Carl's Jr @ Big Splash

I was quite amazed at the changes at the Big Splash area. It has been so long since I last went to that area, must be years before the renovation. There are so many new eateries and food joints at Big Splash now. It was also a horror looking for a parking lot too. Why are people at East Coast in the late morning? Lol, I would thought people would go to the beach in the late afternoon when the sun is not so strong.

I saw Carl's Jr and was tempted by the burger. It has been a few months since I last had it. Almost half a year :p I ordered the guacamole bacon burger, the one which contains over 1000 calories! So I usually would only order that if I am sharing it or if it is in the morning. Then to make myself feel better, I also ordered a side salad. Hahahaha.

My huge huge meal for brunch. My excuse is also that I would be cycling later, so burning off those calories.
The side garden salad. Crisp, greens with shredded cheese which tasted very synthetic. I didn't like that. I also regretted adding in the balsamic vinaigrette right into the salad. I usually prefer to have the dressing on the side as I like the fresh clean taste of the greens. The multigrain garlic croutons were surprising good. I am usually not a fan of it.
I think the burger patty has shrunk now? I used to remember how big the entire thing was.
It was still a big and thick bun, but not so for the filling. I guess this will always happen in Singapore or Asia. It would never be the same portion as you get in the States or Canada. But I still love the freshly brewed iced tea where you can sweeten it yourself. Reminded me of in Houston, Texas where the tea is always unsweetened.

Cheesy Spicy Tuna Noodle

This looked really ugly but also very yummy! Hahaha. Don't you find that sometimes ugly looking food actually tastes pretty awesome?

Took this with flash. I couldn't decide on which pic represents the food best, so 2 pics there are.

This was such a last minute thing, kinda scouring the fridge and pantry for food and decided to just make my old staple standby.

Ingredients:
cooked shells (not enough to combat the spicyness, so added linguine and cooked again :p)
1 can Ayam brand chili tuna (must include the chili oil as that gives the spicyness, the whole chili itself does not give the spicyness at all - I have experimented with it many times)
1 can chicken mushroom soup
1/3 cream cheese with chives (this is something new)
some milk
1/2 chopped onion
frozen corn kernels

Method:
Mix them all together and place in oven to bake for 15mins at 180c heat.

It would be nicer if I still have some mini portobello mushrooms and some greens in it too. I usually like to add peas and finely chopped celery too and sprinkle with crushed crackers or cheese on top.

The cream cheese made the noodle very rich and creamy as if it was a carbonara type of pasta dish. I like it! I may use cream cheese in future instead of using shredded cheddar or mozzarella and stirring into the pasta.

This dish is very spicy but not as bad as the one which I made last year where I used 2 cans of chili tuna. But I may want to tweak this further by maybe using half the chili oil so that people who do not like the fiery hot sensation can enjoy it better too. Back to the drawing board :p

Art Installation

I saw this at the National Museum when I was there in January this year, so I am not sure if this is still there. Isn't that cute? The head of the seal popping up amidst the greenery. This was just above the stairs leading to a gallery on the 2nd or 3rd level.

But the bottom is a bit disturbing. You get to see the body of the seal hanging in the middle when you are walking up or down the stairs.

Here is the sign with more description on the art installation :)

Soup Spoon - Chicken Cacciatore with Portobello and Sage

I decided to redeem my soupaholic card for a free soup and I chose the chicken cacciatore with portobello and sage. I wanted a hearty soup with lots of chunky vegetables and this filled the tummy.

My usual order is the clam chowder which is one of the best I ever had. Smooth, rich and creamy clam chowder full of goodies.

The chicken cacciatore was pretty good with the tangy tomato based stew with pieces of chicken and veggies. The server added a small dollop of sour cream which gave another dimension to the taste. I was a bit disappointed with the sour cream portion as it was so tiny. Plus it was a bit chunky too, not meltingly soft like at Shaslik where they were very generous with the sour cream.

Description from soup spoon website:
Cacciatore is a traditional Italian hunter style stew. Marinated chicken braised with country vegetables, this stew is substantial, lavish and amply flavored with tomatoes, mustard and parmesan cheese. Portobello mushrooms, bursting with the essence of red wine added an intense earthy flavor and meaty chew whereas sage gives a mellow woodsy flavor. Truly a hunter’s fare.

Rive Gauche Cakes

I was craving for cakes after watching Made of Honor and saw the leads eating cakes at a wedding. Hahaha. How easy it is to be enticed by what you see. It is true for other food blogs too, especially those who take very good pictures. Mine are just point and shoot, the garden variety :p So I decided to pop by Rive Gauche at Plaza Singapura outlet to check out what they have. I mean, I rather eat good cakes than to just randomly buy from other places. I have always like Rive Gauche, particularly the Guanaja.

The Guanaja is bittersweet chocolate mousse and ganache with crispy biscuit for the base. It is one of my fave chocolate cakes. Just too bad there was no individual slice available. I bought the mango and coco espresso. I was a bit disappointed with the plain white box, maybe I am too much into packaging now. But for such nice cakes, it makes sense to invest in their own boxes. Rive Gauche is under the Pokka Group, which also owns Tonkichi and Pasta Cafe.

The coco espresso is pretty good too. Oreo biscuit bottom with a layer of ganache, 2 layers of flourless sponges with coffee syrup and a layer of coffee mousse and chocolate mousse topped off with vanilla cream. Yummy!

The mango cake is a bestseller. Mango mousse between 2 layers of sponges and slices of mango. It was light and not super sweet, plus the mango slices made it all the more delicious.

Oyster Mee Sua @ Plaza Singapura

I actually wanted to buy lobster bisque from Saybons but it was sold out. So I decided to get the oyster mee sua from the stall in the basement of Plaza Singapura. It has been more than half a year since I last had this. Or has it been a year now? Besides Shih Lin Taiwanese snack food, there is this outlet which I can never recall the name. I only recognize it based on its yellow signboard and packaging.
It was good. A delicate balance of the cilantro, vinegar, fried shallots and chili gave the umami factor which makes you want to slurp it all up. I like it for a light and satisfying meal.

Kway Chap @ Cineleisure Food Court

This is the most generous food court kway chap I have ever had. It has been about a couple of years (I think) since I last ate at the Kway Chap stall at Cineleisure food court and it is still as good as ever.

I usually order kway chap without any meat or the innards as I still am not a pork person. I will just say anything except the meat/innards when placing my order. It came with fish cake, peanuts, beancurd, egg and tau pok. I thought that was quite a lot of ingredients and had many pieces too. All these for $4.

At other places, I usually get just 4 types - the above minus the peanuts. I love the sweet taste of the peanuts. I also like the mei cai which some outlet will include instead of other stuff. I like the tau pok too. In fact, I like everything in a kway chap, except the meat/innards :p

Wasabi Bistro @ Mandarin Oriental

After much waiting and planning, we finally made it to Wasabi Bistro at Mandarin Oriental. It is pretty hard to get everyone together, and in the end only 5 of us could make it. Yuzu soy sauce - a specialty which apparently is only available at Wasabi Bistro.

The yuzu zest really made a difference to the soy sauce. The heady fragrance of the citrusy fruit mixed with the saltiness of soy sauce gave a subtle light taste to the sushi. The Japanese chef came out to dispense the yuzu zest in our soy sauce.
Sashimi for 2-3 persons. Basically I only like salmon and tuna sashimi, the others were ok. We ordered another plate of that. In the end, we decided to just get another order of the sashimi but only salmon :)
Ahi Fillet - seared tuna topped with bonito flakes and some other stuff. This was good too, not overcooked at all.

Dynamite roll - this was spicy even though we requested for medium in the range of spiciness. It was spicy without the dip which reminded us of the chicken rice chili sauce.
I forgot the name of this signature dish. It is something mama roll. Basically it is california roll topped with unagi. Somehow the piece I took didn't really have that much avocado in it.

The signature dish - Kumi's No 1. It is so good that each diner is only allowed 1 order of it.
When you cut it open. Full of crab meat, avocado and what not encased in a creamy sauce. It was super yummy! But it can get a bit jelak after a while.

My fave dish - Australian beef tenderloin in teriyaki sauce. This was medium rare and there was not a hint of blood or pinkiness at all. I like that. The meat was tender and yet has a light beefy taste to it.
Fried oyster roll. This was a disappointment. Not as good as I thought it would be. Then again, maybe by then we were a bit stuffed from the other dishes. We finished almost everthing except this. Left 2 pieces.

Rainbow roll. We ordered 2 of this. I think because we have 5 persons, the portions looked like usual restaurant portion. 1 person's portion is actually 3 pieces of sushi. It was chockful of crabmeat too. Hmmm...somehow I think Sushi Tei rainbow roll is better even though there was not so much of the crabmeat. Or maybe it was because I only had 2-3 pieces in our 2 orders of it :p

Roasted duck - it was ok. Look at the layer of fat :p I'm not really a duck person, so can't really comment much on it.
Another signature dish - scallop on rice. I forgot the name but basically it has scallops and some other seafood? over rice and topped with the same creamy sauce.
It was pretty good too, good thing we shared the dish. It would be too much for 1 or 2 persons.
Zaru soba. I didn't try this but it sure looked good. I had the miso soup which was quite normal.
Garlic fried rice - this was really good! Fragrant and fried so right. All 5 of us shared this and it was just the correct portion for us to get a taste of it.

Shrimp tempura - it went by the number of pieces you requested. Not bad.
One thing which puzzled me was how the plates, cups and bowls did not match at all. Some of us were given the typical Japanese porcelain cups and I got the clear glass for my green tea. And some friends were served iced water in the usual tall glass and some were given goblets. I wonder if it was intentional or they ran out of matching cups, plates and bowls.

We did hear 2 crashes in the 2.5 hours we were there. They were very strict about the last order. Last order is now at 2pm as the restaurant is opened till 230pm, even on a Sunday. The website is not updated.
Black seasame ice cream. Also very nice.
Green tea ice cream - I love this. Creamy green tea taste in a milky smooth texture.The matcha something dessert. Lol. I am bad with remembering the names. Red bean with green tea mochi. This went very well with the green tea ice cream.

The fruit platter for 1 person. Looked nice.

We didn't realize the portion for the dessert was so tiny and since they took a long time to serve desserts, by the time it came, last order was already over, so we couldn't order more ice cream of the red bean thing. We actually ordered dessert around 145pm, the desserts came around 210pm or so.

So one thing to note is that you need to order everything at one shot. Don't wait to see how the portion is, cos they typically take about 20-30mins for the food to be served. And they do know how to judge the portion for your group. The only items we had 2 orders of were the sashimi, beef and rainbow rolls. So actually we only had like 1 piece each of each sushi, tempura, duck, beef for each plate they served us.

But we were still stuffed. This is not a all you can eat buffet type. Instead you pay for good quality Japanese food and get to try many different things too. Some of the other desserts were not available and another signature dish - something papaya.

Service wise, it was hit and miss. It was good when I first went in and I was one of the first few customers but when it started to get busy (not full house, but maybe 80%), the service was almost non-existant. We had to request for water, tea to be topped up. Food took a "long" time to arrive. Good thing we had good company to tide us over. But one thing impressed me, they do remembered what you have ordered. So maybe they were shorthanded in the kitchen?

At the end of the meal, when most guests have left, the wait staff was pretty obliging and patient in helping us take group pictures. I have always like the service at Mandarin Oriental, so I am not particularly annoyed when water and tea was not topped up promptly.

Location:

Wasabi Bistro

Mandarin Oriental, Level 4

Tel: 6885 3091

Price: $58++, top up $55 for champagne brunch

Horses in Motion

Colorful horses have hit town for a few weeks now. As part of the Singapore International Racing Festival (10 - 18 May, 2008), 10 horses painted in various themes are being displayed around the downtown core of Singapore.

So far, I have spotted the horses at Plaza Singapura, Bugis Junction and outside Raffles Place MRT. It reminded me of the Melbourne Cup in Australia where there were also horses on display to highlight the race.

I thought the SIA horse was very girly and flirty with its long lashes and ruby red lips :p A sure way to get the girls interested in horse racing.

This colorful horse was to represent the kerchiefs usually held by the jockeys. Till now, I have never attended a horse race at all. Somehow it doesn't really appeal to me. But I do know the turf club has a Ladies Night thing going on every Wednesday. So at least the advertising campaign worked.

Qi Ji Popiah

I am pretty amazed by Qi Ji popiah. Lol. Just realized how fitting my description is - "amaze". The popiah rolls still retained its shape after more than 6 hours. We bought Qi Ji popiahs as part of the light snacks we were providing for a mini-event today. They were purchased around 1pm and I ate them around 815pm. I transported them in plates (we threw away the boxes earlier) and not in the prettiest of way of holding them.

They were subjected to being tilted, swaying around and yet they still looked good enough to be eaten. No sogginess, they remained as firm and compact as ever. I could hold up each piece without it disintegrating.

Close up of the ingredients in the popiah. Very generous and each bite was full of wholesome flavor. Actually one roll is pretty filling.

Parking Lot Indicator

This has been around for about a month now. Several of these were installed in the CBD area. I thought this is really one useful board as it allows motorists to know how many parking lots are available in the surrounding areas. This was taken on a weekday morning, so many lots were available.

Come evening or weekends, it will be hard to find parking lots, especially at Marina Square, Suntec City and Raffles City. When that happens and you are going to be late for an appointment, then it is definitely better to valet park the car with the hotels. The cost is not that much and with today's gas prices, you will be saving time and money instead of circling around looking for a lot.

Error?

I got a scare a couple of days back when I can't access my own blog. It said it seemed like my request was made from a bot or something. I tried other blogspot blogs and I couldn't access those too.

It is sad when you feel like you have nothing to do online when that happened because you usually spend the 1 hour or so online reading other foodblogs (and usually hosted by blogspot) to destress and think about your next meal :p

I got 2 friends to try accessing my blog and it turned out to be the ISP fault. One friend could access it, the other couldn't. The one who couldn't has the same ISP as me. So I had to surf other websites and do other things while waiting. Finally, after a few hours, I could enter my blog. This was the 2nd time it had happened. Wonder why that occurred.

Vietnamese stall at Suntec Food Republic

I didn't know there is a Vietnamese stall at Suntec Food Republic now. I ordered my usual Vietnamese staple - pho. Beef slices and beef balls noodles. It was surprisingly pretty decent. It could be better but it was still ok. Tasty.

The Vietnamese coffee was excellent too. Service was pretty good, they will bring the coffee and noodles to your table. Nice.

Gavottes Dark Chocolate Crepes

Davis raved about this last year or so and I finally bought one to try a couple of months ago and tried it last month or so.
It was really very good. Light crispy wafers in dark chocolate were just too good to stop at just one. Good to have colleagues, they helped to finish the yummy snack :)

More Tim Tams

The very last of my stash of snack food is finally gone. I brought them along to the BBQ last night. Share the calories, I say :p So I was good, I only had one of each, just for a taste. Surprisingly 1 bite is actually sufficient. Maybe that also indicates that they are not that fantastic or irresistable.

Of the three, I like the Toffee Nut. Bits of toffee spread on top of the chocolate biscuit and coated in chocolate. I like the crunch when you bite down on the toffee bits.

The Mocha Hazelnut was really disappointing. I thought it would be scrumptious with nuts and mocha. Instead the mocha taste was hardly discernable and the nuts were just average, I think any regular nutty chocolate would be way better.

The Chocolate Mud was super sweet. Chocolate filling sandwich between chocolate biscuits and coated with chocolate = too much sweetness. It might be better if some of the chocolate were of the dark variety or something.

Under the Love Potions series, I very much prefer the Double Chocolate and Raspberry version. That was just right.

No more going into Candy Empire and buying sweets. Not at least till after the Shape Run :p

Linguini in white wine

It looked pretty decent but taste wise, it was a disaster. Lol. I just wanted to finish up the bottle of white wine which I opened a few weeks ago, so I am not sure if that affected the taste.

I didn't really like either because the alcohol content was too much or the wine was bad. Not a wine drinker or expert, so I can't really make a judgement on this.

It was just a simple meal - linguine with mini portobello mushrooms (I love this mushrooms, just bring out the flavor and sweetness), honey cherry tomatoes, chili padis with white wine and olive oil. Then I had it with the steamed fish which was already cooked.

Maybe I should have just use the white wine for the clams. Just that it was so hard to find fresh clams from the supermarket. I think only the wet markets or maybe Giant will have them.