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)

Lins Smoodees

Peter Pan Green Smoothie of the Day $8.50

Green smoothies are all in the rage (online, at least) but I've yet to try any cos the thought of ingesting a whole bunch of kale/spinach/whatever-dark-leafy-green-vegetable seemed rather unappetising.  So when we happened to chance upon Lins Smoodies I decided to give it a try. 

Check out their superbly eco friendly bamboo straw! The staff strongly discourage wastage and you'll have to bring your own tumbler to get your smoothie or have it in house (or something along that lines)

(wkr will be rolling her eyes and wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole)

Actually, we were waiting for Croute to open, so we decided to sit down and rest our sleep deprived selves and get a healthy drink. According to the staff there, the drink is best drunk with an empty stomach (which we had) but you shouldn't eat anything within 30 minutes of having the drink (which we did not follow cos we were eating at Croute).

Actually, I couldn't really taste or smell the veggies, mostly could taste the sweetness of the pineapple and a faint banana aftertaste, but it was really refreshing, and perhaps it's placebo but I imagine all the antioxidants counteracting the wrinkles that my skin forms when I'm post call. Comes with a small sprinkle of chia seeds for your daily dose of Omega 3 fatty acids.

They also have this really awesome granola thing with coconuts and dried snakeskin fruit. Really addictive - would totally buy this to munch on once they start production. I must have munched though a significant portion from that large glass jar while waiting for my smoothie.

The green smoodie of the day - with all organic vegetables: nai bai, wild spinach, sunflower sprouts, finger bananas, pineapple, and orange (of course, mine had no orange). It changes daily depending on the supply of fruits and they also do door to door deliveries. If you're interested in that kind of thing, check out their website.

Lins Smoodees
Check out their website here
#01-13 Valley Point (next to NTUC Finest)
491 River Valley Road
Closed Weekends and public holidays

Nektar

I don't know why I never blogged about Nektar, but its my favourite cocktail bars. It was a fantastic place to chill at - not only was it conveniently located near my workplace, never crowded at around 6pm, and had free parking. Sadly, it's closing down, and doesn't have a new place to relocate to yet.

Anyway, I was really glad to have an opportunity to try some of their drinks - they don't have a menu anymore cos they have a more limited selection of alcohols - just let the bartender know what you like and they'll work their magic.

Nektar
31 Scotts Road
Singapore 228225
Tel 6836 9185

Tanuki Raw

 I've never really felt the need to go for a drink after work. The food's the main draw for me. But of late, the prospect of having a drink (with good food, of course) has been extremely enticing. I've been wanting to try Tanuki for eons and eons (prob for the last year already) but never made it down successfully. They have this awesome happy hour from 5pm-8pm, where their cocktails go for $10, and each cocktail ordered gets you 6 pieces of oysters at $2 each.

 Freshly shucked oysters with lots of that delicious oyster brine.

Another close up

Nom nom nom nom nom 

Words can't describe how deliciously fresh the oysters were.

The cocktails weren't bad - pretty good but for me, the main draw were the oysters. They have a few anal rules - such as one table cannot have more than 12 oysters at one time -_- but it doesn't matter just as long as I get my maximum 6 pieces, eventually, I suppose. (Even better if some people in your group don't eat oysters - you can always eat theirs ^v^)

 We were hungry (sort of, anyway, cos everyone had dinner at home) so we decided to try some of the sushi rolls. A word of advice - DON'T. They're pretty expensive for the portion, and are a far cry of how you would envision proper sushi rolls to be (I kept picturing the Sushi Bar's rolls). Save your $ and calories and go to Everything with Fries (conveniently located downstairs) and eat your har cheong gai nuggets (best thing ever invented - it's like boneless har cheong gai).

Sad Sushi Roll 

Tanuki Raw
181 Orchard Road 
#02-03 Orchard Central
Tel 66365949
Opening Hours 1130am to 1030pm
Happy Hour 5-8pm daily

Go here to see their happy hour menu 

Happy Lemon!

I'm super addicted to Bubble tea and to all these artificial multi-flavoured drinks. I'm so happy to have discovered Happy Lemon, a new drink stall serving these flavoured drinks with lots of different toppings (not only pearls/tricoloured jelly/nata de coco!). I get my nearly daily fix of pearls from Mr Bean (lol makes my soya bean drink unhealthy!) and I really like Koi (but it's so ulu and far away, so hard to buy!), Each a cup and this new bubble tea stall at City Square (looks very cheena, like a TCM stall, but it's really good! It's name is Gong something...).

