Here's some looks from the Mini Miyazaki Buffet held at Triple Three (
Level 5, Mandarin Orchard Singapore, 333 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6831 6271). The highlight of the buffet was the availability of A4 graded
wagyu from the Miyazaki prefecture. Yes, good quality
wagyu on buffet that is prepared slow roasted,
aburi-ed a la minute on
sushi,
shabu-ed or
teppanyaki. The
teppanyaki station which generally had the longest queue was our favourite. My guess is that most of the people must have found it to be the best treatment of all the options that they had for the meat.
Personally, I felt that there was definitely room for improvement in the skill and care that was required to deal with such a delicate premium cut of meat. But I'm not complaining. What they're charging for the buffet was a steal.
Those aburi wagyu sushi could have benefited with a bit more char and certainly some salt.
That's a new platter of that thinly sliced wagyu for the shabu station. Each portion of the meat is painstakingly prepared with accompanying vegetables by the attending station chef that portions each handout to the queue.
As a result, one doesn't actually get it hot from the pot to the mouth or at a specific doneness as preferred. This was the lightest tasting option for the wagyu that literally dissolved in the mouth. And it was lighter than the tofu.
The honey baked ham station looked forlorn, so we gave it a little love. The ham was awesome. It's been a rather long while since I've had such good ham. The meat was warm and tender, fats were soft with the smoky saltiness in tandem with the sweet from the permeated honey. Very good stuff which looked to be under appreciated by the throngs of diners at the wagyu station.
The cuts of wagyu at the teppanyaki station were so well marbled with fats that it stopped hearts simply by being present.
This chef along with the one manning the shabu station had the heaviest work cut out for them since the queues never subsided unless the beef ran out.
This we agreed was the best treatment for the wagyu here. There was nothing but pepper and salt to flavor and aromatized the caramelized meat.
The slow roast wagyu on the other hand, lacked identity in the department of flavors. It was crowded at the station at the start. And only then.
While we could taste that it was a good beef, that slow roast seemed to have robbed the meat of the distinctive flavor that most of us recognized of the wagyu.
Somehow, people forgot that there was a pasta station that did pasta with shaven black truffle. I didn't.
Miso cod was competently done. The fish was oily and rich, paired off with the char and sweet miso.
This foie gras chawanmushi didn't quite turn out the way I imagined. While it was a deliciously savory chawanmushi, there was no flavor of foie gras at all.
Oyster station saw that the shellfish were shucked on request. These oysters were impressively fresh tasting, briny but lacked the usual pull on the buffet crowd due to the wagyu stations.
At this point, I needed some fruit to cut the richness. Cherry tomatoes did the trick.
The Indian food also received little attention. So it was just unfortunate for the people that repeatedly queued for the wagyu that they didn't realise that there was a rather awesome and smoky butter chicken to be had along with some nicely done paneer mutter masala. The nondescript looking prata was surprising light and delicious at the same time.
And then some fruit, cheese and bread. There was a cheese crusted bread filled with seeds that was actually pretty good. Good to the point that even when we were rather stuffed, I was still popping piece after piece into my mouth. It's another one of those items along with numerous others which were a good showcase of the quality of food at Triple Three.
Most of the desserts were unexciting for me unfortunately. The only items that were good enough that I got past a sample licking were their
yuzu cheese cake,
yuzu sorbet and sliced nectarines from the fruit station.
