Traveling Chomps: Sushi at Tatsuya

Where: Singapore (Orchard Road)
Specialty: Authentic, top quality sushi and sashimi

According to my friends G and V, Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant is THE place to go for authentic fresh sushi in Singapore. They'd promised to take me here when I was last in town but I ended up having to take a rain check. I made it a point to go this time round however!

We decided to do the sushi/sashimi omakase. Due to the size of our party, we had to sit at a table so the omakase experience was slightly watered down though still excellent. Also we didn't have any cooked food which I will have to try another time.

We started off with an appetizer of ikura. It was served with a sweet ponzu sauce (I think?) which enhanced the flavor of the roe.



First out was the sashimi course. Beautifully presented and super fresh:


The second course was sushi, some of it seared. All excellent, though the most memorable for me was the seared shrimp. Partially raw and seared with a sweet teriyaki sauce, DELICIOUS.

Sushi Part I:


Next up was another sushi course. I was really quite full at this point but pushed on. Good sushi though nothing spectacular. The chef was prolly out of ideas by now hehe. One of the items was abalone which is a delicacy in these parts. It was good but I wasn't blown away.

Finally we finished off with a salmon skin handroll. It didn't look that appetizing but was actually really good! The pieces of salmon skin were fried perfectly and was a nice contrast to the roll.


Sushi Part II - Squarish one is the abalone (L) Hand roll (R)

The meal ended with some fruit. Persimmon and melon. I was very impressed with the persimmon (Hachiya so it is soft). It was perfectly ripe and the texture was wonderful. It totally melts in your mouth. A perfect ending ....




Chomp Meter:
This is a top notch sushi joint. The owner, Ronnie Chia, gets his produce directly from Japan in order to ensure quality and authenticity. The restaurant serves a balance of both traditional pieces as well as more creative ones. Tatsuya is also the only restaurant in Singapore that serves Matsusaka beef (step aside Wagyu!). Of course none of this comes cheap, our sushi omakase was SGD$250 per head. We felt it was worth every penny, well most of it anyway :)

A suggestion for Tatsuya's would be to have the wait staff introduce the dish before serving. It was a mystery at times trying to guess what we were served ...

And head to Canele for dessert!

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant (New Location)
22 Scotts Road (Goodwood Park Hotel)
Singapore 228221
Tel: 6737 1160

Park Hotel Location (Will close in December 2008)
270 Orchard Road
#01-05 Park Hotel Orchard

New Golden Gate Restaurant in Chinatown

What you order really makes or breaks your dining experience at a restaurant. New Golden Gate certainly demonstrates this. We've been to New Golden Gate once before but weren't impressed with the food. I vaguely recall some roast chicken and sweet sour pork dishes (hey we didn't do the ordering).

We somehow ended up at New Golden Gate again on another friend's recommendation (a Chinatown insider!). Well actually we didn't realize it was the same restaurant till we were outside.

The restaurant has several tanks of shrimp and fish in the back and I even spied a scary Harry Potteresque serpent in one of them! OK I'm exaggerating and it was an eel not a serpent ... still scary though. Anyway we concluded that seafood is the way to go here.

We started off with a Geoduck. It was served in 2 dishes, one in sashimi form (known as mirugai in Japanese) and the other in soup form. I loved the sashimi. While it wasn't beautifully presented or cut, it was fresh sweet and crunchy. YUMMERS!



The other dishes we ordered were clams in black bean sauce, a beef and green bean dish (weird) and some garlic bok choy stir fry. The guys in the group liked the beef which they said was cooked on the outside but still tender and a little rare on the inside. I wasn't a big fan mostly because of the size of the beef chunks. A knife would have been helpful. Hey I thought Chinese food was supposed to be bite sized!



Chomp Meter:
3.5 Chomps. Overall a solidly good meal. A nice alternative to Peach Farm for seafood. I would love to try the shrimp on our next visit. They also have Chinese banquet style set menus (8 courses) that go up to $300! I wonder if anyone orders these? The restaurant seems to be quite popular and full of people (always a good sign) so go early if you don't want to wait.

New Golden Gate Restaurant
66 Beach St
(between Hudson St & Oxford St)
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 338-7721

Min Sok - Take 2

There's been a bit of buzz lately about Min Sok. This Korean restaurant recently moved from its original location on Comm Ave to Brookline. They've also expanded their menu to include sashimi which has been quite popular with the Boston Korean expats/students.

Yesterday was our 3rd time there in the past month or so. On our first visit, we were armed with recommendations from a friend. This included the "Sashimi Set" from the Korean menu (you have to ask for it). The set runs $85 for a 3 course feast and feeds 2-4 people depending on your appetite. The meal starts with side dishes, a huge sashimi course, and ends with a spicy fish stew. What's really interesting however is that the sushi includes sea squirt and sea cucumber sashimi which I've never had before. Both are considered delicacies (aka expensive).

Now how the sea squirt and sea cucumber tastes is where it gets interesting. The sea cucumber was very crunchy (think of the coconut jelly you get in your bubble tea), salty with a strange bitter sweet flavor. I didn't love it but it was edible. The sea squirt on the other hand was quite a challenge the first time round. Of our group of 4, only 2 of us were managed to swallow the squirt. Besides looking rather scary, it tasted horrid too. We were rather traumatized after eating this. For those interested, the squirt has the consistency of an oyster and a weird liquorish aftertaste.

So why were we there again yesterday? Well P wanted to try the sea squirt again. He claims that it's an acquired taste and that it will taste better the second time round ... hrmm? I obliged since I forgot to bring my camera the first time and now I get to take photos! So anyway to conclude, the sea squirt really didn't taste so bad the second time. Sea squirt, I apologise, maybe I'll even like you after a few more tries. :)

But now, the most interesting part: the photos!

The side dishes started with shrimp rice porridge, spicy tuna maki, 4 grilled shrimp, seaweed salad, little sea snails (?), calamari, and a couple more I don't remember.



The mountain of sashimi you see here is the second course. The stuff at the base is the sea cucumber.


A close up of the sea squirt!

Min Sok
92 Harvard St
Brookline 02446
617-783-8702

Chomp Meter:
We've been back 3x. Enough said. For the faint hearted, the Kalbi Jin is excellent! The broth is really sweet and rich and the meat is tender. YUM. I don't think I've had this at any other Korean restaurant in town.