Kazu Sumiyaki (Cuppage plaza revisited)

 

It’s been a long time since I last visited this eatery and they’ve refurbished. Still in the same seedy Cuppage plaza though, where we sighted a suspiciously promiscuous woman hanging out the rails of a well placed flight of stairs, calling out to single men.

Charming.

I digress, back to the restaurant! While it did away with the elbow to elbow diner chumminess, the new decor feels rather cold where it was cosy in the past.

The cabbage dip is no longer free. Sacrilege! They charge SGD3 for it now, in smaller portions.

My favorite foie gras skewer arrived over cooked. Sad and rubbery with none of that oozing goodness that graced its former self. What a disappointment.

It seems like the mouth devoured before the camera had a chance. The lamb chop was nice and tender, needed a touch more seasoning but it wasn’t bad.

Sometimes I write blog posts to remind myself that some dishes should never ever be attempted again. This chicken skin skewer is prime target in this post. It was not crunchy, rather, it was chewy. I do not understand the thought process that went behind this dish. Bad.

Pork and apple skewers. I only ordered 3 before they ran out. This was decent, a classic combination of soft, sweet apple and savory pork. Lovely. My only gripe is that the pork could be a little more tender, but I’m happy even with this.

Tsukune (meatball) is usually dipped in egg yolk and eaten, in a glorious pairing of rich yolk and delightful dark sauce. Here, the yolk has been replaced with a dab of mayo, some spring onions and soy sauce. It works almost as well. The meat is cooked to perfection and tender to a fault. Just enough char on it to pique the interest. Very good.

Hotaru ika (firefly squid) is a seasonal delicacy that I love. Pop the entire morsel in your mouth and enjoy. The ones here are cooked well and tender, but tasted a little fishy. We’ve had fresher ones elsewhere.

If I had to pick one dish to come back for it would be this. The humble cheese sausage. Humble in origin it may be but cooked in this manner, with all its blistered skinned finery, it is a delight in the mouth. Juicy and mouthwatering, we could have just made the entire meal about sausages.

We might have ended up with a cheaper bill too! Everything else was more expensive. It was a hefty bill. I left with more disappointment than mixed feelings, from the hole in my pocket to the dishes that felt somewhat lesser than the ones in my memory.

3 out of 5

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Free the Robot (Singapore CBD)

Tags

CBD, healthy, quick meals, restaurant review, singapore

Ah the perennial go-to for lunch, for the working crowd in CBD. It serves up many  hearty meals, from morning breakfasts to satisfying lunches, even managing a decent cuppa. After all that, it transforms into a cocktail bar come nighttime. Free the Robot manages a pleasant, cozy ambience should you arrive before the lunch hour rush.

Said decent cuppa.

Salmon bowl with onsen egg, avocado and acar, it is wholesome, healthy and filling. The salmon is smoked, so beware if you’re not a smoked salmon fan. Otherwise this is a perfectly acceptable, even delicious, lunchtime meal.

Chicken and avocado sandwich. Tender slices of chicken, sandwiched with cheese and creamy slabs of avocado and slathered with pesto sauce. Griddled to perfection. Great combination of flavours.

I regret not taking a proper photo of their burgers, but this might be the only way to showcase the juiciness of their patties. Very good execution, sufficient sauce and topped with a fried egg. It is difficult to find decent burgers in Singapore, and thankfully this ticks the right boxes.

My absolute favourite however, is the crab pasta. Generous chunks of crab cooked in a fragrant tomato base sauce, topped with pine nuts and chives. I could eat this every week (every day would be a stretch for anyone!). It is also a tad spicy, which ties all the flavours together in a neat little bow. Lovely.

This is comfort eating; foods that we are all familiar with, with a dash of inspiration. Affordable eats to soothe the stress of the work day.

Free the Robot
118 Telok Ayer Street Singapore 068587 (Telok Ayer MRT)
Opening Hours: 8.30am – 4.30pm (Tues-Sat, closed Mon and Sun)

Fuego, Kuala Lumpur

Tags

bar, chicken, churros, diablo, guacamole, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur restaurants, restaurant review, salted caramel, south american restaurant

Kuala Lumpur is in dire need of good restaurants. With the fantastic array of restaurants that grace the streets of our Asian neighbours in Singapore, Hong Kong and as far away as Japan, it is frustrating that there is much to be desired in terms of quality in our city. These days it is so difficult to find even moderate decent ones, most being sub par. That being said, Fuego has been and still is a favourite go-to as far as decent restaurants go in scarcity. A place with a view (or now, disappointingly, just half a view) of the twin towers and outdoors. Having gone multiple times since its opening several years ago, I can safely vouch for its consistency in good food (bar the one time they accidentally charred my churros).

The Fuego guacamole is a perfect tango of tangy, creamy and savoury, with a zing of freshness lent by a squeeze of lime and final smattering of coriander leaves. If only the portion were more generous! I love the assorted fried chips that are served alongside. Although some of the selections are a tad hard, the variety is pleasing. The dish could be improved by offering thinner, more crisp vegetable chips. The yam chip and lotus root chip are adequate while the plantain chips could do with a bit of work.

Soft shell crab served with a creamy avocado sauce. Another good dish, fried to a thinly crisp exterior and soft and moreish on the inside.

This Chermoula chicken is a stunner. Enough to feed 3-4 people, although we usually order it for 2. The chicken is brined for 24 hours, then marinated in a tantalising mixture of lime juice, paprika, cayenne pepper, coriander and olive oil for another 24 hours before taking a dip in a sous vide bath. Both the brining and the sous vide does wonders for the absolute succulence and juiciness of the final product. After which the chicken is butterflied, smothered in another layer of the chermoula spice marinade and then charred over a charcoal grill and finished in a salamander grill.

The result puts any and all other rotisserie chicken establishments in KL to shame. Served with their spicy diablo sauce, this moist chicken is all lusciousness and layered flavour, evident in every bite.

A dish that I’d order every single time.

Even after that mammoth of a bird, one should always order the churros, freshly fried and dusted with cinnamon and sugar, paired with salted caramel cream dispensed delightfully from an espuma over a dulcey cremeux. The churros are hot, crisp and lightly sweet, and, when dipped into the ethereal cream, just gorgeous beyond words.

Fuego also doubles up as a watering hole, if ever the need arises.

Fuego Restaurant & Bar

Troika Sky Dining, Level 23A, The Troika, Jalan Binjai, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2162-0886

 

Thanks to timeout.com for the description of the prep that goes on behind the chicken.

https://www.timeout.com/kuala-lumpur/restaurants/the-dish-chermoula-chicken

Kita no Ryoba, Sapporo, Hokkaido (Revisited)

Tags

abalone, awabi, crab, curb market, Hokkaido, japanese, kani, lunch, market, restaurant review, sapporo, tourism, travel, uni

Back here again at Kita no Ryoba (curb market, Sapporo). It’s become a common haunt now every time I’m in Sapporo. You can read my previous post about it here.

So, I decided to try a couple of new things on the menu.

Clearly this uni don is not one of them. Still a favorite, and still delicious. Probably not the top quality grade A uni (or at least not in my humble opinion), but nevertheless a very satisfactory bowl.

Thought this was interesting and gave it a go. Uni and abalone grilled with a big lump of butter. I still prefer my uni raw and creamy, is that not the whole point of it anyway? The texture of it? Cooking it seems like such a waste.

The abalone however, was decent. I would order it again.

I requested for lightly seared otoro and was pleasantly surprised to find it perfectly seared. I’d half expected it to be overcooked to canned tuna standards or not quite cooked enough. This saddled the fence just right.

Now this is what I’m talking about! A whole crab! I’ve never ordered crab as it is often difficult to eat (read: I’m just a lazy eater), but my sister had been looking forward to this, unbeknownst to me. So she ordered a whole crab and ate her way through most of it.

The Japanese way. They make it so convenient to eat, there is no excuse not to have it!

Part of my concern with all the fabulous looking cold pre-boiled crabs ostentatiously displayed in the market, and even in the New Chitose airport, is that all the natural sweetness has been voraciously boiled out of the crab, leaving behind stringy, tasteless and over cooked meat.

I was wrong. So very wrong. And the crab was tantalizingly plump, meaty and sweet, I very much regret bypassing this every trip I’ve been to Hokkaido. I’m sure not every crab is good but I couldn’t fault this one.

Zero alcohol beer that I order every time I’m in Hokkaido.

Til next time!

Kita no Ryoba (curb market)

ヤン衆料理 北の漁場

2F, Kita 11 Jōnishi, Chūō-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido