22 May 2011 - Tang Dian Wang

To start off, this day was one of the most agonizing ever. Randomly walked into Tang Dian Wang for dinner, and the experience alleviated things a little. Nice ambience, good lighting, seats were high-backed and well cushioned, and probably the best service he's encountered so far.

The service staff comprised of a mix of foreign talent, fondly termed FT, and they left a very good impression. Interacted with 4 different service staff throughout the meal, and found them to be very polite, their smiles also added to the comfort factor. Prompt to react, yet not clumsy like in many other Chinese restaurants. Even though they had decided to sit around after settling the bill, the service staff also willingly acceded to their request for more tea. Ok... let's head to the main dish now.

Snapped a picture of the "lanterns".


He got himself Live Prawn Soup, $10.80++.
Soup came boiling, and the water level went down really fast after a while, perhaps due to the noodles soaking it up. Prawns were probably fresh as the heads were still firmly stuck onto the prawns. The flesh was crunchy and did not stick to the meat, this made it easy for him to peel the prawns with just mouth and chopsticks. Also in the soup were bean sprouts which added bite to the noodles, pork slices and some vegetables.


She ordered Fresh Eel in Fish Bone Broth, $9.80++.
They were initially undecided about having snapper or unagi, until she went for the more familiar fish. Opted for flat glass noodles, and her soup contained button mushrooms, carrots and the clump of leafy vegetable.


Crispy Eggplant with Pork Floss, $3.80++.
First time eating deep fried eggplant, and it was really good. Crispy on the outside, fluffy soft on the inside. The pork floss added a savoury touch, but somehow it also felt like the dish had been treated to an uncalled-for sprinkling of salt.


Siew Mai Dumpling with Fish Roe, $3.80++.
Although it also contained shrimp, this paled in comparison to the ones he had at Old Hong Kong. The meat filling felt a little "old".


Shared dessert of Mango Cream with Pomelo, $4.20++.
The chilled mango soup was aptly sweet, with a tangy hint. In it were some mango bits and "tadpoles", which were fun to chew on.


Would return, thumbs up for the service rendered and the really fresh prawns. Shall also experiment frying eggplants this weekend.

05 November 2010 stew day

she bought some groceries the night before, and finished cooking them all the very next day.

unagi fried rice - a little soggy for rice, but the texture was soft enough to be passable as porridge. she remembered added some soy sauce, teriyaki sauce in the mix to achieve this. talk about "feel for cooking"...


stewed eggplant with bean sauce - slightly spicy, soft tender flesh. he prefers this to steamed ones that has texture like sponge.


later in the day, they went out shopping where she bought her lancome mascara, some tee shirts for him, and then ushered themselves into Pepper Lunch. they were having a promotion for some combos, and they opted for the rib-eye and beef stew set.

you've seen enough of the sizzling rib-eye before, now for an eyeful of the beef stew. (actually, the stomach had taken over the mind, and by the time he had realised, it was all too late...)

the last time he had this stew was dinner buffet at Hotel Rendezvous. loves how the meat falls apart, with some soft chewy tendons in between. not forgetting the carrots so soft you can pinch apart with delicate chopsticks, onions so sweet and the flavourful potato mash. he can hear his stomach growling again...

A10 10/10/10 (MOF on 10 October 2010)

the order form - even though he was the one who filled up the form, she was the one who realised that they were seated at table 10 on 10/10/10. spent around $32 at MOF.


her unagi set that came with soba - the fan of unagi and soba said that this was not to her liking... ~$14.80


sake sashimi - laid on top of some crushed ice which melted really fast, and the water made the fish slices soggy. wasabi lacked punch too, didn't even tickle his nasal passage. ~$7.50


aglio olio with ni-tamago - marinated enough, but the yolk was powdery, unlike what was shown in the menu or what it should have been, disappointing! pasta was otherwise ok, maybe more garlic and addition of chilli padi would up the flavor. ~$6


after late lunch, they went to ikea and the always hungry auntie wanted to have salmon in chives sauce at ikea. good stuff for $7.50, but it seemed that the salmon chunks had somewhat downsized.

10 July 2010 - ajitei after henderson waves

finally got her royal fatness to go with him on a visit to henderson waves. the accumulated food weight brought them to a halt after each flight of stairs. it was really funny looking at each other's facial expressions.

after taking enough photographs, they walked from henderson all harbourfront mrt, a tiring feat. so she decided that she wanted to reward herself with blue mussels from mussel guys, to which he suggested the orchard central branch rather than the notorious one at vivo city.

bad luck though, found out that it had closed upon reaching there, so they went to ajitei instead.

unagi yanagawa set - she forced him to order this even though what he wanted was only salmon sashimi, since they already had food at home.


pickles - sesame bits are so yummy. not too sure what kind of pickle this is though.


the creamy and slightly tangy whipped potato


close up of the yanagawa


radish - maybe time to cook some radish pork bone soup at home


her pick of unatori - unagi and chicken


finally, the only dish that he had wanted to eat, salmon sashimi. now he truly believes that knifework really makes a difference, this tasted better than salmon belly at some other random sushi restaurant.

breakfast and dinner for 22 Dec 09

surprisingly, wife woke up much earlier than him today to prepare breakfast for him. made instant noodles with pork loin strips. she said there was a hidden treasure within it, and named it "nei you qian kun". he immediately guessed that it was an egg. which was the case anyway.


in the evening, he took a shuttle bus to plaza singapura to meet wife. turned out it was crowded due to some celebrities event going on. so they headed to pomo with the intent to try out either juju or tao's. she was disagreeable with the price, and wanted to eat at ishimura instead.

too hungry to argue further, they took a quick browse and he decided on some dishes, which were all suited to her taste. he's not picky anyway.

unagi bento $8.90
came with a bowl of cold but smooth chawanmushi, 2 chunks of toufu in sauce, cold mixed vegetables of corn and lady's fingers, some pickles and of course, unagi. quite good to eat, or was it because of his hunger?


beef patty omurice $5.50
beef in black pepper sauce seemed like premium beef to him (dreaming, perhaps), omelette had a puffy and moist texture, when he was expecting it to be dry. thumbs up for this dish.


scallop vegetable pancake $4.90
ordered this instead of the japanese pizza since they've already tried it the other time. 6 scallops on the top and wife scoffed at the decision to pay that amount of money for a vegetable patty of cabbage and corn. he found it okay though.


raspberry and mango milkshake $1.50 each
raspberry for her, mango for him. had sago in the drink, helped balance out the savoury tastes.


the next table by now was already gawking at their food. probably in disbelief that 2 people could be so greedy as to eat so much. the people couldn't even finish one set of their own food. little did they know they were to witness more gorging action...

mekajiki $4.90
fell in love with this after trying it with colleagues. gave in to his insatiable lust for food and bought a platter of swordfish. however, this didn't feel as smooth and the meat was rubbery, unlike the one he had the other day. wife agreed.


next, they went on a long shopping stroll in daiso before heading back to ntuc for groceries. by that time, he was already seeing stars........

friday dinner at ajitei

he met up with her at orchard to check out the "4 day 16th anniversary special" for simmons mattress at takashimaya. apparently, the $800 for simmons backcare ultimate 300 reflected "savings", instead of the special price. what a misleading advertisement splashed in straits times.

anyway, they went down to ajitei at basement level 2 for dinner. again, it was the recommendation of ws.

got seated, and after some deliberation, ordered curry rice, unagi small don, tontoro, tofu mentai. she had chargeable green tea ($1) while he settled for iced water.

the food came in small portions, but they were generally satisfied.

his curry rice - melted cheese on top of rice and some diced chicken. chicken was well marinated, and the cheese was thick. cheese with curry, an enjoyable combination. $4.80


unagi small don - served with cold sushi rice. not named small for nothing. unagi's skin was crispy and the meat fell apart nicely in the mouth. $5.80


tontoro - the slices turned out thinner and smaller that they thought. however, this didn't make them feel sick after eating, unlike the one from a take-and-go yakitori shop. however, maybe he should have bought some shabu shabu from ntuc and made his own. much cheaper. $7.80


tofu mentai - ws kept talking about it, so much so that he could hear it ringing at the back of his head. not the first time that they liked ws' recommendation. melted cheese ontop of fish roe and tofu. she, the difficult one, commented that it tasted good. it must be really good then, for someone who hates tofu to enjoy this dish. $4.80


at least, this meal washed down the disappointment that came with the misleadingly advertised simmons mattress.

he nearly forgot, the total damage : $28.48 after all other charges.

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.