Sapporo Ramen in Kuala Lumpur

When I vistied Kuala Lumpur recently, I met up with my friends from Kuching at Pavillion and they wanted to check out the ramen there which has been receiving good verdicts from their friends and bloggers. We weren't quite sure at first as there are so many Japanese restaurants in this shopping mall, so my friends messaged their friend to find out which restaurant is the right one as we didn't want to end up at the wrong place with the wrong food.

After we received the confirmation message saying that it is Santouka inside Tokyo Street, we headed there straight away and we were lucky to get a table to fit in all of us. We were told that this place gets packed to the brim during peak dining hours.

I oredered a small Chasu Ramen (RM27.50) as I am a chasu lover. The bowl of noodles came topped with four pieces of chasu and the other vegetable toppings. Mine was a miso flavoured version as there are other options of shio (salt) or shoyu (soy sauce). The broth was quite thick that I could taste the flavour of all the ingredients being boiled for hours, especially the taste of prok bones.

The noodles are the same curly type that is used in Sapporo. It has the same springy texture as those I have tasted in Sapporo. The chasu made from the belly pork was very soft and tender. The fatty layers could just melt in the mouth.

The ramen at Santouka was good, but to taste the authentic Sapporo ramen, the best place is still in Sapporo. For the best ramen, it is still at Tsukiya Ramen near Tokyo.

Merry Christmas 2012

Since there is no doomsday on December the 21^st, 2012, let's celebrate Christmas! To all my family members, friends, bloggers and blog readers, Merry Christmas!

I went to a Christmas-theme photo-shooting session with my photography buddies last week. We had two Santarinas with us and here are the results of the session. Please enjoy the Christmas after the doomsday!

Doomsday is Over!

December the 21^st, 2012 has been the last day on the Mayan Calendar and everyone has been waiting for the end of the world on this day. When the clock hit 2 p.m. at local time today, it was 12 a.m. December 22^nd, 2012 for the time zone where the Mayan civilisation was. Yet nothing happened.

The Earth is still as beautiful as it is. Please love our one and only Mother Earth more. Not forgetting the Father Sky too!

Marina Bay CBD

The Central Business District (CBD) of Singapore has recently expanded to Marina Bay from the Singapore River. When it comes to CBD, there will be no absence of high-rise office buildings. The skyline of Singapore is forever changing with the addition of these new buildings.

Some of the buildings were still under construction during my trip in August this year. The skyline will definitely change in another three to four years time.

I guess when I visit Singapore next time, the photos that I take at this place will never be the same again. Singapore is changing, the world is also forever changing, but can our mind cope with the pace of change?

Pork Satay

When I was a child, my grandpa used to do takeaway of pork satay from a food court called Lau Ya Keng. In fact, this food court is a theatre with the name Yang Chun Tai (阳春台) associated with the Chinese temple called Shang Di Miao (上帝庙) across the street. I was always very happy to see my grandpa coming home with a plastic bag with all the satay sticks popping out.

After my grandpa had passed away, I have seldom have the chance to taste the satay from this place as it is only open in the early afternoon and all the satay get sold out very quickly. I am seldom in town during these hours of the day.

All the satay are grilled on charcoal fire. That char-grilled flavour is one of the signature characteristics of the pork satay here. Even though the business has been passed down to the younger generation, that familiar taste is still there.

The peanut sauce that comes with the satay is a very important dip to spice up the taste. The satay alone is just savoury and sweet from the soy sauce and sugar during marination. The peanut sauce adds nutty and spicy taste to the whole gastronomic satisfaction.

For more that forty years, this place still serves one of the best pork satay in Kuching. However, the price has increased six folds since my first bite of it.

Anisa's Smile

This set of photos has long been overdue, but at least I have got them done. It was already two months since I took these photos. How time flies!

Well, Anisa always has a smile on her face. I hope she'll brighten up your first Sunday of December in 2012.

Waroeng Penyet

Waroeng Penyet is a fast-food concept restaurant serving Indonesian food in Singapore and Malaysia. When I was planning for my trip to Singapore this year, I came to know about Waroeng Penyet from a renown Singapore blogger.

Since I was staying near Bugis, I went for the outlet there. The address is 1 Liang Seah Street #01-12, which is opposite Bugis Junction. It wasn't so crowded as I was there half an hour before the peak lunch break hour. There were only two tables occupied, so I thought I could get my food pretty quickly. I wasn't that right as the food here is prepared to order, not the typical pre-prepared fast food type of restaurant. While I was waiting for my food, they were just starting to serve the food to the other tables.

My food finally came 20 minutes after I took my seat. My order was the signature dish here which is Ayam Penyet. The direct translation from the Indonesian name would be flattened fried chicken. It was a set lunch with rice and chicken soup.

Besides the fried chicken, there were some side dishes served with the set lunch. There was a cube of fried tofu and a piece of tempeh, some sort of fermented soy-bean cake. The chili sauce is of course mandatory.

The fried chicken was crispy on the outside and moistly tender on the inside. The tofu and tempeh were fried to perfection as well. It was a satisfactory meal although I can find equally good ayam penyet in Kuching.

The Gardens by the Bay

The latest addition to the tourist attractions in Singapore has got to be the 'Gardens by the Bay' which is just next to the Marina Bay Sands. It is sitting on a reclaimed land which shaped the Singapore shore into straight lines. There was a joke saying that you can draw the Singapore map with a ruler thanks to the reclamation work. Well, back to the park, it has a size of 101 hectares.

The most outstanding feature of the park is the Supertree Grove. It has nothing to do with Superman. Neither Superwoman, Superboy nor Supergirl. I don't know why they are called the Supertrees, but they are just concrete and steel trees.

There is an elevated platform hanging on the Supertrees which you have to pay to get on. With the cheapskate tourist in me, I didn't go up. I only roamed around the grove with my camera and tripod.

The Marina Bay Sands becomes part of the view from the grove and it can be quite interesting by nightfall.

The Supertrees come to 'life' in the evening with the glowing lights. I am still not convinced that they are trees. They are just man-made structures.

There is a lake in the park that offers a good view of the Marina Bay Sands thanks to the mirror-like reflection on the lake.

When I got back to the path leading back to the Marina Bay Sands again, I saw the Supertrees again. There are just some glowing structures, not trees!

The Republic of Food

The hawker food of Singapore and Malaysia has very high similarity as they all originated from the same root, an amalgamation of Chinese, Malay and Indian food. Some years ago, a business group has gathered some of the best Singapore hawker food under one concept-store style food court called Food Republic. There are many outlets all over Singapore particularly in the shopping malls.

I visited the one at the newly-renovated Wisma Atria and it was fully packed with diners at lunch peak hours. I visited the same outlet a few years back and the situation was the same. It seems that the food court is never lacking in customers.

I also felt like I was spoilt for choices. I went round and round the stalls looking for something that could really satisfy my gastronomy for Singapore hawker food.

At the end I settled for the fried prawn noodles which is also a signature dish of Singapore hawker food. There was a long queue for the noodles and I knew I had made the right choice, because the first rule in good food hunting is spotting the crowd around it. The chef did not stop cooking the noodles since I first joined the queue. I saw the whole process of how my food was prepared.

When I finally acquire my plate of fried prawn noodles, the next challenge was to look for a seat. I was lucky to find a seat by the glass window and I could finally savour my plate of hot Singapore hawker food. The stir-fried noodles were soft and coated with very subtle prawn broth. The fresh lime and the chili paste that came with it elevated the taste of the noodles to a different level if you like spicy and sour taste.