Sceonds at Wasabi Tei, Far East Plaza

The three slices of watermelon never looked better.

They did, after all, signal the end of a Japanese meal and our long long wait at Wasabi Tei.

It really was outrageous! On Saturday, Yang and I thought we wore the Kiasuism Badge loud and proud when we reached Wasabi Tei at 5:10pm. To our shock and horror, we found a freakin' long queue, complete with a family of SIX, in front of us. By 5:40pm, the first batch went in and the rest of us waited and waited...

"I see watermelon being served! I think some people are finishing their meal soon" exclaimed Yang.

Hallelujah.



Total wait time: Two hours

Casualties: Numerous

I'm referring to the fish of course. The mixed sashimi final headcount was twenty show-stopping pieces of salmon, meikajiki, tuna, tako and hotate.



The fresh plump slices posed as our congratulatory handshake. "Congrats for making this far!"

I love sashimi. Except maguro which I only take (if given) to remind myself of how much I dislike it.



I know it may not possible but we did have a BLAH dish: the futomaki, which had crabstick, cucumber, beancurd skin and fish floss.



The chawanmushi was generously filled with enoki, chicken and prawn. It was still pretty darn hot when served. A silver of chawanmushi slipped off the teaspoon and landed on my palm, causing third-degree burns. For that 15 seconds, I sat in silence / agony, not daring to attract any attention lest I get thrown out.

Sigh, the things I do for food.



The unagi nigiri was sensational. The grilled eel just collapsed over the tiny mould of rice as if to say, 'I've done my best. I'm going to take a rest now. Please enjoy me".





We literally dug into the kabuto shioyaki (grilled samon head) dissecting the head apart with our chopsticks and fingers. The remarkably sadistic-looking head would have been pretty good had it not been for the bitter-bitter cancer-alert skin.

I must say we did of good job of cleaning out the fish, leaving behind a tiny pile of bones and the I'm-not-touching-it eyeball. Eyeball. Just one because it was half a head.

My second trip to Wasabi Tei was still as good though the blarrrdy two hour wait did de-romanticize the experience. Next time I will give out blood donor forms to everyone in the queue and watch them run...

MUAhahaha

Sidenote: Yay! Obnoxious Gazillionaire Joe Bennett is back on Lipstick Jungle. Wasn't buying the whole Rodrigo The Contractor / Single Dad deal. Eck.

Prive Bakery Cafe, Marina at Keppel Bay

We walked into Prive Bakery Cafe, thinking 'Hey this is so Marmalade!'

Beige wooden furniture aside, the menu with items like Ricotta Pancakes and Wagyu Burger screamed "As Seen in Marmalade" too.



And like Marmalade Pantry, their sticky date pudding with vanilla pod ice cream was to die for. The datable pudding was a porous spongy device that served one simple but worthy purpose - to absorb every drop of butterscotch sauce.

The only difference was an addtional spoonful of walnuts served on the side, somewhat resembling a desperate attempt to differentiate themselves from Marmalade Pantry.



Made with Varlhona chocolate, Prive's Signature Hot Chocolate was madly rich, though in a throat-scratchy sense. We weren't hot about the pink marshmallow as there was something visually odd about mixing girlie pink and mahogony brown. Had it been a white marshmallow, HO! We would have dunked it into the hot chocolate right away and made a mess stirring it through.



The ambiance at Marina at Keppel Bay was really awesome and Prive Bakery Cafe seemed worth re-visiting. Oh Singapore, you're so cool!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Nepotism.

What a dirty dirrrrty word. Funny, it also happens to be something I'm guilty of when it comes to cupcakes.



There I said it. No beating about the bush.



I'm not a big fan of cupcakes because the icing on cupcakes usually make my toenails curl. However I can never resist my sister's cupcakes.



Recently she tried out a new recipe Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, which received the thumbs and toes up from me. The lemon curd lay hidden under the meringue, its sharpness eased by the sweetish marshmallowy crown. It was so good, I ate three in one afternoon without feeling an ounce of guilt.

Meet citrus, my new muse.

Cheesedonna Creacion at TCC

TCC's Cheesedonna Creacion is great for those who can't decide if they should order more finger food or dessert.



The breadcrumbed-and-deep-fried cheese sticks were served warm; inside, the cheese was more molten-mushy than stretchy-snap. Topped with a vanilla (podded) ice cream, the dessert overcame its hot-cold, sweet-savoury identity clash, thanks to the unifying theme of dairy.

Kaiho Sushi, Cuppage Plaza

These days, only sushi does it for me. When the opportunity to try out new sushi restaurants came up, I made reservations at Kaiho Sushi at such speed that would put any fastest-finger-first finalist to shame.

Kaiho Sushi is located on the 3rd floor of The Very Dodgy Cuppage Plaza, not the newly renovated Cuppage Terrace. We were entertained by the extremely affable owner / Chef Bernard Tang and I must say this is one unique chef. I told him I was interested in going 'sushi omakase' and while most chefs would have obliged almost-too-willingly, Chef Bernard merely smiled and said,

"Why not just order the sushi mori first and if you want more, we will add on... "

For starters, we had a small dish of fried fish, accompanied by strips of daikon and carrot, dressed in tangy sauce.


Kaiho Sushi Maori

I'm not sure if everyone gets the same Kaiho Sushi Maori because Chef took our preferences into consideration. No maguro, thank you very much. Our 11-piece sushi maori came with otoro, hotate, smelt, hamachi, chutoro, uni, negitoro and unagi.



The sushi was on par with some of the other establishments I've visited recently. The uni was the freshest I've had since my trip to Tsujiki. Completely devoid of the metallic-ky aftertaste, it was a lucuious rich molten object.



Usually otoro brings out the worst in me as everything I learnt about "caring and sharing" is thrown out of the window; however tonight I was in luck as my friend's indifference to otoro meant I had undivided satisfaction. Ahhh, the milky otoro is defnitely within top 3 items on my Last Things to Eat Before I Die list.



They had to grill a whole slab of unagi just for this sushi. It was worth all that trouble for this nugget of smoky delectation; then again, I wasn't the one slogging over the grill.



Ever since Tomo, my love for aburi-ed sushi grew. The aburi-ed salmon sushi each received a squirt of Japanese mayonnaise and sweet sauce, and torched on the surface. Marvelous.

Watching the chef handle his blow torch made for a theatrical affair. I think not-very-deep down inside, I have always loved the theatrics of sushi and dessert chefs. Crepe suzettes, anyone? Also, I think we should all consider investing in a blow torch.



Kaiho's Aburi California Maki was an elaborate affair of tabiko topped on flamed Japanese mayonnaise and sweet sauce, which resulted in a lovely caramelized saltish combination.



We didn't have too much hot food. I'm someone who favors the unsophisticated parts like cones, crusts, tart shells and tempura batter so I had no issues with the thickish tempura batter of Kaiho's tempura.



Almost -just almost!- stuffed from dinner, we decided to have a final 'fish dish'. Chef had the kitchen prepared something not on the menu - matsu mutsu fish, a firm fleshy deep water fish , braised in sweet soya sauce.

It was a lovely slow unharried dinner. As a business student who is about to graduate, I really appreciated the calmness and peacefulness of the meal. At Kaiho, the financial crisis and gloomy job market seemed like a distant memory - all thanks to great company and our warm host Chef Bernard Tang.

Amande, Tangs Plaza Marketplace

It was an impulse buy. I was just minding my own business when the array of Kiddy Wonderland Pop Colours caught my attention. Having read about this heartland patisserie, I was pretty excited to see an Amande kiosk at Tangs Plaza Marketplace.



I didn't get the pre-packed box of 6 as they had rather hum-drum flavours. Thus, I picked my very own box of 6, consisting of hazelnut, strawberry, chocolate and mint, lemon, cheese and mango.



Sadly, they fell short of expectations. The fail-proof hazelnut and strawberry was shockingly bland and if you had blind-folded me, I wouldn't be able to tell what I was tasting. The savoury cheese, though interesting, needed a kick in the flavour department too.

Out of the 6, only the chocolate and mint and lemon were truly distinguishable.



Also what I found quite disturbing was the unnatural bright food colourings such as turquoise-blue for blueberry and neon green for lemon. This defnitely wasn't my best experience with macarons.

Maybe my tastebuds are acting up from too much sushi. Hmmm... what do you guys think?

Tomo Fine Dining, Marina Square

As a self-professed control freak, the idea of omakase should worry me. The thought of letting someone else do the deciding for me is presumably morbid, not to mention totally uncharacteristic of me. Unless of course “someone” happens to be a head chef who has had over 20 years of experience. Someone like Tomo’s Chef Andrew Tey.



While waiting for my friend, I chatted with the extremely candid Chef and Candy, the manager. Candid and Candy – I knew I would be well taken care of. An amuse bouche of jellyfish and paper-thin cucumber, tossed in yuzu-based dressing, appeared unknowingly.



We officially began with the Tako Salad, a mix of greens and sliced boiled octopus, simply dressed in olive oil.

"The octopus is from Hokkaido" quipped Chef. Like many special items tonight, foreign talent is in da house.



Two huge plump raw oysters stopped me mid-sentence. I have never been fond of raw oysters and here I have two of the hugest specimens were staring back at me. There was no way of eating this without looking like a slob; I held my breath and gulped in the freshest shoyu-dressed oysters. Thank gawd the Japanese don’t crucify people who slurp!



We didn’t have much hot food as I told Chef Tey that I preferred sushi and sashimi. One of the two ‘hot food’ items he sent over was the Hotate Batayaki, sliced scallops grilled in butter.



The other hot dish was the a decadent Kani Tama Mushi, where we had to scrap the crab innards and ikura out of the crab’s filmsy shell, and gently fold it into the chawanmushi. The interplay of salty ikura and sweet kani, squishy ikura and smooth chawanmushi was intriguing.



Soon after, a Japanese cherry fruit tomato arrived appropriately as a palate cleanser.



I almost squealed with delight when the sashimi platter was served. As excited as Charlie when he received the Golden Ticket, no wait, happier than that - more like Henry Paulson when he received the go-ahead for the US$700 billion bailout package.

The assembly of otoro, hotate, hamachi, amaebi, salmon belly, mekaijiki, welk and akagai was resembled a reunion of the who’s-who in Sashimi World.

Otoro, hamachi, salmon belly, mekaijiki owned the ‘Creamy’ title, while welk and akagai pulled ‘Crunchy’ over; hotate and amaebi settled for ‘Sweetish’.

With such a high benchmark, I could hardly wait for the sushi.

FINALLY.



The first couple of nigiris -shima-aji and kampachi- served as a warm-up. Suddenly Chef Tey began working on one of the fugliest fish i have ever seen in my life - the flat flounder fish.

"Karei" Chef replied.

Immaculate and creamy.

"It's so good" I whispered in disbelief.

"I know... that's why I'm giving you two" said the smiling Chef before placing another nugget on our sushi board.

Next we had swooned over the trout and swordfish amiyaki, smoky, luxe fish slices pressed against sweetish vinegar rick.

Amkiyaki simply just means cooked over a wire grill but the name is oddly pretty. Can you imagine naming your girl 'Amiyaki' ... Hey I have heard worse names! Just check out the Jolie-Pitt clan.

We rerouted back to Raw and Crunchy with the geoduck and akagai nigiris, which were both firsts (and hopefully not lasts) for me.



"Enough?" asked Chef Tey. I smiled sheepishly as Chef proceeded to handle something that resembled dried beancurd skin. Two minutes later, a wound-up anago sushi appeared in front of me.

Oh my gawd. A mouthful of anago is an experience not to be missed and one that should be repeated on a regular basis.



We washed it down with some clear wakame soup, which despite its unassuming appearance, bore an incredible aroma. By then I was beginning to feel the effects of our long dinner.



"One more?" said Chef

I never had the habit of listening to my gut anyway and I wasn't about to start tonight.

"My special weapon... I used to make this at Tatsu" said Chef as he took out an odd-looking object.

Was he going to serve me fishcake? I thought to myself.

"White Tuna?" Chef beamed.

I didn't even know such a thing existed! It tasted nothing like tuna though, more like a smoothened clam.





Just as my dining companion started to wave the white flag, Chef Tey challenged yet again.

"One more?"

Hell yeah.

"I will change your impression of maguro... You like spicy?"

I have trouble saying 'no' to this guy.

Chef Tey handed me a handroll, tightly wounded with tuna, chili powder and tempura flakes. Oiishi neh.



