Estou trabalhando essa semana em Pinheiros e combinei nesta terça de ir com a Batata almoçar no Hideki.
O Restaurante é bem tradicional e serve uma variedade bem grande de pratos. No almoço funciona o sistema de Bufê e na janta o sistema à La Carte.

Pepino:

Sentamos, pedimos nossas bebidas e já fomos ao ataque. Apesar da variedade me concentrei em alguns peixes. Peguei: sashimi de Atum, Anchova Negra, Buri e Marinado; niguirizushi de Salmão quente e outro do Marinado; gunkan de Uni e de Atum batido com Cebolinha e com Ovas (Tobiko) por cima. Estava tudo muito bom, com quantidades pequenas de arroz e maiores do peixe. O único problema é que o Nori fica muito tempo exposto e isso acaba deixando-o borrachudo.

Parti para meu segundo prato e peguei basicamente Uni, Atum e Atum batido com Cebolinha.
Já estava bem cheio, mas ainda tinha a parte quente: Guioza, Peixes grelhados, Shimeji, Berinjela à Milanesa, Tempurá de Legumes, Teriyaki de Frango, Tempurá de Camarão, entre outros (hoje não tinha Yaskissoba e Ostra à Milanesa). Fui para o terceiro prato e peguei só um pouco do Tempurá de Legumes e de Camarão. Detalhe: Peguei uns Tempurás meio verdes achando que eram de Quiabo só que eram de Vagem!
Vale a pena pegar o Missoshiro com vôngole (considero o melhor Missoshiro de todos os restaurantes!) para acompanhar.

Eu já estava explodindo de tanto comer! (acho que só de gunkan de Uni comi uns 13). Demos um tempo para a comida assentar e então a Batata foi pegar a sobremesa inclusa (Sorvete, Banana quente, Bolinho de Chuva).
Eu não ia comer mais nada, mas notei que estavam trocando o prato de sashimi de Atum, fui dar uma olhada e tinham colocado Torô! Não teve jeito, fui lá fazer esse esforço de pegar um prato com o Atum Gordo… e ainda bem que fui, estava muito saboroso e finalizou com perfeição meu almoço!

Eu e a Batata achamos o Bufê do Hideki o melhor e mais completo de todos, agora se for para ficar só nos peixes gostamos do Sushi Yassu e se a vontade for de comer pratos quentes preferimos o Sushi Isao.
O problema do Hideki (e desses outros 2 Bufês citados) é que ele está caro. Cerca de 3 anos atrás o preço do Bufê durante a semana era R$ 33,00 e eu costumava a ir direto, hoje o Bufê custa R$ 50,00 (aumento de 51,51%!) e aí fica difícil ir com muita freqüência com esse preço.

Preço:
Bufê R$ 50,00 (acho que de segunda a quinta)

Vallet:
Sim R$ 8,00

Local:
Rua dos Pinheiros, 70 – Pinheiros

Site:
Tinha, mas acho que não têm mais

hellooooooooo

today was another super fun family day!

firstly i ate yummyy JAPANESE FOOD at ICHIBAN BOSHI at parkway parade yay!

my set lunch YAY

nan siew's!

my dad just ate sashimi, its on the pretty leaves!

and then we had popiah party!

i got some new white shoes from my aunt again its too big for her so HOORAY FOR ME!

off to vivo tmr!

life after A’s rocks BIG TIME!

Very happy Sashimi added.

So yes, my long suffering fans… I have returned, perhaps 5 kilograms heavier than when I left, with an immeasurable desire for ostrich biltong, and a nice tan.

The holiday to South Africa rocked. We got to do some familial bonding time, and a fair amount of time got spent with the friends. Mr & Mrs B… many thanks for the awesome trip to Knysna and back… much obliged. Now come and visit us so we can return the favour. Wooz and SPF… it was great to be able to spend so much time with you guys… thanks for taking the leave and making it all possible. Chris and Lily and Megan… thanks for the accomodation and for letting us skank up your bathroom one week before your wedding.

So. This Blog has been built up by three weeks absence, and is bound to be a little longer than normal. As usual, if you want to skip the personal stuff, jump ahead to the line of asterisks at the end of this piece.

South Africa. Well well. It was an absolutely awesome trip. One of my favourite things to do in the whole world is to get a car that I like driving and then to take a long road trip. And the wife and I got to do just that with her family. The four of us piled into their car and drove off on what worked out to be an insanely expensive, but very enjoyable experience. And my god did we shop. Everything from Chutney to Cuckoo Clocks went into that car.

Let’s see, first stop was the Willows in Port Elizabeth. This was a classic little caravan/chalet place, and we got a two-bedroomed chalet for the four of us. Very comfortable, very clean and so close to the sea that even my youngest students could throw a stone into the water from the living room. We were there for two nights… and used the time soaking up some much-needed shopping. And thus began my fixation with finding the perfect pie on the holiday. See… the wife and I recently stopped being vegetarian and started eating seafood. Well… poultry has been added to the pile of edibles now… meaning that Chicken was back on the menu. (For the record, we still don’t eat mammals…. which means that yes, TURKEY is back on the menu for Christmas.) With chicken scratching at the doormat, I started in on Chicken Pies.

