Vivocity / Singapore Dreaming / Aji by Hanabi

Suddenly we're going Japanese...

Next stop - Aji by Hanabi at the new Vivocity.

But now I have to sleep becos I have to wake up in 3 hours so that I can go to work at 1:15am (on SUNDAY!)...

Yawn... Had the Monday blues today - long day... Came back home and decided to do some editing for this blog...

So back to Saturday... We decided to checkout the new Vivocity. Outside, the PSI was around 110 and it didn't help that the carpark was half-finished and very dusty! It's yet another badly designed carpark where the cars going down will have to cross paths with cars going up. Mag got really mad when some car decided she was bulliable material and cut in front of her, or tried to... hehe.. Well, at least it was free parking that day.

Vivocity is huuuge! Not all the shops were ready but the crowds were there. We didn't have time to explore the whole place but I managed to buy a belt from Pull & Bear. Check out the virtual tour.

We went to watch Singapore Dreaming at the new GV. Not a bad movie. It recently received the Montblanc Award for New Screenwriters at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Well done, Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh. The script was in Hokkien and Mandarin but it had English subtitles. I must admit, it moved me to tears. I love the Hokkien song that they used throughout the movie. Reminded me of my mother. Aaahh.. Nostalgia... You can listen to the song at the Singapore Dreaming website by downloading the trailer.

After the movie, we had to grab a quick dinner because I had to go home to catch 40 winks before my connectivity test (work lah). We quickly decided on Aji by Hanabi, a classy Japanese restaurant. The menu was interesting but the portions were small.

The restaurant was full at first so we sat at the counter and watched the sushi chef at work. This time, the guys were not so grouchy :-)


First dish was 3 grilled appetisers that included fugu - puffer fish. It wasn't the fresh type but the well grilled type, so I'm pretty sure whatever poison is all gone and it's now more carcinogenic than anything! The inexperienced waiter couldn't tell us what the different types of fishes were! So based on previous experience at another Japanese restaurant, we guessed that this is the fugu:


Love the weave pattern of this grilled silver fish.


The grilled beef in miso paste was delicious. The sauce was sweet and tasty, and it was served on a "leaf-don't-burn" leaf. Best part was, I swallowed everything because there was no cartilage! (see previous post on Wasabi Tei)


Mag predicted that the bill would be double that of Wasabi Tei and she wasn't half wrong. It was around $62 before the 10% UOB credit card discount.

Tonight, the price includes a hazey view of Sentosa, cruise ships and palm trees.