Friday, March 28, 2014

はし田

There're a few favorite Tokyo sushi restaurants, one of them is long-stayer Hashida Sushi in Ginza. I know their familiar presentation, blends of flavors and style. It's one of my more frequented sushi restaurants in Tokyo. It was with much excitement to note Sushi Hashida's opening in Singapore. I hesitated going there till a good three months after its opening. Well, you know me and how I avoid new restaurants, and also, I wanted to preserve memories. Wasn't ready to try a new thing.

The Singapore outlet is helmed by Chef Kenjiro 'Hatch' Hashida, who has also served up sushi alongside his father in Tokyo. :) Tried it out first at lunch a couple of months back and was suitably impressed. By now, I've eaten at the tables of all the chefs and don't mind whoever. The quality of the ingredients is to be expected. However, it's really odd that for such a top notch sushi restaurant, their sencha was unfortunately not very good cold. Not bothered to try its hot version. I wasn't expecting them to offer gyokuro, but was hoping for a selection of tea on the menu. Zilch. Neither do they offer any sort of matcha to end the meal with. There's hōjicha, but never mind. So sad, especially when Chef Kenji Nakagawa is a certified tea practitioner in the way of Urasenke.

Took the man out to dinner at Hashida. He hasn't eaten its food at all in either city, and has been so curious about it. Somehow, he hasn't stopped by and kept going to Shinji at OUE Tower (which will now be re-located to St Regis Hotel) He knows Shiniji's style and flavors pretty well and was stoked to check out something new. The man was thrilled with the omakase at Hashida.

The food was excellent as expected. While it doesn't provide surprises, the excitement arrives in terms of methods of preparation and garnishes in the seasonal dishes presented. To me, pièce de résistance of the evening was the ama ebi topped with uni. Briny yet so so sweet. Awesome. The man was especially in love with the Hokkaido crab served with karasumi (カラスミ)- Japanese bottarga. Cured mullet roe. LOVE!!! CRAZY LOVE!!! So full of umami. Mmm. It isn't just the man, even I love it. Few Japanese restaurants in Singapore offer karasumi with their dishes. Lacking the vocabulary for a better description, this can taste like a piquant 'hae bee' (dried shrimp) without the 'hiam'. Knowing how much I love it, the chefs cut us extra slices to chew on. Hurhurhur.

No comments: