Chinese New Year Makanathon

Over the course of the Chinese New Year period, I had the opportunity to eat and eat and eat. From super expensive to totally forgettable food, from Chinese to Western, set meal to buffet I tried them all. Luckily in the lead up to my race next week, I had lost some weight and so after all these foods, I put back what I lost without any gain.

Here are highlight of some of the nice food

White Pepper Alaska Crab - This was definitely the highlight of the season and also the most expensive. This single crab alone cost $370.00! Usually Alaska crab is served steamed and chilled but this one at Long Beach Seafood was cooked in white pepper and I must say this is real yummy! The mix of the white pepper and the sweetness of the crab goes so well. This has to be the highlight of the period!

There was this day when a few of us went to Edge at Pan Pacific Hotel. I was totally bowled over by the variety of food available at the buffet spread. Too bad my stomach couldn't take in everything. They had everything from Chinese to India to Italian to Japanese. And all the food are cooked in small amount at the open concept kitchen but my favourite was definitely the dessert corner especially the chocolates and pralines.

 

Another place that I went to and have always enjoyed the food was Sze Chuan Dou Hua. They have this special section called the Tian Fu Tea Room where they serve dim sum and tea. During the Chinese New Year period, they have this wonderful tea set menu at $32.00 per head. Except for the roasted chicken which I felt didn't go well with the tea theme, the rest of the food were good. Unfortunately, I was dining with friends and I didn't think it was nice to take photos.  But here is a very nice review of the food with wonderfully taken photo.

And last but not least, another place that had good food was an old favourite Rama Thai Shark fin Restaurant. Unfortunately I am trying to reduce my liking for shark fin as I felt rather guilty about eating shark fin but hey how to go to a shark fin restaurant and not eat shark fin? Even though we had the most basic (read cheapest) set on the menu, the shark fin still impress. Poor shark though. The only other thing that spoilt the dinner was the pushy waitress who tried to first get us to take the more expensive set and when that failed, every time she walked by our table, she tried to get us to "upsize". First it was the shark fin from a shared portion to individual bowl, then it was to change the crab in the crab vermicelli from the small Indonesian crab to a Sri Lankan Crab and finally asking us to get the Yu Sheng! Again no pictures for this food session. 

There were a few other places that I went to during this period but the food ranges from average to forgettable so I shall not mention them here. But here is a photo of a giant size pizza that we had on one of these occasion:

Food in Kota Kinabalu

Was in Kota Kinabalu a few weeks back and had a great time eating the local street food. We stayed in the Gaya area and there was absolutely the best food around. We went with the flow and ate mostly at the crowded shops although we did dine at some of the not so crowded and we immediately knew why they were not crowded!

Our first stop was dinner at this Bak Kut Teh place. The place was absolutely swamped with people from the minute it opened in the afternoon till it close at night.

This is the typical Malaysia style bak kut teh and comes with all sort of side dishes like pork ball, intestines, livers, stomach etc

Next up was breakfast at this place just across the road from the Bak Ku Teh store. There were 2 stalls inside the coffee shop, one selling Sarawak kolo mee and the other Sarawak style laksa. The kolo mee was the more popular stall. But I thought the laksa was not too bad too.

Kolo mee

Laksa

On the way back from race pack collection, we had lunch at this place that one of the guys recommended. The place was crowded and hot. There were many people ordering the noodles from one of the stall within but we went for the fried noodle stall and sadly the food were so so. Dinner was zhi char food at a shop next to our hotel but it was just passable and so all these shall not get a mention here. 

Breakfast on Sunday was at a dim sum shop. We had dim sum and noodle but these were normal and nothing to rave about. 

The only reason the dim sum shop get a mention and a picture here is that they used those 3-in-1 packet for the teh tarik that we ordered! Either they must be darned proud of their Sabah produced 3-in-1 tea or that is the way tea and coffee are made in the country but I don't really fancy those commercially produce tea.

For lunch we went to what must be the most famous Western food outlet in town, Little Italy! See we are kinda  weird, we do our carbo loading after the race and not before! Our party had pizza, pasta, salad the usual Italian stuff. Was the food really that good? I guess if there is a scarcity of such food in the country, it will be considered good and of course we wolfed down the food but frankly I think there are better pizza and pasta back home.

