Whimsical Dreamer: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Lunch at Hot Tomato

Last Thursday, my 2 colleagues and I went for lunch at Hot Tomato Cafe & Grill located at Basement 3 of 313 Somerset building. Our usual Hot Tomato hangout at the basement of Republic Plaza has since closed down. It was rather convenient for us by hopping onto the MRT heading towards Somerset station for lunch.

The Cafe was not very crowded during lunch hour, so we sat down and placed our order. The waiting time for our food was short, and we quickly tucked into our dishes.

Iced-Lemon Tea, Mushroom Soup & a slice of garlic bread - for just SGD2.50.

These were what we ordered:

Dory fish and grilled prawns with mashed potato - SGD11.90

Grilled Salmon pasta - SGD11.90

Sirlon Steak with Grilled Prawn pasta - SGD13.90

Our verdict: food were delicious and the prices were rather reasonable! We will be back! :)

Birthday Lunch

31 Oct 2011

A group of us celebrated both Sharon and Jenny's birthday at Ajisen Ramen at Vivocity recently. Here are the photos ...

The radient birthday babes .. Jenny & Sharon

These were what we had for lunch:

Crayfish Ramen

Side dishes - White Fish & Ebi

Side dish - California Maki

Side dish - Fried Toufu

Volcano Ramen .. real spicy !!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cold Stone Creamery

Had my first taste of the famous Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream last week during my lunch hour. My colleague had a sudden urge to eat ice cream and we both landed up at Far East Square --- > at Tully's Coffee where Cold Stone Creamery was located. It is certainly not your usual ice cream parlour - you can select the flavours and toppings you want, or try one of their Signature Creations.

A long queue at the counter awaited us as everyone was considering what to have for their dessert. Caramel was not my favourite item ... so I narrowed my choices down to "Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip" which was made up of Mint Ice Cream, Chocolate Chips, and Brownie & Fudge.

Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip (above)

A good choice since I love the minty flavour and the crunchy chocolate chips. A hefty price to pay for the smallest "Like It" size - SGD5.50 !! But it's worth it.

It was interesting to watch the staff mixed in the different ingredients and tossing your ice cream in the air, catching it with a cup. The ice cream taste just great in their freshly made molten state.

My colleague chose "Apple Pie a la Cold Stone" which was made up of French Vanilla Ice Cream, Cinnamon, Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Apple Pie Filling & Caramel. I tried a spoonful of it. My verdict: It's simply too sweet for me!! She didn't finished it, just threw the rest away because she was too full. Ooops !

Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip (left) and Apple Pie a la Cold Stone (right)

There are two locations you can get your fill of the ice cream:

181 Orchard Central Road, #01-09/10 Orchard Central, Singapore 238896

Tully's Coffee, Blk 49 Pekin Street, #01-01 Far East Square, Singapore.

The ice-cream comes in 3 sizes:

Like It size (4oz) - SGD5.50

Love It size (6oz) - SGD7.90

Gotta Have it size (8oz) - SGD9.90

Enjoy your ice cream !! :)

Thai Food

Over a few lunches, my colleagues and I tried a few popular dishes of Thai food at BK Eating House located along Upper Circular Road and the corner of South Bridge Road.

The stall in the coffee shop

We had Tom-yum soup, Basil Chicken Rice, Phat-Thai, Fried Kway Teow, Thai Green Curry. The prices are pretty reasonable - ranging between SGD4.00 to SGD5.00, depending on the dishes.

Fried Kway-Teow

The Thai Green Curry comes with a bowl of white rice, it's creamy with lots of coconut milk. I love the small brinjals and carrots in the curry - simply crunchy and delicious. Costs SGD4.50 (main dish) + SGD0.50 (for the rice).

Thai Green Curry

Tom-yum seafood soup is spicy but it's good. You need more than a bowl of rice to go with the dish because it's just increase your appetite after a few sips of the soup.

Tom-Yum Soup

Phat-Thai is served with raw bean sprouts which my colleague do not fancy. This dish does not have any peanuts in it.

Phat-Thai

Basil chicken is fried with long beans which is on a more crunchy side. The long beans are not well-cooked like what we usually have over lunch/dinner.

Basil Chicken with Egg. SGD4.00 a plate.

Our favourite dishes

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Dinner at Chin Chin Eating House

On Friday evening, my 2 buddies and I were off to Purvis Street to Chin Chin Eating House for our first get together. It was my second time there. It's a quaint old authentic coffee shop selling zhi-char dishes and Hainanese Chicken Rice. Lots of friendly service staff and lots of dishes to choose from. Dishes were pretty reasonable and a big serving for 3 people. The uncle who served us speaks fluent English and he has a sense of humour as well.

We ordered 4 dishes to go with our white rice:

dry fried mee-sua (干炒面线)

diced chicken with cashew nuts (宫宝鸡丁)

fried sambal kangkong (马来风光)

prawn fritter rolls (虾球).

Simply yummy and the dishes were served pretty quickly. The meal with drinks (Aloe Vera, Luohan & a Iced Milk Tea) came to $35.

The fried mee-sua looks like fried mee-hoon until you taste it. It is fried with seafood, egg and chicken slices. The fried kangkong is chewy and the sambal is very shiok. I love it. The prawn fritters are very crispy and served with a nice flower. Lot of minced meat fillings inside and it's tastes just right.

Kangkong & Fried Mee-Sua

Prawn Roll & Diced Chicken.

The coffee shop is located at 19 Purvis Street, Singapore. From Raffles Place, just board buses 57, 100 and 107 from the bus-stop in front of Fullerton Hotel. Alight after Raffles Hotel along Beach Road. Then walk one street down past Beach Centre and you will be able to see the coffee shop.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Photos collage

I had downloaded this free iPhone App called 'Photos Wall' over a week ago. It was just this morning that I started exploring the App. Was so fascinated with the App that it kept me awake from 4am. I stayed awake and created a series of photo collage. What I like about the App is that it allows you to select background wallpaper from 12 templates. It also allows you to toggle and change the position of the photos.

You can select up to 10 photographs at any one time from your iPhone album or you can take photographs.

Here are a few photos that I had created and posted on my Facebook album.