Random Cookout

A few co-workers and I got together some weeks back to put together a self-cooked dinner at someone's home. It turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable evening showcasing completely hidden talents.

The host's talent for shopping wasn't so surprising, actually. She provided a range of antipasto items including cheeses, cold cuts and olives, and laid them all beautifully out on the table.

The best thing of the evening was the truffle honey. AMAZING with brie.

 

I made pesto with fresh linguine.

Another friend made a ginger and carrot soup with chickpeas

 Ripped this photo shamelessly off the host's fb page

This raw mushroom salad with lemon infused olive oil and gratings of asiago was pretty amazing as well. So simple, yet so yummy.

Another fried did roasted salmon done 3 ways - with plum sauce, lemon, and salt and pepper.

Roasted to pure perfection. Cooked and moist.

Plus sous vide apples and vanilla ice cream. A pretty perfect meal, in summary.

Teppei's Bara Chirashi Don

The Bara Chirashi Don ($17.90) at Teppei isn't on the main lunch menu; with salmon, scallop, tuna, one more white unidentifiable oily fish all pre-marinated with soy, and topped with ikura, grated sesame and chives, it's one of the best lunches to be had around the office.  

Goto, Ann Siang Hill

Goto at Ann Siang Hill has got a fantastic front entrance with translucent glass panels that completely mask the interior. It was interesting to finally get a peek behind the curtain to see the interiors, that were well-lit with very balanced lighting. 

They do kaiseki sets that are determined by whatever is fresh and/or available, so there was very little stress over ordering. The starter was essentially a combination of different items - tamago yaki (decorated with a stalk of sakura), something that looked like a cross between tofu and jelly (oh no I can't remember what it is!), prawn sushi and steamed mountain vegetables.

 

A closer look at the food.

This green pea soup was....well, very green. And cold green pea soup is not very Japanese, in my opinion. But I stand to be corrected.

The sashimi was fantastic - super fresh, in fact. There was a combination of hotate, ika, sarawa, amberjack and flatfish.

The steamed/boiled vegetables was up next. The fishcake was good, and so was the yellow stuff that was like another fishcake combo (ok, I guess I either should start taking notes or be resigned to being a lousy food blogger), but the best part was the yuzu zest that was grated on top. Man, that was good stuff.

The tempura course had a few whitebait, a prawn, corn and a mushroom-fishcake combo. Very crispy, very light.

 

To be dipped in salt instead of sauce. This was pretty good.

 

The carbo to fill you up at the end came with pickles, miso soup and dried seaweedy stuff. Interesting but a little salty.

A close up - looks like the dried stuff they serve at the ryokan to be taken with green tea.

Very pretty pickles.

Dessert was a strawberry ice cream, fresh fruits, and something I don't remember much of.

This was very nice - light yet creamy.

I honestly for the life of me cannot remember what this was. Perhaps coffee panna cotta?

And finally, what the interior of the restaurant looks like....behind the non-looking glass. Heh.

In all seriousness, although it was a decent and good-quality meal, it's very difficult for me to justify the price tag of over $80 for a set lunch. While the food is fresh, it's pitching itself against Aoki and Mikuni, both of which are cheaper and arguably just as good. Probably won't be back unless someone else is paying. 


Goto Japanese Restaurant
14 Ann Siang Road
#01-01
Tel: 6438 1553

Teppei - Omakase Dinner

I had never managed to make it for the omakase dinner at Teppei until recently, and even then I had to wait 2 months for my booking. We scored seats for a 6.30pm seating and were out within 2 hours. It was all very exciting, with everyone perched on the edge of their bar stools looking expectantly at the chefs churning out the food. 

We ordered a cold house sake to go with the food - pleasant, but nothing special to shout about.

The first dish was a bamboo shoot salad with sesame dressing - pleasant, but not mind-blowing.

Next up was a warm saba sushi - this disappeared pretty quickly. The fish didn't taste too oily, and the sushi rice had a nice vinegary flavour.

Followed by steamed bamboo shoots and daikon in dashi. 

And pan-fried edamame

For the sashimi, there was maguro, sake, swordfish, otoro, hotate, squid, some clam, and I believe the tataki-ed slice was bonito. It was fresh, and it was nice to have a good variety of different things.

The chef handed out sushi handrolls to each of us - meant to be eaten by hand, clearly.

These turned out to be negitoro handrolls with tempura bits - very very yummy indeed. The seaweed was crispy, the minced otoro was divinely fatty, and the tempura bits added a welcome crunch. Loved this.

Chawan mushi was up next, with bacon bits - tasty but quite a cheap trick.

Very smooth though.

Then came along clams cooked in dashi broth. Licked up every last drop.

Uni with tofu skin - I've always been a bit hesitant about eating uni in Singapore; more hits than misses. So I gave this a miss.

Wakame, bamboo and some mountain vegetable - pretty normal stuff.

A piece of tempura fish -their tempura is always reliably good.

One crab leg- this got us pretty excited

Another view - what is it about crab that always makes one happy? This was a pleasant surprise - it was fresh and tasty, and not too salty.

Wagyu beef with soy and garlic - slightly too wet for my liking. But no complaints.

Cod and clam broth - drank every last drop up again here.

For the 2nd last dish, we had a choice of sashimi rice or udon. The sashimi rice was pretty interesting, with a fair bit of variety

Uni on a spoon - now, this was pretty tasty!

Negitoro and tempura bits (the same from the handroll, I guess) topped with ikura

I believe this was bonito, but I could be wrong.

The cold udon was absolutely yummy. No raw fish, but there was ikura, tempura bits and the slimy grated yam. Slurped it all up.

And to end it off, a choice of calpis, yuzu, black sesame and green tea ice cream. This was yuzu - pretty good.

Their black sesame is probably the winner. I don't recall having eaten any better black sesame ice cream than this, apart from Passionflower in Sydney.

Fantastic value at $60 per head. Bookings absolutely essential, and they're booked solid for the next few months.

Hamachi with soy-truffle dressing, Satsuma

We discovered the hamachi with a dressing of truffle oil and soy infusion at Satsuma much too late, in our opinion. It's a lovely dish, with just the right amount of soy and truffle oil to season the fish, and yet not overwhelm it. For $25, it's not entirely cheap but it's also not unreasonable.

It was almost as enjoyable as the Aoki version (picture reproduced below), but we still have no idea how much it costs at Aoki nor the type of fish that Aoki uses. Our bets are that it's probably more than $25, with the amount of truffles accompanying the fish.


And I loved the Satsuma version so much that I went back 4 days later for another round :-)