The Hungry Bunny

It's the BF's birthday today. Unfortunately, I've got a trial on Monday and work has just been crazy, so we decided to celebrate his birthday after the trial's over. But, there's always time for cake! We got this chocolate sponge cake from Ah Teng's Bakery at Raffles Hotel . I loved it. The raspberry jelly layer balanced out the rich and semi-sweet chocolate mousse and sponge with its tart overtones. We ate up the entire cake in one sitting. YUMS. Ah Teng's Bakery Raffles Hotel 1 Beach Road Singapore 189673 Tel: 6412 1100 Opening Hours: Sundays to Thursdays and Public Holidays from 7.30am to 10pm Fridays, Saturdays and eve of Public Holidays from 7.30am to 11pm

In line with my resolution to meet with my best friends at least once a month, I met up with Cho for lunch over the weekend. Maintaining a friendship is like a maintaining a bank account, you need to deposit time to get returns on the friendship. So even if I'm in a relationship, I try to make time for my friends and maintain a strong network of support and love in my life. The BF is one (major) part of my life, and my friends make up another part of my life. Besides, they were there before the BF was even a part of my life. I wouldn't be the person I am today if not for them. From 2.30pm to 5pm, Crystal Jade Kitchen is currently having a Hi-Tea Promotion where dim sum, noodles and congee go at 20% off. This was a really good deal, seeing that Cho and I could chat, eat, and chill at a leisurely pace, all at a pretty little discount. I mean, our lunch cost only about $24! We started off with the Deep-fried Yam Puff ($3.60 usual price, $2.88 discounted price), sweet mashed...

I went for a quickie lunch with Ms PR and Mr Harvest-The-Crops. All of us were having a pretty bad week and it was nice to vent over lunch, and go back to the office refreshed and ready to tackle the world. The Turkey Bacon Sandwich ($4.90) was great breakfast food eaten over lunch, with a spinach omelette layered over crisp turkey bacon and accented by a tomato slice and melted cheese between a muffin.  The Apple Tuna Sandwich ($5.80) was a surprising combination of tart crunchy apples and mayonnaise tuna, on a perfectly toasted oatmeal bagel. Starbucks Coffee DBS Tower II 6 Shenton Way #01-01 Tel: 6223 1657 Open from Mondays to Fridays from 7am to 9pm Saturdays from 7.30am to 5pm Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays Website: www.starbucks.com.sg

Instead of eating the usual packed food in the cold, dank and dreary office, Mr Harvest-The-Crops and I decided to go out for lunch and enjoy the sunshine. We went out a little late so one of the few dining places without a long queue and was able to serve up food quickly was Secret Recipe at CPF Building . I got the Grilled Chicken Baked Rice ($11.80), which surprised me with its standard. This could have been served at Coffee Club or TCC, both coffee joints which serve pretty good food. The rice was moist and evenly coated with a lovely bechamel sauce and they were very generous with well-marinated chicken chunks. Of course, the golden melted mozzarella cheese topping also made the dish a hit. The Caesar Salad ($5.50) with Additional Turkey Ham ($2.50) that Mr Harvest-The-Crops ordered was awful. Really awful. I admit I'm not a proponent of mayonnaise, but even I could tell that the dressing smelled off and rancid. The menu called it a "special blend of parmesan...

We were in the East area so we decided to go to Hong Kong Street Chun Kee for some good ol' fashioned cze char fare. The Katong branch is more spiffy than the usual bare essentials-only, primary-coloured plastic chairs and simple air-conditioned coffeeshop style. Walls are white-washed, furniture is colour-coordinated, gleaming white floor tiles are correspondingly matching, lights are dimmed for a warm glow in contrast with the stark white interior. The design is decidedly clean cut, modern and fresh. We started off with the Sliced Fish with Spring Onion & Ginger ($11 for small). Too bad it wasn't just spring onions, the distinctive taste and scent of coriander was present throughout the dish. Otherwise, the thick slices of fried fish were meaty and fairly fresh. Not the best version I've tried but definitely above average. I liked the Fried Tofu with Seafood and Vegetable in Claypot ($9 for small), it was chock full of ingredients, sliced fish, prawns, squid, ...

We had a quickie dinner here one night on our way back home from work. The From Long Island ($24) was a thick slab of grilled salmon set atop a poached vegetables and crispy potato wedges, with a drizzle of lemon cream sauce. We also got the Original Deli Omelette with Corned Beef ($16). I'm not a fan of corned beef, but this was surprisingly palatable. The characteristic briny taste that I so dislike in corned beef wasn't present in the tender beef strips. P.S. Photos are taken with the iPhone 3G Seah Street Deli Raffles Hotel 1 Beach Road Tel: 6337 1886 Open Sundays to Thursdays and Public Holidays from 11am to 10pm, Fridays, Saturdays and eve of Public Holidays from 11am to 11pm

I've been so swamped at work that mealtimes now involve sitting in front of a laptop, buried under mounds of documentation while absent-mindedly eating takeaway or delivered food. The BF decided to treat me one night and ordered from Domino's . The good thing about them is that they really only take about half an hour to deliver a fairly hot meal. Browsing through the online menu, we realise that Domino's is really more Pizza Hut (in its heyday) than La Strada or Ricciotti . We got the Value Meal 2 ($49.80 net), with 1 regular pizza, 1 large pizza, 4 chicken wings, 1 onion rings and a choice of breadstix, twisty bread or cinnastix. The Meatzza Thin Crust Pizza , with ground beef, turkey ham, smoked chicken breast, chicken sausage, cabanossi, beef pepperoni was strictly for meat-lovers. I like the chicken breast here, Domino's manages to make theirs tasty and moist. I preferred the Classy Chic Thin Crust Pizza with smoked chicken breast and chicken sausage. T...

I love it that my firm will find any occasion to celebrate. For Deepavali, some of my Indian colleagues organised a catered buffet lunch in the office. In comparison to the Hari Raya Lunch a few months back, the Festive Deepavali Buffet Menu ($10 per pax) fared tonnes better, especially since both lunches cost the same. That said, as with most buffets, there were hits and there were misses. The Tandoori Boneless Chicken was snapped up in an instant, and it was easy to see why. The chicken was aromatic and flavoursome, albeit a teensy weensy dry. The Masala Fish Fillet was another popular dish, dory fillets were coated in a mild spice rub, lending a robust yet delicate flavour to the mild creamy fish. The Stir Fried Kunyit Squid was pleasantly tender and not chewy. I wasn't a fan of the watery, mild, yellow stock seasoning though. I would have preferred something more sambal. I didn't try the Mysore Mutton . Not a fan of mutton. The curry was pretty good ...

We had dinner here one night while house-sitting for Pops. The restaurant that night was almost empty so it was very quiet, very peaceful, just the way we love it. We didn't really expect much out of the dinner because the dim sum brunch we had here previously was so lackluster. As it turned out, we were wrong. We were very pleasantly surprised that the dishes on the ala carte menu fared tonnes better than the dim sum offerings. We started off with some Sauteed Scallops with Macadamia Nuts in XO Sauce served in Vietnamese Pastry ($20). They'd obviously ran out of macadamia nuts, which explains the cashew nuts replacement. This was nuanced, the typically bold XO sauce was used sparingly, so it delicately coated the succulent scallops, letting the natural mild taste of scallops shine through. The Braised Noodles with Dried Scallops and Golden Mushrooms ($14) was pretty good as well, the oyster-based braising sauce was fairly light, with chives and beansprouts adding a ref...

The Professor, Mr Harvest-The-Crops and I went out for lunch at Warung Lele . The Professor loves the satay here. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived for lunch at 1.10pm, many of their popular dishes had run out, like the curry chicken (ayam kalio) and fried beancurd with egg (tahu telor). Ah well, we learnt that day that you really need to get to the restaurant before 12.50pm for lunch. We started off with Sate Ayam ($7.50 for 6 sticks), Jakarta skewered marinated chicken served with homemade peanut sauce. This was very good, thick chunky pieces of juicy chicken meat that was tender, and coated with a sticky sweet sauce that was caramelised and smoky from the grill.  The Ayam Bakar Bumbu Santan ($7.50) cilandak homemade marinated BBQ chicken, drenched in a thick, paste-like sambal, was another great dish. Chicken was char-grilled so it had that smoky texture and flavour, but retained its juices. The Sayur Lodeh ($7) with cabbage, long beans, carrot, fir...

We were craving American food when we woke up on Sunday and decided to go to Seah Street Deli for brunch. Save for a couple of occupied tables, the retro diner was empty, which meant a fairly private and peaceful brunch. This is definitely more of a dinner place than a brunch place.  The BF wanted meat and got the Beef Pot Roast ($25) in rich brown gravy with mashed potato and root vegetables like parsnips and carrots. The thinly sliced was tender and quite robust, simply seasoned so its natural beefy flavours were the focus. The gravy was the flavouring agent here, with its rich thick and heady flavours. I got the Original Deli Omelette with Ham ($16) served alongside toasted white bread and baked beans. The omelette was moist and fluffy, just the way I like it. The BF, who's still on his quest to a board-short ready body, gobbled up the protein-rich baked beans, which didn't taste straight out of a can. The tart tomato flavours were more pronounced, with fresh, litt...

Even though Ernie is based in Hongkong, I probably see him more than I see some of my other friends who live in Singapore. I mean, just last week, we went to Seoul together. And this weekend, Ernie came back for a quick visit. Obviously, we met up for our usual Saturday lunch date. We were supposed to go have Japanese food for lunch, but he suddenly felt like dim sum instead. It's funny that although he's currently based in Hongkong, the land of dim sum, he still wants to have dim sum when he comes back to visit. We headed to Wah Lok , which isn't as packed on Saturdays as it is on Sundays. Although we didn't have reservations, we got a table almost immediately. We started off with some " Siew Mai" Steamed Crab Roe with Shrimp Dumplings ($5.60), juicy and succulent. We also had the ubiquitous " Har Gow" Steamed Prawn Dumplings ($6.80), a sweet crunchy prawn enveloped in a thin translucent slightly chewy skin. The Steamed Roasted Pork Meat ...