Joe’s kitchen may look ordinary on the outside, or even you might totally missed it when you passed by the place at its location at Bukit Merah, just directly opposite Alexander Hospital. I did. Having passed by the area a few times, i didn’t know there was this hidden gem offering authentic thai food experience in our midst of our heartland.
I was given this opportunity for the wonderful Makan experience organized by Leslie of ieatishootipost fame. A total of 47 food punters joined us on this occasion. Some of which were ieat’s old makan kakis, while many like me were first-timers joining ieat on his makan session.
The interior of the place was simple, the place wasn’t very big but it managed to squeeze all 47 of us inside the place. I wondered how all of us managed to eat inside that night. Miracle!
The event was supposed to start at 7pm, i got there around 645pm and there were people there already. Damien was the co-organizer for the outing. Jiawei and Shanice were the earliest there if i’m not wrong, i seated in the same table with them. Also on the same table as me were liverpool, eastcoastlife & hubby, yanti & friend. All of us had a wonderful time chatting taking photos, and savouring the food.
The crowd starts to come in and by around 740pm or thereabouts almost everyone arrived. The menu was to be 14 dishes including some starters, mains, and desserts. All the dishes came in sampling tasting size so that we can have a bit of everything. The female boss, Jamie (chef Joe’s wife) is friendly and attended to us warmly.
Crispy rice cake The Kao Dang Na Dang help to kick-start our makan session. Not commonly found in Singapore. the cripsy rice cake, was supposed to go together with the peanut sauce. I didn’t quite enjoy this appetizer as i found it to be way too dry for my liking.
Prawn Cakes The Thot Man Goong or Prawn Cakes was nice to eat, it was crispy and the prawn taste is just right.
Mango Salad The mango salad is one the appetizer dish that you will not be surprised to find in a Thai restaurant. No doubt about it, th salad is packed with everything. The first taste of it, refreshing. The initial impression was its not as spicy as i thought. But the magical part of it was the longer it gets, the spicier it became. A few more bites and the mango salad got to its “full level”
As most of us waited quite long for everyone to turn up before the dishes to serve, by the time the mango salad came out everybody were famished. We literally “attacked” the salad, and it was until ieat told us to hold our horses, that the salad was supposed to eat together with the sticky rice and chicken which were not out yet then we realized that.
Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken) The grilled chicken was quite good to be honest, everyone got a bite of it. Placing the mango salad and the chicken onto the sticky rice, the taste is very different from eating the three dishes separately.
Grilled Pork Collar This was no doubt for me, the star of the show! The Khaw Mu Yang, or grilled pork collar was somewhat similar to our Chinese char siew, albeit Thai style. Many of the kakis found it to be good too! Its also commonly eaten together with the sticky rice and mango salad. But its so good that we eat it on its own.
Tom Yum soup with fried fish In my personal opinion, how good a Thai restaurant is can be based on the test of their Tom Yum soup. Unquestionably. Tom Yum soup is the first thing that most people will think of when they think of Thai food. Well i say the Tom Yum soup by Chef Joe should passed with flying colours. The soup is really spicy, at least from my perspective. Dipping the crispy fried fish into the soup was quite a experience for me.
Green curry beef The beef was tender, and immersed with the essence of the green curry.
Deep fried Grouper with Thai chili The Thai chili was excellent here, real hot and a little sweet spicy. But i couldn’t help drinking more water so as to have a few more mouthful of the chili with the deep fried grouper.
Red Curry Roasted Duck Having seen the green curry earlier, my first thought was red curry after green? This was followed by roasted duck curry? I have never heard of roasted duck curry, let alone tasting it. But this dish was really not bad, i’m not sure how the roasted duck came about, whether Chef Joe roasted the duck, or he brought it from elsewhere and cook it with the red curry, but nevertheless its good.
And to our astonishment, there were grapes, yes grapes inside the curry! Talk about surprise, first roasted duck in curry, then grapes?
Basil leave minced pork I was never a fan of minced pork in the first place, n’uff said!
Claypot Crab Vermicelli with fatty pork Although the claypot crab was suppose to be the highlight here, but we got into eating the vermicelli instead. After cooking, the essence of the crab and fatty pork all went into the vermicelli, that alone should suffice for eating the vermicelli.
Poom Fy Dang - Kang Kong Thai style Like all the other dishes in Joe’s Kitchen, the first taste was not very spicy, but the second bite was real hot. The Kang Kong got hotter with each bite, i suggested just swallow the veggies!
Mango Stick rice To round off our authentic Thai food experience, we had Mango sticky rice, the mango was real sweet!
