New Japanese discovery

I thought I was taking a break from rich food to allow myself to work off everything from my trip to France, but it seems to be going in the opposite direction. After last night's BBQ at a friend's place - where I had yummy and fatty wagyu - I found myself once again dining out and eating too much...

I tried out Harakan (原澗) in my search for an alternate Japanese venue. The space was nice, modern and roomy, which made for an enjoyable dining experience. The quality of the food was pretty high.

Firefly squid (蛍いか沖漬け) - this was marinated with some kind of miso, and I liked this a lot less than what I had at Ishiyama (石山).

Grilled dried globe fish (ふぐ味醂干し) - pretty standard fare and I love it.

Homemade sesame tofu (自家製白胡麻豆腐) - this was served on a bed of jelly, topped with salmon roe and some wasabi.

We had some sashimi of thinly sliced flounder (平目作り) and some peony prawns (牡丹海老), both of which were pretty good - especially the prawns. We also had some really nice scallop and foie gras sushi - the scallops were very sweet, and the foie was not overdone. This could be my new favorite foie gras sushi in town...

The deluxe seafood salad looked pretty good, but I decided to focus on other dishes. We had two dishes from the fried food (揚物) section of the menu, and both were excellent.

The deep-fried Yonezaka porkchop (米沢豚とんかつ) was great. The batter was good, and the pork had that tasty strip of fat melting in your mouth...not exactly healthy, but tasted awesome.

The sea eel tempura (穴子一本天婦羅) was also very, very good. It's something that you'd find at good tempura restaurants in Japan, but is not often seen here in Hong Kong.

We were pretty full at this point, so we took care of the bill and moved on to get some dessert in the neighborhood. I think the prices here are reasonable, especially given the quality of the food. Looking forward to coming back to get my fix for a few things...