Recommendation: A Million Bucks By 30

Bought the book last Monday.

Finished reading it this morning.

Surfed author's website out of curiosity.

http://www.alancorey.com/blog/

Decided it was worth recommending.

Have a great week!

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant
270 Orchard Road
#01-05 Lobby, Park Hotel Orchard
Singapore 238857
Tel (65) 6737 1160

This being a special occasion, we were careful to make a booking a couple of days in advance. We requested counter seats (the better to watch the chefs in action).

Tatsuya is ALWAYS crowded. Not bothering with the menu, we asked for the お任せ[Omakase], informing the waitress that the only items to be excluded would be beef (for sir), umi (for her) and alcohol. Our Omakase would consist of over 10 courses (did we mention, we were having lunch - ha!)

As we cannot post too many pictures in a blog entry, here instead is a slide show of all the courses…



The first offering was Smoked Goose salad (waitress informed us it was a seasonal item). Goose meat was delicious, not too salty at all. Pine nuts lent an interesting flavour to the dish.

Next we were served a pair of pretty white snails each... with a single toothpick to assist consumption. Which was all that was necessary – no mess or flying parts at all (remember that scene in Pretty Woman?)!

While enjoying the snails, we watched the chef prepare our Sashimi mori... I'm only sorry the picture hardly does justice to the experience of consuming each piece one by one. Oishisugita.

Next, gorgeous blue bowl of Scallop (nestled cosily within the dugout white daikon 'cup') were placed in front of us. This was an expert blend of ingredients, and included also finely shredded crab meat.

Grilled Saba followed - a foot long (yes like the Subs), one each! Check out how the main backbone of the has been flipped out. Many people concentrate on the fish, and miss out on the daikon bit that always accompanies the fish (see top right of this pic). Well, it's there to complement the main fish. Try it (you can thank us later).

Next was the Sushi – another mini-course of delectables. At this point, before the chef begins making your sushi, remember to tell him you want less gohan (so you have space to sample more goodies)! We watched as the chef prepared the Toro (sigh!) and Mekajiki – both tataki style – sushi, which was Gone in 15 seconds (or less, ha ha!). Then he made a prawn sushi accompanied by mentaiko. Then came Scallop sushi topped with foie gras. Followed by Eel sushi. Then beef carpaccio (for the lady) plus a second helping of Toro (for Sir) sushi.

One thing about this kind of sushi – it definitely does not need shoyu or wasabi (the same way good chips don’t need ketchup!).

By this time, we had been stuffing ourselves for one and a half hours. The waitress asked if we were game for more. Sigh – if only! Tummies only have so much room, so we allowed them to serve dessert, which consisted of seasonal fruit - white peach and Kaki (persimmon).

Our thanks to AT who introduced the restaurant to MW.

Reads:

He Slow Burn by Stu Mittleman
She 星の王子さま (translated from French) by Antoine St Exupery

Recipe: Hainanese Chicken Rice

Please bear with us (join us!) as we flesh out the flavour and identity of this Blog. Meanwhile, here’s a Recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice, courtesy of friend JT (with appreciation for the recipe and the hands-on lessons!)

Feeds 2 (greedy people) or 4 (skinny Ah Lian types)

Chicken
1. Whole chicken – Rub with salt, sesame oil and soya sauce; season with flattened (two handfuls for one chicken) garlic, onions (small purple shallots), sliced ginger.
2. Boil water in wok. Steam chicken 15 mins (medium size chicken) – use a shallow pan to collect juices (steaming juices are more concentrated). Put a bit of sesame oil on chicken after steaming.
Soup
Boil chicken bones (and breast, optional) with cabbage, carrots, onions, etc. No chicken skin* here (unless you fancy that top layer of oil on your soup)! Boil 15 – 20 mins.
*save this for the main chicken dish!
Rice
1. Take juices from steamed chicken (or stock from boiling), add to rice in rice cooker.
2. Add more sliced ginger, garlic, onions, add knotted pandan leaves, top up with water (add water to remaining juice on steaming pan, don’t waste it!!).
3. Cook rice – stir once.
Chilli Sauce
(pound together, then add 2t chicken stock): 6 Fresh red chilies (seeded), 1 clove Garlic, 2 cm Ginger, 1 tsp Salt, 2 tsp Sugar, 1 tsp Vinegar / Lime juice

Enjoy!

A new blog is born

it's nearly midnight and i've killed more than the allocated quota of gray matter for today...

its easy to set up a blog - it's thinking of a name that requires effort!

good night :-)