Saturday, October 24, 2009

Jizo - Revisited

Jizo's Teriyaki Chicken Original Sushi

I went back to Jizo last night to introduce S to (and take pictures of) the aforementioned divine Jizo's Original Sushi. From the expressions on S's face when she first placed a piece in her mouth - the pause, the widening of the eyes, the "OMG!" moment - I knew that she shared my sentiments. These delicate, heavenly, 'melt-in-your-mouth' works of art were, once again, fantastic - which means that Jizo gets another vigorous nod for consistency of experience, which is extremely important.


There is quite a specific kind of disappointment you feel when you return to a restaurant where the food was amazing the first time, then erratic or steadily worse the subsequent times you visit. Particularly, the embarrassment and slight betrayal you feel when you return with friends, to whom you have raved about the food at that place, expecting to wow them with your fabulous find, only to have them sit through a sub-par meal. I am pleased to report that thus far, Jizo does not fall in this category.


Jizo's Original Teriyaki Salmon Sushi

In fact, I am going to go out on a limb here a little and say that Jizo is probably the best Japanese restaurant in town in terms of authenticity. I am taking a risk saying this because I've never been to Japan, nor do I have the benefit of being able to confirm this with a reliable authority on Japanese cuisine - i.e. a Japanese person. Still, my claim is not completely baseless.

Out of the eight Japanese restaurants that I know of in town, apparently Jizo is the only one owned by a Japanese person. Coincidentally (not), Jizo is also the only restaurant where the food is a little different than all the other Japanese restaurants. For a start, their yakiniku beef is served with thick, juicy, perfectly cooked cubes of proper steak in a thin layer of sauce, rather than the usual thin slivers of overcooked, sweet beef at all the other restaurants. I've always heard that authentic teriyaki sauce is not the thick, sticky, sickly sweet sauce that we used to over here, but a thinner, lighter, more subtly flavoured sauce. This probably applies to the yakiniku beef dish also. In the same vein, they serve their chicken katsu with a thick, juicy crumbed chicken piece, not the flattened, dry/hard (over-fried), you-need-lots-of-sauce-to-go-with-it stuff that you would eat at the other restaurants.

Finally, the rice. You might think I'm just nit-picking here but the magic is in the details. I loathe being served mushy, clumpy and/or burnt rice. No matter how good the 'main' meat dish is, it just ruins the meal. Especially since Japanese cuisine is famous for its short grain rice in general and vinegar rice for sushi. I have been served mushy and burnt rice at a couple of the other Japanese restaurants. I have also had sushi from from some of these places where the 'vinegar' rice is tasteless. Come on! These are restaurants with professional chefs. How hard is it to cook rice properly? Fail. Fail. Fail! I don't know how many times I can get away with saying 'perfectly cooked' in one post but the rice served at Jizo has been perfect every single time. You can see each clearly defined, individual grain of rice, as opposed to melded clumps. With their sushi rice, specifically, they have struck the fine balance between tasteless and 'can't-taste-anything-else'. You will immediately notice the sourish and almost faintly sweet presence of the rice's flavour, but it quickly blends with the taste of the other components of the sushi and becomes the lovely accentuating backdrop to the headliner.


Miso Chicken Don

You're probably thinking Jizo sounds like it's far more expensive than the average Japanese restaurant here, but it's not. The prices on their menu are actually about the same as the other Japanese places, and cheaper than some. The only issue that some people may have with Jizo is that the portions of some of their dishes are a little daintier (not by much) than the usual fare at some of the other places. Before last night, I thought that this might be a bit of a problem when dining with boys with hearty appetites. I was appeased, however, when our Miso Chicken Don arrived last night. Good portions of rice and chicken, served in a very chic, giant black ceramic bowl/plate.

Verdict: The miso chicken don was good. Succulent chicken pieces in a tasty, light, clean tasting sauce. The teriyaki chicken and salmon sushi were outstanding - as previously described. The beautifully seared salmon pieces crumbled and melted in your mouth, along with the rest of the sushi. I do apologise, but I cannot reiterate enough what a difference it makes when meat/fish is perfectly cooked. Overcooked fish and beef are especially annoying. For me, I let it slide sometimes when we're just eating at a casual place because after a while, you get used to it and you don't notice it as much anymore. Then you go to a place where they actually know what they're doing and you immediately notice the difference in taste and texture when something is done right, compared to when it is overdone. I will definitely be going back again. - Jizo Japanese Cafe & Bar, 56 Princes Street, Dunedin



Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Prawn Mee Lunch


A colleague made prawn mee last night and brought in a lunch box for me today! I am happy to report that I am typing this with a belly-full of yummy prawn mee.

Interestingly, the broth had the thickness of an asam laksa broth but the bold, robust flavour of good prawn mee. I had to stop myself from drinking all the broth. I don't know how he made it but as far as I can tell, aside from the broth (which is the most important thing), there were chicken pieces, prawns, fish balls, surimi (crabstick), taugeh (mung beans), onions and noodles (of course) - the prawn mee stall that I frequent back home serves their prawn mee with tender pork ribs, big prawns and I think even a hardboiled egg. This is as good as it gets in New Zealand I think. Two thumbs up.

Now, I wonder what else this colleague makes? :)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Claypot Chicken Rice?

Except without the claypot.

This is adapted from E's chicken rice recipe. I wasn't expecting it to turn out quite so well but it did. It's actually almost exactly like the claypot chicken rice we get back home - which happens to be one of my favourite things - except without the burnt bits. Yum!

I used my phone to take a crappy photo. I was contemplating plating it nicely and taking a 'nice' photograph but what the heck - I didn't want to go to the monumental effort of trying to make something like this look pretty. Besides, I still don't have a good camera. So here's a shot of the pot. I promise it's delicious. It's one of those hearty, old fashioned, simple meals that you make when you just want a good ol' tuck in.

Ingredients:
Chicken thigh fillets (cubed)
Garlic (sliced)
Onion (chopped)
Ginger (halved)
Chicken stock powder
Coriander powder
Fenel powder
Five Spice powder
Star anise
Cinnamon stick
Rice
Dark soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Pepper
Sugar
Oil

Method:
1. Wash uncooked rice while heating a little oil (drizzle oil around the pan once approximately) in a frying pan or wok
2. When oil is hot, add half the ginger, star anise and cinnamon stick and fry till fragrant
3. Add washed uncooked rice and stir well so that the rice gets 'roasted' evenly and is coated in a little oil
4. Add about 1 tablespoon each of fenel and coriander powder for every 3 cups of rice, a little pepper to taste and some chicken stock powder
5. Continue 'roasting' the rice with the spices until the rice is well coated and fragrant
6. Put roasted rice into rice cooker pot (don't cook it yet)
7. Add oil twice around the (empty) pan and wait till hot
8. Add garlic, onions and ginger and fry till fragrant
9. Add chicken cubes and fry till golden brown
10. Add oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, pepper (optional), sugar, a pinch of five spice powder, some chicken stock powder (optional) and about two cups of water
11. Let it simmer for a while and then taste and add whatever is missing
12. Make it a tad more salty or make the flavour a tad stronger than you would normally like because you will be mixing it with the rice. If you don't do this, the rice will be bland.
13. Make sure you have added enough water to in with the chicken so that when you add the chicken and broth to the rice, it will be sufficient to cook the rice (in the rice cooker)
14. When satisfied with the taste, add to roasted rice and cook in rice cooker
15. It is likely that that lever on the rice cooker will trip to 'Keep Warm' before the rice is completely cooked. This is completely normal.
16. Check how cooked/uncooked the rice is. If the rice is still quite hard, then mix a bowl of water with dark soy sauce, chicken stock, and sugar and add to rice and cook for a little longer.
17. When the rice cooker lever trips to 'Keep Warm' again, check the 'how cooked' the rice is again. If almost completely cooked, then just close the pot and let it sit in the rice cooker for about 20 minutes.
18. Serve topped with chopped spring onions or sliced cucumbers or 'lap cheong' or salted fish or everything!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Kimchi Chicken

