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Beauty & Wellness
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Its been ages since I've KTVed again.. and on this exciting evening, we decided to Sing Till our Eyes pop out again!!! Well this time, we hope we don't dance around like the past.... "the young ones... Oh darling we're the young ones...."
My pals RAVE about this PARTY WORLD chain of KTVs.. and I always wondered why. with the dangerously reducing prices of the growing sizes LCD screen and booming sound systems that can blast your ears out of your head.. I cannot imagine how much more exciting can a KTV get... But i was sorely wrong.... and at the end of the night.. I swear.. I will come back again, bringing my huge family and external families along.
When we reached the lobby, I was pretty surprised at the comfort level of the place. There were nice comfy leather couches as well as a massage chair... I really don't mind waiting.....
We were issued a room shortly.. Well, Its friday night and peak hour, but we still get a room and the prices of the rooms are great.. We managed to block 4 hours at $57 which i think is a great price for 3.... While being led to our room prepared.... I could feel the excitement of this places.. Many waitresses and waiters providing ample attention and the place was clean, no sticky or soggy carpets on the floor...
The room was beautiful.. Deco fantastically fun to be in with LED and Disco lights everywhere creating excitement and fun. The selection of songs were great and there are other stuffs to place as well as instead of just singing.. There are dices, a cheese boards and some party stuffs for us to clown around with.
We ordered a bottle of red wine.. but to our dismay, the wine totally sucks and is very pricey.. So a word of warning... stick to the nomalities... if you want to drink... drink at the drinking places..... However, its a KTV, and alcohol hurts your throat, so if you don't want to squeal and shreek while singing your favourite song, stick to the non-alc drinks.
The toilet is great too... at least there are toilet paper... they refill them frequent enough.. and that is important for me. While walking to the toilet, i actually saw a smoking room... Like a fish tank.... its cute, innovative and friendly... All in all, this a wonderful place to PARTY.. not just for singing only:)
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It was a mad rush trying to find a nice restaurant back in December for Christmas Eve dinner since most places were already packed. Rather than having traditional Christmas food like turkey, log-cake and ham, we decided to go for some exotic Vietnamese food instead.
Located at Orchard Central’s Sky Garden, NUOC is a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant in the Singapore food scene. It’s positioned as a semi-fine dining Vietnamese restaurant, and naturally prices are slightly steeper.
I always have problems when it comes to ordering. It was a hard decision trying to choose from the deep-fried and the Fresh Vietnamese Spring roll ($18 for 4 rolls), so we went for the easy way out and ordered both.
Fresh prawns, sliced pork, lettuce, Vietnamese herbs & vermicelli rolled with traditional Vietnamese rice paper. That’s what inside the spring roll. Or rather, that’s what the menu says. And there’s mint inside too. The mint was somewhat like the final touch to enhance the freshness of the rolls. Crisp, and sharp, every bite was delightful – unless you don’t like mint.
Which is better? The Fresh Spring roll or the Deep-fried Vietnamese Spring Roll ($12 for 8 pieces)? I’m a sucker for deep-fried food. As much as I know that deep-fried food is unhealthy, but it always makes the food taste so much better.
We also ordered the Egg plant ($12) and Stir-fried lemon grass and ginger chicken ($16). The former was mashy, and it kinds of resembled fish rather than egg plant, while the latter was mediocre.
When it comes to soup, I only like hot soup. Somehow I never like cold soup, I mean, soup should always be hot, otherwise it’s not soup right? At least, that’s my definition of soup. Even when it’s hot soup, I only like home-cooked Chinese soup. Which is why, you seldom see me ordering soup in restaurants. I’m not against soup, but I’d rather spend the money having another appetizer, or even better – an extra dessert. The intriguing name of Fresh Prawn in young coconut ($20 for 6 pieces) caught our attention, and the soup base was probably prepared for hours; it was rich, and intense and sweet.
* * *
NUOC is a very new restaurant, and they are still sorting out all the teething problems. When we went in December, the signature Vietnamese Pho (I remembered it as fur) was not even offered on the menu, I mean how can a Vietnamese restaurant not serve Pho right? Hopefully they should be serving Pho by now. Anyway, the view is gorgeous, if you want Vietnamese food in a nice ambience and do not mind paying more, NUOC might just be the place.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
Right on the heels of a romantic dinner at Forlino, I had another amazing Italian feast – the following day. The original plan was to have a simple lunch somewhere else.
“Why don’t we go to Valentino?” I asked jokingly.
Apparently, my lunch date took it very seriously. To cut the story short, we ended up at Valentino’s after calling to confirm a table. Stepping inside Ristorante Da Valentino, it feels like we are in our charming Italian neighbours’ house for dinner.
Most squid ink pasta, or at least the ones that I’ve tried, had the quirky and murky flavor. This one tasted like squid ink. It tasted like fresh ink extracted on the spot.
Like the one that I’ve at Forlino the night before, the Fettucine al Granchio ($23.9) here was also infused with squid ink. Huge chunks of crab meat with the fettucine, tossed with the creamy tomato sauce – it was absolutely wicked!
Now we have a problem. I want every slurp of the pasta. No, I do not want to share.
Option A: Finish everything and re-order before my partner returns from the washroom. Option B: Try to convince her that the mushroom risotto is better than the squid ink pasta. I could see no Option C, even though I was secretly praying that she’d not like the pasta.
Unfortunately not. In case you are wondering, we wiped the plate clean. I’d die for the squid ink pasta, or less dramatically, save up and come here every week – just for this.
I want Risotto. My dear Seafood linguine, it doesn’t mean I don’t like you anymore. It just means right now, I’m craving for risotto more.
Mushroom risotto has a very important place in my heart. I don’t always order it, but when I do – it has to be good. Maybe subconsciously, we wanted more of the squid ink pasta, or maybe we had small appetite that day. Either way, just a word of caution: see the plate of Porcini Mushroom Risotto ($23.9) up there? It might not look like a lot, but trust me, both of us couldn’t finish it.
Sweetie, it’s desserts, and Perla’s Pastry Boutique is calling!
Right beside the restaurant, there is Perla’s patisserie by Valentino’s sister. There’s no dine-in area for the patisserie, but the desserts are available if you are dining in the restaurant. It was an agonizing choice between the tiramisu, panna cotta, frutti bosco and their signature chantilly cake. But the sight of the gorgeous mixed berries were simply irresistible.
There’s a wise saying that goes like this: never trust a beautiful woman, and if I can add on to it, never trust the beautiful berries to taste sweet. Call me shallow, but I actually fall for it. Oh well, what to do, I’m superficial. Anyway I believe there’s blackberries, raspberries and strawberries in the Frutti Bosco ($8.80).
* * *
A romantic dinner for two is not necessary just about fantastic view or fanciful cuisine. Lovely, lovely place. Valentino is my definition of a romantic restaurant, it is all about us having good food in a cozy ambiance. Here’s a restaurant for Valentine’s day, reservations are definitely a must for dinner.
I’m going to bring all my friends to Ristorante Da Valentino for their homely, authentic Italian food. Rifle range road is directly opposite King’s Albert Park & Bukit Timah Plaza. Pick up your phone, and dial the eight digit numbers. Get on with it.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
Remember the times when you were a kid, and blew soap bubbles into the air, making you go ‘aww..’ inside, I have the same feeling when it comes to ice cream too. In this world, not many things can give you that type of feeling and I believe, ice cream is one of them.
You do not need an excuse to eat ice cream.
Whenever I feel happy, I will indulge in ice cream as it makes me even happier. And besides having a patissier to cheer me up when I’m feeling down, ice cream practically does the same thing as it always chase the blues away.
How good can a good ice cream be?
I mean ice cream, being ice cream, is already perfect. How do the ice cream places in Singapore reinvent and continue the trend for something that is already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either come up with all sorts of fanciful flavors, throw in some exotic toppings, hire pretty girls, let you mix-and-match your own ingredients, reinvent ice cream in the form of sundaes, or this case, milkshakes. Yes, milkshakes.
Ice cream, can never be bad. Even an exceptional ordinary ice cream will taste good when you are craving for it. Unike the other ice cream parlours in Singapore that scramble to compete on the varieties of flavor, the folks behind Once Upon A Milk Shake (OUAM) are a smart bunch; they keep things simple to just a couple of flavor, and package everything nicely.
What’s there not to like when it a) has a catchy name, b) sports a clean and yet bold color in white & purple, c) gives you choices of either ice cream, milkshake, or both, d) comes up with whimsical names like Agent Strawberry and Nutty Peanut Butler.
On the two occasions that I went there, I had the Chocolate Truffle Castle, Sir Cookies & Cream, Vainillapot, and Nutty Peanut Butler. The Chocolate truffle ice cream was awfully good. Thick and chocolaty, there’s no way any chocolate lover can resist this. But it was not my favorite pick, don’t get me wrong, I like chocolate, but I never really fancy chocolate ice cream; chocolate on its own, is already divine.
The Cookies & Cream milkshake, is oh-so-good. There are some renditions of the cookies and cream that are too dense and heavy, while there are others that are too light and hardly have any cookie texture. I like the lush vanilla base that has rich Oreo cookies bits, and at the same time, it’s also not cloyingly sweet. All in one cookie – this is a keeper.
Recently I’m hooked on Vanilla ice cream. Since there’s a huge supply of Ben & Jerry ice cream in my fridge, I’ve been having vanilla ice cream almost every day for the past week. Vanilla, is perhaps the simplest flavor there is, and yet the hardest to attain perfection. I think it’s the nature of vanilla, the subtle, yet sweetly-flavored, distinct elegant taste that appeals to me. Vanilla milkshake, anyone?
Peanut butter can perhaps, be mentioned in the same legendary status like Nutella. Peanut butter, I’m sure, was invented for the sole purpose of satisfying the wildest desire of the human species. Oh yes, there is the lovely strawberry jam, those are great, but it pales in comparison when you put it side by side with peanut butter. The richness of the thick and creamy peanut butter milkshake simply makes anything ordinary, taste delicious. It’s so addictive that you will eat it straight from the jar.
Which makes it a pity when my friend claimed that she had tasted better Peanut butter milkshake elsewhere before. Perhaps the one here, is still not the one to beat.
The milkshakes are available in 2 sizes (mini @ $3.30 and regular @ $5.50). The mini ones are really tiny, but I’d go for mini and try different flavors. Best ice cream and milkshake in Singapore? Maybe, maybe not. But does it really matter?
Among all the ice cream parlours in Singapore, Once Upon A Milkshake (OUAM) is all about gimmicks, but I love it! You know what? It’s like a guy knowing that the girl is lying to him, and yet, is willing to be deceived. I know I’m superficial. Whatever, I’m a sucker for all things pretty.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
One of the things that I like about the Singapore Dining scene is the vibrancy, there are new restaurants opening all the time. Some open with a big fanfare, while others prefer having a soft opening to fine-tune and tweak their menu before they are plot on the to-dine-at restaurant radar.
And when a new restaurant is being helm by chef Sufian Bin Zain’ who helped his previous restaurant Iggy’s being listed as one of the world’s top 100 restaurants, it’s not surprising that everyone will rush to the new establishment. I am not one of those that like to chase after new restaurants, that’s one of the reasons that it took me until now to drop by L’Entrepot Bistrot.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I hardly blog about restaurants in Clarke Quay, there’s nothing wrong with the area; in fact it is a well-known places for tourists to dine at, when visiting Singapore. And that’s precisely the problem. Awesome riverside view, gorgeous restaurants interiors, but I’d imagine it comes with hefty bills and the made-for-tourist stamp too.
For restaurants, set lunches are one of the ways to attract more customers and increase sales. In times like this, not everyone can still afford to splurge on extravagant lunches, and that’s when you have value set lunches. Given that a normal meal and a drink in a food court will probably cost you six dollars upwards, an affordable lunch for $15 nett in a nice restaurant with everything plated nicely, is very tempting.
Besides the perfect excuse to indulge in a good lunch, it’s an opportunity to check out the restaurant and see if it’s worth coming back for dinner. On normal occasions, L’Entrepot Bistrot’s normal 2 course lunch is $25 , while the 3 course menu will set you back by $30 , but there’s a current promotion for all the Clarke Quay restaurants where a 2 course set lunch is $15 nett.
The promotional menu is almost identical to the normal lunch menu, with a few exceptions. One of those is the escargot which we wanted to get, but since it wasn’t available for the promotion, we went for the French Onion Soup, served with Emmenthal Cheese. It was a good decision, the onion soup is the classic example of the rustic French Bistro food.
On this visit, I chose the Vongole, which came with clams amidst the leeks, onions tomato and spaghetti. There was a subtle white wine taste in the spaghetti sauce. The generosity of clams were admirable, but the presence of leeks drove me to verge of irritation; I ain’t no fan of leek.
I’m not one who will always order fish for main courses while it comes to dining outside. I like fish, but it pales in comparison when you can have steak, chicken, or duck – meat in general. But still, I love fish, it sounds fickle but I am only human, you know. So I was glad when my Evangeline ordered the Pan Fried Seabass, with mashed potatoes. It may sound very ordinary, but the seabass was actually pretty good. It sounds like a layer of crispy pan-fried skin with the fillet nicely settled underneath.
It was a toss between Creme Brulee and Profiteroles when it came to desserts, but as Tampopo deli is nearby, we went for the former. Now, there will be vanilla beans inside, I’m sure. And true enough, there were tiny speckles of them in the custard, and the surface was caramelized beautifully.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.
There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.
The Muthu’s Flavors is the latest brainchild by renowned Muthu’s curry on Race course road. Now you get to enjoy the same good Indian food in a contemporary restaurant setting, with everything plated nicely, in the lush Dempsey hill.
Interior design wise – I’m a sucker for white. It’s interesting to see a traditional Indian restaurant using a bold and unique orange-white combination, and this actually makes The Muthu’s Flavors different from the original Muthu’s Curry. Well I can’t say for all the staff service wise, but I do think that they have a good manager in Joseph, and his assistant is equally knowledgeable about all the food.
Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.
There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.
Pappadam, the Indian flat bread was used instead of the typical toasted bread for the Pappadam Bruschetta ($5.50). I always have a thing for diced tomatoes. I’m not sure why, but somehow, they just look so appealing when it’s diced into tiny squares.
Eating the Crab meat stir-fried with fennel ($18.9), it makes me think that I’m eating chicken floss, with the addition of green chili and onions.
I was tweeting the previous night before this dinner, that I’m craving for some awesome curry, lo and behold, the famous Muthu’s Fish Head Curry ($25). Served with ladies finger and pineapple chunks in a rich gravy of aromatic spices, the tangy, slightly spicy sweet curry gravy makes me blush, like a young boy meets love.
Why do we even bother to order the other dishes? This is as good as it gets, and no, we are not going to debate on the ‘best curry fish head in Singapore’ topic. Pour the curry gravy on fragrance white rice, and that’s my dinner.
Tomato and garlic marinated chicken served with Cheese naan, frankly speaking, I could not recall much of the Chicken Tikka Masala ($15.5). Barring the fact that I was already sweating profusely after the sensation from the curry fish head, I stuffed myself with cheese naan.
Between the Massala prawn and the Muthu’s Prawns 65 ($17.9), we decided to go for both. I have no idea of the reason behind the inclusion of 65 in the name, but all of us agreed unanimously that Massala prawn was a better choice as the freshness of the prawns were lost in the deep-frying process.
The Massala Prawns ($23.9) were definitely much better. Huge tiger prawns cooked with a combination of chilies, tomatoes and spices. It’s one of the sweetest thing in life to have someone peeling prawns or crabs for you, some love to get their hands dirty, while others either try to use a fork and spoon to shell the prawns, or simply refused to eat it.
In between our debates over the proper terms of whether it is called de-prawning or de-shelling the prawns, here’s my version of ‘how to peel a prawn‘. 1) Use both hands and hold the god-damn prawn steady. 2) Remove the head and all the tiny legs. 3) De-shell the shell starting from the legs area 4) Pull off the tail and eat your prawn.
Okay fine, so I got greedy. We were full but still, the Lamb Rack Ananas ($22.9) was too alluring for us (or rather, me) to resist. I like how they barbecue the pineapple and add the distinct fruity flavor to the meat. They look good. They smell good. I like to hold it by the bone, gnaw it right up and finish every single bit.
Lamb rack aside, I didn’t know barbecued pineapple can actually taste so good! The others were too full to finish the rack. If the lamb isn’t attractive enough – there’s the tantalizing tandoori chicken beckoning to us.
This Tandoori Chicken ($16.9) is a wonderful all-weather kind of food: I’d imagine holding the drumstick and biting off the meat on a cold rainy day, and feasting on the flavorful chicken during summer. I usually don’t like chicken breast because it’s tough, dry and unappetizing (at least to me), but you know what?
I absolutely love the chicken breast here. It was so tender, and moist. This is the first time I’m giving such high praises to a chicken breast, and I actually like the breast as much as the drumstick.
So, it was a choice between Kulfi or Masala Chai Flan ($7.9), I never enjoy the Indian style ice cream, and having a good impression of a flan dessert helps. The ladies thought that the flan was too sweet; if you’re anything like me, I bet you’d happily finish the whole dessert on your own – I did.
This, is the Beetroot Halwa ($6.9). I know what you are thinking. Beetroot, and dessert? Weird? Yes. As much as I agree that beetroot is always very interesting as it provides the natural reddish purple coloring, but I’m sorry darling; beetroot just don’t work very well with dessert, for me.
Being a new restaurant, there are still a lot of teething problems to sort out, but it will be interesting how people react to the new Muthu’s Flavors concept. Purist and loyal supporter of Muthu’s Curry at Race course road may, or may not receive well to the idea of dining in such a classy and contemporary Indian restaurant, but I’m sure the younger crowd, and especially those who frequent Dempsey often, will be happy to have a new option for good and affordable Indian food.
I’ll like to thank Rayner from Contagious and the folks behind Muthu’s Curry for the invitation to the food tasting session. If you are keen to try out the food, The Muthu’s Flavors, Dempsey is having a 25% off total bill promotion from now until 28th Feb, and they have a new outlet at 313 @ Somerset too.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
Many months ago, a long time before I fall in love with food, I have totally no idea what eggs benedict is, much less heard of hollandaise sauce.
My first encounter with Eggs benedict was a bitter-sweet one, back then I looked at the eggs ben, and then I saw the price; I wasn’t willing to splurge twenty bucks on two poached eggs, or what I called the most-expensive-eggs-you-ever-eaten.
I immediately regretted it when I saw the heavenly holladaise sauce that was drizzled on top of the gorgeous poached eggs. And ever since then, I went on a brunch-frenzy to make up for what I have been missing out; to seek all the lovely breakfast food all over the island.
Excluding the ones that I had while I was traveling overseas, it suddenly occurred to me that it was a long time ago since I last had brunch in Singapore. There’s nothing like an all day brunch when you can have breakfast at any time of the day, as and when you crave for it. Cafe Hacienda does not serves all day brunch, but it’s pretty close – they have brunch till late afternoon everyday.
I find the idea of having my breakfast in the afternoon very alluring; sitting down in a chic and cozy cafe, sipping a cup of coffee and tweeting “I’m having brunch while the rest of you are busy at work”.
The credits go to Choupinette of course, it’s a shame that I have not tried eggs benedict and holladaise sauce before that, but it really does not matter now. Although I’m twenty years late, but it’s always better to be late than never isn’t it? Honestly, I do not understand what’s the big fuss with wild rocket, Yes, it’s pretty as an adornment, but other than that, it doesn’t really goes down well in the mouth, or maybe it’s just me.
Hacienda’s Eggs Benedict ($13.50) is a replication of Prive’s, I always preferred bacon rather than salmon with poached eggs; there’s nothing like a sinful fried bacon streak to make me go ga-ga.
Memories they say, are the stuff that make our life worth living for. I remember a ferrero rocher cake that I had a year ago, it was definitely one of the best I had – it was awesome. Fast forward to the present, taking a sniff of the cake, I actually felt butterflies inside my stomach.
Please, please let this be good.
I leaned forward cautiously, desperately wanting to get back the moment that I’ve before; I took the dessert with a fork, and carefully placed it into the tip of my tongue. The cake went down, and I refused to acknowledge the ugly truth, so I took another mouthful, and another mouthful, until it was evident that the Hazelnut Praline ($6.80) was really not as good as before.
This, to me, is a great disappointment. My friends had warned me that the cake had lost it’s former glory – I refused to believe it until I tasted it myself. The praline base used to be one of the thickest, but now it’s reduced to a mere thin layer which lacked the crunch of the ferrero rocher cake.
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Cafe Hacienda is Prive without the seafront view, but nestled in the greens of Dempsey. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Michel Lu, the dining concept that he brings about is simplicity; a nice cafe that serves delicious comfort food at a reasonable price – but some people just don’t get it. See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
Do you believe in fairytale? I do. The story of the Paradise group isn’t exactly a rise from the rugs to riches one, but it’s close enough. For someone who started off with a cze-char stall in the industrial park Defu lane, to a group of restaurants that includes the fine-dining Taste paradise, seafood restaurant Seafood paradise, and middle-range Paradise inn, doesn’t it sounds like a fairytale ending?
I have wanted to go to taste paradise for a very long time. But their original outlet at Mosque street does not serve dim sum, and so I waited until now for their new branch in Ion that has dim sum for lunch.
Having tried the most expensive xiaolongbao, and also the dirt-cheap-but-good ones in Nanxiang restaurant Shanghai; everything in between seem exceptionally ordinary to me. I know for a matter of fact there are people who love to pop a dozen of xiaolongbao ($3.80 for 4) into their mouth, but not me, one is enough.
Ladies and gentlemen, this, is the one you must try. I will go as far as saying Taste Paradise’s rendition is as good as the best char siew sou ($3.60 for 3) that I’ve so far, Buttery undertone of the flaky pastry, sweet and juicy char siew fillings, honey get your hands off the plate!
My dear, listen to me carefully for this is going to be very important, you need to have three for yourself, uh-uh, no sharing, and maybe that isn’t enough – make it six each!
I was contemplating whether to have the usual Siew mai & har gau ($4.80 for 4), we didn’t fancy having the former, thus only the latter was ordered. It might be a case of having too much dim sum, but the steamed prawn dumpling, unlike the char siew sou or custard bun, is just not sex-citing enough.
We also had the Steamed cheong fun with prawns ($5.20), it was some sort like a go-between, not fantastic, but not all bad either. Increasingly, it’s getting more challenging to get a good cheong fun. The problem lies with me, and me alone. Define what makes a good cheong fun: the rice rolls must not be too thick that it will stick to the teeth, nor can it be too thin that the roll breaks and expose all the ingredients. The fillings of prawn or char siew must be fresh, and the light sauce must be able to make the simple cheong fun taste good.
For someone who do not like yam except for yam cake, I always find myself ordering the Fried Taro puff ($3.60 for 3) when I’m having dim sum. This one was pretty disappointing, the fried crispy exterior was not too bad, but the yam fillings were too mushy for my liking.
I tasted Custard bun for the first time about one and a half years back, since then I only had it on just a few several occasions. I remember very clearly staring at the ordinary-looking bun, the kind of buns that you get from the neighbor coffeeshop, whatever it is, those that taste plain and boring.
Imagine my reaction when I torn apart a small corner of the fluffy-light bun, hot molten custard fillings flowed out like lava from an erupting volcano, I scrambled to save every single drop of the yellow-golden fillings – they are oh-my-god, so good! ‘Yummy…!’
Towards the end, we had a second round of custard buns and were deciding whether to have one more serving of the char siew sou or go for the Baked BBQ Pork Bun ($3.80 for 3). I had fond memories of this dish, but the one here wasn’t what I thought it was, instead of the bo luo bao texture, it tasted more like deep-fried bread. The char siew fillings were great, but I’d rather have the crispy puff pastry than the honey-glazed baked buns.
* * *
I have always insist that my favourite dim sum place is Yanting and Royal China, but now, we have a new addition to the list for best dim sum – Taste Paradise. There’s a problem though, it’s affordable, and it’s right in the middle of town. I’ll probably forget about all the other dim sum, and just binge on the char siew sou and custard buns – they are that good! See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
The irony of staying in the west is that I always tend to travel further away from the west for food. They call this the-grass-greener-on-the-other-side theory. Sweet Salty Spicy at the railmall is just five minutes away from my place, but I have never visit it until now.
The Miang of prawns & pomelo ($3.5 per portion) marks the start of our Thai dinner. The correct method of eating this is to roll up the betel leaves with all the fillings within, and eat it in one mouth – or at least that’s how I ate it.
If there is a perfect appetizer, it will surely be the Salad of green mango with crispy salmon ($9). Spicy, sour, and refreshing – it has everything you can ask.
And other than the mango salad, the Hot & sour tom yum soup ($12) is definitely the other classic representative of Thai cuisine. On the surface, the slightly-marred soup appeared to be harmless, but the first slurp hit me in an instant and I was already grasping for water.
We thoroughly enjoyed the Traditional Thai fish cakes ($8 for 4 piece) that came with the sweet spicy dipping sauce. The fish cake was good, but it was the sauce that made it even better.
From the Wok menu, the Crispy Pork knuckle ($10) caught our eyes immediately. I don’t know about you, but I like pork a lot, and this certainly works for me. The others like to have it with the spicy nahm prik relish, but I prefer to have it on its own.
Let’s be honest: what’s there not to like about the tender Pork collar ($14)? They were more delicate and fragile than the pork knuckle, but they were delicious. They were slightly crisp on the outside, just as I wanted, and the meat was so tender and soft. It was a very close replication of roasted pork, not as crispy, but in some ways, I liked it even better. So I finished everything on my own. And my conclusion: these were keepers.
I was pretty skeptical when we ordered the Angus Beef cheek with flat rice noodle ($16), I mean this is Angus beef cheek that we are talking about and they probably will just give a tiny winy piece of meat with lots of noodles. But the result, as you can see in the picture, was a huge serving of the most flavorful and tender of tamarind glazed Angus beef cheek in the fragrant ginger broth. We didn’t manage to finish the flat rice noodle since we were saving our stomach for the other dishes, but if you ever come here; trust me, you will want to finish this bowl of noodle.
Sweet Salty Spicy has five curries in their menu, and we had the Curry Triplets ($24 for 4 person) that allowed us to choose three out of the five. There was the Jungle curry of scallops and prawns, Panang curry of Angus beef in addition to the Mussaman curry of chicken, Green curry of baby snapper and roast duck red curry that we had.
Talking about curry, my favorite will definitely be curry fishhead, but unfortunately they did not have it here. The Mussaman curry of chicken was passable, while the others like the snapper curry. I don’t know about you, but somehow green curry is a turn-off for me; it reminds me of the puke when you are overdosed with liquor from a boys/girls night out.
If I have to choose my favorite, it will be the roast duck red curry. I always have a fetish for roast duck, so it’s a fascination how they manage to blend the taste of the tasty roast duck and curry together. It was a little on the sweet side, from the addition of grapes and fruits to cook with the curry.
I always remember about the Pad Thai that I had in Phuket. In retrospect, it seems funny that I should say that, since I can’t hold my chili very well. But Sweet Spicy Salty’s rendition of the Pad Thai ($12) was not spicy at all, I’m not sure if all Pad Thais are not supposed to be spicy, but the one that I had back then was definitely hot and fiery.
In fact, I like the localized version better, it was somewhat sweet and the stir-fried Thai rice noodle was very fragrant. The addition of peanut added crunch to it, but it would be even better if they’ve threw in more beansprouts.
I like prawns. And so it make sense to order the Jumbo prawns ($4.50 each). But there’s a snag, the de-prawning is always an issue for a lazy bum like me, and luckily they shelved it for us. We also ordered the Grilled squid ($12) that had the same marination as the prawns: the taste was pretty run-of-the-mill.
Despite hearing horror stories on the possibilities of the ways people treated Soft-shell crabs ($13) to make it soft, we went ahead and order it. Often, it’s the dressing that makes the dish taste better, there wasn’t any spectacular about the soft shell crabs, wellt hey were crispy, and eh, soft, but it was the the chili jam & lemongrass dressing that enhanced the taste.
At this point of time, our stomachs were already quite full, but when the staff told us there’s a signature dish that we did not order; we were greedy and went for the Deep fried silken tofu ($18). It was a pretty high price to pay given that it’s only fried tofu stuffed with minimum crab and maximum minced pork. The sauce was good though, but the price tag doesn’t justify for tofu.
The only reason why we made some last minute orders like the soft shell crabs and tofu was because we thought there wasn’t any desserts available. So it came as a surprise to us when they showed us the separate dessert menu, and boy I was excited when I saw the long list of selections they had. And it was even better when I found out that the desserts are made in-house.
We were debating over the white layer in the Devil’s chocolate cake ($8), the menu wrote raspberry ripple so we tasted the layer on its own and tried to convince ourselves it was raspberry. But it was actually mascarpone cream cheese, if you looked closely – the raspberry ripple is a thin layer in between of the cream cheese and the chocolate cake, which explains the reason for the pinkish tinge in the cream cheese. The chocolate cake was a little dry, and personally I felt that cream cheese does not goes well with chocolate cake.
Sometimes luck is very important when it comes to food. You may be scarred by a bad experience and refuse to try a particular dish just because it was bad during the first time you had it. Well, my previous and only encounter with the Sticky Date pudding ($6) wasn’t exactly memorable, but I decided to give it another shot. The problem arises when I do not know how a good sticky date pudding taste like, so there’s no comparison. The one here was fairly competent, it was very date-ish, if there’s such a word, and it would be better if there’s a scoop of cold ice cream to go along with.
All the citrus junkies will absolutely go crazy over this Lemon & wine tart ($7). With the strong and distinct lemon taste lingering on the tongue, the crispy tart crust goes crunch, crunch in your mouth.
This is last part of the series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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As of 01 Jan 2010, tvmobile is no longer broadcasting.. And matter of fact i kind of missed it.. Missed its rumbling in the surrounding. It make bus riding not so boring and quiet. Though sometimes i hope it is not there and stop buzzing creating extra noise in the already noisy world, however, when i was bored or was trying to catch the 7 o'clock TV Mobile was always the other alternative or sometimes they are broadcasting my episode i missed...
Perhaps its really a good idea as bus rides are long and sometimes you just enjoy being occupied by something else rather then watching angry drivers trying to cut into another angry driver's lane. It is also a good distraction when somebody with a stinky and sweaty armpit stood so near to your seat with his arm balancing himself on the pole just above you.
Perhaps TV Mobile is not such a bad thing afterall it brought many some entertainment or leisure browsing... To think about it... Theres this one advertisement that was drilled into me by TV Mobile. Its by this steamboat restaurant in bugis and the slogan goes: 這個湯鎮的很好喝!!!
To the TV Mobile Team.. Good EFFORT and A WONDERFUL IDEA.. I miss you guys!!!
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