After hearing much about the famous Ayam Penyet at Lucky Plaza, finally I went to try it. And there are so many version of Ayam Penyet within the building. I hope I didn't go to the wrong one.
From the photo, you can see the crispiness of the ayam (chicken). The serving size is pretty big and the rice is fragrant too. But for me, having ayam penyet, the most important ingredient is the chili! The more the merrier!
And with just this one plate of Ayam Penyet, and some beef balls, I finished 4 portions of their powerful chili!! I was sweating and feeling the tummy spinning, but I just couldn't stop! I love their chili!
There are so many new eateries at Downtown East E!hub, we were spoiled for choice. On our way to the toilet on the second floor, we saw an interesting shop selling colorful noodles! Yes! There were green, yellow, orange, and brownish looking ones. And there's also green and golden dumplings. And best of all, it's Halal certified. So we decided to give it a try.
The place is very small and has cafeterias kind of tables and chairs. The menu is whatever you see on the big signboard. I can't recall the name of the dishes, and since there wasn't any website to go to for details, I'll refer my review with the photos posted.
I ordered a type of laksa that cames with orange looking noodles. The laksa stock was quite tasty and the noodles was pretty alright. I still prefer laksa with thick bee hoon thou. The noodle tasted like the ban mian kind of you mian. And I couldn't really figure out if there should be a unique taste to the noodles since the laksa stock has covered up all other tastes that's supposed to be there.
My partner ordered a mee goreng like noodle that came with diced crab stick and 2 pieces of halved hotdog at the side. Noodle was alright but not as tasty as he hoped. A suggestion to the owner (if they ever get to read this) is to slice their hotdogs too for this noodle. At least it looks better and perhaps might help make it more appertising too.
The twin color dumplings were pretty good. With so much taste from the laksa and mee goreng, we couldn't quite figure out what was in these dumplings. Perhaps fish meat or something.
Later we realised this shop's main business is the distribution of their innovative noodles. You can buy them home and prepare it your own way.
Oh! And there's also the complimentary tidbits. Looks like fried crispy flat noodles. But we both agreed that this tasted the best. If I'm not wrong, they're also selling these in packets which is like 50cent or $2 only. Great as snacks while coaching in with a good movie.
Great place for chilling out with a group of friends. Comfortably priced alcohol for all. Local uni students get 30% off listed price too! (How I wish I was still a student lah!)
Have been to ICB several occasions for gatherings with friends. Located in the center of Singapore, its easily accessible for people staying anywhere. This place serves over 38 types of bottled beers, and also martinis, spirits and sodas. Happy hours from 11am to 9pm daily and all day long on Sundays!
If you're planning to go there for decent meal, you can forget it. But if you just need something to bite, I'll recommend going for the beef wrap ($6) and big bowl of popcorn ($5). Works all the time for me with these and beer! (Avoid the hotdog bun, go for the beef wrap. Trust me! It's more worth it!)
There's also a pool table to play and every Thursday night, there's also free wii games!
Oh! And if you're sitting along the stretch of seats with pillows and red back rest, please sit with care k! The seats are NOT soft and the entire sit may just pop up at the side if one sits too fast at the edge of it. Don't say i didn't warn you ah!
Yebbers! Anyone wants to go party on a Thursday at ICB?
This is one of the latest fast food outlet at Compass Point. When it first opened, the crowd was overflowing. The queue is super long and there'll never be any tables available. Everyone is curious when new things arrived. But after the initial fanfare, things just seem to slow down. And now I know the reason why!
Like the rest of the curious customers, I gave Curry San a go. Although the smell of Japanese Curry filling the outlet was overpowering, we thought it should probably be worth while to give it a try.
Ordered Curry Chicken Katsu - $6.80 (which was recommended as their best seller) and Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp - $7.90. When the food came, both of us lost our appetite. If we had not pay for the food, we'll probably kick a big fuss and walk away.
Curry Chicken Katsu came burned. The fried chicken was tough and tasteless. The rice was overcooked and was too mushy. The curry was no way near tasty too. Very sad! Even the two little girls (around 4-5 yrs old) sitting next to us commented that its not nice!
When I thought mine was bad, the Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp was worst! Diluted cream sauce with plain looking pasta, few seeds of sesame and sad looking fried shrimp. I could see the total disappointment in his eyes. One word to describe this dish - tasteless.
