Ajisen @ IMM

1. I was hungry and happened to stand in front of Ajisen.
2. When I think of Ajisen, I think of their 'Pai Ku' (pork ribs)! (Am I weird?)
3. And when I thought of 'Pai Ku',  my legs took control and walked in!


I saw that it is still in the menu and I ordered it!  This is my 'Pai Ku Ramen'. $11
I know it is deep fried and does not look very healthy, but I just like it!
(I think it used to be better?)




This is the Tonpei Yaki $4.80
Sliced pork with egg and shredded cabbage. Very yummy too!




Are you also a pai ku fan?



Ajisen @ IMM
2 Jurong East St 21
#01-113 IMM Building
Singapore 609601

Tel: 6564 5610

Tonkichi @ Orchard Central

This was dinner at Tonkichi Orchard Central. It was suppose to be a quick and light bite to save space in our stomach for chocolates at Jewels. But we were tempted and ate more than we should.

I had the Cold Ramen $12.90. I seem to be ordering Cold Ramen from most Japanese restaurants! Photographs in the menu of julienne vegetables attracts me! I had to order them!

It was quite nice. It was also cold enough. The (only) slice of pork had a delightful butter fragrance!




The cold ramen should be able to fill my stomach but I got tempted by the Japanese stewed pork. I also ordered the Buta Kakuni. $8.50.


The meat was really soft, the 'melt in your mouth' kind. It will be your kind of food if you like salty stewed food. I ate the 'soft melt in your mouth' fats from only one piece of the pork.  I scrapped off the fats from the other pieces. (I know some of you are accusing me of wasting good food, but I need to control my fat intake.)




Momo also chose the 'healthier choice' for her dinner. 

I wonder if  we are being subliminally brain washed by Health Promotion Board's message to choose the 'healthier choice'? Have they been advertising too much?

She had the Ton Shabu Set $21.50.
Thinly sliced pork slices on a bed of crunchy pickled cucumbers. The pork was to be dipped into the tonkatsu sauce. It's the sauce that made the whole dish yummy!




The set came with this bowl of delightful sticky Japanese rice.





Just like Sushi Tei, the Japanese tea served here is FOC.

They do serve the latest Pokka drinks though.  That's because Tonkichi is owned by Pokka.

Have you tried their latest sparkling fruit drinks? Their apple sparking drink came out some time ago, and I liked it. They have recently introduced 3 new flavours. There is the Lemon, Grape and another flavour which I can't recall.  The Lemon is sour, which is quite like. But their Grape taste really horrible to me.


Tonkichi Orchard Central
181 Orchard road
#07-06
Orchard Central
Singapore 238896

Tel: 6238 7976

Jewels Artisan Chocolate @ Orchard Central

Last Saturday evening, Momo and I were glued to the TV watching "Raising the Bar: Willie's Chocolate Revolution". By the end of the show, we were so hungry and craving for chocolate! (It was 8 pm!)

We needed to satisfy the craving and there were no new chocolates in my little 'choc fridge' to try out. We thought of Jewels, the chocolate place that many people have blogged about. I remembered Nic mentioned to me the other day: "you got to try the 'kiam nerng' (salted eggs) macarons!".

We quickly got on the PIE and reached Orchard Central in 15 mins. Oh yes, if you do not know, Orchard Central has 'free' valet parking. We left the car with the valet and rushed to grab dinner.

After dinner, we were ready for chocolates. We sat down and was promptly attended to. We left it to the service staff to recommend their specialties.

We had their very popular macarons. The 3 flavours we had were: ($2 per piece)
Green Tea (green tea & dark chocolate crunchy pear)
Black Palm Island Salt (salted egg & almond cream topped with black palm island salt) and
Passion Fruit (passion fruit conserve & almond cream).





This is the "kiam nerng"- Black Palm Island Salt macarons.
Macarons are not meant to be eaten, it's meant to be admired and savoured slowly. How do you savour it? Take a small bite and let the 'papillae' on your tongue get to work.

Don't they just look so "pretti-licious"?




Another reminder... Savour it, not eat it! (note there's a difference!)

This is how the Black Palm Island Salt looks when it is cut.
I shall not describe the taste, you might want to taste it yourself ;-)




The other recommendation was the Dark Chocolate Lava Cake with Ice Cream. ($10.80)
We were told it would take 15 mins to prepare.

For the ice cream we could choose any flavour we wanted, and we chose the "66% Alpaco Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Crunchy Pearl". It was so good!

(we were still thinking of Willie's 100% chocolate in the show earlier! I want to get them from Selfridges like in the show!)



Ah... the warm chocolate lava cake. The cake is partially cut so the chocolate will not flow out.
It comes with 1 spoon of vanilla cream and another spoon of raspberry compote.  




We were pleasantly surprised when Then Chui Foong, the chocolatier came out to ask how we found the food. We told her it was excellent.

We asked her how the lava cake was meant to be enjoyed. She said it's up to the person eating. The person eating is the 'artist'.  The vanilla and raspberry was served to allow the artist to mix the flavours. A person who likes it sweet can 'paint' vanilla cream on the cake and ice cream. If they like it a little sour, 'paint' it with the raspberry compote.


181 Orchard Road
Orchard Central
#02-31/32
Singapore 238896

Tel: +65 6509 8998
Hours: 11am to 11pm daily

Tasty Thai Hut @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

If you are around the Bukit Timah / Jalan Jurong Kechil area, and if you are thinking of really decent and cheap Thai food, you would probably want to head to the upper floor of Bukit Timah Food Centre.

Why we ate here tonight was because the lady boss appeared on TV again. A few nights ago, as I walked into the main door of our home this conversation took place:
Sis: Her name is Mrs Chon-Chom.
Me: Huh? Who's that?
Sis: The Tasty Thai Hut lady lah. We always wondered what's her name. Now we know. She was on TV earlier.
Me: Orrr OK. (Yes, me and my usual "uh-huh", "ok", "ya" answers haha)


Mrs Chon-Chom is usually a 'one lady show'. But sometimes you do see (I presume is) Mr Chon-Chom there. He happened to be helping out today.





My usual grub here: Chicken with Basil Leaves and Rice. $4.
I like it because it is 'wet'. (the chicken and greens has gravy and it will seep into the rice. You can see the mark left by the gravy on this plate) 

By the way, it's spicy too. Don't let the 'clear' looking dish fool you. (Their Tom Yam is clear looking and is even more potent!)




Sis had the "Phad Thai" $4.
While she was eating, she continued her story a few nights before. Sis said that on TV, it was mentioned that the noodles and some other stuff she used are all from Thailand.

By the way, this is what we notice and also confirmed by some 'aunties' we know. When someone in front of you orders Phad Thai, don't order it, order something else. If you do, Mrs Chon-Chom will combine the order and cook it together then splits it to two or three orders. Her 'agak-ration' (agak - estimation in Hokkien) has been proven to be not that good, you always get a smaller plate.  ;-)




The other very popular dish is the green curry. But it was sold out when we arrived.
Personally, I don't like the Pineapple rice here. Try other things!

Tasty Thai Hut
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#02-159
Singapore 588172

PeraMakan @ Keppel Club

Just last week, sis and I were chatting while watching TV that we have not been to PeraMakan for some time. (I think we were some cooking show about peranakan food)

A few days later, we went out shopping with uncle and family at VivoCity and suddenly our Aunt asked if anyone is interested in going to Peramakan for dinner!  (she can read our stomachs? minds? hehe)

What did we have here this time round?

This is the Beef Rendang. $14.
Still as tender and tasty as we know it. One dish that makes you eat lots of rice!




Our favourite here. The Babi Pongtay. $14
We always feel happy eating this. It's another dish that makes you wallop up your whole plate of rice and want more!




The Nyonya Chap Chye. $10.
Boys and girls will enjoy eating their vegetables if they are cooked this way.





The Cincalok Omelette. $10.
We remember it was always very salty when we ordered it, so we told them to go easy on the saltiness. The dish came out not so salty, but also with not so much cincalok. You just can't win eh? But it was still good. 




The Sambal Bendi Goreng. $10.
The sambal ladies finger / okra. Nicely done. Spicy enough. The okras were not tough.




The Ikan Garam Assam. $16
Are you an assam fan?  I like the sauce but not really the fish. LOL..





Oh yes, you should always save some space for the desserts here. We had the Ice Kachang and Chendol. ;-) No durian penyat this time. LOL...


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

Pu Tien @ Food Republic VivoCity

This was Sunday's lunch. Comfort food that reminds us of our late maternal grandma's cooking. Do you know when she was around,  we called her SuperGran!

What did we eat here?

We had to order this every time we are here. Ice cold bitter gourd with honey.





If you don't like the regular tea, you can ask for their special teas. This place serves nice tea! The tea we had came in individual cups. There seems to be some promo. We only paid for 2 instead of 4 cups.

These tea cups have filters for tea leaves.




The tea we had was the Fujian Tie Kuan Yin. You should try it, it's nice! Each cup is filled with half a pack of these fragrant leaves.




The 9 layer braised pig intestines. If you like intestines, these are delicious.
(But if you want the even nicer ones, the Kitchener Road main branch seems better. hehe)




The Hing Hwa Bee Hoon that we like.
Supergran and mum's version has 'kim zham' (tiger lily buds) and 'bok nee' (black fungus).




The shredded meat with bun. Their version here has the 'hoisin sauce' taste. Supergran's version is with dark and light soy with something else. Sigh... I am thinking of supergran now...




You eat it with crispy skin sesame seed buns here.
(For supergran's version we had it with plain rice or her favourite 'cho bee' (brown rice) or 'cho bee berr' (brown rice porridge) )




We had a peep at the next table and saw that they ordered this. We got tempted and swapped our orders. Steamed bamboo clams with garlic.  It's delicious!




This is the wet version of 'hing hwa bee hoon'. If you like gooey stuff, try this! It's not mee suah but when you eat it you might think it is. Hing hwa bee hoon is very fine.

All of us remembered supergran when we ate this. She liked gooey stuff like this dish. She must have fed so much of it to us, now when we taste something similar, we feel very warm in our hearts.




A great lunch. Yummy yummy indeed.


Pu Tien @ VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
#03-01B VivoCity Food Republic
Singapore 098585

Tel: 6376 9358

Resto Surabaya @ Far East Plaza

I accompanied sis for some urgent shopping at Far East Plaza. When we reached there, we were so hungry and had to eat before we could shop. We walked around and saw Resto Surabaya. What prompted us to go in was the Sunday Times cutting on the glass wall. It was Posh Nosh recommendation of cheap eats.

We ordered the Ayam Bakar. $6
Portions initially looked small, but it was actually enough for the two of us to share. It was really fragrant and the sauce is really Indonesian style sweet. (if you want to put it nicely, very well caramelized sauce LOL) We really like it!




We also had the Ayam Penyet. $6.
I think the marinate is gingery which is something we like. For once, we had Ayam Penyet that is really 'bashed' till the meat separates from the bones. Yums! The chilli that came with it was had freshly pounded tomatoes. 




The rice is 60 cents a serving.




We wanted a 'vegetable dish'. The recommendation was deep fried brinjals, but sis said, 'something non fried please'. So the service staff said, try gado gado, 'not deep fried'.

This is the Gado Gado $5. Keropokman do not like the keropok on it! "Lao Hong liao!"
But overall it's edible. The sauce is not as thick but it has an unique taste though.  A bit sweet as well.




For the drinks, I decided to try the 'Juice Sehat'. $3
If you translate it, it means 'healthy juice'. I wanted to find out what it is, so I ordered it! It's apple juice!




This shop is a branch of the main one at Far East Shopping Centre.
Now I know why people keep saying I should try the one at Far East Shopping Centre for Ayam Penyet. (Sis and I think the Ayam Bakar is nicer though)


Resto Surabaya
14 Scotts Road
Far East Plaza #05-26/26A
Singapore 228213

Tel: 6738 4369

Haagen Dazs (Sushi Ice Cream Platter) @ VivoCity

This was a little treat over the weekend with Momo, Sis and my cousin. If you watched "Chen Ren Za Zhi" / City Beat on Singapore TV last week, you would have seen this on the show! Haagen Dazs is having Sushi Ice Cream.

We were at VivoCity and after walking around, we saw Haagen Dazs and my cousin said, "hey, they have Sushi Ice Cream, shall we try it?" Our legs were tired so we quickly walked in. Even before looking at the 'menu', we knew what we wanted. We told them we wanted the Sushi Platter.

This is the Haagen Dazs Sushi Ice Cream Platter.




We noticed the plate was not cold like other places, but it's still ok as our ice cream was still frozen.

This is the Mango & Passion Fruit Sushi - It's macademia nut ice cream as the 'shari' (rice), mango & passion fruit ice cream as the 'neta' (topping) and chocolate 'nori'.




The Strawberry Gunkan  which has Macademia Ice Cream 'shari', Strawberries 'neta' and Chocolate 'nori'.

The Mango Sorbet Sushi that looks like tuna had Vanilla Ice cream 'shari' and Mango Sorbet 'neta'. Oh, the sorbet is sour and really perks you up!




This is the Kiwi Gunkan - Vanilla Ice Cream 'shari', Kiwi Fruit 'neta' and Chocolate 'nori'.
All four were delicious! How can we not enjoy ice cream?




The platter set came with a mini scoop of Green Tea Ice Cream.
(thanks to Stargirl for the reminder. The 'wasabi' is green tea ice cream)

Hmmm... Haagen Dazs has been advertising their slow melt ice cream. The above were slow melting, but definitely not the green tea! ;-p




We also ordered 2 more scoops of ice cream. You can't have enough of ice cream can you?
Memory's failing, but I think these were Belgian Chocolate and Panna Cotta. The chocolate is deeeelicious.




The ice cream companies are getting creative eh? I think they were the ones that came out with mooncake ice cream before others copied them?

It's a little pricey though. The platter costs $22. But I guess it's labour intensive. It's probably all individually hand-crafted.


'Ice' (skinnerthantheoriginal) the most loyal fan of HD must be excited? hehe..


Haagan Dazs VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
#02-150
Singapore 098585

Tel: 6376 9886

Sushi Tei @ Holland Village

We were about to go to our usual place for lunch when a more senior colleague whose nickname is 'Old Cat' said, 'not again'. Everyone looked at him and said, if you gonna treat, we will go wherever you want us to go. He looked at us and smiled and said 'Sure!'.

We picked Sushi Tei, because:
1) We had a discount card for that place.
2) Weather is too hot and there's air-con there.
3) It's convenient, just a short bus ride away.
4) We know that 'old cat' loves Japanese food, so he won't say no.
5) They don't charge for Japanese tea. (while other places charge even for tap water!!)


We started with the usual plates from the kaiten / conveyor belt. We were hungry and grab so many plates!
Then we each had our own meal.

"Jiao Shou Fu Ren" had the Chirashi Don. I think that's her usual meal here.




'Old Cat' had the Negitoro Don. (Minced Tuna with quail egg rice). I think this is also his usual order.




'Old Cat' is one that loves Natto. The sticky "cobweb stringy" fermented beans. These are rich in Vitamin K-2 and B-12. Yes, the cat loves tuna!




Almond jelly loves her ramen. She orders ramen almost all the time.




Owet had the Kaisen Tan Tan Ramen.




I had the Yakiniku Don this time. (instead of the usual cold noodles - hiyashi soba)




We enjoyed our meal as usual. I guess it was because of the company.We would be eating, chatting and laughing away.


Sushi Tei @ Holland Village
3 Lorong Liput
Holland V Shopping Mall
#01-08 
Singapore 277725

Tel: 6463 2310
Hours:  11.30am to 10.00pm daily (last order 9.30pm)

Indian Food @ Bar Bar Black Sheep Coffee Shop

This is the Indian food that the rest ate while I ate the burger at Bar Bar Black Sheep. I am not sure of the name of the stall at all. This was what XLB, Kenny (the friend from KL) that Nic went to order.

The rest of us, just conveniently ate some of it!

The Palak Paneer. It's Spinach and Cottage Cheese. The colour is a bit different from the usual ones, but the taste is similar. If you never tried it, we always think the cheese taste like the hard toufu (tau kwa) that the Chinese usually have.  ;-)




This is the Mutton Vindaloo.

Talking about mutton vindaloo. It's what I used to have almost weekly while staying at the Halls of Residence in Melbourne! Oh, the taste is almost similar.

I suddenly miss the chef that cook for us at the Halls! That was in 1994-1996! The Halls outsourced the cooking to a catering company. I still remember the chef's name. His name was Choksi and he told us he was previously with Hilton (really??) before joining that catering company. He said he joined the catering company to be based in the Halls because he gets free reign of the whole kitchen. He was of Indian descent and that's where we got our fix of authentic Indian or Asian food in Melbourne! He only prepared meals on weekdays. On weekends we had other chefs from the same catering company. The weekend chefs were I think trainee pastry chefs. They made excellent pastries for desserts, but the mains, it was kinda disappointing.

We also found out a way to 'manipulate' the menu for our own benefit!. If we do not like some food the chef prepared, we would just all not have it. Let there be lots of leftovers. If we like something, we made sure we let the chef know! You know these chefs, they get hurt if they see no one touching the food they prepared. hehe.. sneaky eh?




The Naan. The bread here is quite nice!

(added 14 March) Have you all heard about the new bread (naan) which Breadtalk is offering now? They call it "Naan-the-nay?" and some are not happy and am saying they are poking fun at some race.




The tandoori here is not bad at all. The people eating it seems to enjoy it! ;-)




Oh yes, these Indian sauces goes very well with the thick fries we had from Smok'Inn Frogz Kitchen at the same place.

"The Indian Stall @ Bar Bar Black Sheep"
879 Bukit Timah Road (Cherry Ave)
Singapore 279892