After another weekend in London attending the second of my courses in preparation for my impending exam I decided to stop in Ealing on the way home to Wales for another Japanese meal. A couple of weeks previously I had eaten at the impressive Kiraku with my Mrs and father-in-law (review here). In that review I mentioned that Ealing was known to boast 2 of London’s top Japanese restaurants. Sushi-Hiro is the 2nd of them, renowned to have daily fresh supplies of fish to serve its customers. However it should also be pointed out at this early stage that it is a restaurant that solely specialises in sushi. By that I mean sashimi, sushi, and miso soup. Do not come here looking for tempura, noodles, teppanyaki and all the other cooked Japanese specialties. I was really looking forward to this.

The outside of the restaurant is no big deal… nor is the inside. It looks a bit like a dentists waiting room. Nevertheless there’s the option of sitting around the sushi bar and watching the sushi chefs work their magic. I was greeted warmly by 2 waitresses who led us to our table quickly. Note that this place is CASH only.

Dashi…. the very essence of Japanese cooking. When I first started my studies in Japanese cuisine it quickly became apparent that it was imperative to master the art of making Dashi before all else as it forms the basis of so many classic Japanese dishes. I will not go into that process in this post, but perhaps will write a proper entry regarding my multiple attempts of making this elegant soup base another time.

It’s getting a bit wet and cold here in the UK in August 2009. Both myself and the Mrs are in the process of recovering from cough & colds which have crippled our fitness regimes. I needed to serve up a nice soupy meal with Japanese flair!

Ya right! I simply made a litre of primary dashi and about 750mls of secondary dashi to make a soup and broth for the main constituents of the dinner. Udon was bought from a chinese supermarket and simply boiled for a few minutes to cook before draining under plenty of cold tap water to rid the ’starchiness’. The noodle broth that it was sit in later was also very simple to make… by just adding soy sauce, mirin, and a touch of sugar to the secondary dashi before slowly simmering! I almost forgot to mention the secret ingredient; japanese 7 spice powder at the end. This adds a kick of spice as you eat this dish.

I knew my return to the Crown at the Celtic Manor would be sooner rather than later due to the memory of that fantastic lunch I had there a few months ago (see my review here). Anyway it was the Mrs’ Birthday and so I had to bring her somewhere special yet not too far from our base in Cardiff as she needed to get up early for work the following day! What better place to take her than this place?

Very high expectations for this place after glowing reviews all over from the Times’ Giles Coren as well as various food guides. My father-in-law was over from Singapore and I wanted to show him some good old British cooking. I thought that this place would lift his views of our rather jaded cooking history in a city that is dominated by in my view by a French style of cuisine. A term many restaurants adopt these days is “Modern European”, but a true reflection of classic British cooking is rarely found in these establishments with their Michelin Stars.

Anyway… Hereford Road. I liked the website very much, with its daily changing menu depending on produce. They serve very interesting items such as calves brain and mains such as lamb neck. I hear the chef is previously from the critically-acclaimed St Johns which classically likes to serve literally head-to-tail cuts of meat. I walked into this restaurant thinking that I could not go wrong here.

Ealing Common… home to 2 of London’s finest Japanese restaurants according to a Guardian newspaper journalist and according to those boys at the Fat Duck in Bray. Let’s not deny anything here…. I love Japanese food. I love sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki, tempure, soft shell crab, and even Japanese noodle soup. While in London I could not pass on the opportunity to try this place. The 2 restaurants in this town are called Sushi-Hiro and Hiraku. I was really thinking hard of which one to visit as I had heard such glowing reviews of both of these places. I haven’t eaten Japanese food for a long time due to the poor options available in Cardiff (don’t even bother…. we have essentially 2 in Cardiff which are run by Malaysians… enough said).

For the regular readers of this post (there must be some!!!) you may have noticed I’ve been out of action for a while Unfortunately I’ve been struck down by upcoming exams and so have had to stop writing for a while to hit the books. Will carry on once the exams over in late November.

In the meantime I’ve recently been to Prague. Was going to write on the restaurants and food there but decided against after experiencing the diabolical restaurant scene there at present.

Some exciting meals to try out soon. Top of my list is a small restaurant in Bridgend called La Plie but for some reason it’s closed temporarily. I also want to try out La Gallois for whih I haven’t been for some time after a disappointing meal there almost 2 years ago. I hear they have a new chef!

The Armless Dragon I’ve wanted to try for a long time but have been put off by mixed reviews. We shall see….

Watch this space!

Oh btw, I’m finally gonna ditch using my iPhone camera and get a more capable snapper. At the moment it’s looking like the fujifilm f200exr for its low light shot capabilities. Finally…..

I’ve heard great things about this place as being one of the best South Asian restaurants in the UK (!). Opened just over a year ago now by a chef trained in Mumbai and already winning an accolade from the House of Commons is really an impressive achievement. How on earth this place managed to escape me for so long I still wonder. Nevertheless I thought I’d give it a visit last night to see if their reputation is worthy.

I’ve just failed a rather costly exam, and it’s costing me even more to repeat it… and so mood has been rather sombre of late. Still, I could not refuse a date with my wife and so arranged dinner here at one of the Celtic Manor Resort’s restaurants called the Lodge. I’ve been here once almost a year ago and thought the food was no-nonsense decent food and I guess that’s what I was after at the time. It also has a 30% discount off all food promotion on at present if you dine during weekdays as well as my standard 25% off all beverages due to my membership of the gym. Anyway here’s my review of the place.

It was a busy Saturday and I had lots of chores to do along with a friend’s leaving do in the evening. The Boss wanted to each lunch out somewhere and so I immediately thought of this small restaurant located effectively down the road from us in the upmarket village of Llandaff. I had been wanting to try this place for a few weeks now because of its ‘tapas’ style small dishes at lunchtimes which were served at a ‘3 for 2′ rate. I had also read a few good reviews speaking of a place that prides itself in serving ‘locally sourced’ produce.

Llandaff village itself is very small; the towering presence of Llandaff Cathedral being its center point item. Mulberry St is located just off the main road that runs through Llandaff (Llantrisant Rd) and so is very easy to find. There’s also a free public car park round the corner which is always useful. Being not particularly hungry I was looking for a light lunch, but boy were we in for a feast!!!

Friends of mine have mentioned this new all-you-can-eat restaurant in Bristol called Shanghai Nights for a few months now. Now I cannot emphasise enough how unenthusiastic I am when it comes to these buffets. This is because I can never overcome the temptation to literally stuff myself to the edge of explosion in order to get the most value for money. This has resulted in many a nauseous experience after the meal. However I was told this one is different. You don’t go up to get the food yourself. You order a few items off a huge menu and once you’ve finished those you order more. The only catch is that you may be charged for leaving any leftovers… So, on one tired evening on a drive back from London along the cursed M4 we decided to give it a try.