Monthly Archives: November 2012

Kilo at Pact

So after dinner, we headed down towards Orchard Central to check out this new place called Kilo at Pact. They are a boutique cum cafe – a very quaint concept in the Orchard area. 🙂

sign

from the outside

Counter where you order from

So we ordered just some drinks and desserts to share:

Yuzu Spritzer

 

Osmanthus O’cha

Earl Grey tea

Chocolate Tart

and of course my favourite!!!!

Foundant chocolate cake!!! with banana Ice-cream and Strawberry

Close Up 🙂

 

Verdict: 2.5/4 of us will return for desserts only

Troopie Grace complained the spritzer was just small and pricey for its size.

But the dessert .. the Chocolate tart was not too heavy, but rich at the same time.
The foundant cake, paired with the banana ice-cream ( I never really seen this flavour of ice-cream around) was quite delightful. 🙂 I enjoyed both the deserts thoroughly 🙂

 

Kilo at Pact
181 Orchard Road
#02-16/17/18/19
Orchard Central

Tamaya Dinning

finally met up with the gang 🙂 thanks to troopie Ali and beaties for organizing.

so decided to go down cuppage for Japanese dinner!
I wanted to bring them to Shinjuku Izakaya, but the place was quite full… so we headed to the terrace and settled for Tamaya dinning

So for appetizers, we had

Otooshi – pickled Tako (octopus)

and so we ordered to share between us

 

3 kinds of Sashimi – Tuna, Salmon and Meikiji(Sword fish)

Niku Jyaga (Beef and Potato Stew)

Buta Salad (Pork Salad)

Mentaiko Pasta

Chawan Mushi

after opening the cap .. close up

Oden

Tsukune Tare ( Minced Chicken patty with quail’s egg)

Tebasake (Grilled Salt Chicken Wings)

 

Verdict: 2.5/4 of us will return.
I think my troopers are not very used to this style of Japanese cooking. Then again, they mentioned they liked the Mentaiko pasta – that it was very buttery and creamy, as well as the niku Jyaga.

But I personally quite like this place …. one of my favourite place for oden, as well as the mentaiko pasta.  🙂

Will definitely return!!

and now.. DESSERT!!! 🙂

Tamaya dining
45 Cuppage Road
Cuppage Terrace

 

 

Au Chocolat

Following our lunch, Troopie Plonks and I went to try out this new place called Au Chocolat.

See how huge this place takes up! This is just the restaurant part of it …

I will  just let the pictures do the talking

We started from here

Display of the macaroons

 

and many other deserts ++++

So with so many choices, I felt like a kid lost in toy’r’us .. but even better! A HUGE CHOCOLATE SHOP!!!  .. 🙂

We proceeded to the restaurant part and started our orders. We decided we wanted something to balance out the chocolate drink, so we ordered:

Caramel Apple Skillet topped with walnuts and Vanilla Ice-cream

 

Have you heard of a literal frozen hot chocolate? frozen hot chocolate does not = to ice chocolate. They are two different things altogether. See, from my experience, ice chocolate means, cold chocolate flavoured milk, cream/sometimes ice-cream and chocolate syrup + powder blended up and topped with ice cream. Frozen hot chocolate is literally, hot chocolate frozen, topped and decked with cream. As below:

Frozen Hot Chocolate

and let me just take a close up of one spoon of this delight

Close up

Chocolate goodness indeed 🙂

Verdict: 2/2 of us will definitely return here! Especially for a chocolate fix! They also serve high tea (which we regret not trying), menu seemed quite extensive.

The apple skillet – I only wished the base was slightly more heated up .. if not for that, overall this dish was pretty good. Nothing to niche pick about but just something nice to go along with this super uberly rich chocolate drink.

 

The literal Frozen Hot Chocolate is so going down my chocolate drinks dictionary! It was so rich and after one sip, we just started giggling at each other. Immediate Sugar high?  perhaps. The feeling of bliss – all condensed into this drink 🙂

Marina Bay Sands
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
L1-03
10 Bayfront Avenue, 
Singapore 018956

H Y California

my dear troopie plonks asked me out to celebrate my birthday! Blessed indeed to have friends that want to celebrate my birthday 🙂

because I had something on earlier in the day, she came down to Marina Bay Sands to meet me for lunch. I am so glad and thankful for her! 🙂 yesterday was such a crappy day for me – had to survive through a rude crappy interview, but really, am thankful she made the effort to come down and meet me 🙂

I was really craving sushi after watching this documentary on sushi.. Its called Jiro Sushi, about this sushi master in Japan who is 80 over years old, and awarded 3  Michelin stars! We have very much to learn from him, his attitude towards his work.. It is just amazing.  “Even at my age in my work, I have not reached perfection” – Jiro Ono

ok.. so back to this place, we just walked in since we seem to only find this place around (that doesn’t do much damage to the pocket as well)

Entrance

Peek inside

 

This place is very nicely situated. The view is just fantastic.

View

Imagine this place at night!!!

ok.. so we just ordered a few dishes to share (because we are aiming for the desserts at this newly opened chocolate shop within MBS)

Salmon Sashimi

and we thought we try the fusion ‘singapore style infused Japanese sushi’

Crunchy Tuna Roll : Chopped Fatty Tuna, TEMPURA Crunch, Garlic Chip, Salsa & Chilli Sauce

Singapore Chilli “TEMPURA” Crab Roll : Snow Crab Leg TEMPURA, Iceburg Lettuce, Tomato, Homemade Chilli Crab Sauce

Verdict: 0.5/2 of us will return.
The sashimi was just ok .. it did not look very appealing .. the rolls, well for the tuna roll, we were expecting it to be slightly different. From the description, we thought the whole thing together would be like a sashimi and a little crunch to it? but .. it did not turn out as such .. it was overall mushy .. and just the sauce was disappointing as well.

The crab roll, hmm i would say is the better out of the two .. It’s quite an interesting experience to mix chilli crab sauce and Japanese snow crab together. I just didn’t think to use the rice paper roll was necessary. Should have just stuck to seaweed instead.

But nonetheless, am feeling so grateful and thankful she took the time and effort to have a meal with me to celebrate 😀

 

Marina Bay Sands
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
L1-86, BAY LEVEL
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! and Happy Shopping online/cyber monday deals 🙂
I hope that it is not only today that you feel a sense of gratitude towards people that have been there for you – or a momentary thing to be nice. Its not easy to cross paths, and don’t take anyone for granted!
For the life moments, the dark times and happy times, the times that you just wished you could freeze it. Then again, Growth is often painful an dscary. There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain. We fear these losses, even if our old ways were self-defeating, because , like a worn out pair of shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar.
Every change involves a loss of some kind: You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new.
Pray that everyone have a good thanksgiving! 🙂 and

Little Part One

To continue our red line adventures, we said that we will continue trying out hideaway along the red line. [ by red line, it is in the context of MRT lines, the main red and green line? yup]

So we decided to make at trip down to Little Part one to try their mains!

and a quick glance around

Surroundings

so we both ordered drinks

Double Shot latte

and for troopie gracie

Pear Cider

*disclaimer* please do not drink and drive! and if you are under aged just wait till you are legal.

and for our mains, I ordered something light because I am wanted back home for dinner. I thought I go light with a salad.. but when it came, I was shocked but the portion. ITs HUGE!

Chicken Salad

and for troopie gracie,

Ribs

I liked how at the bottom on the menu they actually put up this notice:

no wastage indeed

Verdict: 2/2 of us will return.

They are not only generous with their portions, we also felt that the price wise was pretty reasonable. The environment is also very quiet and I would recommend this place for catch ups, or even just to chill and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Troopie grace mentioned that her  ribs were very tender and not over cooked. The meat came off the bone very easily and its also moist.

My salad was really huge but nicely done as well.  The dressing after a while however, was abit too much to manage.

But nonetheless, a very nice chill out from a week of business!

Looking forward to check out the new next place along the red line 🙂

Little Part One
15 Jasmine Road
Singapore 576584

 

East Ocean Teochew Restaurant

As mentioned before in my past posts, and as you loyal readers would also know how Dim Sum is a very favourite and agreeable meal among all my family members.

So we decided to go check out the newly renovated and shifted East Ocean Teochew Restauarant at Takashimaya. It was formerly at Shaw Center where Isetan is.

Center piece

hairy crab season!

parking zone

It’s nice to see they still retain the same theme and style. The place is still mad packed with waiters and waitresses running around. The ‘new’ thing I realised about this place is (or maybe haven’t been back here for such a long time that I forgot about this), their style of serving their dim sum is more ‘traditional’. Well not old school to the extent that there are push carts, but the servers will come out with assorted dim sum for you to choose from.  The waitresses and waiters here I must say, they really know how to ‘sell’ you what they are serving. If I were their boss I would be quite proud to have them around.

so anyway, cutting to the chase,  we were first served some tea to cleanse our palette and prepare ourselves for whats ahead:

Just to cleanse your palette

Looking around, the interior set up really reminds me of a typical Hong Kong Chinese restaurant, except that you won’t be sitting with strangers if there are not enough people to make up one table.

interior

so to cut to the chase, this was what we thought was ok .. manageable .. won’t really die for these dishes:

Char Siew Cheong fun ( bbq pork rice rolls)

Spinach in superior stock with minced meat and seafood

Satay you yu (cuttle fish)

fa gao (fish stomach) soup

glutinous rice

Our favourites were :

Pan Fried Carrot Cake

Min Har Kok (Prawn Dumplings)

Prawn in beancurd sheets

Yam Cake

Fu Pei Kin ( beancurd sheets wrapped with prawn etc)

po lo char siew pau

you cai (Blanched kailan)

si you chow min (soya sauce fried noodles)

Hairy crab Xiao Long Pau

Pi Dan Porridge

Verdict: 4/4 of us will return.

The standard of this place never drops.. well from our memory of how the food was last time, and now .. The standard is very much maintained.

My favourite was the pan-fried rice rolls – I love the sauce. It’s very different from those eaten outside. I apologise my pictures does not do justice to the appearance and taste of it. A common dish but uniquely cooked their style – very much resembling Hong Kong style in my opinion.

The kailan (vegetable) – cannot be underestimated. The way its prepared and cooked, although looks like the  simplest dish on the table, is just like Hong Kong (only not as oily as Hong Kong’s standard). The stem is crunchy and the leaves are not withered from over boiling it. The trick I think, is either to blanch it fast, or when they dip into cold water for a while to ensure the “crunchy-ness” of the stem texture. I like one of my favourite vegetable done this way 🙂

Because its hairy crab season, as part of the seasonal menu, there is hairy crab xiao long bao (super huge!) and very juicy. You could taste the essence of the hairy crab in the soup within the bao. The skin as well, is very thin so be gentle and handle with care!

My dad’s favourite is still the fried noodles. For some reason, we don’t and can’t seem to find this kind of noodles around in the dim sum spots we eat in. *digress* I remember watching Hong Kong drama serials, and they dipped the noodles into the congee/porridge and eat it. When I verified it with my Hong Kong Colleagues last time, they did not know of such eating methods. LOL  .. goodness hahahaa .. but I guess for people who love their carbs, you can have a double carb combo in adopting this method to eat!  works especially when you are in a hurry!

For the prawn dishes, the prawn taster said this was just divine. Just for this place, he is willing and accepts that the filling inside is not one whole entire prawn, but he says overall the dumplings were not too floury and starchy. The beancurd sheets prawn dishes were more preferred. (Maybe it comes with age – fried things don’t go down well with the mentai monster who is going to be rounded up the 30s bracket age group).

As for the rest of the dishes, nothing really great to shout about.
Rice rolls were too thick.
For a change, the fa gao soup was just mediocre, but not that great either. It was not bad but not fantastic until you want to roll around the table.

We were too stuffed to fill our stomachs up with the ultimate lau sar bao. But if you do get a chance, well my family stands by the lau sar bao here as being one of the best in Singapore.

Click here to see what we had for our first visit.

P.s. DO REMEMBER TO MAKE RESERVATIONS! ESPECIALLY FOR DIM SUM SUNDAYS! Otherwise, don’t even think of trying to get a place here through walk-ins.

East Ocean Teochew Restaurant
391 Orchard Road #05-08/09
Ngee Ann City
Singapore 238872

Christmas Christmas

Christmas is one of my favourite season of the year!
As you can see from my blog’s background picture – yes it was even barely before November and I already purposely designed the blog in Christmas-y theme.
Presents aside, Don’t you think its one of the happier season of the year to top off the whole year? Be it a shitty year or a superb year,  a jolly way to end it off… And of course, the time of the year to just reward yourself and re-charge for the next year ahead!

Imagine all the Christmas goodness : Beef, mushrooms, chestnuts, puff pastry all this goodness coming together!!!!! *YUM

so this post is going to be slightly different. ..
My excited mother, after discovering recipes on youtube ( shes very proud to be one of the most tech savy person among her friends.. thanks to children like me that teach them how to use ;p) . She has a passion for cooking and thats where we all also develop our fussy taste buds.
She found this recipe by Gordan Ramsay – the swearing chef – and decided to try it out … ( don’t worry  he doesnt swear in there)

Please click on the title “Beef Wellington” below to access the youtube video on how to make this awesome dish.

Beef Wellington

freshly out of the Oven

and .. on closer up

one slice

close up

*disclaimer we don’t own the recipe to this dish nor the video.

My mum said if only her cling wrap was of a better material, the filling with the mushroom and chestnut would be more evenly spread out. The ingenuity of this dish is that, the beef is not over cooked when you bake it together with the puff pastry, and moist at the same time. It came out the perfect texture and temperature.

I know what I am having for Christmas! Hope you all feel inspired to try this out for your own Christmas dinners too!

 

 

Happy Birthday Onezero

Happy Birthday to me!!
yes! one of my many nick names is onezero.
So my dear friends decided to celebrate my birthday at this place called zero zero at central. [Onezero goes zero zero] *faints

Entrance

ahhaa so the four of us met and ….

Balloon for me!!!

So this place in general is pretty chillax .. Theres live music to accompany your dinning experience ,

live band

+ 2 waiters that claim they are show luo and andy lau .  .. so hahaha playful friendly staff.

so we went ahead with the Something on the Rock set menu, which consist of,  Amuse Bouche, Cold Dish, Side dish/soup, Main Course and Dessert.

So our Amuse Bouche:

for 2 🙂

Foe gras + Peach Shot, Potato cake with Tabiko (fish eggs) and Sear scallop with Watermelon

We were instructed to eat starting from the shot glass downwards to end off with the scallop and watermelon to cleanse our palettes and prepare for what is to come 🙂

for starters, 3 of us ordered the smoked duck with apple,

Smoked duck with apple

 

and troopie Jean ordered the maguro(tuna) tataki carpaccio .

Maguro Tataki Carpaccio

Following that, we all spontaneously ordered Truffle oil mushroom soup

Truffle Oil Mushroom Soup

Following that, troopie Jean and Janice ordered for their mains:

Duck Confit with Potato Slice

and both troopie grace and I ordered the Pork Collar + miso sauce on Hoba Leaf.

Pork Collar on Hoba Leaf + Miso sauce

and of course, dessert.  Both troopie Jan and I ordered

Chocolate Cheese Cake

and both troopie grace and Jean ordered:

Crispy Puff. Banana. Ice-Cream

 

Verdict: 2.5/4 of us will return.

The amuse Bouche was pretty innovative.  I didn’t know scallop and watermelon actually went together! Interesting combination! Although i don’t think the rest of them liked the combination and found it quite weird.

The soup was a little too saltish for troopie Jean and Me. But for the salt partners troopie Grace and Jan, they just thought it was alright for them.

Our sides were all ok .. not a big shout out to start off with.

For the mains, we all actually wanted to order the steak on hoba leaf. The Andy Lau waiter said that it was sold out .. so  😦 the pork I reckon personally is not that a good idea .. its so hard to cook the pork thoroughly  .. and pink uncooked parts of the pork makes it abit hard to eat because of the porky taste .. The onions were  too overpowering.
The duck confit team, slightly too saltish for troopie Jean, but ok for Troopie Janice. They liked the potato.

Desserts wise, The puff team enjoyed theirs quite thoroughly. The puff was not softened by the ice-cream in the middle and maintained its ‘crispyness’. Banana topped off the dessert on the whole.  Chocolate cheese cake was not too sweet and nicely balanced out.

To further lighten the night, with compliments from the restaurant:

Thanks!

Thanks friends for organizing! 🙂
Great service kinda makes up for the food, but great company enriches the dinning experience.
Zero Zero
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
The Central,
#04-86
Singapore 0589817

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sia Kee Duck Rice

What is life without duck rice?

m i s e r y

I grew up eating this stall of braised duck rice, and I must say till today, the standard does not drop, but the price inflates.
I recognise this stall by their red plates and bowls.

Nowadays, with technology, its so convenient to just go and place an order over the phone and swing by to pick up.
Instead of always having to stand around and wait for places to sit down on the table in the hot sun, all at the convenience of your all home 🙂

Sia Kee Duck Rice occupies the same coffee shop as the famous Sin Huat Seafood. Sin Huat Seafood operates at night, and in the day time Sia Kee Duck Rice. There is also a turtle soup shop round the corner, so for all the gutsy people who love to eat/drink exotic food,  do make a trip down to try this delicacy.

1 Duck coming up

Fish Cake and Peanuts

 

and of course, duck rice is never complete, without the holy grail : the s a u c e

Sauce

Verdict: 4/4 of us will definitely return for this 🙂

This dish might look really simple and easy, but there is alot of effort that goes into it. From the basic slicing of the duck – it takes real skill to do that. One time when we bought this back, the cut of the duck was grainy and rough, although it was from the same stall. It is a father and son team, but we think the father cuts the meat better than his son.  It was also then we realised that the way the duck is sliced is also quite a skill to acquire. Additionally, it does make a difference to the taste and texture of the duck meat, with all being equal.

The fishcake and peanuts are our must order when we are at this stall. There is just something about their fishcake – that it is soft yet ‘bouncy’, just the way we all like it.

The sauce to us differs from all the other stalls outside only because its thicker and richer than those you get outside. The sauce is the make and break factor for duck rice.

The rice is of course, well seasoned and not to saltish. You can also alternatively choose porridge (I prefer porridge) if you are not that hungry that day.

* P.s. The uncle mentioned that he also sells duck intestine? for those that love innards, duck intestine sold here looks like a transparent fish cake. There is no taste to it (to me) . This is only available on weekends.

**pps, if you intend to drive down to ta bao or dine there, do park along geylang lorong 35 otherwise its pretty hard to get parking around that area.

and of course, you can always call and place an order to take away before going to pick it up.

Sia Kee Duck Rice
659 Lorong 35 Geylang
Tel: 97575255