Monday – I ate lunch by myself at Toraya Sushi while reading a book. Look! A heart-shaped spring onion!

I ordered the teriyaki chicken lunch box, large size (AU$15.00). I really felt like having the karaage donburi (AU$9.00), but once again wanted to avoid eating a big bowl of fried chicken. With the large size lunch box you do get a deep fry of your choice – crab claws, prawns, calamari, octopus balls or chicken karaage. I chose the karaage so I’d get two pieces of that delicious fried chicken, along with the teriyaki chicken, rice and salad.

The teriyaki chicken is succulent, with a delectable syrupy, sweet yet savoury sauce I can’t get enough of. There’s just the right amount of charred flavour to the chicken too.

The salad is very simple, with a sesame oil and garlic-based dressing.

The karaage was lovely – crispy outside, tender inside, delicious dipped in the chilli mayonaise. Just enough to fwwd my craving for something deep fried.

A few people have asked where Toraya Sushi is located. EDIT: I’ve got myself a newer copy of Toraya Sushi’s menu. The address is: Shop 8 Subiaco Square, 29 Station St. Phone number: 9382 4433. Toraya is a couple of shops further down from Woolworth’s, past a Telstra Shop and oppposite a newsagent and chemist.

Tuesday – I went to Nando’s and grabbed a takeaway garden salad with chicken with hot Peri Peri basting. It was delicious, but the chicken was so hot it made my nose run, and I felt like my lips would be burnt right off. Note to self: next time, ask for mild basting. The chicken breast was fresh and moist (thank goodness, a chicken place that actually knows how to cook chicken breast!)

Wednesday – SRM and I decided to go to Han’s, since we hadn’t done so together in a while. I chose the steamed chicken rice.

I’ve complained before about all the floaty bits in the soup. The soup itself is well seasoned and tasty.

SRM had his favourite – chilli chicken rice. Besides the vivid colour of the dish, what I like best is that they include green beans in it. Green beans are among my favourite vegies, and I reckon they’re way under-utilised in restaurants. I suppose that’s because other green vegies are much cheaper.

I don’t eat the sauce that comes with the steamed chicken rice – I usually find it too salty. I’m not a fan of the strong fish sauce/vinegary flavour either. Because I don’t use the sauce, I tend to find the steamed chicken rice a little bland. This time, in addition to fried gralic and spring onions, the steamed chicken breast was garnished with strips of ginger, which I really liked. But it was still very bland.

Thursday – my craving for takeaway sushi and salad from Toraya was stronger than my dislike of walking in the rain. Toraya don’t offer inari sushi on their lunch menu, but occasionally you’ll see it available in their takeaway sushi display case. There are usually only a couple of serves of inari in the case though, as opposed to the abundant supplies of teriyaki chicken sushi.

The same applies to the tamago (omelette) sushi. It’s not listed on the lunch menu, but you’ll find it in the takeaway selection. But be quick!

I am so in love with this salad (cooked tuna salad, AU$6.00). It’s so simple, yet so tasty. And towards the end, the last morsels of cooked tuna taste wonderful, soaked in the last shallow pool of dressing.

Friday – L and I did the lunch run and grabbed lunches from Nando’s for everyone. Chad had been craving a burger and fries from Hungry Jacks, or chicken and chips from KFC, but this new TFP is determined eat less junk food, so I suggested Nando’s as an alternative. She could get a chicken burger and chips, and I could get chicken and salad. Chad asked for the Supremo Chicken Burger with avocado spread, bacon and cheese (AU$12.40 in a combo with regular chips and a drink, plus $0.90 for avocado, $0.90 for cheese, and $1.30 for bacon). That’s a rather big bun, don’t you think? I got Chad to place the burger on top of the box it came in so I could take a photo, but the burger was so heavy the box collapsed under its weight. This photo was taken after a hasty box reconstruction job.

Although the menu itself offers avocado spread as an extra, the girl at the counter had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for avocado spread. “Do you mean avocado?” she asked. *sigh* The burger comes with chicken, lettuce, light mayo and tomato chutney as standard. A few bites in and the burger became a drippy mess, chunks of chutney and blobs of mayo all over the table. As Chad said, it was a “full body burger experience”. Heh.

L and I shared a mediterranean salad (AU$7.95) – I told her she was welcome to all the feta and olives. The salad came with a packet of creamy bell pepper dressing (not pictured).

To go with our salad, we’d each ordered a pack of 4 chicken thighs (AU$7.50). I remembered to stick to mild basting this time!

The thighs were tender and delicious. I think next time instead of ordering the chicken garden salad, which comes with breast meat, I’ll order a garden salad without chicken, and then spend a little more and get the thigh pack.