My wife and I decided to pay a deserved return visit to, what shall we say, the most deliberately retro restaurant in Singapore (minus the usual lame tourist-trappy lameness). We were lured by information from a dear friend (who is now dearer for this exciting news) that Nirai Kanai has daily promotions and Thursdays featured 50% off all sashimi dishes!

The daily promotions are proudly displayed at the entrance (and on their tables). I cannot remember all of them, but the notable ones are Mondays (50% off awamori bottles), Tuesdays (50% off lady's alcohol drinks) and Thursdays (50% off sashimi).

For our present meal, we had goya champuru (stir fried bittergourd), sashimi moriawase of 3 kinds of fish (salmon, tuna and madai/seabream), okinawan pancake, mini stew pork ramen/soba and chimbim (rolled okinawan crepes).

Okinawan goya truly lived up to its name. If you had seen the vegetable in the raw, you might think it's a medieval torture implement. And furthermore, us young 'uns tend to shy away from the horrors of bittergourd, healthy as it may be. Even so, be daring and goya will blow your mind. It's crunchy, refreshing and delicious, fried in black beans and egg sauce. The bitterness came as an after-thought. Like a slap after a roughshod kiss; you'd smile anyway.

The sashimi was for my wife. After so many years of eating japanese food, I still can't find the taste buds for raw fish. According to her, the 9 slices of fish weren't the freshest in the world, but it was decent and came in value-for-money thick-as-idiot slices.

The okinawan pancake was normal. It is a thin chinese pancake about 25cm in diameter (the kind you wrap peking duck with), topped with sprinklings of seaweed and shaved bonito flakes. It was ok, tastewise, but nothing too special. Tastes better when you wrap it around some goya and stuff the leaking package into your mouth. Hush your dirty thoughts, it's just bittergourd.

The stew pork ramen/soba was utterly dominated by the slice of belly pork floating on it. Having eaten Santouka's toroniku twice the week before, I am now able to say, Nirai Kanai's belly pork is much better. Maybe it's the layers of gelatinuous fat. Maybe it's the delicate soy stew-base. Or maybe, it's just the awamori speaking.

To end the meal, we skipped the ubiquitous Sada-andagi (okinawan dounuts) and went for the more expensive Chimbim. At $8, it is quite pricey for 6 pancake rolls that reminded me us ot Bengawan Solo kuey-kuey. But, after one bite of the rolls dipped in generous whipped cream (do feel free to ask for more cream, we did!), we were convinced otherwise. We cannot pinpoint why we liked it so much, and before you point a finger at the awamori again, we weren't exactly roaring drunk either. Note that our appreciation of this dish is likely to be subjective and I can foresee disappointment in the faces of some would-be gourmands. So please, spend the extra moolah at your own risk.

The entire meal was prefaced, accompanied and concluded with a 180ml bottle of awamori. You can either point to any random selection, choose based on price or picture, or do the smart thing and ask the Japanese staff. This is not sake though, at 30+% alcohol, most adults would do well to stick to a sensible 180ml serving or you will be throwing up all the food afterwards. The standard way of drink awamori is to first sip it raw. Then drink another sip with water added. Then drink it with ice (or more water if you don't like it cold). However, don't let this stop you from drinking it anyway you want. It is your drink and your pleasure.

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the exact prices for each item, but the bill was about $75 for 2 pax. Seeing how it include alcohol and sashimi, I felt it was reasonable.