Finally, our three-long dinner drew to a close and I had a scoop of “xiao hei” - black sesame ice cream for sweets.

Omakase at Tomo was an epiphany. The personalized attention and superb quality spoilt me senseless. Crap, I don’t think I would be able to look at Japanese food the same way again.

Tampopo Tokusen Sushi

Although we used to visit Tampopo every other weekend, these days we only drop by when my elder sister returns from Hong Kong. Here at Tampopo, people normally leap through fire hoops for their Black Pig Ramen but I skipped past their black pig specialities and arrowed in on the SUSHI.

NOTES: I was particularly disturbed by an abysmal experience at Sushi Yoshida, which left me in dire need of a sushi fix.



The Tampopo Tokusen Sushi was a handsome (and some say, 'ham-some') sushi platter consisting of chutoro, otoro, grilled hata hata, grilled eel, hamachi, hotate, tamago, ikura and uni.

It took quote a while to arrive but when it rolled by on the conveyor belt, I had one of those thank-gawd-they-didn't-lose-my-luggage facial expressions.



The colours, the textures, the felicitation! To the sushi-deprived such as myself, the Tokusen was an art masterpiece ... Picasso, Monet or whatever Mr Ex-Lehman-Brothers-CEO Dick Fuld was auctioning off at Christie's.

I'm just so happy to get my sushi.


Sashimi Platter

I ate wordlessly, in an attempt to savour every bit of subtle sweetness.

Lei Garden Restaurant, Orchard Shopping Centre

Lei Garden Restaurant is long-regarded as an old timer in quality Cantonese cuisine. The Orchard Shopping Centre branch was extremely crowded during lunch; in fact, if you don't have a reservation, you can fudggettaboutit.

It is also obviously a family restaurant as almost every table had elderly folks and kids - not that I minded for the hustle and bustle is all part of the experience, no?



Lei Garden's roasted pork belly aka siu yoke was all about the skin-fat-meat ratio - 1 : 2 : 3 of crackling crisp skin, squishy fat and tender meat. Moments like these make up re-think my allegiance to char siew. Of course there is always room for the both of you, no wait, scratch that... I think my arteries beg to differ.



We didn't order the sheng jian bao aka pan-fried bao but a waitress was pimping it and we took on grounds that it was "freshly made". "Freshly made" the puffy ottoman-shaped bao was but I wasn't loving the insides, which had an overwhelming Chinese mushroom taste.



Next is a conventional take on the chee cheong fun with thickish flour skins and shrimp. I would have liked it better if the skins were thin enough to reveal the silhouette of the shrimps. Then again, the chee cheong fun has always been more of a since-it's-there-I-will-eat-it dish.



The pan-fried pork dumplings with crispy nest sounded more exciting than it looked or tasted. The dumplings were forgettable and the flimsy flour nest added neither flavour nor aroma to the dish. What about aesthetics? Well, it wasn't even that pretty.



This pork dumpling dish was terribly unremarkable too. Though I may have forgotten what it's called but I will remember to stay away from 'pork dumpling' dishes at Lei Garden.



Something you don't see everyday is the pumpkin sandwiched between pan-fried shredded yam. I love pumpkin so by association this was pretty good.



The shanghai steamed soup dumplings was quite a morbid disappointment. Yes there was 'soup' within the dumplings but it had hardly any flavour.



First and foremost, this looks like the steamed pork ribs but the waitress insisted it was grilled pork ribs (which was what we ordered). Fine, if you insist, I will comment from a 'grilled pork ribs' perspective and proclaim this a sham to all smoky grilled char-ry pork ribs out there.

If it were steamed pork ribs, it was pretty competent, save for too much fat.



The siew mais looked promising but suffered from the same overwhelming Chinese mushroom scent.



I think I'm biased towards triangular char siew pastry but really, you get more char siew oomph! Anyway, this pastry skin was on the thick side - a common trait of rectangular char siew pastries.



The egg tarts were a beacon of light. It had the much-desired wobbly insides and a flaky crust that shattered all over your clothes, the table and clung onto the ends of your mouth.



Apart from the disillusioned waitress, service was crisp, good and -gasp- friendly. I enjoyed my time at Lei Garden but on hindsight, the food wasn't spectacular, which really just goes to show that great company can right out so-so food.