Good spread of #food. #APRICOT2013 #lunch (at Shangri-La Hotel)
Good spread of #food. #APRICOT2013 #lunch (at Shangri-La Hotel)
Sushi Halal di Clementi
Informasi didapet dari milis sebelah, terima kasih kepada mbak Dinda.
Kabar baik untuk penggemar sushi (termasuk saya dan keluarga, terutama anak-anak). :) City Vibes itu gedung baru di samping stasiun MRT Clementi, yang dulu-nya gedung tua yang ada bioskop Clementi tua dan McDonalds di bawahnya itu.
Disclaimer: saya sendiri belum pernah kesana.
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From: Adinda Presanti
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 21:03:48 +0800
Subject: [imas_sg] Sushi
Tadi sore ke ShinTokyo/Ramen Ten -Halal- di Clementi City Vibes (dekat MRT,
gedung yang baru dibangun). Karena baru buka, ditawarkan promo khusus sushi
piring putih, biasanya $2.30 jadi $0.99 sepiring. Pilihannya banyak sekali
dan enak2… Grilled unagi sushi sangat recommended, cakep benar rasanya.
Tapi lebih mahal, $4.30 (ga ada diskon).Tempura sushinya juga enak2.
Untuk minuman, blue soda yang pakai green tea ice cream asik sekali.
Sekedar nyebarin info, sebagai customer yang puas
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Claypot Chicken Rice
My first encounter with claypot chicken rice was in Malaysia. I immediately fell in love with this dish, rice cooked in a claypot together with all the additional ingredients such as diced chickens, vegetables and, most importantly, the spices, thrown in. Cooked over charcoal stove, and served with the pot while still hot. Wonderfulicious. :)
Since it's a Chinese traditional dish, it's quite difficult to find halal claypot chicken rice in Singapore. Normally, I would go to Johor Bahru to look for this dish, notably the food courts at Johor Bahru's City Square and Tebrau City. Therefore, it was a very delightful surprise to see this dish in one of the stalls at Banquet halal food court, located on the basement two (B2) floor of VivoCity shopping mall, Singapore.
On a side note, Banquet VivoCity is one of our favourite Banquet outlets, other than the Bagus by Banquet at IMM and Banquet Jurong Point. In Banquet VivoCity, the kids would normally go with the chicken rice, other than fish and chips or chicken cutlet from the western stall. For me, another favourite dish there is the cockles kway teow.
Tang Tea House
Last Saturday night, I took Irza out for supper, while Inka has already sleeping. Since were were not too sure where to go, I decided to go to Tang Tea House.
This MUIS-certified halal Chinese "makan" place is recommended by my friends from the IMAS community. Its specialty is the tim sum, although it also provides any other types of dishes such as chicken rice, seafood and even shark fin soup.
It was past midnight when I and Irza reached there. It's located at Simpang Bedok, along Bedok Road, opposite the Bedok Market Place. It provides a very nice and cozy alfresco seating arrangement. It's just a short 15 minutes walk from Tanah Merah MRT station, although if you don't want to walk, you can also take bus number 2 or 9 from Tanah Merah MRT station, or bus number 10 from Tampines bus interchange.
I ordered four (yes, it's FOUR) dishes of tim sum: my favourite chicken feet, siew mai (siomay in Indonesian), har kow (shrimp dumplings) and chicken pau, which is requested by Irza since it's his favourite.
However, Irza loves the chicken rice, which I specifically ordered for him. His comment is that even without the chicken and the soup, the rice itself is very nice. He also loves the har kow with the shrimp inside.
The price is, surprisingly, reasonable. A dish of siew mai (3pcs) and har kow (3pcs) costs $2.50, chicken feet costs $2.20 and chicken pau (2pcs) costs only $1.60. My longan drink only costs $1.80 while Irza's milo dinosaur costs $2.80. His chicken rice (a set of rice, chicken and soup) costs only $3.
More pictures can be found here.
Kastengel ala Indra and Inka-Irza
Following last year's success in making kastengel cheese cookies, I made the same cookies last Saturday afternoon to celebrate this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri, before we went to the KBRI's buka puasa event.
Following exactly the same recipes as last year, I mixed 200 grams of margarine and 50 grams of butter with 2 egg yolks, and then manually mixed them with 350 grams of plain flour and 200 grams of shredded edam cheese. After shaping, I put egg yolk and shredded cheddar cheese as toppings before putting them on a tray and bake them inside the oven under 170 degree Celcius temperature for about 20-30 minutes.
During the kastengel cookies making procees, I got help from Inka and eventually Irza who also wanted to join the fun :), while my wife helped us to bake them.
Before someone is asking :), no, I don't take orders. :) I'm only making these cookies for personal and family consumption only... :) :)
More pictures can be found here.
Siam Kitchen
Siam Kitchen is our family's favourite Thai restaurant, providing quite a wide range of Thai cuisines.
My wife's (and also my) favourite menu is the BBQ platter, containing grilled prawn, squid and meat with a special sauce, while the kids' favourite is the crispy soft-shell crab with mayonnaise sauce.
It has many outlets around Singapore, and the outlet we often visit is the one at the second floor of Bugis Junction, just above the Bugis MRT station.
