YO21O
You Only 21 Once! =D
At last, I'm finally 21! Well, cannot say that I have actually looked forward to being an adult, but bo bian, still have to be right? No longer a child, but still young at heart! ^^ Posting about the 21st birthday outings, which were rather... fun? :) Not talking about spamming 'Its my birthday' cards in Monopoly Deal, in case you relate fun to that... =/
Contents:
1. Dinner at Jcube [31/5]
2. YO21O outing [1/6]
3. Delicacies outing [2/6]
4. Gifts! =D
Excluded: Friday at the lab
==========
1. Dinner! Ft. SY, RJ and WJ
1845hrs
A rainy evening, which made me late as there's a huge traffic jam. Since I was lazy to take out my umbrella, I wore my cap and proceeded to Jcube after submitting my attendance. RJ and SY turned up, which I knew before hand. WJ! I have not seen him since Chinese New Year, which there's a house visit at his condo. He has changed! Nope not the height, not the character, but rather the hair! In my whole 8 years of impression, he had a very neat, short hairstyle, but hey seems like freedom has got the hold of him, and he has much longer hair, definitely on the way to becoming a rockstar if that's what he wanted. =P Well, he kinda seemed surprised that I would be wearing cap, jeans and outing jacket to work. Come to think of it, it looks like I am going to play in the lab everyday by wearing this attire, well that's the good part of a temp, sui bian wear. Not the cap though~!
Kung Fu paradise is being rejected instantly as there's a super long queue, typical on a friday evening. What's left, the Japanese restaurant on the 1st level, and KFC (omg...). After about 5 minutes of looking at the menu and deciding which combo would be the most worth for everybody, WJ took the queue number and everybody decided to abandon the wait... If there were customers cursing about the missing link that particular evening, oh well. =/
--
1910hrs
Final decision: Nandos
I have forgotten who's the one who told me that Nando's isn't a good place to dine as the food quality isn't that satisfactory. Heck care, try it for once. If it's really not nice, I can always say that I have tried Nandos during my childhood, thus adulthood will be a clean record, wahaha. =P
Ok fine that's lame, stop rolling your eyes. -_- Since RJ said that its worth to try, it should be good. ^^ Good is good, but one thing to take note while dining beside the ice skating rink: Keep yourself warm, regardless whether is moving your body a bit, ordering a bit of chilli related food to spice things up or get comfortable with a jacket/hoodie. With a thick layer of fats, it's still quite all right to me, but I don't think that's the same for WJ!
The menu looked kinda interesting. Chicken on a page, with its various platters of different servings and sizes. The next page consisted of all the salads squeezed in half a page, and the random burgers/carbo-related items in another half a page. Didn't take a look at the desserts. After some kind of headless discussion about what kind of combo to order, which involved me finishing a whole chicken and the rest struggling with the side dishes, we ended up ordering 2 platters, consisting of 2 whole chickens, 2 large sides, 2 regular sides, and 2 bottomless soft drinks. Well, I am never interested in soft drinks, unless it's mountain dew with KFC snackers.
Jeff: "Hi, may I have these 2 platter meals?"
Waiter: "Er ok, for the 1st platter, what kind of sides do you want?"
Jeff: "1 large coleslaw."
Waiter: "How about the 2nd one?"
Jeff: "Er, 1 large chips, 1 regular garlic bread and 1 regular wedges. Thank you!"
Waiter: "Hmm, can you choose between 2 large or 4 regular sides? Because a mixture is kind of confusing."
Jeff: "Well, in total there are 2 large and 2 regular sides. You just help me do the rearrangement of the sides to make them suit the 2 platters? I am fine with any arrangement." :)
Waiter: "Ok sure."
It's a simple permutation and combination test for the waiter, so I think he should be fine with it. Did I mention that Nando has a spiciness level for the chicken? There is the lemon/lime flavour, the mild flavour, the regular flavour and a super spicy one which I have forgotten the term for it. RJ recommended the 1st 2, which is kinda good for me as I can't take really spicy food.
--
What arrived in the end:
- 2 chickens on nice plates
- 1 large plate of fries, well those are actually chips.
- a decent serving of garlic bread
- 1 regular coleslaw and 1 large coleslaw... -.-!!
Where's the wedges! Ok, the waiter must have failed the P&C test as his definition of rearrangement means that something is being substituted to another item. Since WJ don't like the coleslaw but prefer the fries, I had 1 large coleslaw all to myself, in exchange for sacrificing the fries.
Me and WJ got the lime flavoured chicken, while SY and RJ got the mild spiciness chicken. No regrets having my flavour, a distinct sour taste (lime sauce dressing), with rather tender and juicy meat, and nicely roasted skin. A bit burnt though, as you can see in the picture, but hey, it's great! ^^ If you like those seafood bbq chicken wings, this chicken would be awesome and suits the taste! :)
The bottomless soft drinks were shared between the 3 of them. =D I got myself a cup of plain water. The water refilling service is not bad, they will refill the plain water cups at a decent rate, such that you won't be thirsty for long. WJ experienced this good service directly. He filled his plain water cup with soft drinks, and drank if halfway when the waitress walked past our table.
(Waitress fills Jeff's cup)
Jeff: Thanks!
Waitress: :)
(Waitress fills WJ's cup)
WJ: Thank you!
Waitress: :) no problem. (Walks away)
...
WJ: EH!?!? Oh shit!!!
RJ, SY: XD
Jeff: Awesome!
---
Talked about a lot of random things~
1. Uni course
WJ is going to Business, SY is going to material engineering and RJ is going to FASS Econs. Wow, another person who switched from the Science Stream to the Arts Stream. RJ wants to study Econs, which I think should be a rather common / popular course? SY and WJ kept on disturbing him to join me in Mathematical Science, which I don't think RJ will like it. =P
RJ: Walao if I go mathematical Science sure fail de la!
Jeff: No what! Study with me luh, GPA confirm at least 2! =D
2. The SY-WJ hostel
The way they talked about the hostel seemed quite interesting. You can choose the type of hostel you want, the preference of a personal/common toiilet, extra facilities like fridge and nonsense, and also a prepaid-card air-con! With an additional amount to install the air-con, you can buy the air-con PPCs and use it for a certain time duration. It's 1 cent per 2 minutes, so an 8-hour sleep duration would be an extra $2.40. Sounds like a not bad deal, if you really have excess money and want to sleep in a more comfortable environment and SG in the night is also hot and humid.~~
3. Orientation
Seriously? You have to pay for orientation? That's just another point against going for any kind of orientation. Poor RJ has decided not to go for the Sports camp even though he has been wanting to go since the last few months. Well, the requirements and things to do before you can be accepted are rather ridiculous though. Get a picture of Chuck Norris, pose / do something like him, do something silly but related to sports, etc. -.- Did RJ say something about posing a half-naked pic? I hope that's not true! If it's a test of how enthu / on you are for the camp, they are doing it wrong. =/
4. Management of your life
Appreciate your life bro, you only live once. If your pride is the thing that keeps you lying about how good your life is, it's time to take that down and start to be aware of the living conditions around you. You can be awesome / talented about something, but if nobody appreciates it, that's just too bad and you are better off somewhere else. =/
SY / RJ asked me about Nat mei. I just replied 'sad story'.
