Weekend Eatings

Seafood International Market and Restaurant @ East Coast Park

Playground @ Big Splash is very child friendly with lots of kiddy things to do, like ride on motorised scooters for SGD2 (5 minutes).

This restaurant faces the open area where the kids ride, so it was ideal for us, while Cutie spent our hard earned SGD10 on a 3o min ride.

Fried Rice - SGD 16 - this was fried with crab meat. It was ok. Cute shape, but otherwise unremarkable.

Peking Duck - SGD48 - We waited a really long time for this, can you imagine? They asked us how we wanted our duck meat to be served and as there is a 10 surchargfe if they cooked it with noodles, we said, just cut it up and serve it. After a 20 min wait, they served the Peking duck all chopped up like at any roast duck stall in Marine Parade.. We're like: "??!!" where is the peking duck skin? If I wanted to eat roast duck I could go anywhere and eat it for SGD20 what? So we sent it back. Another 20 min later, our duck arrived, correct this time, but we were ravenous! They served the skin with pastry made with egg, it was yellow in colour and a bit tough. We like the steamed round white pastry things better.

All in all, nothing fantastic, but maybe we didn't order the right things, this is a Seafood restaurant after all.

La Forketta @ Dempsey Road

We came here on a Sunday afternoon so that Cutie could play at Go Go Bambini's... he hadn't been there for some time so we decided to give him a little treat. This was before our trip to Tasmania, and before the HFMD thing proliferated. We haven't been near this place since the HFMD epidemic started.

Generally the food was ok, but a bit heavy. The wait staff were however, very clueless about service. I asked for a table, and she said yes there is a table available but please wait as we set it up. See, the thing is, their maitre'd counter is set up OUTSIDE the restaurant, where it is hot and sweltering. There were some seats inside the restaurant, obviously meant for waiting customers, BUT instead of ushering us inside to wait, she stood there like a statue, blocking our way in. Finally, in exasperation, I asked whether she minded if we waited inside, since it was in the prime heat of the afternoon sun and I had a baby with me. I can't imagine why I would need to tell her this. Basic service standards are lacking here!

Appetiser Platter

Pretty generous selection, and I liked pretty much everything.

I ordered the canonnelli. The cream sauce was too rich for a hot day. So, not really enjoyable.

The pizza that DH ordered. We always order the parma / proscuitto with rucola (wild rocket) but that is getting boring, so we tried this one, with olives and artichokes. Interesting vegetable, the artichoke. I understand only the heart is edible, thereby making it so expensive. This was pickled, and tasted quite nice.

I can't remember how much this meal cost, but I do remember it being very hot, even when seated inside. Maybe because the place had lots of glass windows, causing a greenhouse effect.

Vehicles for Cutie / Waraku @ East Coast Park

I am an extravagant parent.

bored or all tired out?

As you can see from this picture - Cutie is getting bored with his tricycle. Even though it's barely a month old!!


Sigh.

Mommy? Will you buy the car please? Please?

So, indulgent parent that I am, I bought Cutie one of those Flintstone cars. So named because it does not have any pedals or motors, and is run by leg power only.

Yayy, Mommy's buying the car! Vroom!

He seems to like it! So much so he refused to let others have a turn on it. Even when a very pretty mei mei asked him nicely. Which is so unusual because he is typically so generous when it comes to sharing toys. Especially with pretty girls. Yes yes, so it appears that he does like his new car, but let's see how long it lasts.

After hanging out at East Coast Park (which we seem to do a lot these days), we ended up at Waraku Japanese Restaurant (which we also seem to do a lot these days).

It was an easy choice, since it's convenient, air-conditioned and baby-friendly.

DH had the Waraku Hiyashi Ramen (SGD8.80) served chilled with a sesame dipping sauce. The nice thing about this is that they served 2 different types of noodles, soba and inaniwa udon (thin udon). There was also egg and prawns and julienned cucumber which provided an interesting crunchy contrast. It was a hit on a hot sunny day.

I also had cold chirashi udon (SGD12). This was served with slices of sashimi, seaweed and bonito flakes on top. It was an interesting take on chirashi sushi (which is slices of sashimi served on rice). The noodles were coated with a slippery substance like chilled egg white, but I can't really be sure what it is. I quite liked it, but DH didn't really care for the slippery texture.

Waraku Japanese Restaurant @ East Coast Park

Waraku first opened at East Coast Park some years back, and it was one of the first restaurants to introduce steamboat in a paper pot (How does the paper pot keep from burning up, pray tell?).

Since then, it has opened a few branches (Marina Square, East Coast Road etc).

We came here over the weekend because it was unbearably hot and I wanted to have some zaru soba or cold ramen.

Well, we really loved it. The food was great, and very affordably priced. The best thing is, they were so baby-friendly and had such fantastic service. There was a 10 minute wait for a table, as they were full at about 830 pm. And while we (and some others) waited, they came out and served us plastic cups of iced lemon tea, iced green tea, beer and water. Now, that's great service to me. Kudos to them. And it says a lot when there are some places (cough, bakerzin, cough) which charge for tap water.

DH ordered this mentaiko yaki (SGD8). It's grilled codfish roe. But on the menu, it was described as a rather unappetising "burnt fish roe". It was quite interesting. Chewy, smoky exterior with a salty interior of roe.

DH's order of unagi nabe (eel hotpot) (SGD 12.80). It was served with a raw egg that you cracked into the pot. Baby loved the soft slightly boiled egg, and wanted more, but DH had gobbled most of it up.

My waraku cold soba (SGD14.80), served with dipping sauce, and a plethora of ingredients - egg, beeancurd, crabmeat, seaweed, fishcake, crispy sprinkles.

THE LOOT!

And I really meant it when I said that they were baby-friendly. The nice lady supervisor gave Baby a pack of cheese biscuits, a toy piggy bank in the shape of a post box, and a noisy gun. She also gave him a Spiderman mask, which I returned since he doesn't really play with masks right now.

DH loved the gun. He used it to shoot me whenever I dissed him throughout the dinner (Me: "You're a terrible father for eating up all the egg.... " DH: "Bang Bang!"). Which made the waitress laugh. DH said it took all his self-restraint not to shoot her too.

Ju Shin Jung East Charcoal BBQ @ East Coast Park Tennis Centre

According to the Korean expat community, and the food blogger community, Ju Shin Jung is considered one of the best - so DH and I, together with Baby, decided to hop over to the branch at East Coast Park to check it out. The original restaurant is at West Coast Highway, opposite Haw Par Villa. The branch at the east is next to Long Beach Seafood at the Tennis Centre in East Coast Park.


DH and I had considered leaving Baby at home, since a BBQ place didn't seem an ideal place to take Baby, with the smoke and hot grills. But he looked so forlorn as we left, clinging to the metal gate separating us, that DH and I relented and decided to take Baby along. We rationalised that, if the place really turned out to be unsuitable, we'd just go somewhere else.


The restaurant was located where a billiards and amusement centre used to be, so it was actually very spacious and open, and not at all cramped or smoky like I expected. Best thing was, there was a little corner at the side for the children with at least 3 kiddy ride machines. Baby loves kiddy rides! He was therefore happily entertained for the rest of our meal.

They served DH and I about 10 - 12 free side dishes which included spicy kimchi, non-spicy kimchi, fishcake, potato salad, chilled tofu, spicy octopus salad, cold kimchi soup. These side dishes were free of charge and refillable upon request. I think that is quite nice.


We ordered: Marinated beef short ribs (SGD32), beef tongue (SGD30), ginseng pork (SGD30) and a seafood pancake (SGD20).



Well, I think that servings were certainly generous, it was a whopping big plate, and the slices of meat filled the whole plate. However, the meats could have been more tender, given the prices that we were paying for it. Then again, I've come across cuts of meat that were just way too fatty, giving the desired tenderness and flavour but which are just way too taxing on the heart and arteries. I guess, these meats were lean so not as tender. They were quite flavourful nevertheless.


The service was a bit spotty too, since they were staffed mostly by mainland Chinese, who were eager to please but not that efficient. They mixed up our order and brought the wrong wine instead, they were supposed to grill our meats for us but disappeared for too long, so some of the meats were overcooked (beef tongue should be quickly seared and eaten!) and one waitress dropped a slice of the beef tongue down the grill (woah, that's at least 1 dollar down the drain, my dear girl!)

DH ordered a bottle of Matchsoon Gold (SGD30), a lovely Korean Plum Wine with gold flakes inside! Served cold, it was sweet and quite refreshing, not to mention really pretty with the cute flakes of gold dust floating around inside.

DH says the other place he has been to, Yakiniku Daidamon at Keypoint Plaza, Beach Road, serves the same food, but buffet style so we can eat as much as we like for only SGD60 per head. So we might check that place out sometime. Will keep you all updated!