Most of the times I'd buy my perfume from here. The variety of perfumes here is quite good. I'd be able to find some perfumes that I wouldn't be able to find elsewhere.
I bought Gucci's Envy me here and there was a promotion. Bought the perfume and it came with the body lotion.
The staff there who explained about the promotion to me was nice enough to give me some free gifts when I asked for it. (I often ask for free gifts when buying perfume :P)
He gave me a choice of some perfume samples, and an Escada free gift pack. He then told me that the Escada free gift pack would be better as it came with a shower gel, body lotion, and a perfume vial. And I totally agreed.
When I paid at the cashier, the cashier was very friendly and polite. As always, the cashiers there are always nice and would greet us customers politely.
There are so many stalls in one hawker centre alone, so how do you make your choice which one to order from? This is especially a problem when you want to order a particular food, say for example char kuay teow but found yourself staring at a few similar stalls. Which one do you order from? Being Singaporeans the first thought will be to see which stall has the longest Q, well if so many others like their food, it can’t be that bad right?
So usually i’ll go and look around the tables, to see which plates dominate the area, and its a good gauge how popular a stall is. Of course, you can’t judge a stall by its queue, or you ain’t the type that will bother to queue a good fifteen to twenty minutes just for food. So what’s next? Through word-of-mouth recommendations, “stall B at that hawker centre is very good, must-try!” Alternatively, continue your blog-reading at ladyironchef to find out more!
Anyway, one of the common methods will be to look at the stall for any media recognition, there are so many TV food programs which recommend on food, and very often they will issue their own “certificate” to acknowledge that hawker stall is good. Again, this method can also be flaw as the stalls that they recommended might not be that good sometimes, but usually the sales at that particular stall will go up after featured on TV, Singaporeans are Singaporeans after all.
Nevertheless, this is one method that i use quite often when i don’t have no idea which stall to order from. And i decided to order from Teng Yu chee cheong fun porridge stall after i saw their “media recognition”, coming in the form of a video recording showing on the TV no less.
Char siew cheong fun ($2.30) Teng Yu stall offers four different types of cheong fun, prawn, turnip, char siew and one more. All of them come with the option of having your cheong fun with porridge. And they have quite a few selections if you just want porridge alone, century egg, sliced fish, fish head, and seafood porridge.
The skin of the char siew cheong fun was smooth and easy on the palate, topped with plenty of sesame seeds, it came with light sauce. However, the char siew meat were all in very small bits and pieces, and i would prefer them to come in bigger pieces even if there were less of them in that way.
The char siew bites were rather soft, in fact too soft for my liking, and it did not have the sweet and juicy taste that’s in good char siew. Furthermore, they added in some vegetables in it which i did not like. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat greens, but cheong fun with greens simply did not work out.
The overall taste is quite weak, as in not much flavour in the chee cheong fun, maybe its lighter in flavour because it’s suppose to go together with the porridge, or maybe it’s just me. So you have to try out for yourself to try out. I missed out on the previous post for Mr Avocado, the Alexandra Village hawker centre is opposite the Queensway shopping centre, don’t mistake it with ABC food centre which is nearby.
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!
I know what you are thinking of when i mentioned hawker centre stalls, plain, boring, unfanciful, the run-of-the-mill look! But recently food lovers are spoil with more options as more food & beverage owners look to “attack” the heartlands, the place where you and I grew up in. Botak Jones, Cilantro are some of the better-known names to “invade” our familiar neighbourhood.
Putting that aside, Mr Avocado isn’t exactly “new”, they have been around since 1990, and participated in the Singapore Food Festival 2003, 2004. Well just that last time i didn’t really keep an eye for good food, so i only came to know its existence after a friend recommended me there.
Avocado ($2) They are not called Mr Avocado for nothing, the avocado being their signature drink is surely a must-order drink when you are here. Although i am not a fan of avocado, but Mr Avocado’s rendition win me over with its smooth, creamy and milky interpretation.
Avocado fruits contain a high concentration of dietary fiber, vitamins and potassium. And definitely makes a good drink on a hot day. Mr Avocado’s tagline is “exotic fruit juice”. With some of their specialty like dragon fruit, wintermelon, waterchestnut, loh han kuo, soursop, aloe vera, white fungus definitely sounds more exotic than your usual watermelon, apple, orange.
And i noticed the fact that within Alexandra village hawker centre there are at least four fruit drink stalls selling almost identical drinks. My guess is the hawker centre is always crowded with the office folks working nearby coming in for lunch, and you know fruit juice is always a pleaser for the ladies.
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!
Have past by this little cafe tuck at the corner of Marina Square several times. Over the weekend, we decided to give it a try.
As we weren't that hungry, and it was already pretty late, we decided to have some finger food. Ordered half dozen of NZ Greenlip Mussels and a Seafood Basket.
You can choose how you want your mussels to be done. We settled with White wine and garlic. This half dozen mussels was pretty alright. The wine was relatively mild and could taste more of the garlic than the wine.
The Seafood Basket took quite awhile to come. We were shocked to see it served in a bucket instead of the usual basket. There was a piece of fish, 2 prawns, 2 scallops, 2 fish nuggets and bunch of fries. All quite well battered and fried. Except for the prawns, which we both felt was too tiny and too much batter. Fish was crispy and crunch. Like the texture of the way it was cooked.
Overall quite a nice and simple meal. The place is pretty cool at night, we the lightings hanging from the ceiling of Marina Square and cosy ambience of Fin Cafe. (Check out the attached video and you'll know what I mean.) :)
And well, looks like they've started charging GST already! Its hard to survive without this these days.
It's been long since I stepped into Marche. Sad that the 2 other outlets are no longer in business and this one at Vivo gets packed almost everytime I was there. Good thing we were there on a Monday and was still early for dinner crowd. Managed to get in without queuing.
The place was smaller than we expected, and it looks very cramp with all the decorations and furnishing inside. But it does gives the traditional market-like feel but yet still homely.
Food we ordered...
SweetBread - aka Filled Crossed Bun at $1.50 This is something which I never thought of buying while at Marche in the past. But thanks to bf, now I'll make sure I buy one whenever I'm there. I like the fluffy texture of the bun and the skin (outer layer) of the bun has a sweet taste to it. Makes the bun very enjoyable to eat. But the fillings is very little, filled only 1/8 of the bun. But still I won't mind paying $1.50 for it. Of cos, if they stuff in my fillings, it'll make it just perfect.
Vegetables small plate at $4.90 I loveee mushrooms. And this "buffet" style vegetables stall has great mushrooms. It's tasty and fragrant. We mixed the mushrooms with baby potatoes. Quite nice too. Will want to try the rest of the vegetables the next time.
Crepe Mushroom at $10.90 This one is my most most favorite! Thin crepe freshly made upon order. The fillings is generous and the mixed of vegetables, cheese, sauce and mushrooms is simply delicious! Just thinking of it now makes me drool for more!
Chanced upon this modernly decorated shop while browsing around Marina Square over the weekend. The concept is somewhat similar to inQbox which has been around for awhile already. But Cactus Farm gives me a better impressions. The products on display are very neatly arranged and the entire shop gives a comfortable feel for their customers. The lighting of the shop plays quite an important part too.
The products on display are mostly from indie designers from Singapore. I noticed they do have products imported from overseas. There's this one that caught our attention at the entrance. It's a pair of square slippers. Looks quite interesting. Will sure to draw attention when worn around town. It cost about $40 if I didn't remember wrongly.
A quick check at their website and the rental is only from $8/day. Sounds pretty cheap, but that's only if your products are attractive and good to draw buyers.
If you're an indie designer, you might want to go check out Cactus Farm and look for their G.O.D or B.A.D! They also has got a M.A.D too! Interesting designations for the team. :)
The cravings for dim sum meant that i am always on the lookout for places be it restaurants or eateries which can answer to my stomach’s calling. Victor’s Kitchen has been around for quite a while now, and has been labeled with the “good dim sum at affordable price” tag.
Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner at Bencoolen street, it is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place. Victor’s is divided into two seating area, with both holding a maximum of maybe fifteen people each. Seats are limited, you must be prepared to queue up for them, and squeeze in the small seating area. Well, more like a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.
Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous rice ($4) I always like glutinous rice, dim sum style. Opening the leave that wrapped the rice, the aroma of the glutinous rice flowed out, and it was just so good. The chicken was tender and the chinese sausage palatable, the fragrant and soft rice, all the combinations made the glutinous rice a praiseworthy dish.
Tasty Queen size Siew Mai ($3) You don’t say you eat dim sum if you did not order siew mai and har gau. Nicknamed the queen size siew mai, its actually the normal size i guess that’s why they didn’t named it as King size siew mai instead.
