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! (:

Coffee Lounge High Tea Buffet

Hello (:

We had another one-of-those-odd-timing days recently and we decided to have a late and filling high tea so that we wouldn't have to search for dinner again a few hours later, and off to Coffee Lounge we went for lots of local food. Truth be told, I don't think I'm a huge fan of local fare, meaning I don't need to have it daily and not having it daily wouldn't cause me to feel great discomfort, but I like indulging in it once in a while, and by indulgence I mean eating a lot of it.

I didn't take photos of bubs' plates so what you see in the next few photos are the food that I ate, which I think are pretty good! The best savoury dish (not pictured) is the laksa, which is super spicy (to me) but a definite must-try! (: The desserts are also good, and it was my first time eating apom! (: It tastes like a cold pancake with thicker dough and it comes with banana gravy. Yummy!

It's officially one more week to the hols and for once, I really can't wait for it to arrive cos this term has been gruelling!

Enjoy your Sunday! (:

No Signboard Seafood Restaurant

On days when you can't really decide what to eat, some chilli crabs, fried mantous and dimsum (not pictured) might be good (:

Here's to a less crabby second half of 2014! (:

Goodwood Park Hotel Durian Fiesta Dessert Buffet

Hello (:

I've been terribly busy and there's barely enough time to do all that needs to be done so I think I'll be more realistic and try to blog once a week instead of the usual two for this semester.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Goodwook Park Hotel for their Durian Fiesta Dessert Buffet and I left feeling full and satiated! (: You must understand that I've been wanting to try this durian buffet for years but somehow I always end up missing this every single year.. until this year! Am so happy that I finally got to try it and it completely met my expectations! (:

We chose to have a 4 course selection ($44.80++) and one durian dessert buffet ($33.80++). The 4 course selection comes with durian dessert buffet too so both of us could enjoy the huge dessert spread! 

The other three courses that came with the four course set were: the gado-gado, which was so-so,

the bak kut teh soup and rice, which was unexpectedly out of this world (I would totally go back just for this!) and 

a plate of char kway teow, which was also pretty good!

I've concluded that The Coffee Lounge serves pretty awesome Asian food and I'd go back again when I feel like having some good quality Asian food in a comfortable setting.

Alright, here's what we had for desserts! Almost everything was wonderful and I can't get enough of the durian desserts plus the bread and butter pudding! Yumyum! So here are some photos of what we had that day:

We obviously haven't poured our tea because we decided to let the tea bag soak in the water for a while longer since we like stronger tea. I also learnt a new thing that day: you can add a slice of lemon to your warm tea to give it a refreshing zingy taste! Oooh. I've never tried it before till that day and I like it very much! (: Shall do that again in future.

Alright that is all for today. It's time for bed (: Goodnight!

Aqua Marine

Hello (:

As I prep for the week ahead, I can't help but think back on the first nice weekly meal I had this year. It was a treat from Matty (thank you!) and the meal indeed gave us much strength and energy to last the first hectic week of school! On the whole, the selection was pretty Asian and the food was quite good though I would think that if you want to have a wider spread of Asian food, you should go to Carousel instead. Nevertheless, the ambience at Aqua Marine is not too bad since it is less crowded and hence less noisy. Their staff are also very friendly and attentive so that's definitely a plus :) We won't be frequent visitors of this restaurant because we aren't big fans of Asian buffets and it is located at the tail-end of town but it was alright :) I shall spam photos and not leave captions since I am quite tired right now!

If I had to nominate a 'best dish', it would have to be the durian pengat (featured in the last photo)! It is thick, creamy, sweet and sinful and it is ravishingly good! I took a small sample to try then decided to get a HUGE serving! :) Felt so full and happy after that! Don't miss that if you head to Aqua Marine!

Alright that's all :) Back to the last bit of work so that I can call it a night! Have a great week ahead! (:

Delicious

Hello everyone!

It's down to the last two weeks of term but there are a multitude of events and activities packed into these two weeks so I'll probably be very busy! I guess this will make all of us appreciate our upcoming holiday even more because all we want to do is to have some time to ourselves to just rest. I am looking forward to that!

Anyway, we were just taking a drive around town a few days ago and we realised that many shopping centres are undergoing renovation, many new shops have sprung up and many 'old' ones have relocated. Looks like I should go to town for a walk after the madness of these two weeks die down to see the changes for myself! Believe it or not, I sometimes miss uni days when I get to meet my good friends more often to go for our shopping marathons down Orchard Road! To sustain our energy, we often took lunch/ tea/ dinner breaks at cafes/ restaurants to rest our tired soles before continuing with our shopping!

If you're looking for a place for lunch/ tea/ dinner, you might want to pop by Delicious at Scotts Square because it is accessible and you are able to choose from a wide variety of food that caters to varying appetite-sizes as well as palates.

Since Zaffrey has never been to Delicious, we decided to visit it together not too long ago for a late lunch/ tea.

Larger than usual cup of cappuccino ($7) which was as usual a delight to have (: Would have been nicer if it were slighter warmer.

And my previous experience taught me that I should order their shoestring fries ($7) because it tastes good and also because the rest of the dishes take a while to get served so it's nice to have some fries to much on! Jeffrey likes it because he thinks it's not too salty.

Their caesar salad ($9) with a poached egg sitting in the middle. I thought this was generally okay though I felt that the dressing was a little too strong for my liking. Nevertheless, we finished everything!

Mr. Malnourished chose to have the mama bolognaise spaghetti ($15) as well which he commented was best for people who love meat balls as there were huge chunks of meat in this spaghetti!


Perhaps the two great things about Delicious is the large seating capacity and the reasonably priced dishes - which makes it quite a good place for a meet up or a rest stop (: If I had to choose a less-crowded cafe-ish place to dine at, Delicious would definitely be one of my choices!

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

Ellenborough Market Cafe

Hello everyone! (:

This weekend feels particularly jolly probably because we know and are comforted by the knowledge that we don't have to go to school like we normally do this coming week! (: This means that we can rest a little more and recharge our batteries in preparation for the final stretch of the academic year!

Since it's the start of the hols, it may be a good idea to head out to Swisshotel Merchant Court with your family and friends for some affordable asian fare! Their weekend lunch buffet is wildly popular with Singaporeans and I suspect it's because it is relatively cheap compared to other weekend buffet brunch/ lunches! It costs $38++/pax and you can choose to pay $5 extra per person for freeflow of soft drinks! (: Absolutely love the freeflow softdrinks offer because I can drink my sprite without feeling bad about having to over-pay for it! (:

Here are some photos of the dishes we tried at Ellenborough:

 Appetizers that came from their cold dish/ salad bar.

Other types of appetizers. Jeffrey and I tend to eat different appetizers because he goes for the 'safer' options whereas I try other things like papaya salad (centre bottom of this photo) which was EXTREMELY spicy so unless you're up for that, please avoid taking it!

 Nasi lemak-type rice with chicken and fish.

 Roti John and Fried Bee Hoon (I don't like bee hoon but this was surprisingly okay!)

More fried bee hoon, fish with sauce, omelette and sashimi (which was very popular with diners though it wasn't the freshest I've tasted)

Possibly the most popular dishes: slipper lobster and crab. We didn't eat much of either because it was troublesome to take the flesh out!

 Plateful of Asian desserts! I personally feel that the kueh lapis and the two swiss-roll lookalike cakes were the best of this lot.

There were MANY different types of warm Chinese desserts available and I helped myself to a big bowl of bobochacha! (: Love the colours!

The much sought after durian pengat which I adore! (: I ate two big bowls of this! (: Yum!

There's also icecream for those who prefer something cold for dessert but the icecream is only average.

Last but not least, fruits for healthier people like Jeffrey! (:

If you are going in a big group, I would recommend that you make a reservation because this restaurant tends to be packed on weekends! Ellenborough is family-friendly so expect a lively and chirpy dining atmosphere instead of one where you can sit down and enjoy the quietness of time passing.

Alright that's all for now (: Have a great Sunday and a good week ahead! (:

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! (: