An ESTATE Birthday

I've found myself having to be very strategic when going for hotel buffets these days.

It isn't because the food's (only) selectively good.

But because I'm not able to consume as many plates of sashimi and sushi and cheese as I once used to do.

There was a time when I'd begin the meal with soup (the creamy type), butter, and bread. 

These days however I tend to begin with either the seafood section or the sashimi section, either one. 

This evening I began with the seafood first. 

They're very generous with their portioning here. 

There's a whole mountain of freshly shucked oysters on ice, a whole mountain of mussels on ice, huge tiger prawns, scallops and, if I'm not wrong, clams. 

My companion has a special love for oysters, so that's what we took first. 

I'm a little more conservative- and I like variety so instead of filling up my plate fuil with oysters and wedges of lemon, I took a few oysters, a few of the scallops still in their shells, and chilled prawns. 

These pictures don't do the freshness of the seafood well. 

Maybe I'll get better pictures next time. 

But tonight I was hungry and I wanted to start eating, so I did.

With the prawns. 

Honestly I can't remember when it was I started taking prawns at buffets.

It's probably some time ago. 

I don't take a lot of them, however (they really can fill you up) but I like them with Thousand Island, or mayonnaise, and I can tell whether they're really cooked and chilled, or served leftover-style from the pot bottom of the prawn noodle soup. 

The tiger prawns here at ESTATE in Hilton Orchard are fresh, of course, and tonight I had them, and the scallops, with lemon and a huge dip of mayo.

Salmon belly sashimi from the sashimi counter was next on the menu, but before that I grabbed a couple of fruits to dunk into the iced water first. 

Gone are the days when I'd just drink my water plain, so watermelon and pineapple make excellent companions for fruit-infused water. 

The salmon belly was good. 

Never mind that you had to queue, and that the staff at the counter had her own sense of timing when it came to the belly.

You just needed to patiently wait.

In any case she'd recognize you, and you'd get your salmon belly pretty quick anyway. 

A favorite offering here in the ESTATE buffet menu is the Black Truffle Roasted Duck. 

This has to be one of the most delish roasted ducks I've ever eaten. 

The meat is tender, the skin, glazed with ginger honey soya on top, is crispy and thick and some pieces have a distinctive layer of fat underneath. 

Not just that, each little plate comes served with cute little pieces of fried tofu. 

It's very difficult to stop at just one plate.

But its' also very difficult to just eat the skin alone and leave the meat there. 

So we take a couple of plates and try to eat as much meat as we can- after the skin. 

At the wok stations, I took a bit of fried rice, a bit of fried noodles and from the station opposite, a ladleful of whipped potato as well as a small portion of baked salmon in some sort of sauce (basil?).

Maybe I should have gone for more of the Chinese-style cooked food at the wok station, or the Indian selections, but tonight I didn't quite want to have anything mala, and I wasn't too keen on mussels stewed in sauce as well. 

Then again, I do wonder if I should have taken the palak paneer. 

I heard it was really good.

There're a lot of meats and roasted stuff here at ESTATE. 

Particularly on the Western side. 

My memory doesn't recollect everything but I think there was roast beef with rosemary herbs, roast chicken, and some sort of crispy pork belly all skillfully cut up on the wooden platters there. 

By this time I was feeling a little filled with the oysters and the prawns and the baked salmon (cream really does fill me up these days) so I had to sadly skip most of those and stuck with what I had on my plate.

The whipped potato brought my mind back to nostalgic times, and the fried noodles had me going for portion number two. 

I however didn't stop there. 

After that, for fun's sake, I took some crystal paus and siew mais from the dim sum side, one more portion of whipped potato, a fried spring roll, and a hot, crispy samosa. 

I was intending to go for dessert straight after but then my friend came back bearing a bowl of wagyu beef noodle soup, so off I went to get a bowl just for me.

Good recommendation it was. 

The broth, clean and light, was heartwarming, and the beef slices, huge, tender, soft, yet thick.

So good it was I had to rest a bit after the soup, and then straight it was to dessert.

My friend brought back three jars of their distinctive dessert- Marsala Wine Tiramisu, Rum and Hazelnut Pate a Choux and Champagne Raspberry Gelare.

Me, I brought back the Torched Citron Tart, and the Arabica Latte Mille Feuille. 

The Torched Citron Tart was so good. 

Some might find it a tad sour, but no, not me. 

It opened up the palate, cleaned up the flavors of all the savory foods I'd had earlier, and left my tongue feeling sharp, and clean. 

I didn't stop at the jars though. 

There was little slice of Hilton Signature Cheesecake, and a dark chocolate something (with hazelnut, maybe, or was it earl grey?)

I wish I'd taken better pictures of my first dinner here at ESTATE (it was, after all, for a birthday) and I wish I'd had more time to sample the cheeses, the salads and the breads, but there'll be another time, and another time, and yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll have those now and then, during those times. 

Birthday Croffles @ The CD Shop

I was a little surprised when in Wisma Atria Shopping Center my friend steered me up the escalator to The CD Shop on the third floor. 

I had thought we were going to Paris Baguette.

But then my friend had remembered me saying that I wanted to try croffles as a dessert, and it seemed like The CD Shop had a particularly good one. 

Croffles aren't the only dessert they have over here, however.

They've got a breathtaking display of cute, charming, pretty little cakes too. 

At another time I might have indulged in the afternoon tea set with a pot of tea, finger sandwiches, baked pastries, macarons and little cakes, but it was now evening time and all I wanted was a croffle.

The CD Shop is not only known for their selection of CDs slotted onto vertical shelves up the walls and throughout the shop.

It is known for their food too. 

Amongst their mains include salads, sandwiches, grilled meats, poultry and pastas.

But i think it is their tea offerings, small bites and desserts that make them what they are. 

In recent months I've taken a particular fascination to the croffle. 

Just like the cronut which has gained popularity in NYC and the West Coast for being both a donut and a croissant, the croffle juxtaposes the pastry of the croissant and the pastry of the waffle into a single one. 

We had our croffle with ice cream. 

I can't remember what flavor it was we selected, though. 

Was it Hazelnut something?

Or was it another?

Chances are it might have been Salted Caramel, since I like all this salted-salted sweet-sweet stuff especially when it comes to ice cream.

It's no joke when ladies tell you that the ambience, the plating, the aesthetics and the atmosphere here are elegant.

Their croffle, when it came, didn't merely look like a thick piece of firm yet fluffy pastry on a nice, shiny plate.

It came, all firm and fluffy, sitting on a nice, shiny plate that glistened brightly under the glare of the overhead ceiling lights.

Either the croffle had a sheen of something over it, or it were the maple syrup.

It might have been the syrup.

They were very generous with it too. 

Never mind that the croffle was already very well drizzled horizontally and vertically- the server didn't hesitate when my friend asked for more. 

We chose to eat the croffle separately from the ice cream, so off we lifted the creamy round ball, then cut the pastry up into shapes of triangles and squares. 

So it didn't look aesthetically elegant, but it was just us in the whole place, and we're not fastidious about it anyway. 

I thought it quite fun eating it in different ways. 

Whilst my friend dunked all the squares into the little jug of maple syrup which the servers had left on the table, I poured a little of it out, then swiped the croffle square all over it with my fork. 

There was an attempt to eat a little triangle (with maple syrup) on its own. 

After that I slid a little bit of ice cream off just to savor the flavor. 

After that still, I combined the two, placing a little sliver of ice cream with a thick square of croffle on my fork and eating it whole. 

The ice cream did make the croffle a wee little bit more soggy (like most ice cream waffles will), but it wasn't all wet and limp like some places might be, and I could taste the flavors and the textures blending together well.

There was the buttery taste of the pastry .

There was the salt-sweet taste of the ice cream. 

And I didn't even chew at all- I let the entire piece of croffle melt off almost right away. :)

It's a rare time that I get to come to have a meal at The CD Shop. 

