And one for the Smok’Inn Frogz kitchen by the side.
The epitome of the coolest coffee shop, Bar bar black sheep. With a foot in uptown Bukit Timah, the affluent neighbours and the Caucasians crowd, the rise in the popularity isn’t merely luck. The owner of bar bar black sheep is a pretty smart guy, bringing in an Indian, a Thai food stall and of course Smok’Inn Frogz Kitchen.
With such ear-catching names, who could resist coming down to find out what they are about? Essentially a coffee shop that goes through project makeover, the dim lighting, the laid-back environment, with plenty of boozes, and popular food. Smok’Inn Frogz Kitchen is co-owned by three partners, with the former-chef from Flute @ the Fort coming out with the menu, the second guy managing the finance, and the third dude handling the daily operations.
The de facto signboard for Smok’Inn Frogz, the homemade beef burger ($12) was made popular after the Sunday Times reporter came to try the burger and raved about it. Like they said, the rest was history. Well I was tempted to choose between the chicken or the beef burger, but since they were both priced the same, it didn’t really make sense to choose chicken over beef. Now back to the main character, the beef patty was tender and moist, while the sesame bun was slightly too toasted for my liking. Double cheese and caramelised onions were on hand to enhance the flavour of the burger.
I wasn’t very fond of aglio olio since i always found them to be too spicy and dry. The Prawns linguine Aglio Olio ($14) here wasn’t as spicy like most, as they swapped the small chilli padi with the hot ones instead. Smok’Inn frog rendition was reasonably wet, and had 6 prawns, very generous indeed.
Another of Smok’Inn Frogz’s supposedly signature, Beer-battered fish & chips ($12). The portions were huge, enough for two to share. The beer taste was evident in the fish, but other than that, there wasn’t any spectacular magic about it. And the fish became soggy after a while.
Total bill was $38 for the 3 main course. Prices are reasonable for the food, and with the Caucasian crowd and the Bukit Timah residents packing the place up, it’s difficult to get a seat for dinner on weekends if you came later than 7pm. I’ll also like to apologise for the ugly photos (the worst i took since I used dslr) due to the very dim lighting.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Situated at Hotel Rendezvous’s lobby level, this dining venue has undergone two months of intensive refurbishment and upgrading works and was reopened in 3 October.
The $1.5 million project is a complete transformation of what used to be traditional, into a modern contemporary interior. Within, random timber strips were cleverly incorporated into the design as accented walls and feature screens to add texture, shadow and depth.
Although the café’s full glass window allows for the integration of the bustling exterior and the vibrancy of the interior space. HFB however felt a slight intrusion of privacy with people peering over his shoulders while he ate, when commuters waiting along the bus stop outside sneaked a quick peek or two.
Enjoyably, the cold seafood counter – the Baby Octopus, Prawns, Mussels and Smoked Salmon, pleasantly surprised HFB. They were really fresh and scrumptious!
Request for the Salmon Belly Sashimi from the Sushi and Sashimi counter and one would also be enthralled by its silky, succulent texture.
A main feature in the dining room are the buffet counters. Showcasing two living cooking stations that offer a variety of freshly prepared and made-to-order cuisine, including oriental wok counter for Stir-fried Vegetables. HFB really loved the Mushrooms that was served that day.
The other cooking station is the Noodle Station for daily noodle of the day – it happens to be their popular and signature Nonya Laksa counter and Bak Kut Teh, or simply Pork Ribs Soup.
Unfortunately, the heightened expectations resulted in HFB noticeably unimpressed by both dishes. Their version of laksa comes with thick coconut gravy, which HFB suspects would be much welcomed by many, but HFB thought it was way too salty. A replacement bowl failed to change his opinion too.
The bak kut teh was much better received with its clearer soup base, but it seemed to leave a lingering aftertaste, which tasted like MSG, but HFB might be wrong.
The craving station offered Roast Beef for that day – although the meat leaned towards the dry side, HFB definitely enjoyed the Grilled Capers and Eggplant that was available next to the meat.
The extensive selection at the dessert counter is sure to tempt those with a sweet tooth.
Highlight of the section was definitely the ‘Durian Corner’ where Durian Cake, Durian Puff and Durian Pengat were served. The latter is definitely a must try!
I'm one of those people who's rather particular about my haircut. And I'm particularly particular about it. Nonetheless, haircuts are getting more and more expensive (that's if you choose to go to a more expensive place for that little bit more security - that's me), plus mid-length hair usually cost more too. Desperately needing a trim, I decided upon a random shop where there was an available hairdresser.
The haircut was $22.50 flat. And I didn't have to wait long to get started. At the same time, there were quite a number of people, thus making it seem like the place was rather popular. So having given the abovementioned reasons, I stepped into the shop.
First impression: Oh man, this place is full of people who spells of "I-just-smoked-and-so-I-smell-like-this". The smell got me feeling rather giddy for a little while till I got used to it.
All I did there was get a trim and thin my hair a little, but allow me to illustrate my experience within my "short" (it was much longer than necessary) time spent there:
1) I wasn't offered a drink, despite there being an obvious sign placed on the table that there are free drinks. I thought it wasn't anything much until I saw the same person cutting my hair serving another customer a drink, then I wondered why the double standards.
2) The floor is extremely dirty and nobody bothers to sweep the hair from the floor (till maybe the end of business everyday).
3) When I asked for some suggestions on what I could do about my hair to make it look less messy, all the advice I received was "oh, rebond your hair lor". How wise.
4) I was brought to the back to wash my hair. The water temperature was not adjusted and the hairwash was literally simply a hairwash. No other value-added services like a massage at the same time (which I get very often from other place, and so I presume it's the norm for most salons).
5) After washing, the person in charge didn't even bother to towel-dry my hair. He merely put a towel on my head and expected me to walk out. I could feel water dripping from my hair down to my ankles.
6) The towel that he put on my head was black, and stained from the many occasions it was used to dye someone else's hair. No doubt the colour wouldn't get on my clothes/ head, but it was a disgusting sight to see dirty towels on your hair, especially just after a wash.
7) Lastly, while drying my hair halfway, a customer came into their shop. She was around several minutes before and was told to come back again. So when she did do so, the guy cutting my hair stopped and brought her in to get a seat (without even saying a word to me either). Not only did he do just that, he even went on to getting her a drink and mixing the hair dye for her hair. All that took awhile. And in the meantime, my hair was strewn all over my face, half wet half dry. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. Till he came back, and didn't say a word.
Lastly, the person cutting my hair didn't even appear to be interested in his job or seemed very confident of what he was doing. It was a nightmare. Personally, I will never go back there again.
However, it does seem like they have rather good business though. A number of regular customers and perhaps cheaper service. Maybe I was just unlucky. But I'd still say: I'm never going back.
“Do you take him as your husband, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow… With that I proclaimed you as husband and wife!”
The wedding bell struck, and the loving couple proceed on happily with their dinner celebration. Or so they thought. Picture this, the wedding ballroom was full of family, relatives and friends. All around was smiling faces. Then came the horror. Dead sharks, plenty of them with blood stains still fresh from the wounds, laying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the stage.
100 million sharks are killed a year, 63 million for their fins alone. Yes, you, you, you and you. All of us are guilty of being a murderer. And the real cause for their destruction, the demand for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy, always present during weddings and festive occasions.
Loveshark.sg is a local organisation set up to raise public awareness about sharks and the practices threatening their survival in the wild, with the simple ‘No Shark Fin‘ pledge. Alternatives to shark fin soup includes fish maw soup, or the vegetarian shark fin soup which we had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant for the loveshark media dinner.
We started off our meal with the prosperity yu sheng. A messy affair it was, scrambling to take photographs, while holding the chopsticks to stir for our first lo-hei of 2009. And of course, the auspicious greetings wishing one another, good health and fortune.
So green, green. So bright green, green. The Caltrops with hairy mushroom represents all of the superficial view of greens equal vegetarian. Caltrops and water chestnuts are cousins, while i’m not a fan of neither, i agreed that the caltrops were full of crunch, and i enjoyed the hairy mushroom, or better known as monkey-head mushroom.
The element of fire, fiery red. All of us mistook it for red chili where it’s actually red bell pepper. The spicy pan-fried vegetarian fish was actually bean curd in disguise. The meticulous wrapping of the seaweed around to make the dish bearing a closer resemblance impressed.
The most creative award for the night goes to the fresh mushroom with asparagus. Serving in the form of a ice cream cone, several different types of mushrooms were stuffed inside, and voila!
The fruity almond rolls were my personal favourite of the 9 course vegetarian meal. The aroma of the jack fruit and banana held within the almond rolls escaped to our nose. Fried crispy outside, juicy and fruitful inside. Also there’s the Otak-pretender which came along too.
The apparent crowd favourite, stewed chestnuts with golden fungus. The bite of the golden fungus, was chewy and there’s also the hairy mushroom here.
Capturing the essence without using any real meat, that’s what all vegetarian dishes strived to do. I thought the veg meat managed to do just that. The light sauce for the meat, with the cucumbers and tomatoes, dipped in the famous chicken rice chilli.
Welcome to Malacca! The signature chicken rice balls, that originated from the Malaysian state. Except this was rice ball without using any chicken oil in the cooking process.
The legendary Tian Shan Xue Lian right before our eyes. For centuries, pugilists had been vying for the magical healing medicine. Well of course, this wasn’t the real Tian Shan Xue lian, with osmanthus in the pudding.
