Foodography: A Singapore Food Blog

A few months ago I had the opportunity to go for Canon’s Food Photography Workshop by Dr. Leslie Tay (of Singapore’s best known food/hawker blog  ieatishootipost.sg) which they hold once or twice a year. I’ve missed a few of these workshops previously so I was pretty excited to get some tips and meet some food and camera addicts. The location was at Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant at M Hotel off a street of Tanjong Pagar, which I’ve never heard of before. Now I’m here to tell you that Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant has got to be one of the most underrated Japanese places in Singapore.

The restaurant is a rather cozy one with a bar counter. Definitely the place to go in Tanjong Pagar if you need a quiet hideout. All of us attendees had a hands-on session with our cameras before enjoying our 9 course Kaiseki meal (valued at $65 per person).

We started with the very refreshing Wafu Salad and Homemade Pitan Tofu.

Then came the assorted 5 pieces of Sashimi. I was never a fan of sashimi (not even when I went to Japan) but that day felt like a life-changing moment when I finally came to like it. I didn’t really fancy their maguro though.

The Hokkaido Ginkarei Shio (Grilled Hokkaido Halibut Fish) was my first halibut ever and except for the irritating number of small bones in a small portion of fish, it ranks high on my list of favorite type of fishes. Soft and tender; not Shio but Shiok.

To restate my stand from a previous blogpost, everyone loves chawanmushi. The Hokkaido Ikura Chawan Mushi (Steamed Custard Egg with Hokkaido Beni Salmon Roe) came with a generous serving of salmon roe which was interesting.

Signature Hokkaido Mai sushi: truly a signature. In the middle is a roll of cooked salmon wrapped with crispy seaweed which you can hear crunching in your mouth. The sushi was also rolled in sesame, then topped with salmon roe (again!) and a sauce that added flavor. Unlike the usual sushi, this had a unique texture with a good blend of ingredients which made me hungry for more.

Another highlight of the menu was the Hokkaido Taraba Udon (Hokkaido King Crab Leg Udon). The crab’s leg meat was very tender and unfortunately we couldn’t get more than one crab’s leg in the udon… So we could only capture this massive Hokkaido King Crab below on our cameras.

Every meal deserves a sweet ending and we polished off our green tea ice cream before saying goodbyes. It surprises me that Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant is less known in the food context of Singapore. Furthermore it’s kaiseki menus are fairly less pricey than some other kaisekis in Singapore, so I don’t see how it is so underrated.

M Hotel Singapore

Level 9

81 Anson Road