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For $30, you get a generous bowl of wagyu-shigure-ni don, appetiser, salad, pickles, miso soup, chawanmushi and dessert.

Beef shigure-ni is made up of thin slices of beef stewed for a short period of time in, usually, a mix of mirin, soy sauce, onions and sake. Despite being only simmered in the seasoning mix for a short period of time, shigure-ni is extremely flavourful and probably because it is so thinly sliced, the texture of the meat is more tender as well. In some ways, I think shigure-ni reminds me of pulled pork.

I felt that Ginza Kuroson’s wagyu shigure-ni had a very well balanced mixture of fattiness and meat. The pieces of chopped negi sprinkled around offered a slight contrast to the sweetness of the seasoned meat. Top off a bed of warm fluffy Japanese rice with these two ingredients, together with a perfectly cooked onsen egg and you have yourself a very satisfying meal. Beware of the food coma that comes after consumption though.

Pictured is the 上海生煎包 that is supposed to be their signature dish: soft dumpling/bao-like skin with a pan-fried crispy bottom encasing a ball of juicy pork meat, think 小笼包's bigger brother. Ever since 萝春阁(Luó Chūn Gē) at Tampines 1 closed a few years ago, I've been on the search for a similar 生煎包. Now, that search has finally come to an end 😌

Bazooka's signature charsiew and sio bak donburis are now available at TonicX, the newly opened bar right below the School of Information Systems. The lighting of TonicX makes the place reminiscent of Neo Tokyo, not an environment you would expect to find yourself enjoying a bowl of donburi. Instagrammability of the food due to the poor lighting is also 0 (refer to picture above).
Pictured is the Caramel and Crackling Roast Pork Combination Donburi ($9.80). You need to pay an additional $1 if you want an onsen egg. If you ask me, I think this is just a slightly more refined version of char siew/sio bak rice. The skin of Bazooka's roast pork is rather thick and while it crackles, I found it lacking in flavour. Also, the sio bak here seems to be more "westernised", with a thicker skin and a firmer meat texture as compared to the usual Chinese stalls.
The texture and taste of the Char Siew were kind of inconsistent throughout the different pieces of meat placed in my bowl. I found some parts a little too dry and honestly, I would very much prefer a skin that has more caramelisation. This Char Siew felt more like it was only braised.
For a Donburi, the rice was disappointingly mushy and while the dried sambal (hae bee hiam) went well with the rice, the texture of the rice really ruined it for me.

The portion is rather small in my opinion and eating in a restaurant with food being placed in a plastic bowl with disposable utensils just lends a different eating experience altogether.
Well, on the bright side, there's something new to eat in school at least? Try it and let me know what you think! #burpple

anyway, tai cheong seems to have ironed out their consistency issues and this tasted more like the one i had in hk 👌🏻 a slightly firmer and more evenly done egg custard, a slightly reduced level of sweetness and a better baked crust ✔️ the crust looks slightly overdone but i definitely preferred this to the one i had on the first day.

$7.60 for 4(minimum purchase), it definitely still is cheaper than making a trip to hong kong to get your fix of these babies.
i found the egg custard filling to be sweeter than hk's and the pastry was slightly different as well. the tai cheong egg tarts i had in hk, while also utilising a shortcrust pastry, seemed to be less buttery and less crumbly than the ones over here. i also really hope that the pop-up in singapore will serve the egg tarts piping hot like what hk does. oh well, all the differences between hk's and sg's could have been due to the fact that yesterday was their first day and they were still figuring things out. still, having tai cheong egg tarts on our lil island is something worth celebrating 🎉

drowning in schoolwork isn't that bad with my pb&j (peanut butter and jelly, chocolate, cornflake crusted sandwich) from @parkbenchdeli in hand.
now if only @deliveroo_sg could offer me and my schoolmates some credits, tiding through our hell weeks would be so much easier 😔

fresh succulent lobster meat is already delicious by itself but the people at buttergrill upped the ante by pairing it with an addictive spicy salted egg yolk butter ( ˘ڡ˘ ) true to its name, buttergrill offers a wide variety of butter for you to choose from. each purchase of the boston lobster or other dishes under the "grill seafood" section of the menu will be paired with classic red/ orange ginger/ lemon chili/ spicy salted egg yolk/ spicy miso butter, depending on which type of butter you choose.

what might serve as an even greater point of attraction for you to visit, however, is the free flow craft beer offered by buttergrill from 5pm - 9pm (this is a daily offer if i'm not mistaken). at $40/pax, drink and chill to your heart's content with their selection of craft beer consisting of maisel's weisse original hefe-weissbier, lost coast great white and lost coast tangerine wheat ale.

a huge thanks to @buttergrill for hosting us and @burpple for the invite!

special mention goes to their trademark tagliolini zebrati con gambretti e zucchini - egg and squid ink tagliolini with shrimp and zucchini in cream sauce. it's definitely the comfort food my friends and i will be thinking of as we count down the minutes till the end of class. #botturasg #botturacontest #burpple