For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/yong-he-eating-house-geylang/

We five, not full from JB Ah Meng–well, actually I think only Yan Dao and I were the ones who were still hungry–so we went to Yong He for their soya bean curd. I predict the recent beancurd jelly war will bring people back to the roots of eating the traditional beancurd. And of course, we ordered many other things. Price list:

soya bean drink $1.20
Bean curd $1.70
yu tiao $1.10
taiwan noodle (mee sua) $3.80The food was really quite solid. The Mee Sua, which I usually dislike, was robust and packed a punch. The beancurd was quite smooth and the yu tiao (fried dough) was cripsy and very delicious but just a tad too oily. We, adventurous, tried the salty beancurd with cai-po, soya sauce, white pepper and green onions. You’d think it strange but it was actually very appetizing. It’s like eating a healthy alternative of chwee kueh.

Service was Superwoman quick. And the ambience–well, if you want to escape the gangster street of Geylang, this seems to be a good shelter. Quite old school coffeeshop chic. I endorse this shop. Open 24 hours. Eat already can go on the streets to earn back the dinner money some more, unless you’re an old uncle lah, then you’ve to pay. Uncles are the only human species with no market value: women of all ages and young boys have. Sigh, we live in a sexist world, I, an uncle, feel discriminated against.

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/khmer-delight-east-coast/

Have been wanting to come here for the longest time because this is the only Cambodian restaurant in Singapore and it serves deep-fried Tarantula spiders! Bought $40 discount coupons for Cambodian buffet for two ($20/pax). Very worth the money!

When we arrived, the waitress very politely told us that the coupons couldn’t be used for Saturday dinners. The waitress gave us Alicia’s, the director, number and I called her. A generalization: The first instinct that Singaporean patrons do when things don’t go their way is to shout at the service staff. I think it reflects very badly on the patrons, but it’s like the patrons are merely venting their work or love or family frustration on the staff. It makes the service staff feel bad and you might not get things done your way. This is what I did:

“Hello Alicia. My friend and I are at your restaurant now and we want to use the discount coupon. It isn’t stated anywhere that we can’t use it for Saturday dinners and when we made reservations, informing that we would be using coupons, the waitress didn’t tell us. We don’t live around here so as a form of good will, do you mind allowing us to use the coupons please?”

She said very sweetly, “Yes, sure.”

See what you can achieve if you’re polite and use reason, instead high decibel, using words like “please” and ending with a question, instead of a demand. Use charm, don’t use force.

For a buffet, the food was pretty damn good! The food tasted like a cross between Chinese and Thai cuisine but without the intense spiciness of Thai food. Special mentions: spare ribs, spring roll, fish amok and eggplant. I liked the fish amok because it was otah using real fish you can see; although the spare ribs weren’t too tender, the sauce was spectacular, like a honey bbq sauce with herbs such as anise, I think. Mao Mao and I both loved the crispy, not oily spring roll, which tasted more flavorful than normal Chinese ones. Mao Mao liked the way the eggplant was cooked, not too soggy or gluey. Another plus point: all the food were hot and freshly prepared.

Of course, my philosophy is no matter how stuff you’re, ALWAYS end a meal with desserts, which unfortunately aren’t in the Buffet list. So we ordered: Banana Sesame Fritters with Ice Cream ($6.90); Durian Paste.No shit jokes about the banana fritters, please. The hot banana on cold ball of ice cream – such a turn on. The D24 durian paste was awesome, probably better than the Merchant Court one, and I ate all of it myself.

The food came out slowly but hey at least they were piping hot and delicious. The service was good, smiling faces all round and they refilled water fast. Best service staff: The waitress. We tried to say “Thank You” in Cambodian to them, and the waiter said, laughing, “I’m not Cambodian.” Hahaha. We saw a couple waiting at the door for a long time but the wait staff was dishing out the food and the couple walked away. I thought the staff could have sat the couple first to retain customers. Not enough servers? The ambience is run-of-the-mill for a mid-range restaurant. Given the value-for-money food, we’d definitely return. Khmer Delight should be renamed Comer’s Delight. Oh, what happened to the tarantula spiders? Didn’t see it on the menu no more.

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/boomarang-bistro-bar-robertson-quay/

Mr NGFL and I, slaves, just finished work at 10 pm ON A FRIDAY and agreed to eat at Boomarang, an Australian eatery that hosts a trivial quiz night on Tuesdays. The winning table gets the bar tab on the house.I had a Kangaroo Loin ($30) and Mr NGFL had a Spring Chicken ($30). Tasting a bit of the Spring Chicken, I think it was very tender and superb but my Kangaroo Loin is da bomb! The mashed sweet potato was SO AWESOME. I hate sweet potato because I was brought up into thinking that only during wartime, when there are no other options, then we eat sweet potato. It’s the last resort. But this one was very savory and sweet and creamy and smooth! The distinctive taste of kangaroo meat is that it is a little bitter but the sour cream covered the bitterness in this case–tender and succulent!

Ambience: Several areas having different ambience. (1) Outdoor smoking with the ubiquitous aluminum chairs and tables. (2) Indoor dining with eco-friendly recycled decor. (3) relaxing lounge sofas along the corridors. The TVs were playing sports channel. Why can’t they play Kylie MTVs? She’s Australian!

Service: All Filipinos here. Mixed service here. A very gorgeous Pinay was very attentive and helpful but in general, the Pinoys were distracted, unfocussed and you’ve to repeat your order a few times, or you need to ask for a fork a few times before he gets it to you. But they were nice and polite. And although there is no closing time, meaning they are open until the last guest leaves, the servers looked tired and eager to end work. (I can’t blame them for wanting to go home. They probably had been standing for hours.) They actually closed off sections, covered the lounge sofas with tarpaulins–which was a pretty strong hint?

Great food, but slightly overpriced. ($71 for two.) Nice relaxing ambience and average service. Recommended. Should be coming back here again.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/brasserie-les-saveurs-st-regis-orchard/

I’m still shopping for where to have Xmas dinner so we test-drived (drove?) Brasserie Les Saveurs’s Champagne Brunch (see below for Xmas menu). Has anyone watched the best drama on TV, Downton Abbey? It’s about the habits of an aristocrat family in the 20th century. How an aristocrat eats for breakfast: it is buffet-style with a butler on standby because everyone wakes up at different times. Brasserie Les Saveurs is exactly like Downton Abbey. Eating here makes me feel like a duke.

The free-flow champagne buffet brunch costs $170++ per person, but it also includes wines and cocktails. Without alcohol, $138++. Children from 4-12 years old: $75++. Here are some reasons to justify the cost:

See how luxurious and ducal the decor is? Floral-and-vine motif carpet of thistle color with matching beige and deep crimson plush armchairs. Three elaborate chandeliers. Tall ceiling. French windows four-storeys high, showing a view of the swimming pool with the most gigantic drawn laurel-green curtains you’d ever see. If you sit by the window, you exist in a world of your own but there is sunlight beaming in – Fann Wong and Edward Cullum from Twilight will avoid UV. There are also private rooms available. A jazz band played awesomely in the background–Mom! I found my wedding singers! Now I’ll just have to find a partner! and it is the easy part. A reservation is a must – seats were almost taken up.

The service was impeccable. The utensils were changed regularly. All the servers were very friendly and cheerful and thoughtful. The angmoh maitre-d looks exactly like the handsome, villainous footman in Downton Abbey. He was carving slices of parma ham off something that looked like a huge decorative log. The helpful assistant maitre-d, Leila, talked to me and told me that the chef, who was making his rounds, saying hi, worked in a top restaurant in France. He came to Singapore six years ago, wanting to teach culinary arts, but realized his passion is still in cooking. But among all the service staff, my favorite has to be a Chinese middle-aged man. He reminds me of the butler in Downton Abbey, very no-nonsense, respectable, responsible, but underneath the strict facade, very caring. For instance, I told him my throat itched after drinking the complimentary freshly squeezed orange juice and asked if I could get honey. He immediately got a very tiny bottle of honey for me to add in my TWG tea. I was a hug away from calling him dad!

One last thing I want to mention is the clientele. I recently went to a buffet in another hotel, that costs about $80. My scoop was slow-mo moving in on the ice cream tub when all of a sudden, a morbidly obese Singaporean swooped in and edged me out!! I stared at him in shock, and he said, “Soli ah” and continued scooping his ice cream. You’ll NEVER find such kiasu Singaporeans here. The elegance of the place was so pervasive that it seeped into the bones of the patrons. Everyone was courteous and polite. I’d love to live in a society like this.

Let the feasting begin! The cuisine is mostly French-style. Although the range of the food wasn’t extensive, there was depth. On the buffet table, there were varieties of ham, bread, salad and cheese. For example, there were various types of salad: cucumber salad, potato salad, caesar salad, nicoise salad (with beef), grilled vegetables, asparagus, etc. The angmohs usually eat cheese for desserts, but hey, eat however you want it. Cheese with bread? Go ahead! But we skipped this because we’re typical Singaporeans, we go for the expensive stuff! The butter, with “St Regis” embossed on it, was pretty cool.

On the cold dish side, there were smoked salmon, salmon sashimi, three types of freshly shucked oysters, and crabs. Look at how ginormous the claw of the crab was!

What is brunch without eggs cooked to your liking? We had eggs benedict, which is a poached egg with a slice of ham and hollandaise sauce (my favorite sauce!).

There are two cooking stations serving pan-fried foie gras and black pepper lobster. We didn’t like this perhaps because the junior chefs were in charge of cooking very complicated dishes The foie gras was too hard and the lobster was chokingly spicy.

My other petty grouse for this buffet is there ought to be more hot food. Some of the food are prepared in the kitchen first and then served to each table. The portions are tiny, but these are super delicious. I wish they could be readily available on the buffet table as hot food. Some of the outstanding ones are: (1) Foie Gras Creme brulee with red onion compote and compressed apple – super original! (2) lobster bisque – warm, warming to the body, and bursting with wholesome flavors! (3) Artichoke risotto with aged parmesan cheese – Chiobu hated this but I loved it! You have to appreciate smelly cheese, which is an acquired taste, to like this.For the buffet brunch, each person is entitled to a choice of one main course from 11 choices. The Black Angus Beef Tartare, raw seasoned beef served in a small cake form, was zesty, onion-y, and black-peppery. Very tasty but for those who are unaccustomed eating beef raw, you may want to skip this. I ordered the roasted lamb rack (medium-rare). Well-executed without the stench of mutton. Chiobu loved how fine the mashed potato was – but the portion could be bigger.

I vowed to eat all the desserts! But I failed. Can you see the mountains of desserts?!! I doubt it’s humanly possible to try everything. Our favorites are the macaroons, a mango lime eclair with a very surprising burst of lemongrass!, and the chocolate tart with the St Regis Sail on it.

6- and 7-course set menu dinners are available for Xmas Eve ($178+) and New Year Eve ($188++), including a glass of champagne.

The buffets on Christmas and New Year at $158+ (without alcohol) and $188+ (with free flow of alcohol) have special festive menus.

Xmas Hampers ($510+) and roasts are available too: Turkey ($148 , 5kg), ham ($188, 5kg), leg of lamb ($178, 5kg) prime ribs ($388, 5kg) and log cakes ($48 onwards, ok, this one is not a roast, you know right?)

All in all, our experience at Brasserie Les Saveurs at St Regis’s lobby was leisurely and enjoyable. The ambience and service were tops. As for the food, it is different from our usual Singaporean buffets which have a wide range but no depth. A European, or a person who has lived in Europe for an extended time or a well-travelled person would appreciate the delicacy and intricacy of the food. Of course, if you can hold your alcohol, this buffet is not to be missed.

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/zaffron-kitchen-east-coast-road

Q: Did Zac Efron open Zaffron Kitchen?
A: No, he didn’t but he might as well have. The restaurant is as pretty as him.

When I stepped in, I was taken aback at how gorgeous the decor is. It has a very Parisian feel to it, with French jazz playing in the background. The modern chic decor is very similar to the French restaurant, Cocotte, except Zaffron uses more colors (orange, grey, brown) boldly. It’s contemporary Indian food in a Parisian setting – why hasn’t anyone think of it earlier?? The decor allows friends to gather at the communal table; lovers in cosy corners and families–there is a play area for children. The decor is classy without being pretentious.

Unlike Zac Efron, Zaffron has looks and substance.

For starters, we had some papadum ($4) and Papdi Chaat (pictured above, $6). My tall, dark, handsome and RICH–most important factor according to Chiobu–date preferred the non-oily papadum, which comes with two delicious dips (mint and mango chutney) and also comes in two flavors, normal and with black pepper. The black pepper one was fiery, man. However, I preferred the more complex papdi chaat, a North Indian street food, with a potato-chip-like base topped with murukku, sweet yoghurt, mint and tamarind. So it was crispy and soft, sweet and sour and tart. Super appetizing! I felt like I could eat 10 million papdi chaat.

Mains: The dum chicken briyani ($11) was extremely exciting. The dish of spiced chicken thigh and hard boiled egg with basmati rice is sealed by a thin layer of prata. Merry Christmas! Unwrap your present. At the side is yogurt and curry underneath the papadum.

This dish was both visually and orally pleasing. The chicken thigh was so tender. Drizzle the fierce curry over the rice – all the spices burst in the mouth!

To add some protein to our meal, we had the tandoori mixed grill ($25) consisting of (in order of the photo) chicken tikka, chicken malai tikka, fish tikka and seekh mutton kebab, good for 4 persons to share. Each tasted distinctly from the other in a wonderful way but it was mixed feelings for us. The two types of chicken were very tender. We both enjoyed the chicken tikka which really had the punch of the gingery tumeric and hot paprika. But my favorite had to be the malai tikka, which my hot date disliked. Malai tikka is marinated with cottage cheese, coriander and yoghurt, giving it a very earthy and charcoal-ly taste. It’s like eating very good BBQ chicken wings, the kind that slightly chars at the edges. AWESOME right?? The fish tikka was too light in spices for me but my date liked it. We both didn’t take to the unique taste of seekh mutton kebab–it was overwhelming for us.

Kadhai Jhinga ($15), shrimps in onion tomato masala, was too salty for us but the Khatti Meethi Gobi ($8.50), cauliflower cooked with about 10 million spices, was fabulous. (Note the trend here? I only like intricate, complicated food with million spices.. like my love life.) It tasted almost like mashed potato with spiced tomato sauce on it, slightly sweet, slightly tomatoy-sour. I’m salivating as I am typing this.

We ordered two naans to go with the above dishes. The selection of naans is innovative. Aside from the plain, butter, garlic, cheese naans, there are masala kulcha (with vegetables and carrots), keema (a thin layer of mutton inside the naan), and kashmiri. We had the cheese naan ($5), made of mozzarella cheese!, so it’s like the Indian version of pizza. We also tried the kashmiri ($6.50), which is the Indian version of nut and raisin bread. Very tasty, I ate it on its own.My philosophy is no meal is complete without desserts. Moong Dal Halwa ($9). Shan, the manager, told us that the dessert is made from moong dal lentil, a variety of lentil. I heard “moon-dial.” So romantic right?

Does anyone know what lentil is? I don’t. Sorry, very suaku. Wikipedia says it’s a legume family, so it’s pea-like? Moong dal halwa is cooked with milk, sugar and butter. To me, it tasted like fried fish skin but to my RICH date, it tasted like coconut bits soaked in milk.

The honesty of the restaurant is very endearing. Unlike other eateries that dish out lies and manufactured ice cream pretending that they made their own ice cream, Zaffron’s menu clearly states that moong dal halwa is served with Ben & Jerry ice cream. How refreshing is that! Not only is Zaffron Kitchen honest, the chef from India tries to make the ice cream his own–like a rendition of an American Idol song–by sprinkling some unprocessed lentil (I think it’s lentil) on the ice cream and the cooked lentil. Full marks for effort and thoughtfulness.

Speaking of thoughfulness, the concept of the restaurant pays so much attention to details. On the napkins and the aprons of the servers, there are slogans like “the devil wears prata,” “your food is cumin,” “thyme for curry,” and “I clove Indian food.”

The service was good too, especially by our knowledgable manager, Shan. And when I wanted something, I just looked in the eyes of another female server, and waved. Eye contact is so important for service.

Vegetarian options and wine and beer available. A Malay couple sat next to us, so I think it should be halal too.

Last words: I think Indian food will never be the same again after Zaffron Kitchen. There is authentic Indian food here but there is also contemporary Indian food that tries to surprise the customers. Lots of thought is put in. And bringing delicious and very affordable Indian food in such a chic restaurant–that’s just brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?! I wish more places could put in more effort like Zaffron.