Sizzlers

Hello (:

Just wanted to post something before I go to bed:

This is a snapshot of the platter for two that Jeffrey and I had Sizzlers.

Out of all the platter-for-twos that I've had in my life, this was by far the least enjoyable because I felt that the pieces of meat on the platter didn't really complement each other in terms of taste. I guess people who are peckish will probably think that this dish is great because it offers a variety of different kinds of meat and seafood but this just didn't go well with me.

Lesson learnt: don't order platter for two at Sizzlers, stick to their main sets!

Alright shall post a more exciting entry the next time because I really need to catch some shuteye! Goodnight!

Shangri-la (Bangkok) High Tea

Hello!


Here's a quick post to remind my dear friend who's flying off to Bangkok in a couple of days time to remind her to go to Shangri-la to have high tea! =) Unlike in Singapore where high tea buffets are quite common, it's surprisingly difficult to find restaurants/ hotels in Bangkok that serves (buffet) high tea! While we were there on our previous visit, we decided to go to Shangri-la to check out if their high tea is similar to ours.

We managed to try two types of tea and the one that I chose was really nice except that I can't remember what it's called at the moment! =S The tea selection in Bangkok is definitely much smaller than in Singapore so tea lovers may not think that it's worth having high tea in Shangri-la Bangkok! But even in Singapore, one can only opt to change their tea flavours twice so I don't think this is much of difference!




Our three-tiered non-refillable high tea food! (: It wasn't particularly good or bad, just average.

This plate of pad thai was THE BOMB. I highly recommend it! If you ever go to Shangri-la in Bangkok, you MUST try their pad thai as it's the best I've tasted thus far!


Alright I've other more pressing things to do now. Will update this space again this weekend if possible! =)

Cabbages & Condoms

Hello! (:


I learnt that one of my good friends (DODO!) will be going to Bangkok next weekend so I've decided to post some Bangkok-related food posts so that people who are travelling to Bangkok will have some ideas of where to dine at when they're there!


I've been going to Bangkok during December for the past two years and I have to admit that Thai food tastes much better there! I'm not too sure if it's because their ingredients are fresher, the way they prepare their dishes are slightly different or perhaps it's simply because having Thai food in Thailand makes the entire experience more authentic! Whatever it is, I think it's always a good idea to eat local food whenever one travels so as to get a taste of what the locals eat/ are famous for making!

We have been going back to Cabbages and Condoms for the past two years partly because it's located near the hotel that we stayed at and partly because the food and service there are good!

Upon entering their restaurant, you will be greeted with made-with-condoms-life-sized-statues like this Santa Claus! haha They're quite amusing to look at actually (:

Jeffrey chose to have a glass of Orange Juice whereas I opted for the Thai Iced-Milk Tea which is a much sweeter version of the milk tea that you can find in Singapore but I like it! =)

Complimentary basket of crackers - if you like them a lot, you can purchase packets of them!

This was one of the chef's special dishes - fried springroll with shrimp and banana! I know it sounds a little gross but it was surprisingly good! Loved how the sweet and savoury flavours just gelled together for this dish.

Thai fried olive rice with lots of other vegetables sitting along the perimeters of the plate.

Stir-fried morning glory aka 'kangkong'. This dish tasted very much like kangkong but I'm not quite sure if they're the same. It's a good veggie dish to have because the vegetables are very crunchy and fresh!

Hot plate pepper fish slices =)

For dessert, we ordered one of their traditional Thai desserts - mango with sticky rice - as well as

warm yam paste with ginko nuts to share. Needless to say, I finished most of the two desserts since I'm a dessert monster! They were both good so I guess it doesn't really matter which you choose, it all depends on your preference (:

Alright that's all for now! You may visit the Cabbages and Condoms website for more information if you're interested in going there to dine!

Happy weekend everyone! =)

Pete's Place

Hello everyone! (:

My brain's feeling really exhausted right now so instead of doing work, I shall blog about Pete's Place! =) We went there a couple of weeks ago for their weekend lunch buffet which was surprisingly affordable! It only costs $28++/pax and you can eat as much as you want! The only downside to this seemingly perfect deal is that the range of dishes is limited so you'll probably end up eating a lot of the same dish again and again. But thankfully, the dishes are all of average or above-average quality so eating the same thing over and over again wasn't too much of a problem!
Pete's Place is located underground! It has an old-school, cosy Italian restaurant kind of feel and it was packed with people when we arrived!

As usual, we ordered our current favourite drink - Pellegrino sparkling mineral water ($9).
Interestingly, Pete's Place is one of the few restaurants that we've gone to that serves cashew nuts and a few other kinds of nuts! =) This being the festive season, we took a bowl of nuts to share!

As usual, Jeffrey got his greens as well as a handful of nuts.

I couldn't help but cut generous slices of bread and scoop up three types of butter (normal, tomato and herbal) to eat while waiting for the cooks to top up the buffet food so as to appease my growling tummy! There were many types of bread on display so people who love to eat bread will have a field day!

Stir-fried cabbage with bacon bits, grilled fish, some nuts and a slice of meat! Apparently the meat tasted pretty good but I didn't try it. I ate many slices of fish though! =)

Close-up shot of a slice of fish, some spinach and greens and lots of cashew nuts!

Here's when the pasta spamming starts! As you can see from the phot above, there were two types of 'noodle choices': spaghetti and linguine. Though they look exceedingly plain in the photo above, I must say that they taste pretty good! Looks can be deceptive! =) And I guess Jeffrey couldn't help but take another slice of meat, this time with some sauce to make it tastier!

And I decided to come up with my own creation: spaghetti with mushroom cream sauce! It actually tasted pretty much like Carbonara so Jeffrey being a Carbonara lover, decided to try my modest creation!

More spaghetti with broccoli and generous servings of mushrooms in cream sauce! Yum!

The desserts kept changing due to high demand so whether or not we got to eat the yummier desserts depended pretty much on our luck! The tiramisu (left) was a hot favourite and it tasted very authentic - thankfully it got replaced quite often so we managed to get two slices of it! The chocolate cake (right) wasn't as fantastic.

Just before we left, I decided to check the counter again and there was cheesecake with jam and oreos and I quickly nabbed a slice! =) The cheesecake was much better than the chocolate cake but I still maintain that the tiramisu was the best dessert I'd that day =)

Pete's Place offers affordable dining in a cosy and welcoming environment and it's definitely a place that I'll revisit in future if I've a strong craving for large quantities of pretty good Italian food! It's a great place for family gatherings and meet-ups as well! Hopefully my entire family can visit this place in the near future! =)

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Au Jardin

Hello!

It's been a while since I last blogged so I'm going to do a post with quite a number of photos today to make up for the lack of updates this week! One rainy afternoon about two weeks ago (it was during the period when rain kept falling for almost 2-3 consecutive days), I celebrated by birthday with Jeffrey at my favourite place in Singapore! Considering how much I love eating, we decided that we should go to some place that we've been wanting to go to but can't find an occasion that's important enough to justify the cost of the meal. After some deliberation and schedule-checking, we were left with one option:

We opted for the non-champagne brunch which costs $120++/pax since both of us aren't champagne drinkers! This is, to date, the most expensive meal that I've ever eaten in Singapore and I did feel a little guilty for spending so much on one meal but I figured since it's my birthday, I'm allowed to have a little guilty pleasure so I dismissed the guilt after a while.

Had I known that we could call the people at Au Jardin to pick us up from the Visitor Centre, I would certainly have done that because it was raining quite heavily and we had to walk in the rain, upslope (that means that rain was cascading downwards onto our feet, eww) to reach Au Jardin! Thankfully I wore slippers that day since it was raining so my feet dried quickly enough after that.

The postcard-looking menu that actually contains the menu that I cut and pasted on the top of this post.

Complimentary warm bread rolls! (: They were freshly baked and they tasted so good in the cold weather! We ate the crusty bread rolls heartily while ordering our food (:

Apart from ordering some dishes off the ala carte buffet selection, we also helped ourselves to the mini buffet bar at the corner of this cosy ex-colonial house. Here are some photos of the food that is available at the mini buffet bar:

Salad, smoked salmon, deep-fried shrimp roll (yum!)

Seasoned asparagus (yum), mushroom quiche, seafood gratin (yumyum!), smoked salmon

Deep-fried shrimp roll (yum!), smoked salmon, mini lobster, seafood gratin (yumyum!)

Seafood gratin (we just can't get enough of this!) & blueberry tart

More seafood gratin & deep-fried shrimp rolls, two baby lobsters

After waiting for quite some time, our ala carte buffet dish no.1 arrived! It's the crab au gratin and it tasted absolutely delightful! =) There was sufficient crab meat amidst the cheese and it was well-blended and creamy. We loved this so much that we ordered some more! Also, we absolutely loved the presentation of this dish, don't you think it's pretty?

Our next ala carte buffet dish was the steamed seafood with lime and lemon grass. When I first opened this container, it immediately reminded me of the lemon grass fragrance that the hotels we stayed in in Cambodia last December used! What nostalgia! This was a relatively light and healthy dish that I think will be appreciated for those who like soupy dishes. It wasn't my favourite dish that day but it's nevertheless quite nice (:

They decided to serve each of us a cup of lobster bisque because our main courses were taking quite a while to come. This was the first time I was drinking lobster bisque (or any soup for that matter) directly from the small little cup! The lobster bisque was just right but somehow my stomach doesn't really take lobster bisque quite well and I tend to feel funny after drinking lobster bisque so I stopped drinking it once I started feeling uncomfortable.

