This Japanese restaurant had a rough start, but it seems to have found a steady footing now, with reasonably friendly, efficient service and decent food.
Complimentary appetizer of minced tuna & cucumber salad.
Tatami Iwashi (sun-dried baby sardines). A crisp, simple snack with a mildly salty flavour that goes well with sake. Healthier than potato chips, right?
Unagi Yanagawa (simmered eel with veggies). Pure comfort food; thankfully, the unagi retained its distinctive flavour without ever turning soggy.
Rice with Japanese curry. Another rustic recipe that tasted wholesome and nourishing, with a slight spiciness that might have been incorporated for Malaysian tastebuds.
Sukiyaki, brimming with succulent slices of Aussie beef in an aromatic broth.
Four kinds of ice cream: lavender, wasabi, citrus & melon. Refreshingly chilly, with subtle, delicate flavours, but less creamy than we might have preferred.
Tamano Hikari sake.
Ishin,
202 Persiaran Klang, Off Jalan Klang Lama.
Tel: 7980-8228
Tatami Iwashi?! interesting..
ReplyDeleteI like how this place looks during the day - a lot of natural lighting. The bento sets are also decently priced, guaranteed not to break the bank. I like. =) Oh and I absolutely love the pretty tableware. Can't wait to go back there and try the rest of the stuff on the menu!
ReplyDeletechloe: the funny thing is, it hardly tastes like sardines. there's a salted fish flavour to it, but not quite sardines =)
ReplyDeletelemongrass: the bento sets won't break the bank, but the foie gras & king crab combo might! :D
those sun-dried baby sardines - is it purely sardines or mixed up in a batter? looks like a lot of potato in there or something :P
ReplyDeletethen bento set it is for me :P can't afford to break my bank lately.. lol!!!
ReplyDeleteciki: according to wikipedia, the sardines are "laid out and dried while entwined in a single layer to form a large mat-like sheet. Typically, this is done by drying them in the sun on a bamboo frame, a process that is evocative of the manufacture of traditional Japanese paper."
ReplyDeleteleo: ya, the set lunches are good value for money, around RM20 each. i haven't tried them yet, but i hear they're OK =)
Lovely! Atr Jap place to try out!
ReplyDeletetng: yeah, this seems to be one of the better japanese outlets away from the city centre =)
ReplyDeleteHmm, my first time at Ishin was a hits-and-misses affair. Some dishes fared better than others. But I'm inspired by your post to return and give it another shot, now that they have settled down.
ReplyDeleteUnagi Yanagawa looks like my kinda comfort food too! :)
I have been meaning to try this place, seeing that it's almost walking distance fr where I live! Looks promising... not just the standard variety. Did the Jap curry break yr limited spice threshold? :-P
ReplyDeletelfb: yeah, i've since returned for another visit, and it does seem that eating here is risky business! i'd say that customers have a 60 percent chance of ordering something tasty!
ReplyDeletemin: yep, the menu runs the gamut from the typical teppanyaki/teriyaki/tempura to the luxurious foie gras/king crab/tuna belly combos. but no lah, i didn't even break a sweat with the curry :D
60% chance? Man, I'm a hardcore foodblogger groupie but not enough of a foodblogger myself to risk that. Both Devil and Diva are looking at me funny as though if they dun get good eatin' the next round, they're gonna have my skin. :P
ReplyDeleteFor a while there i thought it was ISNIN! haha... the ice-cream looked nice. Is it creamy or those fat free stuff?
ReplyDeletelfb: that sounds almost like cannibalism! i'm actually a wannabe cannibal (seriously), so if u're ever donating skin (or flesh or organs or bone), do remember to alert me =)
ReplyDeleteeiling: heheh... it's creamy, but still not creamy enough! got too many bits of ice in it
I'm keeping all my various body parts, bits and bobs, thank you very much. But go ask Devil and Diva --- they are usually far more generous. LOL
ReplyDeleteP.S. The wasabi ice-cream at Hajime is creamier, and their sesame ice-cream is superb! So fragrant.
lfb: great! at the very least, i'd be grateful if they let me nibble their ears =)
ReplyDeletep.s. oooh. i don't think i've ever had any ice cream at hajime. i don't really have a sweet tooth, so i only have dessert if my companion orders some...
Well, do try the sesame at least. I usually have the wasabi cos I get to nibble on Devil's ear, er, sesame ice-cream, I mean. :P
ReplyDeletelfb: well, yes, as confucius said, the couple that shares ice cream together stays together =)
ReplyDeleteConfucius said that, huh? Well, I guess Chow Yun-Fatt does like his ice-cream... it shows. :P
ReplyDeletelfb: i was actually advised not to watch that movie, cos i was told that i wouldn't be able to appreciate its nuances (i don't understand mandarin/cantonese/hokkien/etc)
ReplyDeleteWell, I do speak Mandarin and Cantonese but have refrained from watching the film mostly cos Mr. Chow has not made a decent film since like forever. :P
ReplyDeletelfb: i just wiki-ed his filmography! couldn't find anything i liked after 'crouching tiger' (which i didn't exactly love either). though 'curse of the golden flower' came the closest to watchable.
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly. And "Curse of the Golden Flower" was a horrendous experience for me cos the girls I brought with me giggled at every time those Imperial boobs bounced and flounced around. Sighs.
ReplyDeletelfb: arrgh, i had managed to totally repress my memory of that! and now u've reminded me! back into therapy i must go. sigghhh....
ReplyDeleteBoing, boing, boing!
ReplyDelete*cackles happily*
lfb: shush. i'm watching hedwig and the angry inch as part of my therapy session now...
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I find Shortbus to be the better of John Cameron Mitchell's two films (so far), but prefer Hedwig more cos it's the happier film, even with the member dismemberment. :P
ReplyDeletelfb: hmmm. i hated shortbus, with a vengeance. on the other hand, hedwig ranks as one of my top 20 favorite movies ever. it has all the elements i need: indelibly beautiful music, characters that u fall in love with, a plot that takes u to unexpected places, and dialogue that u'll want to listen to over and over again...
ReplyDeleteLOL. I came back to chk on Sean's reply to my comment and i got a fun time reading the whole conversation betwn u and Kenny. Yr blog replies is gonna be like LFB's aft a while!
ReplyDeletetng: luckily it's a relaxing day at the office, huh, otherwise i'd be fired for neglecting my work by now! :D glad u enjoyed my humour and his long-windedness =)
ReplyDeleteYou no likey Shortbus? Oh but Jamie and Jamie are so adorable! No?
ReplyDeleteP.S. You mean MY humour and YOUR long-windedness, right? :P
lfb: wow, i can't remember any of the characters anymore. just that they were even more depraved than me. :D it lacked the emotional resonance of hedwig. i remember it just left me cold.
ReplyDeletep.s. ahem. each of my blog posts takes 20-30 seconds to read, while yours are reminiscent of russian novelists...
It left you cold? Did we watch the same movie? Jamie's journey as he navigates his depression and his guilt and his sorrow as well as his commitment to (Other) Jamie is harrowing.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, depraved. Rather. ;)
P.S. Speed-readers can handle my blog easy. :P
lfb: damn, i can't remember any of that. when i think of the movie, the only images i can recall are the sex, sex, sex. and not in a good way. :P maaaaaaybe i should rewatch it. i gave away my pirated dvd, but if i ever see another copy, i'll give it a shot.
ReplyDeletep.s. they'll miss all the nuances of your writing. i must confess, i still haven't really read your latest entry. it's not so much the length, but the tone of it. i like to only read chirpy, air-headed writing at the end of a long week! =)
Sex, sex and more sex. In my book, that's always a good thing, no? Ah well, different books, different pages, I guess. :P
ReplyDeleteP.S. Chirpy, air-headed writing. I try my best to aspire to this but never seem to succeed. I am such a failure. *bows head down & weeps*
lfb: there, there. re your writing, maybe the problem is the subject matter. in your next entry, if u tackle a different issue, like, say, whether robert pattinson or taylor lautner is more deserving of adulation, u'd probably win over a whole new audience =)
ReplyDeleteRobert, who? Taylor, who? :P
ReplyDeletelfb: u are indeed doomed to failure :P
ReplyDeleteI could write about a tailor named Robert. How's that? :P
ReplyDeletelfb: real-life person or fictional character? oh ya, to be honest, due to my own personal fussiness, that's another problem that i face with your entries. when i read something, i like to know whether it's fact or fiction. you blur the line between those two so seamlessly that i feel like tearing my hair out :D
ReplyDeleteHahaha... in my posts, fact is fiction is fact is frustration. Go chat with some of the other bloggers. In the early days, before we knew each other, they used to be in the same situation as you, trying to differentiate and define.
ReplyDeleteNow they are happier people. They gave up. :P
P.S. If it helps any, my latest post? Everything happened. Everything didn't, too.
ReplyDeleteOkay, guess not. :P
lfb: ambiguity! hates ambiguity! :P in my entries, everything happened. and i have the photos to prove it too =)
ReplyDeleteLife for Beginners. Lesson #1: There is no certainty in life.
ReplyDeleteSo, ambiguity. Deal with it. Hahahaha...
lfb: bah. a boycott of someone's blog might be in order =)
ReplyDeleteBoycock? What? I'm an old man, my vision's somewhat impaired. But you can boycock my blog anytime. Lemongrass and the other ladies have got it pussywhipped oredi anyways. LOL
ReplyDeletelfb: time to reassert your masculinity then and make michael bay the inspiration for more posts instead of wong kar-wai :P
ReplyDeleteMichael Bay? Michael Bay? He'd transform my blog from unknown to unreadable. Okay, actually it's already pretty unreadable, but still.
ReplyDeleteMeganfoxing my blog, now that's worth considering... :P
lfb: shialabeouf it, that's what i wanna see! :D
ReplyDelete