Thanks to Sylvia's recommendation, I went down to check out this place recently and yes its truly value for money. In fact, I had been to The Cathay a few times trying to find a place to eat, but always ended up at Billy Bombers. But now that I've found Indulge, I'll be going back for more.
This little piece of haven is hidden behind Shilin Taiwan Chicken stall. Right at the corner waiting to be discovered. The place is quiet and have comfortable seats. Great place to just relax and chill out with friends and love ones.
They have quite a wide spread of food and you'll sure be spoiled for choice. The photos taken of the dishes in the menu is very tempting too. Makes everything look so yummy! Great photography skill! I like the way they arranged the order in their menu. First look in the menu, you'll be greeted by the various types of beverages they have. So you can order your drink first and slowly discover their little wonders inside their menu. I tried their Pink Guava smoothies and its very refreshing. Served in a margarita glass, the amount is just right to quench your thirst and last you through your meal. If you need ice water, you'll have to pay 30cents for it and its refillable.
Food we ordered...
Wok-Braised Fusilli w/Fried Chicken, Shitake Mushroom in Creamy Pesto Sauce @ $8.90 This is an award winning dish and it very well deserved it! The pasta was cooked to the right texture and the creamy pesto sauce is well blended into the fusilli. This dish is very easy to eat and you just need your spoon. Every bite into this is like being transported to creamy pesto land. Unlike other places where they sliced their mushroom, at Indulge, they cut it in slightly bigger chunks so that you can savor the mushroom and not get blended together with the pasta and sauce. The fried chicken is very crispy and juicy too. But not recommended for those on diet. Fried chicken plus pasta in cream sauce... ermm... wrong choice.
Crispy Dory Pasta w/White Wine Sauce @ $8.90 This one looks good and the white wine is mixed well with the pasta. The fish seem crispy too. Overall the person who ate this said was good.
Stir Fried Beef Strips Pasta w/Tomato Cream Sauce @ $7.90 This one looks like pasta in curry. The person who ate this said the first few bites tasted weird, but after that it's actually very pleasant. The sauce I tried a little was very tomato-cy. But this person said mine tasted better. (Of cos lah! Award winning leh!)
Overall Indulge really deserves to get 5/5. For its value for money and yummy pasta. It's much better than the one I had previously at the other pasta place. And its half the price! Serving wise, its the same and its good to fill one hungry man. We had problem finishing up ours even!
I've a feeling this will be one place I'll visit frequently.
Updated 26 Feb 2008...
I WENT BACK AGAIN!
Yap! Thanks to the group I'm volunteering, they had our recent meet-up at Indulge, I went back again for dinner and it's fantastic! This time I tried their Grilled Ribeye with Mushroom Braised. It's yet another of their award winning dish. One thing I regretted is to order for a medium-done one. Usually I would order for it to be medium-rare, so its a little too tough for me. But still its good. The mushroom braised complemented the beef well and the cold potatoe that came beneath the steak was very yummy too! The steak comes with rice and soup too! Which I didn't expect. The rice was very fragrant and the soup is simple yet flavorful. For drink, I ordered Lychee Smoothies. I love it too! Refreshing and quenched my thirst. I enjoyed the food alot. There's so much more waiting for me to try! Looks like I'll be going back often.
Went back to Astons Express recently to try their steak. The first time I was there, I didn't know they were supposed to be very good at the steak. So I had chicken chop then.
Now that I'm a Yebber, I get to learn so much more about food and what not, I'm a better educated eater now. Haha!
I tried their ehh... I can't remember the name! It's a $11.90 sirloin steak with mushroom sauce. I had fries and coslaw for my sides.
The steak was cooked just right with slightly charred exterior. First few bites were great, but I think the fries filled me up faster than I expected. I loveeee the fries. Its crunchy and the chili powder they sprinkle on it makes it ultra sexy. (haha! yap! sexy! I loveee eating it. Makes me high! haha!) Coslaw was good too.
My bf had grilled fish which was very nice too. Slightly crispy exterior and soft in the inside. The pasta salad that came with it was tasteful too.
Will sure go back whenever I can. Lovee the fries!
Bored of friendster or myspace or other social web portals which promise you fun and discovery, yet fail to deliver? Well, look no further 'cos here's a place where you can meet new people, keep in touch with your friends, write on walls (without getting screamed at!) engage in texas holdem, bet on pet races, trade stocks........ and the list goes on!
Facebook allows users to add tons of external applications onto their profile! Instead of the usual boring "About Me", "Interests", "Who I want to meet" and "Favourite Music/TV shows/Movies", Facebook lets the applications do the talking! As they said, a picture says a thousand words!
There are many different applications designed to cater to different users' various interests. Should users feel like spreading or sharing their interests with friends, they will be given an option to select friends to send the application to! You'll never be alone!
Should you find yourself bored, simply log onto your account and start doing different tests to kill time. These tests are fun and exciting and not to forgot, very refreshing and light-hearted! A very good way of destressing!
Certain applications also help to polish certain skills which may come in handy in life. Personally, i am completely useless when it comes to betting or investing, or simply just doing things to make my money grow. Also, for the longest time, my mom has been against furry animals as pets. Therefore, i added the (fluff)Friend application! This application has allowed me to raise my very own baby kangaroo (something i'll never have in real life), buy (fluff)food for it and feed it to increase its speed when racing! Also, i get to practice betting on the races! Its very useful to me because i've managed to experiment with many different methods of betting, and finally discovered a safe and profitable way of making munny, which is the fluff currency. Even if i lost munny, no worries! I can simply go around petting other (fluff)owner's pets and i get 5 munny for doing so! Its all very easy and enjoyable!
The only thing about Facebook which is not so good, is that while you get to enjoy so many applications and even engage in activities which you are not able to in real life, the profile page will get untidy and rather unsightly if left unorganized. Therefore users HAVE to take the time to organize the boxes on the profile time and again to ensure that your profile is not a pain to look at!
I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90) My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90) Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90) Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90) New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90) We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90) The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90) One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80) As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
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 : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
This is THE zhi char stall that my family love going. We've been there many many times. So often that my father will just help himself to the chili (lots and lots of this! cos its sooo devine!), rice and whatever that's available at the counter. The workers also don't know what to say to him lah. Haha!
When asked to find a place for dinner, my parents of cos recommended Jin Wei. So the entire family gathered there for our reunion dinner.
Some of the must try dishes... The Thai-style aka Assam Fish Head Cereal Prawn and a special Tofu MUST TRY!! (can't remember the name, but this dish will not be served on special nights like CNY. Cos its hard to produce and everyone will sure want to order this dish. )
The Thai-style aka Assam Fish Head The assam curry is cooked to the right sour-ness and spiciness. My family can just drink this on its on! The fish is fresh and meat is soft and tender. Don't mixed this up with the claypot curry fish head. Be sure to order the Assam fish head that's served on a flat plate on heat.
Cereal Prawn Fresh prawns fried and blended with finely chopped cereals. Crispy and fragrance. The prawns are sweet and juicy even thou its fried. Love love love this dish!
Fried Tofu aka Golden Tofu or something like that. As mentioned, this is the DIE DIE MUST TRY dish. It's one of their specialties and HOT favorite. Whenever I go, I insist on ordering this tofu. It's crispy, soft, fragrance, yummy, delicious and simply great lah! Just go and try if you have the chance to lah!
Went to decoder cafe over the weekend for Pingsters gathering. Initially I was reluctant to go on my own as I have no idea where Balmoral Plaza was. There wasn't any direct way of getting there from my house. But still, not wanting to miss the fun with fellow bloggers, I spent 30mins searching online on ways to getting there. Finally found the fastest way... Take bus to Sengkang station... take NEL to Little India.. take 170, 48, or 960 from bus stop at Exit B (or was it A?)... alight at the 5th stop infront of Balmoral Plaza. It's not that difficult to get there after all!
I was greeted by the hugeee collection of games at the entrance of the cafe. Behind it were two computers set up for customers to use for free. (Can do live blogging from there! hee...) The place is small and cosy. There's 3 sets of bigger tables and chairs and 2/3 tables for groups of 2-4. Tables and chairs were of nice height and comfortable enough for long hours of play.
The menu was thematically designed to fit into the gaming environment. They cleverly made it in a way that they can expand or change the menu whenever they have to. And in my opinion, they probably have to soon...
Feeling famished, I ordered my favorite mushroom and cream pasta, and topped it up with $3.50 for the soup and a drink. When the soup was served, I knew what I was going to expect for my pasta. The soup was a tad too diluted. When I saw my pasta, the cream that came with it was diluted too. Too plain for me. The only thing I enjoyed was the canned green tea from Heaven and Earth.
However, food aside, I still love this place! For its friendly, attentive and helpful staff. They are very patient when teaching you the games and demonstrating how its played.
The next time I go, I'll probably stick to their finger food and cakes. Wedges and chicken bites look good. (More stars next time if they improve on their menu.)
This was where I spent my Valentine's day this year. Met up with my girlfriend for dinner as my bf had class that night. We arranged to meet at Marina Square and only decided where to eat when she reached the place. She went to couple others but were rejected as they were fully booked for the night.
As we've both never been to Pasta de Waraku, and I wanted to try it long ago ever since I saw their display outside, we decided to try it, since it wasn't fully booked and my friend managed to get a table immediately.
The lady serving us was very friendly and nice. As it was our first time, we had many questions, and she patiently explained to us and answered our questions... with a smile. :)
Finally we settled on our choice and were ready to order. My friend had a Chicken & Mushroom with Japanese style curry @ $16.80 and I ordered the Octopus and Squid pasta with their special, supposed to be healthy, Wafu sauce @ $14.80 (minus the mayo).
After tasting both pasta, I concluded that the Chicken & Mushroom (No. 38 on the menu) is better. I like the curry taste (non-spicy). And its a unique way of eating pasta. My order was disappointing. I had to add tons of chili flakes and cheese to flavor it. Perhaps I shouldn't have selected the healthier choice.
Might think twice the next time I'm around one. Sketches serves better pasta.
Chijmes was the atmospheric setting for our Valentine’s Day dinner.
Having undergone a stunning facelift as a national heritage site, Chijmes is now a trendy dining and leisure spot.
Having dined at its sister outlet – Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Café, at Wheelock Place, I was pretty positive that the standard of the food served at Japanese Dining Sun @ Chijmes would pleased both our taste buds.
Without a doubt, we ordered Sashimi – Hamachi, or yellowtail, and Salmon Belly for the appetiser. I have to commend that it was one of the best sashimi I have ever tasted.
Not only was the chef generous in the thick slicing of the fish, each serving of sashimi was thoughtfully packed with ice at the bottom, to keep the fish chilled and fresh for consumption. The manager also recommended the Grilled Anchovies with Japanese Mayonnaise, which is pretty tasty when, go along with Hot Sake.
Speaking of which it was pretty interesting as the waitress brought out a basket of ceramic sake cups in different shapes and sizes, and ask us to pick one each.
For our starter, I opted for the Tuna Belly Sushi, or Otoro. Part of the Tuna’s lower belly which contains high fat content, Otoro is a highly prized fish in Japanese dining that is rich in taste and silky in texture.
And it is said the best time for consuming Otoro is during peak winter period (Nov – Feb), where the fish accumulates the most fats. For mains, we went with their signature Kamameshi (traditional steamed seasoned rice pot) of Beef and Foie Gras. They came served in traditional Japanese wooden pots.
Atop each pot stood an hourglass to indicate the end of one minute — the time required for the piping hot steam to permeate the rice casserole within. This method of cooking, apparantly dates back to the 19th century.
The beef slices was tender and marinated to taste, and the Foie Gras was sinfully excellent. Added to the fact that the rice is cooked just nicely as compared to my 1st experience at Sun with Moon, the Kamameshi was excellent this time round.
To round up the wonderful night, I went for piece of delightful Tofu Cheesecake that I have been carving for ever since I tried it, and she decided on the Kyodango & Warabi Mochi platter that comes with opaque yellow bean squares.
I am not a big fan of flour but I have to say that the mochi were delightfully smooth and soft, but however the sweetened thick soy sauce that goes over it is a bit of an acquired taste.
You can view the photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
After reading and hearing so much raving reviews about this dim sum place, I am surprised to realise that it is located near my workplace. Situated at ground level of Sunshine Plaza (Not to be mistaken for Sun Plaza at Sembawang MRT), this outlet is tiny compared to all other grand Chinese restaurant we are familiar with.
It is at the corner of this mall that you will find Victor’s Kitchen. Having numerous experiences as a dim sum chef, Victor and his wife moved to Singapore from Hong Kong.
Because of the limited tables available, make sure you come early if you do not wish to wait too long for a table during weekday’s lunch, or a weekend brunch. For the price I was paying, I was blown away by the sheer number of quality items they served.
For the Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce, I would prefer whole black beans be used to bring out more flavour instead of bits of it, but nevertheless, it was very tender and tasty still. The Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai was also incredible.
The skin is soft and the size is just right - any bigger and it would be too filling. The Char Siew Cheong Fun was simply delicious.
The rice roll is smooth, and texture so soft. To top it off, the Zha Leong (Doughstick wrap in rice roll) version was even better.
With one bite, you have yin of the smooth rice roll, and the yang of the crispy doughstick - the combination was simply unbelievable. Without a doubt, the one item that a diner never fails to order during dim sum would be that of Har Kau, or the prawn dumpling. At Victor’s Kitchen, the Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling is known as his specialty.
The huge prawns were juicy and the skin of the dumpling soft - yet does not fall off easily (unlike many I have experienced that falls off, the moment I picked them off from the steamer). The other laudable mention is the Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice.
The rice is so fragrant and soft, and I simply find the ingredients irresistible – from the tender chicken chunks, to the Chinese sausages, to the juicy mushrooms and the tasty salted egg yolk. If you are a dim sum fan, you would know what I mean when I say that you would never get such a high quality dim sum for such a price.
The Deep Fried Spring Roll was simply awesome! Freshly fried and thus crispy and burning hot, every bite gives you a crunching sensation. Although I would prefer it to come with some sweet sauce rather than the vinegar dip that comes with the dish.
The Phoenix Porridge, or Century Egg and Chicken Porridge was also very yummy. Not starchy unlike most congee, the porridge was easy for the throat to slurp down. Indgredients were also generous with huge chunks of century egg and big pieces of chicken strips. However the only drawback is that you would have to finish it as soon as possible or it would start to turn watery.
Saving the best for the most deserved would be Milky Custard Bun. The dough is soft and fluffy and the egg custard was sweet and runny. What gave it the "Oomph" was the delightful salted egg yolk in the midst of it. A simply fab combination!
You can view the photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
1=SGD 0.0587
Value for money!
Thanks to Sylvia's recommendation, I went down to check out this place recently and yes its truly value for money. In fact, I had been to The Cathay a few times trying to find a place to eat, but always ended up at Billy Bombers. But now that I've found Indulge, I'll be going back for more.
This little piece of haven is hidden behind Shilin Taiwan Chicken stall. Right at the corner waiting to be discovered. The place is quiet and have comfortable seats. Great place to just relax and chill out with friends and love ones.
They have quite a wide spread of food and you'll sure be spoiled for choice. The photos taken of the dishes in the menu is very tempting too. Makes everything look so yummy! Great photography skill! I like the way they arranged the order in their menu. First look in the menu, you'll be greeted by the various types of beverages they have. So you can order your drink first and slowly discover their little wonders inside their menu. I tried their Pink Guava smoothies and its very refreshing. Served in a margarita glass, the amount is just right to quench your thirst and last you through your meal. If you need ice water, you'll have to pay 30cents for it and its refillable.
Food we ordered...
Wok-Braised Fusilli w/Fried Chicken, Shitake Mushroom in Creamy Pesto Sauce @ $8.90
This is an award winning dish and it very well deserved it! The pasta was cooked to the right texture and the creamy pesto sauce is well blended into the fusilli. This dish is very easy to eat and you just need your spoon. Every bite into this is like being transported to creamy pesto land. Unlike other places where they sliced their mushroom, at Indulge, they cut it in slightly bigger chunks so that you can savor the mushroom and not get blended together with the pasta and sauce. The fried chicken is very crispy and juicy too. But not recommended for those on diet. Fried chicken plus pasta in cream sauce... ermm... wrong choice.
Crispy Dory Pasta w/White Wine Sauce @ $8.90
This one looks good and the white wine is mixed well with the pasta. The fish seem crispy too. Overall the person who ate this said was good.
Stir Fried Beef Strips Pasta w/Tomato Cream Sauce @ $7.90
This one looks like pasta in curry. The person who ate this said the first few bites tasted weird, but after that it's actually very pleasant. The sauce I tried a little was very tomato-cy. But this person said mine tasted better. (Of cos lah! Award winning leh!)
Overall Indulge really deserves to get 5/5. For its value for money and yummy pasta. It's much better than the one I had previously at the other pasta place. And its half the price! Serving wise, its the same and its good to fill one hungry man. We had problem finishing up ours even!
I've a feeling this will be one place I'll visit frequently.
Updated 26 Feb 2008...
I WENT BACK AGAIN!
Yap! Thanks to the group I'm volunteering, they had our recent meet-up at Indulge, I went back again for dinner and it's fantastic! This time I tried their Grilled Ribeye with Mushroom Braised. It's yet another of their award winning dish. One thing I regretted is to order for a medium-done one. Usually I would order for it to be medium-rare, so its a little too tough for me. But still its good. The mushroom braised complemented the beef well and the cold potatoe that came beneath the steak was very yummy too! The steak comes with rice and soup too! Which I didn't expect. The rice was very fragrant and the soup is simple yet flavorful. For drink, I ordered Lychee Smoothies. I love it too! Refreshing and quenched my thirst. I enjoyed the food alot. There's so much more waiting for me to try! Looks like I'll be going back often.
Rating given:
Went back to Astons Express recently to try their steak. The first time I was there, I didn't know they were supposed to be very good at the steak. So I had chicken chop then.
Now that I'm a Yebber, I get to learn so much more about food and what not, I'm a better educated eater now. Haha!
I tried their ehh... I can't remember the name! It's a $11.90 sirloin steak with mushroom sauce. I had fries and coslaw for my sides.
The steak was cooked just right with slightly charred exterior. First few bites were great, but I think the fries filled me up faster than I expected. I loveeee the fries. Its crunchy and the chili powder they sprinkle on it makes it ultra sexy. (haha! yap! sexy! I loveee eating it. Makes me high! haha!) Coslaw was good too.
My bf had grilled fish which was very nice too. Slightly crispy exterior and soft in the inside. The pasta salad that came with it was tasteful too.
Will sure go back whenever I can. Lovee the fries!
Rating given:
Bored of friendster or myspace or other social web portals which promise you fun and discovery, yet fail to deliver? Well, look no further 'cos here's a place where you can meet new people, keep in touch with your friends, write on walls (without getting screamed at!) engage in texas holdem, bet on pet races, trade stocks........ and the list goes on!
Facebook allows users to add tons of external applications onto their profile! Instead of the usual boring "About Me", "Interests", "Who I want to meet" and "Favourite Music/TV shows/Movies", Facebook lets the applications do the talking! As they said, a picture says a thousand words!
There are many different applications designed to cater to different users' various interests. Should users feel like spreading or sharing their interests with friends, they will be given an option to select friends to send the application to! You'll never be alone!
Should you find yourself bored, simply log onto your account and start doing different tests to kill time. These tests are fun and exciting and not to forgot, very refreshing and light-hearted! A very good way of destressing!
Certain applications also help to polish certain skills which may come in handy in life. Personally, i am completely useless when it comes to betting or investing, or simply just doing things to make my money grow. Also, for the longest time, my mom has been against furry animals as pets. Therefore, i added the (fluff)Friend application! This application has allowed me to raise my very own baby kangaroo (something i'll never have in real life), buy (fluff)food for it and feed it to increase its speed when racing! Also, i get to practice betting on the races! Its very useful to me because i've managed to experiment with many different methods of betting, and finally discovered a safe and profitable way of making munny, which is the fluff currency. Even if i lost munny, no worries! I can simply go around petting other (fluff)owner's pets and i get 5 munny for doing so! Its all very easy and enjoyable!
The only thing about Facebook which is not so good, is that while you get to enjoy so many applications and even engage in activities which you are not able to in real life, the profile page will get untidy and rather unsightly if left unorganized. Therefore users HAVE to take the time to organize the boxes on the profile time and again to ensure that your profile is not a pain to look at!
Rating given:
I have a confession to make, i’ll have to admit New Harbour Cafe wasn’t my first choice for dinner. My initial preference for our gathering was at Tuckshop (also on the same stretch of road at Tanjong Pagar).
Well, the catastrophe occurs like this, i din make any reservation because i wasn’t sure whether my friends wanted to go to Tuckshop, so we just happily set off there. It was a long 15-20 min walk from Outram MRT, please be smart and take the Tanjong Pagar MRT instead. When we finally reach Tuckshop, the whole place was empty, right at 7pm. To our dismay, the waiteress told us the cafe is fully booked at 730pm and there was NO WAY she can make space for us. Ten of us.
Now its my turn to panic, since i was the organiser and i din have a back-up plan because i thought Tuckshop will be available. We walk around (not easy to bring a big group around looking for a dining place), and finally settled on New Harbour Cafe, simply because i have no other alternatives.
At any rate, you might be wondering whether you should continue reading through this entry since i already said New Harbour cafe was because there was no other selection, well you should, don’t write off the place, just yet.
New Harbour Cafe is located at Tanjong Pagar, a whole stretch of road that houses many pubs, & wedding bridal shops. A Cafe & Bar theme concept, New Harbour Cafe was rather empty when we got there, but after we got seated the other diners soon fill up the seats.
One of the minus point of the place was the dim lighting. Definitely not a good place for food bloggers to be, well unless you got superb cameras, which i do not have as you can see from the pictures : (
N.Z Sirloin Steak & Mash ($17.90)
My friend had the N.Z Sirloin Steak well done. Gosh, i was thinking can a well done steak even be eaten? To my suprise, the steak isn’t perfectly well done, there are still blood stains within.
Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($11.90)
Chicken chop with black pepper sauce, accompanied with sides of mushrooms and mashed potatos
Crackling Roast Pork ($14.90)
Roast Pork with crispy crackling served with daily vegetables and mashed potatos. Onion gravy topped with apple sauce. On first look, i though it looks like Roast pork (cos i didn’t see the menu), and to my astonish it really is. Now now, when did you see a cafe serve roast pork as a main before? Mayb i am not yet a experience diner around, but from what i can remember i didn’t see roast pork as main course in all my previous dining experience.
On first bite, the crackling roast pork was crispy, and the apple sauce was a refreshing change to the usual roast pork taste. The apple sauce provided little touches of tangy sweetness with each cut of roast pork. However, this is only good for people with a sweet tooth, or for sharing because the sweetness of the apple sauce does slightly overwhelm your palette. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant experience because the next time i will be able to say i got see Roast Pork as main course before!
Special Chinese New Year Pork Chop ($15.90)
We intially wanted to order Pork Chop with apple sauce, but the waitress highly recommend this instead. Personally i find the pork chop to be all right, but my friend commented that it was too tough.
Harbour Fish & Chips ($12.90)
New Harbour Cafe has a column under its menu titled black board & daily special. There is something special everyday, roast leg of lamb on Mon, Madras curry being on tue, and on wed we have oxtail stew, there is the Hainanese pork chop available on thu, and of course our harbour fish & chips on the friday that we patronise the place.
The crispy exterior was complemented with the soft and fresh interior of the fish, with a faint flavouring of spices. The chips in new harbour cafe was cut in huge wedges shape which i must compliment was quite good.
Grilled Dory Fish Fillet ($12.90)
We had two of this, and the result was rather pleasing. The Grilled dory fish fillet was fresh, together with a squeeze of the lemon, adds a freshing twist to the fish. The serving was generous as well, with a huge cut of fish fillet which two person can actually share.
Spaghetti Alfredo with ham & mushroom ($11.90)
The spaghetti was a nice change with ham & mushroom. Now here, not that my knowledge fails me again, but i don’t remember seeing ham use frequently together with spaghetti? Or am i wrong here? But the usage of ham and mushroom gives me the feeling of pizza rather than spaghetti.
Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger ($12.90)
One word for the burger, Humongous! The Harbour 1/2 lb beef burger was huge, large, enormous, and whatever word you can think of. The beef patty was definitely bigger than the one i had at Botak Jones. If you were to compare both beef burger, the one at Botak there is cheese added which gives the burger another flavouring, but harbour’s one allows the taste of the beef patty without any disturbance as there is no other extra ingredient.
The beef patty was made like all good beef patty, juicy and tender. And the serving of the burger certainly fills one up. With the harbour fries, its tough to finish up the meal.
Brownie with ice cream ($5.80)
As sweet notes to end off the meal, we had the brownie with ice cream. The brownie alone is $3.80 while an additional scope of ice cream makes it $5.80. We only ordered one dessert because most of us are too full after our main course. The brownie was soft and chocolate-ly.
The total bill (10 person) for 9 mains, 7 drinks and 1 desserts comes up to $158.30, which i must say is rather reasonable. The drinks add up quite a fair bit of damages to the bill, $28 for 7 drinks. Otherwise it will even be cheaper. The one positive thing that i’ll like to highlight will be New Harbour Cafe does not charge any GST & service charge. For a large group of us, no extra charges mean easier calculation of the bill. hahahah!
However, the negative aspects of the place will be they do not serve ice water. which leads to us ordering drinks. And like what i mentioned earlier, their cafe has poor lighting, not suitable for taking photos. Service wise not much, the staff there are all foreign workers.
We saw this while we were about to leave, Makansutra salutes them in recognition of their culinary standards & quality. So they can’t be that bad after all, so give them a visit if you are in the area. Even if you don’t like the food, damages will be reduced as their prices are all in the 10s range.
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 : )
” Nothing beats eating with your mates, nothing! “
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My parents had lunch at Boon Tong Kee, half a chicken at $13, and buy back a packet for me @ $3.80.
I'll say the chicken from Boon Tong Kee is quite good, but mayb not good until i will pay $13 for half a chicken. There are better one out there in other neighbour coffee shops really.
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This is THE zhi char stall that my family love going. We've been there many many times. So often that my father will just help himself to the chili (lots and lots of this! cos its sooo devine!), rice and whatever that's available at the counter. The workers also don't know what to say to him lah. Haha!
When asked to find a place for dinner, my parents of cos recommended Jin Wei. So the entire family gathered there for our reunion dinner.
Some of the must try dishes...
The Thai-style aka Assam Fish Head
Cereal Prawn
and a special Tofu MUST TRY!! (can't remember the name, but this dish will not be served on special nights like CNY. Cos its hard to produce and everyone will sure want to order this dish. )
The Thai-style aka Assam Fish Head
The assam curry is cooked to the right sour-ness and spiciness. My family can just drink this on its on! The fish is fresh and meat is soft and tender. Don't mixed this up with the claypot curry fish head. Be sure to order the Assam fish head that's served on a flat plate on heat.
Cereal Prawn
Fresh prawns fried and blended with finely chopped cereals. Crispy and fragrance. The prawns are sweet and juicy even thou its fried. Love love love this dish!
Fried Tofu aka Golden Tofu or something like that.
As mentioned, this is the DIE DIE MUST TRY dish. It's one of their specialties and HOT favorite. Whenever I go, I insist on ordering this tofu. It's crispy, soft, fragrance, yummy, delicious and simply great lah! Just go and try if you have the chance to lah!
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Went to decoder cafe over the weekend for Pingsters gathering. Initially I was reluctant to go on my own as I have no idea where Balmoral Plaza was. There wasn't any direct way of getting there from my house. But still, not wanting to miss the fun with fellow bloggers, I spent 30mins searching online on ways to getting there. Finally found the fastest way... Take bus to Sengkang station... take NEL to Little India.. take 170, 48, or 960 from bus stop at Exit B (or was it A?)... alight at the 5th stop infront of Balmoral Plaza. It's not that difficult to get there after all!
I was greeted by the hugeee collection of games at the entrance of the cafe. Behind it were two computers set up for customers to use for free. (Can do live blogging from there! hee...) The place is small and cosy. There's 3 sets of bigger tables and chairs and 2/3 tables for groups of 2-4. Tables and chairs were of nice height and comfortable enough for long hours of play.
The menu was thematically designed to fit into the gaming environment. They cleverly made it in a way that they can expand or change the menu whenever they have to. And in my opinion, they probably have to soon...
Feeling famished, I ordered my favorite mushroom and cream pasta, and topped it up with $3.50 for the soup and a drink. When the soup was served, I knew what I was going to expect for my pasta. The soup was a tad too diluted. When I saw my pasta, the cream that came with it was diluted too. Too plain for me. The only thing I enjoyed was the canned green tea from Heaven and Earth.
However, food aside, I still love this place! For its friendly, attentive and helpful staff. They are very patient when teaching you the games and demonstrating how its played.
The next time I go, I'll probably stick to their finger food and cakes. Wedges and chicken bites look good. (More stars next time if they improve on their menu.)
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This was where I spent my Valentine's day this year. Met up with my girlfriend for dinner as my bf had class that night. We arranged to meet at Marina Square and only decided where to eat when she reached the place. She went to couple others but were rejected as they were fully booked for the night.
As we've both never been to Pasta de Waraku, and I wanted to try it long ago ever since I saw their display outside, we decided to try it, since it wasn't fully booked and my friend managed to get a table immediately.
The lady serving us was very friendly and nice. As it was our first time, we had many questions, and she patiently explained to us and answered our questions... with a smile. :)
Finally we settled on our choice and were ready to order. My friend had a Chicken & Mushroom with Japanese style curry @ $16.80 and I ordered the Octopus and Squid pasta with their special, supposed to be healthy, Wafu sauce @ $14.80 (minus the mayo).
After tasting both pasta, I concluded that the Chicken & Mushroom (No. 38 on the menu) is better. I like the curry taste (non-spicy). And its a unique way of eating pasta. My order was disappointing. I had to add tons of chili flakes and cheese to flavor it. Perhaps I shouldn't have selected the healthier choice.
Might think twice the next time I'm around one. Sketches serves better pasta.
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Chijmes was the atmospheric setting for our Valentine’s Day dinner.
Having undergone a stunning facelift as a national heritage site, Chijmes is now a trendy dining and leisure spot.
Having dined at its sister outlet – Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Café, at Wheelock Place, I was pretty positive that the standard of the food served at Japanese Dining Sun @ Chijmes would pleased both our taste buds.
Without a doubt, we ordered Sashimi – Hamachi, or yellowtail, and Salmon Belly for the appetiser. I have to commend that it was one of the best sashimi I have ever tasted.
Not only was the chef generous in the thick slicing of the fish, each serving of sashimi was thoughtfully packed with ice at the bottom, to keep the fish chilled and fresh for consumption. The manager also recommended the Grilled Anchovies with Japanese Mayonnaise, which is pretty tasty when, go along with Hot Sake.
Speaking of which it was pretty interesting as the waitress brought out a basket of ceramic sake cups in different shapes and sizes, and ask us to pick one each.
For our starter, I opted for the Tuna Belly Sushi, or Otoro. Part of the Tuna’s lower belly which contains high fat content, Otoro is a highly prized fish in Japanese dining that is rich in taste and silky in texture.
And it is said the best time for consuming Otoro is during peak winter period (Nov – Feb), where the fish accumulates the most fats. For mains, we went with their signature Kamameshi (traditional steamed seasoned rice pot) of Beef and Foie Gras. They came served in traditional Japanese wooden pots.
Atop each pot stood an hourglass to indicate the end of one minute — the time required for the piping hot steam to permeate the rice casserole within. This method of cooking, apparantly dates back to the 19th century.
The beef slices was tender and marinated to taste, and the Foie Gras was sinfully excellent. Added to the fact that the rice is cooked just nicely as compared to my 1st experience at Sun with Moon, the Kamameshi was excellent this time round.
To round up the wonderful night, I went for piece of delightful Tofu Cheesecake that I have been carving for ever since I tried it, and she decided on the Kyodango & Warabi Mochi platter that comes with opaque yellow bean squares.
I am not a big fan of flour but I have to say that the mochi were delightfully smooth and soft, but however the sweetened thick soy sauce that goes over it is a bit of an acquired taste.
You can view the photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
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After reading and hearing so much raving reviews about this dim sum place, I am surprised to realise that it is located near my workplace. Situated at ground level of Sunshine Plaza (Not to be mistaken for Sun Plaza at Sembawang MRT), this outlet is tiny compared to all other grand Chinese restaurant we are familiar with.
It is at the corner of this mall that you will find Victor’s Kitchen. Having numerous experiences as a dim sum chef, Victor and his wife moved to Singapore from Hong Kong.
Because of the limited tables available, make sure you come early if you do not wish to wait too long for a table during weekday’s lunch, or a weekend brunch. For the price I was paying, I was blown away by the sheer number of quality items they served.
For the Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce, I would prefer whole black beans be used to bring out more flavour instead of bits of it, but nevertheless, it was very tender and tasty still. The Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai was also incredible.
The skin is soft and the size is just right - any bigger and it would be too filling. The Char Siew Cheong Fun was simply delicious.
The rice roll is smooth, and texture so soft. To top it off, the Zha Leong (Doughstick wrap in rice roll) version was even better.
With one bite, you have yin of the smooth rice roll, and the yang of the crispy doughstick - the combination was simply unbelievable. Without a doubt, the one item that a diner never fails to order during dim sum would be that of Har Kau, or the prawn dumpling. At Victor’s Kitchen, the Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling is known as his specialty.
The huge prawns were juicy and the skin of the dumpling soft - yet does not fall off easily (unlike many I have experienced that falls off, the moment I picked them off from the steamer). The other laudable mention is the Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice.
The rice is so fragrant and soft, and I simply find the ingredients irresistible – from the tender chicken chunks, to the Chinese sausages, to the juicy mushrooms and the tasty salted egg yolk. If you are a dim sum fan, you would know what I mean when I say that you would never get such a high quality dim sum for such a price.
The Deep Fried Spring Roll was simply awesome! Freshly fried and thus crispy and burning hot, every bite gives you a crunching sensation. Although I would prefer it to come with some sweet sauce rather than the vinegar dip that comes with the dish.
The Phoenix Porridge, or Century Egg and Chicken Porridge was also very yummy. Not starchy unlike most congee, the porridge was easy for the throat to slurp down. Indgredients were also generous with huge chunks of century egg and big pieces of chicken strips. However the only drawback is that you would have to finish it as soon as possible or it would start to turn watery.
Saving the best for the most deserved would be Milky Custard Bun. The dough is soft and fluffy and the egg custard was sweet and runny. What gave it the "Oomph" was the delightful salted egg yolk in the midst of it. A simply fab combination!
You can view the photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
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