More aji katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

 

Everytime I have one of these from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, I wonder why they don't bring the sanma katsu back.

Aburi cheese katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison has limited aburi cheese katsu. Rosu with Camembert and cheddar.

Nice melty cheese both on and inside the katsu. Pretty rich tasting and delicious. Nice with mustard.

Ssada Gimbab (싸다김밥), Great World

From what I've read described of Ssada Gimbab (#01-109/110 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 8267 3730), they appear to be to Korea what cha chaan teng are to Kong Kong. Their food a recognizeable array of ubiquitous fare with minimal frills.

This was their fire tonkatsu - the one with buldak sauce. On the side - mayo-ed salad, spicy bean sprouts, a mound of rice, kimchi and takuan.

Meat's a little dry and not the most tender around. Something I managed to easily looked past because of the hot sauce.

Gimbap's were...well, the restaurant's named after them. The ones here were pretty big and well stuffed. This has aged kimchi and tuna. Not bad. Will not mind coming back to try others.

Appreciated the free coffee. It's not great but it's sweet and hot.

One week later......

Ssada Gimbab also has an unexpectedly moreish kimchi jjigae. I liked that there was enough spicy sour from the kimchi with flavour of anchovy in the stew. Such good pairing with the rice. The slices of pork in there were relatively tender.

Tonshou, Tras Street

The talk of the town tonkatsu lately is Tonshou (51 Tras Street). They're Korean. You read that right. They do tonkatsu and not donggasu/donkkaseu. I didn't stutter. Also a claimant to the world's first charcoal grilled tonkatu restaurant. What? I know right? Tonkatsus are fried. What charcoal grill is this? 🤔

Well, they're fried like regular tonkatsu and then charcoal grilled.

Place is small. Seats about 20-23.

Chilled corn soup was creamy and sweet. Nice. Think everyone gets one.

I tasted this first so in retrospect, it established both the bar and a bias in me for their tonkatsu. 'This' being their Hokkaido kurobuta special rosu katsu. 30% fat. There's a non-special cut which is 10% fat. Meat's nicely flavoured from the fat and pretty tender. But the fat does get to you towards the end. 

I enjoyed most of it with grain mustard and wasabi which helps cut though some of the richness. As does their not so vinegary tonkatsu sauce and kimchi. As much as these helped set a taste equilibrium by offsetting some of that richness, what they did in equal capacity was mask the natural flavouring.

The combo katsu featured regular hire and rosu cuts along with a fried prawn. While they paled in comparison from the Hokkaido kurobuta, these were also pretty good tasting.

I was quite impressed that the smokiness from the charcoal grill lingered in the fried meat.

Some light and creamy yuzu dressing for their salad.

Revisiting Gochi-So Shokudo at Chinatown Point

Lunch at Gochi-So Shokudo in Chinatown Point. Got the Duroc rosu and Iberico char siew set. The latter was sweet, tender and melty while the former was less tender with a strip of fat on the side that was not exactly flavourful. Why so? Remember me mentioning that they don't salt their katsu?

Looking at their portions in retrospect and with most things considered (including soups and sauces and salads), these guys are easily the same price if not more costly than Tonkatsu by Ma Maison. Which conversely implies that Tonkatsu by Ma Maison’s price point makes them a better deal. I believe I have my conclusion here.

What really bothered me about this visit involved salt. I asked for some because the tonkatsu was bland and I didn’t feel like having them with sauce. I asked if they had salt or shoyu - a requested that required little IQ to fulfil. The wait staff guy looked baffled and appeared not to understand what I wanted. He later returned with a bowl of salt from the kitchen. The salt in the picture up there was after I was done. Who the hell in the right mind would bring so much salt to a customer in a tonkatsu shop asking for some?

Braised pork set from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I was lured into Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Tiong Bahru Plaza by the picture on their menu ☝🏼.

The actual braised pork didn't look quite like the one on their ad. I was imagining sometime like kakuni or the rafute from Nirai Kanai.

Meat's relatively tender. Some cuts more than the others though as a whole, they weren't as much as I hoped they would be. Broth wasn't the sweet dark soy sauce/sake/mirin type. There's something in the flavour that was familiar which I couldn't put a finger to and that bugged me. I suspect it's ginger but I'm not sure. 🤔

Pork's pretty good with some mustard. 

