KUROBUTA, MARBLE ARCH

There's a few restaurants I've been to that I sort of forget about.... not because they were bad or I didn't like them, but I just get so swept up in all the new openings and going back to local favourites that they slip through the net. So when I woke up one morning at Wilderness Festival declaring that I needed raw fish for lunch, everyone looked at me like I was crazy. But it was all I wanted and what I was determined to have, so off we went in pursuit of sashimi. And we found it at Kurobuta's stall in the restaurant tent. And then I remembered really loving the food at Kurobuta proper in London, so I booked into their Marble Arch branch for dinner with Emily and off we went.

I'd only previously been to the Chelsea restaurant, so it was nice to check out their Marble Arch one. It's lighter and brighter and we nabbed an outside table before working our way through as much food as we could eat. We nibbled on sake, lemon, butter and salt flamed edamame while we read through the quite long menu and sipped on delicious Made in Provence rose, a bottle of which had come free with our meal as I'd booked a table for before 7pm through OpenTable. 

Then our real food started coming, and apart from the first and last dish we had, everything else was spot on. The first dish wasn't bad, there just wasn't enough of it to really tell if I liked it. Salmon gravadlax and avocado tartare, dill mayo, rice crunchies and fresh yuzu zest was light, but at about one forkful each I couldn't tell you much more than that. 

But things drastically improved here on in. I loved the miso grilled hot wings that were all umami and spicy and sticky and plentiful. 

We ordered the sticky miso grilled aubergine with candied walnuts as Emily is something of an aubergine fanatic, and it was a great choice. The twice cooked aubergine was indeed sticky and so full of flavour, with a nice texture added by the walnuts. 

Another dish I have to thank Emily for was the octopus doughnuts, which I wouldn't have ordered myself but were truly delicious. Big chunks of tender octopus were covered in the lightest, crunchiest batter and doused in creamy and miso dressings and chopped chives. 

The skinny bitch cali maki with snow crab, avocado omelette and yuzu mayo were fantastically fresh and light. Emily hated them though so I got the whole plate to myself. I loved the crunch of all the raw veg and the lack of rice, which is one thing I don't normally like about sushi as it fills me up too much which equals less stomach space for raw fish!

From the healthy to the less so, the black pepper soft shell crab tempura. I enjoyed this but would have done more so if it was served whole with a side of sauce rather than chopped up like it was. 

The last dish was the one we shouldn't have bothered with. Tea smoked lamb with smokey nasu and spicy Korean miso arrived a full hour after the rest of the food, didn't really do anything flavour wise, and cost £15.50 for two tiny cutlets.... The chicken wings we had earlier for £6 for a whole plate full. 

Our meal came to £60 each, and we had the free bottle of wine. It's not a cheap place to go but we did eat a lot of food and have a couple of other drinks. Despite a couple of duds, Kurobuta is definitely back on my restaurant list, and I will be back soon, particularly for more of their raw dish options. 

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KANADA-YA, HAYMARKET

I'm a big fan of Japanese food. I love the diversity of it. So many people think of Japanese food and just think of sushi, but there's so much more too it, including one of my favourites - ramen. And one of my favourite places for ramen in London have just launched a second site, which is great news as it means less queuing! I've reviewed the original Kanada-ya, in Covent Garden, previously, where we had a ramen so good I can still remember all the tastes now. So I was pretty excited to visit their new site on Panton Street, just off Piccadilly.
 

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SAKE & FOOD, ANGEL, 9-12th JUNE

If you want to learn more about sake and pairing it with foods from all over the world, then head down to the piazza in Angel Central shopping centre this weekend to find out more. You can taste sake from some of Japan's top sake breweries, see live cooking demos, taste delicious food and learn how to make the tastiest sake cocktails.

