“Seikou” is a Japanese word that means success. To mark my completion of the GM diet programme, and because this blog has been looking so gloomy lately due to lack of visuals, here’s a feast for your eyes and mine. Taken at a Japanese restaurant here in Singapore. This one’s my favorite, probably more than cheesecake. I don’t know how exactly it is called but it is mango & banana cake. Really a yummy combination. Probably healthy but negated by the heap of cream and condensed milk:
Like my friends from Japan who also moved here, I’ve tried out ramen at different Japanese restaurants. Nothing tasted like, not even close to the ones in Japan. Not until early this evening. I met some friends for a special dinner (two of them are getting married on October 8th), and we went to “Tampopo” restaurant at Basement 2 in Takashimaya. Due to numerous disappointments, I did not expect much but when the ramen was served to me, I knew all along that it would taste great…
After years of stay in Japan, I’ve come to love and now, long for Japanese food. Singapore is flooded with Japanese restaurants, mostly sushi bars but so far, none came close to how “real” sushi should taste like. Well, I should not expect much from the budget that I usually dish out.
Aside from sushi, okonomiyaki is another favorite. I even tried to learn making okonomiyaki while I was in Japan. I was so delighted to find that Japanese restaurants here serve okonomiyaki. But in here, they call it “okos”. Sounds weird and up to now, I’m still not comfortable calling my favorite food as such. I’ve tried using its “full” name but I am often not understood.
With the 10SGD budget, I’ve finally found the okonomiyaki that tastes almost like the ones in Japan. The place is close to where I live, too. It’s in Botejyu at the Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town in Tampines One.
The pork okos is not that good. Perhaps it needs a better-tasting bacon on the top. But the seafood okos really tastes great! See how mouth-watering it looks…
I also tried their yakisoba. It tastes OK. Just like any other yakisoba. I suppose they need to put in more of something, like bacon or more slices of cabbage. Nevertheless, I would definitely order again yakisoba from them.
These hawker centers (food courts) here in Singapore is flooded with Chinese cuisines. I terribly miss Japanese food and all those restaurants that serve pasta! Despite its close resemblance to Chinese food, I also terribly miss Filipino dishes. Yet, in our company’s big events like the last one we had last May, these dishes were served:
I love seafood, especially shrimp! However, we cannot eat shrimp at home because my mother is strongly allergic to it. Well, I am allergic to shrimp, too. It makes me feel itchy all over after a few hours of eating. When I moved to Singapore, I was really delighted because I find it cheaper even compared to the Philippines. So, on weekends, I often have shrimp. As a result, I have more severe acne breakouts that no beauty face cream could control. So, I decided to avoid shrimp as much as I can. Now, my acne is no longer as bad.
Non-Pinoy style does justice to the name but, I still like the Pinoy version more. Not only because of the milk and cream but because there’s a lot of banana in it.
Years ago, I loved chocolate cakes. But some reasons that I’m not aware of, I fell “out of love” with chocolates after I gave birth to Shaynna. That’s one one less source of extra calories. But, when I moved to a place where cheesecake is abundant, such as Japan, then I found my new addiction.
Here in Singapore, a slice of cheesecake at cafes cost S$5-7. I’d definitely be bankrupt if I go there daily. Not to mention a cup of tea would be another S$5. But months ago, I discovered Sara Lee cheesecake. A box, that’s approximately 6 regular slices, only costs S$9. Of course it doesn’t taste as good as the cheesecake at the Marriott Hotel but it still tastes good. It’s cheesecake! Weeks after regularly eating cheesecake, I’ve gone way past my limit at 55kgs! The annual big event is in two weeks. I want to look and feel good at least once a year. Still, I shy away from weight loss diet products. For now, I’ll just stop myself from going to the cheesecake stand.
One of the Filipinos in the company I’m working for got promoted. He was so kind to share his blessings with us that he treated us to lunch at Earl Swensens in Changi Airport Terminal 3. Rare occasion such as this one makes me postpone once again my plans to losing weight. But even if no one’s treating us to lunch, I’d most likely have lunch again at Earl Swensen’s. They have this 1-for-1 lunch treat from Mondays to Fridays at 11AM to 2PM. So if you and a companion take two main dishes, you only pay for the more expensive one. Really a good bargain, right? But the best deal with eating at Earl Swensens is that even if you avail the 1-for-1 lunch treat, you can get anything from the salad bar at your heart’s content! So with 1-for-1 lunch treats here in Singapore, you would most likely gain weight even if you’re taking dieting pills! Everything at the salad bar are really good. And in there I’ve found the best black-pepper chicken rice I’ve ever had…
There was a company trip to Hongkong 2 weeks ago but I prefered to stay in Singapore. Why? Because I still had to pay SGD400++. Company subsidy became lower as the number of participants increased. Plus, the trip could eat up two days of my annual leaves. Anyway, when some of my friends came back, they brought some chocolate coins!
My family encountered a tough time when I was still a child. My father was finishing college at that time while supporting a wife, three kids, two siblings-in-law and a step-mother. We rarely had red meat dishes on the table. Most of the time, we had herring either fried or grilled for lunch and dinner, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Not the McDonald-style, rather it was often mixed with tomatoes and onions. I don’t like tomatoes, but it’s cheaper if cooked that way. I was not even aware there’s a thing such as sunny side up!
I had enough of scrambled eggs so I had lost cravings for it for quite sometime. When I went to college, I got introduced to sunny side up in “tapsilog”. It was so new to me, tasted really good, so I ate tapsilog more than three times a week! Eggs might be rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) but I think I had been taking in too much of it so I tried to get over my love of sunny-side-up. Years have passed and I’ve learned new ways in cooking eggs, I’m now back to the old habit. But it’s really hard to resist especially if eaten with pancakes. Yummy!
