Another food post!

It seems that you guys like seeing what I'm eating.  One thing that I am loving is Japanese!  Typically, in the US, when I thought about "eating Japanese", what I really meant was eating sushi.  Don't get me wrong - I still love sushi and have found a great place next to my apartment in Singapore that makes an incredible chirashi (see below!), but in my short time in Asia so far, I've learned a lot more about Japanese cuisine!

These are the fattest slices of sashimi ever.

Tonight, I went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  The menu was enormous, and I didn't really know what a ton of it was, so I pretty much just copied what my co-workers were ordering.  While we waited for our food to arrive, we surveyed the options on the conveyer belt.

There was some sushi on the belt, but everyone was commenting on how none of the sushi offerings on the belt looked very good, and I've always been a little sketched out by conveyer belt sushi, obviously.  So I watched what other people were taking and followed suit.

This actually is a type of sushi, but definitely not what you typically think of in the US!  This was a sweetened tofu skin stuffed with rice and tuna.  Sounds delicious right?  It was pretty good actually :)

I also had some octopus!

And then finally, my bowl of claypot udon arrived.  Its udon noodles with a tempura shrimp, an egg, and some vegetables in a soup.  Pretty tasty, and for only 20 ringitt (less than 7 USD), it wasn't bad at all.

After dinner, I, like a typical American, was craving a little something sweet, so I suggested that we go to ChaTime for bubble tea!  I've been getting some type of pearl milk tea every time.  Until tonight.  I knew that bubble tea was not exactly low calorie, but one of the guys we were with mentioned that a cup of the tapioca pearls was supposed to be equivalent to EIGHT bowls of rice!  That was enough for me to reconsider what I was putting in my bubble tea.  I had heard that the grass jelly is a much better option instead of the pearls, but the name "grass jelly" does not sound appealing to me at all.  But for eight bowls of rice, I could forgive the unfortunate name.

So tonight I had the roasted pearl milk tea with grass jelly.  

The verdict?  Just as good as the pearls!  Texture wise, the jelly isn't as chewy as the pearl, but I think I've also realized that what I really love is the taste of the milk tea!  So this is a good switch to make.  And yes - that is a box of Quaker Chewy bars you see in the background of my ChaTime :)  This is my last week in Malaysia for a while, so of course I had to stock up!

Speaking of snack foods - here is something that caught my eye at a grocery store in Singapore.  They were only $2, so I figured I had to get them.  I haven't tried them yet, but I'm nervous already.

Yup.  Seaweed flavored Pringles.

And then while we are on the subject of shopping - let me just rant for one minute.  Last weekend, I popped into a Uniqlo in Singapore, just out of curiosity really.  If you aren't familiar with Uniqlo, I think its basically like The Gap, except its Japanese.  Anyway - I was looking at their shorts (because I own way too many jeans and not enough shorts!), and there were two things that caught my eye.  

First of all - the sizes are in centimeters.  I feel like the mental sadness of picking up a size 61 and realizing that it is way too small is just a little ego damaging.

Secondly - and this is how I know I'm in Asia.  There was a sign on top of the display that told you what sizes were available.  The largest size that they made was a 73.  Um - 73 centimeters is less than 29 inches.  And that was the largest size that they made.  I read a story the other day about how the founder of Uniqlo wants to take over America and be as ubiquitous as J. Crew.  Well, I think they are going to make some bigger clothes then.  I think a 29 is equivalent to an 8 maybe?  It might even be a 6?  If you want to take over America, you can't only sell to people who are a size 6 or smaller!

And in the spirit of realizing how Asian Asia really can be - I bought some house slippers.

So the last thing I will leave you guys with tonight is a question - I am going to the US in a couple of weeks for work, and I am excited to be able to stock up on a few things!!!  Definitely on my list are almond butter, Simply Jif, and candy corn.  Chrissy told me that Hershey is making some pumpkin spice kisses that are supposed to be amazing.  So what else do I need to pick up while I'm in the US?  Any awesome new treats that I need to check out??  Tell me!