And it rained

Tamago

This is not a review of Gion Dining because this post is more of a memory of what I ate there last Saturday.

Please go to other blogs if you want a review because I went there as a walk in and near the end of their lunch service.

But I needed to try it then because the previous few days I had the most disappointing Japanese food at some other place and that some woman was randomly sobbing at her table with her friends. I don’t know why, but what ever, I was just sad about my sad food and sad sobbing.

Thus, I went to Gion.

It was quiet since it was an hour to the end of lunch service and I did ask if walk ins were available. They said yes, I entered.

They passed me a tablet after I was shown to my seat.

I actually knew what I wanted so I managed to order it quickly since I had spent the previous day or so looking at their pdf menu online.

And so I waited.

The waitress told me pictures were not allowed of the menu and I went “Huh, very well” because… It’s actually already on their website and facebook.

No matter, I deleted them from my phone since I figured, I’m not going to review the place mat and cutlery setting anyway.

What I ordered… Their tempura set, tamagoyaki and wheat tea.

It did not take too long, the tamagoyaki was set upon my table.

I took a bite of one slice and oh. Oh my, it was warm and it was sweet.

Perhaps I should stop and wait for when my tempura set arrived. But no, I couldn’t stop myself since I was quite hungry.

The wheat tea came, the waitress poured the cup for me and I savoured it.

It had been steeped properly and it was real wheat grains if you were curious enough to open the top of your teapot.

Do not insult this tea with sugar for you should savour it as it is.

The tempura set

The food did come soon after.

Ah, finally a proper set. Pickles, a potato salad, a vegetable salad with vinaigrette. Chawanmushi, a small yogurt dessert in a shot glass and the tempura with its sauces and miso soup with rice.

Fluffy

The rice, it was fluffy. Warm and sticky enough for me to use my chopsticks. As I tasted it, I thought, “Ah yes, this is Japanese rice” for you can tell the difference in taste compared to normal or basmati rice.

They cooked their rice properly. It was comforting as the rain started pouring outside. The tea kept on steaming away in its cup as I left it to cool and dipped my tempura in its sauce.

Oh… it was crispy, the saltiness of the sauce glancing against the battered exterior as I bit into it. Not oily, just crisp and full of the sweetness of the prawn itself intermingled with the sauce.

What a balance.

The grated radish was garnished with fresh ginger, an interesting choice, I thought. It brought a bigger kick than what preserved ginger would have.

I looked out to the side where the other few diners were eating their food. Did they realized what skill this needed? It was far simpler than what other dishes they might have ordered and that was why it was even more impressive since it was the simplest which was easiest to mess up.

I tilted up the bowl of miso soup, taking a sip of it. It was light, instead of tiny tofu cubes as I came to expect from many places, in place were small Japanese mushrooms. A delightful surprise at this tiny detail.

The side dishes, I polished off quickly, darting my chopsticks back and forth.

I half wondered if there would be any other disaster would befall in Orchard as the rain kept getting heavier.

I dipped my small spoon into the chawanmushi.

Ah yes, it was still warm and it had been freshly steamed.

It was still soft, so soft.

Finally I managed to eat a proper chawanmushi for the week as I scraped the spoon trying to get every bit of it, clinging to the cup.

Pouring myself another cup of wheat tea, I started on my dessert.

A tangy yogurt to finish the meal.

The rain stopped as the last drops of tea was drunk.

I left since I had paid for the meal before the lunch services was over.

As I like to say to eating such delicious food, itadakimasu, baby.

Dragonboat of Miracles

page 1 of Dragonboat of Miracles

Click to embiggen! You guys, this is the Dragonboat of Miracles, illustrated by DatWorks.

Check out their facebook page! They’re a team of local artists and sometimes you might see their art booths in the conventions here in Singapore.

Anyway, what’s this Dragonboat of Miracles?

DatWorks has recently been doing some work for DBS Bank. Living, Breathing Asia!

We’re working on “Dragonboat of Miracles”, a sports-themed manga that celebrates the teamwork, passion and zeal of athletes as they paddle towards a common goal for the DBS Marina Regatta!

BUT OHOHOH.

What you don’t know (until now, or if I told you in real life) is that I wrote the story.

Yeah, you wanna read more, click my read more cut.

Or you won’t see the button if you clicked this post directly anyway.

Continue reading Dragonboat of Miracles

Time to Pay Back

Yes, it's us

Guys. It’s May. And soon it’ll be June and then I scream because after that is Hari Raya.

Yeah, that’s me with everyone posing for Hari Raya and yes, we all have assorted urls, even for Dawn the cat.

Anyway Ramadhan starts around 18 June this year and that means it’s time to pay back if you know what I mean.

Ok, if you don’t, it means FOR THOSE WHO COULDN’T puasa last year, you got to ‘pay back’ before it hits this year’s Ramadhan. You knooow? It means to fast the days you didn’t get to do because of blood magic girly stuff/illness/whatever.

SO THIS IS YOUR REMINDER TO PAY BACK.

And then after that, you can prepare for Hari Raya things. Like, kueh and clothes.

And yes, my family does do the whole colour scheme thing so while we might not all wear the similar things, we might have a colour theme? I don’t know.

Once, I wanted us to go in Power Ranger colours and I called dibs on pink but nooo, that’s just so much work or something. Still, it would be cool if we had. We have enough people for red, blue, yellow, pink and black.

Bonus green for Dawn the cat??

And then if anyone notices the colour scheme, I’d go yessss.

So a reminder, fasting month begins around 18 June.

The month where your non-Muslim friends go “OOPS, I FORGOT. AHHH SORRY” when they say you wanna go eat stuff or something. No worries though, after that it’ll be holidays yay!

 

Ps. I’d just buy my kueh. Ah ha ha ha haaaa.

It’s all public here

Advertorial

THERE. I’ve finally put a simple placeholder thingy on the side of my blog to just state I am available for advertorials or reviews since people do ask me.

It’s simple for now but there you go.

I’ll mark stuff as advertorials or if they’re sponsored items, I’d say it in a blog post and all.

After all, I do say which ones I do get ‘access’ to and all or the ones which I just heck it all and grab it by myself.

Yeaaah, this is a very short post today.

It’s 30 Years of Total Defence!

National Museum of Singapore

I got invited to the Total Defence media conference the other day and I wondered if I should attend. OBVIOUSLY, I said yes hahahaha. Thanks AsiaPRWerkz for inviting me! Anyway, it’s about this year’s events cause it’s the 30th anniversary of total defence!

This is going to be a LONG post because there IS a lot of exciting things happening.

Tote-ally cool.

I tote-ally liked this bag. A lot of others did too because of the pun. Inside was a nifty file of press releases, postcards and a Happy Feet figurine (you’ll see in the later part of this post).

OH and you might be able to get one of these bags too! Details later below, hahaha.

Continue reading It’s 30 Years of Total Defence!

The Price of Well, It’s Not Popularity!

Ok, I seem to have been pharmahacked, cleaned it up and I see it again after another attack.

I will be systematically cleaning up my webby. What does this mean to YOU?

Nothing.

It doesn’t affect you at all if you’re already reading my posts from here or individual posts. It just means that when you search for my blog VIA google, you’ll see my metatags for my main blog has gone spammy.

Annoying much to me since it means my web ranking is being silly cause of this. It will be tedious but watch out for my posts as usual!

 

Ugh, pharmahacks… So annoying and only google search sees it.

I’m going AFK in the USA!

Will be back on the 14th of June. So comments will be put under only approval before it shows up in posts so that I won’t let any accidental spam through.

I have a post scheduled on Monday as usual! Heh.

Also, I’ll be posting a few short blog posts while I’m in the USA because… IT IS MY NEMATION TRIP! I’ll have a big post at the end of it but I’ll try to post as much as I can while I’m there because the activities and places we’re going to are pretty fun!

See you guys back on the 14th. Don’t worry about your comments, I’ll approve them (not that I get that many) eventually when I’m posting my short blog posts!

In the USA.

I am now Miley Cyrus.