Dinner before desserts

chirashi don from Marketplace @ Raffles City SC

bought this after i got the cakes from Canele. I thought it was quite worth it. for a discount price of $5.80 (original was $8) with so many types of sashimi and lots of fresh crunchy, bursty tobiko covering the whole surface of the rice underneath the sashimi it was enough to satisfy a rather hungry me. Plus for this price, i still got a sprinkling of chrysanthemum petals!!


well, downside to this was that the rice was kinda sucky. too hard after probably too long in the cooler?

土佐的冰淇淋

after visiting Doc See at Gleneagles, i headed to town with 2 intentions. 1) top up my ez link card and 2) deposit a cheque for my bro. i did think that i was going to be distracted by the shopping and all, so i took bus 7 and alighted at the Thai Embassy.


yeap.. i was heading to Isetan Supermart to see what new snacks are lying on the shelves.


as much as it was hard to resist, i didn't head to the snack section first. at the entrance was a small counter displaying natto related products. i realised later when the sales aunty was selling powdered natto which can be dissolved into water to drink for health purposes. it boasts of detoxification, boosting memory, helps in slimming (well, obviously after detox) and some other stuff which i cannot remember. for a small sachet which allows you to make up to 50 drinks, it costs a whopping $49!! I was ready to buy but the price made me think twice and i decided not to get it.


so i headed to the vege then sushi/sashimi section. nothing caught my eye until a whiff of buttery/creamy pastry came to my nose. it sure smelt delish and i had to check out their events corner. the first thing i saw was this man cooking dried ikan billis, which smell damn good but i wasn't in a savoury mood. so i went on to the next 'counter'. they were selling daifukus. i saw a cake like item thinking it was cheese related until the sales aunty told me it was japanese mooncake made of bean paste. i tried it but didn't like it. so i went to the counter where they were selling ice cream. waw! i was rewarded!!


there were about 10 flavours displayed in the freezer. there were 4 gelato flavors and 5 or 6 sorbet flavors. they allow the customers to try the ice cream before buying. the first flavor the japanese obasan let me try was the vanilla chestnut flavor and i lurveee it!! coz i can taste small bits of chestnuts and the slight powdery texture of the chestnut as well. nice! and since i was in a salty sweet ice cream mood after last night's coconut salted caramel b&j ice cream, i asked to try the natural salt flavor. waw! no regrets! I must get it.. the saltiness was so subtle yet prominent to a certain extend. very nice!! and i tried my favorite yuzu flavor, awwWww.. so refreshing and they have yuzu bits inside also!!


so i told the obasan i will come back later to get the ice cream and proceeded to the next section to try the cream puffs. the puffs were crispy lor, but i was in no mood for puffs. so i headed to the salad dressing section to buy my dressing and chanced upon this something which i will dedicate another entry for it.


i went back to get my ice cream and was disappointed to find out that the yuzu flavor was SOLD OUT!?!?! Kaoz, damn fast lor.. within mins, it was gone.. so in the midst of disappointment i bought two other citrus related sorbets. both orange but dunno what's the difference. anyway, i only bought 6 but earlier the obasan asked me to go back after paying so that she'd give me 2 free ones. happy sia!! when i went back, she gave me two black honey vanilla flavored ones and i rushed home in a cab asap after depositing the cheque coz i didnt want the ice creams to melt entirely though they gave me some dry ice..

my ice cream damage for the day

the gelatos are $4.50 each and the sorbets are $3.50 which prolly are not exactly cheap? but was quite ok for me since a scoop at ice cream counters are already about that price already.

chestnut with vanilla. ok, the 'chestnut' word is there, just that my focus salah and lazy to take again.

the natural salt flavor which i will definitely eat it tomorrow. interestingly, the colour is a subtle blue. like the lightest blue you see on the cover. very appealing!!

the mikan (orange) flavor sorbet

when i got home, the first thing i tried was the black honey vanilla flavor. woah.. you got to taste the black honey man! it's damn good. it has a tad of charred taste and sweet but not overwhelming.

the black honey flavour

i think i have done injustice to the ice cream on this shot. i couldn't wait to try the it so i took it out like after 15 mins when i left it in the fridge so it has not fully returned to it's original state.

this is what i like of the ice cream.


it's not overly milky. once the ice cream melts in my mouth, i taste milk, vanilla and ice. it doesn't leave a layer of something on my throat after eating the whole cup. it's a damn clean taste which i like coz it doesnt make you feel thirsty thereafter. ok, that's just the vanilla ice cream part. mix it with the black sugar, it was orgasmic! feels like eating cream brulee minus the egg. phewz! i'm damn glad the obasan gave me the two for free!


not sure if this fair's last day is tomorrow. but head down if you are really interested. oh, i sure didnt feel sinful after eating the ice cream, i think i can eat at least 3 different flavors at one go! Haha :D

mascara madness

you know a product is good if every store you go to was supposed to carry it but you just cannot find it. that's after visiting like 3 stores and you still cannot find it. now this means that either people find the product so darn bloody good thus stocking it up or that word of mouth have spread like wild fire!


so just what product am i talking about?? it's this mascara from the brand Majolica Majorca which is a sub-brand from Shiseido. Visit the webbie. it's very whimsical, pretty, Victorian-ish and interactive to a certain extend.


anyway, as i was saying, the mascara's name is Lash Gorgerous Wing. When i saw the photo of the model who supposedly applied this mascara, i knew i had to get my hands on it! i read it on separate reviews and all raved about it. since office had two Watsons branches (yes, only available at Wastons outlets) i thought it should not be difficult.


Unfortunately, i was so darn wrong. the brand is so popular that the products on the shelves are almost bare for the marina square branch as for the suntec one, though they had stocks they didnt have the LGW mascara. those testers didnt really look promising and almost sad.


a little background on this mascara as to why it works wonders is because it has these micro-fibre strands in the mascara which enhances short, stumpy eye lashes and makes normal eye lashes soft and fluffy (from what i see in the model's pic).


I'm not new to these mascara. in fact, i got this really cheap mascara (my favorite brand which does not have a name except a 4 petal flower as its logo) ions ago in Japan at their 100 yen shop and it already has those micro fibres and off the shelves brand are boasting lash enhancing mascaras with zlich fibres and dunno what they put inside which never enhances the length of the lashes.

the 100 yen mascara with micro fibres

another product is the step by step smokey eye look eyeshadow. basically it tells you which of the four colours on the eyeshadow palette to put on first to give you that look. it was out of stock in suntec, but finally available in Marina Square. Red Earth used to have one and it was amazing!

the pretty packaged step by step smokey eyeshadow palette

at the end of yesterday, i bought the 'sad' looking mascara for the price of $25.90, hoping that it was good to a certain extend and the eyeshadow with the colours i like. i don't think my lashes will look soft and fluffy like those of the model coz i tried it yesterday but i'm hopeful about the eyeshadow.

the other type of mascara which the brand sells

now i am wondering how many singaporean women got their hands on this mascara, they are so darn freaking heng.. tmd.

beans

hmmm.. contemplating if i should announce this..


i am officially... a fan of natto (japanese fermented beans)!! okie, to some people it's some kind of acquired taste to be able to appreciate it. the first time i tried it, i didn't like the taste nor smell. it was only due to my recent visit to Shinryoku that i fell in love with it.


i like it better than the chinese fermented beans (which people stirfry with minced meat and use it for other stuff) coz it's less salty, less likely to disintegrate easily when you bite it, it has this sticky texture which i like and most of all, it is one thing which makes me think of wanting to eat one bowl of sticky japanese rice with. these days, rice isn't exactly a staple for me.


i ate it with salmon again, but this time better salmon. i must also say that i added a new type of sauce into the mixture and everything went really well together. the natto is not so stinko (though to me, it smell all right) and makes it really sticky. yum yum, fun fun! haha


which brings me to the next thing that i wanna talk about. on Sat, i bought this Japanese salad dressing from Cold Storage. It's called 'Kurozu Dressing Onion'. At first, i didnt wanna get it coz i'm not exactly a fan of onion. however, after testing it on my simple salad, it's damn shiok and brings out the taste of the simple salad!! how simple is the salad? well, you only need 3 things.


Korean strawberries (sliced)
Cabbage (thinly cut/chopped/sliced)
Kurozu Dressing Onion (add according to your own preference)


I used Korean strawberries because they are sweeter and it adds a natural sweetness to the salad. The cabbage used was any cabbage you can find in markets. After chopping the cabbage into thin strips, you'd have a bowl full of cabbage and then put the sliced strawberries on top of the bed. drizzle the dressing on the cabbage and strawberries.


the dressing is slightly oily, sour, flavorful and brings out the sweetness from the strawberries even more. i guess it must be due to the onion in the sauce as well. i was surprised that the simple salad tasted awfully good!! Love it entirely and i will continue to buy this brand of dressing. it is very promising :D i can imagine using this sauce for so many other stuff!! For a price of $8.50 i think it's pretty worth it!


no wonder that bottle which i got was the last one.. hmm.. cool! Pictures next time i guess.. i didnt think of taking a pic of the dishes today. too tired and lazy!! haha, it's a work day after all!!

more things japanese

so i went grocery shopping earlier on. no plans as to exactly what i wanted to get, but i knew i wanted to get greens and lady's fingers were on top of my mind. so i ended up getting a couple of greens, canned tomatoes from HUNT's and i also got salmon sashimi as well as natto.


the taste of the maguro natto lingered so much in my mind that i so wanted to try more of it. i was just worried the kind of natto i was buying, didn't know if they tasted the same or are there any different. so i went to Cold Storage to check it out and realised that there were only two brands. one with the funny japanese doll face and another one nicely packed into 3 cups, organic and i dunno if it's because it's pretty green packaging attracted me to buy more than anything else, in the end i just got it. hoping it would taste exactly like the one i tasted the other day.


it's simple enough to make. coz everything was already prepped, you just need to mix everything together.

the green cup, came in a set of 3

the sticky natto!! see those silky strands!?

the super yummy soy sauce. so flavourful and not overly salty

the mediocre salmon sashimi.. haha..

i didnt take a pic of the final product in view of the fact that it is not very pleasant to look at. but it tastes delish enough and pretty yummy. i added a dash of lemon juice coz the salmon came with a slice of lemon and added the soy sauce in the sashimi set, with some wasabi as well.


ultimately, i think natto tasted better with maguro than salmon. but i am surprised that the natto itself is pretty good. hmm.. a good addiction for the new year i gather?? Haha..

NYE din at Shinryoku

din was supposed to be @ 6.30pm. my dear friend was late. she blamed on a particular 'someone' conveniently off her alarm and thus she overslept. She arrived close to 7ish and i had already started before her coz i was famished! I didnt eat much for the whole day in preparation for this huge meal.

interior of Shinryoku

for $68++ you get to order these in the menu. anything and everything. However much you can eat.

The buffet menu

I like their sashimi, it's very fresh and i like their presentation. would have hit on the ark shell if it was available. it's the best and most worth it to come for this buffet! but unfortunately, they didn't have it yesterday. i was SO disappoint!!!

ika and hamachi sashimi

the full sashimi set except for the missing ark shell

Crunchy yam with raw quail egg

this dish is one of my favorite and they were uber generous last night. the yam was cut and filled to the brim of the dish!! i love the cruchy yam coz it is as the name suggests, crunchy, slimey and sticky! as to how you eat the above, basically, you just pour the quail egg onto the yam, pour some shoyu on it and mix some wasabi onto the whole thing. the taste is refreshingly tasty and very authentically japanese. yum yum!


after that i ordered the salmon skin salad. Just in time coz cece arrived shortly after the dish came.

Salmon skin salad

close up shot of the salmon skin

this is a must try! i don't think this can be done this good at anywhere else expect Shinryoku. i am not a fish skin fan, but this dish is awesome! packed with loads of veggies. they have butter lettuce, rockets, romaine lettuces, radish, diakon shoots, cherry tomatoes, purple cabbage and baby spinach. the star is the fish skin. thin, and fried to a crisp. it adds more texture to the dish. the sauce goes very well with the dish, it's slightly nutty, creamy and sourish. till date, i still haven't figure out what's in the sauce.

maguro natto

and yesterday, i was in an adventurous mood. i ordered maguro (tuna) with natto and boy was i glad i ordered the dish! it's very nice! as much as not many people likes natto (i didnt) this one was delish. i'm surprised it came with a raw quail egg. so what i did was to pour the raw egg out, mixed everything together. what always facinates me about natto is that, it's not only sticky, it has these sticky strands when you keep mixing the natto together. i had wanted to order a bowl of rice to eat with this dish. damn sure it will taste wonderful! I think i am falling in love with natto!!!


sadly, the chawamushi wasn't tasty yesterday. but it still looks pretty regardless.

chawamushi

and our all time favourites, the grilled dishes!!! there's actually more, but i was too busy eating and didnt take the rest of the pics..

grilled chix wings

the skin is grilled till crisps and nicely cut and disjointed nicely so that you can easier eat it. comes in a pair for every stick ordered. it's nicely seasoned. and a couple of drip of lemon makes it wonderfully delish! this can be quite addictive.

grilled golden mushrooms wrapped in bacon

grilled king prawns wrapped in mint leave and bacon

they actually have a series of bacon wrapped grilled items. besided the above, there is also aspargus wrapped with bacon and potato wrapped with bacon. i love this series because the bacon actually doesn't taste like bacon. it's like super thinly sliced fatty pork. i wonder where they get this bacon. even streaky bacon is not even close to this bacon they use. so when they grill these dishes, eaten together with whatever they wrap around, it tastes uber yums!

for example, the golden mushroom wrapped with bacon dish? the golden mushroom absorbs the fats and flavour of the pork which makes it moist and crunchy as well!! well u just have to taste it to know what i mean. :D

grilled saba

unfortunately, yesterday's saba was rather fishy and we didnt get the good part. so we ended the night with this and couldn't eat anything else. i also had the grilled ginko nuts (my all time fave) and grilled cherry tomatoes which were awesome!


if you have money to splurge and can eat like crazy, then do go and visit Shinryoku!