Basil Alcove Again After the Longest Time

It has been QUITE awhile since we last came here. Quite a bit has changed. The location, for one. It has moved to a more prominent spot around the building. Still the same building, but just a few shops down to a corner unit. I guess it makes a difference. Also, the prices. The prices of food seem to have increased, notably, my all time favourite dish here, by almost double.



Tomato & basil soup (Jian fill in price please). Pretty much tomato soup with pesto drizzled on top. It's nice.


Jian ordered the set meal which comes with a salad. This is their caesar salad.Tasty. No complaints.


Jian's duck (the set costs $14). Prettily plated. He said it was done perfectly. The piece I had was tasty. :) Came with some french beans (I think) & grilled eggplant.



My favourite Chicken Avocado & peaches ($14). AHEM. OK, I really don't mean to be critical here, but when we paid $7.90 for this before, I had peach slices & a mound of salad. Now it is still a great tasting chicken dish, I'll HAVE to give it that, but I was a tad disappointed that I got peach cubes now (lesser amount of peach, I mean) & I wished for more avocado. Also, baby corn, although I did eat it, is not my favourite. I associate them with chinese stir fry veges. They tasted alright, I'll have to say though. Plus side, I got grilled eggplant too. The dish still rocks, but give me more avocado & peaches please!!! I am paying almost double of what I used to, after all!!!


Jian had an expresso after. He had (I think) 2 beers before & I had an iced lemon tea (the Heaven & Earth one, which is nice, but I don't like their green tea as much).


Have to wait for Jian to fill in the prices of whatever I left out.

Modesto's @ Orchard Parade Hotel

We ate once before a few years back at the Modesto's at Vivocity. I'd even forgotten about it until Jian mentioned is whilst we were deciding where to eat, as we actually wanted to eat at Esmirada, but couldn't get a table. I cannot remember what we ate, but he said it was some pizza with scamorza or something or the other.

Anyway, we were seated inside. Now, inside is a far cry from outside. Outside (al fresco) is very casual & a bit haphazard & is really more for people-watching & having a beer or something, but inside is quiet, grand & makes me feel like I'm in a fine dining restaurant. It's great for dates. Hehe. Oh yar, we were on a date mah. Husband & wife dinner date is still a date, you know.


Bread with olive oil. Complimentary, I think? It was plonked on the table soon after we arrived.

Insalata Di Avocado ($16.50). Is yummy.

Penne Alfredo Con Funghi ($21). Don't know why shitake mushrooms & pasta would cost over $16, but oh well. It was nice enough so I guess I shouldn't complain. Well, I'll only complain about the price. I think the portion was quite substantial though. So maybe I won't complain. :9

Verdure Pizza ($19.50). Thin crusted pizza, yummy also. I think I've gone off pepper though, but it's not their fault there are peppers on it. I didn't know I'd gone off peppers yet. I wish there were more mushrooms & eggplant though.

We didn't order any drinks as the drinks didn't seem like such a good deal. Luckily so, as we were STUFFED by the end of the meal. We were actually already full by the time we finished the pasta.

This little stowaway came along to make sure we didn't eat any lamb.

Oh, I must emphasise on their service. All the staff maintain eye contact with you, I noticed. Everytime I said 'Thank you', they would stop, LOOK at you & say 'You're welcome'. At most other places, they just charge off, maybe with a cursory nod of the head or something. It DOES make a difference. Heh.

Jian's Home-Made Burgers

Jian made burgers at home! He used readily ground beef (probably weight watchers, but I could be wrong) & the centre of the patty is pate. Can't remember what pate, either, but it's been hanging around for a while, so he decided to use it to give the patty a tenderer texture. Well it made the patty a bit crumbly, but it's all good. Heh.

Roasted potatoes & a salad accompanied the meal! The buns were baked by his mum in the afternoon!


The mandatory veges: butterhead lettuce, tomato & fried onions.

Great with a Coke (or Pepsi or fizzy orange or iced lemon tea or... Well, you get the picture) or a beer!

PS Cafe @ Ann Siang Hill

We met Dracoholic for lunch one day & she suggested PS Cafe at Ann Siang Hill. Previously, I believe this premise used to be a gym or spa or something.


Poutine. Fries with foie gras & gravy & don't know what else. Yummy. Sinful, but yummy.


