Sumiya Charcoal Grill Izakaya, Orchard Central

mixed bara kaisen don 

nama hon maguro don 

Here's lunch from Sumiya (181 Orchard Rd, #12-02 Orchard Central, tel : +65 6509 9618), so not so much on the sumiyaki stuff but rather their raw fish over rice bowl lunch sets. The quality of their fish was very good. Notably from the maguro don which featured the trimmed off basic cuts of akami, chutoro and otoro which were very enjoyable. You get to choose between regular rice and vinegared rice too. Those little browned chunks on skewers were wagyu and remarkably tender.

A nasi goreng from Habib's Mee Stall

Here's a rather random pick from ABC Market (#01-08, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah). I'm aware that this food centre is a local hotspot, but I've found myself at a loss for what to eat more than a couple of times whenever I'm here. This was nasi goreng from one of the stalls that looked it it had a little queue going on. I requested for a little more mutton and an egg. The portion turned out little smaller than I had expected. I think it was rather decent nasi goreng; I remember having had better but at least this was rustic and properly fried up as I had been expecting. The thing I couldn't get past was how brown the edges of the egg were. The oil they had been using definitely needs a change.

Gindara mentaikoyaki from Chikuwa Tei

There are talks on how standards of food have declined in Chikuwa Tei after the founding chef Peter Ho has left and started another restaurant, Mitsuba by Yurine (I hear he split from that place too). Even before he had left, there had been comparisons on how Chikuwa Tei was different from his first gig, Wasabi Tei. I happened to be one of those that have been eating his food from the days of yore at Wasabi Tei so I guess I can personally attest to those degrees of truth.

So it's been a while and we decided to drop by to check out how things are with what they are serving these days. Sadly, while food remains very edible, it wasn't on par with ancient history. The ankimo servings were dry and minuscule in portions. The chirashi don looked like it had gone on a diet as well. But I found their gindara mentaikoyaki good. It was a very nicely grilled cod that was flaky, juicy (or oily) and tasted like it was good cod along with that nice salty flavourful crust of mentaiko. But it sure was pricey at $28 for a set option. For that price, I had hoped for a fish more substantial. And I was disappointed that the rice that they're serving these days aren't even close to the quality of what they did in the past. Barely sticky. Not to mention that there's less of it these days in the bowl too.

Sometimes, one cannot blame the older folks from missing the good old days eh? There's probably a very good reason why the word 'nostalgia' exists in the dictionary.

Sushi Kou, Orchid Hotel

It was actually supposed to be Sakari Sushi at the other corner, but they happened to be closed for lunch without notice and thus we decided to give Sushi Kou a go (1 Tras Link, Orchid Hotel #01-16, tel : +65 6444 8433). This wasn't too bad at all. I've been hearing excessively about their affordable omakase (which we did not have today). Instead, we went the a la carte route getting their spinach with a creamy goma sauce and also trying their otoro nigiri which was priced...... at a rather unbelievable point. The latter was actually pretty good. The tuna belly wasn't very large or thick, but it had good marbling and was noticeably cheaper than anywhere else I've had so far.

Their kaisen don was definitely worth the dip. There was a nice variety of fish and pretty decent quality at that for what they charged. Even their mekajiki was fat laced and the only fish that disappointingly wasn't belly was the salmon. Well, maybe that and the knife work has room for improvement, but I quite sure that icing isn't the point at Sushi Kou. 

Grilled cheese ramen from Buta God

This was the other seasonal cheese ramen that got my attention from my last visit to Buta God. I think it was cheddar that they used. Like the snow cheese, the portions of the cheese were moderated so as not to overwhelm the flavours of their broth. Meaning that while you could taste that cheese, you're not getting a whole load of them. The grilling helped impart additional flavour but this didn't dissolve like powdered Parmesan and hence, no even distribution. I did like the bits of melted cheese over the noodles and sliced pork. Today's soup tasted intense with very pronounced sweet and salty. The flavour of the broth felt really rich. I'm probably going to lay off Buta God for a while now that the sweetness has gotten to me.

This sounds wrong