Skirt @ W Singapore Sentosa Cove

It's our parent's anniversary, and my father in law likes steak, so the wife and I booked a dinner at Skirt to celebrate their special day. This is my 2nd time at Skirt, the first time was with the HungryGoWhere review folks to test out food which was very good, because we were invited guests.

So this second time which is about 2 months later, where we went in 'stealth mode' and we were there just to enjoy ourselves and pay from our own pockets. The service was still as good. Like the previous visit, there was a host/hostess to take care of you from start till the end of the dinner. We were served by a lady from Taiwan. She's really knowledgeable, you can ask her anything about the menu and she can tell you. In fact, she's better than the first visit there.

We did have a chat with her and found out she's being rotating amongst the different W properties around the world. She's here for a year or two and probably will go to another destination. So cool ya?

Skirt is W Hotel's first ever grill house from all their properties. If you go there, you will notice the world restaurant has the 'cow' theme. Elaborate deco like this, are inspired by the cow's udders. The hanging lights are made from cow leather. If you notice the host and hostess, they are dressed very sleek but their uniform or outfit is inspired by butchers!  Quite "W" cool!



Just like the first time, the bread roll are in the shape of a flower. When you go down the steps from the lobby to the restaurant, you can peep into the open concept kitchen. You will see they have lots of these bread. The burnt marks are there because they have been heated up on the grill.

These nice warm bread are served with seaweed dip and a bottle of chorizo lard oil.
(It's like Western version of our favourite lard in oil form and spicy!)


Terra Rossa Malbec (by glass) - $18

Dad ordered a glass of wine. It was a red that was recommended after we ordered our meal. It was recommended based on the meat he ordered.


SKIRT Made Blackmore Charcuterie for 2 - $38

I had this before and thought it was really good, so I told the parents that they should try this too.
I just love food that's being served on big wooden boards. Look at the thinly mandolinned vegetables. If you are serving food at home, you can do this too. (ideas ideas!)



This bit of pulled meat with some far and crispy onions on it was delicious.

From the previous tasting, I asked what it was so I know what this is when we had it with the parents. It's meat from the leg that has been sous vide at 65 for 1 day. It's just so tender. If you are adventurous and not so health conscious, eat it with the semi soft fats.



Two kinds of cured blackmore. I remembered that I prefer one to another, but I can't remember which ones. I think one's cured and the other just air dried cold cuts. If you dine there, you can confirm with them.



Liver pate. It's way too much for me personally. Everyone liked it except me, because I am not a liver person. ;-)



The pretty and hard crusted bread that comes with it. I preferred the softer bread that was served before your meal though. I prefer soft breads.



The details of this place. They have custom made cutlery!

Do you feel like you are dining in some big huge ancient castle maybe in King Arther's time, that people used such cutlery?



If you ordered meat, you will be served this before your meal.
On the left, apple bourbon juice. I think it's a bit strong, but it cleanses your palate before you have your meat. The right, a bottle of BBQ sauce.


Blackmore Australian Full Blood 9+ Wagyu, Skirt Steak (250g) - $48

The wife ordered this. She wanted to try this signature skirt steak. It's a nice piece of steak. It was done medium, and came out nicely as what she liked. I suppose you can't do wagyu any other way. It made the wife rather happy.


Donald Russell Irish Aberdeen Angus Grass fed 21 day Dry Aged Tenderloin - $40

Dad had a hard time deciding because there was too many choices. He end up having the Irish tenderloin. We all thought he made the best choice for the night after we all took a bit of his meat.



We thought the wife's skirt steak was nice, but after tasting dry aged meat and the tenderness that comes with it, I wished I ordered this too.  A good piece of meat, just grilled was just so so good. The price for this delicious meat was only $40!


Grilled Baby Barramundi - $47

Mum is more of a seafood person and she thought she will have the catch of the day. We were told they had a nice baby barra that day and mum thought it's a good choice too.

We thought it was quite an expensive fish, but it was really well done. Nicely grilled, it was nice, soft and juicy inside and we think mum did enjoy it.


Iberico Pork Skirt, Asparagus, Crackling - $40

When I ordered it, I imagined it to be a pice of "sio bak", with nice crackling skin on top by the description. I was wrong. It came as above. Yes, we laughed. It was piece of pork skirt with crackling separately on top.

It was OK. It was slightly over done, so it was a bit tough. Even with King Arthur's knife above, I had to use a bit more energy to cut it. So when I tasted Dad's dry aged beef, oh... I wanted to take over his whole plate.

We thought we would share some side dishes, so we ordered 4 different sides. Probably 2 or 3 should had been enough if you ordered the starter. You would be quite stuffed!


