Secret Recipe’s cakes. I told you i will be back during my first visit didn’t i? Here i am, with *sp, and mr ang as my guest for this cake-tasting event. LOL. Actually its more of me forcing em’ to Secret Recipe to satisfy my cravings for cakes. Sinful, guilty as charged. If you cant beat them, you join them. Now now, who wants to join me on the next cake-tasting? Mayb go to Bakerzin, N.Y.D.C or somewhere else : )
Oreo Cheesecake ($4.90)
Frozen creamy cheese with loads of crushed oreo. A combination of oreo and cheese, is always a popular choice among cheesecake lovers. The Oreo cheesecake here certainly does not disappoints. Well, you can’t really compare it with the one i had on Sat @ Wild Rocket. That one goes for the overall packaging, playing food with creatively. But here we got a normal-looking cake, looking what a normal cheesecake is suppose to look like, but at half the price.
I know sometimes people dislike cheesecake because the cheese smell is too strong, and they get sick of it easily. but then after finishing the cheesecake, there are no such feelings really : )
Chocolate Indulgence ($4.90)
Creamy and rich Belgian couventure chocolate. Absolutly a luscious, luxurious, sinfully rich delight. We like this one. The Chocolate Indulgence is certainly worth its price with its size. The generous servings make some other restaurants cake pale in comparison. But then you say its not only the quantity, the quality is more important. Ahh, yes indeed, and i can assure the choc cake here do have enough quality. At $4.90 a slice, its really a steal!
Royal Chocolate Cake ($4.90)
A layer of chocolate chiffon, layered with chocolate, fresh cream, and chocolate cookies. Eh, if given a choice between Chocolate Indulgence and Royal Chocolate Cake, i say go for Choc Indulgence. Somehow the Choc Indulgence just tasted better, and a larger slice.
Three of us share three cakes, and we just managed to finished it. Not that the cakes aren’t nice, in fact they are nice, and Big! This tells you something about the serving of their cake huh? *wink*
Total Bill $16 inclusive of GST and service charge (total 17% of course). I have a new found mission. To taste all the cakes offered by Secret Recipe, eh, i think there’s a total of 20 to 30 of them? Well, i tried five already, so thats twenty or thirty more to go : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Pan Grilled Catch of the day with Lobster sauce ($11.50)
Served with french fries, Pan Grilled Catch of the day is prepared with home-made lobster sauce. Frankly speaking, the main reason i choose this dish was because the lobster sauce entices me, and also partly because i want some fishy-stuff. But this dish really disappointed me, mayb it is not bad, but it didn’t really suit my taste. The lobster sauce was nothing special, the fish was not really good. It was kind of bland.
Grilled chicken with BBQ sauce ($10.90)
The grilled chicken set is served with herb rice and fresh garden salad. The chicken is actually like normal western cafe chicken chop, nothing special. For a hawker western food, it might be a tad too expensive, but for a cafe style dining, i thought the price was quite reasonable. So it’s just which way you see it, if you find it expensive, go to hawker centre please.
Choc Fudge ($4.90)
Now, this is where Secret Recipe shines. Desserts, in particular Cakes. The variety of cakes offer are just fantastic. From the must-have like Tiramisu, Black Forest, to their sinfully chocolate section consisting of Choc Chip walnut, Choc Banana, Moist Choc Cake, Choc Mud cake, Cocoa Mocha, Choc Fudge, Choc Indulgence. Scanning through the long list, each makes me unresistable, wanting to try everyone of them, and i think i will. Making several trips to Secret Recipe of course : )
Marble Cheese ($4.90)
And thats not it, they still have cheesecakes to show, there’s the classic cheese, espresso cheese, raspberry cheese, choc cheese, chilled blueberry cheese, chilled strawberry cheese, apple crumble cheese, lemon cheese, caramel cream cheese.
You know the best part of the story is not just their cakes are good, it is also the price is dirt-cheap. At $4.90 a big slice for their delighful cakes, i think its the best deal, and mayb the reason to repeatly go back to Secret Recipe. Nowadays many restaurants’ desserts cakes are no doubt very good, but usually they come in a small slice, and the price can easily double of this.
Shining Stars
Lets see, the positive aspect without a doubt will be their desserts section, with cakes being the king of the crown. Cheap, big slice, sinful-yet-wonderful cakes. What more do you want? N’uff said already, go get them!
Dark Clouds
The waitress told us that they do not serve ice-water. That, immediately took us at least 10 points off the marking list. You mean a cafe cannot offer its customer even tap-water? Scanning through the drinks menu, there is this one thing called “Distilled water”, whats more the water is packed by Secret Recipe. No doubt, this is the main reason why they do not provided ice water. One word of advice to ALL restaurants and cafes, if you want your diners to eat happily, please provide FREE ice-water. If your reason not to offer ice water is so that diners have to pay for the drinks, you are so wrong.
