Great Pasta Lunch @ Alfresco Gusto at Ion Orchard on 17Feb2013

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linguine carbonara – S$22

I bought some deal.com vouchers for Alfresco Gusto @ Ion Orchard & the family decided to go for Sunday lunch. Ion Orchard happens also to be a convenient location for other members of the family for after lunch shopping..haha. 🙂

the Alfresco Gusto vouchers were S$10 for S$20 & you can redeem unlimited number of vouchers, so effectively (nearly) it was quite close to a 50% discount, so relatively a good deal if the food & prices were good. 🙂 We don’t do Italian out so much as the ala carte main courses are quite expensive in the good restaurants and both my wife & I as well as our domestic help do quite good pasta dishes ourselves, but we do visit from time to time a few like Al Borgo (update –  i had excellent dinner there recently on 22.11.2013), Valentino, Spizzico, Covelli, Ochre & a good cheaper place like Capri. 🙂

tuna salad - S$20

tuna salad – S$20

We ordered the tuna salad. It was well plated, looked pretty. The mesclun salad with olives was great, the tuna was very average (kind of tasteless) though.

antipasti platter - S$26

antipasti platter – S$26

We also had the antipasti platter which had parma ham, beef, salami & sun-dried tomatoes, olives & baguette. It was good & S$26 was ok but Capri served a much better version at S$18, so w/o the near 50% discount Capri would do better on this item.

I was never much into carbonara. My son actually taught himself to cook a pretty good one, but the one here was really good – creamy & flavourful & looked amazing (top photo), the best among all the good dishes. 🙂

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veal ragout – S$24

I would put the veal ragout as the second best item. It was creamy, savoury and nicely sprinkled with chopped parsley & grated cheese & sun-dried tomatoes. 🙂

prawn linguine in tomato sauce - S$30

prawn linguine in tomato sauce – S$30

The prawn linguine in tomato sauce came with very good helping of large prawns – my daughter counted 7! it was good too but I guessed more towards the ordinary & boring – something we could do at home with equally fresh ingredients almost equally well. 🙂

crabmeat risotto - S$32

crabmeat risotto – S$32

the last item we ordered was the crab meat risotto. It was good as well but I distinctly remembered that I had tried the funghi risotto here once before a while back & that was the best I had for that meal & this crab meat version was not near as good even though it cost S$10 more.

all in all, the 6 dishes for our 5pax lunch cost S$101 nett using the vouchers which was really a very good deal considering the quality of the dishes. without the vouchers it would cost S$181 nett or about S$31++pax. as ala carte order it would not be overly expensive however there were many good lunch set places & better deals to be had elsewhere, so I would do this but not often w/o the discounts.

c.h.e.f andy

1500yen Kuroge Wagyu (黑毛和牛) Lunch Set (sashimi, grilled & braised wagyu) on 14Apr2013

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kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) sashimi

was considering couple recommended yakiniku restaurants in Shinjuku like Kurumaya & Jojoen (which was also highly recommended by a good friend).

I found Jojoen (叙々苑) with little difficulty at 7F of a building just across the road from Shinjuku East Exit. 🙂 as was shown on the website, Jojoen had quite good 1700yen & 2700yen set lunches, both were Japanese beef (国产牛) but not kuroge. It had good lunch traffic and was clearly a popular restaurant. I had wanted to try out Kurumaya as it had a lunch kaiseki set which included beef for 5500yen so I continued on. however I was not able to locate Kurumaya w/o my map & GPS (as I did not subscribe to the unlimited roaming service on 14apr2013).

as I was walking up the streets to get back to the Jojeon locality I chanced upon this 1500yen kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) lunch set. I decided to give it a go and was happily very well rewarded for my adventurous spirit..haha. 🙂

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the set included 4 slices of kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) sashimi – I just love beef sashimi – and they were very sweet, tasty, not chewy & w/o residue. :-).

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1500yen kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) lunch set

there was also the grilled wagyu. of course I was not expecting some top grade kuroge & anyway it was really very nice & tasty even though it was not the highly marbled “pang” (fragrant) variety. 🙂

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kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) grilled

and I had always like braised beef, and the japanese way of braising beef & belly pork using mirin, sugar & soy sauce was a very nice recipe which I liked. 🙂

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kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) braised pot

The shop name was in hiragana or something so I tried but was unable to locate the shop on internet. anyway I was quite sure that I would have no difficulty to physically locate this place again.

yakiniku shop at Shinjuku kabukicho

yakiniku shop at Shinjuku kabukicho

I was very happy with the cheap& good lunch which included everything I wanted – sashimi, grilled steak & braised pot. I am sure to be back here again next time I visit Shinjuku. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Trip Planning – Flight, Hotel, Destinations, Transport

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everyone will find their own best way to go about things, for me, it’s planning. 🙂

like when I cook a 8-course dinner for 10 friends, or a buffet for 23 friends, it’s all about planning – the dishes, marketing, preparation & timing to start each dish etc.

so same for me when it comes to trip planning, it will not work for me to mistake unpreparedness & lack of research & planning as spontaneity.

  1. the dates – for this what ended up as “missing sakura” Tokyo trip on 9-15apr2013, my plans were derailed (or became spontaneous to be the eternal optimist) as the weather changes brought the sakura flowering 2 weeks forward from the normal period, and Japan Guide’s Cherry Blossom Report 2013 was reporting full bloom in Tokyo on 25mar2013 instead of first week of april! but the point about planning is – once I know this, then I have to adjust the destination to places I can still find sakura (takaosan 高尾山) or where there are later flowering sakuras (eg shinjukugoen). 🙂
  2. flights – the advent of low cost carriers have really trigger mass travels. for 30 years I have been travelling exclusively SIA, but for the last 2 years, I have done quite a few trips to Shantou & HK on Jetstar. for this trip,  I was travelling alone and SIA cost like $1100 for lone traveller.  Scoot (a new LCC subsidiary of SIA) was offering around $500 economy return c/w closer to $700 by Jetstar, and since Scootbiz was just $150 more (& very much less if you were to include the 2 free meals + 20kg check-in luggage + free flight entertainment) & it was an outgoing night flight, I decided to take Scootbiz outbound & return by economy. The only downside is a stopover at Taipei! My $680 fare was in fact about same as what my daughter paid for China Eastern economy return (which stopped over at Shanghai!) I also researched on the seats! according to seatguru.com, Scoot has the largest seat width at 19″ to 20″ for economy and 22″ leather seats for Scootbiz for the 777-200 aircraft for this flight; that c/w JAL’s 17.3″ for economy and 18.5″ for business, Cathay Pacific’s 18″ for economy & 20″ for business & SIA’s own 17.5″ economy & 20″ business seats for the same aircraft & Jetstar’s 18″ for economy & 20″ for starclass for A330-200 aircraft.
  3. hotel – I looked at a few hotels including the Sakura chain which seems quite good & finally settled for Shinjuku Sunroute Plaza, which is just 3minutes walk from JR Shinjuku South Exit and 1 minute walk (right next door really!) from Shinjuku Teio line A1 exit. The cost for a 6 night stay was 63000yen all in including breakfast which was like <S$140/night. This was even cheaper than my recent stay at Hong Kong’s Kowloon Hotel, thanks to the lower yen forex rates. 🙂
  4. destination planning – this has got to do with what you want for the trip. for my case, it was (1)chasing sakura (2)some trekking (3) lots of food 🙂 thus I checked out the top hanami (花见which means sakura viewing) spots, and where to go for later flowering sakura like at Shinjukugoen & also at higher altitude like takaosan (600m); and of course I researched also the takaosan trails, and the Shinjuku restaurants!
  5. transport –  this is very key because of cost & time. In Japan it is very confusing as you have JR Pass, JR East Pass, JR Kanto Pass and all the places you want to go (like in my case Takaosan, Nikko & Kamakura, and Izu which I dropped) are served by private railways which you have to pay a hefty supplement. For example the All Nikko Pass works for Tobu Nikko Spacia trains which connect from Asakusa which means you have to plan to get from Shinjuku to Asakusa to connect. If you use the JR Passes, in order not to have to pay hefty supplements, you have to get to Tokyo Station and take the Tohoku Shinkansen line instead! See this important guide here!