Grilled Pumpkin, Sprouts and Goat Cheese - $8

Nicely grilled pumpkin with leaves from probably 2 Brussels sprouts and goat cheese over it. Pumpkin had a nice aroma. You know how some people like harder pumpkin and some like soft mushy ones. This was the harder kind.


Sauteed Wild Mushrooms - $8

We are a family of mushroom lovers, so we ordered it when we saw mushrooms on the menu. We really liked this. It's a combi of different mushrooms with black fungus. We always forget about black fungus as mushrooms. Surprisingly, it goes so so well. We will be having this combo when we prepare this at home next time!


Baby Carrots, Beans and Radish - $6

A nice dish of carrots. Nice but not wowing. Yes, it's just carrots and beans and radish. Order it for beta carotene for your eyes.


Hand Cut Garlic Fries with Mayonnaise - $5

We saw the word garlic and fries and we kind of automatically order it. Frankly speaking, I can't remember now how it tasted because I did not take notes. Can't remember it was super crispy and super soft inside, but I remember we ate up all of it. No fries were spared!


Chocolate Forest Cake - $18

We ordered this dessert because dad loves black forest cake. It's more like a deconstructed black forest cake. Very interesting indeed!



Pop the 'cherry' on top and you have this thick mix of cherries. You should take a bit of everything you see on the plate and put it in your mouth. Taste it that way. You might just enjoy it.

Unless of course you think all these deconstructed thing is not your way to enjoy food. ;-)


Crepes - $15

A very alcoholic dessert! The two rolls are crepes and there's 2 different cocoa powder and granules over it. Their variation of crepes suzette.



The booze on fire has just melted all the chocolate. Enjoy!

We had a very good time. We arrived earlier before dinner and enjoyed walk around to admire the yachts there. Service staff was very good, but not very intrusive. 

Total cost was $336 which includes the various taxes and 4 other drinks that we ordered.

Oh yes, if you are Points and Miles collectors for hotels, you can redeem SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) points. Yes, I gave them my SPG number.

SKIRT
W Singapore - Sentosa Cove
21 Ocean Way
Singapore 098374

Tel: 6808 7278
Hours: Tues - Sun, 7 pm - 12 midnight

Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu Four Seasons @ Bugis Village

Ramen fans in Singapore rejoice. The folks from Ramen Keisuke has opened their fourth branch in Singapore. One thing about Chef Keisuke Takeda is that he does not like to do the same things.

He has many branches in Japan and now with the 4th branch in Singapore, all of his branches sells different things. The broth is made differently, the noodles are different too. Many restaurants add new stuff to their menu, to me, Keisuke adds shops to introduce new things!

This fourth branch in Singapore opens on 10 May 2013 and I can just imagine the snaking queue that will form like his other branches. This branch is called Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu Four Seasons. Four seasons to represent what Japanese are very proud of, their 4 seasons that have different festivities.



The wife and I with a few fellow foodie bloggers were there before their official opening today to try their ramen. Thanks to their PR folks for the invitation. Here's what you can expect:



This is probably their nicest branch other than the Parco branch. The kitchen here seems to be bigger than my favourite branch at Orchid Hotel.





As you enter into the restaurant, you can experience the four seasons via the drawings on the walls! Can you see which is Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter? They have cleverly carve the restaurant into 4 different sections.

They have artist draw on the wall directly and we were told the guys just took paint and drew on it straight away without outlining things first!

Reminds me of my childhood home when Dad asked one of his artist friend to paint our outside wall! We had the 'garden of eden' with different animals just without Adam and Eve on our wall!



The brilliant guy behind it all. Keisuke Takeda. This is my first time meeting him in person after tasting food from his various branches. Trained in French cooking techniques, marrying it to make the best Japanese food.

We asked him what was special about this branch. This branch is for those who likes very thick broth. They use 1.5 times more bones when boiling the broth here. They also boil it longer too, 11 hours if my memory serves me correctly.

If you are following me on Instagram (keropokman), I posted a photo of the broth boiling for their first day of service the night before.

When we asked what bones are used for the broth, he told us he uses from four parts of the pig. He only told us 3 parts and said the 4th is a trade secret. I shall not tell you the 3 that we now know. hehe...

If you are like me wondering how the consistency will be maintained when Keisuke returns to Japan. We found the answer ourselves without him telling us. We peeped into their kitchen at the right time and saw his staff using a refractometer to measure the consistency of the broth! Even if eyes and tongues are different, the instruments gives accurate measurement.



Just like in other branches, you order your food on a piece of paper. The Japanese version of it on the other side. Looks familiar ya?

The wife and I with Camemberu and TheHungryCow tried all 5 of it amongst the 4 of us.



Something new on the menu is this Japanese Green Tea Cola! ($3.80) Keisuke like this and he has bottled it under his own brand and is selling it in this branch. It tastes a bit like 7-Up or Sprite mixed with Green Tea. I like it!

On their Facebook page, there's a promo now that says between 10 May - 31 May, if you order a bowl of ramen, you get a bottle of Japanese Green Tea Cola for free!



You can ask for an apron if you want. Big plastic ones. We declined when offered.
What is a beautiful rubber band? It's colourful bands for typing your long hair! Keisuke has long hair so he know guys or girls with long hair need them when they have ramen! So thoughtful ya?



Just like their other branches, they have free boiled eggs and free beansprouts. I love their marinated beansprouts!



If you want to make your ramen the sesame fragrance, you know what to do.

And the noodles......

Spring:
The inspiration according to Keisuke is the colours of spring! (Green and Pink). The green is the basil that goes very well with cheese. The pink is in the bright bowl with the pink spring character.

They had originally wanted to have green shiso, but it is hard to find good quality shiso all year round in Singapore in big quantity so they used basil instead.



How does it taste? It's reminds the 4 of us of having pasta! If you close your eyes and was served this, you might think you are having a bowl of pasta because of the nice parmesan aroma. The taste is nice just that our eyes is telling the brain different things.

Prices for Spring starts from $11.90


Summer:
Summer is hot and spicy! It's a blend of miso, Japanese chilli, Szechuan pepper and Cayenne pepper. It's pork minced that has been mixed with the addictive concoction. If you look and stare into the minced, you will notice small little prawns too.



If you like spicy stuff, you will find it rather addictive. You can mix it in the broth or you can have it on its own with the noodles. It's spicy enough but not killing to me. Reminds me of the fragrant chilli flakes in small bottles that you add to noodles in many Japanese restaurants, just a tad fragrant because of the szechuan pepper and cayenne.

Just make sure you have your first mouth 'correctly' (you know what I mean right, when eating chilli) or you will cough and have to drown yourself with water.

It's very difficult to explain how it tastes. It's like bak chor and yet a bit like hae bee hiam. It's complex, but I think if you try it, you might find it a tad familiar. Tell me what you think!

Prices for Summer starts from $13.90


Autumn:

Autumn's inspiration is mushrooms! They have 3 different types of mushrooms that's fried. Mushrooms if you cook shrink, so it's those small bits around in the photo below. The other inspiration is bonito flakes.



The ball of minced meat you see if a mix of bonito and minced pork. There's quite a lot of bonito in it, it gets you addicted like you know how we sometimes use our fingers to swipe up all the remaining bits in a junk food packet? That's how I can describe the dish.  Very additively nice.

Mix it into your broth and it transform the already nice broth into something greater. If you ask for 'special toppings', you get the extra stir fried pork too! That's very yummy!

Prices for Autumn starts from $12.90


Winter:
If you like the version at Orchid Hotel, this is about the same there except it has been made richer and thicker!



If you like the good old Tonkotsu broth without anything additions like basil and cheese etc, you will like this. It's nice and rich, the reason many people who like me who likes thick rich version queue up at the Orchid Hotel branch.

I like to have this with the marinated bean sprouts. I wonder if I can ask for more spring onions the next time.

Prices for Winter starts from $10.90


King:

If you feel like King! This version was my favourite. It has stir fried pork with ginger on top. There's also onions fried with pork which I like. It also has black fungus.



It's like having a bowl of winter above and asking for a bowl of stir fried pork and adding into it! Rather addictive eating the pork slices.

Prices for King starts from $13.90




These are the bowls that the noodles are served on. It's beautiful isn't it?
They are Arita Porcelain bowls, specially made for Four Seasons.


They have a contest now at their Facebook Page. Take any creative photo when you are dining there and post to their Facebook page. Prizes includes tickets to Tokyo! You can also win one of the Arita porcelain bowls too.


This photo for those into porcelain. ;-)

This is probably their biggest seating capacity branch so far. They have 56 seats here.


There's always talk about noodles thickness when people talk about ramen.

Out of curiosity, we asked if they are made in house. They said the noodles are made using their own recipe in a factory in Singapore. It's the same company that made their noodles in Japan. The factory in Japan has opened a similar factory in Singapore to supply noodles to the 4 branches here!

