Baker and Cook

Hello (:

I unintentionally started an eggs benedict 'phase' last week when I had eggs benny twice last week, which is actually a first for me since I'm not really a fan of eggs benedict. But I guess it is one of the more hearty breakfasty dishes and since I was having that for lunch on both occasions, I was more than happy to have something more substantial! (:

My good friend and colleague accompanied me to Baker and Cook last week for lunch since we were both back in school that day (: I usually patronise Baker and Cook to buy pastries for my family and sometimes I buy their quiche set (which comes with a side salad) and so far, the quality of food has yet to disappoint.

We ordered a cup of cappuccino ($4.50) each to start off our meal because we find their cappuccino good (: I thought the little brownie was a nice touch (:

Their eggs benedict with smoked salmon ($19) was generally tasty though I wish the eggs were a tad warmer and less hard? I think they pre-cooked the eggs then heat the eggs up again just before serving or perhaps they really undercooked the eggs because the egg white was a tad hard and it wasn't very warm when I ate it =| Other than that, I thought the sauce that they drizzled all over the plate gave a light sweetness to the bread and complemented the eggs, salmon and baby spinach well. I think I would have enjoyed this dish a lot more if it were warmer but it was generally okay (:

I'll post photos of Choupinette's eggs benedict in my next post! (: Shall finish up my work and go to bed (: Goodnight! (:

Skinny Pizza

Hello! (:

It's great that the long week has finally ended! Actually I think I just really need to stop going to school to get more of my own things done cos whenever I go to school, I am left with less time to clear my own work so I guess it's good that things are dwindling down. Hopefully I'll get more time to do what I have to and want to do in the next couple of weeks before the holidays take over.

Anyway, not too long ago, we went to town wanting to have lunch at Sun with Moon but it was packed and we were told that we had to wait 30-40min for a table so we decided to just walk across the walkway to Skinny Pizza, where we had a delectable meal! (: I almost forgot how wonderful it is to have Skinny Pizza/ House-type of food (:

We ordered 3 side dishes ($18) mainly because I am a fan of their side dishes and I thought it would be nice to have some variety for lunch (:

We ordered sweet potato fries, which were fantastic! (: I really love them and I wish they were more readily available! I like that the sweet potato was still sweet and slightly moist despite being deep fried. I will highly recommend this if you like sweet potato!

I've never had their parsley and truffle mashed potato, but it was really smooth and not-too-buttery, which was fine with me (: I think this dish would have been better shared between 3-4 people cos both of us got quite full from trying to finish eating this mess tin worth of mashed potato (which we ultimately didn't manage to finish). So unless you are a huge mashed potato lover or can stomach a lot of mashed potato, I wouldn't recommend this dish for two mainly because it would be way too filling/ too much. 

The 1/4m pork aausage on the other hand was perfect because it is just nice! (: Not too much and not too little. Great for people who need a little meat in their diet! (:

I think this 3-sides option is a great alternative to choosing 1 main course cos you get to try three dishes at one go! It's also great as a 'starter' for people who dine in a group cos you get to share a range of starters. In short, I like how versatile this option is and I'll definitely get this if I'm fickle-minded or indecisive that particular day.

We also had our Skinny Pizza staple, King Prawn Linguine ($26) plus $3 for extra linguine! (:  Frankly we didn't know that we would have so much mashed potato cos if we had known, we wouldn't have opted to upsize our linguine but the linguine was flavourful and yummy as usual so we had no problems polishing this entire dish off its plate! =D If you want a peppery, flavourful pasta dish, THIS is it! (:

We decided to try their apple cider ($7) (not pictured) which was pretty nice too! If not for the fact that it is very slightly alcoholic, I think I would like to have a glass to myself. I think I'll just stick to sprite to be safe (:

Alright loads to do this exciting weekend! Looking forward to doing some of them! (: Have fun!

Cha Cha Cha

Hello! (:

Hope your weekend is going great (: This weekend's gonna be "NE" weekend (pun unintended) because I'll be exploring the North-East part of Singapore! A bunch of us (and a lot of kids) went to Seng Kang today to attend a colleague's church wedding and I didn't expect to see so many unfamiliar sights along the way to the church! (: I told Jo, my best friend, about my "National Education" field trip to Seng Kang today and she said "wait till you see Punggol". HAHA! Now I can't wait to go to her place tomorrow to check Punggol out! =P

A week or two ago, Matty and I decided to drop by the relatively newly-opened Cha Cha Cha at 6th avenue for lunch because we were starving and didn't want to travel too far to get grub. Thankfully for us, Cha Cha Cha wasn't at all packed that day and the service was quick so we managed to satisfy our hunger before I/ we started getting grouchy.

I think their complimentary nachos with their very yummy and not-too-spicy salsa really helped to control the hunger pangs and almost incessant growls from our tummies. The nachos were pretty normal but I liked the salsa! (: Finally something not too spicy that I can enjoy with the nachos.

We ordered a bowl of seafood soup ($6.50) to share and it was generally okay but we felt that the soup had a relatively strong fishy taste but not in a terrible way (meaning it wasn't smelly-fishy but you could still taste it) so if you prefer not to have fishy-tasting soup, I think you should avoid this.

I was deciding between a rice dish or the mushroom quesadilla  ($14.50) but decided to get the latter instead since I am a fan of quesadillas. While they were generous with their servings of cheese and mushroom, I felt that they could have grilled the quesadillas for slightly longer so that all the cheese will melt. Most of my cheese flakes were cold and clumpy instead of being gooey and oozy =( I also felt that the cheese was too salty for my liking! Maybe I've gotten used to having Chili's quesadillas but even then, I still think this dish could have been better executed. Nonetheless, I ate it all up because I was famished and was kept full for the next few hours! So I guess it served its function of making me full (:

Matty had the beef fajita ($21) and he said that he liked it! Again, we couldn't help but make comparison to Chili's and he said Chili's is better but considering Cha Cha Cha's more affordable price, this was more than decent (:

Oh and sometime during the course of lunch, I couldn't take it and I ordered a glass of sprite ($4), which (to me) really helped to enhance the entire dining experience cos I think certain foods (especially cheesy foods) go well with fizzy drinks. But that's just my personal preference and opinion (:

In all, we were pleased with our virgin experience at Cha Cha Cha. Having all these grilled food makes me more determined to get a griller in future so that I can grill my own food (:

Alright that's all for now. Happy weekend! (:

Wooloomooloo Steakhouse

I must admit that I thought that this steakhouse had quite an unbelievably cute-sounding name when I first heard of it! Then my good friend, who is a steak lover, told me that he had always wanted to dine here so one fine evening, not too long ago, we decided to just walk in to Wooloomooloo since we were around the area and we were fortunate enough to get a table! (: 

Frankly, I was a little uncomfortable initially because this placed looked like a posh nosh kinda place but after settling down and getting used to this new environment, it actually felt quite okay (: Yes there were some very nicely dressed people and some business-looking people.. but there were also others dressed in a little less formally, a few couples who looked like they were more interested in the food and conversation than trying to impress and some lone diners, so really there was a mix of people and it felt like everyone was there to do their own thing instead of doing the "showy business" so that helped me relax a little more (:

We were served their amazing focaccia bread with butter shortly after we were seated and it was the best focaccia bread I've had in a long while! (: I really liked that it came warm and it wasn't sliced so we could decide how large a portion we wanted to have. It truly is a great start to the meal and there are other patrons who ordered an extra serving of bread just because they love it so much!

Their famous crab cake didn't disappoint as well. They were generous with the crab meat and the entire crab cake tasted fresh and flavourful. It helped that there were two kinds of sauces for us to have with our crab cake pieces and I think both were fine. I liked the lime that they provided too cos the lime juice added a slight zing to the crab cake and it was yummy! (:

What I appreciate about most restaurants is that they usually have a fish/ seafood/ vegetarian option even if it is famous for their meat and at Wooloomooloo, I was lucky enough to have their spinach and cheese ravioli! (: It was well-cooked and the spinach wasn't too dry. I seldom order ravioli because the insides of the ravioli tend to be too dry for my liking but in this case, it was fine (: I think the portion size was just right too cos it gave me just enough space for some dessert!

This is possibly the highlight of the night - a rich and juicy slab of steak! =D The previous photo shows the different types of sauces you can choose from to complement your steak. I thought that that was a very nice touch because it allows for more variety and you won't get sick of eating steak with the same sauce throughout the meal. My good friend said that his steak was cooked to the right done-ness so he was very pleased as he is particular about that.

Frankly speaking, we were both quite stuffed after eating our mains (and that huge piece of yummy focaccia bread) but we couldn't resist some desserts so we ordered their lime and lemon pie, which came with a lot of meringue! Personally, I would have liked it better if there weren't that much meringue but the lime and lemon made the tart a tad sourish so the meringue actually complemented the sour taste well (: However, if you aren't a fan of meringue, I would not recommend you to order this because I got quite sick of it after a while.. nevertheless, it was a good dessert to end our impromptu meal at Wooloomooloo! 

