Meat and Greed 3

Next on my Meat and Greed hunt was this place in Ang Mo Kio. Not being very familiar with the neighbourhood, we walked around in the rain before we finally stumbled upon it only to discover that it was just next door to the famous Pine Garden's Cake Shop.

Which makes me wonder why they name themselves Next Door Deli. Are they related? I am quite sure they are caused

The dessert which we had at the end of the meal

came from there.

Anyway back to the food. The tv program highly recommended the chicken wing. They had 2 versions  - fried and grilled. Naturally we ordered both. Unfortunately, I didn't think it live up to its fame though.

We also had the grilled chicken chop. It came with 2 sides and a piece of garlic bread

 We also had one of their house specialities the fried laksa. It comes with prawn, fish cake but no chicken. The one in the picture was extra. It tasted a bit weird and need some getting use to but it kinda grew on me.

This is the meatball spaghetti. Err I had to say it but I think the one at Ikea is much better.

Finally we also had the sausage platter. It came with 3 different type of sausage and fries and this was probably the biggest dismantlement of all. Just look at the 3 small little bangers.

The saving grace was the price. At an average of about $7.00 on average, it is a very decent and filling meal and even if the food is not up to the mark as I expected, it is certainly value for money.

Not all birds are lovable

I stayed in an estate where just by walking short distance, I can see lot and lot of birds. From the common mynahs and sparrow to the more exotic birds like the heron, egret, parakeets and many others whom I cannot identify.

Every morning I wake up to the chirping of birds from the birds on the trees just behind my place. This is the tree. This tree is flowering now and attracts many birds including this beauty

Now that the tree is flowering, it is attracting more birds including bats and this bird

Photo from The Hindu newspaper

I like birds. I enjoyed listening to them and waking up to them. On my runs in Pasir Ris Park, I always try to look out for the heron screeching away. So I was quite disturbed to read in the papers about some complaints by people about the Koels and asking for them to be culled! What the hell. It's just some bird calls so why kick such a big fuss. After all we should be thankful that we have such a wide variety of birds.

And then a koel decided to join the crowd on the tree behind my place. And it makes its presence felt at 4am in the morning when the night is still as quite as dead. And all of sudden, I understand the sentiments of those who complained about the bird. Imagine being waken up at 4am by this

(Video from xeno-canto Asia)

Thankfully the bird has so far make it appearance on alternate day but always at about 4am and will perform until about 7am. Sighed..... how to like something like that?

Japanese Ala-Carte Buffet: Shin Minori Japanese Restaurant

Most of the recent posts are all about food. Not that I have nothing to write but since I have been going to  new food place, I think I need to capture a bit of the memory before I forget which place I have been to.

Recently, I discovered this wonderful thing called ala-carte Japanese buffet. I have always thought buffet is those available in the hotels restaurants or in Chinese restaurant but didn't know that it also exists for Japanese food. Quite surprising since Japanese food is pretty expensive. And another interesting thing I discovered was that there are actually a few outlets offering them and almost all of them price the buffet at S$35.00 which is pretty affordable.

The first place we went to was Momoya in Bedok. The next place was Shin Minori at UE Square and next month will be going to Ikoi at Miramar Hotel.

The first thing that strikes me when I walked into Shin Minori is that it is quite dimly lit. It was worse at Momoya which is why there is no photo of the food at Momoya.

Shin Mimori has a nice counter for customers to sit and watch the chefs prepare the food. But because our group was big, we didn't sit there. They have a menu listing all the food available. The menu is nicely divided into the different type of Japanese food but the prints are so small and in the dim light, it was so difficult for old Uncle like me to read so I left it to the younger folks to just order and I just eat!

One of the items available is the "One mouth" crab. Didn't know what it was or what specie of crab it was until the food came. Why One mouth crab? Because the whole crab is so small it can eaten in one mouth - shell and all!

One of our favourite was the grilled pork belly. Sort of like our satay without the sauce. But the fat was really wobbly fat. Still we had 3 servings of it.

They even have a very simple dish like the taugay.

 We also ordered the grilled mackerel. It is one fish per order and again we ordered 3 to share among the 8 of us.

 One of my favourite is the handroll. There are not much variety available but what they have comes nicely presented in trays.

 The best was of course the sashimi. They have almost the full complement of fresh fish and cuttlefish as well.

We also had pizza, soup, skipped the udon and ramen but still left feeling very full. Really good value for money considering the amount of food we gobbled down.

Mamacitas

There this stall at the Amoy food centre that claim to sell authentic Costa Rican Cuisine. Ok I know Costa Rica is somewhere near America and in the movie, the people from there are always depicted as gangster and hoodlums. But I seriously have no idea what food they eat until this stall opens.

A glance at the signboard shows many rice dishes much like our food. Basically it is rice with either a meat and salad sides. There are tacos as well as all sort of salad.

I decided to try the Krunchy Chalupas which as far as I can make out is a fried taco filled with either beef or chicken and all sort of vegetables and jalapenos. It also come with a generous side serving of rice. At average price of about $4.00 it is certainly value for money.

So far that is my one and only Costa Rican food cause the next time I went back, it was closed and still remain closed. There is a notice there saying the nice Costa Rican lady who owes the stall is on sick leave and has to close the stall for a while. 

Hopefully it will open soon and I can go back and try the other items on the menu.

Giant Moth

Was out for lunch one weekday and saw this critter on the wall. It was about the size of a palm. Fairly big.  Don't know what species of moth this is.

There is a grandmother's tale that if somebody has recently passed away in the household and one of this giant moth appears in the house, it is the spirit of the deceased visiting the house and should not be killed. 

Nowadays, it quite rare to see this type of moth. In the past, we can see it every now and then in void decks and even in the house. Does it mean there are less people dying nowadays or the moth are dying faster than human are dying?

Anyway, these are beautiful creatures and I hope to see more of them around, spirit or no spirit.

Travel Sg - Building at Shrewsbury Road

There is old run down building that can be seen along Moulmein Road. Every time I pass by the place, I am curious why such a property in a prime area is not better utilised. There is a For Sale sign there which has been up for the longest time.

One very interesting feature about this property is its wall.  The top of the wall is covered with broken glass. I think this was used to deter burglars in the past and I think the practice has now been banned. But the wall is pretty low so I can imagine the number of hands it must have cut over its history.

While it looks vacant, there are a lot of well maintained potted plant at its front which is actually along Shrewsbury Road. The For Sale sign is still there

Let just see how long more it remain in this condition.