Reese's NutRageous Bar

If you love peanut butter, chances are you would adore Reese's peanut butter cup. I discovered a treasure trove of Reese's products at the Hershey's store over at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).

It was absolutely wonderful to be in there. All kinds of Hershey's Bars, Kisses and Reese's. There are even peanut butter sauce or peanut butter chocolate sauce to pour over cakes or ice cream.

A friend bought me this ~ Reese's NutRageous. It is a bar of chocolate filled with creamy salty peanut butter and surrounded by nutty crunchy peanuts and held together with a thin layer of sticky caramel.

The taste reminded me of a Snickers bar except this is chockful of peanut butter. Heaven.

I would go back to RWS, just to shop at the Hershey's store.

Botan ~ Far East Square

The pictures posted by a friend had got me salivating over the food at Botan. So when I was in the vicinity, I just had to try it.

The lunch bentos were pretty affordable at around $16 to $25 or so. I chose the Saba bento. It came with a portion of the mackeral (saba), sashimi, miso soup, chawanmushi, some oden and special dish (tofu and meat which reminded me of ma po dou fu).

Maybe I should not have a high expectation as I felt a bit disappointed with the food. The quality was ok, maybe just slightly above average. But even the saba set from Sun with Moon was of a bigger portion and fresh. This seemed to be just heated up.

It was still much better than the usual Sushi Tei or Sakae Sushi.

Darn! I am too spoiled by Inagiku quality of Japanese food. Then again even Sun with Moon at Chijmes quality is equally good too.

New soft toy ~ adorable sheep

A colleague bought me this during her trip to New Zealand. Isn't that so sweet of her? The sheep is so cute too!

We started work at the same time (just last month) and I sure didn't expect anything at all. It was a very nice surprise to get this little gift from her.

It is really awesome when you have nice/good colleagues as it makes one look forward to going to work.

Nasi Goreng ~ Chatterbox, Meritus Mandarin

It is so hard to take an accurate picture of the nasi goreng at Chatterbox. It is somewhere between the 2 pictures (flash and without).

Besides the famous chicken rice, Chatterbox also serves some pretty decent local food. I like the beef hor fun which has generous serving of tender beef slices with the wok-hei flavored kway teow in a flavorful gooey sauce. The other dish which I like is the hokkien prawn mee which is also super yummy with the pork lard in it.

This time round, we decided to try the nasi goreng istimewa which was surprisingly pretty good. It really did not look that appetizing but the taste was nice. The satay was tender and easy to pull out from the stick. The prawns were fresh and sweet and crunchy. The fried rice was done nicely too.

But seriously the prices at Chatterbox are very high. Each dish is about $25. Even with the Eat@Meritius card, it is pricey for local food. So this is pretty much a once in a while dining for me when I crave for the food at Chatterbox.

Waraku Central

I ordered the spicy beef ramen over at Waraku inside Central as I was in the mood for ramen. It was surprisingly tasty. The broth was not overly spicy and the beef was tender. The egg could be better, like those served at Maratuma which is still my favorite place for the soft hard boiled egg.

The service was also good and the wait staff was attentive enough to come by to top up our tea or water. Kids were also taken care of as they gave my nephews some toys to entertain them while waiting for the food. That was a pleasant and welcome surprise.

Footwear for Work

It has become a challenge for me to find comfortable shoes for work as the office dress code is much more formal than my previous companies. Plus I find it stressful on the feet to be in heels the entire day even though I am basically desk-bound. So I much prefer to wear flats or low-heeled shoes. That means covered shoes, no more dressy sandals as those I have showed too much skin and I do not think they are that appropriate for work.

I am so thankful that I did purchase some flats over the last few years even though I hardly wear them as they are pretty much my staples for footwear now. Still, what I have is not enough and so I did buy another pair of shoes.

Ta-dah! My very first ballerina flats from Tod's. I have been wanting a pair of Ballerinas Dee from Tod's since 2009 but somehow never got around to buying them. Unfortunately what I wanted (Anthracite from last year collection) was no longer available and this was the next best thing. I do not know what is this color but it is kinda dark silvery lilac. This is such a hard color to remember that I am never able to visualize it in my mind.

While this is very comfortable, I found out it is not meant for walking for a long period of time as it is a bit too flat. Apparently we need a bit of heel for walking otherwise the pressure is on the feet. I must marvel at the construction of this pair of shoes.

The first time I wore them, my feet were a bit sore and raw at the front. They were red but I did not get any blisters at all. I wore them again a few weeks later and they were perfectly molded to my feet. They were still buttery soft and there was even some breathing space. This is a very good reason to splurge on quality shoes ~ blisters free.

Digging out my other proper shoes, I found this pair of Easy Spirit pumps which I bought in 2008. I properly only wore them a couple of times before they were relinquished to the cold storage. The grey-taupe pumps were pretty comfortable, unfortunately I developed blisters at the back of my feet after half a day of wearing them. I have not wore them again yet. I probably would need to since I don't have that many pairs of shoes to rotate around.

This was another pair of flats which surprised me. The red patent ballerina flats from Bellerinas (available at Tangs + Co) were actually comfortable when I wore them again. The main reason why I hardly wear covered shoes were because I tend to get blisters either on the front or the back of my feet. So I thought I would get the blisters again when I took them out.

Somehow they were ok on me and was actually quite comfortable (but not as comfy as Tod's). At least these looked smart and added a bit of color to my drab office wear (typical black and grey or white ~ I missed the days I could wear bright colors, maybe some day soon).

Another reason to love shoes from Bellerinas is that they made my wide feet look slim. The black pair is still a bit harder than the red patent, but hopefully it will soften over time. This also did not give me any blisters this time round.

Maybe the trick to not getting blisters is to leave them alone for a while?

I have another 3 pairs of covered shoes which I am currently using for work ~ 2" court shoes from Hush Puppies (gave me blisters though) and a black pair of ballerina flats from Aldo (also no more blisters this time) and a pair of silver ballerina flats from Hush Puppies which used to give me blisters but are ok now.

The back of my feet were so badly abused by the various covered shoes the last few weeks that they are almost permanently black from the scars. They are better now and hopefully the scars would lighten and disappear over time.

In the meantime, I am still on the hunt for comfortable sandals which are preferably backless and could be used for work. Then I can wear them when I get blisters again.

Saturday Lunch at Inagiku

This was the first time I went to Inagiku over at Fairmont for lunch on a Saturday. Usually it had been dinner or weekday lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to discover there were set lunches on Saturdays too.

Unfortunately the menu has changed. That is quite usual for Inagiku as it tends to introduce new menus to reflect the current seasonal offerings. But it meant that the chirashi lunch set was no longer available and I was looking forward to that. There was only one type of chirashi in the lunch menu under the ala carte section and it did not seem very appealing. So I decided to order the seafood teppanyaki set. After all, Inagiku is also pretty well known for its teppanyaki.

We started with a salad which was excellent. Fresh greens with the light citrusy dressing which teased the palate and primed it for the main course. The plain crispy bits added extra crunch and made a good foil to the zesty taste.

TT ordered the steak teppanyaki. The portion looked a bit sad, didn't it? Then again, it was lunch and there were miso soup and rice and veggies plus pickles too. I could not remember if there was also a chawanmushi.

In contrast, my order of seafood teppanyaki looked almost bountiful. Tender cod and sweet scallop which were grilled to perfection. The chawanmushi was smooth and just slid down the throat. What I really liked was the grilled prawns mentai topped with ebiko. The creamy sauce was just gorgeous with the sweet fresh prawns and popping ebiko. The miso soup was not overly salty or bland.

Dessert! Instead of the usual fruits, it was a scoop of ice cream. There were only 2 choices ~ green tea or black sesame. The ice cream was delicately infused with the aromatic taste of black sesame. The size was just right too, not too much to feel overly rich and just enough to take the edge off the need for something sweet to end the meal.

Checkers Brasserie, Hilton Singapore

I had lunch with my ex-colleagues and they chose the Checkers Brasserie over at Hilton Hotel. Somehow I had never dine at Hilton Hotel though I had the pretty well known cheesecake before. It was a lunch/high tea buffet which was from 12noon to 4pm. I must say this was the least crowded place I had ever been to for a buffet. It was probably only half full when I was there from 1230pm to 3pm.

We had a table by the window which was pretty nice with the sunlight streaming in and the greenery out there. I liked that we could have freshly squeezed juices. You just select the fruits/veggies and the staff would juice them. That was a nice touch. I had watermelon with celery and then honeydew with watermelon.

The cold appetizers (grilled zucchini, portobello mushroom, smoked salmon, pumpkin, mozzarella with tomato, mushroom, egg and sushi) which I didn't really like. The sushi was hard. Of what I tried, I only like the portobello mushroom which was woodsy smoky and juicy.

From the small dim sum/Chinese selection, I tried the mushroom rice roll, char siew bun and fried beehoon. The mushroom rice roll was surprisingly good. It was tender and soft. The beehoon was a tad too salty for my palate.

The char siew bun was not too bad. At least the bun was not dry and hard.

More items from the appetizer section. Seared tuna which was ok, portobello mushroom, kueh pie ti (I loved this. It was crispy crunchy and tasty), roast chicken which was pretty standard and roast beef. The roast beef was tender and not too chewy.

Finally the mains ~ pizza slices and potato skin which were hard. The crispy baby squids were very good. The pasta was so-so and the fish was average too. Again the kueh pie ti shone in this plate.

There was a noodle section where you select the type of noodles (kway teow, yellow noodle, tang hoon, bee hoon) and toppings plus the soup (laksa or prawn stock). I chose tang hoon with veggies, prawns, squid, fish and mushroom in prawn stock. The chef would cook the ingredients and then you just top up with the soup of your choice. I should have added more soup as the tang hoon just soaked up the liquid. This was nice as the seafood was fresh and sweet.

Dessert was pretty much hit and miss. I only liked the bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce. The other nice item was the coffee square. The rest was not as great.

Again only the bread and butter pudding was nice. I totally forgot to try the marble cheesecake as I was not really a big fan of cheesecake. I should have since Checkers is known for its cheesecake.

The place was not big, yet I did not really try everything. I totally missed out on the fruits and chocolate fountain section, as well as the wide selection of cheese and crackers available and the other hot mains like tempura, some Indian food and more Chinese food. Another nice thing was the selection of tea available. You get to choose the type of tea and brew it in a pot.

I would not say Checkers Brasserie is fantastic but there are some dishes which are nice and others which are not really to my taste. It is always good to get out of my usual buffet places (yes, Greenhouse at Ritz Carlton or Rose Verandah at Shangri-La) and try other restaurants for a change.

Afternoon Tea at TCC, Suntec City Mall

TCC over at Suntec City Mall offers a tea set special in the afternoon. It is pretty good as you get a pot of tea with scones, open faced sandwiches and fruit tarts.

Unfortunately I only like the open faced sandwiches. The other stuff didn't impress me much. Still, it is nice to sit down with a book and enjoy some tea and nibbles when you have an afternoon to while away.

A good way to spend a couple of hours. The outlet at Suntec City Mall is usually quiet as it is not very crowded on a weekday.

Dian Xiao Er, VivoCity

We went to Dian Xiao Er over at VivoCity last month as I was missing the duck. It is quite amazing that I will actually want to eat duck since I am never a duck meat lover. I much prefer chicken or white meat or fish. Somehow the duck over at Dian Xiao Er is very tender and the herbal gravy is just wonderful, especially when drenched over rice.

We decided to just order 2 dishes since there were only 2 of us and we were not starving. We tried the 3-egg spinach. It was very good. The spinach was fresh and crunchy and the eggs (century, salted and regular ~ I think it was 3 types) were fantastic.

Simple dinner which just hit the spot. It was always nice to be able to go somewhere where you know the food will be good, if not decent.