A break from Singapore's posts, today I want to write about the dinner I had just now before I forget the details.

When I saw this restaurant last week, I was amazed at the crowd in it despite being in an almost deserted Island Plaza. Good food sign LOL... Finally I get to visit this place with my parents.

Opened not very long ago, about a month and the owner is Azuma Japanese Restaurant's owner (the one at Queensbay Mall). I was surprise to hear that because I did not think Azuma is all that great but this restaurant certainly opened my eyes.

Love the beer and Sake bottle display. Lots of smiles from the friendly waiter and waitresses too. Although the restaurant is not very big, I quite like the table placement at the main hall. There were 2 big fish tanks with live corals and colourful fishies :D Not many customers around so we get to sit beside the fish tank.

Next to my table is the sashimi bar. As you can see there are 2 chefs in the picture. One is Executive Chef in black and the sashimi chef in white behind the counter. Busy busy busy ain't they? I also manage to kaypo a bit about the chef in black. It seems that the boss of the restaurant "invited" the chef trained in Japan more than 20 years with a handsome pay to lead the restaurant...hmmmm...Restaurant's menu is written by that chef as well.

Anyway, kaypo stuff aside. We had to decide and order quick as last order is 10pm :P

Not missing the drinks as well but very pricey...fresh/pure fruit juice cost a bomb O.o I ordered Mango Tango, RM14.

Obviously, the tea came first. Three of us each had a glass of Ocha, RM1 per glass, unlimited refill. And a thick one too. Feels good.

The juice came. No ice added but its cold. Wonder they blend together with the ice or freeze the mango then blend. The glass is quite big, definitely needs a couple of mangoes to fill it up :P

便喝便看鱼游来游去. Probably I should have ordered Kawaii Hawaii to have more feel LOL

Appetizers came one after another continuously. Kitchen was pretty quick I would say. Not very long waiting time. Means good food comes fast right? Hehe... First off, Yasai Kakiage Tempura, RM13. This mix vege tempura was crispy and not oily at all.

And it feels so light when you bite on it. Just the right amount of flour batter sticking on the vege. The tempura colour was yellow golden brown which should be the standard tempura colour.

We ordered 2 plates of Yaki Gyuza, RM 8 per plate (5 pieces). After snapping photos for sometime, the dumpling skin remains crispy. Ok lah maybe not as crispy as when it was served hot.

Not bad and it doesn't have that greeny uncooked like Kuchai smell. Not sure what meat they put in but vege was more than meat. Actually I did prefer it to be slightly more juicy.

Beef Enoki Roll, RM20 is a MUST ORDER. Seriously, I can swallow a bowl of rice with just this plate of beef roll. No extra flavouring (maybe a pinch of salt or dash of shoyu?) and all you could taste is the fresh beef taste with its juice and oil absorbed into the crunchy enoki mushrooms. Good ah! Another thing, the roll was really jam packed with enoki mushrooms. The juice leftover was poured into my rice and even the rice turned fragrant. Haha!

More mushrooms to come because we ordered Nameko Fried Rice RM8. Super nice egg fragrance with a hint of mushroom smell. We savoured every spoon of it.

I chose this fried rice because its the very last picture I saw after flipping the menu and it looks special. In fact, I never tried mushroom fried rice before so order lah!

My Sashimi & Yakiniku Set RM46 arrived. I think the price is pretty reasonable. Considering the generous portions. I forgot to mention that so far they did not skimped on anything and what you see is what you get.

The main character was of course the sashimi and they have my favourite Shiro Maguro! I was shocked when I saw such thick slices. Told you they were generous. Fresh, no fishy smell and thick fish slices served with freshly grated wasabi. Thumbs up :DDD

Speaking of sashimi, all fishes like salmon, tuna, shiro maguro and etc are freshly flown in every Tuesday and Friday. So today is wednesday, thus the sashimi is really fresh. Barely a day in the chiller.

Next is of course the stir fried beef with onion. Its good too but may be salty to some people. Salty sweet, flavourful dish and goes well with rice. As you can see, beef slices was more than the onions. Wahahaha...

The rest that came with the set is soup, chawanmushi, salad and some unagi appetizer. Soup was packed with seaweeds (not the dried nori) and tofu cubes. I find it ok but mom thinks its too salty for her. Salad was good. The sauce consists of mayonaise and some garlic mixture. Not very sour but appetizing due to the unusual salad taste. Chawanmushi was of course cottony soft...warm to my stomach...

This is the unagi appetizer with seaweed and a slice of cucumber. I haven't ate such appetizer before. Salt-ish sweet, quite special.

Because we didn't have enough of the sashimi, we decided to order a plate of sashimi with just tuna, salmon and shiro maguro. Its put under Special Order RM35 We were awed by the presentation of the sashimi. First time we had it presented this way haha! Thick and fresh fish slices served on a bed of ice decorated with some greens...ahh...so class...so Japanese...

This is how thick the salmon and shiro maguro was. Butter tuna fish was so smooth and firm, really made me feel like eating cold butter. If you could see, the salmon slices is different from those we normally see from other Jap restaurant. This should be the real salmon reddish orange, not orange. All these fish (including live oysters and scallops) are air flown direct from Japan weekly.

I heard that oysters are priced at RM30 each and its the size of your palm. Live oysters leh...must try one day...All seafood is ensured fresh because after 3 days they would get rid of them. Oysters won't be alive too long either.

They told me that there will be many more variety of sashimi grade fish flown in this coming Friday (29 Jan 2010).

Macha ice cream was a complimentary dessert for all diners as a way of promotion. Yumz...smooth real green tea flavour with heavier milk taste. ~.~ chill....

By the way, free Macha ice cream promotion is only until end of January. So siapa cepat dia dapat lah...

I thought this whole feast is going to be a bomb until the bill came and stated RM170. What you guys think???

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Another back dated post I know LOL Anyway...I was on the way to somewhere and my cousin bro told the taxi to take PIE. Never passed this expressway before so the ride itself was pretty interesting.

Manage to catch Eye of Singapore. Almost missed the shot because there were several trucks blocking the view. Didn't go for a ride as its really expensive. About SGD100 per person? I would rather ride on the Carlsberg Sky Tower at Sentosa if I really want to see the city from above.

After settling our things at Raffles Place, we visited Chinatown or rather I insisted to go there to have a look hehe...Chinatown was not really that far and so we walked. Soon, we reached People's Court or Hong Lim Complex (right side of below's picture) as the sign stated.

Many hawker stalls and bicycles considering this is the city centre.

Hong Lim Complex is a huge area and this place is filled with dried seafood stores and Chinese medicine halls. We stopped by this store to get China Barley. Not that we couldn't get it from other place but I decided to get it from this store so I can kaypo around the place to see what they have hahaha.

As what I expected, fresh products and the price depends on what you are getting. Although same product but Singapore's is always a level better. At least Grade 2. Needless to say, Grade 1 products will always belong to Hong Kong. More variety too.

I didn't know we can still get durians in October :P I guess durians are also GM-ed (genetically modified).

Speaking of durians, I saw this along the way. The picture stated "Durian Puree with Pomelo Sago" O.o ...Haven't heard about it but I didn't want to get my breath stinky, so didn't try.

From Chinatown, we headed to Orchard Road for dinner at Din Tai Fung in Wisma Atria. I have been yearning to eat there after my first try.

If not because we need to fulfill the vegetable quota, I don't think I would order this. Forgot what vege is it but it was pretty fibrous. Nevertheless, the wok hei was there and not too oily.

Beef Tendon noodles...Every bowl comes with 3 chunks of beef + tendon sticking at the sides. The soup was alright but the beef chunks were a little disappointment because its not like what I had previously, the melt in the mouth kind of thing??? No more :(((( In fact I find the beef a bit tough. My jaws became tired after chewing the meat. It's that tough...

Cousin bro said he is very thirsty after eating the noodles...I think you get the point.

Hehe I have a soft spot for desserts so I rather forgo xiao long bao for desserts. Quite a number of customers ordered this. I had this last time too. There are only 2 flavours available, Mango Pudding and Green Tea Pudding with Red Beans.

Mango pudding was definitely nicer this time with mango cubes in it. I think they didn't use condensed milk anymore. No more the milky intense flavour :(

Green tea pudding flavour has changed to those 'mooncake' green tea flavour :((((( I think they no longer use real macha for this. How sad! I remember when I first tried the pudding, it was a tiny bit bitter because of the macha but original flavour at least. Another thing was the milk wasn't enough for me. The dessert turned out watery-er than I expected.

A time to search for better beef noodles...too bad.

Location: Din Tai Fung, Wisma Atria, Orchard Road.

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Sorry peeps for the lack of updates. Had been busy looking for jobs after I got back from Singapore and now that I'd secured a job, I got even busier with the company's work =.= So much happened within these 2 months and I don't know which to post anymore :P

Anyway, after 2 years (?) I can't afford to give it a miss. It's the only place (so far) where I could get my freshly prepared Tamago.

Of course in big cities, please be early else you would have to stand in line. For how long? That I don't know. Everywhere just seems to be filled with people and they come out of no where. Haha!
The words on the board means "Business in operation". I wonder in Japan, they do this as well hehe.

On my previous visit, I sat in front of the kitchen area where you can see all the action going on. This time we tried the tables. I manage to snap back shot of the lady boss (I think) of the restaurant.

One thing I love about Marutama is the free flow of water and tissue! Wahaha! I don't mind self service for such things LOL

On the table, there was also fried garlic slices. Looking all crispy-licious, I took one and popped into my mouth. Immediately after that, my face just scrunched up as it was SO BITTER. Too bad...else I would enjoy it as a side snack LOL

First arrived was the Dashimaki (Tamago with dashi) SGD 8.00 Not exactly cheap but its really nice to have piping hot tamago with dashi flavour. And not to mention, JUICY. However, I did feel they added more dashi to the eggs last time compare to the ones I had recently.

Since I came with my cousin bro, we ordered Char Siu Gohan (Char Siu Rice) SGD5.00 Unbelievable isn't it??? The egg is more expensive than the bowl of rice packed with pork! The char siu was great. With a bit of burnt like smell and sweetness from the onions together with fresh pork, thumbs up. Pickled vege that comes with it taste good too. Makes you even wanna gobble up the whole bowl.

The main character arrived at last, Aka Ramen SGD15.00 According to the menu, the soup is made of 7 kinds of ground nuts mixture with chicken soup (mild spicy). Well to me its not spicy at all. The noodles came with generous amount of spring onions, some Chinese parsley, 3 Tori Dango (chicken meatballs) and a lemon wedge. Yes we squeeze the lemon into the noodle for extra flavor.

Yumz...Springy ramen with thick soup but still not as flavorful as last time. Or is it because its a new soup base which had been brought to stove not long before we arrived? Could it be the recession that hit Singapore so hard that restaurant operators had to cut cost some how? But regardless how they cut, it still taste good and I can never get such food back in Penang.

Cousin bro and I both agree that Char Siu Gohan kind of over shadowed the noodles LOL

Total damage was SGD32.95 for 2 person. It was pretty filling although we only ordered those three items.

Location: #03-90/91 The Central, Singapore.
Contact: (Tel) 6534 8090 (Fax) 6534 8077

Happy reading~

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This has got to be my most extensive walk in a city so far.

On the way from Novena to City Hall. I don't know why my cousin brother insist getting off at this station. During the ride, I saw an ang moh family beside me. Quite picture perfect isn't it?

Alighted the train at City Hall and walked through a series of malls such as City Link. I wasn't sure where I was until I saw these art displays. It means I am near Esplanade and I didn't even walked under the hot sun for a tiny bit.

While we were heading towards Esplanade Mall, there were several series of art displays along the way. Seriously, I don't get what is this :P

Although an art person, I gotta admit that I don't know what a toilet seat with a plastic apple and pineapple being put together means. Somehow its entertaining to us in a strange way LOL

Another series of display call 'Celebration of Life III' by David Joe Lim.

Metal sheets with patterns created using acrylic paint. Quote: "...Reflect the gleam of colours and energy before a viewer's eye as the dancers move into the rhythm and tempo of music."
Pretty cool. I wonder what music did he referred to when he created this artwork.

Out from the Tunnel, we hang out at Esplanade Mall and continued walking, passing by the 'Durian' Theater of Singapore hahaha!

From Esplanade to Fullerton One. Formula One race just ended about a month before I traveled to the island nation. It must have been quite an experience driving on the streets.

I was blessed with great weather for the first 2 weeks of my stay there. Weird. The sky would get very cloudy but somehow they clear off or there's no rain at all.

Behind Fullerton Hotel is the business district of Singapore or what my cousin bro calls it, "Singapore Wall Street". And he went on mimicking the morning business newscaster XD This is also the place where Flashmob performed (different day)...Haih...sadly I missed it. I didn't even know about it!


After much persuasion, cousin bro was reluctant to agree having dinner at Marutama Ramen until I said the word "my treat" =.=

With a map and good navigational skills, we walked from Raffles Place (Business District) to Clark Quay. I never seen this part of the city before and I never thought these buildings are still standing today. The place in the picture below is Hong Kong Street and by the time we were there, the area was quite deserted. Most of the shops were closed and called it a day. Pretty similar to Campbell Street in Penang except that the buildings are 3 storey high.

Headache from lack of sleep and almost died of thirst @.@ Saw a canned drink vending machine with imaginary hands luring me towards it. SGD 1.40 for a can of 100 Plus! I simply would not give in.

Central Mall at last...but I wasn't even sure if Marutama Ramen is in the mall.

Singapore's ERP gantry...Fortunately, they do not charge people who walk under it LOL

We checked the mall's directory and confirmed it there. About time because we were already half dead and would certainly die if we had to continue searching.

To be continue - Marutama Ramen

Happy reading~

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Don't get me wrong here. I am not promoting Tan Tock Seng Hospital or whatsoever. But the fact that I am so katak di bawah tempurung, I can't skip through this place. LOL

The hospital was really huge and once you are in there, you weren't even sure if you had just stepped into a hospital. NO Dettol smell!

