Nanjya Monjya

I've been told my blog is dying - not that I haven't been happily going out to eat very often, it's just that I've been too lazy to edit my photos and to upload all of them!
Went to Nanjya Monjya for dinner a while back - don't go there if you've got somewhere to go after dinner cos you'll end up stinking of okonomiyaki tho!Basically, Nanjya Monjya is an okonomiyaki place, specialising in all these pancake like things. I really liked their okonomiyaki whcih had cabbage, bits of the preserved ginger, chives, egg and potk belly. The batter is light and fluffy and the okonomiyaki is one of the best I've had in Singapore. At the end of it, there's the brown okonomiyaki sauce and lots of japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes to pile onto your okonomiyaki. You can either DIY if you're an expert but being the noobs we were, we got the waitress to cook everything for us in fear of burning and destroying the food.

This is their Monjayaki (もんじゃ焼き) which is this messy wet batter cooked over the pan. It still remains a wet mess after cooking. To eat, use the tiny metal spatula to scrape off parts of the wet mess - a thin layer of brown 'skin' will form at the bottom of the batter which I suppose, is the equivalent of the burnt rice layer in claypot rice? The monjayaki we got was the seafood one and though it was quite enjoyable watching the preparation, I'd rather stick to my usual okonomiyaki. Yaki soba with seafood - the high class version of the yaki soba you see at Takashimaya food court and Ion's food court. More meat and vegetables though I think I still prefer the okonomiyaki than this.
Their tofu with cheese and mentaiko (cod roe) was creamy and delicious though it's not a very unique dish and I could easily find it elsewhere.

On the first photo collage there's a picture of the daikon salad ($9++) which I really liked - it's strips of daikon in a tuna and mayo dressing with bits of other vegetables. The daikon is really juicy and very refreshing to eat especially since it's served very chilled. I would highly recommend this salad since I haven't seen it being served elsewhere (not that I have been looking very hard...)

I also had the Calpis Chu which is calpis (one of my favourite drinks!) mixed with plum wine. Though I must say that the combination tasted like medicine.... Will stick to my usual calpis drink (I love the calpis rich which is even milkier than the normal calpis!)

Pricing wise, it's not that cheap with each dish costing around $20 or so and it's not particularly filling either. Though I must say that it's really a nice experience pretending that I'm back in Japan eating okonomiyaki ;)

Nanjya Monjya

390A Havelock Road

#01-03/05, Waterfront Plaza Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel
Tel: +65 6738 7177

Freshness Burger - Spam Burger

Happy Chinese New Year to all my Readers! I know I've missed New Years and Christmas :(

Next post up will be the obligatory lo hei dinner post :D And after that, hopefully I will stop procrastinating and start on my Pamplemousse post!Had the Spam Burger from Freshness Burger (after a positive experience, and after checking out a couple of blogs and finding that most people who tried it enjoyed it). At first sight, I thought my eyes were deceiving me cos the bun was white and coated with sesame seeds but I distinctly remembered the chicken teriyaki burger had a soft yellow bun! Fret not cos the teriyaki chicken burger really has a different bun from the spam burger.

The Spam Burger has a pan fried thick piece of spam (aka Luncheon meat) sandwiched between their signature juicy tomato slice (big sweet and red) and a sunny side up egg. In the other blogs that I checked out, they had runny yolks which looks so delicious - imagine the golden yolk oozing over the spam and dripping onto the burger - makes me feel like eating one right now. Perhaps it was cos I had takeaway so my egg wasn't runny anymore?

The spam makes the burger really delicious especially when coupled with a warm fried egg and cottony soft buns. Somehow unhealthy food tastes so good - perhaps it's cos it's a rarity? There's also a bit of mayo with the shredded cabbage at the bottom so the whole burger is nice and moist. I liked how they used cabbage instead of lettuce cos the lettuce would just soak up all the oil and turn translucent and gross. The cabbage still retains it's crunchiness and adds texture to the burger.

Of course, I had these with my Kiwi Mix Protector ($4.90) in hopes of its antioxidants clearing out the junk I've been eating, just because it has real fruits blended in ;p I still stand by my avocado salad ($3) which comes with nice ripe diced avocado, minced onions and cucumbers, with a dash of what I think is Tabasco for some zing.

The coleslaw on the other hand is very unremarkable - the corn is sweet and juicy but the dressing lacks a punch and it's only shredded cabbage and corn and isn't particularly tasty.

I also decided to clog up my arteries with the onion rings (highly recommended by atetoomuch) and I had no regrets. Whole onion slices deep fried in a light airy batter (think the kind of batter that comes with beer battered fish and chips, minus the beer). Though my only complaint is that the portion is rather small and after popping what seems to be a few of these onion rings in, you'll realized that you're through the packet before you know it.

Freshness Burger

2 Tampines Central 5

#01-37 Century Square

Singapore 529509

When I was working today, I had one extremely nice incident and another unpleasant thing happening to me. I was so touched by the first one and it really made my day:D
The other one was this filthy liar b*tch (and it's not the female dog I am talking about) that I was unfortunately working with previously who I again had the misfortune of interacting with today. Of course, what goes around comes around ;) We shall have to wait and see;P

Nandos @ Tanglin Mall

I have somehow been returning to Tanglin Mall many many times in the last 2 months - about 4 times I think! Especially since there's absolutely nothing good to buy there (one of my aims of going to shopping malls for meals is so that I can buy things!) So I've finally tried Nando's after nearly the rest of the world has tried it. I had the quarter chicken with 2 sides ($13.80++) and requested for the thigh (which is my fave part of the chicken cos it's tender and meaty). I had the 'mild' spiciness (hence the 'tickle your tastebuds') and it's really quite mild even for my very low standard chili tolerence, I was able to complete the chicken without any water.

Of course, being flame grilled chicken specialist restaurant, their chicken doesn't dissappoint. The skin is charred just right so that it's crispy and there's hardly any fat under the skin. The chicken is well marinaded in their spices, and an additional layer of sauce (mild, moderate or spicy) coats each piece. Best of all, it's not too salty either. The thigh was on the skinny side, so it really wasn't that satisfying. They have their special sauce in 3 different levels of spiciness on every table - so if it's not tasty/spicy enough you can always feel free to add more. The mildest sauce is the Lemon herb sauce which isn't to my liking since I don't like citrus but the mild is pretty tolerable.

I had the potato salad and coleslaw for sides - the potato salad is pretty nice different from usual potato salads in that it was new potatoes and had this quite watery saue. The spiced rice was a much better choice and had this nice middle eastern taste.

Just as well that their mild sauce wasn't so spicy since Nandos' has joined the league of other 'no tap water' policy, which is such a shame since they have pretty good chicken. And pricey considering that you only get restaurant service but no water with it.
Though the chicken tastes great, prices are on the steep side, which makes me feel like just roasting my nicely marinated chicken thighs in my oven at home - rather than spending around $15 nett on a skinny thigh and 2 sides, and no free water. Not even a compromise if you paid 50 cents/80cent/s 1.20 you CANNOT get water here - you just have to buy bottled.

Nandos
163 Tanglin Road
#01-14/15 Tanglin Mall
Tel: +65 6235 3555