Yummy!

Matcha Oreo!! Yummy....
Depletion of my Tokyo trip's stash :S

Visit to Fruit Paradise@ Orchard Central

Decided to pop by this new mall along Orchard Rd yesterday for a look see yesterday.
Hmm, looks like a nice building to get lost in. Oh and let's not get to the number of escalators that are in this mall!
They are EVERYWHERE!! They also have ultra high express ones that get you between 4 floors in a jiffy. (but a pain if you happen to get on a wrong one and want to get off at some floor in between)
Anyways, one of the reasons for the visit was to try out Fruit Paradise, the japanese pie cafe which i had read about. Oooh, the pies in the display are really pretty and remind me much of the ones I had seen in japan. Yummy!!

Quite a few flavors to choose from...


Decided to go for the blueberry one as it had a custard filling. Some of the others were just filled with cream, lots of it! (eeeks :S)
Verdict: Yummy! The pie crust was good and crunchy. And the custard filling was good and the fruit toppings were fresh too. But if you hate cream... or on a major diet, hahaha, maybe you should try some place else. :P
And good place to rest your feet (its a plus if you get the seats at the further end coz there's the window view and more privacy.)

Cookies! :)

Its been a long time since I last baked, and over the weekend while i was cleaning my bookshelf, I saw my 500 cookies book and knew I just had to make something! :)

And I picked the white choc chip and cranberry cookie to make....
my baking skills are a slight bit rusty(was a bit slow and goofed up with the timing) but i guess with a bit more polishing up they'd be ok!

Yummy! :)

Break

A nice sunny day for a break!
Sometime last week, we decided to take off from work and head out for a bit. :)

So we headed off to Ikea for lunch and also to pick up some stuff for the home there. Its great going to Ikea on a weekday coz it can be quite a nightmare on weekends with the crowds, especially in the Ikea cafe.

Lunch! Yummy! :)
After lunch I though it'll be a pity if we didn't head outdoors since the weather was looking great. So we headed for the beach, to polish up on my cycling skills. Hehehe, I may have forgotten to mention that I had just picked up cycling a few weekends ago. Before that I had never thought that one day I'd be able to balance, much less get anywhere on 2 wheels! But a few lessons and some wobbles later, i managed to get a hang of it! :D
So anyway, we rented our bicycles and cycled along the beach. Its was quite fun and also nice that there were not many people there either! :P
Spotted these large sand castles at the beach...


Hmmm, maybe I should consider staying in to work on the weekends and go out on the weekdays! Ha! That'll mean a 2 day work week?? Well, once in a while, we all can dream and build our imaginary castles too can't we? :P

Shokudo- Japanese Coffee House

Walked past and saw seats available so we decided to try this place for dinner at bugis.
I like looking at menus that have yummy looking desserts on it and Shokudo's menu sure looks good!

I had the curry rosti as i was looking for something softer to eat, (due to my tooth extraction 2 days before) and it turned out quite good.

Mr D had the Katsu Omu rice which was also not bad.

I enjoyed dessert best! :P I always do!! hehe, we had the tofu cheese cake. Boy, it was yummy! :)

Yummy thai dinner

Checked out Jai Thai at Clover Way yesterday for dinner after reading about it on www.hungrygowhere.com
Man was it a good find! Authentic yummy thai food with no crowds and what's more at an affordable price! Its pretty out of the way though, and we sorta took a wrong turn along the way but managed to get there in the end.
We each ordered one of the set meals. (I got the pineapple rice set and Mr D got the fried olive rice set)

For under $8, i think it was a vy good deal. It even comes with dessert of the day(we got steamed tapioca and coconut sauce) and a drink. *slurp*
Mr D says he'll not be stepping into Thai Express for sometime now. :P Definately will be back to Jai Thai again! :)

Sunset Grill

Sunset Grill
140B Piccadilly, Seletar Air Base,
East Camp (Near Singapore Flying Club)
Tel: 6482 0244

Ok this is a back post :P
Few weeks back we finally made it to Sunset Grill again.
(I was wondering if the place was still standing, since there are plans to develop that area.)
It'll be a real pity though if it were to go, coz there are not many of such places left in Singapore that have these colonial bungalows, rustic feel and roads with no lamp posts. (not sure the last point is a good thing or not :P)
But anyhow, it was a nice feeling driving into the peaceful area once again after so long, marred by the fact that this time, you can see construction work going on in some areas already. :S

Ordered the caesar salad, which was a huge portion! I like how the dressing is so evenly distributed onto every leaf.

