ToTT

Hello!

After living next to ToTT for years, I FINALLY made my maiden trip to ToTT last Sunday to check it out! =) Before I went to ToTT, all that I knew about it was that it is like IKEA- it even has a little cafe just like IKEA's - except that it sells cooking and baking ware! Nothing prepared me for the well-furnished, gleaming interior and the wide variety of kitchen ware on display! If you love pretty utensils and designer kitchen ware, then ToTT would be a haven for you!

Before we went about exploring the place, we stopped by at the cafe to grab lunch! The cafe was surprisingly packed that day partly because there was a birthday party going on so a section of the seating area was cordoned off. Thankfully some very kind people decided to give up their table once they were done eating so we didn't have to wait too long for a seat (: You have to have a table before you start ordering your food or you'll be reminded by the guy at the food counter. I guess that only makes sense because you don't wish to be stuck with a tray full of food and have no table to eat at!

That day, we decided to go for the Braised Beef Cheek ($8.50), Pan Fried Dory ($8.50), French Fries ($2.70) and Chamomile Dream Soya Beancurd ($2.20). We paid $3.80 for the Esprit orange sparking drink. Unlike IKEA's wonderful meatballs with jam and salmon with broccoli and kickass daim cake, ToTT's food was merely average and I don't think I would be actually want to go to ToTT just to have their food. Oh please do not ever order their fries because they don't taste like real fried salted fries; instead, they taste more baked and they were limpy =( The most interesting dish we had was the chamomile beancurd, which Matty quite liked but I didn't take to it. Even after making myself try mouthfuls of it throughout the meal, I still couldn't get used to it and found myself not wanting to have any more of it towards the end. I guess it might be a case of acquired taste but I don't think I would choose to have that again any time soon.

I suspect I'll be back at ToTT soon to look at kitchen ware again because one of my colleagues has been eyeing a sous vide machine! haha Well I guess there are other things worth looking at as well =)

Till the next post! (:

P.S. Thanks Jeffrey for sponsoring more space for this blog :) I owe you a pair of goretex trekking pants or sth that you need in return. Many thanks again!

Taishoken

Hello!

We went to Bugis Plus not too long ago because we wanted to have ramen at one of the Ramen Champion restaurants! =) I remember that area being very crowded a few years ago when it first came to Singapore because my family queued for quite a long while before we got our table! My impression of the ramen I had then was only so-so hence I didn't think much of going back to have ramen.

However, Matty, who is a huge ramen fan, told me that he had never been to Ramen Champion so we decided to check out one of the restaurants there!

After he did his research, he decided on having ramen from Taishoken so that's where we went to!

Taishoken uses these devices which beep when your food is ready so you know when to go back to the counter to get your food! (: I think this is actually quite ingenious as you won't have to keep hovering around the food collection point to wait for your food to be ready.

Since it was our first time there, we decided to order the two highly recommended dishes. I had the Tokyo Ramen Deluxe ($15 for regular), which is thick ramen noodles with charsiew slices, egg and bamboo shoots. I think the ramen was possibly the thickest that I've tasted so far and it doesn't taste like the normal ramen that I use to eat. I didn't particularly like the thick soup base because I prefer shio base but I think this was more shoyu-ish but it has lotsa flavour! On the whole it was quite a hearty dish and it definitely is filling!

Matty chose to have the Tsukemen Deluxe Ramen ($15 for regular). Frankly, I've never had or seen Tsukemen ramen being eaten before so this was definitely something new to me. Basically this is cold ramen dish where you pick up the cooked, plain ramen from the bowl on the right and dip the ramen in the cold, salty sauce seen in the bowl on the left of this photo. You can control how flavourful you want your ramen to be by controlling how much sauce you choose to coat your ramen with. I made the mistake of trying to taste the sauce on its own and it's pretty strong! Definitely NOT to be drunk neat! Guess this is an alternative choice to the usual warm ramen that we have.

Ramen Champion was surprisingly empty on the Saturday afternoon that we went, maybe because we just missed the lunch crowd? We definitely wouldn't mind going back again to try ramen from other stalls but whether we actually make it to Bugis Plus depends heavily on our moods and the weather because it's not very convenient to get to Bugis Plus from our area.

Alright that's all for now! Have a good weekend! (:

La Forketta Gastronomia Italiana

Hello!

I've been having extremely tiring dreams that leave me feeling very drained when I wake up =( Am hoping that I'll STOP dreaming and get sufficient sleep tonight so that I can break this restless cycle!

Anyway we went to Dempsey last week as we wanted to go to some place that we haven't gone to for a while and we ended up at La Forketta, which in my opinion is a pretty good Italian restaurant! This is the only La Forketta outlet I've been to as I have never visited the one near Tanglin. What I absolutely like about this La Forketta outlet is that there's a lot of natural lighting and the entire restaurant feels so homely (:

Red, brown, grey and white seem to dominate the interior of La Forketta and they do help to establish some kind of unity and neatness. The restaurant's ceilings are also high and it helps in making one feel less claustrophobic!

Each table had a large red flower for table decor and the usual salt and pepper shakers! I think this set of salt and paper shakers are both functional and pretty because I'd not trouble at all getting pepper and salt out! Sometimes the shakers are quite problematic..

I am not sure if you can get free tap water at this restaurant because we were asked if we wanted still/ sparkling water and we didn't bother to ask if there's just normal iced tap water. As a result, we were given this huge bottle of Acqua Panna ($9) which we couldn't finish but I guess it's alright. 

Their incredibly nice and filling bread basket! I think this is possibly one of the BEST bread baskets that I've had in terms of variety. The even is pizza bread and bread with rosemary and salt! Whee. If you, like me, love the doughy, chewy kind of pizza base, then La Forketta is THE place to go because all their pizza bases are characterised by this lovely chewiness.

Our mediterranean salad ($19) was pretty decent. I think they were extremely generous with the olive oil and personally I think less oil would suit me better but I guess the oil base held the dish together well.

My pesto linguine pasta ($25) was cheesier and creamier than I had expected. I had thought that I'd get the normal, plain pesto pasta with some greens but this was more than a treat! There were many small bobs of steamed potato covered with pesto sauce, lots of french beans and a fair amount of pine nuts! Frankly if I weren't so hungry, I wouldn't be able to finish this! This kept me full all the way till dinner, which is quite amazing because I get hungry quite quickly.

Matty chose to have spaghetti carbonara ($25) which he said was pretty alright. I guess this is one of the strongest tasting carbonara I've tried to date because it is quite cheesy! Well maybe cheese fans would disagree with me because I don't particularly like my pastas to be too cheesy.

Instead of having desserts, we chose to have coffee - cappuccino ($5.50) for me and espresso ($5.50) for him. What we were impressed with was the sugar stick as well as the small shot of sparkling water to cleanse the palate! =D Definitely a nice touch! The presentation for the espresso is similar to the cappuccino's except that the cup of espresso is much smaller.

On the whole, we had a hearty and filling meal at La Forketta and we would gladly go back again! Perhaps next time I'll order their pizzas to try since I like their pizza base so much.

Alright have a great Sunday and an even better week ahead! (:

Shinjuku

Hello!

It's near the end of the week yet there's still much to be done! This week's been quite an eyeopening week and I really do hope that all/ most things will work out well.

We went to a Japanese restaurant called Shinjuku, located at Cuppage Plaza, not too long ago to have a light meal because we weren't feeling particularly hungry that day. I still am pretty amazed at how many Japanese restaurants are nestled inside Cuppage Plaza, a place that I hardly ever go to! This was my second trip to Shinjuku and though they've changed their location, the food is still just as good!

We were promptly served warm green tea upon arrival!

I love boiled edamame ($6.60), especially those that are sprinkled with salt! =D These were perfect - warm, soft yet not overboiled.

Yakitori! Tsukune ($6.60) and Shiitake mushrooms ($5.30). I really dislike how the mushrooms look so withered and dry but thankfully they didn't taste as bad as they look.

Shishamo aka pregnant fish ($7.60). I don't particularly like eating this but I guess it does have an interesting texture and distinct flavour to it. I think it was my godfather who introduced this to me when I was a kid and I was simply appalled that we were eating 'pregnant fish'. Till today, I try not to eat the head and the tail cos I think they taste funny (or maybe it's just psychological).

My favourite tofu dish - agedashi tofu ($7.60). I never fail to order this dish if I want to eat tofu! The only thing I don't really like about this dish is that the tofu will become soggy and disintegrate easily if left in the sauce for too long, making it difficult to pick up. Nevertheless, it was yummy!

Last but not least, we shared the tempura moriawase ($18.80) aka mixed tempura. Somehow these tempura pieces tasted very crisp and the fried batter tasted pretty light. I suspect it's the kind of oil they use but it might also be the way of cooking. It's definitely one of the better tempuras that I've had in a while!

I'll be interested to try other Japanese restaurants at Cuppage area and may make a trip down this hols! (:

Alright that's all for now! Have a great weekend!

Ramen Santouka

Hello!

It's been a long time since I last blogged and I feel terrible neglecting this space but life's been a tad more eventful than usual and hence this was relegated aside.

Anyhow, it's been raining quite heavily over the past couple of days and the weather makes me feel like going back to Santouka for ramen! (:

I was first introduced to this place by my secondary school friend who confidently claimed that this place serves 'da bomb' char siew ramen! Though I don't eat char siew, I thought it'd be great to drop by to give the famous ramen a try! I've been to Santouka a few times now and I still think that it serves one of the best shio ramen I've ever had in my life!

If the weather's warm, you may want to order a bottle of asahi beer ($7.50) to cool down a little. I don't drink but my lunch companion that day does so he had that! =)

I love corn ($1) and he loves eggs ($1.50 for one egg) so we ordered these two side dishes as add-ons to our main bowls of noodles!

After all these years,the shio ramen ($13.50) still looks and tastes the same. Apart from the thick and tasty broth, what I love about this dish is the springy ramen that goes so well with the slightly salty and milky broth! Would have this any day! (:

If you prefer a stronger tasting soup base, you can opt for the shoyu ramen ($13.50), which has exactly the same ingredients as the shio ramen and is delightful in its own way.

I'd highly recommend Ramen Santouka to all who would like a bowl of good ramen! However the restaurant is small and you'll have to try to beat the lunch/ dinner crowds to get a table by going much earlier or much later if you don't wish to queue in line for a long period of time.

Alright that's all for now! Have a great weekend! (: