Graze @ One Rochester

Went to Graze for Sunday Brunch quite a few weeks ago I had my default Eggs Benedict ($19++)- I can hardly ever resist having this dish if it's on the menu cos I really like hollandaise sauce. The Eggs benedict at Graze comes with either ham, smoked salmon and chives or spinach and mushrooms. They were rather stingy on the hollandaise sauce - see how the sauce on my second egg hardly covers the top of it. I requested for more sauce and the waitress said that I would have to pay for a top up. To which I protested cos the portion is really stingy. Fortunately, she returned with a small bowl of it, much to our delight. And at no further cost either.

The Old fashioned pancake stack ($14++) comes with crispy bacon, bananas and lots of dipping sauces. Honey, maple syrup and chocolate sauce, as well as a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The pancakes are thick and fluffy, not overly floury and it was really delicious. If I had to recommend a dish, I would definitely recommend this cos it was unanimously the best dish of the meal.
The Spanish omelette ($19++) is a rather small thin omelette with chorizo, bell pepper and smoked cheddar. I suppose tha the chorizo is the most expensive part of the omelette (I just went to Cold storage the other day and 2 pieces of chorizo costs $14+) so I supose that is why this omelette is more expensive. Recommend this for people with little appetites...
The corned beef hash ($24++) which I didn't try...

A dissappointing dish was the cinnamon and raisin butter toast ($7++) served with some kind of jam. It looked like it came from one of those packets of buns from Cold Storage... Really very ordinary and I would defnintely not order this again.

The service here can really be improved. Somehow I get the vibe that the entire crew is extremely unhappy and this somewhat marred the dining experience. Even more so since the food is nothing much to shout about, and prices aren't exactly the cheapest around... In view of this, I would very much rather recommend other branch places, since there is an abundance of these brunch places popping up all over.

Then again, if you're into alcoholic drinks, their Sunday Brunch has some alcoholic drinks like the Mimosa (and some other drink, I think a Bloody Mary?) at a mere $6 (If I am not mistaken) top up with some brunch sets. Which makes it really worth it but it's a pity I don't like oranges and they won't serve it with any other juice, which I thought was really ridgid and inflexible. The ambience is really nice, just like all other restaurants at One Rochestor. If you're not scared of the heat and the UV radiation, I would highly recommend sitting outside in their nice garden setting. They have a pond with lots of fishes, lush greenery with lots of bamboo (my fave plant ever!). But being true Singaporeans, we hid from the humidity and sat indoors;P

Graze @ One Rochester

4 Rochester Park

Tel: +65 6775 9000

Yee Shun Milk Company, Hong Kong

So I've survived my first day gardening and though I've yet to adapt to the painfully slow computer system, blundering and floundering around with all the new systems, I was pleasantly suprised that I could leave at 5pm. On the dot! :DAnother post on HK! Lol I'm getting supremely distracted.
When I was doing my last minuted research for food in Hong Kong, I stumbled upon this BC magazine (or something or another) which had a list of dessert stalls to visit in HK. Also I read about it at Camemberu's blog. Yee Shun milk company was one of the highly recommended dessert places, and best of all, it's located really near to where I was staying (I was staying near Elements Mall at Kowloon MRT station). In fact, the article I read said something like 'condolences if you're lactose intolerant' cos the dessert here is so good!

If you can see closely - there's this film of 'skin' on top of the milk - so it's the 'shuang1 pi2' or two skinned milk dessert. I'm not a big fan of the skin but I really do like the wobbly custard like milk pudding. I have never found a milk pudding in Singapore which can come close to rivaling Yee Shun's.

Lots and lots of the milk pudding dessert - it comes in an assortment of flavours, with options to add toppings but I think it's best enjoyed original and unadulterated and without the interference of all the other additions.

Another thing that I liked about this place is that the service is really friendly. Which is marvellous by Hong Kong standards as most of these small business are extremely brusque. When we got to this place, they welcomed us with smiles and patiently recommended their desserts (to try the original if it's the first time we were here).

Yee Shun Milk Company

513 Nathan Road

Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2374-5460

Randomness End of the 'P' plate postings

So it's going to be 4th May 2011 tmr and it will be exactly 1 yr since I've started work! Which is exciting and scary at the same time... I think the last 3 months flew by so quickly and I've had lots of fun working and learning with all my colleagues. Even the 8 months of eating crap food in the crap canteen in the far east seems so distant now that I'm going to the land of plenty and good food... And if anyone is wondering, I would truly and wholeheartly recommend doing a posting there cos it's a really friendly and nice place!

Somehow when I think of the new batch of juniors coming in I am reminded of Haruki Murakami's 'living desert': "Our world is exactly the same. Rain falls and the flowers bloom. No rain, they wither up. Bugs are eaten by lizards, lizards are eaten by birds. One generation dies, and the next takes over. That´s how it goes. Lots of different ways to live. And lots of different ways to die. But in the end that doesn´t make a bit of difference, All that remains is a desert."
Anyways, hope that everyone will have a great next posting, as great has eating truffle fries with freshly grated parmesan cheese (from PS cafe) with friends on a lazy drizzly Sunday morning especially if you don't have to work. I really like my photo - its even more cheerful than sunflowers especially since you can eat it and inhale that wonderful relaxing truffle aroma! No need for aromatherapy anymore...

And onto gardening next!

Well, to the people who have assess to Starbucks during working hours (i.e. ME!;D)
Happy Hour at StarbucksTo celebrate the launch, Starbucks will holding a week-long Happy Hour event. From 16th May (Monday) to 20th May 2011, 3pm to 5pm, customers can enjoy their personalized Frappuccino® at any Starbucks store for half price. Just got this in the mail today so I decided to share! :D

Todai

Todai is this newly launched Korean seafood buffet. It's a pretty popular buffet concept in Korea, and they've just opened another branch in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands. Today hs a sprawling 87-metre long buffet line with emphasis on seafood. They also have an open kitchen concept so you can see most of your food being prepared.

(Btw, this is posted using another Canon camera and not my usual S90 which was unfortunately at servicing cos it wasn't focusing well)...Lots and lots of seafood. There's freshly shucked oysters (limited to 2 pieces per person per time, but you can queue unlimited times), prawns, mussles, scallops etc.
Another draw is the chilled snowcrab legs (seen in the first picture). Personally it's not my favourite way to eat crab (my last very memorable crab meal was the salted egg crab at Big Eater) and the legs are my least favourite part of the crab.
They also have an assortment of sashimi and other shellfish There's also a long line of different kinds of sushi and many original creations, with interesting names such as Volcano and Merlion.

Some of the random appetisers I had - there's celaric salad (this type of root which is very crunchy and has a distinct taste), pasta salad, mashed sweet potato (tasted really nice, but I'm biased cos I love sweet potato), caesar salad (my fave kind of salad cos its also one the unhealthiest!)

The pizza was suprisingly really delicious. Initially, to 'save space' we decided to share one piece but it ended up not being enough! The crust is really thin and it's baked in a clay oven.

There's also a Brazilian Churassco station (which features tenderloin and various cuts of beef, and beef is the main draw here) which looks really good but since I don't eat beef I didn't try it, though the people seated at my table had positive comments for the grilled beef.

There's also a Korean station which has rice cakes, gyoza etc and other lesser known Korean foods.

Another dish which I really enjoyed was the seafood pasta which was much more galicky than the Italian version, but came with a generous serving of seafood. It's freshly cooked on the spot in front of you and it's really worth getting, though I would recommend sharing it with a friend. One of their specialities is their tempura Ginseng. It's actually these small little pieces of ginseng deep fried in tempura batter, and since Ginseng is bitter, there's honey to drizzle over the ginseng tempura. Taste wise, it tastethress exactly like how ginseng usually tastes, just that the texture is rather interesting. It has th

There are also vare texture of a sweet potato - which isn't suprising since it's actually a storage root.

Another highlight is the dessert stations. Not only do they have soft serve ice cream (vanilla and chocolate), there's also free flow of Korean strawberries. Since discovering Korean/Japanese strawberries a few years back, I have never ever wanted to go back to the dark red, bulbous USA/Australian strawberries. The Korean/Japanese strawerries are much more delicate, and have an intense sweetness and burst of flavour, exactly like how all the Japanese Strawberry sweets taste like. Also, they have none of the tartness and 'bite' that the USA/Australian strawberries have. I think I can finish 4 punnets of these easily!

There are also various bite sized cakes, the cheesecake was pretty good too. I was really full by this time so the cake must be really good... There's also creme brulee and mango pudding.

Todai also has free flow of soft drinks, iced flavoured tea, Nescafe coffee as well as my favourite chilled Milo. Milo is my favourite drink even though the packed kind is made with palm oil instead of milk! Bet my arteries are all clogged from my many years of Milo drinking.Thanks to the staff at Todai, Wanxuan, Maeva for the wonderful dinner which left us bursting at the seams...

If I'm not wrong the buffet is about $55 or $65 per person (need to confirm this but it's around that price).

Todai Singapore

The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands

2 Bayfront Avenue

B2-001, Singapore 018972