Ramen Santouka

my hp is giving me alot of stress - the camera sucks even though it's supposed to be 3 megapix but then the photos come out so horrible. So I have resorted to making Annalisa take photos with her sony ericsson hp. I like sony ericsson hps - the next phone I buy will confirm be one of the K series cos their cameras are super super good! Boo to HTC (the camera part)! Photos in this post courtesy of Annalisa's hp.Went to Central (last week I think) and had ramen from Santouka which I have been hearing about (for eons already, just didn't have the time) and dying to try. I think we happened to have an early day and zipped down - didn't have to pay for ERP either since we were there before 12 :)Of course, since lunch trips are a rarity now, I got myself the highly recommended Tokusen Toroniku (Choice Pork) Ramen ($18++). It's the must-try dish here - roasted pork cheeks which are tender and bursting with flavour and melt in the mouth. According to the menu, pork cheeks are really valuable since only 200-300 g of cheek meat per pig. The ramen base comes in 4 different flavours: Shio (salt flavour), shoyu (soy sauce), Miso (soybean paste flavour) and kara-miso (spicy soybean paste flavour). I tried the miso flavour, it's not too salty, very milky and robust and incredibly satisfying.
The ramen comes in 3 sizes, for a smaller bowl you take $1 off the menu price, and add $2 for a large bowl. Small on the left and regular on the right. The special basket from Japan that was featured in life! sometime back... its not my bag though.



Though I really like the 9 nuts (or was it 7?) ramen from Marutama, I think this will be a better place to bring the not so ramen inclined people to cos they have a wider selection of ramen and there are other mains besides ramen.

The restaurant is brightly lit and overlooks the Singapore River. Cold water is provided in abundance - a huge jug of it is left at your table for your convenience.

Ramen Santouka

6 Eu Tong Sen St

#02-76 The Central

Singapore 059817

Tel 62240668

Jade Palace

It's super hard trying to maintain my blog during school days especially since my day starts at 7 or 8 and the traffic and parking is crazy...

Appetiser was Crispy Silver Fish ($8.80) which is deep fried to golden brown pieces. Much better than the one at East Ocean. Australian Sea Whelk ($8) - I didn't quite like this dish cos of the weird tastes and textures. The whelk reminds me of those abalone mushrooms, which has a slightly meaty texture, and the sauce tastes a bit like that you'll find in braised duck rice... I actually wanted to say it's good for vegeterians cos of the meaty texture ... till I realised that Whelk is meat too...
This dish brings back happy memories - it's the first time I ever tasted truffle oil. Light and fluffy egg whites with sweet juicy scallops and with aromatic truffle oil. When I eat those egg white scallop dishes in other restaurants, I will no doubt be thinking of the yummy scallop and egg whites with truffle oil from Jade Palace. However, it comes with a whopping price tag of $32, for about 4 scallops... Broccoli with Mushrooms and Fish Maw ($30) - I think it's completely unworth it to eat vegetables in restaurants. Especially mushrooms - even though muchrooms are much cheaper now, restaurants still charge a premium (maybe they use premier mushrooms?) I actually didn't know this costs $30... I'd rather eat a set lunch at Au Petit any time... but it was very big and like most chinese dishes, theres lots and lots and lots of sauce covering everything.Braised Young Goat ($32). I thought for the price, it was much more worth it than the broccoli dish. There's lots of soft tender meat and the soup is robust and bursting with flavour. It's pretty similar to those Chinese mutton soup you get outside.
Yang Chow Fried Rice ($24)
The dessert I tried was the Mango Sago, Black Glutinous Rice (Pulut Hitam) and Ice cream all in one ($6). This is brilliant for people who can't decide what to have after the meal. Of course, they have normal mango sago with ice cream, black glutinous rice with ice cream but for me, the more the merrier.Complimentary Mango Fruit Platter Complimentary Special Daily Dessert (some lotus thing) and Malay Cake. Of course, free dessert is always good :)

As you can tell by now, the food at Jade Palace costs above average. It cost $40 per person, including the extra charges like$6 for peanuts and $6 for tea.

