Tanglin Tree, Epicurious, Paulaner Brauhaus

Thanks to all : Rous, Xue, Dom& Nat for the lovely brunch at The Tanglin Tree (56 Tanglin Road #01-01 Tanglin Post Office)

My salmon sandwich. Its as boring as it looks =P I can almost make it myself!
Go for the scrambled eggs and full works.

Doesn't it look good??? Comes with baked beans which Dom refused at first but later asked for it cos it turns out it was minced in with meat hence damn tasty, very unlike canned beans.

Nat's Prawn pasta. She's had better..

Banana bread to share, this was comforting, warm and toasty, with coconut drizzled all over for that extra bit of sugar rush.

Yoghurt and granola with fruits - replicable at home too...

Dom and Xue and I hung out more at Epicurious (60 Robertson Quay #01-02 The Quayside). It felt like a second lunch.
Our cheese platter, complete with grapes, Carrl's crackers (which you can top up!) and bread.
Apple Crumble is the real deal. The crusty layer with generous amount of digestive crumbs, with ample stewed apple chunks was excellent.

The bread and butter pudding, came like its name suggested, the bread AND the pudding, separated. I guess this dessert is alot more interesting when it is messier, not like the one here nor at Oriole, super neat.

The sticky date pudding started to taste as starchy as the bread and butter pudding after awhile and we were a little sugar intoxicated...

We wanted to bowl at Marina Square but the lanes were full so we had to play a (very painful) game of pool, before setting off for ANOTHER meal. Yes its dinnertime, already after our second lunch. We headed to Paulaner Brauhaus (9 Raffles Boulevard #01-01 Millenia Walk)

Love the complimentary bread platter here, arriving soft and warm and a range of spreads from good ol butter to even pate.

The beef stew goudash soup was excellent, if only we had more bread to mop up the chunky soup.

Roast beef was slightly raw, and thinly sliced, as I liked it.

But what really stole the show was the veal sausage with fries. Oh my, the fries. They were doused in curry powder and was really really excellent!

The lamb shank was also good, one hell of a tender chunk of meat, but as usual, much of the shank you get on your plate is the bone which looks most spectacular, but actually harbours quite little meat.

Sigh, eat so much....but I was still hungry so I went over to Kiliney Kopitiam (Marina Square) for kaya toast before managing to bowl. It was Xue's first time, and moreover in a short skirt!!! Really cant tell, at least she didnt gutter as much as I did.

My sneaky friends. Muaha.

I suddenly miss our partying days ALOT. Haha. Lets go again soon!

Bella Pizza, Laurent's

Finally met M, Fly and Cel at Bella Pizza.(30 Robertson Quay #01-14 Riverside View) We got lost finding this place! It is the row of restaurants facing the river as you walk in the direction towards Clarke Quay.

After bantering over how many dishes to order, we had this starter of eggplant lasagna first - surprisingly this got me thinking about the giant eggplant I had at Ikoi, and the fantastic Italian eggplant I had at Big D's (which I'll blog about soon). I like Big D's version, followed by Pietrasanta. Bella's has too much tomato sauce for me... and the eggplant's a little too soft.

Salmon (Red Pizza)
With generous pieces of extremely salty smoked salmon, it wasn't as red a pizza as I'd expect it to be.
Pizza Bianca - mascarpone cheese, mushrooms and truffle. This was way too light for me. You must eat it quick when its served, for when it hardens and coagulates its like eating hard cheese on bread. The crust here is comfortably chewy - not too thick. Somehow I like the crust at Da Mario's better - more crisp.
Fettucine with Italian sausage and truffles with a touch of cream Pasta was way too tough, and was salty... Juststick to the pizzas here.
Crepes with Nutella and Mascarpone, with Bananas
Nutella makes everything nice, period.

Whilst Fly and I were describing the break, M laughed at us for it being even more dull than school life whilst Cel went as far to say that sch is better than hols?! Hello?! Not laughing at you babe, M and I really couldnt suppress the sniggering at the best chicken rice ever.

M and I actually receed the area last fri to hunt down for Bella Pizza when we spied on the ice cream booth at Laurent's Cafe & Chocolate Bar (80 Mohamed Sultan Road #01-11 The Pier @ Robertson) but didnt get a chance to return to cos Caroline lost her wallet. Today we had chocolate and I had the extremely soft Pistachio - it was melting away and was extremely creamy, it had a mild spicy aftertaste.

Met up with Cel and Fly again at Butter after - along with Huilin, Nik, Zj and his bunch of friends. I dislike the expensive parking at Fullerton.

Itacho Sushi

Celebrated the bro's birthday at Itacho Sushi (2 Orchard Turn #B2-18 ION Orchard) cos I had a fantastic experience at Itamae Sushi in Hong Kong (so I guess, B you can try this outlet! since you commented on my post then...). This outlet is not bad too, but I guess I miss the conveyor belt where they rolled out many many interesting shell fish sushi and creative versions of sushi that got me to try a huge variety then in Hk. Here in Singapore there is only a bar where you can catch the chefs in action, but if you're in a big group (like my family!) then you sit at the normal restaurant tables.

Waited in the queue for a short while (comparing to the time we waited faithfully for our number to flash in the queue system - they imported the same system here!) before we were ushered in...they also have slips of paper where you can place your orders - it can get quite confusing cos there are different colours for different orders but here in Singapore they pamper you (you don't pay for service for nothing!) and take your orders but in HK you order through those slips of paper with tiny words lol.

guess this entry's gonna be a pictorial unless the food deserves some comments...

Ebi/Ebi Miso, Crab/crab miso, Flying Fish Roe with cheese, Caviar, Curry lobster.

Eel ($6) this is a really huge long long portion for $6, considering its supposed to a sushi.

Crab Salad ($4) - a case of an overdose of mayo.

Roasted egg (warm) - love the consistency of these.

Wagyu beef rolls

Jumbo Scallop Sushi -the same ones that blew me away in HK but somehow it seems like fresh here. Didn't try the conch or zaru which I liked in HK though they have it here.

Salmon with roe, smoked salmon

Eel with egg mini don ($5)

Spicy Sashi Mini Don ($5)

Thought I might order a few mini dons instead of one large don but guess what the dons are like sushi served in a very large plate! Super ripped off, the portion is TINY (ok its ironic that im using caps to emphasise how puny it is.) . Just a little angsty about it. Just order the sushi.

Soft Shell Crab hand roll

Crabmeat chawan mushi - had a crab claw and huge mushroom inside the warm egg, with plenty of shredded crabmeat atop. Exact replica of the one in HK.

My sister's udon set

Guess there were some that I didn't capture cos there were too many.... it somehow feels very different not sitting by the counter!! The company matters too, the way our eyes lit up simultaneously as each dish rolled by the conveyor belt =)

Ghim Moh Food Centre, Ion

After the Geri EOPT with the nice nurse conducting (and doing also!) the test and us exchanging papers to mark, our group minus Jeremy (happily going to Comex) adjourned to Ghim Moh Food Market for brunch.

I have been eating the thosai at Heavenly's Curry (Ghim Moh Food Centre) since my fam med days at John Chiam, and today was no exception, except I was trying out what was recommended in Makansutra - the cheese appom.

The cheese appom is an Indian snack I have never tried before and it definitely got me hooked. It has a central pancake sponge core and fanning from it is a crisp crepe layer. I figured the best way to eat it is to divide it into pizza slices, so that you get some of the cheese and chewy pancake central core, with the crisp crepe section, throw in some orange sugar and coconut and roll it all up!

Marc bought many many boxes of food back and when the rain came, we had a prolonged discussion on the role of women in the Asian society - surprising how some in our group actually consider being house-men =P Man being physically stronger, are goal and results driven: they must come home with the kill, the meat, the money and everything is measurable tangibly. Whereas women being the emotional and communicative creatures, contribute to society by intangible means - how do you measure the success of rearing your offspring? - and hence, despite the multitasking in running the household and family(to me it being the harder task of both sex's responsibilities) has been deemed unimportant, unvalued, and hence the diminished statue of the women in society

Ah Baling Stall (Ghim moh Market) - had Peanut, Yam (6 for $2) in an excellent peanut based soup. Brings me back straight to JC days, and extremely heart warming in rainy days.

Kelly and I then zoomed to my house to watch Away from Her and Ratatouille. Away from her was too melodramatic for us and Ratatouille's plot and character development was inherently weak. We headed to Ion (by default cos 77 came first) and there are many many surprising finds esp in Food Opera. Jeremy forewarned us that the food there was too generic and not nice but we disagree. The Breadtalk Group has indeed roped in many famous hawkers and we have already eyed many of these stalls!First we went to try Gindara Takopachi (B4, Ion orchard). There is only one flavour - octopus. I loved how crisp it was, and the innards piping hot and eggy - what is different here is that there is pink ginger as pointed out by Kelly. And what would make a difference is the seaweed powder and flakes like what we had in Shenzhen. I could easily eat a dozen on my own.Here we had the set for 1 - 6 balls and a matcha float. The matcha has a strong powdery taste, and the vanilla soft serve neutralises the grittiness of it

We then walked into Food Opera and was first distracted by Luk Yu Teahouse - Kelly was trying hard not to be lured by the Bo Lor Bun - think we might return for the dim sum another time.But we couldnt resist the SGkueh(Food opera, B4, Ion Orchard)! This was originally at Amoy and we wanted to try when we were with Sheryl and Weixin the other time but they were closed.We had the set of Ondeh Ondeh (and others) and a Durian ondeh ondeh. We highly recommend the original ondeh ondeh (comes in a box of 6 for $2.50 or in another set of 2 plus other kueh). The liquid gula melaka that spills out, with a cube of brown sugar right in the core is quite sensational! But one of the set of 6 that Kelly bought needed QC cos it was leaking!!
Check out the gula melaka.. slurp.

The durian ondeh ondeh was rather disappointing though. It was like eating durian cake (the ones you get in a tube) in a kueh, dusted in coconut, completely no contrast in flavour at all.

We also had the D24 crepe - but the Angie's choice version of the durian crepe is much better - alot creamier with much better quality durian filling.Just go there for the ondeh ondeh.

We also shared the Meizhen Haka Delicacies (Food opera, B4 Ion Orchard) - Yam Abacus balls. This was fantastic, chewy starch balls with plenty of shrimp and shallots. It was a grease bomb, but the savoury flavours were awesome. The original stall is at a very inaccessible place so we were so glad to find it here. We'll probably try the yam porridge and the glutinious rice here soon.

Dropped by Provence to get the milk buns (finally! they always get sold out here). But I must say that the milk custard within is getting lesser and lesser - I shall go back to Holland V's branch to QC.Anyway, am looking for a phone and when I was at the Singtel shop, I spotted the LG crystal phone (which hung on me, sigh), and considering between the E71 (pretty but old model) or the Samsung OMNIA II or Jet - didnt have much luck with my previous U300 though, repairing it XX times. Kels was aghast by the radiation of her phone, whilst I'm still browsing. Totally too lazy to go to COMEX (this is a rather dated entry) but I guess shall just sit on it, whilst waiting for 15 Oct.

Red Dot Brewhouse, Andy Moor

Met Chiara, Nat, Ian, Shiduan at RedDot BrewHouse (Blk 25A Dempsey Road #01-01 Tanglin Village (Dempsey Hill Green)and whilst waiting for Matt we started ordering the bar food first (Ian and Duan had to leave to go Geylang Serai!! ). Ian and Duan ordered the calamari whilst the rest had the potato cheese balls, as recommended by James the waiter.

Ian couldnt for the hell of him remember the SJI senior's name so it was only till James went up to host Bingo and introduced himself. We were trying to place his accent whilst Ian was getting us to have first impressions lol. Btw, Red Dot has this nightly Bingo game, and the 2 winners will get $50 vouchers on their next visit but of cos we weren't luckt enough.

Both potato cheese balls and calamari were excellent. The potato cheese balls is a mushier version of the Fried Mac and Cheese I had at Fromage. There were small bits of potato with cheddar cheese all in a pillow of fried batter.

The thick chunks of calamari were slightly spicy and I think it was doused in curry powder. This is a cheaper alternative to the calamari over at Da Mario's (though its much lighter here).

This is the chocolate whiskey lava cake and is one of the better lava cakes I've tried simply because the molten chocolate core has a tinge of whiskey in it (you must poke at the right parts). Its quite an ingenious idea.

Tropical Creme Brulee - I couldnt really taste much of the creme brulee after the rich cake but the chocolate icecream was good. Should have tried the banana tiramisu.

Tried to order the Spirulina Beer but no thanks to the waiter we learned the name of this was the Monster Lager Beer. According to Matt who arrived at the grand time of 1030pm its his liangteh (and my poison) and his 'slice of bread' worth of calories. The spirullina is supposed to boost your immune system and fight against infections like HIV according to the menu, which is a whole load of bull, even in my sparse knowledge of ID.

Matt's education of the ignorant girls then began about the work in Shanghai and the insane insane hepatotoxicity. Unimaginable justifying of his poison, and mine too =P

Later proceeded onto Zouk for Andy Moor, with Chong and Nat. It wasnt the most exciting trance event and the encore was most disappointing, with the dj trying to tease the crowd to naught effect.

The quickest supper full in suspense lies in this bowl of fish porridge. Lightning and TP alert!! looks like I am still not scared of the row of shophouses by River Valley Road, not scared enough to still have supper beside my car!