In an effort to get to know Singapore’s blogosphere, I went to a ping.sg (singaporean blogger community) dinner at a ritzy izakaya-style Japanese restaurant called En (えん). Met some pretty cool people like Brainy Bimbo, Claudia, Leonard and HisFoodBlog; and had some pretty fresh sashimi! For those unfamiliar with Japanese food, go eat some now! sashimi (刺身) is specially prepared raw seafood - and less commonly raw red meat. The seafood sashimi is traditionally eaten with wasabi, a bacteria-killing agent. Meat sashimi is usually marinated.

On a side note, it’s a shame I didn’t bring my camera since my clutch was too small. I had to rely on my 5MP LG phone instead. Sorry if it doesn’t look as appetizing as it was.

Beef Sashimi

This is beef sashimi marinated in soy sauce. I’m not a fan of red meat (yes, I actually don’t like steak), but this was just exquisite. It tastes a lot like seafood sashimi, but has more bite to it.

Sake Sashimi Salad

The salmon was fresh, and complemented well with the salad. It was very unfortunate that it was simply too salty for my taste.

Sashimi Platter

Here we have salmon (鮭; sake), tuna (まぐろ; maguro), yellowtail (魬, hamachi), amongst others. My favorite is, was and always be salmon - probably because it was the very type of sashimi I tasted as a kid.

Yakitori 焼き鳥

This is yakitori. It literally means ‘grilled bird’. With the exception of the grilled shiitake mushroom, everything was made from chicken. What I found most interesting is the grilled chicken cartilage (軟骨; nankotsu). For those who fell asleep in middle school science, cartilage is the crunchy, white-ish soft bone of which your ear is comprised. I’ve always loved cartilage; I just never thought of grilling it.

Whilst in Canada, I met many people who have never tasted (never wanted to taste, perhaps?) sushi - let alone sashimi. I can understand the fear in eating raw foods. I was pretty hesitant when I first saw my dad eating some reddish raw fish. And it didn’t help that I hate fish. But after a lot of persuasion, I had my first bite.

And I haven’t stopped ever since.

Even though I still hate fish.

Have you had sashimi? Do you like it? Why or why not?

The Nakheel Tower aka Al Burj is one of the many skyscrapers that will be constructed by 2020. According to CNN, Al Burj is set to be 1KM in height.

Yes, I said 1 kilometer - as in 1000 meters, as in more than half a mile.

I’ve never been a huge fan of architecture but I just had to point this out: Can you imagine if the fire alarm goes off, and your office/apartment is on the top floor? Would you have to walk down the stairs that spans 1KM downwards?

If so, I suggest whoever is planning to rent that top floor to start getting in shape now.

Pictures of Nakheel Tower

For more info on the Nakheel tower, visit Wikipedia.Org.

Would you live or work at skyscrapers (or even at Nakheel Tower)? Why or why not?