Serious things

Macarons are mostly too dense, too sweet, artificial flavoured and just disappointing (regret) to pay $2-3. But this is a good one – from cafe Chez Dre. The head pastry chef is Andrea Reiss.

It’s a big statement from me. But I would like to think I have tried a few bowls of ramen in my life without being completely obsessed (ok, a little) about it. In the 8 years I have been in Melbourne, many soups bases have been devoured. On the Brisbane front, My brother lives there so he would be pretty in touch with which ramen shops are singing out. In Sydney is my friend and along with my pre-visit research, I have tried a couple of places with good words said about them. I am going to first admit my limitations and will be more than excited to hear about other places to see some porky goodness.

Best ramen in Australia?

A better view of heaven

I have made a couple of posts on ramen in Japan, including the best ramen I have tried to date. In Melbourne, Ramen Ya, Momotaro Ramen (great soft-boiled eggs) are my favorites. Sydney has Gumshara Ramen and Ichi ban Boshi posted by Grab Your Fork. One thing I have yet to try is Ichi ban Boshi’s limited-number tonkotsu ramen. I tried waiting for one last year by getting in early, ordering food and then asking the waitress that when the special ramen was ready I am also ready for round 2. Sadly it was too far away and I would be sitting there for another 45 minutes twiddling my fingers. This year I went to Gumshara ramen which is stuck in a crowded food court in Sydney’s Chinatown. Their limited 20 serve pork spare rib with thick soup was hand-down the most pork-rich soup I have ever come across. The first spoon full was so intense that I wasn’t sure it it was soup or something gravy-like. But the flavours were just too much to take in a bowl. Maybe I was already feeling hot and greasy from walking all day. Notably, Gumshara has choice of thin and thick soup base. My friend suggested a thin base might be more balanced.

Hakataya Noodle Shop

But this is where Melbourne and Sydney’s ramen fade in comparison to… Brisbane’s Hakataya Noodle Shop in Sunnybank (first shop in Surface Paradise called Nagahama Ramen Hakataya). The shop is small (good), menu short (good), had a japanese style curtain at the entrance (good) and the tonkotsu ramen is just bloody good. Soup is porky all over, yet clean and slick and PERFECTLY seasoned. I think the hardest thing about tonkotsu soup base is getting the deep, porky taste while maintaining a clean and almost light taste. A bit like how French cooking might add cream/butter to ‘lighten’ the sauce up. The noodle is wonderfully dense and bitey (and free second serve to add to the soup. Shavings of pork (chashu) floating on top. There is a line outside ever day and so there should be. My brother has tried the shop in Surfers Paradise and he thinks the one in Brisbane is better.

——

Update: Taro’s Ramen

3 trips back to Brisbane later and I finally tasted Taro’s Ramen. The first one they were closed for holidays. The second time closed for other reasons. I was getting rather worked up every time the umami and tonkotsu taste buds were rubbing their hands together – only to have to wait some more. When I did get to eat it, it was certainly delicious. Soup was complex and porky. Clean and refined at the same time. It was probably less porky and more complex than Hakataya. Noodles were thin (my favorite type) and had a good bite. Importantly, the half boiled egg sit on top with a rich, amber glow that is only seen the moment before sun sets on a hazy afternoon. Splendid. Taro’s Ramen and Hakataya are easily the best 2 ramen restaurants I have tried in Australia.

Taro's Ramen

You think the slayer was the new black?

A bit more on the cafe trends of Melbourne with the help of my friends.

The blindingly obvious – free pour latte art is the expected topping now days. I still remember in the good old Maltitude days where latte art was only found in very few cafes. And the dozen or so others trying to learn were serving wilted rosettas on their lattes.

Being a barista no longer means that you are either: still at uni and just wanting to make minimum wage OR you are old, probably from southern Europe and still believe (truthfully) 6 month old beans roated from Italy produce dark, full bodied and bitter stuff. There is more recognition (shit… I can see the word “celebrity baristas”) of the hard work some baristas put in.

It came as single origin coffee with the Synesso, different brewing methods like the Clover, siphon (which by the way, the Japanese and Taiwanese have using already). Roasting lighter and lighter to suite the non-espresso methods. Murmurs about paring food with coffee have remained just that for a long time. I think an all dessert menu would suit better. And moving on from coffee are single origin teas (The Age). And notably, Intelligensia are offering exotic mineral water.

We’ve talked about the $37 Aesop soap, th single origin raw sugar, the communal table with a large flower center piece and the industrial, bare brick look. A couple of cafes have coffee plants in pots too. The Age seems to have caught on the coffee craze a couple of years after it started and apart from being rather under-informed, it has mobilized masses of people on weekends to choke up the ‘best’ cafe’s in Melbourne. how many years ago was it easy to walk into your favorite cafe and not thinking about reserving a table or waiting half an hour while 4 groups get seated?

Where can I add a few cents? I think milk. Already there are a few brands of milk catered for the cafe industry. I can see good potential here as the majority of the coffees ordered are still milk based. When 80% or more of the drink is milk, the quality and taste would have a huge impact on the final drink. On my trip to Japan this year, they have a graph of the seasonal variation in the fat content of the milk. Milk could taste better, sweeter and creamier. Get the cows to eat acorns. Where is single estate milk?

Coffee: nice but luke warm (second time now). (Edit – third time – good!)

Service: great

On a separate note. I walked into the Aesop shop at QV and asked for the hand soap, the one with the Atlas Cedarwood. She told be it was $37. I said i’ll think about that really hard. Hmmm which cafe uses it? 7 seeds, Cumulus, I think Bistro Vue and maybe Cafe Vue. Three bags full had it too.

What’s the next Melbourne cafe trend? It was the Synesso and the industrial look. The single origin beans became the standard and at once there was even single origin hot chocolate. Then different brewing methods came about with the clover, then the siphon followed quickly by the filter drip. Inevitably some cafes have to give a 2 min (pre-recorded) speech about different methods of brewing and how to drink each coffee before letting me order. Beakers became the new vase. A communal table with a large flower center piece was stuck in somewhere too. Fresh blended juices became the new juice. Recently single estate sugar is appearing (which I must admit taste really good so I spoon a heap into my finished coffee cup to eat on its own). To top things off, today someone ordered “chai latte” and was asked by the waiter “if it was with normal milk?”!

I am not keen on the idea that soap was $37 a bottle. Just give me more French butter on my toast.

A photo tour:

A long communal table

Sweets and stuff

I want the cup and saucer lights!

People, chairs, tables and lights

Steak sandwich

New Zealand is beautiful. I keep thinking that when the world gets more and more crowded, the South Island will become a very sought after place. Buy a property there now! There is plenty of water, scenery, and green pastures for food. I have just returned from a holiday in New Zealand including the Milford trek. So happy, along with bunjy jumping.

Just before I left for my trip, 4 of us went to Cumulus Inc. for dinner. When people come to visit Melbourne, and there was one place you could take them to eat, I think this is it. Fine food in casual, shared setting. No table cloths, no lengthy speech about how to eat your food. The dishes ranges from delicate fine dining style to home/rustic (last year’s truffle gnocchi!) but all designed to share. After dinner, you could take them for a walk along Little Flinder’s Lane, past Kenzan, Coda, Yu-yu, Movida and see some graffiti in narrow laneways.

We ended up having 12 dishes all up, and if not including wine or oysters, the bill came would be $40 per person. Two dishes were the favorites of the day. The crispy school prawns with chili, garlic and spring onions was sweet, juicy and the shells all edible. Surely inspired from travels in Asia. Second was the mussels, jamon, parsley and saffron sauce. Perfectly balanced flavours that we have never seen with mussels. We certainly did not forget to ask for more of the white sourdough/wet-dough bread to mop up the sauce. That bread is always so nice, I could order just the prawns and mussels and my evening would be complete.

Going again tonight =)