 |
|
Apr 5, 2008
Weeelll, I did mention I'd go to The Tea Party, right? So I did, after church just this Saturday. Which is.. well, today.
I can't really remember when I found out about this cafe, or how I found out about it... but the point is, it's pretty good! And the pricing is pretty reasonable too. I remember the first time I was there was in the afternoon, with my family and my boyfriend. So, it was pretty empty then, probably because it's quite far out and it wasn't lunch hour.
My favorite dish there would be their Beef Bolognese. Truly, it's the best I've had ever. Haven't really tried Prego's (can't remember if they even have that in the first place), but the only one that can possibly compare would probably be the one at Californian Pizze Kitchen (which serves really good pizzas and pastas too!). The sauce is delicious, along with a generous helping of minced beef, all mixed into linguine and topped with cheese... mm! Perfetto!
And to go with my pasta, it would have to be my favorite drink - their Butterscotch Latte. I tell you, butterscotch has to be the best complement for latte, if you're like me and like your coffee sweet. I tried my first butterscotch latte here, and it was just wow. I've loved it ever since.
Today, I was there with only my boyfriend and brother, so this is what they had:
Prawn Aglio
I loved the prawns. It's actually Tiger Prawns, and I simply love big juicy prawns. Although, the better ones I have tasted came from Kopitiam with their Hot Plate Beancurd. But this was not bad. And I highly recommend their Aglio Olio, you guys will fall in love with it. Absolutely.
German Sausage
You know, I never really liked bratwurst, but this was really not bad. I only took a small bite though, my brother has a monstrous appetite. He ate, and ate, and ate.. and after it all, told us he was still hungry. Talk about black holes. He's practically a bottomless pit. Good thing I won't have to treat him to a meal anytime soon. I'd probably be broke after that.
Wedges
I love wedges. I dunno why - maybe because they're chunky? Nothing special to scream about; how can you ever go wrong with wedges? That's like screwing up maggie mee.
Japanese Cherry Green Tea
Ick, not my type. Its the sickly sweet kind of drink, so if you like cherries, go ahead. I'm traumatized by cherry-flavored drinks the first (which is also the last) time I tried them. My boyfriend seems to like it though... acquired taste, maybe?
Banana Float
I didn't get to try it! I think it's like some banana juice thingie with a scoop of ice cream on it. One thing about banana juice is that it turns sour after awhile. And if you're lucky (or not) it turns a horrible brownish green, making it look as though you're drinking muck. It did turn sour at the end (my brother said so) so we asked the waitress if she could do something about it. Well, seems like she did something to it, and it was all better again.
Actually, my brother had another drink, but I forgot to take a photo before he slurped it all up. Besides, we were busy playing Cluedo (my first time trying it, so we were all like huh?!!!), and I was aiming for the win! XD In any case, it shouldnt be all that bad, its like shaved ice.. I think it was strawberry or watermelon. My brother did cringe when he first tasted it (maybe it was too sweet for his 'manly glands'?) but he finished it, so it shouldn't be that bad. But then again, he's quite the trashcan so... you never know XD
Ratings:
Food: 7/10
Service: 8/10
Price: 7/10
Well, that's all from me for now... the one thing I like about this cafe is their excellent service - they are very personal, and they actually do remember the people who've been there. Now that's service. Also, they have a really wide and wacky selection of teas and drinks, so try it out when you go there! Also, they actually have games. How often do you see that?
It's a really nice and cool place to chill out with friends - sit back, play a few games and just have fun. If I had to pick a cafe I love most, it'll probably be The Tea Party.
Address:
805 Bukit Timah Road
#01-07 Sixth Avenue Centre
Cheers,
Shizuka
Posted at 10:02 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Apr 4, 2008
Ms Clarity Cafe! My boyfriend's brother recommended this, so we went to try it since we had no idea what we wanted for dinner haha it wasn't bad! In fact, I'm pleasantly surprised.
