JA and Akane (Weekend Dining) 日本人会と茜（週末のダイニング）

*Sesame tofu*
15 January 2009 (Fri):

Not having to wait for parking space, reasonable pricing, tranquility, good service, and cleanliness certainly make the Japanese Association my weekend haunt.

*Lobby of the Japanese Association*
Most of all, the seats of the restaurants and lounges are so comfortable that it's easy to read away your Sunday without getting any body aches.

*Lounge interior*
The spaciousness and natural lighting of the lounge with its tasteful fusion of modern and traditional art add to the pluses.

*Stairway*
One of the JA restaurants, Akane, also stands out as an excellent place for a weekend meal. Having dined at numerous Japanese restaurants in Singapore, I have narrowed my choices to just a few where I frequent and Akane is one of them.
With a more-than-eighty-percent Japanese clientele, the authencity of the restaurants in JA cannot fall below the mark. Price wise, I think it's good value for money at Akane.

Its chef last year was from Osaka. I appreciated his subtle execution of the four seasons:

*Taro with ground rice*
The colourful textural variation and intricate taste combinations of the occasionally rare ingredients in addition to considerations given to nutrition, quantity, and plating, among other factors place this restaurant a tier above many others.

*Baby squid*
There has also always been meticulous attention given to the creation of wabi in the room:

*Waiting point(Akane)*
It's not hard to see why I go back there.

Parks in Singapore (1): Opium Hill Park (Bukit Chandu ブキット チャンドゥ）

28 Dec 2009 (Mon): It's heartening to know that efforts have been made to preserve the indigenous flora of Singapore.
During my restful holidays, I thought that after the feasting, some fresh air and tranquility would be just perfect.A. took me to this place where I have never known. He knows every nook and corner of this island well.
We turned into Pepys Road after coming in from West Coast Road. It was a straight narrow road uphill after that, passing some condominiums and lush greenery. Absolute tranquility - quite out of this world. There were two small car parks for vehicles. We sighted the first one and parked our car there. Then we walked to the top of the hill. There is a museum and archives on World War II. Beside it there are some short houses that blended with the flora. We walked into this small entrance with signs which was the 'end' or 'beginning' of a bridge covered with leaves and branches which were not overly protruding.

Along the way there were signs to inform on the flora and the history of the place. I have always enjoyed reading about the folk uses of plants:

This used to be the oil deposit in the British colonial days. It was called the Normanton Oil Deposit, as the board informs.

Mid-way on the bridge we spotted an old British army house in the distant.

Ferns and other tropical parasitic plants decorated this walk-way 'in the air'. The birds were chirping occasionally. No human voices were heard even when some people were walking on the bridge. Everyone seemed to prefer silence to words.
After some turns we exited and saw another 'bump' on the hill. We walked upward and came to another flat trail that leads to the Kent Ridge Park. Very lush and clean. No litter was sighted.
We saw two pavilions and told ourselves to come back one of these weekends for a picnic. From the pavilion, the panorama of the sea and the PSA Pasir Panjang Wharf which was undergoing expansion unfolded.

Part of the wharf will be built on reclaimed land. The works are currently being carried out by Hyundai. We spotted its site office from the peak.
We saw another car park some height below from the pavilion. We turned back to the route we had came from. Along the way, old stones and trees lined the path.

If we were lucky we would be able to see some birds.

A. said that he saw a kingfisher the last time he was there.
A 'project' on weeding out exotic plants such as the Australian Wattle, Bearded Smilax, Batai/Albizia and Koster's Curse which that are overcrowding the indigenous species is currently underway - as we found out on our way back to the bridge.
This park is almost unknown to tourists and many locals, which was great for us as we had serenity and peace on a hill top all to themselves. But we thank the National Parks for its great work.

Marché

Oct 13, 2008 (Mon): A. had missed Sizzler, the healthy restaurant with a salad bar that used to be located at the far right-hand corner of Wisma Atria on the first floor. So when we discovered Marché one Sunday in Vivo City, where the roof-top garden and playground is, A.'s herbivorous instincts led him inside the restaurant. There was a line, but after 20 minutes, our turn came.

Like a typical Movenpick restaurant in Switzerland where the salad bar is a feature, we were sure we were going to tuck in. To our surprise, the 'healthy' atmosphere strongly signalled us to eat less than what we wanted. We piled the alfafa sprouts into our shallow bowls, then the rockets, lettuce, seeds, boiled potato cubes, carrots, etc. Beside the salad bar, we ordered our spaghetti, cooked by an Indian lady chef. We went to order our mushroom and potato soups and were told to wait five minutes for our pasta.

When pasta was ready, I was surprised it tasted like pasta in curry instead of tomato sauce. I didn't mind actually. A. suggested that we should go back again.

There were a lot there we have not tried: The meats, other soups, the rolls and breads, the wine and beers. We closed our meal with a glass of carrot juice which we shared.

You can be transformed into herbivores for SGD 35, with tax and surcharge, for two.

The Masonic Building

Oct 4, 2008 (Sun): This heritage trail on Hill Street is enjoyable. I’d start from the Singapore Philatelic Museum and end at Clark Quay’s Brewerkz (German brewery) or in Fort Canning Hill. The Peranakan Museum is spectacular as well. If you don’t feel like doing anything except to chat and enjoy a drink or have something to eat, Acte d’Amour (in the building) is the place to go.

Its history started in the colonial days and its ambience is British: The dimness of the lights, the architecture, the ornaments and so forth remind me of British pubs, including even the accents of some of its customers … If you're interested in its brief history, here's a piece written by Vernon Cornelius-Takahama:
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_167_2005-01-17.html


A. loves it; he wonders why he hasn’t known about it after all these years. It’s not advertised in tourist brochures. Does it still preserve the age-old secrets of its chapters? It is now so much easier to ask A. to come to this place for a meal than to ask him to go to the Japanese Association.

I’d not recommend western food at Acte d’Amour, except for its fish and chips.

Indian food is the best, although I didn’t find the mee goreng (stir-fried noodle in Malay style) too bad. Set lunches are at SGD 11.90 each, including a soup and a dessert. Perhaps even having a wine would be great. It’s a peaceful place to chat – and such places are rare in Singapore.

Best Hokkien Prawn Noodle in Singapore

December 09, 2007 (Sunday): I'd wanted to fix lunch, when I learnt about the 20-percent storewide discount at Kinokuniya today. Time seemed to be running out. It was close to 12 pm and I thought I should just head straight there after a quick lunch outside.

The rain poured. It has been a rainy day and the rain still has not stopped when I write this. Vivo City was nonetheless crowded with shoppers. I went to Food Republic for prawn noodle because I had been pining for that since A first took me there four months ago. After that experience, everywhere else just seems to be offering mediocre prawn mee.

The sauce is excellent; the noodle very thin and evenly al dente . This makes Thai Hong's (located in Food Republic, Wisma Atria) weaker sauce and softer noodle class-less. Thai Hong is, however, still attracting a crowd. Location counts.

Vivo City's Food Republic boasts of several top local hawker stalls: The fishballs are A's favourite.


Yong Soon Fritters is also something I cannot resist despite detesting oil. No doubt I am putting on weight...I enjoy the sight of skilful food makers pressing the chopsticks on the soft dough, deftly lengthening it, and then dropping it into a pot of oil only to see it ballooning into a precise golden fat tube. I also enjoy the sensation of biting into fragrant thin layer of anko (red soy bean paste) embedded in the soft crunchy hot doughskin sprinkled with white and black sesame seeds.

The warm soy milk is simply calming and is a must with the snacks. I even brought home a 'butterfly' dough cake. I can say I eat these deepfried Chinese desserts twice a year. Is that sinful?

At Yong Soon, there was a fair-complexioned salesman who flirted with the young teenage girl lining up in front of me. She ordered three doughsticks and he repeated he would give her one free, grinning and winking while uttering that. Youth in women is certainly an asset in Asia!

I headed for Orchard Road after that. Takashimaya was just as filled with shoppers. I bought my book and Christmas cards and then went to Jelita's Cedele to pick up a wholemeal with sunflower seed bread. Then there was my laundry which I sent in after my trip to Beijing on the second level of Jelita shopping mall. The laundry lady exclaimed: "Hey, three months ago; three months already!" I simply grinned; I'd thought it was just a month ago...

I also stopped to ask the boy collecting orders for roast turkeys and ham for Christmas when the date for the last order would be. He replied December 20. After trying out several Christmas turkeys here, I'd recommend Cold Storage's butterball (USA), going pretty reasonable at SGD 49.00. It really reminds me of the scrumptious Thanksgiving turkey I had in California in 1996. Forget about turkeys from other supermarkets or cafes, but I must add I haven't ordered from any hotel yet.

At Home on Saturday Evening

December 8, 2007 (Saturday): I'd a wonderful lunch at my favorite restaurant in the Japanese Association today, so I wanted to stay at home for dinner. I looked forward to having my favourite wine and some light food.

I picked Terres D'Orb Rouges, an award-winner at the 2007 Foire Exposition Brignoles which is reasonably priced, exudes a pleasant black currant bouquet, and is smooth and earthy...Somehow it smells like a Spanish wine. I prepared a salad with sprout (kaiware), sweet cherry tomatoes (Grace Cup brand), fresh wakame seaweed, and lettuce with a Japanese sesame dressing.

I also picked up my pan-crust tomato, zucchini and mushroom pizza and fresh egg taglialini at Gastronomia Da Paolo.

The pizza was still crispy when I reached home after a two-hour grocery shopping. Fresh spaghetti at Da Paolo is great - my all-time favorite is the spinach taglialini. I also love all the fresh sauces.

After hauling a loadful of laundry and grocery goods home, I started boiling the noodle, washing, draining and cutting up the veg.

It was great eating at home with warm candle lights, very delicious pasta and a vino companion. I need not bother about making-up, dressing, talking too much and so forth.

I think I will stay at home all day tomorrow - with probably a short shopping trip at tea-time. I haven't started my Christmas gift-shopping yet. I've only bought the wines.

Weekend Meal: Mini-Zen and Cedele's Tea Cakes

September 9, 2007: I ate unhealthily yesterday- had a hurried lunch at Canteen B in Nanyang Technological University and then later on at about 4 pm, after the opening of Nantah Pictorial Exhibition, there were the oily spring rolls and fried vermicelli to pacify my hunger. I was determined to eat better today and I did.

For easier parking and healthier choice, I went to Donguri in the Japanese Association. I ordered the Mini-Zen set (SGD 12.80).
A., his invariably fixed choice of Japanese yasai karee rice. He finds the curry gravy really different from that of the other Japanese restaurants.

This month's chef's recommendations are good- as I have commented in my previous entry. The Mini-Zen comprised a bowl of sushi rice, saba simmered in miso and ginger, hijiki seaweed (substituted with spinach and mushrooms today) and boiled radish topped with katsuo bushi (bonito fish flakes)- all so wholesome and light (unfilling) that I had Cedele's desserts scribbled on my mental menu as part of this healthy eating.

A agreed, because Cedele's and The Cellar Door (on Upper Bukit Timah) are his sources for breads. He doesn't belong to the crowd of Japanese who flock to Provence (Holland Village) and Takashimaya Japanese-style bakeries where you get soft sweet-tasting breads. I will remember to take the pictures of Cedele's desserts the next round. It is very crowded; it's a place for discerning customers, surely, who want to pay for real food. I wonder why, though, cafes in Singapore are so noisy! There's the greenery outside, it's cozy and people are happily chatting but there's no peace and quiet. That's the only reason why I don't go back to TCC chains now - because the deafening pipe-in music drives me away. Cafes in Europe are generally places where you have your repose over good coffees and teas, and that's my idea of a cafe, but unfortunately I have been scouting for here in vain.

DONGURI's どんぐり Tokusen Bentoo for September; Tea at Raffles

September 2, 2007: Last month's Tokusen Bentoo (Special Bentoo) turned out unimpressive. The adjective for it is bland. There was the cold udon, sashimi, the beef stew -with no beef cubes or potatoes in it, an uninteresting simmered dish of pumpkin garnished with boiled shrimps, agedashi tofu and unagi don. It's summer - the season for unagi which is believed to be energy-supplying, a property to combat the summer heat which can rise beyond 40 degrees. The record summer temperature in Japan to date is 40. 8 degree Celcius in 1938. My only favorite in the set was agedashi tofu.

I am glad there's a sprinkle of creativity and generosity for this month's bentoo. Meats and veggies are varied- and surely more elaborately prepared.

The hamburg is not exactly my fave because I've made a return to the 'more-veg-less-meat' diet after my platecount has reached the normal; but the mushrooms surrounding it was nevertheless tempting. The colorfully presented hiyayako was the most welcoming and the tastier sashimi and roe this month make the bentoo a treat.

The cubed eggplant enclosed by a beautifully carved wall of skin, picqued with sansho herb, came indeed as a surprise.

A final countdown to those outrageous scones at Raffles Hotel for our four-o'clock tea. It'd probably be the last time for these moist cakes, unless we'd be willing to go by the subway and avoid the maddening traffic downtown in the vicinity of Raffles Hotel.

I suppose it's fair if I say "I am fortunate to be in Singapore because I have the best of many worlds!" Seriously I'd have to watch out or I'll break my bathroom scale soon.

シンガポール日本人会のどんぐりレストラン （６月の特選弁当）Donguri's June Bentoo

June 3: It seemed like yesterday (June 6) that I went to Donguri. But in fact, it was on Sunday, five days ago, when I was there for lunch. And tomorrow will actually be the last day of the work week!

Now after leading a group of Japanese school teachers in my Centre's museum exhibition, a whole chunk of my 'hard disk' seemed to be occupied with historical materials in Japanese, and memories of what I ate at the Japanese Association's Donguri seem to have been eradicated. Thank goodness there is this menu (see bottom of this post) and the pictures.

This month's bentoo offers a lot of my favourite dishes. They all add up to what I would describe as "mild" and "variably textured".

There is the crunchy lotus root slices on two pieces of soft tataki maguro coated with fragrant sesame seeds dribbled over by wasabi miso sauce. This is my fave among the more mainstream dishes such as tempura, grilled saba, and cold soba.

But even these mainstream dishes happen to be irresistables for me in Japanese cuisine.

Accompanied by the Japanese lilies growing outside the glass panel, I enjoyed both the tropical scenery, the food and the company. Appreciating these Japanese lilies revived my first experience of tasting the grilled pork on noodles (my thit nuong) in Hoi An. This delicious dish which I ordered at a small shop on Nhi Trung Street cost about 50 Singapore cents (5000 dong) in the late 1990s. What was exotic about it was its garnish. The owner threw some of these bitter lilies into it and morphed the dish into one that was out of this world. The shop unfortunately cannot be found at the old location anymore. I wonder where the family has moved to since then?

Back to Donguri, its service team is really one of the best in Singapore. It's always attentive, warm, friendly, efficient and cheerful. I noticed however that one of them has left to work somewhere else- presumably at the airport. Well, the core members are still there: Ben, Jenny and several more I know by face and not by their names. Here's a sunny example:


6月　特選弁当(970Kcal)

海の物山の物サラダ寄せ、

炙りマグロの胡麻風味

冷やしそば、

焼鯖の椀仕立て、天ぷら

冬瓜、ご飯、味噌汁


Salad, Lightly Grilled Tuna topped with sesame seeds,

Cold Soba, Grilled Mackerel with Soy

Sauce with grated daikon, Tempura, steamed winter melon,

Rice and Miso Soup

Wiener Kaffeehaus; Viennese Cafe ( 6226-3148)

April 30, 2007: I've always wanted to try this cafe out since I read about it last year in a magazine.

This time, I was in a mood to walk around the Chinatown conservation after my dim-sum meal. I had conjured up a strong-body aromatic European coffee- the kind I used to enjoy in Germany, while walking towards Neil Road.

The area is very serene. The very old giant trees are stacked with parasitic plants and layers of buttress roots embracing their trunks. The vegetation indicates the age of this place. I only hope that the new Duxton 40 something-floor apartment project will not kill the landscape of the whole place although I am sure that I'd be hoping in vain.

I walked toward the Au Boon Haw office and then straight on for another few metres before reaching the cafe at the corner.

The interior is dark with dim wall-lights - it reminds me of restaurants in Europe during winter. After studying the coffee list, I picked Einspaenner (SGD 4.10), translated as 'one horse bridle'. It's crowned with a drop of fresh cream in a glass with a large handle (like a bridle), and the other hand of the carriage driver was to be left free to hold on to his rein. The spoon looked antique; inscribed underneath it were "Elizabeth Rose" and "made in Japan". I wondered if it was a Meiji-era product.

After the first sip, I was sure I'd the real thing. The smokiness of the beans lingered in my mouth for the whole day, thank goodness, without any palpitations or headaches. I'd give it five stars!

Address: 148 Neil Road, Singapore