Ryu's (柳's), Capitol Piazza

Ryu's (15 Stamford Road, #01-87 Capitol Piazza, tel : +65 6384 9087) was a Japanese restaurant we stumbled upon the last time we happened by this corner of Capitol Piazza. I recalled that the menu looked promising so we came back today to try their seasonal anko nabe (anglerfish/monkfish hotpot). I believe this is the first time ever that we've seen anko nabe in this country.

There's a home made ginger ale at Ryu's. It's pretty good stuff and I recommend it.

While waiting for the the hot pot to be prepared, we munched on grilled lamb neck. Delicious stuff. This wasn't part of the anko nabe set by the way.

The set came with zensai. A very delicious cold potato soup, some pork with gobo (burdock root) and mushrooms with lotus root.

I'm not sure what were the parts of the anko that they had cut up, but they did mention the gills and in the bowl was ankimo. My favourite part of the fish.

The ankimo was however not intended for eating as it was. The chef heated up a pot for the anglerfish stew

The ankimo was then crushed to create a thick base for the broth.

To which sake and a house blend of three miso were added.

Then the rest of the ingredients were added were added into the broth to be cooked. That included some lettuce, tofu, negi, mushrooms, namafu and the anko. The mushrooms included shimeiji, enoki, shitake and maitake. And then, there was zest from yuzu.

Notice the 6 pointed stars carved out of the caps of the shitake.

There was enough ingredients to make about 6 small servings of the anko nabe. The stew was flavoursome from the miso, accented with a light vibrancy from yuzu and lightweight at the same time. Anko itself is relatively tasteless and has a bouncy texture. Also known as a poor man's lobster. The gills from the fish were chewy and said to be filled with collagen.

At the end of the stew, the chef Niizuma-san added in rice to make a zosui with the remnants of the vegetable and ankimo flavoured miso broth. Again there was enough for 6 small bowls of the zosui.

To finish, some warabi mochi with kinako and drizzled with brown sugar. Uncomplicated and left us wanting for more. 

I'll be damned if I'm not coming back.