Sunday, April 5, 2009

Ichiban Boshi - The Galleries Victoria, Sydney



Salmon Roll

-> In Japan, a ramen restaurant is a one-person-one-dish type of restaurant. At least that's what I've noticed anyway. You're supposed to come in, state which type of ramen you want, be served a glass of water, eat your ramen, pay up and leave. That's how the Japanese do it anyway. However, outside Japan, there are plenty of side dishes to accompany your ramen. This is because ramen is considered an exotic food outside Japan, and therefore a ramen restaurant should offer a complete dining experience. Ergo, there's a need for lots of embelishments such as variety of side dishes, drinks, non-ramen items, etc - more so than in Japan. In Japan, it is very unusual for a ramen restaurant to serve sushi. Well, that's what so great (or not, depends on what kind of person are you) about ramen restaurants outside Japan. In Jakarta, Indonesia for example - they even serve 'Japanese' spring rolls and 'Japanese' triple choc brownies in one of the ramen restaurants I've been to.

Even though I'm not Japanese, I always feel that ramen restaurants are supposed to be one of those quick eat-and-go kind of place. To me, eating ramen in a place full of waiters in a proper restaurant-type seating & tables are just a tad weird. It's like, a kebab shop - surely it would be weird to find somewhere out there in another country, kebab is served in a proper restaurant with proper ambience and lots of waiters on tableclothed tables. You know what I mean?

Rating: 6.5/10


Hiyashi chuuka

-> Some people in the know would be able to tell straight away that I've been putting off posting this entry for awhile now just by looking at this food. Yup, this is one of the two absolute BEST summer dishs out there (the other one being cold somen). Not the best one I've tasted (and I've tasted quite a fair share of hiyashi chuuka around the globe), but considering that there aren't many places in Sydney that serve this thing, it's quite a pleasant experience.

Rating: 7/10



Melon soda float

-> I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm a total artificial fruit drink freak. The faker it taste, the better. I hate real juice. Well, I actually don't hate real juice, but I just hate things that even has the slightest bit of acidity to it (i.e. sour). Fake fruit flavorings are usually either 'trying to be real' or 'trying to be fake'. In the West, fake fruit flavorings are desperately trying to be real. That's why even those arificial fruit drinks, jellos, etc you find on your local supermarkets STILL taste sour-ish, because let's face it, most real fruits are sour and Western food scientists always strive to create artificial flavors that are closest to the originals.

In the East, however, artificial fruit flavorings are always 'trying to be fake' - e.g., things like mango lollies do NOT taste anything like real mangoes - but somehow, through some pre-installed information somewhere in our brain, we know that that flavor IS supposed to represent mango. Odd, isn't it.

For me, living in Australia is rather frustrating in the sense that even artificial fruit flavors are trying so hard to taste as close to the real thing as possible. I know, you're thinking "what kind of logic is that??" - but in my opinion, if I want to eat something that taste like real mango, or real melon, I would get some real mangoes and melons and eat them. When I see "mango cream biscuits" or "mango soda", I'm expecting something that taste ARTIFICIAL. I don't know - maybe it's an Asian thing. I grew up eating Japanese & Asian candies, lollies, confectionary, cordials etc that taste particularly artificial - that's why I crave those flavors every now and then.

Also, I think artificial fruit flavors that are trying to be real are just plain pretentious.

Rating: 7/10



Chashu ramen

-> Definitely a must-order. This is pretty authentic-tasting. The soup is infused with all kinds of Cantonese delights. A true representation of Chinese-style Japanese dish. I like this with loads of menma (bamboo shoots) added to it.

Rating: 8.5/10










9 comments:

cla said...

those artificial mango flavors taste artificial because they refer to a different crop than what we are used to.... none of them taste like the green skinned mangoes... but if you try the red or yellow skinned mangoes, some of those taste a lot more like the artificial flavorings...

i love hiyashi chuukaaaa.... sushi tei actually make a decent version...

danyhael said...

wow, is this your line of work? if it is, i wanna have that job. give it to me now! ^_^

nice infos. i will tell this to my sister. she's too far from the city and has 3 kids so she's having a hard time to free herself for a li'l while. ^_^

Erique Fat Owl said...

@danyhael

what, reviewing food? Of course that's not our job, LOL. I would LOVE that job too!

Anonymous said...

That chashu ramen wasnt the ramen they only have so many bowls of, the one that takes a long time to cook?

Also i like mango sweets......

Sydneyguyrojoe

cla said...

@erique

i wonder what my cholesterol level will read if reviewing food is my job...

@anon
no its not.. the one that only available 20 bowls per day and only for lunch is Tonkotsu ramen... which i find wayyyy too oily and fatty
see >> http://eatlikeacow.blogspot.com/2007/08/ichiban-boshi.html

Erique Fat Owl said...

Cla, just check your cholesterol once a year, like moi. LOL

BTW, is it true that they REALLY just have 20 bowls of tonkotsu a day? I mean, I always seem to get it whenever I want to have it, no matter how busy they are...

irine said...

You should try the karage cheese curry rice and have the green tea cappucinno with it.

Have you been to Jimmy's Malaysian at TGV?

cla said...

@erique
i do... and always walks away with a whole list of food to avoid personally specified by the cardiologist... which i have never stick to for any more than a week... hahahhaha patients like me keep my cardiologist rich... he doesnt even need to accept new patients anymore... which reminds me... i'm due for another visit...

@irine
karaage cheese curry is yummy... looks disgusting though, i must admit...
hahaha
i'd go back to Jimmy's malaysian if they use better cutlery... :P

irine said...

I usually get takeaways from Jimmy's :P