Ratana Thai Seafood Restaurant

It was New Year's eve and we reckon that most places would be crowded so we decided to head to some "outskirt" place for lunch. Since we were travelling along Upper Serangoon Road, we decided to check out if there is anything interesting to eat there. Found that some shops were closed because it has past lunch hour.

We settled down for lunch at Ratana Thai Seafood Restaurant

27 Teck Chye Terrace S545729

Tel : 6285 9092 / 9766 5737

Ordered a Tom Yam Chicken Soup. Had moderated the level of spiciness and sourness.

This Garlic fish looks interesting and I was rather suprised that it came with nice presentation... I am not sure what fish it was since it was almost fully covered by the garlic and onion garnishes. The entire fish was deep-fried and every part was very crispy, which also means if you like to taste the tenderness of the fish meat, you will be disappointed.

The hotplate tofu was a little disappointing as it somehow lack 'character'... it only seemed like a plate of rojak with everything tasting alike.

Garlic-fried seasonal veg... it was just normal.

Thai Lemon Juice. Besides the sour taste, there is also a light stint of saltiness. Maybe it is the characteristics of Thai Lemon Juice.

Generally, it was a very normal meal for a normal day on 31 Dec 2007.

Olio @ Holland V

There is a new Olio Cafe, located at Holland V. The place used to be Gelare, the ice cream parlour.

There was a good choice of food but I opted for something not too heavy - Olio Gourmet Pie with Red Curry Chicken ($12.90). I'd had imagined the curry to be the traditional red curry but it turned out to be "fusion" curry. Just imagine that it is something with a stronger spice taste and little coconut milk or perhaps none at all.

I was a little disappointed.... the puff pastry was the saving grace.

Fortunately, we ordered some desserts, which were yummy and nice in presentation. The Olio style brownie ($7.50) came in a chocolate hot plate, just like the gravy in hot plate tofu. The brownie itself has a level of vanilla gelato in the centre.

Another saving grace for this meal was the tiramisu ($6.80). It tasted rather milky, which I like. Am not bothered that it has very coffee taste :P

My conclusion would be to always choose something that is recommended by the chef, at least at Olio Cafe.

Singapore Curry

Believe it or not. Whipping a dish of Singapore Curry is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Thanks to Prima Taste which comes with ready packed curry paste and necessary mix. Do note that the portion in the recipe serves 4 to 6 pax.

Here it is. No secret at all.

Prepare about 3 potatoes.

Prepare some chicken. Was told by a friend that if you use bone parts, it will add to the flavour.

Follow the cooking instruction on the Prima mix and ...

TADA! A pot of Singapore Curry!

Pasta @ Pepper Lunch

Pepper Lunch is sizzling with new item on their menu. This time round it is pasta. The 2 new pasta dishes are salmon cream pasta and Japanese curry chicken pasta.

I had wanted to try the curry pasta, unfortunately, it was sold out by dinner time. So I ordered the salmon cream pasta.

It is quite refreshing to see this new idea of having pasta on a sizzling hotplate with the cream sauce bubbling when the food arrived. However, I found the salmon a little too salty and the cream a little under-flavoured.

The signature pepper rice was better. Another salmon dish that we've ordered :)

It tasted good with the garlic sauce.

Ice Cream Balls @ Sushi Tei

Have recently discovered this interesting, delicious and value for money ice cream balls from Sushi Tei. 15 pieces for $2.80. Unbelievable, right? It came with 2 flavours - coffee and chocolate. A great snack to do along for afternoon tea.

Set Lunch @ Secret Recipe

Went to Secret Recipe recently and found out that they have a new set lunch menu now. The selection includes.... Spicy Turkey Carbonara, Tom Yum Spaghetti, Gourmet Laksa, and 2 other dishes.

For the set lunch, a free drink is included.

I ordered the Spicy Turkey Cabonara. It was spicy because of the chilli padi slices. I had accidently eat a slice which was hidden into the pasta! Hoohoooooo! The turkey was actually turkey ham. And the dish came with loads of straw mushroom. For a non-mushroom eater, I was lucky that a colleague helped me finished up the mushroom :)

Damage : $10.90

Shanghai Eater (真知味上海小吃)

The Shanghai Eater (真知味上海小吃), located at Jalan Leban, is actually opened by a middle-aged Taiwanese couple. It is a homely, simple food outlet which opens everyday except for 1st day of lunar new year. But need to check their opening hours before heading there as operating hour may vary from their usual hours.

Why Shanghainese food? The lady boss said that, Taiwan is like a cosmopolitan city for Chinese food, due to the influence from migrants from different parts of China.

