An Omakase that you shouldn't have missed

What better way to start off the evening than with a carafe of sake. everyone, be warned that this one is pretty potent, since it sent my heart racing throughout the entire night. I forgot what brand it was but it was the last one on the last page of the omakase menu.

Take one sip and let it roll around your tongue like liquid gold before gulping it down your throat and feel it burn the back of your tongue, throat and stomach. I ended up having to order a pot of green tea in the middle of the meal to quench my hoarse throat. (the sake was not part of the omakase, though but a separate order)

Starter dish: Fresh Water Shield in Vinegar Sauce & Chilled Green Bean Curd
Those who know that I like vinegared dishes because only we Asians can do them so well (hell, we invented the stuff, or have you frenchies not noticed) and I was raving about the one that Chef Ricky made last month.

The water shield resembled green figs and have been coated with a vinegary gelatin, while grated shavings of japanese tuberoot float around in the concoction of vinegar. To be honest, I found myself doing the same thing as last month. Look around for a clear window and dump the whole lost into my mouth (after fruitlessly trying to eat the thing with chopsticks); Boy, am I glad that nobody was around to YouTube the whole episode.

The green bean curd was sitting in a light soy sauce with a dash of wasabi on top. Unlike the sesame bean curd last time, this one slurped up the soy, hence producing a creamy mellow top with a tangy bottom-line. I told Chef Ricky that maybe this one should sit a bit longer to give it more contrast instead.

Soup: Clear Broth with Sea Urchin, Abalone, Sesame Bean Curd & Prawn
The soup tasted much richer this time, I don't know if it was because of the Sea Urchin but definitely one of the better soups that I have had under Chef Ricky's care.

The only problem was the huge sesame bean curd in the middle of the bowl, it wasn't so easy to break up nor did it slurp up the flavours of the broth and instead threatens to overwhelm it whenever you take it with a spoonful of soup. Have asked Chef Ricky to disintegrate the whole thing into the soup. (with a Death Star, if you please)

Sashimi: Fresh Tuna Toro, Yellow Jack, Tsubugai Shell & Flathead
A refreshing change for the Toro this time is the different cut I got this time, with white lines of tendons running through the prime meat. The pinky Yellow Jack is always lovely and the flatfish tasted rich despite its thin cut. The tsubagai shell however was very thick compared to the meat served in it shell 2 months back; as a result, the thicker cuts feels like I was chewing leather in my mouth, albeit leather that grinds very easily under my molars.

Simmered Dish: Deep Fried Eggplant & Conger Pike with Grated Radish
I dedicate this very next dish to an eggplant lover who couldn't accompany me here this time. let me just say that the eggplant goes so very well with the sauce that is mixed with grated radish.

The meat of the eggplant which turned out to have bigger chunks was only coated with the sauce of the outside and didn't suck it all in. I felt that the skin and leftover chunks of meat on the skin gave better taste and texture since they were of the right thickness. Interestingly, eating morsels of the conger pike with chunks of eggplants will open up your tastebuds very very well.

Grilled Dish: Grilled Hairtail Fish with Salt, Japanese Clams, Bamboo Leaf Bound Sushi & assorted Vegetables
The two photos to your right is just to demonstrate how massive the plate is for this particular dish, it easily takes up half the table by itself. That said, the theme for this particular dish is probably sea saltiness. Everything is salty, salting and saltily perfect. You don't get the feeling that you are just eating sea salt on everything.

Of the regular items: the prawn was genuine sweet, beans were salty and the veggies were mellow to balance out the sharp saltiness of some pieces. The japanese clams were grilled until their meat shrivel into salty heavenness, while the sharpness of the shallot cut through the accompanying miso paste at its base. The grilled Hairtail fish was good but the skin was not crisp to my liking (i even find it a tad soggy, but that is an exaggeration on my part). The surprise of the evening: the slice of sushi double wrapped in 2 pieces of leaves bound by string; just pull and watch the whole thing tumble out. Gloriously aromatic in the mouth, definitely a show-stealer.

Fried Dish: Deep Fried Baby Sweetfish (Ayu) served with Matcha Salt
Don't let the name of Macha Salt fool you, this is made from the Green Tea leaf powder that the Japanese served in their famous tea ceremony. Much like the fugu four months back, getting the mix right between the Matcha Salt and the fried dish is a delicate art. I initially plowed the fish right through it coating the underbelly, somehow it just didn't taste right. Conversing with Chef Ricky later proved my hunches. Somehow, this just doesn't stack up well against that great Anglerfish nugget I had back in December.

