Ikkoten Omakase - New Exciting Japanese Omakase with a touch of Fusion

When my favourite restaurant, Ikkoten Omakase, announced the change in menu, I didn’t hesitate to make two reservations: one before the change and one after the change. I’m not sure of what to expect of the new menu actually, but trusting Chef Brandon Low’s culinary skills and his flair for belting out lots of surprises, I’m all excited to try it.

And yes, I totally enjoy the new experience! Tweaks will be made to this soft launch menu. So if you want to try the most refreshing and Japanese tasting pasta, need to try it soon before more changes implemented two weeks later.

My favourite dish of the night got to be the Smoked Hamachi, whose lovely smoked flavour is punctuated by savoury sauce and refreshing pungency of ginger flower for a well-rounded and complex taste.

Crispy Rosemary crackers with dips may look simple but the taste is on another level. Japanese Black Bean Cream Cheese is surprisingly sweet and creamy, enhanced by hints of earthiness of beans and soft savoury nutty taste of cream cheese. It’s a dip like no others.

Tuna Mashed Potato surprises me by how good it is and how different it is from the typical tuna. The strong briny taste of tuna is perfectly balanced by the earthy sweetness of potato for an addictive treat.

Tai, which is Sea Bream Sashimi, tastes so good with homemade Ume Jelly. The taste is clean, refreshing and exciting.

Grilled Chilean Seabass (I’m drinking a lot and forgot to take photo) is the crowd favourite due to the flaky, creamy, succulent texture and the sweetness brought out by the thin strands of seaweed and Nori Butter.

Japanese Pollack Roe and Ikura with Angel Hair Pasta is surprise of the night. I was expecting this dish to taste like one of those Japanese fusion pastas, but Chef Brandon Low totally defies this assumption to come up with a pasta dish that is so unique and delicious. The pasta tastes absolutely Japanese that I will think it's a special somen if not told that it's pasta. The taste is delightfully light, refreshing and briny sweet. I will take this over most pasta dishes anytime of the day.

Binchotan Wagyu is so juicy and meaty, made even better with the char from grilling over binchotan.  Anchovy Infused Potato goes so well with the meat. Pan Seared Foie Gras is perfectly done.

Special dish of Fig with jelly, topped with a dash of gold, is so refreshingly good. Perfect for cleansing the palate before the sushi.

Akami (no photo) sushi has this mild savoury taste that highlights the sweetness of the premium Niigata sushi rice.

Hamachi sushi is clean tasting, made exciting by the zest. This is one special hamachi with such smooth texture. I love it!

Amaebi sushi, served fresh, is so sweet and especially creamy. I love this too!

Chutoro sushi is sweet and has this lovely melt in your mouth texture.

Tai sushi is unique because it has been smoked to impart a unique smoky flavour, making this sushi rich and complex in taste. First time I try a sushi with smoked fish, and it works! 

Otoro sushi is so rich and decadent in taste.

My uni sushi is specially upgraded to Chef's Signature Sushi wth the best, sweetest treasures of the ocean: uni and negitoro, tempered with pickles for complexity in taste. So luxurious, so sweet, so awesome.

Refreshing Kyoho Grape Sorbet is full of the unique wine-like sweet intense flavour of Kyoho Grapes. An excellent way to round up the meal.

Thoughts: Exciting and Full of Surprises!

86 Telok Ayer Street

Taiwanese Snacks 💖

I got some awesome Taiwanese snacks from Handsome 😊 What makes it even better is that the snacks are really delicious!

My stash of goodies that I hog all for my own enjoyment, despite me being always up for sharing the good stuff with my family.

幸福張 handmade peanut wafer is packed with rich peanut butter sandwiched between layers of super crispy wafers. The contrast in textures is great and the savoury nutty taste of peanut makes this snack more exciting and creamy in taste.

蔥軋餅, which is onion nougat cookies, is da bomb. This is oh-so-good and is a must-get if travelling in Taiwan. Despite the look of cookies, the texture is similar to that of nougat, being chewy. And I love this interesting texture, which complements the creaminess of the onion cream. The distinctive pungency of the onion, highlighted by a slight sweetness, makes this such an unique and irresistible treat.

Ruyi Sunny Cake 杏仁䐁肉纸 is another interesting delicacy from Taiwan. Pork is stretched and grilled dried to be this paper-thin crispy snack with a good meaty flavour. Think pork floss in paper form. It’s way better than pork floss due to the texture and the additional sweetness of grilled meat.

