Pre GP yacht party

Post by Kristyn

F1 fever is in the air!!!!  What better way to celebrate the weekend than sailing around on a yacht!  Our friends Max and Laura organised a group of 25 of us to sail around the bay past Sentosa, docking at St John's Island for a bit of a swim, drink, kayak, relax on the island and BBQ on the yacht.  It was such a great day.  The day started off being rather overcast, but by the time we met down at Keppel Bay Marina at the docks, the sun was starting to peek through.  From there it only got better.  The champagne started flowing, music was playing, the group was spread out all over the yacht, lying about on the front of the yacht making new friends or sitting at the rear under the cover of the sun.  We eventually passed Sentosa and made our way to St John's Island where we set our anchor down, and if you were brave enough jumped off the side of the yacht.  James and I decided to take a ride in the dinghy to the shore, where he set up his music and we met up with others that had swum in.  It was great, the crew kept coming over in the dinghy taking our drinks orders.  It was quite funny the first time he came over and I proceeded to order a "vanilla vodka, apple & cranberry & soda with lime please".  He got most of it right, well the main bit!  The vanilla vodka and soda was fine, just lounging about in the water, drinking and having fun.  Other yachts kept coming in as well and parking.  It felt like being on Phi Phi Island!  After a while in the water, we caught the dingy back to the yacht where the BBQ was in full swing.  We lounged about on the yacht some more drinking and enjoying the sun whilst it took us back into Keppel Bay.  What an awesome day we had.  We can't wait for the next one.  After a bit of a shower and a nap the party continued down at Bartini, where "Off The Boat" (one of the member's Duncan pictured below) were spinning some tunes and then onto Vault for more drinking and fun.

 

House - 8D Dempsey Road

Post by Kristyn

House at Dempsey where do I begin...well I begin at brunch the day after our amazing dinner at Hachi Restaurant which turned into too much sake then a night out at Avalon.  How we managed to even get up on Sunday I don't know, but I am Australian so it's expected right?  Anyhoo, so we meet up with our friends Max and Laura and their friends Anabel and Dave for brunch.  This place is absolutely packed and huge.  Brunch is a big deal in Singapore, and it's hard to get into the best of places.  So we sit down and the menu looks pretty good, it has a variety of good old Western food, like eggs benny, pancakes etc.  To start us off for the day though, a bloody mary is called for.  So we all order our drinks and brunch and wait.  Most of us get out drinks out at a fairly reasonable time, and I must say the bloody mary's were spectacular.  Made with real tomatoes.  It certainly did the trick that's for sure.  Anabel however, didn't manage to get her juice she ordered.  So we're waiting and Laura's meal arrives, she's pretty much finished by the time the next one appears.  Mine then arrives, and then slowly everyone else's, except Max's.  It's not until Max has to go up and have some stern words to the waiter that his eventually arrives along with Anabel's juice.  Trying to even flag down a waiter was ridiculous.  It was like they had no system at all here.  James had eggs benny, and I had scrambled eggs with mini sausages, grilled tomatoes and spinach.  Then we both shared the mixed berry french toast.  To be fair the meals were pretty good and the french toast was amazing!  But the service was so atrocious that it has definitely put me off going back there.  We ended up heading to Holland Village afterwards for more drinks which then turned into dinner and getting home at 10:30pm.  Despite the worst service ever, it ended up being a great day.
http://www.dempseyhouse.com/

Hachi Restaurant - 6 Mohamed Sultan Road

Post by Kristyn

Our friends Paul & Phoebe invited us out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant near our old hood.  Now Phoebe is a local, so as soon as she's involved in taking you out for dinner, saying no is not an option...she knows all of the best places, and you don't want to miss out.  Some of which she has only taken us on the proviso that they not end up on our blog!  This one I made no such agreement, so onto the blog it goes.  This would have to be, at the time of writing, by far one of the best meals I've had in Singapore.  This restaurant has no menu.  The meal is a set amount per person, of which you are given 9-10 courses.  Now the courses depend on what has been flown in from Japan that week.  First things first though,  we start off with a bottle of sake which was absolutely delicious.  Then the courses started rolling out.  Wow!  Amazing!  The freshest ingredients and the most amazing flavours.  I'm going to be honest here, I did take photo's of it all, but I can't remember what most of it was - I blame the sake.  The other great thing is that the chef is behind the bar preparing most of the food, so you can go and watch him or just view him from your table. The staff were great and they gave great service as well, which is a rarity here in Sing Sing.  By the end of the night during our dessert courses, the chef bought out a complimentary glass each of some sort of potato like vodka - again delicious but oh so potent.  Which after we finished, he then gave us the whole bottle...after this time the night may have turned into a blur...but a great blur at that.  Cannot recommend this place enough.  It's a definite must do! Wow!
http://www.hachirestaurant.com/

