June 3: It seemed like yesterday (June 6) that I went to Donguri. But in fact, it was on Sunday, five days ago, when I was there for lunch. And tomorrow will actually be the last day of the work week!
Now after leading a group of Japanese school teachers in my Centre's museum exhibition, a whole chunk of my 'hard disk' seemed to be occupied with historical materials in Japanese, and memories of what I ate at the Japanese Association's Donguri seem to have been eradicated. Thank goodness there is this menu (see bottom of this post) and the pictures.
This month's bentoo offers a lot of my favourite dishes. They all add up to what I would describe as "mild" and "variably textured".
There is the crunchy lotus root slices on two pieces of soft tataki maguro coated with fragrant sesame seeds dribbled over by wasabi miso sauce. This is my fave among the more mainstream dishes such as tempura, grilled saba, and cold soba.
But even these mainstream dishes happen to be irresistables for me in Japanese cuisine.
Accompanied by the Japanese lilies growing outside the glass panel, I enjoyed both the tropical scenery, the food and the company. Appreciating these Japanese lilies revived my first experience of tasting the grilled pork on noodles (my thit nuong) in Hoi An. This delicious dish which I ordered at a small shop on Nhi Trung Street cost about 50 Singapore cents (5000 dong) in the late 1990s. What was exotic about it was its garnish. The owner threw some of these bitter lilies into it and morphed the dish into one that was out of this world. The shop unfortunately cannot be found at the old location anymore. I wonder where the family has moved to since then?
Back to Donguri, its service team is really one of the best in Singapore. It's always attentive, warm, friendly, efficient and cheerful. I noticed however that one of them has left to work somewhere else- presumably at the airport. Well, the core members are still there: Ben, Jenny and several more I know by face and not by their names. Here's a sunny example:
6月 特選弁当(970Kcal)
海の物山の物サラダ寄せ、
炙りマグロの胡麻風味
冷やしそば、
焼鯖の椀仕立て、天ぷら
冬瓜、ご飯、味噌汁
Salad, Lightly Grilled Tuna topped with sesame seeds,
Cold Soba, Grilled Mackerel with Soy
Sauce with grated daikon, Tempura, steamed winter melon,
Rice and Miso Soup
