Sakura Orchard

Happened to be in town yesterday and decided to try out Sakura at Orchard Shopping Centre which is just opposite Cineleisure. Weekend Dinner was pretty expensive at $29.95 per head.

The ambience was pretty okay, you will not have the feeling of eating in a sardine can and the place was done up pretty nicely. Seated by the window I was treated to a nice view of the surrounding shopping centres and the endless stream of people walking along the streets(dun expect too much). Service was also prompt and staff were courteous most of the time. Some of them were wearing face masks, hopefully that was to maintain hygiene not becoz of SARS or somthing.

Most importantly, the FOOD!

Well, generally it was a pleasant meal which I felt was definitely worth the price even for a weekend one. The Jap food bar has lotsa items to choose from, about 15 different types of sushi, a decent variety of Sashimi with squid, prawn, salmon, snapper and I dunno wad. There's also Cold Soba noodles, smoked duck and some appetizers like Fruit salad, scallop and abalone salad which I found really nice.

Then there's the western bar with pizzas(Ham and chicken I think), grilled scallops(w or w/o cheese or raw), mussels(grilled or raw), salads and its other condiments.

Next up would be what I think is the asian food area with roast duck(nice!), cray fish, mutton redang, beancurd with sauce, steamed fish with sauce and some dim sum(mainly siew mai, beancurd roll and pao).

As with the other Sakura outlets, there's the tepanyaki/grill corner with a wide variety of meats to choose from. There's satay(mutton and chicken), beef(not steak), lamb chop, dory fillet, unagi, mackerel(nice!), squid(not the panggang type) and some other meats as well. Adjacent to the grill is the fried food corner where there's fried prawns and fish and other common items but no fries.

The deserts section is split into 2 with the ice cream and sherbet at one side and the fruits on the other. There was about 6 different types of ice cream like peppermint and 2 sherbets(lime and orange) with choco rice or nuts toppings. The fruits section has at least 10 types of fruits with other items like 'gui ling gao', mango pudding, yam paste and thai sweet tapioca.

There's also a variety of drinks to choose from, soft drinks, cold teas or just the normal coffee and tea.

Overall experience was good with my personal liking to the roast duck, lamb chops, yam paste, appetizers, sherbet and mackerel. Apparently I saw some people having laksa and seafood soup which I have no idea where its from, but i presume it should be ordered from the grill section area. Grills are fuss free, no queuing as one just need to attach your table clips to your order and it will be delivered to u once its done. The entrance is hidden away since there's no indication of its entrance but it beside teh 7-11 and there's actually a small flight of stairs before a waitress will attend to u then u make your payment and take the escalator up to the restaurant. Do have a try.

Video from NTU

Video by NTU students on the triple bunking proposal. Very funny.

SUBWAY ...... Eat Fresh!

I remembered I first tried Subway back in secondary school at the newly(at that time) opened pioneer outlet at Suntec. I tried the meatball Sandwich which wasn't that fantastic and since then I haven't tried Subway again. That holds true until maybe I enrolled into NUS. With NUS students discounts and our very own in-house outlet here, I decided to give it another try. My second try of the Italian BMT wasn't so bad, better than the first time. Probably becoz of my new liking to vegetables which Subway sandwiches are loaded with. With time, I tried others on the menu, Subway Melt, all the different breads, different sauces like honey mustard and chili, 6inches to foot long, the cookies they had... One of the best combinations I've tried so far is the Cold Cut trio with BBQ and sweet onion sauce. Not too salty like Italian BMT yet also not as guilty as Subway Melt. Though there's still plenty of other items I haven't tried yet but yes the NUS outlet is better than the other outlets out there. Do try it if u happen to pass by.

New Homegrown Movie

NOW SHOWING
at all parks, wooded and secluded areas near you. Catch it while you still can.
Co-starring: Police Gurkha Contingent, Special Operations Command AND your normal 'Ma-ta'.
Guest Appearance: SAF Guardsmen, Military Police AND the 'cute' dogs from the K9 unit.

Shock and awe

I've seen some really interesting and shocking things the past couple of weeks.

Shock #1

As I was running at the park beside my house, I smelled cigarette smoke. Looking around I saw no old uncle smoking, the other people nearby were another guy running in front(pretty impossible to be him) and a small kid walking in front as well. Guess what, the young KID was puffing from a cigarette like a young Chao Ah Beng from Jack Neo's new movie. My guess on his age puts him at 10 years old, at most 13. I've seen the plenty of secondary school students smoking, but someone of his tender age totally took me by surprise.

Surprise #2

Walked past the 201 area the other day while buying dinner and passed by the Singapore Pools outlet. Happened to see that they're expanding their revenue by opening up on F1 betting. Yes, the very sport which is coming to Singapore this Sept. With the decision to allow casino in Singapore, the bookmarking(its the gambling version la, bookworm!) industry is really opening up here.

Surprise #3

For those who have taken a test in a Lecture theatre while not being forced to sit alternately will definitely find the test very 'open'. Not that its open book but rather copying is so so rampant in such environment. But a test I took on Wednesday changed my opinion, the Professors and tutors finally put their minds together for a countermeasure. The gave the question papers out to alternate students. Meaning there's 2 different papers and the only the 3rd person sitting away from u would get the same questions as u. Those who might be crying foul here, rest assured that the 2 papers are awfully similar save some numbers changed and diagrams altered slightly otherwise they're the same. Now to add another element of surprise we realised that those doing the 'same' papers were not exactly the same as the answers may still be jumbled up(MCQ). So there's probably 4 different sets of papers out there. But then again, when its time to hand in the papers, it was so chaotic that many people were comparing answers and discussing them.