cut the crab

i know i'm supposed to eat less, diet more, exercise more blah blah blah but i really really loved the food here.

really. i really did. despite the parking ticket which i shld pay up soon. =_='


this yummilicious pot of magic comes with oooo-so-yummy soup with oooo-so-fresh-and-juicy crab. its in the soup i swear! u can also learn alot just by watching the different ways ppl eat crabs. its an art.

dumplings. loved these since i started eating them years back. still good, but i still like the neil rd ones haha.

its actually tofu smothered in egg white sauce, topped with some mince meat and salted egg yolk. very nice. and oh so healthy!

total bill came up to 50 plus, sufficient to feed 3 of us. if i'm not wrong, the crab was 28bucks, and would have been perfect with a bottle of white wine. alas, we arent tat professional foodies!

and, if u wanna go makan here, call me. i'll direct you provided i get to go along too. *grin*

The (Shanghainese) Godfather

vivo was crowded as usual. so went to try a new restaurant.

Hei She Hui (Bosses), near sushi tei.

okok pics first, explanation later on.

from the black exterior, the place looked kinda intimidating but quite cool. BUT once u step right inside, then its almost like any other restaurant. interestingly, their menus are chained to the tables. hmmm.

food wise, its similar to crystal jade but slightly pricier. we liked the custard buns with the salted egg filling. very nice! plus we managed to get it free? or at a dollar? cant rem.

much of the food (like the lionhead and soup) was quite salty, so u probably have to buy water from them. if u're feeling adventurous, try the drink (think its called hei she hui No. 1), a concoction of soda & vinegar. HENG i wasnt the guinea pig. i'm definitely sticking to water whahaha. its one of those drinks u serve to the groom at the wedding dinner to sabo him. maybe can worm a bigger ang pow out of him as well. =0D

anyways the xiao long pao things were ok. tried the lobster one and the mushroom one. both not very warm, rather disappointing. think shall stick to my neil road one

*dreams of steaming hot xiao long pao with lotsa delicious soup inside*

But we got one bowl free cos the (not very experienced) staff thot we were complaining abt it and didnt noe wat we were complaining abt (seriously we didnt complain) so the manager came and gave us complimentary from the kitchen. not quite piping hot, but free ma! haha

the beans were a different matter. nice! shld try it. healthier (and less cholesterol) than the version with cuttlefish definitely. would have gone well with beer or something!

all in, it cost abt 70plus? try looking for the manager, susan, she might be able to give u better food recommendations!

e.BlackBoard

with the recent craze over botak jones, it seems like cheap and good western food served in a kopitiam is all the rage. went over to the amk botak jones one nite w my family, the food there was cheap, not exactly as good as i imagined, but for tt price i shan't complain. but u really shd check this out:


are you crazy or wat burger (~$13) . triple patty topped w one slice of cheese... the patty was damn thick, i shared this w my sis, it really was quite crazy, but i found the beef too dry, so was wolfing it down by coating it with lotsa mustard.

but yes, b4 i digress, this post is abt e.BlackBoard. Saw a review of this place on weekend today so decided to check it out since it's so near tj's place.

both of us ordered exactly wat was featured on the papers:

waldorf salad (~$4). nicely chilled, it comes with celery, green and yellow bell peppers, olives, green and red apples, w some walnuts. it tasted very fresh and yummy.

grilled ribeye steak (250g) served with tuscan fries and coleslaw ($12.90). nice and juicy unlike other kopitiam western food, it has the slight hint of "caoda" tt tells u tt it's been on a nice grill, e.BlackBoard prides itself on only serving fresh beef (as opposed to frozen beef), and yah the meat was tender and nice, abit too rare for my liking and we ordered medium, it's more like medium rare. the fries were nice, crispy and i like the red pepper spice they sprinkled over it. coleslaw not too bad too.

cajun chicken ($5.50), i changed the fries to mashed potatoes cos my throat wasn't tt good, but it was nothing to cry abt, stick to the fries. i love the chicken, seasoning was v nice, the meat (prob the chicken fillet) was v tender and juicy. i prefer their version over botak jones' (too dry)

so yes, please go check this place out, it's at 18 bedok south road KK makan place, opposite TJC.

find it if u can

found this nice place to hang out with yapyap. both decided its our kind of place. plus they serve great dessert. kinda didnt really wanna blog abt it cos we value its crowd (lack of really), so i shall try to mystify this place and let u deduce where this really is. =0p *hint* its in vivo.

anyways..


panna cotta with wild berry compote.
absolutely adorable carrot cupcake. haf a softspot for cupcakes. this comes topped with an icing tat looks deceptively hard.
apple & rhubarb crumble with vanilla custard. yummy! plus it was sold out by the time we left the place.
still lots more to try, gonna attempt to try it all!

wild rocket @ mount emily

wanted to go Jaan at equinox to try their set lunch, but couldn't cos the place was booked for a private function. booked a place at ember but decided it was pretty out of the way, we finally settled for wild rocket at mount emily.

it's a bitch to get there by public transport, we walked for a good 20 min from plaza sing, climbed up the hill to reach hangout@mount emily, the backpacker's hostel in which wild rocket was situated. but yeah, it was a cosy place, almost packed w the lunchtime crowd. we both got the 3-course set meal ($26+++)

appetisers:

bread with olive oil. technically free, served warm, the bread was tasty and abit cake-like in texture.

baby spinach salad with asian dressing. v fresh and good.

soft shell crab w thai chili sauce dressing. fresh crab, delicious tangy sauce

main course:

burger with sun-dried tomato relish. loved the thick and juicy beef patty. absolute yum!

pan-fried catfish. there's this crust made of miso and i dunno what, v fresh and tasty fish, juicy too! the salad of panfried caixin matched the fish perfectly.

desserts:

coconut ice-cream w gula melaka. i love this one. creamy but not cloying, a refreshing end to the meal.

strawberry cheesecake. served deconstructed in a martini glass, this comes highly recommended by yun. it isn't part of the set menu, but we paid $5 to upgrade our dessert to this. the cheese portion is super rich and creamy, the crust and strawberries are good, and it comes w a small bit of maple syrup ice cream. heaven!

love this place, good quality, uncomplicated fusion food. the friendly chef even came out to chat w us. the set lunch is value for money, but even ala carte items aren't tt ex (less than 20 bucks) so yes, guys, this is a good place to impress girls. hehe. if this place wasn't tt ulu, i'll visit this place alot more often. read chubbyhubby's review here

Sin Ming Prata

my mum wanted to go sin ming to check out her van in the garage, and we were deciding where to go for lunch. my aunt suggested this prata place in sin ming. so we went. it's at sin ming drive, a very nondescript coffeeshop. to be honest, it looked so old and dirty tt i half wanted to suggest going somewhere else to eat. but we perservered.

the 4 of us ordered 2 plains, 2 paper prata, 1 cheese and 1 egg prata, plus 1 side order of fried chicken and 1 marsala chicken. all for only 13.50!
look at all the food we ordered! the marsala chicken (in the foreground) was very good.

my all-time fave: tissue/paper prata!

ok i love tissue prata, when done right, it's thin, crispy, and coated with a thin layer of sugar. a pity lots of places don't do it right, i even had one version where the whole prata tasted like it was deep fried in oil! yucks. i rate prata stalls by their tissue prata. cos it takes alot of skill to make it right. you must make the dough super thin, fry it on the skillet, pour sugar, then make it into the cone shape in super quick time.

i used to think tt the best tissue prata in s'pore was in simpang bedok. it's good, but the standards vary sometimes. so well. when i tasted sin ming's tissue prata... i was in heaven. it really was paper thin, super crispy, coated with the right amount of sugar, and totally didn't taste oily. my mum, aunt and sis loved it too! and i hereby declare the best tissue prata (tt i've tasted) to be sin ming's version. yumyum!

the rest of their prata are good too. the plain is nice and crispy, the cheese has just the right amount of cheese and dough and the egg is nice and chewy. best of all, all their prata doesn't taste like they're doused with oil. love love love the prata here! pity it closes at 8pm most nites, so i can't have it as midnite snack. darn. prata tastes damn good at nite.

HK feasting Part 1

it seems like such a waste not to introduce these wonderful culinary works of art here.

so right from the heart of hk, may i present you with the following...

Yung Kee Restaurant (Central, in front of Lam Kwai Fong)

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

yung kee is famous for its roast goose, and yes it was really good. it came with small beans at the bottom, braised in a sweet sauce. but i thot the skin wasn't as crispy as the one at imperial treasure in taka.but still, the meat was pretty tender and juicy. for the more adventurous, the pi dan is so good! the outside is sweet, the yolk is still slightly runny, which makes it creamy and oh so good! calamari is also popular in hk, as a snack, this one was really nice cos it was simply fried and coated with salt and pepper. not too tough, not too sinful (not tat i wanna believe anyway). i guess the look of satisfaction says muchmuch more than the words i type.


Macau Cafe

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

ok, hk is pretty near macau, so there are tons of such restaurants ard. this one is in causeway bay. pretty packed place, with diff set meals for diff no of ppl. we have the 2 person set, which came with a drink, a main (we had the pork neck) and another side (chose roasted pigeon). these were pretty standard fare, but so yummy! pigeon was crispy, even tho it didnt have meat, watever bit was really tender. i abslutely loved the pork neck, i swear its the best cut of pork! oh there was also fried rice. amazing thing abt the fried rice here is that every grain of rice is nicely cooked and still in one piece. plus it came with char siew, veg n slics of pork belly. beats any fried rice in singapore i've had! for the price we paid, this was easily the best meal ever in hk. *misses hk food already*

Wiener Kaffeehaus

as part of the FEG (Friday Evening Gang) tradition, we went out searching for good food again! thanks to del, who always comes up with these off-the-beaten-track food places... wiener kaffeehaus is situated at 148 Neil Road, near cantonment park. when you enter the place, you smell this delicious coffee smell, no surprise, after it calls itself a viennese coffeehouse. love the decor, and the little area where there's huge bags of coffeebeans and a coffee roasting place. i mean i don't drink coffee, but these look way too cool.

so yes, we begin to order.
Coffee. I didn't drink this, so can't tell you how it went.

Viennese Salad, which basically is a mix of a few different types of traditional salad, there's the boiled potato, nicely seasoned and soft, some sliced cucumber with dressing, and the rest were green veggies. we didn't really like tt the cucumber tasted a tad bitter, but yah, it was just abt the only green veggies we got tt nite

Meatloaf sandwich $7.50. This is good! Delicious bread, the hard kinds tt germans love, and in it is meatloaf, which is like a thick slice of ham, topped with german mustard, and green veggies.


Camembert Fritters $6.50?. Camembert cheese is a french cheese i think, with a distinct flavour, i think it's made of goat's milk or something. servced on a bed of salad, and great tartar sauce. so yes, they deep-fried the cheese, and the combination of crispy skin, melted cheese, tartar sauce and salad... yumyum...


presenting the Oktoberfest platter! $33.50, supposed to serve 2 ppl, but we were shocked when we saw it. lots of sausage, one roast pork knuckle, some roast pork meat, one bread and potato dumpling each, some of the boiled potato salad, and sauerkraut! this is definitely for you if you're a meat lover. and it probably feeds 2 meat-loving germans, meaning tt it can be shared btwn 4 ladies. this is just great! and yah, it's an oktoberfest promo, so you better head down fast to try this platter!


Sachertorte. ($4+ per slice) when we read the website this sounded heavenly. i mean it's the best known viennese gateaux. but when it came, it seemed abit too dry for our liking. we prefer our chocolate cake to be moist, etc. but yeah this wasn't too bad, but will prob not order it again.


Viennese Apple Strudel $3.90. Slightly different from the strudels tt we're used to, this comes simply wrapped in some thin pastry. the highlight is the fresh apple slices, it's not syrupy, overly sweetened, or overly-dosed with cinnamon. the freshness of the tart apple slices shine through. yum!


This is a soft drink, Almdudler $3.50 per can. It's supposed to be lemonade, but you can't really taste the lemon, it looks like zapple, tastes of a few different fruits, pretty refreshing, like a non-cloying version of zapple... but $3.50 is abit ex for can drink, so if anyone can tell me if they sell this in any supermarkets in s'pore, i'll be grateful. goes well mixed with beer too!

love this place, they serve pretty good viennese cuisine, which is very similar to german food but with slight modifications. hearty, meaty and yummy. menu prices are like $15 for a main course. try the platter if you're there in october, very worth it. best of all, there's no service charge or GST or cess! and we saw a couple of germans there, which mean the food must be authentic. go try!

Fisherman's Wharf

sure, fish and chips can be found everywhere. i mean, how hard can it be to deep fry fish? my fave neighbourhood food centre, S11 at Ang Mo Kio Central (next to Jubilee cinema) sells a decent version, their fish is coated with breadcrumbs then deep fried to golden brown. it costs $4.50 i think. which is decent i guess...

so fish can be dipped into (as far as i know) breadcrumbs or batter. some versions use a beer batter which i feel is tastier and lighter. cue Fisherman's Wharf, an unassuming eatery located near Clarke Quay MRT.


went there on two separate occasions and loved the fish and chips there. basically like any self respecting F&C stall, they serve a variety of fish. i was told by my friend who studied in UK tt F&C there consists of several types of fish: cod, halibut, haddock, rock (i think IF i rem correctly). tried F&C cod and halibut b4 at this stall in siglap which was pretty authentic (according to friend-who-studied-in-UK), but it has since closed down... anywayz, FW serves different types of fish too, but the cheapest is the pacific dory, which is a very popular fish in s'pore, it doesn't have a very particular fishy taste which suits our taste buds just fine. according to yun, who tried another variety of fish, the pacific dory tastes best, and at only $6.50, it's only 2 bucks more ex than neighbourhood stalls! and as you can see from the next pic, the portions are quite big, very worth it.