Woolworths to the rescue. AWESOME chicken and mushroom pie. Try it. Very good.

An aside – If it feels as if all the wife and I did on this holiday was sleep and eat, well… we feel that way too. It was a great holiday.

After PE, we drove on to Sedgefield…. chosen because it was nice and close to Knysna, which was where our friends Stompie and Jax were getting married. Yes… we did it all on this trip, weddings included. The place in Sedgefield was fantastic, the view was simply unbeatable.

Stompie and Jax threw themselves a Euro-funded Afro-ethnic wedding. And it was really a great evening. Good to be able to catch up with them again, as we hadn’t seen them since leaving Ireland. The wedding itself was out-standing and if their friends are anything to go by, they’ll be blessed in the future.

After the wedding it was a case of doing some family time in and around Knysna and George. We took in the sights of Hoekwil and Wilderness, the former very rustic, the latter full of sea spray.
Much seafood was eaten. Much chicken was eaten.

One of the highlights for the wife and I of the Sedgefield trip was a visit to the Wild Oats Farmer’s market… where local farmers sold their wares. (Mainly foodstuffs, but some raw produce too.) We got to soak up a little culture…

It was here that I found the undisputed BEST chicken pie in South Africa. The Steam Whistle Stop Pie company, operating out of god-knows where, but with a stand at the market.

After Sedgefield, there remained only the trip back to East London, which took much longer than expected. This is because of a little known family problem. Fact: If you place two women with disposable income in the back seat of a car, they will hatch plans to visit as many farm stalls as possible on the way back home. This is in a misguided effort to fill the car with very fattening farm foodstuffs and home produce. Thus, some 600 kilometres, 23 pieces of fudge, a half-dozen bottles of chutney, three full wheels of cheese, and 39 farm stalls later….. the entire Western Cape was denuded of produce, the car was groaning on its springs and we got home. To a huge dinner cooked by my sister in law.

The rest of the trip was spent with friends and family. I got to get in a fair amount of roleplaying with Wooz and the bunch, and even GMed a demo session for Jebb and his bunch. An obnoxiously large amount of time was spent virtually supine on Wooz’ patio drinking coffee… which is the perfect way to conduct oneself on holiday. Besides, the view from there isn’t half bad either.

Three weeks flew by with absolutely no regard for how much it cost us to get there, or indeed just how long 14 hours in economy class feels. (Particularly when you are bloated on fudge and chicken pies.)
There were tears, there were hugs and then we were gone.

To everyone who made the effort, thanks a hell of a lot guys, it was a vastly enjoyable experience.

************

And let’s get on with the jokes and stuff shall we?

The Truth About College:

SOCIOLOGY: For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and
away the number one subject. I sat through hundreds of hours of
sociology courses, and read gobs of sociology writing, and I never
once heard or read a coherent statement. This is because sociologists
want to be considered scientists, so they spend most of their time
translating simple, obvious observations into scientific-sounding code.
If you plan to major in sociology, you’ll have to learn to do the same
thing. For example, suppose you have observed that children cry when they
fall down. You should write: “Methodological observation of the
sociometrical behavior tendencies of prematurated isolates indicates that
a causal relationship exists between groundward tropism and lachrimatory
behavior forms.” If you can keep this up for 50 or 60 pages, you will get
a large government grant.

This weeks musical talent comes to you from the talented Ms. Nina Simone. This one is called Strange Fruit. And if it is depressing, well, it is meant to be. Give yourself a search for the lyrics. Sometimes, I am sad to be a human.

And that is that.. .. if there appears to be a lack of linkage in this blog, sorry… but 3 weeks without internet means that I didn’t find as many interesting things. Next time. K?

Ciao
Yeti out.

In light of my great respect for the fine art of Kaiseki, Yuki’s mom decided that she wanted to take me out for another style. That woman loves me! Frankly, I can’t blame her. At any rate, a friend of hers had recommended Ushiyama in the Meguro neighborhood of Tokyo, so we gave it a shot last night. And what a shot it was! Slam dunk!

It started off with a plate of carrots, shiitake, and mibuna with grated apple. Who would have thought of putting grated apple on mushrooms? Ushiyama, that’s who. I’m damn he did, it was amazing!

After that came a dish of four. I ate them clockwise from bottom left. Ama ebi (sweet shrimp), raw sardines with thinly sliced onion that’s been soaked in cold water to remove the sharpness, warm salted ginko nuts skewered on pine needles on top of seitan (wheat gluten) cakes on top of grilled sweet potato that was shaped like a ginko leaf, and uni in a lily blossom. No, I did not eat the maple leaf in the center of the plate nor the pine needles.

Next was the soup course. I heavily bonito flaked dashi broth that was nice and smokey with a rinkon (lotus root) and mochi dumpling and a bok choy leaf with some yuzu zest. It ranks right up there with the best soups I’ve ever eaten, next to the one I ate a few years ago at Iron Chef Michiba’s restaurant.

