Posts Tagged ‘japanese food’
Shimbashi Soba
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Mao Mao and I met for dinner at Raffles City. I was late and found Mao Mao walking around Robinsons. When she saw me, she blamed me for being a bad influence and caused her to buy some clothes while waiting for me. What the?!
We went to Shimbashi Soba at the basement of Raffles City. I had eaten at original shop at Paragon when it first opened. But that was some years ago and I have not eaten at this restaurant for some time. I didn’t know there was a branch in Raffles City.
Soba cha ($4.50 a pot)
We had 2 pots of soba cha, tea from soba grain. Mao Mao liked the tea and said that it had a smoky flavor. When compared to the roasted barley tea, the soba cha is more smoky while the roasted barley tea smelled like coffee. Unlike the roasted barley tea, the soba cha is best when hot.
Tags: desserts, drinks, japanese food
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Sushi and tea
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
My mother is not cooking dinner today so I bought some food on the way home. I went to Gong Cha and bought 奶盖绿茶 for $2.40. I felt the green tea taste was quite mild and not as strong as red tea so the tea taste ended up getting overpowered by the milk.
Tags: drinks, japanese food
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A walk in Orchard Road
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Mao Mao and I met Keropi at Orchard for lunch. We also showed her some of the shopping malls that opened while she was overseas.
We went to Ion and had lunch at Aoba Ramen. We had the lunch set which was a main course (ramen) and extra $0.90 to add on a side dish. We ordered different ramen and different side dish. Keropi and I found the soup salty and somewhat oily. When we told Mao Mao, she said, “If you find this salty, then you should try the one at Gallery Hotel.”
Shoyu Negi Ramen ($11.80)
There doesn’t seem to be any porkless ramen in the restaurant so Mao Mao ordered the shoyu negi ramen and gave Keropi and I all the pork.
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Tags: desserts, japanese food
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Milk tea and sushi
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
I saw a tea stall at B2 of City Square Mall. It was called Gong Cha. It was a brand from Taiwan but I’ve not heard of it before. I decided to give it a try.
I bought the signature drink called 奶盖红茶 which cost $2.40. It’s also available in green tea and oolong tea flavours. You can also choose your level of sweetness, from 100% (normal) to 0%. Above is what the tea looks like, capped with a layer of thick, frothy milk that tasted a bit like carnation milk but looks much whiter.
Tags: drinks, japanese food
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Tonkichi
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
A group of us went to the Tonkichi branch at Suntec City for dinner. Sayang said there was a black pig promotion and we wanted to try it.
I had the kurobuta minced katsu curry set which cost $20. There were 2 meatballs and a prawn in the set. The meatballs were surprisingly soft and moist. I have expected something more firm, like those meatballs you find in beef noodles. So I was glad that the minced meat were not packed so tightly together that the meatball became hard.
Tonkichi
3 Temasek Boulevard
#B1-009 Suntec City Mall
Tel: 63394231
Tags: japanese food
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Tampopo
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Bell loves the black pig katsudon sold at Tampopo Deli at the basement of Liang Court, but she has never eaten at the restaurant. So I suggested to try the restaurant one day since it’s just located on the ground floor of Liang Court.
Today is the day and we went to Tampopo Restaurant for an early dinner. The restaurant was still fairly empty as it was not really dinnertime yet. We were shown to a small booth. It was a strange size; spacious for two people but quite a squeeze for four people. I know because I sat in the same booth previously with three other people.
We chose a black pig dish each.
I wanted a tonkatsu set. There were various options listed in the menu serving different cuts of meat. While the different cuts were listed, there was no explanation in the menu about the differences between the cuts. So I asked a waitress about the difference between shoulder and loin. The waitress flipped through the menu and showed me a diagram of the cuts and said, “The shoulder meat is from from the shoulder while the loin is from the back.” I kept a straight face and thanked her for her trouble.
I actually wanted to ask about the differences between the taste and texture of the different cuts but after the waitress’ explanation, I refrained from asking anymore and just picked the loin cut. The waitress was not being rude actually tried her best to be helpful. But she clearly had no idea about the dishes in the restaurant and it was useless to ask her for recommendations on the dishes. I wondered if it was just her or were other staff like that also. Bell and I didn’t have a chance to find out.
The food was quite nice. The meat was tender and the breadcrumbs crispy.