The 9 course set dinner served 10 people at $358 , from Lotus Vegetarian restaurant. This is a food tasting session organised by loveshark.sg, so i’ll like to thank Jaki for inviting me, to have the chance with meeting the nice people from their various organisations, and of course, the food bloggers whom I’ve read their blogs for a long time, but this being the first time i saw them in person. Support Loveshark.sg! Say no to Shark Fin!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Another stall at Yuhua Village food centre which has a significant queue, Fei Fei Roasted & noodle. Now don’t confuse this stall with the famous Fei Fei wanton mee. You know there are some stalls which are opened for the whole day, and yet couldn’t finish selling the food. Just exactly how good are they? According to eyewitness, when they start operations everyday at around 7-8am, the queue never ceased until they are sold out by 12 noon.
I always have a thing for roasted duck, and I must say Fei Fei’s rendition ($15 half a duck) impressed me. The taste wasn’t very extreme, the duck wasn’t that big and meaty. But somehow they managed to get this right balance between the crispiness of the skin, and the bite of the duck. And the fatty meat underneath the skin added in the “oomph” factor as well. We should have tried their wanton mee as well, but we ordered quite a lot of other food already. And by the time we made up our mind to try their noodles, they were closed, at 12 noon sharp.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
A typical food court or coffee shop will definitely have the few same thing, drinks stall, the roasted meat stall, western food, fishball noodles, mixed vegetables rice stall. So what happens when you got sick of eating fishball noodles or wanton mee? Why not try some hand made noodles, or more commonly known as, Ban Mian.
There’s three different kinds of hand made noodles, ban mian (similar to mee pok), you mian (the thinner version), and mee huan kuay (pieces of noodles). I’m not really a big fan of ban mian and mee huan kuay, so usually i’ll take the you mian.
While i can’t appreciate ban mian, but i can understand the effort put into making them. In Singapore, most egg noodles are factory machine-made, rarely can you see the fishball noodles and wanton mee stalls making their own noodles any more. Of course, there are still some stalls which insist on making their own noodles, which differentiate themselves from the others. For ban mian, the dough are rolled into noodles on the spot.
Ban mian ($2.50) are always served with the familiar fried ikan bilies (anchovies), mushrooms, an egg, and vegetables in either soup or dry version. The soup base wasn’t salty; this being an vital factor since the ikan bilies when soaked into the soup would enhance the flavour of the soup. With so many ingredients, i thought it’s worth the money and a healthier choice.
I preferred the dry hand made you mian ($2.50). The ingredients are the same, with the noodles being the only exception. It’s been a while since i last ate ban mian, and i actually felt it was better than the fishball you mian. The chilli and vinegar gave the noodles a stronger taste than the soup version.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Was presented the opportunity to sample the Chinese New Year buffet spread at Straits Cafe at Hotel Rendezvous, courtesy of the hotel's marketing department, specifically Christina, the marketing manager.
Straits Cafe's interior is typical of any hotel cafe that does, with its informal decor coupled with simple furnishing and the usual glass counters that display the food and the chefs that put the food together. Straits Cafe goes a step further by offering LCD televisions in certain areas of the restaurant, something which I believe a lot of hotel cafes/restaurants don't offer (Or am I just too outdated?).
Salmon Yu Sheng - The ubiquitous Yu Sheng and my umpteenth one this year, Straits Cafe offers this dish as a DIY at the counter, which means none of the routine rehearsed recitation by the wait staff. I'm no big fan of yusheng so I shall reserve my comments on this one.
Peng Cai - According to the manager, the Peng Cai requires a minimum preparation time of about 6 hours and consists of 15 different items in it - Shark's fin, abalone, dried scallops, prawns, duck web etc. As impressive as the list of ingredients may sound, I honestly didn't quite take to it as everything tasted very soft and mashed up. The flavours weren't immersed or intense enough and everything tasted more or less the same.
Variety The buffet spread had about 30 items (just a rough estimate) which ranged from sushi and soba to seafood, cut meats, local dishes like laksa and desserts. Not exactly extensive if you ask me.
Food Quality Food quality was generally average but there were a few glimmers of hope. In particular the laksa and durian pengat were worth a mention, to me at least. The laksa had a smooth creamy coconut milk base that harboured a tinge of sourish aftertaste which I thought was quite nice, but thats coming from someone who eats laksa probably once in 10 years? The durian pengat came across as smooth without being overly sweet and carried a nice hint of bitterness. However, I would have preferred it to be thicker and more concentrated.
Service Service was generally quite good but as this was an invited session, I'm not sure if it would be representative of the service level in general.
To conclude, I would like to thank Hotel Rendezvous once again for generously extending their hospitality to yours truly.
Had a quiet lunch at The Terrace on Saturday afternoon with family, and it was surprisingly good and quelled my nagging suspicion that all hotel cafes are out to con us of our hard earned money with medicore food :D
The Sentosa Club ($22) - A giant stack of fresh buns, a fat beef patty, and fresh greens. Stacked together tower-style, it was quite a feat to finish even for my bro. Accordingly to him, it was delish with the beef done medium rare excellent. It came with a side of wedges which was hot crispy without being oily.
Mee Goreng ($21) - Rather big portion of the noodle which came partly served on a old-style leave (I can't remember the name). Not oily, full of wok-hei, and generous serving of very fresh big prawns. Very good!
White button mushroom soup ($12) - We were all amused at how this was served. The staff presented a huge oval bowl with 2 pieces of bread crisp inside, and we were all wondering "Where's the soup????". Then another staff beside him armed with a teapot cam over, poured, and voila, we had soup! I have never expected this kind of presentation from a hotel cafe, and apart from being unique and 'cute', I'm sure it kept the soup nice and hot for us.
The chap who served us was all smily and polite, despite having to work a day before CNY eve. Bonus points from me~ The place only had at most 6 filled tables that afternoon, so I guess that helped with the staff's ample attention.
Typical of a hotel cafe, nice and cosy, but without the hustle and bustle of a down-town hotel. Weather was nice and cool, and the alfresco part overlooked the greens and the pool, which had a very theraputic, serene effect I thought.
A little expensive for the quantity we tried but I suppose the quality was quite good. Not a place to frequent because of the sheer effort in getting there but will not mind if I'm a guest at the hotel. And I have to say the hotel is quite a distance from other food choices so sometimes you do pay for convenience :D
Jostled with the crowds at Jurong Point's newly opened extension to have a go Lai Lai Casual Dining - a seemingly popular beef noodles cum pseudo Taiwanese eatery. There was a steady stream of people queuing up to get a seat in the eatery so we naturally assumed that this place was of a certain acceptable standard.
The bulk of the seating at this eatery is open concept, which means that people from the upper levels of the mall can view you from the top and tables are squeezed uncomfortably close to each other to maxmize revenue. And honestly, the cow on the menu looked like it had just been hit by mad cow disease.
Fried Beancurd - This dish was very run off the mill. Crisp on the outside but not soft on the inside, the beancurd was overly deep fried which resulted in a harder then usual exterior.
Pepper Salt Chicken - This dish was another disappointment. I mean, how bad can chicken taste like right? Wrong! The chicken had more flour then meat and came across as tough, bland and oily. Can someone tell me where the salt and pepper went?
Taiwan Beef Noodle - Lai Lai's purported signature/star dish and I have to admit that it was the best amongst all the other terrible dishes. Not that it was anywhere near what I had expected initially when I was still in the queue. The noodles were of the flatter variant and carried a bit of bite but the soup wasn't flavourful enough. The beef pieces, which amounted to about 4 - 5, came across as a tad too tough.
Taiwan Vermicelli - The only time I ate Taiwan vermicelli aka mee sua was when I was still a kid and my grandmother would cook it for me during my Chinese birthday. Though its been a long time since I last ate mee sua, I don't remember it tasting as awful as Lai Lai's rendition. The soup was very starchy and not to mention bland. Ingredients were minimal as well and half of bowl of the vermicelli remained, for obvious reasons.
On hindsight, the queues were probably formed due to the herd mentality of Singaporeans and definitely not for the food quality. Our dinner cost the 2 of us $30, which isn't expensive for a dinner, but definitely expensive for such quality of food. Never again!
A day, twenty four hours, one thousand & forty minutes,
& eighty six thousand & four hundred seconds.
Breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, dinner & supper.
That’s how much we eat, and for the last meal of the year,
Something sweet.
A typical New York Cheesecake ($6.80), with a twist at the bottom. Instead of the usual digestive biscuit crumb base, this one had oatmeal mixed with digestive biscuit, resulting in a softer base. While it scored brownie points for creativity, I still preferred the original version. The cheesecake was the very rich and cheesy type, nothing like the light & airy type.
Something not-so-sweet. Strawberry yoghurt mousse ($7). Topped with pretty strawberries. I ain’t a big fan of yoghurt, but this hit the right spot with the perfect balance between the berries and mousse. The best part of a shooter dessert was digging into it. And sharing of course.
Now, my favourite. I left the Hazelnut Praline Royale ($6.80) for the last, since i knew me being me, i’ll definitely not like the other two desserts if I’ve started with this. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, and i only have you in my eyes. The praline base was definitely one of the thickest I’ve before. The richness of the chocolatey cake did not overwhelm in the first bite, but the cake was surely too much for one to finish alone. In short, think ferrero rocher cake.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
1=SGD 0.0587
Bar bar black sheep, have you any food?
Yes sir, yes sir, three stalls full!
One for the Indians, one for the Thais.
And one for the Smok’Inn Frogz kitchen by the side.
The epitome of the coolest coffee shop, Bar bar black sheep. With a foot in uptown Bukit Timah, the affluent neighbours and the Caucasians crowd, the rise in the popularity isn’t merely luck. The owner of bar bar black sheep is a pretty smart guy, bringing in an Indian, a Thai food stall and of course Smok’Inn Frogz Kitchen.
With such ear-catching names, who could resist coming down to find out what they are about? Essentially a coffee shop that goes through project makeover, the dim lighting, the laid-back environment, with plenty of boozes, and popular food. Smok’Inn Frogz Kitchen is co-owned by three partners, with the former-chef from Flute @ the Fort coming out with the menu, the second guy managing the finance, and the third dude handling the daily operations.
The de facto signboard for Smok’Inn Frogz, the homemade beef burger ($12) was made popular after the Sunday Times reporter came to try the burger and raved about it. Like they said, the rest was history. Well I was tempted to choose between the chicken or the beef burger, but since they were both priced the same, it didn’t really make sense to choose chicken over beef. Now back to the main character, the beef patty was tender and moist, while the sesame bun was slightly too toasted for my liking. Double cheese and caramelised onions were on hand to enhance the flavour of the burger.
I wasn’t very fond of aglio olio since i always found them to be too spicy and dry. The Prawns linguine Aglio Olio ($14) here wasn’t as spicy like most, as they swapped the small chilli padi with the hot ones instead. Smok’Inn frog rendition was reasonably wet, and had 6 prawns, very generous indeed.
Another of Smok’Inn Frogz’s supposedly signature, Beer-battered fish & chips ($12). The portions were huge, enough for two to share. The beer taste was evident in the fish, but other than that, there wasn’t any spectacular magic about it. And the fish became soggy after a while.
Total bill was $38 for the 3 main course. Prices are reasonable for the food, and with the Caucasian crowd and the Bukit Timah residents packing the place up, it’s difficult to get a seat for dinner on weekends if you came later than 7pm. I’ll also like to apologise for the ugly photos (the worst i took since I used dslr) due to the very dim lighting.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Situated at Hotel Rendezvous’s lobby level, this dining venue has undergone two months of intensive refurbishment and upgrading works and was reopened in 3 October.
The $1.5 million project is a complete transformation of what used to be traditional, into a modern contemporary interior. Within, random timber strips were cleverly incorporated into the design as accented walls and feature screens to add texture, shadow and depth.
Although the café’s full glass window allows for the integration of the bustling exterior and the vibrancy of the interior space. HFB however felt a slight intrusion of privacy with people peering over his shoulders while he ate, when commuters waiting along the bus stop outside sneaked a quick peek or two.
Enjoyably, the cold seafood counter – the Baby Octopus, Prawns, Mussels and Smoked Salmon, pleasantly surprised HFB. They were really fresh and scrumptious!
Request for the Salmon Belly Sashimi from the Sushi and Sashimi counter and one would also be enthralled by its silky, succulent texture.
A main feature in the dining room are the buffet counters. Showcasing two living cooking stations that offer a variety of freshly prepared and made-to-order cuisine, including oriental wok counter for Stir-fried Vegetables. HFB really loved the Mushrooms that was served that day.
The other cooking station is the Noodle Station for daily noodle of the day – it happens to be their popular and signature Nonya Laksa counter and Bak Kut Teh, or simply Pork Ribs Soup.
Unfortunately, the heightened expectations resulted in HFB noticeably unimpressed by both dishes. Their version of laksa comes with thick coconut gravy, which HFB suspects would be much welcomed by many, but HFB thought it was way too salty. A replacement bowl failed to change his opinion too.
The bak kut teh was much better received with its clearer soup base, but it seemed to leave a lingering aftertaste, which tasted like MSG, but HFB might be wrong.
The craving station offered Roast Beef for that day – although the meat leaned towards the dry side, HFB definitely enjoyed the Grilled Capers and Eggplant that was available next to the meat.
The extensive selection at the dessert counter is sure to tempt those with a sweet tooth.
Highlight of the section was definitely the ‘Durian Corner’ where Durian Cake, Durian Puff and Durian Pengat were served. The latter is definitely a must try!
You can view all the photos here.
Rating given:
I'm one of those people who's rather particular about my haircut. And I'm particularly particular about it. Nonetheless, haircuts are getting more and more expensive (that's if you choose to go to a more expensive place for that little bit more security - that's me), plus mid-length hair usually cost more too. Desperately needing a trim, I decided upon a random shop where there was an available hairdresser.
The haircut was $22.50 flat. And I didn't have to wait long to get started. At the same time, there were quite a number of people, thus making it seem like the place was rather popular. So having given the abovementioned reasons, I stepped into the shop.
First impression: Oh man, this place is full of people who spells of "I-just-smoked-and-so-I-smell-like-this". The smell got me feeling rather giddy for a little while till I got used to it.
All I did there was get a trim and thin my hair a little, but allow me to illustrate my experience within my "short" (it was much longer than necessary) time spent there:
1) I wasn't offered a drink, despite there being an obvious sign placed on the table that there are free drinks. I thought it wasn't anything much until I saw the same person cutting my hair serving another customer a drink, then I wondered why the double standards.
2) The floor is extremely dirty and nobody bothers to sweep the hair from the floor (till maybe the end of business everyday).
3) When I asked for some suggestions on what I could do about my hair to make it look less messy, all the advice I received was "oh, rebond your hair lor". How wise.
4) I was brought to the back to wash my hair. The water temperature was not adjusted and the hairwash was literally simply a hairwash. No other value-added services like a massage at the same time (which I get very often from other place, and so I presume it's the norm for most salons).
5) After washing, the person in charge didn't even bother to towel-dry my hair. He merely put a towel on my head and expected me to walk out. I could feel water dripping from my hair down to my ankles.
6) The towel that he put on my head was black, and stained from the many occasions it was used to dye someone else's hair. No doubt the colour wouldn't get on my clothes/ head, but it was a disgusting sight to see dirty towels on your hair, especially just after a wash.
7) Lastly, while drying my hair halfway, a customer came into their shop. She was around several minutes before and was told to come back again. So when she did do so, the guy cutting my hair stopped and brought her in to get a seat (without even saying a word to me either). Not only did he do just that, he even went on to getting her a drink and mixing the hair dye for her hair. All that took awhile. And in the meantime, my hair was strewn all over my face, half wet half dry. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. Till he came back, and didn't say a word.
Lastly, the person cutting my hair didn't even appear to be interested in his job or seemed very confident of what he was doing. It was a nightmare. Personally, I will never go back there again.
However, it does seem like they have rather good business though. A number of regular customers and perhaps cheaper service. Maybe I was just unlucky. But I'd still say: I'm never going back.
Rating given:
“Do you take him as your husband, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow… With that I proclaimed you as husband and wife!”
The wedding bell struck, and the loving couple proceed on happily with their dinner celebration. Or so they thought. Picture this, the wedding ballroom was full of family, relatives and friends. All around was smiling faces. Then came the horror. Dead sharks, plenty of them with blood stains still fresh from the wounds, laying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the stage.
100 million sharks are killed a year, 63 million for their fins alone. Yes, you, you, you and you. All of us are guilty of being a murderer. And the real cause for their destruction, the demand for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy, always present during weddings and festive occasions.
Loveshark.sg is a local organisation set up to raise public awareness about sharks and the practices threatening their survival in the wild, with the simple ‘No Shark Fin‘ pledge. Alternatives to shark fin soup includes fish maw soup, or the vegetarian shark fin soup which we had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant for the loveshark media dinner.
We started off our meal with the prosperity yu sheng. A messy affair it was, scrambling to take photographs, while holding the chopsticks to stir for our first lo-hei of 2009. And of course, the auspicious greetings wishing one another, good health and fortune.
So green, green. So bright green, green. The Caltrops with hairy mushroom represents all of the superficial view of greens equal vegetarian. Caltrops and water chestnuts are cousins, while i’m not a fan of neither, i agreed that the caltrops were full of crunch, and i enjoyed the hairy mushroom, or better known as monkey-head mushroom.
The element of fire, fiery red. All of us mistook it for red chili where it’s actually red bell pepper. The spicy pan-fried vegetarian fish was actually bean curd in disguise. The meticulous wrapping of the seaweed around to make the dish bearing a closer resemblance impressed.
The most creative award for the night goes to the fresh mushroom with asparagus. Serving in the form of a ice cream cone, several different types of mushrooms were stuffed inside, and voila!
The fruity almond rolls were my personal favourite of the 9 course vegetarian meal. The aroma of the jack fruit and banana held within the almond rolls escaped to our nose. Fried crispy outside, juicy and fruitful inside. Also there’s the Otak-pretender which came along too.
The apparent crowd favourite, stewed chestnuts with golden fungus. The bite of the golden fungus, was chewy and there’s also the hairy mushroom here.
Capturing the essence without using any real meat, that’s what all vegetarian dishes strived to do. I thought the veg meat managed to do just that. The light sauce for the meat, with the cucumbers and tomatoes, dipped in the famous chicken rice chilli.
Welcome to Malacca! The signature chicken rice balls, that originated from the Malaysian state. Except this was rice ball without using any chicken oil in the cooking process.
The legendary Tian Shan Xue Lian right before our eyes. For centuries, pugilists had been vying for the magical healing medicine. Well of course, this wasn’t the real Tian Shan Xue lian, with osmanthus in the pudding.
The 9 course set dinner served 10 people at $358 , from Lotus Vegetarian restaurant. This is a food tasting session organised by loveshark.sg, so i’ll like to thank Jaki for inviting me, to have the chance with meeting the nice people from their various organisations, and of course, the food bloggers whom I’ve read their blogs for a long time, but this being the first time i saw them in person. Support Loveshark.sg! Say no to Shark Fin!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Another stall at Yuhua Village food centre which has a significant queue, Fei Fei Roasted & noodle. Now don’t confuse this stall with the famous Fei Fei wanton mee. You know there are some stalls which are opened for the whole day, and yet couldn’t finish selling the food. Just exactly how good are they? According to eyewitness, when they start operations everyday at around 7-8am, the queue never ceased until they are sold out by 12 noon.
I always have a thing for roasted duck, and I must say Fei Fei’s rendition ($15 half a duck) impressed me. The taste wasn’t very extreme, the duck wasn’t that big and meaty. But somehow they managed to get this right balance between the crispiness of the skin, and the bite of the duck. And the fatty meat underneath the skin added in the “oomph” factor as well. We should have tried their wanton mee as well, but we ordered quite a lot of other food already. And by the time we made up our mind to try their noodles, they were closed, at 12 noon sharp.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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A typical food court or coffee shop will definitely have the few same thing, drinks stall, the roasted meat stall, western food, fishball noodles, mixed vegetables rice stall. So what happens when you got sick of eating fishball noodles or wanton mee? Why not try some hand made noodles, or more commonly known as, Ban Mian.
There’s three different kinds of hand made noodles, ban mian (similar to mee pok), you mian (the thinner version), and mee huan kuay (pieces of noodles). I’m not really a big fan of ban mian and mee huan kuay, so usually i’ll take the you mian.
While i can’t appreciate ban mian, but i can understand the effort put into making them. In Singapore, most egg noodles are factory machine-made, rarely can you see the fishball noodles and wanton mee stalls making their own noodles any more. Of course, there are still some stalls which insist on making their own noodles, which differentiate themselves from the others. For ban mian, the dough are rolled into noodles on the spot.
Ban mian ($2.50) are always served with the familiar fried ikan bilies (anchovies), mushrooms, an egg, and vegetables in either soup or dry version. The soup base wasn’t salty; this being an vital factor since the ikan bilies when soaked into the soup would enhance the flavour of the soup. With so many ingredients, i thought it’s worth the money and a healthier choice.
I preferred the dry hand made you mian ($2.50). The ingredients are the same, with the noodles being the only exception. It’s been a while since i last ate ban mian, and i actually felt it was better than the fishball you mian. The chilli and vinegar gave the noodles a stronger taste than the soup version.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Was presented the opportunity to sample the Chinese New Year buffet spread at Straits Cafe at Hotel Rendezvous, courtesy of the hotel's marketing department, specifically Christina, the marketing manager.
Straits Cafe's interior is typical of any hotel cafe that does, with its informal decor coupled with simple furnishing and the usual glass counters that display the food and the chefs that put the food together. Straits Cafe goes a step further by offering LCD televisions in certain areas of the restaurant, something which I believe a lot of hotel cafes/restaurants don't offer (Or am I just too outdated?).
Salmon Yu Sheng - The ubiquitous Yu Sheng and my umpteenth one this year, Straits Cafe offers this dish as a DIY at the counter, which means none of the routine rehearsed recitation by the wait staff. I'm no big fan of yusheng so I shall reserve my comments on this one.
Peng Cai - According to the manager, the Peng Cai requires a minimum preparation time of about 6 hours and consists of 15 different items in it - Shark's fin, abalone, dried scallops, prawns, duck web etc. As impressive as the list of ingredients may sound, I honestly didn't quite take to it as everything tasted very soft and mashed up. The flavours weren't immersed or intense enough and everything tasted more or less the same.
Variety
The buffet spread had about 30 items (just a rough estimate) which ranged from sushi and soba to seafood, cut meats, local dishes like laksa and desserts. Not exactly extensive if you ask me.
Food Quality
Food quality was generally average but there were a few glimmers of hope. In particular the laksa and durian pengat were worth a mention, to me at least. The laksa had a smooth creamy coconut milk base that harboured a tinge of sourish aftertaste which I thought was quite nice, but thats coming from someone who eats laksa probably once in 10 years? The durian pengat came across as smooth without being overly sweet and carried a nice hint of bitterness. However, I would have preferred it to be thicker and more concentrated.
Service
Service was generally quite good but as this was an invited session, I'm not sure if it would be representative of the service level in general.
To conclude, I would like to thank Hotel Rendezvous once again for generously extending their hospitality to yours truly.
See all my pictures here.
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Good ala carte choices~~
Had a quiet lunch at The Terrace on Saturday afternoon with family, and it was surprisingly good and quelled my nagging suspicion that all hotel cafes are out to con us of our hard earned money with medicore food :D
The Sentosa Club ($22) - A giant stack of fresh buns, a fat beef patty, and fresh greens. Stacked together tower-style, it was quite a feat to finish even for my bro. Accordingly to him, it was delish with the beef done medium rare excellent. It came with a side of wedges which was hot crispy without being oily.
Mee Goreng ($21) - Rather big portion of the noodle which came partly served on a old-style leave (I can't remember the name). Not oily, full of wok-hei, and generous serving of very fresh big prawns. Very good!
White button mushroom soup ($12) - We were all amused at how this was served. The staff presented a huge oval bowl with 2 pieces of bread crisp inside, and we were all wondering "Where's the soup????". Then another staff beside him armed with a teapot cam over, poured, and voila, we had soup! I have never expected this kind of presentation from a hotel cafe, and apart from being unique and 'cute', I'm sure it kept the soup nice and hot for us.
The chap who served us was all smily and polite, despite having to work a day before CNY eve. Bonus points from me~ The place only had at most 6 filled tables that afternoon, so I guess that helped with the staff's ample attention.
Typical of a hotel cafe, nice and cosy, but without the hustle and bustle of a down-town hotel. Weather was nice and cool, and the alfresco part overlooked the greens and the pool, which had a very theraputic, serene effect I thought.
A little expensive for the quantity we tried but I suppose the quality was quite good. Not a place to frequent because of the sheer effort in getting there but will not mind if I'm a guest at the hotel. And I have to say the hotel is quite a distance from other food choices so sometimes you do pay for convenience :D
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Jostled with the crowds at Jurong Point's newly opened extension to have a go Lai Lai Casual Dining - a seemingly popular beef noodles cum pseudo Taiwanese eatery. There was a steady stream of people queuing up to get a seat in the eatery so we naturally assumed that this place was of a certain acceptable standard.
The bulk of the seating at this eatery is open concept, which means that people from the upper levels of the mall can view you from the top and tables are squeezed uncomfortably close to each other to maxmize revenue. And honestly, the cow on the menu looked like it had just been hit by mad cow disease.
Fried Beancurd - This dish was very run off the mill. Crisp on the outside but not soft on the inside, the beancurd was overly deep fried which resulted in a harder then usual exterior.
Pepper Salt Chicken - This dish was another disappointment. I mean, how bad can chicken taste like right? Wrong! The chicken had more flour then meat and came across as tough, bland and oily. Can someone tell me where the salt and pepper went?
Taiwan Beef Noodle - Lai Lai's purported signature/star dish and I have to admit that it was the best amongst all the other terrible dishes. Not that it was anywhere near what I had expected initially when I was still in the queue. The noodles were of the flatter variant and carried a bit of bite but the soup wasn't flavourful enough. The beef pieces, which amounted to about 4 - 5, came across as a tad too tough.
Taiwan Vermicelli - The only time I ate Taiwan vermicelli aka mee sua was when I was still a kid and my grandmother would cook it for me during my Chinese birthday. Though its been a long time since I last ate mee sua, I don't remember it tasting as awful as Lai Lai's rendition. The soup was very starchy and not to mention bland. Ingredients were minimal as well and half of bowl of the vermicelli remained, for obvious reasons.
On hindsight, the queues were probably formed due to the herd mentality of Singaporeans and definitely not for the food quality. Our dinner cost the 2 of us $30, which isn't expensive for a dinner, but definitely expensive for such quality of food. Never again!
See all my pictures here.
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A year, twelve months, fifty two weeks,
& three hundred and sixty five days.
A day, twenty four hours, one thousand & forty minutes,
& eighty six thousand & four hundred seconds.
Breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, dinner & supper.
That’s how much we eat, and for the last meal of the year,
Something sweet.
A typical New York Cheesecake ($6.80), with a twist at the bottom. Instead of the usual digestive biscuit crumb base, this one had oatmeal mixed with digestive biscuit, resulting in a softer base. While it scored brownie points for creativity, I still preferred the original version. The cheesecake was the very rich and cheesy type, nothing like the light & airy type.
Something not-so-sweet. Strawberry yoghurt mousse ($7). Topped with pretty strawberries. I ain’t a big fan of yoghurt, but this hit the right spot with the perfect balance between the berries and mousse. The best part of a shooter dessert was digging into it. And sharing of course.
Now, my favourite. I left the Hazelnut Praline Royale ($6.80) for the last, since i knew me being me, i’ll definitely not like the other two desserts if I’ve started with this. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, and i only have you in my eyes. The praline base was definitely one of the thickest I’ve before. The richness of the chocolatey cake did not overwhelm in the first bite, but the cake was surely too much for one to finish alone. In short, think ferrero rocher cake.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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