Otoro - A Costly Obsession

Iggy's - Singapore

When I met my wife, she subsisted on cereal and toast.  Occasionally she went through the effort to make herself nachos.  Infrequently, she was known to eat a hamburger, or chicken breast.  She also liked fried things, and potatoes.  


We still have different opinions of one early episode in our marriage.  As the lady of the house, my wife said she would do the grocery shopping.  New to living together, she asked if I had any special requests.  I knew that my wife was a meat and potatoes girl, so I said, "I'd like to east some more vegetables.  Why don't you get any vegetables from the grocery store you will eat."  She said Ok.

Vege-wha?

Proudly, that afternoon she showed me what she had bought.  Potatoes (not a vegetable).  Onions (not a vegetable).  And pico de gallo (not a vegetable).  She still swears that pico should count.  I tell her she's crazy.  I've since turned her onto a vegetable or two, but where I've had much more success are proteins.  Men beware.  Out of the oodles of things I have subjected her to, she likes duck breast, duck confit, foie gras, pork belly (are you seeing a pattern?) and her newest obession is Otoro (fatty tuna belly).  

Hanare - Kuala Lumpur

In Japan we had the pleasure of eating at four of the best sushi restaurants in the country.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it to all the ones I had hoped, but Sushi Sawada, Sushi Mizutani, Sushi Yashitake, and Kyubei - Ginza isn't a bad hit list.  While stuffing ourselves full of extravagant sushi, my wife declared she loved Otoro.  Here are two of her favorite bites.

Sushi Yashitake - Tokyo

Kyubei - Ginza - Tokyo

If you are curious, her favorite was Sushi Sawada. More on this to come soon... and for now I'm keeping her away from Kobe beef - Wagyu...

Iggy's at the Hilton Singapore

Iggy's is listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world according to Restaurant magazine.  Passing through town, it was impossible not to indulge.  The restaurant is very small, and reservations are a must.  You are given a "Gastronomic Menu" reflecting their seasonal menu on the weekend and this prix fixe is your only option.  Weekdays there is a slightly less expensive "Dinner" prix fixe menu.  Here was mine:

           -Eel

Avurga, Yuzu, Silver

           -Sea Urchin

Cauliflower, Abalone, Shiso

           -Chlorophyll

Sea and Soil

           -Sanma

Wild rice, Olives, Thyme

           -Pigeon

Beetroot, Hickory, Lentils

           -Epoisses

Yukon gold potato, Winter black truffles

           -Cantaloupe

Raspberry, Peppermint

           -Watermellon

Pepitas, Goat's cheese, Milk ice cream


It was one of the best meals I've ever had.  However, it was not "better" than the best meals I've ever had.  It did have some of the best courses that I've ever had.  This is an interesting dichotomy.  Here are the details:

First, there were two bonus courses at the beginning of the meal.  These courses were, in a word, outstanding.  Iggy's "sushi," a toro, wagyu (possibly Kobe) beef, and beautiful seasonal white fish (not white fish, but a white fish with which I could not pick out of a lineup - possibly Bonito fish) was phenomenal.  The pieces were not served on rice, but "gnocchi" in the loosest of senses.  It was more a cracker, though it's hard to make "cracker" sound fine dining.  These gnocchi exploded with flavor in your mouth, and gave a crunchy textural contrast to the soft fish and beef that was most welcome.

In addition, here is a "bonus" salad course:

The eel course was smoke infused with an upturned "bowl."  I don't normally buy into this gimmick, but the chef was able to infuse a great deal of smokey flavor into the eel and caviar, making the dish a complete success.  

Sadly, however, the sea urchin was not on the same level.  I first tasted the sea urchin and gel-like broth.  Independently they were a little disappointing.  When eaten together, they ceased to be disappointing, but only arose to "good," and additionally disappointing, the shiso flavor was really not present.  Even sadder, I neglected to snap a shot of it.

Chlorophyll, however, was spectacular.  If you were going to have a disappointing dish, go ahead and put it before this dish.  You quickly forget all about it, since this was the single best vegetable/vegetarian-friendly dish I have ever eaten.  It had no salt, creme, or stock added, according to the server.  It was, in a word, plants.  The amount of flavor that Iggy was able to get out of plants was amazing, and the roasted buckwheat seeds about stole the show.  They were so salty and delicious, it was hard to pay attention to the okra, seaweed, and other elements.  With each bite, however, you were reminded of just how harmonious this dish was.  I don't know how it would impact it, but I for one would have enjoyed a few seabeans in this dish - not to say it wasn't individually a five of five.

