lioness in japan

Just when I thought I was cooling towards Singaporean cuisine in Tokyo — they are not that great, honestly — a pretty good one pops up on my radar. I have been trying not to be so hard up about laksa and hokkien mee and all those yummy dishes from home. Japanese nosh can be a bit bland with its ubiquitous soy taste in almost every dish.

Instead, I satisfy my cravings with a comfy mix of my own “fusion” dishes, like stir-fried udon noodles with oyster sauce chicken and veggies, or cod fish porridge (yes, it’s cheap in these parts), or jalapeno sauce and sesame oil grilled chicken wings.

A Singaporean friend suggested a dinner there after an Indian friend introduced it to her. The lunch was fabulous, so a week later, she wanted to go again and she raved to me, “It’s so authentic that I can go anytime!”

Well, I couldn’t refuse. Apparently, this restaurant was started by a Singaporean, who invited all the famous seafood restaurants (Jumbo, Palm Beach and International) to a joint venture. The original chefs were flown down to train the Japanese cooks and so the recipes are authentic. The exterior of the restaurant recalls Seah Street Deli in a way, said one of the Singaporeans in our group. If there’s posh Singaporean fare, this is it.

This squid fish cake and fried fritter (or you tiao in Mandarin) dish was a delectable appetizer, so much so that we ordered three plates of six, to dip into a bowl of chilli crab sauce we couldn’t finish.

The black pepper crab was the star of the show with the Singaporeans. It was seriously succulent and this “dry” version is a pleasant alternative to the ones at home drizzled in very salty black pepper sauce. We were licking our fingers after this one…

I have always liked chilli crab but I don’t dream about it. Honestly I am so used to my mum’s (she cooks this dish every weekend or every other weekend — so decadent, I know) sambal version. For those not familiar with Singapore cuisine, the sauce above is a sticky, non-spicy version mixed with egg. My mum’s recipe is a droolicious mélange of red chilli, lemon grass, peanuts, egg, crab roe and other secret spices. We were all stuffed so one little crab leg was left. Gleefully, I asked for it to be doggie-bagged (or da bao in Singlish) for the kangaroo.

Dessert was a fruit platter but it was entirely in the vein of modern Japanese cuisine — we each had a morsel of very expensive pineapple, papaya, and passion fruit (huh?). The bill was JPY5,500 (SGD74) each which is reasonable considering the food we had was quite exotic and had ingredients that were hard to get. Well, mainly sambal. I would go back again, especially to try the lunch menu, which includes mee goreng and hokkien mee.

Related posts:

1. A taste of home
2. By the sea: A bustling joint for top-notch seafood at good prices
3. My 30th birthday: Dinner

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