Dining around Asia with the AsiaRooms.com Year End Sale (YES)

We all love travelling and when we travel, we are always looking for food to eat and great and comfortable places to stay. My wife and I love to travel and we have travelled to Beijing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Penang, Sydney in the last 15 months.We also had a few staycations in Singapore.

In our quest to eat around the cities, we like to stay at somewhere comfortable and hope to get discounts on it. Hotel rooms usually take up a great portion of our expenditure for holidays. You would be glad to know that AsiaRooms.com (which is part of TUI Travel PLC, headquartered in UK) is having its inaugural annual Year End Sale (YES).




This annual sale offers quite a huge savings (up to 65 per cent) on hotels in popular destinations across Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea as well as Singapore and Hong Kong.

From 4 October 2012 to 27 November 2012, AsiaRooms.com will feature popular hotel accommodations in key Asian cities and regional beach holiday destinations in a series of six 24 and 48-hour sales, where customers can expect red-hot time limited offers.

“The destinations chosen for the inaugural AsiaRooms.com Year End Sale are hot spots for many holidaymakers during this time of the year, especially families and those looking for a short getaway during the year end season,” says Mr Clarence Lin, Brand Development Lead. “We believe the Year End Sale will be highly anticipated by travellers as it presents exceptional value for many popular hotels in top destinations across Asia.”

The Year End Sale and its specific details will be communicated via newspapers and on several websites in Singapore. Customers who wish to stay ahead of the competition in securing the Year End Sale offerings before they are fully booked, can do so by staying connected to AsiaRooms.com.

To receive notifications when the Year End Sale offerings go ‘live’ during 24 October to 27 November 2012, customers can stay connected with AsiaRooms.com through Facebook, Google+, Twitter and via its mailing list:

·         Twitter fans can follow at http://twitter.com/AsiaRooms

·         Facebook fans can visit http://www.facebook.com/Asiarooms

·         Google+ fans can follow at http://gplus.to/AsiaRooms

·         Visit the AsiaRooms website and subscribe to the mailing list at http://www.asiarooms.com


The year end is almost here and those who have yet to book rooms for their holidays, you can get excellent prices during this YES. After settling your room, it's time to look for places to eat!

Oh yes, it's also fun to book a room in Singapore and have a staycation here!

Vote for us at the Bosch Dream Kitchen Cookoff.

Hi readers,

My sis and I have a small favour to ask from you all. Out of curiosity and tempted by the prize, we participated in the Bosch Dream Kitchen Cookoff. We got happier when we got called up for an audition! Oh the cameras and lighting and all sorts of equipments that they have! They filmed us, asked us questions and we thought we might not make it for we were overwhelmed during the audition!

Tada! Suddenly, we got surprised that we even got into the 10 Semi-Finalists. It was a super WAH! moment for us!

Now, we got a little problem though. We need more votes to be in the Top 4. Only the Top 4 groups with the most votes gets to continue in the contest. Will you help us?

If you go to http://boschdreamkitchen.com/ you will see something like the screenshot below.
We are TEAM 8 - Philip Lim and Jaime Lim.



Click on our faces, and you will see a page showing a video that the organisers did when we were auditioned. It's a little silly we know. We were quite surprised they came out with something so fast!

There is a VOTE NOW button in red on that page, click on it and fill up the form.
That's it, you have voted for us. Please make sure it's Team 8!


Oh, the contest also is giving away a Bosch Filtrino Hot Water Dispenser to voters like you.
I sincerely hope you take 1 minute to vote for us!
We hope you win the voters prize too!


Thank YOU!

Black Pepper Crabs @ Eng Seng Restaurant

Two weeks ago, we met up with a friend who recently moved to Joo Chiat from KL. When we visit KL, he used to take us around to 'makan' there. Since he's based here now, it's our turn to bring him around.

Staying near to Eng Seng, he passes the shop daily on his way to work and back. As a workaholic who leaves early for work and comes back late at night, he probably did not realise the crowd during the opening hours.

It's difficult to dine alone there, so we met up with him on a weekend with other common friends to have some delicious black pepper crabs!

