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.

Celebration At Covo (Greenwood Avenue)

T'was Gracie's 2__th b'day y'day and Yan organised a dinner with close friends to celebrate the event....on the left, you can see Gracie tantalising us with her real age....really?? All of 2 years only?? Then you are one hot babe!

So, Yan discovered a really cool fusion restaurant at Greenwood Avenue called Covo. We visited it when it was 3 weeks old a fortnight ago and Yan planned on sharing the discovery with Gracie and Gang for her b'day dinner.

The owners of Covo are an interior designer as well as a chef who used to work in a hotel. The interior design element at Covo is evident in it's surroundings ....and more (as you'll see later!).

Covo is really quite a mash of personalities. Tropical...... (think garden) ..........industrial (think grey walls) .............quirky (think shower curtains) ..........childish and young (think infantlike wall grafitti).........alcoholic (think bar) and vintage (think lampshades and classy jazz sounds) all at once.

2 weeks ago when I visited the place, it was the night before Halloween and Oliver (the designer) had given Covo an Adam's Family feel by clingy, black, giant, furry spiders on the lampshades and cotton wool to simulate spider webs on floor corners. I loved it! I was mainly impressed by that semi-gothic feel to the place and was disappointed to find those props missing this time round.

Thought goes into their cutleries even. This is another thing that impresses me about the place. Check out their bowl - this is what a bowl should look like....to me, at least. Good enough to contain food, but walls not high all around to restrict taking the food out of it!

And the cups! Wide base perfect for a "thumb rest" before the handle spreads out for your fingers to loop around. Square, wavy saucers ! If they were for sale, I would have bought a set for myself.

And now back to the crux of the matter - FOOD. I liked it. Enjoyed it. I had soft shell crab with glass noodles in some sort of a Vietnamese sauce. And the portobello mushroom with cheese and prawns nestled in a salad. The birthday girl ordered foie gras ...but since I am strictly flesh eating, I didn't try that! But photos for your perusal!

The last time I went, I had their baked tusk fish with sauteed vegetables. I enjoyed that. The sauce tastes a little Oriental, but the texture of the fish was excellent - delicious. It went well with the sauce, and combined with the vegetables, provided for a good balance of flavours. Try that!

ok, so now for service - students. Some new ones undergoing training may come across as unsure and you may have to repeat your requests, but they are polite and with a little patience, you'll have an enjoyable evening.

So here's the organiser of the dinner party and the woman who discovered Covo herself - Yan and her pet Phoenix, whom we have christened Phoe-Phoe.

PS : click on title to link to another web page which has a review on this restau.

italian pizza and indian pickle?

don't go together.

tried sprucing up my bland-ified 2 day old margherita pizza with something other than chilli sauce so I reached for Pathak's Hot Lime achar (really good stuff).

Thing is, the achar (pickle) is so overpowering that when you eat in with the pizza, all you taste is the pickle on a bed of bland chewy cheese and dough. Too strong.

Achar is delicious, deeeeelicious when taken together with Indian lentil curries. My mum makes them the best! Especially red moong lentil curry. Nice blend of garlicky, oniony, lentil-ly, coriander-y flavours with the achar to boost.

When the oily achar blends into the rice and the dhal's flavours, you get to savour the tangy, and spicy lime amidst a sea of flavourful dhal. It changes the flavour totally to lessen the overpowering taste and give u the best of it. And the achar adds variety to the dhal and rice, which would other wise be a pretty boring meal in terms of variety of taste.

Don't know what I mean about that? Ever tried eating a whole plate of rosti?

Mongolia?

Consumed by a curiosity for Mongolian food, Jag, Balan and me made our way down to 34D River Valley Road to indulge in some exotic Mongolian teppanyaki and grill.

Called Tent, we each went for the $26/head buffet.

This is how it works :

- Get some noodles (a variety of them) or brown / white rice

- Pick your veges and / or your meats or seafood (place does not serve pork). They will be cooked with your noodles or rice or you can choose to have them on their own.

- Proceed to choose which sauce you'd like to cook your veges / rice / noodles in. This is a rather long drawn out process here - see, there are 26 sauces to choose from. And you have to mix the sauces yourself according to instructions. Can be rather time consuming and messy when you have people waiting in line behind you. But Jag just gave up and asked the wait staff to do it for her - wise gal!

- There are other things like coriander, chilli padi, spring onions, ginger and garlic and chilli powder that you can choose to go with your food

- Give your tray to the chef

- He cooks it teppanyaki style, in full view

- You are served!

So, the 1st time we had our noodly bowls, it was all exciting and novel. Then the 2nd round, we were like....hey, this is just like having mee or nasi goreng in different flavoured sauces!! So, the novelty wore off.

Also, the food can be pretty heavy going if you are going to keep having noodles / rice round after round. I suggest you do many rounds starting off with vegetables, then meat, then combine with noodles / rice, and perhaps end off with an omelette or something.

So, at the end of it all, did we feel like we discovered Mongolian cuisine?

Nope.

More like "cha pa lang" or "rojak" cuisine, if you ask me. According to this website - Mongolian cuisine is mutton, mutton, and more mutton - with sauces or gravy made from dairy products.

At the Tent, you will see Tom Yam sauce, green curry sauce, Filipino sauce, red Indian sauce and adobo sauce. I'm quite sure they were catering to a local palate. And I'm not so sure about Teppanyaki being Mongolian and all.

If anything, it just goes to show how 'globalised' the Tent is. An interesting fact I read about the restaurant in this review is that it is the sister restaurant of Ras Indian Restaurant at Clarke Quay. And, they have some cute waitstaff working there :-).

Personally, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't authentic Mongolian. But on reflection, if it really was authentic Mongolian, I probably would not be able to eat many things on the menu anyway since I only take fish, chicken and vegetables.

However, this place has it's merits - very good for vegetarians :-) - you get your tofu, broccoli, peas, peppers, shitake mushrooms.......When I entered, the waitstaff made it a point to ask me if I was vegetarian or now, so that goes to show that they have catered substantially to the dining of the often marginalised vegetarians in Singapore.

Secondly, identity crisis issues aside, the food is well cooked, delicious and there are helpful, courteous....and did I mention cute? waitstaff. Ambience is clarke quay-ish as well. I am of the opinion that Tent should not project itself as Mongolian - better for expectation management. Anyway, if you'd like to do research on Mongolian cuisine, check out these links.

PS : my opinions are based on my experience of the buffet. I didn't study the menu too closely so am not sure if the a la carte dishes contained truly authentic Mongolian stuff. In any case, the 2 reviews I have read of the Tent pushed the buffet - which is what I went in for - and am sure many other diners did the same.

http://www.9v.com/crystal/kerij-e/docs/cooking.htm

http://www.mongoluls.net/ger/meatmilk.shtml

Bharat - India in Little India

We checked out Riverwalk Tandoor's new restaurant - Bharat (Hindi for India), situated inside New Park Hotel Shopping Arcade. That's right behind Mustaffa Centre along Serangoon Road. To access it, cut through Mustaffa Centre and just walk straight ahead.

This place has good value for money with equally great tasting food. I remembered 17 items from the buffet spread and have listed them.

I have to point out that the buffet here is good for vegetarians and meat lovers alike. My aunt and mum are vegetarians but the buffet had such a good spread of both vege and meat dishes that we didn't need to order a-la-carte.

Paying $14 nett to eat a partial buffet didn't make us feel shortchanged. It's cheaper if you go Monday - Thursday - $12.50 nett (for dinner). Lunch prices are as usual, cheaper than dinner.

Here's that list - and don't forget to read the next post which is a continuation and which has pics.

1. Aloo Chat (sort of a potato salad)
2. Vegetable salad + mint sauce + pappadums (standard)
3. White rice
4. Saffron rice
5. Naans - we ordered garlic
6. Yellow Dhal (lentils)
7. Shahi Paneer (Indian cheese cooked in cream sauce)
8. Fried Bittergourd (we call it keraylay)
9. Snakegourd with potato
10. Black bean sauce with some gourd (I learnt there can be more than 1 type of gourd today!)
11. Mirchiwala Chicken (some sort of a dry sambal chicken)
12. Tandoori chicken
13. Fish Cream Curry
14. Mutton Masala
15. Seymiya [sweet dish - milk + vermicelli(??)]
16. Jalebis (ooooooohhhhhhh, lovely but how do I explain? Some sort of a deep fried candy - hard on the outside but oozing with sweet syrup)
17. Fruits
18. Raita (or yoghurt salad)

Ok, so here is what I piled onto my plate the 1st round. There's the 2 types of chicken, snakegourd + black beans, fried bittergourd and shahi paneer.

After that, I was too busy indulging in playful dinner table banter with my cousin, aunt, mum and sisters to take photos of the food. But here is one of the interior of the restaurant.

This place has mass appeal - it is as multi racial as Singapore is, thrown in with it's fair share of foreign talent and expatriates or tourists (at the time I went).

I suppose no one would wanna miss out on a place that serves a good variety of food at a good price, and with reasonable service standards right? I know we didn't. And, unlike these 2 on the right, I ain't keeping it a secret from you.

Would You Prefer A Bumbling Waitstaff or A Rude One, Ma'am?

I went to this place which has students working as waitstaff. They are all very green. But they are polite.

For example, I asked for balsamic vinaigrette. The waiter brought me a little bowl and poured the vinaigrette in before me. Then he disappeared and came with the olive oil. So he mixed it in front of me.

While he was doing that, a more senior member of the waitstaff was standing behind him and watching what he was doing. She was on her way to the other end of the room but overheard my request and stayed to see how the guy was going to serve me. Then she starts scolding the guy for the way he served me a few paces away from me. He should have mixed my vinaigrette in the kitchen and not in front of me.

Well, she shoulda scolded him away from my earshot. Kinda tiring to deal with all that when all you want to do is enjoy your meal at the end of a long work day.

But I definitely have more tolerance for a bumbling waiter than a rude one. As long as the bumblings don't result in seriously unpardonable things like picking food that have fallen onto floors and placing them back onto plates!!!

Anyway, like I said, this place employs students - local and foreign. Before I left, I checked the bill. No service charge. So, no cause for complaint them. And I thought the waitstaff were very polite when dealing with me. I could see they made the effort.

Enter...Wiener Kaffeehaus

You would think that Singapore could do with one less coffeehouse. With all the Starbucks, Spinellis and kopitiams littering our island, what difference would 1 more make?

If it's fashioned after 300 years of Viennese coffeehouse culture and serves authentic Viennese cuisine just the way it would taste back there, then it would, literally, make a world of difference. Enter Wiener Kaffeehaus, 148 Neil Road.

Owned by an Austrian chef turned IT professional turned restaurateur, the origins of this coffeehouse lie in the deep longings for fine Viennese coffee and food among some Austrians residing in Singapore.

The owner, Anton, embarked on a project to bring a little bit of Vienna to Singapore, and even enlisted his mother's help to plan the menu and train the chefs on the artful way of making authentic, Viennese food! In fact, on this visit there, she served me my chicken schnitzel.

The decor of this place, resembles that of a typical Viennese coffeehouse found in Austria - dark wood panels all around and marble top tables (reminds you of our dear old school kopitiam??)

Well, and your cuppa coffee will come to you placed on a silver tray, with cubes of sugar, and water. You can see the pic on their website (I didn't order coffee on this visit). The silver tray, according to the lady owner, prevents the coffee from staining the marble tops, and the water is to wash the bitter aftertaste of coffee down.

Unfortunately, I am not a coffee connoisseur and can't school you in the delicate differences between Austrian coffee and others. Though I was briefed, I did not retain - hell, I'll drink anything I can!! And this attitude led me to bravely try the Marie Thereisa once - that is one evil drink that will keep you awake till you have to get ready for work the next day (not what the waiter told me!!!!). Deadly combination is espresso, orange liquer and brandy.....good luck swallowing it.

Like any respectable coffee joint, this place has it's own boutique where you can purchase powder, beans, and yes, even your own press and other fancy equipment. According to Anton, he is able to keep prices of coffee reasonable because he imports them directly.

The next 2 posts contain pics of our food!!

Sigh. Since it's Austrian food, I found my choices of food very limited because I only eat fish, chicken and vegetables. But they are revamping the menu and giving chicken as an option for some traditionally beef and porky dishes.

So Yan had her beef goulasche(jealous!!)


And Gladys had her pork filled buns, with some sauce and cabbage on the side. It's something like Austrian "pau", fondly called by Anton's wife. Pardon the memory lapse of name cause this is a dated post.

And this is my chicken schnitzel, lovingly served by Anton's mum! And specially cooked too! Because the menu only offers pork but they made a special effort for me!

And we had white Austrian white wine with it too - easy to drink and light and lovely! Sweet.

On the right, cordon bleu!

And finally, our deep fried brie cheese with mayo dip. It's hot, crispy batter on the outside, and cold brie cheese inside. I ordered it cause it sounded so yummy. Then I took a bite and remembered my traumatic experience in France where all I had for dinner was 16 types of cheese and bread........

Ivory - Fine Dining Indian Restaurant

Last night was at Clarke Quay, looking forward to some hubba hubba Turkish food at Marrakech, Moroccan lounge and bar. Unfortunately, there was a private event and we could not eat there.

So we just walked about because there are TONNES of places to eat at in Clarke Quay. In the end, W suggested we try Ivory - The Indian Kitchen (take the lift to the 2nd floor in the building of Gotham).

The concept of Ivory is to bring together different Indian cooking styles under one roof. It's a fine dining restaurant. The decor didn't look Indian at all - more Western than anything.

For the 1st time, I even ate my naan bread with fork and knife because I just felt it would not be in harmony with the whole ambience and spirit of the place to whack my good ole roti (bread) with hands. Was a bit stressful!! Thank God was with good, old friends and not some hot date or guy!

Service staff are very, very attentive. They pull out your chair, place your napkins on your lap, place the food on your plate. At intervals during the meal they regularly check on you and the food. Even when you are reaching out for second helpings, they step forward and offer to serve it to you on your plate. This was a bit embarrassing for me, crass lass that I am - too much attention and pampering! The manager even made a visit to our table to ensure all was in order.

At the end of your meal, you get hot towels (the sorts you get on flights). Well, I have absolutely NO complaints for service. And for that price, it had better be fantastic. Let me give you an idea :

We ordered 3 dishes - grilled fish with fenugreek and karampudi + chettinad chicken curry + mixed vegetable platter in mangalorean base - each of them above $15.

Chicken briyani cost $18 and naans $6 onwards. Cappucino $8. Glass of wine $12.

The food was deeeeeeeelicious. I realised 1 thing about Indian food yesterday.

A pet peeve of mine is complaining about the portions of food in North Indian restaurants and charging so much. Well, there's a reason. The food is too rich so you really can only handle so much of it. And one must take into consideration the strength of the spices and flavours.

One more point - there was an interesting dish I didn't get to eat yesterday. It was baked brinjals layered in lasagne sauce and stuffed with paneer (Indian cottage cheese). Please try for me if you can!

So, anyway, if you are looking for exceptional service, and great tasting food do consider this place. It's not the sort of cheap Indian place where you go, eat, come home and feel like drinking tonnes of water. Warning - spicy food (not hot) though! I like.

PS : pardon the lack of photos. 1stly, it looked like such an atas (high class) place that I didn't want to embarrass myself my snapping photos. Secondly, though I had my camera, I had not the batteries.

Stinging Stingray!!!!

XNQ : Gracie recommends one of our favourite foods - the sumptuous, mysterious STING Ray! The fish meat is barbequed or grilled with chilli paste (sambal). Then to add more oomph to it, sprinkle lime and eat with onion, vinegar and more chilli dip!! mmmmmmmm

1) HOLLAND Village coffee shop!!!

beats everyone hands down, their stingray is really dammmmn SHIOK! its always always grilled to perfection. the secret is also in their chilli paste, which they grill with the fish! plus while u eat stingray, u can order malay bbq chicky wings. fwah!!!

2) Bugis food centre (next to Allson Hotel)

this is for those who like it hot! his chilli paste is dammmn power! thats what i call a pwoer stingray! plus, his portions r generous. he gives u the best cut when he can, and grilled till the fish got a little burnt edges. fwahhhh! XNQ ; I wana go!!

3) Newton circus

Not bad... its the stall with the big beehive hairstyle auntie. thats the best stall if u ask me. their chilli paste however, is mellowed down to suit ang mors, but the fish is still grilllllled till perfect. yummm. plus, u can also order a plate of hokkien meee from the famous Thye Soon. they are also in wisma food culture and esplanade makan sutra place.

XNQ : I know beehive auntie too! Cept that I call her dinosaur hair. Hmmm, the more I think about her, she's starting to resemble marge simpson. And I guess we both have to agree that that sting ray at lau pa sat last saturday cannot make it.

Lower Your Expectations

In the last 3 months, I visited 3 diffent Thai Magic Wok outlets - Pasir Ris, Novena and Capitol Building. 2 left me with lasting impressions.

I like the food this place serves. Reasonably priced too. But for this kind of service, I'd rather go to a coffeeshop because I won't have any expectations there. And without expectations, I won't be easily let down or have to feel frustrated and uncomfortable.

But I suppose the next time I do end up going there (I foresee I won't be the one planning that trip), I will have to go with very low service expectations. This place is not a coffeeshop, - but the way they do things here is very coffeeshop like.

And I have met some hawkers and coffeeshop staff more communicative and pleasant.

Pasir Ris, White Sands

After our main courses were over, we decided to order a mango pudding for dessert.

A table separated ours from the waitress, who was leaning against a counter. I raised my hand to get her attention and expected her to come over and take my order - like most well-behaved waitstaff do.

Instead, she continues leaning against the counter and chins up in a "wassup manner". I tell her 1 mango pudding. Then she nods and yells to a colleague to get it.

It struck me after that I should have yelled 'CAN I HAVE ONE MANGO PUDDING PLEASE?" for the whole restaurant to hear, cause she was giving me the perfect opening to do that. I was put off because I thought that was really rude. She was too lazy to walk over and take my order when she was doing nothing really.

Capitol Square

My sister and I went there on a Sunday afternoon to use up a free lunch voucher. It was quite empty, with just 3-4 tables occupied. A young waitress took my order.

And this, only after she handed the menu over to a couple that came in after us - probably because they were seated closer to where she was standing. My sis and I had been seated for 5 minutes before that, in that near empty restaurant, waiting for someone to bring us a menu. And she only brought us the menu after we raised our hands and gestured and mouthed the words "menu" to her.

She sullenly looks at me while I am ridiculously ordering away with my warmest and most pleasant voice. I am doing this to see her reaction. Some people naturally have a "pissed off expression" and I do this to see how they respond to me to get a better gauge of the situation. And I am generally very respectful to waitstaff.

When I asked for extra chilli padi and sambal, she gave me that unflinching look that sent chills down my spine.

NO acknowledgement whatsoever.
no nod.
no smile.
no ok.
no "mmm".
nothing.

She just maintained eye contact while I talked and turned around when I was done.

I soon came to realise that this was just the way they do things over at Magic Wok, Capitol Square. Another girl served me food and she was the same, except that the only expression I saw on her face was a frown. But still wordless nods and sullen faces.

So Sweet I Could Die

The next time someone tells me Indian desserts are SOOOOOOO sweet, I'm going to tell them to take a hike down to ...Spaggedies.

And order their brownie, with ice cream, and chocolate fudge (wah lau!). Had a set lunch where my drink was Iced lemon tea - And it was the soft drink type, not dilute whatsoever.

I felt like I was just going to collapse from a sugar overload while getting through my brownie. But if you give me ice cream and brownie, can I resist??? At the end of it all, I took a sip from my ice lemon tea - and couldn't taste it.

Anyways, I feedbacked to the waitress that the dessert was just, ridiculously sweet lah. You put 3 equally sweet things together - doesn't make sense. She said she'd channel my remarks up somewhere. Hopefully something is done.

In case you think I have a low sugar tolerance, I don't. I always take my drinks with 2 teaspoons / satchets of sugar - which is more than most people I know. And I can handle Indian desserts. So if I say it's too sweet, it is.

Things I Usually Crave For

Am usually afflicted with these powerful pangs of desire. Grabs me anytime, anywhere - while working, while dozing off to sleep, while running...while studying, bathing - you get the idea. I wonder what sort of a monster I would turn into if I ever become pregnant.

- Big Bird Chicken Rice with a lot, a lot, a lot of chilli!!!!!!!
- Wicked South Indian food - tahu sambal, with spicy, pepper chicken, chicken curry, fried potatoes
- Oriental Crispy Chicken Salad with Thai Sauce and Honey Mustard, Spageddies
- AMK Ave 10 Fried Hokkien Mee with extra lime and chilli
- Grandmother's Firni (Indian dessert made from custard and carrots and nuts)
- Mummy's ladies fingers sabzi
- Nano's shahi paneer
- Power mee goreng - increasingly, I find this so difficult to find :-(( I remember mee goreng tasting so much better when I was younger. Nowadays, there are all bland. Anyone know a good stall?
- Vegetarian Bee Hoon From Maxwell Market soaked in curry sauce and potatoes on the side
- Spizza
- Nachos from Cafe Iguana

Top 3 Places in Singapore For That Perfect Egg And Kaya Toast

Here's a contribution from Gracie - whose obsession with half-boiled eggs never fails to amuse me!! And puzzle, hehe!

1) Opposite Novena Church - there's a row of shops and one of them specialises in eggs and coffee and kaya toast. It was love at first bite. I have never seen egg an egg yolk's skin so firm, yet the white was half-boiled to perfection. And the egg yolk was biggg! A dream come true and an utter delight to slurp down!

2) Ya kun kaya toast (only the original branch at china square) - The others can't match up.

3) Ah Mei kaya toast (railway mail) - 24 HOURS! check out their prata also.. power!

Places NOT to go unless really desperate:

1) Killiney - They kill the eggs. Their coffee take forever and their toast.. i can make better.

2) Wisma Atria's big toast (4th floor, where food culture is) - their eggs don't seem cooked to me.

lovelies, grace

Thanks Grace!

Coffee Connection

Meet my new espresso maker, and coffee grinder.

Bought it from Tangs (Great Singapore Sale now on, hurryy!!!) after looking around a bit, and with enormous help from an excellent sales staff.

I wanted an espresso maker that would let me grind beans and froth milk together all at once - and there was only 1 I saw, that would have set me back by a $1000 bucks.

The sales staff recommended me Morphy Richards espresso maker (only 99 bucks, you guys!!) - and Braun's Coffee Grinder (38 bucks) and I was practically hopping around the store like a happy bunny.

The coffee grinder has measurement marks so you know up to where to put the beans to make 2 cups or more. Then, I headed down to buy coffee beans from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf ($11.90).

Including the beans, I paid less than $150 for many great tasting cups of office-made Cappucinos, Lattes and Mochas.

Why am I so happy???

Because everything I saw before was more than $200 dollars. This was REALLY a good deal. Especially since I'm buying it for my own use in the office.

See, I'm going to be based in Choa Chu Kang where I will be surrounded by pig farms, and cemeteries and not prata shops where i can head out to in the middle of a work day for my kopi or teh tarik.

And my tastes have changed. I no longer enjoy Nescafe or other instant coffee brands. I like them pure. And real. And no more condensed milk in my tea or coffee anymore.

It's been like that for some time now. But the espresso machine is such a hit at home that I may have to reconsider placing it here.

By the way, there are cheaper alternatives :

You can get a normal coffee filter pot for $58, and buy a milk frother on it's own for $13. Get powder so you won't need to buy a bean grinder.

If it finally moves to my office, I am going to be so popular and sought after........and I do share my things :-)

Gorgeous Pics of Le P'tit Breton

Thanks Yazer, for letting me post these up. They are sooooo pretty. Can't wait to see the rest when your magazine is up!

Check out pictures of Le P'tit Breton from a professional photographer, courtesy of.........