Review - My Dining Room // June's muse

Hi! Its gonna be July soon and i'm really excited that SJ's ORD date is getting closer and closer. But of course, also the motivation to find a job and my official convocation in August as a university graduate. 

Went for interview today, albeit its for an internship. They told me that earliest they would get back to me by tomorrow, and latest by this week. Fingers crossed i get the job! I'm pretty sick of staying at home and nua-ing like some potatoes.

In any case, my family and i celebrated my dad's birthday in lieu with father's day over at My Dining Room, which is really because my mum bought the Groupon voucher for this place. Its $148 for a 9-course meal and we brought my grandmother and le maid along, haha.

Setting wise, i feel that its pretty elegant and classy for social gatherings, company dinners or even family dinners. I really love the entire decoration of the place because it exudes a particular sense of expensive dinner even though we did not pay that much lol

These are the dishes served for our 9-course dinner meal (excluding the dessert) and i love the layout and presentation of the food! They pretty much served us with accordance to the number of people present (i guess a way to save $$? Cause if you were to serve a dish, there's a set of prawns inside and if there's only 2 people, you kinda 'lose out'?)

Zoom in on the waitress dissecting the duck for us LOL. 

Yeap, this course comes with a Peking duck! But i still love Beijing's de most - its unbeatable

Not shark fins #savethesharks , but more of sea cucumber and whatsnot

This is the same duck which we ate the skin of

Behind-the-scenes

Overall, really love the service rendered to us! The waitresses were very attentive and meticulous despite the crowd during the peak hours. They were also fast and friendly with their attitude and that really makes my day! :D

Super recommend to anyone who's looking for a place which is affordable and yet kinda 'formal' in a sense for good food and HK Cantonese cuisine? 

========================================================

Address:

3 Temasek Boulevard #02-314/316 

Suntec City Mall Singapore 038983

Meal includes:

Claypot herbal drunken live prawns 

Roasted Peking duck 

Thick soup with sea cucumber and fish maw 

Braised fresh 6-head abalone with wild mushrooms 

Traditional steamed sea fish fillet 

Sautéed duck meat with ginger onion and XO chilli sauce 

Poached seasonal vegetable with bean dough in superior stock 

Stewed ee-fu noodle 

Dessert of the day

Click > Groupon voucher 

Back on the day, it was kinda like a family day for us and it was really enjoyable because i get to hang out with my grandmother and my family over at town (really rare since we dont have a car)

My grandmother whom i lived with since 5 years old - 12 years old. Those were the times whereby i would head to the coffee shop with her every morning to eat breakfast and play with her friends' grandchildren over at the nearby playground. Going over to this shop which sells all the small tidbits and toys, and forever taking $2 from her to buy this, buy that.

My grandfather, whom had passed away, walking all the way to my school just because i forgot to bring that particular book (and he lugged everything to me because he doesn't know English and Chinese)

Now that i think about it, i do really act like a spoilt brat when i was younger. I took many things for granted and i expected them to treat me like this because they are my grandparents and hence should treat me like this. 

I still think this way at times when i hear about my friends' parents voluntarily giving them money when they head overseas, or buying things for them because their original items are faulty. In retrospect, my parents expect me to pay for my own trips and most of the luxury stuffs that i own now (that includes handphone, camera, clothes, offering to pay for drinks when i am out with them every now and then etc) 

I do feel unjustified at times and even lament at my own family culture, but i realized that it made me independent against people of my age. My aunt and uncle spoils me a lot when i was young, and practically buy anything and everything i want despite the price. Unconsciously, it shaped my behavior and i projected this concept on friends and strangers as well. 

Its hard when your friends have parents who would slog and do anything for them (some lah, not all), or just buy them stuffs. I'm not saying that i'm damn poor or that my parents just don't care about me, because my mum and dad does ok. Its just that with the financial capacity of my family, its hard for them to do anything over their basic expenses.

Yeah but to be honest, i am glad i went through all that because i can definitely survive the high and lows in my life now. 

The experience forced me to save and always have a Plan B, and to think of all critical risks/potential problems that will arise and weave a safety net before it happens. It probably made me much more independent and in control of my life.

If i want something, i have to do it myself. 

There's no other ways, you only have yourself - you are your own best bet.

Ah, late night muse. I hope you enjoy the review and pictures of the restaurant's though! I definitely love it and would recommend to anyone who wish to give HK Cantonese cuisine a try to visit this cosy place. 

People's Park Complex - Hotpot

Restaurant Review - People's Park Complex Hotpot

Hello guys! Back with a short entry on this really awesome place which was introduced to me by Emily a long time back. This is definitely a hidden gem strewn across the numerous travel agencies in the shopping mall.

Ta-daa, hotpot set at a super affordable price! (Think $6-10)

They have choices such as Chicken, Pork (my fave!), Beef and they recently added on Wagyu Beef and some other new sets into their menu.

A set usually include your personal hotpot, main carbo (rice, maggie, bee hoon, mee sua) veggies, and your chosen main meat (look above picture for a sense of how a set looks like). Drinks are not included and can be purchased at around $1 - $1.50, of which i can't remember the exact amount as of now. 

