Happy Lunar New Year !

Went over to Chinatown yesterday night after my dinner and man, it is really crowded.







A 'peek' to the stage.


Happy New Year to everyone !

Budget Terminal, Budget Design

Was passing by Changi Airport last Wed, and since I was there, I decide to drop by the new 'Budget Terminal' for a look to see how it is as I have not been there before.

When I reach there, man .. I was surprise for it's flashy lightning deco (or is it christmas deco ...?) It look like a 7th mth getai.


Well, I understand it is a budget terminal .. but .. first it is the cheapo name 'Budget Terminal', next the ulu location (yes, we need to travel through a stretch of poorly lit road to reach there), and then the '7th month getai' lighting ...how hard CAAS want to enforce the 'budget' feel of the terminal ?

I personally think this deco should stay in the 70s :

2am Dessert Bar - Deserted Dessert

After dinner, ahpuisoh happily suggested this 'cool' place for some after dinner dessert, to fill the last 1/4 'tank' of our stomach. So we went to 2am:DessertBar at Holland Village. Yep, as it's name implies, it open until 2am in the morning.



The place was nicely furnished, giving it a 'high class' feel. And as it's deco, the items in the menu were quite 'high-class' too. There were on a page for dessert, not much to choose from, a page for some light snacks, and then the rest are for drinks. The menu also recommend what wine to pair with the dessert you select. Nice touch. But not so nice when all the dessert cost at least $14.

We decide to order a 'Chocolate Tart' and 'Blackberry' ($14 each).
We were eagerly waiting for our dessert, and when it arrived, we were quite disappointed. Not because it does not taste good, but the portion of the dessert ... slightly deserted as compare to the big plate that it comes with.



The Blackberry consist of 4 mini scoop of blueberry ice-cream, a mini scoop of lychee sorbert, some chocolate and a few rose petals. Score high in presentation, and taste quite good too. But just not satisfying .... and after wiping everything from my plate, I still feel as if I had not eaten anything yet.



The Chocolate Tart comes with a chocolate pie that it fills with rich warm chocolate in the middle, and it pair with blood orange sorbet. Again nice presentation and taste good. The cold orange sorbet matches very well with the warm creamy chocolate. It was much better than the miserable 'Blackberry'.

I personally thinks that the dessert were slightly high priced, not really worth the money. Maybe good for people who don't mind spending, but surely not for me. I would give it a ahpui score of 7.5/10 for the dessert ( that is if I can have thrice the portion for the amount of money I pay). Overall, I would give is a 5.5/10 for this place. Not a place to satisfy one's sweet tooth craving but a nice place just to sit and relax.

2am:Dessert Bar
Lor Liput
Holland Village

Nice fish, but I won't be Hooked

The snow are falling, halls were deck with boughs of holly, trees were decorated with all sorts of tinkles and fireplace heated up to fill the surrounding with warm in another part of the world, but not here, not in this warm part of the world, where air-con is more prefer than fireplace.
I don't really celebrate christmas, especially not in such a warm weather. But today is still christmas eve, I don't want to have Chap Chai Peng as my dinner. So me and ahpuisoh decided to venture out to somewhere for dinner. And I decide to goto Railmall along Upper Bukit Timah road for dinner.

After walking around, we finally decide on going to this joint that sells fish-related food - Hooked.
The place was brightly lit and the staff there were quite friendly, definitely a plus. Most of the menu item include fish as on of the main ingredient, and there is quite a good selection.

After going through the menu, we decide to order Fish Pie ($5.50), Fish & Chips ($11.50) and Grilled Snapper ($15.50).


The Fish Pie was good, top coated with cheese, inside is filled with potato, and instead of usual meat for a shepherd pie, there was Salmon. The pie was nicely baked, the fish was not dry but moist, thanks for the fact that it was soaking with good omega oil all around. Recommended.



The fish&chips however is slightly disappointed. I can find better fish&chips in other places than this. Maybe my expectation was too high, by itself, it was quite decent and comes with nice thick fries (chips). The meat was moist, but the battered coat was not crispy enough.



The grilled snapper looks good and taste good. And I like the potato side that comes with it. The fish was nicely grilled, moist and when added with tomato sauce and lemon, perfect match. Can try.

We order a set meal together with the snapper, it comes with a cream of chicken soup and a coke. I recommend to forget about topping $3.60 for the set. The soup taste just like campbell and the coke was too blend (too much ice).

I would give a Ahpui score of 7/10 for this place, but as I said, if you are going for the fish&chips, for the price, there are other better places.

The location is at :
Hooked
The RailMall,
Upper Bukit Timah Road

Connected !

Finally, after all these months ... I am connected to the world.

No longer need to skive some time during working hours and now I am able to access sites that are consider 'undesirable' in my workplace. Arhm, this ... I mean sites related to games and youtube, don't think too far out ;p

Now what I need is time, time to surf .....

Food note from land of 1K Smiles (Day 3)

Day 3 :
Went to a rather unusual eating place on the 3rd day. Our initial plan is to go to another restaurant but the cab drop us at the wrong place. When we get off the cab, we realise that we were right in the middle of .... errhm ... a rather 'colourful' place for guys.

So we decide to go to another restaurant a few street down, the name of the place is called Cabbage & Condoms. Yes, the rubber ... and there is no shortage of it in the restaurant. There is a lamp made of condoms, a human size shirt made of condoms, a pot of 'condoms' flower .... condoms condoms everywhere. (I certainly hope that none of them are used ones).


There is even a poster teaching us when it is appropriate to use condom ... hmmm interesting ;)

The waitress were very friendly, sometimes too friendly that I feel very uncomfortable for them standing near to my table, waiting for the moment to either clear our plates or refill our soup. But I have to say that their services were good.

Now, back to the main topic, condoms .... err no, sex ..... err no, food.

We ordered 4 dishes, Tom Yum Soup, Fried KangKong, Fried Sun-Dried Pork Tenderloin and Roast Young Mountain Chicken. Tempted to order some more, but there are too much choices so I decide to order later (a wise choice).



The Tom Yum Soup comes in a small claypot (like those that my mum used to brew tonic soup or chinese medicine). And it was powerful ... a satisfying taste of spiciness rush into your throat on my first sip, SHIOK ! There are plenty of ingredients too, with generous portion of prawns and mushroom inside.

Thai fried kangkong (or fried morning glory) comes in the version without the balacan (malay shrimp paste). Even without it, the dish still give out a very nice fragrant. And it taste fresh and is nicely fried.



Fried sun-dried pork tenderloin tasted a bit like beef jerky, a bit on the tough side. But I like the 'fried' taste and the nicely marinated pork topped with some sesame. I personally will still recommend this dish.

Roast Young Mountain Chicken, as the name says, it was a roasted whole chicken. When I order this, the word young chicken, I thought is spring chicken (no big deal for me, I can finish one myself). But I was surprise when the dish came to my table. It looks like a full size adult chicken that we order for our chicken rice. Maybe it comes from the mountain, and mountain chickens are the bigger cousin of our domestic farm chicken. And I wonder how big will an adult mountain chicken be like ? ... the size of a full grown turkey ??
However, not to be mistaken, I did not regret ordering this dish. The only regret I had is that my stomach is too puny to finish the whole chicken.



The chicken was nicely marinated and perfectly roasted. Not too raw or too dry when it is over cooked. It had a hint of sweetness (possible honey) and the 'burnt' roasted taste that a decent roast chicken should have. Highly recommended, but don't try to take on this dish alone (not even if you have not been eating anything since morning).

Overall, this is a nice place, with friendly waitress and good food. Do take a walk around the area to look at its interesting deco and you can even get a massage if you come early. Err clean, no nonsense massage, nothing that is related to its theme and nope, straightly no hank panky. The place is not easy to find, as it is no along the main road. You need to walk through a dark lane in order to find it.

I highly recommend this place. I will give this place a Ahpui score of 8.5/10.
9/10 for the Mountain chicken, nice and value for money.

The location is at :
Cabbage & Condoms

Bangkok
(Near Asoke or Nana SkyTrain Station)

Food note from land of 1K Smiles (Day 2)

Day 2

After covering MBK yesterday, we decide to head straight to Central World Plaza where the shops there are slightly 'higher' class than MBK. And Ahpuisoh is so crazy of some bags called Naraya that she insist in searching for the shop.

Lunch for me is boring .. why, cos of all sort of eateries and restaurants available, Ahpuisoh wants to eat at Sizzler ... #yawn# So I decided not to post anything about this boring place.

Dinner is at the food court at Siam Paragon. The food court was huge and comes with a huge supermarket that stocks food for different parts of the world. On some seats, you even get to sit facing a big fish tank with marine fish swimming inside. And of cos, things don't come cheap in both the food court and supermarket. Dinner, we share a Tom Yam Soup (100 baht = $4.60) and I had the usual Pah thai (55 baht = $2.50). The Tom Yam Soup taste so so only, it lack the spiciness that I expect from a Thai made Tom Yam Soup. But it does comes loaded with ingredients like fish, prawns and Toufu. The Pah Thai is disappointing, it taste normal and comes with peanuts. Overall, I still perfer the food from the food court at MBK as compare to here.

After dinner, we came across a cake shop and I personal think it sell some of the most expensive cakes in BKK.



The cheesecake comes with 2 raspberry on top and chocolate coating on the sides. It taste good, soft and moist in the inside.




The other is some strange cake that I don't know how to describe. It topped with raspberry and each layer is soak in some syrup and with some fruits like blueberry in between. It might look sweet (yes, to a certain extend) but you will be surprise when you first take a bite. It was sour and sweet ... thou not my type of dessert, but I do agreed that it was quite a unique combination.

Overall, it was not bad. Ah pui score of 7/10. But what really bug me is the price. (460 baht = $21.20) For that price, I can have a decent dinner in BKK and for the same price, I can also enjoy a good dessert in Singapore. $21.20 for dessert in BKK ... too expensive. And only 'cai tou' like me will buy ... sigh