My beloved aunt's recommendation, she brought us to Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh Eating House. It's all about having fleshy pork ribs soaking all the essence of the spicy soup. A happy boy I was, happily stripping off every bit of meat off the bone! Apparently, there's a way to make your soup more spicy or less spicy. If you want it more spicy, simply stir the soup before you drink.

If not, just wait for the sediments to sink all the way to the bottom before dunking your spoon into it.Pig's kidney. It's soft and chewy but there's nothing really special about it if you want to know. The kidneys didn't really soak up the essence of the soup that well compared to pork ribs. Nevertheless, it was fresh.My family has very high expectations when it comes to eating pork trotters. The fatty meat to lean meat ratio has to be perfect! We like our trotters to have slightly more lean meat to chew on while a reasonable amount of fatty meat to intensify the taste.

For those who are health conscious, well, this bowl of trotters might suit you. There's more lean meat compare to fatty meat. Just like the ribs, the meat have already soaked up all the essence of the soy broth.In my opinion, a must have when you are having Bak Kut Teh. Fresh fried and not stale You Tiao (Deep fried dough fritter). It would seem very weird not to have them.

It's amazes how I would watch my fitter whenever intensely as I dip it into the soup. You gotta ensure that your you tiao doesn't get over soak and disintegrate. Not to mention guarding it from potential lazy bums who just wants to grab yours instead!

All in all, the dishes were rather satisfying. Apart from the dark soy sauce. I was baffled why their dark soy sauce looks like light soy sauce? My definition of a premium dark soy sauce has a dark reflective tone and it must be thick one...They got the darkish reflection right but the thickness. A premium dark soy sauce in my opinion, will coat the meat with thick sauce and not merely stains it. So when you wanna have a bowl of bak kut teh, simply drop by Isetan Office Building...

Whenever I had cravings for Swedish cuisine, those four letter words would instantly conjures...

IKEA!
For people like me, Ikea is usually my benchmark to gauge a good Swedish cafe from a bad one. So far, I've yet to chance upon a bad one though or I should say I've never dine at a Swedish bistro other than Ikea.I mean how wrong could you get with beefy meatballs drizzled over savoury brown gravy, boiled potatoes and let's not forget about the sweet lingoberry jam alright... A must have in my opinion, the Chocolate Butterscotch Cake. Informally, also known as the Daim cake.
It's pronounced as Dime Cake not Diam cake. (Diam means shut up in Hokkien.) White cream sitting at the top of almond butterscotch biscuit base topped by a layer of milky chocolate with bits and pieces of crunchy almond nuts.

Give me a Daim cake and I'll be more than happy to shut up and enjoy the cake! Swedish Apple Pie. Now this is what I call a apple pie! Ikea bought her up well... or I should say baked her so well She's sweet but not overtly sweet. They got the crust to apple puree ratio is just nice so much so that I felt like getting another one if not for the ridiculously long queue... Almond Cake. An almond base cake enveloped by a layer of buttercream and douse in a heap of roasted almond... It's very moist and chunky but unlike the Daim cake, this cake here isn't very sweet. I expected a strong almondish taste but it didn't happen. Maybe the sweeter Daim cake may have overpower my taste buds...If cakes and desserts doesn't interest you, how about having cinnamon roll over a cup of coffee? At $1 for having both, it definitely worth the money. But as with MOST cheap stuffs, don't hold too much expectations from it alright?

If you notice, amongst the background, behind the cup of coffee, you might have notice a bowl of soup...Mushroom Soup. Every spoonful of the creamy soup is always accompanied by a considerable amount of mushrooms. I've this problem when ordering soup. After the first few spoonful, I would just asked myself why in the first place I get myself a bowl of soup when I could use the money to get myself an extra cake?

If you ever wanna have simple and cheap Swedish cuisine, why not give Ikea a try?

It is possibly if not undeniably one of the best snowskin mooncakes you will ever find buy in Singapore. Each exquisitely if not intricately made from scratch. The knelling and the molding, all made from hands. Dusted with snowy powder, East Ocean's mini snowskin mooncakes are one of the highly sought ones I must have for every mid autumn festival. I can do away with carrying lanterns (or burning them as with all other children would when their parents aren't looking), do away with sipping tea and peeling pomelo but there's one thing I can never do without is a box of their mini snow white pastries. What I really love about the Teochew restaurant's snow white delights is the fact that they got the filling to the soft glutinous rice crust ratio just right. You could savour the filling and yet not having that overkill feeling while enjoying the soft chewy texture of the thin mochi skin and still have room for another one.

Aside from the perfect marriage of fillings and crusts, another plus point that makes East Ocean rendition so different from your typical mainstreams one would be the firmness when attempting to slice one. Where there are mooncakes which simply disintegrate and make a whole mess on your knife and plate, I find East Ocean's sweet little mini treats still standing firm and strong as I portion them into minier treats. That's definitely a plus point for me. The ease of cutting cutting mooncakes without making a whole lot of mess.They come in three different fillings; the sweet white lotus paste, delicate green tea paste and mild yellow custard ones. Out of the three, white lotus paste fare the best and to a larger extend better than most other mooncakes I tried over the years. The paste is pleasing to the palette if not smooth silky consistency. Green tea is the runner up which I like it mild while yellow custard could be slight richer as it hover around the range of bland but still fantastic. When it comes to mooncakes, I prefer to stick to a few brands although once in a while curiosity calls me to try new ones but I never end the festive season without a box or two from East Ocean. I would even go as far that it's the standard I expect for any other snowskins mooncakes. If not I wouldn't say proclaim on my blog as one of the best snowskin mooncakes in Singapore.

I told myself it was purely curiosity that compel me to try it and I got to cheek to tell my friends that I rather spend my money on cakes than on such sugar infused drink!

How quick was I to judge. How wrong I am to draw such conclusions.

Every Wednesday without fail, I would head down to Junction 8 to get myself a cuppa! It's almost a weekly routine right now. I know I can't deny my feelings already. I'm offically addicted to Gong Cha's EGMT!Being the excessive me, I decided to get myself another cuppa. This time, Matcha Milk Tea with Azuki Beans. Personally, I love green tea and red beans desserts, especially when you put them together! It's like the perfect combination much like sea salt and caramel.

But when it comes to Bubble Tea, I just don't get Ommph factor that I had in cakes. Maybe the combination doesn't apply to bubble tea.

This is seriously getting out of hand. I just realised I had 4 cuppa of bubble tea this week. One theory my friend proposed was because I needed some form of sugar and it just so happen that I couldn't managed to get my hands on cakes and so I turn to the next best substitution. GONG CHA...

Yeah... Come to think of it, I haven't had a good piece of cake since a week ago? Seems like a long time ago for me. Maybe the addiction will go away once I had my fair share of cakes!

I've been a fan of Tea for the longest of time. Let's not mention how I love my Coffee as well alright? Of course there are certain Teas that I never really enjoy. Yes you got that right, Bubble Tea.

I can understand the concept of eating starchy black pearls. But drinking copious amount of sugar? Maybe my love for sweet desserts & pastries are greater than my love for sweet drinks...

The simple Earl Grey Milk Tea (EGMT) with 30% sugar content. No, I didn't get any toppings because I wanted to save money!

The verdict? There's no doubt that Gong Cha's EGMT tasted like Earl Grey + Milk.
But still, even at 30% sugar content, it is still very SWEET! I was wondering to myself, just how much is 30% sugar content compared to 50% sugar content? One day, If I've the chance, I will find out!

Nevertheless it's still pretty good! Afterall, it's tea that's meant for the Chinese Emperor to drink. That's Gong Cha (Tribute Tea in Chinese)...