Japanese at Tanjong Pagar

Couple of months ago we found ourselves in the vicinity of Tanjong Pagar during lunch time. 

Not being sure where else we could go- besides the famous hawker center on the second floor of Tanjong Pagar Plaza- we decided to drop in to some of the cafes at 100AM shopping mall. 

This mall is not new. 

It's been there about, I don't know, at least a decade more or less. 

But it's popular on weekends, I've heard. 

Especially the family crowds who have (surprisingly) started to descend upon this neighborhood Saturdays and Sundays. 

Maybe the presence of Wallich Tower and its offerings make a difference.

Or maybe because 100AM now has a most interesting retail combination of Daiso, Don Don Donki, Fairprice and MUJI.

Along with these retail offerings come the bakeries, restaurants and cafes too. 

I like Pullman Bakery.

And as I found out this particular afternoon, I take a liking to reasonably-priced, good Japanese food too. 

I don't know the name of the restaurant, but it was on the second floor, it formed part of a group of restaurants, and had really lovely wooden decor. 

The tables and chairs were of this warm honey hue, and little drapes of dark blue hung from the doorway separating the kitchen and the dining area.

There weren't many patrons when we got there- it was near closing time for the morning shift- making us, I think, one of the last few ones turning up for a quick, delicious lunch. 

The staff, however, didn't seem harried, and gave us plenty of time to look through the menu and select our meal.

There were options- lots of them- but we decided on a set lunch meal, and a bowl of agedashi tofu. 

The food didn't take very long to come, and I soon found myself feeling delighted by the tofu. 

Particularly since the diet has restricted this tofu for some time. 

I don't quite remember the name of the set lunch, unfortunately, but there was rice, there was salmon sashimi, there was tempura, appetizer, soup, and fruit. 

The rice was warm and fluffy, the salmon was cold, firm and fresh, and the tempura was done to the right texture, and taste. 

What surprised me was the faint saltiness of the tempura batter.

Many places I've been to don't flavor the batter- they simply coat the vegetable with it and throw it into the deep fry. 

Here the batter had its own taste, yet didn't overwhelm the natural sweetness of the pumpkin the brinjal, the ebi prawn and the okra. 

I have a particular thing for tempura. 

It's a great way to eat one's vegetables, especially when you've got vegetables like okra, which, when steamed or even fried, can feel somewhat slimy, green, and sappy. 

But pair the same piece of sappy okra with a mouthful of salty and crunchy tempura batter and it makes for a completely new experience altogether.

I find it interesting that batter in Japanese cuisine can be presented in many different ways. 

We don't usually think of it, but the fried part around the cube of agedashi tofu is in fact also a piece of batter, and if one likes, one can peel it off to eat it separately. 

I don't. 

I like it best with the soft, wobbly, clean-tasting tofu inside, and (unless it falls off) I won't have it otherwise. 

Sometimes I throw decorum to the wind and have the entire cube of tofu in one single bite. :) 

I can't remember whether I did that here.

But I know I mixed up the order of dining etiquette, having a piece of pickled radish with a spoonful of rice, having a slice of orange before deciding to go for another spoonful of rice, and eating my vegetable tempuras without dipping it into the sauce. 

At another place, with other people I would not do the same thing.

But here I didn't care.

I was with familiar company anyway. 

Dinner (Offer) at Marche

Couple months ago a friend texted me in the middle of the afternoon asking if I could do an early dinner instead of the usual hour. 

Why, I was curious to know.

The answer, when it came back, was swift and sure. 

Someone happened to have a (very strong) craving for steak... and Marche was having an offer. 

I'm someone who doesn't pass up on a good deal if I can, especially when it's something like 30%, 50% between the hours of 4 and 6, so, okay, we went. 

I'd assumed that Marche Suntec City on a working weekday afternoon would be quiet, but no, it wasn't. 

There were groups of people inside the restaurant by the time we arrived at 430, there was a queue in front of us at the waiting line, and all in all, it took us nearly fifteen minutes of waiting before we got in.

My very hungry friend decided to waste no time searching for a table, so very quickly we got a four-seater close to the children's playground, and off it was to the steak station at once whilst I sat there guarding our bags and contemplating the choices I could have.

Anyone who's ever been to Marche knows the variety of meals that they offer. 

They're not always healthy, as in healthy per se, but there's always something for someone, child or adult, old or young. 

Doesn't matter how hungry you are, doesn't matter whether all you want is a cup of coffee or a pastry or a dessert.

Doesn't even matter whether you're vegan, vegetarian, keto, paleo or none of the above at all. 

There're plenty of choices at their stations, and to me, the most difficult part is trying to decide what it is you want to have, and whether or not you should have it now. 

I tend to be careful about my choices when I want to have them. 

So, even though I could possibly go for, say, the pan-fried salmon, the steak, the huge chonk of a pork knuckle, the Spanish-style paella or the roasted vegetables, today's dinner was between either the savory crepe, and the pasta. 

I wanted the crepe. 

Marche does theirs well- you can be assured that you'll get lots of ingredients and vegetables wrapped inside a nice, floury, crispy pancake- but my appetite was such that I wouldn't be able to finish one whole crepe on my own today, and I knew my friend wasn't wanting to share. 

That left me with just the pasta.

And a great choice it turned out to be.

After all, it's not every day I get to have spaghetti and there are very few (affordable) places- besides Marche- where I can be sure the cream of the carbonara will be fresh enough that it won't sit heavy in me, or, worse still, give me a stomachache. 

So I ordered a spaghetti carbonara, with cheese, ham and egg. 

There's no picture, however. 

The light over my side of the table didn't do my oodles of noodles enough justice- and try as I might- no amount of editing could show my creamy, satisfying plate of spaghetti to its best and its finest.

That wasn't the case for my friend's steak. 

His picture turned out beautifully, showing off the chonk of its weight, the pale red of the medium-rare meat, the glisten of the fat at its side, and its slightly burnt edge. 

I got a bit of the cow fat. 

I got a third of the sausage from our shared rosti plate as well. 

And even though you might think it strange that I only got a third of the sausage when I could have more, well, I wasn't feeling that disciplined, there were lovely pieces of ham on my own plate already, and honestly, what I really wanted from the rosti here was that huge dollop of sour cream. 

Good Combo Hotpot & BBQ

I love hotpots.

They really appeal to me.

But you know what's better than a hotpot?

A hotpot with a grill that's individualized and personalized just for you.

Now, I don't mean a grill or hotpot in your favorite color or your favorite character, but a hotpot and grill where you can put whatever food you want on it and in it, and you don't have to share. 

It's great- I love it. 

Because this means that I can cook whatever I want, and better yet, I have an option when going out to dine with friends of varying diets. 

It used to take quite a bit of coordination when having hotpot with people of different dietary needs.

There were family members who were vegetarian and wouldn't touch a meat-tainted soup with a ten foot pole. 

There were colleagues who were kosher and so couldn't have shellfish or pork in their soups. 

Never mind that- one could have four different kinds of soups in four different pots. 

But you couldn't do that with the central grill. 

No matter how you divided it up with vegetables or cobs of corn, something somehow always crossed the border and made everything awkward. 

Thank God for these trending grills and hotpots now, then. 

Because now everyone can have their own grill, and no one need concern themselves whether or not the mushrooms have touched the oil from the grilled beef, or whether the chicken has been spoilt by the long feelers of the prawn which somehow touched it. 

My soup today at this hotpot/grill place was fish. 

I chose it because it was unusual- different from most places that offer you collagen, pork bone broth, mala, tomato, tom yum or herbal chicken. 

Not to say that this place didn't have those- I think they had all of them- but the fish intrigued me, and I wanted a taste of how it was like.

The soup came served with a couple slices of white fish that I happily dropped into the pot and let them cook whilst I waited for the other ingredients to arrive.

I didn't take a picture. 

I didn't take pictures of the other foods either.

But I know we ordered a lot.

For meats there were slices of pork belly both marinated and unmarinated. There were also slices of beef which we ordered both marinated and unmarinated as well.

If I'm not wrong, we had a few orders of lamb.

And then there were the usual hotpot stuff of cheese tofu, luncheon meat, cuttlefish balls and cheese-stuffed fish balls. 

I liked those.

The fish balls weren't super great, but i liked how the cheese melted as the balls boiled, and out came a thick, bright orange river of flowing liquid that ran over your tongue as you took the first bite. 

