Delights of Kyushu (1): Lunch at Chikae Honpo (稚加榮本舗), Fukuoka

My partner and I are currently in the Kyushu region of Japan for a holiday, and what better place to start our foodie explorations than in the regional capital of Fukuoka! Home to the famous Yanagibashi Market (Kyushu's answer to Tokyo's Tsukiji Market), this city offers a plethora of gastronomic delights at prices significantly lower than in bigger cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto.

For our first lunch after touching down in Fukuoka, we headed to Chikae Honpo 稚加榮本舗 in the city centre, a stone's throw from the Akasaka 赤坂 subway station. Not being used to the complicated network of narrow streets we got a little lost, but eventually found our way with the help of a kind policeman.

Chikae is a seafood specialist and highly regarded producer of one of Fukuoka's most well-known culinary exports, mentaiko 明太子 (seasoned cod roe). The main shop building features both a mentaiko boutique and a large restaurant. By night, the restaurant is a posh ryotei, but for lunch Chikae offers a prix-fixe menu at only 1,360 yen (including taxes). Limited to 500 portions per day, 7 days a week from 11 am, with no reservations allowed, we saw for ourselves upon arrival how popular this was with both locals and tourists alike. It took about 30 minutes of standing in the queue before we were admitted.

A special feature of this restaurant is sitting around these large tanks filled with all kinds of fresh live seafood, which customers can pick out and have cooked in any way they wish. Mostly not included in a budget set lunch of course, but still incredibly enticing to see! From where we were sitting, we could also see and hear the chefs in the semi-open kitchen. The atmosphere was very busy and lively, and the main dining space was mostly filled with families and local workers on their lunch break, quite different from the typical image one has in mind of luxury restaurants in Japan.

And voilà, our lunch set for the day, with grainy spicy mentaiko sauce in a tube, free to use as you like it. The intense umami and fishy aroma (akin to salted fish) can be an acquired taste, but it is really delicious especially as a topping for plain rice! I could never get enough of it!

Sashimi of maguro (tuna), tai (bream) and kanpachi (yellowtail). These thick-cut pieces with a lean and firm texture were lovely. The dark-red tuna loin, known as akami in Japan, was particularly memorable for its deep and fresh taste. The wasabi with its somewhat fibrous texture and clean taste (signs of being freshly grated) was better than most I've tried in foreign restaurants, but still rather piercingly spicy; some horseradish or cheaper spicy substitute had probably been mixed in, as most restaurants do nowadays. To be fair, I know for a fact that pure fresh wasabi is extremely expensive and I wasn't expecting it in a relatively cheap lunch.

Tempura of seafood (whiting & prawn) and vegetables (okra & sweet potato). This was pure comfort food. Despite deep-frying this dish remained very light, and the sheer freshness and natural textures of the seafood and vegetables were allowed to shine through the thin crispy batter.

Agedashi tofu. This typical Japanese side dish was alright I suppose but not particularly remarkable; I don't think I'll ever understand the point of frying something in batter then soaking it in sauce so that the batter becomes all soggy. The soft silky tofu was great though.

Simmered vegetables (daikon, eggplant, mange tout, carrot, shiitake mushroom) and beancurd skin in a light broth. This was wholesome and delicious - how do the Japanese grow such sweet and juicy vegetables?! The beancurd skin (like the Singaporean tau kwa) was also very nice with its soft and spongy texture.

Chawanmushi with flavoured crab sticks and chunks of other seafood. This savoury egg custard was very light and smooth, and the seafood generously scattered within imparted both deeper flavours and a pleasant succulent bite in each spoonful.

Crab miso soup. This was probably the most tasty and luxurious miso soup I've ever had till now; the intense umami of miso highlighted the natural sweetness of the crab simmered within the soup. There was probably about half a small crab in that bowl, and I enjoyed working my way through the shells and sucking out every last bit of that succulent flesh. Not the easiest to eat, but well worth the effort!

One last picture of those impressive tanks.

With that, we finished, paid up and continued with our sightseeing plans. This lunch took just under an hour. Service here is brisk at lunchtime, like in a typical Chinese restaurant (i.e. not really a place in which to linger) - not particularly personal or warm, but if you're just looking for something quick, good and reasonably priced, this will certainly meet your expectations. At current exchange rates, lunch in Japan doesn't get much better value-for-money than this. Highly recommended, but do come early to avoid the queues!

Shojin-ryori lunch at Enso Kitchen (Goto Restaurant), Singapore

This afternoon my family and I went for a rather unusual Japanese lunch. Of course we are no strangers to Japanese food, but today we would be having shojin-ryori (精進料理), a unique vegetarian cuisine originating in China and brought to the Zen temples of Kyoto by Japanese monks who had studied in China. True to the strict principles of Buddhism, this cuisine further prohibits the use of onion, leek, garlic and other pungent vegetables and herbs, as they are believed to arouse unnecessary emotions. Despite all these restrictions, shojin-ryori is still known for its incredibly diverse use and artful preparation of (permitted) vegetables, legumes and fruits.

Actually it wasn't our first time with this cuisine - we've had authentic shojin-ryori in Kyoto - but it was definitely a first in Singapore for all of us. The man in charge of today's lunch was Singapore-born banker-turned-chef Danny Chu, who remains to date the only Singaporean, and probably one of very few foreigners, to have studied this cuisine seriously with Japanese monks in Kyoto. He had run his shojin-ryori restaurant Enso Kitchen for a few years in Singapore before relocating to Taiwan, and although based overseas now still returns to offer his creations to fans of this unique Zen vegetarian cuisine for two weekends every quarterly. These special visits are based in Goto restaurant in the Chinatown area, which itself isn't purely vegetarian, but its Japanese owner-chef is apparently good friends with Danny Chu. Needless to say, reservations are essential, and they go out very quickly after specific dates are announced for each quarter - only 8 slots per lunch/dinner service on two Saturdays and Sundays, if I'm not wrong. We arrived with great anticipation.

The first thing that struck me about this restaurant was how many beautiful Japanese artworks were displayed. Apparently they were acquired by the original chef-owner of this restaurant upon his visits back home, and some of them are even for sale to keen diners! Unfortunately, as Danny is merely borrowing this space for his visits he couldn't sell anything, even though one or two pieces caught my eye.

Of course, it would be impossible (and unfair) to expect an exact replication of the authentic temple environment in which shojin-ryori is typically served, but in spirit this restaurant did exude a calm elegance the moment we stepped in, and set us in the right state of mind to enjoy this cuisine. Still, I kind of missed those well-appointed tatami rooms and highly pruned rock gardens. Japanese cuisines, in their most sophisticated and ideal forms, are not just about the food but also about the overall setting, with tableware, artworks and garden designs etc. to match the seasons.

Despite Singapore's tropical climate, today's lunch had been advertised as a 'winter' set, and I was eager to see how the chef would incorporate this seasonal aspect into his dishes. To start, we were served a lovely cup of genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice) with a deep nutty aroma, smooth texture and delicate astringency. Originally considered the poor person's tea due to the usage of brown rice as a filler, it was also drunk by people fasting for religious purposes - an entirely apt choice here then! The chopsticks were made of real wood (not the cheap disposable type) - can't remember when it was that I last used them in a Japanese restaurant! This place means business.

The lacquered chopstick holder didn't go unnoticed either - with a plum blossom drawn against a shimmering gold background this was all at once luxurious yet understated, and seasonally fitting.

There is no menu - everyone is served the same food which includes an appetiser, a main bento set made up of several small dishes, rice and soup, and finally, dessert.

Appetiser: shirogoma (white sesame) tofu with fresh wasabi and soy sauce.

I am used to the very firm and substantial texture of Japanese tofu (especially those served in shojin-ryori) so I was quite surprised to find out that this had an unusually chewy and doughy texture. It was also shaped like a dumpling, unlike the rectangular blocks of shojin tofu that I have seen. It was pretty and interesting in its own way but I would have preferred using the stronger and nuttier black sesame in making the tofu, so as to match the deep umami of soy sauce. Fresh wasabi provided just the right kick without the eye watering spiciness of the fake tubed versions one sees at most Japanese restaurants nowadays (even in Japan). I am always impressed when chefs make the effort to use fresh wasabi, more so when this takes place outside Japan.

Main bento

Green asparagus tips with diced tomatoes and shredded shiso. I found it somewhat strange to feature asparagus in a winter menu, but having been carefully blanched these still retained a delicate sweetness and crunchy bite. Combined with juicy diced tomatoes and green shiso leaves with their characteristic minty basil/licorice-like aroma, the whole dish felt very clean and refreshing.

