Fancy Delight, Kim's Family (Duos)

Had a round of egg tarts just before my CG adjourned to Kim's Family for dinner. Wouldnt have bothered going for CTS (doh, Principles of Chemotherapy) if not for this outing - would have dashed home after pysch stat, both Kelly and me.

Fancy Delight (Kilat Court) is just beside Kim's family and specialises in tarts - has outlets in IMM and Suntec. We had a set of 6 - cheese and durian, banana nut and curry chicken, chocolate and double chocolate. The crust was a little too thick for me, but I liked the durian one because it was so unique. Many others liked the curry chicken tart, which is more like a savoury tart.
We went next door to Kim's Family (Kilat Court, Lorong Kilat) and again the wonderful array of complimentary dishes! I liked the seaweed at the top left corner - and the other new items are the potato chunks which the boys liked, and the pickle which Kelly likes (cos it reminds her of porridge days.)
The complimentary fish came separately - and my CG thinks its a ploy to make you think its a special gesture for that dramatic effect. Whatever it is, all the dishes here are so well done, and ernestly prepared I don't really care what's the motive of presentation...
Spicy rice cakes for which the sauce was most delicious, but for wonderful chewy awesome ones I think HanSang at Square 2 does a better job..
Seafood pancake...must spread the joy of this pancake!
Kumaran's octopus fried rice which I cant get enough of...I realise this octopus comes in a fried rice version - served with plain rice in a claypot and meant for you to mix it all around and let it heat up within the claypot - $10 and another version which I wrote about earlier is just the fried octopus on its own at $17. I think the Fried Octopus Rice is more value for money, and nicer since the sauce is so good it should be eaten with rice - the $17 one does not come with rice.
The most value for money sets are these meat sets - $7 for the chicken, beef or pork hot plate. Note that the third time I came here, they changed their policy - this $7 deal only applies for lunch. For dinner you must top up $3 for the soy bean stew which I think is quite worth it!

I think when you come here, its logical to either order a stew or a meaty dish since there's so much complimentary vegetable dishes its no point ordering a Bibimbap to OD on vegetables. (Whoops Mich, forgot to forewarn you...)

Sterling's Ox tail Stew which is so salty and did not come with rice....as recommended the way to be eaten sans rice, by the waitress. Plenty of meat though, he was struggling to finish!

Sheryl's Ramen..

Happy Birthday Kok and me! Thanks for all that trouble and secrecy. Thing was, right after CTS I had to go Bengawan Solo at NUH to get a kueh lapis for Gran's birthday at home AND the CG was gonna get a birthday cake for us! And cos Kels pon lect there was this shroud of secrecy and suddenly she was loitering at the Deans office planting the cake bomb at a corner somewhere......till Jason and Sterling walked by. Thanks for the surprise ! Though I kinda figured out.... Sorry I had to scram early but the company was priceless! Heard about the mad squeeze in Sterling's car to PS later on and the relentless teasing poor babe...Cheers to CG18 2008... Kelly and I (Yes we're still the bottom 2 of the next CG 18) are continuing the CG 18 legacy... feasting legacy that is...

Kim's Family (tres), Udders (Countless....)

I like Kim's Family (17 Lorong Kilat #01-06 Kilat Court),so much I've been bringing all my groups of friends here for the Korean fare, and shall be blogging about it reverse chronologically - deciding against putting up everything in one entry cos there's so much along Lorong Kilat to write about - and I'm raring to try the Korean fried chicken there too...anyone up for it?

Anyway, the complimentary side dishes are amazing! So much variety (with unlimited refill too, on request). The first time I came here I was swamped - esp since James didn't eat raw vegetables 0_O. What was new today was the sweet potato (the 3 stumps there), the mixed sausage vegetable, and fried taukuar. My all time favourite is the pancake!

We came here for Newman's birthday with Nat, and Kheng as well. It was a case of sloppy vs. giving face so no guesses who dressed up =P hell, it was raining as well (though I was not the one in hells), better appreciate it okay birthday boy!

Anyway, I learnt to make a reservation here after the first time when James and I queued for damn long to get in. More of that story how J and I landed here in the end (since I never read about this place anywhere before)

Tried the seafood stew ($30) which was chokeful of ingredients - crab, squid, prawns, clams - all that Kheng avoided, not sure cos of the seafood or the choke-ful of chilli, but the rest of us relished everything soaked in the tasty broth including the tau kuar and noodles and giant bean sprouts. Its worth a try, but you might wanna maximise your 30 bucks spreading it over some soupy stews and meaty dishes like James and I did the first time we came here.
Ordered the fried octupus ($17) cos the second time I came here with my CG I didnt steal enough from Kumaran - the sauce is so flavourful, the octupus is quite secondary - the rice and octopus (or anything, even vegetables) tasted so good with that powerful sauce. It's DAMN GOOD!

Kheng took this picture of our hot plate beef (sigh , so much FLOOR Kheng). For dinner, you must order this hot plate and top up another 3 bucks for...

...this soy bean stew - comes with vegetables and seafood. Not a bad deal, but for lunch you can just order the hot plate set sans the stew, so its cheaper at just $7 a set.

My ultimate favourite item here is the seafood pancake $10- its like a very crisp Korean nian2 gao1 - its slightly eggy, and the right amount of glutinous flour, with crisp sides and spring onions and seafood. Its one of the best I've tried - its like a healthier form of oyster omelette.

Udders (Kilat Court) opened at Lorong Kilat (much nearer home!!) and as you can see, I can never resist a trip there when I'm near (or sometimes, not near and not convenient also go, sigh), and had my dosage of rum and raisin and chocolate whiskey. CHOCOLATE WHISKEY! sorry I just had to get excited all over again over my current obsession.

Tiramisu my another all time favourite and Newman's cookies and cream. Everything became a creamy blur after that and we were so full! Happy Birthday Newman! Good luck with finding that B&B! (and sorry for ripping your backpack in Aus.....=P)

Ikoi, Frolick, District 9, Mei Heong Yuen (Ion)

Today we finally fulfilled our craving for a jap buffet (although I already indulged last week first!) at Ikoi (01-01, Miramir Hotel).

Since I just had a previous buffet last week, obviously my stamina would have deproved and I'd also no doubt make comparisons between the two. The winner: Irodori at Riverview Hotel - more of the stuff I like such as eel and soft shell crab is not available at Ikoi. Actually, the old Ginga restaurant at Riverview Hotel triumps everything, but I guess the existence of people like me put it to extinction -_-

We had lunch here at Ikoi and per pax it was $38, all in. I believe its the same price for both lunch and dinner. At Riverview Hotel, with the 3 for price of 2 lunch buffets (must present voucher), I believe its 27 bucks per pax all in. (or You can make use of the UOB 25% discount offer for lunch)

At Ikoi, they tend to give you alot of 'complimentary' stuff like the above appetiser of salmon (the only one which is not bad). At Riverview Hotel, the 2 complimentary dishes - green tea tofu (good) and jumbo prawns (excellent!!) I don't mind more, but I think Ikoi is a little nasty making you full with soupy stuff. And fibre (oh but I didnt mind the vegetable sticks cos the miso dip was so delicious)

Both serve excellent very fresh sashimi - my favourite's still salmon, yellowtail and swordfish. Since the hotels are just opposite from each other.......can conclude...same fish supplier???
California rolls... they've got a rather limited sushi menu.,

Agadeshi tofu

Ebi tempura which Marc ate +++++ (he can order 50 at one go) he says when he comes here with his brother they challenge each other to accumulate more tails on their plates...cute lar...

Mackeral and salmon - must say the fried salmon was really smooth and delicious.

So did this particular cut of salmon...Excellent.

This was so huge we couldnt figure out whether it was aubergine or was it wild yam...but it was really good and mushy with minced meat atop..

You can figure that this paper steamboat is complimentary..the salmon inside is most bony...

Japanese Porridge which Marc ordered....he forgot its the one at Raku which was excellent..

One more breath, Julie....

Missed out alot of photos cos many hungry boys = food disappears in a flash

Went to my house to chill before Dedrick returns with Marc's poker chips and obviously it was streetfighter/wii/massive $$$ at the dining table before Kelly and I adjourned to Holland V for yoghurt ice cream at Frolick.

Damn depressed when I couldnt find my Zouk card to get the 1-for-1!!!! Oh well I guess it makes up for the time the girl mistook the offer for Free icecream on presentation of card and gave it to me complimentary =P

When we got to Cineleisure it was way past 6 pm = no more student offer= ;(

but wait!!! I quickly ask for card offers and guess what..... Pay by nets and its $6 per pax Mon to thurs!

I say again, PAY BY NETTS TO WATCH AT CATHY FROM MON TO THURS ITS SIX BUCKS !!!!

Now no need to rush to watch before 6pm anymore.....and no need so sad to graduate with no more student pass...

Anyway, we went to watch District 9. I know its a sci-fi thriller full of gore but I actually fell asleep - its not boring at all but the previous night i had friggin insomnia and only slept 2 hours (before HPPS called!!!!!! tmd wake me up I cant sleep anymore) and the cine seats are just too comfortable.

Its one of the better sci fi I watched but it doesnt beat one that I watched years ago - about flesh eating creatures being quarantined into an island - and the children of an affected mother wanted to enter the island to rescue her. Affected creatures were screened by an iris test and the children turned out to be valuable genetic material because they were carriers of the affected gene, and could potentially be tapped to make vaccines. I cant friggin remember the title so tell me if you know ! (think my synopsis too lousy also)

Anyway, District 9 has a political analogy - it was inspired by historical events that took place in District Six, an inner-city residential area in Cape Town in South Africa under apartheid. In 1966, District 6 was declared a "whites only" area by the apartheid government and for the next several decades, 60,000 people were forcibly removed and relocated to Cape Flats, 25 kilometres away.

Anyway luckily my friend Kelly is a good storyteller so despite me taking a 10 min power nap (during the climax somemore, sigh) I managed to keep up with the series of events... Took a long stroll to Ion with her explaining everything from the Papa/mama (haha) to the baby.

Anyway, most of the stalls were closing already when we reached Ion. We got very excited when we spotted Mei Heong Yuen at Ion (B4). What a surprise ! Kelly's a little disappointed it has become commercialised, but I was pretty amused that Marc's cravings for dessert earlier during the buffet was fulfilled by us (albeit without him!). And somemore when I texted him on my way home he was actually on the way there to celebrate someone's birthday! Speak about coincidence.

I tried their durian ice before and i really liked it. I liked their sweet durian puree over their fine shaved ice. But this Yam ice ($5).....

On first glance, doesnt the lilac remind you of a Khong Guan Yam Pau? (which I used to be obsessed with during a particular sports camp - so much so that they suggest hanging a Yam Pau in front of me so I can chase it all around and be more proactive during the camp =P)

Oh it tastes alot like a diluted yam pau/paste....no puree leh!!

Anyway we came just before 10pm, very near their closing time. The owner was very friendly so we overlooked her overlooking our order. Our banter went something like this :

Q: Why the yam ice so purple ahh?? In your poster so pale leh.

A: Oh, different mah, the lighting. And we use real yam. (Isn't it the same case for both??)

Q: What happened to the raisins and cranberries in the poster?? can you add into our one?

A: Oh we no longer stock those cos customer feedback, say too hard and clashes with the yam taste.

Q: Anything else we can add to make it less bland?? really very bland leh....

A: Oh, its an acquired taste (But we like yam what !!!) , supposed to be very light. The ones in Taiwan taste very good cos the raw ingredients there very fresh, different from the ones we have here (and still dare to sell???)

Q: Yaahh Ma'am, we suggest adding in yam chunks, taro paste, or maybe even red bean??

A: Supposed to be a LIGHT acquired taste, cannot have contrasting flavours. Maybe can try our red bean green tea ice instead???

Then to appease us - not say we very agitated what... -_- she went to the kitchen then offered us this brown sugar conical jelly - gives this slightly spicy after taste (although she was taken aback when we reported our findings. She said that she was coming up with a new longan combination then I didn't quite catch - not particularly excited but Kelly was haha. So she's adding this new jelly to the new ice flavour.

The brown sugar jelly did add such a contrast to the yam ice, chewy bursting pearls and firm jelly tubes =)

We saw the last few pieces of Min jiang Kueh at Pinle (B4, Ion) and couldnt resist buying - Kels the peanut and cheese, I got the cheese one. I love the thin dough batter, just the right proportion and I love the melted cheese too! I like this cold one even better than the freshly made Mr Bean cheese pancake (thanks ah Kelly for spreading the addiction =P)

And today is the day we spotted 4 white Lambos !! Kelly has such as astute sense of hearing Lambos she could identify one auditarily I was rather amazed...They were zooming all over time one after another!! Eat dust man.

Irodori Japanese Restaurant

I'm a little sad when I realised the old Ginga restaurant has been replaced by Irodori Japanese Restaurant (382 Havelock Road #03-01 Riverview Hotel ). The former Ginga had really good teppanyaki (salmon and swordfish), and excellent deep fried shishamo, and its the only jap buffet place I know which serves Unagi and soft shell crab sans the sushi rice. I still remembered watching soccer in the lounge after the buffet with icecream cake served ! This was during the dinner buffet last Jan with Z.

The current Irodori restaurant looks more refurbished and doesn't have the above perks of Ginga, but nonetheless, its time to move on and I should not reminisce so much about lost places nor relationships.

I met Soumi, Ian and Carol here, and we made use of the voucher that Michelle gave us - for every 2 people 1 dines free - but since there were 4 of us we paid $30 nett each. UOB cardmembers enjoy a 25 % discount here but i think its only valid for lunch.

Everyone had the starters of edame, broad beans, and the green tea tofu - the latter was a delight with all the fried crispy batter on it.

Ian and I had the Chawanmushi which was ordinary but a huge lump of chicken and crabmeat right within..
The best part was of course, the mixed sashimi platter and I must say Irodori serves the freshest and best selection of the jap buffets I've had, and in M's words, the only place which serves swordfish sashimi. Carol's favourite was the salmon, and I liked the swordfish and hamachi, as well as *surprise* the squid. All very fresh.

Oh yeah, they'll ask you if you want your sashimi in thick or thin slices and we asked for a thin cut, though it was still satisfyingly thick.
The next best part of the buffet was the complimentary jumbo prawns - it was friggin AWESOME!! It had mayonaise sauce and egg roe atop it and it was so rich it tasted like it had cheese in it too (must be my imagination). Too bad it was only one serving. We could prob eat enough to cause its extinction.

Below that is the salmon steak and salmon teppanyaki. Alright normal.. couldnt really tell the difference between both, one was supposed to have teriyaki sauce and the other one didnt..

I loved the unagi sushi here, a fantastic balance between the teriyaki sauce and the fish, and again well proportioned with the rice (though I miss Ginga's unlimited untainted unagi...)
The irodori rolls were really rich, there was mayo, fish roe embedding the rice roll which contained ?baby lobster and mayonaise?
The beef roll with inoki mushrooms were a hot favourite but I somehow wasnt a fan cos I eat alot of beef cooked in a similar style at home....I prefer eating chunks of beef outside (read: STEAK)
The eggplant was wonderful, I think it was Carol's favourite since she had one all to herself later on in the buffet. It has a crisp outer layer and extremely salty, its done in a style I've never tried before.
Spider handroll (Soft shell crab) tasted like the ones I used to have at Sakae Sushi..
Mackeral was freshly fried and the sauce was also good.

All this teppanyaki is making me miss those crazy 1-hour-eat-all- you - can Kuishinbo express lunch buffets Carol and I use to go for everytime she's back from London. We took so much raw fish to go do teppanyaki the waiter who served it to us was also amazed (i guess, no amount of gluttony fazes people who work in such places anymore).
Had a selection of mixed tempura - 2 prawns (which Soumi and Ian had), eggplant (Carol) and 2 tempura fish which I had - never really ate fish in a tempura form. It was just like the fish in fish and chips, albeit in a miniature form.

Kakiege (tempura vegetables) was also light and refreshing, a hit with the girls. Again reminds me of the Kakiege I used to like at Sakae Sushi.

The tamago I had was a little insipid, like it was straight out of the freezer and had this strong taste of spring onions (which I dislike). Do not chose those leng3 men2 items like I did quotes Carol.

This was Japanese Onsen or Yong Tau Fu. The broth was really good, and the radish was the best part of this cos it soaked up most of the broth. The other tofu items were not so fresh !

Chicken Teriyaki, Fried mixed vegetables for everyone, but my own inari sushi and unagi sushi.

Do not go near the inari sushi nor the tamago unless you like frozen items...

Repeat order of sashimi - salmon, yellowtail and swordfish, of which I inhaled most of - my friends were egging me on to take one last breath to finish up the rest but...

I wanted to try other stuff (or so my friends chanted) so I went for the agadeshi tofu - love how the fried items are all done on order

My other mistake was to order a friggin JUMBO roll at the end of the meal (that kinda ended my meal, thats why) and the chef even gave me another COMPLIMENTARY JUMBO roll....double ends my appetitie....and the triple roll is nothing special, just 3 of the most insipid ingredients you can find in sushis! AHHH! What an anticlimax. Whilst Carol went on a journey to the West, Ian Soumi and I went to Ion - think the craze has died finally, the queue for the takopachi is not insane anymore and Uniqlo is not packed. We browsed around (sigh, still a dearth of size 10 shoes boo i miss aus) and went around from Ion to Taka to Wisma, to all the Sephoras there was, and to household shop at Tangs, and browsed for cheap sample cosmetics at Lucky Plaza.

Oh and the peanut pancake at Jollibean (B1, Paragon) has a new pandan flavoured dough! Found it when browsing for Difflam lozenges at Paragon.

And Breadtalk (B1, Wisma) has this new pumpkin/yam walnut bread ! Chunks of pumpkin and mash yam within the core of the bread, I really like this one!

Oh man...im going for yet another Jap buffet tmr at Ikoi...gonna be rolling back to school man...