Kinki, Singapore

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aburi otoro, ambience, collyer quay, engawa, foie gras, fusion, hotate, japanese, japanese restaurant, kinki, Kinki sushi, Marina Bay Sands view, mbs view, otoro, restaurant review, scallops, sea urchin, singapore, sushi, tai, truffle, uni

Kinki Sushi remains one of my top favourite Japanese restaurants in Singapore. The setting is pretty casual and relaxed. Perfect to kick back after a day at work or if you just want something special for dinner.

The best part of this restaurant is that it overlooks this breathtaking view:

Its amazing isn’t it? There’s also a rooftop bar where you can have snacks and drinks but I haven’t checked it out. Was just there for the food 😉

They serve the usual very fresh sushi and the custom Kinki dishes which are amazing. I must warn you that the bill can get pretty steep depending on what you order. Check out the menu and the prices:-

http://www.kinki.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/Web-Kinki-Dinner+Lunch-Menu0211013.pdf

So I just had to try the Tai Carpaccio, something similar to what I had in Aoki. The taste is almost identical except that at Aoki they served the fish with shaved fresh truffles on top. At Kinki they just make this with truffle oil. Still delicious nevertheless and I love the way they presented this dish. The dish and the dark table gives a stark contrast in coloring. The fish is rendered translucent and looks like a work of art.

Not my best shot. I don’t know where my other pics went to. These pictures could have been better had I done something about the white balance but I was hoping to capture some sort of that dinner at dusk kind of look ;p

A bowl of expensive but divine sea urchin. It is indeed my ideal type of sea urchin: fresh, plump, not too firm, beautifully creamy and yet has some form to it (I hate sea urchins that come in pure mush form but then again I don’t like it when its too firm, there isn’t much flavour in those). A little soy sauce on the uni sashimi, place it onto some crisp seaweed and you’re all set to go!

The view… I just can’t get over it.  On top is the Engawa with sudachi zest. Very good balance of texture, firm and chewy yet it seems to have some fat in it to round the flavours all up. The slight torch and zest gives it a nice twist and a fresh tang to the very enjoyable bite of sushi.

Below the Engawa is the Otoro Aburi, seared fatty tuna. This was really good as well, the fat just melts away in your mouth while the seared top and, what I suspect is yuzu or some citrus, all helped to cut through all that buttery fatty piece of fish. It can get pretty cloying if you have too many pieces of fresh otoro, but the seared otoro is a whole different ball game.

And here is the first bomb (by bomb I mean it is the THE BEST) of the night: The pan-seared foie gras and Hokkaido scallop sushi

The seared foie gras and fresh scallop tastes so amazingly divine served like this! I suppose its because both ingredients are on the creamy tasting side, with the foie gras imparting a rich gamey depth to the sushi while the scallop lends it a light and briny ocean flavor. And then there’s that sauce, it just… ties everything up together in one delightful little parcel. Game Over.

Cholesterol for the night.

The Kinki Okonomiyaki was a surprise. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much from it but it was delicious as well. It’s got Hokkaido scallops, prawns, streaky bacon,sweet onions and buffalo mozzarella. Normally okonomiyaki is made up of batter, lots of cabbage, and other toppings topped with mayonnaise and bonito flakes. THIS okonomiyaki has a pastry base, the flaky pastry base that everybody loves and it remained crispy for a long time even with all the delicious toppings all laden on top. And the portion is generous, so if you’re not a fan of sushi, or are on a budget but would like to try out this place then this is the dish for you.

Lastly, my baked scallop in butter topped with sea urchin. This was the second bomb of the night. While my cousin thought this was a tad overcooked, I though it was cooked perfectly. It is definitely not rubbery and didn’t have much resistance when I cut through it. It remained succulent and retained all the flavors of a fresh scallop, soaked in a luscious butter and chive gravy. As if that weren’t enough they had to top it all off with a dollop of that beautiful sea urchin. I can’t even imagine how to describe it further. Heaven in a bite. This dish and the foie gras with scallop dish are my top faves of the night.

Pure bliss.

Finish off your evening with some goma ice cream and work off all that food with a walk with the MBS in full view. ❤

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Truffles Part 6 – Zafferano inspired Clear soup with winter vegetables and pastry with truffles and foie gras

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black truffle, chicken soup, clear broth, comfort food, easy, foie gras, pastry, Puff pastry, Soup, soup bowl, truffle, winter vegetables

I was cracking my head on what else I should do with the remainder of my truffles. I had way too much for myself! Then my sister described a dish that she really enjoyed at Zafferano. I’ve never been to Zafferano myself, but what she described sounded just perfect as it was not heavy and full of cream and fat (well, excluding the foie gras that is). I had been pigging out on heavy, calorie-laden food while making all these truffle dishes. Clear broth sounded amazing then.

Ingredients (per person)

1) Half a foie gras slice, cut into chunks (well you can add more if you like, but remember this is going to be boiled and not seared, thus it would make the soup really oily if you add too much)

2) chicken broth to fill up to slightly more than half of the soup bowl that you will be using

3) 1/4 of a courgette,sliced and quartered

4) 1/4 of a large carrot, sliced

5) 1/4 a large onion, sliced or 3 inches of a white radish, sliced and quartered

6) Truffle shavings

7) 1/4 of a 500g Jus-Rol Frozen Puff Pastry sheet, rolled out in a square shape and trim the ends with a sharp knife. It should be large enough to cover the soup bowl

Instructions

1) Add the vegetables and foie gras to the broth and simmer for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are sufficiently cooked to your liking.

2) Meanwhile preheat your oven temp. to 220ºC or the temperature that is stated on the cooking instructions for your ready made pastry.

3) Ladle out your soup into the bowl, I think it would be best if the soup was warm and not boiling hot because if it is the latter, the steam from the soup will cause the pastry puff sheet to sink down a lot more while baking. Mine totally sunk =(. Lastly add some sliced truffle into the soup. You could add the ends of the truffle, which is difficult to shave but too much of a waste to let go.

4) Place the pastry sheet over the soup bowl and make sure it is securely in place. Using a fork to make patterns (see picture below) helps to secure it in place. You can also go crazy with the patterns. 😉

5) Bake for 15-20 minutes until the puff pastry is all nicely puffed up and golden brown.

6) Told you my dough sank into the soup =(. With the middle bit sunken like that I had to save it somehow, so I draped a couple of sprigs of thyme and shaved the truffles on top

7) It was really good! The pastry and soup together is so comforting ~ Would totally make this again.

Kazu Sumiyaki at Cuppage Plaza (Charcoal grill)

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charcoal grill, cuppage plaza, foie gras, grill, japanese, kazu, lamb chop, pork balls, restaurant review, restaurants, singapore, skewers, sumiyaki, yakitori

This is one of my favourite charcoal grill restaurants. Mainly because of its foie gras skewers and its pork and apple skewers. I’d make the trip there just for those! The restaurant is located in Cuppage plaza, home to many a dodgy karaoke bars with girls bursting in their in skimpy clothing hanging about the entrances. Despite that there are a couple of good restaurants here, I’ve yet to try them out but I will do that one day. 

A couple of peeks at the menu. I highly recommend the Tontoro Ringo fatty pork apple skewer! The pork belly was pretty normal to me.

I also highly recommend the foie gras! I’d order 4 skewers just for myself ;p

They will serve you this for free the first round… however you will find that this sweet cabbage with a little lemon and dunked in that delicious miso based sauce, would have been quickly gobbled up. And then you’d have no choice but to order another portion. It is that addictive. I’m seriously considering replacing an entire meal with this cabbage and miso sauce alone.

If I’m not mistaken, these are the foie gras skewers. Beautifully grilled, dripping with delicious fat and seasoned with salt and cracked black pepper, these babies are well seared and hot. Good crust to the outside that gives way to the creamy rich goodness on the inside. It is almost falling off the skewer so be careful when you pick them up.

SGD 6.50 a skewer? I’m so sold on this!

Grilled chicken wing, not bad. Nothing much to say on this one as it was average to me. 

From left to right, pork belly, beef balls (i think), pork balls, and finally the amazing fatty pork and apple skewers. The pork belly skewer was good albeit slightly chewy, same with the balls, had a little too much resistance that day. The fatty pork and apples were perfection. The apples’ sweetness intensified after being grilled and lend so much depth and flavour to the fatty. When eaten together, they form a perfect harmony in the mouth, that of the natural sweetness of the apple and the briny oily fatty pork. 

This is a tamago dish. I was expecting the usual sweet tamago that you find in all Japanese restaurants, but somehow we got this. I’m not sure if we ordered wrongly, but it wasn’t great. I did not like the slimy sauce that was poured over the egg, it was just a major distraction for me.

More of that cabbage! And fresh uni sashimi. Expensive but so fresh and good!

Asparagus wrapped with bacon. It wasn’t bad, but I just never understood the combination. I always found the asparagus taste too strong for the bacon, or the bacon too salty. Why does the bacon in SIngapore and Malaysia taste so salty T_____T The ones in UK taste so good~

More pork belly and fatty pork with apple. So tantalizingly juicy.

Mentaiko chicken skewer. I did not taste mentaiko and the chicken was tough. Not a good choice. The chicken liver at the side was better, if you’re a chicken liver lover you’d probably like this. 

The lamb was good as well, grilled to perfection, juicy yet not bloody, with the right amount of fat and seasoning to ensure a good balance of texture and flavour in each bite.

I’m not a lover of squid, I always find it tough and rubbery and not good to eat. Grilled squid just doesn’t do it for me. I prefer calamari!

Some radish dish with meat. Clean tasting and simple, as if it is a kind of home cooked dish? Comes in a base made of dashi.

Another dashi based dish, this time its beancurd skin topped with slightly charred uni. Skip this dish and just order uni sashimi 😉From left to right: I think this is chicken/pork, Chicken skin, chicken liver

All of these were good, the chicken skin nice and crispy. Perhaps a little more char on the chicken liver would have made it a lot better.

One thing I have to say about the service, it’s pretty bad. Also, I would recommend making reservations, especially during weekends, its always packed full! There’s usually a queue as well. If you can, try to avoid weekends, the service is really bad during weekends. Servers forget your orders, they don’t respond to your calls for them, food is slow, even the bill is slow. And their tempers are not at their best. They would also try to make you leave by a certain time if they are trying to seat other customers. I’d sit there longer just to annoy them (the inner demon in me is unleashed).

Go during the weekdays and you’ll enjoy the food a lot better 😉

*edit: New post on Kazu Sumiyaki (Aug 2018)

Kazu Sumiyaki restaurant,

#04-05 Cuppage plaza

5 Koek Rd  Singapore 228796

+65 6734 2492

Truffle Part 4: Foie Gras and fried onions crostini with truffles

Tags

appetizer, black truffles, bread, brunch, crostini, foie gras, foie gras pate, onions, starter, truffles, western

I’ve previously tried a foie gras pate and fried onions combinations. I just thought I’d try something one step further and use foie gras lobes and top everything with my beautiful winter black truffles ❤

Ingredients (Serves 2 pax)

4 slices of french baguette bread

2 lobes of foie gras at room temperature

1/2 a large onion

Black winter truffle shavings

Fleur de sel and black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onions. Fry until golden brown and caramelized.

2. This is where I made a mistake, I used the same pan to fry the foie gras and didn’t wash it. The pan should have been dry and hot as foie gras is already oily as it is. But as I reused the pan there was some residual oil and bits of fried onion T_____T. Not that it makes much difference to the taste, it just looked bad afterwards.

3. Sear the foie gras for about 45 seconds on each side.

4. Remove from the pan and slice thickly (see above).

5. Lightly toast the baguette slices 

6. Assemble your crostini! Place some of the caramelized onions on the toasted baguette, arrange the foie gras slices on it and season with fleur de sel and black pepper. For the finishing touch, just go crazy shaving the truffles all over the plate! 

Its a little hard eating the crostini as bits of onion tend to fall off but its totally worth it. The fatty rich foie gras with the sweet onions and delicate aromatic truffles truly make a heavenly bite!