Coffee Stars by Dao (Wisma Atria)

Lynn and me met up for a ranting session on my part, because I needed to let out some steam. After comfort food at Din Tai Fung, we were roaming around Wisma Atria for desserts. Came across the pretty display of cakes at Coffee Stars. They have interesting flavors such as taro fresh cream cake, coconut pandan roll and horlick cake. We were tempted, and so decided to try.

After pouring over their menu, we settled for a taro fresh cream cake as well as a cappuccino cake. Lynn ordered a Mango Lassi, while I forgot what drink I ordered. We noticed that their cooked food selection seems not bad. They even have an entire page of vegetarian options!

Our cakes arrived shortly with our drinks. We really liked the taro cake, with its mashed yam frosting. The frosting tastes exactly like the yam paste dessert you eat at chinese restaurants. It's a must have for yam paste lovers! The cappuccino cake was more forgettable. I think we liked it, but it didn't make as big an impression as the taro cake. Lynn even packed a slice back for her mom. I think my mom will love it too, being the yam lover she is. Too bad I'm not staying with her now. It's now a mental note to get this for her birthday. I remember Lynn didn't enjoy her drink too much, while I was ok with mine (whatever it was). I really should complete catching up with my entries so that I'm not digging so far back into my memories...

Taro fresh cream cake

Cappucino cake

Mango Lassi and ???

I really liked the yam cake and will buy one for my mom's birthday. They supposedly serves a Thai and International cuisine. I believe Lynn returned for the mains, not sure if she'll remember to blog about it... Will probably bring hubs back one day to try their mains.

Original Sin

It was our program's White Coat Ceremony day but XP and me didn't want to join the rest of the students (whom we don't know) for the ceremony. So we decided to have our own little white coat ceremony. Since we were in NUS, he suggested Holland Village. After a throwing out a few names, we ended up at Original Sin. I had previously mentioned to him that the vegetarian food here is pretty good, so I guess he wanted to try.

Original Sin is sort of a vegetarian fine dining restaurant - something quite uncommon in Singapore. We were pretty early, and it being a Monday night, the place was empty. We were seated indoor and had our orders taken in no time.

We ordered a Magic Mushroom to share - portobello mushroom with spinach, ricotta cheese, pesto, a tomato basil sauce, and topped with mozzarella cheese. Rich stuff. He ordered Vegetable Tandoori for his main, while I ordered Porcini (egg flat pasta with mushroom and cream sauce).

Magic Mushroom

Vegetable Tandoori

Porcini

Not too sure if XP enjoyed himself. He didn't comment on the food. I liked the magic mushroom for its richness, and liked my pasta because it wasn't overly rich. So contradicting, I know. I do like Original Sin, mainly because good western vegetarian food are hard to come by in Singapore, and hubby is a vegetarian, so nice to have a change from the usual Chinese or Indian vegetarian food occasionally.

House of Steamboat (Tan Quee Lan Street)

Us little people of the lab decided to do a reunion lunch. It also served as a good catch-up time with V, who had since moved on to greener pastures. Since its a CNY reunion, we were aiming for Chinese food. And since Y and X needed to print their posters for a symposium, Bugis area will be ideal as it's near the printshops. So a search for 'Chinese' and 'Bugis' on HungryGoWhere found us a list of steamboat places. Of these, we picked the House of Steamboat based on reviews.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with something we did not expect. The smell. The interior of the restaurant smelled quite funky from all the raw food piled up at the open fridge at the end. But it was too hot to have steamboat outdoors. A little exploration found that one side of the restaurant smelled less badly than the other, for some unknown reasons. We requested seats in that area and were parked under the air conditioner - a plus point because the blasts of cold air helps to blow the stinkiness away.

We were given a good selection of soups to choose from, several of them herbal in nature. Surprising as it wasn't the usual chicken broth and stuff. There was also a pretty good list of thinly sliced fresh meats and seafood we can order from the server free flow. They even have crabs, which we were too lazy to try. Nice to know such foods aren't left on the open fridge exposed to the environment. Other food stuff such as veggies, noodles and processed food such as fish cakes, hotdogs etc are available at the self service open fridge. A few choices of soft drinks were available free flow too. We chose a spicy soup and a herbal chicken soup.

We were then served some cooked food to start off before we start cooking. I personally think it's their way of filling our stomachs before we eat too much of the 'expensive' stuff. These weren't fantastic and we didn't finish them. The chicken wings were too salty, and the buns forgettable.

Fried buns with some kind of glaze

Fried chicken wings

We ordered almost every meat on their menu except for pork and beef for S's benefit. I did order a dish of beef in the end with her permission, and happily finished all of it myself. The rest were too full to help.

Fish and squid

Chicken and mutton

Processed food

A warm reunion

The food was so so, but the company was great. We yakked a good 4 hours there. I believe there was hardly any eating towards the last 2.5 hours, but it wasn't crowded, and we weren't shooed. Somehow, my take home memory of the food is that last dish of thinly sliced beef.... I wonder why... hehehe =)

Laurent Bernard Chocolatier

After our dinner at Epicurious, we headed here for desserts upon M's recommendation. A flip through the menu revealed that this place serves a pretty large variety of soufflés, comparing to the usual 3 flavors or so that most places carry. And they also serve a large variety of other desserts. This is a must-go place for sweet-tooths.

After much consideration, we agreed on Lemon soufflé, After-eight soufflé (because I like those mints so much), creme brulee and chocolate profiteroles. Turns out after-eight soufflé was out of stock, so we opted for their chocolate soufflé instead. Profiteroles were out too, so we just skipped that. I ordered some citrusy drink of passionfruit, lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit juice. S ordered a shake, but I forgot the flavor. I just remembered it was nice.

The lemon soufflé was oh-so-nice. Light and refreshing, I think it's my most remembered soufflé of all time. The chocolate soufflé was served with a rasberry sorbet that M really enjoyed. The creme brulee was pretty good too, creamy with a good crusty caramel topping. My drink was oh-so-sour but I loved it. Looking at all the ingredients, I think you can have a sense of the level of sourness. But I so enjoy that kick, especially after eating desserts.

Lemon Soufflé

Chocolate Soufflé

Creme Brulee

My citrusy drink

S's milkshake

 I enjoyed the lemon soufflé so much that I'll definitely want to come back for it. Absolutely have to bring Lynn here. Lol...

Epicurious (Singapore River)

It's a belated birthday celebration for S and we had initially thought of doing a high-tea type of gathering. Turns out E had very absentmindedly arranged for high tea with another bunch of people on the same day (nothing new for her to be this blur actually). So we had to push it to evening as a dinner instead.

When we first mentioned high-tea, S had suggested Epicurious because she wanted to try their all day breakfast. However, breakfast is served only up to 4pm. So by the time we went, no more breakfast menu. I reached early (actually, I was on time. They were late.), and started off my evening drinks alone.

Kidding. It was just plain water in that vodka bottle. I'm not an alcoholic who guzz Vodka before having my dinner. I was pretty famished, and so ordered a mushroom soup while waiting for them. The soup turned out great - chopped mushrooms in every creamy spoon. The kind I like.

Mushroom soup served in a cup

The rest arrived when I was midway through my soup. We took a while to decide on our mains. Because E came from a high-tea, she settled for just soup. S ordered some chicken with cheese thingy (it's name wasn't in English and my languages really ain't strong, t just couldn't stick). M and me ordered grilled tenderloins. We ordered an asian salad which sounded interesting with smoked salmon and yuzu dressing.

My medium rare steak appeared to be misheard as rare. I got a really bloody steak that wasn't quite something I liked. M's came ok. But on the scale of 10, their steak scored maybe 4 or 5? I sort of asked for it right, ordering steak from a place known more for their breakfast. S found her chicken not as good as she wished. We did enjoy the salad though, smoked salad in refreshing dressing plus generous sprinkling of nori pieces.

Grilled tenderloin - looks decent

Chicken with cheese something

Salad

We were actually a little disappointed by the mains, and so decided to get our desserts elsewhere. But if anything, this restaurant scores for their service. We were hardly neglected. And one of the guys was sweet enough to stand by the restaurant door waiting for me when I called up for directions while looking for the restaurant.

Ootoya (Clementi Mall)

I was heading to Clementi for some CNY shopping, or rather, Bak Kwa shopping. J's shop at Clementi market sells what I think is the best Bak Kwa in Singapore. Too bad they're gone before I remember photos, else they can hold a post by themselves. 

Anyway, back to the point, since it was Clementi, I asked E out for dinner. We roamed around Clementi mall trying to find a not-so-crowded-to-the-point-of-frustration restaurant and found it a hopeless venture. Eventually settled for Ootoya because of the poster at the door advertising some sangen pork that was supposed to be very tender or something. We had to wait a little for our table, but it was ok because there were seats at the waiting area.

The 'table' turned out to be a very long U-shaped one, with the outer side lined with chairs, and the inner side decked with a square platform. Basically diners were assigned seats with half the group sitting inside. I chose to be the one sitting inside, and had to take off my shoes, walk across the platform, and sit facing E at the edge of the platform. The nice thing about this concept is there was plenty of space behind me for my 3 kg worth of Bak Kwa. The downside is you are really sharing table with everyone else. We were fortuntate to get the last seat, so only had neighbours on one side. But the neighbours were really close to us, essentially right next to us since its the same table. I was overtly eavesdropping on their conversation and I'm sure I caught them laughing a few times at ours too.

It's so long ago I forgot the actually names of what we ordered. Essentially we both got pork cutlets in different sauces. One of it I think was a tenderloin but I forgot which one. I think E's comes with a separate rice, so she ordered black sesame rice. Mine came with the cutlet atop rice. The cutlets were thick and chewy. The non-tenderloin one was a little challenge to bite off. The sauces were rich and flavorful. We enjoyed the first half of our food. E didn't like her sesame rice too much and didn't finish it. The food got a tad cloying towards the end, being fried and saucy and all. I stuck to my usual habit of finishing up everything, but E gave up.

We did leave space for dessert and ordered a pudding (I forgot the name too - my fault for taking so long to blog about this). I remember it was sweet and nice and a very good ending to the meal.

Pork tenderloin in egg sauce?

The full set

Miso soup

Pork cutlet with seafood sauce? on rice

My full set

Dessert

Overall I remember leaving the restaurant very full and satisfied. I think I found the rest of the menu pretty interesting too. Turns out E owed me a favor and I got to have this meal for free. =)

Old Kim Guan (Sunshine Plaza)

Before I proceed I must first clarify that this establishment is opened by hubby's friend, so there's may be some bias. However, I will do my best to rate the food from a third-party point of view.

D needed to print his poster at Sunshine Plaza and so a few of us went with him for the opportunity to have a long lunch. Since Y opened an eatery at Sunshine plaza, I had to be a friend and bring my colleagues there to eat. Of course friends aside, I had grounds to believe my colleagues will enjoy their lunch. I had previously brought S, who liked the curry gravy but wasn't too keen on the fact that the curry was chicken wings only. I saw her really digging the meat out of the wings, leaving all the skin behind. So this time round I warned the boys about the wings, but seems like it isn't such a big issue for them.

I ordered pig stomach soup, one of their signatures. E ordered the curry chicken - the other signature, together with You Wei Fan (literally = flavored rice). D ordered regular dry noodles, while C ordered mince meat dry noodles, plus preserved vegetables with braised pork. We ordered three BBQ wings, and all had home-made barley drinks.

The pig stomach soup is something I really like. Peppery and rich, and no sign of porkiness that some places have. I had tried their curry chicken before and thought it was so-so, although I vaguely remember liking the potatoes. Maybe it was the fact that I had it with the BBQ wings and having 4 wings in one meal is pretty overdoing it (or maybe S was right, and wings doesn't really cut it for curries). E liked it though. He said the gravy was rich and thicker than the usual ones. The flavored rice was, well, flavorful. Lol... E ordered extra white rice, partly to enjoy the curry gravy, and partly cos he has huge appetite.

The preserved vegetables was another hit. It isn't too salty so one can actually eat it plain without feeling the need to stuff your mouth full with white rice to compensate. The dry noodles turned out a little on the small side, and D found it unsatisfying. He too, had to order extra white rice to fill up his stomach with some of E's curry and C's preserved vegetables. The BBQ chicken wings is actually another signature. First time I went was the time I had 4 wings in a meal, and I found it so-so. This time round with only 1 wing, it's a lot better. Slightly burnt on the outside, fragrant on the inside. It goes really well with the chilli sauce provided. Hm, but have to honestly say I have eaten better ones elsewhere.

BBQ wings with accompanying chilli sauce

Signature pig stomach soup

Preserved vegetable with pork belly

Chicken curry and flavored rice

The barley drinks was thoroughly enjoyed by all too. The verdict I got from the boys? Good home-styles food. They liked it. And since I have a conflict of interest, I'll leave it with their verdict.