TCC at CitiLink (09/09/2007)

Oops! I haven't updated this page in almost 4 months! Whoever reads this - probably not many of you anyway - must be sian and given up reading already! Sorry sorry! Got lazy! Haha..

Here's just a short one, from 9th Sept, at the TCC at CitiLink Mall..

Toasted Camembert cheese! To quote Dear, "Ebichu cheese!", after a short animation series of a house-keeping hamster named Ebichu who loves Camembert.. The fig compote by the side of the plate was a nice accompaniment to the cheese and bread.. I think Dear enjoyed it far more than I did though haha.. I tended to smear only a little on each bite, while he dumped quite a portion on :) Well, waste not, want not :)



Wedges with nacho cheese (an extra serving of cheese as requested by Dear).. We had this a number of times already, and it's yummy as always. I do wonder though, what they do to make the cheese that radioactive orangey-yellow colour!








Verdict: I definitely will be eating the camembert cheese again! I really like it! TCC also revamped their menu a bit, so I'll be eager to try the new dishes they've got to offer :)

Project Shop Blood Brothers Cafe @ Paragon

I met a friend I got to know from JC orientation, April, yesterday for tea. Well, technically it was tea, but it was to last us both till about 10pm at night. She'd looked so different from just 3 months ago! The pounds had just melted off her! We were at Paragon so she could buy presents for her dad and godfather, so, having heard of the Project Shop Blood Brothers Cafe previously, we decided to give it a try.

Crisp bread with homemade dips - some gingery thing that the both of us declined to touch after trying it, sun-dried tomato puree and hummus.. Man I love the latter two, especially the hummus. OK, I like chickpea anyway, and this garlicky chickpea dip/spread was sooooo yummy!







I don't remember the name of this dish, but I can sure tell you (more or less anyway) what it consists of: Risotto cake, roasted red peppers, eggplant, the main veggie that you see here (arugula? I'm not sure), rounds of goat's cheese topped with basil pesto, and drizzled all over with balsamic vinegar.







We'd initially thought that the risotto would be very dry, but instead it was pleasantly chewy, and I liked it, even though I always had the impression that risotto was more moist and creamy. The goat's cheese went well with the leafy greens and the vinegar dressing, I thought, and I happily ate my way through it, since April didn't fancy the goat's cheese at all.

Verdict: Who would have thought I'd be sated with no meat items at all? Smellie called it a "veggie horror" when he saw the pictures, but I was really satisfied with it, and so was she. With good food, a good friend and nutty conversation, the afternoon was lovely :) We didn't get to try the key lime pie April recommended due to time constraints, and the fact that we were both full, but now that I know of this place, if I ever go back there again, I'll definitely try it (and the risotto cake again)!

Fried udon & fuit salad!

It's been a long time since I've updated this space, so I thought I'd break it with a home-cooked lunch!

Pan-fried black pepper udon with luncheon meat, sausages and 小白菜, with an egg to be mixed in afterwards! It wasn't as fragrant as when Mom made it though, so next time, I'm going to try some variations :) Still good though! Oishi!








We made a fruit salad after that. OK, it's just a bunch of mixed fruits really. An orange, 2 mangosteens, 2 red bananas and a large mango :) I realise that most of the things we eat tend to be very yellow, I don't know why. Haha..but this looks like a very bright and sunshiney salad! I like!







Verdict: Another item to things that I'm learning to cook. Next time, it'll be better! :)

Cafe Cartel

Dearie and I went for an SSO concert, and went to Cafe Cartel at Raffles City Shopping Centre for dinner. It's been so long since I've been there (Yr 1 Sem 1, if I recall correctly) that I was craving their carbonara again. We forgot to take a picture of Dearie's sandwich, and the salad we shared, but I thought I'd share the picture of the carbonara anyhow.

Fatty bacon, mushroom slices, cream, spaghetti and a runny yolk plopped right in the middle to be mixed in. My goodness, it's bliss! Rich, creamy and, to me, infinitely yummilicious!

Perhaps it's just me, but I love cream pastas.. The richness of it is just incredibly decadent and indulgent. Which is why I don't have it often, but when I do, ooooh man, bliss!



Verdict: The food was good, the usual Cafe Cartel standard. But the down side is that there's no more free flow of bread! I loved eating the bread with olive oil and Parmesan! The next time I've got a craving for carbonara, I'd love to go back there again.

Inaugural lunchbox!

Oh dear, I've rather neglected this site.. Nothing very special today, I just wanted to share a lunchbox I made for school on the 27th of March

The lunchbox(es) - there were 2 identical ones, for Dearie and myself - are birthday presents from a mutual friend, Limin. Too bad we didn't manage to photograph the accompanying cutlery: a cute little spoon and pair of chopsticks!

Isn't it cute? This is Dearie's lunch. OK, mine's the same, but we photographed his lunchbox. Better angle hee~ It holds macaroni and hotdog bites in a tomato sauce in the bigger compartment. The smaller one holds an omelette and Japanese seaweed chicken.




Verdict: Not the most nutritious lunchbox in the world by any shot, but it certainly held enough food to keep the both of us happily fed :)

Japanese curry and pork cutlets

I made this lunch on our 17th month anniversary, something which I'd wanted to cook for quite some time now.

A birds-eye view of the entire lunch - hot rice mixed with the remaining egg wash from the pork cutlets, pork cutlets that I attempted to stuff with cheese (see picture below), a gravy boat filled with the curry, and a bottle of lime (because I ran out of lemon) barley to beat the heat.




As I mentioned, I attempted to stuff the pork chops with cheese. Quite obviously, I failed. With advise from April (over on the main blog's tag board) my next attempt will be better, I hope :)

But the pork cutlets were still pretty yummy, despite having their cheese innards spilling all over the paper towels placed to soak up the oil.





Verdict: I was happy with the curry, this being my first attempt at making it, but I found it a tad too salty, though Dear liked it a lot. And it's a good way to get veggies into Dear - carrots, potatoes and onions in the curry! Haha.. Sneaky me.. Lessen the amount of chicken stock and up the amount of water next time :)

Xin Wang HK Cafe @ Kovan Heartland Mall, Hougang St 21

Dear popped by on Sunday night to return a calculator that my brother needed, and as I was hungry, we decided to go for supper. We'd actually wanted to go to MacDonald's, but found it closed, then to Punggol for nasi lemak. But en route, we saw Xin Wang HK Cafe, which loudly proclaimed "24hrs" (it was about 12+am then), and it looked interesting, so we decided to give it a try.

Teh "kau" Ice - essentially more concentrated Teh Peng ($1.50). I thought it was nice, just the right touch of sweetness and thickness of the Teh Peng - even with the ice, it didn't taste dilute in the least. The cute little mugs are a plus too. Actually, they aren't that little. It hold ALOT of liquid. I was very bloated at the end of supper after drinking it.



One of their speciality must-tries: Cheese-baked spaghetti with pork chop ($8.90). It sounded good, and we figured there must be a reason it's called a must-try, so we ordered it. WOW... It came as it looks in the picture, entirely covered with hot, melted cheese. Piercing into the crust, it was steaming hot. I swear, just the spaghetti with the cheese was enough for us already ^_^ Halfway through, we came to the pork chop, and while it was tender, it honestly wasn't the main focus of the dish, for either of us. What amazed us was that the spaghetti remained steaming hot throughout. Literally. We could see the steam!! ^_^



A breakfast-y ham, eggs and beans with toast ($7.50). Everything was pretty standard I think, but definitely generous in terms of serving, which is a plus :P The slices of toast were thick slabs! The only thing we didn't like was the sweet sauce they drizzled over the eggs.




Verdict: To quote Robyn, we were pretty much reduced to "waddlage" (the state of waddling due to being too full). Despite the bad reviews I've read on forums while doing this post, I would say that it was way better than we'd expected :) We'll definitely be going back again! :D

P/s, it's only 24hours on Fridays and Saturdays. It's open on Sundays till 2am. The rest of the weekdays I'm not too sure.

Pp/s We're not too sure about the prices apart from the spaghetti. This is as best as we can remember, so if it differs from reality, we apologise!

Bakerzin @ Vivocity

Dear and I went to Sentosa on Tuesday to get a tan (ended up getting burnt! Haha), and decided to get dinner at Bakerzin at Vivocity when we returned to mainland, because I'd always wanted to try it, but never have. We had a late lunch (about 4+ to 5pm?) so we ended up sharing a main, dessert and a drink.

We got the ham and bacon penne in pink sauce ($10.80). Goodness, it DOES look pink! Haha..But the exclamation is more for the amount of ham and bacon we found in the dish! It was definitely enough for a generous bite of meat with every 'tube' of pasta, which was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. The sauce was a tomato based one, but made richer with mascarpone cheese, which I suppose is responsible for turning it this creamy pink instead of the usual red. Every bite was polished off!

We chose the selection of 3 tapas/sorbets/ice creams ($9.80) and got, from left to right, mango passion sorbet, raspberry panna cotta and chocolate sorbet. The mango sorbet was creamy and gorgeous! Easily the favourite of the night! The raspberry panna cotta was a bit of a toss up. While the fruit layer was delicious, the custard layer was a little too cloying, with an overpowering vanilla taste I can't say I fancied. Dear plain didn't like it - he doesn't like cream and stuff. The chocolate sorbet tasted a little odd. You taste good quality high cocoa content chocolate, but you don't get the creamy richness you associate with it. Instead, you taste something like a cocoa popsicle, mashed up.

Not pictured: Blueberry Italian soda, which tasted over-sweet and not as appetising as it looks.

Verdict: I would say the pasta was good value for money, and if we had chosen different desserts, I might have enjoyed it more. I think I will, next time. But still, I enjoyed the dinner, so it's a thumbs up :)

My Secret Garden Valentine's Dinner @ 161 Middle Road

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and Dear and I went to My Secret Garden for dinner. I'd heard about this place before, and heard good reviews about it on Blinkymummy's blog, and thought it had a pretty ambience, so we decided to try it out [edited @ 2039hrs: Minyi told us that Leo had checked it out previously for her birthday, and that some of the reviews he'd read said it was overrated. You be the judge of it for yourself] Naturally, the handphone camera was whipped out again - ever the diligent food bloggers ^_^

The dinner started with a flute of sparkling wine each - rose-pink for the lady, the regular sparkling wine for the guy.. technically. We just swapped and took sips from each throughout the whole dinner.









On to the soup! Lobster bisque! Ooh my goodness it was so good! Rich, thick and luscious, with whole chunks of yummy lobster in it too! Good thing the portions were small though, because if it had been more, I would have wanted to gulp the whole bowl down, and risk being too full for the rest of dinner. As it was, it was just right :)







On to appetisers. We had a choice of baked oysters or Portabello mushrooms, and decided to take one of each to try. I ended up eating most of it though, as Dear is fond of neither. LOL.. To be honest, the oysters didn't do it as much for me. It tasted a bit to me like the orh luak they put in oyster omelettes than the yummilicious oysters you get at restaurants. The cheese and diced tomato topping helped a little, but I still belong to the school that oysters should be eaten fresh, raw and with a squeeze of lemon and a touch of Tabasco sauce. Dear took the cheese and tomato bits of this one :P



The other appetiser option was the Portabello topped with the same diced tomato and cheese as the oysters. The mushrooms were juicy! And mushroom juice oozed out whenever I cut it! Haha.. But it was pretty yummy, and I liked it better than the oysters. I suppose it helps that I pretty much like mushrooms in general. Managed to persuade Dear to try a bite of it (by making sure it was a SMALL bite, and making sure it was topped with cheese and tomato bits) and he thought it was OK - high praise coming from him with regards to such things!




The main course: choice between what they call a Chimichuri Beef Steak, and King Prawns, Scallops and Salmon. Dear chose the former, served with roasted baby potatoes. After not eating meat for a month, the first mouthful was bliss! And they did the beef well too - juicy and still pink, yet not bloody or tasting rare, which Dear hates (actually he takes his steaks well-done, normally. This is a start for him :P). I found the tangy topping rather intriguing, and thought it went well with the beef - it provided a kick, and the flavours just blended so well.




I chose the latter: King Prawns, Scallops and Salmon, served with mashed potatoes and some bitter chinese veggie that I can't remember the name of. The dish was drizzled with a creamy sauce that reminded me of crabs and prawns. It went well with the seafood :) Everything was fresh and sweet. I especially liked the salmon and king prawns, which were huge, juicy and cooked just right. At first, I thought it was a little overcooked, because I tasted the characteristic powdery taste, but I realised it was actually mashed potato residue :P The only thing I didn't like was the veggie, which was bitter and otherwise tasteless.



Dessert: Berry In Love. Yes, don't cringe, I know the name is cheesy. But the dessert was well worth it. I can't tell what juice they used, it could be cranberry, but it went well with the cheesecake-like taste of the dessert, and the sliced strawberries were a perfect touch. I just couldn't stop eating it, even though I was also feeding Dear spoonfuls of it. Mmm....






Dear's dessert, Hot Love. I know, it really doesn't look pretty. Actually we'd forgotten to take a picture before we started on it. The dessert is actually chocolate chip ice cream, topped with unsweetened cappucino. It was actually quite nice, especially when you top a mouthful of ice cream with a mouthful of warm coffee. At first it's a little bitter, but as you go on, it gets sweeter as the warmth melts more ice cream and mixes with it.. A sweet warm way to end a lovely dinner :)




Verdict: We went for Set C, which was $68+++ per pax, if I remembered correctly. And while the food was lovely, and the ambience was wonderful, $158 still seems a rather steep price to pay. Nonetheless, I'm very glad I got to try out the place - it's on the list of places we wanted to try - and I'm even happier that it was on such a special occasion, with a wonderful experience :) Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Divine Vegetarian Family Restaurant @ Blk 356 Hougang Ave 7

Seeing as Dear and I are on a self-imposed vegetarian diet for a month, and have had our fair share of lousy vegetarian food (see Engin canteen's vegetarian hor fun! Blech!), it's a relief when Limin suggested this place at Hougang which, after Dear tried, said the food was good. So off we went!

We ordered sambal "fish" ($6), which came with ladies' fingers and lettuce and some other assorted veggies I couldn't identify :P And it honestly wasn't bad! It didn't taste like a mock meat, although we swore that the fish skin was made of seaweed. Even then, we couldn't be sure. That's how real it tastes. The sambal was good too. Perhaps a little sweet for my liking, but still more than adequate :)


Dear's pineapple rice ($2.50). The fake pork floss on top was an interesting touch, although it didn't feel too much like pork floss: little flakes of sweetish crunch instead of the floss we're used to. But the whole thing tasted rather good too. Sweet and sour from the pineapple chunks, savoury from the rice.. He'd ordered this when he came here previously, and it's no wonder he stuck with it :)


My hor fun ($2.50)! Such a far cry from the sad thing they sell as vegetarian hor fun in the Engin canteen! No chunks of spongy mystery "meat. Sure, the chunks of fake pork didn't taste too much like meat, but all the rest was good. The fish cake, especially, was springy and firm. And after not eating meat for so long, eating something that tastes so much like real fish cake was quite blissful! Haha.. And the gravy was genuinely yummy!


Verdict: The place is a rather small coffeeshop comprising only that stall, and a drinks stall, and was quite full when we went there. I think these guys should expand! We need more good vegetarian food that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, or just limits us to 菜饭 all the time! I honestly would happily come back to eat, even when I'm off my veggie diet, and I know Dear feels the same way :) Plus the food is very affordable, especially if you discount the items like their individual "meat" dishes and just stick to things like hor fun, pineapple rice and the likes. Definitely worth it :)

donut Factory @ Raffles City Shopping Centre

We'd talked about going to check out donut Factory at Raffles City Shopping Centre for quite some time now, after reading about it in the papers and hearing about it. We finally made our way down to it on our way to check out the Asian Civilisation Museum.

We were expecting a queue, but gee what a queue it was! It started forming even before it opened for business, and we ended up queueing for close to an hour before we got to the front of the line. We'd actually intended to buy a box of 6, but after queueing for long, we decided to get a box of 12 assorted to make it worth the while. After all, I'd heard it was similar to Krispy Kreme, the donut haven I've yet to be able to try. And I wouldn't say we were disappointed. Not in the least :) They are $10 for a box of 12 glazed ones, and $11 for a box of 12 assorted ones.



Yummy doughy goodness! (from left to right, top to bottom: 4 spicy cheese, 2 white strawberry hearts, 2 double chocolate, blueberry glaze, orange white chocolate, peanut butter chocolate and apple cinnamon)




The spicy cheese was goooood! I loved that one.

Strawberry hearts were alright, nice but not fantastic.

Double chocolate was gooey and yummy. But messy! (We were eating it while walking, and a wind blew when Dearie was biting into his, and a glob of chocolate flew from his doughnut onto my T-shirt AND jeans! *sad*)

The blueberry glaze was a tad too sweet for my liking, the sugar glaze. The blueberry part tasted OK, sweet and tart.

Orange white chocolate and peanut butter chocolate wasn't that nice. I mean, doughnuts taste good no matter, but still some are much better than others! Haha.. Still, the peanut butter chocolate had an aroma of roasted peanuts that went better than had it been the cloying sweetness of peanut butter.

Apple cinnamon was great too. I just had to be careful when I was eating it - can't laugh or exhale through my nose or the powdered sugar would fly. And alot DID fly! Haha..

Verdict: This sounds like a very haphazard blog entry, because I'm not sure how to go about describing them well, but suffice to say that I certainly felt it was worth the wait. If you have the time, you should check it out. It's fried fresh and everything is done on the spot, so when you get your doughnuts, they're still nice and warm :):) In fact, you can even see the little doughnuts being fried on little rollers that flip them for an even golden finish, and watch the employees glaze and stuff them. Yum!