Marutama Ramen @ United Square

Ramen has always been one of my favourite food so when I first saw this restuarant opening at United Sqaure, I was very excited. However, there hasn't been very positive reviews from my friends who went there and I have no chance to try it out until now.

I was quite disappointed with the staff there when I first approach the restaurant. They were seen at plain sight standing around, chit chatting with each other. Although I tried to catch their attention, I wasn't been approached and given a table until quite a while. Apparently, they were more interested in their conversation than attending to their customers.

Limited choice of ramen. In fact, you can only find 4 kinds of ramen. If you are a picky eater like me, check out the menu online first before going. You don't want to end up in a restaurant without being able to find something you like to eat.

I ordered this Marutama Ra-Men. $12 a bowl. As seen on the photo, there is sea weed, sping onions and a single piece of cha siew. The soup is chicken based and the chicken smell is pretty strong. If you are used to eating ramen with pork based, you will not find this soup to your liking.

The ramen taste average. However, after one of my friend commented that the texture of the ramen felt like the wan dan mee noodle rather then ramen, I tend to agree with her too. Guess I won't be going back to try this for a second time since I can get a bowl of wan dan mee noodle at a cheaper price. Oops...

I find the char siew to be too fatty for my liking. I spent sometime getting rid of the fat before eating. Should I be thankful that here is only one single thin piece of char siew?

Next up is this grilled roast pork (Yaki Charsiu). 4 pieces for $6. Very expensive pork and I don't find the taste worth the price. Taste average to me.

Conclusion is I won't be going back to this restuarant for a second try. Well, at least not this outlet. I was told the food at the Central outlet is better but I will definitely think twice before going there to try it out.

Disclaimer

I know it is a bit weird to be posting about disclaimer on my blog after I have already made several posting but late is better than never right?

Photos posted in this blog are taken by me unless otherwise stated so if you wish to re-post any of my photos, please ask the permission from me first ok?

I welcome all comments that you have but do mind the language used as I am not sure how young can the readers of my blog be. If I am not confortable with any comment left behind, I will delete them off without informing the writer.

If you wish to contact me via email, please do so at any time. I will try my best to reply all emails back at a timely manner. However, I do not come online everyday so I apologise first if you find me replying back too slowly.

Last but not the least, do enjoy reading my blog. If you find any content that is disturbing to you, please let me know.

Thank you!

Bao Today (包今天) @ Marina Square

I am currently in the phrase of craving for dim sum all the time. Ask me what I want to eat and I will always give you the standard answer of the moment - "Dim Sum!!!!".

I was looking for an early dinner at marina square and it should come at no surprise that I will end up at 'Bao Today'. Everything looks nice on the menu and the price looks reasonable. First thought was food should be not bad for the shop to be 3 quarters full at 5pm.

An overview of what was ordered for dinner. I left out the drinks by accident. Anyway, there was a cup of hot tea and a cold yuan yang. Total bill came up to about $31. Restaurant does collect a 7% GST but there is no service charge. Good news is if you are paying with a standard chartered bank credit card, you can get a 10% discount. My bill is after the discount. Before you place your order, do remember to check with the staff to see if the discount is still on or not. Don't come and blame me for giving wrong information if you do not get the discount.

Fried Mango with Prawn ($4.00)
The taste is quite refreshing from the normal fried stuff. You can taste a bit of the sourness from the mango. Bad thing is you can hardly taste the prawn. I doubt you will even know there is prawn in it if it is not in the name.

Banana and Bean Paste ($3.50)
I am kind of surprise that I actually like this. Red bean has never top the list of my favourite food. In fact, you can seldom catch me eating red bean unless it is some kind of pastry from Japan. The filling in this dish is red beans plus banana. Some may find this combination to be too sweet but I think this is just sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. Yummy!

Egg Yolk Bun ($3.00)
This is my first time eating an egg yolk bun. Normally I will order the same old boring cha siew bun. Anyway, my friend said this is one item she will never fail to order if it can be found on the menu. Taste wise, it is not bad but boring cha siew bun will still win hands down over this egg yolk bun for me.

Prawn Dumpling ($4.00)
Highlight of the meal. This is the most delicious item we have ordered for the day. The prawn is very fresh. A lot of times, prawn is always the deciding factor when we determine if the dim sum is nice or not. This prawn dumpling has pass the test.

Fish Roe Shao Mai ($3.50)
Not too bad but as said earlier, prawn dumpling is still the best!

Chicken Congee ($6.80)
I will not order this again. If you want a good congee, try Crystal Jade. Price is around the same but taste is much much better. The taste of this congee is not as smooth as I expected congee to taste like. If it is a good congee, you can just eat it plain and still find it very tasteful. However, this is not something you will find so with this congee.

Lotus Leaf Rice ($6.80)
A strange habit of mine. This is not my favourite food but I will always order this whenever I see it on the menu. You may be asking me why but I have yet to find out the answer. :p Hehe... The moment you start to peel open the left, you will be welcome with a nice smell of the tea leave. You actually start to raise the expectation of the taste of this upon the smell but be warn. It doesn't taste as nice as it smell. Not the best I have tried but not the worst too. Fullerton hotel dim sum buffet actually serves a pretty nice lotus leaf rice. Don't miss it if you happen to be there.

Numerology

I attended a numerology session with a friend yesterday at Suntec. It's a first for me and I am always happy to be able to come into contact with something new regardless if I really believe in it or not.

I personally feel that things such as fortune telling, horoscope, etc, should be taken as reference only. Fate is always in our own hand and we should never let such thing dictate how we live our life.

In case you have no idea what is numerology, it is any study of the purported divine, mystical or other special relationship between a count or measurement and life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology).

The session is quite informative but the speaker is a bit boring. He has only managed to grab my attention only when he is saying something that is related to me. Other times, I may have daydream a bit. Haha...

One thing I do not like about the speaker is when he is doing his case study about real life people. I think it's ok to use a real life example about something that has happened but it's a different story if the example used is still an on-going incident and what he is saying is just a prediction.

As a human being and no matter in what line of career you are in, I just felt that it is not a nice thing for you to go around saying a couple is guaranteed to break up just because of the date they choose to get married.

Marriage is not a simple thing that revolved around numbers only. Even if the couple does break up in the future, I am sure a lot of other factors have contibuted to that fact and not just because of the date they met each other or the date they choose to get engaged, etc. Further more, when a couple has just gotten married, the least a person can do is to give them their best wishes.

Hair Rebonding @ Hair Sense Gallery Hairdressing (Far East Plaza)

I have purchased a groupon voucher a month ago for hair rebonding at Hair Sense Gallery Hairdressing.

My hair was in a bad shape even though I have just rebonded it in January 2012 and I have been wanting to rebond it again. Search on the web and I do see quite a few good comment for this salon and so I didn't hesitate and bought the voucher. Okok... I know.. I cheap po... It was only $75 for hair rebonding with hair cut. I can't resist such good deal or can I?

Let's talk about the shop. The shop has relocated from level 2 to level 4. I really had a hard time looking for it. It was at the back row of all the shops. The shop is quite small or maybe coz there is juz too many ppl in there. It is the most packed hair salon in far east on that day!

My appointment was at 1pm but I was informed that I will need to wait as there is no one ready to serve me now. I left my number and went for a walk. Guess when did I finally manage to get a seat in there? 4PM!!! I actually have to wait 3 hrs and this is when I have already make an appointment! A totally disappointment!

There were like 4 staff in the shop but they seated 8 customers at a time. At every one time, there are at least 8 customers half done with their hair. Not to mention they had another 1 or 2 customers seated at a corner sometime with their hair wet or with chemical on. 

Totally time taken for my hair to get rebonded is around 4 hrs. I could have got it done in 3 hrs if they have not decide to leave me half done coz there is this lady (director of who know what company) came in and they decide to serve her first. Good service for her. Drink was served. No need to q. Still got time to chit chat a bit with her. Hello??!!! I am a paying customer too. I didn't even get a glass of plain water.

End result. I have to say the hair looks not bad after the re-bonding session. For $75, it's really quite a good deal. However, combine with the service and experience provided, I do not think I will want to go back again even if it's just $75. To me, good service is as important as good result.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is coming soon. This is the time whereby everyone is busy spending money to buy new clothes, new bags, and not forgetting good food for the new year celebration.

As with the past few years, I will not be spending the CNY in Singapore. I will be at Kyushu (九州), Japan! It is winter over at Japan now so hopefully I will be spending a white CNY there.

Will be updating phtos of my trip after I am back. Stay tune!

Happy Chinese New Year! 

Welcome to 2012!

It's the first day of 2012 and I hereby wish all my readers a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I promise to do my best in maintaining this blog and I will try to bring out the most interesting part of my life to share with you. Well, disclaimer is my life is not really that interesting... LOL...

May all your wishes and dreams come true for this new year. Stay healthy and happy always!!!