The Hungry Bunny

We had our February L.A. Dinner & Drinks at Barossa , an Aussie-inspired restaurant under the CreativEATeries group (they also own Al Dente , Tajimaya and Patara ). While I'm not a fan of any place that doesn't have any air-conditioning, Barossa's location at the Esplanade waterfront ensures a steady breeze through the open-air restaurant. Barossa, named after the famous wine-producing region of South Australia, is designed to give customers an authentic feel of the outback. The restaurant is decked out in wooden furniture and boasts a relaxed, laidback, chilled-out vibe.  The food is distinctively Australian, hearty, rustic, and humongously portioned, but with many misses amongst the somewhat passable dishes. The Australian Seafood Bouillabaisse ($16), tasted more like lobster bisque than a bouillabaisse, sweet, heady and very very rich. Good thing there was toasted herbed bread to soak up and balance out the sweetness of...

Lips and I headed here after our fantastic meal at My Humble House . Although dinner was great, we really needed to get away from the ridiculously cold temperatures of the way-too-aggressive-air-conditioning in My Humble House. Lips thought a cup of hot chocolate would do the trick, and Max Brenner , a name synonymous with chocolate, was just downstairs. And open till late. Browsing through the menu, I got irritated with all of the fanciful names and lack of proper description of each of the menu items. Plus, the lack of organization of the menu really annoyed the crap out of me. That's the one thing I never really noticed and took for granted about menus, that there's always some form of categorization of the various dishes so you know where to look for each category and the difference between each of the items in each category. The management really needs a crash course on how to categorize the various items in their menu. I had a very hard time going through the very confu...

I've been wanting to try this restaurant for the longest time. My Humble House can be considered the most high-end restaurant under the Tung Lok Group, serving modern Cantonese cuisine. While the prices are somewhat "cha-ching" and portions miniscule (each dish is really only meant for one person so you'll have to order multiples of every dish according to the number of diners), the attention to the tiniest of details and the way the dishes are executed with such finesse makes the food here worth every cent. Also, every dish is masterfully presented as a work of art, and named in poetic and lyrical Chinese descriptions, which is so apt, seeing that it is housed in the Esplanade, the arts hub of our little island. Don't worry, there are comprehensive English descriptions of every dish so you know what you're ordering. If we really had to whine, it would be about the freezing temperatures, our piping hot food turned cold in minutes and Lips and I were sorely ...

Now that Jal's new workplace is in the Novena area, Adee and I went over from our offices at City Hall and Shenton respectively to meet up with him for our standing monthly lunch date. We've been to almost every eatery at Funan over the past year and it was time for a "change of scenery" anyway. Jal suggested Fish & Co at Novena Square for its halal certification, and the restaurant was doing a bustling lunch hour. While service seemed understaffed and a little harassed, the staff were fairly efficient and quick on their feet. Food-wise, I think that apart from their standard fish & chips selections, the rest of the dishes are quite unimpressive. The Baked Pollock ($14.90) with Mediterranean sauce, from off the Set Lunch Menu (set comes with a very snooze-worthy salad buffet, dessert and soft drink), was a very no-fuss dish. The potato mash tasted generic and straight out of an instant mix box, and the fish looked awfully tiny. You're better off orde...

Lei Garden , a famed and much-lauded chain of Cantonese restaurants hailing from Hongkong has 2 Singapore outposts, the "original one" along Orchard Road, and the "pretty one" at Chijmes . While there are an equal number of loyalists who swear by each outlet for a variety of reasons ranging from service to food and ambience, I didn't feel that there was a discernible difference in service and food between the 2 branches. Having dined at both restaurants several times, the only material difference (to me, at least) is that the Orchard location offers free valet parking. I had my regular Saturday lunch date with Ernie here at the Orchard outlet. We're making the most of whatever free time he's got in Singapore before he heads back to Hongkong to start a new job in April. We started off with a plate of Crispy Silver Needle Fish ($7), with a deliciously thin batter coating the crunchy fish. We shared a portion of the Rainbow Egg and Shredded Pork ...

Pique Nique reminds me of a little girl's tea room, where everything is so pretty and girlish. The most exquisite desserts can be found here, ranging from light fluffy cupcakes to decadent chocolate-based ones. The savouries are centered around American comfort food, so you get up to 10 varieties of burgers, 5 types of hotdogs, and 5 different macaroni & cheeses. This is a heaven of sorts for Ernie, who loves all things cheesy and recommended this place. Pique Nique occupies the spot previously tenanted by Macdonalds in the basement of Takashimaya, beside KFC, so I understand that they can get quite busy on weekends and peak dining hours. However, the cafe was barely filled when Ernie and I had a weekday lunch. I have to say that despite the fact that there weren't many diners to handle, service was disappointingly lackluster. The staff were generally lethargic and out of sight so much so that we had to walk over to the kitchen serving counter to place our order oursel...

Even though we're married, we always make time for our friends. We're not one of those couples that "drop off the face of the earth" and retreat into our own "2-person world". This was something we decided a long time ago when we first started dating. My friends are important, and I will always make time for them. Besides, they were there first in my life, before the Hubs came along.  Besides, it's never a good thing to stagnate in our personal growth when we get into a relationship.I believe a healthy relationship is one that allows just enough space so you don't suffocate each other. Of course, what is defined as "enough space" is all relative really. What I deem to be "enough space" may be "suffocating" to someone else. This is why I make it a point to see my friends at least once a month. This way, we make sure we don't drift apart just because we have other things happening in our lives, like family and work...

This is a bit of a backdated post. I'd met up with Adee and Jal for our monthly lunch date and we headed to where else but Pastamania. Apart from the food court , coffee club and  pizza hut , this is the next possible lunch place because it's halal. The Seafood Marinara ($10.90), while generic, was redeemed by the fresh seafood. Squid was done well, soft and cooked through but not rubbery. Prawns were fresh and sweet. And clams were delectably chewy and briny. The Bacon Aglio Olio ($7.70) was loaded with fried garlic pieces, so it ended up being very fragrant and flavoursome. It helped that the crisp bacon was in abundance as well. Pastamania 109 North Bridge Road #01-08 Funan Digitalife Mall Tel: 6337 3428 Open daily from 11am to 10pm Website: www.pastamania.com.sg

Crystal Jade Kitchen has started offering homestyled cuisine. Dishes that you see commonly in most households' homecooked dinners are now featured in a brand new section of this casual Cantonese dining chain's menu. We tried a couple of their dishes and were quite impressed. It's got that simple, comfort food factor that we don't even realize that we've missed in our lives. As there's only 2 of us in our household, it really doesn't make sense for me to cook at home. The time and money spent having a homecooked meal is simply not justified for 2 persons. That's why we eat out or take out everyday. So, it's nice to enjoy homecooked dishes/dishes tasting like homecooked ones every once a while. The Sauteed Scrambled Eggs ($10.80) with black fungus and shredded meat was very well done, eggs were barely cooked through so they were still soft and fluffy but not rubbery. The strips of lean pork imparted just enough flavour while the  black fungus p...

We stopped by Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant for a bit of dessert after dinner at Tajimaya Yakiniku . While we only had dessert here, I don't think we'll be back to try the rest of the menu. Firstly, water apparently costs $2 here. I'm usually alright with paying for water, at a reasonable fee of course, but $2 is quite ridiculous. Also, with the dismal dessert sampling, what's to say that the rest of the menu would have been good? I think I'll stick to my favourites, like Don Quijote and Octapas , they have proven to serve up much better Spanish food, and way better churros. The Churros ($10.80), fried cruellers served warm and toasty, with dense but soft insides, were alright. These were plain, not bad but not great either.. But the dipping hot chocolate was another thing entirely. There was something in the chocolate that made it so awful. I always thought that the chocolate syrup accompanying churros need to be good enough to eat on its own, but...

We'd missed out on our January monthly meet-up with Kang because we were all still decompressing from our Phuket hedonism, and also occupied with Chinese New Year festivities, so we met up early in February. Both the Hubs and Kang wanted to stay away from carbs and I wanted to try out this Japanese BBQ place at Vivocity. Tajimaya , another concept restaurant under the creativEATeries umbrella, is a relative newcomer in the local Japanese BBQ scene. We've only ever been to Gyu-Kaku and Aburiya . Tajimaya differs slightly from the 2 other more established Jap BBQ chains in that there's only one standard marinade for the meats, methinks it's teriyaki (the other 2 offer up to 4 or 5 different marinades). Also, their beef is only available in 2 different types, the more full-bodied US Black Angus range (Gyu-Kaku and Aburiya don't offer US beef) or the highly-marbled more delicate Japanese wagyu variety (whereas the other 2 offer only Japanese beef, but in different ma...