Lunch at Waraku, Marina Square

Lotus root chips were incredibly light, fracturing at the purse of the lips.

For lunch, Waraku offers ACS (Asian Carb Staple) lunch sets where you pick a rice AND noodle dish. Though It's a pretty good deal, suffice to say, unless your boss/ teacher/ 'someone in higher authority' encourages midday slumber, this would prove a tad too heavy for lunch.

The dons varied from animals who walked on fours (katsu) & twos (chicken), and others which swam (salmon and tuna), glided (eel) or just floated along (prawn). I'm inclined to say that the cold temperatures had lowered my IQ to below room temperature, which was why I picked never-tried negitoro over tested-and-approved tempura. I think it was a case of "OOO what's that nasty pink stuff... Oh, heck it! I'm going ADVENTUROUS, let me roar!"



Yeah like let me roar in horror.

"Nasty pink stuff" is chopped fatty tuna belly, accompanied by scallion flakes, macerated yam and rice. The experience could only be described as discomforting. Despite drenching the mixture in shoyu, it was tasteless. But that I can handle; what I cannot stomach is "soft bodyless food". The fatty tuna belly had been minced so finely, there was barely any texture left and the foamy yam was disturbingly mushy. In a don-shell, very blah/mush-driven nibble sent chronic chills down my spine.



Turning up the temperature slightly, the soba (no doubt store bought) in dashi stock, finished with seaweed and tempura batter bits was fuss free and simply done.



The tempura don fared better. Despite its weighty batter, the tempura prawn was crisp enough for my liking.

The accompanying udon, like the soba, was an assembly of commonplace Japanese ingredients.



Diana didn't seem to have any problems with her unatama don, where pieces of eel strewn across an omelette.