For Meta Knight’s birthday, a bunch of us went to Ebisu in
Richmond for some good eats and cheap drinks. Because Meta Knight and I ate stuff just before dinner, we decided to order a bunch of tapas to share.
First off, I didn’t realise Ebisu renovated the interior
until I arrived! It looks way more modern and chic now compared to the homestyle,
comfy look from before. They also have a HD TV so this might be a good place to watch the game.
I enjoyed looking at their menu because it contains many
pictures and it helps me make decisions on what I want to eat. :P
Yummm.... Tapas :)
First came the Goma-ae
($3.95). It was alright. I expected black sesame sauce because I thought that was the authentic way of
making Gom-ae (anybody know?) but it was more of a peanut sauce than
sesame sauce...
We didn’t get this but a friend of ours ordered the torched box pressed sushi with Toro. It was pretty cool because the
server torches the top of the Toro at the table! It reminded me of the torched
box sushi at Miku (OMGG SO RIDICULOUSLY YUMMY!!).
The Tuna Tataki Salad
($6.95) was pretty good. The tuna tasted fresh (although there wasn’t a lot
of it) and the greens, carrot, crispy noodles, and daikon worked really well
together to create contrasting textures.
This dish is refreshing so it’s nice to have it if you
are ordering a lot of fried or heavy tapas.
We ordered the Mentaiko Yakiudon ($9.80) and it’s stir fried udon with fish roe,
bacon, onion, green onion, mayonnaise, and seaweed.
This was absolutely fantastic and probably one of the best yakiudons I’ve had. I particularly loved the smokey flavour from the bacon.
Meta Knight challenged me however and said that Guu Otokomae makes better
yakiudon so I accepted and we were off to Guu Otokomae the next day to see
which one of us will prevail. (Check out my post on Guu Otokomae and
see who wins LOL)
I had a craving for Takoyaki
($4.80) so we ordered it and god was it disappointing. Even the ones you
get from Richmond Night Market had more toppings and garnish than that!
As you can see, the outside was overcooked and the inside
contained nothing but dough (so no veggies at all) and a piece of octopus. Such
much for satisfying my takoyaki craving... fail.
The table ordered two
pitchers of Sapporo (~$14) and it
was nice to see that it came with frosted ‘mugs’.
One pitcher can fill about 5-6 ‘mugs’.
Based on these reasons:
- great place to have drinks and tapas now that they have renovated the interior
- prices are reasonable
- never ever get their Takoyaki
- I definitely recommend their Mentaiko Yakiudon
Service Rating: 4.5/5
Food Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $$ ($10-$20)
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Happy Eating!
A Japanese cookbook I have has this recipe:
ReplyDelete- 50 grams or 1/3 cup of black or white sesame seeds
- 1.5 teaspoon of caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon of sake
- 1.5 tablespoon of dashi
- 2 teaspoon of tamari
Toast the sesame seeds on a frying pan over medium heat, stirring regularly until golden and aromatic. Optional, reserve one teaspoon to sprinkle whole. Transfer the rest to a mortar. Grind the toasted sesame seeds and then gradually add the remaining ingredients until it forms a smooth paste.
While I won't be surprised some restaurants use a peanut butter mix, I also think they might avoid it due to allergies.
Wow thanks for the recipe KimHo! I really love black sesame seeds so I will definitely give this a try.
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