There is Delifrance and Subway too! Eeks >,< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hr3acwTEpOo/SwAWonRCSLI/AAAAAAAADF0/dJ2imaDn4Sw/s1600-h/Inside+Tan+Tock+Seng.jpg">I left with awe. LOL Of course, to come up a building with top notch facilities, a lot of money is needed and I don't think I want to discuss it here :P

That day, me and cousin bro planned to get to Esplanade. So to get there, we need to pass through Novena Medical Center (Novena Square) and head to the MRT. Till my cousin bro complained he was hungry and I did not want to give in when he suggested to have lunch at TTSH Food Court :P

We somehow agree to try QQ Rice despite the outlet looks deserted.

There were a few choices of rice to pick such as purple rice, 5 grain rice, brown rice and so on. They were all kept warm using these wooden buckets. Pretty interesting.

QQ Rice also offers a wide choice of fillings for the rice. These are vegetarian fillings (e.g. mushrooms, vege, beans, seaweed etc)

If you don't like vege and prefer to have your rice packed with meat, there are also an equally wide array of fillings (e.g. seafood tofu, crabstick, bacon, even Ngoh Hiang!)

Many choice but no time to think what fillings to go with. So we quickly pick purple rice to go with mushroom, cheese and turkey bacon...LOL!

The rice ain't cheap though...if not mistaken SGD4.50 or sumthing...

Pizza kind of topping wrapped in rice =.= We didn't eat it immediately after we bought it. As a result, the rice smell of plastic :S Other than that, the taste was fine although a bit tasteless :P

Hot rice wrapped with plastic doesn't seems to be a good idea because plastic smell was strong. We finished it anyway. Kind of defeat the purpose of being a healthy food. They should find an alternate material to wrap the rice or something.

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Geee...Seriously I don't know what to say about wet market. Although I like to hang out in malls particularly air-conditioned ones, wet markets would always come across my mind regardless where I travel to. We can see lots of things there be it "tersurat" or "tersirat" LOL

Types of fresh produce, the quality and pricing says a lot about the locals as well as their lifestyle. Kovan Hougang Wet Market is only one of the MANY wet markets in Singapore.

There are a couple of stalls selling fish but this stall has the widest variety. Really fresh and they have grouper too. I saw a 东星班 at the another stall. Don't know what's the price though...

Halal poultry stall with some frozen beef in the chiller. Because they are kept in the chiller, the chicken seems to be pinkish and fresher too. Halal chickens are smaller compared to the normal ones. Don't know why.

Here comes a stall that caught my attention. The aunty sells 生鱼肉 (fish) and 活田鸡 (paddy frogs).

Super fresh and those frogs were plump too. Reminds me of the man who slaughters frogs back at Taman Connaught Pasar Malam. You wouldn't want to see how they do it.

I never seen such huge 生鱼 before. The aunty would slice them based on how much the customer wants. If not mistaken, half slab of it cost about SGD14.

In Penang, an uncle would normally sit beside a huge blue plastic tub with nets covering it. The small 生鱼 would then be slaughtered upon order.

One of the vegetable stalls in the market. Hardly see people selling asparagus in wet markets. Vegetables here are not bad.

Standard sizes...even the leeks are plump.

And clean too! Don't recall seeing any dirt on the vegetable and bad leaves were removed before they are bundled together. How I know? The uncle was just sitting beside these bunch of vegetables, carefully picking the leaves XD

Beautifully roasted items :DDD

But despite so many items, my aunt went for the other stall instead :S The old couple's stall located just beside the stall in the picture above. The old uncle reminds me of my grandfather LOL Hair style, Pagoda brand shirt and those shorts...just can't miss it ;)

Not as many items, and the char siew is red. However the roast pork was not bad. I was more curious on how the duck would taste like. They don't sell only drumstick, so we took a quarter of it and of course the lower part with the drumstick...hehe

I never thought the duck would be tasty! LOL The skin wasn't crispy but smells good. Must be the maltose syrup (麥芽糖 ) the uncle added when marinating the duck. The maltose syrup also contributed to the roast duck's colour :D Duck meat wasn't dried out. Still soft and juicy. Things got even better when the duck sauce was poured over it. It was great! Not too salty or watery. It doesn't have the strong bean paste smell with a tiny hint of wine. Probably the bean paste brand they get in Singapore are the better ones and also it all boils down to the uncle's/aunty's skills.

Hong Kong style roast duck? Should be. This is only an ordinary stall in a wet market. Those famous ones must be even better.

One thing is for sure...Never judge the outlook of a stall :P I almost finished the duck in one sitting LOL leaving only bones (with a bit of meat attached) for my poor cousin brother...wahahaha!

Happy reading~

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