I will have never imagine myself shelving out thirty bucks at a coffee shop.
But that’s what I did, for a piece of Kurobuta pork ($28), at Big D Grill. Oh man, I don’t know what to say, but I did that. I always have a thing for you, all the more I couldn’t miss it when so many people had praised you to the sky; now that I’ve you, I’m not so sure.
You were great that night, I couldn’t help gaping at your assets; they were huge. I carefully took a small nibble to start our foreplay, I moved downwards and craved for more, I took bigger bites; it was good, but the thing was, I’m not sure whether that justified the high price I’m paying for.
I’m sorry, but I’m a visual creature. I love sitting in nice, pretty ambience, sipping my drink and enjoying the food. I’m a sucker I know. But somehow, you lacked the “wow” factor that I so desired, maybe the lack of ambience was the reason.
We opted for the crabmeat linguine ($10.90) for our second main. It was hot, it was red, spicy, fiery hot. The crabmeat was overflowed generously; spicy crabmeat and linguine, I would prefer it to be slightly wetter though.
And for the only dessert available, the bonet ($4). I was half expecting chocolate lava to ooze out in the middle, but it wasn’t Instead, you got a very good chocolate pudding, served cold.
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Now I’m not saying the kurobuta pork wasn’t worth the money, or for any of that matter, I’m not against stalls in coffee shop selling restaurant food, on the contrary I thought it’s good to have more options. But somehow I guess I still can’t fix my mentality to accept paying thirty bucks at a coffee shop. If, I had this at a restaurant, I’m sure it will be pretty much worth the money.
And frankly speaking, I really can’t see people shelving out thirty to forty bucks for premium meat, at a coffee shop, at least not yet. It’s only the crazy folks like us who will really pay top money for food, but I will definitely go back to try some of the other cheaper items on the menu.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
ONIM. Since we have TGIF to show our appreciation that the weekend is here, I thought it will only be appropriate to have ONIM as well, Oh no it’s Monday! I know, I know, it’s the day of the week that you dreaded the most, what they called Monday blues. To soften the blow, let’s make the Monday blues go away, by having some sweets!
I love (read: head over heels with) nutella. It ought to be the most amazing creation this world ought to offer. Never mind the bizarre increase in price (a 375g bottle used to cost $3.90, but it’s $4.90 now at fairprice), I still need my nutella fix regularly.
Toast, which is under the Marmalade pantry, has got some of the best cupcakes, and by that I didn’t meant that they were fanciful. Hell no, they are anything but pretty. There’s no frosting, no beautiful decorations on top, but just a messy spread of the cream. But it’s good. It’s damn good!
The nutella cupcake, which was basically chocolate cupcake with nutella frosting, was so nutella-ish! I did find the cupcake to be slightly dry, I guess the nutella’s the cause for it, since the other cupcakes were not as dry.
The carrot cake came highly recommended by the staff. At the slightest mention of the two words, carrot cake, it’s bound to have the question asked back in return, “Is it better than Cedele (read: Sir-deli)?”
I’m sorry, but I have not tried Cedele’s legendary carrot cake yet! I’m a simple person with a simple taste bud, and anything with thick & generous cream cheese frosting works for me.
How about some cheesecakes to make you happy? Add in some blueberry, I offered. From my vague memories, the cheesecake was light and airy, the blueberry toppings were sweet and combined well with the light cheesecake. But the base wasn’t the crunchy type that I’ve in mind. My dear, have some blueberry cheesecake to chase your blues away!
This, was THE cupcake, Limonata. Whimsical name, and that’s it. The lemon tart limon graze cake, let’s just call it the lemon cupcake, was one of the best cupcake I’ve, the lemon taste was infused and spread throughout the whole tiny cake, it was moist, and fluffy. I love it!
There might be an identical crisis since the William looks rather similar to the Limonata. Note the colour of the base, the latter is lemon cupcake, while the former is a chocolate cake filled with William pear & topped with a delicious layer of the butter crème frosting. There’s bits of william pears within the cupcake, and I’m a sucker for the sweet butter crème frosting, but still, I preferred the Limonata, and the rose.
You winked at me when I entered the shop. I was deeply captivated by our first encounter; I couldn’t stop looking at you, and for a moment you’ve stolen my breath away. Without taking my eyes off you, I told the assistant, the “lemon meringue tart.”
You tasted as good as you looked, the curvy golden brown wisp, blond is beautiful; the delightful lemon, with the crispy tart, and the sour-sweet meringue, now I know what they meant when they say, love at first sight.
* * *
The desserts served at Toast are all part of the Marmalade Pantry’s offer, but at a slightly cheaper price. A hidden gem, that’s how I will describe toast. I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t noticed Toast while you are shopping at Takashimaya, since I also wasn’t familiar with it until a friend brought me there. This post is a compilation of my three visits.
I hope by now, you are already feeling happier, at the sight of all the lovely creations. Desserts always make us cheerful, have some sweets my dear, they will chase your monday blues, far far away.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
We searched for the button with the 37th label on it, and pressed. Zoom, the elevator, or I preferred to call it the express lift-off, shot up into the sky. Looking downwards as everything became miniature - we were so insignificant. I was actually quite scared when I took a peep. It shouldn’t be, since I’ve been to higher ground before, but still. It always happened. Ding, we reached 37th level, welcome to Hai Tien Lo.
The Steamed shrimp dumpling ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was pretty with the chopped celery giving it a tinge of green.
It must be short-sightedness, but it often occurred with carrot cake. Somehow I always missed out the word steamed, when I ordered carrot cake. So instead of my favourite fried carrot cake, we were surprised when they served a steamed rendition; but it was good! I like how the sauce brings out the flavour of the soft and nice carrot cake. Okay, the full name, steamed carrot cake with preserved meats ($3.90 per portion).
The Steamed pork dumpling with fish roe ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was a piece of art. The curvy lines, with her yellow outfit, topped with the pretty bright orange fish roe.
This was a special, they called it the dim-sum-of-the-week. Sophisticated yeah? It was essentially a shrimp with fish roe on top of a mushroom. An innovative way to do the overdone-to-death prawn in dim sum.
Surprise number two came in the form of pan-fried rice flour roll with crispy conpoy ($3.90 per portion). Well actually it’s not much of a revelation since I asked about the fillings beforehand. Or rather, the lack of fillings. I like the slightly char pan-fried surface of the rice roll with all the crispy toppings. The rice roll on itself was rather bland, but drizzled with the gorgeous sauce; it was good, no, it was tasty!
Since my favourite char siew sou wasn’t available, I just had to make do with the Steamed barbecued pork buns ($2.80 for 2 pieces). White fluffy buns, with sweet char siew fillings, what’s there not to like? I like it sweet, extra sweet please!
Instead of the usual prawn filling, Hai Tien Lo’s rendition came across as the Deep-fried sea perch wrapped in vermicelli ($5.40 for 3 pieces).
* * *
With the to-die-for magnificent view of the marina area, dining at Hai Tien Lo was definitely something that evoked the visual senses together with the taste buds. We chatted, appreciated the skyline, nibbled at the dim sum, drank more tea, and I’m so in love with dim sum! xoxo
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
I always dread to blog about Japanese food; since I’m not a big fan of Japanese food, nor am I knowledgeable about them. It is on special occasions when my friends craved for Japanese food, then will you see Japanese-related posts here.
The prices at Tatsuya, are incredibly not cheap (at least for my standards); we went for their affordable-and-value bento set lunches instead. The sashimi bento set ($28.90) was immediately on the agenda since my friend’s a big, big fan of sashimi. Pardon me, I can never understand the rave about sashimi though, eating slices of raw fishes didn’t exactly appeal to me; but having said that, the salmon sashimi was remarkably fresh.
I always enjoy eating Japanese rice; the white pearl grains are so soft, and seriously, I could step into a Japanese restaurant just to eat their rice. Be it steamed white rice, or garlic fried rice, give it to me!
The sushi bento ($30.90) was visually-appealing with all the delectable and pretty-looking of sushi; I started with the tempura first, the deep-fried vegetables were pretty all right, I’ve never like my vegetables fried. It was the prawn tempura that really got me going.
Without paying attention to what was what, I took up my chopsticks, steadied my pair of shaky hands, and grab the nearest sushi; delicious, I ate another one, then the next, until I finished the row of six sushi.
The same for the fishes, I’ve a hard time differentiating which fishes were there, with the exception of salmon and tuna; so I took up my chopsticks once again, dipped them into the wasabi-infused soy sauce, and carefully placed it into my delicate mouth. Yum! The fish, with the sticky sushi rice, was exceptionally fresh.
We chose to sit in the interior of the smallish restaurant; an elongated space with at most twenty seats, there’s room at either the counter bar or by the side. Naturally, sitting at the counter bar provides the full Japanese experience, with the chefs and staffs conversing in Japanese, and seeing the chefs live in action. But somehow it does gets a little overwhelming and noisy after a while.
Since I already gotten my full Japanese experience, the next time I will probably choose to sit outside in the tranquil al fresco environment instead! Tatsuya’s bento set are very value for money, given that it will probably cost double or triple the money when you order ala carte for dinner.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
My love affair with XLB starts way back; I fall in love with her at first sight, every petite piece so delicate and exquisite, she, who has the ability to make my heart skip a beat when I place her on my lips, she, who makes me go crazy and think of her everytime.
The two different XLB was made by two different pairs of hands; the one on the left was by me (note: the uneven folds) and the one on the right was by the master of course.
At Din Tai Fung’s media preview of their new mini steamed pork dumpling (xiao long tang bao), we were given a hands-on experience on making XLB. And that’s why I like dim sum so much; it’s easy to pop a piece inside our mouth, but to make each piece so delectable there’s much hard work and effort involved.
The requirement for a standard XLB is 18 folds, and it’s definitely not easy to do it, especially so when we only had half-an-hour of lesson beforehand, where the chefs actually train for a year to achieve the result. It’s only when you experience how difficult it is, to make a XLB before you actually appreciate the hard work put in by the good people slogging it out in the hot kitchen everyday.
The new mini steamed pork dumpling (XLB), or xiao long tang bao, whatever you call it, is 50% smaller than the regular XLB. Just imagine doing 18 folds on a normal size XLB, and now you do it on half the size of XLB; the xiao long tang baos are notoriously difficult to make!
I love to eat eggs; scrambled, poached, fried, sunny side up, steamed, over-easy, salted egg, quail egg, but with just the exception to century eggs. There’s no reason, but the black glossy appearance never appealed to me. Century eggs with fermented soya ($3.50)
As to the origin of drunken chicken, I do not know the story of it, but I do know that the Original Shanghainese drunken chicken ($6.80) had a strong alcohol taste infused in the smooth chicken meat.
Taking up a piece of the mini cucumber, crunch crunch; the inherited sweetness of the green plate had an addition spicy twist to it. Crunchy Mini Cucumber in Spicy Sauce ($3.80). Just for bites.
Much as I love my veggies, I was never a fan of vegetables in dim sum; somehow the steamed vegetables inside dumplings didn’t work for me. Neither did the Steamed vegetable & pork dumpling here.
This was a make-over of our regular siewmai, done the XLB-style. It was quintessentially an open-faced XLB with a shrimp sitting pretty on top. Shrimp & pork shao mai ($13.50 for 10)
I love to drink soup that is thick and tangy in flavour, with lots of ingredients that bear a close reminiscence to Shark’s fin soup. The Hot & sour soup ($6.80) was not bad, but the excessive pepper overwhelmed my taste buds.
Springy noodles that bounced off your tongue, that might sounds exaggerating, but I like my noodles done that way. The Noodle with minced pork in bean sauce ($7) was delightful with the generous toppings of bean sauce; it was a simple bowl of noodles, but I like it!
The Crispy golden prawn pancakes ($8.50) were nice as appetisers too, fried till golden brown, the crispy pancakes crusts were addictive to bite on.
I wasn’t too impressed with the Stir-fried nai bai with garlic. I’m not sure whether the chilli was supposed to be there as a decoration, or was it to enhanced the taste, but personally I felt that nai bai and chilli didn’t work. Plus the garlic wasn’t fried enough to infused the vegetables with the fragrance.
And now the star that we’ve been waiting for. Introducing, the Mini steamed pork dumpling with superior chicken broth ($10.80 for 10 pieces). As you all know, XLB itself has lots of soup stocks within the skin, but we were given a bowl of chicken broth to go along with the Mini Xiao Long Tang Baos (XLTB) this time round.
Filling the spoon with the chicken broth, we placed a piece of the mini XLB into it, add some ginger and vinegar and put everything into our mouth; the chicken broth was subtle, bordering on bland, and it was the stock within the XLB that gushed out that stole the show. Taste-wise there wasn’t much to differentiate the XLB and the XLTB , but it was a novelty and certainly less-filling to eat the mini.
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It was indeed fun to have hands-on experience on making XLB, my appreciation to Clement & Andrew from ICON for the food tasting invitation, miss Patsy from Breadtalk, and the chefs who taught and made our XLB. The Xiao Long Tang Baos are available exclusively at Din Tai Fung Paragon from 1 June 2009, 3-5pm for weekdays, and 10am-12 noon for weekends.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
If life is about love, I want a day with you alone. Together, we dine and feast, with merry and joy. Bliss is the paradise, and blissful is the pleasure.
We sit by the waterfront; calm and serene. Time stand still at that moment, we are cut out from the world. So this is it; the feeling of bliss.
Even though you might not agree with me, I firmly believe that ambience and company is more important than food. A simple illustration, will you enjoy good food while you are dining with a person you do not like, or will ordinary food actually taste better in the company of good friends and nice ambience?
I’m a sucker for ambience, al fresco dining will always be the option when the weather is kind. And this ain’t some prime location, it’s Punggol park for goodness sake; I haven’t been to Punggol before!
Nothing too heavy or fanciful since we were there during mid-afternoon. The spicy wings ($6.90) were great for some light snacks. I remembered it was red fiery-hot; it was a satisfaction; gnawing at the meat, chewing on the bones, and sucking dry the oh-so-hot chilli flavour.
I couldn’t figured out why the fries were called X-cut ($5.90), but it was crispy and a close resemblance to nachos rather than fries. Dipped the fries into chilli sauce, and I’ll have my ketchup please.
And if I may, the tiramisu ($6.90) was a waste of money. For the sole reason that it wasn’t made in-house, there’s no value. What-to-do, a mis-time of tiramisu-craving. I know it doesn’t sound nice, but 7 bucks is a lot of money, it could get you a very good tiramisu elsewhere.
The place reminds me of Bark Cafe, another great place for finger food and chilling out. And it isn’t a coincidence that my buddy introduced me to both places; he’s a sucker for ambience too! And by the way, I absolutely loathed the round-shape cylinder that was placed on every table, the presence of the chilli-ketchup bottles didn’t help too.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
If you are to pick a random person from the street and ask, “where’s the best wanton mee?“, chances are Feifei wanton mee at Joo Chiat will be mentioned. The legendary wanton mee stall from Joo Chiat.
The bowl of wanton mee arrived, with chilli all over the noodles, and that’s it. My friend gave me a nudge to stir the noodles from below and all the treasures were indeed hidden beaneath the noodles. The char siew wasn’t fantastic, it was decent, and the wanton was not bad. But it was the noodles and the chilli which deserved the recognition; the noodles were Q and simply bounced on my tongue, while the chilli was fiery hot, although I was sweating all over, but it’s worth the while!
Feifei doesn’t served roasted duck, this was ordered from another stall in the kopitiam.
Crisping on the surface, the roasted duck skin was bursting red, with a layer of fats sticking under it, was sinful, but a delight to have. They looked good, they smelled even better. I wolf the whole thing down, nibbling everything from the skin, the meat and the fats, chewing any leftovers that I spotted on the bones. I love roasted duck!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
There used to be a lord, who claimed his territory at the corner of one-one-seven; the people flocked to him, they worshipped and love all the food that were served, the place was basically packed with crowds every weekends. And as fate has it, the arrival of another overlord meant the decline of the former; the dethrone of the king at Commonwealth drive.
I, see it upon my sworn duties, that I’ll try out all the sweet & sour pork from all the places. And this often leads to disappointment when I couldn’t find one that’s equal to the best which I’ve before, in a deep corner of my memories.
The sambal kangkong was surely one of the weapons that the lord would have, to defend himself; red fiery hot and sizzling sambal were commonly associated with a plate of good sambal kangkong, but, I did not called for the fire brigade after having this: it wasn’t shiok enough.
The prawn roll, ngo hiang, or heh zhor; regardless of which name you called it by, was good. Fried till crispy golden brown, dipped into the sweet sauce, the first bite of it was so reminiscent of my childhood.
The butter pork was definitely one of the best, it was slightly sweet, coated with butter powder which had a uncanny resemblance to cheese; taking a bite of the boneless pork meat was a joy.
I love golden mushrooms, there wasn’t much inherited taste on its own; but I couldn’t stop myself from eating more of it. And similarly, there wasn’t anything fanciful about the golden mushrooms beancurd which came strongly recommended by their staff; it was plain tofu, with golden mushrooms in gravy, yet the result of something so simple was so good!
If sambal kangkong was the armour of the lord, then the prawn paste chicken, or Har Cheong Kai, would surely be his sword. But, it seems like a blunt one, the fried chicken lacked the oomph factor.
Note:
(1) The old overlord which I mentioned, was refering to the Hongkong Street zichar stall just at the other corner of block 117; in its heydays, they were full every night, but when I went that time, it was barely half filled. Talk about a reverse of fortune.
(2) If you want to eat at Two Chefs without waiting, you need to get there early, before six thirty. It’s crazy to see people actually queue up for zi-char when there’s other two zi-char stalls around the same area. The burst in popularity could be attributed to the article on the Sunday times which proclaimed Two Chefs as one of the best zi-char stall.
(3) Which brings me to the third point, I think that Two Chefs, is over hyped. The butter pork ribs were excellent, but the other dishes which I’ve tried, they wasn’t really worth the fifteen-minutes walk from Commonwealth mrt. And if you are thinking that’s because I did not order their other signatures, maybe, but they couldn’t give me a plate of good sambal kangkong, or sweet & sour pork.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
My eyes strayed to the corner as we walked in, the desserts section; I saw the chocolate cake waving to me, the dessert shooters like a lighthouse beaconing the direction. And not lest, the-sight-of-it again: the omnipresent chocolate fondue, my heart just flew over with hugs and kisses.
Not able to resist the seduction, I dropped every last bit of pretence in me and embraced the temptation; lets start with the desserts shall we? We took a bit of everything, and started tucking in. We decided just to have some, and come back for more later. It was a difficult decision; to stop after we started, it was akin to asking a vampire to stop after he started sucking blood from your neck.
And so, the cold seafood counter. There were prawns, there were crabs, and there were mussels & scallops.
A sniff of the icy chilled oyster, the sea breeze gusted into my nose. The hassle of opening up the clam creature was avoided, for it was already prepared nice and clean on the bed of ice. I squeezed a whole wedge of lemon onto it, careful not to spill any outside the shell; every drop of lemon was precious, to fully bring out the quintessence of it. I pitched it up with a fork, and slowly put it into my mouth, one swallow, one gulp, and it was gone.
Our stomach has served us well, and to reward it for the hard work, let’s start with some salad. We took a bit of all the different greens, and dressed it up with the many-variety of dressing available; I always preferred thousand island, while you went for the lighter Italian dressing, and also the adventurous yoghurt one too.
It was fun, the process of ‘playing’ with the Kueh pie tee; we took the shell, add in the typical popiah turnip fillings, sprinkled a bit of the crushed peanuts, drizzled the sweet sauce, beautify it with paisley, and had options of tuna, chicken, and prawns to top with. Boy, it was good! The crispy shell, with the turnip fillings, but it was the sweet sauce and peanut which provided the difference.
There was roasted meat selections, Indian food, Western & Asian mains to choose from too. Again, we ate some of each, and finally it could wait no longer! This time, for desserts, we shall try everything, one of everything. Two if we can help it!
At first glance, it looked like pandan cake. Then, the pistachio financier name tag appeared, in a concealed corner oblivious to the naked human eye. The green stuff, they called it the pistachio nut, it was a personal favourite of our friend; and surprisingly, the pandan-cake-lookalike had a flavourful pistachio taste!
I remembered the truffle berry compote cake for its smooth and silky chocolate, with composition of berries within.
For some unknown reason which continue to evade me, passion fruit seemed to be a popular choice for patissier, I did not have any nice experience with it so far; but I guess it’s the intriguing combination of that-something-sour with the strong cheesecake. I, however, did not like it. I like sweet stuff, something sweet please.
While it had became a common thing for buffets, the chocolate fondue still never failed to excite me, I dipped fruits, puffs, marshmallows, and everything I could find under the flowing chocolate lava.
This, was my favourite part of the buffet. There’s a chef specially preparing waffles and crepes on-the-spot. The waffles were excellent, but they used the same mixture for the crepes, which turned out to be overly thick. And the staffs actually delivered the waffles to our tables when we forgot to collect it, now my dear, that’s what you call service!
I used syrup and butter for my first waffle. Then I returned for more with a topping of all the ice creams available, creativity struck me as I poured some of the lava from the chocolate fondue over my piece of crispy waffles.
The weekend dinner buffet from Mon to Wed is $45 , while dinner from Thursday onwards to Sunday is $50 per head. We were too full to try all the food; we missed out on the Indian food, and the roasted duck selections. Eating a little of everything was almost enough to fill up the tiny stomach of ours. Plenty of tea and a long chat after the meal aided in the digestion too! My appreciation to Helen, the F&B manager of Traders Hotel, for the food tasting invitation.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
I need some chocolate, I need some sweets; to cure my oh-so-painful-heartache. I need a patissier to cheer me up: Tiramisu, mont blanc, creme brulee, macaron, le royale; give it to me, give it all to me.
“A slice of everything on display, and a cup of hot chocolate with extra chocolate.” “Everything?” “Yes! Which part of every-thing do you not understand?”
The patissier is my best friend, he will know how to make this go away. Stepping into the patisserie, a tiny part of the gloominess was lifted, at the sight of the so-many-pretty-and-petite desserts.
I sunk my teeth into it, and oh-boy, it was good, I already felt better! The richness of the cake was soaked and immersed in the essence of the espresso, brandy & white rum, I was literally intoxicated.
Bittersweet. It’s all about chocolate. The first taste, so sweet and rosy, followed by the slightly bitter taste from the dark chocolate; the perfect analogy to life, the bitterness, the happy times, it depends on which part you want to taste - I want sweet now!
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(1) The above is a largely exaggerated story on my part, no doubt sweets and chocolates helps when you are feeling down, but it is only a temporary measure. A heart-to-heart chat with a good friend does wonders, and the best part: we had it over desserts.
(2) The two slices of cake are Tiramisu and Chocolate Amer. The latter was a half-price promotional item for Bakerzin in the month of May. The current dessert that is on half-price is the New York cheesecake.
(3) As much as I do not really fancy Bakerzin, and the fact that I’ve tried almost every cakes there, the half-price promotion on a slice of cake was too tempting.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
1=SGD 0.0587
I will have never imagine myself shelving out thirty bucks at a coffee shop.
But that’s what I did, for a piece of Kurobuta pork ($28), at Big D Grill. Oh man, I don’t know what to say, but I did that. I always have a thing for you, all the more I couldn’t miss it when so many people had praised you to the sky; now that I’ve you, I’m not so sure.
You were great that night, I couldn’t help gaping at your assets; they were huge. I carefully took a small nibble to start our foreplay, I moved downwards and craved for more, I took bigger bites; it was good, but the thing was, I’m not sure whether that justified the high price I’m paying for.
I’m sorry, but I’m a visual creature. I love sitting in nice, pretty ambience, sipping my drink and enjoying the food. I’m a sucker I know. But somehow, you lacked the “wow” factor that I so desired, maybe the lack of ambience was the reason.
We opted for the crabmeat linguine ($10.90) for our second main. It was hot, it was red, spicy, fiery hot. The crabmeat was overflowed generously; spicy crabmeat and linguine, I would prefer it to be slightly wetter though.
And for the only dessert available, the bonet ($4). I was half expecting chocolate lava to ooze out in the middle, but it wasn’t Instead, you got a very good chocolate pudding, served cold.
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Now I’m not saying the kurobuta pork wasn’t worth the money, or for any of that matter, I’m not against stalls in coffee shop selling restaurant food, on the contrary I thought it’s good to have more options. But somehow I guess I still can’t fix my mentality to accept paying thirty bucks at a coffee shop. If, I had this at a restaurant, I’m sure it will be pretty much worth the money.
And frankly speaking, I really can’t see people shelving out thirty to forty bucks for premium meat, at a coffee shop, at least not yet. It’s only the crazy folks like us who will really pay top money for food, but I will definitely go back to try some of the other cheaper items on the menu.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
ONIM. Since we have TGIF to show our appreciation that the weekend is here, I thought it will only be appropriate to have ONIM as well, Oh no it’s Monday! I know, I know, it’s the day of the week that you dreaded the most, what they called Monday blues. To soften the blow, let’s make the Monday blues go away, by having some sweets!
I love (read: head over heels with) nutella. It ought to be the most amazing creation this world ought to offer. Never mind the bizarre increase in price (a 375g bottle used to cost $3.90, but it’s $4.90 now at fairprice), I still need my nutella fix regularly.
Toast, which is under the Marmalade pantry, has got some of the best cupcakes, and by that I didn’t meant that they were fanciful. Hell no, they are anything but pretty. There’s no frosting, no beautiful decorations on top, but just a messy spread of the cream. But it’s good. It’s damn good!
The nutella cupcake, which was basically chocolate cupcake with nutella frosting, was so nutella-ish! I did find the cupcake to be slightly dry, I guess the nutella’s the cause for it, since the other cupcakes were not as dry.
The carrot cake came highly recommended by the staff. At the slightest mention of the two words, carrot cake, it’s bound to have the question asked back in return, “Is it better than Cedele (read: Sir-deli)?”
I’m sorry, but I have not tried Cedele’s legendary carrot cake yet! I’m a simple person with a simple taste bud, and anything with thick & generous cream cheese frosting works for me.
How about some cheesecakes to make you happy? Add in some blueberry, I offered. From my vague memories, the cheesecake was light and airy, the blueberry toppings were sweet and combined well with the light cheesecake. But the base wasn’t the crunchy type that I’ve in mind. My dear, have some blueberry cheesecake to chase your blues away!
This, was THE cupcake, Limonata. Whimsical name, and that’s it. The lemon tart limon graze cake, let’s just call it the lemon cupcake, was one of the best cupcake I’ve, the lemon taste was infused and spread throughout the whole tiny cake, it was moist, and fluffy. I love it!
There might be an identical crisis since the William looks rather similar to the Limonata. Note the colour of the base, the latter is lemon cupcake, while the former is a chocolate cake filled with William pear & topped with a delicious layer of the butter crème frosting. There’s bits of william pears within the cupcake, and I’m a sucker for the sweet butter crème frosting, but still, I preferred the Limonata, and the rose.
You winked at me when I entered the shop. I was deeply captivated by our first encounter; I couldn’t stop looking at you, and for a moment you’ve stolen my breath away. Without taking my eyes off you, I told the assistant, the “lemon meringue tart.”
You tasted as good as you looked, the curvy golden brown wisp, blond is beautiful; the delightful lemon, with the crispy tart, and the sour-sweet meringue, now I know what they meant when they say, love at first sight.
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The desserts served at Toast are all part of the Marmalade Pantry’s offer, but at a slightly cheaper price. A hidden gem, that’s how I will describe toast. I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t noticed Toast while you are shopping at Takashimaya, since I also wasn’t familiar with it until a friend brought me there. This post is a compilation of my three visits.
I hope by now, you are already feeling happier, at the sight of all the lovely creations. Desserts always make us cheerful, have some sweets my dear, they will chase your monday blues, far far away.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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We searched for the button with the 37th label on it, and pressed. Zoom, the elevator, or I preferred to call it the express lift-off, shot up into the sky. Looking downwards as everything became miniature - we were so insignificant. I was actually quite scared when I took a peep. It shouldn’t be, since I’ve been to higher ground before, but still. It always happened. Ding, we reached 37th level, welcome to Hai Tien Lo.
The Steamed shrimp dumpling ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was pretty with the chopped celery giving it a tinge of green.
It must be short-sightedness, but it often occurred with carrot cake. Somehow I always missed out the word steamed, when I ordered carrot cake. So instead of my favourite fried carrot cake, we were surprised when they served a steamed rendition; but it was good! I like how the sauce brings out the flavour of the soft and nice carrot cake. Okay, the full name, steamed carrot cake with preserved meats ($3.90 per portion).
The Steamed pork dumpling with fish roe ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was a piece of art. The curvy lines, with her yellow outfit, topped with the pretty bright orange fish roe.
This was a special, they called it the dim-sum-of-the-week. Sophisticated yeah? It was essentially a shrimp with fish roe on top of a mushroom. An innovative way to do the overdone-to-death prawn in dim sum.
Surprise number two came in the form of pan-fried rice flour roll with crispy conpoy ($3.90 per portion). Well actually it’s not much of a revelation since I asked about the fillings beforehand. Or rather, the lack of fillings. I like the slightly char pan-fried surface of the rice roll with all the crispy toppings. The rice roll on itself was rather bland, but drizzled with the gorgeous sauce; it was good, no, it was tasty!
Since my favourite char siew sou wasn’t available, I just had to make do with the Steamed barbecued pork buns ($2.80 for 2 pieces). White fluffy buns, with sweet char siew fillings, what’s there not to like? I like it sweet, extra sweet please!
Instead of the usual prawn filling, Hai Tien Lo’s rendition came across as the Deep-fried sea perch wrapped in vermicelli ($5.40 for 3 pieces).
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With the to-die-for magnificent view of the marina area, dining at Hai Tien Lo was definitely something that evoked the visual senses together with the taste buds. We chatted, appreciated the skyline, nibbled at the dim sum, drank more tea, and I’m so in love with dim sum! xoxo
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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I always dread to blog about Japanese food; since I’m not a big fan of Japanese food, nor am I knowledgeable about them. It is on special occasions when my friends craved for Japanese food, then will you see Japanese-related posts here.
The prices at Tatsuya, are incredibly not cheap (at least for my standards); we went for their affordable-and-value bento set lunches instead. The sashimi bento set ($28.90) was immediately on the agenda since my friend’s a big, big fan of sashimi. Pardon me, I can never understand the rave about sashimi though, eating slices of raw fishes didn’t exactly appeal to me; but having said that, the salmon sashimi was remarkably fresh.
I always enjoy eating Japanese rice; the white pearl grains are so soft, and seriously, I could step into a Japanese restaurant just to eat their rice. Be it steamed white rice, or garlic fried rice, give it to me!
The sushi bento ($30.90) was visually-appealing with all the delectable and pretty-looking of sushi; I started with the tempura first, the deep-fried vegetables were pretty all right, I’ve never like my vegetables fried. It was the prawn tempura that really got me going.
Without paying attention to what was what, I took up my chopsticks, steadied my pair of shaky hands, and grab the nearest sushi; delicious, I ate another one, then the next, until I finished the row of six sushi.
The same for the fishes, I’ve a hard time differentiating which fishes were there, with the exception of salmon and tuna; so I took up my chopsticks once again, dipped them into the wasabi-infused soy sauce, and carefully placed it into my delicate mouth. Yum! The fish, with the sticky sushi rice, was exceptionally fresh.
We chose to sit in the interior of the smallish restaurant; an elongated space with at most twenty seats, there’s room at either the counter bar or by the side. Naturally, sitting at the counter bar provides the full Japanese experience, with the chefs and staffs conversing in Japanese, and seeing the chefs live in action. But somehow it does gets a little overwhelming and noisy after a while.
Since I already gotten my full Japanese experience, the next time I will probably choose to sit outside in the tranquil al fresco environment instead! Tatsuya’s bento set are very value for money, given that it will probably cost double or triple the money when you order ala carte for dinner.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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My love affair with XLB starts way back; I fall in love with her at first sight, every petite piece so delicate and exquisite, she, who has the ability to make my heart skip a beat when I place her on my lips, she, who makes me go crazy and think of her everytime.
The two different XLB was made by two different pairs of hands; the one on the left was by me (note: the uneven folds) and the one on the right was by the master of course.
At Din Tai Fung’s media preview of their new mini steamed pork dumpling (xiao long tang bao), we were given a hands-on experience on making XLB. And that’s why I like dim sum so much; it’s easy to pop a piece inside our mouth, but to make each piece so delectable there’s much hard work and effort involved.
The requirement for a standard XLB is 18 folds, and it’s definitely not easy to do it, especially so when we only had half-an-hour of lesson beforehand, where the chefs actually train for a year to achieve the result. It’s only when you experience how difficult it is, to make a XLB before you actually appreciate the hard work put in by the good people slogging it out in the hot kitchen everyday.
The new mini steamed pork dumpling (XLB), or xiao long tang bao, whatever you call it, is 50% smaller than the regular XLB. Just imagine doing 18 folds on a normal size XLB, and now you do it on half the size of XLB; the xiao long tang baos are notoriously difficult to make!
I love to eat eggs; scrambled, poached, fried, sunny side up, steamed, over-easy, salted egg, quail egg, but with just the exception to century eggs. There’s no reason, but the black glossy appearance never appealed to me. Century eggs with fermented soya ($3.50)
As to the origin of drunken chicken, I do not know the story of it, but I do know that the Original Shanghainese drunken chicken ($6.80) had a strong alcohol taste infused in the smooth chicken meat.
Taking up a piece of the mini cucumber, crunch crunch; the inherited sweetness of the green plate had an addition spicy twist to it. Crunchy Mini Cucumber in Spicy Sauce ($3.80). Just for bites.
Much as I love my veggies, I was never a fan of vegetables in dim sum; somehow the steamed vegetables inside dumplings didn’t work for me. Neither did the Steamed vegetable & pork dumpling here.
This was a make-over of our regular siewmai, done the XLB-style. It was quintessentially an open-faced XLB with a shrimp sitting pretty on top. Shrimp & pork shao mai ($13.50 for 10)
I love to drink soup that is thick and tangy in flavour, with lots of ingredients that bear a close reminiscence to Shark’s fin soup. The Hot & sour soup ($6.80) was not bad, but the excessive pepper overwhelmed my taste buds.
Springy noodles that bounced off your tongue, that might sounds exaggerating, but I like my noodles done that way. The Noodle with minced pork in bean sauce ($7) was delightful with the generous toppings of bean sauce; it was a simple bowl of noodles, but I like it!
The Crispy golden prawn pancakes ($8.50) were nice as appetisers too, fried till golden brown, the crispy pancakes crusts were addictive to bite on.
I wasn’t too impressed with the Stir-fried nai bai with garlic. I’m not sure whether the chilli was supposed to be there as a decoration, or was it to enhanced the taste, but personally I felt that nai bai and chilli didn’t work. Plus the garlic wasn’t fried enough to infused the vegetables with the fragrance.
And now the star that we’ve been waiting for. Introducing, the Mini steamed pork dumpling with superior chicken broth ($10.80 for 10 pieces). As you all know, XLB itself has lots of soup stocks within the skin, but we were given a bowl of chicken broth to go along with the Mini Xiao Long Tang Baos (XLTB) this time round.
Filling the spoon with the chicken broth, we placed a piece of the mini XLB into it, add some ginger and vinegar and put everything into our mouth; the chicken broth was subtle, bordering on bland, and it was the stock within the XLB that gushed out that stole the show. Taste-wise there wasn’t much to differentiate the XLB and the XLTB , but it was a novelty and certainly less-filling to eat the mini.
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It was indeed fun to have hands-on experience on making XLB, my appreciation to Clement & Andrew from ICON for the food tasting invitation, miss Patsy from Breadtalk, and the chefs who taught and made our XLB. The Xiao Long Tang Baos are available exclusively at Din Tai Fung Paragon from 1 June 2009, 3-5pm for weekdays, and 10am-12 noon for weekends.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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If life is about love, I want a day with you alone.
Together, we dine and feast, with merry and joy.
Bliss is the paradise, and blissful is the pleasure.
We sit by the waterfront; calm and serene.
Time stand still at that moment, we are cut out from the world.
So this is it; the feeling of bliss.
Even though you might not agree with me, I firmly believe that ambience and company is more important than food. A simple illustration, will you enjoy good food while you are dining with a person you do not like, or will ordinary food actually taste better in the company of good friends and nice ambience?
I’m a sucker for ambience, al fresco dining will always be the option when the weather is kind. And this ain’t some prime location, it’s Punggol park for goodness sake; I haven’t been to Punggol before!
Nothing too heavy or fanciful since we were there during mid-afternoon. The spicy wings ($6.90) were great for some light snacks. I remembered it was red fiery-hot; it was a satisfaction; gnawing at the meat, chewing on the bones, and sucking dry the oh-so-hot chilli flavour.
I couldn’t figured out why the fries were called X-cut ($5.90), but it was crispy and a close resemblance to nachos rather than fries. Dipped the fries into chilli sauce, and I’ll have my ketchup please.
And if I may, the tiramisu ($6.90) was a waste of money. For the sole reason that it wasn’t made in-house, there’s no value. What-to-do, a mis-time of tiramisu-craving. I know it doesn’t sound nice, but 7 bucks is a lot of money, it could get you a very good tiramisu elsewhere.
The place reminds me of Bark Cafe, another great place for finger food and chilling out. And it isn’t a coincidence that my buddy introduced me to both places; he’s a sucker for ambience too! And by the way, I absolutely loathed the round-shape cylinder that was placed on every table, the presence of the chilli-ketchup bottles didn’t help too.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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If you are to pick a random person from the street and ask, “where’s the best wanton mee?“, chances are Feifei wanton mee at Joo Chiat will be mentioned. The legendary wanton mee stall from Joo Chiat.
The bowl of wanton mee arrived, with chilli all over the noodles, and that’s it. My friend gave me a nudge to stir the noodles from below and all the treasures were indeed hidden beaneath the noodles. The char siew wasn’t fantastic, it was decent, and the wanton was not bad. But it was the noodles and the chilli which deserved the recognition; the noodles were Q and simply bounced on my tongue, while the chilli was fiery hot, although I was sweating all over, but it’s worth the while!
Feifei doesn’t served roasted duck, this was ordered from another stall in the kopitiam.
Crisping on the surface, the roasted duck skin was bursting red, with a layer of fats sticking under it, was sinful, but a delight to have. They looked good, they smelled even better. I wolf the whole thing down, nibbling everything from the skin, the meat and the fats, chewing any leftovers that I spotted on the bones. I love roasted duck!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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There used to be a lord, who claimed his territory at the corner of one-one-seven; the people flocked to him, they worshipped and love all the food that were served, the place was basically packed with crowds every weekends. And as fate has it, the arrival of another overlord meant the decline of the former; the dethrone of the king at Commonwealth drive.
I, see it upon my sworn duties, that I’ll try out all the sweet & sour pork from all the places. And this often leads to disappointment when I couldn’t find one that’s equal to the best which I’ve before, in a deep corner of my memories.
The sambal kangkong was surely one of the weapons that the lord would have, to defend himself; red fiery hot and sizzling sambal were commonly associated with a plate of good sambal kangkong, but, I did not called for the fire brigade after having this: it wasn’t shiok enough.
The prawn roll, ngo hiang, or heh zhor; regardless of which name you called it by, was good. Fried till crispy golden brown, dipped into the sweet sauce, the first bite of it was so reminiscent of my childhood.
The butter pork was definitely one of the best, it was slightly sweet, coated with butter powder which had a uncanny resemblance to cheese; taking a bite of the boneless pork meat was a joy.
I love golden mushrooms, there wasn’t much inherited taste on its own; but I couldn’t stop myself from eating more of it. And similarly, there wasn’t anything fanciful about the golden mushrooms beancurd which came strongly recommended by their staff; it was plain tofu, with golden mushrooms in gravy, yet the result of something so simple was so good!
If sambal kangkong was the armour of the lord, then the prawn paste chicken, or Har Cheong Kai, would surely be his sword. But, it seems like a blunt one, the fried chicken lacked the oomph factor.
Note:
(1) The old overlord which I mentioned, was refering to the Hongkong Street zichar stall just at the other corner of block 117; in its heydays, they were full every night, but when I went that time, it was barely half filled. Talk about a reverse of fortune.
(2) If you want to eat at Two Chefs without waiting, you need to get there early, before six thirty. It’s crazy to see people actually queue up for zi-char when there’s other two zi-char stalls around the same area. The burst in popularity could be attributed to the article on the Sunday times which proclaimed Two Chefs as one of the best zi-char stall.
(3) Which brings me to the third point, I think that Two Chefs, is over hyped. The butter pork ribs were excellent, but the other dishes which I’ve tried, they wasn’t really worth the fifteen-minutes walk from Commonwealth mrt. And if you are thinking that’s because I did not order their other signatures, maybe, but they couldn’t give me a plate of good sambal kangkong, or sweet & sour pork.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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My eyes strayed to the corner as we walked in, the desserts section; I saw the chocolate cake waving to me, the dessert shooters like a lighthouse beaconing the direction. And not lest, the-sight-of-it again: the omnipresent chocolate fondue, my heart just flew over with hugs and kisses.
Not able to resist the seduction, I dropped every last bit of pretence in me and embraced the temptation; lets start with the desserts shall we? We took a bit of everything, and started tucking in. We decided just to have some, and come back for more later. It was a difficult decision; to stop after we started, it was akin to asking a vampire to stop after he started sucking blood from your neck.
And so, the cold seafood counter. There were prawns, there were crabs, and there were mussels & scallops.
A sniff of the icy chilled oyster, the sea breeze gusted into my nose. The hassle of opening up the clam creature was avoided, for it was already prepared nice and clean on the bed of ice. I squeezed a whole wedge of lemon onto it, careful not to spill any outside the shell; every drop of lemon was precious, to fully bring out the quintessence of it. I pitched it up with a fork, and slowly put it into my mouth, one swallow, one gulp, and it was gone.
Our stomach has served us well, and to reward it for the hard work, let’s start with some salad. We took a bit of all the different greens, and dressed it up with the many-variety of dressing available; I always preferred thousand island, while you went for the lighter Italian dressing, and also the adventurous yoghurt one too.
It was fun, the process of ‘playing’ with the Kueh pie tee; we took the shell, add in the typical popiah turnip fillings, sprinkled a bit of the crushed peanuts, drizzled the sweet sauce, beautify it with paisley, and had options of tuna, chicken, and prawns to top with. Boy, it was good! The crispy shell, with the turnip fillings, but it was the sweet sauce and peanut which provided the difference.
There was roasted meat selections, Indian food, Western & Asian mains to choose from too. Again, we ate some of each, and finally it could wait no longer! This time, for desserts, we shall try everything, one of everything. Two if we can help it!
At first glance, it looked like pandan cake. Then, the pistachio financier name tag appeared, in a concealed corner oblivious to the naked human eye. The green stuff, they called it the pistachio nut, it was a personal favourite of our friend; and surprisingly, the pandan-cake-lookalike had a flavourful pistachio taste!
I remembered the truffle berry compote cake for its smooth and silky chocolate, with composition of berries within.
For some unknown reason which continue to evade me, passion fruit seemed to be a popular choice for patissier, I did not have any nice experience with it so far; but I guess it’s the intriguing combination of that-something-sour with the strong cheesecake. I, however, did not like it. I like sweet stuff, something sweet please.
While it had became a common thing for buffets, the chocolate fondue still never failed to excite me, I dipped fruits, puffs, marshmallows, and everything I could find under the flowing chocolate lava.
This, was my favourite part of the buffet. There’s a chef specially preparing waffles and crepes on-the-spot. The waffles were excellent, but they used the same mixture for the crepes, which turned out to be overly thick. And the staffs actually delivered the waffles to our tables when we forgot to collect it, now my dear, that’s what you call service!
I used syrup and butter for my first waffle. Then I returned for more with a topping of all the ice creams available, creativity struck me as I poured some of the lava from the chocolate fondue over my piece of crispy waffles.
The weekend dinner buffet from Mon to Wed is $45 , while dinner from Thursday onwards to Sunday is $50 per head. We were too full to try all the food; we missed out on the Indian food, and the roasted duck selections. Eating a little of everything was almost enough to fill up the tiny stomach of ours. Plenty of tea and a long chat after the meal aided in the digestion too! My appreciation to Helen, the F&B manager of Traders Hotel, for the food tasting invitation.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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I need some chocolate, I need some sweets; to cure my oh-so-painful-heartache. I need a patissier to cheer me up: Tiramisu, mont blanc, creme brulee, macaron, le royale; give it to me, give it all to me.
“A slice of everything on display, and a cup of hot chocolate with extra chocolate.”
“Everything?”
“Yes! Which part of every-thing do you not understand?”
The patissier is my best friend, he will know how to make this go away. Stepping into the patisserie, a tiny part of the gloominess was lifted, at the sight of the so-many-pretty-and-petite desserts.
I sunk my teeth into it, and oh-boy, it was good, I already felt better! The richness of the cake was soaked and immersed in the essence of the espresso, brandy & white rum, I was literally intoxicated.
Bittersweet. It’s all about chocolate. The first taste, so sweet and rosy, followed by the slightly bitter taste from the dark chocolate; the perfect analogy to life, the bitterness, the happy times, it depends on which part you want to taste - I want sweet now!
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(1) The above is a largely exaggerated story on my part, no doubt sweets and chocolates helps when you are feeling down, but it is only a temporary measure. A heart-to-heart chat with a good friend does wonders, and the best part: we had it over desserts.
(2) The two slices of cake are Tiramisu and Chocolate Amer. The latter was a half-price promotional item for Bakerzin in the month of May. The current dessert that is on half-price is the New York cheesecake.
(3) As much as I do not really fancy Bakerzin, and the fact that I’ve tried almost every cakes there, the half-price promotion on a slice of cake was too tempting.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given: