQ crispy pork that can be eaten with whatever you like.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Special Equipment

• A tray with a wire rack

• Oven

Ingredients

• 1 kg of pork belly

• 20g of salt

• 15g of brown sugar

• 5g of five spice powder (13 spice powder if you’ve got it)

• Neutral oil like vegetable oil for frying

Method

Marinating - Overnight

1. This recipe works best with smaller portions of meat. Take your pork belly and slice in half so that your pieces are rectangular. If find the best results are for pieces around around 20 x 15cm but doesn’t have to be exact. Cutting into smaller pieces makes it easier for frying later.

2. Parallel to the short side of the pork, score the skin about 5mm deep.

   We want to cut into the fat to increase surface area for rendering the fat in the oven but not too deep into the meat. Each cut should be spaced about 10mm apart.

3. Mix salt, brown sugar and five spice powder together well to make a dry rub seasoning. On the meat side only, generously rub the seasoning in. Be sure to get not only the bottom side but also the sides. Once each piece if covered, place on a wire rack on a tray skin side up. Repeat for the second piece.

4. Generously sprinkle kosher salt onto the skin side. Imagine a cinammon sugar donut, that’s the level of coverage you want.

5. Take the pork on tray and place into the fridge uncovered overnight. This will draw out excess moisture and dry out the skin. Dry skin is the key to crispy pork skin.

6. The next day, pre-heat your oven to 120C (250F). Cook your pork belly on a wire rack ontop of a tray lined with a baking sheet/aluminium foil for 3 - 3.5 hours as we aim for an internal target temperature of 85C (185F). This will slowly cook the pork tender, render out the fat and gelatinise the skin so that it can puff up in the final fry. Once you reach the target temp, take the pork out.

7. Save as much of the rendered fat as you can into a frying pan. Place one piece of pork skin side down into the pan. Add some additional vegetable oil to ensure the skin side is submerged by atleast 1cm of oil.

8. From a cold start, turn on your stove to a low-medium heat. We are bringing the oil temperature up slowly to get a gentle fry on the skin.
   
   The skin should slowly and steadily begin to puff up.
   
   Tilt your pan to reach the sides of the pork to ensure the edges of the pork also puff up. You can use tongs to tilt the pork up and check on the skin. This part should take about 10 minutes.

9. Once the skin is completely puffed up and golden, remove from the pan and set aside skin side up. Rest for at least 5 minutes.

10. Allow the oil to cool slightly before placing in your next piece and repeating.

11. When serving, you can slice between the cuts on the skin for easier cutting.

12. Enjoy.

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Notes

1. For the skin frying step, I tend to fry the pieces one at a time so that I can use a smaller pan to use less oil. The smaller the pan, the less oil you need to submerge each piece of pork adequately for frying

2. This pork stores wonderfully. I’ve vacuum sealed it and frozen it. To reheat, make sure you take it out of the freezer and allow to thaw in the fridge. Once thawed, cover the skin side with some foil to prevent burning and place into your air fryer or oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes to bring the internal temperature back up before uncovering the skin for 5 minutes to crispen up.

3. You can marinate this and leave this in the fridge up to 2 days to dry up the skin

4. Optionally you can marinate and then vacuum seal it and freeze it raw. Once it’s time to cook, straight from the freezer you can throw it in the oven. You’ll need to let it cook for some extra time, just be sure the internal temp reaches 85C (185F)

How we got here

My family loves crispy roast pork belly. Naturally we would try to make this at home and in the old days where free recipes and information was not so readily available, my family tried their best to figure it out for ourselves.

After many years of trial and error, the results we achieved weren’t consistent. Crispy pork belly dinner days were a mix of excitement and worry. The outcome wasn’t always certain and there were many days where I remember the frustration of buying a beautiful piece of pork to end up with a skin that was either rock hard or gummy in texture.

So I decided one day go off the beaten path, to steer off from our “family recipe” and I found this recipe from America’s test kitchen. The science and result seemed undeniable and so I had to give it a go. To my surprise, it came out perfect and with a result that was so different from all other pork belly that I had eaten before.

The skin was light and airy with a satisfying crispiness that reminded me of pork crackling snacks you’d buy in supermarkets. It wasn’t dense and crunchy, the kind that my mum would be worried saying “careful not to break your teeth!”

And most importantly to me, I am so damn confident in my ability to produce these results consistently thanks to the method.

Here’s some benefits of this method that I really appreciate:

• No more full oven clean up from exploding and spattering fat afterwards. I just have to clean up a small fry pan and some oil.

• The 3 hour long cook time is mindless. I’m not having to worry about watching it for burning, the temperature is so low and slow that it’s stress free.

• The pork is so tender and juicy from this slow cook. The fat is properly rendered out and did I already mention the skin? It’s so nice and crispy.

• The pre-scored skin also makes carving an absolute breeze. My family used to line up the kitchen with newspaper to catch shards of skin scattering from chopping this up with a butcher’s knife. Now it’s just a matter of getting your knife into the pre-cut grooves and slicing straight down the meat.

So how does this actually work you might ask? Firstly we’ve removed a lot of excess moisture in the skin by drying. Anything that is high in moisture cannot become crispy. By slowly cooking the pork, we have gelatinised the skin so that it becomes a network of soft but stretchy proteins that have small pockets of moisture inside.

You’ll notice that this technique does not fry the pork skin in pre-heated oil and instead we start from cold. This is because we are trying to slowly raise the temperature of water inside the pork skin evenly. Once it reaches high temperature where it evaporates and turns into steam, it expands and cause the skin to and puff up before it is then crispened by the hot oil. Literally see the puffed bubbles of on the crispy skin.

If we had started with hot oil, we risk hardening the skin and preventing the steam from puffing up the skin to give it a lighter texture.

This is honestly a fantastic protein that can be served in so many different ways. Our family will enjoy this traditionally with some rice or vermicelli noodles with fresh herbs and vegetables. You can keep the salt and sugar as a base and then add any additional flavors to change it to your cuisine.

• Instead of five spice, you can use ground up dried juniper berries, black pepper and white sugar instead of brown sugar. Serve it with some mash potatoes, sauerkraut and you have yourself a European style crispy pork.

• Add gochugaru and some gochu jang to make it a korean style pork belly and eat it with lettuce and kimchi as a delicious ssam.

I hope you get a chance to give this method a go. I think it’s well worth the time and effort.

Hey all, again thanks for reading. If you tried this recipe, please let me know how it turned out!

Click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox on Tuesdays. Happy days, and until next time, take care.

Paul.

This year, I promised myself that I would wine and dine myself a little more. Why you ask? In an attempt to get more ideas for cooking and foster a more abundant mindset.

For the month of March I was lucky enough to be invited by my chef mate to go to an event hosted by Nicholson & Saville at Spice Temple Sydney. Big shoutout and thank you to Derek and Richard who we shared a table with and had amazing conversation sharing our stories about our lives, food and the industry.

I’ve never been to Spice Temple before but was surprised by the snazzy underground restaurant that’s easy on the eyes after a long day staring at screens.

Let’s dive in.

A modern chinese menu

I always find the topic of “modern” asian food an interesting one. Whether it be from a financial or cultural point of view, it’s always a strange internal conflict when thinking about how a usual affordable cuisine being transformed in such a way that it is somewhat familiar but “elevated”. I can’t honestly say I have a strong position in this discussion but all I can say is that whatever you’re putting out, it must taste good before we even begin to form a discussion.

So staring at this menu I see the things that are familiar; the stir fry, the roast pork and the pickles, and at the same time new things that make me curious.

The cucumber, cabage and radish pickles were wonderful to graze on throughout the night when you needed a palette cleanse or just something to keep your palette busy. I appreciated that they didn’t hold back on the chillli paste; properly spicy.

Oysters with a ginger and shallot vinegar had some essence of familiarity but I am also reminded that “hey, you’re not here to get your standard fried rice and stirfry.”

Being able to indulge in an oyster is a special moment. The vinegar they used was mild but tangy, nothing too sharp. It balanced well with the brine of the oyster, I knocked back a few more before I knew it.

After a cold start, a warm dish is always welcome. Crispy fried samsas filled with cumin lam served with chilli tomato sauce. It’s hard to eat one of these without making an mess from the explosive shattering pastry from a good fry.

The filling was definitely lamb but not as much cumin as I’d hoped, again I’m drawing from my experience of cumin lamb skewers that are absolutely bombed with that cumin seasoning. Paired with the chilli and tomato I’m thrown back to random parties eating spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce. Maybe that’s an Australian memory but not a bad one at all. Could have had a dozen more of these.

This pulled pork had me doing a double take on the first bite. I felt like a deep memory was arising. Something along the lines of the shredded cold chicken at szechuan restaurants but also a very familiar Vietnamese dish, Goi, which is a salad made with some shredded protein (usually chicken) and carrots, cucumber and plenty of herbs.

The only word I could put to this was “comforting”. It felt like I had eaten this many times before in my life. I still couldn’t believe it was pork because I think my brain saw this as chicken. The sweetness from the apple and tanginess from the lemon and vinegar over unctious pork. Makes me think that pork and apple might be a story as old as time.

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It’s time for the mains! But I must confess one thing. There was a slight miss in the evening that the white rice which would have gone AMAZINGLY well with all these dishes came to our table a little bit late. Nonetheless I will try my best to be critical of how these dishes were in the experience that I ate them.

The stirfried prawns was my highlight of the evening. It was not the prawns but infact the garlic stems that were beautifully crunchy and soaked up so much flavor. Don’t get me wrong, the prawns were also fantastically cooked, juicy and bouncy. But I couldn’t stop reachingo ut for more of the gatlic stems.

I know something is good when I start asking myself, “Why haven’t you been eating this before? How much are they are the supermarket?” Seems like an ingredient that I haven’t really had my eyes on but it is through these kind of beautiful experiences that your eyes can be opened to a new dish or a new idea for your next meal.

Hapuka! A fish that not many of us will have a chance to eat in our lives. My main interest was how they would handle how such strong flavors from jiangxi cooking and the flavors of the fish.

It might not look like a lot but the fish was sliced thinly and cooked till it was firm but flakey. To my surprise I could still taste the fish among the strong but fresh sauces and chilli. I just wish I had some rice to soak it all up!

If there was one word to describe this the brisket, it was tender. The quality of the meat was definitely showcased here as it shredded apart so easily. Deliciously beefy along with the rice cakes that soaked up all the smokey, saucy and fatty goodness from the stirfry, I honestly thought they were slices of ginger at first.

I’m genuinely impressed at that chef was able to stirfry such tender beef without absolutely obliterating it into shreds. Impressive technique and preparation that made this brisky shine.

Crispy pork belly is always welcome in my life. I tend to classify my crispy pork based on the texture of the skin; you have the glassy suckling pig style skin which kind of shatters and disintegrates, the dense but crunchy kind that you might find at Chinese bbq shops and finally the super puffed up light and crispy kind like porchetta or chicharron.

This was wonderfully in between the last two and paired wonderfully with the apple cinder vinegar sauce that lifted me through the fattiness.

When people say yoghurt icecream (like froyo) it rarely ever tastes like actual yoghurt. Not to say that that’s a bad thing but this was a genuinely wonderful surprise when it did taste exactly like fresh greek yoghurt with a honeycomb ontop.

Nice and light, just what we needed after a long night of strong punchy flavors, especially since Chinese food is a fat heavy cuisine.

After leaving the restaurant full of food and good stories I thought back to my initial impressions of what this evening was going to be like. The balance between familiarity of taking asian cuisine, transforming it without abandoning its roots is truly a dance.

Especially when thinking about the long, rich and deep rooted culture and image that surrounds it and in which setting it is sold. A single misstep and the dance can fall apart.

But I’m happy to say that this all made sense to me. Familiar dishes with new ingredients and done well.

I think the only thing that I can’t give up about the classic Chinese restaurant experience is the family style meal; a large table covered with all sorts of food, shared with your loved ones.

But that’s just me. I hope you have the chance to come here and see the dance for yourself.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Again, big shoutout to Derek and Richard who shared the table with us. Drop a comment if you have any thoughts about modern asian cuisine.

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Paul.

This year, I promised myself that I would wine and dine myself a little more. The month of February is already over which feels ridiculous but I did manage to go out for some lovely food.

Let’s dive in.

Salaryman living - Hiroba Strathfield

For as long as I can remember, this restaurant has been always tucked quietly into the corner of Strathfield square next to station entrance. Similarly this place has also been tucked quietly in a corner of my mind. I always told myself I’d visit sometime but I never found an occasion for it.

I had it all backwards. This place is setup right next to the station, serving hungry customers on their trip home. The archetypical Japanese salaryman lifestyle was before my feet. You do not need an occasion, this place is always there to pick you up at the end of a long day with fast service and a hearty portion.

