Chako Restaurant

(This way overdue post was stuck in draft for a while and then forgotten.. )

Sherm and I celebrated our Xth anniversary (of her return from Japan) at Chako Restaurant @ Hong Leong Garden (off West Coast Way/AYE). It is a small home-style restaurant of only 4 tables and a long counter. I found the place after referring to ieatishootipost, but what a find it was!

The restaurant itself is in the middle of the walk-up apartments with shophouses on the ground floor. It took us a good 5 mins walk to locate it, thankfully we got some helpful instructions from the proprietress' daughter. After sliding open the door and stepping in, we were immediately transported to Japan again - the smell of the place reminded us of our favourite eateries in Waseda, including the shelves of manga right beside where we were seated!

We took quite a while to order simply cos there was so many choice dishes to decide on! Eventually, Shermaine went for the Beef Katsu Ju (a twist on the usual oyako/katsu type dish using tender thin-sliced beef in the batter) and I went for the Chako set (to get a sample of their menu since I couldn't quite decide on what to pick).

This is when patience is required of the clientele. Or you may choose to peruse the manga comics at the cashier counter. Sherm picked a foodie manga (yes they draw food and wax lyrical about the different food featured within!), and I read my first Fist of the North Star manga! Wow its violent!

We also ordered a starter dish which came some minutes after, and that helped keep away the hunger pangs.

The food takes a while in coming because the proprietress cooks everything from scratch, including the sauces! So you can be assured of a no-MSG meal, and everything as though it were home-cooked.

All I'll say is that the wait only enhanced the taste of the food, for when our food arrived, we tucked in ravenously and enjoyed everything down to the last rice grain! The proprietress even came out to chat with us when we were almost done. A nice Japanese lady who's settled in Singapore for some time, though she still does frequent visits back to Japan.

Sherm and I were so stuffed by the time we finished that we couldn't order the home-made desserts. We made promises to return again, and we shall.


Another review of Chako from Singapura Daily Makan.

Address:
134 West Coast Way
Hong Leong Garden Shopping Centre

Tel: 6776 3919

Night Safari with DKYMKY

Dky taking Mky out to Night Safari on 30 Jun! We took many pictures, but due to the lack of lighting and flash prohibition, many of the pics didn't turn out well. So here's a few that look somewhat ok.







Not sure if it was due to our recent trip to the Zoo (daytime version), but the Night Safari wasn't quite as magical as I had thought it would be. Last time I came, I escorted some Japanese tourists, Kendo friends of my sensei I think. Anyway, Sherm and I still had lots of fun seeing the animals and taking pics. Some highlights include seeing the Lion den suddenly come to life when one of the males starting roaring at a passing tram. Sherm really enjoyed taking pics of one of the leopards that was taking a siesta by the viewing gallery; I think she took about 50 shots of the lounging cat! The Creatures of the Night Show was actually pretty good - they incorporated an element of reality in their audience participation and got some people jumping out of their seats!

There was a report on 938Live last night about the audacious budget-related oversights from several ministries and public sector groups (ie. MoE, Spring). The Auditor General had pointed out where several millions could be saved had for example, XX ministry not informed a bidder that they would get the job 8 days before the results came out. Another example was how one of the ITEs spent a million or so converting some classrooms into a foreign student dormitory, but apparently did not conduct proper research beforehand, as it only has an occupancy rate of 28%.

Strangely, I couldn't find anything about it online today. Hmm.. Either my Googling sucks, or government agencies are really good at masking their traces online. It is however in the Straits Times today, and I expect there should be some public backlash over this.

Anyway, I'm quite appalled that the public sector is so lax in their dealings with the private sector, or just their budgetary control. Apparently the AG pointed out that some agencies preferred to save on paperwork by going with vendors that they have used previously even though they may not offer the best rate. Chalk it up to us having a "rich" government? Go us.

Chinese in Space

Reading this article on the 1st Chinese woman in space led to to marvel at the names used by the Chinese team.

1) Taikonaut - the chinese name for astronaut. Probably derived from 太空 tai4 kong1, ie. 'space' in mandarin.

2) Chang'e-1 - a probe that was launched in 2007 as the first stage of China's lunar programme. Named after the legendary Chang'e (嫦娥), the lady on the moon.

Lovely =)