On Thursday there's a macaroon piping masterclass at 3pm from Atelier des Chefs, followed by sake cocktail making with Chef Events at 5pm. Friday's activities include Pratap from That Hungry Chef making Bengali chicken tikka paté on toast from 3-4pm and Eccie from Karma Cans will be dishing up ceviche samples from 5-6pm. I'll be there on Saturday and Sunday from 5-6pm showing you how to make delicious umami canapés that go perfectly with a glass of sake, and from 12-1pm ex-Fat Duck stagier Andy Chapman will be making a chocolate water ganache with crispy rice and matcha on both weekend days. Pratap is also back there with his Bengali chicken tikka paté on Saturday from 3-4pm.

So come say hi, get some free nibbles, and sample lots of different types of sake. It's a free event and runs from 3-7pm on Thursday and Friday, and from 12-7pm on Saturday and Sunday.

 

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SAKE NO HANA, MAYFAIR

When I went to Japan earlier this year I missed the cherry blossom season which is happening now. But it's fine, because Sake no Hana have brought the blossom to London. From now til the 18th of June their Mayfair based Japanese bar and restaurant has been transformed into a cherry blossom garden. You can sit under the intertwining cherry blossom branches, which are lit up by thousands of lights at night, and sample the specially created, limited edition Sakura menu. For £34 you can have a feast of really tasty Japanese food. The fixed menu consists of a welcome cocktail, bento box of soup, sushi and sashimi, main bento and pudding.

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WHERE TO EAT - KYOTO, JAPAN

Wow, Japan feels like a long time ago! I only got back five weeks ago but it seems far longer ago than that. I've already done one post focusing on the actual reason I was there - sake - but I also want to tell you about all the incredible food we ate out there, in case you're planning a trip.

We started our tour with three days in Kyoto, which I fell in love with. It's a beautiful city and we ate at a huge variety of places there, from some of the top restaurants, to cheap but incredible ramen bars where you order from a screen then wait in line til there's a seat for you to eat at. In fact, that's the first place we ate when we landed. Tired, a little grumpy and really just wanting a shower at the hotel and a strong coffee we were instead whisked off to Sugari where I had the best ramen I've ever tried. It's a tiny little restaurant, and once you've ordered from said screen (which luckily our tour leader did for us as it's all in Japanese) you take a ticket and wait out the back in a little courtyard until there's space at the long bar inside for you. The ramen costs between £6 and £9 depending on what size you choose. I had the "small" motsu ramen made with pork broth and guts, bonito soup and yuzu noodles. I'd said before the trip that the only thing on my 'don't eat' list was tripe (assuming we wouldn't come across Heinz baked beans which are the other item that make up my list) but was convinced to try the grilled pork guts ramen and I'm so glad I did. There were only a few pieces of meat in the broth, that's served separately from the cold made-in-house noodles, and they were delicious. The broth itself was rich and creamy, and the yuzu tang on the noodles balanced this out perfectly. Highly recommended if you're in Kyoto. The queue moves quickly and it's 100% worth the wait, and I really liked sitting at the bar watching the chefs do their thing.

 

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SAKE TOUR OF JAPAN

Until last month I'd never been to Asia. I've travelled around a lot of Europe and a few places beyond but had never made it that far East. Then an email landed in my inbox at the beginning of January inviting me on a sake tour of Japan three weeks later, so off I went.

Japan was fascinating - I learnt so much, laughed so hard, ate some of the best food I've tried, saw sights that blew my mind and sampled more sake than I ever thought possible. I've got so much to write about our trip, so will break it down by city over the next couple of weeks on here (we did five cities in eight days!) but today's post is all about the sake.

Sake is the national drink of Japan and has been an integral part of Japanese culture for well over 1,500 years, and according to one video we watched, "makes interactions with others smoother". Sake is a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting rice which has been polished to get rid of the outer bran. Most white rice that we eat has been polished 10% - getting rid of the bran, and leaving 90% of the grain. Rice used in sake making can be polished up to 65%, leaving only 35% of the grain remaining. The rice is polished in a rotating machine with a sharp stone which makes it purer, clearer and more expensive.

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