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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Menya Shinchan @ Robertson Quay

Right after eating pizza, pasta and a big plate of salad, Camemberu, Southernoise and I went on to have ramen. This was to be the 'pig-out' thingy. Eaten from shop to shop. But we realise we do not have the big appetite as we think we had. LOL...

We walked round the corner to Menya Shinchan. This little Japanase eatery is known for its 'home-made' noodles. This shop is kinda hidden, so you might take some time to find it. Look for this sign.



The moment you are seated, they serve you a nice warm towel. How nice ya!



If you read about them at this site, you can see that they really take ramen making very seriously and considers it an art.



This is what I had. The Miso Pork Mayu.

Whilst many other ramen has very salty broth, this one is different though. It's not salty at all. (Hmm we wonder if salt's missing on purpose or accidently, we shall try again next time to see if it's meant to be like that. ) It has a rich broth though.



The hand made noodles.




Camemberu had the Salty Pork Mayu. It looks almost similar to the one I have, except that when you stir it, it's not so dark.



Southernoise had the Salty Pork with the 'extra oil' option. When asked what's the oil, we were told lard oil. You should have seen the glee on Southernoise's face when he said yes!



The 'pig-out' ended here. LOL. Stomach's not flexible, young and elastic as before for me.

Menya Shinchan Japanese Noodle Restaurant
30 Robertson Quay,
#01-05 Riverside View,
Singapore 238251.

Tel: 6732-0114

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Da Mario Pizzeria @ Robertson Quay

Camemberu, Southernoise and I finally went for our mini pig out session on Saturday. This was planned a few months ago, but we were always not free or around on Saturdays.

Last Saturday, we all made an effort to clear all appointments and met up for our 'makan' session. This place's chosen because of a recommendation by NinjaHK. This place is think is also one regular reader of this blog, 'ice' had an 'interesting' discussion before. ;-)

A very simple looking shop named after the owner/chef.



The deep fried calamari was the first to come out. $14. It's coated and deep fried with a batter that's a little different, more crispy. It goes well with the tartare sauce and lemon.

It did reminded me of the spanish calamari I had last month in Spain. It's a tad of extra saltiness that makes it nice I suppose ;-)



The Italian Antipasto. $30.
We ordered this to try the Parma Ham Melon ;-) It comes with olives, caprese salad & grilled vegetables.



It's delicious I tell you.



For the pizza, we asked the waiter for their recommendation. We were told this Rustica Pizza $18 is a popular choice. It's made of tomato, cheese, Italian pork sausages and button mushroom.



This piece is going into my mouth.



Asked about their pasta, their recommendation for pasta is Spaghetti al Cartoccio. $22
It's spaghetti with saute squids, scallops, prawns, clams and mussels in light tomato sauce, garlic and white wine. It's bagged by the way. I like this.



This is the tiramisu that Chef Mario gave as complimentary because of an 'incident'.
Read about it at Camemberu's blog.



Might come back to try other things. We only ate 4 things out of the menu. ;-)


Da Mario Pizzeria
60 Robertson Quay
#01-10 The Quayside
Singapore 238252

Tel: 6235 7623
Open Tue to Sun: 12noon - 3pm, 6pm - 10.30pm (closed Mondays)
Website: http://www.damariopizzeria.com/

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Beijing Steamboat @ Great Wall Restaurant, NUS Swimming Pool

A colleague asked if I wanted to join them for dinner. I said OK because I was already hungry at around 5 plus. We were going to have a mini steamboat. Where? At the NUS Swimming Pool. Hmm pool water for the steamboat? LOL....

It's the first time I found out that there's a restaurant there and it's called Great Wall.



The Beijing Steamboat's only available from 6 - 9 pm. It costs $6 and it has quite a big portion too. You have a choice of Mutton, Beef, Pork or Chicken.

One colleague had the beef version.



The other 3 of us had the chicken.



Come with a bowl of rice.



And a steamboat with flames that is so big and it lasts so long, that you do not need to rush to finish your meal so quickly worrying that the flames might die out first.



An aerial view to show you the approximate size.



Not the best steamboat you can get, but for $6, it is quite ok lah.


Great Wall Restaurant
Beside the NUS Swimming Pool
NUS Sports and Recreation Centre

Friday, November 14, 2008

The Scholar @ NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House

Xiu4 Cai2 - The Scholar. What an appropriate name for a Chinese Restaurant that opens in the grounds of the National University of Singapore.

