Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Akashi, Orchard Parade Hotel

Akashi, Orchard Parade Hotel
I've been to Akashi a few times, but this is the first visit to the new outlet (1 Tanglin Road, #01-01A Orchard Parade Hotel, tel: 6732 4438) located just next door to their Inakaya Robatayaki place at Orchard Parade Hotel.

I noticed that there is this strange relationship that I have with my visits to Akashi. It was always an impromptu decision. I have never really planned to visit them and still ended up here on last minute decisions.

After some moments of back and forth with the menu, we finally managed to decide on what we wanted and sushis were something that I decided were a must have. Though this time round, we pushed it a little bit more for some of the premium items which served as a gauge for the standards in this outlet.

Akashi, uni gunkanuni gunkan

Akashi, otoro nigiriotoro

Akashi, aburi otoro nigiriaburi toro

Akashi, botan ebi nigiribotan ebi

Akashi, anago nigirianago

Akashi, ura makiura maki

There is something about raw slices of seafood that is appealing. Their chilled creamy uni with its earthy sweetness and subtly buttery otoro left nothing in the way of gripes except for the fact that more would have been great. That was further met by the explosion of butteriness in the aburi-ed version of the tuna belly. Oil from the melted fats seeped into the rice and onto the plate. This stuff is amazing.

The botan ebi was plump, sweet and firm. I'm having anago for the first time as I can remember. These salt water eels wasn't as oily as unagi but they were tender and tasty the same. And quite a mouthful as well.

Akashi, botan ebi crispy headcrispy grilled heads from the botan ebi

Akashi, fried prawn ballfried prawn ball

Akashi, mategai misomategai in some mayo miso

Akashi, fish noodlesfish noodles

Akashi, sweet potatoessweet potatoes

Akashi, pumpking ice creampumpkin ice cream

The rest of the items were a bunch of this and thats from the menu. Of note were the fish noodles which actually had texture akin to fish cake rather than noodles. That wasn't bad at all but I wished the portions could have been bigger for what they were charging. The bamboo clams were the usual, but the miso mayo made a whole lot of difference to it by adding an aromatic sweet and savory creaminess. That being said, the miso mayo made up pretty much most of the flavor. Unfortunately for the prawn ball, it wasn't very spectacular. It's simply as you see it, a ball of minced prawn.

I was thinking that the sweet potato would be grilled, but they arrived steamed. It wasn't a bad thing but I feel that Kazu's method of grilling them and serving with butter is the better way to go. If you like pumpkin, the ice cream here was a creamy one with bits of pumpkin in it.

4 comments:

D said...

Wait a minute, I thought just saw a similar post elsewhere =P
Then again eating alone IS boring!

LiquidShaDow said...

Déjà vu my friend. ;D

Nathan said...

Hi, need some recommendation for a restaurant that grill eel from raw to cooked? anyway, is this akashi expensive?

LiquidShaDow said...

Akashi could be quite expensive, it all depends on what you order.

As for freshly grilled eels, I cannot confirm as to where they would be available as they could be seasonal. I'm sure some of the restaurants here will not be adversed to doing that for you if they have them on hand.

There is a place at Ngee Ann City call Chikuyotei on the 4th floor. Those guys are eel specialists. You can enquire if they have what you want available. Do note that they are expensive.