Rice: Claypot Rice cooked with Japanese Salmon served with Roe and accompanied with Miso Soup
Those who know me know that I don't like repeating dishes, but I will forgive Chef Ricky on the account of the Salmon Roe that accompanied the rice this time. (Is it me or do you also see little head poking around inside the Roe? must be me over-imagining the yolk inside the Roe). No burnt bits of rice, they really do claypot so well that I am weeping about the cheap stuff I find on most hawker fare. (I think I really want to swear off hawker claypot rice if I continue on eating dishes like this)

Dessert: Sliced fresh fruit & Japanese pastry
After promising this one to Meena and me last month, I finally get to eat this behemoth. (it took me three bites, even for a big-mouth like me; the following 2 pictures will tell the tale quite nicely). The less said about the fruits the better since the pastry is screaming for attention.

This big bad boy peaks out from underneath the leaf covering it. In fact, it probably prompted my first stupid question of the evening: "Do I eat this with the leaf?" Thankfully, no. The dough was moist but the filling was dry and the whole thing sticks to your fingers and clings to your nail. Finger Licking Great!!!


After the meal, I down the last bit of saki and leaned back to collect my thoughts before grilling Chef Ricky this time, we had a pleasant conversation across the table from each other in pretty informal setting compared to the last few conversation (Well, he was sort of standing at attention over the last 5 grillings). For the truly inane, he just got a haircut but I am not going to snap a picture just to prove. So head on over for yourself.

Have I gotten all of you craving for another Omakase yet?
Or do you still think I am not a gourmet?
Say it so in the comment section.

Sarawak Food

Sorry guys, couldn't find any decent Sarawak Laksa like the legendary ones in Kuching. So you will have to make do with these. (BTW, definitely nothing local at the Jazz Festival and everyone was just flat out boozing.)

The first dish on the menu was Midlin (pronounced BID-lin), which is only found on Sarawakian cuisine, it is wild jungle fern and my dinner-mates commented that you won't find it growing on the penisular. must have been Darwin's handiwork, go figure.
Anyway, this thing is almost as crunchy as kangkung but taste much better and richer, sort of like tasting cooking oil vs butter.


Mee Krokop is basically stir-fried noodles in a tomato-catsup-py sauce with the usual seafood ingredients throw in. The only problem is that the noodles this time were the wrong one since one should normally be using something like Kueh Teow is soak up the sauce, but then again, I still don't understand Sarawakian food yet.




Pork Leg, now what the photo doesn't show you is how big the blasted thing is. We just order one portion (and I mean ONE), and we get slammed with ONE leg. Most of the skin is crispy sticking to the fat with lean meat hanging from the 3 chunks of bones. Needless to say, oily, good, sinful and dry (which is how I generally prefer oily things).





Ikan Bakar, somehow my dinner-mates couldn't tell between flatfish and pomfret. The one redeeming feature of this dish is that the belachan is really grilled with the fish until charred black. So every bite of fish you take with belachan is smoky, smoking and smokeful of flavour. Kudos to Miri for doing this one well enough to my liking.

Back from the Jazz festival

Good:
Habana Sax (learning how to meringue, saw cuban rap (gansta rap is so last century), they really know how to charm the ladies, and they are in KL);
Dirty Dozen Brass Band (give me soul funk standards anyday for a closing act, great crowd interaction, one mouth two horn-y);
Lluis Coloma (move, move, move)

Bad:
Sore feet from dancing during the closing acts;
No dirty dozen brass band CD in the merchandising section;
Crowd reaction to Son2Nos and Lluis Coloma;
Habana Sax not getting a chance to party up KL?;
The ladies' gimmick of Habana Sax falling a bit flat.

Ugly:
Is that a tear in my party pants?
Still don't know where to post all my photos?

For Work, Jazz and the Free Flight

a.k.a. I will be flying off to Miri, Sarawak tomorrow for contract negotiations with Sarawak travel agents for the incoming season.

How nice that the trip dovetails nicely with the Miri International Jazz festival. (sometimes I think my supervisor deliberately schedules his trips to coincides with such diversions)
Of course, free flight often means 1.5 hours couped up in an AirAsia 2nd hand aircraft.

Aaahhhh....the perks that comes with such new responsibility...
if only there was an upgrade option, but then again, blame the MSA-Airasia cartel that divided the domestic routes.

Myspace, Friendster: I just don't get it.

I have joined Friendster back in late 2005 and Myspace lately, other than slightly different mechanism for networking, I find both sites seriously bewildering.

It seems like the goal (for a lot of people) is not so much as making friends, keeping in contact, networking, etc, but stamp collecting. I have read up the profile of a guy called tom who has something like 300k friends, it really makes me wonder, either he is really really good at making and keeping friends, or most of those 300k friends are mere acquaintances to which he fires off bulletins.

I really don't see the point of stamp collecting acquaintances, I really do want to make friends, to have deeper and more meaningful friendship (and relationship), but is stamp collecting the way to go?
Is this really the culture on myspace? request/add first, ask questions later?

Of the 10 or so people (on myspace) who has request to be added as a friend, none of them have replied to my messages so far.
At least the ones I get on Friendster are my regular friends who know that it is easier to keep touch with me on my blog then on these "stamp collecting" sites.