I wonder if the boss themselves are tasting what they're serving. Too much improvements need to be made. Unless there's a new crowd forming again at Curry San (because of great improvement to the menu), I'll not be stepping into it anymore.
Celebrated my grandma's birthday at Jumbo over the weekend. As usual, the place is packed up and down, outside and inside!
Having read the reviews on other Jumbo outlets, I had all the dishes I want to order prepared prior to the dinner. And thank goodness the dishes didn't disappoint. Except for one - the black pepper crab.
The crabs were all very fresh and juicy. We were given the bigger ones since we had 16 at the table. Ordered Chili Crabs and the black pepper crab. Chili Crab was fabulous - gravy was tasty, not too sweet nor too spicy. Just nice and goes very well with the fried mini man tou. However the black pepper crab was too saltish. Not too most for our liking.
Other dishes ordered include... Scallop yam rings - very yummy! Crispy baby squid - crispy and nice Abalone, sea-cucumber and mushroom with broccoli Cereal prawn - love the cereal! fresh prawns! Salted egg prawn - it was gone before I could taste it! Steam fish - at $110 the fish was very fresh and juicy Shredded chicken ee-mee Honeydew Sago dessert
Overall the food was good and the serving size was just enough for 16 of us. The service could have been better. Being seated at the corner on the upper level, with an almost dying air-con and a bright orange light, it was a little warm through the dinner.
Total bill came up to about $650, with 10% discount off from the Jumbo card, we paid slightly more than $580 for the dinner. Price wise is reasonable.
No photo/video for this because everyone was hungry and the lighting was really very bad for photography. Must remember to ask for a white-light lighted table the next time.
Was planning to have dinner at Amirah's neighbor stall, but was told it was already fully booked for that night. In order not to stay hungry for too long, we decided to give Amirah a try. The place was already packed with customers when we arrived as it was time to break fast.
We quickly ordered our food and thought the food would be served quickly. Well, our drinks did come almost immediately after our orders. But the rest took too long to come.
We ordered Hummus and Moutabel which are served with baskets of pita bread. The dishes were served cold but it took so long! The taste isn't as good as those I'd tasted few nights before at its neighbor's stall. But still not bad. The Moutabel lacked the texture that I wanted, perhaps their onion/garlic was over chopped. The pita bread served was not very good too. Some was either too tough or too soft.
Also ordered the mixed grill main course as seen in the photo. The meat were all rather tough to chew, was rather blunt and lacks in flavor. This only passable imo.
Overall the food is still considered as acceptable. Will probably not return for a next round due to the long waiting time and not so flavorful dishes.
(This review might seem a little unfair as I had a better experience few days before this nearby. Go give it a try and judge it yourself.) :)
Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is the first museum in the region to present a broad yet integrated perspective of pan-Asian cultures and civilisations. The Museum's collection centres on the material cultures of the different groups originating from China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia.
I was privileged to have been able to join a guided tour by one of the curators at ACM. If you're planning a visit to the museum, I strongly recommend to join the guided tours by the volunteers.
The visit to the museum had been quite an experience for me. Before the tour, I thought museums are rather boring. But when I participated in the tour and had a better understanding of the history and stories behind the things around the museum, it was quite a discovery adventure.
If you've never been into the Asian Civilisations Museum before, why not spend a day there exploring? If you would like to really absorb all the content there, I would suggest you split your visits to a few trips. If not, you might just get too tired after exploring and absorbing just one section of the museum. As the curator suggested, don't go to the museum and wants to see everything there in one visit. One should find a focus for that day and just spend enough time to complete touring that section for that day.
Oh by the way, if you are unable to join the guided tours, there's always the self-guided tour guides around the museum to help you. There are many computer guides around where they can share the interesting things within their section.
Attached is a video compilation of few things I saw at ACM. And find out about a cute and interesting cup and listen to the curator share why the cup is interesting! :)
You can also read more about the interesting finds I saw during my tour around the museum at my blog.
Fig and Olive is one of the few halal certified restaurant in Singapore. This place is nicely renovated and clean. A nice place for gatherings and events.
