Baking during the COVID-19 lockdown 🍞 I made this recipe for ‘Adventure Bread’ from @JoseyBakerBread posted by @DavidLebovitz, Paris-based author and chef (check out his new book, Drinking French, it’s great).
It’s this amazing gluten-free bread made mostly of nuts, seeds and oats 🍞 It reminded me a bit of the heavy German or Scandinavian bread you can sometimes find at Aldi, in a heavy square loaf, sliced very thinly.
And I’ve always loved bread with lots of nuts and seeds. So, this is really, really tasty and not difficult to make at all 🍞🍞🍞 And I feel pretty smug that I made it myself.
We actually had most of the ingredients: psyllium husk, oats and chia seeds. I had to get some more sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, and find some flax seeds too. You mix everything together with some liquid, put it overnight into the fridge and then bake it for a long time the next day.
It’s dense and has great texture. Tastes great smothered in butter. The only thing is that in the Australian heat, mold started to get to it after a few days (it’s so heavy, we were just treating ourselves to a piece or two each a day), so best stored in the fridge (or in the freezer as we’re doing).
And it was a bit of a historical meal for us too, as it was the last place we went to before restaurants got shut down (except for takeaway service) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, if humanity is doomed, it was great to have this as our last restaurant meal.
Head up the stairs and be impressed by the fridge full of wagyu beef. In fact, I was at a Japanese restaurant in the same location maybe … ten years ago?
Anyways, here at Kobe Wagyu BBQ, It’s a fun and easy concept. For $84, you get a beautiful deluxe plate of sashimi …
And you get a staircase of meat. I wasn’t careful enough to try to write down the different cuts and names of the beef (though having access to 
… in how much fat there was, how thin or thick the slice was, and then the different texture and mouth-feel with each bite. It was really amazing, and you can tell this is high-quality, expensive meat.
And with a biteful of each type, you can really savour and appreciate them. I think there was only one out of the eight varieties that I thought was average. Mostly, we looked at each other after tasting a piece and said: OHMYGOD.
The setting is fun and comfortable. Perhaps a little too bright. But the booths are comfortable and they were spaced so that everyone was sitting a comfortable distance apart (all the staff were wearing masks, there was hand sanitizer at the entrance when you came in. It was clear they were doing everything they could to make it a safe and comfortable experience).
And the ordering pad is fun. Easy to understand and the orders come in minutes!
… a seaweed salad, asparagus, and burdock fries (chewy and interesting). We even had a frozen matcha tiramisu for dessert, which was fine. Nothing special but I like the concept.
All in all a wonderful evening and I would definitely go back. And I hope in these tough times for restaurant that Kobe Wagyu, and all of the other wonderful restaurants in Sydney, will also be back to normal business as soon as we can all be safe.
In contrast, Alison Roman’s Spiced Chickpea Stew with Coconut and Turmeric would have to be my biggest success of the lockdown so far (photo at the top of the post). A columnist for the New York Times and Bon Appétit, she’s a cook and cookbook writer and you can visit her 
Since I hate waste, I looked up a recipe for how to use the stalks and made an 
We had a chore in the CBD which meant it was a perfect occasion to try out Ho Jiak Town Hall during their soft launch. It’s funny to see the former Cuban restaurant transformed into a modern Malaysian hangout. It’s a big space, and beautifully designed. Good lighting and lots of witty design, like above.
We considered only ordering one noodle dish between the two of us (plus an appetizer) but the waitress didn’t hesitate in saying that we should order two dishes. We reckon she noted that clearly Asians have extra stomachs for eating, and I do. Though splitting the Sang Har Mee, marron in egg sauce on crispy noodles, would have been just fine.
But first the starter: Loh Bak. Five-spiced pork roll in bean curd skin and deep fried. I’ve had a similar dish. For yum cha, they have a minced meat and vegetables version, wrapped in bean curd skin and steamed in a savoury gravy. It’s a favourite. So, this was a shockingly good surprise, to have the mixture replaced with pure porky delight (layers of juicy fat), and have the deep-fried crispness. It’s crazy how good it was. $18.
I decided to try the curry chicken Nasi Lemak (also $18), as I usually stick to the same dishes (my favourites: steamed eggs, and anything coated with salted duck egg). This classic Malaysian rice dish was perfect in its combination of textures, and delicious tender chicken curry. I’m glad we tried it.
The main course, the aforementioned marron, to tell the truth, we liked but didn’t love. Though I loved the presentation. For $48, it’s a treat, and the marron had a great texture but not much flavour. And then this style of noodles, so soupy and wet (even though the noodles are crispy) is so different than what I’m used to from Cantonese styles (much less wet).
But really, all this tells me is that I’ll probably go back to my favourite dishes next time. I’m not sure why I’d come here rather than the location in Chinatown, unless I had to be in the CBD for some reason, but the more Ho Jiaks the merrier, really. Give this new location a try, I recommend, particularly at this crazy period of time with COVID-19, where restaurants are really having a hard go of surviving.
