Crystal Jade Kitchen French Toast...

It was love at first bite with Crystal Jade's Frech Toast! Fried thick white bread with a chunk of melting butter on top, what's not to like? All the carbo and fats melded together in one big mouthful!

I didn't know that Crystal Jade Kitchen has a tea menu, and it is probably the only tea set that you can get for less than $10 in Orchard Road. The set I ordered comes with a hot beverage of your choice (yuan yang for me, thank you!), French Toast, 1 chicken wing and a kinda lame piece of sausage! All these for $6.50++.

It's yummy indeed...but be prepared to Q up to get in!

Happy Birthday January Babies!

Yup, I'm a January baby, and so is C. The gang decided to celebrate our birthdays together, and somehow Parv had really strong Korean food craving from all the Korean dramas that she has been watching?!

So off we went to Ju Shin Jung in YESS Building. I finally discovered a decent Korean BBQ restaurant in Singapore! Forget your Seoul Garden, and the food court Korean BBQ wannabes. This is the real thing!

Check out the Banchan! Ok, not as many variety as the one in Arirang in Jakarta, but substantially better than the ones I had in other Korean restaurants here! But too bad it is not free flow also - you have to pay for extra portions that you order. I am quite happy with my favourite kimchi, the boiled spinach, boiled bean sprouts and the cucumber, but it would be great if they had the omelette thing and the potato salad. Yes, I do not know the names for all these dishes :)

Closer look at the Banchan, and also the wide variety of vegetables available for you to wrap the succulent meats in!

The usual 3 sauces are also there - (from the left) the sweet sauce, the salty sauce, and the chilli paste! Yes, I don't know their names again! They also give thinly sliced onions, and a bowl of cold seaweed soup. The seaweed soup is really sour, so it makes your tummy growl louder with hunger!

Oooh...see how the meat sizzles on the grill! Over here, you don't cook yourself, the waitress will cook the meats for you. We ordered the beef ribs, beef, pork and chicken. The beef always taste the best. The pork is quite nice too, but the chicken is a bit too sweet for my liking.

Yummy beef! The beef was a bit tougher than the ones I usually have in Arirang. Perhaps we ordered the wrong cut?! But anyway, it still taste good dipped in chilli paste, and wrapped around a fresh lettuce leaf.

We also ordered the kimchi jigae - kimchi soup - and it was delicious. Goes very well with the rice! Yummy....wish there was more of the soup to go around...hehehe...

The restaurant was packed on a Sunday night, so reservations are highly recommended. I can see why it's popular because it is seriously the best Korean food I've had in Singapore so far.

Next week, I will be back in Jakarta, and will make sure that I have a meal in Arirang. Stay tuned for that post, and see if you can spot the difference!

New Year...new hairstyle...

Yesterday I had an appointment with Shunji, my hair stylist, and I happened to be watching Oprah's episode of "100 haircuts in 48 hours". Most of the lucky people who got a free haircut had long, limp hair, and they looked so much better after they chopped off their locks!!

That got me thinking if I should do the same?

When I arrived at the salon, Shunji asked me if I want to keep my hair length or cut it short. On impulse, I said: "yeah, cut it short!". And this is the result...

I was famished after the haircut and the logo of Garuda Padang restaurant across the street beckoned me to go eat Indonesian food!


My mom requested for this fish - ikan ambeng - which I will only eat if it's smothered in chilli sauce like this! The fish has kind of a fishy smell, which other people seem to like. Ok, I'm not a fish fan unless it is 100% free of fishy smell, like McDonald's Fillet-O-Fish :)

There was not a lot of variety of dishes that night, and we only ordered (clockwise from top left) the fried chicken (ayam goreng bumbu), tapioca leaves (daun singkong), hard boiled eggs in chilli (sambal telor), and a fried egg (telor goreng). Ok, we only realised we ordered 2 dishes of eggs when they arrived at our table...hehehe...but it's ok, I like eggs!

Garuda serves the most authentic Indonesian food in Singapore. Although it is expensive, but it satisfies my Indonesian food cravings the best. Now they have a buffet promotion - $22+++ for all you can eat, which is quite a good deal actually. But you need a minimum of 4 pax to enjoy the buffet.

There has been some bad reviews about Garuda's food, but they are all from non-Indonesians, who does not really know how to appreciate Indonesian food. I think they go there expecting to eat Malay food like they get from hawker centers, and they will be disappointed. Indonesian food use much less coconut milk (which I prefer), and the chili is really spicy. They are nothing like Malay food!

I admit the service is really slow, and sometimes non-existent, but overall the food reminds me of home.

I'm going to enjoy some really good Indonesian food next week when I'm back in Jakarta! Yeah!

Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! Ok, it's a bit too late to do this post, but the events described here happened on Christmas Day 2008.

C invited us to his house every Christmas Day for some good feasting and generally a super good time catching up with friends.

And this year, there are 3 more reasons to go to his place - they are Truffles, Pepe and Joy! :)

First up is the "big sister" - Truffles!!! Isn't she adorable...but she has this really shrill bark that makes her sound so irritating! Hahaha...but I love her anyway!

On the left is brother Pepe, and sister Joy on the right. How to resist them you tell me?! They are still pups, but I'm sure they will grow up into really adorable doggies! They are a mix of poodle and Yorkie.


Joy is considerably smaller than Pepe, and maybe that's why I have a soft spot for her? They can be a rambunctious bunch and add to the festive mood.
This year, C's mom had prepared popiah...and I love popiah! My favourite popiah is the one in Newton Circus. It is overpriced, but you just can't get the same taste elsewhere. I grew up eating that popiah actually...maybe that's why I think all popiah should taste like that?

See my handiwork? Looks good ya? :)


It was a fun day with all the dogs enjoying themselves too! Here's a last shot of Joy trying to climb up the chair to reach the food laden table!

Naughty dog! Sit Joy, sit!

Rider's Cafe

It all started with dinner at Mimolette. Then I discovered Rider's Cafe, went there for breakfast, and now it is a favourite haunt.

There is nothing special about the food...but it's just the ambience there. I feel like I'm in Perth or something...

I had the Rider's breakfast...which has almost "all the works".

My Aunty had the omelette - you can choose two different ingredients to be in the omelette. I like how they give a serve of fruits with it.

Mom had the Eggs Florentine. The sauce is kind of funny tasting...didn't really like it.

Their lunch menu actually looks more interesting. So will be going back there for lunch soon!

I promised J I will bring him there when he's back from China! Another excuse to go Rider's :)

Sik Wai "SIN"

I'm so behind in my posts, that I don't know where to start blogging!

Anyway, today I feel like sharing my favourite "zhi char" place of all times. It's Sik Wai Sin (say it in Cantonese!) in Geylang Lorong 15. I've been going there for delicious meals since I was like 6??

The food back then was more salty and oilier, before all the "Healthier Choice" campaign started. And it really tasted better! Ha!


My 3rd Aunty and her hubby came to visit, and we brought them there for lunch, and my Uncle enjoyed himself very much :) A lot of my overseas relatives like to eat there whenever they come to Singapore.

There is no menu in the...err...."restaurant"...they only have a few dishes that they cook. We usually order the following:




The fish head is a must - all the tables have one! It's steamed fish head with tons of fried pork lard (which I scrape off...yucks!), and tau cheo, and spring onions. Yum.





My favourite dish is the tofu prawns. No fancy name, just ask for tofu prawns and the above is what you get! I love the mashed up tofu in the sticky gooey eggy gravy and the huge a** prawns! I heart this dish....yum.

Next is the pork "meat cake"? Don't know what to call this in English, but in Chinese just ask for "xian yu rou bing" aka Salted fish with meat?! I believe they still chop the pork with a cleaver here. The taste is really different from "meat cakes" where you use minced meat bought from supermarkets. And the salted fish just add that much more flavour to the meat! It doesn't look very appetizing, but believe me, it is delicious!!

We also ordered the bittergourd with pork ribs, but it's not pictured - cos we devoured it already. Or rather, the "adults" devoured the thing before I can whip out my iPhone! I'm not a fan of bittergourd, but the "adults" seem to love it.

Other dishes I would have ordered is the black chicken apple soup. Hmmm...that is nice. This is the only black chicken dish that I will voluntarily ask form. But as there was only 4 of us that day, we only ordered 4 dishes.

Hmmm...I just can't seem to get the "old school" taste from other "zhi char" stalls or restaurants. This place is really old, but they are still run by the same family. So far, there is no drama resulting from sibling rivalry, etc., but then again, they are not as famous as the Selegie Soya Bean or the Joo Chiat pepper crabs?

Long live Sik Wai Sin! I'll be back for more...soon...! :)

Welcome, 2009...

Happy New Year to whoever is reading this!

Crossing over to a new year always makes me feel nostalgic. I get weepy when I hear Auld Lang Syne...oops, my secret is revealed!

Today is the first day of 2009, but it doesn't seem to be different from any other public holiday. I woke up early to catch Bolt! Finally! The movie was kind of boring at the beginning, but I really enjoyed Rhino the hamster...hahaha...he is just so...optimistic! :)

After the show, J and I shopped around in Tampines Mall. In the late afternoon, J suggested that we go to Canele! He misses the macarons? But too bad, they ran out of the salty caramel macaron again. I skipped the macarons, and ordered their corn and crab chowder instead. Not the best soup I've had, but it served it's purpose on this rainy day. Yes, it was pouring when we reached Orchard Road.

After tea, we shopped again! I'm surprised that J is so game to shop around today. I got a skirt...which I'm starting to regret now :( Impulse buy again!

I had better ban myself from shopping for the next 6 months at least! Save for a rainy day, don't know what will happen in 2009.

Despite all the uncertainties in 2009, I am looking forward to it, and will face whatever challenges that is thrown my way. I hope that everyone will have love, hope, peace and joy in the coming year, so that "when the sky falls down, we will take it as a blanket to cover us". Go translate that in Chinese :)

Happy 2009 everyone!