Secret Recipe @ Henry Park Apartment [Closed]

Yesterday's B-day celebration for July BBs was at Secret Recipe @ Henry Park Apartment. They have quite an extensive menu ranging from drinks, main course, desserts and cakes (especially).

Some of my fav are the Tom Yam dishes, Chicken Cornish and Apple Cheese Slice. But yesterday, I decided to try the Pan-Grilled Catch of the Day served with lobster sauce ($11.50). Frankly, I would rate this dish 6/10 cos it tasted it was pan-fried instead of pan-grilled. The crinkled fries was also over-fried, though they weren't burnt. What's worse, the serving portion for fries was quite miserable.

I really wonder why a Mango Ice Tea ($3.90) is red in colour??!!

I guess I would not mind going back there for meals again but will stick to ordering my regular favs.

Amici Italian Restaurant (Holland Village)

This is one Italian restaurant (Amici @ HV) which serves consistently good food, at least for those dishes that I have tried, including the one below - Creamy Alfredo with Ham. The cream sauce is so so so yummy.

Amici is a relatively classy restaurant and paying $8 for pasta of such good quality, what else can I complain? Note that this is only applicable during lunch.

Pasta de Waraku (Square 2)

This was my 1st visit at Pasta de Waraku @ Square 2... the restaurant entrance isn't very prominently located in the building though the restaurant itself is just next to a taxi stand. The entrance is located next to The Face Shop and not at the taxi stand side.

I decided to go for a light meal and order the Japanese-Style Clam Chower ($8.80). Thou V and J found the soup to be quite diluted, it was just right for me. However, what was very misleading was the BIG soup bowl, that gave us am impression that the serving portion was generous.

Guess some of us may be familiar with the famous Japanese plum alcohol - Choya Plum Wine. I ordered the Umeshu-soda ($6.80) which was a mix of the alcohol with soda.

And finally, my yummy dessert - Macha Azuki Parfait ($6.80). The bottom-most layer is corn flakes, covered with vanilla ice cream, topped with macha ice cream, strawberry, japanese rice balls, red bean paste and a piece of wafer biscuit.
 

Total damage - approx $25.

Tampopo Restaurant

Finally get to try the Black Pig Cutlet after hearing many rave reviews... what was so difficult was that I only get to try it only on my 3rd trip to Tampopo Restaurant (177 River Valley Road #01-23/24 Liang Court Shopping Centre). The story went like this...

First visit - I arrived too early on a Sunday morning and the restaurant was not open yet. At the time, it was located at Liang Court Supermarket @ the basement.

Second visit - Went back to Liang Court basement but found out that the place was taken over by another restaurant. It was only after that I realised that it has moved the level 1.

Third visit - it was an impromtu decision since I happen to be ard that area during dinner time.

The menu... the ala carte cutlet alone costs $21.80!! It'd better be good!

The actual cutlet....

Frankly, I think the quality of food has been over-rated and grossly over-priced!! The cutlet was quite oily and perhaps I am just not into meat with lots of fats, which is found in the cutlet...

Don't think I will be back for a second serving...

The Pump Room

It looks like a great piece of art... how can I bear to eat it? This is the Grilled Cod ($29) from The Pump Room.

Bottom layer is a generous serving of warm mash potato, center layer is a slice of cod that was sliced into 2 almost equal thickness, added with some black pepper for grilling, and top layer is half a piece of grilled tomato.

This place is packed during dinner time (esp from 7.30pm onwards). Hence, making reservation is a must to avoid disappointment.

Jos' Muffins

Was into one of those baking mood this weekend... and wanted to try something different. Muffins!

Thanks to those ready mix, i baked 21 cute muffins by just adding vegetable oil, milk and eggs to the ready mix.

Ta da! Doesn't look too bad, ya?

Ministry of Food - My Izakaya @ Marina Square

Was initially a little skeptical about Ministry of Food since it looks like yet another Japanese casual dining place in the shopping centres.

R highly recommended the hot stone rice and so I gave it a try. It comes in either salmon or unagi ans I opted for salmon hot stone rice ($6.80). He kept emphasing that I should continue to stir the rice while eating, else the rice will get burnt and get stuck on the bowl. And it was true cos another fren's rice got stuck onto the bowl for not stirring.

The hot stone bowl is really really hot and there is no way one can touch the bowl with bare hands. So, it actually comes with a wooden base. And the wooden spoon is meant for stirring the rice. My only complain is... why do they provide metal spoons instead of wooden spoon for eating?

Food quality wise - it was not disappointing at all! The rice is very fragrant and I like the salmon bits. Thou the dish was a wee bit too oily.

My dessert - Macha Imo ($6.50). Japanese soft gelato with a piece of fried sweet potato and fried yam. A combi of hot and cold dessert in 1 serving.
 

It even came with a small instruction card on how to enjoy the dessert. Cool!

Space @ My Humble House

Space @ My Humble House

8 Raffles Avenue #02-25 Esplanade Mall

Telephone: 6423-1881

Space @ My Humble House is a restaurant under the Tung Lok Group. Atas restaurant @ atas location with atas price. But I should also qualify that the food quality is also atas.

I ordered the Rice Noodle with Fish Fillet when I was there for dinner one evening ($12). This is one of the house specialities alonside Mama Leong Chicken Rice, Claypot Rice in Consomme, Rack of Lamb 'Bak Kut Teh', Fried Raddish Cake, Seafood Laksa and Wok-fried Wagyu Beef Hor Fun.

The rice noodle are those thick noodles commonly used in laksa dishes. The fish soup is especially tasty while the fish slices were a little tough.

The other house specialities from Space @ My Humble House.

A cosy restaurant for a quiet dinner and if you'd like to pamper yourself with yummy food.

Din Tai Feng @ Junction 8

Din Tai Feng is one of my favourite dining place for family. Not only that their food quality has been consistent, their service quality is also prompt and efficient.

Here's what we have shortlisted and included in our frequently-ordered list.....

Vegetarian appetizer comprising seaweed, vegetables, bean curd and glass noodles.

Hot and Sour Soup - small portion which is good for 3 to 4 pax.

Pork Dumplings in red chilli oil.

Garlic Dou-miao...

Fried Rice with prawn - this is our all-time favourite. Their prawns are usually big, fresh and crunchy. And love it cos there is also lots of eggs in the fried rice. The rice grains aren't like the normal rice imported from Thailand... suspect they might be using Japanese rice.

Another all-time favourite - Din Tai Feng's signature Xiao Long Bao.

And a close-up of the xiao long bao, with minced pork filling + gravy. We normally dip in vinegar and eat it with some ginger strips.

Will be back for many many more times...

Awon Korean Restaurant (BBQ & Steamboat Buffet) [Closed]

Awon Korean Restaurant (BBQ & Steamboat Buffet)

#04-01, 5 Coleman Street, Excelsior Hotel

Singapore 179805

(Update on Jul 2010 : The restaurant has moved out from Excelsior Hotel.  New location is not known yet)

This is my 4th visit to Awon over 8 years. First was in 2001 with a big group of Korean, 2nd was with my Korean Language class, 3rd was with an ex-colleague and 4th with my present colleagues. Back in 2001, it is not uncommon to find Korean restaurants in Singapore. There were a couple of them along Tanjong Pagar Road, one near Miramar Hotel, Korean stalls at Suntec and food court in the current OG Orchard before it was taken over by OG.

So actually, Awon is quite a old Korean Restaurant.... don't be surprise to see furnitures that are a little run-down and deco that isn't zen-ish like what we see in the newer Korean Restaurants. In fact, we are spoilt for choices when it comes to Korean Restaurant.

Back in 2001, I remembered there was no BBQ & Steamboat buffet, there were just ala carte and set meals (very reasonably priced ones). Not sure when they started serving buffets.

We had 2 steamboat pots, one for beef eaters and one for non-beef eaters. This one is topped with marinated chicken. The steamboat pot is actually 2-in-1. The top section is actually for the BBQ and the lower section is for the steamboat.

We were supposed to use the soup stock to BBQ the meat by constantly drenching it, no oil required. After drenching the meat, the soup stock will flow back into the steamboat section. You can imagine, at the end of it, the soup is actually quite 'sweet'.

The chicken BBQ is actually quite tasty, at least better than the BBQ pork which I find that the slices were too thick.

And this one is topped with marinated beef. My colleagues commented that the beef tasted quite good as well.

We added glass noodles, prawns, fish cakes, vegetables etc into the steamboat pot. As the pot is quite shallow, only limited food quantity can be cooked at 1 time.

Vegetable section....

 

UOB Cardholders are entitled to a 30% discount. So for a Friday dinner, we spent about $20.60 per pax. Heard it used to be 50% discount for UOB cardholders.... Hmmm....

The meat section - beef, chicken, pork and prawns...Noodles and steamboat ingredients section...The buffet spread also lacks variety. This is the pickle and sauce section.Side dishes - actually I was quite disappointed with the variety and the quality of food. There were no potato salad, lotus roots slice and eggs! It was just kimchi, anchovy, sausage, bean sprouts, spinach and tofu. Very pathetic!

Fried Anchovy - Korean Sidedish (Myulchi Bokkeum)

Julia made this last night for dinner... and I like it very much. It looks simple enough to make. Hope I will be motivated enough to try making it one of these days.

She got the recipe from this website - Maangchi's Korean Cooking Recipes.


Myulchi bokkeum from Maangchi on Vimeo.