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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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. ❤

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 ;(