Choupinette @ Bukit Timah Road

It's been some time since we came to Choupinette, and a few friends thought that we should do lunch here. It must be a great day to come here because everyone went on so smoothly!

1. We found parking so easily, on arrival we had a lot.
2. We did not book as it was a last minute decision, and the kind folks arranged a table for 7 so quickly!
3. Remember the last time we came here, we did not have all the eggs runny in the centre? This time, they were all perfect! (as in runny...) Oh yummy yummy...

We all had similar sets. It was either the Eggs Benedict or Eggs Florentine sets.
(It was more like we were all busy chatting that we just followed what everyone else ordered)

The sets comes with 1 hot drink and 1 juice.
I had hot chocolate.



And an orange juice.



This is the Eggs Benedict. Looks good eh? Taste good too!



I had the Eggs Florentine because I want spinach instead of ham. ;-p
I love.... eggs like this. Runny yellow centre and soft egg whites.



As usual, lunch tastes good because you are with great company.
Sets were around $20.


Choupinette
607 Bukit Timah Road
#01-01
Singapore 269708

Tel: 6466 0613

Pine Court Seafood @ Blk 43 Holland Drive

One colleague suddenly told the rest of us, another of our colleague (old cat) has been eating the 'hor fun' / 'chao mi fen' / 'mui fan' kind of dishes at this 'zhi char' at Buona Vista after work. It seems to be quite nice and he has been going back way too often.

We must try it out and see if it's nice. So we went there for lunch one fine day. It's at Blk 43 Holland Drive coffeeshop. The zhi char is called Pine Court Seafood.



We were really hungry that day and we ordered a few dishes to share.
We were recommended the tofu dish. Not too spectacular, but it was not bad. The green vegetable some hairy gourd.



We wanted to try the plain old sweet and sour pork, but we were recommended this instead. Fruity Pork Ribs. The ribs are nice.



We also ordered a deep fried long beans dish. I think all of us like long beans, so we found it good. We tasted some salted fish bits in it. Maybe that's what it nice?



Prawn Paste Chicken. Fragrant deep fried chicken. Who can resist it?



Zhi Char at coffeeshops are usually very economical and taste really good. Might come back again to bring the rest to try.



Pine Court Seafood.
Coffee Shop at Blk 43,
Blk 43 Holland Drive,
Singapore 270043

English Restaurant and Bar @ Sloane Court Hotel

While everyone seems to be going to the newest places to eat, I seem to be visiting a few places that are 'ancient' in Singapore standards. These places have been around so long, they have outlived most restaurants in Singapore.

Uncle and Aunt called us out for dinner. Aunt did not feel like cooking and wanted something different. Something old and very traditional. We came to Sloane Court Hotel's English Restaurant and Bar.

You see modern condominiums surrounding this place. Looking at it, it reminds us of Fraser's Hill in Malaysia. Or motels in Australia to me. LOL



When you go in, you'll see the walls with old English deco. It has stuff that you know what Mel Gibson wears on Braveheart. You should visit to see how it looks. Maybe for tea?

After looking at the menu and can't really decide what to eat, we had 3 set meals and 2 ala-carte items. The set meals had coleslaw. It looks simple, taste simple, but it is nice. Very different from KFC's version.



Plain warm buns. Old style buns, not the Breadtalk generation kind of buns.



Also part of the set, mushroom soup.
For me, I think I like modern style mushroom soup. ;-p



Uncle's favourite. He like the traditional Ox-tail stew here.



Aunt had the Encik Kabin.
You realise the food here is 'boringly' traditional British? haha.. Served with boiled carrots and peas. The potatoes are whole potatoes, cut into pieces and deep fried.



Sis and I both ordered the sirloin steak.
Yes, they prepared the 'done'-ness as specified. It was quite good.

Cousin had the ala-carte version which is not the set, it was Garlic Steak.
Ala-carte version comes on the sizzling hot place. Sets are served on the usual whites. ;-)



Dessert was ice cream with tea or coffee.



It was a nice dinner. Having food like this, we started to talk about our aunts, uncles, cousins, our sis and bro in UK. Suddenly miss our bro. Does he miss us? LOL...

We were wondering how the budget flight to UK on AirAsia X from KL will be like. Anyone tried it? We have never travel long distance on budget airlines.


English Restaurant and Bar
Sloane Court Hotel
17 Balmoral Road
(Off Stevens Road, Off Bukit Timah Road)
Singapore 259803

Barcelos @ Holland Village

Met up with a few of our friends at Holland Village for dinner. The venue was stated as Barcelos in our sms and we were wondering where it is. Good thing I saw opposite Subway in the same sms, so I was not lost. It's on the same row as Provence / Parisilk if you are wondering.



Oh, when I got in, a few other friends and Momo was already there.
Ah.. I know what this place reminds me of. Nando's. Look at the bottle of Peri Peri sauces! Just like those in Nando's ya?

(Nando's a similar Portuguese chicken place that I used to eat in Melbourne when I was studying. They also have branches in Malaysia and the UK. How come it's not in Singapore?)



While we were deciding what to eat, we saw a guy next door ordering a chicken set. It smell very very good. But we discovered that he got angry cutting the chicken and just left! How weird!

Anyway, Momo decided to get the 1/4 Chicken Set anyway. The chicken smell as nice as the one we saw earlier. Momo said it was nice, but it would be better if it's a bigger portion. LOL..



Another friend ordered the Beef Burger.
You can order either 1 or 2 patties. They will also ask you if you want cheese, by topping up another 75 cents.



One friend who we know always 'got to' eat rice ordered the rice dish. (just as the rest of us predicted he will).
He had the Chicken Stir Fry & Rice.



Our friend who was the organiser for this meet up ordered the Prego Steak Burger.
He had the two slices burger. Ordered it medium done. One patty came out as ordered, but one came out well done. (They got only half of it right. haha)



I had the Garlic Burger. Like all the above, it came with fries. This is how it looks.
I had mine Mild Peri.



The burger's not bad. The bun was soft and it absorbs the sauce very well.
I tried all the 4 sauces that's available with the chicken and bun.



They are pricier than your usual Mcdonalds or KFC burgers. But it's not really fair to compare them as it is not really in the same category.

It does not come with drinks, but you can order the 'bottomless softdrinks' for $2.95 where you can keep refilling your drinks from the self service drink machine. ;-)

It costs an average of $15 per person, depending on your order.
Check their website for the full menu and pricing.

(Psssst, I think Nando's tastes better. hehe)


Barcelos
17E, Lorong Liput
Holland Village
Singapore 277731

Web: http://www.barcelos.com.sg/

Prince Coffee House @ Coronation Plaza

Last Tuesday, it was our colleague, Pirate's birthday. We asked the birthday boy what he wanted us to treat him to for lunch. His 1st and 2nd choices were located very far away. It was also very famous. (aka expensive haha).

We don't mind treating him those famous places but we are really too busy at work. So we asked him, to pick somewhere not so far. He chose a place near Coronation Plaza. We took a cab there and found it was closed. So we thought we will just walk inside Coronation Plaza to take a look.

He saw this place called Prince Coffee House. We thought we shall just try it out.
We walked in and thought that the place was frozen in time, maybe for 25 years maybe? We loved it though. We saw this antique looking cash register and was fascinated by it!



We took a look at the menu and was staring at it wondering what to order. Dpuk was naughty and said, hey, look at the "Today's Special", has the today special been around for the last 10 years? LOL..

We decided that we should just ask the 2 ladies who seated us to recommend the dishes. We decided to order a-la-carte and share a communal meal.

Although it was Pirate's birthday, Old Cat was stating what he liked and we just ordered his favourites! Old Cat has this fascination for bitter gourd and the lady recommended Bittergourd with Sliced Fish.

Good choice. It was very nicely done. Bitter gourd's soft and not really bitter. Fish slices was also quite generous. Very home cooked feeling to it and everyone loved it.



We were also told their specialty is Hainanese Pork Chop.
Another spot on order. The pork was tender and the chips on it tasted especially good with the sauce.



We also had a 'tie pan tofu'. Look at the ingredients on the Seafood Tofu hot plate. Lots of stuff on it ya?



We had a Kailan with Beef dish too.
The beef is very tender and the veg not overcooked.

We found out later that many people come here to have their Beef Hor Fun. They prepare their Beef dishes very well it seems.



We ordered sambal ladies fingers, something you rarely see on menus in most places.
We were kinda disappointed when they told us, the kitchen had no more ladies fingers and we had it replaced with kangkong.



The last dish we had was Black Pepper Prawns.
We think it tasted nice. It was hot and peppery but it was not too overwhelming.



It was a nice meal. It was a nice 'ancient' looking place too, which is quite a charm. Look at the plates, I think some of you might have them in your parent's place right? The classic plates in our parent's era. We were wondering was it a young cook or an experienced cook?

The total bill came up to $169.80.
We had 7 of us who ate it and was quite satisfying. We might have over ordered, but we were hungry people.


Prince Coffee House
587 Bukit Timah Road
#02-15
Coronation Shopping Plaza
Singapore 269700

Tel: 6468 2088

Raffles Creamery @ Raffles Hotel

If you were waiting for the photos of the ice cream from yesterday's post, here it is.

You can order the ice cream while seated inside Seah Street Deli or you can walk out to Raffles Creamery just outside the entrance of Seah Street Deli.

The guys just ordered inside the Deli. Isn't it easier to place your order with the waitress? ;-p
The ones ordered 'inside' were served in tall glass ice cream bowls.



The above is 2 flavours of ice cream with mars bar topping I think.
The below is 1 flavour of ice cream mixed with 1 flavour of sorbet. This friend of us wants to mix it though it might taste weird.



Oh the ladies did not want to order inside. All of them happily skipped out together to the 'ice cream kiosk' to pick their ice cream and toppings. Then they admired the guy who was 'teppanyaki'-ing the ice cream for them.

The ice cream ordered 'outside' were served in containers like this.



My guess is that this is chocolate with M&Ms.



I think these ladies love alcoholic based ice cream, so this must be one of those alcoholic flavours with Mars bar topping.



I realised something. I think the ladies like Gummy Bears? Just look at the topping for the next two ice cream.



Question: How do you all eat gummy bears? You bite the head off first, chew and swallow then pop in the head, chew and swallow.

Or you put the whole thing in your mouth and chew?




I have in 2007 posted how they 'teppanyaki' the ice cream with a video as well. Click here to view it.


Raffles Creamery
Raffles Hotel Singapore
1 Beach Road
Singapore 189673

Tel: (65) 6412 1816
Hours: Daily - 11.00 am to 10.30 pm

Seah Street Deli @ Raffles Hotel

This was the second part of the Sushi Tei lunch I posted a few days ago. After that nice meal, some people (OK, it's the ladies) wanted to continue chatting. The same people also wanted to have some drinks and ice cream.

We browsed their menu again, and did not find anything that fancy the picky taste buds of the ladies. :-P We thought we would ask the servers that was serving us, if they knew any place that sells ice cream. Guess the answer? "I think 7-Eleven nearby should have" was the reply! LOL!!!!

Yours truly then suggested Raffles Creamery. I told them you can sit at Seah Street Deli and order the ice cream from Raffles Creamery, so that you will still have an air conditioned place to chat. :-)

Half the people migrated over to Raffles Hotel.



We could have eaten these if we did not have a very full lunch just before our visit. ;-)



OK. Here's some of the drinks.
This is Pineapple something that some had. (haha.. I really forgot who had it)



I ordered something that sounded really weird.
Pink Flamingo! hehe... Very refreshing on the super hot Saturday afternoon. It's very very sweet!



For some people, on hot days, they will still drink hot coffee. I know many people are like this. (eg. my mum's one of them.)



The (I think it was) 8 ladies that came along were yakking away, talking about shoes, handbags, iPhones (it was that launched weekend), holidays (one went to Spain) etc.

The 4 guys had to move the mouth too. Guess how did the guys do it? We ordered food so that we can move our mouths too! LOL

We ordered wedges. These are quite delicious wedges!



We also had their fiery fries. The spicier version of it. (They had two kinds)
We finished the two bowls of it. Even after our lunch!




We gave 'gorilla' a surprise! We secretly ordered this big slice of cake for him.

The kind folks at Seah Street Deli played a "Happy Birthday" song over the sound system. The cake was brought out with a candle and 'gorilla' was so embarrassed! (everyone in the restaurant turned over to look and clapped.)

Oh man. His face turned so so so red! For all of us that knew 'gorilla', we all know he is very thick skin and never blushes. This time, we caught him totally off guard. LOL

(Photo not posted here for his privacy. Those friends who wants to see it, log in to Facebook. It will be there soon)

The cake's nice. Very chocolatery, and the cherry cream makes it very unique. I think the rest of us ate more than half of it for him. Cakes are something the ladies liked. (compared to fries and wedges)



Hey, what happened to the ice cream? I shall post it tomorrow ok?



Seah Street Deli
Raffles Hotel Singapore
1 Beach Road
Singapore 189673

Tel: (65) 6412 1816

Hours:
Sunday to Thursday and Public Holiday - 11.00 am to 10.00 pm
Friday, Saturday and eve of Public Holiday - 11.00 am to 11.00 pm

Peramakan @ Keppel Club

About a week ago, Momo and I met up with Zannnie, Zsolt, MadScientist and Neo. It's the City Daily Photo bloggers meet up!

Zsolt's from Budapest and maintains the Budapest Daily Photo. Zannnie maintains the other Singapore Daily Photo. Zannnie is Zsolt's wife and has moved to Budapest. MadScientist, Ming (who could not make it for this dinner) and Neo now helps Zannnie by contributing to the Singapore Daily Photo. Did I just confused you? LOL...

Zsolt and Zannnie planned their visit way back and have been making arrangement with friends for meet ups and makans. She's very very busy planning what to eat and who to meet. Her scheduled is packed even before she came back! Our dinner was arranged some time back and last Tuesday was her only slot that's still free. haha..

Our meeting with her is to meet up and also to check off another food item from her list of things to eat. :-) Zannnie got the privilege to choose the place and she chose Peramakan.

It was nice to finally meet the people we only know by nicknames! (ie Zsolt, Neo and MadScientist)

Here's what we had for dinner.
Babi Ponteh. Most babi ponteh at other places cut their meat pieces very small, but the way they do it here is to have big pieces. Yumz.



We also had Ayam Buah Keluak so that Zsolt get to taste how buah keluak tastes like. Zannnie said that people in Budapest are used to things with lots of spices. No problem for Zsolt at all!



The rendang here was really tender as well.



The Assam Fish. I realized I might be the only person eating most of this. The rest might not be fish lovers? ;-)



Good old Sambang Kangkong.



Udang Nanas. This is a very peranakan dish.

Zsolt likes it very much. Ya, he said he loved the shrimp. Ahh, people from Budapest also call prawns - "shrimps". Our local context of the word shrimp always brings to mind only dried shrimp (hae bee) right?



The above dishes are all part of a set that we ordered. We could not decide what to eat and we were recommended to try the Set as it serves all Peramakan's specialties.

The set came with any choice of dessert that you can find in the menu. We were told we could choose 8, because the set was meant for 8 people. No wonder we could not finish the dishes.

I think there are 10 kinds of desserts and we ordered almost everything! Will just show 5 of it. Too many photos makes you 'jelak' right? LOL...

The bubur hitam. I find it very nice.

Guess what Zsolt says it taste like? Chocolate pudding! Then we told him he should try the White Chocolate pudding too! You guessed it, the bubur terigu. LOL



Zannnie's craving durians. So We ordered the two desserts that has durian on it.
This is the Durian Pengat. She's so happy eating it!



The ice kacang. Err. too bandung-ish.



The cendol. Very nice chendol. Gula melaka and santan (coconut milk) always go so well right?



The sago pudding. Not too bad, but the rest of the desserts seems more interesting. ;-)



Nice to have met Zannnie again. The last time we met was a few years back when she was still in Singapore. It has been some time since Zannnie moved to Budapest! Glad to have met MadScientist too. Found out he works just a few blocks from my office!

Thanks to MadScientist who paid for the dinner, insisting to treat us. The next time we meet up, it's our turn ok? ;-)


PeraMakan
Level 3, Keppel Club
10 Bukit Chermin Road
Singapore 109918
Tel: 6377 2829