Itacho Sushi: Cheap and Good?

I often shy away from sushi and sashimi restaurants in Singapore. After eating well at speciality sushi-yas in Japan, one never quite gets used to the drop in taste and flavours of fish which is shipped, however carefully it is done, is not quite as fresh and tasty as being in Tsukiji market at 7am and having a sushi breakfast. But as a foodie nation, I think we are fighting back. Singapore's sushi scene has improved a lot. The top restaurants are always very good, but super pricey. And the low end ones are not worth mentioning. Enter Itacho.

Looking very much like a chain restaurant...indeed they are...with branches in at least 2 locations in Singapore, more than 10 in the place of origin Hong Kong and even in China. I did have a meal at their APM outlet in Beijing, but it was nothing to shout about. This meal, at their Ion Orchard outlet, however is something to shout about. One of the better sushi meals I have had in a long time in Singapore.

Arrive early...a long queue often forms at the rather large restaurant. We arrived about 11:40, and it was begining to fill up. I guess fresh, succulent sushi, done well needs little prose to describe, so I will mainly let the photographs do the talking, safe a few notes.

Remember this is a meal for only 2 persons...though I imagine the average Singaporean foodie might eat a bit less than this humongous meal...

A mixed platter of squid, soy sauce roasted salmon. Very good indeed. Limited to 4 pieces per person, this was offered at an incredible S$0.40 per piece!!!

The chawan mushi looked like a soup...indeed it was a shallow layer of scallops in a beautiful broth covering the traditional steamed egg with chicken and ginko nuts.

Hand roll of soft shell crab. We wanted deep fried salmon skins, but they didn't have those.

Some sashimis next....fatty yellowtail and fairy shrimps. Nice touch is to have deep fried the prawn heads, for a tasty, crispy, eat everything...every bit delicious.

More sashimi

And the grilled eel sushi...look at how large the fish is on top of the rice!

And this amazing flame scorched fatty yellowtail

This is amazingly good. The flame scorched parts have a slightly burnt, smokey flavour, and the inside of the fish just explodes in the mouth. Fantastic.

Uni rice

Creamy uni, on top of rice. Superb.

Swordfish sashimi

Assorted sushi

Scallops sushi...whole scallop on rice...

And some grilled pork sushi to round up...

Overall, value for money. In total, this was sub S$200 for all you see above. Not super cheap, but for the quality and quantity we ate, I think very good value for money.

Itacho Sushi
B2-18 Ion Orchard

Eating well in Spring: Putien

Spring is often viewed by our friend living in temperate countries as the emergence of life. For those of us in always sunny Singapore, spring is less meaningful, except that some restaurants, especially those who specialize in ensuring seasonal delicacies, roll out their spring menus. Putien is one such jewel, whose menu changes to reflect the seasons. Chef Larry Li has created an interesting menu, which I tasted today, and which will be offered from March 1.

The tidbits as appetizer shown above is deep fried Putian seeweed served with roasted peanuts. Quite addictive, and truly excellent. Though deep fried, the seaweed shows no sign of grease, and is light and very crispy with a beautiful flavour.

We began the tasting with fresh, chilled abalone:

Abalone from the Putian area is air flown, and is one of the region's delicacies. Nutritious, succulent, the abalone is reputed to be untouched by pollution in the province's deep waters.

The abalone is tender...very tender and sweet tasting. The rubbery texture one often encounters is totally absent. The fresh abalone in its shell is braised in a rich chicken stock. And served chilled. Very refreshing, and delicious.

Next course was the spring sprouts with enoki mushrooms

This is an interesting dish. I don't think I have ever eaten spring sprouts before. Also known as toon sprouts, it is bright green and has an ever so slight bitter foretaste which melts into a sweetness in the palate. The enoki mushrooms were nicely cooked, still a bit crunchy and full flavoured.

An interesting soup was served:

The fragrance of the soup, hinting at a sourness within hits the nostrils early. But this is not a pungent sour note which assaults the nostrils, but a gentle, sweet sour-ness which permeates into a refreshing taste in the mouth. The dish doesn't look good at all, but served cold, it is delightfull in cutting grease and opening up the appetite. Tender shoots of newly harvested bamboo with picked mustard greens complete the soup.

Pockets of treasure, as it is literally translated was served next:

This is a home made bean curd skin, stuffed with fish paste, chives and an oyster, deep fried to a crisp perfection. I found this dish to be absolutely wonderful. The bean curd skin, being home made by Putien is light, and crisp, though slightly oily through the deep frying, but retains the flavour and taste of bean without the characteristic saltiness one often gets with commercial factory made skins.

