Shopping Spree Day : Part 1 - Lunch at French Cafe at Vivocity

I discovered this place by accident while walking about Vivo - all I can say is it is very near the toilets on the 1st level, near the Nike shop, and faces the sea / bridge leading to Sentosa. You can see the Sentosa banner from the cafe. It's either known as Fre(n)sh Cafe or Authentic French (something something). I know...very unprofessional of me right?

Basically this cafe sells simple, light french food (typically French). Tartines (bread with some toppings), french salads + mix your own at salad bar, desserts, coffees, quiches.

I had the set lunch for $15 nett - huge bowl of salade nicoise, with 5 big slices of tough bread, cappucino and desserts (I chose apple crumble). I liked it though I thought it was a bit pricey. But heck, it's Vivocity. And maybe the 3 French owners / staff actually meant 7.50 euros??

Was very enthralled when my apple crumble came - think of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on a snowy day. .........

Now see an impression of it with cinnamon powder and sugar! Definitely made my day, this one!

Shopping Spree Day Part 2 : Dinner at Polo Club

So. I was gonna meet Yan for dinner and a movie after shopping. I had this distinct feeling of wanting to dine in a garden. Some Italian restaurant I had read about but I could not remember the name. So we settled for the familliar Polo Club, which was, as always, pleasant.





Stef actually discovered this place and I am so grateful for it. We are not members but we go there to dine at the coffeehouse. I like the coffeehouse because there's a mix of cuisine - Mexican, Italian, Asian and American. So I can have nachos with Hor Fun or Indonesian nasi goreng if I wanted to. Prices are reasonable - normal restaurant fare. A plate of nasi goreng will cost you around $9.



They have salads like Greek, Caesar's - so, it caters for my 'dieting' needs too! To top it all off, I just love how far away from the madding crowd I am.




I reached half an hour earlier than Yan so ordered some red wine, plugged in my Ipod...(ok, I smoked a few ciggies too - slipped up) and just spaced out. Then at some point I whipped out my camera and began taking pics of the sky - was very taken with the blue skies behind the pinkish clouds...and the lush greenery...and the little hut.

Then Yan arrived and sometime later, so did the food. I got myself quesadillas and Yan, as usual, her steak. According to Yan, the pepper sauce was very nice. I enjoyed my quesadillas which was stuffed with grilled chicken, cheese and tomatoes. Dollops of avocado dip on each slice. I asked for jalapenos to spice things up a lil bit.

We paid $50 for the following :

a) jalapenos (they charged me $1.50)

b) Cappucino

c) Glass of red wine

d) Garlic Bread

e) Coke

f) Beef steak

g) Quesadillas

Around Arab Street

Met up with my longtime girlfriends - more than 10 years of friendship - at Arab Street last night. We checked out a Turkish retaurant, and I brought them to have "gorgeous" (as Jug put it) mint tea at a Deli Moroccan.

So here are the real stars of last night 1st...........

The story unfolds..........

AlaTurka

Located next to Kampong Glam cafe (opposite the sarabat stall), this restaurant's business has improved by leaps and bounds.

I 1st checked out this restau on a lazy Sunday afternoon with my younger sister after shopping at Beach Rd Market for outdoor travel gear last year.

That day, we tried the Mezze Tabagi - or mixed platter of ME dips with Lavash bread. This costs around $14 and I can safely say it was this that made something in me click. It was delicious! The bread was hot, newly baked and absolutely delicious. In fact, I think it makes a good meal for 1 person on it's own too. I have this every single time I visit this place. The feedback from my makan compadres so far has been positive too.

We ordered Falafel too - which is sort of like a chick pea vadai. I thought this was a bit hard to bite into, but it was good all the same.

The rest of our dishes came shortly - ordered Balik Sis (skewered marinated fish with pilaf and vegetables), Shish Tawouk (chicken skewered kebabs) and Bulgur (broken wheat or barley pilaf). The bulgur was nice...tasted a bit like tomato rice as Jug observed.

The fish was delicious though we wished it were a wee bit more tender.






I have been recommending this restaurant to my boss, my colleagues etc. I actually brought my boss here once and he liked it a lot. He came back with his wife on 2 other occasions. Being a Friday night, the restaurant was more crowded than I had ever seen it on the 3 other occasions that I have been there.


Service staff are very polite and nice. But I think that there has to be some consistency in the quality of their food. My chicken kebabs, which I am sure were as delicious last night as the previous times I have been there, were raw. Jug took a piece that was well cooked (good for her!) and proclaimed that they were delicious. Unfortunately, I happened to pick a big piece, that was raw near the skewered part.











The boss was instantly apologetic and removed our kebabs in order to replace them. However, because it was full house last night, that took a tad bit longer than usual...which eventually turned out good for us...cause we 3 were already full with the falafel, mezze tabagi and fish kebab which we shared!




To sum it up - when the owner sheepishly removed the raw chicken kebabs from the table, I said 'its ok, I'll still be coming back and I still like your restaurant." So, I guess I'll still be going down and let's see whether quality is really deteriorating progressively, or yesterday was just a genuine mistake.











DeliMoroccan












Located across the street from Kampong Glam cafe, along the walkway leading to Sultan Mosque is a little Moroccan deli run by a very affable, smiley and friendly Moroccan named Jamal.


I eat here every week after belly dancing class and this last week alone, I have been there thrice.


But I never tire of it because the food is truly amazing, and the owners really welcoming and nice. As Jamal says to me, 'your friends are my friends'.

Jamal says he is very thankful to me for bringing my friends there. I never actually did it for him or the shop. I just think my friends should enjoy and know of good food whenever possible! Which is why this blog was set up in the 1st place.

;-))

What me and my belly dancer mates and friends love about this place, are its chicken kebabs. Which are truly, sooooo delicious. I've never tried anything like it before. And you won't believe how cheap they are - they are sold for $4 a plate.


They don't look like conventional chicken kebabs either...they are chicken fillets marinated in Moroccan spices grilled on a hot plate. They come served with a small serving of yoghurt, tomato and chick pea salad. You can ask for bread - costing 50 cents - the buns used for kaya bread in olden days. They go really well together....and make for a filling meal...though you wouldn't believe it at 1st sight.


Don't you ever dare think about leaving this place without trying their Moroccan mint tea. Honestly, it's so refreshing. On a separate visit with Gail and Grace, we had 8 pots between the 3 of us. I couldn't sleep till 4 - more because I kept having to go pee, than from the caffeine overdose. It's sweetened green tea, infused with mint leaves. There are mint leaves in your cup so you pour your tea over it...and enjoy!!! It's so good I crave it often. It's $2.50 a pot.


So...at DeliMoroccan, humble as it may look....you can have a wholesome, satisfying meal for $6.50. Why do you think we keep coming back?




One thing to point out though - your food and drinks may take some time to be served so this is probably not the place for a rushed dinner. You have to remember that Jamal, is the waiter, chef, cleaner cum PR manager so things take time. But you will be well rewarded with the delicious kebabs and tea.


On one occasion, they looked so harried and were rushing all over the place that I felt this great compulsion to walk up to the chef and ask him if I could help him in any way. The staff here are really nice...and maybe that's why I didn't feel like I was a customer - more like a friend.

TRY It!!!!

Agneey's Cuisine, JB, Malaysia

Being airborne so early yesterday morning must have worked up a ferocious appetite because we were all so hungry by the time we were done. There was only 1 place to satiate the hunger and Dom drove us down.

We went to Agneey's which sells both North and South Indian cuisine. Click on the title of this post which will lead you to their webpage containing their location.



We had LOADs to eat. Food is cheap, of course. Don't know how much it cost because Dom secretly footed the bill, despite Teng and me insisting that we were going to buy him breakfast. Anyhow, that just means that we will be coming back again, hehe!


We ordered butter chicken masala, sambal tahu, sambal eggs, garlic and butter naans, thosai, cauliflower with beans and carrots, cauliflower, chicken, egg curry and some mutton. I whacked the naan....because I was so hungry....and also because the food was solid.




Their masala tea is very nice. Very nice indeed. After eating up a storm, we chatted in the clean and comfortable surroundings of the restaurant. Second rounds of coffee were had. And here, you can see the 3 of us looking very satisfied indeed. Great experience flying about....great food to warm us....and great company....


Oh. By the way, i was fascinated by their wash sink...which is not a sink. It's like a flat piece of marble stone sliding downwards.....sort of like producing a waterfall effect - which you can't see cause it 's hidden by the wall. Also, I don't think you'd be pleased if it caused a waterfall effect on you.



So. if you are ever in JB, you may wanna check out this place - see website for location : www.agneeys.com

Cutting My Nose To Spite My Face

Fried Hokkien Mee, Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, Blk 453.

It serves the best Hokkien mee I have ever tried in my life. It's absolutely delicious in it's lard soaked oil, cooked at once in a huge wok of noodles.

I love it because it's not too wet, it's just nicely gooey and moist. I always have it with extra lime chilli.

Their belachan is TO DIE FOR. It'll rocket you up to space and back.

I cry always, when eating it - my entire pack of noodles is not white or yellow - it's red. Of course....there's payback time in the loo later - if you know what I mean. If fire goes in...fire comes out.

This is the only thing this stall serves. It's run by a skinny man who dances while cooking it, and his serious looking wife. Once, I happened to tell the aunty how delicious her noodles are...the uncle heard me and turned around with such a big appreciative smile, saying "Thank You" repeatedly.

I even gushed about the noodles to a lady who was sitting next to me at the hawker centre. She told me she would bring her family down the next weekend.

But, I am NEVER EVER going to buy ANY MORE noodles from that stall ever again. It's a painful decision to take....and I wonder if I'm cutting my nose to spite my face. But I cannot stand the way they treat me.

The lady who packs the takeaways is INCREDIBLY RUDE to me.

She makes me feel like a kid, a pariah - and totally misunderstood.

Her sister (who replaced her at work for a while) is worst! In fact, I never bought anything from the stall after an incident. But yesterday, I happened to walk past and see that the "lesser of the 2 evil aunties" was back. So I went down today. Alas....it probably runs in their blood. Blame it on their upbringing?

I am not paying them to treat me like shit. Even if I can swallow my pride and anger (and I have let go many times) I can't swallow their noodles with satisfaction.

Their rudeness is such a killjoy - it ruins my dinner, it ruins my day.

What happened you wonder? It's so many things on so many occasions. But today was the last straw. This incident may seem trivial in comparison to my decision, because it's out of context to the other incidents. But I've had enough and I let them know it.

I approach the stall. There is a man standing in front of me, a lady on my left and a younger man on my right. The man in front of me is a stall assistant.

The lady on my left places an order and I hear it. The rude lady (who works there) doesn't look at me or notice my presence though I am 2 steps away from her. I turn to the guy on my right to check if he has ordered, so that I can proceed to place mine. He has.

So I call out very nicely, and sweetly "Auntie, could I please have..."

She cuts me off. She says 'Don't mind ah, but can you please queue up?"

I was not dumbfounded this time because this line is very familliar. She has used it on me many times - when there is no bloody queue. What does she define as a queue? There are people standing AROUND the stall waiting for their orders.

So I say "I am queueing up what. These people have already ordered and are waiting for their food." I turn to the lady and the man on my left and right and ask them if they have ordered. They answer "YES" loud enough for the lady to hear. She keeps quiet.

I stand there. Cheeks burning because I feel humiliated - AGAIN. Then I turn and walk off. I made my point. She embarrassed herself in front of her customers and lost a very appreciative one.

I feel kinda sad still. Misunderstood. I LOVED those noodles. But I just can't go back there and be treated like an outcast. There were times I wondered if she was being racist to me - but I hate having those thoughts. Maybe I look like a kid and she thinks she can talk to me condescendingly. Damn those braces. I even blamed it on just hawker centre standard - I mean, what do you expect, huh?

Sticking a hand in front of my face to shut me up from ordering before I can barely get a word out...

brashly telling me to queue up in front of other customers waiting AROUND the damn stall......and who are actually waiting for their orders.- she can take their orders but not mine.

not batting an eyelid or acknowledging my order when I give it....making me feel damn stupid and small,

and acting like she didn't hear me when I ask for extra chilli and lime - like hey if it costs so much more to give me extra, I am willing to pay for it, damnit.

So. I am truly grateful there is now a good service campaign for hawkers in Singapore. Am I expecting too much? I just want to be spoken to and treated like a decent human being. That's all. And I don't want to pay others to mistreat me. In any case, like I said, I can't eat their food happily anymore.

PS : just to prove how much I love their noodles (I even dreamt of them!!), I am pasting a very old blog entry - dated August 3 2005.

The fine line between dreams and reality

Dream:
"
I am walking home after running some personal errands. I stop in my tracks because I have finally found where that hokkien mee stall I love, that used to be near my home, has shifted to.

I quickly order $5 worth of noodles (for myself - and it's a lot). The lady gives me my noodles and I ask her for chilli, a lot of it, and lime.

She refuses. She says that is not done.

I on the other hand, insist that there simply is no other way I can take my noodles. It's chilli, or no dinner.

I then suggest she call the cook who made my noodles and ask her for permission to give me chilli.

The cook relents and the woman hands me a huge pot....with just the bottom lined with chilli paste (very weird sense of proportion that one had!).

I am pleased and I immediately start hailing taxis with much urgency so that I can get home as soon as possible to gobble up my beloved....fried... hokkien...mee...noodles.
"

Thankfully, in reality, that stall still exists in my estate! It only sells those noodles at $3 per packet - and I think they earn more than me :-)

Mais, bien sur.....I was waiting for 15 minutes for my packet once, and there were 10 other people before me. Some bought more than 1 packet, and I think the stall easily made between 100-300 bucks in that hour. That's like a lot of money in a month.

See, I just need to find one thing that I am good at that people are willing to pay for and I could be rich....

Chico's and Charlie's Became Harry's

Restaurant : Harry's Mexican Food, Orchard Parade Hotel

Chico's and Charlie's is now part of the Harry's group of bars and restaurants.

On Monday, I took my sisters and cousin out for Mexican food - to expose them to different types of cuisine. The result was comical and by the end of the evening, we were more Punjabi than ever, speaking in thick accents from Bhatinda, and calling out for more rotis. Thanks to Mr Bhatinda himself.

Service is very good, and their wait staff are very polite and pleasant. Being a restaurant in a hotel, I didn't feel treated like a 'local' - if you know what I mean. I was being served by local staff and they were so attentive and warm towards me, I almost felt like a tourist in my own country! which is really, what good service is about. You want to feel like a welcome tourist.

In all, I spent $116 on the following :

Margherita - $15 (my alcoholic indulgence for being such a good big sista...)

Nachos mamasita - somewhere between $13-$15. Tortilla chips, melted cheese, shredded chicken, olives, jalapeno peppers, sour cream and guacamole....I could eat the whole plate!!

Baked fish with salsa, and mashed potatoes with herbs wrapped in cheese - around $26. It's a BIG fish.....very thicky thick...and the potatoes are delicious!

Buffalo Wings with salsa - less than $15

Chicken Fajitas - more than $20, less than $25. This is enough for 2 people - 4 of us were sharing it so we kinda wished there was more chicken and tortilla bread.....but we should have ordered 2 servings.

So, why were we so into our Punjabi roots? Because my sisters and cousins kept getting reminded of chappatis by the tortilla wraps. That started giggles and thick Punjabi accented conversations at the dinner table.

This is not the 1st time someone has observed the same! Well, all I can say is, we go back a long way, we all....and we are more similar, than different! Mee rebus can also be some form of pasta......people have cooked nasi goreng...but not pasta sambal goreng - although I have :-)))))

Check out the decor of the place and the piggies pigging into their makan or chappati rolls!

Pepperoni Pizzeria and Ice Cold Beer

Met the gals for dinner at.....Greenwood (tada!) again. Yan and I are systematically checking out ALL the restaurants there it seems. Next up is the Japanese place next to Pepperoni, Fish Market, The Grill and I don't know what else will catch our eye as the two greedy queens roam the place!


So, today was Pepperoni Pizzeria cum L'estaminet - some sort of a Belgian or French bar / tabac. L'estaminet has a bar, full of German, Belgian beers etc, and a foosball table. Going through the drinks list can be quite a headache because of the extensive selection! Good luck choosing....

Pepperoni's is just a little pizzeria next to it that serves the standard starters, pastas and pizzas. Both outlets are linked by a common outdoor seating area.




One fascinating sight - a 21 inch pizza (family size) costing $44 - it was huge!!



I wasn't too wowed by Pepperoni. I personally prefer Spizza for pizza - more variety, innovative and tastier. For example, Elisa - delicious pizza of pesto, pine nuts and olives....which I haven't seen anywhere else -(maybe yet?).

Point to note though, Spizza doesn't offer much pasta choices - or as mucn as pepperoni. Having said that, I still think there are better Italian restaurants to go to like Cantina or Pete's Place if you are going to be paying that amount. This is my opinion. My 12 inch pizza cost me $17.50 +$2.50 (for additional olives).

Yan feels differently about it though. She enjoyed her pizza (pepperoni) tremendously and prefered it to Spizza. Today was her 2nd time at the pizzeria. Grace and Gail also enjoyed their pastas. So how did we resolve this fundamental difference?

We had a catfight. We pulled each other's hair out and scratched each other's faces and banged each other's faces on the table until we each declared that the other pizza place was better than our stated preferences.

:-))

I will probably try the pasta the next time I am there. And I suppose Pepperoni Pizzeria has it's merits if you want casual dining consisting of beer, pizza and foosball.

From left to right : Suprema (chicken-garlic sausage, olives, onions, tomato sauce, mozarella sauce), Pepperoni (onions and pepperoni), Arrabiata (spicy tomato sauce) and forgot!!

Post dinner drinks took us to Ice Cold Beer where I ran into Glen and company! The last I saw Glen was on his wedding day last year December and it was nice to see him again. I had one Hoegaarden (courtesy of Glen) and many cheeky conversations with Juan (my little boy) and others. You can also see the effect of the cattfight on Yan here.