Soup base include Clear soup, Tom Yum etc etc. & they also have a 'sauce table' for you to mix and match your own preferred sauce!

Maggie mee + Tom Yum soup base is like my fave LOL. 

SJ ordered their beef (which was around $12-$14 for the set) but i can't remember the exact name of the dish. It's actually pretty good and satisfying for a simple meal if you are around that area.

Rating: 4/5 

Definitely one of my fave place to head to when i am around that area or has a craving for hotpot, but with a tight budget. -1 because the area is pretty much full of PRCs as of now, and not trying to be rude or racist or anything, some of them can be pretty rough when it gets crowded, especially on weekends. SJ and i had to literally "push" our way through the crowd last Sunday, and it was RAINING.

Other than that, its not a bad place to go to if you are budget constraint but yet, wants to try some hotpot! Their meat are probably frozen meat, which explains the low price i suppose?

People's Park Complex

Unit No: 02-78 (if i'm not wrong)

It's not really a restaurant, more of like an eatery but its air-conditioned. It can get crowded on peak timing due to its cheap pricing of food so do take note of that. 

Random//

Found this off a shop along the pavement outside of the shopping mall! Reminds me of this ah-mazing noodle which i love when i was back in Beijing. Its kinda like "cold noodle"
, but its soooo good. 

I found this version to have an overdose of vinegar (mygod, i was literally down-ing water), and a poor duplicate of the one i had back in Beijing.

Nevertheless, it was a cheap thrill for SJ and me to reminiscence about China on a cold Sunday with some good food (read: hotpot)

I hope this would serve helpful for people who works around that area and wants to have some cheap hotpot for lunch/dinner one of these days! :)

Till then, xoxo

Marche Restaurant

This is probably no stranger to anyone out there, but in case you happen to stumble upon my blog looking for some food Marche has to offer, you might want to read on.

Not really a huge fan of Marche but my dad loves the place even though he hates going to town for dinner. My mum and sister loves that place for the indoor playground as well because she can eat in peace and my sister can enjoy herself over there.

As for me, i guess i would choose other places to eat at for what i am paying, but its ok for me.

I love their crepe because its filling and tasty all the same. However, even though i really love anything salmon, i guess i would vote for their chicken crepe instead because the taste of the chicken blends really well with the veggies and pancake!

Sirloin steak, middle-rare. My dad loves steak so he orders this for his dinner. Not too bad, but pretty empty with the side dishes? I love my steak colorful LOL

Spanish Rice, Paella. 

This is one of the dish that i absolutely love and would order whenever i go to Marche. But for some reason, i feel that the standard of this dish dropped and the prawns and chicken served for 1 portion shrink. It used to be so good, and the rice used to taste so much better and less "watery". 

Urgh, i hope they step up their game for this because i really like this one.

Saw that they were having a promotion for Aglio Olio with prawns and crayfish, and i heard from somewhere before that their pasta is to-die-for. Decided to order this and was really disappointed. The aglio olio lacks in taste, and the crayfish was just ... seafood. The prawns were ok, but for $19.90+, i was practically eating pasta without any taste. 

Waste money. 

Last but not least, there's mango and banana crumble cake which is so-so, or maybe because i'm too full to give it a go.

In any case, i feel that Marche's standard of food has dropped a lot, and there are really polite waiters/waitresses and really impolite waiters/waitresses with monotonous and crude replies. Don't think i would head back any time sooner. 

Unless i am craving for crepes.

Tsukada Nojo Bijin Nabe - 塚田農場 美人鍋 @ westgate

Went to Westgate to try this Japanese restaurant which sees a really long queue over at Plaza Sing each time i'm over there during dinner time! It didn't appeal as much to me at first because it was hotpot and it looks pretty pricey for limited stuffs to eat?

It is $25 per pax for a hotpot set and the minimum order is 2 pax, so the entire bill will come up to around $60 with GST and service charge.

Haha, doesn't look appealing right? Looks like jelly and you have no friggin idea what it is inside. I thought it looks like the oil of the chicken when i first saw it haha!

BUT, OMFG. Its damn nice. I swear. You turn on the fire, these jellies melt and its chicken meat inside which is so. bloody. good. And the soup is omfg asdgkjfhskfhks good. 

ITS REALLY THAT GOOD

Very little right? Somemore for two people, like wtf full anot? 

MISTAKE.

I was damn friggin full at the end of the hotpot - even Sijun was damn friggin full. I have no idea why we would be this full, but we are full and bloated but we were super satisfied with the meal. The service was excellent, and the assistant manager really took care of us well and attended to every needs. Everyone was smiling too so the entire atmosphere over at the restaurant was a very cheerful and happy one!

A little gift from the manager - we so did not expect this.

Its such a nice gesture and i really love how they do this out of the goodwill from the company!! It was a good drawing, and i think my face is really square heheh wtf. Now i can look at videos and see what type of glasses and hairstyle suits my face.

A sesame paste which the managers says that makes the soup nicer when added! Personally i felt that it doesn't make much difference but it came in such a cute outlook that i just have got to take a picture of it!! 

Sijun is out for field camp and only back on wednesday so that means two days of no contact at all. Kinda sad that we are always spending so little time together because of NS, but at the same time, its gonna end soon since he is passing out from both MP and SGT this month!

Gotta hang on and stay positive for both of our sake!!

HAPPY WEEK AHEAD MY DEAR READERS.

Kinoshita Japanese Restaurant @ Westgate

Went to westgate the other day to have a really sumptuous dinner with my family. I didn't go to the 5th level before, so when i saw this restaurant, my mum and i were pretty excited because she had been longing for BBQ food for a while, and its japanese food so im excited. LOL!

The restaurant has a range of japanese dishes and serve both Hotpot and BBQ. We ordered the set which comes with BBQ + Hotpot at around $35++ (chicken) and $38++ (seafood) each for a pax, and minimum order is 2pax. There is a choice of black pepper pork, chicken, beef and seafood, so we had chicken and seafood. 

The set comes with appetizer of salmon and chawanmushi - really good. It had been so long since i lasted raw salmon sashimi i almost forgot how it feels like to have them dissolve in your mouth.

We ordered their fried chicken because it looks good and is one of the recommended dish in the restaurant. It's $5+ for 3 pieces.

My dad loves beef and chicken, so we ordered the ala carte for the BBQ and the meat is 

absolutely

amazingly

delicious. 

Its a pretty small portion and comes at around $13+ per dish, but its soooo nice. Its like no matter how you cook it, it turns out grea hahah wtf.

This is the seafood + chicken set for the BBQ. Not a lot actually :/ 

Cook cook cook!

Next, we have the hotpot served and it's this humongous wok of goodness with salmon and chicken littered around the mountain of beansprout, onions, garlic and etc. 

There's a lot and a lot of beansprout, and to be honest, i thought it's not that worth for a second try. Sure, trying it for at least once is a good experience, but basically the hotpot consists of mainly beansprouts and more beansprouts so i felt that its really not that great. 

I think it would be excellent for girls having a diet though, but i am not so :/

The set also comes with ramen/porridge (each set), but we heard wrongly and drank the hotpot broth so we skipped the porridge and they gave us a plate of sliced fruits instead.  

Overall, i think i would go back again if i am feeling extremely extravagant that day because for the portion of food, its pretty expensive to me. The service is amazing though because you have Japanese waiters serving you and they bring their renowned service quality from Japan to Singapore and you just feel WOAH, THAT'S DEFINITELY NOT A SINGAPOREAN.

Gelato was having a 1-for-1 cone promotion so i bought one for myself and one for my sister! She was so happy hahahaha.

& thats all for the food adventureeeee. 

No pictures because i look really ugly that day LAWL

Churros

I had Churros back in Beijing when the weather is cold, but having those piping hot doughnuts in my mouth decked out in ice cream tastes absolutely heavenly. Its just super nice to eat!

So when i saw on Facebook that Singapore is opening a store (like a relatively big one and they have advertisements with actual reach) over at orchard central, i went to visit. I was hoping that it tastes the same as the one from Beijing's, and it does, to a 80% similarity because they don't have the cold weather around to make up the atmosphere and there is no ice cream to complement the Churros.

Regardless, i still love it.

Deng deng deng! We bought the $9.90 churros because we managed to catch a glimpse of it and we thought that there is pretty much a lot of doughnuts inside! And the best thing is that it comes with 3 chocolate flavors - White, normal and nutella (if my tastebud doesn't fail me).

I think it makes a good after-meal dessert with your partner/friend from this set because the portion is just right for two people! Like, if you don't want to eat that much for desserts lah. 

Dang dang dang! The sprinkles that makes it looks cute and winter-ish. 

Hahahah!

They are having a Buy 3 original and get 1 free offer over on their facebook page, so you might want to check that out and grab that offer. I claimed that offer too, but decided not to buy the original ones because its pretty pricey for me, and the flavored ones were $4.30 each and that's pretty pricey too.

So this $9.90 is just right, because its about the price of a scoop of ice cream if you share it with a friend, and it's something new. Eating ice cream can get boring too lahh.

They are located over at Level 5 of Orchard Central by the way!

Next, we went to Costa coffee to have cafe latte. I swear their cafe latte is the best amongst all the others i tried, even Starbucks - and im their loyal customer ok.

Wearing the blue shirt that i bought with Xinni and Joey the other day! 

I had been trying to fix my fringe for quite some time now, but i cant decide to keep it bangs or to leave it to be and wait for it to be long. I hate how my fringe kept poking out like how dicks poke out of guy's pants in the morning (morning hard-on right. I'm educated. OK WTF OUTTA POINT)

OK ANYWAY, THE POINT IS MY FRINGE IS MAKING ME FEEL GODDAMN 

PEK CHEK AND I NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. 

I'll try to stop being lazy and do something about it soon.. after i figured out what. On a side note, i feel like dyeing my hair to that red tone i did during the examination period again. Hmm.