Had a chance to gather around for a meal with the Yebbers on a fine Saturday to commemorate a rather interesting event which i will not go into specifics. Either way, the meal is free and i've always wanted to dine in Laguna Country Club for no apparent reason other then its a country club. So here we are and this is what we had. As i didn't pay for this meal, i'll only give my take on the food quality and service.
Laguna country club hosts a variety of golf tournaments throughout the year, including big name events like the Singapore Masters and the Women's Open nary a year ago. The location is scenic with lush green pastures and an air of luxury that extends beyond the greens and into the eating places housed within. Pine Valley is a relaxed, open and well air conditioned place for the inhabitants and club members and also a good place to reside for a nice chat as its sparsely populated even during the lunch hours.
Shark's Fin Soup with Fish Maw, Chicken and Mushrooms - Shark's fin soup is one of those dishes that i associate with wedding dinners and extremely wealthy individuals. This will likely fall into the latter category. The soup itself is quite starchy and has a really generous helping of ingredients, shark's fin and fish maw. Taken on its own, there's a sweet taste that emanates from the healthy does of crab and mushrooms in the mix but otherwise, tastes bland as most shark's fin soup tastes. Vinegar and pepper definitely ups the taste and texture department in this case.
Peking Duck - The beauty of the Peking Duck dish is undeniable. Order a whole duck and you'll get to eat it in a variety of ways for the skin and the meat. The only things standing between you and the dish is the knowledge of whether the duck skin is marinated and roasted well. In this case, the skin is quite fatty and crispy enough to warrant a try. The marinate feels non existant and the normal pancake is too dry. The egg version salvaged the situation though. The meat was cooked in black pepper and turned out surprisingly good. It was moist, succulent and sweet. It also helped that the portion size was rather big.
Wasabi Mayonnaise Prawns - Wasabi Mayonnaise prawns, a signature dish of the Tung Lok group, this version turned out too dry for me. The batter and frying process seemed to have been overdone which left the prawns tasting hard and dry instead of crunchy and juicy. No matter, the wasabi mayonnaise was mixed well and provided a small kick in the right direction since it was rather mild and easily acceptable.
Steamed Batang - This fish was huge. Simple steamed fish can be good as long as the fish itself was fresh and the process of cooking was not overdone. Sad to say however, the fish was overcooked and thus caused the meat to loss some of its sweetness which could have made it better. For what its worth, what is good is that the meat is plentiful, fresh and went well with the salty and sourish stock accompanying the dish.
Dried Chili Fried Prawns - Somehow, i don't think the restaurant handles prawns well. This dish was decent but the taste resides only within the portion of the shell. This means that once deshelled, which is a necessary procedure unless you are lazy like me, the prawn itself is rather bland. Otherwise, the spicy and fragrant dried chili is something spice lovers will easily take to.
Beancurd with Spinach - Finally, some greens. The spinach turned out too old and had the "greenish" taste which accompanies greens not cleaned properly. Although a tad salty, the spinach with all its flaws, ultimately tasted better then the beancurd atop it, which came across as being totally tasteless.
Fried Ee Fu Noodles - By the time this dish appeared, we'd pretty much been stuffed like a duck awaiting slaughter. So the taste buds have deteriorated to the point i couldn't taste much. Nonetheless, the noodles were fragrant and had some bacon bits strewn around it. It was also springy and soft enough to be bitten off which is always a good sign.
Almonds, Sea Coconut, Pine Apple and Longan Cocktail - The dessert is rather simple but definitely gets the job done. I like the almond which was very soft and strong (i'm biased because i love almond). Everything else was just detail though. The other good thing was that the sweetness was just right, thus it didn't overwhelm.
First of all, thank you for the meal boss, i probably couldn't afford having such a huge sumptuous meal all on my lonesome. The view was good, location is quiet, food is decent and the portions were huge. I'd say the place was pretty good but i still don't know how much it cost so thats an open topic. Based on the food alone, i would probably like to have the shark's fin again, Peking duck however, is still better at Hai Tien lo.
Pitting itself against the likes of Borders and Popular book store. Kino emerged and created its own niche by positioning itself as a place where you can practically find everything you require in the shop.
Spanning almost an entire section of Ngee Ann City, Kino has a selection that rivals and even supersedes most Singapore bookstores. Its collection ranges from fiction, non fiction, magazines, Japanese books, travelling books, cooking, photography, children's books, self improvement, religious, philosophy, business etc etc. In simple terms, basically, theres a huge selection and it just keeps getting bigger.
The reason i patronize the place is because of the ease in locating a few select books which are elusive elsewhere. For example, the Sandman comics, Alastair Reynold novels, Philosophy arguments and traveling books. Its "ease" that is the key word here. Because "price" is definitely a little on the high side.
No matter, the place is comfortable for book junkies like myself to spend entire days just standing around, reading and buying that elusive title for pleasure. A good place for a good read.
Buses buses buses. Where in the world would we be without them? They ferry us to work and ferry us home. Comes at a pretty regular timing and gets the job done. Now, there are even more reasons to take the bus since the price of oil is increasing like the end of the world is coming and the gov is helping out by imposing more fines on an already crowded road so that buses now have the power of the right of way during peak hours. So we should all switch to using buses and ditch our cars......or should we?
Now, i'll take my stand and say my answer is no. I'll be basing my idea on the bus service 27 that goes from Hougang to Changi Airport and back.