their chips come in two versions too, fries and chips, which look pretty much the same. but if you like ur potatoes crispy, get fries. if u like them slightly soggy, go for the chips! i personally prefer soggy ones, so i love the chips.

thing i love abt this place, is the condiments. if you haven't tried vinegar with chips, you're missing out ALOT. FW provides english malt vinegar which goes perfectly well with the chips... a slight sour tinge to cut the oiliness. but don' be like me and be over-enthusiastic and pour too much... and they provide a choice of sauces too! honey mustard, curry mayo, the classic tartar. all are pretty good. of course chilli sauce and ketchup too!


somehow the fish looks pale in this shot. must be the flash! hehe. okok. love the food, good food for good price, the rustic wooden tables and benches are kinda cool, only thing is tt the place is non-airconditioned, which makes dining there on a hot afternoon kinda uncomfortable. and remember, go easy on the vinegar!

dessert, not desert

i'm soooo upset. bakerzin no longer sells the strawberry coupe cheesecake!! *ARGH* wat the hell.. tats like one of my fave desserts! =0(

*sigh*

well anyway, tried these other desserts..

bailey's souffle. the choc one is already nice, but this turned out to be not bad. the coffee at the side is kinda bitter, but when u pour it and eat it with the souffle, it becomes a heavenly, soft, fluffy delicious mix of coffee and liqueur which just melts in your mouth. it was also taken at such close proximity in a desperate attempt to conceal the corner demolished by me before i was reminded of my duty to photograph and blog abt it.

cheesecake. not too bad, creamy and smooth like how cheesecakes are supposed to be. thankfully the strawberry was not as sour as expected.

not too bad, but sadly, they dont make up for my coupe cheesecake...

tea cosy

there's this place at ps i always wanted to try. u've probably gone past it, maybe u've noticed it, maybe not. it used to be at where the new og was, cept tat now they've incorporated a nice tea place there. photos aren't allowed in here, so these were taken at my own risk!

i really like the chair.. its so interesting!

steak with tons of salad and a surprise side dish. turned out to be smoked oyster mayo topped with roe. very very yummy. the steak itself is quite nice, salad was dressed in a sourish thai-vietnamese sauce. also came with grilled potato slices.

this is called 'a fish dish' (16?). hahah basically just fishy with coleslaw and i cant rem wat else actually. this wasn't my dish anyway hahah!

i love their desserts! this is the ice cream platter (10), basically ice cream scooped into choc cups which the guy told us were edible. haha. great for the indecisive (ala watashi wa). in order of favourites: Mango, vanilla, raspberry, hazelnut.

yet another great dessert for the greedy and indecisive within all of us. ok fine so maybe just me. 5 small cakes, carrot, choc walnut, raspberry, peach cheesecake and tiramisu($10). frankly, i preferred the ice cream, but not too bad also la. plus u dont feel so fat and guilty too hehe.

definitely wanna go back there again, cos the place is nice and cosy (of course it is, cos its tucked away at a corner, plus the seats are hidden amongst vintage furniture). tho the food takes a little longer than usual, the portions are sizeable, and surprisingly tasty hahah. at least i dont have to keep going to project shop cafe so often!!

High Tea @ Marriott Hotel

half day leave on wednesday, but too bad too little time to do anything else, so what else is there to do but find a yummy high tea buffet?

was searching for places with high tea buffets online, realised tt not many places have it on weekday afternoons in Orchard area, only the Marriott, Goodwood Park, Royal Plaza @ Scotts (tt one really really sucks i tell you) so decided to just go the first one.

once i got there, i was happy... love the spread of food, it's international buffet. with both asian food like laksa, dim sum, chicken rice (tt one is yummy), bak kut teh, fish congee (tt's quite nice too), a sushi selection, smoked salmon too! there's a decent salad bar, sandwiches, pizza and of course, my favourite section... the desserts!!!!







the desserts are pretty darn good! not tt we tried alot of them, cos was a tad too full. but yes, i love scones so check this out:

the best way to eat scones is to slice it in half, spread it with whipped cream, vanilla sauce (yummy! you can still see the vanilla pod in it) and some blackberry preserves. like this!


it's nice, eggy and soft, not like some places where it's hard...

realise tt i dun have good plating skills, so the food tt i take from the buffet table doesn't look good, so won't bother posting them here. just go and check this place out if you're in town on a lazy weekday afternoon, you'll feel like a lady of leisure (aka taitai)

price-wise it's $30+++ per person, but if you use UOB credit card you get 20% off, so it works up to less than 30 bucks per person, which is a pretty good deal considering the quality of the food. some places have really cheap buffets, but the food quality sucks so much i rather go hawker centre and eat... so go check it out! droolz...