The Pizzazzy

We had this amazing food experience in Sakae Teppanyaki. Since a long time I had been telling Anand about this place. Now that Anand is leaving for India, we thought we should hit all the places we want to try out.

So on Friday, we went to Tampines the Century Square plaza basement. The Sakae Teppanyaki is located right at the base of the escalator. As we were going down the escalator the aroma of grilled chicken and meat enveloped us. Anand who wasn’t having any idea of why I was being so fastidious about eating here was soon too eager to try out the food.

Within five minutes we were seated around a table with a chef busy cooking on the griddle at the centre of the table. There was another couple enjoying their meal. We also ordered for set chicken meal. The set meal comes with Miso soup, tofu steak, oyster, salmon, chicken, mixed mushroom and rice only for $17.50.

Once the chef started working on our meal, cooking the raw items on the griddle with garlic and soya sauce and butter, and one by one serving the dishes to us, we were more and more fascinated with the whole experience. Although the food was simply one of the best I have eaten in Singapore so far, more than the food, watching the chef skillfully maneuvering the food was the main attraction. The main highlight was what our fellow diners had ordered, “Chawanmushi” which is egg steamed with shrimp in an onion cup.

Sorry about not taking any pictures and providing you some food for imagination. But promise to be back with them in some other post soon.

Meanwhile you can enjoy this seven minutes clip that I found on youTube which is more than food for imagination… it’s the food itself.

Monday is fruit day in office. The break out area has two fruits of the season placed strategically so that anyone visiting there for coffee or tea will notice the fruits. And everyone ends up picking up a fruit or two. Today with the bananas, a permanent item making its appearance every week there were these small berries, light green, slightly yellowish and slightly reddish also. They looked like ber, an Indian drupe.

I had a look and thought wow.. for a long time I have not tasted ber. I took some of these so called ber and came to my desk. My colleague who shares the cube with me told me they were ju ju’s. I thought it sounded funny but took a bite from one. It tasted bland, but there was a faintly spicy, kind of sweet smell about it. Something similar to Cinnamon.

The fruit is like apple or ber to bite at but of the same size as ber. That also reminds me of the pickled ber, which we get in Manipur. We call it boroi there. I make it a point to ask for it from anyone visiting from Manipur.

Now this fruit I was telling you about, I did not like the taste so much first but the second one I tasted was better, more sweetish and juicy. Then I was really interested in finding more about this fruit I was enjoying while trying to keep work at bay on a Monday morning.

I first checked juju on wiki, it took me to something completely out of context. Then I tried all possible combinations of ju ju, fruit, date and singapore. Finally I read in one article a description of something similar to the small dates I was having and referred to as jujube.

So, I chucked the article and went to Wiki with this new name and read all about jujube pronounced jujubee. After a long time I have tried some new fruit and liked it. Jujube, red date or chinese date is so unlike ber except for the looks in taste and texture of the fruit and unlike ber, which causes soar throat this one cures soar throat. Will be buying this fruit next time I visit fair price.

The most popular drink next to water is Tea. Very common in India, China and Japan tea is also very popular in Britain and America and several other western countries. You would rarely find an Indian who does not begin the day without a hot cuppa.

Tea has a beautiful history. As per Chinese legend Emperor Shen Nung who was also known as divine healer, tasted the water boiled with some wild leaves fallen accidently from a nearby tree. He liked the taste so much that he started using tea leaves thereafter. And it was the Boston Tea Party that led to American Independence. 

I was not a great tea lover and am one of the rare people who can go without tea for days on end. But my husband is a tea fan. His days cannot begin without tea and every few hours he loves to take a hot cuppa. Even at 12 O’Clock in the night he can ask for tea. I have become a tea consumer only after meeting my husband some 8 years back, now if I think back our love story began over the daily tea that we used to have in our college canteen.

My new found taste now a days is green tea. I remember the first time I tasted this version of such a popular Indian brew in Japan. During a meeting we were served green tea, I just couldn’t get it down my throat. I found it terrible. Basically because it was so bland. For me till that point of time tea meant our normal indian tea with milk and sugar or my favorite  iced lemon tea, the gift of Americans, which I really love a lot or the black tea with a little lime juice. Shockingly green tea turned out to be a plain clear green color bland hot water with no taste.

Green tea is an acquired taste, you need to develop the taste for it like sushi or sashami. And I have started loving it. It was simply because I decided one fine day to start drinking more water thanks to my beautician (yes from the New York Skin Solution) who clearly told me my skin needed more hydrating. And going a step further I thought instead of having plain cold water let me take warm water. I started taking around 3-4 glasses of warm water daily. And another fine day I got bored of that too. Yes, I can go on for days without actually having a glass of plain water. I did have juices, coffee, tea, lemon tea or simply coconut water.

Since I was bored of water and still wanted the hydrating effect of water, I thought I can try green tea and I would be consuming water and on the other hand the health benefits of green tea will be really helpful. Then it all started. First I was taking one cup daily and slowly started taking around 2-3 cups a day. Now its become a routine to take green tea in office every few hours especially after lunch. Moreover its so easy to prepare, just take boiling water in a cup and stir in a green tea bag, leave for 1-2 minutes and sip the faintly fragrant, pale green brew.

It helps me digest my lunch and makes my stomach feel lighter, it cleanses and detoxicates my system and I simply feel more healthy now. So, if you are health concious then replace your usual intake of water with green tea. Without any sugar in it this makes the ultimate health drink.

To learn more about Green tea and its health benefits visit http://www.greentea.com