Gochi-So Shokudo – Nice Porkgasm Experience [MEDIA INVITE]

Gochi-So Shokudo is a homegrown pork-centric Japanese casual dining restaurant. It uses the highest grade of pork, Black Iberico and Kurobuta pork and enhances the original flavour of the pork using the finest grade of charcoal combined with special dipping sauces. Currently, Gochi-So Shokudo has 14 outlets in Singapore, located in shopping centres and CBD.

Gochi-So Shokudo @Jewel

Gochi-So Shokudo @Jewel

Gochi-So Shokudo just launched their Truffle Fair theme, available from 1st November to 14th December 2022. The dishes curated for the Truffle Fair are Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille ($18.90) and Truffle Chestnut Pork Jowl Don ($12.90).

Gochi-So Shokudo @Jewel

Dipping Sauces on the Table

The Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille is thinly sliced pork collar, layered with truffle and mushroom, cheddar cheese then coated in their homemade fresh bread crumbs and deep-fried to perfection. The result is a crispy and crunchy exterior, followed by juicy pork with oozing cheese infused with fragrant mushroom and truffle flavour. Yummy.

Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille Set 

Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille 

It is served in a set, with a bowl of Japanese pearl rice, fresh cabbage with sesame dressing, and miso soup. Not forgetting a bowl of roasted sesame, where you have to manually grind it and mix it with the sauce served. What a complete meal.

Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille with Oozing Cheese 

Miso Soup

The Truffle Chestnut Pork Jowl Don, consists of lightly grilled chestnut pork jowl over Japanese binchotan charcoal, drizzle with the truffle, housemade sauce and accompanied by mushrooms and onsen egg on top of the Japanese pearl rice.

Truffle Chestnut Jowl Don

The pork jowl has a lovely smokey aroma. The flesh is juicy, succulent and when you mixed all the ingredients, it turns out to be a lovely donburi.

Truffle Chestnut Jowl

While the two dishes above are available during the truffle fair, we also tried some of their signature dishes. Iberico Secreto (Black Char Siew, $9.80 for 6 pcs). The black char siew is grilled on Japanese binchotan charcoal, delivering a delightful smoky aroma. The char siew is juicy, sweet and just melts in your mouth. It is served with pickled ginger to balance the fattiness in the dish. I can have this anytime.

Iberico Secreto

Iberico Secreto

Ebi Katsu ($5.80, 2 pcs). These two jumbo prawns have a nice crispy exterior, while the prawns’ flesh is juicy and crunchy. It is served with tartar sauce, yet we find the ebi katsu is tasty on its own. A must order here.

Ebi Katsu

Ebi Katsu

Iberico Loin Katsu ($12.80). The signature Tonkatsu at Gochi-So Shokudo. The pork loin is deep fried to perfection and on the meat, you can see two sections, the fatty part and the lean part. It is juicy, succulent and together with dipping sauce, you can easily polish off a bowl of rice.

Ebi Katsu & Iberico Loin Katsu

 Iberico Loin Katsu

 Iberico Loin Katsu

Located at B1 at Jewel Changi Airport, it is an open-concept seating with the background of the rain vortex. Although you can’t see the whole rain vortex, you can see the water flowing down and the changes in the lights during the performance time. The décor is casual, using light colour wood for most of the furniture and black granite table tops for some of the moveable tables.

Dining Area

Part of the Dining Area

Overall, we enjoy our dinner at Gochi-So Shokudo. The Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille and Truffle Chestnut Pork Jowl Don are very good and value for money. Meanwhile, the rest of the dishes that we tried are above average as well. A must-try for Tonkatsu & pork lovers. Kanpai!! Cheers!!

Gochi-So Shokudo Truffle Fair

When: 1st Nov – 14th December 2022.

Where: All Gochi-So Shokudo Outlets

Dishes: Truffle Cheese Mille Feuille & Truffle Chestnut Jowl Don

Thank you very much Jennifer Yeo Consultancy and Team Gochi-So Shokudo for hosting us.

Food & Drink: 7.75/10

Value: 9/10

Service: 7/10

Ambiance: 7.5/10

Budget per Person: $10 - $25

Gochi-So Shokudo @Jewel

78 Airport Blvd

#B1-289-290, Jewel Changi Airport

Singapore 819666

F: https://www.facebook.com/gochiso.shokudo

IG: @Gochiso.shokudo

OH:

Sun – Thu: 11.30 – 21.30

Fri & Sat: 11.30 – 22.00

Check out their Facebook page for the list of outlets and special promotions

WKD Cuts – Steak Tasting Pop Up

Dry Aged Tasting Platter

Last week, the foodie algorithm in my IG (@Chubbybotakkoala) displayed a sponsored post by WKD Cuts on their Steak Tasting Pop Up. I send the screenshot to LD and she said Let’s Go!!

WKD Cuts is a purveyor of the best quality meats and serving them up to perfection. Their business model is to deliver perfectly cooked meat (beef, lamb, pork plus sides) to your doorstep. Taking their business to the next level, WKD Cuts is having a Pop Up at Duxton for 2 weeks. Due to strong response, the team has extended the pop up till 02 October 2021.

WKD Cuts Steak Tasting Pop Up Menu
Image Credit: WKD Cuts

As a foodie, we love trying new things and steak tasting give us the freedom to try different cuts at one seating. A quick check through their booking website, we manage to get seating, though it is at the lounge area instead of the dinner area. While the menu is the same, you are seated on a comfortable leather sofa and eat your food from a knee-height table for the lounge area. Not ideal, but it seems to be the trend nowadays.

We wanted to order Smoked Burratina ($24) to start our meal, however, it runs out. Therefore, we decided to skip the starters and load up on the main. We decided on Dry Aged Tasting Platter ($148). Consist of:

100g USDA Angus 45 Days Dry-Aged Grain-Fed Striploin,

100g John Stone Irish Dry Aged Grass-Fed Beef Ribeye,

500g Galician Australian 45 Days Dry-Aged Bone-in Ribeye.

However, the grass-fed ribeye is unavailable, so the team replace it with upsized Bone-in Ribeye.

Dry Aged Tasting Platter
Left: Striploin, Right:Bone-in Ribeye, Top Right: Foie Gras and Bone Marrow

We enhance our platter further with Foie Gras ($12), Bone Marrow ($18) and Bearnaise Sauce ($6). WKD served a warm bread basket for us to nibble. We did not know that the waiting time is more than 40 minutes, so we decline the offer of extra bread. Big mistake on our side, because we had only brunch as we expected to overload ourselves with meat. Do take note to order a starter or accept the extra bread.

Bread Basket

Our dry-aged tasting platter is surely a heart-stopper. All the proteins are nicely grilled, with a charred exterior and medium-rare doneness internally. The 100g USDA Angus 45 Days Dry-Aged Grain-Fed Striploin just hits the spot for us. It has the right marbling, intense MOO MOO flavour and a slight bite in each of the cuts.

USDA Angus 45 Days Dry-Aged Grain-Fed Striploin

Our 800g Galician Australian 45 Days Dry-Aged Bone-in Ribeye (a.k.a Côte de boeuf) deliver a meaty steak, filled with rich MOO MOO flavour. Don’t expect a melt in your mouth sensation, this cuts one is for those who prefer the longer chewing process of their steak.

800g Galician Australian 
45 Days Dry-Aged Bone-in Ribeye.

The platter is served with three different types of salt, lemon and also grilled garlic. However, we find the steaks are nicely seasoned and you don’t even need the extra sauce.

The additional foie gras that we ordered is thick and well-executed. Slightly crisp externally, followed with buttery and velvety texture internally. The bone marrow is slightly disappointing as it has a shallow depth and we can only extract around 2/3 of the marrow instead of the whole bone length.

Foie Gras

Duroc 21 Days Dry Aged Pork Chop ($30). #Porkgasm. Our first experience with exotic pork chop dated back to 2014. Once you tried Duroc, Mangalica or Nagano pork, you won’t ever look at pork chop the same again. We find Korabuta and Iberico are too common. The Dry-aged Duroc is nicely seared and cooked to medium doneness. If you can’t take your pork chop pink in the middle, you should give it a miss. The meat is juicy, succulent and it has a high-fat content. The grilled onion on the side helps to balance the “jelakness” in this meat. Yumz!!

Duroc 21 Days Dry Aged Pork Chop 

Duroc 21 Days Dry Aged Pork Chop

For the sides, we have Roasted Ratte Potatoes ($15) and Creamed Spinach ($12). The potatoes are fragrant, crispy externally and soft internally. Cooked in duck fat and rosemary, it adds crispiness and a nice aroma to the potatoes.

Roasted Ratte Potatoes

Meanwhile, the creamed spinach portion is very generous. We enjoy the freshness of the spinach, perfectly cooked in the cream. We highly recommended these two sides to accompany your steak.

Creamed Spinach

Overall, we find the food are delicious and this pop up allows foodies to try out different types of meat from different suppliers worldwide. The Duroc pork chop is an absolute must try. We just hope that in the future, the team can consider adding steak knives in the cutlery arsenal and warm up the plates before serving. The warm plates prolong the fats from coagulating early and allow diners to enjoy the steak longer. Hopefully, we can come back for another round. Cheers!!

Food & Drinks: 7.75/10

Value: 7.5/10

Service: 7/10

Ambiance: 7.5/10

Budget per Person: $51 - $80; $81 and Above

WKDcuts Steak Tasting Pop-Up

9a Duxton Hill

Singapore 089676

T: +65 9782 2661

W: http://wkdcuts.com/popup (for Pop up)

http://wkdcuts.com (For delivery)

F: https://www.facebook.com/wkdcuts/

IG: @Wkdcuts

OH: 18.00 – 22.30

Seating: Dining Area – 2nd Floor, Lounge – 3rd Floor.