The Pensieve

Somewhere, tucked in a corner of the ground floor at Central Mall, is a stylish Japanese eatery, the first of the lot to open its doors in Singapore.

Azabu Sabo’s done up quite zen-like, with simplicity and a valiant attempt at being authentic. However, the lovely glorious chandelier just spoils the simple beauty and little bits like the chinese-looking drawers lend a tad of confusion to the japanese cultural setting.

Nevertheless, the food’s there quite affordable and prettily set up for display. In fact, you can view almost the entire menu at their official site.

For that night my gang had the following:

Mixed Fruit Bowl
They have the sugar (brown / white) at the side, which is good cuz then people can moderate the sweetness of their dessert.

Matcha Zen
This was so devastatingly sweet that my friend, for all her sweet-tooth, could barely tahan it. The culprit? The red bean paste… Haha… I’ve never seen anyone eat a dessert with such determination.

An-Mitsu
This one looks quite delicious, and the soft ice cream they have isn’t as sweet as those we normally get elsewhere… They’ve got sugar (brown/white) on the side as well.

Black Sesame Milkshake
I’ve never in my life tried any black sesame desserts before, not even the famous 芝麻糊. Took a bit of this milkshake and hmmm I don’t think I like black sesame much. Too ticklish on my throat.

I’ve been hankering after Waraku for ages, every since I saw the brightly coloured plastic food adoring the shop’s exterior… Passed by a Waraku look-a-like along city link on Saturday, and decided to just have dinner there…

Shokudo (which means ‘cafe’ in Japanese I think) is quite a bright cheery place with yellow tones and a hip crowd. They serve a wide variety of pasta imported from Japan (feels stringer and actually lighter) and their own blend of sauces, a very interesting mix of the East and West.

There have up to 5 different sauce bases - wafu sauce (basically, I think that means any sauce with Japanese style of seasoning), tomato cream, carbonara, pesto and curry. They also have soupy pasta, like the white wine soupy mussel and pasta and this spicy tomato beef pasta thingy… We had the tomato cream with asparagus and grilled chicken and the curry with pork cutlet and spaghetti. Mine wasn’t too bad but the curry combi looked and tasted a bit weird. I think it might be a bit too revolutionary for our tastes. Haha…

The pizza looked awfully thin and very unsatisfying for 12.90. Hehe give it a miss!

The most interesting part was the dessert! It was so pretty and quite yummy! (from the limited spoonfuls I had) We had this green tea ice kacang topped with red beans (it’s looks different from the ones in our kopitiam) and the japanese type of chest nuts. Then there were four mochi around it too. Kawaii!

All in all, it’s a fun place to go for a refreshing taste, but don’t expect fine dining or immaculate waitressing for the price you’re paying.

Prices range btwn 13-16 for pasta / pizza, 4-8 for drinks/sodas and a bit more for the desserts.

The Line, Shangri-La

With the new found delight that our fund still had so much money left (because the team was living such an ascetic lifestyle for the past yr), big boss proceeded to schedule elaborate lunches in order to spend our money… First we had the horrible duck & char siew rice, then nasi padang TWICE, in between the Straits Kitchen but the best of all was….. The Line! (and yesterday, they had chicken rice from that place in River Valley, but I was feeling too sick to eat then)

The Line is one of the new restaurants fashioned after the concept of an open-kitchen ie. food’s cooked right in front of you and replenished in small batches, so u get really ‘fresh’ food despite it being a buffet. (and you get to ogle the good looking chefs, if any). Gotta give credit to the US-based Adam Tihany for transforming this place into such a hip eatery. Plus it’s open 24h and seats up to 400 people!

The Food:
The Line did not earn the name of ‘mother of all buffets’ for nothing, it’s a whole gamut of cuisines here! Your first stop is usually the appetiser / cold foods bar featuring endless rows of oysters, clams, mussels, crabs, lobsters, pretty little servings of appetisers in shot glasses; sushi & sashimi and all kinds of greens.
Next up, you’ve got a choice of Italian (B recommends the pasta which they cook on the spot for u, even if you’d only wanted two spoonfuls of it; pizza), Chinese (dim sum and other Chinese dishes), Western (the salmon fritter in oats and cornflakes are absolutely yummy! the beef slices with mushroom is super tender…), Indian (prata, murtabak, various veggies and curries… the chicken is really succulent, unlike the dry stuff u get at most other places), and this noodle shop (din try the noodles but Boss said it was not bad… they had wanton too).
Finally we’ve got the desserts… There’s a crepe station, a chocolate fondue and rows upon rows of tiramisu, poached pears, cakes, tarts, meringues and puddings in cute little trays/cups. Boss drowned himself in the fondue.

The Service:
Very good, if not a tad over-enthusiastic. They clear off empty plates and cutlery really quickly, once, I was just having my second last mouthful when my plate was whisked off, leaving an absolutely bewildered expression on my face. Then B, who’d left a crayfish on her plate intending to attack if after she’d sampled other stuff, found it gone by the time she got back… I think they clear off plates a little too quickly, such a waste of food. On the other hand, your napkins are always folded nicely by the time you return back with more food, you don’t have to wave your guts out to get them to refill the glasses, and they are absolutely enthusiastic and knowledgeable when questioned about some queer concoction on their dessert bar.

All in all, it was a great experience, both the food and of course, the company!

Realised I’ve been talking a lot about food these days, indeed, we people from the ER-HEM team seem to do nothing much but eat and walk around, do some changes, trace case notes, eat somemore… and then one or two will go sleep. Imagine that! There really is an unfair distribution of workload amongst the teams. Yet despite all our feedback this arrangement will stay in order to prevent bruised egos. Sigh… In the end who suffers? The patients!

Anyway, back to food… Last Monday, our con craved for ‘nasi padang from zion road’ only. Teehee and we were sent out to dabao mucho packets for the team at the OT (who was really sick of OT food). Alas, the store’s closed on Monday, so we took a chance and thinking that the next door stall should be of certain standard to have made it to the recommended foods in U Channel, bought 31 packets of char siew and duck rice…

It was the most terrible char siew rice I’ve ever tasted! EEEEK! The rice was sooooo hard…. I don’t know how it made the chart! GROSS!

The team of course, we rather disappointed at the poor quality of food after a tiring morning in the OT. Sob sob, and perhaps our evaluation dropped a bit. (haha, just kidding, relax…) On Wednesday, we ventured out to get the elusive nasi padang at 55 Zion Road. I tell ya, it’s really GOOOD! Yummy yummy! Still tasted just a nice even at the second try (My ex ex boss took us out there for lunch once.)

My ex-team had lunch here just last week, a buffet as well. (I’ve never had buffets so many times a year until I started working, somehow, GS people love buffets, I think it’s cuz they starve for hours on end while operating and then when they are finally let loose from the theatre, they stock up on food – a bit like camels)

Anyway, this place wasn’t that good but it was still worth a taste. It mainly serves Penang style cum Peranakan cuisine. They’ve got stuff like spice rice, curry of all kinds, quay tiao, mian xian, prawn noodles (I think), all kinds o kueh for dessert, and the most awful otah I’ve ever had the misfortune to try! EWWW… It was all soggy and tasteless, someone actually wondered if we were actually eating the RAW form!

All in all, though I found the place so-so, I think the seniors in my team loved it, and it’s supposedly Prof’s favourite place too!

Lunch Buffet
My team decided that it was finally time to use the team fund to go for some much needed entertainment - ie. gorge ourselves to near death at any sinfully expensive buffet in the area. Top choices were the Line Restaurant and Mezza 9. However, due to the fact that our big bosses often only can decide rather last minute, we were tragically unable to get places. *sob* So in the end, we ate sinfully branded hawker food at this place. It was such a big group, close to 20 people! Actually I thought this was part of the welfare fund, but my con revealed that actually every month, each consultant forks out a certain amount of money, making it 300 SGD per month for the team’s fund, and it’s this money that we spend so lavishly and sometimes, rather freely. hehe…

The food there was a variety of local favourites, ranging from your Indian prata/murtabak/curries of every shade and flavour; otah, satay, rojak, chicken rice, char quay tiao, carrot cake (their’s was especially yummy)… … … Not too bad a variety, but just far too heavy on the palate. Lots of stuff’s spicy/curried and can be rather harsh on the tummy. They also had a dessert bar with kuehs, ice cream, malay desserts, and to quote my reg, ‘free flow fruit juice, that’s the best thing’.

We were so full! And some people can really EAT! And I dunno how they remain SO THIN! Life’s so unfair. Boss ate a lot too! WAAAA so much carbo! Predictably, the conversation turned to less palatable things like PEG-ing ourselves, doing gastric lavage and trying out to see if we had the succussion splash, at which point the con went: I doubt it’ll be a splish-splash, more like a plop-plop cuz there’s just too much food in your stomach!

We were all like sloths after we got back, someone took an afternoon nap in the HO room! I was falling asleep while updating the list, unfortunately ending up besmirching the good name of my fellow HO. Haha… At evening rounds, everyone looked so tired, I think all the blood got diverted to the gut already…

yum yum!

Finally after 2 months, I’m getting some of the fave home-cooked food I enjoy!

Not in order of merit…

1. popiah
2. sushi
3. chicken rice
4. yellow rice
5. goulash soup
6. dumplings
7. pineapple tarts
8. egg and dang cai soup
9. spaghetti
10. brinjal / lady’s fingers without belachan!

Did I tell you guys how fun this place is? I truly enjoyed myself there. :D The décor is just superb, with artfully placed veils and pillows making it both a place with privacy and comfort. Yet still economical enough such that it could accommodate a fairly large number of people. The menu is extensive, with quite a few kinds of variations. I think I had this chicken teriyaki with ginger shreds in the rice… a bit like claypot texture, together with udon soup and sashimi which I promptly surrendered to my friend. Haha… I don’t particularly love sashimi. My friend had this broiling pot of eel with eggs, accompanied with rice and sashimi too.

Didn’t get to the dessert since we were filled to bursting from just the lunch alone, and all the gossiping hehe… But I’ve heard the creative stuff they’ve got there, like how the green tea cheese cake’s served in a birdcage (though the logic behind it has always baffled me). Hmmm anywayz, it’s a place that I would definitely return to. :D

Sigh. I was supposed to be blogging about my wonderful last wk of HO posting but I think now I’m receiving retribution from enjoying too much!!!!!

Last week, I remembered going home so late cuz of all the partying, this week I’m leaving at ten pm or so (even when post call) because there is just SO much work. Sigh.

Triple 3
Tummy almost exploded there! My nice MO ah K took some of the HOs he’s worked with there. That night, sparks flew and the grape vine flowed, I’m sure a certain few pple must have had a sudden attack of sneezes that night! haha… As for the food, whoa v nice leh, it was like foodparadise… Haha such cute lil’ cups of entrees, really yummy food, and the dessert bar was like waaaa… flowing away! I can just imagine dobby’s delight! haha…

Station Kitchen @ St James Power Station
A seriously over-rated, over-priced establishment which charges seriously pocket burning parking fees. A prata at 5 bux! You get the idea. Super ‘atas’, as ah K told us.

Brotzeit
Yeap, this German place @ Vivocity! Jon was so onz about the pork knuckle, he had to have a go at it. Anyway, drinks flowed and people started turning really red, like one of our fellow HOs looked like he got erythroderma, while another started to poke an MO… Tsk tsk, disinhibition haha…

HO farewell lunch @ the Yacht Club
Wonders of wonders, where the previous batches of HOs had gotten Samy’s curry catered to the sem room as a parting gift for the blood and sweat and loss of skin turgor the last four months, we the lucky batch of HOs got a treat at…. the Yacht Club! TADAAAA… Nothing really new cuz been going there with my cousins since I started pottering around. Anyway, I think this was some sort of desperate last ditch attempt to change the currently circulating rumour that er-hem hospital is not a good place to do HO-ship. I say ‘rumour’ cuz frankly speaking, I thought it was quite an ok place to do a posting. Or perhaps, it’s all the good food making me speak well of this hospital. Haha…

After all, it’s always better to work in a smaller hospital cuz people know each other better and as a result, I suppose, are more cordial (nevermind wat we call the surgeons and orthopods behind their backs, haha I’m one of them now!) Anyway, small hospital, but not too small, otherwise you just might not see much beyond cellulitis and abscesses. Hah.

Streeters @ Keong Saik Street
Our big boss treated us all to Spanish cuisine on the last Wed of our month there! woohoo! haha, nothing new either cuz I’ve gone there before. This time round it’s better, the food’s not as salty s previously. We had the black ink squid, portobello mushrooms, meatballs, and the scallops! OMG they were fantastic! haha I think I have a fetish for scallops. One of my subslaves sheepishly remarked after the meal that… he/she’d thought the scallop shell was a biscuit until he/she saw the other subslave scooping the stuff from it. Haiz… The seniors mostly had paella, those guys really can finish the whole PAN! I had a wonderful pasta de marinero and we all had sangría. :)

Indonesian Restaurant@ Riverside
Brought our hardworking house-elves there for dinner! A glorious mix of bbq stuff (the Rayfish was really good), chicken, satay, taohu goreng, sotong… It’s just in between Cafe Iguana and Brewerkz.

Asylum
I totally agree with what Dobby said, ‘you go in sane’, ‘you come out nutty’! First, they took really long to get our order cuz the waitress (who is from mainland er-hem) couldn’t really understand English and we couldn’t get her English either… Then, they told us only half an hour later that our jug wasn’t available! ARGH. Anyway by the time the drinks came, those who hadn’t got drunk on alcohol were already drunk by boredom!

PS Cafe

It’s really one of the nicest places I’ve dined at… hehe… It reminded me of my trip to Spain, at Granada, where we had such nice al fresco dining. Only of course, the climate was much better and the air was so crisp.

Anyway, just had brunch there on Sat and had a really good time. :)

The menu is sort of fusion for brunch… Lots of waffles and maple syrup kind of thing… Anyway, here’s what we had…

This pork loaf thingy (it’s actually some minced pork with lemon grass and other spices with lots of veggie, strips of bacon and eggs… and this weird tomato stuffed with some kind of cheese…) I had this portobello mushrooms with soft-boiled potatoes with some cheese on top, lots of spinach and bacon and eggs… Also shared this Caesar salad, actually I think the salad’s the best :) Just had too much cheese on top la…

They’ve got a fairly large selection of teas there too.. We tried the lemon grass and the Morrocan mint tea. :)

Oh and then the desserts there look monstrously huge… haha…

Anyway, overall I won’t say the food there is that fantastic BUT the ambience more than makes up for it. I really love the place! :)