Tiong Bahru Roasted Pig

I visited here only because I saw it got a lot of photos of TV-stars (Both local and overseas) pasted all over the stall... so I thought this place must be quite something har.... and so I tried their...

Char siew + Roasted Pork rice @ S$3

Well, the roasted pork does taste very crispy and nice. While, the char siew is so-so, just the usual char siew taste. =P I find the rice a little dry though maybe from over-cooking but generally a cheap and reasonable dish to fill your tummy.

Tiong Bahru Roasted Pig Specialist
#02-36 Golden Shoe Carpark Food Centre
URL : http://www.tiongbahruroastedpig.com.sg/

Question from a Ramen Mania

Today I went lunchie at Nanten for Ichibantei's tonkotsu ramen and it tasted DIFFERENT. You can't really notice the difference very clearly.... that was explained to Moi by my lunch kaki. He explained that our brain tends to associate the previous taste with the present variation and unless there are major differences, it will take a while for the brain to accustom and register that there is any difference... DUN GET IT?? Nvm. Hahahaha!!

Does anyone, anybody knows or can tell me whether Ichibantei has uprooted itself from Nanten's outlet?? =(

Cause the ramen really tastes a little different. NOT that it's mazui but the chashyu is definitely not the usual chashyu and the soup is not as thick and more saltish in taste... and the bowl and everything seems and tastes different.

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

I want my RAMEN!!

Jap-rish

Boss : Can you check the English name for Gangoroushido?

Me : Har? Come again?

Boss : GAN-GO-LO-SHI-DO.

Me : Hai! GAN-GO-RO-U-SHI-DO ne.

Minutes later....

Me : Boss, it's ganglioside.

Boss : Eh? GAN-RI-O-SHI-DO.

Me : Yup. It's G-A-N-G-L-I-O-S-I-D-E. Like Gan + Lee + o + see.

It's interesting to work with a Japanese Boss whose Engrish requires a little creativity to understand at times. For example,

Disneyland will always be Di-zu-ni-ran-do..

Raffles Hotel will always be La-fu-ru ho-te-ru..

Fullerton will always be flat-ton..

Chijmes will always be chi-chi-mi.

So maybe that's why he never really get to where he wants to go har. =P

Well, Moi also found a funny Japanese learning Engrish video, it's a real TV english-learning programme, and I can still catch it everynight on NHK for about 10-15mins but a slightly different version one. You'll be amazed how the Japanese love to learn.

Café Cartel

So I got cheoh for dinner after my pilates workout cause she wanted me to help her with her Nippon Trippy. AAaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! I so want to go too!!!!!!!!!! +_+ So we settled at Café Cartel where we can surf wireless for FREE. Having dinner at Café Cartel kinds of remind me of varsity days where it's a luxury to come here for makan and chit-chats. Ooooooo...those were the days. Well, the sweetie treated me... =)

In clockwise starting Top left corner : (1) Corn soup (2) Panfried Linguine (3) Cappuccino (4) Caesar Salad

And SURPRISE! SURPRISE! I bumped into DO, RE + Little RE and MI or should I said MI bumped into Moi. Didn't see them for ages. MI and RE had become Mummies and RE even had Little RE with her and another Little RE at home. Oopss... Everyone was still hanging around in the neighbourhood and Moi got news from them about SO that she had a divorce... Hmm... I thought I just went for her wedding like 2 years back. And so Moi also updated DO, RE and MI that FA is very far now... got married and moved to Taiwan. Had a bit of chattering with the gals...

It's kind of reminded me of our different life stages...

Stage 1 : Kiddo

Stage 2 : Students

Stage 3 : Starting career

Stage 4A : Getting Married

Stage 5A : Kiddo giving birth to Kiddo

Stage 5A : Kiddo getting divorce

Well, it gets rather complicated to stage them proper so above is just agar agar.

So RE was teasing at what stage I am in, since everyone (meaning RE, MI, DO, FA are married and SO had divorced) is more or less in stage 4A and 5... and my reply was the HAPPY Stage. Hahahahahaha! Whatever. Moi adores singlehood.

As DO, RE and MI dispersed, she, who had been silently sitting beside me admist the noisy chattering, spoke...

She : Your relatives?

Me : No Lah! My friends....

She : Your neighbours?

Me : HAR!! No Lah! My secondary school classmates.. why?

She : Errrrrrrrr.... you look so much younger.....

