Eating Japanese in Singapore

Patrick Food, Restaurants, Travel

Nagano Japanese RestaurantAfter an exhausting day of walking all over Singapore and ending up at one end of Orchard Road, I thought I’d head over to Nagano, a Japanese restaurant this time pointed out by Aroma Cookery. Though I walked to Valley Point Shopping Centre, you can circumvent the hills and lengthy walk by a taxi if you want. You will find the Valley Point Shopping Centre at the bottom of a large residential building that appears what I imagine the rest of suburb Singapore to look like away from the crowded touristy streets.

Unagi SushiNagano appears to be quite authentic from the traditional hanging banner at its entrance as well as the standard ‘irrashaimase’ (Welcome to my place!) greeting that staff shouts at you as you enter. This restaurant has a large number of tables, most of which were empty this night but probably because I was having dinner very late. I found staff extremely attentive, continually topping up the complimentary tea as I perused the menu offering a wide variety of great sushi and standard Japanese meals.

In the end I ordered the Katsu Curry Set accompanied by my latest most favourite type of sushi, the Unagi (Eel) one. The sushi arrived first, presented very nicely and accompanied by the standard pickled ginger, wasabi paste and soy sauce. As you can see from the picture, the eel refreshingly overshadowed the rice (the first time I’ve seen that) and was deliciously moist and saucy. If not for the oncoming meal I most definitely could have consumed more of this.

Katsu Curry SetIt wasn’t too long before the Katsu Curry set arrived and came on a platter including a Miso soup and a small fruit bowl. The soup was delicious, and filled with cubes of tofu, but I took surprise to the curry actually sitting next to the katsu for once. It at least guaranteed a crispy cutlet. The curry sauce was a little bit more watery than what I am used to but was still flavoursome and cutlet still juicy.

Nagano is a good restaurant to visit if you’re a local but I’m not sure if it is worth making a trip out of your way as a visitor to the island. The sushi is definitely something I could recommend more of, but I am sure there are better places closer to more popular roads. Though I can’t remember exactly how much I paid (I think it was S$9) I was surprised at how cheap it was.

Details: Nagano Japanese Restaurant
Found On: Shop #01-07 Valley Point Shopping Centre, 491 River Valley Road, Singapore
Contactable On: 67332152
Highlights: Authentic Japanese food at great prices. Great service that ensured a continual flow of free steaming hot green tea!
Improvements: Location is a little inconvenient for most visitors, but since it’s a short taxi ride from Orchard Road and taxis are ridiculously cheap, this is not really a big deal.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Dharma’s Kebabs

Patrick Food, Restaurants, Travel

Dharmas KebabsI really indulged it the fact that you can eat out at relatively small prices in Singapore (particularly translated back into the £!) with many decent quality meals in the food court costing about S$3 or £1. It is where the majority of Singaporean people apparently eat in, and though restaurants also abound, they tend to be quite a number of multiple of these prices.

One such restaurant I visited was Dharma’s Kebabs that I first read about on the blog of Nibbles & Scribbles. Fortunately the trek on my first day in Singapore around all the major sight seeing districts landed me right near this area for a rather late and lazy lunch.

Dharma’s Kebabs is located on Boat Quay, a street filled with overly touristy restaurants and bars taking advantage of the dockside views. Fortunately Dharma’s is not so over the top with the glitz and glamour, seemingly not much more than a larger hole-in-the-wall type place. It is associated with the BQ Bar next door, but at least serves decent food. I think they have air conditioned seating upstairs, but their industrial fans literally blew away the unbearable heat and humidity made it quite enjoyable sitting on high chairs next to the water.

Chicken TikkaTheir menu is not overly complex, filled with various types of kebabs and a number of other plates and sharing platters. I ordered the Chicken Tikka plate (S$15) containing chicken tikka, garlic naan, some salad and dipping sauces. The chicken tikka was amazingly juicy and its coating gave it just the right of tang and flavour that went down a treat. The “naan” was more disappointing with a texture closer to flat bread instead of the proper soft tandoor cooked bread I was expecting but was still flavoursome nevertheless. The salad was literally from some other world, with an overly zealous chef really going to work on it with the salt and pepper shakers. The lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes would have been refreshing had it not been covered with a heart-attack inducing amount of salt!

This place serves some awesome foods and I read that the curry fries are supposed to be good. Service from the attendants was good, but then it was a very late lunch and there is always something magical about dining by the water at any time of day.

Details: Dharma’s Kebabs
Found On: 40 Boat Quay, 6236-0980 (Singapore)
Highlights: Great chicken tikka, platters offer seemingly good value
Improvements: Not so much salt!
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

A Book on Two Very Simple Things in Life

Patrick Books, Food

Bread and OilIt’s great to read a book written by someone so passionate about their chosen subject, and my latest read, Bread & Oil written by native Majorcan Tomas Graves investigates the age old Mediterranean staple and its significance on the world’s culture. He writes about these two cornerstone ingredients bringing together families, friends and even strangers by drawing upon stories told to him by other locals and other research he conducted.

The book describes the making of Olive Oil and the importance of good quality bread and the stark contrast between the rich and flavoursome traditional products and the typically bland and boring ones served in many places around the world. He also inspects other supporting foods grown popular over time with the two core ingredients including tomatoes, eggs, cheese and other dried foods.

Towards the end of the book he heavily criticises the mass produced foods made popular by commercial firms replacing tradition with something, though while cheaper is far less desirable. I consider what he talks about as very true, with the growing popularity of farmer’s markets and organic produce a natural reaction to avoiding the less desirable foods. One of McDonald’s latest offerings, the Tomato and Cheese Sandwich is a great example of one such food, one that is best described as a tasteless block of wasted carbohydrates, a far step away from a potentially flavourful yet simple alternative made out of freshly baked bread, vine-ripened tomatoes and a slice of sharp cheese.

For such a simple topic, Graves manages to fill an entire book easily in an entertaining and culture inspiring way. It makes you think twice about what restaurants serve you and what supermarkets offer and appreciate the simpler things in life that formed the basis of much of the Mediterranean way of life.

TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10

The Providores and Tapas Bar

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

You can find this New Zealand run Spanish tapas restaurant and café on Marlyebone High Street, an older and more upmarket part of London. This street also houses other well known institutions such as a Conran restaurant (which one?) and The Grange. Much like many other London stores, The Providores makes an amazingly efficient use of space fitting into two rows of dining tables into what I would normally consider barely enough for a standing bar area.

Arranging a place for breakfast to fit any group about ten is usually quite difficult, so we decided to meet early and arrived at opening at 10am. I think we were all glad we did though considering that it took all of fifteen minutes for this place to fill with diners and not much more to have a queue spilling out onto the pavement.

Inside on the ground floor of the café, the decorations are lavish without being tacky and all of it looking quite Spanish, thought I am definitely not expert. The high tables and chairs we sat on were quite comfortable and as tiny as this place was, there was enough space that I didn’t feel like I was eating in a shoe box.

The breakfast offerings at this place is overwhelming with a number of variations of the English fry up, a few selections of Spanish food, and a huge number of other staple breakfast foods. The French Toast I had was definitely unique with banana and pecans sandwiched between two pieces of bread before being covered in the egg, and a wickedly sweet vanilla syrup substituted for the traditional maple one. I can’t say the bacon was as good as others I’ve had, it was still a great combination, well presented and definitely filling.

It’s always good visiting new places, especially if a lazy breakfast is involved and this one proved to be enjoyable both in service and cuisine. I can overlook the strangeness of this Kiwi-run Spanish restaurant serving English breakfasts because none of the elements detracted from the overall quality of the place and the company was as good as ever.

I’m definitely keen to check out the tapas they have on offer at sometime, but the breakfast is worth going for.

Details: The Providores and Tapa Room
Found On: 109 Marylebone High Street, London, England W1U 4RX
Highlights: Huge variety of breakfast – some traditional – some more unique
Improvements: Could fit more people in at a bigger location
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

The Arkansas Cafe

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Located in one of the corners of the Spitafields Markets is a small innocuous café serving up southern-style American foods. A flame grilling BBQ stands tall as you walk into the dining area, a small gathering of rickety tables surrounded by older, yet remarkably comfortable chairs all covered by a patio, in an endeavour to recreate what you might imagine a restaurant in the ‘Deep South’ might seem like. Each table contains all you might need to eat your food with various hot sauces, napkins, plastic cutlery and little packets of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

The Arkansas Cafe

We arrived at lunch time and the fire was only just starting to get cracking. Though we weren’t expecting a real American, we were eventually greeted by what seemed like a straight-to-the-point Londoner whose looks alone said the, ‘wadda ya want ta orda?’

Prices at this café are not cheap, my Beef Brisket sandwich costing £7.20 and the pork rib platter costing even more. Strangely enough you have to pay as soon as you order and you don’t need to ever worrying about paying service since that’s also included in your total.

After shortly paying, our waitress delivered our meal on small paper and plastic plates, still keeping in touch with the ‘theme’ but hardly looking like the good money we had just handed over. My sandwich was literally just that – a load of beef brisket crammed into the middle of a bread roll. I found the beef brisket tender but definitely could have done with some additional BBQ sauce to give it more flavour. I think the platters seem like a more balanced option, served with several types of salads, but apparently all of them not particularly special.

The pork rib (note that there was only one big one) was also tender but unfortunately lacked the smokiness you might expect from a proper flame BBQ and dry without any additional BBQ sauce.

I’ve read that the steaks are the best things to eat here, and regrettably I didn’t try it since they were rather dear as well. Unfortunately I can’t really recommend this place to anyone and I won’t be returning to anytime soon.

Details: Arkansas Cafe
Found On: 107b Commercial Street, Old Spitafields Market, Liverpool St
Highlights: Good variety of American beer
Improvements: Tender but flavourless meats that are overpriced for what you get. A wider variety of offerings and improved service would be welcomed by patrons.
The Kua Rating: 5 out of 10

Yo Sushi!

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Yo SushiFinding good and decently priced Japanese food in the UK can be quite difficult, unlike back home in Brisbane. Finding lunch time sushi rolls is impossible (unless you count the boxes that Marks & Spencers, an upmarket supermarket, serve). Wagamama’s is pretty good and is all over London, delivering consistent and reasonably priced Japanese meals in a modern way but it too still lacks great sushi.

Yo Sushi is another franchise, following Wagamama’s successful formula of modernising traditional cuisine but this time applying it to the sushi train concept. Despite being a franchise, you find a surprisingly wide difference in quality between stores, with my most favourite currently the one in Fulham Broadway, and unfortunately my least favourite being the one right near me in Bayswater.

The unique offering that Yo Sushi has to offer is the funky settings and service that it offers to its customers. Brightly coloured modern benches and tables surround the sushi train belt, with overhead spot lighting brightly focusing on the sushi on the bench. Taps built into all the bench tops provide endless spring and sparkling water, and at the same time giving the store a reason for charging an excessive amount for this privilege.

Prices at Yo Sushi can be steep if you stick to simply plates of sushi, but you can get away with a slightly higher than average meal cost if you order other main dishes (noodles, soups, etc) off the menu. Its offerings are broad enough to cater for the tastes of your sushi aficionado and sushi novice, so it’s great for bringing other people, especially new to the whole concept.

Mum Chau’s Sichuan Kitchen

Patrick Food, Restaurants, Travel

Mum Chau's Sichuan KitchenI found this particular restaurant via another blogger who referenced an article from the NY Times talking about the little speak easy restaurants that are cropping up all over Hong Kong. You can tell it’s a popular location with locals by the large numbers that stream in for lunch, and my guess is that is becoming more popular with visitors as word spreads of this hidden gem, nestled in the heart of the ex-pat heavy Lan Kwai Fong. I went for lunch and arriving there at noon when the place opens is a good idea as it fills up quickly, and dinner requiring prior reservation.

Yibin NoodlesThe concept of this restaurant is simple – freshly made, hand pulled noodles and dumplings combined with the fierce spicy sauces of home-style Sichuan cooking. You place your order by putting numbers against a small slip of yellow paper. Thankfully they are considerate enough to have an English menu, giving you a great game of matching Chinese characters and prices, but dish names like Yibin Noodles and Tan Tan Noodles still didn’t really help me work out what I was actually ordering. Nevertheless I thought it would be fun ordering something I had no clue about and so ordered the Yibin Noodles.

The Dining RoomThe owners decorated the restaurant appropriately with many traditional style art pieces and paintings decorating its walls. Plastic tablecloths drape the small number of tables scattered across the room, but don’t hold that against the wonderful food that arrives quickly. Each table is also equipped with various cups chopsticks, straws, napkins, and toothpicks as well as little jugs of soy sauce just in case.

Someone who I could assume as one of the owners (perhaps Mum Chau herself?) soon brought one of the largest servings of noodles to my table. It was accompanied by a plate of what later tasted like Sugarloaf Cabbage stir friend with chillis. I found the Yibin noodles, though difficult to describe in flavour had a great balance of flavours with enough kick to give it a bit of an edge and the noodles themselves tasting as if they had just been formed and cooked. The noodles definitely had peanuts and sesame oil, but there were several other layers there but I couldn’t quite identify them.

Details: Mum Chau’s Sichuan Kitchen
Found On: Floor 5 of the Winner Building, 37 D’Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
Contactable On: (852) 8108-8550
Highlights: Authentic fresh noodles and dumplings. Apparently a mean dinner set as well.
The Kua Rating:8 out of 10