The first step into the shop rings a chime like many Japanese stores that I’ve once visited, it’s incredible how sound can transport you back to a time and place so distant in your memories.

This small, cozy restaurant has great coverage of your classic Japanese restaurants. Sushi, Bento, Udon, you name it, they’ve got it.

Given the locale there is a Korean influence in the menu with some items that aren’t typically in a Japanese restaurant. But I welcome this blend considering the geographical closeness of these two countries. I also welcome the banchan (Korean side dishes) that is served to snack on while we wait for our order.

The day I visited was a hot and humid day. The husband and wife duo in the kitchen greeted my friend and I with a smile as we sat at our table.

As counter-intuitive as it may be, my mum (and I’m sure many other asian cultures) believe it’s best to eat something hot and soupy on warm days. It goes down much easier than solid dry food. I couldn’t agree more.

My standard order at any new Japanese restaurant (if they have it) is Tempura udon. I love udon, so much so I took a class in Japan to learn how to make them which you can read about below. Tempura and udon are two great dishes which show a level of skill in Japanese cooking that is quick to ascertain.

Crispy and light Tempura is hard to achieve while udon can be pre-made or freshly made. I’m not asking for perfection here on either of these, just a hint as to what else is going on in the kitchen.

That brief moment of excitement, when your food arrives, came sooner than I expected.

This was as good as I could have hoped for a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

Tempura was without a doubt crispy. One prawn, two pieces of fish (I believe it was hoki), a slice of potato and two slices of sweet potato. That’s a very generous serving that went well with my bowl of vegetable udon.

The noodles were pre-made noodles, can’t fault them for that (I have yet to find a handmade udon restaurant in Sydney) and the soup was just the right salty sweetness that goes incredibly well with fried food. Of course there was extra sauce on the side.

And delighted to say that the soft shell crab roll was fantastic as well.

“I’m gonna have to stop by after a late night of work.” was my first thought. For those very rare days that I don’t have the energy to cook.

It’s reassuring to know that I could be living it up like a salaryman in Japan.

Fancy Pants Italian - Palazza Salato

I’m not the biggest fan of Italian food. It’s not something I crave regularly. With that I’m not an expert on what makes good Italian either. But I do love a good pizza and pasta.

I found myself dining at Palazzo Salato for an event in the bustling streets of Wynyard. I went in completely blind to what they had to offer, all I knew was I’m here to eat and that I did.

Packed on a Thursday night (late night shopping!) the restaurant was full of life. A bunch of suits wining and dining after a hard day’s work. Warm, soft lights, easy on the eyes after a day of looking at the screens.

The entrees come out in full force: stracciatella, anchovies with pangrattato, a beef crudo with beautiful toasty hazelnuts and a concerningly healthy amount of parmagianno reggiano and some cured cold cuts with a hot sauce and focaccia.

Funnily enough my favorite things to eat at restaurants is nice bread (if it’s free, even better). This start real heavy on the bread that I had to remind myself to hold back lest I have no more room in the tank for the rest of the menu.

The standout was definitely the beef crudo. I enjoyed the roasted hazelnut with beef, nuts and protein, a combination I need to dabble in a bit more I reckon.

Also a big fan of anchovies and the straciattela. Salty + creamy richness is a great combo to get the appetite going for the mains.

Scarpinocc of potato (something I’d never even heard of) and trottole with pork sausage and red sauce hit the table. One thing I will always respect about pasta is the incredible diversity in pasta shapes and how you chefs can leverage these unique qualities to create such unique textural experiences.

The Scarpinocc reminded me of a swimming floaty shaped like a duck. It was the highlight of this evening. A beautiful pillow of pasta filled with a potato puree swimming a delicious hearty sauce. I can’t imagine the amount of care it would take to hand craft these bundles of joy.

The trottole was what I wished more red sauce pastas could be like. You can probably see that it’s not incredibly saucy but the small bits of delicious sausage and well cooked pasta just made this a fantastic dish.

I had concerns that the course was only rich on rich but both pastas were not too heavy. A good layup into the next mains; a sirloin steak with salato butter and potatoes.

Steak and potatoes, a wonderful staple. This was executed fantastically, a shard crispy exterior on these potatoes. Steak with extra butter, hard to go wrong. Very tender, the butter in combination with the potatoes was a marriage made in heaven.

But all good nights need to come to an end and thankfully the dessert sent me out on a high note with a salted dark chocolate tart.

I mean, look at it. It was made for me. It was thick and smooth and of course chocolatey as hell. And this is the most asian compliment ever; it wasn’t too sweet. I found myself reaching for more and more bites of it because it wasn’t too rich or heavy at all, similar to how icecream can be both rich and creamy but fresh because it’s nice and cold. I started to wonder how many slices of this I could eat if they let me.

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Paying respects to the elders - Yang Guo Fu

It didn’t feel too long ago when ther was only a handful of malatang restaurants in Sydney. I distinctly remember only two franchises being the giants that took the share of the competition and Yang Guo Fu was one of those.

For the unenlightened, malatang is now a simple name used to describe a pick your ingredient fast hotpot restaurant. There’s a misty wall with dozens of hotpot ingredients that you pick into a bowl and at the end you pay by weight and they serve it back to you all cooked in a bowl.

This is my kid in a candy shop situation. No matter how I plan what I’m going to get and try to hold myself back, I always end up with way too much food and being absolutely stuffed at the end of the night. But who am I kidding, who goes to malatang to have a healthy meal?

I pray that next time however, I strengthen my resolve. This bowl was about 800g of raw ingredients (I swear there are more vegetables than usual).

The variety of bites is what makes this such a fantastic experience. So many things to choose from. I love all the small fish ball varieties (I usually avoid any with cheese as it’s always a bit of a dice roll if it’s sweet or salty cheese) but particularly seafood tofu, the flat and rectangular shaped one.

Always pick one noodle (AND ONLY ONE), I usually go for the irregular ones like potato starch noodles although I do love a good udon or instant noodle.

The meats are always right at the end (perhaps strategically as I suspect your bowl will be too heavy by the time you get to the end) and I’ll load up on beef. Classic broth as usual and then I absolutely bomb it with chilli oil, garlic, green onion and anything crispy fried ontop.

Here for a good time not for a long one. Except this took a long time to finish cause it’s about two meals worth of food. Everytime I tell myself that I need to control myself next time but the same thing keeps happening.

Oh well, it’s a good problem to have.

Hello friends, thanks for reading. That wraps up feb’s edition fo Let Him Eat. The posts have been spotty but I’m glad I could get this one out. Better late than never. If you have any restaurant recommendations, you’re absolutely welcome to put them down in the comments.

Click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday.

Paul.

I had the pleasure of hosting my friend’s birthday party (Happy Birthday again, Darwin). He requested a ramen dinner party.

I love ramen too so it was a great reason to put in some reps and rethink how I would approach making ramen at a scale within the limits of my home kitchen.

My friends can eat a lot so I decided to make at least two types of ramen; Ichiran tonkotsu (pork soup) style ramen and a miso toripaitan (white chicken soup) ramen, and enough for seconds of both bowls if they wished.

So prep for the evening in the days prior included:

• Making the tonkotsu and toripaitan soup base (each one evening) - this can be done 3 days in advance

• Making the pork and chicken chashu - this must be done at least one day in advance as the meat needs to set and cool in the fridge to make cutting easier.

• Preparing ramen sauces - this can be done within the week prior.

• Gyoza - filling to be prepared the night before and wrapped on the day of.

• Procurement of other toppings - soft boiled eggs, bean sprouts, microgreens and other toppings could all be done on the day of.

Soup prep

For each serving of ramen, approximately 300ml of soup base is required. That means I needed to prepare about 3L of tonkotsu and toripaitan.

My standard recipes for either make about 1.5L - the tonkotsu needs 2kg of pork neck bone and 1 pork trotter and the toripaitan needs 2kg of chicken neck and any other bones I have collected from my cooking.

Soup making requires some upfront effort with the majority of the cook time being inactive. Here are some tips I think are good to know:

• If you have a pressure cooker, use it - it cuts down your cooking time considerably up to a factor of four. Tonkotsu in particular uses really tendonous, fibrous cuts so leveraging this time machine can save a lot of time (and money for your electricity/gas bill). If you don’t have one, you’ll need to boil your soup up to 8 hours while topping up the soup to ensure it doesn’t reduce too far.

• The aggressive hard boil to reduce and emulsify the soup is best done with a good pot that has a thick base to distribute heat well. Be careful when using thin aluminium pots, hot spots form and can easily burn the thick coagulating portions of soup if you don’t stir often.

• After your soup is made, hit it with a stick blender to amp up your emulsion. It’s incredible how milky and creamy the soup can become.

Chashu prep

Here’s a nice trick for efficiency. I realised you can save time by cooking your chashu in your tonkotsu soup broth. You need to cook it for a long time anyway so may as well do it at the same time, tenderising while also contributing rendered fat to the broth.

Besides the usual pork chashu, I made chicken chashu for the toripaitan ramen. A quick run through of the recipe:

I made a 1L brine with 4% salt and 2% sugar. I also simmered an onion and carrots to extract some vegetal sweetness. Once cooled, I added some skin on boneless chicken thigh and marinated for 6 hours.

Using plastic wrap, I firmly rolled up two chicken thighs into a log, skin side on the outside. Tied both ends of the plastic and put into another plastic ziplock bag before sous vide-ing for 60C for 2 hours. Afterwards straight into ice water to gelatinize the skin before allowing it to rest in the fridge overnight.

I was genuinely surprised how well this turned out, so tender and bouncy. The only thing I would change is reducing the salt to 3% as the ramen soup is so flavourful and less salt overall is probably a good thing.

On the of day service

Thinking back on the ramen prep, I think I did a great job adjusting my mindset and being a bit more pragmatic about how to cook at scale in a home kitchen.

We’ve all seen videos of ramen made in restaurants, individual portions in isolation; Each bowl, tare is poured in before soup is then poured on top. Large noodle boiling machines that allow multiple noodle strainers to boil individual portions of ramen. It makes sense, it’s a professional business with professional equipment.

I definitely got caught up in the idea of serving with the same process but it is not friendly to the small home kitchen.

The one thing I wanted was for my friends to all enjoy the food together at the same time. I didn’t want to have staggered bowls of ramen arriving at the table. There’s a magic feeling when everyone’s food comes out at the same time and you all share that first bite together.

I’m happy to say that I achieved that with the help of a kitchen scale. My workflow was as follows:

1. Warm up enough soup for however many portions - number of people x 300ml.

2. Pre-mix ramen tare into the pot with the soup base. This also allows me to taste the soup before serving and adjust the amount of tare as needed.

3. Start boiling all the noodles in one big pot at the same time.

4. Prepare toppings such as cutting soft boiled eggs or torching chashu.

5. Take a large bowl to hold cooked noodles and tare on the kitchen scale before straining your noodles and placing into the bowl. You now know how much all the cooked noodles weigh.

6. Some mental maths - cooked noodle weight divided by number of people. While on the scale, start dividing the noodles into each bowl and referencing the total weight as it decreases. e.g. 5 portions weighs 1100g, each portion is 220g. As I’m taking noodles out I know when to stop (880g, 660g 440g, 220g, 0g).

7. Then follow up with ladling hot soup evenly across all bowls. You don’t need to be so precise with this. Just alternate through all the bowls with best effort.

8. Follow up with toppings and serve.

I’m then met with speechless noodle slurping from all my friends. That’s when I know I’ve done something right.

There’s always things to improve and these are some notes I took:

• Pre-slicing chashu before cooking the ramen and arranging on a tray for when it’s time to torch and serve.

• Pre-portioning bundles of noodles to reduce time spent between bowls.

• Having a second pot of water boiling in case friends want a second helping of noodles for their bowl (kaedama).

• This time I bought jumbo eggs (900g) but did not account for their increased size when soft boiling. This led to soft eggs that did not peel well and broke. Next time I should have boiled them in smaller batches to maintain the water temperature and boiled for 7 minutes instead of 6 and 1/2 minutes.

• Gyoza could have been cooked and served at the same time but I decided to go with it as an entre as I wanted to make sure I did it well. Start to finish it takes approximately 15 minutes so threading it in with the ramen prep is tricky but I’m happy that it turned out delicious.

Once everyone’s well fed and full, it was my turn to have a bowl and wind down. I was quite impressed with the miso toripaitan but I think I understood something my mum had always told me since I was a kid:

“When you spend all day cooking, smelling and tasting the food, then finally see your loved ones eat it and enjoy it, you’re already half full.”

I was already satisfied, one bowl was enough.

