Shayray Punjab @ Holland Village

There's always to tell why we go to different places to eat. Why are we here today?

1. An ex-colleague is back from US visiting us and joining us for lunch. (The famous brand with purple corporate color and HQ is at Sunnyvale. Can you guess which company?)
2. The boss is organizing this whole lunch. (and says he is paying for it. haha)
3. We saw outside the restaurant there's a 40% off ala-carte menu.
4. Friday used to be our Indian food day. We love Indian food.
5. Our two other colleagues who does not take Indian food's on leave too.

5 reasons should be enough right? Reason number 3 is the best of all!

There's totally no one inside when we arrived and no one else when we left. It's as if we practically booked the whole place for our own private function! But we were glad though. The food's quite nice.





When we got seated, we were served assortment of papadams. There's 2 dips to go with it. One that is minty and another that is like sweet jam. They all go very well together.




There was I think 10 of us having lunch and we ordered a LOT of food. We had them with an assortment of naans. They were all very good, especially the butter and garlic ones.




We had two plates of the Punjabi Fish Masala. They were really fragrant when it was served. Well marinated and it sure was tasty.




We also had their tandoori chicken. Almost everyone liked it. It was moist and quite flavourful. 

(By the way, anyone know if Tandoori is suppose to be moist, or is it suppose to be dry as served in most places? We like it moist and we wondered if it's authentic to be moist? It's a bit confusing because so many other places do it dry that it has become de facto to be dry and we don't like it.)




This is one of the 5 of 6 bowls of different dishes with gravy that we had. There was the Punjabi Prawn Masala, Punjabi Fish Masala, and a few others. By the way, it all looks the same! So I just took 1 photo of it. ;-p

You sure can eat lots of naans with these curry. We were were literally polishing our plates that was filled with the sauces till they were 'shiny' with the naans!




One of the vegetable dishes we had. The Aloo Gobi Matar. It's cauliflower, peas and potatoes. Vegetable taste good this way.
(Our boss has gout and he still ate cauliflower! Boh Kia Si ah!!)




The Palak Paneer. The creamy spinach dish with cottage cheese.
I like this.




This is Bhindi Masala.
We called it ladies fingers, the US colleague calls it okra. Same same lah right?




Oh, if you are here and want to eat a single dish, the 10 of us says we will come back to just eat this Kashmiri Pulao. It's Basmati rice with sundried fruits, almond and cashew nuts. It tasted very good! (especially with the different masala gravy and tandoori chicken!)




It was a nice lunch. The total bill was I think about $180 after the 40% discount. Thanks to the boss for the lunch treat!

We think it's worth it after the discount. ;-) If not, it will be quite expensive per person. Think the discount is only applicable for lunch.


Shayray Punjab Restaurant
25 Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Singapore 277698

Tel: 64689126

TCC - the coffee connoisseur @ Isetan Scotts

I was at Novena helping out someone with some focus group thingy and sis was collecting some Isetan vouchers (some Isetan store card members promotion).  I met up with sis after my focus group thingy was done. She was waiting for me at TCC.

I have not really had 'meals' at TCC, it's usually 'drinks'. But since we were there, might as well have dinner there. There's some promotion that if you order a meal, you get a free drink. Sounds like a good deal eh? (She ordered a drink and we saw that we could 'make her drink free' if we ate there. LOL)


So sis ordered the Seafood Aglio Olio. Sis was happy and satisfied with her meal.
(Aglio Olio at most places pleases her!) I tried some, it was not bad!




I opted for an open sandwich. This is the Beef D'luxe. I think it looks very pretty!
I liked it. It looks pretty doesn't it? The pear arranged in a star.



It was juicy. Sis took some and she liked it too.
I think they did something really clever. The piece of bread below was toasted and it stayed crunchy. The 'wet' ingredients did not soak in because of the lettuce! How clever.




Oh yes, we noticed something too. Whatever you ordered come out looking as it is in the menu! We happen to sit at an angle that you can see the kitchen. They have photos of how each dish looks on the wall! (Those of you who are frequent customers, am I right?)


When we walked out, we realise something! What we ate was exactly what was in the promo poster outside! Hmmm... Did we subliminally got influence to order what we ordered? Hmmm....



TCC - the coffee connoisseur @ Isetan Scotts
350 Orchard Road
Level 2 Isetan Scotts Shaw House
Singapore 238868

Tel : 62355622
Hours: 10am to 9.30pm daily

Scotts Beef Noodles @ ION Orchard

I know I am a bit late. Scotts Beef Noodles has re-opened for sometime now and I have not eaten it.

I remember I used to eat it every other Sunday afternoon when it was at Scotts Picnic Food Court.
(that must be 10 over years ago!)




After so long, I still ordered the same thing!
The "Dry Set" meal. The sliced beef with the gooey sauce.




And the beef balls in the soup.




A good great mix and it's ready to be eaten.




Hmm... I am not sure if age has caught up. It's not as nice as I remember it to be.
I also noticed there was no calamansi for me to squeeze anymore? Is that why the taste was not familiar anymore?


Scotts Beef Noodles
Food Opera (Basement 4 Food Court)
ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Singapore 238801

5 Star Chicken Rice @ Cheong Chin Nam Road

It seems we come here for Chicken Rice every Lunar New Year! Relatives who loves Singapore chicken rice are visiting again and here we are at the same place every year. This place has air-con and it can fit in a huge group of us!

Oh, this year they have Yu Sheng. But errrr.. the ones here not so nice lah. Can give it a miss. :-p




We are here to eat chicken. Steamed Chicken.....




Or Roast Chicken... we like them all..




Of course we need to have vegetables....




Another plate of vegetables....





Some other side dishes as well....
The sea cucumber and mushroom dish.




Some Hainanese Pork Chops.




And other parts of the chicken! The chicken feet in thai chilli sauce.




The innards of the chicken too!




Yeah, if you see doubles, yes, they are doubles..




Somehow eating chicken rice is so very satisfying. Don't you think so?
Everything else taste quite good, except for the Yu sheng. :-)


Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice
6/7 Cheong Chin Nam Road
Singapore 599731

Birthday Party - Swensen's Ice Cream Cake & Domino's Pizza

Recently, my sis organised a birthday party for an 8 year old at our home. The boy is the youngest son of a member of the choir that sis conducts. The boy likes to come to our place. (to play Nintendo Wii. He has a set at home too, but always loses to his older brothers, so he wants to play with us who are not so good, so can always win! haha)

The little boy invited a few friends over and their parents over as well. It was a Wii Party. The main attraction was Wii Fit!

The little boy knows what he wants to the birthday cake. So sis ordered the cake as specified by the boy. A Winnie the Pooh Ice Cream cake from Swensen's. It's a huge ice cream cake!




It's a very easy to organise party. Kids love pizza and so the birthday boy and his brother used sis' netbook to order the pizza they want. We ordered from Domino's since we live near to one!

We were glad we ordered from Domino's. Their pizza arrived very fast and it was nice!
I think this is called Extravaganzza. I like this one.




The Hawaiian Paradise. I had a small slice of it, it was good too.




The Classic Pepperoni. Hmm kids eat pepperonis now? That's cured pork beef salami right?
You are constantly surprise by kids nowadays!




This is so so 'wrong'. You know what they ordered?
It's a half-half. (Sis told us, had to pay extra for half-half) It's half vegetarian and half meat!

It's Very Veggie with Meatzza! I laughed when I saw this.




The kids sure enjoyed themselves picking what they want to eat.
The Garlic Cheese Onion Rings. This is so so lah...



They also had two packs of wings. This is the BBQ Wing.

The other pack is the Hot & Spicy Wings. Oh, that one is full of vinegar and the kids said yuks! when they put it in their mouth. LOL... Their parents have to finish it.

We got an advice for another kid (I think he's only 6) in the party. He said, Pizza from Domino's is nice, but their chicken wings are horrible. You want chicken wings, order from Pizza Hut. Is it true?




The Cinnastix. This is ok, very cinnamon-ish, but very oily too! Look at the box!




This is the Breadstix. So so, for carbo lovers only! (I am not a huge fan of it haha)




The Twisty bread. I was too full, enjoyed eating the pizza I did not touch this at all! I wonder how it tasted!




It was a fun time with the little kids. All the carbo was burnt off while playing Wii Fit!

My colleagues have been saying Domino's pizzas are nice. I guess it's true!

The other day, on the 2nd day of CNY, Momo ordered Domino's. Their delivery took 1.5 hours to arrive and guess what, their pizza was free!


Ice Cream Cake from Swensen's Holland Village.
251 Holland Avenue, Singapore 278981
Tel: 6467 1825

Domino's Pizza from Domino's Bukit Timah.
8 Chun Tin Road, Singapore 599595.
Tel: 6222 6333

Lunar New Year Lunch @ Guild House

This was today's lunch. It's our company's annual lunch. Many companies organise "dinner and dance" at the end of the year, but for ours, we always have our Chinese New Year Lunch.

The lunch is usually held on the 7th day of the Lunar New Year. But since the 7th day is on a Saturday this year and we don't work on Saturdays, the lunch was held on the 6th day instead. (i.e. today). The 7th day of the Lunar New Year is known as Everyone's Birthday. We usually celebrate our birthday with everyone in the organisation. :-)


The first dish was the Salmon Yu Sheng.




It seems all the tables have a double plate of salmon. (yey!). Probably to have a 'hao zhao tou' (auspicious)?

That's the server preparing the 'ceremony' for us.




Sorry sharks. But it was not me who ordered this.We ate it because we did not want you to die in vain.
The Braised Shark's Fin with Crab Meat and Golden Mushroom.




When it says crab meat in the menu, there's real and not fake crab meat inside!




The Poached Live Prawns with Chinese Wine.
This was good! Fresh prawns always taste good!




We had Steamed Live Soon Hock Hong Kong Style as the next dish.
Steamed fish always taste good. But we realised that it's two small Soon Hock instead of 1 big one.

Are they saving money ordering smaller fish? Or good things always comes in pairs? :-p




The Roast Duck was next.
Nice roasted duck! Not too fatty too! Everyone wallop it all up instantly!




For the 'vege' dish, we had the Braised Shell Abalone and Bailing Mushroom with Seasonal Vegetables.

You know something? I think cooked lettuce is nice! Some vegetables that we usually have it raw taste nice cooked. (Same with cucumber! Stir fry cucumber with eggs taste good too!)




This dish is to stuff people up if they are still not full at this stage of the lunch.
We were already quite full!

It's Fried Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage. After frying it, it becomes super super sticky!




Super sticky so that we won't say anything bad about the bosses for the coming year? hehe....
I like it. Sticky but it was tasty.




After sticking our mouths, we are served sweet desserts.
Chilled Mango Cream with Sago.




Here's to all readers who have followed my food diary a very "Sweet Year ahead!".
May everything you do, be as smooth as this mango cream too!




Not sure who prepared the food.
Lunch was held at the NUSS Guild House ballroom. (So many tables it looks like a wedding feast)
We guess it's probably done by the Scholar Chinese Restaurant situated at the Guild House.

Jumbo Seafood @ Dempsey Hill

This was dinner at Jumbo Seafood. One of the many Chinese New Year meals.
Everyone in the family must have put on lots of weight!


This is Jumbo's version of Yusheng.





The fun part of Yusheng must be the tossing!
Come to think of it, if we did not have the 'bowls of oils and sauces' and crackers, it would have been very healthy. But would it be nice without them?

We want the 'smooth sailing year' (soon soon li li, i.e. bowl of oil) and 'sweet and happy' (tian tian mi mi, i.e, bowl of sweet plum sauce) and 'golden nuggets all over' (huang jin man tang, i.e, crispy crackers).   LOL





We had asparagus stir fried with garlic.
It was quite nice. Light and crunchy.





This is the Salted Egg Golden Prawns.
Seafood cooked with salted eggs all taste good right?





The scalloped in mini yam rings.
Fluffy crispy outer layer, a layer of yam and a scallop centre. Ooo... indulgence for yam lovers.




We had their seaweed tofu before and we liked it and we ordered it again.
This time it looked a bit different. We still like it though ;-)




A steamed fish because everyone loves fish in our family.
Also it bears a nice name! Nian nian you yu. :-)




We saw on the menu some specials, and we ordered them.
This is the Prosperity Chicken that's stuffed with goodies like conpoy, winter mushroom and bamboo shoots. It was good!

But we noticed it's cooked and served in an aluminum pot. Would we get Alzheimer's?
Never mind, we don't eat this all the time.




The other special was the deep fried pork knuckles.
Not too bad too! Certain parts that are thinner is a bit dry, but the other parts were nicely done. We know it's a big knuckle, so it's expected.




Wishing all of you a very Blessed, Happy and Prosperous Lunar New Year!



Jumbo Seafood @ Dempsey
11 Dempsey Road
#01-46
Singapore 249673

Tel: 6479 3435
Web: www.jumboseafood.com.sg