If you read about this place, you got to 'book' your crabs (can't book tables by the way). The dear wife was a bit 'kiasu' and called them up 3 days in advance to book crabs. She was told off! If you are coming on Saturday, please only call after 3 pm on Saturday! We booked our crabs after 3 pm as told.

Oh well, our plans that day changed and we were going around eating that day. Around 4:30pm, everyone felt hungry and decided we should just have an early dinner instead. Lo and behold, when you are there early, there were no crowds! The big glass tank is full of crabs, you can choose your own crabs too!

(Hint, go early! Around 5 to 5.30 pm, you don't need to bother call to book anything!)


Fried You Tiao with Sotong Meat. ($8)

If you are having dinner there, you would realise that 90% of the people here have the same dishes! During dinner, we look around and saw same dishes on almost all tables!

For those who love some fried food, the fried dough fritter was nice. Crispy and crunchy with some soft cuttlefish meat stuffed in it.  Some of us thought the mayo was a bit too much on top. They should have served the mayo on the sides instead of dribbling all over it.



Hong Kong Kai Lan ($10)

The veggies were nicely stir fried, cooked and yet still crunchy. We found it a tad too salty though.




Mee Goreng ($7)

Oh, the Mee Goreng is another dish that almost every table orders.. It's delicious. Not too wet, nor too dry, it will probably suits most people's taste buds. Spicy but not too hot, it smells so good when it was served to our table. Prawns were bouncy and there was quite a few of it too.

(Looking at the prices now while blogging, it's more worth it to eat the Mee Goreng than the vegetables which is very little in quantity and not as satisfying as the spicy carbo noodles. LOL)



Black Pepper Crabs ($90)

We had 5 of us, and we ordered 3 crabs to share. If you are a super crab lover, you probably can have 1 each. The crabs that day was medium in size. It was enough for us as it was already the 5th meal for the day!

Ahh... the crabs here are as tasty as we last tried it. Peppery, sweetish, sticky! Many people rank the black pepper crabs here as the best on this island. The sauce was so addictive. It's nice with the You Tiao too by the way!




One of our friend was such a neat eater! She flipped over the big crab shell and slowly filled it with the other smaller bits as she ate. If you eat your crabs slow and eat every bit of it, there's very little leftover shells! When it's all done, she covered it up with another shell. So cute, that I have to take a photo of it!

The food is served rather quickly after ordering which is good. Would love to go back for more black pepper crabs and mee goreng.  The person on the phone might not be very courteous, but the chubby lady who goes around the table taking order is a very nice lady!

There's GST payable here, you will notice it in the bill. Our whole meal was $116.50 with the taxes included.  Eng Seng is the name of the coffeeshop. The stall selling the crabs etc is called First Grade Seafood Palace. What a nice name eh!


First Grade Seafood Palace
Eng Seng Restaurant
247-249 Joo Chiat Place
(Near to Malacca Hotel)
Singapore 427935

Tel: 6440 5560

Hours: around 4.30 to around 8.00 pm (earlier when the crabs are sold out)

Wooloomooloo Steakhouse @ Level 3, Swissotel the Stamford

If you have noticed, there's a recent opening of a few reputable steak house from overseas here in the last few months. You would probably have already heard of Wooloomooloo, which is a very Australian aboriginal sounding name.

Wooloomooloo is named after a suburb in Sydney called Woolloomooloo, Australia, but the spelling for this restaurant is easier to remember than the town with one less L.

Would it surprise you that Wooloomooloo has it's origin in Hong Kong where it is known for their steaks.


In case you are wondering where it is located, if you remember Patara Thai, Wooloomooloo took over the space.

Firstly, this was an invited tasting by Wooloomooloo hosted by their PR, Sixth Sense Comm.
Thanks to them for providing much of the info I have here.


For wine lovers, there's over 150 labels in their wine list. You can see them as you enter the restaurant and walk along the corridor that's behind the lounge. It has all been picked by Noel Emmanuel the General Manager and Jack Fraser the Restaurant Manager & Sommelier.

The collection has both Old and New World wines as well as Champagnes and Sparkling Wines.


If you purchase $2500 worth of wines, you can own a locker for yourself for a year.
We saw this when we walked around and there are more on the first photo at the entrance where there's a personalised brass plate with the name of the wine locker holder.


One of the mocktails I had.


Wooloomooloo Signature Martini ($19)

The Signature Martini is made from VOX vodka, apple schnapps, fresh mint, grapefruit and apple juice.

For the tasting dinner we had the following:

Appetizers

Tuna and Spanner Crab Tartare ($29)

For those who like cold and creamy and yet chunky textured appetizers, this is a nice choice for a starter. It's really something that will stimulate your appetite for more to come. A slight hint of horseradish is added to tease your taste buds.

The base of it is creamy avocado cubes with tangy orange slices. Right above it, sweet Australian spanner crab and cubed yellow fin tuna sashimi. On top of it all, some creme fraiche and salmon roe.


Spanish Ham Selection ($38)

We were served Jamón Ibérico that has different curing time. The 20-24 months aged and 30-36 months aged. You should try both and see the difference. It also comes with sundried tomatoes, olives, stuffed piquillo peppers, artichokes and foccacia sticks.

It's an acquired taste. I remembered I was quite put off by it because I saw the bloody legs of ham in Spain years ago, the smell during the curing was so off-putting. As I tried more good quality ones, I began to enjoy it. The ones here are quite good!

If you don't enjoy cured meats, you might want to order the next appetizer we had.


Jumbo Prawn Cocktail ($29)

The usual serving size is 4. We had 5 because it was a tasting for 5 persons that night. One of the most ordered appetizers in the branches in Hong Kong.

The prawns were really huge. It's so easy to eat because it has been deveined and shelled. The dipping sauce is rather unique tasting. The sauce has horseradish, sweet chilli and worschester sauce in it.

Side Orders

We also tried a few of their side orders. French Fries, Sauteed Kipfler Potatoes and Creamy Corn. The sides range from $12 to $16 each.

I particularly like the French Fries. The thick cut fries somehow was so good! I found the creamy corn a tad salty.  I can't appreciate the Kipfler Potatoes or rather most kinds of potatoes, not my type of food. (except when they are made into fries!)


Another side we had was the Grilled Asparagus ($16)

Mains

150-Day Grain Fed USDA Prime Rib Eye, 12-ounce. $74

We were to treated to 2 different steaks that night. Of the 2 steaks, I enjoyed this USDA Prime Rib Eye better than the Australian Tomahawk. The meat was more tender and juicy compared to the other.

No photo to show you how it looked inside. We all quickly too photos and devoured our food!



All the steaks served here comes with 4 homemade sauces - Red Wine Madeira, Au Jus, Peppercorn and Mushroom. They were all so nice that we were dipping our fries in these sauces!

There are also four types of gourmet mustards to go with your meat. Dijon, English, Granary and Green Peppercorn.



70-Day Grain Fed Australian Young Black Angus Tomahawk. ($125)

Oh wow, look at the size of it. I think of Fred Flintstone when I saw this.

The Tomahawk is meant for 2. If you are a super meat eater, you probably can devour this yourself. This whole slab of meat with the bone weighs between 1.1kg to 1.3kg. Huge ya?
It's served medium rare after 20 minutes in the broiler.


I feel like eating this right now as I look at these photos again. It was also juicy and tender. Somehow comparing the two, I can't really pick out why I prefer the USDA Rib Eye to this.

It's a huge piece of meat, so some parts are more charred than the rest, we were quite surprised that ours that night was quite evenly cooked. I guess the kitchen processes and skills have improved since opening. They are getting used to the broiler now and can control it well now.

Desserts

Pavlova ($18)

What a beautiful dessert right? The way we were told to eat this is to have almost everything you see in one spoon. You need to put a little of everything in your mouth. That way you can have a balance of sweetness and sourness in your mouth.


Bread and Butter Pudding ($16)

This looks so beautiful too. I must confessed I like the ice cream on top.
I am not a huge fan of bread and butter pudding. I was long ago until I ate too much of it during uni days and suddenly stopped having it.

There are 11 desserts to choose from if you are wondering. I want to bring the wife back here to try their signature Apple Crumble. Heard that it's quite good.



The kitchen is an open theatre concept kitchen. You can opt to sit nearer to the kitchen if you enjoy looking at the culinary team going all busy preparing your food.


There's a reason why people go to Steakhouses to have their steak. How many people in Singapore have a kitchen big enough to install these huge broilers in their homes?

The steaks are broiled at 980 degrees Celsius inside these broilers. The outside of the meat is cooked almost instantly creating a layer that seals in the juices.


It was rather interesting watching the chefs preparing the meat. They were looking at the meat and lowering and adjusting the height of the 'sliding' layer. Like someone driving a manual car!


Different steakhouse use their preferred brand of broilers. For some of you gadget maniacs, the ones they use here are the Southbend broilers from the USA.

Wooloomooloo serves reasonably priced set lunches from noon to 2.30 pm on Weekdays.
Set lunch is priced at $36++, $38++, $42++ depending on the choice of main course.


Wooloomooloo Steakhouse
2 Stamford Road
Level 3, Swissotel the Stamford
Singapore 178882

Tel: 6338 0261
Hours: Lunch 12 pm - 2.30 pm / Dinner 6.30 pm - 11 pm
Bar hour openings, please check their website.

Chocolato @ Joo Chiat Road

We were visiting a friend who got a new place at the Joo Chiat area. A very nice and cosy place in a very relaxed neighborhood too! After chatting a while, we went walking around the area before we head off for a makan outing.

Jon our friend says he has been addicted to this gelato place and thinks we would all love it. He's very right.



We found out some bad and good news though. The bad news to Jon and the nearby residents, they are moving out of Joo Chiat.

The good news for the rest of us, they are moving to a more central location! (My memory is getting bad, I think it's the Cantonment area if I remembered them correctly)



So many flavours. Jon said that the pistachio is good.

I glanced around and noticed that they are a chocolate place. (The name tells it! haha). It seems they are one of the few companies in Singapore that offers chocolates from single source cocoa beans.

(go do an online search about single source cocoa if you are interested)



This lady (no she said she's not the boss) is a funny lady.

Jon must have been there so often, the lady insist on serving him. She asked the younger boy to serve me instead. Jon's a handsome chap and the lady calls him my Handsome Boy No. 1.

We had 3 other ladies with us, and when they say only one handsome or pretty one around,  she said to me: "OK lah, you are number 2. First time here, cannot be No. 1."

She looked at me again, ya, not as handsome as Jon, but can lah, I give you a No 1 title. No. 1A ok? First position still to Jon. *roll eyes*



I had the Dark Chocolate and Pistachio.
Yup, the chocolate was quite intense, the choc bitterness that I like and some sweetness to it.

The pistachio, oh, how do you describe pistachio? Go to their shop and ask for a sampling!

Texture wise, it might look rough on the photo, but it was really smooth and creamy when it touches your tongue. The sweetness according to my taste buds is just nice for me.

(Maybe I should invest in a refractometer and bring it to all the ice cream and desserts places that I go to so that I can give a scientific measurement of sweetness to my posts!)



You can also order a waffle cone if you like cones.

Shh... we realised something amongst the 5 of us.
If you are on a diet, opt for the cone, it has less gelato in it. (Get the hint?)


Chocolato
154 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427432

Tel: 6497 7358

Airline Food - Scoot : Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Singapore

I have 5 pieces of 8GB storage cards full of food photos with me at the moment ! To prevent them from being stuck in storage card Black Hole,  here's some 'interesting' ones that I can write about in a more holiday mood. This 'interesting' meal was the Airline Meal of Scoot.

The wife and I flew to Sydney on Singapore Airline's new budget airline, Scoot in July earlier this year. We would say it was a really good deal that we got. A return flight, SIN-SYD-SIN with luggage, food and taxes included for SGD634.34 for 2! That's like $317 per person return! You can't even reach Perth on the usual full fair airlines!

With the money saved from the flight, we checked ourselves onto the Hilton Sydney and got ourselves the Executive Floor treatment! More of that probably later in my other blog, the Eats, Travel and Staycation blog.

Now to write about our 'memorable' meal on the flight.



We pre-booked our meals, but we did not know what we were getting at the point of booking. It's a long 8/9 hours flight, you need to book a meal, or you will die of hunger in the air!

When we got up the plane, we got this piece of card with the menu. What made us laugh was the menu itself! See the cute icon in green with the chef hat on the 4 dishes? It says Chef Recommendation! Only 4 dishes and everything is recommended! It's as good as not putting it there!

