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One-Ninety Saturday Asian High-Tea Buffet

Hello!

It's almost the end of another hectic week and frankly I can't wait for the last bell to ring tomorrow so that I can tell myself that the weekend's finally here. This week's been quite tiring mainly because the school is going through this big exercise which involves almost everyone and there are also many other small pockets of activities slotted during free periods but I'm thankful that it's almost over!

I've decided to post photos of our not-so-recent trip to One-Ninety at Four Seasons Hotel today just in case some people might want to pop by to this restaurant this coming Saturday for some asian food (: My family went there after my second sister's convocation ceremony and we had a good time eating and just taking in the laidback atmosphere of this place. I noticed that the Saturday crowd is much thinner compared to their Sunday brunch crowd and I'm guessing it's because people tend to prefer international brunch (with champagne option) compared to asian food?

Anyhow, the price per pax for this particular asian high-tea buffet is $45++/pax and the high tea buffet lasts from 12-3pm so you've plenty of time to eat. The spread's reasonably wide but it can't be compared to Sunday brunch spread of course so there aren't many photos since the same dishes find themselves on our plates after a while:

 Fried puffs, egg tart and mixed salad.

 From left to right (in clockwise direction): shreded vegetables and fried tofu with peanut sauce, greek salad, potato covered with Indian curry, sweet potato (love it!)

 From left to right (in clockwise direction):  Rice, prawns with cashew nuts (yum!), hokkien mee (yumyum!), dimsum (not very nice, average only), different slices of meat, some chicken, white rice.

 Similar dishes as above except this one has briyani rice and slices of steamed chicken (spot them!)

 I think the most fascinating thing about this high-tea buffet is the meat corner! There's a whole range of different types of meat available! Definitely something to tickle the fancy of meat lovers! (:

 From left to right (in clockwise direction): dimsum, briyani rice, lentil cooked Indian style (nice!), hokkien mee

 We loved the hokkien mee so much that we kept helping ourselves to more of it! I think we emptied the at least one claypot full of hokkien mee!

 If you ever go to One-Ninety, you MUST try their famous laksa! It's really quite good! (: Almost all of us had one bowl each!

 Jeffrey tried to be funny and he took two types of white rice: Jasmine white rice and garlic rice

For a change, we took a platter of desserts! It's actually quite strange having asian desserts because my family's in the kueh business so we kinda grew up on some of these kueh-desserts and hence they're to very appealing to us.. but thankfully they come in small portions so we took some to try (:

 Back to more savoury food: prawns with cashew nuts, sweet & sour fish, hokkien mee, Indian curry

 More meat for carnivorous people! =D

 Mango Madness: Mango puree and mango sago in a shot

 Pulut Hitam - which was way too sticky!

 Ice kachang that had non-sweetened coloured syrup! =( But the cool thing about this is that the shaved ice is made using a traditional ice cube shaver! (:

 I actually ate every single piece of kueh on this platter! They're quite delicious (:

Pandan cake & kueh lapis - I think the pandan cake tastes nicer

 We ended off our meal with some good quality tea from TWG! (: Love the teapot!

Gumtoo & Jeffrey chose to have coffee, which was normal (:

If you were to ask me if I prefer their Saturday Asian high-tea buffet or Sunday international brunch buffet, I would choose the latter but I don't regret having asian food because I had it with the people that matter most to me (:

Alright time to get back to work! Have a great weekend everyone! (:

Bodega Y Tapas

Hello everyone (:

It's another cool and comfortable Friday afternoon (: Jade & I left school early to come home to lunch & rest because we've both had quite a long week! Am glad that I managed to survive the two longest Thursdays of the year without much difficulty! Just need to catch up on sleep if possible during the weekend.  

Today I shall blog about Bodega Y Tapas, which is located at Orchard Hotel. I wanted to go to this restaurant because my friend in school highly recommended their tapas and he said that this restaurant serves the best tapas in Singapore!

We went to Bodega Y Tapas for lunch on a Saturday afternoon and thankfully the restaurant wasn't very crowded. I loved the interior decor of the restaurant because there were splashes of bright colours everywhere and the place looked vibrant and welcoming! It does help their walls are nicely painted as well:

We chose to sit indoors and we managed to get ourselves a bright red high table! Just by looking at the table setting, I think one is able to tell that this is a tapas restaurant (just in case you don't know, you should be looking at the tooth-pick like things which you can use to poke your tapas!)

Table setting at Bodega Y Tapas

 This was their special traditional lunch set menu and both of us decided to get a set each! Each set costs about $35++ and it comes 3 types of tapas and a complimentary shot of alcohol (which I absolutely didn't like but more on that later).

 Jeffrey ordered a lime margarita ($6.80) since it was on offer and it tasted pretty good! Nothing too bitter or too strong.

 I ordered sprite as usual ($5) - I love how the glass is ribbed as it makes it easier for holding!

There were six tapas choices so naturally, we decided to get one of each since we could choose six:

 Cold cod fish salad with orange strips and some vegetables - this was one of the rare salads that I've ever eaten and I was very grateful that it tasted good so I didn't develop an aversion to fish-salads!

 Meatballs in stew with bread. Jeffrey loved the meatballs so he didn't have problems finishing them all! I shared the bread slices with him - they're quite tasty when you dip the bread into the sauce!

 Squid-ink squid! I think this was my least favourite dish partially because I am not used to eating relatively large/ whole parts of squid (the squid that I usually eat have already been sliced into rings) so I felt slightly weird having to eat such large pieces of squid! But to be fair, the squid ink tasted authentic and I think people who like squids should order this!

 Perhaps our favourite Spanish dish by far probably because it resembles fried/ scrambled eggs and it is tasty! If you are a conservative eater, please go ahead and order this!

 One of the best dishes that day: prawns drenched in olive tree and spice. The prawns were extremely warm and tender and the flavouring was stronger than usual, which made it nice to taste and eat.

 Last but not least, there's aspaaragus soup with one poached egg and bacon. The soup was quite delicious though I felt that they could have served this at the start of the meal?

 Finally, a picture of the infamous shot of alcohol (which smells like mouth wash/ listerine)  that was served to us =( I know better than to accept this complimentary drink in future!

Because the complimentary drink was so repulsive, we'd to order a tiramisu ($10) to wash down the horrible taste as well as to give our meal a proper ending. I think this tiramisu is slightly above average and the thing that I like most about is its presentation! (: It looks as if I've to dig into an earthen jar just to have some tiramisu!

I would agree that Bodega Y Tapas serves good quality tapas at reasonable prices so if you ever are in a mood for something exotic, please visit this restaurant to get your tastebuds a good pampering!

Alright that's all for now. Have a good weekend everyone! (:

Bosses Restaurant

Hello!

TGIF! (: This week has been a very long one and I'm thankful that I'm home tonight because I definitely need to catch up on some rest before I press on with my meetings and what not tomorrow morning!

It has been a very cold night so I thought I'd post an entry on some nice warm food so that people may think of going to this restaurant for some comfort food on a cold rainy day!

I was first attracted to Bosses Restaurant because of its name (This reminds me of my kids' performances - what's in a name? - which have been nothing short of splendid so far). I've been wanting to visit this restaurant for a long time and I'm glad that I finally got a chance not too long ago!

 Bosses Restaurant (aka Hei She Hui in Chinese) is located at Vivo City and it serves Chinese dimsum and food.

I love how the blackness of the interior and furniture of the restaurant - it's very well aligned with its name! Thankfully there's sufficient light so the restaurant, despite it's seemingly 'dark' interior setting is quite bright!

Because we were there on a Saturday afternoon when dimsum was available, we took the opportunity to try some of their recommended dishes!

Their Fried Carrot Cake ($6) was slightly unconventional. They decided to add a thin layer of fried egg above their carrot cake which made it taste slightly more hawker-centre-ish but it was definitely not bad. I still prefer the one served at Crystal Jade though because I think Crystal Jade's carrot cake is more fragrant.

A plate of Ginger Kai Lan ($12) which tasted surprisingly nice! I liked the hint of ginger and was thankful that the kai lan wasn't too bitter!

Mango Prawn Roll ($6) - this was the dish that our waitress recommended and we didn't regret ordering this at all! Though this dish isn't new to us, I felt that Bosses did it very well because the mango and prawn melded together perfectly such that it tasted complete and wholesome in my mouth! Definitely a must-order!

