Food

I’d got a free eat@Meritus card through the OCBC credit card promotion and am thus currently enjoying 50% off meals at the Chatterbox (when dining as a pair). I actually quite enjoy the chicken rice there, although since that was the only thing I’d tried I thought I should experiment a little. I got myself a Nasi Goreng Istimewa, and Ailin ordered the Lobster Laksa, but they were rather… lacklustre. Certainly not worth the high prices, even after the discount. I’m sticking to chicken rice in the future!

(We also had fun with the Marché cow at 313@somerset. It’s nice to see Marché making a return in Singapore, although I don’t think I’ll be eating there anytime soon.)

Toast Box is currently giving out free drink vouchers to bribe you into voting for them for ‘Best Brands’ or something, so all you need to do is to approach people in the shop who are giving out surveys and send a SMS text message in front of them (after filling in a very short survey) to receive a free voucher. The text message costs 20¢, so it’s not entirely free, but that’s a pretty good deal nonetheless!

Ippudo’s finally arrived in Singapore, and after a failed attempt to get in yesterday (the queue was too long so we didn’t bother waiting), we plotted to get there when it opened today at 1130 and voila! We procured our ramen fix.

The ramen was pretty pricey at $15++ (add extra meat to your meal and you’ll probably end up paying in excess of $20), but wow, was it tasty! The broth isn’t as sinfully (porkily) thick and delicious as Daruma Taishi in Japan, but it was well mixed with garlic oil and miso to create a beautiful blend of flavours. This might now be my favourite ramen place in Singapore, topping even Yoshimaru.

They even included a comic (in English, Japanese and Chinese) in the restaurant explaining the intricacies of ordering ramen, presumably for (Kyushu-style) ramen newbies. I’d found it pretty confusing initially, until I realised that the panels are arranged in a right-to-left manner, the way Japanese manga is. Amusing stuff.

1. Kuishin Bo has a buffet offer for weekday lunches – finish it within an hour and have it (relatively) cheap! I brought my sister there during the September break to give it a try, but somehow it wasn’t as good as I remember. Either the quality has dropped, or my palate has suddenly decided to gain some standard, somehow.
2. I do rather miss good ramen, and Yoshimaru Ramen has a branch near Ailin’s place, so we decided to head there for a try. It’s no Daruma Taishi, but it’s pretty good nonetheless. The broth could be more flavourful, but the noodles are done quite well.
3. Ever on the quest for the best tonkotsu ramen in Singapore, we decided to give Ramen Santouka a try as well. The broth and pork were really good, but I didn’t love the noodles all that much. I wonder if Ippudo will be able to provide that perfect ramen fix?

1. This statue of the courtesy lion, converted to encourage the wearing of face masks, really had me tickled. I love how his arms are still stretching out towards a warm friendly embrace, despite his obvious fear of transmitting/contracting a virus.
2. I’ve been buying quite a lot of teh-c, and I finally decided that the ingredients were pretty cheap and I should just make my own. It turned out to be pretty enjoyable, actually, and since I’m too lazy to add sugar, my version might actually be more healthful than what they have in the shops!

…is oddly similar to the Singaporean breakfast, it seems (though this one was from the more famous Casuarina Curry). A foreign reader of my blog might assume we eat nothing else.

Somehow fried dough doesn’t make for a very impressive photograph, does it? I’m still getting hungry looking at it, though.

(Post-dated entry because I’d just discovered these photos on my phone)

My brother wanted to bring us out for lunch today, so we decided to take a look at his new place before the meal. He’s managed to rent a 3-bedroom condominium from his fiancée’s uncle (who’s now living overseas) at a very low rate. Not exactly my ideal location, but it’s pretty near his workplace, and is extremely spacious – at less than $2000/month, I’m actually kind of envious!

Since we were near IKEA anyway, we decided to head there for lunch. It’s actually the first time I’ve eaten there (I haven’t been there in years) – it’s changed quite a bit, they’ve seriously expanded the childcare area (in my day it was just a little ball pit, although I really loved playing in it) into some fantasy playland. So I’m not too sure if the cafe’s always been around, but it’s relatively cheap and the meatballs are quite enjoyable – although I think what really impressed me were their fried chicken wings. They were so tasty, I didn’t even pause to take a photograph of them before they were gone.

Mmm. Chicken wings.