Hello all, thanks for reading. If you liked it consider commenting or subscribing to support my work and receive the next newsletter straight to your inbox, for free.

Until then, take care.

Paul.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Special Equipment

• A non-stick pan with a lid

• Baking paper/parchment paper

• Trays for storage

Ingredients

For approximately 40 gyoza:

• 500g of pork/chicken/beef mince

• 400g finely chopped Chinese cabbage/white cabbage

• 2 tsp of salt (for the cabbage)

• 70g finely chopped chives/green onion

• 3 medium cloves of minced fresh garlic

• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger (2 if it’s from a jar)

• 1 tsp of weipa seasoning (optional but really makes a difference)

• 1/2 tsp of white pepper

• 2 tsp of sugar

• 1 tsp of salt

• 1 package of dumpling skins (Usually anywhere from 30-50 per packet)

• Water for wrapping

• Vegetable oil for cooking

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 tsp corn flour

• 1/2 tsp flour

Dipping sauce

• 1/2 cup Japanese dark soy sauce/Chinese light soy sauce

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar

• 1 tsp sugar

Method

Filling

1. Take your cabbage and combine with 2 tsp of salt in a bowl. Mix well to ensure all salt is dissolved and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Transfer the cabbage into a bowl lined with a tea towel. Pull up the four corners of the towel, bundle it up and twist to squeeze out as much excess water as you can.

3. Place cabbage into a large mixing bowl and combine with your mince, chives, garlic, ginger, weipa, white pepper, sugar and salt. With a clean hand or disposable gloves, mix and knead the filling till well combined. The mince should become slightly tacky and stick to your hands.

4. Take a small teaspoon of filling and microwave it for 30 seconds to cook it and taste test. Remember you’re eating this with a sauce so it should be delicious on its own but not too salty.

5. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. We are firming up the filling.

6. Combine soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Mix and set aside.

Wrapping (left hand holding wrapper, right hand free)

1. Prepare a small cutting board, a bowl of water and your dumpling skins. I’m right handed and will be holding the dumpling skin in my left. Below is my setup.

   

2. Take a dumpling skin from the packet. There is usually a floured side and a non-floured side. I put the floured side facing down in my left hand. Using a tablespoon, scoop out a ball of filling, about the size of a table tennis ball. Place it in the centre of the wrapper and press down slightly with the spoon to make a puck.

3. With your free hand, dip your finger into the bowl of water and lightly wet the edge of the wrapper all around the filling. Do not use too much water or else the wrapper will get soggy and tear easily.

4. Start wrapping the gyoza. You can put it on your cutting board or hold it in your hand with the filling towards your finger tips. Imagine your dumpling skin is a clock, begin by folding up and pinching the wrapper at the 3 o’clock position. The edge that is away from you is the straight edge and the edge closest to you will be the pleated edge.

5. With your left index finger and thumb, bring up the edge closest to you and pleat it before sealing it by pinching it to the straight edge. Repeat this carefully until you seal the gyoza into a nice crescent shape.

6. Place onto a lined plate or tray and repeat until you have no more filling or dumpling wrappers.

7. From here you can choose to freeze these or cook them fresh. If you choose to freeze these, place the lined tray into the freezer for at least 30 minutes till firm. Then transfer to a ziplock bag. You can cook these from frozen in the future!

Cooking

1. In a bowl/measuring cup, mix 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 tsp of corn starch and 1/2 tsp of flour.

2. Add a tablespoon of oil to a non-stick pan over medium-low heat. Place gyoza into the pan and fry until the bottom is a light golden brown.

3. Mix your water and flour mixture well before turning the heat to high and adding. Cover the pan and allow to sizzle and steam for 4 minutes.

4. Reduce the heat to low and take off the lid. The skins should be slightly translucent, showing the filling. Cook gently until the flour mixture crisps and becomes lightly golden brown, about 5 minutes. Towards the end, shake the pan to ensure that it is not stuck to the pan.

5. Shut off the heat and place a plate face down onto the gyoza. With one hand holding the plate and the other on the fry pan handle turn out your gyoza to serve with sauce.

6. Enjoy.

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How we got here

Making dumplings with your family, relatives and friends, all while joking and teasing each other about their dumplings is a classic Asian past time. These days when I do it alone, it feels meditative.

With each new gyoza comes a chance to improve and make it better. It’s one of the few things you can make that you can get lots of reps to actually improve.

They say that detailed hand work is a great way to regulate your emotions. I’m not sure how much of that is true for me but I always feel excited at the end when I have trays of gyoza.

Usually if I have the time I’ll make 100-200 gyoza at a time and stockpile them in the freezer. They’re a great crowd pleaser or a quick weeknight dinner. Some tips for storage and cooking from frozen:

• If you do plan on freezing them, underfill them slightly. As they freeze, the filling will expand and the skin dehydrates which may lead to cracking. It’s better to underfill so that the skin stays intact and the filling keeps its juices.

• When cooking from frozen, you’ll need a bit more oil to get good contact with the bottom. Cook on a lower heat to ensure that the bottom develops a nice even char before pouring in your water/cornstarch and flour slurry.

• These are also fantastic when simply boiled. They float when they are fully cooked. This is a great alternative for the diet conscious, but I love the crispy bottom too much.

And if you wanna mix it up, you can use this recipe as a base and add in some more ingredients. Some recommendations I have are raw prawns chopped up with a bit of chunkiness, minced water chestnut for a beautiful crunchy texture or if you’re feeling more adventurous you can try adding some small cubes of gelatinised soup chicken or pork broth to make a soupy and juicier filling. Just don’t go overboard or you’re gonna get busted dumplings.

I hope you get to try this out. It’s always such a treat to know that you’re just a few minutes away from a bundle of joy.

Thanks for reading! If you tried this recipe, please drop a message down below. Would love to hear your feedback.

Click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday. Happy days, and until next time, take care.

Paul.

It has been over 6 months of writing here on Substack. Writing about food has done three significant things for me:

1. Truly tested (and continues to test) my passion for food and cooking.

2. Given me a very real, although minimal, taste of a different lifestyle in content creation.

3. Forcing me to be even more intentional about my life.

Last year, on a whim, I decided to try writing about food. Truly, I had no idea about what I was getting myself into but I always felt a pull towards this area of creativity throughout my life.

I was always good with my hands and enjoyed making things.

And in an age where we can reach so many people in the world, I figured it was time to do something about it. I know that I don’t want do my current job forever. But it also didn’t feel like it made sense one day to just drop everything and just “figure it out” then.

I always loved food and cooking, yet I held myself back from doing anything really serious with it. Instead I would consume so much content about it and daydream about it;

“How cool would it be to do a chef’s night out style video, restaurant hopping?”

“It would be so fun to review restaurants for a living.”

“I would love to work in a test kitchen.”

Hell, there were even times I’d sit back and make ridiculous judgments. I remember watching a video of how to make hot chocolate with 3 ingredients and thinking, “God, why the hell does this has 3 million views?!”

It’s only now that I think clearly and have dipped my toes in that I’ve realised the truth.

I was envious of a life I knew I could have been living.

“If it’s so easy, then why don’t you try?” - I have no time.

“You should try make a video and teach people how you cook.” - I’m too lazy to edit.

“Start recording with your phone the next time you’re out at dinner” - I don’t want to ruin the meal.

All these damn excuses.

I think at some point I might have lost trust in myself. All the self-doubt. Year after year having put down a stretch goal to “try and make food content” and not doing it.

I had to negotiate with myself.

If you don’t love the lifestyle that comes with what you want then you only love the idea of it.

And if you don’t want to put the work in then do you really want to do it?

“What content creation mediun has the least friction..?” I asked myself.

It’s writing.

No need to take photos or videos or edit them later. No need for a professional mic or other people to help you. Pen and paper if you must.

So I decided, screw it, I’ll start writing about it.

I decided (arbitrarily) on a weekly schedule. I thought that was reasonable; It was enough time push some quality out but also short enough to force me to keep iterating, to get the reps in.

At the start, it felt like there were days where the words flowed out of me. “Gosh, I should have started sooner!” I thought naively. But then there came days where I’d sit infront of the computer and just drew blanks.

Some weeks, life happens and I have no time to cook something or make a recipe. Again, self doubt, the harsh critic started speaking.

“Do you really like this..? If you can’t even do weekly, how are you gonna be able to do more?”

It’s a challenge till this day but I think there’s a few things I’ve realised which have helped me keep on keeping on:

1. Motivation and inspiration are fleeting and perishable. Act on it, do not let it fade without taking action. It’s the cleanest fuel in the moment to achieving something you want.

2. It’s okay to not feel like doing the thing. It’s all part of the experience. Listen to it carefully, it’s a potential sign that what you’re doing is not what you need to do. If the urge to write about something is not there it was usually because what I was writing about was not what I really cared about.

3. Just make it exist first. You can make it good later. No one got it right the first go (if you did, wow good job, now do it again). The harsh inner critic can be unreasonable and just doing the thing is more important. Showing up is what matters.

Also, writing is not as easy as I thought. Sure it’s the most frictionless way to make content but it has its challenges.

The internet nudges me to believe that there is a “optimised” or “ideal” way to write for success. There’s endless business writing courses and tutorials out there but I always keep coming back to Scott Adam’s post The Day You Became A Better Writer. I’m still developing my own voice, another thing I didn’t ever consider until I start writing.

Recipe writing is a whole new new ball game to me. Capturing feelings, senses and pre-requisite knowledge of cooking. Thinking about instructions and how a reader might interpret them is both an art and a science. I love the extra details but I’m also pragmatic. I want my recipes to give someone the courage to try something new.

Knowing your audience better makes this whole process easier but hey, I’m still building that up (thank you for being here).

This is a small, thin slice of what a lifestyle working on food and cooking might be. It’s all a discovery process. It’s made me think further than I ever had before in the past few years about how life could be like doing more of what I’m truly interested in.

I can only do that because I’m trying and taking steps toward that direction. Instead of sitting back and watching, it feels like I’m carving my own path. It’s like I’ve finally put on the blinders and I’m choosing to see what potential lies ahead. By taking this thing a little more seriously, my mind has broadened at the possibilities.

Hell, it gave me motivation to actually go further than this and post my first Youtube video (a whole other can of worms on content creation), goodness was that hard and fun in a whole different way. I don’t think this would have happened if I didn’t take the first, smaller step to writing.

So I’m quite thankful I started writing. It might not be what I do forever in the future, but it has already given me so much food for thought (and I’m a hungry boy).

I’m trying to figure it out. Just like everyone else is.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I felt I needed to do post this for my future self. I’m planning on taking this a lot more seriously this year so here is me putting my flag in the sand.

If you enjoyed this, leave a comment and consider subscribing to receive the next post, free, directly to your inbox. Until then, take care.

Paul.

This year, I promised myself that I would wine and dine myself a little more.

Why you might ask? Well, I’ve got a variety of reasons. This year I wanted to treat myself a little more and lean into fostering an abundance mindset. As strange as it sounds, it’s actually more comfortable and easier for me to stay at home and cook for myself.

But I can’t deny that going out to a restaurant to try new meals, ingredients and ideas is one of the greatest ways to get inspiration and change how we see food. And let me tell you, I definitely got a few more ideas from this month’s visit.

This might turn into a small new series that I’ve thought about called Let Him Eat! (I’m a proud of this one) where I do a monthly restaurant review.

Let’s dive in.

For January, I decided to go to Ibushi at Prefecture 48 to try the Kemuri (煙) Set Menu for $119AUD pp. Important note, there’s a minimum reservation for two people for the set menu so it’s a great excuse to go out with a friend for dinner.

Prefecture 48 is a new restaurant group which opened a little over a year ago. Ibushi is their robatayaki inspired restaurant and bar which centres around charcoal cooked food. I strongly recommend the counter seat, the free entertainment of watching the chefs cook and prepare the meal is always fantastic.

Luckily for me and my friend, we were seated infront of the bar section and got to chat with Scott, the bar tender, throughout the evening.

I dream of having a omakase-esque restaurant counter setup in my home someday. Ibushi’s dark wood countertop was like a beautiful end-grain cutting board. The dim lighting brought focus to the central charcoal grill which the restaurant was built around. God damn, chef’s kiss.

But let’s talk business, we’re here for the food.

Tuna Tartare - Yuzu Kosho, Crispy Sushi Rice, Avruga

Wonderful texture in this bite. Crispy rice on the bottom followed with the peppery distinct taste of yuzu kosho with tuna. It’s hard to find something wrong with this.

Prawn Tsukune - Tarragon Mayonnaise, Puffed Rice

I had a bit of a ratatouille moment eating this. The first bite took me back to Chinese/Vietnemese weddings, the classic seafood roll dipped with kewpie mayonnaise. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I always try to get seconds at weddings.

