Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The Kaisan fan club

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Kaisan is one of those places that I frequent but haven’t blogged about. The biggest reason for that is, it is such a small place with limited sushi counter seats and it is my spot (I even have this chair that I regularly sit in) and I don’t want too many people to there, it’s MINE. But seriously, who am I kidding when this gem has been blogged about repeatedly.

This is how I rationalise telling people about one of my favourite sushi places: firstly, Kaisan deserves to survive (a) it is a fabulous place where the food gives me so much pleasure and delight (b) the people are delightful, Chef Thomas Kok is a great guy and fatherly in his fish fish/sushi/food education that he always gives us and these is this rather funny waitress that I’ve come to know called Candy. Secondly, if there is a steady flow of traffic through the restaurant, it keeps the fish and produce fresh, and this is a very important and selfish reason of mine.

To be honest, I’ve never ever seen the menu in Kaisan. I usually just take my seat at the bar and leave it to the skilled hands of Thomas. Unless I spot a thing or two at in the glass chiller in front of me, I would make a request, and if I fancied some sake, I’ll ask Candy, she’s got a good sense of taste in that field. Oh and always ask if he has the bamboo clam. Apparently I’ve been a real charm since Kaisan has always had it when I’ve dined there so Chef Thomas has deemed me, ‘lucky’. Ask for the bamboo clam because it is rather amusing to see the clam fighting back for their lives as they hit the hot grill and get slapped with some tasty mentaiko dressing, but spectacle aside they are damn tasty too, I could have two, but I would miss out on the other good stuff.

The sushi/sashimi selection, it is fresh and it is good. I have had the best maguro sushi in Kaisan. The tuna he gets is from Japan, and it isn’t the yellowfin but the bluefin tuna, the kind of tuna that could easily outweigh two human beings and oh, it is so gooood. In my last visit he served us, aka uni, a seasonal product from Hokkaido. The urchin is smaller than the usual sea urchins that is served, and hence more expensive and the gonads are redder in colour, and hence its name. Taste-wise, it is superior to the usual uni, creamier, stronger in flavour sans the fishiness that is sometimes presence. Paired against his crisp nori, my first bite was a sense of crisp crunch, then the uni exploded and filled my mouth, absolutely sensational. On every visit, he also usually ensures that we each get a piece of toro sushi, but the last time we went there, he practically made us a toro sandwich, two slices of toro with sushi rice sandwiched between, total luxury and I was in toro heaven. In short, he is a great sushi chef.

The importance of the raw bar in a sushi bar is top priority, but Kaisan also has a splendid selection of cooked food as well. I’ve had fabulously grilled whole fishes and fish cheeks that were perfectly seasoned with salt and beautifully sweet. The person who mans the grill also does a great job in grilling up the numerous orders of bamboo clams and anago sushi, charred on one side and soft on the other. On my last visit, I had also tried something new to me, but traditional in Japan – a combination of tofu, unagi, grated yam and topped with ikura, it looked and tasted great.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I was a member of the Kaisan fan club?

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the view from my regular seat

*See the whole set of pictures here.

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10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How much does a meal like this cost per person?

4:03 PM  
Blogger joone! said...

I've always paid something between $60 to $80 per person.

10:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

one question: where abouts is kaisan then? didn't quite see it mentioned in the entry...

3:47 AM  
Blogger carrie said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

3:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do you have to specify the number of courses or just leave it up to the chef?

3:50 PM  
Blogger joone! said...

lennyboy: raffles hotel, #01-21

anonymous: I leave it up to Chef.

9:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Erm... So what exact is Kaisan Fan Club???

Does it exist or just a name for a group of people who just loves Kaisan???

10:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i'm thinking of trying out kaisan but am abit unsure because i have rarely eaten japanese food. can you give me some advice on the food ettiquete and things i should do or take note of when i go to kaisan? thanks:)

3:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It sounds delectable.
You are a fantastic food blogger and you bring justice to all the foodie bloggers out there.
The sashimi sounds great. Do you yourself have any tips on preparing fresh and tasty sashimi? Some have mentioned to me that it has to do with the cut, the knife and cutting against the grain. Could you justify that statement?
You're a stroke of foodie brilliance, June! (:

11:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

when i asked ” this is not wasabi, this is wasabi paste! can i have the real wasabi” and she said “we dont normally serve real wasabi, bacause most customer cannot tell the difference, if you want you need to request”… i dont fuckin’ believe my ears for this kind of shit, especially from a so called high end place like kaisan,, and i’m never going back, i’m not recommending my friends, AS SIMPLE AS THAT!!

imagine LV starts selling fake leather bags, and they gave an excuse that “oh, most cant tell the difference anyway.”

imagine savile row selling super 100s suitings and passes it off as super 150s, and tell us that ” most cant tell anyway,”

this is FUCKIN BULLSHIT.

the food at kaisan is good, quality is fresh, but if i’m fuckin paying 10-20 bucks for service charge and the high prices for food, then at least i can get real wasabi WITHOUT having to request for it?!

and quite a few staff cant speak proper english (i was told they’re from china)… not that this is a big complaint.. but certainly not expecting this from a high end place

cant imagine that they try to scrimp things like wasabi !!…

one thing though - their food is good & the quality as well. but that's besides the point.

disappointing.. if you want to know better places for jap food, let me know.

ike.

11:54 PM  

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