The Sushi Bar, Ngee Ann City

nama yuba uni

My understanding of the word chirashi or chirashizushi has always been the standard definition of “scattered sushi”; representing scattered fish over sushi rice. Later on, I got acquainted with another similar type of donburi known as the kaisen don which is a literal translation of seafood rice bowl. From what I had understood, the main difference for the layman (that includes myself) was that the chirashi - as a variant of sushi uses vinegared rice while the kaisen don uses regular rice. Today, I found out that there was actually a kaisen chirashi don. Yes, this (#05-34/35 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road) was the same place as the one back in Far East Plaza with a waitress asking about a curry fish head order. They’ve expanded and this is the other newer outlet with a lot more seating space and staff.

ankimo tofu with uni and ikura

The menu had expanded with the same magnitude as the seating space. There was quite a lot of stuff and for a casual Japanese joint, it was kudos for effort. Their ankimo tofu was a surprising find and so was the nama yuba which honestly tasted quite nice. Then, their chirashi bowl which was a coalition of the usual suspects of sashimi/sushi - sake, mekajiki, maguro and hamachi....with some scallops. The quality of their seafood was decent if unexceptional and portions were quite generous to boot. I didn't dislike anything in particular, but there was something about it all that didn't quite make me feel that the food was truly satisfying. In fact, as I was finishing up, I thought that I wouldn't have minded at all topping up a few dollars more and dropping myself something that would have more than just the usual suspect variety at Kaiho Sushi over this.

aburi-ed chirashi don

Sanpoutei Ramen, Shaw House

This was a ramen shop from Niigata. I'll admit that in spite of having seen Sanpoutei (#B1-04 Shaw House, 350 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6836 4644) around for a while, I've always avoided them because of the connotations with the Breadtalk Group which brought them in. Eventually I buckled under curiosity and since I didn't even dislike the tonkotsu experience at the other ramen place, why not? 

Here's their Niigata shoyu bowl with a broth that featured a blend with dried sardines. I liked it. The broth was lightweight and savoury while those noodles were springy. The menma fortunately didn't have that pungent flavour that gets most people worried and the lightly smoky charshu disintegrated readily in the mouth. I'm glad that curiosity didn't kill the cat here. Also quite sure I'll come back when I'm considering a light bowl. I did spy a tsukemen which I could be interested in as well.

This could be a case for Mulder and Scully...

Or perhaps not. I just thought that this was an uncommon enough occurrence for me to put up a picture. I've come across these double yolked eggs before but I don't remember the last time. There was also a rumour that these could be specifically requested for in a certain central western part of the island. Unsubstantiated rumours for now. So here's for posterity and the truth out there. 

Cereal ebi burger with sweet potato fries from McD

So I got suckered yet again last night by the new cereal ebi burger from the Golden Arches. No thanks to them being conveniently located everywhere. The main differences from the previous ebi burger were the buns, sauce and prawn patties. This was a bun with sesame seeds and chives if I remember right with supposedly some sort of spicy shrimp paste sauce and there was some added crisp from the cereals embedded in the crust of the patties. This time round, those little shrimps embedded in the patty looked even bigger than the last one. The sweet potato fries were just that, actually kinda nice whey they have turned cold and a little soggy.

And we seem to have been ushered into an era where their sandwich looks like the Photoshopped models on the menu. What is this world coming to?!

A Nagekomi donburi from Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru

This was definitely not as satisfying has I hoped for but I suppose it did the job out of dinner. Apart from being rather heavy handed with the vinegar on their rice, I personally found the quality of the seafood a little shabby considering the number of Japanese clientele Liang Court has. The tuna was especially disappointing; those negitoro bits were nothing compared to the ones that you could get at Tampopo. Considering that this shop does a lot more sushi/sashimi and were a sort of a specialist (I used that word loosely here), I found that disappointing.

Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum and a pandan butterfly at Chinatown FC

I was introduced to Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum (#02-097 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) almost a decade ago by a friend and in that past decade, I've never come back much. This was street food dim sum untainted by glamour served on styrofoam plates. But you do get them as freshly made as one can get and the quality was very decent. They do not have much by the way of variety, but what they do have, are done pretty well. Those fluffy char siew bao were literally bursting at their seams with their stuffings and their chunky siew mai were both savoury and meaty. In the past decade or so of my life, I've also learnt to appreciate the steamed chicken claw dish commonly known as phoenix's claw. The required effort to make them were no laughing matter and these ones here were slurp off the bone tender.

Not thirty seconds stroll away in an adjacent lane is Tai Wah Cooked Food (#02-115). Not to be confused with the other Tai Wah that does ba chor mee at Hong Lim, this stall sold fried Chinese breads. Like the butterflies and the hum chim pang. Well, I couldn't get the pandan flavour out of this pastry but as butterfly fritters went, these were nicely done with the prerequisite crispy shell dotted with sesame seeds and chewy insides. I realised that the "wings" weren't just stuck with each other but were knotted into a pair.