Other Experiences - August 2024
Notable experiences that didn't justify a full article
Hirobun (Kyoto, Japan)
A 40 minute subway ride outside of Kyoto and 30 minute hike uphill through deep forests along a peacefully winding river brings you to Hirobun, a restaurant where you sit on a platform directly above the water and have to catch your own lunch - chilled thin white flour noodles delivered quickly down stream of flowing river water. Half the fun is trying to catch the slippery bundle of noodles with your chopsticks before dipping in a cold shoyu and dashi broth.
Delicious? Nah, but nobody is coming here for the food anyways.
Charlie’s at Brown’s Hotel (London, United Kingdom)
Jerusalem artichoke soup with walnut oil drizzled on top
A classic Caesar on a wedge of romaine.
Seared calf’s liver, done medium rare, with buttery potato mash. I like my mash rustic, with chunks of potato still left in, but I guess the British style is blended smooth.
The Italians have a way of making the best tiramisus.
La Brasserie (Central, Hong Kong)
Well executed classic French in the heart of Soho, Hong Kong.
A perfectly assembled steak tartare, roughly chopped, with chives and gherkins for crunch, raw egg to bind, topped with some microgreens and basil oil.
The best Pate en Croute I’ve ever had.
Toyo Izakaya (Osaka, Japan)
Street-side stall, whose chain-smoking, heat-resistant chef, Toyo-san, was made famous in Street Food: Asia. There are only four of five things on the menu, at a price so low it leaves you wondering - lean and fatty tuna sashimi, uni (sea urchin), grilled tuna cheek, crab and scallop on green onion salad, drunken crab claws. The tuna may be still half frozen, and the size of the cut may vary from slice to slice, but there’s no denying the heart put into every dish.
The chain-smoking, heat resistant man himself.
A few stations away from central Osaka, in a quiet alleyway.
A large dish of maguro (lean tuna), half-frozen otoro (fatty tuna), salmon roe and uni (sea urchin)
Menbaka Fire Ramen (Kyoto, Japan)
I was not expecting this to be good, based on how instagrammable it was, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a perfectly good shoyu ramen, albeit at a very premium price.
According to their story, the broth is from a 200 year secret recipe than was passed down the generations, and the fire ramen was born when the chef wanted to add the flavour of hot scallion oil without cooling down the soup.
Chopped scallions are heated in oil to about 300 degrees and the oil is set alight. When the heated oil is poured on the ramen, it instantly heats the water to steam, creating a splattering of vaporized oil that catches fire and produces a massive pillar of flame. Keep your hair, face and hands far, far away from this one!
