Japanese food - the best food in the world?

This lunchtime I was lucky enough to go for a fantastic meal at Roka on Charlotte St, London, from the same family as Zuma.  I love Charlotte St - despite being so close to Tottenham Court Road, it feels like a little village and is stuffed full of great restaurants, bars and hotels and close enough to Soho etc if you need anything else!

Soft shell crab sushi rolls from Roka

Roka itself is a rotuba grill take on Japanese food so is perfect if you need something that also caters to the non sushi eaters in a group, but also does a mean line in all the items one would associate with Japanese cuisine like sashimi, rolls etc.

As it was a work function, rather than faff about with ordering things off the menu, someone took charge and just ordered a tasting selection backed up with a few additional dishes to make things interesting.

Safe to say that the food was delicious and I can also thoroughly recommend lychee juice and soda water as a brilliant (made up by myself I might add) refreshing drink to have when you want something tasty but not wine!

Roka Lamb Cutlets ©London Eater

A colleague had been raving about the lamb cutlets and they were gorgeous; juicy, full of flavour and not what I would have expected of lamb in a Japanese restaurant at all! Thoroughly scrumptious.

I now need to prise myself back to work but can't help wondering if, given all the fantastic Japanese restaurants in London, is Japanese food the best cuisine in the world?

For me it is certainly up there! The amazing flavours, the clean-ness of the food as there is not much dairy in it and the freshness demanded of the produce, is just delicious. I love the complexity, but ultimate simplicity that comes with the food and how delicately it is prepared. Japan is a nation of people who seem to take their food seriously and believe that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing PERFECTLY! But it doesn't often seem pretentious - that mainly comes from the venue rather than the food!

Crispy Squid from Zuma © Epicurious

I remember going to Zuma with my husband where we both fell in love with their crispy squid with green chilli and salt - we ordered about 4 dishes of the stuff and when we came to order our 5th, were told they had sold out. It's that good! It is worth going there for drinks, just to have it as a bar snack!! They also do a stonkingly good selection of cocktails and sake...

Generally I would say I adore all food, there isn't much I won't eat, and I love the way the Japanese prepare, plate and flavour their food. I have some qualms about some of their ideas such as whaling, eating endangered Tuna and other endangered species that could probably use a break from being hunted. Therefore, would people saying it is the greatest cuisine in the world just make it seem acceptable for them to carry on pillaging nature as they do?

I suppose I can love the method of the cuisine while still wishing they could be more sustainable about their ingredients and methods? This isn't meant to be a high horse rant about Japanese food - I am sure that they would also point to a lot of Western methods of food production that are hideous (I give you trans fats).

Anyway - my lunch was pure deliciousness and I can't wait to eat it all again soon!

30 Days Hath November - Something I have been craving...

So... I am a total foodaholic and, to coin a Sky advert, if it grows, swims or flies, I am all over it.

Recently my lovely friend Lyns went to Doha to visit her future parents in law. While there, her boyfriend had Steak Tartare, she had never tried so she did and posted a photo on Facebook of it. Ever since, I have had a mad craving for Steak Tartare...

I was in a place called the Riding House Cafe on Great Titchfield St that served it today with some people from Stardoll but they ordered a tapas style starter so I didn't get to order it. Gutted... as judging by how great the rest of the food was there, it would have been awesome.

I know if is a bit of a polarising dish for some people, who couldn't contemplate eating raw meat, but I just adore everything about the taste, richness, texture. It is up there with ethical foie gras & sashimi as one of my favourite dishes of all time.

I guess some might say I am not that politically correct in my eating, but I am stringent in eating from and in places that ethically source their ingredients and only buy high quality meat where I can guarantee the quality of life of the animals, so I don't feel bad about eating some more unusual, and raw, dishes.

30 Days Hath November
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