This is one of the most challenging articles I've ever written. Either my brain's not thinking, or that I'm trying to adopt a sort of formula that's been utilized, to no little success, by reviewers and bloggers and food review sites.
I've typed up four paragraphs, erased three of them. And I've finished half the article, deleted it, started over again.
This is the fourth time.
And I'm still getting nowhere.
Why, I don't know.
How difficult can it be to write an article about good Japanese fare and about Sashimi and Sushi?
How boggling can it be to bang out a couple of lines about my amazing, very surprising experience at this little cafe-restaurant in Elias Building along Middle Road?
Why, I've even got the pics!
Here's one of the Salmon Belly Sashimi that my dining companion and I ordered that day.
Lovely, isn't it?
Looks good, isn't it?
Then why in in the high heavens am I not able to write about it?!
Why is it so hard to write about something that is so skillfully sliced, when it has got delicate patterns nicked on each slice, when it is served cold, chilled and absolutely, absolutely fresh, when it is garnished with a slice of lemon on the side and was so smooth and so good that I didn't need, and didn't want to have it with the soy sauce and the wasabi and I just ate it all on its own?
Look, here's another pic! :)
I've typed up four paragraphs, erased three of them. And I've finished half the article, deleted it, started over again.
This is the fourth time.
And I'm still getting nowhere.
Why, I don't know.
How difficult can it be to write an article about good Japanese fare and about Sashimi and Sushi?
How boggling can it be to bang out a couple of lines about my amazing, very surprising experience at this little cafe-restaurant in Elias Building along Middle Road?
Why, I've even got the pics!
Here's one of the Salmon Belly Sashimi that my dining companion and I ordered that day.
 |
| fresh... |
Looks good, isn't it?
Then why in in the high heavens am I not able to write about it?!
Why is it so hard to write about something that is so skillfully sliced, when it has got delicate patterns nicked on each slice, when it is served cold, chilled and absolutely, absolutely fresh, when it is garnished with a slice of lemon on the side and was so smooth and so good that I didn't need, and didn't want to have it with the soy sauce and the wasabi and I just ate it all on its own?
Look, here's another pic! :)
 |
| and chill and cold |
It shouldn't be difficult.
It shouldn't be difficult at all.
Because Barashi-Tei is one of those places where they surpass your (normalized) expectations.
Like when you order a shiitake mushroom Yakitori and it comes to you neatly skewered, tasting precisely what a grilled mushroom should be, chewy, soft, mushroomy and very, very smoky. SMOKY.
Or when you order grilled beef and you think that it's going to be served to you like grilled beef elsewhere, but hoh, you're in for a surprise, and you're so gonna repent of your preconceived notion.
Because here the grilled beef is expertly cut into cubes and skewered so tightly onto the sticks that I couldn't tell that they were actually cubes when the dish arrived until I took a bite and it came off the skewer easily, and then it was all smoky and sweet and had teeny tiny onions scattered all over it, and it had a bit of marbling and melted with each mouthful, so much so that I took my portion of cubes plus another cube meant for my dining companion which I refused to share.
Okay, it looks like I'm finally getting somewhere. :)
It's nearly ridiculous all that wasted time, you know!
Especially when I realize that Barashi-Tei is super unique on its own.
Preconceived notions will tell us that because it is not a franchise and neither is it in a shopping mall means that it's going to be compromised. Or that it's going to be just bleah because it's not in a five-star, six-star hotel, but on the ground floor of a shop house along Middle Road in the Elias Building near the Short Street corner and which is so quiet and unassuming on the outside that I'd have probably walked right past it if I weren't seeking it out.
But that's precisely why this article is titled "Surprise".
That's what Barashi-Tei is. :) A Surprise.
Expensive? No. It's actually pretty good for the price. Mediocre food? By now, you'd know, heck no, not at all. Cookie-cutter dining experience? Heck no, no, NO.
Need another example to prove a point?
Here you go. The Spicy Salmon Maki.
 |
| looks pretty, tastes pretty. |
I'll tell you.
Because I ordered Spicy Salmon Maki and I thought yep, I'm surely gonna get spice, salmon and maki. But guess what? Nooooo. I got more than that. I got ebi tempura.
One damn solid piece of crispy ebi tempura cocooned within the maki itself and that was beside the single slice of salmon gently layered on top of each maki with the just-nice serving of creamy mentaiko that wrapped each bite of maki into a single, wholesome, rounded palate that was not too spicy, not too creamy, and not overwhelming at all.
SURPRISE!!!!! :D :D