So I didn’t catch the egg…

O was Oyama. A japanese restaurant in Cathedral Village, attached to Cathedral place. It’s a beautiful,little place that is very inviting and welcoming. As soon as we walked through the door we were warmly greeted and the waitress had already figured out which booking we were for.

We went for the teppanyaki.

I thought I hadn’t tried teppanyaki before, until I remembered I’d been to Kamikaze in Garden City. Before I get onto the experience I had on Saturday, and how much better it was than Kamikaze, I would like to say that Kamikaze is a great place that does awesome crocodile and kangaroo dishes. The cooking style is the same, but the whole experience at Oyama is better, almost warmer.

Stepping Inside

As I mentioned before I felt that Oyama was a warm place to go and eat. All the staff were very friendly and we were never made to feel rushed. This could be because there were only 7 other people in the place, including staff. The place is very nicely laid out, there is a sushi bar on the opposite side of the restaurant (which I want to go and try because it looked like the guy was making the sushi just before each plate) and there are a lot of seats for just regular dining. To the right of the entrance was our destination, two giant hot plates surrounded by a single oval shaped bench and about 14 chairs.

There were only 2 of us, and it felt a little empty for a few seconds until we were presented with the menu. There are 4 set menus. The only 2 I really remember are bamboo and pine. We chose bamboo because I prefer moreton bay bugs to lobster. Next time I am getting pine.

Preparing to be impressed

As we sat down and our coffees were brought out to us, we eagerly awaited the spectacle to begin. Their coffee machine was broken, and they warned us they only had instant, but it still was presented as if it was good ground coffee. I was enjoying this already.

The dipping sauce was also handed to us. A lemony, honey type sauce on the left for seafood and a miso based sauce on the right for red meat. Being curious I tasted both sauces on their own.

The lemony, honey based sauce was pretty nice and if someone had given me a cup of it I would have drunk it thinking it was some sort of lemon tea. The miso sauce was a milder miso flavour than I usually have, and on it’s own was not that appealing. It wasn’t bad just kind of bleh on its own.

We were given a salad, that I almost forgot about entirely. It was pretty simple and had a really nice vinaigrette. I was very hungry so the salad lasted all of a minute. Not long after I finished it the first dish was being prepared.

Moreton Bay Bugs and Salmon

Watching the chef cook this dish was amazing in its own right. He would throw the seasoning around and tap the spatulas on the hot plate. All the while scooping and flipping the moreton bay bugs. Two pieces of salmon sat close to us being ignore, or so it seemed.

He added some sauces to the bugs and some more seasoning and served it up to us on two rectangular plates. This was the tastiest bug I have ever had. While we were eating this and savouring every mouthful, the chef cooked the salmon. This was then put onto the plate that the bug had been on so you could have the sauce with it.

This combined with the lemony sauce was really good. I tried a little of the salmon with the miso, you never know, but it didn’t work that well. Not unpleasant but not brilliant either.

Scallops and Steak

These two were cooked separately. We got the scallops first, this was followed, obviously, by the steak.

The scallops were big, for scallops. Watching the chef cook them, like most things he did, was impressive. As he cooked he told us a little bit about what he was doing. He added a splash of this and a dash of that, but wouldn’t say exactly what he was adding just referring to it as seasoning if he said anything about it at all. Every now and then a dollop of butter would be dumped into the middle of the cooking food.

My mouth is watering just thinking of it.

The scallops were beautiful, I didn’t want to dip them in the sauce as I loved them on there own.

The steak was cooked very quickly, being flicked over the hot plate through the seasoning as we watched. I don’t recall what we were talking about at this point, I was more curious about the meat itself. The seafood had been great, how was the steak going to be?

Great. Especially dipped in the miso. On its own it was ok. Mixed with the miso it was great. It, like the salad, vanished quickly.

I was thinking it would be more cooked than it was when watching it being flicked around the hot plate. I thought that maybe this would be too well cooked for my liking. I was very wrong. It wasn’t raw, but medium rare, which is the most cooked I like things. Like most of the dishes, I could have easily eaten more of this.

Stir Fry Vegetables

After a ten minute break, we had stir fried vegetables. I think they were cooked in soy sauce, amongst other things. The chefs hands were hard to follow as he cut up the mushrooms, zucchinis and other vegetables as he cooked.

Eating it was just as good as watching it. The sauce and seasoning made everything taste amazing. As I was eating it I watched as the chef put 2 eggs on the counter, and smiled.

Fried rice and spilled eggs

After we had eaten the vegetables we were both given small bowls. The chef then flicked an egg toward the bowls. One of us caught it. It was not me. I wound up with egg down my shirt and egg on the floor. The chef had already prepared another egg, knowing one of us was going to break one.

He poured the egg onto the hot plate and made the fried rice. This is the best way I have ever seen to make fried rice. It was thrown around the hot plate with ease. Scraped up and flicked around with flair. Finally it was bowled and thrown to us.

This time I caught it.

The fried rice was amazing. It also reminded me of my mums fried rice. This had fresh vegetables instead of frozen in it, and didn’t contain frankfurters (for those who haven’t had frankfurters cut up and put through fried rice you need to try it), but it tasted just as good. I love my mum’s fried rice, and was really impressed when this tasted similar. More impressed with my mum.

Fruit and Fried Ice Cream

Finally we got to the end of the meal. There was a small plate with a decoratively carved piece of apple, orange and rockmelon.

They were fruit. Nice fruit, but nothing exciting. A good way to end the teppanyaki.

I finished my meal off with fried ice cream with caramel sauce.

I love fried ice cream. Whoever thought this up in the first place is a culinary genius. A ball of battered ice cream in a bowl covered in caramel sauce is the second best way to end this kind of meal.

 

If it had bees it would have been perfect.

Night All.