I figured it was my turn to shout Big Boy lunch, so we headed out to Manmaruya in Ashfield to eat sushi.
We started with an old favourite, the Salmon Avocado Sushi Fusion. The salmon roe and Japanese mayonnaise make this very moreish…
We then splurged on the gourmet sushi platter, with sea urchin, Ikura caviar, scampi, Wagyu beef, squid, roasted eel, salmon, tuna, kingfish and prawn…
The scampi (an Australian crustacean similar to a baby lobster) and the sea urchin are my favourites, so Big Boy very kindly let me have those…
It’s such a treat to go out with just Big Boy for lunch – he’s more adventurous in his eating than Pete or Small Man, so we always get to try the exotic and interesting!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
We absolutely LOVE sushi, and have it once a week, it is pretty much the only kind of food we go out to eat. We lost our interest in restaurants, for the most part we prefer what we cook at home ;-)
but sushi is sushi. My favorite roll lately is a calamari roll made with soy paper instead of nori – this place in town makes a fabulous calamari roll, very simple, but absolutely delicious. I am salivating just thinking about it
Sally, now that IS a twist – I’ve never heard of soy paper before! :)
A couple of years ago it was not easy to find it. Then one place in town included that option on their menu. Now pretty much all sushi restaurants here will make a roll using soy if you ask them. In Los Angeles every sushi spot had the “soy paper alternative”
My first real exposure to Sushi was a 10-day business trip to Kyoto 10 years ago and ever since everything else has been a bit a bit of a let down!
I’ll never forget the smoked eel sushi!
Tony, I know you’re right – we have Japanese friends who’ve never found sushi outside Japan that they’re completely happy with. They like this restaurant (Manmaruya), but they don’t order the sushi.. :)
I am hungry for sushi. Gues where my big boy is taking me tonight….
Great! Have a good time, Norma! :)
I was just browsing the Japan Food Centre website and thinking about sushi and here you are eating it. Oh that looks so good! I like it all particularly those large eggs (salmon, flying fish?) that go pop :)
Jo, we ADORE roe, and the Japanese seem to have so many varieties of it on offer. Wish I could have taken you to lunch with us.. :) xx
It all looks so lovely and fresh. How nice to have some one on one time with your boy- the great lunch is a an added benefit!
It’s always nice to go out just with one of the boys – doesn’t happen often enough these days.. :)
Celia, it is a wonderful thing to be able to put the days of picky eating and nursery food well behind you. Enjoy!
Amanda, so true, although Big Boy was never really the fussy one, it’s Small Man who’s the pedant.. :)
I love going to lunch with my sons! They are open to new experiences and have eaten far different foods than I have so they introduce me to new recipes often. So happy to hear you had a wonderful lunch!
Heidi, it was really lovely. I know you completely understand! :) xx
That’s definitely exotic and interesting looking! I love the presentation of the big platter especially the scampi coming out the middle.
What is it about Japanese mayo? I really don’t like mayo but I love the Japanese version. So good!
Claire…please don’t get me going, I could eat that stuff by the bucketload.. ;-)
That is very sad about Queenie. Losing a pet is always so traumatic. The food at this restaurant looks so fresh, vibrant and colourful. I really should venture into the Inner West more often. Have a great weekend Celia xx
Charlie, Manmaruya actually specialises in Japanese noodle soups, there’s about 30 varieties on offer. It’s a nice, reasonably cheap place to eat. Come over this way for lunch one day.. :)
That sushi looks lovely…and all the more special for being the feast at a mother-son lunch!
Farewell Queenie. Now if only I had kept some of those ‘poems’ my kids wrote (when they were younger) each time one of our chickens died, I could have passed them on to you. I do wish I had kept them. I only remember many words of reassurance offered to the chicken “you were a very good chicken” and letting them know the names of all the other dearly departed chickens to look out for in heaven. Promises of extra juicy worms in heaven.
Ah…the sweet innocence of youth. And the sweet bond we have with our pets.
Hi darling, lovely to catch up the other day… x
Beautiful!
Thanks Greg! :)
Love the theatrics of the scampi. Its almost like he’s going “Hey! MY sushi” lol
Nic, aren’t we lucky to get such great Japanese food here in Sydney?
Hi Celia, the sushi looks so fresh and delicious. Sounds like you had a great time!
Sorry to hear about Queenie. I always have to cry whenever one of our pets dies. I guess I get too fond of them, but it’s hard not to!
Manuela, thanks for understanding. She wasn’t really a pet, but we were very fond of her..
I have tried, but I can’t get to grips with sushi, everything in me screams “cook it!” :)
Sue, I have a couple of friends like that too! I can eat raw, but I have trouble with eating anything that’s still alive..ugh…
Why, oh why is sushi so addictive! AND, one of our local supermarket chains has sushi stations in most of its stores of late and I have, for testing purposes of course, tested from various stores and they are all fabulous! Quite expensive but oh so worth it. Glad you and Big Boy had such a good lunch.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, we used to avoid taking Big Boy to sushi trains – he would just pick up plate after plate as the conveyor belt went past. In the end we would feed him a sandwich at home before we went, just to curb his appetite.. :)
So sorry to hear about your beloved Queenie!
Thanks Lizzy.. x
All looks so delicious and fresh!
Very sad to read about Queenie. I saw her French cousins this morning and thought of her.
Anna, I’m glad to know your girls are all doing well. Our other five are all looking ok for now..
That’s so cool that you have lunch dates just with the kid. And the sushi looks yum. Have you ever tried making it?
Maz, we do make it, but it never looks as pretty…
I don’t eat sushi BUT your photographs are so beautiful, so artistic… Thank you dear Celia, have a nice weekend, with my love, nia
Nia, thank you. They plate was so beautiful it was hard to take a bad photo!
what a lovely thing to do with your son celia..my son and i walk together regularly with a cafe stop at the end..they are such special moments aren’t they..
and i’m so sad for you about queenie..she was a lucky chook because she was loved and treated well..
Thanks Jane.. x
This sushi looks amazing Celia, yum! So sorry to hear about Queenie.
Thanks Jane. We’re missing her, as are the other hens, I think…
How lovely going out to eat, just the two of you. Sushi always looks so appealing and this lot is particularly attractive. We’ve made sushi a couple of times and it’s wonderful, but it’s quite hard work.
Choc, we’ve tried making sushi at home, but it never seems quite as good. This place is quite close, so it’s nice to be able to treat ourselves occasionally. And I am actually very chuffed to have a son who’s kind enough to let me pick first.. :)