Food, glorious food, waiting to be served, waiting to be tried, tasted, discussed, revisited.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Azabu Sabo
@ Marina Square
Opposite Topshop.
Had to wait in a queue for 15 minutes before we could even enter the restaurant's small holding area, where you still had to wait; albeit sitting down and inspecting the menu.
You could immediately tell that desserts are their specialty; instead of main course meals, they had desserts on the first page of their menu. There was also an ice cream takeaway stand beside the queueing area for their much touted Hokkaido ice cream, for the ravenous customers queuing.
We started the meal with a Sukiyaki Bento and a Cold Ramen noodle with Seafood in Sesame Mayonnaise.
The bento was delicious, but the ramen was the highlight of the day! The succulent prawns, cuttlefish and scallops went very well with the ramen, cold of cos. Topped with almond shaves and mayonnaise, the dish assaulted both my sensory and savoury senses to high heavens.
I ate a couple of mouthfuls before i even realised that there was this small and quaint-looking jar beside the mega-huge bowl of ramen (i'm not kidding, i went "whoa" when the waiter came).
Inside contained a paste in a sickly shade of yellow. Upon introduction of the jar to my nose, i was surprised that the paste was actually wasabe! I promptly dumped everything in, mixed it around and took a bite.
Ooohhhhhhh... Yuuummm...
Dessert time!
I gotta say that my experience so far was a smooth ride, but there's always gotta be a bump in the road somewhere.
The desserts took an eternity to arrive. Not only for us, the table beside us were waiting for an even longer time, prompting one lady to remark, "No wonder the queue moved so slowly..."
And when my dessert came, it was to be the wrong one.
Tsk tsk... For a restaurant that prided itself on their desserts, surely they could at least make the waiting time less ardous? Maybe they were being meticulous in the presentation, or maybe i'm just thinking too much.
Oh, on to the food! The Hokkaido ice cream lived up to it's hype. It was creamy, yet didn't make me feel like i was eating calories. Or maybe i was pschologically influenced by the words "low-sugar and low-fat".
What disappointed me was the sweet potato (the yellow thing beneath the heap of ice cream). It was neither sweet nor salty, totally doing nothing to enhance the ice cream, and it just didn't have the omph i was hoping for. But i have a very very VERY sweet tooth, so maybe i'm just biased.
The other dessert was totally my cuppa tea! It had some golden powdery thing that just tasted sweet on top of the ice cream, which was on top of lovely crushed ice with red beans at the bottom.
There was even a honey pot for people with sweet teeth like mine who wants to upgrade the taste from sweet to diabetic.
I liiike...
Although the place could get abit noisy and the waiting time for your food might get a little long during peak hours, i think the food was enough to overwrite this little flaw. However, the meal set us back $40, which was down right daylight robbery if not for the lovely cold ramen i had.
It's a must try if you have the spare cash and a craving for Japanese desserts!
Visit their website here for their brand story, among other things.
@ Arab Street. Or was it Bali Street? Somewhere between la...
Walking by the shophouse on a lazy Sunday afternoon, i didn't have the intention of stepping into the premises until the sight of a near full house and the tantalising smells captivated me.
There were 3 stores. The prawn noodle store obviously, a Nor Hiang/Wu Siang/i dunno what's it called in English store and a drinks store. The drinks stall was there machiam for aesthetic purposes cos when i was ordering food, the lady also asked for the drink orders.
Speaking of orders, there were 3 types of prawn noodles to choose from. The normal, the big, the 3-in-1 and the MEGA!
Can't really see here, but the prawns in this were really MEGA huge!
If you wanna go all the way out here to eat prawn noodles, you better not order the normal one. Heck, dont even order the big one because you might be able to get it at normal hawkers on a good day.
I'll highly recommend either the 3-in-1 prawn noodles (price ranges from $6-10) or the MEGA prawn noodles ($10 onwards).
So i'm guessing you're asking what the 3-in-1 prawn noodles contain.
Other than prawns, there were pork ribs, pork skin and this cylindrical part of the pork pig that i can only guess was the tail.
I know it sounds damn disgusting but trust me, i thought it was damn gross too until i poped one into my mouth and the meat (or was it fat?) literally melted on my tongue. I tried not to think of which part of the pig it came from while i was eating it though.
Seeing as most tables were eating the noodles with soup, i nearly followed suit. I'd have kicked myself if i did because the chilli was TO DIE FOR!
I usually eat prawn noodles with both tomato ketchup and chilli, and when my noodles came with only chilli, i nearly went to ask for ketchup. I decided to try one mouthful of the noodles before i went though, and when i came back, i was holding a plate of chilli instead of ketchup!
The soup was delicious too though. I'm just a chilli person.
The interior, although not as posh as a food court, was definitely cleaner than that of a hawker centre. Although the price was more like restaurant than anything.
ps: i know i skipped rong guang. coming soon i promise!
