Bluefin Tuna Cutting Ceremony 010614

I was really glad that I got invited to attend this great event organized by Itacho Sushi Singapore! It was a cutting ceremony and a tasting session of a 100kg wild Bluefin Tuna, worth approximately S$35,000 at Tsukiji Festival in Japan on 5th January, as one of the top 10 bids during the festival!

This event was held at J Cube, Jurong East!

Chefs from Itacho Sushi getting ready on the stage with the unrevealed Wild Bluefin Tuna flown in from Japan that morning!

Photo taking by official photographers of the event with the pretty ladies who were giving out brochures and vouchers to all who attended the event!

The event started at exactly 12.30pm with a stunning Japanese Taiko Drum Performance by School of Daiko Singapore!

Finally, the 100kg Wild Bluefin Tuna, which cost approximately S$35,000, has been revealed! The huge body of the Bluefin Tuna is really scary! It was my first time seeing such a huge fish! >.<

And... ... The cutting ceremony starts! The head chef started the ceremony by sawing the head of the Bluefin Tuna out! Yes! He sawed the head out!!!

AND THE HEAD IS OUT!!! Look at that!!!

And now, the actions of cutting the Tuna into slabs of the different portions of the body! This will really test the skills of the chef cutting!

Look at that fresh Tuna flesh, judging from the redness of the meat! *Gulp*

While the chefs were busy cutting up the Tuna body, the helper slotted the cut-out tail into the mouth of the Tuna head! I assume the Japanese does this as decorations? Hahaha! And below, is the beautiful host for the Wild Bluefin Tuna Cutting Ceremony!

The deboning action of the Tuna is now being done~

AND LOOK AT THAT HUGE SKELETON OF THE 100KG BLUEFIN TUNA!!!

Of course! After the cutting ceremony of the huge Bluefin Tuna, flown in from Japan's Tsukiji Festival, there were 100pcs of the Bluefin Tuna sushi given out to all who came down for the event! 

The Bluefin Tuna is so fresh that you cant taste any fishy-ness when you bite it! It is a lot sweeter than normal Tuna sashimi that you get to taste in Japanese Restaurants! It is soft and tender and so sweet that I would love multiple servings of the sashimi! >.< 

Too bad I did not get my second chance of tasting it :(

The high price for the Bluefin Tuna and the huge size of it might be because of the diminishing quantity of the wild Bluefin Tuna found in the Ocean. The Bluefin Tuna is currently in danger of facing extinction. It is rather saddening to know that human beings caused this situation. Well, maybe because of it being endangered, the price of the caught fish is being priced so high and that they may have a standard to the size of the fish that are allowed to be fished to prevent the extinction. Hopefully we do not cause the extinction of the Bluefin Tuna!

Nevertheless, Thank You Itacho Sushi Singapore for inviting me to such a great event! I enjoyed watching the performance, the Cutting Ceremony as well as the tasting of the pricey Bluefin Tuna Sashimi!

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Cups N Canvas

Sorry to all my readers that I have not been updating regularly on my blog. Hopefully I didn't lose any one of you. Hahaha!

Currently, I am trying to backdate some of the events/places that I have been to for the past few months. Really couldn't find time to type out my posts due to my heavy school work. So... ... Here's one! A visit to a cafe along Selegie Road, Cups N Canvas!

To be honest, it has been a few months back when we met up and visited this place, and I could not really recall the exact taste for the dishes that we ordered >.< I'm very sorry! :(

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As mentioned, Cups N Canvas is situated along Selegie Road of Singapore. If you are familiar with where Selegie Beancurd is, it is just less than 5 minutes walk from there. Well, if you are not quite sure where it is, here's how we went!

First, you can take a train and alight at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. There are 3 buses that takes you to Cups N Canvas from MacDonald House, which is situated just beside Plaza Singapore. Bus services 64, 65 and 139 will bring you to Selegie Centre. Alight in front of Selegie Centre bus-stop, turn to your left and walk straight for less than 200m. You will walk past a few Indian Tailor shops on your right. When you reach Cups N Canvas, you will see a shop with full glass panels! Alternatively, you can choose to walk from Plaza Singapura, walking towards Hotel Rendezvous, turn left after SOTA, School Of The Arts, and continue walking straight until you reach the place :) Simple!

This is how the outside of the cafe look like! Pretty yar? ^^

When we were there, it was during the Christmas season, so they came out with a All Day Christmas Menu! I'm sorry for this late post that you couldn't visit this awesome place for Christmas meal :(

However, if you are working around the vicinity or you would like to have some cheaper Cafe Weekday Lunch specials, you can visit the for their Weekday Lunch Menu! Only from 11.30am to 2.30pm! :)

When you first step into the cafe, you get a really olden Chinese kind of feeling! Olden Chinese Signboard, that are normally hung on the top of the entrance of Chinese shops, antique feeling furnitures, and some old shophouses decorations that you see on your left when you enter. Feels like you have gone 30 to 40 years back in time! Just that you have air-conditioning system installed! Hahaha! They even had a special Christmas tree made from wire mesh decorated by little drawings by their customers!

An overview of the main hall of the cafe when you enter from the left of the picture! ^^

Some really cute and old school paintings hung up on the wall of the cafe!

As the name of the cafe, Cups N Canvas, suggests that this place is great for a cup of coffee or drink to chill and relax, as well as drawing on canvases, thus the drawing section of the cafe! They allow their customers to do their artworks within the cafe and display them! You can choose to sit down here to do some simple drawings or drown yourself in an artsy environment while having your food and drinks here! 

A really relaxing section for you to appreciate art pieces! Look at how cute the cat drawing is! ^^

And because it was during the Christmas season, they came out with some deals for Christmas menu and Drinks Happy Hour, written by chalk on their chalkboard! Brings back to your schooling days right? :)

 The menu of Cups N Canvas! They have a wide variety of interesting beverages that they offer in the cafe! ^^The food served in the cafe looks yummy from the ingredients they used in the dishes too! Wow! Im hungry again! >.<

The pastry cabinet is situated right next to the cashier, where you can order your drinks and mains, look at the delicious cakes and you definitely wont be able to resist them and order them too! You can choose to have them served later so you wont have to separate your orders :) The boss of the cafe is a really friendly man! We had a fun time chatting with him while we were still deciding on what to order! He recommended us some of the hot selling dishes too!

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Iced Tea - Cucumber Mint

My friend ordered an Iced Tea, Cucumber Mint flavored. Read wrongly? Nope, you didn't! It is Cucumber Mint flavored! This drink is a really difficult one to describe as it seemed quite confusing but a really special one to try! Of course, the fresh Mint in the Iced Tea gives a refreshing taste to the drink, but the cucumber amazingly gave a faint fragrance to the drink! You might think that it is weird to add cucumber into your beverage, but this drink really surprised me when I had the first sip! Try it to believe it! ;)

Latte/Roasted Almond Latte

Two of my friends actually ordered a Latte and a Roasted Almond Latte. I took a picture only because both looked really similar, other than the tone of the brown of the drink. Hahaha! Really pretty latte art done by the Barista!

Sweet Potato Latte

I have seen reviews on this cute drink from Cups N Canvas and heard of this drink available in Korea. So I decided to give it a try since I have been really curious of how it actually tastes like!

Do not be fooled by the name, Sweet Potato Latte. Nope, there really is fresh purple sweet potato used in the making of this drink, just that it does not contain any coffee in this drink! The boss of the cafe actually warned me about this when I placed my order that this drink does not contain coffee :)

This drink is mainly made of purple sweet potato and fresh milk or full cream milk. It has the natural sweetness of the sweet potato used, but its not too sweet. The drink itself is generally smooth, but there are bits of the sweet potato sinked to the bottom of the cup. I felt that the sweet potato wasn't too cooked to be made into a drink as I could still chew on the bits and it wasn't smooth like blended drinks or smoothie. Maybe they did it to allow their customers to experience a different texture? Give it a try if you prefer special drinks, rather than normal Latte or Cappuccino!

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Now going to the main dishes and desserts that we ordered for our meal! ^^

B Burger

I had this all to myself! Muahahaha! From the name, it is a Beef Burger which comes with Beef Patty, Cheese, Sunny egg, X'mas salad and Wedges! 

The beef patty itself is not overcooked. It is tender and still have some of its juice sealed within the patty. The runny yolk of the sunny egg gave the burger an even better sensation when you bite the burger as a whole! The wedges, same as those you can get frozen from supermarkets, but the X'mas salad tasted quite special!. The dressing tasted like balsamic vinegar, and there were some maroon-colored bits that were found in the salad! Its not the cherries, but I couldn't tell what it actually was. It actually made the salad a little sweet as a whole, giving it another taste other than being sour :) A very filling main dish for a big tummy of mine ^^ 

Merry Breakfast

I swear, the moment this breakfast came to our table, all of us got all happy and excited! Look at the presentation of the dish! There's soooooo many things on the long plate! It is really a good choice to use the long plate to display everything of the breakfast, rather than cramping everything onto a normal round plate!

As you can see, there is 1 slice of whole-grained bread, 2 sunny-side ups, roasted potatoes topped with 2 slices of Christmas Ham and a huge pork sausage, sautéed mushrooms and grilled cherry tomatoes, as well as X'mas salad! This breakfast can definitely feed more than 1 person! My friend was sharing with us the breakfast! Really fragrant pork sausage and Christmas Ham, which were not very salty, along with the favorites for breakfast! What else can you ask for in a breakfast like this!

Blanc Turkey

Linguine cooked in cream and wine, with garlic, mushroom and turkey-ham! It tasted quite alright, nothing really special, but it is quite fragrant due to the garlic used in this dish! But, the cream base tasted a little too thick for me. Give it a try if you are a pasta lover! ^^

French Apple Pie?

Im terribly sorry that I couldn't find the full name of this dessert. All I could find was a "French Apple w" printed on the receipt. And from the blurred part from my picture of the pastry cabinet, it looked like "French Apple Pie". Hahaha!

Afraid that a dessert will taste too sweet for you? You can ask to have it with a scoop of ice cream! This desert tasted just like an Apple Pie, with the fragrance of cinnamon, but this Apple Pie isn't all too gravy-ish.  (Maybe that is the only type of Apple Pie I have tried?) The vanilla ice cream balances the sweetness really well, and the pie itself isn't very sweet to start off with. the sauce on the side tasted like peach sauce, which compliments really well with the Apple Pie! It makes the dessert a little sweeter with a fragrance of peach! Great combination for a dessert after your meal! ^^

Choc Truffle Cake

Last but not least, how can you leave out Chocolate cake from your order when you visit a cafe? Everybody loves chocolates, right? Hahaha! This Chocolate Truffle Cake is a really dense slice of cake! If you love bitter chocolate or chocolate cakes that are not really sweet, you will definitely fall in love with this! 

The chocolate cream of the cake is really thick and rich! Every mouthful of the cake gives a very rich flavor! It felt like I was floating when I took my first bite of it! No joke! Thats how wonderful this cake tastes! This is the best and densest chocolate cake I have ever had! 

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A really great experience we had at the cafe, with friendly staffs serving us, an artsy feel around the cafe and a comfortable environment to dine in! That day we reached the cafe around 4pm, and the cafe had to close of a private Art event at around 5pm, so we did not have too much time to chill and enjoy our food! And because of the early closing time on that day, the kitchen staffs actually sped up cooking our food to allow us to have more time to enjoy our food! It's really a sweet action of them! Thumbs up! ^^

Just for your info if you are planning to give this awesome place a visit, here are some of their informations:

Address: 139 Selegie Road, Singapore 188309

Telephone Number: +65-6884 6855

Opening Hours: Monday - Closed

                           Tuesday to Thursday - 10.30am to 10.00pm

                           Friday and Saturday - 10.30am to 11.00pm

                           Sunday - 10.00am to 8pm

If you are worried that you are not able to get a seat in the cafe during peak hours, feel free to give them a call to have a table reserved for you! Enjoy and immerse yourself in the artistic culture when you are there! 

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Hungry Chimps @ Selegie Road

A while back, my friends and I were studying at SMU and we decided to give Hungry Chimps (64A Prinsep Street #02-01, 188667) a visit to fill our hungry tummies in the evening! It is situated along the same row of shophouses as the famous Strictly Pancakes (if you know where it is =D)

Climbing up the flight of staircase beside Play Nation, which is just below Hungry Chimps, made us even hungrier! I was shocked when I entered the cafe. It was really well decorated, with their signature 'monkey' drawings, which is affiliated to Play Nation, and it is ready to receive Christmas with a little Christmas tree and some presents below it! But the whole cafe was very quiet and empty. 

How did I get to know about this place? One day, I was searching on the internet to compile a list of good cafes to visit in Singapore, and Hungry Chimps was one of the well received cafes I had found. And thus, I expected the place to be rather packed on a Wednesday evening! To my surprise, there were only 2 tables that were taken! Well, maybe I came on a Non-peak day?

Walking and looking around (actually the place is pretty small), the place is really colourful and really pretty! Definitely a place that will make you feel happy looking around! The nicely decorated chalk bard filled with their menu items, and colourful pictures of the Chimps (Well, this place is called Hungry Chimps!) and PlayNation mascot! I would say the place really cheered me up quite a bit after a tiring day of studying and writing of reports!

Pretty place, quiet environment, how can I miss out on ordering something to fill up my tummy? Flipping through the menu, my friends decided not to order any main course for themselves as they find it quite expensive for them. So we decided to get a side dish to be shared among ourselves, and I order a Main dish for myself since I wanted to try the food here!

And this is how their menu looks like! Hahahah! Okay, that's not really the main point. Back to ordering our food! That night, I was super hungry! Maybe it was due to the studying and stuff, and I always want to try the breakfast that the cafes offer whenever possible... And the King Kong Breakfast caught my eyes!

"Triple Stacked Pancakes, Quater Pounder Patty, Sautéed Mushroom, Bacon Strips & Truffle Fries. Served with Hollandaise Sauce & Vinaigrette Greens."

Wow! Sounds like a big serving for me to fill up my extremely hungry tummy! No doubt, I ordered that! ^^ And its a Chef's Recommendation! Hopefully this breakfast will surprise me!

 And for the side dish, my friends decided on their Chimps Specialty Calamari Rings! Which is also a Chef's Recommendation! "Prepared with Fresh Squid, Deep Fried in Unique Hungry Chimps Recipe"

With 2 Chef's Recommendations, my dinner should be rather satisfying for me! ^^

First up! The Chimps Specialty Calamari Rings was served first! First look at it, hmmmm~~~ Looks really crispy and nice!

From the looks of it, the Calamari Rings seems to have some herbs added to its batter before frying it. Expectation was that it should be quite fragrance since the herbs can be seen from the outside.

No doubt, the crispiness is there, as it was freshly fried and served while its hot. First impression, GOOD! Now, trying of the taste. Really tender texture as the squid is really fresh. But, I would say it disappointed me as the Calamari Ring tasted... ... tasteless. The batter, although the herbs or seasoning can be seen from the outside, it tasted really bland and tasteless. I had to dip it with Tartar Sauce to make it tastier rather than chewing on pieces of plain Calamari ring.

Well, one point that I compliment on is that they are not oily at all! Well done on controlling the oiliness of it!

Next up! My Main Course! KING KONG BREAKFAST! Looks big? Its really hugeeeee~~~~ Checking back with the Menu, I do not see any Hollandaise Sauce being served, but I received a small portion of BBQ sauce (I suppose its for the Quarter Pounder Patty?) and a little cup of Maple syrup.

I have always been curious about the taste of Truffle Fries as there are a lot of people love it. And of course, the first thing I tried was the Truffle Fries! Without knowing what to expect, I got shocked by the strong taste! Maybe Im not too much of a Truffle oil fan? 

Moving on, I went straight to try the Quarter Pounder Patty! First knife down, I experienced difficulty cutting it. Its a rather tough for a piece of beef patty. The taste? It tasted rather normal with slight pepper taste and not too much of seasoning that I can taste.

The bacon strips that came along with it was rather saltish, and the Sautéed Mushroom tasted fresh and the saltiness is just right. Pancake and salad, well, they are pretty normal, thus nothing much to comment on.

Overall, I did not really enjoyed my dinner there at the Cafe. My expectation for the food was not met by what was being served to me. Given the price of the food, and the quality of the taste, I will not be visiting this place again. Normal tasting food, not fantastic at all, a relatively pricey place to visit. 

Nonetheless, this post is written according to my tastebuds. Do visit the place if you are interested! 

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