Reasons are as follows:
1: Buses do not come at regular intervals. We've heard this countless times and the morning working adult population who needs to get to work at a certain time have definitely felt this. Regardless of the implementations of rules and fines, buses simply still come late. Of course, we've seen the compaign they ran about "unseen reasons" behind the lateness but honestly, poor planning is as much a factor. 27 is not a new service, in fact, its been ongoing for 8 years at least and still no improvement is seen. Buses are still packed and still late.
2: Buses with huge traffic do not get upgrade to double decks. Same problem, bad planning. 27 has a big enough traffic to at least warrant a double deck bus for its services. This kills 2 birds with one stone since it'll allow people to board faster with its bigger capacity and thus will not delay the bus journey. However, till now, it is still not done. The reasoning continues to elude me as to why there's no upgrade.
3: Space is simply not sufficient and squeezing with a whole bunch of people simply isn't a great feeling. Especially since i'm paying close to $2 to go on a journey to work, at least i expect a little space to breathe and hopefully sit down. Somehow, paying to be packed like sardines does not entice me one bit.
4: With company comes inconsiderate people and to keep it short, they irritate the hell out of me.
In its defense, i do not blame the bus drivers although sometimes, i do need to. (Try being 30 minutes late for an important meeting because the driver insists on driving 30km/h on an EMPTY road and you'll get the idea). Otherwise, they are not to blame. The planning department is the problem. They need to wake up and smell the thorns. We're all a part of the system, make life better for us all eh?
K box buffets are generally a hit or miss thing since first of all, the company specializes in nothing but offering rooms for the general public to scream their lungs out. And secondly, all casual outlets i've been to thus far have only offered fried items for their meals. So what do you get from the buffet anyway?
Quite a bit actually, the one i've been to serves a variety of salads, fish balls, sotong balls, squid, pasta, fried chicken wings, chawan mushi, soba, cakes, pastries and a myriad of items for the customer who selects the option for buffet and a room. All in all, choices number between the figure of 20-30 items for the choosing.
Food quality is sketchy at best since none of the items stood out enough to be remembered and none of the food was bad enough to warrant a complaint.
However, i'd still prefered if they had a package for free flow of drinks since thats exactly what clients really need for their 4 hour long screaming session. Removing the throat killing plate of nuts and replacing it with cooling items would be a good idea too.
Last word, if i had to pay for the meal at K box. I wouldn't visit again. Thats pretty much what you need to know.
Taking a ride on Singapore Airlines is akin to being treated at a posh restaurant. Expensive and sometimes good.
Rides on the planes vary greatly in comfort, entertainment and space when you factor in the choices and different kinds of seating arrangements which you are provided with. Add to the fact that they also provide online check in services and a world famous service standard and there's just a lot of expectations for the Airlines to fulfil.
Personally, i've taken many rides on the airlines due to good fortune and thus far, i'd say there are still areas for improvement at this point.
Service itself is across the board good with the ability and flexibility for the customer to choose and request for even the most mundane things like special food choices and seating arrangements.
The plane itself however, differs greatly on which flight you catch on the way back. First class seats and service ranks up there with the best and if you are fortunate enough to be allowed the side seat in the captains room, the view isn't really magnificent unless during the take offs and the landing sessions. Captains i've met thus far are very chatty individuals however.
For first class/business class seats, the amount of leg room and comfort is generous and the seats padding is also thicker and softer for maximum comfort. For the economy class seats, taking the Boeing series as a gauge, they can range from being extremely cramped to being mildly accomodating depending on your luck. Personally, i'd go for the isle seats along the center and hope that the flight puts me on a Boeing 747 for reasonable comfort.
Flights by SIA are also smoother by far to its competitors whereby i've had a really bad experience of hitting an air pocket and having the stewards and stewardesses flung to the ceiling with some injuries.
All in all, flying with SIA have been pleasant but the seats can do with a little more space for economy. Otherwise, i'd still say its a good way to fly.
Social Media Breakfast 2: Singapore is held at Cafe Domus, a very cool cafe which operates only when the sun goes down, and party till late night. Luckily for us, SMB main organizer Daryl managed to get the owner of the place to open the place for us.
Cafe Domus is located at 124 Owen Road, the nearest Mrt Station is Farrer Park (NEL). The other shop houses along Owen Road is definitely not what you will expect a cafe like Domus will be located at, the area is more like a industrial area.
From the outside, this is certainly not what i had imagined the place to be like. So imagine the suprise that i got when i stepped to the back of the cafe. Wow! is the word to describe.
It seems that we have been transported into a different world all together, from the bright pink wallpaper of the cafe front with its chandelier, welcome to the natural open-space garden!
The seats are logs in case you didn’t notice, and the small bamboo shoots provided cover from the blazing sun. Mosquito coils are prepared on hand, to prevent any “unpleasant” incidents.
I must admit the place is really quite an eye-opener for me, its unique Al fresco area will be even better during the night, with small candles lit up all over the place, can you imagine how it will be like?
I even climb up the stairs to the upper area where there’s this small area which can seat about 4-5. Great place if you want to spend some time with your love ones and friends.
We had catered food, which was not on the usual menu. But a quick glance at their menu, they have finger food, and also home-made desserts like brownies and cakes.
Cafe Domus also serve alcohol drinks like vodka and martinis, and a wide range of other drinks. Its really a very cool place to chill out with your friends.
