Sunday, October 18, 2009
Food Blog: Ion Greatness
Previously, I have mentioned that Ion's basement is a food heaven. They serve yummy Japanese food and munchers. This time round, I had bought my trusty LX2 out with me, so I managed to snap pictures before the food was sent down to my tummy fast and furiously!
Ramen first. It was my second time there, so had a change of taste. The noodles was al dente, soup was fabulous, just that the charsiew and tamago needs some improvements. The charsiews aint that amazing yet, the standards kinda flucuats; soft on some, hard on the others.
Simple menu
Green tea with lotsa powder residue at the bottom of the cup
Hokkaido Kaiko Ramen
Notice the ramen was served with xiaobaicai rather than cabbages, or bamboo shoots like the other ramens I've eaten before. So it was kinda eye-opening. I think for a bowl of good ramen, the soup base and the noodles are the most important ingredients. heh
Their soup base comes in white miso (original) or red miso (chilli) or soy sauce (shoyu). Tried the spicy ramen twice with white miso and red miso. Just that the red miso tasted extremely hot with the spicy soup base. It was a challenge to finish it yet it tasted so god-like =P
Next on, takoyaki. heh. Long and snaky queues can always be seen. The balls are good, crispy on the inside, fillings are filled to the maximum in the inside. Sinfully good~ hahah
There're a few more yummylicious food which I've tried there. Show it to you guys again when I took photos of it =P
Labels: Food - Japanese, Ion, Ramen, Takoyaki
11:04 PM
Monday, August 24, 2009
ahhh..
It had been a long while. During this hiatus, I have been..
Resting,
Not working hard to look for a job,
Still finding cool places for food,
Celebrated hamburger, matchstick and pebbles' bdae
Exercising
Manage to get a glimpse of Stephen Fung at the Cartier opening at Ion
A getaway (HK & Macau) from this busy red dot (not the life I wanna live),
Shopping - I won a Uniqlo voucher. heh. Checkered ftw!!! hurhur.
Had many falls from blading; injured myself from an accident on a bicycle -_-
Meet up with people/ gatherings
Found a job and still uncertain and unsettled.
Besides these, let me share some food places. hahah. Ion basement is godlike. It's a heaven for food or munchers like me, especially those outside the Food Opera. Those fingerfood kind. heh
1) Takoyaki balls
2) Japanese Pancake - Expensive but worth for everything inside especially the banana chocolate!!!!! Unbelievable good, crispy and melt in your mouth (the banana is melted btw)! Gotta try the italian and the british ones someday when I'm super hungry. The fillings are STUFFED!
3) Swissroll cake but super expensive. Try the caremel ones!
4) Rameeeeeeeeeen! Eat ramen at this stall beside R burger, it's godlike! The spicy ones ROCKS! However, the tamago needs improvement. Too boiled already. heh. The restaurant's ramen (which is one level up with snaky queues), PLEASE DUN try it at all, the portion is pathetic and the ramen taste funny.
5) R burger. Healthy and creative burger. The burger with marine collagen, taste like a bun with chicken fillet, beef patty, salmon stuffed in between. Is like Chinese's kong ba bao??? hahah.. Just that not so fattening. And the queue very long and service quite slow. hahah
hehe. I will be making recurring trips back to ION for more food and Uniqlo??? hahah. I haven gotta see the FALL collection and it has all been SOLD OUT!!!!!! WTTTTTT!!
Uniqlo has been treating me quite well. hahaha.. SO LET ME WIN A TRIP TO JAAAAAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Labels: Food - Japanese, Ion, Random
12:10 AM
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Food blog: Yoshimaru Ramen Bar
I was pretty excited when I heard another ramen shop from Japan had set up an outlet here in Singapore, Holland Village, especially since they specialised in tonkotsu. We din purposedly went down to try but was there to get breads from Provence and saw that, so must as well gave it a try.
Apparently, Yoshimaru originates from Hakata, Kyushu, and Hakata Ramen is a distinctive ultra thin ramen served in a rich tonkotsu (pork bones) broth. Their menu is not as extensive as some of the bigger Ramen chains but focused, so it is easy to decide what to go for. A full array of condiments was at one's disposal. They served mini burgers too.
