Burger Bench and Bar

I feel like a Burger special again....

It was a trip down memory lane to AH - parked in front of Auditorium (realise the value of coming early for parkin esp now with the damn satellite place), ECG Star - Team YJ vs Hons and Prof Raja's puzzle spotting, my elective tutor NST's crash course on x rays.

Went to sg - rejected for morning (neuros) Came back and the intensity of murmurs ++ (asd vsd,ar with gallarv,mr,av replacement) and respi (hydropneumot,lobect,post tb bronchiec). Lunch was insipid at the canteen with Marcus, Daryl, Weeming - crush on y, vijayjay and evilness to convert v's to adobe. Quite fruitful seeing a DM ft abscess s/p amputation, acute gout. Came back to feel a thal (jaundice, hepatospleno) and listened to the (hopefully scary)mo briefing.

We initially planned to go House but we veered offtrack (the burger moods strike) so we headed to Burger Bench and Bar (Cathy Cineleisure Orchard, Basement 1) Was at a corner seat, then shifted in.

We love the casual atmosphere at this place, despite it being situated at a high human traffic area. By the time we finished our early dinner there were already people waiting for seats (there was no structured queue). The decor reminded me very much of Relish, where the menus are scrawled on the walls. B3 is trying to promote burgers as wholesome fast food, that fast food can be good if prepared with fresh, wholesome ingredients. I must say they kept to their promise.

I had the Sarawak Special - this is the black pepper beef and I declare this to be the top of my fast food burger list!! Extremely tender, and loosely packed meat patty which was most meatilious topped up with lovely toasty sesame buns The burger is simple and good, no qualms about that. It was so delicious I forgot there was no cheese in this.

However the chips were a little stale I do wish they can have those yummy thick cut fries straight out of the fryer.

Kelly had the Mushroom Cheese and she enjoyed this to bits too.
We really miss Pro Burger from our Hong Kong days. 180 grams of Angus beef man, power.

Another item worth trying is the Gourmet Dark Chocolate soft serve. I found it amazing that the dark chocolate flavour came through and through despite it being a soft serve. Well, its not that soft I suppose...its like the consistency of perhaps Mr Bean's soya icecream (which I eat everyday) so I really really enjoyed this. I'll prob have this most times when I come to watch movies here now !

We were trying to then find a place to discuss about the fruitful day and the plan was first Spinelli's at Heeren (too crowded!) - and boy has that place gone through a huge revamp. We managed to find a spot at the Coffee Bean at 313 Orchard and managed to iron out vsd and asd, with Kels spotting my mom and sister (not incidentally!) Nutty Special = Pistachio Milkshake, White chocolate Frap for her.

We were so glad we went to satisfy our burger craving. Finally a great affordable place in town to eat at! We wanna try the curry chicken burger and the butter fish wasabi burger next. Watch this space.

Burger Shack

It was a day when we saw a test lump, clerked a oeso ca, no luck with paeds, had the BA tutorial with Praba at 10am, then clerked a breast CA before heading back. Marc's parkin was running fast at science, so we zhaoed and I went to Coronation Plaza for some (birthday!) errands.

Oh boy that Starbucks there makes me really old !! Its super inconducive to read whatsoever there....its great fun to watch what your neighbours are up to tho, we spied some of Jacob's alma mater's students reading The Highly Sensitive Guy in Love, and soon his friend started sewing!!! ROFL.

And we even gotta witness a staff training midway..most hilarious having a tasting session, and they were thinking of ways to describing the drink to customers.

Anyway, he tried to teach polyps and we went through abit of swallowing before I went to collect my stuff from Coro and back with Chocolates. Back was a quickie dinner at Burger Shack (555 Bukit Timah Road, Kings Arcade 01-01) before we zaoed for Chew's.

There are 4 beef burgers - Original, Double, Ramly and Mushrooms Cheese. Luckily they could whip up the burger in 10 minutes or else its gonna to have been Macs =/ I had the Mushroom Cheese and I thought my burger was a mid between a gourmet and a fast food standard of a burger. The patty is gruffily beefy, but not as meaty as the ones I had in Hong kong (they were amazing...Pro Burger never fails to make me drool). Its just slightly thicker than the Macs one too. But I guess if you like your burger neat, and not greasy and dripping with sauce and juices, you will like this burger. I prefer my burger to gruesomely messy and chunky (like Brewerkz King Brew!) and this is quite the opposite. Even the Mushroom Swiss from BK will suffice that messy burger craving sometimes.

Jacob had the Original and the first few bites he mumbled it was not bad but eventually said it was a little dry...Yes without the mushroom sauce I guess it is too neat for real burger.

We had no time so we didnt try much else - would wanna try their BBQ chicken burger next time, and their other fried items esp calamari too! And the ice cream !! Saves me walking about 4oo meters to Serene Centre =)

Anyway, on the way to walking to Coro, I now realise where is Le Wu Cafe and La Petit Roastery ! I can't believe James couldnt find online where is La Petit Roastery...we are going there the next outing ya...

Wild Honey

Its great to start the year with breakfast.

No, actually, I had Macs after midnight on new year's.....not counted!!

Anyhow, after some online getting together in the morning, the girls (and Qian's fren) decided they were gonna watch Holmes (which I watched last night) and we later all gathered at Wild Honey (Level 3, Mandarin Gallery).

The stories of the world of animal med is most intriguing.... and the realm of sci fi shows =)

I love NY - Scrambled eggs, Smoked Sturgeon + Cheese bagel. I really enjoyed the scrambled eggs, with the salty bits of fish between, and the condiments. Its creaminess and egginess hit a perfect balance. And the sesame bagel was really delightful, love my bread well toasty, and with that extra edge of texture by the sesame seeds, just like how i love nutty breads. Yet, it manages to be chewy within. My love for bagels has just got reignited by this.

Tuniscan - sunny side eggs with tomato stew - This was originally mine, but E decided to take it in the end (she doesnt do beef). This comes with chicken chunks especially catered to our requests. If you like your eggs crusted down to the pan this is for you.
This is Yiqians - its Ciabatta with Scrambled eggs and Tofu. I ended up eating the last portions of this as she thought this was a tad too bland and couldnt finish. I guess I understood the value of the smoked sturgeon in my scrambled eggs, for tofu doesnt provide much of a bang in scrambled eggs.

Waffles with Custard and Mango - gotta catch this fella hot and crisp!

Note that photography is not allowed here so do ask for permission... the service tries to be personal but somehow it wasn't as homely and forthcoming as it was at Chalk.. perhaps ladies (at chalk) do give off a more genuine vibe? Anyway, the novel thing about this place is that it has no menus for reference, you gotta refer to the boards around the counter, or to the iphones at the counter, which will flash pictures after the captions.

I would say that this place is a little pricey, but I guess you are paying for what you are eating, and where. It wasn't crowded on a Friday night at all, and loved the casual homely feel of the place. This is quite a novel idea I must say, offering breakfasts from all over the world from Mexican to Jap to American.

We went grocery shoppin at Taka after, and I quickly grabbed a longs at Mango before we set off out of the ridiculous parkin at taka, gotta go satisfy the craving for green tea soy latte again (two consecutive days!! =P)

Jasmine, we missed you! and im sure you miss breakfast food too! and us ! haha =) hope china's treating you well!

Chalk

After a very strict non nonsense 8am by the flickering tree, and clerking uro, rushed in a fast bf of the usual Mr bean ice cream and pancake, and an equally quick neuro surg tut (with the high d iatrogenic cn3!), and free yums fish and chicken by the deans, and more fish from the sci canteen, after the long uro tut (really admire prof heng's stamina.....and brain bank), marc and i discussed a bit more on p CA following which I hurried to meet Clare.

Picked her from Acid Bar and we headed to Mount Emily to try Chalk (01-03, 11 Mount Sophia )which Dedrick has been egging me to try.

Its a rather quiet place, and we loved the corner seat by the shelves, and even the al fresco seats overlooking Dhoby Gaut was gorgeous. This place opens late, with the last order at 1030pm. We sat till past 11 pm, with no pressure on the staff, really nice of them.

D recommended the daily specials, of which we had 2 of them. The service here is excellent - tho we in an isolated section of the room, they never failed to check on us to make sure we're alright, topping up our water even tho they left the glass water bottle on our table. And, when we asked for the daily specials, the waitress actually brought the HUGE chalk board over ! rofl.

The AWESOME bread is free flow, and has got to be the best i've had in a while. The olive bread especially, it was crusty and perfectly baked. Served with butter and olive oil with vinegar, but best when dipped into the soup below.

Seafood bisque - within which lied a prawn, a mussel, and small bits of scallop. This has a well rounded rich seafood flavour, and still manages to be slightly creamy.

Calamari confit - of which it has been soaked in oil for 3 days, explaining its extreme smoothness. This has definitely got an oriental twist to it especially the vegetables in the middle, soaked in a cheese sauce.

Beef stew was the waitress's personal favourite - if not would have gone for the veal. This is comfort food, and it really reminds me of Grandma's stew actually - kudos to gran for fantastic food self learnt!

I loved the ambience and Clare's company, with her stories about the horrors of grocery shopping and the safety of East London, and her wonderful guy in her life. All prices here are nett on the menu.

Wanted to carry on in Timbre at Old School but the female singer that night was rather ghastly so we explored the compound a fair bit - from ergonomic chairs to media firms, that place is a enclave of creativity. We zipped out to City hall, where I left the car behind Raffles Hotel and we walked to New Asia Bar (Swissotel) meeting Winnie on the way (whom Clare was supposed to meet on nye). She loves the east coast panel while my favourite was the Boat Quay side, and the view of the water front and the floating wishing spheres was amazing - retract my statement of how hideous it was (actually, it still is, in the day.)

Had a mini countdown with Vivian Tan (heavily pregnant but very pretty!!) practising for the actual event... This is at the Esplanade outdoor amphitheatre. From afar we were wondering why there were djs on the decks!

Innocently, we thought that each sphere was lighted up on its own (and the balls were actually violet, appearing blue now =/) My favourite colour has gotta be yellow, cos they all look like floating popcorn!

But its not!! Very powerful lights shine upon them! From our little countdown corner.

This was on our way to One Fullerton - where we met Qian and frens who queued like crazy (seriously!) and sadly Starbucks was closed so we actually sat at the Japanese bar which was closed (on the chained bar seats, and eventually the comfy rattan sofas, with the Moet and Chandon bottle in front of us. Loved her stories about the biz ppl she's reading up on - from the no1 Pork Chop seller to how the finance world works. On our way to the second Starbucks under the Fullerton bridge, we got a bit wet from the cleaning...the 2 starbucks are in such close proximity!! (whilst she was reporting strength heh)

Anyway, the crowds at Butter was just..insane! We went in at 230 am (not queuing, of cos =P) and as it was, Fash was packed to the brims - there was r&b aplenty (guess to make up for those who dun attend the other room) and some retro and rock. Miss the trance and house quite a bit =P

And there is a table in the lady's podium at the r&b room!! Very strange...

Love how we can pick up from where we left...Enjoy London more for me, Clare! You'll be missed...