Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake @ Maxwell Food Centre

When one think of Maxwell Food Centre, the first stall that might come to one's mind is Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice stall - where Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay visited for the Singtel Hawker Heroes challenge. The queue was indeed long when I visited the food centre. But a few stalls next to Tian Tian, you can find delicious Oyster Cake - Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake.

Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake (S$2)

Do not be deceived by the appearance. This snack is made by dipping the batter with the oysters, minced pork, peanuts and coriander. The whole process takes around minutes and you can get to enjoy a piping hot crispy snack at S$2. For extra servings of oysters, you can top up an additional S$1. What's good about the stall is that if you do not like the coriander or peanuts or any of the ingredients, you can let the boss know, and she will 'çustomize' the oyster cake for you. For those who like chili, you can add on the chili but this chili is not those spicy type but kind of sweet-spicy.  A simple but great snack. Good choice of snack if you are around the area.

Maxwell Food Centre
1 Kadayanallur Street, #01-05

Japanese Pasta @ Pasta De Waraku

I've always been a great fan of Japanese pasta. It's remarkable how the Japanese took the Italian food, added in their own flavour, and came out with a fusion cuisine so yummy. Pasta De Waraku is one restaurant in Singapore that specializes in Japanese pasta. They have a few outlets in different locations and I went to the one at The Central (above Clarke Quay MRT Station) for dinner.

I ordered the Oyster & Bacon Carbonara Pasta ($17.80). I love it! Oysters and carbonara pasta do not actually complement each other. But on its own, each tastes great. The sauce is so tasty that I finished every drop of it.

 
My friend ordered  the Salmon & Salmon Roe with Wafu Sauce Pasta ($19.80). It is tasty as well. Salmon roe, wafu sauce and pasta is a great combination.

All the pasta comes with a small bowl of salad. The salad in wafu dressing tastes good and completes the meal by making it a balanced diet.

Pasta De Waraku:

6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #02-82/83, The Central, Singapore 449878

Chocolate Nana Crepe @ Ned's Crepes & Coffee

Went shopping at Bugis Street on Sunday. It is a nice place to go to when you get sick of shopping at malls. While shopping at level 2, I smelled something nice and realized the smell came from Ned's Crepes & Coffee, a stall selling, well, crepes and coffee. This brought back memories of the delicious crepes I had in Hokkaido. I was a bit hungry and decided to buy a crepe.   

The stall sells 2 types of crepes - chewy crepes and crispy crepes. I ordered a Chocolate Nana Crepe ($4.30) which belongs to the "crispy category". The fillings are Nutella (chocolate spread) and bananas. It tastes not bad and satisfied my cravings for something sweet. However, it is not as good as the ones I had in Hokkaido and I find the price a bit steep.    

Ned's Crepes & Coffee:

3 New Bugis Street, #02-07, Singapore 188867

Prawn Bee Hoon @ Whitley Road Prawn Noodles (Lorong Telok)

Do not be misled by the stall name. Even though it is Whitley Road Prawn Noodles, it is found in 18 Lorong Telok, near to Raffles Place. The place is always loaded with lunch crowds and the waiting time can be up to 15 minutes.

Ordered the prawn bee hoon today. The wait today was atrocious - We waited for nearly half an hour. But as usual, the broth is yummy and the springy thin bee hoon basically soaked up the broth which made it very flavorful. The prawns are fresh and sweet. 

Prawn Bee Hoon - S$5.50

Looking at the picture, the dish is served in a "Kopitiam" bowl but this is actually not a stall in Kopitiam. It is a stall at the corner of the street. 

This place also serves the Pork Ribs Prawn noodle. I tried it before and the pork ribs were tender and tasted nice. Will blog about it when I visit the place next time and order that!

18 Lorong Telok #01-01

Grass Jelly Soya Milk @ Mr Bean

It's a hot day today. Want to quench my thirst but does not want to have soft drink.

