Singapore - Aoki

The stairs down to where it all happens was almost like going into one of the Prada stores in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui where there is an anticipation of things to come... we were lead to our seats at the sushi counter so we can also be entertained by the chefs at creation.

The menu was pretty extensive with seasonal offerings also so we took a while to place our order.. during this time, we felt the discomfort of being watched over by 3 to 4 wait staff... the attentiveness was just a tad overdone, where a slight twitch of the body resulted in someone bending over and a "yessir" or "yes maam". I never thought I'd say this but we were grateful when the restaurant started filling up and the wait staff to guest ratio was no longer 3 to 1.

Surprisingly, the food came fast and furious, which was unlike the inital deliberate service. We couldn't eat fast enough, especially the hot food, which got cold pretty quickly from a healthy draft.

We started with the baby squid in miso sauce - tender, fresh squid with the sweet miso, which was not cloying. Good start to break the hunder pangs from 3 solid hours of tennis. The uni or sea urchin served in its own thorny shell was spoonfuls of creamy goodness with just enough hint of the brininess to keep you thinking of the sea. The Ayu (sweet fish) tempura was a combination of light batter with the natural sweetness of the fish and did not feel oily or heavy at all. My main event was my chef's sushi platter which was a selection of the choicest cuts over well marinated sushi rice. Of worthy mention was the sea eel, which was seared just right and painted with just enough sauce, as well as the fatty tuna roll, which was a nice blend of chopped tuna and chives rolled and chopped into 6 bite-sized pieces. I ended the meal with sakura ice cream, almost as light as a sorbet, and at the mistakenly charged price of $56, has got to be one of the most expensive in the world. Thankfully, that mistake was caught and I have since seen my refund on the recent credit card bill.

The meal did end with a record time of exactly an hour, but perhaps the chef was training for the F1 race this September...

Bangalore, India

Given my challenged digestive system, I avoid Indian food most of the time... except of course when I'm in India. On a recent work trip, 2 places are worthy of mention both for the unusualness of the cuisine (outside of India that is).

The first is Karavalli at the Taj Gateway Hotel, said to be one of the best, if not the best seafood restaurant in Bangalore, serving up varied seafood dishes from Southern Coastal India. Stepping into Karavalli is said to be like stepping back in time into a Mangalorian home. Antique furniture and decor only served to add to the suspense that this place likes to do things in the good old fashioned way especially when it comes to the cooking. The menu is extensive and has the most seafood dishes I have ever seen on an Indian menu. We had a sampling of tiger prawns and fish for appetisers, which were deliciously light. The main course was a thali - set meal with Indian breads, a variety of curries and sauces, served on a banana leaf platter. All of this washed down with a lime soda with sugar made for long afternoon of meetings back in the hot humid afternoon - NOT!

The second is Zaman at the Ista Hotel. Zaman, a fine dining Indian restaurant with a contemporary decor serving North Indian food. Not too stuffy given its glass showcase of mouth-watering kebabs! Great place to relax and have a great meal, minus the singer, who by my Indian colleagues' standards, was killing the poultry without the need for a knife. Our attempts to be polite failed and we finally insisted on moving to a quieter corner, when the captain told us that she has been paid to continue singing for the night. The restaurant was promoting Punjabi cuisine when we visited but still had its regular menu. We had 2 curries of chicken and lamb, which were both excellent, as well as a spinach puree with generous cubes of cottage cheese. The naans were soft and served straight from the tandoor, making for a satisfying way to fill ourselves for a great night's sleep back in our rooms, without needing to brave the Bangalore traffic once again.

Las Vegas, USA - ARDA

The ARDA (American Resort Development Association) Conference Week is upon us again and the conference which all shared ownership players congregate at the industry's largest global conference is back at the Venetian on Las Vegas Blvd. And this is one hectic week of meetings, seminars, and of course, meal after meal after meal with my great colleagues from the global team.

In the US, I realise that old ways still withstand the test of time and after many years, the cold seafood platter is still a popular starter... so much so that I had it every single night I was there (or rather, it was ordered for us every night). Living in Asia, I don't realise how spoilt I am that I don't have to eat frozen seafood. In the US, unfortunately, even the most succulent lobster or crab claw has to be thawed before being poached. I guess that's where the cocktail sauce and tabasco come in handy.

