年年有余 in celebrations for Abundance through the year

I've probably had ten of these in the 15 days of the Lunar New Year.

And they came in all shapes and sizes with different people groups.

But this.
Was 年年有很多鱼!
Bountiful set for 4-6 persons with 18 slices of salmon.

With add-ons of 12 slices of salmon and kajiki.
Each.

Do the math.
That's 42 slices.
Yes?
Indeed.

There's a lot of camaraderie in the tossing of colorful fresh and preserved vegetables alike.

And then you mumble some awkward random chinese prosperity phrases.

But when people just play with the vegetables on the surface, you know some massive help is needed.

Like that.

Otherwise, somebody's gonna end up eating a whole blob of sweet plum sauce.

There's just a lot of fish in there.

And as the chinese saying goes,

my dining partners insisted that we keep one slice of fish aside.

Hopefully that little slice bodes well for us four in the year 2014 :)

Putting size into perspective with the lemon wedge.

These were baby sized shisamos.

I have never seen them like that.

And frankly,

we were hardly pleased.

The hanasaki ika tempura was also more batter than anything actual squid.

I don't know what went wrong there.

Thankfully we had these edamame peas that were faultless.

And really the saving grace after our massive tossed salad.

It was a miss that night at Ichiban Boshi Ngee Ann City.

But I'll be back again.

And see how all that goes.

For the love of affordable Japanese food and the expanse of space and high ceilings at this outlet situated so conveniently in the heart of town.

To a great year of the Wooden Horse ahead!

祝大家年年有鱼!

Ichiban Boshi (kamameshi) - The Centrepoint

Appetizers

          

       Ideally, this would have been crispy parcels, piping hot and bursting with juices.

But of course one could dream.

These hotplate gyozas had skin that was too thick. Moderately chewy and crisp only at the edges. :(

But biting into these little parcels revealed orange pieces of shrimp meat which really impressed me.

I thought it might have been minced.

Savoury meets sweet drizzled teriyaki sauce.

Appetite's awake now :)

They no longer have zosui on their teatime offers.

Although I was looking forward to some soupy comfort from zosui,

why not make it some rich soupy comfort.

I was pleasantly surprised that they were now offering hokkaido soup curry udon. :)

And just look at the descriptions!

Mozza cheese.

Oh my!



Can't wait! :)

*takes a small sip

Oh. That's. Comfort. Alright.

Curry soup.

Curry cubes mixed into chicken soup stock?

Eggplant, okra, lotus root, cabbage and a patterned shiitake mushroom.

Half an egg with a yolk that wasn't -quite- cooked.

And beef slices topped with mozza cheese bits.

I had a lot of fun pulling at this stringy cheesy mess.

Udon that was chewy and went very well with the richness of the gravy.

The only grouse I had was that my beef slices were a tad overcooked.

But for $5 inclusive of green tea,

this was totally my idea of a teatime treat!

Especially after a traumatic dental visit. :(

 

And for the first time in all my years,

I set foot into Alley bar.

On a weekday afternoon.

Being part of this happy hour that seems so much a routine of these patrons I see around me.

And my friends of course.

Downing pints of ice cold Tiger on a hot sunny afternoon.

And I look for my respite in ice cold water.

Drinks right? :)

And today I had a thought.

That smokers have terribly bad eyesight or this amazing ability to ignore what they don't want to see.

I don't get how I could bring a pack of anything with such pictures around with me.

Much less smoke.

Don't get me wrong.

It's from my smoker friend.

But I'd hang out with him all the same.

He says.

Don't touch.

Your hands will smell like burning leaves, rotting logs and all those disgusting garbage dump smells.

:)

ichiban boshi @ novena square

This is the only outlet that I've seen kushiyaki items available.

They aren't cheap so I haven't made the decision to try them yet but perhaps one day when I'm feeling peckish and want a bit of everything :)

It's been a long week. Too much and too long, it gets to be a little overwhelming.

If you only knew that I would do everything to change the events of the week.

On a Friday night, after many paper cuts and a pile of marking done,

I needed something that would be light yet sufficient for a dinner meal.

Serendipity in a paper hotpot. :)

This was new on the menu. The option of a salmon/ beef kaminabe for $13.90 or a seafood/ hotate kinoko kaminabe for $17.90 if I don't remember wrong. The usual options at the AMK Hub outlet are limited to only the hotate kaminabe and a spicy kimchi one. Hmm.

Anyhow, this was just what I was looking for without even realising it.

The soup came filled with an assortment of vegetables and a lone shitake. If it were up to me, I'd slice up the mushroom. Making it seem like more. No one really bothers to cut up the mushroom for sharing. 

The beef slices were marbled just enough to give those slices a tender juiciness when cooked. Accompanied by a piquant yuzu radish dip, it opens up the appetite immediately. I liked the soup. It didn't taste like dashi. Perhaps it was chicken stock. Light with a hint of sweetness enhanced by the flavour that was imparted by the beef slices gently cooked in the broth. :)

With my pumpkin croquette and aburi maguro sushi, this was a good dinner.    

Then of course, there were desserts. At $2.90, Udders runs a waffle deal that is affordable yet tasty. If I had a choice to share, I'd do waffles in a heartbeat. :) I wouldn't be greedy enough to polish off a waffle and ice cream on my own. A single scoop of Bailey's Irish Cream and one of Snickers, Mars and Honeycomb Vanilla. Balancing the alcohol content with chocolate and sugar to reduce my risk of alcohol induced rash. :) Udders at United Square. Hmm. Grab the only sofa seat in the house for an improved experience.

ichiban desho :)

A new & updated menu.

Prices have also been accordingly revised.

I didn't see the salmon mentaiko but I did see my assorted sashimi gozen back on the menu.

Dinner with my cell for a birthday celebration.

9 days after the birthday and the celebrations are still on. :)

Makes it so much easier to love growing older, together with my friends at cell. <3

It was a brilliant change to my usual orders.

Ponzu sauce on my aburi salmon was not what I fancied. But the problem was the sauce. The salmon? Fresh. :)

The black peppered dory slices were thin and when fried, didn't let you taste much of fish at all. The wagyu beef steak was sublime. Kept hot throughout the meal, the slices were medium rare. Tender. Juicy enough with its fat content. That special sauce was salty but ohsoaddictive. Makes you want to ask for MORE rice but no, I stopped myself. From rice. But not from eventually finishing up the sauce.

Thank goodness for hot green tea!

Everything else on the set was the same.

And how do they always manage to have watermelon slices that taste so sweet!

Thanks for the love. In all those little ways.

zumba & an ichiban monday

Happy shiny me! With my fave sweatpants and after brisk walking over from Balestier Hill Primary School to Orchard Central for a zumba class at zestykickz @ OC #05-31. :) it's a WNS (womennsports) trial class that was some awesome fun. I've been to zumba twice already. Once at true fitness that had a really fun instructor- xiaowei. She tells you what to do and tries her best to make sure you can do it while having loads of fun letting loose, singing, dancing, screaming. The other time was a mass zumba party that ended up to be a mess. Literally. People stepping all over you, punching you. It was fun but. Too much body contact could kill someone. Terribly organization. Anyhow, this time, it was non-stop action with our argentinian instructor. Very little talk, different types of zumba actions, at least 10 different tracks and an awesome nonstop one hour workout with proper warm ups and proper cool downs. She doesn't rush you one bit. Just makes sure you enjoy it. All zumba peeps are fun loving. It's a passion that shines through them.

And then there was dinner. Ichiban Boshi @ Centrepoint with my dive girlfriends. Updating me on work and their love lives. Aww. How nice it is to be young. :p And yup, there's an oily treat for a post-zumba workout dinner indeed. Pumpkin croquette. Complete with my spicy thousand island-ish dip and tonkatsu sauce. It's a 50-50 reason why I ordered this many a time. It's the pumpkin and it's the sauce :) and my aburi maguro and spring fever. That's dinner for me.

Still feeling good from the leftover adrenaline pump today chasing away those Monday blues. Looking forward to zumba on wednesday! :)

going jap on a sunday

I can't remember if it was just this year alone that I introduced the family to japanese cuisine. Of course we aren't talking the likes of kaiseki style japanese cuisine nor just sushi because both my parents don't take too well to raw fish or raw food of any kind really.

It started out with dad watching Japan Hour faithfully every sunday on CNA. He looks at the servings of food and prettily plated dishes and go Oiiishii! -just for the heck of it- If I brought those things to the table, he probably wouldn't touch them if they were raw. His idea of japanese food is. Bento Sets. I refuse to go to Japan to just eat bentos. Yes there are nice bentos. But then there's Tsukiji and the most awesome cuts of sashimi. I am NOT missing out on that just because he doesn't eat them.

Well so I was saying. In this year alone, we've started out on ichiban boshi and watami. The latter less well received than the former. Not just on quality and price but also on service. In all these three respects that add up to one's dining experiences.

Guess the odd one out?

The rents are planning for a trip to Japan next year on their own. And we don't think it's a good idea. For all the reasons listed above. Oh the horrors of eating bentos everyday. Or Oden. That's his saving grace. Dad likes sumo style hotpots. :) So dinner was from top left clockwise: unagi tamago don for mum, tori wazen with cheese on the side for dad and nigel's kimchi buta nabe with barely a hint of kimchi and very thinly sliced buta. We're always at the amk hub branch and the faces of the employees haven't seen much of a change. New staff yes but old staff have stayed and they are always chirpy cheerful. Says a lot about staff morale and a good working environment.

Did you guess the odd one out? The spicy salmon sushi! Not just for being the only gunkan sushi but also from Nihon Mura instead. That was lunch for me. Going jap on a Sunday! :)

And what were your food choices on a Sunday?

we're going to the zoo!

 The Splash Safari show at 1030am. :) Phillip the sea lion says hi with a flipperstand!

Feeling a little hungry after the show, we headed over to Ah Meng cafe for a quick bite. 

 And oh boy, was it a quick bite. The Dim Sum combination came at a pricey $9.80- for a personal basket of dim sum items consisting of a charsiew (roasted pork) bun, 2 siew mais (pork dumplings), 2 har gows (prawn dumplings) and a crystal pau (with turnip and black fungus). None of them were edible. Neither was the small bowl of chicken porridge accompanying the bamboo steamer of dim sum. The good news however, was that the other local treats on offer, the laksa and nasi lemak looked and smelt a lot better from what my nasal senses have gathered from the neighbouring table. :)

On to the next show at the Asian Elephants at work and at play. That's my hand with a banana treat :)

This area was made up of small little huts, probably 5 of them and they were brimming with enthusiastic tourists or employees of Far East Organization at their Family Day Event at the Zoo.

We got our chance at up close and personal after the show which we had to watch while standing up since there weren't any seats left. But happy campers we were. For $5 a basket, we had an assortment of carrots, apples, bananas to feed the elephants.

 And we caught our third and final show of the day, The Rainforest Strikes back, right where we started at the Shaw Amphitheatre. Since it was raining, we stayed on for the photo taking sessions with the cast of the show, including a pretty gentle snake. It was a first for me. And nothing like the usual cold leathery feel. It was cooler than I for sure and smooth to the touch. Nothing traumatic. Look at how pleased I was! :D

My dinner offering was a Salmon Cheese :) Still unable to bite much. If at all.

Pop's Ten-Don. :) Perhaps not the healthiest choice for a 9pm late dinner. But he enjoyed it.

And Mop's Chicken Katsu Don. Not healthy either. It was a real treat to a ravenous woman though. ;)

 And what may this be? Shredded KFC. I have 12 of these chicken pieces in my fridge and I'm thinking of cooking some chicken congee for tomorrow's lunch. :) My idea of a healthy KFC diet.

And if you thought just a Salmon Cheese was too sad for a dinner, I'm happy with my mashed potatoey goodness back home! :)

Semi-liquid diet for now.