ETXEBARRI - A WONDERFUL PLACE

the most photographed restaurant entrance in the world?

the view from where we sat, great weather for just sitting and eating

smoked butter - fantastic!

turtledove, beetroots, girolles + silverbeet

the chuleta - tasty and extremely tender

apple tart + smoked milk ice cream - another please?

another day, another meal or perhaps not?

this was another place we'd heard so much about, had booked before we left australia, this meal has us brimming with excitement and anticipation. the mystique surrounding etxebarri is one of foraging, self sufficiency and nature. a restaurant that cooks solely from heat derived from wood and charcoal, gathers vegetables and fruits and serves only what is best that day or season is something all lovers of food wish they could experience at some point in their pursuit of all things gustatory. in some ways the story sounds too good to be true,but in reality etxebarri delivers in the one way that so many other places of repute fail, you eat food that tastes so clean, so pure that you don't need any tricks, wizzbang machinery or "inverted commas" to complement whats on the plate. the ingredients really do speak for themselves, an aid to our ability to appreciate this was the culmination of a year of eating from other peoples gardens, picking and gathering food to be consumed at it's peak in flavour and texture. which sadly was never a feature of our life in sydney.
etxebarri does this with brilliant execution, it's easy to see why people may feel that it's a case of emperors new clothes, some plates arrive with nothing more than a grilled prawn or a ball of smoked butter, but it takes restraint and confidence in your produce and it's ability to captivate the diner. equally the textures derived are amazing, many restaurants we've eaten in aim for the texture and mouthfeel of the many dishes we ate and they employ modern techniques including sous vide, LTLT (long time, low temp) to do so, but the kitchen at etxebarri is producing these sublime results from charcoal grills and wood fired ovens, which is a testament to great cooking skill.

what we had:

1. housemade chorizo
2.smoked butter
3.seared tuna belly + heirloom tomato
4.grilled gamba (prawn) extremely flavoursome!
5.cigala (langoustine)
6.grilled oysters + seaweed
7.mussels in carrot juice
8.smoked beans with jamon
9.baby squid with caramalized onion
10.turtledove, silverbeet, beetroot + girolles
11. chuleta + salad
12.apple tart + smoked milk ice cream


to sum it up we had a brilliant meal, contrasts in flavours, textures and local ingredients cooked simply but with care and passion. it lasted quite a few hours and when you look out the window, you wonder if you want to leave? the only negative point and it was the case with every table, the service leaves alot to be desired.
you don't need to be pampered nor do you want to be,but you'd hope that the floor staff would share the enthusiasm that the diner conveys with a 12 course meal, it's a long time to be seated eating and long time to look at drab faces projecting the impression that they'd rather be some where else.

to finish we had a lovely drive through the basque countryside, winding roads and a continuously recalculating GPS!

MUGARITZ - intentional porkfest

caolin potatoes + alioli

marinated + pressed cucumber, tomato essense

crab + walnuts in a clear citrus consomme

buttery idiaziabal gnocci + iberian pork consomme

sardine broth, langoustine tail + amaranth

roasted iberian pork, quinoa + fermented leaves

iberian pork tails, langoustines + braising juices

select euskal herria cheeses + pairings

caramelized french toast + fig leaf ice cream

frozen white chocolate sphere, nut brittle........

distilled cocoa

logo on wooden tray

petit four tray

hazelnut dragees

should we? shouldn't we? indecisive, definitely indecisive about this place. why? well we'd heard so much about mugaritz in the last 3 years, all of it good,but recently i'd read some bits that planted the seeds of doubt in my mind. couple that with our average meal at the royal mail, run by the former chef de cuisine at mugaritz and we weren't getting our hopes up. a recent conversation with a equally mad lover of all things foody and winey,said "well if you're in the neighbourhood?" mugaritz isn’t the kind of restaurant you just drop into or is it? It shouldn’t be, but that’s exactly what they encourage if not fully booked, so we made a 1.30 booking at 11.00am.

I won’t go into too much detail, nor do I have to. The meal was faultless, simple and thoroughly delicious. Entwined with charming,
Friendly and professional service we enjoyed a 5 hr lunch that we satisfied you all on levels and the best part……it was real food!

So if you're in the neighbourhood, drop in, have a bite or two and take in the beauty and tranquility that is mugaritz and the basque
Country.

HAVE WHEELS, WILL TRAVEL

our trusty vehicle with me and the GPS, god bless navsat sally!

The night train from barcelona is good thing and a not so good thing to do. it leaves at 10.00pm from sants - barcelona and arrives in san sebastian at 7.43am. good - you travel at night, you don't lose any day time and you can sleep. well you would think so since we booked beds in the sleeping car. bad - spanish trains are crap. bad - you share a room the size of a meat safe with 5 other people, how many bunks can you fit on top of each other? as many as possible. why not? so it was my brilliant idea to catch this train and arrive with an hour to spare before we picked up the car.
i had forgotten however that in europe they drive on the otherside of the road, drive quite fast and are not accommodating towards nervous or conscientous drivers, so to say i was tired, worried and anxious would be put mildly. what was i worried about? the trip went extremely well, the only hitch being our GPS having a bout of tourettes, recalculating and more recalculating, we'd soon discovered she was set for pedestrian mode! it seemed impossible that a 13km journey could take 3.5 hrs, but if we'd been walking it would have been more!

so here's san sebastian and the place that wills you to eat, eat,eat

CAVA-ING IT UP IN BARCELONA

a paella pan for when a few friends drop in!

can paxiano - cava bar

these guys do fantastic pulpo (octopus), but not much else!

jamon label and wrapping

iberico sobredsada - sensational!

tortita de barros - washed rind sheep milk cheese made with dandelion rennet

a selection of wild mushrooms we fried up for dinner!

foie gras montadito from bar mut - i could eat a dozen no sweat!

a ham tester made from horse bone (i've been eyeing one for a while now)

presa iberico ( cured neck)

iberico chorizo - easily the best we've tasted

jamon de andalucia - words escape me!

our passionate, friendly slicer at jamonisimo

jamon de salamanca - once again.........

Well we’ve been enjoying the Spanish lifestyle – sleeping in, eating, drinking and staying out late. Oh yeah, and having the afternoon siesta as well. We’ve found the food so far in Spain to be very enjoyable, but we’ll just recount a few of our favourite experiences.

Comerc 24
We walked in to Comerc 24 at about 1.25pm to see if they had any space for lunch. We were told “yes”, but they did not open until 1.30pm. (So we walked around the block until they were opened!). It pretty much sums up Comerc 24 – precision and professionalism. Everything is done by the rules. We had an enjoyable experience here – the staff were so professional, if not a little stiff (all spoke perfect English, mind you). We had a great wine suggestion from the sommelier. We had a local chenin blanc from a biodynamic wine producer, El Bassots. It was smokey and rubbery on the nose, with a beautiful tang of citrus on the palate.

When you sit down they give you some bread (delicious) with a box of four different olive oils, all local, to try with the bread. A nice touch, we thought. We had a tasting menu of about 7 courses, including “snacks” and dessert. The highlights from the menu were:
* Tuna tartar with egg yolk vinaigrette
* Squid ravioli with ceps, pinenuts and emulsion (the intensity and lingering flavour of the ceps was amazing)
* Black rice with squid (subtle “sea-salty’ flavour and beautiful, fine, tender squid)
* Oxtail with truffle and cauliflower puree (this was an intense flavoured dish, but perfectly balanced)

It was the height of professionalism in Comerc 24 (apart from the hissy fit Luke saw one of the waiters throwing because the food runner – who looked extremely stressed – kept stuffing up). Although the food was enjoyable, it was not particularly regional as we felt we could have been sitting anywhere in the world eating this food. However, it is good to see how the high end restaurants operate in different parts of the world. We've decided after this meal and looking online that we'll give the modern restaurants a miss on the trip, although mostly well regarded, you really could be anywhere when eating the food that's served. also quite a few places that are highly spoken of have changed (pricing and experience). a few locals who we've spoken to have said that because of the reputation of spanish chefs in the last 5 years the prices are now sky high in relation to what you get. we'll just try our luck i guess!

Jamonisimo
There are many shops in Barcelona selling jamon, however, this shop is the crème de la crème. The amount of jamon displayed is minimal, but the quality is exemplary. All the jamon must be Bellota (the pigs finish their feeding regime on acorns) and tiered by quality within the Dehesa (this is the area where the pigs finish their feeding regime). We decided to sample two different areas of production – Salamanca and Andalucia. It’s amazing the difference these hams displayed - this is a truly regional product. We also decided that we should try the other cured goods produced form Iberian pigs, and they were also fantastic. These products really are in a class of their own.

Inopia
This place was so fun! The Spanish really know how to do it. This tapas bar is owned by Ferran Adria’s (from El Bulli) brother. It has a really cool fit out, and is basically all seating around the counter surrounding the kitchen and bar, with a few other stools around the back and side walls. The walls are lined with white tiles that have been written all over with customer praise. The staff are cool. They are just there having fun, mucking around when there is not much to do, but when it kicks off, everyone assumes their position and it just works. We got there at 7pm, and really nothing happens in Barcelona until about 8.30pm. The food is traditional, and done well. We ate so much – croquetas, olives stuffed with anchovies, bombas, boquerones, eggplant with sugar cane honey, fried lemon anchovies, mojama with salted almonds, and for dessert flan and chocolate ice cream. And of course, what else to drink at a tapas bar, but sherry. We downed our fair share of manzanilla and amontillado, which made for a very enjoyable night. It would be so fun to have places like this in Australia. We need to have a more relaxed dining culture for places like this to take off.

Breakfast at Tapas 24
We only write of this place, which serves traditional tapas, because we had a great breakfast there. We had chopped fried egg, chips and chorizo, which was good, but the thing that really got us going was the rabo de toro (slow cooked ox tail). It was delicious – unctuous, sweet, spicy, and the meat so tender. Not what you would normally think about having for breakfast, but it was well worth it.

Cheap and cheerful
Can Paixano, which we call the cava bar is a tiny place serving cava (Spanish sparkling) and bocadillos (Spanish rolls). The place is packed – we went twice, at different times of the day and it was packed both times. There is standing area only surrounding the area where they cook (you couldn’t really call it a kitchen) and serve. You wait patiently to get served, and that doesn’t work, so you have to flap around and make a bit of noise to be noticed. Your order your bottle of (cheap) cava and a roll with pork and cheese and one with chorizo, or one with anchovies. You stand back from the crowds and wait for your food, and no matter where you stray to, the guy who served you, even if he served 10 people in between will find you to pass you your bocadillos! It is amazing. And then when you pay at the end they manage to know what you had, even if you pay with a different person to who you ordered with! I would love to know the system of identification that they use. So that place is a bit of fun – a bottle of cava and 2 bocadillos and it costs less than 8 euros.

Another funny little place we went to for a cheap quick meal is Bar Celta. It is famous for its octopus (which is very good), and other than that you get a variety of traditional tapas items. You sit at a bar and they guy behind there, who is working at a manic place, takes you order (and a few others along the way) a dish at a time. You’re amazed when you actually end up with the correct food and drinks. There were three staff working there, but really only this one guy doing anything, and surely he must have been on speed or something to keep the pace up.

Finally, the markets. You can get some amazingly fresh produce, and stuff that we cannot get in Australia. There are fruit and vegetable stalls, cheese shops, shops specialising in poultry or offal or cured goods, and seafood stalls. We bought a few simple ingredients to have for dinner – some cheese (Tortita de Barros – an amazing raw sheeps milk cheese that you scoop out of the rind), some beans and some wild mushrooms. We topped this off with some cured goods (we can’t get enough of them) from another nearby shop. And we found the most amazing wine shop, called Vila Vinoteca. There were some amazing wines here, stuff that we would never have the privilege of seeing in Australia from all over the world. There were also some amazing sherries from 1965 and some Armagnac from 1922. It was pretty incredible. So we bought a bottle of wine to have with our market dinner.

HOLA BARCELONA

Boy, were we glad to finally arrive in Barcelona. We almost missed our flight after a 1 hour 45 minute shuttle bus ride to Stansted airport from Kings Cross (where the driver decided that he had enough time to stop off to get petrol and have a toilet break), and the 30 minute wait to get through the baggage x-rays once at the airport. We ended up running for our flight (which was a fun experience carrying all of Luke’s photographic equipment), we made it to the gate as the last passengers were boarding the plane. Our arrival was made even sweeter when we finally got to our lovely apartment in the middle of the gothic quarter. What a wonderful change from the dump we stayed in London!

We love Barcelona – the city is so alive, it sleeps in and stays up late and the food is fantastic!

A BRIEF ENCOUNTER

Thankfully our time in London was brief. Although we had some enjoyable moments, we feel there is really not that much to like about London.

After travelling for 18 hours we arrived in London and checked into our expensive hovel. After the limited and inedible offerings on our British Airways flight (thank goodness for the movies as a distraction) we arrived exceptionally hungry, jet lagged and surrounded by pommies. We decided the appropriate remedy was a trip to St John Bread and Wine for simple British fare and something that would give us some lining for a good night’s sleep. We walked into a bright white room, which was buzzing (on a Tuesday night), and which felt like a school mess hall (but in a good way). We were seated promptly and ordered with much haste. We ate the following, and it was all delicious.
* Smoked eel with horseradish cream
* Marrow soup with back fat
* Potted hare with pickled cucumber and onion
* Artichoke heart salad with boiled egg
* Spring lamb with lentils
* Lemon and raspberry posset for dessert

I think we broke records with how quickly we ate – the maitre d’ who cleared our plates even commented on how fast we finished everything.

The following night we went to the flagship St John Bar and Restaurant. This was the original, and we were hoping the best (or at least as good as the night before). We were however bitterly disappointed. With a cold welcome from the maitre d’ we were dumped at our table and left. We were eventually approached by our waitress who showed little interest in our dining experience. She struggled to describe dishes we asked about, and decided at the last minute she might vaguely tell us about some of the specials as she leaned on our table and squinted at the whiteboard on the open kitchen.

The menu being simple, sounded lovely, but when it is simple the produce has to be exemplary. We ordered 6 dishes (including dessert) and only 2 were excellent, the others are really not worth mentioning. Our favourite dish was the bone marrow with parsley salad, which was delicious and everything you could hope the dish to be – you can understand why it’s a classic after having had it. The other dish we enjoyed was the chocolate fondant with whiskey ice cream, which was the epitome of decadence, balance and richness. During our meal the waitress was more interested in polishing cutlery than topping up our wine or seeing how we were enjoying ourselves. At the end when we did not tip (yes, very unusual for us, you have to do something very wrong for that to happen), the waitress asked if everything was ok – yeah it was ok, but it should be more than ok. So as the restaurant is still full and food is still coming out of the kitchen at 10pm, the chefs thought it was timely to start drinking beer….at the pass where the whole restaurant could see. Not a good look.

It seems that St John Bar and Restaurant is riding on its reputation from years passed and that the people working there are not there because they are passionate, but because they want to work for a name. It was an unfortunate disappointment for us, but it just makes the good ones seem even better.

On our final day in London we had lunch at Moro, Sam and Sam Clark’s restaurant. We often cook from the Moro cookbooks and love their food. And sitting in the restaurant eating was like eating the pictures in the book. It was a very yummy lunch and a good place for us to catch up with an old friend of Luke’s. Of particular note were the pinto beans with mojama (air dried loin of tuna) and mint, and the setas a la plancha (fried mushrooms) including griolles and ceps.

WHY WE LOVE JAPAN

t-shirts that mean nothing. harmless, jumbled english words.......or so we thought?!

mos burger motto: hamburger is my life

cute and beautiful plates,cups, chopsticks. almost everything. including this sake vessel

fresh, simple and delicious food!

small restaurants with counters, including this 6 seater!

nice fast food! yep we love a good burger!

The food: what more can we say, you’ve read about where we’ve eaten. There is a fantastic array of food available, and it does not all have to be expensive. It’s great going to one of the little standing noodle bars and having cold soba noodles for breakfast for about $4.00.

The service: second to none. You get the same level of service in a seven eleven convenience store, as in a department store, as in a kaiseki restaurant. It is a real delight to have nice friendly service everywhere you go, although sometimes it is hard to know when to end the goodbyes and thank yous.
The efficiency: there are so many people in this city, but the trains always run on time (during peak hour there are 25 trains per hour….on each subway line) and you will always get on a train without a problem.

The cleanliness: there are so many vending machines and no rubbish bins, but there is literally no rubbish on the streets. Tokyo is amazingly clean.

Coffee BOSS: an addiction of Luke’s - cold coffee in a can from a vending machine.

MOS Burger: a Japanese burger joint, where their motto is “hamburger is my life”. And we’re sure the chant this every morning before they start work. The service is so polite, and they hand deliver to your table your cooked to order burger.

All these qualities are fantastic to experience if you are visiting to Japan, but the size and sprawl of Tokyo feels like you spend most of your time getting somewhere or moving from place to place, either in a subway or bus or walking endlessly – something which I think we couldn’t sustain for a long time.

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET

tuna auctions

250kg yellow fin tuna!

With all this talk about dwindling fish supplies and oceans trawled to within an inch of their life, nowhere else in the world will give you the impression that this is true or even possible than the Tsukiji fish markets. The volume of seafood that moves through this rabbit warren of wholesalers, vendors, retailers and go-betweens is staggering and if you don’t move fast enough….deadly. It’s a lesson in how to respect your product and use everything. For us the most captivating part of this whole operation is the tuna – how it’s sold, prepared for sale and the variation. Watching a fish monger fillet a 200 kilo yellow fin tuna with a 3-foot hand crafted blade is something to behold and brings a new level of respect to this noble fish. Everything you can imagine that would ever live below sea level is for sale at tis market and most of it is live, or only just. If you’re passionate about food and its provenance then this place is worth a trip to Japan alone. Mind you, seeing the vast quantities of sea borne creatures sprawled out in front of you, row after row, makes you wonder how long this can go on for.

THE ART OF FRYING

asparagus

ebi - prawn (tokyo bay)

lotusroot

grandmaster flash (fryer!)

Well only the Japanese could make frying an art form. We’re talking about tempura here a restaurant that does only tempura. Kondo is located on the 9th floor of a building in Ginza (many good restaurants in Tokyo are not located on street level, tucked away in tall buildings). We managed to find this restaurant despite the difficulties we have with the Japanese addresses (or lack there of). The restaurant is very small – a counter surrounding the “kitchen” with only 15 seats. The menu is set, and what is served depends upon what the chef can get his hands on. And he is very specific. He hand picks vegetables from small growers in the specific areas they are grown, and his seafood is all hand selected from what is caught in Tokyo Bay only on specific days. And you can taste the difference. Everything is hand prepared in front of you. We sat down and the chefs we peeling prawns that were still moving. All the fish is filleted to order, and all the vegetables are cut and prepared to order. Each item for frying is treated differently – the batter is done differently, the temperature of the woks is monitored and adjusted, and the oil is changed if deemed necessary. The oil by the way is the chef’s own special blend.

Each course is simple – just one item showcased in its perfect batter. The chefs are very focused, the room is very quiet, and then there is the dramatic splash into the oil as 30 prawns go in one after the other. Each piece is served by the chef with chopsticks onto your plate. One by one we ate the following: prawn heads; prawn bodies; an asparagus spear; a green pepper; kisu (?), a white fish; lotus root; eggplant; meigochi (?), a white fish; an onion; sea eel. You could taste the freshness of the produce, and the batters were just amazing – merely a casing for each vegetable or piece of fish.

Kondo really was an experience, and we never thought that we could get so excited about tempura. But we did.

