MUST try dishes at Majestic Bay restaurant - Gardens By The Bay

I booked the private room of Majestic Bay restaurant at Gardens By The Bay for a company event and I also pre-ordered the menu blind.  Meaning that I've never tried the food there before but just trusted that it will be good because it's under the whole Majestic Restaurant group.

Our meal began with starters of crispy fish skin, black fungus with wasabi dressing, fried homemade tofu with pork floss and cucumber with grapes in Kyoto dressing.  The fish skin was super crispy and not oily, I loved the tofu and I was pleasantly surprised by the grapes and cucumber because when you read it in the menu, it naturally makes you go, "Huh? Really?"  I didn't really touch the fungus as I detest wasabi but I took a nibble just out of curiosity.  I must say that the wasabi taste was very subtle and doesn't overpower any other flavours on this dish...but still, it's wasabi.

Next up was the soup.  OMG.  I LOVE this soup.  It's a chicken broth with bamboo pith and mushrooms, slowly recooked in this whole young coconut.  As such, it's savoury but yet has a light refreshing coconut taste at the end.  I loved it so much that I was busy scraping the flesh of the coconut.   DEFINITELY a must-try!

Third course was crispy catch of the day, Thai style.  Nothing spectacular there but it's a nice in-betweener since it's still tropical.

Now, getting back to China on your tastebuds is the above poached luffa vegetable/gourd in superior stock.  Why is it called superior? Presence of dried scallops! I call this dish the - let's try to get some veg in.

Look at that.

Look at it again.  That's Majestic Bay's signature coffee crab.  Coffee you squeak?  Yes...coffee.  Just like coffee ribs, these crabs are cooked and smeared with fragrant, caramel, buttery coffee sauce.  The sauce lightly coats the crab and it comes with the final touch of being flambéed in front of you.  If I didn't have guests, I would've dug into a whole crab myself.  It's THAT yum.  If they told me that they have pork ribs in that same coffee sauce, I'm sold!

After devouring the crabs, we went onto the staples which was mee sua cooked with baby abalone.  I liked how the portion was just nice and you didn't feel like you had to force yourself to eat this bowl of noodles.

Dessert was a simple affair of mango puree with chendol bits and pomelo pulp.  Great way to end a great meal.

Thank goodness I cut back by 1 (or was it 2?) dish...so the above 7 course-meal was just perfect.  Not too filling and not too little.  As we were a large group of 14 pax, I had asked the wait staff to portion out the food but I've seen the other tables getting similar dishes presented in spectacular ways.  So, I highly recommend going to Majestic Bay at least once and don't be ashamed about whipping out your camera/ phone to take gorgeous foodporn dish after dish! ;)

Dad's Birthday Celebrations 2013 at Catalunya

This year, we didn't celebrate our parents' birthdays together because Mum had a special 60th birthday party.  So, for Dad, we decided to go to the Spanish restaurant Catalunya located at Fullerton Pavilion.

For starters, we ordered some tapas, like cod fritters (above) and bread with tomato and olive oil (below).  The cod fritters were quite tasty as it was smashed up fish mixed with flour before frying and after it's golden brown, garlic aoli is stuffed inside to give it a creamy burst.

The bread was very yummy and it was like a dry and flatter version of a bruschetta.  I think it's overpriced at $10++ but still make a good tapas.

Below is the Tortilla de Trumpco (if I remember correctly).  One must realise that tortilla in Spain actually means omelet and not the flatbread/chips.  Verdict for this tortilla? Slightly weird tasting.  I'll stick to the normal tortilla of eggs and potatoes.

We also ordered the roast meat canolene...which I'll call a roast meat canoli instead.  It's minced beef and chicken mixed together, wraped in a light pasta-like pastry and baked. It is served with cheese and a creamy sauce.  Quite yum, this dish.

The highlight of our meal was the roasted suckling pig.  This is only half a piglet at $160++.  They serve it on a chopping block and...

It is so tender and soft that they traditionally chop it up with a small plate!  Best parts of the pig? The ears for crispiness and cheeks for tender, melt-in-your-mouth porkiness.

Pardon the blur photo as the light was coming in from the window so I had to turn on the flash...not the most ideal.

The trotter!! Mmm...yummy collagen...

For our mains, we ordered the squid ink paella that comes with aoli. Best part? One of the few paella I've eaten in my life where the squid is still uber tender.  However, it was a tad salty but the chef and the maitre d' insisted that it's not salty but it's just very flavourful because of the stock from the seafood.  Okkk...not going to argue with you on that.  We've eaten very flavourful but not salty paella before...

Overall, the pork may look small but it was a lot of food for us 4.  There is only so much pork that one can eat, despite the deliciousness of it.  Surprisingly, the roasted suckling pig had a bit of a strong smell to it, which made us wonder whether it's a male piglet.

The view from the restaurant is quite gorgeous so do make a reservation in advance and request for a table near the window in the evening.  For lunches, stick to somewhere further inside, unless you enjoy the greenhouse effect.

In terms of prices, I think they give more value than Serenity, another Spanish restaurant at Vivo City.  The turn off, however, would be the prices of some of their tapas and the fact that getting a dinner reservation means more than a week's notice (sometimes).  Nonetheless, there are a few reasons why Catalunya has been voted one of the best restaurants in Singapore by IS Magazine.  If you do have the budget and the time, I'd say give Catalunya a try.

Last Day in Osaka (aka. Day 4)

Alas, every holiday has to come to an end and it is the same with ours.  With slightly heavy hearts, we made it a point to make the most of today and do whatever we can in a day!

First off, we headed to Janjan yokocho which is so-called because the 'Janjan' sounds like the sound made by the shamisen and that area used to be where all the shamisen shops/ training schools used to be.

When we walked out of the station, I couldn't help but take a pic of the Engrish...

What they really meant to state was that this escalator only went up and not down to the station.

We saw this sign at the entrance.  If you understand Japanese, do you get the pun?  It made me go
( -_-;)

Janjan yokocho is now famous for the kushi katsu (fried skewers of food) restaurants and they were all lined up one after another.  How did we choose where to eat our kushi katsu?  Why...by the number of famous people who have eaten at the place!!

Our kushi katsu moriwase

Second round

It seems like anything that can be fried and skewered will be done!  We had prawn, shishamo, asparagus, sausage, mushroom, yam, quail eggs, eggplant...oh gosh...I don't remember what else I ate!  They even had Camembert cheese on the menu...but we resisted.  Everything was delicious and not over fried.  They gave us a plate of raw cabbage and I guess this is to balance the unhealthy fried stuff that was going into our mouths.  There's a bowl of sauce in the middle of the table and you simply dip your kushi into it before eating. NO DOUBLE DIPPING!!

After eating, we walked around and did a bit more shopping! From Janjan yokocho, we could see another icon of Osaka - Tsutenkaku/ Osaka Tower.

I can't believe that there's a shrine that's dedicated to Billiken, which is also surrounded with advertisement and food names.  I'm not sure WHY the Billiken is so famous in Osaka, especially when it's really an American creation.

We met another friendly Osakan in another cosmetic shop where yet again, we got shocked expressions of "you are speaking Japanese but you're not Japanese and don't live in Japan!" again.  She was so cute because she noticed how we were staring at a limited edition collection of Majolica Marjoca products and she told us how to use them and how all of them are so surprised that the stock came in early because they were only meant to come in May.  She was also very shocked at how we were not wearing make-up although we'd be taking photos! Lol...she was telling us how she and most Japanese women would put on even MORE make up during holidays as they will be taking photos.  Only goes to show how lazy I am.

After that fun conversation (and buying 1 limited edition highlighter make up), we went otaku hunting in Denden town.  Siew Mai was having a curry and udon craving so what's better than curry udon for tea? 

Siew Mai's curry udon

 I ordered a beef tsukemen and Siew Mai had to do the pun "Ramen, tsukemen, boku ikemen" constantly to me.  -_-  I shan't bother to explain the pun...those who understand Japanese will probably be laughing their heads off or having the same expression as I did.

After Denden, we went to Ame-mura (American village) where I did more shopping but that's about it.  So...last stop was the Aquarium!!

Asian otters!

Above is the famous whale shark that is kept in the Osaka Aquarium.  It was humongous and although the aquarium holding it was rather large, it kept swimming only in a circle.  Quite sad that it's not free to roam the oceans but yet at the same time, I'm glad to see a whale shark this close.  So...I'm going to bombard you with a few more photos with captions for you to enjoy!

A seal decides to press itself against the glass

King penguin

More HUGE King penguins. I can't imagine the size of the Emperor penguins

Swimming dolphins

Deer Fish in Headlights

Spider crabs that are as huge as my upper body!

White seal is chilling. Brown seal eyes white seal and wants to play!

Sunset over the Osaka Bay

After visiting the aquarium, it was time for a quick dinner before heading off to our hotel for our luggage and then to the airport.  As it was our last meal in Japan, we made it a good one!

 

 

The sashimi was so fresh. The prawn was huge! The nimono above deserves its own photo because of that yellow thing that looks like scrambled eggs.  It's not.  It's fish eggs.  A lot of it! The whole set only cost us JPY 2,600 (SGD 33.80) but we were so full and the freshness was unbeatable.  The tempura was also crispy but yet not oily.  Yum!!

Thus ends our journey in Kansai and I love the Kansai people! They're so loud, friendly and fun-loving.  They may not have as many English speakers as in Tokyo but I think that their friendliness more than makes up for it.  Kyoto, of course, feels a lot more refined than Osaka but I like how everything is still a throwback to tradition while they do integrate modern life.  Ah...I wanna go to Japan again!!