I ate at some pretty good places this time and wanted to capture them here so I don't forget. I got in only 4 hours late on the first night despite a bad experience with US Air, thanks to some nice fellow passengers who got me on a pleasant Virgin flight, without whom I would have been waiting at the San Francisco airport for 10 hours! Again, living in Singapore and Hong Kong, these things are not commonplace and when they do happen, you are in a great state of the art facility with enough shops and restaurants to keep you distracted from the frustration at hand. Anyhow, I did make it to dinner at the Grand Luxe Cafe (which I will end up again) inside the Venetian for a humongous chicken pot pie, which was a fluffy crust over a large bowl of creamy chicken. Hearty food which hit the spot after approximately 19 hours of travel time.

The first day was an enjoyable great weather day at the Angel Creek golf course hanging out with my colleagues rather than really golfing. Just the bonding time and laughter made lugging my golf set 10,000 miles worth it. While we never made it for a massage, we did have a great dinner at Aqua Knox (also inside the Venetian) where the attractions are not the size of the portions! An extensive menu of predominantly interesting seafood dishes, I had the lobster bisque and fillet mignon. The bisque was creamy yet light and flavoured with a touch of cognac, taking any heaviness from the cream totally away. The fillet mignon was perfectly executed pink and oh-so-tender. I would have finished it all if not for my brain getting the better of me to stop me from suffering the consequences of overeating.

Lunch at the Enoteca San Marco (St Marks' Square at the Venetian) was a nice change from the usual cold cut sandwiches we have to suffer for the usual work-through lunch meetings. With an authentic southern Italian menu, boasting of a guhzillion cheeses, it was disappointing that we could not indulge. I settled for the pasta with rape and sausage, a Sicilian specialty. Healthy for the rape (lacking in real greens - salads not in the count) and tasty for the home-made sausage, and accompanied by very al dente pasta, it was an excellent lunch dish for its lightness.

To watch Cirque de Soleil's Ka at the MGM Grand, we made reservations to dine at Emeril's at the MGM to save any travel time, especially with the horrendous traffic on the Boulevard. Emeril's is Cajun in style with a menu heavy on seafoods. It was here I decided to try Gumbo for the first time. I also reaffirmed my dislike for the sliminess of okra which made the dish too gunky for me. While I was told that it wasn't all too authentic, I don't really care to try gumbo again for the okra factor. My meal was made all the better by the crab cakes and the mac and cheese with bits of smokey ham. The Ka adventure took us about 2 hours and taking the monorail back to the Venetian (cleverly beating the post show taxi crowd), we rewarded ourselves with a huge piece of choc fudge cake and bananas foster back at the Grand Luxe Cafe.

No trip to the US is complete without a burger and I had my fix back at the Grand Luxe. Getting over some hiccups with service and delayed food arrivals, I happily tucked into it and completely neutralised the hour-long workout prior. oh well, back to the drawing board...

My last night - and we booked into Postrio's - Wolfgang Puck's cafe at the Venetian. By this time, it's been too much eating and I decided to skip the main course and just wait for dessert. I was not disappointed. The chocolate souffle was well worth the wait and is probably one of the best I've ever had with a vanilla sauce when poured straight into the souffle, made heaven seem that much closer...

Hong Kong - Hana Sakazuki

One of the rare finds in Causeway Bay which never ceases to disappoint. Although more known for its teppanyaki fare, Hana Sakazuki is accomplished in almost every department. Its sushi is one of the best in town, with traditional and new concept creations, which if nothing else, is by far the freshest and always cut immaculately. Every piece is melt in your mouth goodness. My favourites are the toro (tuna belly), hamachi (yellow tail) and the foie gras sushi topped with balsamic sauce.

Cooked food items like the crispy conger eel bone, the teppanyaki meats and the grilled skewer of ox tongue are always gratifying - always succulent and never overdone. If you prefer something softer, the ox tongue wrapped in cedar with an interesting sauce with a sweet miso base and sprigs of spring onion is an exciting burst of flavour.

If you have room for more (and we always do!) the 3 best alternatives to carbo load are the creamy spagetti with cod roe, the grilled beef on rice bowl, or special order of beef with inaniwa udon soup.

While most Japanese restaurants stick with a limited menu of dessert, Hana Sakazuki offers a very competent warm chocolate cake with liquid centre, which is up there with the best continental restaurants, and is worth the calories to end the meal on a bittersweet note.

Singapore - new jewels

You would think that working in the CBD area in Singapore, there is no end of choices for lunch. However, stepping out of PWC Building on Cross Street, the perrenial question is always where to go. Unless you want to sweat it out in drycelan-only office garb in the 2 excellent hawker centres at Telok Ayer and Hong Lim Centre, there really isn't much else to shout about.

However, when I was there last week, I did chance upon 2 new possible jewels. They both merit a return visit so that more can be sampled from the menu.

The first is Satowa - a new Japanese hole in the wall at the end of China Square (nearer Hong Lim Centre) serving Hokkaido cuisine. I had the ramen in a shoyu broth. Very tasty and the noodles were al dente. The cha-siew was a little tough but not overly so and the generous bamboo shoots and shredded Japanese spring onion added to the crunch.

The second is Old Shanghai - a coffee shop type environ on Temple Street. It had obviously been reviewed several times before judging from the various articles posted at shop front. We ordered the Shanghainese specialties of drunken chicken, meat and vegetable dumplings in soup and fried baby bok choi. Everything was very competent and not very oily at all, as is the case with Shanghainese food generally. A welcome change!

The drunken chicken was tender and had enough of the Hua Diao wine without being overpowering. The winner in my opinion was the dumplings which were very al dente, with a good balance of minced meat and chopped vegetables stuffed in there - a meal in itself which even Grandma would be proud of. My colleague was also impressed enough with the Zhejiang imported vinegar to bring one home with her.

When I am next back in Singapore, I wil try out these 2 places again and take more off the menu. Hopefully, they are good enough to elevate to gem status.

Singapore - Wahiro

I hadn't been back to Wahiro at the Katong Mall in a while. Tonight, I felt a sense of loss... while the offerings are still competent as mid-scale Japanese restaurants go in Singapore, the lack of touch by Hozumi Kazuhiro was sorely missed. Kazuhiro san who spends most, if not all his time at his newer Goldhill Plaza outlet, seems to have neglected his first child.

Cardinal sins of unchewable pieces of hamachi and flying fish, sometimes with bones sticking out, speak to the inexperience of the chef in waiting. This local chappy is such a nice guy and understands what to recommend and is an almost adorable baby face over the sushi bar but his lack of years come through, especially when it gets busy, and he has to rush through his routine. The freshness of the fish was never in question, especially since it just flew in earlier today.

The cooked food was still good and the new creation of crab meat and crayfish tempura roll was light yet tasty and filled with the freshness of the crustaceans who died for it. However, it looks like I still have to make the drive to Goldhill Plaza to feel and taste the love of Kazuhiro san... unless he chooses to invest in one as seasoned as he to take over the reins in the East...

... lest more of us begin to question the price of expansion. And for a restaurant, quality assurance is certainly too high a price to pay.

Hong Kong - H-One

The more upscale restaurant of Harlan G was tucked away on the roof top of the IFC mall, as compared to Harlan’s, which is in the midst of mainstream shopping on Level 2. It was only when I got there that I understood the difference. While Harlan’s had more American and other standard offerings, H-One’s focus is on Italian and Indian! Yes, you heard right, Indian. An odd combination but the menu was written well enough to make both sections sound appealing. And judging from a huge group of trendy and upscale Indians who showed up, I would think their Indian menu is probably authentic and credibly good. With that in mind, we did succumb to one Indian order of Lamb Naan which was richly satisfying as it was served piping hot straight from the tandoor. The only snag was the uneven spread of lamb bits in the naan which made for some bites to be substantially more salty than others. We decided however that the quality of the naan was good enough was us to go back next time and do the curries, which would have overwhelmed our Italian order of Caesar salad, Beef carpaccio and slow roasted lamb chops.

The Caesar salad was surprisingly light and the romaine fresh and sweet. The addition of a richly orange egg, likely to have been laid by a duck rather than a chicken, was a nice contrast to the lightly vinegared anchovies.

The beef carpaccio with rocket, artichokes and aged balsamic was a wonderful combination of contrasting tastes and made for a delightful taste which could rate as the fifth taste ie. YUMS! My partner even said the beef was so wonderful that it reminiscent of good old fashioned beef hor fun.

The slow roasted lamb was so tender that it tasted like it’s been braised for hours but the crispy exterior was evidence of the fact that it had been exactly as described – slow roasted. Served on a bed of mash that was so creamy, it was truly gourmand baby food. No baby would eat anything instant from a microwaved jar again – this babe certainly wouldn’t!

We ended off with a classic dessert of Blackforest truffle – the generous helping of cherries folded into the soft sponge made for a fairytale ending which while not too sweet, was beautiful, more so than its namesake place!