Oriole, Cafe Iguana, Nectarie Patisserie

Today is Mag's birthday! Happy birthday Mag (okay technically its not today but it was the day we had supper eventually at Cafe Iguana). Met her, Violet, Jacob at Kopitiam for abit before Xue and I indecisively went to Oriole Cafe and Bar (Level 1, Pan Pacific Suites) to have dinner with Cel, Fly and Michelle before joining the birthday bunch for supper later. We missed out on the ladies night free flow champagne but turns out it was no loss (except for the company!) cos we were gonna meet them again at Cafe Iguana later.

Xue, Nat and I kinda receed this place before some weeks back - and there was nobody in sight. Pan Pacific Suites are the new service apartments along Somerset Road - its next to the public car-park opposite Cineleisure. Oriole is opened by the people behind Whitebait and Kale (which has now closed) and Aerins at Raffles City. Today the restaurant was packed to the max - the central tables were booked by big groups - but we were comfortable in our semicircular booth.

We ordered 5 to share (sorry Michelle for the overwhelming beef orders), and the top 3 are the ones that M didn't touch - but were our favourites! (the beef ones are in order of favourites)

Beef Cheek Tagliatelle $15

Red wine braised beef cheek, mushroom, shallot oil

The beef cheeks were superbly tender, and the pasta was tastily tossed in the meat juices, this was everyone's favourite.

Patty Melt, $11.50 Beef patty, grilled toast, caramelized onions, swiss

We preferred this over the Philly steak&Cheese (below) simply because the beef : bread ratio was more balanced. We asked if we could choose the done-ness of our beef but the waiter said the meat was a thin slab so there was no such option. But I liked this buttery hot toast paired with the minced beef and yummy sweet onions- it feels more like a sandwich than a burger.

Philly Steak and Cheese, $14

Onions, peppers, baguette

The bread had this taste of herbs so I suspected it might be focaccia - again i wished the steak was chunkier cos it neither feels like a burger nor a sandwich. The meat was similar to that of the Patty melt.

Riosotto - crabmeat, asparagus $18.50

This must be one of the driest risottos I've eaten - yet I really liked it cos each grain of the rice was bursting with crabmeat flavour and there were some slivers of crabmeat I managed to find. Too much cream and I might not have enjoyed it as much.

Fish and Chips -Lightly battered snapper loin, home made chips, tartare $15

The fish and chips is highly recommended and no doubt why - the snapper was fresh and the meat was smooth in a batter that was not cloyingly greasy - it is on par with Molly Malone's fish and chips.

Bread and Butter Pudding with warm vanilla sauce $8.50

Cel, Fly and Xueling really liked this dessert - this must be one of the neatest bread and butter pudding I've eaten. I am a fan of the messier, creamier, buttery, sauce- laden version though - there was way too much flour in this one - but its a personal preference cos everyone loved it

Honey crumble affogato - vanilla ice-cream, expresso, honeycomb crunch $7

I LOVE THIS! A twist to the usual affogato - the honeycrumb crunch added an extra sweetness to the usual expresso-vanilla icecream concoction. The expresso was all smooth and rich bitterness, an excellent blend. It is as huge as it looks!

And everyone concluded the desserts were the highlight of this place... and I will be back to try the coffee here - the baristas here topped the local baristas championships - one of whom owns this place. The affogato was fantastic - the expresso will be even greater, neat. I will try the Oriole specials - the double ristretto - the next time I come here.

Whilst Cel whisked off to a cooking lesson (hehe), Fiona and Mich attempted some late night shopping, Xue and I headed off to Cafe Iguana (Riverside point) to join the birthday bunch - met some med people there - Saus, Hons, Kok etc and Mags own friends, some netballers whom I met in rj. Kok booked a table for 7 but the turnout for the ever-popular woman was tremendous and Xue and I managed to squeeze in by the corridor to share the many many jugs of magaritas - and of cos I ordered my Large Nachos!

After the med people left, the love club descended and Xue and I departed for some desserts (cos I really wanted to eat icecream) so we romped around Clarke Quay to find THE ice-cream (other than the default Haagan Daaz)

Do you know that Nectarie le'Dessert Patisserie (3C River Valley Road #01-05 The Cannery, Clarke Quay) offers scoops of icecream but better still - samplers of darn good icecream?

Its called Three Little Treats.

Treats indeed and little they are not.

Chocolate, Wild Strawberry, Jack Daniels, $8

I thought they were gonna be puny (like the size of Seventh Heaven's sampler portions) but no they were quite your regular scoops! I really wanted to have ice cream so this was perfect - I really wanted to try the Jack Daniels icecream but Xueling strictly didn't wanted to eat anymore after her 2 shots of Mars and a Baileys on the rocks at Cafe Iguana so I was almost left alone with my one scoop until I discovered the Three Little Treats!

