Good food is always worth mentioning.
That means sharing, even if it evokes feelings of hatred reading about it late at night when one only has crackers (or worse) for company.
A special occasion where on O's recommendations, we embarked to Aburiya which i've heard about but never had the pleasure of visiting, till now.
O placed the orders and we did the eating. Can't really find words outside 'WAH', 'SHOIK', 'MMM' to describe my memory... as they say,
NPNT !
Photos were taken by yours truly but the collages were made by O. Beautifully done to show most of the food we had in alot fewer pictures. Also, the before/after comparison is more pleasing to the eye.
I'll run through the items according to their placing on the collage above.
A combined collage of various items such as the grill, parts of the menu, even a picture of the normally camera shy O! Stay tuned for more frontal action in future posts~
(Set E)
Onigiri - Pleasantly grilled taste to it but O felt she didn't do it very well.
Tontoro Negi
(Pork cheek marinated with minced leek, salt & sesame oil)
- this actually came late in the meal and most of us were pretty filled at this point but the aroma from this and the season sets it apart from most of the other meats which we ordered (shio)
Shiitake (Mushroom) - Didn't look like much but really juicy & full of 'mushroomy' goodness for lack of a better descriptive. Maintained another kind of high other than just from all the meats.
Kurobuta (Pork Belly) - My mum loved this. Takes a long time to grill but patience brings a wonderfully crisp exterior with that smoky drool-when-you-remember-it-quality. Sure, i do exaggerate sometimes. Not this time though. The last picture in the collage is the finished product.
Yasai Salad - Ahh what is meat without the greens to balance the equation? All the greens here seem fresh and crunchy, a real plus.
The Elusive O - A rare picture! More to come in upcoming weeks! Wobble.
Tamago Soup - Usually one of my less favourite soups for being bland but this rendition is just savoury enough to qualify as 'subtly MmMmm..' Maybe it's cause everything else was kinda heavy that this went down so well?
Beef & Potato stew - It's hard to go wrong with this, my 2 favourite ingredients in a stew and they didn't. For most people i suspect it would be a bit on the savoury side but for me it really rang my
umami bells! Combined with soft carrots, onions and a beefy stock it makes me wish more places would do this. Sigh.
(Beef n Potato Stew)
Tori (Chicken, shio) - Not really that bad but when eaten alongside everything else seems to pale. Perhaps i'm just biased again chicken for being bland. Still, more than decent but just slightly.
Kimchi Nori - The starter in the set and a real great way to open the meal. Crunchy vegetables with a subtle but noticeable hint of kimchi seasoning.
On to the rest of the food!
Horenzo Salad - Came as part of the set that O ordered. Crunchy veggies with a helluva addictive dressing. I swear all these great sides are just part of the buildup for the enjoyment of the meats.
(Horenzo Salad)
Ebi (Tiger prawns, butter) - Just wow. I mean most of us eat prawns here and there but my favourite kind have always been that which the flesh is so firm it's ass smacking bouncy! Fresh, juicy and floating to buttery prawn heaven, everything (but the shell) was annihilated. Even the melted butter was slathered onto our rice. A definite MUST.
(Before and after)
(A Star's closeup)
Tontori (Pork Cheek, Hot miso) - Hmmm i actually don't quite remember that much on this. Since there was NO bad food that night, i safely conclude it was just overshadowed by the other more memorable meats coming off the grill around the same period. But the sight of the smoke coming off charred meat does wonders whetting one's appetite.
Which brings us to.... more MEAT!
Hire (Beef tenderloin, shio) - The meats came in a good order which allowed us to enjoy each thoroughly before moving on to something better. This is very important. I was expecting to be impressed and this being the first BBQ beef item, expectations ran pretty high. No disappointments with the lovely flavour, surprising level of tenderness and my amount of drool afterwards.
Jo Karubi (Prime short rib, shio) - I like my beef beefy. Which is to say it must be bursting with all the goodness a slab of cow should possess, cooked. Glad to say that this just went beyond expectations (and i was already impressed from the Hire above). Very even marbling which made for good bites and equally good pictures, the juices sent us scrambling for more! Unfortunately the 2nd order was so different from the 1st in a bad way that we were wondering if they brought us something else.
(Before n After)
(A larger look)
Saving the best for last.
Foie-gras - Similar to the prawn's box&butter preparation method, heavenly! O introduced me to
Foie-gras, i blame her (in the long run). This was nothing like my first encounter which was with
pâté. Noteworthy mention is that Sakae Teppanyaki also serves a mean foie-gras. We might have overdone it a little else it would have gone 2 levels higher. But something so good is not without its flaws.
1. There is never enough
2. By the time we realised, this was all that was left...
(Left: Menu pic Right: Post-coma pic)
This is a sure sign of an amateur foodie who puts EATING above PHOTOTAKING.
What can i say.
Wagyu Cubes - How good? 超好吃到 it's got me speaking in another language. As i mentioned earlier, the order the meats were served added to the pleasure of the meal. The tenderloin cubes took the cake at first but this brought it back, with extras! As usual, how good i deem something to be is inversely proportionate to how much i moan (about how little there is) which eating it.
I moooooaaaaannned.
(Look at the marbling!)
(It tastes better than it looks i assure you)
Overall if i had a wish, the people of the world would be surrounded by affordable amazing food. To quote O, complete with typo, "
for the price (one arm, no leg yet) and convenice, its still one of my favourite eats.Very satisfying".
Aburiya (Robertson Quay)
Add: 60 Robertson Quay
#01-03 The Quayside
Tel: 6735 4862
