Nirai Kanai Okinawan Restaurant

Okinawan food has always been on my wish list for cuisines i'd love to try and finally the chance came. Tucked away in the low profile Tanglin shopping centre on the fourth floor is a little Izakaya few locals are aware of. The clientele is 80% or more Japanese and the waitresses and waiters are nearly all Japanese as well. Nevertheless, the T3 food gang bravely stepped into the unknown. (Ok, that's exaggeration)
The interior of the restaurant is really authentic. Wooden chairs and tables, Japanese words all over the place. Two large screen LCD TVs airing direct from Japan TV channels( how they get that?!) and chatter in Japanese in every direction. We took a long time to look through the menu, which was conveniently written in Japanese, Chinese and English. How considerate for the small number of locals. Getting someone to take your order was the hard part. The waiters/esses all move around so quickly, and even though i'm Jap-enabled, using the language on a native speaker was well, intimidating. When we finally got hold of someone, i did the ordering by a mixture of pointing and simple english. Nevertheless the service was friendly and patient. Only gripe: can they have a bit more situation awareness to people who want to order?
First dish was an appetizer, the Sticky Salad $10.80. Ok the tongs are blocking everything, but the main ingredients are just lettuce, tomatoes, okra (ladies' fingers) and -gasp- Nattou! Topped off with shoyu and perilla dressing, this dish is an example of how Okinawan cuisine has been influenced by the American presence on the archipelago. Not for the faint hearted, the stickiness obviously comes from the nattou. However, after mixing everything in, the sauces actually reduced the pungent smell of the nattou and the taste can only be described as exotic. I still don't suggest this to people who are new to japanese cuisine.
Grilled Ox Tongue $10.20 was a delicious appetizer. Grilled to medium rare right in front of your eyes (we were sitting at the counter seats), the ox tongue was served still smoking slightly. Bouncy texture and a chewy finish. Very natural and light flavour as the grilling was done only with a sprinkle of salt. The sesame sauce that came with it is quite salty, but otherwise a nice companion to this. The slices could be thicker though. Waraku's was thick enough to bounce inside your mouth.
Cubic Beef Steak $16. What a mathematical name. Beef cut in cube like pieces grilled with salt and black pepper to medium rare perfection. The beef used tasted ordinary but the grilling technique was great. The cube shape allowed juices to be retained in copious quantities on the inside. When you bite down the pepper and beef taste comes first, then as you chew, more and more juices start flowing out, which mixes with the minced Daikon to give you a sweet juicy finish. Mmm... I was particularly impressed by the use of Daikon in this dish. A perfect complement to the meat juices. The vegetable also lightens up the dish.
Okinawan Soba $12.10 was unlike any Japanese noodle dish. The noodles looked slightly like Linguine, but were thicker and infinitely more slippery. Very interesting. The soup was incredible. Bonito (katsuo) was used to brew the stock which was thick, yet smooth and so full of bonito flavour. Very unforgettable taste. The pork belly slices (known in Okinawa as ラフテー rafutei）, were simmered in some sweetish gravy for so long they just melted, fat, meat and all, just melted into a aromatic mess in your mouth. Fragrant sweetness, yet not fatty tasting at all. A must try indeed. You can't find this noodle dish anywhere else.
Just as we were so happy with the Okinawan Soba, the best dish of the evening came. Just look at the pure decadence of this. Stewd Pork Belly $11. 4 THICK slices of your pork belly, stewed in awamori sake and other spices and sauces. When this was served, the aroma just hits you nicely, screaming eat me eat me! The fat, as expected, just melts away, releasing all the fragrance, while the meat lends the sweet yet mellow taste of sake. This was indeed the best pork i have ever eaten. And you have that coming from someone who reels when he sees thick fat layers. And the mentor gives this the chop stamp of approval, something really hard to get.
Next is another Okinawan dish, but looks really like Ochazuke - Rice in Stock $8.80. Japanese rice is served drowned in a stock which contains some seaweed as well as Mentaiko(spicy cod roe). Resembling Teochew fish porridge as well, this is most likely Okinawan's idea of comfort food. The lightly flavoured yet tasty stock went very well with the rice. Interesting feel, but very homely. Mentaiko was too little to impart any taste though...
