Mango Nectarines

"Sweet, sweet, sweet, the Mango Nectarine is a unique treat. Bright canary yellow in colour and sweet to the taste. With just a hint of tropical mango flavour. "

When I saw this at Cold Storage last week, I knew I definitely had to try cos I love mangoes and nectarines. I was there debating if I should spend my $10+ (yes it's frigging 10 plus for 4 only!) on them but I decided to treat myself since it's before my exam!Unfortunately, I've just read up online, and the Mango Nectarine has no relation to mango! I was thinking along the lines of a plumcot (plum crossed with apricots) when I bought this - actually, thinking about it, I suppose it'll be insanely hard to cross a mango with a nectarine... Of course, the taste was fantastic! Insanely juicy (think juices running all over your hand) and slightly fibrous and extremely tasty - there's a slight tart taste when you first eat it and then later the sweet juices will flow out. It tastes more like a nectarine - actually, I can hardly taste any mango but it's a really fanatstic nectarine.

Apparently the season for Mango Nectarines is extremely short, and the season is predicted to end on early August. So hurry down to get your Mango Nectarines today!

Haiz! I don't know why all the doughnut peaches are so expensive! It's like$2.50 per piece from Cold Storage. They're my favouritest fruit ever! Alongside Japanese Grapes and Japanese Strawberries, I also like nectarines and peaches. Ahh I really should go for a holiday to some temperate country during summer and gourge myself on peaches nectarines plums cherries strawberries mangoes apricots etc etc etc...

BBQ Chicken (Cineleisure)

The whole 100% Olive Oil deep fried chicken thing sounds really gimmicky to me. Olive oil has a really low smoke point, I've tried using it to stir fry my pasta sauce, and it started smoking alot! But than again, maybe it's another kind? Ok I don't particularly like cooking so I shant comment anymore.
The chicken has exceeded my (low) expectations, and I would even say that it's pretty good! It's the kind that's just cooked, extremely tender, juicy and bursting with oil. Best of all, there's ginseng flavoured powder sprinkled over the chicken to give it a unique Korean taste.

We tried the Ginseng Flavoured chicken The set lunch is $15 after extra charges, for 2 pieces of good sized chicken, fries and coleslaw, and it came with corn soup, a free drink and a scoop of ice cream.

It's pretty cheap if you think in terms of it being a restaurant which serves you at your table, but it's ex if you're comparing to KFC and Popeyes and other fast food chains. In terms of taste, the ginseng powder could be more generous - the ginseng powder is pretty sparse, and while eating the chicken, I'll sometimes hit a spot with lots of powder, and at others, there's no ginseng taste at all.

The coleslaw beats KFC's hands down cos it's so much fresher, doesn't have that weird stale cabbage smell and has huger cabbage pieces instead of cabbage bits.

The fries are nothing to rave about.
I'm very sure that if BBQ Chicken was out when I was in secondary school, I'll have a huge atherosclerotic plaque stuck in my arteries...

Early in the morning (at about 11am, which is pretty early for anything inside Cineleisure), while the screens outside the Cathay Ticketbooths are showin *gasp* Hi Five (seriously, they were showing Hi-5!!! And not the usual movie trailers!) BBQ cuicken is playing disturbing videos of Korean boybands on their projector... Lucky they're not blasting the music so the place is rather peaceful.

BBQ Chicken
8 Grange Road
#B1-04/05
Cathay Cineleisure Orchard

Asian Kitchen - Vivocity

I always thought that Asian Kitchen in Vivocity was a branch of the similar looking restaurant in Raffles City, till I checked my old post - it's completely different actually, just that the restaurant interior is really very similar, with lots of wood and reds and the menu is also very red. But what a relief that it isn't, since the food here was way below my expectations.

Prawn Wanton Noodle Soup ($6.70)
Juicy wanton with thin skin (I hate the thick skinned kind) with a tasty prawn broth and noodles. Pretty ok for $6.70 but not extremely memorable.
Moonlight Horfun ($10.70)

This has lots and lots of noodles, but very little ingredients. Plus, it was very oil. The Teahouse one at Raffles City beats this hands down. They have similar names too! No wonder why I got confused. I was pretty shocked (after eating my meal) cos the food standards were totally different. It's called Moonlight Horfun because the egg is uncooked and you can stir it in yourself. If you're scared of salmonella, you can always request the chef to fry you egg into the noodles.

Chef Foo Eggplant ($7.70)
According to the menu, it's their chef's magical concoction of sauces. To me it's just a super salty soya sauce based gravy, drenching a pitiful amount of egg plant. It's daylight robbery eating this dish - it's even more expensive than the prawn wanton soup! And it's just eggplant... Don't eat this if you have hypertension - not only will the over salted egg plant increase your blood pressure, the feeling after you eat it might make your blood pressure rise too!

Guo Tie ($5.90 for 6)
The Guo Tie was crispy and juicy, pretty good but then again, guo tie isn't my most favourite dish.
Banana, Sago and Coconut Milk Dessert ($3.80)
Skip this - it's extremely sweet and thick coconut milk (more like coconut cream) with a small amount of sago and 5 small, thin slices of banana. It's totally not worth the $3.80 (before service charge somemore).

The only redeeming factor for the restaurant is that the service is pretty good - efficient and the waitreses are quick and attentive, and they fill up your water real quick even though business was brisk.
The interior really looks like Teahouse in Raffles City! Kena conned thought it was the same restaurant:(
The Asian Kitchen
1 Harbour Front Walk
#B2-29 Vivo City
Singapore 098585
Tel 63769623

Epicurious

We actually wanted to try Brown Sugar (cos of the consistently good reviews, and on Julie's recommendation) but then unfortunately, it was fully booked the day before. So next in line was Epicurious. Fortunately, or I'd wouldn't have the opportunity to try affordable and good food.

It's a pretty hard to find (for 1st timers) location, but it's wedged between 2 japanese restaurants, along the river, and quite near to butter factory. Soup of the day - Mushroom Soup $5. Though the soup wasn't the memorable kind, the best part of it was the cheesy garlic bread. The delicious freshly baked bubbly cheese smell made everyone salivate. The mushroom soup itself was pretty creamy, with lots of mushroom bits and onions, worth the $5 since it's a good sized portion.
Beef Carpaccio with Truffle Oil, Rocket and Shaved Parmesan, whcih was an affordable $12.50.Vietnamese Bolognaise ($16), spaghetti with minced chicken, chillies and lemongrass. It's a pretty refreshing change for normal spaghetti, the lemongrass, chillies and fish sauce (? not sure if it's fish sauce since fish sauce is thai?) went really well with shaved parmesan. At $16, it's a good sized portion with lots of minced chicken. The famed Epicurious Beef Burger ($18) whcih comes with a special house made beef patty, sauteed onions, mushrooms and fries. It was an unanimous agreement (amongst the 4 people who ate it) that it was very delicious and completely worth the price. You can also top up the burger with cheese, bacon or egg for $2 each or $4 for all 3. It's highly recommended that you top up your burger with cheese. French Country-style beef stew ($18) was the next hot favourite - tender cubes of beef simmered with herbs, vegetables in a robust red wine sauce.
This is the grilled king salmon fillet ($20) which comes with a choice of side (sauteed potatoes, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, french fries, garlic bread, creamed spinach, sauteed mushrooms, grilled vegetables, ratatouille or garden salad) Out of these mind-boggling choices, we ended up with the ratatouilee (since nearly everyone watched the show and wanted to try it) but it was not really to our liking cos it was pretty soggy. The salmon didn't dissappoint - it was juicy and tender, and completely not dry ( I hate having dry salmon fillets).
Apple Crumble, topped with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's a steal at $7, and the portion will put other dessert stores to shame. Though the crumble layer is pretty thin, the whole bowl is full of delicious chopped green apples, for a refreshing finish to the meal.
Chocolate mousse ($7)

This is intensely chocolatey, and has a slightly powdery/grainy texture. It's very delicious - and it's like eating a whole bar of delicious cold chocolate, but minus the sore throat after that, since it doesn't leave that sticky, gross sensation you get after eating too much chocolate bars.

I will definitely return for more chocolate mousse - I suppose I can use this as my dessert substitute for the Chocolate Factory.

Epicurious is a good place if you're looking for above average food with decent and affordable prices. It proves that good food doesn't have to come with a hefty price tag. The restaurant has a relaxed environment and the service is good - the staff are knowledgable and willing to help you if you can't decide what to eat. If you want to sit in the aircon area (the kitchen is an open concept so do note that you'll have a food smell after eating inside) the seats are pretty limited. The al fresco area is much bigger. They serve water too. Last orders are 93opm, and they will try to close the restaurant by 10pm.

After Epicurious, I've decided to try cheaper places which has good and affordable food. There's so many new restaurants and cafes around to try, AND julie has such a long list of new things to eat I doubt I'll be able to try even half of those on her list.

Epicurious
#01-02 The Quayside,

60 Robertson Quay

Singapore 238252

t 65 67347720

Opening Hours:

Tuesday - Friday 11.30am - 2.30pm , 5.30pm - 9.30pm

Saturday & Sunday 9.00am - 9.30pm

Smok'inn Frogz Kitchen

Finally tried Smok'inn Frogz Kitchen after all the rave reviews in the papers and by other bloggers. While eating there, I realized how brilliant the person who started Bar Bar Black sheep is! There's a total of 3 food stalls there - Smok'inn Frogz, Emerald Thai and this Indian shop, and the bar. Of course, whoever eats there will have to buy drinks from the bar since there isn't any drink stalls. I'm quite sure he also figured that the people living along Bukit Timah didn't have enough food (apart from 6th Ave and the Chun Tin row, as well as the Bukit Timah Market, which is always incredibly packed on weekends) and were willing to pay higher-than-normal prices for the conveneince... I'm quite sure that's why Couderoy and Finch was so popular when they first started.

Price wise, it's definitely cheaper than the small al fresco Brewerkz outlet just 50m down.


Caesar Salad ($8) This wasn't very fantastic - it's hard to find good caesar salad these days. I wouldn't have ordered this ordinarily, but I just felt like having caesar salad that day. It's a pretty small portion for $8, and with no eggs, just iceberg lettuce, cheese and topped with fake bacon bits.
French Onion Soup (I think it's $4 or $5?) which packed full of tender onions. Grilled Chicken Burger ($12) - lots of chicken (the real thing, not the processed patty) in a tangy slightly spicy thai dressing. There's alot of chicken so I'll be willing to pay the $12 bucks. Of course, if you're comparing this to Astons, I think Astons is cheaper. The sesame bun is lightly toasted, buttered, and the burger is complete with tomatoes, lettuce and raw onion rings. The mashed potatoes are creamy and buttery, and the daily salad is tossed in vinaigrette dressing. Do note that if you see this place as a coffeeshop, you will find the prices very steep, and if you think of it as an al fresco cafe, it'll be cheap. In my opinion, it's slanting towards the coffeeshop side. But then again, cofffeeshops don't have cloth and wooden chairs... I would definitely go back to eat the burger, but I won't recommend you trudging across half of Singapore. It's great tasting for convenience and free parking.
It's 3 stars but I'll definitely go back again (some time when I'm free-er) since it's so near my house. It's like Astons(the 1st branch in Katong)- the food's good but then not deserving enough for me to trudge halfway across the island.

Its great that there are so many new food stalls popping up over Bukit Timah - like Astons 6th Ave :)

Smok'Inn Frogz Kitchen
879 Bukit Timah Road
(Near Forture Seafood Restaurant, turn in by Maple Avenue)

Blue Lobster Seafood Restaurant

Random quotes from this amusing tutor -

Tutor: If you pray alot, will you get osteoporosis? (He was thinking on the lines of the Pope John Paul)
Student: No you'll get Clergyman's knee


Tutor (trying to find a picture on google): The internet here's as slow as a snail on vailum


Tried Blue Lobster at Frankel Avenue - it's well worth the long journey from my house. Blue Lobster specializes in seafood, and it's located along the same row of shops as Gourmet Plus.

The Lobster Thermidor is supposed to be a hot seller, but it costs a hefty sum (around 60 bucks or thereabout), which I was unwilling to part with (since there was set lunch).
On Thursdays, freshly shucked oysters go for a mere $1 per piece, but then when we were there for lunch, there weren't any oysters cos the supply hadn't arrived:/


There was a citibank 1 for 1 set lunch - we ended up paying $35 in total for 2 people. VERY worth it! :) Considering that I was expecting the set lunch to be around Au Petit Salut's set lunch price.

Foccacia bread starter. Very soft and lightly toasted.
Mushroom Soup with White Truffle Oil. The moment I heard 'with white truffle oil, I instantly decided that soup was better than salad. There's lots of mushroom and the truffle oil goes really well with the soup. There is also a small serving of caramellized onions, which tastes great with their soft foccacia bread.
My crab meat Aglio Olio - it's pretty oily, with tasty morsels of crab and tongue numbing chilli padi for a spicy zing. But I must say that I regretted ordering this when the chargrilled fish came.
Grilled Hoki (hokee?? not sure how to spell) The fish is extremely fresh, juicy and lightly grilled. It's exactuly how I like my fish to be done, just slightly dressed with a bit of sauce, but not too much that it masks the freshness of the fish. Fantastic.

It came with either pumpkin or sweet potato mash, I couldn't really tell but it was creamy, not too starchy and a refreshing change from the normal mashed potatoes.

Raspberry Parfait - it's like a non-meltable ice cream which has the texture of mousse and filled with crunchy nuts.



The interior of the restaurant is simple, and service is quick and efficient. Our water was topped up constantly, and the waiter (who recommended the fish) came to ask us how we liked it - he was as pleased as punch when we said the fish was great.


The fish here is really fantastic - I'll highly recommend that you hurry down to catch their Citibank 1for1 offer before it's gone.

87 Frankel Avenue

Singapore 458215

Tel: 64425090

Au Petit Salut

Part of French dining is the fancy unpronounceable dishes in the menu.
Bisque de homard Lobster bisque with tarragon and lobster ravioli $16
I can't remember much of this starter (cos it wasn't mine) but it's very creamy, shellfish sweet and tasty.

Chèvre frais tiède en rémoulade

Warm goat cheese salad with celeriac rémoulade, baby spinach and tomato confit ($15)

The celeriac rémoulade is some root vegetable, and it's quite crunchy and has a slight wasabi taste. It goes very well with the creamy goat's cheese.

Cassolette de raviole de Royans et champignons sauvages au vin rouge
Mini cheese raviolis and wild mushrooms “Cassolette” in red wine reduction with fresh herbs ($18)
This starter was very rich and filling and very very cheesy.

Salade de homard et crabe aux asperges vertes
Steamed Boston lobster and crab meat salad served with green asparagus, mesclun and tarragon dressing ($28)
I can't remember how this tastes :/
Demi-douzaine d’escargots de Bourgogne
Half dozen baked Burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter ($12)
Of course, the Au Petit Salut snails, the delicious tomato and garlic butter goes fantastically well with their bread.
Risotto aux homard et St-JacquesSeared
Boston lobster and scallops risotto with fresh herbs and lobster emulsion ($36)
I really liked this dish because I like lobster and risotto and it's creamy and has the intense flavour of shellfish stock.
Petit loup de l'Atlantique rôti entier au four
Oven baked whole baby French seabass "butterfly" served with mixed greens and fennel salad, thyme and Nicoise vignaigrette
I tend not to like to order fish in restaurants cos it's so much cheaper when done at home. Of course this is French fish but I thought it wasn't very fantastic, but I'm biased already.

Caille rôtie, farçie aux Foie Gras et champignons sauvages

Oven roasted French quail stuffed with duck Foie Gras and wild mushrooms, mashed potatoes and brown jus ($32)

Despite the mediocre looks, this dish was my second favourite (and even better since I ordered it for my main) . Wobbly Foie Gras cooked and stuffed into pigeon, with tasty mushrooms and creamy mashed potatoes. Look at all the yummy foie gras inside! I like warm foie gras so wobbly and oozey... I'm going to get fatty liver... It's amazing how duck liver tastes so good when pig liver has this weird biley taste.
Charlotte fraises et framboises au Champagne et biscuit Rosé de Reims

French “Tiramisu” pink sponge biscuits soaked in Champagne fresh strawberries and raspberries ($14)

This was an interesting change to the normal tiramisu that I eat. Is French Tiramisu really different from Italian ones? The champagne taste went very well with the lucious cream and strawberries. (Clarie - its your perfect dessert! )

Assiette de desserts Degustation plate of desserts

Warm chocolate cake, profiterole, gingerbread, crème brulée, strawberry sorbet ($28)

Hehe I ordered this (to share of course!) cos I wanted to try more desserts. The strawberry sorbet was delicious! But the gingerbread wasn't fantastic. I'd rather eat this only than the lobster salad for the same price.Au Petit has never dissappointed me, taste and service wise. This is my first time having dinner at Au Petit, but I'm very sure it'll remain an occasional affair. Menu discriptions from the Au Petit Salut website, (no way that I can memorise and type out all that fancy French names :P) Do visit the website for lunch and dinner menus for the month.

40C Harding Road (Minden Cluster)
For reservations, please call 6475-1976
To get a dinner reservation, I would suggest that you book at least a week in advance to ensure you secure a table, especially for weekends.