Tiong Bahru Market

Hello (:

We didn't travel this holiday so we made it a point to go to places that we seldom go to during term time and one such place is Tiong Bahru Market, a hawker place that I used to frequent a little more when I was a kid! (:

The place has cleaned up quite a bit and some stalls have changed hands but I think the general feel is the same (: We have been there twice and both times I chose to queue for noodles because I'm more of a noodles than rice person (:

The famous lor mee has a shark nuggets option so if you want the full experience, you can opt for the shark nuggets! =P The sauce is not too viscous nor is it too salty and it really complements the noodles well (: I can see why people think that this ranks as one of the best lor mees around.

The fishball noodles were unexpectedly good partly cos the noodles were slightly al dente and also cos the sauce was very tasty! (: I would have this again any day but I don't think I'll be willing to queue for so long for this again! (We went around 1ish pm and the queue for this bowl of noodles was 20-25min long)

All in all, I think Tiong Bahru Market is worth repeated visits and we can't wait to get back to try other dishes! (:

Enjoy what's left of the holidays and Happy New Year in advance! (:

Food Trail from Hillview to Coronation

Hello (:

We decided to spend this December holiday in Singapore because we wanted to explore our new neighbourhood a little as well as to figure out how best to do things at home so that we will be all set and ready for 2017 when it comes! (:

So apart from doing lots of cleaning and experimenting in the kitchen, we have also been visiting the nearby places for quick meals. One of the new places that we've been to is called Klang Bak Kut Teh and it serves the dry kind of bak kut teh (see top right of pic below). LC likes it and we introduced Klang to our friend and he liked it too so I am guessing it's not too bad a place to go to if you want to give the dry BKT a try (:

We are also fortunate enough to live not too far from Spruce, so we can always head there (on a non-rainy day) for some western/ brunchy grub (: I personally like it when it's less crowded cos it won't be too noisy, so early brunches on weekends or brunches on weekdays are preferred.

Once or twice a month, we have this insatiable craving for good indian food and we always head to Karu's at Sime Darby (next to KAP MRT station) to satisfy our need. Our family has been eating at Karu's for at least a decade and their food never disappoints. You really have to try it! (:

On not-so-good days, I always go to Atlas for my favourite pancakes! I know some/ most people find their signature pancakes a little too sweet but I absolutely LOVE it, especially on a bad day. It really is my antidote and it makes me feel a teensy bit better (: On other average days or on days when I don't mind overpaying for cafe food, I go to Atlas to try the other savoury items on their menu:

Oh and we recently made an unexpected discovery! Lana Cake Shop actually sells astoundingly good carrot cake! It can possibly rival Cedele's in my humble opinion. You should try it to judge for yourself (: 

Alright that's all for our food adventures thus far (: We'll continue to update this space when we are free but for now, we'll try to indulge in other activities (e.g. watching tv series and movies) that we do not have time for during school term. Have a good week ahead, everyone! (:

Malacca Retreat

Hello (:

I went to Malacca with my CCA kids and colleagues earlier this week and I must say that this retreat is not like the rest that I've been to, but it was still great overall! (:

What's most interesting about this retreat is that I got to try food that I usually will not eat/ don't get to eat! One of these dishes is the Hakka Taro Paste Balls also known as 'suan pan'. It's this chewy almost mochi like savoury ball made of taro and flour and it's actually pretty addictive! Heh

The other dish that I got to try, which apparently is all the rage in Malacca at present, is Cheese Beehoon with Big Prawns. Our guide told us that the stall owner charges based on the number of prawns ordered, and he gives us beehoon for free! Guess the cost of beehoon is negligible. Heh. This is definitely one dish that needs to be shared because you can get gelat pretty quickly! It really taste as it looks so expect something rich and creamy (and peppery) when you eat this! (:

The last pic doesn't feature an exotic/ novel dish but it does show how small the egg mcmuffin is! I was stunned when I saw downsized my breakfast was! Hahaha Oh well, at least it tasted the same -- that's one reason why I'll always patronise Macdonalds no matter which country I go to cos I can always trust their consistency! (:

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

Coyote

Hello (:

The past few days have been really draining cos of endless meetings and feeling pretty bummed cos a good friend is stuck in an emotional quagmire. I really cannot wait for all the meetings and school-related things to come to an end at the end of next week so that I can finally just do my own things.

In the mean time, here're two (badly taken) photographs of our starter and dessert at Coyote, which was actually great (: I didn't take photos of the mains cos it was evidently too dark and I couldn't get a good shot. I really think that having good food with people who matter really help to uplift one's spirits; there are few other activities that come close to providing similar temporary relief.

In any case, I shall just press on and make the best use of my time so that I can get to enjoy a little bit of hols in December! (:

Have a good weekend! (:

Rong Fu Ji Seafood Steam Pot

Hello (:

My good friends and I went to Rong Fu Ji for dinner last night and it was a pretty fascinating experience, partly because it was our first time trying out a steam pot meal. Needless to say, we weren't prepared for the facial-like dining experience! I was prepared to be marinated by the smell of the food (you know, like what happens when we have Korean BBQ) but thankfully, this wasn't that bad! (:

Food wise, the seafood was fresh though I thought the portions were quite small. The main gripe that the 3 of us had was that the porridge could only be eaten at the end of the meal rather than together with the rest of the food, meaning we had to finish all the food on the upper layer before we could access the porridge! We asked the waitress why this was the case and she said that the porridge takes a longer while to cook, so oh well! Disappointingly, we had expected the porridge to be more flavourful but it was kinda bland though the texture was alright.

Here're some photos of the 2 pax set that we ordered, which costs $78! As you can see, the quantity of food is definitely not enough for 3 so we ordered extra beef and an extra vegetable platter!

We were nicely filled after we had eaten our extra servings of food and promptly retreated to Coffee Bean for dessert. Great times (:

Have a good rest of the week!

Oven-ed

Hello (:

We finally got our oven fixed so we can start using it to cook our meals or bake things! (: I think baking's gonna be more challenging than cooking cos we need to be precise so I'll probably only try that when the weekend comes along. For now, we're enjoying the (relatively easy) process of cooking with the oven! It's really quite simple -- just decide what you wanna eat and throw everything in. Tada! (:

Shall finish up whatever that I'm doing and go to bed! (: Have a great week ahead! (:

Learning to Cook

Hello (:

Things have been pretty quiet here cos I've been busy with a whole host of activities and I've only recently been able to catch up on some rest and to try to find a new routine that I am comfortable with.

Perhaps the most exciting thing that has happened of late is that I'm starting to learn to cook! (: Prior to the past week, I hardly ever cooked a proper meal because I simply do not know where the different things are placed in the kitchen. Now that we have our own training kitchen, I have no excuses to not learn to cook!

So far, I've made really simple dishes such as pasta with vegetables and mushrooms as well as a tofu and mushroom burger and thankfully they taste relatively okay! Haha I shall continue to endeavour to expand the kinds of food that I can cook and also to improve the taste and quality of the dishes!

I also need to work on my prep skills (because I take forever to prep) and my multi-tasking skills while cooking (cos I keep getting distracted by the need to do washing -- so either I leave the washing till later or that I learn to wash things more quickly); so I need to focus on doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing better!

Alright that's all for now (: Shall update again when I have the time! Busy week ahead but we'll take it as it comes! Have a good week, everyone! (:

Bread Street Kitchen

Hello (:

The marking season has begun so please pardon me if I don't update as often as before! Although we're super busy with prepping students for year-end assessments as well as marking their practices and actual test scripts, we decided to put aside time a few days ago to visit Bread Street Kitchen to celebrate the bubs' birthday!

Because I don't watch any of Gordon Ramsay's food shows, I didn't have any expectations but I trusted that the food would be average/ above average, and it proved to be so. We loved all the dishes that we ordered because the pasta was well cooked and the mushroom sauce was surprisingly earthy but in a good way, his lamb shank was tender and well-cooked, and the dessert platter was satisfying! (We made the wrong choice to select 3 heavy desserts, so after a while it got a little too much for us so we'll make a note to choose 1-2 light desserts in future if we were to have the dessert platter again!)

While the food was good and the ambience pleasant, we were not impressed with the service. To be fair to the team at BSK, the service throughout the night was pretty standard but it wasn't great, and it kept at that standard till a waiter accidentally knocked the bubs' half-drunk cocktail over and the drink spilled on his shirt. The waiter said sorry once and then quickly proceeded to pass him 1 extra napkin to wipe up, then he walked away. Shortly after, the manager of the restaurant came by to apologise again and we said it's okay, so she left us as well. We weren't expecting them to apologise profusely but the truth is that their singular 'sorry's didn't sound sincere nor did they appear apologetic at all. I think it also says a lot when the diner at the next table offered his napkin to bubs to continue cleaning his shirt when he saw that all 3 napkins (bubs', the extra and mine) had been used.

At that point, I think we both felt a little disappointed with the service but because we're not the kind who will kick up a big fuss, we decided to get the bill so that we could leave. We noticed that they had not waived the charge for the cocktail which the waiter had spilled but paid for the entire meal anyway cos we didn't want to make a scene.

After we stood up to leave, the waiter came back with a new cocktail, supposedly to replace the one that was spilled. But we were already intending to leave, so we declined to have the replacement drink.

The entire episode kinda ruined the otherwise fine dining experience at Bread Street Kitchen, because we felt that communication could definitely have been improved. Either the waiter/ the manager could have just said that they'll waive the charge or get us a new drink or tell us how they would make up for knocking over their customers' drink. The last thing we would have expected is for them to apologise once and then left us there to do our own cleaning up.

We completely understand that such accidents happen, and we are not angry at the waiter for accidentally spilling the drink on us. But what we are not happy about is how the staff mishandled the situation after the drink had been spilled.

Oh well, it's alright (: There'll be many more good dining adventures to look forward to so we shan't harp too much on this one!

Happy weekend! (:

Chong Qing Grilled Fish

Hello (:

The first week of school went by quite quickly mainly because there was a lot to do and I'm just thankful that the weekend is here so that I can catch up on some rest (:

I think the mantra for this term will be Dory's famous mantra: just keep swimming. I have no doubt that marking season will be demanding as usual and there will be lots of other things to deal with but I am pretty sure that we'll pull through just fine!

A few good friends and I have already decided that we'll celebrate end of marking season at Chong Qing Grilled Fish, where they'll indulge in the crazily spicy mala fish while I stay with safer options like the one below!

I like that the grilled fish served at Chong Qing Grilled Fish is fresh and it doesn't at all have any fishy smell. The 'soup base'/ 'gravy' is also pretty rich tasting and complements the fish well.

Can't wait to see this place again cos it means that marking season is over! Haha

Alright have a good weekend everyone! (:

Kith Cafe at Millenia Walk

Hello (:

We've been ridiculously busy the past two days in a different kind of way but all's good (: We went to Kith before running our errands and we're so pleased that their menu has expanded! It was nice sampling their non-brunchy dishes for once and we are game to return to try more if we are around that area (:

Hopefully we'll be super productive these few days so that we will have some time next weekend to do other things! (: Have a good week ahead! (:

Neighbourhood Treats

Oops!

I just realised I haven't blogged in about a month! =| The truth is most of my foodie posts go on instagram these days so I don't really feel the need to log my food journey here these days but I guess I'll try because this space allows me to type a lot more and the content is more neatly categorised so I can find things more easily (:

Apart from school work, we also are busy juggling personal commitments cos we shifting to a new neigbhourhood at the end of the year! (: So what this means is that we usually end up just buying dinner home from the usual places (we usually go to the tze char place at 6th ave, Casuarina at 6th ave, Da Paolo at Cluny etc.) and eating nearby!

So here's a short post of the yummy desserts that we've had over the past few weeks! Desserts are a necessity in my life and I notice that I always end up eating a huge waffle (or something equivalent) after a long and hard day in school Heh I think I need to exercise some self-restraint! Anyhow, here goes:

Rider's Cafe

 Common Man Coffee Roasters 

(new outlet at Cheong Chin Nam area)

Nunsongyee 

Alright the Sept hols are upon us so we shall make use of the time to catch up on work and to spend time with our loved ones! (:

Have a good weekend! (:

Open Farm Community

Hello (:

Today feels like a Friday cos we're gonna be treated to two days of 'break' starting tomorrow, which is great cos we'll have more time to catch up on things that we have/ want to do! (:

Over the weekend, a few of us went to Open Farm Community to celebrate a good friend's belated birthday and I think the food's pretty good! The flavours tend to be rich and strong and they seem to go pretty well together. I like that the ingredients taste fresh so there's no fishiness at all! =P

My friends and I also took a short walk in the open area outside and we are pretty impressed with the open spaces available for diners to play and/or chill out. It's quite a happy place! On the whole, we would definitely return to try more of their dishes and to visit their store which was closed by the time we left the restaurant!

Alright that's all for now! Happy holiday everyone! (: Enjoy National Day! (:

Sunday Folks

Hello (:

We're SO ready for National Day break! We hope that it'll give us sufficient time to clear outstanding work as well as catch up on rest! (:

A few of us went to Sunday Folks yesterday for some dessert after dinner and the waffles were better than I remembered them to be!

Had a great time catching up with the girls and talking about things serious and trivial. Thanks girls for the waffles treat and I hope that all of you will have a fulfilling rest-of-the-year! (:

Happy weekend! Whoohoo!

Casuarina Curry at 6th Avenue

Hello (:

Pardon the lack of updates recently! July's always a crazy month but this particular July was even busier cos we'd many activities such as my sister's wedding and a funfair in school! (:

During super busy times like these, I'm thankful that we've good and affordable food nearby so we can just pop by to grab a bite or dapao food home. This month alone, we've been to Casuarina thrice (!!) and we kinda like it (: I guess Indian food will always have a special place in our hearts cos when we were younger, my parents used to buy Karu's for us and we absolutely loved it!

We didn't take a photo of the briyani which we packed home on our second visit, so these two photos will have to do:

Have a good rest of the week! (:

Rubato

Hello (:

Today seems like a pretty slow day cos we spent half the day in school, a couple of hours lunching with a very good friend, a few hours napping (yes I know my naps are super long but hey in my defence, they make up for the lack of rest I get at night cos I dream way too much), an couple of hours surfing and doing household chores and suddenly, the day's almost over!

Although we'll probably have to start the cycle of prepping for school again tmr, I think today's break in our usual weekend cycle is somewhat refreshing. And of course, good food and good company is always welcomed!

We ended up at Rubato cos we opted to go some place nearby for lunch, and I must say that the food's pretty darn good! (: The risotto that I'd was creamy, rich and very filling! I also loved their affogato (which I didn't take a photo of)! I like that Rubato provides a conducive and chill environment for us to chit chat and just hide from the scorching heat!

Will probably revisit this place again in the near future! Have a great weekend! (:

Brunetti

Hello (:

We're feeling super thankful for a short work week cos we need to rest up as much as we can before we face the longest week of the term next week! Heheh.

We went to Brunetti to have a dinner to mark the end of the first full week of school and we reminded of their satisfying dishes! (: I think they have got their seasoning right because their food is often tasty, though I must admit that it might be a tad too salty for most people. Because we just got out of a full work week, we didn't mind the strong flavours at all so we heartily ate all our food up!

Happy Raya to all Muslim friends and happy midweek to the rest of us! (:

Pacamara (again!)

Hello (:

The first week of school went by relatively painlessly despite having many late days so I am pretty grateful (: I think that not giving the kids lots of holiday hwk allows them to rest and feel more recharged after they come back, which is great for all! (: So I hope that schools will continue to manage the amt of holiday work that the kids are given as well as the activities that they have to be involved in so that they can get the rest that they need.

Anyhow, we finally had the chance to visit Pacamara while they were still serving their breakfast menu and I couldn't have been more thrilled! (: This means that I could finally try their much-talked about French Toast!

Personally I thought the French Toast was good but it wasn't spectacular! Maybe it's cos I didn't really like having so much apple compote and I prefer maple syrup with my french toast, but I liked that they were so generous with the fruits! All in all it was a good meal and I look forward to trying more breakfast items in the near future! (:

Happy weekend, everyone! (:

Supply and Demand

Hello (:

We're currently having our break in HCMC, and I'm really appreciating the short respite from work. Prior to our leaving Singapore, we had a quick meal at Supply and Demand because we had to finish our meal before catching Les Mis.

Because our time at Supply and Demand was short, we decided to order only these two dishes to ensure that we could make it in time for our musical. The pita was wonderfully made but the pasta as average. On the whole, we both liked the food enough to want to go back to try more dishes! =D

That's all for a super short update! Have a good rest of the week while we continue to rest and chill in HCMC (:

Patties and Wiches

Hello (:

We have been visiting my favourite mall quite often lately cos we have been running quite a few errands and it's most convenient to just pop by a place where you know you can get (almost) everything that you need/ want.

Before we started our errands-run the other day, we dropped by Patties and Wiches cos we kept eyeing it while on the escalator to/ from Kino! Turns out that it's a very decent cafe to go for light Japanese-type buns and treats! The melon soda was unique because they actually blended some lemon into the soda water so you can taste the real fruit while you sip your soda. The burger and sandwich were very filling, in fact, they made us so full that we had to give their much-raved about desserts a miss cos we were just so stuffed! Oh welly, another time perhaps!

Can't believe that the hols are flying by -- almost half of it is over! Gonna cherish the remaining days before mayhem begins again! Happy weekend, everyone! (: