over another weekend - sumo house amk and hokkaido men-ya kaiko

nobody cooked at home on friday, so she suggested heading to sumo house for dinner.

as usual, she ordered teriyako salmon bento, and he ordered tempura udon.

other side-dishes were shishamo and e-tako.

fried shishamo - 5 for $2


tempura udon - naruto, anyone? $4.90


total damage was around $18 dollars.


then on saturday, it seemed that badminton was cancelled. headed out to town, and was reminded of ws' recommendation of "true hokkaido ramen". to finishing quoting him, "food from small stall at restaurant price". hokkaido men-ya kaiko.

ordered pork ramen with red miso. $16.80. had wanted to order the chicken with white ramen, but she was against it. 2 or 3 large slices of pork in it, noodles were springy, and the soup was flavourful without being too salty.


sides, sides! skipped the large-as-thumb corn, but ordered the seasoned egg. similar to braised egg, but this was really well-flavoured throughout. $1.


total damage including other charges amounted to $20.95. a bowl of noodles. just for once, not for returns.

it seemed the japanese chef was coaching filipina service staff, probably to take over the manning in future for lesser running costs. the lady cashier wasn't too nice to them, however this "emil" waiter was really considerate, smilingly volunteered to bring them another set of eating utensils and bowl when he saw that they had only ordered a bowl of ramen.

midweek at ichiban sushi

he had taken leave to settle some of her issues. once done, they headed to IMM with the vision of raiding the largest local daiso.

however, her weakness for sushi acted up, and they had to do a pit-stop at ichiban sushi.

some non-refillable berry float that she ordered. cost most than $5. his refillable green tea cost a mere $1.


unagi - one of their favourites. $2.10 for 2 portions (excluding various charges)


tobiko and ebiko - had wanted to order ikura too, but she found it too expensive.


scallop - cold and chewy, not the stuff that she likes. he loves to eat shellfishes though, glad to have had both of them.


crispy lobster salad - cold stuff on top, but the crispy roll was quite nice.


another of their favourites - e-tako. portions seem a bit too slight.


yet another dish that they can't resist. he likes them breaded, however, she likes them roasted. $5.50 for 4?


beancurd roll - food that she likes.


somehow, the bill amounted to $40+. he felt like someone had just punched his head. 99c sushi next time.

service was ok, the auntie who served them was quite polite, except that she coughed without covering her mouth.

monday brunch 21 Sep 09

this day's a holiday replacement for hari raya puasa which fell on sunday.

this gave him another reason, in addition to bodyaches from exercises, to sleep in.

woke up to no prepared food, but luckily he had bought hotdog buns, cheese pork sausages, cheese and cucumbers.

steamed the sausages for a good ten minutes, chopped cucumbers in elongated form, wrapped cheese around the piping hot sausage and stuffed them into the sliced buns. topped with tomato sauce, and good to eat.

a peek of brunch today:

grill and pasta re-visited 20 Sep 09

still feeling sore about not being able to eat mussels spaghetti the previous day, he agreed to go back for more upon her suggestion.

they reached sembawang hill food centre at around 2pm, and guess what, the mussels spaghetti just ran out. what luck. in the end, she settled for carbonara, and he, vongole.

carbonara - re-lived the sinful creamy sensation. after she finished, he lapped up the cream sauce, talk about scavenging. around $6?


vongole ($6?) - looked a little bland at first, but it enjoyed it fully. serving of clams was very generous, well-cleaned, fresh and sweet. spoke to the chef about not being able to eat mussels spaghetti on 2 consecutive days, and the chef laughed and said he remembered him visiting yesterday. oh well, perhaps next weekend.

badminton day 20 Sep 09

woke up to an sms from lk to have lunch at nyp macdonald's. however, he had stocked bread, chicken franks, and cucumbers, so it was to be brunch at home.

opened up a pack of 10 chicken franks, wrapped with aluminium foil and put them into the steamer. threw some chinese steamed buns in to accompany the chicken franks, too. since everyone was at home, he decided to cut the franks into halves, such that it would seem like more for each to eat. a half would meet almost the length of one slice of bread anyway, though the intention was to expedite consumption of the bread.

halved chicken franks saying hello


steam buns - 3 yam buns, 1 char siew bun. his favourite's in focus, while she had the rest of them.



after badminton, he suggested that they go for this mussel spaghetti at sembawang hill food centre, along thomson road. stall name's "grill and pasta". recommended by ws and seemed highly rated online too. 5 people strong team headed out there, very hungrily.

tomato based mussel spaghetti - only $5 !! 3 of them had this version. the tomato sauce had substance, not the usual watery ones they had. and the mussels, around 10 of them for each serving. yummy. his mouth is watering again. see that gaping mussel? asking for it.....


cream based mussel spaghetti with extra cheese $6 (extra 50c for cream sauce and 50c for extra cheese). one of them ordered this, and the aroma was tiltillating. it had the whole table regret not opting for the cream sauce. again, the sauce was really thick and creamy, very very sinful.


he as usual, went for aglio. the least oily offering that he tried so far, and it was very fragrant even though it had less garlic as compared to others. this had linguine instead of spaghetti. actually, he had wanted to change it to mussels spaghetti but the stall ran out of stock. was feeling down-hearted, but this aglio really made him happy with his choice. only $3.50


sz spotted a taiwanese eatery's banner shouting "salt baked chicken", so they headed there to continue the expedition.

it was a quaint little shop, with only 2 tables occupied when they were there. few shops down, ivin's had a lot queue.

after they got seated, they placed orders for taiwanese beef noodle, salt-baked chicken, oyster mee sua and guo tie.

while waiting, they had dried beancurd strips (correction?) and braised peanuts, some of the tidbits you have in a chinese restaurant before food is served.


then came their beef noodles - $6.80. noodles were still springy, soup was good, beef was tender (seems like brisket). he liked it, but not as much as the gooey version.


next up - salted crispy chicken. it seemed that they mistook the chinese word and thought that it was another dish. disappointed looks around the table. $6.50 for this. the group concurred that it tasted like popcorn chicken.


oyster mee sua followed soon after. $6.80. there were probably 4-5 oysters, you'll see one peeking out from the bottom of the picture. two of them had been to taiwan and tried the famous oyster mee sua, and they felt disappointed with this.


finally, the last dish was served piping hot. guotie (pan-fried dumplings). it probably cost in the region of $6.50 too. they were pleasantly suprised to see the skin served as one whole piece, a first for most of them. the skin was crispy and tasty, while the guo tie still had some soup in them when he bit in. yummy.

cafeteria il lido on friday 18 Sep 09

she saw this article in the newspapers, which recommended food from cafe il lido at suntec city. bugged him to dine out on friday, and there they went to try the spaghetti.

clam spaghetti aglio for him - she found it ok, but it didn't have that fresh, sweet seafood taste.


creamy salmon spaghetti for her - she slurped up everything, finished faster than him, even though her portion came later. seems like thumbs up. one minor complaint from him is that the salmon slices seemed stingy.


minute steak - they still felt hungry after the spaghetti. pounded till thin, meat was lean, but their verdict's that they still preferred chunky steaks or (fatty) beef shabu shabu. something special was that the fries tasted like they were made from sweet potatoes, a refreshing change.


service-wise, waiters and waitresses were very attentive and polite. made dining really comfortable.

not forgetting the damage :

home made food (with love)

from the archives again.

here's the latest, something that she made for him, using a heart-shaped mould ($2) bought from daiso. egg placed upon a slice of black pepper ham, waiting to enter his "gastruniverse".


the following few pictures would be from between 1-2 years back when he was still trudging through university. the only ways of relieving stress would be to go cycling with the camera, or to cook for the camera. it's quite obvious which won his favor. most of them were made after midnight, the time when "nothing is right in his left brain and nothing is left in his right".

sunny-side ups - gotta have them still hot, pass the dark soy sauce please!


"together we'll be" - an idea popped out of nowhere while peeling prawns. these were the 2 that formed up the nicest. the other 2 were hidden underneath the parsley, that explains the amount used. the onions made his eyes bleed tears... but revenge came soon after.


the love for eggs made him try a pizza/pancake-style egg with toppings of chopped onions with cheese that didn't melt too nicely. garnished with finely chopped spring onions. you can see that the egg was too dry....


second try of the pizza-style egg. was better prepared this time round, used chicken franks, crab-meat sticks and cherry tomatoes. too much eggs in his diet, most people say. but he just loves eggs.


melted cheese omelette with chopped onions. ingredients were limited and cash was low. just settled for anything that could be thrown in for a delicious break from mugging. this time round, the cheese just wouldn't stop melting.


there came a time when he got sick of just eggs. he tried to pan-fry noodles with custom-made sauce. sounds dangerous, but luckily it was palatable.

dinner at chutneys

they decided to try north indian cuisine as recommended by a particular ws. headed to food republic at wisma, got seated at chutney's and ordered mango lassi.

mango lassi - $3.50


lassi's picture looks dark as they were not seated under direct lighting. while sipping the thick lassi and enjoying the burst of sweet-sour flavour, she noticed a group leaving the restaurant and asked for a change in tables. to which the staff obliged, albeit looking a little unwilling. understandable.

now, they had a nice lamp above them, creating a nice ambience. lovely for them, and good for more photographs.

the lighting


he vaguely remembered ws speaking of chicken-tikka-something, and the match on the menu was chicken tikka masala. the waitress explained to him that tikka had a cream base while masala was tomato based. when asked, she also further recommended the tomato-based lamb rogan josh. with trust, it was added to their list. butter naan was also ordered as a staple as they had never tried that before.

butter naan with chicken tikka on it. naan cost $3. looks a little thicker than prata, tasted very doughish.


orangey cream base chicken tikka masala - $10. meat was tender even though they got chicken breast in the serving. the sauce was very salty, though.


reddish tomato base lamb rogan josh - $12. on hindsight, it seemed ws had mentioned the mutton melts in the mouth. he was almost right. again, the sauce was very salty.


finished the naan but still had quite a bit of meat and sauce remaining. too salty to continue, so he beckoned to the waitress and ordered saffron rice - $6.50. bits of salt crystals were found in it, and she gave up. poor him, had to clear the food as though his belly was like a blackhole.


and finally, the damage for the day.

super sandwich

easy to make, nutritious to eat, so he thinks. he forgot to take a picture of those that she had made the other day. but here is what he loves to eat, super sandwich. woke up late and had it around 2pm today.

victims of the day (eats 2):
6 slices of toasted bread
4 slices of cheese - ntuc fairprice housebrand
4 slices of picnic ham - budget brand from ntuc fairprice xtra
2 crunchy malaysian tomatoes (really good!) - 4 for $2
2 eggs

missing from this list would be cucumbers, which he finds adds more crunch to the sandwich.

the protagonist

spaghetti cravings

some stuff from the archives.

no pasta connoiseurs, but they just love spaghetti.

went for very late brunch one particular afternoon. settled for cafe cartel, ordered 2 sets of pork ribs, honey and crispy, and another carbonara. total bill came up to $40+, as usual, his heart bled.

some aglio from the menu - had chunks of mushrooms and chicken. why was it good? because she enjoyed it even when she really dislikes noodles.


his crispy pork ribs - the one on the plate, not the one who's out of focus. came with a small portion of aglio too. though he enjoyed the spaghetti, he felt sick after the 2nd rib. crust was crispy, but the inside was tough and didn't taste right. her honey ribs were okay, though.



on another fine day, after the loud advertisements by pizzahut about their fine pastas, they decided to give it a try. went for lunch at amk pizzahut, and placed orders for spicy chicken pomodoro and turkey bacon carbonara. total bill - $20+

spicy chicken pomodoro - small chunks of chicken thigh and bits of chilli padi for the extra oomph. particularly impressed with the service of the staff, real polite and they welcome people with eye contact, unlike most who would say "hello, welcome" while looking elsewhere.
if there was anything to complain about, it would be that the portion was quite small.


turkey bacon cabonara for her - which she also felt was too small a portion


on yet another day, after having the 1-for-1 ice-cream buffet at swensen's, they decided to have spaghetti (again!) at pastamania plaza singapura, total bill 20+. spicy chicken fusili would be missing because he was too hungry and gobbled it all up without taking a picture first!

here is turkey bacon aglio. impressive for her, because she managed to eat half even though it was cooked with chilli padis. both were yummy, but there was quite a bit of residual oil on the plates.


this post shall not end before minutes of their lunch at v8 cafe, bugis. having got sick of pastas, he decided to have some steak, to which the waitress told him was only 10grams of beef. guess who's the confused one. still in a pasta frenzy, she ordered seafood spaghetti as v8 ran out of cream sauce for the salmon one. total bill - around $30.

seafood spaghetti - one large fleshy mussel, when she thought she would have a few. she didn't enjoy this as much. ask him not, for he didn't get to taste it.


medium well "10gm" black pepper steak. the vegetables on the plate were still crunchy, but he would have preferred to have some salted butter to go with. the steak was .... ..... mind is already trailing off... it's time for bed.


more to come tomorrow, or perhaps, saturday.