Shirokiya CHIJMES

By Little Miss Bento, Shirley Wong Sunday, September 14, 2014 0 Food Reviews chijmes, city, food review, japanese, shirokiya Permalink 2

I was really happy to be invited by Shirokiya for a media tasting session sometime back at their second outlet located at CHIJMES.

Shirokiya, a Japanese restaurant chain well-known in Singapore, differs from others with their strong focus on health and beauty in their menu dishes. Being a J-fan and a female with interest in beauty, I had been wanting to try out their food.

It is not uncommon to see ingredients such as collagen, homemade tofu, koji used in their dishes. Koji, is a salted rice malt, a traditional Japanese seasoning that is used to enhance the savory flavours of food and is believed to have anti-aging effects beneficial to the body. I recalled learning about Koji from a Japanese friend who fermented glutinous rice at home to make her own homemade koji.

Before tucking into the food, we picked out drinks – I had Calpis Kirin Ichiban Frozen Beer!! Woo Hoo!! I was thrilled that frozen beer is available here in Singapore! Frozen beer, became widely popular in Japan – it comprises of creamy frozen foam of -5degrees place on top of the beer, acting like a ‘cover’, thus keeping the beer cold for up to 30mins.

The tasting menu included:

1) Cold Tofu Sprinkled in Salted Rice Malt (Shiokoji) Dressing: $8.80

2) Avocado and Seafood Salad with Hyaluronic Acid Jelly: $20.80

3) Bonito Fish Cooked in Hay Straw Marinated with Ponzu Sauce: $14.00

4) Ultimate Fried Chicken Wings with Sweet Sauce: $18.80

5) Kurobuta Shabu-Shabu Served in Collagen Soup: $38.80 (for 2-3pax)

6) Broiled Pressed Mackerel: $15.80

7) Warabi-Mochi / Bracken-starched Dumpling with Brown Sugar Syrup: $7.80

8) Home-made Rich Soy Milk Pudding: $4.80

My favourites has got to be the Kurobuta Shabu-Shabu served in Collagen Soup. So so good, the pork meat was fresh and generous amounts of negi and collagen served, very very yum.

The Avocado and Seafood Salad with Hyaluronic Acid Jelly was suprised me. Frankly, I always think it is a waste of money and stomach to eat salads in Japanese restaurants, but this one was different. Generous fresh sashimi and that sauce with the salad made me want to go for seconds!

Lovers of bonito fish will love the Bonito Fish cooled in Hay Straw with Ponzu Sauce, quite a unique way of serving raw fresh fish.

Now – you MUST save your tummy for desserts! Totally blown away by their desserts, the warabi mochi was amazing, one of the best I have eaten. The soft warabi (so soft it feels like its gliding in my mouth) topped with kuromitsu and kinako powder. And that soy milk pudding, I totally loved the caramelised sugar paired with fragrance of the soy milk.