Before meeting my girlfriend, I did not even know that this specific type of powdery shaved ice existed - and that would had been a total waste. Nowadays, instead of your typical ice desserts, such as ice kacang and chendol, people are having bowls of towering shaved ice, which are usually flavoured and topped up with syrup, diced fruits and jelly cubes. Well, with all the new desserts stalls starting to appear in the local food scene, you might ask, "where is the best dessert place, or has the best snow ice?" Although the answer might be ambigious to some, Mei Heong Yuen, or better known as 味香园 is one dessert place to head for.

Being featured in several newspaper articles and television programmes, Mei Heong Yuen is also proud to be one of Singapore's Chinatown Heritage Brand, an initiative by Chinatown Business Association to introduce long established heritage brand names to visitors. Despite being in business for years, its standard still remained the same, unlike some restaurants who slacked on their standards after quite some time. And, if you are still wondering why the name sounds familiar, the owner of Mei Heong Yuen also owns the famous Farmer Brand peanut - the logo features a farmer holding a spade and a bunch of groundnuts with the other hand.

Shifting the focus back to the shave ice, Mei Heong Yuen has one the best ones in Singapore. Their Mango Snow Ice (S$5.00) is a good thirst quencher on hot days, with the flavoured ice matched with fresh mango puree and mango cubes. The strawberry version (S$5.00) does not lose out as well, being a good lover of the adorable-looking red fruit, I am bias towards to this shaved ice, paired with fresh strawberry slices and jelly cubes. Another favourite of mine - Yuan Yang Snow Ice (S$6.00), a perfect combination of black (sesame) and white (almond), which comes complete with roasted almond slices and grass jelly cubes. If you like the hot yuan yang paste, I am pretty sure you would take a liking to the cold version as well.Expecting no less from the owners of Farmer brand peanuts, Mei Heong Yuen is also highly acclaimed for their smooth Peanut and Walnut paste (S$3.00). Recently, Mei Heong Yuen has once expanded to fit the large crowds, and it is now occupying three shops allocation. On top of that, they do have another outlet at the basement of Ion Orchard as well. It is small and often over-packed, therefore if you're eating in a big group, do head to their Chinatown outlet.

You don't usually come by an eatery with a quirky shop name, but when you do, you can't simply walk away without trying it out. After an evening of shopping at the recent computer show at Expo, a few friends and yours truly decided to have our late dinner, or rather supper at Table Manners - a casual American chic bar equipped with sleek, wooden furnitures and clever quotes, well-hidden amidst the outdoor garden of Changi City Point, an addition to the ulu area of the East.

We were immediately seated inside by a service staff, who skipped all the formalities and gave us a friendly "yo bros" with a huge smile, which is a plus point from me. Diners may also opt for al-fresco dining at their bar area or wooden pavilion surrounded by greeneries.

"The World Is Round, And Manners Aren't Square"
Truffle Chicken (S$8.50) was delectably crunchy and flavourful. It was a tad salty, but it would serve as a perfect drinking snack.Probably my favourite item of the dinner, King's Burger (S$16.00) - a large, juicy medium-done beef patty on caramelized buns with crispy greens, bacon slices and topped up with a good ol' sunny side-up egg. It is served with generous portion of truffle fries and salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
One of their speciality - Mary's Little Lamb (S$20.00) is indeed quite a "little" one literally, or maybe Mary has not been feeding her lambs sufficiently. Small it might seems, it was soft and tender to the flesh, and drizzled by light, yet aromatic gravy sauce. Served with mashed potatoes and salad.Angus Ribeye Steak (S$23.00) grilled to perfection with a pinkish soft center (we had it done medium), was succulent and tender enough to make me salivate at every single bite. Considering the price for this quality, it is well worth it.The chefs were a little heavy on tobasco sauce on their Jambalaya (S$16.00), seafood and chicken wings cooked in spicy tomato sauce. It is served with a bowl of pilaf rice (which honestly, is a better dish in itself.) One of my friends, Chang Sun added, "it is decent, but not worth the money."Besides ala-carte menu, diners can mix-and-match their lunch sets and drinks to their own preferences, as well. How cool is that? Table Manners in general, is definitely a great place to chill out with your friends over the weekend, what's more is that most of the food items are reasonably priced, so you won't have to worry burning much of a hole in your pocket.

Chilli Crab is a popular dish known by many and it is arguably the best local dish right here at its birth place. Listed by CNN Travel at 35th in "World's 50 Most Delcious Food", Chilli crab is with no doubt, a must eat when it comes to travelling in Singapore. Let's just put it this way - You have not truly been to Singapore until you savour the chilli crabs.

Located at Jurong West district, Big Eater Seafood could be identified with hundreds of signatures-filled crab shells hanging on the ceiling. Though it sure does look like a nightmare for crabs to end up in, tens and hundreds of crab-lovers throng to this particular seafood restaurant regularly and unite all in the name of this clawed creature.

Do not miss out their signature Chilli Crab (seasonal price ~ S$43.00) - whole crab stir-fried in semi-thick, sweet and spicy tomato-based chilli sauce with eggs and ganished with cilantro. Crab claws are the most fleshy and convenient part, hence it is quite the obvious favourite to many and more often than not, served to guest or the elderly. However, the actual fun of eating a crab lies in using the crab cracker and claw out the meat (it might not seem like an appropriate similarity, but it is like how an anteater dig out ants from a tree bark. Oh yuck. I know.) Anyway, the sweet-spicy gravy is best eaten together with white rice, or even better with its sidekick -Deep Fried Buns (S$4.00 for 10), or better known as Chinese mantou.

Salted Egg Yolk Crab (seasonal price ~ S$43.00) is another prefered way of cooking. The savoury flavour of the salted egg yolk infused with the natural sweet, juicy flesh tends to be difficult to resist. Oh, and if you're lucky enough, you might just get one that is full of delectable crab roes!Besides stir-frying with tomato-chilli and salted egg yolk sauce, other popular flavours include the drier and fragrant black pepper sauce and for the health gurus, how does steamed crabs sound?

Crispy Prawn Roll (S$13.50) - fresh prawn paste is wrapped in thin layers of beancurd skin and then deep-fried, is highly recommended. Simple, yet an amazing dish with a subtle crisp. Therefore, we always have this at our table every single time.Deep Fried Chicken (S$12.00) is no less awesome with its juicy flesh hidden under a layer of crispy brown skin. With KFC's chicken getting smaller and standards going downhill, one day I might just switch here to satisfy my chicken cravings instead.Besides its speciality seafood, Big Eater Seafood Restaurant is also well-known for their authentic KL-style Hokkien Mee, Hor Fun and various local dishes. Definitely recommended for family dinners and late-night gatherings.

Most diners would think twice about good Japanese food being served in a Food Republic restaurant. Girlfriend and yours truly felt pretty skeptical as well, but were eased by the snaking queue forming outside Koh Grill & Sushi Bar. As Singaporeans, our kiasu mindset immediately made an assumption that this sushi bar is definitely a glutton's favourite hunt and thus allow our love for food consume us as we joined the queue.

If there is only one food item you could have, it must be their signature Shiok Maki (S$16.80) and it is called "SHIOK" for a reason - grilled unagi (eel) and soft avocado strips wrapped in a lightly roasted salmon maki, topped with melted cheese, mayonaise and an abundance of flying fish roes. The sinful burst of flavours were incredibly amazing and has since, found a spot in my favourite maki list.The lightly-salted Salmon Skin (S$4.00) has a delectable crisp to every single bite, which make this dish a good side kick. Come to think of it, salmon skin is a pretty awesome beer snack.I felt cheated when the Asparagus Buta Maki (S$3.00) arrived on my table, as it was puny in comparison to the usual. However, this delightful wrap of slightly crisped bacon and juicy asparagus was a surprise to the palate.Gindara Yaki (S$16.00, additional S$2 for rice and miso soup) - cod fillet baked with cheese and flying fish roes, completed with fresh cabbage salad and garlic miso sauce. It was a tad salty for my liking but the sinful, yet addictive combination was too alluring to resist.If you are looking for good, and yet affordable Japanese cuisine, do look no furthur than Koh Grill and Sushi Bar.

To be honest, thinking about what's for dinner on Valentine's day is quite a fortunate pain in the ass, unless settling for a romantic candlelight, home-cooked dinner at home. I am pretty sure that most couples, especially the male counterpart would nod profusely to this statement, and I did mention "fortunate" as you know, we should give thanks for our significant other.

District 10 Bar Tapas Restaurant, located at The Star Vista, was chosen as the venue for our Valentine's day dinner. The newly opened branch became the latest addition to the Bonta Group of Restaurants, offering an inviting haven for people from all walks of life to chill out amidst their relaxing and laid-back atmosphere. Interesting enough, I found out that there is a "Smash your Stress" booth to vent your frustrations by smashing your glass bottles on an iPad with your nemesis's face on it. But since it's Valentine's day, I decided to show mercy and let girlfriend off (nah, just kidding.)District 10 had a Valentine's day promotion (which lasted till 17 Feb), but we chose to try out the other ala-carte food items instead. Duck and Mango Salad (S$16.00) proved to be an worthy appetizer, with shredded duck, diced mangoes and walnut bits scattered on the heap of greens. Personally, I love how walnuts bring life out of the fresh greens. Oh, if you're looking for something lighter, District 10 Salad might be the choice for ya.Small bites are something not to be missed at District 10. With a wide variety of more than 30 of tapas and pinchos, one might just get a migraine from choosing what your belly could fit in. If you are wondering why the name "pinchos" (which meant spike in Spanish), it actually meant tapas (snack in Spanish) that is skewered with a piece of bread, typically by using a toothpick, and paired with a glass of icy cold beer Interesting eh?Aside from their signature spiked meat-on-a-bread, we had Sauteed Garlic Prawns with Olive Oil (S$12.00) - a delightful bar snack, which consisted of succulent prawns drenched in an abundance of garlicky flavor. Oh, what more can I asked for?

The menu offers a variety of traditional dishes, namely "Pizza with Portobello Mushroom and White Truffle Oil" and "Jumbo Crab Meat Linguine", as well as creative fusions, like the Wagyu Beef Cheek Rendang Pizza (S$28.00). The combination of braised Indonesian beef rendang together with the Italian staple was unique, amazing and definitely a winner. If only there were more garnishes or perhaps, rendang sauce spread across the whole pizza. Yum.Complete the dinner with Warm Chocolate Cake (S$14.00) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Sadly, it was not oozing with molten chocolate, but it was still soft-centered with a slightly hardened crust. Despite so, the price for the dessert was rather steep.Service-wise could be beefed up a few levels, as they were pretty unresponsive and slow, however District 10 Bar Tapas Restaurant left us with an overall good impression. Would definitely visit again when I have the chance.