Food For Thought

Our first stop was the Food for Thought. It’s not everyday you can walk into a quaint IKEA-laden store that serve only the most exquisite sandwiches, and be greeted by the happiest employees and boss in the world.

Garlic Prawns at Food For Thought

The 90 Steps to Clarke Quay

We then headed our way down to Clarke Quay to an izakaya, or a Japanese-styled bar. On our way there, we took a detour to look for an ATM (with no luck) and then discovered an exit from the subway station called “90 Steps to Clarke Quay”. It sounded so mysterious that I was picturing an Alice in Wonderland-esque exit, so we readily embarked on our adventure. After the first flight of stairs, I was expecting to be greeted by a Victorian flight of stairs of some sort, only to realize that (to our dismay) that it was just a bunch of industrial stairs leading to the first floor. It was such a cruel, cruel joke on the part of the architects.

Would’ve liked to take pictures but I was too tired after climbing up the 90 Steps. So here’s a YouTube video chronicling some girls walking down the 90 Steps instead.

A Japanese Bar for Friends

After our little adventure, we dragged ourselves over to Clarke Quay to Tomo (朋友) Izakaya. Tomo means “Friends” in Chinese and Japanese. Since it’s named “friends”, I figured this would be the ideal place to avoid the lovey dovey couples whose existence would simply shoot me with pangs jealousy.

Slow service aside, that place was almost built for me. I mean, it looks like my website, and it’s got live jazz music. There’s nothing much else I could ask for.

Except maybe….

…a nice Frozen Lychee Margarita…

…and some noodle-esque Japanese dessert called kuzukiri.

So how did you spend your Valentine’s Day?

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1. FORMULA 1 Singapore Grand Prix
2. Sashimi Feast in Photos
3. Singapore and Cellphones

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?

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2. A Day in Photos