The random chat went on all the way until about 9.15pm. XD The ice-skating songs are quite nice, including Flo Rida's Whistle and Best Friend, a rather old song which I heard in Unity Primary. =P The total dinner bill amounted to $105. The 3 are really nice to help me offset some money, thus I paid only $12 for a meal of awesomeness! Thanks RJ, SY, WJ! ^^
---
Before we exit JE, RJ wanted to go to the ATM has he had a night outing (club?). If I wanna link RJ and JE together, the result would be ODAC, and a lot of funny memories about them.
***
Studying with ODAC, they go studying together as 10+ / 20 people, knowing where the hot spots are and taking shifts to camp in front of the library during the school holiday weekdays. I remembered one ODAC person analysing the pros and cons of using the elevator instead of running up the escalator. (something about the great difference between the lift at L1 and at L2)
Lunch time -> BAN MIAN!!! There's a coffeeshop near the bank that is rather crowded during lunch time (a few years ago at least). When I wondered about what to have for my lunch, the ODAC guys kept on shouting ban mian, advertising the noodles at such a high level which even the shop owner would not have done that well in his entire life. That's a really big bowl of noodles. =P
A probability which the ODAC wondered without any basis of calculations would be whether the tables reserved would warrant a 'summon', as any library table users who have left their tables for 15 minutes or more would get a notice. Haha, all the awesome things which they did~~ I still have the ODAC Calender card. Never an ODAC-ian, but shall keep the card as it is nice. :D
With a happy birthday handshake from RJ, we left for the shelter towards JE MRT station. :)
Oh, WJ's Jap proved to be successful! He pronounced Idemitsu correctly! Good job!
===========================================
2. YO21O outing! Ft. War and WL
"It's not the gifts or activities that matter. It's actually the time your friends are willing to fork out from their busy schedules to spend the special day with you." - JM
With that auspicious saying in mind, WL arrived late by about 20 minutes, even though I suspected that he had arrived just before 2pm. Found War somewhere along the 1st level, he gave me a plastic bag, mentioned that inside is a book and of course, happy birthday. =P Thanks War! War wore about the same usual grey shirt and jeans attire. Same here, white shirt, jeans, and of course thinking cap. =D Haix, become an adult already, but still wear the same thing. Heck care, I like it like that! :)
"Yo listen up here's a story, about a little guy that lives in a blue world!"
This part of the song echo-ed in my head when WL arrived. He's blue! Dark blue shirt, blue jeans, blue sneakers, blue socks, blue balls... (lolwut) He should get a blue beanie and wear his blue hoodie too, result: Smurf singing that clubbing song. XD
WL passed me a very nice wrapped present! Except that unlike War, it's not in a plastic bag. It looks really awesome! His wrapping skill should be better than mine and War's combined score. Thanks WL! As a result of this, War kena disturbed with the absence of a wrapping package. Aw! Haha both also nice luh, thanks guys! :D Oh, PH didn't turn up.
Well, a classic outing at Plaza Sing includes a movie. The lift ride is rather interesting. A couple / family pushed a trolley in the lift, and conveniently parked their trolley in a way such that War is being trapped at the corner of the lift.
Jeff: Hey War, you are cornered!
The couple / family looked slightly embarassed / paiseh for trapping War.
Has anyone heard of the game called League Of Legends? Only War heard of the game as he didn't laugh when a teenager guy said: "I'm playing LOL now" to his friend, which really made me and WL chuckle. XD Interesting people, definitely better than the 1,2,3,aiya sian guy.
Oh, the mystery Koi outlet at Plaza Sing is located on the outside of Plaza Sing, and I don't think anyone will find it if they keep circling indoors. So War, that's one more reason for you to go to town for a random outing! ^^ Rihanna found love at a hopeless place, WL found Koi at an ulu place. =P
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Gelato @ Gelato Cottage
Nom nom Maple Walnut Gelato! ^^ A pity the Pineapple tart Gelato is no longer for sale, as it's no longer anytime near CNY. The MW flavour is also good, a sweet flavour of maple syrup, rich milk taste, and generous bits of walnut. :) The egg bacon waffles I had on Earth Day is now on the menu, along with other delicious items. I don't think I see curry chicken on the list, probably it's removed due to low popularity?
WL had grapefruit gelato, a change from bubblegum. The Gelato Cottage seemed quieter than usual, probably due to the absence of the friendly lady. The songs played are not the usual Christian songs, but rather songs that may be heard on Gold 90.5FM. Superwoman, Forever Young (sadly not be One Direction)... Did these songs inspire WL to play his pop song quiz? Nearing to the start of the movie, WL sort of got stuck at some of the questions, and asked if we recognised some of the songs being played.
The usual club / rock / old / pop songs are all being transformed into an acoustic part-song, and players are supposed to guess the song title / song artist with the given letters as clues. Usually when a song comes on, War and WL would recognise the song (either very old or noisy), if the song manage to defeat them, then it comes to me. I recognised Maroon 5's 'Daylight' and Fun's 'We Are Young'. Very nice acoustics! ^^ If you like the song, you can find the songs on iTunes, however it's not the acoustic ones though. =/
---
A particular 'clubbing' song unheard of by me and WL is correctly identified by War!
Taio Cruz's Break Your Heart! Seriously never hear before? Is that the song which I heard during the FCD with JM?
War: See la! Never club of course don't know the song!
Jeff: Aiya no wonder luh.
~~
There's one particular song which puzzled all of us though. Thinking that it's actually quite old, War listened to it, and made an effort to hum the tune of the song. Which sounded like the song below.
And it happens all the time, War failed and kena disturbed upside down for humming this song to become like a Chinese song. Good job!
Before we left the Gelato Cottage, I banged a metal item rather loudly, and the whole shop just stared at me. That's kinda awkward, and I managed to shake that off by saying thank you to everybody. Some girls laughed, so paiseh sia...
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Epic, another awesome cartoon movie which I wanted to watch, except that this time it doesn't end with an Owl City song unlike Wreck-It-Ralph / The Croods.
If Maple can revamp Ellinia to be something like this, I will play back maple. XD The animations are cool! Believe in what you do, appreciate your family members do, and enjoy the nature. The whole movie is good! Even though it's not really as good as The Croods.
Nice parts~~
Guy: So how? Cmon, hug me (Preparing to travel)
Girl: Hey, I just met you...
Jeff: and this is crazy!? XD
WL: (stoning)
CRJ: But here's my number, so call me maybe!
Girl: Oh, it's just a cute little mouse... <3
Next scene: The mouse try to eat them.
Apparently Pitbull is part of the movie! Not sure if he voice over the dog, animate with the dog's actions or made up a clubbing song for the music...
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Ajisen for dinner! Somehow whenever we go to Plaza Sing, dinner must be at a Jap restaurant. I ordered a bowl of char siew? ramen and white fish as side. The fish was rather ok, mayo and chilli, the ramen soup tasted qutie nice! The bamboo shoots doesn't taste good though, it has a rubbery texture... A filling bowl of noodles, but I don't think that Ajisen would be one of my favourite restaurants to patronise. I think it's more like there's not many people inside during dinner time, that's why we visit. =P They had some tarts which really looked like cakes, nobody tried that.
Warren enjoyed his bowl and side too! WL ordered his usual gyoza and a bowl of Gong Bao ramen.
Gyoza: CLEAR
Gong Bao ramen: Almost untouched, including the egg.
Wah what a waste of noodles! Yeah, that's totally true. The reason is because WL didn't know that Gong Bao is spicy. That came as a surprise as I thought that everyone Chinese guy should know that Gong Bao chicken cube has dried chilli as a part of its content, thus it's spicy. Poor WL, but nvm at least that speeds up his eating. :)
The rest of the hours we spent on music. Playing WL's music quiz, looking at War challenging people with song titles of different genres / singers, and of course listening to my own playlist. =D WL's song quiz proved to be much less difficult than I thought. WL must have linked me all those very old songs, thus creating the false impression that the quiz is ridiculously difficult. The acoustic versions did really sound cool, and some of them are even much nicer than the original songs themselves! Esp. Rihanna songs.
DJ WL helped out both me and War with our quizzes / challenges.
Jeff on WL's quiz
Jeff don't know the song -> It is not new
War hears the song -> War knows: Old song
War hears the song -> War doesn't know: Middle age song
WL hears the song -> Remembers answer: Case closed
WL hears the song -> Still don't know the song: Find answer online and case closed
War challenges other people
War knows the answer: Good job
War doesn't know the answer -> Not old -> Random guess
WL knows / doesn't know the answer -> Laugh
Jeff don't know the answer -> Random guess
War's opponent must be some very damn zai old man (lolwut), cos the amount of time he used to identify old songs is just way too quick for War's ancient song senses to fill him in! Well, make that an exception when it comes to Kesha, Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson, his 3 favourite singers other than OASIS. =P
(Random: Whitney Houston is pronounced as Whitney Hill-stern, not How-stern)
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A walk at challenger before going home, as WL's earpiece spoils again for the 1001st time. That's about it for the outing! War introduced an English word game called 'Wordsplosion'. The 1st letter of a 5-letter word is given, and the player is given 5 tries to guess the correct word. With War's large guidance and help, a score of 52k is obtained as a high score. =D
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3. Delicacies! Ft. JM and Tean
To celebrate my 21st birthday, JM and Tean planned an outing, which I would say, a rather delicious one! Usually I would be the one to arrange the time, place, etc, but this time, it's a mystery to me! So yup, let the delicacies begin! :D
We met up at noon at CCK, before proceeding to the town area (unknown location) for the outing. SY didn't turn up, he didn't have enough money (the strong irony) to go with us, so it's just the 3 of us. Tean has ORD-ed for a month, and well, he still looked kinda same. We talked about his random happenings during his last month of service, my labbing experiences, futuristic uni life and other random nonsense. Oh, I also showed him the circle question given by JL, which he solved it, and currently clocks the fastest time among the people I know. -.-
Time JM took to solve the question: failed
Time my VJ tuition student took to solve the question: failed
Time JM's atas cousin / friend took to solve the question: 66 mins
Time Jeff took to solve the question: 25 mins
Time Tean took to solve the question CORRECTLY: 4 mins
I remembered someone sharing this joke before, which is of a similar nature to this incident.
-----
A long time ago, a DC and LDC sent astronauts up to space to record incidents on a faraway planet. The faraway planet has a strange gravitational field, resulting in everything to be floating instead of being still on a spot. The DC came back with nothing recorded on their paper notebooks, whereas the LDC had a lot of information recorded.
The DC tried to solve the problem by engaging the best scientists of the country to invent a pen that could defy the laws of gravity and spent millions of dollars just to invent that special writing instrument. All efforts were in vain after countless failed attempts as the pen ink just couldn't stay on the paper, no matter how good the pen is. Finally the DC just decided to give in and asked the LDC how they recorded information without trouble.
The spokesperson of the LDC said: "Pencil."
-----
Actually WL also took less than 5 minutes, but he got a solution which me and JL doubted.
WL: "Well, it looks like 3/4 of a circle! So the area = 3/4 of a circle." :D
Nice try WL.
-----
The auspicious drop off bus stop turns out to be directly in front of Plaza Sing! Ah, 2nd day in a row to visit Dhoby Gahut. No matter, I like that place anyway! :) JM and Tean were not as amazed at the Koi outlet. On proper look, the Koi outlet really has a large space for people to enjoy their drinks indoors, a really proper cafe. :) Does it have charging outlets? If it has, it's great for everybody! Imagine singing Outasight's I'll drink to that while enjoying some random milk tea.
Ah whatever, the 3 of us are not even Koi fans.
--
1st makan: Aston's!
Surprisingly, there's no queue during lunch time (1pm?). Well, I am sure many people had tried Aston's before, and will definitely know that it's not an expensive place to dine, esp. in the town area. This is about what we had for lunch~
Everybody tried a bit of other's plates, and they all tasted great! Well, I personally feel that JM's hickory chicken (3rd pic) tasted better than my black pepper chicken chop (1st pic). It should be BBQ sauce, and has a rather sweet content inside, absence of a burnt taste. I should order that in future! The mashed potato is great too! Compared to KFC, it has a greater buttery taste, and I don't need to mention about the serving portion ya? =P
Spent quite a long time in Aston's. Tean and JM seemed to be rather interested in L202 (Order: 25 candy bombs) and L252 (the easy timed level). Addicts siol.
-------
After lunch, we had a nice long walk to Taka, looking at the sights and sounds of a bustling city during the day. Some promotions here and there, ice-cream motorcycles, donation students and other random stuff on the busy street. Some random experiences / stories shared and lol-ed at during the walk. :D
~~ The story of JM's lunchtime in Civil Defence ~
JM: Hey bro!
JM's instructor mate: ?
JM: I ask you hor, how will you react if i suddenly say...
JM's instructor mate: Say what?
JM: I want to lick your eyes now! =P
JM's instructor mates didn't talk to him for at least half a day. Well done JM!
~ The story of JM's shopping in NTUC ~
(A girl accidentally hits JM without saying sorry)
JM: Eh mummy ah.
JM's mum: ?
JM: The girl hit me leh, want to hit her back together? :D
JM's mum: -_-
(JM turns back, and saw the girl's mother staring at him)
~ The flag day at town ~
(Some girls passed by the 3 of us)
(1 girl talks to Tean)
Girl: Hi would you like to donate? =D
Tean: Nah its ok thank you.
