Kinmedai (金目鯛) & Sanma ( 秋刀魚) at Kizuna Tonight

The estate's annoying and obsolete intercom systems are finally being replaced. My block was scheduled for this whole week. The external public intercom units are literally next to my kitchen window and share the same wall. The drilling into concrete to remove and replace the external units was a tad insane, and took two days to do so, drilling an hour in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon.

The internal intercom unit was easier. It was only an hour’s work, but it still required drilling into the non-concrete wall to attach six screws to a metal mount. With walls this thin, we're also bothered by the drilling sounds from my neighbors' units, especially the immediate ones next door, upstairs and across. 

Dog wasn't pleased. She was frigjtened. I already tried to take her along and disappear out of the flat as much as possible to remove her from the noise, but she still heard some in the afternoon when we came home.

After all that crazy cleaning from the concrete/paint dust and all, I decided to reward myself with a dinner at Kizuna. Bit of munchies and highballs. Now, Kizuna does bother to trot out specials every month or so, just to keep the menu fresh. This weekend, they offered three choices of WHOLE FISH done in a few ways— grilled, sushi and sashimi. They had kinmedai (金目鯛), Iwashi/Japanese sardine (鰯) and sanma ( 秋刀魚).  I immediately put in a pre-order for kinmedai and sanma.

The chefs at Kizuna aren't trained sushi chefs. This isn't a sushi-ya either, so please refrain from judging it as pure sushi or look at knife skills too closely. All I want is for my fish to be filleted well and not to hold any bones. Kizuna is an earnest little izakaya that presents food in its Singaporean interpretation. Totally works for me.

The fish chosen for tonight weren't that big, but it made for sizeable bites for two humans. The kinmedai was done beautifully. It came as sushi, aburi-sashimi and the head was lightly fried. LOVELY. My favorite of the night went to the sanma. I love shiny fish, but I didn't mind the flavors tonight. To my surprise, as far as an izakaya goes, they cured it well; the vinegar wasn't too tart and it was rather tasty as sushi.

We had space and also ordered handrolls. Opted for the temaki of flounder-fin/engawa, and yellowtail, and one unagi for the husband. I do like the little sauces and furikake and little dollop of caviar they added to the temaki. Handrolls are meant to be fun!

The dog was super pleased to be out and away from all the drilling. She's noise-phobic and is utterly frightened by it. She's so bothered by the drilling at home that the clang of the metal shutters closing in the adjacent shops tonight didn't faze her. I didn't over-drink. I wisely kept to two glasses of highballs. That was perfect.