Nadeshiko

@nadeshiko_sg has opened recently, taking over the space vacated by the dearly departed The Flying Pan (rip, press F to pay respects). Nadeshiko is a bit of an oddity when it comes to Japanese food hawkers, as they don’t do donburis or bentos. Instead, they dish out homely teishoku (set meals) and hot udon as the sole option for the noodle contingent.⠀
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I could not resist the allure of the Hamburg Stew Set, priced at a sensible twelve dollars flat. I won’t lie, I was somewhat catfished by the menu photo, as the photo promised a phat patty (a phatty, if you will) inundated with a deluge of tomato sauce, served with a side of salad and an interesting combo of sautéed asparagus & shimeiji shrooms. Instead, I got a phatty covered in a tomato sauce that looks & tastes like Italian marinara, a small portion of pickles and some plain old shredded cabbage. ⠀
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Sides aside, this phatty, constructed from a blend of minced beef & pork, was sublime. Biting into it revealed a loosely packed texture, which was impressive considering the strong sear on the exterior. Meatballs & patties tend to fall apart when place on high heat, so the fact that Nadeshiko’s phatty stayed intact was impressive. While there was a healthy amount of tomato sauce, it certainly wasn’t enough to be considered a stew. However, the moderate amount of tomato sauce was a blessing in disguise, as it accentuated the simple yet superb seasoning of the beef & pork patty. This Hamburg Stew Set was so simple yet so supremely satisfying with the combination of well seasoned & juicy meat, paired with the subtly sweet & tangy tomato marinara. It was the culinary equivalent of getting a hug from your grandma, and I kid you not, that’s how homely & comforting this meal was.
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As for the cabbage on the side, it was sparsely dressed with some soya sauce, but mix all that in with the kewpie mayo that’s on the plate for some reason, and voila, you’ve got an impossibly delicious & thick dressing to mix the shredded cabbage in. Sure, I would’ve preferred to have the sautéed asparagus & shimeji mushrooms shown on the menu, but this cabbage salad will do.

Nadeshiko is one of those spots which we had learnt about via social media — being a coffeeshop stall that is situated in the heartlands, Nadeshiko is probably one of those establishments that is hidden fairly deep in the neighbourhoods. The stall is located within the coffeeshop named MTF Coffee House at Blk 703 Hougang Avenue 2 which is hidden away from view from the main road since the block that the coffeeshop is situated in is in the middle of the housing estate itself. Nadeshiko apparently calls itself a Japanese Style Cafe; that is actually despite their concept being run out of a coffeeshop stall that occupies half a stall unit (the other half being occupied by their neighbour; an outlet of Tanjong Rhu Wanton Noodle that is located there). Apart from the signboard that is somewhat eye catching for the fact that it doesn’t quite adopt the same look as that typical of old-school stalls with a simple white background and black text / logo, the stall doesn’t look too different than the ones surrounding it. Approaching the stall however, one would find that they are retailing drip coffee bags claimed to be from their sister branch in Japan; turns out, Nadeshiko is affiliated to Coffee Rivermet, which is a Japanese coffeehouse located in Aichi, Japan. While Coffee Rivermet is a full-fledged coffeehouse serving not only hot food, but also Japanese coffee and desserts, Nadeshiko only focuses on a limited variety of five dishes on the menu excluding the rotating daily specials; the stall also being manned by what seems to be Japanese as well.

Having seen the menu of what Nadeshiko has to offer via the social media post that we have come across online, we initially headed over to Nadeshiko wanted to give the Hamburg Stew Set a try — this apparently does seem like an item that is offered on the menu at Coffee Rivermet as well. Sadly, Nadeshiko had already sold out of the Hamburg Stew Set when we made our visit to the stall on the weekend during dinner service; after having a quick glance at the menu again, we deciding to just go straight for the Shogayaki Teishoku (i.e. stir-fried ginger pork with rice) instead. Simple as it seems, the stir-fried ginger pork came on its own plate sharing some real estate space with shredded cabbage that was accompanied with Kewpie mayonnaise and some braised vegetables on the side. The item also comes with a bowl of Japanese short-grain rice, and a bowl of Miso Soup that comes with kelp as well. Digging into the stir-fried ginger pork itself, we were already very impressed by how the execution of the dish was here — the pork slices came pretty thin; almost what one would expect out of a Pork Shabu Shabu dish. There was quite an evident note of miso, ginger and grated ginger that was going on here — all savoury and slightly “spicy” from all the gingery notes; something especially flavourful but with a good contrast of flavours that would get one to go on and on with it really easily. The caramalised onions while having absorbed all of that sauce that the pork was stir-fried in was also soft-to-the-bite; adds a hint of sweetness for the dish, while the shredded cabbage is to be had with the Kewpie mayonnaise for a refreshing crunch; the braised vegetables adding on to the wholesomeness of the dish.

The Japanese short grain rice on the other hand was pearly; well-executed with a bit of stickiness — best to be had with the gingery sauce from the stir-fried ginger pork. The accompanying Miso Soup was also pretty outstanding — they seem to be really generous with the miso here considering how earthy that bean-y, earthy note was; all of that whilst coming with a good portion of kelp that provided a soft bite. Truth to be told, the food items at Nadeshiko isn’t something which we would call affordable for coffeeshop standards; the items at Nadeshiko are priced between $7 to $12 — the lowest priced item being the Hot UdonC while the priciest would be the Hamburg Stew Set; there would most certainly be a price gap in between what Nadeshikl is offering against the food that other tenants within the same coffeeshop are serving up. With that in mind, Nadeshiki does actually serve up some seriously good and comforting cooked food that is somewhat of a rare take in the local food scene; the quality of the food can be said as restaurant-grade, and that patrons are likely to get much more than what they expected of the price point which they charge for their dishes. Nadeshiki is most certainly a hidden gem in the heartlands waiting to be discovered with its rather interesting roots and decisions to open at such a location in Singapore — we do hope that they would be able to sustain and thrive in the coffeeshop / hawker scene in Singapore considering the circumstances around price and local preferences especially however; wishing these folks all the best in what has to come!