For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/dessert-story-northpoint-hougang-mall/

Between the outlets at Northpoint Yishun and Hougang Mall, I’ve tried Milk Pudding; Egg Pudding with Ginger; Peanut Paste; Black sesame paste; walnut paste; add tang yuan to them; Mango Pomelo with sago; Herbal Jelly; yam cake and carrot cake. Can you tell I’m a big fan of Chinese desserts (but don’t ever order the herbal jelly. it sucks, tasted very plasticky and not authentic.)Although Mei Heong Yuan’s desserts are smoother and tastier, if you don’t feel like making a trip down to Chinatown, these desserts found in heartland districts definitely hit the spot. Definitely can eat, and can return to eat more some more, but I thought for such a small bowl, it was quite expensive at $3. $3 can buy you a meal leh.

Service: But an unhappy incident happened to me. I was drinking the walnut paste and it had a slight bitter aftertaste, which it shouldn’t have. So I asked the staff if the dessert had herbal ingredients (because, I learnt some cooking, and I know you can add herbal stuff). The PRC server sneered in my face like I was super ignorant and stupid, like it’s the funniest joke she heard in her life. Seriously, I wanted to give her two slaps. No happy ending for this Dessert Story. But I’ve to add, there are some aunties who are very nice to me here.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/beng-hiang-telok-ayer/

Chiobu and I were at the reception counter and an old rude fat man cut our queue, saying, “I’m sitting with Dr. XXX.”

I quickly told the receptionist, “We are here first.”

The receptionist replied brusquely, “He already has a table” and quickly led the fat old man to the table before returning to us. We also already had a table–she had no excuse for letting the old man go first. She should have told the man to wait because we were there first. It made me think that she was impressed by the title of Dr.

The service remained bad throughout. One friend–he’s so funny–was so frightened of the grumpy waitress he asked me not to call her to help us anymore. I said, “But it’s her job!” He complained and complained about the horrible service, like we owe them money, but when the waitress came, he would thank her so sweetly like a little boy who just received candy.

The old skool decor, however, was pretty nostalgic, like in the 80s, with red walls, chinese paintings, wooden lazy Susan. The atmosphere was very convivial and noisy. And there were an amazingly high number of hot men. Yums!There were five of us and we over-ordered: hokkien noodles ($12); spring roll ($8); fish maw soup ($28); oyster egg ($12); steamed garoupa ($56) and for desserts, yam paste ($15). I can understand why people withstand the horrible service to eat. The Hokkien-cuisine food was quite astonishingly good.

The fish maw soup, or shark fin soup without the shark fin, was thick and lipsmacking, so you know the cartilage had dissolved into the soup, giving you collagen. There are two types of spring roll, one is with prawn (hia zhou), the other with minced pork. They were quite simply the best I’ve ever eaten. I didn’t know spring roll can taste so savory. Theoyster egg was different from the hawker centres; this one is completely deep-fried and packed a punch. I never like hokkien mee because they tend to have a plasticky pungent taste but this one–”crackling with lard,” my friend said–didn’t have that ammonia scent and I could tolerate it. My friends loved it.

The only two bad dishes were the steamed garoupa and yam paste. Woah, $56 for a fish!! The broth wasn’t sweet enough and the fish, fresh but not super fresh to justify that kind of price at this kind of restaurant. The yam paste was downright rotten, not smooth, with huge bits of yam in them, and was quite tasteless. Waste of calories.

From the outside of the restaurant, the street was so quiet you’d never imagine how bustling it was inside. Reservations are a must. We spent $150 for 5 people (GST but no service charge). Although you don’t need to be a doctor to eat here, it’s best when you make reservations, say that you’re a doctor. They wouldn’t know anyway and you’d receive better treatment. You can cut queue. Doctors’ $5 is worth more than non-doctors’ $5, you know.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/chocolate-origin-changi-village/

Remember when Awfully Chocolate just started and the cakes were sooooo good Imagine that feeling of biting into an Awfully Chocolate cake back in 1998…and then multiply it by 10. That’s how ORGASMIC the halal-certified Chocolate Origin is.

