My girlfriend and ventured down to the Gold Coast for easter weekend. We had the pleasure of dining at a small Japanese restaurant one night and were thoroughly impressed by the excellent service and food. We found it weird that they were playing hip hop/R&B music though!

We munched on some kimchi to begin with and they apologised for taking their time with the rice and the sushi. I loved the sushi with its melt in your mouth flavour and texture. They apologised again when they brought out the pork dish which I can’t remember the name of. It was a while before the fried chicken teriyaki came out but at least the waiters told us how long it was going to take and apologised again…When the service is good you don’t really mind waiting a bit longer I guess. The night before we ate at a Malaysian/Chinese seafood restaurant where the service was rather shit by anyone’s standards and came to the conclusion that they were all a bunch of assholes minus one girl who was running around like a mad rabbit serving and seating customers.

Lightly boiled tuna, avocado and mayonnaise sushi. I ate one before I remembed to take a photo….

Immaculately cut strips of pork in some kind of sauce. I think it was a chilli sauce or something, whatever it was it was quite nice.

And fried chicken teriyaki, again I only remembered to take a photo after a few pieces had been eaten. One day my teriyaki will be this good! I’ve sourced some decent sake so I will give it another go this week.

I don’t recall the details of the place we ate at unfortunately, but I would eat there again without a doubt.

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Ooooooooh! What do we have here? Udon noodles in soy broth! Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this dish as the soy broth is devine. I”m no expert on Japanese food having just started eating the stuff, but I’d say I did a pretty good job of this. Topped with my now perfected teriyaki chicken and you have a quick, tasty, filling, satisfying, healthy and cheap dinner. Have I missed any adjectives? No, I believe that will suffice for now.

This will definitely go on my regular recipies list from this point forth, as it should yours! Enough babbling - on with the recipe!!!

Preparation time: 1 minute
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4 light servings

Ingredients

• 1.5 litres dashi
• 3 spring onions, two cut into 4cm lenghts, 1slice thinly
• 60ml (1/4 cup) mirin
• 60ml (1/4 cup) Japanese soya sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 400 udon noodles
• shichimi togarashi (seven spice mix), optional

Method

1. Bring dashi to a boil in a pot, reduce to a simmer and add the 4cm lengths of spring onion, mirin, soya sauce and sugar. Stir to combine and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. While the broth is simmering away, prepare the udon noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Divide among the four bowls.
3. Ladle the liquid into the bowl. Top the noodles with the sliced spring onions and some teriyaki chicken if you like (this man needs meat with his dinner). I added some pre-prepared dried shitake mushrooms because I really like my ’shrooms. Sprinkle a bit of shichimi togarashi over the top (optional).

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I was given a Japanese cook book ages ago but never had the required ingredients to make most of the recipes. Until now that is. Earlier this week I ran around between shops like a made goose gathering common items in Japanese cooking and today marks the beginning of my foray into Japanese cuisine.

First dish I decided to make was teriyaki chicken. The recipe looked very simple and result was fantastic. With this recipe at your disposal, you’ll never need to buy the crappy premade bottled stuff at the shop ever again.

Do your partner and their stomach a favour and impress them with this tasty and classic Japanese dish.

Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Makes 4 small servings

Ingredients

• 60ml Japanese soya sauce (sweeter than the regular stuff, supposedly)
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 chicken thigh fillets, with or without skin
• vegetable oil for frying

Method

1. Combine the soya sauce, mirin, sake and sugar in a small bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat then add chicken, skin sidedown and cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Turn over and cook for a further 2-3 minutes or until golden and almost cooked through. Remove from pan
3. Discard any excess fat and oil from the pan and then pour in the soya mixture, increase the heat to high and bring to the boil. Cook for a minute or until the liquid has slightly reduced and has a nice sexy gloss to it.
4. Return chicken to pan and coat well with the mixture until heated through. Remove from the pan and slice into 1.5cm wide strips. Serve.

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