WOW!! Sweetie, you really made my DAY. *Beams*

Thanks Mummy! Thanks Daddy!! Thanks Grandmother!! Thanks Grandfather!! For my good genes. Kekekeke! *Pun intended*

SO...SEE Lah!! What marriages and kids do to your face???? BEWARE!!! kekekekeke!

Café Cartel Siglap
907 East Coast Road
#01-02 Springvale
Tel: 6449 9789

Enuff

Enuff...just enuff....

No need the carbo....

No need the proteins...

No need the oil....

Just enuff...

No Response

He is not responding....

How?

We are going to try something else...

Again?

Yup...Again.

Again....

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Title : The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Author : Mark Haddon
Yr of Publication : 2004

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. The story is written from a first-person narrative of a 15 year old boy called Christopher Boone, who is autistic with a super logical and intelligent brain but derive of understanding of human emotions. According to the book, other than happy and sad, Christopher is not able to decipher other human emotions.

The story started with Chistopher's neighbour's dog, Wellington, being murdered with a garden fork. Christopher loves animals and sets out to solve the murder in his own logical way, like Sherlock Holmes. I really like the way Mark Haddon wrote this book. It's deeply funny, piognant and fascinating protraying the world from a boy with autistic. It also helps me to understand more about people with Autism and also remind me of the movie "The Rain Man". Whether something is a blessing or a curse is really up to individual's perception literally.... It's an AMAZING book. Grab for it.

Here are some parts of the novel which I found rather intriguing..

Chatting where people say things to each other which aren't questions and answers are aren't connected.

People often say "Be quiet." but they don't tell you how long to be quiet for. Or you see a sign which says Keep off the Grass but it's not clear whether to keep of the grass around this sign or keep off all the grass in the park because there is lots of grass you are allowed to walk on.

I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.

Source :
1) Wikiepedia - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
2) Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Thunder Tea Rice

Well, this is what my boss will call Ladies Food - Healthy, slimming, detoxifying. Hahaha. Whatever!! This is a traditional hakka dish that will take a looooooooong time to prepare just by grinding the vegetable to tea and for cutting up all the various vegetable into little cubes. Well, I will say this dish is super healthy not only because it's very HIGH fibre but also because you will need to keep chewing all the vegetables and exercise your teeth really very much. Hahahaha! Moi and my lunch kaki were massaging our cheeks after eating this... kekekee!

Mix it with....

Presto....

It might be gross for some but Moi loves to mix everything together and gobble it down... Yummy!!

Thunder Rice Tea
51 Telok Ayer Street #01-31
China Square Food Centre

The Prata Place

Another good prata place to try, and they did mention that they are just as good as the causarina prata. Well, the prata place is famous for its innovative prata fillings like chocolate, tomato, mushrooms, meat, fruits, etc.; but Moi didn't try any not even their famous signature dish, Prata goreng. Guess!! I prefer to stick to the "Safer" and more conventional types...

2 prata kosong + prata combo (mushroom, tomato and egg)

I do like the pratas here...by far the best I had, slightly better that the one at causarina and Lau Pat Sat. The prata's skin is really very crispy and nice. Will definitely be coming back for more.

The Prata Place
1 Thong Soon Avenue
(Off Upper Thomson Road)
Tel: 6459-5670

Amalfi

Well, you might have notice by now that Moi does have a liking for italian food. =) So here's another one of the authentic kind. Amalfi is located at the rear end of Clark Quay need to the bungy jump station. It is affliated with the classier italian restaurant right next door, Via Veneto. So the menus are inter-changeable. So Bub, mark it down, another restaurant serving authentic italian dishes. I especially like their pizza which are the thin crispy type with a good amount of cheese and toppings. Yummy. And each pizza is served pipping hot so it's really tasty.

So we had....

PARMA (parma ham, mozzarella, arugula artichokes)


CALAMARI FRITTI (deep fried squid rings on arugula)


ROMANA (tomato, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms)


SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA
(bacon, cream, egg yolk, black pepper, pecorino cheese)


SPAGHETTI ALLE VONGOLE
(spaghetti concocted in white wine sauce, fresh tomato, clams and parsley)


NORCINA(tomato, mozzarella, sausage, onions)


DESSERT (vanilla ice cream with lemon and vodka)


DESSERT (vanilla ice cream with banana and rum)

Amalfi The Italian Pizza Place
Clark Quay
BLK E #01-05
Tel: 6883 0620
URL: http://www.lotus-restaurants.com/

Xiang Gang Cha Ting

Let's say I came here for dessert with a huge bunch of sweeties and was so engrossed watching the tv that was installed inside this tong shui cafe that I totally cant recall what the heck we had....

In clockwise starting Top left corner : (1)Snowy Mountain summit (2)Snowy Mountain summit with glass jelly (3) 8-Treasures tea (4)Almond cream + red bean cream

Quite a nice place with 100 over types of dessert, dishes and drinks to choose from for late-night supper and chats.

Tong Shui Cafe
1 Liang Seah Street #01-05/06
Tel: 6339 8662/6339 9761

Opening hour
Daily 12:00pm - 6:00am

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao

yup! yup! This is the super long queue, super crowded xiao long bao restaurant at Takashimaya. Well, let's say I will still bear with the queue some times to have their dim sum. It's a nice, reasonable-price place to bring friends especially for overseas friends to try nice dim-sum with a good variety. The food is rather consistent and standard so you will never really go too wrong.

Sichuanese tan tan noodles


Scallion oil noodles


Pork ribs noodles

Twinny is crazy about their scallioin oil noodles. I had the tan tan noodles which i find it rather spicy but quite ok. The noodles are rather smooth so it's nice to eat. I would say the pork ribs noodles is so-so less "exciting" compared to the other 2 noodles.

pan-fried dumplings

Super health-conscious twinny love this.. =P

Boiled plain kai lan

We had 2 baskets of this...one is simply not enough!!

Xiao long bao

This is so tasty... too bad someone "insisted" that he is not eating. =P

Mini Braised triple-layer pork (kong ba bao)

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao
#04-27 Ngee Ann City
391 Orchard Road
Tel: 6238 1661

PowSing

As a full-blooded Hainanese, Moi loves to go around trying to look for delicious authentic hainanese chicken rice and so I came to PowSing. I think it's a very popular place and most probably most of you would have heard about it or even patron here before.

So what did I have....

Stir-fried baby kai lan with oyster sauce


Ngoh Hiang


Crispy Nonya Squid


Hainanese Chicken

Let me just say though the chicken meat is soft and tender, still nice...it's JUST not fragrance enough...Moi actually enjoyed the other dishes more than PowSing's Signature traditional hainanese chicken rice. And what's chicken rice without the typical hainanese ginger sauce!!!???

Well let me conclude that PowSing is still a nice, cosy and cheap place for family gathering but for chicken rice...i will keep looking....*wink*

PowSing Restaurant
65 Serangoon Garden Way
Tel: 6286 4813
URL: http://www.powsing.com.sg/

Opening Hours
Daily, 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm

Akash

Maybe you have seen it on TV...but Moi and Twinny went to this little shop in Square 2 at Novena which is selling very cute clip ons for your shoes... and here is one of them. Heehee! I think it's still a rather new business so the designs are still rather limited at the shop..but i do believe this craze will catch up. *wink*



Akash
10 Sinaran Drive
#03-110 Square 2

Tea House

There is this little chinese restaurant very much simliar to the Asian Kitchen at the Market Street carpark. As a matter of fact, the waiters also wear similar uniforms... hmm..maybe it's under the same management. But menu wise, I do prefer the Asian Kitchen a little better... But the food served over at Tea House is also not too bad especially their signature dish : Teahouse crispy duck. Another signature dish is the Moonlight Hor Fun where you can choose to have the original favour with the raw egg or with the egg cooked. I usually have the egg cooked though I have also try the raw egg version before. And because of the raw egg, it earns its name as the Moonlight Hor Fun. Interesting, isn't it?

In clockwise starting Top left corner : (1) Teahouse crispy duck (2) Chinese cabbage Stew (3) Crispy Crabmeat (4) Moonlight hor fun (5) Fried Rice (6) Crispy Prawn with wasabi

Cha.Kuan (Teahouse)
Market Street Car Park
146 Market Street
#01-02/03
Tel: 6438-3510

Opening hour
Mon to Sat: 11 am to 9 pm
Closed Sun

Tan Hock Seng Cake Shop

This is mummy's favourite. Whenever I pass by this traditional Hokkien confectionery shop along Far East Square opposite China Square, I will never fail to buy their heong peng (chinese known as ma ti su) for her. Their ma ti su is filled simply with the sweet malt and freshly hand-made and baked everyday. The outer skin (as shown above) is well famed and crispy and the fillings is soft and not too sweet. Yummy!! In fact, it's so popular that it's better for you to give them a tingle and check what time they finish baking their batches before dropping by, so as not to make a wasted trip.

Tan Hock Seng Cake Shop
86 Telok Ayer Street
Tel: 6533 1798

Tu-Rum

Both of us were waiting for the lift.... he was engrossed in sms-ing away on his N70... I was deep-in-thoughts about the day....

The lift opened at Level 3.... Still twiddling with his N70 and drawing out his keys .....As he stepped out of the lift...

A loud TU-RUM

He looked at the hole....

He stepped out of the lift...

He looked at the hole again...

He looked at me...

I looked at him...

He looked at the hole again...

I pressed the lift's close button ....

-------------------------------------

Didn't your mom teach never to play with your keys when you are stepping out of the Lift!!! FOLKS, Heed this advice.

Big O Cafe Restaurant

Woodstock and Snoopy went back FINALLY... for those who knows what I mean.

I brought Woodstock over to Wheelock place for a late lunch cum dinner session... It was saturday and every restaurants just seem to be SOOOOOOO CROWDED. We decided to settle at Big O Cafe which is a little less crowded. Well, didn't realise Big O is a KIDS kind of family restaurant place so Moi felt a little regret cause it was rather NOISY. But anywhere most probably, it's going be noisy in other restaurant too. So we had....

Calamari $8.90


Crostini $8.80

Crostini is an Italian word meaning ‘little toasts‘. The thin slices of bread are toasted, drizzled with olive oil, and served warm. They may be topped with a savory, finely diced mixture such as cheese, vegetables, meat or seafood. Ours was topped with ham, tomato and cheese.

ALF (Mudpie) $9.95

Big O Cafe seems to be famous with their Mudpie so we decided to order one to try. But we were spolit with choices.... and so we got a little boy waiter who looks really cute, to recommend.

Me : Which mudpie is not too sweet?

Waiter : Er.... Let me see. [Pick up menu and looking hard at the varieties of mudpie... looking up and trying to find a "saviour"]

Me : We dun like sweet stuff so you got any not too sweet or even bitter kind of mudpie...?

Waiter : Er... I recommend ALF... got Macadamia nuts and cocoa, NOT sweet.

Me : Really NOT sweet ah?

Waiter : Ya. I think so...

Me : okie. We will have that. <[Feels kind of doubtful looking at his expression but then he is just a little kid..maybe just 13 or 14 yo..]

So when Moi and Woodstock put in our FIRST mouthful of the ALF mudpie. Our eyes went.... >_< .... It was VERY, VERY SWEET. By since this was recommended by the nice little boy waiter whom had been patiently waiting on us for the whole of our stay in the restaurant, we forgave him for his bad recommendation. Kekekeke!

Got to share quite a lot with Woodstock especially in relationship ...

Conclusion is LOVE is blind.... we never could open up our eyes and heart to see who the person really is cause we have love potion smear onto them. And finally even when we realise it, we just continue to be in it, majority because of the fear of feeling lonely... Humans thrives in herd, our urge for conformity is strong. We tend to follow the crowd, for the crowd is al-ways right, and even if it isn't, it's the less troublesome way. We also need others to affirm our existence many a times and so the loneliness creep in....

And for 2 persons to have a long term and fulfilling relationship, it's really about managing expectations of one another and our common goals... Well, it's easy say that done. I ain't any Expert too. Good Luck, Woodstock!!

Big O Cafe Restaurant
501 Orchard Road
#02-04/05 Wheelock Place
Tel : 6737 8472

Ahn nyeong ha seh yo

Found this typical Korean restaurant inside Suntec Mall. Entering the restaurant really makes me feel like I am in a typical high-end Korean restaurant with waitress neatly dressed in black uniform with red vests and their hair all neatly bun up. Each waitress will blow slightly and greet "Ahn nyeong ha seh yo" to incoming patrons.

Shillawon is an upper-casual Korean chain restaurant that specializes in jeongol dishes, or Korean hotpot.

So what do they have....

Korean appetizers : Kimchi (chili pepper cabbage) + Pa-Jeon (Green onion pancake) + Black beans + Spinach + Anchovies + Bean sprouts


Sundubu-jjigae (Raw Beancurd stew) with rice


Abalone Samgye-tang (Abalone Chicken Ginseng Soup Set)


Haemul jeongol (Seafood hotpot) with noodle


Sweet digestive tea + Cut fruits

I forgot the name of the tea that was supposed to drink after meals to aid digestion. Personally I found the tea too sweet for my liking.

Shillawon
3 Temasek Boulevard
Suntec City Mall
Sky Garden
#03-010/012
Tel: 6339 3313

Opening hours
Mon-Fri: 12pm-3pm, 5pm-10pm
Sat-Sun: 12pm-10pm