Eat all you want, pay as much as you wish! Does this sounds too good to be true? It is right here, at Annalakshmi! This is their buffet range, neither too much nor too little, just enough to fill your stomach to the brim.After we were seated, we were asked by the polite service staff for the choice of our drink. There was no menu, no price list. We were a little bit disappointed that mango lassi was not available, but this blueberry lassi pretty much made up for it.

The buffet line started with tomato rasam soup. The light texture, slightly sour soup easily stimulated our appetite.Next in line was nuts pilav. The basmati rice was cooked in well seasoned broth, enhanced with spices and nuts.A friend once told me that yoghurt was commonly used in Indian cuisine as it has cooling properties, which balance out the heatiness from curries. This yoghurt has a consistency similar to yoghurt drink, it was not very sweet but more on the sour side. Lemon pickle has an intense sour and bitter taste, a little bit is enough to flavor your dish. Once I put a spoonful in my mouth and I learnt it the hard way.Avial, originated from Kerala, is a mixture of vegetables, curd and coconut. The texture was rather thick without much gravy. Curry leave rice was fragrant, with a tad of spiciness from dried chilli. Kheema was traditionally made with meat, but this vegetable version does not lose up to the meat version at all! Right beside kheema was alu jeera, where the potato chunks were tossed with cumin seeds, turmeric and other spices.When I first saw the word 'drumstick' on the tag, the first thought came into my mind was 'chicken drumstick'. However, this is an vegetarian restaurant, hence no meat served here. I later found out that drumstick is a kind of long shaped vegetable which possesses medicinal value.Furthering down the buffet line, there were mee goreng, medu vadai, coconut chutney, fresh watermelon and parrupu pradhaman. Personally, I love the mee goreng, it was spicy and flavorful. Wished I had a bigger stomach to fill them all in. The medu vadai was crispy on the outside while remain soft inside. An addictive snack indeed. I didn't really had much of the fruits and dessert as I was already full from the main course.

Overall, the food here were tasty and the environment was cosy. It was spacious so that we could easily move around, which is an important factor for having a comfortable buffet. We were there without any reservation, and we were advised to do so in the future.

For a full review and all the photos taken on the buffet range, please visit
http://gingybite.blogspot.sg/2014/01/annalakshmi.html

To view all photos taken and the full review, please visit http://gingybite.blogspot.sg/2014/01/yum-cha.html.

It was near Chinese New Year and we were strolling around Chinatown. Being a popular gathering place during Chinese New Year, this place was swarmed with locals as well as tourists from abroad. With the crowd, our instincts told us to find a nearest restaurant to settle our lunch first, which happened to be Yum Cha.

Yum Cha provides spacious and comfortable seatings, the set ups are in wooden theme, including the floor. We could feel the wooden floor shaking whenever people walked pass us.There were waitresses pushing around dim sum on the push cart. In that way, we didn't need to wait long for our food and we could pick our dim sum right in front of us. Paper wrapped chicken ($4.6) is one of their chef recommended dishes. There were two chicken mid joint wings in each paper bag, making it convenient for sharing. The wings had a fragrant ginger taste and the sauce was thick and flavorful.The secret of a delicious braised chicken feet lies in the sauce and the readiness of the chicken feet to absorb the sauce. This phoenix claws a.k.a. chicken feet ($4) were 'puff up' well, allowing it to soak up the sweet and spicy sauce to produce a succulent texture. It was so addictive that we ordered a second portion!I love chee cheong fun, especially the type with fillings. The skin is crucial in this dish, it has to be paper-thin, smooth and slippery. This BBQ pork rice flour roll ($3.6) was decent, but the skin bears similarity to those ready made chee cheong fun which usually accompanied by sweet sauce, a tad too thick in my opinion.This is lotus leaf glutinous rice ($4.2). Judging from the color of the leaves, it looked like it was steamed rather than baked. Unwrapping the leaves revealed the glutinous rice inside. It was not as plain as it looks, there were generous amount of meat hidden inside the glutinous rice!At last, the dessert. This pomelo sago in mango juice ($4.6) was sweet and refreshing with the pomelo bursting out the juice in your mouth. However, the color looks artificially orange. Overall, nice dim sum but a bit pricey. I would expect more with this price range. The seating was spacious and comfortable, perfect for big family gathering!

I really enjoy going to Earle Swensen's. Good thing that now they open another branch at JEM.Look at the tantalizing salad bar, so delicious yet healthy! You are almost sure leaving the place with full stomach.You can enjoy the salad bar free with order of main course.I ordered grilled black pepper chicken, the taste and the quality of the food is similar to those from Swensen's.This is fried chicken cutlet ordered by a friend.Overall, we were satisfied. There was a one-for-one deal going on so it was a really good deal!

We were sending off someone to the airport and decided to settle our lunch there. We have tried some ramen before at Ramen Champion and they had been convincingly good, so we thought of trying something new here. The presentation of the Riki ramen looks pleasant and attractive. However, after took a sip of the soup, it just feel... bland. Usually, ramen tends to be on the saltier side, but this ramen was probably just half the level of saltiness of what we usually had (which was probably good for health), the soup was also bland and not much flavor. We were actually wondering if the chef left out any ingredients.

If you think Japanese curry are simply sweet and not shiok at all, think about it again!Coco Ichibanya is famous for Japanese curry, there are in total 7 level of spiciness, the lowest level being mild (not spicy at all, suitable for children), then level 0 (Standard) to level 5 (Crazy hot). This is a level 3 thin-sliced boiled beef curry, and the level of spiciness made me gulped down more rice than usual.