The menu has such nice photos right? It did make us want the food to be served earlier!




Tada! The real thing! Yup, we laughed again! Won't you?

Let me warn you, it's hot! But there's no extra container like full service airlines to put the food in.
Hot food on plastic and my head wondered off. Is it BPA-free? Can it withstand hot temperature? Etc...

Packed like tofu you get from supermarkets, you have to peel off the plastic wrapper on top.

It's very hard to peel the plastic off. You can ask the steward or stewardess to help you, they will tell you, stab very hard on the plastic near the sides with your plastic knife. Their recommendation works! The air pressure released with a pssshhh and yay, you get to eat the food!



The Soy Sauce Chicken Rice.

Compare with the 1st photo! OK to be fair to them, it does smell very good!

Taste wise, they need to hire Neil Perry that does Qantas' food to help them. Or maybe get Sam Leong that's on Singapore Airline's Culinary Panel to improve it. It's very salty! A consolation is that the rice has not dried out yet.


The Nasi Briyani.

Yup, you probably going to ask, what's that blob of food?

The smell of it is really really good! I think they have done really well on the smell side. All the food smell really authentic. Taste wise, we beg to differ.

The spices does smell very good, if you have a sharp nose, you can smell all the spices they use for the dish. But... taste wise, it's way too spicy for the wife. She's the cili padi eater and she finds it spicy. People's taste decrease by 30% in the air, but they might have overdone it for this.

The rice on the side's a bit fried out. We were hungry and nothing else on board to eat, so we finished it anyway!


Our pre-booked meal was the set meal, so it includes a drink and a dessert.
Those in Singapore will be familiar with SunMoon. This dessert was very nice! I will say it again, very nice!

There were a few different combination, mixed fruit etc. This was the Peach and it's not soaked in thick sticky syrup. It's peach in Apple Juice! It's still sweet, but if the label doesn't lie, Apple Juice.



We landed in Sydney on a really gloomy winter day.
Saying hello the Sydney Bridge, I remember climbing on top of it some visits ago!



The plane's like it is really near the ground ya?
Although we lived in Melbourne for many years, we think Sydney's a nicer place, especially after hosting the Olympics. The people seems to be more courteous and helpful!


....... fast forward a few days later.....



After a few days of fun, laughter and food (no shopping, most things are cheaper back in Singapore), we are heading back to Singapore.

We will be back again when Scoot's having cheap tickets again! Hoping the AUD will drop too....



My meal on the way back...
After a few days of tasting Luke Mangan's food at Hilton, Jamie's Italian, Neil Perry's Rockpool, Chat Thai, Hurricane's Ribs, etc, we were kinda depressed with this.


The Creamy Chicken Stew.

I guess there is no difference in the food that's prepared in the Australian kitchen. (I am assuming food's freshly loaded from the Australian flight kitchen) It still doesn't looked appetizing too. It was really salty too. Guess they were sticking to the same recipe.

I normally don't eat the bun, but the bun's there for a good reason, you need the bun.


The Lasagne.

Both of us spent our students days eating lasagne while studying as poor students in Australia.
We had better hostel food than this. This was the wife's lasagne she said all she remember is the layer of hardened top!
Digging beneath the hardened layer, was some edible lasagne. Yup, it's salty as usual. At least there's consistency in saltiness.

If you remember when Santouka first came to Singapore and they had the more authentic salty ramen broth, the flight food might be 1.5 times that saltiness. 



We looked forward to dessert though. Yes, we knew how to make it even better!

Your drinks comes with a glass of ice. (Since you have already ordered drinks, the Scooties (yup, the call the flight crew Scooties on board) can top up the ice for you! Mix the fruits in the ice so that it is super cold. It taste even better!

We are wondering, if we can get this in the shops in Singapore. Anyone knows?



Oh yes, to make myself happy, I ordered the SGD5 Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ben & Jerry's!
The best thing on the flight! (other than the peaches in Apple Juice).



Ice cream don't seem to melt on the plane. You don't need to order slow-melting Haagen-Dazs or Ya Kun's Ice Cream that doesn't melt. Any ice cream don't melt on a flying plane!

It's not possible to use the spoon provided to eat the ice cream, it's way too hard! You will break the plastic spoon.

The best way to eat it? Squeeze the paper container and let the ice cream pop up. Bite it slowly and I find that's the best way to eat it! I wanted a second ice cream, but the person beside me said no!

That said, we will still fly Scoot on our next flight to Sydney.
- Bye bye Qantas for abandoning Singapore as a stop over and choosing Dubai.
- Singapore Airline's too expensive sometimes.
- British Airways breaking off the alliance from Qantas will probably not fly to Australia anymore.

Scoot has wide seats even for the el-cheapo flights, even for a person with long legs.
Let's hope the food will get better on the next flight there!

The SuperBrunch (21 October 2012) @ The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore

To those who sometimes need to pamper themselves with some finer things in life, this is an invite for you to come along to the 8th SuperBrunch at The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore.

The date: 21 October 2012, 12 - 3 PM.
 
Call Ritz-Carlton at (+65) 6434 5288 to request a reservation. Then put a reminder on your calendar for Singapore's Grandest Buffet - The SuperBrunch!

There's a reason it's called the SuperBrunch. If you have been to the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore, the buffet will span from Chihuly Lounge, the Lobby into the Greenhouse! I was told that's around 78 metres display of glorious food!

Here are some photos of the previous SuperBrunch, courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton.
The hotel's culinary team helmed by Executive Chef Arnaud Thulliez will present the SuperBrunch. 



For lovers of Crustacean, the are lots and also varieties of oysters, poached lobsters, tiger prawns, scallops, crabs.



Tempting you already? Which of the above tempts you more?



There' also assortment of sashimi, sushi and home-made smoked salmon.



Other highlights of the SuperBrunch includes the Charcuterie: Foie gras parfait, prune pate, Iberico and Serano ham, duck galantine and pork trotter vinaigrette.

For cheeses, there will be over 90 varieties of cheese to savour!



No, they don't have a vegetarian or rather salads only price, but if there is, I can imagine my vegetarian friends having the best spread of salads ever!

The Mains will be a selection of Western and Asian dishes, including veal paupiette with sweetbread and taleggio, pan-fried kurobuta pork roll in pancetta with armagnac marinated prunes and celeriac fondant and deep-fried grouper with supreme soya sauce.

For the Carvery there will be a  whole wagyu beef leg with jus bourguignon, slow-roasted for 32 hours to perfection.  Additional carvery items include roasted Iberico pork rack as well as whole roasted quail with giblet farce, chasselas grape jus. Live a la minute foie gras station.



Depending on which package, you get Unlimited Moët and Chandon Grand Vintage Rosé 2002 and Grand Vintage 2002.  Enhancing the selection at the bar is a variety of wines, cocktails, mocktails and juices.



Dessert highlights includes the Chocolate fountain, mini brioche toasted with apple compote, Caribbean panna cota with midori sago and coffee cream with mascarpone mousse and Irish bailey.

The wife and I can't wait to visit! She's already saying, we got to diet now!

For this 8th installment of the SuperBrunch, 3 chefs will be showcasing the best of Asia with two special dishes each. The chefs are Chef Fok Kai Yee from Summer Pavilion Ritz-Carlton Singapore, Chef Jarrett Wrisley from Soul Food Mahanakorn in Bangkok and Chef-Founder Vivien Seet-Lian from Blue Ginger restaurant in Singapore.

Here are the prices. Remember the prices includes unlimited champagne.

The 8th Installment of SuperBrunch is on 21 October 2012, 12 Noon - 3 PM.

Prices:
S$328++ per adult (with unlimited Dom Perignon Vintage 2003, selected wine and cocktails)
S$198++ per adult (with unlimited Moet and Chandon Vintage 2002 Brut and Rosé, selected wine and cocktails)
S$99++ per child (six to 12 years of age)
S$49.50++ per child (three to five years of age)


SuperBrunch @ The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore
7 Raffles Avenue
Singapore 039799

Tel: +65 6434 5288
Email: rc.sinrz.restaurantreservations@ritzcarlton.com



If you are on Facebook, you can 'Like' their Facebook Page to keep in contact with news and updates.

See you there!