The pork meat in the siew mai is very lean, not those fatty type. The portion of prawn to pork is actually very low, so not much of prawn taste, its the more porky kind.
Victor’s King prawn dumpling ($3.80) Prawn dumpling or har gau, another mainstay in the dim sum menu. The skin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin, and the prawns inside looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns go easy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.
Carrot cake with XO sauce ($3.80) I was rather amazed when i saw the Carrot cake with XO sauce served. For one i wasn’t expecting the carrot cake to be literally soaked in xo sauce, i thought it will be something like the one i had at Peach Garden, or Yan Ting, but i guess again, there isn’t any “fried” or “pan-seared” attached with the name here.
The name’s scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce, but i hardly had any hint of the presence of scallop and sausage in it, and i think i still preferred my carrot cake to be fried than soup. Nonetheless, the amount of XO sauce given was rather generous, and i guess its more of a personal issue, some might just fancy this over the normal fried carrot cake.
Oyster sauce Char Siew Bun ($2.80) I preferred my char siew bun to be those restaurants-type where there is three parts one. There’s no trace of oyster sauce in the char siew bun, or maybe i happened to miss the flavor.
Nevertheless, the char siew bun is still quite soft and fluffy, the juicy char siew captured within is also enjoyable. Not the best char siew bun i had, but it will suffice.
Milky Custard Bun ($2.80) I am getting warm up to Custard bun nowadays since i used to only flavor char siew bun when i had dim sum. You know a good custard bun when you see one, hot milky custard oozing out of the bun, tempting you with both visual and taste.
However, the case is not to be with Victor’s Milky custard bun. Touted as their signature dish, i was totally disappointed with the one i had here. Maybe the ones at Victor’s don’t ooze out, but for the custard buns to come cold is another complete matter all together.
Having heard many wonderful things about their signature custard bun, i must said i was shocked by the revelation in the quality of the buns. Maybe its a case of a bad hair day, but i’ll give it a chance and re-visit to try it again the next time.
Spare Ribs rice ($3) I’m not even sure if i want to elaborate on the spare ribs rice. First thing first, the rice is hard, too hard. I do understand that ribs being ribs do not have much meat, but this one, the pork ribs were not even tasteful. A waste of 3 bucks, kindly ignore this if you ever go to Victor’s.
Phoenix Porridge ($3.50) The century egg porridge or pi dan chow is transform in the name of Phoenix porridge. However the majestic name did itself no favors with a run of the mill watery porridge. There are bits of century egg and chicken chunks, but i don’t see the point in paying $3.50 for an average small bowl porridge.
Deep fried spring roll ($3) The deep fried spring roll is pretty decent, with the usual mix of turnips inside. The vinger dip was a commendable mention, with the slightly sourish sauce going well together with the deep fried stuff. The spring roll was crispy and you could hear the “crisp” sound with every bite you took.
Char siew cheong fun ($3) The trails of a good char siew cheong fun are smooth and silky skin, which comes with juicy char siew. However the skin of the cheong fun or rice roll is rather thick, i’ll prefer it to be slightly thinner. The char siew within the cheong fun is still acceptable.
King prawn cheong fun ($3.50) I think we over ordered, which results in having another one, the King prawn cheong fun. I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in the har gau, and they are fresh and good, pity the skin of the cheong fun though.
Total Bill is $51.1 for 3 person. Victor’s kitchen is definitely affordable and rather cheap with its array of dim sum served. The maths work out to be around less than a dollar per piece for most of the items, which can be a good place for your dim sum fix if you want something cheap and not bad.
Victor’s Kitchen is a case of hits and misses. However the misses hit me more because i had high expectations of the place since there are much rave about the dim sum here. With the silky custard bun as the biggest upset in this visit, it is likely i will visit the place again in the future, to prove whether its a fluke or one-off thing.
The place is small, and they don’t take any reservations, do go at earlier timings or be prepared to queue a while for the seats. Its also advisable to go in small groups since there aren’t much space and table to accommodate a large crowd.
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!
The 2 for 1 tag line is recognized with Canadian Pizza, and their easy-to-remember hotline 6241 0241 is another reason which has make Canadian Pizza a widely popular choice for pizza delivery services.
With mainstream competitors Pizza Hut which besides the delivery services has their own restaurants, and Sarpino’s which offer the same gimmick by having the 1-for-1 promotion, and the new Rite pizza, it can only mean good things for consumers who want a quick one on their pizzas.
Having tried Canadian Pizza a couple of times before, i thought that for the prices their pizzas are actually not bad, so on this occasion i decided on having Canadian Pizza instead of Sarpino’s as the previous time i have tried them already.
Teriyaki Chicken (Reg 10”) Teriyaki chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn, capsium, roasted sesame seed. The first bite of the pizza already told me everything i should know, i ordered the wrong pizza! All right, i understand that you can’t really be expecting huge chunks of the teriyaki chicken, even though i accepted the small bits of chicken, but where’s the taste? There’s not much of a flavor in the chicken, and this is supposed to be a teriyaki chicken pizza.
Canadian pizzas are all thin-sliced, personally i would prefer my pizza to be those thicker kinds rather than the thin ones. But there are places which served excellent thin slices, and the same goes for thick slices, so it largely depends on the place where you get your pizza.
Hawaiian Classic (Reg 10″) Turkey ham, turkey bacon, diced pineapples, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and edam cheese. The Hawaiian classic fared slightly better, although not much to redeem Canadian Pizza. I supposed the turkey ham is cut rather generously, but other than that, not much really.
This shows exactly the effects of not having enough cheese. If the pizza is cheesy enough, then when you pull the scene will be a total different one. Yes cheese can be expensive and its understandable that Canadian needs to cut cost given the pizzas are 1-for-1. But i feel pizza without enough cheese is not pizza. Period.
Total bill is $23.90 for 2 reg 10″ pizza. To say that i am utterly disappointed with the quality of Canadian pizza is not an understatement. And i will probably not call 6241 0241 again. Based on my previous experience with Sarpino’s, i think they fared better than Canadian, but i’ll have to try again to find out.
Pizza hut is of course the better one among the three, but obviously more expensive. But one common problem among the three pizza deliveries, is that they often does not provides enough cheese sachet. For this order, they only provided me with one cheese sachet, and i remember my previous encounter with Sarpino’s, they didn’t even give me any cheese sachet!
I have to admit, on my part i forgot to remind them to give me more cheese sachet. But really, how much can a pack of cheese sachet cost? Does it happens to you too, or i happened to be unfortunate on those severals occasions i called for pizza?
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!
Just opened at basement of Plaza Singapura on August 1st. This is the place to go for quick takeaway meals. They offer curry rice and curry udon sets where you can choose to have the curry mild or spicy. They also sell bento set which includes potato salad, vegetable sald, rice, fukujinzuke (japanese pickles) and takuan (japanese radish).
Mum bought 2 sets for dinner last night. Seafood Croquette Curry Udon Set ($5.90) and Ebi Unagi Bento Set ($8.90).
We had the sets an hour later when we reached home. The food was not too cold for consumption yet. It was still a little warm when we ate the food.
Mum's first verdict after tasting the rice in her bento set "Not nice!" The rice didn't have the usual stickiness of japanese rice and was tasteless. Not even taste of the usual rice fragrant. But the ebi and unagi was still acceptable. Though we felt that the unagi was a tad too small. The salads that came with the bento set was not bad. Nothing to wow about.
The Curry Udon was still alright for me. I don't recall tasting any japanese curry recently and have forgotten how it should taste like. But this one has quite a strong smell which I don't really enjoy. The seafood croquette was quite sad. There was only a small piece of prawn in it. I remembered the lady told me its a mixed of seafood. But I couldn't taste any.
Overall I feel that the food was not up to standard. Perhaps they're still new in such creations. Hope they'll improve as they gain more experience. Will probably give it another try few months later.
My friend brought me to this restaurant for dinner last weekend. She told me that the prices were quite reasonable and the portion of the food was quite big.
And what she said was true.
The restaurant looked bright and nice. We were welcomed by a polite waitress.
The table was kind of small. Nevertheless, we did not order much food that day.
I ordered a hot green tea and a Sukiyaki Gozen set. The Sukiyaki Gozen cost only $16.90. I used the word "only" because I found it very worth the price compared to other Japanese restaurants.
The set consisted of the Sukiyaki pot itself, plain udon, white rice, salmon sashimi, a small bowl of lotus roots, miso soup, and 2 pieces of fresh orange.
The beef in the pot was very sufficient for me (might be more than sufficient for some). And the soup in the pot was really nice and tasty. I added udon into the soup as well.
The salmon sashimi pieces were thick and fresh.
I was quite satisfied with my meal and was really very full after that.
1=SGD 0.0587
Most of the times I'd buy my perfume from here. The variety of perfumes here is quite good. I'd be able to find some perfumes that I wouldn't be able to find elsewhere.
I bought Gucci's Envy me here and there was a promotion. Bought the perfume and it came with the body lotion.
The staff there who explained about the promotion to me was nice enough to give me some free gifts when I asked for it. (I often ask for free gifts when buying perfume :P)
He gave me a choice of some perfume samples, and an Escada free gift pack. He then told me that the Escada free gift pack would be better as it came with a shower gel, body lotion, and a perfume vial. And I totally agreed.
When I paid at the cashier, the cashier was very friendly and polite. As always, the cashiers there are always nice and would greet us customers politely.
Rating given:
There are so many stalls in one hawker centre alone, so how do you make your choice which one to order from? This is especially a problem when you want to order a particular food, say for example char kuay teow but found yourself staring at a few similar stalls. Which one do you order from? Being Singaporeans the first thought will be to see which stall has the longest Q, well if so many others like their food, it can’t be that bad right?
So usually i’ll go and look around the tables, to see which plates dominate the area, and its a good gauge how popular a stall is. Of course, you can’t judge a stall by its queue, or you ain’t the type that will bother to queue a good fifteen to twenty minutes just for food. So what’s next? Through word-of-mouth recommendations, “stall B at that hawker centre is very good, must-try!” Alternatively, continue your blog-reading at ladyironchef to find out more!
Anyway, one of the common methods will be to look at the stall for any media recognition, there are so many TV food programs which recommend on food, and very often they will issue their own “certificate” to acknowledge that hawker stall is good. Again, this method can also be flaw as the stalls that they recommended might not be that good sometimes, but usually the sales at that particular stall will go up after featured on TV, Singaporeans are Singaporeans after all.
Nevertheless, this is one method that i use quite often when i don’t have no idea which stall to order from. And i decided to order from Teng Yu chee cheong fun porridge stall after i saw their “media recognition”, coming in the form of a video recording showing on the TV no less.
Char siew cheong fun ($2.30)
Teng Yu stall offers four different types of cheong fun, prawn, turnip, char siew and one more. All of them come with the option of having your cheong fun with porridge. And they have quite a few selections if you just want porridge alone, century egg, sliced fish, fish head, and seafood porridge.
The skin of the char siew cheong fun was smooth and easy on the palate, topped with plenty of sesame seeds, it came with light sauce. However, the char siew meat were all in very small bits and pieces, and i would prefer them to come in bigger pieces even if there were less of them in that way.
The char siew bites were rather soft, in fact too soft for my liking, and it did not have the sweet and juicy taste that’s in good char siew. Furthermore, they added in some vegetables in it which i did not like. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat greens, but cheong fun with greens simply did not work out.
The overall taste is quite weak, as in not much flavour in the chee cheong fun, maybe its lighter in flavour because it’s suppose to go together with the porridge, or maybe it’s just me. So you have to try out for yourself to try out. I missed out on the previous post for Mr Avocado, the Alexandra Village hawker centre is opposite the Queensway shopping centre, don’t mistake it with ABC food centre which is nearby.
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:
I know what you are thinking of when i mentioned hawker centre stalls, plain, boring, unfanciful, the run-of-the-mill look! But recently food lovers are spoil with more options as more food & beverage owners look to “attack” the heartlands, the place where you and I grew up in. Botak Jones, Cilantro are some of the better-known names to “invade” our familiar neighbourhood.
Putting that aside, Mr Avocado isn’t exactly “new”, they have been around since 1990, and participated in the Singapore Food Festival 2003, 2004. Well just that last time i didn’t really keep an eye for good food, so i only came to know its existence after a friend recommended me there.
Avocado ($2)
They are not called Mr Avocado for nothing, the avocado being their signature drink is surely a must-order drink when you are here. Although i am not a fan of avocado, but Mr Avocado’s rendition win me over with its smooth, creamy and milky interpretation.
Avocado fruits contain a high concentration of dietary fiber, vitamins and potassium. And definitely makes a good drink on a hot day. Mr Avocado’s tagline is “exotic fruit juice”. With some of their specialty like dragon fruit, wintermelon, waterchestnut, loh han kuo, soursop, aloe vera, white fungus definitely sounds more exotic than your usual watermelon, apple, orange.
And i noticed the fact that within Alexandra village hawker centre there are at least four fruit drink stalls selling almost identical drinks. My guess is the hawker centre is always crowded with the office folks working nearby coming in for lunch, and you know fruit juice is always a pleaser for the ladies.
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:
Small but cosy cafe.
Have past by this little cafe tuck at the corner of Marina Square several times. Over the weekend, we decided to give it a try.
As we weren't that hungry, and it was already pretty late, we decided to have some finger food. Ordered half dozen of NZ Greenlip Mussels and a Seafood Basket.
You can choose how you want your mussels to be done. We settled with White wine and garlic. This half dozen mussels was pretty alright. The wine was relatively mild and could taste more of the garlic than the wine.
The Seafood Basket took quite awhile to come. We were shocked to see it served in a bucket instead of the usual basket. There was a piece of fish, 2 prawns, 2 scallops, 2 fish nuggets and bunch of fries. All quite well battered and fried. Except for the prawns, which we both felt was too tiny and too much batter. Fish was crispy and crunch. Like the texture of the way it was cooked.
Overall quite a nice and simple meal. The place is pretty cool at night, we the lightings hanging from the ceiling of Marina Square and cosy ambience of Fin Cafe. (Check out the attached video and you'll know what I mean.) :)
And well, looks like they've started charging GST already! Its hard to survive without this these days.
Rating given:
It's been long since I stepped into Marche. Sad that the 2 other outlets are no longer in business and this one at Vivo gets packed almost everytime I was there. Good thing we were there on a Monday and was still early for dinner crowd. Managed to get in without queuing.
The place was smaller than we expected, and it looks very cramp with all the decorations and furnishing inside. But it does gives the traditional market-like feel but yet still homely.
Food we ordered...
SweetBread - aka Filled Crossed Bun at $1.50
This is something which I never thought of buying while at Marche in the past. But thanks to bf, now I'll make sure I buy one whenever I'm there. I like the fluffy texture of the bun and the skin (outer layer) of the bun has a sweet taste to it. Makes the bun very enjoyable to eat. But the fillings is very little, filled only 1/8 of the bun. But still I won't mind paying $1.50 for it. Of cos, if they stuff in my fillings, it'll make it just perfect.
Vegetables small plate at $4.90
I loveee mushrooms. And this "buffet" style vegetables stall has great mushrooms. It's tasty and fragrant. We mixed the mushrooms with baby potatoes. Quite nice too. Will want to try the rest of the vegetables the next time.
Crepe Mushroom at $10.90
This one is my most most favorite! Thin crepe freshly made upon order. The fillings is generous and the mixed of vegetables, cheese, sauce and mushrooms is simply delicious! Just thinking of it now makes me drool for more!
*SLURPS!*
Rating given:
Chanced upon this modernly decorated shop while browsing around Marina Square over the weekend. The concept is somewhat similar to inQbox which has been around for awhile already. But Cactus Farm gives me a better impressions. The products on display are very neatly arranged and the entire shop gives a comfortable feel for their customers. The lighting of the shop plays quite an important part too.
The products on display are mostly from indie designers from Singapore. I noticed they do have products imported from overseas. There's this one that caught our attention at the entrance. It's a pair of square slippers. Looks quite interesting. Will sure to draw attention when worn around town. It cost about $40 if I didn't remember wrongly.
A quick check at their website and the rental is only from $8/day. Sounds pretty cheap, but that's only if your products are attractive and good to draw buyers.
If you're an indie designer, you might want to go check out Cactus Farm and look for their G.O.D or B.A.D! They also has got a M.A.D too! Interesting designations for the team. :)
Rating given:
The cravings for dim sum meant that i am always on the lookout for places be it restaurants or eateries which can answer to my stomach’s calling. Victor’s Kitchen has been around for quite a while now, and has been labeled with the “good dim sum at affordable price” tag.
Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner at Bencoolen street, it is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place. Victor’s is divided into two seating area, with both holding a maximum of maybe fifteen people each. Seats are limited, you must be prepared to queue up for them, and squeeze in the small seating area. Well, more like a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.
Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous rice ($4)
I always like glutinous rice, dim sum style. Opening the leave that wrapped the rice, the aroma of the glutinous rice flowed out, and it was just so good. The chicken was tender and the chinese sausage palatable, the fragrant and soft rice, all the combinations made the glutinous rice a praiseworthy dish.
Tasty Queen size Siew Mai ($3)
You don’t say you eat dim sum if you did not order siew mai and har gau. Nicknamed the queen size siew mai, its actually the normal size i guess that’s why they didn’t named it as King size siew mai instead.
The pork meat in the siew mai is very lean, not those fatty type. The portion of prawn to pork is actually very low, so not much of prawn taste, its the more porky kind.
Victor’s King prawn dumpling ($3.80)
Prawn dumpling or har gau, another mainstay in the dim sum menu. The skin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin, and the prawns inside looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns go easy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.
Carrot cake with XO sauce ($3.80)
I was rather amazed when i saw the Carrot cake with XO sauce served. For one i wasn’t expecting the carrot cake to be literally soaked in xo sauce, i thought it will be something like the one i had at Peach Garden, or Yan Ting, but i guess again, there isn’t any “fried” or “pan-seared” attached with the name here.
The name’s scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce, but i hardly had any hint of the presence of scallop and sausage in it, and i think i still preferred my carrot cake to be fried than soup. Nonetheless, the amount of XO sauce given was rather generous, and i guess its more of a personal issue, some might just fancy this over the normal fried carrot cake.
Oyster sauce Char Siew Bun ($2.80)
I preferred my char siew bun to be those restaurants-type where there is three parts one. There’s no trace of oyster sauce in the char siew bun, or maybe i happened to miss the flavor.
Nevertheless, the char siew bun is still quite soft and fluffy, the juicy char siew captured within is also enjoyable. Not the best char siew bun i had, but it will suffice.
Milky Custard Bun ($2.80)
I am getting warm up to Custard bun nowadays since i used to only flavor char siew bun when i had dim sum. You know a good custard bun when you see one, hot milky custard oozing out of the bun, tempting you with both visual and taste.
However, the case is not to be with Victor’s Milky custard bun. Touted as their signature dish, i was totally disappointed with the one i had here. Maybe the ones at Victor’s don’t ooze out, but for the custard buns to come cold is another complete matter all together.
Having heard many wonderful things about their signature custard bun, i must said i was shocked by the revelation in the quality of the buns. Maybe its a case of a bad hair day, but i’ll give it a chance and re-visit to try it again the next time.
Spare Ribs rice ($3)
I’m not even sure if i want to elaborate on the spare ribs rice. First thing first, the rice is hard, too hard. I do understand that ribs being ribs do not have much meat, but this one, the pork ribs were not even tasteful. A waste of 3 bucks, kindly ignore this if you ever go to Victor’s.
Phoenix Porridge ($3.50)
The century egg porridge or pi dan chow is transform in the name of Phoenix porridge. However the majestic name did itself no favors with a run of the mill watery porridge. There are bits of century egg and chicken chunks, but i don’t see the point in paying $3.50 for an average small bowl porridge.
Deep fried spring roll ($3)
The deep fried spring roll is pretty decent, with the usual mix of turnips inside. The vinger dip was a commendable mention, with the slightly sourish sauce going well together with the deep fried stuff. The spring roll was crispy and you could hear the “crisp” sound with every bite you took.
Char siew cheong fun ($3)
The trails of a good char siew cheong fun are smooth and silky skin, which comes with juicy char siew. However the skin of the cheong fun or rice roll is rather thick, i’ll prefer it to be slightly thinner. The char siew within the cheong fun is still acceptable.
King prawn cheong fun ($3.50)
I think we over ordered, which results in having another one, the King prawn cheong fun. I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in the har gau, and they are fresh and good, pity the skin of the cheong fun though.
Total Bill is $51.1 for 3 person. Victor’s kitchen is definitely affordable and rather cheap with its array of dim sum served. The maths work out to be around less than a dollar per piece for most of the items, which can be a good place for your dim sum fix if you want something cheap and not bad.
Victor’s Kitchen is a case of hits and misses. However the misses hit me more because i had high expectations of the place since there are much rave about the dim sum here. With the silky custard bun as the biggest upset in this visit, it is likely i will visit the place again in the future, to prove whether its a fluke or one-off thing.
The place is small, and they don’t take any reservations, do go at earlier timings or be prepared to queue a while for the seats. Its also advisable to go in small groups since there aren’t much space and table to accommodate a large crowd.
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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The 2 for 1 tag line is recognized with Canadian Pizza, and their easy-to-remember hotline 6241 0241 is another reason which has make Canadian Pizza a widely popular choice for pizza delivery services.
With mainstream competitors Pizza Hut which besides the delivery services has their own restaurants, and Sarpino’s which offer the same gimmick by having the 1-for-1 promotion, and the new Rite pizza, it can only mean good things for consumers who want a quick one on their pizzas.
Having tried Canadian Pizza a couple of times before, i thought that for the prices their pizzas are actually not bad, so on this occasion i decided on having Canadian Pizza instead of Sarpino’s as the previous time i have tried them already.
Teriyaki Chicken (Reg 10”)
Teriyaki chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn, capsium, roasted sesame seed. The first bite of the pizza already told me everything i should know, i ordered the wrong pizza! All right, i understand that you can’t really be expecting huge chunks of the teriyaki chicken, even though i accepted the small bits of chicken, but where’s the taste? There’s not much of a flavor in the chicken, and this is supposed to be a teriyaki chicken pizza.
Canadian pizzas are all thin-sliced, personally i would prefer my pizza to be those thicker kinds rather than the thin ones. But there are places which served excellent thin slices, and the same goes for thick slices, so it largely depends on the place where you get your pizza.
Hawaiian Classic (Reg 10″)
Turkey ham, turkey bacon, diced pineapples, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and edam cheese. The Hawaiian classic fared slightly better, although not much to redeem Canadian Pizza. I supposed the turkey ham is cut rather generously, but other than that, not much really.
This shows exactly the effects of not having enough cheese. If the pizza is cheesy enough, then when you pull the scene will be a total different one. Yes cheese can be expensive and its understandable that Canadian needs to cut cost given the pizzas are 1-for-1. But i feel pizza without enough cheese is not pizza. Period.
Total bill is $23.90 for 2 reg 10″ pizza. To say that i am utterly disappointed with the quality of Canadian pizza is not an understatement. And i will probably not call 6241 0241 again. Based on my previous experience with Sarpino’s, i think they fared better than Canadian, but i’ll have to try again to find out.
Pizza hut is of course the better one among the three, but obviously more expensive. But one common problem among the three pizza deliveries, is that they often does not provides enough cheese sachet. For this order, they only provided me with one cheese sachet, and i remember my previous encounter with Sarpino’s, they didn’t even give me any cheese sachet!
I have to admit, on my part i forgot to remind them to give me more cheese sachet. But really, how much can a pack of cheese sachet cost? Does it happens to you too, or i happened to be unfortunate on those severals occasions i called for pizza?
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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"Curry so Good"
Just opened at basement of Plaza Singapura on August 1st. This is the place to go for quick takeaway meals. They offer curry rice and curry udon sets where you can choose to have the curry mild or spicy. They also sell bento set which includes potato salad, vegetable sald, rice, fukujinzuke (japanese pickles) and takuan (japanese radish).
Mum bought 2 sets for dinner last night. Seafood Croquette Curry Udon Set ($5.90) and Ebi Unagi Bento Set ($8.90).
We had the sets an hour later when we reached home. The food was not too cold for consumption yet. It was still a little warm when we ate the food.
Mum's first verdict after tasting the rice in her bento set "Not nice!" The rice didn't have the usual stickiness of japanese rice and was tasteless. Not even taste of the usual rice fragrant. But the ebi and unagi was still acceptable. Though we felt that the unagi was a tad too small. The salads that came with the bento set was not bad. Nothing to wow about.
The Curry Udon was still alright for me. I don't recall tasting any japanese curry recently and have forgotten how it should taste like. But this one has quite a strong smell which I don't really enjoy. The seafood croquette was quite sad. There was only a small piece of prawn in it. I remembered the lady told me its a mixed of seafood. But I couldn't taste any.
Overall I feel that the food was not up to standard. Perhaps they're still new in such creations. Hope they'll improve as they gain more experience. Will probably give it another try few months later.
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My friend brought me to this restaurant for dinner last weekend. She told me that the prices were quite reasonable and the portion of the food was quite big.
And what she said was true.
The restaurant looked bright and nice. We were welcomed by a polite waitress.
The table was kind of small. Nevertheless, we did not order much food that day.
I ordered a hot green tea and a Sukiyaki Gozen set. The Sukiyaki Gozen cost only $16.90. I used the word "only" because I found it very worth the price compared to other Japanese restaurants.
The set consisted of the Sukiyaki pot itself, plain udon, white rice, salmon sashimi, a small bowl of lotus roots, miso soup, and 2 pieces of fresh orange.
The beef in the pot was very sufficient for me (might be more than sufficient for some). And the soup in the pot was really nice and tasty. I added udon into the soup as well.
The salmon sashimi pieces were thick and fresh.
I was quite satisfied with my meal and was really very full after that.
Will return again :)
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