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 :)