Paradise on Earth Steamboat

Sorry for the lack of posts recently- I've been busy with work and life, and Siew Mai's been busy with his final exams. His last paper is on Friday, so I suppose more posts will come after that! :)

Steamboat is one of my favourite foods, never mind that its time consuming cuz you have to wait for the food to cook, or that you're paying good money to basically cook your own food. I like how its tummy-warming and filling, and that you usually have it with a group of friends/family (ie bonding time!). I guess it also helps that i love drinking soup!

Look past the slightly cheesy name of this place, and you'll be rewarded with a more-than-decent steamboat option. Its an ala-carte buffet, so items are fresh (meats and fish are sliced on the spot for you).

There are 4 or 5 stock bases including chicken stock, fish head and scallop broth, tom yum soup and mala soup. As ome member of our party doesnt take spicy stuff, we opted for the first 2 soup bases. Both were satisfactorily tasty and didnt leave any msg aftertaste :)

One thing i like about this place is that they have stuff like fried yam, pumpkin, fish glue, and even fried rice. Very few other steamboat buffet places have such options- i love dunking a piece of crispy fried yam in the soup and watching it soak in and absorb the tastiness of the soup till the yam is nice and soft and oh-so-tasty, knowing that its gonna end up in my mouth and belly :)))

Also worthy of mention is their fried rice, which comes free flow with the buffet. Again, you order it off the menu, and I could actually watch the chefs frying it up in the kitchen. No chance of it being pre-fried and placed in a warmer, waiting to be scooped out for unsuspecting customers. I like that there's sufficient wok hei in the dish though it isnt exactly chockful of ingredients. But at least each grain of rice is coated with sufficient egg and is fried to a beautiful golden colour. Tbh, I would even pay for this fried rice if they decided to take it off the ala-carte buffet menu!

Paradise on Earth is located at 200 Tanjong Katong Road, near the HK Street Chun Kee Restaurant. The ala-carte buffet costs 19.90sgd nett, but do note that this excludes drinks!

Domino's

Texas BBQ

Domino's Premiere

I know I've blogged about Domino's before but I gotta re-do it again. Heh. There's nothing better than a Domino's pizza for a busy student during his exams:) I wish they have it in Singapore -__-

Dimsum at Ah Yat Seafood at Turf City

This was half-priced dimsum at Ah Yat Seafood Gallery at Turf City. We over-ordered again, of course, but this time it was justified- we'd just been through a tiring session of 4 hrs of wakeboarding and hadn't had anything to eat the entire day!

The items were not bad overall- seafood was reasonably fresh and porridge wasnt too watery. There were also a few innovative items like pumpkin dumplings and deep fried yam with prawns. But what pushed it up a notch further was def the half price promotion! It's applicable from 11am to 2pm 7 days a week. Only downside is the inaccesible location...

Gourmet Burger Kitchen Burgers

Gourmet Burger Kitchen is a popular burger chain in London. They're famous for their wide range and well just famous for their burgers:) Prices range from about £6-£8 for a burger and each table comes with a cute little ketchup bottle as seen in the picture above:P The burgers are pretty good I would say, and sure as hell beats Burger King anyday!

Gold Mine Restaurant, Bayswater

Roast Duck

Crab Meat Tofu

Apologies for the lack of updates as I've been pretty busy of late. Finally, after being a loyal customer to Four Seasons all this while, I decided to take the leap and try the roast duck at Gold Mine Restaurant. Apparently, the chef of Gold Mine used to work at Four Seasons and decided to set up his own restaurant. I gotta say that the duck tastes exactly the same, and to be honest, I can't really tell the difference between the 2 restaurants. Same fatty duck accompanied with the same delicious sauce. Yummy! We ordered a crab meat tofu as well and a plate of char siew/siew yoke which was pretty decent. However, I was starving and in my hurry to eat I forgot to take a picture of it:S

Riders Cafe

I'd been reading all the rave reviews for brunch at Riders Cafe, and wanted to try it out for myself. So 5 of us Belgium troopers fixed a brunch date a month in advance (that's what you have to do when your friends work in the legal, banking, media and hotel management industries), and made reservations for for a lazy Saturday brunch. :)







The extremely long drive in. It's impossible to walk in, so u'll either have to drive or catch a cab in.













its non-airconditioned, but there's a constant breeze and lots of fans arnd so it isnt too warm imo.

Eggs Florentine with Creamed Spinach and Rustic Mashed Potatoes

Om nom nom

Smoked Norwegian Salmon with Eggs Benedict and Rustic Mashed Potatoes

Riders Pancakes- 3 hot fluffy pancakes- carby goodness at its best, all for me!

