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Sport & Recreation
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1=SGD 0.0587
have been to the night safari a couple of times before. To me, the experiences were quite good. Over there, you can see the nocturnal animals coming out,actually it can be quite a challenge to see them moving around. This is manily attributed to the fact that the entire surroundings are very dim in order not to let the animals be disturbed by the lightings.
For the more adventurous ones, they can take a slow walk and venture around to take a look at the various animals. As for those who have kids or are the lazy type, you can also take the tram ride and enjoy the guide doing the explaining during each stop. For me, i have taken both approaches before and I like to do the trekkng one more. BUt do take note that it can get quite stuffy and I did perspire quite a fair bit.
In addition, there is also a perfomance by the "stars" of the night safari. It was a nice and enjoyable show which both kids and adults will enjoy. As the show times are quite limited, it is recommended that you go for the show before you go for your walk or tram ride.
So do go there for a visit one of these days and enjoy a nice evening at the night safari.
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just had my dinner at the new Food JUnction at Bugis Junction. From first glance, it seems much more stylish and trendy as compared to the previous food court at the basement. Instead of those normal plastic seats that you normally find at food courts, now you get more sturdy wooden seats as well as nice sofa-like seats as well.
However, actually these new seats took up a lot more space as well and thus I had to spend a good whole ten minutes gettg my food. So perhaps for those planning to eat there, do be prepared for the slightly longer waiting time for your seats.
Notwithstanding that, there are actually more food stalls now in this revamped food court. The new stalls include a Pepper Lunch Express (where the queue is ever present), aN Omelette Rice stall (where they sell those 蛋包饭 style of food）, as well as a couple more stalls which I can't really remember their specialities as I only took a glance.
Therefore, for this new food court, I would say that indeed it is appealing in both the food and asethetics department. The only negative pt would be the lacking of ample seats to cater to the patrons during peak hours
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What can you eat for dinner at Raffles place with only $10 in your wallet? The choices seem limited, not only because of the limited eateries that are open in the evenings, but also because the eateries that stay open don't come cheap. In comes Pret A Manger, which is actually a French word for ready to eat. Newly opened and located at the ground floor of Ogilvy Centre along Robinson Road, this new kid in the sandwich scene serves up pre packed sandwiches that are freshly made every morning and thrown into the chiller to help preserve the freshness. Leftovers are donated to charity. This place works essentially like a fast food restaurant. You pick the sandwiches you want and proceed to the counter to make payment. There's quite a cozy dining area, so you can choose to eat in or take away.
There was hardly anyone around when I got there at about 1815hrs, so I made myself comfortable and grabbed two sandwiches - the Christmas Lunch and the Crayfish and Roquette. I had initially wanted to try out their specialty, the Coronation Chicken, but decided against it as I didn't want both sandwiches to have chicken in them. Actually I didn't really have much choice either as quite a few sandwiches were sold out.
First impressions of the sandwiches. Both looked rather small for the price - $3.80 for the Christmas Lunch and $3.90 for the Crayfish and Roquette. Having said that, I was impressed by the generous fillings. This is so unlike the normal sandwiches you buy from your neighbourhood bakeries. I particularly liked the Christmas Lunch, which had Turkey, Stuffing, Spinach, Crispy Onion, Cranberry Sauce and thick Mayonnaise. The Crispy Onion added a nice wholesome flavour to the sandwich, but overall I found it a little too sweet, probably because of the Mayo. The Crayfish and Roquette, as the name suggests, had Crayfish, Roquette, Lemon Juice, Mayonnaise and Yoghurt. In all honesty, the taste of the Roquette overpowered just about everything else. I was hoping for a nice and juicy crayfish, but what I got was a chilled tasteless one. But it was nice to chew on it though. Both sandwiches used wholemeal bread (I think) instead of the usual white bread, which is a plus I guess.
Overall I had a good experience there, primarily because of the very friendly and sociable staff there. The sandwiches were above average, but falls flat in the value for money segment as you would need at least 2 sandwiches to feel decently satisfied (I think I need 4). Throw in a drink and probably a soup and you would have breached the $10 mark. They do sell bigger sandwiches at $7.50 each, but its just a 10"-12"(very rough estimate, so please correct me if I am wrong) baguette with fillings, no drink, nothing. Compare that to Subway, which only charges about $7 for a sandwich with a drink and cookie. Now if Subway would just work on their variety....
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Had our monthly group dinner at Bonta last evening. Opened in April this year and helmed by chef Luca Pezzera, who was formerly the executive chef at Hotel Intercontinental, Jakarta, Bonta has been garnering rather rave reviews with regard to its food and service, hence making it our choice of restaurant for the month.
Located along the outskirts of UE Square just opposite Double O, Bonta boasts a modern chic outlook coupled with warm colours, ambient lighting and soothing pipe music to give it that cosy and relaxed feel. There's also a semi private room for a few couples on the second floor complete with a showcase wine cellar for a more romantic rendezvous. However, do note that the room is all glass, so people can see you from the ground level. And in case you are wondering, Bonta is relatively small, with a sitting capacity probably maxing out at about 30 people or so.
The complimentary bread deserves a writeup devoted entirely to itself. Why so? Because its simply the best complimentary bread I've ever eaten so far (not that I've eaten alot though). The bread came served piping hot in a longish cup and when sliced open, emitted a fragrant and alluring aroma. Crispy on the outside yet soft and fluffy on the inside, the the pockets of cheese and walnuts within served to enhance its taste and bite. Really a most delightful bread. I understand that takeaway for the bread is available at $8/loaf for those who are interested (and can afford it). For cheapskates and financially struggling people like me, there's always the complimentary option.
I didn't get a chance to try out the trout rolls but I did have a go at the goose liver or Foie Gras as some people might know it. The liver was pan fried till a little crisp on the exterior yet retaining its softness within. Taste wise was pretty good, with the raw taste of liver subtle and a slight hint of smokiness. However, I did find the aftertaste a little too strong for my liking. Also, the liver wasn't as quivery as I would have expected it to be, falling short of the standards set by Ember and Il-Lido.
At $22, this dish was really expensive given that only 4 pieces of scallops were served. However, money aside, it was just a just a little short of excellent. The scallops were quite a size and came served with their shell. Pop one into your mouth and enjoy the sweetness of the scallops with the accompanying Hollandaise sauce. To best enjoy this dish (in my personal opinion), you have to consume the whole thing - lock, stock and barrel (minus the shell of course) at one go.
Ravioli with Goose Liver - Had a piece of the ravioli to try and didn't find it fantastic. I could barely make out the taste of the liver as it was almost entirely masked by the creamy sauce base.
Black Angus Beef Sirloin Tagliata - It came as requested, medium rare and nicely grilled for that subtle sweetness and char grilled flavour. However it did come across as a little weak on the natural beef taste, which was a pity really. On a side note, the accompanying Porcini mushrooms had this weird taste which I couldn't stomach.
Disappointment. The icy cold word that pierces through your heart. That was the exact emotion all of us were feeling after the dinner. It was so bad that none of us had the heart to order any desserts, preferring to head down elsewhere. Service was good and attentive except for one major blip. They got one of our orders wrong twice. In the end, my friend had to settle for something he didn't order, which really marred the entire experience for him.
The 7 of us forked out $451 for a totally unsatisfying dinner, be it quantity or quality wise. Will I be back? I'll toss a coin and let you know, but chances are, no.
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Hillman restaurant, or 喜临门大饭店 in Chinese, has been around since the 1960s and they are unabashed in displaying their rich heritage with blown up photographs of the good old days. Formerly located at Cantonment Road, they have since shifted (a few years back) to Jalan Besar and opened up a sister restaurant by the name of Manhill Restaurant (how innovative) at Pasir Panjang.
Inconveniently located along Jalan Besar Road just a few doors down from Pu Tien, getting there can pose quite a challenge for people unfamiliar with the area. If you are driving, it will be even more of a headache as parking lots are far and few. Strangely enough, this place seems to be very popular with Japanese folks for some reason beyond me.
A must have dish whenever I visit Hillman, the Chicken in Paper Bag aka Zi Bao Ji was very well executed with the chicken well seasoned, measuring in the right amounts of salt and sugar. The meat burst with flavoursome juices with every bite through the tender chicken meat. I'm not one to exaggerate, but this is probably one of the best Zi Bao Ji there is in the market now. Only downside to it was the difficulty in trying to seperate the chicken from the paper and of course the copious amount of oil involved.
Hillman has long been renowned for its claypot dishes or better known as Sar Poh. We ordered the Bright Stars Pot aka Yi Ping Wor which had a grand total of 8 different types of food in it. Namely mushrooms, chicken, pork, prawns, squid, carrot, vegetables and fried fish slices. Now thats a lot of variety in one dish and this is definitely one of the better claypot dishes I've ever had in Singapore with the food soaking in the essence of the wonderful gravy.
Sliced Fish with Kai Lan - The Kai Lan looked a little tired when it first arrived, probably due to overcooking. However, it surprised us with its crunchiness and light smoky taste. The accompanying fish slices were very decent, chewy and not too soft.
A great dinner for 3 pax set us back by about $46, which isn't too expensive really considering the quality of food. A pity it was rather quiet for a Sunday night probably due to its location and the spotlight its more prolific neighbour, Pu Tien, is enjoying. Just a warning, do not expect good service from this place though (Its still decent though).
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Sobasei is a simple Japanese Restaurant with a open dining area and 3-4 private rooms. It's suitable for families, as its ambience is more casual and not as cosy as one would prefer.
The menu is in Japanese with (accurate) English translations as this place is frequented by many Japanese expats in the area.
I was there just last night with my two companions. I had tempura Soba... I wanted to try other stuff but... daren't eat anything new due to a recent allergy. Anyway the Ebi tempura was made with really fresh prawns which is pretty rare. The warm soba was served just right.
We had Sashimi too which was very fresh.
My companions had sets which had miso soup, rice and noodles, main dish, two appetizers, one side dish. Each set about $20-$25.
We arrived at the place really late about 9 and last order was at 9.30pm. They still served us with smiles and took our orders patiently. Even when we added to our order at about 10 they didn't flinch. We had plenty of little freebies thrown in like the peas, some small side-dishes.This isn't because we're the last customers of the day as it also happened the two other times I was there.
Quality food in good-sized servings and great service. It deserves 5 stars but... the location and the ambience... made me take one away.
Quality food in good servings.
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Went on a tiny shopping spree with my gf at Suntec so decided to have dinner around the area. And as usual, every dining outlet at Suntec, down to Burger King, was bursting to the seams with people. We had noticed Pearl River Palace on one of our previous visits to Suntec, so thought of giving it a try.
Doesn't it scare you when a restaurant is devoid of the usual mad crowd which throng food outlets during the weekend? But then again, Pearl River is hidden in a rather secluded area on the third floor of the Suntec convention area. The only trace of its presence is the huge neon light signboard plastered on the windows facing Marina Square. If you do manage to find it, a waitress greets you at the and ushers you into a huge hall which can seat at least 150pax upwards - only a tenth of which is taken up.
I don't know what they were thinking when they coined the name "The Washing Line". Sounds rather crude to me, but I must credit them for their innovation in presentation. Two chilled carrots sculptured into towers and joined by a thin pole, with thin slices of meat draped across the pole and thick garlic sauce drizzled over - this is probably one of the most innovative dish presentation I've seen in a Chinese restaurant in quite a long while. Taste wise, I found it fairly acceptable, just that the garlic taste in the syrup was a little too strong and too sweet.
Sauteed Fresh Prawn with Egg White & Pine Nuts - I really am a sucker for dishes with lots of egg white, which explains this dish. I personally found it not too bad, with the texture being a little sticky and dense probably due to the addition of milk or the prolonged beating of the egg white. It actually reminded me of MacDonald's scrambled eggs, but easier on the milky taste. The pines were a nice addition with their slightly nutty taste, but the wolfberries seemed rather redundant. Now we certainly can't forget the prawns, which were crunchy and larger than normal. By and large a fairly nice dish, but a little on the salty side.
Braised Beancurd with Enoki Mushrooms & Preserved Vegetables - Just another normal beancurd dish. Bland with an equally bland gravy. This pretty much sums it up. The Enoki Mushrooms did add a nice crunch to the dish though.
Desserts. You either love them or loathe them. They have this effect of expanding your already exploding waistlines and yet you can't seem to resist their seduction. Alright I'm exaggerating, but I love my desserts. Our dessert for the night was a bowl of bird's nest soup and a slice of Durian Pancake. The Double Boiled Bird's Nest with Rock Sugar was pleasant, but the bird's nest wasn't exactly of top quality. Then again, I can't expect much for the price. One gripe though. I could see bits of feather still embedded in the strands of bird nest, which meant that the staff didn't put in the extra effort to remove them before boiling - something which I would expect from a top grade restaurant, but probably not Pearl River. The Durian Pancake's skin was a little too dry and thick, but the Durian filling was thick and flavourful, signs of a good Durian. And its rather small for $2.
I certainly wasn't expecting to spend close to a hundred bucks($96.75/-) for this dinner, but I guess its all my fault. Me and my bird's nest, which added about $30 to the bill. Having said that, prices at Pearl River are on the higher end of the reasonable spectrum, but food quality is slightly above average. The service is above average, but could do better with increased attentiveness. Another point to note, they charge $1/head for ice water or tea, so go for the tea.
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Another one to the list.
I know everyone's getting a little tired reading about donuts, but hey, the fire is still burning (thou not as strong) for all the donut factories in Singapore.
I tried Missy Donut once, but it was left with only one flavor, which I can't remember. So today I bought some home again to try, since there wasn't a queue when I was there. The selection of donuts aren't as many as some others, but I managed to pick 5 that hopefully will manage to trigger my tastebud.
One bite into the glazed donut ($1.10) and immediately I had to gulp down water to ease the sweetness. The layer of sugar onto was too heavy and the sugar content was too high. The dough was quite good but a little to the oily side.
My mum had the nutty choc ($1.20) one and she also said it was too sweet. But lucky for her, the nuts managed to balance the sweetness alittle for her.
Haven't tried to other flavors yet, but judging from the glazed one, which was supposed to be the basic donut, I'm not having a good feeling about the rest.
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I wanted to try their desserts ever since I saw their poster out at Plaza Singapura. But I kept forgetting about this place when I'm there. But today, I remembered!
Went shopping with Mum at Plaza Singapura and I needed a break so I brought us to Aji Tei for desserts. The display of plastic dishes and yummy looking photos of their menu lured me in fast and furious.
As we weren't that hungry, we just ordered a dessert sampler, fried tofu and chicken skewer. The dessert came first, it looked different from the photo. There were a little too much starch (muah chee) in the 3 samplers. The green tea ice-cream on cornflakes saved this sampler. It was our first time having cornflakes with ice-cream. And we love the blend of the two.
The felt tofu felt very crispy when it was served. I could hear the crunch of the exterior when I moved it with the chopsticks. But the excitement of this dish faded the moment I tasted it. The tofu was tasteless and the sauce that came with it didn't quite help.
And then the chicken came. Didn't get to taste the original taste as my mum sprinkled chilli powder over it before I can take a photo. The chicken (with chili powder) was pretty alright. Not fantastic but better than the fried tofu.
For a die-hard Japanese resturants fan, I continue my search for better ones to add to my list. This one for sure, is not going to be listed in my favorite list.
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Cafe Swiss - a not too recent addition to the Swissotel family and specialising in traditional Swiss and European Cuisine. Honestly, I have but a vague idea of what constitutes Swiss cuisine. My idea of Swiss food goes as far as Cheese Fondue. Its shameful really, considering that I had a Swiss buddy in school while I was pursuing my college education.
Far from the maddening crowd, in a private space with a soaring ceiling on the second level of Raffles City, Cafe Swiss provides the perfect place to have that idyllic dinner as crowds are scarce and the ambience is one of contemporary elegance infused with soothing comfort.
The de facto opening dish - complimentary bread. Although Cafe Swiss serves up various varieties of bread in a neat napkin wrapped basket, none of them impressed me at all. Not to mention they weren't the least bit warm as well. So much for the purposeful napkin.
Veal Emince Zurichoise - Sliced veal and button mushroom on morel cream sauce with roesti potato. Interestingly, I never had veal done this way thus this dish proved to be an eye opener for me. Not that it tasted out of this world though. The veal was done medium well with the button mushrooms wedged between the rolled up veal. All of which was served on a bed of rice (Risotto? Sure tasted like it) with the morel(type of mushroom) cream sauce. Honestly, the veal was a tad too salty for my liking but I do like the texture and the flavour of the veal and this dish as a whole especially with the infusion of the cream sauce. Look out for the small portions though.
Papet Vaudois - Smoked pork sausage on leek and potato stew. Firstly, the sausage didn't taste smoked to me. Second, it lacked the exploding juices effect when popped into the mouth. However, having said that, it was nice and flavourful but could have been better. A plus point was its huge size.
Ignorant me has never eaten carrot cake before (Not chye tao kway!) so we got this to try. First looks didn't impress me much as the cake looked unevenly sliced with carrots protruding out from the sides. Taste wise was decent, with the sugar top not too sweet and the cake tasty from the walnuts, almonds and carrots within. However, it was a little too dry, which is a bummer really.
I would like to think that through this meal, I have learnt what Swiss cuisine is all about. Unfortunately I'm none the wiser even after spending about $70 for 2 pax (before discount).
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