A part of me can't help comparing it to PS Cafe across the road, but that being said, I'm someone who appreciates music, atmosphere, and entertainment as a whole. 

So between one and the other, I'll come back here again. 

Maybe next time I'll order two portions of this croffle. 

Because I'm the sort who puts my sugar to the foods that I like, and even though I could order a pasta or another slice of cake, this croffle- with gourmet, handcrafted ice cream- is what I'm really craving for.

And it's just this that I want. 

Together with a cup of very good coffee.

Stirling Steaks

It's been a rather long time since we last came here.

At least, a year.

Stirling Steaks is the sort of place that you go to when you're wanting a steak for a meal, nothing less, nothing more. 

They're a no-frills sort of place- this cafe/restaurant nestled in a shop house along East Coast Road- so don't come expecting cushioned seats, cloth napkins, carpeted floors or fine, fancy cutlery.

You'll get none of those. 

Instead you'll get charming metal chairs, wood-topped tables, paper napkins and one big sticker on the wall showing which part of the cattle is which so the inexperienced can refer.  

This place is popular with families, couples, and small groups out for a bit of chill time on the East Coast side. 

You don't have to dress up to walk through the doors. 

But you can if you want to. 

It's a very comfortable vibe. 

With reasonable service, reasonable offerings and affordable prices too. 

This evening we decided to just go straight for the steak- never mind the rest of the menu- and so ordered a regular-sized tenderloin done medium rare.

It didn't take too long to come. 

Along with a serving of side salad and nice, crispy fries (in a cute metal basket), there was a bit of very good sauce, plus a circle of butter which you could carve out bit by bit to eat with the beef. 

Some people like to have their steak with sauce. 

Others like to slather the butter all over their steak and let it melt into the crevices of the beef. 

I, however, like to slice off a bit, stick it on top of the steak piece  that I'm eating, and pop it whole.  

It's a good thing they're okay to give customers extra portions of butter. 

We needed two. 

Because my companion was finishing the first one very fast, and I wanted the round, smooth, melty melty feeling of herb butter to contrast the textures of my smoky-tasting, very tender, very flavorful tenderloin beef.

Not just that. 

I wanted to try having the butter with their fries. 

So we asked for another circle. 

Which- I'm happy to say- they gave.

The Parent's Birthday (Our Style)

Our family has a somewhat unusual, even curious way of doing birthdays. 

Far from the restaurant dinners and birthday cakes, which, at another point in time, we might have done, these days we tend to whittle it down to what we like and so get creative with what we want to do.

There've been times where we've had McDonalds. 

There've also been times where we've gone for fried Hokkien mee and chye tow kuay from the famous coffee shop opposite the neighborhood park. 

This year, however, we decided to 'not go so far' and do a supper at the coffee shop right downstairs our home instead

We've eaten quite a bit from this coffee shop this year. 

But today we decided to switch things up a little, do things a little different. 

From the Western food stall in the coffee shop we got an order of fried spring chicken, plus a side of fries, and garden salad.

Then, to zhng up the meal, we went to the 24 hour prata shop next door we got an order of nasi goreng pattaya takeaway, bringing it over.

It was a lovely meal. 

The fries and salad we evenly split.

As we did the mountain of nasi goreng pattaya.

The fried chicken had already been (thoughtfully) halved for us, so, after a couple minutes of using the cutlery, we put it aside and dug into it with our hands. 

I thought it rather fun.

The Parent liked the chicken. 

The skin was crisp, the meat tasty, and most of the meat- with just a little bit of pulling- fell cleanly off the bone. 

We dipped the crinkle cut fries into the salad sauce. 

We also dipped them into the nasi goreng chili sauce.

I don't have a picture of the rice underneath all that egg.

But it was tasty, salty on some sides, and had a couple pieces of chicken hidden amongst all the rice. 

Our celebration wasn't just a meal of nasi goreng and fried chicken. 

I'd brought along a box of pastries too. 

The Parent is someone who "is fine with anything" and who "eats anything" but from time to time, the savory palate overtakes the sweet, so, instead of sliced cake and nyonya kueh, we had pastries of Wife Biscuits, and Lotus with Salted Egg this year.

They were (I'm pretty glad to say) a winner. 

The pastry was soft but not so crumbly that everything fell out, and the filling wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. 

There were no complaints of the Wife Biscuit, nor the Lotus Pastry (which we split and shared) and we finished them with thick, delicious cups of kopi that we got from another late-night coffee shop situated somewhere down the road. 

Yong He @ Geylang

You know it's often been said that there're some foods at Geylang which you won't get to find (so easily) at anywhere else? 

It's true, I tell you.

I've written about 126 Dim Sum, which, whilst technically is on 126 Sims Avenue, is in the vicinity of Geylang, and best you describe it that way.  

This hotspot of an area tends to be known for heavy (and shiok) foods like frog leg porridge, Klang-style bak kut teh, Chinese-style BBQ skewers, roti pratas, and durian.

But if you look hard enough, it's got lighter, and more comfortable foods too. 

We'd originally planned to go Novena and get something done. 

But by the time my friend turned up at the MRT station, it had gotten to an hour where neither of us felt like making an extra bus trip down, and so I suggested heading up to Yong He instead. 

It wasn't anything impromptu. 

I'd been wanting to eat there some time ago. 

See, Yong He is the only place I know that has savory soy bean curd, and it is for this very dish that I wanted to go. 

It's a big thing for me that I want a bowl of soy bean curd- because I'm not a very big fan of one.

I mean, it's not a dish I mind, but it's also not a dish that I will particularly want. 

That is, except for this one. 

Maybe because it's savory, not sweet, and that makes me feel like I'm having a main meal instead of a dessert (I can do without)

The bowl at Yong He here is not small, by the way. 

Neither is the youtiao.

You can't really see it, but it was the thickest piece of youtiao I had ever seen. 

Seriously.

It was fat, and long, and crisp, and warm.

We had a fine time dipping it into the bowl of silky savory tofu.

We also had a fine time dipping it into the century egg porridge. 

I liked the porridge.

Some might say that it's ordinary, it's commonplace, you can find it anywhere, not so big of a deal. 

But they had all the trimmings.

Chopped spring onions, fried garlic, century egg, pork, and lots and lots of youtiao all cut up into cute little rounds.

The size of the century egg was what did it for me. 

You know how some places give you such finely chopped egg that you can barely taste it at all?

Not here. 

Theirs was solid. 

Medium-sized chunks that you could cut and roll all over your tongue even as you spooned the soft, tasty, boiled rice grains into your mouth. 

It was good.

The whole meal was good. 

Filling, satisfying, heartwarming, in a casual, street-side kind of place, with a decor like most old-school coffee shops have except that they've got the entire menu printed up on a brightly-lit signboard mounted solidly on the wall. 

49 Seats @ Centrepoint

Someone told me about this (not so new) casual cafe in Orchard's Centerpoint. 

It was right at the back, he said, near the drop off point of the shopping center, and I'd find it faster if I were to go by the side instead of finding it from inside. 

My friend was right. 

49 Seats sits on the side that looks out towards the back of Cuppage, and I found the place in no time at all. 

Good thing, too. 

I was hungry. 

It's said that 49 Seats is a very casual diner. 

Yeah, it's true.

It is a place where the floor is shiny, grey cement, where the tables are easy to move around, and where the chairs are (literally) a light, easy garden type.

Decor on the walls is plain- don't expect anything IG-worthy here.

But it doesn't really matter.

Particularly since the place does have a sort of industrial chic vibe. 

We were taken by the way they had done the menu. 

Reminded us of this diner (I forget its name) that used to sit in the very same unit where Five Guys at Plaza Singapura is now. 

For a while we wondered if this place had been opened by the very same people.

Cos even the offerings seemed somewhat the same. 

There were, for instance, a lot of pastas. 

There were, also, a good selection of appetizers, desserts and drinks. 

We thought of having the pasta. 

But then we looked over the menu one more time and decided the fried fish looked more interesting instead. 

The menu said that it came with a side of salad and a sauce of salted egg and tom yum. 

Very unusual it seemed, so we ordered. 

The most outstanding thing about this dish was, really, the sauce. 

I'm going to say that it exceeded our expectations. 

Because, in all honesty, does this look like a sauce to you? 

This?

No way. 

It's a soup. 

A bowl of relatively thick soup that's got the strong taste of tom yum lemongrass, and the distinctive taste of salted egg (seasoning) cleverly stirred inside. 

We were expecting a sludge of a sauce. 

We got a soup. 

My companion was surprised. 

So was I. 

It's not every day you get to dunk a piece of fish into a bowl of delicious sauce-soup. 

Neither is it every day that you find a prawn (or two) inside it. 

In fact, so much of a soup it was that we christened it Fried Fish Seafood Tom Yum Salted Egg Soup. 

The only thing missing from the concoction were the vegetables, and the tofu.

But I didn't mind. 

I liked it anyway. 

This is a dish that I might order if I come here again the next time. 

Not so, unfortunately, for the fries. 

It isn't because I didn't find them good. 

They were hot, and crisp when served, and there was a lovely mix of condiments and mayonnaise.

But maybe the Asian palate that is mine couldn't get used to the American-style chili that had been scooped onto the heap of fries, and maybe the nitpicker that is me found it a tad hard to appreciate the chili-soaked (soggy) shoestrings at the bottom of the pile. 

Apiary's Lavender Ice Cream

A Sunday's post-dinner dessert jaunt saw me and my companion joining the queue outside the door of Apiary at Neil Road for ice cream.

We weren't late- it being like 813pm or something- but already the place was crowded, and when we finally got in, were told that we had a 40-minute dining time. 

It didn't surprise me- there was a queue (still) forming outside the door, but it made me wonder just what formula they'd used to calculate the speed customers generally took to finish their order of waffle and/or ice cream. 

In any case, we complied. 

Apiary @ Neil Road is a two-story establishment. 

Downstairs on the ground floor is where you place your order and do takeaways.

Upstairs on the second floor is where you sit and dine on whatever you've ordered, be it ice cream, coffee, waffle, both, or all. 

We ordered a (flavored with brown butter) waffle with one scoop of Black Sesame, and, one scoop of Lavender.. 

There're lots of great artisanal flavors of ice cream out there these days, but Lavender (and Lavender alone) has to be my newest favorite on the list. 

It's so good that, if given a choice between the Blue Milk, the Dark Chocolate, the Sicilian Pistachio, the Nishio Matcha, the Hazelnut, Lavender or Caramelized Strawberry, I'll still go for the Lavender. 

And I'll want two scoops of it. 

If the rich depth of the Black Sesame ice cream surprised me, it was the taste of the Lavender that genuinely impressed me.

I've never been one to squeal delightedly about desserts or ice creams. 

But this one- after my first taste- I did. 

Especially since it went really well with the crispy waffle that we'd cut into quarters and then tried to decide whether we should eat both scoops together or one by one. 

In the end we ate both together, balancing out one scoop on one quarter, before shifting the melty remnants of it to the next one. 

Eating this scoop of purple-colored ice cream was, to me, like a dual sensory sort of thing. 

It's as if the scent of lavender so oft scented through my olfactory nose had instead now landed on my tongue.

And I was tasting what it was I previously (only) got to scent. 

It didn't matter that the Lavender was strong. 

I liked, no, loved it that way.

Never mind that the herbaceous properties of the Lavender flower (when in the milky ice cream) didn't make me feel calmer nor ease the knots in my head nor make me want to sleep. 

But it made me happier. 

And my tongue felt clean and fresh, and the chill, cold of the ice cream made me feel like I wanted some more.

It's got a distinctive floral taste, this (pure) Lavender ice cream from Apiary. 

There's the hint of an earthy mint. 

And there's that very, very subtle hint of the bitter in the second note after you've swallowed your bite of ice cream. 

I've been told that this flavor is an acquired one

"Like eating soap sia,"  

But, oy, I like it. 

And if I can, I'm gonna get myself a pint (or two!) of it one day. 

Just for me.

Bus Ride Sights: Rochor to Woodlands

I boarded this bus on impulse. 

Actually, no, it wasn't on impulse. 

I'd seen this bus at this particular bus stop on Rochor Road (outside Fu Lu Shou Complex) for a very long time. 

But today I didn't feel like going home early. 

Neither did I want to hang out in the shopping mall. 

So when Bus 960 braked at the bus stop at the very moment just as I was coming down the building's steps, I went on. 

The destination I knew was Woodlands.

I also knew that the bus would be traveling on Rochor Road, Rochor Canal Road, and Bukit Timah Road- beginning first with the bus stop opposite Race Course Road close to the MacKenzie Road side. 

From there it would go straight down, going past KK Women and Children Hospital (opposite) all the way until it reached Newton Food Center, Scotts Road and the junction of the Newton Circus/Newton Flyover. 

Somewhere here- near the Good Shepherd Loft, Church of the Latter Day Saints and Balmoral Plaza- I decided to take a picture. 

They're not pretty pictures. 

You can't really see the outline of the leaves on the banana tree outside the Good Shepherd Left.

Neither can you really see the letters of the shops on the awnings lining Balmoral Plaza. 

It's so blur. 

But I didn't destroy the picture. 

Because Balmoral Plaza means something to me. 

There once used to have a Waffletown with great fried chicken wings and cute little waffles but I don't think is there anymore. 

From here the bus continues along Bukit Timah Road until Stevens MRT Station, then makes a turn under the Wayang Satu Flyover into Whitley Road before turning onto the PIE. 

I don't have many pictures of the PIE. 

This is the only one I have. 

A bit of a pity that the rest didn't turn out well. 

Especially since this part of the route was remarkably scenic, almost relaxing, with mostly trees, and nary a concrete building in sight. 

Traveling along the PIE, and the BKE, always makes me feel like I'm leaving the bustle of the city and going up into the countryside. 

I don't mean that the northern estates are ulu. 

I just mean that they- being so close to the Central Catchment Area- seem to have a slightly different vibe. 

You can feel it if you happen to be at certain parts of Bukit Panjang, Bukit Batok and Choa Chu Kang..

I find it rather nice. 

Maybe I'm someone who appreciates both the quiet of the water and the silence of the land.

Sure, it's a little distracted by the blocks of flats, the charming shops, the well-lit pavements and the concrete of the LRT, but the vibe lingers,- all the way even as the bus meanders through Petir Road, Jelebu Road before  going onto the stretch we call Woodlands Road. 

Those of us living in the north will be familiar with Woodlands Road. 

It is- after all- probably the only other road besides Thomson Road that brings you down to the city via Dunearn Road and Thomson Road. 

I, however, am only partly familiar.

So everything that I saw out the window this particular day was intriguing to me. 

Like, I didn't know this side of Woodlands Road had so much empty space. 

And (having not ridden my bike there for so long) I'd completely forgotten that it was in fact so near the Yew Tee Village, the Sungei Kadut Industrial Estate, and Kranji Road. 

But it was.

The bus rolled on. 

There was a part where it passed by the Kranji Turf Club (on the right)

And there was a part where after crossing the Mandai River, the road became Woodlands Avenue 3. 

I'm not sure what they have over here, but there was the entrance to Micron (semiconductor) facility, there were industrial buildings in the distance, and I saw what I think might have been part of an old railway. 

To be honest I wish I knew whether this was part of an old single-track railway. 

It wouldn't surprise me if there used to be one. 

We are, after all, not very far away from Kranji (where an old military railway used to be) and we are in the vicinity of Sembawang Air Base, Sembawang Naval Base, as well as several military camps. 

But there's very little I know of Woodlands- Marsiling  even- and i suppose what I wish to know can only be read through at another time