Perk Coffee Review

Leave a comment 8th February 2021 wenoms1

( Scroll down for $10 off your first order)

I drink way too much coffee for my own good. I love it. Two cups a day is standard fare , three cups when I’m having a particularly trying day at work. It dawned on me that I should probably invest in my own kit, so when lockdown happened I took the plunge and got myself I a semi pro Gaggia espresso machine of my own, complete with a separate grinder. It’s been my pride and joy ever since and I’ve never looked back.

So naturally one of the first orders of business for me after coming back to Singapore was to find a supplier that had great beans. Easier said than done really. Coffee is pretty personal and everyone’s palate is a little different. However one recommendation that kept coming up again and again was

Perk Coffee : http://www.perkcoffee.co

Not great latte art, but very good coffee

I remember trying their drip bags a few years back when they just launched and it was pretty good but I had never tried their beans before. They have 9 different types of coffee, with beans coming from all over the world . I usually prefer a stronger more intense flavour of coffee and so I ordered the Ubranite (medium roast) and the Intrepid ( dark roast) blends to try.

As a rule of thumb I don’t keep beans for more than a month, and I take pains to store them in airtight containers, so having beans freshly roasted was really important for me. I was quite happy to find that Perk only roasts your beans after you’ve ordered which is great, because by the time it gets to you ( they deliver within 2-5 working days) it’s rested enough for flavour but still fresh enough that it won’t affect the quality of your coffee. They also have a very flexible subscription model. You can choose how often you want your beans delivered, the quantity, and even swap out different blends each time which works perfectly for me since I often forget to order beans and there’s nothing worse than waking up and finding that you don’t have enough beans left to make a cuppa.

First impressions : Packaging was excellent, and beans were delivered very quickly ! Took them 3 working days after the roasting date to be delivered. I like how they send you a little email heads up to let you know that your beans are going to be roasted so it’s a good reminder if you want to change the roast date, or make other selections.

Cute little sticker card where you can try out all the blends and send them a picture to enjoy a free gift once you’ve completed the card!

Taste test : The Intrepid blend was the clear winner for me. The blend had enough depth and I enjoyed the flavour profile of the beans. The Urbanite on the other hand went down smoothly, but didn’t provide enough of a ‘kick’ for me. If you like your coffee to provide a jolt to your system as I do, then go for the Intrepid. The Urbanite is more amiable but not for me, and might possibly go down better for coffee drinkers who prefer a lighter flavour. I have ordered the Timo next to try as well which is also a dark roast.

Price wise – I found Perk to be very reasonable. Two bags of 125g (ie 250g) of coffee costs SGD18.9 which is pretty much in line with market pricing . Also the free delivery to your doorstep and plus that it’s fresh to order really makes it quite worth your while.

Overall, I would recommend giving Perk a try to see if they have anything that suits your flavour profile. If you don’t have a grinder, they also do ground coffee, and have drip bags for filtered coffees as well. You can use the code ‘wenoms’ to take $10 off your first order, and if you try them let me know which is your favourite blend in the comments!

xx Kerri

Ishi Japanese Omakase Review

Leave a comment 1st February 2021 wenoms1

If there’s one cuisine I could eat all the time and not get sick of it’s Japanese. For the longest time I resisted the urge to go for Omakase meals in Singapore. ‘It’s a slippery slope’ I reasoned to myself, ‘I shall save such decadence for a truly authentic experience when I travel to Japan’. And indeed I had the most amazing Omakase meal at Kanesaka in Japan ( served by Kanesaka himself). See review here : Sushi Kanesaka @ Tokyo Ginza.
However , my friend G insisted on bringing me to Ishi, claiming it’s one of the best Omakase places in Singapore for the price, and so I did and now I am hooked.

I would say the lunch Omakase is really great value – the Botan lunch set I had (SGD120) consisted of two starter dishes, 8 pieces of sushi, the crowd favourite uni/ikura bowl, and finally dessert. I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch experience there. If I had two small gripes, that would be that the Shari (the rice) wasn’t sharp enough for my liking, but that’s personal preference. The other would be that the fish is so well marinated that everything melts in your mouth. That’s great but I think it was just a tad overdone, andI would have preferred a bit more texture and bite in my sushi. That said, it was still a great lunch, and I would come back again.

I was served by Chef Suzuki and would highly recommend requesting for him if you do dine at Ishi. Part of the Omakase experience is interacting with the Chef, and he’s got the right balance of not being overly obtrusive but still interjecting at the right moments with the history of the food and explanations when you need them.

It must have been my lucky day because the first two courses started with Uni.

Hirame/uni and 2. Uni Chawanmushi

Both were light starters to whet the appetite but I preferred the hirame/uni since the bite of the hirame went really well with the melt in your mouth uni. The chawanmushi was a bit on the firm side for me but the uni was so sweet it hardly mattered.

Then the sushi course began. We got a bit more than usual, courtesy of G who’s a proper regular!

3. Hirame – I never used to like hirame but have found myself increasingly drawn to it. Great start to the sushi course. Clean flavours, good bite.
4. Shima Aji – pretty standard in Omakase.
5. Maguro – was surprised to see tuna make an appearance so early but regardless this was excellent. Maguro can be a bit tough but this was so well marinated it melted in my mouth
6. Botan Ebi – Amazing sweetness to this prawn
7. Spanish Mackerel – Another one of the surprise favourites in this Omakase.
8. Iwashi – Usually sardines have a slightly fishy taste which I dislike but this was so well marinated it had none of that at all.
9. Nodoguro – Never had this before. It’s sea perch and it was deliciously fatty. The chef also grilled it just slightly before serving which really just made this even better.
10. Chutoro – ’nuff said. Always delicious. I actually prefer chutoro to otoro. chutoro has the perfect marbling for me.

11. The uni/ikura bowl
This is incredibly hard to get wrong if you have fresh ingredients. And boy was this good. I loved watching the Chef spoon out the uni and ikura

12. Dessert : Mochi!

I left feeling really pleased about the quality of the food. Will be back sometime but for now…. on to my next Omakase restauraunt!
–

Ishi Japanese Restauraunt
Intercontinental Singapore
1 Nanson Rd, #02-06, Singapore 238909
http://www.ishi.com.sg

xx Kerri

Suguru Home Dining

Leave a comment 21st January 2021 wenoms1

One of the best finds of last year has got to be Suguru home dining. They specialize in Japanese home dining, and are one of many businesses that saw Covid as an opportunity to pivot and make something good out of it. They only have a couple of dishes available for order, and all quite simple but man is the quality of produce top notch.

I tried their Truffle somen with hokkaido scallops /uni and was absolutely blown away. I’m a huge uni fan and it can be really difficult to find good uni in Singapore that’s not crazy expensive but theirs was so fresh and sweet, and bursting with seafood flavour, really one of the best I’ve had.

For SGD 48, it’s not something you have everyday but great for a midweek WFH treat, or when you’re just in the mood for something a little decadent. The quality of produce is definitely worth it. To order, head over to their Instagram page for the menu, and order via whatsapp – 8893 0902 . They update availability of delivery slots through their insta stories. I’m definitely going to be ordering a second time, this time probably with some mochi for dessert !

xx Kerri

The Good Kombucha – Review & 5% off

Leave a comment 12th January 2021 wenoms1

I’ve been drinking a ton of Kombucha lately, a habit I picked up in London. I wanted something healthy that I could drink that wasn’t water and Kombucha hit the spot. It has a crazy amount of health benefits, including good gut health, antioxidants, and also in general great for your immune system.

What is Kombucha you might ask. In its simplest form, Kombucha is basically fermented tea ( black or green). Due to the fermentation process, healthy bacteria forms, which is great for your gut health. The antioxidants come from the tea which also helps to boosts your immune system.

There are so many brands selling Kombucha now but one of my favourite local brands that delivers is The Good Kombucha. They only use fresh fruits, zero preservatives and has the right amount of fizziness ! I’ve ordered from them a couple of times, and my favourite flavours are their ‘Mixed Berries & Mint Kombucha’ as well as the ‘Lemon, Ginger & Rosemary’. Their prices are really reasonable as well, considering they offer free delivery to your doorstep.

Now you can also get 5% off your order by using the code ‘wenoms’ at checkout.
Order HERE to try it out!

xx Kerri

Esora Review

Leave a comment 3rd November 2018 wenoms1

Esora was quite an experience. They pride themselves on modern Japanese kappo cuisine. Newly opened , I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype, but I’m glad to report it did, and I will definitely be paying them a second visit. I always judge a fine dining restaurant on 3 criteria – ambience, service and obviously food. This is going to be a long post so bear with me. Let’s begin.

1. Ambience
First of all the decor is stunning. Simple clean lines, wood and soft lighting is used. The counter is under this gorgeous skylight, giving rise to the name of the restaurant Esora, which means painting in the sky.

2. Service
I could not fault the service. Attentive, quiet, not at all stuffy, I never needed to wave anyone over. All I had to do was catch their eye and they were there. Door was held open for me every time I went to the bathroom, the staff were waiting for me as I exited the restaurant. Nothing was too much trouble, explanations of dish are detailed, and when you engage them conversations are casual, professional and peppered with personal anecdotes, making you feel like you’re just friends trading stories over a meal. These things may seem small, but it’s what I expect when I’m paying prices like this , and they delivered.

3.Food
Let me say outright that I was very impressed by the food. Often I find “modern” or “fusion” places can go horribly wrong. Just lumping 2 ingredients that have cultural origins from different countries together does not a modern restaurant make, but they executed it perfectly. Presentation for each course was also ace and that’s very important in Japanese cuisine – it has to look as good as it tastes. They start you off with some dashi which was excellent, warmed the stomach and always a precursor of a great meal to come.

I had the 9 course set. 5 courses were standouts for me which I’ll go into more detail on, 2 were very good but what I would expect and 2 I thought could be better.

Standout courses in no particular order for me were :
1.Kegani Chawanmushi. I’m a huge fan of chawanmushi and this was incredible with the hairy crab sweetness mixed in with the silky chawanmushi adding so much depth to an already amazing dashi base. Chawanmushi is a relatively simple dish to make but extremely tough to perfect. So when executed like this, it was heaven

2.Uni wth the suppon, cauliflower . They used bafun uni from Hokkaido, already amazing on its own but when paired with the suppon that was a bit tart, it further accentuated the rich and creamy flavours of the uni to the next level.

3.Fried scallop with leek, nori, caviar, also very good. I liked that the nori wasn’t visible but when you bit into the dish with that delightful crunch, you could certainly taste the seaweed in the dish. And of course it’s so hard to go wrong with Hokkaido scallops

4.Surprisingly the dessert of white truffle, ice cream and chestnut was one of my absolute favourites. They do a simple ice cream with some form of chestnut purée at the bottom. More chestnut shavings are done at the top, and then a layer of truffle is then shaved over that right in front of your eyes. The flavours are just incredible. Everything goes together so well. I mentioned to the server that the dessert was one of my favourites and she said the chef’s palate is more savoury than sweet which explained the dessert.

5. Special mention to the Ikura used in the Akamutsu Donabe (the rice course). I thought that course was alright, but the Ikura itself is on another level. I was told this particular Ikura from Hokkaido is only available in September and October which is a shame because it’s seriously the best Ikura I’ve had in my life. FAT, juicy, perfectly formed with so much flavour, I started picking it out of my rice and eating it on its own because it was just that good.

2 courses that I thought could be better. were the Sashimi course and the Omi wagyu. Beautiful presentation aside, I found the sashimi course very ordinary – they served flounder, akami, chutoro, bonito, and nothing particularly stood out in the preparation of the fish. The Omi wagyu beef was good, but over emphasis of rich flavours with the mushroom purée and the sauce just made the dish too rich to properly enjoy. I would have liked a sudachi lime or some form of tangy flavours to cut through the heaviness but that might just be my preference.

They have 2 set menus priced at SGD 198/258. Tea pairing is available at SGD 38/48 , and wine pairing at SGD 78/108. I went for the SGD 258 menu which had 9 courses. Pretty sure menu changes with the seasons so don’t expect everything to be the same!