Oribe Sushi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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abalone, aburi, aji, anago, authentic japanese cuisine, authentic japanese cuisine in kuala lumpur, barracuda, blow-torched, botan ebi, cod sperm, engawa, flounder, flounder's fin, hinata, hirame, horse mackerel, hotate, ikura, japanese restaurant kuala lumpur, japanese restaurant malaysia, japanese restaurant review, kamazu, mackerel, nodoguro, omakase, oribe, otoro, prawn, restaurant review, rockfish, scallop, sea urchin, seiki aji, shirako, sushi, sushi oribe, top japanese restaurants in kuala lumpur, tuna belly, uni

I was treated to Oribe Sushi about a week ago, and a treat it was! Chef Hideaki Oritsuki was previously head chef at Sushi Hinata. I gave Sushi Hinata a 6.5 back then… while they do have fresh raw ingredients, the quality of the rice as well as a couple of other factors dragged the score down. I was slightly perturbed that the fish was pre-sliced and placed in a box for convenience and quick service. That’s not how it’s done in Japan!

I digress, so I gave Sushi Hinata a 6.5 then. Oribe Sushi would be a 7.5. Chef Ori has addressed the rice issue and uses Japanese rice in his sushi. It makes a world of difference! His ingredients are fresh and flown in from Japan as well and it helps that he was more than happy to talk about Japan and where he sources his ingredients from. Very friendly chap he is! Ambience I excluded from the score, so I must add that while the sushi counter is sufficiently pleasing, the rest of the restaurant didn’t look like that of a high end restaurant.

We both had the omakase, which is priced at RM450 for dinner. So here goes!Sashimi platter as a first course; Otoro (Fatty tuna belly), Clams (Tsubugai), Flounder (Hirame), Botan ebi (Prawns) and Bafun Uni (Sea Urchin).It was delicious, and as fresh as you’d expect sashimi to be. We ended up sucking at the prawn head to get all the lovely,cholesterol-rich prawn brains out! Not a look you’d want to go for on a date but it’s worth it I think! The only thing that was slightly disappointing on this plate is the Hirame, which could have been better and “livelier” so to speak.Shirako (Cod Sperm) served with ponzu and ginger. My first encounter with the infamous Shirako wasn’t very pleasant so I half dreaded this dish when it came. I’m quite happy to say that it was absolutely delicious! Creamy in texture and fresh, well complemented by the tang of the ponzu sauce, it made for a perfectly well balanced palate and leaves no lingering unpleasant aftertaste. Lovely!Herring roe marinated with dashi, pressed and then topped with bonito flakes. It’s a fun dish, I could very clearly hear whenever my partner bit into it! Let’s just say it’s pretty crunchy 😉

Abalone that has been steamed for 7-8 hours. Tender to the bite and loses none of its natural flavour. A dish well done.Cawanmushi – standard as far as steamed egg custards go unfortunately. Nothing special here.Grilled Nodoguro (rockfish) was well cooked, had the perfect amount of sear to it and meltingly soft flesh. Would have been stellar if the skin had been a little more crisp!Seiki Aji (Horse Mackerel). The chef emphasized that this is one of the best kinds of horse mackerel in Japan as it was caught in Kyushu where the currents are strong. It is always served with ginger and spring onion. Now this was outstanding! I usually don’t pay the horse mackerel much attention but this had beautifully fatty and rounded flavours. Usually this fish tends to taste and smell a little strong but there was none of that here and I think this would be a prime example of how it should taste like! Full marks here.Engawa (Flounder’s Fin) – I always give brownie points whenever I get Engawa in any respectable sushi joint. It’s uncommon, or at least in Malaysia and Singapore it is. It’s got a chewy texture and is mild and sweet in taste. I wish I could have had more! There’s a “BUT” in here though… it was better in Japan ;(This I very blithely requested XD. Aburi Otoro! (Blow-torched tuna belly). OH SO GOOD!!!! With a couple of drops of sudachi juice and salt. Melts in the mouth with the fatty bits all softened to gorgeous tenderness and fabulous with that slight char. Wish it were a thicker slice though >.< Aburi Hotate (Blow-torched scallop) with yuzu zest. I asked very nicely for it to be topped with uni 😀 After all, that’s what all the food blogs out there are for right? To advise you to exercise some control over the chef’s discretion. He was really sweet and acquiesced to the request though. Another delicious morsel is thus born! Hotate is creamy by itself already, so topped with the uni it makes for gold!Kamazu (Baby baraccuda); some fish requires a little charring to break down the fat and toughness before its full potential comes out. This one had its skin on. Raw skin never tastes good, so blow-torching it is a nice way to render the skin delicious and yet be able to enjoy the flesh without it being cooked to death. Oh this… stuff that dreams are made of! It’s a little different in that he added some shiro ebi (white prawns) into the mix. Usually it’s just Uni, Ikura and Negitoro (Tuna belly and scallions). Nevertheless! Always a perfect combination. Can never go wrong with this if you’ve got the fresh ingredients!

I forgot to take pictures of two of the sushi that we had… the Saba (Mackerel) with seaweed and the Anago (Eel) that was had yuzu zest and half of it basted in a sweet sauce and the other half served with a touch of salt. Satisfying end to the meal. Green tea ice cream 🙂Couldn’t resist another picture of the cholesterol bomb!

So overall, a 7.5 out of 10. Fresh ingredients and affable chef were plus points, as well as the availability of Engawa and Shirako. Minus points would be that it’s always better in Japan, and they would be more generous with the portions and number of servings in Japan. Also, no surprises with the menu, perhaps there could have been a little more in that area. Ambience would have been a real killer if we weren’t seated at the counter!

Sushi Oribe

Ground Floor. Block C-1, Vipod Residences, No6, Jalan Kia Peng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur., 43000

+60-3-2181-4099

Lunch 12:00-15:00(Last Order: 14:30)    Dinner 18:00-23:00(Last Order: 22:00)

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Shaoxing Wine Ginger chicken

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chicken, Chinese, easy, easy meals, easy recipe, ginger, ginger wine chicken, healthy, Home Cooking, scallions, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, shaoxing wine ginger chicken, South East Asian, spring onions, white pepper, wine, wine chicken

This dish brings back a lot of memories from my Warwick days. For some reason I remember that the preparation process was long and tedious back then! It involves deboning chicken thighs/drumsticks and skinning and julienning ginger. At the present though, I no longer find it as long and dreary a process. Perhaps I could attribute it to… better knife skills? Or maybe just better knives, I don’t think my knife skills have improved at all since then!

This is a very warming, hearty dish and the sauce is lovely with freshly cooked white rice. It’s currently a favourite with the family and guests who happen to try it! It doesn’t take very long nor need many ingredients and makes a perfect addition to the dining table. I include pictures from two attempts at cooking this dish and I realized that I naturally throw the same ingredients into the pan, despite starting off with perhaps a couple less ingredients in one of the photos. That goes to show that agaration (the South East Asian technique of cooking by guesstimating) isn’t very far off from precision after all!Ingredients from trial number 1Ingredients from trial number 2.

But don’t worry, I’ve consolidated the ingredient list and summarized it as below:-

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 2-3 stalks of Spring onions including the white bits with roots removed
• 3 inches of ginger, peeled and roughly julienned
• 4 Chicken thighs with skin on, deboned
• 3 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 3 tbsp clear chicken stock/broth
• 1 tsp kicap manis
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil

Chicken marinade

• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
• white pepper
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp corn flour

Cooking Instructions

Upon deboning the chicken, remove the skin from two of the chicken thighs and discard. Keep the skin on for the remaining two chicken thighs. We want some chicken fat rendering in the gravy but not too much!

Trim off the excess fat and remove the tendons from the chicken. Tendons are tough to cut through and unpleasant to eat so be thorough in removing them whenever preparing chicken! Once that is done, cut the chicken meat into bite-sized, uniform pieces so they cook at the same speed. 

Place the chicken in a bowl and lightly mix in the chicken marinade with your hands. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.

In preparing the scallions/spring onions, cut them into thirds or 2 inch sections. You can take some of the green sections to slice thinly for garnishing as well.

Heat up some oil in a pan/wok on medium fire. When the oil is hot enough (i.e. if you drop a piece of ginger into the oil it starts to sizzle right away), slide the ginger into the oil gingerly (I’m so funny I know) and fry for a minute until the ginger starts to turn a little golden and the gingery aroma seeps out. The point of this step is to flavour the oil with ginger as well as prep the ginger so it’s at its best to mingle with the chicken.Add the chicken pieces and fry until half-cooked.

Then, flip the pieces over and add the chicken stock, sesame oil plus Shaoxing wine and cover to cook for a minute. We’re quick-braising/stewing the chicken with some moisture, not searing it to death. Remember, the chicken has to be swimming in a luscious pool of delicious gravy!Upon uncovering, add the spring onion sections into the pan/wok and stir fry for a little while more. Taste to check if it needs more white pepper or salt.

And it’s done!Not the fanciest of dishes but highly satisfying and easy on the stomach. Healthy too!

Check out the before and after picture of trial number 1. I used 10 thighs for that round of cooking!

Wiped clean. ❤

Truffle eggs with cheese

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black truffle, black truffles, bread, breakfast, brunch, cheese, easy, easy meals, easy recipe, Egg, eggs, Home Cooking, scrambled eggs, scrambled truffle eggs, truffle eggs

Just another quick picture post on some scrambled eggs I made while I was in London. Found some black truffle at Borough Market, so I shaved some over the eggs. I still think nothing beats the aroma of Alba winter white truffles!

A minute twist to ordinary scrambled eggs… add some truffle oil and mild cheddar cheese shavings to give boring ol scrambled eggs a little kick! Top with chopped chives and serve over slices of sourdough bread, pan toasted in butter. Recipe for the basic scrambled eggs here.