notable eats (17th to 30th september)

1. pasta brava - with j, dw, jo, yv, ck, dk

fried calamari - suitably crunchy yet lightly battered skin, and chewy yet not tough insides. nicely spiced with herbs and pepper,with a dash of fresh lemon juice. pretty good. with a sad-looking lettuce leaf (presentation, guys!)

caprese salad - the classic combination of morzarella, tomato, basil and olive oil, has become quite a firm favourite; exquisite when tomatoes are freshly at their peak. not bad; tomatoes could be sweeter (though i'd never really had outstanding tomatoes in singapore). personally, the caprese in paris at le reminet remains the one to beat.

parpadelle with duck in red-wine tomato sauce - not bad (i.e. pasta al dente, not over or under-sauced, duck was not tough), but no sparks for me, unlike pastas i've had at da paolo. maybe a cream or oil-based pasta would do the trick - i think i have no affinity for tomato bases.

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2. 翡翠澳门茶餐厅 - with j

法国土司 - what is it with a simple piece of fried toast, a thick slab of butter and maple syrup that is so magical? a sinful delight.



fried calamari - quite good; very asian-y, since it came topped with chopped spring onion, onion, fresh chilli. there could be a hint of white pepper - memory lapse.

鲕梨果奶希 - a bit too thick, and too cold for optimum taste. still, it was very creamy, and not at all icy. could work if i didn't also have the french toast.

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3. kazu - with j, d, e, dl,

枝豆 - good, though not the freshest. found out later that there was a 新枝豆 version available. should have gone with that.

えいひれ - dried stingray. tastes like dried cuttlefish, but with an additional smoky flavour (since the stingray was probably dried by way of smoking). interesting texture: chewy and not rubbery.

鮟肝ポン酢 - angler fish liver in vinegar sauce. good, but not at its peak; the liver was not as firm and creamy as if one had it during the winter months. still, there was good balance of the fishy liver, sharp vinegar and slightly spicy roe (tobiko?). yummy.

鳥刺身 - chicken sashimi. this was a trio of items: two different cut of chicken meat, and liver. can't remember the difference between the two cuts of meat; but both were good - texture like raw fish but tastes like chicken (duh!). the liver was surprisingly not as liver-y as expected - a sign of freshness, perhaps? only d and i dare eat this dish - more for us.



変わり豆腐 - daily special tofu. this was a pumpkin tofu topped with barbecued uni and wasabi leaves (?). texture was more like a firm pudding than tofu; don't quite care for pumpkin. uni was nice though; and i got a good serving of it since the rest, save for d, couldn't quite stomach the taste of uni.

and from the grill:

和牛 - excellent, as usual. the fatty meat literally melted in the mouth, its flavour enhanced by the grill and a sprinkling of black pepper.

アスパラ豚巻 - another must-have, though asparagus is definitely out-of-season; not as fresh and juicy as if one has it during the spring / summer months.

foie gras - nice and oily. mmmm.

鮭白子 - salmon milt. aka salmon sperm. heh. texture is akin to raw liver: i.e. creamy. and it kinda tastes like the sea, in a clean way. in comparison, much as assertive than uni. with a ponzu sauce, and topped with tobiko. quite delightful.

銀鱈 - not my favourite way of preparation for cod; my preference is for it to be pan-seared a la ember, or done みそずけ. the texture was fine, though.

帆立貝 - ok i guess, the scallops were certainly fresh enough. just that it was a bit plain. after all the wonderfully oily stuff, it's a bit of an anticlimax.

黒豚 - not as good as before, the meat was tending on the dry side. pales in comparison to the wagyu.

there was a funny little piece of cutlery which we determined was used to push the grilled items off the stick. it was a fork that was kinda shaped like a fox - the two tines formed the ears. and there was a 5mm hole which served the aforementioned purpose - this was the tail part of the fox.

could have missed out one or two items - really had a lot of sticks that night.