Autumn at Wayama

[khiemtran]

As regular readers may know, we tried Wayama's Summer kaiseki menu back in February. This week, we got to try their Autumn menu. (Ironically, it was about the most Wintery night you could imagine for Sydney, back apparently they're just about to switch to Winter soon...)

How did it go? Well, I think they've really hit their stride now...


First up came this Chawan Mushi with Antarctic Crab, the first sign that the food was going to be a bit above the ordinary. The chef does sauces very well, and the chawan mushi was delicately balanced. A nice dish to savour slowly as we warmed up with green tea.



Next, thin cut salmon sashimi. The red ribbon is actually a red carrot. The texture of the salmon was almost glassy.



Next, the "simmered dish", this time a broth of red snapper, eggplant and daikon. The snapper has been grilled first and the flavour of the broth was extraordinary. The chef (who used to work at Azuma) seems to do the simmered dishes very well.



Next, seared scampi and daikon salad. "Seared" is possibly an overstatement, but the tail meat was delicious.



Next, wagyu beef in a hollowed out persimmon. The meat is actually made up of very thin slices, formed into a roll then sliced. The balls are a mix of potato (white) and persimmon flesh (orange). After you've emptied the persimmon bowl, you can scoop out the sides with a little spoon.



Next the rice and soup dishes - plain rice with chicken mince and miso soup with the head of the scampi. The soup was especially good - although I wasn't quite sure what to do with the scampi head.





And finally dessert - a very rich green tea icecream and a red bean dessert.





All up, it was an impressive experience, and Wayama is starting to achieve the same effect of the Masa of old - the incongruity of getting really surprising food in a nondescript suburban setting. Adding to the strangeness, we were the only table there for most of the meal (on a cold, wet Monday), so it was a bit like having your own private chef sending out courses for you to try.

They're going to switch to a Winter menu soon, now that the persimmons are becoming harder to get, and we'll definitely be back. And hopefully, they'll start to get more of the old Masa clientele back too...

Comments

[soon_lee]

Looks delicious. Were the white things in the red bean dessert mochi?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Yes, they tasted like mochi. The menu says they were "rice cake balls", but I guess that's what mochi is after all...

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That all looks very intriguing and tasty. Unfortunately my husband is not an adventurous eater, so I rarely get to try really exotic meals.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

That's a shame! I'm coming to realise now that this type of food is more about tasting and contemplating than it is about the volume that gets served. In fact, despite the eight courses, it wasn't that big a meal at all, but the many and varied experiences made it seem like a lot.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow! Totally mouthwatering! The chawan mushi, the beef in the persimmon, and the moonlike mochi in the red beans especially grab my fancy.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Those are excellent choices! The chawan mushi was probably the most surprising, because chawan mushi is chawan mushi, right? It wasn't clear until we'd tried it that it was even possible to have a great one.

[88greenthumb.livejournal.com]

Yummy is ill fitting, maybe Taihen oishi desu, is better?

The dishes all look attractive and I can see how the chef took the time to make the dishes so presentable.

"The soup was especially good - although I wasn't quite sure what to do with the scampi head." That scampi head gave the soup a good, rich flavor. See that orange stuff towards the bottom of the head? You could scrape that out and mix it in with the soup to give it an even richer flavor. Or at least that's what I would do! ;)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll that next time! (Or at least, next time I ever find a scampi head in my miso soup...)

Definitely oishii...