Sawadee Ka!~ Thai Express

My  dear readers, it's been a long time since I last blogged about my "doings". I confess, it's not that my life has dissolved into "absolute mono-boredom nothingness"... but it's on the flipside.

I've found someone to share my days with and he's a real sweet guy. We've shared lots of time by each other's side but it never seem to be enough, guess they call it the honeymoon period. I want it to last for as long as it gets. Greedy girl... yap! I am! We have not made it for any holidays yet but we have had many good meals together. I did take all the photos however they are currently all neatly archived in his laptop, so I will be able to blog on those later.

Hence this entry is actually a meal I've feasted on quite some time ago. Long ago, I was never a fan of Thai cuisine as I had the concept that it's always overpoweringly sweet/ sour/ spicy. It was until my first holiday in Bangkok when I order my very first Phad Thai (ผัดไทย) right after I checked into my room in Twin Towers. I was starving and when it was sent to my room, I spent no time wiping the plate clean. However, I was intrugued by all the condiments and sauces that came with a plate of stir-fried noodle... so intrugued that I ordered the same dish that night for super-late supper again. Yes, it was not my hunger which made it delicious during the day...when I ate it that night, it was still as yummy. I took the time to slowly study the dish, crushed peanut, sugar, chilli flakes, fish sauce... hmmm. Nice.

The next few days I spent in Bangkok for that specific trip, I ate nothing but Phad Thai for every meal. I found out that every resturant, cafe, roadside stall, etc. have their own style of cooking Phad Thai. By the end of the trip, Twin Tower's Phad Thai emerged the victorious winner!  It's a pity that when I tried to find a replica back in Singapore for a Phad Thai of comparable standard, there is none except one... That's Thai Accent located in Vivocity. It is close to my Twin Tower Phad Thai but many times more expensive. Sad but true, many Pad Thai-s in Singapore don't even have the condiments served and many a times I was disappointed that they don't even have them when I requested the waiting crew to spare me some.

Anyway, for more accessible thai cuisine treats, I'll normally head to a nearby Thai Express. That will "kind of" curb my Thai-Foodie-Withdrawal Syndrome for a while. Below are some photos I took during one of my visits.

My Favourite Thai Dish...
but it was not photoed as I forgot.

I still prefer the ones from Twin Tower and Thai Accent thou...

Stir-fried Basil Minced Chicken and Century Egg

This is surprisingly delicious but quite spicy

Khao Gai Tod
“Bangkok Chicken Rice” with a Special
Thai Ginger-Chilli Sauce

The Special Thai Ginger-Chilli Sauce

Dessert



Red Ruby with Coconut Ice-cream

Thai Chendol. I like the chendo served here as they have fresh jackfruit bits in it.

I miss Bangkok...

Baikohken in Takashimaya

I'm not too sure why is it so that I'll normally end up in Takashimaya on weekends, maybe because Kinokuniya is there? I've spend numerous weekends, almost half a day on each occasion, will be spent leisurely there. When it's time to have my meal, I'll make a beeline to Tonkichi previously. However, I've found a new place recently. 



You can see the Ramen Master peering out of his kitchen, and he smiled...

I found Baikohken nestled in a corner of the basement level. The interior minimalistic and clean, I think it can seat about 25 to 30 persons at the maximum. You do have to place your order before you have the RIGHT to walk in to take a seat, I had very bad service encounters from one specific female serving staff which I'll touch on later. Back to food, this "Asahikawa Ramen Award" winning ramen is around for more than 40 years and is originated from  Asahikawa (旭川) in Hokkaido. To find out more about about Asahikawa-style ramen in general.

I also came across another blog that makes good coverage on ramen that mentioned Baikohken as well.

Shall we come back to my experience now? The below menu which is placed right next to the cashier at the entrance, you have to place your order and make payment, then head to an available seat.


Please click to enlarge

 The first time I was there, we were not aware (neither was there any visible instructions stated) that we had to follow the steps mentioned above to get food in our mouths eventually, so we breezed into the dining area only to be stopped abruptly by one of their female staff who reprimanded "You have to order over there first" and pointed crossly at the cashier counter. There was no please, no smile, horrid attitude and atrocious service in such a prestigious (international) Japanese mall.

I thought the Japanese actual take pride in their repute of being extremely well-mannered, although she may not be Japanese that does not mean that she can be excused from providing good service. We did not take any action as we just thought "we did step into their territory without permission in the first place and maybe she's having a real bad day" and let it go, however or day was somehow "dimmed" by the lousy experience.

Subsequently on another visit, we were starving, tired and lugging numerous shopping bags/grocery/baby pram and stuff. All we wanted to do was to "unload" our stuff at a table and head right back to the counter to place our order and to my dismay, the very same floor staff (is time she's not in her uniform, maybe she's just knocked off) walked to her counter colleague and asked her within earshot, if we have placed our order. No hushed tone, no change in with that awful attitude. I took a deep breathe, continued as our plan to put our things down, went to place our order and came back to our table. That particular staff was then seated at one of the tables in the restaurant corner, eating her staff meal staring atrociously at us. I glared right back until she looked right down into her bowl of ramen. I love the ramen they serve, I don't wish to have another harrowing experience to spoil my well-deserved meal, I gave my composed but stern feedback to one of the staff before I left. One more time, I will let the "Nasty Me" be unleashed, unadulterated.
  
Enough of the upsetting stuff, back to food now! The serving, I must say is quite generous. Thus if you are not a "big-eater", you may like to consider ordering the half-portion option instead of the full and you have the choice of either Shoyu or Miso soup-base for most of the ramen.


I tried quite some of the items from their menu and will love to recommend Cold Ramen, a must-try in our very hot Singapore.

Cold Ramen: Charsiew, shredded egg, cucumber, pickle and 
processed jellyfish with the light sauce beneath. I had slight difficulty
 in mixing my ramen with ease as the plate is really too small.

The sauce is so refreshing that I had no problem finishing the whole
serving myself even when I was once not feeling too well, I think it's all
thanks to the splash of vinegar (I suspect) in the sauce that revived my appetite.

I love Karashi with my Tonkatsu, now I can have it mixed
into my Cold Ramen! Nice... 

Eating this cold ramen always makes me happy, slurping up the springy noodles, smooth with a light veil of sauce on each and every strand. I've never though much of cold noodles, but this made me change my view completely. I repeat, it is a definite must try!

Now to the well-celebrated ramen, you may like to try having the Shoyu Ramen which comes with 2 pieces of Charsiew, 3 pieces of Bamboo shoot (Menma,メンマ) and Spring onions. If you love Charsiew, then try the Charsiew Shoyu Ramen! I tell you the 6 pieces of Charsiew with definitely fill you to the brim, even I get overwhelmed by all the meat.

I like the ramen here because after I sampled the first mouth, it earned itself a place in my "Grand List of Comfort Food". The soup is extremely flavourful yet still maintains a certain level of "lightness", which maybe contributed by the pork and chicken stock-base used. I assume the crinkly egg noodles that they serve are on par with it's fellow Asahikawa ramens as the water content should be quite low since the strands were able to soak up the beautiful soup yet still remain al dente to the bite. I loved every bite. The Charsiew's are quite tender but 6 pieces were abit too much for me personally. Lastly, I'm not a fan of menma, thus I gave my share away after sampling 1 piece. I must say it's did not taste too pungent and was supple-soft with a tinge of crunchiness. Not bad, but not my cup of tea. 

Full size Baikohken Charsiew Shoyu Ramen

Overall, I like the ramen served here enough to come back every 3 to 4 weeks (oh, that explains why I spent numerous weekends in Takashimaya...). Do give it a try if you are around the area, just pray hard that particular floor staff is not there to spoil your meal.

This most recent visit was actually made with my niece, Jade Jade. Poor baby's was not well (in fact, for such a long time that my heart pains when she cries in nightly, tortured by her chest congestion) but was still so cute and playful. I love her to bits, but sometimes she does have her aloof-attitude attacks which is not cute at all. 

I'll follow up with the next entry of a haul I did during that outing as well soon. Meanwhile, take great care!

The apple of my eye



Jade: Mummy! Milk!
Mummy: Really? You want milk?
Jade: Real!



Jade Jade's waving at our reflection chirping "Hi!"

My Fanta-Bulous Weekend Part Three!

It's a Sunday, beautiful Sunday! Well, it only means Monday's peeking right over my shoulder, thus I planned to take it easy. The best option was to go shopping and a nice meal in the mall nearest to my place! Yeah, shopping again!

One of my first stop was Watsons, which I'm starting to love again, with must control nowadays. Once again Jade Jade, who completely took after my love for make up, started "exploring" the testers of Majolica Majorca's display counter.

Caught in action...

I must admit, she seem to be immensely enjoying herself

"Oh, which one's nicer..."

Next we had lunch...

At Sake Sushi

I'm not one of those "paranoid extremist" who refuse to eat sushi after the recent, but saddening, tsunami incident in Japan (that brings me to recall a person I once knew that made a fuss and insisted that the doctor gave him the vaccination shot, which were reserved for the pregnant and children at the time of the Bird Flu, because he was not well with a common cold. Come on, you were a 24 year old healthy male, can't believe how you went through your National Service without any guts...)

Some of the dishes: Agedashi Tofu, 揚げ出し豆腐 (left) & Soft-shell Crab Temaki, 手巻

Jade Jade trying to learn how to use the chopsticks

Lobster Temaki

My favourite Beef Kimchi Kaminabe which I've blogged before

Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) for Jade Jade

Dragon Roll Sushi

Chicken Katsu Cheese Yaki

Potato koroke (croquette)



Okonomiyaki

Jade Jade finding after-meal entertainment with my Ipad

We continued walking around after lunch before heading to the supermarket for our grocery and headed home. To wrap this entry up, the below is the haul I've done, enjoy!

Guess what I bought...

They are very prettly, it was love at first sight

I have a slight fetish for "owl" stuff

See the detailing, this cost me only SGD 14.

Some other stuff I bought randomly: Travel-size Contact Lense Solution (for my office) and Mentos Mint (for Jade Jade)

My haul from Watsons

Eyeshadows: Kate Blendzone in BR-2 (left) and Majolica Marjolica Trick on Powder in BR-752 (right)

I think I have too many nuetrals...

Then I discovered a new shop, which is not really "new" as I have not been shopping for months. It's call Magic Shop. The sales consultant told me that they empahsize on water-based product and is a Taiwan brand that I mistook for Korean. That's something new, without doing any research beforehand, I grabbed a number to their stuff to try out.


The shop's carrier bag



Nail polish at SGD 3.90 each (it was buy 4 get 1 free)



They are not named but numbered (from left to right): #23, #54, #63



#71 (left), #94 (right)



Swatch of #54, 2 coats with Sech Vite Top Coat.



Topped with Daiso's Light Color Nail Enamel #8 by Minmax@New York to add interest.
Reminds me of the starry sky on a clear night.

Magic Shop Luxurious Lip Gloss: It's colorless in the tube but turns
 into a healthy pink stain once in contact with your lips. Comes in one
shade (Chameleon Pink) at SGD 24.

 

Ingredient List

I have used 2 of the nail polish shades that I bought (#54 & #63). They are quite pigmented, 2 coats will give the color as the bottle. However, I notice that they started chipping much faster that the rest of other brands that I use. It normal last about 2 to 3 days before the first chip appear. You may like to know, I type but not alot at work, I don't do lots of household chores and I used Sech Vite Quick Dry as my top coat. Hope that clarifies. Therefore I'm not really impress with their polishes.

On the other hand, I love the Luxurious Lip Gloss, which is a lip stain. It's watery in texture, gives a slightly cooling sensation once applied and you can witness your lips turn pinker within the minute. Do note that it does have a soft rose-scent as well, which I love. I've used it for a whole week & still loving it. I'm not "glowy" recently so the pop of lovely rosy hue on my lips gave my face some "life" and I'm lazy, I only have to reapply around 4 to 6 hours later (depending on how much you talk and if you are drinking or eating). So hassle free and it does not dry out my lips.

I'll definitely step in again if I pass by the shop. I hope it open a few more branches so the girls who do not stay around my area can get to try out this new brand at their convinence as well.

That's all for this three-parter. Until next time, take great care!