Food Review: Asian Kitchen @ Vivocity

Patronised this restaurant ever since my army days a few years ago. I love their food and service. Simple, fast, delicious. One item in their menu which I really really really loves is their Avocado Snow drink. I know, I had the same reaction as most you; WHAT?! AVOCADO?! NO WAY. But seriously, I do not know why I even tried that in the first place. After 1 small sip, that was it. I loved the drink sooooooo much! It was really awesome. It is quite thick and filling though, so I recommend you to share it or reduce your order of food if you are getting this drink.

Usually I would order the avocado drink, a soup noodle dish and their "Xiao Long Bao". This time, we ordered something different. I had my usually Avocado Snow, Xiao Long Bao and their Chilli Soft Shell Crab Noodle. She had her favorite Fried Rice with Prawns. The food was excellent in my opinion. It was served fresh. Did not take too long to be served. Good ambience. Total we spent $30. And we were extremely full. 

So ya, go ahead and try out Asian Kitchen, I recommend it. And please try the Avocado Snow, I hope you fall in love with the drink like me because it is totally that nice!

SimpleMakan

Recipe: Roast Turkey, Jamie Oliver's Recipe

Almost every year, for the past maybe 5 years, my parents will order turkey from the supermarkets during Christmas. It costs about $60 and they usually give you a cold cooked whole turkey with stuffing. We then re-roast this turkey at home and eat on Christmas. My family doesn't celebrate Christmas, but we just make Christmas an excuse to indulge in turkey. To me, all these pre-cooked frozen turkeys are really horrible. They have this slight stench and they obviously do not taste fresh and juicy at all. This year, I decided to take control and roast a whole turkey myself instead of buy these crap. My dad and mum were against it. They said it was too much effort and a waste of money. My mum has done it before and she knows it takes quite a bit of effort to self-roast an uncooked turkey. And after calculations, you will realize that the money spend on the ingredients alone is more that just buying a cooked turkey.

All these did not stop me from roasting my own turkey. Being a fan of Jamie Oliver, I went to his website and looked for his turkey recipe. I went to Cold Storage to buy all the ingredients because most of the ingredients from Jamie Oliver's recipes can only be found in big Cold Storage supermarkets.

The frozen uncooked turkey that we can buy here usually takes about 3 days to defrost in the refrigerator. I followed Jamie's recipe step by step and it was very easy. Of course there are some ingredients which were out of stock, like apricots and rosemary, so I didn't add them. But other than that, my recommendation is to read the recipe over and over again and mentally understand what you are going to do so that you can plan the next steps of your preparations and cooking. If you try to follow the recipe line by line, I think you might realize that some steps should have been done earlier and some should have been done later.

Here is where I got the recipe from: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/turkey-recipes/best-roast-turkey-christmas-or-any-time

Just want to let you all know, the turkey turned out AWESOME!!! It was really really good and I have totally no regrets spending the time and money making this. It was totally worth it and I will definitely do it again anytime. My family enjoyed it very much as well. Only sad thing is that we can't get fresh turkey in Singapore.

And here is a horribly blur photo of the turkey.

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Food Review: Ying Yang Rooftop Bar

Went to Ying Yang Rooftop Bar on Christmas Eve with girlfriend and her friends. This place is near Ann Siang Road and located within Club Hotel. The place itself was very empty. I think it was because it was still very early. The ambience was not extremely cosy nor nice. It was just simple and clean. I did not really feel super comfortable there. It was just a chill-out place and thats it. We just had some drinks and shots. We ordered some food as well. The food was really freshly prepared and honestly, it was good. The serving was small, but I know from tasting that they just made it fresh when ordered and that is why it tasted quite good. Drinks wise, it is the usual but I would like to just remind you guys to ask for the price of drinks recommended by the waiters. We were ordering some shots and there was once, we asked the waiter to recommend us a drink and he recommended this drink called Choc Monk. It was good, but when the bill came, we realized it costed $52 per shot. Haha! So just remember to ask for the price first or you will be surprised in the end.

Overall, the place was fine. I would only go there if I do not have any other choice left.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Chicken Rice Shop @ Causeway Point

First time trying out the food at Chicken Rice Shop. The place was quite empty when we first went in at about 12pm but the crowd soon flooded the shop by 12.30pm. Well, the food is really nothing special at all. We bought one set meal and shared. The rice was okay, it wasn't very flavorful though. The soup tasted normal. The chicken was normal as well. The vegetables and tofu was good though. I felt they were under-staffed and the staff were mostly foreigners and could not really understand english. They were also very slow in responding to requests and at many times, did not even know what I was talking about.

