Sashi Dai @ Tsukiji Fish Market

Think this is the kanji name of this sushi place; located a few shops away on the same row (Block 6) as Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwa.

A friend who visited Japan earlier recommended this place to me. And having to witness the long queue at both Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwa, I made a quick decision to quickly move on.

So if you want to miss the queue, give this place ago. They also serve sushi. Though I understand from another shop owner there that this restaurant is newer (apparently around 5 years) compared to Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwa. But think the locals dine here to avoid the mad wait at Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwa.

The owner is friendly but only speaks Japanese or very limited English.


A bowl of hot steaming fish soup is served the moment you sit down.


Opted for fresh sashimi since I was planning to fill my stomach with other food around Tsukiji market.

So if you want sushi at Tsukiji with a quieter and more relaxed environment without wait, do drop by this place instead!!

IMHO you can't go wrong with the sushi shops in Tokyo as they are all generally good, its the service and price (to some extent) that distinguishes each place from another.

Red Velvet with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Have you tried this cake before?

Taste nice with a light hint of chocolate. Best part with this cake (esp. those new to this cake) is that provokes your senses with it being "RED" in colour!!

If you are allergic to artificial colouring, you might want to omit it, but then why bother as you shouldn't call it red velvet then!!!

Recipe adpated from here (yields about 32 small cupcakes)

Ingredients
390g cake flour
60g corn flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
60g good quality cocoa powder
180g butter, room temperature
245g caster sugar
50g brown sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1.5 cup buttermilk
1.5 tsp white vinegar or red wine vinegar
1.5 tsp vanilla essence
2 bottles (25g each) red colouring

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C degrees.
2. Sieve all dry flour ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda) together and set aside.
3. Beat butter, salt and sugar. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
4. Fold in flour in parts alternating with the liquid (milk, colouring, vinegar & essence). Do not over mix. Be careful red colouring might stain.
5. Divide into paper cups (do not overfill, 1/2 to less than 3/4 would be best). Bake for 20-22 min or until skewer in the centre comes out clean.

Yes, the batter is red - well, maybe actually more auburn or dark mahogany in colour.

For the cream cheese frosting

250g cream cheese, room temperature

135g butter, room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla essence

210g icing sugar, sieved

zest of 1 lemon

Beat all ingredients until smooth.

Been wanting to pipe a rose swirl using Wilton 2D tip.
For tutorial on how-to-do, check out here.

But the lemon zest got stuck at the tip which resulted in more mutant looking frosting *darn...!!*&$@#%*. Since this was for a party, decided to change last minute the recalcitrant looking ones and opting for a classic magnolia swirl instead lolz.