As a treat while my cousin Aaron was in the city, Auntie Mindy took us to Roka, a really nice restaurant in London's media district serving Japanese robatayaki cuisine. Robatayaki translates literally to "fireside cooking" and refers to food that is skewered and grilled over hot charcoal. The "tasting menu" was highly recommended which is where one gets to sample a variety of house specialities and feature dishes. We were hesitant because we had such a full day of eating (see "A Sunday Roast" post below) and weren't sure if we could manage such a feast. Aaron, being the smart young man that he is (he does go to Cambridge after all), made a very valid point:
"Diana, you can eat a lot...like not in a bad way..."
And so the tasting menu it was.
It started with the beachu kim chi and a grilled seaweed & bamboo shoot salad. Next, we received a selection of sashimi and the yellow fin tuna tartar with seaweed crackers.
Moving into the hot foods we had a soft shell crab maki, assorted tempura, and beef, ginger & sesame gyoza.
We were all still feeling pretty confident at this point. The final round of savoury dishes was the spiced chicken wings with sea salt & lime, fried eggplant, grilled asparagus, and teriyaki salmon filet. The fried eggplant was fantastic (although not very photogenic) - it was served with this sesame miso sauce and katsuobushi (dried, fermented and smoked fish or what I simply call "fish flakes"). By the time the salmon came around I was ready to wave the white flag but somehow we managed to get through it all and even save a little room for what was coming next.
The last and final part of the meal, was the amazing dessert platter! I really should have been taking notes here because there were some really nice and refreshing desserts here: a peanut butter ice cream sundae, some sort of mango filled meringue type thing, a custard-y lychee dessert, an assortment of fruit sorbets and fresh dragon fruit (Aaron's fave). This might have been my favourite part of the entire meal and just look how pretty it is!
Such a lovely day, dinner, and visit with my Australian family. :)
DG
"Diana, you can eat a lot...like not in a bad way..."
And so the tasting menu it was.
It started with the beachu kim chi and a grilled seaweed & bamboo shoot salad. Next, we received a selection of sashimi and the yellow fin tuna tartar with seaweed crackers.
Moving into the hot foods we had a soft shell crab maki, assorted tempura, and beef, ginger & sesame gyoza.
We were all still feeling pretty confident at this point. The final round of savoury dishes was the spiced chicken wings with sea salt & lime, fried eggplant, grilled asparagus, and teriyaki salmon filet. The fried eggplant was fantastic (although not very photogenic) - it was served with this sesame miso sauce and katsuobushi (dried, fermented and smoked fish or what I simply call "fish flakes"). By the time the salmon came around I was ready to wave the white flag but somehow we managed to get through it all and even save a little room for what was coming next.
The last and final part of the meal, was the amazing dessert platter! I really should have been taking notes here because there were some really nice and refreshing desserts here: a peanut butter ice cream sundae, some sort of mango filled meringue type thing, a custard-y lychee dessert, an assortment of fruit sorbets and fresh dragon fruit (Aaron's fave). This might have been my favourite part of the entire meal and just look how pretty it is!
Such a lovely day, dinner, and visit with my Australian family. :)
DG
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