All in all, Secret Recipe is still a nice place to go for its cheap and nice cakes. If only for the cakes, i will make the trip everytime. Total bill is $36.55 for two person. I confirmed, guarantee plus chop will definitely go back to try out the other cakes, despite the problem about ice-water. Mayb next time i just go for their cake-set, or i bring along my water bottle.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Early in the morning (well not really early), meet up with sp, wh, and hy for breakfast. Prata’s at Alif Restaurant, a “prominent” coffee shop selling pratas at Bukit Gombak. I’m sure you have seen it before if you been to Gombak.
Anyway, breakfast is suppose to be early right? But we had sort of a brunch because someone was late. *i’m not blaming you all right? lol
Egg on the prata ($1.20)
Do note that this is not the normal egg prata, this one is the egg on the prata, different all right? But i cant remember the name of it though. Looks yummy though, next time i think i’ll have this instead of the normal egg prata
Egg Prata ($1.20)
Ahh.. this ons is the normal egg prata. See the difference already? : )
Cheese Prata ($1.50)
Melted cheese within the hot cripsy prata, well some sort like cheese on a pizza just that pizza is western and prata is indian? LOL!
Normal Prata ($0.60) The normal one without any fillings, sp commented it was too tough, but the rest of us found it to be okay. Miss sp got tender tooth : )
Chicken Rice ($3)
The hungry-ghost (or rather soldier) Mr Ang & Mr Ong ordered chicken rice in addition to the pratas.
After which, we went to IMM, and they got psycho by me into eating cakes from Secret Recipe. Thats the next post guys : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Egg tarts! My fav hong kong pastries. Leong Sang is at Sago street, off Smith street there. Now the chinatown market is under renovation, so might be a bit diff to spot the shop.
Anyway, chinatown has quite a number of stores selling HK pastries, but i prefer Leong Sang egg tart. Why? To me, the egg tart must have crispy tart skin, once you bite into it, u’ll get a wonderrful feeling. Second, the egg itself must be smooth. Leong Sang egg tart possesses this two main qualities. At $0.80 per tart, it is consider reasonable.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
The one that i went to is a branch located within Queensway shopping centre. To those who often frequent queensway for the cheap sports wear and clothes, u must have seen it before. Went there to buy shoe but didn’t fancy any. O well
It proclaimed itself to be the original Katong Laksa. Anyway, the debate on who is the original Katong Laksa rages on. The Laksa (picture below) main characteristics is that it is made from self-made coconut husk scoop, no chopstick spoon only, short bee hoon, use fresh coconut milk.
Hmm.. the laksa taste quite good, in particular the soup. The soup is quite special, unlike the normal laksa, u can taste egg one, i like!” BUT, the short bee hoon which makes it easier to eat using spoon, is very little. The serving is small, eating one bowl is simply no filling and not enough. The ingredients are small prawn, fish cake and cockles. Cost 3 bucks per bowl, actually 3 bucks is considered reasonable, but the serving is too small.
All in all, the laksa is good, but serving too small not enough. If not being rational, i will have ordered another bowl.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironcheff for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
The famous Ah Koong fishball in Johor, Malaysia. I believed many people from Singapore knows about this store as i always see Singaporeans there, and no doubt their recent debut branch at VivoCity has raised their profile in Singapore. Well, i started eating at Ah Koong a few years back, and since then whenever i go to Johor, it has become one of the must-eat for me. Not a lover of fishballs (i prefer Won-ton mee), but when it comes to Ah Koong fishball noodles, i like! Anyway, for simplicity sake, i will be putting all the dishes in Ringgit (RM), just divided the sum by 2.2 to convert to Sin dollars.
Fried Fish-cake (3.50RM)! No doubt the star of the show, this is Ah Koong speciality and has attracted many people from all over the land to go to Ah Koong just to try this. Die die also must try!
I always have noodle soup when i go to Ah Koong, don’t really fancy the dry-version. The soup is good, i guess theres MSG to make it so tasty, but no harms done having some MSG once in a while ya? One bowl of noodles cost 4.50RM (it used to be 3RM when it just started), anyway 4.50RM is still cheap if you convert to Sin dollars, four fishballs, one meat ball and slices of fishcake. I can easily have two to three bowls of noodle at one go. Good!
The same thing as above just that its bee-hoon. I gave it a lower rating cos i just prefer noodles to bee-hoon, but still the bee-hoon is good.
Fried Hu-Kee (those Yong tao fu one) 3 for 1RM
Hmm.. Ah Koong has a few branches now, but their best is still at their headquarter. When it started a few years back, the noodles was just as nice as it is now. But they have reinnovated and came up with many new menu. Cripsy fried prawn cake, fish porridge, abalone noodles and some other stuff. But seriously, their fishcake and fishball noodles are still the best according to me, ignore all the other new items and just try their fishcake and fishball noodles. By the way, don’t go to the Singapore branch at Vivocity, that place is a rip-off man. One bowl of noodles selling at $4.50 i think, and one fishcake cost $2 or 3. Sin dollars yes! Just go over the bridge to enjoy the same menu but better and cheaper twice! Total bill for two person is 21.84RM
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Ajisen Ramen, “The best Ramen in Singapore”, or so they claimed. Started in November 1997, Ajisen opened the first Ramen shop at Bugis Junction. Ajisen Ramen is now the largest Ramen chain in Singapore, with a total of 12 outlets in Singapore in these 9 years.
