Umami has been located in the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets since 2018.
Have you ever looked at a sushi roll and thought … this could be improved? No? Me neither. But that doesn’t mean that a little reinvention from time to time isn’t in order.
When Chef Dean Han opened the little Japanese hole in the wall, Umami, in the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets in 2018, taco sushi was the schtick that he staked the business on.
It was a bold move, and while I can’t say that an open-faced taco-style sushi is easier to eat than a California roll, I can say that they are fresh, generous, textural and crunchy in the right places with their puffed nori shells. It’s the kind of grab-and-go lunch that exceeds your expectations.
Yet, it’s not what keeps me coming back to Umami. I come for the tempura udon soup.
Taco sushi is the creation of Chef Dean Han. Photo: Tenele Conway.
The idea of hunting down udon soup feels controversial in a world where a recent explosion of ramen restaurants has changed the face of Japanese cuisine in Australia. But I’m a controversial gal, and I love me an udon soup.
It’s a dish that in Australia is most often relegated to the more generic or franchised food court eateries, which hasn’t done it any favours. Somehow, ramen largely avoided this setting, so when it hit the big time here, it did so in the hands of experienced chefs and masters who opened their own dedicated restaurants where complex, rich broths and handmade noodles stole the show.
Udon soup, on the other hand, was treated as a quick, cheap way to churn out a Japanese-ish dish in a fast-paced environment. While I have had a few decent ones in that setting, they are often lacking in complexity, with the hero ingredients being left to go soggy as their batters soak up the broth.
What Umami brings to the table is an entirely different ball game. The dashi-based chicken broth is a rich golden colour with a light film of fat on the surface, which tells me that it’s a real chicken stock. The flavours are far better balanced than those in food courts, with a touch of sweetness from the dashi that lifts the savoury soup.
The assorted tempura udon soup at Umami stands out among a sea of average food court soups. Photo: Tenele Conway.
I recommend the assorted tempura version, where the lightly battered prawn and vegetables are served in separate containers, so when you are ready to eat, you can load up your broth or dunk them one by one if you want to keep them extra crispy. The veggies include pumpkin, okra, eggplant and sweet potato alongside the plump prawn.
While the crunchy battered veggies are technically the hero of the dish, I’m a total sucker for the chubby chew of the udon noodle, and it’s the thing that I savour for the last bite.
Umami could do a little work on the utensil front. They’ve fallen into the trap of not being able to source an appropriate soup spoon in a post-plastic environment, and you absolutely can’t eat soup with the flat bamboo teaspoon that they provide.
The situation forces me into a creative manoeuvre, one that I once saw a high-level airline executive do with no shame in a public space, which emboldened me forevermore, and that’s to lift the bowl to your mouth and slurp up the broth.
There’s a pretty high chance that consuming broth in this fashion improves the flavour, so it’s a technique I’m learning to embrace. If you want to attempt it, possibly start a new trend, just ensure that all the noodles are finished first, or they may slide down your front like a bunch of wiggly worms.
Umami is located at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets and is open from 7 am until 5:30 pm, Thursday to Sunday.
