Oden - Japanese Broth Clean Food - KAMOSHITA Review 27 April 2019

Boiled Pork with Small Clams Oden 

Oden is a type of Japanese comfort food, so my wife and I decided to try 2 outlets over the last 2 weeks and I am happy to report that the first one we went on 27th April 2019 (Sat) was up to expectations. Basically the broth is kept in a large copper like tub with lots of ingredients and boiled for easily 4 hours. Here is the review from KAMOSHITA located at 5 Neil Road, in a small unobtrusive shophouse with seating of 25 and 5 serving cum cooking staff. 

Straight to the main dish, to get the oden taste absolutely correct, the chef needs to taste a little each portion he serves and adds additional condiments to the ingredients before serving to the customers.

Our favourites are as shown in the pictures above and below. The boiled pork with clams, chopped spring onions, tomatoes and some secret ingredients was really tasty. The pork was slightly fatty and so tender, testament to the long hours in the oden pot.The clams were small and 'al dente' or chewy to the first bite, just as I like it.

Melt in your Mouth FishCake 

The fishcake had the texture of boiled carrot cake, for those who know what carrot cake is like, it is so soft and tasty, full of flavour and very nice. The bowl was kind of like a throwback to the bowls in my childhood days in St Andrew's primary school ; they are 'aged' in appearence to give that earthy and well used look. Top marks for taste, although the presentation is very subjective. 

Radish with mint spice 

The radish was firm and good to the bite. On top of it, there were some Japanese condiments like seaweed and mint which was quite novel. The broth was heavenly to say the least.

I will save the other photos for the next post.

Name : KAMOSHITA 

Location : 5 Neil Road, Singapore, 088806  

(diaganally opposite Maxwell road Hawker Center shophouses along the main road)

Food :   4.5 / 5  

Really good and authentic Japanese Oden with Japanese proprietors and staff. They had a massive selection of Japanese sake in huge bottles.

Ambience : 4.5 / 5  

Spacing was ample and they only could do 1 'turn' for the night, not too many diners packed inside the shophouse restaurant which was minimally furnished.

Service     : 3.5 / 5  

Very shorthanded ; only 4 serving and cooking staff in total, including the boss. The pacing of the food was very long drawn due to the lack of kitchen staff. The lady server was Japanese and tried very hard to please but they had too much intricate small tasks to do with too few people behind the counter 

Price       :  $$$$   

$166 for 2 pax (with a premium cold sake). No GST which was a surprise. 

Total        : 12 . 5 / 15 or 4.2 over 5 stars 

Will we go back again : Yes. For the food ; We hope they can survive the cutthroat Food and Beverage Business in Singapore which has numerous top quality food at short distances from one another and with sky high rents for central locations, very adverse hiring conditions (very difficult to hire foreigners and only Singaporeans and possibly the business owners who are Japanese or must can work), it is a tough call for them to survive let alone thrive.

  

My Once in a Lifetime Moonshot - Paris Marathon 2020

My Moonshot has been postponed for the last 3 years.

I wish to put on record that I am a procrastinator when it comes to achieving my dream goals.One of these is to run the famous Paris Marathon. I have been putting it off for the last 2 years at least since 2017 and it is already May 2019 and I have STILL NOT done it.

I will be 57 end of this year and I had better make the necessary arrangments to 

1. Get fit and with still strong stamina  (4 hours 30 is mt target)

2. Get my family's blessing that I can be away for 5 days

3. Arrange for my stand-in for my business during my absence.

I mean to achieve this Moonshot by hook or by crook, so watch this blog for more updates !

CARPE DIEM - MY FOOT !

Success Mindset - finally a block diagram to crystallise success driven people's minds !

I got this from some FB article, but I think this is so relevant today. 

Belief - Thoughts - Actions 

The essence of a successful mindset is as stated above, I do not own the diagram but I think if you can try to copy this method of thinking, it basicaly breaks the thinking of successful people into 3 levels and 5 boxes. 

Study it, absorb it, immerese yourself in its concept, apply it to YOUR SITUATION and grow from the experiences you get going forward. You will use it to your own extraordinary and unique set of circumstances and life experiences. No 2 people wlll experience what you walk and face in life, so use the concept and adapt accordingly. 

I sound nutty but this is the way successful people think in as simple and as clearly stated. 

1 Michelin Star Hawker Food - Hawker Chan at Smith Street Chinatown

Roast Pork Noodle with Bean Sprouts Option

Saturday 27th April saw me at my favourite breakfast haunts in Chinatown. Normally I would head for the Frog Porridge Tong Chian at Kheong Saik Street but today, there was some roadworks which I felt would spoil the dining experience so I headed for the Michelin Bib Goumand Hawker Chan just next door at the shophouse along Smith Street just before the Smith Street market.

There was hardly any queue, so I tried my luck and waited barely 5 minutes from the prompt point of sales lady taking the order. Inside the restaurant, I ordered the roast pork Mee Kia (small yellow ones) noodles with some vegetable and marinated in oyster sauce. 

This dish cost me all of $6.50. 

The noodles were 'springy' and individually separate which is what well made noodles are all about. The flavour was just nice and the sauce was not too overpowering nor salty.

The roast port was abit on the fatty side, and I opted to take out the middle portion which was all fat and just eat the leaner meat. It was well roasted, with the skin as the crunchy bit, and the pork meat very tender and flavourful. 

 The Banner outside states his Achievement 

The bean sprouts were also quite crunchy and tasty, with some fried garlic as garnishing.
The side dish costs some S$ 3.50 so all in all my breakfast cost me S$ 10. In EUR it would cost EU 6.00 and US$ perhaps US$ 7.00.

Red lanterns at the Entrance

Chef Chan was at the eatery and I was taken by how small and unassuming he was. The great ones are always very humble and hardworking always finding ways to perfect their craft and enhance the customer experience. I guess that is why the Ikigai or the perfection in all the workers tasks is always at the core of any successful business.

The customer experience MUST be 100 % perfect.  

Famous for his Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle and Rice 

My rating for the dining experience :

1. Food     : 4.5 / 5 ; very decent price and very tasty noodles and roast pork

2. Service : 4. 0 / 5 Cannot complain as this is not fine dining

3. Ambience : 3.5 / 5  It is airconditioned and the staff clear the plates from the tables 

                                  pretty quickly 

4. Satisfaction : 4.5 / 5  I am a HAPPY CAMPER 

OVERALL : 16.5 / 20 or 4.125 / 5 ;  Yes I would come again.

Tourists who want to try authentic santised pretty good local food in an airconditioned setting, Chef Chan is recommended for those who want to try very good local food without having to dodge the crowds at the hawker centres.  

LIAO FAN HAWKER CHAN

78 Smith Street (corner shophouse)

Singapore 058972

.

Watford 1 Wolves 2 ; a great away performance. Let your playing do the talking

When the Away Fans sing your praises.

Ikigai - The Japanese Way

Here are the 5 principles of Ikigai from the book by Michael Moji, a neuroscientist, which I just read. 

1. Start Small
2. Release Yourself
3. Harmony and Sustainability
4. Joy in small things
5. Be in the Here and Now

1. START SMALL - The Japanese are famous for their many intricate products taking great pride in their many craftsmen and shops which have withstood sometimes hundreds of years of hardship, endeavor and sacrifice. They are very good at what they do, no matter whether it makes them just a little bit of income to get by. To strike it rich is not the end goal for many. 

Rather, it is doing the tasks of your job or your business as best as you can do it, if people see the love, devotion and effort they have put into it, then the product is their life's reward.

So start small and be good at doing these simple tasks.

2.RELEASE YOURSELF - I am guilty of an ego trip. I know it fully well and I will try to revert to being in the background letting my creation take shape and do the show. Many chocolate and sweet craftsmen make their creations painstakingly like Jiro Ono and while every creation is a little bit different, it is an oxymoron to say that their creations are uniquely different in each and every way that they are made. The creations give them a certain 'character' that is unique to every item, food or handicraft for example which we buy from them. 

The love that goes into the tasks are seen in the final end product. It is a work of art.

The best shoe there is for me, until the next edition, ASICS Kayano 25 

3. HARMONY AND SUSTAINABILITY - The things that Japanese do so well normally aim to create harmony and sustainability in the world around them. Hence the 'conformist' culture which is so prevalent in Japan in the past. The 'disruptive' technologies,fintech Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Bitcoin will come and they will go ; lets see which remains in the next 100 years or so. 

New things are nice, but chairs, tables, pens, cognitive use of one's brain, they will be around for the the longest time and we need to be in harmony and keep sustaining our small sphere of influence with the world around us. 

4. JOY IN SMALL THINGS - No this is not small victory celebrations but doing small tasks well on a daily basis will make us happy subconciously. Even making your own bed (I do mine) is a task I accomplished today. I take joy in doing this seemingly small thing though my wife says I still need some refinement in folding the quilt covers !

5. BE IN THE HERE AND NOW - Mindfulness. Spend your entire focus on doing what I need to get done at this point in time. No need to worry about whether it will rain tomorrow, or if I need to postpone my morning run tomorrow. If I have prepared myself well, in the small things, then preparing for all eventualities such as rain or waking up late I will learn to deal with it when the time comes.

Point 5 sounds rather  fluffy and without much thought, but the very essence of our being is to be without thought.

This "Zen" ness   calms people and with the calmness, the mind is more settled to think and free itself from the daily pressures.

I'm giving Ikigai a try for the coming months