Sumiyaki (Jap BBQ)

I finally went to the renowned Kazu Sumi-Yaki restaurant at Cuppage Plaza last evening with my hubby and his parents.

It is a small and pretty resturant, with dim lights and furniture made from dark-coloured wood. The place feels really cosy, but I thought the seating was a little cramped. A small little fence was all that segregated my table from my neighbouring diners'. So its a no-no if you are looking for a romantic date at the restaurant. A bit noisy (cos popular mah, with the place always being full-house) but generally a pleasant setting for one to enjoy the food.

I have friends who love this restaurant, so I was really looking forward to this meal. Perhaps my expectations were too high (with all the rave reviews) or maybe it's because my appetite was not that good (post-exams stress perhaps?) but I didn't think that the food was all that fantastic. My family tried the foie gras, and my hubby thought it was so-so. The grilled wagu beef tongue was not bad, but I have tasted better ones (this one a bit too fatty for my liking lah). Garlic fried rice average only (the best I have tasted so far - Corus Hotel in KL) and the sashimi was about average too (I much prefer the sashimi at Rakuzen). The chicken wing was probably the most yummy..but, as a typical Singaporean, something felt amiss without the chicken rice chilli =) So my thumbs-up still goes to the $1 chicken wings at FengShan hawker centre, which is coincidentally where I am going for dinner tonight.

Overall, I'll give it a 5.5/10. The score is a bit harsh, but maybe with age, I don't enjoy oily grilled Japanese food as much. Sashimi and sushi probably goes better with my palate, which is why I enjoyed dinner at Rakuzen much more.

Other sumiyaki restaurants that I have tried are 1) Gyu-Kaku at Chijmes; and 2) Shunjuu at Robertson Quay.

My dining experiences at Gyu-kaku were good...I ate there twice, and both times, I enjoyed the experience of bbqing my own food..takes the monotony away from the mechanics of eating, chewing, swallowing. The cosy box seats provide for ample privacy, and barbequeing the foodwas quite fun. The combination of excellent marinates and the bit of hands-on cooking we had to do made the food taste extra-delicious. I still recall the bbq garlic chicken and wagyu beef..excellent! The hot stone rice was quite a novelty to me too and tasted pretty good. And don't worry about bbq smoke in an enclosed area...I don't recall that there was much smoke to bother with in the first place.


For Shunjuu, the dishes came out pretty yummy. I cannot remember exactly what we ate, but for sure, my family and I ate lots. The ones that I remember (which are probably the ones that tasted better) included the century egg tofu, grilled bacon (with something) and grilled prawns. But I kinda missed the experience of bbqing my own food. At Shunjuu, I chose to sit outside the restaurant, and despite the fact there was no air-con, I think the cosy dining ambience at Robertson Quay made up for it.

Overall, I think the sumiyaki at Shunjuu is better than Kazu. Will rate Shunjuu about 7.5/10. But because I think the self-bbqing at Gyu-kaku made my dining experiences more memorable, plus the cosy ambience at the resturant, Gyu-kaku is presently at the top of my sumiyaki list with a rating of 8/10.

GMAT Blues

Time check, its 6:45am now. Yup, this is no typo, it is AM (the wee hours of the morning) now, and here I am sitting in front of my sturdy Dell PC typing Blog Number 3 of my life.

Well, not that I'm really so addicted to blogging. But some stomach cramps woke me up about an hour ago, and instead of just lying in bed and trying to sleep off the pain, I decided to make the wise decision of not wasting any time. So here I am...penning down my thoughts for posterity (well at least that's a better use of time then lying in bed right) and sipping hot H2O at the same time...hoping it will ease the ache.

By the way, I have just completed my GMAT exams (Hurray!), though not as excited as I would have wanted to be. My scores have improved from the previous attempt, but mainly thanks to my wonderfully powderful English. My Maths scores remained the same despite the hours of practice the past week. Sighz..why leh? I have always been more of a Quans person. In school, I disliked English, especially writing compositions....super dreadful classes (well, guess why it took me so long to start a blog?). Literature wasn't exactly my forte as well.

But when it comes to Maths...its a breeze, almost literally. Can feel the wind running through my hair plus the rush that comes with solving each Maths problem..shiok! Ha, ok I'm exaggerating a bit. Not that I was a Maths-geek. But numbers knew me, and I loved them..twist them around, upside down...great fun, and no problem. There is always a solution, just think hard enough and the answer will eventually pop out. So Maths classes were more fun and bearable..and according to the laws of logic...I naturally performed better at Mathematics than English.

So why my GMAT score like that huh? I feel a slight tat of disappointment with my results cos my Maths grades are still lousy despite the additional hours of practice. Must be those data sufficiency questions...arghhh, I just can't get them right! But as Mum would say, "what's done can't be undone. No point crying over split milk." So ok lah, don't wanna harp on it too much, not healthy for the soul.

Right now, it's a wait-and-see attitude. Will send my revised scores to the school, and see whether it will accept me into the course with my new scores (although the dean had previously informed me that my Maths grades had to improve). I suppose I will not force things, and just leave it to God to decide. He has been good, and will always be good...I have seen Him work in my life in the past, and I believe that He will continue to do so. Events may not turn out the way I always want it to be, but in retrospect, I always thank God for how things have turned out. It can't be any better, cos its His Plan, and I respect it.

Well, now I feel much better - emotionally (with my GMAT scores) and physically (my cramps are easing off). Although a part of me is still wondering how I will fare for my writing assessment portion of the exam. I lost track of time during my 2nd essay, so didn't complete the edits. Then I just realised (when I was lying in bed with the cramping stomach) that I misused a word in the opening paragraph of the essay...sighz...De2 shi4 xin1 you3 yi4 dian3 zhong4. But well, what's done can't be undone, so I suppose let's live with the suspense in the meantime, and wait patiently for my results to arrive in the next 2 weeks.

A Momentous May

Blog #2 comes exactly 2 weeks after my first blog..not very disciplined huh. In true fact, I've been wanting to blog for quite a while..but with my exams just round the corner, I figured that I better concentrate on studying first.

Anyway, I'm blogging in office now...my boss probably thinks I'm really diligent, clicking away during lunchtime (but then, my boss is not around lah =P)

Okie, enough of nonsense....hmmz, what has happened in my life over the past 2 weeks? Actually, May has been a really momentous month...lots of events happened:

1) My hubby has gotten a job (yipee!! now i'm a step closer to my dream of leading a tai tai lifestyle);
2) We bought a place (right now, I'm really excited about doing up my new place!)
3) My in-laws sold their place at Holland Rd (made quite substantial profits..property market is doing really well now, & suspect things will look even better with Formula 1 and IR coming up, but too bad i dun have the $$ to invest);
4) Had dinner at Rakuzen last Friday to post-celebrate my aunt's birthday; and
5) Yesterday was Mothers' Day!

Dinner at Rakuzen was not bad...I booked a private room, which was quite cosy and nice, except for the occasional shrieks of laughter from adjacent rooms, which was amplified by the thin walls. But I suppose my family and I also had our fair share of sending the echos of our conversations and laughter to our neighbours ,hee.

The most memorable dish was probably the sashimi...really fresh and tender. I'm a fan of salmon sashimi (or rather, i'm not too excited about other types of raw fish), and found that the salmon slices was of the right (not perfect though) thickness - slightly chewy, yet soft and fresh. We also ate the spider maki roll, which received unanimous nods from my family, and according to my aunt, the cold soba was quite yummy. I tried a bit of of that, but thought it was just so-so...but well, I aint no fan of soba or cold dishes lah, unless its dessert . Desserts are right at the top of my food list, but let's keep that to another post another time =)

Yesterday was Mothers' Day. My family has the usual practice of having a pot-luck at my granny's place. My contribution this year is delicious hokkien mee from Old Airport Road Hawker Centre (had to wait half an hour for it) and decadent and sinful passionfruit meringue from The Patissier.

Doesn't the cake look too pretty to eat? The cake is really soft and has a melt-in-your-mouth texture, although it is a tat too sweet. My family enjoyed it though. And well, with only light cream (or is it moouse) and no chocolate, I guess it is slightly friendlier on the calories compared to its chocolate counterparts.

As with all family gatherings, there was too much food. From satays (think at least 100 sticks), otahs (also at least 100), bee hoon, hokkien mee, my granny's renowned, ngoh hiang, kong ba bao, chin chow, Singapore's best red bean soup homebrewed by my 2nd aunt, yam paste, tiramisu ice-cream cake to the meringue...we didn't even finish half of the food! But as there was lottas food, we had lottas fun too. A temporary mahjong table was set up and the younger ones were seriously playing (serious = involves grabbing, chasing, screaming) with each other!

For me, i'm feeling a bit too old to engage in their serious playtime..so i've decided to be photographer and started snapping some pictures, including that of my cousin stealing bites of satay while dipping biscuits into milo. He's really cute and is apparently picking up kung fu (that's him in the kung fu costume), but kinda camera shy, which explains why he didn't want to look at the camera. In fact, to prevent him from taking from satay, i just have to point my camera at him to pretend that I want to catch him in action, and he'll immediately put the satay back on the plate!

And here's a picture of my BIG happy family. Not everyone is in the picture though, as some had left earlier. But its nice to have a "quan jia fu"...and this photo just brings smiles to my face, and I am reminded to be thankful and appreciate of my wonderful family.

And this year, other than my usual practice of giving ang pows to my mum and granny, I decided to make my granny a little accessory for her handbag. Here's it:

It is a little heart made from Swarovski crystals..took me about 1.5hours to make it..reasonable time lah, considering it is my 1st attempt.

Our next family gathering will be a BBQ at my/my aunt's place ("/" because I'm currently renting her apartment). Will try to post some memorable pictures then, but for now, i think my 3rd blog will have to wait till after my exams on 25 May 07. Can't wait for it to be over haiz...