Creation Cafe

In one of our dates, we decided to try out Creation cafe as I have much raved the pasta there and Alvin is keen to try it out. We went for a early dinner to avoid the crowd. It end up we are too early (5.30pm) and they have not open yet (Opens at 6pm)! Luckily we are able to sit at the cafe and wait for the shop to be ready. 

Seafood risotto

Seafood aglio olio

As usual, I sticked to my usual choice and ordered seafood aglio olio while Alvin tried the risotto. I feel that the risotto pales in comparison with aglio olio but nevertheless it is still quite nice.

The serving is pretty small for Alvin and he ordered a Laksa pasta to share (but i only had 2 mouthful). The laksa pasta is a nice twist to the usual pasta. Not too bad. It will become my other choice to consider if I went back to the cafe the next time.

Creation Cafe
100 Beach Road,
Singapore 189702

OChre birthday dinner

Some time ago, we celebrated AK's birthday at OChre located at Orchard Central. It is my second time there and if you want a quiet and cozy dinner gathering, this is the place to go.

The restaurant very thoughtfully place a stand to mark the table as reserved. Very personalized.

We all decided on having their main courses. The ladies had a 3 course dinner while the guys had 4. But first, we had a bread basket to munch while waiting for AK to arrive.

Assorted bread basket containing very delicious breads.

The waiters are all very attentive and standby awaiting for our orders, if any. Our appetizers are served.

The guy's - Watermelon wrapped with parma ham.

The girl's - Angel hair pasta with scallops and caviar.

It was my first time trying caviar and it does taste a little disappointing. I was expecting more of a crunchy texture like the ebi roe. But it wasn't. 

The guy's second course.

The girl's main course. Pan fried fish fillet. 

Another shot of the fish fillet. 

The pan fried fish fillet tasted really home-cooked style. We all felt that this standard could be achieved at home but nevertheless it tasted great. I realised I forgotten to take photos of the guy's mains. They had steaks which they claimed was quite good.

Now, for desserts.

The girls had tiramesu...

..and the guys had some mango dessert with ice cream if I remembered correctly. The tiramesu fared better.

Last but not least, we ordered another cake for AK which was meant to be a surprise. We had much difficulty trying to secretly order the cake without AK noticing it. 

Happy Birthday!

Hey Hey Hotpot

Before our movie, the gang decided to try out Hey Hey Hotpot as Lynnie & I have some cravings for steamboat.

Shop wasn't that difficult to find as it was located at the basement of PoMo. I had been there before with colleagues and felt that the food there was not too bad except that the price is slightly higher compared to those steamboat shops along Liang Seah Street.

We had 2 set meals that day.

Winter Melon soup & shark meat soup.

We have much more food than what is shown here. However, general feedback was that the portion is a little small and it wasn't really enough. But the soups was very flavourful after everything had cooked in it.

I guess there is no second place that beats Liang Seah Street. But, this is certainly one place where you step out without smelling of steamboat you had earlier.

1 Selegie Road, #B1-20
Pomo Centre Singapore 188306

Tonkotsu King

One fine lunch day, L had ramen craving and suggested we go Beppu ramen at Tiong Bahru. But M said there is MUCH nicer ramen at CBD area and highly recommended us to go there instead. And so, we arrived at the highly raved Tonkotsu King at Tras St. 

When we arrived, there is already queue forming. We had to wait for around 20 minutes for a seat. The catch of the ramen here is that you could decide how Q you wanted your noodles to be and how strong you want your soup to be. And yes, there is free flow of hard boiled eggs & beansprouts. You can eat as much as you want. 

The queue.

Interior.

Free flow hard boiled eggs.

Mine. Normal ramen with strong soup.

L's. Normal ramen with red soup (spicy) and strong soup.

M likes ramen from here a lot. His wife is a Japanese and he says the ramen here is pretty authentic. You can add alot of sides to the ramen, for example, flavoured egg, seaweed, more meat etc. It comes with a price, of course.

Basically, I feel that the ramen here is of very japanese style. More emphasis on the noodles and the soup base. While Beppu's has alot more ingredients to the ramen like corn etc. Both have its pros and cons, but you have to pay ERP to try this ramen.

Tip: M said there is lesser/no queue during weekends. Try your luck then.

1 Tras Link, #01-19 Orchid Hotel
Opening Hours Daily: 11.30am–3pm, 6pm–10.30pm (Taken from Hungrygowhere)

Lao Ban Beancurd

老伴豆花 finally reaches the west!

As I was on half day leave due to collection of graduation gown, I decided to check out if the rumors is true - the famous beancurd brunch finally landed in the west.

It is! Located inside Cityvibe shopping centre in Clementi. Long queue is spotted when I am passing by on the bus. I had walked around the shop confirming its existence. And the long queue is indeed waiting for the shop to be opened.

Since I had some time to spare, I had decided to join the queue as the opening hours is 1pm & 6pm till sold out. And hey, its only few minutes to 1pm. Thus I joined the queue under the scorching sun...

Its hot I tell you. Cannot believe that I am one of the people in the queue.

After 40 minutes, I was at the front of the stall. 45th minutes, I laid my hands on the beancurd. The sickening thing is that the lady 2 persons infront had wiped out the entire Almond flavored beancurd. I don't have the chance to try it... Managed to buy the original flavor instead.

Tada!

Verdict: It is really nice. Very different from the traditional kinds of beancurd in the hawker centres. You won't get sick of it when you finished the entire serving. It is sweet in nature and hence there isn't a need for sugar syrup. Smooth and delicious. But if you ask me to queue 45 minutes again for the beancurd, nope, I will not do it again.

Red, white & black

Tried Menya Musashi at Raffles City Shopping Centre which I did not managed to try the last time round as the queue was too long. This time, Alvin & I was there early as we had a early dinner before our movie at Marina Square. 

Lucky for us, there is no queue at 5ish. However, our food took some time to be served. Poor staff management. 

Anyways, Alvin had the dried version of the ramen with red soup as a dip and I had ramen with black soup base. The shops boasts 3 signature ramen soup base. The red, white and black. Red is spicy, white is normal non spicy version (i think) and black is with garlic oil. 

The dry ramen of 3x serving size.

the black one.

The soup is slightly thicker than normal soups for ramen. Serving size is pretty alright but however, I don't think I will be back again. Something need to be done to the staff management. We saw a Japanese/Korean mum with 3 toddlers left the restaurant as the waiting time was too long to be served!

Menya Musashi
Raffles City Shopping Centre #01-16

Maison Kayser

Baked Black Sesame Chiffon cake the day before. Wanted to use the remaining black sesame powder but it turns out that there is white spots in the container. Threw those out instead. Used the black sesame paste I bought some time ago and had to find a suitable recipe for it as I had already cracked the eggs and separated them according to the recipe of black sesame powder. Grrr.

I finally found a recipe that can utilized all the eggs that I have cracked. No pics this time as the cake turns out to be extra fluffy and it slides out of the mould once I had inverted it to cool. And I had some trouble maintaining its beautiful looks while trying to lift the cake out. Don't think it is supposed to happen like that for chiffon cake. :(

Nevertheless, the cake is very fluffy. Very smooth texture compared to using black sesame powder. 

Photo taken from thesweetspot.

Recipe here.

----

Met up with Lynnie to do shopping in Orchard for huarong's jie mei dress for her wedding the next day. Brought along the chiffon cake (above) for her (and Alvin whom I met later) to try too. 

We settled on wearing convertible dress and Lynnie bought hers from a shop in FEP for $49. I didn't buy as I already got one at home. Compliments to the salesgirl at Shereen (FEP, #03-49A) for her exceptional customer service. Really felt like being serviced by her and she know her product well. In swift movements, she is able to wrap Lynnie in different styles that she requested. *thumbs up. We left the shop feeling really happy.

As we were done quite early, we settled for high tea at Maison Kayser. AK had raved about the breads there and since we are in the area, we decided to try it out. 

My croissant and Lynnie's raisin bun (forget the name)

Definitely worth the visit. The breads are so nice and crispy and simply melt-in-your-mouth. Lynnie had the coffee and she commented that it is nice. We didn't try the set menu for high tea as we don't really feel eclair-ish then. But then we realized their eclairs are one of the raved items. Well, next time then.

Maison Keyser
#B1-09 Scotts Square

National Day

Spend the national day with Alvin.

Started off with a drive around the site of our BTO area. Building progress not very fast. Still at 2-3 storey.

Then we went for lunch at famous laksa at Yishun. Already been there for a few times. This was one of the few days where there is long queue at the stall. Usually there is also queue, but not as long. Anyway the queue was moving fast, so not much of a issue.

I seated right in front of the stall as it is the only empty table. So I got the chance to observe the patrons and the workers. The preparation area is quite spacious behind. A few people prepares the orders. Ocassionally there will be a lady coming out from behind getting orders from the queue.

The stall owners are also very thoughtful to separate the gravy and the noodles for those having takeaways. They commented that this is because the noodles will not be soggy.

Yums, the long awaited noodles. I like mine with yellow noodles or mixed with beehoon. But usually if I am not the one ordering, I will make my order simplier so as not to trouble people.

This got to be the most flavourful laksa I ever had. Thick and fragrant gravy compliments the noodles perfectly. I always thought laksa don't match well with thick beehoon cos there is "no taste". I think the yellow noodles added a tinge of saltiness to the overall taste.

Spend the day catching up with dramas and met up with Terence & wife for dinner at Western Bar. The tv is showing NDP parade and I thought I would have a chance to emerse in NPD atmosphere in Singapore by participating in nationwide plegde taking or something as the previous national days was spend overseas. I envisioned that the whole Singapore will pause at certain time and recite pledge together or what. But well, it is not what I had imagined. lolz. Totally skipped the moment.

Totally forgot to take photos of the food we had. But overall, the food are not bad. Its the usual hangout for the guys, so I think I would have chances to take photos in future.

White Dog Cafe

Met up with AK for lunch on one of the weekdays. Went to vivocity as we need to purchase movie tickets for the weekend. 

We decided to try the executive lunch set at White Dog Cafe. 

Ice Lemon Tea

Fish soup with salad

Celery & Potato Broth

Mushroom Aglio Olio

Beef Lasagna

Overall, the food are not bad. Its my first time trying the executive lunch set and I find it quite decent. The only thing is the aglio olio is a tad spicy for me.

Worth a try.

White Dog Cafe
1 Harbourfront Walk, #02-131/132 VivoCity

Le Gourmet

If you are working/staying at the west, you might have heard of Le Gourmet. It is a western food stall in a coffeeshop in west coast. It started off with a stall in coffeeshop in West Coast Blk 516. Few years ago, it expanded to additional shop location behind Ayer Rajah Market. In layman terms, the more atas version of Le Gourmet.

This is the second time we went to the shop to eat.

It is a small clean shop in white color theme. It's one of those simplistic design. One bad thing about the location is that it is tucked in a corner of the row of shops. You won't really notice it unless you walked towards the corner.

Glance at the menu, it basically serves the items that mostly could be found in the coffeeshop stall. But, a more atas version. There is more thought into the presentation of the dish and of course, it comes with a price of almost double the coffeeshop cost.

I had the soup and the fish with potato wedges and salad.

Both were equally yummy.

However, if you ask me, I would rather go to the coffeeshop stall as it costs only almost half the price. It is not too much distinct difference among the 2 venues. Somemore just 1-2 bus stops away I could enjoy cheaper price for same food, would I spend so much to eat at the shop?

Well, we do. Because the market was cleaning that day and the only coffeeshop was briming with people.

We was thinking how the shop manages to survive as amost all the tables are occupied because the market is doing its cleaning. Else, normally, the shop will be like 80% empty.

Indian Mee Siam

The foodie colleague R showed us a blog from ieatishootipost and told us that there is a nice Indian mee siam just very near us! Just at the Ayer Rajah Food Center that we always had our lunch. So, we tried it during one of the lunches. 

Seriously, if it wasn't for the blog recommendation, I don't even think that I will be trying any one the India food there. FYI, the 60% of the stalls there are selling either muslim or indian food. I am just not that adventurous in food as all claims that they are the best and famous in shenton way. 

Its the green signboard stall. Stall 58.

We tried the raved mee siam (there is spicy and non spicy version) and the roti john. 

The mee siam is surprisingly good, given that I have only tried the malay version all my life. The difference with malay and indian mee siam is the gravy and the bee hoon. Malay mee siam tends to be sourish and watery and the beehoon is white while indian version has thicker gravy and it is not sour at all! 

the mee siam.

the roti john. Pic taken from ieatishootipost.

Its my first time trying roti john. Nice and fragrant. Yums. The sauce compliments the bread well too.

Overall, the food is definitely worth a try. Shall try it the next time we had lunch there.

Blk 503
West Coast Drive Stall 58,
Ayer Rajah Food Centre
Singapore 120503

Outram Park Bak Kuh Teh

Finally able to update! Had alot of trouble trying to upload the photos. Imagine 1 photo can takes up to 1 hr! Not too sure whether its the internet problem or what. 

After one of the late nights last month at the operations, the team decided to go for bak kuh teh at this quite famous outram park ya hua bak kuh teh.  

The you tiao

the spread. Pig stomach, tau gua, pig trotter, peanuts, salted veggies and of course, bak kuh teh

After.

Conclusion: Its my first time trying bak kuh teh as we asked the staff if the soup contains any herbs. Answer is nope. So I tried. I felt it wasn't very amazing like the rest described. Its just pork ribs and soup. Got any special meh? Thought I drank the soup, I'm still not very convinced that there is no herbs added. So, drink with caution. The seasoned bak kuh teh goers says its not very fantastic as it seems.

Many stars graced the shop.

 7 Keppel Road,
 #01-05/07 Tanjong Pagar Complex