Macau Sushi Trip

Did take a bit of convincing for me to go to Macau for a quick trip just for one meal but it's a quick trip that I didn't regret making - I'm talking about the sushi dinner I had at the new Sushi Kissho at Raffles just a month ago. Sushi Kissho is the latest outpost by Chef Masaaki Miyakawa, who has a few sushi-ya under his name including the 3-star namesake restaurant in Sapporo. Handling the day-to-day cooking at Sushi Kissho were chefs Norihisa Maeda, Hironori Satake and Mitsutero Sasaki while he would make occasional trips over. 

Tempura Kaiseki

Just as Yakitori Hirako which we visited was no ordinary Yakitori place, Tenmasa that we went the next day was no ordinary Tempura place either. 

20 Courses of Chicken (and Sake)

“Take one sip after eating and swallowing. The best time is 5s after the food is gone from your mouth. Do not drink in 2 sips”

We have seen chefs being super particular about timing, portions and steps – for example, Chef David Chang’s recipe for his signature Soy Sauce Egg at Momofuku calls for the eggs to boil for exactly 6 minutes 50 seconds – but this is perhaps the first time we have seen chef being THIS particular about how his dishes are to be consumed. 

Flavor of the Sea

I am in a serious backlog as far as blogging is concerned, so that means I will keep each post brief until I managed to catch up. We went for an easy sushi meal at Umi in Minami-aoyama on our day of arrival in Tokyo – not the usual choice I know given some argued the place has lost its sparkles given they lost both Michelin stars in the past few years, but who kept track of those anyway. 

Somewhere New

We picked Sushi Muto in Nihonbashi for lunch purely because they are one of the few sushi-ya that opened on Sundays and the location worked well for our tight itinerary (we made a reservation to go visit Shibuya Sky right after and need to be on time). And with the restaurant located in a commercial building right behind the famous Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store we managed to have a quick shopping session before we went up for our meal.

First, Sushi

A decent Tabelog rating, open on Sundays and proximity to where I stayed... Sushi Kiyoshi (鮨 きよし) at Ginza's 7-chome fit the bill when I was looking for a place to eat on my first day in Tokyo during the work trip in September. Most importantly, it’s the place I managed to get a booking for the only free evening I got.

New on the Block

We saw a series of sushi restaurant openings since COVID and that trend continues with Sushi Kanesaka being the latest entry. This Ginza-based Sushi-ya has grown into quite an empire now with multiple branches in Japan and elsewhere (some under the name Shinji by Kanesaka), and in Hong Kong, they have taken up the space that used to be Masa in CCB Tower. 

Best Tempura in Town

Took me a bit of effort to find my way to Tempura Suzuki before I realized they took up the space of the old Sushi Sase up on Ice House Street in Central – but I still ended up being the first to arrive at this new restaurant with only 8 seats in front of the kitchen counter. A few high-end tempura restaurants have opened in recent months, which is always a welcoming news. 

Unagi and Izakaya

We have long anticipated the opening of Uza, the new concept by our friend Anthony with the name a combination of Unagi and Izakaya which also described what this establishment does - a casual Japanese pub (izakaya) specializing in eel cuisine (Unagi). He first tested this at a pop-up event 2 years ago (which I enjoyed) and finally managed to open its doors after some delays (partly because of Covid) and my friends and I went to visit recently. 

Sushi Night in Fukuoka

We spent most of our time in Fukuoka exploring the casual food scene but we did have a more serious sushi meal one evening at a restaurant called Sushi Kuma. 

Sushi Kumogaku

My lunch booking at Sushi Kumogaku was pushed back due to unforseen circumstances, so my booking in late July didn't materialize until mid Decmber. Anyway the restaurant was known to be one of those few local sushi places that's almost impossible to book, so the wait was really nothing I suppose. 

Third Time Omakase

Third sushi dinners in a month. In Hong Kong. That must be a first for us. So after Sushi Fujimoto and Sushi Nakamoto, we hit Sushi Saito with a few friends in early November. Friend is a regular of the restaurant, now helmed by Chef Masashi Kubota, and he asked us to come along for an early dinner booking he got. 

Booked Out Sushi Counter

We did manage to pull a few serious Japanese meals before the late November "homecoming" trip, with one of them being dinner at Sushi Fujimoto by Chef Kenichi Fujimoto which opened earlier this year. Given the place is almost impossible to book for commoners like us, it's hard to say no when our friend P booked out the entire counter and asked us to join as the latest installation of our "Mo Duck Shue" dinner series.

Mistaken Identity

A case of mistaken identity brought us to Sushi Nakamoto for the second sushi dinner within the same week instead of the seasonal kaiseki menu I was dying to try at another place - at least we discovered this in the morning so averted the potential disaster or at least embarrassment of us showing up at different venues.

Food Pairing Sake Dinner, the Sequel

There were certainly something special about the food we had that night. And the drink too. And not in particular order. 

With hot summer slowly giving way to the (equally hot) autumn we returned to Ryota Kappou Modern to check out the seasonal menu by Chef Ryota Kanesawa, again, courtesy of our friend C who organized this at this favorite restaurant of his. Last time after an already great line-up of bottles he organized for us we challenged him to show us more, and he did, this time with more jaw-dropping ones. Yes, that’s plural right there. 

Food Pairing Sake Dinner

"Don't worry about the wines - I will take care of it." we realized what our friend C meant when I managed to take a peek at the bottles he brought to the restaurant before our dinner began. Let's just say having any one of them on any given occasion would have been the highlight, but going through all of them in one go was simply beyond remarkable. Better yet, he also went through the menu with chef at his go-to restaurant to make sure the dishes did justice to the outstanding bottles. 

Second in a Row

I had a few sushi meals in the same month, but none better than the one at Sushi Shikon. The missus requested eating at this place as the official celebration dinner - same as what we did last year - so there it was for the second in a row. 

Weekday Japanese Lunch 3: Sushi Kami

Just a few days after my last sushi lunch, I went for another again, this time at another restaurant in Central. It’s been a few years since I last visited Sushi Kami (before their name change) located inside a commercial building on On Lan Street, but everything looked exactly the same as I remembered with the long wooden counter where multiple chefs worked to serve more than a dozen or so customers at the same time. 

Weekday Japanese Lunch 2: Tempura Jiro

I couldn’t believe my luck when I managed to get a seat at Tempura Jiro at the last minute. Good tempura restaurants are few and far between in Hong Kong so I have been trying for months to make a booking for this new restaurant on Stanley Street. And I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a spot made available for their lunch service just a couple of days ahead of time. I didn’t hesitate to hit “Confirm” to make the reservation. 

Weekday Japanese Lunch 1: Sushi Kamosu

When my friend (and a sushi restaurant expert) J mentioned on his facebook page that he went to this new sushi joint twice in as many months, that got me curious enough to check it out. My temporary hiatus from work afforded me to book into one of the lunch spots on weekdays, which is obviously the easier option.