Thanks to the great folks at Faber Peak Singapore, I won $100 Faber Peak dining voucher in their recent Facebook Valentine's Day contest!

A brief background - Located at the top of the hill at Mount Faber, the premise was given a complete make over and transformed into a bright and colorful F&B joint. Spuds & Aprons (what a unique name!) brands itself as a fun and playful F&B joint serving up yummy east and west dishes. My wife and I patronized this lovely place on 21st February 2015 (3rd day of the CNY). Upon stepping into Spuds & Aprons, we were warmly greeted by their service staff and bought to our reserved seats promptly. To make eating a comforting affair, you can opt to chill out at the air-conditioned Dining Room or relax at the alfresco Garden. Whatever you choose, both locations offer breath taking view of Sentosa and the alluring city.We opted for the a seat by the side in the alfresco garden as we like the gentle breeze and the open environment. We made the right choice with dinner in the late evening as we managed to catch the beautiful sunset from the comfort of our seats. Our neighbour diners were caught busy snapping photographs using their smartphone from their seats too!Perhaps the best feature of Spuds & Aprons is the scenic view of the cable cars. Lights from the surrounding buildings and cable cars in the sky made the view even more picturesque. If you come to this place on a Saturday in the evening, you get to enjoy a bonus i.e. 8pm firework displays at Universal Studios Singapore. It was spectacular and awesome to watch the fireworks during CNY !!!So much for the ambience, let's get started with the food and drinks!

For the starters, at the recommendation of the friendly service staff (Wingo), we ordered the Chilli Crab in a Tux. This dish was so appertizing! We did not realize that we finished it so quickly! The chef prepared hot chilli crab and stuffed it in potato skins. It was really delicious and if this is your first visit, I would recommend that you should try this dish.For the main dishes, again at the recommendations of Wingo, we ordered Oven-roasted mustard marinated chicken and Crispy Pork Belly. The chicken was massaged and roasted till golden brown and served with homemade gravy and mashed spuds. The pork belly was soaked in a hot tub and slowly cooked until fork tender. It was perfectly crispy and yet tender. It was served with homemade pineapple pickle and roasted spuds.For the desserts, we were undecided between two recommended choices i.e. Chempedak Bread and Jar of Happiness Ice cream. Finally, we left it in the good hands of Wingo who insisted that we should try something different. We ordered the Chempedak Bread & Butter Pudding. It was a croissant with creamy custard and chempedak (hot) served with Haagen Dazs Vanilla ice cream (cold). We ended the night with a nice and sweet comfort food.For the drinks, we ordered the non-alcoholic mocktail and smoothies. My wife tried their famous Spuds & Aprons' Sodas With Nata D' Coco Jello  and wild berries. I tried their Minty Mango Madness. The soda was refreshing and fruity! My smoothies was a fushion of mango mix, mango sorbet, yogurt and mint syrup. We enjoyed ourselves very much by sipping the drinks slowly while enjoying the beautiful sunset!Special thanks to Ms Jaslyn Toh who helped us with the prize collection, reservation, excellent customer service, recommendations and "best view" seating arrangement! In addition, special thanks to Mr Wingo for his friendliness, hospitality, excellent customer service and food and drinks recommendations at Spuds & Aprons.

http://www.faberpeaksingapore.com/eat-drink-shop/spuds-and-aprons

Please call (+65) 6377 9688 or email: guestrelations@mountfaber.com.sg to check on restaurants' availability and to make a reservation.

Thank you OpenRice for inviting me for the food tasting session at Seasons Bistro.

On the same day of visit, I posted all the dishes tasted in my OpenSnap account.

Results of the most popular dish at Seasons Bistro based on the most number of "Likes" are as below as of 25th January 2015.

