All of @estuary.sg fish entrées are dry aged, and they even had a seasonal whole fish for large groups to tuck into. Since there were only two of us that night, we chose the fillet of Japanese Hamachi ($34++) instead. I was quite excited to get my first taste of dry aged fish, and this fillet of dry aged amberjack certainly didn’t disappoint.⠀
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Dry aging the fish has removed a fair bit of its moisture, and the flavours have concentrated and intensified. I’ve never had hamachi this flavourful before, and it’s so flavourful that some might find it too salty. The texture is the most noticeable change, as it loses the flakiness you expect of fish, and it turns into a firmer, slightly flaky texture as you cut into it. It’s like the texture of extremely tender chicken, crosses with the flakiness of fish. The fish skin was simply stellar as well, being remarkably crisp and thin, almost like a sheet of seaweed.⠀
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The accoutrements were a capable pairing to the flawless fish, with the koji & olive oil dressing adding some lubrication to compensate for the moisture lost during dry aging. The sweet corn was a capable counter to the umami of the fish, and it keeps your palate excited & engaged throughout the entire dish. Estuary has such good mastery of fish dishes, and they’ve managed to elevate an otherwise pedestrian fish fillet into something quite stunning.⠀
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Thank you for having us @estuary.sg, and thanks for setting up this tasting @scalemicroinfluencers!