Ichiban Sushi

Nikutofu Gozen
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Basically, this is a set meal comprising of fried fish fillet, pork chop with rice, simmering black pepper seasoned beef with toufu and miso soup. With such a spread, I guaranteed that you will never walk out of the restaurant feeling un-full or unsatisfied. To complete the daily fibre requirement, the management has thoughtfully included 2 slices of fruit to go with the set meal you ordered. Price wise, they are not that expensive as they range from $14 - $18. With the amount of food that I am receiving, I couldn't complain anymore. Quality wise, in my opinion, they are decent enough, not really that fantastic, but they are not too bad either. If you want your money worth worth, go for the set meal!

Tori Maru Cheese Wazen
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Comprising of fried soft shell crab, miso soup, fried chicken with cheese, chawanmushi and rice, this set meal is not bad either. However, in my opinion, do not eat the fried chicken direct as the sauce is a bit salty. What I recommend is to dump the rice into the sauce, mix it up and it will be just perfect. For their chawanmushi, I just love them! They are just so tender! When you eat them piping hot, you just could not stop. =)

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Rate: 7/10
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The stars are just so dazzling, shining bright.

Ajisen Ramen

As the name says, this dish is not to be taken for the faint hearted. It is certainly not called volcano ramen for no reason. Although on the menu itself, it is labeled as a 3 chili spiciness dish, but to me, it can easily passed off as a 5/5 scale for its hotness!! It took just 3 spoonful of the hot ramen with its gravy for me to wave the white flag. Hah. Besides the hotness, I find that their set meal promotion (typically around $13 - $15) is also a steal as it provides you with a cool refreshing ice lemon tea, with a ala cart side dish (the fried chicken is my top pick). If you have high endurance for taking spicy stuffs, perhaps, you can challenge yourself with this volcano ramen from Ajisen?

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Rate: 6/10

Monga

Synopsis: Starring the top two male idols in Taiwan, Ethan Ruan (Monk) and Mark Chao (Mosquito), "Monga" tells about the story of five boys from the historical district of Monga in Taipei, who join a gang because they were tired of being bullied around. As the young men enjoy their newfound status as gangsters in Monga, they have no idea that other gangs have also set their eyes on this prosperous area. Under the guidance of a veteran gangster, the youngsters are taught the heritage created by the founders of the borough of Monga. He has no idea, however, of a storm brewing that will soon break every hint of order in town, and remove the last remaining grandeur of the old town Monga.

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Standing at 2 h 22 mins, this movie is quite long for a film, but, if not for the length, the whole movie would not have enough time to develop its plot and characters for a complete story. The street gang massive fights can be quite messy at times, with gangsters just raining blows on each other, giving viewers a feel of what hardcore fighting is (in another word, anyhow wack!). The plot wise was quite typical, with some black sheep betrayal in their own camp, but in the end, justice was served. The director did try to incorporate some humour and twist into the movie, which in my opinion, was quite decent. Overall, I feel the movie was average, just a little draggy at some parts of the film.

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Rate: 6/10

Back

Finally, back to civilisation....

To Serve the Country Ep 5

Now, it has come to the time of the year again. Took out the mouldy bags and boots and off I go to JC 2 for a 2 week training. Goodbye SG...for a while...

Clash of the titans (overated)

Synopsis: Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]
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I personally feel that this movie is over-rated. Having spent so much money on its promotion, naturally, I would have high expectation for this movie. However, as it turns out, it is not as good as I thought. Firstly, the duration of this movie is too short. 106 minutes is all that it can offer? It sure doesn't go well with me. Secondly,

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Graphics

Jake Sully in Avarta was much much better than this. Given its huge promotions over in theaters, it would have expected the effects to be good, but then, to me, it was just average, not even coming close to the transformers.
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Thirdly: The final battle with the Kraken

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ok, the final battle should have been the best, but why is the kraken defeated so fast that it seems easy? The banishing of Hades to hell too. Just with a zap of lightning bolt is enough? Come on, he is HADES, the god of hell, you know. At least don't make him so weak!
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This kind of reminds me of transformers... hah
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Lastly, Zeus, the King of God. All he does he just walk and speak from his shiny armour. Don't he have some great power being the King? All in all, well, if you have the time, you can give this average movie a try. There is one other thing. According to Greeks myths, Perseus is supposed to be married to Andromeda, now now, where does the girl in the final scene comes from....? Hah!

Rate: 6/10

Bishamon

Katsu Don
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I still prefer their ramen, as they tasted better than their dons. In my opinion, their dons are just average, ok to eat, not that impressive, and their servings are a bit smaller than their ramen counterpart. However, I am really impressed by their service standards. No doubt it was their busy period and we have waited like 30 minutes for our meal and it came with a wrong order instruction, they immediately took it away and cooked a new one without any complains. However, I still find the shop space a bit small. Seriously, they should consider expanding.

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Rate: 6/10

4 nights in Beijing

For the 5 days and 4 nights in Beijing, sadly I am not there to enjoy myself, but on a mission to observe an energy cost saving process being done and hopefully bring back some of the knowledge back to Singapore. This is my first time to step into Terminal 3 since it is built. Well, it is not as grand as I thought. =p I am the only soul to depart from Singapore, and will be linking up with one of my colleague from Shanghai. 1 week earlier, Beijing was still under the wrath of the sandstorm. Well, that is some kind of "encouragement" for a start.
After 6.5 hours of flight time, finally, I landed in Beijing Terminal 3. The weather there is like so freezing cold? What was that? 8C outside? ok, time to wear 3 layers of clothing!

Well, almost all the trees in Beijing are barren as I supposed it is still considered winter there. For the evergreen trees, they are all baked in a layer of yellow sand, courtesy of the sandstorm 1 week earlier.

For the food wise, they are very different from Singapore. The have quite a lot of cold dishes and most of them are either salty or 麻辣 in nature. Vegetables are few, so most of the dishes are either meat or 豆腐 based. They also like to use 麻椒 in their dishes. It kind of tasted like pepper, but instead of spicy, it numbs your tongue.

This is a snapshot of the interior decoration of the hotel I am staying at on 1 of the night. Impressive isn't it?

Welcome to Beijing! PSI: 100? On 4 of the 5 days I am in Beijing, I am facing this kind of air. Well done!

My schedule was pretty tight, but I still managed to squeeze out about 3 hours on the last night to go sight seeing. Well, this is 王府井, supposedly to be famous for their good food.

If you are in Beijing and have not eaten their roast duck, it will be a wasted trip. Well we visited one of the more famous shop called 全聚德. Well, the roast duck are pretty oily and I got quite sick of it after a while. But the interesting part is that every roast duck that you ordered comes with a.....

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Quality Assurance certificate!

The famous 天安门

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And bon Voyage. I am flying home. Next time, I shall visit the great wall of China!

Le Concert

Synopsis:During the Brezhnev era, Andrei Filipov was the greatest conductor in the Soviet Union and he directed the famous Bolshoi Orchestra. But after refusing to abandon his Jewish musicians, including his best friend Sacha, he was fired at the height of his glory. Thirty years later, he is still working at the Bolshoi, but... as a cleaner. One evening, when Andrei has stayed late to the polish the director's desk, he comes across a fax addressed to the Bolshoi management: it is an invitation from the Thtre du Chtelet in Paris for the orchestra to come and perform there. Suddenly, Andrei has a crazy idea: why not bring together his old musician friends, who now get by doing menial work, and take them to Paris, passing them off as the Bolshoi Orchestra? [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]
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I personally find that the plot of the storyline was average, where it narrate a fake orchestra tried to pass off as the Bolshoi Orchestra to go to Paris to perform. On the way, members disappeared to seek their own life in order to escape from the poverty back in Russia. However, the piece "Tchaikovsky" at the end of the show was really good and emotional that it more than make up for any errors in the shows. All the cast also played their roles very convincing and well. With such a great music and talented cast, this concert should not be missed.

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Rate: 7.5/10