And if you are staying nearby, or alone the NEL, there's totally no reason for not visiting the place! Go on check them out, and do remember they only start operations at 7pm till late night.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Coffee Club @ Holland Village is located right at the end of Lorong Mambong, the street that is the heart and soul of Holland Village. Having live in Holland when i was young, the street has since undergo many transformations, and i think most of the shops back then are not there anymore.
After reading Coffee Club’s website, i then realized that they had actually opened their first gourmet coffee house in Holland Village in 1991. But to be honest, i didn’t have any memories of Coffee Club back then.
Today Coffee Club has 21 outlets island-wide, and this is actually the first time i’m stepping into Coffee Club. Can you believe it? Well i been to Coffee Bean, Starbucks, but not Coffee Club.
And i have not went to The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC) before either, looks like a visit to TCC is on the cards.
The interior of the Coffee Club at Holland Village is relaxing, and looks great for a chill-out place. Thats exactly the reason that prompted my friend and i here.
There’s also al fresco area for those who like to stay out of the air-condition.
Iced Mocha ($6.90) My friend had the iced mocha, like i mentioned previously in the Cedele post, i’m not a big fan of mocha, i rather spend the money on desserts, but my friend find the mocha to be all right.
Vienna Chocolate Cake ($5) This, is what i’ll spend on my money on when i frequent coffee houses and cafes. Seriously i wont spend 6-7 bucks on a cup of coffee, partly because i don’t drink much coffee also. I love desserts, give me desserts everyday!
The Vienna Chocolate cake by its account, isn’t that great, there’s nothing special about the cake, well except its chocolate.
But to be fair, at 5 bucks a slice, it is really quite worth the money if you often have cravings for cakes, like me.
Total Bill was $14 for one mocha and one cake after the 17% you-know-what. The ambience of Coffee Club at Holland Village branch was excellent for a chill-out place, my friend and i were there chatting for about two hours, and there wasn’t much crowd around.
The menu for their main course looks tempting, in the dollar sense its quite reasonable. But i’m quite skeptical about the quality of the food in coffee houses. We’ll see how it goes then. Maybe when i’m low on budget, i’ll give their mains a try. Until then, chill-out!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Cedele by The Bakery Depot was founded by Ms Yeap Cheng Guat in July 1997. After spending many years in the multi-nationals, Ms Yeap decided to put her baking passion to test.
The flagship store in East Coast is the first of many more to come, till date Cedele has 14 outlets island-wide.
Cedele Bakery is known for their wide range of sandwiches, delicious repertoire of bread, and cakes.
There are two outlets in Raffles City (I didn’t know until later), one in basement and another in level 3. A friend and i visited the one at basement of raffles city.
I like their concept of self pick-up for some of the pastries and bread.
For the sandwiches, you get to choose from different type of bread, milk bap, oatbran, country white, wholemeal linseed, and organic wholewheat.
Tuna Salad Sandwich ($6) Savory tuna sandwich with chopped red bell pepper and celery, and finished with a lot of cold fresh lettuce.
My friend chose country white for his bread, but he found it a tad too dry and hard. The fresh lettuces are refreshing and there’s a generous spread of the tuna.
Mocha ($3.50) I’m not really a big fan of mocha, but my friend find it to be all right. And at $3.50, its really cheaper than your Star Bucks and Coffee Bean.
The emphasis for Cedele is more on their bread, sandwiches and pastries. I applause them for their affordable price range for their coffees.
Chocolate Banana Espresso Cake ($6) Melts in your mouth, this is a soft chocolate cake sandwiched with fresh caramelized banana, topped with espresso chocolate frosting, and finished with crunchy walnut strussel, oat strussel.
The banana taste is evident in the Chocolate Banana Espresso cake, and the walnut adds a crunchy bite to the cake. But I’m still not quite convince by chocolate banana cakes. Not that the ones here aren’t good, just that chocolate and banana doesn’t really suits my taste bud.
Total Bill was $18.13 for one sandwich, one drink and one cake. Cedele looks promising with its wide range of sandwiches, and cakes. Furthermore, the drinks like mocha and latte isn’t very expensive, price ranging from 2 bucks to 4-5 bucks. I think i will be back to give their sandwiches and pastries another try.
Just for your information, LIC usually does not like to repeat going to a same restaurant or cafe because he’ll rather spend the money trying out new stuff at other places.
But in the case of Cedele, their prices are quite reasonable and affordable, so yeah, look out for Cedele II!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie, an online blog pastisserie selling exclusive gourmet pastry. Most of the pastries there are in limited quantity, but they definitely do not lose out in quality.
We had the chance to sample the Rocky Road Mousse Cake as one of my friend ordered it from Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie for Petrina’s birthday while we were at Peach Garden celebrating.
Crunchy walnuts and chewy marshmallow in every bite awashed with thick creamy chocolate ganache!
Our Rocky Road Mousse cake is the round 7 inch which can serve 8-10 people and it comes at a price of $38. There are even different flavours of marshmallows inside the cake!
Maybe i’m a little behind time, but this is actually the first time that i had a cake which is filled with marshmallows in between, and the result is wow!
Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie doesn’t have many variety of cakes available, but for the lack in choices, the ones that they offer certainly are excellent and is priced reasonably. I’ll be looking to get other cakes from them soon. So stop getting your cakes from boring places you-know-where (i’m not naming the bakeries)
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant @ OCBC Centre 33rd Floor is co-owned by Angela Ho and Veronica Tan, former managers of the established Hua Ting restaurant. The pair struck out on their own in 2002, and the rest like they say, were history. Peach Garden is now one of the Chinese restaurants on the radar of corporates.
Located at the 33rd floor, the restaurant offers diners a splendid bird’s eye view of the Singapore River and the city area.
The modern contemporary Chinese decor will make diner feel right at home.
It will be highly recommended for customers to make a reservation before going, as the window seats are usually taken up. One of the waitress greeted us at the main lobby on the ground floor, after checking our reservations, we were guided up to 33rd floor.
Peach Garden is popular for their Cantonese dishes, and dim sum. The selection for dim sum isn’t wide with 23 different types, however for what they lacked in variety, they make it up in quality.
Most of the dim-sum comes in basket of 3 each, but as we got 8 person, they were flexible to allow us order 8 pieces of dim-sum instead. So i’ll be putting the price for all the dim sum here for per piece rather than per basket.
Baked BBQ pork pastry ($1.30) The baked BBQ pork pastry, or more commonly known as char-siew sou, i find it to be quite all right, but the others didn’t like it because they had better ones at Yan ting @ St Regis before.
Baked Mini Egg Tart ($1.30) The baked mini egg tarts were fine, the skin was crispy, and the egg filling is just nice. However at $1.30 each, they are terribly expensive since i had better and bigger egg tarts at much cheaper price before.
Steamed Fresh Prawn Dumpling ($1.60) The steamed fresh prawn dumpling, or more affectionately known as har-gau. The ones at Peach Garden has a wholesome shrimp wrapped within the skin of the dumpling.
But at $1.60 for each har-gau, they are priced slightly higher than your normal ones at other places.
Steamed Siew Mai with Phoenix prawn ($1.60) The rendition of siew mai or pork dumpling is redefined at Peach Garden. Whereas your typical siew mai taste mainly of pork, the ones here has a phoenix prawn, which gives the siew mai a prawnier taste.
Steamed BBQ pork bun ($1.20) I always love to eat steamed BBQ pork buns from chinese dim sum restaurant, well because they are not the same as the ones you get from outside.
The ones in restaurants are usually consist of three parts, i’ll tear off each part and slowly savour the sweet char-siew with the bun.
Fried Carrot cake with X.O sauce ($8) When you read fried carrot cake, please erase off all of whatever memories you had of carrot cake. Now when we are talking about fried carrot cake with X.O sauce here, its not your ordinary black or white char-kway in the hawker centre.
The carrot cake here is slightly crispy on the outside, and very soft on the inside. But i couldn’t taste much of the X.O sauce, and at $8 per small serving, i find it to be quite on the high side.
Steamed yolk cream bun ($1.20) The signature dim-sum of Peach Garden, its delicious steamed yolk cream bun. The beautiful golden yellow custard filling oozes out when i prise it open.
Steamed rice roll with prawn ($4.50) The steamed rice roll with prawn, or your Chee Cheong Fun is served in two versions, one with prawn at $4.50, and the other steamed rice roll with chicken at $4.
The Chee Cheong Fun was quite disappointing here, it didn’t taste as well i thought it will, its quite ordinary to tell the truth.
Boiled porridge with century egg and pork ($3.80) The boiled porridge with century egg and pork is one of the disappointment for the meal at Peach Garden. Too salty, we ordered 4 bowls and almost couldn’t finish it.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao with Conpoy ($1.30) I’m not really a big fan of Xiao Long Bao, i guess the ones here are average, a couple of us didn’t really find it to be good.
Baked Spare Rib with BBQ Sauce ($7 per piece) The signature baked spare rib with BBQ sauce comes at a hefty price, at $7 per piece, you can easily have a plate of spare ribs elsewhere.
But to be fair, the presentation of the spare rib was done nicely, and the rib is bigger than your normal ribs, with the BBQ sauce combining well with spare ribs.
There were difference in portions of the ribs, so depending on your luck, some of us got slightly bigger ribs with more meat, while some got thinner ribs.
Total Bill was $178.20 for 8 person, after a 15% credit card discount. The price comes much cheaper than i had expected so it was a surprise, and if you do not included the $7 spare ribs, it will be roughly $16 for person instead of about $22.
Results were mixed, some like me found it to be quite good, while others find that Peach Garden didn’t match their expectations. I guess everybody has different taste buds, but personally, i find Peach Garden to be quite good, the price may be slightly above average, but given a rationale person taking the menu and not over-ordering, the result is good dim sum at reasonable price.
Service-wise we also encountered mixed results. The waitress were way too fast in serving the dim-sum. As the table was all food bloggers, all of us were busy taking photos of the food, and before we managed to finish taking the photo of one dim sum, the other dim sum was served.
I felt that the waitress should have taken note that we were not ready for the serving of the other dim sum, but sad to say they failed to do so. Also, they missed out our order of Xiao Long Bao and the ribs, and also forgot to bring us our additional order of the har-gau.
But they did slightly make up when they helped us putting the birthday cake (one of us birthday celebration) into a beautiful plate, and they also provide a knife which had remote control to play birthday song music.
All in all, at 33rd floor offering a wonderful view of the city, the quite reasonable pricing of the dim-sum, it offers me an excuse to revisit Peach Garden again. And Peach Garden has two other outlets at Novena and Thomson Plaza!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Contemporary Cantonese cuisine, with splendid bird’s eye view of the city “
1=SGD 0.0587
Had a chance to gather around for a meal with the Yebbers on a fine Saturday to commemorate a rather interesting event which i will not go into specifics. Either way, the meal is free and i've always wanted to dine in Laguna Country Club for no apparent reason other then its a country club. So here we are and this is what we had. As i didn't pay for this meal, i'll only give my take on the food quality and service.
