Kicking off our Kansai vacation with Hanakoireki on Singapore Airlines

Nine months after our last flight, we were back in the air again. This time to Kansai International Airport (KIX) for a 12 day vacation in Osaka and Kyoto.

Whenever we get the chance to fly business class on Singapore Airlines, we always look forward to browsing their “Book the Cook” menu.

There’s an exceptionally wide selection available when flying out from Singapore (SIN), but we invariably end up choosing the Lobster Thermidor.

But not this time.

Because this time, I was curious about the inflight menu and noticed that the Hanakoireki was available on our flight, even though it was originating from Singapore. I had always assumed that it was only offered on flights out of Japanese cities, but was happy to be proven wrong.

The last time I had the Hanakoireki was many years ago, when I was bumped up from premium economy to business when flying back from Haneda Airport (HND) in Tokyo.

If you fly regularly with Singapore Airlines, you’ll know (and grudgingly accept) that they almost never upgrade economy passengers. That time, I think they had to swap out the scheduled plane and the new one wasn’t outfitted with a premium economy cabin.

They probably would have bumped me down to economy and offered shopping vouchers as compensation. But I guess the back of the plane was completely full, and they opted to change the colour of my boarding pass to blue instead.

Before you get too excited, that was the one and only time I was ever upgraded to business. It sounds even more dismal when you find out that I’ve been flying with SQ as a KrisFlyer Gold member for almost two decades, mostly in economy.

Inflight Menu

I remember choosing the Hanakoireki then, and while I don’t recollect exactly what was served, I do recall that the meal looked, and tasted, quite impressive.

The Wife had never tried it before, and when she read the descriptions of the numerous items, she was immediately sold. She’s a big fan of the “many small dishes” approach to dining, including Spanish tapas, Korean banchan and, of course, Japanese kaiseki.

She was even more excited to find out that the menu was created by the chef from Kikunoi. A Michelin 3-star restaurant in Kyoto that her friend had just dined at a few weeks ago, and was raving about on Facebook.

The only blemish, in her opinion, was the presence of seared tuna loin. Why? Because, dolphins. It wasn’t a big issue since she could simply pass it on to me.

And since we were going to start our vacation to Japan with a traditional Japanese meal, I figured I might as well complement it with a traditional Japanese drink made from rice.

After scanning through the long list of inflight beverages, I was disappointed to find that they were serving only one sake. The good news was that the Miyakanbai Junmai Ginjo Miyamanishiki was from Miyagi prefecture, and I could tick off another prefecture on my sake bingo card.

Drinks

It was first poured into a cute little porcelain tokkuri, and then into another cute little ochoko. The steward who served it informed me proudly that they were made specially for Singapore Airlines.

Even though I would have been perfectly happy sipping from a normal glass, I felt that the use of traditional nihonshu drinkware was a thoughtful gesture.

The inflight menu had advertised the sake as having “… excellent structure with clean and refreshing acidity on the finish”. And after sampling half a cup (ok, maybe the entire cup), I agreed with the description.

Umami-laden with a strong body, it had a good balance between sweet and dry and ended with a pleasant and lingering melon aftertaste. It was nice on its own, but I could already tell that it would go well with food.

The Wife also stuck with the Japanese theme, and went with a Choya umeshu on the rocks. It came with a skinny wooden stirrer and an entire pickled plum. I’ve never been a fan of umeshu, but she asked me to take a sip anyway.

I dutifully complied, but was reminded, yet again, why I’ve steered clear of umeshu my whole life.

Satay

For me, one highlight of every SQ business class flight is their chicken satay appetiser. I don’t know how they do it, but the meat is always juicy. It’s a bit messy to eat, but the pre-meal savoury snack is worth the hassle.

Scooping up every last drop of the delicious peanut gravy takes a bit of finesse. It involves the strategic use of tiny toothpicks and skillful positioning of cucumber slices. But making sure the plate is completely clean is my way of showing appreciation to the airline caterer.

It’s my second-favourite chicken satay, surpassed only by the fantastic version grilled by the skillful pakcik at Rahim Muslim Food in Chong Boon Food Centre.

The chicken satay at Rahim Muslim Food is sangat sedap

First Course

After my sake tokkuri was re-filled for the second (or maybe third?) time, our stewardess came over and laid out crisp white linens on our tray table. Soon, the first course of our Hanakoireki arrived.

Like any typical kyo-kaiseki meal, much care was given to visual presentation. The first four dishes came in a plum flower-shaped tray with five compartments. It may seem like a small detail, but the special tableware signalled the start of a special meal.

We weren’t advised on the proper eating sequence, so I made the logical choice and started with the item nearest to me. The Kuchitori was a cold appetiser of prawn and broad bean in dashi jelly, garnished with ikura (i.e. salmon roe) and hanaho (i.e. shiso buds).

