Maki Maki Japanese Cafe & Takeaway

I love Japanese food, it's one of my top most favourite cuisines in the whole wide world. :) And I'm very blessed to be born in Singapore where a favourite cuisine of Singaporeans is Japanese. So the supermarkets often stock sashimi, sushi and other Japanese food like unagi (eel) which is pretty affordable, although not as cheap as Japan.

Unfortunately, Japanese food in Adelaide is not so cheap and affordable as Singapore. So I do have major cravings now and then, and I'm quite glad that I've found this eatery tucked away in Gawler place. It is pretty secluded and I daresay I would not have known about this place, if not for a friend's recommendation. :) I remember the first time I tried to find this place, I got lost. -_- Even Google maps did not know where Parc Arcade was, can you believe it!? I can't. Haha. So yes, I walked for a good 10 minutes before I found this place. :( A pretty good tip to find this place is to walk in from North Terrace, and soon after you turn into Gawler Place, you will see Parc Arcade. :) Walk in and you will spy Maki Maki on the left.

I think one reason why this place remains relatively unknown is because it's situated in a place where not many people go to. Although it's pretty near to Rundle Mall but I don't go to Parc Arcade at all, and that's probably why the food prices here are cheaper than the other sushi places nearby. :) A bowl of udon costs roughly from $8 - $12, and that is relatively cheap compared to Maru near Flinders Medical Centre, where one bowl starts from $14.

Maki Maki is a nondescript place, it's not heavily furnished with Japanese decorations, it is simple and the colours of the walk-in eatery is mostly red and white. I've went twice so far, and only for their udon! I love their udon noodles. Chewy yet firm and very yummy to slurp it up. The soup comes steaming hot, so hot that if you are hungry, you have to be very careful not to burn your tongue! I did that once, and I was left with a scalding burnt tongue at the end of my meal. =.= It was definitely not pleasant but that goes to show how good their udon soup was - too good that I could not wait for the soup to cool down before chowing it down.

The first time I went, I had their Crispy Chicken Udon.

Crispy Chicken Udon

I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived because as you can see, it actually has spinach leaves inside. This is uncommonly seen in udon and it is, secretly, a gripe that I have with udon soup: too little vegetables. The only vegetables commonly seen in udon is usually kelp and seaweed and it is only 1-2 pieces. Haha. So the dietitan in me was pleased with this bowl of what seemed to have more vegetables than usual-udon noodles. :) The soup was delicious, love the noodles, spinach, seaweed and kelp inside. The chicken was actually quite tender too. But one thing I didn't like about this was that the chicken (deep-fried) was put into the soup. So the oil from the chicken actually seeped into the soup. -_- And I didn't like that oily taste from the soup, plus the chicken which was suppose to be crispy became soggy instead. :(

It would have been much better if the fried food was kept separate from the soup. So that it will really be Crispy Chicken (+) Udon. Haha. 

So with that in mind, I went back to Maki Maki for a 2nd trial, which was about a week later (yet another testament to how delicious the udon noodles are). This time, I decided to try a different variety of udon and so I ordered the infamous Tempura Udon. Now, for those who are fans of Japanese cuisine like me, you would know that there are 3 foods that a Japanese chef should not get wrong: sushi rice, tempura and udon. It is actually the mark of a Japanese chef to be able to cook all these 3 well enough as they are pretty simple yet very easy to get them wrong too. So if either of the 3 foods taste bad in any Japanese restaurant, well, I don't have much faith in trying out the other dishes then. :)

So I had high hopes for this dish, seeing that the udon met my standards. And I specially told the cashier that I would like my tempura separated from my udon soup, please (as I would really want to eat my udon soup as it is - free from any oily taste).

Tempura Udon 

And so it arrived. I was pretty happy with the presentation. Glistening udon soup with spinach leaves & two fried prawns (Note: This is not tempura) on the side. I was pretty puzzled by the round fried thing though, had no idea what it was. 

Thought it looked suspiciously like a prawn vada (a Indian fried dough snack with prawn shells) and tasted like one too. It was not too bad, really. So I happily ate it and I left the fried prawn for last and attacked my udon noodles first, being careful not to scald my tongue like last time. And I'm happy to say that the udon soup noodles tasted as good as the one I had last time. :)  

The big puzzle was, the "tempura" prawns that seemed more like fried ebi instead than tempura. And it didn't taste like tempura batter at all. Which was a big disappointment as it doesn't matter how fresh the prawns are, once the batter is off, it throws the whole balance of the dish. :(   

Summary

Not too happy with the tempura dish and most likely won't order the Tempura udon again. I would most probably give the Crispy Chicken Udon another go and order the Crispy Chicken separately from the Udon, because I really like the udon noodles, soup and the chicken, just not together. I've read from the other reviews that the bento sets are pretty decent too, especially the sashimi and unagi set. This place does hold potential with its decent food and affordable prices - but don't expect it to have the same food standards as Wasai or Sushi Train. 

Food: 3.5 / 5

Service: 4 / 5 (Friendly and helpful staff)

Value: 4 / 5

Ambience: 2.5 / 5

Maki Maki Japanese Cafe
Parc Arcade, Gawler Place, Rundle Mall, SA 5000
(08) 8231 9334

Sexy Look Black Cotton Masks {Review}

I'm a big fan of moisturising masks, especially where I am at now. I'm in Australia, where it's one of the driest climates I've ever been to! So when I went to Taipei, I stocked up on a lot of them! Hee. And one such brand that I bought was Sexy Look; their black moisturising masks were one that I've heard a lot of, but never tried because it was so expensive in Singapore. :( So when I finally had a chance to go Taipei, I decided to try it too. :) And I was pretty lucky because the shop I went to was retailing it for a buy-1-get-1-free! :) I can't remember how much I've bought it for now, sorry. :(

Anyway, there's 3 different types of Sexy Look Black Cotton Masks:

Source: Google

1. Intensive Moisturising Black Cotton Mask 
2. Intensive Repairing Black Cotton Mask
3. Intensive Whitening Black Cotton Mask

The box that I brought here... is the Moisturising box! :) From the packaging, one thing that is different about this mask is that it is BLACK. Kudos to the team behind Sexy Look masks as they use advanced technology to infuse activated carbon into the cotton sheets - allowing the mask to absorb dirt and excessive sebum from the skin yet also refines the pores. It also rehydrates and repairs the skin for a natural glowing complexion. The moisturising box also has added Vitamin C enriched with blackcurrant that boosts nutrient circulation and roserock that moisturises the skin giving it a more radiant look. 

Whenever I find zits suddenly appearing on my face (especially during that time of the month), I would quickly put on a mask to soothe my skin and moisturise it, and hope that the zits won't leave scars. So I like how moisturising and cleansing this mask is. :)

One thing I really like about this mask is that the size of the mask is just right, it fits and contours my face nicely. I find that for the other masks, it is usually too big for my skinny face, so I always have to make the mask sit nicely on my face and try not to have too many wrinkles on the sheet. The mask essence also doesn't drip during application, which is super good in my opinion, and it stays right where it is, till you remove the mask. :) Each box has 5 sheets and each sheet is well soaked with 28ml of essence (very visible when you first remove it from the packet). The instructions say to leave it on for 15-20 minutes, but it takes longer than 20 minutes for the mask to dry up, so I usually leave it for ~30 minutes before removing it. :)

I do find that my skin looks more glowing after I used it, pores looks more refined and my skin feels moisturised and not dry, which is awesome! :) Unfortunately, this doesn't carry on till the next day. :( But I would say this is very good for emergency use for parched and thirsty skin. :)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Repurchase? Yes.

One step closer... to G-day!

What's G-day? Graduation-day! Hahaha. Yes, I'm finished with my exams and I must say, it's a bittersweet experience. It's my final exams of my whole university life. And I'm not going to take another one till I decided to study again, perhaps Masters next time? So yes, quite relieved but also sad that a new chapter beckons soon and I have to bid farewell to my student life and all the holidays and term breaks that comes with being a student. :( Say hello to 14 days of leave a year from next year onwards. Okay, that's very sad. Sigh.

But it also means that I have time to blog! Yay! :) I've got quite a number of food places to write up, I reckon and I think it will be good to reminisce about them before I leave Adelaide for good. :( Boo. I can also type up a number of beauty posts as well and clothes too! :) I've been pretty blessed by God on Facebook because I've won quite a number of contests. All praise and glory to Him. :)

Exploring Sydney :)

I went Sydney from the 2nd October to the 8th of October for a good friend and coursemate's wedding on the 5th October (Saturday). It was a really enjoyable trip and I have to thank God that I'm blessed enough to be able to go on this trip and see my good friend get married and have her own happy-ever-after. :) At the same time, exploring the other sights of Sydney as shown by my new and old friends in Sydney and eating lots of delicious food that Adelaide doesn't have to offer due to its population size. :)

I do hope to have the time to post up various cafes or food joints in Sydney because I did have the pleasure of going to eat at the places that the locals knew about, because in all my times that I've been to Sydney, I certainly didn't travel there before. So yes, either it's brand new or that I just didn't know about it because I'm not a local. :) Haha. And I was pretty lucky that the week that I was there, there were a lot of happenings in Sydney! First up, was the international fleet review (IFR), then it was the Art Festival (Art & About), then my friend's wedding. :) And I had the privilege to visit Taronga Zoo (much highly raved zoo to visit) for FREE. Yes, free! :) I saved like A$44 on the entrance fee, as I have a friend working there! Praise God! :) I took like almost 300 photos just during my 5 days there. =.= And my camera went flat on me on my very last day! Haha. Phew. It was a very good camera though. :) Seeing how it lasted me all 5-6 days and it only gave out on the last day itself! Hip hip hooray. My bargain is absolute spot-on! :)

I'm definitely very pleased with my camera buy earlier on this year. At first, I was a bit worried that my mum would nag at me because of the price. It was definitely $100 more than my budget, but seeing the quality of the pictures has definitely justified the price tag itself. If I had skimped on that extra $100, I doubt my photos will be that fantastic. I've had a lot of praise and compliments for my photos. Haha. And even though I've been claiming credit for it most of the time *ah-hem*, but it's also the camera that partners with my skills to capture the perfect shot. :)

I need more time. It's coming to the end of the year and that means CRUNCH time! I've got exams coming up and a huge assignment due end of Oct. :( So yes...hopefully I don't procrastinate too much! :)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! :)

I was actually feeling quite sad this year because 中秋节/Zhong Qiu Jie/Mid-Autumn Festival was in mid-September (today), so I didn't manage to buy mooncakes back from Singapore, just like I did last year! :( So I missed my snow skin mooncakes terribly. Haha. Thankfully, there's a Breadtalk copycat outlet in Adelaide, also known as Breadtop, and they sell both snow skin and the traditional mooncakes. Oh yay. :D But they also came at a rather hefty price. :( 2 mini mooncakes for A$7.90. Whaaat. :(

It tickles me to know that the translation of 冰皮 is mochi. It's meant to be snow skin! Hahaha! :D

They do have a variety of flavours though, which more or less makes up for the price I guess. Plus it was much cheaper than the imported mooncakes from the Asian groceries nearby. =/ Was so tempted to get the durian, chocolate, mango and the traditional ones with egg yolk paste inside because these are all my favourite flavours. :D But thankfully my housemate reminded me that after this festival, all the mooncakes will be selling at a discounted price!!! :D So, yes, being the poor student that I am, I'm going to wait patiently for that to happen! :) Maybe tomorrow or Saturday, then it will be selling cheaper, I think. :)

Anyway, Chatime had this really ingenious idea to collaborate with Breadtop this year in promoting their mooncakes. From 17-19 September, whenever you buy a cup of bubble tea, you get 1 free mini mooncake! Such a fantastic way to sell your bubble tea and promote Breadtop too! 

Although it says till 19 September, it's really 'while stocks last'. :( 

Thank God, I managed to get this deal on the 1st day itself. I went mid-day today and the mooncakes were all gone. :( So I was quite sad... but I saved A$5! Haha. Chatime should have made sure there were enough mooncakes to last till 19th September so that they can sell more cups. I bet their sales would have just soared within these 3 days. :P Anyway, the mooncake that I had was a egg custard mooncake. It was pretty much like a dessert, not bad, but not memorable. Haha. But it did whet my raging appetite on wanting to eat mooncakes. :) But then again, I'm not much of a mooncake person too! So, never mind.

***

So... did I do anything special to celebrate today? No. I just went to uni, city to do uni work at Coles, bought some Korean ramen from the Korean shop, chiropractor and then back home. The weather was terrible today. :( It was sunny in the morning, making me feel like I should wear less clothes (aka no thick jackets or anything of the sort), and then it turned windy and rainy by 2pm. -_-" And it just kept pouring! Grrr. Unpredictable please! Adelaide's becoming like Melbourne now. Noooo. >.< I wanted to go to the Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration at Elder Park but decided against it because it was probably going to be a very wet event. :( And I was already quite wet getting home because I didn't bring a umbrella out. :( 

Oh well. Hope others had a fantastic Mid-Autumn celebration and ate lots of 汤圆 (glutinous rice flour balls in a dessert soup) and mooncakes! :) Hope I get to eat my discounted-mooncakes soon, too! :) 

xx