Along with the newly constructed expansion building, they have been slowly moving everything over to the B2 section, which was opened to the public a couple of months ago.
Some stalls which moved there included Sushi Deli and Old Chang Kee, along with new shops and the usual franchises like "Pie Kia", "Chewy Doughnuts" etc.
Recently, a whole chain of shops opened, and little by little, the crowd started to get a bit bigger, up from the small trickle of people that usually just brush past the shops undergoing renovation out of curiosity.
I admit I was one of them.
Uusually everyday after school, I would take the unconventional route to observe and check out the new and upcoming stallsat the B2 area. It's quite a different experience from the past, where the area was quite small and generally dominated by Cold Storage.
With the underground passage from the B2 entrance to the expanded area, seeing new stores popping into life was quite a refreshing experience. I remembered when there was just concrete and empty shophouses.
Now, Christmas decorations. Crowds.
On the 14th of November, it was the official re-opening of the Yishun Library at the fourth level of the expanded area.
I decided to check it out the following day.
After arriving at the interchange, I made my way to the expanded area and my first thought was "wow".
The area, with only a few curious visitors a couple of days ago, was suddenly teaming with life.
Suddenly, I felt a bit of my old crowd phobia acting up again.
The Library, was disappointing.
Well, that's the general layout, or how I remembered it to be.
First of all, LACK OF COMICS!
The librarian replied meekly and said that there isn't a main comic section yet. All that is available are some Cathys, For Better or Worse and old copies of The Far Side. No Foxtrot/Pearls Before Swine.
Sigh.
Secondly, why is the Children section located right smack in the middle of the library?
I was already slightly put off by the sheer volume of people in the library, but screaming and wailing kids and babies just ain't my idea of "exposing them to books".
The entrance is on one side, which means that you have to walk quite a round-about way to get to the other side you want.
Their cafe was rather drab. Even the school's HotShot Cafe looked better.
I didn't spend long in the library. Even though it's brand new and all, the feeling of tranquility just isn't there at all you know? Woodlands' at Civic Plaza and Bukit Merah's libraries get my votes. There was a big hooha about the Jurong West library when it was first opened...but I haven't frequented it since 2005 or so...By the way, the coffeeshop next to Bukit Merah library gets my vote for most pathetic coffeeshop I have seen. 4 or 5 closed stalls. Only the Chicken Rice, roti prata stalls are open, along with the drink stalls. Eating in a empty coffeeshop...is just demoralizing..you know? What could be done? Don't ask me. I don't eat there, especially when Queensway's Chicken Curry Rice is just a few bus stops away =D
Have bus pass, will travel. Anyone got any other curry rice stalls to recommend?
So there I was, riding down the escalator when previously, a place which I thought as a restaurant turned out to be a food court of sorts.
Eh?
なに?
A Japanese themed "food court"?
おもしろい...
Let's check it out...
Named Ishi Mura, which can be literally translated to "the village of stone" in Chinese, it is a concept thought up by none other than the same firm behind the line of Sakura buffets.
Other than Northpoint, another two likely spots that Ishi Mura would expand to are as one of the tenants for City Square mall and the other being in Tampinese.
Over at this quaint little area of the shopping centre, you can feast on either a
Rice burger
or everyone's favourite
Bento set (lunch box meals)
I only took a couple of pictures...since it was near Dinnertime and the number of patrons were seriously piling up.
Other than the two shops that I mentioned, there's the obligatory Ramen shop, カレー (karee) rice stall, a sushi/sashimi (pick up and pay) corner, a mix between pasta and pizza outlet and not to forget, the age/yaki grill stall.
What's unique about the sushi/sashimi corner was that, on the topmost racks, above the raw food, are Japanese brand candies and chocolates such as Pocky and the likes.
At the other end of the corner, drinks can also be purchased, but it's around $1.50 for a 330 ml can of Pokka Green Tea.
Japanese drinks are also available, such as the ones at Daiso.
However, when they were 2 for $2 at Plaza Sing's Daiso, over here, one can sets you back by $2, which is obviously a rip-off, especially if they don't have the honeydew-flavoured drink.
But! The 16 pieces of maki sushi sets are here ^^ $2.40 for 16 pieces.
Quite worth it isn't it? Although I did not really spot any containing Salmon...
Well, I was so fascinated by the place that I walked around several times, before deciding to ask my sister to check out this place.
Her initial thought was that this is a restaurant as well.
"Why is this new section of Northpoint filled with so many people?"
"Does so many people even live in Yishun?"
Yea...a bit on the dramatic side...but honestly, the numbers were quite surprising.
She managed to get a seat and off I went to help her buy her dinner.
From the Omelette stall, I brought the "Ebi (prawn)" meal.
Served in the nomiyaki style, fans of Japanese cusline can surely recognise the two sauces primarily used in Takoyakis, not to mention the seasoning as well.
One surprising thing about this dish is that there is no rice.
Instead, their way of cooking it is usually to, crack an egg over the stove, dump a standy-by pile of cabbage and corns , add in the prawns and you are done.
As for me, since I wasn't sure about what to eat, I decided to go for the Age/Yaki stall's combo set 3.
The set consists of rice as well as three pre-determined sticks.
I was given a fried lady finger wrapped in bacon stick (foreground), a Jin Zen Gu (golden needle mushroom) wrapped in bacon stick, as well as a unagi stick.
I'm not really a fan of lady fingers...and although golden needle mushrooms are ok for me, it does take some using to as the texture of the mushroom contrasted against the chewy bacon strips.
The unagi's pretty much my favourite stick out of the three.
Well, I tried a bit of my sister's...and I must say that their nomiyaki set taste quite refreshing.
Where was I? Ah yes. Coming back to my title. It's weird having the staff workers shouting irasshaimase when I can't even heard it clearly above the din of the crowd.
What's more ironic was that most of the chefs are from China. Most of them probably wouldn't give a dam about saying the greeting and even if they do, it's probably half-hearted.
With that saying, the service standards could certainly be improved by a bit. No..make that a lot.
The nomiyaki stall had such a long queue...and it was probably due to a hestiant build-up between the cashier and the two China cooks. They really need to refine their order-taking process.
Also, the walkway on the right side of the food court( point of view from the inside), where most of the stalls are located, is DAM narrow.
Imagine 12 people trying to dance a jiggle around their way to their tables while carrying a hot bowl of ramen/big plate of rice etc. Not very smart of the management is it? I mean...narrow's fine...but that's for off-peak hours. For peak hours?
An absolute nightmare.
I have not tried the sushi yet...but at $2.40 for 16 pieces?
Bye bye Sushi Deli, Hellooooo Ishi Mura!
So yea, the next time you are in the area, feel free to pop in and take a look around.
Who knows, maybe I might even be able to take my classmates there some other time=P
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