Phone line and fax line are not working. Phone in shop rings but can't pick up the call. No dial tone either. Strange. No DSL signal too. How can a restaurant function without a phone?
We are working late into the night to get the pricing of the items spot on. It's real easy to set a highly profitable price but we believe in giving our customers value for money, so we are putting in more effort in this area.
TIP: Don't just look at the price or slices of the fish/meat you get. Check out the total weight on your plate. Avoid being mislead!
We need approval and license from the NEA to start operating as a restaurant. In order to do so, we need the shop to be ready for inspection and also submit supporting documents. Liquor license was more straightforward and done online.
Today was also the first day that the restaurant saw it's full crew in action. Previously we were operating on a skeleton force of MD, Ops Manager and Head Chef. Everyone was at the shop today to receive goods and to pack things up. We have helluva lot more cleaning to do for the rest of the week. Surfaces need to be wiped, a few times, tableware need to be washed and don't forget the kitchen equipment that must be prepped for use. We need to decide where to keep everything and label the cabinets clearly. Everybody's morale was high and excited to setup a restaurant. People were eager to get things done and enthusiastic in helping one and other. Also, it's a good break from the monotony of working in an established establishment.
The staff of neighboring restaurants dropped by during their break time to say Hi and left some words of complements on the interior design of our place. Seems like a friendly bunch, them all! Especially, the manager of Grill-out, next door.
The menu needs to be type-setted and pricing of items finalised. It was a long way to get here from scratch and we are so close to our goal of opening our doors to you. We wish we could give you The Date right now but without the certainty of the NEA license it is just not possible.
Hang in there Fans!
Japanese Cherries or Sakuranbo (桜ん坊 | さくらんぼ) are just coming into season and will last through to end of June. Sakuranbo is what the Japanese call their own variety of cherry whereas they will refer to imported cherries as cherry. The appearance of Sakuranbo on market shelves herald the arrival of summer. What we are getting now are ones grown in greenhouses and the sun ripe ones start in June proper. These cherries are obviously smaller than most cherries and of a cheerful blush red. Small fruits means more skin, therefore more flavour.
So what do they taste like? The answer is simple: Like Cherries! But with differences, of course. Sakuranbo is not the least bit tannic or bitter compared to the darker skin USA variety we might be more used to. The skin is firm but breaks apart when bitten into yielding a thin layer of konnyaku jelly like texture. The flavour lies mostly in the skin. The flesh is soft and sweet with a mildly alcoholic tinge yet has little acidity. We have no idea what the pit/seed tastes like. The pleasant floral cherry aroma lingers in your breath but doesn't taste like cough syrup which some of the dark skin cherry might.
Sakuranbo! Blueberries are for size reference.
They are available starting now from good supermarkets and restaurant but take note that they are not cheap. Expect to pay S$200/kg. They are a bit too pricey to be used in preserves but they certainly can be steeped in shochu and sugar. Another popular way to serve them is in the middle of a clear jelly cube.
Last minute problems always never fail to appear. The contractors sent the wrong sized chiller and freezers today. Then spent eons convincing us that they are the right ones just because they are too lazy to bring it back. The dimensions are too big for the shop so there's no way for us to accept it. The drain hole for the fish sink is too small and rectification work needs to be done. This has potentially set us back by one day on our schedule because without the sink, we can't mount the compressor for the display case, which is coming tomorrow.
Things are really heating up in the shop fast! We've never seen so many workers cramming for space in the little restaurant trying to cut, mount and clean-up at the same time. 2 more days to end of the week and 2 more days to completion of renovation works.
The glass doors are up together with the lightbox that will be our signage.
We think the wood veneer above the counter lends a touch of class to the restaurant. Don't worry about the spotlights, they are LED, so there will be little heat to distract you from the dining experience at the counter or spoil your food.
We met some food and sake suppliers today and will be seeing more of them tomorrow. The European salmon supply is returning to normal but that's not a huge concern to us in the first place. The real bad news is that Japan has placed a ban on beef export. NO WAGYU! At least not from Japan. We firmly believe in quality of what we serve lies in the quality of our raw ingredients. There is no replacement for Japanese beef, especially Miyazaki beef (some say the best wagyu in the world). Yes, there are Australian Tajima Wagyu and USA Snake River Wagyu, but these are technically not Japanese beef and therefore not the real deal. When it comes to meat, it's not just about the animal breed or feed that they consume but there's also husbandry of the animal and passion of the ranchers that determine quality of the meat. Maybe we will spend more time talking about the different grades and types of wagyu on another day but just be aware that not all wagyu come from Japan.
The Big One is still there. Waiting...
The large sake chiller is in the shop! It came on Wednesday when we were stuffing ourselves at FHA2010. The move went largely (pun intended) without a hitch despite the tight space and condition of the shop. The chiller is currently facing backwards to the wall to protect the glass doors as renovation and fitting out is still underway. The exhaust system threw us a curved ball and held us up a bit but things are back on track.
You really will need a step ladder to be able to reach the bottles at the top.
We have more chillers and stainless steel stuff arriving at the shop next week, which happens also to be the last week of renovations. Lots of cleaning of the premise needs to be done after that, then we can move in our tableware, glassware and utensils, to be washed too.
