11 Dec 2011 - Classmate's Wedding

Or should he say ex-classmate. Met up with the rest of attendees from the class at 1pm and headed to the venue. It was held at the void deck, nicely decorated and had yummy food aroma wafting around the area.

Cute wedding door gift that contained chocolates, the butterfly lock was especially interesting.


Super-charged Nasi Briyani. Left to right, chicken, beef, mixed vegetables, and fish. He loves beef cooked this way, soft and tender to the bite. Totally enjoyed the curry lunch.

03 Dec 2011 - Red Pot and Ma Maison

Got out of the house on this day to retrieve a key for a friend. Apparently, the friend's obnoxious colleague had withheld the key on purpose. Had a long wait before they finally could go off for a meal.

Enticed by the advertisement of rice noodle set with 15 sides, they walked into Hong Guo at Bugis Junction. Ordered some drinks to quench their thirsts first.

Salt rimmed mango margarita, $3.80++. Mock-tail version. The waitress initially got him a glass of some lychee drink, and left him trying to figure out which part of it was mango.


Mango freeze, $3.80++.


Shanghai dumplings, $5.80++. This dish had fillings of mince meat and chestnut.


The mains, $8.50. Condiments such as scallions, dried baby shrimp, were also included in the count. Anyway, this had prawns, 2 or 3 pieces of squid, ham, cuttle fish shreds, button and shiitake mushrooms, quail eggs, can't remember them all. Meat and eggs were to go into the big bowl of hot soup first, followed by the vegetables and lastly, the rice noodles. Just a regular bowl of noodles, he wouldn't eat this again at that price.


Went for a walkabout after the meal, and she had a ball of a time at the cosmetics department. Shan't go too much into that else it will never end. Let's view a picture of Christmas lighting outside the departmental store.


Had dinner at Ma Maison after her friend knocked off from work. It means "My House" in French, thanks to googling on his Android. The menu cover seemed to be of leather.


The table setting. Someone help name the design of the lamp-head? It has slipped his mind. The place was dimly lit and had soft music, love the ambience.


Starter of garlic butter escargots, $9.50++. The aroma was so distracting that the middle-aged couple at the next table kept looking over.


The soft and chewy morsel lasted for merely a few seconds. But the garlicky smell lingered in the mouth.


Tonkatsu for $15.90++. Lightly breaded, so it was not too oily. Meat was also succulent. He doesn't really have tonkatsu much, but enjoyed this. The shredded cabbage refreshed the palate, gearing him up for more food. Just kidding.


Black pepper sirloin steak for $22.50++. The beef-eater had this medium well, yet it was still juicy enough. It was a 200g portion, but looked slightly bigger than what they usually have.


Beef Stroganoff for $14.80++. Her friend had good comments for the beef, and lapped up the sauce with the omelette rice.

14 May 2011 - Old Hong Kong Kitchen for dinner

Finally settled the exam and could clear the desktop, both physical and virtual. Accompanied her to the private L'Oreal sale where she netted many prizes. *groan*

After spending some hours there, as always, she found out that her stomach was needy. She decided to expend the final Old Hong Kong voucher despite his pleas to use it on another occasion. Booked Old Hong Kong Kitchen since it was nearest to town.

Ordered Soya Chicken - $12. Smooth and succulent, with the accompaniment standing out. A mix of oil, spring onions, unsure of the other ingredients, garlic and ginger perhaps. Didn't smell pungent nor did it leave nasty breath. Probably should google it up one of these days.


Diced beef $18 (?), too salty on its own, Ordered a bowl of rice to go with.


Rack of lamb, 2 puny portions for $20. Tender stuff.


Seafood soup in melon $25. Luckily the soup was as good as it was interesting.


Soup served.


Topped things off with a warm dessert of yam mash with almond cream. $7.50 (?). Go on diet? Lose weight? Lies....


The flowery tea that they had.

23 April 2011 - Old Hong Kong Taste

This time, they visited Old Hong Kong Taste at myVillage, in Serangoon Gardens.

The restaurant was more spacious than the branch at Square 2. Although located at the heart of private housing estate, the queue was also missing in comparison. Reached there around 1.30pm, and ordering without waiting for the 2.30pm 20% discount. Note that this discount is only available for orders between 2.30pm and 5pm everyday, except for Sundays, public holidays and eves.

Photos today are courtesy of her.

Similar table setting with slightly different tableware.


Chrysanthemum Pu-er Tea - $3++ for 2pax
Maybe a little disappointed that this was not the pretty see-through tea set.


Although the ambience was good, healthy amount of space and soothing music, the senior waiter kept casting lingering glances which caused some discomfort. Luckily, the food came quickly to bring their attention elsewhere.

Pan-fried Carrot Cake - $3.30++
Soft and fragrant, with bits of shiitake mushroom and chinese sausage to provide some bite.


Deep-fried Spring Roll - $3.00++
This contained some Chinese BBQ meat (Char Siew) in addition to some other fillings that he didn't manage to identify. It had a crisp crackle when bitten into.


Steamed Flour Roll with BBQ Pork (Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun) - $4.20++
The waitress drizzled some sweet savoury sauce right after serving. The diced char siew was juicy and kept him wanting for more, which didn't occur. The chee cheong fun was thin and smooth, easier to down than the thicker plain variety he always had.


Steamed Beef Ball with Bean Curd Skin - $3.80++
Huge minced meat balls with herbs, laid upon bean curd skins. Tender and smooth, without any bit of chewy sinew.


Deep-fried Prawn Paste Chicken Wing - $6.80++
Crispy skin without being too oily. Not too bad but not something he would order again.


Beef Brisket Soup with Turnip - $8++
Clear soup has always been appealing to him, and thankfully this tasted more vegetable than game. Tendons and meat were soft and tender, though he would have preferred his beef brisket in thicker chunks. This was also the first time that he's had beef tendons that were not braised with soy, but the gelatinous goodness was not to be underestimated.


Steamed Egg Yolk Custard Bun - $3.30++
Had this previously at Crystal Jade but all he remembered was a sweet tasting bun.


This was a bit of a pleasant surprise, the custard filling had the powdery texture of salted egg yolk, and the contrast of the sweetness and saltiness blended in very well. At least, it was to his liking. Thumbs up for this.


Ordered a lava cake to top things off. Heart Too Soft - $5.50++
Not too sure if he was already dizzy from all the food, but this brought about a few familiar tastes. The powder stuff was like Ovaltine, and the rich chocolatey lava cake actually tasted like Milo.

19 Dec 2010 - Universal Studios Singapore

She could finally visit the castle at Universal Studios Singapore!


The first ride that they took was "Revenge of the Mummy". Bad choice, he ended up with a headache and she took quite a bit of time to recover. So they walked around a bit and took photographs with the random stars appearing on the street.

Had fast food for late lunch at Friar's... just one beef mince wrap, some potatoes and a drink. Unfortunately, only managed to take a photograph of the window in low lighting.


After roaming the park for one whole day, legs were aching and stomachs were grumbling. She suggested dining at The Mussel Guys. Though he had 2 bad experiences at the Vivo City branch, he was starving, no more energy to think up of another place.

Blue mussels - got 2 pots, 500g and 350g. They were so hungry that they almost finished the soup in the pots. Some of the mussels seemed to have gone bad though, maybe a bad harvest.


Her steak and prawn set - 140g done medium well, accompanied by a grilled prawn, broccoli and mashed potato. At least not something that had gone bad.

14 Nov 2010 - Yuki Yaki

He saw Citibank 1 for 1 Sunday dinner buffet at Indulge at Grand Park, Grand Park Hotel City Hall. Nothing's free in this world, better check if the deal's still on. He tried calling the listed numbers restaurant reservation, hotel reception, and none of his calls were picked up. Adopted an apprehensive approach and reached the restaurant at 4+pm, where the reservations counter was manned by one lady. They stood in front of her while she was very busy answering 2 telephones that kept ringing, jotting down room service details, etc.

Tired of standing, he approached the hotel reception for help, which couldn't help out in any way. After what seemed like eternity, the desk phone finally stopped ringing and the tired restaurant reservations lady asked what they wanted. He then asked to reserve seating for 2, and she immediately informed them that the Citibank promo quota had been reached. It sounded very nonsensical to him at that moment, and he decided so have dinner elsewhere instead.

Grand Park Hotel City Hall lobby, the only thing we got out of the trip there.


It was a rainy day, and she was unhappy that she didn't get to have her international buffet. Perhaps they should have just continued with the plan. In any case, it was still 1.5 hours to dinner, so he decided for them to try something more novel.

Got over to Marina Square and checked themselves into Yuki Yaki. It's been around for years but it's his first time eating there. Supposed to be a 2-hour buffet and 0.5 hour DIY ice cream session.

Started off with fried salmon skin, octopus, nuggets and some sushi.


The attentive young waitress set up the barbecue for them, and left some butter to melt.


The master grilling the different marinated beef


After one grill, the foil would have become charred. To minimise wastage of the foil, they grilled seafood on it before having it changed. The mussels were OK but the bamboo clams were too fishy.


Her favourite snack/appetiser of pickled seaweed.


His - salmon sashimi.


After the foil change, she fought for her turn to grab the food. Salmon chunks, chicken wings mid-joints and more beef.


The second round of sashimi - she liked the prawns while he found them a little squishy, mushy...


Twin-sharing pot of herbal chicken soup and miso soup. She brought over 2 large servings of vegetables and mushrooms nonchalantly, claiming it would be easy to finish them. Guess what? He ended up having to be the receptacle.


After 2 hours of struggle, it was time to switch the hot plate for the cold plate. Ice cream making time! Their waitress transferred them to another table so that they could start making ice cream in a shorter time, instead of waiting for their hot plate to cool.


Let the games begin! DIY ice cream, they played like kids. Choco-mint mix in this picture.


Either chocolate or cappuccino, can't remember.


Mint ice cream


The making of vanilla ice cream. Spread the ice cream on the cold plate, sprinkle in toppings, let it cool for a bit before moulding.


One eyed skull ice cream drawing which they left for a long while, forgetting to flip. Tasted more of ice than cream.


Durian ice cream


Moulding the chocolate ice cream into a rectangular shape.


DIY ice cream roll


When it was time to call it a day, they realised that they had been in the restaurant for 3.5 hours. So tough on the stomach... and health probably took a hit.