Laguna country club hosts a variety of golf tournaments throughout the year, including big name events like the Singapore Masters and the Women's Open nary a year ago. The location is scenic with lush green pastures and an air of luxury that extends beyond the greens and into the eating places housed within. Pine Valley is a relaxed, open and well air conditioned place for the inhabitants and club members and also a good place to reside for a nice chat as its sparsely populated even during the lunch hours.
Shark's Fin Soup with Fish Maw, Chicken and Mushrooms - Shark's fin soup is one of those dishes that i associate with wedding dinners and extremely wealthy individuals. This will likely fall into the latter category. The soup itself is quite starchy and has a really generous helping of ingredients, shark's fin and fish maw. Taken on its own, there's a sweet taste that emanates from the healthy does of crab and mushrooms in the mix but otherwise, tastes bland as most shark's fin soup tastes. Vinegar and pepper definitely ups the taste and texture department in this case.
Peking Duck - The beauty of the Peking Duck dish is undeniable. Order a whole duck and you'll get to eat it in a variety of ways for the skin and the meat. The only things standing between you and the dish is the knowledge of whether the duck skin is marinated and roasted well. In this case, the skin is quite fatty and crispy enough to warrant a try. The marinate feels non existant and the normal pancake is too dry. The egg version salvaged the situation though. The meat was cooked in black pepper and turned out surprisingly good. It was moist, succulent and sweet. It also helped that the portion size was rather big.
Wasabi Mayonnaise Prawns - Wasabi Mayonnaise prawns, a signature dish of the Tung Lok group, this version turned out too dry for me. The batter and frying process seemed to have been overdone which left the prawns tasting hard and dry instead of crunchy and juicy. No matter, the wasabi mayonnaise was mixed well and provided a small kick in the right direction since it was rather mild and easily acceptable.
Steamed Batang - This fish was huge. Simple steamed fish can be good as long as the fish itself was fresh and the process of cooking was not overdone. Sad to say however, the fish was overcooked and thus caused the meat to loss some of its sweetness which could have made it better. For what its worth, what is good is that the meat is plentiful, fresh and went well with the salty and sourish stock accompanying the dish.
Dried Chili Fried Prawns - Somehow, i don't think the restaurant handles prawns well. This dish was decent but the taste resides only within the portion of the shell. This means that once deshelled, which is a necessary procedure unless you are lazy like me, the prawn itself is rather bland. Otherwise, the spicy and fragrant dried chili is something spice lovers will easily take to.
Beancurd with Spinach - Finally, some greens. The spinach turned out too old and had the "greenish" taste which accompanies greens not cleaned properly. Although a tad salty, the spinach with all its flaws, ultimately tasted better then the beancurd atop it, which came across as being totally tasteless.
Fried Ee Fu Noodles - By the time this dish appeared, we'd pretty much been stuffed like a duck awaiting slaughter. So the taste buds have deteriorated to the point i couldn't taste much. Nonetheless, the noodles were fragrant and had some bacon bits strewn around it. It was also springy and soft enough to be bitten off which is always a good sign.
Almonds, Sea Coconut, Pine Apple and Longan Cocktail - The dessert is rather simple but definitely gets the job done. I like the almond which was very soft and strong (i'm biased because i love almond). Everything else was just detail though. The other good thing was that the sweetness was just right, thus it didn't overwhelm.
First of all, thank you for the meal boss, i probably couldn't afford having such a huge sumptuous meal all on my lonesome. The view was good, location is quiet, food is decent and the portions were huge. I'd say the place was pretty good but i still don't know how much it cost so thats an open topic. Based on the food alone, i would probably like to have the shark's fin again, Peking duck however, is still better at Hai Tien lo.
Rating given:
Kinokuniya is an interesting bookshop of sorts.
Pitting itself against the likes of Borders and Popular book store. Kino emerged and created its own niche by positioning itself as a place where you can practically find everything you require in the shop.
Spanning almost an entire section of Ngee Ann City, Kino has a selection that rivals and even supersedes most Singapore bookstores. Its collection ranges from fiction, non fiction, magazines, Japanese books, travelling books, cooking, photography, children's books, self improvement, religious, philosophy, business etc etc. In simple terms, basically, theres a huge selection and it just keeps getting bigger.
The reason i patronize the place is because of the ease in locating a few select books which are elusive elsewhere. For example, the Sandman comics, Alastair Reynold novels, Philosophy arguments and traveling books. Its "ease" that is the key word here. Because "price" is definitely a little on the high side.
No matter, the place is comfortable for book junkies like myself to spend entire days just standing around, reading and buying that elusive title for pleasure. A good place for a good read.
Rating given:
Buses buses buses. Where in the world would we be without them?
They ferry us to work and ferry us home. Comes at a pretty regular timing and gets the job done. Now, there are even more reasons to take the bus since the price of oil is increasing like the end of the world is coming and the gov is helping out by imposing more fines on an already crowded road so that buses now have the power of the right of way during peak hours. So we should all switch to using buses and ditch our cars......or should we?
Now, i'll take my stand and say my answer is no. I'll be basing my idea on the bus service 27 that goes from Hougang to Changi Airport and back.
Reasons are as follows:
1: Buses do not come at regular intervals.
We've heard this countless times and the morning working adult population who needs to get to work at a certain time have definitely felt this. Regardless of the implementations of rules and fines, buses simply still come late. Of course, we've seen the compaign they ran about "unseen reasons" behind the lateness but honestly, poor planning is as much a factor. 27 is not a new service, in fact, its been ongoing for 8 years at least and still no improvement is seen. Buses are still packed and still late.
2: Buses with huge traffic do not get upgrade to double decks.
Same problem, bad planning. 27 has a big enough traffic to at least warrant a double deck bus for its services. This kills 2 birds with one stone since it'll allow people to board faster with its bigger capacity and thus will not delay the bus journey. However, till now, it is still not done. The reasoning continues to elude me as to why there's no upgrade.
3: Space is simply not sufficient and squeezing with a whole bunch of people simply isn't a great feeling. Especially since i'm paying close to $2 to go on a journey to work, at least i expect a little space to breathe and hopefully sit down. Somehow, paying to be packed like sardines does not entice me one bit.
4: With company comes inconsiderate people and to keep it short, they irritate the hell out of me.
In its defense, i do not blame the bus drivers although sometimes, i do need to. (Try being 30 minutes late for an important meeting because the driver insists on driving 30km/h on an EMPTY road and you'll get the idea). Otherwise, they are not to blame. The planning department is the problem. They need to wake up and smell the thorns. We're all a part of the system, make life better for us all eh?
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K box buffets are generally a hit or miss thing since first of all, the company specializes in nothing but offering rooms for the general public to scream their lungs out. And secondly, all casual outlets i've been to thus far have only offered fried items for their meals. So what do you get from the buffet anyway?
Quite a bit actually, the one i've been to serves a variety of salads, fish balls, sotong balls, squid, pasta, fried chicken wings, chawan mushi, soba, cakes, pastries and a myriad of items for the customer who selects the option for buffet and a room. All in all, choices number between the figure of 20-30 items for the choosing.
Food quality is sketchy at best since none of the items stood out enough to be remembered and none of the food was bad enough to warrant a complaint.
However, i'd still prefered if they had a package for free flow of drinks since thats exactly what clients really need for their 4 hour long screaming session. Removing the throat killing plate of nuts and replacing it with cooling items would be a good idea too.
Last word, if i had to pay for the meal at K box. I wouldn't visit again. Thats pretty much what you need to know.
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Taking a ride on Singapore Airlines is akin to being treated at a posh restaurant. Expensive and sometimes good.
Rides on the planes vary greatly in comfort, entertainment and space when you factor in the choices and different kinds of seating arrangements which you are provided with. Add to the fact that they also provide online check in services and a world famous service standard and there's just a lot of expectations for the Airlines to fulfil.
Personally, i've taken many rides on the airlines due to good fortune and thus far, i'd say there are still areas for improvement at this point.
Service itself is across the board good with the ability and flexibility for the customer to choose and request for even the most mundane things like special food choices and seating arrangements.
The plane itself however, differs greatly on which flight you catch on the way back. First class seats and service ranks up there with the best and if you are fortunate enough to be allowed the side seat in the captains room, the view isn't really magnificent unless during the take offs and the landing sessions. Captains i've met thus far are very chatty individuals however.
For first class/business class seats, the amount of leg room and comfort is generous and the seats padding is also thicker and softer for maximum comfort. For the economy class seats, taking the Boeing series as a gauge, they can range from being extremely cramped to being mildly accomodating depending on your luck. Personally, i'd go for the isle seats along the center and hope that the flight puts me on a Boeing 747 for reasonable comfort.
Flights by SIA are also smoother by far to its competitors whereby i've had a really bad experience of hitting an air pocket and having the stewards and stewardesses flung to the ceiling with some injuries.
All in all, flying with SIA have been pleasant but the seats can do with a little more space for economy. Otherwise, i'd still say its a good way to fly.
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Social Media Breakfast 2: Singapore is held at Cafe Domus, a very cool cafe which operates only when the sun goes down, and party till late night. Luckily for us, SMB main organizer Daryl managed to get the owner of the place to open the place for us.
Cafe Domus is located at 124 Owen Road, the nearest Mrt Station is Farrer Park (NEL). The other shop houses along Owen Road is definitely not what you will expect a cafe like Domus will be located at, the area is more like a industrial area.
From the outside, this is certainly not what i had imagined the place to be like. So imagine the suprise that i got when i stepped to the back of the cafe. Wow! is the word to describe.
It seems that we have been transported into a different world all together, from the bright pink wallpaper of the cafe front with its chandelier, welcome to the natural open-space garden!
The seats are logs in case you didn’t notice, and the small bamboo shoots provided cover from the blazing sun. Mosquito coils are prepared on hand, to prevent any “unpleasant” incidents.
I must admit the place is really quite an eye-opener for me, its unique Al fresco area will be even better during the night, with small candles lit up all over the place, can you imagine how it will be like?
I even climb up the stairs to the upper area where there’s this small area which can seat about 4-5. Great place if you want to spend some time with your love ones and friends.
We had catered food, which was not on the usual menu. But a quick glance at their menu, they have finger food, and also home-made desserts like brownies and cakes.
Cafe Domus also serve alcohol drinks like vodka and martinis, and a wide range of other drinks. Its really a very cool place to chill out with your friends.
