Life’s simple pleasures. I liked Mr bean’s tagline, it’s easy enough, and i thought it conveyed the message quite well. I never really noticed it before since i didn’t try them. Have you felt the beauty of a smile, the warmth of a touch or the bliss of simply watching the world go by, the goodness of Mr bean soya milk’s a life simple pleasure.
The branch at Raffles Place MRT is always packed with the office crowd, a light breakfast before starting a new day at work, some beverage for after-lunch, or also a quick bite before going home. My partner thinks that Mr Bean’s definitely better than Jollibean, well it won’t be fair to comment on that since i haven’t try both Mr bean and jolli bean soya milk.
Bandung soya milk My partner’s a fan of their bandung soya milk. I had a sip of it, and although i didn’t really like bandung, the taste was quite all right, not as sweet as i thought it’ll be. In fact it’s quite light, and there’s a subtle hint of soya milk combined with the bandung, certainly a healthier drink compared to having bandung alone.
Taking a quick glance at Mr bean’s menu, they have a wider variety of soya milk, 14 if you included the icy versions, and i am quite intrigued by their honeydew soya milk. Given the wide-spread locations of Mr bean islandwide, it won’t be a problem picking up one of them next time!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Another store which stood out at Lau Pa Sat for its unique name, was Souper! Like the name implied, the food couldn’t be far off from soup, and it did slightly remind me of our Chinese steamed soup with rice. Well except for Souper they had baguette instead of rice to go along with the soup.
There’s four choices, the mushroom, clam chowder, garden salad, and maryland crab soup, which all came in two sizes, the 12oz, and 15oz.
Souper! Value Meal ($6.50) There’s a souper value meal which consisted of a choice soup, baguette, meatballs and bashed potatoes. It’s more worthwhile to get this rather than just the soup and baguette alone. The meatballs were not too bad, and they strike a cord with Ikea’s Swedish meatballs, which also had strawberry jams to accompany the meatballs.
My friend tried the maryland crab soup for the value meal. But somehow we didn’t particularly enjoy the soup, like i always mentioned, i’m not a soup person (other than my mom’s soup of course).
Total cost was $6.50 for the Souper! value meal, which i felt was quite worth the money since there’s a soup, baguette, meatballs, and also bashed potatoes. Nothing fantastic, but it’ll do for a simple lunch. Even though i don’t really like the soup that we had, Souper! does deserved a praise for being the outstanding one in the midst of the many stalls in Lau Pa Sat, for coming out with something different from the norm.
'You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Was really wondering what is nice to eat in raffles city when my girlfriend told me that she is craving for xiao long bao. Frankly speaking, i did not recalled any shop selling xiao long bao in raffles city, but since she is craving for this, i decided to search for it.
Was walking round and round raffles city before i found din tai fung tuck in a corner. It was really not situated anywhere prominent and one could easily missed it. We got a seat pretty quick and we started looking through the menu to see whats good to eat. Although most of the food served was pretty similarly to the other outlets, they have one 'small dish' section which i do not seem to have seen it elsewhere before.
There are quite a few dishes in their 'small dish' section, we decided to try out their toufu. We also ordered some noodles and the crab meat xiao long bao. First served was the 'small dish' toufu, i pretty like the silky soft toufu texture. Paired with the salty soys sauce, it managed to give the plain toufu sufficient flavour. However, one thing i do not really like about this dish is that it is not hot at all. I suddenly realize that this dish could have cooked long time ago and thats probably why it was served so fast. Perhaps, i would think twice before i ordered any of their 'small dish' in future.
Next up was the noodles, personnally find their noodles pretty decent. But, i was more interested in their crab meat xiao long bao. Thinking that the xiao long bao would arrive any time, so we ate our noodles very slowly. Then did we expect that after completeing our noodles, the xiao long bao is still not here yet. Having wait for a total of 30 minutues, the xiao long bao finally arrived. Its definitely a long wait.
But i do think this wait is worth. Ok, initially i thought these xiao long bao would consist of entire crab meat in it. But i was wrong, they actually mixed it with some of their pork ingredient. But the taste was still as good. It is still as juicy with the juice hidden inside the xiao long bao and may dripped out anytime. :)
Overall, i do think that their food is pretty decent and of course they managed to inject creative ideas in the ordinary food. Use the crab meat xiao long bao as an example, its definitely a good try. Service wise, i think they could really be better by informing them how long they will required to wait for their dish before hand. It definitely not very good for customer to finish the rest of their food and to realize that they will have to wait longer for one more dish to arrive.
