Warabimochi Kamakura, Taste Orchard

For a while, I had been wondering how long it might be that we'd have to gaze wistfully at the queues before getting a taste of Warabimochi Kamakura whenever we were at One Holland Village. Turned out that we jumped into a pretty fast moving queue at their new outlet at Taste Orchard (#01-02 Taste Orchard, 160 Orchard Road) and landed ourselves a box and a couple of their beverages.

Coffee's decent. Sugarless with bits of sweetened warabi mochi in it. What impressed me more was the matcha lemonade which featured sweet lemony warabi mochi in green tea. Refreshing.

As far as I can unreliably recall, their warabi mochi were a bit more tender then those that one can sometimes get during the food fairs at Isetan. Kinako is kinako and kuromitsu is kuromitsu. The only variable here is likely the texture of these things and that being said, I can understand why they're popular. 

Strawberry shaved ice at Isetan

Not cheap at $12 a pop but those thin shavings of frozen strawberries were invigoratingly refreshing even in that luxuriously rich cream and condense milk. Loved how it melted and trickled down the throat. 👍🏼

A couple of limited items from Sushiro

We're back in Sushiro. Ordered a couple of items that we haven't seen before on limited run. That above was the broiled Hokkaido sardine nigiri. It's pretty good. Like the oils and flavour coming from the fish. I wished they hadn't decided that it needed the tiny dollop of ginger though.

The other item that caught our attention was their whole squid sushi. Made me think of those ikameshi that I used to get from Isetan. This was tastier than it looked. Squid might have been pan fried or something. Had a nice squid flavour. The body was stuffed with rice but it wasn't those flavoured rice like the ikameshi.

Every, Havelock Road

Every (#01-03 Isetan Office Building, 593 Havelock Road, tel : +65 6732 8866) is a konbini - or convenience stall. With an attached cafe.

They're located at the ground floor of the Isetan Office Building just next door to Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh.

We came by for lunch and had their keema curry rice. Curry was a little bit sweet but altogether enjoyable. The mince meat they used was beef and you could taste it.

There's mentaiko pasta too which was creamy and buttery. Not the most mentaiko-y we've had though. Still enjoyed it. 

Not a fan of their beef & chips though. Those nuggets of tenderloin weren't nicely charred and there was too much of their sweet barbeque sauce for me.

Picked up some spring munchies since we were here.

Strawberry dango from Isetan

Got these from the dango stand at Isetan. I had the idea that it was some strawberry sauce lathered on top of those dango but it was actually strawberry flavoured bean paste.

Joyden Canton, Shaw House

Joyden Canton (#04-00 Isetan Scotts, 350 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6908 3833) is part of the Joyden Concepts group, a local group which manages a few Chinese/Cantonese restaurants which bear the Joyden name. I've heard of them for a while but this would be my first visit to any of their restaurants.

These guys serve a lor mee with quail eggs. It's part of a bunch of local inspired dishes that they're doing for a limited time. The menu states that it serves 4 but if one were to order nothing else, it barely feeds two. Pretty decent rendition that got better once the vinegar and chilli paste are kicked in. My gripes include the portions and the misleading pictures on the menu which suckered us into ordering it.

This picture.

Along with the lor mee threading the local flavours is a Chinese carrot cake stir fried in rojak sauce. Not bad.

To fulfil the obligatory greens quota, we had some braised luffa with egg white and conpoy. Actually, I didn't order this just out of any obligation for having vegetables in the meal. I like these.

If I remember correctly the name of this dish was something along the lines of twiced baked egg gratin with you tiao. The fried crullers are embedded in baked eggs which was filled with vermicelli, jellyfish and some stuff which reminded me of Khong Guan lemon cream biscuits.  

What kicked ass was their "Hak Gam" (黑金) olive fried rice. I hear that those olives that they used are imported from China. The generous application of dark soya sauce and pork floss made the flavours while the minced pork and prawns that were in them barely registered. But this was very delicious. I would come back for this.

That's grilled slow-braised ribs with an aged mandarin peel sauce. There's a very good flavour from the mandarin peel in the sauce. The meat was unexpectedly lean but still fork tender. I'd eat this again.

A tsukemen from Sanpoutei

I was at Isetan over the long weekend and decided to try the tsukemen I had seen on menu and been interested in previously. Their tsukemen used the same type of noodles that they're using for the other bowls, so essentially there's just one type of noodle they're making here. The dipping broth was thick, umami and moderately smoky. Rather enjoyable. I thought I enjoyed the one from Tetsu better but I cannot be sure. What I'm sure about though was that the bowl that definitely works for me here is the shoyu one.

