Imadake (Montréal, QC)

4006 St-Catherine West
Montréal, Québec
514.931.8833
website

My first outing at Imadake was a few months ago, after my friend Cee's return from Australia, for dinner dinner and catching up. I wanted to go to Kazu but they were closed for a few weeks for vacation. I guess even cooks have to take a break! After surfing different sites, and at Elle's recommendation we headed out to Imadake for an early Saturday evening dinner.

Imadake.

The restaurant was not too busy when we arrived but according to the waitress many of the tables were reserved. After staring at her table set up map, she sat us at a very large and long table, as long as we were out by 8 pm.

To start with, Cee and I shared the beef tataki with ponzu sauce and white fish carpaccio (which I no longer see on the menu). The beef was just slightly seared and sliced thinly. The white fish was topped with a bit of roe. Both made for great light starters.

Beef tataki and white fish carpaccio.

After reading about the black fish cod on La Bouche Pleine, we each had to order our own portion. Just as it was described, the fish was perfectly cooked and flaked in pieces that melted in your mouth. I loved the miso on the fish and the caramelized skin.

Miso black cod.

To accompany my cod, I ordered some grilled mushrooms which were mainly oyster mushrooms. Cee ordered a salad, which was accompanied by a decadent peanut dressing.



When my friend Tee came into town, I took her to Imadake for dinner (while her hubby stayed home with the kids). We ordered a few small plates to share, including the the black cod obviously.

The edamame ($3) was a nice salty snack. The vegetable tempura ($6) was well fried and crispy. I wish the pieces were smaller as they were not well sized for sharing. The pork gyoza were fried but still juicy on the inside. Finally, the karaage - fried chicken ($8) were nicely crispy, served with a wasabi mayo. I really liked the chicken but would have preferred less fatty pieces of chicken. I had to pull out some pieces of fat.




Imadake is a fun place to eat. Their menu of small plates is conducive to trying different dishes. It was busy both times I visited. Don't be startled by chants from the tiny Japanese waitresses of "when I say sake, you say BOMB, Sake BOMB, sake BOMB".

Kazu (Montréal)

1862 Rue Ste-Catherine Ouest
Montréal, Québec
514.937.2333

On a quick visit to Montréal, my sister and I dropped by Kazu. She'd been raving about this izikaya and I really wanted to try their ramen (because I have never tried ramen before...). Since Kazu only offers ramen at lunch time we dropped by at noon, and it was quite packed with a business crowd. We were able to squeeze onto two chairs by the counter.


Kazu and view from our counter seats.

The lunch menu wasn't very extensive, with about 10 offerings. My sister wanted to try something that was only available at dinner time, so she stuck to her favourite: the tuna and salmon bowl. I obviously had to order the ramen, with chicken I believe (this visit was over 2 months ago...). Our dishes started with a soup and a potato salad.


Soup and potato salad.

Elle's (I'll start using her blog name!) tuna and salmon bowl was piled high with crispy noodles. At the base was sushi rice, topped with fish and a generous amount of vegetables. Elle really likes the dressing and she mixed everything together.


Tuna and salmon bowl.

I was quite excited to receive my ramen bowl. It seemed to have a lot going on: ground pork, seaweed, an egg, snow beans and greens. One of my favourite components tasted like pickled daikon. The noodles (that Elle thought were made on the spot) had a great texture. The broth was quite flavourful. Just as I imagined and more!


Bowl of ramen noodles.

Elle and I decide to splurge a bit and shared a green tea ice cream. We were surprised to see that the green tea flavouring came in powder form. Still, it was quite enjoyable.



Kazu was quite delicious. I really want to come back and try the shrimp burger!! I will definitely have to re-visit!

Sushi Japango (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC)

11672 boulevard De Salaberry
Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Québec
514.683.0808‎

My week in Montréal wasn't all play; I stayed at my mom's and worked from my company's office in Québec. Luckily, the office was only a mere 10 minute from her place. Even better, this meant that I could stop by to the sushi shop where my mom works part-time for lunch!


Sushi is so colourful!

Like many sushi shops in Montréal, Sushi Japango's owners are Vietnamese. They mainly do take-out but there are a couple of tables to eat-in. The little shop is nestled within Marché de l'Ouest, a little food market where you can find specialty food stores, as well as a farmer's market outside.


The owner and my mom's co-worker.

My mom explained to me that they pride themselves in making everything fresh and that is why this a popular sushi destination in the West Island.


Ready-to-go meals; sushi shops go through a lot of avocado!

Sushi Japango offers lunch meals to go to the office bees nearby. However, I had to go with my favourite: the spicy shrimp roll. It's filled with shrimp, pollock crab meat, roe, crunch tempura and a spicy sauce. I only needed 5 pieces to make me full and happy. Oh, how I wish I worked closer to my mom's year round!


Spicy shrimp roll.

Oomasa Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)

100 Japanese Village Plaza Mall
Los Angeles, California
213.623.9048
website

After spending the weekend with my family, I got to meet up with Cathy and Vern, aka the newly married couple, aka The Gastronomer & The Astronomer on Monday. We went out to a Japanese restaurant in Little Japan, in downtown Los Angeles.



We had not see each other since my trip to Vietnam in 2008 so we had to catch up on what's going on in our lives.


It was great to see my old friends!

I don't remember much about the menu, but they had good dinner specials. It included a miso soup, tempura and sushi. I was rather surprised by the macaroni salad but I did really like the cucumber salad. I ordered the chicken teriyaki I believe...

My dinner special.

The food was good, nothing too memorable. I'm sure if Cathy writes a post about this restaurant, she will have much better pictures! Let's just say I have major camera envy! More meals to come with my Cathy in California!


The combo also included green tea ice cream.



For my other California posts:
* Bánh Mì Chè Cali & Tea Station
* NYC Seafood Restaurant
* Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
* Quang An Duong Herb Store & Kim Ky Noodle House
* Fish tacos at Señor Fish
* Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza
* Crawsfish at The Boiling Crab
* All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ at Road to Seoul
* Rehearsal Dinner at La Grande Orange Café
* Wedding Banquet at Capital Seafood Restaurant

Oja Noodle House

689 Yonge Street
Toront, Ontario
416.944.8371

I met up with my friend C in Toronto while I was in town for a round of interviews. I was lucky that she lives only a few blocks from the hotel where the interview was taking place. For lunch, we agreed on going to a Korean/Japanese on Yonge Street. (the longest street in the world). We were temporarily swayed by Spring Rolls next door, but decided to stick to Oja.



Oja offered many lunch specials, spanning from Korean fare to sushi to various bento boxes. C & I both decided on a tempura bento box (who can resist deep fried goodness?) for $9.95, hers with bulgogi and mine with spicy chicken. The special came with a hot and sour soup that I thought was quite hot, and I think my heat tolerance is above average. Yowser!


Very spicy hot and sour soup.

Supposedly, C is the perfect person to order tempura with because she does not love seafood. I thus inherited her two shrimp tempura, with my share totalling four! She even joked that I should mention in my post that the bento box does not come with 4 tempura shrimp. We did not want to create false expectations.

My bento box, stacked with four shrimp tempura.

Other than the shrimp tempura, there were also zucchini, acorn squash yam tempura. It was hot and crunchy. I do love tempura. The bento box also included yam rolls that I quite enjoyed and a little salad that was average.

Tempura close-up.

Yam rolls.


Boring salad.

My spicy chicken was sweet rather than spicy. I actually thought the artificial red sauce was overly sweet and I did not finish the chicken. What I did enjoy were the glass noodles, with a soy and sesame oil dressing. I have had this before at Korean/Japanese restaurants and have tried to replicate it with poor results. Does anyone have a good recipe?

Spicy (Sweet) Chicken.

Lovely glass noodles.

As we left the restaurant, we encountered a march to mark the 50th anniversary of Tibet's uprising against China. They must have felt passionate about the cause, having to march in a cold drizzle. According to C, there are protests regularly on Yonge Street.

Protest for 50 year Tibet.

I had a great time seeing C again. I had last seen her over a year ago. Who knew that neither of us would be working at the same company?! Hopefully, we get to enjoy food in Toronto again!