Service level there was quite good, although I did overhear the manager (I'm supposing she's the manager) reprimand a worker, and that just isn't nice. I think that if you have to correct your employee, do it some place where your customers cannot hear you. It just isn't nice, to both the employee and the customers. Well, here's my review on them!
(P.S. Do pardon the lighting, it was rather dim where I was seated. My phone doesn't do their food presentation justice! >.<)
Cauliflower & Potato Soup
It's kind of like potage (and I love those), and thankfully it's not broccoli, otherwise my boyfriend would run for the hills (sorry darling, I had to XD) haha it was a little too saltish for my tastebud, but overall, quite ok. Considering that it came with a set (top up $3.00 for a full set!), it wasn't bad.
Chicken Cordon Bleu
I suddenly have this craze for chicken cordon bleu. I tried my first cordon bleu at Jack's Place, and it was rather nice. Well, other than the fact that the texture of chicken meat made my jaws sore from chewing after the meal, it was nice. In fact, I think this was better than the one at Jack's Place. I could actually taste the melted cheese in it, and the ham was visible! They also have the Fish Cordon Bleu, so I'll be trying that next time!
Chicken Ballotine
Mmm, this wasn't bad. Tasted a little like the chicken you can get a coffeeshops (you know, those roast chicken that come with Chicken Rice) so I wasn't that impressed, but it was nice anyway. It's kind of like my cordon bleu, just that instead of cheese and ham filling, it was stuffed with mushrooms and drenched in mushroom sauce (oh heaven!).
Bread and Butter Pudding
I never liked it, to be honest. Ick. And this one had raisins. Since I'm not a bread and butter pudding lover, I shouldn't comment on this too much. I'd just be biased anyway. So, go try it out yourselves if you do go! Apparantly this is a signature dish, and many of their customers love it. So it shouldn't be too bad, if you like bread and butter pudding to begin with.
Well, I have to say that their store has a similar concept to The Tea Party (I'll go there when I get the chance, so you guys can take a look), just minus the really cold air conditioning and games haha but other than that, I don't see anything to complain about yet.
Oh, before I forget, their set meals actually does come with a drink, but I had no idea how I was supposed to take a photo of barley water >.< so I didn't take anything haha well, now that that's done...
Ratings:
Food: 7/10
Service: 6.5/10
Price: 6/10
Ja!
Shizuka
(Weblink: www.missclaritycafe.com)
Posted at 11:10 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Apr 1, 2008
So I was at Cafe Gelare (finally) to catch the half-priced waffle offer they were having. It's been so long (more than a year) and now that we finally got to eat there, I suppose there's this sense of satisfaction. I know, I know, we could have gone to eat their waffles any other day, but my boyfriend says its 'pointless cuz you don't get the half-priced thingie!'. Ah well.
The waffles itself are great, though. You can smell it once you're inside. We were at the outlet at the City Link, and it was pretty packed on the inside. Although the limited seating areas could be one factor that caused it to be packed.
If I'm not wrong, the waffles only cost us $5.00++ (can't remember the exact figure) and we even had the ice-cream on it hehe I think all the waffles come with whipped cream and a sauce of your choice (chocolate, caramel and something else... I can't remember!).
Oh, there's one thing I have to complain about though. They don't serve water! Although I'm getting pretty used to it when the staff tells me that they don't serve free water, it gets pretty annoying sometimes. I mean, how expensive can plain water be? And if you have bought something to eat, it makes sense to serve water, does it not?
Well, at least most cafes still serve water. I don't get the whole management cutting cost so no water issue. I don't see the problem. Maybe I'll go drill a manager one day and see what he tries to say.
Cheers
Shizuka
Posted at 11:36 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Mar 31, 2008
Perhaps some of us have reached the stage where you are fretting over university admission. Well, I'm sort of almost there. I know it's a huge thing in Japan, what with the worried mothers rushing to the shrines to pray for good luck. Well, as a parent you would be worried anyway.
It's pretty much the same feelings as when I was preparing for 'O' levels - you start wondering what you're going to do with your whole life. Just that, this feeling gets much stronger and nag-gier now. And if you were as lazy as I was during my 'O' level year, well, you should be worried. Because I found out that most universities in Singapore take into consideration your 'O' level results! The horror.
Well there's always SMU, where they don't take into consideration your 'O' level results, but then there's that infamous interview you have to struggle through. If you're already nervous and the lecturer throws you a mind-boggling question, I doubt anyone in their right minds will be able to find a proper answer. Unless you're a genius. Which most of us aren't sadly.
So, what to do? Luckily for me I've been doing pretty ok currently, and although my GPA has somewhat commited suicide it's still in the 'save-able' range. Thinking about it makes me irritated.
I'm the sort of person that gets unmotivated pretty quickly, so it happens that I always end up doing badly at the final final stage. Maybe the change of schools during my primary school years were the cause of that. I mean, if you suddenly have a change in environment and then suddenly you have 0 friends, everyone in class is so much smarter and you're pretty much doing shit in school, any kid would get demoralized. The thing was, no one knew or bothered enough to notice - my mom thought I was lazy, and I couldn't be bothered to explain myself.
It irritates me to no end when people starts telling me that this is your life, what you're doing is for yourself so this is for your own good. In the times where you need support from loved ones most, there they go and tell you to do it yourself - it's sort of like a betrayal, no?
Well, the same thing happened in secondary school, just that I didn't change schools this time, I made a stupid mistake of switching classes and for some funny reason, I fell out with my friends. Being the typical emotional basket case, I naturally fell back into unmotivation-ness and just didn't give a damn anymore.
Hopefully, history will not repeat itself this time. It's like this curse or something. Ah, thinking of all these things put me in a bad mood. It's time for Ben and Jerry's... which now that I come to think of it, my brother has finished. What luck.
Shizuka
Posted at 09:21 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Mar 30, 2008
I have no idea why I'm so darn sleepy. And tired. And I feel stupid. Must be lack of time allowed for brain to replenish the amount of brain cells needed to get me through the day.
Well, considering I didn't manage to sleep as early as I had wanted to yesterday, it only meant I had less than 12 hours of sleep (my personal requirement); in fact I had lesser than 8 hours of sleep (the normal human body requirement). I suppose I'm somewhat used to it, what with rushing through last minute school work.
Well, I am trying to adjust back to the lifestyle of a normal human being. Right now, I'm kind of living the life of a vampire - I sleep in the morning and at night, I can last right till 7am. Crazy, no?
But anyways, since I'm already talking about sleep, lets delve more into the topic of 'what happens when you have lack of sleep'. Basically, a number of things can happen:
1. You get eyebags - ugly things, you don't want them
2. You might get mistaken to be an extinct animals due to the horrendous panda eyes
3. People like me get pissed off easily (I can be pretty nasty if I don't remember to be nice - maybe I should carry a 'BEWARE' sign)
4. You eat more = get fat
5. You take more foods with high sugar content = get fatter
6. You feel like a zombie - like duh
7. You will sleep in, and end up sleeping late the next day, and hence the cycle. This simply means, you join me in the vampire-wannabe club
8. And in any case, it's just unhealthy since your body does not get the required time to replenish and repair itself
Okay, so maybe most of the things I've listed may not be exactly scientific, but lets face it - who wants to be fat? Or start yelling your head off at people you have to please (take boss for example)? Although being a vampire is cool and stuff... as long as there isn't the blood sucking part to it.
Therefore, I had decided 3 weeks ago to sleep early and tune myself back into a normal human being, never mind the fact that I hate the sun and like to be in the shade (or dark) whenever possible. Which, if you didn't notice, are pretty much vampire characteristics. Oh, and I'm pale.
As much as I can say, I'm not succeeding. But, I shall not relent! One day, I will be able to sleep at 11pm, wake up a 8am and I'll be normal again. Till that day comes... I shall just be who I am. So there.
Shizuka
Posted at 05:06 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Mar 29, 2008
No, I didn't go to a coffeeshop. This is the Kopitiam at Swissotel, a restaurant of sorts that offers a variety of authentic Singaporean dishes, ranging from our very favorite Char Kway Teow to even Chendol. But since it is one of the restaurants at Swissotel, the price ranges would not be anything you would expect from our normal coffeeshops.
But anyways, I was there this evening after church with my mom, brother and once again, my boyfriend. We had the usual:
Tauhu Telur - this is where I first ate Tauhu Telur, and I've loved it ever since. The deep fried egg white, mixed with sweet peanut sauce... mmm! Although I've never eaten any others, I think this is a must-have when you visit Kopitiam!
Laksa - This is what I usually order when I'm here. Well, it's usually an internal battle between Laksa or Char Kway Teow, both of which are reeeeallly nice. Their Laksa is unlike the Katong one; this one the gravy is thicker and luckily for me, not as spicy . If you are to ask me which one I prefer, I'd probably go for some authentic Katong Laksa (unhealthy goodness) but this one's not bad either.
Hot Plate Black Pepper Beef (SGD$ 15.00) - Okay, this is the first time I've tried it. I'm a beef lover, ever since I tried those awesome hamburgs at a Japanese restaurant (I forgot the name, sorry >.<). This one is EXCEPTIONAL! It deserves full marks. The meat is tender, soft, and the black pepper sauce was not too thick or thin, it was just nice. I love this. It's probably the best dish I've tried at Kopitiam yet.
Hot Plate Beancurd - I love hot plate beancurd. There's something about it that just keeps making me go back for more. The first I tried was at the coffee shop somewhere near my house, and I've loved it ever since. Although I prefer the one at Serangoon Gardens Country Club (its no more there, sadly. They changed chefs), this would probably rank second to it.
Double Boiled Chicken Soup - My mom had this. I seriously don't know how she gets full with just a bowl of soup, but ah well, anything goes. She seemed to liked it, I never tried it. I dislike Chinese soups, and double boiled just screams HERBAL, HERBAL! I can't stand those, hehe
Plain Prata - I can't believe how much my brother can eat. Okay, so he's in the growing up stage, but still, don't you get fat from all that? But then again, I eat quite a lot for a female my size so... looks can be deceiving! The prata wasn't that bad, although I'd probably prefer the one I had at the Raffles Hotel. The curry they serve here wasn't nice though. Those coffeshop ones I had when I was younger tasted much better.
Kopitiam is a personal favorite, for me at least. Although it is a little pricey for all these local dishes. They also have things like Hokkien Mee, but I've already found Chomp Chomp, and I doubt anything can be better than that!
Service wise, I suppose they are adequate. The staff are sometimes not very attentive. I actually had an incident some time ago where I was waving at the waiter who was looking in my direction, but he just turned and walked away. If you think peak hours equal bad service, non-peak hours would be worse. I have no idea where all their waiters and waitresses hide during non-peak hours. It's a pain to catch their attention. We even joked that maybe we should just throw the dishes around to catch their attention.
I would probably only go there with my family, I doubt my current school friends woul appreciate it if I brought them there. After all, to them the food would be not-value-for-money and I refuse to waste my breath on them. I don't know if I should say you should try it, but I suppose for the exposure and experience, it would be nice. If you like peace and quiet, non-peak hours there would be perfect for you. 
Ratings:
Food: 6/10
Service: 4/10
Price: 5/10
Oh, before I forget - do pardon the quality of the pictures and messiness of the food! Their presentation isn't that bad, it's just that... we all got hungry and I kind of forgot till about 10 minutes into the meal haha. Only the prata was untouched ^^
Well then, that's my review on Kopitiam. I'll be visiting Equinox again pretty soon actually (to my absolute horror) so I suppose I'll be writing about their Aglio Olio next. Maybe their service will be better next time.
