Overcoming the bitter taste of sadness

From the young age of 13, when I started secondary school, I was introduced to the fine arts of pastry, eating them and not making them. I thank Delifrance to the afternoons doing homework with a cup of cappuccino and a flaky, buttery and rich chocolate croissant. Essential elements that combat the stresses of life, my comfort food.

Decades have past, and yet my love affair for pastries and desserts have never gone away, perhaps it’s because they are the only constant bites of sweetness I could ever manage. I guess my post today sounds rather depressing, perhaps because I am. But nothing that sweet silky spoonful of vanilla bean panna cota that Meatworks serves could help overcome. In minutes, a serving is gone. But the lingering taste remains on your tastebuds just like a memory of what something beautiful was. Another dessert I ordered was the tiramisu, a pick me up, that’s what it means in Italian. Just simple ingredients, mascarpone cheese, cocoa, coffee and cake. A melange of sweetness and bitterness balanced to bring a delicate sensation to you. Just like life is, it can be both bitter and sweet, although right now I just really need the sweetness to overwhelm the bitterness. The last dessert I tried was the chocolate trilogy, simply perfect, layers of mouse, cake and dark chocolate ganache served with raspberries. Sounds simple, but in it’s simplicity one tastes the complexity it took to assemble it. And like the complexities of life, things just turn out right sometimes and sometimes they do not, and so we should just have our cake and indulge in that temporary bites of sweetness that comes to us.

Once upon a cold rainy night…ramen came to the rescue

Yesterday, the thunderstorms started early. We were supposed to have salads again for dinner (sad attempt to reduce the amount of rice I consume, but in the first place I eat very little ) but I digress. Anyways like any other night after work and after prayers at the mosque, there’s always an argument of what to eat, where to eat etc.. Since it was so cold yesterday, ramen seemed like the perfect way to warm ourselves up. So we headed to Ramen Ten at Far East Plaza.

I really wanted to try the black pepper duck ramen, but they ran out of it. So we ordered oyster ramen, seafood ramen and beef teriyaki ramen, with side dishes of chawanmushi, deep fried scallops, calamari and agadeshi tofu.

The highlight to any Japanese meal to me has to be chawanmushi. And Ramen Ten, made it so well, so light and flavorful with every scoop. They ran out of the chawanmushi too so we only managed to get two cups of it. The oyster ramen was to die for! The oyster fritters was crispy, and just melts in your mouth with each bite. I think the best way to eat it to soak it in the broth. The broth in itself was so tasty, oishi, I just couldn’t stop myself from finishing the whole bowl. The noodles oh I could just wax lyrical over it, had such a bite and was so springy. The seafood ramen, had so much seafood, you could taste the freshness of the prawns. The teriyaki beef was delish as usual!

One thing that I really wish they’d have are the kind of soft yolked hard boiled eggs that one would get in Japan. I love eggs, and whenever I see those soft egg yolks in pictures i’d just gush but anyways. Yeah would really love if they have those ramen eggs. Mmmmmm we ordered some sushi too, but I was too slow to snap some pictures before it was eaten up. But my favorite sushi has to be their soft shell crab ones oooh so crispy, and spicy all at the same time. Argh now I’m craving for another bowl of oyster ramen!!