The shop is small compared to the restaurants found along this stretch of shop house. So look out for this sign board.

Side dishes - beancurd strips in sesame oil and crunchy seaweed. (Note: cost of side dish included in bill. I think is $2 or $3 per dish).

上海炒年糕 (Shanghainese Fried Rice Cakes)

The white slices of chewy rice cakes tastes like Korean Teobokki. It is fried with pork, mushroom and cabbage. The dish was overpowered by its saltiness so remember to ask them not to add too much salt. As such, I find that it lacks its distinctive taste. I always find that China food are too generous with salt used.

馄饨汤 (Dumpling Soup)

Can't remember if there were 6 or 8 pieces. These dumplings are wrapped like a 元宝. The dumplings are not too bad. The seaweed soup tastes quite good. In fact better than the dumplings.

韭菜煎饼 (Pan-fried Chives Cake)
The best dish of all that we ordered. Each plate comes with 3 pieces. The filling is a mixture of chives with vermicelli. Quite special and it does very well with their special sauce dip.

葱油饼 (Pan-fried onion pancake)
This one is also quite good if you like onion pancakes. Besides the green onions, it seems that it is pan-fried using onion oil as the onion fragrance is quite strong.

Total damage : About $30.

Homemade Italian

Found this outlet 'Homemade Italian' by chance after a gym session at Raffles Place California Fitness.

Address: 50 Market Street, Golden Shoe Carpark #01-32,
Meixin Foodcourt Stall 10
(It is just across Republic Plaza)
Tel : 65358223



It serves main courses such as Poccini Chicken, Pan Fried Garlic Fish, Beef Lagsana, Meatballs etc at $7.90, pizza with 2 toppings at $5.90 and pasta (seafood, carbonara, aglio olio) from $5.90 to $7.90.



I tried the garlic fish and love it! The serving portion is quite generous and it comes with garden salad.



However, if you are cautious about garlic taste in your mouth for the next 12 hours, then you might not want to finish the entire garlic sauce. :)

~ Edited on 8 Oct ~

For some people, Raffles Place is probably the last place you wanna be during the rush lunch hour, people use tissue paper packs to 'chope' seats! Like that also can ah.

Despite the long queue, the chef still managed to whip up a delicious breaded chicken dish for me, after a wait of approx 10 mins. The serving portion is really big for the price of only $7.90. Very good value :)

It is a piece of deep fried chicken breast meat covered with bread crumbs, with cheese and ham strips on top. Also comes with a generous serving of garden salad.

Swensen's Topless Five

Who can resist ice creams that are so tasty? I love Swensen's ice-cream, especially those creamy flavours such as Vanilla, Butterscotch, Rum & Raisin.

I just realised that it is much more worthwhile to order a topless 5 cos it is 5 scoops for $7.50, unlike if you get a single scoop for $3.60.

But to be fair, topless 5 scoops are smaller but it does not matter to me cos I just want variety!!

In my ice cream bowl - O' Fashion Vanilla, Banana Split, Sticky Chewy Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Buttercup, Yummy Raisin.

Romano Ristorante

Sembawang Hill area is another cosy little town in the private estate area of Seletar/Sembawang. The downside is that it isn't very accessible unless you have your own private transport.

This time round, I checked out the Italian Restaurant - Romano Ristorante. It reads Italian Casual Dining on the orange cheery signboard.

10 Jalan Leban Singapore 577551

Tel: 6453 3778

Operating Hours:

Mon closed

Lunch 11.00 am - 3.00 pm (Tue - Fri)

Dinner 6 - 10.30 pm (Tue - Fri)

11 am - 10.30 pm (Sat, Sun, PH)

I ordered my almost all time fav - Carbonara Linguine. Although I had hoped that it would come with an egg yolk, I soon forgot about the disappointment of not having the yolk cos the cream sauce was quite impressive. If you are a 'milk person', you'll like this. Surprisingly, my other half who doesn't like milk says that the cream sauce taste great! :)

He ordered the Chicken Milanese. This is a colourful dish with very tender chicken breast meat wrapped in a layer of fried egg. It came with some potato cubes that were slightly fried and charred. It has a small serving of spaghetti in tomato sauce.

I think it is one of the chef's recommendation dish.

Total damage : $32.

There were couple of other diners in the restaurant, who had ordered Tiramisu. The dessert looks quite yummy. Shall KIV this for my next visit :)

Hong Kong Wanton Mee (香港云吞面)

It was an immediate decision to check out this wanton mee stall after I read the posting on ieat. I also emailed to my fellow ex-AJCians and shared with them my excitement of finally being able to eat my fav wanton mee again. Some of them do remember the stall vague, some have no recollection of what they had been eating during those 2 years. For me, it was this wanton mee stall that filled my tummy back then.

