Back-to-school/Farewell dinner for Lady G...

She would always be in black at the office. Outside of work though, she transforms into a whole other person. Hehe!

That's a quick way of describing colleague Gemma, who Alexie and Paula have christened as Lady G.

I'm not quite sure which one I like more. What I'm sure of though is that she is a friend and that she will be missed once she leaves for Europe in a month.

Last Thursday, we had an intimate farewell dinner for Lady G at Kinki, the Japanese restaurant/bar at Customs House.

With Lady G, it wasn't going to be any regular farewell dinner though. We were required to be in a school uniform. Hehe! Easy for me since I decided to go as a school boy from some boarding school. It was also an opportunity to wear the badge of my beloved primary school Lourdes School Quezon City! Woohoo! Hehe!

Alexie and Paula were also game for the whole thing and they came prepared. Hehe!

It wasn't surprising though that we got the look (well, more them than me... haha!) as we made our way to Kinki from Fullerton Bay.

Before you let your minds wander about the restau/bar, let me clear it up for you. Kinki is a province in the Hokkaido region. Why the restau/bar was named after it, I'm not so sure.

However, I can say that the food at the place was good and enjoyable. There is also a rooftop bar to enjoy the view the CBD and MBS areas while having a drink and chitchat with friends.

It was definitely a good Thursday night. It was definitely worth skipping the Club 21 Accessories Bazaar. Hehe!

Best of luck in Brussels, Lady G!

Kinki Restaurant + Bar
70 Collyer Quay #02-02
Customs House, Singapore 049323
T: +65 6533 3471 | F: +65 6533 3473
Web: www.kinki.com.sg

Ah Seng Duck Rice at Serangoon Gardens...

I'm not really a fan of duck, but I learned of one food stall that sells one of the best braised duck in the whole of Singapore. (Yes, I am that confident. Hehe!)

Ah Seng Braised Duck Rice at the Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre looks just like your usual hakwer center food stall.

But come 11AM until after lunch, a long queue can always be seen.

Luckily, Mr. Lim and I did not have to queue very long last Saturday because we arrived at the food centre quite early. Mr. Lim decided that we should go have duck rice at Serangoon Gardens.

We ordered braised duck, braised pig's ear and egg, and veggies. We also ordered pig organ soup from the neighboring food stall.

It was not difficult to understand why Ah Seng frew to become such a popular braised duck place.

The sauce has just the right saltiness. The duck itself is very tender and chewy, which I really liked. But what I liked about it even more is that the duck has been already deboned.

I must say that the braised duck goes very well with a cup of steamed rice and veggies. Hehe! I would have wanted a second cup of rice, but I managed to control myself. Hehe!

If you plan to go, one obvious tip is to be there early because the queue does get quite long. If you're not going to tapau, the system is queue to order, give your table number and your food will be brought to your table. Quite nice, right?!

I would definitely want to go back and try the other braised items.

On a side note, it's my first time to drive around the Serangoon Gardens area and I have to say it is niiiceee! :D I had to ask Mr. Lim, "Are we still in Singapore?" Hehe! PG Boy describes the area as having a very Aussie feel. I wouldn't know because I've never been to Aus. Hehe!

But seriously, the neighbordhood seems to be a very good one!

Ah Seng Braised Duck Rice
49A Serangoon Garden Way#01-44
Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre
Mon to Sat 11am to 9pm

Saturdate at La Petite Cuisine and Habitat Coffee

I may have mentioned it in a previous post, but I will just say it again. One of the things PG Boy and I like to do during weekends is to try out new restaus and cafes around the island.

Okay, I have to correct that. Mostly, the restaus we try are either in the East or the Central part of the island. So far, I've had little success with convincing him to go to my side of town more often. Hehe!

Anyway, last Saturday, PG Boy surprised me by saying that we were going on a dinner date. I really like it when he makes these surprise announcements. Hehe!

He may not agree with this, but usually I would be the one doing the suggesting where to go and he'd usually just agree.

This time, not only did he suggest the place, he even gave two options - either Changi or Marymount.

Since I was somewhere in Dhoby Ghaut and I was too tired to go to Changi, I quickly replied that we should just do Marymount. It's an area we don't really get to visit quite often. Haha!

However, I was a bit doubtful when he said Marymount because I was quite sure there was nothing there except for HDBs and the revered Raffles Institution.

