Taiwanese Oyster Omelette

Looking through some recent food photos and wanted to post this – it was the best ever oyster omelette which we had at Liaoning Night Market (near Zhongxiao Fuxing Metro station):

The oysters were so plump and fresh, and the omelette was generous with egg and contained just the right amount of starch.

The night market also had the most delicious ever 臭豆腐 (smelly tofu). It was fragrant, just the right texture and not too dry. The sauce was great too – a mixture of chilli, sweet sauce and garlic. I think I loved it largely for the garlic, as it gave a wonderful flavour to the tofu – a colleague commented that it’s doubly smelly tofu. The tofu was so delicious that it occupied my thoughts for the rest of the night and much of the next morning.

Ootoya (Suntec City)

While Kansai as far as I’m aware doesn’t have Ootoya, I had the chance to try it when i visited Sendai and boy was it good and cheap. Set dishes were generally about 650 – 850yen ($10.30 – $13.20), which was extremely good value for money given the quality of the food served there.

Hence, I’d been interested in trying it out when I discovered it had opened a branch in Suntec. Unsurprisingly, prices are higher here, starting from $16 for a meat set meal (chicken, pork) to about $20 for a fish set meal.

The food was pretty good though. I ordered the Chicken Salad set ($16), which came with a soup and 2 small side dishes (all so-so). The grilled chicken was tender and tasty, and the pesto-basil dressing was unique as I’ve never had chicken paired with these flavours.

There wasn’t enough dressing to go with the salad, but I liked the egg slices and the vegetables were crisp and fresh. Word of warning to non-fans of cabbage though: this salad was uniquely Japanese in that it consisted almost entirely of shredded cabbage. This is one aspect of Japanese salads (especially those that accompany rice sets) where I’d happily forgo authenticity and have tastier vegetables!

Ootoya offers several types of grilled mackerel dishes, and D. ordered the only one available ($20) as all the rest were sold out. Thanks to my lousy camera phone I don’t have a picture of it (it’s the last pic on the Ootoya website), but it was a big serving and more worth it than my chicken.

Some might find the fish slightly too salty and oily, but I liked it cos it tasted just the way it is in Japan. The bones were a little tricky, but it was done just right and not too dry as it often turns out to be here.

The best thing is, Ootoya’s food was, as D. described it, “light on the palette”. There’s no after-taste and the food, for those prices, is the cheapest you’ll ever get for authentic Japanese food in Singapore. I’m likely to return to Ootoya, just as long as I don’t think of how little these once cost me. Haha!