Nine Thirty

Hello! (:

In a blink of an eye, half of Sept hols have gone by =| I REALLY wish for time to slow down so that we can all enjoy the second half of Sept hols before the great dash to the finish line!

Having said that though, this week has been great so far (: I managed to sleep a lot more and I have been eating way more good food than usual so life is pretty much good and I shouldn't complain! (Still, a longer break wouldn't hurt anyone, would it!)

Matty and I went to Nine Thirty at Esplanade (previously Loola's) for lunch last week before school holidays began and that was when we discovered that Loola's has been renamed and 're-branded'. Instead of serving rather interesting/ fusion-type dishes, Nine Thirty now serves more western and local dishes to cater to the regular crowd.

Upon the waiter's recommendation, we ordered the Battered Fries ($9.90), which turned out to be much better than expected! I think the vinaigrette sauce complemented the battered fries superbly well and I enjoyed this dish! However, if you are prone to getting a sore throat after having too much fried and heaty food, I'd advised against ordering this because I felt quite greased-out after finishing this entire basket of fries!  

 The Wild Mushroom Soup ($9) was pretty normal and there is nothing to rave about. I thought that the single slice of mushroom atop the soup was quite pathetic =S They could have given more or taken it out completely! Heh.

The star all our savoury dishes was the Mutton Chop ($20), which Matty remarked was very good! I think the chef(s) at Nine Thirty (and previously Loola's) know how to do their meats because another friend raved about one of their Loola's meat dishes before too (: Sounds like it's a safe bet to order something meaty from their menu!

I couldn't resist but order their Hot Dark Chocolate with Truffle Chocolate ($8 per glass) and while their hot chocolate isn't as rich as Au Chocolat's, it was tasty enough on its own (: The truffle chocolate was definitely a nice touch and I ate it with much glee. 

To end off our meal, we had a delectable slice of stacked chocolate cake ($7.50), which was moist and rich and perfect (: You can get this at any Awfully Chocolate outlet and I'm thinking of doing just that the next time I pass by an outlet! It's fantastic (:

Alright that is all for now (: Will try to remember to take photos of the food that I'll be having cos sometimes we get too carried away talking and catching up that I don't have time to take photos! (:

Goodnight! (:

Wild Honey

Hello (:

The September hols are finally here! (: Even though most of us will be spending half our hols doing work, I think most of us still welcome this break because it gives us some freedom to catch up with rest, friends and life in general (:

On Thursday night after Teachers' Day Celebrations in school, we decided to try our luck by checking out if a particular limited edition item is still available so we made our way to town! On the way there, we were quite worried that we would be caught in a massive jam because we heard that a tree fell just after Heeren and we were heading to that area! =( I guess our lucky stars were shining on us that day because not only did we get to town safely, we also managed to get the limited edition item before dinner! (: Wheee! What a great way to kick start our Sept break! (:

Since it was a cold and wet day, we wanted to have ramen but alas the queue was monstrously long so we went to Wild Honey, which had NO queue, which is quite surprising because they used to be packed to the brim! I guess the bad press got around and that might have affected their image.. but we didn't receive bad service that night so I guess it's still alright to dine there (:

I had the Portobello Road and it was perfect because I could eat everything on the plate! Heheh (: I forgot to keep the receipt so I've no idea how much each item in this post cost but I think the main dishes are around $20 or so. This dish was surprisingly filling and I didn't feel like I needed to have a huge dessert after finishing this so I was quite pleased with this dish.

My dinner companion had the Tunisian, which was a warm hearty dish and perfect for someone who likes to control the amount of sauce one puts on his/ her bread. Personally, I don't like soggy bread so sometimes it's good to be able to control how 'wet' you want your bread to be.

We also shared the French Lemon Tart which tasted slightly odd to me because it didn't taste like other lemon tarts that I've tried before. I am guessing that they added cheese or something with a pretty strong taste so there was a very strong after taste, which I didn't quite like. Oh well, at least I now know not to have this the next time I visit them.

Alright that's all for now (: Will have to head back to school in a while to do my duty for an event but I am looking forward to supper with my other best friend after that! (:  Wheee~ Have a good weekend! (:

The House of Robert Timms (again!)

Hello (:

I'm starting to think that Robert Timms is the place to go whenever I need/ want/ crave for some fast and fuss-free cafe food. Granted that the food isn't spectacularly good, I still feel that it is a safe choice and it satisfies me sufficiently for me to want to keep going back whenever I feel that I need a cafe-food/ western fix.

Their pumpkin soup ($8.90) was thick and full-bodied and I thoroughly enjoyed it with the accompanying slices of crispy wholegrain bread which were lightly drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled salt grains.

Their spinach and mushroom salad ($14) was also a great meal in itself, especially if you love baby spinach like me! (: Thankfully my companion and I shared this dish or I wouldn't have been able to eat the rest of the dishes that we ordered! 

Their extremely hearty breakfast down under ($15.50) is extremely worth it if you are one with a big appetite and/ or famished. Just look at the portion size! Definitely good for sharing if you, like us, are interested in ordering food to share (:

Finally, we shared a lemon meringue tart ($7) and I had a cup of chai tea latte ($5.80) to end of the entire meal (:  I liked that the lemon wasn't too sour but I felt that it was a tad too sweet for my liking. The meringue was slightly thicker/ stickier than usual but it was alright (: Chai Tea Latte wasn't the strongest that I've had but it was good and warm for the soul (:

Would definitely be back again in the near future and I hope to try new dishes! Problem with me is that I tend to choose the same few dishes because I like them =| Oh well. We shall see (:

Two more days to the 'end' of the week.. I can't wait!

House at Dempsey

Hello (:

Am suffering from a severe case of distraction and lack of discipline so I am going to try to work it off by blogging about a nice dinner I had last week before I went to Vietnam.

We decided to head to House at Dempsey because they supposedly have a new menu and we thought that it might be worth a try (:

We started the night with a cup of cappucino ($6) and a small glass of whiskey ($18), which were relatively okay.

Their celeriac soup ($14) was absolutely divine! (: Loved the creamy and thick broth as well the one little scallop swimming in it. Would definitely opt to have this again any time! 

They took a long while to serve the rest of our dishes because they probably forgot about our dishes so in exchange for our patience, they gave us a free flat red bean bao (which was really not bad!). I have never tried their famous bao as I always thought that it is overpriced and it probably won't taste that good anyway so I'm quite happy that we managed to try this this way.

 I cannot remember when the first time I ate truffle fries but House's Truffle Fries ($12) was probably one of the first few that I've tried and fell in love with and still currently like. It somehow manages to refrain from being too oily and it remains crispy throughout the meal (: I would definitely have this any day too!

Oops pardon the very dark photo of the Lamb Rack ($30), which was, according to my dinner date, extremely well-cooked (: If you are game for some lamb, you might want to pop by House to get your fix as they seem to do quite a decent job at preparing this dish! (: I helped to eat the veggies and the mushrooms and they were alright (didn't quite fancy the sauce that came along with them though).

For desserts, we shared their famous warm chocolate toffee cake ($9.50), which is always a winner to me (: I like that the cake is moist and that the chocolate is just gooey enough to complement the cake (: Will consider ordering this cake for the next department birthday celebration (:

Alright that's all for now (: I hope that the next 3 days will be bearable! The kids are probably still recovering from Vietnam Trip and they are transiting to their real holiday mood so it might be tough to get them going but persevere we must! (: Have a great week ahead! (:

Omakase Burger

Hello (:

I'm finally back home after spending the day at Literature Seminar and let's just say that I'm glad to be home (: One thing I noticed about kids from my school is that they are genuinely nice - they will spend almost all of their Saturday going for this event just to support their friends who are presenting (as well as to take part in the other activities) and when their friends present, they actually make the effort to be there. I was really glad to be part of the experience because I think these kinds of feeling just come so unsuspectingly yet they are priceless.

Anyhow, my siblings, a couple of plus-ones and I finally made a trip to Omakase Burger and they unanimously agreed that the omakase burgers are superb! Since there was no fish or veggie burger, I pretty much ate lotsa fries (tried all kinds except for one which we didn't order) and ate a raisin bun which was quite nice too (:

Here are some photos of the food we had that night: 

Bacon Cheese Burger Meal with normal fries and a cup of orange juice ($22.40)  

Chicken Sandwhich Meal with truffle fries and rootbeer float ($24.40)  

 Deluxe Cheese Burger Meal with onion rings and lemonade ($23.40) 

Omakase Cheese Burger Meal with sweet potato fries and sprite ($20.80)

Extra serving of sweet potato fries ($4.90) and a raisin roll ($1.90).

This was possibly the most expensive fastfood meal I've had in my life but it was worth the trip! (: I definitely am looking forward to re-visiting this place and hopefully we will get to try new items in future! (: I am so thankful that Omakase is near our place so we can probably go there during the weekday when it is less crowded! (: Can't wait for our next trip back!

Alright that is all for now (: Happy weekend! (:

Open Door Policy

Hello (:

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Open Door Policy for a late lunch. Actually, how we ended up at that place was pretty much a matter of... fate? We were looking for a place that opened till 3pm at least because we could only meet at 2pm. Since most places close at 2.30pm after lunch and ODP was one of the cafes that wasn't too faraway that opened past 2.30pm, we decided to give it a go (after all, they were supposedly famous for their ODP burger!)

Okay this is kind of a downer because I had typed an entire post but somehow there was a glitch so it didn't get posted.. and I'm not about to re-blog so I shall just post photos taken by my iPhone of the food we had that day (:

On the whole the food was pretty good but we felt that the dishes were overpriced. The souffle was probably the only thing worth mentioning because it was possibly the best souffle that I've had in my life. I'm not a souffle person and personally I don't like eating souffles so I think my liking of ODP'S Pistachio Souffle says a lot (:

Alright I'm dead beat so I'm going to log off now (: Happy weekend!

Summer Palace

Hello!

The long weekend is drawing to an end and as reluctant as I am to return to reality, I am equally grateful for the few days of respite from work. I actually had the luxury of catching up on sleep on Wednesday night and I felt as good as new on Thursday when I went to Summer Palace at the Regent Hotel for a dimsum lunch! (:

I first read about Summer Palace when my good friend showed me their special National Day dimsum menu and needless to say, the patriot in me was all game for a National Day dimsum lunch! Hur Hur.  

We arrived at noon and the restaurant was pretty empty, but not for long. The place soon filled up with families and couples all gathering to eat their way into the long weekend! (:

The table decor was simple and nice (: I liked that we were seated at a big table so that we could shift our food about and not have to worry about the lack of space.

I am not sure if the attempt was deliberate (I'd like to think so) but the staff at Summer Palace actually took effort to make sure your dim sum dishes gets served one after the other so that you won't be too overwhelmed by having many steaming hot dishes laid out in front of you. I'm not sure about you but I often feel very stressed by the thought of food cooling down right before my very eyes and not tasting as good as they should be so this arrangement was perfect, except that I wouldn't mind if the transition were a tad faster so that there will be fewer mini pockets of empty table time.

Before I go on, I'd like to say that I forgot to get the receipt so I've no idea how much these individual items cost but the entire meal came up to about $70, which is pretty decent in our humble opinion (: We chose to have 'ala carte' for all our dishes and the portion sizes were reduced to suit 2 people so we were nicely filled up and were not bursting at the seams so all was well and good.

We were presented with cold long beans as starters. Since we were both quite hungry when we arrived at Summer Palace, we were more than happy to eat this all up!

The first item that was served was the fried yam puff with seafood and it was a welcome change from the fried yam puff with meat that are usually served at other restaurants because this means that I can eat the entire puff for once without having to dig the meat out! Yipee! (: These were pretty good but nothing spectacular.

Then came the dainty lobster and prawn steamed dumpling if I'm not wrong. They look so pretty! (: They tasted okay but I felt that the prawn was a tad too hard.

Perhaps the most unique steamed glutinous rice that I've had because it came with a piece of abalone on the top! (: I felt that the abalone was a nice touch because it went well with the rice (:

And THE STAR of the meal finally arrived! THIS is the reason why I actually decided to lunch at Summer Palace - they were serving National Day Special Chilli Crab Baos! Oooh la la. The filling was slightly spicy but it was good! I felt so happy after eating this because it made me feel so accomplished! Heh.

Their mango and prawn fritters were SUPERB. Thankfully my good friend decided to opt for the full size (i.e. a serving of 3 pieces instead of 2) so we could have 1.5 pieces each! They are definitely a MUST try! (:

Then came the pan-fried duck meat sesame flat bun? Haha I actually have no idea what this is called and I only know that there is duck as filling. It was so-so.

And how can I ever get enough of my favourite salted egg yolk custard bun! It was made to perfection! I frankly think that this is one of the better salted egg yolk custard buns that I've had.. will go back for more in future! (:

Finally, we ended our meal with two cold desserts, both equally good and yummy (: They weren't special or spectacular but they did their job of delivering a sweet and fitting end to the first glorious meal of the long weekend.

Yup that's all for now (: Have to prep for school tomorrow! Till the next post! (: