Being all lonely by myself at home this hot Thursday afternoon, it's time to fast forward blogging back to the present after these 10 days of Singapore entries. However, it seems I managed to miss out on this place we tried right before going to Singapore. My brother, tt and I went to Kasumi Izakaya on the day before our flight to Singapore because he saw reviews on the izakaya dishing out... Nagashi Soumen!! As the weather was already getting hot during that time (it was only the start of spring!!), we figured it'd be as good a time as any to chill with some soft noodles flowing in a bath of cool water.

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Their menu offers many interesting dishes, like this roulette takoyaki, where one ball of takoyaki is filled with chilli. My brother and tt aren't very adventurous, so we didn't order that =P

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Interior is cosy, izakaya-styled. Apparently, Kasumi isn't very good when it comes to lunchtimes, but at night, it gets crowded pretty quickly. We went there quite early that day, so there were still some empty tables. None when we were half way through our meal though.

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This, is what we came for, their Nagashi Soumen. It's basically a water slide for thin noodles, and it's not just because it's fun for people to catch the noodles with chopsticks as it's swimming around, it also loosens the noodles and washes away the excess flour, creating a smoother texture. When it is dipped into the soumen sauce, one can slurp up the noodles easily. As it is actually considered polite to slurp noodles with as much noise as you can generate while doing so in Japan, my brother managed to practice his slurping skills there that night.

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They had a wide variety of mocktails, cocktails and other assorted drinks.

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It's been so many months ago that I've forgotten what we ordered. I think one was something like lime bitters and the other was mango... icee...?

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They also had this CoEnzymeQ10 drink, which is obviously targeted towards ladies, because it's meant to promote healthier, smoother skin. The dessert that has zero calories with CoEnzymeQ10 too... don't know whether to believe it or not, it's just like how ramen has collagen in it that's meant to create smoother skin as well... maybe it's all just false advertising, but I don't think anyone can be bothered proving it. Still, if it doesn't kill you, no harm trying.

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Our food arrives! A basket of fried salmon skin. This was good. It sounds rather distasteful and unappetising, but it actually just tasted like chips.

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Their mochi cheese balls... my gosh, this tastes as sinful as it sounds.

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Of course, you can never tell from its deep-fried-till-golden-brown exterior...

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Inside is filled with gooey cheese. The crispy yet chewy mochi on the outside goes so well with the liquid cheese, you can literally feel the oil oozing out as you bite into it. Feeling sick? To hell with dieting!~ =P "Don't think, just eat"!

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Some random interior lighting and bamboo sticks. I guess if a fight broke out in the izakaya, they could use these sticks as weapons to whip everyone's behinds.

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Monjayaki!! It's kinda like okoniyamki, except slightly runnier and gooier... (is that a word?)

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We got our own stove to cook it in.

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Spatula fun-ness~

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While waiting for the monjayaki to cook, we had some eggplant with miso. I know quite a few people who dislike eggplants due to its mushy and soft texture, but when cooked right, it is so good. I remember I used to hate it too, my dad will only cook it in the stir-fried form with other stuff that tasted so bad, I threw tantrums as a kid and refuse to eat it. Avoided all eggplants until I went to Uchi Lounge and had their miso eggplant... and then to Wasaby for their mochi eggplant... those two had the best eggplant dishes in my memory~ this... unfortunately I don't remember how this one tasted, so it must have been not as good.

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Tada!! The soumen machine arrives!! Unfortunately, we didn't get the slide, but they did say the slide wasn't as fun because rather than going round and round like this one, it just slides down and... that's it. Still~ slide looks more spectacular!!

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The lights dimmed down and I had to use flash. The noodles are swimming! At first, we didn't know how much noodles to put and added too much, so it kinda clogged up the vents that made the water swirl. Took out some and the noodles were free to swim~

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A stack of noodles and the soumen sauce~

It was actually really refreshing to have cold soumen noodles, which is why this summer, I'll be having lots of hiyashi chuuka (cold noodles in a light citrus sauce with various toppings) and hopefully another round of cold soumen noodles. Can foresee this will be one hot summer... =(

Seeing as I have plenty of time before a dinner party tonight, I might update this entry again with more recent happenings~ for now, I shall go have some food. Oh yea, for those who want to try the soumen, I actually haven't seen it anywhere else other than Kasumi Izakaya. It's right next to Kura, near China Town at Harbour Street, open for dinner from 6pm till past midnight... quite late I'd think, it IS an izakaya after all...