eww at my brother :p

Was my dad's birthday yesterday. We ended up in this Japanese restaurant called Wahiro. It's one of those places people tell you it's good, you make a mental note to try it out one day and cleanly forget about it. So yeah, was quite happy we ended up going there although our initial plan was to go have spanish food.

Anyways – went in and was shown to our seats. Ambience was cosy, staff was nice, my nephew looked happy as he went "I want Chasoba, I want Chasoba, I want Chasoba, I want Chasoba.."

and he got soba, though not chasoba, but he still liked it. We also ordered a bottle of cold sake and decided on a set of dishes meant to go with the sake. Then I got distracted with trying to set a good setting for my camera to take indoor photos without flash, so I had no idea what was ordered after that.

The 1st thing that came was this:

The waitress said it's one of the dishes for the sake set. We looked at it, quickly turned around to grab her before she left and went, "Sorry, excuse me! sorry..but..what is this??" and she went, "The one on the left is seaweed with wasabi, and the one on the right is squid's gut."

"Squid's gut??" my brother and i went simultaneously.

"Yes, haha, squid's gut. But it goes well with sake~", she lightly laughed and walked away.

Well..okaay...I stuck my chopsticks in it and tasted it. Tasted...salty and..like the usual fish, but I couldn't get past having the knowledge of where it came from. So I was happily distracted again when the next dish came.

I have no idea what fish this is. But it's cut small and it's oily and is pretty good. There's spring onions and ginger on the side, so we mixed it together when we ate it.

These 2 came with the sake set, one was the oden, with the tube fish cake thing (Chikuwabu I think it's called?) and a piece of daikon. And 2 small pieces of salmon tempura. 

We also ordered 2 oysters but i didn't have any. My sis-in-law and my bro ate it. It's huge! Well ok, not that big but I think I'm getting a little scared of eating raw oysters. Small ones are ok though.

Oh, and this was good, fresh snapper (I think). Not so sure about seeing the entire fish raw and sliced up, but the meat was light and fresh and I think they squeezed some lemon on it. They told us that when we were done with this, we can have the bone cooked with a clear broth or with miso. We chose clear broth, but I didn't take a picture of that. Shortly after this, the food came very quickly, and I couldn't keep up with the phototaking, asking what it's called and eating. So i didn't manage to take pictures of everything, and there were some things I didn't try.

Here's the Kushiyaki (I think it's called.) That's foie gras wrapped with something (didn't try that cos i don't eat foie gras), and..something wrapped in beef i think. I'm not sure if i had that cos bits of food was just placed on my plate while i took pictures. And cos of the low light, the pictures were all blurry, I had to keep retaking.

unagi sushi which I didnt have

and the grilled onigiri. I had a bite and that was good!

small fried fish, very crispy, very good too.

and..my 1st time trying the sea urchin sushi (uni issit?) hmm...I'm undecided about this one. Everyone says it's good but I'm not sure..the texture is...squishy. It doesnt taste bad, it doesn't have a strong taste, kinda like when u eat raw fish. It has a slight raw fish taste but otherwise it's quite bland. and it was fresh so it's not "smelly" or anything but I think i was overwhelmed by the texture to really taste anything. I don't know why but I was expecting it to be firmer. I'm not a big fan of soft and squishy food, also part of the reason i don't eat foie gras or fatty meat. I'll try it again..one day.

ok, 2 beef dishes. I don't really eat beef unless it's very well cooked, so I only dared to try the 1st dish, that's ok I suppose. I didnt really taste anything. but I ate the lotus root of the 2nd dish and that was good! So I suppose the meat should be good. Though looking a little raw..? but there was a prawn dish which I like. There's some creamy sauce grilled together with it, not sure if it's mayo. and after that the clear broth from the fish bone came as a finishing dish. Then we sat for a bit, sipping the sake and chitchatting. and then we called for the bill and while waiting for it, I turned around and saw this:

My bro ate the squid's gut!! He silently polished it off!

"it goes well with sake!" he says

*grin*

-E

ps: Sorry bro, but still..eeww!

Winging dinner for one

Its Sunday night and I'm in the mood for cooking. Decided to make Angel Hair Prawn Aglio Olio. Sounds sophisticated huh? Here's what happened: 1st, all went according to plan, defrosted the prawns, peeled, deveined and clean them, then seasoned with a little salt. 

Then I looked at the shells and thought, rather than boil the angel hair in plain water, how about boiling them in the shell stock? nothing goes to waste right? So off i go and boiled the prawn shells.

While that was boiling, I chopped up some garlic, and realised that I had 3 portobello mushrooms that will be spoilt if I don't eat it soon. So I got those out and sliced them up too. 

Got my angel hair ready and strained the stock, put it back to boil, added some salt and olive oil, and stirred the pasta in. While that was boiling, I took another pan and poured some olive oil into it and started frying the garlic.

Didn't want the garlic to brown too quickly, I added the prawns after awhile and lowered the heat. When the prawns were half cooked, added the mushrooms.

Happily frying, frying and then, I realised I'd forgotten to add seasoning. Sprinkled some more salt, chilli flakes, and since there weren't any fresh corriander, I poured in some dried parsley and stirred it around a bit more. Then I remembered the angel hair! quickly took it off the fire and strained it and set it aside. By the time i got back to the frying pan, it looked like this:

Oh well, not much harm done, just slightly overcooked. Tossed that together with the angel hair (thank goodness that was alright) and placed it in a plate and thought," now...that doesn't look very appetising." So sprinkled some more chilli flakes to "add some colour" other than the existing black.

Attempt to  make it look nicer with an artsy pic

Verdict:

- don't use portobello if you are gonna take pics

- chilli flakes are not colouring

- salt should be used sparingly

and of course,

- don't forget what you are doing and the pasta that is boiling in another pot

I made it, so I ate it.

- E

~Better luck next time~

Savoury and sweet

It's my good friend's birthday in a couple of days, so the group of us asked the usual "go where? eat what?" I haven't been out in ages but i heard this place called Old Hong Kong serves really good dimsum, so we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately when we got there, we realised that they didn't serve dimsum for dinner..bummer. Oh well, like that will stop us from eating (fine fine, i speak for myself).

Hokaay...lessee...1st up was the fried carrot cake. Good good. Friend 1 doesn't eat bean sprouts which was fried together with it (not the usual way we are used to). No problem, the remaining 3 of us picked it out and in the stomach it goes. I really like this dish, think i can eat like 10 plates of this.

The next was this homemade tofu dish, fried with scallops and mushrooms. This was yummy too. We each had one (me starting to thinks de portions are a tad too small). We also ordered kailan fried with garlic.

Then the evil fried stuff started coming up. fried chicken wings with prawn paste. Thought the kid (birthday friend's 4yr old girl joined us) would like fried wings, which kid doesnt like fried wings? but she went for something else..

No..not the deep fried prawn balls with salted egg yolk – she went for the deep fried bread coating -_-

There was also the fried wantons. By now, I actually started to feel quite full. Whoever said the portions looked small huh? Actually, they were small portions, just that the food with the exception of the carrot cake and the tofu were on the salty side, so...kinda cant eat too much of it, plus hyper child wanted fried bread coating, friend that doesn't eat bean sprouts was watching what she eats (and i didnt exactly order the healthiest dishes), birthday girl's husband had plans to go for a 2nd round at another Hong Kong cafe and was saving his stomach.

After dinner, we headed to the Hong Kong cafe for coffee and he got this thick sliced french toast, everyone else got drinks and i got the mountain of ice to share with the 4yr old :D

Before we got to the 2nd Hong Kong cafe, i went to get breakfast for tomorrow and saw these muffins. Couldnt resist, so i got 6. They do sell them individually but hey, buy 5 get 1 free!

Can't believe i got hungry blogging and seeing my own pics...i ate a strawberry one -_-"

-E

Wassant!

omg these little buggers are goooood! Comes in 2 flavours - Chocolate or Plain. They look like mini croissants, but they are not. No bigger than a baby's hand, these wassants are so soft, so yummy, a little sweet and sooo sooo goood! Must try!

Got it from Provence Bakery at SGD0.60 each.

- E

Mr. Curry

January 02, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2nd day of the new year, had no mood to work so was already thinking of what to eat for dinner. Called up my friday friend (for some reason we always meet only on fridays) and we arranged to meet after work at Mr. Curry (Japanese style curry) in Central at Clarke Quay. They just opened a branch there and there's a 50% discount on certain items on the menu.

1st time I've heard of Mr. Curry, realised that it's part of the Waraku group. Explains why the exterior was done up in pretty much the same style as the other Waraku places with the wall filled with rows and rows of plastic food. But the inside decor of this one was much nicer that I expected.

We ordered a Shrimp Omelette Curry, a Bacon and Asparagus Spaghetti Curry Gratin, and a Kakiage Sandwich. A bit too much for the 2 of us, but all we left behind were the fries. Overall pretty decent food, presentation is very nice - the curry came in a separate claypot and had a cute little wooden ladle for you to spoon the sauce over your rice. There's a small side salad with every dish and they recommend using their mango dressing, which is a specialty I suppose. The food in general is a bit too salty, not sure if that's the standard.

Like all Warakus, it's a bit commercialised, so your crowd is anyone from overly excited teens to smartly dressed office workers to family and kids. There's one thing that always baffles my friday friend and me – no matter which branch of Waraku you go to, the noise level is...incredible. We used to wonder if it's the structure of the interior that traps noise or something but you can hear EVERYTHING. The conversation 2 tables away, the staff shouting "Irashaimase!", the clanging of utensils, voices over voices...it's incredible.

However, when you don't know where to go, Waraku can't get too wrong. There's a wide range of food, decor and food presentation is quite nice, everything else is not fantastic but not too shabby either. Because of the discount, friday friend and I forked out abt SGD10 each.

- E

Tim's Restaurant & Cafe

New Year's Eve, bunch of us long time friends got together and asked the "forever" question – "where to eat?" One of us recalled this place called Tim's Restaurant and Cafe, served Nepalese food along side western food like fish and chips. Never been there before, so why not?

Us lot can't exactly be fussed to get all fancy, so this was actually a pretty nice place for a casual dinner (even though it's NYE, who cares). Tucked in a corner of Toa Payoh, under those 4-storey HDBs (I later realised that they have been featured on HDB Taitais) the restaurant looks like your regular coffeeshop. Small, a little cramped, and oh so casual i bet that you can saunter in wearing your pjs and no one will bat an eyelid.

Anyways, its the food that matters. We had to wait about 10 mins for a table of 5+1, which was alright. We shared a Calamari and got a kid's meal (fish and chips) for the kiddo, came with a scoop of ice cream and oj.

I couldn't resist the lobster with pan seared dory, father of the kid got the Rack of Lamb, mother of the kid knew that the kid wouldn't finish her food so refrained from ordering, friend#1 took the NYE's special - mushroom soup, 2 scallops in their shells (appetizers), lobster with pan grilled seabass (main), bread & butter pudding and coffee or tea, and friend #2 got the grilled salmon with cajun sauce.

The total came up to about SGD75 with no GST and no service charge. Granted, ended up none of us ate anything remotely Nepalese, but hey, all the more reason to go back to try the chicken and sausage grill, samosas, pakoras..oh, and the momo.

- E

Welcome!

As you may guess, it'll mostly be about our forays into the food realm as viewed from two people's eyes. And no, they won't always be about the same thing from two people - in fact, it's more probable that it'll mostly be about 2 different things from 2 different people's points of view.

I'm W, and I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm armed with a Canon PowerShot SD 790 IS Digital Elph camera (or in rarer cases where I forget my hand camera, I'll be using my phone camera) and I'll be using that to capture images. These are all coming from a complete amateur so... have mercy? Haha.

We'll be writing about our experiences regarding food and of course, the food itself. Anyway, we've already taken pictures even before this place was established so some of the posts might have weird dates on them or something.

Hope you enjoy!
- W

We both like eating, (who doesnt??) and it started out with showing each other what we had for dinner etc. since, yeah, W is in Vegas, and myself - E, is in Singapore. more often than not, we'd be going "Ooooo, THAT looks good!" so yeah, here's our ongoing compilation and have fun!
- E