Cards From My DD

Below are some cards which my dd drew for me during our courtship days. As you can see, not only is he artistic, he can also be quite a poetic romantic. I especially love his quirky poems which never fails to make me laugh.

An Average Lunch @ Bishamon

After collecting my new passport and IC on Saturday, I suggested to my dd that we should check out the newly renovated Bugis Junction basement for lunch. We came upon Bishamon Sappora Ramen and decided to give it a try.

The waitress who served us had good customer service skills. Smiley all the way, polite and I noticed that she was even willing to bring a bowl from the kitchen to show the customer next to us when they enquired about the size of their ramen.

Both of us ordered the Special Miso Ramen ($13.90) and shared a side dish of Pork Katsu ($6.90). We were "forced" to ordered beverages as they do not serve ice water, so we had green tea, which is refillable.

The Special Miso Ramen came with toppings of one slice of char siu, corn kernels, bamboo shoots, shredded spring onions and the Japanese style soft boil egg. Though the ramen was served hot, and we could see steam wafting out of the bowl, it was not HOT enough. It should be served so hot that you need to blow before you can take your first sip of the soup. The ramen was too thick and springy for my liking. Though the egg's yolk was nice, thick and watery, the rest of the egg was not cooked perfectly. My egg was not properly peeled and had alot of "craters" instead of being a smooth oval shape. Bits of the egg white was not set and there were still some of the translucent uncooked egg white as I bit into the egg. Their saving grace in this dish was that the soup was flavourful.

The Pork Katsu came with a side salad and Thousand Island Dressing. Unfortunately, though the top side of the katsu was crispy, the bottom was soggy due to the water from the salad. And the slice of pork was not as thick as we were led to believe from the menu. Luckily, HSBC credit card holders have 50% discount for side dishes, so it only cost us $3.45, so I guess that's quite alright then.

Overall, it is an eatery that serves passable Japanese food. Not a place that I would deem a repeat visit.

Yummy Lunch @ Astons

Astons Specialities (The Cathay)

2 Handy Road, #04-03 The Cathay, Singapore

As my dd and I were deciding on a place for lunch while having out haircut, my hairstylist recommended that we try this new steak place over at The Cathay. Apparently one of his customers was raving about how good and value for money the steak was. Since we are catching a movie there later that afternoon, we decided to check this place out.

Only after I decided to write a review about this restaurant, did I realise that this Astons is the one I read so much about along East Coast Road. Despite being located in The Cathay (which I personally think it’s a dead town if not for the cinema upstairs), Astons enjoys a steady stream of customers throughout the hour I was dining there. Furthermore, it was a Monday afternoon. But I think they do expect a queue during peak hours (ie. dinner and weekends) as there is a queue stand outside the restaurant.

We ordered the Prime Ribeye. For $13.90, we also get to choose from a selection of 2 side dishes (hot/cold). We had the Pasta Salad & BBQ Beans and Coleslaw & Baked Potato. The steak was done as we ordered (Medium Rare), it was not tough and quite juicy. Came with a light brown colour sauce, not sure what it was and it tasted bland and looks diluted so we gave that a skip. The sides were generally alright. Though the pasta salad was more of a pasta than salad as it only has 5 thin slices of green pepper. As we were paying at the Cashier counter, we noticed that they also have an alfresco dining area as well. Overall, we are quite satisfied with the taste and portion of the food. Value for money.

The only gripe I have about this place is that we had to pay 30cents for a glass of water. What’s up with restaurants that still charge for water? The money I spent on food does not even cover one glass of tap water???!!!

My First Blog Entry...

Been procrastinating about setting up a blog for the longest time and I finally did it. This blog will be a space for me to share my experience, thoughts and pictures of the food I have eaten or cooked, special occasions and the nice places I have been to. I just hope I will presevere and continue posting and not give up halfway through.