Ramen Santouka

Ramen Santouka @ Central

I have decided to make this blog a food and travel blog since i enjoy both "hobbies" immensely and can be said to be "passionate" about it. hahaha. One of my 'retirement' plan is to travel round the world next time and i certainly need to 'work harder' so that i can fulfill that dream one day. :) Unless this blog become so famous that i get free food and accommodation next time?

Sometimes, i think the reason why i work so "hard" is because i look forward to my next break. I think it is important to take a break, so that one can walk farther in his or her career. 休息是要走更长的路。

Anyway, my family visited our favourite Ramen house in Singapore today. It is Ramen Santouka. In my personal opinion, one of the better Ramen places in Singapore. Ramen Santouka is located at 

6 Eu Tong Sen Street #02-76. 

The Central. Singapore 059817

Tel: 6224 0668

We started with 2 nice appetizers.

Green Salad

Gyoza

My son decided to be adventurous today. He had the dry cold noodle dip in hot miso soup. I don't think it taste good. You can give this a miss.

Dry cool noodle with hot miso soup

We came here for our fix of Shio Ramen with an extra portion of pork cheek, soft egg and bamboo shoots.

Shio Ramen 

Pork cheek, egg, bamboo shoots

There is too much ramen, so we had a bowl to share. I like to add a lot of chilli flakes to the soup to make it hot and then washed it down with a bottle of Japanese beer! Shiok.

I also found another 'excuse' to upgrade my phone to iPhone5. I need a better camera-phone! :-P 

Hope the fever die down soon and i can get my phone... part of the reason why i need to upgrade my phone is because my phone dropped into the toilet bowl before and the speaker phone has since 'died'. :)

Budget carriers!?

Singapore wants to be an aviation center and currently has 2 local 'budget carriers'.

One is Tiger Airways, the other is Jetstarasia.(let's leave Scoot out of the picture for now). 

I totally disagree with the business model adopted by SIA but that will be another long post altogether.

Today i tried to book 4 tickets to Siem Reap and see what i found out for flights on the same dates... the "joke" is... it is cheaper to fly by Silkair for a trip to Ankor Wat. in Cambodia.

Screen shot from Silkair website below:

Screen shot from Jetstar website below.

Here comes the best part. For Jetstar, I have to pay extra for the normal seats ($5 x 4), food ($30 x 4), visa booking fee ($9 x 4) = $176 extra. Total = $2,003.60

In other words, flying a full service carrier will save me a whopping $394 for 4 and yet i have more flexible tickets which allows me to change the dates on Silkair without penalties.

Am i missing something here?!

Hope this dispel some of your beliefs that budget carriers are always cheaper. hahaha. hence it is always a good idea to compare prices.

When i have the time, I will explain the business model of budget carriers, need to plan the trip first.

The Pandas are in Singapore!

The Pandas arrived in Singapore yesterday. Think it is going to start a Panda craze in the coming months and will probably benefit CDL Hospitality Trust and Far East Hospitality Trust. I remember seeing a pair of pandas in Ueno Zoo a few years back (still have the pictures) and Singapore is one of the few beneficiaries of the "Panda Diplomacy" by China.

I remember visiting the pandas in Chengdu in 2005 (actually i have covered most of the China's famous scenes, will show more pictures next time). The pandas were housed in Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center. It's pretty easy to get there by cab from the city centre.

The pandas are pretty cute and you can stay there for a long time just to watch them play and feed on bamboos. They are very particular about food and they only 'mate two days a year. Such low drive ah...  no wonder pro-creation is an issue. Will panda made in Singapore during the loan period of 10 years become a Singapore citizen? If that is the case, the pandas really must buck up and the Singapore zoo must create a work life balance to ensure baby pandas are "created" ^-^ 

Above are some pictures of the pandas in 2005. It was then i realized they do have a 'poorer'cousin called the red panda. I guess it is just a reflection of life? Same name different "life"? 同人不同命

Red Panda

Do visit Chengdu if you have the opportunity and visit the Pandas! Of course, they are much nearer to us now. One more panda pictures from my hand held automatic camera... pardon the lousy resolution... life is good for the panda!