Today is thursday! Finally after days of waiting, its the night! The night that we will remember, for the glory, our soul craves for, the honor of ...... DINING AT AKANE! hahahahaha.
Oh ya, rod is treating us a dinner at Akane, in case you have no idea what it is, its not edible, its a restaurant at Japanese association of Singapore. Jz, rod and I met at hdb hub at 1830 for there we took a cab down to the restaurant. The guards there were kinda wayang, and we got kinda pissed off, especially jz. Rod register his name at the guard room, and ask if its ok to go in now, but that bugger insist we need to all register. Come on, its just an association and the guards were not even Japanese. The place is actually quite a nice place, its more like a community center for the Japanese than actually an association. But rod said the membership is $5k for a gaijin which means foreigner(to the japanese). Almost everything in there is written in Japanese and English, we waited at the lobby as rod talk to the receptionist to ask for directions.We then walk to the lift lobby and found something interesting, 2 young kids there, speaking japanese with their dad i suppose, and one of the kid is actually blond hair(as in Caucasian looking). From the slang of the boys, they must be brought up in japan or japanese international school. In the lift, the rest of the passagers are Japanese too, and one of the guy thank us for holding the door open for the kids to move out. I was expecting a "arigatou" but he said "thank you" that means from one look they know we are gaijin haha.
We waited outside the restaurant for a while, and mun came not long after. Its been almost a decade since we last met i guess, he looks a bit rounder and he joking said life is great thats y.
Ok cut the crap, this post is here, to record our great "journey" to taste one of the greatest food in the world~~ So you are warn, the following images and photos might cause you extreme hunger, jealousy, some might even cause you to puke (sorry thats me). This is the greatest damage done of the year, dinner of a life time and the proof that those Taiwanese food variety shows are not at all exaggerating, haha.
Akane is one of the restaurants opened by Yoshio Nogawa. Yoshio Nogawa-san 's Sushi Kaiseki Nogawa Restaurant has earned rave reviews as the finest and most authentic Japanese Restaurant in Singapore since it's opening in singapore, 1978.
The restaurant is pretty plain looking from the entrance. But when you walk in, you will take in a deep breathe and think, oh oh thats it, haha.
There are a couple of very nice art pieces on the corridor into the main dining room itself, and we saw a few tatami rooms on the way too, which of course we dont have the budget to eat in there, opps.
And look at the photos, all the VIPs, harry and mr president was here, just show what are we expecting, ermm i mean the food.
There was a moment of awkwardness as the waitresses who were all in kimono was trying to figure if we were Japanese and us, trying to figure if they speak English haha. The customers at the bar table are all Japanese, as well as the chef working behind the table. How do we know? you might asked, because you will be greeted by "iraishaimase" which means welcome, from the slang you can tell if they are all Japanese.
The waitresses who were serving us are Singaporeans though, but i guess they are quite good with Japanese too, i am also guessing they have different waitress to serve different guest, so that we wont find it hard to communicate.
We didnt even have chance to look the menu, rod told the waitress that he wants the chef recommendation and would like to have the best dishes of the restaurant. My eyes were twitching, that sounds scary.
And here comes the first dish, the service is great, a few kimono waitresses brought us hot towers and help us to put the napkin( is that what its called?) on our lap like the western cuisine way. Then another few waitresses carry all 4 servings of our first dish to us, they are fast and we were like wow, 4-5 waitresses to serve us, and the food is served together, not one by one, thats some great service.
The first dish we had is the Otoshi, which just means appetizer. It looks like some fried seaweed chicken you see in the common japanese restaurant, but one bite proves you wrong. Its actually tako, octopus, but the texture is just fantastic and the sea salt that comes with it brings out the taste. Unlike any of tako balls you have eaten, evenly textured tako not too hard like gum nor too soft. Mun took out his canon SLR by now and started shooting on the dishes, we were all laughing saying that he looks like a professional food critic with the big camera.
The Second dish, also an appetizer, corn, yea by the name and looks of it, i was quite disappointed, but again, the first bite proves me wrong. And wow, how can corn taste this good, every little corn out of the slice is so sparkling clear, sweet and crunchy, definitely unlike any corn we ate before. Look at the back of the corn, its such a clear and sharp cut, shows how good is their knife skill.