And if you are staying nearby, or alone the NEL, there's totally no reason for not visiting the place! Go on check them out, and do remember they only start operations at 7pm till late night.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Coffee Club @ Holland Village is located right at the end of Lorong Mambong, the street that is the heart and soul of Holland Village. Having live in Holland when i was young, the street has since undergo many transformations, and i think most of the shops back then are not there anymore.
After reading Coffee Club’s website, i then realized that they had actually opened their first gourmet coffee house in Holland Village in 1991. But to be honest, i didn’t have any memories of Coffee Club back then.
Today Coffee Club has 21 outlets island-wide, and this is actually the first time i’m stepping into Coffee Club. Can you believe it? Well i been to Coffee Bean, Starbucks, but not Coffee Club.
And i have not went to The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC) before either, looks like a visit to TCC is on the cards.
The interior of the Coffee Club at Holland Village is relaxing, and looks great for a chill-out place. Thats exactly the reason that prompted my friend and i here.
There’s also al fresco area for those who like to stay out of the air-condition.
Iced Mocha ($6.90)
My friend had the iced mocha, like i mentioned previously in the Cedele post, i’m not a big fan of mocha, i rather spend the money on desserts, but my friend find the mocha to be all right.
Vienna Chocolate Cake ($5)
This, is what i’ll spend on my money on when i frequent coffee houses and cafes. Seriously i wont spend 6-7 bucks on a cup of coffee, partly because i don’t drink much coffee also. I love desserts, give me desserts everyday!
The Vienna Chocolate cake by its account, isn’t that great, there’s nothing special about the cake, well except its chocolate.
But to be fair, at 5 bucks a slice, it is really quite worth the money if you often have cravings for cakes, like me.
Total Bill was $14 for one mocha and one cake after the 17% you-know-what. The ambience of Coffee Club at Holland Village branch was excellent for a chill-out place, my friend and i were there chatting for about two hours, and there wasn’t much crowd around.
The menu for their main course looks tempting, in the dollar sense its quite reasonable. But i’m quite skeptical about the quality of the food in coffee houses. We’ll see how it goes then. Maybe when i’m low on budget, i’ll give their mains a try. Until then, chill-out!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Chill, chill, chill-out! “
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Cedele by The Bakery Depot was founded by Ms Yeap Cheng Guat in July 1997. After spending many years in the multi-nationals, Ms Yeap decided to put her baking passion to test.
The flagship store in East Coast is the first of many more to come, till date Cedele has 14 outlets island-wide.
Cedele Bakery is known for their wide range of sandwiches, delicious repertoire of bread, and cakes.
There are two outlets in Raffles City (I didn’t know until later), one in basement and another in level 3. A friend and i visited the one at basement of raffles city.
I like their concept of self pick-up for some of the pastries and bread.
For the sandwiches, you get to choose from different type of bread, milk bap, oatbran, country white, wholemeal linseed, and organic wholewheat.
Tuna Salad Sandwich ($6)
Savory tuna sandwich with chopped red bell pepper and celery, and finished with a lot of cold fresh lettuce.
My friend chose country white for his bread, but he found it a tad too dry and hard. The fresh lettuces are refreshing and there’s a generous spread of the tuna.
Mocha ($3.50)
I’m not really a big fan of mocha, but my friend find it to be all right. And at $3.50, its really cheaper than your Star Bucks and Coffee Bean.
The emphasis for Cedele is more on their bread, sandwiches and pastries. I applause them for their affordable price range for their coffees.
Chocolate Banana Espresso Cake ($6)
Melts in your mouth, this is a soft chocolate cake sandwiched with fresh caramelized banana, topped with espresso chocolate frosting, and finished with crunchy walnut strussel, oat strussel.
The banana taste is evident in the Chocolate Banana Espresso cake, and the walnut adds a crunchy bite to the cake. But I’m still not quite convince by chocolate banana cakes. Not that the ones here aren’t good, just that chocolate and banana doesn’t really suits my taste bud.
Total Bill was $18.13 for one sandwich, one drink and one cake. Cedele looks promising with its wide range of sandwiches, and cakes. Furthermore, the drinks like mocha and latte isn’t very expensive, price ranging from 2 bucks to 4-5 bucks. I think i will be back to give their sandwiches and pastries another try.
Just for your information, LIC usually does not like to repeat going to a same restaurant or cafe because he’ll rather spend the money trying out new stuff at other places.
But in the case of Cedele, their prices are quite reasonable and affordable, so yeah, look out for Cedele II!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” The Bread bakery cafe “
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Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie, an online blog pastisserie selling exclusive gourmet pastry. Most of the pastries there are in limited quantity, but they definitely do not lose out in quality.
We had the chance to sample the Rocky Road Mousse Cake as one of my friend ordered it from Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie for Petrina’s birthday while we were at Peach Garden celebrating.
Crunchy walnuts and chewy marshmallow in every bite awashed with thick creamy chocolate ganache!
Our Rocky Road Mousse cake is the round 7 inch which can serve 8-10 people and it comes at a price of $38. There are even different flavours of marshmallows inside the cake!
Maybe i’m a little behind time, but this is actually the first time that i had a cake which is filled with marshmallows in between, and the result is wow!
Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie doesn’t have many variety of cakes available, but for the lack in choices, the ones that they offer certainly are excellent and is priced reasonably. I’ll be looking to get other cakes from them soon. So stop getting your cakes from boring places you-know-where (i’m not naming the bakeries)
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant @ OCBC Centre 33rd Floor is co-owned by Angela Ho and Veronica Tan, former managers of the established Hua Ting restaurant. The pair struck out on their own in 2002, and the rest like they say, were history. Peach Garden is now one of the Chinese restaurants on the radar of corporates.
Located at the 33rd floor, the restaurant offers diners a splendid bird’s eye view of the Singapore River and the city area.
The modern contemporary Chinese decor will make diner feel right at home.
It will be highly recommended for customers to make a reservation before going, as the window seats are usually taken up. One of the waitress greeted us at the main lobby on the ground floor, after checking our reservations, we were guided up to 33rd floor.
Peach Garden is popular for their Cantonese dishes, and dim sum. The selection for dim sum isn’t wide with 23 different types, however for what they lacked in variety, they make it up in quality.
Most of the dim-sum comes in basket of 3 each, but as we got 8 person, they were flexible to allow us order 8 pieces of dim-sum instead. So i’ll be putting the price for all the dim sum here for per piece rather than per basket.
Baked BBQ pork pastry ($1.30)
The baked BBQ pork pastry, or more commonly known as char-siew sou, i find it to be quite all right, but the others didn’t like it because they had better ones at Yan ting @ St Regis before.
Baked Mini Egg Tart ($1.30)
The baked mini egg tarts were fine, the skin was crispy, and the egg filling is just nice. However at $1.30 each, they are terribly expensive since i had better and bigger egg tarts at much cheaper price before.
Steamed Fresh Prawn Dumpling ($1.60)
The steamed fresh prawn dumpling, or more affectionately known as har-gau. The ones at Peach Garden has a wholesome shrimp wrapped within the skin of the dumpling.
But at $1.60 for each har-gau, they are priced slightly higher than your normal ones at other places.
Steamed Siew Mai with Phoenix prawn ($1.60)
The rendition of siew mai or pork dumpling is redefined at Peach Garden. Whereas your typical siew mai taste mainly of pork, the ones here has a phoenix prawn, which gives the siew mai a prawnier taste.
Steamed BBQ pork bun ($1.20)
I always love to eat steamed BBQ pork buns from chinese dim sum restaurant, well because they are not the same as the ones you get from outside.
The ones in restaurants are usually consist of three parts, i’ll tear off each part and slowly savour the sweet char-siew with the bun.
Fried Carrot cake with X.O sauce ($8)
When you read fried carrot cake, please erase off all of whatever memories you had of carrot cake. Now when we are talking about fried carrot cake with X.O sauce here, its not your ordinary black or white char-kway in the hawker centre.
The carrot cake here is slightly crispy on the outside, and very soft on the inside. But i couldn’t taste much of the X.O sauce, and at $8 per small serving, i find it to be quite on the high side.
Steamed yolk cream bun ($1.20)
The signature dim-sum of Peach Garden, its delicious steamed yolk cream bun. The beautiful golden yellow custard filling oozes out when i prise it open.
Steamed rice roll with prawn ($4.50)
The steamed rice roll with prawn, or your Chee Cheong Fun is served in two versions, one with prawn at $4.50, and the other steamed rice roll with chicken at $4.
The Chee Cheong Fun was quite disappointing here, it didn’t taste as well i thought it will, its quite ordinary to tell the truth.
Boiled porridge with century egg and pork ($3.80)
The boiled porridge with century egg and pork is one of the disappointment for the meal at Peach Garden. Too salty, we ordered 4 bowls and almost couldn’t finish it.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao with Conpoy ($1.30)
I’m not really a big fan of Xiao Long Bao, i guess the ones here are average, a couple of us didn’t really find it to be good.
Baked Spare Rib with BBQ Sauce ($7 per piece)
The signature baked spare rib with BBQ sauce comes at a hefty price, at $7 per piece, you can easily have a plate of spare ribs elsewhere.
But to be fair, the presentation of the spare rib was done nicely, and the rib is bigger than your normal ribs, with the BBQ sauce combining well with spare ribs.
There were difference in portions of the ribs, so depending on your luck, some of us got slightly bigger ribs with more meat, while some got thinner ribs.
Total Bill was $178.20 for 8 person, after a 15% credit card discount. The price comes much cheaper than i had expected so it was a surprise, and if you do not included the $7 spare ribs, it will be roughly $16 for person instead of about $22.
Results were mixed, some like me found it to be quite good, while others find that Peach Garden didn’t match their expectations. I guess everybody has different taste buds, but personally, i find Peach Garden to be quite good, the price may be slightly above average, but given a rationale person taking the menu and not over-ordering, the result is good dim sum at reasonable price.
Service-wise we also encountered mixed results. The waitress were way too fast in serving the dim-sum. As the table was all food bloggers, all of us were busy taking photos of the food, and before we managed to finish taking the photo of one dim sum, the other dim sum was served.
I felt that the waitress should have taken note that we were not ready for the serving of the other dim sum, but sad to say they failed to do so. Also, they missed out our order of Xiao Long Bao and the ribs, and also forgot to bring us our additional order of the har-gau.
But they did slightly make up when they helped us putting the birthday cake (one of us birthday celebration) into a beautiful plate, and they also provide a knife which had remote control to play birthday song music.
All in all, at 33rd floor offering a wonderful view of the city, the quite reasonable pricing of the dim-sum, it offers me an excuse to revisit Peach Garden again. And Peach Garden has two other outlets at Novena and Thomson Plaza!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Contemporary Cantonese cuisine, with splendid bird’s eye view of the city “
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