It turns out Marymount would just be our meeting place. We would do a bit of walking towards Upper Thomson Road. Haha!

Alright, if you haven't been to this part of Singapore, this stretch actually has a number of interesting food places. Mr. Lim and I previously tried Nam Kee Chicken Rice. On another of our walks, we headed to Longhouse hawker for lunch.

After about 5-10 minutes of walking, PG Boy and I reached our destination - La Petite Cuisine. It's a French restau that won't burn a hole in your pocket. Hehe!

PG Boy said he read about it in one of the more popular local food blogs and he decided we should try it. The place is quite small, quite intimate. Uhm, I'm not too happy though that the kitchen was directly beside the dining area. Hehe! Dunno about you, but I really dun like leaving a food place smelling like the food place. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad. It probably meant the place has a good exhaust system.

The service was quite quick. The food was enjoyable. I ordered a chicken dish. PG Boy got a duck dish. We both ordered soup to start. There was also compli buns with butter. Our meal came out about $35 I think, which wasn't bad at all.

For dessert and coffee, we headed to Habitat which was just two doors away. I actually liked this place. It had a nice ambiance. It was very relaxed. It had that nice cafe feel. The coffee and the dessert were also quite enjoyable.

On the way back, PG Boy and I saw a few more food places that got us curious. We agreed that we have to go back and explore Upper Thomson more. Hehe!

La Petite Cuisine
227 Upper Thomson Rd Singapore 574359
Tel: 6459 0553

Habitat Coffee
223 Upper Thomson Road
Tel: 6456 2567

Saveur at Purvis...

Just across the National Library (at Purvis Steet), there is a restaurant that serves "affordable French food." The name is Saveur.

I've heard about the place several months ago, and I've been meaning to try it. However, PG Boy and I would always find a long queue whenever we would go. Hehe!

Last Saturday, thanks to his friend who knew the pastry chef, we were able to get a table and I finally got to try out the food at this restau.

The business must be doing very well because the place now occupies the space next door. That and I read that they will be opening another branch somewhere.

Not bad for place that started as a food stall in a kopitiam along East Coast Road, right?

One of the most popular dishes, if not the most popular, is the angel hair pasta with minced pork and dried shrimps. I was very hungry that night so I ordered one for myself. Hehe. For my mains, I ordered the chicken roulade.

Other dishes we ordered were two types of foie gras, a duck salad, and several desserts (panna cotta, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, strawberries and cream).

Just a warning though, the portions are quite small so you end up ordering for more. Hehe. Still, the place offers wallet-friendly and decent French food. And the place obviously continues to be a favorite given the queue.

Saveur 5 Purvis Street Singapore 188584 6333 3121 Operating Hours: Mondays to Sundays, 12.00pm till 2.30pm and 6.00pm till 9.30pm

Good dinner places this weekend...

Weekends are usually allotted for searching for and trying out new food places.

Over the weekend, I was able to try two food places for the first time.

First was Long Phung at Joo Chiat. PG Boy and I met up with his best friend since he needed to get some stuff. We agreed to have dinner and drove down to Joo Chiat area.

It was my first time to explore that area. There were quite a number of interesting restaus. However, the one we ended up going for was Long Phung. This was after seeing that there was a queue outside the restau. Hehe! One thing I have learned is that Singaporeans love to queue for good food. Hehe! And when you're in Rome, do as the Romans do.

So PG Boy, his best friend and I joined the queue. Thankfully, we weren't that hungry yet. The service was also quite fast and we didn't have to wait long before we were given a table.

We ordered a variety of dishes - friend rice, pho, fried chicken, shellfish, and of course, spring rolls. We were happy with the dishes and the servings. The price wasn't so bad as well. Will definitely visit this place again.

On Sunday, I met up with Ian and MkSurf8 for some despedida of sorts for Chase who flies back to Manila today. I thought of messaging Rich, Mon and Coly to see if they were free to join. Luckily, they were.

We all met up at Swee Choon in Jalan Besar. Ian has told us about the dim sum place during another dinner. I'm glad he thought of organizing a dinner for Chase at Swee Choon since I was also curious to find out whether the place really is good.

When I reached the place, as expected, there was a queue. Hehe! I got a number for us, but we had to wait til our party was complete before we could be given a table. When everyone finally arrived, it still took a while before we were given a table. Thanks to MkSurf8 and Ian who put pressure on the wait staff, we finally got a table.

The thing about dim sum is that it's easy to be excited by all the dishes and end up ordering a lot. That's sort of what happened. Once the dimsum plates started arriving, that was the time we all realized that we may have ordered a lot. Hehehe.

We did manage to finish almost everything - noodles, fried rice, siew mai, har kow, chive pork dumpling, sticky rice, egg tart, spare rib, sautéed long bean w/minced pork, yam puff, chee cheong fun, and the very deadly salted egg yolk custard bun.

Total bill was about 140++ (about $20 each). Not bad given that we were all stuffed and happy. Haha!

Good dinners this weekend I must say.

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant
159 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427436
Neighbourhood: Joo Chiat

Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant
191 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208882
Enquiry Hotline : 62257788
Business Hours :
Monday to Sunday : 6 pm to 6 am
Close on Tuesday

Coffee afternoon at Chye Seng Huat Hardware...

PG Boy and I finally got to go to Chye Seng Huat Hardware to see what all the fuss was about.

I've been seeing the cafe in a number of blogs recently so naturally, I was curious to go and check out the place.

The cafe is very near where PG Boy used to stay. It's a very short walk from Lavender MRT. After grabbing lunch from the Thai foodstall from the kopitiam at the corner of Tyrwhitt Rd and Horne Rd, we made our way to Chye Seng Huat Hardware.

Despite being a lazy Sunday early afternoon, the place was kinda full. We still managed to get a place though so yay! :)

Prior to going, I read somewhere that the breakkie/brunch stuff weren't that spectacular. My bad for quickly believing. When I saw the brunch plates coming out of the kitchen, I actually thought the food seems worth a try. Note to self: next time, try the food yourself. Don't rely on reviews too much. Hehe!

I did like the coffee very much. I ordered the hand-brewed - Balanced. I liked it so much I had two cups. Haha! More than that, I also loved the interiors of the place. It was well done. I guess the charm of the place starts right even before you enter. The people behind the cafe retained the facade of the hardware store that it used to be (??). This gave the place its own character. Hehe!

I also like that there is a shop just above the cafe that sheels nice bags and other quirky items. Do check out the Tyrwhitt General Company store for the pieces.

Meanwhile, PG Boy was looking around every bit of detail of the cafe while he enjoyed his latte. He liked the interiors very much. Plus, he was very impressed with how the baristas handled the coffee. They really knew what they were doing.

It was definitely an enjoyable early Sunday afternoon hohol.

Must definitely go back to try the brunch and the pastries.

Chye Seng Huat Hardware Coffee Bar
Address: 150 Tyrwhitt Rd
Contact: 6396 0609
Opening Hours:
Tue - Thu: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Fri - Sun: 9:00 am - 10:00 pm
Website: http://www.cshhcoffee.com

Lor mee and Argo...

Despite crashing at MkSurf8's couch at 4 in the morning, I still managed to wake up at friggin 7AM! Haha!

I dunno what it is about my body clock, but I'm happy that I can still operate even with just a few hours of sleep. While Chase, MkSurf8 and RKGreg were still in lalaland, I put some order on the couch I slept on, quietly washed my face and then left the flat as quietly as possible. Hehe!

When I got to the MRT station, I was so surprised to see that there were a lot of commuters. It was a Saturday. It was 7AM. Where were all these people going? Work? They certainly didn't look like they came from a night of partying. :S

Anyway, I reached home around 8. I put my clothes in the washing machine. I went back to my room and tried to sleep for an hour or two.

By 1030AM, I was on the road again. Haha! "We rest when we die," the motto of my best friend and I. From my faraway place, I took the train to the other side of the island to meet up with my nature walk/hiking buddy Mr. Lim. We planned to watch a movie. Initially, I thought it'll just be at VivoCity. This was great since it wasn't that far. But then he messaged that the tix he got were for i12 Katong. LOL!

Our first stop was the Old Airport Road Food Center, which is near Dakota MRT. I found Mr. Lim and then he asked me to get my lunch first. The Old Airport Road Food Center is quite popular for a number of things. I asked Mr. Lim what I should get and he recommended the lor mee from one of the stalls. It wasn't difficult to find the stall. I just looked for the one with a loooong queue and I knew that was it. No wonder it was popular. The lor mee was good. I just got the Medium bowl ($4) and it was good enough for me. For dessert, we bought banana fritters that sort of looked like turon. Hehe!

After lunch, we drove to i12 Katong to catch an early afternoon screening of Argo. I had no idea what the film is about, but I'm glad Mr. Lim suggested the movie. It's a very good one. I didn't even know this happened before, so it was also an impromptu history lesson for me. Haha!

Following the movie, I wanted to head back because I was really sleepy. Mr. Lim also had to head home because he had something going on that night (I think) and needed to power nap or something.

Relaxed Saturday. Wheee!

Sunday night din at MOF...

Sunday night dindin at MOF. :)

Tori Karaage and Udon. Gyowza. Seafood Hot Stone Rice Bowl.

If you're in the mood for some yum Japanese, if you want to take your time going through several pages of menu with a lot of Japanese food offerings, you must go to this restau then.

Oishii desu ne!

MOF@My Izakaya
Tampines Central 1
#04-15 Tampines 1 S529536

Raclette night...

Thursday night was raclette night with MkSurf8 and Chris.

Over the post-run breakkie last Sunday, MkSurf8 told us about the Eat-All-You-Can Raclette promo at Wine Connection. We (including Ian) all agreed to go and try it out.

Unfortunately, Ian had to back out because of work. I messaged Mon, Coly and Tipsz to check if they were interested. Too bad all three had already made plans for the night.

So it was just the three musketeers last night. Hehe!

I'm not sure if I've tried raclette before. Hehe! But if you're a cheese lover, you must certainly head down to Unity Street for your raclette experience.

It's kinda cool. You have your own small pan where you place a slice of raclette cheese. Then, you place the pan on the raclette grill and wait for the cheese to melt.

Afterwards, you pour the melted cheese on the potatoes, bread or cold cuts.

For $29.90, you get unlimited raclette, cheese, salad, boiled potatoes, cold cuts, and bread.

To make it an even nicer experience, you should order a bottle of wine to go with the cheese. I've decided to significantly cut down on my alcohol intake (gout issues) so I just had a glass of rose wine.
Wine Connection
11 Unity Street
#01-05/06 Robertson Walk
Singapore237995

Brunch at Batter Fluffy Flaps in Katong...

With nothing planned this morning, Pg Boy and I decided to head down to Katong area to try out one of the brunch places in the area.

Katong is not really the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of brunch. That just might change. Among with the several food places found outside of i12 Katong mall, there are three possible brunch places for people living on this side of the island.

Pg Boy was suggesting we check out Robolots. I, on the other hand, suggested Batter Fluffy Flaps. While we were walking along Joo Chiat, we noticed that Awfully Chocolate/Mooshi Bakes now also offers brunch. Nice.

We first went to Robolots at to check out the menu. When we got there, the place had just opened for the day. We saw some of the staff still prepping the tables. The menu looked interesting though.

So, we agreed to give it a try on another occasion and try Batter Fluffy Flaps today.

Batter Fluffy Flaps or BFF is a stone's throw away from Robolots and from i12 Katong.

When we got to the place, it wasn't crowded at all. Some tables were occupied but it wasn't very busy yet. I dunno if it's because the place is relatively new or like I said earlier, Katong has yet to be thought of as a brunch place.

Pg Boy and I were able to get a table very quickly. Ordering food wasn't difficult as well. The first thing I would usually look at is the brunch combo. Almost always, I would already be good with it.

The Breakfast Mambo Combo comes with one ham, two bacon strips, two poached egg, two Chipolata sausages, a small portion of greens and cherry tomatoes, and two pancakes. It's $14.

There's a note that prep time takes about 15 minutes. However, since we were there early and since it wasn't packed, the order came in less than 15 minutes.

I thought the food was quite okay. For $14, it wasn't bad. The pancakes were nice. You can get ask for as much syrup as you want. LOL! Two pancakes were enough to go with everything else.

As you can see, there are other dishes on the menu that may be worth trying. In the evening, I think the place also serves some light alcohol to cater to the evening crowd. Hehe!

The best part about the place? All Day Pancakes.

Must go back again to try other dishes.

Batter Fluffy Flaps
89 East Coast Road, #01-01. Singapore 428790.
Tel: 6440- 7071.
Website: www.batterfluffyflaps.com.