Chirashi Sushi @ Tatsuya

Tatsuya is a favourite lunch venue for many of my girl buddies and I. My first visit was with June, Justin and Mia. As usual, we sat at the sushi counter. This fast became my favourite lunch venue in town because they have such great-value-for-money lunch sets!

I ordered the Bara Chirashi Sushi set ($28). I like Chirashi sushi although its the simplest sushi for any sushi chef to make. I just like the idea of scattered fish bits (nope, I'm not talking about dynamite fishing...as a diver, I'm totally against dynamite fishing because of the damage it does to corals) because it allows me to enjoy a few different types of fish in a box...you see, i like boxes...though it doesn't mean that I'm partial only to "square" things. Ok, back to the fish bits...the version I had above had cubes of Sake (Salmon), Hamachi (Yellowtail, Mekajiki (Swordfish, Maguro (Tuna) and Tamago (Egg). I loved all of the fish bits as they were fresh and sweet! I especially love the firm and crunchy texture of the Swordfish! It's not very often that one gets Swordfish in a Chirashi set so I savoured every morsel of it.

During a recent visit with S & Sharon, we tried some Deep-Fried Toro (Fatty Tuna) tossed in Ponzu dressing. It was delicious!!!

The Chirashi set includes an Otoshi (Appetizer), salad, miso soup, Chawanmushi and some sliced fruits. What I love about the Chawanmushi here is that it has some Yuzu (Japanese Citrus) zest which serves as a very fragrant and refreshing garnish.

The 3 of us love Otoro (Fatty Tuna) Sashimi so we ordered some ($15 per piece) to supplement our set lunches. Truth be told, the set lunches are so substantial that any additional orders would prove to be too much food but we couldn't resist the slabs of Otoro that faced us in the sushi counter. The Otoro Sashimi was *ahem* (for the lack of a better expression) absolutely orgasmic! It melted in our mouths like cool butter on hot toast and was richly flavoured. It was (for me) the closest substitute to Pan-Seared Foie Gras (and a slightly healthier alternative at that!). I've been trying to reduce my consumption of Foie Gras for health reasons as well as for ethical reasons. However, Bluefin Tuna is becoming increasingly rarer too due to over-fishing and so this is yet another delicacy that I should try to abstain from. :(

All the sushi chefs at Tatsuya are very friendly and I love to watch them in action especially since they wield such sharp knives.

Tatsuya 270 Orchard Road #01-05 Park Hotel Orchard (Opposite Paragon Shopping Mall) Tel: 6737-1160

Operating Hours: Noon - 2.30pm & 6.30 - 10.30pm