Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Kuru Kuru Japanese Restaurant @ Valley Point (Part II)

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Second visit, and this time round during dinner. No difference in menu for both lunch and dinner. The only difference?  Dinner is priced slightly higher than lunch. Dinner surcharge? Also, do note that unagi items seemed to be perpetually unavailable, hence they should just remove it from the menu altogether.

Ordered the usual suspects; sashimi moriawase, shishamo, mushrooms, tebasaki (chicken wings),  beef with special sauce, chawanmushi, fried beansprouts, squid tentacles, tori karaage, makimono, ebi tempura and grilled mackerel with salt.


Shared a plate of  spaghetti with cod roe sauce from the Yoshoku (Japanese-styled western dishes ) section. Taste somewhat similar to fried noodles and strangely addictive. Likeable so we had it twice.

spaghetti with cod roe sauce
close up view of mentaiko pasta

Ordered the tori karaage with wasabi mayo from the agemono (deep fried) section. Well-fried with crispy skin and tender meat. There's crunch with each bite. Yums.

tori karaage with wasabi mayo
yummy bite-sized chicken

Mekajiki or swordfish is not available as sashimi. Only available in nigiri sushi form. The taste was alright, just not as juicy since it's quite thinly sliced.

swordfish sushi
thin slice of swordfish

My friends had the agedashi tofu. Didn't try it but it looked pretty alright with wobbly tofu.

agedashi tofu (with bonito sauce)

Also had the soft-shell crab with wasabi mayo makimono. As nice as previous visit.

soft-shell crab with wasabi mayo makimono (matt-rolled rice)

For sashimi, this was our second round. The first round of salmon and yellow tail weren't as good as the second ones. But the tuna was chewy due to tendons in between of its meat. The yellow tail was fattier in the second round. Nice!

tuna, salmon and yellow tail
looking pretty

For buffet, only hot/cold green tea is free. Any other drinks are chargeable. Expect to pay slightly more than $35 per person for buffet dinner.

We were there to celebrate our friends' birthday (July babies!), so brought a cake from The Patissier.

Happy Birthday, girls!
strawberry shortcake

The cake can be ordered online, so that was pretty convenient. Looked gorgeous but its base was very very hard to cut through. Lots of cream, soft moist cake and lots of strawberry bits in between.Sweet.

Here's a link to first visit.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Marukin Ramen @ Scotts Square

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Was recently invited to a tasting session at Marukin Ramen Tokyo located at B1 of Scotts Square. First outlet in Singapore, and Marukin Ramen here favours the chicken broth for its ramen soup over the more typical pork-based ones. Not only that, there are four variations of chicken broth (Shoyu Chicken White Soup, Shio Chicken White Soup, Miso ChickenWhite Soup and the Shoyu Chicken Clear Soup) available for diners to choose from.

shop front
typical table setting
noodles menu
side dish menu

Started the night with a sampling of side-dishes. Hiyayakko, a plate of refreshingly chilled tofu with a hint of mild spicyness (from ginger flakes as well as chilli soy sauce). A light and healthy starter.

Hiyayakko (chilled tofu witth chilli soy sauce)

Then we had the Marukin Potato Salad, which I thought it looked rather cute.

Marukin Potato Salad
doesn't this resemble something cute? (imagine broad beans for its ears and cherry tomato for its nose)

The potato salad is a mixture of texture of mashed and potato cubes. This is a pretty light tasting potato salad.

Then we had the deep fried vegetables in dashi broth. Colourful dish. It has tomatoes, baby potatoes, brinjal, and bell pepper and pumpkin slices.

deep fried vegetables in dashi broth

The bell peppers were soft and absorbed much of the yummy dashi. But the pumpkin slices weren't as soft as I thought it would be.

Another deep fried item was the tori karaage. Small chunks of deep fried chicken, I like! The meat was really juicy and tender.

karaage
juicy chicken karaage

Also sampled the Marukin Gyoza. Small parcels of minced chicken meat wrapped in chewy skin.

Marukin Gyoza
small filling of minced chicken meat

How about the ramen? The chicken broth? First ramen to land on our table (and subsequently in our tummies), was the Tsukemen or dipping noodles.

Tsukemen
closer view of the chicken chashu, nitamago and kikurage mushrooms
thick noodles, chewy that's cooked just right
Tsukemen in tasting portion

Eating the tsukemen was rather fun. The warm collageny dipping broth was thick and coats the noodles with a luscious sheen. The dipping broth really made an impression with its strong rich flavours that reminds you of chicken drippings. Tasty. A few chews of the noodles and off it slids down the throat, almost effortlessly. But beware of the broth flying off in all directions as you slurped it up!

Next, the dish is what most will call the 'what-also-have' dish; the spicy ISSAI-GASSAI Ramen which we sampled in shoyu white based soup. It was nice to have the chilies served separately, so diners could have the option to control the spicyness level of their own bowl. So thoughtful.

Shoyu ISSAI-GASSAI Ramen, served with a separate side of chilies
closer look of chilies
Nitamago, chicken meatballs, shrimp wanton, chicken wing, chicken chashu, kikurage mushrooms, seaweed
thick noodles

Shoyu Chicken White soup was generally soothing and does not overpowers the taste of the rest of the items in this dish.

Next, was the Shio White Wakame & Corn Ramen that has generous portions of seaweed, corn, kikurage mushrooms and green onions. Was pretty amazed by the very thin strands of ramen noodles. These ultrafine ramen noodles are produced by Marukin's in-house Soul-Men (somen) Restaurant and noodle factory in Japan.

Shio White Wakame & Corn Ramen, with thin ramen
closer view


For the finale, we sampled the (Spicy) Negi-Negi Miso Ramen but somehow that plate of chili was missing, so the only 'spiciness' for this dish came from the onions instead. Liked the comforting taste of miso.

Negi-Negi Miso Ramen
close-up
nice thick noodles with a bite

Thanks to Head Chef Tetsuya Tsuyuki (Marukin Ramen Singapore) who crafted all these wonderful flavours.

Personally, I liked the Tsukemen, thick noodles with egg and miso chicken white soup. For sides, the karaage if you're a meat lover and the deep fried vegetables in dashi for novelty.

On a side note, the Tsukemen's dipping broth has very strong flavours so you may wish to have it last if the intention is to share two bowls of ramen; say for example the Miso ISSAI-GASSAI and the Tsukemen in the same sitting. But of course, it's up to your personal preferrence.Gosh, I do sound naggy!

And since you, my dear reader has managed to sit through this lengthy post, here's a bit of a good news courtesy of Marukin Ramen. For the month of August 2012, just say "Marukin Ramen! OISHII!" when you order a main and you'll get a FREE side of the Deep Fried Vegetables in Dashi Broth! Hurry!

For other promotions, you may wish to visit their website.

Thank you Athena and Ashley for the invites.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Pigsfly Kitchen+Bar @ Goldhill Plaza

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This place is like a one-stop solution for food and drinks. There's Thai food, burgers, pizza, kebabs, ice-cream and many labels of beers to choose from.

cute
liking the neverending rows of beers
spacious

The place gave a cheery vibe, with young service staff who are eager to offer their recommendations.

Baan Khun Na Thai food menu
drinks/beer menu

Took us quite a while to decide. So many menus to see! Decided to go for Thai food, so we ordered phad thai, chicken wings and springrolls. For drinks, they have Heineken and Erdinger on tap (1 pint for ~$11-$12) but we opted for the beer bucket (6 bottles @$50).

The food arrived pretty quickly but they didn't have stuffed chicken wings anymore, so got that changed to tiny chicken wings.

seafood phad thai
chili flakes, sugar, ground peanuts
soft, moist strands of noodles
translucent prawn

The phad thai was already quite sweet even without mixing the sugar. Likeable taste with slightly moist noodles and plenty of beansprouts. But could do with slightly more seafood.

Warsteiner Premium, Germany (4.8% alcohol)
Konig Ludwig Weissbier, Germany (5.5% alcohol)
Weissbier (German white beer)

Actually, all the German beers that we had that night, all shared the same taste. Heavy in wheat and yeast.

deep fried springroll with Thai chili sauce

The springrolls are actually quite skinny and tiny. But it made a nice munchy companion to all the beers that we were having.

James Boag's Lager, Australia (5% alchohol)
lager

The lager was crisp and light. A good interlude from the German beers.

super tiny and skinny chicken wings but tasty~

Not sure how it was done, but the chicken wings were skinny and tiny. But tasted good. Yummy!

Krombacher Pils, Germany (4.8% alcohol)

The Krombacher Pils had a smooth rounded and fruity/floral taste.

don't forget to drink lots of water

Then, we saw some departing diners walking away with ice-cream. So, we got ourselves some to try.

Latte e Miele
salted butter caramel (left) and strawberry yoghurt (right)
 
The salted butter caramel, tasted...hmm...like toffee? Hahaa, but loved the strawberry yoghurt. It tasted like..hmm...lollipop!?

Samuel Adams Boston Lager, America (4.9% alcohol)
Samuel Adams Boston Lager, darker colour
Real Belgian Pils (5% alcohol)
Belgian Pils, light golden colour

The place closes at 11pm on a weekday. This meal costs about $88.
 
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