Salted Egg Yolk Fries?! Give LeBan HK Cafe a medal!

The fiance and I chanced upon LeBan HK Cafe (2 Jalan Leban, Upper Thomson Road) when we headed around the area to buy my cat's wet food. I have read of its legendary salted egg yolk fries from some food blogs, so since the fiance was hungry, why not we pop in for a snack? 

LeBan HK Cafe, and coincidentally it's located at Jalan Leban.

 Since I was feeling a bit cold and I AM in a HK Cafe, I ordered their hot honey lemon drink. Can't go wrong with it since it's honey and lemon combined. Love the sweet and sour taste of this drink. Comforting drink indeed.

$2.20, look at the honey pooled in the bottom.

 The fiance ordered HK Milk Tea. which cameomes in a tin cup. Interestingly, when I went to HK, they always serve their milk tea in plastic cups, especially in the cha chaan teng I have frequented, so I have no idea why in SG they always serving it in tin cups.. maybe I have been going to the wrong cha chaan teng when I was in HK.

As authentic as it gets.

 Finally, the star of the show came. THE LEGENDARY SALTED EGG YOLK FRIES.

LOOK AT IT. OOOZZZZZINGGG with salted egg yolk goodness.

Whoever invented this gloriously, sinfully, fattening and calories inducing dish deserves a medal.

Salted Egg Yolk Fries, $6.50

I mean SERIOUSLY. HOW CAN ANYTHING SO SINFUL TASTE SO GOOD?!

The salted egg yolk clinging onto the crispy french fries, making it a soggy mess. One bite, oh my goodness, I can't even find the right words to describe it. And I love how they generously drown the fries with the salted egg yolk sauce. The salted egg yolk pork rice at Far East Plaza ain't got nothing on this dish (because I feel they always don't drench enough sauce on the pork). After we finished the fries, I know I shouldn't do this, but I was lapping up the remaining salted egg yolk sauce on the plate with my fork.

I'm telling you this, it's a massive waste if you do not give this dish a try at least once in your life.

I will definitely be back again.

8 Degrees in Taiwan and a Milk Cow: 8 Degrees Taiwanese Bistro (八度空间) and MilkCow (밀크카우)

When I saw the bistro sign 八度空间, I was like thinking "Jay Chou?" Yeap, true enough, this bistro tucked away at 37 Tech Chye Terrace is named after Jay Chou's hit album. Went there for lunch and found the place to be quite cosy and trendy. Being a Taiwanese bistro, the menu offers a mix of Taiwanese street food, classic Taiwanese dishes, desserts and bubble teas.

I opted for their lunch promo which is their bento set and it comes with free flow of their iced tea of the day. That day, it was Lychee tea. The lychee tea was not too sweet and it was a refreshing drink on a hot day.  

The food came relatively quickly. 

Chicken Bento Set

I love the tofu, both the fried and the steam tofu. Can't go wrong with tofu, honestly. The pickled vegetable side dish was refreshing. My only gripe was the chicken cutlet, I tasted more of the flour than the chicken meat itself. Otherwise, can't go wrong with the bento.

Salted Crispy Chicken

I love the salted crispy chicken, unlike some other places, the chicken meat is chunky, not fatty. There is a hint of saltiness, not an excess of it. A must try dish.

Strawberry and Mango Snow Ice.

Finally, the dessert came, the strawberry and mango snow ice. I'm not sure if they SPECIALLY picked out strawberries with the perfect shape of hearts, but I'm digging the heart shape strawberries decorating the mango ice. It has a sweet yet sourish taste that obviously melts in your mouth. Another must try dish.

That was my lunch experience at 8 Degrees Taiwanese Bistro. Definitely an interesting and authentic place to try if you are craving Taiwanese food.

I met up with my fiance over the weekend and we tried the much raved about Milk Cow soft serve ice cream located on the ground floor at The Cathay, 2 Handy Road. I was a little skeptical at first because having tried Honey Creme and I found it to be quite normal, nothing to shout about, so I told myself to just try it with an open mind.

We ordered the Milk Cow Snowdrop, consisting of cotton candy and M&Ms for a rather hefty price tag of $5.9. Well, they claim it's organic milk and honey, so maybe that explains the price. We'll found out soon enough, I took a bite.

Milk Cow's Snowdrop ice cream

Mind. Blown.

You can taste the freshness of the milk with a hint of honey, so, so smooth. Literally, it slides down your throat. The cotton candy and the M&Ms is an insult to the flavour of the ice cream seriously, because it makes the ice cream too sweet and ends up making it taste 'artificial'. Immediately, I regretted not ordering it plain. It is so, so, so good on its own. I'm surprised there was no queue for this place yet Honey Creme has snaking queues. Well, all the better for me. I really regret sharing it with my fiance, we should have have one each.

Definitely a must try if you are around The Cathay. Now I can see why it costs quite a bit.

Killing time in between Yoga and Pole classes

Every weekend, I'll usually spend my time doing about two hours of yoga in town. As I have recently signed up for an Amateur Night pole dance competition, I also spend my weekends practicing my dance routine. 

With about three hours to kill before our allocated Amateur Night practice time begins, I decided to do the most important thing on my to-do list.

Lunch. 

I mean seriously, after two hours of Hot Stretch and Iyengar yoga classes.. ANYONE will be famished. As you all know, yoga classes are for clearing the mind of negative thoughts and stay focused on the self? Throughout class, my motivational thoughts were "FOOD. FOOD. FOOD." 

No wonder the fiance said I will never lose any weight. 

My stomach craved for chicken rice today and chicken rice I shall have. 

Went to The Food Inn, located at the Park Mall exit at Douby Ghaut XChange. 

What caught my eye was the price. $3 for chicken rice?! In Orchard Road?  

NOW THAT IS A STEAL. 

$3 for a plate of chicken rice and $5 for a set. NICE.

Roast Chicken Rice

Ordered my usual, roast chicken, breast meat and less rice. Health conscious lah.

Now before you ask me how was the chicken rice? I can safely say this, my bias is still Wee Nam Kee. But hey, I am not complaining? What you pay for is what you get and for $3, I'll say this is a fair amount for a plate of chicken rice in an air conditioned place. Some air conditioned food courts whom I shall not name, I pay like $3.50-$5 for their chicken rice and they don't even serve this much.

The Food Inn also have affordable nasi lemak at $2.30. Definitely a good place to eat at if you are on a tight budget and you are in Orchard Road.

After satisfying my craving, I still had time to kill. Decided to walk to the National Library and spend what's left of my time with books.

On the way, I had to walk past the art museum and I chanced upon this art piece.

Utama's Cat description

Apparently, in history, Singapore always had tigers but never lions.We can't blame Prince Utama for his mistake though because according to the folklore, when he landed and saw the creature, he apparently asked his chief minister if he knew what was that creature called. And I'm guessing that dude doesn't have the option to say "I have no idea, Sire." because he was in a cushy position as chief minister which I'm sure in the 1200s that definitely had better benefits than a foot soldier or a farmer... he decided to wing it and told Prince Utama "That's a lion." And because Princes tend to trust people around them, he believed the dude and decided to rename Temasek as Singapore aka Lion City. 

Good job, chief minister. 

And here's Utama's Cat. Well, lions are under the cat classification anyway.

 Eventually, I made my way down to the basement of the National Library and I saw this!

Holy mother of library's children's sections!

 What the heck?! When did the children's section became so cool!?

Ignoring the stares of other people, I decided to walk in and take a look at this bookworms' wonderland.

IS THAT A TREEHOUSE?!

 Now I wish I'm a kid again.

After reading a few mangas, it was time for me to make my way to class.

I was attracted to the exhibitions at the lobby and outside the library's lobby.

The first exhibition was pretty somber. Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away two weeks back and they left a memorial wall covering his works at the lobby.

RIP Mr Lee Kuan Yew, you will be missed by us.

 After which, there was the SG 50 exhibitions.

Memories of the past

Nostalgic decors

Someone's garden in Singapore

Do you remember your first home?
You can take a piece of paper and pin it on the map of Singapore to identify your first home.

Interactive exhibitions for adults and children.

SG 50 is coming in August, it won't be the same without Mr LKY, and I rarely say this, but this exhibition is one of the rare times where I feel like I'm home and makes me feel proud to be Singaporean.

