Poulet

As much as I hate being unadventurous and boring, I do quite like Poulet for it's accessibility, affordability and acceptable food. 

 I really like their signature salad (about $10) which is very refreshing and lightly dressed, so much so that we had to order a second one to share cos it wasn't enough...

 The truffle mashed potatoes were awesome but then the consistency makes me really worried that there may be a 1:1 ratio of potatoes to butter.

 Since this was about 2 months ago too, it was Christmas and we decided to try their apple sauce chicken wings, which were quite unmemorable. I think there was some promo so we got it...

 And of course, their chicken, which was tender and nicely roasted. Hasn't disappointed me and I've tried it about 3-4x since they opened. Just too lazy to blog about it heh.

Poulet didn't have their awesome banana crumble that they used to have - so we adjourned to St Marcs cafe for some delicious parfaits - I wouldn't recommend the strawberry parfait cos it was way too sweet and only had frozen strawberries... but the Kyoto delight which I usually have (in the background) is really delicious especially with the Warabi mochi pieces that I really love and the roasted soybean flour. Mmmmm

Sakuraya @ Westcoast Plaza

Here's what I had for Christmas dinner with my family - somehow my family is very un-festive so we usually eat Japanese or Chinese during Christmas and Indian for our CNY dinner (but not the extended family one cos my grandmother will protest). Of course, since I was on call on Christmas eve, all these lovely goodies were eaten through my post-call daze, which somehow makes food taste less good than sleep... I suppose I have bad luck which even bathing cannot get rid of.

Lots of fresh fish . We had the scallops and the cockles (top left) though we didn't attempt a whole fish even though the counter lady kept recommending the red one over the top right hand corner.

Many more sashimi packs - choose anything and they will prepare it for you

Loved the little orange pile of uni (sea urchin) which was reasonably fresh (though definitely not the freshest) and the bloody cockle, which is the super-sized version of the sea haam we get in char kway teow here. Tastes much cleaner too! And we had 2 different types if scallops - one's a razor scallop which is a rather big skewed looking shell, about 1.5 times a whole hand (my hand at least) and the normal kind of scallop which was sweeter and had a smoother and softer texture. We also got a nice pack of oysters at $11 per box. They were clean tasting, creamy and fresh (though, like the uni, not as fresh as some I've tasted) but it's reasonable freshness for the price. Ate this with ponzu sauce, which is my favourite way to eat raw oysters.They also had the 'fish sperm' (technically it's fish testicles I think?) which is cholesterol laden super creamy tasting and melt in the mouth. Looks a bit like brain (though I haven't had the opportunity to try brain before) and I like the way theyh prepare it wiht ponzu sauce, some spicy radish and finely sliced spring onions.
Those round disc shape (white and purple) are the bubble-gum chewy raw octopus. I dislike the rubbery boiled ones that's usually found at the take away sushi counters cos they're always tasteless and have such a tough texture that makes them a chore to eat. Fresh octopus doesn't have much more taste, but the texture is less tough and it remindes me a bit of ika (squid) but slightly more chewy. I think I will stick to the prepared chopped octopus marinated with sauce and wasabi from now on.
In the back, we have mekajiki (used to hate this but now it's on my top 3 most favourite sashimi), kampachi and hamachi as well as salmon. It was really too much sashimi so we ended up taking back some of the salmon and kampachi (though they all disappeared from the fridge really fast). Felt like I was eating a sashimi buffet here...Seafood handroll - nothing special but the rice is pretty nice. I don't think they toast their seaweed though...

We ended up eating so much at Sakuraya that we ended up paying enough to get a decent Christmas set at a nice restaurant. Super fresh Sashimi washed down with sake always makes for a yummy meal. Sakuraya offers fresh sashimi at very reasonable prices (think of the Isetan/Mediya supermarket price) but with casual restaurant style service.

Sakuraya Fish Mart

154 West Coast Road

#B1-50/51/52 West Coast Plaza

Tel: +65 6773 6973

Sushi Tei - West Coast Plaza

Blogger was being so irritating and not letting me upload photos - if not I would have blogged about my dinner at Hibiki. But since it keeps telling me internal error, I shall just do a short post on Sushi Tei.

My negitoro don ($10) from Sushi Tei. There are 3 grades of tuna belly - toro, chutoro and otoro - and otoro is the most expensive and toro being the cheapest (but still expensive) grade of tuna belly. I think I still prefer eating my negitoro in maki (the small little rolls with seaweed) or temaki (handroll) style. Somehow, it just seems weird to scoop the very moist, pastey negitoro up with my rice.They're having some lunch promo, where you can top up a few dollars for additional side dishes. I think my Califonia Maki and Chawanmushi costs $3 to top up. Other add-ons include miso soup, rice, udon etc from $3 to $4.50.

I haven't been to Sushi Tei in a while and I completely forgot that they serve Green Tea for free. Plus, they're really attentive and constantly refill it. Perhaps it's only cos West Coast Plaza is pretty new and the sushi tei is pretty empty still.

Sushi Tei

154 West Coast Road

#01-69 West Coast Plaza

Tel: 6775 0012

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

Billy Bombers

Help! I've developed a very unhealthy liking for Billy Bomber's Chocolate Malt Milkshake and Red Skin Potato Salad!It all started with the UOB offer (so gimmicky but I'm such a sucker for all these offers) 6 buffalo wings at 50% off if you order 2 main courses. It's usually $13.90++. It comes in either spicy or tangy sauce (we tried tangy), and look at the amount of oil!! The wings are very crispy, but it's a bit too dry inside. (Actually I don't know if the offer's still on, cos I ate this before christmas).Mixed grill ($22.90++) - the first time I ate at Billy Bombers I ate this (cos Annalisa had a 1for1 mixed grill voucher - last time it used to come with steak but they've taken that off). It comes with a juicy chicken sausage, 2 extremely fatty pieces of streaky bacon (which I don't like), 2 lamb chops, 1 chicken breast with BBQ sauce and a sunny side up egg. Sides are either fries or their potato salad, and seasonal vegetables. This is some Honey Chicken dish (can't remember the exact name but it has honey) and it costs $20.90++

The chicken is very juicy, and the batter has a nice honey after taste. It's really huge and you'll get 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks, and coleslaw and the delicious potato salad (again).The chocolate malt milkshake ($6.90++, add $1++ for malt) is just so thick and yummy, and I like the Malt part. I have to blame it on Carl Jr's Chocolate Malt Shake too - that got my Milkshake craving started :( I have a great weakness for malted stuff, when I see MALT shake on the menu I'll feel like getting it. I'm going to get a heart attack at this rate. And it's so nice thick and chocolatey - actually I think I can make this myself at home with the Malt and maybe I should just make a horlicks milkshake :D Must remember to buy horlicks powder...

Billy Bomber's is really smart - they give all these Merry Christmas lucky draw things, and you'll win a voucher, which entices you back. So far, I've won two $28 discount vouchers (with min spending of $56), a $8 discount voucher (min spending of $16), a free brownie and ice cream (with min spending of $8.90), as well as four vouchers of $15 off for every $30 spent at BillyBombers Jurong Point Outlet (cos they are shifting to another location within Jurong Point).

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone actually goes to Billy Bombers for the 'American Diner' theme - their seats remind me of those super old cars, and their pseudo jukeboxes at every table. At least their food's pretty good (or average) and it's clean.

Jurong Point Shopping Center #02-24

Tel 67957690

Marina Square #02-176

Tel 73384797

Haiz I want to buy 2 different CDs, and somehow whenever I want to say Il Divo I'll say Il Lido instead :X

Ju Shing Jung Korean BBQ Restaurant

Ju Shin Jung is a large, brightly lit korean bbq restaurant, with a pretty large dining area. For $9.90++, the Set Lunch special gives you a choice of main (6 choices inclusive of Grilled Saba, Clear beef rib soup, Hot Stone Bowl Rice aka Bibimbap, Spicy Tofu Soup, Spicy Chicken Soup, Soup/spicy cold noodles) with complimentary side dishes and dessert.

Colourful spread of Korean starters, we had 6 people, so this was for 3. No refills. (I love Crystal Jade Korean - free refills rocks! Esp the Kimchi :)
This is my very dismal Bibimbap. There's just vegetables and an egg inside. When I saw it, I was really very disappointed - lettuce in bibimbap??? Well, the bibimbap was really one of the worst ones I've tasted.

Before I ordered this, I actually asked the waitress if there was any beef inside the bibimbap (the purpose of this was that if there was beef, I would request for it to be changed to chicken). The waitress told me that it's all vegetables and an egg. BUT, to my horror later, the soup which comes with it was beef, which she didn't have the initiative or decency to bother to mention at all. I didn't realise it was beef (cos most of the other places serve it with some seaweed soup) until I drank 2 spoons of it. Really bad service and lousy waitress!This is the Spicy Chicken Soup, which had 4 pieces of chicken skin (minus the meat) and 1 piece of meat. Very un-worth it especially since it was 10 bucks for soup.
Clear Beef Soup, which was a hot favourite - apparently the beefy taste was very strong and the soup was very robust. Complimentary dessert, which was heart shaped watermelon. At least they took the effort to make it look nice (though it won't even count as 1 serving of fruit). It also came with a free Korean Cinnamon-Ginger drink, which I liked, but no one else did. The cinnamon taste is really very strong, and the ginger leaves a warm feeling in your throat. It was pretty sweet though.

I suppose that I should come back to try the BBQ, which has pretty good reviews on Hungrygowhere. We had to sadly rush back to school for lect, and we couldn't possibly go back reeking of bbq meats. Oh well, at least it's near school.

The set lunch is really not value for money. Seoul Yummy (in Novena, not some ulu out of the way West Coast place) can provide set lunch with a heaping pile of Hot plate chicken for $9.90, but Ju Shing Jung is provinding rubbish for the same price. Bah!

I was just searching hungrygowhere for the address for Ju Shin Jung, and I just realized that it's 7.3/10 for 16 reviews. I'm genuinely suprised - thought it'll be much lower. Perhaps it's just the set lunch? Becuase the bbq looks really tempting - and the reviews on the BBQ are good. I probably ate the wrong thing (set lunch = yucks!)

Ju Shin Jung Korean Charcoal BBQ

27 West Coast Highway

#01-18/19 Yess Centre

Tel: 6464 0872

Bistro 103

I'm so happy that my holidays are finally here :D Real holidays for 3 weeks - the last proper one we had was last yr :S I look forward to


About a week ago, I tried Bistro 103, which is located at 103 Pasir Panjang Road. It's quite a short distance from the other end of South Buona Vista Road (great for the 1.5hr lunches cheooooooong!) It's a homely little restaurant run by this couple. Prices quoted are nett - no service charge or gst here and their prices are really reasonable for the food you're getting.
Salt and pepper squid - breaded squid balls which came with a special chilli mayonnaise. The chilli mayonnaise was really yummy, as was the bread part of the breaded squid balls - I really like the cubed kind of bread for deepfried breaded stuff :D I can't remember how much this costs (seems to be happenning alot) but it's probably about $6.
This is the pasta that my 2 food-hunting-food-loving friends were raving about - the Crabmeat Pasta with Salmon. It comes in 3 different kinds of sauces - Tomato, Cream and Red Pesto, but the Red Pesto was sold out that day. So my second choice was Tomato. For $15.20, you'll get a huge plate of pasta with chunky tomato crabmeat sauce, and a piece of panfried salmon. The sauce is not too salty, but I found it a little too sweet for my liking. However, I really liked the huge bits of tomatoes, celery, onions etc inside the sauce. I found the panfried salmon suprisingly tender and it went very well with the tomato sauce.
Of course, using the excuse of having to review more dishes, I pinched some of the cream sauce too - the goodness of having a blog (^u^) The cream is not the rich pure cream kind - instead, it's consistency seems somewhat closer to bechamel sauce. It makes the dish easier to stomach, and you won't feel too bloated or full from the heaviness of the cream. The taste of the sauce is also enhanced by the fried garlic bits.
This is the BBQ pork ribs($24) which smelt really lovely. The moment it arrived at our table, the delicious aroma of BBQ sauce mixed with chargrilled ribs warfted around and got all of our appetites up.

The ribs are meaty and full (none of those scrawny runty looking ones) and the meat is firm and juicy. It doesn't fall off the bone as easily like Cafe Cartel's (which I think it slightly too soggy), but has just the right firmness for ribs. Think Bak Ku Teh kind of ribs. Of course, the marinade is really good for a savoury, smoky bbq taste. Overall, other than the too-sweet Tomato Sauce for my Spaghetti, I thought that Bistro 103 was really value for money. I would like to return to try the Red Pesto sauce, which sounds so interesting, especially since it sold out during lunch! I think that they're slightly under-staffed- it's just 4 staff (including the cook) for the whole restaurant, and I think they're not prepared for the crowd that they're getting.

Michellelim star rating:

Bistro 103
103 Pasir Panjang Road
Tel: 6476 6373

Bao Gong Fish Head

Haiz we had sooo much trouble looking for Bao Gong Fish Head Bee Hoon Coffeeshop! Cos we didn't have any idea where it was, and didn't have an address, except that it was near the market, and must cross the road?!! Anyway, we stumbled upon Sheng Xiong Supermarket (which I have never seen before, but its very cheap! It's like a supermarket-market) where we found this guy who know where BAOGONG was. The Clementi ppl kept giving us weird looks when we asked them where BAOGONG XO fishead beehoon was (o-_-o) sounds so horrible right

We ordered their famous fishead beehoon, the main reason why I went was because I wanted to go and compare it to the Commonwealth/Holland DriveXO fishhead beehoon.

We also ordered the mushroom kailan. Which wasn't very fantastic actually, and I think it was Chinese New Year so it was more expensive.
Prawn Paste Chicken. There wasn't enough prawn paste cos we could barely smell it, but the chicken was very nice, as all deep fried chicken wings are.
The much anticipated awaited XO fish slice beehoon. The XO smell was quite strong, but we all found the soup too sugary sweet for our liking. They must have put lots of sugar inside, cos the soup was really sweet. No wonder why all the diabetic patients can't eat outside food - cos there's really to much sugar inside, wanton mee also add sugar... The fish wasn't as fresh as the HV one.

Even though the XO fishead beehoon wasn't as nice as the HV one, I think this place wins hands down for the service. The boss and employers at the HV place are always so black faced and rude and grumpy! This place has happy employees.

BaoGong

Tel 67789301

Near Ginza plaza area