HERALD ON SUNDAY RATING: * * * *
Address: 197 Parnell Rd
Phone: 379 3344
Website:www.gion.co.nz
Open: Daily 11.45am-2.30pm; 5.45pm-late
KEY POINTS:
Gion, Wikipedia tells me, is one of the most exclusive geisha districts in Japan. A district of the old capital, Kyoto, it was the setting for much of Arthur Golden's 1997 novel Memoirs of a Geisha, which - if I had read it - would no doubt have told me that there are two kinds of geisha: those who wear their obi in front and those who wear their obi behind and that it is very important to distinguish between the two.
From Wikipedia - and Golden too, I imagine - I learn that an obi is the topmost sash worn on the kimono by a woman in traditional Japanese dress. The women who come to your table at Gion (in Parnell; I can't speak for Kyoto) definitely have their obi at the back. Maybe they are not geisha (the word means something like "artist") but the dishes they bring to the table are little works of art.
Actually I knew a lot of this before I looked it up on Wikipedia because an Australian told me. I only looked it up because I was hoping to catch her out but, dammit, she was right.
She was a colleague of the Blonde's (ie a brainbox) visiting from the sunburned country for the first time. She kept saying things like, "Does it ever stop raining here?" and we said, "You call this rain?". But if she didn't know much about rain, she seemed to know a bit about Japanese food (it was she who recommended the dashi tofu - deep-fried tofu swimming in a fragrant fish broth); all I know is that it was wonderful.
There are plenty of Japanese restaurants in Auckland now, though most do the sushi-sashimi-tempura standards and/or the more vernacular donburi - rice stews with various toppings.
Gion, like the excellent Blowfish Sushi to Die For down the road, comes up with lots of variants, many of which were unfamiliar to this diner: marinated, wasabi-infused octopus; raw snapper with fermented soybeans; oysters topped with a very delicate citrus mayonnaise and grilled.
A trio of tasty small platters here will set you back barely $20, but the menu, which has large main-course options, allows for big and small appetites to be simultaneously satisfied.
The Blonde and her mate, noted feminists both, asked me to order for them _ not because they didn't know what they wanted but because they wanted maximum chin-wagging time. The Blonde knew exactly what she wanted after my selections arrived: a plate of sushi roll which I had, in the interests of originality, scrupulously avoided. This is typical, though whether of me or of her I am not prepared to say in print. You may say that "what women want" is defined as "anything other than what men are doing", but I could not possibly comment.
Anyway, the kitchen just kept the dishes coming, in an order more random than we might have wished (one, which we thought they had forgotten, landed just as we were calling for the bill), but in delicious procession.
When we ordered a second serving of the deep-fried eggplant with miso sauce, the waitress said, "Everybody likes that". I'm not surprised. This is a smart take on a cuisine you might have thought you knew all about.
Wine list: Standard. Good selection of sake and beer.
Vegetarians: A few choices.
Watch out for: The revenge of the wasabi-marinated octopus.
Sound check: Conversation-friendly.
Bottom line: Japanese with a twist.
- DETOURS, HoS