One of my new findings (which is accessible to nearly everyone) is Happy Lemon, which comes from Hong Kong (woohoo! I'm going there next month! Can't wait to do all my food research and zoom all around eating!). It's located at B4 Ion, next to Mei Hong Yuan. Their design is super cute (not that I am into all these cutesie stuff, but looking at the lemon face makes me very happy cos whenever I see it, I know that I will be getting something delicious to drink soon! I think I have a very strong Pavlov's reflex!) and they have a whole huge variety of drinks.

I have been stressing my pancreas, trying quite a few flavours in a short time.

One of the more unique drinks is their Rock Salt Cheese series - I've tried the Green Tea with Rock salt and cheese, which is a layered dirnk with rock salt and cheese froth on top, and green tea below. It's very interesting cos there's little bits of cheese (couldn't taste my cheese until I got to the bottom of my drink, the cheese bits are very creamy) and there's a very mild salty aftertaste (nearly undetectable) and of course, the very refreshing and cool green tea (looks more brown to me but nvm). You're supposed to drink it straight from the cup to enjoy the different layers of drink, and not to mix it up.

Other flavours which I've tried are the Blueberry with Kanten and Agar (Kanten is a Japanese jelly, supposed to be very healthy and good for people on a diet cos it's very filling), the Lemon Yakult mousse spin (They put in 1 serving of yakult. yum. I like yakult lots!) which is very acceptable to me even though I dislike lemon in my food (besides lemonade and lemon tart). I wanted to try the cocoa with pudding but they ran out of it today. I also quite like the refreshing and tangy taste of the Passionfruit yogurt with kanten and agar ($3.50), cos it also has bits of that pulpy passionfruit (including the crunchy seed) in it.

All are really delicious. Their drinks aren't cheap, with a regular drink costing from $2.30 onwards, all the way up to $4.80 (the most ex drink is the Latte with taro), but it tastes really nice. The drinks come in 2 sizes, regular and jumbo, though they seem to be out of stock of the jumbo cups (around Macdonald's medium drink size).

They have lots of goodies you can add to the tea, such as mesona jelly (fancy name for chin chow), Adzuki Bean (red beans), Malt, Kanten, Seaweed Jelly, Pudding, Brown sugar jelly etc. I wanted to try the brown sugar jelly, but they advised me not to have it with the lighter tasting drinks cos the taste would clash, but I suppose it will be nice with their coco and coffee series drinks.

I know I sound like I'm doing an ad for them but I'm not and I paid for everything. I just really like their flavours (not their slightly steep price) but it's super yums when I go to Ion I MUST get a cup of something from them unless I'm absolutely explodingly and incredibly full... I've just drank Happy Lemon 2 days in a row (one being just before convocation! so yummy! puts me in a good mood everytime).

I just went there again today - the queues are forming already! bet they'll be flooded with people tmr :( Took really long to get my drink just now :(

Happy Lemon
B4-35 Ion Orchard

Spore 238801

Arteastiq - Monet

Little break from blogging about Japan... Before I forget how all the food I've been eating back here tastes like! (Though I really would like to quickly blog everything I did in Japan, I think I shall alternate it with posts from what I've been eating in sgp...)I dislike work. I think I would give my right little finger to spend perhaps another year slacking around, going for holiday, and maybe staying in Japan for a year just to experience the culture and learn the language. I'm on the fast track to looking old and haggard. I'm totally going to pick a career which doesn't involve any more night duty as soon as I can help it. And I am really becoming an old person (even though I really like doing old people things in Japan), I seem to be a hermit (for at least 6 days a week) cos I'm so tired from working. All I really want to do now (apart from sleep) is to curl up on one of Arteastiq's black and white sofas, and sip my Monet dessert tea.

Its a delicious scoop of smooth, Champagne Vanilla gelato, which has enough alcohol, yet mild enough so that it doesn't overpower the taste of the French Rose tea. Mind you, it's not like the heavy handed sloshes of alcohol you'll get from Udder's ice cream. I was so glad (when I tried this) that I didn't bother to attempt this dessert tea the first time I came, because they ran out of Champagne Vanilla gelato (and pretty much everything else I wanted to try). It's nice and creamy, and the drink is really pleasant after the ice cream has melted slightly into the rose tea. I like how it tastes when the alcoholol from the ice cream mingles with the floral fragrance of the rose tea - really relaxing to drink this on a peaceful afternoon (which obviously I will not be doing in the near future). Future tai tai drinking the pear tea. Personally, I don't like the cranberries - would prefer a piece of cupcake/scone/biscuit to go with the teas rather than some pre-sweetened cranberries...

Ahhh I totally can't wait to plonk onto one of the sofas, and look out at the tree branches and just relax instead of doing whatever I'm supposed to be doing... I totally want to get the alcoholic teas the next time I'm back...

Cant. wait. for. my. pay. to. come. cos. its. very. late. already.

Arteastiq
333A Orchard Road
#04-14/15 Mandarin Gallery

Tel: +65 6235 8705

Paulaner Brauhaus - The only thing that comes quickly is the bill

To celebrate our non-existant EOPT, we went to Pauler Brauhaus cos they were having a 10th Anniversary promotion.Paulaner Brauhaus has it's own microbrewery. For their 10th Anniversary celebration, they are only brewing 2 kinds of beer - the Munich light and the Munich dark. I prefered the dark one cos it wasn't as bitter and tasted more interesting than the light one.

My main, the Spicy Kolbaz grilled sausages with Potato Salad (promo price $10++)

Actually, I couldn't decide between the Nurnberger and this, since both were pork sausages (and since I don't eat beef, I couldn't eat the curywurst), and I already tried the pork kunckle. I chose this in the end cos I wanted to try the potato salad. The potato salad isn't the usual cream based one that we get. It was very sourish and had bits of bacon mixed in. The sausages were rather salty, mildly spicy and not bad, but not something that I'll be craving for anytime soon. For $10.60 nett, it's a pretty good portion.

Nurberger Grilled Sausages with Mashed Potatoes and Sauerkraut (promo price $10++)
This was the other pork sausage, which were non-spicy. I'm not a sausage expert so I thought they tasted about the same - just that the Kolbaz was slightly more spicy, and the Nurberger was jucier.

Grilled Veal Sausage with Curried Tomato Sauce and French Fries(aka "Currywurst") (promo price $10++)
Since I don't eat beef, I koped lots of the sauce and french fries. The tomato sauce is really delicious - sweet, salty and tangy, with a generous sprinkling of aromatic curry on top.
The Crispy Pork Kunckle with Sauerkraut and Bread dumpling is pretty good, just that the it isn't a full pork kunckle (probably a half or a third of a full pork kunckle?). The skin is very crispy, and looks just like suckling pig skin. I find that a whole pork kunckle shouldn't be eaten by just one person cos by the time I'm 3/4th way through my pork kunckle, I'm usually sick of it and I won't feel like eating pork kunckle for the next 3 mths. Anyway, this portion is just right for 1 person, and it's only $10++.

Now, for the sucky part of the meal - the service here is really atrocious.

We were sitting inside the aircon bar area at first (that was when we ate the prok kunckle), but we moved to the al fresco seating area after having our pork knuckle cos there weren't enough seats in the airconditioned area for the 11 of us.

When we asked the waiter outside for iced water, we were told that the restaurant doesn't serve iced water. Which is complete b*** s*** cos the table of Caucasians right next to us ALL had iced water. So we pointed this out to the waiter, and he said that it was because they had ordered beer. So we ordered our beer and food. Our water took a whopping 1 hour 15 min to arrive. And that was after reminding them 3 times about it.

We ordered 7 main courses first (since the other people were coming later) - the first four took a reasonable amount of time to arrive and the next three arrived 40min later.

Another thing that irked me was that they didn't give us any knives - we were all eating our main courses with forks cos their service was so slow - half the time we didn't have food, and the other half of the time, we were waiting for cutlery.

On top of that, they overcharged us for 2 beers.

The waiters and waitresses there are all competing for the blackest-face-award. There was not a single smile, and they were very unapologectic about their lapses in service.

The 10th Anniversary promotion is only for people who can't count or can't drink. Their promo says that beers are only $10++ each, but if you bother to read their menu, you'll realize that their offer isnt really an offer after all (unless you're only going to drink ONE 0.3L beer).

And because they're having their beer 'offer', they only serve 0.3L beers, and no 0.5 or 1L beers.

That said, the food's quite worth it (only during the promo) - Citibank card holders get an additional 10% off, so each of our $10++ was $10.60 nett, which is great if you're willing to put up with the shitty service.

(Blogger doesn't seem to be letting me upload pictures now! Anyway, I'll be giving the food 3 stars, cos of the anniversary promotion. Without the promo, I'll just give it 2/5. Not worth coming back here unless they're having a promo, but then again, they'll have the blackest faced waiters ever!)

Paulaner Brauhaus

9 Raffles Boulevard

#01-01 Millenia Walk

Tel: 6883 2572

Jone's the Grocer - Passionfruit & Lemongrass Cordial

I have a great weakness for lemongrass - if I see lemongrass in anything, I'll be compelled to buy it. My latest lemongrass related food item is from Jone's the Grocer - a 750ml bottle costs a whopping $22.50.

The lemongrass taste isn't that distinct, and its more of an aftertaste cos the passion fruit is very strong. Since I've gotten home, I've already had 3 glasses of this refreshing concoction. It tastes brilliant with sparkilng water, just like those italian sodas (I'm currently using up my stash of sparkling water leftover from Christmas). It was so rainy today, but I'm positive that it'll taste even better on a swelteringly hot day.

Anyway, I think Jones is way overpriced! They're selling palm sugar (aka gula melaka) for freaking $8.90 per piece! When you can get it at a fraction of the price from NTUC. Ohwell, I suppose it's pretty hard to procure palm sugar if you're overseas?

Jones the Grocer

Dempsey Hill Block 9

#01–12 Dempsey Road

Singapore 247697
Tel: +(65) 6476 1512
Fax: +(65) 6476 1518
dempseyhill@jonesthegrocer.com

Zsofi Tapas Bar

Julie wanted to try Zsofi Tapas Bar (and since I'm too lazy to find new food places myself - and I've been relying on recommendations from my friends :P) so I happily leeched along. The main draw was the free tapas - one sampling size of tapas for every drink bought. It's all thanks to xl tt we tried so many tapas :D (Even better still since she was so full and didn't want to eat any! Ah I'm such a parasite!)
I was feeling very un-alcoholic tt night (and very thirsty but I refuse to pay for plain water). I'm not sure why I ordered a margarita (I think the waiter recommended it?) - I don't like margaritas to begin with. This is the strawberry margarita which was so full that it was sloshing over the sides. They're really generous with the alcohol. Good esp if you're in the mood for drinking.
Julie's Granada ($15) which has Frangelico (Hazelnut Liquer), Vanilla ice-cream, Toblerone

Personally, I'm very picky about my drinks (and food) and I don't usually like milk/cream with my alcohol (btw I like Armaretto Sour and Midori Sour but I haven't drank those for very long).

The Granada tastes very much like a creamy, chocolate-chip milkshake - from the little that I pinched, I couldn't taste the alcohol though. It's pretty good and I won't mind drinking it. Tastes like molten ice cream with tolberone. And the chocolate bits don't get stuck to your teetn either,

The many tapas that we got to choose from - the meatballs are supposed to be very good, but Julie doesn't eat pork and I don't eat beef - and the meatballs are pork and beef. Anyway, we were trying to sample tapas which were more expensive - so we could get more bang for our buck.

Tortilla espanoles ($5)

The only tapas that we paid for - cos this was only $5 and we decided that since it was so cheap, we should save use the free sample sized tapas for the more expensive dishes (ok it's just me being cheapo, but it makes sense - if it's not nice at least it was free and you didn't have to pay so much for it!).

The Tortilla was very uninspiring - it was incredibly bland, and just tasted like potatoes baked in egg. I was expecting to find the tortilla which was wrapped, but it was a pancake-like thing instead. Ohwell, at least I can console myself that it was pretty cheap. Chilli Buffalo Wings (butter-based with an Asian garlic chilli sauce)
I'm not really a chicken wing fan, so I found this so-so. It's not very spicy and it's quite oily. Its the kind of thing that I'll eat if it's free.

Champinones (mushrooms marinated with herbs and white wine, sauteed)
This was my fave tapas - I'm sure they put in lots of butter cos it's really yummy. I should really get down to making this dish at home - it's quite easy to whip up and requires so few ingredients. The mushrooms were delish cos they were marinated in the herb/wine/butter emulsion and very juicy.

We also had the Calamaries Rebozados (salt and pepper battered calamari). I somehow forgot to upload the picture. Anyway, the garlic mayo sauce which came with the Calamaries was incredible - bursting with garlicky flavour and yet it didn't have the spiciness of garlic.

Eggs stuffed with pickles and capers, topped with caviar

They took quite long to make this dish - cos the kitchen ran out of the ingredients and the chef went out to buy them. The eggs are pretty good - the stuffing is creamy and sour (cos of the pickles) and nicely chilled.

