Heard from a friend that the original Blanco Court Fried Fish Soup had moved to China Square, which was a stones throw away from my office. Seeing an opportunity to try something that I like quite a bit, I joined the long queue which had formed in front of the stall during lunch. Luckily, service was fast and I got my food within 15mins.
$4.50 bought me a bowl of soup choke full with fried fish slices and a bowl of rice. The soup had strips of well beaten fried eggs which is rather rare in such dishes. In all honesty, the eggs, being rather tasteless themselves, didn't add much flavour to the soup. But it was nice to have that something extra. I personally found some pieces of the fish way too salty and some had this funny aftertaste. Signs of fish that weren't fresh? Overall, a rather average offering.
My gf and I spent the day exploring the newly open Vivo City and decided to have dinner at 88 Restaurant @ Harbourfront Tower 2 after looking through their promotional menu. At $19.80 per pax for a 6-course dinner, it seemed like a pretty good deal. The set menu included Chilled Homemade Beancurd with Tobiko and California Maki Combination, Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Meat, Sweet and Sour Chilli King Prawns, Sautéed Salmon Fillet with Teriyaki Sauce, Braised Ee Fu Noodles with Dried Sole Fish and Cream of Red Bean with Gingko Nuts.
The interior of the restaurant was similar to that of a ballroom, with its high ceilings and hanging chandeliers. The wait staffs were prompt and efficient, though they were less inclined to conversations. For a Monday night, it had quite a lot of customers. About half the restaurant was filled by about 1930hrs.
The chilled homemade tofu was essentially a heart shaped egg tofu with a sprinkling of century egg and roe on top. Tasted like chilled egg tofu. Nothing too fancy, but nice nevertheless. The accompanying California Maki was bad. It tasted a little milky and watery. A little gross if you ask me. There were no traces of Shark's Fin in the Shark's Fin soup at all. A chewy substitute was used in place of the Fins. Crabmeat was evident though. The soup itself was too starchy and too much of it made me sick. The Sweet and Sour Chilli King Prawn was ok. Note that it's Prawn, not Prawns, as the menu suggests. Served with a small slice of steamed man tou and deep fried man tou, it was of medium size and crunchy. The gravy was sweet but not too spicy.
I've never been a fan of salmon and the Sautéed Salmon Fillet with Teriyaki Sauce was unpleasant to my taste buds. The fishy taste from the Salmon was overpowering and the only saving grace was the Teriyaki Sauce, which strangely, didn't taste like Teriyaki Sauce. It was sweet nevertheless. The Braised Ee Fu Noodles was simply unappetizing. Soft, mushy and pretty tasteless, it has the dubious honour of worst dish of the night. To round things up, the Cream of Red Bean with Gingko Nuts was still acceptable, but a tad too sweet. Tasted like molten candy in some instances. The Gingko nuts tasted funny as well.
With taxes and tea, the final bill came up to $50.80 for 2 pax. Not worth it at all if you ask me. Food is at best average and portions are not very big. But it's filling if you finish all the dishes. An unsatisfying meal for me, but I'll stop short of recommending that it be avoided because it is still a decent enough place, with its ok service and not bad decor. Take your chances I must say. As for me, I won't be back in a hurry.
Yet another new eatery to have opened up in the dining belt along the popular East Coast/Upper East Coast Road. Etna Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria, which has another outlet at Raffles place, boasts Italian food with authentic Sicilian products. Interestingly, Etna also happens to be the name of the highest volcano in Sicily and Europe, standing at 10500 ft.
Located within a short row of shophouses along Upper East Coast Road, Etna is almost impossible to miss with its huge signboard that lights up brightly in the evening. The interior is simply furnished with huge windows to allow sunlight in. Music is high strung which is quite unsettling at times especially if you are there for a relaxing quiet lunch likes yours truly.
Complimentary Bread & Appetisers - The bread looked haphazardly drizzled with olive oil and was hopelessly hard. Biting into one was akin to biting into a dry rag. The appetiser bowl consisted of slices of cheese, pepperoni, olives and figs, which were nothing special honestly. It was still a nice gesture though.
Bruschetta Etna - In all honesty, I've never eaten anything like Etna's rendition of the Bruschetta at any Italian restaurants before and I do not mean it as a compliment. The bread was rock hard and presentation was slip shod. The toppings didn't look fresh as well. How's that for dismal?
Insalata Di Gamberi - Essentially this salad was rocket leaves with prawns and doused in extra virgin olive oil. Fresh and zesty with fresh and crunchy, albeit rather small prawns, the salad was ironically the best dish of the day.
Quattro Stagioni - Quattro Stagioni, otherwise known as the four seasons pizza, is so named because of the 4 different sections of the pizza that offers the diner contrasting tastes. Etna's version had all the ingredients mixed up, which was fine, just that it veers away from tradition. Taste wise, the crust was significantly thicker than the usual Italian pizzas but at least the dough was fluffy, which made eating it quite enjoyable. The ingredients weren't much to shout about and overall the pizza tasted rather mundane.
Bistecca Al Gorgonzola - Grilled ribeye steak with gorgonzola cheese in a light cream sauce. With such a lip smacking description, I had expected something different or special. What I got was a slap in the face. Firstly, we had asked for the steak to be done medium but it looked more medium rare. Secondly, the buttery cream sauce was so overwhelming that I couldn't even make out any beef taste. Thirdly, the beef was sorely lacking in texture - soft and seemingly over tenderized. It didn't help that the accompany mashed potatoes tasted overly creamy as well. Want to know how nausea inducing this dish can get? Try it.
Taglierini Al Pesto Di Bronte - One of the recommended dishes, the Taglierini was purportedly home made and topped with a Sicilian pesto sauce made with Pistachios from Bronte in Sicily. As impressive as that may sound, it was more hype than substance, to me at least. The taglierini was al dente but the sauce didn't impress me very much, subtly sweet with no hint of pistachio whatsoever. And for the price ($22), I had expected it to come with toppings, however meager they might be, but sadly there was none.
Tiramisu Al Pistacchio - Another pistachio dish but in the form of a dessert. Very unique as grounded pistachios replaced the layer of cocoa powder commonly found in Tiramisus. There was also this layer of greenish cream which I assume to be made from pistachio. Sadly, the whole thing didn't taste like Tiramisu at all, coming across as very nutty. Perfectly acceptable as a cake, but definitely not as Tiramisu.
Panna Cotta Etna - Honestly, the Panna Cotta didn't quite do it for me. It was a tad too sticky and coagulated and not to mention bland. Even with the raspberry sauce, it tasted flat.
Torta Al Cioccolato - The chocolate cake seemed to have sat in the fridge for quite an extended period of time as it was undeniably dry. The taste of rum was negligible and overall it tasted very normal. At $8 a pop, I can easily buy a few cakes of similar quality.
$161 for 5 pax is considered relatively cheap for Italian food, but quality really leaves much to be desired. Service is decent but thats not going to be enough to stop me from closing the chapter on Etna.
This small little cake shop was very well hidden in the lane of Jalan Kayu. I did not knew about the existence of the cake shop until one day when we are having lunch at the famous prata stall and one of my colleagues happened to mention about it. So me being curious, we decided to go. This shop is in between a prata shop and a mini mart if I am not wrong. From the exterior, the shop does not look like a cake shop anyway. It does reminds me of the 60s type of shop houses, and not much of a decoration as well.
Once inside, you only can see a display fridge, and boxes inside. There are two surprises down here. Firstly, this cake station ONLY sells cakes in full from 8” @ $30 onwards. So if you want to eat their cake, you have to buy the whole cake. Secondly, this cake station only sells chocolate fudge cake and durian cake. That all folks, if you want other cakes, please visit other cake shops ok! Therefore I was thinking, this cake station cake must be very good since it can survive by selling only full sized cakes and two types of cakes as well.
Since I don’t eat durian, I shall only review the chocolate fudge cake. The cake is a simple decorated chocolate fudge cake. I am not a big fan of chocolate but can tell you that looks can be deceiving. When a slice of cake is placed in front of me, I can see that there is very generous portion of chocolate fudge on the cake.
The cake itself is soft and fluffy, with small little holes in the cake. When I put the cake into my mouth, I can feel the chocolate fudge melting in my mouth, and mixed with the cake. Simply divine! I hate to eat chocolate because at times it seems that they will flow into my body, surrounds my heart and try to make it stop beating. However I don’t have this feeling when I am eating this cake. There is yet lots of chocolate taste in it. The chocolate also does not stick your teeth when eating it.
This has to be one of the best chocolate cakes that I have ever eaten. All my friends and family who had tasted this cake also said the same thing. Well if not for the ulu location I would have buy one cake once a week. Wahahahaha…..
So who wants to taste this chocolate fudge cake?
For those who had tried the durian cake, how was the cake? Care to share? Hee….
IT show was on over the past 4 days. Initially, I did not has any intention to step near the exhibition hall as I knew that tons and tons of people,from 8 months old to 80 years old, will be there! This time round there was nothing that I need to buy so in order for me not to have any temptation, I decided to stay clear of the area.
Maybe I spoke too soon! Hee....
Saturday, decided to pop in to see see look look. The crowd was really huge and there are a lot of choke points even before we stepped into the exhibition hall. This time round, the IT show occupied 4 floors, which means the whole area already!
Level 1: Canon Redemption Area.
Level 3: Starhub, Sony
Level 4: Major brands
Level 6: All other brands
This time round although the organisers said that they expanded the walkway to 4 m but I still think they could do better. The management of the place could be done better as well. There is a few bottlenecks especially the one at Food Republic, that one is a killer and with people moving carrying hot food etc. If any one want to do anything funny, they could do it there as there are large boxes lying around at any one time. It seems that they security guard are just minding their own business at the entrance.
I also notice a lot of people just go in and collect brochures. So what is the use of doing that when you dun intend to buy anything? Like to squeeze with the crowd? After collecting the brochure, I am 99% sure that they will land up in the dustbin, worse still on the floors of the exhibition area.
One last complaint, can we bar all the parents from bringing in their baby prams into the exhibition hall. It is already so packed and yet still push a pram along. Babies, young kids and pram should be left outside the hall and have someone to look after them. IT show is not the place for leisure shopping anyway. I gena a lot of time of prams pushed to my poor leg and feet. Not to mention if the kid or baby went missing. OMG!
To survive IT show, you need to decide what you going to buy even before you step into the hall. it is possible now as all the prices would be in the newspapers anyway. Then just stay focus, go in and buy what you want and get out of the place.
Looking at everyone leaving with LVD TVs, printer, laptops... Hmm.... who say Sporeans have no money?
Wanan to make a guess what I had bought on impulse? Wahahaha.....
Had the opportunity to partake in a media dinner at the newly reopened The Seafood International Market & Restaurant, or TSIMR for short, courtesy of The New Paper. It was a reunion of sorts as I vaguely remember dining at its former premises at UDMC some years back. It has since transplanted to become the anchor tenant of Big Splash @ Playground.
TSIMR occupies an impressive 18,000 sq ft and can seat up to 700 people if my memory serves me right. The draw of this place is its live seafood market concept which allows you to choose your desired seafood from the tanks and it will be cooked and served to your table. This concept, though not unheard of, was pioneered in the early 1980s by TSIMC.
The live seafood section is reminiscent of a supermarket while the dining area is like your typical seafood restaurant - huge and noisy. I liked the private dining areas at the two extensions though, which offered a nice view of the park and pond in the day. What I didn't appreciate was the fact that when the sky turned dark, outside visibility became close to zero and passers by could look in aka fishtank. Did I mention that the partitions were nothing more than a facade? During the course of our dinner, I could hear the adjourning rooms' conversation and loud guffaws.
Assorted Mushrooms Deep Fried with Seven Spice Salt - Imagine my astonishment when I heard that the mushrooms were sold by weight. Its definitely a first for me and honestly, as preposterous as selling Tofu by weight. The seven spice salt was purportedly made from dried shrimp powder, curry powder, chilli, szechuan peppercorn, salt and two other secret spices. As impressive as this may sound, I found it nothing out of the ordinary, coming across merely as salty with a hint of spiciness. Ditto for the batter as well, which I personally found too thick and hinting subtly of oil residue.
Prawns Stir Fried with Chilli & Basil Leaves - Beautifully presented with ornamental garnishes, the prawns gave an illusion of being terribly spicy. In reality, even someone who can't really take chilli like me could handle it without much effort (and water of course!). I didn't quite take to it though as the flesh was a tad soft and not firm. My guess is that it was a little undercooked.
Sakura Chicken Braised with Tri - Sauce in Stonepot - I liked this dish the best even though it wasn't outstanding. Probably more of something that's close to my heart. Dished out in a huge stonepot, the chicken wasn't too dry and easy on the sweetness, carrying with it a light spice that made every bite rather enjoyable
Golden Platter - Stir Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Yolk - Aptly named the golden platter, this dish intrigued me as I've never actually seen pumpkin cooked this way before. Prawns/lobsters with salted egg yolk? Yes. But pumpkin? It didn't turn out to be very appealing after all as the pumpkin slices were a little too soft for my liking. Coupled with the strong overtones of salted egg yolk, it was a recipe for nausea.
Curry Crab & Bread - I didn't try the crabs so I shall not comment, but the curry tasted rather normal to me, albeit a little heavier on the coconut milk. I liked the bread that came with the crabs though, sinfully buttery and crispy. Guaranteed to increase your cholesterol!
Pad Thai - Call me ignorant or mountain tortise, but to my understanding, Pad Thai should be cooked with thin flat strips of glass noodles. TSIMR does a different rendition using thin vermicelli like noodles which I suppose are glass noodles as well. To be honest, the noodles were way too chewy and had the tendency to clump together, which made me feel like i was chewing on some kind of non sticky kueh.
Wonder Four on Ice - With such a fanciful name, who needs superheroes? Corny jokes and stunning aesthetics aside, this dessert was just red bean kueh, mango pudding, some fruits and lemon grass jelly served on a bed of ice. As normal as it gets.
A little bird told me that the above dinner for 6 pax would have cost about $40/pax, which to me is a tad pricey. Food quality is average and service could have been more attentive. With that, I would like to thank TNP for the dinner once again.
This is my second visit to Fish & Co, the first time being at the Glass house, on this occasion (quite some time ago) we went to the branch at Paragon. Fish & Co has grow from strength to strength since it started with their first store at Plaza Singapura in 1998, bring forward ten years and now they have 13 branches island-wide.
I believe most people know more or less about Fish & Co, so i shall skip the usual long-winded introduction and jump right into the food.
Swordfish Collar ($14.90) Chunky & juicy swordfish collar, fried & served with spicy mango vinaigrette. Given that Fish & Co specialise in fish & seafood, they got quite a list to choose from, so i thought i’ll get something special. Now now, how often do you see restaurants serve swordfish as a main course? Never or seldom right? Thats the idea!
Our first impression of the swordfish when the waitress served us the food, o-boy, the fish is huge! Seriously, there are three collar of swordfish, and its suppose to serve one person? Order this and share with your partner.
Fish & Chips ($13.90) The Fish & Co classic! Fried, topped with lemon butter sauce & served with chips. The lemon butter sauce is the life & soul of the fish, it added an extra dimension to the fish. But given the price is more or less as the other fishes, i rather try different type of fishes. But my mate wanted the safe option, so they had 2 of this.
Seafood Platter for 1 ($19.90) Platter of Seasonal fish, calamari & king prawn. Many people should have tried this one before i guess, the standard fish, calamari & the chips. Nothing new there, what i like it the rice from fish & co.
Seafood Platter for 2 ($35.90) You must be wondering why did we order the Seafood platter for 1, and then order another seafood platter for 2 right? Pardon me, but i didn’t know what were we thinking, we sort of over-ordered! Hahaha!
Nevertheless, Seafood platter for 2 is definitely more worth it than the platter for 1. Lets do some simple math, platter for 1 cost $19.90, so if you times by 2 it will come up to $40 right? But platter for 2 only cost $35.90, furthermore there is the addition of scallops which the platter for 1 didn’t have. Well, unless you are a small-eater, or eating alone, or refuses to eat scallop, Seafood platter is the choice.
Total bill for the 5 of us adds up to $122.90. Usually Fish & Co is relatively affordable, but i think in this instant we over-ordered, hence the bill seems a little expensive. But i think i won’t be going back to Fish & Co in just a while, having been there twice, what must try have been tried. There are more alternatives out there with the same price range. So don’t expect to see Fish & Co III unless somebody is giving me a treat. Like what i mentioned in the previous visit, there are other options if u really want to eat fish & co type of food, Manhattan Fish Market isn’t too bad, Hooked! provides many variety of fish, New York New York has some nice seafood platters around also, and Greenwood Fish Market is my favourite.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. 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 : )
Happen to know that they had a one for one BBQ Courtyard Buffet and decided to give it a try. The only thing about this promotion is that it is from Friday to Sunday only, you have to print out the coupon and per table only 1 free diner buffet is allowed. Hmm… a bit weird right? Well so decided to give it a try and to call and make a booking to find out that they are fully booked until 2 weeks later. Wahahaha... Totally crazy leh. A few days before the buffet, they would actually called to confirm the reservation, nice touch right and at the same time to remind you of the buffet as well.
So on the day of reservation, we went down to find out that my name was not on the reservation list. However they decided to let us have a table. Since it is a BBQ buffet, they sort of set up a temporary restaurant at the courtyard, and there is no air con, open air concept. Quite interesting. The set up is actually quite interesting as the promotion is only valid for 1 diner per table so it attracted a lot of couples as well. In the end, it turn out that it looked like a mass speed dating event. Wahahaha… Really funny.
The BBQ pit is set in one corner of the area and the buffet line is set next to it. From the line it seems that they are offering limit items as it does not seen very long at all. The buffet started when someone announced the start of buffet and people started to walk towards the line.
For starters, there is only a few dishes like prawns, mussels, potato salad, green salad. My favorite here has to be the prawns. Big, fresh and sweet. There is no fishy smell and the meat is not mushy at all. Just great! Other then that, the rest of the starters are actually average.
Next to the main dishes, since it is a BBQ buffet, they got all sorts of BBQ items, chicken, pork, beef, mutton, seafood like prawns, mini lobsters and stingray, satay, otah. For satay (there is both chicken and mutton) and otah, it is pretty normal stuff. They also provide the peanut sauce for the satay as well. Now the meat, for me the one that impress me the most was the steak, it was grilled until it is medium cook. It is not too tough on the meat yet able to retain its natural juices inside the meat. It is grilled plain with some salt on top of it only. Great! The one that did not impress me too much is the prawns cos it does not turn out too good and lost all its natural flavor after BBQed.
There are still some cooked food like fried rice, noodles but quite limited as well. Everyone is aiming at the mini lobster, not me though, Sigh….. Whenever the chef put some in the tray, it is sure to attract a lot of people to it. So first come first serve, so if you are slow too bad none for you. There are some people that even walked up to the BBQ pit and ask the chef directly. Wahahaha…… Very KS leh. From my partner, the lobster although small but very good, sweet , meaty and juicy.
Now to the desserts, well by the time we got to desserts, there wasn’t a lot of choice. Got mango pudding, durian cake, cheng tng, fruits and a few kweks. Too bad nothing here impressed us too much. Or simply we are just too full to carry on already.
Even though with the temporary set up and the no air con, the dining environment was actually quite good.The service is actually good as well less the cock up on the reservation list. The water was always filled up and the plates are always cleared promptly. So usually the buffet cost $38 per person however with the promotion it cost about $17 per person only. Can consider quite cheap already. Writing this review is making me all hungry again! Hmm… Should I go back for another buffet before the promotion is over? Maybe I should!
Hmmm... It is almost never disappointing to eat at this HK cafe...esp the Cineleisure branch.
Although the cine branch is always packed esp weekends, the manger never fails to smile and come around for a chat and get me and my friends seats...
His name is Alan and he is some mixed blood uncle...very fatherly and concerning for the customers...unlike his assistant manager...cant even manage to make smart conversations...lol.
He made excellent recommendations like that french toast, that muah chee daosa dessert, century egg congee and he added egg for me on the house...and the surprise came when he gave milk tea on the house again....:)
Love him so much....
I brought my boyfriend over and he talked to him as if he was my father and stuff...so loving hahahha...
I havent been a fan of donuts.... but I was just attempting to get some for my colleagues while trying one myself...
First thought...they look really delicious and sweet, must be nice... Glossy, yummy-looking...finger staining...
After I put it in my mouth, I cringed at how sweet it was... Too sweet for me...maybe I am not of a 'sweet' person... But it's like sweet to an extent that it's like how sometimes a food is too salty and you will not swallow it.
Some of my colleagues complimented that the donut is soft, unlike other donut places... some mentioned that the taste is good.
But overall, my verdict,
Too expensive for a mediocre diabetic donut.
I didn't even queue for it. If I did, it'll be more of a waste of my time.
1=SGD 0.0587
Heard from a friend that the original Blanco Court Fried Fish Soup had moved to China Square, which was a stones throw away from my office. Seeing an opportunity to try something that I like quite a bit, I joined the long queue which had formed in front of the stall during lunch. Luckily, service was fast and I got my food within 15mins.
$4.50 bought me a bowl of soup choke full with fried fish slices and a bowl of rice. The soup had strips of well beaten fried eggs which is rather rare in such dishes. In all honesty, the eggs, being rather tasteless themselves, didn't add much flavour to the soup. But it was nice to have that something extra. I personally found some pieces of the fish way too salty and some had this funny aftertaste. Signs of fish that weren't fresh? Overall, a rather average offering.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
My gf and I spent the day exploring the newly open Vivo City and decided to have dinner at 88 Restaurant @ Harbourfront Tower 2 after looking through their promotional menu. At $19.80 per pax for a 6-course dinner, it seemed like a pretty good deal. The set menu included Chilled Homemade Beancurd with Tobiko and California Maki Combination, Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Meat, Sweet and Sour Chilli King Prawns, Sautéed Salmon Fillet with Teriyaki Sauce, Braised Ee Fu Noodles with Dried Sole Fish and Cream of Red Bean with Gingko Nuts.
The interior of the restaurant was similar to that of a ballroom, with its high ceilings and hanging chandeliers. The wait staffs were prompt and efficient, though they were less inclined to conversations. For a Monday night, it had quite a lot of customers. About half the restaurant was filled by about 1930hrs.
The chilled homemade tofu was essentially a heart shaped egg tofu with a sprinkling of century egg and roe on top. Tasted like chilled egg tofu. Nothing too fancy, but nice nevertheless. The accompanying California Maki was bad. It tasted a little milky and watery. A little gross if you ask me. There were no traces of Shark's Fin in the Shark's Fin soup at all. A chewy substitute was used in place of the Fins. Crabmeat was evident though. The soup itself was too starchy and too much of it made me sick. The Sweet and Sour Chilli King Prawn was ok. Note that it's Prawn, not Prawns, as the menu suggests. Served with a small slice of steamed man tou and deep fried man tou, it was of medium size and crunchy. The gravy was sweet but not too spicy.
I've never been a fan of salmon and the Sautéed Salmon Fillet with Teriyaki Sauce was unpleasant to my taste buds. The fishy taste from the Salmon was overpowering and the only saving grace was the Teriyaki Sauce, which strangely, didn't taste like Teriyaki Sauce. It was sweet nevertheless. The Braised Ee Fu Noodles was simply unappetizing. Soft, mushy and pretty tasteless, it has the dubious honour of worst dish of the night. To round things up, the Cream of Red Bean with Gingko Nuts was still acceptable, but a tad too sweet. Tasted like molten candy in some instances. The Gingko nuts tasted funny as well.
With taxes and tea, the final bill came up to $50.80 for 2 pax. Not worth it at all if you ask me. Food is at best average and portions are not very big. But it's filling if you finish all the dishes. An unsatisfying meal for me, but I'll stop short of recommending that it be avoided because it is still a decent enough place, with its ok service and not bad decor. Take your chances I must say. As for me, I won't be back in a hurry.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
Yet another new eatery to have opened up in the dining belt along the popular East Coast/Upper East Coast Road. Etna Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria, which has another outlet at Raffles place, boasts Italian food with authentic Sicilian products. Interestingly, Etna also happens to be the name of the highest volcano in Sicily and Europe, standing at 10500 ft.
Located within a short row of shophouses along Upper East Coast Road, Etna is almost impossible to miss with its huge signboard that lights up brightly in the evening. The interior is simply furnished with huge windows to allow sunlight in. Music is high strung which is quite unsettling at times especially if you are there for a relaxing quiet lunch likes yours truly.
Complimentary Bread & Appetisers - The bread looked haphazardly drizzled with olive oil and was hopelessly hard. Biting into one was akin to biting into a dry rag. The appetiser bowl consisted of slices of cheese, pepperoni, olives and figs, which were nothing special honestly. It was still a nice gesture though.
Bruschetta Etna - In all honesty, I've never eaten anything like Etna's rendition of the Bruschetta at any Italian restaurants before and I do not mean it as a compliment. The bread was rock hard and presentation was slip shod. The toppings didn't look fresh as well. How's that for dismal?
Insalata Di Gamberi - Essentially this salad was rocket leaves with prawns and doused in extra virgin olive oil. Fresh and zesty with fresh and crunchy, albeit rather small prawns, the salad was ironically the best dish of the day.
Quattro Stagioni - Quattro Stagioni, otherwise known as the four seasons pizza, is so named because of the 4 different sections of the pizza that offers the diner contrasting tastes. Etna's version had all the ingredients mixed up, which was fine, just that it veers away from tradition. Taste wise, the crust was significantly thicker than the usual Italian pizzas but at least the dough was fluffy, which made eating it quite enjoyable. The ingredients weren't much to shout about and overall the pizza tasted rather mundane.
Bistecca Al Gorgonzola - Grilled ribeye steak with gorgonzola cheese in a light cream sauce. With such a lip smacking description, I had expected something different or special. What I got was a slap in the face. Firstly, we had asked for the steak to be done medium but it looked more medium rare. Secondly, the buttery cream sauce was so overwhelming that I couldn't even make out any beef taste. Thirdly, the beef was sorely lacking in texture - soft and seemingly over tenderized. It didn't help that the accompany mashed potatoes tasted overly creamy as well. Want to know how nausea inducing this dish can get? Try it.
Taglierini Al Pesto Di Bronte - One of the recommended dishes, the Taglierini was purportedly home made and topped with a Sicilian pesto sauce made with Pistachios from Bronte in Sicily. As impressive as that may sound, it was more hype than substance, to me at least. The taglierini was al dente but the sauce didn't impress me very much, subtly sweet with no hint of pistachio whatsoever. And for the price ($22), I had expected it to come with toppings, however meager they might be, but sadly there was none.
Tiramisu Al Pistacchio - Another pistachio dish but in the form of a dessert. Very unique as grounded pistachios replaced the layer of cocoa powder commonly found in Tiramisus. There was also this layer of greenish cream which I assume to be made from pistachio. Sadly, the whole thing didn't taste like Tiramisu at all, coming across as very nutty. Perfectly acceptable as a cake, but definitely not as Tiramisu.
Panna Cotta Etna - Honestly, the Panna Cotta didn't quite do it for me. It was a tad too sticky and coagulated and not to mention bland. Even with the raspberry sauce, it tasted flat.
Torta Al Cioccolato - The chocolate cake seemed to have sat in the fridge for quite an extended period of time as it was undeniably dry. The taste of rum was negligible and overall it tasted very normal. At $8 a pop, I can easily buy a few cakes of similar quality.
$161 for 5 pax is considered relatively cheap for Italian food, but quality really leaves much to be desired. Service is decent but thats not going to be enough to stop me from closing the chapter on Etna.
See all my pictures here
Rating given:
This small little cake shop was very well hidden in the lane of Jalan Kayu. I did not knew about the existence of the cake shop until one day when we are having lunch at the famous prata stall and one of my colleagues happened to mention about it. So me being curious, we decided to go. This shop is in between a prata shop and a mini mart if I am not wrong. From the exterior, the shop does not look like a cake shop anyway. It does reminds me of the 60s type of shop houses, and not much of a decoration as well.
Once inside, you only can see a display fridge, and boxes inside. There are two surprises down here. Firstly, this cake station ONLY sells cakes in full from 8” @ $30 onwards. So if you want to eat their cake, you have to buy the whole cake. Secondly, this cake station only sells chocolate fudge cake and durian cake. That all folks, if you want other cakes, please visit other cake shops ok! Therefore I was thinking, this cake station cake must be very good since it can survive by selling only full sized cakes and two types of cakes as well.
Since I don’t eat durian, I shall only review the chocolate fudge cake. The cake is a simple decorated chocolate fudge cake. I am not a big fan of chocolate but can tell you that looks can be deceiving. When a slice of cake is placed in front of me, I can see that there is very generous portion of chocolate fudge on the cake.
The cake itself is soft and fluffy, with small little holes in the cake. When I put the cake into my mouth, I can feel the chocolate fudge melting in my mouth, and mixed with the cake. Simply divine! I hate to eat chocolate because at times it seems that they will flow into my body, surrounds my heart and try to make it stop beating. However I don’t have this feeling when I am eating this cake. There is yet lots of chocolate taste in it. The chocolate also does not stick your teeth when eating it.
This has to be one of the best chocolate cakes that I have ever eaten. All my friends and family who had tasted this cake also said the same thing. Well if not for the ulu location I would have buy one cake once a week. Wahahahaha…..
So who wants to taste this chocolate fudge cake?
For those who had tried the durian cake, how was the cake? Care to share? Hee….
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IT show was on over the past 4 days. Initially, I did not has any intention to step near the exhibition hall as I knew that tons and tons of people,from 8 months old to 80 years old, will be there! This time round there was nothing that I need to buy so in order for me not to have any temptation, I decided to stay clear of the area.
Maybe I spoke too soon! Hee....
Saturday, decided to pop in to see see look look. The crowd was really huge and there are a lot of choke points even before we stepped into the exhibition hall. This time round, the IT show occupied 4 floors, which means the whole area already!
Level 1: Canon Redemption Area.
Level 3: Starhub, Sony
Level 4: Major brands
Level 6: All other brands
This time round although the organisers said that they expanded the walkway to 4 m but I still think they could do better. The management of the place could be done better as well. There is a few bottlenecks especially the one at Food Republic, that one is a killer and with people moving carrying hot food etc. If any one want to do anything funny, they could do it there as there are large boxes lying around at any one time. It seems that they security guard are just minding their own business at the entrance.
I also notice a lot of people just go in and collect brochures. So what is the use of doing that when you dun intend to buy anything? Like to squeeze with the crowd? After collecting the brochure, I am 99% sure that they will land up in the dustbin, worse still on the floors of the exhibition area.
One last complaint, can we bar all the parents from bringing in their baby prams into the exhibition hall. It is already so packed and yet still push a pram along. Babies, young kids and pram should be left outside the hall and have someone to look after them. IT show is not the place for leisure shopping anyway. I gena a lot of time of prams pushed to my poor leg and feet. Not to mention if the kid or baby went missing. OMG!
To survive IT show, you need to decide what you going to buy even before you step into the hall. it is possible now as all the prices would be in the newspapers anyway. Then just stay focus, go in and buy what you want and get out of the place.
Looking at everyone leaving with LVD TVs, printer, laptops... Hmm.... who say Sporeans have no money?
Wanan to make a guess what I had bought on impulse? Wahahaha.....
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Had the opportunity to partake in a media dinner at the newly reopened The Seafood International Market & Restaurant, or TSIMR for short, courtesy of The New Paper. It was a reunion of sorts as I vaguely remember dining at its former premises at UDMC some years back. It has since transplanted to become the anchor tenant of Big Splash @ Playground.
TSIMR occupies an impressive 18,000 sq ft and can seat up to 700 people if my memory serves me right. The draw of this place is its live seafood market concept which allows you to choose your desired seafood from the tanks and it will be cooked and served to your table. This concept, though not unheard of, was pioneered in the early 1980s by TSIMC.
The live seafood section is reminiscent of a supermarket while the dining area is like your typical seafood restaurant - huge and noisy. I liked the private dining areas at the two extensions though, which offered a nice view of the park and pond in the day. What I didn't appreciate was the fact that when the sky turned dark, outside visibility became close to zero and passers by could look in aka fishtank. Did I mention that the partitions were nothing more than a facade? During the course of our dinner, I could hear the adjourning rooms' conversation and loud guffaws.
Assorted Mushrooms Deep Fried with Seven Spice Salt - Imagine my astonishment when I heard that the mushrooms were sold by weight. Its definitely a first for me and honestly, as preposterous as selling Tofu by weight. The seven spice salt was purportedly made from dried shrimp powder, curry powder, chilli, szechuan peppercorn, salt and two other secret spices. As impressive as this may sound, I found it nothing out of the ordinary, coming across merely as salty with a hint of spiciness. Ditto for the batter as well, which I personally found too thick and hinting subtly of oil residue.
Prawns Stir Fried with Chilli & Basil Leaves - Beautifully presented with ornamental garnishes, the prawns gave an illusion of being terribly spicy. In reality, even someone who can't really take chilli like me could handle it without much effort (and water of course!). I didn't quite take to it though as the flesh was a tad soft and not firm. My guess is that it was a little undercooked.
Sakura Chicken Braised with Tri - Sauce in Stonepot - I liked this dish the best even though it wasn't outstanding. Probably more of something that's close to my heart. Dished out in a huge stonepot, the chicken wasn't too dry and easy on the sweetness, carrying with it a light spice that made every bite rather enjoyable
Golden Platter - Stir Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Yolk - Aptly named the golden platter, this dish intrigued me as I've never actually seen pumpkin cooked this way before. Prawns/lobsters with salted egg yolk? Yes. But pumpkin? It didn't turn out to be very appealing after all as the pumpkin slices were a little too soft for my liking. Coupled with the strong overtones of salted egg yolk, it was a recipe for nausea.
Curry Crab & Bread - I didn't try the crabs so I shall not comment, but the curry tasted rather normal to me, albeit a little heavier on the coconut milk. I liked the bread that came with the crabs though, sinfully buttery and crispy. Guaranteed to increase your cholesterol!
Pad Thai - Call me ignorant or mountain tortise, but to my understanding, Pad Thai should be cooked with thin flat strips of glass noodles. TSIMR does a different rendition using thin vermicelli like noodles which I suppose are glass noodles as well. To be honest, the noodles were way too chewy and had the tendency to clump together, which made me feel like i was chewing on some kind of non sticky kueh.
Wonder Four on Ice - With such a fanciful name, who needs superheroes? Corny jokes and stunning aesthetics aside, this dessert was just red bean kueh, mango pudding, some fruits and lemon grass jelly served on a bed of ice. As normal as it gets.
A little bird told me that the above dinner for 6 pax would have cost about $40/pax, which to me is a tad pricey. Food quality is average and service could have been more attentive. With that, I would like to thank TNP for the dinner once again.
See all my pictures here
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This is my second visit to Fish & Co, the first time being at the Glass house, on this occasion (quite some time ago) we went to the branch at Paragon. Fish & Co has grow from strength to strength since it started with their first store at Plaza Singapura in 1998, bring forward ten years and now they have 13 branches island-wide.
I believe most people know more or less about Fish & Co, so i shall skip the usual long-winded introduction and jump right into the food.
Swordfish Collar ($14.90)
Chunky & juicy swordfish collar, fried & served with spicy mango vinaigrette. Given that Fish & Co specialise in fish & seafood, they got quite a list to choose from, so i thought i’ll get something special. Now now, how often do you see restaurants serve swordfish as a main course? Never or seldom right? Thats the idea!
Our first impression of the swordfish when the waitress served us the food, o-boy, the fish is huge! Seriously, there are three collar of swordfish, and its suppose to serve one person? Order this and share with your partner.
Fish & Chips ($13.90)
The Fish & Co classic! Fried, topped with lemon butter sauce & served with chips. The lemon butter sauce is the life & soul of the fish, it added an extra dimension to the fish. But given the price is more or less as the other fishes, i rather try different type of fishes. But my mate wanted the safe option, so they had 2 of this.
Seafood Platter for 1 ($19.90)
Platter of Seasonal fish, calamari & king prawn. Many people should have tried this one before i guess, the standard fish, calamari & the chips. Nothing new there, what i like it the rice from fish & co.
Seafood Platter for 2 ($35.90)
You must be wondering why did we order the Seafood platter for 1, and then order another seafood platter for 2 right? Pardon me, but i didn’t know what were we thinking, we sort of over-ordered! Hahaha!
Nevertheless, Seafood platter for 2 is definitely more worth it than the platter for 1. Lets do some simple math, platter for 1 cost $19.90, so if you times by 2 it will come up to $40 right? But platter for 2 only cost $35.90, furthermore there is the addition of scallops which the platter for 1 didn’t have. Well, unless you are a small-eater, or eating alone, or refuses to eat scallop, Seafood platter is the choice.
Total bill for the 5 of us adds up to $122.90. Usually Fish & Co is relatively affordable, but i think in this instant we over-ordered, hence the bill seems a little expensive. But i think i won’t be going back to Fish & Co in just a while, having been there twice, what must try have been tried. There are more alternatives out there with the same price range. So don’t expect to see Fish & Co III unless somebody is giving me a treat. Like what i mentioned in the previous visit, there are other options if u really want to eat fish & co type of food, Manhattan Fish Market isn’t too bad, Hooked! provides many variety of fish, New York New York has some nice seafood platters around also, and Greenwood Fish Market is my favourite.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. 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 : )
“ I eat faster than i blog ”
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Happen to know that they had a one for one BBQ Courtyard Buffet and decided to give it a try. The only thing about this promotion is that it is from Friday to Sunday only, you have to print out the coupon and per table only 1 free diner buffet is allowed. Hmm… a bit weird right? Well so decided to give it a try and to call and make a booking to find out that they are fully booked until 2 weeks later. Wahahaha... Totally crazy leh. A few days before the buffet, they would actually called to confirm the reservation, nice touch right and at the same time to remind you of the buffet as well.
So on the day of reservation, we went down to find out that my name was not on the reservation list. However they decided to let us have a table. Since it is a BBQ buffet, they sort of set up a temporary restaurant at the courtyard, and there is no air con, open air concept. Quite interesting. The set up is actually quite interesting as the promotion is only valid for 1 diner per table so it attracted a lot of couples as well. In the end, it turn out that it looked like a mass speed dating event. Wahahaha… Really funny.
The BBQ pit is set in one corner of the area and the buffet line is set next to it. From the line it seems that they are offering limit items as it does not seen very long at all. The buffet started when someone announced the start of buffet and people started to walk towards the line.
For starters, there is only a few dishes like prawns, mussels, potato salad, green salad. My favorite here has to be the prawns. Big, fresh and sweet. There is no fishy smell and the meat is not mushy at all. Just great! Other then that, the rest of the starters are actually average.
Next to the main dishes, since it is a BBQ buffet, they got all sorts of BBQ items, chicken, pork, beef, mutton, seafood like prawns, mini lobsters and stingray, satay, otah. For satay (there is both chicken and mutton) and otah, it is pretty normal stuff. They also provide the peanut sauce for the satay as well. Now the meat, for me the one that impress me the most was the steak, it was grilled until it is medium cook. It is not too tough on the meat yet able to retain its natural juices inside the meat. It is grilled plain with some salt on top of it only. Great! The one that did not impress me too much is the prawns cos it does not turn out too good and lost all its natural flavor after BBQed.
There are still some cooked food like fried rice, noodles but quite limited as well. Everyone is aiming at the mini lobster, not me though, Sigh….. Whenever the chef put some in the tray, it is sure to attract a lot of people to it. So first come first serve, so if you are slow too bad none for you. There are some people that even walked up to the BBQ pit and ask the chef directly. Wahahaha…… Very KS leh. From my partner, the lobster although small but very good, sweet , meaty and juicy.
Now to the desserts, well by the time we got to desserts, there wasn’t a lot of choice. Got mango pudding, durian cake, cheng tng, fruits and a few kweks. Too bad nothing here impressed us too much. Or simply we are just too full to carry on already.
Even though with the temporary set up and the no air con, the dining environment was actually quite good.The service is actually good as well less the cock up on the reservation list. The water was always filled up and the plates are always cleared promptly. So usually the buffet cost $38 per person however with the promotion it cost about $17 per person only. Can consider quite cheap already. Writing this review is making me all hungry again! Hmm… Should I go back for another buffet before the promotion is over? Maybe I should!
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Hmmm...
It is almost never disappointing to eat at this HK cafe...esp the Cineleisure branch.
Although the cine branch is always packed esp weekends, the manger never fails to smile and come around for a chat and get me and my friends seats...
His name is Alan and he is some mixed blood uncle...very fatherly and concerning for the customers...unlike his assistant manager...cant even manage to make smart conversations...lol.
He made excellent recommendations like that french toast, that muah chee daosa dessert, century egg congee and he added egg for me on the house...and the surprise came when he gave milk tea on the house again....:)
Love him so much....
I brought my boyfriend over and he talked to him as if he was my father and stuff...so loving hahahha...
and he seems to work everyday all the time...
Best branch, best manager of all
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I havent been a fan of donuts....
but I was just attempting to get some for my colleagues while trying one myself...
First thought...they look really delicious and sweet, must be nice...
Glossy, yummy-looking...finger staining...
After I put it in my mouth, I cringed at how sweet it was...
Too sweet for me...maybe I am not of a 'sweet' person...
But it's like sweet to an extent that it's like how sometimes a food is too salty and you will not swallow it.
Some of my colleagues complimented that the donut is soft, unlike other donut places...
some mentioned that the taste is good.
But overall, my verdict,
Too expensive for a mediocre diabetic donut.
I didn't even queue for it. If I did, it'll be more of a waste of my time.
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