[KATTO]

KATTO, which means "cut" in Japanese, was started up by two brothers. Together with a bunch of good friends of theirs, coming together to bring us quality food which they specialized in; Sashimi. Having family in fresh food trading industry, all the sashimi you see at KATTO were self-sourced and self-imported. That was why KATTO promised to serve only the top quality, freshest cuts.Apart from serving premium fish, the rice they used were from Hokkaido. Premium Hokkaido Nanatsuboshi rice that's milled in Singapore to keep the freshness. Together with 18 other grains mixed in, steamed in dashi broth, their version of white/brown rice definitely bring your palate to another level. You could choose cabbage base too, if you're not a carbo loading person.How does this Sashimi ricebox works? For $12.90, you could order 2 mains of 140gm, 2 sides and a base of 250gm grains/salad. Mains were definitely the different varieties of sashimi. As for sides, there were edamame, pickled mushrooms, seaweed salad, miso buttered baby corns, tomatoes, pickled radish, cucumbers etc.My first box was with California Unrolled, Creamy Goma Tuna, paired with 2 sides of Seaweed Salad and Mushroon on top of a mixture of white and brown rice.

[1] California Unrolled (Salmon)- It felt like having a California hand roll the "naked" "undressed" version. I love how creamy this combination was. The sauce was umami. Every bite was filled with generous seafood goodness from the fresh salmon cubes and kani sticks. The crunchiness from the cucumber and the popping of roe in my mouth made every mouthful delightful! Nomnomnom..

[2] Goma Tuna- Fresh Tuna cubes soaked in this rich, sesame flavour. The goma dressing was so fragrant! With toasted almonds and sesame seeds mixed in the sauce, so good, you wouldn't want to waste a single drop of it. As the base rice was a little dry, this dressing worked really well to make the grainy rice softer too.

Sides:
[a] Seaweed Salad- Seaweed were indeed crunchy but tasted too bland for me. Although seaweed was rich in minerals and helps in maintaining collagen in our skin, but if they don't do something to the taste, I guessed I would give it amiss on my next visit.

Pickled Mushrooms

 

- Mushrooms, fungus with good source of selenium (antioxidant mineral) and protein, eating more do no harm And by chewing these sourish tangy mushrooms, it gave me more appetite to consume more KATTO as the vinegar clears my palate. I liked this choice of side.

On my 2nd visit to KATTO, I've chosen Chicken Rice Chilli and Classic Shoyu for my rice box.

 

[3] Chicken Rice Chilli (Salmon)

 

- A twist of asian touch I would call this and KATTO team was really bold to make this flavour. Like how it was named, it tasted just like our usual chicken rice chilli but with salmon cubes rather than chicken. The seasoning and spiciness wasn't too overwhelming to shadow away the glory of the fresh salmon so it was a rather interesting choice which eventually worked for me.

[4] Classic Shoyu (Salmon)

 

- Among all 4 types of sashimi which I tried, this was the most common yet safest choice. Sashimi with shoyu, a classic way of eating, this combi will never go wrong. It was light weight, but the crispy seaweed bits and sesame seeds mixed in did made the overall taste tasted better.

Sides:
[a] Miso Buttered Baby Corns

 

- Lightly grilled on the surface, these baby corns were still crunchy when bite. They tasted buttery while sweet on the inside. They went really well with the chicken rice chilli salmon sashimi.

Pickled Mushrooms

- This was my second time choosing mushrooms as one of the sides. I still love it.

If you have a smaller tummy space, mini boxes were available too at $7.90 each. For a mini box, you could get 70gm sashimi, 1 side on a 250gm grains/salad base.

