Dosukoi Sakaba - Little Izakaya at Cuppage Plaza Basement

Cuppage Plaza, with its clean yet seedy at night, with all those foreign talent standing along the railings giving "free shows" with their "ahem" on weekdays when business is drier, offers a unique slice of expatriate life in Singapore. With its drab exterior, it is uncompromisingly Japanese in flavor on the inside, with lots of little karaoke bars, izakayas and restaurants. One time as teenagers, we were walking along the corridors, one of my friends ducked his head into one bar on a dare, to see a row of sexy ladies in very short office wear (it was "OL" night). The guys solemnly promised to go there when we grew up, but till date, no one has ever done it, though we had our fill of ogling the bored looking women as they chatted idly or looked into their iphones outside the bars.

They had sumo wrestler chopstick rests!

Then another time, a Japanese salaryman at the next table taught the two of us how to get rid of a soy sauce stain on his tie at Kushigin. He demonstrated to us, by asking for a bit of rice from the waitress, then pressing one rice grain gingerly on the spot onto his tie. Banzai!

It being still B1's birthday, we were trying to figure out what to eat in the evening, and had somehow ended up walking the connection between Bugis Junction and Illuma for like 5 times back and fro. At first we thought we would stay at the Bugis area because B1 was unlucky enough to get "summoned" (fined for parking beyond the stipulated time on the coupons). But we seriously could not think of what to eat. Then B1 said why not the Izakaya Nijumaru which we always go? 

We ate there often enough that the aunties recognize us and we order without looking at the menu. Always niku jaga for me and ika natto for him as sides! I thought about it... how about the izakaya at the basement? A few weeks ago, I wanted to bring him to the izakaya at the corner of the basement which A and I went once. We sat at the counter even though we had the option of sitting at the room on the side. Wanted to experience the Japanese salaryman counter experience, even though she and I know not a single word of Japanese between us. 

It was pretty nice, and the mama-san wore a humongous diamond on her wedding finger, as she waxed lyrically with the cluster of Japanese salarymen around the counter who turned out to be strangers who became friends with each other. 

But that time when we walked in, there was no seat left in the izakaya, not even at the counter and the mama-san was replaced by a younger, friendly guy. So I thought, why not go there and try our luck today? So while B1 was parking the car, I went into the gastropub and was asked to wait 5 minutes while an earlier party departed.

Seated where I was (at the corner of the bar), I couldn't really see what were the dishes on the counter. Usually this izakaya will have a few dishes on the countertop for you to choose from, and then they will reheat them for consumption. Or you could order from the menu. That day they had hijiki, tofu and some seafood dish (I forgot what it was), according to the pretty Japanese waitress.

tofu

So we ordered the tofu, ika natto, katsu curry and tonkatsu bento. They reheated the tofu, and I had to admit it was a bit like Atashi ni chi Mama of me to try to guess what its flavor reminded me of (there was one episode where she was invited to an upscale french restaurant and proclaimed that truffle reminded her of natto to her snobbish friend's mollification). Anyway the tofu tasted like canned fried bamboo shoots.

The tonkatsu was awfully tiny and dry, complained B1, who frankly tells me he thought the food sucked. I was ok with the curry since it is the kind that comes from the packet, so it couldn't go wrong, but I really liked the ika natto (and B1's potato salad). It was the first time where we ever had an ika natto dish where the ika quantity was more than the natto (haha).

The rice bowl is bigger than the meat!!!!

We had more fun with the drinks. My green tea came in a very artifically bright green, while B1 drank sake. However we later got the Hoppy Bier (we were intrigued by the name). Hoppy gets its hops from Germany (proclaimed its bottle) but was alcohol-frei, which made B1 cringe. The guy explained that they serve it with two fingers of sochu, which makes it about 4.5% in alcholic content.  When you finish the glass, he says, we can top up the sochu again (S$4) for the remaining bier.

Forget it. We drank the remainder sochu-less.

The bill came to about S$90plus with the drinks. I guess we were paying for the experience to sit at the counter, though we two perverts had our fun staring at the pretty waitress out of the corner of our eyes.

How I ended up eating > 5 eggs in 1 day

I have to admit I can be a real tight pussy over spending $, whereas B1 is no-holds-barred on his wallet when it comes to buying electronic gadgets for himself. Too bad that generosity is not spilled over to me. The man is pretty calculating when it comes to mutual expenditure nowadays. He is so alike my father in so many ways, and yet this is one bloody quality he does not share with Vater.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to get for his birthday. So I hypocritically bought him some dry Sake from Nipponya (a Japanese speciality store in ION). I say hypocritically because I am always on him about his alcohol consumption. But it is a special occasion so hmm...

The deal about the eggs was that we had fried eggs for breakfast that morning. 2 apiece, then I had yong tau foo in the afternoon, I thought, hey, nothing wrong with 1 more egg, so dumped one into my bowl... then at night, when I popped home to grab B1's birthday presents (I also got him a jacket, and a "I am a real boy" Pinochino tee which he absolutely hates *delighted*), Vater asked "you ate already?"

He continued, that Mutter had called earlier to tell him she was going to be late back coming home from Bruder's. So he only had the curry which he had already started making hours ago. He told me to sit down while he dished me up a plate. I thought why not, I was intending to get dinner at Orchard road. Since he hadn't cooked the rest of the dishes yet, Vater fell back on our favorite side dish.

I was like shit... when I saw the curry came topped with 2 fried eggs. In my household, where all 4 of us can cook, the biggest insult you could deal to the cook of the day would be to open a can (always sardines, not sure why) as a side dish. That's  how I developed a hatred for sardines, since I get "sardined" the most often in the family. On the other hand, I like to "sardine" my parents by frying two eggs. I am the biggest egg consumer in the family.

But I would have been very happy to eat sardines that day.

I wonder how many eggs went into this cake?!

Gulping down the eggs, I gathered B1's present then headed home to wipe down the fridge where I had unwittingly spilt 1 litre of milk (so wasteful and expensive!!!) in the fridge because I had not capped the milk back properly in the morning. It was a bitch to clean, because I had placed the milk sideways on the top shelf, and it spilt all the way down to the last shelf, which was the meat chiller *heart also chilled when I opened the fridge*.

Then finally exhausted I hauled myself to Orchard road, where I headed straight to Takashimaya's Rive Gauche. I wanted to buy a strawberry shortcake... but when I got there, all they had were Mont blanc and the usual generic cakes with fruits on top which you can get from any bakery. Yes, I know strawberry shortcake is also a cake with fruit on top. But their strawberry shortcake is of a much better standard, which is also evidenced by their crazy prices.

So I bought Mont Blanc. Rive Gauche's Mont blanc is actually yam cream (that's the brownish gray streaks you see), and they also mix boiled chestnuts inside the vanilla cream that sits between the sponge cake layers. As usual, Japanese patisseries are not overly sweet, just a light sweetness and the natural taste of the fruits shines through. yummy :D

Check out the little boiled chestnut buried between the cream and sponge layers

Best irony, B1 couldn't even figure out that the cake was topped with yam cream. Sigh, the man eats to live. The joke was also on me, because I went to chew on the brown cardboard (that you see on the right corner of the cake), thinking it was sheet chocolate. Rive Gauche used to use sheet chocolate for their company logo so I just automatically forked the thing into my mouth with the cake. Shit. 

Don't think I always forget the good stuff ok?

I remember that I had listed this as one of the most romantic things that a guy can do for his girl though it was my colleague's suggestion. Some Wednesdays ago, it was raining after violin class, and he came in to fetch me as usual. And since it was still raining, he took my violin case, opened the umbrella, and  then escorted me to the car, parked some distance away. 

He let me in first before he went over to the driver's side. And all the time I was thinking, great suggestion by  Mommy dearest. It gave me a total doki doki feeling *haha*. I am so heartened by it, that I still think of it now and am even writing about it! Well, he did have tissue in the car, but since I was so pleased, I wiped our faces dry instead *keke*. Must reward good behaviour!