“Food obsessions”. What causes them? An inexplicable inward desire to travel to the end of the earth to seek out the best, most enjoyable food items on this planet. While finding them, trying them and trying them again creates moments of excitement I cannot help but never feel 100% satisfied.

While this month my obsession has been macarons, I remember back to early April during my travels in Japan that I would hunt, seek out and destroy any Mochi that I could get my hands on. These soft, delicate sweet desserts to me personify the essence of the Japanese culture and Japanese psyche.

Perfect little pillows of soft chewy sweetness, hand crafted by tedious hours of pounding rice into a glutenous, chewy yet tender dough filled with various sweets – the most common red bean.

After returning from Japan and having put on a few kgs from endless mochi eating, my desire and obsession never quite left. While finding mochi’s in Australia is challenging, it is not impossible with packet varieties available in most asian supermarkets. However, my obsession required my very own Mochitsuki ceremony – so I made my own…

Here is a quick and easy recipe our friend, Naoko, shared with us.

Ingredients

40g Rice Flour
60g Glutinous Flour (aka sticky rice flour)
80g Caster sugar
140 ml water
Soy Bean Flour
1 can sweetened Red Bean (can get these from any Asian supermarket – I use the made in Japan variety)

Method

Mix the rice flour, glutinous flour and caster sugar together. Then add the water and mix until all lumps are gone. Cover in gladwrap and microwave for 2 mins and stir. The texture should be sticky and condense. Heat in microwave for 1 more minute. Remove and stir.

Sprinkle Soy bean flour over the dough (to prevent sticking). Cut the dough up into 8 even pieces.

Roll the pieces into a ball, flatten and add red bean in the centre. Pull the ends together, pinching them so they stick. Then sprinkle soy bean flour over the top.

Simple & easy.

These will keep for a few days in a sealed container however for the freshest result, wrap each mochi individually and store in the fridge!
 

Written by Rob and Thi

“Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life”.  Anthony Bourdain

As a first time tourist to Japan, this restaurant was incredibly hard to find. Tucked away in an unidentifiable side street, Seitaro sits just 10 people at any one time. I imagine that there could not be too many restaurants these days that could survive for so many years, serving so few people in any one sitting. This is part of what makes Seitaro so great – you know you are going to experience something special.

Seitaro has operated in the same location for over 50 years. Head chef and owner, Kimitaka Inoue was born the second son of a sushi master and began his apprenticeship in the family sushi restaurant in 1969.

You will find no menus in this restaurant. You quote Kimitaka-san a budget (Ours was 25,000 yen or ~A$350 at the time) and he and his two assistants get to work crafting you a stunningly beautiful, delicious and unforgettable voyage of sushi delights. Kimitaka-san’s wife, highly attentive to our needs served us some warm sake and tea.

Testing the waters and easing us into the journey to follow, the first dish served was an inside out roll with prawn and Japanese style egg. While not sounding so spectacular, there was something about the thin layer of perfectly cooked rice, crisp sweet prawn and moist, flavoursome egg that lets you know that everything at Seitaro is made with the highest level of skill and the best quality produce.

The next dish Kimitaka-san decides to serve us is a teriyaki-eel (Unagi). We watch as the eel is prepared from scratch, gently grilled and then painted with a layer of teriyaki sauce.

We are then presented with a trio of sushi. Now I am not 100% on the varieties however the piece on the left is similar to kingfish, the middle is squid and the right is the meat from a type of shell/mollusque. Conch maybe? It was slightly chewy. All 3 were great.

Toro time! Served two ways. The piece on the left is lightly grilled and the piece on the right is raw, showcasing the high level of fat as the segments are pulled apart. This was so good that I put in a special request for more toro. If you haven’t tried good quality toro before (tuna belly – highly prized in Japan) and you appreciate good sushi, you really MUST give it a go (although please be aware that it is becoming an endangered species due to the high rate of consumption in Japan). Azuma in Chifley tower will occasionally have it on the menu if you are lucky but can’t get to Japan!

Now the pièce de résistance of Seitaro. Kimitaka-san keeps a small live tank of what I believe are a rare, highly valued type of live prawn. Kimitaka-san gave me a special tour of the tank as he was quite proud of his collection. You would be forgiven if you thought it was scampi as the taste and texture were somewhat similar. Freshly caught from the tank, these were as fresh as you can possibly get! Sweet, firm and almost crisp to the bite we knew we were being spoilt! They even grilled the prawn head for us to enjoy whole!

We are then served a variety of 4 sushi rolls. Finely sliced squid, large fish roe, sea urchin and a type of seaweed with cucumber.

Finally we were served a plate of sashimi. Quite possible the best plate of sashimi I have ever experienced and just enough quantity to tease you to want more. Again I am not familiar with all the varieties however there was toro, the kingfish look-a-like, a nice thick cross section of an octopus tentacle, some sort of white fish (maybe snapper?) and a dark piece which if I had to guess was from the dark part of the tuna however I could not be sure. It had a very soft, melt in the mouth style texture.

Afterwards we were served a chilled Japanese egg custard for dessert and a selection of beautifully presented segments of fruit. It was so good I forgot to take photos of the dessert!

So why was the meal so special to me? I think it was something to do with the intimacy and small size of the restaurant, the personal touch that each dish is created especially for you (and yes the other guests all had unique dishes) and the fact that Kimitaka-san has been mastering his craft for just on 40 years. The whole experience was amazing and Kimitaka-san and his wife were very lovely generous people. I highly recommend Seitaro if you should happen to visit Japan.

If you want to find Seitaro the details are as follows:
1-7-11 Dontonbori Chuo-ku
Osaka 542-0071 Japan
Tel: 06-6213-3174

Written by Rob