One dish that you must NOT skip when you're at Au Jardin is the egg dish that you choose. This is a photo of Jeffrey's eggs benedict and it was cooked to perfection =) He liked it so much that he wanted to order another portion but unfortunately we could only have one of this!
I decided to go for scrambled eggs with truffles and trust me - Au Jardin's scrambled eggs isn't anything like the normal scrambled eggs! The eggs were beaten till they had a rather grainy and full-bodied consistency and they tasted exquisite! I know you must be thinking how exquisite can scrambled eggs taste right but till you try this, I think you should hold your judgement! It's really good! =)
For my main dish, I chose to have the seared scallops & boston lobster 'en papillote'. Based on the name of this dish, I should have guessed that it would come wrapped in some sort of way! This dish tasted pretty alright - it's like seafood cooked with light tomato-ish kind of sauce which wasn't sour or tangy in any way so it's actually quite pleasant to the palatte. People who are not looking for a very heavy main course should order this! =)

Jeffrey had the roast US prime beef rib eye with shallot sauce which he commented was more than fine! =) He said that the meat was very tender and this dish kind of reminded him of the beef that he had at Park Hyatt except that the portion here is much smaller. Guess this is worth a try!

We waited for a very long time for our desserts to arrive but before they made their appearance, we were served these petit fours and we savoured them happily!

Finally, after a very long while, Jeffrey's crepe arrived! It tasted different from the crepes we had in Paris but nevertheless, these were still GOOD!

I ordered the french toast with maple syrup and stewed berries and the thick slices of french toast really made my day! =) I half-wished that I had told them that I didn't want the stewed berries because I didn't enjoy them at all but on the whole, this was one of the more uncommon desserts that I've had in a while.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed my maiden trip to Au Jardin and I hope to be able to return again in future to try other set meals or ala carte dishes! If you are planning to have a meal at Au Jardin, my advice to you is to be prepared to spend at least 2hours there for their service is pretty slow (in a good way). It's definitely a good place to dine at if you want a slow, relaxing meal to chitchat and look at the greenery around you (:

Thanks Jeffrey for this birthday treat! =) Thank you all who celebrated my birthday in one way or another, you know who you are! =)

New Lucky Claypot Rice

Hello everyone! (:

How's your Chinese New Year coming along? Mine's filled with lotsa CNY goodies-munching! I think I'm the main reason why the goodies at home are depleting at an astonishing rate! Shall try not to overeat otherwise my poor throat may not be able to take it!

Apart from CNY goodies, I've also been having quite a lot of Chinese food (afterall, it's CNY right!). I think this Chinese food thing started since last week when my family decided to make a trip down to Clementi on one of those marathon-rainy-days to have one of the best claypot rice in Singapore! =) I've tried this claypot rice since I was young and to date, I can't find many that can beat this (though I must say that I don't eat a lot of claypot rice so my knowledge of it may be quite limited). New Lucky Claypot Rice is located at Block 328 Clementi Avenue 2 if I'm not wrong and because they serve quality claypot rice, reservations (especially on weekends) are highly recommended!

Speaking of reservations, please note that it doesn't necessarily mean that your food will arrive promptly at the time of your reservation because it's all subjected to the crowd that day. If they've a huge walk-in crowd or if they've many other reservations, then your food will still take a while to come, which was what happened to us that day. We were left staring at these two metal cups of sauces - one was filled with sweet black sauce, the other with oil - for quite a while before our drinks or other dishes came! For the uninitiated, the black sauce and oil are for flavouring the claypot rice (see below for 'instructions').

Thankfully, my mother decided to order some tze char dishes to complement our claypot rice and these dishes came much earlier than the claypot rice! I think my siblings are pretty famished that day so it's good that we'd these dishes to assuage our growling tummies. These tze char dishes may be ordered from the tze char stall at the same coffeeshop so it's very convenient (:

Sweet and sour sliced fish - which was absolutely well done! Fish slices were fresh, thick & succulent! (:

Hot plate tofu - pretty normal I would say.

Stir-fried kailan - average too.

After waiting for quite some time, our two pots of claypot rice finally arrived! (:

This is how the claypot rice looked like when it first arrived. I'm not too sure whether there's a standard/ correct way to eating claypot rice but here's how my family does it.

First, scrap all the condiments (chicken, chinese sausages, salted fish) off the top of the claypot rice and place them on a separate plate.

Secondly, scoop black sauce and oil out from the two metal cups and pour them onto the rice. You can be as generous with the sauces as you want - it really depends on how you would like your claypot rice to taste like. I won't suggest skipping either sauces because otherwise your rice won't taste as nice.
Third, mix the rice and the sauce together.


Mix it well and add additional sauce if necessary.

When your rice looks something like what is shown in the photo above, it's more or less ready for serving! (:

Scoop some hot and newly mixed claypot rice into your individual bowls and tuck in! (:

I think it's an excellent meal especially for people who are craving for something warm and filling on a cold, wet day! Each of us had about two bowls of rice and we felt very contented after that! Somehow claypot rice doesn't fill us up as quickly as normal rice.. either that or we were too hungry/ greedy that day!

Hope you'll get to try some claypot rice sometime in the near future and do let me know if there're other nice claypot rice places to go to!

Have a great 2nd day of the rabbit year! (: