Once Upon A Milkshake @ Tanjong Pagar

There is a new milkshake place near Tanjong Pagar. Yesterday when my colleague and I were out for lunch, there were fliers being distributed. I was fascinated by the creativity of the name and the menu, so we decided to go there to check out the place after lunch. The place is situated in quite a nice location, directly in front of a carpark, so people going there will be able to see it.

It is called Once Upon A Milkshake, with flavours like Vainilla Pot (vanilla milkshake), Cerious Maple (maple syrup), Agent Strawberry, Grumbling Raisins (rum and raisin), Spooky Mocha, Nutty Peanut Butler, Sir Cookies and Cream and Chocolate Truffle Castle to name a few. As I said, the names are pretty innovative indeed!

There is the mini size and regular size. We ordered a regular size each, he the rum and raisin flavour and mine the vanilla flavour. It is really heavenly! The milkshake is so thick and sweet! Thank goodness it is just the vanilla flavour, imagine if I had taken the chocolate flavour I would have a sweet overdose (if that is even possible)!

I will highly recommend this place for desserts. Even if anything, the interior decoration itself is nice and cosy. I really salute the owner of this place for being innovative and creative, and I think the business may just start to boom!

Food : (desserts) 4 out of 5
Ambience : 3.5 out of 5
Price : 3.5 out of 5

Aston's Specialities @ Cathay

A few months back, I was at Astons Prime and ate a mean cut of beef. A few weeks back, I was at Astons Specialities for dinner, and I ate fish. Now, it is not a place for fish, but I was not that hungry for beef, so I ate fish instead. Still, the food is good.

Ambience wise, of course Astons Prime is better. After Astons Prime, I have wanted to try Astons Specialities for ages, ever since my friend told me about it. Astons Prime is the upmarket restaurant, whereas Astons Specialities is for the general public - heartlanders, students, people who are not as affluent as others.

My friend and I were at the outlet at Cathay. The first time I wanted to go there, the queue was so long that I had to change the venue. The thing is that the place does not take in reservations, so it is on a first-come-first-serve basis. With the place being a favourite haunt for students and movie crowd alike, the restaurant is always crowded.

Furthermore, when my friend reached earlier and went to queue, he had to call me and ask what I would like, since the waitress was taking orders for those who were queuing up in order to save time. Hmmm... good idea! But it would be easier if the table was reserved, is it not?

Still, when I reached there, I could sit down immediately thanks to my friend! The orders were already taken, but the waiter waited until I arrived before he served. How nice of them! The food was not too bad, but the ambience is not as good as its more upmarket sister restaurant. It is a small outlet, which explains why the queue is always so long!

By the time we finished our dinner, the queue still had not subsided. It was still a long queue outside the restaurant! I think the waiter was glad we went off when we did so he could free up our table for others. I think the outlet recently opened a stall called Aston's Express at a coffeeshop near my place, one of these days I must go check it out!

Food : 3.5 out of 5
Ambience : 3.5 out of 5
Price : 4 out of 5

Picotin @ Turf Club Road

I was at Picotin at Turf Club Road last Saturday for dinner. A friend introduced me to this place when we were wondering where to have a gathering. According to him, it is a nice place with good ambience, perfect for casual dates! Thus, I checked it out.

The chef Sebastien is really nice! I sent him an email asking about a personalised menu, and he actually replied! In the end, due to the varying tastes of the group, I decided it would be better to choose from the a la carte menu instead, which is already pretty good in variety!

The place is along the stretch of the old Turf Club. It is a bit inconvenient to get there without a car, but at least it is not too far from the main road, so is still within walking distance from a public bus stop. Of course, there are also free shuttle services from certain designated train stations, but the shuttle buses come only once in a while.

The restaurant itself is cosy, even when we dined alfresco. There are two alfresco areas - a normal and a tented one. The normal alfresco area is sheltered, next to a fence with creepers and leaves. At night there is dim lighting by candlelight. Really a cosy place for dates!

