Aoki

Yet another birthday meal last year. A friend and I had for the past year, treated each other for our birthday meals. I'd previously treated her to Fat Cow, and in return, she treated me to a meal at Aoki.

Aoki Maze Chirashi

Fat Cow

There's plenty of pretty good Japanese places in Singapore. One constant thing that popped up on my Instagram feed was THAT particular beef bowl. You know, the one like here:

Fat Cow Donburi

Chikuwa Tei

I can never get sick of Japanese food. Especially when fresh sashimi is in the picture. Remember previously, when I mentioned I found a really yums Japanese restaurant near Spathe Public House? This is it. Chikuwa Tei. Just a few steps away from Spathe.

Chirashi don ちらし丼 

Tajimaya

I dined out at plenty of restaurants last year. Some were good, some were bad. Some were average, and some were spectacular. More often than other, I usually lug along my DSLR as I never know when the meal might be so good that I might want to share it here with you guys. I've decided in 2013, that instead of posting about every place I've been to (which will take up too much work on my hands), I'll focus on featuring only those that I feel taste the best (or if there's something that I like about the place.

Tajimaya was one of the better restaurants I'd been to in 2013. In fact, I visited it like twice (and I don't normally patronize such *coughs* pricy establishments regularly). That should show how much I love the food there.

Tajimaya

Masa Steak & Hamburg

Had dinner here a few months ago to celebrate my cousin's birthday.

Masa Steak & Hamburg

Himawari

I've been to Himawari previously once, with my family some years ago, and I remember vividly how I liked the food so much cos everything was just so fresh (albeit with a hefty tag to it). Recently, Dad was again, asking where we should eat for our weekly family meal, so I suggested the Japanese restaurant again cos I was craving Japanese food. I made a call, but was somehow rejected as the place was fully booked. But Dad gave 'em a call, and I don't know how, we landed seats! At the ala-carte dining area that is (maybe the receptionist thought I was calling to ask about their buffet). And anyway, Dad frequents it quite often in the past and he knows the chef too - maybe that's why haha.

Tatsuya

Had lunch at Tatsuya a few weeks back. Sis had been there once and she said that the food there was pretty good. Daddy was there, *coughs* so Sis and I shared the Kaiseki set. Heh.

Tatsuya lunch

Irodori

The Sister had dined at this Japanese buffet previously with her boyfriend, and I remember that she couldn't stop waxing lyrical about the food. A few weeks ago, when we were craving Japanese, she immediately suggested Irodori. Good food. And at affordable rates too. Those were the words that prompted Daddy to make reservations for lunch at the place.

Irodori

Ootoya

Finally met up with my one of my dearest girlfriend who just graduated from Melbourne Uni and came back to Singapore for good. In a way, I feel that she's the one I'll talk to most often about Aus/Sg stuff most cos she gets me when I talk about overseas education/lifestyle/experience. So for our first meeting after she came back, we decided to meet in town for some Japanese food...

Ootoya; Black bean side dish; Side dish from part of my set meal; Menu

Shin Yuu

Lunch: Japanese. Where: Greenwood Avenue. Why: Miramar Hotel was fully booked. :(

Shin Yuu

Tetsu

I think the time I spent watching TV yesterday way surpassed my monthly TV watching hours. Ha! I just left the TV alternating between AFC and the Food Network Asia for the most part of the day (and night snorts).

But hey, look at it this way, at least I'm making sure we get our money worth of paying for the cable TV subscription...hehe.

Anyway, Japanese food. Again I know, Well, sorry to disappoint, Daddy loves Italian, Sis loves Japanese. Me? I pretty much like most cuisine except for a few (Malay, Indonesian - probably cos I'm unfamiliar, and also, they can be pretty oily at times...) So, most of the time, we end up eating Italian OR Japanese for our weekly dine out sessions. Or Brunch. Or Dimsum. Heh.

Tetsu @ Tanglin Mall

Shimbashi soba

Just read in the papers last week that Shimbashi Soba at Raffles Place's gonna be closing soon as their lease is going to end and the management is not going to continue leasing. Aww how sad. I love Jap food, and I've frequented this place several times, each time leaving the place with a happy full tummy. Luckily for me, I'm more a town person then a CBD person so I still can get my soba fix when I want to. The last time I went to Shimbashi Soba, it was in March, when I was still seeking a job and had plenty of free time on my hands. I was in town to fix my (new - then 2 months old) iPhone which just crashed on me for no good reason. Sister rushed down to town after she woke up so we could have lunch and go shopping. We decided to date Daddy dearest for lunch and decided on Shimbashi Soba.

Shimbasi Soba - Sayonara?

Tampopo

On one of the days of my last week at Saatchi Lab, Michelle treated Yee Hwee and I to dinner at Tampopo! On the very same day, because of a colleague's connections, we get half-price dining at Tampopo, so several of the SL people signed up for lunch at Tampopo a week before (Michelle and I included cos we didn't know we were going to plan our dinner on that very same night). So in short, the both of us had Tampopo for lunch AND dinner. Talk about oh mans. Well, it's okay since Tampopo has awesome Japanese food anyway.

I didn't bring my SLR out for the lunch outing cos there were many people around and I was shy. *coughs* Anyway, I ordered the Tonkatsu set for lunch, thus decided to give the Tonkatsu a miss during dinner time. Also, a few weeks ago, I had Tampopo with Jamie and I had the delicious ramen too. So I forego the ramen too. That's good. It means I can get to try new stuff. After staring at the menu for ages, I decided on the Kaisen bento box cos it had a variety of dishes. Michelle was still full after lunch, so she got the roll and cha soba. As Yee Hwee didn't join us for lunch, she chose the Tonkatsu set. Yay. I get to take pictures. Haha.

As YH is interested in photography too, it was no surprise that during our dinner, the two of us whipped out our SLRs and started snapping furiously, while Michelle was just shaking her head in exasperation and waiting for us to finish with our "photoshoot" before she could get to eat. Haha. It's quite fun to have a fellow photographer around me, it's no fun when I'm the only one frantically yelling "STOP! Do not eat first. Let me grab a shot of ______" when I dine out with friends. (:

Delicate tea cup; Sushi handroll; Soba dipping sauce

Ma Maison & Watami

As usual, I'm way behind in posting my pictures, and my friends have been grumbling (good-naturedly?) about it. Well, I think it's time to do something about it, so here are some pictures with friends who were back from Aussie. We met up like a month ago while I was still interning, and it was on consecutive days, at Clarke Quay's Central Mall (near my work place) and both Japanese dining places.

Mel was supposed to meet us on the night we were going to have Ma Maison, but she had something on, so she had to give it a miss (it's okay dearie, we managed to meet up the next day for lunch at Watami anyway!). So after work, I met up with the two girls for our catch up session at Ma Maison.

Yueying.

Jos.

Dining key

Ma Maison

The food was good, it's my second time dining there. Been there previously for lunch with a bunch of university mates, and thought that it was a really cosy place to be. Dining there at night brings the cosy-ness factor up a notch as the dim lighting brings a really romantic feel to the quaint restaurant. I was going to try the paella, but it was to be shared between two people, and the others already picked out what they want (I have lousy persuasion skills I guess sigh) so I decided on the beef hamburger dish. It was nice, but just a tad too salty. Oh well, meat dishes with sauce always tend to be salty so as to match the plain rice served alongside with them. So no complains about the food overall.

The next day, managed to meet the bubbly Mel. She's one girl I totally hit off right from the start of our friendship (through a mutual friend of ours). We don't meet up very often since she graduated from UQ and moved to a different state for her Masters (she's in Sydney, I'm in Brisbane; now she's still in Sydney, I'm in Singapore). So it was a real friend of her that she made the trip from her place in Bukit Gombak to have an one hour lunch with me during my lunch break at Clarke Quay. Awesome friend I say. (:

Mel's chicken dish; Salad appetizers; My bibimbap

We both ordered Watami's lunch sets, and proceeded to gossip non-stop. Or should I say from the moment I arrived, we started yakking away, had to focus to remember to make our orders, continue yakking, yakking through our meals, and yakking after we finished our food. Haha. Man, it was so sad we only had such a short time to catch up but it was definitely one of my best lunch hour during my internship. She made me laugh so many times over her sillyness. Lol. We didn't get the chance to club the next day cos I had some family matters going on, so that was our only meeting when she came back for the hols. I can't wait till her next trip back. It's going to be fun I hope. We keep saying we want to go shopping, shi-sha-ing and clubbing. Let's hope we get to do it all the next time round! (: