Funan Wen

Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of ipoh horfun but I don't exactly dislike it either. To me, it's just another one of the many noodle-ish options that we have here in foodie Singapore. The last time I ate ipoh horfun was in my secondary school days and I ate that only because my friends told me that the ipoh horfun at Scotts foodcourt was fantastic. I remember feeling extremely neutral about my friends' highly recommended ipoh horfun because really, it didn't taste that great. Since then, I don't think I've ever tasted ipoh hofun again, not because it left a bad impression but because I've never gone out of my way to order what to me was a perfectly ordinary dish.

Last week, Jieqi brought me to Funan Wen, a Chinese restaurant that supposedly serves wonderful ipoh horfun (: Funan Wen is a stone's throw away from Once Upon A Milkshake, so you can visit both places (like we did) when you're in that area.

Their huge menu is plastered on the wall for people, probably for the regular lunch crowd who doesn't need to scan through the entire menu since they already know what they want to eat.

Regular lunch crowd. Thankfully, we managed to secure a seat despite the restaurant being very crowded! I think its convenient location, low prices and high quality food are the three important factors that draw the lunch crowd in.

Jieqi ordered the prawn with chicken ipoh horfun ($5.80). The dumplings were much larger than expected and more importantly, they taste good! I think this was just enough to suppress Jieqi's hunger pangs and to satisfy her craving for ipoh horfun (:

I chose to have mushroom & vegetable ipoh horfun ($5.20), which was what I had at Scotts foodcourt many many years ago. For the amount I paid, I didn't expect to see such a huge plate of food! I'm extremely pleased with the large servings of horfun, juicy succulent mushrooms and fresh green vegetables. In my opinion, there are two things that make this ipoh horfun an A dish: the horfun itself, which has a light springiness, and the horfun sauce, which had perfect consistency and taste. I thoroughly liked this simple yet satisfying meal.

Thanks Jieqi for introducing Funan Wen to me! (: It's real gem for ipoh horfun lovers.

Once Upon A Milkshake

Whenever I think of milkshakes, a particular scene from Pulp Fiction always comes into mind. It's the scene when Mia (played by Uma Thurman) orders a five-dollar milkshake at a restaurant when she was dining with Vincent (John Travolta).

The dialogue goes something like this:

MIA: I'll have the Durwood Kirby burger, bloody... and a five-dollar shake.

BUDDY (waiter): How d'ya want that shake, Martin and Lewis, or Amos and Andy?

MIA: Martin and Lewis.

VINCENT: Did you just order a five-dollar shake?

MIA: Sure did.

VINCENT: A shake? Milk and ice cream?

MIA: Uh-huh.

VINCENT: It costs five dollars?

BUDDY (waiter): Yep.

VINCENT: You don't put bourbon in it or anything?

BUDDY: Nope.

VINCENT: Just checking.

[A while later]

Buddy comes back with the drinks. Mia wraps her lips around the straw of her shake.

MIA: Yummy!

VINCENT: Can I have a sip of that? I'd like to know what a five-dollar shake tastes like.

MIA: Be my guest. [She slides the shake over to him.] You can use my straw, I don't have kooties.

[Vincent smiles.]

VINCENT: Yeah, but maybe I do.

MIA: Kooties I can handle.

[He takes a sip.]

VINCENT: Goddamn! That's a pretty fuckin' good milk shake.

MIA: Told ya.

VINCENT: I don't know if it's worth five dollars, but it's pretty fuckin'good.

(Source: http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/pulp.shtml)

Since then, I sometimes make the conscious effort to check out the prices of milkshakes when I see them around and I will chuckle to myself if I see a milkshake that costs $5 or more.

Last week, Jieqi, Albert and I decided to traipse down to Once Upon A Milkshake for some milkshake-loving (:

I'm not too sure of its exact location as I merely followed Jieqi as she led us there. I know that it's near Tanjong Pagar MRT station though! (:

Once Upon A Milkshake only serves icecream milkshake, icecream and little snacks (brownie and chocolate chip cookies). You can refer to the photo for prices.

I was ecstatic when I saw how afforadable their milkshakes were! (: Jieqi and I decided to get a large cup of milkshake each because we felt that the small one may not be sufficient to make us sugarhappy (:

The two predominant colours of this milkshake place are white and purple. I suspect their immersing in such a purple environment somehow influenced them to want to dress in purple on a particular day last week.

This little wooden block didn't really serve its full purpose because all the patrons knew which tables were free/ taken.

I ordered their vanilla milkshake (left), which was very thick and very creamy, and Jieqi ordered strawberry milkshake (right), which I felt was slightly more enjoyable because of the fruity touch.

Albert decided to go for two scoops of icecream: strawberry and vanilla. He commented that the vanilla icecream was very good!

Because of that, Jieqi and I ordered two scoops of icecream to share: peanut butter (left) and lychee (right). Their peanut butter is really a must-try because it tastes very authentic. Prior to this, I've only tried peanut butter icecream at Swensens and I must say that Once Upon A Milkshake's peanut butter icecream trumps Swensens' anytime!

We left milkshake haven feeling extremely full and contented! I thoroughly enjoyed indulging in my $5.50 milkshake and icecream scoops with my two purple-loving good friends (: Hoping to return to this place in the near future!

The Soup Spoon

I've always had a soft spot for soup. Whenever I crave for soup, I'll think of Mos Burger's corn soup or Sizzler's mushroom soup... at least that's before I discovered The Soup Spoon.

A few months ago, my friend brought me to The Soup Spoon at Raffles City and my liking for soup increased by a few more notches! I wanted to try their famous pumpkin soup but it was out of stock so I settled for their mushroom soup, which was yummy and very filling! Subsequently, I went back to try their pumpkin soup and I was convinced that The Soup Spoon has got to be one of my favourite 'fast food' restaurants in Singapore (:

Last week, Jeffrey and I went to The Soup Spoon at Vivo City to try two new flavours of soup.

We usually opt for their set meal, which consists of a soup, half a sandwich/ wrap and a beverage. He chose to have chicken soup (not captured), which didn't have a creamy base, and half a tuna sandwich and ice lemon tea. Jeffrey commented that he prefers having clear soups to creamy soups, so I guess he made the right choice this time.

As I was feeling exceptionally adventurous that day, I decided to go for their soup bowl with puffy bread! This was the first time I'd a puffy bread soup bowl so I didn't really know how to eat the puff and soup in a non-messy way. Flakes of puff littered my plate and everything became quite messy! =( Nevertheless, I managed to finish my complementary bun as well as the ENTIRE puffy top! Whoohoo. What a delightful meal (:

I wasn't too sure if I could chose their 'normal' soup to fill the soup bowl so I just picked peppery mushroom soup, which was one of the few options that were listed under the puffy soup bowl section. Frankly, I didn't enjoy the peppery mushroom soup as much as their normal mushroom soup because it tasted a tad too fusion for my liking. The broth was thick but it was also semi-clear, so it was somewhat straddling both soup types =S I think I would stick to their 'normal range' of soups in future.

In my opinion, I think The Soup Spoon is definitely an up & coming fast food restaurant that serves quality food at reasonable prices. I'm looking forward to trying more flavours! =)

The Patissier

To make up for the extremely disappointing birthday dinner with my family, LPP & Jeffrey bought me an immensely satisfying chocolate cake from The Patissier! =) My good friend, Kathleen, highy recommended the double chocolate pralines cake, which I placed an order for in the end and I didn't regret choosing that cake! It's probably THE best praline cake that I've tasted thus far. Chocolate lovers, please order this to try! It's REALLY good! =) I'm looking forward to trying other cakes from The Patissier but since their cakes are awfully expensive, I'll only order cakes from them for special occasions! (:

Sakura

Hello! (:

This post will feature the final meal of my week-long birthday feast. To be frank, I was very reluctant to go to Sakura for my birthday meal because I've read terrible reviews about that place but since Gumtoo was very determined to give it a shot, my family went to the Sakura outlet at Clementi Woods to celebrate my birthday.

Sakura was packed with (hungry) diners and the entire restaurant felt like an overcrowded foodcourt. If one were to be positive, one could say that the atmosphere was very lively but personally, I didn't like being enveloped in chaos and noise. Although there was quite a wide variety of food on display, the presentation was an eyesore and it made me very averse to trying certain dishes. Frankly speaking, I think this will by my first and last time visiting Sakura.

Jade, my sister who's usually not very particular with food, made me take this photo to illustrate the lack of quality control. As you can see, the sushi rice has been disproportionately placed and the sushi tasted pretty bland =(

LPP and Gumtoo shared two plates of seafood, which probably wasn't enough to make up for our $26++/pax buffet charge:

Various types of seafood

Prawns

Satay (which Jade said wasn't properly cooked)

Mixed vegetables, tasteless fried rice, stewed beef (probably the best dish of the night), cold spaghetti

Lots of mixed vegetables

Mixed vegetables, fried spring roll, crab claw, white-noodle soup

More fried rice, pasta, hidden stewed beef and vegetables

Pizza, sushi and a very thin slice of mashed potato (don't ask me why it's not mashed)

Fried spring roll, crab claw, sushi, pizza, potato wedges

Yam paste (which was surprisingly decent)

Egg tart and bread & butter pudding

Bread & butter pudding (probably the worst I've ever tasted)

Pulut Hitam (still passable)

I honestly doubt that I would ever return to Sakura. I hope that Gumtoo is convinced that the food is substandard and that she won't want to go back to Sakura again too. Well, I guess LPP's right in a way when he said "sometimes, you have to taste the bad so that you know how to distinguish and appreciate the good". Enough bad-tasting food this year, bring on the good food please! (:

Dim Joy

Hello! (:

Chinese New Year is just around the corner! I can't believe the first month of January flew by so quickly. At present, I'm busy sampling all the lovely CNY goodies that my parents kindly and diligently bring home from wherever they get them from. So far, most of the goodies are pretty up-to-standard so I'm pleased!

Anyway, Jeffrey and I headed to Chinatown area again last week to meet Regina for some dimsum at Dim Joy.
Dim Joy is located at 80 Neil Road. It occupies the corner of a relatively long row of shophouses.

I especially liked their menu because they provided a snapshot of every single dish available! =) As I'm a pretty visual person, I appreciated having photos of dishes to help me decide what to order.

They're pretty into prmoting proper chopsticks skills. If you look closely, you can see that there are instructions on how to hold chopsticks properly printed on the paper chopsticks holder.

Beef brisket with egg noodles ($7.60). This was exceptionally well done! We loved the texture of the egg noodles and the sauce that came with it.

A huge pot of century egg with lean pork congee ($9). The thing I like most about this dish is its presentation. It looks like a tiny witch cauldron! The congee wasn't as flavourful as I expected it to be and it was a tad too runny for my liking. It would be perfect for those who like their porridge to be light and not-so-filling.

King shrimp har gao ($4). Because of its name, I expected the prawns to be larger than usual but they were pretty normal. The overall taste of these har gaos was also average.

Barbecued pork & celery in rice roll ($5). Apart from the wonderful sauce, the rest of the dish was only average.

Shrimp & chive in rice roll ($5). Like the other rice roll dish, this was only average. I think the best rice roll dish that I've tasted so far is Hua Ting's scallops in rice roll.

Panfried radish cake ($3). These pieces were significantly smaller than those served at Crystal Jade but there was a very subtle oomph to this dish that distinguishes it from the other carrot cakes that we've had.

Siew Mai ($3.60). Pretty average so there's nothing much to rave about.

Custard buns ($3). These were a great disappointment. Like many of the other custard buns served in Chinese restaurants, these also contained salted egg yolk but the custard wasn't flowy like the others. Instead, it was pretty hard and it made the entire bun taste artificial =(

Lingan egg tarts ($3.60). These were the highlight of our meal! They tasted so good, we couldn't resist ordering another plate! I suggest ordering two plates at one go because they need more time to prepare this dish since they make it on the spot upon demand. They are served piping hot and everything is perfect (: I've not tasted another egg tart that can beat this, at least not yet.

Mango snow pearl ($5.60). I ended up eating most of this dish because both Regina & Jeffrey disliked them! They're like mochis with sour-ish mango filling. Dim Joy has an extensive dessert menu so I suggest forgoing this option because it's not exactly the ideal choice for people who dislike sour stuff.

In sum, the trip to Dim Joy was fulfilling and all of us felt extremely stuffed by the end of lunch. Thank you Regina for treating us! (: I'll definitely go back for more dim sum in future!

Al Dente Trattoria

Last Friday, Jeffrey and I met up with our common friend, Eugene, for dinner cum my belated birthday celebration at Al Dente Trattoria, which is an Italian restaurant at Holland Village.

As it was a Friday night, the restaurant was pretty crowded but thankfully, we were able to secure a table without having to wait too long.

Eugene ordered spinach ravioli ($22), which he commented was pretty okay except that the portion wasn't as big as he expected it to be. I guess the dish would have been more filling if the tomato base was substituted with cream sauce.

Jeffrey had his usual carbonara spaghetti ($18), which looked pretty decent to me. Personally, I feel that carbonara is the safest dish amongst all the pasta/ spaghetti dishes because it can never go too wrong (unless the cream sauce turns out to be disgustingly thick or pathetically watery).
I chose to have one of their recommended items - spaghetti arragosta ($28) - which was spaghetti with mushrooms, crab meat and zucchini served with light cream sauce. I was very pleased with my dish because it was much better than I'd expected (:

As Eugene and Jeffrey weren't full after having their spaghetti, they shared a $10 promotional haiwaiian pizza! =) The pizza's slightly smaller than usual but it was sufficient for them to 'top up' their hungry tummies after a long day of work.

After filling our tummies, we stayed at the restaurant for about another hour to chat and catch up with each other. It was nice being able to chill and hang out at such a casual dining place on a Friday night. Thanks Eugene for remembering my birthday and treating me to dinner! (: