The ghost of Wasabi Tei

The title of the post might have been a little dramatic. Long gone has been the irascible chef who has moved on and again; I haven’t a clue what’s happened to that man at present time. Left behind was a legacy in the form of his old little frills free “hole in the wall” counter seating shop at the 5th floor of Far East Plaza. Run by a current management that had in honesty, made an effort to keep things very much the same as before. Right down to the $2 per seated person "cover" charge that comes with a drink. The vintaged decor had never changed too and apparently, not much has changed with the food as well.

Otoshi still came in the recognizeable form of braised hijiki seaweed and minced chicken. The flavours do seem a little thinner though.  

Here's an oyako jyu, a cooked chicken and egg over rice bento which I've never tried before. Brimming with sweetness from the mirin and onions, that went comfortingly delicious with a splash or three of light soy sauce.

For supplement, some sliced maguro. Thick and chunky replicas of those lack of finesse knife-work that this little joint was known for.

But what's changed are the people running the restaurant. The don't look so much on the edge and are visibly more amicable. And I think I have an idea......

A five dollar dinner

Yeah that's a $2 chicken rice from Ananas at the train station and a couple of fat poh piah for a dollar fifty each. Something local, comforting and very satisfying. 

Men-ichi, Northpoint

Men-ichi (930 Yishun Ave 2, #01-22/23 Northpoint, tel : +65 6794 5125) is a casual family joint run by the RE&S group which operates a spectrum of Japanese restaurants. It includes Sumiya which I am rather fond of for their lunch, the Ichiban chains which I do not like and even someplace rather respectable looking like Kuriya which I have never eaten at. I had never given this place beyond an occasional glance until quite recently I had ended up eating there.

I still wouldn't order from the most of the menu but their ebi yakimeshi was an unexpectedly decent fried rice with shreds of real prawn, lots of egg and not excessively greasy. I actually kinda enjoyed their aburi-ed mentai-mayo sake harasu sushi also. The latter reads thick slices of torched salmon belly with mentaiko mayonnaise draped over vinegared rice.

Some charcuterie from Carne Meats

Carne Meats are apparently a house brand of Indoguna Singapore, a local food purveyor which I've never took note of before. Anyway, they had a counter where they were handing out samples of their charcuteries and pan fried sausages down at Meidi Ya and we were impressed enough to get some of their smokey air dried meats back. They were actually pretty good.

Butahage, Liang Court

This shop from Hokkaido has got to be the first butadon specialist that has been set up on our shores (#02-32/33 Liang Court, 177 River Valley Road, tel : +65 6268 4821). It's taken over the corner where Shakey's used to be. Good riddance to that since this shop was a much worthier use of limited space.

Their menu is pretty straight forward. There's just grilled pork over rice bowls with literally a couple of sides that you could order. Those rice bowls come in various size options and a Premier version featuring Japanese pork which is supposedly limited to 30 servings a day. That's the Premier version up there; tender, fatty and savoury sweet slices of grilled pig in their tare glaze resting on top of Yumepirika rice. Which I inhaled in no time. We definitely liked this and will back to try the USDA pork bowls.

Udon Goen, Food Republic @ Wisma Atria

Yes, that is indeed a big assed pile of katsu from Udon Goen (#04-02/14, Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road) in Food Republic. And no, we did not try out any of the udon because it would have meant passing up on this katsu curry. A tonkatsu and torikatsu rice plate with curry made with tonkotsu broth. All that for an affordable $10.80. How's that for something different?

Here's the part where I mention that there are indeed differences with their curry with say, the generic Japanese curry. It was more savoury than sweet-ish from the undertones of the tonkotsu base. The big assed slab of chicken katsu had a rather bland crust while those pork katsu tasted a little salty. While these guys might not hold up in comparison versus the old guards of fried pork, they do represent an uncommon quantity to quality value. Udon Goen charges a dollar for additional curry which one is likely to need since the regular serving doesn't quite have enough to go around.