Saturday outing

不知不觉，sunday is coming to an end.
一分一秒，time just flew by.
3 days break is about to be over just like that.
i just feel that i have not done anything and still feel damn tired.


yesterday went to Tampines 1 with Sook. happy that Sook is back to work with us and that finally the 'tiny island' has another female colleague to 'dissipate' the very 'yang' environment. Finally, there's someone who can talk shopping, bags, ou xiang and concert with me! it's so really like some sort of fresh air!! not that the guys are boring, just that there are some things 很难跟男人说咯！


so both of us were talking about going Uniqlo on Thurs. I had the thought to go but not on that day itself. Somehow, i was darn tired and headed home. Didn't feel very good and needed some rest. We both agreed to go on Sat and check it out.


we met at 130pm and gosh, tampines as always is full of people! there are throngs of them and it was only early afternoon. we decided to go for lunch after seeing how crazy the queue was outside Uniqlo! needed some energy to withstand the queuing, so we went to manpuku which houses a few japanese restaurants operating in a smaller scale, food court style. they had ramen, japanese tarts, drinks stall, omu rice, okonomiyaki, sushi and sashimi, japanese curry, the nabe as in the claypot soupy stuff. Consumers sure are spoilt for choice.


seeing the queue at the hokkaido ramen counter, i chose to eat miso cha shyu ramen for lunch. hmm.. i'd only say it's average or slightly worse off than average. I'm kinda fussy about the ramen i eat, given that for the price of $10.80 i expect it to be of a certain grade. hmm.. thick as it looks, it's sad to say that the ramen lacks character. it's floury, not chewy and almost bland. it's pretty forgettable unfortunately.

thick thick noodles... blahhhh..

as for the soup, it's slightly oily and i think a bit salty. it's thick and has much flavour though i dunno if it was full of MSG coz thereafter, i was quite thirsty. as for they cha shyu, they were very generous. 5 pieces of reasonably sliced cha shyu (i think i got an additional piece coz the person didnt split it properly which was a bonus) which is kinda on the fatty side and doesn't melt in your mouth but still rather soft. the cha shyu passed my tastebuds.

cha shyu miso ramen

anyway, the whole process is pretty much like a production line. somebody adds the condiments and flavour to the soup and another person puts in the ramen, thereafter, the ingredients (ie, the cha shyu for my case) goes on top with a piece of seaweed. sadly, there's no bamboo shoots!?! how come no bamboo shoots?!?! i'd prolly try something else the next time if i were to go there. i very much think the ramen i had at tampopo was much better and am starting to miss it.


anyhowz, dessert more than made up for it. for $5.80 though, i thought it was kinda on the expensive side. i had black sesame parfait. the artificial display looked so tempting and much bigger than the one which ultimately came out. felt a tad cheated but seemed like they made their own ice cream. The parfait had jelly cubes as base (pretty much like agar agar sans sweetness) then black sesame creamy base, then a layer of cornflakes and topped off with vanilla ice cream, 3 dango balls, azuki beans, a biscuit and more goma sauce.

black sesame parfait.. yum yum!!

i love the goma sauce, it's sweeten enough to compliment the vanilla ice cream. the VIC is very good! smooth and not too rich. smells nice too! when mixed with the cornflakes, yum yum! the dango is tasteless so must eat with the beans and ice cream. i'd definitely try it again!


after lunch, we headed to uniqlo. queued for like 45 mins or less? or more? cannot remember. just that i got 2 camis and 2 cardis, unfortunately didnt go try the jeans coz the queue to the fitting room was damn bloody long. bought the camis without trying, heng they fit! for $9.90 it's actually quite a steal! plus the design and colour so sweet and dainty, i couldn't resist!


bumped into the guys amidst the crowd after headed out of the shop and arranged to have kopi after them going to challenger and me continuing with my shopping. incidentally, the reception for starhub users SUX big time. in fact, there is no reception to speak of. $#@($*$@!#!!! the whole day i was there, i dunno have to search for network for dunno how many bloody times and then i had to repeat like endless times. it was worse than pathetic. it was ridiculous!!


anyway, kopi turned into drinking session with finger food @ blue oasis. thereafter, headed to courts (now thinking of getting dvd player and rice cooker and damn impressed with the canon point and shoot cameras which comes in a variety of colours!!!) and ikea to get my box, had kopi and the princess cake. we were looking also at this table who ordered like 3 plates of chix wings and there were only 3 people.. wonder how they finished the 3 plates man?!

asahi in mini sized can.. we had 10 in a bucket for $35.. after calculating, only partially worth it.

the princess cake @ ikea. the top layer of cake is a tad too sweet, i like the middle creamy part, dunno if it's custard? Would be perfect if there's more sourish raspberry jam!!

reached home slightly tired, but couldnt sleep coz of the kopi i think. then again, it might be coz i was so hooked on the facebook games and just kept on playing and playing. at the end of the day, i realised asahi, spicy baffalo wings and thereafter, kopi @ ikea with princess cake hmm.. doesn't seem to be a very good combination. perhaps it was lucky we didnt eat the cheesecake, i felt my tummy churning for the rest of the night..


saturday was good fun spending time to catch up :D