and there is one more variable – the weather! you do NOT want to take a 3 hr journey to Nikko when it is raining or go to Hakone when it is downcast & you cannot see Mt Fuji! so your daily destination plan has to follow closely the weather reports which maybe wrong of course! as my good friend told me=that’s life!

anyway I was fortunate that during my 7 days in Tokyo I was blessed with glorious sunshine and pleasant weather(or perhaps it was I who blessed the Tokyo-ites haha..). 🙂 it was no compensation for missing the sakura full bloom though, but hey that’s life!

c.h.e.f andy

Andy’s Travelogue

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my son had suggested (and a few friends did too) that since I am lately into blogging, why not also start a new travel blog. 🙂

I thought about this, but the food & travel blogging are really for my own interest and expression and sharing among family & close friends, and very much a memory aid as I age..haha. 🙂 & if it does provide any service at all to other people out there who I now benefit tremendously from by reading & learning from their experiences on (say) tripadvisor & googling for internet & video recipes, it is merely the mutual empowerment provided by the internet & Facebook era…it is quite bothersome to be managing 2 blogs when the whole purpose of the exercise is just to record my experience & thoughts to aid later day recollections & perhaps to relish some fun & joyous moments. 🙂 so just 1 blog it shall be!

I thought about what to name this category of posts, which will be about travel destinations, hotels & travel planning & of course 1 of my greatest motivation – food! 🙂

I decided to call it travelogue as it is mostly a manner of monologue, and with the Facebook, social network & sharing culture some bits of dialogue among close friends & sometimes strangers, and of course it is like a catalogue of the things that I do and which interest me & my thought processes, and sometimes hopefully some insights and perspective at the time.

c.h.e.f  andy

Happy to Give and Receive

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I was having coffee with my daughter & JH at a Shinjuku cafe after a satisfying meal at Ganso Sushi, a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi (回旋寿司) shop on 12apr2013. My daughter just returned from a full & wonderful day trip to Hakone having glorious sunshine & clear view of Mount Fuji, and I was asking her if she liked to retire early as her hotel was at Asakusa area, but she wanted to have a coffee together.

We were chatting about various things including her starting work soon after graduation and the career options for her & JH. I asked about her starting salary & she asked what she should give to me. I told her I knew what she would give to my wife but if she would like to give more she could give all to my wife. She said “no la, I like it to be the same”. So I told her I would accept of course and that my belief was in life it was just as important to receive as to give, which my daughter nodded affirmatively her concurrence.

All parents would be more than happy to receive any token appreciation from their children as they commence the next lap of their life’s journey with new jobs & financial independence, without placing too much burden on the children. It is both a great feeling for the children to offer and for the parent to cherish the offer & to reinforce the positive energy by showing appreciation for the offer.

Though we mostly know how short & transient life is, and what make us happy & how we should try to be positive, the world is so filled with tragedies, depression, anxiety, anger, sadness, and we are continuously invaded & distracted by negative thoughts throughout the day.

I constantly remind myself to make myself happy, and all my loved ones and friends happy (and strangers too) where I can without trying overly hard. This is of course just my personal views and may not apply to others – everyone would know how to make themselves happy if they want to &  if they try. 🙂

Why not try overly hard? The thing is that if you have expectations that others must share what you believe, think what you think, or understand or appreciate what you do, then (1) your mood which reflects your true self however you want your self image to be will not be relaxed & expansive & you will be just putting pressure on yourself (2) there will be lack of earnestness and instead of generating positive energy, you will be generating negative energy.

But effort is important! I used to tell my children – you must want something! if you don’t want it or treasure it or show the pleasure in receiving or achieving it, why should people want to help you get it? 🙂

So try hard we must, because without effort there is no earnestness. I recall The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho said something like “When you want something, all the universe is conspiring to help you achieve it”. My understanding of this is that when you do something in earnest without having an ulterior motive or expectation but at the same time you are serious &  fully committed and want it in all earnestness & enjoy & are happy doing it, then the positive energy trigger & bring forth all the positive energy from everyone else, so everyone is happy to help you achieve it.

So to me, the purpose must be to increase the happiness of myself and all around me. and so it is a pleasure to give. it makes people happy and make yourself happy. at the same time it is a pleasure to receive and to show the same earnestness in receiving – the appreciation & happiness. 🙂 if you belief that giving makes you happy because you also want others to be happy, then it follows that others feel happy when giving and if it also makes you happy to receive (please do NOT accept anything if it does not feel right or make you happy to do so!) then let others have that happy feeling of giving and positive energy & goodwill will multiply. Like the saying goes “sorrow lessen and happiness multiply when shared”.

We always teach our children – know when to say NO! that is correct of course. at the same time, we should know & treasure the moments when to say YES! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Asahi Sushi Shinjuku Sumitomo 50F Course Dinner on 9Apr2013

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Kinki - a fatty Japanese delicacy

Kinki – a fatty Japanese delicacy

arrived Tokyo on 9apr2013.

had dinner arranged with my daughter & JH. they were already travelling Japan. decided to book a course dinner in a comfortable environment & easy to locate place, so booked Asahi Sushi at 50F, Shinjuku Sumitomo Building. They had a few course menu promotions for the month & great views up there. 🙂

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JH & I had the 7-course with kuroge wagyu beef dinner. My daughter had a 10-item sushi moriwase set.

for the course dinner, we also had a small veg salad with mayo otoshi. The 7 courses were-

  1. hokkaido crab claw with unagi & vinegared pickles (below photo left)
  2. maguro & tai sashimi (above photo middle)
  3. chawanmushi (above photo right)
  4. kinki (japanese delicacy & chef’s favourite here)
  5. kuroge wagyu grilled
  6. 8-item sushi moriwase
  7. miso soup

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the veg salad, chawanmushi & miso soup were non-events. the crab & unagi vinegared dish was very tasty. the sashimi were very average even for Singapore.

the kinki was fabulous. this very sweet tasting fatty fish is like between a cod (not as fatty) & chilean seabass (the latter is my perennial favourite). super! 🙂

kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) rare

kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) rare

the kuroge wagyu was good I guess but kind of underwhelming. I always felt Japanese wagyu were so good they were best eaten teppanyaki or yakiniku style rather than western fine dining style. When Andre Chiang was at Jaan years back, we use to frequent there a bit more. he had this kagoshima wagyu done in this Gordon Ramsay style similar to what’s done here in the above photo. It was good of course but I would much rather have it sizzling hot & with the freshly seared aburi marbling flavour. 🙂

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10-piece sushi platter

my daughter was not too impressed with her sushi platter (above photo). It had anago, 2 pieces maki, hamachi? (not sure), ikura (these were small & I much preferred the large ones so maybe it was not ikura), tai, aji, prawn, hotate, maguro uni & akamai (lean toro). after I later tried the very good quality sushi at Daikokuya 大黑屋 kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi, I had to agree with her that you could get equal or better quality sushi at much lower price but of course ambience and view was a world apart. 🙂

her set also included the vinegared crab dish & miso soup.

8-items sushi moriwase

8-items sushi moriwase

for the course dinner, we had a 8-item sushi platter-maguro, saba, akamai, hotate, amaebi, uni, ikura (small ones) & anago. It was good but same observations as my daughter. 🙂

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was the dinner worth it? my daughter’s set cost 2730yen=S$30++. good kaiten sushi not withstanding, S$30++ for a plump, succulent, sweet hokkaido crab claw + 10 piece sushi including akamai, uni, anago, ikura, hotate would  really be nothing to complain about in Singapore.

the 7-course dinner cost 6090yen=S$67++.  here with kinki & kuroge wagyu thrown in, I would say it was still a very good set c/w say Kuriya Dining which offer very good monthly S$88++ set but my usual eat at Mikuni would beat this hands down in terms of overall satisfaction if not value of ingredients. 🙂

& that was before factoring in the free view of Shinjuku night skyline, privacy & quiet ambience.

c.h.e.f andy

Great Kuroge Wagyu @ Shinjuku Korin Yakiniku (光琳) on 11Apr2013

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Kuroge wagyu (黑毛和牛) flank 1180yen for 100g

returned from another long journey again, this time to Enoshima & Kamakura and another 6 hrs+ walking. usually I would skip lunch to optimise the time for the tour. 🙂 this time I had 20minutes at Fujiwara station waiting to board the Odakyu train back to Shinjuku, and so helped myself with a bowl of 400yen nikusoba. good stuff! 🙂

still I was feeling like treating myself to a good meal. I already had 1 expensive course dinner at Asahi Sushi @ 50F Shinjuku Sumitomo building, a very good tokusen (特选) sashimi moriwase also at Asahi Sushi 8F Mylord Shinjuku South Exit, and a cheap food tour including soba, thick cut gyu don, and kaiten sushi. So I thought go try out an average yakiniku place. 🙂

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I found this yakiniku restaurant Korin (光琳) near Shinjuku 1-chome.  It had this very powerful suction chute-not only it rid the place of smoke & smell but the flame rose up when you placed the meat on the metal grill & actually seared & barbeque the meat extremely well – whatever maillard reaction you needed you could not get better than this. 🙂

special taster set of 5 meats (3 kuroge wagyu) for 1980yen

special taster set of 5 meats (3 kuroge wagyu) for 1980yen

They have english & picture menu as in most eats in Japan. Not knowing how the meat standard was relative to the price, I elected to have the special taster set which included 3 types of kuroge wagyu for 1980yen.

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all the meats were good & I enjoyed all of them, especially the 2 very marbled wagyu at the bottom of the above photo. 🙂 I think high temperature flaming (aburi) whether it was on marbled meat or on oily fish sushi or sashimi (like aburi toro) made a superlative improvement to the already great marbled taste.

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being greedy I asked the waiting staff which menu item this was, & I made another order of this kuroge flank 1180yen for 100g (which you see in the photo at the top of the page). This really was fabulous. 🙂

So my dinner added up to 3160yen nett. you could also order beef tongue, scallop/prawn/seafood & bibimbap here as well as a set of 4 kimchi.

I am one very satisfied customer! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Ganso Sushi: Shinjuku Kaiten(Conveyor Belt) 元祖寿司 on 12Apr2013

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uni (sea urchin)

uni (sea urchin) sushi on 12Apr2013

Today is my rest day. The trips to Takaosan & Enoshima-Kamakura the last 2 days were rather tiring, each entailed >5hrs of walking on my injured toes. 🙂 Today I plan only to stroll around Shinjukugoen to catch any remnants of sakura flowering and later to pick up the All Nikko Pass from Tobu Pass Office at MB1 of Shinjuku Centre Building.

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Ganso Sushi: Shinjuku Kaiten(Conveyor Belt) 元祖寿司

I was passing this kaiten sushi (回旋寿司) place on the way to Shinjukugoen. The first kaiten sushi I tried this trip was kind of disappointing, this fortunately though turned out to be much better. 🙂

kaiten sushi at corner from Shinjuku South Exit to Sunroute Hotel

kaiten sushi at corner from Shinjuku 1-chome

Like the other kaiten sushi shops, there was a powdered tea box where you dished out tea powder (I picked the toasted rice tea 玄米茶 ) & added hot water from the tap, and you can help yourself with the pickled ginger (see above photo).

I ordered the following sushi items-

  1. uni (sea urchin) – 262yen
  2. 2xhamachi (yellow tail) – 2x130yen
  3. ebi (prawn – don’t know what type, I only know amaebi, akaebi & botan ebi – this though was as large as botan ebi) – 130yen
  4. ika (squid) – 130yen
  5. anago (sea eel or conger eel) – 130yen

Total cost = 912yen for 12 pieces, about S$12nett.