Best of all was how everything was prettily rolled up, neatly arranged.

I tend to be particular how my hotpot ingredients are arranged when they come served to the table.  

Between the marinated meats and the unmarinated ones, I preferred the latter. 

They cooked easily, they were less sweet, and I could toss them into the pot before dipping them into raw egg shabu shabu style. 

It wasn't just the raw egg that I loved dipping the meat in.

I had a specially customized dipping sauce as well. 

Different people have different tastes, and mine usually is sesame sauce with garlic and parsley.

And I don't make just a little bit.

I make the whole sauce bowl.

One thing about this place (just beside the Pagoda Street exit of Chinatown MRT) was the variety of food they offered.

There was much more on the menu which I didn't get to choose from.

But we did get a couple orders of fish.

And we made several orders of oysters. 

I had thought we'd grill them but somewhere along the way my friend decided to try a hand at making orh luak over the grill, and shall I say that it turned out pretty well? 

No greasy aftertaste, no oil on the palate whatsoever, just a well beaten egg, a handful of juicy hum, and some duck fat which we'd quietly sneaked in. 

Of course, I was not going to have a hotpot without having my usual serving of vegetables. 

I have my favorites.

And today I took lettuce, mushrooms three kinds, more green leafy vegetables, and sweet corn. 

People may find it curious- like why do you like vegetables in soup so much, don't they become soggy and mushy (gasp) too disgusting to eat? 

But (surprisingly) I like them this way, and I've come to like eating them this way for a while. 

Peking Duck Chinatown Point Style

So I have a friend who sometimes has a craving for Peking Duck.

This is a friend whom when the craving strikes, it really strikes, and it will not be assuaged until it is fulfilled. 

At the same time, this friend is kinda particular about the place- and price- where said Peking Duck is to be found, so we've not gone to many places except for maybe just two. 

We used to go to Asia Grand when they were still at Bras Basah. 

But we haven't been back since they moved to Raffles City. 

Instead we've been going to this (new) place at Chinatown Point on occasion, now and then. 

It always surprises me whenever we turn up at this place in Chinatown Point. 

Because even though we've been there a couple of times, I can never remember the name of the restaurant, nor can I remember on which floor the restaurant is. 

I always tend to go to the wrong floor. 

But mistake not, the Peking Duck here is good. 

I don't have a lot of other Peking Ducks to compare with, but this one I know is crispy, juicy and has a bit of the burnt burnt taste distinctive in every roasted meat. 

There is, of course, the bit of fat hidden underneath the crisp, crunchy skin, and it makes each bite feel so much fuller when the oil of the delicious fat bursts onto your tongue right after you've begun chewing it. 

The joy of Peking Duck lies solely in the skin, and we had all of that this particular afternoon. 

Some places roll the skin together with the vegetables into the crepe for you. 

Here you do it yourself. 

Not that we minded- it makes little difference, save for the fact that we're completely unskilled in all this rolling and so more often than not, the skin tends to come loose from the crepe upon the very first bite. 

The first few pieces don't look so bad.

They look nice and neat with the crepe all carefully (and casually) rolled up around the skin.

The appearance however gets looser and looser as we gradually work through the plate.

Sometimes the crepe unrolls itself and the duck skin falls out.

Sometimes the skin drops out from the loosely-rolled crepe on its own.

By the end of it, we give up entirely and just eat all the parts separately. 

My friend likes to leave out the leeks and/or the cucumber. (They get left aside)

I don't.

Whether they be rolled into the crepe or eaten separately on their own, i them all, dipping each piece with my chopsticks into the sweet plum sauce that I too always have, and never leave out. 

Chin Chin's Sliced Fish Soup

There's one dish my dining companion always goes for whenever he comes for a meal at Chin Chin Eating House near the junction of Purvis Street and Beach Road.

You might think he'd order from the many selections of zichar dishes served up here in the eating house. 

Or the Hainanese chicken rice that Chin Chin is (also known for).

But no, it's always the Hainanese Pork Chop with the chicken-rice style of rice. 

And it's always the same. 

I don't mind. 

I get to share the potatoes that come with the pork chop, and I love dipping whatever I've ordered into the bowl of tomato sauce anyway.

My choice of meal here at Chin Chin is a little more varied. 

Sometimes I like to go for the dry beef hor fun. 

Other times I like to go for the sam lor hor fun. 

There have been times when I've ordered a plate of fried mee sua, which I fell in love with the very first time I tried. 

It's not just the zichar noodle and rice dishes that I go for.

In recent days I've found myself increasingly drawn to their soups and their soupy dishes too. 

Like this mee sua soup that I ordered not too long ago, and which, I'm glad to say, turned out to be a great choice where I got one gigantic serving of mee sua noodles swimming about in a deliciously warm, comforting broth with pieces of meat (chicken or pork) and green leafy vegetables floating happily about inside.

Same, I'm pretty sure, can be said for their other soups as well, even though I've been quite faithful to my regular favorites and have yet to try their fish maw soup, their salted vegetable soup, and their seafood soup. 

It's never an easy choice to make. 

Particularly since the fish maw soup sounds interesting, I don't mind having a prawn or two from the seafood soup, and who doesn't mind slurping up salted vegetables that are great in stimulating the palate?

It's perhaps for this reason that I've found myself gravitating to their sliced fish soup more and more in recent days.

Do I regret it?

Absolutely not. 

They've got five to six slices of thick very, very fresh fish in the bowl. 

They've got a heap of chopped lettuces and cabbages which I love to swirl around with my chopsticks.

And unexpectedly they've thrown in a a variety of prettily sliced carrots, wedges of tomatoes, and other vegetables along with thick chonks of ginger inside. 

I like to have my lettuces last. 

I like to dunk my fish into the tomato sauce. 

And I like to have my sliced fish soup with a spoonful or two of chicken-rice style chicken rice.

It's comforting, it's incredibly light on the stomach and I don't have to worry about my level of appetite, or if there be none. 

Bowls of Rice at Smith Street

My first visit to Kakurega (The Lair) at Smith Street was some time late last year.

Back then we were given a table close to the kitchen with the decor of a large Japanese paper fan on the wall next to our table.

This time we were brought upstairs where we were seated next to another smaller staircase that led to the upper floor. 

In front of our table this time were two more tables, alongside wall shelves holding huge bottles of sake, and what I think is whisky. 

Maybe I should have gone to take a closer look.

But we were busy looking at the menu, my friend and I, trying to decide what we ought to have for our dinner tonight. 

It wasn't an easy decision, all things considered, because we were on a very good deal, and my very practical friend was intending to make the most out of it.

Like ought we to have three plates of freshly shucked oysters and three plates of oysters with cheese? 

Or should we go for four plates of fresh, and two of cheese... 

There was no limit to the number of plates we could order. 

There was also no limit to the type of oysters we could order.

If we wanted we could have five plates of oysters baked with cheese.

Or, if we preferred, we could have seven plates of freshly shucked oysters.

It was entirely up to us. 

So we considered carefully, and in the end, decided on five (or was it six) plates of the fresh ones, and one of the cheese. 

I liked the cheese.

My friend preferred the raw ones better.

But I didn't feel compromised.

Because there were the rice bowls.

And boy, were they good!

There was only one caveat- you had to finish all the rice in your bowl before they let you order another. 

Wise move on the part of The Lair, I agree- nobody wants wasted food, especially good Japanese pearl rice. 

But there were a couple of bowls on the menu that I wanted to try- and if it were required for me to finish the rice, well, I wouldn't be able to try them all. 

So out came the unconventional, auntyish, and not quite encouraged method. 

What it was, I shan't blah- but let's just say that not one grain of our six rice bowls went to waste. 

We just might not have eaten all six bowls of rice there and then.

Perhaps you might think that we shouldn't have done this. 

But they had such great variety... and it was all so good. 

We took quite a variety, both of us. 

There was the Avocado and Salmon bowl.

There was the Salmon and Mentaiko bowl. 

Then there was one with Chicken Karaage. 

I wanted to have the avocado one (because avocado slices and rice sound interesting)

I also wanted the salmon one (because it had Mentaiko and I like Mentaiko)

The Chicken Karaage was optional- at first we thought we might order only one bowl- but then when the bowl came, we saw that the pieces were fried so well we decided to have another. 

All this would have been enough for a sufficient meal, but then I saw on the menu that there was fried udon with Mentaiko sauce... and I absolutely had to try that. (I love udon)

That made for almost five bowls (each) in total, which, coupled with all the oysters that we ordered and finished, was a very, very satisfying meal. 

Did I mind the rule?

No, not at all.

I appreciated all the flavors. (Mentaiko, thank you, and delicious chicken karaage)

I appreciated all the textures (Avocado and rice are indeed a smooth, creamy combination) 

And, yes, I liked the chewy, slurpy Udon best of all 

Over The Pond

 A couple of months ago I found myself having some time to kill.

Not wanting to wander about the shopping mall in a frame of mindlessness, I decided to head to the library.

Originally I was planning to be there till the time came for me to go.

But then I got hungry.

So, armed with two local fiction short story books, off I went, out of the library, and to the food court on the other side of the mall. 

But lazy and introverted me didn't feel like going around looking for a table, so I got one piece of fried yam cake and one piece of battered 3-in-1 from the stall right near the entrance of the food court, and went back out to the rooftop terrace steps overlooking the pond instead.

It's been very long since the last time I sat here. 

At that time there was no public library here in the shopping mall.

Neither was there a Universal Studios Singapore on the other side.

The landmark Merlion statue that used to be at the Imbiah side is now gone- demolished.

And now there's an additional cable car tower near the beaches on the island of Sentosa itself. 

Sitting cross-legged on the steps this evening made me think of the times when The Parents and I used to sit here. 

We used to come here on a Sunday after a full day of beach chillin' at either Palawan Beach or Tanjong Beach on Sentosa opposite. 

It's not the same as I now, however.

Because never would The Parents be okay with dim sum and fritters as dinner, and never would they encourage reading and eating at the same time. 

No, they were all about the moment.

If we were having dinner, we were having dinner.

I'm pretty sure there were times they wished they could dabao char kuay teow or char siew rice from the food court behind, but they weren't picnic friendly- at that time- so, more often than not, One Parent would go get burgers from Burger King downstairs and we'd make it a set and a meal. 

I can't remember whether we ever ordered the Whopper burger or even the chicken burgers, but there was always Mushroom Swiss, two cups of Coke, and along with that, a portion of fries (dipped with a lot of chili) and a portion of onion rings. 

You know, it's difficult for me to say whether or not I'll come here in the evening for a meal next time, but I'm glad for today, I'm glad for the smiles, and who knows, maybe one day (when the heat is gone) I might give myself some space and time to munch on a burger and maybe even have a milkshake this time. 

It won't be from Burger King though.

There's a Shake Shack downstairs. 

Springleaf Soup!

Springleaf's Murtabak, and Murtaburger, are two favorites that I often have whenever I'm at their outlets either in Sembawang, or in Jln Tua Kong somewhere along Siglap Road. 

Once in a while, however, I go for something like their soup kambing- which, if you ask me- is fairly unusual an offering for the dishes that they regularly serve. 

It isn't bad, though. 

On the contrary, it's thick, tasty, and comes with a serving of bread.

I like the fact that it isn't very spicy, nor does it seem to have any herbs which 'heat' up the body otherwise. 

Maybe it has turmeric, and cayenne, or one of those bright, red-colored  spice powders so dominant in Indian cuisine, but I don't know what they are, my tongue won't distinguish them, and all I know is that the soup makes for a very comforting meal for those days when you want some soup but don't want those clear, overly light ones.

I liked how the flavors of the soup rolled around my tongue.

I also liked that little bit of texture (meat? chickpea? vegetable?) that came along with each mouthful. 

Perhaps someone familiar with their soup kambing can tell me what that texture-bit thing is. 

It reminds me of mashed chickpeas, actually... 

Of course, it wasn't here for the soup that I came here for. 

There was the Murtaburger too.

It needs no introduction, I should think.

This offering has been around for a long time, and is probably one of their most popular dishes on their menu.

No surprise it should be too, what with it being a huge prata enveloping two mutton patties, egg, chili sauce, mayonnaise, black pepper sauce, and lots and lots of (melted) mozzarella cheese.

The chewiness of the prata catches my fancy. 

As do the warm, wholesome-tasting minced mutton, the gooey cheese, the smooth-textured mayonnaise, and the sweet chili sauce that seems to embrace everything.