Tatsu Sushi

Chijmes has never been a culinary hotspot for me. Sure there are a few reasonably good places such as Lei Garden but these are likely to be expensive (and often unimpressive).

Well, B proved me wrong by taking me to Tatsu, one Monday afternoon when I needed some respite from the blues. I gotta say, the set lunches here are good value! We took some time deciding which lunch sets to order, mainly because they all looked good and came with so many different permutations of sashimi, sushi, grilled fish and meats and tempura.

Finally I decided to widen my Chiraishi Horizon and ordered the Bara Chiraishi set $20 (comes with Chawamushi, soup, fruits). It wasn't the best I've had (see my post here) but for that price, there was a good mix of sashimi, grilled eel and tamago in the treasure bento box so... I was still happily stuffed.

I thought B's sushi set looked impressive. Note, the pic below was just half of his set - there was still another bento with mixed tempura and misc stuff I didn't take a picture of. All for $26 (if my memory serves me right)!

The star of the lunch were the tofus. I ordered the century egg tofu (yes I'm so predictable) and B tried the sesame tofu. OMG this century egg tofu beats the Shinjuu and Fukuichi versions hands down. It's nothing fancy but the taste of the century egg was just so robust and ... I'll definitely go back for this.

The sesame tofu was great too - very unique beancurd made off seasame with a light sauce and a precious sliver of uni on top. Very unique and well thought out dish, bravo. Another great lunch destination to check out, everyone!

Smoke Shack Breakfast

Yay new breakfast option in the CBD! I love breakfast food (who doesn't) and there's nothing like a hearty eggy meal to kick-start a long hard day at work - takes the pain away (a bit). We loved the meaty sandwiches from Smoke Shack, so when we heard they had a new breakfast menu, we couldn't resist checking it out.

It was a no-brainer for my order - scrambled egg with smoked salmon please! Yes, I am boring this way :)

It was sheer salmon-egg creaminess bliss.. Scrambled perfection without being too jelat (gotta watch that waistline) and I was surprised how generous they were with the smoked salmon. I definitely got my money's worth muhahaha.   

My second choice would have been the english muffin with eggs and cheese and ham/bacon/pastrami. Looks a bit like the Mac's Egg Mcmuffin, doesn't it? Aha! Bite into this and tell me if it tastes the same. 

The quality of the  ham/bacon/pastrami was wayyy superior - this IS the Smoke shack ya know. I don't know about you but paying a couple of dollars more for this version seems reasonable to me.

B loves his meat so I imagine he would love the Corned Beef hash set - with 2 fried eggs, grilled tomato with toast. Done properly, corned beef hash to me is the perfect marriage of savory, sweet and salty succulence. An incomparable pleasure. I haven't tried any other versions in Singapore but this one from Smoke shack was pretty darn good.  

I didn't try this but I thought the smoked salmon bagel (choice of sour cream/ jam/cream cheese) was most photogenic. 

At $3.50-$7 per set (if my memory serves me right) including coffee,  I'd say the gourmet breakfast sets from Smoke shack are a darned good deal.


Not convinced? Go check out the place yourself, it's at the basement of Republic Plaza.  Power breakfast!

Purple Mustard

I had never seen purple mustard in my life. Until today, anyway. It's a pretty colour. Tastewise, it's not as spicy and edgy as I would have liked it but oh well, it's a novelty. Which was what drew B and I into the shop (ICON village), I suppose - we were at a bit of a loss as to where to grab a quick bite before our respective conference calls and the cute decor of the smallish joint caught our eye.

B ordered the signature barnyard dog (ze one with the purple stuff), a side of Asian slaw and the horchata drink. B liked his barnyard dog, though he went through very many napkins and killed many trees. A messy hotdog to eat, that one. I didn't try it but the sausage did look nice and juicy.

I thought the horchata was a tad too sweet. Not my type of drink but I imagine some people might like it.

 

Me, I decided on the pulled pork wrap - it had a really cute name which I cannot remember). I have been having pulled pork burger cravings for the longest time (if anyone knows of a good place please share)! 

Well the wrap wasn't too bad - I liked the asian slaw in it and they used mesclun which I love. The pork, on the other hand, didn't impress. It was lumpy, rather than pulled. A tad dry too. 

Each hotdog/ wrap cost us about $8 - $10, thereabouts. Not the cheapest snack but it was good enough to cheer me up (slightly) for a late night in the office.

The hotdogs clearly shone more than the wraps though. I still prefer the wraps at Salads and Wraps (Icon Village) - I have the stamp card!