Everything with Fries and Potluck, Ice cream Chefs

I woke up at 130pm today, and having misst Kels and D in the morning (it was the last day of revision!), I drove st to sg to pick up Kels before we headed via Cantoment towards Joo Chiat to try some eats there. Misst discovery of dukes, and the ultimate face-off with black f.

When we were east crawling the last time when we were at cgh we never quite got to this Presidential Poh Piah place (cos it was too far down long long Joo Chiat) so I'm quite glad I managed to drive down today where the parking wasnt too crazy. However this place is at a segment of Joo Chiat where its a one way street so we had to make a loop and park at another lane.

Kway Guan Huat (97 Joo Chiat Road) is located at a super old school coffeeshop (where also houses Beef House a beef noodle specialist), where old chinese music was blasting and small kids were asking us for drinks whilst munching on luxury wafers (my favourite!).

We ordered one normal Popiah (think its vegeterian) - $2 and the extra big one - $3.50 which has prawn and egg.

If you read the first picture, the Popiah actually prides on using Sri Lankan Crab meat and crispy fish crackers. Kels deduced that Popiah can be dichotomised into the healthy, neat ones and the messy sweet sauce-laden unjealthy ones and Kway Guan Huat happens to belong to the latter category.

Kelly is a fan of the former, and I the latter so I really like this Popiah. Messy popiahs are a tad difficult to lift up from the plate and eaten whole - very unlike the super neat one at Clementi which Kelly is a fan of . So its really fun to dissect this popiah - and love the fragrant stewed vegetables within and the huge chunks of fish crackers. The skin was thick and delicious though it didnt do a very good job in holding everything together. Although we really really couldnt find where the Crabmeat was...

We then drove back down to Everything with fries (Joo Chiat). Within 10 seconds of sitting down we were asked what we wanted to order, and again, and again. Hmm.
One egg soup - its egg york, in chicken broth, with fluffy egg white atop. Super chicken goodness. But I love the crispy batter and soaking it right into the soup.
Single order of Salt and Vinegar fries (shoe string). I generally prefer thin fries cos I like the batter to potato ratio better... We had to up the dosage of salt and vinegar cos at first it wasnt acidic enough. I missed the UK fish and chips where you can add as much of the actual vinegar into the frieds..

Lamb Burger with Curry fries (straight cut). We absolutely love the lamb burger - the patty consisted largely of well marinated lamb, and I loved how loosely packed and rough the texture was - it was good lamb meat. With a dallop of sour cream (careful not to ingest it all like I did thinking it was cheese) and pan fried buns, it was damn awesome. Now I want to try the lamb burger at Cellar Door.

And oh, after the salt and vinegar fries which was really acidic, we couldnt really taste much of the curry powder anymore. Pity - we should have tried the garlic with herbs!

Love the Nutella milkshake ( - it had a tinge of hazelnut and was not too chocolatey at that - it looks so much like an oreo milkshake though with dark specks throughout the froth. But Kels later said it tasted like her oreo-mocha bubble tea fix....

I had a SUPER CLOSE CALL cos my coupon expired at 545 pm and I left at 6pm to extend coupon starting at 610 pm , and with my car shades on didnt see the parking attendent till I walked 4 steps outside my car and bumped into her on the phone and she very nicely said ok even though i put 10 minutes later =P Its kinda WORSE to put a later timing than to not put btw.

Thank you Sheryl for hosting us! You have such a lovely home in a quiet neighbourhood - and a lovely Christmas tree, a real one at that. Waited for Kok before starting, with Kums coming later.

Mary Corner's Tau Kua Pau - before the chilli was spread all over. Ingenious idea of Tau kuar with egg pieces and batter. I figure this would taste the best after some toasting.

Rojak from Seng Kee Rojak which is sandwiched in between all the Katong Laksa stalls. No beating the Toa Payoh Rojak at Old Airport Road man, but the deep plastic container is like, damn modern lar.

Beef Shepherds Pie - the boys were so fixated on my restrictions they forgot about Kums =P but I wished they remembered cos I'd love to try the Lamb one! The first time I tried this was when Eliza made it and I love love it. These folks only did delivery.

This Nutella tart is from Everything with fries (we tookaway after our meal). And everyone had extreme comments about it. It tastes exactly like the place it comes from..And given how its a few doors away from the dangerous cake shop I better stinge on my words.

Ondeh Ondeh from Kim Choo Nonya Delicacies - love the flowing gula melaka within and the cube of sugar.

Apple Strudel from Renaldo's - I like this, but the Durian Strudel was the ultimate favourite - durian paste was really fresh and reminds me of the durian milk ice's paste at sg.

Kelly and I also bought the Pandan Cheese Roll from Bengawan Solo, which is our daily replacement for the cheese pancake from Mr Bean since sg doesnt have any =P

Adjourned over to Ice cream Chefs - this is Kaya, and Granny's Smith. You'd love Kaya if you well, love the real kaya toast.The granny smith has a strong cinnamon taste, with a sour burst of green apples.

Thanks Kok for the treat - Chocolate and Hersheys is actually good old thick dark chocolate, Coffee was a tad too bitter for me (prefer my coffee icecream with a little liquer, like Kahlau), but the Rockmelon was really popular (staying off sour flavours) and so was Durian (Jason's, guess he didnt have enough of the strudel).

Its super crowded on a Friday night and we had to share one table at first, then the uneven two tables =P but left soon after the group beside us was spreading carcinogens..

On the way back with Jason we were debating what late night show to catch (if at all) and we decided to first park at Cine (shitty indeed =/) and check out the shows first. Major frontal lobe overdrive with the she's watching instead of we, and to account on Monday for the ultimate betrayal and the numerous obstacles of the crazy road crossing and the closure of the Basement box office, we settled for the 1135pm Princess and the Frog show, us being late by 10 minutes. ( We talked too much outside Sterling's car where I discovered the secret to them being embarassed wearing the masks all the time!!!!!).

Princess and the Frog is such a Disney Classic, something I miss for the longest time. With so much technicolour even 2-dimensionally, and the wonderful rhapsody of song and dance and the idiosynchracies of the side characters (my favourite was the firefly and his was the evil guy's voice and singing). I could envision the Disneyland ride for this already....Crazy the references through the day and the show, with the getting comfortable at the tree (heh). Love how spontaenous this was since we knew we were still gonna sleep late anyway and this IS a great start to the holidays - not like the crappy twilight and 2012 of late...

Bonchon Fried Chicken, Overeasy

It was an EARLY day in the heritage musuem and thru the tour and subsequently thats to the nice G and C i got my Green Tea Soy Latte fix that morning, before Mr Bean too ! Vascular folks rock.

We started at BonChon Fried Chicken (B4 Ion Orchard) and our second visit meant we are gonna try others on the menu and this is our new favourite! Katsu Chicken burger. Gosh where do I start.. everything about this is fried food goodness - including the fried mantau.. It was most delicious with the kimchi coleslaw generously laden over the fried battered chicken.

The tofu and Kimichi rice set wasn't a big deal and was really too oriental for us ! It was the similar Kimchi coleslaw over the rice as it was in the burger.
the beloved 6 piece chicken set! All the wings to K and the drums to me. The best ever crispy sauce laden skin. Go for the chilli ones, the soy garlic one don't pack much of a punch. Gotta warn you the wings and drumlets are really quite tiny, they seem quite much like an appetiser.
The previous photos at Bonchon were taken by Kel's camera so I'm not sure if the fries look the same - but don't you think they look rather festive with the seasoning??

Avatar was no doubt, gorgeous but with a very old school storyline. It challenges you to think how we forget we live in an eco-system with other more powerful animals than us - who can soar the skies, and who can prance faster than us and many of our modern inventions are inspired to achieve that similar power we lack. We have become a dominant species despite a lack of such powerful characteristics. We forget what it is like to be hunted, and to hunt and gather our foods. (An Omnivore's Dilema is an excellent book, reinforcing how modern eating is most pathetic). Energy is only borrowed as mentioned in the library - machines and man-made energy is all but made with Earth's resources, and we are nothing with these, and our minds.

And the dreaming and letting your consciousness control your avatar - where does your consciousness go when you are dreaming? We wake to feed our dreams (as quoted in OHCM) and its always a wonder why we spend so much of our (or rather, mine!) lifetime sleeping. Recently MYB featured a sleep article, which rationalises that our most violent and sexual moments happen in our dreams because of the disinhibition of the frontal lobe, which serves to restrict our primitive urges. It suppresses the animalistic urges of incest, rape, murder - acts which are ironically, essential to survival in the animal kingdom.

There was evidently many messages in the movie - from Savin Gaia to the wars, and even the greed of corporate companies (in obtaining the tree's unvaluable resources) ignoring the savage of the plebians in doing so. Who are the real aliens in such instances - what right should we have over another species in claiming territories?

We watched many many Sci fi shows this year - including Moon, District 9 and Transformers (in declining preference) and I have to say that Moon is my Sci-Fi show of 2009 (or maybe even the movie of the year). Fantastic plot with minimal budget and actors even, it is a great piece of work.

The transition from human to avatar right at the end of the show is so similar to the transition i just read about in Her Fearful Symmetry ! (by the author of Time Travellor's Wife). This book had some interesting twists in the story, which was eerily similar to the show, given how i JUST completed the book.

Anyway, it was so many obstacles to watching Avatar - from opening day (J!!!!!!!!!!!! pangseh going to watch with your friends at night) and Friday (Princess and the Frog so we don't betray too =) to Monday (J's birthday and misst the show at TB). Tues before Singhealth's was most impossible so it became Wednesday...I'm sure you can sense how some buzz has died on the way there...

We went to the Library where I returned two books (Hot Flat and Crowded seems quite relevant after Avatar) and then decided at One Fullerton but before we began the trek there we went to Raffles City (in a bid to buy Root Beer but it has disappeared) so we went to Yoguru (B1 Raffles City) for the Mixed Yoguberry/Original. This is my favourite yoghurt icecream amongst all simply because of the creaminess of it all and its huge portion for $4.30!

Check out the white balls floating on the river and the no entry sign to boats!

We reached Overeasy (One Fullerton) and we were dying to try the Mac and Cheese. The Good Ol' Mac and Cheese tastes similar to the one at the White Rabbit Bar, which is no surprise, given how they're sister restaurants. But I love the fluid cheese with the crisp baked top of the macaroni, with crumbs all over.

Burger of the month is a Turkey Burger with BBQ sauce. It tastes pretty much like what you expect, really, with chunks of turkey meat aplenty and a tangy roasted pineapple slice in between. Avoid the stinging raw onions. Loved the bun - but I say, go for the To die for Burger.

But I must say I was most disappointed with the Haystack Fries with Parmesan!!! (I refuse to photograph it) It was really most un-crisp to the tad of being soggy despite us asking for it to be replaced. I was really disappointed cos I remembered the first time it was super awesome - and it was I say WAS my favourite skinny fries ever.

We chatted till 930pm all the way in the Billy Bombers like enclave of ours and Kels loved the ambience of our place, despite being packed. Reminiscing alot about secondary school like Mao (hahaha) and what could have been. Yes, what could have happened if we didnt make our choices then! Thank goodness!

And the queue at Butter...was just crazy.

Passed by Udders otw back but no cars outside - so I really really dared not pop in to get a pint. Then zoomed over to upper Bukit Timah to meet the aus folks - it was hilarious with flyfairy getting tekaned about going to wards in eye, and the terribleness of how people are and how they're still gonna get their own way anyway. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Joe's Kitchen, Love Confectionary

After Prof Thamb's excellent lecture on approach to joints, and squeezed in a b palsy exam (with the most amazing coned shaped pupils!) in between and renal god's amazing sle tutorial, we scurried off to have lunch before another excellent stroke lecture at tt. many many excellents and amazings in that sentence, but yes. We had an excellent excellent lunch in between those too.

We initially thought of Donut Factory's amazingly cheap lunch set meal deal but cos of the u-turn we had to make at Bukit Merah we headed straight on to Alexandra Village, and because of the crazy parking (lady who misled us, with her dementia like signs!!!) and parking attendent, we ate at Joe's Kitchen at Alexandra Village. And somehow the owner is vaguely related to Marc, which he told us the day after (always like that!! =P). And the first thing that strikes you is the huge printout of ieatishootipost's blogpost on this place (which I recalled and hence brought my friends here in the first place!)

The service by the lady boss here was excellent, attentive and approachable. Could tell it was a family run place, and extremely homely and earnest. Plus they don't charge gst and service charge, with water and napkins provided.

When we were there - the other patrons was the huge corporate like group with boisterous laughter (with one distinctive male one =!) and another really cute unlikelys of oldish couple. Really really sweet and I really wondered how they chanced upon the place! They were trying to find their way back after the meal...and were tucking into a very tempting crab tanghoon !

Anyway, we started off our meal with what I must say the best dish at this place - it has gotta be the mango salad - the mango was really fresh and finely shredded and was a fantastic contrast with the salty white bait atop. A great symphony of sour, sweet (sauce) and salty in one.

Green curry had many baby eggplants which I thought was peas. Green curry was quite creamy but I wish it was laden with more baby green tomatoes and eggplants.
Kang Kong was also super super tasty. I hardly photograph vegetables but this was worth the space cos it was really very good - and the lady boss said her secret was the fire strength, and some fish sauce. Home cooked food can be so simple yet so tasty.

The phad thai was not as wet or had as much wok hei as we wished..in fact it seemed almost healthy.

We ordered a Tom Yam soup with fried fish, and another small with seafood. The fried fish one came separately from the soup, and on its own the fried fish was super tasty anyway. The soup should pack more kick!

Mango sticky rice - we misst the ones in First Thai where there were some crunchy bits of barley grains atop.
I was determined to find the old school bakery around Alexandra Village- despite the lurking parking attendent and my groups pereserverance paid off! Thank you guys !

Its amazing how traditional Love Confectionary (Alexandra Village) is - freshly baked cakes displayed without any refridgeration (true testament to the freshness of it!), and wafers and other biscuits in packets. The chiffon cake was plastic wrapped.
Peanut cake - the left one. Notice that it had pandan layers as well? Coconut cake.

Lotus cake - kept thinking the lotus seeds atop was almonds. We also bought a custard puff. The top and bottom - Steamed kaya cake and honey cake was bought from a nameless bakery along the same row of shops as a bird shop (Kels was most startled haha). Steamed Kaya cake tastes like a butter pound cake, and Bengawan Solo has better honey cake actually. But we loved the simple fluffy cakes - it was a lovely tea though in a most likely location at the kopitiam at tt.
I found my new love at Star bucks - Apple Crumble Cheese cake at Star bucks Liat Towers. This is prob the quietest Starbucks at the Orchard stretch. The cinammon apple chunks fills half the cheese cake and there was so much crumble right atop. Oh my!! I love it.

Nadaman

It was the Saturday of December (gasp 79 days tks to nat in the car =P)where we had weekend lectures thanks to neuro santa who kindly does charity 3 days of his annual leave..luckily he didnt went on or else I would have missed this lovely lunch at Nadaman (Shangri-La, Level 1) with Jo, Dern, Su, Jiayan and Nat. Happy birthday to the december babies!! (D, J, N =)) and thanks to dern for prebooking. There's a 38% discount with the Shangri la card, which we happily maxed out.

We were reminiscing alot about our batchmates and to our surprise/horror, many of them were getting hitched... its rather interesting how many of our friends turned out to be, from the way we remembered them in secondary school - belts and all. Random meetups or fb stalking does wonders to making surprising discoveries.

I had the Mini Kaiseki - a 7 course meal, and most of the others had the Teppanyaki set (which has alot alot of meat - beef and fish). I really enjoyed my meal (and its many courses). I have been yearning to try a Kaiseki after all those degustations on Japan Hour and this shall be the start to many!

Milk Mousse - don't you think it looks rather deceiving?? looks like cold tofu right?? the girls sampled and some thought it was fermented curd, and nat thought it was like a salty Japanese cheesecake... I would say it tastes like a dessert really (and I really don't mind starting my meal with dessert =P) - yet contrasted with the bursting fish roe atop.

With this strange upstart, I actually had to start asking the waitress what were the various things in my food were cos I really didnt couldnt figure out what I was eating!

Clear broth with Crab meat fish cake - loved the rough texture of the crabmeat cake. There were shreds of crabmeat within. No prompting of what I was eating here..
Tuna and Hamachi - fresh as expected, no less. I adore how they present such a simple dish so prettily and that really captures the beauty of kaiseki,
Yam cake with chicken - there is a slight oriental twist to this - it feels like a fried yam cake, but it was superbly well contrasted with the tart salad atop.

Loved the smooth Gindara the fatty fish literally melts away in your mouth. Those corner chunks were actually fried nuts and was most delicious with the rice.

Fried rice - this tasted really healthy and not oily, with slivers of seaweed. My friends had a different fried rice with their sets and it came with shrimp.

Creme brulee, which I traded with Nat's vanilla ice cream with - this is a caramel curd, and I'd rather ice cream anytime =P

Joanne's infamous Homemade apple cake. This is Priceless! Am glad I traded for ice cream cos it went perfectly with the cake.

Love love the apple slivers and walnut and the crisp crust. This is the BEST ever home made cake ever and I had seconds....

We all applied for the Shang card thereafter. It was a most lovely, wet day and spent with the best people. Its a real luxury meeting up for such a lovely lunch...8 days to Christmas!

With the Shang card, you get complimentary parking if not its $6 per entry on weekends! and $10 for valet...

Found a new love at Starbucks which I'm having as I'm typing this out- the Green Tea Soya Latte...its soooo good I'm staying off the regular Soy Latte as well. And...the Apple Crumble Cheese cake is most awesome!! Shall blog about it sometime...

Michelangelo's

Today was Thursday of week 5 and it was CTS day so after the onco lect and RT's tut (my respi short/J's long and talkative), we left for Michelangelo's (Chip Bee Gardens), after securing a reservation (last order at 1.15pm).

Parking was initially a problem as the lots were limited and Holland V was full but we were luckily to give parallel lots.

Over lunch, whilst some vigorous gaming was going on, we were postulating what might have gone on should we not have signed on...

We chose 6 Express lunches, at $28 each before one for one.. Mussels in soup - loved the flavourful tomato soup, and mussels were most fresh. Went fantastically well with the crisp herb bread.

Chicken cutlet - breast meat and stuffed with sauces. The skin was coated with herbs and was quite delicious on its own.

We stepped into Da Paolo's cake shop when we saw this massive $480 fruit cake - and saw cute Thomas the train cakes and strawberry cakes.

Ended in The Daily Scoop (Chip Bee Gardens) . I settled for Kahlau - coffee liquer after I sampled chilli chocolate, butter pecan. J's tastebuds are screwed saying it tasted like raw eggs with soya sauce, whilst Kelly thought it tasted rather bitter.

J had Earl Grey , K had Salty Mister Brown (sea salt and brown sugar which she declared as her ultimate favourite), Marc had Macademia, D had Cookie monster. And off we went (all but late) recharged, to the breast cts.

Soprano

Morning was a sleepy affair with tutor getting angst amidst the low turnout and so decided to join them at shorts at nuh (highly unsuccessful with me doing pd) and then joined chong's at the 3 situational sim man...before I (tried to)join D and Wm at nuh again, whilst killing time to pick up a very early carol and yh, heading down to Portsdown where Colbar was no longer serving food(after 830pm for your info) and so we headed Soprano (7 Portsdown Road), a recommendation thanks to Nat. YH said the menu looked super familiar, and looks like he ate at an offshoot of this place - Donna CarmelaDonna Carmela.

Dinner was an affair of a heated discussion over the dynamics of mind/body/soul, the state of affairs of the states

Started with the lovely bread roll - white toasted soft buns, excellent with olive oil and vinegar.

Cheese Platter - Emmental, Goat's, Brie. and Blue cheese in the salad.

Emmental tasted like vanilla beans, Goat's was rough and salty, and Brie had this floral, lavender after taste esp on eating the skin. Seafood pasta in foil - This was excellent, better than bland Da mario's version. In Ian's words, it was as if the tomato broth was cooked with some prawn extract

Carol's mushroom pasta

My ravioli with whole nuts and cheese, in herbs and secret aroma sauce. This tastes really herbal. Loved the grittiness of the ground mixed nuts within the ravioli, which was a lovely contrast from the smooth sheets of pasta and cream.
Triple gelato - nothing vaguely interesting except for the really good strawberry sauce drizzled over - and a third of the gelato which had candied gum and chocolate chips.

Headed to Wala Wala after that where the rock music was best enjoyed right next to the staircase where we could hear each other. One for one meant vodka cranberry plus vodka lime, and many a good continuation of PPE thru the night...