The next time you go to a Japanese restaurant, you might think you are eating Tuna Sashimi when in reality, you are eating Tilapia.
I’m not lying!
According to Fishy Business, 25% of fish sold in the market are wrongly labeled. Tilapia is mislabeled as tuna, hake is mislabeled as halibut, and the most outright scam is Atlantic farmed salmon mislabeled as wild salmon.
Nic and I should just quit our day jobs and work as waiters at Aoyama, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur. We went there for dinner again, and as before, were blown away by how unique and delicious Japanese food can be.
This time, we didn’t blow the bank account though. Instead of getting the chef to plan our menu, we took matters into our own hands. We picked and chose from the extensive menu.
Despite that we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore, the bill only came up to about RM60 per person.
After the dinner, we asked a young waitress for our favorite dessert - the Cherry X.O. Ice Cream. She informed us that they were out of Cherry X.O. ice-cream and recommended that we try their Chocolate Berries ice-cream, instead. We did.
But after scrutinizing the Chocolate Berries ice-cream over and over again, we unanimously agreed that we couldn’t see any sign of berries in this ice-cream.
Then we tasted it, why, it tastes just like chocolate ice-cream drenched in Bailey’s.
Every year, Nic’s parents will invite us for the Khoo Kongsi Clan annual dinner. It’s an evening of speeches, scholarships, food and karaoke.
Last year, Nic’s dad brought his own DVD for the Karaoke session. Strangely, this year, he was contented to just sit by the table and listen to others croon away.
For Nic’s family, the highlight of the evening is the speech. Ever year, Nic’s dad will deliver a message to inspire the younger members of the Khoo Kongsi Clan.
Nic’s Mum always looks forward to his speech. She always looks at her husband admiringly when he delivers the speech. He usually shares a simple made up story that’s packed with deep meaning.
Meanwhile, I’m here to banter and joke with Nic’s cousin and sample the good food.
This chinese restaurant restaurant is at Tanjong Katong Complex. It is a simple place with minimal decoration but the food tastes pretty good. Shark’s fin is served though.
We always wipe every platter clean. Partly because the food tastes good. Partly because the older generation refuses to let anything go to waste.
Last Monday, Nic and I traveled north for three days. The first night, we stopped at Melaka for dinner on the way. The second night, we were blessed with dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant in the whole wide world!
We were first introduced to Aoyama by Chris of Geek Terminal who is a die-hard Japanese food connoisseur some time last year. 
We learned from Chris that when you get here, you won’t even need to look at the menu. Just tell Chef Jovy you want his very best. The chef will ask you for a budget, you can expect him to floor you with a totally unexpected combination of flavors in every dish that he serves.
In fact, Chef Jovy enjoys it when you trustingly request for him to plan and serve your entire meal. He even took the liberty to serve only one portion of the larger and more filling dishes so that we have more room in our stomachs to try more variety of his foods.
Above: crab meat, straw mushrooms and goodies that Chef Jovy had expertly combined, baked under a shell of cheese
Below: An interior view of the same decadent dish
Below: Chef Jovy’s twist to the traditional sushi. This dish got me speechless for a few seconds.
We oohed and aahed at how duck meat could be so tender
We snacked on vegetable fritters
With a side dip of coarsely ground chili-peppers
One of Nic’s favorite japanese dish is garlic rice so even though Chef Jovy did not include it in our meal, we ordered it individually. Just look at the chunky dried garlic Chef Jovy sprinkled on for extra oomph!
We ate a few other indescribable dishes which I forgot to photograph. (Sorry!)
For dessert, we had Cherry Rum ice-cream which totally stole our hearts. If you haven’t been to Aoyama, I urge you to GO. You MUST make a trip here at least once in your lifetime.
It is not difficult to get here at all. If this map is not helpful enough, feel free to email me via my contact form or simply leave a comment here. It is my life’s mission to make sure you successfully get to Aoyama, I’ll be more than happy to help.
Throughout my one month in Singapore, I mostly ate wholesome home cooked food. But just once, the home made goodness felt a little too familiar. I could even correctly guess what soup’s for dinner.
Thinking out loud, I said how nice if Sakuraya, the japanese grocer in Parkway Parade, is nearby. Then I could just walk there, and buy back some of Nic’s favorite salmon sashimi for a meal.
To my surprise, my ever busy hero asked me to hop into the car. We got there, he picked the biggest and freshest chunk of salmon he could find and got the chef* to slice it up. The chef told us it just arrived that same morning from Japan.
We both got busy mixing our wasabi with the kikkoman soya sauce. The food is gooood.
*chef: If a person’s job is to slice fish day and night, is he still a chef? Or is he a human fish slicer?
On Friday night, we had a nice dinner at Dian Xiao Er restaurant in Vivocity. 
