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 =)

Lai Lai Family Restaurant, Tom's Palette, Ah Chew Desserts

Beef Brisket Noodles

It was a rather impromptu meeting that brought Nat, Xueling, and I to Lai Lai Family Restaurant (20 Liang Seah St, 11.30am-3am). I picked the girls up from the Clementi area and we were deciding between Big D's at Holland Drive (no luck with the parking there) and Cityhall area to eat burgers or this, and we ended up with this.

The first page of the menu has a HUGE picture of the beef brisket noodles so we all had this. You can choose between Small ($7.80) Medium ($8.80), or Large ($9.80), and if you want a special order for your beef (like brisket, or all tendon) you'd pay extra. You can choose between Taiwanese ramen, kuayteow, or potato noodles - soup or dry. Yup, many permutations and combinations to try.

The first picture on top was my Medium sized Beef Brisket noodles - I chose the Taiwanese ramen in soup. The soup was super beefy, and to the point of being very herbs- tasting. It's really very tasty though, and the chewy thick noodle (its thickness is in between that of a ramen and an udon) was extremely delicious with the super potent broth. And the beef brisket pieces were really chunky and succulent! Extremely beefy bowl of noodles- its almost like an oxtail soup. I'd prefer the soup version over the dry versions (that both my friends chose below) cos the noodles really soaks up the beefiness from the broth.

This is Nat's Small Beef Brisket Noodles - Taiwanese Ramen, dry.

This is Xueling's Medium Beef Brisket Noodles - Potato noodles, dry.

Notice how the noodles look like tang hoon? transparent and slimy, Chong couldn't stomach it..but I liked it that its very slippery!

They serve the dry noodles with a bowl of soup. And all of us had a small plate of white radish.

Lai Lai also serves other kinds of rice and noodles dishes but we just zoomed into the beef noodles, which they are famous for.

Egg Beancurd with Red Bean

Nat ordered this instead of a drink and this was a really smooth and soft beancurd! Quite eggy - more so than the steamed milk egg from Ah Chew's. Its sweetness is enhanced by the red bean and I like this.

After a late dinner we then strolled over to Tom's Palette (Shaw Leisure Gallery, Level One). I've lost count of how many times I've conveniently ate around here so I can have an excuse to eat the icecream here!

Pistachio, Chocolate Banana

Mine! I LOVE the chcocolate banana! This is my first time trying this flavour and I love it! I almost never repeat my flavours at Tom's Palette cos everytime there are new flavours I fall in love with but this might be an exception.

I ate the Pistachio before, but this time's one particularly packs a punch. Maybe the other time I ate the Pistachio, it was among the 6 scoops shared by 3 girls so I was rather overwhelmed.

Lavender, Pistachio

This was Xueling's. The sniffing runny-nose girl couldnt taste anything and she could taste the Pistachio so you can figure how strong the Pistachio was that day. Even the Lavender couldnt be detected on the poor girl's radar - and I always thought Tom's Lavender was super strong. And I don't like Lavender! It's prob the only flavour I don't like at Tom's but thats cos I'm biased against it - the only time I'd eat Lavender is in the Bakerzin cake - Lavande or drinking it in teas.

Cherry almond, White Chocolate with Cranberry

This was Nat's. She wished she had a whole scoop of white chocolate with cranberry instead - she was a new fan of it. The cranberries were plentiful and its fruity sweetness acccentuated the subtle white chocolate.

Other new flavours I tried that day was Lime and Spice (way too whacky for me) and peanut butter. I like the peanut butter here too!

*Michelle I saw your brother here (nat called out to him and we talked) and even he wasnt gonna buy ice cream for you, buying for himself only! If I was zooming home I'd deliver it to you but I knew we werent gonna stop at Tom's so its too bad! Eat with us the next time!

One round of desserts is never enough for 3 girls so off we went for a second round! Yes I'm always having multiple courses of desserts with my fellow sweet-toothers...

Steamed Milk Egg

Xue had her own (so she won't spread the germs to us) and Nat and I shared one and the dessert below. Xue and I had this just a week ago and she found her new found favourite Chinese dessert. Nat found hers too today =) Extremely smooth custard with the nice egg-milk balance, it is as in Nat's words, a Chinese version of Creme Brulee (though its a world of a difference)

Durian with Yam and Sago

Usually I'd go for a warm paste (like sesame/almond with Kelly the first time round and sesame/red bean with Xueling the second time round) but today I decided to be adventurous and.....it didn't pay off!! Hai the durian paste was totally diluted in the coconut milk (which seemed diluted as well) and there were thick chunks of bland yam inside this sweet soup..only saving grace was the numerous sago that was quite nice to munch on as we slurped up the dessert...and to think we ordered a large portion! It was their daily special - their other special for the day was also another durian dessert. Nat saw in the back of the kitchen that they weigh exactly the amount of durian puree to add into the dessert..how very mechanical!

We then adjourned to Cineleisure intending to catch He's not that into you but no luck with the timings so we ended up catching up till the wee hours of the morning munching on the Cheese fries from KFC (no pictures for you to drool all over). Comfort junk food, interesting eclectic mix of young punks (there was totally attitude punkish girl in a long skirt super interesting) and sweet old couples suppering at KFC - totally unabashed about hanging out at Cineleisure at their age! Okay I'm not ageist - I'd wanna still do that at that ripe old age, wiping out whatever arteries I've left =)

Margarita's (Dempsey)

Fly, Cel, Chong and I met at Margarita's ( Blk 11 Dempsey Road #01-19 Tanglin Village) for dinner, and our original plan was to catch He's not that into you after that (which we didn't cos we chatted all the way till after 11pm!!). I've been wanting to check out this place (and made many many unfulfilled bookings cos somehow the dinners always got cancelled) and finally I made it here! It is always very full, and a reservation is a must.

Nachos

with Guacomole, Cheese, Chiles, Sour Cream, Refried Beans

Its one of the most colourful looking nachos I have eaten, but the tortilla chips were rather soggy, unfortunately!! I'd much prefer the ones at Cafe Iguana.

Quesadillas with Beef

Cheese Turnovers with Light Sour Cream and Guacomole

The quesadillas were nothing much to shout about - its a classic, simple, thin tortilla wrap with cheese and beef stuffing.

Baked Crab Enchilidas $34

topped with Chile Chipotle and cheese

This was our favourite dish of the night- the roll was rather small though (compared to the kitchen sink burrito) but was chokeful of real crab meat. The cheese topping was divine, when eaten with the sauce the enchilidas was fantastic.

And everyone liked it also partly cos...

The beans sauce was served with the rice on another plate! No one was a fan of the beans, except me.

Kitchen Sink Burrito

Chicken, Beef, Refried beans, Rice in Large Flour Tortillas

Topped with Salsa, Guacomole, Cheese and Sour Cream

I liked this - quite a carbo overload cos of the tortillas and the rice stuffing inside but there was a generous serving of chicken and beef inside the roll also.. This was really rich and hearty cos of all the sauces and it was a HUGE roll. But I liked it enough to also eat Cel's share. And I like my food in big portions.

After awhile, we realise Mexican food revolves around the same makings: the rice inside the roll is similar to the one served with the crab enchilidas, the beef in the kitchen sink burrito was similar to the one in the quesadillas. And there's cheese, salsa, guacomole, sour cream and (to everyone's horror) refried beans in almost every dish. I prefer Cafe Iguana over Magarita's though.

Kahlau Tiramisu $12

Don't order the overtly dry tiramisu. We should have gone for the Mexican bread and butter pudding instead.And the talk during dinner all about arcade games led to Chong and I having a sudden craving to go play air hockey - I beat her FLAT! Her reflexes are sho shlow! Haha. But the ergonomics of that air hockey table was terrible - it was too low for us tall creatures and the table was not smooth and the ?saucer always got stuck halfway in the hole.

We then went to watch Let The Right One In...It is actually a Swedish romantic horror film adapted from a novel and was highly acclaimed in last year's film festivals. It was a rather creepy show though- the child actors were brilliant. The movie explores how the young boy and girl (vampire) seek solace in their friendship and eventual relationship as they were alienated and lonely from their peers - human-human (in the case of the boy who was bullied) and human-vampire (for obvious reasons). The violence and the survival instincts of vampire hunting was juxtaposed with the equal instinct for companionship and acceptance. The cinematography was gorgeous.

The amazing thing was that I went to read Wiki about the movie and they cut off some subplots from the show - spoiler alert - that the girl was actually a boy castrated (hinted extremely subtly when she repeatedly said she was not a girl and we all thought she meant she was a vampire and in a brief dressing scene), and the part about she eventually killing the older man who collected blood for her and he becoming undead and evil, and his sick attraction to her from the start. Yes you can sense the disturbing nature of this show - the horror is not the full-fledged gruesome kind you'd expect in a horor film, but was beautifully depicted and relished on afterthought.

The most interesting part of the movie though, was that for the first time, we got popcorn delivered to us. Why? Cos we had their new Shaker Popcorn ($4.80 - only one size its a small packet) - there were different shaker seasoning - Cajun, Pizza, and Nacho Cheese. We chose the latter. What truly puzzled us was why they took SO LONG to deliver our Shaker Popcorn, and the queer thing was, it arrived unshaken - the shaker seasoning cheese powder was in a ziplock packet - they took so long and they did not even bother to shake it up for us???? Couldnt they anticipate the STARES we would get, shaking our popcorn in that paper bag in the middle of a movie?? We had to wait for a vampire attack for our vigorous shaking - but of cos we didn't get much of a chance (remember its a CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART ROMANCE, even the vampire attacks were sudden, short and sweet) so there was too much seasoning on the top most popcorn - even the savoury fan Chong couldnt take it.

Thank god we ordered another Large sweet popcorn combo ($7.80) with drinks. I ate so much popcorn (esp the shaker one it got quite addictive like Mammie can be) I was really thirsty later on.

We went on to Zouk after that and the dj was awesome and he was so whacky he had this funky gigantic panda-faced, blinking multi coloured eyed- headgear, giving us ideas for Halloween. A fellow wannabe too, with rainbow coloured stripesy shirt and rice-bowl hairdo, Chong will remember this.

Fish Mart Sakuraya, Seventh Heaven, 2am Dessert Bar

Salmon, Swordfish

My family likes to come to Fish Mart Sakuraya(3 South Buona Vista Road
#02-01 The Village Centre) for our sashimi fix - whether to dine in or takeaway. There is no service charge here - you select your fish from the many in the fridge (all packaged like in Jap supermarkets and priced based on weight) and they'd slice it up for you and serve it as above - nothing too fancy but the fish is really quite fresh. The swordfish was particularly firm and sweet today.

Yellowtail

This cut was a little too red and tasted quite bloody..

Grilled spicy salmon belly, $6

This was tender and tasty, and not as spicy as the first time I tried it.

Seaweed $2

My family likes this so we had 3 of this. We also had the seasoned scallop but we were too fast for the camera...

Soba, $8

The noodles were good - chewy and the broth was the clear miso soup.

Inari, Tamago, $2 for each

The sweet beancurd here thoroughly wraps the rice like a dumpling skin (not like some places that cut corners) and the tamago average.

Unagi Handroll, $4

They price the unagi here higher than what I'd expect, the eel alone is a whooping $19 for one slab (and it is not huge, we had it the previous time).

Next on my planned itinenary was Seventh Heaven (10 Raeburn Park) cos it was on the way to the Marina Barrage.

Valentine's Day is HELL for all the dessert places (and everywhere else where guys wine and dine girls)..They actually forgot our reservation and had to shift us to make way for a bigger group...big faux pas there but they were so sincerely apologetic (read on about how they made amends =P) about it that we didn't mind.

The service here otherwise is superbly friendly - it feels like a family run place. This place is opened by some young entrepreneurs and they seemed to have roped in their folks to help - there was an old couple who served the tables - drinks, orders, photos (heh). They were extremely pleasant and chatty with their guests.

We had 2 Sampler I menus ($13.90 each) - 3 scoops each. Sampler II menus have flavours decided by the house and is slightly cheaper.

Vanilla, Chocolate Whisky, Butter Pecan

My sister had the French Vanilla almost all to herself and she liked that it was special cos of the spiciness of the French Vanilla. The rest of us seem to gobble through our icecream so we cant really appreciate the plainess and the fine vanilla taste.

Everyone thought the whisky in the Chocolate Whisky was strong. And Shiok. Yup, I guess you get the picture that we like stronger flavours.

I like the Butter Pecan and scotch - buttery smooth and the nutty aroma complements the scotch perfectly.

Coffee Crunch,Baileys, Lychee Martini

My dad liked the coffee crunch - it has these gritty bits of coffee bean in it. Surprisingly, my brother liked the lychee martini - I think Seventh Heaven has the best rendition thus far.

Once again, after sampling so many flavours, the Baileys was quite mild - I guess our taste buds have been more than overwhelmed. My mom prefers the Baileys that Haagan Daaz used to carry.

When my mom was paying up, the young lady then surprised us (or rather we surprised her by leaving so fast) with a chocolate cake that she was baking for us! She asked if we wanted to hang out more cos she was baking a cake for us ... That was really sweet of her - we weren't expecting anything even thought they got our reservations mixed up. Just as well because the two times I was here at Seventh Heaven I didn't try the cake!

The chocolate lava cake is good - you will like it if you like dark chocolate. It is like a souffle - Beneath the crisp top is the warm dark chocolate sauce. There is no hint of sweetness at all - pure cocoa goodness.The scoop of vanilla icecream was huge (i think this is the ala carte serving) and my sister was so happy!

We then went to the Marina Barrage after that and that whole place was jammed even at 1030pm. And there wasn't any traffic police! There were traffic police last Sunday evening when there werent that many cars but tonight there wasn't! It was a tight squeeze and parking was a nightmare. And there were so many families and people and noise that its such a bad idea to bring your date there after dinner. She won't feel very special and private with all that commotion getting in and out and sharing the gorgeous scenery with screaming kids.

Then I hurried to Holland Village to join Michelle, Emily and subsequently a very happy Celene for desserts at 2 am dessert bar(21A Lorong Liput Holland Village) .

Once again the reservations got mixed up but we managed to secure a table (although it wasnt at the bar which we wanted cos we wanted to see our desserts being made) - but they are not as nice as Seventh Heaven giving us an extra dessert.

Plus, the service here was painfully slow - they seemed to have forgotten about us after the arrival of our chocolate tart. Celene came much later but she only missed the first dessert..dessert pictures below are in choronological order (unlike Michelle's where they appear based on how good they tasted). Go to nevertrustascrawnyfoodie.blogspot.com for a better description cos I was sitting far far away from the waiter and I couldnt hear him chant the makings of our dessert. He really described everything from the tiniest morsel and drop of sauce I was quite amused.

Chocolate tart

Warm Tart, Wild Nettle, Salted Caramel, Blood orange Sorbet

We saw them flame the top of the chocolate tart before serving it - warms the chocolate and the fluid dark chocolate was really yummy with the crisp tart pastry!

Cheeesecake Espuma

Sable,Strawberry Powder, Fizzy

Actually we saw this served in the next table and it looked so impressively MASSIVE that we decided to change the order from the Twix (which also looked huge when I saw it online) to this.

The cheese was really light and foamy (actually a little to light for my liking) but delicious with the pastry crumbs.

Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake

Smoked white chocolate, Wild strawberry Panna Cotta, Pate de fruit, White Chocolate Rice Crispies, Rose Petal Sorbet

This was our favourite dessert. The cheese was really good, the icecream also had this lovely floral scent. Cel was the lone soul who tried the petals and couldnt taste anything. None of us liked the rice crispies.

Blackberry parfait, lychee air, basil, pine nut cake, lychee rose ice cream

Those blueberry balls were yummy! It was really tasty to eat with the cake and the foam. We were supposed to take a whiff of the thyme in the glass before savouring the dessert but honestly, I couldnt appreciate how it altered the taste. As M mentioned, it prolongs the pleasure simply because it prolongs the process of eating the desserts. Guys will not like this place cos i think the sweets'd be gone in a gobble, before the waiter finishes his chant of the makings of the dessert.

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe, Annie's Peanut Ice Kachang, Saybons

Everytime I meet Kelly we always have these spontaneous food trails (it never goes according to plan though we've a list of places we want to try) so this time round it was no different. And I never fail to be excited about writing about the entries, and to write it quick lest I forget the extraordinary measures we take to fill our tummies.

It was a wet gloomy day but chilling at Good Morning Nanyang Cafe (Level 2, Chinatown Point)while watching the crowd go by through those glass panels was the perfect day to spend with my best friend.

Yes, I'm not past the kaya toast phase so here we are trying another place again.... and it was tea we were having, not breakfast. Toast is such a breakfast thing, yeah? We were actually here before, but we were so stuffed from bread that day from Tong Ah Coffee Shop and eventually Barcook Bakery we bypassed this place but luckily we came back to try today cos the bread here is really GOOD!

We ordered a set (kopi, eggs, ciabatta toast) and an alacarte orange ciabatta.

I must say that the coffee here was quite good - not bitter at all, and not too sweet. Definitely freshly brewed local style coffee. Kelly had an iced tea (not part of a set).

Ciabatta Toast

The bread was really light, crispy, and crumbly...even though it looks thick its actually really light - fluffy inside yet crisp outside. One of the most perfectly toasted thick bread I've eaten.

Check out the eggy lumpy kaya! There are no slabs of butter here - the kaya and butter are mixed together. This kaya tastes similar to Tong Ah Coffeeshop's kaya - homemade and extremely fragrant. I read that here, the Coconut, Eggs, Sugar and Pandan leaves are slow cooked over a double boiler for 1 and a half hours. The flavour of the pandan is enhanced by leaving the pandan leaves in the Kaya overnight after cooking.

Don't you feel like making your own kaya now? Easier said than done man - I can imagine the temperature, timing, proportion of ingredients must be extremely precise!

Orange Ciabatta Toast $2.60

This toast is really unique. At first I thought our toast was gonna come with Orange Marmalade but no - the orange peel was actually embedded in the bread and the filling is actually the same - kaya. It has a fruity, coconuty taste - you taste it all together. You have to go try it to actually know what I mean. The bread here is slightly more sturdy than the ciabatta toast above - that was really quite crumbly.

Actually i went back to read the article on ieatishootipost and I realise you can choose the filling from a range of preserves like Orange Marmalade with Cognac, Four Fruits Marmalade and Strawberry with Champagne! Wow! Warrants another visit! And we totally forgot about the scones here... But we were so comfortable on those seats we actually sat till closing time (just before 7 pm). so we had to set off for another place after catching up.

Oh today seemed like a CG day I bumped into Jason along Holland Road just before meeting Kelly and after our tea we bumped into Kums in Chinatown MRT who was gonna try this cigar cum fine dining place which he said was amazing. Okay an aside for Kelly and my reference =)

Then for Chinese desserts we walked all the way to Smith Street cos we wanted to try the elusive 115 Tang Shui Stall (which was closed) and the Hai Sing Ah Baling (which we couldnt find) and since we were unsuccessful - our backup was actually the porridge over at Smith Street - then we decided to walk to Glace at Chinatown Plaza - (and our backup was Tong Ah Coffeeshop's toast) but it closes at 630pm so gaspp we reached Duxton Hill -which has beautiful architecture in the evening by the way, each shophouse had such interesting riot of colours and styles. I'd wanna come back and walk the rest of Duxton Hill (and try Pasta Brava at Craig Road). However, the looming HDB project at Duxton looks quite monstrous now - and even more so in the dark..Wonder how it'd look like when its all done.

Walk and walk and walk....eventually we landed up at Tanjong Pagar Food Market! My poor friend was quite exhausted esp when climbing up the stairs here! But we were eventually very =) when we saw that Annie's Peanut Ice Kachang(Level 2, Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market and Food Centre) was open! We were really quite discouraged that ALL our dessert places ditched us today so you can imagine our surprise when this place was open!! (it closes at 715pm on weekdays)

There is peanut ice Kachang, mango ice kacang, and durian ice kachang. She also has Chengtng, Chendol, bobocharbar. But everyone goes for her signature Annie's Peanut ice kachang!

It is gigornous at $1.50!

The shaved ice was really smooth! And it doesnt melt - so it doesnt leave a pool of colourful syrup at the end - according to the observant (and experienced ice kacang eater =P) Kelly. The red bean, corn and peanut went really well together, and with the evaporated milk and syrup it was phwoah! Just the thing we needed after walking the length of many train stations!

Oh but the ingredients when you get to the bottom is scant. There is no atapchee, and there is very little chendol jelly and grass jelly. It doesnt have much.....inner substance =P

We wanted to go Amoy Food Centre but it was too hot to walk any further so we decided to head to Saybons(B1 Plaza Singapura) on our way home.

This is our second time at Saybons - previously we tried the nutella crepe and seafood bisque so we decided to try something different today.

We went for the (nutritious according to an article pasted on the screen) Brocoli and Cheddar soup (and additional bread which we didnt try) and a savoury crepe.

They actually warm/fry our bread before serving...

Don't the wild mushrooms look like some virulent octupus? We were truly..enthralled.. haha, we love watching chefs at work...even watching Annie, the icekachang lady make our dessert got some oohs and ahhs...yes it doesnt take a lot to entertain us...

Brocoli and Cheddar Soup, Regular $3.20

The soup was really heavy on the cream - but surprisingly it wasnt jelak even with the cheddar. I couldnt really taste much vegetable but I thought the soup was really a good cream soup.

Sundried tomato Bread, Garlic Butter Bread Additional $2.50

You can choose a maximum of 2 spreads with your additional bread. These are the 2 more popular ones out of the 3 spreads they have (the last one is a herb butter). The bread was gently fried and really delicious - even better with the cheesy soup!

Mushroom and Cheese Crepe

I really liked the mushrooms here - and they are really generous with the mozarella cheese as well. The crepe is really light and chewy - Kelly remembers it being more crisp the previous time we had the Nutella crepe. Unfortunately here the crepe is ready made - they fry it, and add the ingredients before serving it. We thought the previous time they made the crepe from scratch but we could be wrong.

And after that we made a hilarious secretive transaction at Dorothy Perkins before heading home. Oh I cant wait for her to clear the last hurdle before planning our next trip (for Kelly its our elective trip but for me it meant a food trail =P).. All the best, babe!

Gunther's

It was a nice start to the electives - first day of Paeds elective, on the excuse of getting back all my notes from Chong, we met up for lunch at Gunther's (36 Purvis Street). The lunch was almost not meant to be - the Prof kept changing his mind about whether the afternoon tut was on (and thus horrible science canteen food) or not (food freedom) and thank goodness this happened.

And I did make a promise to myself to make my best effort in school to account for the treat...unfortunately.....treat first worry later is always a sign of procrastination....it should be like M's one month long wait (just nice the length of the elective) for Buko Nero..

convenient parallel parking right alongside the restaurant, but very ex its a dollar per half hour not counting the numerous gantries into City Hall!

Complimentary Bread Roll

A tad too hard for our liking and not warm and nicely toasted. I miss the olive bread from Iggy's!

Braised Portobello mushroom, egg sunny-side-up

This was my appetiser - the mushroom was really bursting with flavour with the rich stock, but one mushroom and one egg is a little too....little!

Roasted prawns à la Parisienne

Chong was not much better with her 2 prawns - though they were extremely fresh and crunchy but again....its TWO prawns.. We kinda need greater quantities to appreciate the food, French portions are miniscule!

Char-grilled US grain-fed Ribeye, confit of onion

This was the Chef's creation and this was Chong's - she had a choice between the Ribeye and the cordon bleu. But she decided to go for the steak after all (cos I was pushing her =P) and we were glad we did cos it was a great slab of meat - simply grilled but it had such a great smokey flavour to it. No fancy sauces but it was so good in its meat juices it was just divine, just as a steak should be. I ate most of her confit it was really yummily soaked in the meat juices!

Angel-hair pasta, chili Monte Poro, kombu, dried prawns, chives

I actually wanted to go for the carbonara but requested to change the meat - and the waiter suggested either doing the pasta with prawns or cod fish - I chose the latter, and oh boy this is really good! I'm getting to like angel hair pasta - the other one i really enjoyed was the Sakura Ebi Cappelini at Iggy's. Again this was a simple dish executed perfectly - the pasta al dente, and tossed lightly in olive oil and every strand was just delicious - the condiments enhancing every bite. And the cod fish was so smooth and tasty! We both really liked this.

Both the Ribeye and the pasta are available on the ala carte menu as well.

Creme Caramel

This was really sweet - but the creme caramel was really smooth and delicious. One queer thing was that the caramel in mine was much darker than Chong's. Maybe it was more concentrated caramel goodness! This did us in, we were super full after this super sugar loaded dessert.

Petit Fours

This was a dark chocolate slab, a magdeleine-looking sugar coated orangey pastry, and a chocolate-centred thin cookie. We really like the cookie cos it had a fluidy chocolate centre, and the dark chocolate was our next favourite. The middle one was quite a disaster.

Latte

I wanted a flat-white but they didnt have it so they served us Latte...

I must say that the service here is impeccable - when the waiter noticed that I didn't finish my Latte (now I don't really dare to finish a coffee entirely cos of the massive nausea from the Coffee Bean breakfast set), he asked whether I wanted to change my coffee. Also, when I wanted to change the meats in my carbonara, he actually made an effort to ask Chef Gunther himself - they were so flexible they allowed me to change the entire pasta itself - he did it so differently, just to cater to my choice of pasta. And of cos, Chef Gunther also came out to greet us - we were one of the last people to leave.

We really had a good meal - but straight after that I was still hungry I ate 2 peanut pancakes from Jollibean while I was at Daiso at PS! I know this is a rather anti-climatic end to the meal but I can't seem to downsize my appetite!