A Japanese Restaurant for… Desserts?

Kazu Sumi-Yaki is not my regular go-to place for my fix of Kushiyaki.  That honour is reserved for Nanbantei, which, over the years, has not been able to upkeep the high quality of their food.  In spite of that, we return to it, time and again, complaining each time about how the food prepared and presented to us are no longer like what they were a decade ago.  I guess we really thrive on familiarity.

And so, the topic of Kushiyaki came up during the last dinner gathering with the gals.  Someone in the group commented that she could not turn up for the dinner at Nanbantei eons ago, and she had heard only good things about the food.  She suggested going back to Nanbantei, but we thought we should just try another place that serves the same fare.  After some discussion on FB, we decided on Kazu.

It wasn’t a very pleasant experience trying to reach someone at the restaurant for a reservation.  I must have tried at least 5 times, all at different times of the day, weekdays and weekends before someone finally picked up my call.  We cannot walk in with a party of 7, that’s for sure.  I was so elated when I eventually got to talk with someone I was willing to forgive and forget.  Till the actual day…

Kazu Sumi-Yaki is clearly a restaurant that favours regulars they recognise.  I was largely ignored when I attempted to gain a staff’s attention at the door but they were happily admitting regulars who obviously did not make any reservations, giving me the ‘Wait’ sign with their hands.  Rude, by any standard, but once again I am willing to forgive and forget if they serve good food.  I am that food-driven.

We had to wait for almost 20 minutes past our reservation time slot before we were shown to our table.  And then it took more time to ask for their menus.  Chaotic, chaotic.  I get it that they are a small and establishment restaurant with a regular pool of patrons but shouldn’t you treat every patron that enters the door as a potential regular?

I did most of the ordering because I guess I’m most familiar with Kushiyaki.

{clockwise from top left: whelk, enoki maki, wagyu sticks, asparagus maki}

{clockwise from top left: tebasaki, corn, tomato maki, tsukune}

And order I did.  It wasn’t a difficult task because like I’ve mentioned, I thrive on familiarity – I just ordered what I would normally order at Nanbantei.  It was not intentional, but by ordering the same stuff, I could do a direct comparison of the food from these 2 restaurants.  Some hits and misses from Kazu Sumi-Yaki: most of the maki barely made it mostly because the chef was too ‘light’ with the salt it was barely discernible.  Wagyu sticks were very nice, but tebasaki too charred.  All in all, nothing mind-blowing, and totally forgettable.  The foie gras we had was delectable, but unfortunately I forgot to do a shot before I popped it into my mouth.

Now, the very expensive sweet potato was also very impressionable, in part for the very wrong reason that it costs S$22.  Each.  We decided on just ordering one, to be shared amongst the 6 of us who were present.  And we had to wait 20 minutes for it.  To be fair, the sweet potato was really worth waiting for.

{tiramisu, tempura awayuki, yaki crepe, yaki awayuki}

The saving grace for the day came unexpectedly in the form of desserts.  I told my dinner company that I remember the desserts being good.  And since we couldn’t decide, we ordered 4 of the 5 desserts on their menu to share.  I can only say that the desserts were mind-blowingly great!  And not too cloyingly sweet.  If there is any reason for me to return, it’s for the desserts.

I’m sorry Kazu Sumi-Yaki, but this is about the last time I will ever visit you.  And I’m putting this down on record in case I forget in the future.  Despite the great dessert, the food just doesn’t hold its own appeal.  Didn’t help that throughout the night, we struggled to gain the attention of the waitresses for the simplest of tasks – more green tea, the menu etc.  And then they became too enthusiastic when we were the last 3 tables left occupied late in the night, hovering in the background.  Yes, I’m still upset with them for clearing the bamboo container with all the sticks we discarded way too soon.  I wanted to take a picture of that!

Kazu Sumi-Yaki Restaurant
5 Koek Road
#04-05 Cuppage Plaza
Singapore 228796
Tel: +65-6734-2492
Opening Hours:
1800-2200hrs

112/250

영원하자

Made a quick trip to Seoul over the weekend and just returned yesterday afternoon.  In the last 5 days, we stayed at two accommodation of sorts – the first two nights at a guesthouse, and the next two at an apartment.  Couldn’t sleep well at the first because sleeping on the floor with a thin mattress and soft pillow = backache.  The second was worse – had air-conditioning that didn’t work and kept shutting itself down like there was some timer, and hot water that was non-existent after midnight.

