The Hungry Bunny

After 2 whole months of renovations, Golden Mile Food Centre (or more commonly known as the " Beach Road Army Market " because the 3rd and 4th floors are filled with army supply stores that our local national servicemen and reservist men frequent to stock up on army supplies) is finally open. Personally, I don't see any difference whatsoever to the popular hawker centre. Many of the shops here are marked by long snaking queues of patient fans and laminated or framed news writeups and TV-show endorsements. This is one of the more popular hawker centres in Singapore, and rightly so, there's a veritable range of noteworthy stalls to choose from. Char Kway Teow One of the more famous stalls here is the 91 Fried Kway Teow stall, which touts itself as a healthier alternative to the local favourite by using vegetable oil and refraining from the use of lard. You can't miss it. Flashing neon lights adorn the stall front. The Char Kway Teow ($4 for large) is serve

Due to extensive renovations undertaken at Suntec City, it's become quite the ghost town. We like going to the restaurants there for meals because we can be sure there's no crowd or queue to jostle with. Just the way we like it. Plus, we get more personalised and attentive service because of the dearth of customers. By the way, the restaurants are taking turns being closed for renovations to be done, so call ahead to check if the restaurant you want is, in fact, open. We've been patronizing Crystal Jade Kitchen for the longest time. It's one of those places you can rely on for cheap, homestyled, albeit MSG-laden, food that's familiar and comforting. We opted for the very value-for-money 7-course Chinese New Year Set Meal ($288 for 4 persons). We were completely stuffed and relatively satisfied by the end of the meal. We started off with the obligatory Yu Sheng , with chunky pieces of fresh sweet salmon and the unusual addition of fried yam strips, which I'm

Samy's Curry is one of the notable purveyors of South Indian cuisine. Along with Muthu's , Banana Leaf Apolo and Gayatri , Samy's makes up the South Indian cuisine version of the Big Four (for those not versed in legalspeak, the 'Big Four' refers to the 4 biggest local law firms in Singapore). My family's been eating at Samy's since I was a young 'un, loooong before Dempsey is what it is now. Despite the fact that the area has become a lot more touristy, I was relieved to discover that the prevalence of Caucasians and franchising of this brand didn't translate to watered down curries. The spiciness of the food has, thankfully, stayed pretty consistent.  The place still looks like what it used to: a conserved colonial house that's kept reasonably spic and span, cooled solely by industrial ceiling fans and furnished with no-fuss plastic tables and chairs. Because of the lack of air-conditioning, this place is great for cool weather days, but n

Wow, that was an awesomely long weekend, wasn't it? I loved and relished every second of it! Because the Hubs and I don't have many family commitments over the CNY festive holidays, we took the time to catch up on a lot of sleep (cleared a lot of backlogged sleep!), stuff our faces and meet up with a number of our friends. In the days after the restaurants re-opened after CNY day 1, Lei Garden was one of the few handful that offered dim sum on their lunch menus. Both the Imperial Treasure and Crystal Jade chains didn't serve dim sum so it was a no brainer where to meet up with Ernie for lunch over the long weekend. Besides, Lei Garden rotates their dim sum menu regularly so things are kept fresh all the time. Every week's dim sum offerings are changed up (with the classics perennially on the menu, of course) so you're always surprised by the novel things they do with dim sum here.  We LOVED the Deep Fried Spring Roll with Mushroom ($5.20), crisp blankets of

Summer Pavilion is an award-winning heavyweight in the Cantonese fine-dining circuit. Sophisticated and elegant, Summer Pavilion serves up modern Cantonese cuisine, exquisite and innovative, but never veering too far from its traditional roots. It was here that we met up with Ray & Pat for a pre-CNY weekend brunch. Compared to my pet fave Lei Garden , Summer Pavilion attracts a noticeably older clientele (read: lots of grandparents with their multi-generational extended families). You walk into the dining hall to a sea of towering, gravity-defying coifs that would make any tai tai proud, as well as waves of greying combovers. Okay, i kid. The sunlit restaurant is draped in soothing creams and nestled amongst well manicured gardens, visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows encasing the restaurant. Hmm, I just figured out that the picturesque restaurant is really set like an actual summer pavilion! Service was impeccable. Professional, attentive and discreet, the wait

I've been wanting to try Valentino for the longest time. But its previous Binjai Park locale was really far away from the city. Plus, its tiny shop space ensured you couldn't get reservations unless you were the type who planned what to eat for dinner at least 2 weeks in advance. Now that it's at The Grandstand (previously known as Turf City, which previously housed the old Turf Club), a slightly more centralised (and consequently closer to the the city center) location, it's less of a hassle to drive out to the suburbs to try this famed and much raved about Italian restaurant. And, with its much bigger premises, we didn't have a problem scoring a table despite the lack of reservations. The Grandstand, which spent millions of dollars rehauling itself, still reeks of paint fumes, and still in dire need of tweaking. There are virtually no directional signs, and no directory that we could see at all. There were little nooks and crannies that led to hidden doors whi