District 10

On Sunday, whilst in the midst of our wedding venue hunting, we stopped by District 10 for breakfast. The last time I came was with my girlfriends in 2009 for my birthday celebration. The place was still very much as I recalled it to be. The simple furnishing & lighting gave the place a cosy, warm and intimate setting. Service staff were also friendly too =)

Loves the glass house feeling

Cool peek ;)

BBC ordered the Eggs Benedict & I ordered the Old Times Favourites (which consisted of 2 sunny side up with bread, sausage, baked beans, tomato & wild rocket salad). Haha, I was actually debating between the Eggs Benedict & Old Times Favourites so when BBC said he was taking the Eggs Benedict, that instantly solved my problem, haha! Now, I can have the best of both worlds =) I also ordered a cup of Cappuccino ($5.50) to kickstart my Sunday morning. It was a good balance between the espresso & the steamed milk which gave it a creamy texture =)

Cappuccino

The Eggs Benedict ($16) was indeed a good choice! The poached eggs were nicely done with the egg yolk still runny inside. The hollandaise sauce was smooth and creamy & it complemented the poached eggs really well. (Just so you know, hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of egg yolk and butter, usually seasoned with lemon juice, salt, and a little white pepper or cayenne pepper). Woo, how sinful ;)

Eggs Benedict

The Old Times Favourites ($16) as its name suggested was the typical English breakfast set. Haha, call me boring but this combination of breakfast always make me a happy gal! :) I liked how the baked beans were being served in a bowl rather than on the same plate as it gave the whole presentation a neat & clean feel. The bread somehow tasted very much like the ones at Macdonalds! Haha, but still it was good, crispy on the outside & soft on the inside. The sausage was slightly salty & I would have preferred it to have more herbs & spices in it. The eggs were done just the way I like it! The egg white was perfectly cooked whilst the egg yolk was still runny....*SLURPS*

Old Times Favourites

We enjoyed the breakfast & I love how the sunlight filtered in through the glass & gave the place a cheery feel. What a relaxing Sunday morning =)

District 10 is located at 10 Winstedt Road. 

The Marmalade Pantry

After the earlier episode, we headed to The Marmalade Pantry (not only wanting to check out the food selection but also to "scrutinize" their service standards!) Over here, there was no queue & the minute we stood at the waiting area, we were immediately attended by a friendly service staff. We were even given the option to choose where we wanted to be seated *Thumbs up*.  As this cafe was ran in an open concept manner, there was not much of a done up. Furnishing was kept to the minimum but I love the little vase of flower on each table which gave the cafe a crisp & cheery feel! =)

The simple table sheet with its name on it

I love this little vase of flowers :)

After browsing through the menu, we decided to order their signature Steak Sandwich for sharing. As for drinks, we were totally spoilt for choices. We debated amongst the smoothies, hot floral tea & the shakes! In the end, we decided to go for the shakes! YP ordered the Oreo Cookies whilst I ordered the Fluffy Strawberry. Haha, how can we miss out desserts? YP saw the Chocolate fudge cake & couldn't resist ordering a slice. (",)

The Oreo Cookies shake ($9) was "overflowing" when it came (as can be seen from this peek). The shake tasted too milky for our liking. There was just a very faint whiff & taste of the cookies & cream which to me, tasted more like any other chocolate milkshake  :(

Oreo Cookies shake

The Fluffy Strawberry Shake ($9) came in a sweet pastel pink colour (which was so NOT me for those who know me, haha). But I do love my strawberries! ;) As it was very milky, the strawberry taste simply faded out into the background....how disappointing.

Fluffy Strawberry shake

When the Steak Sandwich ($20) was served, we were totally sold by the service here! Guess what?! When we ordered this, we told the lady to cut the sandwich into half since we were sharing & that's what they did & even better still, they actually put the halves into 2 serving plates (with full garnishing of the chips & wild rocket salad). Aint that impressive?! We were too baffled for words. Honestly, this is the 1st time that I encountered cafes which bother to put it into 2 serving plates as usually, they would just cut it into half & put it back onto the same plate. Need I say more about their service? =)

We got them to do the beef in medium. The outer part of the beef was crispy (which I especially loved) however, cant say the same for the meat. The beef was a tad too chewy & required quite some chewing to finish it. The chips were those of the healthier version i.e. the yam & sweet potatoes type which I personally do not really like the texture of it, found it hard & dry. This reminded me of the blue potato chips served in Food Barn (which was no longer around) several years back. The wild rocket salad was done in Vinaigrette dressing which was refreshing.

Steak Sandwich

There was only one word that we kept using on the Chocolate Fudge cake ($7.80) throughout the whole session. Haha, the word was "HUMONGOUS" Yes with capital letters! When it came, we were like "o gosh, is this called a slice?" It looked like it could serve at least 3-4 people in one go! We cautiously took a bite as we were trying not to topple the big slice of cake off the plate.

The chocolate fudge cake was not at all how YP or myself had expected it. There was no thick fudge on top of the cake, neither was there any fudge in between the layers of the cake....hmm, how "interesting". The texture of the cake was a little too dry & it was not fine at all. :( YP also commented that she did not like the chocolate shavings used on the cake. For me, it tasted very much like the Sara Lee chocolate pound cake which I used to have in my childhood days! However, sad to say this, I found my Sara Lee cake to be nicer than this! Thank goodness, we only ordered 1 dessert to share. YP was commenting if she were to finish this off, she would definitely stay off chocolate cakes for the next 1 month or so. LOL

Chocolate Fudge cake

This was how the cake looked like when we were halfway through struggling...

The aftermath of it! *haha, salutes to YP who ate most of it, turning the initially triangle looking shape to a rectangular one!*

Overall, the food was pretty average however, as you can guess we were very HAPPY with the service provided. The setting of this place creates a lovely ambience to chill out on a lazy Thursday afternoon whilst watching the world go by! ;)

The Marmalade Pantry is located at ION Orchard #03-22/28.
You can check out their website, http://www.themarmaladepantry.com/

TWG

Since YP & I took half day off from work yesterday, we decided to reward ourselves with an afternoon of pedi followed by high tea! We have always wanted to try out TWG & thus made our way there all eager to enjoy our afternoon. However, things did not go as planned :(

When we reached there at around 3pm, there was a short queue forming & we followed behind. We stood there for close to 10 minutes & still, no one came up to assist us. Not only that, since I was feeling bored from the waiting, I took out my camera & took 2 peeks & this little action of mine finally got the attention of a staff. She came up to me to inform that I am not supposed to take any photos of their place, products etc. However, I am free to take photos of me & my friend. Well well, I kept my camera & continued waiting...You would have thought by now, she/ someone else might have the courtesy to at least ask us" how many of you?" Nope, she just walked away & so, we carried on the arduous waiting!

The queue started moving (after like a good 10 mins) & a male service staff came up to us with a book in his hands. He finally asked the long awaited questions (note: without any smile or friendliness & of course, not a single word of apology from him). I replied "2" & he put that down in his book & said "you have to wait about 20 - 25 mins". That seriously got us pissed off & we decided NOT to wait & instead headed upstairs to .... The Marmalade Pantry!

P/s: I seriously wonder what happened to good customer service & seriously how long does one have to wait?! FYI, since we were so bored, we actually did a calculation of the no of staff in there & guess what?! There was a total of 15 staff seen! (well, I guess that says it all about their service).

SHASHLIK

I have been to this restaurant twice (a couple of years back & recently revisited them last year with my unimates). This time round, I brought BBC since we were in the vicinity! This restaurant is indeed a hidden gem in....the heart of Orchard Road! It is located at Far East Shopping Centre (kindly note that this is the one beside Hilton Hotel) & not Far East Plaza. By now, you must be wondering whether I am kidding you. Fret not! Indeed, it is located on the 6th floor of that old building which doesn't seem to fit in with the high end shopping malls down Orchard Road Even BBC was unaware of its presence until I suggested having dinner there yesterday! What a pleasant surprise for him! (",)

Upon entering the restaurant, you will be greeted by warm lighting & friendly service staff. The furnitures, table cloth, the fake flower in the vase on each table, the yellowish lighting, lamps & pictures on the wall all contributed to the super nostalgic feel of this place. BBC was quite amazed that this kind of place still exists in Singapore (seemed to have transported us back to the 70s/80s). It reminded him of his childhood days where his parents will bring him to the cafe at Metropole Hotel! (haha, what a lucky kid he was!)

Something interesting to share about this place is that by far this is one place which engaged mature service staff & I mean this literally! Like the uncle (who looks to be in his 60s) & still serving us hot cross buns the minute we were seated. If my memory doesn't fail me, this was the same uncle who served me some couple years back too! Another thing that never fails to amaze me when I am here is how they use a metal trolley to serve/ clear the dishes! =)

The nostalgic feel of the place

Dun undermine this hot cross bun! LOL. It was still piping hot when served! BBC liked his with butter while I prefer to eat it in its original form. Both tasted good & comforting.

Hot cross bun

BBC ordered the steak a la Russe ($26) (recommended by the friendly auntie) & it was indeed a good choice. The steak was medium done (with mushroom sauce) & came with mixed vegetables &  French fries. Even though the steak was done in a medium fashion, it still retained the juiciness of the beef & gave it a chewy texture. Somehow or rather, BBC & I found the mixed vegetables to be really old school but we like :) If you look closely at this peek, you will see a small dish beside the steak. That's actually something like a coleslaw (with sliced cabbage, onion & capsicum) which was complimentary.

Steak a la Russe

I ordered the Chicken chop ($18) which can be done either fried or grilled & I chose the latter. The chicken was well marinated & tender. A simple dish but it always touches my heart how much effort goes into this.

Chicken Chop

It was a good dinner & I am glad that BBC likes the place! Would recommend this place if you are in Orchard & craving for a good western/ russian meal (Not to mention, a short escapade to the bustling city life).

Just out of curiosity, I went to check out the meaning of "Shashlik". It originated from Russian Shashlyk which is of Turkey origin. The Russian Shashlyk is a dish consisting of marinated cubes of lamb or beef grilled or roasted on a spit, often with slices of eggplant, onion, and tomato (similar to a kebab). How interesting! FYI, the restaurant does serve this & I have tried it the previous time & liked it too! =)

Shashlik is located at 545 Orchard Road #06-19 Far East Shopping Centre

Lai Lai Family Restaurant

We headed to Lai Lai Family Restaurant for dinner since I have heard raving reviews about their beef noodles (soup/dry). We were still pretty much full from the lunch that we had @ The Coffee Nations so we decided to order a set (which comes with the signature beef noodle, one side dish & a drink) ($11.90) for sharing. We ordered the soup noodle & added the tendons (additional $1).  Bestie saw the Cong Zhua Bing ( 葱抓饼) & being the greedy us, we couldn't resist & ended up ordering that too *chuckled*.

The Cong Zhua Bing ($6.50) is quite similar to a crepe with a generous serving of egg fillings & green onions bits with some pork floss to go along with it. Indeed a good 小吃 (tapa) for all times! :)

Cong Zhua Bing 

The noodles were the hand made ramen kind of noodles & I love the texture. It was springy & yet not too hard. The soup was the crucial key factor to this bowl of beef noodles! It was full of herbs & spices which gave it a peppery tone. The beef was tender & the tendons were chewy (not forgetting it was full of rich collagen too!) =) As you can imagine, it was slurped up in no time! LOL. I would say that the beef noodles here definitely gives Ding Tai Feng (which also serves beef noodles) a run for its money.

Beef noodle with tendon 

The Braised Intestines is a popular dish amongst the Taiwanese & I love it too! Over here, the braised intestines were simmered till tender though there was still a slight lingering smell of the intestines which some people might find it difficult to stomach.

Braised Intestines

Needless to say, if I have cravings for beef noodles, I would definitely make my way here! =)

The Coffee Nations

I finally met bestie for lunch yesterday & decided to check out this place. The Coffee Nations is situated at a 2 storey shophouse at Bali Lane. We sat at one cosy corner on the 2nd floor which was facing the open field just across Raffles Hospital.

The Coffee Nations

Where we were seated ~ a little corner all to ourselves :)

The cafe serves soup, salad, tapas, main course, pizza, pasta, sandwiches & desserts. They also have a separate drink menu which covers a variety of coffee, tea (classic & floral) & smoothies. What a good selection they have!

We over ordered a Bianco Vogole for our starters & 2 main courses (the Hawaiian Chicken & Gallus Gallus Platter) for sharing. For drinks, bestie ordered her fav Tiramisu Frappe (as usual without the whipped cream) & I ordered a floral tea.

Whilst placing our orders, we realized that there was a promotion going on whereby if you ordered a main course, you can just add on $5 to include the soup of the day & a drink (coffee, tea or smoothie). So we decided to go for it. Thus I changed my floral tea to a strawberry smoothie. =)

I immediately fell in LOVE with the Strawberry Smoothie! Not only was it eye capturing, it was simply refreshing! Good way to kick start my meal!  =)

Strawberry Smoothie

The Tiramisu Frappe (without the whipped cream) was a good choice. It was not too sweet & the concoction was perfect *thumbs UP* It even came along with a packet of biscotti (which we found it amusing). The biscotti was yummy & for those who have tried the "Lotus" brand cameralized biscuits, the taste was pretty similar!

Tiramisu Frappe

The Biscotti

The soup of the day was Mushroom soup. If you are a mushroom lover, you would love this soup as it was smooth & creamy with big mushroom pieces in it! Is really a soup made from scratch with the freshest ingredients!

Mushroom soup

We absolutely love the Bianco Vongole ($8.90) to the bits (literally!) Haha, we even finished the soup base! ;) That's how good it was! The clams were succulent & fresh. The soup base was spicy due to the small chillies used which gave this dish a real FIERY kick to it! It is a MUST order for chilli & clams lovers! ;)

Bianco Vongole

The Gallus Gallus Platter ($13.90) comprised of the Spicy chicken debreziner, chicken cheese sausage, wedges & fresh greens. The sausages had a firm texture to it & the wedges were crispy & soft inside! Good for sharing :)

Gallus Gallus

The Hawaiian Chicken ($14.90) is one of the cafe's signature dish & after tasting it, I can totally relate as to why it is a MUST order! It came with grilled chicken thigh, pineapple & topped with a piece of chicken ham with tangy BBQ sauce! I love the arrays of colours for this dish. The chicken thigh was well executed (almost to perfection!). As they used chicken thigh, it was exceptionally tender & the chef still managed to retain the juiciness of the meat! Really tantalizing to the tastebuds! *THUMBS up!*

Chick Hawaiian

As we were too full, we did not order any desserts even though our initial plan was to have a sweet end to the meal! Nevertheless, this meal is really satisfying & I am very contented with the food served :) I would surely come back again to try the other dishes & next time round, I will definitely try their desserts! ;) (hehe, the cafe is also giving out a $5 voucher for next time visit & is valid all the way till 30th September 2011).

BLACK

You must be wondering what a title this is?! Well, this is actually the cafe that I decided to check out after a simple dinner with Ms C.

The Menu Blackboard

The purpose of today's visit is to try their famous Valrhona Chocolate Banana cake! (Hehe, just so U know... Valrhona is a French chocolate manufacturer in a small town near Lyon. It is founded in 1922 & currently, is one of the leading producers of chocolate in the world).

Whilst browsing through the menu for drinks, we were totally spoilt for choices! There were different types of coffee (obviously), tea, milkshakes, chocolate drinks, ice blended, fruit smoothies & alcoholic drinks. Ms C decided to have the Thick French Hot Chocolate whilst I had initially came here with the intent of ordering the Valrhona hot chocolate but I was told that they no longer serve this....(rather disappointing) but I saw another drink which perked me up! Woo...I ordered the Black's recommended Oreo Choco Mint Ice Blend (sounds good already isn't it?) Not forgetting the purpose of this visit, we also ordered a slice of the Valrhona Chocolate Banana cake which I got the waiter to warm it up! :)

The Thick French Hot Chocolate ($5.50) was EXACTLY like its name suggested! Ms C was happily sipping the chocolate drink one sip at a time & she was totally sold by it! I had a taste of it & it was indeed thick & creamy. However, I found it rather sweet for my liking. I love bitter chocolate thus I would have preferred it to be slightly more bitter but nevertheless, if you are a chocolate lover, you will definitely find this drink comforting to the soul! :)

Thick French Hot Chocolate

That's how THICK the chocolate was!

The actual Oreo Choco Mint Ice blend ($6.90) differed slightly from the peek featured in the menu. When the drink came, I was asking Ms C "Hmm, where's the mint leaf that adds the touch of green & flavor to this drink?" (Some of you may call me picky but I always feel that the visual presentation will score itself some points & sure doesn't hurt to look at pretty things right? LOL). This drink was rather disappointing as all I could taste of was the Oreo Choco & not much of the mint. I would have preferred a stronger mint taste to blend in with the chocolate.

Oreo Choco Mint Ice blend

From the look of the Valrhona Chocolate Banana cake ($5.00), it was not exactly what one would termed as "attractive" or "appealing". As Ms C bluntly put it, it was simply a piece of black stuff sitting on the plate, keke (not till we tried it obviously!). The cake like what Ms C commented was "it tastes just like a banana cake!" For me, I do have mixed feelings. Indeed, it tasted like a banana cake (which there's nothing to fault about) except that it was not as chocolately & both Ms C & I agreed that the texture seemed abit too dry. It would definitely have tasted better should it be more moist!

Valrhona Chocolate Banana Cake

Overall, I would rate this place as pretty average but the ambience & the quietness of this place does have its own charm! Service staff were friendly & I might come back again to try the breakfast, coffee,  Valrhona Chocolate Ice blend, Red Velvet cake & Valrhona dark chocolate tart! (",)

BLACK is located at 111 Somerset Road (the ex PUB Building). They do also have another outlet at Hitachi Tower. You can check out their website @ http://www.thisisblack.com.sg/.

Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Restuarant

Today, after the regular monthly massage session with mum, we decided to head to Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Restaurant (located at Tampines 1) for dim sum lunch. We always love coming here if we have craving for dim sum when we are in the area.

We ordered the usual i.e. the Chicken feet, Chicken Glutinous rice, Pan Fried Carrot cake & HK Boat Congee. We also ordered something which we have not tried previously, the Steamed Beancurd skin.

The pan fried Carrot cake ($3.30) is my mum's favourite. It is very flavorful & you can taste the radish shreds, dried shrimps & the chinese sausage all in one mouthful. It never fails to amaze my mum how the carrot cake can be so smooth & soft! =)

Pan fried carrot cake

The HK Boat congee (also known as the "Ting Zai Congee") ($6.80) is one of my fav congee when it comes to dim sum. Have you ever wonder why it is called the HK Boat Congee? That's because it was used to be only available on boats & thus the name. The porridge is full of ingredients e.g. fish, cuttlefish, jelly fish, shredded chicken & garnished with peanuts & fried dough fritters. Simply a comfort food for all times :)

HK Boat Congee

When one hears of the Chicken feet ($3.20), guess you either shy away from it or love it to bits! Haha, I belong to the latter! I love the tangy feeling of the feet (YES!) & especially love this dish when it is steamed with black beans sauce (which makes it salty & spicy at the same time). Not forgetting, this is a dish full of collagen! So you might want to consider revisiting it if U are still not a fan...LOL

Piping hot Chicken feet

The chicken glutinous rice ($3.80) here is a MUST order when we come here. Once you unwrapped the leaf, the fragrance of the rice just oozed out & one simply cant resist biting into it! The rice is soft & bursting with all sorts of flavours due to the ingredients in there. You can find marinated chicken meat, dried shrimps, shredded mushrooms & not forgetting my fav, salted egg yolk (which enhances the whole experience of this dish).

The Chicken glutinous rice

Unraveling the mystery of the chicken glutinous rice ;)

Woo...the chicken, dried shrimps & salted egg yolk

We had the Steamed beancurd skin ($3.80) which we have not tried before & I would say I have mixed feelings about this dish. It came in a bowl with soup & 3 dumpling lookalike. I first tried the soup & it tasted abit sourish (due to the bamboo shoots). The dumpling itself was interesting due to the fact that it uses beancurd skin instead of the usual wantan skin & gave it a tangy feeling. The filling was stuffed with fresh prawns & some minced meat which was tasty! I might order this again if I feel like having the beancurd skin (steamed) instead of the usual fried ones!

Steamed Beancurd skin

It was indeed another good dim sum meal. We have been here couple of times & the food never fails us! Other than the good food, the service here is also commendable which is also one of the reasons why we seem to be coming back so often! (",) 

CANELE

After work on Wed, I met up with Ms STM for dinner & we decided to check out CANELE at Raffles City Shopping Mall. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by a wide array of cakes, macarons, pralines etc. The whole place was nicely done up with mirrors on the wall, elegant choice of furniture & what got Ms STM in awe was the BRIGHT PINK ceiling :)

CANELE!!!

Wide selection of macaroons

Amazing selection of cakes, chocolates, macaroons etc...



Bright Pink Ceiling

We actually had a glimpse of the menu on their website (www.canele.com.sg) before we came down but the menu differs slightly from that of the website. Guess different outlets serve different food.

Check out their outlets! 

The menu is really extensive from appetizers (mainly soup) to salads, main courses, sandwiches, pasta, cakes, crepes, ice cream, tea (there's like more than 10 types of tea to choose from) & other beverages (they were featured as one of the restaurants lately in the papers that serves water filled with vegetables!). We have in mind a pasta, pizza (but they did not carry this here), tea & of course, desserts!!! So being the gluttony adventurous us, we over ordered the....Marinara Spaghettini, Canele Cheese Burger, a pot of Rosy Pink tea, Exotique Crepe & lastly, a Triple Chocolocate Cheesecake. (hehe, to be honest, we were so spoiled for choices!) I took a few peeks of the menu which we took our selection from & so happened the pasta & sandwich we chose were also featured as their main pictures in the menu! What a coincidence! :)

Sandwich menu

Canele Cheese Burger Peek in the menu

Main course selection

Marinara Spaghettini (in the menu LOL)

Crepe menu which we check out the EXOTIQUE

The Rosy Pink tea (is actually filled with rose buds, $5.50) was served first in an exquisite looking teapot with interesting tea cups which says "StresseD = Desserts" LOL! The fragrance was heavenly & it is as though we are in a spa! (Hehe, I guess is a girls' thing!)




The exquisite looking teapot & cup

Rose buds which fills the pot with fragrance!

Interesting analogy found inside the cup! *COOL*

Next up, came the Marinara Spaghettini ($17.50). The portion was just nice and the seafood servings were really generous. I love the texture of the spaghetti as it was springy & yet not too hard. The sauce was abit sourish (cos of the white wine in it) but it made a good match to the seafood (3 mussels, 3 prawns, squids & 1 sizeable scallop) that came along with it. I would like to add that the squids were really well done as it was tender & has none of the overcooked feeling (which I feel is really a test of the chef's culinary skills).

Marinara Spaghettini

When we were half way through the pasta, the Canele Cheese Burger ($15.50) was served. The 1st thought that came to our mind was "Wow, the burger was huge!". It was served with some chips & wild rocket salad. The cheese burger was in my own words "nothing too fantastic". The beef patty could be juicier & the cheese was a little on the dry side. There's definitely better cheese burgers out there (anyway, CANELE is known for their desserts). Nevertheless, we still slurped it all up (which we shouldn't as we were pretty stuffed even before the desserts were here!)

Canele Cheese burger with chips & Wild rocket

Woo...desserts time! We had the Triple Chocolate cheesecake (which was not in the menu, $8). I like how the chocolate blends in with the cheese but I would have preferred it to be slightly more bitter. But..I must say overall, it is definitely not too sweet & thus would still make a good after meal dessert for those who heart their cheesecake & chocolate (a best of both worlds!)

Triple Choc Cheesecake

The finale of this meal is the Exotique crepe (crepe served with banana passionfruit sorbet & thin biscuit crisps, $12.50). I must warn you this is rather on the heavy side (esp after you have just tucked into a pasta, half of a meaty cheese burger, not forgetting a few bites of the chocolatety cake!). The crepe was wonderfully done & this was my 1st time trying the banana passionfruit sorbet & I did have my reservations beforehand. It turned out to be....REFRESHING & the banana gave the passionfruit the sweetness that it lacks so it was an unique & yet perfect combination! :) Woo, I must also give credits to the thin crisps of biscuits served with the crepe, they are crispy & goes very well with the sorbet. 

Exotique Crepe

Check out the banana passionfruit sorbet with the thin crisps

I must confess that we did not finish the cake & crepe as we were overly stuffed! *blushed* Nevertheless, it was indeed a very enjoyable meal & we have agreed that the next time we come, we are just going to stick to 1 main & 2 desserts! LOL...till the next time folks! (",)