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.

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!

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.

National Day Feast (With TV Off)

Happy National Day to us all! Just look at the spread Dracoholic prepared for us all! She was already pottering around the kitchen before I woke (which was around 12pm).

What a spread!!!

The salad dresed with honey mustard vinegrette . I don't know what dressing this is. I think Satellite made the salad.

Totmato slices with mozzerella on top & drizzled with home-made basil pesto, typically called caprese.

Blanched french beans, tossed with lemon zest, olive oil and sea salt.


Creamed corn with bits of bacon inside!

OK, I love potatoes. These roasted potatoes, carrots & parsnips were excellent! Roasted together with onions & garlic. The parsnips were sweet & tasty, well worth the exorbitant price you pay for parsnips here. We bought parsnips on sale before. Even at half price, I still found them to be horribly expensive!


The highlight of the evening, Dracoholic's slaved-all-day roast chicken stuffed with lemon & rosemary & her home-smoked ribs with her secret kick-ass sauce. The chicken (even the breast)was tender & juicy. Oh she used sakura chicken. It was tasty, all right! ;) The ribs turned out very well indeed too! I would have never imagined smoking your own meat at home! Jian was kind of put off by the smell when the ribs were smoking & even asked me, 'What's burning????'

You drizzle this herb sauce on the chicken for extra flavour.

We finished the night off with home made sangria that Dracoholic & Satellite were furiously chopping fruits for the night before!

Once again, thank you Dracoholic & Satellite for the splendid feast!

Picnic by the Poolside @ Dracoholic's

We were in the mood for outdoors, so we prepared food & drinks & toted everything downstairs to the poolside. We even used REAL wine glasses & plates, as opposed to plastic & paper. Well, except for our forks. We used plastic forks.

Satellite prepared a smoked salmon pasta salad with sun dried tomatoes & capers. Served cold.

I prepared the platter using what Dracoholic had in the fridge. Anti-clockwise from left: ham (either breakfast or picnic), cherry tomatoes, cornishorns, smoked duck (yes the same one I used for the Orange & Duck Salad), parmesan cheese, comte cheese, shiraz cheese & goat cheese.

This guacamole is quite good... although we did not make it ourselves...

... This is the packaging it came in & it was not cheap. It's $7+ for this, which includes 2 servings. as you can see, one serving is not a lot.


In future, I really MUST take pictures of our accompanying wine/drinks.

FATBOYS - The Burger Bar @ The Foundry

Now this is what I call a good juicy well cooked burger ... and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg. Oh and my favorite mozzarella sticks! I had the Bushtucker Burger but with beef instead of pork: prices start from $15 I think.

Beef Patty, Bacon, Fried Egg, Emmenthel Cheese, Beets and Garlic Aioli on a Whole Wheat Bun.

I regret ordering other food from other places plus the mozzarella sticks ... was so full I just wanted to go home and sleep.

By the way, don't bother with the Mexican food .... the portions are small and it's expensive; also nothing to rave about.

TGI Fridays....... NOTTTTTT!

Had the worst experience possible at TGIFs in Singapore ... really worst experience. Wings weren't spicy ... neither did they ask what level of spiciness you'd like ... My club sandwich came with cheap shoulder ham that you can find at any NTUC Fair Price.

This was so majorly disappointing, to see that TGIF's from the US go to shit... They should revoke the franchisees licsense

Servers were busy standing around and the most humorous part of everything was that they spent more time doing their rally calls, chatting and goofing around with each other than actually serving.

Cold Mozzerella sticks, Loaded Potato Wedges that were like rocks that can kill....

If anyone ever asks me to go to TGIF ... I'll tell the to go to Chilis instead! The quality of food and service is a universe apart for these two restaurants.

Good Old Home Cooking

Simple meals to warm the heart! Note that these were cooked on separate occasions ... I am not that crazy to eat all these things in one night!


Szechuan Frog Leg Porridge ... I will place the recipe up when and if I remember how I cook this dish! But it's a great mid-night snack! Satellite and I enjoy eating this dish lots! Woops, I forgot to take a picture of the porridge.



Sumdumful, Jian and myself had a simple meal one night when we were all lazing around in the house and didn't want to step out. Steamed Herbal Drunken Prawns, Steamed Cod Fish Cantonese Tyle, and Bak Choy with Garlic.


Sumdumful, Jian and myself eating a simply cooked western styled dinner ... no salad cause Miss Satellite hasn't been around to make our wonderful salads!


This is cod fish with a lemon white wine sauce and red wine tomato pasta with sausages. By the way, they were my guinea pigs, as I'd never done up a lemon white wine sauce before ... there was salmon also that night but I didn't get a good picture of it!


Oh and I definitely cannot forget the weekly soup ... If I don't have soup I feel like I am missing something ... Home made soup is great for the health and good for your complexion ... best of all when you make it at home, you can be assured that there is no msg! Radish and carrot soup with red dates ... great for our kidneys and livers!

Hard Rock Cafe - KL

My friend wanted to meet me at Hard Rock Cafe in KL, located at the first floor of the Concorde Hotel, although I don't mind eating western food, I've always been very skeptical about Hard Rock's food because their Quality Control for each branch is horrid! I've been to several and some are good, some are just plain horrible.

Frankly, I went in being skeptical but came out a pretty happy person! However, I did forget that American establishments serve American Sizes.

I should have just ordered the Caesar Salad which impressively I found delicious ... could it have been a lack of veggies in my diet for that trip? But I remember eating malay food and heaping the veggies on in the afternoon ... hmmm



I also had some open faced burger that wasn't impressive, the sauce was way too thick for me... sorry guys my pictures really suck ... was tired and hungry and the place was dark and noisy ... so very bad images!

Prince Coffee Shop 太子咖啡座

Travel back in time when you go to the Prince Coffee Shop located at Coronation Plaza ... it's a nice quaint quiet little place.

Sometimes it's just these old places where you can reminisce about the past and taste a bit of history.

Beef Hor Fun is delicious and a must try! Ironcially the Hainanese Pork Chop which I think I forgot to take a picture of ... wasn't soo great ... The stew was nice as well ... but it would be nice as a stroganoff type of dish as the gravy style was more of a stroganoff gravy.

Prices are reasonable, especially the sets ... I am not surprised if many students from around the area head there to eat!

Address: 587 Bukit Timah Road #02-15 Coronation Plaza

The Effort of Three

Sunday night dinner ... we decided to cook up a feast!

Spicy Tomato Soup
Tangy Scallop Salad
Spicy Spaghetti White Wine Clam Sauce
Baked Bread Crumbed Cod with Cheese and Stir fried Zuchinni

Don't remember the recipes ... so please figure it out yourself ... hahahahahah

Spicy Tomato Soup, Tangy Scallop Salad, Spicy Spaghetti White Wine Clam Sauce
Doesn't it look like a set meal from somewhere?

Tuck Shop - Tanjong Pagar Road

21 Tanjong Pagar Road #01-05
Tel: 6534-9287

A great place for a couple of beers and some bar food ... I must say, it's been awhile since I had a nice steak sandwich in Singapore ... and really if you are craving a nice delicious steak sandwich (only $12.90), Tuck Shop is the place to go!

Actually Lynx was the one who told me about it... she said Draco you gotta go ... you'll like the steak sandwich ... but remember it's not exactly your philly cheese steak ok ... so I went and tried ...

By the way, they have a reasonable happy hour deal, although it ends early!


If you are looking for fine dining ... go some place else cause you are not going to find it here... oh yeah one more thing... the CAESAR SALAD is decent, they don't use that bottled stuff ... I think they actually make it from scratch!!!!!!!!! Lynx also thought so ...


And guess what Lynx had ... she had the fried chicken ... what else ... FRIED FRIED FRIED ... everything FRIED!

The Secret Garden

161 Middle Road next to Waterloo Street
Sun - Thur: 11am - 11pm
Fri and Sat: 11pm - 1am
Public Holiday: 6pm - 11pm
CNY: Closed on 1st and 2nd Day; 3rd Day 6pm - 11pm

Tel: 6337 5338 / 63348334

Yummy and reasonable ... errr wat am I talking about ... I dun remember how much and I didn't pay ... but it is reasonable!!!!

Yes yes, what more can you expect from me, of course I ordered my favorite Caesar Salad! I did enjoy the salad, very rare that I say that these days cause not many people make a decent caesar salad. The price of the Caesar, $12.00.

And yes, as usual I take bad pictures ... I just can't seem to get this camera to work correctly. Probably cause I don't really bother to change the settings and all... anyway it's a camera phone ... what do you expect???

The burger was decent ... I was craving burgers so I had to! Yah I liked it, would I go back again to eat ... definitely! Burger was like $18.00 and it was a decent size.





Again I was too busy gobbling away to take other photos of the other dishes people ordered. Couldn't be bothered! .... That's what happens when you are stuck on hospital food for many days!

Biopolis - Bistro Faoulous or Not

Address
20 Biopolis Way#01-01 CentrosSingapore 138668



Hmmm wasn't too impressed with the food ... perhaps it's not Bistro Faboulous... not very sure but it's been awhile since I've been there and the place where I had lunch wasn't fantastic at all... Perhaps the wrong restaurant ... that being said, the portions for everything was pretty good. The finger foods were a bit weird.

We ordered a Cobb Salad but the Cobb was missing! But we were pretty happy with the French Onion Soup ... but seirously how wrong can you go with French Onion Soup!

Didn't really enjoy this weird spring roll finger food that was stuffed with some cream cheese and spinach if I recall correctly ... it was a weird combination.

The burger was a decent size ... but was a bit over cooked ... I did ask for medium rare...

Boogers (Draco's Way of Spellin Burgas) @ KSC

We were promised boogers many many moons ago. By Draco. Until we fergot abowt it. Den she promised us boogers again. & she deliverd on Sunday!!!! SEE!!!!

I shooda teken a pic of it opened, cos de booger patti is.. er.. was VVV thick & perfectly round!!! The bums were toasted wif cheese on top liao... mmMmmMMm. We assembled awr own boogers; put own lettuce inside, put own avocado, tomato, onions.... sauces, if yew wantd (I put mustard & mustard seeds oni, brudda & sista put almost de werks). Jian put so much dat he coon lift de booger up frem de plate. Satellite had to use utensils... I cood lift mine off my plate, but I had to open my mouf FURRY wide..... Be booger patti got proscuito & foie gras inside lei! SO GEWD!! De coleslaw furry yummi asso.... & dey prepared a HUGE mound of fried tater fings as well! Fries & de ball fings (pomme sumfing). Jian ate alot of fried fings. I din, cos wen I went out wif my fren earlier, we had munchies liao, so I was full... FURRY full.... EHEHEHEHE.... I wan summo booger nites... I wan Sangria + Booger nite.... lei...