What makes a princess carriage, makes a darn good meal too!

For all the ingredients that's in this piping hot piece of chinese style pumpkin cake,

it deserves a post of its own.

Dried shrimp, steamed pumkin pieces, dried chinese mushroom slices, rice flour to make this culinary feast for the eyes and stomach. Especially in a canteen with lacklustre food.

And that presentation. Sweet sauce, sesame seeds and a side squeeze of chilli sauce.

Between you and me, this was two slices -each- for recess and lunch.

Oh. YUM.

Mai Thai @ Greenwich Seletar

Artfully decorated.

A large serving of Tom Yum Goong. 6-7 crystal prawns, a smattering of halved cherry tomatoes and straw mushrooms. At $16.50, this was too pricey for a soup with the barest of ingredients. But fairly enough stated on the menu as just prawns and mushrooms. You almost feel thankful that they threw in some cherry tomatoes for you.

Flavourful. And deceivingly clear for its spice levels.

Tod Mun Goong with plum sauce

There was prawn then there was everything else but. The taste of the meat overpowered the taste of prawn. The batter was perfect, but perhaps that was just about it. At $12 for a serving of 5 pieces.

Then there was a horrible lull of 15-20 minutes to let the rice turn cold in their blasting air conditioners while we waited for the rest of our orders. At a restaurant not running on full capacity and no explanations why there our orders were taking so long, this was a mood spoiler.

Pla Merk Pad Kai Khem

This was more sweet than savoury. There wasn't a powdery after taste and clumps of egg yolk which made me wonder how much of this sauce was actually salted egg yolk. The cuttlefish was soft, which was vastly different from the crunch and bite I expected from these beautiful curls. This dish left me with nothing more than regrets for $18. 

Ka Pao Gai at $15.50. Perhaps basil and minced chicken costs more than I realise these days. This was high on salt content. And very savoury. Goes awesomely well with rice but eat and don't look too long at the dish. The amount of oil in which it is soaked in would turn anyone off this dish.

Did I already mention that one serving of rice costs $2?

With little more than just apologies for not being able to cope with just one head chef and two assistants for a restaurant with 15 people?

Last I checked, this was a restaurant- with a seating capacity probably double of that, at 30 people. Good luck to the diners that come after me.

The service was impeccable, wait staff were very obliging and terribly apologetic but really, for the price paid- I won't be making a return visit anytime. Period.

What I would give for my basil chicken and fried egg rice pack for 25B in Bangkok right now.

Dessert for the lacklustre dinner please. Caramel Walnut Cheesecake. Walnut lost its crunch in this cake, caramel flavour took over everything else. This was not a cheesecake. Stick with the Chicago. Not all new offerings are worth a try. 

Grilled Chicken Pita Pocket

Some days at work are better than others.

And this was one of them :)

A dear colleague who has strict dietary requirements,

brought along fresh ingredients to make herself some lunch nibbles.

And there I happened to be,

In a pantry full of fresh ingredients. How could I resist?

She chops up the lettuce leaves into strips, slices up the grilled chicken fillet into strips and mixes it all up with a squeeze of honey mustard and a dollop of tartar sauce. That's basically all the prep work required.

The rest is just assembling the pita pocket together. Cut a pita into two for a pita pocket. Line the base with fresh slices of tomato and cucumber. Top with chicken and lettuce and maybe even a couple of sticks of preserved cucumber and carrots for extra zing.

And voila, a simple lunch on-the-go grilled chicken pita pocket. And a lot of love from Swee Cheng.

Thank you. :)

ichiban boshi @ novena square

This is the only outlet that I've seen kushiyaki items available.

They aren't cheap so I haven't made the decision to try them yet but perhaps one day when I'm feeling peckish and want a bit of everything :)

It's been a long week. Too much and too long, it gets to be a little overwhelming.

If you only knew that I would do everything to change the events of the week.

On a Friday night, after many paper cuts and a pile of marking done,

I needed something that would be light yet sufficient for a dinner meal.

Serendipity in a paper hotpot. :)

This was new on the menu. The option of a salmon/ beef kaminabe for $13.90 or a seafood/ hotate kinoko kaminabe for $17.90 if I don't remember wrong. The usual options at the AMK Hub outlet are limited to only the hotate kaminabe and a spicy kimchi one. Hmm.

Anyhow, this was just what I was looking for without even realising it.

The soup came filled with an assortment of vegetables and a lone shitake. If it were up to me, I'd slice up the mushroom. Making it seem like more. No one really bothers to cut up the mushroom for sharing. 

The beef slices were marbled just enough to give those slices a tender juiciness when cooked. Accompanied by a piquant yuzu radish dip, it opens up the appetite immediately. I liked the soup. It didn't taste like dashi. Perhaps it was chicken stock. Light with a hint of sweetness enhanced by the flavour that was imparted by the beef slices gently cooked in the broth. :)

With my pumpkin croquette and aburi maguro sushi, this was a good dinner.    

Then of course, there were desserts. At $2.90, Udders runs a waffle deal that is affordable yet tasty. If I had a choice to share, I'd do waffles in a heartbeat. :) I wouldn't be greedy enough to polish off a waffle and ice cream on my own. A single scoop of Bailey's Irish Cream and one of Snickers, Mars and Honeycomb Vanilla. Balancing the alcohol content with chocolate and sugar to reduce my risk of alcohol induced rash. :) Udders at United Square. Hmm. Grab the only sofa seat in the house for an improved experience.

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A mouthful this was! But hey, you've got to agree that it does pack a punch on print. I was pretty impressed by how this sounded. Social media has exploded in our society and many employers are looking at how to make this work to their advantage. Having a Communication & Media Studies Degree gives you depth on how media affects society which would help you advise your employer on how to use media to reach out to the masses. Why not diversify and add to that, a professional qualification in Marketing that gives you breadth on how to use media to achieve marketing goals for your future employer? And just in case you were wondering, BOTH options can be completed in just 16 months!

If that's not your cup of tea, there's so many more to choose from!

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Changi T3 on a Saturday night

This Merlion. No matter how strange looking has become a familiar national icon.

A lion head with a mermaid's tale. The romantic interpretation of Singapura.

Now dressed in a coat of green, dotted with brilliant burst of colours from the flowers.

This must take a lot of daily work from the landscapers. Literally to cut it down to size, and

to keep it in shape eh. :)

I would've never imagined the queues at the dining outlets in Changi T3 on a Saturday night but well, I saw it for myself. And no way were we waiting. Well, I would. But with 70 year old senior citizens (who are pretty fit still!), a son with a flight to catch, we eventually settled for a restaurant with almost full capacity but no queues.

Thai Express it would have to be.

They are running these promotions on new items that I haven't yet seen before.

Curry with Thai style pancake *ahem prata that's supposed to be award-winning and

these sets that were pretty value for money.

Dad surprised me with a choice of softshell crab rice with egg and green curry sauce. The softshell crab was fried well with enough crisp batter and not burnt to a crisp. The sauce was good. Green curry mixed with egg made for a thick gravy that went well with rice. This would be on my list of to-order mains next time.

 Mum made an order for a green curry fried rice set that came with a small serving of vermicelli clear soup and a pulut hitam. For $12.90. She was too far away for me to take a peekture of the food. The rice was a little oily but definitely green and yums. :)

I wanted something soupy for my tummy and this looked just like it did in the menu.

Essentially just bean vermicelli mixed in with seafood and vegetables to be cooked in broth.

This would've been fun if it came in an individual hotpot for me to cook my own noodles.

But I suppose there's nothing quite -express- about it.

Spicy. Sweet. They could've been more generous with the serving of soup.

But this was comfort enough.

Before I blew up from the indignance of being patronized. Our orders for a char kway teow for the one person catching a flight was not served up till he eventually left for his flight without dinner. Now this was. not. what I had expected. It would've been manageable had we been informed that the dish would take a while to arrive. But honestly? A lag time between the first dish and the last dish was at least 25 minutes. Tardiness at an express restaurant.

Food for thought.

Aside from that major misdemeanor, the food that was actually served was pretty good. Better than some other outlets I've been to. :)

malay wedding. void deck style.

This. 

Just because I never knew I could look like a bimbo if I tried.

*shivers

Okay. Down to the serious stuff. Blogging is serious. Like seriously. [Disclaimer] This post is written with an insane toothache. Anything out of the ordinary would be due to this stated cause.

Sauce was yums. But the prawns weren't too high on freshness ratings. Just a pair of them.

To have a taste of everything :)

Now this. Sedapppppp-nya!

Sauce was awesome. Spicy hot and sweet all at the same time.

That explosion of flavour coated fried chicken.

A wing and a drumstick for me please! :)

Wet style rendang. This was different from the dry rendang. But in a good way.

The daging lembu was fork tender but still with good bite.

Just two pieces. We've had it with the meats.

Some before/ after mains salad munchers?

This sauce was awesome. Thick. Full of peanuts. Sweet. Hae ko. (Shrimp paste)

I gladly dipped all my rojak ingredients into this. :)

This is the rendition of popcorn chicken. Fish meat of course.

Coated with a flavoured batter. This was a good proportion of batter to fish.

Although it was served barely warm.

Colorful kuih and buah. Fruits and little cake nibbles.

