Sunday, December 31, 2006

Villa Bali

With a count down party that never happened at indulgz and a disappointing count down on a cab, Lionel and i proceeded over to join fishy and her friends at Villa Bali...



I ordered a frangipani at Fishy's recommendation....



it tastes abit like shirley temple, tastes really good! Lionel agrees.

Lionel had a bloody mary...



I tried it as well.. its got salt over the rim and it tastes a bit like spicy tomato juice... but i like it! YUM~

some pics i took around the place....







Had a really good time at Villa Bali.

Indulgz Bistro

We were deciding between going over to Desire or Indulgz for countdown dinner and party. Indulgz had told us they are full but just when Lionel called Desire to give his card details for reservation, Indulgz called back saying they can give us a seat. So we opted for Indulgz.

Indulgz Bistro is located at Tan Quee Lan Street..



looking into the restaurant, it didnt appear to be as crowded as what we were under the impression that it would be... like how they said they were full and all...



the interior was decorated with lotsa balloons, probably for the party later....



the interior...



Their menu....



food wise, our orders were as follows....

i had a potato and garlic soup ($4.50)...



it was described as " a creamy soup made with real potatoes. Topped with homemade crunchy croutons ". It is a cream based soup but i wun say its creamy. The garlic tasted a bit raw. Taste wise it was just ok. Croutons were not crunchy though.

Lionel ordered the White Gazpacho (which happened to be the other soup on the menu that caught my interest as well.. hehe).. costs $4.90...



the descriptions on the menu got me interested.. " A unique chilled soup, created by our Chef. Especially appetising... "after trying Lionel's soup, i told him i think i have no complains about my soup at all. To me, his soup tasted like chilled mashed cucumber (fishy, maybe u as a buang kuang lover will like it la) and i didnt like it at all. I dun think Lionel particularly liked it either but i was sure glad i didnt order it coz i think for me it would be a torture if i hafta finish it. But of coz, taste is subjective, maybe i just duno how to appreciate it. U may like it.

We also ordered a tangy raspberry salad ($7.80)..



Basically, the picture says it all. Even about the taste. There is nothing more to imagine. Its just salad with raspberry sauce. One thing i noticed was how the egg didnt look fresh and it was badly peeled. I could see alot of uneven peels and holes on the egg white. I probably won't order this item again.

and of coz, the item that we came here for... Deep Fried Camembert Cheese with Berry Compote ($9.90)...



the berry compote....



the cheese oozing out....



a couple more pics of it...





this cheese wasnt disappointing. it may not be as exceptional as we imagined it to be but it didnt disappoint us. I like this item. The cheese has mild saltish and bitter-ish taste (the kind dats also available in blue cheese dat i like). This is probably the only item that we had today that was satisfying.

and because our rest of the meals didnt have anything really meaty, we ordered a chicken bites with tangy sauce. I wanted this coz i koe the chicken on my crispy pasta later is gonna be breast meat. This item costs $5.50....



another view of it...



the chicken was not juicy. Not that its very dry but its not juicy or tender which is a disappointment for me since its thigh meat. The taste was not good... not that its lousy but its not good. All in all, i didnt like it. The sauce was pretty alright though. Its a bit sweet and sour kind i guess. But haha.. it had coriandor which didnt work well with Lionel. Once he tried it and went .. " ack! Coriandor! " and his whole face wrinkled together.... while he reached out for his hoe garden to wash down the coriandor and he went.. " theres coriandor in it and i cannot be wrong about it " hahahhaha

next up was our mains. I had the crispy pasta which was one of the speciality of this place. Costs $14...



it came with a layer of cream sauce below layered with the crispy pasta and the cream chicken breast meat and mushrooms....





the pasta by itself was just a crispy layer without much taste by itself... I was telling Lionel dat it tastes somewhat like the crispy noodle we get from zee char stalls. Lionel tried it and said he prefers the cream sauce they offer here to zee char stalls. Haha.. i personally dont think much of this dish and i think if u've not tried it, u arent missing out much on anything. But that is just my opinon, u may like it but i felt very unsatisfied with my dinner as of this point. It felt that aside from the cheese, i could have saved my money and not order any of the other things.

Lionel pointed out to me on the menu that he thought it was nice that they had options for people to have some add-ons for their pasta..

Flower Squids - $3.20.. Chicken - $2.50.. Tiger Prawns - $3.20 blah blah blah... i agreed it was nice to have those options but when i saw chilli flakes - $0.50 .. i told Lionel.. " now that's not very nice.. 50 cents for chilli flakes!i thot its supposed to be free! ".. Lionel luffed and said.. " well, i wun choose that as an add on " hahhaa

Lionel ordered the butterfish steak which was another one of their speciality...



its served with a mango sauce...



one thing that most of my friends would know is, i don't like mango so i cant comment about the sauce. as for the fish.. i guess i cannot understand whats so special about it to be chosen as a speciality.

another view of the fish...



while lionel and i agreed that its not lousy, we dont find it exceptional. I think comparatively i would prefer my good old dory. And i think for a dish like this, it doesnt justify the price of $19.80.