Bell had a grilled pork set, also using meat from the black pig. It was not bad but not as nice as the tonkatsu.
After the meal, Bell had a very severe backache. It was because the table in the booth was a strange height. It was too low and caused Bell to keep leaning downwards as she eat. I experienced the same problem the previous time I ate there. This time I held my bowl of rice in my left hand so I did not get a backache.
As we left the restaurant, we decided not to go back again. The food was good but the dining experience spoil everything. We thought sitting at the tables might be better because they would be of proper height but neither of us are keen to try again. We decided to just buy the food from Tampopo Deli instead.
Tampopo Restaurant
177 River Valley Road
#01-23/24 Liang Court Shopping Centre
Tel: 63383186
Tags: japanese food
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AquaMarine
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Mao Mao, Pooh Bear, Spider and I took half-day leave and met One Red for buffet lunch at AquaMarine inside Marina Mandarin Hotel. Spider had eaten at Aquamarine before and she immediately led us to the sashimi counter. Each of us took a plate of salmon sashimi and went back to our table and gobbled them down. Then we went back for seconds and maybe thirds. Then we started on the cooked food. All of us had a bowl of the creamy mushroom soup which was thick and good. There was also quite a variety of salad, cooked food and desserts.
We had a lot of fun trying out all the different dishes. Some dishes were quite good while others were ordinary. The cold cuts section had 3 types of mustard and Pooh Bear and I took a bit of each to try. We concluded that the mustard we liked best was the innermost bottle but we forgot the name, so clever. Mao Mao enjoyed the caesar salad and took two helpings of that. She also found the raw oysters so tasty that she ate 3 of them even though she was allergic to shellfish. We all joked that she will be full of energy tonight. Pooh Bear liked the teriyaki chicken which was tender and juicy. I liked the beef stew for the tomatoy soup and the soft meat.
We enjoyed the desserts very much, especially the chocolate mousse cake, the bread and butter pudding and the mua chee. The chocolate mousse cake was very chocolatey and and soft because it was 90% mousse and 10% cake. The bread and butter was nice and warm and I poured a lot of the vanilla cream sauce on it. Yummy! We had some fun making the mua chee, snipping away and mixing it in the peanuts at the same time. However Aquamarine failed in the ice-cream section. Ice-cream was either sweet corn, yam or the potong ice-cream sticks. Not very appetizing. There was none of the all-time favourites, vanilla or chocolate ice-cream.
We ate until 3pm and had a good time. There was a 1-for-1 promotion for UOB card so in the end we paid $30 each.
AquaMarine
6 Raffles Boulevard
4F Marina Mandarin
Tel: 68451111
Tags: buffet, chinese food, desserts, japanese food, western food
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Suddenly a birthday lunch
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Suddenly at 11 am, Tong Xiang informed us that Sayang would be free for lunch and asked if we want to hold her lunch celebration today instead of tomorrow. It was hard to round up everyone because people were away for meetings and stuff so we do not know if everyone could make it. We waited as long as we can and then hurriedly made plans to go off in two cars to Sakuraya, a place where both drivers knew how to get there. Stompie will drive Tong Xiang and Sayang while the rest of us secretly went off in Si Hamil’s car.
So Blackhole, Pandi, Spider, Si Hamil and I went off earlier so that we could get a table at Sakuraya. It was Pandi’s first time at the restaurant. He does not like sashimi and we assured him that there were cooked food available. Then the birthday girl group appeared and we all did the super fake “You’re here too? What a coincidence! Oh look! We have 3 empty seats at our table, just right for the three of you!”. Of course Sayang did not buy anything of that and looked at us suspiciously.
We ordered some appetizers like scallop wings and octopus in vinegar. We also had curry croquettes and California maki, and of course no meal at Sakuraya would be complete without sashimi. For the sashimi, we chose salmon, salmon belly, swordfish and yellow tail. I was tempted by the ootoro which looked just like marbled beef but it was also very expensive and I restrained myself.
During lunch, Blackhole mentioned Fine Cuts. She talked about it twice; once in the middle of the meal and at the end of the meal. Each time, she would remind me to call her along if I am going back again. She must really liked it. Blackhole also said that this time she would eat all the US Kobe chuck roll by herself.
Sakuraya
3 South Buona Vista Road
#02-01/02 The Village Centre
Tel: 67736973
Photos of the food after the jump
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Tags: japanese food
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