I slept badly all 4 nights, so much so that I was sleeping away for most part of the return 6-hour flight that I didn’t even want to eat.  Now… eating is a big deal to me and I chose sleeping over it.  Tells you how fatigued I was.

Seoul, like Taipei, is no longer a city I travel to because I want to sightsee.  They have become by-the-way cities that I explore apart from attending concerts.  This trip is no exception, although I must say, I feel less at a loss because I now read their words!  I don’t always know what the words mean, but where it matters, I can read e.g. bus going in the direction of Incheon Airport or Gimpo Airport.  Now… that’s important.

As usual, the hubby complains about how my classes never seem to teach me enough.  I retorted that I know enough to say ‘신쳔역근처에’ and ‘올림픽공원역’.  Oh, and also ‘광화문앞에’.  Good enough to get me to all 3 locations with little problem.  Who said the classes aren’t teaching me anything?

111/250

Dancing in the Rain

So I’ve been told, more than once, that life isn’t a bed of roses.  Doesn’t take long to figure that out.  What many might have failed to comprehend, myself included, is how we should not just remain resilient in the face of challenges, but actually learn to enjoy the process of working ourselves out of problems.  As cliché as it sounds, problems are indeed challenges to be overcomed.

Let’s not let our problems paralyse us.  Carpe Diem!

110/250

Customised Pencil Case

I know most people my age and even younger no longer carry a pencil case around.  In fact, most totally abandon the concept the moment they graduated.  For some reason, I could never behave like any normal person could; years after completing my formal education, I am still walking around with a pencil case in my bag, complete with pens, pencils, highlighters.  You know, the full works.  I even brought it to work (when I was working) and used my own stationery instead of using those issued by the company.  You could see that I thrive in familiarity, especially writing contraptions.

So, I designed a pencil case using fabric I like in the ideal size I would like it to be in.  This project was designed and sketched on paper before I realised that I didn’t have enough of one of the three fabrics I planned on using for this pencil case.  So it waited for a couple of days till I had time to head for town to replenish the stock.

This was done in the middle of the night when the hubby was away on his overnight shift.  I thought the lace was a nice touch although I have to confess that the sewing quality isn’t up to par in this particular project.  But hey, I could only improve with more practice.  At the moment, I’m trying to clock one project per week.

Did I ever mention that I love pouches?

109/250

Red Velvet

There was an incident that marred the memory of a great dinner get-together.  Shortly after we were seated, the patrons from another table asked for their birthday cake stored in the chiller.  There were 3 cakes in the chiller (yea, 3 birthday celebrations), including the small one I bought for E.  The staff was so confused she took the wrong cake (ours!) and walked right to the other table while all the time, I was trying to tell her that was our cake.  The lady who bought the cake realised the mistake, and walked to the chiller herself to pick up the cake.  As she walked past our table to her table, she declared very loudly to her friends that ‘My cake is from The Patissier’.

Woah… that stung.  Because obviously my cake box was small and the shop I bought from not as reputable as the big gun The Patissier in Singapore.  But that comment was… tasteless and uncalled for.  Well yes, The Patissier has some nice cakes, but they most certainly don’t sell Red Velvet cakes.  And I do know where to get the best Strawberry Shortcake, the best few Chocolate Cakes, the best Durian Cake etc. in Singapore.  Oh, as a baker myself, I do know my cakes… and that ignorant woman?  No.  She is just one of those fartsy pretentious office worker who mistakes brand name as an assurance of taste.

Yes.  I was very annoyed with her for insulting my choice of cake which by the way, happens to be really delectable.

The topic of Red Velvet Cakes came up during one of our previous dinner gatherings and apart from E and I, it seemed that the rest of them have not heard of it, much less taste it.  So I tasked myself to bring a Red Velvet Cake to the next gathering.  Although this old traditional cake is widely popular in the United States, the fever never really caught on in Singapore.  I researched a bit, and it seemed like only Room for Dessert sold Red Velvets.  Fortunately, I have heard only good things about this bakery.

I love Room for Dessert’s rendition of the Red Velvet Cake because the owner cum baker obviously used the most traditional way to get the red colour synonymous with the Red Velvet – beet root – instead of relying on red food colouring.  The result was a very dense but moist cake offering many layers of taste undertones.  Absolutely delicious.

Apparently Room for Dessert is famous for their Carrot Cake.  I have yet to try because honestly, I’m not a real fan of carrot cakes.  But judging by how good the Red Velvet Cake is, I might drop by one of these days and try the Carrot Cake.

108/250

Sleeping with Pets

This is really what happens when we sleep with the furkids.  I can attest to it!

107/250

The Rustic Life

Once in a while, we meet up with the parents for dinner over the weekend, with no prior planning.  We have a few default favourite eateries to return to, but that weekend we ran out of options.  Turned out my dad was in the mood to return to the rustic countryside lifestyle.  Kind of.  We headed over to Marina Country Club for dinner.

We had been there several times prior, having traditional chinese seafood cuisine, Singaporean-style.  And this one other time, I returned with the hubby to try out the barbeque buffet.  Let’s just say it wasn’t very memorable and we subsequently did not recommend that restaurant to our parents.

That night, we headed straight for the few restaurants by the dockside.  And settled for the first restaurant that we always walked by without taking a second look.  This restaurant called Channel Sam serves seafood, western style.  We didn’t find the menu very interesting, and therefore went straight to the counter and started pointing off the fresh seafood.  We figured it was a faster and more effective way to order.  Secretly I was disappointed because they didn’t have all the chinese-styled seafood dishes I was more used to.  I think my parents were disappointed too, but since we have already sat down at a table, we were too embarrassed to leave.

Granted, it was a nice place with a view.  We were also blessed with good weather and a balmy breeze.  Because we were there early, we didn’t have to wait very long for our food to arrive although I have to admit, I was expecting very much.

The food was basically nothing much to shout about, especially the presentation, but they didn’t taste too bad either.  It helped that the seafood was very fresh.  Alright, the food was quite good.  I was just… crabby because I didn’t get to eat my crabs, pun unintended.

We enjoyed ourselves that evening, especially my dad, who could leave the table several times to take a smoke.  I even wondered if he chose this place because of the open-air concept (meant that he could easily take a smoke nearby).  I chided him but he was clearly not afraid of me.  That night at home, I texted the little sis (who had something on and did not join us for dinner earlier) about how heavily he was smoking.  Figured she could do something about it since dad is apparently very afraid of her.  I didn’t hear from her after I texted her, and I forgot all about it.

Turns out she gave him hell that night for chain smoking.  I learnt about it from my mum a couple of weeks later.  Some of you might think that we are coming down too hard on an old man for his decades-long smoking habit, but you don’t know he had a health scare a couple of years back.  He was so shaken he promised us to quit smoking.  Never happened.  For a hypochondriac like he is, I don’t understand why he just won’t quit.  Especially when all of us around him show our displeasure so openly.

Much that I loved patronising the restaurants at Marina Country Club, I don’t think I will be returning with the parents any time soon.  While many parts of Singapore have clear demarcated areas where smoking is allowed or diallowed, they didn’t have such restrictions at the country club.  The last thing I want to do is to encourage dad to smoke.  So from now own, we shall only dine at eateries that do not allow smoking.  He smokes a lot lesser like that because it’s too troublesome to walk out of the building in the midst of a meal just to smoke.  That’s the least I could do to ensure that he lives longer.  I actually worry about who will rein him in; the little sis will be getting married next year, which means that no one at home can control him and his smoking habit.  I truly worry.

106/250

My Homemade Travel Organiser

Thanks to technology advancement (and the invention of tablets, in specific the iPad), our mode of operation during travel has also been evolving to keep up.  I used to kill trees and some by printing flight and train schedules, accommodation addresses, email correspondences and maps.  I felt bad, but I wanted to be well-prepared half a world away from home.  Not so anymore; I’ve ‘outsourced’ much of printing to the iPad.  Best invention, in my opinion.

And so, apart from our trusty iPad, we now travel with a downsized travel organiser instead of a booklet I used to compile.  I found a picture of a finished travel organiser on the internet, but the creator did not share her template because she sells the organisers.  Therefore I had to work out the dimensions based on our requirements – snugly holding two passports in their covers, fitting A4 papers folding into halves and another slot that fits train tickets, rought paper, post-its etc.

I painstakingly matched three fabrics (I don’t have much of a creative eye) after precisely drawing out a plan of our one and only travel organiser.  This organiser required quite a bit of flipping back and forth, about 5 to 6 times. Midway into the project I made some changes and decided not to go ahead with the pen look and button flap I initially designed it to have.  Thought the flap was redundant and the hubby didn’t like the idea of a pen loop.  And this is the final product.

Despite being a novice at making such stuff, the organiser’s dimension actually turned out just right.  Our passports fitted into the slots snugly, and the upper flap I designed to keep the passports from dropping out by accident worked like a charm too.  The hubby did complain that the little flap I catered for boarding passes is a little too shallow, and I agree.  Somehow I forgot to factor in the thickness of the passports, but the flap will still work.

This organiser’s usefulness will be tested out very soon, on our short trip to Seoul.  Although I’m happy with this cute little travel organiser I can think of a couple of adjustments to be made, and I’m sure the trip would shed some light on how it could be improved.  I will probably attempt another one when I can find fabrics that match, and also design another one for a solo traveller.

105/250

Travelling Safe

Italy first received some bad press recently when Eunjung of T-ara (a K-Pop girl group) was robbed of 23,00 Euros in Milano.  According to what was reported, she was carrying this large sum of money because she was the designated treasurer for the trip comprising her own group and another new 7-member group of her agency.  They had a photoshoot at the square in front of Duomo di Milano where she went off to get coffee and was snatched of her handbag.

Shortly after reading that report, my cousin was discussing with me about countries to visit in Europe over high tea when I mentioned that I really enjoyed Italy.  However, she revealed that her husband aka my cousin-in-law doesn’t like Italy much because he had a friend who was pickpocket-ed in Rome.

And just yesterday, my Japanese teacher updated his status in Facebook (he just returned from a vacation to Europe) that his luggage was pried opened and his laptop stolen while he was transiting from Rome to Amsterdam.  Let’s just say he was quite mad about the incident because he was putting down a whole nation of people.  To make matters worse, he didn’t buy any travel insurance for this trip.

My sympathy to the victims in all 3 incidents cited above, and to many more who lost their valuables while travelling.  But I really wouldn’t be so quick to put the blame on the country and its people.  I just want to say this – there are thieves everywhere; pickpockets, snatch-thieves, robbers etc.  The proportion isn’t exceptionally higher in Italy if you take into consideration of the fact that Italy is also a major tourist attraction of Europe, especially Rome and Vatican City.  I have been to Italy twice – the first time for 4 days, and the second time for 18 days.  We didn’t lose any valuables so we must have done something right, or were extremely lucky.

In any case, here’s my own checklist to safe travelling:

1. Heightened Situational Awareness  –  As present and ex-air traffic controllers, we have pretty good situational awareness.  Stronger than an average person, that is.  We never let our guard down… well, I do when I’m travelling with the hubby because I know he will be watching out for me.  But in general, we are very alert to the surroundings.  Almost to the point of being paranoid.  Which brings me to the second point…
2. Be Very Paranoid  –  I’m usually the very paranoid one when travelling, especially where it comes to accommodation.  I lock the doors, and then double and triple-check that they are locked.  In essence, I was very suspicious of anything unusual – when someone bumped into me, gave me bad vibes or seemed to be walking in the same direction as us for a long distance.  And we never succumb to the cliché – a well-dressed person could well be a pickpocket as much as the shabbily dressed person.
3. Spread the ‘Eggs’  -  When I talk about ‘eggs’, I mean money.  Cash, credit cards, travellers’ cheques etc.  On long trips more than a week, I prepare stashes of cash – for transport, for accommodation and for daily expenses.  And then we distribute the cash between the two of us, putting them in different places.  Every day, we only take out enough cash for 2 days (the rest of the money still goes with us, but never easily accessible). And I prepare a dummy wallet to hand over to a robber in case we ever bump into one.  For shorter trips, the hubby handles all the money, giving me only enough small change to put into my pockets.
4. Know the Risks Involved – We once packed my netbook into the checked-in luggage but not before the hubby warned me of the potential risk.  And we never stinge on travel insurance, not matter how short the trip.
5. Common Sense – We try not to draw attention to ourselves (not dressing flamboyantly, not talking too loudly, and not giving the impression that we are easy targets) although, believe me, it is getting increasingly harder as we start venturing to places less visited by Asians.  And since we (actually, I) like Europe, we really stick out like sore thumb in some places.  All the more we must place trust in our instincts and never take leave of our common senses.

Just 5 little rules we live by, and we have been doing well thus far.  Never lost anything significant before, except a Suica I dropped in Tokyo, shortly after topping it up.  Oh but that’s entirely my own fault for carrying too much stuff around with me when I was alone.

Italy is a very beautiful country and I cannot imagine anyone depriving themselves of discovering ‘The Boot’ because of unpleasant experiences they  hear about.  The unique gondolas rowing along the Grand Canal as the gondoliers serenade their Italian sonnets, the impressive duomos, the passionate Italians, the hearty cuisine… they can’t be replicated anywhere else.  If you’ve never been to Italy, I beseech you to look beyond the bad press and give yourself a chance to get know the country.  And if you have, I’m sure your experience speaks for itself.

But there is this one place one really ought to watch out for your valuables – Fontana di Trevi; the cases I’ve heard of people being pickpocketed there far outweighs other tourist spots in Rome, or Italy, for that matter.  This tourist trap has every aspect that makes it easy for a pickpocket: far too crowded at any time of the day, too many tourists preoccupied with trying to take good pictures, and too many lanes a perpetrator could blend and disappear into.  I know this describes many other tourist traps, but this place, in particular… just be careful.

I love, love, love Italy.  Unfortunately my major trips for the next decade has been decided, and Italy is not in the blueprint.  Can’t wait to return to this charming country.

104/250

The Annual Date

I have a friend of almost 30 years that I have been seeing once a year, for the last few years.  This friend and I go way back when we were the top students in our primary school comprising mainly students from English-speaking families.  A small group of us stuck out like sore thumb because we were equally good in both English and our Mother Tongue Language (in this case, Mandarin Chinese).  The rest of them, back then, couldn’t speak a complete sentence in Mandarin even if their lives depended on it.  In fact, some of them almost never made it to the local universities because they could barely pass their Mother Tongue exams.  The last I checked, their linguistics skills in this area didn’t improve over the years.  Perhaps the level of proficiency might even have ‘deproved’ due to lack of use.

In the late 80s/early 90s, a certain unique genre of music called Xinyao (the extended form being ‘Singapore Songs’ in Chinese) was emerging in Singapore.  The movement began in the early 80s when some junior college students started forming small groups to compose and sing their own compositions, in Mandarin.  By and by, this genre of music grew popular (because the songs were usually about everyday lives of average Singaporean students) as the listeners could identify with the issues sung in the songs.  At the peak of the movement, YF and I caught the bug in spite of our tender age.  We attended one concert in the last year of our primary school, and another concert again in the first year of our secondary school.  The following couple of years Xinyao became more commercialised, resulting in the annual concerts cum award ceremonies being televised.  We stopped attending the concerts because the tickets were no longer available for sale.  Being in different top secondary schools (and were naturally bogged down by our studies), YF and I lost contact.

Somehow, we never really felt the need to contact each other again but I always hear of her from friends who attended the same junior college as her.  Truth is, the ‘elite circle’ those days was very small; you can always find someone who knows someone else in your life.  Then we both moved houses and lost contact once again (back then, emails were not prevalent, there were no cell phones and definitely Facebook has not been invented).  It was much harder to keep in contact, and we were just too busy with our own lives.

For the next few years while in university, I tried searching for her.  Everyone I knew from her junior college heard of her, but didn’t know how to contact her.  Somehow years passed by and once again, I got caught up with life’s little busy-ness.

Until one day shortly after I got married, I saw an article of her and her newly-wedded husband on a bridal magazine.  That was about the time when Friendster came into existence.  I searched for her name on Friendster and voila!  I found her, together with many other primary school friends I lost contact with.  We caught up on the lost years.  By then, the once dead Xinyao movement was also revived in the form of annual concerts.  We started attending the concerts together again.

Yesterday, we attended a concert celebrating 30 years of Xinyao.  And boy, did we feel young amongst the crowd.  Told mum and little sis I was attending the concert, and they immediately assumed that I would be going with YF.  It is that predictable.

Together with the other concert attendees, we had hell of a time during the 4-hour long (without intermission) concert.  I’m eternally grateful to have found a friend like YF who shares a common interest because honestly, I don’t think I can find a second person in my life who shares the same passion.  Well, perhaps the hubby… but he is not that into Xinyao.

It may seem strange that we meet up once a year, considering that we are now hooked up.  I guess the years apart somehow have an impact – we now move around in different circles and lead very different lives.  I’m contented to keep in touch with her via attending the annual concert and the occasional conversation on Facebook.  Same goes for her.

103/250