People who are close to HFB knows that he is not a big fan of foodcourts. However Tenya – the first tempura bar in a Singapore food court is set to dispel this negative mindset of HFB. Think Yong Tau Foo, where the freshest of seafood and vegetables are laid out for your choice on the counter to be “tempura-ed”.
Paired with steaming Japanese rice and their special sauce that complements the crisp of the tempura batter, lovers of Japanese cuisine will be delighted to know that they can now enjoy restaurants’ standard tempura at a food court prices (vegetable items are going @ $0.60 per pc, seafood items are going @ $1.80 per pc and Japanese rice is $1.00 per serving).
To cater to the working crowd, the management team has also came up with a few set meals for one’s perusal – consisting of two seafood items and three vegetables ($6.40 per set). However if one prefer to go ala carte, you can do so with a minimum of 6 items choosen.
With chef trained in Japan, HFB was not disappointed by the quality of food that was served. Each individual tempura is crisp on the outside with a tint of light fluffiness on the inside. Although HFB’s initial fear was that the special sauce poured over the tempura would wreck a good dish, tasting it confirmed that his fear was unfounded.
A little sweet on its own, it complimented really well with the rice and the fried food. And if one is worried that the person you bring along is not a tempura fan, there are other options offered by Tenya.
The Unadon at $7.50, is of reasonable priced. Unlike many other Japanese establishments that tend to over-grill their eel, Tenya really prepared theirs with care. Although HFB preferred the eel slightly charred, he fully understood Tenya’s intention of doing so – so that one can taste the natural sweetness of the eel while retaining the moisture of its flesh. Oiishi!
Besides the fish, one can also opt for the Tori Karaage Don @ $6.20. This is a dish that HFB will never get sick of – deep fried chicken pieces. The batter was flavoured and the chicken was tasty, however be warned that it will turn soggy if you leave it under the air-con for too long.
I used their lavender essential oil, massage oil, bodywash, bodymist ( This mist is good for spraying onto curtains and beds, rather then body)
They stop the previous lavender bodywash and have the new range lavender camomile bodywash, which was rather disappointing for me.
The previous bodywash even after bath will have the lavender smell, the new range only smells in the bath and not as fragrant as the previous.
I wonder will the previous range be back to the shelves, really miss them esp, the Bodywash.
1 of their new range, The Deep Sleep Bodymist. I really loved it, I spray it onto my pillows and bed b4 I sleep and really have better sleep then b4 at times when Im not so stress :)
Frankly speaking, i am totally unaware of the existence of this restuarant. It was only till the recent promotion of their peking duck and double boilded shark fins, then did i get to know them. Hidden in the pretty quiet mosque street, we did spent quite a fair bit of time before we actually located them. Luckily, the staffs called us and gave us some clear directions, which had indeed shorten our finding time.
The interior restuarant decoration were pretty artistic and the two main colours (red and black) that they have choosen, gave one a mysteric feeling rather than a comfortable feel. We were led through a long passageway before we finally arrive at our table. I believed that the passageway would definitely be nicer when its being lit up at night.
Very plain and wordly menu were being presented to us. Of course, if there are more pictures in the menu, it would definitely be better and easier for us to decide on the food. Finally, we choose the dishes and they are the double boil shark fins, the peking duck, the szechuan roasted chickend as well as the stir fried rice vermicles.
The most impressive dish is definitely the double boiled shark fins. Before tasting this dish, the staffs would do an introduction on this dish. The shark fins were served in a japanese stone pot, which will allow it to remain hot for at least 20 mins. Well, this shark fins is definitely one of the best. Taste wise, it is not too salty and neither is it too milky. Their is absolutely no need for additional vinegar or pepper.
Not only that,there are hugh chunks of shark fins and ham strips to be seen in this dish. Very tasty and worth for the price that we are paying. One interesting factor is that they actually served this dish with the crispy onion roll. When it is dipped into the shark fins soup, it would release some sort of aroma that makes the entire shark fins soup even tastier.
The peking duck tasted not too bad either. Their chef even personally came to slice the peking duck for us. Although the chef looked pretty fierce, the slices that he cut were rather uniform. The crispy skin were dapped into some sauce and together with the cucumber slices, they were being rolled in the egg sheets. The taste of this is simply superb and the cucumber slices seemed to neutralize any strong smell that would linger in our mouth. This has led us to eat more without feeling sick.
As for the szechuan roasted chicken, it seemed rather normal, not extremely hot and in fact, i find it quite acceptable. But, i quite like the thick slices of chicken meat that they use, and they have managed to keep the original 'chicken' flavour in their meat.
Personally, i find their services to be very good. First, they provide complemenary parking, which i feel that it is a blessing especially in that area, as we hardly saw any carparks along the way. In circumstances where one is rushing for time, they also provide vault parking, thus one will need to spend unnecessary time for a empty slot.
Second, the staffs were pretty attentive to our needs. They even have a spare chair for us to put the ladies's handbag, this would avoid them to place their hugh bags on their laps and not able to enjoy their meal comfortablely. They also ensured that our cups are always refilled with warm tea, there is really hardly any chances for us to refilled the drink ourselves. They even took the initiatives to separate the food for us, so as to avoid dirty the customer's hands and minimize the hazzle to divide the food.
Third, the staffs were very polite. When we stepped into the restuarant, they would greet us. When we left the restuarant, they would also greet us. This is really impressive. This is really one of the few restuarants that have staffs that were so well trained and polite.
Overall, i think this restuarant is simply excellent with their good food and their good services. Although it may cost abit more on the expensive side, but i feel it is pretty worth to spend this money here.
To be actual, this is a motorcycle sales/repair division.
We bought a yamaha motorcycle 3months ago and was told we could bring it to this workshop to do servicing which was near to our place.
We have been there 2 times, they are very efficient and fast getting things done varies from half to 2hours and their staff are alot friendlier.
We used to own honda motorcycle and whenever we take our bike to service, it's almost half day wasted. We came across an incident, that our bike was left untouched after half day gone.
That's one of the reason why we change to Yamaha, besides the price tag.
Their products are really good but very expenisve. I specially love their Waterbank Hydro Gel (it's v hydrating and light on your face, especially during June period when weather is very hot), Perfect Renew Dual Touch Eyes (I jus love this, you must try it to know what i mean) and Satin FInish Loose Powder (I juz like the effect of the powder, it's light and produce a naked look)
I have tried their Prefect Renew Essense and WaterBank Cream 1 and Perfect Renew Sleeping Treatment. They really feel good on my face, very moisturising for my dry skin.
During Xmas promotion, every $150 purchase you get a Free Gifts consists of 4pcs of trial size Star White Skin Refiner, Emulsion, Essence, cream and an elegant Bag.
When you purchased $120, you can join them as members afterwhich every $10 you spend on their products entitled you to 1 laneige points, you can accumulate these points to redeem for products.
Due to the steep price tag, I will only buy the few that's producing better results then other products I have tried.
I was among the many who spent the entire afternoon chopping good seats for the fireworks display too! Cheapo me didn't want to spend money buying the tickets for seats on the floating platform and chose to have a picnic with friends outside of esplanade instead.
This year's display is fantastic! And I think it lasted longer than those from 2007. And it surely beats all the other display that Singapore had this year.
I'm looking forward to SFF2009 already!
P/s: Thanks Claud for providing the video of the display! Very nice!
Beautiful building filled with beautiful displays and interactivity for the visitors.
This is the first museum I went which I was given an audio player before entering the exhibition place. (Of course you'll have to return the player before you leave.) And I find that the player is very useful and it helps keep one (if visiting alone) company. Good thing I went with my friends. If not, I would not have the courage to continue the visit on my own. This is one of the most intimidating visit for me to a museum.
The lighting within the museum is dimly lighted and it created an eerie feeling. I had goosebumps when I saw a coffin and the set-up of a funeral ceremony. So scary can?! My friends and I had to fasten our pace and move away from the section.
At the National Museum, there are also many smaller exhibition rooms where you can explore. There was one featuring local food and one on photography too.
If you're planning to go to the National Museum, I recommend you go with a group of friends. And be prepared to spend the entire day there. Lots of things to explore.
