Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Botak Jones Clementi

After such a horrendously long time I've finally tried Botak Jones @ Clementi. My brother was talking about it so many times but then it used to be so crowded and gross and I hate queing up for my food. We were talking about Botak Jones (the lunch place at M4A when everyone burst out laughing... only chpgroup2 ppl will know this :P) This is my favouritest Caesar Salad ever! Personally, I think that the secret to a good caesar salad is good caesar salad dressing, and of course reasonably fresh romaine lettuce. According to their menu they use real anchovies for the sauce. I once saw this cooking program (probably on discovery travel and living) where they made caesar salad dressing - it's something like you use a wooden ladel and keep stirring the garlic and anchovies till they're all mashed up into a paste and then you add other stuff like egg and oil. How tiring. This caesar salad comes with real turky bacon bits, not those sorry little dehydrated light brown stuff that comes from a bottle. There's also croutons and generous amounts of parmesan cheese. They're really generous with the dressing too. The dressing goes quite well with the fries...
It costs only $5 no gst or taxes cos it's in a coffeeshop - very reasonable and yummy! Next time I shall dapao this home :D

This is Fish's Fish and Chips. Before I talk about her Fish and Chips (which, of course, I sampled for this blog :P), I shall talk about Fish, the expert in Clementi. Fish has been to Botak Jones @ Clementi before, and the night before we planned our expedition to Botak Jones, she said "aiyah won't get lost lah it's CLEMENTI" But then, it was also Fish - so obviously... fortunately not lost for like 45 min, 98 petrol is really expensive now...

The fish and chips ($6.50) are the breaded kind (not the kind tt i like - I like the smooth light batter kind) and comes with nicely seasoned fries and coleslaw. I've learnt something in their menu - Pacific dory = more ex dory and Cream Dory = Cheaper dory. They use the pacific kind though my tastebuds aren't discerning enough to taste any difference :/ The tartare sauce they use is quite different - there isn't bits of pickles inside but there's these black dots (is that pepper??) and it tastes even better than the usual tartare sauce cos it's not so sour.

This is my Cajun Chicken Burger ($6.50) comes with a buttered toasted sesame bun and a juicy chicken breast coated in Spicy and quite salty cajun sauce. It's quite tangy and I was so super full after eating my Caesar Salad and stealing Fish's fries and fish.

Next time I want to try the Rosemary Lamb Chops! Its $11.50 and everyone knows that this month I am trying to save money!!!! The sadness of being "salaried". Ahhh I want CNY to faster come so I can earn money! And my next salary will come at start of Feb! Woohoo! Lots of cheaper food places coming up in my next few posts :D

Block 325 Clementi Ave 5 (Kopitiam)

#01- 129 Singapore 120325

Phone / Fax: 677-41-225

Everyday 11:30 noon til 10:00 pm

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Spa - 1 minute Instant Noodles

This is a very interesting 1 minute cup noodle from Japan - its not dry noodles but those already cooked kind. It reminded me of the Jap-Italian pasta from Waraku, and it comes with mentai (roe) too! So obviously I had to try it even though it had such a monstrous price tag of $4.50!
It's pretty cool got so many packets (noodles, sauce, dehydrated roe, and seaweed) and they even have a queer little sieve - just put the hot water inside and stir the noodles,and then pour out the hot water after a minute. I didn't quite like the ovrall taste - too salty but it was quite cool cos there were little bits of dehydrated roe which were pink. Not as nice as the real thing of course but for $4.50 and at the convenience of your own home and of course, for me, the novelty.

I got my noodles from Cold Storage King Albert Park but I also saw this at Mediya SupermarketLiang Court.

Argh dunno why my internet can't load a single picture so sad i can't even see what i'm blogging grrr!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

haato - The Elusive Milk Ice Cream

Finally I got to try the hard to get MILK ice cream which the Ridgewood condo place didn't have (due to unpopularity - why ??? it's so good!! - maybe it's cos of the name? people dun wanna take ice cream cos it's supposed to taste of milk alr? hmmmmmm......)

It's really delicious everyone should try this cup of creamy goodness ($4.50 for 2 flavours - ex but it's still cheaper than Venezia which I used to be crazy over but it's too commercialized after my 7 years of patronage).

