Dozo - Fine Modern Japanesque Restaurant

Dozo Fine Modern Japanesque Restaurant. This is not the first time my wife and I comr to this place, and this is one of our favorite one. This restaurant is set to provide a sexy and seductive nuanse of fine dining experience. What does it mean? Well, think of fine dining experience with low light is available to produce such a romantic experience. But what makes this restaurant is the dining experience you'll need to try by yourself.

At Dozo, there is only a single price available here at a time, the lunch package price with 6 type of dish which cost around $50 or the dinner one which is more expensive but with 7 type of dish to choose, cost around $70. Once you arrive, you'll be greeted and ushered to your table. If this is your first time coming here, they'll start explaining what to expect.

Because I was coming here for dinner, I need to choose 7 type of dish and drink. The 7 type of dish for me and my wife don't need to be the same. It's up to each individual to choose from the available menu. Within each type of dish, there are about 6 or 7 menu to choose, so you have plenty of choices to satisfy your stomach.

So here are the food that I chose:

Cold Yuzu Refreshment

This Yuzu refreshment is not part of the menu to pick. It's complimentary to refresh you. It's super cold until the drink is mid-frozen. As seen on the left, 2 small cups of yuzu are served in a big bowl full of ice to keep the drink fresh.

Chef's choice of starter. From left to right: Salmon with mint leaf, scallop topped with yuzu foam, and chocolate topped bread

The starter in the photo above, or on the right is the first one to be served. It's not my choice, but it's chef choice. So I guess it's gonna be different from time to time. However every guest will get the same one. As the waiter suggested, it is best to start from the center, which is scallop topped with yuzu foam; continued with the one on the right, which is bread topped with chocolate; and finished the starter with the one on the left, which is salmon sitting on top of mint leaf and topped with cream. Well, it's really a starter because it really makes our stomach crave for more.

Smoken duck breast on bed of greens with cranberry vanetta

The above dish is really the one I ordered. It is called "Smoked duck breast on bed of greens with cranberry vanetta". As the name says, it's smoken duck breast, cut in thin slices. The meat is really tender and combined with some vegetables and crackers dipped in cranberry sauce, it's a perfect dish after a nice starter. The portion is just right, not too much and not too little considering we still have a few more dishes to go.

Gratinated escargots topped with yuzu butter

The next on my order list is escargots. To be precise, it is gratinated escargots topped with yuzu butter. The escargot is baked with a topping of grated cheese. For those who don't like exotics food, I really suggest you to try this. This is unlike any other, the escargot is soft with topping of cheese and baked perfectly, it's something you really have to try.

Before the main dish, I actually have ordered a bowl of clam soup. Unfortunately the look of the soup is not really good for photo snapping. But don't get me wrong. Though the look is not so good, but the taste is superb. It really makes your stomach warm.

Duck confit

And for the main dish, I chose duck confit. Well, the name says it all. For those who don't know what duck confit is, you can take a look here. In short, it is duck leg cooked in its own fat and preserved. How about the taste? It's the best.

Iced fruity refresher - refreshing blend accompanied with assorted fresh fruits

The drink is also part of the 7 menu that I have to choose. This time I choose Iced fruity refresher. It's basically juice of combination of apple and pineapple; that's why it is called refreshing blend.

Japanese style red bean puff with vanilla ice cream

The last but not least, it's the dessert. For dessert, I choose red bean puff in Japanese style with vanilla ice cream. The red bean filled puff is slightly different that any other puff. The red bean is kind of melted within the puff, so when you start to bite it, the lava of red bean is melted in your mouth

Mutton Biryani at Bismillah Biryani Restaurant

When my colleagues arranged for Friday team lunch in Bismillah Biryani, my initial thought was, is it nice food? My experience eating Biryani rice so far was not so good. Most are tasted like too oily fried rice with some Indian gravy. But it would be unfair if I rejected to join without really knowing how the food quality is.

Located at 50 Dunlop Street, it is between Bugis and Little India MRT station. We took MRT to Bugis station and walk to the place. Arriving at the site, I was even more skeptical when looking at the front of the restaurant. It looks like a rundown 2 storeys shop house that requires poles to prevent the second storey to collapse, with limited lights within the restaurant. Does it really have nice food?

Entering the restaurant, we were greeted by two Chinese old couple who took our orders. There are only 4 dishes served, namely chicken, mutton, fish and vegetables biryani. So I tried the mutton biryani.

Mutton Biryani

Usually when I look at any biryani rice sold in Indian restaurant, it looks like oily fried rice topped with so much gravy. Here at Bismillah Biryani, there is so little (almost none) of oil in the rice. I was amazed from the first mutton entered my mouth. It was so soft and tender. It was like melted in my mouth and tasted so good. As you can see in the picture above, the rice does not have so much oil. It also does not have extra gravy.

Served with an egg, it costs only $9.00. It so much worth for the money, considering the portion is really huge.

The owner (I guess) told me that the way they cook is by cooking the mutton first, then put the mutton at the bottom while cooking the rice. That way, the mutton flavour will be absorbed by the rice. So with four different flavour of biryani rice, he cook them separately to get each flavour deeply within the rice.


Location: 50 Dunlop Street. You can stop at Bugis MRT station or Little India and walk to the restaurant.

Dim Sum at Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant (Part 2)

This is my second visit to Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant for tasting their famous dim sum menu. In previous visit I had tasted the century egg porridge, deep fried dumpling with fresh salad, chicken feet, shrimp dumpling and the deep fried ice cream. This time, though I also tried a few favorites dim sum like century egg porridge and chicken feet, I'll write only those dish that I've not covered in the previous post.

Shrimp & Vegetable Rice Noodle Roll (Prawn Cheong Fun)

Shrimp and vegetable rice noodle roll, or what people usually call prawn cheong fun or xiā cheong fun. The difference is that aside from prawn, this rice noodle roll also include vegetable as you can see the green color inside the roll at the left photo.

The rice noodle roll is quite smooth and silky, covering each prawn and vegetable deep into the dressing sauce.

Deep-Fried Vegetable Spring Roll

The next dish is deep-fried vegetable spring roll. Presented in a portion of 3 pieces on top of small oval plate with thin sliced carrot lining, the spring roll is a must try. Try to dip the spring roll into the provided sauce, you'll crave for more.

Mushroom Dumpling in Hot-Plate. Another interesting and must try.

Fried Sesame Ball with Chocolate, Red-Bean and Liquor Filling

The last dish we tried, and the best one is fried sesame ball. Presented in a portion of 4, the above sesame ball is something you can't miss. It looks like other sesame ball, but the real secret is the ingredient inside that ball. As you can see in the photo below, underneath the sesame ball layer is chocolate filling, mixed with red beans paste.

The Liquor Filling Fried Sesame Ball

The best part of it is the clear yellowish liquid at the center. That's the liquor filling for this sesame ball. It is fried in high degree temperature such that even after the outer layer is cooled, the liquor inside is still pretty hot. So beware for you who like to eat things fast. It may burn your tongue, but it could be the best sesame ball out there.

Recipe: French Macarons

This is a guest post by Kat about her journey cooking French macaron.

Blueberry Cheese Macarons

I got opportunity to write in my friend's blog about French macarons. So here I share the recipe to bake macaron.
It started few years ago when i ate French macarons at SweetSpot Marina Bay Sands. Ever since, I'm so crazily curious about how to make one. Finally I tried to bake one after I bought a microwave oven 1.5 years later. Since my kitchen is too small, I baked macarons using microwave oven. It should actually use a big oven.

My mom bought me a book written by an Indonesian writer about macarons recipes. Unfortunately the entire recipe written on the book are wrong because when I followed the steps in the recipe, it did not produce the macaron as I expected. The shells don't have the feet below, the top is not glossy and looks frumpy. At the end I throw away the book.

My first attempt baking macarons without any book was last year and it failed. It seemed that I over beaten the meringue so it was dry and broken and the mixture couldn't spread. So they all ended in trash.
My second attempt, the meringue is under beaten, the mixture is too flat and it didn't rise at all. The shell became flat like cookies.
This failure made me frustrated but I kept reading and looking for perfect macaron recipe. i read so many recipe and blog and try to understand how to beat the meringue until it become soft enough but not dry. How to fold in but not stir in.

So one fine Saturday night I tried to bake again and ended with successful French macarons! They had feet, smooth and glossy top, flat base and nice body. It seems to be a success case until I found out that it had air pockets when I bite. Then I searched in Google why my macarons produced airpockets and how to avoid it. Was it under mix, undercook or over beaten? So I tried again and this time I stirred not more than 50 strikes. I couldn't remember how many strikes I did but I was sure not I didn't strike it more than 50 times. The result? No more air pockets.

The method I use to cook macarons is the French method. Most people try the Italian method with great success with simmer sugar and water. The French method is more difficult but less hassle. Since I only have hand mixer I can only bake with the French one.
Some recipe says to age the white eggs for 3-5 days , some  says it doesn't really matter.
To lesser the hassle i never age the eggs. The day I want to bake the day i buy the eggs from supermarket.

So here are the ingredients.

The shell
 150 gr Egg whites
 100 gr Caster sugar
 180 gr Ground almond
 270 gr Icing sugar


Direction:

1. Begin beating the white eggs at low speed until it become foamy. Add slowly castor sugar  in the egg white then increase the speed to medium/high and beat until a firm meringue forms. One minute before become peak add the food coloring.
2. Shift the ground almond and the icing sugar.
3. Fold in the ground almond and icing sugar gradually to the egg white mixture. Do not stir in, you have to fold in from the bottom. Do not over mix as the mixture will became runny if you do so. The mixture should be like magma, flowing and shiny.
4. Put a baking sheet on a tray and using a plastic piping bag, create the shells onto a baking sheet at about 3cm wide. The mixture will spread a bit.  Some suggest using Silpat (silicone mat), but I use wax baking paper. I did try once though, using silpat, but the result wasn't good. It had fewer feet and the shell didn't rise quite well.
5. Once you've finished creating the mixture on the baking paper, tap the tray gently.
6.  Let it rest for 20-25 minutes.
7.  Bake them at 150 degree celcius for 12 mins or adjust it depending on your oven. Mine is 170 degree celcius for 15 mins.

Once the baking is done, remove it from the oven let them cool in the wire rack as the shells are not ready to eat, you'll need to pair 2 shells together, put the filling (read more about making the filling) between the shells and fridge them for about 24-72 hours.
I guess that's the reason why macarons is so pricey in store because the process take some time :D

Macaron shell

Note:
~If you don't want to be too sweet, add a pinch of salt onto the almond ground mixture.
~I only made 1/4 of this recipe ended with 15  macarons, to avoid disappointment when it fails.

Now let's make the filling
Chocolate Ganache Filling
120 gr heavy cream
240 gr dark chocolate (I combine it with white chocolate)

Direction:
Heat the cream over medium heat,  until bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan but don't let the cream boils. Remove it from the heat, add the chocolate, and let sit for 30 seconds. Slowly whisk the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Let it cool down in the room temperature and put in the fridge until ready to be assembled with the shells.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Filling
113 gr cream cheese
25 gr powdered sugar
1 cup fresh blueberry, chopped
1/2 half cup castor sugar
50 gr unsalted butter, softened

Direction:
1. Mix the cream, sugar and butter until smooth and fluffy.
2. Heat the chopped blueberry in medium stir, add a little bit of sugar and then heat them up until they are boiling. Once boiled, let it cool before mixing into cream mixture.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Filling

3. After it completely mixed, put into a piping bag, and it's ready to use. You can also put them in the fridge for later use.

Tonkatsu/Tonkotsu Ramen at Watami (Raffles City)

The last time I dined at Watami I enjoyed the special Kaisen Tori Kamameshi which I suggest you must try it. This time I am writing about different special dish. It's the special tonkatsu ramen.

Tonkatsu Ramen

Served in a quite big bowl and special pork broth, the ramen becomes one of all time favourites. If you go to other restaurant to find tonkatsu ramen like this one, you'll usually get ramen with fried tonkatsu. Watami serves differently. It serve ramen two slices of tonkatsu, boiled in the same special pork-bone (tonkotsu) broth producing very smooth contour and super tender, completed with boiled egg.

Tonkatsu Ramen

I find that the ramen served in Watami has slightly different contour. It's a little bit thicker than ramen usually served in other restaurants, but it's not too thick to make your stomach bloated eating it. As you can see in the picture left.

Completing the dining experience is Pasionfruit Mango Tea. As usual, it is served in a tall glass container (about 20cm), it will satisfy your thirst.

Pasionfruit Mango Tea

Kaisen Mori & Chirashi Gozen at Ichiban Boshi (Great World City)

Ichiban Boshi, a Japanese restaurant that offers Japanese dining experience with nuance of simplicity yet modern. Located next to the downward escalator to Basement 1 Great World City, you won't miss it as it is usually packed with people queuing during dinner time.

Kaisen Mori & Chirashi Gozen

The photo above was Kaisen Mori & Chirashi Gozen, the special dish they had when we visited last Thursday evening. It comes in a large tray packed with various yummy dishes. Let's start with the upper right bowl.

Zoomed up in the picture below is salmon and tuna with rice bowl. The rice bowl should actually have three type of fish, salmon, tuna and swordfish. Unfortunately we were told that they had runout of the swordfish and thus replaced by more salmon and tuna. Never mind, it's still as good as it gets. The rice is like the rice quite soft, like the one used to serve sushi. The salmon and tuna are chopped into small pieces so that it's easily mixed with the rice.

Salmon and Tuna Rice Bowl

The next at the white rectangular plate contains tiger prawn, salmon, codfish and scallop. The three tiger prawns are deep fried until the shell become crispy. Both fish, the salmon and codfish, are pan-fried. The salmon is perfectly fried and its skin become crispy.

Fried Prawn, Pan-fried Salmon and Codfish, and Baked Scallop

Unfortunately the codfish is a little bit too oily, though its skin is also crispy. Both are served with pink coloured house-special sauce. The left most on the plate are two pieces of scallop, baked with cheese on the top.

Completing the set are udon with fried bean curd, chawanmushi, an appetiser and two slices of watermelon.

With the set containing variety of dishes, it's definitely worth for the money spent. If you think you can't finish them all alone, you can share with your spouse or your girl/boyfriend as it is big enough to serve 2 persons.

Tempura Ice Cream

Completing the dining experience, I ordered tempura ice cream. It's ice cream covered with tempura skin and deep fried in the boiling oil. Once the oil is strained, it's topped with strawberry paste. You still can feel the warmth of the fried tempura, yet you'll feel the freshness of an ice cream inside.

Dorayaki (Juz Bread)

Dorayaki

We all know Doraemon, right? The blue and white fat cat that has bottomless magic pocket in this tummy. His favorite food is a yellowish brown color rounded cake called Dorayaki. Are you curious how yummy is dorayaki? Well now you can easily find one at Juz Bread.

Yesterday when I was curiously looking at what kind of cake is available at Juz Bread in One Raffles Place, I realized that they're selling dorayaki!!!

They are selling 4 flavor of dorayaki. Durian, creamy cheese, red bean and chocolate. I bought the durian and creamy chese ones.

At home, after I snapped a few photos (just in case they are as yummy as they look like), I tried the durian flavor first. The first bite is unforgettable. The durian taste is really strong and you can feel the durian contour when you chew it. The cake itself is pretty soft and smooth. Unfortunately the creamy cheese was a little bit letting me down. They put too much creamy cheese in the cake such that the whole cake just taste like cheese. You feel that you're eating cheese instead of cake with cheese filling.

Overall, I'd definitely want more the durian flavor, and I'll try the other flavor when I come back to the shop.

Where: Basement 1, One Raffles Place (previously known as OUB Center). Just head down to basement one via escalator near G2000. The shop is just opposite Starhub Center.