I went there twice, once for a meal and the other for an event. The food I had on my first trip was not that good except for the fries... Marinara Pasta @ $15.90 Not one of the better but still passable pasta. The sauce was served a little dry and the seafood tasted dry too.
Criss-cut fries was fried right and tasted crispy. The serving was quite big and I recommend to share it with few other friends. Unless you're having it on your own.
Food for the event was better than my first meal there. The variety was good and the overall taste and flavor was much better.
I may return to give them another chance since the two visits gave quite a big difference in quality.
Anyone else tried the place? What's your thoughts?
This is almost like a storeroom but very well kept and organised. ViewPoint Trading & Collectibles is one shop that you cannot miss when you're at China Square Central.
Housed with many vintage collectibles, ranging from vintage toys, furnitures, black vinyl records and player, to awesome items that you can hardly (or never) find in the modern days. The shop though not very big, is very well organised and maintained. Items are placed in groups and display in a way that is easy to spot interesting things among the clutter of collectibles.
If you're looking for unique decor for your house, this is a great place to go if you're into the retro and vintage stuff.
This almost-annual event (been happening for 4 years I think. The first one for me was in 2005) happens at the Singapore River. Thousands of people gathered at the floating platform, along the river, around Esplanade, on the bridge, at the Merlion Park, One Fullerton and everywhere possible to catch a glimpse of the display!
Some people even went to "chop" their place as early as 6pm! (Fireworks starts around 9pm!) Those who went later were either caught in the massive traffic jam or human jam. Despite the congestion and all, everyone was in high spirit to catch the firework display.
This year, there were 2 nights of display. First by the team from France and on Saturday night, by the team from Korea. These teams are both award-winning teams! No wonder everyone had their jaws wide open for the entire 15-20 minutes display.
Those who paid for the tickets to watch the display at the floating platform probably have a better understanding of the entire show as it was accompanied by synchronize music. For the rest of us, we had to imagine the music in our head while the fireworks was firing in the sky.
If you'd missed it, I've attached a short clip of the display by French team.
Anyone else went? Share your experience here! Especially if you've got photos taken!
1=SGD 0.0587
After hearing much about the famous Ayam Penyet at Lucky Plaza, finally I went to try it. And there are so many version of Ayam Penyet within the building. I hope I didn't go to the wrong one.
From the photo, you can see the crispiness of the ayam (chicken). The serving size is pretty big and the rice is fragrant too. But for me, having ayam penyet, the most important ingredient is the chili! The more the merrier!
And with just this one plate of Ayam Penyet, and some beef balls, I finished 4 portions of their powerful chili!! I was sweating and feeling the tummy spinning, but I just couldn't stop! I love their chili!
Rating given:
There are so many new eateries at Downtown East E!hub, we were spoiled for choice. On our way to the toilet on the second floor, we saw an interesting shop selling colorful noodles! Yes! There were green, yellow, orange, and brownish looking ones. And there's also green and golden dumplings. And best of all, it's Halal certified. So we decided to give it a try.
The place is very small and has cafeterias kind of tables and chairs. The menu is whatever you see on the big signboard. I can't recall the name of the dishes, and since there wasn't any website to go to for details, I'll refer my review with the photos posted.
I ordered a type of laksa that cames with orange looking noodles. The laksa stock was quite tasty and the noodles was pretty alright. I still prefer laksa with thick bee hoon thou. The noodle tasted like the ban mian kind of you mian. And I couldn't really figure out if there should be a unique taste to the noodles since the laksa stock has covered up all other tastes that's supposed to be there.
My partner ordered a mee goreng like noodle that came with diced crab stick and 2 pieces of halved hotdog at the side. Noodle was alright but not as tasty as he hoped. A suggestion to the owner (if they ever get to read this) is to slice their hotdogs too for this noodle. At least it looks better and perhaps might help make it more appertising too.
The twin color dumplings were pretty good. With so much taste from the laksa and mee goreng, we couldn't quite figure out what was in these dumplings. Perhaps fish meat or something.
Later we realised this shop's main business is the distribution of their innovative noodles. You can buy them home and prepare it your own way.
Oh! And there's also the complimentary tidbits. Looks like fried crispy flat noodles. But we both agreed that this tasted the best. If I'm not wrong, they're also selling these in packets which is like 50cent or $2 only. Great as snacks while coaching in with a good movie.
Rating given:
Great place for chilling out with a group of friends. Comfortably priced alcohol for all. Local uni students get 30% off listed price too! (How I wish I was still a student lah!)
Have been to ICB several occasions for gatherings with friends. Located in the center of Singapore, its easily accessible for people staying anywhere. This place serves over 38 types of bottled beers, and also martinis, spirits and sodas. Happy hours from 11am to 9pm daily and all day long on Sundays!
If you're planning to go there for decent meal, you can forget it. But if you just need something to bite, I'll recommend going for the beef wrap ($6) and big bowl of popcorn ($5). Works all the time for me with these and beer! (Avoid the hotdog bun, go for the beef wrap. Trust me! It's more worth it!)
There's also a pool table to play and every Thursday night, there's also free wii games!
Oh! And if you're sitting along the stretch of seats with pillows and red back rest, please sit with care k! The seats are NOT soft and the entire sit may just pop up at the side if one sits too fast at the edge of it. Don't say i didn't warn you ah!
Yebbers! Anyone wants to go party on a Thursday at ICB?
Rating given:
Once and never going to return
This is one of the latest fast food outlet at Compass Point. When it first opened, the crowd was overflowing. The queue is super long and there'll never be any tables available. Everyone is curious when new things arrived. But after the initial fanfare, things just seem to slow down. And now I know the reason why!
Like the rest of the curious customers, I gave Curry San a go. Although the smell of Japanese Curry filling the outlet was overpowering, we thought it should probably be worth while to give it a try.
Ordered Curry Chicken Katsu - $6.80 (which was recommended as their best seller) and Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp - $7.90. When the food came, both of us lost our appetite. If we had not pay for the food, we'll probably kick a big fuss and walk away.
Curry Chicken Katsu came burned. The fried chicken was tough and tasteless. The rice was overcooked and was too mushy. The curry was no way near tasty too. Very sad! Even the two little girls (around 4-5 yrs old) sitting next to us commented that its not nice!
When I thought mine was bad, the Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp was worst! Diluted cream sauce with plain looking pasta, few seeds of sesame and sad looking fried shrimp. I could see the total disappointment in his eyes. One word to describe this dish - tasteless.
I wonder if the boss themselves are tasting what they're serving. Too much improvements need to be made. Unless there's a new crowd forming again at Curry San (because of great improvement to the menu), I'll not be stepping into it anymore.
Rating given:
Celebrated my grandma's birthday at Jumbo over the weekend. As usual, the place is packed up and down, outside and inside!
Having read the reviews on other Jumbo outlets, I had all the dishes I want to order prepared prior to the dinner. And thank goodness the dishes didn't disappoint. Except for one - the black pepper crab.
The crabs were all very fresh and juicy. We were given the bigger ones since we had 16 at the table. Ordered Chili Crabs and the black pepper crab. Chili Crab was fabulous - gravy was tasty, not too sweet nor too spicy. Just nice and goes very well with the fried mini man tou. However the black pepper crab was too saltish. Not too most for our liking.
Other dishes ordered include...
Scallop yam rings - very yummy!
Crispy baby squid - crispy and nice
Abalone, sea-cucumber and mushroom with broccoli
Cereal prawn - love the cereal! fresh prawns!
Salted egg prawn - it was gone before I could taste it!
Steam fish - at $110 the fish was very fresh and juicy
Shredded chicken ee-mee
Honeydew Sago dessert
Overall the food was good and the serving size was just enough for 16 of us. The service could have been better. Being seated at the corner on the upper level, with an almost dying air-con and a bright orange light, it was a little warm through the dinner.
Total bill came up to about $650, with 10% discount off from the Jumbo card, we paid slightly more than $580 for the dinner. Price wise is reasonable.
No photo/video for this because everyone was hungry and the lighting was really very bad for photography. Must remember to ask for a white-light lighted table the next time.
Rating given:
Was planning to have dinner at Amirah's neighbor stall, but was told it was already fully booked for that night. In order not to stay hungry for too long, we decided to give Amirah a try. The place was already packed with customers when we arrived as it was time to break fast.
We quickly ordered our food and thought the food would be served quickly. Well, our drinks did come almost immediately after our orders. But the rest took too long to come.
We ordered Hummus and Moutabel which are served with baskets of pita bread. The dishes were served cold but it took so long! The taste isn't as good as those I'd tasted few nights before at its neighbor's stall. But still not bad. The Moutabel lacked the texture that I wanted, perhaps their onion/garlic was over chopped. The pita bread served was not very good too. Some was either too tough or too soft.
Also ordered the mixed grill main course as seen in the photo. The meat were all rather tough to chew, was rather blunt and lacks in flavor. This only passable imo.
Overall the food is still considered as acceptable. Will probably not return for a next round due to the long waiting time and not so flavorful dishes.
(This review might seem a little unfair as I had a better experience few days before this nearby. Go give it a try and judge it yourself.) :)
Rating given:
Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is the first museum in the region to present a broad yet integrated perspective of pan-Asian cultures and civilisations. The Museum's collection centres on the material cultures of the different groups originating from China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia.
I was privileged to have been able to join a guided tour by one of the curators at ACM. If you're planning a visit to the museum, I strongly recommend to join the guided tours by the volunteers.
The visit to the museum had been quite an experience for me. Before the tour, I thought museums are rather boring. But when I participated in the tour and had a better understanding of the history and stories behind the things around the museum, it was quite a discovery adventure.
If you've never been into the Asian Civilisations Museum before, why not spend a day there exploring? If you would like to really absorb all the content there, I would suggest you split your visits to a few trips. If not, you might just get too tired after exploring and absorbing just one section of the museum. As the curator suggested, don't go to the museum and wants to see everything there in one visit. One should find a focus for that day and just spend enough time to complete touring that section for that day.
Oh by the way, if you are unable to join the guided tours, there's always the self-guided tour guides around the museum to help you. There are many computer guides around where they can share the interesting things within their section.
Attached is a video compilation of few things I saw at ACM. And find out about a cute and interesting cup and listen to the curator share why the cup is interesting! :)
You can also read more about the interesting finds I saw during my tour around the museum at my blog.
Rating given:
Fig and Olive is one of the few halal certified restaurant in Singapore. This place is nicely renovated and clean. A nice place for gatherings and events.
I went there twice, once for a meal and the other for an event. The food I had on my first trip was not that good except for the fries...
Marinara Pasta @ $15.90
Not one of the better but still passable pasta. The sauce was served a little dry and the seafood tasted dry too.
Criss-cut fries was fried right and tasted crispy. The serving was quite big and I recommend to share it with few other friends. Unless you're having it on your own.
Food for the event was better than my first meal there. The variety was good and the overall taste and flavor was much better.
I may return to give them another chance since the two visits gave quite a big difference in quality.
Anyone else tried the place? What's your thoughts?
Rating given:
This is almost like a storeroom but very well kept and organised. ViewPoint Trading & Collectibles is one shop that you cannot miss when you're at China Square Central.
Housed with many vintage collectibles, ranging from vintage toys, furnitures, black vinyl records and player, to awesome items that you can hardly (or never) find in the modern days. The shop though not very big, is very well organised and maintained. Items are placed in groups and display in a way that is easy to spot interesting things among the clutter of collectibles.
If you're looking for unique decor for your house, this is a great place to go if you're into the retro and vintage stuff.
Rating given:
Singapore Fireworks Festival 2008 was awesome!
This almost-annual event (been happening for 4 years I think. The first one for me was in 2005) happens at the Singapore River. Thousands of people gathered at the floating platform, along the river, around Esplanade, on the bridge, at the Merlion Park, One Fullerton and everywhere possible to catch a glimpse of the display!
Some people even went to "chop" their place as early as 6pm! (Fireworks starts around 9pm!) Those who went later were either caught in the massive traffic jam or human jam. Despite the congestion and all, everyone was in high spirit to catch the firework display.
This year, there were 2 nights of display. First by the team from France and on Saturday night, by the team from Korea. These teams are both award-winning teams! No wonder everyone had their jaws wide open for the entire 15-20 minutes display.
Those who paid for the tickets to watch the display at the floating platform probably have a better understanding of the entire show as it was accompanied by synchronize music. For the rest of us, we had to imagine the music in our head while the fireworks was firing in the sky.
If you'd missed it, I've attached a short clip of the display by French team.
Anyone else went? Share your experience here! Especially if you've got photos taken!
Rating given: