The mothership wanted to take us to Kusuya Rakuen, an Okinawan restaurant one of her girlfriends found. Unfortunately, they have some kind of smoking license that means they can’t accept anyone under 18. This left my youngest sister out of the running. So with our dinner plans up in smoke and our tummies grumbling, we pressed the lift button for the next Japanese restaurant and landed up at Ajitomi.

I can’t think of another time where we’ve lucked out like that. The restaurant was homely, cosy and reminded me of being back in Japan. There were only a few tables and very simple decorations, but the waitresses were attentive and happy to explain the menu. Everything about the place felt personal and intimate: the menu seemed extremely eclectic, with Italian and French-inspired Japanese dishes alongside perennial Japanese classics, but the more we tried the more we could feel the personal impact of the chef. I have some kind of inexplicable personal vendetta against the word ‘fusion’, but it’s never been more irrelevant than here. It didn’t feel like the chef was mixing in different cuisines just to earn the word: it felt like you were experiencing what interested and influenced the chef.

We probably ate more than little ladies should, mostly because we wanted to sample as much of the menu as possible. Their homemade salad dressings are divine AND you can buy a bottle for almost nothing to bring home. I loved the Okinawa-style meatballs stuffed with plums, and my sisters loved the little dish of potato, bacon and pesto pasta they gave us as a starter. Every dish was obviously made with care and attention, and the homemade caramel creme brulee was to die for.

Seriously? I think I’m a little bit in love.

Ajitomi
7/F Circle Tower
28 Tang Lung Street
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

http://ajitomi.okoshi-yasu.com

When the weather in London is this wet and this cold, ‘outdoors’ becomes this distant rain-slicked world that brings only wet coats and runny noses. Life is about the journey between the inner courtyard door to the outside gate door to the Tesco’s and back, and trying not to get splashed by the 149 bus.  London food adventures have been few and far between, and bar last week’s spur-of-the-moment Thanksgiving celebration, our kitchen has been uninspired.

It’s times like this – cuddled up in my Duvet of Fear – that I think about simple and great meals shared in the sunshine. Like spending an afternoon in London with a loved one, walking through Soho and enjoying a sandwich at Fernandez & Wells. Sitting at the bar on Lexington Street and tucking into a mortadella sandwich with a cold bottle of Fentiman’s, catching the last of the summer sun… I’d love to be there right now.

It was my first visit to Fernandez & Wells, and I can only add to the glowing reviews. My mortadella sandwich was exactly what I was after, packed full of flavours despite looking deceptively simple. I didn’t even suffer food envy for my partner-in-food-crime’s bresaola sandwich (although I did steal some of his Fentiman’s lemonade – that stuff is beverage crack).

Hanging out with nothing to do but enjoy the crunch of my sandwich and good company… beats trying to keep my toes warm by sitting on  my feet and eating digestives.

I’m a huge proponent of the idea that food that is ‘cheap’ can also be food that is ‘good’. I’ve had fantastic meals for very little amounts all around the world, and some of that food has been in London. I’ve felt that this is an idea that I’ve found more during my time in the UK. Quality ingredients means quality food, which means spending a bit more and that’s certainly something I can agree with. Going out for a meal is more of an event on this side of the world than it is in Asia. But food that is cooked with heart, food that evokes a response, food that is memorable is not necessarily expensive food and in that maybe the above statement isn’t so objectionable. I’ve certainly bought a lot of cheap shoes and my feet have not thanked me for it.

On the other hand, the idea of sacrificing food for shoes definitely gave me pause and I’ve eaten my share of canned tuna to afford beautiful things before. And here’s why: I can look back at meals that I’ve shared, cheap or expensive and good or bad, and remember a whole host of people and places and things just by association. A mouthful of the marinated sake chicken at Sake no Hana brought me back to eating yakitori in Japan. A steaming spoonful of congee in Chinatown reminds me of being home and being looked after. I’ve never once looked at a pair of my shoes and thought fondly of a night out on the town with my girlfriends. Food is so closely associated with so many of memories, I can’t even go back to the period in my life where I’d go without to earn something else.

Here are some food memories… sadly, the best food memories are rarely if ever documented but always remembered!

Tea in Paris

Tea with a wonderful friend in her wonderful apartment in Paris with macarons from Pierre Hermé and tea from Mariage Frères.  Everything about this girl is fabulous – from her shabby chic studio apartment in Saint-Germain-des-Près, her amazing style and her collection of Assouline books. Now that tea reminds me a crazy, whirlwind weekend in Paris in February.

Takoyaki

A shared, steaming box of takoyaki with a good friend at the Sunday UpMarket at the Old Truman Brewery on a cold, cold day: one of the first culinary pleasures I experienced in London.

Tuna Tartare at Patara

This isn’t a great food picture. You wouldn’t be able to tell that this was a tuna carpaccio, served with shallots and lemongrass and lime, and was absolutely delicious. What I can tell by this ravaged plate is that I was happily chatting away, enjoying myself silly when I remembered,” Shit! I’m meant to be a food blogger! I have to take pictures, or something!” This was from a dinner with my cousins. We look the same, we eat the same, and we have the same sick-ass sense of humour.