Today has been a really meaningful day.

Got engaged and turned a year older!

Wow, so fast time has passed.

It's been almost one year since I have last blogged due to a lot of stuff happening.

My boyfriend proposed to me at Resorts World Hotel Micheal last year in October 2014. It was completely unexpected.. so unexpected to the point that no photos were taken other than the photo of the engagement ring itself.

 But that was in October. Let's focus on now. So on Friday it was my birthday and he took me to Platypus Kitchen in Bugis Junction for my birthday dinner. I wanted to go there because I heard they have revamped their menu.

We ordered one dinner set and their signature Crustacean Bowl.

The dinner set came with their lobster bisque consisting of potatoes, actual lobster chunk and cheese. What do we think of it? Well we literally licked the bowl when we finished it because it was so delicious!

Lobster Bisque

 As a part of the dinner set, the main course is the truffles mac and cheese. LOOK AT THE TRUFFLES. You can't go wrong with cheese and truffles, I tell ya! The fiance loved it so much he wolfed it down so quickly.

Truffles Mac & Cheese

 My main course which I ordered ala-carte was their much raved about Crustacean Bowl. It consists of lobster, umi (sea urchin), cavier, honey and cheese with japanese rice. My verdict? I LOVE IT. The harmony of ingredients were so orgasmic. The saltiness of the cavier complements the sweet honeyed lobster/umi meat and the cheese adds a touch of creaminess to the entire dish. My fiance who is usually biased towards his beloved mac and cheese actually proclaimed that this dish is so good he should have ordered it instead of the mac and cheese.

The legendary Crustacean Bowl

 The final dish, my impromptu birthday cake. The TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CAKE. Look at how pretty it is. Such a waste to eat it. But to be honest, out of all the dish, this tasted pretty..... alright. I guess because we had too much awesome ingredients before this and you can't go wrong with chocolate.

The total cost for the two of us was about $67+ (we ordered a drink too) which was pretty good considering the quality of the ingredients! This place is definitely a must try if you are on a 'budget' but you are craving for 'atas' food like caviar, lobsters and truffles.

Burger Joint: Bear Bites.... no seriously that is the name of the place.

I love food. So when I'm free, I'll google for places to go and places to eat? This place popped up on some of the famous food blogs around Singapore. I dragged my boyfriend down with me to try out this place as it looks super kawaii (cute in Japanese) and innovative. 

See? I told you that's the name of the place. Bear Bites. It's located in between Scape and Cineleisure. It's not that hard to spot because it looks like some kind of hut.

For the reallllyyyy lazy bums who do not want to experience the thrill in searching for a new place, here's a photo of the store front. I'm a little disappointed that there's no mascot bear at the cashier, that will make this place epic.

Unlike other burger joints, Bear Bites served two types of meat. Chicken karaage (or Fried Chicken fillet) and Oishii Fish (or delicious Fish). That's it. No black pepper spicy chicken, grilled chicken.. nope, none of that marketing bull. In that case, it makes you wonder, so what is the selling point of this place? Definitely not the cheese fries (just add $1.00 to the burger combo meal). 

 It's the BURGER BUN! PAWS! Hold up! What do you mean by that? (See what I did there? Hehe.)
IT'S THE BURGER BUN! It's in the shape of a bear paw. Super cute. It's the size of my hand and it comes in different colors! From the squid ink infused black bun to the seasonal strawberry pink bun. Pick your bun, your meat, your sauce and whether you want it in a combo meal deal or not. Simple as that.

 I had the oatmeal bun... talk about trying to ease my diet plan guilt trip by ordering that with fried chicken fillet. Well, to be fair, at least the burger bun is STEAMED. So it's less fattening right? The burger was drenched in cheese sauce, the oily fillet was absorbed by the vegetables and the steam bun.. Quite nice and to be completely biased.. I LOVE THE PRESENTATION! So I'll give this joint 3.5/5.. mainly because of the unique burger bun concepts. If only they offer more variety of meat....

In total, I paid $8.80 for the meal. Definitely a good place for the budget conscious and for those who wants to try something out of the ordinary.