Hong Ji Herbs Bak Kue Teh @ Marsiling Court

22th April 2011


First Impression:As I approached the cofee shop, the first thing that caught my attention was the number of people eating food from the Bak Kue Teh stall although there are a few other stalls selling other kind of food there. Secondly, the other thing that caught my attention was a signboard in the left hand side of the stall, prominently displaying the amount of recognition given by our local media and magazines. That usually means the food must be good.

Ordering of food:The order of the food and delivery of the order was fast and swift. Food served in a claypot reminds me of the nice bak kue teh I had in Klang,Malaysia. The visual aspect is also good, with leafy vegetables lining the top of the claypot.



Taste:Honestly, the taste was not as good as what I thought it was. In fact, I find it disappointing. Though it is supposed to be made with herbs, I seriously cannot taste any herb inside the soup. A check with my fellow diners also confirm that there was nothing wrong with my taste bud. Instead, I tasted more of the liver and pork taste inside the soup. The pork rib is fresh but tough. It was not tender enough to melt in your mouth. Quite a fair bit of chewing is required. The only reason I can think of is because the pork ribs are not left to simmer in the soup. Or rather, they were left dry in a bowl. Only upon an order is placed, they will place the pork ribs inside the claypot and then heat it up before serving. The trotter in black sauce taste better, but a bit too 'oily' for my liking. The skin was too thick and not much meat. Maybe because I still prefer pig trotters served as a whole.

Verdict:
I will never go back again. I find it really over-rated. Maybe because their business is really good, quality has been compromised. But if one is not too bothered with the missing herbal taste, then they may find this good enough for their consumption.

English High Tea at The Tea Lounge @ The Regent

18th April 2011



Read many reviews about the high tea spread at The Regent and thus, went with 'high' expectation, only to be a bit disappointed with it. The choices for tea were very limited with very standard choices such as English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Green Tea, etc.



For once, I tried to be adventurous and I chose this tea called "Morroccan Mint".Mmm..it was nice, with a fresh mint tast in your mouth after drinking. As for food, it comes in a 3-tier tray and a plate of sandwiches. The salmon and egg sandwiches were nice. As for the savoury pastries on the tray, you must try their scones with their home-made lemon jam. The rest, honestly, it is alright to give it a miss. The crust on the pastries were cold and tough. Will I go again? Most likely not.

But if you are looking for a good bargain, this will be a good choice. On weekday, they offer a 4 dine at the price of 3 with UOB card. It goes to about $31.20 per person. As for carpark....super expensive. For every table, they only give one complimentary carpark coupon. 3 hours of parking cost about $11.

The Kitchen Cat

23rd March 2011

I have been looking forward to the dinner at The Kitchen Cat but honestly, the food was rather disappointing. Probably I had too high an expectation thus causing the disappointment. But the dessert saved the day.

We started with a list of appetiser: a variety of ham (too salty and maybe a bit too raw for me), a plate of deep fried zucchini flowers (best among all appetisers), a tray of bread (the deep fried bread was unique...crsipy and not oily at all)..




The main dishes were alright, if you are one who enjoy the original taste of food....the food was bland....Maybe I enjoy more savoury food....The chicken was bland and the fish.....I'm never a sea bass lover anyway..Anyway, the main courses were accompanied by 2 sides; water blanched spinach and fried potato wedges that were too tough for people who wear dentures.







The highlight of the dinner....DESSERT! There were really delicious. The poached peaches were nicely done. The sugar syrup did not take away the fragrance of the peaches and what really took my breath away was the chocolate and vanilla ice cream. I seldom buy ice-cream in Singapore as I find them too sweet. But the ice-cream they served were really done expertly with the right amount of sweetness and you can taste the bitterness of the cocoa and the fragrance of the vanilla. But the waffle roll that came later was a bit too sweet. Maybe I should have eaten it with the ice-cream but I forgot its existence as the chocolate ice cream was really nice and I had my attention focused on it.

Nice Greek Food in Mebourne City- Stalactite

21st March 2011

After a visit to Bentleigh Secondary College, we decided that it was important that we have a good lunch so that we can do our debrief. We did not have to think for long. We decided that we will go to "Stalactite" for our lunch. Each time we walked past this Greek restaurant, the long queue never failed to capture our attention. And also, Friend J commented that that restaurant was strongly recommended by her colleague who had been to Melbourne before.

I ordered the chicken that were grilled to perfection. But the portion was really big. There were 2 sticks of the grilled chicken and I gave one stick away for the group to try and had one stick all for myself. And it was really filling. The chicken was really tender but it was a bit salty by my standard. As one bite into the chicken meat (ixture of thigh and breast meat), you can feel the chicken juices in your mouth, creating slight explosion in your mouth.



Friend A and M ordered fried calamari and I must say the Australian really can cook a mean dish of fried calamari. They were fried to perfection and it will leave you wanting more after the first bite. If I am to go there again, I will definitely ordered it again.

Visit to Soranto

20th March 2011
Mention Soranto and it will remind me of our Singapore's Nassim Road,where all the expensive housing are. The only difference, this is an exclusive residential area with a splendid ocean view.... Even an ordinary cup of coffee will cost double here.So why are we there? Fish and Chips!! Yummy....There is a very famous fish and chip store here...Forgot to take down the name. It was strongly recommended by our coach driver who claimed that he is very particular about fish and chip and if he says it is good...it must be good...




It was good....but not that fantastic...but it was of no fault of the shop, I believe. If we had eaten at the store at the moment it was served, I'm quite sure it will be excellent. But we chose to eat at by the beach so the journey there soften the batter. However, the fries was overloaded with salt...we had to threw away our fries as it was really not meant for our platter....too salty for our likely. We added scallop, crabstick and calamari to our meal and I must agreed that the fried scallop and crabstick were really good! They were meaty enough and fried to a good texture. The calamari was a disappointment though....it was too 'old'.....hard to chew!

We polished up all the food with sparkling strawberry juice and that made a good ending to a meal.Morever, the scenery at Soranto was fantastic....one can stay there for hours with a good book and coffee...

Visit to Sunnyridge Strawberry Farm

20th March 2011

2 days of thinking hard...2 trips to the local agent...we finally decided to embark on a day trip out of the city...Guess we will become a laughing stock if we go to Melbourne and to just stay in the city to shop.....well....I don't doubt out ability to do it...but we were sane enough to stay away from the stores for a day at least.

Sunnyridge Strawberry farm....known to be the biggest strawberry farm in Melbourne..we were excited about the trip and really looked forward to picking strawberry. But when we were there, we were told that due to a heavy rain, there wasn't enough strawberry for us to pick and they already had a group of tourists from Hong Kong picking whatever is left to pick.

Our only consolation, to sneak into the farm to take a look....and to eat the flavourfull strawberry ice-cream that was on sale there. And of course, not forgetting the tasting of the strawberry wine and port wine...yummy...

Melbourne, Australia 17th March to 24th March 2011

Yeah...you got it right..The Japan trip was a no go. Scheduled to leave on 12th March but due to the earthquake and Tsunami that happened on 11th March, we had to change our plan and to go to Australia instead.

Why Melbourne? 2 very simple reasons: Because we have all packed our luggage to visit Japan so we decided to choose a cold country which will allow us to wear what we have packed for Japan.Because we toss a coin and the coin determine that we will go to Melbourne instead of Taiwan or Korea.