Food For Thought

Went for lunch at Food For Thought with Qing on Saturday when we couldn't decide where to go, and happened to stumble across this little eating place. Since Qing had mentioned about this place and neither of us had been there before, we decided to give it a try.

Yes, the entire eating place is that "big". From where I took the picture, the entrance is just a few feet behind me and where that light green piece of glass is, that's the end of the shop, and the width... well, you can see from the picture yourself. Also, the cooking is done just right behind the counter, so expect the place to be a little warm and to come out of the place with the slight smell of food clinging onto you.

There is no waitress to sit you, and there is also no menu for you to browse at your table at your own leisure. The place's so-called menu are a few gigantic chalkboards hung all around behind the counter, which is where to order the food. There are also cutlery, serviettes and iced water near the counter, so that after ordering, you can gather whatever you need then go back and sit down to wait for the food. I guessed these are the reasons why the eatery can boast about having no GST and no service charge.

Qing ordered their "house special", $9.90, which includes the soup and a sandwich, or the salad and a sandwich. She got the set with the Shitake mushroom soup, and the slow-roasted pulled pork sandwich.

What is pulled pork? This was actually only my second time coming across this term. When I first heard it, it sounded kind of torturous, especially if you are a pig.

Ok, back to the sandwich, the orange bits on the pork are mashed sweet potato. The pork tasted ok, with the spicy barbeque sauce. Can't comment much on it coz that was the first "pulled pork" I had eaten. But it was more on the lean side, rather than fatty. The mushroom soup was just normal, in fact, a little on the thin side. More like a mushroom "drink" than soup, as compared to others, it had no tiny chewy bits of mushrooms in it.

You know the meal is normal when Qing eats a little too quietly. There were no constant ravings about the wonderful taste of the sauce, or the stringy pig meat, or the soup. She didn't go "hmmmm... yummy" after the first bite, or showed me the "I can eat another five of these" kind of look.

And she even rejected having a taste of my Basil Pesto Roasted Chicken Spaghetti, $12.90.

I got to admit the use of the wooden dish to serve the spaghetti was a tiny surprise. Other than that, nothing much worth mentioning about the pasta dish. I could taste the salad, spaghetti and roasted chicken, separately, rather than as one complete dish. It was like being served three separate dishes. I'm not sure if it was what the eatery is aiming for. But I didn't really like it.

If I were to ever go back a second time, it would be to try out their strongly advertised home-made desserts, which are mainly cakes. They did looked quite pretty and delicious, sitting on the display shelf.

Piao Ji Fish Soup

Would you wait 40 minutes for a bowl of $5 fish soup?

I had been wanting to try this fish soup ever since I read about it here. Though the comments were a mix of good and bad, nonetheless, I still look forward to giving it a try when my father-in-law suggested we head down to Amoy Street Food Centre for it last weekend.

I was really surprised to see the long queue when we got there. Hello... it was a Sunday, and the place is Amoy Street. Where did all these people come from? There were at least 13-14 people in the queue in front of my father-in-law and husband as they waited in line.

Finally, we got our fish soup after 40 minutes... and we finished it within 20 minutes.

The soup tasted a little different from the other fish soups I had eaten. There was a slight taste of ginger in there... just enough to tingle your tastebuds but not overpowering. There was also a lot of fried shallots which I like, and little bits of pork lard. It did not use chye sim as with most of the fish soups, but tang oh, one of the Teochews' favourite vegetable (at least according to my mum). And as for the fish, it was very fresh and cooked just right. The slices were also quite big and thick.

But the question at the end of the day was, was it worth the wait and the $5, for ordinary batang fish? I personally think it was way over-rated. For $5, I could get much more slices of fish from my favourite fish soup stall without having to wait 40 minutes, and even though the slices may not be as big and thick, but to me, taste just as good.

Anyway, this is the next one on my to-try list.

Miss Clarity Cafe

Went to Miss Clarity Cafe at Purvis Street for dinner with the husband on Wednesday. I had been wanting to try the food there ever since I came across a few personal blogs raving about the food.

It was about 7:30 p.m. when we got there, and if you are driving, please check out the exact location before proceeding. It's actually opposite the side of the National Library which faces a Maybank bank. The cafe is just a few steps down behind Maybank. Also, be prepared to wait for parking lots coz it's situated along a row of shophouses, where there are only limited parallel parking lots.

The size of the cafe was not as big as I had imagined. And the husband was surprised at the number of people there. It was completely packed and we had to wait for about 10 to 15 minutes to get a seat.

If you are looking for a quiet and romantic place for dinner, this is definitely not the place for you. Besides being packed with people, the noise level was also high, and once in a while, there would be a burst of ha-ha-ha from out of nowhere, and you practically had to talk to your date in a raised voice to be heard.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. In fact, I quite like it there. Just look at the tagline of the cafe : "where happy people meet..." It definitely felt like that! The only glitch was that the staff could be friendlier and looked happier a bit? Or maybe it's the crowd and the rush that had left them feeling stressed. Happy diners, definitely, but not happy waiters... not that they were rude or anything. Just didn't looked happy to me.

Anyway, onto the food. I managed to capture some photos of what we had ordered, but no thanks to the computer or the USB cable or my handphone... something had gone kooky somewhere and I couldn't access the photos I had taken with my handphone. (maybe it's time to get a new phone)

Anyhows, the husband ate this :

The husband quite liked the dish, though I felt that the pork was a little too tough. The country beans were a mixture of green peas and beans, and according to him, the so-called "tomato marmalade" tasted like pasta sauce.

And I had this :

The crust was thick on the dory fish, but the slice of fish was also quite thick. Despite being so, it was cooked very nicely and was tender. I couldn't figure out what was in the slightly crispy and spicy crust, except for the centre portion which seemed to have a bit of melted cheese hidden. There was also no taste of the garlic as mentioned in the name of the dish.

One thing I liked about this dish besides the crust was that it arrived piping hot. And even after I took my last bite, it was still warm. But the accompanying sides were a bit disappointing. Just some boiled cabbage strips and baked potato pieces, which were a little too tough and cold.

We added the additional $3.80 for a soup/salad, drink and dessert to make it a set meal. The soup was good, and we guessed it was onion soup. And the dessert was a scoop of really sweet and strongly-flavoured strawberry ice-cream. I can't remember when was the last time I had pure strawberry ice-cream.

The total bill came up to the total of $30.20, without any GST and service charge. I guess that maybe was another reason why the place was full on a weekday evening. And I'll definitely be going back again.

Eat'z 19

Had dinner with the husband at this particular restaurant, Eat'z 19, located opposite Shaw Towers, at a corner, right beside the few stalls of the famous steamboat/hotpots. The ambience was cosy, though I felt that the lighting was a little too dim. But the waitress was friendly, and even though we were the only customers in the shop at about 7:30 pm, it didn't feel awkward.

We ordered a starter and their set dinner, which costs $15.80. It includes a soup, main course, drink (coffee or tea, hot/chilled), and ice-cream for dessert.


Our starter course was Bruschetta, a recommendation from the waitress. It is crispy french toast topped with minced beef and sauce, and tomatoes and cheese.

The minced beef was soft, and the sauce had a slight tangy spiciness to it. There seemed to be like a mediterranean or middle-east style to it, not that I'm an expert in that area, but it's certainly not your typical western food.



It was creamy chicken soup that day, and it was good, with many big chunks of chicken, and a toasted hot and crispy garlic bread. If only it was not so peppery. I'm not a spicy-food person... so after a while, the heat of the pepper got to me and I passed the remaining soup to the husband.




For the main course, I ordered the Chicken Parmesan with Asian Herbs, which the waitress mentioned that we had to wait 25 minutes for it coz of the baking time. I had two bites from it and had to exchange with the husband coz it was again, too spicy to my liking. I didn't think it had chilli or anything in the sauce, but rather, from the herbs that they use.



The husband ordered fish and chips. I once heard it was a kind of "safe bet" dish to order if everything else on the menu looks alien to you.

Anyway, this fish and chips was excellent. We both liked it. It was not the normal kind which was deep-fried til you could feel the oil oozing out as you bit into it. No, not this fish and chips. Although not as crispy, it was special, maybe becoz of the batter used. The fish was still soft and juicy inside. And I loved the tartare sauce. Lemongrass was added to it to give it an extraordinary taste to normal fish and chips.



The dessert was vanilla ice-cream with sauce which at first I thought was caramel. But after tasting it, it tasted more like melted coconut sauce instead. Special!

The husband and I decided that we most likely might visit the place again, to try the other dishes, or maybe from the ala carte menu too. It was a great dining experience, with food of a different flavour and new tastes. The service was wonderful too.

Oh, by the way, the place is Halal certified... which means it can be listed as a place for our next IT peeps gathering! Yeah!

Pasta Manna

Met up the husband for dinner at Old Airport Road Food Centre after tuition just now. It had just undergone major renovation and is much more spacious, airy and cleaner than the old one. As I waited for the husband, I remembered reading about a pasta stall, Pasta Manna, that was being mentioned in ieat-ishoot-ipost.