Thai Express - United Square

Post by Kristyn

So Thai Express is a chain here, and there's one pretty much everywhere.  We've been to a couple of them and they haven't been bad.  So we tried the one out at the United Square Mall which isn't too far from where we live.  I'm just going to put it out there, we won't be back here again in a real hurry.  The only really nice thing on the menu is the chicken and cashew which we've had at most of them and it's never let us down.  This time around we started off with the thai fried crab, and whoa it was disgusting.  James and I both had a bite and we both nearly spat it out.  I'm not sure how fresh that crab was, but there was no way either of us were going to eat any more of it.  I ordered a tom yum soup, as I thought how can you go wrong with that...hahaha oh how wrong I was.  It was like eating chilli flavoured water.  The soup had no taste in it, and I was also too scared to eat any of the seafood in it, so I basically left that as well.  All that remained was the pad thai, which again was quite bland and the chicken and cashew which we both devoured.  It was not an experience I want to go through again.  To Thai Express Kristyn says no...

http://www.thaiexpress.com.sg/

Whampoa Drive Food Centre - 90 Whampoa Drive

Post by Kristyn

Now Whampoa Drive is a 5-10 min walk from our condo.  It's a great place, there is a local market and hawker food centre here.  It's where most of the locals shop and eat.  We love it.  We generally get our dinner from here 4-5 nights a week.  Other than the fact it costs us $10 for two of us for dinner, it's close and easy, and I really don't enjoy cooking at all.  There is a lot to choose from, and we have our favourite places that we go to.  It's nice they actually know who I am now, it could be the fact that I'm the only blonde one that really frequents the place, so I'm not hard to miss.  We usually go to one particular place that serves rice and a huge variety of different vegie's and meats.  We also have our favourite sugar cane juice stall here as well. 

There's a couple of quite well known stalls here too, one is the Hoover Rojak (pictured above), which is amazing.  It's basically a mixture (Rojak is a Malay word for mixture) of cucumber, pineapple, deep fried tofu plus a lot more covered in a dark shrimp paste sauce topped off with crushed peanuts.  Even though it doesn't sound it, it's actually quite delicious, it's a nice blend of sweet and savoury.  You have to be prepared to line up at this place, I've waited half and hour before to eat here, but it's definitely worth the wait.  There is also a well known chicken and rice place as well that we also sometimes eat at. 

For anyone that comes to visit, we will no doubt take you here, it's nice to get in amongst the locals.

Curry Times - #02-33/34 Novena Square

Post by Kristyn

So I met James after work one night at Novena Square to grab some dinner.  I felt like Indian so we thought we'd try out Curry Times at Novena Square.  Well it wasn't really Indian at all.  It reminded me a bit of Killiney Kopitiam with the same sort of curry dish and of course prata.  So we had the chicken curry, mixed vegetables and prata.  Unfortunately it wasn't that great, we were both disappointed in the meal.  I can't say that I'd go back again, I really wish that we had something similar to Killiney around near us.  This certainly didn't kill the craving.

http://www.currytimes.com.sg

Old Hong Kong Kitchen - #02-76 Square 2

Post by Kristyn

After being out and about one Saturday morning we ended up at the Old Hong Kong Kitchen at Square 2 on our way home, as it was about 3pm and we were starving.  Dumplings were on the menu.  This is quite a big restaurant but at 3pm we were pretty much the only ones in there.  We actually had to ask if if was even open, but they were so we sat down and ordered.  We had deep fried prawn dumplings, deep fried prawn wantons with sweet and sour sauce, steamed shrimp dumplings, BBQ pork buns, shanghai meat dumplings, egg custard buns and mini egg tarts.  It was all really delicious, we also had some red ginger tea which was very spicy but also delicious.  Would definitely recommend going back here again.

http://oldhongkong.com.sg

Boon Tong Kee - 403 Balestier Road

Post by Kristyn

So this place Boon Tong Kee, is just a hop step and a jump from our condo.  Everytime we walk past this place is packed!  And we all know that the sign of a good eatery in Singapore is when people are happy to line up for hours to get in.  We got here at a good time, as after we were seated on a table out the front two buses came and unloaded and they all went up to the upstairs dining.  So we got out order in quick, to beat the rush.  We had mixed vegies, a selection of prawn toast (pictured) and hor fun venison (pictured).  The prawn toast and venison was delicious!  They were both quite big meals so we didn't need anything else.  We have been back to their take away store front which is next to the restaurant for the venison, yum, I want some now thinking about it.  The only downside is, that as we're now used to only spending $10 between the two of us at hawker centres we were a bit miffed after ordering our take away and it costing nearly $50...

