Melting Pot called Melbourne - Part II

My friend and I hit upon a Japanese restaurant yesterday. Japanese food would not appeal to Indians simply because it is not too much spicy. That is not a reason to ignore the subtle tastes that the Japanese and mostly Oriental food presents.

Tomodachi (Japanese for friend) was the name of the place. Japanese restaurants usually have Sushi trains where Sushi dishes keep going round on a conveyor belt on a large table. Colour coded plates means they know how much to charge on each picked up plate. Sushi is usually raw fish wrapped in sea-weed with rice. Some sushis have chicken, beef or pork but these are usually cooked.

Takoyaki:
Takoyaki are fried balls of Octopus meat. I first tasted Octopus in a Chinese dish, being overcooked and hence becoming rubbery in that case. But didn't know that Octopus meat is this tasty. In this instance it was cooked in the right way and was too irresistible to stop at just one plate.










Tonkatsu:




It's deep fried pork served with rice. Like Indians Japanese food(and for the most part, Chinese food)is served with rice. But unlike us, they do not have curries to go with it.

I do not usually like to eat Pork, but tried this nonetheless and I thought it was chicken, because it was cooked so nicely that there was no smell of pork, nor it was too hard. It was crisp and made just right.





BiBimBap:
This is a Korean rice dish served with our choice of Chicken or Beef. I ordered the Chicken version. Under the egg, there a variety of veggies, including carrots and also sprouted beans along with Mushrooms.

For the desi hot taste the red sauce that was served was some kind of chilli sauce, which when tasted by itself would be like playing with fire, but when taken in small quantities with the rice was really tasty. Miso soup (on the top) is served with most Japanese food, or so my fried said.








While real good Japanese food is hard to find, Tomodachi was a good place to enjoy Oriental food. It may burn a hole in your pocket, but it certainly is good for your stomach and for your taste buds.