One-Ninety - No Souffle!

My first brush with 4-Seasons Sunday Brunch was about a decade ago when I was still in colleage. We were on our way to Mezza 9 (if my memory serves me right) and I was told that 4-seasons serves the best Sunday brunch with a fabulous souffle station in Singapore. That sentence has been etched in my mind ever since.

So 10 years later, I finally have the oppotunity to validate this statement. Naturally, it was a visit with very high expectations.
The 1st spolier came when I called to make reservations, I was told that the brunch runs from 1115 to 3pm but divided into 2 seatings meaning we have to keep check on time as each seating is limited to about 2 hours. Dang....

So came sunday and we were all ready to feast ourselves silly within the limited 2 hour span.
The brunch spills out of the restaurant into the walkway and the corridor lining the lift from the carpark mainly consisting of the following stations: -

1. Chinese
There is a roast meat station with some dim sum items along side the laksa station. I did not bother with the chinese station at all but Mr HB reported that the laksa is pretty good.

2. Japanese and seafood
The japanese offering is really limited with only sushi and sahimi. The sashimi variety is also lacking with only 3-4 types of cuts. In front of the japanese station is the oyster spread. There are 2 types - canadian and irish. I tried the canadian oysters, there are fresh and delicious. Also in the seafood station is the prawns on ice which was skipped by me. I would expect that the seafood spread be more "extravagent" for the big price tag that it commanded.

3. Salad and Wrap station
Skipped this also.

4. Risotto stationYou have a choice between parmesan cheese and white truffle oil for your risotto rice. We ordered both to share amongst us. The parmesan version is more flavourful and the white truffle version rather lacking in taste, both pretty forgettable.

5. Pasta station
We had a pesto fettucine with garlic from this station. It is not bad but again not something that had us going for seconds.

6. Egg station
How can anyone miss out eggs in a sunday brunch? This was actually the first station that I headed to. You can have your eggs done anyway you wished. I had 2 egg benedicts that day. This was one of the more impressionable dish I had for the entire brunch. The egg is served on top of a piece of ham piled onto a english muffin bread with lots of cheese on top, this is simply delicious.

7. Grill station
This is the only other station that had me gg for seconds other than the egg station. There is a range of meats from ribeye, lamb, chicken breast, salmon, pork loin to choose from and you can have it according to your prefernce of doneness. I had a piece of salmon and ribeye of which the salmon is overcooked and dry and the ribeye is erm...I think I can get better ribeye steaks at a fraction of the price.
BUT, the saving grace is the foi gras. This is very juicy and tender, I helped myself to 2 servings of this before it became too jer lat to down anymore.

8. Cheese, bread and cracker station.
Skipped this as well.

9. Dessert station
Now, I had really really HIGH expectation of the dessert station and was expecting to see different types of souffle available for my selection but alas was missing! I hate to repeat myself but there is NO souffle station.
Looking around somemore, hoping to find something that will help to redeem the letdown due to the mysterious absence of the souffle only to discover that the spread of dessert is sorely limited, out of which I only find the sacher torte and strawberry cheese cake lived up to my classification of "good", the tiramisu and hazelnut praline just did not leave any impression.
After just 2 rounds from the dessert station, I gave up.

10. Martini and Juice Bar
Nope, the ice machine where u pour in your martini and collect it from the other end is gone, instead u have a bartender shaking it up for u. You get to choose from a list of 5 flavours.

There is also a variety of juices to choose from.I was expecting more, a lot more for the price of this sunday brunch, so needless to say, I was very disappointed by the lack of variety and quality find for this sunday brunch.
The only thing I find that justifies the hefty price tag is prbly the fact that there is a child care room that looks after ur kids while u kick back and enjoy a very time-limited sunday brunch (and the martini if u drink).

So I guess, this is a place I won't be coming back for in a long long time.

P.S. Melt stays at the #1 spot, unchallenged on my list of best buffets in Singapore. If anyone feels that there is a better place for buffet do let me know.

Must Tries: Egg benedict, foi gras

Tapas Wine Bistro - A great place to eat, drink and be merry!

I was very priviledged to be able to join a group of very nice and fun people for this food tasting session at Tapas Wine Bistro on this day.
Many thanks to Kenneth, HGW for this wonderful dinner and the group of other reviews that made this evening a very pleasant and enjoyable one.

1. Spanish Olives
First up was a "cupful" of green and black olives for our eager taste-buds. The olives were very fresh and serves as a good start to whet our already big appetities.

2. Cream Of Tomato
Nicely laid out on a smallish plate, the soup is served in a "cappucino-ish" cup accompanied by a heap of tomato cubes on the side. The soup is creamy and decimated by bits of tomato puree. I enjoy the soup quite a bit.

3. Pimentos, Seafood Gazpacho and Salmon Salad (3 types)
Salads...hmm...Salad is just salad so unless u are a health freak or on a veggie diet, I suggest u go for the other stuff as Taps Wine have lots more to offer u.

4. Garlic Bread
This is one finger-licking garlic bread. Thickly cut pieces of grilled bread, dosed with generous amount of garlic is really addictive. This came with some spicy, sweet dip that u can eat ur bread with but I prefer it just as it is.

5. Tuna Tataki
Pan-seared tuna served with raddish. The lightly seared tuna is melt-in-ur-mouth tender and even for a non-tuna fan, I find this very enjoyable and cannot stop myself to 2nd helpings of this.

6. Prosciutto di Parma wrapped Cantaloupe
This received many praises from the table but I find this rather normal. Essentially rock melon wrapped in parma ham.

7. Oyster Shooters
Now, this is a really innovative dish. Served in 2 shot glasses are oysters topped with a tomato sauce in 1 and vodka lined with tabasco at the bottom in another. They are meant to be downed in 2 mouthfuls - 1 shot glass each mouth. The oysters were fresh and the tomato did the trick for this tomato lover. However, only order this if u are a oyster lover or vodka addict. The vodka proved to be too strong for me and I only took a small sip.

8. Stir Fried Wild Mushroom
This is served together with sourdough bread and quail eggs. Simply grab a piece of sourdough bread, top it with lots of mushroom and quail egg and pop it into ur mouth. Fantastic combination! I did find myself enjoying this dish.

9. Escargot Champignon
Escargot lined with mushroom. Order this only if u r an escargot person.

10. Tortilla Espanola - with smoked salmon
This is another dish that I like. Fried onion adds fragrance and potato adds bite to the omelette. Slapped with lots of sour cream and pieces of smoked salmon, it is an explosive mixture of flavours - all of which I enjoy very much.

11. Angus Beef Cubes
This is one of the signature dish of Tapas Wine. Little cubes of premium grade beef competently grilled resulted in very tender pieces of good tasting meat.

12. Tiger Prawn - Bacon-ed
This is one of my favourite dish for the night. Imagine big pieces of tiger prawns wrapped with bacon, grilled to perfection. Each bite is bursting with flavours from the juicy prawn and crispy streaky bacon. Do try this one if u are in Tapas Wine.

After all this food, one would have thought that we are done. But we were then told by Kenneth that we are now ready to move onto our Main Course.
Can u believe that all that we ate are just "apetizers"?
Most of us are too full by now to eat more than a few mouthful of each of the main course which is really a shame as they have some really nice food esp pastas.

Arroz Ala Marinera & Arroz Negro - these 2 are spanish rice entrees, one cooked with seafood based stock and the other squid ink. I find that the flavours of rice somewhat lacking and a little tough to chew on. They were however both served with very generous amount of seafood - mussels, prawns and scallops.
The pastas are generally quite good. My favourites include the carbonara(I am quite based when it comes to cream based pasta) and surprisingly bolognese, something that I usually dismissed as a commonly found pasta dish. To be honest, if not for this tasting session I don't think i'll ever order this. The bolognese sauce is very flavouful and packed a punch together with the plentiful chunks of delicious beef, pure enjoyment. Spicy Cho1zo Pasta leave little impression on me though.

After stuffing in all this food, we have finally arrived at desserts. I can't believe I am saying this - we are actually at the point of rejecting food. We pleaded with Kenneth to reduce the desserts in an attempt to prevent our shirts from bursting. LOL

1. Lemon Gelato - the tanginess of the lemon came through, interwined with sweetness is very refreshing change after all the heavy duty meats and flavours. It is served in an empty lemon zest.

2. Coppa Tartufo - I missed this as I had to visit the toilet (too much drinks) and by the time I got back, it is gone so I guess this must have been pretty good?

3. Double Chocolate Shots - A sinful concoction of white and dark chocolate in liquid form. A sweet end to the fantastic fare this evening.

In short, Tapas Wine Bistro have some really good food to offer, together with a chic environment and extensive drink list. A good choice for chilling out with friends after a long day of work.

Must Tries: Grilled Bread with Garlic Infused Butter, Tortilla Espanola, Tiger Prawn - Bacon-ed, Bolognese, Carbonara, Tuna Tataki, Angus Beef Tenderloin Cubes

Dragon i - Decent Shanghainese Fare at reasonable prices

The first thought that struck me is the uncanning resemblance to Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung in it's Concept.
Decked in black, the layout of the restaurant is both modern and chic.

Mr HB and I decided to have (one of) our lunch here during our most recent visit to Sunway Pyramid. We were seated at the full length glass panel over looking sunway lagoon (read: hot). While my daughter was having fun looking at what everyone is doing in the lagoon X metres below us, we were struggling a little under the hot sun rays penetrating thru the glass panels.

After browsing thru the menu, we decided to order 1 entree to share and some dim sum items as it was quite early for lunch (before 12). The reason why we had to eat so early was because my son was sleeping and it is ONLY during his nap time that we can eat in peace. I keep wishing that this period would fast forward itself as eating at odd hours is not exactly fun.

But anyway, we ordered the "lion head" (giant meat ball) claypot noodles, steamed custurd buns, shanghainese pan fried meat bun. Unfortunately, one of my favourite dessert dim sum item - the "gao li duo sha" (red bean paste in some egg/banana bun) that I wanted to order was not available.
We were informed that there is a waiting time of 20min for the "lion head", since we are in no hurry we told her that we are ok with that.
The custurd buns are the first to arrive. Mr HB made the mistake of braking up the buns into half in 1 swift motion as the contents of the custurd buns are in liquid form.

But that did served as a good warning to me as I cautiously poked holes to cool the custurd. The custurd bun was delicious with creamy, sweet and salty fluid flowing into your mouth with every bite. The pan fried meat buns were the next to arrive. It looks quite big but the meat to bun ratio is quite low which drastically reduced the shiok factor.
The last to be served the the "lion head" claypot noodles. Piping hot, the meat ball was indeed huge embedded in a claypot full of yellow noodles and a sea of braised gravy/soup(?). The well marinated meat ball tasted really good and the noodles was smooth. I guess I'll be visiting this eatery again when I can.

Must Tries: Lion head claypot noodles, custurd bun

Equinox - Snobbish Staff

Mr HB and I made our way to their hi-tea buffet on a weekday.
The way up to equinox was to go thru the bar to a lift that will take u up 70 storeys high.

We were then met by a staff manning a counter telling us rather curtly that hi-tea only starts at 3.30pm. The attitude of the lady was what I would classfiy as snobbish and it did dampen my spirits a little.
Honestly, they need to update their website as it says 3pm and in the end we had to sit around and wait for 30min before we can appease our growling stomachs.

Anyway after what seems like forever, we were allowed to take the lift up to equinox.
The view as mentioned by many previous reviewers is magnificent. The entire skyline of singapore is within ur view and it is an interesting to eat at such high altitude.

The spread of the hi-tea is not too bad. There is a row of cooked food displayed among which the best would have to be their lamb rack. It is pink in the middle and very tender. I had 4 servings of this alone!
Others include mussles, roasted chicken, duck, ee-fu noodles and fried rice which are all not too bad but just not mind-blowing. There is also a station serving teriyaki chicken, peking duck style. Think peking duck in a crepe but with chicken and teriyaki sauce instead. This comes across tasteless so after the first bite there was no sequel....
There is a section with ingredients for you to make ur own prawn soup noodle but this again failed to ignite any sparks as Mr HB dismissed it as bland, so I did not bother myself with this.
At one corner, there is also a live station featuring pasta where they serve ur choice of pasta with either cream or tomato based sauce. It was again relatively tasteless.

There is also a variety of salad in the salad section for you to start with which was entirely skipped by me, so not much information to offer.

The bread basket was plentiful with quite a no. of different variety. I only managed to squeeze in 1/2 a foccacia bun which was soft on the inside and crusty on the outside, would be fantastic to go with some creamy pumpkin soup which was unfortunately missing.

Being hi-tea, there are lots of snacks like sandwiches, scones, doughnuts, mini-quiche, baos, mini pies and also not forgetting the cakes and puddings. There are hits and misses here but I would say more misses than hits.
Worthy of mention is the mini smoked salmon bagel where the bagel is soft and chewy complemented by the slight "mushiness" of the smoked salmon. The rest of the sandwiches (that I tried) came across a tad dry and tough.
The cake offering is sorely limited with only mini chocolate fudge and mini cheese cake which is a huge disappointment to me which luckily proved to be decent enough.
There is also an ice-cream section with 4 different favours for u to choose from, and a variety of toppings to garnish including melted chocolate and vanilla to create ur own version of choco-cones.

Overall, the variety is commendable but all the station need to work on the taste factor of the food.
With the Feed@Raffles Card, we only paid $45 for 2 pax.

Tis the Season - Durian Galore

It's durian season again. I am surrounded by durian lovers - my father and my father0in-law (FIL) are avid durian lovers.
So chances of multiple durian sessions are inevitable during this period of time.

My dad picked up durian picking off some forrest in the vicinity last couple of years and during the season of the spikey fruit, he will have a bountiful harvest.
However, as these durians are not farmed, there is a high chance that these durians pulps are not that great, meaning to say they may be not too ripe and lack the creamy and rich taste. When this happens we try to make some derivatives from these pulps.

Since I have recently developed a love for baking, I decide to make a durian quickbread to "get rid" of them. I used the Banana Quickbread recipe and replace the banana with durian. But alas, the mashed durian pulp proved to be too much and I used too much in the 20cm square pan that the whole cake ended up too dense. There were still leftover durian so I baked another with a tube pan.

Surprisingly, there was a lack of durian fragrance during the baking which I anticipated. But overall, this durian quickbread was very dense and moist and tasted like almost like those brown durian paste (in stick form) pple get from the stores. And this is a taste that I do not take to. So I guess I will not be in a hurry to bake this again.

Another baking failure......

Banana Quickbread

The same day I made the healthful muffins, I proceeded to make this loaf of Banana Quickbread.

I got the recipe from Happy Home Baking, a baking site that I frequent due to the detail instructions from the author.

This was really quick and simple to make. I could not get any over-ripe bananas so I just went to NTUC and bough some ripe looking bananas. My MIL later told me that I shoulg get those that are small in size as those will taste better and have a strong aroma to the baked products.

Mr HB says that these tasted very bland and that the texture of the loaf is really coarse. But I think the taste is ok, packed with banana flavour and moist enough though the texture is really full of holes.

Blueberry Muffin

Unduanted by my last baking failure, I went ahead and tried a different recipe for muffin.

I came across a recipe for this blueberry muffins that are really heathy, no butter nor oil is used and in replcement, it uses yogurt.

I decided to give this a shot. The preparation and baking process was quite smooth this time and in about 30mins time, the muffins were in the tray and into the oven for baking.

I had 1 muffin the following morning and it tasted OK but lacks the usual buttery richness found in "normal" muffins.

Something to keep when one is on a diet.

Of Muffins and Cookies

I had to wait a week before I had the chance/time to bake again.

On a Saturday night (after a long day zipping around in JB) with a headache, I made my first batch of muffins.
After a long decision making process, I decided on chocolate chip muffin since I thought anything with chocolate ought to be a hit with most people.


Couple of glitches along the way. The first being not leaving the butter at room temperature for long enough, this causes the creaming process to be more difficult and the result is a not-so-fluffy tasty muffin. The second being the muffin cup was too small and this makes the muffin looks smaller and not as delicious without the dome. Other than these, the chocolate chip muffins turn out ok.


The following day I continued my baking stint and made some chocolate chip cookies. The whole process was quite disasterous. The cookie batter was relatively eacy to make but the baking was puntuated by difficulties. The recipe called for a 8-10min baking time but the total baking time for this batch of ccokies ended by close to 30 mins with 2 consecutive bakes as the centre of the cookie was uncooked!

So the outer rim of the cookie was very crispy and was browned out but the rest of the cookie was somewhat limp if you ask me.

I brought some for my colleagues and they finshed it up and most of them even commented that they were delicious! Talk about differences in standards.

My First Baking Entry!

I finally baked something!

I decided to start my baking adventures with scones for 2 reasons
1. I H.E.A.R.T them
2. They are easy enuf for me to attempt them.

I made them over the weekends, consecutively for 2 days.

Here, some illustrations of my hard-tolled products.

Ever since my SIL moved out, we have been void of a proper oven. What's left behing is a microwave oven that I use for my baking (mis)adventures.

