Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro

Hello (:

Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro serves one of the best fish & chips that I've tasted so far in sunny Singapore (: Our virgin visit to this restaurant earlier this year was extremely pleasant - the food was good and the atmosphere was relaxed and casual. We were so impressed with their food and service that we decided to head back there last week during a weekday for some yummy fish & chips!
I love the blue napkins! (: I think the only other restaurant that gives colourful (yellow to be exact) napkins is Earle Swensen's.

The restaurant isn't very large so the seating capacity is limited as well. It should be able to take around 30 people? It's advisable to make a reservation if you want to have a meal there on weekends.
Complimentary bread. We didn't have this the previous time. I think they change their complimentary item as and when they feel like it. The bread was extremely soft and it had a wholegrain taste to it. I'm quite sure people who like wholemeal bread will like this!

Usually, Jeffrey and I will try to order different dishes or different types of dishes so that we can try each other's food. For instance, I ordered a pasta dish during our first visit while he had fish & chips.

Last week, however, we decided to do something a little different. We ordered the same dish (fish & chips) but opted for different styles of cooking!

I'd the breaded fish & chips ($18.90) which was nothing short of delightful. The fish slices were cooked to perfection. The outside was crispy while inside of the fish fillet remained juicy and soft. Their fries deserve special mention because they taste SO good. I love straight cut fries and these are just irresistably good! You have to try them! (:

Jeffrey had the battered fish & chips ($18.90) and he loved it too! Oh there's salad on the side so you needn't worry about not getting your greens. Anyhow, we managed to polish everything off our plates without even trying! That's how good the fish & chips were (to us at least).

Partly because of time constraint and partly because the dessert we had during our first visit wasn't spectacular, we decided to give dessert a miss this time round. If you're a dessert lover like me and you don't want to take the risk of ordering a less-than-satisfying dessert, you can always pop by the icecream shop a few doors down after eating at this restaurant because that icecream shop sells yummy icecream! =)

Alright, I shall end off my short mid-week entry and get some rest. I'll udpate again soon! (: Goodnight!

Home-cooked Food

For those who don't know, my parents own a small nonya kueh business so I pretty much grew up with food surrounding me. I used to sample and try the different kinds of nonya kueh that my parents (mostly my mum) gave/ forced me and because of that, I believe that I've maxed out my nonya kueh food intake quota (if such a thing exists). I seldom buy or eat nonya kueh when I'm out because I find it slightly ridiculous to spend money buying something that I can get for free. Occasionally though, I would indulge in a piece or two of nonya kueh when the craving hits but those times are few and far between.

Apart from feeding my siblings and I with nonya kueh, my parents also feed us with very yummy home-cooked food! It's really a pity that their talent for cooking didn't rub off any of us because I don't think any of my siblings and myself can claim to be good cooks. Maybe I should watch them cook as and when I'm free so that I won't be completely clueless if I had to cook anything non-instant for myself in future.

My parents follow an unofficial cooking timetable: Gumtoo cooks on Monday, Thursday and Friday and Papa cooks on Tuesday and Wednesday. In my opinion, my parents have very different styles of cooking and this may be a slight problem because my siblings prefer the way my dad prepares his dishes. As a result, they often choose not to eat when gumtoo cooks because they don't like the way her food turns out. Papa's style of cooking is more "hokkien" because it has a lot of flavour and his dishes are always so colourful and aesthetically pleasing. Gumtoo's cooking, on the other hand, is more "teochew" because the flavours of her dishes are not as strong Papa's. Generally, I think my family members prefer food with more taste and flavour so naturally more people 'support' Papa's cooking.

Here are some photos of the dishes that Papa cooked for us on Tuesday:

Fish slices with maize, some peanuts and tomato

Cod fish with black sauce (There were two plates of this dish)

Green vegetables with maize

French beans with mushrooms

Fishballs, tofu and prawns fried with egg and tomato

Honey-glazed chicken pieces with slices of pineapple

On Wednesday, he cooked us these dishes:

His amazing fried rice! We love his fried rice because it smells so good and tastes equally fantastic!

A plate of stir-fried asparagus

Sweet plum sauce chicken pieces

Cabbage with vermicilli and carrots

Fried fish marinated with some kind of chilli powder

Fried egg with tofu (a favourite among my siblings)

Big fried crispy fish with black sauce

Panfried fish slices and prawns cooked with mayonaise sauce and logans

I suspect my parents secretly want to stuff us to the brim after every meal because they always cook so many yummy dishes for us! Despite their different cooking styles, Papa and Gumtoo share the same philosophy when it comes to cooking: it's better to over-cook (in terms of amount) than under-cook because you never know when people are feeling hungrier than usual and it's not nice to have not enough food to feed everyone. I guess that's how I grew used to and subsequently fell in love with the idea of abundance =)

Alright, that's all for now! Will try to take photos of gumtoo's cooking soon! (: Have a great weekend everyone! =)

Straits Cafe

Good morning (:

I'm feeling great because my schedule isn't as packed as yesterday so today's kinda like a breather. Tomorrow's going to be a horrendously long day but I'll handle tomorrow when tomorrow comes (: For now, I shall display some photos of the glorious food that Justina, Jeffrey and I had last weekend at Straits Cafe @Rendezvous.

Straits Cafe is located at Rendezvous Hotel, which is short distance from Plaza Singapura and The Cathay.

We decided to ask Justina (my youngest sister) along because DBS is having a 3-for-2 buffet promotion! =) I'm glad that she agreed to come along and that she enjoyed the food.

The food alley. It's shaped like a "Y", with all non-dessert food on the top level and dessert section on the lower level.

Cafe Rendezvous serves mainly local/ Chinese food but like most other buffet spreads, they also

include the usual 'buffet works' such as a big salad/ appetizers section as well as food from other kinds of cuisine (in this case they had Japanese and Indian food).

Table Setting. I told Justina that I liked the table mat a lot because matches the interior decoration of the restaurant! =)

The big goblet of water! I think it's a smart idea to serve water in such big cups because it means that the waiters/ waitresses do not have to spend so much time refilling our cups for us. I'm the kind of diner who likes to be left alone while eating so the lesser the waiters/ waitresses come to our table, the better it is for me =) I also appreciated how the waiters/ waitresses at Straits Cafe clear our empty plates in a quiet and efficient manner.

A bowl of creamy mushroom soup. The mushroom soup was of average standard, it wasn't very creamy but it had quite a lot of mushroom bits swimming in it! A great starter to have!

The spread at Straits Cafe was reasonably big considering the original price for buffet lunch per head is $35++. There was definitely enough variety but it wasn't overwhelming because I think it's possible for one to try everything if one is very hungry. What impressed all of us was the quality and freshness of the food! The dishes were very well prepared and most of the dishes were above average. We enjoyed their selection of food so much that we couldn't help going for repeated rounds (of the same yummier dishes)! Here are some photos of the food items that we ate:

Salad and pasta salad.

Pasta salad, sushi (they were awesome! The BEST tasting sushi that we've tasted in any buffet), poached salmon

Salad, smoked salmon, pasta salad, zucchini salad, fruit salad

Sushi, siew mai, pork and chicken

Salmon sashimi.

Sushi and cold soba with naruto.

More sushi (yes it was THAT good!), fish fillet, yam rice and prawns

Fish fillet (I found it exceptionally good), stewed vegetables, yam rice

Yam rice and big green leafy vegetables

On-the-spot Laksa! =) It was good! Almost every table had a bowl of laksa. I guess it's one local dish that we can't and don't want to miss at this buffet!

Salmon fillet, fish fillet, stewed vegetables

Jeffrey's "Smiley face" that's made up of siew mai and crab legs

Indian rojak and pasta salad

They've a coffee/ tea machine dispenser! Jeffrey and Justina had a cup of hot chocolate each while I tried the latte. Yummy stuff (:

Bread&butter pudding! (: How can I resist it! The bread&butter pudding here wasn't as nice as Carousel's but it was still quite delicious. People who do not like raisins will definitely prefer the bread&butter pudding here because it's devoid of raisins! =)

The durian platter - durian mousse cake (pretty alright), durian mousse and durian puffs. This is one of the few non-durian-buffets that serves so much duriany stuff for dessert! Nice (:

The lemon meringue tartlet is GONE! Oops. I think I ate that way too quickly. The lemon meringue tartlet was fantastic! =) Loved it! The slices of durian mousse cake and cheesecake were pretty normal.

After 1.5hours of almost-nonstop eating, we were stuffed to the brim! We don't know how this bunch of relatively old aunties (they look like they're in their 60s or 70s) managed to eat almost-nonstop for more than 2hours! They were there before us and they were still eating when we left the restaurant! Amazing (: Anyhow, the meal came up to $82 in total after discount, which is about $27/person. It's definitely worth your money! (: Do give it a try!

Peach Garden

Yesterday, we celebrated gumtoo's birthday at Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant. Since Papa already brought her out for a buffet dinner the night before, we decided to pool our resources together to treat Gumtoo and the rest of the family to a nice dinner at Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant =) There are four Peach Garden outlets but we decided to go to the one at OCBC building because we expected it to have the most parking lots (gumtoo requested to dine at somewhere with parking lots so that we won't have to waste time searching for lots) and also because it promised a nice view.

Due to security reasons, only people who are dining at Peach Garden can access the lift to the 33rd story of OCBC building. We took a speedy lift up to the 33rd storey and suffered temporary ear blocks! Very soon, we reached the entrancec of Peach Garden (:

Initially, we were seated at this huge round table which was supposedly can sit more than 10 people. Gumtoo and Papa felt that the table was too big and requested a smaller one so that we didn't have to sit so far from one another. I didn't really look through the menu thoroughly because we managed to order most of our dishes with the help of the lady serving us.

Plate of prawn crackers ($3). I think most of my family members were feeling quite hungry that night because the crackers and peanuts disappeared very quickly! My brother requested for another plate of prawn crackers so we'd two in total.

1/2 Roasted Peking Duck ($32). One of my sisters commented that the duck sauce was extremely well done because it didn't have the usual grainy taste. On the whole, everyone liked their crispy duck-skin crepe =)

Unlike most restaurants that cook the remaining duck meat, the people at Peach Garden prefer chopping the duck up into sizeable pieces because they feel that the duck meat is nice even when eaten on its own. True enough, everyone liked the duck and felt that it contained just enough flavour. The sour plum sauce and their specially blended sweet sauce complemented the tender duck meat exceedingly well. A great first dish to have!

Double-boiled soup of the day ($6). Because the lady who took our orders highly recommended their pig bone soup, Papa decided to order three bowls for everyone to share. We loved the peppery taste as well as its rich flavour. There were beancurd skin, ginko nuts and some meat in it. Thankfully we didn't order a bowl each otherwise we'd be too full to eat the rest of the yummy food.

Stir-fried french bean with minced pork bits ($27). The french beans were crunchy but they lacked saltiness. The crispy crackers were an interesting touch to this otherwise normal dish.

Sweet and sour fish slices ($27). This is THE BEST sweet and sour fish dish that I've ever eaten to date! (: The outer layer of the fish was fried to perfection and the fish meat was unbelievably fresh! I couldn't stop praising this dish! In addition, this particular sweet and sour dish and enough sourness to give us a good 'kick'. Every mouthful contained a burst of flavour and goodness! It's definitely a MUST-TRY! (:

Steamed live prawns ($64). Initially, I wasn't too keen on eating prawns because it requires a lot of skill (in my opinion) to deshell a prawn without using any hands but since Papa wanted to have prawns, we ordered them anyway! Thankfully, the skillful waitresses at Peach Garden offered to deshell our prawns for us before serving them! =) Each of us had around 3 deshelled prawns each! Amazing! The prawns were locked with freshness and the prawn meat was extremely sweet! I loved dipping my prawns into the saucer of soya sauce shown above because they gave the prawns an extra hint of saltiness. The deshelled prawns looked so good that even my brother, who's an extremely fussy eater, decided to try a prawn! We were very happy that he was willing to try something new (:

Home-made beancurd with spinach, mushrooms and scallop ($48). The beancurd pieces reminded us of the ones that were served at Restoran Pekin. Each beancurd is covered with a layer of moss-looking thing and its main body is made up of egg tofu. I liked this dish a lot because I felt that the gravy wasn't too viscous and it had just the right amount of saltiness. The spinach was very fresh and they weren't overcooked either. They were very generous with the spinach so if you're a vegetable lover, this dish is perfect for you =)

Baked spare ribs with BBQ sauce ($42). This dish took the longest prepartion and cooking time but thankfully, the quality of this dish justified the long waiting time. The meat was extremely soft and tender, probably because of the baking process. Papa commented that the ribs didn't have as much flavour as he thought they would have but on the whole, this dish was a hit because every single piece was eaten despite everyone being very full! Perhaps, like Papa said, they really saved the best dish for the last =)

In all, our choice of restaurant was spot on because gumtoo said that the style of cooking at Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant suited her taste =) I'm glad we enjoyed celebrating her birthday together over a hearty meal! Happy birthday, gumtoo!