Kimukatsu, Takashimaya

Kimikatsu (#B201-5 Takashimaya Food Hall, 391A Orchard Road) does mille feuille tonkatsu; it's the only type of tonkatsu they do. If you didn't know what that was, it's a katsu made with thinly sliced pork rolled into a tight package before it's panko-ed and fried. Unlike the common variety which is made with thick sliced pork that's panko-ed and fried. It's not new or unique and it's available from folks like Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, Tonkichi, Tampopo back in the old days and even Gochi-So Shokudo.

They opened up a few years back. Been wanting to try them for a while but whenever we're in the area, we kinda inadvertently get drawn to Nakajima Suisan. Orders here were accompanied with a sauce platter which came with tonkatsu sauce, tsukemono and ponzu.

Tried the salted egg katsu which was a National Day limited flavour. Pork was tender with a nicely browned crunchy surface. Salted egg sauce was decent tasting; not as intense as I was hoping for in the salted egg department and I'm sure it's from some powder. Wonder if it's one of those from Knorr.

I like the garlic flavour more because the flavour from the pork came through all the garlic unlike the one with the salted egg sauce. Not bad tonkatsu here. Will come back and try other flavours.

More aji katsu at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Headed down to the Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Mandarin Gallery after getting word that their aji katsu is back. It's never around for long so we needed to get some before they disappear from the menu.

They appear to be larger than how I remember them. Panko breading had a good dry crunch and the meat from the horse mackerel was flavourful, flakey and moist. Getting these reminded me of that one time sanma katsu they offered and never did again.

Tip : sprinkle crushed sesame and a bit of salt on rice. That's pretty good eating also.

Getting cheese mille feuille katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I had this impression that I've had the cheese mille feuille katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison before. Since it's not in this blog, so it must not have happened before. 😂

Today's roasted barley tea was nice. Thick.

Exactly like how I imagined it would be with mozzarella cheese in the rolled up layers of thin sliced pork.

Nice cheese stretch which left behind a "cheese intestine".

Today's rice also looked better than the previous occasion. More multigrain-y.

It's a different from the rendition at Tonkichi because of the cheese even though both were mille feuille katsu. Pretty happy with it. 

Here's another way with the rice and the tonjiru. Am gonna stick with this for a bit.

Back at Tokyo Soba

Has been a while since the last time at Tokyo Soba (一, 二, 三, 四, 五). Today's experience was totally off, triggered by numerous little things that gnawed at me.

The quantity of the sliced beef was kinda measly for $20. But otherwise this was a pretty nice bowl.

Tonkatsu was okay tasting as long as one did not compare with the specialist tonkatsu shops. The pork was flavoured lightly with pepper. Meat was lean and a little dry. Easily remedied with the tonkatsu sauce.

Trying their kaisen kakiage for the first time. I liked it more than I thought I would. Seafood was pleasant, the onion was sweet and the fried batter wasn't bad tasting.

While I enjoyed the kakiage, I also thought it was a little too greasy.

What gnawed at me over this visit?

1) Default payment via mobile. This wasn't a thing for them in the past. Personally, I don't like being forced into it.  

2) The self order workflow had an additional step - some inconspicuous button that was required to be pressed for the order to be submitted after we had submitted the order. We did not realize that and waited for a long time before the shop informed us that our orders did not go through.

3) No freaking way to go back to the order list at the payment page. Good luck here if you had crafted long orders previously because we tried to remember it for 4).

4) We tried to order from a human and the human struggled to work their system to take orders. This step failed. We ended up back with the mobile ordering and mobile payment.

5) The wait was over 25 minutes for a half empty shop after the order had gone through.

6) Food was left on the collection counter for a considerable period. The hot food was cooling and the cold food was warming up. What the fuck is this shit?

7) Orders were incorrectly fulfilled. We never understood how can we were given hot nasu soba when the menu only has cold nasu soba?

Katsu An, Suntec City

Have been wanting to try Katsu An (#B1-149A Tower 2, Suntec City, 3 Temasek Boulevard) because the prices looked attractive and I wanted to know what were the standards of their offerings at those price points. While we recognized how they kept prices lower by not including the "nicer" things like bottomless rice/better miso soup/cabbage and smaller portions, one also couldn't argue with the fact that they were also charging half the price or less for their teishoku compared to shops like Tonkatsu by Ma Maison or Ginza Anzu.

I like it enough to come back. Sure one doesn't get the same quality of meat as the more expensive tonkatsu shops but the standards weren't mediocre for sure. They were pretty decent. Thoroughly enjoyed my cheese rosu katsu. Upgrades like increased portions and change of rice were chargeable but that also meant that you didn't have to pay for them if you never wanted it. Pretty quick and frills free here. By the way, the apricot sauce tasted like a regular tonkatsu sauce.