Sushi Seizan at Bugis Cube

We were in the area, and realized that Sushi Seizan was just two buildings away in the almost dilapidated and weird Bugis Cube. If you're driving and need to park, the nearest parking is at the National Library. Guocco Midtown is too far in the rain, and if you directly opposite at Bugis Junction, you'll have to meander through the mall to get to ground level.  

The Edomae-style restaurant is opened by Chefs Hiro and Chef Yoshi. It's a casual spot with six seats at the counter, and about eight seats in a private room. By now, we've gone there twice, the second time with our friends. We didn't need fancy sushi restaurants that charge us S$600 a head. We wouldn't mind something casual, and less pricey, and are more open to trying out new and tiny places with limited menus, and helmed by younger and less experienced chefs. 

I don't know if the chefs prefer to do it this way, but the rice is a tad too vinegared. Whatever it is, they can cure fish. They doesn't have many shiny fish since I assume his diners wouldn't like it. Tonight, Chef Yoshi doesn't have shima aji. He offered aji. That would do. 

We didn't opt for the higher-priced menu. That would simply see more tuna, and wagyu beef, and some fancier soups than our rather-thin and sad seaweed soup. However, we weren't interested in those. If we wanted, we would simply add on more sushi to what we had. It's always fish that I'm looking for, not beef, and not fancy cooked items or ankimo or anything like that. 

We took the basic $188 menu. Chef Yoshi knew that I decline all tuna, so this smart dude didn't even offer me bonito. Hahahahah I indeed dislike it. It's from the same family of tuna and mackerel. I don't mind bonito flakes, but not the meat. I very much prefer mackerel over tuna too. 

The 'handroll' was a crepe instead of seaweed. The husband got a negitoro thingy, and I got all uni. Hehehehe. We had a final dose of carbs in the form of a smoked uni sushi, and I got an extra piece of aji! Wheeeee. For smoked uni, we were given a choice of bafun or murasaki. I like bafun for its stronger pungency. It was indeed smoked in a little bowl, so using murasaki would have been wasted.  

Tonight's dessert was a chestnut cake of sorts. Luckily we only asked for one serving for us both instead of one each. We could never finish dessert unless it's fruits. We didn't bother with having sake tonight as well. It was a very hot night. I couldn't deal with anything else but a cold and refreshing glass of highballs all the way. 

Had Asador's Beef Tartare!

I ended work at 8pm and took a trot down to dinner at Asador at 8.45pm. Luckily we made a booking. Indoors was a full-house running on two seatings. They had to turn away walk-ins. Although nobody would want to sit outdoors without an overhead fan on a hot and muggy night.

I was right. There were only two high tables outdoors and the other was empty. This dinner would have been unbearable in this heat and humidity. So I brought our own fans. Choya had one too. It is hot, why complain more about it. I'll just find an acceptable solution. 

Started with anchovies on toast and Japanese oysters. The husband finally got to taste the beef tartare on fried polenta. It was really good. It was supposed to be mixed in table-side. But us sitting outdoors ain't conducive for it. We also had blistered Padrón peppers and the grilled hispi cabbage with anchovy garlic dressing and fried kale.

The husband ate too mucth already, so his main was a 'lighter' chargrilled squid stuffed with chorizo on mojo verde. The grilled Iberico pork shoulder with mojo picon was nice, but honestly it was a tad fatty for me. I think I would simply do fish for mains the next time. The sea bream here is excellent.

We had a lovely bottle of wine, and didn't bother making it to dessert. LOL Choya did pretty all right with a fan; she knew it was essential tonight. She wasn't too bothered by the passers-by. She had a safe space under our feet and the table had sufficient space for her to even stretch out. Lingered to finish up the wine before heading off. 

Two Men and Their Whole Lives

This is a story about a long friendship between two men Carl and Jed who grew up in Montana, and are still living in Montana. This is 'Ordinary Wear and Tear' by Thomas McGuane, published in The New Yorker on April 29, 2026.

I don't know what readers are supposed to feel about Carl and Jed, given their differences that was set out right from the start. Carl grew up with financial security and became a lawyer. Jed was adopted by parents who didn't quite care about him and had to enrol in the R.O.T.C (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) to pay for college, and seemed to have a precarious hold on financial success. 

Carl went to Pomona College to get away from his home town and his parents, but it only made him love them more. Jed attended the state university and lived off campus, indulging in a cavalcade of liaisons. He needed R.O.T.C. in order to meet his college expenses. By the time Jed got out of the National Guard, where he crewed on helicopters, Carl was already on his way to a comfortable life. Jed got a job at a title company. Two eligible bachelors.

Shirley Crane is a woman from Albuquerque who moved into their town. Her developer-parents bought the savings-and-loan building and turned it into a luxury condominium. I assumed Shirley was a teenager then. The two boys got to know her. She married Carl TWICE. Of course both times, the marriages fell apart. Shirley fleeced Carl for enough money for an apartment in Kauai, Hawaii. 

Jed watched; convinced that his friend was mad in drowning in grief over the broken marriage instead of hitting the gym. Jed wasn't interested in marriage very much. But he slept with Shirley Crane a few days before her divorce became final. Somehow, Carl and Shirley got back together and are re-stating their vows, but they split again in ninety days. 

Shirley Crane has somehow become a fault line in the men's relationship that crumbled. The friendship was sort of broken after the second divorce. Is it truly about her, or really about them and unresolved issues from way back when. Then Carl got together with his secretary Jenny, and that was a totally new direction in the two men's lives. 

“As it should be,” Carl said. He led Jed into the living room, where they sat before a rock fireplace with a gas log, and, above it, a painting of a wagon train, a woman in a bonnet driving the oxen. It hadn’t been there when Jed was last in the house. It must have been a reference to Carl’s pioneer family. What an eyesore. “Jenny and I are getting married,” Carl announced. “We’ve been close since I don’t know when. It’s time to act. In a way, I’m grateful that you disrupted my life. It’s been a long way around the horn, but I’m with the right girl now. We have no secrets.” Carl paused and Jed didn’t speak. “I’m at last coming out of a very dark place. Yes, I’m moving toward the light.” He stared into his coffee for a moment, before lifting his eyes and holding Jed’s gaze. “Jed, I’ve waited all this time to tell you to your face that I hate you.”

“I understand.”

That was it. Carl saw him to the door, clutching his bathrobe as the snow blew in. Jed stopped when it shut behind him. Was this, finally, the end? Still, they had the long years of friendship to overcome this mishap. Jed felt it was inevitable that they would eventually reconcile.

Opportunities in the small town dwindled. Carl and Jenny eventually sold the house and moved away to Helena. Jed stayed in town, and at the end of the story, we kinda see him fall back into the same patterns. No commitment, simple complicated entanglements, and as Jenny had said it years ago, “Jed, your zipper problems have caused so much heartache in this town.”

In an interview with the same journal, the author is asked about the title chosen for this story. The author explained, 

It’s a story about mating and its preliminaries, the longing for permanence among unstable humans. Desire is restrained or disorderly, and, in either case, it exacts some toll. That’s hardly unusual; in fact, it’s ordinary.