Sushi Kanesaka, Japan (**)

My food journey in Tokyo began at Sushi Kanesaka. One of the first things I did when I was planning for my trip was to look for a sushi restaurant, the buzz surrounding the release of “Jiro dreams of sushi” only reminded me how badly I wanted to try sushi of tip top quality. After doing much research, and (surprisingly) discovering that Jiro himself isn’t very highly regarded in Japan, I narrowed down my shortlist to Sushi Saito and Sushi Mizutani. Saito was booked out when I called, but I managed to get a place at Mizutani; finally, I would get a chance to try 3 starred sushi. I held onto the reservation for a good month, before people started to tell me that I might not enjoy my experience at Mizutani-No photos are allowed, very little english is spoken, the air of the place is like a graveyard, very intimidating and somewhat stern. I have never had a fine dining meal at a bar in front of a chef prior to this Japan trip, and all these stories only exacerbated my worries about the meal.

I eventually cancelled my reservation at Sushi Mizutani and went with Kanesaka instead. Perhaps it was a reactionary knee jerk response- I read many accounts talking about the friendly chefs, who speak a decent amount of English, and there is an atmosphere about the place that sets everyone at ease, a stark contrast from what I had been told about Mizutani. Despite knowing that Chef Kanesaka has a branch in Singapore- Shinji by Kanesaka, I still managed to convince myself that it would make a decent replacement for Mizutani, and for half the price as well, surely I could reinvest the money saved in other meals.

Kanesaka is not easy to find. I had the address keyed in to google maps on my phone and I still spent a good 15 minutes trying to locate it. Its in the basement of an unmarked building, there are other blogs offering photos of what the building looks like, there is one that has actually drawn out a map of where it is located. I’ll offer you a photo of what the street opposite Kanesaka looks like, meaning if you were standing at the building where Kanesaka is located, this is what you’ll see.

The walkway to Kanesaka, it is located at in a basement

My chef for lunch. Awesome that I had the whole place to myself

   

Seaweed Salad

Lunch started off with a light seaweed salad. The seaweed used was thin and very smooth, the sesame seeds used to garnish the dish had a surprisingly strong fragrance to it, considering there wasn’t a lot used. The portioning of the daikon to the seaweed was a little off, there was a significant amount of seaweed left when I had already finished the daikon, and the dressing used in the salad was a little too acidic. Okay

   

Tai (Snapper)

The snapper didn’t pack much flavor, which made the sauce stand out quite a bit. Rice was well seasoned and slightly warm, Okay

   

Shimaji (Stripe Jack)

Flavor of the fish was subtle once again, but the texture of the fish was beautiful, very smooth, slippery, almost silky. Good

   

Meguro (Lean Tuna)

Cut from a 220kg tuna, the rice seemed to detract from the taste of the tuna. Okay

   

Chutoro (Medium fat tuna)

This was my favorite of all the 3 tuna cuts that were served, which seemed to surprise the chef that I picked it over the Ootoro. The oil in the fish made it taste almost creamy, but it still had a good bite to it. Good

   

Ootoro (High fat tuna)

Very creamy, lacked any kind of bite at all, it just melted in your mouth, literally. Chef must have been cursing this gaijin sushi newbie, picking chutoro over premium ootoro. Okay-good

   

Ika (Squid)

Very sweet and creamy once again, soft enough that it didn’t need much chewing to break down, scoring the ika lengthwise helps with this as well, if I understand the chef correctly. Good

   

Kohada (Herring)

This is a very traditional fish selection for sushi. It was too delicate in flavor and was brushed with too much sauce in my opinion, all I could taste was the soy. Bad

   

Kuruma Ebi(Japanese Imperial prawn)

Easily the sweetest and most fragrant ebi sushi Ive ever had. The tail section was good, but the head section, where they pull off the shell but leave some of the prawn head innards hanging, was out of this world. That extra burst of flavor just complimented the sour vinegar notes in the rice perfectly. Very good

   

Aji(Horse mackerel)

This was served with mashed leek and finely sliced shiso leaves. This gave the sushi a wonderful aromatic note that didnt detract from the flavor of the fish at all. The Aji itself had an incredibly smooth consistency. The best fish sushi of the meal. Very Good

     

Katsuo(Bonito)

The texture of katsuo was quite similar to that of tuna(similar family of fish), albeit slightly softer and with a more melt in your mouth texture, but with a more subtle and delicate flavor. Okay

         

Shako(Mantis Shrimp)

This was my first time eating mantis shrimp in sushi form. This is the season when prized pregnant shako is served at sushi restaurants, unfortunately, it had a very dry, powdery and unpleasant texture. This was the only sushi that I truly struggled with during the meal. Very bad

Hamaguri(Clam)

Easily the sweetest clam I’ve ever had. As you chewed it, it just kept releasing wave after wave of this complex sweet, briny taste, slightly similar to uni sans the creaminess. Very good

         

Shimiji soup

Very intense briny taste. Flavors were clear and crisp, similar to a consomme. Okay

             

Kohashira(Baby clam)

I may have gotten the name wrong for this, but it was a letdown after the hamaguri. Flavor was really subdued, but clams had a nice bouncy texture. Okay

         

Uni(Sea urchin)

Uni is probably my favorite sushi of all time, so its not hard to understand why this was my favorite piece of the meal. But Im not doing the uni justice, this was exceptional- the most complex sweet briny taste(again, similar to the clam), but with an added dimension of creaminess, the crisp toasted nori added a little contrast of texture but it was all about the uni. It was also served cold, which gave it a very refreshing and clean taste. I truly madly deeply regret not getting another one of this. Superb

         

Anago(salt water eel)

I don’t get to eat a lot of this in Singapore, its usually unagi that we get, but the two could not be more different in texture. This was grilled with a beautiful char, brushed with sauce before serving. It was unbelievably soft and sort of disappeared on the tongue. Good

         

Tamago (Egg)

You probably already know that tamago is a true test of a sushi masters skill, and if you’ve watched videos of how it is made, it is quite a complex task trying to make sure the center portion of the tamago doesn’t overcook. There were no discernable curds or layers in this tamago, it was like a cake. Im not a very big fan of sweet egg, but the technique here was quite astounding. Good

               

Kampio maki (sweet pumpkin)

Not a pickle per se, the pumpkin had a soft texture that made it quite a long way off from the traditional pickled maki’s that Im used to(Im starting to believe sushi outside of Japan is nothing like Sushi in Japan). The sweetness from the pumpkin made it almost like a dessert. Good

Kanesaka made for a very enjoyable meal, the service is very professional, yet I was never uncomfortable throughout. The chefs are friendly and very respectful, exactly as other blogs have described. One criticism I have of Kanesaka is that I felt their rice is too heavily seasoned with vinegar, which basically means that it is very prominent on the palate. As I understand, the philosophy of sushi is to bring out the best and natural flavors of the fish, the strong rice worked for some of the sushi that I had, but at times, clashed with the more subtle tasting fish. Regardless, the quality of fish cannot be put it question, and prices are very reasonable for lunch, I would happily recommend Kanesaka to anyone that wants a quality sushi restaurant that is English speaking friendly.

Australian Dairy Company, Hong Kong

This will be my last post before I fly off to Tokyo, I’m taking a little break in between packing. Well, its not so much ‘packing’ as it is doing 3-point jump shots with my clothes across the room  into a luggage. My itinerary for Japan is pretty ridiculous, I only have about 6 days worth of eating before Japan transitions into Golden week, where majority of the restaurants will be closed, therefore I have a pretty tight schedule for those 6 days, lookout for posts on that soon!

I visited ADC twice in January during my short trip to Hong Kong, quite a feat considering we were only there for about 2 full days. ADC is a very unassuming restaurant where you’re more likely to get disservice than service from the waiters- they hurry you into the restaurant and don’t give you much time to read through the menu before hovering over you, ready to take your order. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t rude, but this is a true blue hustle and bustle kind of place- the constant clinking of plates being put on the table, the steam and noise going on in the kitchen, the loud chatter from the dining room, it’s not a place you would want to sit down and catch up with friends, but its a place that’s undeniably Hong Kongese (real word?).

   

Macaroni/Spaghetti with ham

We would not have ordered this if it had not come as part of a set. Although having Macaroni soup is (strangely) quite a common breakfast to be had in Hong Kong, this version wasn’t particularly good. Pasta was very overcooked and too generous with the portions, ham was mediocre and as you can see from the photos, stingy with portions(not that we were screaming for more). The spaghetti isn’t served with invisible ham if you were wondering, the ham in that particular set was moved onto the scrambled eggs, so you will get your ham by hook or by crook. The soup tasted synthetic, like it had come out straight out of a can, boiled with some ham, then served. Bad

Scrambled egg with toasted bread

The real star of the show, and the main reason why people line up to eat at ADC, is their scrambled eggs. If you want the technical details, it is cooked with large curds(low-medium temp, stirring once a while?), very different from the traditional french method where the aim is to get as fine a curd as possible. It is incredibly moist when you eat it, although I think part of the reason why it stays so moist is because there is ridiculous amount of butter in it. The seasoning is spot on, and the aroma and taste of the butter hits you with every bite, and it goes incredibly well with the soft, fluffy, lightly toasted bread.

The bottom line is that they are delicious, whether you eat them together with the bread, or you eat them alone. This something I would eat everyday if I learnt that there was an astroid heading towards earth and everyone would die in a month, but given the amount of butter put into it, I might not even last a full month before my arteries give way. Very good

Hot milk tea

This was strong strong tea, a little too strong almost, like someone poured milk into your mouth and you were sucking on a teabag. But for the same reason, drinking this at 7am with a lack of sleep made this work on so many levels. The kind of drink that would fuel nocturnal serial killers who hold a regular day job, maybe like a Hong Kong version of Dexter. Okay

Ginger milk pudding + Milk pudding

We had both of these cold, the ginger had a much stronger taste but a more brittle consistency, it did taste a little ‘cleaner’ on the tongue with not much aftertaste. The milk pudding had a more ‘melt in your mouth’ feel to it, but a very strong egg-y aftertaste. Both didn’t really do anything for me. Okay

I would go back to ADC solely for their scrambled eggs, but the problem with their menu is that the set menu (pasta + eggs + tea) is priced in such a way that it is only slightly more expensive than just ordering the eggs alone, therein lies the conundrum. I don’t like leaving food on the plate if I can help it, but this is one instance where I really have to say that the pasta just isn’t worth your stomach space. Besides, Mak’s noodles is just down the road from ADC, and their wanton noodles are, without a doubt, much better than the macaroni/spaghetti at ADC.

Go to ADC with realistic expectations of service- noone was rude to us, but we were made to share out table with other diners and constantly had to move our chairs for staff that were running to and fro, such is the nature of service at a busy establishment like ADC that aims to turn tables as quickly as possible. But I digress, just remember to order the scrambled eggs, in fact, order 2 portions and forget about the guilt.

Esquina, Singapore

Located along Jiak Chuan road(which I had never heard of prior to this visit) in Chinatown, Esquina is probably a place where you would least expect to find a Spanish tapas bar. The place is headed by Andrew Welsh, who followed Jason Atherton(Culinary director) from the UK over to Singapore to set up Esquina; Jason Atherton, incidentally, was the first British chef to complete a stage at El Bulli in 1998, its something I would list on my CV as well, but in truth, Esquina doesn’t serve up molecular cuisine, so don’t go there expecting tapas that will foam and blow up in your face.

The website states that the restaurant opens at 6:00pm, I arrived at 6:05pm, only to be told that the indoor portion of the restaurant had been completely filled out, and we would have to wait for about 1.5 hours for a seat at the bar. We could, however, dine outside if we wanted to. I did not come to a tapas bar to eat at anywhere other than the bar, so I ordered a sangria and decided to wait it out. After about 40 minutes, a waitress came out to offer us a table inside(not at the bar), but having already waited so long, we decided we would continue waiting. At the 1 hour mark, we finally managed to get a seat at the bar, albeit one right at the edge, away from all the kitchen action. The bar is very elongated and sits maybe…14 – 16 people, the chefs are saturated at the center and slightly towards one end of the bar, the other end, where I was, was where the drinks were being made.

Le comptoir

   

Sangria (with sangria foam)

All the components of the meal which contained sangria (total of 3) were nicely made, it had strong hints of citrus that made the wine seem lighter than it actually was, even under the sweltering singapore heat, when my sangria was warm, it still tasted pretty good. This would be the only ‘molecular’ portion of the whole meal, but this sangria foam made sense, the foam packed quite a lot of flavor, so it wasn’t like the drink ended up having to carry the foam through. A similar concept to the ‘Gin Fizz’ aperitif served at El Bulli. My one gripe was that although the foam improved the overall aesthetic of the dish, what’s the point putting a foam on top if you’re going to provide a straw? Good

           

Salt and pepper squid, black ink aioli

This was easily the best dish of the night. Squid was expertly cooked, had a light crisp coat that gave way to a meaty interior with good bite, tentacles were extra crisp and provided a natural contrast in texture. The real star of the show was the black ink aioli, the perfect consistency for dipping, or in my case, dragging the squid though delicious black sludge, hitting all the right spots: the creaminess, richness from the egg yolks, the kick of garlic, the refreshing zing of lemon, the unctuous mouthfeel, with a briny taste from the black ink that always lingered in the background but never intruded on the key flavors. I could have a lot of this. Good

         

Scallop ceviche and radish salsa

This was touted as the best ceviche in Singapore by Appetite magazine. Although it was a good ceviche, it was nothing mind blowing like the magazine seemed to suggest. Props to the restaurant for getting using really good produce, the scallops were very fresh and had a complex natural sweetness, this balanced out well with the acidity in the vinaigrette. Contrast in textures between the soft ceviche and crunchy radish was lovely. Also liked that the dish was served at the right temperature, cold enough to be refreshing, but not too cold so that the flavors were muddled and couldn’t pop. Okay-good

           

Ox cheek oloroso, mash, caper, bacon, bonemarrow crumbs

The ox cheek is braised in oloroso, which is a kind of sherry. The ox cheek was a little dry on the inside and it was tough to look past that; overall the dish also needed more sauce because whatever glaze was on the ox cheek was getting pulled into the mash. It was just a dry, dry dish in general, the bonemarrow helped a little, but nothing really stood out for me. Okay

            

Iberico pork and foie gras burger

The foie and iberico burger was the biggest disappointment of the night. For the record, Iberico pork and foie gras are 2 of my favorite ingredients, so I was prepared to fall in love with this. The main issue I had was that I couldn’t taste the foie in the burger at all. If I’m going to consume those foie gras calories, I better damn well taste the foie gras. The iberico patty was just too strong in flavor and overpowered the foie, plus the patty wasn’t particularly juicy anyway. Ironically, the best component of the dish was the bun, which had a nice crust and soft, fluffy center. Who raves about the bun when talking about a burger? Bad

             

Sangria ice cream (Given free as a pre-dessert)

I had expected this to be more sorbet like, regardless, it had a strong sangria flavor and a wonderful richness from the cream. Good

             

Pistachio cake, sangria jam, vanilla ice cream

The pistachio cake had a good, moist consistency, but didn’t carry a very strong pistachio flavor. The vanilla ice cream was surprisingly well made, very strong vanilla flavor, nice creamy texture without being cloying on the tongue. The sangria jam worked well with the ice cream, its a pity the pistachio flavor was pushed back into the background. Okay

I quite like Esquina, the quality of food being put out is high, the chefs have a clear vision for the food and aren’t trying to do too much. I wouldn’t exactly call it “authentic” by Spanish standards, but if the food is delicious, who really cares?

Service was hit or miss during the night, because of the logistical nature of the restaurant, it can be quite difficult to flag down a waiter or waitress, plus some of them are not very attentive to begin with. The chefs do not really mingle with the customers, even those who are sitting at the counter right in front of them(which I found surprising consider that would be how many Spanish tapas bars work), so don’t expect a very personal experience from the place. Prices are high for what you are getting, most plates of food will cost approximately $25 on the average, and I’d say the average diner can finish 2-3 plates of food with dessert, and therefore the bill will easily run up to about $80. All in all, if you are willing look past all the faults I’ve listed, rest assured that the food is reliable and you’ll have a tasty meal at Esquina.

Keystone restaurant, Singapore

I’ve heard of Keystone restaurant for some time now but never really made the effort to go out and try it. To be honest, I get pretty lazy when thinking about going out to fine dine in Singapore; but Keystone recently piqued my interest with chef Marks presentation of Sous vide cooking at the Savour.sg event. I’ve always wanted to document the impact on Sous vide on a modern restaurant that embraces the technique, and thus I emailed chef Mark to ask for a chance to view the kitchen if I happened to have a meal at his restaurant. I should probably point out as a disclaimer at this point that Chef Mark knew I was going to be coming in for a lunch reservation; I do not know if I was given preferential treatment based on this information, or if my dishes were plated differently, but to stay true to myself and the blog, I will be upfront with how I felt about the meal.

      

Amuse: Caramelized banana, pineapple with shaved almond, truffle popcorn with soy
The banana portion was a pureed banana, with a brûlée-d sugar finish over the top, truffle popcorn had a custard like texture, both were quite surprising texture wise, but it was the flavor of the cold pineapple with shaved almond that popped the most. Okay

   

Parmesan rosemary focaccia
The Parmesan gave the soft fluffy bread a nice crunch and textural contrast. The use of rosemary, which can be quite an aggressive herb, was spot on, it perfumed the bread nicely. I don’t usually go crazy about bread courses bur this was quite enjoyable. Good

   

43° SALMON GRAVLAX 
Tat Soi | Smoked Cream | Arctic Char Caviar | Tarragon Pommery

The salmon was cooked sous vide at a very low temperature, even lower than mi cuit, it was very similar to sashimi. I liked the dish, the cream tied everything together, the caviar had a firm, almost crunchy like texture. The orange pommery provided flavor encapsulated bursts of sweetness that provided a nice pop to the dish. The black calamari crackers had a similar texture to keropok(sorry for those non singaporeans/malaysians), albeit slightly more crisp, and it packed a lot of briny flavor that worked well with the fish. I wish it had been served in smaller pieces, because of the nature of is texture, it was quite impossible to break using utensils, so they had to be eaten in one bite. Just a slight issue with ergonomics in an otherwise solid dish. Good

   

GREEN EGGS & PULLED PORK
Agria potato Espuma | Atsina Baby Cress | Tsukiji Seaweed Soil | Green pea puree

The ‘green’ portion of the dish that isn’t quite visible is a pea puree. The pulled pork is first cooked sous vide, then braised in a Japanese style to infuse flavor. To be completely technical, it’s not really pulled pork since it wasn’t pulled, but the braise definitely gave it strong soy flavor that balanced out nicely with the vibrant, sweet pea puree. The egg was poached sous vide and the custard like texture of the yolk bound the whole dish together. The potato espuma tasted like an incredibly fluffy, light, savory potato puree, incredibe. Lots of soft textures in the dish but it all amalgamated together in harmony, one criticism is that the Atsina baby cress was slightly chewy, unpleasantly so, but this was the best dish of the meal, although I wish the pea puree was served on top for a greater visual effect. Good

    

NORWEGIAN FLAT WHITE 
Chanterelle Fricassée | Smoked Berskshire Belly | Smoked Sea Urchin Foam

A beautifully plated dish, but easily the one I agreed with the least. First, the faults- The fish was overcooked, which I found surprising considering the fact that Keystone utilizes a lot of sous vide cooking. The fish was seared before plating and this was probably where the fish got overcooked. The mushroom stew was completely over-seasoned, and it was all you could taste of the dish after a couple of spoonfuls. I assumed that the belly would throw the richness of the dish completely overboard before eating it, but to my surprise, the belly had a sweet glaze, which actually played off the savory notes of the dish beautifully. Unfortunately, there was a lot more mushroom stew than there was belly, and the dish was quickly off balance again. To my surprise, there was a hidden veal sweetbread hidden under the fish. Personally, I have no problems eating offal, but I can imagine some who would be quite upset to discover sweetbreads in a fish course, I pointed this out to the waitress, who responded that it was intentionally placed there to surprise the diner, hmm.. Regardless, the surprise addition of the sweetbread completely pushed the dish into a different direction, it was like going to an engineering class and discovering that your professor is about to give the class a surprise quiz on stem cell research, everyone is bewildered and noone is happy. While there were times when the dish worked for me, overall it was much too convoluted. Bad

   

KUROBUTA STEAK FRITES
Dehyrdated Yukon & Cheese | Heirloom Vegetables | Mission Fig Ketchup

I was quite taken aback by the amount of food in this dish, easily the most bang for buck choice in their set lunch menu. This is basically Kurobuta pork shoulder, cooked sous vide, then finished on the grill. The grill must have been at quite a high temperature, because the meat stayed moist and tender, with no cook ‘rings’ around the edge of the meat. I found the pork to be slightly under-salted, but when eaten together with the fig ketchup, it was perfect, very intelligent seasoning. The strong char on the pork from the grill gave it a distinct smoky aroma, as well as slight bitterness that again, worked nicely together with the sweetness of the ketchup. Im not sure why the yukon was referred to as “frites” since they were more similar to chips. A solid, safe dish, but not particularly boundary pushing. Okay

   

360 BRÛLÉE TEXTURE
Caramel Custard Foam | Salted Maple | Valrhona Equatoriale

I was not entirely sure what to make of this dish, the name seemed to point in the direction of a modern take of a creme brulee, but what arrived was basically a chocolate pots de creme, with a salted maple layer sitting atop of it, and a custard foam to top it off. The only flavor profile that reminiscent of a creme brulee was the custard foam, everything tasted foreign. Despite the inconsistencies with expectations, the dessert was delicious- the chocolate creme(55%) had carried the flavour of chocolate through the custard and maple well, the foam had a nice body to it. The main technical fault was that the mouse was either not strained properly, or did not freeze right, because there were distinct lumps in it. The dish has a striking resemblance to Le Bernardin’s “Egg” dish, right down to the layers- Bernardin’s consists of a milk chocolate Pots de creme(55% as well), caramel foam, maple syrup, and maldon sea salt. The dish was also plated with dehydrated mandarin oranges, which doesnt sound like much, but tasted amazing. Okay

COMPOSITION OF FRUITS 
Coconut Palm Sorbet | Sudachi Lime Curd | Peppered Tropics | Dehydrated lychee

The coconut sorbet wasn’t too intensely flavored, and its muted flavors worked well with the peppered pineapple(the pepper revealed itself at the end of the dish). There was a freshness about the dish with all its acidic notes, but the lime curd was slightly overcooked and had a gummy texture. Quite unfortunate because it was difficult to get past, seeing as to how it formed the base for the dish. Okay

Overall, I had a pleasant meal at Keystone, this is going to sound incredibly greedy, but my lunch at Keystone(at 2pm) was my first meal of the day, and I opted to have 2 lunch sets by myself. Yes, I literally ate everything that I’ve just posted by myself. Somewhere along the Kurobuta dish, I was ready to give up, I could feel lethargy starting to creep in and a belly starting to form; instead I pushed on and by the end of the meal, I was pretty glad that I got to try quite a few dishes. The strengths of the restaurant clearly lie in their starters, lots of innovation and creativity flowing through both dishes- many subtle, delicate flavors interplaying with one another.

The mains came out with lesser, but more distinct, stronger flavors, unfortunately the Norwegian Flat White dish wasn’t well executed and didn’t work for me. Desserts brought the creativity back a notch, I loved the use of the dehydrated fruits, it brings about a familiar taste in a strange texture, but were let down by the technical aspects of the dish- Lumps in the mousse and overcooked curd.

Service was absolutely top notch, Id go as far as to say that it is on par with a 2 Michelin star restaurant, my server had no problems answering all of my food related questions, although I should also point out that I was the last customer in the restaurant. Chef Mark seems to be genuinely passionate about his food, and wants to educate the general public about it as well, I spoke to one of his sous chefs, who told me that he loves working for chef Mark because he is open to testing out new dishes and embracing new ideas, this is reflected in the food- a lot of flavor memories and profiles borrowed from different cuisines, Japanese, American, French. At its core they are all strong flavors, but slightly let down by finesse and execution. I personally think that the direction the restaurant has taken is a sound one, although my criticism is that they should cut down on the number of dishes in their repertoire and iron out the nooks and crannies of each dish. For those wanting to try Keystone for lunch, do note that parking in the area is a bitch.

Home cooked: Hestons flowerpot Tiramisu

Get the recipe here: http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/heston-blumenthal/tiramisu-recipe

Modifications made: I added another soaked finger layer, plus I soaked the fingers in baileys insted of Marsala. I also included baileys ‘worms’, which are basically grated baileys jelly. I replaced the grapenuts with cornflakes because I couldn’t find grapenuts in Singapore, on hindsight, I should’ve used a darker coloured cereal.

Pros: The cream portion is delicious, very light and aerated, which is why the recipe calls for gelatin. The soil is probably my favorite portion of the tiramisu, and the crunch you get from the soil makes for an interesting contrast with the cream.

Cons: The cream does go a little soft and flat if it has been out of the fridge for a while, possibly more so because of the weather in Singapore. The cream is a little sweet as well.

Thoughts and tips: It’s important to stir very vigorously while you add the chocolate to the melted sugar, otherwise it will crystallize into large lumps. That being said, watching a sugar syrup crystallize into a chocolate soil has got to be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. My friend over at La Petite Vancouver mentioned that he had success using kahlua instead of Marsala in the cream, that might be a a substitute worth trying as well. The chocolate soil keeps in the freezer and can be made beforehand to save time. It is finished with the hazelnut oil to give it a ‘wet’ look. Overall, it is visually stunning and a fun dessert to have, although it is a little time consuming for a tiramisu, it is well worth the effort.

Home Cooked: Chocolate-Baileys jelly dessert

A while back I went through a mini phase with jellies- from trying to turn everything into a jelly, as well as searching for the best jelling agent from geltain, agar and carrageehan. It eventually led me to this baileys chocolate dessert. I’ve never really enjoyed the texture of agar, gelatin has a much more melt in your mouth mouthfeel, but what intrigued me about agar was that it has a fairly high melting point (85C~), this led me to thinking that I could serve a warm, set jelly. but with a liquid center. As I was toying with the idea in my head, I was watching a video of Heston making a molten chocolate cake, in the video, he uses a block of set ganache in the middle of his cake to ensure a perfectly melted center, immediately the idea to use a chocolate ganache wrapped by a Baileys jelly started to form in my head.

I actually found trouble in an area where I least expected- I had trouble trying to get baileys jelly to set. After two failed attempts, I managed to succeed with a 2 parts milk to 1 part Baileys ratio. The milk is first heated over a pan and agar powder is whisked in, once the powder has dispersed(the mixture should start turning viscous at this point), baileys is immediately whisked in and poured into cold muffin mould that has been sitting in the freezer, only fill a small layer at the bottom of the mould, depending on the size of your cut ganache blocks. Put the muffin moulds in the freezer to set, then drop in a block of cold chocolate ganache and cover with more of the Baileys agar mixture(you may need to keep this on a stove to ensure that it stays liquid, do not boil). Its important to note that when you drop in the ganache, the top of the jelly layer shouldn’t be completely set, otherwise you will get two separated layers of jelly like in my photo, blasting it with a torch to melt the top portion helps with this.

Molten Chocolate lava Baileys Jelly, served with chocolate soil

Pros: It worked. You cut into it, the molten chocolate oozed out, exactly like a lava cake. The jelly had a strong hit of baileys, strong enough that you could taste the alcoholic fumes. Of course, the baileys and the chocolate worked well together.

Cons: I still hate the texture of agar agar. What could be worse? Warm agar agar. Apparently the only thing that made agar agar palatable for me was its coldness, the combination of warm jelly and alcohol was not a good one, I was struggling to finish the dessert.

Thoughts: Im glad I managed to figure out a way to make this, the idea had been stuck in my head for some time, but it simply didn’t taste good enough to warrant more experimenting, this is one dish I’d happily bury for now.

Savour.sg 2012

Its been a while since I last went for a food event in Singapore, the last being Ferran Adrias 2 speeches approximately 3 years ago. Its not to say that there haven’t been many food events, in fact, there have been lots of celebrity chefs frequenting our tiny island; unfortunately, the meals that they host are usually quite pricy, and I cannot justify paying that amount of money when I feel that going to their own flagship restaurant would be a better reflection of the food that they strive to put out.

Savour.sg offered a way to savour(points for incorporating the title) some dishes from world renowned chefs such as Alain Passard of L’Arpege, Alvin Leung of Bo Innovation, and Hans Valimaki of Chez Dominique. It was actually Passards name that piqued my interest for the event, my meal at L’Arpege last November was one of the most technically brilliant meals I’ve had in my life, a chance to attend one of his workshops was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Molecular Xiao Long Bao (Bo Innovation, HK, **)

My sister, who was at the event with me, headed straight for the Bo Innovation counter the moment we had entered and ordered everything that Bo had to offer. Her justification was to try some of Bo’s most famous dishes because she will, in all probability, never go to Bo. On the other hand, I will be having a meal at Bo this coming July, so this was all hers. I appreciated that they brought their own specific cutlery for the delicate item. On a side note on this (almost dead) spherified fad, I preferred my spherified mojito at Providence over the infamous spherified olive at El Bulli

Har Mei Lo Mien, with Har mei oil and powder (Bo Innovation, HK, **)

Basically pasta tossed with roe, with dried shrimp for flavor. It was comfortable and satisfying, the pasta was a good vehicle to carry the Asian flavors, but it was hardly pushing the boundaries. Reminded me a lot of Mentaiko pasta but obviously here with a different flavor profile. They also reduced this from $15 on the website to $9 at the fair, I don’t think anything more than $9 would have been a reasonable price. Okay

  

Egg waffles with black truffle and Vanilla Ice cream (Bo Innovation, HK, **)

The best dish I had during the fair. The waffles managed to stay crisp despite being topped with ice cream and a sauce(my sis thinks detected salted egg yolk in this but I have my doubts), and the infusion of truffle into the egg waffles itself was a nice touch. The ice cream had an interesting consistency, it was slightly more viscous than normal, and packed a lot of vanilla aroma in it as well(high fat content?), the pairing of truffle and vanilla worked gloriously together, I’m not particularly crazy about truffles, but this is one instance where I truly enjoyed it. Very good

  

Cod 2.0 for all your senses, Cod brandade flavored with dashi stock and served with cod skin crackers (Chez Dominique, Finland, **)

Fact: add ’2.0′ to the back of any dish and it will sound molecular. I had half expected there to be some sort of dashi foam on the plate, I was a little glad when a conservatively plated dish emerged. The cod was very soft, but it had a slightly ‘pappy’ texture that happens when you sous vide food for too long, it was also slightly overseasoned for me, and lost some of its natural flavor. On a positive note, the bed of grains(Barley? Spelt?) it sat on was delicious. Okay

   

Potato and Malt, Sea buckthorn potato ice cream with malt (Chez Dominique, Finland, **)

The recreated potato is actually a white chocolate shell encapsulating an ice cream center. The crunchy malt bits at the bottom brought a delightful contrast in texture to the ice cream. Potato, Malt, white chocolate, an unusual combination of flavors that works well together, although I believe Wd~50 has used a similar combination in a dessert that they used to serve. The original dish served at Chez Dominique does look pretty different though, it just goes to show that many of dishes served at the fair are probably slightly modified to survive our climate. Good

Mexican pig with white spice sauce, alfayayocan bean, red and black radish (Pujol, Mexico)

I was quite amused by the black radish, having never seen one before. The pickled red radish provided a nice acidity to balance out the richness of the pork belly, unfortunately the belly wasn’t particularly well cooked. Okay

  

Cacao, corn and chilli. Cacao peru 64% and corn, rocoto pepper oil (Central Restaurante, Peru)

I had initially thought the chocolate was an ice cream, but it turned out to be an incredibly dense chocolate…. I dont even know what to call it. It was slightly gummy and way too thick to be called a ganache. The corn nuggets were severely lacking in any kind of flavor at all, and there was very minimal heat and aroma from the pepper oil. It was difficult enough trying to find flavor in the corn nuggets, and the flavor of the thick chocolate bulldozing its way though your tastebuds didn’t really help either. Bad

  

Coconut braised pork belly, with pickled cabbage and caramelized daikon (Xu, Vietnam)

This was one of the softest pork belly’s that Ive ever had, the thing literally broke apart with a fork, so much so that it became difficult to eat when the skin, fat, and meat separated due to its own weight, I would actually have liked the belly to have more structure so it would be easier to cut into. Whatever coconut flavor present in the dish was faint, and got lost in the pickled cabbage. It seemed to be an Asian take on German pork + sauerkraut, but with punchier flavors, especially with the pickled cabbage, I tasted quite a lot of soy sauce in it. Okay

  

Chocolate Brigadeiro, truffle candy, with cupuacu (Brasil sensational, Brazil)

It was my first time having cupuacu, and while I didn’t particularly care of the dish, the aroma of the cupuacu is quite unique, a lot of aromas and flavors all happening at once, definitely something that makes you sit up and take notice if you’ve never tried it before. Okay

Alain Passard’s masterclass

Unfortunately I didn’t try anything from the L’Arpege booth, but I did get to see Alain Passard in action, which made the trip to the entire event worth it.

He is ridiculously thin for a 3 star French chef, and I had no idea that chef Gunter trained under Passard for some time as well. Hearing Passard speak about food was quite inspirational, plus learning how he cooks his egg yolk in his soft egg dish was quite exciting too.

There were many other mini demonstrations, wine tastings, samplers going on at the fair, but I didn’t snap any pictures. Overall it was a well organized event, my only critique would be the line forming up to get in during the first 1/2 hour when the event started, congestion was quite bad and there could have been more staff allocated to the entry booths; I’m not sure why I’m even complaining about this because I went straight to the front, but if I had to queue up to get in, it would be something that I would like rectified.

Tim Ho Wan, Hong Kong (*)

Occupy Tim Ho Wan

Let me cut to the chase with Tim Ho Wan, there are many many other blogs out there that can give you a detailed play by play description of each dish and what to expect, but I’ll condense it down for you. I had breakfast(which turned into lunch by the time we went in) at the Kwong Wah branch, the original branch with the Michelin star. In the process of queuing for 2 hours and losing my sanity, my friends made the mistake of handing me the menu chit for ordering- They were going to pay for their mistake, I had already decided that I was going to eat as much as I could to make up for all this time I spent standing in line. And so we ate, a lot, in fact, we had a good 75% of the menu. There is a term in weight training called training till failure, where you do enough repetitions of an exercise until you experience momentary muscular failure, our meal at Tim Ho Wan could be summed up as “eating till failure”. The good thing is that I was able to try out a lot of dishes, and here are my thoughts.

It didn’t seem that much on paper

We had to unroll the bill like a scroll

1) Be prepared to wait, unless you manage to be the first batch of people who make it into the restaurant. I’d suggest being there before 9 to make it into the first batch, maybe somewhere around 8.30, you’ll end up waiting a good 2 hours if you show up later anyway.

2) You can do takeaways, which I would recommend. The restaurant is a very very small space and you’ll likely to be elbow to elbow with the person next to you; which could add to the experience of eating dim sum, depending on how you look at it.

3) The food: As you probably already know, the main must have dish would be the cha siew baos, and they are delicious(Very Good). The baos have a rich, sweet, porky cha siew filling, baked with a topping akin to that of a Bo Lo bun, my sis mentioned that she has used a similar(ish) topping on her eclairs, the main components are basically butter, flour and sugar. I’ll save you a trouble and let you know that each person should just get a plate of this(3 pieces), these paos are not for sharing.

Other standout dishes were the osmanthus jelly(good), and the pork-century egg porridge (Good). Everything else was pretty mediocre in my opinion. The har gao and siew mai, staples in dim sum, had a generous amount of filling, but like I said, it wasn’t anything special.

4) The michelin star, I’ll address this later

 

I’ve got to admit, before I even arrived at the restaurant, I had my reservations about the place, not because of the food they served, but because of the michelin star they were carrying on their back. Touted as the ‘cheapest michelin starred restaurant in the world’, and judging from the lines the restaurant gets, they could easy raise their prices a notch and still have a stream of customers, both local and foreign, but is the restaurant really indicative of what a michelin starred experience should be like?(Granted that they only have a single star)

My last one star experience was back in the States, at Cafe Boulud, and while I didnt have a particularly memorable or stellar meal there, it was miles away from my experience with Tim Ho Wan- the food was much better at Cafe Boulud. Many have discussed and talked about how Michelin have dropped the ball with Hong Kong, first with giving Tim Ho Wan a Michelin star, and then with giving Lung King Heen three. The point I’m trying to drive is not that I didn’t enjoy my meal at Tim Ho Wan, but rather, Tim Ho Wan is not really an accurate representation of a Michelin starred restaurant, and this is important to note, both for those who are seasoned Michelin diners, and those who are about to lose their Michelin virginity to Tim Ho Wan; I will go as far as to say that I don’t believe Tim Ho Wan really deserves a star, even if you discount the service, the ambiance, and everything non-food related, the food simply didn’t do enough to warrant a star; but with that being said, I don’t believe it really needs a star, it has almost reached cult status at this point. If I have convinced you that the Tim Ho Wan star is meaningless, what you should probably do is head over to the Sham Shui Po branch of Tim Ho Wan, I have heard the waiting times are much shorter there, and you can still get the delicious cha siew baos. At least thats what I’ll be doing the next time I’m in Hong Kong.

Sous vide pork tenderloin @55.5C

Sous vide pork tenderloin brine

(from Ad Hoc at Home)

3 T honey

6 bay leaves

2 fresh rosemary spring

1/4 oz fresh thyme sprigs

1 oz fresh flat leaf parsley sprigs

6 cloves garlic, crushed with the skin left on

1 T black peppercorns

1/2 c kosher salt

4 c water

I used a modified Ad Hoc brine, by modified, I really mean I only used whatever I could find at home. I left it in the brine for about 5 hours, before thoroughly rinsing off the brine. For those of you getting over salted meat whenever you do a brine, it could be beause you’re not washing off your brine properly. I rinse the meat under running water for a good 3-4 mins, then soak it in water for an additional 10 mins, with two water changes

Post Sous vide

Method: The tenderloin is rolled up with a few sprigs of rosemary, a few turns from the pepper grinder, wrapped in clingfilm(to maintain shape), then sous vide and dropped into a water bath at 55.5C for 4 hours. It gets pulled out of the bath and cut open,any juices are reserved, the tenderloin is wiped dry with paper towels and put into the freezer for about 20 mins.

While the tenderloin is chilling out, heat some canola oil and fry some rosemary leaves till crisp, make sure they do not burn or they will taste incredibly bitter, throw in a handful of pine nuts as well, this not only roasts the nuts, it infuses the oil with a subtle nuttiness and rosemary aroma. Remove the crisp rosemary and toasted pine nuts, reserve.

Turn the heat up to high, pull out the tenderloin from the freezer and wipe the surface once again, sear the tenderloin in the hot rosemary-pine nut oil, continuously baste the tenderloin, the oil should sizzle over the exterior of the meat as you baste it

Create a basic balsamic vinaigrette, squeeze in some mustard and whisk in the reserved pork juices from the sous vide bag, dress a over greens and cut up peaches

Cupid shot a pig and a peach tree on valentines day

Pros: The pork tenderloin retained a lot of juiciness, 55C is a very nice temperature for a tenderloin(the 0.5C is just a food safety precaution, even though my immersion circulator seems to be fairly accurate), and a nice temperature for most tender cuts of meat including beef. Needless to say it was tender as well. The brine seasoned the meat nicely an there was no need to re-season before sous vide. The effort taken to dry out the exterior of the meat and baste it with smoking hot oil gave the tenderloin a really nice, slightly crisp crust.

Cons: None that I can think of really, I used a non stick pan which didn’t get as hot as I would have liked, but I just bought a cast iron skillet so I’ll be trying that next time.

Thoughts: Pork and peach are a match made in heaven, the sweetness and freshness of the peach balances out the rich meatiness of the pork. Mustard and pork are another classic combination and the spiciness from the mustard made the vinaigrette ‘livelier’. I think freezing the meat definitely gave the meat a nicer sear and overall crust(credit to Americas test kitchen), I will be incorporating it into my workflow for tender meats. It might have been better with a sauce, but to be honest I don’t think it needed one

Sous Vide turduckloin and a Christmas dinner

During christmas of 2010, I made a sous vide beef wellington with duck fat mashed potatoes for my family, a year later, I had the ridiculous and ambitious idea of cooking a christmas feast for a bunch of friends. I have had it in my mind to make a sous vide version of the turducken for quite some time, but I never got around to doing it, Christmas seemed to be a perfect excuse to cook it, seeing as to how I would need an army to finish the beast. But because I have a strong inability to follow recipes word for word- I often try to add in some component that will make it a little more challenging, I eventually settled on stuffing a beef tenderloin in a chicken in a duck in a turkey, oh, and of course, there would have to be bacon in there somewhere.

First try with meat glue. No bueno

String fixes everything, trust me, Im an engineer 

Figuring out the turduckenloin was a lot more complex than I thought. I wanted to cook as many components using sous vide as possible. After thinking long and hard about it, doing mini experiments- including one with meat glue, my final plan would be- starting from the inside out, I would sous vide the beef medium rare, sear it, and then freeze it. After which I would sew(meat glue just wasn’t strong enough) the chicken around the tenderloin, sous vide the chicken to about 62C, freeze the chicken/tenderloin, then sew it into the duck, sous vide the duck to 60C, then immediately wrap it in a crisp bacon wave and sew the duck/chicken/tenderloin into a turkey, before finally roasting it in an oven. This would mean that the oven only needs to cook the turkey, not the duck layer onwards, making sure that most components would remain moist and evenly cooked. If course, this was only the plan I had for the dish, there would be many issues I did not and could not forsee.

 Baconga Veneta Fall/Winter 2011

I’m on PETA’s most wanted list

Since I had made the offer to cook for everyone, I needed other dishes for the feast as well. About a month before Christmas, I decided on four: The turduckenloin, sous vide beef shortrib tacos(with grilled corn salsa), macaroni and cheese topped with pulled pork, and brownies. This was going to be quite a huge task, on top of that, I am in no way ‘organized’ in the kitchen, which is somewhat embarrassing considering that I am an engineer and people have this impression that I am very methodological(sorry to disappoint). I often have 4-5 different things running around in my head at the same time and I knew that I would be restricted by equipment- I have one oven that barely fit the turkey I bought, and the container I use to Sous Vide can only hold the size of a duck, figuring out how I would put out 4 warm dishes at the same time was going to be a challenge.  Hence, for the first time since starting cooking, I worked out a timeline that i needed to follow to make sure that the food would go out as planned

Saturday 

Buy ingredients(Short Ribs, turkey, etc)

Prepare reduced red wine sauce(mirepoix, bouquet garni, red wine, worcheshire sauce, BBQ sauce, green tea powder, liquid smoke, cumin, thyme, garlic), then freeze

Sunday

begin defrosting turkey

Dust shortribs with cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, Mexican oregano, vacuum seal with frozen red wine sauce. Cook at 71.2C for 2 days

Tuesday

Remove shortribs and slice thinly, place into ziploc bag with some residual sauce and rapid chill. Then freeze

Wednesday

Purchase pork shoulder and misc other things

Purchase beef tenderloin, season with olive oil + beef stock cube, vacuum seal and cook at 56C for 2 hours. Then remove, pay dry, sear over high heat in garlic/thyme olive oil. Let rest, place in sous vide bag, seal, rapid chill and freeze

Debone entire turkey, reserve bones, freeze meat

Thursday 

Coat pork shoulder in flour, salt, brown sugar, sear in truffle oil

Braise pork shoulder (130C for 4 hours) in mushroom stock and root beer, with fennel, onion, star anise, brown sugar, bouquet garni, button mushrooms, carrots, stock cube. Remove, shred, freeze with some reduced braising liquid

Friday

Collect chicken and duck

Debone both birds, reserve bones. Place frozen tenderloin in deboned chicken, meat glue and sew shut. Chill overnight

Begin defrosting turkey in the fridge

Saturday

Roast chicken bones, pressure cook to create stock. Reduce stuck to intensify it. Then chill

Make brine for the turkey, let it chill

Sunday

Sous vide the chicken and tenderloin, drain liquid, then rapid chill and place in fridge

Meat glue duck, sew shut

Make brownie batter, place in fridge

Cook stuffing

Grill corn, mix in mint, chill

Brine the turkey in an orange scented brine

Monday

sous vide duck,chicken,tenderloin

Bake brownies(might need to move to Sunday)

Make bacon weave

Reheat stuffing

Cook Mac and cheese

Butter Breadcrumbs

Reheat shortribs and pulled pork

Combine bacon weave, stuffing, duck/chicken/tenderloin with the turkey, begin roasting

Finish Mac and cheese w pulled pork

Pulled pork on Mac and Cheese

This dish had alot of ‘firsts’ for me. 2 weeks prior to cooking the meal, I had never deboned a chicken in my life. I had broken down a few chickens(Breaking down: Separating the legs from the breast etc, Deboning: removing all the bone and leaving the meat as a single flat sheet), but never deboned. By Christmas, I had deboned enough chickens to the point where I felt I could debone a chicken blindfolded, hanging upside down and doing sit-ups. And since birds more or less have the same anatomy, I should, in theory, be able to debone the turkey easily, right? Wrong. Nothing could have prepared me for the scumbag that is turkey. Firstly, I bought a giant turkey, weighing in at a good 9lbs, the wing alone was a size of a huge chicken drumstick. When trying to separate the legs or thighs from the carcass, a chefs knife will easily cut through a chicken bone if you don’t hit  the joint at the right  point, but no such luck with a turkey, it’s bones are made of pure titanium and you really have to go at it with a snipers precision, right at its archillis heel(insert the knife between the two bones and wiggle, this point is alot harder to find on a turkey than it sounds) to separate it. This condensed video is about 45 minutes worth of me deboning this monster.

Roasted bones + water = Delicious stock

I’m not gonna write down the full recipe because alot of it was jus adapting and trying to deal with the countless problems I encountered, plus I really wouldn’t wish making this on my worst enemy. The first was discovering that the chicken  I had ordered  was not big enough to sew around the tenderloin that was already cooked, I recalled seeing some much bigger chickens at a nearby supermarket, but the store had already closed by that time, and I was already behind schedule, so I made a quick decision to invert the duck and chicken, the tenderloin would be covered with the duck and I would get a bigger chicken around that.

This monster broke my oven. True story

The duck came out beautifully, and when I begun sewing the chicken around it, of course, I realised it wouldn’t fit. I had a chicken that covered about 3/4 of my duck and I was just staring blankly at it trying to figure out how I managed to convince myself that a duck would fit into a chicken , I suddenly had a eureka moment- why not buy another chicken and  use both chickens to cover the duck?  I seemed to make sense in my head, so out I went to get another chicken, and on it went over the duck. I must have spent a good 45 mins trying to work it out before deciding that if there was ever a time to call it quits, this was it.  I ended up filled the  inside of the turkey with cornbread stuffing, sautéed sausages, fried rice, and two bacon weaves , before roasting the turkey to about 65C.

The works

So how was it? It was good, very impressive for everyone at the table when you cut it into it. But was it worth the effort? Hell no it wasn’t. It’s like a mash up of the bee gees and daft punk, both great on its own, but not so much when combined together(Im waiting for someone to prove me wrong and ruin this analogy).  I’m still glad I  attempted this and sort of managed to pull it off. I wonder what I’ll be making this christmas…

Appetizing-looking food is vastly overrated

PS I sewed the two chickens together with a bunch of leftover stuffing to form some kind of franken-chicken and grilled it. It wasnt pretty but turned out pretty nicely

Frankenchicken. Pretty sure this is one of Neil Gaiman’s characters in his version of hell