The uni (top photo) was above average, good helping, sweet  & not dry but not the very creamy melt in the mouth bursting with flavour kind, definitely good value for 262yen! 🙂

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uni (sea urchin) sushi 0n 13Apr2013

I went back again the next day (13Apr2013) and this time the uni was very creamy & sweet, very good indeed, so do note the freshness & standard may vary a bit. 🙂

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The hamachi standard was inconsistent. The one on the above right photo was excellent. The one of the left was just ok. I could not tell from just looking at them.

ebi sushi

ebi sushi

The prawn sushi was good. It was large but not as sweet tasting & plump as botan ebi (which is very expensive in Singapore like 3pieces for S$25)

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The ika was good not great. So was the anago. This the cheaper version. I did not take the 262yen ones which were like 2 times the size (in length). maybe I should have!

It was a really great sushi lunch and at very low cost of just S$12nett! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Economic Quick Food Tour of Shinjuku on 10Apr2013

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had a nice dinner & great view at Asahi Sushi on 50th floor of Shinjuku Sumitomo Building with my daughter & her friend last evening, so decided to go for some cheap food this time round after my exhausting 5 hr+ walking trip to Takaosan (高尾山).

as I returned on the Keio line. I recalled this soba shop which I had wanted to visit. There was no difficulty locating it after the fare gate. :-).

I surveyed the available options and picked a 350yen soba which came with an ebi (the super tiny kind) tempura – see photos below.

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350yen soba with tiny prawn tempura @ keio line shinjuku

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self select soba options

This is an easy way to order your food. You just self-select the item you want, make payment at a “meal ticket machine” and out comes a ticket of your meal order which you then present to the shop & wait for your food to be ready. 🙂

what can I say? the 350yen soba was immensely gratifying. was it better than the S$3 bachormee (minced pork noodles)? I think not. but it is colder here and slurping a warm tasty soba was a very comforting & enjoyable experience.

I walked around the streets dotted with restaurants just across Shinjuku West Exit which was also around my hotel Sunroute Plaza.  I found this interesting gyu don shop which advertised a thick cut beef bowl. When I first came to japan 30 years ago, I enjoyed very much the cheap gyu don at Shinjuku including Yoshinoya (吉野家). Those use the very fatty thin sliced beef which are similar to the Korean bulgogi cuts. Now lifestyle has progressed somewhat & the Yoshinaya gyu don is not a very attractive food choice.

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This beef bowl however was quite excellent. The beef were thick cut as advertised (as seen in above photos) and the many sauces & chilli (see photo below) & rice were all  excellent very tasty and enjoyable. It came with a miso soup & glass of water & you could help yourself to pickled ginger on the table. The whole meal costs just 330yen. This was a small portion (but was already quite substantial), and you could pick a medium which is 480yen or large, 620yen.

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Next I went to try out what looked like a better quality conveyor belt sushi.

This was what I had (total cost=862yen)-

  1. 2 pieces salmon belly (262yen)
  2. 4 pieces shellfish (2x130yen)
  3. 2 pieces maguro (130yen)
  4. 2 pieces negitoro (210yen)

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The sushi was rather underwhelming. The salmon belly was good not super. Maguro looked ok but was a cheap cut, negi toro looked great but had not much taste, the shellfish was good so I ordered a second helping. 🙂

the entire dinner  –  I didn’t have lunch of course & took small amount of the gyu don rice :-)..haha..if you can call that=330+350+862=1542yen=S$17++. 🙂

So basically you don’t need to spend that much money eating in Japan!

c.h.e.f  andy

Asashi Sushi @ 8F Mylord Building Shinjuku South Exit on 9Apr2013

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I was early for 2pm check in at Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku. My Scoot flight TZ202 touched down on time at Narita 11am. I travel only with handcarry (nothing to shop or cart back) for the longest time, and so got on the NEX (Narita Express) by 11.30am and arrived Shinjuku 12.40pm and at Sunroute soon after.

So I decided I might as well have a bite. As I was getting out of Shinjuku South Exit, I noticed that there was a Asahi Sushi outlet at Mylord Building there. So I took the short walk (300m) & got on the lift to 8th floor.

Asahi Sushi @ 8F Milord Shinjuku South Exit

Asahi Sushi @ 8F Milord Shinjuku South Exit

As I was meeting my daughter & her friend later for dinner (they were already travelling in Japan), I decided to just take sashimi.

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tokusen sashimi moriase

There was an impressive looking Tokusen sashimi moriwase which meant specially selected mixed sashimi (see photo above) at 1800yen, so I decided to just have that.

tokusen sashimi moriwase

tokusen sashimi moriwase

This was what I had-

  1. 5 slices of aji (horse mackerel)
  2. 2 slices of hamachi (yellow tail)
  3. 2 amaebi (sweet prawn)
  4. 2 tai (sea bream or snapper)
  5. 1/2 a awabi =5 slices of abalone
  6. negitoro (minced tuna belly)
  7. 1 whole slug I ate several times before but didn’t know the name (I found out later name was tsubugai)
  8. 2 centrepiece akamai (lean toro)

The aji was very good & went very well withe the dash of ginger. We get very good aji in Singapore as well. The hamachi were quite ok but I had much better plump ones before. The tai was average but at least not those with much residue, The amaebi was good.

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The awabi was fabulous (though the photo was not as I was unable to focus well). I had Japanese abalone sashimi before but usually they were a bit tough & chewy. & they were expensive and not great so I wouldn’t usually order them. These were not tough at all & very sweet, a really nice treat!

The negitoro was also very sweet (I later tried a pair of negitoro sushi at a conveyor belt sushi place & though they looked beautiful they had very little taste).

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the slug thingy (tsubugai) was ok but still a bit tough, never my favourite but quite ok here. and the akamai – lean toro – was also good.

The 1800 yen price (=S$20++) was of course extremely cheap for the items offered. In Singapore it would be difficult to get this for S$80++.

tokusen sashimi moriwase

tokusen sashimi moriwase

So as we all already know, good Japanese food is a lot more expensive in Singapore on a quality-price comparison. There were many other good sets at Asahi Sushi like a good chirashi don for 1490yen – and it looked as good & more in quantity c/w the one at Ginza Kuroson, which to me offers the best priced quality chirashi don in Singapore at S$20++ for lunch inclusive of salad, dessert & ice tea.

c.h.e.f  andy

Value Lobster Set @ Chao Yue Xuan (潮悦轩) on 1Mar2013

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Chao Yue Xuan (潮悦轩) S$35nett 7-course set

Chao Yue Xuan (潮悦轩) S$35nett 8-course set

see also the new S$38 8-course lobster & abalone set (21.8.2013).

bought 2xS$35nett 8-course Chao Yue Xuan (潮悦轩) groupon vouchers, so duly visited the restaurant. 🙂

This is the same Ah Yat branch & location at UE Square along Mohamed Sultan Road, only they have changed the name to mean a “pleasing teochew pavilion”..at S$35nett the meal did turn out pleasing enough though nothing teochew 🙂

decor & ambience wise though the place is a bit dowdy, and in fact though this branch is located at UE Sqaure, Turf City has better ambience! there were 3 tables of Chinese tourists this evening – I guess F&B is really competitive here & people do need to survive. 🙂

salmon sashimi

salmon sashimi

the salmon sashimi was actually quite good but not really the belly or fatty type which now even some buffet serve, but it was good, not poor.

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the double-boiled fishmaw（花膠）soup was very good really – sweet, smooth, tasty.

garlic steamed (蒜茸蒸) razor (bamboo) clam with tanhoon

garlic steamed (蒜茸蒸) razor (bamboo) clam with tanhoon (glass noddles)

the garlic steamed razor (bamboo) clam with tanhoon (glass noodles) was good (every restaurant should really be able to do this well) though Ah Yat at Turf City was better & Long Beach @ Dempsey was better than both, and we didn’t think that serving it without the shell instead of on the shell was a great idea. btw, i also did a good steamed razor clam in garlic oil myself.

deep-fried fish chop with strawberry sauce

deep-fried fish chop with strawberry sauce

I cannot really fault this fish chop (2 pieces – very large serving) . The deep-fry was done right crispy & not soggy, but the meal was really filling & we were not into this sweet strawberry sauce thingy & this asian fusion? dish did not match well with the other menu items. I took 1 piece. My wife did not touch it.

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the lobster in pumpkin sauce was very nice. It was a mid-size maine lobster, about 450g (& larger than the one we took subsequently at Xin Cuisine). pumpkin sauce is a favourite cooking style with Ah Yat & goes well with crab, I think more so than lobsters. Comparing this with the very light cheese gratin lobster at Xin Cuisine I would think this is better (& of course larger) – though my wife would disagree – but I guess this was more robust in taste & presentation c/w Xin Cuisine’s which can be said to be more fine.

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poached nai bai (奶白) with abalone sauce

This nai bai vege was very good! 🙂

baked prawns with noodles in superior sauce

baked prawns with noodles in superior sauce

I didn’t get this dish though – the prawn was large & fresh (live right..) & in superior sauce how to go wrong? but it was soggy, not “QQ” (al dente)..& with the fish chop, would be the weakest links in this set.

The red bean dessert does not really deserve mention or a photo..haha.:-)

anyway, it was difficult to fault this S$35nett 8-course set – the ingredients like lobster & razor (bamboo) clam were good quality, the salmon & prawn were fresh, soup & vege were good; quality of cooking was not quite there but still above average.

I may not do this too often but I have bought another 2 vouchers, so I am planning to go back before voucher expires. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Chinese Fine Dining Set @ Xin Cuisine on 31Mar2013

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chicken & mushrooms in eggskin dumpling in pumpkin soup

chicken & mushrooms in egg skin dumpling in pumpkin soup

I had not tried Xin Cuisine, despite it being included in Amex Palate dining privilege for a while already. and though I did have intention to try out the food here using palate discounts, it was ANZ card marketing that got me to ask about this lobster & abalone 1 for 1 menu. We were still not sure though, as you could not really tell by menu alone the quality of cooking, so when we got ourselves seated I studied the ala carte menu a little in addition to the the promotion set menu below (which as it turned out payment could be made by any credit card). 🙂

Xin Cuisine Lobster & Abalone Set

We had always felt that Majestic offered the best Chinese fine dining set, and others like Tunglok could not compare on a price vs quality of ingredients & quality of cooking basis though it might be a bit more debatable when comparing fine dining over the whole ala carte menu & ambience etc. For us though since quality of cooking pipped the other considerations, we had more confidence that a dish in Majestic would turn up tasty c/w another place (and of course as justified by the price).

On this occasion, we decided on the set menu, and it was a very good decision! 🙂

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We started with a duo appetizer. There was a roast duck on a pan seared foie gras & cucumber (seems that Xin is famous for their suckling pig with foie gras), & a small saucer of thick spicy jellyfish. Both were very nice. The roast duck felt like a sous vide item, very tender & totally consistent. In terms of fine dining, it was no less fine than western fine dining.

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Next was chicken & mushrooms in a egg skin dumpling in pumpkin soup. This was very, very, very good. It was such a beauty to look at, and the soup was so very, very tasty, as good as Majestic’s 黄焖鱼翅 which was a lot better than Tunglok’s version. And the dumpling was so delicate to behold & so tasty to eat. Very few western fine dining restaurants here offered something this fine!

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5-head abalone (about 2in) on bed of spinach with sea cucumber

The next item was the 5-heads abalone on a bed of spinach with sea cucumber in brown sauce (5-heads mean the size is 5 abalones to 1 kati though I am clueless whether it is the HK old kati=600g or the China kati=500g. In China it is now 1斤10 两 & 1 两= 50g)。 This was as good as Chinese braised abalones went in terms of 口感 bite/texture  & taste.

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and there was the 1/2 lobster, done with a very light cheese gratin. The lobster was smaller (about 350g). My wife preferred the 上汤焗 style so cheese lobster not her favourite but I must say the taste was good & this was really very nicely done. This was a good illustration of quality of cooking – Chao Yue Xuan for example offered a larger 1/2 lobster in a good value set which we had recently, but the quality of cooking & presentation made a  huge difference between fine dining and not so fine dining. 🙂

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and then we had the egg fried rice & spicy pork & this very plain fried rice was very very good – such crisp long grains & so fragrant it was as good as Imperial Treasure’s crab meat fried rice with dried scallops & egg white which was our perennial favourite – & so both of us who avoided carbo mostly had to evoke our “worthwhile carbo” philosophy and finished up all the rice. The spicy pork collar was very nice too.

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snow lotus in almond cream

For dessert,we had the snow lotus in almond cream. Both of us were not very “dessert persons”, and cream 糊 was not my favourite & very less so for my wife. This though was only very slightly sweet & extremely smooth which was what defined a good 糊, be it almond (杏仁) or walnut (核桃) or combined (鸳鸯). I don’t remember eating snow lotus before – thought it was hasma but it wasn’t, texture was good. For us I guess it was an ok above average dessert but it was “fine” alright in terms of quality. 🙂

P.S. – see here for Restaurant Promotions update.

c.h.e.f andy

Live to Eat….

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I was doing my 10km run on this side of Ulu Pandan jogging track (Holland Grove View side) yesterday morning.

With this run, I completed the first 100km of a 550km run to raise donations for needy children at Rainbow Centre via Fundonate. I am asking 55 friends who are 55 this year to each donate $55, $1 for every 10km I run so we can all share & relish the joy of living all these 55 seasons of our passage on planet earth , and many afterwards. 🙂

My mind was wandering as I ran thinking of living, eating, cooking…

Eat to Live…Live to Eat…Eat to Live to Eat..one of those cliches we talk about ( kind of like chicken or egg?) occasionally but with no particular meaning or importance attached..indeed so..as we select words & phrases to capture what is important to ourselves & the same words or phrases extract different thoughts (or depth of what they represent) depending on what we attach to them.

My mind went jogging too, 10km was short for the body, 1hr+ was long for the mind..haha. 🙂

I think in my younger days I “eat” to live, or do everything else to live – study, work, business travel, entertain, network, struggle with business start-ups, etc..the goal (but what is the goal?) was important so the process was a blur – like the movie “Click” – and you don’t know what you are “eating” basically since you eat to live..

Now I am kind of live to eat…ok I like food, I am greedy..and now I talk about worthwhile calories, worthwhile cholesterol. and maybe they are just excuses to eat unhealthy food, but I guess one can say also there is some perspective to it – that if you have to eat unhealthy make sure they are food you really really like & enjoy and feel “shiok” not something so-so, can do without – hopefully there are not so many such food in that category everytime! 🙂

anyway my own solution to that is just compensate, make-up (just as in managing relationship)..if you have more this time, skip or have less next time! if you miss a run this time, make-up another (but MUST make-up la otherwise won’t work right..) 🙂 just like relationship, if you miss an appointment, if you are not there for someone this time, pro-actively do it next time! don’t angst over the eating, and don’t angst over the relationship…

So I live to eat, “eat” being everything else in the perspective of savouring & relishing the process, so that there is joy in the living..and for me there is no right or wrong or best way about this..everyone’s needs are different..I am applying this for myself only..say for my children, they do need to focus & work on their studies, their future careers..they have their own needs and what are important to them..and everyone do need to work hard (and work very hard in Singapore & really anywhere else – China, Vietnam, major cities like New York, London, Tokyo etc) to get the results, and the process of working hard & achieving something are themselves very rewarding, and sometimes with a perspective shift (haha..very “sian” to hear paradigm shift) maybe the process is more rewarding than the physical material rewards…whatever to each his own. 🙂

To me perspective is the key though of course like everything else it is easier said than done. We say 退一步海阔天空 or 山穷水尽疑无路, 柳暗花明又一村..buddhists talk about attachments as the source of suffering & pain…so if we can, change or see the perspective…if we cannot, well i also have no solution, think of some other ways to make up lor. 🙂

Enjoyable Lunch @ Pasta Inc on 29Mar2013

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seafood spaghetti in squid ink sauce

seafood spaghetti in squid ink sauce

Pasta Inc has a simple nice uncrowded ambience and feel of a fine dining restaurant. It is at Kiong Siak Street, in a locale dotted with the more expensive restaurants like Ember, Nicolas le & Bistro Soori.

I only came to Pasta Inc once and that was more than a year ago when a few of us bought the S$38 4-course lunch set coupons. Somehow that experience did not leave any impression ie not some place I was wanting to go back soon.

Today though I had a really enjoyable 3-course lunch with my daughter using 2xS$15.90nett Bigdeal coupon (which is like S$13.50++pax) for the 3-course lunch set. The normal price was S$22.50++pax and judging from what we had, I thought it would still be a good value lunch. 🙂 The service was also good. The server, Alvin, who was also the one who took my reservation, was cheerful & professional, kept filling my ice water, and was not any less friendly because I ordered no other food or drink except to use my 2x$15.90 coupons. But perhaps that was because they were not busy as there was only 1 other table. We started lunch at 12pm & stayed & chatted until 1pm. 🙂

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We had toasted bread which was warm & crispy to start.

prosciutto - parma ham wrapped over rock melon with mesclun salad

prosciutto – parma ham wrapped over rock melon with mesclun salad

For appetizer I took the prosciutto, which came with a decent helping of 2 slices of parma ham wrapped over rock melon (rather nice to eat them together) with mesclun salad.

lobster bisque

lobster bisque

My daughter had the lobster bisque. I tasted a little of it. It was flavourful and had some pieces of lobster meat in it, but not as good as many restaurants these days which served a foam cappuccino version which delivered a much better overall experience. 🙂

seafood spaghetti in squid ink sauce

seafood spaghetti in squid ink sauce

We both decided on the seafood spaghetti in squid ink sauce, and it was good here. The pasta was very al dente. It was less salty than many other places. The ingredients were good – scallop, several squid rings, mussel & littleneck clams, no prawns. 🙂 It was a pasta dish that I much enjoyed.

tiramisu - "pick me up"

tiramisu – “pick me up”

I had the tiramisu. It was in the “good not overwhelming” category. My daughter had her health-conscious lemon sorbet – probably quite forgettable. 🙂

Being fast eaters, we finished in 35minutes or so, and chatted for another 25minutes. I drank lots of water & had many refills by Alvin. Great lunch!

c.h.e.f andy

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

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cream of cauliflower soup

having tasted some early successes in my creamy mushroom soup venture, I thought since I am already down the path of using the blender (which I had thus far mostly avoided to do) why not trail further and try other soups. after all whether it is blending mushrooms or blending potatoes, leeks, cauliflowers etc, it cannot be too far off. and so far my faith has been rewarded. 🙂

my next venture is this beautiful cream of cauliflower soup recipe, again from none other than Chef John of Foodwishes.com. I am falling in love with this guy.

I first sweated the celery & yellow onions for 5-6minutes in a soup pot with some olive oil over medium heat until the onions turned translucent. Then I cut the cauliflowers in small pieces, threw in a potato that has been peeled and quartered, then threw in the cauliflowers. I then added 5 cups of vegetable stock & 5 cups of water enough to cover the cauliflowers, bring to boil & turn down the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. That’s when the potatoes were “smashable” – it would collapse when you pushed it against the wall of the pot. I let  the soup cooled down & then blended in batches and pureed to a smooth velvety texture. I then added sea salt to taste, and the soup was basically done. I added the heavy cream when I heated up the soup again just before serving. 🙂

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bacon tip gremolata

for the bacon gremolata, I followed Chef John’s concoction – first frying cut bacon to crisp, then added fresh bread & toasted it in the bacon fat on low heat until golden & crisp  to make breadcrumbs. I then added lemon zest and mixed them as in above picture.

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cream of cauliflower soup

I then served the soup with the bacon topping & few drops of truffle oil. My wife & daughter both liked this soup. I must say the bacon gremolata made quite some difference – the saltiness of the bacon & the crisp texture went very well with the soup and fragrance of the truffle oil. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 a cauliflower (about 400g)
  • 2 ribs celery chopped
  • 1/2 yellow onion chopped
  • 1 potato peeled & quartered
  • 5 cups of vegetable stock
  • 5 cups water
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream

for the bacon gremolata:

  • 2 streaky bacon cut to small pieces
  • 1 slice of fresh bread to make 30g of breadcrumbs
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp chopped parsley (I did not use in the above photos)

Directions:

  1. Cook the soup – sweat the celery & yellow onions for 5-6minutes in a soup pot with some olive oil over medium heat until the onions turn translucent. cut the cauliflowers in small pieces, throw in a potato that has been peeled and quartered, then throw in the cauliflowers. add 5 cups of vegetable stock & 5 cups of water enough to cover the vegetables, bring to boil & turn down the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. when potatoes are “smashable” – it will collapse when you push it against the wall of the pot – cool down & then blend soup in batches in a blender and puree to a smooth velvety texture. add sea salt to taste, and soup is basically done. add heavy cream after heating up again just before serving.
  2. Prepare the bacon gremolata – fry bacon to crisp. add fresh bread & toast in the bacon fat on low heat until golden & crisp  to make breadcrumbs. remove & cool. add lemon zest to bacon tips & breadcrumbs and mix them.
  3. add the bacon topping & few drops of truffle oil when serving the soup

Yakiniku Dinner @ Aburiya Robertson Quay on 26Mar2013

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Aburiya is my wife’s favourite yakiniku restaurant, and so it is mine. 🙂

We usually order karubi (short ribs – the korean galbi) and jo karubi (prime short ribs). Aburiya also has one of the best kimchi chigae and we also like the bibimen (spicy korean cold mixed noodles 拌面) and bibimbap (mixed rice 拌饭).  When the items add up  and if you order sake too, it is not that cheap, but it is guaranteed to be a thoroughly enjoyable meal.

For the evening, we ordered 1 plate of jo karubi (top picture) – S$14.90 a plate, and 2 plates of karubi – S$9.90 (below picture). The prime short ribs were very tasty, beefy with the BBQ flavour. But the karubi was not bad too & it was2/3 the price!

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karubi (short ribs)

We also had the usual kimchi chigae. So far we liked this dish best here, even when compared with korean restaurants like Chang & Hyangtogol. The soup was very tasty and not too salty. There were a lot of kimchi & silky tofu but I would have liked a bit more of the belly pork. 🙂

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kimchi chigae

We also had the kurobuta pork. There were quite many types & I could not recall which. It was very good, like a good pork collar meat with marbling giving it good taste plus the BBQ flavour.

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and we had the bibimen also. I liked very much the sweet spicy taste of gojuchang sauce mixed with the vegetables and some chicken meat and the nice texture of the noodles. 🙂

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bibimen

What I did not like though was that for this evening, we were sat at a table where there was no sunken pit & the charcoal stove was placed on the table. The heat from the stove was quite oppressive! I would avoid that next time.

c.h.e.f andy

Japanese Dinner @ Mikuni at Fairmont Hotel on 24Mar2013

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truffle kampachi sashimi

Note – see also update = FAR Card 50% for up to 5pax. 🙂

I go to Mikuni a lot as my wife & I really enjoy the food there, and with Feed@Raffles discounts (50% discount for 2pax), that is the best value eat we can get anywhere. 🙂

We always order ala carte so we pick only dishes we like and also it is much better value than ordering the Seasons Menu or the Grand Tour Tasting Menu. We explore the menu quite a bit & zero in on the dishes we like. In fact, we have now taken the same few dishes so many times that I can almost call it a “Andy Kaiseki Menu”..haha…just kidding. 🙂 It is just 5 course, but while it may not have like 10 courses to be a full kaiseki menu, every dish is very substantial when compared with individual course of a kaiseki or mini kaiseki.

My selected courses (shared by 2pax) as follows-

  1. truffle kampachi (S$28)
  2. botan ebi sashimi (3 large prawns for S$35)
  3. united nations futomaki (9 ingredients 6 pieces maki S$28)
  4. sous vide then deep-fried octopus (S$30)
  5. 2xkagoshima wagyu sukiyaki konabe (individual hotpot at S$48 each)
  6. 1 plain rice to share – they will split for you (S$5)

As you see, the price comes to S$222, and at 50% discount, it is S$111 or S$55.50++pax. 🙂

Now to the dishes.

The first dish, a truffle kampachi is a wonderful, wonderful dish, and as you can see in the top picture, it is so pretty. It is in a small way a fusion sashimi dish by the Korean Chef with kampachi sashimi fanned out in probably tsuyu sauce as the sauce is not so salty, and a dash of truffle oil – so very fragrant, fresh, sweet & tasty! 🙂

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botan ebi sashimi

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botan rbi heads deep-fried

The second dish is botan ebi sashimi – you get 3 prawns for sashimi & 2 if you order sushi. These are large (3x the size of regular ama ebi), plump & sweet prawns with the same pleasant slightly sticky to the bite texture as regular ama ebi.

and they deep fry the large prawn heads. We eat up almost the entire crispy deep-fried prawn heads every time so no need to elaborate la…haha. 🙂

united nations futomaki

united nations futomaki

Next the united nation futomaki. The name sounds like a disaster but there are 9 ingredients (I can see there are unagi, ebi, tamago, avogado, different fish roes, maybe crabstick etc) & it is good – may not be the best as there are many specialist maki in many restaurants these days, but it is good!

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Then we have the tako (octopus) sous vide & deep-fried in light batter. This is really very good as the meat is totally tender & consistent throughout because of sous vide (vacuum low temperature slow-cooking). it goes very well with just a little wasabi mayo (provided) – we always add more wasabi on our own.

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kagoshima wagyu sukiyaki konabe (小钵)

& the the finale – kagoshima wagyu sukiyaki konabe (小钵).

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It is very, very good! there are 3 pieces of wagyu, and you can see from the photos that they are large & thick pieces – I reckon the 3 pieces to be at least 80g, probably 100g! these are Jap wagyu NOT australian wagyu, & they are so, so tasty,  the sukiyaki also comes with the usual vegetables, thick Japanese glass noodles & mushroom, and oh such great flavours! you can add the soup to the rice afterwards (and remember to add wasabi to it as well).

c.h.e.f andy

Homegourmet 8-Course Lunch @ 14Mar2013

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Picture1

I had another homegourmet 9pax lunch with friends recently.

I had quite some success on the pan-roasted brined chicken breast recipe, and was raring to try it on duck. 🙂 I wanted to test it once before I dumped the dish on my friends.  I did this using both the pan-roasted chicken quick-roast method & the prime rib slow-roast method successfully, the slow-roast method producing an even more tender meat.