For dessert, i had a panna cotta ($5.20)...



portion was good! It didnt taste like panna cotta especially not in terms of texture. Panna cotta i've tried were all more firm while this is very watery and lionel described it as wobbly....



but, while it didnt taste like the usual panna cotta i've tried, this dessert is good. It was nice.. second to the cheese, this is the second item dat satisfied me for dinner tonight. It had a strong vanilla taste.. quite milky but its was yummy drinking it spoon to spoon.

Lionel went for the brownie....



after tasting it for one bite, i didnt really wana touch it again until Lionel asked me to help to try finish it and i thought abt it for awhile trying to describe what i dun like about it and i said.. " dun want... it is not nice " haha.. and Lionel decided he would just finish the ice cream... " i'll just finish the ice cream den" and sooo.... we didnt finish it.

By the time we were almost done with dinner, it was around 9 plus.. half the restaurant has left...



it got us kinda worried.. hmm.. theres supposed to be a party later and from the webby we're expecting there to be around 80 people! We thought ok, maybe more people will be coming later.

Soon, even the last table (aside from us) left and the staff started to pack up for the party later.... clearing all the tables and chairs....



While Lionel was having his smoke break outside the restaurant, we finally saw this group of people also waiting to go in (we thought, heng ah... maybe there really are more people coming). The staff informed saying the party will start at 10.30 pm but they are running a bit late so they are still packing. While they were packing, we heard the group saying they are leaving and will go heading elsewhere instead. Lionel and myself sweatdrop coz it appears that aside from us, it didnt seem like there were other people there for the party aside from their few staff which makes up to about 4 - 5 of them. But we waited anyway.

and the staff continued to arrange the area for the count down party as the clock as tickling towards midnight....



the food items they had...





We didnt try any of it coz we were pretty full from dinner and very honestly, they did not look yummy to us. Lionel pointed out that they were all flour... haha...

We did attempt to check with the staff whether if they really had people coming or maybe they could give us a figure or something. They just kept telling us that there would be people coming but they cant tell how many. They just said their regulars are coming down. And as we waited, i just got more and more disappointed coz i really want a good count down this time round. I even promised not to be so particular about count down come next year. We tried walking down Liang Seah Street only to find it also pretty quiet.

Back at Indulgz, the staff had all changed into party clothes and....... we continued to wait. We had thought of going off but at that hour, it was too late to get anywhere.

I was really quite disappointed. I had alot of anticipation inside me built up for this countdown and having chose Indulgz was in hope of a good satisfying dinner followed by a good count down.

Den.... 2 guys arrived! We felt some hope! Followed by another 2. And it appears that they were all friends of the staff working there. By 11.45 pm, i decided its not going to happen. We left the place and i didnt get the count down party i anticipated for.

I don't think its the staff fault either... i mean i dun think they set up the place in anticipation for nobody. But i think i would haf appreciated if they could honestly tell us the figure or at least come over to tell us about it nearing the countdown time. Reflecting back, i felt like we waited on like dummies. I didnt appreciate that.

9 Tan Quee Lan Street, #01-01, TQL Suites Singapore 188098
Tel: 6238 7032

Fax: 6238 6267

mail: enquiry@indulgz.com


Operations Hours:
Tue-Sun 11am-2pm, 630pm-11pm until further notice
Closed every Monday, except for special occasions

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Tanjong Rhu Pau

Uncle sq and Ooi also packed a pox of bao from Tanjong Rhu Pau...



pictures of the pau...

Rochor Beancurd

After our mahjong games, was craving for beancurd so uncle sq and Ooi went to get them back...

From Rochor!



they have one of the smoothest beancurd ever!



Mmmmmmmm..

Friday, December 29, 2006

Guan Yin Wang

We were sitting around having donuts when we happened to talk about the very expensive tea from Szechuan Court yesterday and mum went into the kitchen and came out with these...



ok, yes its a total mismatch be it the pot, the cups or the big metal plate acting as a tray. haha

And we were all like.. eh.. chinese tea? We dont have the habit of drinking chinese tea actually but since mum prepared, we drank anyway since we were all so full. Some tea would probably help.

At first sip, i thought maybe its coz i just had sweet donuts so i tried it again. This chinese tea had a VERY sweet aftertaste! It doesnt taste sweet but the aftertaste is really sweet! And its very fragrant. And because its a small teacup, the few of us just kept refilling!

Got mum to tell us what brand of chinese tea it is. Mum said its Tie Guan Yin and they got it from some bak kut teh store along Sembawang (not sure where myself).

The packaging is like this...



its so so good!



Probably the BEST chinese tea i've ever had. Oh.. the above was the sporting ping jie jie who posed for me. hehe..

Happy Pay Steamboat

its along 2 Tan Quee Lan Street...



its buffet style, $16.80 per adult. I think the weekend pricing is $19.80. Soup is an additonal $10 per pot. Initially i thot it would come up to be quite expensive but i think effectively its almost Xian De Lai's pricing.

We chose a soup base of Tom Yam and Corn Pork Rib soup....



initially, before the meal, i felt that the Tom Yam soup was quite smelly. But after they started cooking, i didnt smell the smelly smell anymore. I didnt try the tom yam side (dont usually take spicy stuff) but ah yee and ping jie jie said that their tom yam soup base was pretty good.

The meats, prawns, sliced fish and golden mushrooms were to be ordered on paper and delivered to us while the rest of the items were self-service to be collected from a corner.

Ping jie jie took this first plate of items...



the meat we ordered...



the meat is all very very thinly sliced. And because of the colour, we couldnt quite tell which is which. So in the end, i thot the pork was beef and it was really nice. For the other steamboat places, i usually wun eat the pork or chicken coz i think they are usually very tough.

the fish, golden mushroom and prawns..



pig liver, wanton and yam..



of coz they have a number of other items but i failed to take pictures of.

Half way through the meal, we were requested to shift seats to allow two tables to be joined for a bigger group. After the previous bad experience at Tao's, i was actually quite skeptical and uncomfortable about having to change seats. But we changed anyway its only nice to let the bigger group have a seat fast.

But Happy Pay surprised us by offering a complimentary jug of chrysanthemum in appreciation of our change of seats...



i think the staff here handled it much better than the previous Tao's experience.

Donut Factory

B1 - 61 RAFFLES CITY SHOPPING CENTRE

250 NORTH BRIDGE ROAD

Singapore 179101

T +65 6337 6268 F +65 6291 0236

info@donutfactory.com.sg



Thinking that i'd get better luck at noon time, i went over to Raffles City only to see a long queue of people. The server lady was again coming out to inform that they are coming up with a new batch but she cant be sure if by the time it reaches to the back we can get any donuts....



Was informed that they way they process the orders are such that they will process the donuts according to flavour. They have a total of 15 flavours so flavour 1 (which usually is the glazed) will be made first. So those who are at the counter will be able to decide if they want the first flavour or not and if they want the first flavour, how many etc. Den when flavour 2 comes out, they again get to decide if they want the flavour, how many etc. Its a pretty slow and tideous process be it for the servers or the customers (in my view).

Not sure but i thought maybe it would be better if they get people to write down their orders and pay first den let people walk around before coming by to collect. The servers were all really nice and polite though.

I kinda queued for about 30 mins before i managed to complete my box...



the missing flavours from the box includes spicy cheese (not available), apple cinnamon (i don't like think i'll like it), orange white chocolate (don't think i'll like it) and double chocolate (didnt manage to wait long enuff).

Another view of my box of 12...



If i recall correctly...

................Glazed......Assorted
1 Donut ....... $1.10 ........... $1.20
Box of 6 ....... $5.50........... $6
Box of 12 ..... $11............... $12

Im not very sure of the pricing but if i recall correctly, should be as per above!

A closer up of the assorted donuts....



The hazelnut milk chocolate, in xinying's view, is not very nice. I found it alright but i agree that the chocolate is not chocolate-y enuff.

The strawberry white chocolate, in xinying's view was quite nice. I found it not bad as well. Its actually very similiar to the white strawberry heart except that the white strawberry heart is of a cute heart shape and has strawberry jam in the middle that oozes out while the strawberry white chocolate is round and without.

The glazed one as what i said, may look boring but is actually really good!

The cheese tartar was one of the ones that i really wanted to try. Its the creamy kinda cheese but the cheese taste is not very strong. It reminds me of a milder, without ham kerrigold cheese spread.

and a few other assorted flavours....



The kaya white was alright but the white chocolate kinda overpowers the kaya. The kaya was not the very fragrant kinda kaya but overall it still tasted alright. Most importantly i guess is that the donut part for all the donuts were ALL SOFT and fluffy!

the lotus mocha was some coffee flavour which didnt go well with me but u may like it.

the peanut dark chocolate.. well, it feels boring (to me). In fact to me, i prefer the glazed one to the peanut dark chocolate but of coz, taste is subjective.

didnt try the blueberry glazed. Dad had it.

and more....



the wasabi cheese one had this cheesy wasabi thingy in the middle. Doesnt go for me coz i don't like wasabi in the first place.

the peanut butter glazed one is one of my personal favourite! I had this one my way to work so it was still warm...



yes... do u see the peanut butter oozing out? Yummilicious!!

and i got 2 of the strawberry white hearts. One for ah yee and one for myself. Ah yee sounded so excited when she saw the heart shaped donut yesterday ! heh.. i also had one on my way to work and i tell u, the strawberry jam inside was OOzing out! Because its jam, it oozed out even more aggressively den the peanut butter one...



and see what i mean by the strawberry jam would aggressively ooze out?



haha.. thats ping jie jie who doesnt want to show her face. lol

another shot of the donuts...



and when i got to work, i gave cynthia and xinying the box of 6 i got. too bad Ferlyn was on leave....


Now that i've tried most of the flavours, i guess im willing to wait till the queues of this place gets shorter (or preferably no queue) before wanting to buy it again. Queues kinda puts me off.