Cross Culture on Smith

April 1999

Two young women have recently opened cross cultural cafes which are distinctly different and are each really interesting venues.

Co-incidentally, both are on Smith Street and both are related to Japanese cuisine.

Peko Peko at 199 Smith Street is 28 year old Katrina Smith's way of combining the landscape garden career of her Japanese husband,Yashushi Kobayashi (Yaz), with her own. They met during the five years Katrina spent in Japan. On return she started Yosh, a shop on Smith Street which was one of the first in Melbourne to sell Japanese inflatable furniture, pop techno rave gear and accessories. It was a success for 18 months but the couple wanted a venue which would showcase their combined talents better. They found premises and installed a kitchen and Japanese garden on the ground floor and a shop on the mezzanine. As you walk in off Smith Street, you enter another world. There is a staircase to 'nowhere' directly ahead of you. It came from a house which was being demolished in Kyoto and with the addition of some shelves at the back, is now used to display the soy, Japanese groceries and crockery which are available for sale. On the right, in the window, is a miniature garden with an shaped bench table and seating constructed by Yaz and further to the middle of the room, his full traditional garden complete with waterfall. It's wonderfully soothing and a good example of the work he does for his business, Teien Japanese Gardens.

Ahead of you is an open kitchen where Toshi Horiuchi prepares 'kate no agi' Japanese home style fare. Katrina is trying to offer less 'obvious dishes', no tempura or teppanyaki but things like zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodles with a dipping sauce) or tofu nabe, a hot pot of tofu, udon, spring onions, mushrooms and a soy based dipping sauce.

Above the kitchen, visible from a Courreges shaped cut out is the store where Katrina has her Japanese imported 'kitsch gift wear' and clothes. It all adds up to an interesting space and one which has very much its own personality, restful and defined, quite unlike the rest of Smith Street. (phone 9415 9609)

But further north at number 354 (over Johnston Street) is Cafe Bohemio, a very different but equally distinctive business run by Japanese born, but Brazilian bred, Mimi Tanaka.

Mimi took over the cafe, then one of Melbourne's few Argentinian establishments, in February. She came to Australia three years ago and worked as a manager at the very popular Misuzu's in Albert Park. After living in Brazil for 25 years she sought to develop contacts with the South American community here and soon learnt that Bohemio was for sale. After a month working with the previous owners, she felt ready to take over and word spread quickly that a cook with real Brazilian experience, though Japanese born, was at the stoves in Melbourne. Mimi has learnt from her Brazilian grandmother in Rio and is trying to do as many dishes as traditionally as possible. She is also an accomplished Japanese cook as she worked in some of San Paolo's many Japanese restaurants (there are approx. a million Japanese resident there) and does dishes with a Japanese influence, notably grilled tofu with spicy sauce. Mimi often uses tofu as a substitute for the meat (which is so popular in South American cuisine) as she has found many of her Melbourne clients are vegetarian. The one thing she has not found necessary to adapt is the 'carnival' spirit. She says that the only way to make parties work is to get out there and enjoy yourself. So at her once a month dance parties (carnivals) she comes out from the kitchen, dresses up and makes sure everyone is dancing.

The next party is on April 24 and this one will celebrate the cuisine and style of the African influenced Bahia region of South America (and will include a Capoeira dancer). Entrance charge is $10, and for an additional $7 you will receive a sample plate of Bahia dishes. Drinks, which include Chilean and Spanish wines, Brazilian cocktails, Spanish and Mexican beers, as well as Japanese sake, are extra. Phone 9417 7626

Both these places will be part of the updated Mietta's Eating & Drinking in Melbourne. For more information, visit Mietta's web site. www.miettas.com.au

Mietta O'Donnell

This first appeared in the Herald Sun on 20th April, 1999.
©Mietta's 1999.

Or perhaps ...

Adelaide Eating
Adelaide is a city which takes its food very seriously The Central Market is busy and well used by the city\'s gourmets. People enjoy cooking and eating well at home, a fact which drives the restaurateurs to distraction. It certainly keeps prices down.

African
At C.E.R.E.S. children (and others) can visit the animal farm, feed the chooks and guinea fowl, learn to make mud bricks and learn the art of bartering in the African Village.

Around the MCG
Tonight, pre Grand Final, is a traditional get together with old friends, mostly, but not exclusively, male, gathering in Melbourne from all over.

Art Office Eating
Eating and drinking well enriches most artistic activity. Nourishment of the body is one important reason but it\'s also the nourishment of the soul and the spirit which is provided by good drinking and eating spaces.

Asian Food Festival
Melbourne\'s Asian Food Festival: it\'s really a year round festival of Asian food available in Melbourne. We have such a wealth of good Asian eating places that you could eat nothing else and do very well, thank you.

baby-chino
Searching Melbourne for the perfect baby-chino. This, for the uninitiated, is well frothed milk served with a marshmallow - it is the only thing which allows adults to converse in the presence of small children.

Bastille Day
Even in Melbourne Bastille Day stirs the French community. This piece looks at the events organised by French restaurants for the big day

Beating the Blues
Places where you can hear blues music. Description of the blues train and Queenscliff music festival.

Bocuse closure Melbourne
Paul Bocuse\'s 1997 visit to Melbourne with coincided with the closing of Paul Bocuse Melbourne

Breakfast
Breakfast, breakfast and breakfast - this piece looks at the wealth of opportunities to eat early, or not so early, in Melbourne

Breakfasts
Probably the real test is what we eat at breakfast. Not so much at home, where opening packets or popping toasters may be the rule.

Brisbane
A series of travel pieces both within Australia and overseas. This is a look at the restaurant scene in Brisbane which finds some good restaurants in the north

Cairns, Culinary Crossroads
The culinary road from Melbourne to Cairns is a long one. But there we were, Tiberio Donnini and I, both former Melbourne restaurateurs, sitting under the north Queensland sun on the pier at Cairns.

Christmas Lunch
How to find and choose a place for Christmas Lunch without braking the bank. We\'ve hunted out some good places offering lunch from $18-$80.

Christmas parties 1998
The preparation of Christmas parties for clients, staff and relatives, has seen businesses and families, who all want to host the perfect party, gripped by a paralysing panic.

City Cafes
For some Melburnians coffee is an essential start to the day. Without the right espresso hit, the system doesn\'t start.

Collins Street Festival
The Melbourne Festival

Cross Culture on Smith
Two young women have recently opened cross cultural cafes which are distinctly different and are each really interesting venues. Co-incidentally, both are on Smith Street and both are related to Japanese cuisine.

Darwin
A look at Darwin, its many markets and their food stalls, the restaurants and interviews with the suppliers of top quality ingredients

Dining in Dandy
Hannah Abiseganaden finds a major outbreak of Indian culture in Dandenong, with restaurants and sweet shops proliferating

Dining Your Valentine
Rose growers have been nursing their crops for the past month to get a bumper harvest ready just in time; candles have been ordered, extra staff booked in restaurants; musicians preparing \'romantic\' medleys; chefs designing dishes \'for two\'.

Eating around the MCG and Yarra Bank
On an ideal day, there\'ll be a cracker footy game scheduled at the \'G, followed up by a must-see show at the Tennis Centre. The MCG environs, East Melbourne, Jolimont, Richmond the Fitzroy Gardens and Yarra Park are an elegant delight at any time.

Eating by Design
Design is an important part of any eating and drinking space. No more so than in Melbourne, surely the most design and dining conscious city in Australia.

Eating in Footscray
In central Footscray there are around fifty-five cafes. Thirty of these are Vietnamese or Vietnamese-Chinese. That\'s a lot of Vietnamese cafes in one place. But they don\'t all serve pho and spring rolls.

Eating Japanese in Melbourne
Caris McDonald gives essential information on eating at Japanese restaurants in Melbourne

Eating Solo
Roger Fry discusses the trials and tribulations of dining alone in restaurants and offers some sage advice to the diner and the establishment

Eyton Arts
Eyton on Yarra, the veneyard, is now turning towards the arts in their purpose built amphitheatre

Fine Dining 1998
Melbourne\'s fine eating scene has re-invented itself and is a fiercely energetic and competitive scene today

Florentino
For more than 70 years the Florentino has been a famous name in Melbourne\'s food and wine industry. Now the Grossi family have taken over the business and have put their name up front.

Food Families
There is something very special about family run businesses. You just know that there\'s more care and concern behind the scenes. And there\'s usually at least two generations of experience to back that up.

Food Wine Writers' Festival
A series of travel pieces both within Australia and overseas. This is a look at the food scene in Adelaide with a detour to the vineyards of McLarenvale.

Forecasts
This year is not starting slowly as the excitement generated in the countdown for the year 2000 will get things moving from slow to fast boil and our culinary champions will be even more determined to keep their lead.

Ghosts
Memories are tricky things, they can enrich the experience of being in a place or they can just make people nostalgic for times long past.

Introduction restaurant stories
Index of articles relating to restaurants by Mietta O\'Donnell for the Melbourne Herald Sun

Kosher and almost
A listing of Melbourne\'s Kosher and almost Kosher restaurants and take-aways researched by David Langsam in 1999.

Laurent Little Collins
An interview with Laurent Boillon about his latest venture, a pastry shop and cafe in an old bank on the corner of Little Collins Street and the Causeway.

Leonie Palmer
A series of travel pieces both within Australia and overseas. This is a look at the food scene in Noosa, north of Brisbane, through the eyes of Leonie Palmer.

Luxe
When is a restaurant not a restaurant? When it\'s Luxe. A new eating and drinking space defies definition - fine food, coffee a bar and bustle - not at all what you\'d expect from the quality of the food.

Melbourne eating
Eating and Drinking in Melbourne is not just about great food. It\'s about going out to be with people, about choosing a place which suits where you want to be, your own style and where you feel comfortable.

Melbourne meet eat
Melbourne as the meeting point of many food cultures.

My Yarraville
John Pasquarelli moved to Yarraville before the trend and is bemused by the influx of smart inner suburban cafes and their latte drinking inhabitants

Newman Family
An interview with the Newman. the parents Tikki and John are veterans of theatre restaurants. They have been followed into the business by their children.

Park Hyatt
Radiating out from the park.

Paul Wilson 1998
The new Georges - three smart food outlets with an attached department store. An interview with the executive chef, Paul Wilson (ex-Quagalino\'s in London)

Prince of Wales
A look at the Prince of Wales Hotel and The Stokehouse Restaurant in St Kilda. These two enterprises of the Van Haandel family set the pace for style and quality in Melbourne

Restaurants 1998
Food & Drink is here to stay. Melburnians just love to go out eating and drinking so as more bars, cafes and restaurants keep on opening the need for good advice grows.

Retro and Friends
An interview with Steve Richardson of Retro in Brunswick Street.

Sydney Dining Melbourne Style
Sydney Dining Melbourne Style

Sydney Summer 98
A look at the restaurant scene in Sydney in early January 1998, in which we investigate MG Garage, the Banc, Belmondo and others. Fnally we strike bread at Phillip Searle\'s Infinity Sour Dough Bakery

Tassie in Winter
A voyage through Tasmania in June with details of restaurants, accommodation and interviews with suppliers of top quality ingredients

Toasted
How to make the perfect toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and more importantly find a cafe which understands and practises the art.

Under Ten Dollars
Eating in Melbourne for less than $10 a head. Detailed are a range of cafes where you can eat well for less than $10

Victorian Eating
Eating out in country Victoria. Travelling round Victoria it\'s not just the scenery that changes. There\'s good places in every region and some exceptional quality and value. The ten not to be missed are listed below.

ViS
Viz a new restaurant in Swanston Street next door to the Lounge and under the same ownership.

Wayne Finschi Designer
The story of a man who has designed more than 40 restaurants and cafes in Australia, mostly in Melbourne.

Winter Breakfasts
A warming look at eating early as the days grow shorter - great breakfasts around Melbourne

Yarraville
Yarraville is Melbourne\'s newest trendy hot-spot and as gentrification continues apace cafes continue to open amongst the pubs - reminders of a working class past