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Kyomomoyama at Central in Clarke Quay

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We were originally planning on going to Sunset Grill & Bar at Seletar Base but decided it was a bit too far for us to go. We ended up instead at Clarke Quay at Central on the 3rd level. There are quite a few Japanese restaurants on that level, looks like some good ramen too. But the ramen places had really long lines so we went to the restaurant with the shortest wait, which was Kyomomoyama, it’s quite close to one set of escalators.

We ordered the following:


Tuna sashimi with fermented soy beans. The soy beans were a bit strange, kind of tasteless but very very sticky. When you picked up some with your chopsticks, it ran a long sticky thread from the bowl to your mouth. Quite messy.


Salmon cheese fries. Basically cheese folded in between thin slices of salmon and deep fried. It was fried, so of course it was good.


Agedashi tofu. The tofu was really smooth but the skin was a bit soft and mushy. The ginger was a bit overpowering for me too.


Yakitori-like items: okra (lady fingers), shitake mushrooms, meatballs, and chicken. They were all equally good, lightly seasoned.


Nigiri platter.

We had some nice sake to top off the night. We tried to get dessert at a place on level one, Japanese dessert of some sort… but the queue was really REALLY long… oh well, next time!

Swiss Culture at Suntec City

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Again another evening feeling stuffed… I really am eating a lot since I’ve arrived in Singapore… but I can’t help it, there are so many places to try and there are people all around me who enjoy eating.

Tonight we were celebrating nothing, just out to enjoy the evening. Joyce and I had a craving for chocolate so I thought going to have chocolate fondue would be a good choice. I did a little searching on the internet and found a few places but one was really far away (Pasir Ris), one sounded really expensive (Dempsey Road), another was at a hawker center and was having their birthday so it’d be really packed… so instead, Swiss Culture at Suntec City seemed the best option.

They take reservations and corkage is SGD$20 FYI.

We had the cheese fondue (~SGD$40) served with bread and an extra side of vegetables (SGD$8).


YUM!!

We also ordered the seafood fondue (SGD$45) although it’s not really fondue… they give you a hot pot of olive oil and you basically fry the seafood inside. It splatters quite a bit so you have a napkin to cover the top so it doesn’t splatter all over you. It was served with crinkle frieds and 8 types of sauce!


Squid, salmon, shrimp, and mussels


Top (L to R): horseradish, BBQ, hoisin, tartar
Bottom (L to R): thai chili, mayo, cocktail, pesto


Joyce and I enjoying our cooking experience.

We also had the famous cheese and mushroom pasta (SGD$20) because we didn’t think the fondue was enough. It was really really creamy. Be prepared.

Plus they threw in a free chocolate fondue (U.P. SGD$20 or they had a special of 50% off if order a main fondue selection – cheese, seafood, beef, chicken, etc) for paying with a UOB credit card! It was served with banana, strawberries, marshmallows, and apples. The server was very kind to ask us if we were going to pay for UOB so that the chocolate fondue was free… they had no signs for this special so we thought it very nice of them to mention it instead of us paying for it.


Recommend waiting a bit for the chocolate to really heat up… this little candle took a while.


Alex enjoying the FREE chocolate fondue (because of him it was free, he’s the only one with a UOB credit card).

We ended up paying about SGD$40 per person. I think it was a very simple meal but worth it for the experience. My face is feeling a bit oily though from sitting in front of the olive oil pot.

Tomorrow is Friday Foody so will have more to report on another restaurant soon. Just got to survive tomorrow’s work… plus also have to work half-day on Saturday…

Seoul Garden at Takashimaya

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This evening we went to eat steamboat… originally we had planned to go this place at Lucky Plaza on Orchard but when we got there, we found out it has closed. So instead we headed over to Seoul Garden on the 5th floor of Takashimaya. It was the birthday of one of Ron’s classmates so there was a group of us to celebrate.

The place is an all you can eat with BBQ and a small pot for steamboat. On weeknights it’s SGD$17.99 for adults and additional SGD$2.99 for free flow soft drinks. It ended up being SGD$25 per person.

The place had lots of variety of marinated meat, chicken especially… available as Tom Yam, Curry, Teriyaki, Cha Siu, etc. They also have cooked food (which I wouldn’t eat), vegetables, and dessert (fruits, ice cream, shaved iced with ingredients).

The ventilation is quite bad inside so we totally smell like BBQ now. The floor and tables were also wet and sticky, not sure why it was all wet… but be careful when you walk.

We ate very very quickly…

I guess this is a good alternative for BBQ steamboat considering Marina South is closed and East Coast is too far to go for BBQ steamboat.

My favorite was the Tom Yam chicken. Very unique.

Now I’m spending some time searching for good flight deals for our weekend trips… not having any luck right now…

Busy-Busy Work Day

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In Singapore, I notice that a lot of people repeat words… for example, “one one”, “same same”, “can can”… I think it probably comes from Mandarin where they say things like “ganggang” to mean “just recently” (at least that’s what I think it means). Well, not really sure, but you’ll hear my friend Joyce say things like, “that’s a cute one-one” or if a patient asks if the generic of a drug is the same as the brand then I’ll say it’s “same-same”.

Also, another funny thing I’ve noticed, if I haven’t mentioned it already, is that to spell out words, they use countries as examples. Instead of “A” for “Apple” or “B” as in “Boy”, they’ll say “A” as in “America” or “B” as in “Brazil”. I haven’t quite picked this up yet because it’s hard to think of so many countries off the top of your head. “Z” though doesn’t have a country, most people say “Zack”.

But it was a busy busy day at work today and I’m so exhausted. Considering I had my Mandarin class from 7 to 9:30pm today and had to walk home from the MRT, I’m not sure why I’m still up at this hour. I will be heading to bed soon since I’ve got an early day tomorrow. It’s days like this I really miss the convenience of having a car to get from place to place. It’s not fun standing up on the bus and MRT when your legs are already so tired from standing all day long.

Also, I wanted to thank from friends VJ and JL for their wonderful care package that they sent from the US.

As you can see it includes all type of goodies from home… chocolates, Bath & Body Works lotion, bodywash, rubber stamps, Sanrio items (Hello Kitty!)… I was so happy to receive something to remind me of home. They sent it a few weeks back so I’ve been enjoying the bounty 🙂

I think Ron is still jetlagged, he’s already asleep! and snoring, hehehe…

IT Show and Bobby’s Taproom at CHIJMES

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This afternoon we went to the IT Show Singapore 2008 at Suntec Convention Center. It’s a huge show with lots of consumer electronic companies show casing their goods and also selling them. It was the last day today so we thought we might find some good deals…

Unfortunately it was just a crowded mess with everyone pushing and shoving each other around. The deals weren’t that spectacular and the service in general was poor. Admission was free but I don’t understand why people bring their young children and babies, especially those who brought their strollers. It’s so crowded that you feel like a sardine and people are pushing and shoving to get from place to place. It’s especially hazardous trying to board the escalator.

We saw a few cool things like the new Mac Air notebook, the digital SLRs, and these cool mini tablet PCs maybe by Kohjinsha. But the only thing we bought was a optical mouse with retractable cord for Ron.

After making our way through the craziness, we headed to have dinner at CHIJMES, at the restaurant Bobby’s Taproom. It was a restaurant listed in The Popular Food Guide @ Singapore that I mentioned in yesterday’s post. It’s close by City Hall so we walked over there.

It was pretty empty all over CHIJMES so we didn’t have a hard time finding a table. We ordered a round of beers in a jug, unfortunately, the jugs had at least 2 inches of foam on top. I didn’t take a picture to show you but it was quite disappointing, we thought they were trying to cheat us. The first jug we ordered they didn’t top up but the 2nd one, after the foam settled at the top, they removed it and topped it up with more beer. So at least they did that for us.

We shared an appetizer of a pyramid of onion rings served with horseradish sauce.

For the entree, I ordered the rib eye medium rare with green salad and french fries. The rib eye wasn’t as marbled as I’m used to but was alright with the mushroom sauce. I always expect rib eye to much more fatty.

Ron had the pork back ribs with cole slaw and garlic mashed potatoes. This place is supposed to be famous for the meat coming off the bones. From what I tasted, it was like that. The sauce is a bit sweet for my taste, this is when I miss Tony Roma’s with their 4 types of sauce.

But boy am I stuffed now. I’m feeling a bit of food coma right now as I write this but I’m going to be better about updating on time because it’s just too hard to catch up when I’m behind. Ron is already napping but then he also has jet lag still.

Until my next post, I leave you with a photo of my babies when they were babies…

Tiramisu (aka Misu) is in the back, Mochi is in the front. One night last week, I was watching the TV show “Dirt” and one of the characters was giving away kittens, it made me cry… I really miss my kitties some days. I hope to see them again soon and that they’ll remember me.