The first one of the year - Si Bon

Ok, I confess, it's been a really long time since I updated this blog with a new restaurant review. Not that I've been avoiding restaurants, on the contrary I've found quite a few really good ones around Asia and Australia. Guess it's a long drawn case of procrastination. At least I'm not the only guilty party here. As we enter yet another new year filled with endless choices of new restaurants to be discovered and new cuisines to be savored, I'll promise to be a bit more diligent about blogging. Note to D Girl - How about trying some video blogging with your new Mino, eh?

So we'll start of this year's blog with a quick review of a new Japanese restaurant on Sentosa Island, Singapore. Probably the only restaurant that prides itself on serving Kushikatsu (or Japanese skewered food), Si Bon is a fantastic escape from the everyday mundane Japanese meal experience. What do I mean by this? You first need to get across to Sentosa Island and head towards the Amara Sanctuary Resort, where Si Bon is located. As you walk towards the restaurant at the far end of the resort, the scenery changes to lush bamboo groves and stone footpaths reminiscent of a private garden in Kyoto. The restaurant entrance appears as you round the corner, revealing a small brick house within the groves of green bamboo. The converted chapel that houses Si Bon contains a very small dining counter for 12 persons, facing the chef's kitchen where food is prepared and cooked in front of the diners. This reminded me of some of the tempura specialty restaurants in Tokyo where the chef cooks each tempura in front of the diners and personally serves them. We were there for the set lunch, which consisted of 3 appetizers, followed by 8 skewers of meat, seafood and vegetables, then a choice of udon/soba, steamed rice or sushi.

The skewers were lightly battered and fried to perfection and served immediately. The chef would then guide us to the appropriate sauce type to dip as accompaniment. Each skewer was a mouthful of delicately arranged tender morsels lightly battered and fried to perfection, and bursting with freshness and flavor. My particular favorites was the prawn skewer topped with fresh uni, and the duck and goose combination skewer wrapped in a shiso leaf. We opted for the steamed rice as it was a specialty from Osaka. The fluffy nori flavored rice was topped with thin slices of Japanese cucumbers, prawns, egg and pickles and was a good way to end the meal. The dessert was Japanese green tea ice cream with fresh strawberries. I have to say service was excellent, the wait staff were super attentive (probably because we were the only ones there that day).