My ex-AJCian colleague also remembers this stall but during her time, the stall was famous for their Chicken and Rice.

I check out the stall the next day (it was abt 2 weeks back) but I had just missed their operating hour. I reached at 3pm but they close at 2pm. Had a short chat with the auntie, who said she sorta remembers me, and I promised I'd be back again.

BTW, the stall is now located at

ABC Brickworks Market

Jalan Bukit Merah

(the hawker centre behind Alexandra IKEA)

The stall is located around the centre section in the hawker centre with a bright yellow signboard.

Me finally sink my teeth in the yummy wanton mee and ipoh hor fun again this afternoon. Oh no, did I ate 2 portions of food??

For the record, each plate of noodle is only $2, considered the cheapest you can find nowadays.

The wanton mee comes with a separate bowl of soup & wanton. The noodles are QQ. I like the soy sauce used.

Below is the ipoh hor fun, which I always asked to add fried wanton, back then in AJC.

This plate of 15 wanton only costs $2. The price is just unbelieveable. A little bird whispered in my ears that uncle and auntie are quite well-to-do wor... I just they are really doing something that they enjoy.

211 Roof Terrace Cafe

Have been wanting to try out the food at 211 Roof Terrace Cafe for the longest time. Last night's dinner there was rather unexpected ie. unplanned. And finally got the chance to use the food vouchers from ABN Amro CC.

211 Roof Terrace Cafe

Holland Road Shopping Centre

211 Holland Ave

#04-01

Telephone: 6462-6194

The place was rather crowded and for a moment, I thought we weren't gonna get a seat since I did not make reservations. Unfortunately, a table for 4 was available and we took it. There is an indoor section and an outdoor section with a choice of smoking or non-smoking area.

Since I had a rather heavy lunch, I opted for something light....

an ice chocolate ($4.50) - just cold milk with chocolate fudge.

It was rather disappointing or maybe it wasn't the type that I like. Actually, it might have tasted great if they could just add a scoop of chocolate gelato. It wld have made a whole world of difference. And I probably won't mind paying $1 more for it.

This item is marked with a 'new' on the menu - Apple and Celery Salad ($7.50). Plainly diced apples with slices celery in salad sauce garnished with 3 pieces of green veg, 3 pieces of cherry tomatoes and some raisins. Serving portion isn't big.

R had 'Cod Fish' ($26) which I had expected to be a rather decent huge portion but it came in half the size of what I had expected. Looked charred but taste wise, it was alright. The spaghetti was quite delicious though a bit oily.

It was a rather expensive dinner, if not for the voucher I had.

Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hoon

The coffeeshop is always packed, when the stall is opened, regardless of lunch or dinner.

Holland Village XO Fish Bee Hoon

Blk 46, Holland Drive, #01-359

Tel: 6778 3691

Opening hours are 12– 2.30 pm and 5– 11 pm daily

This is the dish that draws the day and night crowd - XO Fish Head Bee Hoon. The soup is made of fish broth mixed with XO. Not sure how much XO is added, at least not enough to make one take nonsense.

The fish slices have been fried before adding to the thick bee hoon and the soup.

$10 for a 2-pax portion.

$7 for a 1-pax portion.

A little expensive but it is well worth it.

Hokkaido House - Gratin Sauce for Bread

This one is really simple to make, provided you have an oven. It takes only 1 minute to place your bread in your baking bowl, add in the sauce and send into the oven for 15 mins. Wala, your meal is ready!

The sauce is actually a mixture of carrot, potato, cheese and milk. Sounds pretty healthy too.

Paisley and Cream Cafe

Another lifestyle concept cafe (Paisley & Cream Cafe) - good for an afternoon tea with friends on a weekday. Located along Eu Tong Sen Road at The Central @ Clarke Quay (#01-09/10).

I was attracted by the pretty sweet things in the showcase... cupcakes!

I picked this - chocolate and vanilla cream on top. The cake itself is also chocolate & vanilla... it looks like marble cake inside. The topping is made of butter cream so I like it. As for the cake, it was slightly on the dry side. It could have been more chocolatey. Perhaps I will be back for a all chocolate cupcake the next time round.

If you're into making cupcakes, they sell those icing flowers & hearts to dress up for cupcakes.

$3.50 for the above cupcake. Is it expensive?

Apparently, they are going at $2.50 if you buy them after 5pm or so...