Exactly one week after my visit to Su Korean Cuisine near Jurong Bird Park, I went back to The Village for brunch with my special guest star of the day. As the both of us haven’t had dim sum in a long long time, I thought that this would be a good opportunity! We went there on Mothers’ Day and it was really crowded, which came as a surprise to me given its somewhat deserted location. But then again, it’s Mothers’ Day. Thank goodness I made reservations the day before!

It is not my first time at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant. I have been there for their seafood as well as dim sum, on separate occasions of course 😛 I suppose ‘dim sum by day, seafood by night’ would be an apt description here.

Before I proceed, I sincerely apologize for the photos. The lighting in the restaurant was quite yellowish and I struggled with my camera settings before giving up altogether because it’s not nice to make hungry people wait right? Hehe. Also, the presentation of the food was kind of a let-down that day but I believe it was because there were more people than before to cater to. Anyway, please carry on reading because I will tell you why Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant is worth a visit! 😀

Mention dim sum , and inevitably, har gau and siew mai would flash across my mind. For others, it could be char siew bao, chee cheong fun, lo mai gai etc. The har gau or Steamed Shrimp Dumpling (4 for $3.80) is best eaten hot, when the thin translucent skin is soft. I always get a kick out of eating shrimps that are succulent and crunchy.

Har Gau and Siew Mai always go hand in hand. I have been eating dim sum since I was a little girl, and they are the first things that my mum would order every single time. The original Cantonese Siew Mai is usually made out of pork and mushroom, but the Steamed Siew Mai (4 for $3.80) has fish roes on top, which I think is a fairly common sight these days. I believe it will still taste as good, even without the fish roes!

Ahhh.. And now, the Steamed Chicken Claw ($3.20) or better known as Feng Zhua. Many people struggle with this term and out comes Feng Jeow instead, which translates to chicken leg. People who have little or no experience in eating this might be horrified with the number of tiny bones that can be found. I think…..you need to be a good french kisser to be able to wipe this dish clean, only leaving the bones behind 😛 Jokes aside.. This is one of my favorite dim sum dishes and is always in my request list when dining with my family. The chicken feet is marinated in black bean sauce and is slightly spicy at the same time. I only have one word for it, Shiok.

I absolutely love Xiao Long Bao! I shall not reveal how many I can eat in one go, and that’s because I have not eaten at any of the Xiao Long Bao buffets. Not a good idea to become one yourself right? Haha! I swore our faces fell when the Steamed Shanghai Dumpling (3 for $3.20) came. Just as I had mentioned, there were some issues with presentation that day. The dumplings looked flattened. But I would still order this anywhere and everywhere if it is available!

To prove our love for meat dumplings, we ordered the pan-fried version as well. However, the Pan-fried Dumpling with Minced Meat (3 for $3.20) was too oily for our liking. The steamed version is still a much better choice!

Desserts anyone? The Baked Mini Egg Tarts (3 for $3.20) are surprisingly good. I have never thought much about egg tarts but I liked these because of their soft, smooth and flaky crust.

If you have a sweet tooth like me, you would probably enjoy these Banana Ball with Red Bean Paste (3 for $3.80). Each of them is deep fried, with a smooth blend of piping hot banana and red bean paste in it. They would probably taste better if they weren’t that hard.

We didn’t how Steamed Pumpkin Dumplings (3 for $3.20) look like (rather than taste like) so we ordered this out of curiosity. Imagine making mini Jack-o-laterns out of them! Cute right? 🙂 Actually they taste like green bean paste ang ku kueh! Just too cute to be eaten.

And now, for the good news! For those of you who don’t already know, there is an awesome promotion at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant for its dim sum dishes! 50% off from Mondays to Saturdays and 40% off on Sundays and Public Holidays (it used to be 30%)! So, hurray! And I don’t suppose you need to hurry down because this promotion seems to be permanent 🙂

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant
Blk 241 Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim
#01-01 The Village
Tel: +65 6265 8218

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun and Public Holiday
Lunch
11.30am – 2.30pm
Dinner
5.30pm – 10.30pm

Isn’t it amazing how much impact globalization has on our lives? My parents are actually influenced by watching tons of Korean soaps and have come to love Korean food! 😛 I used to watch them over the long holidays and it’s time to do so once again! My previous two visits to Su Korean Cuisine were at Far East Plaza. This time round, my family and I decided to go to the one at The Village, along Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim (near Jurong Bird Park!)

We were given eight different appetizers. Even though there were four of us, it’s really a lot. Of course, I’d strongly advise you to tackle the kimchi first. It’s a must-try. Both sour and spicy, even if you don’t like it, you really have to have at least a mouthful of it. 😛 Psst! Best of all, the appetizers are FOC. (Are you a Singaporean?)

If you don’t wish to get out of the restaurant smelling like you just had a massive BBQ party or something, they have this wonderful option of having the chef barbeque the food for you! We chose the BBQ Pork ($16) and it was served with a generous serving of lettuce.

As observed in most Korean dramas, wrapping the meat with lettuce and then popping it whole into one’s mouth is a popular way of eating Korean barbecue. If you have OCD (I suspect I have a mild case), you can always pick everything up with a pair of chopsticks instead of using your hands. 😀

Wheeee! This this this is my favorite of the lot! If you have watched Goong (Princess Hours), then the Rice Flour Cake ($15) shouldn’t be something new to you! Like the kimchi, it is also sour and spicy but it has a little sweetness to it as well. The texture of the flour cake is chewy yet firm. I really like this dish a lot but it is meant for sharing. If not, I’d have……….

I was surprised upon my first mouthful of the Seafood Pancake ($15) because it tasted like roti prata! I mentioned this to my mum and she agreed with me. But this is a less oily version and expensive too. Haha! Ok the seafood in it explains it all. Another must-order dish!

Yeah like I said, you really have to give kimchi a try if you haven’t done so. I don’t wanna sound like a naggy old woman, but this is the Spicy Kimchi Soup ($14). Lots of veggies and tofu in it.

I think ordering two soup dishes is pure madness but I’d recommend the Ginseng Chicken Soup ($25) to be shared among a group of people.

Really healthy stuff. The rice is stuffed into the chicken.

I’m not entirely sure about this but I reckon that the Rice in Stone Cattle ($16), or more fondly known as bibimbap, ‘claimed to fame’ when the two leads in Full House eat it out of a metal pot fairly frequently in the drama. It is also cost-saving as whatever leftovers from the previous meal such as meat, veggies and rice are thrown in together and mixed before eating.

If only I had known that my parents would be ordering so much food.. But anyway, I have always loved noodles so I’m not really complaining. The Spicy Cold Noodle ($16) is something different because it is eaten cold! I’m very sure that the noodles are definitely not your ordinary tang hoon noodles, but sweet potato starch noodles. There is something about this type of noodles that stands out because of its texture. You have to try it for yourself!

My mum kinda insisted that we all share dessert even though we were extremely full. Haha. Too full to smile, hence this photo would suffice 😛

The Fruti Apple ($8.90) looked too cute to be eaten. The pulp of fresh apple is made into gelato and the outer hard covering is actually milk chocolate and is hand painted!

All in all, it is just ice cream but we were delighted to find a dark chocolate ball which was supposed to be the ‘core’ of the apple. Really cute 🙂

Su Korean Cuisine
241 Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim
#01-03/04 The Village @ Jurong Hill
Tel: +65 6265 1004

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun
11am – 10pm

Hello everyone! I will be away from the 15th to 19th of May. I’d like to think that my holiday destination of choice is a somewhat less commercialized area of Thailand and that place is Krabi! My flight is scheduled to depart Singapore before 7am tomorrow which means I need to check in around 4.30am.

Wish me luck with the diving over there okay? 🙂
I only have 23 dives under my (weight) belt so there are so many things and marine life that I have yet to encounter!

If you’re keen, please check out my dive blog. All photos are taken by me with my trusty Sony DSC T77 Cybershot. 🙂
I intend to export it to wordpress but I’m still figuring out how to.

Alrighty! Gotta go wrap up some last minute stuff and please stay tuned for more reviews coming your way! Hopefully, I’ll be able to dig up some cheap and good eats at Krabi! 😉

XOXO
Charlene

I love ice cream! And as promised, we would go according to our plan! Took a short stroll to Cold Rock Ice Creamery 🙂

Blue.. Blue.. Blue! It’s my favorite color! Just standing outside makes me happy. I’m easily contented you know.

With so many flavours to choose from, you will be spoilt for choice! We decided to share a regular sized cup of ice cream ($6.50). The real headache came when it was time to choose the mix-ins. They have almost everything in here! Of course, we were quick to eliminate the more common ones like M&Ms and rainbow dots. Sorry lil’ ones!

I’m a true blue fan of all things blue so I picked a blue ice cream to chase the blues away! 😀 Ok not that I was feeling blue but I just wanted to test how many ‘blues’ can I fit into one sentence. The blue ice cream is actually Bubblegum flavored. My friend chose the Mint Chocolate. Now now..there’s no need to be green with envy.

Yes we had a pretty hard time choosing the mix-in and finally settled on Rocky Road ($1)! Anyway it was my first time here, and I was wondering what on earth is the person doing to our ice cream, throwing it onto a table instead of handing it over to us! -__- My eyes widened O__O when I finally saw that he was actually mixing everything together! If only sweet and salty popcorn were mixed like this too.. Agree?

If you can dream it, we can ice cream it! Well, they did warn us that it’s best not to mix bubblegum flavored ice cream with other flavors 😛 It’s ok we could still taste the chocolate mint ice cream! And the rocky road is very chewy! 😉 Everybody loves ice cream! Well, at least we do 🙂

Cold Rock Ice Creamery
24A Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Tel: +65 6763 1323

Opening hours:
Mon to Thur
11am – 10.30pm
Fri and Sat
11am – 1am
Sun
11am – 12am

Cha Cha Cha. Catchy right? Well, at least that’s what we thought! So we decided to be spontaneous and just go for it 🙂 Actually, we couldn’t really figure out anything even though descriptions were given in the menu. Almost wanted to walk out. Haha. Everything looked pretty much the same and umm…foreign.. But we were quite gung ho at the same time. Eenie meenie miney moe!

The spontaneous friend surprised me with an order of Cerdo con Salsa Verde ($18). What’s that you ask? I’d like to know too! It’s actually Mexican pork stew served with Mexican rice and flour tortillas. Now how do you eat it? The pork stew is a bit too salty to be eaten on its own. Rice is slightly spicy. So the way to go is to eat it popiah style!

I took quite some time to decide what to have! So must take photo with the food. LOL.

One of the cheaper mains in the menu but it’s so so.. not so so, but so so awesome. I’m kidding you not. The Flauta ($13.50) is basically two pieces of flour tortillas filled with shredded chicken rolled into a shape of a flute, deep fried and topped with mexicana salsa, sour cream and guacamole. What’s guacamole? It’s an avocado-based dip. The shredded chicken was moist and buttery. Even though it’s deep fried, I didn’t find it oily at all. And I loved everything about it. If you ever have lunch or dinner at Cha Cha Cha, please send the Flauta my love.

Really wanted to try the churros but we already had plans for dessert elsewhere. Sometimes, you need to stick to your plans too 😉

Cha Cha Cha Mexican Restaurant
32 Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Tel: +65 6462 1650

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun
11.30am – 11pm

Hello. Don’t worry, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Yes it is the month of May but I visited Three Wombats Cafe during end of April after sitting for one of my papers. Actually I have a few backlogs so please check out my blog every now and then 😉

You know, I had a sudden interest in all things Australian. Be it the Australian Open, scuba diving in Cairns, Australian breakfast or even Wombats. Ok! Are your alarm bells ringing? Because this girl is talking nonsense again! But the message that I wish to bring across to you is, this is an Australian-inspired cafe that serves Aussie breakfast and other mains, as well as an impressively large selection of beverages – coffee, premium teas, smoothies, milkshakes, Italian sodas and even beer!

Coffee art! Simple yet…lovely. You get a cup of coffee and dessert just by forking out an additional $7 upon ordering breakfast or any of their main courses.

The Wombat’s Grilled Chicken ($11.90) is tender and a bit spicy. By the looks of it, it seemed quite oily to me. The portion is kinda huge too.

I wanted to have something from the breakfast selection and the Wombat’s Omelette ($8.90) did not disappoint me! Soft and very slightly runny, there were generous bits of ham and mushroom. If you want to start the day off with tasty and hearty breakfast, look no further!

My friend merely commented that the Peach Cheesecake is nice as the cheese is creamy. As for me, I don’t really like peach..

I figured I better take a photo, eat up the vanilla ice cream before taking a proper shot of my dessert! Food paparazzi.

I don’t have very high expectations for desserts but I wasn’t quite used to the rubbery texture of the Molten chocolate lava cake. Actually, I was quite full but I told myself.. It’s just chocolate! Haha. Yes it’s only chocolate. 🙂 Do I have a weakness? Nope! 😛

Three Wombats Cafe
18 Kim Keat Road

Opening Hours:
Tue to Sun
11am – 11pm
(Closed on Mon)

The study buddy and I had Indonesian fare for dinner! Please note that I use the terms study buddy and friend interchangeably in my blog but it doesn’t really matter. Anyway, going to Indo Padang was a nice change from the usual Western and Japanese food. Initially, we couldn’t decide on where to go after a day of studying at the SMU compound. It started to drizzle when we were walking out and so we seeked shelter at The Cathay.

It’s only logical to go straight to the basement of The Cathay since most of the eateries can be found there. I have good visual spatial skills! Ok I’m talking nonsense as usual. Someone distributed a flyer and that was how we got to know that Indo Padang was offering a 4 course set meal for 2 persons for only $27.90++! A note to Muslim friends! Indo Padang claimed that they serve Halal food but have yet to obtain the certification. Appetizers were served and the white rice is free flow. Too bad I’m not a rice person. I’m a noodle person!

First up, introducing…the Oxtail Soup! It’s full of flavour. Felt so energized after a few spoonfuls! If you don’t take beef, there’s also a choice of Mutton Soup or Soto Ayam.

We were given three choices for the vegetable dish. After reading through the descriptions in the menu, we settled for Sayur Lodeh, which is mixed vegetable cooked in rich coconut gravy. My tolerance for spicy food is pretty high. If I were to put myself into the shoes of others, I think most would find this a teeny weeny bit spicy. The other two choices are Kangkung Belacan and Sayur Nangka.

A toss between Beef Rendang and Mutton Curry. We chose the latter since we already have beef for oxtail soup. The mutton and potatoes were very tender. The entire dish was not overly dry. Curry lovers, you definitely won’t regret this.

Kinda spoilt for choice and the waiter recommended the Grilled Chicken instead of Fried, Rendang or Curry. Tasted a bit sweet! Reminds me of honey glazed chicken wings. Niceeee!

Frankly speaking, it’s quite a spread for two! Awesome food. Awesome company. What more could I ask for? 😉

Indo Padang
2 Handy Road
#B1-19 The Cathay
Tel: +65 6732 1679

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun
12pm – 10pm

I promise you that you will be handsomely rewarded if you drop by Kaafehaus for a cup of coffee or some cakes. Well, you need a straight ruler to measure this. Trust me on that 😉

Kaafehaus was featured in one of the April issues of Mediacorp’s U Magazine. Given the extensive beverage list, you gotta check out this place if you are a coffee lover. It is located at the hall area of haar Attic which happens to be a salon. A great place for people watching I suppose!

I think my friend found the name Flat White ($3.80) pretty amusing, and thus decided to order it. Isn’t it amazing how these people can come up with coffee art?

There were four different types of milkshakes and I almost wanted to try the Walnut and Butterscotch but decided to go for the Rum & Raisin milkshake ($5.80) in the end. Wheeee! I liked it! It wasn’t thoroughly blended so there were bits of raisins in it to chew on.

My friend commented that the Tuna Sandwich ($5.80) is very fresh which is not surprising given that it is prepared on the spot. It makes for a very filling breakfast or lunch too!

I was kinda lost for words when I saw the Chicken Pie ($3.80). It looks ‘deflated’ doesn’t it? Haha.. It tastes pretty normal and I certainly wouldn’t recommend this.

If you need some coffee to perk you up (like I did!), do drop by Kaafehaus! I think this place is relatively new so it probably wants to receive feedback too.

Kaafehaus
91 Bencoolen Street
#01-13 Sunshine Plaza
Tel: +65 6835 9811

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun
12pm – 8.30pm

Ok I know MacDonald’s Cinnamon Melts ($2.60) have been around for quite some time already but I just have to blog about it! Finally tried it last week due to peer pressure (sort of). Ohh anyway this is gonna be another short and sweet post. Pun unintended.

Truth be told, I was actually quite excited because my friend was full of praise for the melts and kinda insisted that I have to try them. 🙂

My heart was pounding and my hands were trembling as I opened the box. I thought that the melts looked like tofu! Seriously! Anyway they looked pretty tempting and upon that first bite, I reckon they kinda taste like MacDonald’s apple pie! The cinnamon melts are especially spongy and if you are one who likes warm desserts, this is definitely for you. Consume it as soon as you get your hands on them because they harden after a while. Do not even think of taking away or getting this through McDelivery ok? Go try the melts and let me know what you think 😉

After being cooped up in a freezing cold study room for hours on end, the last thing you would want is to be having dinner in yet another dining spot where global warming is not a cause for concern. Patio @ Warren provides a very relaxed and laid back setting in that the place is airy and has a nice view of the swimming pool. I’m actually referring to the kiddie pool as the view of the olympic sized swiming pool is obstructed 😛 It is an awesome place to ‘chillax’ and read a book, with the wind blowing in your face.

The menu here has a wide range of items, with breakfast sets served till 11am, local delights such as laksa and beef kway teow, Western and Italian food, and mini woks that claim to serve 2 to 3 pax, but at an average price of $7, I seriously doubt so! Snacks or finger food like potato wedges are also available!

What’s better than slurping Tomyam soup ($7) that warms your insides on a chilly day? It makes one feel so much better immediately! However, it was a tad too salty. Also worth mentioning is that there were only a few pieces of fish prawns and squid rings.

I love noodles. Gimme my noodles and I’m instantly a happy girl. Instant noodles used to work on me when I was a kiddo. Sad to say, I’ve become fussier over the years! The Seafood udon in kung po sauce ($7.50) had a nice spicy zing to it. The prawns were very fresh and crunched with every bite. Thank goodness I’m not one who drinks the gravy off my food!

The Bread and butter pudding ($4.50) sitting in warm vanilla sauce got me excited. Basically, I love this dessert for its custard-like texture 🙂

I have no idea what the Fruit cocktail is doing here. It’s served together with the bread pudding. But you know what? With the aesthetically pleasing chopped up bits of fruits, I believe the fruit cocktail is a good and sure fire way of getting kids started on eating fruits.

Ahhh.. What bliss. Sometimes, we just need a little food therapy after a long day of studying. 🙂

Patio @ Warren
81 Choa Chu Kang Way
1/F Warren Golf & Country Club
Tel: +65 6586 1292

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun
9am – 10pm