But it’s definitely clear that cooking this over charcoal really makes a huge difference. Compared to the seafood roll, which is deep-fried, the smokiness of the charcoal is great and results in a bite that’s much lighter from the dry heat without the deep-fry oil. The addition of puffed rice addes a nice extra crisp ontop of the delicate bounciness of the meatball. I definitely want seconds of this too.

Beef Tartare - Yolk Emulsion, Mustard Leaves, Lotus Chips

This was in my top three dishes of the night. What about it you might ask? Contrast.

What you can’t see here is that the lotus chips were dusted with something similar to a vinegar powder. After mixing the tartare and serving ontop of the lotus chip, the bite was sensational.

The first thing that hits your tongue is that sharp acidity, like a salt and vinegar chip. And as you chew, the acidity steps back and the sweet richness of the beef, the yolk and grated hazelnut comes forward. Like drinking that first sip of water after swimming in the ocean, the contrast is what makes it so delicious.

Where traditional beef tartare provides a more uniform and harmonious experience having all components of salt, sweet and acidity, chopped finely and mixed together, This one rips you one way to then feel to full range of flavor as you bounce back, like riding a rollercoaster, the pay-off is only possible from the build up.

Definitely something I want to try at home.

Grilled Octopus - Smoked Pomme Puree, Teriyaki Sauce

I love a good grilled occy. This was no exception.

Both my friend and I were shocked at the texture. Almost creamy tender with beautiful charred crispy edges from the grill. Hard to believe this is possible.

The pomme puree - incredibly smoky and rich. I wish we could have just a whole bowl of this stuff (even though it’s probably half butter). Funnily, my friend and I agreed that eating it all together with the teriyaki sauce, the flavor was strongly reminiscent of a takeaway meat lovers pizza.

It’s just so… Damn… Meaty.

And without a single bit of beef, pork or chicken here, this was an act of wizardry. Easily in the top three of the evening. I wish we could have the whole octopus.

Broccoli - Edamame, Miso Ranch

This dish was puzzling at first. Broccoli was well cooked, a nice char, with bits of edamame and pumpkin seed served on a bed of chilli oil.

It was not hot nor cold and I think given our last course it was a hard act to keep up with. But only after having gone through the full course and looking back did I understand what was going on here.

This was a refresher.

Cause if the next dish came right after the last it wouldn’t hit as hard as it did. This round was a nice reset. Although it was ranch and chilli oil the flavors were not as bombastic as the last round and gave our palettes some rest.

I appreciate that. Cause we were about to get our socks knocked off.

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Duck - Sansho Pepper, Beetroot, Rhubarb Soy Glaze, Radicchio

Lord help me. I am a firm believer of the peking duck faith, but this tested my devotion.

Maybe I’m not a big fan of western duck dishes. Maybe I haven’t had a great one yet but I always find they pale in comparison to a good peking duck at a Chinese restaurant. But this evening, I met a worthy contender.

This duck was dry-aged for 14 days, served rare with skin that was crispy like a pork belly. The more I chewed, the more it kept giving. Paired with a wonderful tangy beetroot sauce and unctious soy glaze, the flavor just felt like it never ended so long as I kept chewing.

My eyes have been opened. Duck is on the menu and I’m gonna keep my eyes out for your friends. This is the last dish in my top three for the evening.

Charred Lettuce - Cos Lettuce, Herb Emultion, Pistachio

Isn’t this just a piece of art?

I wish all salad could taste like this. My friend and I both agreed that this was no normal cos lettuce but maybe we were just on a high from this course menu.

Each leaf was so juicy and sweet. Normal lettuce doesn’t feel like that when you eat it.

And Pistachios? Don’t even get me started, my one true weakness (of many true weaknesses). Such a fantastic medley of fresh herbal flavors with juicy lettuce and crunchy pops of sesame and rich pistachio.

I wish I could make a salad half as good as this.

Wagyu Chuck Tail - Seasonal Mushrooms, Kombu Dashi

Imagine the most mushroomy pasta you’ve ever had. Think back to that aroma and flavors, like you’ve been taken to a misty autumn forest. It’s earthy and the umami is deep.

Now triple that and this is what you get.

Honestly there were times I forgot that this was a steak dish. It felt like I was eating a mushroom steak.

I had to stop and take breaks to just allows my palette to reset. The steak was so incredibly tender and fatty (kinda like me, don’t call me chuck).

A bit of a show stopper and I guess that’s exactly why it’s the last item for the set menu. Wish I had more words for this but I’ve never tasted anything like it before. It’s just so damn savoury, mushroomy and fatty.

Amber - Jaconde, Earl Grey Mousse, Caramelised Apple

Serenity - Matcha Chantilly, Hojicha Cremeux, Vanilla Sea Salt Mousse

Since I was already here (great excuse) I decided to get some dessert from Dear Florence, one of Prefecture 48’s venues which specialises in dessert.

These are expensive desserts, around $20AUD each for a cute little cake. There’s definitely a lot of artistry going on with these cakes which is probably why it’s so expensive.

The amber was surprisingly a fresh bite. I had forgotten that it was a mousse even though it looked like a meringue. The light crisp apple on top was really balanced out the sweet and jammy caramelised apple centre.

The Serenity was as expected, super matcha forward. I’m not the biggest fan of matcha but the bottom layers of vanilla mousse and hojicha were really nice but subdued by, well, matcha. As a uniform bite with all layers matcha stood out before being followed by a hint of hojicha.

Both these desserts were spot on at one thing, not being too sweet. It feels like some asian stereotype but “it’s not too sweet” is one of the greatest compliments we can give for dessert.

So wrapping up. Would I come here again? For a special occasion, absolutely. It was a really special and intimidate dining experience. Sitting at the counter was fantastic and the food speaks for itself. Lots of dark, strong flavors which is definitely something that reminds me of late nights at robatayaki dinner in Japan.

Top three dishes were the beef tartare, grilled octopus and the duck, in no particular order.

I’d probably give a miss on the dessert though. For that much money I was hoping for something that would get a better reaction out of me. I think I’d be better of buying a whole cake instead and sharing it with friends.

Hey friends, thanks for reading. That was an incredibly fun write-up! It’s actually wonderful to look back at the photos and remembering each moment as the food came out. What a strong start to the year for our restaurant visits. I might have to keep this restaurant review thing as a regular monthly post - Let Him Eat!

Leave a comment and click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday.

Paul.

I’ve spent many nights in Japan in izakaya bars. You don’t go these places expecting to eat a healthy, well-rounded meal. At kushi-katsu restaurants (panko crumbed deep fried skewers) they serve all you can eat yamitsuki cabbage and I always found myself reaching for it in between skewers.

It’s light, sometimes salty or tangy and keeps the palette fresh for the next bite, but more importantly it staves my impatience waiting for my next skewer to arrive.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Half a head of cabbage

• 3 tbsp rice vinegar

• 3 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp dashi powder (konbu or fish)

• 1 tbsp and 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp white sesame seeds

• 1/2 tsp chilli flake

Method

1. Take your half head of cabbage and slice in half. Now cut into bite size pieces. Separate the pieces that are stuck together. Place into a bowl.

2. Sprinkle a 1 tbsp of salt all over the cabbage. With your hands mix while squeezing handfuls of cabbage to massage and slightly bruise the cabbage. Once there is no grains of salt left at the bottom, set aside for 10 minutes.

3. Take your sesame seeds and place into a pan to toast gently on a low heat. Swirl in the pan to ensure the sesame seeds brown evenly. Remove once they’re golden and aromatic.

4. Take your cabbage and rinse in cold water to remove excess salt and drain. Add back into a large mixing bowl.

5. In a small bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients and your toasted sesame seeds. Stir to dissolve the sugar, dashi and salt. This is your cabbage dressing.

6. Prior to serving, add the dressing to your cabbage and mix to evenly coat all pieces and serve.

7. Enjoy!

How we got here

I will admit, this recipe is quite dressed up compared to the average izakaya experience. But the basic principles of salting and massaging the cabbage is the most important step.

Lan Lam explains this technique very well in one of America’s Test Kitchen’s videos. Salting and massaging the cabbage breaks down cell walls and concentrates flavor as the salt draws out moisture from the cabbage. This also creates a crisp-tender texture which is much more pleasing than eating straight cabbage.

Previously where I had simply dressed the cabbage without any pre-salting, I had found that the cabbage finally got to the right texture 15 minutes later and the dressing had diluted from the moisture.

From this base you can go anywhere with your dressing but I love the aroma of sesame and having a more tangy dressing. I usually serve this as a side with things that are either fried or a bit fattier as the acidity helps cut through the fat and cleanses the palette.

Cabbage is the most common way to get your fill of veg in Japan. It’s an affordable and widely available vegetable. It makes many appearances as a salad base in many restaurants.

At chicken katsu restaurants you might be able to see the amazing cabbage blenders that make the super thin cabbage that comes with the usual set. When it’s thinly sliced it really offsets the usual smell that cabbage can give off. Also makes it very easy to eat lots of it.

Growing up, my family rarely ate cabbage. It wasn’t a common place vegetable in Vietnamese cuisine. But from these experiences in Japan consistently eating cabbage that made me realise how cost effective and versatile this vegetable is. It’s cheap and keeps well in the fridge, can be used for both salads as well as a vegetable in soups.

So now it feels like it’s a fridge staple. I always have a chunk of cabbage at home. This recipe makes a wonderful snack or a great side for dinner, I hope you try it out.

Hey friends, thanks for reading. We’re well and truly into the new year. The weather has been crazy over here which makes me think about how much weather drives our food. It’s so unpredictable that I don’t know what I might be eating in a few days time.

Leave a comment if you tried this recipe and click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday (hopefully).

Until next time.

Paul.

Looking back I remembered my trip earlier this year to Nagoya. I always go to Yama-chan’s izakaya chain to get some of this fried chicken, perhaps my favorite fried chicken from Japan (Famichiki, I still love you too).

The wings are coated in a sweet soy glaze before being generously dusted with a mix of white and black pepper. It’s something you can whip up for a side dish and it will impress your friends.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

This recipe is makes approximately 10 whole chicken wings.

• Chicken wings, as many as you’d like to eat, either drummetes, flats or the whole wing

• 100g of potato starch to coat

• Salt

• Finely ground black pepper,

• White pepper

• Oil for frying, vegetable/sunflower/peanut

• Lemon and kewpie mayo (Optional)

For approximately 10 wings of sauce

• 2 tbsp koikuchi soy sauce

• 1 tbsp mirin

• 1 tbsp cooking wine/sake

• 1 garlic clove finely minced/grated

• 2 tsp sugar

Method

1. Lightly salt each chicken wing and leave for at least 15 minutes

2. In a small bowl, mix a ratio of 2 : 1 black pepper to white pepper. Set aside.

3. Into a small pot add soy sauce, mirin, sake, garlic and sugar. On low heat, bring up to a simmer, dissolve all sugar and reduce by half. Shut off the heat and set aside, this is our sweet soy glaze.

4. In a cast iron skillet or your preferred shallow frying vessel, fill with frying oil at least 2 cm deep and start heating up oil to 160 degrees

5. After 15 minutes, in a bag or a bowl, add potato starch and coat each chicken wing. Ensure there are no wet spots. Once coated, shake off any excess starch and place into the frying oil, do not overfill the pan and fry in batches.

6. Fry for 8 minutes on the first side before flipping each wing to finish frying on the other side for another 5 minutes. Once cooked, take out of the pan and onto a rack to remove excess oil. Repeat with remaining chicken wings.

7. Brush a light coat of the soy glaze onto each chicken wing before generously dusting on the pepper mix. Sprinkle on as much as you think is enough and then go further.

8. Serve with optionally a wedge of lemon and kewpie mayo.

9. Enjoy!

How we got here

Nagoya is a city with strong, punchy flavors. Specialties include dark red miso paste which brings forth a super deep, almost bitter, umami and Nagoya tebasaki, the Japanese word for chicken wings.

“What makes a Nagoya chicken wing?” you might ask. It’s characteristic trait is a starch coated, deepfried chicken wing that is then covered with a sweet soy glaze. Then dusted with some fine black pepper.

Yama-chan is a chain izakaya which nowadays can be found in most big cities in Japan but originated from Nagoya. Of all the Nagoya fried chicken I’ve eaten, Yama-chan’s clearly takes the lead in the amount of black pepper they put on the chicken.

I mean look at it! Hold your breath when you’re eating it so you don’t start sneezing.

Since it’s not a batter coated fried chicken I can also lie to myself that this is a healthier alternative. And I’m also happy that shallow frying means less left over oil.