After the soup course was the sashimi course. It consisted of suzuki (sea bass), melt-in-your-mouth tuna, and ika (squid). It must be ika season because the ika I’ve eaten on this trip is by far the softest and sweetest I’ve ever had.

Then they served us home-made soba noodles in a light soy-dashi with some thinly sliced negi (green onions) on top. I’m telling you, there is absolutely nothing like top quality freshly made soba noodles. I don’t know if I can go back to store-bought dried soba when I get home. I mean, of course I can, but it just won’t be the same. So chewy and clean tasting.

Next up was the grilled course. Sawara (a cousin of the spanish mackerel) grilled with yuzu-miso and served with yuzu-miso konnyaku and daikon that was cut into a flower with a small slice of red pepper. I’ve never had yuzu-miso before, I’m a huge fan!

After that was the simmered course which was kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) in a ginger sauce. It was served with spinach and daikon radish with chawanmushi in the middle.

For the fried course we got a dish with some tempura. Shishito pepper and ebi imo (a kind of yam) served in a light dashi with momiji oroshi and chopped chives.

Then came the rice and miso course. The rice was a glutinous rice with chirimenjako (baby sardines simmered in saltwater, dried in the sun, and covered in a sweet soy marinade), sliced shiso, and served on top of a cherry leaf. The miso had mizuna greens in it. There was also some lightly pickled cucumber and daikon on the side (yes Nick, I even ate the pickles!).

Finally, for dessert we got sweet potato mousse. It was so soft and lightly sweet, it was really more like a light sweet potato cheesecake. Served with a sweet potato chip on top.

This Kaiseki was Kyoto-style which is considered to be the most sophisticated and delicate of all styles. Hard to argue as the food was simply magnificent! Plus, all of that food for only $50 per person! I challenge anyone to find a deal half that good for a meal of that quality prepared with that caliber anywhere in the states. Thanks so much for bringing me here Tamiko!!!

Last week, everything was unplanned when my family and I had a glutton’s gastronomic adventure from breakfast at Starbucks Coffee and lunch at Filipino restaurant, KKK,  to ultimate dessert at  HAAGEN-DAZS and ending the day at YAKIMIX!  

My wife, Tina, our son, Gabby and I, all came with hungry tummies with my youngest brother, JC  for dinner to this buffet-and-grill-all-you-want-restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try for several weeks now.  Initially, we planned to try it months ago as we spotted Yakimix in their branch along Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City near those seaside-’dampa’ restos. But unexpectedly, after long hours of strolling in SM-Mall of Asia last week, finding difficulties in deciding where to chow down from so many choices, we’re just lucky to find Yakimix’s  posters at the entrances of the mall as one of its newest food places. 

We had to wait for few minutes when we came to Yakimix-SM-MOA before 5:30PM as it re-opens in the evening.  When we’re ushered in to our table, we saw this impressively spacious buffet place…

This was just one view taken from where we’re seated. Another section is available to accomodate, more or less 60 to 70 pax inside and few more tables are outside catering to those who prefer al fresco dining.  Believe it or not, before we get to taste our first choices from the spread, the place was packed in a heartbeat…

I know you’ll agree with me that whenever an oriental food place is full of chinky-eyed diners, then it verifies the taste of Japanese and Chinese foods it offers.   That was so apparent when we dined at Yakimix; the more we got excited to try all dishes at the buffet table.

I got this plate filled with raw seafoods and marinated meat for us to cook in our smokeless grill at our table…

Soon after the wait staff smeared oil on the grill and turned it on, our little ‘chef’, Gabby became too busy

Obviously, our son enjoyed cooking for us   Look at his ‘masterpiece’…

We’ve tried Shabu-shabu few times before and still enjoyed Yakimix for it’s purely grilling pleasure.  Everything was browned by Gabby to almost perfection

There were more seasoned cut meats and seafoods on the buffet spread; skewers which we failed to sampled; there’s always a next time.

It may not be the best Sukiyaki in town but it satisfied my craving for that sweet and salty Japanese soup. For me, UMU in DUSIT THANI, Makati City serves the best Sukiyaki.  My brother, JC had the other bowl of Hot and Sour soup which was also just OK.

I got few sushi and two slices of sashimi

On Tina’s ONLY plate :  ebi tempura, fried unbattered prawns, california maki, bacon-wrapped shrimps,  crab sticks, mushroom and veggies,  and according to her, the best among she tasted from Yakimix were those “seafood balls” .  I cannot agree because I failed to bite at them

On my plate : almost the same thing but I got to try the noodles.  There were more on the spread that we passed on simply because we’re so satiated already. And unlike what you might be thinking, we don’t have bottomless gastric pits, LOL.     There were just so many dishes, but so little time!

There were salad bar, fresh tropical fruits and yes, cakes and pastries too, mostly from Red Ribbon and Goldilocks.