All Day Breakfast Sandwich. I was the only one who didn't order from the set menu (click on the title & you get to peruse all the menus & read whatever I forgot to fill in) as I wasn't that much interested in the options that were left by the time Jian & Draco chose theirs. Since I love eggs, this was a no brainer for me. YUM-O. I secretly love croissants more than I should. The buttery taste & fluffy texture is just... yummy... & I was glad it came like it did.

Chicken Parmesan w Tomato soup set. Jian's order. I wasn't so big on this one. It's just fried chicken & cheese in bread & a tomato based sauce, I think. Can't remember much of the soup either. It was probably quite nice.

Grilled ham, cheese, mushrooms w soup of the day (fish chowder I think) set. Draco's sandwich, which I thought was the next better one after mine. The bread was a bit hard tough. White ash bread or something. Interesting, but hard. Soup not bad, from what I remember.

My ice chocolate in the background & Jian's Ice coffee in the foreground. This is like the best ice chocolate drink I have ever had! You get a grainy texture from the drink! Yum!

Draco's tea. Forgot what tea.

I wouldn't have minded one of the cakes in the background. HMPF.

Lazy to post prices here. Would wait for Jian to do them if he even remembers them. The online menu doesn't include prices. Don't know why. Overall, a nice casual (albeit a bit uppity), but a bit of a pricey place for eats.

Il Siciliano @ Faber Drive

This neighbourhood restaurant is owned by an Italian married to a local girl. I like these kind of joints, as, when the owners are hands-on in the restaurant, the place seems lively & happier. Unless the owners are the grumpy sort, which they are not (whew).

There are mainly 2 girls working the floor & both are the chirpy sort. The owner would oversee operations or sometimes, if you're lucky, he'd be in the kitchen.

Octopus Salad. Now we ate this meal quite a while ago. I do remember that the octopus wasn't tough & quite delicious, really. I think the dressing is balsamic vinegar & olive oil. The only thing I have to say is that I'm not a fan of bitter leaves & there were some lurking around. Jian is fine with it. It's just a matter of preference & I can't fault the dish, really.

Eggplant Parmagiana. I'll have you know that we did come back a second time after this meal & we ordered this dish again. We really like it! We both love eggplant, cheese & tomatoes, so.. it's really hard to find fault with this combi, even if it was just mediocre. But it wasn't. I think the cheese was crisp & added some texture to the dish. I could be wrong & might have mixed it up with something else.

Crabmeat Linguine. Very good. The only other place we've tried so far with good crabmeat pasta is Ricciotti. There was this period whereby they had excellent 141 promos, but I don't know if they still have it now. ANYWAY... I remember the one at Ricciotti has a cream sauce. It's just done differently, that's all. This one is excellent!

Pizza with bacon. Can't remember the name of it. I need help from Jian. Ok, we were stuffed to the gills by the end of this pizza, & I mean STUFFED. We should have ordered the pizza FIRST & THEN decided if we wanted a pasta after. OH WELL. Very yummy. Just love bacon. Don't like how it adds inches to your everywhere, but BACON. MMmMMMmmMM. & their pizzas are thin crust. YUM. LOVE thin crust pizzas.

We were treated to this home-made tiramisu! Now, for all of you who do not know this... Dessert goes into a DIFFERENT stomach. It's a nice cake, this, but I feel it is lacking in a certain something. Maybe it has not enough alcohol in it. Haahaahaahaaahaahaaa!! Lovely anyway.

Jian had 2 of these. Probably explains why he was as stuffed as me. My excuse is valid. I got not much space (& even less so now. This meal was eaten on 14/10/11.) & am condemned to eating small meals until January. I still try to push my luck, though. Mwaahaa.

A coffee & a tea we had, after. I think the total bill came up to around the region of $120? Jian, correct me if I'm wrong.

I really should continue with the 2nd meal we had with my sister & gang, but the other photos, I think are stored in Jian's phone. Nevermind. I'll get down to it later.

Tom's Diner @ Hong Leong Gardens

Hong Leong Gardens is a soon-to-be torn down block of old apartments. Pity, really. I grew up walking past this place almost everyday. Kind of like it. The floor tiles are very 70s retro.


We've eaten here twice already. The portions are generous. The first time, our food was way salty & we told them so. No air-con here though, so try to sit under the fan. Outside isn't too warm either, since it seems to always rain in the afternoon nowadays.


My Club Sandwich with Fries & Coleslaw ($10.80). Not bad, really. It's nothing to shout about, but it's tasty & fills the tummy. One thing is that they are not stingy with the ingredients, which is good. Nothing like a pathetically filled sandwich, like 7-11's to spoil your day. I would SO go back for the club sandwich. I kind of like it more than I should. Heh.

Jian's mushroom pasta. I think he requested for linguine, but she said linguine would take like half an hour to prepare, unless he wanted penne. I didn't really get it? Pasta takes a short while to boil, doesn't it? Maybe they had a portion of penne left & just wanted to egg him into eating that one, without wasting. Anyhow, the taste was not bad really. Will leave Jian to fill in the price (something along the line of $12, I think).

Jian had 1 or 2 Hoegarden pints. Can't remember how many. Maybe 1. A Hoegaarden pint costs $12 here all night! Super!!!! I want to come here & drink Hoe's all night after I pop!

Blooie's @ Clementi

Yes, we have been a tad bit quiet lately. No bother. Not like anyone actually reads this stuff anyway. Today, I am talking about the recently opened Blooie's at Clementi. We happened to want to try the food there & it just happened to be the official opening of the place.


Cobb Salad ($15.80). Shredded iceberg lettuce, cajun chicken, tomatoes, avocado, egg, bacon bits & blue cheese with a lemon vinegarette dressing. Not too bad.

My Blooie's Roadhouse Special Club ($17.80). Cajun chicken, bacon, avocado & cheddar cheese. Pretty good sandwich, BUT the fries did not come out piping hot. I must say, I know fries take just a short time to cool down into mediocre fare, but pride in your food means serving piping hot fried potato!!!!!!

Jian's Pasta Primevera ($14.80). I don't know why he went around ordering pasta at a burger joint. This one did not look good at all. It reminded me of the time we went to Bakerzin & I refused to try his Lamb Stew Pasta. True enough, he said that it wasn't up to standard.

I had a Pepsi as well. At $4, the glass was quite small.

GST & service charge apply here.

Would we go back? Erm. Don't know. I'd try the burgers next time, if we do, but I'd be hoping for piping hot fries. The happy hour isn't so hot either. On the website, it stated that there was a all night happy hour promotion (it's still on the website NOW, & the official opening was on the 1st of October 2011), but when we got there, the waitress told us that happy hour was only till 8pm. HHRRRMMM.

Baden @ Holland Village

So... We used to frequent Baden more often something like 7 years back. Jian more often than me. A few years ago, we finally decided to try their FOOD. Now I can't remember what I had, but he had the pork knuckle & he wasn't impressed.

Well, anyway, we went back for dinner on Friday. We initially wanted to try El Patio, but it seemed too packed to be true, so... well... we ended up at Baden lor.


We ordered the Gulashesuppe (Goulash soup) which was just OK. The laugen bread that came with is was pretty tasty though. It was the highlight of the soup. Jian marvelled at how white the inside of the bread was. $7

Konigsberger klopse (Chicken Cheesy Meatballs). Looking ordinary.

A meatball sliced open. Looking promising, BUT I felt that the taste was nothing spectacular & in fact, a tad bit bland, even with the dip provided. $12


Schweinekotelette mit pommes und salat (Pork loin with fries & salad, but we changed the fries to mash). Ok this was the highlight of the entire meal. The pork loin was nicely seared, with a thin delicious sliver of fat along one side. The crust gave a nice crackle, complementing the juicy meat. It was just slightly pink in the middle. I would SO order this again if we ever came back to eat. I might even insist on ordering it as a snack whilst having drinks. Must try it with the fries though. Haahaahaa. $19

Wurrsteplatte- drei (Platter of 3 types of sausages). There was no description of the sausages & I cannot remember the taste much anymore. I remember describing one of the shorter sausages (the more speckly one, I think) as tasting more like potato. Sausages were a bit disappointing for the price. The sauerkraut had a weird spice which we found strange to eat but I ate it together with the mash & sausage & it wasn't so bad then. $22

Jian had 2 pints & 2 half pints of mixed Erdinger, happy hour price. I tried some & I would describe it as a neither here nor there kind of taste. I'd rather have either dark or light. $15 for a pint & $11 for half pint (141 during happy hour).

Happy hour till 9pm.

The bill came up to $94.60. The only charge service charge. No GST (whee).

Teatime Cake @ Bakerzin

Met one ofmy buddies at Jurong Point for tea at Bakerzin. They have weekday tea time specials of $8.90++ for a cake & a drink. Coffee or tea. Any coffee & any tea. They serve TWG teas here. OF COURSE, I went for the vanilla bourbon tea.



This is the Sumatra. It's coffee flavoured. The inside is soft stuff. Don't know what, but it's a layer of white & a layer of brown. YUM-O!

Chocolate Amer. Nice & choclatey. I LIKE!

Both the cakes were oooo good & I wanted to polish off everything as my friend eats like a bird, but I didn't want to spoil my dinner. BAH!

Tango's for Dinner

We've been to Tango's before, but we've only really had drinks & eaten the clams or mussels or both. So we decided to have dinner there on some weekday that Jian could get off early-ish from work, which seems to be an extremely rare occasion these few months, which is a cause for celebration, really.

Stuffed or baked mushrooms. I didn't expect them to taste so chinese-style. The stuffing was like fish paste with a generous (perhaps too generous) amount of chinese celery in it. The dipping sauce, according to Jian, seemed japanese inspired.


Spicy meatballs. They were not bad, but not fantastic. I think Jian liked it more than me.


Oxtail stew with fettucine. I thought this was the best dish we had that night. I mean, I am probably biased here, as I love to eat stew, but mind, I can tell the difference between good & bad stew too, alright, the worst being at this pub at Traas street called 'Obama's' or something or the other. Burnt taste all the way. :S Not that this one was any fantastic. I just said I'm biased as I think this is the best of the lot of mediocore tasting food that night. Jian cannot decide if it's the spicy meatballs or the stew.

Anyway, we felt that the food was not fantastic. It was just so-so and not really something to crow about. I guess this place really is mainly a drinking place after all.

OK, I know that Pure Blonde is not exactly a new beer anymore, but it's still one of my favourite beers & I have been depreived of it for too long. Despite Jian always suggesting I try new things, I managed to not be swayed this time round & ordered me my Pure Blonde (happy hour, making it 2 bottles). Haahaa!

It's happy hour until 8pm, so it's 141 for all beers (they do have a decent selection) & a lower price for other drinks. 141 Asahi all night.

Jian had 2 pints of Erdingers & a lime margarita, happy hour pricing, of course.

Our bill was $102.99.

Quick Sale Dinner

Do not gasp at the 'use by' dates on the quick sale packaging, compared to the date of this post. We actually had this meal on the same day as the previously posted Aji No Mori meal.

After the heavy Aji No Mori meal, we walked around Holland Village for a bit (mind, there is nothing much to cover there), felt a bit sleepy & decided to buy stuff from Cold Storage & cook a simple dinner afters. That's when we found HOARDS or quick sale items!!! We just can't resist buying quick sale!!

Check it out:

There were other sausages on quick sale, but we've never tried this brand before & it seemed the healthiest one, according to the packaging, anyway.

Upon opening the packaging, we found that the sausages looked like they were really mostly meat with minimal fats. Meat from which part of the cow, I don't want to know.

The fried up sausages! We parboiled the sausages first, of course. The taste was alright. I would buy these again on quick sale. They WERE a tad bit on the tough side, though, but I guess it's to be expected, since they seemed quite lean for sausages.

A chicken pie & a spinach quiche. We saw another chicken pie going for $2.50 or $2.55 & frankly speaking, even though the price difference is negligible, we obviously chose the cheaper one.

Chicken pie was good. I should have savoured it instead of wolfing it down, really.

This quiche had a cinnamon taste to it, which we felt didn't go too well with a savoury quiche. I should have eaten the quiche first & saved the chicken pie for the last.

This parmesan was not from quick sale. In fact, we bought it from Meidi-Ya quite a while ago & only broke it out of the packaging on this quick sale meal day. It was purchased at normal price, but normal price is cheaper than other brands of parmesan cheese. Jian likes it. I grated some into an omelette the other day.

Our fibre intake for the night.

Pesto from Italy that Jian's brother brought back. It costed him 13 euros for the jar. It looks like a 500g jar? Good stuff though.

Pepper dip Jian bought from a fair. It's not very nice on it's own, so the next time we had it, we squeezed some lemon & added some salt in it. Much better that way.

Can't really give a price for this meal, but I guess we can add $5 to $10 to the price of the quick sale items.