The first to arrive was Nic’s elder sister and her husband. While waiting for the rest of us, they walked to and fro Vivocity to see if there are better options available but after scrutinizing a few menus, Dian Xiao Er still won out even though they were the only one who refused to book a table for us.
Instead, Dian Xiao Er uses a different system called the Priority Queue. After you have called to book, you will be given a priority to be seated at the next available table when you and all of your guests have arrived. This means you won’t get to be seated until all of your guests have arrived, but you won’t have to join the back of the queue either. This maximizes their efficiency while being fair to the customers.
Since we couldn’t be seated until all of us had arrived, we hung around for a while at the entrance. I then noticed a rather clever promotion to maximize their turnover. You’ll get 12% discount if you are the among the first ten patrons to arrive for dinner at between 5:30pm to 6:30pm!
Don’t think of trying to cheat by sending one guest to get there earlier though. Again, this is only valid when all of your guests have also arrived so that they can serve the food immediately.
Nic’s sister ordered the set menu for six pax so we didn’t have to crack our brains to figure out what to eat. When all of us finally got here half an hour later, a waitress in a very cute traditional Chinese Xiao Er costume guided us to our seats. I was amazed by how authentic the restaurant’s decor is to its theme. It really felt like we were in a traditional inn situated inside an ancient chinese village in the mountains, just like those you would have seen in old kung fu movies. I half-expected the patrons to be dressed in traditional cheong sams and sam fus. 
The moment our butts touched the chairs, another waitress in the adorable Xiao Er outfit appeared with six bowls of soup while the waitress who had guided us in took down our orders for drinks.
Nic helped to vinegar and pepper my soup. Before I’d had five slurps, the rest of the dishes arrived. Our small table was happily crowded all the way to its very end with dishes and more dishes! Nic’s dad looked dazed for a while to see so much food arriving all at once. I was so surprised at the speed of the service since the whole restaurant was very busy. After we’d had the chance to blink our eyes, we dug in indulgently!
The food was hot and aromatic. It succeeded in refreshing our senses after a long day. Our favorites from the menu were definitely the herbal roast duck and the baked fresh prawn (JiangNan style). Not that we could find any fault with the rest of the dishes.
According to an interview with Samuel Yik who is the owner of Dian Xiao Er, the duck is roasted in a special oven from Germany which helps to keep the meat plump and juicy even though the skin gets dried and crisped. The herbal flavor reminded me of a really good roast duck we’ve had in Johor Bahru. I didn’t think I’d be able to get the same thing in Singapore city.
Since they served us so speedily, I wondered if they would hint we should leave quickly after finishing the meal so that they could use the table for another group of hungry patrons. Thankfully, they didn’t make this faux pas.
The Xiao Ers who served us were very pleasant. Their smiles were warm, they looked really fresh and energetic. As a result, the whole family stayed on for quite some time to catch up with each other.
One other thing that surprised me was how well Dian Xiao Er had planned the set menu. When we finished the dessert which was a platter of sliced fresh fruits, we discovered we had neither had too much nor too little. It was just enough to feel satisfied, comfortable and contented.
Dian Xiao Er is located at #02-137/8 VivoCity, Singapore. Tel: (65) 6376 9786 Email: enquiry@dianxiaoer.net
Opening hours are Mon - Fri, 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:30pm - 9:30pm / Weekend and Public Holiday, 11:30am - 3:00pm, 5:30pm - 9:30pm, (last order 9.30 pm)
Disclosure: These photos were not taken by me but are from the Dian Xiao Er restaurant website.
Do you know that this puny little thing is dangerous? According to the lady who was serving us, swallowing the wrong parts may cause diarrhea and vomiting so she demonstrated what must be done before serving these crabs to guests.
You might notice that the crab legs were not served in the video above. The legs are the sweetest part of the little crab so it doesn’t make sense to throw them away. What you should do is help your guests to eat elegantly i.e. without flinging crab shell on each other’s faces, by snipping it with a pair of scissors. Then, using the tip of the scissors, you push out the meat halfway. When it is ready to serve, it should look like this.
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According to chinese folklore, eating the Shanghai Hairy Crab will cool your internal body temperature because the crab lives deep at the bottom of the cool and dark YangCheng Lake. That is why the crab is served with a sip of sweet herb & ginger tea which will supposedly heat your internal body temperature back to normal again. A dip of the best quality vinegar and sliced ginger must be provided as well.
While I do not know enough of the science in traditional beliefs to support this claim, the entire meal was simply delicious and awe-inspiring!
Dove Cresswell is a Hollywood North dog trainer. Some of the feature films she's worked on include: Saved! and Sam's Lake; TV shows: Romeo, Behind the Camera: Charlie's Angels, and Cougar Crossings; and commercials, including: The Source.
Like me, Dove is a dog lover. You can tell from her enthusiastic voice. :)
Learn from her, I highly recommend following her online tutorials.
Notes From My Heart