Okinawan Porridge with Mozoku Seaweed $9.80. This porridge is wow. Thick yet smooth, porridge cooked in bonito flavoured stock, and with egg mixed well into it, plus generous amounts of slippery seaweed. Very delicious and addictive porridge, much more tasty than the chinese versions, since the porridge is cooked in bonito stock. Every mouthful is full of flavour. The thickness of the porridge was just right too, not too watery yet not too thick.
At this point, the mentor was eager for more pork belly, after the fabulous stewed version, so we ordered more. This here came looking so different from pork belly Big G felt compelled to question the waitress as to what this was. The order was correct, this was indeed the Deep Fried Pork Belly $9. What we missed out were the words "served in japanese spring roll". It didn't disappoint though. A very light and crispy spring roll skin, followed by a layer of chewy mochi and then sweet sauce surrounding pork belly pieces. I don't drink beer but this looks like a great companion to some sake or beer.
Grilled Cuttlefish (actually it is squid, but i'm just stating the menu) $10 was kind of disappointing. I wonder if the chef forgot to turn up the heat because the squid was half raw. The sauce was fantastic but the squid wasn't really good. I still think he forgot to turn the heat up, because the previous one he did was bbq-ed thoroughly. Sigh...and G reckons the squid isn't very fresh though, which i attributed to the innards.
Grilled Salted Pork Belly $11.40 スーチカ was another dish that led to nodding heads of approval. Pork belly slices were soaked in salt water, then fried to crispy perfection. Something must be wrong with the translation of the menu... The pork skin was crispy and fragrant, followed by the melting fat which had turned a little sticky from the frying, followed by the salty meat layer. I say salty but this salt isn't refined salt. It has a light saltiness to it, most likely sea salt. I'd say this is another dish to go with sake, which i had no spare cash to try...What a pity.
Time for dessert at last. Okinawan cookies $4 in the background and Wasabi Ice Cream $7. Cookies looked very much like sugee biscuits, but were much lighter in taste and sweetness. The flour was different too, although i couldn't identify it. Wasabi Ice Cream is really interesting. There's the wasabi taste, but your nose isn't attacked unless you happen to hit one of the wasabi bits hiding in the ice cream.
Ridiculously printed as Ice Kachang on the receipt is this Shaved Ice with Red Beans $7. Not your usual Azuki beans (red beans) but more similar to kidney beans, the beans are really huge. What is special is that the bean "sauce" is made with black sugar (kokuto, said to have stress reducing, cholesterol reducing, life extending properties), an Okinawan produce similar in taste to Gula Melaka but made from sugar cane. Delicious and not too sweet, this dessert looks common but tastes unique. Do try it.
Okinawan Crepe $8 came looking like burnt Min Chiang Kueh. The dark brown is due to the "pancakes" being made with Kokuto as well, which imparts a mildly sweet taste to the chewy texture. Eat it with a dollop of fresh cream and it tastes surprisingly good. Makes you return to being a little kid. I secretly wanted more...

Finally the meal concluded, and everyone was satisfied. We spent more than 2 hours in that place, which had this nice ambience that makes you want to stay on, even though we were so extra. The food, in conclusion, isn't meant to surprise you, make you scream or anything, but appeal more to a homely feel and serves as relaxation after a day. I definitely want to come back and have more.

Food: Okinawan cuisine in the tze char style. Homely yet exotic.

Cost: 7/10 some things shouldn't cost that much, but some were really worth it.

Location: 5/10 Once you find Tanglin shopping centre it's easy. Just walk towards Forum from Tangs and continue downwards.

Ambience: Fantastic. I could stay there all day if not for the fact that we were seating at the counter.

Address: #04-05 Tanglin Shopping Centre NOT TANGLIN MALL. NO NO NOT TANGLING MALL.

Tel: 67375811 CALL EARLY, and reserve. I called at 6pm when they just opened but they were already nearly fully booked, save the counter seats.

Business Hours: 6pm - 1am on Mon-Thu 6pm-3am on Fri to Sun