Keyaki

I was just going through my old posts (when I was young and gainfully unemployed) cos I just ate a weird timing but very satisfying breakfast/lunch meal today. And it's a Monday again! So the famous stall was closed... And there's no more $2 prawn noodles anymore... Guess everything but my salary is going up...

Went to Keyaki last weekend. Made a grave mistake cos we had initially planned on going to Cherry Garden for dim sum but didn't know it was Father's Day and it was fully booked :( Just another reminder to myself - Cherry Garden is at Mandrin Oriental and not Marina Mandarin - spent nearly half an hour crawling around looking for the restaurant. It is never a good idea to be supremely famished, finaly reaching the restaurant and being told that it's full and yet being able to smell all the lovely freshly steamed dim sum. We had 2 different sets - I had their Keyaki set (I really cannot remember what it was called but its the weekend special lunch set) which came with a very insipid potato salad. The other lunch set (which is in the main menu) had this really refreshing plum wine sherbert and probably one of the better ways to kick start a great meal.
In fact, it was so nice that the next day at work I was craving for this halfway through the morning and just wondering where I could get some good quality plum wine from (though I'm mainly a procrastinator so I still haven't gotten it...)

Another 3 dished starter - some fish cake thing, minced meat with grated radish and pumpkin chicken cube (my pumpkin piece was miniscule).

California maki - which is totally un-Japanese but very delicious anyway.

Extremely fresh and juicy sashimi - my fave part of any meal

Tempura - one of my least favourite Japanese foods though I really like eggplant and pumpkin Fried rice with little morsels of seafood and chicken - I would have much preferred garlic fried rice (which most mid range Japanese restaurants do quite well). The pickles (top left) are pretty interesting cos they also had pickled mushrooms.

Grilled cod fish
By this time I was really full but there were still some more dishes...

Pork Teppanyaki - the alternative being beef (which I don't eat cos of prions, though I'm seriously reconsidering now cos I really miss eating BK mushroom swiss and Macdonalds double cheeseburger...)
The other lunch set (which was around the same price ~$60++) had a nicely grilled half lobster which was really fresh.

The Cha soba here (came with the other lunch set) was pretty good but not as spectacular as the Tsuen one from Japan (which I sadly will not be able to eat in the new future)... It's a remarkably easy dish to prepare just that the noodles have to be watched closely cos they become soggy once overcooked.

Dessert - green tea and black sesame ice cream. The black sesame one is much better so if you're ever given the choice do take the black sesame one - it has coarse grains of black sesame and an intense sesame taste. Just like eating black sesame paste but in the ice cream version.

Personally, I still find Aoki's lunches is still in the number 1 position in my list of lunch places... I think I'm growing old cos I feel much less adventurous and I've been stagnating at my usual food places for the last few months... Oh well, I will be hunting for a new lunch place on Wednesday if my list doesn't explode terribly...

Keyaki
7 Raffles Boulevard

4/F Pan Pacific Singapore
Tel: +65 6826 8240

Nourishing soup at Pu Tien

I'm not sure if I've blogged about my favourite post call food ever but I've just dug out some really old photos that I took in happier times (i.e. when I was not a slave to my company). The most awesome post call food ever (for me at least) is the Pu Tien soup. Since I really don't know what it's called in the menu, I've been calling it the 'nourishing soup'. It comes in this old style Chinese cauldron which helps to keep the nourishing soup warm while you slowly sip it. The soup is so milky and looks like it's been boiled for hours. It's extremely tasty (probably cos of the fatty pork and the long clams). And it comes with healthy stuff like lots of long cabbage and bean curd.
I think it's next best to soaking in an outdoor onsen during winter/spring (which I will not be doing in the near future or when I am post call). It's very warming and comforting and after taking this I would happily go home, bathe and sleep until the next day.
Sadly, I've only eaten it once ever when I was post call but it was the best post call lunch ever! I must find a Pu Tien near my workplace now so that I can endeavour to get myself some nourishing soup... My second most favourite dish (though it's not another nourishing post call dish) is the Pu Tien Mee Sua. This is unlike other mee suas I've eaten cos it's extremely fine and it's not served with soup. It comes topped with seaweed, nuts, seafood and pork and like the soup, is very tastey.

The other noodle dish here is the luo mee which I don't quite like but here's a picture. The noodles have the consistency of soggy ban mian but the soup is rather nice and similar to the nourishing soup.

Other not bad dishes to try are the cockles (it's <$10 per plate) of prettily shelled clean cockles served with lots of raw garlic and the sweet and the sour pork with lychee (nice fat chunks of pork battered with floor and coated with their sweet and sour sauce). The ohr nee (yam paste dessert) here is less than spectacular. I would recommend trying it elsewhere.

I'm not sure if the stuff served at Pu Tien is a good reflection of the Heng Hwa cuisine, but their dishes are above average and with reasonable prices, they look set to give the average Singapore diner more mid-range Chinese food choices (other than the default Crystal Jade and Ding Tai Fung, and perhaps Paradise Inn)

Pu Tien, here I come (soon, hopefully on Saturday??)

Pu Tien Outlets are at:

Kitchener Road

Nex

City Square Mall

Vivocity

Tampines Mall

Parkway Parade

The Plain

Tried this Australian style cafe after reading a glowing review in the newspapers (a few months back, just that I'm a professional procrastinator and didn't blog about it). We must have trudged up and down Craig road at least 5 times and walking past the cafe even more times before we actually found it. And to think that we parked at Craig place which is literally opposite the Plain.
Trudging up and down in Singapore's weather makes one extremely hot and thirsty. And in want of airconditioning. They're coffee is supposed to be fantastic but too bad I don't drink coffee except for the occasional ice blended ones... So instead, this is the iced chocolate with real chocolate painted onto the sides of the glass. Not bad but I've defnitely had better.
Their speciality is their sourdough bread with a variety of toppings. We tried their Dean's breakfast - poached eggs on melted cheese & vegemite on sourdough toast. Being a fan of vegemite and cheese, I quite liked this dish though the stingy in me thought of ways to obtain sourdough bread and make it in the comfort of my home...

We also had the Darling's eggs. It's poached eggs with ham, cheese & roma tomatoes on sourdough toast.

I preferred the Dean's breakfast cos of the vegemite but I think it would be supberb to have everything on one like a full house sandwich i.e. cheese, vegemite, tomatoes, ham and eggs all stacked on top of each other :P

The chilled Fruit salad came with a bright and colourful array of fruits, and a side of honey-infused yogurt.

The concept and decor really reminds me of Fourty Hands. If it was nearer my house, I won't mind going to the Plain again but it's really a pain to queue up fro food on a nice weekend morning as the cafe is extremely popular and the seating is very limited.

The Plain Cafe

50 Craig Road #01-01
http://www.theplain.com.sg/

PS Cafe at Ann Siang Hill

I'm not a big fan of PS cafe, but after visiting their branch tucked away in a quiet corner at Ann Siang Hill, I'm now a convert! The decor is so quaint and plush it feels as if I've stepped back into time. Best of all, it's not overrun by hyperactive screaming kids (unlike the Dempsy one where there are SCREAMING kids) so it's a perfect place to chill and catch up!I had the Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and avocado. There's wilted spinach under tha pile of lovely goodness and the muffin is spread with cream cheese. Delicious! The hollandaise is really good - thick, creamy with a slight tinge of sourness. Chorizo sausage breakfast with foie gras and scrambled egg whites and a sourdough bread. It's a really hearty breakfast and the sausage is really tasty and mildly spicy.

Vanilla pancakes with whipped cream (the delicious fatty kind not the one that comes from a cannister!) and freshly chopped mint leaves. Topped with poached berries and maple syrup! YUM! These pancakes have similar consistency and texture to the macdonalds pancakes (whic are my 'gold standard' for pancakes). I liked how they added creshly chopped mint to the whipped cream.And these are strawberry vanilla pancakes so there's slices of strawberries in them :D
What better way to end the meal than to have a towering plate of truffle fries... Yellow is the cheerful feeling that you get when you sit in front of a pile of these :D The Truffle fries here come with fresh grated parmesan cheese. If Macdonalds served this, I would have a heart attack in an instant...

On a side note, after brunch, I had to RUSH down to my car cos my carpark coupon had expired about 30min ago and the carpark attendant was FINING people. It was such a relief when I reached my car and the attendant was 5 cars away. Whew! Saved myself a massive fine which would have to come out from my food allowance....

45 Ann Siang Road
#02-02
Singapore 069719
T:(+65) 6222 3143

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

Aoki Lunch

I'm supposed to minimise my consumption of food from Japan cos of all the radiation but even though the spirit is willing, the body is weak. So to treat myself for my last 'p plate call', I had my postcall lunch at Aoki, which is my favouritest Japanese place in Singapore. I must say that after 1 year of torturing myself on calls, I can now at least stay awake long enough to eat a nice lunch before concussing for the next 12-14 hours.

I shall return to Japan about 10-15 years from now, my logic being that it's the half life of caesium), so from now to then, I shall just have to satisfy my Japanese food craving with little portions of good quality Japanese food instead of large quantities of mediocre ones.
Hijiki seaweed - reminds me of the one that Wasabi Tei used to serve but it's less sweet and has a bit more meat.

Aoki's signature salad wich a nice tangy wafu dressing

Radiation +++ but it's so delicious! Especially the tuna belly (look at all the nice marbling) which literally melted in my mouth and glided down my throat. I actually wanted to eat my usual 'cheapo' Maze chirashi but it was sold out already. I really wanted to eat that nice egg castella thing and have the delicious uni (sea urchin) and salmon roe...

The rice has anago (sea eel) as well as this sweetened pickle. And some other pickles like the eggplant thing on the right side (which I don't like but it's supposed to be v popular in Japan).

Of course, the meal ended with Aoki's signature trio of desserts - the only fixed one so far has been the plum wine jelly (top right). There's also a milk custard with mango sauce but I think and a sakura flavoured ice cream.

Maybe I should come up with a list of my fave post call foods especially my 'nourishing soup' from Pu Tien which I rate as my number one most essential post call foods... Then again, it will be luxury during my next posting, so maybe not! At least I'm going to the place with the best food (though I have doubts that I have enough time to enjoy it).

Aoki
1 Scotts Road

#02-17 Shaw Centre
Tel: +65 6333 8015