My first recipe called for baking in the oven for 8-10mins but I ended up baking them for 20 due to my unfamiliarity with the microwave oven. But the scones turned out ok though my family commented that they tasted salty (could be due to the salt and/or the salted butter?).
The scones were quite dense probably due to the amount of milk that I used. The recipe called for 90ml and I think I ended using 200ml as the dough simply doesn't seem to be able to hold with flour falling off. And in the final stage I have poured in too much milk resulting in the dough to be sticky and hence the density of the scones.

The next day, I baked another 2 batches (with raisin this time) and tried with a higher temperature (230 degC) instead of the 180 the previous day. Again I made the same mistake of pouring too much milk. As a result the scones were browned on the outside and not totally cooked on the inside. I had to bake them at a lower temperature once more.

Not wanting to give up, I baked yet another batch of scones. This time round, I got the right dough, something that binds but does not stick to the hands. I was very happy when I managed to achieve that.
They turned out to be pretty tasty (by my standards).

Btw, I had scones for breakfast consecutively for 3 mornings after that.

Manhatten Fish Mart - Fishy Biz

My buddy will be jetting off to UK for a year come Sept08 so I promised her that we'll meet up more before her departure.
So yesterday we made plans to meet up for lunch with another good friend of ours.
Apparently all of us have a very bad concept of time and ended up meeting at 1245 instead of the arranged 1220. But anyway, after some quick brain stoming, we settled at the Manhatten Fish Mart for lunch and gossip.

Settling into a comfy sofa bench, we leisurely glanced thru the menu and decided to order the Seafood Platter meal to share after checking that it comes with 3 sets of soup and drinks.
One of the girls wanted the Clam Chowder after being seduced by the delicious looking picture on the menu so we checked and were told that we can top up a dollar for that as the "soup of the day" was originally cream of mushroom which was wat we did.

The soup and drink ( we all had peach tea by the way) came pretty fast. The clam chower came with fair amounts of baby clams but tasted just like those from the cans, extremely ordinary.
After waiting for about 20 mins, our platter came.
Here. See that whole fish?

That took me a little by surprise as I was expecting a fried fish fillet like those from Fish and Chips. And calamaris were missing too, replaced by fried ikan bilis. I felt a little cheated.

But well, we were famished and made no delays tucking into our food. The mussels were the first to make it's way into our growling tummy due to it's strategic location. Topped with buttery sauce, they were ok. Then I discovered everything else is topped on some like of buttery sauce, be it the rice, prawns, mussels, fries or veggies. So needless to say, everything tasted just like the other. However, the butter sauce was quite good so that in a way is a plus and the fish was quite fresh. So overall, the platter was ok.
The rice and butter sauce was a good combi and I kept feeding myself one mouthful after another with that. The fries was crispy but would be better if it was hotter and a little spicy.

I would rate this place as average and unless u are looking for butter sauce, not somewhere I would be in a hurry to return.

Mayim - Value for Money Chinese Food

Finally managed to bring my parents out for a meal after talking about it for quite some time.
This time it happens to be lunch at Mayim.
I've always enjoyed eating at Mayim ever since I was first introduced to it by my sister a few years back.
Firstly, they serve decent chinese food with variety and very importantly they are really value-for money.

We got there about 12pm on a weekday lunch and already it is >50% full.
We were seated promptly and given the menu. The ordering process here is very similar to the Cha-chan-tengs where you are given a slip to write down your orders.

We ordered the following
1. Roast duck noodle for dad
2. Porridge for mom
3. Cha siew noodle for yours truly
4. Bo luo bao (2pcs)
5. Chong You Bing (2pcs)

Dad's grub was the first to arrived followed by Mom's porridge. Sadly, Dad's roast duck noodle looked barely impressive with a few "hardly-any-meat" pieces of duck on top of a mattress of tossed noodles. Dad said the noodles was OK on a whole.
Mom's porridge was a different story. With an assortment of colours, it looked appetizing enough for me to take a sample. It was tasty and packed with flavours from the fish and peanut. The little crisp adds crunch to the porridge.
My char siew noodles was the last to arrive but well good things are worth waiting for. See the generous portion of sweet marinated char siew? It was delicious, well charred with bite factor and drizzled with the sweet char siew sauce. My perennial favourite order in Mayim.

The Bo luo bun used to be packed with char siew like those in Crystal Jade's My Bread and oh-so-tasty but now, it's been replaced by custard and peanut as filling instead of char siew. It was good too but I definately prefers my char siew to custard. But nothing beats buns fresh off the oven.
Chong Yu Bing are my mom's favourite. A deep fried little chinese pastry filled with turnip slices. Not really something I look forward to but was pretty tasty as well.

Absolute Haven - Affordable European Fare

This marks my second visit to Absolute Haven. We were in Absolute Haven for a "parting" meal. For a formal introduction of the dear colleague who will be taking over my accounts and the customers he will be dealing with.
Absolute Haven was located along Prinsep Street among a row of shophouses that have been converted into restaurant.
It's a modest seize place with a seating capacity of approximately 30 odd pax including a al-fresco dining area.
The interior spots a chic and modern setting with string curtains that can be "drawn" for partition purposes. It is apparant that this restarurant rates privacy highly.

It was a Wedneseday afternoon when we visited. The place was empty except for another 2 tables other than ours and there was only 1 wait staff.
I had a Pumpkin and Orange Soup to start followed by Pan Seared Seabass with poached egg and Olive Pilaf Rice for my main.

The starters took ~15min to come.
The soup was quite interesting with an ever so slight tinge of orange taste to the pumpkin packed flavour. It was tasty.
I was slightly disappointed as no bread was served this time as opposed to my first visit (or did I recall wrongly?)

The mains then followed after another 15mins. This was an interesting combination. I never had poached egg with meat for main course previously.
The egg was poached to perfection with a runny centre and the fish was adequately cooked not under nor over. I especially liked the Olive Pilaf rice. It was creamy and flavoursome. I wished this had been a bigger portion.
I then ended my lunch with cappucino, this come with a small cookie by the side.

The service is attentive, glasses were topped up relatively quickly despite the fact that it is not surrounded by servers.

Din Tai Fung - The Usual Good Stuff

Can you believe that movie tix for Kungfu Panda was SOLD OUT on a Wednesday night?!
For a moment I thought my ears were playing a trick on me.

Mr HB and me brought our little princess to J8 in anticipation of fulfilling the sorely missed movie (& popcon) lover in us only to be disappointed.
The princess was calmouring for her "big TV' and went into a mini fit when I told her that we have to change plans.

We then make our ways to Din Tai Fung(DTF) for dinner.

Mr HB and the family have a special fondness for their "xiao cai" which comprises of some sea weed and vermicelli. Looks absolutely unappetizing if you ask me. Tastewise, it is a little spicy and has a tinge sweet and sourness to it. I didn't really take to this dish. Mr HB finished most of this by himself.

We ordered a pork chop fried rice for Mr HB, wanton la mian for me, 6pcs of xiao long bao to share and our perennial favourite dessert bao - seasame bao.

The standard of DTF has always been consistent throughout my numerous visit. The pork shop fried rice has generous portion of egg with every rice grain coated with an even amount of egg on the surface. The pork chop is lean and nicely fried.

The la mian has a good bite factor despite that fact that it is relatively tasteless, wanton is generously packed with veggies and meat. A healthy but satisfying dish.

Xiao long bao(XLB) is one of DTF signature's dish and it has been quite pleasant to eat. What I always do is to first poke a hole at the skin of the XLB and drink up the (fat-laden) soup. Then drown the XLB in lots of vinegar and down it in one mouthful. But do make sure that the temperature of the XLB is OK before doing this.

Last but not least, the sesame baos! My princess loved these. She is a very fussy eater and eats things in small bites (usually not more than 5) when u offer food to her (but not without first smelling to accertain that they have the potential to be good tasting).

So the fact that she can eat 1/2 of these bao all by herself say a lot about the taste. The sesame paste is fragrant and sweet, coupled with the bao skin (which can turn hard if u wait too long) is an absolute delight!

Service in DTF is always prompt from serving the food (usually takes abt 10-15 mins despite peak hours) to topping up your tea and clearing your plates.

Din Tai Fung
Bishan Junction 8
Level 1

Yun Yun Nu Rou Mian

We are planning to bring the whole family to Japan next year in February (Feb09) and this brought about a massive ripple effect on the habitual behaviour of our little family, in one word - cost cutting.
A trip to Japan is by no means a cheap holiday so we figured that we need to start saving money in order to achieve our target. Compounded with the effects of inflation, it is inevitable that we reach this conclusion sooner than later.