Standing in front of Mr Bean once again. Looking at the different flavours of Soya Milk they offer, I decided to order the Grass Jelly Soya Milk. Refreshing Soya Milk with the tasty glass jelly. The thing I like about Mr Bean's Soya milk is that it is not too sweet. 

Grass Jelly Soya Milk

It is just like enjoying a cup of bubble tea with pearls but the healthier version. 

Mr Bean really offers quite a variety of products and you can take a look at my earlier post on the 3-in-1 Rice Balls. 

Clementi Mall

3155 Commonwealth Avenue West #B1-K7
Singapore 129588

International Buffet @ Tiffany Cafe and Restaurant @ Furama City Centre

On Saturday evening, I went for the International Buffet at Tiffany Cafe and Restaurant at Furama City Centre. As a Halal certified restaurant, it is having a Iftar Ramadhan Buffet (Ramadhan month) promotion from 10th July to 7th August 2013. You get to try the chef signature Malay dishes such as Ayam Masak Merah (spicy tomato chicken), Beef Rendang (beef simmered in coconut curry),  etc. 

Salad Bar

Seafood

My Food

My Food 2

My Food 3

My Food 4

I think the variety of food served is too little. For example, for sashimi, there is only salmon. Overall, the food tastes average too. However, I like the Pfanni Mashed Potato because I love cheese and I love the taste of cheese with the mashed potato. I also like the Baked Salmon & Seaweed Rice which is quite unique.       

Baked Salmon & Seaweed Rice

Pfanni Mashed Potato

Durian lovers, you can find Durian Pengat (durian paste) which is really tasty at the dessert bar. There is also a Chocolate Fondue and an assortment of cakes and other desserts. 

Dessert Bar

Chocolate Fondue

Durian Pengat and other desserts

For adults, the buffet costs $42.80++ for lunch and $55.80++ for dinner. For children, it costs $22.80++ for all meals. There is a 1-for-1 promotion for UOB credit cards now. 

I think that given the limited variety and average quality of food, the original price is not worth it. Go when there is a 1-for-1 promotion. 

Tiffany Cafe and Restaurant: 

60 Eu Tong Sen Street, Furama City Centre, Singapore 059804

Ishiyaki Stamina Don @ Watami Singapore

I always do not have a good lunch experience at Watami Singapore at The Central Mall. The waiting time for food is always long and the service is quite slow. However, my friend has cravings for Watami and she chose Watami as the meeting place for lunch. 

Watami has this Lunch menu where each dish set comes with a salad and a drink. You can choose from the standard Japanese set or the Western set or the daily special. The price ranges from S$11.80++ to S$17.80++. 

My friend reached earlier than me and she proceeded to order for us. I had the Ishiyaki Stamina Don. This don consists of rice with bbq pork, raw egg, seaweed and onions, served in a Stone Pot. To my surprise, the service was fast today despite the huge lunch crowd sitting in the restaurant. When it was served to the table, the waitress told us to be quick in mixing the rice with the ingredients so that the rice would not be burnt. 

Ishiyaki Stamina Don - S$11.80 (before mixing)

After mixing - Ishiyaki Stamina Don 

The rice was a bit dry and some rice was crispy and charred. This could be due to me taking the 'before' picture that I lost some minutes in mixing the rice. The thin-slicing pork was great and Watami is not stingy in giving a big portion. The pork was tender and chewy. The seaweed added flavour to the whole dish. 

Besides the salad and drink, the Ishiyaki Stamina Don comes with a bowl of miso soup as well. The miso soup tastes normal and the salad is nice. The greens is fresh and the corns are crunchy. It is really refreshing together with the sesame dressing.

Left: Miso Soup
Right: Salad

As for the drinks, you can choose from the list of soft drinks, tea or coffee. For fruit juice and special drinks, you can always top up S$1 to S$2 respectively. I had the Yuzu Soda. This is good but there were many ice cubes in the cup. I've got to remove the ice cubes before I can conveniently scoop the pulps to eat.

Yuzu Soda

Did I mention, the ala carte price for the Ishiyaki Stamina Don is actually S$11.80. Thus for the same price, we get to enjoy free drink and salad during lunch time.

6 Eu Tong Sen Street, The Central, 

#03-82/83/85/102/108/109 Singapore 059817

International Buffet @ Carousel - Royal Plaza on Scotts

The Birthday girl suggested going to Carousel for the celebration and off we went. It has been years since I last dined at Carousel and I guess they have different themes all year round. Currently, they are having 'Flavours of Spain' from 10 July to 7 August 2013. 

Entrance of Carousel

The lunch buffet starts at 12pm and when we reached, the place was already quite packed. The first thing I spotted when I sat down was the utensils holder. This is ingenious as we have a place to put our utensils instead of leaving them on the table.

Utensil Holder

The wide array of delectable cuisines ranging from Asian, Japanese fare, to seafood spread to desserts left us spoilt for choice. 

Decided to go for the seafood soup to start the meal. They do not have any creamy soup and this seafood soup was not really fantastic. Seems to have added a lot of MSG to it.

Seafood Soup

Next stop was to the Japanese section. Sashimi is a must. And the salmon  is really fresh. Thumbs up. Took a couple of sushi to try it out. There are quite a spread of assorted Sushi and Sahimi to choose from. Soba can found at one of the corners too. Here's some of the Japanese spread I indulged.

Japanese Spread - Sashimi and assorted Sushi

They also have Teppanyaki corner where the chef uses the iron girddle to cook dishes like prawns, rice, chicken and assorted vegetables. The prawns tasted great especially when they are eaten fresh from the grid.

Teppanyaki 

In any International Buffet, I reckon that the most "worth-the-money" section would be the Seafood Section. There are many seafood to choose from and they tasted fresh and sweets. I tried the Scallops, Crabs, Mussels and Prawns. They are really great.

Assorted Seafood

The Seafood section also serves the cooked salmon and thus, even for diners who do not eat raw food, they can always opt for the cooked seafood.

Of course, the buffet also houses the Chinese Section, Indian Section, and Western Section. They also have this Cheese section where the are quite a variety of bread and cheese. Of course, being in an International Buffet and not too much a fan of Asian food, I did not really spend much time browsing through these sections. But no worries, the variety are great there too. Here's some look at some of the food I had.

Lastly, we ended the meal with desserts. A must in every buffet where we can try out the variety of cakes. They also have this fondue corner and surprisingly, besides the usual chocolate fondue, they have this white chocolate fondue. But it is kind of too sweet to my liking. I took a couple of interesting cakes to try - Lychee cake, olive oil cake, green tea cake etc. I like the Lychee cake best. The creme brulee was nice too. Mango pudding was a bit sourish.

Assorted Desserts

To end off the celebration, Carousel was a great host. They presented the birthday girl with a complimentary cupcake and a birthday song. Surprisingly, there were many birthday gatherings at Carousel today.

Complimentary Birthday Cupcake

Ok, we each had our own choice of hot drink to end off the meal. Carousel pays attention to their choices in hot drinks too. You can choose from Hot chocolate to Mocha, to Latte to Cappuccino and more but I cannot recall them now.

Cappuccino

Had a great meal and bonding time at Carousel. The lunch buffet ended at 2pm but they allowed us to sit and chat till their High-tea is about to start. The service is really great there and they are very attentive in clearing the plates and topping up our cup of water. Another thumbs up! No wonder Carousel is an award-winning buffet restaurant. Good food, good service!

Carousel does have 10% discount some credit cards and currently, UOB and Citbank has this promotion of "1 dine free with 3 paying diners". For a party of 5, we spent S$47 each.

Royal Plaza on Scotts

25 Scotts Road, Singapore 228220

Drips Bakery Cafe @ Tiong Bahru Estate

In recent years, Tiong Bahru Estate has become a great place to explore, with the opening of many interesting cafes and restaurants in the area. Drips Bakery Cafe is a nice place to go to for coffee, tea or pastries.  

My friends and I ordered the Green Tea Latte ($5.50), the Iced Apple Infused Tea ($5) and the Drips Ice Shaken Lemon Tea ($5).

I love the Green Tea Latte! It was the first time I tried it and it is like hot sweet vanilla with the subtle taste of green tea. An unique and delightful drink. A must-try! 

 
The Drips Ice Shaken Lemon Tea is deliciously sour. However, there is more ice than tea. Nonetheless, a refreshing and cooling drink which is highly recommended.

The Iced Apple Infused Tea tastes bland and nothing special. I had to add in syrup to make it taste slightly better. Not recommended.

Anyway, this cafe does not encourage customers to bring along their laptops to chill. It went to the extent of locking up the electric sockets.  

Drips Bakery Cafe: 

82 Tiong Poh Road #01-05 Singapore 160082

Mutton Soup @ Jasmin Stall Mee Goreng @ Seah Im Food Centre

As mentioned in a previous post, I love Indian mutton soup. However, it seems harder and harder to find a stall that sells it in Singapore. I was happy when I found one in Seah Im Food Centre, the food centre opposite VivoCity and HarbourFront Centre, and just a few minutes walk from HarbourFront MRT Station. 

The name of the stall is Jasmin Stall Mee Goreng. It actually specializes in mee goreng (spicy fried noodles) and soup tulang (mutton bone marrow soup). However, I did not order any of those. I ordered a bowl of mutton soup ($4.50) and a plate of bread ($0.50).  

The soup is rich with the flavors of Indian spices and the mutton is tasty, though a bit tough. I dipped the bread into the soup and it tastes great. I would recommend this to people like me who love spicy food and mutton.   

Jasmin Stall Mee Goreng:

2 Seah Im Road, #01-46, Singapore 099114

Korean Cuisine @ BigMama Korean Restaurant

BigMama Korean Restaurant is a popular restaurant located in Kim Tian Road which is run by Koreans and serves authentic Korean food.     

6 dishes of banchan (side dishes) were served. These are free and refillable. The Kimchi is fresh and crunchy. The Sigeumchi Namul (spinach) and Japchae (glass noodles) are mediocre. The Myeolchi Bokkeum (spicy anchovies) is too salty. It was my first time eating the Nokdumuk (mung bean starch jelly) and I find the taste unique and rather nice. 

And my favorite banchan is Yeongeun Jorim (lotus roots). The crunchy lotus roots go well with the yummy sauce. I love it so much, I had 3 refills. Highly recommended! 

Dakgalbi (spicy grilled chicken) is one of the two dishes highly recommended by the restaurant. It costs $15 per pax and the minimum order is 2 pax. Marinated chicken chunks are stir-fried with rice cakes, assorted vegetables and chilli sauce on a hot grill. The staff actually comes to your table and stir-fries the dish before your eyes. The rice cake is the best rice cake I have eaten in Singapore. The chicken and vegetables are not bad, but not fantastic.

         

Do not finish all the dakgalbi. It is strongly recommended to add rice, laver and sesame oil to the leftovers to make fried rice. The laver and sesame oil upped the flavor of the fried rice and it tastes delicious! Don't forget to leave some space in your stomach for this.

   

The kimchi soup with rice costs $14. To someone who loves spicy food like me, the soup tastes more sweet than spicy. But I like it that the tofu (bean curd) fully absorbed the flavor of the soup. It is a decent bowl of kimchi soup but I'd prefer one spicier.    

The Haemul Kimchi Jeon ($15) is my favorite dish out of everything I tried today. Haemul Kimchi Jeon is pancake made with finely cut chives and seafood. The pancake is thin and crispy. Absolutely delicious, a must try!   

Overall, the food is tasty and the price reasonable. When paying for the bill, I was pleasantly surprised to find that BigMama absorbs the 7% GST. Anyway, this place is really popular and often crowded. To avoid disappointment, it is best to call 6270 7704 to make a reservation before going.

BigMama Korean Restaurant: 

2 Kim Tian Road, Singapore 169244