For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow.

You’d think steaks at a kiosk should be quite cheap, right But wow! the tenderloin costs $24.90. Cut throat.

You order at the counter, find a seat and the server will bring you your food. Throw in additional $3 to get soup and soft drinks – but hey I just got off gym, and soup is cream, a no-no.Taste-wise, there was nothing to complain but texture-wise, the steak felt like it was just defrosted–you can taste the ice although the steak was hot–and the quality of the steak was very inferior, grainy. The quality made me doubt whether it was safe to eat it. (It was, nothing happened to me.)

Maybe I ordered the wrong thing. The kiosk needs to either lower the price or purchase higher quality of beef. I’d file it under “not-sure” recommendation. This kiosk may be one of those places I’d hate but will return again because bo-pian what, no choice, it’s the few and convenient steak places in Orchard.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/lolivier-telok-ayer-st/

Hell-ow everybady, Ms Atas is back from her Europe tour! Check out my facebook constant updates from Effiel Tower, Leaning tower, etc. My Australian Boyfriend came for a visit and I wanted to bling him to a high crass place but I wanna be considerate too, and go for lunch, cheaper. I’m considerate, not cheap oooook? I iz Ms Atas, got $$. So did some prelim research on HGW and found this restaurant with high approval rate, not 100% approval but good enough, not everyone can have 100% approval rating like me.

When I was there, I was shocked. Gasp! I put my limp-wristed hand on my real boobs to clam myself down. The restaurant is situated at Singapore Hokkien Association and I thought all dialect associations are in dingy shophouses. This one so modern and so bright! Brighter than the moon moon moon. Hokkiens are as atas as Ms Atas? I don’t dink so!

The second shock I had was the decor of the restaurant. Expensive restaurants are suppose to be dark and sexy and the outside people cannot look in but this one is open concept with full-pane glass panels. OMG, I need more makeup!

The 3-course set lunch ($25++) is awwwfully limited. Appetizer: choice of soup or salad; Main: choice of fish or beef; and fixed dessert. Naturally, my Australian Boyfriend and I picked the same things because our two hearts are one.Aiyo, cannot, this simply cannot do. The mushroom soup had a thick film of oil floating on it – and its color was green. The 150days grainfed angus beef fillet was wayyyy overcooked–i requested for medium-rare–and tasted more pan-fried than grilled. The profiteroles were forgettable.

The service wasn’t top-notched. We hadn’t even finished our soup yet and the beef came. You know lah, I iz Ms Atas, got tiny mouth.

We spent $60 but there are other places which could serve better food at the same price.

It is named after a New York city; sells eclectic art from Africa, Asia and Europe; conducts cooking classes; offers catering services; and serves Peranakan, Western, and cze-char food. Confuse yet? Though eccentric and a tad disorientating, the decor shows the kaleidoscopic personalities of the owners–and it can safely be said that they are not hipsters. This place has character.

The food was cooked using traditional recipes without MSG. Like any homecooked meal, the portions were huge and there were some hits and misses. The food, not very spicy, is suited for children and families.

Definitely order the beef rendang ($15) and ayam buah keluak ($13). The portions were monstrous and both were extremely tender, meat that fell off the bone and they went very well with rice. I thought the sauce for the ayam buah keluak could be stronger but I was being picky.

While this eatery tries to be many things at once, it offers a value-for-money meal for families living in the East, who want to eat Peranakan food.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/brooklyn-art-gallery-cafe-singapore/

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/chatterbox-mandarin-orchard/

We made reservations before heading down since it was stated in the deal. I reached promptly at 5pm and was given a window seat since the place was quite empty. It was pretty nice to watch the world go from the 5th level of Mandarin Orchard, so when you call to make reservations, request for a table by the window. Yandao was late, so they served me my drink and left me alone. While idling my time away, I noticed that I was the only local! The people seated around me are all foreigners – Hong Kongers, Indonesians & Japanese! As much as I tried to eavesdrop on their conversations, I understood none of it. Boring. Anyway, when Yandao arrived, they brought the set out almost immediately! Howinitiative & attentive of the waiting staff. I like.

The deal includes Chatterbox Half Chicken, 2 bowls of rice, 1 seasonal vegetable, 2 drinks (soft drinks or beer), complimentary parking at Mandarin Orchard (for 2 hours only) for $36.52 excluding service charge & GST which sums up to about $42+. Pretty good deal since I heard that 1 plate of Chatterbox Chicken Rice is about $25. Furthermore, the car park charge for 2 hours is about $10.70.

Our Seasonal Vegetable was Dao Gay. Not too bad though I was hoping for 油菜 cos Dao Gay is so cheap. Dao Gay was soaked in sesame oil & was flavourful. There were mushrooms in them& I love mushrooms. They also removed the tails of the Dao Gay so thumbs up for effort they put in!

Both Yandao and I were super disappointed by the chicken because the meat was tough. I was expecting tender, juicy chicken with the price people pay at this place. Chatterbox Chicken has nothing to rave about and I’ve had better chicken at many other places – Soup Restaurant, Boon Tong Kee, 925 Yishun Central and even Far East Shopping Centre. The good thing about this chicken is that it’s thoroughly cooked with no tinge of pinkness in the meat. Yandao can be pretty anal about blood in the food. Even though the chilli sauce had no kick, I liked it because I didn’t leave Chatterbox with garlic breath. I’m super conscious when it comes to eating Chicken Rice chilli because most places use too much garlic. No amount of mints will remove that garlic breath. It’s very embarrassing to let your colleagues or friends know what you had for lunch with your breath. Ack.

The rice was a bit too dry and white for my liking. Chicken rice is meant to be oily and slightly buttery! And the best way to eat chicken rice is mix in black sauce with the yummilicious chicken sesame sauce. This is how chicken rice should always be eaten. Plain dry rice becomes awesome chicken rice after my concoction. You MUST do it too. Drench your rice with the 2 main ingredients and you will be as awesome as me. I mean, your chicken rice will be as awesome as mine.

Two wrongs do not make a right. Despite the good service, I will never return as a paying customer because of the price and standard.

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/island-creamery-bukit-timah/

After eating so much at The Curry Wok, we wanted to eat more. Naturally. Like kindness begetting kindness, eating also begets more eating.

We were shocked at how this looked like ulu land on the outside, but the parlor was bustling. So popular with families, teenagers, students, and bears aka fat gay men!

The decor looks like a bad and cheap imitation of 1950s American restaurants. Definitely not a date place, unless you’re a teenager.Mudpie was mine while Mr NGFL got two scoops of ice kalim. The mudpie was not bad, with coffee ice cream on the top, cookies-and-cream ice kalim at the bottom and a very awesome peanut-buttery(?) crust. After we finished – did we stop? OF COURSE NOT!

We shared an apple pie with a scoop of burnt caramel ice kalim. The two of them went very well together (I have good taste, I picked the ice cream although Mr NGFL insisted he was the one). The apple pie was cold when I like the apple pie to be hot. It wasn’t too sweet or sour. The crust wasn’t the flaky kind; it was the doughy kind. Mr NGFL liked it but I’m not sure how I feel about carb-by crust and wolfed everything down anyway.

You can see how run-down the ice cream parlor is becoming over the years. The ice cream is still good but then ice cream is ice cream – the few bad ice creams… we call it “sorbet.” But still, a nice way to end dinner. We liked everything we ate. Less noisy teenagers–or teenagers hanging out in groups with a confused teenager who doesn’t know yet he’s gay–would be nice but then again, in American movies, teenagers hang out at ice cream parlors all the time too. Recommended if you want good ice cream and don’t mind teenagers or are a pedophile. It’s Pedophile Hunting Ground, peeps! Licky lick.