Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.

Spencer 7/23/15 Spencer 7/23/15

Shinji by Kanesaka

A stark white colonial complex stands in the center of Singapore's downtown, surrounded by modern monoliths and heavily trafficked roads. The Raffles Hotel, built in 1887, is one of the world's finest and remains the gold standard for Singapore - if you're visiting and looking to spend $700+ a night, look here, not the Marina Bay Sands. Raffles also seems to be the inspiration for every Singaporean hotel that came after it: construct a beautiful building with fantastically modern accommodations, then fill the empty spaces with high-end stores, fine dining, and lush landscaping. Walking into the lobby is a bit like the first time you see The Grand Budapest Hotel's interior; you get transported to another time and another place. And if you're not a guest, like me, you get transported back outside.

Gold Elevator at The Raffles Hotel Singapore

Courtyard at The Raffles Hotel Singapore

Gift Shop at The Raffles Hotel Singapore

Ice Cream Cart at The Raffles Hotel Singapore

I'm hesitant to recommend this, but if you visit Singapore, go to The Long Bar the hotel. The Long Bar is most definitely a tourist trap - the people you see in there are more than likely the same people who will be dining at the Clarke Quay Hooter's that night - but it has a very cool Malaysian plantation design to it. This is the place where the sickly sweet Singapore Sling was invented, but that doesn't make it any better. I'd rather stop in for a beer or bourbon than get a $30 cocktail that tastes like hummingbird food.

Directory at The Raffles Hotel Singapore

Choosing where to spend my limited meals in Singapore is a challenge; this is a city with 10 fine-dining establishments on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list, plus an insurmountable number of wonderful local restaurants and hawker stands. I've agonized over menus, my mind a barrage of haute cuisine and fine ingredients.

Shinji by Kanesaka at The Raffles Hotel Singapore

The first of my splurge meals was at Shinji by Kanesaka at Raffles. Shinji is the Singapore outpost of Shinji Kanesaka's 2-Michelin starred Tokyo restaurant. Kanesaka's executive chef is Koichiro Oshino; I was lucky enough to have him as my chef during my meal there.

A little too confident in my ability to cope with the Singapore heat, I arrived at Shinji drenched in sweat, dehydrated, and possibly suffering from a little heat stroke. Walking through the lattice door into the restaurant - which is just a small room with a bar wrapping around the 3 sushi chefs - felt like something out of a movie. As the door slid closed behind me, the oppressive heat, the bustle of the city, the stark white walls of the colonial hotel, dissipated. Within 5 minutes I was transferred from 2015 Singapore to early-1900's luxury to a cozy Tokyo restaurant.

I sat between Oshino-san and another sushi chef, watching them prepare for service as I cooled down. I originally intended to get the Tsuki lunch set (12 pieces, $125), but I ended up going with the Hana (9 pieces, $75) due to my internal organs shutting down.

Daikon and Seaweed at Shinji by Kanesaka

The meal began in near total silence, as other diners had not yet arrived. Oshino-san welcomed me, asked me if there was anything I didn't eat (no), and we began. I was given a bowl of thinly sliced daikon (radish) dressed with a ginger sauce and seaweed in a light sesame sauce. A simple starter and palate cleanser.

My descriptions for the sushi itself will be minimal. Shinji's focus is on balance, harmony, and honoring the ingredients. We didn't speak much during the meal; it was more like watching a movie or play than anything else. For many of the dishes, it's simply a piece of fish dabbed with soy.

Something that sets apart a great sushi place from the average is the rice. This cannot be emphasized enough. The slight vinegar flavor, the perfect temperature and texture; it was the best sushi rice I can remember eating anywhere. The more obvious difference is the quality of fish, all of which is picked by Kanesaka himself at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, then shipped to Singapore.

The first piece of sushi was Suzuki (sea bass), followed by Ika (squid). The squid was cut so thinly you could see the dab of wasabi through it. When editing the photos, I had to lower the white level of the squid - it was so white, it nearly disappeared over the plate and rice.

The most beautiful piece of the meal goes to the Chu-toro (medium fatty tuna), though the otoro (fatty tuna), the most highly-sought after piece of tuna, trumped it in flavor. It melts in your mouth like butter.

Kuruma ebi (Japanese Tiger prawn) made a striking appearance on the plate, but was my least favorite piece. I couldn't discern anything particularly special about it; I would have greatly preferred uni. The negitoro (tuna with spring onion), on the other hand, may have been the bite of the night. The fatty tuna was chopped and tossed with thin slices of onion, creating a balance of soft and crisp, fatty and sharp.

Continuing with the tuna theme was marinated maguro (tuna), a ruby cut of fish that had been marinated in soy.

Anago (saltwater eel), compared to unagi, is fishier, the texture more fragile and flakey. I would have preferred uni. I'm really sad I didn't get uni. After the anago came Aji (horse mackerel) and Suimono (clear soup). My body was still cooling down at this point, so I didn't eat much of the hot soup

My last piece of sushi was tekka maki, a simple tuna roll. It was served with pickles and, without question, the best tamago (egg) I've ever had. Unlike the more traditional tightly folded tamago, this was an egg custard that had been set. One of the goals I'm setting for myself is figuring out how to recreate it; it had enough sweetness and creaminess that it would be paired with a dessert.

The meal closed with a dessert that, like the sushi, appeared simple, but packed a wallop. The pumpkin pudding was incredible. The pudding itself was a mix of vanilla and pumpkin, topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and a sweet pumpkin sauce. At the base was pureed pumpkin.

The meal was sushi at its purest, but this was one of those that I'll remember more for the experience than the food. There's no doubt the sushi is world class, it's just that I want more complexity when I eat. That's why I love Niche, Sidney Street Cafe, and Publico back in St. Louis; I like to get a plate that makes me wonder "how did they do that?" or "how did they think of that?" For me to fully enjoy Shinji by Kanesaka and to fantasize about going back would require me to do the $250 omakase, I think. Still, I'm glad I went.

This restaurant has moved.

Shinji By Kanesaka

#02-20 Raffles Hotel

1 Beach Road

Singapore 189673

+65 6338 6131

Spencer 11/4/14 Spencer 11/4/14

Dinner Lab: Anomar

With Dinner Lab meals, you never know what your night is going to entail. Perhaps you'll be eating on Cherokee Street with a concert going on below you, or maybe you'll be at SKIF International, a clothing manufacturer & store on the Hill. I never would have thought a clothing store would make a good dinner venue, but it turned out to be a great one. Christmas lights hung from the ceiling and there were all sort of free knick knacks around for the taking (just kidding--I did not steal from the venue). Aside from wine and beer, they had a fruity white sangria that I was pounding down like there was no tomorrow.

Chef Danny Espinoza, the most huggable Mexican in Chicago, was set to churn out a cuisine St. Louis is sorely lacking: upscale Mexican. Yes, we have Milagro, but that doesn't fit the bill. I read the menu and knew immediately what I was looking forward to most -- the duck with blackberry mole (pronounced mo-lay). I judge Mexican restaurants on their moles. You can't tell by looking at them, but most moles have over 15 ingredients and take all day to cook. I once spent the better part of a day making a Oaxacan mole and it sucked.

"Anomar", the name of this dinner, was inspired by Danny's grandmother, Ramona. Get it? Anomar is Ramona backwards. It sounds like some kind of romantic Spanish word, though. While I'm sure Danny would have liked to have his grandmother there to help him, he instead had a familiar face: Chris Bailey, chef of St. Louis' first Dinner Lab.

The first course was a [symple_highlight color="blue"]Tiradito de Cobia[/symple_highlight], which is like Latin American sashimi dish. Even though it had Cobia, a fish I could do without, I still scarfed this thing down. While the rest of the meal reminded me of fall, this was like a goodbye warm weather. Delicate fish topped with a crisp salsa cruda and spiced chicharrons already sounds mouthwateringly delicious, but the addition of the outstanding vanilla pickled grapes and spicy salsa verde emulsion took it to the next level. Those little yellow dots are a savory black pepper lemon curd. Mmm. I could and would have eaten 2-3 of these.

The evening's second course was a [symple_highlight color="blue"]Sopa de Coliflor[/symple_highlight], a cauliflower soup. The soup bowls are artistically decorated, since the cooks have to heat the soup in other containers. A date puree dotted the bowl, while chorizo and garlic chips lined the side. Forget cocaine -- give me lines of chorizo!

Servers poured the soup from pitchers. After tasting it, I wish they had just poured it directly in my mouth. It tasted a lot like a potato soup (specifically the one from Annie Gunn's, if you're a local), but the combination of earthy cauliflower, sweet dates, spicy chorizo and crunchy garlic gave it a Mexican flair.

The third course, [symple_highlight color="blue"]Ensalada de Cesar[/symple_highlight], suffered a bit from the cooking conditions, I think. Danny's interpretation of the classic Caesar salad was composed of grilled romaine lettuce with shaved croutons, a spicy Parmesan vinaigrette and crunchy corn. While the dressing was delicious, the lettuce itself was kind of stringy and generally not well received at my table. My guess is that getting out 70 plates of freshly grilled lettuce before it starts cooling off was just a little too tough with a new crew. Even so, most people around me cleared their plates--it just didn't stand up to the quality of all the other dishes. The little pink things on top were buttermilk-braised radishes, another delicious small touch.

These next two courses were like when we had Pujols and Holliday batting back to back: they crushed it.

Our main course for the evening was [symple_highlight color="blue"]Mole de Zarzamora[/symple_highlight], which is a much cooler way of saying "blackberry sauce". I can't believe there aren't any celebrities who have named their kid zarzamora yet.

On one side of the plate we had red quinoa topped with roasted beet and an almond espuma (foam -- Danny is fancy), and on the other was a tender duck breast topped with a blackberry mole. I don't know how they were able to create such a deeply flavorful and incredibly delicious mole in so little time with so little space, but they blew me away. I would love to learn to make that.

I'm not a big dessert eater, but I inhaled this [symple_highlight color="blue"]Not-a-Pumpkin Spice Latte[/symple_highlight]. A sweet potato puree was topped with a coffee ganache, then a rosemary meringue, then some pretty little wildflowers. After the team assembled the desserts, Danny went medieval on them with a blowtorch.

This dish may have been the highlight of the night. Every aspect of it went together perfectly. It was my ideal dessert.

So far, Dinner Lab is 2/2 in my book. Even though the majority of the STL Dinner Lab diners seem to be old enough to remember the Vietnam war vividly, the atmosphere has been incredibly fun and the food has impressed. I don't want to say which dinner I thought was better, in fear of a battle between chefs Chris & Danny (see below image: a tense stare down? Chris giving the disapproving Dad stare?), but it would be a close call anyway.

I won't be able to make the November dinner, but I'm hearing pretty exciting things about December's...

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