Han, Odeon Towers

As far as I am aware, Han (#01-04, Odeon Towers, 331 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6336 2466) is the only kushikatsu specialist here. The chef, a Seiichiro Arakawa who formerly ran a cool little place called Si Bon at the Amara Santuary Spa at Sentosa serving kushikatsu that I never got a chance to visit, heads this place.

This would be another one of those places that I've been wanting to visit for quite a while. It's also one of those places that constantly went out of sight and out of mind for me, so until recently when I stumbled upon a piece from a certain someone who might have grown up eating rubbish that coincidentally shares a similarly pronounced first name as a certain Mr Sinister, I stopped the procrastination and forgetting and made my way down.

The menu isn't too extensive, but it offers a variety. There's sashimi to be had and a dedicated counter for that. There's rice bowls, sushi and sukiyaki. A curated list of offerings. But who are we kidding? I didn't come to a pricey kushikatsu specialist to eat all that other stuff. Not on a first visit anyway. I wanted to try the deep fried things on sticks.

Actually, we kinda took the advice from the previously mentioned article and ordered the cheapest lunch set along with supplementary sticks of their kushikatsu.

Otoshi. I think it's salmon.

There's generally nothing much to say about accompanying salads from these Japanese sets. I just had to mention that the dressing for this particular one was refreshingly tangy. It made me want to finish up everything.

First up from the order of 3 sticks of supplementary kushikatsu was the angel prawns. It had a nice firm texture, was slightly sweet and very fresh tasting. I can't tell if there's supposed to be any difference from regular shrimp.

Next came the scallop.

Sweet and juicy inside.

Cherry tomato stuffed with cream cheese.

Light tang, some sweetness and rich creamy insides.

The main lunch item was the Ohmi beef tendon omelette rice with kushikatsu. The bits of beef were probably trimmings off those cuts that made the sukiyaki. And because they were just bits, all I could taste of it was a pleasant beefy flavor that was fairly pronounced, but not exactly robust which I was really hoping for. The pork kushikatsu sticks on the sides were done with shiso leaves. The meat was remarkably tender.

At this point of time, we were more than convinced that the man behind the copper frying dome was indeed an expert in his craft. None of the batter and panko mixture had the slightest excess grease.

The yuzu ice cream was...well, okay. I think the fruit works better as sorbet.

This black sesame ice cream in wafer shell thing with red bean was very nice.

I think I like the food at Han so far. The prices are on the high side, I'm kinda cool with lunch. There's definitely no dispute about the quality of their kushikatsu while service was attentive and prompt if not altogether unintrusive. I'm not sure about dinner though.

Kampong Corner, Sembawang Road

I've eaten at this nasi padang stall (602B Sembawang Road) a couple of times previously. The noteworthy thing for me included a chicken liver dish, their rather tasty paru and generally comforting food with a good amount of spices and richness in the gravies that were great accompaniments to both their respective dishes and nasi putih (white rice). Special mention goes to the sayur lodeh for the lontong which featured a heart clogging and delicious flavour in the gravy that's further enriched when added with shredded coconut and their sweet and spicy sambal (chilli paste). It's one of those things to crave for during rainy days.

Gæst, McCallum Street

salt boiled potato, lemon and salt marinated leeks, hazel nut and rye crunch, watercress, smoked mayonnaise

I read about this Nordic deli (21 McCallum Street, #01-01 The Clift, tel : +65 6634 0922) opened by a couple of Danish a few months back.  The food menu's relatively simple with focus on a few sandwiches made from their brand of sourdough that's baked daily, a couple of breakfast options and a salad of the day. 

roasted pork with crackling, orange marinated red cabbage with parsley, red apple, mustard mayonnaise

You know what? The sandwiches were really good quality and easily one of the better ones I've had. The fillings were fresh and the variety formed a medley of flavors & textures between the nicely done bread. The smoked mayonnaise from the potato sandwich was certainly memorable. I think these guys could impart a thing or three about sandwich crafting to everyone else.

Katanashi, Boat Quay

Asahi on half and half - Super Dry and Kuronama

This was a lively little izakaya (77 Boat Quay, tel : +65 6533 0490) that serves up some fun food. Nothing too sophisticated that was prepared entirely from scratch, no grills on sticks, no exotic sounding seafood to be found but there were loads of friendly staff providing relatively quick service and top of the lung greetings. There were definitely some items on the menu that scored better than the others. Like the torched shime saba which was delicious, an udon that came with rather generous portions of mentaiko that paired off with tangy spicy kimchi and the hanpen stuffed with cheddar that came with a mentaiko mayo dip. Tasty explosions of flavor there.

I noticed that they had a daily specials menu which we didn't get any of this time round. Perhaps, the next time.

shime saba, aburi-ed

mentaiko kimchi udon

cream cheese, honey, toast

tar tar - maguro and avocado

Hanpen cheese

takoyaki in tomato and cheese

I forgot what this is called, but it's bean sprouts, meat sauce and spring onions.

Katanashi Fried Chicken

warabi mochi, chestnut ice cream

an unexpected visitor

Urap

That's referring to the pile of vegetables on the left corner which a co-worker informed is called urap, a salad of sorts of Javanese origins. I haven't seen or heard of these before until recent months. Boy have I been missing out.

Basically, it consisted of lightly cooked long beans, kang kong and bean sprouts that's done up with the slightly sweet brown shredded coconut (kinda like those that are served in lontong) and bits of finely sliced chilli padi. This packed in a light sweetness along with a deep savoury base that's accentuated with heat from the chillis. Along with that, lots of crunch and texture from the mixed vegetables. Good stuff.

Ramen Bari-Uma at United Square

A couple of things registered about Ramen Bari-Uma. First of which was the tonkotsu shoyu broth which I didn't dislike but couldn't quite form an opinion on. The second was their flame scorched charshu which I remember enjoying. We came by their second outlet (#B1-08 United Square, 101 Thomson Road, tel : +65 6354 3711) at United Square for a quick dinner.

Their Charshu-Uma bowl featured pork that was both tender and crumbly with lattices of soft fat that barely held the slices together. It didn't look as impressive as the picture on the menu (I know...) nor taste as good as the first time round.

What also got my attention this time round were the noodles. It's a little softer than I like. I'm still searching for that properly done harigane texture.