Artscience Museum Singapore （12 years ago）

Woah Woah Woah....!

I was looking through the photos I took when I got my DSLR, I found this! 
A picture of the Artscience Museum Singapore 12 years ago!

 
Amazing~~ 

Didn't realized it was such a long time ago. 


Time flies!

Foodie Times: Yong Tau Foo (Food to try in Singapore)

One of the food to recommend and commonly found in almost every food court/hawker centre would be Yong Tau Foo.

Have it for a heavy breakfast or lunch or dinner, it's a "any time can eat" choice. There is a wide variety of ingredients from fried to non fried, vegetables, beancurd stuffed with fish/seafood fillings, ngoh hiang, fishball, tofu, hotdog, etc etc

Basically the stall will have the food laid nicely at their front counter/rack. With a bowl and a tong, just grab the ingredients (usually I stopped at their minimum number of pieces needed to ordered). I always ordered it with yellow noodle without any soup or gravy and add on a lot of sweet sauce. But at times when I craved for hot and spicy, I will go for curry/laksa base. 

Previously, the stalls I visited would scald the ingredients in hot water. The fried items turned soggy after that. But nowadays, the fried items are separated from the non-fried ones. And some stalls actually re-fried those fried items. 

"Select your own" style, with sweet sauce and yellow noodle 

"Select your own" style, with sweet sauce and yellow noodle 

Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee 高記釀豆腐面

A pre-selected set which comes with kangkong

How to order: 

1. Pick the ingredients you want from their display counter into the bowl. There is a minimum number of item for a certain price. After the minimum number of item is met, additional pricing will be added (based each additional item)

2. Choose base:
-> Spicy Gravy (curry/laksa dependent on the stall),
-> (Non-spicy) Hakka Gravy (only selected stall offer this),
-> Clear Soup based or
-> Plain (they either fried the ingredients or scald it with hot water)

3. Choose noodle/rice (dependent on the stall also):
-> Huang Mian (Yellow noodle)
-> You Mian (Thin Yellow noodle)
-> Guo Tiao (flat rice noodles)
-> Mi Fen/Bee Hoon (Rice vermicelli - thin)
-> Cu Mi Fen (Rice vermicell - thick)
-> Plain white rice
-> Plain (without any noodle)

Condiments to go along:

1. Sweet Sauce - I always go for this. Don't be mistaken, this is NOT ketchup. Although it is sweet, it is totally different taste (apart from being sweet) from ketchup.

2. Chili Sauce - This is for the majority of the people I know... But there are some who actually liked to mix both sauces together (a scoop of sweet sauce and a scoop of chili sauce)

3. Sesame oil/seeds - Make it smell nicer with a tablespoon amount of sesame oil or go for a less oily version with sesame seeds.

For Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee 高記釀豆腐面, just select a set from their menu. The dish's ingredients is pre-fixed. For the condiments to go along, it would be the same as normal stalls.

Foodie Times: Non Entrée Desserts

Taste: 5 out of 5. 

- Chocolate Avalanche: Presentation was so beautiful and cute. When I cut a portion of the cake, a smooth running chocolate started to ooze into the glass ball below. Quickly took a snapshot, I pushed the cake and biscuit down into the glass ball to eat it together with the ice cream. The chocolate was warm and concentrated with a well-balance sweetness and goes very well with the orange tangy ice cream. The biscuit that remained crispy even when soaked in the chocolate and ice cream. The only thing I need to complain is... It's NOT ENOUGH for me! It's just so nice to eat.

Service: -  Friendly and fast. Didn't take long for the dessert to be served. Waitress was very detail. For every dessert, she personally gave the instructions from how we can get a better photo to the steps for eating the dessert.

Location: Located at the Rangoon road, it is still a distance from Farrer Park MRT. Look up for the buses which can bring you to nearest bus stop with approx. 2 minutes walk to the shop. Here's the link to their Facebook.

Price: $13.90++ for the Chocolate Avalanche.

Foodie Review: Tea Time @ TWG Tea Salon & Boutique - The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands

Taste: 5 out of 5.
-> Tea: I had the usual Earl Grey while my partner went for the 1837 Black Tea. Both tea fragrance smelled great. The tea was smooth and served at the perfect temperature that doesn't burn our tongue.

-> Muffins: I am not a muffin lover but we went for the muffins. The chocolate muffin was towards a brownie texture where the chocolate melts in my mouth. The sweetness is well-balanced. I liked it a lot!! The muffins are served with a small servings of their tea jelly and a whipped cream. I finished off the butter/vanilla muffin with the tea jelly. I would HIGHLY recommend their tea jelly! I liked it so much that I immediately purchased a bottle after my high tea. But it is indeed a pricey item (SGD $19 for a bottle)

Service: 4.5 out of 5. There is only one person who does the ushering. When seated, the waiters were very efficient.

Location: Take the Circle Line and alight at Promenade and head to the basement 2 of The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands.

Cost: $36+ for 2 person. Note for tea time, it is required that each diner must order at least 1 pot of tea/drink. We went for the tea time set (1 pot of tea + 2 muffins/scones) @ $19 and top up with another pot of tea.

Foodie Times: Korean Dessert Bingsu Bingsu Bingsu

Location: Refer to the description below the pictures

 

Mango Bingu - Chicken Up @ Jurong East MRT

Taste: 5 out of 5. Served with whipped cream, it doesn't look like what is shown in their picture. BUT, the finely shaved ice is great. Melts in the mouth and no lumpy ice. A pity it was mango with whipped cream, mango chunks and mango syrup. But for the price, what's more can I ask for.

Service: 4.5 out of 5. For this Bingsu, it was fast unlike my subsequent visit at Chicken Up. 

Location: Located at the 1st floor of Jurong East MRT station.

Cost: $3.50 @ Qoo10 discount

 

Mango Bingu - JIJIM @ Westgate Basement

Taste: 4 out of 5. Wanted to impress someone with the fine shaved ice. Had my expectation up since I tried the bingsu @ Chicken Up. However, it wasn't as good. There were still small lumps of ice and it was a bit too sweet. Apart from the shaved ice, there were a scoop of mango ice cream and a lot of mango chunks.

Service:3.5 out of 5. Preparation was quick a long wait. Not sure what went wrong on that day of my purchase but could see the lady going around many times making this. 

Location: Located at the basement of Westgate, beside Jurong East MRT

Cost: $7.90 per serving. 

Coffee Bingsu (Size = Double) - Caffebene @ Vivocity

Finally get to try this. Been to the place once but it was full house and almost gave up waiting for seats again. There are seats outdoor but it was a hot weather so we didn't want to melt ourselves (and the bingsu) with the weather. To enjoy, push in the ice cream and mixed well. Then... just dig in!

Taste: 4.5 out of 5. This is the bigger size version since there were 3 of us sharing. I found it sweet when I was almost finishing it. It reminded me of the ice-blend mocha from McCafe. I guess I am really more of a tea person than coffee. But the nuts, cereal and chocolate/coffee beans ingredients keep me going as there gave a plenty of those.

Service: 4.5 out of 5. Since there were other orders ahead of ours, so we did wait for a short while.

Location:  Level 2 of Vivocity. (We got lost even though we had been there before).

Cost: $19.90 for the Double Size

Foodie Times Tsujiri @ Tanjong Pagar 100AM

Continued my eating spree in the lunch hours.

The hot weather forced us to seek shelter in the airconditioned shopping mall @ 100AM.

Came to this store Tsujiri which take prides in bringing the best quality green tea (matccha).

Majority of their items are beverages but the roll cake caught my attention. 

Hojicha Roll Cake

Ever since I tried Hojicha, everything related to Hojicha will immediately get my attention. If I remembered correctly, there was a label saying this roll cake is a limited quantity item. I bought it almost immediately. 

A plus factor for the roll cake, it came with (I assumed) matccha whip cream and red bean. It helped to "up" the roll cake's value. Cake texture is compact. The red bean added sweetness to it. The whip cream is light on taste but it turned watery. The presence of Hojicha is minimal.  

Cost: Approx. $5+ (Can't remember the exact cost)

Quantity: Good

Visual: Good 

Location: Around 10 minutes walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT

Foodie Times Tendon Ginza Itsuki@ Tanjong Pagar

Went to Tendon Ginza Itsuki on a weekday and joined the queue at 11.20am.

Afternoon operation starts at 11.30am till 2.30pm.

The staff/chef came out to take order at around 11.25am. Had to decide on the spot between the 2 set as they need to prepare. With a price difference of $1, I opted for the Special set which had prawn, chicken on top of the pumpkin, baby corn, etc etc which I remembered from the internet menu it was priced at $13.90.

We were given a seat at the corner table and ordered green tea. With no menu found anywhere, I just assumed green tea would be the least pricey drink. 

This bowl of cabbage was the free flow side served in Tendon Ginza Itsuki. Seemed pretty similar to normal cabbage, not spicy or sour just mild sweet and crunchy at room temperature or slightly cold and mixed with other vegetables. I had a small serving of this and stopped to save space for the main dish later.

After waiting for roughly 10-15 mins, our food came...

The Chawanmushi has a soft and silky texture covered with a layer of thick broth which reminded me of sharkfin. The seaweed complements the egg perfectly with naruto, mushroom etc within. 

Here is the main course

Highlight of all would be the baby corn.
I am not a corn lover, but this baby corn is crunchy and has a fresh corn smell/taste which is just right for my taste bud.

The least recommended ingredient would be the chicken.
I am a meat lover and I didn't like how the chicken doesn't taste like chicken. Even the taste of chicken wasn't present! It is recommended to "bath" the chicken with the sweet sauce to compensate for the bland taste.

Although the portion seemed small, but I was bloated in the end. Maybe it's the tea although I had a cup only.

Settled the bill but... Surprised!Surprised!

Cost: Approx. $22 each person. (The green tea was $3.80 and not yet inclusive of the additional charges!)

Quantity: Just nice! 

Visual: Excellent (The mushroom came later and was served separately. The staff offered to help place it nicely)

Location: Just 10 minutes walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT

Foodie Times Boomerang @ Robertson Quay

Brunch time! The very first brunch visit with my friends. A search from the web display this place as one of the brunch location but I am not recommending to this place to those who do not have big appetite.

The presentation of the food looks excellent.

3 Eggs (comes with 4 triangle slices of thick toast)

(The fillings: Shaved Leg Ham, Mushrooms, Tomato) (SGD $14) 

You can choose 3 fillings from the list below (any additional filling is an addition of $1)

 • shaved leg ham • smoked salmon • spicy Italian sausage• salami • baby spinach • Spanish onion• tomato • mushroom • cheddar • jalapeño • capers • Kalamata olives •

The egg omelete was well cooked. 

But personal preference would be towards the type of egg omelete texture, something similar to McDonald's Big Breakfast.

For those who dislike buttered toast, rest assure as the toast they served doesn't do so. They provided the butter for you to decide how much butter you want, or if you decide to have it plain. However, the toast overpowered my big appetite that I was almost toward drinking a mouthful of plain water for every bit after the 2nd slice.

Seriously, I made a bad choice combining mushroom and tomato. It seems to have this weird taste which confused my taste bud, thinking that something tasted fishy. Turns out that mushroom with tomato is a no-no unless you like the combination of their taste.

Additional sides - sauteed potato (SGD $3?/$5?)

A very filling side dish which I regretted ordering since I couldn't even finish the toast. A very compact bite was all I can remember because I was too full from the toast.

Ice Mocha  (SGD $6)

It's been a long time since I drink ice coffee and since almost everyone ordered this, so I went along. See that bottom layer, it's chocolate. A mild sweet beverage.

If you are not a coffee lover, here is the ice tea. ($6)

This is the Steak and Eggs ($24/$25?)

(Apologies for my bad photo taking skills)

The Ashes ($22)

This is very worth it if you compared what is consists of for brunch. Almost everything that you would want to order are within... From the toast (which is at the right hand side top corner), to the harshbrown, bacon, sausage, omelete etc etc

As it was noon time, my friend opted for the Wagyu Burger (SGD $25)

A bite off the Wagyu Burger

Hm.. This should be Chicken Parmigiano?? ($25)

It's nice and it reminds me of Lasagna.

Potato Wedges (SGD $10) that remains crispy on the outside and yet soft within even after being left untouched for a period of time BUT we are just too FULL...

Boomarang is located at:

60 Robertson Quay, #01-15 The Quayside

Singapore 238252 (next to The Gallery Hotel)

Tel: +65 6738 1077

Operating Hours: 7 am to 3 am (Mon - Sun)

Source: www.boomarang.com.sg