55 Tempura

Tenshin
The Regent Singapore,
1 Cuscaden Road,
Tel: 6735-4588
Open: Noon to 2.30pm, 6 to 10.30pm

Japanese cuisine is not so much about cooking as it is about art - how to slice raw fish so it looks and tastes fabulous, how to make the perfect miso soup or a to-die-for piece of sushi.

It is the same with tempura. In the wrong hands, the food ends up soggy and oil-logged. But done well, it's light, fresh and delicious. The poets among us might even call it ethereal.

To sample perfect tempura, head to plush, hushed Tenshin at The Regent Singapore, order a set meal and prepare to be delighted.

There will be absolutely fresh slices of sashimi, beautifully presented.

The main event - tempura - might include plump, juicy shiitakes; sweet potato slices that are crisp outside and powdery soft inside; a sweet prawn with a super crunchy head; buttery sillago or smelt fish and a luxurious filleted anago or conger eel.

It is a lot of food but because the tempura is fried in a combination of two light oils - cottonseed and untoasted sesame - it all tastes so very light.

Vary the taste a bit by using the four pots of salt at the table - au naturel sea salt, and chilli, curry and green tea-flavoured versions.

Part of the fun is flavouring the food with each one to find which combinations worked best.

The prawn head is great with the curry salt, the sweet potato with the chilli. The best one though is the green tea salt, which goes with everything.

Lunch sets range in price from $30 to $85, and dinner sets from $120 to $180. THY

56 Sushi

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant
270 Orchard Road,
Park Hotel Orchard,
Lobby 01-05,
Tel: 6737-1160
Open: Noon to 2.30pm, 6.30 to 10.30pm

Chef-owner Ronnie Chia was named best Asian chef at this year's World Gourmet Summit for a good reason.

He makes such good sushi that he beats even many of the Japanese chefs around.

The rice is perfectly flavoured, being neither too sour nor too sweet. And the cut of fish is always excellent.

What I like most is the salmon sushi, which not only melts in the mouth but is also served with a hint of lemon juice that just makes it taste so refreshing in the mouth.

Ordering a la carte can be pricey. If you are on a budget, go for one of the set lunches. They start from below $40 and are very good value. WAY

57 Yakitori

Torisho Taka by Aoki
76 Robertson Quay,
02-01 Gallery Hotel,
Tel: 6732-3343
Open: 6.30pm to 12.30am (Mondays to Thursdays), 6.30pm to 1.30am (Fridays and Saturdays), closed on Sundays and certain public holidays

Among the growing number of yakitori restaurants here, Torisho Taka stands out for its attention to quality.

Chef-owner Takao Aoki's food is not just meant to help the drinks go down faster. It is an art in itself.

The speciality here is chicken (Torisho is Japanese for 'chicken specialist') and you get a wide selection of parts including thigh, wings, gizzard, liver and heart at prices ranging from $4 to $6.

The restaurant uses only kampung chicken from Malaysia and the quality is evident in that you can actually savour the meat and not just the seasoning.

The best way to do that is to have it grilled plain with just a little salt rubbed on.

But for variety, you can also have it rubbed with wasabi or served with a sweet sauce. WAY

58 Fugu Hotpot

Nadaman
Shangri-La Hotel,
Orange Grove Road.
Tel: 6213-4571
Open: Noon to 2.30pm, 6.30 to 10.30pm

One always gets a thrill eating fugu or the poisonous puffer fish because of tales one hears about people dying after eating it.

Actually, no one in Singapore has died from it as far as I am aware of because only licensed chefs who know how to remove its poison are allowed to prepare the fish for eating.

Which means that you should avoid any dodgy places. And never ever try it at home.

Nadaman at the Shangri-La hotel is one of those places where you know you are always in safe hands. The place is not cheap but, hey, that's your life we're talking about.

The raw fugu actually does not have much flavour but its crunchy texture is what its fans love.

Cook the fish in a nabe or Japanese hotpot, however, and its sweetness surfaces.

The meat is firm and smooth at the same time, and dipped in a sour ponzu sauce, quite delicious.

The hotpot is priced at $120 and comes with assorted vegetables and tofu. But there is enough for two.

And when you have finished the food, some rice and eggs are cooked in the remaining stock to make a very tasty porridge. WAY

HSBC credit cardholders get 10 per cent off the bill until Dec 31 2007.

59 Wagyu Beef Course

Shiro
24 Greenwood Avenue,
Tel: 6462-2774
Open: Noon to 3pm & 7 to 11pm (Mondays to Saturdays). Closed on Sundays

This jewel of a Japanese restaurant in Greenwood Avenue is the perfect place to head to for a quick, quiet lunch.