Ikkoten Omakase - Special, Wonderful Gastronomic Adventure

Back at another of my favourite restaurant of my favourites, Ikkoten Omakase, for another awesome gastronomic adventure! Chef Brandon Low flexed his culinary skills and prepared special dishes specially for me 🎉 I love all the dishes here, they taste oh-so-good and unique at the same time. Lots of first times here also, with savouring Sakura Sushi, Uni with Shio Kombu, Smoked Otoro and Takiawase of Round Eggplant, Tempura Mushroom soaked in thick crab broth and Sake Pairing 😊😊😊

Japanese Spinach and Mushroom soaked in homemade Dashi sauce is a lovely garden of freshness and savoury goodness. The texture of Spinach is perfection, being moist and tender, juxtaposing well with the bouncy, succulent texture of the mushrooms. Excellent start.

Fig with Fig Jelly is so refreshing and sweet. My favourite fig, yes!

Sakura sushi is light, earthy and savoury, an awesome snack to contrast with the refreshing sweetness of the snack prior. I love this change in taste profile between snacks. In fact, I realise that the Fig is masterfully placed before this sushi to cleanse the palates so that I can appreciate the subtle flavours of this sushi.

Shitake Mushroom stuffed with Fish Paste features a fantastic texture, where the crispy veil-thin batter excellently contrasts with the plump, juicy mushroom for conplexity. And the savoury sweet fish paste adds a richness to perk up the earthy taste of mushroom. Best Shitake Mushroom I ever have.

Pregnant squid has a creamy, bouncy texture and lovely mild briny sweetness made exciting by the mild Japanese peppercorns.

Tsukuri, in the form of Houbou Shio Kombu, makes me go "Wow!" at first bite. I thought it will be sweet, but it turns out to be far more complex due to the briny goodness of the Shio Kombu. And the firm texture of the paper thin slices of Houbou, a rare kind of red flatfish, complements the creaminess of the uni so well.

Smoked Otoro Ponzu Foam is the best smoked meat I ever have. Creamy, tender, smooth, and elevated by the aroma of smoked hay, this is oh-so-good. The light savoury zesty umami of the ponzu foam perfectly balances the robust taste of the smoked otoro.

Takiawase, a difficult-to-master simmered dish, is actually Chef Brandon's specialty and he always hits the sweet spots with his Takiawase creations. Yes, I feel this burst of warm feeling of happiness when savouring this dish full of the briny goodness of kani, which is crab, soaked in Ankake, a starchy broth. Marunasu, a round eggplant, is specially prepared to retain the firm core amid the simmering. And the labourious process pays off to yield this amazingly delicious eggplant with a wonderful texture. Shiomaitake, aka tempura mushroom, radish roll with cheese and oden are all excellent additions to the dish, featuring an array of tastes and textures.

I enjoy this so much that I actually forget to request Chef to shave in some yuzu zest. Luckily he offers to do so before I gobble up everything. With yuzu, there is an element of refreshing flavour to brighten up the warm flavours, giving a new perspective to the taste.

I'm not exactly a fish person, but I will gladly help myself to the fish dishes here, including Yakimono of Aka Amadai. The Amadai features smooth, creamy, succulent flesh that juxtaposes so well with the super crispy deep dried fish scales.  And the root vegetables add lovely earthy flavours to balance the taste.

Miyazaki A5 Wagyu being cooked in Shabu style and then grilled the Yakiniku way, finished with Sanshio Pepper and almost raw egg, is complex in taste, perfect in texture and full of meaty sweetness. The extra step of grilling the meat to yield that taste of char, adds so much more to the overall taste. Excellent.

Ayu Donabe Meshi, made with premium Niigata rice, is starchy, smooth and starchy, packed with the goodness of the collagen broth. This is such a satisfying dish to savour.

Housemade dessert of Marshmallow-like Rice Puffs and Red Bean paste looks simple but is absolutely delicious. The light, fluffy, crispy rice puffs complement the sweet earthy taste of red paste perfectly. Shizuoka Crown Melon is like honey water, infused with musk, in solid form, which is so good.

Special Sake Pairing for the A5 Wagyu, enhancing the experience 💖

Thoughts: One of a Kind Awesome Gastronomic Adventure engaging all senses 💌

86 Telok Ayer Street

Home Made Dumplings is the Best!

It’s time for Chinese Dumplings! And I’m so looking forward to dumplings made by my mum. It’s a show of her love for us because making these dumplings take so much effort. From buying huge bulk of the ingredients such as bamboo leaves, bamboo veins, glutinous rice, pork, mushrooms, chestnuts and spices. And she needs to chop up the meat and pluck out the bitter veins from the chestnuts. Saved for the spices and meat, she needs to soak all the ingredients in water overnight to soften them. Then she spends lots of time wrapping the dumplings and cooking each batch for 3 hours. The whole process takes more than 12 hours. And yes, the kitchen is so hot.

Despite the tedious work, she wants to make these dumplings for her children because we are so fussy about the dumplings we eat. We only eat dumplings made by our mum. I had brought dumplings from restaurants and stores, and none manages to make me go back a second time for them. Too oily, too salty, you get the drift.

Thus I want to post about the best dumplings (to me), made with most amount of love, here 💖

Omakase @ Stevens - Amazingly Beautiful Experience

I'm back at Omakase@Stevens, one of my favourite restaurants among the favourites to enjoy Beautiful Cuisine with Beautiful Taste of Spring. Everything is so meticulously crafted here by Chef Kazuki Arimoto of  and is so refreshingly different and complex that I have this feeling of falling in love all over again every time I come here ❤️ I can’t wait to be back here again 😊

I always look forward to going to this restaurant because I know that Chef Kazuki Arimoto always explore novel ingredients and come out with new surprises every season. And this spring, hints of vegetal freshness brighten up every dish and add that soft speck of excitement to the taste that make me go “wow” with every mouthful.

Hotaru Ika from Hyougo is lightly grilled over charcoal to get the light taste of char interlacing with the intense briny sweetness of the squid for complexity. Canola Blossom, Karashimiso introduces the freshness of the vegetables to balance this briny sweetness. It is unbelievably good, and unique at the same time, where the layers of flavours are harmonised to spellbind the palates.

First dish of Hassun is Maguro with Wasabi and Nori. It reminds me of my favourite sushi: Negitoro, and this dainty, beautiful creation is much more than that: full of hints of additional flavours for complexity. When popped into the mouth, I immediately taste the top notes of briny sweetness, and then the bottom notes of vegetal freshness amazingly develops, giving that subtle gastronomic surprise.

Amaebi is oh-so briny sweet, complex and creamy. I love this so much. And the Green Peas plus Tomato adds the freshness to the sweetness, perking things up. The bouncy, creamy flesh of amaebi juxatposes so well with the crispy tartlet.

Wagyu, with unique Shintamanegi, soaked in Egg Yolk and Whites features this awesome meaty sweetness, rounded up by creaminess of the egg and accentuated by the freshness of Shintamenegi. Despite the wagyu and egg with heavier flavours, this creation is light on the palates, which is a surprise I love.

Lobster from France is the Best Lobster I ever have. The bouncy and succulent lobster tastes so different, in an excellent way, where its soft briny sweet taste is so pronounced and distinctive, enhanced by Crustacean Sauce, Rouille, Snap Pea and Radish.

Another Best here with Sakura Masu from Hokkaido! Yes, this is the best Best Sakura Masu I ever have. The pliable flaky succulent flesh is so rich on flavour. The sauce of caviar & ikura that does the magic to elevate the taste. And the smoky aroma is another magic component that balances the taste of trout. Mille-Feuille is an awesome satisfying potato snack to go with the fish.

Wagyu from Kyoto, has this wonderful juicy texture that contrasts perfectly with the incredibly fine katsu exterior. The juicy meaty goodness is cut through by the flavours of Japanese Mustard and Madeira for an exciting, balanced taste.

Donabe with starchy, fluffy pearl-like Niigata Rice is so awesomely creamy due to the cubes of wagyu added. And the earthy taste of the generous slices of Truffle is perfect match with the wagyu's meaty flavour. And the truffle adds an extra good bite to the texture, making it even better.

Inspired by Chef's childhood melon drink, he come out with refreshing dessert made with Melon from Ibaraki. A beautiful mix of musk melon with elegant aroma and yubari melon that is sweeter, made even better with the lemon confit and the frozen coconut powder freshly sprinkled by the chef.

Dessert of Setoka Orange from Aichi is full of harmonised flavours of sweetness and zest. The tangy flavours of orange is prefectly balanced by the baked sweetness and slight bitterness of Gyokuro Dacquoise. An amazingly dessert.

Absolutely unique petite fours with Macaron made from Raspberry, gummy made from Japanese plum and dark chocolate with lava-like ganache.

Thoughts: Amazingly Beautiful Experience!

30 Stevens Road #01-03