Ice Monster, A-Roy Thai, Ah Chew Desserts

Kelly and I took the train to Dhoby Gaut MRT cos we were desperate to get out of TTSH and we were trapped in by the rain. And by the time we reached town to catch the 225pm show (Departures) at Plaza Singapura only front row seats were left - this was our second attempt in 2 weeks - so we ended up buying tickets for the 340pm show at Vivocity (where there is no students discount!)

Before setting off for Vivocity, we decided to go for desserts at Ice Monster (Basement 1, Plaza Singapura) - this is our third time here so we are really quite a fan of their icy desserts though we found something more interesting today.

Mixed Fruits

This was a really sweet treat - the fruits which are normally sour are especially sweet when soaked in their puree - there was mango, strawberries and kiwis, topped up with milk and a scoop of mango icecream, this is really refreshing especially for a fruits fan like Kelly =)

Yam and Red bean

This is a repeat try because I really like this dessert - the yam and red bean are thoroughly soaked in the sweet condensed milk and the yam is particularly creamy smooth.

Durian with Chicken Floss Egg Crepe $6.50

After seeing the adjacent table order the crepes, we got curious and consulted the menu. We realised that Ice Monster serves a whole variety of savoury food (like za jiang mian) and there are many permutations and combinations for the sets - for both savoury foods and desserts sets. For example, we should have ordered a crepes and mango ice set, which comes with a drink as well. But oh well, we wanted 2 icy desserts.

There are 3 crepes offerings here - the 2 dessert ones pair fruit (either mango or durian) with chicken floss - doesnt it scream strangeness??- and the third is a more normal sounding beef egg crepe. We ordered the first one- gasp - durian with chicken floss egg crepe.

Check it out. The durian paste (which we like when we tried the mango and durian shaved ice during our second time here) was like the sauce, the meat was the chicken floss, the perfunctory piece of lettuce, and the deep fried egg crepe - its like a version of Subway, Taiwanese style. The sweetness of the buttery durian paste, the salty and crunchy bits of chicken floss, the crunchy lettuce, and eventually the eggy oily thin piece of prata. It was really an interesting mix - gotta give the chef points for creativity! I actually quite liked the odd combination.

Kelly wants to try the mango version but....i think I'd pass..heh.

We walked by Candy Empire (Basement 1, Vivocity) and decided to get these snacks for the movie. I am a new fan of the Sweet Chilli & Lime Dip Stix - it is a longer and sturdier version of the Synders of Hanover Pretzel pieces. It has the texture of pretzel pieces and the intensity of nachos.

The Chilli Pretzels was also quite good- the spicness hits you after you eat your third mini pretzel.

We saw the popcorn popping away in the machine so we got so excited! We bought a large popcorn ($6) and it surprisingly it wasn't scorching (we thought the freshly coated sugary coating'd be way hot).

Departures is an excellent show. There are many elements to the show, death being the central theme - but the issues of passion (the main character's hobby and love for cello - the only connection with his father) versus practicality (how he moved to his hometown when his orchestra dissolved and he fell into the hilarious advertisement of landing the embalming job), and how deaths in different families touch him differently. His first few encounters with the dead made him very emotional and acutely aware of how much he needs to hold on to his loved ones (his wife) and embalming his father who abandoned his paternal duties brought him a step closer to forgiving and eventually accepting his father - the symbolism of the stone was powerful - it embodies the father-son relationship and his eventual duties as a to-be father.

The show highlights the importance of jobs shunned by society - are professional jobs the most respectable? Think about what society be without those people who hold occupations you'd never dream of doing. They guard your condos, keep your places clean, build those swanky shopping centres and IRs rain or shine, clean up bedpans. Did you say your thanks today? Have you ever wondered how there are some jobs you never knew existed? Who will chose and eventually do those jobs?

Death was dealt in a very respectful manner - not in-your face depressing, sombre and grave, but extremely thought provoking because it potrays the different ways of how different people and different families dealed with the deseased - young or old. Some families blame each other for indirectly causing a suicide, or how the course of the life of the deseased could have run differently possibly altering the outcome, others celebrate the love of an elder, and how she has touched the lives of people around her.

At your loved ones' deathbed - are you likely to say Thank you for the wonderful memories you have left behind? Or will you be seeking forgiveness, saying Sorry for taking you for granted, not having the chance to say a Good Goodbye? Do you spend enough time, make enough effort to reach out to your loved ones? Who matters in the end?

There was never a dull moment to the movie - with the opening sequence having bits of humour (he-she confusion, and the maggots were particularly memorable) especially with the boss and lady employee - I will never forget the fried chicken scene and the fish roe scene! Well, after anatomy class in year one, barbequed beef bakwa and jerky never looked the same..

Creme Brulee - Caramel, white chocolate, Cocoa Loco - Mocha

We were thirsty after all that popcorn so we went to Gloria Jeans (Level 1, Vivocity) for drinks. Their iced blended drinks are $3 for certain hours depending on the outlet - the hours vary from the Vivocity to the Cineleisure outlets.

Kelly's drink was nicely sweet but my iced mocha was way diluted so I went back to change the drink to the one below (they nicely obliged and eventually agreed it was diluted too)

Cookies and Cream

This was much better - sweeter and more creamy, with bits of cookies inside the drink. I guess the Gloria Jeans barista learnt her lesson and loaded up the sugar and toppings!

We met our CG for dinner before everyone flies off to their elective - at A-Roy Thai Restaurant(04-06, FUNAN the IT Mall). Michelle really likes this place so I must check it out!

Crackers $2

They served us two of this, and charged it to our bill. Everyone thought the dip was really potentily spicy.

Spicy and Sour salad with Lemongrass, Basil, Dried Shrimp, Cashew nuts - Small $12.90
This was our favourite dish of the night - usually I'd always order the mango or papaya salad - i almost wanted to order that but I'm glad we gave this a go - they fry the lemongrass very well, and the spices made it very interesting to it. I don't know what is the principle vegetable in the dish but it was meant to be eaten as a wrap we figure - wrapping up the salad mix with the lettuce leaf. It was highly recommended by the waiter and was one of the star dishes that garnered an award for the restaurant.

Pad Thai - Medium $12.90

I liked the pad thai here because the fish sauce it is fried in makes it very fragrant and wet, and alot of crunchy beansprouts. It is also very eggy which I like.

Pineapple rice - Medium $10.90

I didn't like the pineapple rice - not much wok hei and not many ingredients inside.

Tom Yum Seafood - $19.90 Medium

It is clear and really spicy. I thought the soup was good - intense and chokeful of fish and squid.

Green Curry $19.90 - Medium

A PUNY portion, though the green curry was good (although Kumaran and Weixin thinks its not truly potent). It is a really creamy version, with many pieces of smooth thigh meat and vegetables inside the curry.

The steamed seabass arrived naked...

Grilled Seabass with sweet and sour soup $30.90

....and was eventually dressed up in a lemon sauce...The fish was really fresh and there was alot of spices in the soup - without which it did taste like the Tom Yum soup (although the waiter kept insisting it was not, when I asked him when I was ordering).

Beef Kuay Teow $6.90

This was Maria's beef noodles I took some of the soup it is really very beefy!

Overall the quality of the Thai food was good but the portions are way way way way too small to justify the prices. Somehow after Bangkok, I won't wanna pay too much for authentic Thai food! I shall come here another day to try the mango and durian sticky rice. Sheryl went to buy her semi-pro camera so we accompanied her - and realised I am quite glad I didnt go IT show to get fleeced

After that everyone else left so Sheryl, Kelly and I made our way to Ah Chew Desserts (Liang Seah Street) for our usual Chinese dessert fix. This is one too many repeat visits!

Durian Mango Sago $4.80

This is one of their durian menu specials. We loved it! There was real durian meat inside, and the bittersweet pomelo sacs and sago really enhances the sweetness of the mango.

I was quite skeptical to try their durian desserts again after the disaster of durian with yam and sago with Nat and Xueling but I am quite glad I gave this a go (because we saw another table with the mango pomelo it looked damn good!). I shall try the unadulterated mango pomelo sago soon!

Sesame and Almond Paste, Large $2.50

The paste here is rather gooey instead of being grainy, according to my friends - but I still like the sesame paste here.

Steamed Milk Egg, $2.50

This is the first time I am having it hot and it turns out to be really eggy. I think the heat enhances the egg taste more.

Grass Jelly with Carnation Milk

It is chopped up into ice-kachang type cubes - not the wholesale chunk that Kelly prefers. If you order the plain grass jelly itself - you will get the whole slab of grass jelly uncut, judging from a table that I passed by. It was difficult judging the texture of the grass jelly when its sliced up into cubes, so this dessert wasn't particularly memorable.

Flying off for electives soon, many of our CG mates are already half the world away...cant wait!
Have you seen Kit Kat in a dark chocolate version before? Or in a family block version? Find yours at the nearest Candy Empire today! This was awesome.

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!