IRON CHEF JAPAN!

Our first night back in Tokyo we went to Nihombashi Yukari, which is a kaiseki restaurant in a tiny lane way near Tokyo station. It is run by Kimio, who was the 2002 Iron Chef Japan Champion! Once again we received a very warm welcome and were taken straight to our seats (we were the only westerners). The service, as is the Japanese way, was impeccable and they really go out of their way to make you feel special. Kimio even gave us his camera to borrow to photograph the dishes as ours had run out of battery. We settled in with a bottle of Yukari sake to accompany our meal. We had 9 courses, and we won’t bore you with all the details, but the standout ones were:
* Salmon roe with sushi rice and fresh wasabi
* Sashimi of toro, sea bream and squid
* Grilled barracuda in miso with salted chestnut and young ginger
* Rice with shortneck clam and thick dashi broth served with miso soup and tsukemono
* Soy flour ice cream with black beans and black soy bean syrup (one of the most delicious caramels we have tasted!)

We really enjoy kaiseki cuisine. It is not just about different flavours, but textures of food and quality of ingredients also play a huge part in it. It is not for everyone as there are so many different flavours going on through the meal, but we loved it.

BEER TASTES BETTER IN JAPAN

barracuda sushi, grilled chestnut, jade ginko nuts

a few dishes from kikunoi

sea urchin rice, lillyroot soup, tsukemono

grilled sea bass + pounded tade leaf

tilefish, dashi, shitake + chrysanthnium petals

and a few more from the other parts of kyoto!

?????

we love tofu and doughnuts, but that's ridiculous

adam and megan, this is how i get my coffee fix now - from a can from a vending machine!

the rule "if you wanna read it, buy it", does not apply in japan

sashimi at 'dan' in kyoto - $12!

yuba, shiso flowers and benitade at 'kirinya'. delicious!

cod roe chazuke (rice with tea and dashi broth) at 'kirinya'

local kyoto eggplan with miso at 'kirinya'

a five layered japanese omelette (tamago) at 'dan'

tsukemono (japanese pickles) at nishiki market

grade 9 wagyu beef

at kiyomizudera, a temple in kyoto

kiyomizudera

As we sit here drinking cans of asahi beer from the vending machine in the lobby of our hotel, we thought it timely to fill you in on our eating, and other experiences in Kyoto.

We caught the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Tokyo to Kyoto on 31st August. Our first night in Kyoto we wandered down to the Gion area, which is a little touristy in some spots, but there are so many cute little back streets there as well. We stumbled upon a little hole in the wall restaurant called ‘Kirinya’.

Kirinya
We sat at the counter around the kitchen and asked to be served some specialities of Kyoto. The first thing we ate was called yuba, which is made from scraping the top of the curds in the tofu making process. It was served cold with some ponzu dipping sauce, shiso flowers and benitade (tiny red cress). It is really yummy and quite refreshing. It has the texture of silken tofu mixed with the texture of mozzarella. Another speciality we were served was Kyoto eggplant (cute little round eggplants), simply cooked with red and white miso, which is such a harmonious match. The other interesting dish we had was cod roe chazuke. This is rice served in a green tea and dashi broth with some brined cod doe on top. The cod roe was so creamy and rich, and the rice in the broth delicious.

We asked our waiter of a recommendation of where we should eat the next night and he showed us how to get to a restaurant called ‘dan’ (we think). So we went there the next night, and luckily managed to find it. We say luckily because bulidings/houses/shops etc in Japan don’t really have addresses. There are no street numbers, so from our understanding the address generally consists of a street name, area name, greater area name and city. So it can be a little confuisng finding places, and Japanese people will always show you a map rather than giving you and address for a place. Anyway, on this occasion we managed to find the restaurant with out any problem.

Dan
We walked into the restaurant, where in true Japanese style you take your shoes off at the entrance (luckily Luke’s feet didn’t smell too bad tonight). We sat at the counter, on the floor facing the kitchen (which was slightly lower than the floor we were siting on) where we could see all the action. We managed with Kat’s small amount of Japanese (the menu was all in Japanese and nobody there spoke any English) to order a great meal. The food here, like everywhere we have enjoyed so far, was understated and so tasty.

The highlights of our meal here were firstly the grade 10 wagyu beef. A small portion, cooked to perfection served with ponzu sauce mixed with raw egg yolk (eat your heart out Hobart City Council!). It was amazing. The beef literally melted in our mouth and the egg and ponzu dipping sauce was perfect with it. The other extremely simple plate that we had was a 5-layered Japanese omelette. In Japan they have special rectangular tamago pans for making these omelettes. They cook one layer at a time, flip it over with chopsticks to one end of the pan, add some more egg, and continue to do this 4-5 times. Now an omelette may not sound very exciting, and may also not sound like something that you would eat for dinner, but this was so light and delicious, we could eat it any time of the day. It was served with some pickled ginger and daikon. We also ate yuba agedashi (deep fried yuba with ponzu and bonito flakes), sashimi, and vegetable tempura (which included things such as shiso leaf, burdock root and fig).

The thing we love about Japanese cuisine is its simplicity, the small portions and the amount of flavour that you get in each dish. And although many people had told us that it is expensive to eat in Japan, we have not found that to be the case so far. You can grab a bowl of ramen for $6 and it is sooooo tasty. We had a huge bowl of ramen the other night at this little place that had about 15 seats and had 2 people cooking (well one person cooking the noodles and one person ladelling broth into the bowls) and one person serving. The noodles were cooked to perfection, still had a nice bite to them and the broth was thick, but thin at the same time, add a little chilli oil and you have the perfect meal for $6. And other meals we have had maybe 7 or 9 dishes (using high quality ingredients), beer and sake and they have cost us about $45 each.

Our next meal of note was at Kikunoi, which is a high end Kaiseki restaurant. Kaiseki is refined, heartful Japanese cuisine. It is very structured in presentation and technique and is a concept of cuisine originally inspired by the Japanese Tea Ceremony. This was a truly amazing experience.

Kikunoi
When you walk into this restaurant the thing that strikes you is the importance of aesthetic in Japanese culture. We were greeted by the head chef as we walked into the restaurant (as we had rounded the corner where the restuarant is we saw him waiting on the street looking for us, and quickly duck back into the restaurant when he saw us coming. How did he know it was us? – we were the only westerners.) and ushered into a small room with two small tatami alcoves which could seat 4 people each and a counter along the length of the kitchen with 13 seats. It was very minimalist and very Japanese – lots of wood and clean lines.

As soon as we sat, everyone started preparing our food (we had preselected a menu when we booked). We were served some sake from the most amazing copper sake flask - a special sake made for the restaurant. It was so smooth and delicious. All the people working at Kikunoi are chefs - there are no wait staff. So the chefs cook for and serve you. There were 13 chefs working there, some who cook and serve out the front, some who just cook out in the back kitchen. You could see there was a real hierarchy and that everyone took their job and training very seriously. We were served 10 courses, and yes, we’re going to give you a blow-by-blow account.

Walnut tofu (kurumi-dofu), served with a jellified dashi and fresh grapes.

A variation of “October Hassun”, including baracuda sushi, jade ginko nuts, salted ayu entrails with trout roe and grilled chestnut.

Sashimi of red sea bream, and eel with tomato jelly, served with wasabi, chrysanthemum flowers and wasabi.

Hamo (conger eel), blanched and served with plum sauce with daikon.

Harvest soup (honen-wan) with egg custard, hamo in toasted rice, shimeji musrhoom.

Grilled sea bass with daikon and tade leaf.

Soup of tile fish, tofu, eggplant and shiitake mushroom with plum dipping sauce.

Sea urchin rice with nori, tsukemono (japanese pickles) and lilly root soup.

For dessert we had the most amazing custard (like a crème caramel) with chestnut ice cream. It was faultless, and Luke got so excited about it he forgot to take a photo.

On our final day we had lunch and dinner in two of the smallest restaurants we have ever eatin in. For lunch we ate in a little 6-seat hole in the wall in a tiny lane in the middle of Kyoto. We have no idea what the restaurant is called. But there is just one guy working there and he serves one thing, and it was just fantastic. It may sound simple, but it was all perfect. We got kyobancha (Kyoto tea) as we sat down. Then we were served bitter melon with shaved bonito, tsukemono, yuba with ponzu and tsudachi (like a lime). We were then served the most perfectly grilled piece of mackerel with rice and miso soup. Simple as it was it is up there as one of our favourite food experiences.

For dinner we went to another tiny place which we had stumble upon the night before, but they were full (no surprise as there are only 7 seats!) The restaurant is run by two ladies at the back of a tabacco store. But the little restaurant is so cute. All there is is one long bench – on one side is where we sit, and on the other side is where the ladies prepare everything. There is literally only enough room on the cooking side for 2 very small women to squeeze past each other. We were served 8 small courses (and they just serve that one menu, which would change seasonally, as all the food in restaurants in Japan seems to be very seasonal) sake and tea. All the food was really simple and enjoyable, and the atmosphere was lovely too.

The two ladies did not speak English, but luckily the guy who ran the tobacco store (maybe a husband or family member) could speak a little. It is amazing how much body language and hand gestures can explain too. The ladies thought it was kind of cute and funny that we wanted to eat at their restaurant, but they were also very interested to know what we thought of the food too. And very happy and surprised when we told them that it was fantastic. The also looked very surprised after the first few courses when we had eaten everything on our plate. It was all a very cute experience, and the little guy who ran the tobacco store kept running in to see that everything was okay and kept looking things up in his dictionary so he could talk to us. They had these cute little paper placemat that Luke was particularly fond of, and he had done an amazing job of keeping it clean so he could take it home. When one of the ladies saw that we wanted to take it, she ran off to get a clean one, and then came back with this stack of paper, as they use a different placemat for each month and also for the major festive times of the year. So we ended up walking away with about 15 placemats – very cute.

But that’s one thing we have noticed in Japan that the service is just incredible. Have you ever had an enthusiastic 20-year-old serve you at 7/11 in Australia? Well here they serve you like it is a 5-star establishment.

We went into the takashimaya department store today, down to the food court to get some Japanese cakes and sweets. It is really an experience in itself. The range of stuff they have there is amazing. It’s like the David Jones’ food court times by 1000. And so is there service. We bought some ice creams (just your run of the mill paddlepop style ice cream) and they packed it up in a moulded foam bag with dry ice for us so the ice creams wouldn’t melt (even though we ate them before we left the store). But they jus go out of their way to serve you. At the hotel we are staying at (by no means an expensive place, more budget to moderate range) when you check in they hold the elevator for you and once you have stepped in the elevator they bow to you until the doors have closed completely! Amazing! And our experience at the post office was fantastic as well (bet none of of us could say that about a visit to Australia Post!). We had to send some stuff back to Oz, and this is complicated enough if you can speak Japanese, but with very poor lines of communication it is even more difficult. But the staff stuck with us and were very patient, wrapped and boxed everything up for us, and even though we kept changing the type of postage we wanted (air, sea, express mail service) and they weighed each package about 10 times, they were still smiling when we left and even gave us a packet of tissues (yeah we know that bit is odd).

And although our holiday is a pilgrimage for food we have managed to fit in a little sightseeing as well. We have visited a few temples in Kyoto, including Kiyomizudera, Ginkakuji and Ryoanji. Kiyomizudera is a beautiful temple up on a hill overlooking Kyoto amongst forest and greenery. Ginkakuji is the golden temple which is actually coated in gold leaf, but unfortunately is one of the most popular temples and is overrun by tour groups, which is quite disappointing as it ruins the atmosphere of the temple. And then there is ryoanji with the famous Zen rock garden. This is a lovely temple, which is so…Zen. It is very peaceful sitting there looking at the rock garden and wandering around the grounds which are so beautifully looked after.

Anyway, we have gone on for far too long now, so if you have made it this far, congratulations. Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo for some more madness!!!