when my exams are over this post will teach you how to make your own fish-and-pork dumplings at home!

well, i was lazy and didn't make my own dumpling skins, but seriously, when the wet market opposite my house sells these ready made skins that are pretty decent in texture, and for pretty cheap too, there is so little practical motivation

so we will be focusing on the meat filling instead!

watch out :)

Nirai Kanai Okinawan Diner (Liang Court)

D's been bugging me to come here again for the longest time, because the first time we came for dinner, we enjoyed our meal thoroughly but most unfortunately I fell sick (some kind of stomach flu coupled with headaches and nausea) that very night. and as irrational as it is, I'm someone who strongly associates the flavours of the last meal I have before falling sick to the noxious and unpleasant memories of the subsequent illness. logically I don't think it was the food that made me ill, but because the food was good with distinctive flavours, I couldn't forget the smell and tastes of it, and hence it took me awhile to get over my reluctance to return and possibly be reminded of that particularly bad episode of flu.

Anyway, I most definitely do not regret returning again to have more Okinawan fare from them!

D ordered this:

whilst I ordered this:

we sipped on (complimentary) hot Japanese tea, slowly taking in the rustic and retro interior decor whilst waiting for our food.

mine arrived first!! (apologies for this really ugly picture, it was kind of hard to take everything in one shot)

Looks like a carbohydrate fest huh? That's cause it was! The noodles-in-soup were balanced in flavour, noodles done slightly chewy, with some fatty pork cooked to melt-in-your-mouth quality, seaweed and pickled ginger toppings. the rice was mixed with some soy products, mushrooms and not sure what else. As per the set meal, they had pickled radish (which had bonito flakes thoughtfully added in, their dull fragrance and umami flavour nicely juxtaposing against the tangy sourness of the pickles), minced meat with miso paste (D's favourite), and what I believe is their home-made peanut tofu (a rather special little treat I haven't had anywhere else).

I really liked their noodle soup base; it tasted homey, reminding more of Chinese cuisine than Japanese. Though there were only 2 pieces of pork, D and I thought they were very well done and since I wasn't feeling particularly greedy that day, it was quite sufficient.

It was pretty fun alternating between bites of noodles and rice too! 

D's set arrived shortly after mine came

I had a bite of his minced pork and beef patties and quite liked it! He on the other hand said he would have preferred if the meat hadn't been minced (but honestly the description of the dish already stated MINCED, so this isn't a fair gripe at all haha!). I couldn't quite put my finger on what tasted so familiar and comforting in the patty seasoning--D attributed it to it being the same as the one they used to season the beef hamburger patty on our previous visit, but I'm not too sure still (maybe it just reminded me of my mum's own meat patties!! mmmmm~~)

We both left the home-made peanut tofu with ponzu shoyu and minced ginger garnishing, to the last, because though the dressing is savoury, the tofu itself is slightly sweet and kind of dessert-ish:

Now, I had thoroughly enjoyed this little wobbly piece of tofu on our first visit. UNFORTUNATELY!!! The unique combination of the ponzu shoyu's distinctive flavours coupled with the mild sweetness of the peanut tofu had stuck firmly in my mind and this time, once I had a bite of it, I was instantly reminded of the horrid feeling of falling sick shortly after I had eaten this the last time round :( Tragically, this sensory memory seems to be planted very strongly in me, and D had to help me finish off 3/4 of the dish as the very memory made me slightly nauseous. Rest assured though, that this has NOTHING to do with the tofu itself! D really liked it both times round. Unlucky me, oh well...

Once we were done with the food, we paid the bill ($18 per set meal after taxes) and proceeded to explore Meidi-Ya, which is chockful of japanese goodies. 

Barring the fact that Liang Court is quite a walk from Clarke Quay MRT hence not as easily accessible via public transport, I would actually be quite keen to pick up some of their ready-made sushis and bento sets next time!

NIRAI KANAI

#B1-01/02, Liang Court Shopping Centre, 177 River Valley Road

Geylang dinner adventure (Lorong 19 & 26A)

Wednesday evening was a slightly atypical experience for me, as I had the chance to wander around the geylang/aljunied area with 3 other friends (my hostel suite mates from last year), an area I don't frequent as I live in the west and am very spoilt as well as more than content with the food choices we have back there

at the suggestion of C, we decided beforehand to try out a famous claypot rice stall, and after some Google searching plus walking, we found ourselves at Geylang lorong 19, where said claypot rice stall was just at the corner of the road. (I think it was called He Ping. In our excitement I totally forgot to take a photo of the premises :( But it's literally at the corner of the street!)

The auntie who came over to seat us and show us the menu recommended us to order a big claypot rice for 4 pax, as well as some side dishes. however, as we weren't particularly hungry, we only got the claypot rice and no side dishes (partly because we wanted to save stomach space for some tauhuey later)

Because we were rather early for dinner (5:45 I think), and in fact were the earliest dinner crowd arrivals, the claypot came after just around 10-15 minutes of waiting, during which we had a good time chatting and catching up a bit over each others lives (C & YK are gonna be fully fledged pharmacists awfully soon, my gosh!!)

the server auntie emptied out the top layer of the meat ingredients onto a plate.

Afterwhich, she commenced the dousing and mixing of rice in black soy sauce and oil, to get the characteristic dark coloured greasy claypot rice all Singaporeans are familiar with--

We were then left to our own devices and K helped to serve us a bowl of rice each! (there was still some left in the main pot which we had for seconds. portion wise I think its quite decent, unless you are a pubescent teenage boy, you'd probably be satisfied with the amount they give)

I really like how the auntie left the meat ingredients (chicken, 2 kinds of Chinese sausage, salted egg yolk, salted fish) in a platter separate from the rice instead of mixing it all up, as we could then have better control of what we individually wanted to match with our rice (e.g. the salted fish, which is a must-have complement to claypot rice, but needs to be added in small quantities). the salted egg yolk was a nice touch I don't see often in claypot rice, but I just realize they didn't include the usual dried mushrooms most other places usually do!! hmm, maybe that's why I thought this rendition was lacking a certain fragrance..

to be fair though, their chicken was cooked nicely and every piece I had was tender. but besides the novelty of having dinner in a geylang coffeeshop, I probably wouldn't travel all the way here again just for this--there are some pretty good claypot stalls in Jurong already (Jurong West Block 500, Jurong East Block 347 to name a few) Nonetheless, it was definitely not bad and if you're in the area, this could be a dinner option to consider!

next up, we headed off on our search for the good tauhuey YK had mentioned. it was at lorong 26A, and it took us perhaps 5-10 minutes walking from the claypot place. somehow, YK was pretty good at navigation and got us to the right street without too much trouble (it wasn't that straightforward but you can always refer to Google maps!)

tada! hahaha, C was berating me for taking my own sweet time snapping pictures of the stall front whilst crossing the road. (in my defense, I was anxious to get pictures upon realising I had earlier forgotten to photograph the claypot rice stall's premises :( sorry!)

again, the place wasn't too crowded when we arrived, so we got to order rather quickly.

the tauhuey here is made in traditional style (unlike the pudding sort which was all the craze in 2013), and it's very smooth plus light (though from my memory the Rochor road tauhuey is just slightly smoother! can't vouch for 100% accuracy of that statement though, its been awhile since I last had Rochor tauhuey)

one thing special about this place is their salty style tauhuey--toppings of soy sauce, minced meat, chye pok (some dried Chinese vegetable condiment) and what I'm guessing is heibi (dried prawn) powder.

Salty style tauhuey in the front-- it looks very different from regular sweet tauhuey

yummyyy, no regrets about trying something new this time :) thank you C, for the recommendation!

in a way its like super soft silken tofu with typical Asian toppings, and not quite dessert-ish unlike the sweet version. but flavours were so well balanced and whilst I might not come all the way here just for the typical sweet tauhuey, this savoury rendition is worth the travel!! (plus somehow, the tauhuey feels much smoother to the tongue paired with the salty style toppings compared to the one just dressed in sugar solution. I honestly have no idea why though, given that it's the same tauhuey)

YK got the tauhuey in soya milk, which I didn't try, but she seemed pretty pleased with her choice.

no one had good things to say about their dough fritters though-- it looked promisingly puffed up but once we tried it, YK felt it was too airy/holey, C and I felt it was too oil-drenched at the ends. skippable, unless you're the sort who absolutely needs to pair tauhuey with dough fritters!

'twas a memorable evening spent roaming the geylang area with good friends, and if you're up for adventure away from the modern metropolis of town, this area's a promising treasure trove--and it's relatively accessible from the nearby Aljunied MRT station. (I'm so game to explore the other stalls some other time!) 

An average but dependable dinner at Din Tai Fung (313Somerset)

The Sushi Bar (Far East Plaza)

yes I totally get that I'm late to the party but MY OH MY, Sushi Bar serves a mean, no frills chirashi don at just $24.90, a huge steal considering this is what you get:

Sake (salmon), Aburi Sake belly (blow torched salmon belly), ikura (salmon roe), Maguro (lean tuna), Hamachi (yellow tail), Mekajiki (swordfish), hotate (scallop), and tamago (egg), served atop a bed of vinegared sushi rice. divine. especially at just $24.90, the freshness and sweetness of these thick chunky slices is really unbeatable too. shortly after arriving at 2:40, D and I each ordered a bowl of this amazing value-for-money chirashi don. (I think their last order is at 3?)

well, I guess I didn't like the maguro--who ever does? but the aburi salmon belly was emanating the loveliest smoky aroma of torched fats. the swordfish was just the right amount of chewiness with the characteristic fatty flavour. the scallop was very sweet--even D who isn't a fan of raw shellfish actually conceded this time was pretty good. the ikura was taut unlike some unfresh, loose ones I've had elsewhere. and the yellowtail and salmon, whilst not supremely decadent in themselves, were definitely fresh and a good complement to the richness of the salmon belly and fatty swordfish meat.

Look! Globules of soon-to-explode goodness. Want them in my mouth right NOW.

D really liked the vinagared rice too, though we must say the amount of rice seemed a bit on the low side, for a "don" (rice bowl dish). but at the end we were both satisfied.

Obligatory unglam shot of our completely emptied bowls

slightly to our inconvenience though, we only realized that payment was solely by cash term only after the meal, and the amount of cash we had on us was slightly short of what we needed so D had to make a trip to the basement for a DBS ATM. happily, they do not charge a 10% service charge, nor GST--which I feel is rather in line with their casual dining style. this isn't a fancy restaurant with great ambience, but it sure satisfies sashimi and sushi cravings well, without burning huge holes in the wallet.

I've heard good things about their aburi salmon sushi roll, which I won't mind trying if I'm feeling hungrier on a future visit. have also heard that queues can be pretty mad during conventional meal times, so its probably good to stagger your timing if you want to avoid wasting your life on queuing. (the place was actually 3/4 full at 3pm, and I think that's just another testimony to how awesome they have been in establishing their little niche of fuss-free, affordable quality Japanese food)

THE SUSHI BAR

14 Scotts Road ,Far East Plaza #03-89, Singapore, Singapore 228213

Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice (Marina Square)

Monday afternoon, after meeting me at school and helping me carry a ton of stuff back to hall, D wasn't quite sure what he wanted for our extremely late lunch. originally we thought we would go to santouka since I'd a voucher for it, but I randomly mentioned Wee Nam Kee and he suddenly professed a spontaneous craving for some good chicken rice.

so off we headed to our trusty WNK at marina square! this time we knew exactly what to get, having experimented a bit on our previous time here. we are quite the meatlovers, especially him, so we went straight for a half chicken ($16) done in hainanese style, adding chicken liver ($0.50 per portion) and two plates of rice ($0.80 each).

On our previous visit, we also tried soy sauce chicken, which was decent too, but D still prefers the hainanese style (and I have to agree WNK does their hainanese style better than their soy sauce one). That time, we also had their rendition of  sambal kangkong ($8) and I gotta say that was pretty awesome and flavorful too,  so to those of you wanting to get your daily fibre, this is a good pick!

$18+ may seem a tad pricey for chicken rice for two, compared to your hawker centre stalls. but frankly, there is SO much meat to eat if two people share half a chicken (in fact, I think we just ate what would be 4, or possibly 5 portions of the hawker centre chicken rice). So, say you aren't as greedy or carnivorous as us you don't have to get such a big serving! (but hey if you already took the trouble to go to marina square just for WNK, why hold your inner glutton back??).

If you're still unconvinced about paying 4-5x what you normally would for chicken rice, lets reiterate why that mindset could do with some changing: the meat is cooked just right, such that even the breast meat remained fairly moist. Plus, there will be extra chicken soup served at your request and chicken rice condiments are also conveniently placed at every table! And despite the clean environment in addition to serving the dishes to your table, they do not charge an additional service charge or GST, so what you see in the menu is the price you pay. Need I say more?? All in all a very comfortable casual dining experience.

We definitely see ourselves coming here again to satisfy any future chicken rice cravings! Should you want to try WNK too, I'd recommend coming to their Marina Square outlet, which I feel has much better service standards than their Novena Square one, perhaps because it doesn't get quite as crowded here and the wait staff can afford to be more attentive.


WEE NAM KEE CHICKEN RICE
6 Raffles Blvd
#04-102B

Ikkousha Hakata Ramen (Tanjong Pagar)

Ikkousha ramen at Tanjong Pagar is the new kid on the block at the Orchid hotel area, known for affordable and yummy food (well, to be precise, they are opposite Orchid, but it takes less than a minute to cross the road to foodie heaven).

The boyfriend and I have tried out a few other restaurant/eateries at Orchid hotel (Tonkotsu King, Menya Sanji, Two Blur Guys), and one day when we were taking our post-dinner stroll, we had chanced upon Ikkousha, but it had yet to open (sometime back in Nov 2013). Nonetheless he had expressed interest in visiting it, as from his memory this was the winner of 2012's Ramen Champion.

Anyway, Friday night was our second time at Ikkousha, and yes, we did enjoy Ikkousha very much the first time, hence the decision to return in less than two weeks (in fact, we had already had a burger each at Two Blur Guys before trying Ikkousha that day--yes we he is quite the unapologetic glutton--& were still very impressed despite the fact that we weren't hungry to begin with!)

I can't vouch for any of the other flavours as we haven't tried them, but their Tonkotsu broth Ramen ($12) is really good (we had this both times we were there), and frankly, not to put Tonkotsu king down but I do wonder why just across the road people would be willing to form snaking queues requiring at least a half hour wait at mealtimes (hmm, I should have taken a photo!), when Ikkousha ramen exists just a stone's throw away and is soooo yummy!! Maybe Ikkousha is just a well kept secret, or Tonkotsu King's longstanding reputation as a ramen heavyweight still greatly outweighs Ikkousha's promising start, but one thing D and I unanimously agreed on was that the one time we spent queuing for Tonkotsu King was going to be just that--a one off thing. (even if there wasn't Ikkousha, there's still the lovely Menya Sanji and Two Blur Guys just round the corner) To be fair, King isn't bad, I just didn't feel particularly wowed and definitely am not a fan of the queue!

Ooops, I am really too verbose. Lets let the pictures do the talking, as poor in quality they are (yes, only smartphone cameras--I don't believe in excessive food photography before tucking in, so let this be a notice to everyone that all my photos on this blog will just be quick snaps)

gyoza ($5.50++ for 5, but we got it free as they had given us some welcome vouchers to use on future visits, on our first visit) not bad a way to kickstart the meal. D was quite taken to the chilli sauce, which had a really refreshing kick that neither of us could quite pin down to a particular ingredient. however, we both agreed that it was a tad pricy compared to the enjoyment and satiety it provided (Japanese gyozas are always so small compared to their Chinese counterparts, don't you think?!). Whilst we would never reject this as a throw-in gift, we probably wouldn't get it unless we were especially craving gyoza and not feeling too poor on that day

tonkotsu ramen--flavourful broth that hit just the right notes for us! the umami was really balanced and they didn't make it too salty unlike other ramen bars; we were full of praise for their broth. the hakata style noodles were also cooked al dente per our order (I forgot to snap a shot of the ordering chit, but its super personalised and allows you to customize your bowl of ramen to a T), and went well with the soup.  If you are craving meat however, it would be wise to add-on some more slices of chashu, for the basic bowl comes with only one thin slice. I'm not even going to complain though, because the soup is THAT.GOOD. and they have black fungus garnishing, yum!! plus if you're missing your protein, they have free flow boiled eggs, as well as an ongoing promotion of a free ajitsuke tamago (half boiled egg often eaten with ramen) with every 'check-in' on their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hakataikkousha.singapore)

just look at that flowy yolk--their ajitsuke tamagos have been pretty consistent in standard both times we were there, keep it up ikkousha!!

all in all, a really satisfying dinner--broth finished to the last drop and afterwards we never suffered from msg-induced thirst either :)

If you're planning to go, here are some promotions you may want to make good use of (I'm not sure how long it will last though)

• IKKOUSHA RAMEN
• APT/BLK 7 TANJONG PAGAR PLAZA #01-104B
• Singapore, Singapore 081007