Thought I'd do a round-up post of the fair on its final day.

This is the most "on" I've ever been at the Hokkaido Fair, visiting it 5 days out of the 10 days that it's here. There were some hits, some not-so-hits, and some misses. Here goes:







Day 1 (Monday 6 Jul)

Croquettes are pretty common actually, I used to buy one from Mos Burger every Friday night after Jap class, but they had a bunch of flavours (pumpkin, sweet onion, curry, vegetable, etc) here, so I bought a White Curry Cream one. I liked it. It's the sweet and spicey Jap curry type, not the hot Singaporean type. But found it a bit overpriced at $3. I mean, the Mos burger one costs $1.80, and personally I prefer it over the one I bought at the fair.


Now this was definitely one of the hits. It's a sweet potato pie ($3.50). Chocolate sauce drizzled over a pudding, below which is a layer of mashed sweet potato. The whole pie might've been a little overwhelming for me, but I shared it with ma and yipuo, so it was just nice, and all of us liked it. They had other stuff at the same stall, like this box of cute little chocolate sweet potato balls, but my stomach can only hold so many things in one night, and I didn't want to buy stuff back and keep in the fridge.


Day 2 (Tues 7 Jul)

Curry bun ($2.80). From the Pullman Bakery stall which won the TV Chef contest. Presumably for this. It's like a donut covered with bread crumbs and stuffed with curry and potato cubes. Yummy. I loved this, regret not having bought another one.


Moisture souffle ($2.80). No, it's really called that. Does it mean that normal souffles are not moisturised? Anyhow. It's a little bundle of extra-soft and extra-light cheese cake. Though I'd give more points to presentation than actual taste.







Day 3 (Wed 8 Jul)

Salt caramel croissant ($2.60). From the same Pullman Bakery with the famous TV Chef curry bun. Or maybe the croissant was the reason it won the contest. The taste was savoury and sweet. I never thought salt and caramel would go so well together, but they did. It's a teeeeny little croissant though. Guess some of the best things in life do come in small (and expensive) packages.





Fruit omelette ($4). Apricot, another fruit (I forget which), whipped cream and a generous dollop of custard sandwiched in a piece of flat, round cake. Fruits are usually not my thing, but I really enjoyed this. Again, just really smart combination. The fruits were the stand-out flavour, while the cream and custard played supporting roles, and the cake was soft and light. Perfect.

Day 4 (Thurs 9 Jul)

Snow crab ($4.50) and Scallop with pizza sauce ($4.20) paos. I bought the frozen ones, 'cos I didn't think I could eat them after dinner, so they're still sitting in my freezer. Did try the snow crab pao today at the fair, though, they were going at the last-day bargain price of $3 (argh). Sad to say, rather disappointing. It looked like coleslaw filling, but tasted quite bland. I guess they were going for the natural, healthy taste, which ended up ... well, tasteless. Guess that explains the $3 bargain today. Fingers crossed for the scallop one.

Hokodate chocolate cheese cake, box of 4 ($10). This is melt-in-your-mouth chocolate heaven. You hardly taste the cheese at all. Well, not a bad thing, in my book. At $2.50 for a minuscule piece, though, I was practically counting the cents at every bite. Like I'd take a bite and go, "Oh that's 20 cents... OK big bite for 50... oops, that piece fell on the floor, 10 cents into the rubbish bin."











Day 5 (Sun 12 Jul)
Zundo Gyokai Shio ramen ($12). Well this left me with all the wrong memories. The first few spoonfuls were tasty enough (they followed the snow crab pao), but beyond that, the intense saltiness of the fish stock starts to get really cloying. Repeated gulps of mineral water did not much to cleanse the palate. The ramen were the thick yellow type, not my favourite. And the pork slices were too much fat, too little pork. Maybe I should have gone for the pork-based soup ramen.

Sakura mochi and green tea ice cream ($5.50). The whole Hokkaido fair experience ended on a sweet note for me. The ice cream stall was undoubtedly one of the more popular ones at the fair. They had rope barriers for the perpetual queue in front of this stall, and even two security guards controlling the crowd. This was like the not-to-be-missed highlight of the fair. They had only a few flavours - milk, cheese, strawberry yogurt, blueberry, green tea and sakura mochi. I picked green tea 'cos I thought the Japs, of all people, would know how to make decent green tea-flavoured ice cream, and sakura mochi 'cos it looked pretty and sounded exotic. Loved both. The green tea was sweet, but tasted of tea minus the bitterness, and the sakura mochi reminds me of the pink ice cream you get at roadside ice cream stalls, with little chewy mochi bits. Only complaint was that the ice cream didn't really melt into the cone, and when you finish, you get a whole empty cone with nothing to go with.

Overall, I'm pleased with my 收获 at the fair this year. Already looking forward to next year's!

