Mooncakes

I kinda like mooncakes. I used to love them but now I think my tastes have changed. I don't crave for them but if a nice one comes by, I would take a bite.

The office had a few boxes of mooncakes. The first one I will talk about is the Raffles Hotel Champagne Truffle Mooncakes. My colleague received a call from her friend saying that they will be bringing mooncakes over to our office and she wondered aloud what mooncakes he will be bringing. So I said the first thing that came to my mind coz I remembered that they were fabulous: I hope it's Raffles Hotel Champagne Truffle Mooncakes. Everyone laughed - yah right... Champagne Truffle. They thought it would be a normal baked mooncake. Guess what? When he arrived, he brought with him a box of Raffles Hotel Champagne Truffle Mooncakes! My colleagues were surprised! Even I was too! And they were as fabulous as ever! Loved the nice snowskin, smooth lotus paste and the white chocolate truffle in the middle was perfect.

We were also given a budget from our head office to buy ourselves some mooncakes. So we got the ones at TWG. Now these were not mooncakes in the traditional sense. There was jam in the middle!

And the mooncakes were really colourful. After sampling each, I still didn't know what I was eating - just that the texture was really smooth and good. Not too sure about some of the jam centers. I was quite convinced one was Lemon Cheesecake, the green one was Pistachio & Almond and the Brown one was a hint of Chocolate. But when I Googled to research, it turned out that I was quite wrong. All were tea infused. One of them was Earl Grey infused something... I certainly didn't get Earl Grey while eating the mooncakes!

But I must say that the packaging was really pretty. I kept the box as a table organiser - to throw in my coins, stationary and stuff...

Chevron House

So after waiting for my cousin, she arrived and we went to Level 4 of Chevron House for lunch. It's a restaurant that serves up local and western food at slightly higher prices. But we get to be seated by the staff (that means no need to be stressed out by people hovering around you and waiting for you to finish your food) and there's air conditioning!

I found it quite amusing that their fruit juice was served in beer mugs.

Ordered Fried Beef Quay Teow. Liked the heap of shredded lettuce. It offered a nice crunchiness and lightless to the heavy and oily dish. On the whole, the dish was quite oily. The pieces of beef were a little tough too.

A good cause I guess

While waiting for my cousin to arrive for lunch, I spotted this lady dressed in lettuce leaves, raising awareness about meat eating. Loved the expression of the old men's faces as they walked past her.

2 pieces of cake

A the new branch of Cedele opened near my house and I headed there for dessert one day with 2 other friends. There were so many cakes on display and we had a hard time choosing. We ordered their Pink Beet Cake and Chocolate Pistachio Cake in the end.

The Chocolate Pistachio Cake was fantastic! Layers of Pistachio sponge cake was interlayerd with rich chocolate truffle to create a heavenly blend of heavy/light, sweet/bitter, smooth/crunchy, creamy truffle/moist sponge. 100 marks!

The Pink Beet Cake was not as fantastic. Yeah, its marketed as a healthy cake - bake with grapeseed oil and beetroot and filled with anti oxidants. But personally, I found it rather blend...

Le Smoke Shack

The Smoke Shack is located in the heart of the city, at Market Street Car Park. The place is famous for their prime cut meat sandwiches. They even smoke and roast their sandwiches in house. When my colleague told me all about this place a few months back, I knew I had to try it for myself.

I ordered the New Yorker sandwich. Which was a roast beef sandwich, topped with tangy mustard and cheese. Don't be deceived by it's humble appearance.

Inside is the juiciest meat ever! Also loved that the mustard is the ones with the round crunchy mustard seeds that burst with flavour in your mouth when you bite into them. The meat was just soo good and flavourful.

My friend ordered the steak sandwich so we swapped half each so that we can have a variety. This sandwich is also so juicy. The steak was a little more tough than the New Yorker. There wasn't any cheese (boo) but there was a generous helping of mushrooms (yay!).

Duck Rice

I have been having a craving for duck rice for a long time. So when I saw a duck rice stall at People's Park Food Center, I immediately ordered myself a plate. But I was disappointed.

The rice wasn't the brown yam rice. Boo. There was no other side dish other than duck and white rice. I expected toufu or a hard boiled egg. And the duck wasn't tasty at all...

EJT's 2nd

Elizabeth Joy Tham is 2! For her birthday, she presented mommy with a present too - walking! But it was a fun day at Marina Barrage even though whenever we tried to fly the kites, the wind decided to stop blowing.

The happy family!

Party goers!

The kids!

At night, I became the official balloon blower.

just so wrong

The thing about wearing labels is that i always wonder why people bother wearing them when it is so blatantly obvious that it is a fake.

Dress up

It was a special Sunday in church where kids got to dress up! The god daughter was in a Red Indian headdress.

Found a Gem!

I love the feeling of discovering a new place to eat. I have heard quite a bit about Eng Kee Seafood. So I was expecting quite a bit when I went there. I am so happy to say that the place has exceeded my expectations.

I went there on a Saturday night and the place was quite full. We called ahead to book and when we arrived, I only saw less than a handful of empty tables. After ordering, we were told that the wait for the food was going to be 45 minutes. Well, we had no choice but to wait. Boy, the food was really worth the wait!

My favourite was the artery clogging Salted Egg Yolk Crab! It is PERFECT! The dry/salty/powdery texture of the salted duck egg against the fragrant/tender/fried to perfection crab meat was excellent! And there were little bits of crumbs at the bottom (I have really no idea what it was) that was coated with the salted egg yolk sauce - oh heavenly!

Next best dish was the Marmite Chicken! WOW! Another power dish. The chicken was tender and juicy and the Marmite (and honey too I believe) glaze was a match made in heaven!

Next dish was a little lackluster against the crab and the chicken. It was some crispy roll stuffed with mushrooms, salted egg yolk, ham and prawns. I am not saying that it isn't tasty - it certainly was. For any other zi char, it might be THE star dish. But at Eng Kee, the other stuff were so good that this took a backseat.

The special char kway teow was quite good too. Again - this might be a star dish at a good restaurant. But at Eng Kee, its star wattage was outshone by other food! They were very generous with the seafood in the dish. But I personally found it a little too oily.

The silken & smooth toufu paired with savory minced pork was really yummy!

Lastly, the Crab Bee Hoon was another powerful dish!! The soup was really robust and delicious. Crab, succulent and flavourful. And the best part? Free flow of soup! Wow!

I'll certainly come back to this place and also recommend it to everyone!

Men Tei Ramen

THe stretch from Ogilvy Center to Robinson Center contains lots of food options for the lunch crowd who wants to avoid the touristy, overpriced, bad quality food center that is Lao Pa Sat. One of the restaurants in Robinson Center is Men Tei Ramen!

There is perceptually a queue outside the restaurant but it moved pretty quickly when I was there. I must say the food there is worth the wait! THe menu is pretty limited. They only have 6 or 7 varieties of Ramen, with an option to add gyozas as a side dish.

The Tonkotsu ramen I had was fantastic! The noodles were made very well. The char siew was so tender and delicious. The soup was just a notch lower than the one I tried at Ichibantei, but the tamago egg here mode than made up for it! The yolk is still soft and mushy while the white is fully cooked. YUM!

Raindrops Cafe

Raindrops cafe is at Scape which is a shopping center in Orchard Road catered to the youth. It isn't exactly inside the shopping center, its located just outside the shopping center. I really wonder how many customers they will have if it's raining coz the place has a tiny indoor space and the entrance isn't sheltered.

Their menu is skewed towards the youth coz the food is attractively priced. I tried the squid ink pasta. Not the best that I have tasted.

Another outing to You Tiao Da Wang

The last time I went to You Tiao Da Wang, I ordered up a feast. This time round, there were more of us which translates to more food ordered!
First up - the fried egg and prok floss biscuit. I don't know why my friends ordered it again. It was wayyy to dry the last time round and it has not improved.

Next up: meat balls wrapped in tang yuan like floor balls. Delicious? It was a little blend for my liking. It was just too starchy and salty. There was no flavour in the meat.

Of coz, the You Tiao, after which the place is named is a popular item. I think this place is beginning to take their popularity for granted coz the You Tiao was a little stale - meaning that it was probably cooked a long time ago and left to sit on the counter before it was delivered to us.

The thing about them is that for chilled Soy Bean drinks, it is already pre-sweeteed and it's REALLY sweet. So for a less sweet version, one must order a lukewarm or warm version of the drink. No cool.

Lastly, the tao huay is not as silken smooth as I remembered it to be. Sigh

Wonton Mee

The Wonton Mee is one of my favourite hawker foods. For a good plate, the noodles must be nice and springy, the char siew must be flavourful, the wontons must be plump, better still if there's a juicy prawn in it and the soup must also be flavourful. So it's quite a lot of things to get right for a simple plate of wonton mee. This one is from a unknown food place in Geylang. It just meets the bare minimum. Liked their noodles, but the rest can be improved. Their vegetables are really fresh and yummy though.

1 pregnant woman, 1 woman on leave, 1 man on MC

It's the weirdest group of chefs. One was heavily (9 months!) pregnant, one was on leave and the other was on a 3 week MC coz of his appendix surgery! Well this odd group had met for lunch and they decided to be spontaneous and cook some of us dinner!

The result was mixed. Let's start with the hits - sweet & sour pork was juicy. Just a tad sweet in my opinion coz the sauce was out of a can.

Also good was the chye poh egg! I was standing beside the cook (the one on leave) as she was cooking that. She was frying the chye poh for ages and it still tasted uncooked! Then in a matter of seconds, they started to smell like they were burning! But the result was great! The chye poh was just the way it should be - crunchy yet juicy.

This tofu dish was included last minute coz the 3 chefs realised that too little food was prepared and they had to add more food. It's incredibly easy to make - wash the tofu, heat it in the microwave and add the chicken floss.

The soup was really weak. Mainly coz it was not made out of stock. If they wanted to make it from water, it should be boiled over low heat for a long long time - like 5 hours. But I guess that they don't have the luxury of time.

And the rice was burnt! Sigh...

Loved their effort but I think it can be better executed with more time on their hands!

Food For Thought

The thing about food with an agenda is that the food had to be good. The agenda can be the after thought. It's this philosophy that is applied to vegetarian or organic restaurants or restaurants that use people from the yellow ribbon project or use school dropouts. Coz if the food is bad, why must I subject myself to it just for a good cause? In the food biz, the agenda of the restaurant can get you some initial buzz but it's the repeat customer that will add the zeros to your bottom line!

Food for Thought is one of these restaurants. A portion of the restaurant's proceeds are donated to a Christian charity. The food there is American, with a little Italian and Asian influence. One dish highly recommended is the Pulled Pork Sandwich. Sadly, this one didn't quite meet the mark. When it's slow roasted for hours, I would expect the pork to be really tender and flavourful but it turned out to be a little tough. And the generous squirts of barbecue sauce masked the pork's natural flavour. Either that or the pork had no flavour to begin with.

Next dish was spaghetti with mushrooms. The beauty of this dish is that it's really hard to get it wrong. Use the freshest ingredients, fry over low heat, make sure the spaghetti is cooked perfectly, combine and toss. This dish met the mark!

Then came the duck pizza. Visually, it was really appetizing! It came on a wooden board and was full of colours from the peppers and herbs sprinkled on top. Full marks for presentation. But I had issues with the duck (too thick and too tough and not very flavourful) and also the pizza crust (too hard and chewy. Either make it thin & crunchy ala Italian style, or thicker and breadier ala American)

Their Cherry cake looked different! The cream cheese frosting one a cherry flavoured sponge cake was not one of the best marriages in my opinion.

Also failing was their Chocolate cake - not light enough for a light sponge cake nor fudgy enough for a fudge cake. It's kinda stuck inbetween - not in a good way.

The last issue I had with them is the ventilation of the restaurant. They have an open kitchen which can be entertaining to look at. BUT the restaurant's kitchen does not have an extractor fan! So the entire restaurant was REALLY stuffy and smelt of oil. It's one of the places that you leave smelling of oil. Not cool.

Ice Cream at OUAM

I have already established that Once Upon a Milkshake served great shakes. But the other day I was there, I was attracted to their anniversary special: 3 scoops of homemade ice cream at $5.50! So I decided to give it a go. I selected Lychee, Maple Syrup and an old faithful - Chocolate.

The Lychee was kinda disappointing. It tasted like it was made out of canned lychee syrup. I think it might have worked out better if it were a sorbet - but I don't believe that they do sorbets. The Maple Syrup was good. I liked the subtleness of the maple syrup flavour on their thick and creamy ice cream. Of course their Chocolate didn't disappoint. But I personally prefer a dark chocolate version. As a whole, their ice cream's texture is excellent! Thick and dense and totally yummy. I like that they don't overpower their ice cream with all sorts of unnecessary condiments, letting their ice cream to stand on its own.

No love in the food

At the basement of The Cathay is a Japanese food court. I tried their Saba Fish Bento Set and it was disappointing. None of the things in the set stood out. The saba fish was dry, the rice was cold and the salad seemed like an after thought in the set. It's like the chef had to fill up the space on the set with a dish and he threw in some lettuce and tomatoes and drizzled it with a little oil and a salad was born.

Ah Balling

Chinatown is home to lots of food gems. One of which is a push cart Ah Balling stall.

$2 buys you 5 tang yuan - which are flour balls filled with pastes like peanut (my favourite), red bean, sesame, green tea (yuck) and yam. Of course I choose one of each flavour.

In reality, the skin of the dessert balls are not as thin as the picture - or else the balls would burst easily. But it's already thinner than what most stalls have. Also quite shiok is the think and satisfying peanut soup. If I were to order it again, I would not have the green tea - I think green tea should be drunk as a tea. So far, all the other green tea stuff I tried like ice cream, candy and Ah Ballings have failed miserably.

The Viet Inspired Deli

I love the baguette. It’s my favourite bread! And I am fascinated by how the Vietnamese and Cambodians have woven this French bread into their local cuisine. I haven’t been to Vietnam so I don’t know how the baguette tastes like there. But when I was in Cambodia, their version is a lot airier and its crust was flakier, something like a croissant’s. I remember the baguettes in France were crustier and had a more dense and chewy texture.

The Vietnamese make a mean sandwich with the baguette. And the ones that Baguette The Viet Inspired Deli are great!


I chose The Saiam – 3 slices of oriental spiced Australian ham, parsley, cucumber and marinated vegetables come together to make a delightful sandwich! Just that the piece of chilli you see there burned my tounge a little...