Eating home-cooked food

Lunching at home on a Saturday. We seldom like to eat out on weekends as Singapore eateries are very crowded. What can one expect when SG, an island of 719 km2, has to accommodate 5.9 million residents (not including tourists and visitors)?
Besides, eating home-cooked food is much healthier than eating out, right?

Yufuin, one of the best hot spring resorts

We were at a ryokan in Yufuin, South Japan for a vacation some years ago. Yufuin is one of the most popular onsens or hot spring resorts in Kitakyushu. Hope you will enjoy the video.

Besides the kaya toast set for breakfast, I ordered the wanton mee which turned out to be delightful. This was at a coffee shop at Compassvale Lane. It cost $3.30 which is relatively cheap compared to the one at Balestier which I had to pay $5.

Breakfast,lunch at home, dinner @ Yoshinoya

I had tang hoon (glass noodles) for breakfast. Lunch was rice, miso soup, fried bitter gourd with cherry tomatoes and eggs and a plate of home made Japanese char siew. Also had an orange after lunch.
Eating home cooked food is, in my opinion is a healthier choice. Only issue with cooking is the amount of time and work involved. Doing the dishes is also a chore. Eating out is convenient but not necessarily healthy as my blogger friend pointed out in his blog.

Dinner@ Yoshinoya (Beef Bowl)

Beef with rice or "Beef Bowl" is one of my favorite Japanese dishes. I had it for dinner at Compass One Mall. I opted for just a bowl which cost $6.50. In Japan, the same dish cost about $4 and taste even better.
I had ice kachang for dessert from Kopitiam ($2.20, picture below)

Dinner@ Sushiro

Had bara chirashi don with a friend at Thomson Plaza. This was the first time I had it for dinner. I usually take it for lunch. The queue was as usual long. We had to wait for 30 minutes before we get our seats. The food was good and it's the cheapest bara chirashi don in Singapore ($12.80).

Lunch@ home and meeting@ Kovan

Instead of attending my school cohorts lunch, I had mine at home. Moreover, I attended the get together with the SIA/SATS retirees which I consider more relaxing than with my school cohorts.
The former was held at 313@ Somerset while the latter was at Kovan which is nearer to my home.

Unagi or grilled eel @ Man Man Restaurant

We queued for 40 minutes in order to get a seat at Man Man Unagi Restaurant when it opened for dinner at 6 pm. The address is 1, Keong Siak Road. The unagi or charcoal grilled eels were from Japan. The eel was superb. We ordered 2 Hitsumabushi. The large one was $35.80 and the smaller one was $26.80 (quite expensive)
The place was packed and while we were inside eating, there was another long queue of about 30 people waiting for their turn to get into the restaurant. Frankly, I do not like the 40 minutes of waiting in the hot sun outside as well as the crowded small restaurant.
This will be my first and last visit to Man Man.

Lunch @ Andes, E! Hub

A lovely stewardess bought me lunch at Andes by Aston at E Hub! She was a successful participant at my seminar and has been flying for a while now. This is one of the perks for helping people to realize their dreams. Before this, another one who has been flying for 6 years treated me and my wife to sushi at a Japanese restaurant.
Besides the nice food, I enjoyed the company of these young and gorgeous ladies.

Sunday's meal

Wanton mee ($3.50) wasn't a bad idea for lunch. We also ordered seafood pasta ($7.90). The prawns and green mussels were quite nice but not the cuttlefish or squids which was not fresh (cos it was frozen, I think). Frankly, between the two, the wanton noodles was a more delectable dish and cheaper too.

The Japanese version of our kueh lapis was not as sweet which suited our taste buds. It was a gift from one of our Japanese friends. It's soft in texture and moist. We had it for dessert.

Dinner@ Home

Singapore national breakfast

This is a typical and most common Singapore national breakfast. A set comes with 2 eggs in piping hot water (in the blue and green containers), sliced kaya and butter toasts, dark soya sauce and pepper and a cup of hot tea or coffee. We had this breakfast at a heartland coffee shop. Each set cost $2.60c.
Below is a YouTube video which I took from the Internet. It describes what the above really is. However, the way Singaporean eat this breakfast is not to dip the toast into the egg but to eat them separately. I think the YouTuber is not a Singaporean.

Hawker food versus home cooked fried rice

The fried rice prepared by my wife wasn't the best I had in along time. Complementing the fried rice lunch, was chee chong fun, yam kueh and chwee kueh from a hawker stall. I think the hawker fare tasted better than my wife's dry fried rice (hope she won't be reading my blog).

Ice cream from Sheng Siong

This ice cream from Sheng Siong supermarket is not only delicious but cheap too. It comes in chocolate or vanilla flavor with a thick coating of chocolate and nuts. You can get 3 for $2 which means each ice cream is about 67 cents. We bought 15 sticks for $10. Try buying when you next visit Sheng Siong.

Shabu Sai Japanese buffet

Since we were at Westgate Mall we had our lunch at the Shabu Sai Japanese buffet restaurant. It is quite similar to the Singapore styled steamboat. We ordered a few trays of beef and pork and had several rounds of vegetables, noodles, meat balls etc. They allowed us a dinning time of 70 minutes.
The meal could last us the whole day and we do not have to eat dinner. The price for the buffet was $14.90 ++ each. Reasonable pricing? hmm...I am not sure.

Dinner@ Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant (Thomson)

We had our dinner at the above mentioned restaurant which is co-owned by a retired SIA Inflight Manager. The food was very good and the place was crowded as usual. There were 5 of us. Our favourite dishes were the spicy assam fish head and the cereal prawns. Other dishes were also yummy.
A friend of ours gave us the Japanese dessert which was excellent.

Home prepared meals for today

Had lunch at home. It was steamed salmon cutlets with cherry tomatoes and vegetables, a plate of home made charsiew with vegetables. Finally, it was miso soup and white rice.

Sandwich dinner@ home

The sandwiches were prepared at home. They were made up of cheese,eggs etc. It was a good, delicious and light meal.

Kaya toast set and home cooked dinner

This morning we had the kaya & butter toasts set for breakfast. Being a Saturday, the place was quite crowded by 9:30 am.
As for dinner, we decided to eat at home. My wife prepared the mentaiko pasta, tang hoon or glass noodles with cherry tomatoes and sliced prawns. The veggie dish was broccoli with Japanese dressing. 

2 arrested, another injured in coffee shop dispute

Singapore, although a small island of 719 sq km is turning to be a rather violent place. A few days after the Boon Tat street killing, we witnessed another stabbing case involving a few men in a coffee shop dispute.
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