On our table :

Yakimix offers Selecta Ice Cream included in the buffet! Gabby went several times to the dessert table for these ice cream sprinkles…

Although I found Yakimix’s dishes plain and ordinary,  it gets our nod because of its wide-array of choices, better traffic of diners and spacious ambiance.  Our drinks were refilled at an instant even without asking, but nothing special for the commonly tasting instant juices and iced tea.  Far from the other blog reviews of Yakimix-Macapagal branch,  service at SM-MOA was quick and friendly exceeding my expectations.  :)   Yakimix’s buffet costs half as hotel buffet prices and can surely give Dad’s Saisaki Kamayan Ultimate Buffet a stiff competition.

Another reason to give Yakimix a try :  where else can you find an eat-all-you-want-Selecta Ice Drops ? LOL

We’ll visit their branch in Tomas Morato, Quezon City whenever possible because it’s closer to our place.

Have you been to Yakimix?  How’s your experience ? 

————————————-

YAKIMIX /Unit 122-126 Ground Floor SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City /

Yakimix Weekend Buffet rate : PhP 580 per pax; bottomless drinks at PhP 55.

PS : Gabby ate for free (children below 4 feet get to dine free of charge)

Yellow fin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and short-beaked common dolphin in a diorama of the eastern tropical Pacific at the AMNH's Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Live. (Image/R. Mickens/AMNH)

Next time you head out to your favorite sushi restaurant, you might want to think twice about ordering the tuna. There’s a good chance the fish on your plate could be an endangered species.

A new study by the American Museum of Natural History conducted DNA investigations on tuna at restaurants in New York City and Denver and found that nearly 30 percent of the tuna tested was actually endangered bluefin, and less than half of that was labeled as such.

A single bluefin tuna can sell for tens of thousands of dollars at market, a popular draw for the fishing industry. But that popularity comes with a price. Western stocks of northern bluefin tuna now hover around 10 percent of their “pre-exploitation” numbers. And last October, the country of Monaco nominated northern bluefin tuna for a listing under a complete international trade ban by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), according to a press release.

The serving up of a critically endangered fish is not necessarily on the shoulders of the restaurants. They might not know they’re doing it, just as consumers might not know they’re eating it. This is because the eight species of tuna are so genetically similar – closer than humans are to chimpanzees – that even with DNA testing, it’s hard to distinguish the difference, and once tuna arrives to the U.S. market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved marketing label is simply “tuna.” A new and improved method of genetic detective work just might help change all that.

“When you eat sushi, you can unknowingly get a critically endangered species on your plate,” says Jacob Lowenstein, a graduate student affiliated with the Museum and Columbia University in the press release. “But with an increasingly popular technique, DNA barcoding, it is a simple process for researchers to see just what species are eaten at a sushi bar.”

DNA barcoding can be used to identify what animal became which product, even down to the origin of a leather handbag, according to the press release. In the case of the bluefin tuna, DNA barcoding defines a genetic key of 14 nucleotides exclusive enough to identify whether the tuna being served is bluefin. A similar method has been used to identify endangered whales on the Asian market and wildlife being sold in the African bushmeat trade.

With any luck, researchers will develop a handheld barcoding machine that can be used to identify fish on-site.

This study can be found in the current issue of PLoS ONE.

So, Yuki and I took a few days to visit some of the early temples and castles in the Kansai region of Japan. Most of the structures we saw date back to the 8th century and are truly amazing! Besides the structures there were also tons of great sculptures from the same time period. However, as you all know, this blog isn’t about architecture, it’s about food. This post is to let you know about the incredible Kaiseki we ate our last night in Nara at the Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn) we stayed at, Yoshino.

Kaiseki is the classic multi-course meal that progresses through various cooking techniques using regional, seasonal ingredients. It’s the highest art form you can find in food anywhere in the world. Focus on the subtleties of each ingredient to draw out natural flavors and not cover then with heavy sauces (sorry Frenchies, but the Japanese have your asses kicked in food culture!).

It started with that dish in the middle of the picture above. From left to right was a little fish grilled in a sweet soy marinade, a roasted chestnut, ama ebi (sweet shrimp), some sort of seafood that had a jellyfish-like texture in a miso sauce (I have absolutely no idea what it was, but it sure tasted good!), then a three-colored fish cake.

After that they brought out this dish. It was obviously a shrimp, but I’m not quite sure what else there was. I think it was a gratin made with the roe of the shrimp. Also on the plate as a macaroni salad and some lettuce with a tomato.

Then we moved on to the sashimi plate. It had some fantastic Chu-Toro (tuna), Tai (snapper), and the star of the plate….Ika (squid). In the States when you order Ika it’s usually very thin and a little rubbery. Not these two slices. They were about a half centimeter thick, squid steaks! Rubbery? Hell no! Each chew and the squid literally melted away in our mouths. Hands down the best squid I’ve ever eaten.

Then they brought us a plate of steamed Ayu (sweet fish). It’s a river fish that eats moss attached to stones giving it a really fresh and clean taste. It was served with a light ginger sauce. The thing that makes Ayu special is that it’s eaten when the belly is full of fish roe. There isn’t much meat, so it’s like dipping chopsticks into a bowl of fresh water caviar.

