Koh Grill and Sushi Bar

During our recent girly meet up, Emily suggested lunch at her favourite Japanese place.

“It’s inside Wisma foodcourt and I have made a reservation.” she said.

 

At the back of my mind, I was wondering why there is a need for reservation since it is located inside a foodcourt?! Dang!

Our reservation was at 12noon. When I arrived at 11.40AM, a queue was already forming! (It opens daily from 11.30AM).

 

The food certainly did not disappoint. However, do not have high expectations of the service and the ambience. It looks like this Japanese place is rather understaffed. It is very hard to get the attention of the service staff. The floor around our table was still very wet but the waitress did remind us to watch our steps.

Our order

 

The Appetiser
This is a cold dish - century egg and tofu, with fish roe. 

The "must-order"

We ordered both the Shiok maki – Gen 1 and Shiok maki – Gen 2. Emily and I both prefer the Gen 1. Gen 1 consists of eel and avocado while Gen 2 consists of tempura prawn and chewy seaweed. The creamy sauce is indeed very shiok! If you are someone who loves cheese, you will love this dish.

The Yakitori
I wanted to order the asparagus wrapped with pork belly and mushrooms wrapped with pork belly but they did not have it. So I asked for “anything else that’s wrapped with pork belly”. Here's cherry tomatoes wrapped with pork belly. It is a tad too oily but anything with pork belly seldom goes wrong for me.

The soup
I requested for warm water as I was still nursing a bad cold. The waitress simply brushed me off with “we do not serve this.” (Ok fine…) I ordered Evian mineral water instead. I feel that they could have been more flexible. I do not mind paying for the warm water. Emily suggested that we share a pot of soup (I cannot remember what’s the name). The soup is nice but I will not order this again as I do not handle fish bones very well.

 

Carpaccio

Thinly sliced swordfish and salmon, served with a light sauce and lots of garlic.

 

We also ordered a small bowl of garlic rice to share. The total bill came up to S$84 for 2 persons.

Koh Grill and Sushi Bar
Wisma Atria Shopping Centre
#04-23 (Besides toast box)
Reservation is strongly recommended! Tel: +65 9180 3805

Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice - in Teochew style!

It was only 4.30pm on a rainy Saturday. But it was almost full house in the coffeeshop and there was a long queue for takeaways.

"What is your order?" I heard a familiar voice behind me. It was the friendly uncle who always takes the orders and payments.

 

At Lim Seng Lee, there is no menu. Every table has the same dishes - braised duck, egg, duck internal organs, sambal kangkong and tofu. My favourite is the sambal kangkong and the tender duck meat that goes very well with the sweet vinegar chili and the dark gravy. The gravy also goes very well with both rice and porridge! Perfect combo!

Tucked in a corner of South Buona Vista Road

 

This place has got a rustic feel!

 

Boneless braised duck meat

 

 Sambal Kangkong

 

 Tofu

Duck's internal organs (which the friendly uncle likes to refer it to "spare parts")

Sweet vinegar chili 

 

 

The total bill came up to S$29.50 for the above (inclusive of 3 bowls of rice and 2 sour plum drink).

Unfortunately, after 45 years in business, the owner has decided to retire in June 2013. Do give this a try if you havent!

 

Address : 38 South Buona Vista Road

Opening hours : Mon to Sat from 10AM to 8.30PM. Closed on Sundays.

A fruit named Salak

IMG_0427, originally uploaded by Technical Tango.

Have you heard of this fruit called Salak and whose skin resembles that of a snake? I have not.

So when Chin asked the tour driver to bring us to buy Salak, I was surprised to see such a fruit. They say it tasted like jackfruit. Anyway, as I am personally not a fan of jackfruit, I gave it a miss.

Salak pondoh is an important fruit in Yogyakarta province. In the five years to 1999, the annual production in Yogyakarta doubled to 28,666 tons. Its popularity among local Indonesian consumers is mainly due to the intensity of its aroma, which can be overripe and sweaty even before full maturation.

Salak is a species of palm tree. The fruit grow in clusters at the base of the palm, and are also known as snake fruit due to the reddish-brown scaly skin. They are about the size and shape of a ripe fig, with a distinct tip. The pulp is edible. The fruit can be peeled by pinching the tip, which should cause the skin to slough off so it can be pulled away. The fruit inside consists of three lobes, each containing a large inedible seed. The lobes resemble, and have the consistency of, large peeled garlic cloves. The taste is usually sweet and acidic, but its apple-like texture can vary from very dry and crumbly (salak pondoh from Yogyakarta) to moist and crunchy (salak Bali).

Brunch is the only reason for waking up early on a weekends

IMG_7509, originally uploaded by Technical Tango.

For the past 2 hours, I had been patiently uploading this one photo on blogger.....

Brunch @ Wild Honey!

I so love the pictures I took today! *big grin* Here's my favourite of them all.

Lens : Canon EF50mm f1.8

Brunch @ The Dempsey Brasserie

Address : Block 7 Dempsey Road #01-03 Singapore 249671

We had brunch at The Dempsey Brasserie today! I couldn't find this place on my GPS but fret not, the road signs are very helpful and I managed to find it easily. There were also ample parking spaces.

We had our lunch indoors as it was raining heavily throughout the 4 hours we were there. The restaurant's decor was simple - cement floor, mesh fencing, high ceilings and beams. The bar counter is right in the middle of the restaurant. The whole area looks spacious and I strongly recommend this place for big groups. The staffs were also friendly and attentive. They came around to refill our water and we never had to wait too long for them to attend to us.

Some photos of the restaurant

We ordered Pancakes to share

Most of us ordered the Eggs Royale.

I personally find this average. Infact the food was already turning cold when it was served.

I am not a fan of french onion soups but the generous servings of thick melted cheese was irresistible. Yums!

Truffle fries!

The desserts (1) - Birthday cake for Derrick

The desserts (2) - Birthday cake for Jacelyn

The desserts (3)

 From all of us!

Drink, Drank, Drunk @ 上海小南國

My colleague calls this Huang(2) Jiu (3). My first try and I did not like it ; taste like chinese medicine. I heard this is good for health though.

First formulated in Shanghai in 1939 and brewed in 8-year quality wine essence.

Thai House, Shanghai

Thai House, Shanghai is a quaint restaurant just 5 minutes walk from Hotel Nikko, Shanghai. On our 3rd night, we decided to have something non-chinese. We ordered Coconut Rice, Tom Yum Seafood Soup, Eggplant and Green Curry.

My favourite is the eggplant in claypot (2nd dish from the right). I think I ate most of it. Haha!!

Our first time trying Coconut Rice. My colleague liked it very much. But it was too sweet for me.

Shreds of coconut meat

All photos were taken with iPhone 4.

新吉士餐廳

I was in Shanghai for work during the past week. On one of the weekdays, I met up with KK! (It is always good to meet an old friend when overseas). He took me to 新吉士餐廳 and one of the dishes we ordered was the 大炸蟹.

Seriously I can't appreciate 大炸蟹- so much efforts, so little meat. LOL.

I still prefer my all-time favourite - salted egg yolk crabs and in the comfort of own home! Yums!

I bought this at Pudong International Airport. If it is good, I will get more on my next trip.

All photos taken with my iphone 4