Healthy Beer/Sake Side-Dish for the Dummies: Tai no Arani 鯛のあら煮

I hope that no one is hurt by being called a 'dummy'. Actually I have by chance cooked a dish that even dummies can close their eyes and do it well. I was flipping through a gourmet magazine at the library of the Japanese Association. I hardly go there because it doesn't have many non-fictions that I like. Occasionally when I do, I'd read a popular cooking magazine or two. This dish appeared in the most recent
食彩浪漫. It's great for this very hot season when we're trying to cool our bodies with beers or chilled wines and remove some toxic gas, increase our fibre intake as usual...I've rewritten the recipe-here goes:

THE FISH HEADS:
If you go to the Japanese supermarkets (e.g. Meidi-Ya or Isetan), pick up a fish head or two-depending on how many you want to serve. For this season, tai is readily available. You can have salmon as well. These are normally well-cleaned at the Japanese supermarkets - and don't mind the fishes staring at you with their protruding eyes! Wipe away big residual scales stuck around the fins or give the heads another quick rinse under running water. Wipe dry with kitchen towel. Remember to buy a bag of burdock root *arai gobou produced in Aomori Prefecture at the same time. There are two in a bag and the soil has been removed for lazy cooks.

DASHI:

To prepare dashi (bonito stock), micro-wave a satchet of crushed bonito (like our crushed ikan bilis) in hot water in the microwave oven for 2 minutes. Don't use cold water to extract the essence out of the bonito in the microwave -you'll be disappointed. The powdered dashi in bottles or tubes do not produce the same flavor/quality. The sachet ones are more expensive - but you'll be able to convince your dinner guests that you've been trained in Japanese cooking ;).

BURDOCK ROOT:
Wash the gobou roots again-and if you like, peel off another thin layer of skin from it. Cut into bite sizes.

THE COOKING:
Cover the fish heads and the gobou half-way with the dashi, hot from the oven, flavor it with Japanese soy sauce -about 4 TBS (Kikkoman's natural brew自然酿製 is cheap and good), about 4 TBS sake and 1 tsp (teaspoon) of brown sugar or fructose (for your health's sake). Put the pot over medium fire and just forget about the fish for a while.

Wash some ginger and green onions. Shred them finely. Your TAI NO ARANI is ready to be savored with beer/chilled white wine! I had a cold Tyrell's Wine - Semillon 2006 with it.

Weekend Meal: Mini-Zen and Cedele's Tea Cakes

September 9, 2007: I ate unhealthily yesterday- had a hurried lunch at Canteen B in Nanyang Technological University and then later on at about 4 pm, after the opening of Nantah Pictorial Exhibition, there were the oily spring rolls and fried vermicelli to pacify my hunger. I was determined to eat better today and I did.

For easier parking and healthier choice, I went to Donguri in the Japanese Association. I ordered the Mini-Zen set (SGD 12.80).
A., his invariably fixed choice of Japanese yasai karee rice. He finds the curry gravy really different from that of the other Japanese restaurants.

This month's chef's recommendations are good- as I have commented in my previous entry. The Mini-Zen comprised a bowl of sushi rice, saba simmered in miso and ginger, hijiki seaweed (substituted with spinach and mushrooms today) and boiled radish topped with katsuo bushi (bonito fish flakes)- all so wholesome and light (unfilling) that I had Cedele's desserts scribbled on my mental menu as part of this healthy eating.

A agreed, because Cedele's and The Cellar Door (on Upper Bukit Timah) are his sources for breads. He doesn't belong to the crowd of Japanese who flock to Provence (Holland Village) and Takashimaya Japanese-style bakeries where you get soft sweet-tasting breads. I will remember to take the pictures of Cedele's desserts the next round. It is very crowded; it's a place for discerning customers, surely, who want to pay for real food. I wonder why, though, cafes in Singapore are so noisy! There's the greenery outside, it's cozy and people are happily chatting but there's no peace and quiet. That's the only reason why I don't go back to TCC chains now - because the deafening pipe-in music drives me away. Cafes in Europe are generally places where you have your repose over good coffees and teas, and that's my idea of a cafe, but unfortunately I have been scouting for here in vain.

Probably the Cheapest Japanese Restaurant Downtown, Sun with Moon Restaurant

August 26, 2007: I went to Sun with Moon Restaurant, Wheelock Place, Orchard Road,
for my first lunch at this restaurant. Previously I'd dinner and tea.

Sun with Moon is synonymous with a great variety of desserts, evident from its colorful wall-paper of alluring Japanese beans and mochi spread across its exteriors.

The mellowed interior calms you down immediately with a lot of wood and a long panel of glass that reveals a contrasting scene of heady traffic and crowd at the junction of Boulevard and Orchard. Further there is some greenery bordering the Paterson slope. The dimness of the restaurant captures the Christmas mood perfectly when all the decorative trees in the room are also sprayed white.

I ordered a tempura and salmon sashimi set, priced at SGD 17.80-which is cheaper than many others on Orchard Road. The evidently careful matching of crockery is really a plus.

A. ordered his unagi don (eel on rice), naberyouri (hot pot dish) and nikujaga (simmered meat with potatoes) set, tagged at SGD 16.80.

The lunch crowd is there because of such prices? I wonder... Tea is great: Order a dessert and add one or two dollars for coffee or tea - which were good. The mango parfait is highly recommended. A fragrant green apple Japanese tea may just make it divine.

At the end, what would I say about this meal? A simple taste "SWEET" predominated - except for the sashimi.

Sticking to its signature dishes (e.g. kamameshi) and desserts is probably the safest bet (see my earlier entries "Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Cafe").

Food: 2.5/5.0; Food quality: 3.0/5; Service: 3.5/5; Ambience: 4/5