Nirai-Kanai, Liang Court

I remember walking out of the original outlet of Nirai Kanai located at Tanglin Shopping Centre after a poor semblance of dinner with a mediocre impression of the place and this newer place (177 River Valley Road, #B1-01/02 Liang Court, Tel: 6339 4811) didn't do much to alleviate those impressions from where it ended then. In that previous occasion, the service left almost nothing to be desired. Nirai Kanai was the place that I heard good things about being the pioneer of Okinawan cuisine in this country. Maybe Okinawan cuisine doesn't really quite agree with me. Maybe it's just Mimigar.

Simply put, the food was rather unremarkable. Apart from the fatty braised pork which was actually better done at Mimigar, everything else felt overpriced and extra-ordinary. No, I did not mean extraordinary. I really couldn't see the rationale behind why a $15 plate of stir fried pig intestines consisted mostly of mushrooms. Or for that matter, how a small fried spring roll with dry fish stuffings and a little bit of cheese could cost $8. It's small on portions, and small on taste. This could be one place I can cross out of my list for good.

Deluxe Hitsumabushi from Wakashachiya

I thought that this was slightly gimmicky but I've had a recent craving for unagi, ignited from the recent lunch at Matsuo which brought back memories of better tasting eels I've had from a couple of other places. Being the sole non-udon main item from Wakashachiya also aided in the fact that I remembered it from the last time I had visited. I've lived numerous years of my life being disllusioned/indifferent to unagi because I've never thought much of them. That is until I've had some good ones. And now I get a craving. Lol.


Anyway, this particular dish came with a standard and a deluxe version. The latter, which was the version that I opted for came with larger portions of eel and as you can see, covered the entire bowl of rice. Which was a fairly large portion for a single person serving. How this works was to divide quarter portions of the whole bowl of unagi and rice. Each of those quartered portion would be eaten as it is, with accompanied condiments, with the dashi broth and a lastly - the preferred amongst the previous three.

In retrospect, the eel was fine but unexceptional. Nothing that really made me feel like coming back for more another time. It wasn't as oily or fatty as I had hoped. This was just something to satiate a craving.

A green tandoori roll from Highlander Coffee

Honestly, I was more intrigued by the colour of the rolls rather than anything else. I had almost mistaken them for kueh dadar. This place was Highlander Coffee (49 Kampong Bahru Road, S169362, tel : 6226 1686). While they were definitely not known for tandoori chicken, the rolls turned out to be pretty tasty. Doesn't come close in terms of flavour to the real yoghurt marinated chicken from Punjab. But one can definitely deduce from the first bite that it's suppose to be something like that. I wouldn't mind eating these cheese filled chicken rolls again if I ever come back for a snack.

Speaking of which, Highlander Coffee does really nice coffee. There's a share of those fancy flavoured lattes and there's the more serious alternatives like the espresso con panna which had a bit of cream for a smoother finish. It's not your regular coffee chain. There is just this outlet. The place sells coffee, provide cafe consultancy and conducts barista courses.

Some ice cream from Udders

There's an interesting ice cream shop at Novena by the name of Udders (155 Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre, tel: 6254 6629). What's interesting about them was that they're a home grown label and the ice cream was actually pretty good. I dropped by one afternoon and tried the vanilla almond marzipan and their kopi c flavours which I thought wasn't too bad. The almond ice cream was loaded with bits of the nut and despite me not being a fan of marzipan at all, it turned out pretty enjoyable. The kopi c? Tasted just like decent coffee that one can get from coffeeshops - in ice cream form. It's the worthy competitor of local caffeine beverage flavours to the teh tarik from Island Creamery. The guys that did the decor were apparently people that appreciate the brand of humour from Gary Larson. No, no bovine jokes from me here.

Matsuo Sushi, Goldhill Plaza

At the behest of several urgings and a few tempting photographs later, I've finally made my way down to Matsuo (1 Goldhill Plaza, #01-17 Goldhill Plaza, Tel: 6356 2603) for their lunch. Matsuo does a daily lunch special, of which on Mondays and Fridays, they're actually chirashi.

For $15, I have certainly nothing to complain with this set that comes with chawanmushi and miso soup. In fact, this turned out to be one of those good recommendations and I'm pretty sure I'll be returning in the not so distant future again. The chirashi as reasonably expected isn't fancy. For this price, I'm not sure if anyone should be expecting so. The blanket of sake, maguro, ebi, amaebi, hotate, hamachi, mekajiki, grilled unagi, a small piece of ika and tamago was definitely of fresh origins and a bigger bang for the buck in this don as compared to anything else which the plethora of pseudo Japanese chain outlets elsewhere is offering. The half prawn and piece of unagi in the chawanmushi was a little pleasant surprise too. Oh, did I mention a fatty unagi it was at that.

Another crack at the walnut...

Lunch with some a.m.i.gos. I remembered that the previous visit here at La Noce (3 Chu Lin Road, S669890, tel : 6877 1986) wasn't one that inspired much confidence. I've convinced myself to give this place another chance to see if things will improve since it's been several months from that last time and sometimes, things change for the better. Sometimes. Two things happened here. I shook hands with Salvatore Catalano. I shook hands with Mia, the Skinny Epicurean. Lol.

The draw for this journey into the obscure part of the west was their fagotino. It's a dumpling based pasta stuffed with pear and cheese which I thought was interesting. This pasta which was made in house came with the option of the regular/boring pomodoro, arrabiata or quattro formmagi sauce. To form, it arrived pretty much like how I imagined it to be. Dumplings of pasta skin filled with cheese and pear. The texture of the fruit was lost along with the sweetness. There was an almost indiscernible fruitiness which was buried under the sauce and cheeses. Could have been a lot better. Funny thing is, the old fried calamari starter was actually pretty good. Crispy batter and chewy insides. That's something that many places can't get right.


The other special of the week was a ravioli stuffed with ricotta and porcini mushrooms. The commendable part was the robust flavour of the mushrooms. The skin seemed a tad undercooked.