Fruits de Mer in Cannes

The Cannes film festival. Fruits de mer with an editor, a reporter, a fashion journo and my dad. I still dream about the fines de claire.

Plastic Tonkatsu, Roppongi Hills

I have such an obsession for plastic food. It is so genius. I want to go to plastic food shops and start a plastic food collection. My grandfather took us to this great restaurant in Tokyo to share some absolutely lipsmacking tonkatsu with us. I opted for the katsudon at top right.

Veuve Clicquot Lounge

A shared bottle of Veuve Clicquot with my mom, grandfather, sister, aunt and cousin at the MGM’s Clicquot Lounge in Macau. We sat with the architect, who told us about the problems of designing this table-cum-ice-bucket – lighting, condensation, etc. Seriously, when am I going to get crazy creative and invent a table/ice-bucket?

Churros and Chocolate

Delicious Madrileno breakfast, shared with my mom and aunt in Madrid. It’s lucky that I can view this entirely apart from its American-resort counterpart, because then I would have to admit that I love the Disneyland version more than life itself.

My first lemon tart!

Okay so it’s kind of crappy? And you can see where I didn’t QUITE get the pastry into the mould? And that it’s a little burnt? But, hah, my brother wanted more! I win at lemon tart!

Tsukune smiley-face

My brother is a busy worker bee, so sometimes I don’t get to see him that often. But when I do see him, he takes me for yummy lunches (here at Roka) and even let’s me play with my food.

I’d heard great things about Tomoe, with ace reviews from An American in London amongst other bloggers. And good, fresh fish is something I’ve always taken for granted in Hong Kong but I find more difficult to get in London. So I toddled up Marylebone Lane and headed in.

It was like a bar in Tokyo from the 80′s, but in an awesome way. The staff were really welcoming and asked if I minded sitting at the bar (I didn’t). While I decided on my choices, I asked for a glass of plum wine on the rocks (umeshu). One sip, and I could feel my funk start slipping away…

Umeshu at Tomoe

It wasn’t on the menu, but having read reviews where scallop (hotate) and sea urchin (uni) were mentioned I asked if they had any available today. Happily they did, but had none of the fatty tuna (oh-toro) . I decided to start with two salmon nigiri, one medium fatty tuna (chu-toro), one yellowtail (hamachi), one eel (unagi) and one sea urchin (uni).

Sushi at Tomoe

When they put the plate in front of me I actually made an audible squeal of glee, much to the surprise of the poor couple dining near me. I didn’t even know where to start. Everything was amazing – fresh, full of flavour and so, so noms. The scallop and uni were my favourites, because when you have sub-par scallop or urchin you really appreciate the good stuff, but the yellowtail and the medium fatty tuna were amazing as well.

Super noms

I mean, look at that uni… and those plump scallops… phoargh. I was still hungry after the sushi, so I followed some advice from the blogosphere and went for some of the soft-shell crab rolls.

Soft-shell crab roll

These were great. Freshly fried crab that was crunchy and crispy, but not greasy, and it was a lovely and generous portion. But in a place that offers such great fresh fish, I felt like it was a bit of a shame to go for a deep-fried roll and not enjoy more of that sea goodness. My glass of plum wine was a perfect companion for my meal.

My bill came up to a little more than suggested by some previous reviews, at around £30, but I assumed this was due to the a la carte sushi and the off-menu items. Still, I would have preferred for the bill to be itemised for clarification. I was way too blissed out to even stress out over it, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind when visiting.

The worst thing about reviewing it? I want to go again! Right now! Argh!

Tomoe

62 Marylebone Lane

London W1U 2PB

Closest Tube: Bond Street

After paging through the menu, I noticed that some of the dishes that had been fairly heavily reviewed had been removed from the menu. It also seemed that a few of the most expensive dishes had been removed. The menu was now in English with Japanese kanji next to it, which was a little disappointing because I would have liked to see romanji to understand some of the ingredients.

We started with a glass of the Hanyu Jack of Clubs 1991, a 15 year old whiskey that one of my friends joined immensely and was happy to sample with the 40%, despite the steep £18.50 price tag for 50ml. I’m not a whiskey drinker, but he was totally enamoured, ready to propose after the first date, etc. I shared a carafe of the Asamurasaki Akai Sake (£16) with the birthday girl . Our waiter told us that the sake was very smoky and very different to other sakes in that it was a red colour, and not clear. Having tried sake before we were very happy to have it, but did appreciate the fact that he did confirm it was to our tastes.

We took awhile to go through the menu and choose our own personal picks and preferences. The great thing about dining with friends from Hong Kong is that we have very similar tastes and hardly any items that we wouldn’t eat, but our palates are diverse enough to keep the meal interesting. Seared fatty tuna sushi was vetoed as the birthday girl noted that the tuna served in Sake no Hana is not known to be sustainable. We also vetoed the wagyu beef, as online reviews indicated that it wasn’t worth the price tag. We’ve happily had wagyu in Hong Kong before so weren’t desperate to try it here.

We settled on sesame aubergine (£6), salmon, seabass and octopus sashimi salad (£11), the crunchy king crab roll (£14.50) and sea bass carpaccio with yuzu ponzu sauce to start. We also chose the grilled yellowtail with daikon ponzu, the black cod tatsuta age with rice (£14.50), marinated sake chicken (£8), Berkshire pork katsu with shiitake mushroom (£7.50).  Our waiter was great in gently breaking it to us that maybe we had ordered too much without making us feel like total gross gluttons. On his recommendation, we decided not to get the king crab roll or the pork katsu. He rightly said that the pork katsu was a dish you could get elsewhere in London whereas the other dishes were a little different.

The aubergine, sashimi salad and carpaccio came first. The serving of aubergine was decently sized, with about six sticks of gently grilled aubergine with a very thick sesame paste on top. The thickness of the sesame paste was surprising – it had a texture not unlike molasses and could easily be manipulated into a ball and eaten on its own. The thickness wasn’t unpleasant, just surprising, but maybe would have been too rich if you ordered it for yourself. The sashimi salad was delicious: the seabass, salmon and octopus were all soft, fresh and succulent and the ponzu dressing on the salad was very moreish. The carpaccio was the least enjoyable of the three dishes. The fish was very fresh, but the ponzu dipping sauce was exactly the same as what was served on the salad but in a more concentrated form. We considered this unlucky ordering on our part. It really needed something else to make it a dish worth ordering again – spring onions on the fish? Daikon in the ponzu? It was really disappointing and the presentation was a little lame. The pieces of seabass were draped artlessly over one side of a plate with a deep dip in the middle for the sauce. For what Sake no Hana charges, they can definitely do better than this.

The marinated sake chicken came next, and was absolutely delicious. Eight succulent pieces of chicken, each deliciously juicy, with salad and a topping of crispy lotus root. We loved it, but this was the first point of the night where we discussed how the menu gave very little understanding of the size or sometimes the contents! The crispy lotus root was pretty poor – tasteless and greasy, which made me feel happy that we hadn’t ordered tempura. A restaurant like this really shouldn’t be tripping up on its garnish.

The black cod came next, served in a black pot in a style similar to kamameshi. There was more than enough to serve the three of us, and it was absolutely wonderful. I’ve always found it amusing that miso-marinated black cod is considered an A-list dish in London whereas any izakaya in HK or Japan will serve it, obviously to varying degrees of skill. Our waiter mixed the cod with the rice, where it flaked off beautiful and mixed up with the rest of the dish. Um, this was super-noms and beautifully subtle. The soft flakes of cod melted in your mouth alongside the slightly sweet rice, and there was a lovely sharp taste of ginger to spice it up. It was a dish that really made me miss home, an absolute warmer of a dish. But again, without the waiter’s explanation you might think from the description that you were getting black cod next to a bowl of rice.

Unfortunately, we were left waiting for the yellowtail cheek for quite sometime. Our waiter was apologetic, even to the point of telling us that the chef totally forgot, but we were happy to sit our sake and chat and wait for it. Was it worth the wait? I love fish, and this was grilled to perfection on a base of ponzu-soaked daikon radish. I relish every chance I get in the UK to eat a lovely fresh piece of fish, especially cheek. It was a huge piece and we were happy to tuck it in. But seriously, what’s the obsession with ponzu here? Three dishes we had used the exact kind of ponzu. Don’t get me wrong. I love ponzu. But seriously, there are ways to adjust it per dish. It made everything feel a bit ‘samey’, which I’m sure is unfair and unlucky ordering on our part.

We squeezed in passionfruit cheesecake with yuzu ice cream and white chocolate pistachio mousse with lychee sorbet for dessert. Both cakes were lovely and the lychee sorbet was so refreshing, but I’m said to say I’ve had better yuzu ice cream before and both sorbet and ice cream were ruined by being plopped on top of a layer of crumble.

All in all, I couldn’t fault anything about my Sake no Hana experience. Some of the staff were cold, but our waiter was wonderfully attentive. Yes, the lifts to the bathroom suck, especially if you have a late booking like we did and end up worrying that you are going to be stranded down there/attacked like in a Japanese horror film but they’ve managed to work around the constraints of designing a unique restaurant in a listed building admirable. I loved their drinks list, but you will need to make use of your wonderful waiter to explain the dishes and the various sizes of the dishes to get the most out of the experience. And while I couldn’t fault anything, I can’t laud it either. It’s competent, it’s beautiful and I enjoyed eating good Japanese food in a gorgeous setting. But the dishes lacked either a true ring of authenticity or an edge to elevate it in any way. Without the 40%, I don’t know if I would visit again.

Check out the gorgeous little biscuit bunnies!

We picked up these great tarts for my birthday from Coco & Me, the best stall in the market serving only cakes and chocolates made from the best ingredients. I embarrassed myself by fangirling over the owner, who runs an awesome blog of her own, but we slunk away with the large fruit tart above and this amazing little bitty chocolate tart!

They tasted as good as they look. BTW, awesome images copyright of Love True Food.