jwel Ice Cream

self-explanatory, no?

One could write a whole article on this, I suppose, but where would be the fun of that when one can express it in a formula? Yes, I do funny things like that sometimes. I talk in riddles. I talk in circles. I hint. I wrap my words around bubbles and I don't do anything but keep my expressions simple.

 

ice cream lolly = convenience store = $4 = dark chocolate = peanut = cherry = eat and walk = chocolate coat = treat = sweet = milk = fun = yours truly

 

Not too difficult, eh?

 

See, I tend to want to roam around a bit either pre, or post-dinner. That's just my way of ending the workday. I like to have a bit of fun per day, whether seeing things I like, or doing things I like, or just being in the moment where I happen to be.

 

If I'm at the mall, I'll shop. If I'm in the middle of nowhere, I'll get somewhere. And if I'm in the residential neighborhood, like this evening, I'll go the supermarket or the convenience store. You never know what new stuff you can find at the supermarket, and you never know what lovely deals can be had, and you never know what you suddenly feel like having until you step in and look about the shelves.

 

I didn't think I was going to go for ice-cream this evening. But I went into 7-11 and peered into the frozen chiller and in one of the boxes was sitting this singular ice-cream lolly which bore a brand that is remarkably familiar. ;)

 

And since I like ice-cream, and since I hadn't had an ice-cream in two weeks, and this looked good with peanuts and cherries covered with a crisp layer of chocolate and it was all of $4, I bought it and ate it.

 

With great relish. :)

from one guy to Three

I'd never been so blanked out before in my life, I'm telling you.

D*** miserable it was to sit there staring out the big glass window wondering what the heck I was going to do with the deadline looming so close and with nothing- absolutely nothing- in my head.

There're no excuses, or even if there are, they're few and far between. I couldn't go tell the boss that I'd nothing to hand in, could I? Neither could I go tell him to please wait, it is coming, could I?

But phew, a faint inkling came, and soon, there was this possibility, and there was that possibility. Soon one guy came, then later another one, and another one, and soon the gals came along too, and they all appeared like holograms in front of me.

And now I have three guys and three gals.

There's still work ahead, of course, I've not fleshed out what I'm going to do with them, but hey, at least I know one thing now. Sitting there staring and wondering and questioning does not always grant you answers. Sometimes it means stepping away from the self-enquiries , it means taking a break from the cognizance and learning to spin the camera around to look at it from the other side.

And then, slowly, surely, steadily, it comes.

Always. 

matcha And Azuki beans

There is this scene in the anime version of Avengers that has this character at a cafe. Why he's there, what he's there for, I don't quite recall, but the significant part of this scene lies in the presence of Iron Man sitting on his shoulder- and the fact that he's eating six bowls of dessert. Now, this character is usually disciplined, and so to have succumbed to the deliciousness of the little glutinous rice balls, and to have eaten that many bowls in one sitting only means one thing.

It means that there has to be something very delicious about it, and that it's no use just seeing a character enjoy it onscreen, and that you've got to go try it out yourself.

Today we wanted dessert.

Specifically, we wanted dessert at the Japanese cafes.

So after sharing a pizza of salmon and avocado at Shokudo Cathay Cineleisure- a diner on the upper floors where sunlight streams through the glass windows and where you can look across to the Singapore Power Building- we had this.  







matcha, mochi and azuki beans!



A snow-covered mountain of sorts that is soft, snowy, melting and faintly sweet, topped with little drops of azuki beans that look like gorgeous rock formations. A mountain which sits atop a bed of matcha shaved ice and which has surrounding its base, mochi coated all over with matcha powder, little mochi balls, and neat cubes of matcha jelly . Oh, and one little chestnut on the summit.

I got the chestnut. :)

Later in the evening, we were at Vivocity, and if you've been to the mall, you know that there're a few dessert cafes on the ground floor near where the water is. If you haven't been there, now you know.

Amongst all the cafes there's this one called St. Marc's. It's a cosy place, with warm lighting and comfortable chairs and like what most Japanese cafes have, a glass counter-cabinet at the entrance where bright, pretty models of their offerings entice you to enter and enjoy.

We stood there awhile, trying to make up our minds whether to go for the crepe or the waffle or the other desserts, until finally we decided on the waffle.

It was a good choice. 



hello, powdery icy buttery waffle

Thick, crispy and buttery, the waffle was served warm. There was a huge vanilla soft serve plopped atop, there were azuki beans nestling snugly at the side like a scattering of volcanic rock pebbles and cascading down the soft serve like a sprinkling of snow there was a scattering of rich green matcha powder. The flavors were wonderful. The vanilla was rich, the matcha tinted slightly bitter, the waffle buttery, the beans distinctly sweet.

