356. Tetsuya's Truffle Butter

Tetsuya's Black Truffle Salsa @$22

Ever since I tried the black truffle butter at Shutters, I have been thinking of it. A month ago, I was reading some women's magazine and chanced upon this product by Tetsuya - Black Truffle Salsa. I have been surfing the net for black truffles and came across summer truffles, winter truffles, black and white truffles, black and white truffle oil and even from different countries, Italy and France. Not a truffle connoisseur at all, I am confused which product to buy from overseas. I decided to try my luck at Dempsey's Culina.
My eyes landed on Tetsuya's black truffle salsa. It said for butter on the label. I thought it may be a better choice for me to use this for my truffle butter than to start with fresh truffles. Anyway, Culina does not have fresh truffles. The smell of the truffle exploded as I opened the seal.

And here's my black truffle butter. Simply mixed it with butter and this is it. Spread it over warm bread and you will crave for more.

355. Chef Daniel's Kitchen

Soup of the day - cream of carrot

It didn't look like it was purely carrot because as much as my knowledge in Science tells me, beta-carotene is a strongly coloured red-orange organic compound. It looked like cream of pumpkin. The taste of carrot wasn't very evident, shadowed by the heavier cream taste. The crotons had a nice buttery garlic taste and it did sprung a little surprise.

Black Cod Casino

No description was found on the menu. Weird. The rest of the dishes had description with them. The only word we all could make out of the dish was COD. It is a fish dish. Guess what? The cod was coated with mentaiko. Judging by the appearance, it is akin to having salmon mentaiko sushi where the piece of salmon was coated with mentaiko and fire glazed over the mentaiko to give it the slightly grilled effect. If you are a mentaiko lover like me, you would know what I'm trying to say. It was nice. The saltiness of mentaiko accompanied by the sweetness of clam juice and fresh cod. I see a fusion of Western and Japanese style.

Grilled Ribeye Steak

Didn't remember the full name. The steak comes with a special brown sauce which tasted like wine was added. Friend commented the salad was nice. Quite a normal dish, I would say. I felt it was enough to make a comfort steak meal.

Wok Charred Salmon

This dish won the praises of 3 people, including myself. Behold its beauty. Taste it and you won't deny its reputation of an award winning dish. Pretty similar to how a steak is cooked, the exterior of the salmon was grilled till charred and yet the interior was practically untouched. I tasted a tinge of sweetness on the exterior and I suspect the presence of the artificial agent - sugar. The mashed potato made with soya butter was with garlic fragrance. Rather unique, I thought. The Chinese leeks with roasted pork fighted for some recognition. The leeks and roasted pork protrayed a strong belonging to the Chinese cuisine. The salmon enjoyed both the Western and Chinese's intrusion.

Dessert of the day - brownie with vanilla ice-cream and berries compote

At first, the waitress told us it was creme brulee when we were at the door and then it turned out to be brownie when another waiter took our order. We were fine with brownie. The friend having his steak has yet to finish and then his dessert was served without cue. I thought it wasn't so appropriate because the ice-cream was melting and it was like he was rushed to finish his main.

The celebrity chefs wave, just like the hallyu wave, is becoming more and more signficant with the mutiple inserts of food related shows to the golden hours tv schedule. Chef Daniel is always seen to be very fatherly and I'm pretty surprised with his interest towards fusion style.

The dinner set we had comprised of 1 soup, 1 main and 1 dessert and it cost only $28 nett. I personally think the main alone was worth the money. The dessert could be better though. The lunch set menu is more alluring with the price of just $10.50 if I didn't remember wrongly. We ordered one special order, that is, wok charred salmon without leeks and the garlic but the waiter served the usual. The service staff should be better prepared with the serving procedures.


Chef Daniel's Kitchen

Illuma

201 Victoria Street

#07-02/03