Saturday 6 February 2016

Tsukada Nojo

This week has been all about reunion dinners amidst the Chinese New Year fever. As always, I like to feature food I eat with Fussy Pot because I feel she shares my peculiar taste buds. My choice of reunion dinner has always been steamboat or dishes with rice because they give me a homely feeling. Wanting to soak in some festive atmosphere, we settled on Chinatown and Beauty Pot (what better way to get ready for Chinese New Year).


Documenting my Tsukada Nojo visits in numbers... This is my fourth visit, my first at Chinatown Point outlet, second visit with fussy pot and my first visit without having to queue for two hours. Tsukada Nojo is a Japanese beauty pot steamboat which is famous for their collagen soup and infamous for long queues especially at their Plaza Singapura outlet. One discovery I made was that the Chinatown outlet is more catered for bigger groups whilst the Plaza Singapura outlet is largely for two people. 


 The highlight of the place is their Nabe Bijin set ($50 for 2 pax) which offers golden collagen chicken soup accompanied with chicken, prawn, lettuce, red radish, sunflower sprout, enoki mushrooms, baby sweet potato leaves, baby corn, lady's finger, deep fried tofu, yellow zucchini, fresh black fungus and tori tsukune. Apart from this long list, you are also entitled to choose one type of noodles from a selection of three. We chose thin egg noodles. 

The soup broth has always been consistently good. Rich in chicken flavour, although very oily but take my word for it, it's good. Personally, I am not an outside steamboat person and all steamboat pretty much taste as expected after you cook the raw food inside the hot broth. That said, there's still the distinction between steamboats using frozen or processed ingredients and freshly produced ingredients. One reason I have been here four times is because they use fresh ingredients at affordable prices. A new addition is the heart shaped seaweed which they claim will change the taste of the soup after we add it in. I like it that their ingredient selection is tilted towards the healthier side and the tori tsukune particularly stood out for me. 


Another key highlight I really like is that the staff are all artistically talented. They all can draw numerous designs. Tsukada Nojo will provide jelly with a bit of chocolate sauce to sooth the tastebuds after each hearty meal. Their jelly is always delivered with an attractive art piece. I once have them write happy last day to one of my departing colleague and they so pleasantly obliged. 

Tsukada Nojo is definitely worth going to for a reasonably priced beauty pot experience. I've braved the two hour queues at Plaza Singapura to eat there three times attesting to my belief that their food is worth the wait. I also like the name card they gave me with a corporate rank attached to it as a way to reward returning customers. Currently I'm a manager with two chops on my card :)

Tsukada Nojo
#02-37 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road