Cats

My next-door neighbours have 3 cats and a dog. Apparently one of them, Dum Dum, recently fell from the gatepost and had to go see the doctor. It cost them $76. I don't recall ever having to pay the doctor so much on any of my visits (touch wood). Here's Dum Dum perched on his favourite spot before he fell from it:Which reminds me of another cat in my neighbourhood. I call it the Cheshire Cat because it made me think of the cat in Alice in Wonderland. I used to see it every morning on my way to work. It would be sitting up on the gatepost too, looking down at us harried school- or office-bound mortals, with the haughtiest expression a cat could have. I used to laugh and thought it was the most amusing thing. Now I don't see the cat so often anymore. Here it is looking sulky (or maybe suspiciously at me) on a Saturday morning:
Back to my next-door neighbours' cats. Another one is called Mickey. I've only seen Mickey once because apparently she's the princess of the house and rarely, if ever, deems the outside un-air-conditioned world worthy of her presence. And obviously has never come close to crossing the wall over to our place.

Then there's Tiger. Who's always prancing everywhere and living up to his name by biting and scratching people who get too near him when he's in a pissed-off mood.

Here's Crouching Tiger...
Regal-looking Tiger walking to a pail probably to steal a sip or two of mop water...
Thirsty Tiger drinking from another unlikely water receptacle...
Playful Tiger rolling around on the floor...

And Tiger and Dum Dum sharing the shade under the table on a hot Sunday afternoon:
Up until early this year, we had another daily feline visitor. It was called Khushi, lived in the Kew Gates apartments behind us, and was owned by someone named Pratts. Khushi's mortal enemy was Tiger and one of their favourite pastimes was to sit around starring and snarling at each other for extended periods of time until they got bored/hungry and went home for their meals. Then one day we stopped seeing Khushi. Took us a while to realise Pratts had probably re-located taking the Khushi along with him/her. Pity. I thought Khushi was the adorablest of all the cats around:
Hope it'll come back and visit some day.

The water floweth once more...

Yes! The new pipes are in and the water is running again at home!

The family has been living like quasi-refugees for the past, what? 3 weeks now I guess, since ma discovered one fine Friday afternoon that the PUB bill has been off the charts and a leaking pipe had sprouted somewhere. Off went the main tap everyday except mornings and evenings; and out came the pots and pails and whatever receptacle I never even knew we owned to store water through the day.

Until today. Five plumbers came in a flurry of tile-hacking, pipe-fixing, swing-moving (not that the swing had anything to do with the leak situation, but we decided to donate a swing to the kindergarten across the street instead of hacking it into a hundred pieces of scrap metal, and it helps having the plumbing folks to carry it over), and voila! My first shower with decent water pressure in weeks. I'm going to have to remember not to sleepwalk out the house tomorrow morning to turn the tap on under the mango tree.

Anyway. Had 炸酱面, fish bee hoon soup and the queue-worthy Riverside Indo grilled fish with rice from Tampines Mall Kopitiam to celebrate. Well, not really. Everyone was so tired at the end of the day there was no leftover energy to prepare dinner, so I da-paoed food home. Felt like some kind of celebration.

Never appreciated water more in my life. Really, I think this tops any water-saving campaign PUB comes up with. Maybe they should cut the water supply of every household a day each year to remind us how precious it is.

Hm. Or maybe not.

Uniqlo - Day 1 in Singapore

Ya, I admit it. Was one of those suckers queuing up outside Uniqlo this evening. That was my 2rd time at the store. The first time, I saw that people were actually queuing just to get in, and instinctively walked away. Decided to have dinner at Mac's first. Came back an hour later. The queue had gotten longer; it snaked around the storefront to the corridor next to it, out the door to the lifts, then out to the stairwell. Nearly walked away again, but then the queue started moving, and I joined it when it ended at the door leading to the lifts.

It was ridiculous. I snapped two photos of the queues, and would post them if I could, but they're stuck in my handphone, and I don't know how to transfer them to the computer.

Anyway. Pandemonium inside. There weren't a lot of people. Well not really. Compared to food fare crowds at Expo, I'd say this was nothing, they controlled the human volume pretty well. But whoever were there or had been there certainly knew how to work up a mess. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Labels were blocked. Interminable lines stood in front of the fitting rooms and cashiers. I was so lost I had to ask one of the staff where the ladies t-shirt section was. But when I'd found it, I saw that the battle was lost. All the T-shirts in my size had been snapped up. I spent probably half an hour sifting through the heaps of clothes, but only M, L and XL pieces remained. Those pro shoppers had strategies. They'd grab a bunch of clothes in their basket, take their time to try on everything, then throw out stuff they don't want.

I was ready to give up and leave with the black tunic I'd picked up right at the beginning, until I found out it wasn't a discounted item. Which was probably the whole reason I managed to pick it up in the first place. ARGH. Absolutely refused to go to a grand opening sale and leave with one non-sale thing. So plunged into the mayhem again, and ended up an hour later buying a black linen shirt. Ya, Uniqlo's famous for those. But at least it's $10 cheaper than usual.

Overheard during my 1+ hour in Uniqlo:

Middle-aged fashionista to husband, barely 5 minutes after entering store. "走了啦，我很乱."

Annoyed male shopper A to annoyed male shopper B. "Do you know I walked around the store 10 times?" "Ya, I also walked around the store many times." "Then how come I never see you?" Ah, the perils of shopping in a packed store where there's no handphone signal.

Singaporean employee to Jap store supervisor (I assume). "Do you mean clean it [the clothes] up by folding them?" The Jap employees there must've been aghast at the state of things.

Female shopper A to female shopper B while sifting through "Love for UT" T-shirt pile. "Do you see Give Peace the chance?"

Sunset Way Dinner

Hi gals, I have ventured to Sunset Way for dinner today.

Took bus 61 from Holland V to this tiny fine-dining enclave tucked away among HDB blocks along Clementi St 12.

One interesting observation to note is a cluster of jackfruit trees found near the basketball court there. Something I never find at my estate...

There are many mini restaurants to choose from. Japanese, seafood, yuan-yang steamboat, Thai, western. I had my eyes on the western Grill-Out place.

Many other bloggers have been there, tasted that.

I intended to try the Kurobuta (black hog) and Kobe beef steak. Tad pricey. We settled for mussels with wild garlic, a yellowtail cheek with wasabi and kurobuta patty instead.

Before the main dish is served, we got a portion of salad. Usually, I'd be thrilled with a healthy spread of greens. Unfortunately, the lettuce was rather soggy. Not crunchy. Depressing. However, there was surprise in it. Raisins and corn were added, giving sweetness and redeemed the salad.

Next was the mussels. Loved it!

Here's Gavin's fist-sized pork patty. Meat's good. With potatoes, asparagus and wild herbs. Sauce goes well with the patty. Just that the portion could be less stingy. Maybe change it into a hamburger? Reminds me of 'Oh Carol' at Biopolis...
My yellowtail cheek was delicious. Fresh fish - cos the flesh's snow-white. Seared on the skin while the flesh is soft and tender. I didn't like the tough and slightly bitter skin (a little charred). The mild wasabi kills the fishy-ness of the dish.


We ate till the late evening. Cosy ambience was created with the lighted tea-lights and coloured lightings.

Good place for a quiet dinner with warm and prompt service (they do charge 10% service and 7% GST in the bill).

Folks around the block do like to walk their prized dogs in the evening. Fingers-crossed that a humongous golden retriever does not sit snugly behind you... yikes!!!

Lunch at Su Korean BBQ restaurant (and Gelare)

This Far East Plaza restaurant came courtesy of HX's recommendation. We went there 3+pm, so it was quite empty. Not a bad thing, service and food were prompt and good. Love the complimentary sides, so pretty, like six mini bowls of art.

Ordered just three items. Chicken fillet, bacon and fried vermicelli. The chicken looks a bit gross just thrown together in a messy heap on a plate, but the bacon was nicely presented in circular layers and a thick slice of onion crowning the heap. Not sure what exactly we were supposed to do with the onion. Don't think any of us ate it, but we grilled slices with the meat for flavour. Not that extra flavour was especially needed. I thought the chicken and bacon were already marinated quite well.

They had this yummy fermented bean paste too, that Dawn found too salty, but which I grew to like and added to everything. Didn't try much of the other two sauces they provided.






























Turned out to be quite a filling meal, and reasonably priced too, exceeded my expectations (not usually a fan of restaurants that make you cook your own food). Our bill came up to a $55.55 (which reminds me, gotta tell ma to go buy 4D).

Moved on to dessert at Gelare. Ordered a Cookies 'n Cream sundae and a Chocolate Chip Waffles (or "waffu" as HX likes to call it) with a scoop each of Chocolate Overload and Tiramisu ice cream. Shared among the 4 of us, so the amount was just right. Heaven in a sundae glass and a plate.

Geylang Friday Dinner with Work-Friends

Hi gals, I went to settle food cravings at Geylang with work-friends today.

[Warning: The menu that follows is not for the weak-stomached... Read (...and gag) at your own risk!]

First stop: "Sweet chicken porridge"

We ordered 宫宝田鸡. I was expecting a big pot of porridge with the good stuff mixed in it. Pleasantly surprised when the food came. There's a pot of plain porridge (topped with diced spring onion). The froggie torso and limbs were served in a separate pot. Spicy~ The porridge is very smooth. Gravy from the froggie pot adds flavour to the dish.

We also ordered a beef hor fun. The beef is really tender and does not have the 牛臊(sao1)味.. Interesting..

Moving on, we wanted to get 豆浆 from the famous 油条大王 stall. We know the stall was relocated. But where to? Unsure, we walked along the stretch of Geylang road. High hopes that it'll be around somewhere. A helpful uncle directed us to continue down the road for another 5mins or so. We did so but could not find the stall. Gave up and head for the next stop...

WONDERFUL durian stall is Janice's recommendation. We had 4 D24 durians to share among us 5. That's a lot! After feasting, we packed back a box-fill for Steven. (Photo of Janice, Steven and Mariati posing with D24)

Before leaving, Steven bought 2 musang-kings for his family (that's his mom's orders~).

We got to taste the musang-king. oh my goodness! So sweet and fragrant! The yellow flesh is very bright and 'appetising to the eyes'. 15/kg is a tad bit pricey but it's really much better than the usual fare. D24 just loses its appeal.. Mental note: To value quality (against quantity) when it comes to durians. :)