Tempura Jiro 天ぷら次郎 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

The closing of borders has made food travel virtually impossible during the pandemic and coincidentally, has given rise to some of the local fine-dining restaurants. High-end restaurants including Tempura Jiro (天ぷら次郎) were a few of the hardest tables to book amidst the pandemic with some claiming that it took almost a year in advance to secure a booking. However, no such problem now as most of our travel life is back to normal.

I ran out of ideas for Jelloman's birthday celebration and since we had such an amazing time with our tempura lunch back in Tokyo a few weeks ago, I decided to splurge on a luxurious meal at Tempura Jiro with little nugget also tagging along.

First up, we were presented with different flavors of salt including truffle, green tea, seaweed and rock salt from Himalayas (from left to right).

While the chefs started firing up the fryer, we were offered some marinated tuna (akami-zuke) to start off the meal. These came with very nice velvety texture.

Shrimp head – Starting things off was the always popular shrimp head. Very crispy and flaky.

Okinawa Shrimp – Didn't take long before their first signature item was served up. This came with an ultra-light batter.

Asparagus and sweet corn – The asparagus came with this lovely crisp on the outside. I thought the sweet corn from Hokkaido surprised me with its crunch.

Shiitake mushroom – The mushroom came stuffed with prawn mousse offering a very interesting mouthfeel but what happened to its thin batter? A disappearing act?

Maitake mushroom – I actually enjoyed this a little more than the shiitake mushroom thanks to the very crispy batter adding to the texture of the maitake.

Whiting – I was never a fan of fish so.....

But it combined very well with the sweet soy.

The highlight of the dish was actually the soft bone (spinal cord?) which was so crunchy that it almost felt like having chips.

At this point, we enjoyed a break in action from the deep-fried stuff. With the change of pace, we were offered a refreshing chawanmushi with dashi, seaweed and chrysanthemum. This was full of floral notes.

Seaweed with ikura – The crispy nori sheet with the crispiness of the batter meets the explosiveness of the salmon roes.

Very interesting mouthfeel and we were supposed to finish this with just a couple of bites.

Sea eel – This was very very filling.

I have to admit that I have never been a fan of anything made with fish so the sweet potatoes on the side was far more appealing to yours truly.

Tendon – The steamed rice was topped with kakiage, a tempura fritter made with chunks of shrimp, scallop and octopus. The flavors of the kakiage was further enhanced by the seaweed, shiso and orange zest. A very lovely end to the meal.

It was followed by a bowl of red miso soup.

Dessert was musk melon which was ripe and sweet.

This was a very expensive meal (especially for lunch) and the fact that little nugget needed to order the same menu as us certainly didn't help the cause. But it was nice to have something a little different for birthday celebration. I hope the birthday gal enjoyed this one.

Food Rating: 6.7/10

Price: $$$$$

Address: Shop E, G/F, World Trust Tower, 50 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Tel: +852 2780-8666

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm daily

Tempura Tensho Aoyoma てんぷら天翔 青山 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

I can see everyone breathing a sigh of relief last night when yours truly finally touched down in Tokyo to join the party. There's a real sense of optimism in the air with the dining plans now fully under my guidance rather than Jelloman's. Everything (when it comes to food) should look up from now on.

Our first official meal since my arrival last night was arranged at Tempura Tensho (てんぷら天翔). Located just a stone's throw from Gaiemmae Station (外苑前) , Tempura Tensho is one of the few tempura restaurants in Tokyo that accepts reservation for kids and also opens on Sunday. The fact that they allow online booking via Tabelog for parties over four also made my life a little easier (and no deposit as usual). I found that a lot of restaurants in Japan do not accept online booking for parties over four. It has to be done over the phone for some reason.

I really like the way they organize the space here. A few tables right behind the counter bar. There were partitions in between to give everybody some much-needed privacy.

Of course, I opted to sit at the counter like I always do. And what a beautiful scene it was to see our chef showcasing all the fresh ingredients from our course meal right from the start.

Now I'll simply sit back, relax and enjoy.

Every now and then, I would take a closer look at what's going on behind the scene – deep-fried shrimp heads is coning up!

Shrimp head – One of the delicacies from a tempura meal. Crisp and full of flavors. At this point, I was also getting myself ready for the rest of the dishes with the two types of salt, sea salt and rock salt.

Tiger prawn (車海老) – Very nice and stringy, and the thin batter was perfect.

Young corn – Not my favorite in a tempura meal. Crunchy.

Tilefish (甘鯛) – The tilefish was a little softer than I have expected but I thought it was pretty tasty.

Eggplant (丸茄子) – Reasonably juicy but not the crunchy on the outside and soft, juicy inside type.

Okra (秋葵) – Quite decent. I had two of these with little nugget throwing his white towel on it.

Squash (南瓜) – Not bad.

Conger Fish (鱧) wrapped with shiso leaf – Liked the added flavors from the shiso leaf.

Maitake mushroom (舞茸) – Probably my third favorite dish just behind the shrimp head and tiger prawn. Very delicate and tasty.

We had a choice between a tendon (天丼), tencha (天茶) or cold Inaniwa Udon (天ざる稲庭); each would be served with a kakiage, made with small shrimps and vegetables.

A delicious tendon with a freshly fried kakiage on top was way too tempting to turn down so it was an easy decision for me. The homemade sweet soy was a pretty nice touch.

The rice was served with a small bowl of red miso soup.

A matcha ice-cream monaka helped to put the icing on the cake.

Food Rating: 6.4/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1/F Hotel Allamanda Aoyama, 2-7-13 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0061, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Gaiemmae

Tel: +81 50-3184-3600

Website: www.tempura-tensho.jp/aoyama.html

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 10:30pm daily

Nishiazabu Sushi Shin 西麻布 鮨真 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

My plan to get ourselves some fancy food on New Year's Eve in Tokyo is giving me big-time headaches. Restaurants are either closed or not entertaining kids under a certain age leaving me with very few options. Since we have yet to have sushi on this trip, I thought it's not a bad idea that I take the gang to the only sushi place on my short list - Nishiazabu Sushi Shin (西麻布 鮨真) for our New Year Eve celebration.

Hidden on the residential side of Nishiazabu (西麻布) next to Minami Aoyama, Sushi Shin has been on the Michelin radar for a while before capturing its first star in 2017. Since then, they have never looked back.

It's little nugget's second omakase experience and he's seriously looking forward to it. To add to the extraordinary experience was the fact that we were offered a small private dining room. I always enjoy some privacy once in a while.

[I must admit, I am not a Japanese food expert and unfortunately, Sushi Shin didn't have anybody who speaks good English so the following was a re-collection of what I thought we had. I hope I got most things right!!!]

We were started off with the catch of the day, which were flounder sashimi (right) and chu-toro (left).

As instructed, we had the flounder sashimi with the salt water but I didn't get much fun out of the slippery and chewy texture. The chu-toro was much much better.

The sashimi was followed by miso glazed sword fish which was very delicate and fatty.

Miso marinated squid legs were next. These were lightly torched to give us a bit of smoky flavors.

At this point, little one got into the act as well.

He got his favorite Japanese tiger prawns (車海老) and octopus sushi.

And before he finished off his sushi, a couple more arrived for him - smoked eel and the house special Egg (玉子焼き).

Fish Platter – Again we got some instructions from our server to go from left to right, starting off with the lightly torched flounder, followed by the red snapper with radish, yuzu and kombu. The tangy sauce was really rich in flavor working well with the super tender red snapper.

The third was Spanish mackerel glazed with soy and served with a touch of plum; and last but not least, a skewer of clams featuring different parts of a clam which was very fresh and sweet. Not a bad start!

Scallop roll – Very "ordinary" looking hand roll.

But there was no rice in there! Just fresh scallops marinated with sweet soy and rolled up with shiso leaf and seaweed.

Squid – Not bad but the vinegared rice a bit over the top.

Yellowtail – This was marinated with soy. Quite decent.

Razor clam – Very sweet taste with some lovely crunchy texture. But again, a little too much vinegar in the rice overpowering the sweetness of the razor clam a bit.

Mackerel – My least favorite sushi of this lunch. Wait, perhaps second least favorite.

Egg (玉子焼き) – The house specialty. Quite honestly, it felt like having a sponge cake. For a signature dish, I certainly expected more.

Amberjack – Marinated heavily in soy. I thought the texture was a bit thick and slippery. The strong mix of flavors from the soy and vinegar absolutely killing the mildly flavored amberjack.

Toro – Very nice melt-in-the-mouth texture though not the best toro we ever had.

Kohada / Gizzard Shad – The small sardine-sized fish was never my favorite fish to begin with.

Never really liked the texture of a sardine.

Japanese tiger prawn (車海老) and Botan shrimp – Yeah, I have been waiting for these for quite some time and wondering if we would get them this afternoon.

The Japanese tiger prawns were oh so good! Lovely bouncy texture (though the vinegared rice again having a negative effect on it) and fresh Botan shrimps perfectly matched with a small dab of shrimp paste; without a question, the best dish of the afternoon by a country mile.

Bafun sea urchin – Our last sushi was creamy Bafun sea urchin.

It was a long long lunch and a very expensive one too. For the hefty price tag I was paying, I would imagine that we would get a dessert but obviously, no freebie.

It's always nice to spend Christmas (and New Year) in Tokyo cuz of our familiarity with what the city has to offer. There are so much good food, shopping and attractions around for different age groups. Obviously, everyone was a little down about heading home tomorrow but it's going to be a short stay home cuz we already have our tickets to London punched in two weeks time.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ￥￥￥￥

Address: 4-18-20 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031, Japan

Closest Metro Station: N/A

Tel: +81 3-5485-0031

Website: www.sushishin.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:00pm (Wed - Sun), 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Tue - Sun)