Index
Days 0 and 1: Flying
Day 2: Sushi Kimura
Day 3: Jumbo Seafood
Day 4: Odette
Day 5: Hawker centres
Day 6: Return
Singapore
Beautiful morning and a belated arrival in Singapore-- you know it's a bad day when United flight 29 and United flight 1 both arrive at the exact same time.
The JW Marriott South Beach doesn't have the view that the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Walk has, but they do try, even if their arrival gift was a bit mysterious (pink ball with a wooden hammer?). Caught up with Jennifer in the lobby and went immediately to an excellent Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast, coffee and tea, and soft-boiled eggs at YY Kafei Dian right across from the hotel. They had other hot food items as well, but as it was breakfast... kaya toast was the priority.
Made it over to the Singapore River and eventually to Song Fa Bak Kut Teh for another delicious meal. The pork spareribs were on point and the veggies were very much welcomed. Plenty more wandering followed, including the famous Fullerton Hotel and their teddy bear Christmas tree, the the famous Merlion only a short walk away.
Dinner was at Sushi Kimura (Michelin 1*), right across from the Pan Pacific Orchard. Chef Kimura serves twelve customers simultaneously across a massive expanse of Japanese wood, and things start off immediately right with soup, a rice dish, then an artfully done sashimi platter of seared grouper paired with bonito. Grilled nodoguro (black throat sea perch) is executed to perfection, then followed by a boiled snow crab that the guests seemed to love (it was okay to me, done well but not what I had in mind?).
Sushi came next. Hirame (flounder), maguro (bluefin tuna), chutoro (medium fatty tuna), and red snapper with uni salt (madai) lead off; the aged maguro was particularly good. Scampi (shrimp) with caviar felt like it was missing something, although it was clearly a massive prawn, perhaps a bit off in texture due to the prawn being so large? Hokkaido uni (sea urchin) and then otoro (fatty tuna) followed, both lived up to Kimura's reputation. Seared toro followed, freshly done over charcoal at the bar-- quite a presentation!
Wrapped up with aji (horse mackerel), which easily could have been the star of the show, if only the maguro, uni, and otoro weren't so good. Akasa (sp?) soup was a refreshing end to the meal, followed by a seared hotate (scallop) that was the final end to the sushi. Not quite sure how I felt about the hotate, seemed like raw might have been better? Dessert was a very finely crafted tamago-yaki (fish cake), plus some artfully presented fruit and jelly.
Verdict: a delectable meal, but with twelve customers at a single bar, it seemed a bit less personal and a bit less of a relaxing experience than some of his competitors. Several sous chefs do much of the work, and despite the similar tones of light-colored Japanese wood that mark most high-end sushi restaurants today, the vibe was distinctly different than Shoukouwa, Shunji, I-Naba, or Hanare.