I ordered the Al Fungi, which is, as derived from the name, mushroom pasta in cream sauce. (sorry for the lousy photography skill.... :p)

I like the way the pasta is cooked... just right, al dente. There was a generous amount of mushrooms and sauce, topped with herbs and black pepper that went very well altogether. Even though it's with cream sauce, it didn't made me feel too full and sick of it halfway through, as with some other cream sauce pastas.

For $4.50, it was well worth if you need a quick fix to satisfy that pasta craving without needing to go to a restaurant, and paying for service charge and GST. You can even have a set meal for $6, which include a soup of the day and garlic bread, together with the pasta.

Since the stall is quite conveniently situated and I'll be in the area twice a week, I'm sure to pop by once in a while to try out the other pastas on the menu.

Bad breakfast

I think yesterday marked the last time that we would ever had breakfast at Cafe Cartel. Thinking it had been some time since we tried the breakfast sets, we decided to go for it at the IMM outlet.

He ordered the Ultimate Delight Breakfast which comes with 2 pieces of french toasts, a piece of pancake, 2 sunny-side up, bacon, sausages and a muffin. I ordered the Ham & Cheese Omelette, which comes with a hashbrown, muffin and some veg.

One bite into my omelette and I know I won't ever try it again. It was completely bland. Ok, so there was mozzerella cheese on the inside and a big slice of normal cheese on the outside, but it was totally tasteless. Even the ham didn't help to make the omelette saltier.

As for the hashbrown, it was more like a piece of oil-soaked potato. Oil was practically oozing out the moment I bit into it, and after that, it was like drinking oil, without any taste of the hashbrown either. I didn't get to the muffin coz the omelette and the hashbrown were enough for me. Moreover, the husband gave me a "look" after he took a first few bites of the muffin which made me decided not to waste my time on it.

For the husband, he was quite happy with his breakfast set, especially since it came with 2 sunny-side ups. Not much complaints from him except that the pancake felt a little too hard. He liked the bacon and sausages too.

Anyway, no more Cartel breakfasts for me anymore. But I would still go for the lunch/dinner menu as they had not disappoint me so far. Moreover, there are new items on the menu and I'm definitely going to try them another time.

Nasi Ayam Penyet

Happened to see Makansutra recommending this "flat chicken rice" stall at Changi Village and decided to give it a try last night, since the husband and I were meeting some friends there.

As expected, there was a queue in front of the stall since you have to self-serve. Luckily we did not have to wait long. Within 10 minutes, we were ready to eat. Guess I was too hungry then to remember to take photo until we were halfway through and the husband reminded me. By then, my fried chicken thigh had already gone through my merciless attack and was unfit for any photography.

But being the kind-hearted soul as I am (ah-hem!), I went through a few local food websites to get the picture to show here.

The chicken comes separate from the rice on a traditional-looking wooden plate, with some vegetables at the side and a heap of extremely potent sambal, yes, with all the tiny little chilli seeds included.

The rice was cooked just right to how I like it, topped with my favourite fried shallots. The chicken had a hint of spice, and according to this article, the stall uses Indonesian spices to cook the chicken, as this dish originated from Indonesia. The taste of the spice seemed to permeate throughout the whole chicken thigh, from the crispy outside, to the tender meat inside.

One thing I like about this is that the portion is just right. There was not too much rice to make you feel too full, and the chicken was fried with the right amount of oil, not too much to make you feel queasy halfway through the meal.

To be honest, this is only my third or fourth time eating Malay chicken rice so I had nothing much to compare it with, since I cannot remember how many donkey years ago did I last had one.

I have to admit that beneath all this hoo-ha, it is just another chicken rice stall. But sometimes, seeing normal everyday hawker food being presented in another way, can make the eating somewhat more enjoyable.

Dinner at Haldhi

Went for dinner with the ICT team and Amalina at Haldhi, an authentic Indian cuisine restaurant along the banks of Singapore River. The boss got $200 from the school rewarding our department being the best department or something like that, and with Sam's $120 Haldhi vouchers from the sacrifice of being "Pamela", we decided to have a feast with $320 to spend.

We had outdoor seatings with the Singapore River just behind us. It was actually quite relaxing and enjoyable to be able to sit there and have a meal or just a drink. There were so much to see... the boats ferrying tourists around the Singapore River, the people walking through the streets and not forgetting the buildings on the other side of the river. We couldn't stop taking photos... especially Ray and Sam, as they had smuggled out the new Nikon D40. The both of them took turns romancing the camera.

