Journey to the Far East Part 3 - The Coastal Settlement

So if you thought that our food journey ended there, you were wrong! 

 Feeble attempt to try to use up some of the calories we consumed previously

And of course failed. Had this awesome chocolate lava cake on top of vanilla ice cream from Chocolate Origin - do give it a try - the chocolate is really good - even I, a non chocolate lover, find this dessert very irresistible.

 Was hot from cycling, so decided to cool off with some cider.

We went back and slept at about 11pm (would have been later but I was so sleepy cos it was past my bedtime). Kept yawning and then made everyone else sleepy by looking so comfortable lying in bed.

 And the next day, woke up bright and early, and went over to the Coastal Settlement for my second breakfast.

Truffle fries, portobello fries (really really nice!) with truffle mayonnaise. Best thing to clog my arteries on first thing in the morning.

The big breakfast, which was really very average, standard unremarkable cafe fare.

And the mind blowing XO prawn aglio olio pasta. Really good - umami taste from the xo sauce, lots of garlic and just enough chilli for spiciness which doesn't overpower the entire dish. The pasta was cooked just right. This dish is a winner. I might just trudge all the way back to the far east for this.

 The Coastal settlement has a really big seating area.

 It was empty when we first got in. But very quickly filled up, until there was no more space left.

I hate the small tiles in this area though - just something I'm uncomfortable with like how some people have trypophobia. I think I just don't like the idea of dirt getting caught or mould growing in between the tiles. But unfortunately for me, it was the area with the best sunlight (for photo taking purposes) and no one else at my table wanted to budge after sitting down.

Somehow the whole place reminds me of this scene from Howl's Moving Castle. Maybe cos there so many things cramped into such a small space.

Ok that's the end of my very lardy staycation.

The Coastal Settlement
200 Netheravon Road
Singapore 508529
Tel 64750200

Journey to the Far East Part 2 - The Desserts at Changi Village

Red Tea Jelly - $2 icy satisfaction

 Still my favourite red tea jelly ever - somehow whenever I have this elsewhere, it is never as good. I don't know where they get this jelly from, but it's deep red in colour (I'm sure it's all food colouring), had a nice fragrant tea taste with light floral hints. Topped with canned longans, and topped with lots and lots of evaporated milk. Tastes the same as it does in 2007.

Mei Lin Yin Pin 
Changi Village Hawker Centre

Chendol with corn

I also had a bowl of chendol, from this traditional melaka chendol stall across Changi Village Hawker Centre. Thankfully, I was there at least 2 weeks before ieatishootipost blogged about it, if not, it would have definitely have been swarming with people.

Ten thousand year queue - I exaggerate 

There's only one guy scooping the chendol ingredients, so it takes eons for him to get 1 bowl out. No rush. Even though there's like 10 people standing in the queue. It is very cheap, and their basic bowl with just chendol and gula melaka and coconut milk is $1.50.

Wormy Green Chendol

The whole time I was standing in the queue, I was debating if I wanted a standard traditional bowl (with just basic ingredients) or one with more stuff. I was so tired after standing in the queue for eternity I decided to heck it and just get chendol with whatever toppings I wanted, to make the queueing and waste of my life worth it. The corn is mehhh. Comes from a can. Bet it's from Del Monte. Perhaps it's all a ploy to get you to buy more ingredients, so that your bowl of chendol isn't just $1.50?

I don't eat red beans so I can't comment if they were good or not.

Traditional $1.50 Chendol Melaka
Opposite Changi Village Hawker Centre
(Don't ask me for directions, I'm as lost as you are since this is in the far east)

Spot the Nian Gao

After Chendol Melaka, we were walking over to the park but then was stopped by the fragrant smell of fried bananas and chempadak wafting from the corner store.

So we joined the queue. And I finally found the triple layer nian gao (which I have only eaten once before in my whole entire life, such a deprived soul I am, at MT's house during Mooncake festival). At first glance, I couldn't see the nian gao. Thankfully, all my friends have better chinese reading skills than me and pointed it out.

Triple layer fried nian gao!

Anyway, this is the triple layer nian gao. Not the usual dual layer (with just either yam or sweet potato). Plus the nian gao is so soft and chewy. Freshly fried, super crispy batter, which is even better than some of the tempura batter I've had. I'm glad I don't live anywhere near Changi or not my arteries will definitely be totally and irreversibly clogged.

Aunty in the queue! (Someone is going to slap me now)

I asked the store aunty if she had it all year round, since nian gao is only during chinese new year, does she keep nian gao from then the whole year? The answer is NO because, being a level up, she even makes her own nian gao. So it's totally worth patronising them.

Actually, I have realised that my Chinese is really really bad. I wanted to buy Tian Tian cheng teng at Tiong Baru Market, so my colleagues pointed me in the general direction. I completely missed the dessert store cos I was looking for the wrong chinese character. They probably thought I was blind but it was just cos I remembered the chinese character "tian" which is "甜" wrongly and didn't read the han yu ping ying at the bottom.

Journey to the Far East Part 1 - The Nasi Lemaks at Changi Village Food Centre

I was supposed to go to Batam (to laze around and relax) with 2 of my friends, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, couldn't. Since we were all sort of free, we decided to go for a staycation instead. 

Of course, the most important thing that the staycation revolved around was none other than food! And of course lots of relaxation (i.e. vegetating on the bed and sleeping early, since I'm secretly 80 years old). I think I ate a whole weeks worth of calories during this staycation. And have yet to burn them off cos I have been happily feasting the last 2 weeks...

International Nasi Lemak

So we decided to do a taste test (non-blinded unlike my fudge cake taste test here), we tried International and Mizzys standard nasi lemak, with an added otah. 

I personally preferred the International nasi lemak because their rice wasn't as oily and yet had lots of the coconut taste. I felt that Mizzys rice was as oily as the kind found in chicken rice, which, unfortunately, is my least favourite hawker dish (and yes I am Singaporean, just that I some how do not like chicken rice. My heart sinks to the deepest darkest pit when I have to eat it).

One of my friends preferred Mizzys corner because of the rice and the chilli. I suppose my friend really likes chicken rice (Note: I have yet to confirm this assumption).

The chilli from Mizzys was less sweet, and more fragrant compared to International. But I don't eat my nasi lemak with much chilli (due to my astoundingly low chilli tolerance) so I still preferred International.

Mizzy's Nasi Lemak

I found the ikan billis and fried egg very similar for both stores. The chicken wing was marginally better for International (to me at least), as I felt that the batter had more seasoning.

Anyway, to end off my post (since I'm really sleepy it's nearly my bedtime) I still think International is better, but since I hate queueing up, I will just go for whichever has the shorter queue and not waste my life queueing up. (The last time I came here was in 2007 - check out my post from then with my old non-smart phone camera)

The nasi lemaks can be found at Changi Village Food Centre

1925

I've been to 1925 twice and the food has been consistently good. 

 Grilled prawns - really fresh and tasty

 The beef paddle

 Pork belly - not really my favourite cos I don' t particularly like pork belly

 The potato skins and fried chicken skin platter aka the skins platter.
The potato skins are pretty good - deep fried to a crisp, filled with that familiar childhood nacho cheese, sour cream and bacon bits. I really didn't like the chicken skin (or any other kind of skin) but it was a hot favourite at my table - all polished off in a jiffy.

 I really liked the chicken kebab the last time I came - it's extremely succulent, well marinated and has a nice smoky smell. However, no one else on my table seems to like it as much as me, which isn't a big issue since I get to eat most of it.

I didn't particularly like the pizza cos the crust was a bit too thin and kept breaking on me, making the whole affair really messy, but I like how they used salami instead of the usual ham.

The best thing about 1925 is their 1for1 martinis (I think it's on Wednesdays) - they used to have this Airmail cocktail which is made from Plantation rum, lemon and agave nectar for the World Cup season, and they were kind enough to indulge us and make it again. It's really delicious and I really think they should have it as their signature drink!

1925 is known for their home-brewed beers, but since none of us really like beers, we just drank cocktails.

1925 Microbrewery
369 Jalan Besar
Tel 62949215
(Directly opposite the main entrance of Lavander Hawker centre)

Windowsill Pies

 I've been wanting to try this place for eons, even my parents are hipper than me and have gone done once to eat their pies!! The horrors! I have been wanting to try the pies for so long, that my iPad screensaver is a photo of all their pies... I've finally finally finally gone down - they didn't have very many pies left (cos they were closing soon) so we got 2 contrasting flavours.

The lemon curd pie was awesome - luscious lemon curd, very mellow lemon flavours, with contrasting raspberry and sweet meringue. I'm not a big fan of the pie crust though.

We also had the s'mores pie which was very chocolatey - a bit too heavy going for my liking. I wanted to da-pao the lemon pie but I forgot (cos we went to explore the area after that).

Windowsill Pies
78 Horne Road
Singapore 209078
Tel 90047827