The noodles they use in the 4 branches are different in thickness and shape. Apparently, the noodles served are based on the broth. This branch has very strong and thick broth, so they use thinner noodles here. The science of thickness of noodles so that it just soaks up enough broth to enjoy it the best. Interesting eh?
Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu Four Seasons
158 Rochor Road
Bugis Village (between KFC and Mcdonalds)
Singapore 188433

Tel: 6333 5740

Hours:
Mon - Fri: 11.30 am - 2.30 pm / 5 pm - 10.30 pm
Sat, Sun, Public Holidays: 11.30 am - 10.30 pm

Recipe: Homemade XO Sauce

My mum makes her own XO sauce. Many mothers might have their own recipe too. The ladies at her Ladies Fellowship always 'demo' their recipes to each other and this is her recipe.



She decided to make XO sauce for us because she was 'clearing' our fridge when she came over. She knew the ingredients we have in the fridge have been 'around' for some time. We usually buy her the same things when we go on holidays. We have a supply of dried scallops that we bought in Hong Kong. That's the end product above!

It's a lot of preparation work if you decide to make your own. Some of you might think it's easier to buy a bottle or two from the shelves instead.


Ingredients:
1 cup of scallots
10 cloves of garlic
3 cili padi (optional)
3-4 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of soya sauce
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Pre-soak:
1 cup of dried scallops
1 cup of dried shrimps (hae bee)
10-20 stalks of dried chilli
3-4 pieces of dried mushrooms

Here's the photo journey of the whole process:



Pre-soak 1 cup of scallops, more if you want more in your XO sauce.



After that, you have to slowly peel them into strips, just like how you find in bottled XO sauce that you buy from shelves.



1 cup of scallots, 10 cloves of garlic, 2-3 cili padi. Cili padi is optional, some might not like it.



You can use a food processor to slice it or you can slowly cut it by hand. The shallots is for making shallot crisp first then use the oil to cook the XO Sauce.



A container of shallots ready for deep frying.



The garlic and the optional cili padi.



After pre-soaking the dried shrimps (hae bee), chop them into smaller pieces.



Mushrooms that has been soaked and cut into small pieces too.



The amount of dried chilli is up to you. Use between 5 to 10. Depending on your preference.



You can blend it or you can pound it like what I did.



After pounding, it's not a lot!


Method:



Step 1: Preparing the fried shallot crisps.

In a pot, fill enough oil to cover the shallots and deep fry it till it's almost golden brown.
This is around 1 1/2 cups of oil. If you use more ingredients, you might need up to 2 cups of oil.



Remember to remove the shallots when it's turning brown, after removing it, it will still cook and turn even more brown. If you don't want bitter shallot crisps, remove it when it turns golden.



Step 2: Transfer some of the remaining oil to a big pan and fry the garlic and cili padi.
Step 3: Add in the chopped dried shrimps and fry till it's fragrant.



Step 4: Add in the scallops and mushrooms. Continue to fry till it becomes very very fragrant.

 

Step 5: Pour in the remaining oil from frying the shallots and keep stirring it.



Mum says it's best for first timers to use medium heat. If you use high heat, you must be very careful so that you don't burn all your ingredients. You can see that the oil is bubbling so it's very very hot. Look at the photo above and below. Hot hot hot!

At home, we use a Bosch Gas Hob that has a 6 KW power level. That day when we were cooking it, we used quite a high heat, so I was constantly stirring and stirring. Back breaking! Our cooking time was shorter because we used a slightly higher heat.



Step 6: Add in the seasoning.

3-4 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of soya sauce.
1/2 teaspoon of salt.

You can adjust a tablespoon more or a bit less depending on your taste buds. Some family eat saltier food, some less salty.



The 3 sauces and oil that we used to season it.

If you wonder what's the First Draw Soy Sauce that you see above, it's what it says it is, First Draw Soy Sauce. We find it extra fragrant when you cook with it and the taste of food does taste better. It's more aromatic than the regular range. You should buy a bottle and try it and see the difference. It's more expensive than the usual soy sauce.

You can find it in super markets, but sometimes it runs out of stock. So grab it when you see it. If you want to look for it, it's usually on the bottom shelve because it's a glass bottle compared to other sauces nowadays which are plastic.



Step 7: You have to keep stirring and stirring it. I was the stirrer for the day. See the bubbles. Be extra careful. Use a super long metal spatula!

It's almost done when it's about this colour and it's very fragrant. Your nose will tell you. Mum says when it's fragrant and it's lighter colour, it's ok. Your preference.



Step 8: Add in the fried shallots and that's it! Turn off the fire and let it cool!



It's very very hot, so let it cool thoroughly.



You can leave it in the pan to cool or on a bowl if you want to take photos and instagram it!



When it's cooled, fill it up in glass bottles and store in the fridge. You need the oil to cover it so that it last longer.

Enjoy it with a simple bowl of mee suah or add a teaspoon or two of it when you stir fry vegetables.

This post is for those who have been asking me for the recipe.