(1 girl talks to Jeff)
Girl: Hi would you like to donate? =D
(Jeff throws in a coin)
Girls: Thank you!!! (Walk away after that)
Tean/Jeff: Hahaha!!! XD
JM: -_-
Did I mention that there's a shopping mall with a rather old interior design? Being curious, we decided to take a look. Apparently there's a very famous game shop where people would go battle out figurines / compete / etc. in that shop during weekends / nights. Well! The shop seriously doesn't look that bright and beautiful, but it really has half a shop dedicated to board buildings and figurines, war landscapes, etc. There's a tournament that's supposed to happen during that time we visit, well nothing exciting happened, cos we didn't see the tournament happening..
--
2nd makan: The macarons!
The last time I visited NAC / Taka should be during FCD with JM. That time should be a rather quick rush through, as I was kinda amazed at the new varieties of food, the specialities and of course the pricing! There were these mini doughnuts (60 cents each), the bread stalls with long queues, classic omelette Japanese noodles, choco and nuts stalls that must have about 30 kinds. If I have the money, I would definitely buy a feast of junk food and slowly eat them at home. :)
** Highlight of the whole outing! **
Ladurée @ Taka
Help yourself in searching where is the place, the reviews, etc. This must be a famous place for divine pastries lovers, as it has a very long queue that extends all the way to outside the shop.
The shop interior looks bright like a diamond! It has the feeling of walking into a beauty palor, with decos, candles, crystals and a big display of macarons (many colours)! The pricing? $30.40 for 8 macarons. One look and you will know its close to $4 per piece. Ah oh well, the atas design of the shop would definitely has a price attached to it right? Just as much as I wanted to abandon buying the macarons as I didn't expect the macarons to be that expensive, Tean suggested for me to wait outside. So we waited outside for JM. I prepared my $10 note, and wondered how special can the macarons be. So far, I think I tasted 2 - 3 types of macarons, but nothing beats JM's home-made strawberry macarons. It's sweet, but not too sugary or makes you feel sick of the taste, a perfect sweet bite for kids! Perhaps Candy Crush should add in macarons as part of the game features in the late L400+ =P
At last, JM reappeared from the crowd.
JM: "Keep your money, happy birthday." :)
Jeff: !!
I usually don't get surprised at things, but that is definitely one super sweet surprise! Thanks JM and Tean! :D
---
Classic chocolate shop visit, random things we see. :)
1. Sweet lab crystals and sweet lab solutions at $3 per test tube. Strange...
2. The super large Hershey's bar is still there, and at the same $60 price!
3. Peanut butter cups still simply awesome, I bought 1 packet to try :D
4. M&Ms in transparent plastic at $1 per packet! That seems to be swept away easily!
Speaking about sweet things, JM mentioned something about Twelve cupcakes being opened by a celebrity. Here's the history for it.
http://www.twelvecupcakes.com/about.htm
It's about 4pm, some time before a delicious dinner. A bit of a walk around Ion Orchard, which I can say does not have anything much that fascinates me, unless you count Ion opening a large number of food / snacks shops at the basement. I have always wondered whether I should get an Ipod for myself, since it would be great to have some good quality music while on the move.
Conclusion: No. It's damn hard to use. If I were in a bad mood, I would have poked through the screen of the Ipod. Wonder how the hell did WL survive with that.
I must say that this statue had a blast. Anyone recognise this unique art sculpture?
--
3rd makan: Ramen @ Menya Musashi
One way or another, one ramen comes after another.
By Tean / JM's recommendation, we headed to this ramen shop (which I have never heard of) for dinner. The prices are slightly more expensive than Ajisen by about $3 per bowl, not much of desserts? Well anyway we came to try the speciality noodles of the shop, the Tsukemen. o.o
For the Tsukemen, customers can choose the serving size of their noodles, from 1x to 5x, and the choice of soup colour (white, black, and red). For me, I chose white 2x: Original soup with a bit more noodles. The extra noodles for Tsukemen comes with no extra charge, but customers are advised not to waste noodles / transfer noodles to/from other people. That's such awesome advice. :D
My Tsukemen! A bowl of noodles with big pieces of char siew, bamboo shoots, zai-er, lava egg, topped with cut onions and spring onions.
The noodles are rather thick! The texture is about the same as Ajisen, but the char siew meat is definitely better! A thick cut, roasted well and the ratio of fats: lean meat is perfect. A few slices for the taste, since the focus should be on the noodles. Still don't like the bamboo shoots and zai-er though. :/ Ah, the egg! The egg yolk is in a super molten state, which of course shows that the chef's skill is awesome, as you can maintain the softness of the lava egg while the egg is considered 'hard-boiled'.
JM: The more watery the egg, the better the skill, therefore water is liquid! ^^
Tean: -_-
It's $17.50 after the 2+ per bowl of Tsukemen. An additional bowl of soup costs $3, if that bowl is the same soup as your original order, $5 for a different one. The noodles (1x-5X) are of the same price, but I feel that 2x should be a right portion, as I felt rather full after finishing that serving. Not going to try 3x no matter how hungry I am. :)
----
All good things must come to an end, so we went home after dinner, not without challenging the Wordsplosion game War introduced! After thinking / guessing / cursing a lot on the different 5-letter words, our combined high score could not beat War's high score. -.- See luh, War's english way too atas already.
That's all for the delicacies outing!
===
4. Gifts!
The Laudree macarons whih JM and Tean bought for me. :D This is the packaging and paper bag.
At last, I'm finally 21! Well, cannot say that I have actually looked forward to being an adult, but bo bian, still have to be right? No longer a child, but still young at heart! ^^ Posting about the 21st birthday outings, which were rather... fun? :) Not talking about spamming 'Its my birthday' cards in Monopoly Deal, in case you relate fun to that... =/
Contents:
1. Dinner at Jcube [31/5]
2. YO21O outing [1/6]
3. Delicacies outing [2/6]
4. Gifts! =D
Excluded: Friday at the lab
==========
1. Dinner! Ft. SY, RJ and WJ
1845hrs
A rainy evening, which made me late as there's a huge traffic jam. Since I was lazy to take out my umbrella, I wore my cap and proceeded to Jcube after submitting my attendance. RJ and SY turned up, which I knew before hand. WJ! I have not seen him since Chinese New Year, which there's a house visit at his condo. He has changed! Nope not the height, not the character, but rather the hair! In my whole 8 years of impression, he had a very neat, short hairstyle, but hey seems like freedom has got the hold of him, and he has much longer hair, definitely on the way to becoming a rockstar if that's what he wanted. =P Well, he kinda seemed surprised that I would be wearing cap, jeans and outing jacket to work. Come to think of it, it looks like I am going to play in the lab everyday by wearing this attire, well that's the good part of a temp, sui bian wear. Not the cap though~!
Kung Fu paradise is being rejected instantly as there's a super long queue, typical on a friday evening. What's left, the Japanese restaurant on the 1st level, and KFC (omg...). After about 5 minutes of looking at the menu and deciding which combo would be the most worth for everybody, WJ took the queue number and everybody decided to abandon the wait... If there were customers cursing about the missing link that particular evening, oh well. =/
--
1910hrs
Final decision: Nandos
I have forgotten who's the one who told me that Nando's isn't a good place to dine as the food quality isn't that satisfactory. Heck care, try it for once. If it's really not nice, I can always say that I have tried Nandos during my childhood, thus adulthood will be a clean record, wahaha. =P
Ok fine that's lame, stop rolling your eyes. -_- Since RJ said that its worth to try, it should be good. ^^ Good is good, but one thing to take note while dining beside the ice skating rink: Keep yourself warm, regardless whether is moving your body a bit, ordering a bit of chilli related food to spice things up or get comfortable with a jacket/hoodie. With a thick layer of fats, it's still quite all right to me, but I don't think that's the same for WJ!
The menu looked kinda interesting. Chicken on a page, with its various platters of different servings and sizes. The next page consisted of all the salads squeezed in half a page, and the random burgers/carbo-related items in another half a page. Didn't take a look at the desserts. After some kind of headless discussion about what kind of combo to order, which involved me finishing a whole chicken and the rest struggling with the side dishes, we ended up ordering 2 platters, consisting of 2 whole chickens, 2 large sides, 2 regular sides, and 2 bottomless soft drinks. Well, I am never interested in soft drinks, unless it's mountain dew with KFC snackers.
Jeff: "Hi, may I have these 2 platter meals?"
Waiter: "Er ok, for the 1st platter, what kind of sides do you want?"
Jeff: "1 large coleslaw."
Waiter: "How about the 2nd one?"
Jeff: "Er, 1 large chips, 1 regular garlic bread and 1 regular wedges. Thank you!"
Waiter: "Hmm, can you choose between 2 large or 4 regular sides? Because a mixture is kind of confusing."
Jeff: "Well, in total there are 2 large and 2 regular sides. You just help me do the rearrangement of the sides to make them suit the 2 platters? I am fine with any arrangement." :)
Waiter: "Ok sure."
It's a simple permutation and combination test for the waiter, so I think he should be fine with it. Did I mention that Nando has a spiciness level for the chicken? There is the lemon/lime flavour, the mild flavour, the regular flavour and a super spicy one which I have forgotten the term for it. RJ recommended the 1st 2, which is kinda good for me as I can't take really spicy food.
--
What arrived in the end:
- 2 chickens on nice plates
- 1 large plate of fries, well those are actually chips.
- a decent serving of garlic bread
- 1 regular coleslaw and 1 large coleslaw... -.-!!
--
Where's the wedges! Ok, the waiter must have failed the P&C test as his definition of rearrangement means that something is being substituted to another item. Since WJ don't like the coleslaw but prefer the fries, I had 1 large coleslaw all to myself, in exchange for sacrificing the fries.
Me and WJ got the lime flavoured chicken, while SY and RJ got the mild spiciness chicken. No regrets having my flavour, a distinct sour taste (lime sauce dressing), with rather tender and juicy meat, and nicely roasted skin. A bit burnt though, as you can see in the picture, but hey, it's great! ^^ If you like those seafood bbq chicken wings, this chicken would be awesome and suits the taste! :)
The bottomless soft drinks were shared between the 3 of them. =D I got myself a cup of plain water. The water refilling service is not bad, they will refill the plain water cups at a decent rate, such that you won't be thirsty for long. WJ experienced this good service directly. He filled his plain water cup with soft drinks, and drank if halfway when the waitress walked past our table.
(Waitress fills Jeff's cup)
Jeff: Thanks!
Waitress: :)
(Waitress fills WJ's cup)
WJ: Thank you!
Waitress: :) no problem. (Walks away)
...
WJ: EH!?!? Oh shit!!!
RJ, SY: XD
Jeff: Awesome!
---
Talked about a lot of random things~
1. Uni course
WJ is going to Business, SY is going to material engineering and RJ is going to FASS Econs. Wow, another person who switched from the Science Stream to the Arts Stream. RJ wants to study Econs, which I think should be a rather common / popular course? SY and WJ kept on disturbing him to join me in Mathematical Science, which I don't think RJ will like it. =P
RJ: Walao if I go mathematical Science sure fail de la!
Jeff: No what! Study with me luh, GPA confirm at least 2! =D
2. The SY-WJ hostel
The way they talked about the hostel seemed quite interesting. You can choose the type of hostel you want, the preference of a personal/common toiilet, extra facilities like fridge and nonsense, and also a prepaid-card air-con! With an additional amount to install the air-con, you can buy the air-con PPCs and use it for a certain time duration. It's 1 cent per 2 minutes, so an 8-hour sleep duration would be an extra $2.40. Sounds like a not bad deal, if you really have excess money and want to sleep in a more comfortable environment and SG in the night is also hot and humid.~~
3. Orientation
Seriously? You have to pay for orientation? That's just another point against going for any kind of orientation. Poor RJ has decided not to go for the Sports camp even though he has been wanting to go since the last few months. Well, the requirements and things to do before you can be accepted are rather ridiculous though. Get a picture of Chuck Norris, pose / do something like him, do something silly but related to sports, etc. -.- Did RJ say something about posing a half-naked pic? I hope that's not true! If it's a test of how enthu / on you are for the camp, they are doing it wrong. =/
4. Management of your life
Appreciate your life bro, you only live once. If your pride is the thing that keeps you lying about how good your life is, it's time to take that down and start to be aware of the living conditions around you. You can be awesome / talented about something, but if nobody appreciates it, that's just too bad and you are better off somewhere else. =/
SY / RJ asked me about Nat mei. I just replied 'sad story'.
The random chat went on all the way until about 9.15pm. XD The ice-skating songs are quite nice, including Flo Rida's Whistle and Best Friend, a rather old song which I heard in Unity Primary. =P The total dinner bill amounted to $105. The 3 are really nice to help me offset some money, thus I paid only $12 for a meal of awesomeness! Thanks RJ, SY, WJ! ^^
---
Before we exit JE, RJ wanted to go to the ATM has he had a night outing (club?). If I wanna link RJ and JE together, the result would be ODAC, and a lot of funny memories about them.
***
Studying with ODAC, they go studying together as 10+ / 20 people, knowing where the hot spots are and taking shifts to camp in front of the library during the school holiday weekdays. I remembered one ODAC person analysing the pros and cons of using the elevator instead of running up the escalator. (something about the great difference between the lift at L1 and at L2)
Lunch time -> BAN MIAN!!! There's a coffeeshop near the bank that is rather crowded during lunch time (a few years ago at least). When I wondered about what to have for my lunch, the ODAC guys kept on shouting ban mian, advertising the noodles at such a high level which even the shop owner would not have done that well in his entire life. That's a really big bowl of noodles. =P
A probability which the ODAC wondered without any basis of calculations would be whether the tables reserved would warrant a 'summon', as any library table users who have left their tables for 15 minutes or more would get a notice. Haha, all the awesome things which they did~~ I still have the ODAC Calender card. Never an ODAC-ian, but shall keep the card as it is nice. :D
With a happy birthday handshake from RJ, we left for the shelter towards JE MRT station. :)
Oh, WJ's Jap proved to be successful! He pronounced Idemitsu correctly! Good job!
===========================================
2. YO21O outing! Ft. War and WL
"It's not the gifts or activities that matter. It's actually the time your friends are willing to fork out from their busy schedules to spend the special day with you." - JM
With that auspicious saying in mind, WL arrived late by about 20 minutes, even though I suspected that he had arrived just before 2pm. Found War somewhere along the 1st level, he gave me a plastic bag, mentioned that inside is a book and of course, happy birthday. =P Thanks War! War wore about the same usual grey shirt and jeans attire. Same here, white shirt, jeans, and of course thinking cap. =D Haix, become an adult already, but still wear the same thing. Heck care, I like it like that! :)
"Yo listen up here's a story, about a little guy that lives in a blue world!"
This part of the song echo-ed in my head when WL arrived. He's blue! Dark blue shirt, blue jeans, blue sneakers, blue socks, blue balls... (lolwut) He should get a blue beanie and wear his blue hoodie too, result: Smurf singing that clubbing song. XD
WL passed me a very nice wrapped present! Except that unlike War, it's not in a plastic bag. It looks really awesome! His wrapping skill should be better than mine and War's combined score. Thanks WL! As a result of this, War kena disturbed with the absence of a wrapping package. Aw! Haha both also nice luh, thanks guys! :D Oh, PH didn't turn up.
Well, a classic outing at Plaza Sing includes a movie. The lift ride is rather interesting. A couple / family pushed a trolley in the lift, and conveniently parked their trolley in a way such that War is being trapped at the corner of the lift.
Jeff: Hey War, you are cornered!
The couple / family looked slightly embarassed / paiseh for trapping War.
Has anyone heard of the game called League Of Legends? Only War heard of the game as he didn't laugh when a teenager guy said: "I'm playing LOL now" to his friend, which really made me and WL chuckle. XD Interesting people, definitely better than the 1,2,3,aiya sian guy.
Oh, the mystery Koi outlet at Plaza Sing is located on the outside of Plaza Sing, and I don't think anyone will find it if they keep circling indoors. So War, that's one more reason for you to go to town for a random outing! ^^ Rihanna found love at a hopeless place, WL found Koi at an ulu place. =P
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Gelato @ Gelato Cottage
Nom nom Maple Walnut Gelato! ^^ A pity the Pineapple tart Gelato is no longer for sale, as it's no longer anytime near CNY. The MW flavour is also good, a sweet flavour of maple syrup, rich milk taste, and generous bits of walnut. :) The egg bacon waffles I had on Earth Day is now on the menu, along with other delicious items. I don't think I see curry chicken on the list, probably it's removed due to low popularity?
WL had grapefruit gelato, a change from bubblegum. The Gelato Cottage seemed quieter than usual, probably due to the absence of the friendly lady. The songs played are not the usual Christian songs, but rather songs that may be heard on Gold 90.5FM. Superwoman, Forever Young (sadly not be One Direction)... Did these songs inspire WL to play his pop song quiz? Nearing to the start of the movie, WL sort of got stuck at some of the questions, and asked if we recognised some of the songs being played.
The usual club / rock / old / pop songs are all being transformed into an acoustic part-song, and players are supposed to guess the song title / song artist with the given letters as clues. Usually when a song comes on, War and WL would recognise the song (either very old or noisy), if the song manage to defeat them, then it comes to me. I recognised Maroon 5's 'Daylight' and Fun's 'We Are Young'. Very nice acoustics! ^^ If you like the song, you can find the songs on iTunes, however it's not the acoustic ones though. =/
---
A particular 'clubbing' song unheard of by me and WL is correctly identified by War!
Taio Cruz's Break Your Heart! Seriously never hear before? Is that the song which I heard during the FCD with JM?
War: See la! Never club of course don't know the song!
Jeff: Aiya no wonder luh.
~~
There's one particular song which puzzled all of us though. Thinking that it's actually quite old, War listened to it, and made an effort to hum the tune of the song. Which sounded like the song below.
Thinking that there must be a mistake as WL's songs quiz shouldn't have any Chinese songs inside, WL listened to it much more carefully, and it turned out to be Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now'. -_-
And it happens all the time, War failed and kena disturbed upside down for humming this song to become like a Chinese song. Good job!
Before we left the Gelato Cottage, I banged a metal item rather loudly, and the whole shop just stared at me. That's kinda awkward, and I managed to shake that off by saying thank you to everybody. Some girls laughed, so paiseh sia...
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Epic, another awesome cartoon movie which I wanted to watch, except that this time it doesn't end with an Owl City song unlike Wreck-It-Ralph / The Croods.
If Maple can revamp Ellinia to be something like this, I will play back maple. XD The animations are cool! Believe in what you do, appreciate your family members do, and enjoy the nature. The whole movie is good! Even though it's not really as good as The Croods.
Nice parts~~
Guy: So how? Cmon, hug me (Preparing to travel)
Girl: Hey, I just met you...
Jeff: and this is crazy!? XD
WL: (stoning)
CRJ: But here's my number, so call me maybe!
Girl: Oh, it's just a cute little mouse... <3
Next scene: The mouse try to eat them.
Apparently Pitbull is part of the movie! Not sure if he voice over the dog, animate with the dog's actions or made up a clubbing song for the music...
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Ajisen for dinner! Somehow whenever we go to Plaza Sing, dinner must be at a Jap restaurant. I ordered a bowl of char siew? ramen and white fish as side. The fish was rather ok, mayo and chilli, the ramen soup tasted qutie nice! The bamboo shoots doesn't taste good though, it has a rubbery texture... A filling bowl of noodles, but I don't think that Ajisen would be one of my favourite restaurants to patronise. I think it's more like there's not many people inside during dinner time, that's why we visit. =P They had some tarts which really looked like cakes, nobody tried that.
Warren enjoyed his bowl and side too! WL ordered his usual gyoza and a bowl of Gong Bao ramen.
Gyoza: CLEAR
Gong Bao ramen: Almost untouched, including the egg.
Wah what a waste of noodles! Yeah, that's totally true. The reason is because WL didn't know that Gong Bao is spicy. That came as a surprise as I thought that everyone Chinese guy should know that Gong Bao chicken cube has dried chilli as a part of its content, thus it's spicy. Poor WL, but nvm at least that speeds up his eating. :)
The rest of the hours we spent on music. Playing WL's music quiz, looking at War challenging people with song titles of different genres / singers, and of course listening to my own playlist. =D WL's song quiz proved to be much less difficult than I thought. WL must have linked me all those very old songs, thus creating the false impression that the quiz is ridiculously difficult. The acoustic versions did really sound cool, and some of them are even much nicer than the original songs themselves! Esp. Rihanna songs.
DJ WL helped out both me and War with our quizzes / challenges.
Jeff on WL's quiz
Jeff don't know the song -> It is not new
War hears the song -> War knows: Old song
War hears the song -> War doesn't know: Middle age song
WL hears the song -> Remembers answer: Case closed
WL hears the song -> Still don't know the song: Find answer online and case closed
War challenges other people
War knows the answer: Good job
War doesn't know the answer -> Not old -> Random guess
WL knows / doesn't know the answer -> Laugh
Jeff don't know the answer -> Random guess
War's opponent must be some very damn zai old man (lolwut), cos the amount of time he used to identify old songs is just way too quick for War's ancient song senses to fill him in! Well, make that an exception when it comes to Kesha, Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson, his 3 favourite singers other than OASIS. =P
(Random: Whitney Houston is pronounced as Whitney Hill-stern, not How-stern)
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A walk at challenger before going home, as WL's earpiece spoils again for the 1001st time. That's about it for the outing! War introduced an English word game called 'Wordsplosion'. The 1st letter of a 5-letter word is given, and the player is given 5 tries to guess the correct word. With War's large guidance and help, a score of 52k is obtained as a high score. =D
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3. Delicacies! Ft. JM and Tean
To celebrate my 21st birthday, JM and Tean planned an outing, which I would say, a rather delicious one! Usually I would be the one to arrange the time, place, etc, but this time, it's a mystery to me! So yup, let the delicacies begin! :D
We met up at noon at CCK, before proceeding to the town area (unknown location) for the outing. SY didn't turn up, he didn't have enough money (the strong irony) to go with us, so it's just the 3 of us. Tean has ORD-ed for a month, and well, he still looked kinda same. We talked about his random happenings during his last month of service, my labbing experiences, futuristic uni life and other random nonsense. Oh, I also showed him the circle question given by JL, which he solved it, and currently clocks the fastest time among the people I know. -.-
Time JM took to solve the question: failed
Time my VJ tuition student took to solve the question: failed
Time JM's atas cousin / friend took to solve the question: 66 mins
Time Jeff took to solve the question: 25 mins
Time Tean took to solve the question CORRECTLY: 4 mins
I remembered someone sharing this joke before, which is of a similar nature to this incident.
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A long time ago, a DC and LDC sent astronauts up to space to record incidents on a faraway planet. The faraway planet has a strange gravitational field, resulting in everything to be floating instead of being still on a spot. The DC came back with nothing recorded on their paper notebooks, whereas the LDC had a lot of information recorded.
The DC tried to solve the problem by engaging the best scientists of the country to invent a pen that could defy the laws of gravity and spent millions of dollars just to invent that special writing instrument. All efforts were in vain after countless failed attempts as the pen ink just couldn't stay on the paper, no matter how good the pen is. Finally the DC just decided to give in and asked the LDC how they recorded information without trouble.
The spokesperson of the LDC said: "Pencil."
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Actually WL also took less than 5 minutes, but he got a solution which me and JL doubted.
WL: "Well, it looks like 3/4 of a circle! So the area = 3/4 of a circle." :D
Nice try WL.
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The auspicious drop off bus stop turns out to be directly in front of Plaza Sing! Ah, 2nd day in a row to visit Dhoby Gahut. No matter, I like that place anyway! :) JM and Tean were not as amazed at the Koi outlet. On proper look, the Koi outlet really has a large space for people to enjoy their drinks indoors, a really proper cafe. :) Does it have charging outlets? If it has, it's great for everybody! Imagine singing Outasight's I'll drink to that while enjoying some random milk tea.
Ah whatever, the 3 of us are not even Koi fans.
--
1st makan: Aston's!
Surprisingly, there's no queue during lunch time (1pm?). Well, I am sure many people had tried Aston's before, and will definitely know that it's not an expensive place to dine, esp. in the town area. This is about what we had for lunch~
Everybody tried a bit of other's plates, and they all tasted great! Well, I personally feel that JM's hickory chicken (3rd pic) tasted better than my black pepper chicken chop (1st pic). It should be BBQ sauce, and has a rather sweet content inside, absence of a burnt taste. I should order that in future! The mashed potato is great too! Compared to KFC, it has a greater buttery taste, and I don't need to mention about the serving portion ya? =P
Spent quite a long time in Aston's. Tean and JM seemed to be rather interested in L202 (Order: 25 candy bombs) and L252 (the easy timed level). Addicts siol.
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After lunch, we had a nice long walk to Taka, looking at the sights and sounds of a bustling city during the day. Some promotions here and there, ice-cream motorcycles, donation students and other random stuff on the busy street. Some random experiences / stories shared and lol-ed at during the walk. :D
~~ The story of JM's lunchtime in Civil Defence ~
JM: Hey bro!
JM's instructor mate: ?
JM: I ask you hor, how will you react if i suddenly say...
JM's instructor mate: Say what?
JM: I want to lick your eyes now! =P
JM's instructor mates didn't talk to him for at least half a day. Well done JM!
~ The story of JM's shopping in NTUC ~
(A girl accidentally hits JM without saying sorry)
JM: Eh mummy ah.
JM's mum: ?
JM: The girl hit me leh, want to hit her back together? :D
JM's mum: -_-
(JM turns back, and saw the girl's mother staring at him)
~ The flag day at town ~
(Some girls passed by the 3 of us)
(1 girl talks to Tean)
Girl: Hi would you like to donate? =D
Tean: Nah its ok thank you.
(1 girl talks to Jeff)
Girl: Hi would you like to donate? =D
(Jeff throws in a coin)
Girls: Thank you!!! (Walk away after that)
Tean/Jeff: Hahaha!!! XD
JM: -_-
Did I mention that there's a shopping mall with a rather old interior design? Being curious, we decided to take a look. Apparently there's a very famous game shop where people would go battle out figurines / compete / etc. in that shop during weekends / nights. Well! The shop seriously doesn't look that bright and beautiful, but it really has half a shop dedicated to board buildings and figurines, war landscapes, etc. There's a tournament that's supposed to happen during that time we visit, well nothing exciting happened, cos we didn't see the tournament happening..
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2nd makan: The macarons!
The last time I visited NAC / Taka should be during FCD with JM. That time should be a rather quick rush through, as I was kinda amazed at the new varieties of food, the specialities and of course the pricing! There were these mini doughnuts (60 cents each), the bread stalls with long queues, classic omelette Japanese noodles, choco and nuts stalls that must have about 30 kinds. If I have the money, I would definitely buy a feast of junk food and slowly eat them at home. :)
** Highlight of the whole outing! **
Ladurée @ Taka
Help yourself in searching where is the place, the reviews, etc. This must be a famous place for divine pastries lovers, as it has a very long queue that extends all the way to outside the shop.
The shop interior looks bright like a diamond! It has the feeling of walking into a beauty palor, with decos, candles, crystals and a big display of macarons (many colours)! The pricing? $30.40 for 8 macarons. One look and you will know its close to $4 per piece. Ah oh well, the atas design of the shop would definitely has a price attached to it right? Just as much as I wanted to abandon buying the macarons as I didn't expect the macarons to be that expensive, Tean suggested for me to wait outside. So we waited outside for JM. I prepared my $10 note, and wondered how special can the macarons be. So far, I think I tasted 2 - 3 types of macarons, but nothing beats JM's home-made strawberry macarons. It's sweet, but not too sugary or makes you feel sick of the taste, a perfect sweet bite for kids! Perhaps Candy Crush should add in macarons as part of the game features in the late L400+ =P
At last, JM reappeared from the crowd.
JM: "Keep your money, happy birthday." :)
Jeff: !!
I usually don't get surprised at things, but that is definitely one super sweet surprise! Thanks JM and Tean! :D
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Classic chocolate shop visit, random things we see. :)
1. Sweet lab crystals and sweet lab solutions at $3 per test tube. Strange...
2. The super large Hershey's bar is still there, and at the same $60 price!
3. Peanut butter cups still simply awesome, I bought 1 packet to try :D
4. M&Ms in transparent plastic at $1 per packet! That seems to be swept away easily!
Speaking about sweet things, JM mentioned something about Twelve cupcakes being opened by a celebrity. Here's the history for it.
http://www.twelvecupcakes.com/about.htm
It's about 4pm, some time before a delicious dinner. A bit of a walk around Ion Orchard, which I can say does not have anything much that fascinates me, unless you count Ion opening a large number of food / snacks shops at the basement. I have always wondered whether I should get an Ipod for myself, since it would be great to have some good quality music while on the move.
Conclusion: No. It's damn hard to use. If I were in a bad mood, I would have poked through the screen of the Ipod. Wonder how the hell did WL survive with that.
I must say that this statue had a blast. Anyone recognise this unique art sculpture?
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3rd makan: Ramen @ Menya Musashi
One way or another, one ramen comes after another.
By Tean / JM's recommendation, we headed to this ramen shop (which I have never heard of) for dinner. The prices are slightly more expensive than Ajisen by about $3 per bowl, not much of desserts? Well anyway we came to try the speciality noodles of the shop, the Tsukemen. o.o
For the Tsukemen, customers can choose the serving size of their noodles, from 1x to 5x, and the choice of soup colour (white, black, and red). For me, I chose white 2x: Original soup with a bit more noodles. The extra noodles for Tsukemen comes with no extra charge, but customers are advised not to waste noodles / transfer noodles to/from other people. That's such awesome advice. :D
My Tsukemen! A bowl of noodles with big pieces of char siew, bamboo shoots, zai-er, lava egg, topped with cut onions and spring onions.
3 sets of Tsukemen! Notice that the bowl of soup is rather big! We had different colours of soup.
---
According to the menu. The way to enjoy Tsukemen is not to savour the soup or the noodles seperately, but rather to scope up a rather large amount of noodles (but good enough to eat in the mouth), dip inside the soup, and savour with slurps!
(*According to JM, slurping in a Jap restaurant is a polite manner as it shows that you are enjoying the food and praising that the chef's skill is superb.)
White soup (original): The white soup is a bit salty, perhaps they have added a bit of egg inside. A super rich consistency!
Black soup (Tean's, sesame and vinegar): Nicer than my soup! I shall try that in the future. It has a bit of sweet taste, and is not as salty as the original one. I tried that one seperately instead of dipping a whole chunk of noodles. Not sure if the noodles would kill the taste, but hey it's worth a try. :D
Red soup (JM's, spicy): Not as spicy as it described. Er.. tasted kinda strange to me.
The noodles are rather thick! The texture is about the same as Ajisen, but the char siew meat is definitely better! A thick cut, roasted well and the ratio of fats: lean meat is perfect. A few slices for the taste, since the focus should be on the noodles. Still don't like the bamboo shoots and zai-er though. :/ Ah, the egg! The egg yolk is in a super molten state, which of course shows that the chef's skill is awesome, as you can maintain the softness of the lava egg while the egg is considered 'hard-boiled'.
JM: The more watery the egg, the better the skill, therefore water is liquid! ^^
Tean: -_-
It's $17.50 after the 2+ per bowl of Tsukemen. An additional bowl of soup costs $3, if that bowl is the same soup as your original order, $5 for a different one. The noodles (1x-5X) are of the same price, but I feel that 2x should be a right portion, as I felt rather full after finishing that serving. Not going to try 3x no matter how hungry I am. :)
After you finish the bowl of soup, welcome to the tiger's den!
--
We spent some time in the restaurant too. Tean continued playing Candy Crush L252, while I read my blog and listened to JM talking about his interesting love(?) life, nah I am joking, he is still kinda forever alone like me! We also relieved some parts of our NS, esp. using the matras and radio communication system. One difference between Tean's usage and mine is that Tean actually had to do a signal test every duty, with a rating out of 5, while mine is just saying matra test. Luckily I'm not the one rating the signal strength, otherwise I will be shouting out random mathematical expressions~
"Jeff to Tean, your signal strength is currently pi out of 5! Jeff to JM, your signal strength is currently In 8 out of 5!"
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All good things must come to an end, so we went home after dinner, not without challenging the Wordsplosion game War introduced! After thinking / guessing / cursing a lot on the different 5-letter words, our combined high score could not beat War's high score. -.- See luh, War's english way too atas already.
That's all for the delicacies outing!
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4. Gifts!
The Laudree macarons whih JM and Tean bought for me. :D This is the packaging and paper bag.
6 flavours of the macarons, as the other 2 had been eaten up by me and JM. In clockwise starting from the yellow one: lemon, caramel, dark chocolate, strawberry rose flavour, honey, strawberry jam.
The other 2 are hazelnut and pandan kaya flavour. Some descriptions about the taste.
Pandan Kaya: Surprisingly there can be some kaya better than Ya Kun's. Fragrant, not sickly sweet
Hazlenut (by JM): Something much better than what he made! Anything related to Nutella?
Honey (by my father): Has a taste of condensed milk!
Rose (by my mother): Classic bandung and condensed milk taste, smooth biscuit texture!
Lemon: Not too sour, perfect for a sweet and sour bite.
Caramel: Reminded of popcorn! Well popcorn does have caramel inside right? :D
Strawberry jam: Sadly, but somehow nicer than JM's. Not too sweet, not too sour, no seeds though
Dark chocolate: If you like very rich dark chocolate with a good level of bitterness, then this is perfect!
Thanks guys! :D
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This is the wrap gift which WL gave. Who would disagree that this not nicely wrapped? It's perfect! Well, at least better than mine and War's gifts.
War's gift: top
WL's gift: bottom
War's gift turned out to be an awesome sudoku book with a surprisingly huge number of sudoku variants which I have not seen before. WL gave a portable charger, which I think War still haven't guess the item correctly.
Thanks guys! ^^
~~~~~~~~~~
End of the post. You Only 21 Once! =D
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