Ananda Bhavan

It was the first lunch we had at Tiong Bahru Market cos we discovered that no one takes the free shuttle on a day when it rains and when its slightly past the lunch hour of 130pm. So we happily hopped on, and to our joy, we triggered memories of the Tau Kwa Pop (its damn awesome, but its in my archive), Jian Bo Chwee Kuay, and the marvellous Beef Horfan from the cantonese stall. All of which I had during my med sip days with marc and jeremy (boy I miss them and their appetite loads).

We ended at a rather decent time so that Kels could get her brows threaded at my place where I dropped her to park and rather short changed on parking, and we decided to trawl the Little India streets at night (a first for us both and a real eye opener!!), in a bit to find Chellas (as recommended by smallpotatoes) and food 03, unfortunately both failed - we walked all the way to the spanish tapas place but we didnt feel like it. So we ended up triggering more nostalgia for me at Ananda Bhavan (Serangoon Road) , where I had my first taste of Indian food during med school.

This place is owned by Krith's dad and during the anat class days, we will all train down to Little India to have a taste of the very delicious naans at her place. And not to mention, her birthday at the main branch further down, opposite to Mustafa. She's the one who also introduced the anat girls to the farrer park threading and eventually to vanessa (much more convenient).

This picture shows the very delicious fried puff (its actually empty inside) - called Batava or something along those lines. Its extremely tasty with any of those 3 dips. Very carbolicious and oily but totally worth it!

We also ordered a Salt Lassi and its hands down, the saltiest drink EVER.especially since the yoghurt was also unprocessed. Its the kinda yoghurt that I open and i think that its spoilt (i hope its not, but we didnt get no stomachache).

Garlic naan, Cheese Naan

Butter naan, Kashmiri nut naan

This particular branch is vegeterian, hence its mostly carb stuff. You should check out all the quotes on the walls of the 2nd level restaurant which compares herbivores vs carnivores. Some of it is quite hilarious, esp when it talks about the digestive systems. Which Kels and I don't mind (she orders naan all the time).. I tried all 4 when Krith treated us and my favourite is the Kasmiri nut one cos its sweet and really unique. Dips wise I really like the cottage cheese sauce, where the cheese has the consistency of tofu. I believe it was Kels' favourite too.

Eventually I hope to get down to trying more Indian food..and finding Chellas and Food03!

The Mask

Thursday beckons the second last day of greg's stay before he goes on leave for PACES so all the best to him! His treat for our team, and it was a lovely 2 hours outta the hustle and bustle of shaggh. The Mask (418 Serangoon Road) is near his house at Farrer Park and we were quite lucky to get the parallel lot nearby as 1) it was a wet wet day and 2)the shaggh buses anywhere queues were ridicuolous.

They commanded us to drop all work and all we did was relax for 2 hours. This place offers a 50% off during lunch time, and Greg is a regular here. He tries to patronise it more cos he likes the good food here and he's afraid the unbrisk crowds will force it to close ;S This place serves Chinese fusion - with mainly Indian. There is an Indian restaurant next door and apparently is owned by the same boss (of ?ethnicity).

The dishes we have here had a heavy Indian influence (think: curries). And most of these were recommendations, not in their usual menus. Greg ordered the dishes and he says that usu he orders off their menu.

We started with Achar, and I ate most of this and ordered another one. kinda got a rep in my team for eating nasi padang/spicy soup om haha.

Egg tofu with vegetables in pumpkin paste. And lotsa Gingko.

i LOVE this fish head!! it was sweet and spicy and absolutely delicious with the steaming rice.

Curry chicken was a little to sweet for my liking.

Salted egg fried prawns was also another winner. It tastes as good as it sounds, a salt bomb it was.

Navya's naan.

Convos revolved alot on travel (aussie and india), something i really hope to do end july!

By the time we crawled back it was 2 plus and we missed the pleural tap. Small price for the great meal we had, and the only one out of shaggh and hopefully more to come k pek!