Akashi - Vivocity

Akashi is this yummy Japanese restaurant at Vivocity Basement. I'd describe it at one notch above Sushi Tei, both in quality and price. Lunches are cheaper (by about $3+) for the same dishes. Crab Croquette ($6++) - it's very creamy on the inside and really crispy on the outside. I thought that the orangey sauce (tastes like cocktail sauce( was a bit too overpowering.
This is some dinner bento, can't really remember what it's called but it's $25 for dinner and $22 for lunch. The sashimi is really good - the tuna looks really glossy and fresh, and it's a deep deep red/maroon unlike the kind that you find in sushi tei which is slightly limp and soggish. It comes with a grilled fish, salad, mixed tempura, sashimi, miso soup and fruits.
Here's my set - the mixed sashimi don - the highlight is that the wasabi that they use isn't the usual pre-mixed powdered kind. Actually, the usual powdered kind of wasabi is used in most restaurants like Sakae Sushi and Sushi Tei -this is the real grated thing. The root is v expensive and is pale green in colour inside. It looks like a longish yam outside. Of course the sashimi was fresh and delicious - the salmon and the tuna sashimi in particular.

Akashi Japanese Restaurant
Vivocity

Sri Sujana Nasi Lemak

omg cofm, casewriteups and pharmaco (and I forsee patho next month) are the banes of my life!

I'm so glad I'm not doing ortho posting now... Anyway, this is a super super outdated post :S, when I was still in CGH blissfully doing psyche...

Anyway, this is Sri Sujana, which is this nasi lemak stall which had such a super duper long que so I decided to try it! It had an even longer que than my usual 'International Stall'

See the que is very very very long.

The nasi lemak is very cheap, only $2 for one chicken wing, an egg and ikan billis, and alot of garlicky chilli. The chilli is less sweet and more galicky than the normal nasi lemak chilli, and the rice is slightly soggier and wetter than the usual nasi lemak rice. The chicken wing is marinaded in alot of spices, and is very tasty and looks very rough and has a furred appereance.

Personally, I prefer the rice from International Stall, but this one is cheaper (50 cents only) and their chicken wing is tastier.

Sri Sujana Nasi Lemak

Changi Village #01-54

I was boliao last time so i went to T3... Now I don't have time to blog :(

Ayam Penyet

Ayam penyet is this Indonesian dish - I first heard about it in the newspapers cos they did a review on all the best ayam penyats in Singapore - it's some flattened chicken or something, which is marinaded and fried and then flattened(?) or something liddat...

Anyway, the day before, Makansutra had this episode on all the good east food and since we were in Changi, we went down to Changi Village to try this.

Apparently this is a super shiok super good ayam penyet - Sri Bistari Changi Village Famous Ayam Penyet (the original). It's found on the market side, in the day you can find it quite easily cos there's really loud radio songs blasting from some hidden speaker, and at night it's brightly lit with flashing lights. Each plate costs $4 and comes with rice and soup.
They give a really generous portion of chilli - which is very chunky cos there's lots of spices like lemongrass ginger and all that kind of fibrous things and it's quite sweet and yummy too. The chicken itselt doesn't really have much marinade, and it comes with healthy crunchy salad on the side. It's also pretty unique cos it comes in a wooden bowl.Ayam Penyet can be found in Changi Village (Market Side)

La Pizzaiola

I read about La Pizzaiola from ieatishootipost and being very kaypoh, and since they deliver to my house, I decided to try it.

I tried the Quattro Formagi and the Prosciutto E Fungi ($13.90 each, for a 12" pizza).

They're thin crust pizzas and they're quite generous with the toppings.

I find the tomato base a bit too salty for my liking, cos I prefer the more sour, slightly less salty kind, but then again, I don't really like my food to be salty.

I quite like the Quattro Formagi - it's Blue cheese, Emmental Cheese, Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

The base isn't as thin as those you'll find at Al Dente, for example, and it's quite doughy. For the price, I say it's not bad - beats pizza hut and canadian pizza though!

La Pizzaiola

43 Holland Drive

#01-63 Holland Village

Singapore 270043

Tel: 6779 5502

Delivery to selected areas only

Click here to go to their Website

Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream

They have this new flavour - Caramel and Sea Salt Ice Cream

Normal caramel is usually too sweet

And so to make it not so sweet, there's sea salt

And it's very yummy and unique!

