Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Worst of Them All

It’s a known truth that, if you enlist into the army, you should get ready for small injuries now and then. Being a soldier involves a lot of rigorous trainings and physical activities and getting the occasional cut or bruise or even a painful blister is all par for the course and I’ve dismissed my fair share of them with nary a wince, as have many of my friends.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced in the last few days however. By far the most debilitating ailment and experience that I’ve had since I’ve enlisted, I had/still have a (what I think it was/is) throat infection and lost my voice.

Though it might sound like some silly, small matter, having to cough incessantly and not being able to speak at all (and I mean, AT ALL) is a terrible thing to have to go through when you spend many long, waking hours training and having to work with your platoon mates.

Thanks to a combination of really bad luck, bad timing, weird weather and a series of increasingly important training sessions and tests that was both time- and energy-consuming, a little cough that I had when I booked in at the start of the week deteriorated into a full-blown cough ad nauseum (and I do mean ad nauseum. Some of the coughs induced a wave of pregnancy-like vomiting feeling) and a voice that got increasingly lower and softer.

Not only was it a terrible experience to be coughing every few seconds even late into the night (and I’m sure it wasn’t a great time for my bunkmates neither), but it was even worse when I couldn’t talk to any of my friends, couldn’t pass any announcements, couldn’t address any of my superiors, couldn’t sing along to any of the songs that accompanied our marches and had to spend excruciatingly long moments just to convey simple messages like “where did my buddy go?” or “I need to go to the toilet” or “I hate that I can’t talk at all and it’s really irritating”.

Plus, it sure made helping out as an assistant during live range sessions difficult. I don’t think the person I was helping could hear me at all.

I really hope that you guys out there reading this won’t have to go through these kinds of torturous experiences or have had to go through them before. I guess I’ll just try to rest as much as I can and down as much coolants as possible before I have to book back in. Wish me luck!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Lessons from PTP

On Thursday, my Physical Training Phase (PTP) officially came to an end and I graduated on to my 9 week Basic Military Training (BMT) phase. So, after spending a full four weeks at Pulau Tekong, there’s some little truths of life that I’ve come to understand:

-That there really are all sorts of people out there. Of course, we’ve known since young that there are many different types of people but, at least for me, growing up I’ve been mostly exposed to only certain types of people. Sure, everyone had their differences but, at the end of the day, I understood these types of people. In the last few weeks, I’ve met people who I not only couldn’t get a handle on, but just when I thought I figured them out, would act or speak in a certain way that would totally throw me off track. Culture shock indeed.

-That I’m actually capable of waking up at unearthly hours and still find energy to do back-to-back activities all the way till the night. And I thought waking up at 6am to head to secondary school was tough, in those days.

-That, physically and mentally, a person’s limits are actually far beyond what they actually feel is possible.

-That, despite ridiculous amounts of stress and dirt, drinking gallons of water every day and getting a minimal amount of sleep is good enough to keep the skin relatively pimple-free. Unless you wear helmets (with straps that push perspiration onto your face) for continuous periods of time.

-That my feet are capable of getting multiple blisters on the same spot. And that I can actually continue running and marching despite their presence.

-That powder and baby wipes are my best friends.

-That there is such a thing as too much chicken. I think I’ve devoured a whole farm’s worth of drumlets and wings during the last few weeks.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Hanabi Resturant

If you read my review of Ajisen Ramen a few weeks back, you would know that I’m a huge fan of Japanese cuisine, a veritable Jap food fanboy who chomps down on sashimi and sushi any chance he can. So, for my very first bookout weekend, I decided to commemorate the moment by heading down to a slightly pricier Japanese restaurant with my friends to indulge my taste buds. For the occasion, we chose Hanabi Japanese Restaurant.

Located in a very ulu corner of King’s Arcade on Bukit Timah Road, Hanabi is a quaint (if hard to find) little restaurant whose delicate Japanese-styled décor and extensive ala carte buffet menu seem to promise a bang for the buck (or the almost forty bucks I spent, to be exact).

From the moment we sat down, the service was excellent. The waitresses who served us were friendly and effusive (if slightly disorienting since they were mainland Chinese and rattled off Japanese dish names with distinct Chinese accents), showering us with suggestions for choice delights as well as serving sizes. While some dishes took a while to arrive, most of the food reached our table pretty fast, most of the time still piping hot (and in the case of the sashimi platters, appropriately cold).

The food itself was vastly polarizing, with every dish either a hit-or-miss affair.

The chawanmushi (steamed egg) bowls were delicious starters, soft, steaming hot and intensely tasty but not jelak. The garlic rice, while looking suspiciously like Chinese fried rice, was amazing and provided a staple so strong it could have been a dish all by itself. The agedashi tofu, too, was a sumptuous treat, crispy on the outside but delicately soft on the inside and served with gravy that is just the right amount of salty.

Of course, the perennial favourite of Singaporean Japanese food fans is sashimi and here, Hanabi performs admirably. The sashimi mixed platter (containing such faves as salmon, tuna and cuttlefish slices) was phenomenal, served in generous amounts and all lip-smackingly fresh. Every slice of every sashimi on the plate was disalarmingly live-tasting and each had its own distinct taste, with the sotong slices providing a good, tangy chew to end off the dish with a bang. In fact, the platter was so good we actually ordered it several times throughout the meal, so much so that we were all stuffed with raw food by the time we settled our bill.

For every great dish we had, though, we met with an equally un-great one. The tempura prawns, another favourite locally, was disappointing. Although the batter was crispy, it was tasteless and bland, the prawns limp and soft. Even after dipping them in copious amounts of gravy, the dish was still decidedly underwhelming. The zaru soba, one of my most oft-eaten dishes, was equally bland, the gravy tasting oddly like turpentine or something similarly artificial. The shitake mushrooms, too, were disappointing, shriveled little blotches which tasted nothing of the type that I’ve eaten (or, actually, nothing much at all).
All in all, the dining experience here was decent, with some outstanding dishes (the sashimi platter is a must try) and good ambience and service. Some of the other dishes were disappointing, though, and I’m not sure the rather hefty price tag is fully justified. Good for a weekday lunch, maybe, if someone is treating.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Hanabi Japanese Restaurant is located at 559 Bukit Timah Road #01-03 King’s Arcade