ION Orchard

(Charsiewpao)Hello =) Guess its my turn to contribute a little to this blog. I find it no other suitable than ION Orchard to kick off my first post. so those who haven been there and try out some of their unique delicacies, here's my two cents worth of reviews.

Well firstly, to begin with an introduction, I went there with my lovely, wonderful mom, who has to start work nearby at 1pm, so we decided to head there for a early lunch (11am~) on a weekday afternoon.

(Side note: really, if possible, if you want to avoid being push, squeezed, and knocked by the not so polite crowd, and if you wanna take your own sweet time and to even be able to find a spot to enjoy your meal, Be there on a WEEKDAY, MORNING before 12pm.)

Anyways, I love spending quality time with my mom alone. Honestly, I don't get a lot of family time, rarely am I at home for consecutive 2 days (unless exam week), so what I really treasure the most is the once a week alone time with my mom, even if it means I have to meet her outside for a meal, or chat with her over breakfast as early as 8am before we separate ways for the day.

Ok, ION.

Let's go straight to the FOOD.

ION Orchard dedicates almost the whole of basement 4 as the "FOOD HALL" and it houses a amazingly wide international spread of food delicacies. (mainly Japanese Food actually...) and these are the places me and my mom explored...

Food Opera - "SG Kueh" Store

My mom is a fan of nonya kuehs and I have grew up to love those sweet sticky stuff and you can play as you eat~! hee. Anyway, this store inside the food court is from Amoy street, famous for their yam paste and kuehs. o_O.

My mom couldn't resist getting a pack of steamcakes that comes in 3 diff flavours- Yam, Japanese Sweet Potato, and Green Bean Custard. Wow... These small cakes literally melts in your mouth and are not so sticky to the teeth, in fact, they are more paste-like texture than your normal steamcakes but nevertheless, still light and tasty =) I give it 4/5 paos.

Food Opera - "Hakka Delicacies" Store

My mom loves the Hakka's "Suan Pan Zi" *dun know what is it in English* and we ordered that, but to our disappointment, it was a little sticky and soft rather than firm and QQ. And the seasoning was not tasty enough, too mild for my taste. So my ratings, i give it 2/5 paos. And my apologies as I forgot to take a photo of this dish, but than again, not worth putting up also la huh.. haha. oh wells, moving on...

R Burger

Ah.. the famous R Burger, opened by mediacorp artist Adam Chen himself. What draws me to this stall was because of...

- It is open by a celebrity (although I honestly don't trust food stalls open by them, because its more for PR than the love of food. I want to test my point by reviewing this stall myself)

- It was advertised rather aggressively on 8 days and other newspapers. (see? PR =p )

- The R Burger is a unique concept because of 2 selling points. 1-They use "Man Tous" instead of the normal sesame buns. 2. The "Man tous" were claimed to have collagen in it, which means, this burger is like the "SK II of burgers". Great for skin, and apparently healthier for body. (I think its just marketing gimmick though.. imagine, if your mom slaps so much SK II on her skin everynight and the results are no so fantastically well, amazing, then how many R burgers must she eat to look like Zoe Tay lei? hmmm... anyways,

- The Avocado Cheese Burger looks to tempting to resist... so,

Turns out their burgers are a little bigger than I percevied because I thought man tou burgers would be smaller than usual. Mine is $4.30 for just the burger. It comes in a "Mos Burger" like packaging and the my burger was pipping hot. The beef petty is quite tender, but I felt the combination of avocado and cheese and a juciy beef petty, with the soft man tou makes it a little "soggy" in the mouth. Perhaps it will go better with the teriyaki chicken only. And the bun? well, taste like man tou lor. Just that its softer and "skin rejuvenating" remember? hee. I give it 2.7/5 paos. so that means, Mos Burger still wins for me lol.

GINDAYO

This Takoyaki (octopus ball) store is "oh-so-delicious"~!!! "Oiyishiiii ~!"

Comes in 6 balls per set at $4.80, and add $1.20 for a nice ice matcha tea drink. Its not difficult to find this kiosk because you can smell it from afar... and The aroma is bound to have your mouth watering for some.. Its one of THE best takoyaki balls I've tried; soft and pipping hot in the inside, and crisp and tasty on the outside. And its huge~! not like those elsewhere, they really mean BIG business. And they were generous with the sweet sauce, mayo and fish flakes!!

Friends, I give it 4.8/5 paos. of all takoyaki balls. (because I cant say if there are better elsewhere..)

Well, it wraps up my food exploring of the day with my mom.. if it seems a little too much for 2 ladies, haha, I come from a family of fairly big eaters. so, its just like the usual amount for me and my mom..

and trust me, ION still has a lot more to explore. Like the Hokkaido Ramen store that dares sell $12++ and above per bowl, and its only a little kiosk with limited seats.. But I think it seems good for $ though..

Keep the spirit of eating alive and pipping hot~!

Til den, Live well foodies~!

Munch Munch,

Charsiewpao.

An Enchanting Day Take #2: Knolls @ Capella

Why take #2? It's cos I was happily blogging a draft when I was really in the right mood one day, and I couldn't finish it cos I had to attend to other matters, and when I came back to it the draft was MISSING!! *tears at hair* And it took me quite a while before I could abandon my preconceived notions of what this post should look like and start afresh. But so, here it goes.

{Mantou} It was an enchanting day, indeed, a day that made one lose sleep the night before, in anticipation of what was to come. He knew exactly how it would all turn out, but little did he know the maiden had a trick or two up her own sleeve as well. He dutifully turned up at her house, to be greeted by her mom, whom he had just met the night before at their family dinner. He insisted on picking her up from her house, as chivalry would have him do. He could not risk letting the cat out of the bag sooner than it was supposed to, in any case.

It was there that she unintentionally popped her own surprise. She looked so stunning in that simple floral lilac satin dress, he had to be careful not to let his composure slip. Moreover, she had only been told to dress 'a little better than usual' and that was the result. One wonders if she already knew where we would be heading to. She even donned a pair of earrings and to complete the look, she left the house in what I call 'a smart choice for heels'. Elegant yet comfortable, we were ready to enjoy our day out.

The train ride was comfortable, and there was light-hearted banter to keep us company all the way. She tried once to guess where we were heading, but when she got it wrong, I was relieved and she gave up trying. We alighted at Outram Park and headed to Harborfront on the Northeast Line. When we reached Harborfront centre she tried to spring another surprise by wanting to have brunch at this place called french. Unfortunately, it had closed down. We settled for Belgian Waffles at Starbucks instead. I chose my all-time favorite of Hazelnut Latte to go along with it. 3/5 Mantous.

I used the opportunity to excuse myself and headed down to Harborfront Tower Two to prepare the first surprise of the day, A Cable Car Ride into Sentosa. Those interested can visit the website www.mountfaber.com.sg for the various packages available. You can also head down to either The Jewel Box at Mount Faber, or Harborfront Tower Two to find out more and subsequently get your tickets. They now have an all glass Cabin that allows you to look even below you for a bird's eye view of your surroundings. She was definitely surprised at this point, more so I believe as we had only casually mentioned it once when we were at Keppel Bay that we had never taken a cable car ride in Singapore before.

The ride was woefully too short as we had boarded at Harborfront instead of Mount Faber. Nonetheless, we wasted no time in getting onto the Yellow Line Bus at Sentosa, to switch to the Red Line Bus. One thing to note, that is not the wisest choice. On hindsight, it would have been far better to take a taxi from where we alighted straight to Capella. I was too zealous in protecting that piece of information, and it cost us a fair bit of sweat and unnecessary heat. Still, the bus ride was quite enchanting, as I refused to let in on where we were headed but distracted her with irrelevant information about my favorite National Day song. 'Stars and crescent shine on me...' They had seats that faced each other and I just held her hand in mine, feeling blissful at being able to look with fondness into her hazel brown eyes.

We finally reached the foot of Capella, and it was almost treacherous having to walk up the steep slope to the front entrance. NEVER try it with heels. Or with a partner who's in heels. Capella is quite an architectural art piece and we were ooh and ahhing at most everything we saw. The service is excellent, and we were promptly directed to our destination, The Knolls (which means small hill, for those who are interested in geographical terms).

Upon entry Charsiewpao was greeted by a friendly Caucasian who welcomed us into the place with a bit of small talk, whom we later found out to be the restaurant's manager. The service is definitely a top-end hotel standard, but I like to think we were given many bonuses. Our friend works there, so we were treated to a complimentary hot dish from the kitchen, A Minced Beef Pie that had pastry so light it cut easily under the knife and beef so aromatic it was to die for. 4.5/5 Mantous

Suddenly out of nowhere an Italian chef walks up to us and tells us while we're waiting we can try some of their 'wicked' selection of gelato in whisky shot glasses.

We chose the Figs and Honey out of 5 other flavors that sounded boring. 4/5 Mantous.

We ordered the English Colonial Tea set, which came with 3 tiers of selected pastries and cold dishes, and a choice of tea from the menu. We went for Nymph of The Nile, a lightly scented and sweetened tea made from African floral selections. A suitable selection for the occasion, thanks to the expert recommendation of the staff there, as well as our dear friend/trusted pastry chef, Linda Sim. The pastries came in a charming outfit of silverware that looked like a birdcage, and handsomely decked three porcelain square plates with different selections.

Upper tier Cold dish, 3/5 Mantous.

Middle tier various tarts and pastries selections, 4.8/5 Mantous (Made by Linda mah...)

Lower tier Scones and Madeleines, 3.8/5 Mantous.

It came with a separate dish of fresh butter cream, strawberries and jam. I assumed it was for the madeleines and it was indeed a taste enhancer.

The staff dedicated to serve us was a Korean lady who was very attentive and even changed my date's tea cup after pouring it because it had too many tea sediments. She was very friendly and we could not help guessing if she was Japanese and spoke to her so and found out she could reply but only to say she was Korean!

Of course, my final rabbit out of the hat, a handmade story book about a princess's life till the time we met. The book was handed over to her for her continuation, called 'The Princess Diaries'. "This time I got the book from the right person", she says..

It was really an experience to remember for the days to come, and an appropriate experience for a princess's birthday. Thank you, Capella and staff.