Apparently Sea Salt is the bestest salt in the whole world - and it's 'cos we came from the sea??' but i quite sure that any salt is bad cos of HYPERTENSION!

And of course, I had my usualy favourite Green Tea Ice Cream

Azabu Sabo Desserts

Central

Waraku Pasta

Ah i went to waraku pasta cos we were so un-inspired and nearby. And since i wasn't driving up that whirly whirly ramp up 5 levels....Calamari with some very nice spices - lots of salt and yummy tartare sauce. I think this was like $8.80++? Annalisa's Doria - Macaroni with chicken and prawn. Crystal prawns! Yum!

And I had my fave dish - the cod roe and scallop doria ($14 something ++)

The service wasn't so bad this time round!

Waraku Pasta
Central

Thai Accent - Thai NUDLE Cafe

Hmm I wonder what's up with the Nudle?
Tried this thai place at vivo - it reminds me of thai express - cos they have these paper menus. But the ambience is much nicer and there's even this pretty alfresco balcony with swing-seats facing sentosa! But I sat inside cos i needed the lights to take photos of the food...

Anyway, the menu's more extensive than thai express - and they have lots of dishes (about 80). We tried the usual - green curry with chicken ($13.50++) (which was quite good and not too spicy but quite spicy for me), pineapple rice with chicken ($10.90)(which wasn't that great, the chicken came in super huge chunks and they were quite dry. There is an option for prawn for the same price).The three pretty things are the Thai-styled Otak otak ($10.90++) which was terrible tasting - there was this queer smell (which wasn't lemongrass) which smelt like some fermenting thing. I really don't know if it was meant to taste this way - and there's cabbage underneath the orange otak layer... pretty ex and yucky!
The dish behind that is the stir fried minced chicken with hot basil leaves ($12.90++). I quite like this dish but then I thought there wasn't enough fish sauce inside compared to what we ate in bangkok... My favourite thai dish - Pad thai fried noodles with prawns ($12.90++). The prawns aren't the 'crystal prawns' and the noodles were very sweet. I think thai express does it better? And cheaper too...Desserts are listed in the menu under the heading os 'Life is beautiful, let's make it sweet'
We tried the saco with sliced coconut and coconut milk ($3.90++) and the 'sliced coconut' here they're referring to is honey sea coconut not the real coconut flesh! I thought this was not bad but pretty ex.

Mango sticky rice served with coconut milk was $6.90++ for a small portion... everything here is super ex!
However, I must say that the service is good - efficient and attentive even though the place was really crowded.
Another thing is that they charge for water! $0.30 for each cup (refillable). Their drinks are as good as daylight robery - $5 bucks for thai iced tea, thai iced coffee, thai lemongrass tea (which i would have liked to try but it's so ex!), and it's $4 for Jasmine tea, green tea, camomile tea and chinese tea. Soft drinks are $2.80. This place is really expensive!

Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express - Go to thai express


Thai Accent
Level 2
Vivocity

Macaron - Dessert Restaurant

5 of us went to Macaron to have exactly what they're good for - their dessert. After eating there, I have one thing to say: Macaron is like a bikini - pay more for less - cos it's all in the material and design.

The dessert presentation is really unique and I think it's quite worth the price that you're paying for it, but the service is complety snotty and annoying. Even places like Iggys have much nicer service even though you're paying tons more. So there's no excuse of being a posh place and having snotty service.

We were looking at their menu outside (they have these black doors where you can't look in but they can look out) and then he really wanted to direct us to the Canele takeaway next door -_- (Macaron is run by the same company/management or whatever as Canale.) After that, when we went in, they sat us right next to the door despite the fact that the restaurant only had 2 other tables occupied.
Top that off with their ridiculous policy where everyone must have one dessert each and no sharing allowed 'because our portions are small and meant to be eaten by one person'. I believe that restaurants with such ridiculous policies aren't worth patronising. But of course, they're telling the truth - he should have said "our portions are minuscule". Small is just an understatement. Anyway, they won't let one of us buy a drink off the menu - everyone MUST have a dessert.
Maybe they should just hang a sign outside saying that everyone must order one dessert each - not after seating us and then telling us after that.
After we finished the desserts (and Claire left some so they won't clear her plate), they kept hovering around wanting to chase us off - but there was another table still in the restaurant and they were just chatting too! D:< This is the 'One, Two, Tea' which i can't really remember much of cos it was so long ago, but there's some crispy thing, with a chocolatey outside and a red inside - looks a bit like a skull being cracked open.
Hmm the crispy thing on top makes me think of how burnt skin looks like...

This is my dessert - some 'Red' Dessert (it's one of the most ex desserts on the menu, at $18 for the 'small portion'). It's the "Raspberry filled with mascarpone cheese, strawberry paper, Rhubarb and strawberry compote, blood orange jelly, Cranberry parfait scented with hibiscus and beet confit". Ahh say that all in one breath...

The paper thing was quite cool to eat - I wonder how they make it? And it dissolves on your tongue like fylm-fresh (hmm or maybe i should say the Quicklets now that I've done psych). The taste reminds all of us of Uncle Toby's Fruit Rolls. The super sweet and sticky fruit sheets that stuck to your teeth whenever you eat it.
This is my raspberry filled with mascarpone cheese. Hmm I should do that at home next time - creamy cheese with tart raspberries.
The whole plate looks like an operation gone wrong. Like a splat of blood. Hmm I quite miss AH surg... The weird flat orangey blob on the left is the blood orange compote, and the next reddish splat thing is the beetroot - which was very sweet and didn't taste like beetroot.
My tastebuds aren't so discerning so I couldn't taste the hibiscus, but the cranberry parfait was delicious - chilled, creamy and sweet.This is some "Egg Sunrise" or suprise or something.. It's cheese ice cream with a piece of preserved apricot. I think this was about $14? or $12? Its all in the presentation...This is the Raspberry Granite - I'm not sure why but I keep associating Granite with a failed gelato... (must be from the association of 'Bulimics are failed aneroxics'...)
This is the last dessert to be served - some champaign parfait. Hmm I really can't remember how it tastes like, but then the gold stuff was so fun to eat. Cheap thrills...
I really enjoyed the different desserts but then the service leaves much to be desired.

Macaron
11 Unity Street
#01-08 Robertson Walk
Singapore 237995
Tel 62357277

Haato

There's been so many ice cream shops sprouting out everywhere - and there's so many near my house! There's Venezia, Daily Scoop, Ice Cremery and Haato! I've never tried haato before, cos it's so ulu and hard to get to - its located inside Ridgewood Condominium.

It's japanese italian ice cream - and there's lots of Japanese flavours such as yuzu (type of orange/citrus fruit), melon (which is really yummy - think a nicer not so sweet version of the haagen daz ice cream), green tea, green tea with red beans, coconut, soursop, milk tea, cookies and cream (which suppose to be their best seller), etc etcTheir waffles are fantastic - forget gelare!! Waffles with 2 scoops of ice cream is $8.50 and the waffle is thick and fluffy and crispy on the outisde. Furthermore, the waffles are cooked in the open - so theres a nice bakery smell warfting about inside the restaurant. Don't need to wait for half price waffles on tuesday anymore!There's so many flavours too - I liked the sweetpotato, honey and chestnut ice cream, as well as the chocolate banana ice cream. The chocolate banana is thick and chocolatey and there's a banana aftertaste - I imagine that this will be how secret recipe's chocolate banana cake tastes like in ice cream form :D

Last time they had milk ice cream, which is really unique, unfortunately, they have discontinued this flavour. It's pretty unique and it's hard to find places with milk ice cream. Sigh!

I also tried the Unatamadon (Unagi with egg and rice) which was $8. It's pretty tiny for 8 bucks but tastes ok.

Ridgewood CloseUnit G1 (tel 6464 9607 / fax 6464 9507)

Opening hrs: Daily 11am - 11pm

Liang Court Shopping Centre177 River Valley Road, , Meidi-Ya Supermarket, Unit B1-50 (tel 6337 8835 / fax 6337 8835) Opening hrs: Daily 10am - 10pm5

Wheelock Place501 Orchard Road, Unit 02-18A (tel 6737 2770 / fax 6737 2770) Opening hrs: Sun - Thurs 11am - 10pm / Fri - Sat 11am - 11pm

Serangoon Garden Village9 Portchester Avenue, Unit 01-02 (tel 6289 3502 / fax 6289 3502)Opening hrs: Sun - Thurs 11am - 11pm / Fri - Sat 11am - 12 midnight

Daily Fresh - Ice Kimo

Snow ice is this dessert with super fine shaved flavoured ice from Taiwan. It's really hard to find now, and all the stalls I used to patronise have all closed down. Maybe cos it's alot more ex than bubble tea...
I was plesantly suprised to find that (of all places) Eastpoint mall had it! In fact, I discovered it by chance, cos I was on my way to get bubble tea from sweet talk - and I spotted Daily Fresh at the corner (near Starbucks).Snow ice, or shall i say 'Ice Kimo' is shaved flavoured ice, think an ice cream which is shaved inside an ice kachang like machine, just that this is more hightech and produces wonderfully nice soft fluffy (no pokey) flakes of ice, like snow.
Each time you scoop it into your mouth, it will melt like a little lump of snow, and you will have something like gelato or sorbet in your mouth. It's very compressable and melts really fast. And this comes in a variety of flavours like mango, vanilla, chocolate, mocha, strawberry, watermelon, soursop etc etc
If you haven't already noticed (like fish...) that Ice Kimo is actually a pun for Eskimo.

Daily Fresh,

Ground level of Eastpoint mall,

Next to starbucks coffee.

Why I haven't been blogging that often...

haha just kidding but then cgh is really nice nearly everything is aircon so we don't have to go for morning sauna!

Eighteen Chefs

I first read about 18 Chefs from the ieatishootipost website (for the story behind eighteen chefs), but then decided that even though the food review was good, it was too inconvenient for me to drag myself to the end of singapore.

However, I'm at CGH now and I just found out today (on my 2nd week) that Eastpoint Mall is so super near to CGH (I thought everything was far from CGH). Eastpoint Mall to CGH is like what Alexander Village is to AH. Super near. And with good food too (not that CGH doesn't have good food - they have the v unhealthy but yummy nasi lemak and popiah slathered in sweet sauce). This is how 18 chefs looks like - see how it's full of students? It's cos the food is really cheap (like a McDonalds meal) and tastes so much better. It's a cafe style which means that you go and pay and order your food, and then the will deliver it to your table.

Their speciality is baked rice. And you can even customise your baked rice with their 6 different sauces (black pepper, creamy mango, creamy white, curry, spicy garlic and tangy tomato), and ingredients like chicken sausage ($5.90), chicken slices ($8.90), minced beef (6.90), beef slices ($8.90), seafood ($12.90), salmon (10.90), pan grilled fish ($9.90), Scallops ($12.90), Prawns ($10.90), Mushrooms ($5.90), Vegetarian ($7.90), Scrambled egg ($5.90).I tried the student's set ($5.90, no service charge, GST included) which was a main, Ice lemon tea and dessert.
Although I had already high expectations of the food, I was not dissappointed :D The chicken baked rice was the cheapest and yummiest that i've tried - the mozerella cheese was gooey and there was alot of it, and the chicken slices were succulent and juicy and abundant (quite unlike Swensen's baked rice which cost much more). The sauce was creamy and the rice was drenched with it.

This is the beef spaghetti which smelt heavenly. There's really alot of herbs inside, and the beef small was warfting about and making everyone salivate.

This is the additional garlic bread that we ordered ($1.80) cos the whole restaurant smelt of it and it was too tempting to resist. The bread is crispy outside and nice and soft inside. It's not very garlicky but then the bread is done just right - no burnt bits either.
The dessert was chocolate chips with chocolate ice cream. For people who love desserts, you'll be glad to know that it isn't a tiny measly little scoop of ice cream, but a nice generous one which will leave your sweet tooth satisfied.They had an $11.90 set lunch deal for non-students. It was a choice of baked prawn rice with green apples and spicy sauce (which sounded really interesting and I would probably have tried it if the students meal wasn't so temptingly cheap) garlic bread, soup of the day and drink. Hmm i can't remember if there was dessert...

Other dishes include potato and apple salad ($2.50), Mango salsa ($3.00), Various pasta dishes (which look quite tempting ranging from $6.90 for beef bolognaise to $12.90 for seafood aglio olio, and finger foods such as cheesy fries, chesy wings etc.

I am so going back to try their Eighteen Funky Strawberry dessert ($5.80) as well as their Eighteen Banana Explosion ($4.80)! Hope that I'll have more time for lunch.

Eighteen Chefs Pte Ltd

3 Simei St 6, Eastpoint Mall

#01-36 Singapore 528833

Tel 67821298