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!

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