What is Unctuous? - Hako Japanese Restaurant

The dining room of Hako Japanese restaurant is a pretty sexy place in the evening. And by that I don't mean brash bordello sexy as in red lace and black leathers (too bad if that's your thing), but rather a classy jazzy sexiness exuded by its monochromatic base colours and dimly lit aesthetic. Politely demure wait staff dressed in black, flickering tea-lights on tables and sparse moody rows of bare tungsten globes add to the romantic feel. Though I'm not sure whether noise reverberating off all those bare wood surfaces when the room is full would spoil it for romancing couples, since we ducked in unannounced just on start of Saturday evening service and the place was quite empty. But that meant we could nab a table provided we promised that we'll be done in an hour and a half. Fully booked out for anytime later.

Tea by tea-light at Hako, or could it be matcha with matches :)

We began with a Main serve of Sashimi ($27.80), which could've been more generously plated for its price. The usual suspects salmon and tuna, and two different white fish (swordfish and possibly snapper) were appealingly presented with specklings of tobiko (flying fish roe), some grated daikon and a little wasabi (though where's the pickled ginger?), and served with dashi and soy dipping sauce. Nothing too adventurous but at least two different cuts of flesh were offered for each fish, tastier and more sought after fatty slices from the belly region or equivalent were contrasted with the firmer almost springy muscle. And all sparklingly fresh as one would expect. Next was Nasu Dengaku ($9.80), a whole eggplant scored deeply at intervals and deepfried, following which a thick sweet miso glaze is slathered into the gashes before a brief charring under the griller. The slippery and savoury pulp that was punctuated by points of nuttiness from toasted sesame seeds was simple and delightful, as was the communal sparring of chopsticks required to compete for one's fair share!
(A recipe version of nasu dengaku using just the griller can be found here, though if large eggplant halves are used I'll be inclined to brush them with oil and pre-grill them wrapped in foil until a little soft before continuing. This should avoid over burning the skin while leaving the insides still insufficiently cooked).

Unagidon is a favourite and Hako's in-house version ($22.80) was quite satisfactory. A sweetly gelatinous length of Kabayaki eel fillet over a generous box of rice sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds. More sparring! It came with a bowl of surprisingly standard miso broth. The serve of rice with the unagi was appreciated and timely, since nothing else came with rice. A request for more was provided in a miserly amount in an already small porcelain bowl ($2); unecessarily stingy. Matcha (green tea) at $3.80 per person was more subtle larceny despite refills of hot water (which by the way doesn't quite work as successfully with powder as with tea leaves).

Sublime flesh offered by Hako's Chargrilled Kingfish Kama

Despite these glitches, the highlight of our evening came in the guise of the poster Special of Chargrilled Kingfish Kama (yellowtail kingfish collar) ($19.80), a great value-adding offering of the pectoral 'wing' and 'collar' behind the head of the fish. Based on other reviews of Hako, it seems to make quite a regular Specials appearance and now we understand why. To date, I have tried to avoid use of the word 'unctuous', a somewhat clichéd descriptive for what I guess applies to a slippery and deliciously oily (in a very good way) mouthfeel in certain foods. But the heck with it, I now have to get it out of my system! Hako's dengaku eggplant was certainly unctuous, the unagi was most definitely unctuous and brother, was the rich and flavoursome scalloped flesh that fell from that chargilled piece of kingfish ever bloody unctuous! I have no idea how they achieved the sublime effect of smokily charred skin yet leaving the generous amount of flesh within so devinely moist and um, unctuous! A light marination with oiled sake or mirin and white miso may also have contributed to the flavour but otherwise it was seasoned simply with salt and a squeeze of lemon. I'll go as far as declaring it as one of the more memorable dishes we've had out in the past 6 months. That it is a simple, carefully prepared street-style portion of chargrilled fish offcut makes this seem rather absurd and more than a little ironic given some of the establishments we'd been to in that time.

Food: 16/20 - Clean simple Japanese with some rustic surprises
Service: 15/20 - Polite and unobtrusive
Value: 14/20 - Cost over compensating with standard staples unecessarily spoils perception
R-Factor: 16/20 - Atmosphere and Specials will make us return
Spot Score: 15/20

Hako Japanese Restaurant
310 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC.

There seems to be a growing disenchantment in bloggers' accounts of meals had at restaurants of late, especially when judged in context with the size of the bill. But that doesn't change the fact that we all enjoy eating out in anticipation of a great meal or an eye opening dish. In the spirit of this enjoyment, will anyone else share and describe one surprisingly memorable dish that they've had eating out in the past 6 months or so, and where?

The Chronicles of Ramen - Ajisen Ramen

Following a previous post about some truly soul rejuvenating and memorable bowls of ramen we'd slurped on while on holiday in Christchurch NZ, Hungry Hamster left a comment enquiring about whether decent puveyors of ramen exist here in Melbourne. Well the short answer was that I really hadn't stumbled across that many to provide any decent recommendations. The best I could come up with was to suggest Ajisen Ramen in the city where at least there was a readily accessible range of ramen choices on offer and global franchise notwithstanding, the bowls of noodles we've had there were not bad if not particularly outstanding. The nihon-authenticity of Ajisen's ramen is probably debated, although the franchise boasts of their Kyushu (Kumamoto city) style tonkotsu (pork bones)-based stock broth. Most of the ramen dishes centre around this tasty milky coloured broth served in voluminous bakelite-like bowls accompanied by matching ladles to sup with.

We visited Ajisen Ramen again recently and had a Chashu (pork) Ramen and the Karaage (deep-fried chicken) Ramen. Ajisen's bowls of ramen offer substantial individual meals, filled generously with soup along with the meat of choice, mix of shredded vegetables, seaweed strips, and halves of hardboiled egg. The ramen noodles were quite satisfyingly to-the-bite and the broth as tasty as I recalled from our last visit, although the soup in the karaage ramen was too oily from the fried chicken pieces for complete guilt-free enjoyment. The chashu ramen went down much better and I would certainly stick to the plainer options on future visits.

Bowls of ramen here are around about the $10 mark and the very extensive laminated-card menu also offers a variety of other a la carte choices, plus donburi and bento set boxes. But of course the ramen is what most come here for. Overall a quick and handy ramen fix but I guess we're still looking for that truly memorable ramen experience here in Melbourne.

Food: 3 spots - If ramen is what you're here for.
Service: 3 spots - Depends on mood of Asian student on the day but generally quick.
Value: 3.5 spots - There are cheaper noodles around but this is good value for the grade of food and dining space.
R-Factor: 3.5 spots - Not our first visit and likely not our last.
Spot Score: 13/20

Ajisen Ramen
130 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC.

Crayfish at Market Prices!

Regular visitors to Queen Victoria Market will know that Melbourne's famous 'wet' produce market has varied moods and a changing tempo depending on the day and time of visit. On a few of our trips there, even on a weekend, the market can be strangely subdued, with its displays of fruits and vegetables looking disappointingly past their best and the seafood trays uninspiringly stocked with little variety or re-thawed fill-ins. On other visits however, the market is on song. Bustling with the excitement of lively shoppers, of playfully competitive shopkeepers vocally vying for attention, deli stallholders beamingly convincing you to sample tasty wares, rows of verdantly crisp produce, and fish that gleamed like they just flopped straight from the deck of a boat onto the ice on which they were displayed. This was just how we found QVM when we recently took some friends that were visiting us from overseas there, and they were impressed. We were in luck, since our secondary goal was to show off some famed Australian seafood for dinner that evening. We got a couple of dozen freshly shucked Tassie oysters, around a kilo of live black mussels and did a double take when we spied whole cooked crayfish for $20 each! They weren't large crayfish by any means and each one was neatly bundled in a meshed sock that may have indicated that they travelled from afar, but I can't remember when I last saw rock lobsters (or crayfish) for only 20 bucks each locally. Too good to pass up so we got three, which meant we could look forward to half a cray each.

So dinner that evening had oysters for starters, a dozen served naturale with just a squeeze of lemon and a dash of tobasco, and the other dozen briefly grilled with a light ponzu dressing then garnished with a few flaky strips of nori. I made a pot of my popular yet simple chilli mussels; the shellfish tossed in some hot oil flavoured with sweated onions, thinly sliced fresh chilli, ginger, garlic and shallots, then steamed open with white wine and the lid on. Once the shells have opened, a tablespoonful of tomato paste and a similar dollop of buttery roux to help thicken the liquor and it's ready to be served with crispy chunks torn off a grilled baguette. Sides included Kipfler potatoes roasted with rosemary, and a mesclun salad with Packham pear and King Island blue brie.


The crayfish were halved, slathered with homemade basil pesto and dollops of butter and grilled very close to the flame until the butter started to bubble and the edges of shell just slightly charred. Removed from the flame and served with wedges of lemon for immediate squeezing, the crays turned out to be succulent and fresh so we got a good deal indeed. Our guests wished they lived in Australia.