http://www.boontongkee.com.sg/

Maybelline Fashion Show

Post by Kristyn

Our friend Phoebe is a buyer at Watsons (which is like Priceline in Oz), so she gets to go to all the great parties in town.  This time she scored a couple of free tickets and invited us along to Zouk where Maybelline were introducing one of their new mascara's and holding a fashion show.  Poor Phoebe though actually had to work and schmooze at this event, so James, Paul and myself made the most of our VIP tickets at the free flow bar.  For some reason we thought the drinks were "one for one" and ordered six G&T's.  We then realised that is was free flow, but we laughed it off and finished them all then ordered another round!  Oh yeah the show...um I had a look at it a couple of times, there were Singaporeans celeb's and things and girls getting make overs done on stage during the breaks of the fashion show.  After quite a few drinks and Phoebe finishing up her "work" we got out of there, carrying our free goody bags and headed down to Clarke Quay for some late dinner, which helped in soaking up the alcohol.

 

Lao Beijing - #02-11 Novena Square

Post by Kristyn

So by now we've moved into our new condo near the Novena MRT, this place is at Velocity which is our nearest shopping mall.  I met James here for dinner one night after he'd finished work, and as per usual we ordered way too much food, but it was all really yummy!  We had hot and sour soup (pictured), mixed greens, pork/shrimp/chive dumplings, deep fried coriander balls (I'm not a huge coriander fan but these were delicious - pictured), crab xiao long bao and of course red bean paste pancakes (pictured) to finish off.  We had walked past this restaurant a few times and never actually went in, but I'm glad that we did, it was delicious.

http://www.laobeijing.com.sg/index.php

Just call me blonde

Post by Kristyn

Ok so we all have our blonde moments every now and again, so I can't be fully blamed for this event.  Which I have decided to share with you all, as it is quite a funny story, but it never is at the time....it all started when I went down to the gym as I do every morning.  I took my swipey pass out of my purse as I need this to enter the gym and also it activates the lift that goes straight to our condo.  Ok so this all goes to plan.  After an hour at the gym, I go back up to the condo do the usual, have a shower lunch etc.  In the afternoon the sun was shining, so I figured I'd go and relax by the pool for an hour or so.  Nothing unusual about this story so far right?  After a lovely time by the pool it's late afternoon so I pack up my poolside bag and mosey on to the lift and go to take out my swipey pass...(insert shocking music here).  Oh no, that's right, after I came home from the gym instead of putting my pass back in my purse, I leave it on the breakfast bench don't I.  So here I am standing in my bikini, locked out of my own condo.  I go down to the guard house thinking they may be able to let me up somehow, but being the tight security that they are, they don't have that sort of access.  Oh no.  I ring James at this point and when he answers (I pray to god that he's not working at Changi Business Park) thankfully he informs me that today he is at Marina Bay Financial Centre.  So I order a cab, get in the back in my bikini and tell him to go directly to MBFC where I'm collecting something and then to return.  There's no way I'm walking around MBFC in my bikini!  I call James when I get there, he brings down his pass and all is good in the world again.  I'm whisked away in my bikini back into the safe haven of our condo have a chuckle to myself and pop my pass back into my purse.  The end.

Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant - 282 S Bridge Rd

Post by Kristyn

On a little trip down China Town whilst shopping for kitchenwares for our new condo, we popped into Eight Treasures for a quick bite to eat, plus it may have also started bucketing down., so we were in need of shelter.  And what a little treasure this place it.  You have to walk up some very steep stairs to get to the restaurant but it's well worth it.  We were there just for a quick bite, so we shared some vegetarian fried rice (pictured), some beans, and some golden veg lemon "duck" (pictured) which was all really good.  Their menu was quite extensive, so I wouldn't mind going back to try some more out.

http://www.8treasuresgroup.com.sg/index.html

Hotel Warrnambool - Cnr Koroit & Kepler St (Warrnambool)

Post by Kristyn

 

So one of the reasons for this trip back 'down under' was for my mum's surprise 50th.  She had no idea that James and I were back in Australia, let alone in Warrnambool  So to hide out, we went to the only place where they serve the biggest glasses of wine...Hotel Warrnambool.  My brother and sister joined us of course.  We basically just had some really good pub grub meals, there was meatloaf and mash, beef and rosemary pie, calamari and chips, and battered flake and chips.  What more can you ask for in a pub meal?  It's not really a trip back to the the motherland without either a meal or a sneaky few glasses of wine at the "Warrny", so this made it the perfect place for us to hide out until the big surprise party.

http://www.hotelwarrnambool.com.au/home.asp

Vegie Bar - 380 Brunswick St (Fitzroy)

Post by Kristyn

 

Another well missed eatery from Melbourne.  It's so hard to find any really great vegetarian restaurants of this kind of calibre in Sing Sing.  Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of vegie places here, but nothing quite like this.  As we used to have dinner there most nights of the week, we made sure that we went back for our trip back home.  On this occassion I had one of my favourite meals here, their burrito which is huge, but coming back to the freezing cold weather made me so hungry, that I pretty much demoilshed it.  James had some vegie and rice dish (I can't remember or make out what it is hahaha).  This was only one of the many times we ate here on our return trip.  The "original stir fry" is a favourite of ours as is the vermicelli noodles.  We miss you Vegie Bar!

http://www.vegiebar.com.au/

The Town Hall - 166 Johnston St (Fitzroy)

Post by Kristyn

Ok ok, so this dinner is actually in Melbourne not Singapore.  I was so excited to come home for a couple of weeks, I have been CRAVING Western food, that I think that these Melbourne meals deserve a place in our blog, if only for me to look back at them every now and again and reminisce....So James and I had date night our first Saturday night back, we ended up just around the corner from our place in Fitzroy at The Town Hall.  This is a one hat restaurant in the Good Food Guide and well deserved too.  The food was AMAZING!  We started off with yellow fin carparccio and some amazing grilled chorizo and bread.  James had crayfish agolonotti with tomatoe and anchovy crumbs for a main and I had eye fillet with potato gratin and red wine jus.  YUM!! I had been craving good steak for so long, and this one was cooked to med/rare perfection.  The food was so good that we both went for dessert as well, which is something that we don't usually do.  James had the tiramisu soaked in strega, kahlua and coffee with marscapone and I had the most delicious (James had dessert envy) apple and blackberry cinnamon pie with brandy anglais.  This was all washed down with a beautiful pinot noir from Tassie and a huge glass of Spanish PX with dessert.  Considering this was a one hat restaurant, it was relatively cheap, the mains are all around $30.  I would highly recommend anyone looking for an amazing restaurant in Melbourne that's not going to break the budget to head here.  I'll definitely be going back next time we're back in Melbs.  It also helps that it's only around the corner from our place in Fitzroy :)

http://townhallhotel.net.au/

 

 

 

Lerk Thai -Changi Airport Terminal 3

Post by Kristyn

No dinner at an airport terminal can ever be good, and that's the truth, even the name is off putting. Awaiting our flight back to Melbourne this seemed to be the best of a bad bunch.  We ordered mixed vege's, prawn balls (that tasted like the good old crab stick from your local fish & chip shop), minced chicken & shrimp squares (which looked huge on the menu but came out teeny tiny), and the usual suspect chicken pad thai (which also came out teeny tiny).  Far be it for me to actually write anything more about this meal, I'm not sure it deserves much more of my time...all I can say is bring on Melbourne food & coffee!!!
http://www.lerkthai.com.sg/

Orange Lantern - 73 Killiney Road

Post by Kristyn

Orange Lantern is a Vietnamese restaurant down Killiney Road (we basically have now tried most places on Killiney).  We've been here a couple of times now.  There's usually quite a few people in here, which is always a good sign.  The food is pretty good, I wouldn't say it's the best Vietnamese I've had, but it's not bad, it's well priced and the service is pretty good.  This time around James had a vegetable soup and a vegetarian wrap and I had grilled beef and rice as seen in the photos.

 

http://www.orange-lantern.com/

 

Octapas - Spanish Tapas Bar @ Clarke Quay

Post by Kristyn

Again, we've already posted about Octapas, but we actually ate here this time. Unlike the other times where it's just been about the happy hour priced sangria and churros.  I am happy to report back though, that the food was actually pretty good.  Being a tapas bar we just ordered a range of yums such as patatas bravas, pork & beef meatballs, croquettes, squid and of course paella, oh and white sangria.  Would happily come back here again for eats and happy hour of course, such a nice setting on the water at Clarke Quay as well.  Especially the view of the boat in the picture with a lady playing a piano on it :P

http://www.octapasasia.com/