They don't have tables and chairs, and you'll get to sit on the floor with some mats and cushions. I hope the cushions are clean! (Prob not - who would bother washing them...). I hate walking around barefooted in public places (unless it's the beach or something, but then again, wait you get jabbed by some needle/glass) cos I don't want to catch viral warts from other people's feet!
All the prices stated in the menu is nett - there's no extra charges. So if you count the amount of food we got, it's really pretty cheap! Their rent must be pretty low :)

Its al fresco but dont worry about the heat - there's quite a few fans switched on. The service is very attentive - bordering on over attentive but at least we got some good recommendations.

Zsofi Tapas Bar

68 Dunlop Street

Tel 62975875

Ok I'm yawning like crazy and it's only 7.30pm. omg! And I'm currently unhealthily addicted to Strawberry Läkerol, Coke Zero, Iced Tea and Subway Cookies.
And crappy, it feels like a Friday but it's only a Thursday. (But I'm enjoying my posting! Though I'm quite convinced that I'll get varicose veins by the end of 4 wks!)

At least there is Lifewatch tonight (or is it over already? I missed the previous 2 episodes). I have a bit more incentive to keep myself awake till 9pm instead of taking a nap.

I think my post is rather incoherent cos I'm very sleepy.

Btw, Audrey dropped her hp into the toilet bowl today! I asked her if it was a clean toilet bowl or not but she didn't tell me!

Gloria Jean's and Odri

We were at cine quite a while ago and went to Gloria Jeans' for their $3 ice blended drinks. The Malay guy at the counter spelt Audrey as ODRI. So hilarious!!

I can't remember what movie I was catching, just that it was pretty long ago. I have an incredibly long list of movies I want to watch, including The Reader, Watchmen, Revolutionary Road, Benjamin Button (shouldn't have read the book first, now I don't feel like sitting thru 3 hrs of the movie!)
To this date, I've tried the strawberry smoothie, chocolate and strawberry, and chocolate shake. I like the chocolate shake followed by the strawberry smoothie. The $3 offer is really worth it! It's usually around $6. So pop by cine to get your $3 drink. And if you're feeling wu liao you can pretend that you're name is Audrey and see if they spell it as ODRI again. lol!!

Gloria Jean's and Starbucks Green Tea Ice Blended

The Gloria Jean's branch right outside cine is selling their ice-blended drinks for a mere $3 nett from 12 noon to 12 midnight. I got the original chocolate ice blended. Super worth it since they usually sell it for $6 plus! But then again, it's so freaking hot so no one wants to brave the heat and sit outside. They should really aircondition their seating area...

Ever since Urban had their free Starbucks Green Tea Soy Latte page (I bought a copy of the straits times just for the free soy latte), I've been unhealthily addicted to their green tea soy latte ice blended, which costs a ghastly $6.50. Somehow,I've failed making it at home using Nutrisoy and my green tea powder. Anyway, today I forced myself away from the enticing green Starbucks sign at Paragon, and I was happily rewarded by an ice blended drink at 50% of the price at GJ.

The picture above is Starbucks clever marketing ploy to get more people to splurge on their drinks, cos they're so delicious. This is the green tea ice blended with Java chips. Very yummy lucky I was full from my reunion lunch so I wasn't tempted.

I'm such a sucker for green tea ice blended drinks :(

must. save. money.

Calpico

It's exam time (5 more days YIKES!) and I'm fueling my brain (and destroying my pancreas) with the wonders of Calpico. Apparently, if you're studying, you shouldn't eat sugar-free sweets - having real sugar is supposed to be better since your brain uses glucose. My calpico doesn't seem to be working though...

I've armed myself with two 1.5L calpicos (super huge - Im still on my first one), and 1 small can of fizzy calpico. It's a Japanese soft drink made of lots of high fructose corn syrup, some milk/yoghurt and tastes "refreshingly sweet and tangy" .

Check out the nutrition facts - evey 500ml gives you about 220 calories and 54g of sugar - I think coke has about 13g of sugar for every 100ml - this is double o_O and I don't even drink normal coke I drink coke zero!

It doesn't come cheap though - since it's imported from Japan, the 1.5L bottle will set you back 8 bucks!.And I think the 500ml one costs $3-something. If you want to kill your pancreas, go to either Iseatan or Mediya supermarket - lots of Calpicos there.