Reason for choosing this location to have our lunch is because my friend have a 50 dollars voucher from this particular restuarant. So, off we proceed to jumbo at indoor stadium.
As it was a weekday noon, there was really not much people patronizing this restuarant. But guess, they would have quite a substaintial number of diners at night. Beside the air conditioned indoor seating, they have a outdoor seating as well. And seating outdoors will give one a very nice sea view. Really would like to try out the al fresco area, but it was raining heavily on that day, so we can only stick to the air condtioned area.
Service was pretty good when we stepped into this restuarant, they would immediately usher us to our seats, and lay the napkins for us. One very special move is that they even lay napkins for our bags. We were really wondering why they did that. But, i guess i pretty like the way they did that, as this would means out bag won't get stain by our food. :P A very thougtful move indeed!
We ordered a set lunch, which according to the staffs will be more worthwhile when considering the number of people we have. There are a total of eight dishes presented in the set meal and the first dish is of course the platter.
Of course, when ever we thought of platter, we would think of the miserablely small portion of food. But i was impressed with the portion of their platter, most are enough for everyone to have a 2nd serving. This platter includes the fried baby squid, jelly fish, duck floss with long beans and scallop yam rings. The best of all will really have to be the scallop yam rings, I simply loved how the yam melt in my mouth when i sink my teeth on to this dish.
How could we have missed the chilli crab when coming to Jumbo? And their chilli crab is big and not only that they have substainial about of meat in them too. This is really a satisfying treat for all of us there. Some of our friends do not really eat chilli but they still find this crab hotness level within their acceptable range. Of course, how can chilli crab comes without man tou? Orignally we all thought that man tou will be very filling, never did we expect that they are actually mini man tou. Small bit sized man tou where one can simply globed up in one mouth. Of course, one serving of man tou is defintely no enough for us.:P
Some of the other dishes that we took includes the seafood soup, the brocoli with seafood, the steamed fish, the mee goreng, honeydew sago as well as my favorite dish salted egg prawns. I really did not know that when mixing two very simple ingredient together would get such a great combination. The prawns tasted very chewy and juicy and when mixed with the bright yellow salted egg, it will give a nice and fragrant taste. Yummy! Of course, the best thing is they actually shelled all the prawns so one would not need shell them personnally.
Overall, this was a good dining experience. The staffs were attentive to our needs and constantly refilling our drink and changing our used plates. Towards billing time, they even suggested us to get the jumbo card which can give us a 20% off the total bill, which will give us more discount than the voucher. Well, i believe these small move of placing customer benefits at the first place can be termed as good customer service.
Sits within the lush of its own thousand square foot garden, surrounded by trees and foliage, one can either choose to dine al fresco at Cicada’s charming outdoor patio and enjoy the serenity of its garden setting, or a spacious indoor dining area amid candle-lit, soft music environment for a more cooling dining experience.
Situated just a stone’s throw away from Pietrasanta, The Italian Restaurant and the iconic Colbar Eating House, this marketed and positioned as a French-Californian restaurant is another lovechild of nightclub boss-turned restaurateur Mr Michel Lu, after alfresco bars Hacienda at Dempsey, and Superfamous in Boat Quay. 1-for-1 Happy Hours are from 12pm to 9pm; as such ½ pint of Heineken Draft Beer at $10 is essentially $5 each.
Appetiser was Pan Seared Blue Fin Tuna Salad ($15.90). Considered the prized-catch among tunas, the fish was seared adeptly and came with a nice firm bite but otherwise, it was lacklustre in taste and balsamic vinaigrette seeks to engulf the flavour all the more.
Personally, HFB thought the Sautéed Organic Mushrooms ($6.90) was probably the best dish for that night. Infused with the aromatic flavours of White Cooking Wine and a tint of sweetness from the Cherry Tomatoes, the mushrooms topped with fresh herbs was palatable and produced a nice texture for nibble. However a question looms – HFB wonders there is any different in taste and texture between normal or organic mushrooms?
If you have yet to know, Cicada is famously known to serve a wicked burger dish, which goes by the name of “The Infamous Cicada Burger” priced at $28.90. Served with thick-cut fries, which was slightly dry for me – sandwiched in between two pieces of bread are lip-smacking ingredients consisting of Caramelised Onions, Mushrooms, Gorgonzola & Gruyere Cheese and none other than the marbled Wagyu Beef as patty.
However, joy soon dissipated in frustration as my requested doneness of medium-rare for the beef came well done (again!). A request for change was pretty redundant as the patty was just slightly better – done medium well perhaps. Tired of waiting (and be disappointed yet again), HFB grudgingly finished his food and paid his bill without ordering desserts.
Overall, HFB wasn’t impressed by the food – which seemingly reminded him of PS Café at Dempsey – cosy ambience suitable for couples on first date, but no depth in terms of the fare served.
You can view all the photos and other reviews here.
Generally a pleasing site to voyeur. Very clean cut, uncluttered and neatly organized.
I like it that they have the individual sections (tops, dress, scarves etc.) so its very easy for potential customers to navigate.
The site also uses pastel colours which is very pleasing to the eyes and gives you a very relaxed feeling when you're browsing around. That's a good thing because its always important to make sure potential customers feel comfortable because it makes them want to continue browsing for more things at their own pace.
Some online stores use too many flashy and loud colours, coupled with even more flash animations all over, it can be quite a headache. But Tataro Land doesn't over-clutter their pages, so its good.
The shopping cart function also makes things a lot easier because customers don't have to go through the hassel of remembering item names and item numbers and having to email to order and stuff. I understand that the shopping cart function is rather costly, so i appreciate that they have gone the extra mile to include the function instead of trying to cut back on set-up costs.
The clothes are very nice and very unique, but that may be a bit of a problem because it is such that only a targetted group of people will be able to appreciate it as it is not something that a big group of people would wear.
Updates seem to be rather slow... been observing it for a while now.
All in all, its a pretty pleasant online store so check it out and see if you can find your true style at Tataro Land!
Had been meaning to try out Vittles for quite a while and the opportunity finally presented itself one rainy afternoon. Apparently this small heartland cafe has been featured in quite a few media vehicles as well as in various prominent food blogs. Whats seemingly interesting about this place is the free flow of popcorn that you can help yourself to.
Vittles sits among a short stretch of shops along Sembawang Road and can be difficult to spot especially if you are not alert, which was precisely what happened to me and I had to circle the area a couple of times before I finally spotted it. The place offers an alfresco sitting as well as a smaller air conditioned interior and comes across as very "cafeish" with its white plastic chairs and laminted menus.
Julius Caesar Salad - As great as Julius Caesar was in Roman history, this salad bearing the namesake wasn't the least impressive, coming across as average and run off the mill. And just to set the record straight, no, Julius Caesar didn't invent the caesar salad.
Moo Moo II Burger - One of the signature dishes of Vittles, the Moo Moo Burger looked a tad smaller then what I had seen in photographs, which was a bummer really. Texture wise, the patty was relatively smooth with patches of roughness throughout (an indication of slip shod hand chopping?) and managed to retain some moisture even though it was cooked till well done. My major grouse came in the taste section. The patty was covered/drowned with BBQ sauce which greatly overwhelmed whatever taste the beef patty had to offer as well as that of the bacon and cheese.
Durian Mousse - I couldn't resist ordering the durian mousse even though it cost something to the tune of $7. I must say that it was quite decent - smooth and not too sweet although the mousse was a tad too dry. Not something that I'll order again though, simply because of its small portions.
While its comforting to know that $29 can buy you a soup, salad, main and dessert at Vittles, its not exactly value for money as food quality is a whisker above average at best. A return seems highly improbable for me as Carl's Junior does seem like a cheaper option.
Started way back in 1921 at Hock Lam Street, this brand of authentic Teochew Beef Kway Teow recipe was brought in by a certain Mr Tan from Swatow, China, and the rest, as they say, is history. So famous (or popular as stated on their signboard), is Hock Lam Street Beef Kway Teow that it is seen as the benchmark for the rest of the beef noodle stalls – or at least that is what HFB thinks.
What is so special about their soup-based, said to be boiled for at least 18 hours, is the additional of Preserved Salted Vegetables that gave it an extra ‘kick’ to the fairly light flavoured soup, or ‘Cheng’ as how the Teochews described it, although HFB finds it inconsistently salty at times having tried it on separate occasions. Prices ranges from $4.50 (small), $5.50 (medium) to $6.50 (large), and one has a choice of Kway Teow, Bee Hoon and Mee. One can also have a combination of Sliced Beef, Beef Tripe (Stomach), Beef Brisket (Cooked Meat), Beef Liver, Beef Ball, and for an additional of $1.00 – Beef Tendon.
The small portion of Sliced Beef with Beef Ball Kway Teow Soup was pretty pathetic in my opinion – unless one is not very hungry during lunchtime, braving the crowd for such a small serving is simply not worth the effort. Besides, the beef ball is definitely factory produced and not handmade, which is a disappointment considering the legacy of this eatery.
The medium portion of Sliced Beef, Beef Ball and Beef Brisket Kway Teow was slightly more adequate and the brisket was palatable – it is intense with flavour and malleable to consume.
The thin version of kway teow used was also something HFB is happy about - it was pretty smooth to slurp, although compared to Tuck Kee Sar Hor Fun, it was nowhere close in standard.
Hardcore Teochew Beef Kway Teow fans would also be delighted to discover that their original dry version comes with an additional topping of Grinded Peanuts to give it an extra crunch, the familiar Chinchaluk (shrimp paste sauce), and a pretty ‘solid’ chilli to go with.
You can view the all photos and other reviews here.
Had dinner at Seafood Paradise @ Defu, the original and mass market seafood offering from Paradise Group, which has another outlet bearing the same name at the Singapore Flyer and also runs the excellent fine dining restaurant, Taste Paradise ,at Mosque Street. This wildly popular restaurant started out as a humble 25 seater cze char stall in 2002 and has since expanded its premises to accommodate more then 200 people, which is by no means a small feat.
Hidden within the Defu industrial estate, Seafood Paradise @ Defu isn't exactly located at the most convenient of places and people who are unfamiliar with the area might have quite a bit of difficulty trying to get there. The restaurant offers both alfresco and air conditioned dining and please be warned that turning up without reservations at prime time slots like 7pm to 830pm would probably leave you without a table.
Wasabi Prawns - A signature dish of Seafood Paradise, the wasabi prawns certainly lived up to its hype in my humble opinion. The prawns were fresh and huge with a nice crunchy texture beneath its slightly crispy exterior. Topped with sweet mango slices, pine nuts and dragon fruit seeds, I did think that the wasabi was a tad strong this time round, giving me a minor headache. But all in all a very good eat.
Homemade Beancurd in Seafood Sauce - The small serving of beancurd was quite a size (for 3-4 pax) and came across as silkily smooth with a very faint hint of the smokey aftertaste that I personally like. The generous meat floss atop gave it a nice sweet bearing while the savoury gravy had cubes of prawns, sea cucumber and squid. Very satisfying, to me at least.
Egg White and Scallop on Broccoli - I thought that this simple vegetable dish was very well executed with the broccoli not too soft from overcooking while the gravy had a very nice savoury taste. The scallops weren't overcooked as well and the egg white was plentiful sans the raw and mildy nauseating aftertaste that plague most such dishes. Probably the only fault I can find with this dish is the excessive oil in it, which would probably scare off the more health conscious folks.
Whole Ribs in Honey Pepper Sauce - Another signature dish of Seafood Paradise, the ribs were well seasoned without being the meat being too hard and carried with it a light sweetness from the honey with a placid pepperish undertone. But some might find it a tad too sweet for their liking, ie, my gf.
A dinner that costs close to $70 for 2 pax isn't what I would call cheap but I cannot deny the quality of food that Seafood Paradise offers. Just for the record, we had to doggy bag most of the ribs (3 out of 4 pieces) as both of us were too stuffed to eat anymore. Service was excellent as well although they could have been a little more organised in the reservations. People waiting up to 30 mins for a table even with reservations is definitely a big no no.
MmM I feel a little weird reading everyone else's review on Jetstar. I've taken Jetstar to Thailand, Siem Reap and Taipei.
Funnily I remember the planes I took to Thailand and Siem Reap were newer and better compared to the one I took recently to Taipei. Odd huh.
Anyways, Jetstar is comparatively cheaper. And compared to other budget carriers, it takes off from the main terminals at Changi so that makes it more convenient to get on. If you book your tickets earlier or during promotional periods you can get $38 / $69 tickets easily. A bargain if you ask me. Early booking can also save $200-$300. I guess if you're taking a short flight of 3-4 hours it's a good deal.
Since it's cheaper (provided you dun buy tickets last minute), there's no inflight entertainment and no free meals. Bottled water costs $3 for a 400ml bottle which is REALLY expensive. A sandwich costs $8 and there isn't much inside. No cool free gifts in the compartment waiting for you and no free blankets if you're cold. Seats are alright, the usual crammed economy seats but a good number may not be able to recline at all.
So I guess to really make most of your flight on Jetstar, eat just before you board, load videos into your lappie, bring newspapers/books for entertainment.
1=SGD 0.0587
Life’s simple pleasures. I liked Mr bean’s tagline, it’s easy enough, and i thought it conveyed the message quite well. I never really noticed it before since i didn’t try them. Have you felt the beauty of a smile, the warmth of a touch or the bliss of simply watching the world go by, the goodness of Mr bean soya milk’s a life simple pleasure.
The branch at Raffles Place MRT is always packed with the office crowd, a light breakfast before starting a new day at work, some beverage for after-lunch, or also a quick bite before going home. My partner thinks that Mr Bean’s definitely better than Jollibean, well it won’t be fair to comment on that since i haven’t try both Mr bean and jolli bean soya milk.
Bandung soya milk
My partner’s a fan of their bandung soya milk. I had a sip of it, and although i didn’t really like bandung, the taste was quite all right, not as sweet as i thought it’ll be. In fact it’s quite light, and there’s a subtle hint of soya milk combined with the bandung, certainly a healthier drink compared to having bandung alone.
Taking a quick glance at Mr bean’s menu, they have a wider variety of soya milk, 14 if you included the icy versions, and i am quite intrigued by their honeydew soya milk. Given the wide-spread locations of Mr bean islandwide, it won’t be a problem picking up one of them next time!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Another store which stood out at Lau Pa Sat for its unique name, was Souper! Like the name implied, the food couldn’t be far off from soup, and it did slightly remind me of our Chinese steamed soup with rice. Well except for Souper they had baguette instead of rice to go along with the soup.
There’s four choices, the mushroom, clam chowder, garden salad, and maryland crab soup, which all came in two sizes, the 12oz, and 15oz.
Souper! Value Meal ($6.50)
There’s a souper value meal which consisted of a choice soup, baguette, meatballs and bashed potatoes. It’s more worthwhile to get this rather than just the soup and baguette alone. The meatballs were not too bad, and they strike a cord with Ikea’s Swedish meatballs, which also had strawberry jams to accompany the meatballs.
My friend tried the maryland crab soup for the value meal. But somehow we didn’t particularly enjoy the soup, like i always mentioned, i’m not a soup person (other than my mom’s soup of course).
Total cost was $6.50 for the Souper! value meal, which i felt was quite worth the money since there’s a soup, baguette, meatballs, and also bashed potatoes. Nothing fantastic, but it’ll do for a simple lunch. Even though i don’t really like the soup that we had, Souper! does deserved a praise for being the outstanding one in the midst of the many stalls in Lau Pa Sat, for coming out with something different from the norm.
'You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Was really wondering what is nice to eat in raffles city when my girlfriend told me that she is craving for xiao long bao. Frankly speaking, i did not recalled any shop selling xiao long bao in raffles city, but since she is craving for this, i decided to search for it.
Was walking round and round raffles city before i found din tai fung tuck in a corner. It was really not situated anywhere prominent and one could easily missed it. We got a seat pretty quick and we started looking through the menu to see whats good to eat. Although most of the food served was pretty similarly to the other outlets, they have one 'small dish' section which i do not seem to have seen it elsewhere before.
There are quite a few dishes in their 'small dish' section, we decided to try out their toufu. We also ordered some noodles and the crab meat xiao long bao. First served was the 'small dish' toufu, i pretty like the silky soft toufu texture. Paired with the salty soys sauce, it managed to give the plain toufu sufficient flavour. However, one thing i do not really like about this dish is that it is not hot at all. I suddenly realize that this dish could have cooked long time ago and thats probably why it was served so fast. Perhaps, i would think twice before i ordered any of their 'small dish' in future.
Next up was the noodles, personnally find their noodles pretty decent. But, i was more interested in their crab meat xiao long bao. Thinking that the xiao long bao would arrive any time, so we ate our noodles very slowly. Then did we expect that after completeing our noodles, the xiao long bao is still not here yet. Having wait for a total of 30 minutues, the xiao long bao finally arrived. Its definitely a long wait.
But i do think this wait is worth. Ok, initially i thought these xiao long bao would consist of entire crab meat in it. But i was wrong, they actually mixed it with some of their pork ingredient. But the taste was still as good. It is still as juicy with the juice hidden inside the xiao long bao and may dripped out anytime. :)
Overall, i do think that their food is pretty decent and of course they managed to inject creative ideas in the ordinary food. Use the crab meat xiao long bao as an example, its definitely a good try. Service wise, i think they could really be better by informing them how long they will required to wait for their dish before hand. It definitely not very good for customer to finish the rest of their food and to realize that they will have to wait longer for one more dish to arrive.
Rating given:
Reason for choosing this location to have our lunch is because my friend have a 50 dollars voucher from this particular restuarant. So, off we proceed to jumbo at indoor stadium.
As it was a weekday noon, there was really not much people patronizing this restuarant. But guess, they would have quite a substaintial number of diners at night. Beside the air conditioned indoor seating, they have a outdoor seating as well. And seating outdoors will give one a very nice sea view. Really would like to try out the al fresco area, but it was raining heavily on that day, so we can only stick to the air condtioned area.
Service was pretty good when we stepped into this restuarant, they would immediately usher us to our seats, and lay the napkins for us. One very special move is that they even lay napkins for our bags. We were really wondering why they did that. But, i guess i pretty like the way they did that, as this would means out bag won't get stain by our food. :P A very thougtful move indeed!
We ordered a set lunch, which according to the staffs will be more worthwhile when considering the number of people we have. There are a total of eight dishes presented in the set meal and the first dish is of course the platter.
Of course, when ever we thought of platter, we would think of the miserablely small portion of food. But i was impressed with the portion of their platter, most are enough for everyone to have a 2nd serving. This platter includes the fried baby squid, jelly fish, duck floss with long beans and scallop yam rings. The best of all will really have to be the scallop yam rings, I simply loved how the yam melt in my mouth when i sink my teeth on to this dish.
How could we have missed the chilli crab when coming to Jumbo? And their chilli crab is big and not only that they have substainial about of meat in them too. This is really a satisfying treat for all of us there. Some of our friends do not really eat chilli but they still find this crab hotness level within their acceptable range. Of course, how can chilli crab comes without man tou? Orignally we all thought that man tou will be very filling, never did we expect that they are actually mini man tou. Small bit sized man tou where one can simply globed up in one mouth. Of course, one serving of man tou is defintely no enough for us.:P
Some of the other dishes that we took includes the seafood soup, the brocoli with seafood, the steamed fish, the mee goreng, honeydew sago as well as my favorite dish salted egg prawns. I really did not know that when mixing two very simple ingredient together would get such a great combination. The prawns tasted very chewy and juicy and when mixed with the bright yellow salted egg, it will give a nice and fragrant taste. Yummy! Of course, the best thing is they actually shelled all the prawns so one would not need shell them personnally.
Overall, this was a good dining experience. The staffs were attentive to our needs and constantly refilling our drink and changing our used plates. Towards billing time, they even suggested us to get the jumbo card which can give us a 20% off the total bill, which will give us more discount than the voucher. Well, i believe these small move of placing customer benefits at the first place can be termed as good customer service.
Rating given:
Sits within the lush of its own thousand square foot garden, surrounded by trees and foliage, one can either choose to dine al fresco at Cicada’s charming outdoor patio and enjoy the serenity of its garden setting, or a spacious indoor dining area amid candle-lit, soft music environment for a more cooling dining experience.
Situated just a stone’s throw away from Pietrasanta, The Italian Restaurant and the iconic Colbar Eating House, this marketed and positioned as a French-Californian restaurant is another lovechild of nightclub boss-turned restaurateur Mr Michel Lu, after alfresco bars Hacienda at Dempsey, and Superfamous in Boat Quay. 1-for-1 Happy Hours are from 12pm to 9pm; as such ½ pint of Heineken Draft Beer at $10 is essentially $5 each.
Appetiser was Pan Seared Blue Fin Tuna Salad ($15.90). Considered the prized-catch among tunas, the fish was seared adeptly and came with a nice firm bite but otherwise, it was lacklustre in taste and balsamic vinaigrette seeks to engulf the flavour all the more.
Personally, HFB thought the Sautéed Organic Mushrooms ($6.90) was probably the best dish for that night. Infused with the aromatic flavours of White Cooking Wine and a tint of sweetness from the Cherry Tomatoes, the mushrooms topped with fresh herbs was palatable and produced a nice texture for nibble. However a question looms – HFB wonders there is any different in taste and texture between normal or organic mushrooms?
If you have yet to know, Cicada is famously known to serve a wicked burger dish, which goes by the name of “The Infamous Cicada Burger” priced at $28.90. Served with thick-cut fries, which was slightly dry for me – sandwiched in between two pieces of bread are lip-smacking ingredients consisting of Caramelised Onions, Mushrooms, Gorgonzola & Gruyere Cheese and none other than the marbled Wagyu Beef as patty.
However, joy soon dissipated in frustration as my requested doneness of medium-rare for the beef came well done (again!). A request for change was pretty redundant as the patty was just slightly better – done medium well perhaps. Tired of waiting (and be disappointed yet again), HFB grudgingly finished his food and paid his bill without ordering desserts.
Overall, HFB wasn’t impressed by the food – which seemingly reminded him of PS Café at Dempsey – cosy ambience suitable for couples on first date, but no depth in terms of the fare served.
You can view all the photos and other reviews here.
Rating given:
Generally a pleasing site to voyeur. Very clean cut, uncluttered and neatly organized.
I like it that they have the individual sections (tops, dress, scarves etc.) so its very easy for potential customers to navigate.
The site also uses pastel colours which is very pleasing to the eyes and gives you a very relaxed feeling when you're browsing around. That's a good thing because its always important to make sure potential customers feel comfortable because it makes them want to continue browsing for more things at their own pace.
Some online stores use too many flashy and loud colours, coupled with even more flash animations all over, it can be quite a headache. But Tataro Land doesn't over-clutter their pages, so its good.
The shopping cart function also makes things a lot easier because customers don't have to go through the hassel of remembering item names and item numbers and having to email to order and stuff. I understand that the shopping cart function is rather costly, so i appreciate that they have gone the extra mile to include the function instead of trying to cut back on set-up costs.
The clothes are very nice and very unique, but that may be a bit of a problem because it is such that only a targetted group of people will be able to appreciate it as it is not something that a big group of people would wear.
Updates seem to be rather slow... been observing it for a while now.
All in all, its a pretty pleasant online store so check it out and see if you can find your true style at Tataro Land!
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Had been meaning to try out Vittles for quite a while and the opportunity finally presented itself one rainy afternoon. Apparently this small heartland cafe has been featured in quite a few media vehicles as well as in various prominent food blogs. Whats seemingly interesting about this place is the free flow of popcorn that you can help yourself to.
Vittles sits among a short stretch of shops along Sembawang Road and can be difficult to spot especially if you are not alert, which was precisely what happened to me and I had to circle the area a couple of times before I finally spotted it.
The place offers an alfresco sitting as well as a smaller air conditioned interior and comes across as very "cafeish" with its white plastic chairs and laminted menus.
Julius Caesar Salad - As great as Julius Caesar was in Roman history, this salad bearing the namesake wasn't the least impressive, coming across as average and run off the mill. And just to set the record straight, no, Julius Caesar didn't invent the caesar salad.
Moo Moo II Burger - One of the signature dishes of Vittles, the Moo Moo Burger looked a tad smaller then what I had seen in photographs, which was a bummer really. Texture wise, the patty was relatively smooth with patches of roughness throughout (an indication of slip shod hand chopping?) and managed to retain some moisture even though it was cooked till well done. My major grouse came in the taste section. The patty was covered/drowned with BBQ sauce which greatly overwhelmed whatever taste the beef patty had to offer as well as that of the bacon and cheese.
Durian Mousse - I couldn't resist ordering the durian mousse even though it cost something to the tune of $7. I must say that it was quite decent - smooth and not too sweet although the mousse was a tad too dry. Not something that I'll order again though, simply because of its small portions.
While its comforting to know that $29 can buy you a soup, salad, main and dessert at Vittles, its not exactly value for money as food quality is a whisker above average at best. A return seems highly improbable for me as Carl's Junior does seem like a cheaper option.
See all my pictures here.
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Started way back in 1921 at Hock Lam Street, this brand of authentic Teochew Beef Kway Teow recipe was brought in by a certain Mr Tan from Swatow, China, and the rest, as they say, is history. So famous (or popular as stated on their signboard), is Hock Lam Street Beef Kway Teow that it is seen as the benchmark for the rest of the beef noodle stalls – or at least that is what HFB thinks.
What is so special about their soup-based, said to be boiled for at least 18 hours, is the additional of Preserved Salted Vegetables that gave it an extra ‘kick’ to the fairly light flavoured soup, or ‘Cheng’ as how the Teochews described it, although HFB finds it inconsistently salty at times having tried it on separate occasions. Prices ranges from $4.50 (small), $5.50 (medium) to $6.50 (large), and one has a choice of Kway Teow, Bee Hoon and Mee. One can also have a combination of Sliced Beef, Beef Tripe (Stomach), Beef Brisket (Cooked Meat), Beef Liver, Beef Ball, and for an additional of $1.00 – Beef Tendon.
The small portion of Sliced Beef with Beef Ball Kway Teow Soup was pretty pathetic in my opinion – unless one is not very hungry during lunchtime, braving the crowd for such a small serving is simply not worth the effort. Besides, the beef ball is definitely factory produced and not handmade, which is a disappointment considering the legacy of this eatery.
The medium portion of Sliced Beef, Beef Ball and Beef Brisket Kway Teow was slightly more adequate and the brisket was palatable – it is intense with flavour and malleable to consume.
The thin version of kway teow used was also something HFB is happy about - it was pretty smooth to slurp, although compared to Tuck Kee Sar Hor Fun, it was nowhere close in standard.
Hardcore Teochew Beef Kway Teow fans would also be delighted to discover that their original dry version comes with an additional topping of Grinded Peanuts to give it an extra crunch, the familiar Chinchaluk (shrimp paste sauce), and a pretty ‘solid’ chilli to go with.
You can view the all photos and other reviews here.
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Had dinner at Seafood Paradise @ Defu, the original and mass market seafood offering from Paradise Group, which has another outlet bearing the same name at the Singapore Flyer and also runs the excellent fine dining restaurant, Taste Paradise ,at Mosque Street. This wildly popular restaurant started out as a humble 25 seater cze char stall in 2002 and has since expanded its premises to accommodate more then 200 people, which is by no means a small feat.
Hidden within the Defu industrial estate, Seafood Paradise @ Defu isn't exactly located at the most convenient of places and people who are unfamiliar with the area might have quite a bit of difficulty trying to get there. The restaurant offers both alfresco and air conditioned dining and please be warned that turning up without reservations at prime time slots like 7pm to 830pm would probably leave you without a table.
Wasabi Prawns - A signature dish of Seafood Paradise, the wasabi prawns certainly lived up to its hype in my humble opinion. The prawns were fresh and huge with a nice crunchy texture beneath its slightly crispy exterior. Topped with sweet mango slices, pine nuts and dragon fruit seeds, I did think that the wasabi was a tad strong this time round, giving me a minor headache. But all in all a very good eat.
Homemade Beancurd in Seafood Sauce - The small serving of beancurd was quite a size (for 3-4 pax) and came across as silkily smooth with a very faint hint of the smokey aftertaste that I personally like. The generous meat floss atop gave it a nice sweet bearing while the savoury gravy had cubes of prawns, sea cucumber and squid. Very satisfying, to me at least.
Egg White and Scallop on Broccoli - I thought that this simple vegetable dish was very well executed with the broccoli not too soft from overcooking while the gravy had a very nice savoury taste. The scallops weren't overcooked as well and the egg white was plentiful sans the raw and mildy nauseating aftertaste that plague most such dishes. Probably the only fault I can find with this dish is the excessive oil in it, which would probably scare off the more health conscious folks.
Whole Ribs in Honey Pepper Sauce - Another signature dish of Seafood Paradise, the ribs were well seasoned without being the meat being too hard and carried with it a light sweetness from the honey with a placid pepperish undertone. But some might find it a tad too sweet for their liking, ie, my gf.
A dinner that costs close to $70 for 2 pax isn't what I would call cheap but I cannot deny the quality of food that Seafood Paradise offers. Just for the record, we had to doggy bag most of the ribs (3 out of 4 pieces) as both of us were too stuffed to eat anymore. Service was excellent as well although they could have been a little more organised in the reservations. People waiting up to 30 mins for a table even with reservations is definitely a big no no.
See all my pictures here.
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MmM I feel a little weird reading everyone else's review on Jetstar. I've taken Jetstar to Thailand, Siem Reap and Taipei.
Funnily I remember the planes I took to Thailand and Siem Reap were newer and better compared to the one I took recently to Taipei. Odd huh.
Anyways, Jetstar is comparatively cheaper. And compared to other budget carriers, it takes off from the main terminals at Changi so that makes it more convenient to get on. If you book your tickets earlier or during promotional periods you can get $38 / $69 tickets easily. A bargain if you ask me. Early booking can also save $200-$300. I guess if you're taking a short flight of 3-4 hours it's a good deal.
Since it's cheaper (provided you dun buy tickets last minute), there's no inflight entertainment and no free meals. Bottled water costs $3 for a 400ml bottle which is REALLY expensive. A sandwich costs $8 and there isn't much inside. No cool free gifts in the compartment waiting for you and no free blankets if you're cold. Seats are alright, the usual crammed economy seats but a good number may not be able to recline at all.
So I guess to really make most of your flight on Jetstar, eat just before you board, load videos into your lappie, bring newspapers/books for entertainment.
Hey. You pay for what you get right? :)
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