It’s pretty hard to go wrong in a location like this, a classic Sydney location, where you have views of the water, of some kind, from nearly anywhere in the restaurant.
We both were drawn to have different types of risotto. Mine was served with salmon with a perfectly crisp skin. A special of the day.
So, we had the same thing as we would have had years ago. The special cheese plate (this time with smoky scarmorza, delicious), crispy eggplant fried and fried cauliflower.
The revelation was the tomato salad. With mango! And the freshest, most flavourful little heirloom tomatoes ever. A perfect salad.
Just went to Buffalo Dining for the second time. The first was for lunch in Sept 2015 with Johnny, and the second time was for lunch in Nov 2016 with Johnny. The thing is: lunch is a great time to go, for while I’d always wondered about this place, and heard good things too, every time I’d been by in the evenings, the line-ups were ridiculous. The waitress told us that on Friday and Saturday nights it can be up to two and a half hours!
Then you can also have a salad. We passed on this during our first visit, but this time, we had a simple grilled greens with buffalo mozzarella. It was a little salty I have to say but otherwise perfect, and I love the ceramic plate, imitating either a paper plate, or a tin foil pie pan.
Wow, it is a find though. An elegant omakase for $80 (there was a $60 option too), and a matching tasting of sake ($50 each), oh an a supplement for having the wagyu beef instead of the duck (for one of us, $20). We found it well worth it.
It’s perhaps my biggest weakness as a food blogger that the posts that I have the hardest time writing and take the longest to do (we visited Sasaki for a pre-Valentine’s Day meal) are for restaurants I like the most.
I have the sense of wanting to do the place justice, explain all the reasons in detail why I liked it, and describe each course, say, as elegantly as Jackie, Does my bomb look big in this?, does in her reviews.
But I suppose I can allow myself to be lazy. That if the menu is included, and the photos of the food are there, you’ll get the feel of the place.
It does require that the plating and presentation are as good as the food tastes (oh yes, it was).
But I guess I could make a few comments… I love a beautifully presented freshly shucked oyster. This, with Japanese seasonings (yuzu and sake), was delicious. We started things off with cocktails, and they make really very interesting ones here, some great Japanese mixology going on. Husband thought that this green tea margarita was perhaps the best margarita ever.
I love both savoury and sweet custards, so the ‘tamago tofu’, a cold silken egg custard, was right up my alley.
The tuna, papaya and spice was elegant, though perhaps more similar to dishes we’ve had elsewhere.
There was a gorgeous pairing of bar cod, with a perfect clam on each piece, and brussels sprouts leaves in a gentle broth. It was simple, not showy, and kind of perfect.
And I loved the simple rice that they served with it, corn mixed in with either a seasoned rice or something more substantial than the regular short grain Japanese variety (we didn’t get the Pork & Eggplant that night; that menu was to show us the sake pairing).
The duck was beautiful, as expected. The wagyu beef, for me, was worth the supplementary cost. A perfect piece of beef. Yum.
I have always loved sake, and so it was a real treat to get a variety of them: all with different complex flavours. Yup, what a treat.
I have to admit that the desserts weren’t really to my liking. No, I should say: I liked them but they didn’t stand out like the other dishes. I do like Japanese desserts but more as a snack with tea, or for a casual occasion. It’s hard to bring them into the realm of fine dining.
But I was surprised that husband arranged to have a special message on one of the desserts (our 14th anniversary was not that long before the meal) and really: I found this meal, all in all, to be fantastic.
And for my other dishes, a very flaky and crisp onion/shallot pancake, the ‘pork bun’ from the menu turned out to be a steamed bao, which was nice enough (not BBQ pork though, just a juicy pork mixture), and the biggest surprise was that their version of a ‘siu mai’ had sticky rice in it.
With some smart design, it really feels like you could be in Japan. Stepping through an opening in a corrugated iron wall (and out of torrential rains), there are a few low tables, a number of high tables surrounded by colourful neon signs, and a few normal tables.
There’s a huge screen playing trippy Japanese commercials. The young, personable Japanese staff rush around to make sure you’re fed and watered.
From our view, at a low table near the entrance, looking out the doorway, we could imagine being in a bar in Osaka or Tokyo.
I mean, the space wouldn’t be so large (and the kitchen and bar are big) in Japan, but we loved the vibe.
Hot sake was perfect for a night like this and we matched it with a whole bunch of small dishes, Izakaya.
Not a bad philosophy really, food to go with drinking, rather than a drink to go with a meal.
Edamame. A flat omelette.
Octopus karaage. Chicken karaage. Gyoza.
The one that stood out was a pickled mackerel, delicate with some texture, but just the right amount of ginger and vinegar to offset the fat-laden flesh. A beautiful dish.
The others were pretty regular fare, really, nothing special, but we liked the place so much, we didn’t care much. We’ll be back.