Its the holidays and moi friends and I visited couple of new places and ACM is one of them! I think I should consider applying for the museum card! But than again, maybe not. When school starts, I wouldn't be able to spend much time touring around Singapore already. Anyway, back to the museum visit...
ACM is a very oriental and mysterious place for me. The artifacts on display have very strong asia flavor and I'm very fascinated by the entire museum. Every corner I go to seem to have something that attracted my attention.
My favorite sections around the museum are the children discovery corners that can be found in the various main exhibition halls. There are interactive activities that everyone can try. But sadly, when I was there, some of them were not set-up properly or has missing pieces.
The Neither East nor West exhibition was very interesting too. I learned about the different types of hats worn in the olden days from different part of the world. And the collection of people photos shows me a lot about how people from different places plan and dress themselves just for a portrait. There is a photo corner where you can try on hats and take photos too. My friends and I had lots of fun trying them on and taking funny shots of ourselves.
Overall ACM is a nice family go to place for discovering of the history and culture from Asia.
My girlfriends and I had the chance to visit Ma Maison on a Wednesday evening. Thinking that it's a weekday evening and that we were there at 8pm, there would be less people. Boy, were we wrong... There was a queue snaking out of the restaurant. We waited for 30 minutes before we were shown a seat. Very popular place indeed. We ordered and settled to take photographs while waiting for our food. We noticed that there were a few tables with Jap patrons and that's usually a sign that there's good Jap food in existence.
My apologies for not being able to provide the actual name of the dish as I was too excited and forgot to take a photo of the menu.
The food we ordered Escargots:
This is done with garlic. It was delicious! Served up warm, it was very fragrant and they were good to provide all the right utensils for extracting the flesh.
Hamburger Steak The meat was well minced and packed in a patty. It is served with an egg and some potato, doused in brown sauce. Even the waitress said "brown sauce" So I have no idea what sauce it is actually. Even though I'm not really one for meat, I did like this one as the meat was minced and easy on the stomach.
Gratin with Prawn and Scallops I love this potato and cheese combination. There weren't many prawns and scallops though.. I think there was a grand total of two each. But this is one dish you have to share with friends. One person can't finish the whole plate.
Pork Cutlet This is served with two sauces and mineral salt. The waitress explained what we should do with the sauces but when she left, all four of us were still baffled because we couldn't understand what she said. Well in the end, we did it the Singaporean way - Rojak style. We put all the sauces into the little dish she gave us and just dipped our pork pieces into it. The cutlet was a little on the tough side, a little too difficult to chew. The meat inside didn't have any taste and the crisp outside was a little bland too. The potato it was served with was nice though.
Cuttlefish Ink Spaghetti I was a little taken aback by how black the spaghetti came. But all my companions swore by this dish so I tried it. It was yummy! Just good on its own. My only grievance is that it is a little on the dry side but I will definitely order this dish again.
Apple Pie with Ice Cream The apple filling was suitably sweet but the crust was a little too dry and had a very starchy taste to it which I couldn't bear to eat. We finished up most of the pie leaving the crust behind.
Brownie with Ice Cream We all loved the brownie. Me being a dessert lover, I'd say this is one of the better brownies I've had. It's not too dry nor moist and has just enough chocolate flavour so that one will not be sick of the taste before finishing.
Goma Ice Cream (Sesame) This is my first go at such a flavour and I'd have to say it has a special taste to it. The ice cream left a strong aftertaste in my mouth. It wasn't sweet but did have a very strong taste of sesame. Quite enjoyable I guess.
The four of us spent $87 in all which I'd say is pretty reasonable.
Went to this outlet a few times, they have v good and fast service.
I must agree that their xiao long bao wasn't very good, the skin too thick. I particularly like their hor fun with a raw egg on top and their gyoza (jia zhi).
Their soft shell crab is good, I think it's the gravy that's good but abit too small in portion.
Not bad for a full and fast meal, their prices are still reasonable.
1=SGD 0.0587
People who are close to HFB knows that he is not a big fan of foodcourts. However Tenya – the first tempura bar in a Singapore food court is set to dispel this negative mindset of HFB. Think Yong Tau Foo, where the freshest of seafood and vegetables are laid out for your choice on the counter to be “tempura-ed”.
Paired with steaming Japanese rice and their special sauce that complements the crisp of the tempura batter, lovers of Japanese cuisine will be delighted to know that they can now enjoy restaurants’ standard tempura at a food court prices (vegetable items are going @ $0.60 per pc, seafood items are going @ $1.80 per pc and Japanese rice is $1.00 per serving).
To cater to the working crowd, the management team has also came up with a few set meals for one’s perusal – consisting of two seafood items and three vegetables ($6.40 per set). However if one prefer to go ala carte, you can do so with a minimum of 6 items choosen.
With chef trained in Japan, HFB was not disappointed by the quality of food that was served. Each individual tempura is crisp on the outside with a tint of light fluffiness on the inside. Although HFB’s initial fear was that the special sauce poured over the tempura would wreck a good dish, tasting it confirmed that his fear was unfounded.
A little sweet on its own, it complimented really well with the rice and the fried food. And if one is worried that the person you bring along is not a tempura fan, there are other options offered by Tenya.
The Unadon at $7.50, is of reasonable priced. Unlike many other Japanese establishments that tend to over-grill their eel, Tenya really prepared theirs with care. Although HFB preferred the eel slightly charred, he fully understood Tenya’s intention of doing so – so that one can taste the natural sweetness of the eel while retaining the moisture of its flesh. Oiishi!
Besides the fish, one can also opt for the Tori Karaage Don @ $6.20. This is a dish that HFB will never get sick of – deep fried chicken pieces. The batter was flavoured and the chicken was tasty, however be warned that it will turn soggy if you leave it under the air-con for too long.
You can view all the photos here.
Rating given:
I am their lavender products' FANS.
I used their lavender essential oil, massage oil, bodywash, bodymist ( This mist is good for spraying onto curtains and beds, rather then body)
They stop the previous lavender bodywash and have the new range lavender camomile bodywash, which was rather disappointing for me.
The previous bodywash even after bath will have the lavender smell, the new range only smells in the bath and not as fragrant as the previous.
I wonder will the previous range be back to the shelves, really miss them esp, the Bodywash.
1 of their new range, The Deep Sleep Bodymist. I really loved it, I spray it onto my pillows and bed b4 I sleep and really have better sleep then b4 at times when Im not so stress :)
Rating given:
Frankly speaking, i am totally unaware of the existence of this restuarant. It was only till the recent promotion of their peking duck and double boilded shark fins, then did i get to know them. Hidden in the pretty quiet mosque street, we did spent quite a fair bit of time before we actually located them. Luckily, the staffs called us and gave us some clear directions, which had indeed shorten our finding time.
The interior restuarant decoration were pretty artistic and the two main colours (red and black) that they have choosen, gave one a mysteric feeling rather than a comfortable feel. We were led through a long passageway before we finally arrive at our table. I believed that the passageway would definitely be nicer when its being lit up at night.
Very plain and wordly menu were being presented to us. Of course, if there are more pictures in the menu, it would definitely be better and easier for us to decide on the food. Finally, we choose the dishes and they are the double boil shark fins, the peking duck, the szechuan roasted chickend as well as the stir fried rice vermicles.
The most impressive dish is definitely the double boiled shark fins. Before tasting this dish, the staffs would do an introduction on this dish. The shark fins were served in a japanese stone pot, which will allow it to remain hot for at least 20 mins. Well, this shark fins is definitely one of the best. Taste wise, it is not too salty and neither is it too milky. Their is absolutely no need for additional vinegar or pepper.
Not only that,there are hugh chunks of shark fins and ham strips to be seen in this dish. Very tasty and worth for the price that we are paying. One interesting factor is that they actually served this dish with the crispy onion roll. When it is dipped into the shark fins soup, it would release some sort of aroma that makes the entire shark fins soup even tastier.
The peking duck tasted not too bad either. Their chef even personally came to slice the peking duck for us. Although the chef looked pretty fierce, the slices that he cut were rather uniform. The crispy skin were dapped into some sauce and together with the cucumber slices, they were being rolled in the egg sheets. The taste of this is simply superb and the cucumber slices seemed to neutralize any strong smell that would linger in our mouth. This has led us to eat more without feeling sick.
As for the szechuan roasted chicken, it seemed rather normal, not extremely hot and in fact, i find it quite acceptable. But, i quite like the thick slices of chicken meat that they use, and they have managed to keep the original 'chicken' flavour in their meat.
Personally, i find their services to be very good. First, they provide complemenary parking, which i feel that it is a blessing especially in that area, as we hardly saw any carparks along the way. In circumstances where one is rushing for time, they also provide vault parking, thus one will need to spend unnecessary time for a empty slot.
Second, the staffs were pretty attentive to our needs. They even have a spare chair for us to put the ladies's handbag, this would avoid them to place their hugh bags on their laps and not able to enjoy their meal comfortablely. They also ensured that our cups are always refilled with warm tea, there is really hardly any chances for us to refilled the drink ourselves. They even took the initiatives to separate the food for us, so as to avoid dirty the customer's hands and minimize the hazzle to divide the food.
Third, the staffs were very polite. When we stepped into the restuarant, they would greet us. When we left the restuarant, they would also greet us. This is really impressive. This is really one of the few restuarants that have staffs that were so well trained and polite.
Overall, i think this restuarant is simply excellent with their good food and their good services. Although it may cost abit more on the expensive side, but i feel it is pretty worth to spend this money here.
Rating given:
To be actual, this is a motorcycle sales/repair division.
We bought a yamaha motorcycle 3months ago and was told we could bring it to this workshop to do servicing which was near to our place.
We have been there 2 times, they are very efficient and fast getting things done varies from half to 2hours and their staff are alot friendlier.
We used to own honda motorcycle and whenever we take our bike to service, it's almost half day wasted. We came across an incident, that our bike was left untouched after half day gone.
That's one of the reason why we change to Yamaha, besides the price tag.
Rating given:
This is the 2nd time i buy Laniege products.
Their products are really good but very expenisve. I specially love their Waterbank Hydro Gel (it's v hydrating and light on your face, especially during June period when weather is very hot), Perfect Renew Dual Touch Eyes (I jus love this, you must try it to know what i mean) and Satin FInish Loose Powder (I juz like the effect of the powder, it's light and produce a naked look)
I have tried their Prefect Renew Essense and WaterBank Cream 1 and Perfect Renew Sleeping Treatment. They really feel good on my face, very moisturising for my dry skin.
During Xmas promotion, every $150 purchase you get a Free Gifts consists of 4pcs of trial size Star White Skin Refiner, Emulsion, Essence, cream and an elegant Bag.
When you purchased $120, you can join them as members afterwhich every $10 you spend on their products entitled you to 1 laneige points, you can accumulate these points to redeem for products.
Due to the steep price tag, I will only buy the few that's producing better results then other products I have tried.
Rating given:
I was among the many who spent the entire afternoon chopping good seats for the fireworks display too! Cheapo me didn't want to spend money buying the tickets for seats on the floating platform and chose to have a picnic with friends outside of esplanade instead.
This year's display is fantastic! And I think it lasted longer than those from 2007. And it surely beats all the other display that Singapore had this year.
I'm looking forward to SFF2009 already!
P/s: Thanks Claud for providing the video of the display! Very nice!
Rating given:
Beautiful building filled with beautiful displays and interactivity for the visitors.
This is the first museum I went which I was given an audio player before entering the exhibition place. (Of course you'll have to return the player before you leave.) And I find that the player is very useful and it helps keep one (if visiting alone) company. Good thing I went with my friends. If not, I would not have the courage to continue the visit on my own. This is one of the most intimidating visit for me to a museum.
The lighting within the museum is dimly lighted and it created an eerie feeling. I had goosebumps when I saw a coffin and the set-up of a funeral ceremony. So scary can?! My friends and I had to fasten our pace and move away from the section.
At the National Museum, there are also many smaller exhibition rooms where you can explore. There was one featuring local food and one on photography too.
If you're planning to go to the National Museum, I recommend you go with a group of friends. And be prepared to spend the entire day there. Lots of things to explore.
Rating given:
Its the holidays and moi friends and I visited couple of new places and ACM is one of them! I think I should consider applying for the museum card! But than again, maybe not. When school starts, I wouldn't be able to spend much time touring around Singapore already. Anyway, back to the museum visit...
ACM is a very oriental and mysterious place for me. The artifacts on display have very strong asia flavor and I'm very fascinated by the entire museum. Every corner I go to seem to have something that attracted my attention.
My favorite sections around the museum are the children discovery corners that can be found in the various main exhibition halls. There are interactive activities that everyone can try. But sadly, when I was there, some of them were not set-up properly or has missing pieces.
The Neither East nor West exhibition was very interesting too. I learned about the different types of hats worn in the olden days from different part of the world. And the collection of people photos shows me a lot about how people from different places plan and dress themselves just for a portrait. There is a photo corner where you can try on hats and take photos too. My friends and I had lots of fun trying them on and taking funny shots of ourselves.
Overall ACM is a nice family go to place for discovering of the history and culture from Asia.
Rating given:
My girlfriends and I had the chance to visit Ma Maison on a Wednesday evening. Thinking that it's a weekday evening and that we were there at 8pm, there would be less people. Boy, were we wrong... There was a queue snaking out of the restaurant. We waited for 30 minutes before we were shown a seat. Very popular place indeed. We ordered and settled to take photographs while waiting for our food. We noticed that there were a few tables with Jap patrons and that's usually a sign that there's good Jap food in existence.
My apologies for not being able to provide the actual name of the dish as I was too excited and forgot to take a photo of the menu.
The food we ordered
Escargots:
This is done with garlic. It was delicious! Served up warm, it was very fragrant and they were good to provide all the right utensils for extracting the flesh.
Hamburger Steak
The meat was well minced and packed in a patty. It is served with an egg and some potato, doused in brown sauce. Even the waitress said "brown sauce" So I have no idea what sauce it is actually. Even though I'm not really one for meat, I did like this one as the meat was minced and easy on the stomach.
Gratin with Prawn and Scallops
I love this potato and cheese combination. There weren't many prawns and scallops though.. I think there was a grand total of two each. But this is one dish you have to share with friends. One person can't finish the whole plate.
Pork Cutlet
This is served with two sauces and mineral salt. The waitress explained what we should do with the sauces but when she left, all four of us were still baffled because we couldn't understand what she said. Well in the end, we did it the Singaporean way - Rojak style. We put all the sauces into the little dish she gave us and just dipped our pork pieces into it. The cutlet was a little on the tough side, a little too difficult to chew. The meat inside didn't have any taste and the crisp outside was a little bland too. The potato it was served with was nice though.
Cuttlefish Ink Spaghetti
I was a little taken aback by how black the spaghetti came. But all my companions swore by this dish so I tried it. It was yummy! Just good on its own. My only grievance is that it is a little on the dry side but I will definitely order this dish again.
Apple Pie with Ice Cream
The apple filling was suitably sweet but the crust was a little too dry and had a very starchy taste to it which I couldn't bear to eat. We finished up most of the pie leaving the crust behind.
Brownie with Ice Cream
We all loved the brownie. Me being a dessert lover, I'd say this is one of the better brownies I've had. It's not too dry nor moist and has just enough chocolate flavour so that one will not be sick of the taste before finishing.
Goma Ice Cream (Sesame)
This is my first go at such a flavour and I'd have to say it has a special taste to it. The ice cream left a strong aftertaste in my mouth. It wasn't sweet but did have a very strong taste of sesame. Quite enjoyable I guess.
The four of us spent $87 in all which I'd say is pretty reasonable.
For more pictures, please click to go to my blog.
Rating given:
Went to this outlet a few times, they have v good and fast service.
I must agree that their xiao long bao wasn't very good, the skin too thick. I particularly like their hor fun with a raw egg on top and their gyoza (jia zhi).
Their soft shell crab is good, I think it's the gravy that's good but abit too small in portion.
Not bad for a full and fast meal, their prices are still reasonable.
Rating given: