Danro Japanese Hotpot by MOF

Hello (:

We had a pretty interesting day yesterday cos we decided to, for the first time in eons, explore the two malls at Bugis (Bugis Junction and Bugis+) and it was a pretty eye-opening experience cos we realised that the layout of the malls is pretty different from the ones that we usually frequent along Orchard Road. The restaurants are also different - they tend to serve fusion food - and there are many fastfood outlets! In general, we felt that these malls were perfect for the younger crowd or for people who enjoy the kind of (mixed) cuisines served there.

We happened to walk past an advertisement that featured 'collagen hotpot' and since both of us have never had it in our lives, we decided to give it a try. The wet weather kind of set the right mood for our feast cos we believe that hotpots are best enjoyed on colder than usual days.  So here's what we got at Danro:

Thankfully we were pretty hungry by the time the food came cos there was so much food! The fish head in the soup is actually huge and meaty so we had a lot of salmon to finish up. The collagen soup tasted milkier and richer than the usual broth that we are used to having for hotpot, and it tasted less foreign than I had thought. Having said that though, I feel that it leaves a strange after taste in that it coats your tongue/ mouth with this layer of, for the lack of a better word, 'slime' but it's nothing as bad as it sounds! Haha Just wash it down with some sprite and you'll be okay! (:

After the meal, we started our walk around the 2 malls cos we were way too full from lunch! And that was how our little exploration went =P

Till the next one!

Have a good Sunday! (:

HCMC Eats: The Deck

Hello (:

It's been really warm in Sg and it reminds me of the time we had a super yummy meal in the sweltering heat in HCMC a few weeks ago! There's no other better time to post this than now:

Can't wait to be back to try more glorious food! (:

Corner House

Hello! (:

Sorry for the long hiatus - I was away on a school trip and was very busy where I was hence I didn't update my blog but since I'm back, I shall do a post!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Corner House to celebrate my best friend's birthday in advance and we had the most delightful time dining at the protruding indoor balcony of the house, amidst the green yet still in the coolness and comfort of an air-conditioned room. While it might seem counter-intuitive to enjoy being indoors in a beautiful garden, I think the three of us appreciated not having to put up with the intense heat and high humidity on a pre-storm afternoon.

Between the 3 of us, we tried every single item on their Sunday brunch menu and we were, on the whole, impressed with the fusion of flavours that the dishes brought out. We would highly recommend this to all who would like to enjoy a slow lunch over great food.

Alright that's all for now (: Happy Sunday!

Real Food

Hello (:

Once in a while, the bub will agree to visit cafes/ restaurants that he will normally not visit on his own because the food served at these places probably do not appeal to him, but he gives in anyway, which is quite nice of him. One of these places is Real Food and I must say that it is difficult not to feel that you've eaten a rather wholesome meal after dining at this cafe.

Some of the dishes that we had during our last visit included:

I must say that the food tastes slightly different from usual because of the ingredients/ substitutes that they use, but the variation in taste is refreshing for me and I would gladly go back to Real Food from time to time to try their other dishes (:

Alright it's time to sleep so that we can wake bright and early to make full use of the weekend! (: Goodnight!

Miam Miam

Hello! (:

We went to Miam Miam not too long ago to try out their much-raved about desserts and other normal food and we're happy to say that the dishes we ordered lived up to our expectations (: We chose a mix of their "featured dishes" as well as those that tickled our fancy and I think we'll go back again in the near future to try other dishes! Personally, I loved the way they did their french toast and I dare say it's one of the better ones I've had in Sg! (:

It gets pretty crowded during meal times so you might want to go just before the crowd comes or visit at odd times of the day so that you won't have to queue for a long time to get a table! (:

Happy weekend! (:

Kilo & Pact

Hello (:

We dropped by Kilo & Pact a while ago for a light meal because we were both stuffed from our heavy lunch and we thoroughly enjoyed the clean tasting and flavourful dishes (: To me, Kilo serves nicely done fusion-ish food and it is always a pleasure trying out new dishes here! What I really like about Kilo is its simplicity and clean-looking/tasting foods (: Check out their menu to see what they offer! (:

It's rainy start to the weekend but we'll have a blast any how! (: Take care and enjoy yourselves! (:

Halia at Raffles Hotel

Hello! (:

It's finally the weekend again! (: The past few days have been filled with doing bits and bobs and I'm just glad that I can take a short breather this weekend to recharge for yet another busy week next week!

I realised that it's terribly difficult to make a high tea reservation at those renowned high tea places (e.g. The Tea Lounge at The Regent Hotel) if I don't make the reservation way in advance. Thankfully, I don't have a strong preference for dining anywhere these days.. I just wish to try some place new (and preferably serves average to fantastic food). We'll see where I can possibly go to this weekend! (:

Joanne and I went to Halia at Raffles Hotel last weekend for an early dinner and we mostly tried their signature dishes, which I must say didn't superseded my expectations! (: Unfortunately I had a late lunch that day so I wasn't very hungry so I didn't get to try their desserts.. perhaps next time! (:

We started off with the Potato fries, truffle aioli & piquant mayo ($8), which essentially is truffle fries and it was fab (: I am inclined to believe that truffle fries usually taste good unless they are too oily or if the fries are over-fried. Definitely a safe dish to order and munch on while waiting for your other dishes to arrive. 

We also tried their famous Celeriac "lasagna" - Mushoom, thyme, baby spinach, lemon, madeira cream ($12), which was a pretty heavy starter due to the creamy mushroom sauce so it's best to share this if you intend to order it. I think this is definitely a must-order if you want to try a different kind of starter (: I liked it and I'm quite sure mushroom fans will too! 

Finally, we had the Halia Chilli Crab - Spaghettini, spring onion, egg ($25), and I think most people come to Halia to try this dish! (: They weren't kidding when they said that we would be given generous portions of crab meat because that's exactly what we got! (: It's not too spicy and it's good "local" dish for all to savour. I reckon I'll order this again when I go back to Halia in the near future! (: 

You can visit this website to view their menu! (: I am pleasantly surprised that the prices are relatively affordable, which I think is a huge plus point! Also, the staff are very friendly, polite and attentive so there's really nothing not to like about this place. I'll definitely be back again! (:

Happy weekend everyone! (:

Angus House

Hello! (:

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend and I decided to visit Angus House because we wanted to try something new. Tucked in a corner on the 4th level of Takashimaya Shopping Centre, it is hard to notice but I took note of it when I last visited their toy department at Takashimaya and made a mental note to try it.

Angus House was pretty packed when we went so we were thankful that we got a window seat (: I love sitting by the window as I can look out while eating and chatting.. (: The service is prompt and the staff are polite so there's nothing to not like about Angus House's setting and atmosphere (:  Food wise, it didn't disappoint either but if you don't really fancy fusion-type food then perhaps you won't like this place.

We decided to get a set lunch each! You need to top up a little for certain set lunches whereas others come as a set on its own already. For instance, my spaghetti set costs ($30) whereas the rib eye steak set costs ($62.50; the steak itself costs $55.50 and we had to top up $7 to make it a set).

Each set comes with

a shallow bowl of soup of the day (ours was mushroom soup which I liked (: It wasn't too thick nor too watery and the taste was average),

freshly baked bread roll with butter, (oh this was SO good! The bread bun was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside! It really was delightful having this (: )

and a full plate of salad with Japanese dressing! (:

Frankly I was pretty full by this point in time already because I hadn't expected so many starter dishes, so I think if you, like me, have a huge appetite, then this set lunch might be perfect for you cos it filled me right up!

Here are the photos of our main courses:

The rib-eye steak, which was juicy and had nice sauce accompanying it,

and my scallops and salmon pasta with miso sauce! (: I like that the sauce wasn't too strong so the the entire dish remained quite 'light' and easy to eat.

Finally, we each had a slice of their famous tiramisu, which is also a part of the lunch set, so we really were well-fed and well-stuffed! Heh.Their tiramisu was good but I still prefer Da Paolo's! Am hunting around for other tiramisu that might not disappoint since I'm on a tiramisu craze at the moment =|

Heh alright that's all for now. Have a great weekend! (:

LP + Tetsu

Hello!

This is way overdue and till now I can't believe I forgot to blog about my virgin trip to LP + Tetsu during the September holidays! Oh my. Well I guess it's better late than never but I must confess that I can't exactly remember what we ate nor can I remember how much we paid so I'm just going to give a very general recap of what I thought of our lunch at LP+Tetsu and then paste some photos we took that day! (: Alright here goes!

Like some of the restaurants on my 'to eat' list, LP+Tetsu offers relatively 'affordable' lunch sets that serve fine-dining type food. I used 'affordable' because it really is still expensive in my opinion but I guess it would have been more pricey if we had dined there during dinner so comparatively, it is more 'affordable'. Apart from wanting to check this place out, we wanted to reward ourselves for surviving Term 3 so splurging on lunch seemed like (and I still think it is) a perfectly justified thing to do (: 

There weren't many people on the day we went for lunch so I could just snap photos of the tables next to ours. What we love about the table setting, apart from the cool cutlery is our not-so-friendly-table-companion, aka a fighting fish! Every table has a tall glass with a fighting fish in it! I am not sure if you can see the fish in the photos above but you can try to spot it. It's the first time I've been to a restaurant with a fighting fish as 'table display' so needless to say, I was pretty much amused. The fish at our table looked quite tame and I guess it must be bored out of its wits because it only has such a limited space to move about. Eeks, poor fish.

Our complimentary bread which was crispy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside (: I love bread that have this texture (: Would have this with cold hard butter any time!

Okay this was a complimentary amuse bouche and it contained some meat with pepper ice-cream! The pepper ice-cream had a distinct taste and contrary to my expectations, it actually tasted pretty good! (: I doubt I'll ever eat more than a tiny blob of it so the serving size was just perfect. I didn't touch the meat at all so I've no idea what it is but according to Matty, the two went well together (: 

This was our starter - it was basically fish with diced vegetables. Frankly I thought that the presentation was really pretty but the dish was just so-so to me.  I didn't like the fact that the fish looked raw (it was actually smoked) and somehow the different components of the dish complement each other to give that interesting burst of flavour that I was anticipating, so this dish was quite disappointing in my opinion.  

My main course - cod - was much much better (: I actually liked how tender the fish meat was and the sauce (which tasted slightly like lobster bisque but thankfully was not) went well with the fish meat (:  So thankful this turned out okay or I would definitely be disappointed!

Matty chose to have sous vide chicken and he enjoyed his main course a lot (: Frankly, when I first saw this, it reminded me of the Chinese roast pork and it was hard for me to imagine that chicken could look like that too.

Interestingly, we both decided to have the same dessert - some chocolatey dessert that had a very interesting presentation and tasted rich and good! (: I think all desserts should be like this - filling, rich and sinful (:

Oh we ended our meal with these two juicy 'tartlets'. If I'm not wrong, the one on the left is sour apple and the one on the right is orange citrus. You have to hold each tartlet by the base and then pop the entire thing into your mouth. Upon reaching your tongue, the membrane that is holding the top part will tear and all the wonderfully refreshing liquid will ooze out! (: It was fascinating eating this and I thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing taste it left in my mouth (: Would definitely love to have this again in future!

Alright that's all for now (: Am looking forward to the year end holiday so that I can go for more set lunches and try new food! (: Time to get back to work! Have a great rest of the week! (: