The place I discovered Maki

I've actually forgetten the place I discovered the goodness of Maki-s. It's only a month or two ago that I tried my first one and fell in love with it.

We went to Sushi Teh again on Friday. Huge meal with a Seafood Ramen special for two, the staple Sashimi Salad, a Ebi (Eel) Maki and a Mackerel. This was the 3rd time I've had Maki and boy it was good. But something was missing. It doesn't have that oomph which I felt the first time I tried one. Hmmm, was I being picky?

Then yesterday we went to the Shinkushiya outlet at Vivocity. We had a salad with some small dried fish (the exotic name eludes me), Curry Fried Rice, 6 types of Barbecue sticks, a Blowfish (damn small for its price), and a Smoked Salmon with Tempura Prawn Maki.

There . . . Found it!! That taste, that texture, that smell. Ahhhh amazing! The rainbow of tastes that follow as you put a Maki into your mouth. Heavenly! It's like Remy (the rat from Ratatouille) getting a taste of French cuisine . . . fireworks in your heart! You have to try it to know how good it is. And only try the one at Shinkushiya. You won't regret it. The thing I'm guessing that makes their Maki so good is the rice. It's more fragrant and compact, like getting a ocean in a bite rather than a pond.

Well we are definitely going back for more Maki-goodness hehehehe.

P.S. I kinda prefer the outlet at Far East Square. It's more cosy and comfortable with ample booth seats. Plus lesser crowds haha (I'm anti-social if you didn't know yet). I have to compliment the scenic view at the Vivocity one though, but you have to be lucky and get a window seat to enjoy it.

Where has Poetical Pokpok gone?

Poetical Pokpok has been hijacked. I haven't seen him for the last month. I wondered who would do such a cruel thing.

Words just stopped popping into my head. Nothing rhymes at all. Is this what they call, a "writer's block"? It used to be that words freely come into my head, in beautiful lyrical verses and I'll just pick and choose the ones I like to use.

Now, zip, nothing, nada. Only thing that comes to my mind is, "Buy my car yah, buy my car, la~la~la~, buy my car and go far far. See this rims ah, they're so shining, don't worry cause we'll throw them in for free!"

Damn silly radio commercial keeps ringing in my head. Bah! It's been a month since they stopped this advertisement on radio but I still remember it. Curse the creative directors that came up with that jingle!

Hopefully, Pokpok's poetic hiatus does not last too long.

Arghhh . . . I'm like a secondary school boy now . . .

Darn it . . . this is what happens when you nap on a saloon chair.

I went to the neighbourhood saloon on Sunday. Vincent Daniel. Classy name yeah? Not your typical barber. I told the lady, "Short on the side", while brushing my hand through the side of my head. And then I made the mistake of dozing off. . .

Imagine the shock when I woke up to find my new hairdo. She must have used a razor to run through the entire side and back of my head. Even the hair on top have been thinned till you can see the skin at some angles . . .

One of my collegue was saying, "You must have been nodding in your sleep when she ask if you want it shorter." . . . Ouch, salt on my wounds.

Oh well, I'll just have to tough it out till my hair grows to a respectable length again.

"It is my Destiny . . . !!"

I have just finished season 1 of Heros. It's this 'new' TV serial about "ordinary people with extraordinary powers". The next evolution of mankind. Think X-men and you'll kinda get an idea of what these series is about.

I borrowed season 1 from a friend sometime last week, but only found time to start last Friday night. Once I started though, bam! I was hooked. Welcome Marathon Session! I started at about 10pm and only stopped at 4am when my eyelids refused to open. Then woke up at 11am and continued till about 4pm Saturday. Hahahaha, this is one of the most addictive and intriguing tv show I've watched in a long long time.

I especially like Hiro Nakamura. He is this quirky non-conformist Japanese character who has the power to bend space time equilibrium to stop time or teleport. Unlike those invincible X-men that goes about saving the world at every turn, Hiro is just a simple person. He trys to find out the meaning of his powers, his purpose, his mission. His character feels so . . . . human.

Maybe it's our nature to want to be special. To be adored, loved, noticed. Everything that the many protagonist in the show are feeling. They have such wonderful and amazing powers, yet they are so vulnerable and weak. They are like the everyday person, yet their lives are 'special'. And I guess that's why we get addicted to it, because we associate our fears, our needs, our dreams with the characters. They show us that no matter how mundane our lives are, we can dream to be the special ones.

Of all places . . .

Hmmm, how to I put this . . . Well you see . . . Ummm . . . Eh . . . I had a shot of immense pain at a place near my crotch . . .

Ouch ouch ouch! What the hell! Where is that pain coming from! My head went straight to the source. It's dark down there so I couldn't really see it. As I turned about to get the light there, I found this patch of skin, or should I say, lack of skin.

Huh? How did I get an abrasion there . . . Hmmm . . . only logical reason must be that I didn't wore my briefs properly. Must have caught 'it' somehow haha. Oh well, another few more days of jumping about in the shower and it'll be back to normal.

Smooth . . .

I was getting a drink during the break from classes on Sunday and decided to check out Mc Cafe. Everytime I would just go straight for the reliable Latte. However I wanted something cold this time as there wasn't any aircon in the classroom. So I ordered their Mango Smoothie.

I was expecting a mango flavoured soft drink, so it caught me by surprised when I took my first sip. The first thought that came to me was "Hey, isn't this the same texture as the old Mac Donald's milkshake back in the early nighties?"

For those that were not fortunate enough to try the milkshake back in the 90s before they took it off the menu, milkshake back then tasted so much better than it is now. Now, it's like drinking cream. Soft and smooth but its texture is like melted icecream, Yuck . . . Milkshake of the 90s were a little different. It was icy-er, where you can feel and bite tiny minute bits of ice with every sip, and it was not as sweet as it is now. Seriously, you have never tasted a good milkshake till you tried the one they sold back then. Period.

So it seemed they haven't forgotten how to make the icy-er milkshake. Hmmm, oh well I'll just have it now in mango flavour then. I'm already delighted that I could get a drink with the 90s milkshake feeling so I'm not complaining.

For any Mac Donalds staff that happens to read this : Bring back the 90s Milkshake! The milkshake that you sell now just doesn't cut it! Plain and simple. Too sweet, too soft, too much like whipped cream, basically . . . yucky! You haven't lost the 'touch' to make it. So just bring it back, I'll be glad to pay a dollar more just to get my 90s Milkshake again. *wink wink

I love Japanese food

I love it. Don't really know why. Maybe it's the asian palate. We have more inclination to less meaty foods, prefering rice, fish and greens. I do like my meats but not where an entire meal consist solely of red meats. I am a nut for salads though. Sometimes, judging the difference between a good and a bad japanese restaurant rest solely on your selection of salads. Not a very impartial criteria considering salads are not what japanese are known for, but well I like my salads and it's all that matters. Heheh.

My girlfriend and I have been trying out several restaurants recently. Here is a sample of those we have tried:

1) Tampopo
Located in the basement of Liang Court Shopping Centre, this is our favourite restaurant at the moment. We have been to this restaurant maybe 4-5 times in the last few months. This is a regular japanese restaurants with your usual staple of sashimi, bentos, udon, ramen, sushi, maki etc. We usually come here for the Black Pork Ramen, which is the house speciality. It has a nice cozy atmosphere which always sits well with guests. Salads here are pretty non-existant but the ramen more than makes up for it. Prices for a meal are pretty reasonable, our meals usually costing about 40-50 dollars. Special note: The green tea might taste like fish tank water on some occasions. =P

2) Shinkushiya
We discovered this restaurant in the past month and already ate there twice. This comes a very close second (think paper thin) to Tampopo in my opinion, losing out only because they do not have one of my favourite dish, Ramen. However, this place specialises in grilled foods served in bite size sticks. There is an ample selection of chicken, pork, beef, seafood and vegetable variants, enough to have you taking 20-30 minutes to decide which ones you want. We've only been to the outlet at Far East Square, but we have been impressed enough to give it our vote even though we have not tried the one at Vivocity. It has a very nice, cozy ambience, with the most booth seats we've seen compared to other restaurants. There is also a decent salad menu, though we've only had the chance to try one. Pretty good I would say. Meals cost an average 40-50 as well, though we did spent about 80 last night because we ordered a sashimi platel for 2. Special note: Service here is pretty good. Staffs are friendly, attentive and refill your tea cups constantly.

3) Sushi Teh
I fell in love with this restaurant because of one dish, the Sashimi salad. Priced only at $8, it comes in a good portion enough for 2. It is littered with enough sashimi slices that you could almost taste a piece every bite. Well worth the money. If I was working anywhere near a Sushi Teh, I might just go there everyday and order the salad for lunch. We always go to the outlet at Far East Square. It's tucked away in the CBD area, so you don't get the crowds like you would in a normal shopping district. Meals cost between 30-40 here. Special Note: S-a-s-h-i-m-i S-a-l-a-d. Enough said.

4) Akashi
This is the outlet at Orchard. Touted to be a traditional japanese restaurant with reasonable price by our Japanese sensei. So we went and tried it. My honey ordered a prime cut sashimi bento set and I had a mixed cut sashimi and seafood bento set. My baby was pretty happy with her sashimi as it was very fresh. However overall I felt our meals weren't anything terrific. Plus the cost of the meal came up to 75, which was atrocious considering we only ordered 2 set meals. I have kinda mentally banned the place, due to the normal food to price ratio, poor service, crowds . . . it's in Orchard . . . can't expect much. Then again we have only been there once. There might have been a house special that we didn't get to try, but we'll never know. Special Note: They will charge 4 dollars for the little plate of beans, even if you didn't even touch them.

5) Sun and Moon
Outlet at Wheelock Place. Their speciality is the 'claypot' rice if I'm not mistaken. Well that's what we tried, ordering a chicken and a pork variant. They were pretty good and tasty. The meats were tender and succulant. However our meal was spoiled by a plate of foul weeds they tried to pass off as an edible salad . . . pure nastiness. I have banned this place as well hahahahah. Special Note: A cow or horse might like the vegetables they serve here. Are you a cow or a horse?

6) Waraku
We have been to the outlet at Marina Square a few times. Nice big booths enough to seat 6. I would say their hot pots are pretty tasty. Sadly they don't have ramen, only soba and udon . . . both of which does not appeal to me at all. Prices here are pretty reasonable though. I remember ordering a salad, tuna sashimi, prawn in cheese, sushi set and a udon set and it only came up to 40. I don't mind coming here again though I would try to avoid the weekends due to the crowds. Special Note: Waraku outlets have become very popular dining spots for couples and families, thus expect a long queue especially on the weekends.
Well that's as many as I could remember trying, or should I say . . . remember the name of the restaurant. There are other noteworthy places that are not restaurants, like the sushi bar at the Liang Court basement supermarket. But well, I'll leave that for another post.