“ There is something peculiar about Ajisen Ramen and it’s all in the soup. Their Ramen’s Tonkotsu soup can help to prevent aging!
The Japanese Society of Nutrition & Food Science announced in a general meeting, “The intake of collagen contained in the bones and cartilage, etc prevents aging.” Collagen is a protein, mainly found in the skin, tendon, bone, cartilage and other connective tissues. This protein is the essence of life because it easily makes up one third of the 60 trillion body cells. And our Tonkotsu soup has lots of collagen!
What is health without taste? A feature of Kumamoto Ramen is Senmiyu; a rich brown sauce that accompanies the fair Tonkotsu soup. Our unique culinary methods ensure that all the flavors are sealed into the sauce. In fact, Ajisen guarantee that your taste-buds will be bowled over by their Tonkotsu/Senmiyu combination! “
Went to meet my mom for dinner at IMM after Arnold’s celebration, at first wanted to go Secret Recipe for dinner, cos i want to eat their desserts, but my mom wanted to eat ramen, to savour that time she went to Japan and had ramen. Although there was a few Japanese restaurants around, we settled on Ajisen since my mom wanted ramen. The restaurant was packed fully, but there was still space for two-seaters. We took a while to decide on the ramen, and made our orders, suprisingly the ramen came quite fast despite many patrons in the restaurant, mayb its very easy to cook ramen : )
Ramen cost 10 bucks each, but you have the raman set, which consist of a ramen, side dish, and a drink for $13.80. We chose the crayfish ramen (voted most popular), and the soft ribs ramen
Crayfish Ramen
The crayfish ramen was quite special, the crayfish came with a sweet-spicy sauce. Ramen had egg, crayfish of cos, and mushroom. The ramen soup was quite delicious, but i found it too salty, had to drink tons of water after finishing the ramen.
Soft ribs Ramen
Actually every ramen is the same except for the main ingredient that comes with it, for this one is soft pork ribs, the ribs was managed rather well-balance, very chewy. My mom commented that the ramen in Japan was nicer, the noodle was not so thick, much thinner there : )
Chicken cutlet that comes with the ramen set
The sauce for the chicken was nice, but the chicken was a tad too small, o well after all this is the compliment set.
Fried prawn which also come with the ramen set
Fried prawn in Japanese restaurants was always nice, no complains
Simple dinner at Ajisen total bill was $32.49, not very expensive i guess, for the set came with a ramen, side dish and drink. But the quality of the side dishes can be improve i guess, they are not really worth it for the extra $3.80? But then again $3.80 for a side dish and drink, you can’t really complain can you?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Lunch @ Big O with Tay xuan. Had cravings for cake, but in the end never ordered any cos pocket was a bit tight. hahaha! We went to the place at around 1230pm, not much people even though it was a sunday, and i wonder why (the last time i passed by Big O it was quite crowded)
Barbequed Baby Ribs ($17.95)
Green Salad, sour cream and fragrant rice, served together with the baby ribs. The ribs was quite good, the servings was not lest the size that i thought it would be, it was bigger than i expected. Kudos, usually i though baby ribs confirm very small and not much meat, but Big O baby ribs aren't really baby. lol! Fragrant rice on the menu as a separate dish cost $3, rather expensive for rice don't you think? But mine come together with the ribs, no problem there!
Bacon wrapped chicken leg ($16.20)
Gravy and spinach mashed potato with chicken leg wrapped in bacon. The serving was small to the extent that it is not filling for the price tag. No doubt the dish is well done, wrapped with bacon, the chicken taste delicious, but the serving was really a bit small, after finishing it you won't feel full.
Big O is just directly opposite N.Y.D.C (for cakes), located on the second floor of wheelock. The cafe was quite all right i guess, price still consider reasonable, food taste not too bad (except for small servings, or did we order the wrong dish?). Menu also consist of quite a variety of mudpies, sweets (their cakes are called sweets), and ice-cream. But there's haato (for ice cream) opposite them also. So i guess you wont really want to order ice cream or cakes from Big O. The rest please : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
"I eat not for the sake of eating, for fulfilment"
Buffets, i hate buffets. I really do. You know all-you-can-eat buffets are those where they offer a large variety of food, and diners can take as many servings as they want, all this for paying a fixed price? You pay one price then all the food are there for your picking, being human, especially Singaporeans, naturally we are “kiasu” and will want to eat as many as much variety of food as we can. Thats the problem, if don’t eat enough then will feel wasted pay already but never eat more. But if eat too much, u gorge yourself full and at the end of it you’ll feel silly. With that contradictory in mind, sometimes you wonder should i eat more or should i eat just sufficient? O Well..
