brotzeit @ 313

Going German.

skip the latte.

pig out. literally.

then cleanse your guilt with a mozza salad.

add in some omega three

a pile of carbs

hearty conversations over dangerously clogged arteries.

and we only live once.

so live like royalty.

emperor cakes.

i'd rather the apple a day.

strudel's the moodle.

Dinner.

basement @ the central

And it was full house when we got there. Almost end of lunch hour at almost 2pm. The tables cleared shortly after. I'd rather this than pizza. 

Flower beef stew rice was my choice till I looked closer and saw that it wasn't available.

Well that left me with the happy rice bowl. 

I was expecting savoury.

I mean, it's braised meat rice as stated in mandarin.

Firstly, it was minced.

I'm fine with that.

A cube of braised beancurd and a whole braised hardboiled egg with a side of boiled cabbage.

It should be good.

And the operative word being -should-

This was not savoury :(

It was sweet. To be fair it wasn't sickeningly sweet.

It just was -not- savoury.

Needless to say, this bowl of rice was left wanting.

And before I sound like I'm whining.

Then there was chicken curry rice.

The japanese curry sauce was too watered down to be of any interest.

The fried chicken was more battered than meat but substantial nonetheless.

A fried egg was a good topping.

Pun totally intended.

And there's nothing about the food that draws people to this place.

I see people eat.

And then I see them do a takeout.

Of a half a dozen cups of these kungfu milk tea with pearl.

It was HK style milk tea.

Thick and done with finesse.

So that's why it was a full house!

I wish I had a large cup. With pearls.

And no, I stopped myself from getting another to-go.

I'm coming back for drinks.

Few and far between.

Late lunches with you.

Thanks for getting out of bed just that little earlier to make sure I'm fed. :)

chinese flower mushroom and luncheon meat carbonara

Cooking at home.

San Remo's linguine- al dente.

Chinese flower mushrooms- soaked and diced.

Luncheon meat- diced.

Sounding like a perfect disaster?

I never realised how the addition of mushroom into the pasta liquid could account for such a delicious lingering aroma of mushroom on the pasta.

Add in a tablespoon of salt and a generous dash of olive oil.

Add in the luncheon meat after the water comes to a fierce boil.

 And I know I've violated all the conventional rules of pasta cooking.

And what about the sauce?

Buttermilk!

Gives that deliciously umami twang. :)

Healthier choice.

Make a simple roux of butter and flour.

Add some milk to thin the roux and finally add in some buttermilk.

I'm not giving exact proportions here simple because I don't have any.

Shave in some organic pecorino cheese.

A dash of oregano.

Some ground black pepper.

And toss them all up for linguine alla carbonara.

Bon appetit! :)

Drips

Where are the women?

I mean.

I am one.

Or so I'd like to think.

And there were many a table of women lounging in the chairs,

catching up on girl talk over these delicious looking desserts and coffee.

But the service staff were all men.

Boys.

For some reason that made me feel uncomfortable.

Too much eye candy perhaps?

This was a recommended special.

Bread pudding with vanilla bean sauce.

What they didn't mention in the name was the apple.

Poached apple.

Was it a whole apple?

The baking process seemed not to have any effect on the poached apple.

It was juicy and tender morsels of fruit.

It was good.

But.

I wanted my bread pudding!

That constituted only half of the ramekin.

Le sigh.

And no there were no raisins either.

The vanilla sauce?

It was runny and not big on taste.

Now this however,

blew me away.

This was BERRY good.

Simple mixed fruit tart.

Choice of blueberries or raspberries.

We took whatever they recommended.

And it was ohsogood.

Fruits were ripe and plump.

Custard was just right.

No feeling of queasiness or maybe it was just massacred so fast.

And the tart.

It had me at hello.

Full fat short crust pastry.

No, I take it back.

Full fat short crust FLAKY pastry.

ohmyyum.

But pricey.

$6.50 for a tart.

Uh huh.

A matcha latte.

Love the steamed milk.

 A faint and lingering taste of matcha.

This was perfect for what I wasn't looking for. :)

And just because this was the sweetest treat of the day.

Rockmelon from a random shop and save store.

These would be perfect with parma ham.

Or maybe not.

Simple.

:)

club.bing @ keppel

At 1230.

I skipped the morning tennis/ swim.

Early morning drama.

But thank goodness that's over.

And they say misery loves company. :)

The Friday Afternoon crowd: Ladies of leisure- the real tai tais, the older menfolk and a couple of families.

And here we stick out like a sore thumb.

A table of 6. Not quite kids. Just almost.

We felt like juveniles there but heck, it's a lunch date on a lazy Friday afternoon. :)

Babi Pongteh.

Oh what is that heavenly sauce made of!

Ayam Buah Keluak. I neither appreciate the buah keluak nor did the color of the ayam entice me. It was good but one serving sufficed.

Lots more to be savoured!

Nonya Chap Chye.

The sweetness of cabbage. Or rock sugar? :)

It was the perfect savoury sweet balance.

Kari Ayam?

More sauce to totally put my diet under the RIP status.

Lemak siol!

Otak-otak was not in a banana leaf! :(

It was dry. Even from the look of it, it was evidently not appetizing.

Sigh.

Sambal sayur bendeh

Crunchy. Not slimy.

I would've preferred terong tho. :)

Bakwan Kepiting Soup.

Individual Servings.

At least the bakwan kepitings were generous in size.

And the soup stock thick on taste. :)

Grilled sambal cumi.

I loved this.

Chew it like a chewing gum.

Work those jaws on these delightful morsels baby.

It was one good lunch.

Good food, good company.

And sometimes.

That's all you really need for a perfect day.

prive @ keppel bay

perfect girlfriend day out.

thanks for waiting and driving my luggage and i home. :)

till the next time you get home!

<3s.

lunch date

Waking up late.

It's a work day for you while I'm in the last week of my holidays.

Finishing my book while you slept in.

Frustrated and finally forced out of bed by the incessant sounds of piling and ongoing upgrading works.

Only to fall back to sleep next to your nephew.

A big kid and a small one to melt my heart. :)

It's been a while since we had time for lunch.

Where to?

Chicken rice at Clarke Quay.

I've never noticed this- Tiong Bahru Hainanese Chicken Rice where quietly it sits behind the bus stop across the bridge from The Central in the direction of home when you get off work late at night.

A set meal for two.

$17.80 if I remember correctly.

Serves up half a chicken (choice of roasted or white)

Roast chicken was too salty on the wings but otherwise juicy and mmm yum.

It might have something to do with the fact that I was ravenous by 2pm as well. ;p

I liked the addition of tomato slices and salted vegetables.

And they had a bowl of soup which was more than just decent.

I'm impressed.

Tasty. Boiled chicken stock with salted vegetables.

A choice of side. The lady taking our order offered either the thai style fried beancurd or five spice meat roll.

A little heavy on the salt. But savoury and well balanced out by a dip into the luminous orange spicy sauce.

Ngoh Hiang for the carnivore of course.

And a choice of vegetable between fried beansprouts or baby bok choy. I like them crunchy bean sprouts but I like my healthy greens more :) A little overly blanched but tasty with the toppings of oyster sauce, fried shallots and hey, some ikan bilis too.

And this was mine.

All mine.

I definitely have a healthy digestive system full on fibre. :)

Thanks for lunch.

And I'm happy we managed a proper lunch before you started on your work day.

dean & deluca @ orchard central

Felicity.

This was a central setting for the characters in the show and I had the impression that this was no different from a regular Starbucks.

But stepping in to their brand new outlet on the 4th level of Orchard Central saw me walk through their grocery store aisle before getting to the main seating area of the bistro. So now I know. Dean & Deluca is a gourmet coffee/pastries shop mixed with specialty food products. There were meats as mains and sides on display. The sandwiches all wrapped and... ready to be reheated. I don't know about you but this was sorely unappetizing for me. It's like being in the deli section of a regular supermarket. Except this was gourmet. Which really just meant the prices were of a gourmet standard. And that's really just as far as it goes.

I wanted a bacon apricot roll and to my horror, I see the chef picking the last remaining one up with his tongs and that cleared the plate on display. So let's just settle with the one right next to it.

Quiche Lorraine. This was savoury. Good on taste but otherwise, the puff pastry was a bit thick to the bite from the reheating. Bacon bits were good. And nothing else really. Light bite it was.

And tempted though I was to pick up the breads from Maison Kayser that were on display, I decided I didn't need to spend that kind of money here after an unsatisfactory $8.20 slice of quiche.

And then there was the luscious looking rounds of beef tenderloin.

Just at $12 a pop, they looked like a real steal.

And while we were debating on the side salad with a list price of $18, we only realised at the counter that they charged the weight of sides by grammes.

I'm not sure if that applied to meats as well. But all the portion sizes for the mains (meats/ fish) were standard on display.

Turns out the side of grilled chicken salad was just $3.

With an array of graps, olives, green apple cubes and grilled chicken, I'd be happy eating just the salad really. :)

The beef? It was well done. Overdone perhaps. The sides were crisp and dry. And the meat within was just notquitetough yet. I enjoyed the meat more than my quiche. If that could be of any help as a point of reference.

This was a good cup of cafe latte. My love affair for steam milk, 70% never ends. And this was a small cup. I wonder how the large cup would look.

And the random walk down their grocery aisle was a real treat for the eyes.

Colourful sugar bits.

Lego block sugar.

Cheddar crackers and hey,

Sea salt chocolate. Mmm.

I would be back.

But not all that soon.

And definitely not for the quiche.

:)

wonderful taiwan delights

This was their swan song. And since this place is now defunct, I write a tribute to them and I do hope that someday soon, they would find a suitable location to serve up their delicious homestyled taiwanese fare.

A nondescript shop along the Jalan Leban area with limited parking space, it's hardly the kind of place I would choose as a dining option. That night was no different from the usual. We wanted to try out a new hotpot place, the irvin's seafood restaurant but in the end, we settled for this cramped but quaint shop. With its faded signage and simple set up, it seemed the perfect dinner venue for a girlfriend catch up. :)

 

For their size, the variety on the menu was more extensive than I expected. Of course, it also turned out that every other thing was sold out. I exaggerate. But their house specials were sold out. No more dumplings nor pot stickers. :(

Well, we still had to eat anyway. Never fear! For the other menu items are just as much a treat as their house specials.

The herbal duck mee sua lived up to its namesake.

The soup base was herbal indeed- a delicate balance between an overkill on the herbs and a sweetness imprated from the wolfberries to the clear soup thickened slightly by the mee sua itself. Black fungus and duck meat completed the dish. It was healthy and tasty food. :)

This was not on our original order. But we ate it anyway. Fried chicken bits with a generous dash of chilli pepper and salt. It's passes as an appetizer alright but I'd rather have the Shilin chicken anyday if you know what I mean.

And this, was the star of the night. For this, they have every reason to continue shop operations. Please? I really should just let the photo do the talking. For they speak volumes. The delicately braised pork. The peanuts were not mushy but if there was an al dente for peanuts. This was it! And the gravy. Of course the gravy. Suddenly, plain white rice seems to be the perfect accompaniment. :)

And there's reason why the hot sour soup is last. The photos are in chronological order. But heck, every dish was a treat except the chicken and sadly, we never made it back for a second round. As with all good things, they do come to an end.

Towards endings and new beginnings. Or a pending trip to Taiwan, pronto! :)