Chin Chin Eating House - Not that nice

sorry for the long delay in updating this spot! have been rather busy with my temp. job and it just ended so i'm once again more free to post some entries before sch starts to take me away again! :) 

this time round, me and the bf went over to Chin Chin Eating House along Purvis Street to try out their chicken rice after i've read from ieatishootipost.sg and many other blogs that their chicken rice is quite nice. so being near the area that day, and with no special cravings, we decided to go down into this narrow stretch of road just opp. the national lib to have some chicken for dinner.

upon reaching there, we were at a loss as to what to order. haha. me and my bf are not big eaters and their menu shows all zi char dishes which i guess both of us wont be able to finish. so we were sitting down there, looking all confused. den an auntie came over and she was really friendly, when we asked whether they sell individual plates of chicken rice, she gave us a resounding "YES!" in a really friendly manner. den she recommended us to each take one type of chicken rice - one roasted and one white - so we can get a taste of each.

as you can guess, i decorated this plate of rice! cute right, haha. =x

verdict: i love the texture of both the roasted and white chicken. it was really soft and juicy, and was really supple enough. the bf, on the other hand, thought the chicken was quite normal. haha. he's got high standards. but, there was one thing both of us agree on though, that is, the rice was not fragrant enough. in fact, we felt that the one at my house sells nicer chicken rice, at least the rice is more fragrant and we could literally taste the garlic in our mouths after we finished eating. but not for Chin Chin's rice, since it tasted really bland.

ask me if i'll go back again, well, mayb not. though i would love to try its other dishes except for chicken rice. :)

La Petite Cuisine

for the bf's bdae, we i decided to go and try out the widely raved about french restaurant, La Petite Cuisine, along Bukit Timah. it's quite a remote place actually so it might be a bit more convenient if you had  a car with you, but nonetheless, it's nice to walk there with your other half by your side too! :) anw, this restaurant is famous for serving affordable and edible french cuisine. 

when we first arrived in the restaurant, it was quite quiet, despite it already being 7pm and close to dinner time. so we decided to wait a while and walk ard first since we werent really hungry. then, after a while, when we went back, it was packed! then we just sat by the side, having a small table to ourselves. the overall environ was quite dark there, save it for a few dim lights. there's actually an outdoor area where you can sit among the "bushes" to enjoy your meal. it looks romantic, but i think insects will be eating tgt with you as well. haha. 

complimentary appetisers for us. dun belittle the bread, it's actually really soft and hot. i prefer it without butter!

panfried foie gras! 

cant rmb the exact name, but think it along orange panfried foie gras, it's under appetisers. for me and the bf, we were just curious to try out foie gras. haha. many said that it tastes like pig's liver, but i can tell you, it's no where near that! it tastes mushy, slimy and there's a bit of reddish colour in the meat too. the outer part, which was pan fried, was delicious, but i didnt like the texture of the interior "flesh". well, if you ask me, i wont want to try it another time! i think we enjoyed the veges more than the foie gras, we're not atas enough. haha.

duck confit with gratin. 

this, we enjoyed more than the foie gras, but i still felt that the duck was a bit dry, unlike what most reviews actually described it. well, perhaps, it was due to the crowd that evening. but seriously, for the duck, the skin was abit too fried such that it was hard and tastes abit burnt. the flesh was quite dry, a sign of overcooked. to compare, i think chinese roast duck really tastes better! haha. at least it's abit juicier than normal.

well, overall, i think it was quite a valuable french meal, since most french cuisine are quite expensive, and La Petite actually allows beginners (like us) to explore french fare without burning a hole in our pocket. but! i wouldnt want to go back to La Petite again coz i guess french cuisine is so not for the bf and me. haha. we're not used to it i guess! for all of you out there, perhaps you all can try it out!

PS. if you dun fancy french cuisine, do at least drop by island creamery for their really unique flavours of ice-cream, such as chendol, teh o, pulut hitam (fav!) and many more! do check it out. :D 

botanic gardens date!

i'm back to blogging! :D for this post today, i'm going to introduce a really fun and exciting date that all couples should really try out one day and that's.................... going on a picnic! there are actually many places that couples can go for picnics, the most common ones are botanic gardens, fort canning park, beaches etc. me and the bf has been to fort canning, sentosa & botanic gardens in that order before.

for today's post, let's talk abt the most recent picnic at botanic gardens first! 

this is the view of our picnic site that we chosen for ourselves! it was really a bad choice actually coz there were far too many mozzies picnicking with us as well. after we got home, we were literally covered in mozzies bites. zzz.


some boiled chicken to go with salad and our tuna sandwiches. simple but yummy!




different types of salad sauces to try out different flavours. to me, i guess i prefer the balsamic sauce, it's a bit more sour (like vinegar) but it is really appetising. as for the bf, he says that the japanese sauce is more meant for meat coz it has really strong sesame smell and it tastes like those sauces used to marinate meat. had to totally agree on that. haha. but it will go well with meat while the balsamic will go well with veges. so he prefers a fusion. haha. but it's interesting to try out the sauces, worth trying!

actually a picnic is really easy to plan, you dun have to bring too complicated-to-cook food there. as long as it's with your other half, i believe the simplest food will also taste nice! besides, if you wan to prepare really elaborate food, you would have to get up like super early in the morning to start preparing for it. so as you can see, we didnt really prepare elaborate food, just some sandwiches and a simple salad with some deserts (outsourced! haha) then you're ready to go! i guess to me, a picnic helps bond the relationship between a couple since lots of interaction and joint planning is needed from both to get a picnic up, like marketing for ingredients, preparing food tgt, packing tgt.

but, just a warning though, choose a spot with less mozzies, dun say i never warned you. haha. btw, let's end with a interesting photo i took!

these 'holes' in the water are actually fishes which are coming up to the water surface to breathe! really interesting and breath-taking view coz when we stood quietly, more and more fishes actually surfaced and there were more holes as well! ;p

hello!

really sorry for the hiatus! i'm currently on my new job and the starting is always tiring, whenever i get home, i just feel like sleeping and not doing anything. hence, the late update. but not to worry, i'll be back right after i've adapted! :D

just to sidetrack: miss singapore universe

as an annual event, many of you might have read in the papers that miss singapore universe 2010 was crowned during last weekend.

Ms Tania Lim (middle) emerged as the beauty queen among all the contestants and i guess it was a bit of disappointment for some ppl, including me. among all the contestants, all were really pretty but i had thought that Ms Annabel Tan (most left) would have clinched the beauty crown since she is a woman whom i really feel can represent singapore, i really admire her for her combination of brains, heart and beauty. and some websites even likened her to the next Eunice Olsen. well, why not? she's a volunteer for young people group, a literature teacher and most importantly, has a clean slate of record.

despite all these, Ms Tania Lim was still chosen as the beauty queen for reasons (as mentioned in newspapers) for being tall and slender enough, bursting with self confidence and with the poise to manage to ans most qns. hmm. the show wasnt publicly broadcast, so we wont noe.

but, no matter wad, i will still continue to root for singapore in the miss universe 2010, hope Tania Lim makes history! :)

crunchy cheesy bites meal!

i believe many of us have seen the advertisement about the geek and his tower which toppled when his bro munched on his cheesy bite in his room. makes me wonder, whether it is really as crunchy as the advert proclaims. and during our long weekend tgt, me & dear decided to try it out since we realised (with a startle) that we have not eaten tgt in pizza hut before! haha. and while we were fretting over what to order, we saw this special promo which was rather worthwhile, so we decided to give our virgin try of the pizza. hehe. 

oh ya, an interesting thing happened while we were ordering. we did the same as always, raise our hand to get attention of waitress and when she came,

waitress: "hi, sir & mdm, can i get your order pls?"

us: "can we have this" (pointing to the cheesy promo poster in the menu)

waitress: "okay, what pizza flavour pls?"

us: (totally unprepared for this!) "er, er, this" (points to poster again for rescue)

was so embarrassed pls, haha. so if you're going to try, pls rmb that you have to choose your pizza flavour as with any other pizza order! ;)

we waited for abt 15-20 min for the pizza to arrive and while waiting, we saw many others having the same pizza as well. makes me salivate even more! and FINALLY, hold and behold, the pizza arrived!

the middle white small saucer is the cheese!!

yummmmms~ makes me salivate even now! haha

verdict:

hmm. for me, the pizza tasted quite alright, a fresh deviation from the original and normal pizza that we always use to have. and dun be cheated by the tv advert, the pizza wont come off piece by piece when you eat it. it comes in sets of 3 mini pieces each and you have to sort of separate it using the pizza knife (or whatever it is, you noe what i mean). 

i'm not a very cheesy person (no puns intended!) and i hated cheese to the core. but i really had wanted to taste this pizza to see what it tasted like. i'm the kind who cant stand the smell of cheese powder coz i think they smell like vomit! hahaha =X. opps. but surprisingly, this cheesy bites pizza tasted alright to me. the yellow cheese that was used as dipping sauce only had a mild cheesy smell and didnt put me off! and the filling of the pizza was really great, i dunno what sauce they used but the sauce that was used as the foundation of the pizza was quite appetising and helped to offset the bloaty cheesy taste. and the corn flakes on top of the cheesy bites made it quite crunchy and nice to chew! haha. 

so, all in all, i really enjoyed this meal and felt super full and satisfied after that! and it was really worth it for the promo, so go try it everyone! no regrets, i promise. 

seoul YUMMY!

me & dear had our valentine's day dinner at seoul yummy a few months back and boy, it was definitely a satisfying dinner that makes me drool whenever i think of the food now! :) i would definitely recommend this restaurant to any korean lovers! reasonable price (checked), great tasting food (check), nice ambience (checked), what's more to ask for? ;)

we ordered a set meal which consists of dishes like salmon, bibimbap, bean paste soup and two coffee-beans-taste-alike tea. and! we order a dukpoki (spicy rice cake), which i dunno how to spell, but basically it's a common street food in korea, and it definitely trains my teeth to bite coz it's sooooooo chewy!

we polished everything up and felt extremely satisfied with our little dinner. oh btw, i guess i have to mention this. the bean paste soup that we had was really*10000000 superb tasting, not anything like those hawker centres one, but seriously nice. we tried to recreate the taste in our very own korean dinner we cooked but to no avail. :( it was really good, so make sure to order the bean paste soup!

and for those who are scared of korean spicy food, not to fret, coz the coffee-beans-taste-alike tea neutralises the spicyness of the food and balances the overall taste. so, you wont be jumping ard like a hot ant on fire! :)

do try this restaurant out if you're passing by central!