Sushi Masaaki

Sushi Massaki had an incredibly long waitlist during covid period where there were still travel restrictions imposed. I cheated slightly by waiting for them to reopen their dine-in reservations on their website once the lifting of the dine-in ban was announced. Managed to make a booking for Nov in Aug – which was 3 months in advanced. *Checks done in 2nd half of 2022 showed that the reservation situation had eased.

While waiting in the holding room for our seats, we admired the elegant Gucci Heron print wallpaper and took time to pick the sake to go with the meal. Decided on the Hououbiden Junmai Ginjo, Tochigi.

I did not have the chance to take a picture of the dining counter area as we were seated in a corner and there were already other guests at their seats. It was a cosy but spacious space that catered for roughly 10 diners.

Our meal started with Seasonal Starter of Katsuo bonito ponzu and Appetizer of Japanese yam with hairy crab.

Seasonal Sashimi was next – comprising of a platter Shirako, Japanese grouper and Botan ebi (middle plate) and Chutoro (right plate) served with plum n soy sauce alongside with flowers arranged by Chef Masaaki himself on the spot.

Next we had a hot dish of Tamago with eel. A simple but satisfying rice wrap, I could feel the warmth of the freshly grilled eel as I held the roll in my hands. When I took the first bite, I could taste the juiciness of the fish alongside with the flavourful fats that infused the rice wrapped with the crispy seaweed. After the relatively rich rice wrap, we were served the Seasonal Platter of Seiko female snow crab with ikura. In contrast, this bite sized “mini don” had light and clean flavours. The Seiko female snow crab is said to be a typical winter delicacy. They are caught only for about two months from early November to early January.

We were given a sneak preview of the fish served for the sushi course. And we started with the bright red Akami with yuzu. Followed by Japanese smoked barracuda (kamasu) and Aji.

The highlight sushi dish was the Aburi kinmedai where freshly burned binchotan was used to sear the meat right before our eyes (check out my Instagram for the video).

After the kinmedai, we were served Radish pickles w yuzu (not pictured) – probably to refresh our palate. Thereafter we moved on to another winter delicacy – Blackthroat sea perch (nodoguro). Tried them while we were in Kanazawa too.

After finishing one fatty white fish (nodoguro) we were then served the fatty red Otoro. It was an absolute delight to stuff the melt-in-your-mouth otoro in my mouth.

Cleared up our palate with the light soup – Kinki fish with uni, dashi with wakame.

We chomped down the handroll of Monkfish liver ankimo which was creamy and rich in umami, contrasted with the crispy seaweed sheet. Next was the Seasonal Rice Bowl of 3-layer Bafun uni cake with caviar.

The final piece of handroll was the freshly chopped Negi toro with pickles – you could see Chef Masaaki chilling at the back while Chef Kobayashi did the “tough work”.

Rounding up our meal with quality fruits from Japan – Melon and shine muscat and sweet Warabi mochi dessert.

Lastly the Hokkaido milk ice cream (not pictured).

Overall it was a nice experience with the restaurant using high quality, exquisite and fresh delicacies/produces. Granted that most of us are unable to travel to Japan for a good feast (during lockdown), it was not surprising that many Jap restaurants in Singapore were highly sought-after and required advanced reservations for a spot!

Other Related Posts:

• Ichigo Ichie 一期一江
• ESORA (Revisit Mar 2021)
• Takayama Japanese Restaurant
• ESORA
• Ushidoki Wagyu Keiseki

Yakiniku-GO Plus

I first tried to visit Yakiniku-GO Plus about 1 or 2 months ago but when we arrived at 7pm+, they stopped the queue already. Although their closing time was 10pm, apparently there were a long list of guests waiting for their table. Managed to visit them on my second attempt and this time round we arrived before 6pm and was shown to an available table immediately~

Went for the Go+ Wagyu A5 Platter 3 kinds of Wagyu, Thick cut beef tongue. Beautiful marbling~

The set was served with condiments of Ponzu Oroshi (ponzu mixed with grated daikon radish) & Kizami Wasabi (frozen soy sauce wasabi). Luv the refreshing Ponzu Oroshi~ it helps in balancing out the fats from the well-marbled beef.

Ordered some fresh lettuce which came with spicy miso and also tried their kimchi.

A5 rib rosu steak

Yakiniku-GO Plus is marketed as a more premium concept of the popular Yakiniku-GO chain. While the quality of meat is definitely better, Overall if you want to try premium beef at value-for-money pricing, best bets are the ones in Japan.

Other Related Posts:

• Yakiniku Heijoen Singapore

Flipper’s, Singapore

Got lucky trying my luck by walking in without reservation near lunch time at Flipper’s, snagged one of the few last available tables. Oddly there were more people in the queue after 2pm….

Tried the Classic grilled cheese sandwich – croque madame Turkey bacon, creamy bechamel sauce, Parmesan cheese and Cheddar cheese topped with signature crispy Cheddar skin and premium Toretama egg. Not sure if it was meant to be this way but the cheese was a bit burnt? It’s edible, no worries just that as a result it had a slight bitterness to it.

Kiseki Pancake fresh fruit was well-executed, airy & fluffy piles of souffle pancake. I shall stick to ordering their pancakes in future.

Other Related Post:

• Belle-Ville Pancake Cafe, Singapore

The Halia at Singapore Botanic Gardens

After exploring part of the Singapore Botanic Gardens I went for my lunch break at The Halia within the compound.

Halia’s singapore-style chilli crab spaghettini in spicy, sweet & tangy sauce with a glass of iced lemon tea – much needed amidst the sweltering weather.

Other Photos Taken:

While the rest of the Botanic Garden is open to public for free access, there is a National Orchid Garden which guests have to pay an entrance fee if you wish to see the well-groomed and huge variety of orchids inside.

My favourite area within the National Orchid Garden was the air-conditioned Sembcorp Cool House.

This golden shower arches is a popular photospot!

Other Related Post:

• Wagyu Jin

Sabar

I first tasted Saba zushi during my Kyoto trip a few years ago and found it really special. The pressed sushi consist of a sushi rice base that is topped with marinated mackerel fillet, aka kyoto style. Here at Sabar they serve up a variety of dishes focusing on saba. Other than ala carte kyoto style saba sushi, they also offered a platter of saba sushi served in assorted ways – grilled toro saba and aburi toro saba.

Their Gozen Bento offered a good variety of sides.

[Revisit: 31st Mar 2022]

Impressed with their grilled mackerel, we were back to try a whole mackerel along with a few dishes that goes well with sake~ Kanpai~

Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup

Finally managed to visit Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup at their Changi road shop for their pig kidney mee sua soup! I last had the mee sua soup more than a decade ago at the Bedok hawker centre.

It was just as tasty as I remembered it to be – I don’t think there is any other stalls selling this dish as I’ve not eaten other versions. The soup had a light earthy herbal taste and the kidney slices were cooked to the right doneness. This would be an enjoyable dish to slurp up on a rainy day~

Also tried their ginseng black chicken herbal soup which had well boiled chicken meat that falls off the bones easily!

Noticed that this place is also a popular spot to enjoy tze char. Will have to come in a big group to try out more dishes in future.

Earlier photo taken:

Made a trip to the east as I wanted to visit the Changi boardwalk but didn’t realise it was closed for renovation (Nov 2021). Only managed to walk to Changi Sailing Club.

☆ Gaggan Anand at Mandala Club (Pop-up in Singapore)

Covid restrictions had curtailed most leisure travellers’ holiday plans. Over the past 2 years, we only dined out on rare occasions as we tried to mitigate the risk of contracting Covid. Following my last visit to Mandala Club for the Mirazur pop-up in June a few months ago, I’m back at the same venue! Albeit this time round the place had been re-decorated and ready to host Chef Gaggan for at least half a year’s residency (which got extended to 8-months eventually).

The key difference between the Mirazur pop-up and Gaggan pop-up was that we did not eat at the former’s original home restaurant in France before. Whereas we had dined at Gaggan’s restaurant in Bangkok on 2 occasions (2015 & 2018). Therefore there was a tendency for me to draw comparison between the latest menu with our past experiences. Naturally there were also a certain level of expectations in terms of wanting to taste his signature dishes (dubbed as the “Greatest Hits”) again versus new creations that the Chef would be conjuring up.

I must say Chef prepped the guests well as we passed by this lighted display (above) while walking to our table!

Although Chef continued to adopt his emoji-style menu, he added a new twist to the game. Instead of presenting guests with a printed emoji menu, we were given a “Passport” along with a set of stamps on the table. Guests were encouraged to use our creativity to design the blank pages within the passport by documenting what we felt were the dishes served. So many a times the staff would only explain what the dish was after we finished it.

First up was the signature Yoghurt Explosion, we instinctively knew the emoji that represented this was the 💥. Instead of serving it on a spoon, this upgraded version was served on a green chutney crisp, adorned with more embellishments (including citrusy lemon, spicy chilli, a tint of coriander). You can feel the amalgation of flavours once you stuffed this into your mouth. Thereafter wait for the usual popping candy sensation. It literally felt that there’s a party in my mouth~

Up next was something that looked gory…. but fret not…this was not the real brain of any animal, just made to look like one. We could easily identify the corresponding stamp to use 🧠

The dish fit for Halloween party was introduced to us as Chlorophyll (brioche) and (brain) foie gras ice cream.

The 3rd dish required guests to point their middle finger 🖕 to receive the cone-shaped receptacle used to hold the ring shaped snack. Ingredients used include coriander, white chocolate and chilli.  We were advised to eat it quickly before it melts and in one mouth – which was a bit of challenge for ladies due to its size. 

After tasting two new dishes, a familiar looking dish made its appearance. The black charcoal ball was something that we ate before at his restaurant, however they always change up the filling inside so it requires a bit of guesswork to get this right. And the answer was Chicken Tikka Masala with butter tomato. Initially I couldn’t find an emoji that could represent this dish well…there’s no Dark Moon 🌑 stamp though… But I recalled that during our previous visit, we were told the black exterior is made from the skin of the eggplant 🍆.

Moving on was another dish which had the “same same but different” feel. The same Ghewar (crispy deep fried tart) was served with a different topping – truffle mushroom 🍄. 

Up next was something which looked like a “cigar”. It was made with Thosai (or dosa), 🌴coconut meat, sichuan pepper, abalone served with Peking duck hoisin sauce. I reckoned you get the concept, its a Indian+Chinese fusion creation. 

Well, we were told that this next dish was actually inspired by a character in Star Wars. Any guess? From the claws you might have guessed that it’s a kind of bird? Then you are right – it’s a tribute to Porg. This “drumstick” 🦴 was made from minced duck meat. 

Sweet potato leaf, shiroi raw shrimp🦐, coconut meat

Chef is known to love Japan and you can trust that he knows his fishes well. The next dish was 🐟 Rosy sea bass (akamutsu aka black throat seaperch), pandan, coconut and ikura. A perfectly executed dish that ticked all the right boxes in terms textures and flavours, and what stood out for me was that it was created with a fusion touch. 

Nothing goes to waste as Chef used the Fish bones to concoct a soup broth with addition of tamarind, tomatoes and herbs. 

If there is a Best Food Presentation Award, it would go to this next dish – 🦆 Duck, pop rice, curry leaves. I loved how they plated the duck dish on a slate that resembles the terrace rice fields (like those in Bali). I hope I’m not overthinking but this seeks to reflect the agroecology of growing ducks and rice together in irrigated paddy fields? 

❄️ Frozen cheese dome with seafood, uni, squid – wished the dome has prints of Death Star as it would make it look cooler than it already was. 

A rice dish towards the end of the meal but this was the best dish of the night! White corn, peas, 🦀 crab curry, pandan. It looked deceptively plain and simple, but the curry was fabulous! I had to apportion the curry with the right amount of rice in each mouthful to avoid finishing the curry too quickly. 

🍂 Autumn passion fruit, sake kasu (sake lees) ice cream

☕ Tiramisu coffee

There were both wine and juice pairing options available, we opted for one pairing each. Here’s the juices served: Apple fennel and ginger bulb, Dragon fruit and tongka, Pear juice with cardamom.

Beetroot hibiscus and Osmanthus kombucha with nectar honey.

For the wine pairing, there was a good variety. We started with Marie Courtin Résonance Pinot Noir Extra Brut (aperitif), Piquentum Teran Istria (Croatia wine), Envinate Paolo Blanco Vinos Atlanticos (Spain wine), La Ferme des Sept Lunes Saint Joseph Syrah wine, Sebastien Riffault Skeveldra, Loire Valley Sancerre wine and Meinklang Graupert Zweigelt Burgenland (Austrian wine).

My personalised emoji menu completed.

Recap of our visits to the restaurant and looking forward to visiting them again when they re-open in Bangkok.

Other Related Posts:

• ★ Gaggan, Bangkok (Revisit 2018)
• Gaggan, Bangkok