Tag: shiitake mushrooms

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Shiitake Mushroom Donburi

I was charging my car at Cribbs Causeway and needing a quick dinner, a visit to Wagamama was the solution. You don’t need to book and usually service is efficient and quick.

There wasn’t much of a queue, and it wasn’t long before we were sat at a table pursuing the menu. The obvious choice was the mushroom yaki soba yasai, something I have eaten a lot when eating at Wagamama. However, this time I decided I would have something different, and there were some new donburi dishes on the menu.

I went with the pulled shiitake mushroom donburi. This was pulled shiitake mushrooms in a sweet + spicy teriyaki sauce on a bed of sticky new white rice, shredded carrots, mangetout, sweet potato, cucumber, edamame beans and kimchee. I added a fried egg to the dish as well.

Shiitake Mushroom Donburi

The bowl looked good, however despite the nice appearance, the dish was something of a disappointment. All the “extras” were nice, but the star of the show, the pulled shiitake mushrooms in a sweet and spicy teriyaki sauce was dry and lacked flavour. The mushrooms definitely needed more sauce.

I had also ordered some bao buns, but they never arrived. As the place was busy and I had virtually finished my bowl I didn’t get a chance to ask about them. When I looked at the app on my phone, they weren’t on the bill when I came to pay, so didn’t question it.

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Wagamama in the heart of the city

I do like the food at Wagamama, though I like trying new things, I also like having what I had before. On a recent visit to Wagamama in the City of London,  I went with two dishes I had before. For my starter I went with the crispy otsumami. 

This is six squares of crispy fried rice soaked in a soy + yuzu dressing, topped with pulled shiitake mushroom, smashed avocado + edamame and sriracha mayo, garnished with coriander cress.

I had these before when I went to Wagamama in Basildon. I did think this time they were even better. They are tasty morsels of yum! I like the different textures and the flavours combine to create an extravaganza of different tastes within your mouth.

 For my main I went with the silken tofu gochujang rice bowl. I had this before in Ealing in 2023. This is silken tofu in a spicy gochujang glaze on a bed of sticky white rice, bok choi, pickled cucumber, snow onion slaw, red and spring onion, red chilli, sesame seeds.

I like the contrast between hot and cold ingredients in this bowl. There are a diverse range of complementary flavours within the bowl. Overall a tasty dish.

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Time for Wagamama in Basildon

I was on my way to East Anglia and was staying over in Festival Leisure Park in Basildon at the Travelodge.

Across the retail park are various places to eat. I did walk around looking at various outlets, thinking about what I wanted. In the end I went to Wagamama with the plan that I wouldn’t have what I usually have at Wagamama. For a starter (or is it a side) I had the pulled shiitake crispy otsumami. 

This is six squares of crispy fried rice soaked in a soy + yuzu dressing, topped with smashed avocado + edamame and sriracha mayo, garnished with coriander cress.

These were really interesting and tasty. They were also very pretty. They were quite an intense flavour, but I liked them.

For my main course I went with the (new) crispy chicken sambal fry.

Described as lightly battered chicken coated in garlic + red pepper powder, mild tomato sambal, vibrant pickled slaw. coconut rice. chilled turmeric-stained egg, amai sauce on the side.

I wasn’t as impressed with this dish as I thought I would be. The chicken was disappointing, and I didn’t really like the mild tomato sambal sauce. I enjoyed the plate of food, but I wasn’t blown away by it. Think I should have had my usual mushroom yaki soba.

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Master Bao Buns

When I am at Westfield and having lunch, I usually make the decision to go to Master Bao for a couple of bao buns. They are cooked to order and are always delicious.

This time I went with the Shiitake Mushroom Bao, which was teriyaki Shiitake mushrooms, pickled onions, and miso.

A little big and messy to eat with your hands, but the bun was soft and fluffy, and the filling was intense and delicious.

I also had the Mr Bao, this was slow braised pork, house pickles, and roasted peanut.

Same fluffy bun, and some tasty pork with the added crunch of peanuts.

Really nice food which I enjoyed.

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Homecooked Thai style stir fry

Thai Stir Fry

This is a recipe I cook quite often, it was inspired by visits to Sais’ Thai in the Oxford Covered Market. Though it has similarities to the dish I had at Sais’ Thai, it’s not quite the same, actually it’s quite different, but I don’t usually use the ingredients they do.

I cook some cubed pork belly in the oven, for about twenty minutes I then remove from the oven and stir fry in a wok with some soy sauce and fish sauce, along with finely chopped garlic and ginger. You could add chilli as well, if you like a bit of heat in your stir fry. I then take a range of vegetables, including but not always limited to: ribbons of carrot, pak choi, red cabbage, courgette, mushrooms (shitake and brown), baby corn, and onions. These are added to the wok. And cooked for a couple of minutes. I then add spinach and basil. I would prefer to use Thai Basil, but I have had trouble either finding it locally or growing it in the garden.

The dish is then served with a sprinkling of cashew nuts. It works well with rice, but I have also served it with noodles as well.

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It was different

Though I like to try different things when I go out to eat, it would appear that when I visit Wagamama that I seem to go for the Wagamama Ramen and if I have a side, it’s the Chilli Squid.

So on my most recent visit to Wagamama I made the bold choice of going for something different and it was. I went with their Shiitake Donburi.

shiitake mushrooms and broccoli omelette served on brown rice in a teriyaki sauce garnished with shredded carrots, spring onions, chilli and pea shoots

This is shiitake mushrooms and broccoli omelette served on brown rice in a teriyaki sauce garnished with shredded carrots, spring onions, chilli and pea shoots.

This was (for me) an interesting combination of flavours and textures. I really like the taste and texture of the shiitake mushrooms, which combined with the smoothness of the egg, the roughness of the rice and the saltiness of the teriyaki sauce resulted in a delicious dish of food.

The addition of the carrots, spring onions and pea shoots added a freshness and crispness to the dish.

Overall I was pleased with the dish, though I don’t think I will go for it again, I will either (more than likely) go with the ramen again, or try something new.

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Time for some dumplings

Time for some dumplings

I did think that I might miss the Temple Quay market this week because of the rain, however it stopped so off I went.

There were fewer stalls this week, and fewer regulars, but even so there was a great choice of food. I thought the rain might have put people off, but the queues were already really long. The queue for the Thai stall was already across the square!

I did start queuing at the Scoff and Relish stall as the salad and grilled chicken sounded great and looked fantastic too, being chargrilled on their tiny portable barbecues. I also liked the idea of the accompanying scoff balls, savoury scones. Alas they were struggling with the demand and the queue wasn’t moving and the food wasn’t quite ready. Maybe next time…

In the end I went with Ah Ma’s Dumplings. There was a slow moving queue here too. The stall has these huge towers of bamboo steamers laden with freshly steamed dumplings containing a choice of fillings. There was no tiger prawn, scallop and leek (probably sold out) today, so the choice was pork and ginger, beef and spinach, chicken and coriander or vegetarian.

ah-mas-dumplings

I went with the veggie shiitake and cashew pan fried dumplings along with the pork belly with hoisin bao.

I was impressed and tempted with the dumpling pots complete with vegetables, noodles and broth, likewise the sides of Asian salads sounded very interesting. That day they had carrot & courgette ribbons with a tahini, honey, lemon dressing; the other choice was sweet chilli pickled cucumber with toasted black sesame seeds.

The dumplings were really impressive, beautiful steamed dough that because of the pan frying. Inside was a filling that was deep, tasty and even a little meaty, but they were vegetarian (well ‘ish they are pan fried in the same pan as the pork and chicken ones, so if you are vegetarian you might want to have them steamed instead).

The bao was delicious, the slow roasted pork belly was both sour and sweet, full of interesting deep flavours and very tender. The steamed dough made is substantive. I have seen neater and tidier bao buns before, but the flavour of the filling made up for this.

Ah Ma has a growing reputation, having been mentioned as one of the top sixteen street food stalls in the UK in both the Metro and Olive magazine. In my mind that is a well deserved reputation, delicious food, beautifully made and presented and lots of interesting choices of flavours and textures. I hope to visit them again.