And best of all, because the soft serve melts real fast, we ended up having great fun eating it, which, if I recall correctly, went something like this: A dip of the fork at the tip of the summit, a flick round the swirly, whirly curves, one little dollop of soft serve then knifed onto a single waffle square.



the Genki sushi Game

Some would call this a kiddy restaurant. Others would call this a family-friendly restaurant targeted for young children.

 

I'd like to call this a restaurant for anyone who is young at heart.

 

Because it's pretty much a game experience from the start.

 

Once you're seated at Genki Sushi, wait staff hand you a pad and into it you make your orders. Now, that might not be so big a deal, you say, given that many restaurants have embraced such technology to speed up their processes, but see, it's more than just a systematic, computerized, smart technology process. 

 

They've made it into a game for the consumer. 

 

There's a little train at the bottom of each page, and what you have to do is to press the < and the > button to get to the right selection, drag and drop the items- four at a time- to fit the  four windows of the train, press the 'okay' button, and watch  as the train zooms off the screen.

 

Presumably into the kitchen.

 

You'd think the game stops there.

 

But no, it doesn't. The game continues with the way your food is served... via a real train with little plates fitted snugly onto it like seated passengers- four plates at a time, the same way like how you sent your orders in. It's what we call a continuity- much like theme parks- where the virtual content on your screens continues into a reality mode that is tangible, visible and experiential.

 

It's remarkable fun watching all the trains zip by on the tracks above your head, so much so that even the waiting becomes an interesting time as you try guessing whether the train you see heading towards you is the one bearing your plates, and then feel a tad disappointed when it whooshes past you.

 



choo choo train choo choo train

 

But no matter.

 

You've got the self-made cup of ocha- ocha powder they offer- that you sip on whilst you wait. It doesn't take long, and finally, with a 'ding ding ding!!" that alerts you, the train stops at your table and you take the plates down, then press the big button on top and watch as the train whooshes back to the station.

 

We've been here a few times, and each time our orders have become our regulars. There's this seared salmon with black pepper where there're round peppercorns rolling all around your tongue.







wanna count the peppercorns?

There's this other seared salmon with pollock roe that tastes salty and squishy all at the same time. We've ordered the hana sushi, which is four pieces of salmon sashimi hugging a coin-shaped piece of rice and with a generous dollop of mayonnaise on top.

We can't get enough of the salmon belly either. We've had the vegetable kakiage that comes with a sweet lovely sauce and which makes great dining fun whether you tear at it with the chopsticks, whether you give up on the chopsticks attempt and go barbaric, yanking at it with your hands or whether you poke directly into the fried vegetable tower and twist it apart.

And then there're the fried oysters. Huge juicy oysters wrapped in a batter deep fried.

This is a country where Japanese cuisines of varying standards abound. In many places sushi is readily available. It depends on how you like your sushi to be, and how your wallet is for the day, and you'll lack no choices at the restaurants, the diners, the in-hotel restaurants, the cafes, the chain cafes, or even the supermarket.

But rare is it when a diner gets a juxtaposition of simple, childlike fun coupled with the thrill of seeing virtual trains and mechanical ones go hand in hand.

And rare is it here too that a sushi meal itself reminds you that Japan, with her cultures and customs, with her history and heritage, with her dynasties and her people, is also a place of anime, toys, games and fun.

 



chabuton Ramen

It's lunch time and I'm in the Orchard-Somerset area.

Specifically, I'm in the 313 Somerset shopping mall where there's a pretty good presence of dining options ranging from the uber casual to the casual. At the basement there're all the little popups that offer you a variety of snacks and takeaway meals. You've got Marche upstairs, a food court on the top floor and Popeye's Chicken somewhere. 

But today I'm in the mood for a bowl of ramen- and when I'm in 313 with the mood for ramen holding me, and it being lunch time, there's only one place to go.

Chabuton Ramen- at Basement One.

Because they've got a great lunch set on the menu where for $13/-, you get one bowl of ramen, one side dish, one dessert and one drink.




chabuton tonkotsu ramen

You could have the gyozas for  your side dish- they're pretty popular- but I like the tatsuta age, which is chicken pieces delicately deep fried and served with shredded lettuce plus a dollop of mayonnaise. The beverage of choice is either hot or cold green tea and for dessert, you get an offering of either mochi or konnyaku jellies. I like my tea hot, and I like the konnyaku jellies. :)

I choose the tonkotsu ramen today. 

Actually, I choose the tonkotsu ramen most of the time. :) 

Because between the shio, the shoyu, the spicy and the tonkotsu, the broth concocted from pork bones simmered in the pot for hours is what speaks most to me. Here at Chabuton, they do it such where I can taste the salt, yet the soup is not overwhelmingly salty, I can taste the pork, yet there is none of the heavy aftertaste sometimes found in pork-based soups. And there's a slight creamy, milky texture which I particularly fancy.

The broth alone would be comforting enough for me- that's how rounded it is on my palate- but I'm hungry, and so I work the chopsticks over my ramen.

They're soft, cooked the way I requested, with just the right amount of oil and salt. On top of the noodles lies the thin slice of char siew, balancing delicately with crunchy chopped bamboo shoots on the side and a scattering of fresh, green chopped leeks all over.

I'm enjoying my lunch very much today. I'm enjoying the Moment that I'm receiving in this atmosphere, this ambience. You see, for some, ramen might be just one of the meals to get through the day.

For me, though, to have a bowl of ramen here is to grant myself a Time where I allow myself to sit and embrace the Moment as she wraps me with her warmth, her presence, her calmness and her stillness through the connections of natural elements in her food, thorugh the beauty of structure, and through the symmetry of form.  
 





the toothpicks



and the chopsticks

hydrolytes for a hot HOT Day

It's a very, very warm day today.

I could have water or seltzers or sparkling water or fruit juice drinks or fruit juices or soft drinks or iced tea, which are all thirst-quenching, but instead I'm going for this.
 

100% coconut water

 

It's got a much wider distribution channel now.

I'm seeing it at supermarkets and provision stores. At supermarkets the packets aren't always placed where you think they're supposed to be, and you have to search here and there because they're kind of shelved all over the place. They could be in cartons arranged near the fruit juices or near the counters. They could be on the shelf next to the Ceres fruit juice drinks, or right above where the frozen pizzas are. They could be at the bottled water section, or the bottled tea section. At one supermarket, I found them next to the bottles of Ribena.

It's a hard category to place, this one, it being not a soft drink but neither a bottled water, it being not a fruit juice drink but neither a fresh fruit juice that needs to be chilled. It's not tea. It's not milk. It's not any of the regular categories. It's basically a fruit water, if that's how one were to put it.

But it's totally worth the search.

Coconuts are the new superfood right up there next to the non-GMO stuff, the gluten-free stuff, the goji berries, the flaxseed, the chia seed, the olive oil, the salmon, the nuts, the berries, the organic peanut butters, the hazelnut butters, the rice crackers, the organic popcorn, the rice chips and all the sugar-free stuff. But they're aren't the type of superfoods that cost you an arm and leg. It's pretty much affordable, with prices hovering between $1.50 to $3.00 depending on the size you prefer, and from where your coconuts are sourced from. I've seen those sourced from Hawaii, Phillippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

There are more qualities in the fruit that one usually thinks of- I don't really know what they all are- but this packet above tells me that there're five hydrolytes and so I'm sticking to five hydrolytes. After all, that's what I need on a hot, hot day as this, and best of all, I'm totally loving the taste. :)

flippity Flip Flip phone

the LG Lollipop

So I'm staring at this picture once again and d***, do I miss this phone.

This is (and I say is, because I'm still holding on to it) one phone that I really, really fell in love with. I don't care if it's called a dinosaur by users of touchscreens. I don't care if its OS is kind of outdated or discontinued or whatever. I don't care if everyone is going smartphone on me and such button phones are no more.

I'll always love this phone.

And why not? What's not to love?

It's slim, pretty, bright, with cute LED light patterns on the cover when you flip it open and close. It's got that satisfying 'piak' sound when the phone closes on its lid. Then there's that transparent part on the cover which has running lights and which you can change its running order. From right to left, left to right and centered and in a multitude of colors in red, yellow, green, blue, purple and turquoise, which was my favorite.

And it has buttons.

Yeah, it has the alphanumeric buttons but they're placed in such a pretty way that you don't feel old-ish using it. Instead you feel quirky, individualistic, even a tad cutesy rebellious when you're typing away, like you're defying what everyone else is doing and just doing your own thing, in your own style.

The Lollipop grants the user an entertainment UX, which is to say that whilst it pretty much functions like a typical 3G phone with the basic suite of features- camera, media player, settings, SMS, wifi and all... you don't feel the stolidity of Nokia, the seriousness of Ericsson nor the usability of Samsung when you've got it in your hand. Neither will you feel like you're holding an Alcatel or CDMA or Hutchison, which models have long disappeared from the current consumer market (but which some of us might still use, and still remember)

Let me put it this way.

I have a Galaxy III now, and I'm using it well. But place the LG Lollipop in my hand and at once I get into a cute, cute mode as if I were carrying cute little cloth bags with ribbons and lace all over, as if I had kitschy notebooks with sketches of animals and characters on the front cover, as if my hair was permed and styled and worn with a pretty hairpin. At once I find myself wanting to talk in a higher pitch, with much more blink-eye gestures and livelier voices... despite the fact that I'm still just me. :)

Or if I were to put it in another way...

I can't say that I'm feeling like I'm in Gangnam when I'm using the phone- it's not the glamorous sort. Neither can I say that I'm in Hongdae, cos' I don't quite feel the future when I'm using it. But I think I can say that I'm in Noryangjin, where on one hand I attend cram classes to prepare for the exam which will lead me to a stolid, stable future whilst on the other, I'm being very cute and youthful and girly going about it.