Being the meatavore that I am, the next plate was what I was most looking forward to….Beef Tataki. Lightly seared beef to give a little texture to the soft raw meat laden with mouth-watering fat. The dipping sauce is a soy-dashi mix. You see the little mound of reddish gew on the side of the dish? That’s a mix of togarahsi (Japanese red pepper) and yuzu (a small citrus fruit). You mix that into the sauce like you would wasabi for sushi, along with thinly sliced chives. With the tataki there was a small dish of sliced cucumber and I think seaweed in a vinegar sauce that cleansed the palette from the fatty beef.

Then we ate the Shabu-shabu. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the individual hotpots we used, but here’s the ingredients. The broth was a light sake base, in it we added cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and shimeji mushrooms. Once they were cooked, we sloshed the thinly sliced beef around to cook it and then dipped it all in a light soy with more of the togarashi yuzu and chives.

After that we got two different preparations of Unagi. To be honest, I have absolutely no clue what the difference was. One was served on top of rice, the other with rice on the side. All I can tell you is that you will never find eel of that quality anywhere in the States. It tasted like they just caught it that morning. Best eel ever! Both came with a little dish of Japanese pickles. They were probably damn good pickles, but I don’t like pickles so I let Yuki eat mine.

After the Unagi was a clear broth soup with an ingredient we couldn’t figure out. At first, we thought it was some sort of mushroom. It wasn’t. Then we thought it might be shiroko, fish sperm sack. It wasn’t that either. We finally found out that it was eel liver, probably from the Unagi we just ate. It had kind of a crunchy yet soft texture. Not something you’ll find on any old menu.

Finally, to finish things off was a plate with fresh persimmons and grapes. persimmons are in season right now and are everywhere while Japanese grapes are absolutely huge compared to what we get.

All in all this was my 5th Kaiseki. I wish I could afford to eat like this every night as there is always something unusual and strange to the western palette. If any of you get to Japan I highly recommend splurging at least once to experience the delicate yet sophisticated Japanese cuisine at it’s finest.

Buio appena uscito, ad inizio giornata, buio al rientro, alle 21:35. Cinque minuti di ritardo non sono poi un granchè, penso (e spero), mentre parcheggio e la intravedo dallo specchietto retrovisore. E’ seduta in un’auto cabrio parcheggiata proprio accanto al portone di casa. Le passo accanto e fingo di non averla vista. Mezzo giro di chiave nella toppa, una spinta e il portone è alle mie spalle. Corsetta per le scale, altra chiave, altre mandate e, finalmente, sono a casa; stanco, ma felice ed impaziente di vederla entrare, mi preoccupo immediatamente di creare la giusta atmosfera: luci soffuse, incenso al gelsomino, un dono sul tavolo. Uno squillo al cellulare: è lei;  le apro il portone, sento i suoi passi per le scale; il mio olfatto è pronto a percepire il suo profumo ed io a goderne estasiato. Le nostre mani si cercano, si incontrano, si sfiorano così come le nostre labbra e le nostre guance; così come i nostri occhi.
Stivali, pantaloni, cintura, maglia, cravatta, capelli e cappottino, neri, a contrastare con la camicetta bianca. Sul tavolo un piccolo dono e del cibo giapponese. “Il pacchetto è per te; spero ti piaccia. Sushi e Sashimi sono per i tuoi piedi e le mie labbra”.
Due sorrisi, due ruoli ben chiari, due attori impazienti pronti al ciak. Le sfilo con delicatezza gli stivali e lei pensa alle calze, nere anch’esse.
Nudi, i suoi piedi, sono ancora più belli di come li ricordassi: i metatarsi avvolti dalla sua pelle vellutata sono morbidissimi al tatto e le sue dita, piccole e carnose, fanno disinibire le mie mani timide; freddi e appena inumiditi da un velo di sudore, profumano di pulito e, con dolcezza, uno alla volta porgo i suoi talloni alla mia bocca. Il suo sorriso più malizioso, il suo sguardo più penetrante. Lei più intrigante e io più consapevole.
Il pavimento, freddo, mi fa rabbrividire ed è scomodo ma il panorama da qui è impagabile: piove riso e pesce crudo, zenzero e salsa di soia dal tavolo al pavimento, dalle sue mani alla mia bocca. Non perdo un solo millimetro del percorso.
Il tallone, la pianta e le dita dei suoi piedi schiacciano sushi e sashimi. Il suono è piacevolissimo, il crushing eccitante. Sono pronto a sottomettermi al suo volere e al suo piacere. Sono pronto a sporcarmi il viso e i capelli. Sono pronto a sottomettermi alla mia dominatrice. Il suo sguardo carico di sensualità e femminilità incontra nuovamente il mio: uno scambio di sorrisi e, finalmente, inizio a sedare l’appetito.
Un piccolo grappolo d’uva i suoi polpastrelli;  questo mi sembra di avere in bocca una volta terminato di mangiare. I suoi polpastrelli sulla punta della mia lingua: morbidi, puliti, appena rosati.
Baciandole le dita e accarezzando la sua pelle osservo la sua bellezza e ne colgo l’unicità.

Friday Night Dinner

Introduced by Ems, we head there for our dinner last friday for some Oden 「おでん」, Yakimono 「焼き物」. Tamaya is one of the urban Izakaya 「居酒屋」 in Singapore. Their menu boasts a wide range of variety from classic japanese treat of oden 「おでん」,  sashimi 「刺身 」to  kamameshi 「釜飯」(Japanese’s version of claypot rice – i love it) 。

Just like any other Izakaya places, Tamaya is popular with the Japanese. 

But the menu is pretty user-friendly with the use of brief description of the various Japanese dishes.

My friend did the ordering while i just seat back, relax and enjoy my dinner for the day

Being a Izakaya Japanese cuisine place , the Otooshi 「お通し」is automatically servied before a meal (I’m not sure whether could you decline that, but just be reminded that the Otooshi costs $3/plate).

In some places, Otooshi can be a plate of pickles, dried snacks. At Izakaya, their Otooshi is a simple plate of cold fried fish with some pickles . It’s pretty appetizing but i can certainly do without it since it cost me $3 a plate.  And with 3 diners, it came up to $9 on a bill. -_-. I could have another stick of Kurobuta 黒豚.

We had our dosage of Oden 「おでん」－ Japanese’s Version of our local Yong Tau Foo. 

The only difference is probably the soup base and the use of some other special ingredients like cabbage roll (Cooked Cabbage wrapped with eat), konnyaku 「蒟蒻/菎蒻」(Japanese loves to use this as Konnyaku is low in calories, practically no fat contents, prevents high blood pressure etc).

I seriously think i need to eat more Konnyaku.

We had the Oden Mori - Oden with Assorted Ingredients of Konnyaku, Boiled Egg, Satsuma age (Fish Cakes) , Daikoh Radish, Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin), vermicelli. ($13.60)

The ingredients are simmered together and are served with karashi (hot mustard).

It wasn’t enough so we ordered another bowl of Oden. This time round, we chosed the Ingredients ourselves.

We had Ganmo -$3.80  (fried tofu dumpling that included vegetables, egg white, and sesame) , Kinchaku - $3.20  (It’s abura-age (thinly sliced deep fried tofu) stuffed with a small piece of mochi (rice cake) and tied into a little purse with kampyo (dried strips of gourd). These are great, because the abura-age absorbs the broth while the mochi inside gets all melty and soft – Source from noreceipes.com . and Roll Cabbage – $3.80.

We love it! Definitely some comfort food as it was pretty cold on friday night.  

Besides that, we also had their 3 Kind Sashimi 刺身- $29,80 (Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail). No doubt, the sashimi was definitely fresh. I love the tuna.

After our healthy choice of Oden, you thought that’s the end of it? Nahz. We continued our night with some sinful indulgences.

黒豚Kurobuta – $6.80

It was really good. Nicely done. But of course, it’s a bit pricey at $6.80 for two sticks but its alright since we don’t do it that often :p

Thank god we only ordered two sticks to share, if not, we probably have to jog more rounds during the weekend

And our next choice of meat includes the Wagyu Steak.

Wagyu Steak – $27.20

The Wagyu beef was nicely done. It was perfect as it wasn’t overcooked or burnt. The taste was good. I could taste the good fair bits of fats. Three of us happily devoured the sinful Wagyu steak.

It was a good meal that night. The weather was great. The company was good. 　:)

たまや　Tamaya Dining

(Do Make reservations if you want a room or you wish to sit upstairs )

S U S H I

I made sushi on the weekend with Andrew. Now I won’t go into all the fancy schmancy details on how to make them, because there are a million other blogs that will explain this better than me! But my favourite combination that I concocted on saturday was an inside out roll filled with king prawns in a tempura batter, with strips of vegetables, a tiny bit of mayo (I want to try wasabi mayo with this next time), and finally, rolled in sesame seeds! The crunch of the tempura batter was delightful. YUM!

We were on a cheap budget, but wanted to make some sushi that didn’t consist of just carrot sticks… So instead of yummy but expensive sashimi grade tuna and salmon, we opted for some cheaper (but still very yummy!) fillings. Crab sticks, smoked salmon (it was on offer ok!), a couple of king prawns, chives, avocado, carrot, cucumber, japanese rolled omelette, sesame seeds, mayonnaise, and capsicum. Obviously not all in the same roll, divide them up into combinations that take your fancy!

Always serve with soy sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger, and a MASSIVE bowl of steamed edamame beans sprinkled with maldon sea salt to snack on.

While lunch and dinner in Japan mainly consisted of meat and noodles, dinner was always fish.  Massive amounts of fish…

The last night at I&I Land we had a party

Sashimi:

Sushi:

Deli Meats: Ham, smoked salmon, duck, and chicken served atop a bead of onions.The food kept coming…after the raw meat we had steak, two types of soup, salad, chocolate cake, and coffee.

Another huge meal: fish, two salads-one fish and one green, and squash soup with corn flakes.

Fish with parsnips, clams, and asparagus in a cream sauce.
The only green salad I had all week.

I was hesitant to write this article for I fear that an influx of salivating sushi lovers will take over my “secret sushi spot.” Mitch’s is located on 524 Ohohia Street in Honolulu near the airport. Don’t be fooled by the rough exterior and the 13-seat quaint space. Be prepared to be underwhelmed by the décor too, but overwhelmed by the amazing sashimi and welcoming service. Mitch, the owner’s father makes nightly appearances and will come and talk story with you, explaining how ‘your Toro just arrived from Spain this morning’ or how ‘the abalone from Tasmania is kept in a tank in the back.’

I continue to come back to Mitch’s time and again for the freshest sashimi I have ever had in my life. One of the restaurant’s specialties is the spiny lobster sashimi (one of the best things on the menu), which your waitress will bring to your table live to show you how fresh your dinner will be. The sushi chef will then extract the sashimi, and the remains will go in a pot of miso soup to simmer and be served to you towards the end of your meal. The savory lobster miso soup is my favorite part about going to Mitch’s. 

Mitch’s is open daily from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm. Since there is limited seating reservations are highly recommended. Mitch’s is moderately priced, so don’t go here if you are on a budget. Prices may be high, but portions are quite large.  Prepared to leave stuffed. Mitch’s is BYOB, so feel free to bring your favorite beer or wine. I highly recommend visiting Mitch’s, but please everyone don’t go at once because I might not get a seat!

Mitch's sashimi platter

I have only recently begun to experiment and try new foods that are spicy/hot.  Usually for me, any thing more then putting two twists of the pepper mill on my food would have been “crazy”!!

A few weeks ago I took a day off of work because I had a gift certificate from WBIG 1280 for an Indian restaurant. The gift certificate was for buffet for two at Indian Harvest.  The first thing that they brought to out table was Tandoori Chicken.  Now, the smell of the dish was overwhelming.  Indian food is definitely an acquired taste.  The chicken itself was very good.  I tried almost everything that was on the buffet table and I found that most of the food was “good”.  I didn’t get too excited about the whole experience, but at least now that I have tried Indian food, I may go back and try ordering something off the menu.

Back to the wasabi……

I have eaten three time now at Ju Rin.  I think I may have about 4 or 5 real “sushi moments” in my dining life. (The sushi you buy in grocery stores doesn’t really count)  Each time that I have eaten at Ju Rin, while being a good experience, I have always felt a little disappointed with the menu items.  I have not though been disappointed at all with the sushi and sashimi !!!!

Now, the good thing a bout the wasabi is that unlike peppers, there is no lingering damage!!!.  You can take a big enough bite of the wasabi to clear your sinuses and melt your hair form the inside out, but in a few moments, it’s gone.

Counting the days until the next sushi trip !!

Talk about fresh!

The thing that I will never ever get tired of here in Japan is the food. It’s interesting how even a simple miso soup can taste oh-so-nice! And the presentation is always superb! Kahit sa cafeteria lang, maganda pa rin tignan. It’s part of their pride, I guess. Pride in their work, their service, their cuisine, their culture. It makes me think, kung ganito din sana ang pride natin (hindi lang kay Pacman), ang ganda at ang ayos din siguro ng Pinas.

I will be staying in Japan for a year as a researcher-intern at RIKEN, Wako-shi. As a welcome, the Nanophotonics Laboratory had a mini dinner/drinking party at Nihonbashitei restaurant somewhere here in Wako. My first taste of real Japanese food. We had different types of gyoza, salad, moshi, breaded tuna, and of course, sashimi. The fish was so fresh, it was literally taken off the fish bone and served directly. After finishing the serving, we even asked the server to deep-fry the fish bone and head and serve it with a sauce. Sarap! Walang sayang!

After two consecutive days of bustling Tokyo, our next destination would be a lot quieter in comparison. On 8 September, we began our quick-stop tour of western Japan, moving from city to city with more speed than a Kenyan sprinter on…speed. Naturally, I’m not going to cover all of the exciting places I visited in one go, so stay tuned for the other four parts after this one (yes, this is a ten part ordeal, be amazed). Having spent a week in and around the buzzing centre of the country, I was beginning to think that nothing outside Tokyo or Yokohama existed.

I was filled with considerable anticipation, then, when it was announced that we would be travelling deep into the unknown hill-country of Shizuoka. Of course, it wasn’t unknown at all, but I liked to think it was, like I was some sort of intrepid Anglo-Irish explorer, conquering the terrain of some utterly alien new land. In writing that sentence, it has become clear to me that I need to start reading/playing less fantasy lest I sound like a total psychopath. Regardless, on our drive from the suburbia (I use the term suburbia very lightly, as it doesn’t seem to exist in Japan) of Kanagawa, there was plenty a beautiful sight to behold, and most of it to the soundtrack of Pokémon, as during our four hour drive to our mountain lodgings, I don’t think H.’s mix-CD was changed once. I now know the lyrics to two of the said cartoon series’ opening themes, as of course for me to have known them beforehand would have been absolutely preposterous…ahem.

Surviving miles of long-winding and often treacherous roads, we eventually arrived at our ryokan, a traditional Japanese-style inn. Nestled deep in the hills, ‘idyllic’ would have been putting it lightly. Indeed, as the title of this post suggests, I really did feel like we were some sort of travelling samurai, stepping backwards in time to a now sadly dwindling Japanese Japan, with paper walls, sliding doors, futons and the like. Aside from my unfounded nostalgia and the obvious impracticalities of using paper walls and mats for flooring in a 21st century world of skyscrapers and bullet-trains, it was fantastic nonetheless. Taking off our shoes at the entrance (as is typical in Japanese houses), we were escorted to our room. Sliding the highly ornate door aside revealed a large open space with nothing but a table and some small cushions for us to sit ourselves down on, an alcove by the window adjoined.

Up the road from the ryokan.

Setting our bags down and helping ourselves to a rather pungent, yet equally delicious sweet rice-ball thing, we decided to bathe. This particular ryokan was of the hot-spring variety (more sausage, folks!), though this time it was a  private affair, so the three of us had a bath to ourselves. For any reader that’s just joined in this epic tale, nakedness is something that the Japanese take with a pinch of salt and a degree of gusto, and rightfully so. I think it’s high-time that the Europeans and Americans got off their high-horses of prudery and realised that, well, every man has a penis and every girl has a vagina. Unless you are transsexual and therefore have the best of both worlds. Either way, big bloody whoop. Inconveniently for three heterosexual males, our outdoor grotto bath was shamefully romantic, perhaps best suited to couples, rather than rabbles of young men. The water was hot indeed, whilst the overpowering odour of sulphur made soaks of more than five minutes difficult.

More of the ryokan's scenery. No bathing men, sorry!

Returning from the bath-house to our rooms, adorning some traditional Japanese robes in the process (think tailored dressing-gowns), we were quickly ushered into an adjacent dining room where supper had been delightfully provided for us. It was the real deal – sushi, sashimi, tempura, you name it. Salmon, tuna, squid, shrimp and chicken (the cooks had angelically taken it upon themselves to rustle up some meat for the duo of European palates) accompanied by pickled vegetables, all washed down by a pint of very refreshing beer. It was a mouthgasm, and that was putting it lightly. Stomachs full, we lumbered back to our room to find that while we had been eating, the small table that had once graced the centre had now disappeared and laid down in its stead were futon, Japanese bed-rolls. Considering the handiwork of magical Japanese elves (and not the inn staff), I collapsed into…well, not sleep, actually. It took absolutely sodding ages for me to venture off into the realm of slumber because of my ridiculously hard pillow; so hard was it in fact, that when I woke up in the morning, I had more knots in my shoulder muscles than a suicide-bomber has virgins in Paradise.

A scroll in our room, supposedly to ward off evil spirits.

Sadly, we had to make a quick exit if were to get to Nagoya (our next stop) on schedule. We had a huge and hearty breakfast; traditional meals are hard to differentiate in Japan.  Breakfast has miso soup, as does supper. It has fish and meat too, not unlike supper. And of course, the ubiquitous pot of rice is on hand at any meal you care to imagine. Fresh fruit was pretty much all that defined our morning meal from the food we had eaten the night before, though it was still thoroughly delicious. If there’s one thing the Japanese have certainly mastered, it’s the culinary arts.

Breakfast.

Thus it was over; we exchanged our yukata robes for our t-shirts and shorts, our wooden sandals for our shoes, our welcoming, slightly uncomfortable futon for our travel-bags and headed for the entrance. The ryokan keeper pounced on us from the desk (in a nice way, you understand, not in some sort of angry lioness way) and demanded we take a free gift back with us. From amongst paper-fans, cloth and chopsticks, I took a  black and gold floral wash-bag, something that my father now uses to keep his Fixodent and dental-floss in. Nice.

Out into the mountain, we hit the road.

It is an unfortunate fact that one must drive out all the way into Northern Virginia to enjoy good Asian food. When the opportunity was offered, one ought not pass it up!

Dinner at a Korean-Japanese fusion place consisted of our table being gradually laden with more dishes than its capacity could contain, and our stomachs slowly expanding till absolutely full. The main entree (the sashimi) was wonderful in and of itself but the endless “side dishes” helped fill us up before and afterward…

The sashimi – flounder, SUPER fresh.

As stuffed as we claimed we were, we managed to stumble to the car and STILL had room for yogurt bingsoo at Shilla…

when i was in californ-i-a this past august with the fam we ate a lot.  (see previous post).  there were burgers, chinese food, fried chicken- you name it, we ate it. and my god, it was most definitely delicious.  one day brother took us to eat at the hump.  it’s this fancy little sushi spot along the edge of a private jet runway (obviously) where we feasted on fish so fresh some of it was still alive!   needless to say the food was delicious (when do i ever talk about food i don’t like?  if i don’t like it, you best believe i’m not talking about it!)  anyway, as i was saying: the sashimi was like buttah, the flavors were bold without being overpowering (actually i was just talking about myself…i am so cool right now.)

fried.

line it up

maids in waiting

eggy

click the shrimp heads to see them move!

aaaaand now they're not moving anymore.