Sakuraya - 4th October 2012

Jon had set himself a mission to redeem his tarnished reputation as BMC prezzie, owing to his abject failure caused by his sloppy choice of "majestic" the last time round. And so, just like the garden variety Honda Civic has its souped up Type-R version, Jon declared that this week's BML will also be "e'special", and so the BML Type-R (R for redemption) was born.

For this redemption lunch, we were offered an elevated S$100 max spend per head (he had already excluded Dann since he knew Dann would be away for holiday in Italy) and he solicited ideas from the members.  There were suggestions such as trying out the S$80++ set lunch at Tong Le Private Dining, or a restaurant at the new W hotel in Sentosa, or some other overpriced set lunch at some other establishment. We collectively declined all the above suggestions as we felt that having a set lunch on a redemption meal just would not do, plus based on our experience, a set lunch will never result in us having made full use of the potential S$100 max cap.

We finally decided on Jap and made a request for a S$100 nett omakase set lunch at Sakuraya. The main chef there known as "Khor-san" agreed to concoct a meal at that budget just for us 5.

Upon arrival, we were seated at the L shaped edge of the sushi counter, wherein Khor-san immediately instructed the waitress to take our order for drinks. Shortly after, we were served our starter dish which was a salad trio or edamame, tomato and cabbage topped with japanese dressing, and a shot glass full of mild vinegar filled with what i think is Junsai tips/shoots, which is an aquatic plant. The edamame and tomatoes were standard fare, but the junsai tips was exquisite. It had a slippery gel like coating around the shoots, but was crunchy to the bite. We were instructed to drink it in one mouthful and then to finish off with the sweet pickled white radish that came with it.

The next dish was our sashimi dish. This was a dish that had to be prepared on the spot fresh, and we were delighted to watch as our meal was skillfully prepared. The large wild sea prawns were first de-shelled and then placed one each into a small dish and then kept in the chiller. 

Following this, the chef then prepared thick slices of hamachi (yellowtail), kanpachi (greater amberjack) and otoro (tuna belly). 

For the otoro, he then seared each slice on one side with a blow torch. Finally he took out a pre-seasoned bowl of aji (mackerel) and divided it out into 5 portions. 

We were then served individually, with each platter accompanied with a light sauce infused with sesame seeds and fresh wasabi. We were advised not to throw away the prawn head as this would be deep fried as a side dish for later.

Needless to say, the fish and prawn were extremely fresh. The prawn was sweet and crunchy in a way no farmed prawn ever is. 

The hamachi and kanpachi were delicious with a good bite to it owing to the thickness of the slices. The otoro was also delightfully tasty and was coated in an oily film released by the torching of the fish. 

The aji was also well seasoned and fresh. There was fairly little of the strong fishy flavour you encounter with raw mackerel that can be a little off-putting at times. It was very well paired with the light sauce and sesame seasoning.

The next course was a cooked dish of scallop that had been diced and seasoned and then coated with what i think was mayonnaise and cheese and then seared to an outer crisp. This was accompanied with iceberg lettuce leaves, and we were instructed to use the leaves to as a wrap for the scallop fillings. The crunchy lettuce wrap was good with the slightly salty and creamy scallop filling.

The following cooked dish was cooked beef slices, which sat on a bed of aubergines and topped with sliced cabbage and sweet peas. The beef was tender and flavourful, and the combination with the soft aubergine, crunchy cabbage and sweet peas provided excellent texture. Extra points however has to be given to this dish owing to the fantastic sauce that came with the dish. It was a rich thick salty sweet sauce that went wonderfully with the beef.

At this point, we were also served the prawn head (from our earlier sashimi course) that was fried till crispy. The heads were fantastic with a light spinkling of lemon. It would have been perfect if we had some beer to go along with it. We gobbled up the entire head, including the eyes, front legs and all without a morsel left.

For the final course we were offered either a handroll or a noodle dish. I requested for Khor-san to let us have the inaniwa udon for the noodle dish. So between the 5 of us, we had 3 handrolls and 2 inaniwa udons. 

The handrolls were simply filled with shrimp roe, avocado, crabsticks and cucumber. It was well made with the seaweed crispy, although taste wise it was nothing out of the ordinary. 

As for the noodles, the texture was smooth and al-dente to the bite. Given a choice again, I would have selected the noodles in place of the handroll.

With the meal ended, we were offered complimentary ice cream to finish off, to which we ordered yuzu ice cream and green tea.

The damage was S$500.20, and although that was not quite japanese precision, it was close enough to the paymaster's stipulated S$500 budget cap that he willingly paid up in full without getting a refund of 20 cents from the rest of us. (Thanks for the generosity Jon!) Overall this was a very good meal, and suffice to say, met up to the redemption levels required to erase some of the ugly stains caused by Jon's previous errors. Despite not having much starch (as we usually do with ample bread rolls, fried rice etc), we all felt amply full post lunch, which i think is thanks to the significant amount of quality protein we consumed. So in summary, if S$100 for lunch is what its got to be, then this joint will be is a worthy choice for your $$$.

By: Club Scribe

Yakinikutei AO-Chan 27th July 2012

This is my first time I have taken over the reins from the official club scribe in view that it was “Veg” Choi turn to buy.  The restaurant under review today is Yakinikutei Ao-Chan which is situated at Level 2, Concorde hotel (formely known as Hotel Meridien & Shopping Centre).  I was personally looking forward to this venue as I had never previously ate at any other Japanese eateries other than the usual sushi and ramen joints.

Once we reached, veg did the ordering as he has personally eaten here a number of times and had mentioned that this place was better than Gyu-Kaku despite the fact that I have never eaten at either one of these places. Anyway, back to the food!!!!!!!. As most of the items on the menu are raw, the food came pretty quickly.

This is a snapshot of what we ordered and how I felt about each dish.

Dann being the buddahigh he is, ordered the non beef set, which basically came with the following items, prawns, scallop, pork harami and lamb. I was fortunate enough to sample everything and was quite impressed with the set. The food was pretty good. Fresh and juicy.

The raw beef sashimi served with raw egg yolk brought back memories as the last time I ate this was when I was in university in Oz. The beef was juicy and well marinated. Definitely a must try !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Veg ordered two different sorts of ox tongue which he mentioned was really good. Initially, I was a bit skeptica with regards to eating tongue but both the marinated ox tongue as well as the shoi negi (salted) ox tongue turned out better than expected. 

The texture of the meat was comparable to bacon minus the fats. Once dipped with a bit of home made Ao chan sauce, it tasted even better.

The beefs were next, we ordered belly prime beef cubes, wagyu harami and the belly prime set. 

The belly prime cubes were fantastic. It had the right amount of fat and really melts in your mouth. 

The wagyu harami were well marinated and once served was snapped up within minutes. 

The belly prime set was basically thinly sliced beef which had great marbling and tasted really good.

Despite Yakinikutei Ao-Chan being infamous for its beef, its pork belly and pork harami turned out to be great as well. Businessman felt that the pork belly and pork harami were even better than the beef that we ordered.

The mushrooms that we ordered and the salad that came with Dann set were ordinary. But overall I give this place a thumbs up and another commendable effort from veg for choosing this place.

The total damage came up to S$348.50.  However, judging from the faces of the members it was well worth it.

By: Ass Club Scribe aka "Erap II"

Nadaman 13th July 2012

This is the first of a 2 part lunch series which sees the exit of one of our founding members – the infamous Michael Cheung Tsun Wai, more lovingly known in circles as Maigai or MG for short.

The night before was a mini advanced celebration of the birthday of Erap II, and as usual, I was accused of hatching a sinister plan to encourage his utmost alcohol intoxication at the pool bar so as to ensure his inability to turn up for work, and thus more importantly for BML the next day. Against this baseless accusation, I have decided to set the record straight. Erap II basically intoxicated himself with 8 bottles of Corona (I actually counted 7, but let’s give the man the benefit of doubt here) over 4 hours. So that’s like just over a pint of beer an hour, and he was plastered. Let’s just say a lady colleague of ours half his size had just as much and made it nicely to work the next day.

So we arrived without too much fuss and given the menu selection and budgetary limits set by MG (S$60 per pax), we all decided to select the Chef’s seasonal menu “Hiru Kaiseki” version, with the exception businessman who decided for a combo meal of Chicken Katsu and Teriyaki Gindara (Cod).

The appetizers for our seasonal menu were a combo or blanched green vegetables, minced fish with stewed root vegetables, and a tofu like custard. The green vegetables and minced fish are pretty standard Japanese fare, and the quality is as expected from most well established Japanese restaurants. But the tofu was something a little more special, with a smooth and firm texture, almost like a softer version of Japanese jelly, and had a taste that was a little sweeter than tofu but still mild.

Next up was the clear soup. The soup had a deep rich and somewhat smokey flavour, and someone commented it tasted a bit like Bovril, although I am pretty sure there were no bovine parts used in the making of the soup. I suspect that there may have been the use of dried smoked seafood delicacies in its creation. Overall, I consider this quite a special soup in my opinion. Accompanying the soup was a caked cube of what I think is a mixture of mushroom shreds, fish paste and egg. It had the texture of dense tamago and was quite delicious.

We were then served the sashimi, which were basically several slices of Hamachi (yellowtail) and Maguro (tuna). I’d say that the fish were acceptably fresh, but not quite the standards of what we’ve experienced in other Japanese BML sessions.

Following this was grilled cod fish. The fish was excellent. It was fresh, rich, smooth, and cooked perfectly. The seasoning was just right and not overpowering.

Next up was the simmered dish paired with the rice, pickles and miso soup. The pickles and miso was standard fare.

The rice however was not your typical white Japanese rice, but the brown version, which is slightly firmer in texture and a little more flavourful and a bit less sticky. It’s probably healthier too.

The simmered dish was actually a mix of figs and root vegetables that had been battered and fried and then left to simmer in the sauce, which tasted a bit like a mix of tempura sauce with some added light soy sauce and sweet vinegar. I thought this dish was quite interesting, but most of the boys were not too enchanted by it. I think they were expecting some seafood pieces, but were disappointed that it wasn’t. Also, the method of frying the veggies/fruits in batter and then simmering resulted in a soggy batter crust surrounding the pieces. I think it was meant to be this way so that it soaked up the sauce, but they were not impressed. I suppose the conventional expectation when you see batter is that it should be crispy, and if it isn’t, then it’s a thumb down.

The final course was desert which (if I remember) was a think creamed jelly with raspberry sauce. The pairing was very good with the creamy jelly nicely matched with the slightly sweet and yet tart raspberry sauce. It was delicious.

As for businessman's selections, his teriyaki cod fish was also excellent, and perhaps a tad more excellent than the version that was served in our seasonal set. It was also bigger, but of course made a lot more smaller by the rest of us wanting to "taste" his dish (since his grilled fish was served before ours).

His Chicken katsu was also delicious and had a nice crispy batter and was quite a generous serving. Dijon mustard was served on the side which I felt did not go so well with it. I would have preferred English mustard. The chicken was well coated, and the batter was tasty and crispy, but not quite as good as the battered up pork cutlet you get at Tonkichi in my view. MG actually felt that it tasted a bit like the battered and fried crispy chicken pieces you get at the Taiwanese street snack chain Shihlin!!!!! I disagreed and thought that this was surely better.

The final damage came to S$370 after a 15% discount with a POSB/DBS credit card. The overall review by the party was that the food was quite good but not blow away great and other than the soup and possibly desert, was not extraordinarily special.

I mentioned that we should have gone for teppanyaki instead, which is what they are more famous for. Jon immediately countered to MG on whether his 2nd exit lunch will be here again for teppanyaki, to which MG flatly refused. The party then reminded MG that we were all expecting a magnificent final exit lunch at our next gathering, something of the order of when he once brought us to our encounter with Buddha!

By: Club Scribe

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant - 9th February 2012

“So, there will be winners and there will be losers…… but the important thing is that the overall gains of the winners outweigh that of the losers….”

A paraphrased excerpt from comment made by senior minister emeritus GCT (circa 2011).

And so that was how the day and our story began. To provide some context and as a refresher, everyone who was not on board a place to HK was seriously looking forward to this week’s BML bonanza brought forth by the additional promised S$100 spending by Dann as well as the unfortunate disappearance of MG from this week’s dining scene. (Mathematically, the minimum EUR30/pax was now worth a whopping S$80/pax, which makes attending this meal almost 60% more valuable in SGD terms then attending our standard garden variety BMLs)

Dann had decided that the anointed venue should be either Sabai at Takashimaya (the last time we appeared there was like 2 years ago) or Crystal Jade Golden Palace at Paragon. He had (as per club directives) sent out his email to the right recipients at the right time suggesting a vote on either venue for us for THURSDAY 9^th Feb, which is a slight change from our usual choice of Friday. After a flurry of emails, it was decided that Crystal Jade Golden Palace would be the lucky establishment that will be hosting our party.

Jon being the designated driver decided that it would be more cost effective to ferry the smaller party in a single cab than driving and so off we went towards orchard road. Whilst hopping into the cab, Jon mentioned to Collin to contact businessman to inform him that the final agreed destination was Crystal Jade and not Sabai, so as to avoid the possibility of him turning up at the wrong venue. It was at this moment that our dear Jason Lau went berserk on the phone claiming that he was not informed on the change of the date. He was apparently furious on this turn of events and personally called Jon the president to appeal for a postponement of this week’s BML, saying that we had previously confirmed that it was set for a Friday and that he was not informed of the change to Thursday.

Against this claim, Jon, CC and myself immediately discussed the merits of this appeal, and felt that Jason’s claims were unfounded as :

1.       Dann had clearly sent out the email more than 48 hours before the lunch date

2.       All the email addresses of intended recipients were correct

3.      There is nothing in the original constitution or amendments which disallowed a BML to be conducted on a day other than Friday.

Given the above, it was obvious that businessman was simply crying over spilt milk (notwithstanding that it was definitely going to be sweet and creamy for this BML), and so we decided to put it to a vote to see if there were enough votes in his favour to change the course of history.

As we all well know from the result of MG’s futile attempt at a free lunch last week, the outcome for Jason’s appeal obviously came out no differently.  With a total of 7 votes available amongst 6 members (Prezzie has 2), a total of 4 votes were necessary to swing the appeal in Jason’s favour. Counting the votes of MG and Jason, only an additional 2 votes were actually needed. Unfortunately, despite the claimed magnanimity of some of our members, the needed 2 votes did not come to pass, and Jason was left to wallow in fury, hunger and self pity.

Being the shrewd members that we were, we realized that the bonanza had just morphed into a bigger bonanza, with just 4 members splitting the loot of S$400! We quickly called Dann to change the venue to Tatsuya, since such high per capita spending could only be justified with over-priced Japanese cuisine.

Owing to our last minute arrangement, we were offered only the outside seating area, and Dann being uncharacteristically sharp, was quick to demand from us for a waiver of the air-conditioning criteria for BML. Without hesitation, the waiver was granted unanimously and at lightning speed.

Upon seating, we were presented with the ala carte as well as set menu. For people on a budget, the lunch set menu at Tatsuya actually provides reasonably good value with most sets hovering around the S$30 level.  Value of course was not what we were after for this session, and we quickly decided to settle in on the S$55 Chirashizushi from the ala carte menu as our main.

In addition, we added 3 other orders which were the fried oysters (kaki furai), fried chicken (wakatori age) and the icouldnotcatchthename sushi platter which was not on the menu and was highly recommended for S$125 by the kimono clad waitress.

The chirashizushi was wonderfully presented with ingredients like salmon, yellow tail, tuna, tuna belly, scallop, salmon roe, swordfish, sweet prawn, eel, crab sticks, pickles and tamago (egg) set on a bed of pearly sweet rice topped with seaweed. 

It was an 8/10 for presentation, taste and freshness. My personal preference is for Aoki’s version of chirashizushi, although Dann begged to differ. His parting remark to our debate on which was better ended with… “I suppose I did not like Aoki as much as I did not have the premium set there!”

As for the fried chicken, no complains here, it was crispy on the outside and still moist on the inside. But this was one of the dishes that was ordered (together with the oysters) to make up the numbers.

Notwithstanding that however, the fried oysters were quite a treat. As usual, CC again gave his “actually this oyster is quite nice. It doesn’t really have the oyster taste”. I was like what the #$%^*@ kinda comment is that?!? It was a rerun of his pork that does not taste like pork comment at La Strada. I suppose next time I’ll blindfold him and offer him fish and say that it’s actually chicken and he’ll probably say… “whoa this chicken is really good cos it doesn’t have the chicken taste….”

Finally, the icouldnotcatchthename arrived, and we were presented with 10 different seared (with a blow torch) sushi‘s that were apparently a house specialty. As they were all different, I did not get to taste all of them, but suffice to say that it was good but not fantastic. Each sushi also seemed on the small side although that could have been the result of the searing. But at a price of S$12.50 each excluding service and taxes, this was one helluva inflated dish that is not worth a re-order unless you just won the Toto.

All in all, it was a good meal, no complaints except that the quantity was a tad on the light side, and so, on we were to the trusty Ya Kun Kaya Toast for coffee, eggs and toast.

Whilst having coffee there was a debate on who was the biggest bastardo (being born out of wedlock in Italian) in this affair? We collectively agreed that minus the losers (MG and Businessman), as well as leaving out the paymaster since he had nothing to gain as the agreed spend was already fixed, the king bastardo title had to be won by either of the 3 winners, Jon, CC or me. We were unanimous in our agreement that Jon had to be the biggest since he is the holder of 2 votes and could have single handedly altered the course of history had he chose to. So yes Mr President, you are now also the club title holder for King Bastardo.

And so, of the 3 winners (Jon, CC and myself), the spoils.... the total damage for the day as S$401.45 for the lunch and an additional S$12.80 for coffee and toast.

As at press time, Dann still owes me S$2.70 and S$0.10 to Jon, for the shortfall on the coffee and toast (Dann please see picture as evidence). Being the nice person that i was, i offered to waive the 70 cents and just collect S$2 from Dann, but upon hearing this, Jon would have none of it and demanded that his 10 cents be paid back in full as "it was the principle of the matter and not the amount!" So much for magnanimity from our club president...I think mercenary is more befitting.

By: Club Scribe