Botan Japanese Restaurant: Chef Thomas’ Special Signature Set!
Fans of veteran Chef Thomas Kok will know that our gallivanting chef has moved five times since I first wrote about him at Hokkaido sushi in 2011. And, I am not even his oldest fan, I’ve even met customers who have been following him since his Nanten days in the 80’s! Having been in the […]
The space vacated by Hashida sushi now occupied by Sushi Ayumu. It is still under the same ownership but its direction has shifted from Hashida’s progrssive style back to its Edomae roots where the emphasis is on teasing out the natural flavour of the produce rather than on creativity of the chef.
I first met Chef Thomas Kok in 2011 when he was the head chef at Hokkaido Sushi which was named "Best Japanese Restaurant" under his watch. At that time, I was starting to write my "Sushi Files" and it was with his help that I managed to document the different seafood used in sushi!
I don't know about you, but I find it more comfortable being served by a local sushi chef because of the language barrier I experience with Japanese chefs. When you are sitting at a sushi bar, being able to hold a conversation with the sushi chef is part and parcel of the whole sushi experience.
It has been 8 years since I started eating sushi. Like most Teochew Ah Hia, the thought of laying aside a nice hot bowl of porridge for expensive slices of raw fish was a bit of a mental hurdle. But since I was a budding food blogger then, I thought that I better start learning how to eat sushi since it was starting to get really popular.
I first met Kenjiro "Hatch" Hashida back in 2013 when he had just opened Hashida Sushi at level two of the Mandarin Gallery. I was at once smitten by his vintage anago tsume (sauce) which has an unbroken lineage of over 135 years!
Sushi can be divided into five different categories. They are shiromi-dane (white meat), akami-dane (red meat), hikari-mono (shiny skin), ni-mono (braised) and hokano-mono which is all the other stuff like squid, crabs, uni and our topic for today, kai 貝 (shellfish).
Ashino is an excellent choice for anyone seeking an authentic sushi experience in Singapore. Even my seasoned Japanese foodie friend remarked that he felt as if he just had a sushi meal in Ginza!
Located at the Northernmost part of Japan’s main island of Honshu, Aomori is surrounded by water on three sides and is famous for a wide variety of seafood. Aomori City used to be the port city where you catch a ferry across to Hokkaido. That was before the opening of the Seikan Undersea Railway Tunnel which […]
Kanda Wadatsumi: Sea Squirts, Bering Sea Cockles and Coho Salmon
Sea Squirt, Ascidian, Sea Pineapple Halocynthia roretzi Japanese: Hoya This post is for the hardcore gastrogeeks. What is a gastrogeek, I hear you ask? Well, over the years I have been trying to find a term to describe myself as a person who loves to eat, shoot and post stories about food. The press usually refer […]
Teru Sushi: Pushing the Boundaries of Japanese Food
This is a good place to find quality, localised Japanese food at reasonable prices and one of the few places that is opened till the wee hours of the morning. Chef Steve is one of the few upcoming Japanese chefs whom I feel has a good sense of taste and creativity and who dares to experiment.
