How to insult a Canberrian!

Ok ... Aah Canberra ... land of donkey coloured civic buildings glinting in the icy wintery sun!! There are many things to enjoy about Canberra ... wide open spaces, the national gallery and its companion the potrait gallery, questacon ... but lets face it, with shit coffee and nary a local to be seen imbibing in, its really not the coolest place to be. Just don't tell that to a Canberrian, or you might just get the spectator vs participant lecture ... but between you an me ... if I feel the need to indulge in some music, I want to see an "alright!" band, not join some shitty community oompah beardy get up. If I want to be intellectually stimulated by some footlight entertainment, I want to go see a play, and not sign up for some neighbourhood theatre sports with Mr and Mrs suburb and their emo kids at the community library.

But enough capital bashing. There used to be 2 things great about Canberra, D & J! Now we can add one more - Kagawa Japanese Cuisine in Dickson ... Canberra's chinatown.

It was D & J's first time here as well. And what a find. The food is cheap and simply amazing!!! And because it was me and D, a plate of sashimi was a fait accompli!! But our sashimi plate arrived with three special delicate morsels - scallops served in their shells with a dollop of fish roe!! They were to die for!

J chose some pork gyoza which were perfectly cooked ... the dough was suitably pliant with just the right amount of charring.

We also had several plates of Sushi Nigiri - Salmon roe and Tubiku ... and really we could have just ordered 10 of those and left happily sated. Is there anything better than fish roe? I think not.

After our Izikaya Den celebration last time D & J were in Melbourne, we had to order the Grilled Fish head which cost the princely sum of $11.90 and I think far surpassed the one served at Melbourn's uber cool establishment.

As it was a particularly icy night, we opted for a hot pot style dish - the Hot Bibinba which was Beef, Raw Egg and Kimchi. It was a veritable witches cauldron of sticky raw egg, sweet beef, acrid kimchi over a bed of sushi rice.

This was followed by a steaming bowl of miso ramen which was beautifully subtle, flavoured with just the right amount of Miso so as not to be too overpowering.

And to wash this all down, some warm sake.

Oh and it would have absolutely killed M but there were that many globs of really good quality wasabi that most of it went back to the kitchen barely touched!
So next time you hit the capital, make sure you mark this down as an essential port of call.

Big thanks and hugs to D & J for takingt time out to entertain me, including a visit to one of Canberra's instituitions - Tilleys! (erstwhile den of sapphic delights, or so I'm told) ... where I enjoyed a yummy glass (or 2) of Canberrian Cab Sav and a suitably spicy portuguese Chicken burger.

Other highlights of my recent work trip - entering Parliament House via the Ministerial Entrance and marvelling at the artwork I got some hurried glimpses of, including a Le Corbousier tapestry, and entering Turrell's Skyspace but during the middle of a sunny day, which didn't really play to its strengths ... best time to go ... sunrise or sunset.

Aah Canberra ... land of donkey coloured civic buildings glinting in the icy wintery sun!!