Next, the interesting, almost molecular styled braised chicken with dou miao

If the dish does not look like a chicken dish, I don't blame you. I couldn't tell either. Chicken fillet and egg white are blended into a puree and boiled with dou miao. The chicken is the white dusting on the vegetable, and looked like snow on the greens. Tastewise, I can hardly taste the chicken. The dou miao was excellent. Well cooked, and the broth which accompanies is bursting full of flavour.

We next had braised bamboo clam with mustard green.

I am not a big fan of mustard greens...especially the stems they used in this dish. And though this serving did not change my mind on mustard greens, I kind of liked it for its simple flavours. The clams were braised and very sweet, and the stock used was delicious. I understand, when available, instead of clams, they will use mantis prawns.

Their famous Putien Lor Mee rounds the lunch

Unlike the typical lor mee with a dark sauce, this was light, and the chef told us that the base was made from at least 10 hours of boiling pork bones to produce the thick, rich stock. As there were more than 15 ingredients used in the mee, each mouthful brings forth a different taste...as the mix of ingredients show themself with each spoon. One of my favourites.

And for desserts, Putian loquat in herbal jelly

Loquat, a fruit which is indigneous to Putian, is most tender and juicy in spring. The loquat sits on top of a home made herbal jelly fortified with a bit of Putian honey to sweeten the concoction. I found it to be very agreeable. The loquat provides a sweet, tinge of sourness to the bitter jelly. And of course the honey making everything sweet.

I think an admirable new menu from chef Larry Li of Putien. Commendable.

p.s. This is an invited tasting. My thanks to Geri of Linea for the invitation and to Ringo and Melissa of Putien for hosting us.

Putien
127 Kitchener Road, but also at many locations around the city
http://www.putien.com

Nasi lemak at Grandma's...the restaurant

Quick update for today as this will prove to be a very busy week for me. A nice lunch with Kin at Grandma's in Raffles City. I wrote about them earlier, and returned for a re-taste.

Lunchtime crowd was thick and if you come in after 12:30pm, you will be confronted with a queue. We both went for our favourite, the nasi lemak

The rice was regular Thai fragrant rice, but soaked with flavour and aroma of coconut milk. Very nice. The chicken curry was also rich, thick, and bursting with umami. I found the achar serving to be rather pedestrian, though I guess does its job of cutting the richness of the rice and the chicken. As part of the one dish serving are some anchovies with onions in a piquant sauce. Rather nice and a good accompaniment.

We decided to add the day's special - ngor hiang...

Turned out to be a minor disaster. The ngor hiang was not made as a large roll, deep fried and cut like I expected it to be. But made out as tiny rolls, each about the size of a my pinkie, and I imagined it to be pan fried...as the browning on the skin was not even. The meat within was a bit too lean and had a rough, slightly astringent mouth feel. Not my favourite.

But overall Grandma's is rather nice comfort food place. The nasi lemak, though a bit pricey compared to food courts is very good.

Grandma's Restaurant
252 North Bridge Road, #B1-76 Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore.

Home style cooking: Cafe de Hong Kong

I have reviewed this restuarant twice before. And because it is a firm favourite of the family, and every friend I have brought there, I thought I'd do an update.

The place has not changed much in the last 2 or 3 years. It remains comfortable, home like environment.

And so has the attention to detail. We ordered 4 dishes, and CdHK provided 3 different kinds of chilli sauces

First off, the amazing...well still amazing to me how they get the meat to be so tender and juicy, and the skin to be so crisp

And my favourite fish with scallions and garlic.

The fish slices were cooked just right...still firm but tender. And tasty. The scallions, ginger slices and deep fried garlic packs a punch. Lovely. Great with plain steamed rice.

But we elected to do the lap mei fan...dried meats with rice in a claypot. The ingredients:

Chinese sausages, liver sausages, dried duck, and other internals...I am not sure what are the ingredients, but they tasted marvellous. Especially the liver sausage. Mixed into the rice and special sauce in claypot. The claypot caused a thick crust to form by burning the rice...oh, so delicious. (yes, I know...its carcinogenic, but the taste is gorgeous).

Nice, friendly, homely atmosphere. Great food.

Cafe de Hong Kong
586 Balestier Road, #01-01 Eastpac Building, Singapore.
open daily except Mondays.

Parmigiani hosted dinner at SIHH: Hotel d'Angeterre

Unusual review today. This is a catered event at Hotel d'Angleterre in Geneva. Hosted by Parmigiani Fleurier, a most unusual watch brand who makes watches of the most exquisite quality. I will cover this more like an event report...to give my foodie readers a glimpse on what happens within the watch collecting community, when a brand entertains.

The evening began at the Parmigiani Booth inside the Salon Internationale de Haute Horology (SIHH), an invitation only event staged annually in Geneva. A presentation of the pieces which are new was done. This is customarily known as the presentation of the novelties.

The group was greeted by Michel Parmigiani himself, still active and very much involved in the creation of the beautiful watches.

Marcia Marzzocchi, General Manager of the Americas was doing the honours of presentation.

The group comprised of important and noted collectors, as well as web journalists.

Another view of the group

We then travelled by chartered coach from Palexpo where the SIHH was being held, to downtown Geneva, to an old, but beautifully refurbished hotel - the Angleterre.

And dinner began...a sumptious 7 course dinner, with beautiful wines. I attach a copy of the menu suggestion for info. (need pdf reader). With the menu, and the wine list, I leave the reader to follow the dinner courses. Needless to say, the dinner was wonderfully delicious. Fresh ingredients, lovingly prepared. Wines suggested were perfect.

So we start with the amuse bouche

Scallops with truffles, wrapped in a green leaf enclosure

And foie gras

Lobster was next


And a palate cleanser of champagne granite

We paused to then present the big pieces...the striking watches and the tourbillons...major complications. And the group went weak in the knees...oooh and ahhs were heard...

The main course of veal was served in the midst

But as we ate, most were fascinated by the watches. Michel, Marcia, Jean-Marc (Jacot...CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier), myself, Marco Gabella and Alex Friedmann (co-organizers of the event with me) went around explaining the key and salient features of the watches.

We were so absorbed in the discussion...

That after the cheese course

I forget to take photographs of the food, and was totally engaged with the discussion on watches. Mind you, it was almost midnight already, and most of us had flown in from far away and suffering from jet lag, but you could not tell by observing the animated discussions and the fascination of the timepieces. The hotel wait staff must be wondering when we would finish our dinner...and finally, at close to 1am, we decided to give them a break and go back to our respective hotels to rest.

But highly recommended. Cooking and the food was excellent. The wines were great. And the service excellent.

Nam Seng Noodles: Venison Hor Fun

This episode: also known as Cheap Eats in CBD. Nam Seng is one of the oldest noodle houses in Singapore...still helmed by Madam Leong, aka Grandma has been the center of this Cantonese styled restaurant for the last 50 years. And still continues to do so.

Famous for their wantan mee, but for today's lunch, I want to talk about their venison hor fun. Beef Horfun is quite a staple for Singapore. So the twist of using tender slices of venison instead of beef in the black bean and pepper sauce is interesting, to say the least.

The taste was superb. Mostly thanks to the delicious, savoury gravy. But also the tender, and great tasting venison. The hor fun was more Ipoh style where it was not really fried till fragrant with wok hei, but looked like it was steamed, and then the beautiful black, rich gravy poured over for a very satisfying meal.

The large serving shown above is only S$5 a plate, so we added a small bowl of shrimp dumpling in soup.

The soup was a bit oily, but the broth wonderfully tasty and the dumplings floating within was very nice. Each with a shrimp and some pork wrapped around a crunchy vegetable.

Long queues form at lunch times with the office crowd, but the queue moves rather quickly. Satisfying meal.
25 China Street
#01-01 Far East Square
ph: +65 6438 5669
hp: +65 9689 6288

em: info@namsengnoodles.com
http://www.namsengnoodles.com/namsengnoodlehouse-home
Mon - Fri: 8.00am to 9:00pm (last order 8:15pm)
Sat: 8.00am to 5:00pm (last order 4.15pm)

Food Centers: where cheap meals means good meals: Bukit Timah Food Center

Some of you, dear readers, have sent me some emails. Yes, I like those...emails and comments. Please do continue to send and make suggestions.

And there have been numerous requests for simple, hearty food. I do agree...Man does not live by Michelin stars alone. And especially in Singapore (and Malaysia, Hong Kong) cheap food does not mean poor quality or bad tasting. Sometimes the opposite is true. The least expensive hawker stalls are the best.

First off, the incredible meatball soup...typical Teochew home made style

Truly superb. The meatballs are hand made..and two varieties are included in the soup...one deep fried and another steamed. The broth is very nicely made. Very savoury. And the meatballs are to die for. Typical home made style, and it is evident that they were made by hand. Large, irregular. But very tasty. A real treat.

I had meant to write about the 133 Penang Authentic for a while. The char kway teow is rather authentic

The uncle fries them plate by plate, meticulously doing each. The look is rather authentic as you would get in most markets in Penang. Indeed, I have heard the cook speak to his assistants in Penang Hokkien (actually a different accent, some find to be more melodious than the one we speak here in Singapore). Taste wise, it passes the grade for me, but does not rival the best in Penang. Would have preferred a bit more wok hei.

They serve a rather authentic Penang Hokkien Prawn mee too, but as we already had some soup that day, we did not order it. I have eaten the Hokkien mee before, and find it rather good as well.

And we also sampled some pure and simple chee cheong fun

These days, the Hong Kong style Chee Cheong Fun is more common...those which are stuffed with either char siew, or prawns or scallops. But some of us who are older long for the traditional CCF...the type where most in Singapore/Malaysia were too poor to afford stuffings...CCF was just a well made rice noodle concoction, with just sauce and sesame seeds.

This CCF brings back memories. Rolls uncut. Drizzled with sweet sauce and chilli. And sprinkled with sesame seeds. Simple, inexpensive, but divine.

Da Zhong Delicious Yong Tau Fu for the meatball soup. 02-196

183 Chee Cheong Fun, 02-183

133 Penang Authentic for char kway teow, 02-193

Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre

116 Upper Bukit Timah Road

Good Eats in CBD: Saravanaa Bhavan

Eating well and nicely in the CBD is sometimes a hit and miss affair. Many office workers don't have the time to experiment or try out new stalls due to the short lunch hour, and many continue to just patronize one or two favourites. Passing by yesterday at Golden Shoe, I spied a little cafeteria like place by the corner at the Ground Floor, just by the entrance of tailor Joe...a vegetarian place. Hailing from its native Chennai, this is a rather famous Indian Vegetarian restaurant.

Well, what caught my eye was the batura...an Indian bread, made from yogurt and fermented yeast, and deep fried till it puffs up like a giant hum chee peng...if you get the drift.

I used to eat this delightful bread, supremely well made by the proprietor at the now defunct Indian Restaurant by my office. And seldom have I come across bathura as well made as those. So Saravanaa's bold, large photograph advertising their bathura caught my eye.

Well, it was no where near what I have once tasted...so long ago, perhaps it is just a memory. But in my mind's eye, that bathura was yet to be beaten. Saravanaa's version was fluffy, but was rather greasy. Served with some chick peas which were very flavourful. And the piece of bread was huge! Measured probably a foot across in diameter!

We also had a serving of vegetable biryani

This is a first for me. Even when travelling with an Indian vegetarian colleague in India, where I ate vegetarian (or pure veg as the Indians call it), I never once tried vegetable biryani.

Very fragrant, rather wet in complexion. The rice was not the thin, wiry basmati we are used to in top grade biryanis, like those served by Indian Times (now sadly, also defunct) or Mirchi's. The rice was spiced up. Taste was ok, but throughout the dish, I felt that I was missing something...perhaps I needed a cutlet of lamb...um, vegetable.

I wished they had some vegetable curry...perhaps with long beans, eggplant and potato as an accompaniment. As it was, it was too bland, and perhaps too simple. And at S$5 a pop, I feel its too expensive.

And I tried the vadai

Variously spelled as vadai, vade, vada. This is a South Indian snack...usually doughnut shaped, made from lentil, grain flour or potato, and deep fried. Eaten with sambar.

The sambar was excellent. Nice, fragrant, spicy. The vadai was a bit of a let down. A bit too hard, though nicely flavoured. But I think rather expensive at S$3.50 for 2.

Perhaps I am not really inclined towards being a vegetarian...I know my raw vegan friends are crinching...but I love my meat too much to eat vegetarian. Looking at the other customers, it seemed like the dosa was a favourite. I didn't try that so cannot comment. But for me, the meal was not as satisfying, though I can see why this restaurant is a favourite of many, just not my cup of tea. Speaking of tea, we did round up our meal with a cup of masala tea, which was very good, albeit a bit too sweet. Again, rather expensive at S$2.50 for a small cup.

Saravanaa Bhavan

50, Market Street,

#01-05 / 5A Golden Shoe Car Park,