Tapioca with Coconut milk I didn’t like tapioca, so this dish was not to my taste bud
Total Bill was $1646 for 47 people, $35 per head for the Authentic Thai food experience at Chef Joe’s place. I love going to Makan outings with big groups because we can get to know more people. Think Yebber Party @ MINT where there were about 50 people, the Social Media Breakfast with around 40 odds people, and now this ieat makan outing with 47 people.
Credits to Leslie (ieat) and Damien whom organized this makan session for everyone to get together and enjoyed food. I looked forward to the many more outings organized by them, to meet more people and eat more food!
The beauty of food, it can bring everyone from all ages, different backgrounds together, for one common purpose that is to savour all the good food. How often do you see strangers getting together and seating down for a meal? I’m going to organised LIC food event soon, do watch out for the post!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Authentic Thai Food experience, in the midst of our heartland “
Had dinner at Da Paolo La Terrazza - one of 7 Italian restaurants/bars/gourmet shops that the Da Paolo group has opened up since their early days as Trattoria Da Paolo in Tanjong Pagar.
Located just a stone's throwaway from the ever crowded Holland Village in the quiet, tree lined stretch of Jalan Merah Sage, La Terrazza offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of life as the rat race takes a back seat in this charming little neighbourhood restaurant. The decor is simple yet comfortable, with its rattan chairs and a small alfresco dining area to cater to those who wish to enjoy the humidity of Singapore. Then again, there's only the air curtain to seperate the air conditioned area and the alfresco area so sitting inside doesn't guarantee a cool dinner, which was the case that very night I was there.
The complimentary bread was a good start to the meal. Fragrant, soft and moist on the inside yet crisp on the outside. It would have been better if served warm though.
La Terrazza's offering of the minestrone soup hit some rather flat notes to render it painfully average. I could have gotten the same standard of soup at most decent western restaurants for a lower price. Probably the only interesting thing was that the soup came with a slice of cheese in it, something I've not seen anywhere else. Not that it really made much of a difference to the taste of the soup though.
Cappesante Alle Erbe e Brandy - Sauteed Scallops with Brandy and Herbs - I like scallops hence I tend to have higher expectations of them. And these failed miserably. The scallops were bland and soft, not firm as I would have expected and there was no taste of brandy whatsoever. The only discernible taste came from the ground pepper scattered atop.
Tagliatelle Al Granchio - The Tagliatelle Al Granchio aka crab meat pasta provided a much needed boost to the disappointing dinner thus far. Al dente without being too heavy on the cream or taste. Nice and filling just the way I liked it. Could do with a little more crab meat though.
Crespelle Alla Crema - Caramelised Thin Pancakes with Vanilla Pastry Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream - This is probably one of the very very few times where I order pancakes for dessert. But I'm glad I did. The caramelised pancakes were rather interesting because as the name implies, the pancakes were coated with a hardened layer of caramel, making it sweet. Personally, I would have prefered chocolate cream instead of vanilla cream inside though.
Tiramisu - Undoubtedly the star of the evening, and one of the main reasons why I wanted to eat at La Terrazza - the tiramisu. The not overly wet sponge to mascarpone cheese ratio was quite even and overall the tiramisu came across as light and fluffy with a stronger than usual hint of alcohol. A slice costs $10 and if you want the entire cake, its $60.
$94 for a soup, an appetiser, a main and 2 desserts certainly isn't prohibitively expensive considering the relatively above average quality of food in general. But it isn't cheap either. On the flip side, service is good and efficient but rather mechanical, lacking the personal touch and warmth.
ladyironchef finally got his namecard!! Namecards are important, first they tell others your name, and then they also make them remember your contact number. Its a hassle to liase or socialise with people if you don't have one.
Encountering the problem at Yebber first anniversary party at MINT, and at the Social Media Breakfast where LIC got to meet many people but didn't have any namecard to exchange with.
LIC got a friend to design his namecard, the layout is simple and nice (i hope), styled in black background at the front and white background at the back.
And the rest is easy, bringing down the template in thumbdrive saved as the format required. There was two lady when LIC went to Tommy Print. One was cold and had few words, while the other was friendly and helpful.
They guided me to choosing the different things required for my namecard, and it was not much of a problem. I choose the cheapest, but very nice Gloss/Matte Lamination.
As this is my first time printing my own namecards, i chose 200 pieces at $24, instead of the otherwise more worth-it 300 pieces at $30. Its suppose to take them 4-5 working days to print, but i got the call from them on the 3rd day. So i guess they are quite efficient.
The results of the namecard are nice, better than what i expected really. And at $24 for two box, its really very cheap and affordable for anyone and everyone to own their own namecards.
Meet me at the next Yebber outing, i'll pass you one of mine : )
You was not expecting ladyironchef to get his DSLR from challenger after reading all the rantings and praises he had for the different camera shops.
After the complaints against Alan photo, and the praise on John 3:16, you must be wondering why didn't LIC got his DSLR from John 3:16?
Well, first thing first, LIC love canon products, the old camera is a canon ixus 60. But for DSLR, for the budget LIC has now, Canon doesn't seem so viable. Nikon D40 for &750, D60 for $950, Canon 400D for $1080, Canon 450D for $1490.
I'll love to get from John 3:16, but they are not a fan of Nikon, and the model that i wanted to get D40, they are not selling it anymore. End of story.
On the other hand, Challenger is having this promotion for Nikon D40 for $749 which comes with a nikon bag, 2GB SD card. But we hit one snag, the promotion lasted until 30 april only.
As i was there last sunday, but i didn't buy the dslr as i was in rush of time. The sales associate Shawn he remembered me, and despite the promotion is over, he gave me the 2GB SD card. Thats service to me.
After which, i asked him where can i get the screen protector, challenger is selling at $9.90, but then even though its not part of the deal, he say he gave it to me. Its not the freebies, but the service provided by Shawn. Kudos!
And i am proud to annouce Ladyironchef is a owner of the magical DSLR, the Nikon D40!! Thank you for reading through all the previous posts, hope i didn't confuse you where i was buying from : )
John 3: 16 has the BEST services if you are looking for your camera. The staff there are real friendly, and always more than willing to answer your any doubts or enquiries.
Just asked them for a hands-on experience on a dslr or camera, and there was no slight frown, or look that says "are you really going to buy?"
Leslie is the one who attended to me, and he's very knowledgable about the products that he's selling. Real friendly too. I had some hands-on testing with the dslr, and he patiently explained to me the difference between the diff models and lens.
But, good services come with a price after all, the quotes you get from John 3:16 will not come cheaper than the other shops. In fact i think the price tag is slightly higher by $20-$30?
Not much diff, but still enough to buy another additional memory card. If you are the kind looking for service and don't mind paying a bit more, then John 3:16 is definitely the place for you, but if you don't mind poor service, so long can get a cheaper deal, den please look else-where.
Oh ya, i forgot to mention, John 3:16 lot is totally pro-canon. They support canon, so despite me telling myself they are not biased, but i cant help feeling that they will advice and tend to pyscho their customers to buying canon products.
One obvious part which i noticed was, John 3:16 is not a Nikon authorised dealer. And i wondered why.
Was DSLR-hunting, and went into the sony shop to enquire on the sony alpha series model. The salesman uncle was quite polite to explain about the alpha 200. and the different pricing for diff lens.
I think there's a sony promotion going on right now, and if you buy the alpha series, it comes with free original battery. But then wasn't pretty much interested in sony dslr anyway, so the deal doesn't attract me.
De-Luxe Cameras and Cathay Photos are two of the authorized Nikon dealers, looking for a nikon dslr, i went in to take a look.
They have two shops (i only realise later). The first shop i went in was tended by an old uncle, he was quite all right i guess, as in altitude wise.
He quoted me $890 (before GST) for the Nikon D60. After GSt its somewhere in the region of $970, and with no free SD card, the deal wasn't cheap. So i move on to the other shops.
I went to the back, and saw this shop, its also call De-Luxe, only then i realise they have two shops in the same place. So i went in and there was this younger man tending the shop.
He's a little eccentric, for every question i asked him, he only gave a very short reply, and wasn't very friendly and doesn't seem bother to talk to the customer.
He quoted me $880 (AFTER GST). If really the price of Nikon D60 is $880 after gst, then its really a great deal since for so many shops i asked around there's no one that quote so low.
However i was pretty much skeptical, and from the double-standards in quoting, i figure there's no such good deal in the world, must been a catch somewhere. Please try asking them for a quote to prove me wrong.
Alan Photo (or more commonly known as AP on the online forums), is one of the more reputable and bigger camera shops in the local scenes. With the others being Cathay Photo, MS Colour and so on.
Stepping into the shop at its store in Funan, it was crowded with customers shopping for their cameras, lens, DSLR and equipments.
There was a mix of ang moh and local customers. Inside the shop was also quite a number of staff attending to them. I went in for the first time but it was too crowded and couldn't talk to any of the staff. After half an hour i went back again, this time there were less people there.
The impressions i got from the staff there were haughty, proud, snobbish. The i-don't-give-a-damn attitude was obvious for all to see.
I got the apparent feeling that they preferred ang moh customers more, maybe they're easier to be "carrot-head chops". There was this ang moh beside haggling the price with another staff though.
The price quotes that i got from the bigger reputable shops were all of less the same, but for the same price and poor poor services, i rather go elsewhere to buy.
Caught a late night show at the new Cathay cineplex at Downtown East. Arriving at the cinema level, I knew it's not going to be as good as the original The Cathay at orchard. Obviously this is one of the smallest Cathay around their cineplexes.
The cinema I went to was no. 3. It was relatively small but leg room was sufficient but not as wide as those at GV vivo. I've to disagree with genesis with the seats. After 100 mins of watching the show, my partner and I both suffered from neck ache and strain. We were seated on Row E, which's still considered among the back rows. The seats were uncomfortable and we were blocked by the couples in front of us. (Not alot thou, but still we can see their heads popping above the seats.)
Unlike GV cinemas, cathay still only provides "couple seats" with reclining arm rest at the 2 back rows. So if you're looking at getting some cuddling, especially for horror shows with your girlfriends, you might want to book the tickets in advance.
Another inconvenient thing about this Cathay is the toilet. It's located outside of the cinema and boy it was wet and dirty! Although the place is still pretty new, but the toilets were badly maintained. Guess the crowd overpowered the frequency of toilet maintenances.
Although the place is not up to our standard as compared to other Cathay and GV cinemas, we'll probably still go back for movies at nights. Reasons? Well, it's nearby our homes and the open space public parking outside is free after 10pm!
Pine Valley Restaurant at Laguna National Golf & country club. Lunch is courtesy on Yebber. We had our first Yebber Ambassador lunch (for the record i’m one of the six, the other five is Bobo, Claudia, Lucardia, Polarbear & Trumpat).
The interior of the restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant settings. Most of the tables accommodate large crowd and with a few smaller tables around. Before we went into the restaurant, we were given a mini-tour of the golf club by Steward. The entrance to the restaurant is by the side of the main hall, quite different to miss out if you didn’t see the sign carefully.
The staff busy cutting away slices of the Peking duck skin. But before they served, of course is photo-taking time!!
As this was the first dish, the staff didn’t know there was this group of crazy Yebbers at this table. We demanded the dish to be displayed on the table for photo-taking before they can sliced the duck. Well they learned their lessons pretty fast, and from this onwards, every dish was placed on the table before they need to serve us.
Peking Duck The Peking duck was nice, i always love this dish, but the only complain i had for this dish was the duck skin too little, not “shiok” enough!
Well as they only used the duck skin, we couldn’t throw away the meat right? The duck meat was stir-fried and served. Not very sure about the method of cooking, but the taste was awesome!
Shark-fin Next up was shark-fin. Yes i know the animal-lovers out there are going to complain about this, but the shark fin was good nevertheless. I’m not really a big fan of shark-fin, usually i ate it because its there, and not that i liked it.
Wasabi Prawn Balls This was no doubt the star of the show. Tagged as Pine Valley signature dish, the wasabi prawn balls live up to its name indeed. The prawn balls were springy, and although the wasabi flavoring wasn’t strong enough, i liked it that way.
Fish The steamed fish was pretty decent, nothing to shout about.
Cereal Prawn This was the other prawn dish that we had. I wasn’t too sure whether it was cereal prawn, but the rendition seems pretty close to it. I still preferred the wasabi prawn roll to this.
Veggies Spinach with mushrooms. Another ordinary dish.
Fried Noodles The fried noodles is served with eggs and lar-cheong (chinese sausages). We agreed that the lar-cheong flavor was too strong for the noodles.
Desserts tofu with long-gan fruits assortments.
Overall, the lunch was pretty nice, with the wasabi prawn roll my particular favorite. Sorry, no total bill shown because its a treat and we didn’t know the prices. But with shark-fin, peking ducks, prawns, fish, or commonly known as da-yu-da-rou (big fish and big meat), the bill is likely to be quite heavy.
Thanks to Yebber for the treat, and my fellow Yebber-mates for their company on this enjoyable lunch. Like i always said, its the company that makes the food taste nice.
And as always, i’m looking to the next Yebber outing already!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
1=SGD 0.0587
Joe’s kitchen may look ordinary on the outside, or even you might totally missed it when you passed by the place at its location at Bukit Merah, just directly opposite Alexander Hospital. I did. Having passed by the area a few times, i didn’t know there was this hidden gem offering authentic thai food experience in our midst of our heartland.
I was given this opportunity for the wonderful Makan experience organized by Leslie of ieatishootipost fame. A total of 47 food punters joined us on this occasion. Some of which were ieat’s old makan kakis, while many like me were first-timers joining ieat on his makan session.
The interior of the place was simple, the place wasn’t very big but it managed to squeeze all 47 of us inside the place. I wondered how all of us managed to eat inside that night. Miracle!
The event was supposed to start at 7pm, i got there around 645pm and there were people there already. Damien was the co-organizer for the outing. Jiawei and Shanice were the earliest there if i’m not wrong, i seated in the same table with them. Also on the same table as me were liverpool, eastcoastlife & hubby, yanti & friend. All of us had a wonderful time chatting taking photos, and savouring the food.
The crowd starts to come in and by around 740pm or thereabouts almost everyone arrived. The menu was to be 14 dishes including some starters, mains, and desserts. All the dishes came in sampling tasting size so that we can have a bit of everything. The female boss, Jamie (chef Joe’s wife) is friendly and attended to us warmly.
Crispy rice cake
The Kao Dang Na Dang help to kick-start our makan session. Not commonly found in Singapore. the cripsy rice cake, was supposed to go together with the peanut sauce. I didn’t quite enjoy this appetizer as i found it to be way too dry for my liking.
Prawn Cakes
The Thot Man Goong or Prawn Cakes was nice to eat, it was crispy and the prawn taste is just right.
Mango Salad
The mango salad is one the appetizer dish that you will not be surprised to find in a Thai restaurant. No doubt about it, th salad is packed with everything. The first taste of it, refreshing. The initial impression was its not as spicy as i thought. But the magical part of it was the longer it gets, the spicier it became. A few more bites and the mango salad got to its “full level”
As most of us waited quite long for everyone to turn up before the dishes to serve, by the time the mango salad came out everybody were famished. We literally “attacked” the salad, and it was until ieat told us to hold our horses, that the salad was supposed to eat together with the sticky rice and chicken which were not out yet then we realized that.
Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken)
The grilled chicken was quite good to be honest, everyone got a bite of it. Placing the mango salad and the chicken onto the sticky rice, the taste is very different from eating the three dishes separately.
Grilled Pork Collar
This was no doubt for me, the star of the show! The Khaw Mu Yang, or grilled pork collar was somewhat similar to our Chinese char siew, albeit Thai style. Many of the kakis found it to be good too! Its also commonly eaten together with the sticky rice and mango salad. But its so good that we eat it on its own.
Tom Yum soup with fried fish
In my personal opinion, how good a Thai restaurant is can be based on the test of their Tom Yum soup. Unquestionably. Tom Yum soup is the first thing that most people will think of when they think of Thai food. Well i say the Tom Yum soup by Chef Joe should passed with flying colours. The soup is really spicy, at least from my perspective. Dipping the crispy fried fish into the soup was quite a experience for me.
Green curry beef
The beef was tender, and immersed with the essence of the green curry.
Deep fried Grouper with Thai chili
The Thai chili was excellent here, real hot and a little sweet spicy. But i couldn’t help drinking more water so as to have a few more mouthful of the chili with the deep fried grouper.
Red Curry Roasted Duck
Having seen the green curry earlier, my first thought was red curry after green? This was followed by roasted duck curry? I have never heard of roasted duck curry, let alone tasting it. But this dish was really not bad, i’m not sure how the roasted duck came about, whether Chef Joe roasted the duck, or he brought it from elsewhere and cook it with the red curry, but nevertheless its good.
And to our astonishment, there were grapes, yes grapes inside the curry! Talk about surprise, first roasted duck in curry, then grapes?
Basil leave minced pork
I was never a fan of minced pork in the first place, n’uff said!
Claypot Crab Vermicelli with fatty pork
Although the claypot crab was suppose to be the highlight here, but we got into eating the vermicelli instead. After cooking, the essence of the crab and fatty pork all went into the vermicelli, that alone should suffice for eating the vermicelli.
Poom Fy Dang - Kang Kong Thai style
Like all the other dishes in Joe’s Kitchen, the first taste was not very spicy, but the second bite was real hot. The Kang Kong got hotter with each bite, i suggested just swallow the veggies!
Mango Stick rice
To round off our authentic Thai food experience, we had Mango sticky rice, the mango was real sweet!
Tapioca with Coconut milk
I didn’t like tapioca, so this dish was not to my taste bud
Total Bill was $1646 for 47 people, $35 per head for the Authentic Thai food experience at Chef Joe’s place. I love going to Makan outings with big groups because we can get to know more people. Think Yebber Party @ MINT where there were about 50 people, the Social Media Breakfast with around 40 odds people, and now this ieat makan outing with 47 people.
Credits to Leslie (ieat) and Damien whom organized this makan session for everyone to get together and enjoyed food. I looked forward to the many more outings organized by them, to meet more people and eat more food!
The beauty of food, it can bring everyone from all ages, different backgrounds together, for one common purpose that is to savour all the good food. How often do you see strangers getting together and seating down for a meal? I’m going to organised LIC food event soon, do watch out for the post!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Authentic Thai Food experience, in the midst of our heartland “
Rating given:
Had dinner at Da Paolo La Terrazza - one of 7 Italian restaurants/bars/gourmet shops that the Da Paolo group has opened up since their early days as Trattoria Da Paolo in Tanjong Pagar.
Located just a stone's throwaway from the ever crowded Holland Village in the quiet, tree lined stretch of Jalan Merah Sage, La Terrazza offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of life as the rat race takes a back seat in this charming little neighbourhood restaurant. The decor is simple yet comfortable, with its rattan chairs and a small alfresco dining area to cater to those who wish to enjoy the humidity of Singapore. Then again, there's only the air curtain to seperate the air conditioned area and the alfresco area so sitting inside doesn't guarantee a cool dinner, which was the case that very night I was there.
The complimentary bread was a good start to the meal. Fragrant, soft and moist on the inside yet crisp on the outside. It would have been better if served warm though.
La Terrazza's offering of the minestrone soup hit some rather flat notes to render it painfully average. I could have gotten the same standard of soup at most decent western restaurants for a lower price. Probably the only interesting thing was that the soup came with a slice of cheese in it, something I've not seen anywhere else. Not that it really made much of a difference to the taste of the soup though.
Cappesante Alle Erbe e Brandy - Sauteed Scallops with Brandy and Herbs - I like scallops hence I tend to have higher expectations of them. And these failed miserably. The scallops were bland and soft, not firm as I would have expected and there was no taste of brandy whatsoever. The only discernible taste came from the ground pepper scattered atop.
Tagliatelle Al Granchio - The Tagliatelle Al Granchio aka crab meat pasta provided a much needed boost to the disappointing dinner thus far. Al dente without being too heavy on the cream or taste. Nice and filling just the way I liked it. Could do with a little more crab meat though.
Crespelle Alla Crema - Caramelised Thin Pancakes with Vanilla Pastry Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream - This is probably one of the very very few times where I order pancakes for dessert. But I'm glad I did. The caramelised pancakes were rather interesting because as the name implies, the pancakes were coated with a hardened layer of caramel, making it sweet. Personally, I would have prefered chocolate cream instead of vanilla cream inside though.
Tiramisu - Undoubtedly the star of the evening, and one of the main reasons why I wanted to eat at La Terrazza - the tiramisu. The not overly wet sponge to mascarpone cheese ratio was quite even and overall the tiramisu came across as light and fluffy with a stronger than usual hint of alcohol. A slice costs $10 and if you want the entire cake, its $60.
$94 for a soup, an appetiser, a main and 2 desserts certainly isn't prohibitively expensive considering the relatively above average quality of food in general. But it isn't cheap either. On the flip side, service is good and efficient but rather mechanical, lacking the personal touch and warmth.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
ladyironchef finally got his namecard!! Namecards are important, first they tell others your name, and then they also make them remember your contact number. Its a hassle to liase or socialise with people if you don't have one.
Encountering the problem at Yebber first anniversary party at MINT, and at the Social Media Breakfast where LIC got to meet many people but didn't have any namecard to exchange with.
LIC got a friend to design his namecard, the layout is simple and nice (i hope), styled in black background at the front and white background at the back.
And the rest is easy, bringing down the template in thumbdrive saved as the format required. There was two lady when LIC went to Tommy Print. One was cold and had few words, while the other was friendly and helpful.
They guided me to choosing the different things required for my namecard, and it was not much of a problem. I choose the cheapest, but very nice Gloss/Matte Lamination.
As this is my first time printing my own namecards, i chose 200 pieces at $24, instead of the otherwise more worth-it 300 pieces at $30. Its suppose to take them 4-5 working days to print, but i got the call from them on the 3rd day. So i guess they are quite efficient.
The results of the namecard are nice, better than what i expected really. And at $24 for two box, its really very cheap and affordable for anyone and everyone to own their own namecards.
Meet me at the next Yebber outing, i'll pass you one of mine : )
Rating given:
You was not expecting ladyironchef to get his DSLR from challenger after reading all the rantings and praises he had for the different camera shops.
After the complaints against Alan photo, and the praise on John 3:16, you must be wondering why didn't LIC got his DSLR from John 3:16?
Well, first thing first, LIC love canon products, the old camera is a canon ixus 60. But for DSLR, for the budget LIC has now, Canon doesn't seem so viable. Nikon D40 for &750, D60 for $950, Canon 400D for $1080, Canon 450D for $1490.
I'll love to get from John 3:16, but they are not a fan of Nikon, and the model that i wanted to get D40, they are not selling it anymore. End of story.
On the other hand, Challenger is having this promotion for Nikon D40 for $749 which comes with a nikon bag, 2GB SD card. But we hit one snag, the promotion lasted until 30 april only.
As i was there last sunday, but i didn't buy the dslr as i was in rush of time. The sales associate Shawn he remembered me, and despite the promotion is over, he gave me the 2GB SD card. Thats service to me.
After which, i asked him where can i get the screen protector, challenger is selling at $9.90, but then even though its not part of the deal, he say he gave it to me. Its not the freebies, but the service provided by Shawn. Kudos!
And i am proud to annouce Ladyironchef is a owner of the magical DSLR, the Nikon D40!! Thank you for reading through all the previous posts, hope i didn't confuse you where i was buying from : )
Rating given:
John 3: 16 has the BEST services if you are looking for your camera. The staff there are real friendly, and always more than willing to answer your any doubts or enquiries.
Just asked them for a hands-on experience on a dslr or camera, and there was no slight frown, or look that says "are you really going to buy?"
Leslie is the one who attended to me, and he's very knowledgable about the products that he's selling. Real friendly too. I had some hands-on testing with the dslr, and he patiently explained to me the difference between the diff models and lens.
But, good services come with a price after all, the quotes you get from John 3:16 will not come cheaper than the other shops. In fact i think the price tag is slightly higher by $20-$30?
Not much diff, but still enough to buy another additional memory card. If you are the kind looking for service and don't mind paying a bit more, then John 3:16 is definitely the place for you, but if you don't mind poor service, so long can get a cheaper deal, den please look else-where.
Oh ya, i forgot to mention, John 3:16 lot is totally pro-canon. They support canon, so despite me telling myself they are not biased, but i cant help feeling that they will advice and tend to pyscho their customers to buying canon products.
One obvious part which i noticed was, John 3:16 is not a Nikon authorised dealer. And i wondered why.
Rating given:
Was DSLR-hunting, and went into the sony shop to enquire on the sony alpha series model. The salesman uncle was quite polite to explain about the alpha 200. and the different pricing for diff lens.
I think there's a sony promotion going on right now, and if you buy the alpha series, it comes with free original battery. But then wasn't pretty much interested in sony dslr anyway, so the deal doesn't attract me.
Rating given:
De-Luxe Cameras and Cathay Photos are two of the authorized Nikon dealers, looking for a nikon dslr, i went in to take a look.
They have two shops (i only realise later). The first shop i went in was tended by an old uncle, he was quite all right i guess, as in altitude wise.
He quoted me $890 (before GST) for the Nikon D60. After GSt its somewhere in the region of $970, and with no free SD card, the deal wasn't cheap. So i move on to the other shops.
I went to the back, and saw this shop, its also call De-Luxe, only then i realise they have two shops in the same place. So i went in and there was this younger man tending the shop.
He's a little eccentric, for every question i asked him, he only gave a very short reply, and wasn't very friendly and doesn't seem bother to talk to the customer.
He quoted me $880 (AFTER GST). If really the price of Nikon D60 is $880 after gst, then its really a great deal since for so many shops i asked around there's no one that quote so low.
However i was pretty much skeptical, and from the double-standards in quoting, i figure there's no such good deal in the world, must been a catch somewhere. Please try asking them for a quote to prove me wrong.
Rating given:
Alan Photo (or more commonly known as AP on the online forums), is one of the more reputable and bigger camera shops in the local scenes. With the others being Cathay Photo, MS Colour and so on.
Stepping into the shop at its store in Funan, it was crowded with customers shopping for their cameras, lens, DSLR and equipments.
There was a mix of ang moh and local customers. Inside the shop was also quite a number of staff attending to them. I went in for the first time but it was too crowded and couldn't talk to any of the staff. After half an hour i went back again, this time there were less people there.
The impressions i got from the staff there were haughty, proud, snobbish. The i-don't-give-a-damn attitude was obvious for all to see.
I got the apparent feeling that they preferred ang moh customers more, maybe they're easier to be "carrot-head chops". There was this ang moh beside haggling the price with another staff though.
The price quotes that i got from the bigger reputable shops were all of less the same, but for the same price and poor poor services, i rather go elsewhere to buy.
Rating given:
Caught a late night show at the new Cathay cineplex at Downtown East. Arriving at the cinema level, I knew it's not going to be as good as the original The Cathay at orchard. Obviously this is one of the smallest Cathay around their cineplexes.
The cinema I went to was no. 3. It was relatively small but leg room was sufficient but not as wide as those at GV vivo. I've to disagree with genesis with the seats. After 100 mins of watching the show, my partner and I both suffered from neck ache and strain. We were seated on Row E, which's still considered among the back rows. The seats were uncomfortable and we were blocked by the couples in front of us. (Not alot thou, but still we can see their heads popping above the seats.)
Unlike GV cinemas, cathay still only provides "couple seats" with reclining arm rest at the 2 back rows. So if you're looking at getting some cuddling, especially for horror shows with your girlfriends, you might want to book the tickets in advance.
Another inconvenient thing about this Cathay is the toilet. It's located outside of the cinema and boy it was wet and dirty! Although the place is still pretty new, but the toilets were badly maintained. Guess the crowd overpowered the frequency of toilet maintenances.
Although the place is not up to our standard as compared to other Cathay and GV cinemas, we'll probably still go back for movies at nights. Reasons? Well, it's nearby our homes and the open space public parking outside is free after 10pm!
Rating given:
Pine Valley Restaurant at Laguna National Golf & country club. Lunch is courtesy on Yebber. We had our first Yebber Ambassador lunch (for the record i’m one of the six, the other five is Bobo, Claudia, Lucardia, Polarbear & Trumpat).
The interior of the restaurant is your typical Chinese restaurant settings. Most of the tables accommodate large crowd and with a few smaller tables around. Before we went into the restaurant, we were given a mini-tour of the golf club by Steward. The entrance to the restaurant is by the side of the main hall, quite different to miss out if you didn’t see the sign carefully.
The staff busy cutting away slices of the Peking duck skin. But before they served, of course is photo-taking time!!
As this was the first dish, the staff didn’t know there was this group of crazy Yebbers at this table. We demanded the dish to be displayed on the table for photo-taking before they can sliced the duck. Well they learned their lessons pretty fast, and from this onwards, every dish was placed on the table before they need to serve us.
Peking Duck
The Peking duck was nice, i always love this dish, but the only complain i had for this dish was the duck skin too little, not “shiok” enough!
Well as they only used the duck skin, we couldn’t throw away the meat right? The duck meat was stir-fried and served. Not very sure about the method of cooking, but the taste was awesome!
Shark-fin
Next up was shark-fin. Yes i know the animal-lovers out there are going to complain about this, but the shark fin was good nevertheless. I’m not really a big fan of shark-fin, usually i ate it because its there, and not that i liked it.
Wasabi Prawn Balls
This was no doubt the star of the show. Tagged as Pine Valley signature dish, the wasabi prawn balls live up to its name indeed. The prawn balls were springy, and although the wasabi flavoring wasn’t strong enough, i liked it that way.
Fish
The steamed fish was pretty decent, nothing to shout about.
Cereal Prawn
This was the other prawn dish that we had. I wasn’t too sure whether it was cereal prawn, but the rendition seems pretty close to it. I still preferred the wasabi prawn roll to this.
Veggies
Spinach with mushrooms. Another ordinary dish.
Fried Noodles
The fried noodles is served with eggs and lar-cheong (chinese sausages). We agreed that the lar-cheong flavor was too strong for the noodles.
Desserts
tofu with long-gan fruits assortments.
Overall, the lunch was pretty nice, with the wasabi prawn roll my particular favorite. Sorry, no total bill shown because its a treat and we didn’t know the prices. But with shark-fin, peking ducks, prawns, fish, or commonly known as da-yu-da-rou (big fish and big meat), the bill is likely to be quite heavy.
Thanks to Yebber for the treat, and my fellow Yebber-mates for their company on this enjoyable lunch. Like i always said, its the company that makes the food taste nice.
And as always, i’m looking to the next Yebber outing already!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Rating given: