Hoedeopbap again!

Tags

dinner, easy recipe, healthy, hoedeopbap, hotate, hwedeopbap, koream sashimi salad, lunch, One bowl meal, quick meal, sake, salad, salmon, sashimi, scallops

Bought some really fresh, plump salmon sashimi and some scallop as well. Thought I’d just quickly whip up some hoedeopbap (Korean sashimi salad) to go with some freshly cooked rice. Rice is one of my guilty pleasures and I try not to have carbs at night but I couldn’t resist… yet again T___T

Here’s the link to the initial post I did up on Hoedeopbap. I just changed some of the vegetables and type of fish according to the ingredients that I have on hand. The one thing that doesn’t change is the sauce. Also, I managed to get hold of Korean perilla leaves (kkaenip)! It was so difficult to find in Singapore, so I was shocked when I came across it by accident in a korean grocery store in Kuala Lumpur. I quickly snapped up 3 packs of it!

My prize: the korean perilla leaf in all its glory

And the rest is just arranging the salad so it looks pretty 😉

Mix it up well and good.

Devour!

❤

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Tatsuya, Goodwood Hotel Singapore

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akami, anago, bonito, caviar, ebi, flounder, goodwood hotel, goodwood park hotel, halfbeak, ikura, japanese omakase, japanese pear, japanese singapore, kajiki, maguro, musk melon, omakase, omakase singapore, otoro, prawn, restaurant review, salmon, sayori, sea urchin, seaweed, singapore, singapore restaurant, sushi rice, tatsuya, tuna, uni, yuzu

*Edit: Updated Review on Tatsuya here

I’ve heard quite a bit about Tatsuya from friends, and as Japanese omakase is my not-so-secret crush I was pretty thrilled when my makan kaki suggested Tatsuya for dinner. We went after the recent renovation so I have no idea what it looked like before.

It is a good sized traditional Japanese restaurant located at Goodwood Park Hotel and offers counter seats where you can watch the chefs do their thing as well as table seats.

As far as omakase goes, the rates are similar to other omakase restaurants in Singapore. We went for the SGD 280++ omakase option and topped up a little for desserts.

Sat at the counter, always very educational and you’re left with a better idea of the skill level of the chef as well as the dedication they put into their food.

Now, so far I’ve only been to the really traditional types of Japanese omakase restaurants and I expected Tatsuya to be the same. However, I quickly realized how wrong I was. Yes indeed they do go about the traditional methods of preparation but they also favor the technique of “aburi” (flame-torching) alongside using modern twists in preparing the fresh seafood.

Here’s a beautiful carpaccio dish that serves as a good example to the delightful little surprises that they come up with at Tatsuya.

Beautiful is it not?

First up we each had a dish of ikura with some yuzu grated over the top. What makes this ikura stand out is that each roe is separate from the other. I’ve gotten so used to roes sticking and clumping together that this came as a bit of a surprise. A good one of course. Each individual sac was fresh and not at all slimy, bursting with briny goodness. 

Some dish that the chef was preparing for the other guests.

Next, we had some simmered mackerel (on the left) and monkfish liver (on the right). I love monkfish liver, but I’d gauge these two dishes as average. Perhaps I just prefer raw fish haha!

Above, some flounder topped with seaweed, uni and bonito. Great texture on the fish, a little bite, alongside the game changers, the toppings. While the uni topping was my favourite, the bonito came a close second.

Here we had a plate of half beak (sayori) sashimi with ginger and spring onions. Shiny skinned fish tend to smell a little stronger so ginger and spring onions are often used to balance out the smell. As the fish was fresh there was hardly any smell, while the ginger and spring onion only served to heighten the flavour of the fish. 

Once we were done with the sashimi, they whisked away the bones of the fish and deep fried it so that you can enjoy those too and nothing is wasted. 

The next offering: a plate of delectable, thick-cut sashimi

Akami remains my favorite. The fried ebi topped with caviar and yuzu was heavenly as well. Fantastic combination.

This is something we did not try as we both do not take beef. It looks good doesn’t it? The fat on the beef was just melting before our eyes as they torched it.

❤

Torched abalone with yuzu, I think they must have added some butter at some point. Tender and flavorful, but not as mind blowingly good as the one I had at the curb market in Sapporo .

*drools*

Above, an aburi toro. Meltingly soft and juicy, the fish went so well with the rice, daikon and spring onions with just a hint of smoke from the torched surface.

This is definitely a place that has got its rice right. Nice short grains of lightly vinegared rice.

Next up, aburi Kajiki (swordfish belly) which had a little more bite to it in comparison to the toro. While it doesn’t hold a flame to the toro, it holds its own ground pretty well too.

Aburi Kampachi belly topped with bonito flakes, nori and roast sesame seeds. Oh and yuzu of course. I love how Tatsuya manages to blend all these strong flavours together and never overpower the fish. The flavours all come together very harmoniously.

This? Party in my mouth! Aburi Ebi with mentaiko mayo topped with yuzu and lumpfish caviar. BEST COMBINATION EVER! Or rather perhaps I’m biased towards anything with mentaiko mayonnaise. Prawn is amazing with that mixture. When they torched this baby I could hear the mentaiko popping furiously as they cook. The sweet mayo, marinated mentaiko, half crunchy, half creamy ebi and caviar just took this dish to level heaven (yes I’m dramatizing food, I loved it that much)

This is yet another favorite! Hotate (scallop) and Foie gras lightly touched and topped with yuzu and er… tiny anchovies haha. I thought that the anchovies got in the way of the scallop and foie gras a little. It was divine nonetheless.

Rich heavy foie gras with the smooth clean and creamy taste of the scallops… mmm…

This is something I’m more familiar with, the conventional sushi as it is. Uni and ikura ❤ 

I remember asking for no eel at the start of the meal. I’m not sure why this came but I’m glad it did. It was nicely broiled and delicious.

Lastly, a really crunchy, simple roll that you just eat with your hands. Simple, no fuss, minimalistic yet really satisfying. Did I mention that the nori is fabulously crunchy?

Chef preparing hunks of beef

Beef on fire! It was sizzling and I found myself drooling over a meat I’ve only tried once or twice in my life and never crave for!

Ended the course with some fruits; a musk melon and japanese pear. As Japanese fruits go, these were extraordinary in flavour and texture as well.

We couldn’t resist…. ordered a yuzu sorbet and caramel ice cream. Refreshing end to a fantastic meal.

Tatsuya

ADDRESS

22 Scotts Road Goodwood Park Hotel Singapore 228221

(65) 6737-1160

Kita no Ryoba; Curb market, Sapporo, Japan

Tags

abalone, akami, crab, curb market, donburi, fish market, hokkaido crab, hokkaido melon, ikura, japan, japanese, kita no kyouba, maguro, restaurant, restaurant review, salmon, salmon roe, sapporo, sashimi, scallops, sea urchin, uni, yubari melon

Hokkaido is supposedly famous for fresh seafood, so I headed over to Nijo market in Sapporo first to get a feel of the place. It was a really small market, and not as cheap as I expected. There is still quite a selection of the Hokkaido specialties of crab, scallops, sea urchin and ikura as well as a smattering of restaurants serving up some donburis. I didn’t try any of the restaurants there though, and decided to go to the Curb market instead.

At least the shopkeepers there aren’t as pushy as the ones at Nijo market! Came across this restaurant almost immediately and decided to just go ahead and give it a try. 

Here’s some pictures of the menu:

mmm yes, give me ALL the seafood!!!! *drool*

I ended up coming to this restaurant 2 times during my very short stay in Sapporo. So the pictures here are spread across two meals.

Ordered a giant scallop which came on a mini grill. They don’t grill it for you, you have to watch out for it yourself. At the smaller establishments at Nijo or maybe even at the curb market, you can request it grilled with butter or some other sauce (I had a giant scallop at the Nijo cooked in butter and it was so so good!). The scallop here came out just slightly overcooked. Not bad but not great.

And of course I had to have the sea urchin and ikura donburi. It was so good. However, it could have been better. Indeed it seemed fresh, the restaurant being situated right smack in the middle of a fresh fish market, but the sea urchin lacked the soft creamy texture that I love. This variety is more of the solid type of sea urchin. It would have been perfect if the sea urchin had slightly less form and more smooth texture (we all know that the less-than-firm types of sea urchin just equates to more of that delicious buttery flavor!). I believe that the uni sushi that I get at Daiwa Sushi at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo is way better, and that is comparing apple to apple since the prices are similarly in mid-range.

My cousin had the salmon, scallop, tamago and crab donburi. He doesn’t eat much raw fish (blasphemy!!!) but he enjoyed his dish. The scallops and crab were so naturally sweet. Now we’re talking 😉 Really delicious.

Cousin also ordered some grilled crab and salmon.

The crab was obviously quite plump and delicious but I never was that big a fan of crab. I like it best when its already peeled for me haha ;p

The salmon on the other hand had a lot of bones, my cousin had his job cut out for him picking the meat from the bones. I’d suggest to skip this dish.

I decided to be adventurous and ordered this crab dish:

It is juicy sweet crab meat simmered in some sake in crab shell grilled over a small fire. So basically at the end of the process you get crab meat in a broth made of some sake and the oh-so-sinfully-rich crab brains/guts. It was beautiful *eyes tearing*

but that was before the abalone came along…..

This tasted like heaven on a plate. I expected the abalone to be tough, but it was tender and perfectly cooked. Then it was bathed in this sauce… this gorgeous rich sauce that tasted as if it would be perfect on a steak but still goes well with everything else… somewhat like a mixture of butter and sake and something else. So utterly decadent, divine and just simply lip-smacking good. I was tempted to eat the whole thing by myself instead of sharing. This is the highlight of the entire meal. And to actually overshadow the uni, that’s no small feat.

Here’s a donburi from the second visit. It was mouth-watering and again brings tears of joy to my eyes. How can anything be so utterly beautiful *cries*. There’s sweet crab meat, briny ikura and uni and the clean akami all in one bowl. I love Hokkaido!

Yes, and another helping of that simmered crab meat in kani miso….

Absolutely beautiful isn’t it?

And then….

Yes I went overboard with the abalone. This time it came just a tad too cooked but still darn good nonetheless. That sauce!!!

Ended perfectly with a slice of Yubari melon (please don’t confuse this with Hokkaido melon, Yubari is in a different class). Filled with the sweetest melon juices and none of that tasteless crunch you normally have upon eating the ordinary cantaloupe you find everywhere else.

Check out the picture below, a slice of Yubari melon costs 580 yen whereas on the right, a slice of Hokkaido melon costs 380 yen. And yes there is a difference 😉

THe damage from the first day. Second day was way worse as I got a little too greedy with the abalone.

One of the places you have to visit when you’re in Sapporo. I wish I were there right now ;(