If there's one thing I've come to appreciate about Don Don Donki, or Don Q as I like to call it these days, it is that there always is a ready supply of ready-to-eat foods that you can pick off their well-stocked shelves, and you don't have to worry that your favorites will not be there.
Sometimes the outlets run out of the cooked food bentos, but no surprise, and nothing to complain about, because hey, the faster the better when it comes to a bento of fried udon with takoyaki, or a bento of Japanese curry pork katsu rice, or a bento of rice with unagi, tamago and takoyaki.
It's a different story when it comes to the sushi, however.
Not that they don't move fast, they just have more variety on the shelves, and so there's more to choose.
It goes without saying that salmon's my first choice.
Actually it is my only choice.
With that being said, however, that doesn't mean I don't look at other foods. It simply means I look at salmons first before looking at anything else.
What's so wonderful about their sushi is that it makes for a great meal when you have to eat something but don't want anything too expensive or too heavy on the stomach.
As in, you don't have to wonder whether or not there'll be sushi there.
All you need is to find the Don Q.
In the past couple of months I've come to feel very much for the sushis of Don Q. It might have been that I altered my diet a couple of months ago. It might have been that there were situations which needed bursts of color and sparks of taste to spike me up. It might also have been that I just wanted to have something special to get through the day.
The colors of salmon sushi are magnificent.
Vibrant, bright, delightful to the eyes.
Just the sight of them is more than enough to lift one's spirits.
I don't know whether it is the symmetrical neatness of the sushi that gets to me, or if it is the colors and shine that appeal to my eyes, but the sight of these on the table really do speak to me, and I always find myself wager to pick up my chopsticks, and dig in.
There have been times that the sushi's not ice-cold chilled, but that doesn't matter.
What's important is that the fish is chilled, cold, fresh, and is appetizing throughout.
There are times when I take salmon belly.
There are times when I take the regular salmon.
Salmon belly is, of course, by nature, softer, more melt-in-the-mouth, but I'm a lover of both, and whether I have one or the other doesn't matter to me.
If it not be the raw salmon sushi that I want that day, there is also the Aburi salmon, where from Don Q I have had more than once, from different Don Qs, and which have all tasted just as good.
So the colors and angles of all three might look different, but perhaps it might be because I've taken pictures of them at different places.
There's one I took when at the Don Q in Clarke Quay.
There's one I took when at the Don Q in Orchard Central.
Then there's one I took when at their newly opened outlet in PLQ.
What charms me most about this sushi is the Mentaiko sauce. It's not always consistent, mind, but it doesn't make a difference. Sometimes too there's a lot of fish roe, sometimes it's scattered all around so you don't see the heap at all.
Then, depending on how chilled it is, there're sometimes different textures.
I have had Aburi salmons that are softer.
I have also had Aburi salmons that aren't as soft as I'd like them to be.
But that too doesn't really matter.
Not when I'm a fan of the slightly burnt burnt taste, not when I like the taste of the soft salmon itself, and the huge, wholesome, chonk of rice underneath.
You know, come to think of it, today is a day that I could do with some of these. I had not thought I would want to have salmon sushi or Aburi salmon sushi when I woke up this morning, but things happen, disappointments do come in, and a bit of cheering up would do me good.