Li Bai

I'm late on my first August post yikes! Oh by the way, Happy 51st Birthday Singapore! I spent the weekend doing forgettable stuff, literally. (I forgot what I did!) This week is the nation's birthday and I spent the day eating and catching Pokemons! The craze has taken the country by storm. My friend spends her nights on Pokehunts and even my not electronic savvy mom plays the game!

I treated the family to Li Bai this National Day as a form of celebration for a good start to the new job. Li Bai has always been one of those classic dim sum restaurants which I wanted to try but never found the opportunity. 

Given that the menu was extensive and there were hits and misses, I'll separate this post into two parts. I'll begin with the hits. 

One of the unique dishes I tried was the fried scallop rolls ($7.20). It's crunchy and flavorful. Highly recommended! 

Another of the highlights is the egg tarts ($4.80). It's my personal favorite for the day. The crust is flaky and egg custard in the center was so creamy and sweet, I can eat a few more plates! 

The siew mai ($8) at Li Bai is made of chicken not pork. It's voted my mom's favorite dish for the day. My mom isn't much of a fan of dim sum, and was even critical of the 2 star michelin Tin Lung Heen's siew mai with abalone when she was in Hong Kong. I was pleasantly surprised she said its one of the best siew mai she has eaten. 

Another of my must have at the dim sum table is Mango Prawn Roll ($7.20). Ever since my days eating at Yum Cha, the mango prawn roll has earned a soft spot in my dim sum palatte. This version was a decent rendition of the dish and I'll be happy to order it again. 

Of course, Har Gau or Shrimp Dumplings is another must have for traditional dim sums. This one is crunchy and juicy with the skin done just right. I like to gauge the quality of a dim sum restaurant through these traditional dishes because they are so simple yet easy to fluff in quality. 

With this I conclude the hits for the day. Now on to the misses. 

This fish congee ($6.50) is ordinary till I can't stress enough ordinary. It's so plain and dull I didn't bother to finish it. 

The pork ribs ($4.80) came last after we finished eating and have our tables cleared. A major screw up on Li Bai's part. It came at such an odd timing, I felt it's better if they simply gave me the option to cancel the order because I totally forgotten about it. I ended up joking that it was perhaps Li Bai's idea of a dessert. Due to the screw up, I didn't have the mood to try the dish but my mom commented that it's not very fantastic.

The attempt to meet modern day crowd with sexier dishes like pork and crab meat ($7.20) dumpling didn't really make the grade. Considering I'll pay less for 5 pieces of Xiao Long Bao at Ding Tai Fung that tastes much better... It's better if you give the dish a miss. 

The Shrimp Vermicelli Rolls ($7.20) was a big miss. The sauce was pathetically stingy and the rolls were dry and hard to eat on its own. I took a bite and didn't touch the dish again. 

Concluding on my very first Li Bai experience, it's still highly recommended! For a start, I wish to applaud the service which was impeccable. I felt so welcomed when I stepped in and this is the first place I was offered a complimentary parking coupon without having to ask for it. I felt the food has its hits and misses but those that hit really can give other dim sum establishments a run for their money. I'll want to be back to try other dim sum dishes on their menu. It's definitely a good venue to treat your family and friends. 

Li Bai

Thirty Nine Scotts Road, Sheraton Towers Singapore Hotel

(The yam chips which tastes really awesome isn't free. It costs you $5)

Pacamara Boutique Coffee Roasters

It's the final post for July and with a bit of guilt given that I took a week off last week. Wanted to feature Tanuki Raw last week but failed due to the long queues. I spent my last weekend of July visiting the Garden Festival at Gardens by the Bay. It's the final week of the festival and my gosh, the queue is crazy! It is nevertheless a pleasant walk around the garden. I was rewarded with a new display picture taken for my Facebook and a healthy afternoon after a hearty brunch.