Sakae Sushi, the place most Singaporeans, if not young people associate with sushi. With 33 Outlets spreading all over the island, its green frog logo are most familar to most people. Colour plates sushi are at $1.90, while premium red plates are at $5.90. Of course, there is the all-you-can-eat lunch, high tea, dinner buffet available at different timing and prices. Besides sushi and sashimi, there are also teppanyaki, yakimono, nabemono, tempura, agemono, ramen/udon/soba and donburi dishes.
For tech-savvy people, you can have “fun” browsing through their menu and placing orders via their web-based, patented Interactive Menu. Unfortunately, during my visit there yesterday, the system was down. O well. Back to the point, went to have high tea buffet (Mon to Fri excluding Public Holidays) 3pm-6pm with my brother, adult price is $16.90 , and youth price is $13.90 .
As everybody knows sakae sushi, and different opinions on whether it is good or not, i shan’t comment much, let the pictures do the talking : )
Total bill was $36 for two person. Service-wise, if don’t think too much still passable, but if really want to scrutinise, ill say not really acceptable. One waitress when cleaning the plates saw that we had some leftover and told us not to waste food and order less as though we were like primary school kids. Come on man, you think i’ll really want to waste food? I also know food is precious, obviously is the dish is not nice and not to my taste then i left it there. O well. Then another waiter while taking the orders gave those not-my-problem altitude. Thats why i always have a love-hate relationship with the 10% service charge that almost most of the restaurants charge now. If your service is good, fine u deserve the tip, but if not the money paid is really unfair to consumers.
Although diff people had diff opinion about the place, some say its good, some say its not, but lets face it, how good a sushi/sashimi can be when you are paying this sort of price? Nevertheless, i'll say Sakae Sushi has done rather a good job providing affordable sushi for the mass public. For those gourmet sushi eaters, avoid this place please : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Dinner's at Manhattan Fish Market (Plaza Singapura)
Savouring seafood has become so affordable these days that diners do not need to confine themselve to only special occasions to have seafood. Among the numerous seafood restaurants, Manhattan Fish Market (MFM) and Fish & Co will immediately come to mind as they offer affordable and delicious seafood that caters to everybody need. MFM is always compare with Fish & Co, as they offer vastly similar menus; fish and seafood. Each has its own strength and weakness, read on to find out more..
MFM specialises in American-style seafood. Its product ranges from fish & chips to Garlic Butter mussels and Red hot whole fish. Manhattan fish & chips, flaming prawn patter, and Manhattan Seafood platter are among its signature dishes.
Fisherman's Giant fried patter ($36.90)
The patter consist fried shrimps, fish, calamari, mushroom with garlic rice and fries. The whole presentation of the food was done very nicely and looks tempting. There was 6 shrimps, with lots of fish, calamari, fries and a generous serving of the garlic rice. The shrimp was very delicious, calamari not too bad, fries well done, and i particularly like the garlic rice (although eating it made me very full). But the fish was a bit of a letdown. By the three of us, we could not finish the patter and left quite a fair bit of fish, fries and rice. For the price, i though it was quite reasonable with such a big serving.
Manhattan Fish & Chips ($9.90)
Manhattan's all time favourite, its fish & chips. We made the fatal mistake of ordering this; not that its not good, but we can’t even finish the patter and yet we ordered this dish. Wasting food is so sinful!! We though that the patter might not be enough for the three of us, so we order the fish to share. The rest you know is history, anyway we did manage to finish this fish, the taste was rather similar to the one i had in Fish & Co. In fact, if you have not tell me which is which, i almost can't tell them apart, mayb except of the size; the one at Fish & Co is too much bigger.
The waiter used a device to flame the sauce that was spread on top of the prawn for the seafood patter. I was rather tempted to order this dish just to see the waiter flame the prawns, but gui tried this dish before and commented that the prawn was burned and not very nice.
To conclude, i will say Manhattan Fish Market is on par with Fish & Co in my opinion. Price wise they are not too far apart, menu wise they offer quite similar items, taste wise i also though they are quite close. MFM had the spectacle flame show, but there is also the consequences that come with it, a strong gas smell around the restaurant. Total bill for three comes up to $66.60. Both MFM and Fish & Co are great place to dine, but after eating there i am thirsty!! They do not include any greens to go along with the main course, yes they do offer salads separately, but can’t they just include some greens in it? You know Singaporeans are getting more and more health conscious, cannot everything fried food : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
1=SGD 0.0587
Secret Recipe’s cakes. I told you i will be back during my first visit didn’t i? Here i am, with *sp, and mr ang as my guest for this cake-tasting event. LOL. Actually its more of me forcing em’ to Secret Recipe to satisfy my cravings for cakes. Sinful, guilty as charged. If you cant beat them, you join them. Now now, who wants to join me on the next cake-tasting? Mayb go to Bakerzin, N.Y.D.C or somewhere else : )
Oreo Cheesecake ($4.90)
Frozen creamy cheese with loads of crushed oreo. A combination of oreo and cheese, is always a popular choice among cheesecake lovers. The Oreo cheesecake here certainly does not disappoints. Well, you can’t really compare it with the one i had on Sat @ Wild Rocket. That one goes for the overall packaging, playing food with creatively. But here we got a normal-looking cake, looking what a normal cheesecake is suppose to look like, but at half the price.
I know sometimes people dislike cheesecake because the cheese smell is too strong, and they get sick of it easily. but then after finishing the cheesecake, there are no such feelings really : )
Chocolate Indulgence ($4.90)
Creamy and rich Belgian couventure chocolate. Absolutly a luscious, luxurious, sinfully rich delight. We like this one. The Chocolate Indulgence is certainly worth its price with its size. The generous servings make some other restaurants cake pale in comparison. But then you say its not only the quantity, the quality is more important. Ahh, yes indeed, and i can assure the choc cake here do have enough quality. At $4.90 a slice, its really a steal!
Royal Chocolate Cake ($4.90)
A layer of chocolate chiffon, layered with chocolate, fresh cream, and chocolate cookies. Eh, if given a choice between Chocolate Indulgence and Royal Chocolate Cake, i say go for Choc Indulgence. Somehow the Choc Indulgence just tasted better, and a larger slice.
Three of us share three cakes, and we just managed to finished it. Not that the cakes aren’t nice, in fact they are nice, and Big! This tells you something about the serving of their cake huh? *wink*
Total Bill $16 inclusive of GST and service charge (total 17% of course). I have a new found mission. To taste all the cakes offered by Secret Recipe, eh, i think there’s a total of 20 to 30 of them? Well, i tried five already, so thats twenty or thirty more to go : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” To savor all the cakes in the world “
Rating given:
Pan Grilled Catch of the day with Lobster sauce ($11.50)
Served with french fries, Pan Grilled Catch of the day is prepared with home-made lobster sauce. Frankly speaking, the main reason i choose this dish was because the lobster sauce entices me, and also partly because i want some fishy-stuff. But this dish really disappointed me, mayb it is not bad, but it didn’t really suit my taste. The lobster sauce was nothing special, the fish was not really good. It was kind of bland.
Grilled chicken with BBQ sauce ($10.90)
The grilled chicken set is served with herb rice and fresh garden salad. The chicken is actually like normal western cafe chicken chop, nothing special. For a hawker western food, it might be a tad too expensive, but for a cafe style dining, i thought the price was quite reasonable. So it’s just which way you see it, if you find it expensive, go to hawker centre please.
Choc Fudge ($4.90)
Now, this is where Secret Recipe shines. Desserts, in particular Cakes. The variety of cakes offer are just fantastic. From the must-have like Tiramisu, Black Forest, to their sinfully chocolate section consisting of Choc Chip walnut, Choc Banana, Moist Choc Cake, Choc Mud cake, Cocoa Mocha, Choc Fudge, Choc Indulgence. Scanning through the long list, each makes me unresistable, wanting to try everyone of them, and i think i will. Making several trips to Secret Recipe of course : )
Marble Cheese ($4.90)
And thats not it, they still have cheesecakes to show, there’s the classic cheese, espresso cheese, raspberry cheese, choc cheese, chilled blueberry cheese, chilled strawberry cheese, apple crumble cheese, lemon cheese, caramel cream cheese.
You know the best part of the story is not just their cakes are good, it is also the price is dirt-cheap. At $4.90 a big slice for their delighful cakes, i think its the best deal, and mayb the reason to repeatly go back to Secret Recipe. Nowadays many restaurants’ desserts cakes are no doubt very good, but usually they come in a small slice, and the price can easily double of this.
Shining Stars
Lets see, the positive aspect without a doubt will be their desserts section, with cakes being the king of the crown. Cheap, big slice, sinful-yet-wonderful cakes. What more do you want? N’uff said already, go get them!
Dark Clouds
The waitress told us that they do not serve ice-water. That, immediately took us at least 10 points off the marking list. You mean a cafe cannot offer its customer even tap-water? Scanning through the drinks menu, there is this one thing called “Distilled water”, whats more the water is packed by Secret Recipe. No doubt, this is the main reason why they do not provided ice water. One word of advice to ALL restaurants and cafes, if you want your diners to eat happily, please provide FREE ice-water. If your reason not to offer ice water is so that diners have to pay for the drinks, you are so wrong.
All in all, Secret Recipe is still a nice place to go for its cheap and nice cakes. If only for the cakes, i will make the trip everytime. Total bill is $36.55 for two person. I confirmed, guarantee plus chop will definitely go back to try out the other cakes, despite the problem about ice-water. Mayb next time i just go for their cake-set, or i bring along my water bottle.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Cakes, how can i resist them? “
Rating given:
Early in the morning (well not really early), meet up with sp, wh, and hy for breakfast. Prata’s at Alif Restaurant, a “prominent” coffee shop selling pratas at Bukit Gombak. I’m sure you have seen it before if you been to Gombak.
Anyway, breakfast is suppose to be early right? But we had sort of a brunch because someone was late. *i’m not blaming you all right? lol
Egg on the prata ($1.20)
Do note that this is not the normal egg prata, this one is the egg on the prata, different all right? But i cant remember the name of it though. Looks yummy though, next time i think i’ll have this instead of the normal egg prata
Egg Prata ($1.20)
Ahh.. this ons is the normal egg prata. See the difference already? : )
Cheese Prata ($1.50)
Melted cheese within the hot cripsy prata, well some sort like cheese on a pizza just that pizza is western and prata is indian? LOL!
Normal Prata ($0.60)
The normal one without any fillings, sp commented it was too tough, but the rest of us found it to be okay. Miss sp got tender tooth : )
Chicken Rice ($3)
The hungry-ghost (or rather soldier) Mr Ang & Mr Ong ordered chicken rice in addition to the pratas.
After which, we went to IMM, and they got psycho by me into eating cakes from Secret Recipe. Thats the next post guys : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Pratas, pratas, & pratas “
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Egg tarts! My fav hong kong pastries. Leong Sang is at Sago street, off Smith street there. Now the chinatown market is under renovation, so might be a bit diff to spot the shop.
Anyway, chinatown has quite a number of stores selling HK pastries, but i prefer Leong Sang egg tart. Why? To me, the egg tart must have crispy tart skin, once you bite into it, u’ll get a wonderrful feeling. Second, the egg itself must be smooth. Leong Sang egg tart possesses this two main qualities. At $0.80 per tart, it is consider reasonable.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Janggut Laksa - The original Katong Spoon Laksa
The one that i went to is a branch located within Queensway shopping centre. To those who often frequent queensway for the cheap sports wear and clothes, u must have seen it before. Went there to buy shoe but didn’t fancy any. O well
It proclaimed itself to be the original Katong Laksa. Anyway, the debate on who is the original Katong Laksa rages on. The Laksa (picture below) main characteristics is that it is made from self-made coconut husk scoop, no chopstick spoon only, short bee hoon, use fresh coconut milk.
Hmm.. the laksa taste quite good, in particular the soup. The soup is quite special, unlike the normal laksa, u can taste egg one, i like!” BUT, the short bee hoon which makes it easier to eat using spoon, is very little. The serving is small, eating one bowl is simply no filling and not enough. The ingredients are small prawn, fish cake and cockles. Cost 3 bucks per bowl, actually 3 bucks is considered reasonable, but the serving is too small.
All in all, the laksa is good, but serving too small not enough. If not being rational, i will have ordered another bowl.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironcheff for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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The famous Ah Koong fishball in Johor, Malaysia. I believed many people from Singapore knows about this store as i always see Singaporeans there, and no doubt their recent debut branch at VivoCity has raised their profile in Singapore. Well, i started eating at Ah Koong a few years back, and since then whenever i go to Johor, it has become one of the must-eat for me. Not a lover of fishballs (i prefer Won-ton mee), but when it comes to Ah Koong fishball noodles, i like! Anyway, for simplicity sake, i will be putting all the dishes in Ringgit (RM), just divided the sum by 2.2 to convert to Sin dollars.
Fried Fish-cake (3.50RM)! No doubt the star of the show, this is Ah Koong speciality and has attracted many people from all over the land to go to Ah Koong just to try this. Die die also must try!
I always have noodle soup when i go to Ah Koong, don’t really fancy the dry-version. The soup is good, i guess theres MSG to make it so tasty, but no harms done having some MSG once in a while ya? One bowl of noodles cost 4.50RM (it used to be 3RM when it just started), anyway 4.50RM is still cheap if you convert to Sin dollars, four fishballs, one meat ball and slices of fishcake. I can easily have two to three bowls of noodle at one go. Good!
The same thing as above just that its bee-hoon. I gave it a lower rating cos i just prefer noodles to bee-hoon, but still the bee-hoon is good.
Fried Hu-Kee (those Yong tao fu one) 3 for 1RM
Hmm.. Ah Koong has a few branches now, but their best is still at their headquarter. When it started a few years back, the noodles was just as nice as it is now. But they have reinnovated and came up with many new menu. Cripsy fried prawn cake, fish porridge, abalone noodles and some other stuff. But seriously, their fishcake and fishball noodles are still the best according to me, ignore all the other new items and just try their fishcake and fishball noodles. By the way, don’t go to the Singapore branch at Vivocity, that place is a rip-off man. One bowl of noodles selling at $4.50 i think, and one fishcake cost $2 or 3. Sin dollars yes! Just go over the bridge to enjoy the same menu but better and cheaper twice! Total bill for two person is 21.84RM
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Ajisen Ramen, “The best Ramen in Singapore”, or so they claimed. Started in November 1997, Ajisen opened the first Ramen shop at Bugis Junction. Ajisen Ramen is now the largest Ramen chain in Singapore, with a total of 12 outlets in Singapore in these 9 years.
“ There is something peculiar about Ajisen Ramen and it’s all in the soup. Their Ramen’s Tonkotsu soup can help to prevent aging!
The Japanese Society of Nutrition & Food Science announced in a general meeting, “The intake of collagen contained in the bones and cartilage, etc prevents aging.” Collagen is a protein, mainly found in the skin, tendon, bone, cartilage and other connective tissues. This protein is the essence of life because it easily makes up one third of the 60 trillion body cells. And our Tonkotsu soup has lots of collagen!
What is health without taste? A feature of Kumamoto Ramen is Senmiyu; a rich brown sauce that accompanies the fair Tonkotsu soup. Our unique culinary methods ensure that all the flavors are sealed into the sauce. In fact, Ajisen guarantee that your taste-buds will be bowled over by their Tonkotsu/Senmiyu combination! “
Went to meet my mom for dinner at IMM after Arnold’s celebration, at first wanted to go Secret Recipe for dinner, cos i want to eat their desserts, but my mom wanted to eat ramen, to savour that time she went to Japan and had ramen. Although there was a few Japanese restaurants around, we settled on Ajisen since my mom wanted ramen. The restaurant was packed fully, but there was still space for two-seaters. We took a while to decide on the ramen, and made our orders, suprisingly the ramen came quite fast despite many patrons in the restaurant, mayb its very easy to cook ramen : )
Ramen cost 10 bucks each, but you have the raman set, which consist of a ramen, side dish, and a drink for $13.80. We chose the crayfish ramen (voted most popular), and the soft ribs ramen
Crayfish Ramen
The crayfish ramen was quite special, the crayfish came with a sweet-spicy sauce. Ramen had egg, crayfish of cos, and mushroom. The ramen soup was quite delicious, but i found it too salty, had to drink tons of water after finishing the ramen.
Soft ribs Ramen
Actually every ramen is the same except for the main ingredient that comes with it, for this one is soft pork ribs, the ribs was managed rather well-balance, very chewy. My mom commented that the ramen in Japan was nicer, the noodle was not so thick, much thinner there : )
Chicken cutlet that comes with the ramen set
The sauce for the chicken was nice, but the chicken was a tad too small, o well after all this is the compliment set.
Fried prawn which also come with the ramen set
Fried prawn in Japanese restaurants was always nice, no complains
Simple dinner at Ajisen total bill was $32.49, not very expensive i guess, for the set came with a ramen, side dish and drink. But the quality of the side dishes can be improve i guess, they are not really worth it for the extra $3.80? But then again $3.80 for a side dish and drink, you can’t really complain can you?
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Food is for our mind, health, and body “
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Lunch @ Big O with Tay xuan. Had cravings for cake, but in the end never ordered any cos pocket was a bit tight. hahaha! We went to the place at around 1230pm, not much people even though it was a sunday, and i wonder why (the last time i passed by Big O it was quite crowded)
Barbequed Baby Ribs ($17.95)
Green Salad, sour cream and fragrant rice, served together with the baby ribs. The ribs was quite good, the servings was not lest the size that i thought it would be, it was bigger than i expected. Kudos, usually i though baby ribs confirm very small and not much meat, but Big O baby ribs aren't really baby. lol! Fragrant rice on the menu as a separate dish cost $3, rather expensive for rice don't you think? But mine come together with the ribs, no problem there!
Bacon wrapped chicken leg ($16.20)
Gravy and spinach mashed potato with chicken leg wrapped in bacon. The serving was small to the extent that it is not filling for the price tag. No doubt the dish is well done, wrapped with bacon, the chicken taste delicious, but the serving was really a bit small, after finishing it you won't feel full.
Big O is just directly opposite N.Y.D.C (for cakes), located on the second floor of wheelock. The cafe was quite all right i guess, price still consider reasonable, food taste not too bad (except for small servings, or did we order the wrong dish?). Menu also consist of quite a variety of mudpies, sweets (their cakes are called sweets), and ice-cream. But there's haato (for ice cream) opposite them also. So i guess you wont really want to order ice cream or cakes from Big O. The rest please : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
"I eat not for the sake of eating, for fulfilment"
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Buffets, i hate buffets. I really do. You know all-you-can-eat buffets are those where they offer a large variety of food, and diners can take as many servings as they want, all this for paying a fixed price? You pay one price then all the food are there for your picking, being human, especially Singaporeans, naturally we are “kiasu” and will want to eat as many as much variety of food as we can. Thats the problem, if don’t eat enough then will feel wasted pay already but never eat more. But if eat too much, u gorge yourself full and at the end of it you’ll feel silly. With that contradictory in mind, sometimes you wonder should i eat more or should i eat just sufficient? O Well..
Sakae Sushi, the place most Singaporeans, if not young people associate with sushi. With 33 Outlets spreading all over the island, its green frog logo are most familar to most people. Colour plates sushi are at $1.90, while premium red plates are at $5.90. Of course, there is the all-you-can-eat lunch, high tea, dinner buffet available at different timing and prices. Besides sushi and sashimi, there are also teppanyaki, yakimono, nabemono, tempura, agemono, ramen/udon/soba and donburi dishes.
For tech-savvy people, you can have “fun” browsing through their menu and placing orders via their web-based, patented Interactive Menu. Unfortunately, during my visit there yesterday, the system was down. O well. Back to the point, went to have high tea buffet (Mon to Fri excluding Public Holidays) 3pm-6pm with my brother, adult price is $16.90 , and youth price is $13.90 .
As everybody knows sakae sushi, and different opinions on whether it is good or not, i shan’t comment much, let the pictures do the talking : )
Some of the things we had:
California, Soft Shell Crab, Ebi Tempura handroll
Ebi Fry, Avocado, Unagi handrollFried Scallop
Udon
Sushi
Total bill was $36 for two person. Service-wise, if don’t think too much still passable, but if really want to scrutinise, ill say not really acceptable. One waitress when cleaning the plates saw that we had some leftover and told us not to waste food and order less as though we were like primary school kids. Come on man, you think i’ll really want to waste food? I also know food is precious, obviously is the dish is not nice and not to my taste then i left it there. O well. Then another waiter while taking the orders gave those not-my-problem altitude. Thats why i always have a love-hate relationship with the 10% service charge that almost most of the restaurants charge now. If your service is good, fine u deserve the tip, but if not the money paid is really unfair to consumers.
Although diff people had diff opinion about the place, some say its good, some say its not, but lets face it, how good a sushi/sashimi can be when you are paying this sort of price? Nevertheless, i'll say Sakae Sushi has done rather a good job providing affordable sushi for the mass public. For those gourmet sushi eaters, avoid this place please : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Dinner's at Manhattan Fish Market (Plaza Singapura)
Savouring seafood has become so affordable these days that diners do not need to confine themselve to only special occasions to have seafood. Among the numerous seafood restaurants, Manhattan Fish Market (MFM) and Fish & Co will immediately come to mind as they offer affordable and delicious seafood that caters to everybody need. MFM is always compare with Fish & Co, as they offer vastly similar menus; fish and seafood. Each has its own strength and weakness, read on to find out more..
MFM specialises in American-style seafood. Its product ranges from fish & chips to Garlic Butter mussels and Red hot whole fish. Manhattan fish & chips, flaming prawn patter, and Manhattan Seafood platter are among its signature dishes.
Fisherman's Giant fried patter ($36.90)
The patter consist fried shrimps, fish, calamari, mushroom with garlic rice and fries. The whole presentation of the food was done very nicely and looks tempting. There was 6 shrimps, with lots of fish, calamari, fries and a generous serving of the garlic rice. The shrimp was very delicious, calamari not too bad, fries well done, and i particularly like the garlic rice (although eating it made me very full). But the fish was a bit of a letdown. By the three of us, we could not finish the patter and left quite a fair bit of fish, fries and rice. For the price, i though it was quite reasonable with such a big serving.
Manhattan Fish & Chips ($9.90)
Manhattan's all time favourite, its fish & chips. We made the fatal mistake of ordering this; not that its not good, but we can’t even finish the patter and yet we ordered this dish. Wasting food is so sinful!! We though that the patter might not be enough for the three of us, so we order the fish to share. The rest you know is history, anyway we did manage to finish this fish, the taste was rather similar to the one i had in Fish & Co. In fact, if you have not tell me which is which, i almost can't tell them apart, mayb except of the size; the one at Fish & Co is too much bigger.
The waiter used a device to flame the sauce that was spread on top of the prawn for the seafood patter. I was rather tempted to order this dish just to see the waiter flame the prawns, but gui tried this dish before and commented that the prawn was burned and not very nice.
To conclude, i will say Manhattan Fish Market is on par with Fish & Co in my opinion. Price wise they are not too far apart, menu wise they offer quite similar items, taste wise i also though they are quite close. MFM had the spectacle flame show, but there is also the consequences that come with it, a strong gas smell around the restaurant. Total bill for three comes up to $66.60. Both MFM and Fish & Co are great place to dine, but after eating there i am thirsty!! They do not include any greens to go along with the main course, yes they do offer salads separately, but can’t they just include some greens in it? You know Singaporeans are getting more and more health conscious, cannot everything fried food : )
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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