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

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.

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

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

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.

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