Watami Japanese Restaurant, Aerins

My first day in Chagggh began at 7am with a series of lects of the usual welcome note and admin blahh and a whole morning of trying not to zz in front of important peeps but was largely unsuccessful - the only great thing was the breakfast/morning tea/lunch and off andrew and i to the wards, skippin the com training.... i found an active meyk clerking, then the mos and reg also seeing more, while trying to insert myself somewhere, does suck being on the first day being super disorientated. We exited at cso but not long after there was the res briefin (whatever hrs u clock is ur daiji, just dont get ppl into trouble-noted), and the hilarious takopachi briefing. Its never your fault when something goes wrong. no wonder the blame culture so prevalent.

It was a rainy evening when I took the ECP ride down to Cityhall. I love the drive down ECP, super therapeutic and nearing the city there's always the gorgeous view of the flyer and down town. Gosh it does reignites my dream of working in the cbd.

Reaching Raffles City, I met the mountains at Watami Japanese Restaurant (Basement 1, Raffles City), right next to DinTaiFeng. Honestly, I'm getting quite lost in the new F&B outlets at Raffles City...loads more on the linkway to Esplanade. When I reached the nice little cove of ours, E and Qian were trying to decide on ordering the sets vs ala carte. In the end we decided to order loads of ala carte to share.

Before the food came, really enjoyed the pictures on E's iphone (really good quality ones!) during her time in the states. Got to find out all the stuff going on in her life in the past months. A really great change for her, and really happy for her. I feel stagnant in comparison!! Except for the great Italy trip lol ;) Hope the babes like the gifts ! And the long awaiting present from Kyoto for E too!

Broccoli, Fish Roe gratin. Cheesiness max, with mini chunks of potatoes.

Cheese and Rice cake okinomiyaki. This reminds me loads of the takopachi Mei and I had in the Kyoto airport when we flew off. Its really dense and chewy from the mochi within, makes this an interesting eat.

Beef Sukiyaki - the soup became really salty from the beef that kinda became overcooked (we had to change the cylinder for the fire and turned it full blast for too long) - but loved the QQ ness of the udon that we added in.

Mackerel - Salty fish which I ended up eating the head part which was mighty delicious.

Sushi Platter- Salmon, Eel, Tuna. I liked the way this was done. The salmon belly was melt in your mouth, and so was the tuna. We had two each, so didn't try the eel.

We browsed round for desserts and ended up in Aerins (Basement 1, Raffles City) - partly cos E said she heard desserts are good here, plus the ambience was nice. Sure it was, we were sitting right next to the fountain. And next to another ang moh family playing cards lol.

We ordered 3 desserts to try and the first 2 filled up the waiting time for the 3rd abomination. This was the carrot cake macademia cake, that was really 'wet' in e's words. Moist it was, with loads of nuts within, and really sour cheese filling in top. Qian and E both are carrot cake fans.

Almond cake - where the almond was, is anyone's guess. Our favourite is the ice cream though, it had bits of crisp (?nuts) within. E really liked the poached pears, but I like the cake itself. Its like a white version of the sticky date pudding kinda cake. Same density and sweetness.

Apple pie - its like a puff pastry atop the apple chunks and icecream within. It reminds me of the old TGIF onion soup which comes like this too. Makes it really interesting to eat, I'll peel off the puff layer and dip it into the apple chunks/sauce and vanilla icecream within. It was scorching within beware. This takes 20 min to prepare and is a real abomination. Its as big as my palm (and I've got big hands cos I'm a big girl).

We walked E to Fairmont to wait for her dad - gonna miss the babe loads. Loved the pictures on her iphone and how she's still the same old her despite living it all out overseas. Everyone seemes to move on - its a new year, stil apprehensive on the change it'll bring - doesnt the mood become more sombre now that all the festivities have come and gone?