The third dish a cold plate of sashimi, a variety of different fresh fishes including the legendary Otoro, fattiest part found on the most underneath of blue fin tuna belly, a slice of Japanese seasonal white shrimp, freshly cut scallop, definitely some highest grade sashimi plate. I was actually delighted and sweating to see Otoro in them, if you have alittle study on sashimi, Otoro is consider the top, highest grade of sashimi.
Look at this clear piece of sashimi, yes this is the Otoro, red flesh clearly divided by white fats, and the texture of it? Heavenly, the red flesh just literally melts in your mouth, white remains as very soft chewy meat. And not to mention they are extremely fresh, i wasnt a fan of sashimi but this is just so beyond words.
And this is the Japanese seasonal white shrimp looks like normal prawn but no, they taste sweet and very weird texture, its like chewing minced meat, abit sticky but instantly melts the next moment. We were all quite contented with this dish, but wait, more to come!
This is the fourth dish, Togan soup, Japanese winter melon soup. This is the first time i actually see a winter melon on the dining table, and its so beautifully served with the soup inside the winter melon itself. I was shocked again to see the ingredients inside the soup, they are all very exquisite, abalone, scallops, unagi (fresh water eel), and some other meat. The soup itself taste sweet with a strong sea food favor and a little herbs taste, its more like an art piece. To hold soup and its hot contents inside a winter melon, not something we can do without less than a decade of cooking experience.
The fifth dish, Tachio shio, stir fried belt fish. This is the first time i ever taste belt fish, its texture is magnificent. It has very flaky flesh and bones only at the outer part, which means not much chore on finding the bones. Its real firm, and fresh, serve with pickled unknown fruit and radish. Beats all the other fish i can say, in stir fried.
The sixth dish, Kobe usuyaki, KOBE beef!! refers to beef from the black Tajima-ushi breed of Wagyu cattle, raised according to strict tradition in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Kobe is the capital of Hyogo Prefecture. It is renowned for flavour, tenderness, and fatty well-marbled texture, qualities enhanced by the traditional methods of raising Kobe beef. The beef is lightly grilled and roll with herbs and some vegetables, you can see the juice flows out every bite, yum yum. Indeed the highest quality beef.
The seventh dish, Kamo nasu, Eggplant directly imported from Kyoto, imperial city of Japan . Taken from wikipedia "Kyoto is famous for the excellent quality of nasu it produces. Of particular note are the large round-shaped variety called "Kamo-nasu". The name comes from the Kamo district in which they were traditionally cultivated, an area also renowned for the magnificent shrine, Kamigamo-jinjya. Today, only a small number of the farmers continue to cultivate traditional Kamo-nasu." The flesh of the egg plant is dug out, and cooked with scallops, prawns with sesame sauce. A real unique taste, plain but pleasant, and the freshness of the seafood bind with the sesame sauce, a real kind of experience.
The eighth dish, Shiro Ebi Tempura, a seasonal shrimp fried into tempura, the marvelous thing about this is, its not at all oily, but still maintain the same crispyness. The shiro ebi taste so sweet even after fried, with japanese onions, just taste different from normal tempura.
The waitress hinted rod after the tempura, if we have enough, but rod fails to catch the signal, so she asked if we want some main dishes, and rod suggested to have sushi as this restaurant is famous for their sushi after all.
The night dish therefore then, the highlights of the evening, Sushi!! and wow to the sushi, definitely exquisite. Shiro ebi (White shrimp), Suzuki (Japanese seabass the white flesh fish), Anago (Salt water eel differ from unagi the fresh water eel, the brown sushi),
Toro!!! (Blue fin Tuna belly, third highest grade of tuna, the red flesh sushi), Toro literally melts in your mouth and more pleasant and great texture than other sushi. Negitoro (fried onion mixed with toro, the three little sushi behind)
The last is the main highlight of the Sushi plate, The Uni (Sea urchin roe, eggs the yellow-gold sushi). And OMG Uni, Uni ranges in color from rich gold to light yellow, and has a creamy consistency that some love and is off-putting to others. Its alike to durian has an extreme strong flavor, but the taste of seafood, long lasting sense that you will definitely remember. Sea Urchins are a rare treat for those who acquire a taste as it is seasonal, and yellow-gold marks the highest grade of Sea Urchin eggs. One of a kind of taste in the world, definitely an experience that you will remember and crave for it!