I probably won't be visiting it again any time soon but I will definitely keep this place in mind and recommend it to friends who are steak lovers. 

Have a good rest of the week! (: 

Sustenance from Baker & Cook and Amici for YEMP

Hello (:

School's finally out for all the JH kids! Phew! The past week has been quite crazy even though there're no official lessons. We had quite a number of informal meetings, activities and other things to deal with in general but the highlight of the week was definitely the JH4 Year End Milestone Party (YEMP). It's really wonderful that everyone who turned up bothered to dress up and they all looked really grown up (: The photos are being uploaded onto an open facebook page and I can't wait to see them!

Anyhow, I shall post photos of the food that I ate on YEMP day which got me through the day (: I don't remember how much these items cost because I didn't keep the receipts but whatever I had tasted great! (:

Before YEMP, we went to Baker and Cook for brunch because we had correctly anticipated that we wouldn't have time to have a proper lunch in school cos I had prep to do so we made the best decision ever to visit Baker and Cook for our brunch. I had wanted to try the eggs benedict but somehow I wasn't really up to eating poached egg that day so I opted for the normal scrambled eggs with toast and added salmon as an additional side. I liked that they were generous with their servings of eggs and salmon but I would have loved to have more bread cos I prefer to eat my eggs with bread and there wasn't enough bread to go with all the eggs! The consolation is that I went to Baker and Cook with an egg-lover who can help to finish the eggs. On the whole this dish satisfied me and kept me full for the entire afternoon so it something not to be missed if you want something filling! (:

The party went without a hitch and the kids generally enjoyed themselves, which was a good thing (: I arrived home at around 6pm and I didn't realise that I was hungry till about 6.30pm, and by then it was a tad too late cos I was famished! Roar! We wanted to to La Nonna to have dinner to mark the end of the party but it was crowded so we ended up at Amici, which was not a bad choice but I daresay that La Nonna serves nicer tasting food (:

We had carbonara risotto, which was very filling but very hearty as well. I reckon it might be impossible to finish this dish entirely on your own because you might get too gelat. Thankfully we had agreed to share our main courses so we didn't overdose on cream and cheese.

Their spicy crabmeat linguine provided a good balance to the heavy carbonara risotto. I liked that the linguine was cooked well and that they were not stingy with the crab meat! (: It definitely lived up to my expectations of it being a 'recommended dish' by the waiter!

Am just so thankful to have a foodie buddy as well as good food to last me through busy days and to accompany me through most of life's experiences (: Happy weekend! (:

Lobby Lounge High Tea Buffet

Hello! (:

We're down to the last week of school and frankly I can't wait for this coming week to end so that I can start tying things up and preparing for next year before taking a break in December!

We've been wanting to go for a decent high tea for a long time but it's really difficult to get a table at the popular high tea places if you call the day before or the day of the visit because most of the time, they're fully booked out! =( The problem with me is that I don't really fancy making reservations a week or two in advance because I can't be sure that I won't have last minute plans so I need to get around this problem or I'll not be able to have my good high tea any time soon!

Thankfully, Matty managed to find a relatively nice place for high tea last weekend - Lobby Lounge at Orchard Pan Pacific Hotel. Their weekend high tea costs $38++/pax so it's relatively affordable compared to other weekend high tea buffets. What was lovely about this place is the ambience and comfortable setting - you really feel like you can sit there for hours talking! (: The downsides are that there are limited staff and they aren't very attentive so you might have to wait a while before they get to you, and that the food selection is neither large nor is the food fantastic but both are average so it's alright (:

I'll just post some photos we took that day and you can make out the food on your own ;)

We could choose to have coffee or tea first and then switch to the other beverage if we got tired of drinking the first beverage that we ordered. I thought that was a nice touch because some other high tea places only allow you to choose one type of beverage. 

 

Oh we could order any of these'main course' items on the menu but we only chose to have the laksa and the char kway teow cos we weren't attracted to the other two. Like the rest of the dishes, these two were average in terms of taste.

On the whole, I wouldn't recommend going to Lobby Lounge for high quality buffet food but if food is your secondary concern and you want a nice place to chill, relax and chat, then this would be a good place to visit (:

Alright have a good weekend everyone! (: