Nando's is a chain of fast-food chicken restaurants that has been growing steadily over the last 10 years in Singapore. Did you know that Nando's is African? Nando's was founder in 1987 and originated from South Africa. Nando's prides itself over their peri peri sauces which comes in garlic, mild and spicy!

To me, as a non-spicy food eater, all were spicy! As such, I went with herb and lemon and got a little toothpick flag that said "Not so brave" on my chicken! I guess it's meant to jokingly make fun of me for choosing a non-spicy option.

As I was browsing the menu, the friendly manager walked by to introduce their latest items to me, including the pita which I ended up having. He also spent time to introduce their latest Nando's Periviledge loyalty program which was a mobile app. Spend $20 to get 1 chilli and collect chillis to redeem food! Having tried Nando's in Australia and New Zealand, their membership system there was addictive and it really got me to keep going back to Nando's and I'm glad that Singapore's Nando's is trying to implement a similar loyalty program. That could the explanation for the 30 minute queue I had to patiently wait through on a sunday night!

1. Chicken Pita $11.90++Served in a lightly toasted pita, stuffed with chicken tenders, crisp veggie salad and creamy whip. This chicken pita is part of a revamp of the Nando's menu which just happened at the end of 2015. The revamp provides a wider option of their chicken items, rather than just having chicken with sides, you can choose to have chicken in burgers, wraps or pita.

I love the combination ingredients especially the chicken tenders. You could still taste the slightly charred chicken tender which was so juicy despite having a glaze of creamy whip all around. The vegetables were mixed in well and you got a bit of all the ingredients in every bite. It was kind of a mess trying to eat this with a fork and knife, so just go all out and use your hands!

2. 1/4 Chicken Herb and Lemon with Wedges and Mediterranean rice $14.90++Once you have chosen the size of your chicken
*Price with no sides (on it's own)

-  1/4 $10.90
-  1/2 $18.90
-  Whole $36.90

and you have picked your sides (either on it's own, 1 side or 2 sides)
*Each side is priced at $2.90 on it's own

- Spicy Rice
- Mediterranean Rice
- Coleslaw
- PERi chips
- PERi wedges
- Grilled Veggie
- Garlic Bread
- Three Bean Salad
- Corn-on-the-con

then you choose you level of spiciness for your chicken

1. Lemon and Herb – Not so Brave!
2. Mild – Tickle your taste buds
3. Hot – Gets you in the mood
4. Extra hot – Sure to raffle your feathers

I went with Lemon and Herb and found the chicken to be extremely juicy and succulent with a zesty lemony taste. As each order is flamed grilled to order, you may experience a longer waiting time as compared to other restaurants. But be patient, it's all worth the wait!~ The chicken skin was extremely crispy, underneath the skin you will not be able to find any fats as the chicken had been grilled to perfection such that all the fat had melted away! You can catch the flame grilling action right behind the cashier!

The wedges were crispy on the edges and soft and mushy in the center. The Mediterranean rice, despite it's look like it's a simple small plate of white rice was actually very tasty. The rice grains are a lot longer than your typical asian rice grains. They were also slightly harder with some oil mixed into it.

3. 1/4 Chicken Herb and Lemon with fries and grilled vegetables $14.90++The PERi fries are addictive and I'm glad that they were generous with it. Not a single french fry was soggy! Woohoo! The grilled vegetables was a real treat and next round, I'm getting 2 sides of grilled vegetables. There's onions, capsicum as well as juicy mushrooms in the mixture. All of which had a nice char grill aroma.

I highly recommend getting the 1/4 chicken with the grilled vegetables and PERi fries!

4. Rainbow Cake $5.90++I decided to try something not so African and go with a rainbow cake for dessert. It was slightly dry and came on a freezing cold plate. I'm assuming that they had pre cut the cake and left this cake sitting on this plate in the fridge. The cake tasted okay and the butter cream was super creamy, very sinful. Not a bad way to end a grilled dinner. Just wished the cake could've been a little bit more moist.

I must say that the ambiance is amazing! Very nice to chill, with the relaxing african cultural music that provides a modern tribal feel. The walls are well illustrated with pop culture. The service is efficient as well! We didn't have to wait for so long for our food to arrive. As I had ordered a coke that was refillable, the wait staff were always attentive to us and was polite everytime they asked if they could help us refill the drinks.

Located on the 7th floor of Jun Jie Industrial Building, approximately 700m from Tai Seng MRT is the new 3000 square feet coffeeshop, the new homeground of Truly Curry Rice that moved here from Telok Blangah Food Centre. Opened by young hawkerpreneurs, they are passionate about filling up your tummies will delicious food without you looking at your wallet!Check out the prices of the drinks teh bing at $1! Or teh at 80 cents. These are rare sights at modern day coffee shops.They serve a variety of food, noodles, porridge, western, yong tau foo.Their western menu is pretty comprehensive, starting at $3.50 for pastas and there's even seafood marinara for $3.50!! You get to choose 1 protein, 1 carb, 1 side and 1 sauce all for $4. For choices of sides, you can even pick fried chicken chop, oven roasted chicken thigh! Next to the drink stall, you will see the curry rice stall with lots of pork cutlets displayed on the top shelf and veggies that follow below. Starting from $2, this is the reason why Truly Test Kitchen has gotten it's reputation!

1. Tomato Fried Egg $2 *highly recommended*I generally love all types of tomato fried egg dishes but this was slightly different. The ratio of tomatoes to egg was significantly more. The sauces was also pretty thick which doubled as a nice gravy for the price. The egg was charred on the edges and yet still thin and was able to absorb the sweetness from the gravy. This is more of a sweet side dish and would go hand in hand with any side dishes that Truly curry offers. At $2 a serving, this is my no. 1 choice for a side dish on top of your pork chop and rice!

2. Fried Yam Cake $2Joel was proud to serve this to us and here's why! The yam cake was so crispy and almost biscuit like on the exterior and yet soft and cakey on the inside. I love the generousity of the sauces and fried onions. I can never say no to more fried onions. The serving here again, is huge for just a mere $2 note! The yam cake was flavourful with every bite even without the sauce. The sauce added a tinge of sweetness and it had a lingering sweet aroma.

3. Radish $2I don't normally eat radish as I find it to be a rather bland vegetable, but Truly Curry proved me wrong. The radish was so tasty and it definitely tasted alot better than any radish I had tried. It was soft and sweet.

4. Hainanese Pork Chop with Cabbage $3Here's the actual portion you get for $3. I am still just to comprehend the value here. This is not just an ordinary plate of pork chop and chap chye. The pork chop here is deep fried in a thin batter leaving it thin and crispy. The curry was thick and not too spicy for my liking, as I do not normally take spicy foods. I believe that the spiciness level is okay for even children.

The curry used here is made from scratch daily and this shows the owner's dedication for quality food!

5. Assam Homely Noodle $3.50 *highly recommended*I loved this assam homely noodles. It isn't spicy at all, rather it's more like a sweet version of mee siam! Take note, you should eat this while it's hot, once you are done taking photos and it cools down, the whole game changes. The noodles absorb all the gravy and it's truly an a delicious dish for just $4.50. There's balls of minced meat. But being that this coffeeshop lacks a decent ventilation, I could foresee myself giving up half way through the bowl as it is truly too hot.

6. Curry Homely Noodles $3.50Another version of the noodles is the curry homely noodles. For some reason I felt that this was spicier than the curry rice curry sauce. I wasn't really able to eat much of the noodles due to the spiciness level. But ingredients wise, it had the same ingredients as the Assam Homely Noodles.

The noodles had a consistent soft and chewy texture. I just wished that it wasn't so spicy. Joel came by to explain to us the rationale for this dish, the bulk of their customers are industrial workers who need alot calories to fuel their body for work. As such, they wanted a bowl filled up tasty noodles to empower them for the day. Hence, this humongous portion of noodles was served!

7. Chicken Chop HK style maggie $3.50 I love maggie noodles and this was no exception. The springy noodles coupled with a seasoning at the bottom of the bowl was enough to make me devour the noodles. The chicken chop here was slightly drier than the pork chop from the curry rice. I loved the sunny side up egg that still had a fluid core! I would totally order this again!

The seasoning for this maggie noodle wasn't too salty but I felt that it could've been abit more moist. Maybe it sat for too long from the extended photo taking session but this noodle is served with a bowl of clear soup!

8. Chicken Ball Porridge $3This chicken ball porridge came with a raw egg! There were numerous balls of chicken meat all rolled up that held together despite my violent stiring technique. The chicken meat had natural chicken flavours and the porridge itself wasn't bland. The consistency of the porridge was thick and spot on. Something so simple like a porridge may not seem to be the top of your cravings list but do give this a try!

9. Meatball Marinara $3.50The meatball marinara was a surprise to me, as their noodles tasted slightly spicy. Very different from the typical marinara seasoning. The meatballs were alright, but it could be cooked for shorter period as some tasted slightly drier than the others. The texture of the spaghetti was good!

10. Chicken n Waffles $4.50 *highly recommended*Truly Test Kitchen is starting to gain popularity on instagram due to their $4.50 fried chicken and waffles, labelled as the cheapest chicken and waffles in singapore. The fried chicken cutlet was huge and the portion together with the fries and waffles, is definitely more than enough for one person.The chicken meat was juicy and the crispiness of the chicken cutlet was addictive. The waffle itself had a slight salty after taste which paired well with the sweey syrup that was provided. The fries portion was truly generous and I can only say, bring someone with you!Here's all the dishes that I tried that day. Owners Joel and Deniece have true passion to make you stretch your dollar and fill up your tummies with various food options. With so many choices, you can never get tired of all their food offerings. Not to mention, EVERY item goes for $4.50 and below!

Overall : Food that shows the owner's dedication to food quality and value, is sure to make me return back for more!

Two Plus One is a newly opened ice cream parlour in the Woodgrove region of Woodlands. I chanced upon this place after picking up a friend from Republic Poly. The awesome thing about this location is that it's a mini residential shopping area with a 24 hour ntuc, a prata stall and there's free parking after 10pm!Their menu is up on a chalk board. They don't offer any savoury foods, but lava cakes and ice creams is what they're proud to serve. For $4.50 a scoop, I was a bit surprised. This is definitely on the higher end for ice creams in a such a neighbourhood. But at the same time, Two Plus one was having a promotion whereby you can get 3 scoops for the price of 2! Not sure if this will be a permanent promotion in regards to the name of the cafe. For lactose intolerant friends, fret not! Two Plus One serves sorbets at $3.80 per scoop.They had a decent selection of ice cream flavours that greet you as you walk in! 

1. Chocolate Lava Cake $5.50There's a few options for the lava cakes, matcha $6, caramel $5.50 and chocolate $5.50. We got the last chocolate lava cake of the day! Woohoo! But sadly it sort of oozed out in the microwave. The owner of the cafe was kind enough to offer an additional scoop of ice cream or to get a different flavoured lava cake.The lava was "fluid" enough to move around the plate with ease and it was moist with a consistent texture all around the lava cake. This lava cake can probably meet any chocoholic's late night craving especially if you live in the North and you're craving this at say past 10pm!?

2. Charcoal Waffle with Thai Milk Tea $10.50After trying several flavours of ice cream thanks to the patient owners, I went with Thai Milk Tea. The taste was exactly of that of Thai Milk Tea, but with a sharp taste of sweetness. The ice cream itself had an icy aftertaste which I would've prefer it not to have. Here ate Two Plus One, they serve up Red Velvet waffles $6 as well as Charcoal waffles $6.  The classic waffle is $4.50. I was never able to taste the difference between charcoal waffles and normal waffles. But I still went with the charcoal waffles. Drizzled with caramel sauce, the charcoal waffle had a light and airy exterior with a slightly moist bite.

Overall : I liked their cosy environment and their ice cream satisfied my cravings! They also open till 12mn or even 1am, so Northerners, you guys are set for supper!

Cafe Mojito at Ang Mo Kio has been revamped with new management and new food offerings. They are promoting themselves as a salad, healthy eating cafe. But I'm not that health conscious myself, hence I skipped the salads.They have a great view of the main road, facing the amk-bishan park. I visited on a friday night and it was pretty quiet, probably because it was pouring cats and dogs that night. There's also free wifi, with ample spaces for youngster to chill out and enjoy the cosy cafe atmosphere.They offer appetizers such as your familiar truffle fries, nachos, healthier options like wraps and salads. For carbs you can pick between penne or pasta. The staff were pretty friendly and patient in explaning the dishes to us as we took a while to make up our minds on what to get.

1. Element Fries with Truffle $7.80The truffle aroma was just right! The fries were crisp and not a single one was over cooked. A decent portion of truffle fries for the price. This would be a great option for families.

2. Nachos With traffic light dip $8.80My friends love guacamole and salsa so we went for this. The sauces was okay, they met my expectation and taste. I did like the presentation of the dips, that forms the colours of a traffic light signal. The nachos was fresh and crispy with every crunch. 3. Salted Egg Chicken Popcorn $13.80Next up, was an appetizer, even at the price at $13.80. I totally enjoyed it. The popcorn chicken was crispy on the outside and with the layer of thick gooey cheese. It was perfect. The salted egg sauce wasn't too thick and you could distinctly taste both the cheese and salted egg sauce in every bite of the popcorn chicken!This appetizer was topped off with corn, a lot of it too! A nice addition! The portion of the popcorn chicken could easily be a main course for me. The proportion of cheese and salted egg was just right, almost every bite of popcorn chicken had a taste of both.

4. Baked Chicken Penne $14.80Timing for baking this was great, the penne was al dente, with lots of chicken cubes in the mix. The top of the baked chicken penne was cheesey goodness along with the cream sauce which was slightly charred to perfection. It was served hot and even after a long while of photo taking, the dish stayed warm. This dish wasn't gerlat at all. I could totally eat this again!

5. Salted egg, almond pecan ice cream with waffle $12.80With a salted egg craze going all over singapore. Cafe Mojito decided to try something new. Almond pecan ice cream with real pecan chunks on a crispy waffle, topped with salted egg sauce.They were extremely generous with the salted egg sauce, but unlike other eateries, their salted egg sauce was very chunky. You could definitely tell it was authentic salted egg that went into the sauce, not powder. The ice cream itself wasn't overly sweet and the waffle was okay for my liking. It wasn't as crispy as I liked it to be, but with the salted egg sauce on top, together with the melting ice cream, I'd say the waffle fared well. An interesting combination for a dessert!

Overall : Great cafe atmosphere, awesome and friendly staff and service coupled with comfort food and desserts offerings. I'm definitely coming back for more salted egg popcorn chicken and dessert!

The Chinese New Year is always a time for reunion with beloved family and friends. I had the opportunity to celebrate this festive season with Megu Catering Concepts to reunite over a tasty, plentiful feast that is sure to warm the hearts of my loved ones.
MEGU means "blessing" in Japanese and is 美果 in Chinese, which means fruitfulness. Megu were the pioneers that first ventured into the catering business almost 30 years ago, and have since come a long way through both great successes and humbling experiences.

The Festive Set I had was for 10 pax at $288.
Menu items were : 
- Prosperity Smoked Duck “Lo Hei”
- Happiness Cold Platter
- Tantalising Teriyaki Chicken
- Yellow Curry Fish with Eggplant and Lady’s Finger
- Wok-Fried Prawn with Golden Pumpkin
- Sweet Potato Rice Paper Roll
- Tientsin Cabbage with Mushroom Filling
- Steamed Olive Rice
- Iced Lemongrass Jelly with Aloe Vera

I went down to their headquarters at Kampong Ampat, the staff were friendly, I gave them my receipt and collected all the dishes in 3 cooler bags. They separated the cold food from the hot food. They also provided more than sufficient utensils.

1. Happiness Cold PlatterMarinated chilli conch, jellyfish, wakame salad, and fried ngoh hiang. The conch was something unfamiliar to me, it was chewy but not too hard. It was a tad spicy for me. The wakame salad was soft, springy and tasty. The fried ngoh hiang, came across to me as a pretty hard and not very flavourful fish cake. The jellyfish was the highlight of the dish, it has a special textural crunch all of its own. I loved it the most as it was very cool and refreshing to the palate.

2. Prosperity Smoked Duck “Lo Hei”An abundance of smoked duck, pickled ginger and mango, green and white radish, julienne of carrot pulps of pomelo, silver onion, lime, crackers, Chinese parsley, ground peanut, and fruity plum sauce,topped with sesame, salt, pepper and cinnamon.

I'm not usually a fan of eating lo hei and with the scare of raw fish, I'm glad that MEGU has gone with smoked duck instead. Something that is quite unique and they were quite pretty and added colour to the dish.Tossing the lo hei is usually the highlight of the meal! The sauces weren't too sweet for my liking and the nuts with the crackers were plentiful! I had a crunch in every mouthful!Check out the texture of the smoked duck. The smoked duck was packed into the cold bag with the dessert, so as to not be affected by the temperature of the hot food. The texture of the smoked duck was tender with a smokiness that doesn't overpower and not tough, which is usually my fear on eating these. The smoked duck slices were quite thick.SHOUT ALL THE WISHES YOU CAN THINK OF! The yu sheng was indeed colourful and everyone agreed that it was one of our favourite yu shengs!

3. Tantalising Teriyaki Chicken *highly recommended*Most caterers that serve teriyaki chicken tend to taste the same, I'm guessing everyone has the same chicken supplier, but NOT MEGU! I'm guessing their chicken is fresh? It tastes completely different from others I've tried. The teriyaki flavour was sharp and distinct even when you peel off the skin. The meat is extremely tender and sweet. Not one piece of meat was dry!

4. Yellow Curry Fish with Eggplant and Lady’s Finger

 

They were very generous with the fish and the fish chunks were huge! All the fish chunks were tender and fresh. The curry also wasn't spicy and it had the flavours of all the vegetables in the curry.

 

Despite really liking this dish, I just wished that the vegetables were slightly softer. They could've been boiled slightly longer to achieve this. Other than that, I loved their choice and ratio of vegetables and fish.

5. Wok-Fried Prawn with Golden Pumpkin

 

At first, I thought that this was salted egg! But nope! Nonetheless, the pumpkin flavour wasn't strong enough to be capture in every bite. The prawns were crunchy but as they were soggy, they weren't in the their shape. I think this could've been a star dish, if the flavour was more distinct. Nevertheless, since the prawns were so crunchy, I liked this!

6. Sweet Potato Rice Paper Roll
The rolls were hard as they were no longer crispy by the time we ate it. Even though the curry, cabbage and rice were still piping hot. The sweet potato was soft and pretty much melted in my mouth, so that was the dish's saving grace. I pretty much threw them into the toaster to make them palatable. 

7. Tientsin Cabbage with Mushroom Filling *6 stars* HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDI loved this. OpenRice! We need a 6 star option! This was the best dish by far from a caterer. There were so many different types of mushrooms in this and the cabbage soaked up all the mushroom juice goodness. I really enjoyed this dish. Mushroom lovers, GET THIS!

8. Steamed Olive Rice
The rice was fragrant and had a olive aroma. There was more than 10 portions worth of rice in that giant container that they gave us. Pretty sure it could feed a small village!

9. Iced Lemongrass Jelly with Aloe Vera

 

The CNY Menu ended off on the best note. This iced lemon grass jelly with aloe vera was super refreshing and cool. They were extremely generous with the aloe vera. Yes, those are strawberry slices, they did not add any flavour into the mixture, but it was nice to see some colour, in the pretty much colourless dessert. The drink itself wasn't sweet, so I could drink 3-4 bowls of this and still want more! The aloe vera cubes were all consistently crunchy. The lemongrass jelly was slightly on the bland side, but the since the juice tasted of 100% lemongrass, it was all good!

Overall : This was a catered experience like no other. MEGU Catering Concepts truly know what they're doing. Most of the dishes gave me a "Wow" experience and I'm convinced that MEGU can help you have a memorable Chinese New Year Reunion feast.