Char Kueh Tiaw@Lau Pa Sat

What a beautiful Sunday today is...woke up early and the skies were blue and the sun was shining. And while today would have been the perfect beach day, I had a few hours till the boyfriend leaves to join the rest of his buddies in Koh Phangan for a bachelor's party (week!!!). 

Since we slept in, by the time we were ready to head out, it was lunch time! We decided to go visit some friends and ended up at Lau Pa Sat having lunch. I haven't actually been inside but today I got the chance to because I wasn't distracted by all the satay sellers outside! And boy am I glad I checked it out. Initially it looked like only a few stalls were open so I took a walk around to see what was available. Hadn't actually thought of what to eat. 

I had wanted to try the carrot cake at one of the stalls but upon reading an article that was pinned up, it said that the stall owners were famour for their Char Kueh Tiaw and Hokkien Mee...OK I GIVE IN! MUST TRY THE KUEH TIAW!!! Now, I love Kueh Tiaw as much as the next person but ordering Char Kueh Tiaw here in Singapore has never been the same as ordering it back at home. This is because the "Char Kueh Tiaw" here is actually Char Kueh Tiaw MEE! But boy am I glad I ordered!!!

Cockles- check, Lap Chiong- check, Tauge- check, Mee- minimal!!!

Taste- WOWWWWW...I think after nearly 9years in Singapore, I finally found my Kueh Tiaw fix!!!

So I just had to go back and take a quick snapshot of their menu of offerings. I will definitely be back to try the rest of the menu! 

Anyways after heading home, I was uploading some pics to Facebook and realized I haven't done so since JULY 2011! So I must either be busy or just not bothered...or just a procrastinator! Either way, this whole weekend was spent uploading pics to Facebook, just so people know i'm alive!!! It's really bad though because now I know why this is the 3rd time I am attempting to keep a blog and follow through...

Saturday Shenanigans...

You know you have a problem when you wake up thinking of food and the need to go to that exact place to eat or else...sulky face syndrome or bitchiness strikes!

And this is how I woke on Saturday, thinking of CHICKEN RICE! So I decided to take a walk down to Maxwell Food Center to try out Tian Tian Chicken Rice that I've been wanting to take my boyfriend to. Being as OCD as I am, I usually do a little bit of research on the net to see the reviews, opening hours,etc and what should pop up but a story about "Chicken Rice Wars"...WHAT?! And it was quite recent too. Read it here: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_791438.html

Hmm, More reason to go and have Chicken Rice today!!! I decided to try Ah Tai's Chicken Rice and was glad I did. The chicken was definitely more moist and flavorful. I also liked that the cucumber that lined the base was nice think cuts. The rice is not as oily as some chicken rice stalls. And the chili was perfect as I like mine a little spicier. I also appreciated that fact that when I went to ask for extra soup, the guy kindly asked if I wanted a big or small bowl AND didn't even utter anything about extra charge...this is indeed rare in Singapore! 

Our order of half chicken...

Because my boyfriend does not take oyster sauce, I was able to taste the real flavor of the chicken as well as douse it in sauce on the side...either way it taste pretty damn good! I'm lucky that I went there just at the right time because immediately after we ordered, a line started forming behind us. While it wasn't as long as the queue at Tian Tian, Ah Tai's definitely did have a following. 

Surprised to see that the original Tian Tian now occupies 2 stalls!

After that nice little meal, I was ready for a slow stroll through Club St to visit a friend. As we were passing through I stumbled along the destination of my next pay check!!! Pantry Magic is now at 44 Club Street. Oh I had to stop and walk in and enjoy the smell of new kitchen tools! Honestly I thought the prices were really reasonable! 

They were kind enough to let me take some photos- I was like a child in a candy store. Upon speaking to one of the ladies there (her name eludes me now), she mentioned that Pantry Magic is actually a franchise from Hong Kong and they just opened up this outlet on 18th July 2012. They will also be starting cooking classes in September. JOY!!!

What a happy Saturday which ended in my heading home and attempting to bake a Swiss Roll cake.

Followed by my boyfriend taking me out for a simple Carbonara dinner and a bottle of wine at Cellarbrations@ Boat Quay. We wanted to try it out because they opened up the area next door so you could purchase your wine @Cellarbration and drink it next door! 

The food is ordered from "The Straits" across the street and sent over if you wish to have dinner. While dinner was nothing to brag about, the company more than made up for it. And even though I liked the concept, I do hope the management looks into putting a seal at the bottom of the door because for the 2 hour duration I was there, I had to be alert because 3 Kukaracha had already made their way in. While both regular patrons and staff didn't blink at the sight (in fact made a game of getting rid of them), I myself don't care for our little friends very much!!!

It was still a perfect Saturday :) I hope I have more of these days...

Ah Tai Chicken Rice

Stall 7 Maxwell Food Centre

Open: 10.45am-8pm (or until sold out)

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

Stall 10 Maxwell Food Centre

Open: 11am-8pm

Closed Mondays

Pantry Magic 
44 Club Street 
Tel: +65 6224 4055
Open: Daily 10.30am-7.30pm

Cellarbration@Boat Quay
25 Circular Road
Tel: +65 6532 2089

Jones the Grocer@Mandarin Gallery

I haven't blogged in a while and as you can see this is my "first" entry after deleting the rest of my posts and starting fresh AGAIN. But imagine going somewhere for lunch and as you sit there enjoying the disgustingly slow and painful service offered, you imagine your fingers dancing across the keyboard and the words pouring from your head, ranting and ranting about every single thing that went wrong- and I just had to blog about this.

I had to be at the Mandarin Gallery for a 3pm appointment and so my boyfriend and I decided to pop over to Jones the Grocer for a quick bite. It was about 2pm and the place was probably about 40% full and every table was more or less finishing up or just having an afternoon coffee. As you enter there is a sign that says "Please wait to be seated", the boyfriend said to just walk in but being a good law abiding girl I told my boyfriend that we will wait to be served. We stood there for a good 3 minutes with numerous staff running back and forth in front of us but neither offered to seat us. I gave up and eventually decided to seat us at a table of our preference. 

 

Upon sitting down, we had to request for menus and the service staff didn't even care to brief us about the soup of the day or any specials. When I did eventually stop a waiter to ask what the soup of the day was, he looked at me like he had somewhere else to be, blurted "Cream of Carrot" and left. When we were ready to order, I think we tried to stop 2 staff before the 3rd one stopped. Perhaps we should have been louder and less mousy? Then they will probably think we are being obnoxious...

We ordered the Wagyu Beef Pie and the Chicken and Mushroom Pie. Honestly the only saving grace of the meal was the fact that the pies were amazing and so was the cappuccino I had. Hunger and forgetfulness resulted in there NOT being any pictures of the food. The cappuccino was served with the perfect amount of froth and i loved the richness of the coffee. I do however wish there was a little more to the drink for the $6 price tag- its a 2 slurp cup. The pies are served without sauce but they were surprisingly moist on the inside. The beef pie was filled with meat (as opposed to meat pies filled with more potatoes than meat) and there was a perfect balance of flavors. I tasted some of my boyfriends Chicken and Mushroom pie and found it to be a little on the salty side. We both agreed that I got the better dish :)

Getting the bill was another hassle. When our dishes were cleared, we asked for the bill, and waited and waited AND WAITED. We saw the servers refilling water, getting menus, serving food...so we decided to be nice and give them a break. But at 2.57pm, we were pressed for time and asked the same waitress who we had ask initially, commenting that we've been waiting 10mins for the bill. It took her about 2minutes this time and we got an apology but throughout us trying to find enough $10's to pay, the waitress was fidgety and antsy.

To conclude, i'll probably try avoid going there again! It's the 3rd time I've been there and the other two times the place was full so it was excusable, but to go on a quiet day during a non peak period and still get such service is just not worth it. Time is money :)