Old World Series 1: OSD

right now I'm down at creme. 

one awkward Saturday where I decided not to do any work. 

it's a rarity, considering that I do work at least on 2 of my weekends. 

In all honesty, a part of me feel like kicking myself for not bringing something work related down here while waiting for the boy to get his hair cut. 

instead I'm reading Cleo ( last I touched it, I was still in Uni) and sipping on green tea. 

come to think of it, this week I haven being doing much work. 

the colleagues went on a retreat tgt on Thursday afternoon during our meeting slot. 

Old school delight at Upper Thomson.

First Word: 

good service, cozy and nice local fare:) 

needless to say I fell in love with the warm and quirky decor and the fact that I get to write my orders on a whiteboard!

the food was pretty awesome! 

these are just some of the food we got for ourselves to share.

the kueh pie tee is a MUST TRY. 

macaroni was alright only,

but the Mee Siam is really good!! 

It's definitely more ex than the local fares you get at the hawker centers. 

but for the env. $5.80/mee Siam is still quite okay. 

we also had ( not in the pictures) 

lemon cake , really refreshing and light 

sticky chewy chocolate cake, which is too sweet for my liking

and curry chicken too! 

It was a really satisfying afternoon lunch treat by the seniors. :) 

right now. 

I'm just telling myself to relax and breathe. 

not to feel guilty for not doing work.

and just enjoy the Singapore Night Festival :) 

will blog more when I'm back from the event!:) 

till then,

lets continue breathing. 

[put in maximum effort, 

be firm] 

 

Food: Jamie - Naked Cuisine

hi everyone, it's been a long while and T and I are deeply apologetic about it.

seems like we are 2 individuals who can't seem to manage our time well. bummers 

nevertheless, during the hiatus,

we definitely did not stop our hunt for food. 

we explored, 

and so we thought we share one of our latest find to welcome us back from our 'break'

Over the long weekend, 

T and I together with his papa, mama and sis visited Jamie's Italian.

yup! it is indeed the very much anticipated arrival of the naked chef, 

which sees current online reservation fully booked for the month of September. Walk in guests ? - be prepared for a long wait. 

First Word : Small serving. Come for the mains and desserts. Not so sure about the ravioli :( 

I suppose that's my main take away from Jamie's Italian. 

The serving size of 1 is insufficient to fill 

the stomachs of an average Asian girl like me, much less that of a full grown T who stands at 1.87m. 

We ended up have a huge supper down at Changi Village.: 

Anyways, I'm here to talk about Jamie. So.. Jamie it shall be:

1. Starters. 

We ordered 3 starters to share amongst the 5 of us. 

A. Fried Squid

Nicely fried and paired with red chili. A smarty Asian fusion of salt and pepper.

Taste very much like the friend squids I'll get from crystal jade kitchen.

Nothing spectacular , just very nice :) 

B. Bread Platter accompanied with balsamic and olive oil.

Mind you, I'm a big bread / carbo fan. Most Italian restaurants serve you this for free,

and since we paid for this bread platter, 

we definitely were expecting something exciting. 

So there were 7 different types and one of each type ( okay fine, usually restaurants only serves 1 type of bread but still its in in multiple slices and it's free!!) 

Still, to give it the due credit, 

I enjoyed the different type of bread. it's interesting. and a good choice to share among like 4 - 5 ppl?

maybe not for 2, that's too much carb before your mains.:) 

C. The last starter: POSH CHIPS

nicely deep fried potato with skins in truffle oil and mozzarella cheese:) 

very tasty, doesn leave behind an oily after taste and it's salty! ( just very small serving )

2. THE PASTAS.  

I was really looking forward to their pastas, and I thought I'll give my 2 cents worth abt it.

T's mom : Prawn Linguine. 

Serving size is just right. interesting tomato sauce based, but that's that. a very simple dish

T's sis: tuna fusilli . another tomato based pasta. what was Interesting is the bread crumbs that give you an additional crunch in every bite.

MINE: STUFFED MUSHROOM RAVIOLI. 

I chose the $18 serving which the waitress said was suitable for 1-2 people to share. 

Yet, what arrived was just 7 pieces of ravioli and I tasted more flour than mushroom in every bite :( 

the overall taste of the dish is good, but the serving size is just too little to be satisfying :( 

3. The Mains 

First word: a little pricey but tasty

T's dad: Lamb Chops. Really well done. 

As you can see, there's a nice infusion

of Asian spices in the dish. 

I thought it's e best of all the dishes that we tired that day.

T's main: Baked catch of the day. The fish was really well cooked, it's moist and chewy. Still, we are not used the taste, the sauce was a lil bland for us.

4. Desserts 

We ordered 2 desserts to share : 

Lemon Menrigue : I really love the taste of the Menrigue. It's zesty without being overly sour. However, it'll be better if the crust is thicker. 

Tiramisu: I know it doesn look as good as the usuals, but it tastes really nice. it's really moist and has a nice taste of the rum.

In short, 

We had a Nice experience at Jamie's 

good service, 

the food is only passable 

serving size is too small.. 

we spent around $180 for 5. 

It's good to give it a try to say hi to the famous Naked Chef.

But I was just disappointed that it wasn't wow. 

Tip: If you are intending to come in big group? -- please make a reservation? 

       If you are intending to queue, approach the staff and tell them the number of pax and await their instruction. That day, we simply joined the queue for an hour only to arrive at the door, telling us that we have to wait for another 2 hours before they can seat our table of 5. You definitely do not wish to have to go through the process of reasoning. It will just ruin your mood and your impression of the place before you even order. ) 

Food: Tanuki, Orchard Central.

First Word: Disappointing much.

It was our first saturday back from Hong Kong and "T" and I were craving for all foods apart from Chinese Food.
While I was busy at work, "T" ran a search on Japanese food and up came Tanuki Raw at Orchard Central.

We decided to give it a try since it is the sister bar of Standing Sushi Bar which was pretty awesome.

However, Tanuki was a REAL DISAPPOINTMENT. We are definitely not heading back and yes I am not mincing my word.

1. The Service. 

I absolutely am frustrated with the service crew. We arrived around 7-ish to find Tanuki packed with people, only to realize that majority of the crowd was there for the Happy Hour Promotion. 

Between 5 - 8pm, Tanuki is having the following promotion:

$10 Drinks ( Red Wine, ,Martini. Cocktails) + $3 Sashimi + $2 Oysters. 

Not a bad deal I must say, but too bad, We were not there for the drinks nor the oysters.  We were in search of good quality Japanese food - which we did not get. 

Instead, service was slow. The service staff has smiles wiped off all their faces, except for this Indian guy 

( sorry, we didn't get your name). We even had to ask like twice or thrice to get more tea ( I almost died of thirst) and even to repeatedly call for our bill! 

Goodness, it wasn't like we were rude or that we were there only for the promotion. We ordered proper meal for goodness sake. Even typing about this right  now frustrates me. 

Talking about the orders were even worse. 

We got ourselves: 

1. Sashimi Salad

2. Ocean Rockefeller 

3. Some Maki 

4. Yakitori Don. 

and this is the expected order that we want our food to arrive. Isn't that like common sense? 

YOU DO NOT SERVE YOUR SALAD LAST. 

YOU SERVE YOUR APPETIZERS AND STARTERS FIRST BEFORE YOU EVEN SERVE YOUR MAINS. 

Can you imagine our horror when our yakitori don arrived first and my sashimi salad arrived last? 

Super frustrating. 

2. The food. 

Alright, to give credits to the food, here are some pictures of what we ate and how we feel about it. 

Our maki arrived first : Pales in comparison to similar maki over at Standing Sushi Bar. However, for the price of $9, it can be pretty interesting. Floss + Mayo + Salmon atop fried salmon skin. We thought the rice were overly soft ? ( almost like glutinous rice) and tasteless. It could have been better if the maki were smaller in size with more slices so that one can better enjoy the fusion of the flavor.

Next our yakitori don arrived before our salad or our starter. It was shocking.
The chicken tastes like gong-bao chicken I'll get at a Chinese Tzi-Char stall but one of a milder taste. The taste of the red-green peppers is too overwhelming. We wonder if it was intentional.

Still, kudos to the lotus chips and the not-so-moist-rice. Otherwise, really forgettable.

This ocean rockfeller arrived shortly after our yakitori don. 3 of these cost us $12. 

The taste? Interesting fusion of salmon and mince scallop and hokkigai. We personally thought the meats did not tie in well with the cheese. The scallop were so minced and the salmon were like raw, the entire taste is pretty weird to us. 

Final verdict? - Can give it a try though if you are interested to know how it taste like. No one can really resist the idea of scallops with cheese. 

and so this beautiful looking sashimi salad arrived last. 

The salad dressing has really strong wasabi flavors in it. ( Bad news for the both of us since we do not even remotely like the taste of wasabi.) Most of the better Japanese Restaurants that we visited will ask us if we will like wasabi in our dressing or even in our sushi ( Sakae sushi do ask okay! ) Hence, another example of them being less than attentive to the needs of their clients. 

The Maguro ( Tuna) is tasteless! It is like frozen and then thawed, resulting in a total loss of taste. I couldn't take another bite of it and "T" finished them all, leaving me the salmon. Hence, to give them their due credit, 

their salmon is indeed nice. Sweet and chewy. But that's that. Even their meager amount of Swordfish was forgettable. 

In essence, we were just very disappointed. We spent $61 on this meal and we know we are not going to give it another chance. 

Nevertheless to give it its due credit: Maybe coming for its happy hour is a better idea. Based on our observation, 90% of the in-house gas were enjoying fresh salmon and oysters. Maybe that will be more worthy of your money. :) 

love, 

S. 

Food in Hong Kong 2.- The Hits and Misses.

Since "T" had largely described the awesome food that we had in Hong Kong in the previous post : Desserts, Tea and Eggs!, I thought I'll share a little bit more on  our accomodation, the street food as well as what NOT to eat/do over there !

1. Where we stayed - The CityView Hongkong

"T" and I stayed at The City View Hotel in Yau Ma Tei during our trip. In our opinion, despite it being pretty small and a tad old, the location of the hotel is pretty awesome! It comes will complimentary wi-fi too! So thumbs up on that. 

Location wise, we are located right in front of the MTR stop, Exit A1. 
Surrounded by Fire Station, School and Hospital. ( Very safe)
We are also right smack in the middle of MongKok ( 5 minutes walk away from all the food, crowd, shopping -
Sic: Nu Ren Jie ( lady's market) , Fa Yuen Street ( Sports Street) , etc  ) 
and 10 minutes walk away from Temple Street. 
In fact during our stay in Hong Kong, "T" and I walked hell a lot. 
There was this afternoon where we walked from Tsim Tsa Tsiu all the way back to Yau Mei Tei. That's a total of 3 MTR stops. 

In short, Hong Kong is pretty accessible and walkable. When you walk, you discover stuffs. So why not? 

Tip: If you are travelling in large group, you might want to reconfirm your booking early, so that they are can try to arrange for all of you to be on the same level.
For us: They upgraded our room for free! 

Couples:  Good to get the premier room, it's a tad more spacious, even though it's smaller than many of the hotels in Sg. 

There is no complimentary air port shuttle in Hong Kong, especially for the Hotels on Kowloon's end. 
It is really very accessible via the MTR, if you don't intent to take the expensive air port shuttle or taxi. 

To get to CityView : Buy your Octopus Card. Make sure you have at least 100HKD inside it. Take the airport express to Tsing Yi. Change on to the red line and stop at Lai King. Change over and stop at Yau Mei Tei :) 

2. The "Famous" Dessert Place - Hui Lau San. 

First Word: Passable. Not Fantastic.

When you google "famous hong kong dessert" - you will  no doubt see the name Hui Lau San appearing in your results page and they are literally every where in Hong Kong. 

In short: A lot of franchise. 

As do all franchise, poor quality management will only give you passable food. "T" , me and his parents ordered a platter of sort to try out some of their more popular desserts. 

As you can see, it is largely mango-based. I absolutely love their mango - sago dessert. It is similar to the mango-pomelo back here in Singapore, except that it is extra chilled. Hence, a total thirst quencher in summer. 

"T"'s parents absolutely love the mochi. So much so that we had another serving of it after this order! The mochi doesn't sticks to your mouth, and is extra chewy! The best part is, it oozes out mango filling with each bite. Hence, definitely a thumbs up from us. 

Erm, the mango ice -cream thinggie? It is just so forgettable. I thought King's Mango Ice Cream was much better. So yeah, you can give it a try to satisfy your curiosity. 

2. Street Food!

 - Mong Kok's Curry Fish Ball + Fried Cuttle Fish. 

- Burger King's Sweet Potato Criss Cut Fries                         

 - Mong Kok's Che Zai Mian! 

First Word: DIE DIE MUST TRY. 

Alright. What is Hong Kong Without Street Food right ? 
Babe and I love to explore the night life of the places we visited.
Especially the street fares that comes alive at night. 

For aspiring visitors to Hong Kong,
it is truly a city that never sleeps.
Even on Week Days, 
the activity along the streets of Mong Kok only ceases after 11pm. 

This Stall Featured here is located at the end of the Mong Kok/ lady's Street. 
It is across the road from a mall that has a  Haggen Daz and Starbucks.
You definitely won't miss it, because it also sells smelly tofu? The smell is very distinctive. 

We absolutely adore the curry fish ball and the cuttle fish. It is a must have and we had them every single night since we discovered them!. 

Whenever we are overseas, "T" and I are always curious about their fast food and how it can be different from ours. However, this encounter in BK was like a lucky find. 

We were craving for some coke around 11-ish and thought we'll pop in and get a drink, when we saw these lovely criss-cut fries. 

They are extremely sweet and crunchy. I can't stop munching on them! 

Note: They very seldom carry chilli sauce in HK's fast food chain, and they speak little English. So do learn to read the Chinese words, it'll make things easier for you to both speak and read what's on the menu:) 

**
On one of our days out alone without the family, "T" and I decided to go in search of Che Zai Mian or coolie noodles in Hong Kong and we found a pretty decent one right at the start of FA YUEN STREET or Sports Street. It is opposite the Hong Kong's Turf Club Betting Station. 

I was initially apprehensive about it's taste and man, I was totally blown away after tasting it.

The concept is similar to our Yong Tau Foo in Sg, except that the soup base is darker but sweeter. 
Babe and I chose their Pork Balls, Radish, Pork Intestine and Fish ball. We pair it with thick rice noodles or our laksa noodles. I tell you : IT IS HEAVENLY.

There is a lot of variety to choose from. 

MUST ORDER: Fish Ball + Radish 

This is the place we ate at. We couldn't get a proper shot because I was taking it across the road in front of the Turf Club Betting Station and the security guard was staring down at me. The place of interest is the one with the bright sign board. 

3. Dim Sum at Wong Tai Sin. 

First Word:  Best Service + Best Dim Sum, Better than Tim Ho Wan + Best Local Feel. 

When in Hong Kong, one will definitely want to eat Dim Sum, right? "T"'s family went to Tim Ho Wan for dinner one night and was sorely disappointed by it. The dim sum were either served cold or were too salty. 

The next morning, we went to pray at the famous Wong Tai Sin Temple. We alighted at the Wong Tai Sin MTR stop and walked through the public housing, above, ( HDB in SG) and found ourselves in front of this dim sum place. 

The place was packed with elderly having their morning tea. Yet, when the lady boss saw our arrival, she shifted everyone just to clear a table for 10 for us, despite us telling her we can always sit outside. 
She insisted and to our surprise, none of the elderly complained! I tell you, this sort of service standard is very rare in Hong Kong. 

Anyways, what must you order over there? 

MUST TRY: Steam carrot cake. - It is very fragrant and sweet with very little taste enhanced by the shrooms or char siew. This is very rare. In Singapore, most of our carrot cakes are pan fried or otherwise, bland unless the taste is further enhanced by friend shrimps and char siew. 

 Misses:  

1. Seafood - Lai Liu Har. ( Pissing Prawn) 

If you watched a lot of Hong Kong Drama or Variety Show like we do, you will definitely hear of Lai Liu Har. 

On our last night in HK, we visited a seafood place along Temple Street to try out their Da Pai Dong, similar to our Tzi Char. 

First Word: EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. 

We were in a group of 10 and the shop owner gave us 2 choices:

3 for 120HKD

1 for 120 HKD. 

Naturally, the size of the prawns will differ. Yet, we decided to order 9 of the 3 for 120HKD to try, since we are going to order other dishes right? The shop owner tried to dissuade us and push us for the 1 for 120 HKD one and when we stood our grounds, she showed us attitude. =_=

Anws, the prawn is really too crazy. It looks like a cray-fish but have meat that is only a quarter of the normal prawns I have for steamboat. 

At least when I ate a wanton, it has much more prawns!! 

We paid around $90 for this meal of prawns, vege , fried rice and a stewed lotus with pork dish. It was definitely not satisfying at all. 

 2. Dining at City Gate Outlet Mall - Federal Palace. 

I just want to drop a short word on this. When you are in City- Gate to do your shopping and wondering where to eat, please avoid Federal Palace. 

Despite their nice interior. Their service standards are low. They throw their dishes around and when clearing the table, they will just splash hot water on the lady susan and wipe it clean. =_= 

 Their dim sum is worse than some of those that we have in Singapore. If you really have no choice, order their hor fun or fried rice. It is pretty interesting. :) 

alrighty, I think that should be all from me I guess. In short, we really did enjoy Hong Kong very much despite the misses. Please be mentally prepared for bad service, it is normal. But the good food and shopping will make up for it definitely. 

Just a few last word from me for all couples or people intending to visit Hong Kong : 

• They have no toilets in their malls except for their international big malls : E.g. IFC and Langham palace. If really in need, ask where is the nearest washroom, they will gladly point you to the public toilet, fast food restaurant or in the case of some malls, one can wait out the toilets meant for tenants and when someone exit, you enter. Simple:)
• Minimum top up on your octopus card is HKD 50
• Book the crystal cable car ride to Lantau island before your intended trip. They have specific timings and you don't have to queue for long.  When on Lantau island, MUST eat their beancurd. It is silky smooth.
• When in Disneyland, prepare to queue. There's only fast pass for 3 of the attractions. The food is pretty yummy, but it can be very expensive.
• You can check in at the airport really early and shop inside. Their food is pretty good! Also allow yourself ample time to get to your departure gates. Some of those departure gates requires one to take a shuttle train to the departure gate:)
• It is always good to read up on the place before you visit, there is a lot of helpful links on line. Otherwise,Hong Kong is pretty safe, interesting and trust your gut feel when it comes to food! It worked really well for us. 

We really enjoyed Hong Kong, and we can't wait to be back to explore more! 

love,
Snail.