Daikon with yuzu miso. Things couldn't have gotten simpler and better. This soft and incredibly sweet and juicy winter radish was paired with a touch of miso that provided a delightfully fresh and savoury edge. The balance of flavours was perfect, and if I had anything to complain about it would be that there was too little of that wonderful miso - I can never get enough of the unique citrusy taste of yuzu!

Trio of cold pickles: (from left to right) tomato and ginger, lotus root marinated with lemon, and nagaimo (Japanese mountain yam) with ume (plum) sauce. The first was sweet and mildly spicy but neither particularly interesting nor harmonious. The second was lovely; it was my first time having fresh lotus root (they are usually boiled in soups) and I found these marinated slices extremely crunchy, with a refreshing aftertaste from the lemon. The last was my favourite; naturally crunchy and gooey sticks of yam were covered in a delightful sweet-sour sauce. The combination of rich textures and clean flavours was both interesting and stimulating to the palate.

Vegetarian chawanmushi (using millet instead of eggs), with ginko nuts, mushrooms, and mashed, moulded and fried water chestnut balls. Like a rich rice pudding with as many toppings as one could squeeze in, this small cup packed a real punch with its unexpectedly substantial weight. There was a delightful myriad of textures here, and I loved the water chestnut ball best for its delicate sweetness and juicy crunch. In fact, despite the bowl's apparently luxurious contents, the dish as a whole remained very light in taste - comfort food probably doesn't get more wholesome than this.

Clear vegetable soup with dried tofu skin and mushrooms. Not the usual miso soup one expects in a Japanese meal, this was naturally sweet and full of earthy aromas. Very pleasant.

Rice with shiso. The texture of the rice was good, with well-defined individual grains and a soft sticky bite, but it could have done with more shiso topping, and it could also have been served warmer in order to fully unleash its own as well as the shiso's aromas. This felt just like any other bowl of rice, inoffensive but uninteresting.

Finally, dessert was berries, pumpkin cake and mochi (rice balls) with kinako (soybean) powder. The texture of the mochi was simply exceptional - very soft and almost melt-in-the-mouth, with none of that irritating chewiness and sticking to one's teeth. I've never had anything like it until now. The coating of kinako powder gave a pleasant roasted edge to the mochi's gentle sweet taste. By contrast, the pumpkin cake had a rich texture that was fortunately not too starchy, and a concentrated sweetness that attested to the purity of the fruit in the mix.

I loved the plate used for dessert; it represented a Japanese crane, with beak and tail feathers painted in gold - really luxurious and elegant. The crane is a traditional symbol of good fortune and longevity in Japan. How I wished I could take the plate home!

Apparently, the mochi is a specialty of Enso Kitchen and customers who come to lunch or dinner are also welcome to pre-order a maximum of one box ($18 each for 15 pieces) per person for take-away (to be consumed within 3 days since it's all freshly made with no preservatives). We didn't miss out of course, and had two boxes of this heavenly stuff waiting for us at the end of the meal.

With Danny Chu, the very amicable and down-to-earth chef.

Service this afternoon was polite and attentive, and the atmosphere was largely restful and refined - but the restaurant really could have done without piped music to promote a more Zen-like environment, with truly no distractions from the mindfulness essential in savouring this cuisine. In hindsight, I also felt that while there had been some laudable attempts to use high-quality decorative tableware, authentic shojin-ryori typically uses only plain red-and-black lacquered crockery to convey an impression of austerity, so in fact the crockery here was too elaborate and could have detracted occasionally from the subtle flavours of the food.

At $45 before taxes, the set menu might seem rather pricey by Singaporean standards (especially for vegetarian food), but it is actually commensurate with what is charged at Japanese temples. One also needs to take into account the oft-underestimated skill involved in preparing these seemingly simple dishes. Although the produce for this meal wasn't all procured from Japan (for logistic and economic reasons), their quality was still well above that of the food served at most vegetarian restaurants in Singapore. Even though I still think that nothing beats having shojin-ryori in Kyoto, I would recommend this to anyone seeking a unique Japanese dining experience in Singapore. Look out for Danny's next visit on Enso's website!

Christmas Eve dinner at Hide Yamamoto, Singapore

The blog has been dormant for a while now since my return to Singapore, and what better way to revive it than through a review of the fine meal I had over this festive season! On Christmas Eve I visited Hide Yamamoto restaurant with family for my first good dinner since relocation. It was a treat from my aunt. This restaurant is located on the second floor of one of our local casinos Marina Bay Sands, thankfully sheltered from the loud and smoky main gambling space below. The second floor also houses other celebrity restaurants, not surprising considering the moneyed casino crowd.