Tata!
Shizuka
Posted at 10:01 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Mar 28, 2008
 For those of you who have not watched this, go watch it! I know that it's already ending soon, and probably won't be in the cinemas in another 2 or 3 more days, but this is fabulous. Although there were some awkward parts, there were the really good ones too. For a film produced by a Singapore company, I'm greatly impressed.
For those of you who are interested, I'll do a short summary on it. It's basically how main girl character meets main guy character, and they fall in love at first sight. Then it goes on to show how their love was denied in every turn and corner, and how they finally got together in the end. Overall, a really emotional and touching story (I don't know about the guys though) - it made me cry. Ok, so I'm an emotional basketcase, but still... I highly recommend this.
Girls, grab your boyfriends and drag em into the cinemas somehow. For those without boyfriends, drag your girl friends along or even your mum - whoever, you just have to watch this.
One thing that I did notice was that the theatre was filled with mostly couples. And amongst them, I see quite a few guys with the what-the-hell-am-I-doing-watching-this-show and the shit-she's-crying expressions plastered to their faces. Is it really that bad, guys? At least we fill whatever emotional capacity you guys lack right? No offense XD
Ok, enough crapping! I'm off to get much deserved sleep, so, till next time!
Shizuka
(P.S. The picture does not belong to me. It is taken from http://www.mediacorpraintree.com/tly/)
Posted at 12:46 pm by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Ah, the much talked about Equinox! Known for the paranomic view (it's on the 70th floor) and exquisite food prepared by award winning chefs, it is one of those places that most people would love to dine in at least once in their lives. Well, as long as you don't have a mom that has a sudden fetish for it and you start dining there almost every other week. Really, it gets a little boring after awhile, but it's definitely something worth the experience.
I was there for the high-tea just this afternoon - my boyfriend had placed a reservation two weeks ago. It was so difficult to get a reservation these few weeks! Perhaps its due to the school holidays; upsurge of kids and things like that.
Anyway, I thought I'd post a few pictures, as I promised previously, and hopefully it links well. I had to post it on another picture host site, since the space here is soooo limited >.< Ah well. You can't have everything you want, right?
Well, first up is a picture of their entrance, including the rather obscure Equinox sign.. I took it at the staircase so... haha I played with a little reflection effects too. My boyfriend happens to have a fetish for photography lately.. is it a guy thing? Well anyway, here it is:
Then I took some pictures of the scenery - hey, it IS the 70th floor! How often do you get that high up anyway? So yep, here they are.
The first one consists of the popular durian, a.k.a. The Esplanade. You've got to admit that it kind of looks like a microphone from all the way up here. Then there's that huge ferris wheel, right at the far left corner... it's quite small, so you have to look really closely haha
I took this whilst waiting for the crowd to clear. It was awfully crowded today; apparantly there was some wedding lunch reception going on so the newlyweds (at least I think they are newlyweds) kind of booked up the whole place, save for a small corner. It's just buildings, really, I have no idea why I took it.
As I had mentioned before, the food is okay, not exactly something that I would go head over heels for. Although their variety is rather wide, the selection of food does not really vary, so if you dine there frequently you'd probably get bored after awhile.
Well, there's the sushi corner, and also a sandwich bar (sort of) and a selection of fried food, which I forgot to take pictures of. Hey, I was hungry!
There is one dish that they change frequently, which was the noodle section. It was either mee siam or laksa (which I only managed to catch once, sadly) and prawn noodle. Well today was prawn noodles, which I don't really like (the soup is really unhealthy, altough it tastes sooo good) so I didn't have any. Which means no pictures, sorry hehe
Then there is also the pasta section, where you get to select what kind of pasta you would like and what sauce you want it to go with. Actually, there are only two sauces to choose from - the cream sauce or the tomato sauce. But apparantly, you could ask for Aglio Olio too.. I heard someone ask for it after me, and the chef got right to it. Hmm, maybe I'll try it the next time I go
 And then, there's the dessert section! Cookie for everyone who loves dessert and has a sweet tooth like me! Haha well, sad to say, their dessert selection isn't as widespread as the one at The Line (Shangri-La). That was amazing. It was dessert haven for me but anyways, dessert will be dessert and I like them all the same.
Aha, right at the end I decided to get creative and play around with the condiments that came with waffles and that was what I whipped up
All in all, it was a rather pleasant experience, except for some areas where service was a little lacking. For starters, whenever I came back with another round of goodies on my plate, my used plate would still be there. Perhaps it was because there were quite a lot of people around, what with weddings and things like that, but I feel that isn't an excuse for such a thing to occur. It was only when I made a huge act of sighing and shaking my head at the plate when another waiter was nearby did they realize that they had not been paying enough attention to the little corner of non-wedding guests. They immediately rectified the problem, and at least the rest of the meal passed enjoyably.
I suppose I shouldn't fault them for this one slip, since their service standards has been relatively good everytime I was there. There was also the complimentary bottle of wine we took back. They actually gave us a paper bag. We were wondering if they were cutting costs or something. There's a reason why wine bags were invented after all...
Ratings:
Food: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Price: 6/10
Alright, bye for now!
Shizuka
Posted at 11:18 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
Mar 27, 2008
The start of.. crapcrate?!!
I have no idea what possesed me to actually start a blog, I mean, I'm the lazy sort. And lazy people just don't start blogs becuase its too much hassle, and it's too much hassle. And did I mention it's too much hassle?
Besides, who would read my blog? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who will know about my blog. And I don't need any fingers to count who will read them.
Ok, so maybe that's not exactly true. Because I can probably think of a few people who might, keyword might read this. After all, I'm not a blog person. Because I'm first and foremost, lazy. And secondly, I have interests to upkeep, which currently seem much more.. appealing than sharing my whole life story online. It's not even a biography, and I don't get paid for it, so why am I doing this? I'll answer it again when I know the answer
Well, for starters, you may call me Shizuka. No, it's not my real name, but you can pretend. And no, don't ask for age, address, phone number, gawd I'm sick of all those rubbish. AND NO I DON'T HAVE FRIENDSTER. If another uppity smartpants asks me for my friendster account again, I swear, I'll inflict some serious harm with sharp pointy objects *glint*.. Hmph.. talk about influence of games.
Well, as a teen myself, I suppose its some phase we go through. The MMORPGs we eat through, striving to become the top player and then after awhile, you ask, why do I even try? After all, it bears no benefit to our future, so isn't it a waste of time?
I suppose primary school kids nowadays have too much spare time on their hands, so they can do whatever they want. No offense, I don't forget I was once little. This is not a reenactment from Matilda. (To those who don't know, it's a book. Go to a library if you haven't already, seriously.)
Aside from games, my other interests lie in the ever so addictive japanese animation and manga. Kudos to whoever invented them. They are great time killers and they make you spend a lot of money. I'm considered minor when you compare me with my friends, and yet, I've already spent more tha $500 on all that stuff.
Other than that, I do eat at quite a few nice places, so if I remember to take photos before digging in, I might recommend a few places here and there, so keep watch ^^
Oh, I do play the piano, although I can't say I'm good at it.. But I just might post a few pieces (I'm not sure if this blog thing allows it, but I'll try) and for those who dare, please listen and give me your much appreciated critique ^^
Well, that's all for now, and PHEW that was a long first entry.. I suppose a blog has its addictive sides to it too =x
Tata for now ^^
Shizuka
Posted at 09:05 am by xxshizukaxx
Permalink
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