In order to savour all the different tastes and textures together, I munched down on the entire cube. Perhaps I was supposed to take dainty bites and slowly savour the chef’s intricate creation. But hey, life is short, why waste time?

The dashi jelly was softer than I expected and imparted a gentle umami-ness to the firm and sweet chunks of prawn.

Then came the ocean saltiness as the ikura spheres burst, followed by the distinct hit from the shiso buds. It was a complex symphony of flavours, one that I really enjoyed.

Next, at the four o’clock slot, was the cold Mukouzuke of seared tuna loin served with mustard cress jelly, wasabi and a tiny bottle of shoyu. And as mentioned earlier, I got double portions, courtesy of The Wife’s empathy for dolphins.

Unfortunately, the tuna was just meh.

Even the accompanying wasabi tasted stale, which, on hindsight, should not have been a surprise. After all, it had to have been pre-prepared many hours ago, in bulk by an airline catering operation.

Although, I have to say that I’ve had decent Niçoise salads on SQ before, and they both feature the same main ingredient. I guess something must have been lost in translation.

The Sakizuke, also a cold appetiser, was similarly lackluster. The two slices of poached scallop tasted bland and lifeless, and were only slightly rescued by the interesting onion and celery salad.

Luckily, the green tea soba noodles were decent. They weren’t overcooked and still retained a springy bite. I quite enjoyed slurping up each mouthful with gusto, trying my level best to rise above the background hum of the jet engines.

Apparently, another passenger in the cabin received the same mission, and we ended up going up against each other. We were neck and neck at the start, but I believe I narrowly edged him out (or maybe her?) at the end.

Second Course

Part two of our Hanakoireki was served in a sizeable bento box, with a bowl of miso soup and a cup of sencha on the side.

After all the cold dishes in the first course, it was nice to start the second with some hot miso soup. This one used white miso and contained asari clams and finely chopped spring onions.

The Wife was particularly pleased to see that the Takiawase, or simmered dish, featured fresh bamboo shoots. They came in a light dashi broth and were accompanied by wakame seaweed, butter bur and sakura-shaped carrot slices.

Even though they must have been simmered for some time, they still managed to retain their crunchiness, and made for a delightful bite.

A surf and turf combo came in the form of the Yakimono of “grilled saikyo miso-style sawara mackerel, garnished with shredded radish and pickled ginger flower”; and the Aemono of “braised red miso-flavoured beef short rib, garnished with nanohana greens”.

Unfortunately, both my portions of fish and beef were dry and overcooked, although the mackerel fared slightly better. It was redeemed somewhat by the refreshing pickled ginger flower and shredded daikon.

The Wife’s short rib was also nuked to extinction, but her mackerel turned out to be the exact opposite of mine. Moist, juicy and flavourful, making it her favourite dish of the entire meal. It just goes to show how difficult it is to achieve consistency in airplane food.

I didn’t have high hopes for the rice, and it lived up to my low expectations. Dry and slightly clumpy, but acceptable when eaten in between sips of miso soup and bites of the assorted pickles.

Desserts

We ended the Hanakoireki with a scoop of decent kinako (i.e. roasted soybean flour) ice cream. Nothing to shout about, but at least it wasn’t too sweet.

What probably was a bit too sweet though (but in a good way) was the second dessert, a slice of Ondeh Ondeh Cake from the regular menu.

The drizzle of gula melaka syrup was decadent, as was the gula melaka cream filling and piped flower of gula melaka cream. You can never have enough gula melaka, and I wiped the plate clean.

To avoid a sugar overdose, The Wife wisely chose the healthier cheese platter instead, which was served with Arnott’s crackers and various fruits.

Given that my blood alcohol had probably reached dangerous levels, I politely declined the steward when he came by and offered to refill my sake.

I did make sure to gradually empty out whatever was left in the tokkuri though, as I spent the rest of the flight enjoying the inflight entertainment in a food-induced coma.

Final Thoughts

While both The Wife and I didn’t regret choosing the Hanakoireki over our usual Lobster Thermidor, we did feel that there were more misses than hits.

Of course, we didn’t go in expecting the same quality as a proper Japanese kaiseki meal, cooked in an actual Japanese restaurant and consumed on land. But still, it didn’t quite measure up to our already moderated expectations.

To be fair, the meal was catered out of Singapore, by a local catering company (presumably SATS), and more likely than not, using locally-sourced ingredients.

In order to form a more balanced opinion, we decided to choose the Hanakoireki again on our return flight from Osaka to Singapore. So, stay tuned for our follow-up review.

Regardless, it was nice to start our Kansai vacation with a kaiseki meal created by a world-renowned Kyoto restaurant. It definitely got us in the mood for all the Japanese food, sake and architecture that we’d be experiencing over the next 12 days.