They don’t sell in slices, so you have to buy an entire cake but don’t worry – you can finish it all by yourself in 2 days. I did. Normal cakes have sponge cakes with layers of cream but Chocolate Origin’s cakes are the opposite; they have chocolate mousse with paper-thin layers of sponge. I don’t even know how it is possible to bake such a cake!!

And the taste! Made of Belgium chocolate, there is no other word to describe the dark chocolate cake except for ORGASMIC. It was just the perfect and delicate balance of sweetness and after-taste bitterness. It was sooo very rich and yet at the same time, it was sooo light and soft that you can eat as many pieces as you want without being sick. It is truly the BEST chocolate cake I’ve eaten in years. Kudos!

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 photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/crust-pizza-upper-thomson/While Chef Peter Augoustis was studying to be an aviation engineer, he was making pizza as a part-time job. In 2001, in Australia, his cousin asked him to help in a pizza joint. In 2007, Chef Augoustis entered a nationwide pizza competition and came in tops! The competition organization sponsored him to Vegas for the World’s Best Pizza – he won and then spent the winnings at Vegas! Hey, it’s only world’s best pizza right No big deal. Don’t need to rush down here. In ten years or so, Crust Pizza has 100 over outlets in Australia and two in Singapore, Holland Village and Upper Thomson. The success is insane!

The decor of the place is – well – fuss-free, neighborhood eatery lor. The open concept makes it friendly but I wish there were aircon.

Some pizzerias claim to be fusion food by, say, just adding jalapenos and calling it Mexican pizza. But the idea behind of Crust Pizza is that it truly reinvents the notion of a pizza; it cooperates the food from a certain culture. For instance, the Roast Duck Pizza($22, duck breast, bak choy, sesame seed on hoisin base) and Five Spice Pork Belly($23, pear slices, wild rocket, crushed walnuts & balsamic glaze) are invented in Singapore and brought back to Australia.

The bad thing about having an event and a food tasting at the same time is we couldn’t take proper notes, so we are not commenting much about the food.

There are four types of pizzas: meat ($23, including pork, lamb & beef), poultry ($22),seafood ($25) and vegetarian ($21). Mr NGFL and Wise Guy tried one from each category.

Wild Mushroom ($21, wild marinated mushroom mix, asparagus, pine nuts, topped with parmesan & truffle oil on Bechamel cream sauce base). There are a few vegetarian options. The wild mushroom pizza has a distinctive, powerful taste of wild mushrooms. You really can taste the wildness or wilderness in the mushroom.

Moroccan Lamb ($23, Moroccan lamb, spanish onions & baby spinach, with mint yoghurt & lemon). This is the pizza that won the Best Pizza in the World. It was very delicious, and certainly reminded Mr NGFL and Wise Guy of lamb kebab, very Arabian. The flavors worked very well together and there wasn’t the stench of lamb. We can’t say in all honesty that it is the best pizza we have ever tasted but it was very excellent. This is a must order if you’re a kebab fan.

Spicy Pesto Scallops ($25, spicy sundried tomato pesto, scallops, spring onions, roasted red peppers & goat cheese with pine nuts). This was not memorable for us probably because pizzas (as dough) tend to dilute the taste and you need a strong seafood (like salmon) to make the pizza stand out.

Peri-Peri Chicken ($22, Marinated chicken breast, spring onions, roasted red peppers, caramelised onions & bocconcini (Italian white cheese) with Peri-peri sauce.) Now Joanne Peh doesn’t need to stomp out of Nando’s. She can do it at Crust Pizza. This is another favorite of ours. It was moist and the flavors came on strongly, sweet and spicy with a creaminess. If you have a second pizza, order this.

Kungpow Chicken ($22). Spicy-hot, decent and easy on the eyes. My one minor gripe is it markets itself as kungpow chicken. It’s hoisin-sauce with fresh red chili and cashews but it’s not dried-chili, sweet-sauce, stir-fried amalgam. It’s good by itself but it just isn’t kungpow-derful.

One of the important criteria for judging a pizza is the crust. Here, the crust is dusted with semolina, a coarse flour-like wheat substance, giving it that oomph and texture. The chef also revealed to us a secret: poke the crust with a fork: this enables the air to go through, fluffing it up, and giving it an airiness.

Overall, all the 5 pizzas ranged from good to excellent.