But do yourself a favor, pre-fry an extra batch or two, they keep in the fridge pretty nicely without the sauce and seasoning. Just reheat them in your oven or air fryer and dress it up quickly for a lazy night dinner.

Next time you’re in Japan make sure you hit up Yama-chan Izakaya, or until then, maybe give this recipe a try, and don’t hold back on the pepper.

I can hardly believe it’s a brand new year already. I’ve spent some time thinking about what I want from the year and even a bit of a plan for whatever this is. As usual I’ll be continuing to try and capture my mum’s recipes for future me and sprinkling in a few notes on other recipes and thoughts from the kitchen.

So if that sounds like something you’re interested in, leave a comment and click that subscribe button below to get the next post delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday (hopefully).

All the best, and here’s to an awesome 2026!

Paul.

Let’s get cooking!

Snacks

Back into the kitchen after a few welcome words and the rush was on. There’s an incredible feeling of pressure to get the first bite out for people. That’s what they’re here for after all. And after seeing all their faces and feeling the energy of the room I knew I was on the edge of something new and unfamiliar. The night ahead was something I could not have imagined.

I get back to my station and take a moment to breath. I haven’t felt this nervous in a long while. Infront of me, two trays of my snacks to prepare. Things start popping into my mind, “What plates do I use?”, “Is there enough kangaroo for all of this?”, “5 tables, 8 per plate, 2 or 3 wedges of lemon?”, “Do I have enough herbs prepped?”

“You alright, Paul?”, Howie asks.

“I’m nervous, my hands are shaking.”

“Yeah, you’re doing something you’ve never done before.”

Enough of the questions, I just gotta go.

So I start spooning out the tartare. Thien calls Lauren over, our wonderful dishy for the night, to assist me. “One whole tablespoon per cracker.” he explains as he shows her two portions. I then chase up behind with my garnish, a few rings of thinly sliced eschallot, a slice of chilli and a leaf of rau ram (Vietnamese coriander).

With Lauren we check that everything has all components. As I draw my hands away I accidentally knock one off the tray to the floor. It felt shocking for a second but then I remembered we prepared more than we needed. Plates come over and we start assembling ready to go.

Howie’s snack was Indonesian Rojak served ontop of a slice of cucumber. Where my dish was savoury, spicy and salty, Howie’s was sweet, tangy and fresh, a great one two punch to start the evening. This dish is Howie’s mum’s favorite salad and so it’s quite close to his heart. I really love that the two starters set a story of our chefs in the kitchen.

After all, food really is a story.

And that focaccia I made? It was going out with a special butter made by Thien. Trust me, Thien makes some insanely delicious butter. We had a conversation in the previous weeks that we don’t want to go too crazy on the butter. It would have been funny if everyone’s favorite thing was bread and butter.

We sent out a kombu and charred green onion butter, the focaccia didn’t have the characteristic large pockets and bubbles.

Plus with some oyster lovers in the organising group, there had to be oysters! And this is where I ended up finely dicing even more eschallots. I can’t believe that someone prepared pebbles for the plating, there’s so many moving parts to this whole operation.

All dishes up on the pass. As each of our waitresses took a plate of our snacks out, it felt like I was watching airplanes take off to go to war. I hope they come back with good news.

But no time for waiting, we had finally got our first checkpoint out and we needed to clean stations and get ready for the entrees.

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Entrees

It really did feel like we bought ourselves some time and the nerves quickly faded. I was having some real fun.

Next was entrees. Howie had previously prepared his raw snapper for his crudo. Pickled snow fungus, green onion and preserved plum and dressed with some more of the pickling juice and olive oil. This was an absolute textural treat, crunchy snow fungus and delicate but bouncy snapper. It was so incredibly fresh and acidic. I would have never thought to have ever used snow fungus in crudo.

Thien’s triple cooked beetroot was always a crowd pleaser. I’ve had the pleasure eating it multiple times before and it never gets old. Served on a bed of goats curd, the beetroot has been blanched, chargrilled and smoked with paperbark before being left to soak in a mix of three different kinds of vinegar. Walnuts, sumac and wilted leaves to garnish. The deep colour of beetroot marbling with the white goats curd is spectacular.

What I also loved about this popup experience was during service, we had visitors popping in and out of the kitchen. Friends coming by just to see what’s coming up next and have a small chat while the next round was coming in.

Even seeing the ladies working the front peeking through the pass to see what was coming next like excited kids wondering what’s going on in the kitchen. Those small moments really stick out for me and pulled me out of the intense pace while we were pushing food out, really reminded me that this whole thing was for fun.

We eventually got some good news back from the waitresses, “Everyone is loving it, no complaints!” My goodness, what a relief.

Mains

Here’s where I really felt like my hard work prepping the night before was going to pay off, Howie’s brick chicken and the butterflied red-gurnard.

A wonderful story comes with Howie’s brick chicken. The brick we used was a reclaimed after the owner, Chris, had renovated the cafe. And people needed to see it.

We sent Howie out to the dining room to show it and all the way from the kitchen I could hear the crowd cheering, “BRICK! BRICK! BRICK! BRICK! BRICK!” before an explosion of cheers and applause. I can only assume Howie had waved it above his head like a monkey.

After being seared hard into a pan, from literally having a brick placed ontop, it’s finished in the oven and glazed with sambal and served atop a banana leaf with a generous dollop of sambal butter and charred lemon.

I cannot explain how good this chicken is. Dare I say, it’s the most delicious whole cooked chicken of my life. So incredibly juicy and the sambal butter ontop goes so well with the side of coconut rice.

It’s something perhaps a lot of asians can relate to. When you’re hungry and you want a simple snack; hot rice, butter and soy sauce. This literally hits the same spot. I will have to beg Howie for this recipe, it’s too good.

Meanwhile Thien was patiently grilling the red gurnard on the konro. It’s always a little scary grilling on the wire rack if the skin sticks but god damn did he nail every single fish. I mean take a look at this.

Dressed with a corn and konbu beaurre blanc with charred corn and nori powder. I’ve had this with another fish but I definitely wanna try this with the gurnard, I wonder what it tastes like. And guess what? No complaints about bones, I did my job!

This was the part of the evening where things started to feel like we were at the home stretch. We had time to enjoy some chef snacks and have a bit more leisurely chat with the team and even get a chance to run out to the restaurant and talk to friends and strangers.

And seeing our waitresses taste Howie’s chicken and all gush in unison about how good it was as they ran off to the back to enjoy their plate of chicken. Food really brings out the best in people.

Palette Cleanser and Dessert

Things were winding down and fatigue started setting in. But thankfully the last two courses were not too crazy.

We had made an umeboshi sorbet to be served with umeshu (or sparkling for the non-alcohol diners). A deep maroon from the colour from the shiso and this was just such a unique experience. Tart, salty, sweet, sour and cold. Definitely a palette cleanser.

Thien runs out to serve it table side while I blitz the sorbet in the Ninja Creami (which I love so much).

Finally, it was time for dessert, one last course! I was proud to say this was an absolute hit. The white chocolate, black sesame mousse with coffee sponge, mandarin and sweet egg roll crumble. The assembly was chaotic, I think we were all on our last legs and wanted to get these out to call it an evening.

Seeing the last of those plates head out felt like I had climbed a mountain. The whole service was a constant rush. It was the most fun I have had in a long time cooking.

Closing

Although I knew what I had just accomplished filled my heart with joy, there was a moment that the cooking staff all came out to say one last thank you to our guests. Receiving such wonderful words and praise for the food really tugged on my heart strings and reminded me cooking for others truly is the simplest form of love.

To see that people felt that was an incredible feeling.

It felt so incredibly special to talk to people eating and enjoying the food we made. It really struck this note that this could really be what dreams are made of. Also, most guests said the most memorable thing was the butter (damnit Thien).

In just two nights I learnt so much about myself and the nature of working in the food industry. The finite, short lived life of food brings about a different mindset one must adopt to be successful. You can’t say no to the order, there’s no negotiation, you just have to get the food made and send it out as soon as possible.

The humble and flat hierarchy of the kitchen is also really special. I’ve never had to say “yes chef” so many times in my life and even being referred to as “chef” is a respect we give to each other. Many times out of habit I’d say “yes boss” to which Howie would respond “I’m not your boss” more times than I could count.

My legs were absolutely shot. I work an office job all day sitting in a chair. I’m not used to this. After some cleaning up Thien and I finally sat down on the kitchen bench first time in 12 hours, just de-compressing. It felt like I couldn’t stand up again. The trip home was going to be a long one but I was beaming with joy the entire way home.

Even after getting home, my mind was still buzzing even though my body was exhausted. This is hard work and I was probably in overdrive after the long 12 hour shift.

But this was me taking steps to a dream and I only see it is a win-win situation. You either find out you love it or you don’t, and both outcomes are good for you.

Am I gonna quit my day job? Not yet.

But the day I do, I’m pretty sure I know what’s next.

On the 15th of November I had the honor of cooking for the Greater Measures Vol. 1 popup at Beta Cafe! This is a group of friends who gathered together over their love of food and wanted to share that experience… in greater measures!

It was my first foray into cooking in a commercial kitchen for 40 hungry people. I can firmly say this event was life changing. I am so grateful to the team for giving me the opportunity to stumble and fumble my way through the kitchen and serve such wonderful people that evening.

Again thank you to Emma, Howie, Nic and Thien for the opportunity.

I’ll be splitting this into two parts because I realise, there’s A LOT to write about. So without further ado…

Let’s get cooking!

Friday evening, it’s time to prep.

Usually on a Friday, I’m ready to cruise off into the weekend. But that evening I knew I had some work to do, work that really excited me. Throughout the day I’m keeping quietly to myself an energy that I can feel rising. It’s prep night baby.

5pm hits, log-off, straight to the restaurant. My chef friend, Thien, had already been there in the early afternoon just preparing the space and gathering ingredients. We sat down just had a moment to ourselves to think about what we needed to get done for the evening.

• Spatch-cock and debone eight chickens, start brining.

• Butterfly and debone 11 red gurnards, konbu cure.

• Get started on dessert prep.

Simple enough. It would be something that could get me comfortable working in the new kitchen and just building up some awareness of where everything is, getting comfortable with the dishwasher setup and talking through about expectations of the day.

Chicken Prep!

Spatchcocking was the first order of business. I’m very familiar with breaking down a chicken for yakitori but I rarely have ever had the need to do this. Thien (with great ease) shows me how it’s done on one bird.

Cut the back bone out, remove the wishbone, split the sternum, remove the ribs and the thigh bones. Took just under 10 minutes per bird and by the last one I was much quicker at about 7 minutes.

Our other chef, Howie, had prepared his 4% salt brine with herbs. All into the brine and into the fridge for a nice bath until tomorrow.

Following that, it was time for a quick dinner break and to talk shop with our other two lovely hosts, Nic and Emma about the runsheet.

The logistics and timings of guests arriving, when to serve each course and when to clear tables was awfully fascinating. Truly, I had never had to think about this kind of thing but it’s these kinds of details that go unnoticed and make dining experiences so smooth.

With the invitation for guests at 6:30PM, accounting for some lateness and allowing people to mingle, we aimed to have our guests seated during 6:50 - 7PM, some time for speeches from the group and then snacks to be served immediately after.

7:10pm, snacks. Okay. That was my key takeaway for the timing on when things have to get going.

Fish Prep!

We head back in the kitchen and next is the red-gurnard. I have seen these fish in the wild before but I never able to catch them. I was very eager to try my hand preparing them. It’s a very unique looking fish. Pink like a snapper, a head like a sandwhiting, almost round like a flat head with these beautiful lateral fins.

Butterflied then grilled skin side down on the charcoal was the plan for this. A few notes from my experiencing prepping this fish:

• The roundness of the body means it naturally wants to roll onto its belly or on its back. Slowly slice the fillets off and ensure you follow the spine to reduce waste.

• The rib cage on this fish has lots of meat around it. Instead of cutting off the ribs and removing that belly which contains good fat, disconnect it from the lateral bones and use a tweezer to remove the ribs.

Once all butterflied and deboned, we wrapped it in konbu to cure overnight in the fridge to impart more umami into the fish. I remember being quite anxious about any bones I might have missed but there was no time for that. It was getting late and we had to start some prep on dessert.

Dessert Prep

Since this popup is very heavily inspired by asian flavors, dessert needed to be a homerun hitter that would ring true to asian cuisine. Something that could be prepared and portioned quickly during service and our chefs landed on black sesame white chocolate mousse.

Chocolate mousse, my weakness. Black sesame? One of my favorite asian icecream flavors. This couldn’t go wrong and prepping this ahead made so much sense, we needed it to set in the fridge for piping.

Still undecided on the plating and other things but we ran with it. Our chefs are very talented when it comes to improv.

Since I’ve been on Substack, I’ve noticed the community loves closeup texture photos. The marbling from folding two mixtures together is just eye candy. I’m sure there’s a planet out there somewhere that looks something like this.

Straight into piping bags, into the fridge. It’s now 1:30AM and time to go home. Tired? Yes. But I felt like I had a bundle of energy in me raring to go for the next day.

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Saturday, game on

Back into the restaurant at 11AM. Howie is there early doing some prep so I join in. I’ve been tasked with one of the snacks; a Vietnamese and Australian inspired dish, a Bun Bo Hue Kangaroo Tartare.

Kangaroo sizzle steak cut to an even dice followed with a task I would be doing more than I expected, cutting eschallots bruinoise.

It’s rare to come face to face with things you are utterly inadequate at. I’ve done it a handful of times in my life but this time with knowing there’s an audience, I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform. I knew that I was not practiced in this but I felt a mild frustration in my lack of ability. I told myself that I’ll make an effort to practice this again.

Thien arrives and things really start kicking into gear. With both head chefs in the kitchen, our direction is sorted and priorities are laid out. There’s a palpable tension that starts to build with prep before service. I could feel it buzzing inside me but I didn’t realise how much crazier it was going to get.

That’s because being the “stage” means random side quests popping up throughout the day. Like cooking staff meal!

Ten lambshanks in the fridge and egyptian pearl couscous on the shelf, all while juggling prep in a new kitchen? Yes chef. The chaotic part of this kitchen was having to sequence our stove usage. The flat top decided to stop working that day so we were left with our two gas stoves. Searing off the lamb shanks before braising them in stock with a bunch of herbs in the oven made a decent quick meal, I loved the texture of the pearl couscous and the lamb had just enough time to tenderize. Staff meal was ready to go for 5:30PM.

At around 2PM, I had to start on the focaccia for the bread. Urgency was mounting and the context switching between all the different prep was starting to get a bit crazy.

“Four hours for focaccia, is that even possible?” I ask as I realise the time. Well it turns out, yes it’s possible. Instead of water, use beer - this will give more fermented flavor to the dough in a short amount of time. That and double the amount of yeast in a warm kitchen meant a fast rise on the dough.

5PM rolls around and I’ve got one more major thing to prepare for my snack, frying off the tapioca and sesame crisps I will be serving my tartare on. Remember those two stoves we got? Boy was it tricky frying off the crisps on the back stove, reaching over a gastro full of chicken, while Howie was searing off his chicken.

A slotted metal spoon did the trick but boy did this feel dangerous. Having to press the puff down in the oil to prevent it from curling as it fried meant the spoon was getting hotter and hotter from the stove. The tapioca mix had these pearls mixed in which beautifully puffed up, just look at the texture!

It’s now 5:30PM and I quickly join the front of house team while woofing down my lambshank as fast as I can. I loved the professionalism that Emma and Nic envisioned for the popup. The feeling of eating at your good friend’s home but not missing a beat like a real restaurant.

Final moments of prep were laying out the crisps and doing a quick count while trying to prep as many of the herbs and toppings as possible. And even in that small amount of time people start funnelling in through the front door of the cafe and walking by the pass.

It was actually a relief to see people walking by and exchanging a few words and smiles. Those small moments would be some of the most wonderful moments of the evening ahead. Definitely reassuring to see familiar faces but I started to feel my heart racing as the clock crept to 7PM.

It was time for the welcome and a short speech from the team, including myself.

This would also be the first time I had seen the space before all the furniture had been moved and tables set. Seeing everyone all sat down and ready for the evening was a sight to behold and a testament to the connections that the team at Greater Measures had fostered.

I had a small moment to give my thanks to all the wonderful people who set this up, the guests who will be partaking in our food and introduced the snack that I would be making this evening. Normally I’m not so good at public speaking but I think the kitchen nerves were nothing compared to this. I ran back into the kitchen, now knowing that this was as real as it could ever be.

It was go time.

So let me lay out the groundwork first. I have never worked in hospitality before. I also have no experience cooking in a professional kitchen. Alongside my good chef friend, have served 10 people at most, and that is in a casual setting.

Our popup for the night aims to serve 8 (or was it 9..?) courses with wine pairings for 40+ people. Even though our guests are all friends or family of the team and I know that the stakes aren’t as high, I’m still shaking in my boots at the prospect of having to serve food on the pump. I figure this is gonna be a great little stretch for me and this is one step closer seeing what it’s like to maybe one day own a restaurant.

We were lucky enough to secure a venue with a small space and a cosy kitchen at a Beta Cafe. Chris, who is the owner, is an absolute legend for letting us use the space.

When I first met Chris and had a small chat, he immediately struck me as someone who really gets it. You all probably know how I’m obsessed with the idea of abundance and Chris is an embodiment of that.

Chris told me that he makes enough money from the coffee he sells. He has this space out the back and kitchen which he got alongside the cafe but he didn’t need it and barely uses it. A lot of the stuff in there was old and quite frankly he didn’t have the time to sort it all out.

But Chris imagines that his space could turn into a place that cultivates smaller popups or gives people an opportunity to grow and foster their culinary ideas. Chris is like an angel investor but instead of millions of dollars, he wants to provide a venue for people to try out and host their own popup restaurants and events.

He’s not playing a short game of getting a quick buck renting out a kitchen space, he’s thinking the infinite game. So I absolutely adore Chris and he can make some incredible coffee. He blew my mind with some coffee sorcery using a special cup which changes the flavour of the coffee based on how it pours out onto your tastebuds. Apparently it’s the oldest trick in the wine world he says but it honestly shocked me. Make sure to give Chris some love if you’re nearby Central station.

The Kitchen

So I say this is a small kitchen but what are we working with here?

There’s two gas powered stoves, a flat top gril, a combination steamer/oven, a washmaster commercial dishwasher and a big commercial worktop underbench fridge. Luckily for us, everything was in working condition but needed a thorough clean up.

Here’s a little walkthrough of the space:

We also brought in an extra benchtop and konro (Japanese charcoal grill) for some grilling.

Simply being in the space started filling me with nervous energy and ideas.

“My god, this is real.”

Suddenly it felt like a huge honour to be the first group using this venue and cleaning it up felt like a service to other future potential restaurateurs.

And that’s exactly what we got up to. Let me tell you, it’s not easy (not that I ever thought it was.) I managed to squeeze into the fridge and started scrubbing and cleaning the racks and rails. It had definitely seen some good use with some caked on gnarly bits but a little elbow grease got the job done eventually.

The Tasting

With the menu still in development we gathered the team for an evening to do a test run and tasting of a couple of dishes. All together, 11 of us, we ran through 6 courses to get some feedback and to get a sense of the flow in our new kitchen space.

With zero experience cooking in a team in a commercial kitchen my priorities were to make sure I was as useful as possible and follow the instructions of the other two chefs while asking clarifying questions. This was a test run, yes, but I wanted to be clear cut on expectations for as much detail as possible, I love the small details.

And even though it was a test run, I had felt a nervous energy boil inside me. The same kind of feeling as taking an exam that you realise you’re probably a bit under prepared for. But if I had to use one word to describe it, that word would be thrilling.

I was responsible for one of the snacks on the evening. I won’t go into the exact details as there’s still room for change (and I also plan to write an article about the menu) but the dish was so culturally relevant to me, a spin on a classic vietnamese dish. After testing this recipe maybe 3 or 4 times, before we gave it the green, I felt strongly connected to what the dish represented, the intention and the story of it.

I really didn’t want to screw this up. I want this dish to be the best it could be.

So when it came time to prep and serve this for our team just shy of a dozen I could feel the nerves in my finger tips. I can rationally understand “this is a test run” but I already started thinking about how we were going to pull this off with 40 people.

Then came the moment to plate and serve. Seeing the reactions of the team who didn’t know exactly what was on the menu and their delighted and curious reactions was such a treat. Standing there as the chefs explained the dishes, the intention and stories of the dishes made me realise something. How profoundly connected and vulnerable cooking can be. Our menu for the evening is modern Australian with heavy influences from South East Asian cooking. We are taking a piece of our hearts onto a plate, with a hope to share a love for our food and culture.

No lies, I hadn’t felt such wobbly legs for quite some time as we saundered off back to the kitchen. When our front of house team member came back with some feedback from the table, I was surprised that there was no negatives for the dish. A small sigh of relief but I’m still left wondering what else could be better.

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Mise En Place is everything

Looking back on this test run in our kitchen we all knew that we were still getting into shape. One of the biggest challenges for this popup was procurement of kitchenware; plates, glasses, cutlery. Given the variety of dishes coming out and ingredients the biggest complaint in the kitchen was “We need more trays”.

I think back to my dish and the amount of small components it had. Having to sift through a box of four kinds of herbs to then pick leaves to then slice and mix into the dish already a point of friction in getting the dish out as quick as possible.

My engineer brain started thinking back to manufacturing and process engineering; LEAN, Kaizen and 6 Sigma, all practices adopted when looking at processes to reduce waste (both resource and process and energy) when manufacturing or producing a product. Mise En Place is no different. Minimization of handover, reduction of equipping tools, separation of raw materials from product. It’s honestly incredible to see the convergent evolution of two industries simply driven by the same desire: Quality.

So I’m really looking forward to doing more prep work and seeing the kitchen in full swing (once we get all our trays) and prep work is super fun.

Communication is king and staying humble is a virtue

Relationships and trust thrives on good communication. “Then what is good communication in a kitchen?” I asked myself. I still don’t have an answer but here’s what I saw.

Between our team of three in the kitchen one thing I really respected was open questions and feedback. A small moment I won’t forget was being asked for feedback on the other entree. I felt like I was not “qualified” or experienced enough to suggest feedback to an actual professional chef but then I realised, “Where the hell did that presumption come from?” That kind of attitude gets in the way. In the way of developing relationships where we can see eye to eye.

“Needs more acidity, maybe go heavier on the lime?”

“You’re right, thanks for the feedback, Paul”

We’re all just trying to figure it out. And so long as we are all looking at the same goal of producing quality food, nothing will get in between the team to achieving that goal.

Being able to ask such detailed questions to professional chefs is like my version of being able to interview a celebrity. Besides the dozen or so new techniques I was able to witness on that evening, just asking “Is this how you want it?” or “How would you do this?” allowed me observe and learn so many new things and gave me perspectives. Even sitting down at the table and sharing the meal with the rest of the team and being discussing back and forth about what they wanted more of or how they wanted the presentation of a dish to change creates opportunities for new thoughts to entertain, new ways of thinking.

So I’m gonna do my best to keep the beginner’s mindset. I really respect how humble our chefs are although I know they’ve achieved such great things.

I can’t wait to see how the event is going to go.

This tasting event was held on a Monday after work. I stayed out there till late without even realising it. This felt like a sneak peak into what life would be like if I go down the path of working in a restaurant which is something I’m considering in the future.

I look back on some random videos I took during the cleanup and seeing myself smiling doing the basics tells me that maybe, just maybe, I’m moving in the right direction.

It’s a small step, and there’s heaps to learn, but it felt so good to be in the kitchen and challenged in something that I really do love.

Fingers crossed and wish us good luck!

Today we got another recipe for my side project, The Taste of My Home. It’s a project I’ve started for my future self preserving my mum’s recipes. You can find the living document that I’ll be adding to here in Mum’s Recipe Catalogue.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 750g Pork ribs

• 1 medium head of kohlrabi

• 1 medium onion

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• Black pepper

• Chopped green onion for garnish

Instructions

1. Cut your pork ribs into smaller pieces (2-3 ribs per piece) and place into a medium to large pot. We will be marinating it in the pot we’ll be cooking to reduce washing.

2. Add salt, sugar, a few cracks of black pepper and fish sauce. Mix and ensure all pieces of pork are coated with the marinate. Marinate for at least 30 minutes but can be left overnight.

3. Once ready to cook after marinating, peel an onion and make an incision half way from the tip end halfway to the root end. This will help extract sweetness from the onion as it cooks. Place into the pot with the pork.

4. Add 1.5 - 2L of water to the pot, ensuring all ingredients are submerged. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. During the initial 5-10 minutes, skim off any scum and impurities in the soup to maintain a clear soup.

5. Once 2 hours has elapsed, prepare your kohlrabi. Using a knife or vegetable peeler, peel the skin off the kohlrabi. Then slice into batons approximately 1cm thick and add to the soup. Cook for another 15 minutes until the kohlrabi is slightly translucent and can easily be cut with a spoon.

6. Taste test the soup. You should taste sweetness from the kohlrabi. If you want, you can increase the saltiness by first adding more fish sauce to increase the umami then finish some more salt.

7. Serve in a large sharing bowl and eat with rice. Garnish with sliced green onion and some freshly cracked black pepper. As usual, a small saucer of fish sauce from the bottle to dip the pork and kolhrabi. Enjoy!

How we got here

It’s kinda crazy that when I ask my mum how she seasons anything, she just says the usual.

Fish sauce, salt, sugar and pepper.

Obviously herbs and spices for other dishes but this forms the base of most Vietnamese cooking. And in dishes like this soup, it’s really shows how far just a few good ingredients and a few seasonings can take you.

This dish was always one that I would forget to ask for dinner but always excited to see. The pork ribs when cooked low and slow impart such a wonderful flavor into the soup and are tender with a wonderful chew. Clean bones through and through.

I actually had no idea what the English name of kohlrabi was until I had to write this, we call it su hao in Vietnamese. Upon learning the english name I realised all the other wonderful food that also use it (big fan of kohlrabi slaw).

It’s funny though, I had made this recipe and dialled in the flavor as much as I could to match my mum’s cooking. I got pretty close, I’d say 90-95%. But that last stretch? I honestly have no idea if there’s actually a reason.

Mum used to say that the one thing that does happen when you spend all day cooking is that your senses dull. Maybe this is what she’s talking about. When you hone in and focus on the flavors of something you cook, the end product is, well, as you expect. If you’re someone coming to the table being served, there has been no build up till this point, zero to a hundred.

Maybe it’s just mum’s cooking and the love that’s in it, the setting, eating at home with family. There really are some things you just can’t capture in a recipe.

This week I wanted to talk about mastery. Mastery is something that I really respect. I think that we all value things that are hard to achieve, so seeing someone perform their art, their craft with such ease echoes the time and effort they must have put into their work to reach such a level of skill and proficiency.

I love watching behind the scenes videos of a restaurant kitchen and getting a peek into what goes into making the end product. And even in the short 20-30 minutes of film that capture a day’s worth of work, I really do have to remind myself that these cooks really are prepping and cooking for hours and hours on end. A dumpling shop cranking out tens of thousands of dumplings, a noodle shop mixing and rolling out tons of flour, a cafe brewing thousands of coffees, it’s not all too different, they get their repetitions in.

Sometimes when I’m at home cooking or prepping, I find such presence and flow in longer sessions. Specifically cooking with a specific loop of events such as making gyoza. I’d buy the ingredients for the filling, about enough to make 300 gyoza, then after prepping the filling I’d sit there for about 2 hours just folding and trying to make the perfect gyoza. Each dumpling is a chance to get it just that bit better than the last.

There’s so much discussion about how to get good at things and we’re all drawn to (at least I feel like I am) searching for some silver bullets to traverse the long journey of mastery a little quicker. Perhaps this thought is a product of the world we live in with so much convenience at our fingertips.

And by the way, convenience is another topic I have some mixed thoughts on.

I think we tend to assume that “convenience” does not come with negatives. I look at my parent’s generation and how they knew the names of all the streets that we drove on and that was because there never used to be navigations apps that just told you when to turn. I still have an old book of maps my dad used to use in the back of my car and he’d tell me how he used to sit down and plan the trip ahead, how many intersections until each turn, the name of the street. During the drive when those turns arrived he’d be looking for milestones to slip into the back of his mind for next time, like a restaurant or a billboard sign. Whether or not this is a good problem to have to solve is another discussion but it’s similar to buying pre-made or pre-cooked food. You’ll lose the need that facilitates the development of your cooking skills.

But back on the topic of mastery, I wanted to share some high-level points to consider in order to get good at something.

Volume, that is repetition, is usually what facilitates every opportunity to learn and improve. It’s no surprise that “time in the game” or someone who has been doing something for decades is good at something. They have just had so many chances for repetition. I reckon I’d be pretty good if I had to make a thousand gyoza every day for a year. (That sounds like a YouTube video I would definitely watch).

So, volume for opportunities to execute these techniques but volume with intention is what we should strive towards. Intention is like trying to squeeze as much juice out of every lemon. You can get so much more out of the same amount of repetitions. Intention is fairly broad because improvement has many axes in any skill we’re trying to develop. So it’s important to narrow down what you’re focussing on, a single facet, you are intentionally trying to improve.

I remember when I was first making some gyoza, I first focussed on not putting in too much filling. Once I felt like I had gotten it right, I started paying attention to my pleating technique. Inside that there are more facets; the spacing, the thickness, the amount of overlap on the pleats, the list is almost endless.

Progression is like a tree, each new “skill” is a branch that can then fork off into multiple smaller branches. But each of those branches must come from a larger structural branch. And all branches come from the trunk, your main foundational skills. Without a strong base you’re gonna get a flimsy wobbly tree, easily blown over in the wind.

I’ll always remember what my 8th-dan (9th being the highest) taekwondo master would always say during our training.

I love this saying on so many levels. There’s no moral judgement on the outcome; “permanent” is not good nor bad it’s just a state. Whether this state is desirable to you is what you make of it, a “good” or “bad” habit. If the number of reps you do becomes a checklist item, you’ll optimise for speed and lack of intention can easily slip in here.

As I write this I now realise it’s so strange that we are searching for tricks which may reduce volume. To avoid the bumps on the road and get to our “destination” faster and with less pain. Wanting to improve for the sake of improvement versus a desired outcome. Virtue based versus goal based. Some lessons are unteachable lessons, no matter how many times someone tells you, you won’t learn the lesson until you experience it yourself.

Here’s a random tip no one tells you if you are making gyoza to freeze and store:

It’s best to reduce the filling a touch to reduce the stretch on the dumpling wrapper. When water freezes into ice the volume increases, the filling inside will then expand and stretch the skin even further resulting in cracks once the dough finally sets.

Sure, there are things to learn like actual techniques to improve your abilities in your craft. Some will be time savers while some will literally enable you to do something you could not have done before at the cost of time. But the things we learn should maximise the enjoyment of the journey while it lasts.

Because if you love the road then no journey is too long.

I think I could happily sit and make dumplings for hours.

Ssome day, I'll be good at it.

It’s also another score on the board (go me) in my series, The Taste of My Home. It’s a project I’ve started for my future self preserving my mum’s recipes. You can find the living document that I’ll be adding to here in Mum’s Recipe Catalogue.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Special Equipment

• Steamer basket/pot

• Muslin cloth for steaming

• Medium/large non-stick pan

• Pastry/silicone brush

• Silicone/rubber spatula

Ingredients

For approximately 8 pancakes:

• 400g water

• 200g rice flour

• 100g flour

• 100g potato starch

• 2 tbsp tumeric

• 3 tbsp finely chopped green onion

• Vegetable oil for cooking

1 crepe should be approx. 100g of batter (1 part potato starch: 1 part flour: 2 parts rice flour: 8 parts water)

Essential fillings:

• Sliced onion

• Bean sprouts

• 200g Dried mung beans

• Thinly sliced pork belly

Fillings of choice:

• Squid - sliced into small pieces

• School prawns

• Sliced button mushrooms

To serve:

• Blended fish sauce - See recipe here

• Lettuce

• Mint leaves

• Thai basil

• Shiso/Perilla

• Coriander/Sawtooth coriander

Method

Preparation

If you do not have a steamer, you can simply boil the mung beans in salt water until they are fork tender. You’ll achieve 90% of the result. Otherwise we will steam them.

1. Soak the dried mung beans in a bowl of 3% salt water (e.g. 500ml, 15g salt) for at least an hour.

2. Setup your steamer of choice and steam the mung beans in a muslin cloth. This will vary based on your steamer and mung beans but check after 20 minutes. They should be soft all the way through but keep their shape. Set aside in a bowl.

3. Next we’ll mix our batter. Add water, rice flour, flour and potato starch and tumeric into a bowl and mix well with a whisk to get rid of lumps. Add in chopped green onion and mix.

4. Prepare your other fillings like thinly sliced pork belly, bean sprouts and any other proteins you want to add to this dish.

Cooking

1. Preheat a medium/large sized non-stick pan on low-medium heat.

2. Lightly oil the pan and add in sliced onion, pork belly and any other proteins you want to add. Fry until the onion softens and becomes translucent and the proteins are all cooked.

3. Add a tablespoon of cooked mung bean and stir to distribute across the pan.

4. Using a ladle, scoop up some batter and pour into the pan slowly while tilting and rotating the pan to create a thin coat all around the pan. Try to coat up the sides of the pan to get a nice crispy thin edge.

5. Sprinkle another tablespoon of mung bean and a handful of bean sprouts ontop.

6. Slowly fry the pancake. Your cue for when it is almost ready is the edges up the side of pan will curl in and detach from the pan. Using a brush, add some oil around the rim to crispen the edge further.

   

7. Cooking will take around 8-10 minutes per pancake. Using a spatula, lift up the base. Once lightly brown, fold in half.

8. Place on a wire rack to slightly cool before serving. Serve with fresh lettuce, herbs and blended fish sauce.

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How we got here

Vietnamese pancakes is what these are commonly known as but honestly it’s better to call it a crepe. Either way, both of these English names really don’t capture what it means in Vietnamese and it’s just a convenient name to describe its physical appearance.

Banh Xeo - “Banh” usually referring to something made of a flour and “Xeo” being the sizzling sound of the batter as it is poured onto the pan. Vietnamese onomatopoeia at its finest.

I grew up eating these very rarely just because it’s something that’s not so easy to cook for having a family sit together and eat. Especially in my family where sitting together and starting the meal together was a non-negotiable.

And my mum used to sometimes say “Too much work, just go to a restaurant!”

It feels like I could count the amount of times I have eaten mum’s banh xeo on two hands. And when I realised this fact I ended up asking her to make this for me last weekend and the timing couldn’t have been better. This is the perfect lunch on a hot day.

And my mum decided to spoil us with some school prawns and squid. She marinated them with some salt, pepper and a bit of sugar before frying them off with the fillings.

Crispy delicate frills, refreshing herbs and greens, slightly starchy and smooth mung beans, a melody of textures. It’s such a luxury to make this and eat this at home. Normally at restaurants you would order banh xeo and get one. I ate my fill of 5 of these things before I decided to call it quits for my health.

With the oncoming warmer days I hope that I can eat this a few more times.

This is my comfort food. If there was a dish I that would represent beauty in simplicity, I’d choose this. Stupid simple. It’s boiled pork belly, sliced into bite sized pieces and a simple soup to eat with rice. There’s a few execution points to make this really simple dish the best it can be.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• A slab of pork belly (as much as you want to eat, for this recipe I’ll base it around 1 kg)

• 1 large onion

• Cooked rice to eat it with

• Fish sauce

• Salt

• Sugar

Garnish and condiments

• Chopped Green onions

• Black pepper

• Coriander (optional)

• Fresh ground/sliced chilli or dry chilli flake

Instructions

1. Fill a medium sized pot with approximately 4L of water and add 2 tbsp of salt and 1 tbsp of sugar. Bring to a boil.

2. Peel the onion and make an incision halfway through the onion from the tip end towards the root end. This will help the onion release more flavour into the soup.

3. Add the pork belly and onion to the pot and reduce the heat from a rolling boil to a simmer the pork belly for 25-30 minutes (for around 1kg of pork belly). For the first 5-10 minutes, scum will form on the surface of the soup. Skim and remove the scum to keep the soup clear.

4. After the time elapses, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Allow the pork belly to continue cooking in residual heat for an 1 hour.

5. After an hour, remove the pork belly from the pot to cool. Wrap with plastic wrap until time to serve.

Serving

1. Take the pork belly and divide in long sections approximately 3-4cm wide then cut into thin slices 3-5mm thick. Continue until all pork belly is sliced and plate.

2. Into a soup sharing bowl, add the broth we cooked the pork in. First add a splash of fish sauce (approx. 1tbsp for 1.5L of soup) and taste. You should feel a savouriness begin to build without tasting fishy.

3. Garnish the soup with freshly cracked black pepper, chopped green onion and optionally coriander.

4. In small bowls for dipping add fish sauce (straight from the bottle) and add chilli to taste.

5. Serve and eat with cooked rice, dipping the pork belly with the fish sauce and drinking the soup with the rice or by itself.

How we got here.

This is as simple as it gets. Boiled dinner. It feels like almost every Asian culture has something just like this. A simple protein cooked and eaten with a salty sauce/condiment to stretch it with rice to keep full.

It’s this consistent thread that permeates through a lot of south east Asian cooking. After all, these cultures had to make it work with the little food they had. And even though my family had garnered success once they fled their country and made it to Australia, it’s no surprise that they continued to eat the food that they grew up with to remind them of their home.

There’s no other cut of meat that can really replace this. Nothing that rivals the balance of fat to lean meat in a pork belly.

This was my dad’s favourite meal. He used to tell us about how back in Vietnam the pork belly had even more fat than the ones we had in Australia. He used to also tell me about how strange it felt when he arrived in Australia and saw people in restaurants discarding the fat from steaks or throwing away chicken skin. “The fat was the most precious part!” he would say.

It’s all a matter of perspective huh?

I remember eating this growing up and I initially didn’t like the pungency of the fish sauce so I elected to eat this with normal soy sauce. It’s a great alternative for anyone who’s not used to fish sauce but I urge you to slowly get used to eating this with fish sauce. Even just dipping it in small amounts will give you a large boon in saltiness and umami.

This dish pairs quite well with a pickled mustard green that my mum would make but also, because of such similarity in culture, it goes great with kimchi. This is so close to the Korean pork bossam and makes so much sense.

Struggle meal or not, this is definitely my comfort food from now till the end of time. And thankfully it’s not too hard to make.

I’m a serious udon lover. I once took a day trip to Sanuki in the Kagawa prefecture to eat udon where it was born.

There’s a bit of a backstory to this recipe. If you’re interested you can jump ahead to the notes at the bottom.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Special Equipment

• Rolling pin for rolling noodles

• 2 x large plastic bags for kneading noodles

• Large mixing bowl

Ingredients

For approximately 2 servings of udon noodles:

• 200g of 8-10% protein flour - see note 1 about flour choice

• 85ml of water

• 13g of salt

• Corn/potato starch for dusting

For the dashi base for hot soup or cold dipping soup:

• 1L of water

• 10g of konbu

• 20g of dried sardine

• 10g of bonito flakes

For approximately 3 bowls of hot Kake udon soup:

• 1L of the dashi base

• 2 tbsp of mirin

• 1 tbsp of brown sugar

• 3 tbsp of usukuchi soy sauce (Japanese light soy sauce)

• 1 tsp of salt

or for approximately 3 servings of cold dipping soup:

• 200ml of the dashi base

• 2 tbsp of mirin

• 3 tbsp of brown sugar

• 6 tbsp of koikuchi soy sauce (Japanese regular soy sauce)

Optional toppings:

• Grated ginger

• Grated daikon radish

• Sliced green onions

• Shichimi-togarashi

• Soft boiled egg

Instructions

Order of operations for efficiency

If you’re making this in one day:

1. Start kneading the noodles

2. While they rest, you can make the soup base and prepare toppings.

3. Finish the noodles and serve with soup.

Udon noodles

1. Mix salt into the water and mix thoroughly to dissolve.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add your flour.

3. Drizzle 1/3 of the salt water into the flour. Using both hands, mix the flour with your fingers first. Then grabbing handfuls of flour and rub between both hands to create small grains of hydrated dough. Repeat until 10-15 times, you’ll see rice sized grains of dough.

4. Drizzle another 1/3 of the salt water. Repeat the above. This time the grains of hydrated flour will get bigger and ensure you try to collect any loose flour.

5. Add the last 1/3 of the salt water. And start kneading the dough to collect all the loose grains of dough and flour. Once it’s in a shaggy dough, place it in the middle of one plastic bag and then double bag it with the second plastic bag. This allows the inside bag to slide and reduces chances of tearing when we knead it in the next step.

6. Place it on the floor and step on the wrapped dough ball with your feet. When stepping on the dough, slowly put your weight on it. 20 steps or so should get you a nice flat piece of dough.

7. Open the bags while the dough is inside the bag, fold it in half twice. Recenter the dough in the bag and place it on the ground for another round of kneading.

8. Repeat steps 6-7 at least 5 times. The more you knead, the more gluten you develop leading to a more chewy noodle.

9. Remove the dough from the inner bag and try to make it into a dough ball. Place it back into the plastic bag and allow it to rest for at least 1 hour up to 4 hours.

10. Take the dough out of the bag and place on a surface dusted lightly with corn/potato starch. Dust your rolling pin and the dough as well and begin rolling out the dough. Aim to roll it out into a square by performing a few rolls and rotating the dough 90 degrees. Add corn starch as needed to reduce sticking and roll until the desired thickness of 3-5mm.

11. Dust the top and bottom of the dough with a generous amount of corn/potato starch before accordion folding the dough into three segments.

12. Take a knife and cut your udon 3-5mm in thickness. Dust the cut noodles with more starch and bundle and cover before boiling.

13. Bring a pot with plenty of water to the boil. Shake any excess starch from the noodles and boil them for 15-18 minutes (depending on the thickness of your noodles).

14. At 13-14 minutes, take a test bite of a noodle. You will notice it is salty and firm. Once you are in the 15-18 minute cook time, taste it again and if the noodle is not salty anymore they are done cooking.

15. Pour out the pot of noodles to drain in sieve. Rinse and wash the noodles under running cold water to remove the outer layer of slime formed by the starch and flour.

16. Set aside to eat with either hot or cold soup.

Dashi soup base

1. In a large pot, add water and konbu and allow the konbu to rehydrate for 10 minutes.

2. Turn on the heat and bring it up to a simmer. Avoid a strong boil as the konbu will release a slime that is a bit bitter into the soup base.

3. Once the soup reaches a simmer, take out the konbu and discard.

4. Add your dried sardine and boil bring it to a boil for 5 minutes.

5. Turn off the heat, add bonito flake and allow the soup to steep for 5 minutes.

6. Filter the soup with a sieve.

Hot Kake Udon Soup

Take 1L of the dashi soup base and add mirin, brown sugar, Japanese light soy sauce and salt.

1. Bring to the boil and mix to dissolve the brown sugar and salt.

2. Add your udon noodles into a bowl and pour over hot soup.

3. Top with green onion, grated ginger and any other toppings of your choice.

Cold Dipping Udon

For 3-4 servings

1. Take 200ml of dashi soup base into a small pot. Add mirin, brown sugar and Japanese regular soy sauce.

2. Bring it to the boil for about 3 minutes and dissolve the sugar then set aside to cool.

3. Pour the dipping sauce into small bowls. Chill the cooked udon noodles in ice water briefly then drain and plate with some ice cubes. Optionally add grated daikon and/or ginger and sliced green onion to the dipping sauce.

Notes

How we got here

The year is 2018 and I’m in Osaka with friends. My friends and booked an Airbnb experience with a local to learn how to make udon.

Udon is simple, only three ingredients. I had never really imagined to make my own noodles at this point in my life and I remember waking up that cold winter morning with no expectations. I was just excited to do some cooking.

A few stops down the trainline and a short stroll from the station we arrived at the address. The host came and out and ushered us in, her name was Tomoko-san.

The house was narrow but deep, similar to the houses in Surry Hills in Sydney. Felt like there were so many corridors along the narrow hallway. Eventually we arrived into a big room with tables set neatly with bowls, rolling pins, ingredients and a big pot. Of course some warm tea in true Japanese hospitality

More importantly an A4 print out of the recipe and today’s lesson. The formatting was so incredibly Japanese and even till this day, looking back at the PDF, it feels so out of the English speaking world I grew up in.

What’s also cool about udon is that it’s seasonal, that is, depending on the weather the recipe changes (not that it’s only available some parts of the year, that would be so sad). Tomoko-san explained that the level of warmth and humidity does call for slight adjustments in salt and water in the recipe.

Seasons all around the world are different and so here’s the main rule of thumb.

• During low humidity seasons, you’ll need to increase the amount of water and conversely in high humidity seasons you’ll need to decrease the amount of water, roughly by 2-3 ml of water (yes it’s not much but it makes a difference). This is to account for evaporation of moisture from the dough.

• During warmer seasons dough is also softer. For this you’ll need to increase the salt content by one gram. Otherwise, all other seasons you’re all good to stick to the base amount.

For example, in Japanese winter, it’s cold and dry so we only need to increase the water.

After stomping on some noodles and letting it rest, we made the dashi in the big pot together and she taught us how to make tsukudani from the used dried fish.

Then at last we cut the noodles, boiled them all together and ate them both hot and cold dipping style.

Up until this point in my life, I was a fan of udon. I’d be happy to eat it any time, but if you were to ask me if it was my favourite Japanese noodle dish I would have said no.

This was a life changing experience.

Looking back on these photos, I could remember how I was so enchanted by the pearly shine of these noodles. Tomoko-san did mention we were using some special Udon flour, Sanuki 2009. And I can appreciate that even more now as I just can’t get that same brightness and shine from flours here in Australia.

The first bite of the cold udon, the firm and bouncy texture was something I had never known before. Of course, in Australia we’d have mass produced pre-made udon in shops that could never really achieve this texture.

And the second round with hot soup on that cold day set it in stone. Udon was now my favourite Japanese noodle dish.

Now although this post does share a recipe, I have greater hopes.

In 2023, Tomoko-san passed away from sickness. She couldn’t have been older than 70. I admit, there are plenty of udon recipes out there that I’ve tried since and some are better than this. But that’s not the point. I wanted to write this post and this recipe to give shape to the memories of this day and as a tribute to this beautiful person, to the first recipe that taught me so much and shaped my world.

Tomoko-san, thank you for sharing such a wonderful experience. It’s amazing to think that if it wasn’t for this day and your teachings I would quite literally have been a different person.

I’ll attach the original PDF, it’s a wonderful relic from this experience and I hope you all have fun with this recipe as I did with my friends. It’s a great thing to make with loved ones.

I’m sure it’s what Tomoko-san would have wanted.

Sanuki Udon Making

1.23MB ∙ PDF file

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This week I was lucky enough to find some Japanese sweet potatoes at my local supermarket and decided to test out a recipe from Kurashiru, a Japanese cooking channel.

It came out so delicious that I felt I needed to share this with you and I hope you all have a go at making it yourself.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes (these were approximately 200g each)

• Neutral oil for frying

• 50 grams of white sugar

• 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce

• 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil

• 30ml of water

• 10g black sesame

Method

1. Wash your sweet potatoes under water and gently scrub to remove any dirt. Dry with some paper towel

2. Slice each potato in half length wise then each half into blocks (approx. 4cm wide) by alternating diagonal slices. Place into a pan with enough height to fry. Tip - placing each piece skin side down ensures nothing gets stuck on the bottom of the pan and gets an even fry.

3. Fill the pan with enough oil to cover the chopped sweet potato.

4. Place on a stove with medium heat for a gentle slow fry for 10-15 minutes. Your visual cue is when the bubbles from frying have reduced and the sweet potato is taking on some light browning on the cut faces.

5. Once fried, remove from the oil and allow to drain.

6. Prepare a plate lined with baking paper - this is your final landing zone.

7. In another pan, add sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and water. Mix well and place onto the stove on a medium heat.

8. Once small bubbles start to form, swirl the pan/mix with a spatula to dissolve the sugar. Every 20 seconds or so, swirl the pan to ensure that heat is evenly distributed throughout the caramel.

9. Once the bubbles in the caramel are large and scraping through the bottom of the pan with a spatula leaves a clear trace, turn off the heat, add your fried sweet potato and black sesame.

10. Stir and turn the sweet potato to coat with the caramel evenly. Once evenly coated. Pour out onto the baking paper lined plate and try your best to keep the pieces a little separated and allow to cool. The caramel thickens and slightly hardens so you don’t leave it in a big clump.

11. Enjoy!

How we got here

Sweet potato is the quintessential autumn seasonal food in Japan and mostly used for desserts and sweets. Among the sweets you’ll find daigaku-imo which translates to… University potato. I’m not sure of the origin story of this but fried sweet potato glazed in caramel definitely sounds like something you can enjoy carefree during your university days.

If you make this you’ll get a sweet and wonderful aroma through your home as they fry slowly. Starting from a cold pan with cold oil is quite relaxing with the slow controlled rise of heat. But starting from cold has some really great benefits especially for sweet potatoes.

Inside the potato there is an enzyme named beta-amylase. Like all enzymes there is a temperature range that the enzyme is most active (how many of you paid attention in high school science class huh?) and that temperature here is around 75 degrees. When beta-amylase is active, it starts to convert the complex starch into simple sugars. In other words, we are naturally sweetening our potatoes. So starting from a cold pan allows the potato to stay in that temperature range much longer than had we dropped them straight into hot oil.

Now Kurashiru’s recipe is slightly different from most daigaku-Imo recipes because of the “secret ingredient” which is sesame oil. It was because of this ingredient that I decided to try this recipe out of the cornucopia of recipes.

I really didn’t know what I was expecting but the first bite hit me right away.

This caramel tastes just like a Werther’s Original Butterscotch candy and it’s absolutely brilliant. This is autumn in a bite.

A little vanilla ice cream, daigaku-imo, happy days.