text: a day in the life of a BE@RBRICK: Look what I have had! Sakura at Clementiwood Park
  Last Friday, I had lunch with my ex-colleagues from NUS, edna mode and 黑豹大便. It was a belated birthday celebration for edna. Sadly, Apizza could not join us, as she was honeymooning in NZ. We visited Sakura International Buffet Restaurant at Clementiwood Park (behind Japanese School, beside Kent Vale, which is within walking distance from the NUS Engineering Faculty). At this Clementiwood Park Sakura outlet, you will see a small little concrete hut where you make payment and get waited. The waitress will then guide you down a flight of spiral staircase down to the restaurant which is in the park itself. In this oddly-positioned building, there are two levels. The seating level is at basement two (considering the entrance as ground level), where the Chinese cuisine, preserved food, salad bar, cold-cuts seafood bar, grill, stir-fry, local specialties, dim sum, ice cream and drinks bar are located. The basement one is where the Western cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Italian cuisine, fruits and cakes are located. If you have not been to Sakura before, there is a system of ordering where you place a clip (bearing the table number) on the display board of the dish and the chef will cook it on the spot and serve it when its done. The portions of each order is not huge, but it is great for sampling. Sampling sizes saves you more room to try out different food. It is an "eat-till-your-hearts-content" experience, while some prefer the "eat-till-they-puke" experience. I was happily snapping at my food when I was told that photography is not allowed. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with the spread!
  Left shows the preserved food, such as jelly fish, seafood etc. My favourite is still the baby octopus, which is sweet and crunchy!Right shows the Chinese cuisine include the very familiar Chinese stir-fry dishes. I love the roast mutton, braised tofu and broccoli.
  黑豹 loves the sashimi, but he claimed that the cuts for that day was not too fresh. I tried and agreed. I did not know that that was raw shrimp, until 黑豹 conned me to sample. And I thought raw shrimps are grayish in colour! There are also a variety of popular Japanese sushi to choose from. I regretted taking too much sushi as the rice was stuffing me up. I was only going for the fish roe or caviar.
  Left shows two of the small 'cakelets'. I am not a big fan of sweets but had the intention to try their cheesecake.Right shows pizzas which 黑豹 claimed to have too much bread, while edna loved the cheese-baked mussels, which we unanimously agreed that they are fabulous!
  It is the time for prezzies!We got edna a vibrating neck massager, which is good for her, since she spends a lot of time looking into the microscope at histology slides. Edna also got 黑豹 and myself prezzies. 黑豹's farewell gift before he goes off to the U.S. of A. to work in a bioprocess plant, while mine is for my upcoming birthday!
  Place the neck massager around the neck and 'stick' the hands together with the Velcro. This massager operates on 4 'AA' alkaline batteries and gives a strong vibe.
  I received a monkey soft-toy. edna knows that I love toys and that includes soft toys as well! Of course not silly soft toys, but this monkey is significant, since I am born in the Year of the Monkey (Chinese zodiac sign). Its limbs can be joined by Velcro, which allows it to hang around. Thus, it now hangs on my wardrobe handle which my mum thinks its cute!Thanks edna!