The slow-roast pork belly was still a work-in-progress. It turned up very well for my daughter’s 14pax friends lunch on CNY 3rd Day, but I felt it was still mostly touch & go. I would not have time to do on 14Mar if it turned up poorly so I did it in the evening of 13Mar & as it was passable if not great so I kept it in the fridge to warm up & serve the next day.

For the soup. I had been doing a “kick-ass” …self-praise haha…Basque seafood soup using prawn shells but was a bit tired of doing the same soup every time. I looked up some creamy mushroom soup recipe and thought it could not go too far wrong and was worth a gamble, since I had on hand willing devoted risk-taker volunteers high on faith. 🙂

skin-on pan-roasted brined duck breast

skin-on pan-roasted brined duck breast

We started off with 4 tapas – (a) pan-roasted brined chicken breast (b)slow-roast brined duck breast (c)slow-roast pork belly & (d) Margaret River wagyu MBS6/7+angus striploin.

I think all were happy with the brined chicken breast & duck breast (except that I was rushing a little & destroyed the crispy skin of the chicken quite badly, I relaxed and did it right for the duck). They were moist, tender & tasty! 🙂 The belly pork was a bit iffy. This was a rather fatty piece & though the fat & meat were quite soft, the skin was still a tad tough to the bite, so the “mouth feel” 口感 wasn’t quite right. Fortunately, the natural jus was quite tasty & the Spanish spicy mustard sauce was a very good dip to go together with.

I thought the wagyu was below par. I had better marbling for MBS4/5 striploin from the same supplier mmmm previously for the “Best of” dinner on 28Jan2013 (of course my friends would say its the bad carpenter..haha). The rockets were also not good. I forgot to buy on 13Mar & there was no time to get it on 14Mar so went at 1am the night before to Sheng Shiong’s 24hr mart at Ghim Moh & the only ones there were quite old & not fresh. 😦

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I had a separate portion of 3 pan-seared Hokkaido scallops for WL as he does not take beef. It should be quite ok now that I learned the simple technique=very hot pan +very dry scallop (scallops & fish etc contain a lot of water & if not bone dry, pan temperature will drop sharply & you will be steaming/poaching & will not have a hardened seared layer so it will stick to the pan). 🙂

pan-seared Hokkaido scallops

pan-seared Hokkaido scallops

After the tapas, we had a pasta item, which was my seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine. I was quite confident on the taste department as this dish mostly turned up quite well but I thought the texture was not enough al dente this time. 😦

seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine

seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine

Next came my very first attempt at creamy mushroom soup, and gratefully it turned up very well indeed – really quite smooth in texture and tasty – though from the photo below, I could see the caramelised mushrooms but NOT few drops of extra virgin olive oil.

creamy mushroom soup

creamy mushroom soup

The pistachio rusted rack of lamb was also my very first attempt, and this was quite an excitement for me actually. The lamb rack looked fabulous & tasted great! although I found it slightly overdone as I would prefer medium rare. It was moist, tender and did not have much of  the strong lamb gamey taste. 🙂

pistachio crusted rack of lamb

pistachio crusted rack of lamb

The 8-ribs lamb rack was good for 4 serving, and being my first attempt it was actually a stand-in for my more “established” Spanish 2-hr slow-braised beef ribs. This had been very good the few times I served previously, but the taste was a bit off this time, & we were at a lost to explain (other than bad carpenter). The vegetable base ratatouille (celery, carrots, yellow onions) should be sweet & balancing the beefy taste, the Chinese sausage added some sweetness & the chorizo (though may not be everyone’s favourite) had combined very well previously.  I thought that it could be the chuck rib itself, though I bought it from Giant the day before, but I could not be sure how long it was on their shelves. Photo below still looked ok but looks deceived 😦

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Spanish 2-hr slow-braised beef ribs

We had the usual chocolate lava cake.  I was getting a bit bored though, hoping to try out a new soufle recipe next time.

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WL brought very nice tarts and CH his usual strawberries & this time it was especially sweet. All the leftover tarts were polished off by my daughters soon enough. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Basque Seafood Soup

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basque seafood soup

basque seafood soup

This a very enjoyable, intense, tasty soup!

I had it at La Cicala with my son in Aug2012, and thought I would do this. I looked up the internet and found this basque seafood soup recipe.

My family use a fair amount of prawns mostly in pasta & some Chinese dishes, and used to discard the shells & heads. For this dish, I save the heads & shells and boil them for 3 hours. You could blend the shells & liquids in a blender in batches, but it required much effort and at the time I was not yet using blender much, so I just passed the liquids through a sieve & pushed hard, and then disposed the boiled heads and shells. That provided the prawn stock for the bisque. I learned then you needed shellfish or crustaceans to give the bisque that depth of flavour & intensity. 🙂

basque seafood soup

basque seafood soup

I next prepared the vegetable base. I sautéed the leeks, onion and carrot for 5 minutes to soften, stirring frequently. I turned to high heat and added the prawn stock, and then added brandy (it might flame as the saucepan was very hot). I then added white wine & diced tomatoes, just 1 teaspoon of tumeric for colour. I then turned to low heat & let the soup simmered for 40minutes to bring out the vegetable base sweetness. Then I add chicken or vegetable stock and add sea salt to taste.

Before serving I added the prawns and squids to poach them, and lastly the mussels for just about 3minutes. I then take out the prawns, squids, mussels and distributed them to individual bowls before topping them up with soup, and serve.

c.h.e.f. andy

Ingredients:

  • heads & shells from 1 kg small or medium prawns – serves 8
  • 2 leeks chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 1 yellow onions chopped
  • 1/4 cup brandy
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
  • 1 large tomato diced
  • 1 tsp tumeric
  • sea salt to taste
  • 8 medium prawns (or 16 small prawns) – about 300g
  • 1 large squid skin removed cut into rings (about 16 rings) or into large curls with cross-cuts (8 pieces)
  • 8 large shelled mussels or 16 small ones

Directions:

  1. Prepare prawn stock for the bisque – boil the heads and shells for 3 hours. blend the shells & liquids in a blender in batches OR pass the liquids through a sieve & push hard, and then dispose the boiled heads and shells.
  2. Prepare vegetable base for soup – sauté the leeks, onion and carrot for 5 minutes to soften, stirring frequently.  turn to high heat and add the prawn stock, and then add brandy (it might flame as the saucepan is very hot).  add white wine & diced tomatoes, &  tumeric for colour. turn to low heat & let the soup simmer for 40minutes to bring out the vegetable base sweetness. add chicken or vegetable stock (if required) and add sea salt to taste.
  3. Before serving, add the prawns and squids to poach them, and lastly the shelled mussels for just 3minutes. take out the prawns, squids, mussels and distribute to individual bowls before topping them up with soup. Serve.