As it is an Indian cuisine restaurant, I was quite worried about having to take spicy food. I'm not really a fan of spicy food. A little is ok, but too much, I'll start to feel numb around my nose and cheeks, then my nose starts to run and my eyes will tear.

After asking Dass and looking through the menu, I ordered the eggplant with Indian spices (requested for less spicy) and the prawn briyani. Dass mentioned that the bowl of white stuff, which came with the briyani, may be cold yoghurt, but none of us tried it so we didn't know if it is really yoghurt or not.

When I first tasted the eggplant, the spiciness was still bearable. However, it turned out that the briyani was the killer. After a few spoonfuls, my throat started to feel a little too hot, and my nose started to run. But it tasted good and after a few sips of my lime juice, I bravely continued on, maybe it was becoz of the big, juicy prawns and the exotic taste of something new. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for the eggplant. It tasted somewhat as a normal dish to me.

But it was all not meant to last. I began to feel a strong burning sensation at the back of my throat, and my nose started to run faster, and this time, my eyes started to tear, which means that I had reached my "limit". If my eyes didn't tear, I could still continue on. In the end, I exchanged my briyani with a piece of naan from Ray. And after a cup of Coke, the "flame" slowly died down.

Even Dass mentioned that his mutton was too spicy. I couldn't imagine myself tasting that. I believe if a FBI (full-blooded Indian, as Dass so loved to call himself) said something is very spicy, then it must be so damn bloody spicy hot!

Anyway, I also had a taste of Indian dessert. Ok, I forgot the name for it. But it's made of sweetened condensed milk, frozen together with bits of almonds and pistachios. So the end product is kind of like ice-cream, which tasted real sweet. I guess it is to kind of balance out the spiciness of the main dishes.

As expected with any outing, there were no lack of silly-looking photos.

Such "spontaneous" photos were never any hardship for Amalina and Sam. Me, I would do it most of the times but I haven't reach the "level" of Amalina and Sam yet.

Dass, he's one good boy. That slightly disturbing pose of his with the cherry was an idea from Sam. Good little Dass followed Sam's instructions and did everything perfectly. Heh.

Ray's shot was a candid one... just wanted to show him using his hand to eat. Wanted to applaud his effort for trying and he's practicing real hard whenever there is an opportunity. Another good boy.

Last but not least, the boss. Those who know him will know he would never take any silly-looking photo unless he's in the mood. (Hope he won't stumble into here anytime soon. Haha.) Oh yes, he likes to take photos. But only those which shows him looking cool and suave. He's real strict when it comes to looking good in photos.

Anyway, the total bill came up to $280+, which means we still had another $40 or so left for a simple meal. :)

Happy Fathers' Day!

We had an early Fathers' Day meal at the Plaza Market Cafe at Swissotel The Stamford. Food was not too bad, if not a little too expensive... but I guess it's just as it is becoz of the venue. All the others, except me, absolutely loved the durian dessert. It was of durian, and durian only. It's not that I don't like, or is scared of the durian smell, but somehow, it just doesn't appeal to me at all.



Too bad about the blurred photo of papa. He didn't posed long enough for Yun to snap a proper one...

Happy Mothers' Day!

Spent quite some time thinking and discussing wif Yun and Qun what to do on this day. We thought of having potluck, but discarded the idea coz didn't know what to cook. Then we thought of famous chilli crabs, but there was a bit of clashing of schedule. Then we thought of Botak Jones, but worried Papa and my uncle wouldn't like it. So, in the end, settled for Spring Court restaurant at Chinatown.

Dim sum was good, at least for those common ones, like siew mai, ha gao and carrot cake. The spicy carrot cake was cooked in a different way from the traditional dim sum method. It was like fried carrot cake, with eggs, bean sprouts and spring onions. But it was delicious, though a little too spicy for me.

However, the food was just all right. Common restaurant set menu. Cold platter, sharks' fin soup (without the sharks' fins... haha), broccoli with sea cucumber, crispy chicken, boiled prawns, steamed fish, yam ring, fried noodles (the worse of the lot), and for dessert, red bean paste with lotus seeds.

Total cost = $600.81

High tea

Mama treated us to high tea yesterday to celebrate Papa's and my birthdays, which are just 2 days apart. We were at The Legends at Fort Canning park, at The Cafe. Food was not that fabulous, except for the fried noodles, spring rolls and glutinous rice. But the ambience was quite good and relaxing for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Oh, and Papa had his first taste of chocolate-coated marshmallow.