We had an order of Traditional Hakata Ramen, Shabu Shabu Pork Ramen and gyoza.
When the shabu shabu pork ramen was served, we got a tad disappointed as it doesnt look ramen-ish, more of chinese noodles. On having a mouthful of the broth, it tasted very pepperish and something like pig's stomach soup, totally off from what I had before :(
Furthermore, the noodles isnt al dente even though it's thin. I think the standard is around Aijisen's, on par or below. For their info, shabu shabu pork ought to be thinly sliced that could easily tear by the teeth. The pork slices here were terribly sliced in portions and were lumped together, which was so hard to consume and worst of all, it had the horrible pork smell. YIKES!
Shabu Shabu Pork Ramen ($13)
We made a complaint by showing the above picture to the waitress and the chef saw it too. Next was my Traditional Hakata Ramen. The broth was thick and incredibly rich on the first mouth. Subsequently, it seemed to alright but definitely not the best. However, the 2 slices of char siew was miserably small and it didnt melt in my mouth. It was quite hard and there's a smell. Total NIGHTMARE!
Traditional Hakata Ramen ($11)
On a lighter note, the most commendable one was the egg. It was perfectly done with its glorious still-runny yolk!! Moreover, it tasted flavoursome with the light sauce entangled in it. If eaten alone, it will be quite salty.
For the gyoza, it was surprisingly limp! Not crispy, not juicy and small in size!!
Thus, this ramen bar ishighly not recommended. Firstly, I dunno if they are authentic, with all the ATs cooking and serving. Secondly, they dun have the atmosphere even though they have the counter seats and keep on blasting Ayumi's concert dvd -_- Lastly and most importantly, they serve horrible ramen. This is the worst ramen I've eaten so far. I think Aijisen though quite bad still taste better?
Whoever (A number) commented on the forum, saying that this ramen restaurant is quite good ought to be shot. tsssssk. Or probably, together with my partner, we have higher expectations. heh
All photos taken with my dying K800i, it's a phone, not camera because my beloved camera is lying somewhere in Admiratly for almost two weeks! heh
Sidetrack:
Manu damn lousy nowadays. Cant really score, cant defend for nuts. Watching them playing is like having my heart in my mouth. Idk what happened to them ever since the trashing by the Reds. Anyway, Macheda seems to be a lucky substitute. Hope they will keep the lead and also win Porto this coming weekday UCL match
Sidetrack again. hmm. These 2 weeks was peacefully GREAT! Yet time waits for no man, good times ended especially fast. Gotta get back to reality and do what I'm supposed to do. Then again, I still can indulge in this wonderful addiction. hahah. Me ish greedy! lol
Labels: Food - Japanese, Holland V, Provence, Ramen
2:05 AM
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Good to be a lady in this aspect! hahah.
Please dun ask any guy friend out if you're heading to Waraku on Monday night =P
Labels: Discounts, Food - Japanese, Ladies Night, Waraku
12:11 AM
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Food & Photo Blog: The Cathay - Nihon Mura and BnJ
Met up with part of the Juzoners for dinner at The Cathay. I was pondering on the location as to why in the world would they want to meet there, when there's not much food choices. We decided on Nihon Mura, a Japanese restaurant, nonetheless.
Anyway, I was the last one to reach but not late loh as the organiser (Gen) mentioned to reach around five plus which was so vague. I assumed if I reached at 1745hr was reasonable right. lol.
The place was dimly lighted, yet simple and nice. It felt like I was dining in a densely 'bambooed' eatery. Actually, I love the wood finishings. It makes the restaurant looks like a village.
The waitress then directed us to our table and summarised on how they work - The sushis on the conveyor belt are all for $0.99 and the rest are ala carte which we've gotta pick up ice-cream sticks and placed in on a small black container. Afterthat, hand it over to the cashier and food will be served promptly.
I think if you stick to the sushi, it's pretty much a good deal and they offer quite a wide variety. Sushis were decent. Nothing of the extraordinary. But when you're hungry, you eat almost everything. The hind sight was that the rice fell off quite easily.
By ordering the other dishes through ice-cream sticks is a cool idea. Just that, you dun feel the pinch till you see the bill. Crafty marketing eh. The concept here is like Marche and Shokudo where they dun make you pay upfront and you can order as much as you like. I feel that the food here is slighty better than Shokudo's even though Shokudo presents a more diversified variety. I'm still upset bout the 10% service charge when majority of the work is done by us =(
The drinks here are charged and no free refills. I guess that's because of the 99CENTS sushis. However, if you're a fan of sashimi, this place is probably worth the money. It's damn shiok!
Then, it was some photography time to let our tummies to grasp for air before they started to scream for help =/ But I think I'm only three quarter full? =P
After dinner, we headed upstairs for more food. heh
-End
I think most of the time I'm like totally in a world of my own. Met HY afterthat, talked pretty much and with her updating me juicy news was quite entertaining. We seldom have this chance to sit together and talked for that long when furthermore, it's so near my place. hahah. Oh well, thanks for ditching your friends =P
Btw, I happened to read Wormy's blog and this got me thinking.
Do people realise when they slowly drift and float away?
Do they realise or do they choose to believe otherwise?
Or maybe, they werent even close in the first place?
Labels: BnJ, Food - Japanese, Food for Though, JuZone, Nihon Mura, The Cathay
11:42 PM
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Food & Photo Blog: Yongjia's 21st?
On why the question mark, I dunno whether it's his 21st or 22nd birthday as he told the two of us different stories. I thought only girls are more wary of revealing their ages. Guys! tsk. Btw, Waraku Dining at the Starhub Centre has shifted to The Heerens, at level 5, which is also known as Attitude Dining, where there's numerous restaurants.
Because I was very hunger while waiting for him, the friend and I had a consensus to order starters. He reached promptly when the food was served.
Hotate Butter
Love the Japanese shroooms! Very fresh, very al dente and very well-seasoned. Sadly, the portion of the shrooms werent enough for me. As for the scallops, it was buttery and no doubt, sinful.
Beef Kaminabe
This was the healthier choice as compared to the other two mains ordered. However, the complaints were that it was not really filling and it's average and steam rice doesnt come with the paperpot. You gotta order a bowl of rice sepeartely. Not a star order.
Katsu Curry
Chicken Terriyaki Curry
Since Waraku's currently having a Japanese Curry Fair which has MANGO flavour, we decided to order that. Yet, disappointingly, the curry was kinda spicy from the normal Japanese ones and no tweeny bits of mango could be tasted. And apparently, the katsu looked more appealing and in fact, tasted more yummylicious than the terriyaki chicken, whose meat was kinda tough. Not recommended. Try their other curry specialities from the menu.
We met up initially as it was quite awhile since we had met up. Upon knowing his grand birthday is around the corner, we decided to surprise him with a cake. Though I couldnt see his shellshocked expression, I think he's very embarassed when we brought the cake out and lighted a candle on it.
We had a stroll to Plaza Singapura for movies. We caught Connected, a chinese film directed by Benny Chan - 'A single father receives a sudden distress call from a stranger. She claims that she and her young daughter are kidnapped by brutal gangsters and begs him to save them. Caught in a difficult situation on whether to rescue this unknown person, his instincts tell him that he may just be the only thing standing between them and a painful death so he decides to help'
This show has a very tight story-line, action packed and thriling at the start which kinda made me jump out of the seat =/ Storyline and progress was not that bad. There's always hope and good people around us and humours added at the right place to ease the suspense. Recommended.
- End
Happy Children's Day too to those who are still young at hearts!
To my Malay friends, Happy Hari Raya Puasa!
And to all, happy public holidays!
Lastly, happy 21st, my Shanghai friend, Toh Pyu!!!!
I like my dimples. lol
Labels: Birthday - Friends, Food - Japanese, Girlfriends, Movies, The Heerens, Waraku
1:08 AM