So instead of having our meals at the regular restaurants, we are cutting them down to the bare minimum (Mr HB's taget is once a month but i think that is highly unrealistic). So now, instead of seeking out good restaurant food, we seek out good hawker fare.

With Old Aiport Food Centre in the vicinity, I can foresee many more trips here in the months to come.
This day, I decided to have beef ball kway teow soup after some walking around and the sky blue signboard with a cow happened to catch my eye.

A bowl of this set me back by $3 which is very decent considering that every other coffee shop have raised their prices (with some even cutting back on their ingredients despite the raise). A handful of soft and chewy kway teow partially immersed in the delightful broth completed with 7 beef balls. This is definately something I will be having again.

Old Airport Road Food Centre

Ma Maison - Good Food Good Decor Good Service

Made plans to meet up with my pal for lunch at Central.
After some fundamental research, it seems like Ma Maison is a pretty good lunch location (I always have a soft spot for Japanese food).

I arrived earlier than the friend so I walked around leisurely for a short while and found that Central seems to be very Japanese-oriented, populated by lots of Japanese restaurant like Waruku, Pasta de Waruku, Tom Ton to name a few.

Soh arrived after a brief 10 min wait and we proceeded to hunt for Ma Maison. Along the way, she got distracted by Coffee Club but I promptly steer her in the "right" direction.

Ma Maison is located in an isolated corner on the 3rd floor and easy to miss if you are not vigilent.
The decor reeks of english cottage feel (read: very woody) and spots a cozy interior.
We were the 1st customers for lunch today and were promptly seated.

2 glasses of water appeared almost simultaneously to the speed in which our butts touch the chair. Truly impressive.
Ma Maison have taken the liberty of deciding that everyone will be having their set lunches because ala carte menu is non-existant during my visit.
After some careful mulling, I ordered the hamburger steak set while my petite pal have the Omu rice set as she is restricted to a non-beef diet.

The soup and small salad came after we placed our orders as part of the set lunch.
The clam chowder is donned with bits of bacon, onion and baby clamps, quite ok.
Salad is as salad as a salad gets. No comments.

The main course arrived after a brief wait, with the omu rice looking really appetizing.
Here, look at the fluffy eggs.



Don't they look delicious?
My petite friend has a petite appetite, I think I polished off 1/4 of this for her on top of my own orders.

The ketchup coated rice was tasty and not at all "ger lat".

My hamburger steak arrived immediately after in a hot plate, with a serving of fries and a plate of sushi rice.
The presentation of the food is always impecable as in most Jap eatery.
The hamburger steak is a little on the salty side. Fries are very munchy and I like them very much (but then again, I almost always like my fried stuff).
The rice is the glistering type of rice you find in your sushi, steamed to a good "doneness". So good that I finished the big serving of rice.

We ended our lunch with lots of gossip and the coffee and tea.


Ma Maison

6 Eu Tong Sen St. @ Central
#03-96 Singapore 059817

Bread Story - A Good Story

Did I mention that I just turned 30?

With this mini tiramisu cake (and my daughter proudly singing her ever favourite "Happy Birthday" song) that we purchased at the local Breadtalk equivalent at Sunway Pyramid, I am pronouced older (and hopefully wiser).

The cake was rather ordinary, not moist enuf for a tiramisu if you ask me but the redeeming factor is that it is not overly sweet thus making it more palatable.
I was responsible for finishing 3/4 of this cake.

This bakery has an range of assorted bread ranging from the modest raisin bun to fancy ones with names like UFO and BreadPig.

I purchased some raisin buns in anticipation of the visit to sunway laggon theme park for the kids in case they get hungry and needed some food.
But they were dis-allowed entry as food and drinks are strictly not allowed. They even set up a counter to check every bag to make sure that this is executed.
I'm sure their revenue and profit margins have increased exponentially since this act is carried out.

So in the end, the raisin buns ended up partially in my kids' but mainly my elastic stomach since Mr HB is not a bread fan.
The buns were soft and scored high on the fluff meter, I would say these are good quality breads.

The next day before departing, I purchased a raisin loaf to take home.


Bread Story
Sunway Pyramid LG2

Four Leaves - Sones, Scones, Scones

Mr HB ought to be very very upset because I found a new love.

And it's none other than scones! Did I get u there? Ok, a pretty lame and corny effort.

I got hooked onto this english snack recently and cannot pass on a chance whenever I can find a place selling scones. But unfortunately (or should it be fortunately), scones are not very readily available in bakery in this little sunny island and they tend to be not cheap.

To date, I think the one that I like most are those found at "Four Leaves".

Little pile of baked flour, sugar and butter that looks very humble and not eye-catching at all but tastes really wonderful.

Here's how it looks after taking a bite.

Soft and buttery on the inside.
Best eaten with a cup of hot tea.

Mr HB doesn't like it. He finds it too dry and it sticks to the roof of the mouth. Some seriously tongue exercise required afterwards.


There's another version that I tried from Swissbake, which is bigger in size. Tastewise, it has got more milk and less butter content.
Guess I prefer more butter to more milk and it tends to be a bit dryer.

Toast Box - Mediocre Fare

The portions served at Pasta De Gohan is rather petite for big eaters like Mr HB and myself, so we adjorned to waffles world for dessert and followed by Toast Box.
My good friend has affectionately termed me as "The Pig" for my voracious appettite.

The toast box here is adjacent to breadtalk, to give you a bigger breadth of the offering.
We ordered

1. Thick toast with butter and peanut butter
The thick toast is not exactly thick as you can see in my picture below.


Toast is spreaded with peanut butter and cut into 9 small cubes for easy consumption.
This toast is quite ordinary, this is not something I'll come back for.

2. Soft bun with butter and kaya
The bun is lightly toasted but not as fluffy as I'd like it to be. It would taste better if they are more generous with the kaya.

3. Kopi
The kopi here is quite aromatic. I do enjoy the cup of coffe, it was creamy and delicious.
Unfortunately my daughter spilled some of it, causing some wastage.




Toast Box
Sunway Pyramid
LG2

Wendy's - A run for Carl's Jr $$

We are supporters of Burgers (Mr HB and I), despite the fact that articles warning about it's artery choking, fatty and unhealthy contents esp those originating from a fast food background.
We spotted this joint during our previous visit, they were doing their opening publicity with ladies spotting red plaits (Wendy's Mascot).

This time round, after having Carl's Jr for 1 meal, we decided to be fair to Wendy's and had lunch over here just before our departure (we also need a morale booster before returning to reality).

It was really crowded. Look at the no. of people wating to have fast food.

We both order the 1/2lbs with cheese. The interesting thing about Wendy's is they have square patties and their slogan is"Our patties are square because we don't cut corners."

Here is Mr HB's hand distributing our burgers. The size of the burgers is slightly smaller compared to Carl's Jr.

Bitting into the burger, I can feel the juice oozing out into my mouth together with the mayonnise(lots of it) and ketchup. Mmm...very nice.

I would rate this as a worthy competitor of Carl's Jr.
Fries are chunky and has a good bite factor.

Wendy's

Sunway Pyramid

LG2

Pasta De Gohan - Novelty Strikes Once

We decided to have our little getaway and make our way to our "fairy-land" once more (albeit a short 2 month absence).

We spotted "Pasta De Gohan" which looks uncanningly like Pasta De Waruku in Singapore.
After further investigation, we realised that it is the M'sia branch by Pasta De Waruku in Singapore.

We had wanted to visit this eatery boasting of Japanese Italian (wafu this, wafu that) food for the longest time, seduced by the many yummy looking display, typical of Japanese restaurants.
So without much consideration, we had lunch here.

We ordered the

1. Squid sphagatti
This was the most outstanding dish in the display and having read quite a bit abt squid ink pasta, I figured I need to at least try it once to see if this is something I will like.

It looks erm....very black and gives a dirty feeling to the dish.

Taste wise, it has got an interesting taste somewhat close to a cream sauce without the heavy feel. I won't mind eating this again.

2. Cabonara pizza
Do you like thin crust pizza?
Look at the thickness of this crust. I think the term "paper-thin" is very apt to discribe this.

Taste wise, the cheese is flavourful and the bacon and egg is a good combi accentuating the taste of the spread. The paper thin crust has practically no taste but adds a good crisp to the pizza.

3. Lemon squash and *can't rmb name*
Lemon squash is very sour and the other drink is quite forgettable.

This is the most expensive meal we had during this visit RM75. The novelty of Japanese Italian is probably worth visiting once but not somewhere I'll be looking forward to visit anytime soon.

Pasta De Gohan

Sunway Pyramid

LG2

The Cottage Waffle Place - Ordinary

You'd think that after all that damage done at Carl's Jr we'll behave ourselves for the next few days. But no, we have to accentuate our pleasurable diinner with nice sweet things. Recalling the new waffle/ice-cream shop at level 3 during our last visit, we decided to seek it out.



This is a new place serving desserts. It has got small round tables lined along the curvy walkway on level 3, not exactly family friendly. My kids took turn to threaten to over turn the tables on several occassions, we took extra efforts to keep the legs of the table firmly on the ground.

The staff recommended the fondue set to us, saying that this is more bang for bucks. At first I was like thinking "huh but we just had a suicidal artery blocking super humongous "Super Star" plus chilli beef fries, you trying to kill us one more time?" BUT Mr HB promptly decided this is what we will be going for! *faint*

So here the chocolate bowl for our dipping pleasure, we were told this is refillable. The set also includes a tea, you can choose to have it cold or hot.


Then this arrive shortly. 5 mini scoops of ice-cream, banana slices, apple slices, waffles (YEA!) and my daughter's favourite, mashmellows. Also served is a mini bowl of nuts to top our chocolate coated munchie.


They serve the relatively known bud's ice-cream so no further elaboration will be made to this item.

Without further delay, we promptly selected our choice of ingredient and dip it into the chocolate pool. The banana taste very well in it's chocolate coat with lots of nuts, crunchy on the outside then you hit a chocolate wall followed by the soft innards.

But this is a waffle place right, so how is the waffle? If you really ask me, I think the waffle is really ordinary, infact it's a bit too tough. I like waffles that are crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside with a little chew. The waffle here is cripsy all the way akin to eating a waffle biscuit.

Service crew is warm and friendly but the food is somewhat sub-standard if you ask me.

The Cottage Waffle Place
3 Temasek Boulevard
#03-xxx Suntec City Mall

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe - Traditional Food with a Twist

I'm a lover of flour derivatives - bread, pastries, cakes and my most recent love, scones.

We happened to be in Chinatown area over the weekend and I recalled reading from a blog that this place serves scones and kaya on ciabatta bread, I knew I had to check it out.

We arrived here about 630pm on a Saturday evening.
At the back of my mind, I actually have only 1 thing in mind and that was scones. Imagine my dismay when I was informed that they had sold out all the scones!

Determined to make the best of my visit, I ordered the following which I thought was interesting and that you will not find elsewhere
1. Ciabatta with kaya set (comes with 2 eggs and coffee/tea)
2. Orange ciabatta
3. Additional coffee

This is the first time ever in my entire life that I have the traditional kaya on chic ciabatta bread. I actually did not have any expectations but when I took my first bite, I was hooked.

The bread is soft and fluffy with a generous spread of kaya and butter. The kaya is fregrant and does not threaten to numb your taste buds with overwhemling sweetness.
The orange ciabatta is more crispy and has a tinge of orange flavour.

Coffee is milky and creamy, I find this very enjoyable as well.


Mr HB loves it too and wanted to come the following morning for breakfast. But after checking their operation hours, they only start at 1030am on weekends so our breakfast plan goes out of the windows.

Must Tries: Kaya on Ciabatta bread

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe
133 New Bridge Road
#03-01 Chinatown Point

T.S.C - Thick Toast Heaven.

We have been frequenting TSC ever since our first visit as finding a place to chill out away from the madness of a crowd is a challenge esp on weekend.
Hence the airport seems like a good choice.

But eating at the airport is not exactly cheap and the choices are somewhat limited. After our decent previous visit, we visited again, only to become addicts to their thick toasts.

We have so far tried their rice - fried rice and baked rice as well as noodles only to conclude that their cooked food is really average. The baked rice looked delicious but honestly, is really rice topped with a SEPARATE layer of cheese, there is no integration of materials at all and the rice tasted very dry.

The noodles were slightly better but not something that'll have you returning for more.

The thick toast on the other hand, is in a league of it's own. Think soft bread, lightly toasted to give the little crisp when you bite into it, topped with GENEROUS amount of peanut butter and drizzled with sweet condensed milk. This is something that we will return again and again for.

Other than the milk tea, this 8-treasure tea presents a refreshing taste to the palatte esp after 2 thick sweet and sinful toast every meal.

Tong Shui Cafe
Airport Boulevard,
#036-087 Changi Airport T2 - Public Area,
Singapore

MELT - melted me again

Any reason is a good reason to pig out and certainly MELT by any of MY standards is a good place to do so.
The reason happens to be Mother's Day and my MIL wanted to have buffet dinner.
Ever since my previous fabulous buffet lunch experience, I've been looking for an excuse to come back again.
I immediately put forth my recommendation - MELT, the World Cafe.
Took some of my professional persuasion skills to convince Mr HB that this will be worth the money and calories as this is definaltey by no means a cheap eat.
Upon his official acceptance, I promptly call to make reservations as it was just 3 days before the actual date, fearing that the restaurant will be fully booked.
With a stroke of luck, my reservation was confirmed.

We made our presence upon the commencement of the buffet dinner which was 630pm - so that we will have enough time to eat and time to digest afterwards.
The familiar looking dessert station greeted me once we emerged from the lift, other than the ever courteous and obliging staff.

The whole family had light meals today to save our "storage space" for dinner.
As the dinner party was large, we arrived in several cars. Once everyone has arrived (we were the last to reach Melt, which was good coz I don't think I can seat and wait in the presence of such alluring food), we scrurried off to look for the food we want.

The spread for dinner is bigger compared to lunch, the most distinguished addition have to be the BBQ station located just outside the main food area. There is a variety of meats available to choose from - beef, chicken, mutton as well as big tiger prawns, crayfish, mushroom, corn etc...
There is also an additional seafood station serving cold prawns, crabs and shell food like oysters and clams.
Other than that, the rest of the stations are pretty much identical to lunch. You have your usual suspects like the starters station where you can find sashimi, sushi, different types of salad, quaint looking appetizers in shot glass as well as a cheese fondue, the cooked food stations featuring, Thai, Chinese (limited), Indian (extensive), Western and local.

Since I have already done a write up on the food previously, I am not going to do a detailed review on individual items that I taste.
But generally, most of the food are of a good quality and competently executed.

Again, the dessert section is the highlight of my meal with the waffles and ice-cream being my favourite.
The cakes were a mixture of hits and missess. The cheese cake was moist and cheesy but the others like the black forrest and come other crumble cakes are a disappointment.

Service was very detailed, glasses of water was topped up almost instantly with napkins folded and plates cleared once you leave your seat.

After several rounds of desserts (I think I had 5 or 6), I rounded my dinner with a cup of cuppucino, feeling extremely satisfied.

But the damage was a whopping $70 per pax. Definately somewhere we reserve for an occassion.

Melt, The World Cafe
5 Raffles Avenue
4F The Oriental Singapore

Checkers Brasserie - Hi Tea Buffet

After some pestering, I finally convinced Mr HB to go for a hi-tea buffet (making my second buffet in 1 week!
OK, I am beginning to scare myself about my insatiable appetite.)

So today, after my class in the afternoon I immediately dashed home (literally) to changed and head to hilton for my hi-tea (read lunch cum dinner) which begins at 12pm till 4pm on weekends.

We reached a rather empty Checkers at 130pm and was greeted by the staff at the door who immediately "guessed" that we are here for the hi-tea buffet (perhap hunger was inscribed on my forehead or we looked like we haven't eaten in years?)

Not wanting to lose any more time, me and Mr HB head off in different directions in double quick time to survey our meal for the day.

There are 4 stations in all - 2 munchies and cooked food, 1 dessert and 1 fruit and juice bar.

The cooked food stations showcase a variety of finger food and munchies like bufflo wings, apple turnovers, pastries, different types of california rolls, smoked salmon and some rather exquisite appetizers like baby beetroots, some kind of mushrooms, neatly decorated tomatoes among others.
One can find some jap tempura (which sadly tasted average only) and yummy mini turkey burgers with cheese and pinapple on this section.

Over at the "action station", there is satay (chicken and lamb) which is rather chewy and the satay sauce is somewhat lacking in taste, pick-your-own-ingredients noodle bar featuring prawn stock, laksa and shanghai mince pork sauce, murtabuk (mushroom and lamb, both are ok) with veggy or chicken curries (of which the chicken curry is a little too salty) and 3 types of dim sum (which I did not try).

One good thing I like about the Hilton Hi-tea is the "Design-your-own sandwiches" where you get to choose from a selection of bread like ciabatta and foccacia together with 3 types of FRESH ingredients from a lot of meat, cheese and veggies like Alantic salmon, tuna, rare beef, chicken breast, curried egg and peanut (tasty!), root vegetables and avacado to name a few.

The sandwiches are fresh, nicely crafted and presented to you on a little plate with some crackers and olive oil which is not in large portion thus allowing you to try the other dishes.You also get to choose from a few types of tea to down your food. Coffee is also available if u are not a tea lover.

Coming to the dessert station, you can find the signature American cheesecake (which tasted really good), snicker cake (which is chocolate in nature and tasted like...u guessed it, snickers), a variety of puddings and creams in shot glases. Scones (with jams and whipped creams) are also available alongside mini chocolate and blueberry muffins.

I am however a little disappointed at the types of cakes available, I was expecting more. Of course, the chocolate fondue to wrap up the tea. One big disappointment was the lack of ICE-CREAM. I still cannot believe until now that it is not available, a major minus.

Another plus thing I like about the Hilton tea is the availabilty of the fresh fruit juice where you pick the fruit you want and the juice it for you on the spot, the best part is you get to mix them...heh heh.

A little on the service. The service crew is polite and ever willing to oblige. Glasses are topped up quickly. However, more attention needs to be paid to empty food items. I had to point out to the chef that the satays have run out before it was replenished. And the uniform of the servers could use some re-designing (they look erm....like cleaners...)

Must Tries: Cheese cake, turkey burger, Design your own sandwiches

Checkers Brasserie
581 Orchard Road, Hilton Singapore Hotel, Singapore

Mayim - I'll Be Back!!

One of the restaurants that serves good chinese at a very reasonable price.

I particularly like the Char Siew Dry Noodle (HKG style). The noodle itself is springy and char siew is generous and tasty.

If you happen to go in the afternoon, they also have a variety of dim sum that you can choose from. The Bo Lo pau is my favourite, bursting with flavour with every bite and oozing sweet char siew (as you can see, I am quite a char siew fan).

They also serve pickled vegetables as appetizer which is also quite tasty - sweet and sour in nature to whet your appetite for the main course to come. They are not free but however, you can as for as many refills as you want.

They also serve many different flavours of tea and they serve by the pot even if it is for 1 person.

Definately recommended for everyone. One note of caution though, the restaurant tend to be crowded esp during dinner so be prepared to wait a bit for a table.

Must Tries: Bo Lo Pau, Char siew noodle

Mayim
1 Bukit Batok Central Link, #02-04 West Mall, Singapore

Island Creamy - Ice Cream Paradise

This is one of the places where the ice cream are what they are supposed to be - rich and flavourful.

They offer a wide variety of ice cream flavours at a very reasonable price - $2.50 for single scoop and $4.00 for double which is one of the cheapest I've come across so far.
Personal favourites include ReverseO, brandied cherry, mango...etc...(actually many more). The mud pies are great too. They have some non conventional local flavours like Teh Tarik, Pulut hitam....see other posts.

Only grip is seating capacity is kinda limited esp during weekend nights. During weekend nights, they are usually full-house. There were several occassions where we had to buy take aways as there were no place to seat ourselves. The wait staff here are very friendly and helpful, not to mention generous with the ice-creams.

Give this place a try if u are an ice cream lover and you will not regret.

Must Tries: Mud Pie, ReverseO

Island Creamy
10 Jalan Serene, #01-03 Serene Centre, Singapore

Provence - Flour and more

I am a self professed carbo lover (bread, rice, pau, pastry...bring them on!).
Read many raves and only good reviews on Provence, I brought the family to Holland to "eat bread" for lunch (at my expense! the length I go to satisfy the carbo lover in me.)

We intended to go a bit earlier to beat the lunch crowd and make sure we get our hands on the wassant that was highly recommended by all the reviews I've come across.

OK, so it rained on our way there and we had no umbrealla. I half ran with my 7.5kg son in my arms to get to shelter. Not exactly a great start. Anyways, we did manage to beat the crowd. Upon reaching, there were only a handful of people in the shop.
I went round to see what's available on the shelf.

The aroma of the freshly baked buns is indeed addictive. The buns here are somewhat biased towards cheese and cream type.
We tried the following
Milk bun - a tat too sweet for my liking
Raisin bun - somwhat similar to roti boy bun but smaller and with raisins. This is quite good if it is fresh from the oven.
Wassants - Soft and light in taste. Taste great when warm and fresh. A little over rated in my opinion.
Cinnamon roll - Again too sweet for my liking.
Teriyaki chicken sandwich - ok, finally something that I cannot fault. Fresh bread with chicken in teriyaki sauce and some lettuce. Sweet and delightful to the tongue.
The BLT set lunch - fresh sandwich but nothing to scream about.Assorted crossant (ham, cheese, egg...etc) - as above.

Provence's success can be attributed to 2 factors
1. Fresh ingredients
2. Fresh from oven

If a bakery follow the above 2 guidelines, they cannot go too wrong (unless their baking skills really suck!)
Overall, it's a place worth visting if u are into bread and stuff but a little overhyped in my opinion.

Must Tries: Teriyaki chicken sandwich

Provence
17A Lorong Liput, Holland Village, Singapore

Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant - Nostalgia

I've been to Beng Thin numerous times but this is the first time I am writing a review on this restaurant.

Beng Thin serves Hokkien dishes and I must say they are one of the best in Singapore and on top of that, at a very reasonable price.
Some of the items that are "must eats" includeFish Maw Soup - Thick and generous with ingredients.Ngoh Hiong and popiah (fried) - Served with sweet sauce and fried to perfection. Very very tasty and yummy.
Hokkien noodles - Not too laden with dark soy sauce, so you can still taste the noodles the way they are supposed to be.
Oyster omelette - Sinful but full of oysters and the omelette is done to perfection.
The food is usually served hot and the wait staff are friendly and helpful.

Worth visiting if you are in the mood for Hokkien food.

Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant
65 Chulia Street, #05-02 OCBC Centre, Singapore

Classic Cakes - Hidden Gem!!

We visited Sunset way for ice cream in Daily Scoop (see separate review) and chanced upon this little fantastic cake shop.

It appears to be a bakery by itself and has very little room left for chairs and tables.
If my memory serves me right, there were only 2 small tables so I assumed most of the business come from take-aways.

We were drawn by the newpaper clipping on the window and decided to drop by to try some of the cakes on display (the price is another draw, they are cheap!)
So we tried
1. Miles Crepe cake - $6 per slice. This cake is made up of 20 crepes piled on top of each other separated by fresh cream in between. They have other flavours like apple miles and durian miles. We had the plain one. It was delicious! The cake is somewhat sticky and a little difficult to "cut" with just fork due to the dense cream and texture of the cake. Definately worth a try!
2. Mango cheese cake - $3.80 per slice. This is one of the best cheesecake I've tried by far. And for this price I can eat cheesecake everyday! (But I think my waistline will expand all the way to New York if I were to do that). Very rich/dense and extremely smooth texture.

If I were not travelling tomorrow, I will definately be back tomorrow to try the other cheesecakes!Highly recommended!

Must Tries: All the cakes.

Classic Cakes
41 Sunset Way, #01-06 Clementi Arcade, Singapore

Daily Scoop - Nice but a tat expensive

Hmm...when Mr HB said for us to pay a visit to Clementi Arcade to look for this ice-cream shop, I was like "huh, where is that?"(NB: Mr HB is an ice-cream fanatic, as is my little princess)

Tucked in a little corner in Sunset Way, they do have some pretty good ice-cream I would say.
There are about 15 flavours on display on our visit.

We ordered the waffle with 3 scoops of ice-cream - Hazel nut, Sunny strawberry and Lychee Martini.

I wouldn't say they are the richest in taste I've tried but the flavour is just nice without being too sweet.
Lychee Martini is refreshing with lots of lychee lingering in the taste but I couldn't really make out any martini.
Sunny strawberry is somewhat normal but again with the "just right" taste.
The waffle is fresh and thus delicious.

The orders set us back by $10. The waffle is expensive by my standards ($3.90 if ordered by itself and $5.20 with 1 scoop of ice cream).

Will try out the other flavours when I have the chance.

Daily Scoop
41 Sunset Way, #01-04 Clementi Arcade, Singapore

QQ Rice - Healthy Rice

This was featured on one of the variety shows some months back and I thought that this would be interesting to try.
But months flew by and I did nothing until last week, my brother-in-law bought some back for all of us to try.

The concept is simple but interesting.
They feature 5-6 types of rice with more than 30 types of ingredients (pork floss, chicken meat, pickled veggies..etc...etc....). You get to choose 1 type of rice and 5 type of ingredients and they will roll them into a rice ball for you. Serves as a healthy snack and if you go before 11am, they throw in a free drink (pretty value for money).

Innovative and worth a try.

QQ Rice
10 Sinaran Drive, #01-06 Square 2, Singapore

Soon Huat Cold & Hot Dessert - Absoluately Value for $$

This is my favourite coffee shop dessert stall in Singapore. They are very very generous with the ingredients and by far one of the cheapest in Singapore. Not to mention the polite and efficient stall owner.On a hot day, I will go there specially just to eat cold dessert to cool myself down. Highly recommended if you are in the vicinity.

Must Tries: Red tea longnan, peanut ice kachang, many more....

Soon Huat Cold & Hot Dessert
Blk 105 Hougang Avenue 1,
#02-43 ,
Singapore

Ichiban Sushi - Value for money

The family is a supporter of Ichiban Sushi inheriantly because of the set meals they offer - value for money.
I suppose the many people queueing outside the restaurant last night feels the same way.

After waiting for ~45mins, they finally have a table for us. But alas, the table was one that was supposed to be for 4 pax and we had to squeeze in or wait somemore for a bigger table (which I did not see) that can seat all of us comfortably.
So 6 rumbling stomachs echoed "food over space" and we settled for the small table.

A quick look at the menu - the menu which we are all very familiar with by now. The only thing that changes are the promotional set meals which did not appeal to me last night, so back to my cannot-go-wrong orders - Salmon Teriyaki set meal.

At this point, one of the server (prbly the restaurant manager) came over to tell us that there is a counter table that is more spacious and asks if we wish to change table and so we did.

After placing all our orders, we waited not-so-patiently for our food (hungry men and women are not patient people). To my pleasant surprise, the food was served very promptly (<15mins!) except Mr HB's promotional set.

Food is nothing to rave about, just average but the portions are generous - Big piece of grilled salmon drizzled with sweet teriyaki sauce and some slices of lettuce, tomato and cucumber (meant to be salad?), chawanmushi, rice, miso soup and 2 slices of watermelon to finish off the meal. All for the price of $14.90. So nothing much to complain about.
The family also ordered the salmon head soup, tempura curry rice, gyu-don with fried chicken set (promotional set of the month) and salmon sashimi.

Foodwise - OK, nothing exceptional but nothing to complain also

Service wise - I'd like to praise that lady server for the initiative for offering us the "bigger" table though personally I think that didn't help anything.

Space wise - A big no-no for big group of people.

Ichiban Sushi
90 Hougang Avenue 10, #02-23 Hougang Mall, Singapore

Pasta Mania - Lousy pasta and lousy system

Well, I'm sure you can tell this is going to be a review full of gripes from the title.

We went to Bugis Junction on Friday night for dinner which I guess is the 1st mistake we made. Being a weekend (yes, Friday is weekend to me) night, the place is swarmed with people and the carpark is full, we had to wait 15-20 mins before being let in to the carpark, then another 15 mins driving around to look for a parking space.
By the time, we finally managed to get out of the car, I am already famished.

First stop - sketches as we wanted to eat pasta. Long queue outside, we were told there is no available table and that they will call us if we leave our contact # once they have a table for us. So we did. Walked round the premise and found that with the exception of fast food outlets (which are also packed), all restaurants have queues forming outside - even seoul garden!

So we decided to split resources - Father-in-law (FIL) queued outside Sakae Sushi (as the nephew requested) while Mr HB went round to PastaMania (2nd mistake). After about 20min, Mr HB called out to me to say that he's got a table for us. We settled down to our table and start looking at the menu.
At this time, Sketches called and tell us that they have a table for us but since we have just seated ourselves and by then we are all hungry and could well do with a "quick casual dinner" (3rd BIG mistake).

We hurriedly placed our orders - 4 pastas and 2 10" pizzas (for 4 adults, 1 kid, 1 toddler and 1 baby, I'm sure u can tell we are hungry at this point).

Upon returning to the table, Mr HB said that their system was down when he was placing his order and he is afraid that our orders are not captured.And boy was he right.
We sat and waited and watched pasta and pizzas being served to all other tables except ours.
So after ~40mins, we finally decided that something is wrong and went to enquire about our orders. We were told our orders are not captured in the system after some checking.
The restaurant manager promptly apologised to Mr HB (who was making the enquiry) and said that she will prepare our pizzas personally while giving instrutions to prepare our orders to the kitchen.

We were given complimentary garlic bread to curb our hunger while waiting (somemore) for our food to be served.
By now, we are all extremely hungry and hungry man = angry man.
For the rest of the interactions, Mr HB was rather sacarstic in all his remarks.

Finally after about 10mins, our pasta are served. I cannot really recalled what pasta was being ordered but what I had was bland (pestos in tomato herb sauce) though the pasta serving is huge (I believe they gave us large portions to try to make up for the time we had to wait). I only finished 1/4 of it. The pizzas followed shortly after - Hawaiian and Mushroom pizza. It is quite apparent that we were given extra large toppings as both the pizzas are literally overflowing with ham, pineapple and mushroom.

OK, onto the taste, the hawaiian pizza is just normal but the mushroom pizza is WAY too salty, we only finished 1/2 of it despite the generous ingredients.

Overall, I would say that don't expect good food here but the service is commendable. Despite the boo-boo made, they did try to make our dining experience more bearable by giving us complimentary stuff - we were also given a complimentary mango pizza (dessert) and 2 pizza vouchers and extra ingredients for our orders.

Pasta Mania
200 Victoria Street, #02-47/48 Bugis Junction, Singapore

Serangoon Garden Confectionary - Great Buns Everyday

Introducing my favourite breakfast hunt - Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionary.

Selling a range of different buns from sausage, hamburger (it's actually iluncheon meat), peanut, ham & cheese, butter, raisin, otah, yam....blah blah blah.... to egg tarts, cream puff, cakes (walnut, banana, butter...etc) at prices found in the 70's.

Most of the buns go for $0.50 to $0.60 (where to find these days?! esp after the GST hike).
All the buns are freshly baked and they usually end their day by mid-afternoon when all the food is sold out. This ensures that nothing gets leftover and customers get fresh supplies everyday. This is prbly one of the factors that attributed to the success of Ah Seng.



Other than the freshness of the food, they are also generous in the ingredients used for the buns.

Personal favourites include peanut bun (yum yum with LOADS of peanut) and hamburger (thick slice of luncheon meat as opposed to others with thin miserly sad looking slice). Eat it with a cup of hot coffee or milk tea.....hmmm....heavenly....


Definately recommended to bread lovers.

Must Tries: Peanut, Hamburger, Banana cake

Serangoon Garden Confectionary
49A Serangoon Gardens Way,
Stall 45,
Serangoon Gardens Market And Food Centre,
Singapore

Loong Huat Eating House and Confectionary - Good Tau Sar Piau

We were on our way to Square 2 one day and the traffic was terrible along balestier road. It was after 2pm in the afternoon and we have not had lunch.
So Loong Fatt came to mind. We thought since we are going to be stuck in the jam for some time, what not get some tau sar piau (TSP) to line the stomach first? So we turned into the car park and got 30 (?!) TSP from Loong Fatt.

OK, so the price has gone up from $0.50 to $0.60 per pc. The TSP are fresh from the oven and still piping hot. Me and Mr HB each grabbed one piece and sink our teeth into TSP, it was heavenly (esp on that rainy day).
Soft and tender is the skin and the paste is sweet and aromatic. Excellent stuff.

Personally I prefer the salty one as I find the sweet one too sweet for my liking.

At $0.60 per pc, I'd say it's not exactly cheap but definately something worth trying.

Loong Huat Eating House and Confectionary
639 Balestier Road,
Singapore

Haato - Generous Servings

They are very generous with the servings. BIG plus.

So far I've tried
1. Chocolate - nothing exceptional but it's not bad tasting, just normal gelato.
2. Pistachio - thick and creamy but too sweet for my liking3
. Yuzu sorbet - refreshing and light
4. Black sesame - creamy and full of sesame taste but again a little too sweet for my liking.Will definately go back again.

To try list include
1. Green tea/with red bean2
. Waffles!

GO before 1st sept, prices are set to increase by $0.50 per scoop.

Must Tries: Yuzu

Haato
9 Portchester Avenue, #01-02 Serangoon Garden Village, Singapore

Moi Lum restaurant - Disappointing

It's weekend again, which means we have a chance to be creative in our choice of dining (as weekend by default means eating out).

Was feeling adventurous and decided to try out new eating place today and Moi Lum came to mind after reading the review on HGW.

Took us a while circling around Maxwell before we discovered that it is really just across the street from Maxwell market.

The eatery was rather empty with only 2-3 tables occupied. We sat down and started to look at the menu to try and decide what to order (though I already have a few items in mind - courteousy of Michelle_Ling).

We ordered the following
1. Majestic Roast Chicken - this is one of the more decent dishes among our orders last night. The skin is crispy and the meat juicy. But DO NOT dip it into the plum powder provided, it is extremely salty.
2. Claypot Beancurd - just normal claypot beancurd. Nothing special
3. Oyster Duck Roll - Mr HB and my dad says that it's got a fishy taste and smell, probably due to the oyster. Mum didn't like it either.
4. Yam pot with scallop - Yam pot was crispy. This is also one of the acceptable dishes last night.
5. Fish Maw Crab Mean Soup - In 1 word, disappointing. The soup is thin and I could not find much fish maw nor crab meat.
6. Fried Kai Lan - Veggie is veggie, so nothing fantastic here but this fried kai lan fried with nothing else cost $9.00 which I think is expensive.

Chrysanthemum tea cost $1.50 per pax again it expensive in my opinion.

The meal set us back by $100 bucks and we were charged towels which was not given to us. Luckily it was noticed by the vigilant truly else we will end up paying for nothing.

Moi Lum Restaurant
38 Maxwell Road, #01-01 Airview Building, Singapore

Tea Lounge - Mini Buffet

I have been hatching an evil plan for the past week.
One that will allow me to eat what I want without having to pay.....
So I decided it is time for me to do some entertaining by inviting some customers out for lunch.

After some discussion(or rather persuasion), we decided to go for the Mini buffet at the Regent esp after having read that it will be a hit with the ladies.

Located on the first floor of the Regent Hotel, the tea lounge is decorated like a luxurious study with an old English feel. The setting just makes u feel like sitting down with your favourite book while sipping hot tea.
Ah...the pleasures of life.
The china, utensils down to the tea set that are used further enhance the vintage feel to the place.

Upon arrival, one will understand why this is called a "Mini Buffet".
The spread of the buffet is not extensive and all the food items are serverd in mini portions.

The first item I had was the baked salmon in fuff pastry. The pastry is crispy and the salmon is juicy - very tasty combination.
Lamb antipasta with tomato salsa is succulent while the mini sandwich and cheese bread roll are soft and delicious. Mini Shepherd pie has a golden crust, digging beneath you will find mashed potato and minced beef in tomato, only gripe is that the pie is not hot enough.
I also had the vegetable roll in spicy sauce (which is kinda of tasteless except the spicy sauce) and chicken consomme soup which surprising is very flavouful.

For dessert, I tried the tiramisu and opera cake. Tiramisu is so-so, nothing exceptional but the opera is very delicious - rich in chocolate and very creamy (read sinful, luckily it is just a small piece). I took a spoonful off my customer's vanilla ice-cream - it was creamy with vanilla exploding in your mouth with every bite only that it was a little too sweet for me.

All my other companions love it though.
The food in the Mini Buffet are a visual treat - elegantly displayed and I would say majority of the food did not disappoint though you will have to walk many times to the table to get food as the portions are really small if you are a big eater.

Must Tries: Baked salmon in puff pastry, opera cake

Tea Lounge
1 Cuscaden Road, GF The Regent, Singapore

Ice Cream Chefs - Not so value for $$

We were on our way to Werner's (see separate review) when we passed by this little ice cream palour. I was wondering if any one knew of it since it seems to be quite off the beaten track.

After failing to purchase anything at Werner's (it was alose to 9pm at night), we decided that we could do with a little consolation - ice cream and returned to this ice cream palour.
Upon taking a closer look, the sign board "Ice Cream Chefs" stared back into my face. I then recalled having read about it in HGW and the Straits Times some time ago.

We were greeted by 4 service staff upon entering the store and contrary to my initial thought, it is actually pretty crowded.

Stepping up to the display area to choose the flavours that we would be tasting for the night.
1 of the staff took the initiative to ask if I wanted to test any of the flavours and so I tried the blueberry - quite creamy but a little lacking in berry taste and a little too sweet for my liking.

We did not go for any mix-in as we wanted to taste the real ice cream flavour.In the end, we ended up with
1. Strawberry - milky but lacking in strawberry taste
2. Hazel nut - loads of milk, again lacking in hazel nut taste
3. Green tea - the only flavour that I will have again. It has got real green tea taste with just the right amount of milk and sweetness.

Kinda of disappointing esp since the price here is somwhat on the high side compared to other competitors and the servings are also not as generous as I would like it to be.

Must Tries: Green tea ice cream

Ice Cream Chefs
520 East Coast Road,
#01-06 Ocean Park,
Singapore

Werner's Oven - Contented Bread Lover

After reading good reviews of this place coupled with the latest episode featuring SG's best bread bakery, how can I a self professed bread lover give this a miss?

So we decided to try our luck on Friday night to see if we can still catch any bread for the following day's breakfast.
TO our disappointment, there were no bread left by the time we got there (well, it was close to 9pm and if there is still a wide selection of bread left, then I will seriously doubt it's popularity).

Anyway, I did a quick check with someone who appears to be the lady boss on it's operating hours and made a mental note to come here early in the morning so that
1. we can make sure we have bread fresh from the oven
2. pick from a wide selection of bread/pastry.

So we returned at 8.30am on Sat morning to buy our breakfast. I could hardly contain my excitment as we drive to Siglap.

Fast-forward to our enterance to Werner's. Greeted by a selection of bread and pastry. I was a little disappointed that the shopfront is not fully populated yet (I think we are too early, some items are still not ready).

Nontheless, we busied ourselves picking items that appeals to us.Finally, we checked out our purchase totalled at $24.We bought
1. Pretzels - Kind of tasteless except for some salty taste due to the presence of salt.
2. Chicken pie - Chicken chunks with peas and potato in rich creamy sauce. It was still warm when we put it to our mouth - yummy.
3. Banana donut - Soft dough with fine texture together with sweet fat banana. This taste exceptional!
4. Pretzel donut - Tasty, not too sweet with soft and fine dough.
5. Donut with colour sugar balls - as above but a little oily.
6. Muesli stick - Rye bread roll with raisins and sesame seed. Not too sweet and crunchy with every bite.
Definately recommended!
And also not forgetting friendly staff to make your visit a pleasant one.

Must Tries: Muesli, Banana donut, Pies

Werner's Oven
6 Upper East Coast Road, #01-02 Hacienda Grove, Singapore

Tom's Palatte - Excellent Service Crew and Creamy Ice-cream

First good goes to the staff at Tom's palette. They are very friendly and take the trouble to talk you thru the different flavours if you cannot make up your mind which flavours to choose. They are also very keen to have you sample the ice-cream to help you make the right choice.We arrived at about 830pm at night and there aren't that many flavours left. We tried1. Oreo cheese - very creamy and rich2. Chocolate - fantastic rich chocolate. Absolute must try!3. Cherry & almond - strong almond taste but a little too sweet for my liking.
4. Sweet21 (mix of lots of sweet stuff - peanut butter, horlicks...can't rmb the rest) - also a little too sweet for me.In general, the servings are generous and the staff take great pride in their products and are attentive to your needs.

Must Tries: Chocolate

TOM's Palatte
100 Beach Road,
#01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery,
Singapore

Hong Kiat Seafood Restaurant - Nice food at low prices

"There's a place near my camp that serves pretty good food. The price is very reasonable too. Wanna try?" So my brother says.

Now, there's no reason for me to say no to cheap and good food right?
So, in a flash, we are out of the door for our dinner.

The eatery is located in a "ulu" stretch of choa chu kang. It doesn't exactly look appealing esp on a rainy day and we have to make our way thru the back where the kitchen and washing area is. Once we made our way to the shop front, we found a seat and were approached by the staff to take orders.

We placed orders for
1. Sweet & sour pork (Pork is crispy and sweet & sour sauce is delectable)
2. Prawn paste chicken (Very crispy but I think the prawn paste taste is not strong enuf. My brother's "must order food" here.
3. Fish maw soup (This is the clear soup not those with crab meat. Generous ingredients and soup is refreshing.
4. Hot plate beancurd (Tasty with lots of minced meat and egg)5. Luo Han Zai (Mixed Veggies. A little oily for veggies thou crunchy)

The portions are HUGE and except item #5 (at $10 as we ordered a medium), all are charged at $8 (small)! Very economical!There's food enuf to feed 6 pax easily but there's only 4 of us.
We are all stuffed by the time we finished our food.I will be back to try some of their crabs.

Must Tries: Sweet sour pork

Hong Kiat Seafood Restaurant
216 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1,
Singapore