These held little interest for me.

I'd rather eat those almond sugee and sugar flaky pastry at our tables.

Those beat cocktail nuts hands down.

And a serving of chap chye- mixed vegetables of course.

One happy serving! :)

Forget the traditional tiered wedding cakes. Why not dainty rose cupcakes and just that one layer of cake for a symbolic cake cutting ceremony! Almost like an English tea party. :)

And may we not miss out on the belle of the ball herself.

A total transformation into a beautiful blushing bride.

It is a blessed day for her indeed!

And just when I was talking about these eggs I remembered from Malay weddings, look at what

they have evolved into!

A very chi-chi display that convey its intended symbolism in a bunga-telur for fertility's sake.

And a pretty dainty rose tea cup for a wedding favour.

This was a cultural learning journey for me.

Thank you for inviting us to your special day babe.

To many years of wedded bliss ahead! :))

Ntuc BigPlus! Deals

Justa Burger. Not a set. JUSTA Burger.

Usual price $6, with the special QR code? $3.80. :)

This was a larger than normal meat patty, 100% meat and they've managed to retain the juiciness within.
It didn't have a strong flavour of beef which may or may not be a good thing depending on the individual.
A slice of tomato, a lettuce leaf and some chopped onions for that added fresh crunch (I do wish they had options for extra vegetables).
This was a burger vastly different from those served up at your regular fastfood outlets.
I liked it. :)

But this definitely wasn't a proper meal.
Here in Singapore, we've all been spoilt silly by the set meals with added options of sides usually included in the prices.

And never have I felt such a deep sense of loss without fries, potato salad, coleslaw. Maybe even a tiny excuse of a house salad with a few leaves?

And after all that hullabaloo of an emotional rollercoaster ride,

let's just put in an order of medium spicy fries, shall we? :)

This was probably the size of a regular sized side Botak Jones used to serve till they realised that many were leaving those fries behind due to the large serving sizes (oh why oh why!) so to prevent unnecessary food wastage, they adjusted the servings accordingly.

In any case,

the deal has since ended

http://plus.bigdeal.sg/Botak-jones-justa-burger.html/c=maillist&date=2012-02-17&secode=6c5f65abe353bbd6ccc9a0c4a1e514e9

but perhaps, due to popular demand, it might return? :)

A cosy lunch in a quiet coffeeshop on a Saturday afternoon post-swim.

To more weekends like this. :)

Where it's at!

Botak Jones (Non-halal)

Blk 181, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5

S 560181

cooked. sashimi.

I recently bought some sashimi from a certain supermarket that was the total opposite of -fresh- :(

Frowning at the block of sashimi I bought, I sliced it up, hoping that some parts would be edible with the additions of a lot of wasabi but I was horribly disappointed.

This was everything bad and making matters worse, raw.

Well if fresh ain't fresh, COOK it!

You don't want to run the risk of salmonella. How ironically appropriate.

This was simple.

A pot of drained al dente pasta fusilli and the capellini no. 2s that i had a handful leftover of.

Some Campbell's Mushroom Soup and two spoonfuls of Nespray (boosts creaminess and creates that je nais sais quoi taste of a lil sweetness :)) for the sauce.

Now topple in those salmon pieces to cook in the remaining heat, more than sufficient.

A flat teaspoon of salt, a generous dash of oregano and black pepper mixed in.

Top with a slice of cheddar and come back in a bit.

All melted and deliciously cheesy.

Perfect for microwaveable lunch the following day.

But who am I kidding. Eat it fresh off the stove! :) 

Whampoa Market at 92 Whampoa Drive

With a text message like that, i was worried. Was my friend by any chance pregnant?!

(She's single so being preggers would be a disaster.)

Thankfully, it was just a craving.

Where could be a place that would have everything she wanted? Oh but of course, at Whampoa Market. Out of the way, but when a craving strikes, the call must be answered before it manifests itself in different ways. Oh the hazards of humans.

So taking trains, cabs and walks, we individually made our way over to Whampoa Market at 92 Whampoa Drive. Just a side note, typing the name made me wonder how an American would pronounce it (wham-po-ah?) and how ridiculous a word it seems. Almost as if it were a nonsense word.

But anyway, here we go with dinner tonight.

BBQ chicken wings. Hot off the charcoal grills. Juicy. Tender. With a dip into that sour spicy garlic chilli concoction. Immense satisfaction for an appetizer.

Hokkien Mee. I'm hokkien. And I love my MEE! :)

Today's version was a little drier. I probably got the first/last batch off the wok. With the peanut chilli sambal that never seems to be enough.

Oh yum. Hainanese chicken. Skin with that bit of bite. Fragrant chicken oil mixed with light soy sauce. And a non typical chilli dip. I liked this more than I thought I would!

A measly portion of stingray and a miserable excuse for sambal kangkong. They definitely won't be seeing me again.

And because so many people were making orders for cockles. We needed to have a hand in the blood war. Indulgences. In moderation. Keep these away from me for the next half a year please!

All that for dinner. Dinner for just two.

A false alarm of pregnancy.

An enjoyment of local fare at hawker centre prices.

Just before we leave. Another order for a takeout of half a dozen chicken wings please. Two to have on the spot just because it was irresistable, leaving four to go. Mmmyum!

Satay would've completed our meal. Some rojak?

Or maybe some local dessert.

And maybe we need to exercise a little bit of moderation.

A sense of achievement for having kept our KOI drinks, skipping the satay, rojak and dessert.

All that for next time!

That's moderation, innit? :)

watami @ ion

If anything else. Watami has always been notorious for long waits.

Is it just me? Or does anyone out there share the same feelings?

From the previous experience at Junction 8 and our epic hour and a half wait, I've been hard pressed to find a reason to pay them a visit.

But here I find myself, with a 45 mins wait at Ion. Friend's choice.

Not bad.

We've scaled down the wait time by half.

A step in the right direction. I don't even find myself mildly irritated about the wait.

Although my hungry friend was deeply indignant that every other group went in ahead of us because they came in numbers or 2 and 3. We had a party of 5.

I guess eating in groups would require some thought on viable dinner venues to avoid unnecessarily long waits.

For places like antoinette at mandarin gallery. Be prepared to wait- counting in hours.

If numbers are more than 4.

But I digress.

Now this was pretty new to me. Something that eventually boils off to a dish resembling zosui. Bubbling pot of goodness. For a rainy day or if you're nursing a cold. Comfort food.

And in recognition of my latest obsession, I mean interest in Korean dramas, I made an order for a typically korean rice dish. And this was good. Not as big on veggies as I expected and miserly on their already thinly sliced beef but this was big on taste - enough to be flavourful, not yet to make me a thirsty hippo.

There's really something about having your food hot and eating it. Stone pots, I support!

And this was shared. I took a portion of the salmon. Nothing stellar.

And pretty steep prices for their portions.

In any case, this was an overall good experience.

Bibimbap and beef gukbap. For you, I might just return :)

Happy 5th Birthday Nuffnang!

A very happy birthday indeed!

To Nuffnang, Asia's first blogging community.

Without you,

my inbox would not be jam packed full of surprises! :)

 These congratulatory emails are pockets of sunshine in my otherwise perpetual worked-to-death state. :D

And no, it is hardly an exaggeration.

I mean,

LOOK!

A Nuffnang-SMRT Circle Line collaboration that gives me a chance to meet up with Brad of Ladyironchef again.

To be part of a blogger's event coincidentally with my brother who signed up (without telling me) and writes at nigeleats.blogspot.com.

In the blogosphere, we're separate individuals with our unique writing styles, tasting palates and opinions.

Nuffnang feeds me well with burgers of every kind at Swiss Butchery, the outing at the Botanic Gardens station. :)

And even gives me have my shot at winning the cutest Churp Churp mascot with the CCL quiz. :)

It isn't always about food.

LOOK AGAIN!

And what have we here at the White Rabbit at Dempsey Hill?

A ladies event. An Olay 360 rejuvenating pampering event for the ladies. And who better to bring along than my mummy! :) This would probably be my first official Nuffnang event mingling with fellow nuffnangers. I'm but only the glitterati status and not a cent to my nuffnang account. :( It is pretty nerve wrecking being out there to meet fellow nuffnangers, if you havent been active in the circle.



But we were warmly welcomed by the girls of Nuffnang. And enjoyed ourselves with the tapas, craft activities, pampering spa treatments onsite. And would you believe? While sampling the Olay products, we were caught on cosmo's cameras and featured in their advertorial for the December issue. My mother's colleague spotted us in the magazine and went out of her way to look for that issue to grab a copy for us as a keepsake.

So for the next five years, please keep feeding me, pampering me, organizing awesome movie giveaways, overseas NAPBAS and pyjama parties (which I will definitely sign myself up for!). Keep up with the good work thus far with local and overseas blogging community, engaging hearts and minds. That awesome job of fostering ties and of course, bringing blog advertising to greater heights! :)

So of course, I would <3 to be part of this year's 5th birthday bash at none other than, Swissôtel The Stamford- one of Southeast Asia’s tallest hotels. Panoramic views, in a private dining room and a classy dress code. It's definitely going to be a night of good food, company and fun. :D

To many more years of celebrating Nuffnang's birthdays as a proud member!