Liang Court Shopping Centre

177 River Valley Road,

Meidi-Ya Supermarket,

Unit B1-50

(tel 6337 8835 / fax 6337 8835)

Opening hrs: Daily 10am - 10pm5

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Tampopo - Pork Cutlets

Tampopo doesn't have my cheese gratin pork cutlet anymore! Crispy juicy pork cutlet drenched with gooey cheese and mushrooms no more! And it was $20 for the set. Sigh! And after that I didn't buy the item that I went all the way down to Liang Court for!!! Oh no my memory is so poor i hope all the (few) pharmaco facts I've been stuffing in to my brain doesn't fly out too!This is my Cheese Pork Cutlet Set, ($19+) which comes with rice, miso soup, pickles, fruit and free flow salad. It was a tough choice between the Mentai (some fish roe which I like) Pork Chop and this. I would probably go back and try the Mentai one soon cos it's a seasonal special ($21++). The pork is juicy and tender and doesn't have the porky smell.

Hmm some dish my brother ate forgot to check what it was but reminds me of Sun and Moon...

Tampopo means dandelion or daffodil or some other D flower (but not daisy!) in Japanese :D

Tampopo
Liang Court ,

B1 Mediya Supermarket

tcc - Rose Coffee

Ah I havent had coffee for eons and now I'm addicted to tcc's Rose Coffee (it's by the unappetising name of "Rose Juliet" or something liddat -_-)
Of course, the iced one is mine and the hot one is for cold intolerant Pok. That's Pok's arm in the picture btw...

I love the rose syrup (not the cheapo F&N kind) and whoever the smart person who mixed rose syrup with coffee is a genius! The thing smells super floral (which I like) and there is a rose aftertaste :D yums! It's $6.70++. Even though im not a coffee connoisseur I love this drink!

I tried the McCafe Iced Latte and I think it tastes not bad for a McDonalds drink! and it's half the price of my rose coffee - Maybe I should buy atas rose syrup and put it into the McDonald's Iced Cafe Latte?

Save money save money save money i'm broke this month :( the woes of being pocket-money-ed it's a privilege being a bum aiyah i should stop talking nonsense and study stupid pharmaco cofm ebm yucky yucky yucky pui wait after that got viva and supps dieeeee im gg to get a billion eyebags and get mistaken for a *parent* already like someone already has i shant say who but it starts with "F" dun kill me arrrghhhh!=\

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Cha Soba

Woohoo I have just learnt how to make cha soba (which tastes reasonably good - good enough to stop spending $16++)All these are from Cold Storage - see how they're all matching green?
There was only one brand of cha soba (soba with green tea) which costs $4.70 per 200g (such a tiny packet). And I also got ready made cha soba sauce (Yamasa Soba Senka Soup Base for Noodle, $4.90 for 330ml) cos I didn't want to end up making a horrible soba dipping sauce on my first try. To mix the sauce add one part of sauce and one part of water (at least that's what I think the instructions said). And can also put some chopped spring onion and wasabi in it.
And cos I was too lazy to roast my own sesame seeds and there wasn't any pre chopped seaweed, I got this 2 in one seaweed and sesame seed topping (Futaba Furikake Nori Goma Seasoning Mix). It's quite salty though but when you dip it into the sauce most of it will fall off (sadly).
Its really quite easy to cook Cha Soba (not like the restaurant standard but good enough). Just get a huge pot of boiling water and dump the noodles in. And a large bowl of iced water, and once the noodles are al dente just get rid of the hot water and put all the noodles into the cold water to stop the cooking process. Ahhhh how come I was so stupid and gullible and spent so much money on cha soba when it was so easy to make???????
I checked up some sites on the internet - to make cha soba dipping sauce, you will need
2 parts japanese soya sauce (shoyu),
one part mirin and
one part japanese rice vinegar
I shall try that after i'm done with my pre made sauce, which is quite good actually.
No more maggie mee!
*Hehe fish is so funny- fsh:: says: i didnt know you could buy it and make it!
Oh I just found this very pro recipe (which I'll prob be too incapable to attempt but for whoever is v gd at cooking - http://www.justhungry.com/basics-cold-soba-noodles-dipping-sauce )

Monday, January 21, 2008

Akashi

I love eating Cha Soba! Even though I didn't quite like eating cold savoury foods last time but the cha soba from Akashi is really very good!! In one month i have eaten at Akashi 3 times and had the same Cha Soba dish at 2 different outlets (Paragon and Vivocity) and the standard is the same for both.
It's perfect for those super super hot days when you really don't want to eat a bowl of hot noodles, and the seaweed is so crunchy and the roasted sesame seeds are so fragrant. And the cha soba akashi serves is really good cos all the noodles are al dente and not like those sorry soggy limp versions that they serve elsewhere (ie Ichiban Boshi).
Actually, I haven't eaten cha soba from alot of other places - I've tried Ichiban Boshi and Sushi Tei and they weren't very impressive, but I shall now go around trying all the other cha sobas from other restaurants to see if there are cheaper and just as good cha sobas as Akashi :D It's very hard on my bank account - lucky got CNY coming round the corner!

The cha soba that I've been eating comes as a set, it's $16++ for lunch and $20++ for dinner - don't ask me why it's so much more ex for dinner (esp if you include the taxes) cos the portions are exactly the same. And they serve it with a quail's egg too. (It hasn't occured to me to ask if they serve cha soba alone without the sushi - but I shall go and check the next time I have my cha soba fix).

Akashi
Vivocity/Paragon

Hohoho i've got the most brilliant way to save money - i went to cold storage and bought cha soba so i can make it at home! and found a recipe on the internet too! woohoo! i shall go and make it tmr! it's so much cheaper but hope it tastes the same :D:D

Teahouse - Raffles City B1

Raffles city is quite happenning now - got new shops at the 'centre stage' thing and there were so many sales when i went there!
I've eaten at teahouse before, but then it was before I started this blog - it reminds me of dian xiao er cos of their speciality roast duck.

We tried the Teahouse Crispy duck(Small $9.70), as well as the Herbal Crispy Duck (medium $19.70) which really is like the Dian Xiao Er duck.
The soup of the day ($.70++) was water cress with fish slices. The soup tasted quite good but then the fish was terrible - all filled with bones and we couldn't eat anythign cos it was just more and more bones >.<
Behind: Baby Cabbage with century and salted egg ($10++)

Infront: Tofu with Chicken floss (forgot how much - i think it 's about $6+)
My fave dish - Moonlight Horfun ($9.70++). It usually comes with a raw egg and then you stir it up but then we decided we wanted it cooked in. There's lots of seafood and the noodles are done just right.

Ah such an uninspirational post...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant - Square 2 Novena

The last time I went to Novena I passed this Korean restaurant. It looked quite authentic and there were a few Korean families eating there when I went to Square 2 the next time (you usually can't go wrong when you see Korean/Japanese eating at Korean/Jap restaurants). They have Korean BBQ as well as other Korean dishes.

9 Korean starters including kimchi, Beansprouts, potato salad etc. One waitress told us that the starters were free flow (like Crystal Jade Korean) but then when they actually came, we were told that it was only free for the first refill. More about the bad service later...

This is my hot stone Bibimbap (dolsot bibimbap 돌솥 비빔밥), served with either chicken or beef. Most of the time, bibimbap in Spore is served with beef, so I was quite happy when I saw the chicken version here. If I remember correctly it's about $15 for this, including a soup.
This is the Ground Yellow Bean Stew. It's this really thick and chunky ground yellow beans (It's a bit like soya beans?) with a bit of pork and it's slightly spicy. It's supposed to be a very popular dish in Korea.
It comes with this very pretty rice in a hot bowl which is topped with sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin and a red date.
This is the Ginseng Chicken ($17), I like the Crystal Jade Korean one better cos it's tastier. This was rather bland and the ginseng taste was nearly non-existant. (As you can tell, I hardly ever eat at other korean restaurants except Crystal Jade, I shall aim to try more Korean food :D)

Complimentary caramelized sweet potato with sesame seeds for dessert.

The service is quite bad, but I hope nothing will come close to the horrible service of my number one hated restaurant Rio Brazillian Restaurant (next to Queenstown prison - DONT ever go there it sucks like shit). When we asked about this Korean alcoholic drink called "Milk Wine", this bitchy china waitress told us "It's wine with milk LAH" (of course this was in chinese, they can't speak english for nuts, and I'm guessing that they can't speak any Korean either). Of course, when we asked this other waitress, she said that it was called "Milk Wine" because after the fermentation, the wine will acquire a chalky white apperance, which was likened to milk, but there was completely no milk inside.
If you don't mind the crappy service, the food here's quite nice, above average and there's a quite a good variety of Korean food.

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant
Square 2 Novena

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wild Rocket @ Mt Emily

Ahhh I just had a very indulgent lunch at Wild Rocket... but I'm very hungry now and I'm waiting for SOMEONE to send my the photos... (Ok it's sent alr so now i can publish my blog)

After going to Relish, we decided to try the original restaurant! Which is located in this super ulu place near Mt Sophia (near St Marg's) at Mt Emily. The restaurant seems quite new, and there's a 3 course set lunch for $26++. This is the bread which comes free :D

I tried the soup of the day, which was pumpkin soup. It costs about 10 bucks for an ala carte order, and it's ok, nothing fantastic.
My main course was the soft pork with garlic miso risotto. Actually, I don't know why I even chose pork cos it's one of my least fave meats (unless it's in dian xin like siew mai) but it was not bad cos there wasn't any porky smell or taste. There's also parts of the pork tendon, and there's only a slight taste of garlic.


Actually, I'm not particularly impressed by the main courses - maybe cos I had really high expectations after going to Relish.
Here's some of the main courses we ordered:

The hot favourite was the crabmeat linguini with chillies and tomato cream sauce. It's about 19 bucks - I aspire to learn how to make this dish cos it's so yummy - and if I do I can eat it everyday without burning a hole in my pocket.
This is the seafood pasta dressed in seafood oil or something like that - looks really yummy I shall try this the next time I visit Wild Rocket.

For the set menu, the appetisers were some battered deep fried mushroom with some other dressing or another (my memory fails me), soup of the day and i can't remember the 3rd choice. There was also 3 choices for the mains, and this is the bacon and spinach cream pasta.Salmon with mashed potatoes with some lemon zest or something.
For dessert, I tried the Strawberry cheesecakeIt's like a a deconstructed cheesecake with maple walnut ice cream. I really liked the cheesey bits cos of the texture, a bit sticky very creamy. It's about $10 for th dessert - get the dessert, it's much better than the soup:D The oreo cheesecake doesn't look bad either and comes with ice cream and fudge.This was the chocolate cake with banana flambe (it's around $9++ too). It's the kind where hte chocolate will ooze out when you break the outside of the cake :D

This is the Black Glutinous rice with coconut ice cream, which came with the set menu - I didn't quite like the desserts in the set menu cos I don't quite like the sound of fusion desserts, like the funny corn kueh presented in a nicer manner and panna cotta with gula melaka
Well, I can't comment on the other desserts (beside the cheesecake) cos I didn't try any


Parking is free at Wild Rocket :D

I actually prefer Relish cos it's cheaper but there's only burgers there. Im probably biased cos it's so much nearer my house and I won't get lost going there. And so concludes my lengthy rambly post.

Wild Rocket @ Mt Emily

Tel 63399448

www.wildrocket.com.sg

Hangout Hotel 10 A Upper Wilkie Road

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

doc green's - Vivocity

i've been going to vivo for 3 days in a row. But luckily there's so many restaurants I still haven't tried all of them (Like go india! and the expensive stuff like aji and honjin)
Had dinner with my family at doc Green's which is from America.
This is the Breadbowl soup ($6.90++) and you can choose your type of soup including clam chowder, pumpkin, tomato and soup of the day. The hollowed out bread isn't wasted either - it's toasted and perfect for dipping into the thick tasty soup. I tried pumpkin, which wasn't too creamy, but I prefer the clam chowder. It's quite filling if you eat up all the bread. The clam chowder has the sweet taste of clams and very chunky cos it's packed full of diced vegetables. I think it tastes much better than the Soup Spoon's one, which is too salty.I tried the buffalo chicken salad ($10.90++) which was pretty ex. Though the chicken portions are much bigger than the beef (see below). It comes on a bed of iceberg lettuce, and it's dressed in a tangy dressing which looks like thousand island but isn't. The chicken is waaaaay too salty - it's so salty I didn't even want to finish it. Hope that they revise the marinade cos it really just tastes of salt only. This is the beef salad, I can't remember what it's called but they're really stingy on the beef. Look at the few skimpy strips at the side - that's all you get for paying slightly over 10 bucks. But I liked the chick peas :D Makes the salad very interesting.


This is the Italian Leg of chicken and Back Ribs ($18++) It's quite small for 18. I suggest that you just go for the pure back ribs, which are cheaper at $16. The ribs are really good - chunky and juicy, and not so soggys but not dry either. The chicken leg is quite big, and tastes alright - I mean chicken thigh can't really go wrong cos it'll hardly ever be dry...
That's the Doc Frutti salad which comes with baby spinaches, tomatoes, almonds, cranberries, some nuts and orange segments.
Add $3 to make the mains a set -which includes soup, coffee/tea/softdrink. Their iced tea comes unsugared (probably not from that bottle of lipton iced tea syrup) which is good cos I don't like my drinks too sweet :DService here is average, they were a bit short-handed on the weekend I went. But the waitress could recommend me stuff from the menu. This place gives free iced water too - a definate plus.

The table next to us were having sandwiches, which look really good - I shall try them the next time I drop by, if I don't feel like having the breadbowl clam chowder.

Doc Green's Gourmet Salads & Grill (Vivo City)
#02-91/92, Vivo CityS(098585)
Tel6820 1860
Opening Hours
Mon-Sun: 11.30am – 10pm

Monday, January 7, 2008

da Palo's Nutella Bar and Lemongrass chocolate cake

I like da Palo's takeaway cos the food's quite yummy and best of all there isn't any service charge, which can easily make the bill zoom up by like $4
This is the spinach lasagne, which is really delicious cos there's some creamy sauce. I think it's bechamel (Italian white sauce which uses butter, milk and flour for a really indulgent creamy finish to lasagne). But the spinach is quite strong and so if you don't like to see cooked frozen spinach you won't like this.
I've tried the salmon lasagne previously, and being meat, it's much tastier than the spinach. But the sauces and cheese are about the same. I think they cost about $7 or $8 for a generous portion, and best of all it tastes great even though you've just microwaved it yourselt - think about it, you're saving about 2bucks microwaving a perfectly yummy and fresh lasagne - no more frozen lasagnes for me!

On the left, it's the da Palo nutella bar, and on the right, the chocolate and lemongrass cake. I had very high hopes for both, because I've seen them for about 3 times before and did not have the opportunity to get them as they need to be refridgerated.

I didn't like the nutella bar simply because it didn't have enough nutella inside it - only the top most icing tasted like nutella - the layers inside tasted more like caramel with chocolate to me. That's $7 bucks wasted :( of course, this is just a slice , the portion can give about 3 slices of that size.

The lemongrass chocolate cake tasted more lime-ish/lemon-ish than lemongrass. And there were these weird greenish yellow goo which I suppose was supposed to be the lemongrass. Yikes - I didn't even finish this one :( Another 7 bucks wasted.

Ahh if only everything tasted like the black and white chocolate cake, I would be so happy!

Da Palo Gastronomia is located next to That CD shop, Great World City
Cluny Court
Chip Bee Gardens


Friday, January 4, 2008

Relish - Cluny Court

Read about Relish in Life!'s 2007 best eats - but then forgot about it until yesterday. We actually went there on Wed, but then we had early break and it only opened at 12pm! So I had to pay $1.50 for carpark for nothing:(
The place was quite crowded when we got there at about 1pm, but there were still a few tables left. Service was prompt and commendable - we had a waitress who was on the job for the first day and she knew quite a bit about the menu - and when she didn't, she asked her colleague to attend to us. I tried the Spiced Lamb Pita Burger with Mint Hommus ($19++) - either my tastebuds are dying or there's really little mint - cos i couldn't really taste the mint, only the lemonjuice from the hommus. It was stuffed with sliced purple onions and purple cabbage and juicy red tomatoes.
The most exciting thing about the burger was that we could see the juices not only oozing out, but they were streaming out, and the burger patty was piping hot too!
I found the lamb a bit tough, but the lamb smell isn't too strong, for those ppl who don't like lamb smells... haiz after the white truffle fries at house, no other fry would taste the same...
This is the Wild Rocket Beef Burger ($18), and it comes with arugula, sarawak pepper cream, and a tangy sun-dried tomato relish. I don't know how it tastes like but it's apparently very nice - the beef juices was streaming away... And the beef is done slightly pink in the middle, all the beef burgers are done this way unless specified, so do ask for a less pink burger if you're scared of salmonella and e.coli.This is probably the most expensive Ramly burger - it even has a slightly posher name to match - it's the RAM LEE burger - and for 19 bucks, you'll get a towering burger with a thick beef patty wrapped in an omelette slathered with mayo and chilli and onions - not quite the kind you'll find in your neighbourhood pasar malam with the black pepper sauce but still, the oozing beef patty, egg and mayo go really well together.

They had a daily special for all the burger-phobes, the crab and chilli pasta which tasted quite nice, and it was $17 bucks for quite a small portion - I kept thinking of da palo's crab vodka pasta downstairs.
Ahh i must go and try Wild Rocket! but the place is in such a confusing part of town i bet i'll get lost and pay stupid erp twice! on top of super ex and un-worth it orchard carpark prices!

Relish
501 Bukit Timah Rd
#02-01 Cluny Court
Singapore 259760
Tel 67631547