And of course the house favorite, buffalo wings. We're not large chilli fans, so we went for just level 1, which i find is just nice. (think level 30 is the max, and i think you may need the fire brigade for that!)

Mr D ordered a Chili con carne. First time trying this here. Not bad, bit spicy... and yummy garlic bread! (wish there was more :P)

We opted for the indoor seating as we didnt fancy donating blood while having dinner! (those mozzzzzzies:( it rained earlier lah) I think the places has an old charm still. Hope it stays around for a while more.

After dinner we took a walk around. Not very far lah, as it was pretty dark already. Came across this graphic on the road. Ok, i've seen arrows, bicycles and footprints on roads, but this is the first time I got to see an aeroplane graphic! hahaha:P

Haiz, another reason why this place should stay.


saw this parked outside one of the aircraft hangers there on the way out.
Hmm, nice evening....wonder when we'll be back.

Hong Kong trip Day 5

More rain! But luckily in a much lighter form.
We decided to stay in the Mongkok area as we were leaving HK in the afternoon.
Went to Fa Yuen Street again as I had to get pastries from the old bakery to bring back. Along the way we passed by the goldfish market.




I saw this cute pom patiently waiting for its master to finish breakfast. How cute! I think I saw the 2 of them(old man and dog) a few days before walking in the market. :)
What a good doggie!
Caught the hotel's airport shuttle to the airport and took in the last few sights of Hong Kong from the bus. Something about their dense living fascinates me...mish mash of apartments, old and new, packed closely together.




While waiting for our plane back, spotted some mascot planes... :)


And for my in-flight meal back, I had the beef noodle set. Must say that its not bad... :P

Hong Kong trip Day 3

OK so here are some day 3 pics.
Hmmm, day 3 seems like a super long day. we went to many places but i think I shall blog it as a good food day! hahaha. (coz think we had lots of it on this day)
we started out at the Mongkok area and visited the flower market. too bad its all see and no buy! heheh, they bouquets are so nice and reasonably priced!
Saw a cute corgi walking along the market.. so cute! :) I like corgis.

After the flower market, we headed to the nearby shopping street (fa yuen st, my fav)

and also went to the pastry shop there and got some munchies. :P After shopping, we headed for our 'yum cha' meal at Langham Place. This was like the highlight for the day. My sis had read about Ming Court's popularity and we decided to try it out and it was GOOOD!! :P
Ming Court, Langham Place Hotel
Level 6, Langham Plach Hotel,
555 Shanghai Street Mong Kok
We had:

Pan fried radish cake

Salmon and cheese tarts

Pan fried mushroom stuffed buns

Steamed rice rolls with scallop and green beans

Steamed sliced chicken with dates and herbs

Xiao long bao (soup filled steamed dumplings)

Pan fried vegetable buns

Just couldn't resist ordering the steamed custard buns! And no regret about this one at all! :P Best I ever had!
After the super satisfying meal, we decided to head down to HK island as the weather was looking good. (we were lucky.. there was a 90% chance of rain that day , or so the forecast said)
We heard of some shops round the wan chai area and decided to check them out. also heard of Xi Yan Sweets there, which had good desserts. Hahhaa, ok, so we have sweet tooths! :P And by the time we got to Xi Yan, we had already walked lunch off.
Xi Yan Sweets
1 G/F 8 Wing Fung Street, Wan Chai

There was only another table that was taken when we got there, so we mostly got the place to ourselves. Nice red. white and black decor. All the items on the menu sounded so good that we took some time in deciding what we should order.

My mom preferred to stick to more traditional desserts and ordered the lotus seed soup. :)

My sis, being a big lover of anything with osmanthus, went with the lychee ice cream with osmanthus wine and enjoyed every bit of it.

I had the apple crisp ice cream. The sourish taste of the apples was a refreshing difference from the sweet caramel. Yummy!
Mr D went for the tea set which had the option of an appetizer and a dessert.

He had the fried radish patty with XO sauce and had the

signature dumplings in ginger soup, which really blew us away! Most unique and best 'tang yuan' we've ever had with a peanut, sesame, salted egg yolk, sugared melon bits and butter filling. Slurp! This was the winner of the meal!

Happy and satisfied faces :P (mom was camera shy and declined to be photographed :P)
Another good gastronomical experience!

We spent the rest of the day walking around causeway bay area where I happily took more pics of passing trams.