** Dining experience at KATTO was enjoyable. My tummy was happy For $12.90, the portion was definitely sufficient for lunch and most importantly, a healthier choice compared to fried kway teow or roast meat rice

I find the sashimi flavours bold yet unique. Kinda love these fusion combi that KATTO provides now and awaiting to see new flavours soon! Now they have new additions of teriyaki chicken and onsen egg for you guys to choose from! 😋 **

📍 KATTO
1 Fusionpolis Place
Unit 01-21/22
Galaxis@ One North
Singapore 138522
Mon to Fri 11am - 8pm
Sat 11am - 2pm

[Liao Fan Hongkong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodles]Chef-owner Chan Hon Meng, recently received a 1 Star Michelin Award for his soya sauce chicken stall at Chinatown. A stall which I frequently patronized, was now bustling with even more crowd. Chef-owner Chan named his stall "Hongkong" because he learned the cooking ropes previously from a restaurant's Hongkong chef.Borned in Ipoh, Malaysia, Chef-owner Chan was already in the F & B industry for 35 years. He worked 17 hours a day at his soya sauce chicken stall, 6 days a week. He prepared 180 soya chickens daily, currently 30 pieces more from his usual so as more customers could get their hands on it.Chef Chan did not behave "on airs" or ignorant after receiving his 1 star Michelin award. Instead, he still humbling continues to operate his stall since the very next day after the Michelin award ceremony.

Few days ago, my friends and I braved the queue just to get our hands on his food. We started queuing at 10.15am, there was already a long line infront of us but stall only operate after 10.30am! *woww* A lady stall assistant came over to take orders first in order to ease the crowd. We finally got our food around 12noon, fed our camera and tucked in!!

[1] Soya Sauce Chicken $14.00 (whole) $7.00 (half)- Look at this gorgeous plate of soya sauce chicken! Tender, fat plumpy chicken meat with skin so nicely marinated and glazed. So yum and juice all locked in! The light soya sauce drizzled on top was packed with sesame sauce fragrance but slight salty for me.

[2] Roast Meat Platter $10.00 (Char Siew, Ribs and Roasted Pork Belly)- Among all 3 types of roast meat, my best take was the char siew meat. They were nicely charred on the outside and contains equal ratio of meat vs fats. Fats' portion melts in your mouth and overall not overly sweet. Ribs was a little tough, I wished the meat was more tender. As for the roasted pork belly, the positive part was the crackling skin but negatively, the meat wasn't as flavourful.

[3] Oyster Sauce Vegetable $3.00 (small) $4.00 (big)- A fresh greeny plate of kai lan vegetables, poached and drizzled with oyster sauce. Cooking time was just right where the leaves were not overlooked and the stems still gave us a good crunch. Best take was the loads of crispy garlic bits scattered on top!

[4] Bean Sprouts $2.00 (small) $3.00 (big)- Using the same oyster sauce base/ drizzle as the kai lan vegetables, both plates tasted similar. Bean sprouts were very crunchy and for only $2.00, this portion was definitely generous.

[5] Plain "kosong" Thin Yellow noodles/ Rice noodles $1.00 per plate
[6] Plain Rice $0.50 per plate- As we ordered sharing meat portions, our carbo all came in "kosong" (plain). I love the chewy texture of kway teow (rice noodles) most. The thin yellow noodles were springy and al dente too. As for the rice, it was so good with the braised dark sauce! I believe the base sauce used for tossing were the same for all 3. It was really savory and fragrant! Nomnomnom...

If you come on your own, you could simply order their 1 person individual portion. The price will eventually blow you off with the generous portion they give.

[7] Soya Sauce Chicken with Rice; At only $2.00 per plate[8] Soya Sauce Chicken plus another meat choice with Rice (or) Noodles $3.50 per plate*** A very enjoyable and delicious 1 star Michelin meal at lowest prices you could find in the world now. My many dining experiences here previously and now, Chef Chan kept his top standards. Food were still as good after he scored his Michelin! He believes there's no first grade food but only first grade chef who works hard to make good food. My only complain now was the queuing time. I used to get his chicken in 45mins previously, but now, it's at least 1.5hrs from stall opens and 2.5hrs during lunchtime. Nevertheless, I'll BE BACK!! ***📍 Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken & Noodles 了凡香港油鸡饭面
Blk 335 Smith Street
Stall 02-126
Chinatown Food Complex
Singapore 050335
Thurs to Tues 10.30am - 7pm or till sold out
(Closed on Wed)
https://www.facebook.com/MichelinGuideSingapore/videos/1188821021181810/

Mr Punch Public house, a gastropub along Seah street, was a relaxing place for friends gathering or after-work chillax. Well known for its violent puppet show, "Punch & Judy" since 16th century, this gastrobar was decorated with great memories of Mr Punch, displaying puppet figurines, statues and vintage posters throughout the space. As the owner loves toys too, the Mint Museum of Toys connecting to Mr Punch Public House showcases 5 levels of his personal toys' collections from all over the world. From vintage to present, I find myself back to childhood! Indeed it's an eye opener for all!!Other than toys, Mr Punch introduced new food concept plus drinks menus such as sharing platters and punch jars to increase the awesomeness experiences for all customers.

For a start, we ordered the new appetizers' platter. Mix & Match any 3 items for $35.00* (*premium items incurred additional charges) There's total of 8 items for us to choose from.Our platter choices were:

1a• Chicken Thigh Roulade
1b• Slow-cooked Pork Belly
1c• Custard-battered Squid Rings (+$4*)

- Chef cleverly uses chicken thigh instead of breast to keep the tenderness of meat. Tender chicken with foie gras mousse wrapped in, so sinfully good! Love the creaminess of foie gras lingering on my tongue! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

- Slow-cooked pork belly was so well marinated with their secret sherry sauce, every part of the meat absorbed the flavours. Other than being savory, the layers of fats inbetween the pork belly simply melts in my mouth without much biting needed. So yumz. Pair the meat with the red wine apple chutney to bring the flavour to a whole new level. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

- Custard-battered squid rings was deep fried till crispy and glazed with marmite. Not much of a surprise for this item. 👍🏼

[Bar Bites]

2• Teriyaki Charred Squid $12.00- Char-grilled till perfection, this plate of squid was so good! Cooking timing was perfect, presenting infront of us was a soft tender whole squid that we couldn't resist eating it. Teriyaki sauce beneath added a little sweet plus salty aftertaste to this seafood dish and the flying fish roe scattered on top gave the extra popping crunch. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

3• Potato Chips Chicken $10.00

- Breaded Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, Tempura chicken you had heard of, but Potato chips chicken?? You heard it right! Potato chips! Deep fried chicken breast meat with crushed chips coated as batter. Creative but recipe needs improvement. Chicken was bland and dry, thanks to that korean inspired cho jang mayo dip which saved the dish. 👍🏼

[Mains]

4• Herb-crusted Barramundi $29.00- This piece of barramundi fish served to us was meaty, succulent and texture so delicate. Already tasted good on its own with the crusted herbs, chef's homemade beetroot gel and tarragon purée on the side made the whole dish more interesting. Felt myself absorbing lots of antioxidants and vitamins after this, a healthier choice definitely. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

5• Seafood Linguine $32.00- Linguine texture was good, al dente but taste wise, needed more punch. Sauce beneath was indeed sweet since cooked with so much seafood but still lacked that white wine fragrance and aftertaste I was hoping for. 👍🏼👍🏼

6• Bacon-wrapped Venison Loin $45.00- The fragrance from the bacon fats eventually covered the overall taste of the dish. Chewing the dish can only taste pork. Venison loin was also too bloody for my liking. The pairing port jus was sweet and rich, too bad it didn't work well here, but I'm sure it's good with beef or duck dish. Ironically, the potato terrine and stewed mushroom sides were the highlights for us. 👍🏼

[Desserts]

7• Banana Chocolate Cake $14.00- Banana cake was too dense for my liking, wish it was fluffier. The surprise was the "pudding" sitting next to it. Forking through it then we realised there was banana custard hidden in it. Jelly-like texture, with the choco ganache, made us feel like we were eating chocolate flavoured "Tokyo banana" but a yummier version. 👍🏼👍🏼

8• Passionfruit Creme Brulee $14.00- Creme brulee was smooth and creamy like tofu. The passionfruit purée and mango cubes may be very sourish but it helped to cleanse our palate after all the savoury food we had eaten earlier. 👍🏼👍🏼

9• Flaming Tiramisu $16.00- A deconstructed tiramisu I would call this. Homemade Savoiardi (ladyfingers) were stacked on top of fresh cream and chocolate cake pieces. This dessert was heavily loaded with Sambuca so consuming too much made me felt drunk ;) The best way to enjoy this tiramisu was to dunk the fingers into the bowl and scoop up the chocolatey cream within! 👍🏼👍🏼

[To Chill]

10• Punch Jar: The Servant $46.00 p/jar- For drinks sharing, it's most ideal to order a punch jar. There's two punch jars available for ordering; The servant & The skeleton. We chose the first.

The Servant comprises of rum, peach liquer, orange, cranberry, pineapple and lime juice. Tasted very fruity with hints of alcohol, more of a lady's drink than men. Whole jar can share among 4-6pax. 👍🏼👍🏼

** Our overall dining experience at Mr Punch Public House was an enjoyable one. Most of the food were good and ambience was comfortable. Staff were very attentive and courteous too! A great place to chill at after work and on weekends. If you're here, do go take a look at their rooftop bar, it's kinda cool Live bands available on every Friday too, featuring local talents.

📍Mr Punch Public House
26 Seah Street
Singapore 188382
Tel: 8339 8966
www.mrpunch.com

Opens daily
Mon- Thurs 3pm to 11.30pm
Fri & Eve of PH 3pm to 2am
Sat 11am to 11.30pm
Sun 11am to 6pm

My jelly ratings:
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Yummy
👍🏼👍🏼 Not too bad
👍🏼 Needs improvement

[Hana Japanese Restaurant]Hana, which means "flower" in Japanese, is a modern Japanese restaurant situated at Forum Shopping Mall, away from the busy streets of orchard. Situated on level 1 and just infront of the lift, it's quite impossible for you to miss this restaurant. The interior of Hana was nicely decorated with koi fishes on the wall, drums of sake around the restaurant and a huge Sakura tree in the center. The whole ambience was romantic for some, cosy for many and somehow makes you feel like you're in Japan. Chef promised serving all customers with only the freshest seafood and using top grade ingredients. He said most of the time, they handpicked the freshest seafood themselves from Japan and flown back to Singapore the following day. *Wow* After hearing these words, our saliva already drooling~ Without further hesitation, we started our night with Chef's signature starters.

[1] Truffle Ikura Somen with Chef Special Sauce $15- A chilled appetizer before the mains. Infused with strong truffle taste, the cold noodles tasted so good! Together with the crispy shrimps, crunchy cucumber & salmon roe, it's a starter that you would love at first bite. My most loved food item of the night.

[2] Santen Chirashi Mori with Teapot Soup $28
(Kanpachi Truffle Premium Kaisen Bara & Aburi Salmon Cheese atop Chef's Special Pink Rice)- This set of pretty rice bowls kept us going for more as they were so tasty. Totally no complains for the fresh sashimi but the highlights here were the pink rice underneath. I love the natural sweet aftertaste!! (Hack care about carbo overloading!!) Sip sip the teapot soup after the yummy bowls and its wonderland already! Soup was packed with seafood essence and tasted refreshing too after we added in the lime.

And if you think I stopped eating after the carbo loading?? NOooo.. More food came as we ventured through Hana's *New* Tempura Omakase set meal.

[3] *NEW* Tempura Omakase Set $38.00++ per pax

This set comprises of 7 courses, each served individually on board.

• 1 appetizer
• 1 serving of Assorted Sashimi (3 types)
• 4 Tempura (4 choices but seafood types subject to availability)
• 1 Dessert

We started off this set meal with a salad.

(a) Sakura Ebi Salad with Chef Homemade Sesame dressing (Goma) & roasted cashew nuts

- Maybe you could find salad anywhere, but one with nicely executed goma dressing, it had got to be here at Hana. This specially in-house made sesame dressing was so fragrant, nutty and not overly salty! It indeed brought up so much flavour to the greens.

(b) Fresh Sashimi

- We were served with 3 types of sashimi fish, choices varies everyday, depending on restaurant. Hana was so generous, look at the thick slices!! Fresh too!! Nomnomnom!

(c) Tempura (4 types)
All served with Green tea salt, Paprika salt, Teriyaki mayonnaise and Tentsuyu dipping sauce.(i) Tempura Jumbo Prawn w/ Shiitake Mushroom- Big! Huge! Woww! These were the voices from all of us when these prawns arrived. First time getting such jumbo ones compared to other restaurants. Fresh and succulent prawn in truffle infused batter, so crispy and yum. You heard right! "Truffle batter"!! Only at Hana's!

(ii) Tempura Mekajiki (Swordfish) w/ Sweet Potato Chips- Swordfish meat was so fine and juicy while wrapped in the crispy tempura batter. The saltiness from the seaweed flakes made by Chef made this fish dish so savory, I completed it in quick 2 mouthfuls!! Sweet potato chips did bring up some sweetness in our palate after the savory fish.

(iii) Tempura Scallop Skewers w/ Pumpkin fries - Texture of these tempura scallops were abit tough, needed more time to chew and swallow, probably because the deep frying dried out the moisture. It was a waste though, may be better off eaten raw. Instead, the companion pumpkin fries here became my preferred choice between the two. Love pumpkin's natural sweetness, even more love than sweet potato.

(iv) Tempura Zuwaigani (Snow Crab) w/ Eggplant- I usually had snow crab legs in sushi rice rolls or seafood on ice, first time having it as a tempura item. Crispy exterior and having its seafood sweetness still locked within, it's quite a delicious way to enjoy snow crab too!

Lastly, we rounded up our meal with desserts. Despite we were very full already, we girls still managed to wallop up every bit of the desserts!

(g) Dessert Sherbet *ala-carte @$6.00ea*

Yuzu sherbet- This citrusy dessert was so refreshing. Indeed suitable for clearing our palate after all the fried stuff. I strongly recommend this flavour to go with this tempura omakase set meal.

Kyoho sherbet
- Compared to the Yuzu flavour, this grape-ssi one was sweet, tastes like our childhood bubblegum and a girl's choice definitely!

NOTE: This Omakase set was served with rice, onsen tamago and furikake (rice seasonings). Best of all, a bowl of umeboshi (Japanese plum) clear soup to clear off the oiliness after all the deep fried food. Tempura were all freshly fried upon order therefore whole course duration 2 hours, last seating at 8.30pm. Available only for Sunday dinner starting from 27th July, fast fingers get this good deal!! For $38.00++ per pax, with food served which worth more than $80.00, you won't wanna miss this place!

📍 Hana Japanese Restaurant
Forum The Shopping Mall
583 Orchard Road
Unit 01-17
Singapore 238884
Tel: 6737 5525

[ Mother's Day Dim Sum Specials at Yum Cha ]

This year's Mother's Day falls on 8 May, have you made any plans yet? Yum Cha, one of our local biggest dim sum player, came up with new Dim Sum items specially for this upcoming Mother's Day.

These specialty items, namely:
[1] Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Green Bun 梅菜扣肉包
[2] Almond Tarts 杏仁挞
[3] Minced Pork Bun with Salted Fish 咸鱼猪肉包; were available from now till 14th May 2016.

The purpose of presenting these nostalgic items was to bring back some good old memories of food from our parents era.