This week we journey to Thomson. It's a very rare visit because it's extremely out of the way from where Vain Pot lives and I usually pick her up from her home before we proceed to food hunting. Also, parking in the Thomson area is always a hassle. Pacamara Boutique Coffee Roasters was shortlisted some way back after it caught the attention of a number of bloggers I was following on Instagram. No doubt, its popularity rehashed itself rather than a new discovery because a quick google showed that it first gained popularity in 2014. Online reviews then and now remains highly favourable and it helps that their food looks extremely camera friendly. I am so looking forward to this visit today as a result! 

One of the highlights of this place is its coffee. We shared an ice mocha ($6.50) because Vain Pot wanted to try but she can't take much caffeine and I have too much coffee ever since a Nespresso machine entered my life. 

I wanted to try their red velvet pancakes with mascarpone cheese initially but too bad they removed it from their menu. Sulks! Was really disappointed. I settled for BBQ Pork with Mac and Cheese ($18.50) instead. Vain Pot wanted clean food so she picked Avocado and Eggs ($15.90). 

The BBQ Pork with Mac and Cheese made my long journey to Thomson worthwhile. The dish is made up of 4 different cheese (parmesan, feta cheese, mozerella and mild cheddar) which made the Mac and cheese sufficiently cheesy without being overly 'jelat'. It helps that the portion wasn't too big so it's easy to eat and finish but people with bigger appetites might find the dish a little pricey. I also like it that the BBQ pork was honey coated and tasted like Bak Kwa. The mixture of pork sweetness with the cheesiness of the cheese provided a good balance to the overall meal. I'll definitely order this again when I want a Mac and cheese fix. 

Vain Pot's Avocado with Eggs was also perfectly executed. The poached eggs were runny and the avocado was richly flavored with cherry tomatoes and lemon making the entire taste refreshing. My first worry when I saw the sourdough bread was if it was toasted too hard. It passed the test as it was well toasted and the avocado was well spread across the bread. As a meal, this is a healthy delicious choice! Vain Pot was rather let down by the portion though. We both kinda expected two slices of bread with generous avocado serving like what they offer at Boufe. One slice does appear rather miserly for a $15.90 meal. 

How would I rate the overall experience having travelled a long way to dine here? I really love the food and would be back to try other dishes on the menu. However, it's a really bad place to dine if you come with someone you can't stop talking to. It's way way too noisy and many times Vain Pot and I had to repeat ourselves. It's however a wonderful place to dine if your companion and you loves food, loves taking pretty food photos and just want to share everything on the menu. The food and photos are awesome! No wonder food aficionados love this place! 

Pacamara Boutique Coffee Roasters

185 Upper Thomson Road

Dutch Baby Cafe

Lately I've been rather busy and haven't really had the time to be adventurous with my food hunts. The horrible heat is causing a spree of coughs amongst people and my throat is showing signs of a cough festering also. Drink more water people. This week's outing is with the brother. He suggested a number of cafes and I just picked one because I simply have no time to hunt for any.

The hunt of the week is thus Dutch Baby Cafe! This is an establishment opened by Japan Food Company and the signature is their Dutch baby pancakes. The pancakes look really friendly to the cameras and even though I encountered online reviews which were generally mixed, I am sufficiently curious to want to try. 

Apparently their udon is popular as well and we happened to visit the store at a time where they just changed their menu! This Lemon Chicken Udon ($13.80) is one of their new additions and I must say I give it the thumbs up. I'm not a fan of udon because they are typically fat and not shiok to slurp in my opinion. This version however comes with thin udon noodles which makes it a pleasure to slurp. The noodles are Q and easy to eat. I also found that the taste of the lemon chicken very unique from other chicken noodles I have eaten and that's in a good way. I need to point out though that the soup is MSG laden. But for $13.80 I'm not complaining. 

The highlight of the day is of course the Dutch baby pancakes served in a hot pan. We picked Caramel Apple ($12.80) which comes with caramelized Apple with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a Dutch pancake. My brother especially liked the pancake texture which was soft and aromatic. I felt that the caramelized apple went well with the pancakes. Unfortunately, I feel that the ice cream can't handle the heat and melted before we were even half way through leaving us with liquid ice cream.