It is one of only a few Thai restaurants in Singapore which obtains halal certification from MUIS.
Cavana Chicken Rice
Some of you might have been wondering why we went all the way to Sembawang, an area north of Singapore which we seldom visit. You might be surprised to know that the reason why we went to Sembawang is to hunt for chicken rice. :) Cavana chicken rice, to be exact.
Our favourite Cavana outlet at Marina Square has closed down. :( This means that there's no more outlet around the south and west area of Singapore, although I understand that they are going to open a new outlet at Jurong Point soon. So, the closest Cavana outlets to our place of residence are the two on the north area of Singapore, one in Causeway Point, Woodlands and the other one in Sun Plaza, Sembawang. The rest are located east of Singapore, namely Tampines and Pasir Ris.
At that time, we decided to go to the Cavana outlet at Sun Plaza since we seldom go to the shopping mall and would like to know what other things it offers. Nothing much, though.
I really hope that the new outlet in Jurong Point will open soon.
Coffee Bean is Now Halal-certified
This might be an old news for some of you, since it's already happening since May 2008. But still, it's a good news for all my Muslim friends in Singapore. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, one of the leading cafe in Singapore, is now certified halal by MUIS.
My family and I have already been fans of Coffee Bean even before they were certified, since we knew that they are not providing food which contains pork or lard. In fact, we prefer Coffee Been much more than Starbucks. Inka and Irza's favourite is the tiramisu cake, which is superbly wonderfulicious.
Inka enjoying tiramisu cake at Coffee Bean VivoCity
Yes, I know that some people said that Starbuck's coffee is better than Coffee Bean's. But hey, I'm not a coffee lover, in fact, I always order non-coffee beverages at Coffee Bean. :) My favourite non-coffee beverage at Coffee Bean, which is the kids' favourite as well, is the ice blended chocolate. :)
Sedap Corner, Bukit Batok
This hainanese chicken rice stall is located inside the S11 Food Court in block 640 Bukit Batok Central, not far from Bukit Batok bus interchange and the MRT station. It has a halal certification from MUIS.
When I went there yesterday afternoon for lunch, this stall has the longest queue compared to other stalls in the vicinity. However, surprisingly the service is quite fast and efficient, and despite the long queue, I didn't have to wait for long to get my chicken rice set.
The price is also, surprisingly, reasonable. Normal chicken rice dish will cost you only $2.50 to $3.00, while more "complete" set with egg, tofu and gizzard like what I had yesterday only cost me $4.00.
Apologise for the lack and the low quality of the pictures, I took them using my mobile phone.
Weekend Trip to Johor
Two weekends ago, we drove up to Johor for a short weekend getaway, to celebrate our 9th anniversary as well as testing my new GPS receiver to Malaysia.
We stayed at Cinta Ayu All Suites Hotel [ note: Cinta Ayu, not Cinta Laura :P :P ], a nice apartment-type hotel located in the vicinity of Pulai Springs Resort. This resort is located on the outskirts of Johor Bahru, along the main road leading to Pontian.
Although the resort is meant more for golfers (since it's surrounded by two 18-hole golf courses), it also provides quite good facilities for families as well. Other than the hotel's swimming pool which is located on the second floor, we can also use the main resort's facilities, including the swimming pools which have nice views over the golf course and mount Pulai. One of the swimming pools is also equipped with a slide, which Irza enjoys very much.
We chose a 2-bedroom type of apartment for S$170 per night, which is booked online from AsiaTravel and includes breakfast for 4 persons. The 1-bedroom type is also available for S$128 per night. The breakfast is provided at the Cinta Terrace restaurant and the food is quite nice. There's also a spa facility at the sports centre, and the price is quite reasonable. Quite worth the value for money, in my opinion.
We were not only making use of the hotel's facilities, but also made some side trips to couple of locations in and around Johor Bahru, either for food or sightseeing.
On Saturday (12/4) afternoon, we went to AEON Tebrau City and had lunch at the JUSCO food court located on the second floor. This was our third visit to this biggest shopping mall in Johor, and other than the food court, we also went there for the amusement centre for the kids (which is located just next to the food court) and, of course, the Breadtalk bakery shop and its popular spicy chicken floss buns, which is halal in Malaysia.
In the evening, we visited Danga Bay and had dinner in one of the BBQ seafood restaurants there. The food is superbly delicious, and the price is surprisingly reasonable.
We had our dinner in an alfresco seating environment, with trains passing by giving amusement for the kids. We actually could ride the train however we were not able to find the location of the station where we could buy the ticket and board the trains. :( The kids were disappointed for not being able to ride the train. Will have to find the exact location of the station when we go there again. Anyone knows? :)
On Sunday (13/4), after checking out of the hotel, we went to Gunung Pulai and since the main recreational forest park is closed, we went to a less-visited attraction spot located south of the main park. My GPS told me that there is a waterfall on that spot as well, however when we went there we couldn't find it. Just saw some parked cars and some food stalls, and some locals having a bath in the river there.
Another thing I would like to share is that now we do not have to fill in the Malaysia immigration cards when we pass through their immigration, making trips to Malaysia much easier now.