More tuna from Isetan

Happened by on a weekend with tuna slicing demonstration going on so we decided to get a box of mixed cuts. It was certainly a lot cheaper eating out here without the additional cost of a restaurant with service. That aside, it tasted pretty much as good.

A walking brunch at Isetan

Here're some chopped toro maki and fried scallops from another one of those Japanese fairs at Isetan. One can generally get better quality tuna at the fairs than those from the regular pre-packed sushi section and these were actually quite good. The price of course, commensurate with said quality. The scallops today were fat and freshly fried.

Supermarket sashimi from citysuper

Here's some sashimi bought off the citysuper down at Causeway Bay (Basement 1, Time Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay)

No, it wasn't anywhere close to being cheap, but I guess it would be slightly cheaper than back home and definitely gave better bang for buck in terms of both quantity and quality. In fact, apart from those Japanese fairs that featured tuna slicing demonstrations, the general offerings from Isetan doesn't quite come close. Not even in Meidi Ya. With exceptions occasionally.

The fish was generally just a little fattier and fresher tasting, scallops and botan ebi were plump and sweet; there was even a fairly generous amount of uni thrown it. And this was the quality of sea urchin that people describe as having a floral bouquet, not the shrivelled slivers of ochre zombie flesh that some places pass off for uni sashimi.

If anyone was wondering, this little haul was 509HKD.

Sushi Tei after all these years......

I used to like Sushi Tei years ago. They were really pretty decent at least for their cooked food department. Used to be top dog for the conveyor belt sushi chains until the current king of the hill, Itacho Sushi which is noticeably more than a notch better.

I don't think so much of them these days. The signs of a "local" business stain the establishment and their food with the same old unimaginative marketing slogans and localized food proportions which are tipped towards one specific cost/profit spectrum. I'm positive that QC must be a major issue for a chain with so many outlets. That and perhaps, my palate had undergone metamorphosis.

Once in a long while, I end up there.

Like many chain outlets, part of what helps Sushi Tei thrive are "promotions". Which includes dish concoctions of "seasonal" ingredients. Currently, there seems to be some new creations by their various outlet "chefs".

Here's something known as spicy ban ban ji ramen that purportedly uses a spicy sesame sauce. For a local establishment, the word spicy seems to be interpreted liberally towards a specific and almost-nonexistent end. My three year old niece was slurping noodle and sauce, apparently enjoying it. I personally found the lack of fragrance from the sesame sauce disappointing. Chicken was cold and hard and is probably something that was boiled and packed into fridges for easy use. I think grilling the chicken would have done wonders but then who am I to say eh? I'm quite sure can do this at home with bottled sesame dressing. This has got nothing at all on the hiyashi tan tan mien that I previously had from Ichibantei.

On the other hand, the rice stuffed squids were actually pretty good. Not that this was imaginative by any stretch of imagination as part of Sushi Tei's creation challenges. These stuff have been made available from the Japanese fairs over Isetan and Takashimaya for years already, and wow, today they're a creation from some competition. 

I liked that the flavours seeped into the rice. The squid was a little dry and chewy from the grill but I think real grilled squids need that bit of bite.

And then, there was a cheeseburger interpretation of an American sushi roll that came in Singaporean portions. Truly fusion indeed. There were even sliced cheddar, chopped onions and lettuce strips to complete the textures and flavours of the strips of cold chewy cow. Jokes aside, what needs work would have been fattier sliced beef that hadn't been cooked to death. This one component would have done some serious elevation on the roll to another level.

There......finally outta my chest.

Moments before The Hunger Games

This was probably the first time I'm getting those blue fin tunas from the Kyushu Fair down at Isetan. It did taste a lot better than I expected with the otoro slices that came with the pre-requisite oiliness. In retrospect, I had preferred the chutoro and the maguro slices for their much more robust tuna flavors in comparison with the fattest part of the belly which tasted a lot more mild, but was textually more sublime. These of course were rather expensive as well.

S is for......

......Squids. That were Seared and Sizzling on a Saturday.

S is for Sapporo, that was conveniently located beside the Succulent squids.

S is for Snack, which we made out of the squids and Sapporo on a Saturday.

S is for Satisfied.

Takoyaki from the Kyushu Fair @ Isetan

Because scallion toppings taste better than bonito flakes!