[1] Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Green Bun 梅菜扣肉包 ($2ea)- Peeled open this bun and found myself a fatty slice of pork belly. There was more fats then meat, thus the achieved tenderness. Personally loved fats but it may not be a healthy choice for seniors. Pork belly was well marinated but preserved mustard green very bland to get any distinctive taste. *Rating: 3/5*

[2] Almond Tarts 杏仁挞 ($3.20/ 3pcs)- Tarts' center fillings were really power packed with strong almond taste and could be overpowering if you had more than one. Fillings texture was soft like tofu but I love the crust part more as it was crispy and flaky. With a choice of having them hot or chilled, I chose the hot ones as I felt it brings out the flavour better. *Rating: 4/5*

[3] Pan -fried Salted Fish Bun 咸鱼猪肉包 ($5.00/ 3pcs)- Compared to the steamed 梅菜扣肉包, these pan fried ones flared better. Overall taste was good, with salted fish fragrance in each bite but flavour could be stronger. I believed more salted fish input will do the trick. *Rating: 4/5*

Other than these above mentioned specialty dim sum, we also had some of their usual signature dim sum selections together with mains from their dinner menu. The mains we had were all in large portions, suitable for 10pax.

[4] Steamed Prawn Paste with Fish Maw
($4.80/ 3pcs)- The prawn paste were really fresh, firm with a little crunch from the prawn bits. Fish maw below the paste were steamed till soft and almost melt in the mouth. The accompanying golden gravy was flavorful with hints of sweetness too. *Rating: 5/5*

[5] Crispy Fried Tofu 七味脆皮豆腐
(Regular$16 M$24 L$32)- Tofu, a very common ingredient on the table, was well executed and made into a unique dish here at Yum Cha. The highlights here were the 7 different elements used to make the orangey powder scattered on top of the tofu. Other than the obvious ones such as sesame and paprika powder, the rest of them were deemed secrets by the chef. Tofu were deep fried till very crispy batter, together with the secret powder, it gave off a unique taste combination of sweet, salty and the least spiciness. I love this but not its $32 price tag! *Rating 5/5*

[6] Stir-fried Beef w/ Black Pepper 铁板黑椒爆牛柳
(Regular$23 M$34 L$46)- As i don't consume beef, I could not give my comments for this dish. Appearance looked appealing, don't you think so?

[7] Salted Egg Prawns 沙翠葱片咸蛋虾
(Regular$23 M$34 L$46)- I was really exciting when I was told Yum Cha version of salted egg prawns were very different from those cze char stalls. But after served, I was disappointed. Not only the shells had no salted egg taste, the prawns' flesh were dry also after the deep frying. The consoling parts were the pretty plating and the stir-fried onion slices placed in the center of bowl as they were the only part of the whole dish coated with salted egg bits. A controversial dish indeed. *Rating 1/5*

[8] Stir-fried Mee Sua w/ Assorted Seafood 海鲜桂花炒面线
(Regular$14 M$22 L$30)- Wowwww! The big amount of seafood made your saliva drool, right? A nicely done noodle dish with the "wok hei" aftertaste. Everyone on the table enjoyed this mee sua, especially with the generous seafood. If this dish could be a little less oily, it would be perfect! *Rating 4/5*** It was an enjoyable night at Yum Cha's. Dim sum standard was good and reasonably priced. There's hits and misses for the taste of mains, high price tags but still, they were enjoyable. Staff attending to us were definitely with great service and positive attitude. Yum Cha main branch at Chinatown can accommodate more than 150pax! If you have yet to find a venue to celebrate Mother's Day and budget wasn't an issue, you could consider going to Yum Cha. **

🚩 Yum Cha Chinatown
20 Trengganu Street
Unit 02-01 (off Temple Street)
Singapore 058479
Tel: 6372 1717
www.yumcha.com.sg

- Monday to Friday
From 11am to 11pm
- Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays
From 9am to 11pm