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With the demonstration of their chef who showed us the steps to making a panda-maki, we realize that it is pretty difficult to manage with the sticky Japanese rice, much less to make a panda out of it! (Tips: wet your hands or gloves with water to prevent rice sticking)

Panda Maki Instruction Guide

*Thick slices of salmon as the eyes and ears
*Thin slices of salmon as make the nose and mouth

Step 1: Making the Panda Facial Features

• Place salmon strip at the edge of the nori sheet
• Wrap nori around
• Repeat until you have 6 strips for 2 ears, 2 eyes, 1 nose and 1 mouth

Step 3: Creating the Panda Face

• Take a thin strip of salmon and place it flat in the middle (panda's mouth)
• Add thin layer of white sushi rice on top
• Place another thin salmon strip on top of this and cover with more rice (panda's nose)
• Place two thick salmon strips on top of the column (panda's eyes)
• Add more sushi rice between the two

Step 4: Rolling the Panda Face

• Take one side of the nori and curl it up
• Repeat with the other side, ensuring that the two sides overlap at the top
• Compress the roll

Step 5: Making the Outer Roll

• Take 2 sheets of nori and glue them together using rice
• Take the brown sushi rice and cover three quarters of nori sheet
• Take 2 chopsticks and press them into the centre of the brown rice where you want the ears to be
• Remove the chopsticks and place 2 pieces of salmon in the grooves

• Take the panda face roll and place it on top of the ears

GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR MAKI! At Maki-san, you get to choose your own ingredients, from the rice to the individual fillings like tuna. tamago, ikura, avocado etc. Everything is so customizable it's kinda like a froyo bar where you can choose your own toppings.

Owner of Maki-san

There are 3 sizes to choose from, with their respective prices:
- Little San (1 base, 4 essentials, 1 sprinkle, 1 house dressing): S$7.90 
- Big San (Little San + 2 additionals): S$9.90
- Mega San (Big San + 1 special): S$11.90

Here's their order form to prep you before visiting!

In the month of March, when you place orders on foodpanda.sg, checkout with the code 'MEALSHEAL15' and know that while you're eating with your loved ones, kids from Children Cancer Foundation are also benefiting with $1 donated for every purchase made with the code.

For the Original German Currywurst set, customers can simply choose between Chicken or Pork sausages and curry up by customising the spice level of curry ketchup from the lightest to spiciest. With three spice levels to choose from starting with "Berlin Calling", the more adventurous can choose "Go West" or even "Break the Wall" just to test your limits! Then, choose a side to complete your meal, with a choice of either the Classic Fries "red/white" (served with ketchup and mayonnaise which lend the dish its name) at S$12.50/- or German Bread Roll (at the back of the photo below) at S$10.90/-.
Hot Dog "Special" | S$9.50/-

Special Taiko Performance of HIBIKIYA Photo Credit: Ramen Champion

My personal favourite had to be this rendition! Though it may not be the traditional form of ramen, it reminded me of the classic Yoshinoya's beef bowl, only better! A really simple bowl of thin ramen complemented with sliced marinated pork belly and poached egg, I liked the lighter and slightly sweet Tonkotsu broth which stood out from the standard heavy savoury broth of other contenders', at least I was not craving for water after tasting their broth.

The Buta God Crew!

Original Tsukemen by Menban Yamagishi Kazuo | S$15/-

Sapporo Miso Special Ramen by Menya Ryu | S$15.80/-

Riki Chashumen by Riki | S$16/-
The generous toppings of this big bowl of ramen justified the name Riki meaning "Energy Boost", expect loads of bean sprouts, cabbages and five slices of torched pork belly chashu were served. In fact, I liked the charred fragrance came off from the grilled chashu, it has good balance of fat and meat that made every mouthful a joy. I haven't tried ramen with thick noodle, to one's surprise, it's acceptable with its chewy elastic texture. Broth was boiled for more than eight hours daily to achieve milky-white umami flavour, personally I would not add in too much of its chopped garlic to the broth to prevent overpowering taste.

Triple Chashu Ramen by Shodai Koji | S$16.80/-


So here're the results!

After a tiring work week, all we want for the weekend is enjoying some peace and good food without having to hustle for it. Nestled right in the middle of the park, this was undoubtedly on our list for weekend brunch especially when we've enjoyed our visit to Whisk and Paddle for some scenic quiet brunch!

After a full day of shopping around town, we decided to have an early dinner to beat the queue. My sudden and random craving for some sinful deep fried food made us travel to Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Mandarin Gallery. Having walked passed the restaurant on several occasions and appalled by the queue mostly, we landed ourselves a table quite easily this time round!