All in all, I would say give this place a miss. Nothing special, expensive, not tasty. I rather pay $5 at a coffee shop.

SimpleMakan

Golden Village Gold Class Experience

I have never been to a Gold Class Movie screening before. To me, I felt it was an utter waste of money to spend $38 on a single seat for a movie, when I can simply pay $8. But my girlfriend went for a Gold Class screening before and she insisted on bringing me to watch Sherlock Holmes 2 in a Gold Class GV theater. She insisted and simply went online to book and pay without me saying anything. Very sweet of her, but at that moment, I still felt it was kind of a waste of money.

Everything changed when I stepped through the doors of the Gold Class entrance at I12 Katong shopping centre. We were running late and there was a person right there who attended to us. Immediately printing our tickets, letting us know the movie was just beginning and then walking us to our seats. OH MY GOD, THE SEATS!!!!!! WHAT THE!!!!!! I NEED THAT SEAT IN MY ROOM. Ok, sorry for digressing, back to my story. She walked us to our seat, gave us each a menu, told us where the "call button" was, showed us the button to control our seats and told us to use the discrete lighting on the centre table to read the menu. There were basically 2 gigantic ELECTRONIC reclining chairs and an oval table in the middle. We each chose a drink and some finger food while watching the movie and ordered it from the waiter. We were really treated like king and queen. No kidding. It really felt like an indulgence worth the money. The seat was super duper comfy and gigantic. They provided clean blankets to keep us warm as well. The toilets were very close by as well.

Overall, it was an exquisite experience, thanks to my girlfriend. By the end of the movie, I even told her I kind of do not have the mood to watch movies at the normal theaters anymore. :-X

This is the only photo I took in the dark. Very sorry! This post is just to tell you people to go experience Gold Class at least once because it is that awesome.

 SimpleMakan

Food Review: Soup Spoon @ I12 Katong

I tried Soup Spoon's Clam Chowder 2 years ago. It was the best I ever had. I had their Clam Chowder again less than 2 weeks ago; the same awesome taste and flavor. I love their Clam Chowder so much. My girlfriend and I have never tried any other soups from Soup Spoon because we just love the Clam Chowder.

The large bowl of clam chowder, with a drink, bread, and a half sandwich is about $15. But we can share this and feel extremely full after the meal. The soup itself is super thick and creamy. It is filled with ingredients like clam, celery, potato and may more stuff. The soup is always fresh and hot. The bread served with it is also fresh and warm. One thing I do not like about soups is when they use corn starch to thicken the soup. When corn starch is used, after some time of stirring, you will realize the soup becomes very watery. But Soup Spoon's Clam Chowder does not become watery after constant stirring; which goes to show it was naturally thickened through slow cooking and of course from the starch of the potatoes. The lemon tea they serve I think is made by them and it is really light and refreshing. Lastly, the sandwich is served with a small side of coleslaw and it is quite good as well. The bread is usually toasted till it is crispy and a little hard. I prefer my bread to be soft but I won't complain because the smoked salmon in it does not stink and tastes very good.

So go ahead, try the soups at Soup Spoon but just take note that the price is not cheap. Try to get a large meal and share with someone, I find it perfect this way.

SimpleMakan

Recipe: Cooking your own pearls! (for milk tea or any drinks!)

As you might know, I love milk tea. And at times, I love the pearls that come with the milk tea more than the tea itself. Pearls have to be done perfect, if not they really taste horrible. The sweetness and consistency of the pearl is really very important. It has to be chewy without a hard centre and is has to have a slight tinge of sweetness when we chew it.

My girlfriend came across this recipe from the Newpaper and so I tried it out. I loved it! The pearls came out perfect and I totally totally loved it! It was very nice but the very sad thing is that cooked pearls cannot be stored in the fridge. They will slowly become hard from the centre outwards. I'm not too sure if there is any way to prevent this but I guess freshly cooked pearls are the best.

Ingredients
200g uncooked black pearls
1 litre of water (more is fine, make sure its not less than 1 litre)
2 tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Bring the water to a boil.

2. Add in the pearls and boil for 30 minutes with the lid open and constantly stir whenever possible.

3. Switch of the fire and leave the pot covered for half an hour until the pearls are translucent.

4. Discard the water and rinse the pearls.

5. Add in just enough water to cover the cooked pearls and add in the sugar.

6. Mix and if you want, you can refrigerate for a while before adding to your drinks.

SimpleMakan

Recipe: Wholemeal Banana Cake

Ingredients
140g unsalted butter
120g sugar
3 eggs
2 large bananas
130g wholemeal flour
130g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
200ml buttermilk

Instructions


1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celcius.

2. Grease a 20cm cake tin.

3. Cream the butter and sugar un light and creamy.

4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

5. Stir in the mashed bananas and wholemeal flour.

6. Sift the plain flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture along with the buttermilk.

7. Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes.

I loved this cake. Exceptionally delicious. I mean, when I thought about using wholemeal flour, I thought this would taste horrible but in the end, it turned out to be very delicious.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Drink Tea @ NEX Serangoon

Alright, while we were about to leave NEX on the same day we collected the riding jacket, she wanted to drink milk tea (both of us LOVE milk tea, although we deny it a lot). She said there was this shop called Drink Tea and it was good. I have never tried their milk tea though. So we bought the Yam Milk Tea with Pearls. Their pearls are kind of special, they are pink in color and taste nicer than the usual pearl from other milk tea parlors. I felt the tea had a very pleasant taste and the amount of milk was just nice. The Yam flavoring was very good as well. I would recommend all of you to try their milk teas as well. Really Good!

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Mad Jack @ NEX Serangoon

Recently, I was with my girlfriend at NEX to collect a riding jacket she won in a competition. She was actually reading the Newpaper with me and saw this advertisement about a bike design competition. She was super excited and wanted to take part in it for fun. So she went to the contest website, downloaded the bike template and drew out a design ad passed it to me to make any modifications. I did not make any changes at all because I felt it was already very beautiful and I totally did not want to change her design at all. So I simply outlined the design with a black marker to make the lines more distinct and eye-catching. Guess what, she won 2nd prize! And she won a Berik riding jacket. And yes, this whole story was to explain why I was at Mad Jack @ NEX and also to show you how sweet my girlfriend is. Haha! She's super sweet because she wanted to win the jacket for me and not for herself. :-P  (I'll post a photo of her design later)

Anyway, while waiting, we were hungry and felt like having lunch. We walked around and she wanted to have pasta. At first, we were about to go to Cafe Cartel, but on the way, we saw Mad Jack and they served pasta as well so I told her why not we try it.

The restaurant was clean, the menu was very beautiful with gigantic photos of the food and price stated very clearly. The staff were just fine, no problems with them. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Cutlet in Cream Sauce while she ordered the Soft Shell Crab Pasta in Cream Sauce. One thing I did not like about the place was that they did not serve plain water. I mean seriously, a basic essential. I really hate restaurants who do not serve plain water because I feel it is something so simple yet important for people and I really do not think there will be much loss in profits just by serving water. Anyway, back to the food. It was served in maybe 10 minutes. The pasta was cooked well, the crab serving was a bit too little for the price and the pasta cream sauce was a bit too bland. My girlfriend can usually eat like at least three plates of cream sauce pasta at one go when I cook at home but over here, she only ate half because she got very sick of the sauce. It was missing something, and I really do not know what was missing from the sauce. As for my Grilled Chicken, I would say it was fine. I mean how can you go wrong with Grilled Chicken. If you do serve horrible Grilled Chicken, it is time you wrapped up your business. The chicken was freshly cooked and the fries was not cold as well (I HATE COLD FRIES). The salad was quite bland and boring though. They could maybe change it to coleslaw or at least serve it with a better vinaigrette. I felt the peach in the salad was a spoiler though, just a personal opinion.

All in all, I felt the food at Mad Jack was just fine. Price was a little on the high side for such a restaurant. I hate that they do not serve PLAIN WATER. Personal opinion: only eat here if you have really tried everything else around the same location.

Here are some photos. First is the bike design my girlfriend drew which won her 2nd prize. Second photo is the Grilled Chicken. Third is the Soft Shell Crab Pasta.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream

I was just enjoying some Ben and Jerry's ice cream over at the Singapore Zoo with my girlfriend on a lazy Saturday. My girlfriend totally loves Ben and Jerry's ice cream to the core but she doesn't really like all the flavors. There are just a few which she really appreciate. I am a person who does not really like ice cream a lot. I prefer gelato. I find it lighter and more appetizing than ice cream. But because of my girlfriend, I grew to like Ben and Jerry's ice cream as well. They really have tons of unique flavors and the ice cream is really really very tasty. Their ice cream is always filled with ingredients and it is always very fresh and rich, even though it is factory made.


So basically, this post is for those who hate Ben and Jerry's. I would like to appeal to you to give it a try again. If you would like to buy the ice cream from your supermarkets in the tubs, try to ensure the manufacture date is close by, because freshness is really the key to having good ice cream. If not, my recommendation is to head down to one of the Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlors and enjoy the atmosphere and ice cream there.

SimpleMakan

Recipe: Cheese Muffins

Ingredients
55g butter
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
125ml milk
55g cheddar cheese which has been cut into 1cm cubes


Instructions


1. Preheat oven to 190 degree celcius and grease muffin tray or use paper muffin cups.


2. Melt butter and set aside to cool.


3. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl.


4. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, melted butter and whisk together.


5. Add this mixture to the dry mixture and stir until moist. DO NOTE MIX UNTIL SMOOTH.


6. Half fill you muffin cup with the mixture, drop in 2 cubes of cheddar cheese, then cover it with more mixture. (For even baking, half fill any empty muffin cup with water)


7. Bake until puffed and golden, for about 25 minutes.


These are really super awesome when eaten hot. Be careful not to burn your tongue with the molten cheese!

SimpleMakan

Recipe: Yogurt and Honey Muffins

Ingredients
55g butter
5 tbsp honey
250ml yogurt
1 large egg
some lemon zest
65ml lemon juice
140g plain flour
170g wholemeal flour
1 and a 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg


Instructions


1. Preheat oven to 190 degree celcius and grease muffin tray or you can use paper muffin cups.


2. In a pan, melt butter and honey, then remove from heat and let it cool down.


3. Whisk the yogurt, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice together.


4. Add butter and honey mixture and set aside.


5. Sift the dry ingredients on another bowl then fold in the dry ingredients into the mixture.


6. Pour into your muffin tray or muffin cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Salt Grill @ ION Orchard

My girlfriend has always wanted to bring me up here for the view and ambience. It is quite a posh restaurant at the top of ION Orchard. We went there just to chill and have some drinks. The place is really very posh and prices are quite high but still there are dishes which are just slightly more expensive than restaurants you find elsewhere. Main courses are about $30 and up. Alcoholic drinks are about $20 and soft drink about $8. So price wise, I think it is quite normal for such a location and ambience and class.


To me, it can be a simple chill-out location just to waste time, talk nonsense and have some drinks. I liked it. The service staff are very friendly and helpful too.


So if you are looking to kill time, at Orchard, you got a new place to go to. Oh, there's a dress code to enter; Smart Casual attire.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Restaurant Hoshigaoka @ Civic Plaza Woodlands.

Wanted to try something different so I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to try out this Japanese restaurant. She said why not, so we went. It was just past lunch time so it wasn't very crowded. The menu was fine, and the ambience was very calm and pleasing. Staff were friendly and helpful. As you know, we both like Udon, so she tried a Katsudon and Udon set while I had the Chicken Hotpot. By the way, she loves Katsudon as well, so the Udon and Katsudon set was perfect for her. I love good soup, so the Chicken Hotpot was perfect.


The food was relatively good. Nothing special though. It is just simple Japanese food which was served relatively quickly, I guess due to the small crowd. I would not say it is bad, because it was fine. But given a choice between this and Ichiban, I choose Ichiban.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Dessert Bowl @ Serangoon Gardens

I actually kind of have quite a sweet tooth. When I was younger, I did not really like sweet food too much, but now, I somehow crave for sweet things very often. Which is BAD! Fattening! Oh well, I'll just exercise more and eat in moderation.


Was spending time with my girlfriend and we wanted a place to just chill and kill time before I went for tuition. She suggested Dessert Bowl because it was nearby. The place itself is on the 2nd level of a shophouse-like building. It is very cosy in there with simple yet eye-catching decorations. The cashier was friendly and the variety of desserts was good. We went there in the afternoon, which was off-peak, so there wasn't much of a crowd and we were served quite quickly.


My girlfriend ordered Durian Mousse while I ordered their hot Black Glutinous Rice dessert. For me, desserts cannot be too sweet and cannot be under-sweetened. Getting this perfect level of sweetness is extremely difficult because everyone has varying taste buds. But to me, the sweetness level of both the desserts I tried here was just one word, PERFECT. I utterly loved it. It was so creamy and tasty and super amazing. I want to try so much more in their menu but I have to moderate myself. I will be back there for more in future definitely.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Beancurd City @ Jalan Lengkok Sembawang (Yishun)

I love cold beancurd. One of my favorite supper because it is cooling, light and satisfying and also because they are usually open till late. I have actually tried a lot of beancurds at various locations. For example, Rochor Beancurd at Rochor, Rochor Beancurd at  Thomson, Selegie Beancurd at Kovan, Selegie Beancurd at Jln Kayu and Selegie Beancurd at Sembawang. I used to love the Selegie Beancurd at Sembawang. But they closed down due to renovations in the area. I tried all the others that I mentioned here but none of them taste the same! Even though some are franchises of each other, the quality and taste and types of beancurds served vary from each other.


This shop, Beancurd City is located very near to Chong Pang in Yishun. Their beancurd is always fresh and tasty. I have never had beancurd here which I felt did not taste fresh. And the sweetness is just nice as well. My favorite type of beancurd is cold with pearls. I really love it when the pearls are chewy to the right extend and have that slight tinge of sweetness. The pearls cannot be too hard or too soft. And the pearls here are always perfect, always.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Hu Hu Don @ ION Orchard

Last year end, I tried the Udon served at this stall. It was actually quite good but back then, I didn't have a blog to take note of such stalls. Recently, I was at ION again and so I went to have lunch there with my girlfriend. The menu totally changed. There were very few dishes and my favorite Chicken soup udon was no longer on the menu. I was very fed up but still decided to try.


My girlfriend loves Mentaiko Pasta, so she chose the Metaiko Udon. I chose the plain egg and fish cake soup udon. All I can say is that it was utterly disappointing. The food was served very fast, which was good. But the taste was horrible. The soup was not hot. The noodles were not smooth and chewy. It  was very bland and horrible. Both she and I love Udon but this was a real spoiler for us. So please go ahead and try and let me know if it is good to you. I personally won't be going there anymore.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: U-Mian @ Blk 732 Yishun Ring Road

My love for U-Mian started in Secondary school. My friend brought me one day to the coffee shop under his block at Khatib and got me to try this dish called Mee Hoon Kuay. At first, I was like, what crap is this?! But as I went on eating it, I really loved it. That was the first time and there were many times we had that same Mee Hoon Kuay over and over again. Then one day, he ordered Ban Mian! I was like, what is that? Why didn't you order Mee Hoon Kuay?! Then I realised that this dish was actually served in three different manners. One was Mee Hoon Kuay, another was Ban Mian, and the last was U-Mian. Mee Hoon Kuay was simply the dough rolled out and cut out into random diamond or square-like shapes. Ban Mian was the dough in the noodle form but slightly thicker. U-Mian was basically the dough in the noodle form. I tried all the three forms and liked U-Mian the most.


I tried this dish in many stalls but always loved the U-Mian from the coffee shop franchise called Qiu Lian Ban Mian. Then one day, I was introduced to this Ban Mian stall at a coffee shop at Blk 732 Yishun Ring Road. This was a stall run by two friendly uncles who took turns to run this stall in the day and evening. I fell in love with their U-Mian almost immediately.


Their noodle was very bouncy. It was really hand-made and not processed. The soup was really delicate yet full of flavor. The serving size was just right for a meal. And it costs only $2.50. I can honestly tell you, I have eaten their U-Mian a million times, but the taste of the noodle and the soup has never ever changed. I simply love their U-Mian. So if you live nearby, go ahead, try it and let me know what you think of it.

SimpleMakan

Food Review: Dim Sum Buffet @ Fullerton Hotel

I know it has been a very long time since I updated this blog and I would like to sincerely apologise for disappearing. Suddenly, I've got the mood to post up all the entries, so hope I have the attention-span to carry on.


For my dad's birthday, my family decided to go for the Dim Sum Buffet at Fullerton Hotel. They had been there before and they liked it very much. I was not too interested in a buffet but did not want to be a wet blanket, so I followed.


Ambience wise, the place was beautiful. The restaurant was spacious and had mostly round tables. It was a Sunday and it was quite packed. Price was about $40 per person, I think. The variety of food was quite good as well. There was a lot to try and taste wise, all I can say is that it is nothing special. It felt kind of normal to me. Not very tasty to the point you must try. Service wise, the staff were friendly and polite. I felt they were kind of short-handed though. Trying to get the attention of a waiter was quite difficult and there were many instances where the food we ordered did not arrive and we had to re-order another two or there times.


Anyway, long story cut short: nice place, nice people, slow service, edible food, good variety of food, not too cheap price.


Here are the horrible pictures, I'm really sorry for the bad quality!

SimpleMakan