Ochre Italian Restaurant

On my third forage in as many month, we went to Ochre Italian Restaurant at the Orchard Central. It was the occasion of the Princess' birthday.

Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about going there. The review on the web all pointed to poor service. There was also some sort of dress code for dining indoor and I wasn't sure the Princess will want to deviate from her usual wardrobe of shorts and sandals. But in the end, encouraged by the thought of a 50% discount on the meal thanks to some UOB vouchers, we decided to go anyway.

Now my dining at Italian restaurant has mainly been confined to pasta and pizza since I don't know nuts about the Italian language and don't understand half of what are written in the menu. I am always reminded of a scene in the Mr Bean's movie when he pointed at the menu and ended up with some weird food. That was a French restaurant but its all the same to me anyway.

Anyway, our fears were unfounded. The service was excellent and the waitress even helped us to take a group photo. The waiter was kind enough to help us to order, food were served promptly in the correct order and the water was replenished regularly.

For the record, we had the Burrata which was highly recommended by everybody on the web. This is some sort of cheese coated salad with tomato over the Parma ham. I must admit this is really shiok especially the ham.

Then we had another appetizer (they called it antipasti) which was recommended by the waiter, a plate of all sort of mixed items comprising of parma ham, caviar on the octopus, mushroom, smoked salmon, honey melon and some "grass". I must said the smoked salmon and the ham were excellent.

For the main, we played safe hoping not to over order and had a pizza to share while the Kid had the Hereford Beef and the Princess had the set meal.

The set meal came with a soup and a desert and cost $55.00, Can't remember what exactly it is but it wasn't too bad. Veal, mushroom and some cheese base.

M had a pasta called the Cappelini Scallop which was pasta cooked aglio style topped with scallop. I loves pasta and this was good. Just the right amount of spiciness and generous serving of scallops.

To round off the meal, I ordered another desert of Hot Chocolate cake which was just heavenly.

The Princess' dessert looks prettier though. Some fruit thingy.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal. We didn't over-order this time round, there was a well balanced selection of food unlike our experience at Salta where it was all meat. Will I go again? Unfortunately, stingy me won't pay too much for a meal and unless there is really some great promotion or another round of voucher from UOB or another credit card company, I don't think I will go again.

Pizza Capers

I always love to visit new food outlets especially pizza outlet. There this place at East Coast Road called Pizzacapers which claimed to originate from an Australian chain. Me? I have never heard of the place prior to this and the quite empty place didn't inspire any confidence. But what was great were the many witty slogans and quirky scribbles on the wall and place mat.

So we decided to try them out. We started off with the Parmesan crust which comes with a choice of dips. Taste great especially with the Guacamole dip. 

We also ordered the Capers wings which are chicken wings in a spicy sauce and deep fried. This is just like the many hot wings that are available everywhere and not that great or spicy but they do use fairly large chicken wings though.

Of course, we saved the best for last. The pizza. They had a promotion ongoing, there were 6 of us and so we ended up with 4 regular pizzas to share. Their pizza is the traditional type which is just what I like best. Not for me the thick dough type of pizza. We wolfed down the pizza in double quick time!

The nice looking interior of the restaurant.

And they served Australian beer too!

Bruno's Pizzeria & Grill

The last time we were at this particular outlet in Tanjong Katong, it was known by another name. Now it is called Bruno's Pizzeria and Grill. That last time, we were the only customer. 1 other customer walked in and then walked out but this time round, the place was packed. Luckily, we had been forewarned and we had made a reservation. 

We ordered 1 pizza to share and individual portion of various type of pasta. The average price per dish was about $20.00 but it was certainly worth the money as the portion was fairly large. The pizza was one of the best I had in a long while. 

Pizza!

Black Ink Squid Pasta

Mussel Pasta

Prawn Pasta

So I hope the next time we get round to coming back here, it will still be around. Somehow, those Italian places that we have dined at in recent years – by the time we decide to go back, practically all of them (except the chain outlet like Pizza Hut or the hawker centre/food court outles) have closed down or change owner. Let’s see. there were Finalmente Gastromomia at Macpherson (heard that they moved to Goldhill, still there?), Artz Pizza.. gone with the golf driving range, VI Pizz (replaced by Bruno) and Olive Restorante (closed down together with the spa at Labrador now under new management). Maybe we are a jinx to these places?

Tanjong Katong

Tanjong Katong Road after Dunman Road in the direction of East Coast Road was supposed to receive a new lease of life and become just as popular as its more illustrious cousins East Coast Road and Joo Chiat Road but somehow along the way, it ended up a bit lost I think.

Like the other 2 streets, it comprises mainly food outlet but there are many more coffeeshops and food courts and a sprinkling of dedicated food outlets including a Donut Empire, Punggol Nasi Lemak, 3 pizza outlets (Pizza Hut, Dominoes & Canadian).

In the day, the place is bustling with students from the schools nearby but at night, it is a tad quiet with hardly any pedestrians.

I like this English looking condominium. It always reminds me of those houses in Hugh Grant's movies like Notting Hill; Love Actually and Bridget Jones.





There is this supermarket which boast of premium foodstuff but comes with a weird name. Do they think beggar can afford to buy the stuff there?





We wanted to have dinner at this nice cozy looking place with this interesting name but unfortunately it was closed for a private function. The food should be pretty good judging from the number of newspaper articles on its door.

Instead, we went to this 3 months old French Pizza joint, VIPizz.

We ordered a cream based smoked salmon pizza and a spicy meat tomatoes based pizza. I believe the pizza were prepared by a French guy in the kitchen. I hope it stayed open long enough though cos at 7.30 pm, we were the only customers there which was kinda a shame cos the pizza wasn't half bad - certainly much better than Pizza hut!






After the pizza, we went over to this ice cream outlet very seductively called 'Lick'. The place was pretty busy with customers walking in and out.

We order 4 different flavour of ice cream, strawberry for M; water melon for the Princess and Earl Grey/Kaya Toast for myself. I love the kaya toast best. Not too sweet and not too overwhelming in favour. Price was $3.20 a scope. I think I'll be back for more.

There were a Korean restaurant which looks rather good but we got all excited later when we passed a Japanese restaurant offering ala carte buffet.

We'll be back!

The Olive Ristorante @ Labrador Park

Had dinner at the The Olive Ristorante @ Labrador Park on Saturday evening.

Been wanting to go there for a long time as I was curious how an Italian restaurant in such an ulu place can survive for so long. Transport inconvenient, no air con and right smack in forested area (haven't they heard of dengue?)

Anyway, after running, the 5 of us decided to eat there. Although it was suppose to be an 'atas' restaurant, decided we in our smelly after run gear should still be able to fit right in since the place has not much atmosphere (or some prefer to call it ambience).

I had thought the only reason the place survived for so long was because the food was cheap and good. Unfortunately, I was wrong on both count. It was neither. Most of the appetizer starts at $15.00 and main course from $25 onward. Price by itself seem reasonable considering the 'restaurant' tag but the portion was minuscule.

We ordered a seafood platter and a foie gras to share. Each cost $25.00 but when it came.... we had to cut the 2 teeny roll of salmon into 5 and there were I think some prawn and scallops? which was just enough for each one of us to spear and pop into our mouth once. And in our mind were thinking of the seafood platter that we get at Fish & Co or Manhattan FM!
The foie gras came with 5 very tiny slice of pear and a scoop? of rocket salad.
For the main course, we ordered 2 dishes with unpronounceable Italian names but actually they were just a ham pizza ($25) and seafood spaghetti ($35 each x 2) to share. The pizza was okay - of course much better than Pizza Hut. The seafood spaghetti came wrapped in aluminum foil. Inside there were 1 crayfish cut in 2, 6 prawns and lots of mussels and clams. So not too bad.

Service overall was decent. When the waitress saw this old Uncle me peering at the menu, she came over with a torch. Food came pretty fast. But she lied. She said what we ordered was enough for the 5 of us but I left with barely 1/3 of my stomach filled and so we had to adjourn to Holland Village for further food.

Final verdict - won't be back again. Decent food but not worth the money.

Photos courtesy of Roo + more on the food at Olive Ristorante here