I love it!

The chocolate was really dense and had bits of chocolate chip in it....

And oh the Jack Daniels...where should I start..this was alcoholic icecream goodness! It was smooth and creamy and tasted similar to a Baileys and Kahlua (I cant really tell them apart) but it was a darn good alcoholic icecream.

If I could get drunk on icecream, I would.. Never on that awful neat alcohol. Give me a Baileys milkshake (ooh Prive....) anytime!

Sultan Kebab, Lion City Geylang Lor 9 Porridge, Soybean City

After an insipid breakfast with the respi team and another insipider part2 lunch with a huge M4 group at the TTSH Kopitiam, and 2 more failed attempts at the Whampoa market and the Departures at Plaza Sing, Kelly and I decided to vent it off by this mighty flight of stairs next to Cathy. It leads to..... *huff puff cramps*...
This! A very very interesting mix of tenants here, and we wondered into a film exhibition by the graduating cohort of the digital academy of (we think) a polytechnic. We checked out Sinema@ Old School (its actually a side entrance) and we will be back to watch a local film when the ones we marked out are showing. They are a small local art-film cinema and will be showing films from the region in time to come.

We also walked by Timbre @ Old School - and it was open! (at around 5-6pm) Strange to see so few groups of people here - okay, its even stranger to see Timbre in daylight!

Truth is, we were intending to take a short (and rather high) cut thru to Peace Centre where we intended to have dinner. We love the eccentric architecture here. Do you spot the similarities and striking differences between this pair of semi-ds?

And we walked into Air, this furniture shop at the foot of Mount Sophia. Again do you see the contrast between the tube box and the modern designer furniture?

And this architecture of the building by the side of Peace Centre is brand new - many food tenants on the ground level - this Korean place we almost wanted to try (but sounded too healthy for us - their slogan was no spice (what!!), no pigment -very healthy and natural!), Starbucks too.

There were many art figures in the empty spaces future tenants will fill. How many people do you see here?

We finally finally reached Sultan Kebab (Level 1, Peace Centre) to find it really packed. There was a long queue (and many bystanders waiting for their orders to be prepared) and by the time we arrived the beef kebab already ran out.

Basically there are only 2 meats- chicken and beef, and it comes with rice, in a roll, with bread or iskender. Since we had no choice but chicken, we had one with rice and the other one done iskender style.

Chicken Kebab with rice, $8

I really liked the mildly flavoured (seemingly coconut-flavoured to me and seemingly chicken-flavoured to Kelly) short grained rice, but Kelly thinks the cold rice is a put-off. The sauce was really very good! It has subtle hints of tomato in the savoury, slightly spicy gravy. The meat was tender and there was alot of it.

Iskander Kebab $8

This comes with yoghurt and tomato. And the chicken meat is on toasted crisp bread. We liked this better.

When we were recee-ing Sultan Kebab (we were at the side of Peace Centre at first, Sultan Kebab is located at the main front entrance), we passed by a food court in Peace Centre with this huge signboard saying Shi Cheng (Lion City) Geylang Lor 9 Porridge and we told ourselves we will go back to try in case we cant find Sultan Kebab....Well guess what...we still went back to try DESPITE having tried Sultan Kebab!

Lion City frog porridge - chilli version $8

We really loved the sauce - it was packed with flavour and the chilli was super good! The meat was so smooth it has the texture of scallop. We really really liked this we must go to the original outlet to try it again - not sure if this is a franchise - but it is still tasty anyway.

We ordered the $2 porridge - you should eat the porridge with the sauce otherwise it will be too salty. The grains are slightly rougher and flavoured with ginger - but overall nice to eat with the sauce.

After that we walked around Prinsep Street area (went to recee Creperie Des Arts and the Japanese Manga Cafe near it but that'd be for another time) then we went back to the Selegie area again to eat beancurd at Rochor Original Beancurd( 2 Short Street) I've come here numerous times over the years as the default tauhuay cum supper place, unfortunately I've tried much BETTER tau huay over the years as well (the old airport road one takes the cake). Here the tau-huay comes in 2 sizes - 60 cents and $1 and all come prepacked in the plastic containers even if you dine in. The portion is puny! We took the hot version, $1. But it is not very smooth and was a rather dense curd - overpowered by alot of sugar syrup.

The grass jelly ($1) was firmer and sturdier and drowned in sugar syrup as well.

I ordered another soy bean (thirsty from all that walking) and Kelly bought youtiao and butterfly which we shared. The you tiao was bready and slightly crisp - we agreed that snacks like fritters don't make us go wow but its very comfort food for us. Dipping it in soya bean, chilling by the roadside is so old school.(provided it is not too hot)

I had this Sesame ball with Peanut paste . I like anything with sesame seeds and peanut so this was really one friggin delicious fritter

After chomping through most of it I realise I should show you how delicious the inside is. It is actually a chewy Muah Chee (its not the same dough fritter breed as youtiao) with a sesame batter coating and the thick sticky dense peanut paste is n the centre. It is like a deepfried cross between a peanut pancake and muah chee - yumm!

Megumi Japanese Restaurant, Daily Scoop, Ohsho, Dessert Story, Ah Chew Desserts, Tong Shui Cafe

It was one of those afternoons when we had a morning tutorial with Dr Wendy then in the afternoon there was a slide show tutorial so we had the luxury of heading out for lunch. We settled on Megumi Japanese Restaurant (Blk 106 Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way) #01-38 ) after walking around Sunset Way. I read about this place in ieatishootipost.sg who raved about the charcoal noodles.

They offer lunch sets at $9.80++ with free flow green tea - there's a a choice of tonkatsu, tempura udon, unagyu sets. Seems like quite a popular place for the working adults - NUS or Biopolis overflow, probably.

Kaisen Don

But I still like my chiraishi don so I didn't choose any of the lunch sets. This kaisen don has tuna, salmon belly, the octupus was really juicy! Usually its rather firm and bland but this was tasty. So is the swordfish! But nothing beats the chiraishi don from Wasabi Tei. Quantity and quality Wasabi Tei is the bomb man. The chiraishi dons at Botan and Satsuma (both I blogged about before) cant beat Wasabi Tei either.

Tempura Udon set, $9.80

I tried some of Yiuming's noodles and they seemed pretty chewy to me =)

Unajyu Don Set, $9.80

I also koped some of Lijia's unagi and I think it is quite good - you cant really go way wrong with unagi. Its quite a big portion for 10 bucks too!

After that, we drove over to The Daily Scoop (Sunset Way) for ice cream. I find that the ice cream here is a little too watery for my liking- and it melts really fast! I see them mixing the icecream on a cold plate before putting it into the containers that you see below..

It seems like a popular place for the after-lunch crowd - there was even this bunch of people (and profs =P) with the NUHS lanyard...

I tried the cherry brandy, cha (earl grey) - I liked the latter's intense tea flavour.

I wanted to try the ginger crumble but they ran out. The chendol as well as the honey vanilla was rather weak - it was seriously on the watery side.

I tried the Pistachio too but I think the Pistachio at Tom's Palette is better. The Coconut was rather milky. Lychee Martini was what the girls eventually chose...shan't comment on the peach and strawberry and tangerine and other fruity flavours since I'm not a fan of them and I'd prob be biased against them

Peanut Butter, Amaretto

This was Stering's and mine. I like the peanut butter here - there were many bits of peanuts inside the creamy icecream. The amaretto was really chocolatey in a milky way - and there was marshmallows in the ice cream - in fact there was one huge marshmallow that occupied about 1/3 of the scoop you see above so that was an expensive icecream space- occupying marshmallow!!

Lychee Martini

Yiuming and Lijia shared one scoop- the lychee martini was more fruity than alchololic - I prefer the heavier alcoholic one at Seventh Heaven.

I joined Kelly, Jason and Sheryl to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (this is a delayed broadcast of our mini-cg outing=P) and of cos Kelly and I couldn't do without our usual popcorn... today's was quite good! Quite warm and thickly coated!

The movie was indeed a visual feast - but we really couldnt wait for Button to hurry grow up so he could emerge in his full Brad Pitt glory!! It was really disturbing paedophilic behaviour when the couple's ages didn't match during the extremes of ages. The part where Button left his family to live out his life exploring the extremes of the world before he becomes too young and dependent (and not remembering anything) was juxtaposed with how Cate Blanchett lives out her rooted, and settled family life and eventually marries someone else. A family grounds you - but it limits your freedom. Family and children brings different experiences that you'd be exchanging a life of irresponsibility and selfishness for.

Kelly left for dinner somewhere else and Jason, Sheryl and I moved onto Ohsho(#01-10 Cuppage Plaza) for dinner. I found out the hard way that parking at Cineleisure is INSANELY EXPENSIVE! We were rushing to catch the 420 show for the students discount BUT parking from 6-9pm is fixed for that 3 hours. So altogether I paid 9 bucks for parking!! Its even more ex than my students price movie ticket!! So of cos my movie ended after 6pm and we decided to eat in Orchard instead to max out my parking time - instead of going Mohamed Sultan (where I feel there's better food)

Crabmeat Omelette with rice, $8

I wanted to eat porridge and something warm and soupy so this was perfect! The omelette wraps around the fluffy warm steamed rice...

and is covered by savoury warm gravy... it was actually really yummy and is comfort food at its best.
comes with a bowl of egg soup

Chicken fried rice

Jason took the set with chicken fried rice and gyoza set. He thought the fried rice was really salty...i thought it had alot of wok hei and was quite tasty!

Gyoza

Jason had half and Sheryl had the other half. The gyoza comes either steamed or deep fried.

When we ordered, I ordered the crab omelette rice ala-carte, and Jason ordered the set of fried rice and gyoza, whilst Sheryl ordered the gyoza only. It didnt strike us to order 2 sets. But when they charged us, they charged us for 2 sets, helping us save one buck! Quite nice of them to calculate out what is more worth it for our food =)

Jason felt like a sorbet after that very salty fried rice so we ended at Dessert Story (basement, Heeren) for shaved ice. This is my second visit here - the first time Kelly and I tried the green tea shaved ice with red bean.

Durian Shaved ice

The durian puree here was really very fragrant, and went well with the subtly durian-flavoured ice.

Mango Shaved ice

Again, these layers of silky smooth mango-flavoured ice was extremely refreshing..the mango puree and pieces was a little too sour for my liking though, i generally don't like sour stuff much.

After that I picked Chong up from PS and we headed to the Mount Sophia area...we wanted to go to the new Timbre@ Old School, but there was a long long queue and leeching off the music while we were queueing - it was some folk music, slow going music that we weren't really interested in (it was a Saturday)...so we took off! Not before paying $2 for the per entry parking at Old School so expensive to recee that area! But the ambience here seems quite chill-out, its like in a bungalow in the middle of the Old School area, and the crowd generally an eclectic mix of after-work and youths.

And interestingly, we saw a bunch of people in school uniforms (definitely way overgrown) so we were wondering there was some event at Old School. Old School is actually the ex-MGS. But we realised that every Saturday, there's free entry to Zirca if you turn up in your school uniforms...

We then went to check out Wild Oats bar (Emily Hill). I've blogged about Wild Rocket before, and I was curious to check out the bar...Wild Rocket is at Hangout@ Mount Emily, a boutique hotel, but Wild Oats is actually in a different building, further in. There are quite an interesting mix of tenants inside, most into the film and arts industry.

Anyway the finger food here sounds nicer than the drinks (well, food first, over drinks, anytime!) but we were quite full from dinner so we didn't try. Drinks-wise, we were more of in a dessert mood, but those dessert sounding drinks sounded enticing - but not enough to make us stay! The music here was even more jazz(there didnt seem to be any dj or band playing then), and the place alot more quieter, crowd alot older. Perfect to just chill and chat the night away...but we wanted dessert. So we moved on.

Ah Chew's Desserts (Liang Seah Street) is the fail-proof supper desserts place to come to. We reached here around late 11 plus, and JiDeChi was closing already. This is the best time to come actually, cos the after-dinner crowd would have died down - but you risk running out of your favourite dessert!

Steamed Milk Egg, Plain

Original is best, the first time I had this I had it with ginger juice and boy was it throat numbing! I've had this quite a number of times now, and I always seem to have it cold, never had much luck with the hot version..guess i'd have to come here earlier in the day! As usual, it was silky smooth and had that perfect egg-milk balance of sweetness.

Black Sesame Paste, Red Bean Paste with Lily Bulb

I always have the pastes here as my second dessert - the sesame here is really the best I've tried. Chong really didn't like the red bean paste - I thought it was quite an acquired taste, and I began to like it the more I ate it although I didn't like the initial aftertaste. It doesnt really taste like the red bean paste you find in your ice-kachang- this tastes more like thickened red bean soup.

We then walked pass Tong Shui Cafe (Liang Seah Street) and we couldn't help looking at the menu - the instant noodles and the Durian French Toast sounded so good (even though we werent hungry) we decided to go in and eat more.

We sat in front of this tv but the cable tv was showing some super old Hong Kong drama... Tong Shui Cafe has an amazing mix of people - the waitresses here wear cheong sams, and there was a group of male vegans who were making a hoo-ha about the baked 'beef' toast - the waitress couldnt pronounce beans properly leading to a huge misunderstanding - I mean, if you are serious about being vegan, don't come here!

Beef Brisket Noodles

Nothing much to shout about, just comfort food that we are lazy to cook ourselves. We liked the tender beef brisket though. The noodles are skinny and yummy!

Durian French Toast

The moment I took a bite of this, I went wow and so did Chong - the durian was really sweet and caramel-like! When I ate it again with B he said that it tasted like kaya mixed with durian. Anyhow, it was really good cos the toast was fried crisp and slightly salty! It is like fried durian but its not oily at all, and the toast was fluffy inside. When you cut the toast, the durian paste just collapses as well - its buttery smooth and fluidy. It's really very good!

When I had it with B again, we ordered wrongly - we ordered the Durian D24 Thick Toast - you must go for the FRENCH toast! Fantastic supper food! Tong Shui opens till really late.

Many many more toasts to try from Tong Shui! I shall slowly try them all =)