I had a fantastic vegetarian 7 course degustation at Blancharu, Elizabeth bay.
Owner chef Inukai san is Japanese and offering Japanese- French style cuisine there. I actually have been ” stalking ” him since he was working at VII Restaurant ( I still can’t forget how fabulous the food was…) and Galileo.
I have been Blancharu a couple of time but I wasn’t vegetarian. Now, I am back there as a vegetarian! I know Blancharu doesn’t offer vegetarian degustation but I asked if it is ok to have vegetarian then Inukai san said ” yes” . It was actually a couple of month ago but that time, I could not make it.
So now, finally time to have vegetarian degustation! but he was in Malaysia! but one of Japanese chef cooked absolutely fantastic degustation for us!
They asked me if I can have chicken stock, egg or dairy…I said
- No chicken stock
- Yes Egg
- Yes but No dairy —means I can take a little but please don’t bombarded with cheese or cream which many vegetarian degustation do.
Start from freshly baked bread
They were baked in the restaurant!
Sour dough ( round one ) and onion bread serve with olive oil for us ( normally butter )
Chef told me that these bread contains some dairy, but it is ok with us :)
Crispy Japanese root veggies salad with yuzu dressing
* all dishes are not in a menu so I made up all the name ….
I was actually bit worried about food because vegetarian is not on a menu but from this salad, my concern was disappeared!
Wilted spinach, shiitake mushroom and pickled onion was on the bottom and crispy reckon ( lotus root ) and gobou ( burdock) and pickled radish were on top with beautiful yuzu ( Japanese citrus fruits) dressing.
What a beautiful combination of taste and texture….LOOOOOOVE IT!
Warm Okura and cauliflower salad with fried leek, spiced port and olives
Another good looking and beautiful dish! Slightly sweet warm salad with crunchy leek with spiced port ( dots ) and dried olives ( black line )
Even though two salad in a row, still very interesting!
Pea soup with vegetable samosa
BIt of taste of India is happening here.
Very intense pea flavour! but in a tasty way. Cumin and fennel seeds give a little
” kick” in a creamy soup.
Samosa was filled with curried flavour potato. Lovely !!!
Soba truffle carbonara
The chef came to shave the truffle in front of us. Quite luxurious feeling ….
Very generous amount of shaved truffles!
Instead of pasta, use soba, the Japanese buckwheat noodle. Egg yolks and little bit of soy sauce. Italian meet Japan!
I love crunchy buckwheat on top. I think it was my most favourite dish…
Mushroom Papillote
Papillote means parchment in French. Basically cookie in a paper.
OPENED!
Inside was Japanese mushrooms ( enoki, shimeji ), peal mushroom and king mushroom with spazle, the German pasta. The chef actually made fresh spazle just for us! I love mushrooms so just right for me.
Three in one Japanese delight
why do I call this three in one Japanese delight? Well, this dish isn’t just beautiful but really SPECIAL!
BECAUSE…three Japanese traditional dishes turn into one modern looking dish!
Can you imagine how happy I as Japanese live overseas was to have, three Japanese traditional dish in one dish. It is like 2 in 1 shampoo well it is actually much much better because 2 in 1 shampoo doesn’t give enough moisture in my hair but this 3 in 1 dish give me all fabulous flavour in one dish!
three dishes were
- renkon mochi ( lotus root cake )
- ganmodoki ( deep fry tofu ball )
- nasu no dengaku ( eggplant with miso sauce )
By the way, I wouldn’t bother to cook first two dish at home because they are quite time consuming!
HUGE bow to the chef!
Coconuts solbet with kiwi sauce
I was so surprised that we even got “off menu” deserts!
All deserts are vegetarian on menu but the chef made this because I asked ” not so much dairy” request.
We only had a tiny bit of dairy in bread so I was expecting to choose the deserts from the menu… what a lovely surprise!
I really enjoy degustation but next day, I feel so heavy and fat after all dishes and next day, I feel really really tired but for the first time ever, I didn’t feel fat or heavy after meal and fresh next day!
I highly recommend vegetarian degustation here!
Dinner
7 course degustation $88
Lunch
3 course $55
7 course $85
Blancharu
Shop 1/21 Elizabeth Bay Road, Elizabeth Bay
(02) 9360 3555