I'll admit that, while I can produce a tasty dish or two now and then, I am not the most ... let's say 'earnest' of 'cooks' (using the word 'cooks' here very loosely). I tend to go for the quick and easy (but nevertheless tasty) option. This means, for example, when I make bolognese, I do not make my own sauce from scratch unlike my good friend/ex-flatmate/cooking fiend/"I can't believe I let her move out!", I simply buy bottled sauce and add to it.

This post is about one of those 'quick and easy' things that I like to make. The 'recipe' - if you can call it that - for my way of making Kimchi Chicken is so ridiculously simple and easy that I am compelled to share it. It's so easy that you don't need any measurements...well that and because I don't measure ingredients when I cook - I just taste it as it goes and add whatever I think needs to be added. Anyway, I whipped it up just now for my lunch tomorrow but it smelt and tasted so good that I was tempted to gobble it up. Luckily I resisted, so my lunch is safe.

Kimchi Chicken

Ingredients:
Kimchi
Pork/Chicken
Garlic
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Sugar

Method:
1. Slice up garlic and pork/chicken
2. Heat up pan with some oil in it
3. Stir fry garlic till fragrant
4. Add pork/chicken and season with pepper and salt
5. Stir fry until pork/chicken is golden brown and fragrant
6. Use tongs or chopsticks to pick kimchi from bag (so that you don't get the sauce) and add to pork/chicken
7. Mix well and add a little sugar to taste if you wish
8. Stir fry until everything is incorporated and smells good
9. Serve with rice

Jizo's Original Sushi

Jizo has, hands down, the best teriyaki chicken sushi that I've ever tasted! I was introduced to these delectable little suckers a few weeks ago when I went to Jizo for dinner with C. I didn't order them then, but caught a glimpse of them sitting pretty on a plate on the way to another obviously more 'in-the-know' patron. Even from a distance they looked irresistibly scrumptious. They must have made a significant impression on me because despite never having tasted a single piece, two weeks later I was inexplicably suffering terrible cravings for them. I satiated those cravings by having the teriyaki chicken sushi on Friday, and the teriyaki salmon sushi on Saturday! Muahahaha.

They call it "Jizo's Original Sushi' and you get a choice of teriyaki chicken, salmon, tuna or tofu. These sushi (what's the plural for sushi?) are the most aesthetically pleasing of the "cheaper" (<$15) sushi that I've had. Sorry folks, once again I fail to supplement my post with visual aids as I am still camera-less. I wanted to take a photo with the camera on my phone but was stopped by someone who insisted that I should photograph with a good camera or not at all. I was too hungry and crabby to argue.

They were still warm and melted in my mouth. What immediately struck me was that the teriyaki chicken pieces were juicy, tender and well sauced. They obviously cooked the chicken for the sushi to order - quite unlike the standard fare that you get at 'express' sushi places where the chicken would have been cooked early in the day and left sitting around to dry out. Also, unlike standard teriyaki chicken sushi rolls - which are usually made up of some chicken, carrots and cucumber rolled up in rice and a layer of seaweed - these were cute little domes of perfectly cooked vinegar rice, with a generous dab of creamy avocado-mayo 'dressing' cushioning the succulent teriyaki chicken topping. OMG. Smooth, warm, deliciously DIVINE! If you haven't already tried this, you must! [05092010 Edit: Pictures and a continuation have since been posted here]

The only complaint I had, which now after that torturous description doesn't seem to matter anymore, was that we got there at 'rush hour' and it seemed like forever before our food arrived. I didn't keep track of the time but I was starving so that might have impaired my sense of time just a tiny bit. Hey, you know what they say, "A hungry Tien is a crabby Tien".

Jizo Japanese Cafe & Bar
56 Princes Street
Dunedin

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