Omelette with Mushrooms and Tomatoes, with Breakfast Potatoes

We also ordered another main- the Riders Breakfast, which consisted of bacon, sausages (or ham, i can't remember which), eggs done any style, potatoes, mushrooms, toast and tomatoes. While it was satiating, it was the least spectacular main of the afternoon.

We also ordered 3 sides- hand-cut fries with paprika, as well as 2 servings of sauteed asparagus (lousy attempt at trying to assuage our guilt)

Death by Chocolate Cake- by the time we were done with our mains and sides, no one could move. BUT the allure of chocolate proved irresistable (or maybe it was my constant wheedling), and we eventually succumbed to greed and ordered this massive chunk of warmed chocolate fudge cake smothered in (what else?) chocolate fudge sauce.



We managed to catch the horses trotting by! Rides Cafe is also famed for allowing customers to enjoy their food amidst much greenery as well as stables.

Having been to Riders Cafe for brunch and Mimolette for dinner, I think Riders Cafe is much more value for money and wallet-friendly than its sister restaurant. Of course, some would argue that that's because they are targetting different crowds and clientele. Overall, though, Riders Cafe gets my vote!

Laduree

Siew Mai bought me a nice box of Laduree macarons and got my sister's good friend to hand carry it back from London for me! They survived well despite the rough flight, thank goodness. Tasted fresh and yummy, and I felt quite loved and pampered :) I like small sweet gestures- hopefully siew mai does stuff like this more often after his exams heheh. no pressure!

He got me chocolate, coffee, pistachio and salted caramel macarons. 6 of each! salted caramel has been all the rage recently in sg, and rightly so. the contrast btwn the sweetness of the caramel and the saltiness of the butter made biting into each macaron sheer bliss. i have to say, though, that chocolate was by far my favourite flavour (i believe the same goes for siew mai)- told u i'm partal to chocolate! :P

IMO, Laduree beats canele and bakerzin handsdown. You get what you pay for, i guess. I've heard good reviews for TWG macarons though...will give it a try soon since their shop at Repub Plaza is so near my office! :)

Meza Mediterranean Tapas Lounge & Bar

Cheesy Bread Balls:)))

Chorizo ibérico (cured paprika sausage)

Mozzarella with jamon Serrano (baby mozzarella wrapped with jamon serrano)

Grilled rib eye steak, harissa and chips

Crema catalana (Catalan burnt cream)

Sorbete de limon con cava (lemon sorbet, cava)

Cheesecake

We had a dinner at Meza Mediterranean Tapas Lounge & Bar a while back and I managed to dig up some old pictures of it. The food was above average but I guess the best part of this restaurant would be the ambience. Average price per person would be about £40-£50 per head.

As described by London Online's Restaurant Reviews:
"A favoured bar for the creative and sexy media types of Soho, Meza Mediterranean Tapas Lounge & Bar offers intimate dining and drinking in a relaxed but funky surrounding. The interior is seductive yet informal, hosting both drinks and dining parties alike. Comfy sofas are popular for cocktails and canapés with friends, whilst the menu boasts cured meats sourced directly from Spain, fresh focaccia from Italy and hummus from Greece. With a DJ from 9pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, the funky music continues until the early morning whilst the bar continues to serve a wealth of traditional and bespoke cocktails alike."

PAUL UK London

PAUL UK London

Chocolate Macaroons - very, very average. The size of it is slightly larger than that of Laduree, but the quality pales in comparison. At £2.75, I would say these macaroons are pricey given its sub-standard quality.

Chocolate Tart - Nothing fantastic as well. Very average, and after a few bites of it, I kinda got sick of it.

Moelleux Chocolat - Traditional French soft, dark chocolate cake, this was another miss.

Coffee and Chocolate Eclairs - These two were the worse of the lot. To say the least, I really didn't like them at all. The creamy filling inside the eclairs were sour. I'm not sure if they're meant to be sour, but they sure as hell didn't taste good.

After doing some work in school, I headed to a PAUL confectionery at South Kensington to sample some of their pastries since it's supposedly quite popular in the UK. Sadly though, I was greatly disappointed. The prices of their pastries are almost similar to that of Laduree, but yet their quality is nowhere as good. The total bill amounted to £18.50, not a huge sum, but money well wasted I would say.

Although i generally prefer savoury foods to sweet stuff, i'm extremely partial to chocolate. Brownies, chocolate tarts, truffles, chocolate macarons, Krispy Kreme's Chocolate Dreamcake.. heaven!

This is an entire brownie tray from The Brownie Factory, located at the basement of Takashimaya Shopping Centre. While it wasnt as moist and dense as the one from Borough Market, it tasted pretty good once i warmed it up and drizzled some chocolate fudge over it. That being said, I probably wouldnt buy one for myself anytime soon (this was a gift).