Watami

I have never been to City Square Mall but I knew the areas around there intimately. I was schooled nearby, played soccer at Farrer Park, eat around there, have relatives living nearby and friends around but when I drove over, the entire place has been transformed. Singapore is to me perpetually an enigma. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. The place was renewed and modern, you welcomed it but yet you missed the originality from where we grew up. 

The pavement that we used to walk and run on, the old fences and railings. Sometimes, I asked myself - do we really need to keep changing and so rapidly? Oh? we have no choice, we are a small island with limited space, we have to reuse, renew, blah, blah, blah. Many of us were born there at the KK. So here we were at the most eco-friendly shopping mall.

They used to say eating Japanese food is an acquired taste. It is true. You may not like it at first, acquired it and then you love it. It was so many years ago that Japanese cuisine became very popular and we were having so much of it back then at many different places. A chef at a Japanese restaurant was like a London-trained hairstylist. I did not know what Watami is but talking about hairstylist, I remembered having watched a Japanese cartoon eons ago about a ninja boy called Watari. He carries an axe and has a cool haircut that covers half of his face. I thought that movie "Watari" I saw was a cartoon. Anyway, watch the clip here and you thought that only old HK TV or movies has martial arts exponents who could shoot dragons and swords out of their palms:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9AwIlRA45Y

Watami I was informed were made up of two words wa = harmony and tami = people so there you go - people dining in harmony. 

Problem with old folks like me who grew up in simpler times was that we walk in for a meal, the fellow ask: "Ai simi?" And we just go: "Mee Pok tah". Like playing Police and Thieves, you go up to the team captain and just said: "Apple/Orange?" Then he said apple, got you in his team and he went: "Aiya, sway!" Today, having a meal is upmarket. You get to choose from so many different sets or combinations, mix and match and by the time you get to see them all, you won't know what to eat. 

It didn't help that they have stuffs like Salads, sushi, sukiyaki, steaks, pizza, teppan yakisoba, takoyaki, sashimi and many more. For once, I was thankful not only to eat free which is my name in dialect (Geoffrey is to jia free or eat free) but to leave the ordering to others. In my profession, I often bring people to dine so I have to know something about food, places, how good, what to order, how much to order and manage a budget. 

They have some interesting concept here - you fry your own rice.

The salad is good. I always love Japanese salads anyway.

The set was quite large and in all probability although it was said to be for two, more people could actually have them if  you order some additional with other side orders.

The thin salmon avocado pizza was quite interesting.

This one is the clincher! If there is only one reason why I should be back, this is it! The sizzling steak is fabulous. You cook it on that stump back there on the hot plate as  you would like it, medium, rare or well done. Salivating as I recall. 

You can have your sashimi too.

Different kinds of fried stuffs in this platter.

This one here was almost like that wonderful I had at the "Ginza Kuroson" except that of course the Ginza Kuroson one was much better as it was like $20 a bowl of sushi rice with an assortment of the most wonderful fish on top, the Nagekomi Don.

We did the Panna Cotta.

Sometimes it is good when you are not working or paying bills.

Every good man deserves his break.

If you want to have the great steak, bring me along.

Sayonara for now.