I didn't know much about Yamamoto except for the fact that he was trained in France and Italy, and is the owner of a couple of Italian restaurants in Tokyo. This Singapore restaurant is his first foreign outpost. The spacious establishment is divided into five sections serving different types of Japanese cuisines (sushi, teppanyaki, robatayaki, ramen and sake & shochu bar), and parties with different preferences are allowed to sit in any of the preferred sections. The restaurant also serves a seasonal kaiseki in limited sets, and only by reservation. I would have loved to try the kaiseki but by the time my aunt made the reservation, the allocated sets for Christmas Eve dinner had all been taken, which was a pity. The staff also didn't tell her that people who wanted to eat sushi (the next best thing to me) would have to sit at the sushi counter for the sake of freshness of delivery, which caused some initial confusion upon arrival, but at least the manager did personally apologise to her for his staff's oversight. We were all in a good mood so we just left it at that, but this is one detail that the restaurant does need to highlight to future customers. As the elders in my family were all going for teppanyaki (they do not take raw food) it made no sense for the whole party to relocate to the sushi section just for my sake, so I simply went with the flow and joined them in whatever they would be having.

I cannot say that I wasn't a little skeptical of how good this restaurant's outwardly Japanese offerings could be, considering that the chef patron's training and business are mainly in Italian cuisine, not the Japanese staples. Still, I approached this dinner with as much openness as I could muster.

We found ourselves round a large teppanyaki counter, where a chef would be assigned to cook for us this evening. The most distinctive feature of teppanyaki cuisine is the live searing of food on a stainless steel top, often in a flamboyant manner - originating from way before restaurants in the Western world discovered the magic of open kitchens. I remember being mesmerised by teppanyaki's fun and lively cooking demonstrations as a child, as if attending a culinary circus. It had been ages since I had had a good teppanyaki meal, so I was looking forward to what they might come up with here!

We went for the set menu which features a variety of seafood and other side dishes. These were an assortment of appetisers including beef flakes with goat's cheese, prawn with caviar, salmon sashimi, and a mixed green salad with bonito flakes and sesame dressing. Pleasant, but not particularly interesting except for the beef with goat's cheese which had a rich creamy texture and some lovely deep flavours to kick-start the palate.

The variety of dips served to go with the rest of the dinner were impressive though! These included sesame & mustard sauce, Himalayan pink salt, deep fried garlic chips, ponzu with oroshi, and soy sauce with fresh wasabi (so difficult to come by outside Japan!).

Gindara (black cod), perfectly seared on the outside for a lovely caramelised edge, and cooked just right to preserve all its natural juices, soft flaky texture and rich oily flavour.

Salmon, mashed potato and egg mayonnaise with a dash of mustard. Like the previous cod, very well seared, nicely browned on the outside, with flaky and oily flesh. The accompaniments were lovely - a chunky and creamy egg mayonnaise with a touch of spice complemented the rich taste of the salmon very well, while the smooth and buttery mashed potato contributed an apt weight to this dish.

Chawanmushi (steamed savoury egg custard) with black truffle and a fresh uni (sea urchin) topping. This was to die for! The smooth and feather-light texture of the egg belied a deep earthy fragrance from a black truffle infusion as well as bits of black truffle within the custard. The sea urchin was the jewel in the crown with its light creamy texture and sweet umami.

Hokkaido scallop and Malaysian tiger prawn. They were both very sweet and juicy, with a pleasant firm bite. A nice squeeze of lemon was all that was needed to heighten the fresh natural flavours of the seafood.

Our chef for the evening, Yohei-san.

Fresh lobsters - look at all that clear translucent flesh and sweet creamy roe within! Just like the earlier scallops and prawns, only a dash of lemon juice was needed to enhance its delicate umami. The roe was, needless to say, heavenly.

Assorted vegetables. The quick searing was a great idea as it sealed in all their juices and preserved their natural crunch, in addition to providing a deep caramelised edge. The eggplant coming from Japan in particular had a very sweet taste and a texture that was both juicy and creamy - too bad there was only such a small slice of it!

