Immanuel French Kitchen and Two Wings

I'm a big fan of cheap and good food - especially if it's not in some far flung inaccessible place. Immanuel French Kitchen was on my food radar for the longest time, but then somehow I never went there. Till about 2 months ago (yes this is superbly outdated).

 The chicken liver pate with port wine ($7.90) was rich and creamy, and went fabulously with the warm crusty bread.

The pan fried foie gras ($16.50) may look a bit unusual, but it tastes great - prior to this I've never eaten foie gras in broth. Surprisingly it goes really well with the dash broth and daikon.

The escargots ($12.90) were also delicious - can't go wrong with ordering escargots in a French place right?

Fried frog legs with shallots and parsley ($12.60) - it was a bit disappointing for me cos I found the other starters better than the frog legs - perhaps it was also because we ordered chicken wings (see below) from another store so it was a bit of an overkill.

 The pork belly ($16.50) was a crowd pleaser - served with onset egg, duxelle mushrooms and potato foam. Melt in the mouth pork belly with creamy potato foam and delicious oozing onsen egg. Plus the crouton bits for the extra crunch. I think this would have cost me double the price from some fancy restaurant.

 Duck leg confit ($16.50) which was moist and tasty, but since duck confit isn't my fave dish - possibly biased cos I saw some cooking show and they cook it in pure duck fat >.< The mash potatoes were so awesome - I think we contemplated getting an extra mashed potato side but then we had too much food already...

 We also went to try the famous Two Wings, which supposedly has the best chicken wings in Singapore. I was waylaid by their awesome heaping cheese fries. But not a good idea to eat so much rich food in one seating... I will try to space it out the next time...

 The wings didn't disappoint- slightly larger than the scrawny ones that you get in most places... The skin was very crispy and evenly cooked. I'm not a big fan of chicken wings either so I didn't think it was spectacular, just that if you're in the area and love chicken wings, it would be a good place to go to.

Finished off the day with more good oils - and did a taste test of 2 of the more famous avocado milkshakes - I do think that the store beside Mr Avocado has the better milkshake (more creamy, less sweet) but then if there was a queue, I'll just go to whichever is shorter...

Immanuel French Kitchen and Two Wings can be found in a coffeeshop
119 Bukit Merah Lane 1
Singapore 151119
Just next to Alexandra Village Food Centre

Smoochies Bistro and Bar

Smoochies was having a hungrygowhere offer - 50% off every 2nd main course. Since it ends on 30th Apil (which was ytd), we visited it. It was completely empty, and only one other pair of diners came the whole time we were there (from 6-830pm). I suppose it's cos it's pretty inaccessible unless you drive. And I nearly got caught by the LTA cos I was looking for the place (it's a short distance after Gillman Village). Lucky I saw the single yellow bus lane line (right after a long stretch of dotted bus lane lines) and swerved out of the bus lane).

Penne Prima Vera ($14++)

Penne pasta in rose sauce and fresh vegetables, topped with parmesan cheese.

This one is supposed to come with rose sauce, which is a sauce that I really like. I found this dish slightly spicy - I have no idea why it's spicy cos it's not supposed to be! They really put quite alot of vegetables inside, including sugar peas, mushrooms (lots!), asparagus, peppers and the sauce was not bad, just that it's not like the other rose sauce I've tasted. More cheese would have definitely been good. Penne Arabiatta ($14++)

Garlic and prawns in a spicy tomato basil sauce. This one was really quite spicy. The prawns are the bicarbonated kind, crunchy but tasteless. The sauce has lots of onions and is very garlicky.

For both pastas, the penne was al dente - great since I really hate soggy pastas.

Smoochies Smoked Duck Pizza($14++)

This pizza has tea-smoked duck slices with onions, peppers and tomatoes. There's lots of gooey cheese and tomato sauce. I felt that the tomato sauce and cheese overwhelmed the duck flavour (as expected) but the duck itself was pretty nice if you eat it by itself and not with the rest of the pizza.

Somehow, all of us felt that the pasta sauces, and the pizza tomato sauce all tasted about the same. Perhaps it would have been better to have ordered a wider variety of dishes, but due to their restrictions on the dish pricings (see below), we didnt.Fish and Chips ($16++), which is 'a favourite' according to the menu. It's not bad, just that I won't pay $16 for beer battered fish and chips, cos I can easily get a great tasting one from Taka basement foodcourt for half the price and without the taxes.

My friends thought that the fish was a bit soggy. Personally, I thought that it tastes a bit like snapper cos it's not the oily kind of fish, and its texture was a bit like snapper (which I don't like). Anyway, I hope that it was snapper and that it wasn't not-fresh. Batter was pretty good - crispy and puffy just like how nice beer batter should be like.

Warm Chocolate Larva Cake ($16++ or wat it $14??)

I found the molten chocolate slightly too oily for my liking. And it wasn't as chocolatey as I had expected. The vanilla ice cream was deliciously creamy though. Actually, we would have ordered the Apple crumble, but it doesn't come with ice cream - and what good is apple crumble without ice cream? (Anyway, I went to epicurious the next day to eat my apple crumble).

The food's pretty passable - average, nothing to rave about, and not particularly cheap (maybe cos we ordered dessert) so our bill came to $17 per person, for 4 people. I suppose if they extend their 50% off every 2nd dish, I'll be ok with coming back if I'm nearby. I doubt that I would have tried this place if not for the promo.

Furthermore, if you order 4 items, the 50% off applies only to the two cheapest mains you order. In fact, we actually wanted to try the lamb rack ($32) and Baked Chilean Cod Fish ($28). However, the offer only applied to the cheapest items, which were pastas (~$14). So we ended up getting more of the cheaper stuff.

Ambience is pretty nice - the place is quite big, and there's a small fountain/pond thing outside. It was too hot so we sat inside.

Something that irked me - when I called to ask if a booking was necessary, and if they would be very crowded on a Wednesday evening, the lady who answered the phone said they are very busy, and that from Wednesday onwards, they tend to be very full. However, when we were there, there was only one other table with 2 diners. I guess it's better to book cos I'd rather have a table than waste time waiting, but they are completely not crowded. Ohwells, no loss I suppose.

Smoochies Bistro and Bar
991B Alexandra Road

#01-10

Tel: 6276 7337

Ikea's Ice Cream

I went to Ikea on Saturday cos my mum wanted to get photo frames but was too busy to go, and I ended up buying alot more than I intended to! I was quite glad that the one at Alexander wasn't crowded on Saturday - thanks to the new and bigger AMK hub Ikea, I don't have to contend with millions of screaming kids and prams rolling over my feet.

I got a good sized plastic rubbish bin for $3, a new yellow shower curtain (cos my old one is fungusy and gross), a black plate (cos it was only $2.50 for a pretty big plate, and it will be nice to take food photos with - on hindsight I should have bought 2 since the plates in my house keeps getting chipped), and the multi-coloured ikea plastic cups (6 for $3something). My plastic rubbish bin was incredibly handy, since Ikea is super environmentally friendly and charges for plastic bags. So I conveniently dumped everything inside it.

The best part about going to ikea is the Ikea ice cream. Even though the portion size has shrunk quite a bit, it still tastes great. It has a mild butterscotch after taste and is not overly creamy like the Macdonalds one. Its $1.50 for the cone.

Apart from the ice cream and hotdog ($1 per hotdog bun), I don't think that anything else is worth eating in Ikea. Especially the Rubberized Fish and Chips. (I wrote such an angsty post about the fish and chips last time - I must have been very distressed about eating at Ikea then!)

That reminds, me, I bought a bottle of Sweedish mustard from Ikea's food section ($4.20) but I don't know where it went - perhaps its still rolling around in the back of my car since I jam-breaked and my rubbish bin fell onto the floor and everything was rolling about in the back seat.
This is Fish, from 1.5 yrs ago - I think this was in Oct 2007. She was very happy when I told her that she actually looks a bit younger today, cos she wasn't wearing her specs. I'm the one holding the mad-looking puppet :P

Pizza Pazza - Anchorpoint

Rich kids, where did you have your lunch? We've been going to Pizza Pazza and samping the many different kinds of pasta. Though I haven't tried the pizza since it takes quite long to bake. Baked pasta is one of my more favourite pastas from Pizza Pazza. Actually, after sampling a pretty extensive variety of pastas (over the past 2 wks), I have decided that their penne is the best. Cos their normal spaghetti tends to be overcooked and soggy, and I really hate soggy pasta. The baked pasta costs $6.50 and comes with bacon, zucchini, mushrooms. The sauce is made from tomato and cream, the best of both worlds. I somehow think that the baking dries out the overcooked penne to a certain extent, so it's never too soggy like the normal spaghetti dishes. Best of all, it's penne so no worries about the unsightly splatters and tomato stains, especially when I'm wearing white. For people who don't eat bacon fats, there's really alot of bacon fats in this dish - I always end up with an unsightly pile of bacon fats at the side of my plate after eating this.
I can't remember the name of this, but it's Chicken something (which starts with Bu... and has a g somewhere inside it)
It's my 2nd favourite pasta from Pizza Pazza - it's diced chicken with lots of onions, some mushrooms and cream sauce. I like how the cream is neither watery nor extremely thick. Though I'm not a fan of adding chilli to my food, the red peppers really go quite well with this pasta.

Aglio Olio with chicken - this is not too bad, just that the spaghetti is overcooked. Slightly to extremely, depending on the chef. Though I've not eaten the whole dish myself, but koped a a few bites here and there. I like how there are lots of zucchini and mushroom (but not carrots since I don't like them), and there's quite a good amount of chicken inside.

Chicken Lasagne ($6.50? not too sure but it's either $6.50 or $5.50)

This dish is really gross - I recommend that you skip it. It's really not worth eating and I don't know why it's even on their specialities list. The white bubbley stuff aroud it is something that I assume is cream mixed with cheese, or maybe it's just baked cream or something. It tastes like custard (not sweet or savoury), and it v weird I don't know why they even put it around the lasagna cos it looks quite disgusting too.

Chicken chop with Spaghetti - the chicken chop is pretty good -the batter is tasty and the chicken is juicy. Though the spaghetti was really very soggy and wet. The tomato sauce itself is pretty good - tangy, slightly chunky and not too watery, but the noodles are a real letdown. It really doesn't do the spaghetti dishes here justice since the sauce is pretty good.

Spaghetti with deep fried dory fish.
The dory is pretty dry and hard. I think it's way overcooked. Plus it's not very fresh either (which explains why they have to serve it with a slice of lemon). They don't have the grilled dory with tomato sauce pasta, but they only have it with aglio oglio. I think fish taste much better grilled.
The drinks store at Koufu sells these wonderful looking kaya buns ($1 per bun) but I think they really look better than they taste. Decided to try them since I saw someone buying 4 buns at one go while I was queueing up for drinks.

The reviews on hgw are pretty bad - I think those people ate the soggy spaghetti! Go for the penne - it's not as soggy - though the done-ness does vary quite a bit. If you think in terms of food court pricing, I think that it's quite reasonable. The Koufu foodcourt that Pizza Pazza's in is really a rip-off I think there's some chicken noodles which cost $5! For that price, I'd rather eat pasta.

Other than Pizza Pazza in the basement foodcourt (Koufu), there's this other Thai/Vietnamese food place I want to try. But somehow, whenever I end up at Anchorpoint, Pizza Pazza's pasta will be calling out to me. The drinks stall here is a real rip-off - the canned drinks cost $1.50 each! Plus, if you sit too far in (which isn't really a choice during the crowded lunch hour) you'll end up reeking of food oils (yucks I hate the smell especially when it gets into my hair/clothes).

But seriously, don't trudge halfway across the island to eat this pasta cos you'll be dissppointed. Save your time and money on something nearer you (especially if you live in the east). This is the kind of food that you eat if you're nearby (ie at Queensway/Ikea).

The real price of these lunches - intractable post prandial stupor!

Pizza Pazza

370 Alexandra Road

Basement Anchorpoint (Koufu Food Court)

Tel: 6479 2774

They have a delivery service, with a min amount of $25, but then I'm not sure if it's restricted to certain areas only? I've yet to try the delivery service myself, but I suppose that pastas won't really taste nice when they're lukewarm.

I was just searching hgw, there's another outlet at Vivocity Kopitiam:) Though I've never tried it myself, since I avoid kpt like plague.

Zhou's Kitchen

Sigh is when I am in sgh - fish

I'm so busy :( Sch just started and I can't wait for it to end! Argh! And my blog is dying cos I haven't even got the time to go online! Now I know why people become IT dinosaurs - it's cos they dun have the time to do anything and on weekends they just collapse and hibernate at home.

Ok so super long ago, when I just came back from my hol (it's actually 1 wk ago but it feels like eons :/) I went to eat lunch at Zhou's Kitchen. It's located at this buliding infront of Anchor Point, where Paddyfields previously was and it's run by Tung Lok Group. I must say that Tung Lok Grout restaurants have quite a good food standard - but of course they're all Chinese food.

Pork Trotters and Jellyfish Cold Dish
Spinach Tofu with Mushrooms - used to be very rare but then now lots of restaurants serve this. It's quite a big portion and there are lots of mushrooms and veggies. Of course, it's all covered in sauce... the reason why I don't really like chinese food - cos all the taste comes from slathering food with sauce and not really tasting the food itself.
Egg white with Scallops - it reminds me of this very delicious scrambled egg white with scallops and white truffle oil from Jade Palace Restaurant (which I shall blog about later) but of course, there's not white truffle oil.

Pan Fried Chive Dumpling - they were having a promotion - $4.90++ for 10 pieces (but I dunno the original price I thnk it's $8.90?).
Duck Eefu Noodles - I like eefu noodles somehow it's quite hard to find it outside restaurants...
Zhou's Kitchen Speciality Noodles - I can't remember much - it's not too bad but not very memorable. Good if you don't want a lighter soupier meal. The soup is pretty tasty but by the time I ate it the noodles were a bit soggy. The nuts gave it an interesting crunch and it's not often you see nuts in soupy noodles.
Mango Pomelo Sago - it's not very nice not the creamy kind which I like and the mangos are quite sour and the soup is too sweet.
Interesting decor outsideOverall, the dining experience was enjoyable - good service, good food (passable cos it's chinese food), good ambience and it's another place that I will go to instead of Crystal Jade all the time. Best of all, the pricings are resaonable. I can't remember the exact pricing for the dishes, but then it was about $70 for 3 people.
Zhou's Kitchen

The Copperdome

Anchorpoint

368 Alexandra Road

Singapore 159952

Tel: 6473-1123

Chilliless Laksa :D

Good smells are warfting all around Queensway! I've actually tried this stall quite some time back, but back then I didn't have a food blog. Anyway, for people like me, the very intolerant to spicy stuff, this is the perfect laksa for you cos the chilli comes separately and it's like 1/10 on the "spicy score" on my spicy-intolerant tongue. They'll give you as much as you want to add into your own bowl too!
The laksa soup is nice and creamy with lots of dried prawn and coconut milk, but I would say for $3 it doesn't have enough haam! Nevertheless, this is one laksa I can eat without burning my tongue for the rest of the day.

Ground Level at Queensway Shopping Center, near the middle where the escalators are.

deToast - Queensway Shopping Centre

Was walking about in queensway when I noticed this new stall on the 2nd storey (which I hardly even venture to) which had this news paper clipping. It's this place called detoast and there's another branch at Bugis (but I have no idea where).

For $6.80, you can get a garlic toast, any pizza toast (vegeterian, hawaiian or meat lovers - and there's no beef at all), a soup of the day and a scoop of ice cream. I actually imagined the toast to be loaded with lots of ingredients and be super big but it fell short of my high expectations (maybe cos i read the newspaper rave review and had super high standards).

Their speciality toast is actually kaya, but I didn't try that.

The soup is instant soup i think, but it's very frothy and not to salty - but nothing to shout about.
The toast is thick and fluffy, but for $2, I would say it's pretty steep.



The pizza toast was slathered in a tangy tomato sauce, and it costs $3.50 by itself.

They also have other unique toasts, such as toast with pasta on top, ice cream toast as well as cinnamon and sugar toast.



It's at Queensway shopping centre 2nd level.

Red Tea Jelly - At Alexander Village

The first time I discovered Red Tea Jelly was at Changi Village. But I have since found another one at Alexander Village (which is so much closer and accessible). However, the two red tea jellies are quite different.
I think they make this by themselves, cos there are sediments of tea leaves at the bottom of the jelly. There's also alot less colouring - this looks more natural and with the reddish brown hue of normal tea. There also isn't any red colouring which will bleed into the milk and make it look like bandung.


The textures are similar, both like konnyaku jelly. The one from changi village is actually imported from taiwan (the lady showed me the box).

Anyway, i think it isn't worth the trudge all the way to the east (for me at least) for red tea jelly and the one at alexander village will suffice.

Red Tea Jelly can be found at the Blue Ribbon Dessert Store at Alexander Village. It's in the middle of the hawker center.

It's $2.10 per bowl.