You get well taken care of by the team of attentive wait staff. They manage to usher you in and out within an hour, and yet, the meal feels unhurried.

The set lunch to order is the wagyu beef course ($65). Slices of marbled Australian wagyu beef are fanned out over rice. They are topped by cherry tomato halves but these are merely a distraction.

Don't take your eyes off the slice of butter as it slips and slides down the beef slices, leaving a rich, golden trail behind.

The beef is tender and pink in the middle, but you'd expect that. The slices are thin but not too thin. There is just the right amount of sweet-salty sauce on the rice.

The price has gone up but the set comes with an amuse bouche, a salad, miso soup and some of the freshest sashimi you'll eat here. THY

HSBC credit cardholders get a complimentary house wine with every order of wagyu beef course or get a special champagne lunch at $75 nett until Oct 31 2007.

60 Torounitoro Sushi

Akashi Japanese Restaurant (main head picture)
19 Tanglin Road,
B1-09/10/11,
Tanglin Shopping Centre,
Tel: 6732-4438
Open: noon to 3pm, 6.30 to 10pm

Every time you feel a little low in spirits and need a spot of pampering, head to Akashi.

Sit yourself down at the counter in this noisy, boisterous restaurant and ask owner Mervin Goh for some of his 'special' sushi.

He doesn't have a name for this one, so I just call it torounitoro ($35 a piece).

It is one swoonworthy mouthful that can bring on a food high that lasts up to a week.

On a small pillow of rice, he heaps tuna belly scraped off the skin, basically the oiliest, fattest bits. Then he spoons over some bright orange sea urchin gonads that we know as uni.

And if that isn't enough, a slice of toro goes on top and he torches it lightly so it's dripping more oil and giving off the heavenly fumes you get from seared fatty fish.

Don't think about it too much. Just pop the whole thing in your mouth and hang on tight in case you fall off your chair in wonder.

Then, say: 'One more please.' THY

61 Izakaya Fare

Satsuma
1 Nanson Road,
01-10/02-10 The Gallery Hotel,
Tel: 6235-3565
Open: Noon to 2.30pm, 6 to 11pm

The focus of this Japanese dining bar is its amazing selection of shochu with, at any time, more than 50 varieties of the distilled spirit available.

The food is designed to go with the drink, but that doesn't mean you can't go there if you don't drink. The izakaya dishes are actually an attraction on their own.

The grilled items are good, with tasty morsels of meat, seafood and vegetables on skewers so tempting that you want to order them all.

But leave room for the other dishes. The chef is a whiz at crossing culinary cultures to whip up some pretty creative stuff.

There is a mentai spaghetti ($12) that is delicious, with the cod roe coating the pasta like a weird but wonderful carbonara. And if you like fat meat, the belly pork and plum stew ($12) will not only melt in your mouth but melt your heart too.

The pieces of pork have been simmered till so soft that it's a challenge picking them up with your chopsticks. Just ask for a spoon. WAY

HSBC credit cardholders get a one-for-one set lunch and a one-for-one Kirishima Kuro Shochu by the glass until Nov 30 2007.

62 Unagi Tofu Steak

Sho-U
The Central,
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
03-85/102/108/109,
Tel: 6534-8066
Open: 11.30am to 10pm

Unagi fans will love this wonderful combination of soft, grilled eel and even softer tofu.

I'm not even an unagi fan and I fell head over heels immediately for the wonderful melt-in-the-mouth textures and the delicious smokey sweetness of the teriyaki sauce that covers it.

There's a good reason for my not always liking unagi: When not done right, it is fishy. So I only eat it at good restaurants and Sho-U passes the test.

The chef serves the dish warm to cut down any fishiness. And the tofu and sauce help balance the flavours.

Sho-U not only has some interesting modern Japanese dishes. You should check out its interesting decor too.

The restaurant is made up of a series of rooms, each with a red, black or white colour theme.

I love the white room the best for its modern, iPod-like look. It has a great view of Clarke Quay across the Singapore River. WAY

HSBC Premier MasterCard and Visa Platinum credit cardholders get 10 per cent off the food bill until June 30 2008.

63 Hamburger Steak

Ma Maison Restaurant
03-96 The Central,
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
Tel: 6327-8122
Open: 11.30am to 3pm, 6 to 11pm

Kitsch reigns at Ma Maison, a restaurant at The Central that serves Japanese-style Western food.

The place is done up like grandma's cottage, if grandma is English and a hoarder.

But the food and service are excellent, which might explain why the place is packed all the time. Another good sign: Lots of Japanese people eat there.  

The menu has amazing variety but the dish to order is the hamburger steak ($16), served with a sauce that has been simmered for 28 days.

This beef demi-glace is flavoured with secret spices and tomatoes and enriched with beef marrow. The end result is not as thick and gluggy as you might expect. Think liquid cow with a whiff of Worcestershire sauce and you get the idea.

Naturally, the sauce and the hamburgers are delicious together. The patties, made with 70 per cent ground beef and 30 per cent ground pork, grill up real juicy. The meat isn't too finely ground so there's some bite to it, but it remains tender.

Best of all, the bun-less patty is served with a perfectly fried egg on top. On the side are carrots, broccoli and a too-small scoop of a very moreish potato and tuna salad. THY

64 Shio Katsu Don

Tom Ton
03-88 The Central,
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
Tel: 6327-7887
Open: 11.30am to 11pm

Don't be distracted by sushi or salads or grilled fish or any number of things that are on the menu at Tom Ton, a Japanese eatery in The Central.

Instead, home in on the extensive list of dishes featuring kurobuta pork, the luscious, well-marbled meat from descendants of the black Berkshire pigs presented to Japan by English royalty, so the story goes.

One of the best ways to enjoy the pork is also one of the simplest - in the tokusen or special shio katsu don set ($25.50). This breaded and deep-fried slice of pork loin is served over rice and comes with salt, or shio, on the side.

It costs $5 more than the regular katsu, but is well worth the extra.

For one thing, there is a strip of fat on top of the pork loin. Tom Ton almost always does it perfectly - the fat isn't slopping all over the place, or gristly. It just sits there, looking pristine and translucent, and tastes terrific.

Expert frying and temperature control ensure that the loin isn't greasy on the outside. And although pork loin can dry out, it never does so at the restaurant.

Sprinkle some of that pink Himalayan salt on the slices of pork - it enhances the mild flavour of the pork.

And while slurping up the delicious pork miso soup that comes with the meal, marvel at how an ancient breed of English pig made it to Japan, only to make waves all around the world, including in Singapore, where it is served with a little pile of pink Himalayan salt imported from Japan.

Globalisation can be so delicious, don't you think? THY

65 Beef and Foie Gras Kamameshi

Sun Japanese Dining
30 Victoria Street,
02-01 Chijmes,
Tel: 6336-3166
Open: Noon to 3pm, 6.30 to 11pm (Sundays to Thursdays), 6.30pm to midnight (Fridays and Saturdays)

When you order kamameshi or rice cooked and served in a pot, you have to suffer a bit of delayed gratification, but what exquisite suffering it is.

The waiter will tell you not to lift the wooden lift immediately. Wait until the violently pink sand in the little hour glass runs out, he will say.

It takes about a minute, during which you can fidget, look at the hour glass, drink some water, then look at the hour glass again.

When you finally open the pot, all these wonderful smells waft out from it. It is worth the wait.

You can mush the foie gras up with the rice or eat the piece whole. But take time to savour the thick slices of beef tenderloin.

Dig into the pot and you'll find bright green broad beans, chunks of sweet and delicious chestnut, shredded carrots and mushrooms.

The plump rice grains, cooked in fish stock, are delicious.

Although the ingredients are the kind that shout for attention, this dish still manages to be comforting and homey. It is just the thing to perk up a jaded palate.

The dish comes in two set versions at lunch. The $28.80 one comes with sashimi, while the $25.80 set includes a cold dish. At dinner, it costs $19.50 a la carte. THY

66 Salmon Skin Salad

Shinryoku Yakitori Restaurant
8 Purvis Street, 01-01,
Tel: 6338-8472
Open: Noon to 3pm (Mondays to Saturdays), 6 to 11pm (Mondays to Thursdays), 6pm to midnight (Fridays and Saturdays). Closed Sundays

Some heads are going to roll with this entry, namely mine.

You see, I was made to promise never to write about this place or this salad. But how can I leave out the excellent salmon skin salad at Shinryoku Yakitori Restaurant from this list?

The one time I ordered the small portion ($14), I regretted it and immediately ordered a large one ($18).

If you find it hard to eat your greens, try this crisp salad, with its myriad flavours and textures.

Let's see, there are shards of super crisp and absolutely non-greasy salmon skin, crisp romaine and soft butterhead lettuces, pungent rocket, tender baby spinach, punchy red frisee and chicory, plump cherry tomatoes and peppery radish rounds.

Whoever thought to also add zingy mint leaves knew what he or she was doing - the herb gives this largely Asian salad an interesting twist.

The salad is tossed in two dressings: a rather rich and creamy sesame one that's given a bit of a lift with a tangy plum dressing.

This is a salad to savour, and eating it with chopsticks makes perfect sense. All salads should be this good. THY

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