Multiple wagyugasms at Jamon Sushi

Jamon Sushi
3 Murphy St, South Yarra (map)
98045710


The other week I went along to the bloggers' dinner organised by Ed from the blog Tomato at Jamon Sushi in South Yarra. The dinner was a 5 hour no-holds-barred wagyupalooza, which has already been well-documented by Neil at the blog At My Table, so like Cin I'll take the short cut and just post my "food porn" photos with a few descriptions. Needless to say, the dinner was absolutely SENSATIONAL and I really really want to go back to Jamon Sushi soon to try Charles' fishy menu, which changes each day depending on what fish is available - if you're interested in dining there (and I highly recommend that you do) you can check in advance what's fresh and will be on the menu by clicking here.


Charles organised a great little wine list for our dinner - we opened all of the bottles on the list and shared them between us.


Beautiful clump of oyster mushrooms (looking a little like something from outer space)...




The wagyu beef in question was Sher Wagyu and was rated 9+. The restaurant is a sashimi bar, and I was perched on a stool watching Charles prepare the entire meal directly in front of me. We watched him trim and slice raw scotch fillet to make up sushi rolls and wagyu sashimi, which was outrageously soft and melt-in-the-mouth.


Charles Greenfield, our maestro of the evening. Read what Ed wrote about him in The Australian here. Charles certainly doesn't brook nonsense when it comes to impertinent questions from bloggers, but when you got him talking about why he cooks, his face lights up and his eyes shine with his passion for sharing good food with others.


The scotch fillet sashimi. Charles took care to show us different cuts of meat prepared in similar ways, so that we could aprpeciate the differences between them. The scotch fillet sashimi was followed by eye fillet sashimi (photo at the top of this post) which tasted a little more 'butch' and was partnered with asparagus and sansho pepper from the slopes of Mt Fuji. Charles makes his own marvellous sweet soy sauce.


As Thanh observed, the wagyu was seared in a turbo-charged version of the humble sandwich press, at 300 degrees celcius. I loved the sliced zucchini and eringi mushrooms mixed with the juices from the meat.


I'm not usually that big a fan of broths, but this shabu shabu - made I believe with a pickled enoki mushroom dashi base - just blew me away. Mellie and I both asked for seconds of the broth on its own!


200 gram wagyu steak wrapped in kitchen paper (note the extensive marbling of the fat) which Charles passed around for us to smell and weigh in our hands.




One of the quirkier dishes - Japanese by way of Spain - consisted of Charles stuffing a wagyu rice roll into a tube of squid for a memorable (and eye-catching)world first.


The leftover wings of the squid were shredded and made into a spicy salad featuring my old favourite: glistening, iridescent, burst-on-your-tongue roe. Two varieties.


Anime was projected on the wall facing the sashimi bar throughout the night.


This cut was porterhouse, seared and served with brussel sprouts (which I actually enjoyed, for once!) and daikon.



The final dish was a salad of spinach soba noodles with more awesome pickled enoki mushrooms and pickled ginger, kelp and of course a tender heart of wagyu fillet. To finish off the meal and aid the digestion, we munched on some slices of nashi pear drizzled with lime juice. Perfection!