Ramen Sant0uka @ Central

Met up with my primary school friends, Hui and Ting, for my birthday celebration and we went to Central for dinner as i want to try out Sant0uka Ramen which Hui felt that it is better than M1haru.... It is a rather small place besides B1lly B0mbers and the place is packed so we have to wait for about 15 mins for a table.

I had Tokusen Toroniku in Shio soup base, this is known to be the best as read from other food blogs as the pork is super tender which i agree. But not sure if i had too much ramen recently, i dont really find it that fantastic.

Hui had Char Siew Shio Ramen as she finds me a little too salty for her taste... As Ting is super late, we finished our food when she reached and given that she is not a ramen fan, we went elsewhere for her dinner and desserts.

We ordered the egg as our Ramen does not come with it, this costs us $1 each and from the looks of it, it is NOT nice at all as it is fully cooked.

We ordered gyoza as our side dish, nothing spectacular... Wanted to eat something else on top of this but apparently their main focus is Ramen, so there is not much side dishes nor desserts...

Thanks Hui for the treat and both of you for the gifts bought for me during your Taiwan trip!

Tanjobi Omedetou

There is only one day in a year other than xmas and new yr when you will get tonnes of messages over night... Woke up early in the morning even though i am on leave and saw 7 unread messages on my phone, followed up by those phone calls and msgs throughout the day. Thanks to all for remembering =)

Had my birthday celebration with cousins last week and here's that i have got from them.... Assorted birthday cakes from Goodwood park and capitaland vouchers coz they have no idea what to get for me.

Colleagues also celebrated my bdae for me and from the pic, you can know how old i am this year =) oh mine, three more years i will hit the 30s. I was given the choice to chose my own cake so i got myself a Passion Fruit Meringue from Pattisier which i simply love and all thanks to taya for making the way down to Ann Siang to collect it.

Last yr, i told them that it was my last birthday year being single and this year they were telling me that this is my last birthday before a new addition. Times really flies.

BE bot me this for my bdae present as i have always wanted a white watch to wear for my weekends and he also planned the itinery for this special day.

We went to Orchard in the afternoon to do some more shopping before i become too clumsy and had Pepper lunch for lunch - i simply love their beef steak (previously known as Shimofuri beef) as it is tender even after having it well-done as it has marble fats in the meat.

Then we went around shopping at DFS, Scotts Isetan, Taka for my diaper bag... When we were at Agnes B, Junie appeared and gave me a surprise shout, it was so loud that most of the ppl in the shop knew that it was my bdae. It was such a sweet touch as she managed to get BE's mobile and liaise with him to find out my whereabouts so that she can appear in front of me with Hokkaido eclairs. As it is still early for her appt, she joined us for shopping and tea at a cafe in Taka (Royal something...) Never really notice the existence of this place which is just besides Burberry level 2.

BE specially made dinner appt at Gr@ze located at Rochester Park as it is known to have nice ambience.

Outside
Inside

Love the outside but given the humid weather condition, we had a seat inside with aircon instead. Their service is recommendable as i was given a pillow to support my back which is so thoughtful of them. Before deciding on what to eat, we were asked if we will like to have sparkling or still water so we had still water instead still water which costs us $9 *ouch*. For dinner, I chose an entree of duck liver pate and wild mushroom risotto and BE had crispy hand-rolled pork hock. Both of us didnt find the food fantastic, not sure if this is bcoz we went there with a full stomach? or it is really not nice? We decided to give their dessert a try and chose Chocolate Creme Brulee which is not too bad but a little too sweet for his liking.

Our verdict - super nice ambience only and this is how I spend my special day..........

世上只有妈妈好

Have you ever wonder why we can be so rude or inpatient to our parents especially our dear mother even though we know that they are so dear to us and they are really doing things for our own good?

-------> Coz we are taking them for granted

I always know that i have a very good, patient, no temper mama but she is just a little blur blur and silly. Given her virtues, we tend to bully her as we know that she will not scold us back or be angry but she will definitely be hurt and sad as she is a 容易受伤的女人 just like me. She will keep her anger and sadness to herself and maybe weep when no one is around. Sometimes i really feel rather remorseful seeing her like that..... Anyway this hardly happens nowadays as i know that being a mother is not easy and I tend to treasure her more. Plus the fact that I dont stay with them anymore, I love and miss her more.

For all the wednesday dinners she is preparing for us, i know that she is a perfect mama always put others before her - thinking of what to cook for me and BE so as to ensure that it suits our taste and we will have enough food. Our meal will always come with at least 3 main dishes with a soup and desserts or snacks after meal.

Recently i was complaining to her of the washing for baby clothes and she asked me to bring all over for her to wash which i find the statement super sweet and touching. How will i bear to see her doing all these chores for me when it shld be my turn to take it up?

I also chat with Junie abt it and she has the same sentiments as well.... Guess all mamas are rather poor thing....

Bottomline - we must learn to treasure them before we regret.

Junie's super belated birthday

Junie's birthday was early this month but didnt manage to catch up with her for celebration till today.... Was cracking my brains about what to get for her??? Since we will be meeting at Gallery hotel to have Miharu ramen, i suddenly recall tat there is this nice looking chocolate place at Central ---- Gobi so i check out their website. They have alot of mouth-watering pictures on their website and i decided to make a trip there before dinner.

Here's what i have gotten for her - a 12pcs box

From the left - Dark Angel, Smell the Rose, Sweet Something, Cupid, Love Boat, Opera

Even though this is for her bdae present, she is nice enough to share some with me, we had the dark angel (nice not-to-sweet chocolate cake), Sweet Nothing (i love this as the strawberry is fresh and it blends well with the macarons), Cupid (cannot really figure out what is this but guess it might be cheese cream with some flavouring?), Opera (not bad) and the mini macarons (nothing to wow about but nice).... In the end, she had only 7 left to bring home to enjoy hehe thanks Junie.

Actually meeting up with her is more of catching up as we have endless things to talk about so food for this time round is not the main focus. Anyway here's what we had...

Pork Belly which looks so oily and yucky but it doesnt taste like what it seems perhaps bcoz i am a fat lover.

Gyoza - nothing special but not bad as well.



Junie had cold ramen as recommended by her colleague as it has a more QQ feeling which i agree but she also tried to explain that it has a very "mee" taste which i am still trying to understand hehe


I had the Tonkotsu Ramen, something diff from the previous time but i cannot rem the differences between the two. Frankly speaking, didnt find it as nice as the first time i had their ramen maybe bcoz i have too little soup and too much mee and ingredients so in the end, my soupy mee becomes mee-gia dry (maybe becoz Junie took a couple of slurp as she prefers mine to hers hehe).

Then we waited at Gallery hotel till BE picks us up while we chat and chat again.....

Euro2008

Didnt really know that i can be soccer frantic till recently.... think partially is for the fun of it and partially trying to earn some milk powder money haha but in the end, i didnt make any as the dark horses win for most of the times.

Stayed up late for the Italy vs Romania with BE's friends drinking at home and tot Italy will win but they got a draw instead. There shld be one additional goal for Italy just before the half time but somehow or another the referee think otherwise and said it is an offside. haizzzz super irritating.... Anyway I got a laugh out of this match as the players in the same team bump onto each other with their head and caused one to be sent out due to his injuries and the other one to have a big plaster on his forehead. haha

The very first thing i will do each morning is to switch on teletext to check out the scores... I tot Portugal will win Germany but in the end, Germany defeated Portugal with 3-2. What happened? No more Christiano Ronaldo who earns GBP 20,000 per week with abt SGD 1000 per hour if i got the figures correct.

Next is the Croatia vs Turkey match... in terms of skills and the scores from previous matches, the former is so much better but think they are simply unlucky as most of the "expected" goals either hit the pole or got saved by the goal keeper. This match is the most exciting one which i have seen as they score a goal each at the very last minute of extra time and leads to penalty kickoff with turkey going into semis. I managed to watch the exciting last bit as i was awoken by BE who tried to cover me with blanket.

So from now on, only "pure" watching....

Swisscafe at Raffles City

Finally got a chance to meet up with Michie and Daffy.... after a previous aeroplane session due to work =) This time round, i manage to meet them but was late as usual... but it is not my fault. They wanted to see me in the balloon state before it got deflated next mth haha.

They walked ard and decided to go for this Swisscafe located in Raffles City. This place looks nice with the high ceiling and cosy ambience.

Here's the menu - we can go for either an appetiser with main course or dessert with main course @ $33 or an appetiser with main course and dessert @ $45. We had a hard time deciding what to eat especially for me as i try to stay away from those with liquor.

Me and michie had snails.... escargots with toast.... it is really yummy and the toast is good as well. Didnt really like bread but i can say that the toast blends well with the garlic sauce from the escargots. Definitely nicer than the French Stall with a much better presentation.

As for main course, i choose Tenderloin with mashed potatoes - really tender and fresh.

Michie had veal (baby cow) with cream sauce and rosti. Tender young cow but gets a little sick with the cream sauce at the end of her meal with a little too salty rosti which i think it tastes more like hashbrowns.

Daffy had veal as well but hers is veal rolled with bacon and some other ingredients with red wine sauce and rissoto to accompany her meal. Prefer hers to Michie's one as i simply love Rissoto (western style muay fan)

Daffy didnt had appettiser as she chose a dessert instead - Toberlone chocolate cheese cake. Looks yummy and tastes good also...

Had a great time catching up with them... i love such gatherings but given the change in status, work and family, it is really difficult to schedule a perfect time for everybody. After dinner, Michie was nice to send me home even though i no longer stay in the NE after picking up her "slightly" tipsy hubby.

Popeyes @ Sing@pore Flyer

Have been a fan of popeyes chicken since ah di introduced to me few years back when i had my first bite at airport terminal outlet.... but the place is a little out of the way unless we are going overseas or to fetch or send someone off.

One day, we realised that there is another outlet at Sing@pore Flyer... yuppie felt so happy so we decided to mark it down as one of our dinner venue. Dint really find the flyer spectacular especially after being on Londoneye as the cabin looks so insignificant and not really equivalent to the size of the wheeler however you will have a different feeling when you step onto the flyer building and have a full view of the flyer from the bottom, it looks not too bad after all.

The inside of the building is the Yakult forest, which is in lined to what our country is known for - clean and green... At the basement, there is another outlet for Seafood Paradise which is one of my fav seafood place with the creamy crabs.

But we chose this for dinner instead as this is what we are here for... We ordered the combo set of chicken and prawns and i prefer this place to the airport's as it is not so cramped and most imptly, it serves maple syrup as it goes well with the biscuit but the service was a little too slow.