On Tuesday, it was one of our colleague's first day back to work after 4 months being away. The whole team with our boss, the 13 of us, welcomed her back with a treat to The Scholar, a modern and chic Chinese restaurant in the new Guild House in the NUS Kent Ridge Campus.



It's very Chinese, yet contemporary. We realise that it's quite full too. We did not place any booking thinking it's so new, it wont be crowded. We were wrong. Lucky for us, one of the VIP rooms was not booked and there was a table inside that can fit the 13 of us.



The lady-in-charge told us, we should try this set. It has all the 'jiao pai' (signature) dishes. By the way, their executive chef is award winning James Aw. She said we can order this and do a + 3. ie, pay an additional $38.80 for the 3 extra persons. The menu looks good ya?



Oh yes, there's a Smart Casual policy here. Haha.. to prevent students and Profs from walking in with their t-shirts, shorts and slippers. (Yes, I mention Profs LOL)



The Crispy Duck Mango & Plum Sauce.
It's delicious. The slight sourness of the mango goes kinda well with the duck.



The Braised Shark's Fin with Bamboo Pith and Crabmeat was served in a nice big bowl.

Oh, we had 'full service' so they served us. Hmm we even had a dedicated server in the room. I think the must love working in this place. She is full of praises for the chefs here.



Oh yes, we had a anti-shark activist amongst us. He showed his disapproving look while the rest of us enjoyed the sharks fin. hehe....



The Famous Crispy Coffee Pork Ribs.
Oh, when this dish was brought in, we could smell the aroma of the coffee.



The Steamed Sea Bass Teochew Style.
Fish was fresh and was walloped off by the 4-5 fish lovers. Nothing was spared.



The Pan Fried Spicy Prawns.
Somehow these prawns taste really good. The spicy and salty combination works very well.
It was also slit on the top to make it easier for us to eat.



The Braised Bailing Mushroom & Sea Cucumber with Seasonal Vegetables.

Our boss was chatting with the server and found out that they have 20 over chefs and kitchen helpers. They need so many people because it is really busy during lunch and dinner.



Since I took this photo of my half eaten sea cucumber, just show it here lah... :-)



This is the Braised Dual-Rice Noodles with Shredded Duck Meat.
Looks plain and simple? But it's delicious! We realise that many places are now having this dual-rice noodles combi. Bee Hoon and Tang Hoon does go together!



This closeup lets you distinguish between the two different kinds of noodles.



The dessert: Pumpkin and Coconut Cream.
I think pumpkin prepared this way is delicious!



It was such an enjoyable meal.
If you are wondering why the photos looks longish, it's in the HD mode on the camera. I brought out my camera without a memory card! Don't laugh! So this mode actually uses less disk space, so... :-)

It's a NUSS members only place. Ask a friend who is a NUSS member to bring you there or grab a friend who works in NUS to bring you in.


The Scholar
National University of Singapore Society
Kent Ridge Guild House
9 Kent Ridge Drive
Singapore 119241

Reservations: 6586 3710
Opening Hours, etc: Check the Scholar's website.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Holland Village

Today just before lunch, a colleague happily hop into our office and said, today's lunch is on me. Let's go to Holland Village.

Wah... what happened? He told us, he passed his most difficult exam ever. He passed the ITIL exams. He said he was already planning to retake because the passing rate is very low and he did not think he could make it. Since he passed the exam, the $ he allocated for the super expensive exam fee, a portion of it can be used to treat us. Of course we gladly accepted his invite.

It was a super cold and rainy day, so wondering where to eat, we decided we would like hot chinese food. We ended up at Crystal Jade Kitchen. We all ordered porridge. 5 different kinds of them. It was a cold day and the warm porridge was what was needed to warm us up!

This is my duck and chicken porridge. (The meat's all hidden below the porridge haha...)



This is the century egg and lean pork porridge.
(Ya, all the porridge looks similar right? The gems are all hidden inside)



This is the something river porridge. It has peanuts over it.



The pig inards porridge. This photo colleague stirred it so you can see the liver.



The other bowl of porridge was too far away, so you visit them and try it out lah.
I even forgot what porridge it was. :-p

We had the 3 eggs with veg dish to share too. We love this dish.



Plus 5-6 kinds of dim sum as well. The siew mai, har gow, bean curd skin fish cake, chee cheong fun, steamed pork ribs, etc...

You could guess it, we ordered 3 steamers of chicken feet. yeah...



Thanks for the lunch, Wire.

Now that our colleague is ITIL certified, the rest of us have to be inducted into ITIL practices too. The next week, we will all be attending ITIL brain washing courses.

Crystal Jade Kitchen
2 Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Singapore 277671

Tel: 6469 0300
Hours: Mon - Thurs: 7am - 3am, Fri - Sun & PH: 7am - 4am

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Long Beach Seafood @ IMM

Earlier tonite, our Care Group from church met up to celebrate sis' belated birthday. Wondering where to eat, we (4 of us only, others have to work overtime, reservist, etc) finally decided to eat at Long Beach because our CG leader wanted chilli crabs.

When we sat down on the tables, we thought these wet napkins look kinda sleezy. LOL...



Anyway, we ordered and the food came in the sequence which these photos are displayed.
The garlic kailan dish, which we think is the nicest dish of all. :-p



The beef with dried chilli. Not too bad, maybe we should have called the bigger portion. Not enough.



Patin fish Penang Style.
Oh, this is delicious. I love fish especially in this nyonya style, which makes you wanna call for more bowls of rice.



Aha. The chilli crabs.
Hmm.. We now realise why the wet napkins says they are the best in Black Pepper crabs. We should have ordered that.

This chilli crab is for the 'cannot eat chilli' people. It's mild and tomato-ish. I think kids (who can't take chilli) would love them. But it does look really pretty on the plate. Very nicely stacked up.



The fried buns. Oh well, it could still go with the tomato-egg sauce.
We were still yearning for something fiery and spicy.



Long Beach IMM Seafood Restaurant
Tel: 6566 9933
Level 3, Next to Rooftop Garden, IMM Building, Jurong East St 21
Daily: 11am - 3pm / 5.45pm - 11pm
Sat, Sun & PH: 11am - 3pm / 5pm -11pm

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bobby's @ Cuppage Terrace

I went for a food tasting session at Bobby's yesterday. Met fellow foodies, Camemberu and Southernoise was there as well, it has been some time since I met them.

Where Bobby's? It's at the newly revamped Cuppage Terrace. Cuppage Terrace looks really different now. With the Orchard Road revamp, many place along Orchard Road's updating itself too.

If you are wondering, yes, it's the same as the Bobby's in Chijmes. They were previously known as Bobby Rubino's and have changed management when the word Rubino was dropped. The yummy ribs remained.




Pardon the a bit grainy photos. The place is slightly dimmed to make it more cosy, so taking photographs are a bit difficult. (They should have sat us outdoors with natural light right?)
I thought I will still use the photos I took instead of using their stock photos. :-)

The tasting menu was for their Christmas Set menu from 15-23 December 08.
It costs SGD35++ per person.

Here's the sampling menu we had.
Festive Tossed Salad with Honey Baked Ham.



The sampling version of:
Fillet of Beef with Signature Mushroom Sauce & Grilled Dory Fillet with Sorrel Cream Sauce.



I like the Dory. The pumpkin that the dory is resting on is delicious too.
Pumpkin somehow taste good for most dishes ya?



The beef fillet. We were joking to them, no wagyu? :-)
For the set meal you choose between the Dory, Beef or Turkey.

The turkey choice is: Grilled turkey breast topped with chestnut stuffing and giblet gravy side with cranberry sauce. We did not get to try this.



The set meal comes with a Christmas log slice.



We were told their tiramisu's a house specialty. I wonder if they could replace the log cake with tiramisu. :-p This cake's not too bad.




Oh yes, there was a surprise dish that came out. (i.e. not part of the set meal above)
It was their Ribs. Anything with ribs will tempt me. I can eat the whole slab of it. Ribs are why people come to Bobby's right?



They are offering the ribs for takeaway for if you are holding your Christmas party at home. I have not gotten the pricing yet, will update it when it's available.

Eating ribs at home you can behave like a caveman. haha..
No need to worry about people staring at you, you can use your hands, lick your hands etc.



Bobby's @ Cuppage, Orchard
25-27 Cuppage Road
Cuppage Terrace
Singapore 229454

Tel : 6734-3323
Hours: Open daily, 12pm to 12am (Sun-Tues), 12pm - 2am (Wed-Sat)



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Another blog post of the UK Makan.
Ate at famous or is it infamous Wong Kei.



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