Birthday omakase at Miraku 味楽

Over the past few years, I have graviatated towards chirashis or omakases for my birthday meal with KW. With all that has been going, something light and fuss-free sounded even more appealing. I came across Miraku, a largely under-the-radar Japanese restaurant, and we promptly made a reservation. To our surprise, there were 2 seatings and we were on the waitlist for the 11:45am slot - looks like it's just us who's not heard of them.

KW and I opted for their 15-course Lunch ($68), which comprised of 3 appetisers, 9 nigiri sushi pieces, Wagyu sukiyaki, a soup and dessert. The appetizers, while seemingly plain, were tasty and prepped our guts for an onslaught of sushi.The sushis then came fast and furious - 'cause we were late - but it wasn't an issue since we are fast eaters. The sushis are admittedly on the small side, but delightful nonethless. All were seasoned well, either with soy, or light touches of kosho and flavoured salt.

Service was exemplery - we were massively late but they were very accomodating and thoughtful about our experience. That and the sushi is worth a return trip. Miraku is launching a new menu around mid August - something to look out for when we want to treat ourselves.

L: Enoki salad

R:Braised Wagyu

L: Iku

R:Sake (we ordered)

L: Tai (Seabream) 

R: Saba

L: Tai (Seabream) 

R: Aburi Kinmedai

L: Botan-ebi

R: Otoro

L: Ikura

R: Uni

Wagyu sukiyaki with onsen egg 

L: Red miso soup

R:Perila plum sorbet

My new favorite: Beef Massaman Curry

Just saying: If my day job doesn't work out, I might make a decent living from selling curry. Over the weekend, I made an unctuous tender beef Massaman curry, using beef coin muscle. Why didn't I make my own curry paste earlier? Absolute flavour bomb and it wasn't all that difficult. 

Carbs-wise, aromatic pandan coconut rice made for a lovely canvas for the curry. I love fried eggs any day but these fried sunny-side ups, drizzled with recap manis and topped with fried curry leaves, provided a warm creamy blanket to the curry and rice. To cool things off, I also made a cold Japnese spinach goma salad. Did that make sense? Probably not, but it worked! 

Beef Massaman Curry (recipe link)

Pandan Coconut Rice (recipe link)

Spinach Goma

Crispy fried eggs

Russell turns 8!

Guess who turned 8 on polling day!
Ahh, very soon we are going to have a teenager on our hands.

Good thing we seredipitiously scored a long weekend, meant we could have an easier time and not get caked out too quickly. We made a trip back to civilisation and at lunch at Da Paolo Dempsey.  All of cleaned up nicely - and that included wearing loafers instead of flip flops in KW's case.

I guess people were in a celebratory mood as the restaurant was full so we scored seats at the bar. Not a bad view, I will admit. An awesome carby lunch (anda 2-hr nap) ensued. I have to say, Da Paolo has really upped their pizza game - that crust was phenomenal.

In the evening, we had the grandparents over for a Korean feast. Russell loves Korean Galbi - he even does it the correct way of wrappping it with lettuce. I tried to make hameul pajeon but failed with too many ingredients - hey, at least it was crispy and I will get it right next time.

My mother-in-law got a lovely Amelie tart from Flor for the Friday and dinner and treated the boys to a fabulous PVZ cake the next evening. Both were scrumptous! 

We normally have a shebang this time of the year but for obvious reasons, that wasn't possible. Nonethless, Russell had a few close friends over for a movie night. As with most 8 year olds, the boys are really into Plant vs. Zombies and I made a half-assed attempt at creating some sort of theme. 

 

Happy birthday, Russell! 

You are turning out to be a little man full of curiosity and cheekiness. 

I love you, sweetie!

Maximalism vs. Minimalism

Finally paid a visit to the nursery 

Happy times x

Father's Day Weekend

Last weekend, fathers around the world came out of Mother's Day shadows and finally got their big break. However, even with Phase 2 in full social-distancing-swing, I am still not comfortable with going out to take a stroll in the mall or dine out at restaurants. Maybe I'm just a true homebody who really just enjoys staying at home (HAHA!). But without losing the celebratory spirit, we had meals with our parents and in-laws separately at home over the weekend.  

With my parents, we ordered assorted otoro and akami sashimi from Kuro Maguro by Maguro Donya! They were super fresh and I loved the cube cuts. On top of that, we also got some delicious AF squid ink pasta sauce (we didn't know it was just sauce and luckily had spaghetti in the pantry) and pizzas from Ristorante Luka.

With my in-laws, we beefed out with MB6 and MB6 Wagyu steaks, alongside kale salad and roasted potatoes. My mum-in-law made a super moist chocolate cake that we downed with copious amount of vanilla ice cream. 

Hope you had a good one, stay safe. 

Our lives, lately

Our weekend lunches always end with ice cream
Such times calls for easy comfort

Lots of cooking and grilling happened and 

Russell has decided his favourite restaurant is hom

Celebrated my mum-in-law's birthday with a Zoom call

that stretched from California to Singapore

Lovely cupcakes from Creme Maison x

Russell made Organ Attack bookmarks one day. My dear Firstborn....

 The boys were each other's shadow companions *heart*

We were bitten by the puzzle bug. 

I have to say, the 1000-piece puzzle is sadistically satisfying. 

We did our fair share of food deliveries and Omote was by far one of our favourites 

Though local favourites are hard to beat

 

More of my cuties x

Kept myself sane during the Circuit Breaker with lots and lots of painting