Kuriya - Farewell III

The third and last farewell meal in the series saw us back at Kuriya again. We decided to do the seasonal kaiseki this time round.

We started off with an additional order of seared duck breast with sorbet. An odd combination but I liked how the tangy and slightly sweet sorbet paired up with the savory duck flesh.

The appetizer course of grilled pike eel skin, wax myrtle, egg omelette, boiled squid with thin tofu and black sesame seed tofu was not bad. The best in this trio would probably be the grilled eel skin in my opinion, but I've always liked eel.

Then came the sashimi, seabream tasted the best this time round. Then again, this is coming from a non-sashimi fan.

The grilled item of sweet fish with Dengaku miso paste was pretty good, especially the fish, which I felt tasted better alone because the miso paste was slightly too sweet and thick for my liking.

I quite enjoyed this dish of eel on foie gras mousse with pumpkin sauce. The matching of the ingredients complemented each other very well.

As usual, Kuriya's nigiri sushi is always pretty satisfying.

I do apologize for not having any pictures (my battery died on me!) of the last two courses of soup and dessert but if you trust me, you may take my word for it that they were pretty good. Especially the mango flan which came with the dessert.

D

Tian Tian - Farewell II

We seemed to be hitting all the old favorites in this little farewell series. Here's the front of Tian Tian, which I don't see very often because I like to sit in the alley behind. There's something about eating in an alley which accentuates that whole feeling of "hardcore" dining haha.

We started with the usual staples such as the steamed bamboo clams with garlic.

Deep fried rock oysters.

The prawn paste chicken here is pretty good although my preferred choice is still Fatty Weng's.

This is the first time I'm trying their prawns fried with salted egg yolk and it's not too bad. It's abit different from the ones in Hong Kong due to the addition of the curry leaves and chili bits but that didn't bother me.

Salt and pepper spareribs, just some mammal to balance the meal.

I've always liked the fried rice here because the rice doesn't stick together and each individual grain has an intense smokey wok hei flavor. This came with scallops and huge ones they were.

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Kazu - Farewell I

Kazu has got to be one of my all time favorite joints. Although I've already featured this place twice, here's one more to start a series of farewells. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Croquettes.

Chicken hearts.

Chicken skins.

Wild duck.

Enoki mushrooms wrapped with pork belly.

Foie gras.

Grilled inigiri.

Beef tongue.

Japanese wagyu striploin.

Lamb chops.

Mochi.

Pork and apple.

Asparagus wrapped with pork belly.

Shitake mushrooms.

Sweet potatoes with butter.

D

Hong Kong Cafe, Thomson Road, Singapore

There seems to be so many of these Hong Kong styled cafes popping up that eventually I ended up in one for some after-dinner sweets.

The menu is pretty vast but we decided to go for some of the safer options.

The mango, pomelo, sago and ice-cream was cold and creamy without being too sweet. Great stuff for this hot weather.

The French toast looked rather impressive when it arrived.

But it was a pity that the amount of peanut butter was so scarce in this that you couldn't really taste much of it at all. The bread seemed slightly too dense as well.

The durian pudding was a pleasant surprise being rather rich in durian flavor. You could actually see the durian pulp bits in this. Some hits and misses here, but the large array of items on the menu gives you a few visits before they're exhausted.

D

Tarabagani, Kuriya, Great World City, Singapore

Lasting 10 years in the fickle and volatile food and beverage industry is no easy feat. Kuriya dining is currently celebrating their 10th year anniversary with an Alaskan king crab (tarabagani) set. I've always been a pretty loyal patron of Kuriya because their food is consistently fresh, tasty and their promotions and monthly specials always make dining here refreshing.

We started with a monthly special of black sesame seed beancurd fried agadeshi style. This was pretty tasty. It's softer but chewier than conventional beancurd and the black sesame seed flavor was aromatic and pronounced.

Our next starter was pan seared foie gras. Quite well executed too. These little chunks of fatty liver did the thing to whet our appetites.

Another special was the fresh conger eel tempura.

The flesh within the crisp tempura casing was all so fatty and succulent. Although the tempura batter here isn't as light as Tenshin's, it's still pretty damn good and most importantly doesn't come too greasy either.

Horse mackeral sashimi was up next. Now you guys know I'm not a fan of sashimi but this is probably as fresh as it gets in Singapore. No hints of fishiness at all, just pure delicious mackeral flavor.

Finally, our first course of the tarabagani set arrived haha. The king crab salad rice paper rolls were quite fun but nothing mindblowing really. I wished they had placed the condiments as toppings instead of placing then by the side, it would have been a lot easier to eat that way.

Grilled king crab legs were next. I've always loved grilled shellfish (if done properly) and fortunately it's done pretty well here.

A nice smoky taste hits you before the sweetness of the fresh and succulent flesh. The great thing about the crabs here are they're either shelled or sliced saggitally, allowing easy access to the flesh.

Tempura king crab was up next. The batter was actually thinner and lighter than the one used for the conger eel and therefore made this alot more delectable.

The tasty flesh of a whole shelled king crab leg in crisp tempura batter. This course was unarguably the best in the set.

The first of the last two "filler" dishes arrived. The king crab paper steamboat had quite alot of meaty crab portions in it. Let the soup come to a boil first and once the essence of crab seeps into the broth, it tastes pretty super.

The udon which accompanied the steamboat was blanched to the point just before it's fully cooked. In that way, you can finish it off in the steamboat so that it may absorb the flavorsome broth without going too soft and soggy.

Earlier on, after finishing the horse mackeral sashimi, we requested to have the bones deep-fried. It took awhile to arrive (in fact we thought they might have forgotten about it) but when it did, it was worth the wait. Like eating crisps and crackers, we could crunch down every bit of the mackeral skeleton.

The last savory course was the assorted sushi which of course featured a king crab one as well. Somehow I felt the winner in this was the sea bream though, it tasted so fresh and sweet that it could probably be one of the best raw sea bream sushis I've had so far.

I've always enjoyed desserts at Kuriya. They actually put in effort here to create something nice instead of some places which serve just a plate of "Japanese" fruit. You could taste the vanilla beans in the vanilla ice-cream which complemented the tart raspberry mousse perfectly. So far, I've yet to be disappointed with Kuriya and I sure hope it stays that way.

D