Another dish which you should order would be their Xiao Long Bao ($6.50) which Jeffrey devoured with complete satisfaction! (:

Their hargao (steamed prawn dumpling) ($5) was pretty average - the skin was slightly too thin so the skin broke before we ate them! I would prefer the skin to wrap the hargao until it is in my mouth!

Last but not least, we ordered their recommended stir-fry noodles ($16) which tasted like hongkong mee! Both of us felt that it was good because it wasn't too oily and that the noodles were still springy! You should order this to try if you are a noodle person like me! (:

Alright that is all for tonight! I hope that all of you will have a great weekend ahead! Bon appetit! (:

100 Most beautiful words in the English language

Ailurophile A cat-lover.
Assemblage A gathering.
Becoming Attractive.
Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
Brood To think alone.
Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow A small, cozy cottage.
Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
Comely Attractive.
Conflate To blend together.
Cynosure A focal point of admiration.
Dalliance A brief love affair.
Demesne Dominion, territory.
Demure Shy and reserved.
Denouement The resolution of a mystery.
Desuetude Disuse.
Desultory Slow, sluggish.
Diaphanous Filmy.
Dissemble Deceive.
Dulcet Sweet, sugary.
Ebullience Bubbling enthusiasm.
Effervescent Bubbly.
Efflorescence Flowering, blooming.
Elision Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
Elixir A good potion.
Eloquence Beauty and persuasion in speech.
Embrocation Rubbing on a lotion.
Emollient A softener.
Ephemeral Short-lived.
Epiphany A sudden revelation.
Erstwhile At one time, for a time.
Ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
Evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
Evocative Suggestive.
Fetching Pretty.
Felicity Pleasantness.
Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.
Fugacious Fleeting.
Furtive Shifty, sneaky.
Gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
Glamour Beauty.
Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
Halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
Harbinger Messenger with news of the future.
Imbrication Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
Imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
Imbue To infuse, instill.
Incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
Ineffable Unutterable, inexpressible.
Ingénue A naïve young woman.
Inglenook A cozy nook by the hearth.
Insouciance Blithe nonchalance.
Inure To become jaded.
Labyrinthine Twisting and turning.
Lagniappe A special kind of gift.
Lagoon A small gulf or inlet.
Languor Listlessness, inactivity.
Lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
Leisure Free time.
Lilt To move musically or lively.
Lissome Slender and graceful.
Lithe Slender and flexible.
Love Deep affection.
Mellifluous Sweet sounding.
Moiety One of two equal parts.
Mondegreen A slip of the ear.
Murmurous Murmuring.
Nemesis An unconquerable archenemy.
Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like its meaning.
Opulent Lush, luxuriant.
Palimpsest A manuscript written over earlier ones.
Panacea A solution for all problems
Panoply A complete set.
Pastiche An art work combining materials from various sources.
Penumbra A half-shadow.
Petrichor The smell of earth after rain.
Plethora A large quantity.
Propinquity Proximity; Nearness
Pyrrhic Successful with heavy losses.
Quintessential Most essential.
Ratatouille A spicy French stew.
Ravel To knit or unknit.
Redolent Fragrant.
Riparian By the bank of a stream.
Ripple A very small wave.
Scintilla A spark or very small thing.
Sempiternal Eternal.
Seraglio Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
Serendipity Finding something nice while looking for something else.
Summery Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
Sumptuous Lush, luxurious.
Surreptitious Secretive, sneaky.
Susquehanna A river in Pennsylvania.
Susurrous Whispering, hissing.
Talisman A good luck charm.
Tintinnabulation Tinkling.
Umbrella Protection from sun or rain.
Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.
Vestigial In trace amounts.
Wafture Waving.
Wherewithal The means.
Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.

Taken from: http://deshoda.com/words/100-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language/

Paulaner Brauhaus German Micro-Brewery Restaurant

Hello everyone! (:

I'm feeling quite happy that it finally rained just now, after many days of unbearably hot weather, because for once I don't feel like I'm being assaulted by the heatwave. Yesterday was quite an eventful day because my sister had her commencement ceremony (congrats Nette!) and I attended my first wedding dinner in a long time! (: I guess yesterday's wedding marks the first of the many upcoming weddings that I'll have to attend in the near future. I've somewhat concluded (might be a bit too hasty though since I'm only basing my conclusion on last night's dinner) that wedding dinners are great times for people to catch up with one another because you've about three full hours to talk to the person/ people you're sitting with! (: I'd a great time talking to the person next to me and am thankful that I'd such great company yesterday.

Because I heard that some of my fellow CCA people are going to visit Brauhaus at Novena this coming weekend after CCA and also because my family went to Paulaner Brauhaus German Micro-Brewery Restaurant at Millenia Walk not too long ago to celebrate my other sister's birthday, I'm going to post an entry on German food today! 

Paulaner at Millenia Walk is an extremely HUGE restaurant that spans three storeys, with the first being a pub/ bar and the second and third being dining areas. We were lucky to be seated away from the noisy post-work pub-crowd, on the second level, where the ambience was actually quite peaceful and nice for a family birthday celebration.

I was quite pleased that my entire family was game for German food that night (much thanks to Nette's recommendation) and I think most of us (except Jeff my brother) enjoyed what we ordered.

We were served three different types of warm bread (yum!) with butter and some other kind of spread which I've clearly forgotten! I loved the texture and taste of the slices of bread and I think that it's lovely that they were not stingy and gave us two such portions since there were so many of us at the table!

Every time I visit a German restaurant, I feel compelled to ask my fellow diners to try their sausages since german sausages are famous for being extremely tasty. We ordered two different types of sausages - the currywurst (pictured above) and the nurnberger (second photo) - and each dish costs $17. The people who ate the sausages took to them well and I think all of us liked nibbling on their above-average-tasting fries which were made slightly nicer because of the sauce that came with them.

Another signature German dish that one should try to order is the pork knuckle ($29.50). I think the portion was reasonable for its price! My parents felt that this pork knuckle was pretty okay but it wasn't as fragrant as they hoped for it to be so I guess if you're a pork knuckle fanatic, try not to get your hopes too high for this dish!

One of my sisters decided to order the Caesar Salad ($14) because none of the other dishes enticed her. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Caesar Salad came in a nice tall bowl! (: I think presentation affects our impression (and sometimes goes so far as to colour or judgement) of the dish and this caesar salad was definitely well-received by my sister!

The same sister who ordered the salad also placed an order for a bowl of mushroom soup ($9) which tasted much better than the usual mushroom soup! It's definitely worth a try (:

My brother ordered the Cheese Spatzle ($14.50) which was actually egg noodle in cream sauce that tasted slightly alcoholic. Before we took a spoonful of his noodles, we were wondering why he didn't like it because we actually made it a point to order PLAIN cheese spatzle for him since he doesn't like any condiments but after we took our first bites, we realised that there was a hint of alcohol in the cream sauce, which explains why he didn't like his food! We did some swapping so that we would finish his dish for him and he could eat some potato rosti ($13.50) and ham pizza ($20). The rosti and pizza arrived the latest and by then, we were all too engrossed with our own food and hence we didn't take any photos of these two dishes - sorry! My mum said that the rosti was nice so I think you can give it a try if you're not into having sausages when you visit Paulaner!

If you wish to play on the 'safe' side, you can always take after Jeffrey and order the Chicken Sausage ($16). This dish comes with two side dishes: mashed potato as well as german cabbage. It's actually pretty filling so it's just nice for people who like to have a 'well-balanced' meal that consists of carbohydrates, fibre and protein!

I ordered their fettucine ($18) which tastes much better than it looks. I thought the fettucine was just right because it was still a little springy and it helped to bring out the flavour of the sauce well. I very much liked this dish (:
Since no one in my family's into beer/ alcohol, we didn't order any proper drinks but we did, however, order overpriced soft drinks and other beverages. Each cup of softdrink costs $7 so you can imagine how much money we spent just on drinks! =S

On the whole, I thought that the food, service and ambience at Paulaner's were above average and they definitely superceded my expectations (: I think I'll go back again in future to try other dishes and maybe to listen to their live band on level 1! (:

Alright that's all for today. Have a great week ahead! (: