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开心就好开心要过，不开心也要过，何不选择开开心心的过 8/23/2009 Sho Teppan (ION Orchard)Recently I am into a playfish game called Restuarant City. There is a term introduced called "island layouts" where the tables are arranged, with the waiter in the middle, in a squarish or rectangular layout. The waiter is trapped inside so that he needs not move around and is able to serve customers faster.
I thought, I just saw a restuarant which looks like it has the "island layouts" :P
The menu in Sho Teppan is quite simple, there are 2 kinds of stone pots served, 1 is the soup kind (i think the menu mentioned sabu sabu / some sauce) and the other is dry (where you mix the rice, chicken and other vegetables in a little bit of sauce) which i think is very a popular menu item in many japanese restuarants. I have been intrigued by stone pots as i like the food served warm. However there is 1 thing to note when you eat in this restuarant, as the cooking is DIY. I am puzzled and wanted to ask the waiter why he offered to cook for the 2 guys next to me but he does not offer help to me.. haha
The drinks offered in menu is a disappointment, if i am not wrong, all of them are canned drinks and they are offered of course at more than twice the price you can get in supermarkets. Unless you are the kind who likes a drink with your meals or you are really thirsty, you can skip the drink order. What is interesting is, we did return the Allswell plum drink (bottle is still unsealed) and we were returned $3 :) Dian Xiao Er (Tampines One)We ordered the executive set for dinner on a Friday. There was 10% off for credit card promotion and i lamented that we should have come on Thurs as the discount would be 15%. :D
Nevertheless, there were 4 of us and there are 7 dishes included:
rice - nothing special to mention but it is listed in the menu so here i list it down ;p
duck - which should be their signature dish and i find it quite tasty (with ginseng taste), some people may find it as salty.
sharks fin soup - the quantity of the sharks fin is about a spoonful (not overloaded in spoon) but the soup did not give me deep impression.
broccoli with scallops - i find the quantity to be very little, as it is meant to serve 4 portions.
prawns - the prawns are just average tasty, and there are only 6 prawns served, which i find it puzzling as the set is meant for 4 persons. I think the restuarant should give equal portions :)
fried cod fish - as usual, cod fish has its own standard to me and i find this tasty, the sauce is salty though, good to go with rice.
hashimi - it has a very strong bitter taste of ginseng (i am not sure which kind, should be the 'bao shen'), the dessert is fine but we thought we might have preferred the warm version instead of chilled ones.
Another thing to note is they will not charge you for the wet towels / tissues if you do not use them. Mineral water and chinese tea costs (as usual) - if you like neither, it might be more worthwhile to go for warm water, which is served at no additional charges.
8/8/2009 7th Storey Restaurant (Marina Barrage)I was there because of a 1 for 1 promotion for the ala-carte Hong Kong Dim Sum Buffet.
First of all, I am a bit surprised that they did not call to remind / confirm about my reservation a day before (which I thought most restuarant would do so).
Anyway when we reached, the manager told us we can pick any seats we want, and it seems like a reservation is not really required (as they did not ask if we have reserved a table).
The waitress asked if we wanted the 1 for 1 promotion which costs $44++ and gave us 4 small pieces of order form (each has at least 8 items). Luckily the promotion poster board at the entrance reminded me that the $44++ buffet is for dim sum buffet cum high tea (duration is from 11.30am to 4pm). I told her we wanted the other one, WITHOUT high tea (duration is from 11.30am to 2pm). Then she said we can help ourselves to the buffet reception and the order form is not applicable. (I happened to have a glance at the first order form and it contains dim sum items)
Glancing through the buffet reception, I must say the variety is odd - with fishballs, pasta, pizza, hai nan chicken, sushi (avocado prawn roll, salmon sashimi, california maki), laksa, vinegar pork, fried rice on the list. My favourite is the vinegar pork which is not too sour, and the meat is tender. There is also samosa, spring rolls, xiao long bao, prawn dumplings, siew mai, vegetable bun, chived meat dumpling, century egg porridge, and the standard varies from normal to lousy (cos the food turns cold fast and they are not tasty). If not for my ulcer, I think the samosa should be the nicest (as curry flavour is strong). Besides that, there are some desserts, which consists of beancurd, grass jelly, nonya kuey, muffins, fried yam pancakes (which I find as too sweet and the pastry is hardened) and miserable list of fruits - green apples and oranges.
The lunch is indeed not very worthwhile even with the 1 for 1 promotion.
8/2/2009 Manpuku (Tampines One)On the bill, it addressed itself as "BachMann Japanese Restaurant". On the exterior design, I remember the name as Manpuku.
Nevertheless, I will share about my recent 2 trips to the restuarant, which has similar concept as Marche (you get a card upon entry and you can use the card to store all the purchases, which is being used for billing).
In short, the prices are pretty steep and not every dish is a "WOW" to me.
My favourite should be the salmon sashimi (5 pieces @ $8++) & wasabi. The salmon sashimi is fresh, the "ginger" is fresh (and "spicy" if i can use that term) and the wasabi is also freshly made! I am not a sashimi fan at all, since my trip to Fish Market @ Sydney, I begin to try sashimi whenever my friends ordered. I do not like those restuarants where the wasabi seems to have lost the taste (because they are not so fresh anymore). Anyway I also tried the inari sushi ($2++), tamago sushi ($3++) and a sushi set (avocado) ($9.80++) - they tasted average to me.
The next dish I tried is something which I think is overrated. I have tried Moonlight Special and Kodanyaki Seafood ($12.80++ each). I prefer the latter as it has more cabbage and noodles which made the dish less "boring" and has variety. Otherwise I can only feel taste of mayo and soya sauce when I bite into the egg / seafood. I am not sure of the exact ingredients but this is what I tasted :p I suggest that you share this with your friends as half the serving is more than enough to make me "sick of it".
I have also tried another stall - scallops ($2.80++), Kushi shishamo ($2++), Pork asparagus roll ($2.80++), and chicken leg ($2++). They are tasty but also average.
I am not a ramen fan but I tried a set where the soup base is not miso and I find it tasty.
I remember the dessert (tarts) were advertised on TV and I thought the tarts were full of whipped cream. Well, they look for pretty on the surface and I thought I will try to confirm. There is whipped cream but still acceptable in my opinion - btw I ordered mango tart and I find it as too expensive ($7.80++).
Last but not least, the hot green tea is refillable (and the cheapest drink option at $1.90++). While the counter staff says, feel free to come ask me for refill, the tone does sound a bit funny (or sour ;p). But I don't care, they already said it is refillable. BTW there is no poster / notes pasted on walls to indicate the hot green tea is refillable so you may want to enquire before assuming the refill is still valid.
DeparturesIf I were not given a free ticket (in Mar 09), I believe chances of me watching this show is very low. But after watching, I must admit, it is an enjoyable movie.
Looking at the poster and movie description, it does not thrill me to spend the money and buy the ticket. I thought, the movie would contain many gruesome scenes of dead bodies and boring plot of explaining the job description. But I watched, all because I had a treat. And I told myself, if the show is boring, I should just leave the cinema. There is no need to feel embarrassed for saving my time for something more worthwhile. With a rush dinner, low expectations and a lousy seat, surprisingly I remained seated throughout the movie.
The movie actually has a simple plot. Do not look down on any jobs. Each job is indeed a profession and there is something special about it. No matter what interests and skills you have, you can always take up any job and perform your best in it. You can call it natural talents to do something well, ability to learn something fast, or passion for a job. The male lead is actually very biased towards the job, but he took it on as the pay is surprisingly high (he needs money urgently) and the employer is desperate to train up someone (this is my feel though he keep claiming this male lead has a gift for this job). However there are several doses of humour which tickled me and there is a story behind each dead body, how the family is facing it, how the person has lived his life. Those who have soft spots for such scenes will need to prepare some tissue papers on hand. 5/16/2009 Seafood International (Playground @ Big Splash)
The menu has 2 sections, first list has a limitation of 1 serving per table (and it iterally means each person has only 1 serving size or 1 piece, for countable items) and the second allows unlimited orders - and you can even customize the serving size / quantity being served. In the first list, I think I like the braised sea cucumber with yam most as I think the texture of the sea cucumber is just nice - not too soft or hard. The yam is a bit too dry though. Everyone gets a bowl of the braised shark's fin but the quantity of the shark's fin is not a lot, which is not surprising of course. Except for beef, we tried all other items and the least favourite should be the steamed tilapia with thai lemon sauce, we thought the sauce tasted weird ;p From the second list, we tried the seafood tom yum and I say, it is more sour than spicy. The fried sweet shell with XO sauce is my favourite from the lunch. It is chewy, spicy and tasty enough. The fried sakura chicken with tri-sauce in stone pot is a disappointment though. The chicken meat is not tender, and the sauce is too salty. The fried pumpkin with golden salted egg yolk did not excite me as well (I ever tried crabs with salted egg yolk and I think that is very tasty). Other than that, we thought the stewed e-fu noodles with chives is bland. There isn't much ingredients in the stewed seafood vermicelli with fish gravy but I thought it is quite tasty as compared to the e-fu noodles (cos we had the e-fu noodles before the vermicelli haha). At the desserts corner, the fruits are not sweet but there are other desserts to sweeten you up. Basically we only manage to try half the items in the menu. We could have tried more if the kitchen really serves the serving size as we requested. For eg, I asked for 3 serving sizes of e-fu and chicken each, and 2 serving sizes of vermicelli. However all 3 items arrived as if they served for 5! When we asked the waitress, why is the serving size for 3 same as 5, she just smiled it off. Another thing to note about the services, the waiter is quick enough to refill our tea often but they are also quick enough to clear the plates. Hence we felt like we are being chased to finish the food quickly. However, I find it amazing that we did stay there for 2 hours! And yes, I suffer from a full stomach for the rest of the afternoon... Would I go there again? It will depend on the menu and pricing then. 5/3/2009 Hog's Breath Cafe (Chijmes)I do not eat beef but yes, I went to try Hog's Breath Cafe (again).
We tried the Smoked BBQ Ribs and Chicken Dijionnaise - Marinated grilled chicken breast topped with avocado and smothered with creamy Dijon mustard sauce. I find the ribs average as we can get that taste in many places. The chicken meal is not bad, but the serving size is too much for me. I can only finish 2/3 of the meat and fries. The fries is not crispy if you have them at end of your meal, so have it while it is still warm and crispy.
The waiters / waitresses are attentive when it comes to water refilling. They will confirm with us if it is warm water and they will then refill accordingly. However the reason for me to leave (sooner than I wanted) was the noise that came from another table of 6-8 persons. The guys are basically laughing aloud as if it is their home, just imagine the noise from a big big hawker centre where the crowd is watching soccer, yes, that's how noisy they are. And they are the only table who made all the noise.
We asked if there are any credit card discounts and was told, there was none as it is Public Holiday eve. But upon receiving the bill, we saw a 15% discount on the main dishes (while we still enjoy happy hour promotions on the house pours we had). Another puzzling promotion which we are more than glad to take.
Curry Favor Japanese Kitchen (Velocity)I like fried food, but not to the extent of having it for half or whole of my meal.
Nevertheless, I like this place for the half-size curry cos I am basically a small eater who likes variety. However, I came to realise lately that japanese curry are often served with fried stuff, is that the only way to enjoy the curry? I particularly loathe fried stuff with little filling and lots of "flour" :p and this time, I order shrimp curry, and I think the serving size is not bad.
There are 2 levels of spicy-ness to the curry, normal or spicy. I ordered shrimp curry (normal) while my friend ordered chicken (spicy). We thought that my version is more flavourful and tasty. The chicken / spicy counterpart kinda lose our support though it has a tinge of spicy (only a little).
We also ordered a side dish, age cheese chikuwa, which is supposed to be 1 of the recommendations. It tasted a bit like squid and I find that there is nothing special about it in overall.
3/28/2009 Instant soothers for high stress timesReferenced from a link in yahoo...
Be a better breather. "When you make a conscious effort to breathe deeper, it naturally brings your body back to a more relaxed state," explains Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., author of Stress Free for Good (HarperOne). Place your hand on your stomach and watch it rise as you inhale for a count of 3 or 4; hold your breath for the same count, and then exhale for as long as comfortable and watch your belly fall.
Look forward to something. Each morning, think about one little, enjoyable thing you plan to do that day (the crossword puzzle) and one bigger pleasure on the horizon (your trip to the mountains), suggests Allen Elkin, Ph.D., director of the Stress Management and Counseling Center in New York City. This ritual trains your brain to focus away from what can go wrong that day Make a small change to your routine. "Unpredictable events can cause the most stress," Luskin explains. "If you cultivate even a little bit of surprise in your life, it helps keep your cognitive responses flexible and helps you handle whatever life throws your way." Take a new cardio class or pick a cuisine you've never tried. (Hallå, Scandinavian!)
Convert Monday into Funday. The flip side to TGIF is OMGIM: Oh, my God, it's Monday! In fact, more heart attacks occur on Mondays than on any other day. Schedule a weekly lunch with a friend or take a class you love on Mondays so you'll look forward to the start of the week, Dr. Wheeler advises. Come home 15 minutes late. After work, walk home or listen to music at a pretty scenic spot before you burst through your front door. "Don't look at it as a waste of time," Dr. Wheeler says. "It's an important way of decompressing and transitioning back to home life." 3/16/2009 Xiao Xuan Feng (Hougang Mall)Actually I find that there aren't many dinner choices in Hougang Mall if you do away with fast food, am I right or did I miss out any goodies?
Anyway I tried out this chinese restauarant cos when I passed by, I think I was tempted to try the Xiao Long Bao (I quite like Ding Tai Feng's as I had more of it, but I seldom visit that restuarant cos there is nothing else which I like from the menu :p). I have a habit of ordering recommendations stated in menu / waitress and ironically, my ordered list does not contain the Xiao Long Bao as I forgot about it haha.
My order includes the following items:
Fried Calamari - The taste reminded me of papadam (served in Indian food) and I quite like the dish.
Signature Durian Puff - There is real durian pulp wrapped in a fried pastry. It is not bad though the real fruit will always win. Shrimp Fried Rice - I find it so-so.
Fried (4 season) beans with meat - I find it so-so.
Crystal Shrimp Dumplings - The skin sticks. The filling is not bad and the overall taste is so-so
(I described as so-so bcos you can find this taste / dish anywhere else. It is just average taste and nothing special.)
I think the crysanthemum tea was labelled as free flow in the menu but our tea was not refilled - Perhaps I remember wrongly (my blog entries are usually past dated of at least a few days to weeks haha).
After finishing the dinner, we asked for the bill and enquired if there are any credit card promotions. We were given a short and unwelcomed tone of "yes" by the counter staff.
But the visit turns out to be pleasant at the end cos we were given a 50% discount.
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