We ordered Demi douzaine d’escargots de Bourgogne au beurre d’herbes (escargots), Crevettes grillées, salsa a la mangue et réduction de betterave (king prawns with salsa sauce) and a salmon bruschetta dish which I cannot remember the name for appetisers. The appetisers were shared amongst all eight of us.

For the main course, mine was spaghetti bolognaise (yes, not a good choice, considering it is a French restaurant so I should order something more special), while the rest had Tagine d’agneau (lamb shank), Cote d’agneau pane, champignon et pommes amandine, sauce a l’ail confit (lamb chop), Mignon de porc farci aux prunes et sauce au cidre (pork chop) and oxtail. The lamb shank was good - it consists of a big piece of bone. Needless to say, my friends had a hard but enjoyable time partaking and sucking the bone dry!

Dessert was ice cream and sorbet (with eight flavours), and a couple of them ordered Crepe suzette et glace à la vanille and Crumble a la canelle et aux pommes (apple crumble). There was also a big screen with a rugby match. We seemed to be the only Asian table around as the rest of the tables consisted of Caucasian families, friends, couples and a few hunks too, all enjoying the rugby match!

It was a wonderful dinner! I will definitely go back there again! The menu looks so tempting that I want to go back as many times as possible to try everything on the menu! This place is definitely highly recommended for those who want to try something new and want a cosy ambience to be in, as well as special occasions for couples. The ambience is good, the food is better, and the chef gives personalised service! What can be better than that?

Cuisine : French
Food : 4.5 out of 5
Ambience : 4.5 out of 5
Service : 4.5 out of 5
Price : 3.5 out of 5

Of Sangria And Sheridan

I discovered a new drink last night - Sheridan! I know of this from books, about a drink called Sheridan, but last night I saw the cute bottle and tasted it for the first time. It is better than Bailey's! For the uninitiated, Sheridan is a type of Irish coffee liquor, by the same manufacturer of the Bailey's Irish Cream.

Sheridan has 15.5% alcohol content. The coffee is dark with rum. The bottle has two parts - half of it is coffee rum, the other half is cream. The spout has two openings, so when you pour it into a glass, the coffee rum and cream comes out together. All you need to do is to mix it. One whiff of it and you feel like gulping down the whole glass!

I had my fill of Sheridan last night. Chilled one makes the drink so much better! After a few glasses of sangria with lemon, coffee is very welcome. But I am not for drinking coffee at night, so when a friend asked for Bailey's, the host let us tried Sheridan instead. The next time I go overseas, I am sure to buy a bottle of Sheridan duty free!

Epicurean Heaven In Japan

I just came back from a two-week leisure and skiing trip in Tokyo and Hokkaido. Japan is a food paradise indeed! I have eaten just about every variety of food available! As I have mentioned, the best Japanese food is in Japan itself!

The first day in Tokyo, we went for a steamboat dinner where all the ingredients were thrown into the pot, filled it with water, mixed with sauce and milky cream, and voila! A delicious meal! After the soup had absorbed all the ingredients, rice was added in and we ended up eating delicious sticky rice! Not to mention the appetizing side dishes!

A sashimi dish

Prawn Sushi

Hot pot

Second day. In Haneda airport, we had breakfast at a ramen place where I had soy sauce ramen. We had to order through a machine and then the food would be cooked and served to us instantly. Lunch in Hakodate consisted of rice with salmon and roe, with side dishes of sautéed pickles and vegetables. Dinner was fried rice balls with seafood, consisting of scallop, sea urchin, miso soup and crab!

Ramen counter at Haneda Airport

Bento lunch at Hakodate

Christmas Eve Dinner at Hakodate

Drinks at Hakodate Beer Brewery

Hakodate Pink Beer (somehow does not look that pink in the photo)

Third day. Breakfast was a buffet of cold dishes. In Noboribetsu, lunch was spicy ramen. Dinner was a buffet of seafood, sushi, sashimi, you name it, they had it! We were at the banquet hall around half past seven, and the dinner ends at half past eight, so we only had an hour to gorge ourselves!

Enya Ramen Restaurant in N0boribetsu

Spicy Ramen

Buffet dinner at Noboribetsu

Fourth day. Breakfast was another buffet of cold dishes and American breakfast. Then we had a late lunch of delicious ramen at Susukino. Dinner was light, with a small teppanyaki, dumplings and sausages.

Yorocho Ramen at Susukino Alley - the place that started the famous Ramen Alley

Proprietor making ramen

My extra spicy (and delicious) ramen

North Star Teppanyaki Restaurant in Susukino Alley

Boxing Day dinner

Fifth day. We wanted to go down to the seafood market for breakfast, but woke up too late, so just proceeded on our way to Otaru. Upon reaching Otaru, we had lunch at a sushi place that serves the best sushi I have ever tasted in my life! My meal was a tempura set consisting of miso soup, rice and side dishes of sashimi. The sashimi is also the best I have ever tasted!

Otaru Sushi Restaurant - the best so far!

Interior of the sushi restaurant in Otaru

Best sushi I have ever tasted!

Tempura Set

Fish soup

Shredding a radish

The humongous ice-cream of many flavours - lavendar, vanilla, melon and chocolate

We wanted to eat a Yakitori dinner, but went there too late, so stumbled upon another restaurant in the same building that serves pretty good Hokkaido steamboat with Sapporo beer! A Japanese man behind us realized we were tourists so ordered sake for us on him! How nice!

Sapporo Beer

Hokkaido Steamboat

Big bottle of sake

The sake we partook

Sixth day. Breakfast was at a café along the Sapporo Station. I had toast with scrambled eggs while some of them had pancakes with maple syrup. Upon reaching Niseko, we had soup and toast for a late lunch. We wanted to go to this restaurant called Bang Bang for dinner, but reservations were required. In the end, it turned out that the place was fully booked for the week, so we settled for another sushi restaurant that paled in comparion with the one in Otaru.

Then we went shopping for groceries in case we should get hungry. Seventh day. Breakfast was homemade toast and eggs before we went out to ski. Lunch was a small sandwich at the ski café. By the time it was dinner, I was famished! We ate Yakiniku, had a great time cooking the meat. We ordered mutton, beef and pork, together with bean sprouts! We even tried out with the different sauces for the meat!

Eighth day. I decided to cook spaghetti for the rest of them, so I made pasta. Since there was no beef available and in any case, one of the girls could not eat beef, I cooked bacon and cut it into strips, before mixing it with spaghetti and tomato sauce. Not sure how well I did, but according to feedback, the spaghetti tasted really nice! Lunch was again at the ski café, then we had another ramen for dinner.

Ninth day. I cooked eggs for everyone for breakfast, but my sunny side up (two eggs with one egg white and two yolks) did not turn out that well since I accidentally broke the eggs. Still, I think the eggs were pretty good. We then had toast and milk. Lunch at the ski café, then dinner at a cosy restaurant called Mozart, where I had veal.

Tenth day. We had instant noodles for breakfast, and the mistress kindly cooked eggs for us. At least her sunny side up looks perfect! Lunch was a seafood consommé at the Hilton, and dinner at a small tempura restaurant, where we were having so much fun that the manager actually came by and hushed us up!

Eleventh day. Breakfast was eggs and toast, lunch at the ski café, then dinner at Oh Do Ri! in Sapporo. My friend had seafood curry while I had chicken and vegetable curry so we could just share and swop.

Interior of Oh Do Ri! Restaurant

Chicken and Vegetable Curry Set

Seafood Curry Set

Twelfth day. I took the train without eating breakfast. I was in the train the whole day without eating anything, so by the time I reached Tokyo, I was famished! Too famished and tired, so all I did was to drink some milk and went to bed.

Thirteenth day. I had a breakfast of toast and orange juice then went out exploring. Lunch was delicious cold soba at the Yokohama Takashimaya. I was so full that I could actually skipped dinner!

The very delicious soba

Fourteenth day. Breakfast was hot cocoa and a Belgian Chocolate brownie at a café in Ginza. Lunch was teriyaki chicken on the plane. And hence the end of all the glorious food!