Just when we thought that was the best dish of the night, and here comes another exquisite dish, a truly art piece. I dont know the name of the dish, but when its serve we spend sometime trying to guess it, a baby pumpkin with some dark yellowish toppings. Then i just say, yellow-gold is it Uni again? and from the first taste of it, YESSS!!! UNI!!!! This is by far the best of all, maybe i crave for Uni too much...
This dish is prepared by digging out the flesh of the baby pumpkin and mash together with Uni to give you a combination of sweet pumpkin with a strong taste of seafood, and wow!!! Heavenly like. And god knows why are they so good with digging out and craving foods, vegetables. You might think its easy, but when u finished the contents, you can see the whole skin just collapse off, so imagine, how hard it is to dig out the contents and put it back again with hot cooked food without spoiling the skin.
And finally the desert, eleventh dish of the night, its almost 10pm by then, and i guess the waitress are already worried about us, or rather our wallet. They were asking if we want our desert to be served already, i am really afraid rod will call for another dish at this point of time haha. And one thing, we have absolutely no idea of the prices of the dishes we ate, thats y all my commentary are from my heart, definitely have nothing to do with pricing. These dishes just taste so good, not even Akashi restaurant can compete with it, not to mention Ichiban boshi, and please dont insult the Japanese culinary with Sakae sushi, its not even in the list.
We were allowed to choose a variety of desert like red bean soup, some honey thing i haven heard properly, but mun suggested to have a light desert, just fruits platter will do. I was thinking maybe mun is really afraid of the bill for rod. But i must thank mun for his great idea, orelse i wont have a taste of this desert that i wont forget for the rest of my life.
If you a regular TV fanatic, you might have watch those taiwanese food variety show which give information of some fruits in japan that costs up to hundred of dollars. And here it is, we definitely have no idea what is it like, from the first look of the plate of fruits served to us, two little grapes, 2 slices of apple-like fruit, and 1 slice of what it looks like a honey dew that grew too green, i admit i was disappointed. We were then told the apple-like thing is momo, Japanese peach, and the green one is indeed honey dew, but from a closer look, the texture or rather the lighting reflected by the fruits, i know they are not that simple.
And indeed, just a single poke from my fork into the grape, purplish juice flows out, omg. The momo peach is so soft that my fork cut through it like toufu (ok a little harder than that, but u get the point).
The fruits are just wild plain surprising, because my family actually runs a chain of fruits stalls, i am very familiar with all kinds of fruits. Its thats why i am more surprised than the rest of the gang, i never had fruit of this taste before. The grape is sweet and juicy, and by all means no taste of sourness even from the skin, the momo peach, texture is evenly throughout, soft and strong fragance of peach runs through your mouth unlike even the best grade of peaches you can find in the market, the outer skin still feels abit rough or the inner flesh might taste abit sour. The honey dew is by far sweeter than anything else, even up to the standard of sugar cane, and the texture is the same, soft and evenly throughout. Just a plain OMG!
This marks the end of our journey, Japanese fine dining of sushi kaiseki, a dinner of a life time, and quote of the day by mun, "If i were to give up half of my life for one of this dinner, please make it twice!!" definitely a real kind of experience, which i most probably wont experience again. We actually took alot of photos but most of them are with mun canon SLR camera, which i followed up in the coming post, and this post actually me two days to complete, photo processing, with research done on the various sushi and sashimi and Japanese culture. I am sorry if i cause anyone to drool or hungry after reading hahaha!
And finally the damage done, bill please is the most exciting phrase of the day.
Each of PER serving pricing
Otoshi, Appetizer: $2
Corn: $8
Sashimi $55
Togan, winter melon soup: $30
Tachio shio, stir fried belt fish: $30
Kobe usuyaki, kobe beef roll: $25
Kamo nasu, egg plant dish: $20
Shiro Ebi Tempura, White shrimp: $18
Sushi set: $45
Pumpkin dish: $25
Desert fruits
-Mush Melon $5
-Piyone Grapes $7.50
-Momo Peach $10
Sake: $7.50
Each person: $288
Total: $1152
Total Service charge: $171
Grand total: $1323
GG, good game!
The heroes of the fine dining..........................
Mr Jz in his welcome to kenting Tee haha.
The orbiang me.
Jz and mun
Rod and mun