Zuwai kani kamameshi (snow crab rice), a traditional Japanese rice dish that has been cooked in a kama (iron pot). This was lovely - the fresh shredded crab was extremely sweet and the ankake sauce (a traditional Japanese thick sauce) with which the rice had been mixed provided a delightful umami, while shimeji mushrooms further enhanced the rice with earthy aromas and a nice juicy crunch. The whole dish was flavourful, balanced and sophisticated. This was a very close contender for my favourite dish of the evening, together with the chawanmushi earlier.

Kagoshima A4 wagyu sirloin. Look at that beautiful marbling! My mouth was watering as I heard the meat sizzle.

The meat was seared to a beautiful medium rare consistency. The juices were oozing with each bite and the meat had a rich fatty taste. Lovely.

Garlic fried rice with miso soup. This was actually the only disappointing course of the evening, as I found the rice somewhat soggy and bland. It could at least have done with more garlic. The miso soup had a deeper and more intense flavour, definitely of a higher quality than those found in run-of-the-mill Japanese restaurants, but it is just miso soup after all.

Desserts were predominantly Western-styled, occasionally with Japanese twists. They were also very festively designed! We ordered one each, and between the six of us covered all the seasonal offerings.

This was a chocolate soufflé with a touch of Grand Marnier surrounded by crème anglaise, and vanilla ice cream on a crushed wafer base. The contrast in temperatures between the warm soufflé and the ice cream was delightfully stimulating for the palate. The moist spongy shell also concealed a lovely rich molten chocolate centre. The only Japanese aspect here was a sprinkling of finely crushed matcha biscuits, which provided an apt bitter complement to the chocolatey intensity of this dessert. I did feel that this dessert would have fit much better in a French restaurant, though of course there was nothing wrong with it per se.

This was matcha tiramisu with chocolate and meringue. More like a parfait than a tiramisu, the mascarpone appeared as a solid block of ice cream, topped with roughly crushed matcha biscuits, another matcha ice cream, and chocolate biscuit strips. Swirls of chocolate cream and crushed meringue pieces surrounded the 'tiramisu'. This dessert was pretty and pleasant enough but I thought it was more style over substance. It was too one-dimensional in texture (felt like an ice-cream cake), and was definitely nowhere near an authentic representation of a tiramisu.

This was mango pudding with vanilla ice cream and jellied balls of watermelon and rock melon. Probably the most Singaporean/tropical dessert of the menu, this was solid enough but also lacked any particular interest or sophistication. The real chunks of mango within the pudding were a lovely touch though.

Finally, this was a Japanese re-interpretation of the classic French Mont Blanc, with chestnut cream, kinako (roasted soybean) cream, kinako ice cream, chocolate coated chestnut sponge and chestnut meringue, and swirls of chestnut purée. The chestnut cream and purée were intense, with a full-bodied nutty taste, but fortunately not too sweet. The very Japanese pairing with kinako was entirely apt, with its delicate sweet roasted taste permeating the ice cream as well as two smaller mounds of light cream. This was probably the most sophisticated dessert of the evening, artfully deconstructed yet retaining strong references to the French original.

The service tonight had been very good. Our chef Yohei-san was a man of few words but he did his job behind the teppanyaki counter very well. The food he cooked had generally been very good (except maybe for the garlic rice) and the timing of courses had been just right, so that we could still chat amongst ourselves and eat at a comfortable pace. The other staff were similarly attentive but not obstrusive; for example, our tea cups were being constantly refilled, and there was at least one server stationed close to our table at any time throughout the dinner.

However, I still couldn't help feeling that this whole experience hadn't exactly been good value for money, even though the freshness and quality of ingredients were beyond doubt. Notwithstanding the restaurant's location in a casino, the portion sizes were really quite small, and teppanyaki is after all a pretty uniform style of cooking with not much complexity in seasoning / accompaniments / presentation needed, so once in a while I did catch myself thinking 'okay, it's all great but what next?'. The starters and some of the desserts which came from the main kitchen were also rather lacklustre - nicely plated but lacking real ingenuity in the composition of flavours and textures. Perhaps I have been spoilt by restaurants overseas, but when the bill runs to well over $250 per person after taxes, it might not be unreasonable to expect food that transcends the merely solid. For these reasons I hesitate to say that I will return any time soon (the same price usually gets me an amazing Michelin-starred tasting menu overseas) but perhaps the raw stuff or seasonal dishes here might be truly stellar - all I need now is a windfall from the heavens!