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.
Eating Sushi can be an intimate or an intimidating affair especially at high end places where there is a limited number of seats and you are within cutting distance of the chef’s sushi knife. Even when it is intimidating, it can be a fun intimidation or a stressful one. It all boils down to the […]
Jin Fine Dining: The ieatishootipost $80 Eight course menu!
Updated on 6 May 2016 Fans of Chef Thomas Kok would be pleased to know that one of Singapore’s pioneers of Japanese food has just opened his newest restaurant at the Amoy Hotel at Far East Square! I have known Chef Thomas since his days at Hokkaido Sushi and he has been instrumental in my […]
Let's face it, eating Sushi in Singapore is expensive. Ok, maybe I should qualify that. Eating GOOD sushi in Singapore is expensive. But both "Value" and "Quality" are subjective terms. What I find "good" might not be good enough for some and what I consider "cheap" might still not be cheap enough for others. So, when I say that I found a good Sushi Omakase place which is value for money, I have to spend the next few hundred words to properly define what I consider good and cheap so that you know what to expect.