Jade Palace Seafood

538 Orchard Road

#B1-13

Forum Shopping Mall

Singapore 238884

Tel 67326628

Haagen Daz Fondue

The people at Haagen Daz really know how to entice people - giving their 30% off discount card with a yummylicious photo of their fondue, which is probably the most ex thing on their menu! And after staring at it for a few days, I really had to go and try.
Of course, it looks better than it tastes, or costs. It's 16 tiny balls of ice cream - can't change the flavour (it's fixed as chocolate strawberry vanilla and cookies and cream) and some fruits, and some pretty stale sponge cake (hard and crumbly), chocolate love letters amd chocolate chip cookies. The chocolate is thick and molten, but of course, not fantastic. For a better fondue, try La Fondue at Dempsey but of course, it comes with an even more expensive price tag...
Save your $43.90++ on something else - go and eat at some nice restaurant ! Everything is so ex nowadays! And all the sneaky food companies in the US are shrinking their packaging sizes on the sly!!!

Of Beijing Roast Duck Pretz and Pokka Mango Milk

The people in Beijing have really interesting foods! They have:

Pretz in Sharks Fin flavour, Beijing Roast Duck flavour

Pocky in Oolong Cha and Lychee flavour

Collon in Chestnut and Mango Pudding flavour!!!

I also want (to try)!

Anyway, the flavours are really quite authentic - it really taste like Peking Duck! Just imagine pretz and with a bit of peking duck sauce, and with the aftertaste of duck. The savoury salty taste of the pretz reminds me vaguely of chicken in a biscuit - super msg-ed and salted.

But since I was in Beijing on transit, everything was so frigging ex - its RMB 95 (SGD $19) for 12 packs (they only had big packs) of anything - so I ended up getting only 1 flavour :/ I should have gotten more on hindsight -I really want to try all the flavours! China has such interesitng foods!

and omg did you know that in dprk, they have pokka in Mango Milk - they don't even have it in Singapore.. but of course, it's found only in the tourist shops (you're not allowed to go into their everyday grogery shops) and best of all, guess what?It's produced in Singapore!!!!! - I never knew that we exported Pokka drinks out, especially to DPRK! It's really a revalation to me. But it's really very ex - about SGD $3 for a can. But no loss lah it doesn't taste that good...

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

Lawry's The Prime Rib

Hello everyone! Pardon the lack of updates -I'm back - so many things to do so little time and before I know it my 3 wks of holiday is gone and I have to wake up so super early and go to school again. Sigh!

This is a super back logged post from early June... DBS was having a 1for1 set lunch offer (or not I'll never even touch this place).
Bread Basket
Lawry's famed spinning iced bowl salad. It comes with every main course - a crisp tasty salad with beetroot, egg, croutons, cherry tomato dressed in Lawry's Vintage Dressing. Other than the taste, the second best thing about the salad is the performance. A huge metal bowl sitting in ice is wheeled to your table - and the salad ingredients are added. The bowl is then spun and the dressing is added dramatically (think teh tarik style).
Oven Baked Tenderloin- $52.80
Crispy Braised Lamb shank - it's braised, breaded and fried, but sadly, the braising breading and frying didn't make it taste any better. This was my main course but I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't like the breaded crust because it was very hard and pokey and kept poking my mouth. The flavour of the lamb wasn't really there either - just tasted quite bland and oily. It costs a whopping $46.80++ I've eaten better lamb shank for <$20 (Cafe Oliv and Secret Recipe). Side dish - creamed spinach ($6.50++)
It's very rich and has lots of bacon bits inside.

My bill came to $74.90 - ok for Lawry's but there are many other places where I can get better lunch for the same price.

My conclusion is that unless you have a fetish for young and old women in maid uniforms with crisply starched aprons and perfectly tied ribbons, or you like paying alot for your food and don't mind it being below average, Lawry's is perfect for you.




Lawry's The Prime Rib
#02-42/44 Paragon
290 Orchard Road
Singapore 238859
Tel 68363333

i'm off to kimchi and ginseng land...

will be back with updates soon:D

Sweet Secrets

Pardon my tablecloth...I'm an ardent supporter of Sweet Secrets cakes - have been eating them since primary school. They're reasonably priced - $22 for 600g, $36 for 1kg and tastes as good as some more expensive branded/hotel cakes, to me at least. Best of all, they taste fantastic - good enough to rival most other chocolate cakes. If I remember correctly, it used to be $18 for 600 g when I was still in Sec school... but I shan't be like those older people who lament so much about how their 5 cent bowls of noodles have been inflated into $3 bowls... hehe incase you're wondering why this is small it's to make it harder to read hehehe
Aiya! I just realised that my cake has all the candles! So much for trying to be forever 21! HAIZ!! (and Claire, thanks for not putting my age - guess that this is the nicst pict of my cake cos it doesn't have the ugly tablecloth).
Though it looks pretty unappetising here cos it's all melting and wet (cos it survived the long journey back and I cut it straight away without letting it chill in the fridge) picture of my half melted Etoile cake. Basically, it's a half mousse half sponge cake. The top most layer is a layer of rich bittersweet chocolate, dusted with chocolate powder. The underlayers below is a mixture of spongy chocolate cake and chocolate mousse. It's fantastic chilled (just ate some from the fridge just now) and taste very chocolatey, moussey held together in a cake shape by the sponge.

Do note that there is a little alchohol inside (but you can't taste it).

My cake is the Etoile, which is chocolate mousse and chocolate sponge, and I've also tried the Concorde (chocolate mousse, chocolate sponge and chocolate meringue) which I find too sweet but it's quite popular. They also have a Chocolate Royal which sounds pretty interesting - chocolate mousse, chocolate sponge and hazelnut crunch.

Sweet Secrets
9 Bishan Place
#B1-10 Junction 8
S(579837)
Tel 63534714

Other branches - Upper THomson Road, Serangoon Gardens, Great World City, International Plaza.
Website:http://sweetsecrets.com.sg/

Senso

Senso is located in one of those places that I find it painfully hard to access - because there's tonns of ERP gantries, lots of splits in the road and it's all one way streets (and I'm unfamiliar with the area) I get super stressed when I'm driving around Tanjong Pagar/Keppel Area :S And after all that navigation, there is a lack of carpark space - or if there is a space, its a parallel lot next to a big drain on a hill.

Senso offers valet parking - at a small sum (compared to your dinner) of $8 .

The dining area is divided into al fresco dining (in the court yard, which has lots of vegetation, fountains and looks real windy and nice) and a larger airconed dining area further inside. Bread Basket

Complimentary starter - smoked salmon and crisped onions, with black pepper.
Asparagi e scampi ($26) - Steamed white asparagus and baked langoustines (fancy name for Norway Lobster) served with morel mushrooms and butter emulsion. I thought that the scampi was too soggy and aneroxic.
Minestrone Soup ($16) was a hearty soup full of chopped vegetables, not too salty but very flavourful. It's a huge bowl for $16 so I think it's pretty worth the price (unlike the tiny lobster thing above).

Senso Mozzarella ($24) - wrapped in parma ham and fried. I had very high hopes for this dish because all the reviews I read recommended this - but the higher you expect, the harder you fall. The smokey salty parma ham went well with the mozzarella, but I had expected it to taste more exciting - like oozing when I cut it (it didn't ooze at all or form those gooey cheesey strands).
This is the best dish of the night - the Sea Urchin and Caviar Angel Hair Pasta with Saffron Cream Sauce($28). If I had just this dish for dinner, I'd have given the restaurant 4.5/5 stars. The angel hair was cooked al dente, infused in the saffron cream sauce, with uni (my favourite food ever!) and with little black beads of caviar. I want to eat this again:)
Sardinian Mussels Spaghetti ($28) - was dissappointing. Apart from the tender mussels, the spaghetti was overcooked, and the noodles were very bland - There was none of the sweetness I expected from the shellfish in the noodles. Perhaps it's meant to be this way? But I definitely will not order this again. Rigatoni with Rabbit meat sauce ($32). It had a very strong 'stew smell' and slightly starchy sauce. (The kind where after you cook your meat sauce you put it into the fridge uncovered and smell it the next day - but its not like this isn't fresh... it's just that the smell reminds me of this)
Cioccolata ($16) - Chocolate cake with molten centre and Pistachio ice cream. The chocolate thing was crispy on the outside, with a liquid chocolate centre - way better than Menotti's or any other chocolate larva cake I've tasted. Senso has a nicely decorated court yard where you can dine al fresco - its pretty windy too, but we sat indoors. The staff are attentive (they top up your water once you've drank an inch), knowledgable and helpful.

Overall, the dining experience came with equal hits and misses. Perhaps I will try the restaurant again in the future?

21 Club Street

Tel 62243534