5th Position - Bana Cobb's Salad (32 Likes)
I like the presentation - looks appertizing! The ingredients are cajun spiced chicken, eggs, bacon, olives, corn, watercress, tomatoes, avocado, blue cheese and read vine vinaigrette.4th Position - Seasons Cheese Burger (33 Likes)
Huge serving and comes with fries and salad. The ingredients are homemade 200gm USA beef patty, stripy jack cheese, brioche bun, caramelized onions, bacon, mushrooms, homemade ketchup and mustard with fries. Too bad, I don't take beef but the fries and salad with the homemade ketchup sauce is nice.3rd Position - SFC Seasons Fried Chicken (38 Likes)
Not to be associated with KFC, this is SFC. Quite reasonable fried chicken and the homemade ketchup sauce is awesome. The ingredients are fried chicken, succotash and deviled ranch dressing and homemade ketchup.2nd Position - Lamb Chop (39 Likes)
Nice presentation and the baked chessy potatoe is a good compliment to the main dish. The meat is tender and the cook makes the lamb chop just nice. Champion! - Maple Pumpkin Cheese Cake (40 Likes)
The dessert is the winner with the most number of likes! Not surprising as the presentation is simply awesome and being a comfort food, it definitely helps to win some votes! The maple pumpkin cheese cake has a unique taste and it is served with cranberry cream with fresh blackberries and strawberries!Overall, Seasons Bistro is a nice and quite place with cool ambience to chill out with your family or friends after a hard day work. It is located near the Somerset MRT Station and the restaurant is within walking distance from the train station.

Special thanks to Reka and Adeline for organizing the food tasting event. Special thanks to Seasons Bistro for the fantastic food!

For Christmas, we had Bak Kut Teh for lunch!

B.K.T. by Kong Kee serves their signature dish Malaysian Klang Style Bak Kut Teh with their original secret recipe created in 1965 by their grandparents in Klang. They are proud of their special Bak Kut Teh. How are they different from the rest? Published on a poster which they displayed on the table, they say.

1. They are probably the 1st Bak Kut Teh restaurant in Singapore to serve Klang Style Dry and Soup Bak Kut Teh and Singaporean Teochew Style Bak Kut Teh in one location.

2. They use the finest ingredient like fresh pork for the pork ribs.

3. They serve Kwey Tiao Soup and Shallot Rice.Teochew Style Bak Kut Teh

There are three types of soup bases at B.K.T. by Kong Kee. We opted for the Teochew Style soup base which is usually the normal base. You can drink to your heart’s content as this soup base is refillable. There were generous pork ribs provided in one serving and I like the soup as they did not add too much pepper. The right combination of pepper, garlic and fresh pork ribs makes the soup fragrant and yummy. I love it! The rest of the items were quite standard when you order Bak Kut Teh. We ordered braised eggs, braised beancurd skins and groundnuts. The beancurb skins and groundnuts serving were huge and more than sufficient for two adults!
Bah Kut Teh is a Chinese soup that is always listed as one of top must-try dishes in Singapore and it has always been one of my favourite. If you have craving for Bah Kut Teh, especially on a raining day, I recommend B.K.T. by Kong Kee.

Ps : This is not a sponsored post.

Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Deli was opened at The Riverwalk in 2004 and in 2006, Ricciotti expanded and opened its second restaurant at China Square Central. Ricciotti has always been my choice for authentic and affordable Italian gourmet food in Singapore.

I've earlier tried their "1 for 1 pizza or pasta promotion" at their Star Vista Outlet in October 2014 with delight and it was actually quite value for money. Hence, I invited two friends for a return visit for the same promotion.

We did not make any reservations and we were seated down comfortably upon our arrival. I like the wooden interior decorations. The staff were friendly and introduced us the Italian food available under current promotion and those in the ala carte menu.We ordered two types of pizza and one spaghetti to share among the three of us. The Spaghetti Marinara costs S$23.50. The Spaghetti was served with calamari, clams, sea scallops, prawns, cherry tomatoes in light tomato sauce. If you like seafood spaghetti, you will enjoy Spaghetti Marinara.The Carnivora Pizza costs S$18.00 for the 9 inch size and S$25.50 for the 12 inch size. The Carnivora Pizza was filled with honey baked ham, chicken, spicy salami, minced beef, pomodoro and mozzarella cheese.

Fills with spicy salami, pomodoro and mozzarella

 

The Prosciutto Cotto E Funghi Pizza costs S$15.00 for the 9 inch size and S$21.50 for the 12 inch size. The Prosciutto Pizza was filled with ham, mushrooms, pomodoro and mozzarella cheese.

Fills with ham, mushrooms, pomodoro and mozzarella

 

I like the thick crust for both pizzas. However, among the two types of pizza, I personally preferred the Prosciutto Pizza as I like the ingredients mix (ham and mushrooms).

The "1 for 1 promotion" is limited to either "1 for 1 pasta" or  "1 for 1 pizza". This means that you order one type of pizza, you will get the other pizza for free. You pay for the higher priced pizza. You cannot order one pizza and hope to get a pasta for free and vice versa.

Overall, I enjoyed our lunch at Ricciotti.  I would recommend this place to fans of Italian cuisine. Ricciotti also offers daily weekday special promotion at their Star Vista Branch. For more details of the offer, you can visit their website.

ps : This is not a sponsored post.

It's Christmas Eve!

So we decided to try the famous Chinese restaurant (Ju Chun Yuan) which serves good authentic Fuzhou cuisine and dim sum.The restaurant is located in Far East Square building, level 1. For those who are driving, you can park your vehicle in Far East Square. The restaurant looks like a Chinese temple. Walk straight in and you will find the place crowded with people enjoying their cuisine.We saw the banner promoting dim sum buffet lunch at $19.80+ per adult for weekday. So, we decided to go for it and gave us a chance to try the different types of dim sum.

There are six dim sum categories as below:
1. Steamed
2. Baked & Fried
3. Vegetables
4. Noodle/Congee
5. Specialty
6. Dessert

As it is a buffet, we limited ourselves to a few baked and fried dim sum so that we can try each dim sum from other categories. Please try to order a few dim sum at a time. If not, you will be too full to try the rest.

Below is my recommendation.

1. Steamed
a. Beancurd roll with pork and abalone sauce - NICE, MUST order
b. Steamed pork and shrimp dumpling - NICE, CAN order
c. Steamed salted egg custard bun - NICE, CAN order2. Baked & Fried
a. Deep fried beancurb skin rill with shrimp - NICE, CAN order
b. Deep fried prawns dumpling with mayonnaise -NICE, CAN order4. Noodle/Congee
a. Century egg and pork congee - NICE, MUST order5. Specialty
a. Sliced chicken in spicy sauce - NICE, MUST order
b. Deep fried pork ribs with Juchunyuan sauce - NICE, CAN order (Note: big portion)
c. Chilled pork shank with garlic - NOT NICE, can skip
d. Sliced pork belly with spicy sauce - NICE, MUST order6. Dessert 
a. Chilled Almond Pudding - NICE, MUST order
b. Osmanthus with Wolfberry Cake - NICE, CAN order
c. Aloe & Lemongrass Jelly - NOT NICE, can skip
d. Chilled Durian & fresh cream in pancake - NICE, MUST order
e. Chilled Sago with Mango and Pomelo - NICE, MUST orderOverall, I enjoyed the dim sum here much better than some of the other Chinese restaurants. Go for the items in "Specialty" category as the items are unique and more pricey and it is worth to try it. You must definitely try their signature dessert i.e. durian pancake! The durian is sweet and bitter and I love it so much!

I paid S$46 for two adults. If we were to order the dim sum individually, the bill would have been S$123!!!. Hence, it is really quite worth it to try their dim sum buffet. Please note that this restaurant does not impose Service Charge for dining. This is another good advantage.