Another example of the nice textural touches within the dish were puffed rice pieces amid the wild rice that accompanied a perfect medium sanma.  The thyme was nice, but the sprig included on the dish would have blown out anyone's palate.  While pretty, frying it to a crisp and diffusing some of the thyme flavor, or transforming the ingredient in some other way would have been a better option.  Since the oil on the plate was already infused with thyme, you wouldn't lose anything.  This is a minor complaint, a garnish issue, but to me it is the difference between a great meal and a perfect meal.

Pigeon.  Why it wasn't called squab, is beyond me.  The woman next to me commented, pigeon, I don't think I want pigeon.  What she wouldn't have known would not have hurt her.  She probably would have gotten the dish, eaten it, declared it was the best squab she had ever eaten, and then later in telling her friends would have found out squab is actually pigeon.  Technically, again, the protein was cooked perfectly.  The lentils, of all things, about stole the show though.  They had this almost intoxicating, berry flavor that paired perfectly with the beetroot that was infused with a nice delicate smokey flavor.  Throw on that the pickled treatment that a few pieces of beet get, with micro-beet greens and you have another winning dish.  

The potatoes and cheese.  My goodness.  They were irresistible, with the truffle adding this magnificent earthy "umami" flavor.  I don't use the word umami lightly, or to be trendy.  This dish just had it.  This dish showed how amazing potatoes can be, and made for the best "mashed" or "scalloped" potatoes I have ever eaten.  

The (former) pastry chef, really had a stroke of brilliance when he created this cantaloupe soup.  It was like an injection of cantaloupe, so much flavor you might as well have stuck it straight into your veins with a needle.  In addition, I'm sure this is a fine dining trick, but to freeze and break apart individual raspberry cornels shows both patience and ingenuity.  Absolutely loved it!

The final dessert (or so you think), had a goat cheese infused vanilla ice cream.  The woman next to me (a different woman from the last time) declared, oh, goat cheese, I don't like goat cheese.  The chef convinced her to give it a try, and she gobbled the whole thing down.  The goat cheese wasn't prominent, but used to break up the sweetness of the ice cream.  The watermelon and pepitas were just winners.  

When you think you're done, they bust out a chocolate box.  I said yes to every one, after consulting with the pastry chef and him telling me that he would absolutely take one of each chocolate in my place.  The apple-flavored piece was outstanding.  I was glad to have grabbed one of each, because I wouldn't have grabbed the apple chocolate if I had only picked 2 or 3.  The white chocolate with pink peppercorn was good enough, and my least favorite was the pistachio (which would have been my first choice).  They had some delicious caramels, truffles, and macaroons.  I guess picking a least favorite was like picking a least favorite child.

I enjoyed my experience at Iggy's.  It was expensive, fine dining anywhere in the world expensive-expensive.  Do I think it was worth the price tag?  Yes.  I would strongly recommend it for a special occasion or business meeting.  Do I think given Singapore's food culture, that it is wise to spend some 50 times the cost of average fare on a single dinner?  Well, that's a tougher one.  I think in a nutshell that this is what cost Iggy's the last half of a "star" to me.  While the meal was fantastic, at the price (in Singapore), it needs to be perfect and it wasn't perfect. The wonderful staff really does lift your experience as well, each member is knowledgeable, friendly, and on task.  If your paradigm is Panda Express for Asian food, this will blow you away!


Iggy's

The Hilton Hotel

581 Orchard Road Level 3 
Singapore 238883 
Tel: +65 6732 2234 
Email: marcom@iggys.com.sg
*Google has not updated the address from the Regent Hotel - Beware!
4.5 of 5

Can You Taste What's Next?

Here is a sneak peak at some of the upcoming food being reviewed from around the world:

I hope you're excited!

Hanare at the Intermark

Located within the same building as the Hilton Doubletree in Kuala Lumpur is the new Japanese restaurant of choice, Hanare.  After my go-to sushi restaurant in KL closed sometime last summer, I found this review by CC Food Travel.  It set my expectations pretty high.  In the end, this restaurant has the distinction of at once giving me the some of the single best bites of sushi and steak I have ever had, and still being disappointing.

So, the Evian bottle is near the smallest I had ever seen, at .33 liter. In other words, my bottled water was disgustingly small, and for another 10 or 20 RMD, you expect a liter bottle.  Boo.

The Appetizer:  The Tofu was exceptionally creamy and the corn had a pleasant miso flavor with excellent char.  The solitary piece of fish was only ok, and remember things are not better just because they have caviar.  I am a sucker for shiso (the green leaf), so overall it was a nice way to start.

2nd Course - Sashimi:  I do believe they provide real wasabi, and the tasty little abalone/clam were nice.   The tuna was very fresh, and buttery.  The katsuo (bonito) had a surprising little taste explosion. Obviously, the real winner was the absolutely delicious little piece of tuna belly they provided, which was one of the best single pieces of sashimi I have eaten.

3rd Course - Crab Soup:  The broth by itself had the flavor of inexpensive, dried squid with a bit of crab sprinkled in (in other words, eh).  The ground prawn ball with ginger, however, was quite remarkable, and when all combined, it was a good few bites.  To really elevate the dish, however, the broth needs improvement.

4th Course - Wagyu on Eggplant:  The dish also seemed to be served with a bit of "oyster sauce" on it. The question that you have to ask yourself is, what is not to like about wagyu beef?  Nothing.  It is tender, melts in your mouth, and once you have a bite you never want to eat anything else.  In sum, however, the course was a little uninspired.

5th Course  - More Wagyu?:  Yes!  It's a little sad when the waiter does not speak much English and he makes no real effort to explain what you are eating.  For a meal that costs somewhere around 50 times the national average, this is disappointing.  So, there was some sort of homemade delicate green chili and oil mixture which, placed carefully atop the wagyu, made for the most delicious beef dish I have ever eaten.  It was nothing short of phenomenal.

6th course - Fried Fish:  Again, the lack of description made for a rather disappointing experience.  The little fried fish with breading, they were probably something in the sardine family, were full of flavor.  I was sad to not be familiar with the other fish, a small, light, sweet white fish carefully pan fried without breading.  It was super tasty.  I think the small piece at the bottom was a cod cheek, based off the flavor and size, but I can't be sure.  The non-breaded small fish, and "cod" were so delicious they stood up to the previous plate of wagyu.

7th Course - Sushi:  This course contained 5 pieces of premium sushi, and clam miso soup.  The miso had a delicate smokey flavor, and was memorable with the small clams, and the tuna belly, cuddlefish, katsuo, yellowtail, and some type of hikari mono - I think sanma were yum morsels.  Pictures are worth a 1,000 words.

8th course - Dessert:  Peaches and ice cream are very good, but peaches are less a novelty to me than they are the Malaysians.

At one point, as I was eating wagyu beef I looked over and became jealous of my neighbors' trio of mushrooms.  It's ok (nom nom nom) I consoled myself on beef so fatty it's probably illegal in many countries (besides India).  It just went to show that the restaurant has more to offer than what I ate.  I was very jealous, however, of CC Travel Food's Omakase experience.  Mine was excellent, but missing some of the more exotic delicacies that were offered to them.  It is my opinion that they outted themselves as food bloggers and got the VIP treatment.

So, all this delicious food discussed, let's have a hard talk for a second.  

The service was so bad!  There were faux pas, such as not brining a spoon with the soup dish, never clearing the towel, me asking for accommodations which were not made.  Lack of descriptions of meals, etc., they tried so hard, but the waitstaff were just not good at all.  For her part, the proprietess realized this and commented privately later that evening that they are struggling with service.  Well, struggle they do.  I hope they get better, because it is a serious miss at such a nice restaurant.

Next time I'll try the Champagne Brunch (reviewed by Eat Your Heart Out) and then my meal won't be distracted by the poor service.

Hanare Japanese Restaurant
Ground Floor, The Intermark,
Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur
03-2164-2133/ 2164-2633
4 of 5

Sushi on North Beach

Nigiri Sushi

Finding sushi in San Francisco is like finding a prostitute in Singapore.  Easy (so I'm told).  Finding good sushi is another story...

After some internet magic, I came upon Sushi on North Beach.  Word was they had a very good tuna and foie gras nigiri offering.  Having had a few very nice examples of how sushi and foie gras can work together beautifully, I wanted to give this restaurant a shot.

The place was small, sort of hole-in-the-wally, and the servers were pleasant.  I went a little buck wild ordering, because when I was provided the specials for the day they had a number of real winners.

The Good:  1. Hotate (Scallop) nigiri.  The scallops were large and fresh, and it was above average.  2. The special nigiri, a Hawaiian butterfish (escolar or walu), was also outstanding.  Two other real winners were the yari ika (calamari) and house special foie gras (with tuna).  3. The calamari actually stole the show, it was delicious, soft, clear white and obviously fresh, soft, not chewy, with a shiso leaf hidden underneath.  I love shiso, and this addition was a welcome surprise.  4. The foie gras nigiri were two little pieces of decadence.  Since the combination is so delicious, and works well together, I have no idea why it isn't everywhere fine sushi is sold.  I'm surprised that in a location that was also featuring otoro (tuna belly), they didn't double up on their luxurious components for a killer special.

Fresh Calamari

Hawaiian Butterfish

Tuna with Foie Gras

The Average:  The ultimate roll and spicy hotate,  1. The ultimate roll had very nice flavors, it was sort of a roll version of the foie gras nigiri.  I learned a little lesson at this restaurant, which is that when you order maki rolls, they quality and proportions are not as good as nigiri sushi.  I have been to a number of places where you don't notice as substantial a drop-off, and places where it doesn't matter (because no matter what you're never going to get anything better than average).  The concept of a place that is good, but that doesn't do a good job of controlling rice to inside goodies, and foie gras to other ingredients, is a little new.  Additionally, the obvious drop off in quality is also new.  Sushi on North Beach defined this new category.  2. The spicy hotate was not memorable, but it was nice.  The scallops got thin through the roll, but returned to more acceptable levels around the edges (where it was more obvious).  I asked the chef to add thinly sliced lemon, as much to test his knife skills as because I enjoy the flavor with scallops.  The result was, in a word, average.  Not thinly sliced enough, but not terrible, and certainly not the highest quality lemons.  3. In the non-maki category, the ikejime (wild sockeye) special was good but not great.  It was buttery, and mostly delicious, but not uber fresh like I expected, or fatty either.  I guess I should have known better than to order salmon since we live in Seattle.

Ultimate Roll

Inside Ultimate Roll, Foie Gras is barely visible

Spicy Hotate

The Bad:  Very bad.  On a whim, because it was fresh, I ordered otoro (tuna belly).  I had enough nigiri already, and the server said they made it into a nice maki with some scallion.  I said, "deal."  Well, when it got to the table, it looked a little more white than I'd expected.  I tasted the first one, and it was very fishy.  Second piece, same problem.  Third piece, I broke open.  I ate a small sliver of one piece of "otoro" and then looked at the other.  First, it was two tones.  That means, not fresh.  Second, it didn't look like any otoro I've ever eaten.  It was clearly not otoro, and not fresh.  It tasted like "white fish with scallions" that you get at any run of the mill sushi place in the middle of the country - the middle, as in, not on the coast.

"Otoro"

Inside, where you can clearly see the color difference between top and bottom - Not Fresh!

In a rather unusual display of patronage, I called over the waitress.  I asked her, evenly, how fresh the otoro was?  She said it had come in this morning.  I pointed out it was very fishy.  She suggested it was supposed to be fishy.  I told her that the fish had two tones, clearly indicating it was not that fresh.  I asked her to inquire with the chef what the problem was.  I decided not to express my suspicion that it was actually a piece of white tuna or something else, distinctly not otoro-y.  The fact is, that chef NEVER would have served that piece of fish on a piece of nigiri and tried to pass it off as fresh otoro.

To the server's credit, she took it off the bill.  To her discredit, she tried to tell me that's how otoro was.  Little did she know that I'd had it three times in the past week.  Would she have removed it (after telling me it should be fishy) had I not spent $50?  I can't be sure, but it did come off my bill.

The final verdict.  They lost a half to a full star because of the otoro incident, and the discrepancies between nigiri and maki quality.  Unlike most solid three star establishments, I'm inclined to give them another chance... maybe...

Sushi on North Beach




Neighborhood: North Beach
745 Columbus Ave
(between Filbert St & Greenwich St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415)788-8050 
3 of 5

For readers who might not have had real otoro before, here are two shots of real stuff.  Notice the difference.

Real Otoro (Type 1), Kuala Lumpur

Real Otoro (Type 2), Singapore