Would I come back again? Honestly with the ever expansive number of new cafes opening and old popular cafes I haven't tried, Dutch Baby Cafe isn't high up my list. I will however pop by if I am catching up with a friend in Orchard Road and would like to introduce them to something new at the heart of town. I suspect I might come back to eat the udon again if I'm alone and want a noodle fix. 

Dutch Baby Cafe

290 Orchard Road, The Paragon, #B1-13

Hello Kitty Orchid Garden

It's weekends again! This week is pretty much holiday filled with Hari Raya Puasa smacked in the middle of the week. It's a rather lazy weekend for me not doing much besides reading up on some topics of interest and renewing some good luck at Full of Luck Club. I might write more about it another day.

The feature this week is my long anticipated visit to Hello Kitty Orchid Garden! I kinda waited over 2 months to visit this place but the queue still hasn't died down. I went there during Hari Raya Puasa so perhaps it's the public holiday effect. An interesting observation was that there were lots of families in the queue unlike most of the other long queue places I dined at. Waiting time was around 1.5hrs.

Given that we queued so long, Vain Pot and I endeavor to try as much food and drinks as our stomachs can take. We kicked off our visit trying their Cumbernade ($7.90) and Apple Cinnamon Tea ($7.80). The Cumbernade is a mock tail combination of cucumber syrup with lemonade and soda. It tastes refreshing if you like frizzy drinks. I quite like the Apple Cinnamon Tea which was light with distinct apple and cinnamon taste. I find the cookie at the side really weird though with its edges wet. 

One of the biggest plus points I give the Hello Kitty cafe was how the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden theme was incorporated into the food. The other theme cafes like DC Superheroes cafe at MBS didn't successfully achieve this to a large extent of their menu. I picked the Big Breakfast ($18.50) for its Instagramable presentation and a soft spot for waffles. It's a rather interesting dish. The maple syrup had a bit of fruity taste attached to it and the two waffles that came with the meal had different texture. 

One was crispy, the other fluffy cake like texture. One the whole, the meal was definitely decent but nothing fantastic taste-wise so don't expect too much.

Vain Pot's choice of Enchanted Forest ($17.90) was highly satisfactory. In her own words, "I don't know what I'm eating but this is really good." Haha! Basically it's quesadillas with prawns, avocado slices mashed with Hello Kitty cafe's very own wasabi sesame mayonnaise sauce. I tried it, it's really good. I especially like how the tangy wasabi taste was brought out. 

For desserts, we picked the overhyped cat in paradise. It's a combination of mango mousse with almond crumble and a hazelnut sorbet. It doesn't taste horrible but nothing fantastic. The biggest plus point for this dish is how the colors are pleasing to the cameras.

Summing up our visit, I would like to come back again to try the other parts of the menu. I felt the queue didn't felt as long as I waited perhaps because of my wonderful companion. The food exceeded my expectations for a thematic cafe and can definitely hold its own as a tourist attraction and even against other cafes. The aesthetics of the food and venue makes it a wonderful place for families and couples alike. 

Hello Kitty Orchid Garden

Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 3, Arrival Meeting Hall Central, #01-22

(The fastest way to get a seat during peak hours is to visit the place in pairs)

Mitzo

It's weekends again and the start of July! I was kinda looking forward for about two weeks now because of the place I shortlisted for weekend brunch. We are celebrating Vain Pot's promotion and also the start of better things to come for my job! I felt it'll be fitting if we found good food to match the occasion.

I wanted a good dim sum and chanced upon the Mitzo Weekend Brunch menu. Online reviews said that the food was tops and the lead chef, Nicky Ng used to be the Executive Chef de Cuisine in 2011 at Michelin starred restaurant, Hakkasan New York City. So with this in mind, we had certain expectations of the food quality.

The weekend brunch ($68++) is a buffet serving classic Cantonese food. Given that the menu is relatively extensive, we picked only the recommended dishes because our stomachs didn't have room for more. While I am tempted to spam a lot of pictures for the benefit of readers, I think it'll be more useful to highlight my favorite dishes. 

This is the Hokkaido Milk Cheese Tart which came at the beginning of our meal without us requesting for it. It's really as good or even better than Baked cheese tarts at Orchard Ion. The cheese is extremely creamy and pastry was excellent. Must try! 

There're 3 dishes which are limited to 1 per diner. They are bamboo clam, live lobster and abalone cooked 3 ways up to the choice of the customer. I felt the spicy chilli lobster served with bun really reminds me of chilli crab and the rendition was good! While lobster like crayfish has limited meat, it was still very appetizing. 

Since Vain Pot and I make up two persons we managed to try 2/3 of the bamboo clam selection. We went with the traditional steamed bamboo clam with minced garlic in soya and steamed bamboo clam with enoki mushroom in spicy peanut sauce. Both bamboo clam dishes were well executed, tasty and leave you craving for more. 

I believed I complained before that good Cantonese soup is hard to find in Singapore. The double boiled soup of the day was boiled rich in taste despite its simple ingredients of pork and winter melon. Reminds me of Hong Kong.,.

Another unique dish I was happy to try was the escargot cheese puff. Shaped in the form of a snail, it's Instagram worthy and taste was cheese and crispy. I like it that the crust is not oily despite being deep fried and the cheesy escargot made it a delight to eat. 

A key dessert highlight will be these deep-fried chocolate liqueur dumpling. It's unique and I've never eaten anything like that before. The balls were well fried and not oily. The chocolate had a distinct alcohol taste yet blended well with the fried balls. Really one of its kind!

Desserts were generally good but if I were to pick a winner, it'll be this generous Aloe Vera Osmanthus Jelly. The sorbet that was included inside made it a joy to eat. The jelly was light and refreshing, a delightful way to end a rich and hearty meal. 

While I felt really pleased with the food quality and the fact it's not mass produced despite being a buffet, Vain Pot and I had some gripes as well. Firstly, a Chinese dim sum buffet but no complimentary tea?! Yet there's a selection of cocktails?! Just didn't go well with me. Secondly, we weren't exactly satisfied with the service either because the staff seem to have difficulty communicating with us. In their defense, they aren't local. (From hongkong I guess) nevertheless I am less forgiving because I have been to hongkong and gotten served in hotels by English speaking staff there which I had no problem comprehending. Singapore staffs shouldn't be worse if we compare hotel expectation standards. Thirdly, they charged us twice for the tea. I didn't feel like going through the hassle of asking for a new receipt and just paid but felt a bit disappointed by the service experience.

I do however feel that the food is worth going back for. My next visit, I'll try all the non star dishes and maybe some cocktails. I also want to say I like the overall design and furniture of Mitzo.

Mitzo

Level 4, Grand Park Orchard

270 Orchard Road

(Please remember to get a complimentary ticket when you dine there because parking is pretty steep)

Ninja Bowl

This week is meet the friends week! Given that I work everyday but a couple of hours, my free time is spent catching with friends over lunch and dinners. One of the highlights is meeting Bak Bak to try the new fried milk rolls at Tim Ho Wan. It's good so it's worth trying! There's also my long awaited visit with another friend to Ninja Bowl which I'll be featuring today.

Ninja Bowl is the replacement to Department of Caffiene. They serve healthy Japanese bowls and is really suitable for those who eat salad as their staple meal. 

So anyway, my friend and I, starting to get lazy with name inventions because there's too many, we settled for Yasai and Genki ($16 each). Yasai is a salmon bowl with mixed sultanas, onsen egg and tomatoes. Both of us added quinoa ($3) to our dishes as our carbo. As someone who hasn't eaten any white rice replacement before, I found quinoa to be surprisingly tasty. It went exceedingly well with the bowl and salmon were really fresh! However, the amount of ingredients in Yasai is rather little and after a while the taste starts to get repetitive with salmon and quinoa running the show. It is still very healthy! 

My friend's choice of Genki was a combination of Yaki Unagi, roasted pumpkin, beansprouts, onsen egg and pickled beets. Apparently it's a refreshing mix of her favorite Japanese food without the unhealthy additions. The pumpkin and beet root added variety to the egg, Unagi and quinoa which she added and I felt it's a more complete bowl. 

As we were chatting, and the place was rather small, I discovered that Ninja Bowl is probably not the best place to chill out. The staff attempted to clear us out with little actions like clearing our bowls. When we made no attempt to leave they tried to upsell us with their cakes. Alright fair enough, we could try some cakes. Except there're only two cakes to choose from. Some berry cake which was out of the question because I hate fruits in my food and this Thai Milk Tea cake ($16) which we both settled for a slice each. 

The cake was generally light and the milk tea taste was distinct however the sponge cake was a little bit too dry to be a good cake. It's nonetheless edible and not difficult to finish. 

Ninja bowl is one of those places I'll be eager to return to. The trouble with this place is its location. It's smacked in the middle of nowhere and at the outskirts of the CBD area. The bowls which I can foresee myself eating for lunch isn't your typical cafe food but a good replacement to the healthy salads I eat. So because of its location, if I ever eat here again, it'll be because I specially made a trip down. It's still highly recommended if you are into healthy food and love jap! 

Ninja Bowl

15 Duxton Road 

Ah Bong's Italian

The food featured this week was eaten mid week to be honest. I spent my weekend at the Geylang Serai Bazaar. With so many articles springing up about the unique food found in the bazaar I decided I shall not add to the crowd. I just wanted to say that I queued 45mins for the much hyped rainbow bagel, spent $8 on it, took a bite and threw it away. Enough said.

I decided to try something different this week by inviting a friend on my catch up list to join me on my food hunt for a change. I first heard of Ah Bong's Italian when I had a craving for basil pasta and I found them on Google. Back then, they only had one outlet at Tiong Bahru and closed really early mid day so it was really hard to make a trip down to try. (I really need to work for a living too!) Now with their second outlet opened till night, I finally addressed my craving with Supercai! (Nicknamed chosen by my friend)

Apparently Ah Bong's Italian's menu changes all the time. So if you wanted something not on that day's menu, basically you have to come back another time. Which is a good and bad thing because I happened to want something not on their menu that day! So they disappoint first time customers but of course the up side is that you get variety if you are a regular. 

Our mains for the day were Crabby Aglio Olio ($14) and Fresh Pesto pasta ($12). I must say the food lives up to the hype. The Crabby Aglio Olio is rich in flavour something I don't really expect from the past crab pastas I have eaten and the pasta was done al dente. I like it that it's garlicky enough, not exceedingly spicy and not overpowering that it over kills. The Fresh Pesto pasta was true to its taste. The pesto sauce was made in house and mushrooms went well with the dish. I like it that the sauce was thick and not watery. Pasta was al dente and the proportions of ingredients to pasta ratio was just right.

We picked a side to share and we settled for Spicy Balls in Pomodoro ($10). The pork balls are amazing! Tender yet not overcooked. I felt that the spicy level is close to zero to be honest which was a little disappointing. However I give credit to the authentic tomato sauce freshly prepared in-house. The portions of cheese went well with the balls but overall I still felt disappointed by the lack of tanginess which I was expecting from spicy balls. 

Supercai's conclusion along with mine is that this place is worth revisiting. Number one it's because there's stuff on their menu I haven't managed to try. Number two reason is that their prices are really decent and generally inexpensive for town sit-in dining. Number three reason would be their food quality. It really beats a lot of other pasta establishments in the similar price range by a big margin in my opinion. 

Ah Bong's Italian

103 Beach Road, #01-02 (below marrison hotel) at Tan Quee Lan Street area 

(Be sure to visit their Facebook page to check out their menu before arriving to avoid disappointment)