Gosh!

A group of friends and I visited Din Tai Fung at Junction 8 to have a dim sum afternoon tea. We ordered the customary xiao long bao, but on impulse decided to try the siew mai as well. As usual their xiao long bao did not disappoint - the skin was firm the soup was boiling hot and very tasty. Their siew mai on the other hand was very ordinary, though very pretty to look at. I felt their siew mai was a little bland compared to the xiao long bao. Service was very good, our tea was constantly topped up and we managed to stay quite a while because the place was not very crowded, being a weekday afternoon.

Lai Lai's beef noodle is one of the nicest beef noodles i've tried in Singapore. And Lai lai's outlet in NEX has become a favourite haunt of my family, especially on weekends. Business at the NEX outlet is brisk but you seldom have to wait too long for a seat inside. Food is also served very fast. The beef noodles can be taken dry or soup. Personally i prefer the dry version (they still provide a small bowl of soup anyways). They are also very generous with their beef chunks though sometimes there might be more fat than meat.

Astons has cheap and fairly decent steak - for the price you are paying. Every set meal comes with 2 sides of your choice from the list of either the cold or hot side dishes. They have quite a wide variety of sides to pick from but so far my favourite has always been the onion rings. I also had the mashed potatoes this time round and they are not bad as well, but very filling. The steak comes in a sizable portion with a generous topping of sauce. Come prepared to wait in the que for a long time though, for 2 persons the wait is at the very least half and hour.

This Thai express was located at jp. Basement 1. I arrived with a pretty large group of friends and was able to find seats, barely. It was a weekday afternoon but was very crowded. I ordered the Thai curry soft shell crab. The waiters were a little too few and it took very long to take our orders and also to serve them. I waited at least 20 minutes. When it finally came, the portion looked ever so small. I don't remember it looking so tiny before. Two scrawny soft shell crab cowevered with Thai curry was accompanied by an equally scrawny portion of rice. That aside, the dish was good and delicious, as usual. The curry was thick and eggy. The crab was well prepared but a little oily, however nothing bad about it. Hopefully that portion size can be increased, or at least stop shrinking. Costed $13 and I wouldn't say it is cheap, but if you like soft shell crabs, Thai express has one of the best

My favourite japanese rice cakes are from Kuriya at Jurong Point's basement japanese food street. They have a couple of flavors, but the one i like best is the bonito flakes and egg. Each rice cake costs $1.20 and they tend to sell out by night.

Kuriya also has a promotion for sushi and sashimi at night! After 9 their takeaway sushi and sashimi counter will start offering very good discounts for the leftovers starting from 10% all the way down to 30%, with the discounts increasing every half hour. A very good deal if you're looking for a nighttime supper.

Lai lai is more commonly known for its excellent beef noodles, however i had an opportunity to try their mee sua and found it a let down. Compared to the beef noodles, the mee sua is a 4/10 in terms of taste. Or perhaps its an acquired taste? Its supposedly taiwan mee sua with a choice of topping (mine was shredded chicken, the other choices were pork if im not wrong). The size of the bowl gave me a shock when it arrived - it was minuscule. And the starchy soup had a weird taste to it, even after adding alot of vinegar and pepper.

I tried a new dish at Din Tai Fung today, a deviation from the normal xiao long bao and mian.
Its the Vermicelli Soup with Deep fried beancurd skin and minced meat ball ($7.80). For that price (cheaper than most noodle dishes from Din Tai Fung which normally range between 8-11 bucks), i can't really complain when all that was served was glass noodles, with tao pok slices, and minced meat wrapped in beancurd skin. The portion is very small and it did not taste as good as all other Din Tai Fung noodles. Goes to show cheap is not always good.

We visited La Nonna (bukit timah) for dinner and the place was fairly busy. As per recommendations from our friends, we tried their signature dish, the La Nonna Pizza. Its basically a thin crust pizza topped with a sunny side egg, very few stalks of asparagus, truffles, cheese and tomato. While the picture in the menu looked pretty appetizing, the actual pizza served was much less appealing. In fact, it looked downright plain and boring - which it turned out to be. And i felt the stalks of asparagus might as well not be there, it didn't match the taste of the rest of pizza anyway.

Otherwise service was decent, and food was served within a reasonable amount of time.

I tried Haato's ice cream at Clarke Quay one afternoon and fell in love with it. I had 2 flavours: cookies and cream and Yuzu Sorbet. While the cookies and cream was pretty standard, the yuzu sorbet was light and refreshing. It wasn't too sweet nor was it too sour.

The outlet has a seating area with a decent view. 2 scoops of ice cream costs $5 which is quite reasonable in my opinion. The store offers waffles and a whole range of gelato ice creams. Prices are inclusive of GST and there is no service charge.

SGD 5(Other)

We had ordered a set dinner for 10 people at Ban Heng for a family gathering.
My favourite dish was the roasted suckling pig. The skin was so sinful we enjoyed it immensely. Its thin and crispy and the best part was it wasn’t overly oily. I also enjoyed the hongkong noodles even though we were all very full by the time it came to our table. Other dishes include the typical fish, chicken, mushroom and vegetables, dessert (canned fruit in syrup) etc. Service was attentive and the waitresses were quite friendly.

We had dinner here on Sunday and the queue was about 20 minutes for 2 of us at 6pm. We ordered a set meal of a small bowl of chicken and egg and cold green tea noodles. It comes with miso soup and 2 slices of oranges. The noodles are an acquired taste in my opinion as my mum liked it but i did not.

The waiters accidentally served us an extra bowl of rice instead of soya sauce to dip the cold noodles in and the cashier subsequently tried to charge us for the extra bowl of rice. But when we explained she was very nice about it. I was impressed because she did not doubt our words and did not double check with the waiters. good service in my opinion.

High and Mighty is a REALLY big and tall chocolate cake. A slice costs $8.50, not sure how much one whole cake costs though.The entire cake is covered in a thin layer of chocolate coating and chocolate cream. The cake is basically just a simple chocolate sponge cake, with layers of chocolate cream in between. Its served with a single dollop of whipped cream and chocolate sauce for decoration. I wouldn't suggest trying to finish it alone. It might look un-filling because of the sponge cake but trust me, even with 2 of us we still struggled to finish the last bits.

SGD 8.50

This is a prime sirloin steak from Astons ($11.90). It comes with any 2 sides of your choice, from the list of Cold or Hot side dishes. These include coleslaw, mash potato salad, rice, corn on the cob, vegetables, onion rings etc. I ordered the coleslaw and the French Fries. Overall the dish was alright, the meat was a little bit too chewy but pretty decent for the price i paid. The fries were the best part of the meal and the serving was generous.

Do note that water costs 30 cents here, so don't order if you aren't wiling to pay for a glass.And the queue is quite long.

SGD 11.90(Dinner)

My favourite bun from Provence Bakery (there are outlets in PS and Holland V) is the brazilian chesse bun.Its about the size of a soft ball, costs 90 cents and is one of the nicest buns i have ever had in Singapore. The crust is crispy and burnt slightly brown, and the insides has a chewy texture - not too cheesy as if a lumped of cheese was stuck inside and left to melt, but a nice blend of soft bread with a hint of smoked cheese.

What i like about the PS outlet is that traffic here is very high. The breads get sold out and replenished pretty fast so you almost always get bread right from the oven.

A rather small outlet located on the ground floor of Funan Digital Mall. It has 2 levels and was not very crowded when i visited it on a saturday afternoon. Do note that study is not allowed during peak hours, however depending on the situation, if the outlet isn't packed, the staff will close one eye despite the big signs placed on the walls warning students off. Aircon here is also quite strong.

I had a Oreo McFlurry here and was pleasantly surprised by their generosity. For once my mcflurry had much more oreo bits and it was well mixed unlike what i have experienced in other outlets.

One major problem i encountered here was the phone reception was very bad, we couldn't use whatsapp or imessage the entire time we were there. and there was no wifi (or if there was we couldn't detect it).