Nyah! The Tiramisu Hero to the rrrrrrrescue!

Chanced upon this place while my relatives and I were having some hawker food around the area. The pretty shop front caught my eye. I've heard a lot about this place so we decided to go in and try their signature dish... the tiramisu!

And if you are lucky like me, you might catch their resident community kitty loitering about the front of the store. 

Store front

Interior of the cafe

The hero inviting us fellow hoomin beans.

Menu

Jars and jars of tiramisu

They sell kaya too

Amusing tip box, from the looks of things, men may be winning.

Fortune cats

The vibe of this place is really very chill. Staff were also polite and friendly. We ordered three jars of tiramisu. The chocolate, original and cinnamon. Each jar came with a different expression from the Tiramisu Hero. Out of the three jars we shared and tasted. We agreed the cinnamon was the best. 

After we were done, we felt it was a waste to let the jars get thrown away, we asked the staff if we could keep it. To our delight, they said yes and the staff even went and got us new jars to bring back. 

Sweet of them. 

Noticed that they have brunch and other main courses as well. Made a mental note to go back and try their other dishes. Really a lovely place to hang out at. A lot of photo opportunity as well.. like the 3D head of the Tiramisu Hero. Just need to be careful not to boop your head when you get out of it. 

I'm pretending to be a tiramisu hero for a day. 

Cereal-iously weird yet delicious.

After my yoga class, I was desperately craving for ice cream. My fiance and I decided to pop by Tom's Palette at Shaw Tower, 100 Beach Road. Big mistake. Super long queue on a Friday night. Should have seen this coming. But since we were there, we decided to persevere and wait for our turn. I ordered the Miso Walnut and the Salted Egg Yolk ice cream just because it is something different.

Miso Walnut and Salted Egg Yolk

What can I say? My fiance who is not exactly very adventurous with his food, disliked both flavours, but for me? I LOVED IT. The miso walnut is laced with pralines within so there is this unique marriage of miso, walnut and chocolate taste. I admit, it does take some getting used to, but hey, YOLO. The salted egg yolk.. how do I describe it? Imagine you are eating the lui sha bao? Except the custard is not pipping hot, but freezing cold. Again, the taste takes some getting used to. 

After that the fiance said he hasn't had dinner yet and he wants to eat something more filling. We decided to head to Bugis Village nearby to hunt for some snacks for me and some main course for him. Unfortunately the place I had in mind had closed, so we wandered to the third floor for some thai food? Unfortunately, it was closing and they couldn't take our orders. 

Were we destined to starve? NO, this is Singapore, we will never run out of places to eat! 

NEXT to the Thai food store was a zi char place called Yi Lu Fa (literal translation: fortune on the entire journey). What caught our eye on the menu was... CEREAL CHICKEN FRIED RICE? We ordered that and the har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken) to share. 

Yi Lu Fa store on the third floor of Bugis Village

The fried rice and har cheong gai came rather quickly and it looks like the following photos. 

Cereal Chicken Fried Rice, cereal-iously good! $5

Har Cheong Gai, 2 pieces $3

Look at how thick the batter is!

Take your time to eat because the food came piping hot and fresh off the stove. The cereal chicken was delicious, the cereal was fried to a nice crisp and it went well with the fried rice. The fried chicken hidden beneath the mountain of cereal was nicely coated with the cereal as well. Thumbs up for this dish.

Their har cheong gai however, I felt the batter was too thick, making the chicken meat look well.. insufficient. I felt like I had more batter than the chicken. And I felt that the batter was a bit too oily and somewhat salty. Made a mental note to come back for their fried rice but not for the har cheong gai. If you are into food with thick batters, then their har cheong gai is for you. Otherwise, this store is definitely a hidden treasure within Bugis Village. 

A rustic and traditional European experience at the Tavern Restaurant

My godpa wanted to meet us for dinner and told us he will pick me and my siblings up from Suntec City and take us to his favourite place. 

That place turned out to be the Tavern Restaurant, famous for their Swiss and continental cuisine. 

It is located at 227 River Valley Road, just round the corner from UE Square. 

From the outside, it looks like a rustic Swiss cottage built into the ground floor of a shop house. Weird? But this is Singapore, where multinational things blend into something unique.. like this place's location. 

Once you enter the restaurant, you will be greeted by 'butlers' all suit up. You would expect to see such a presentation in Lawry's, not in a shophouse. Interesting. Inside, it looked very homely, and you will half expect to see a fireplace burning with a dog sleeping in front of it. 

We were ushered to the private room. 

Main courses and appetisers (located behind) are written on an old school chalkboard.

We left it to our godpa to order for us. Our lime juices came and they served us warm bread before our appetizers came. 

The foie gras came first. It came with a slice of toasted bread cut into half and two slabs of foie gras on a puddle of cranberry sauce. I place the foie gras onto the bread and let the oil oozing out naturally from the meat seep into the toasted bread first before taking a bite. The foie gras literally melted into the toasted bread, giving it a sweet (from the cranberry sauce) creamy texture. Delicious.

Foie Gras

The oysters came next. After squeezing the lemon and putting a touch of vinegar to the oyster, I downed it like a shot. The oyster was really fresh, not a hint of fishiness. It still had the salty taste of the sea but the lemon and vinegar toned it down a bit. 

Fresh Oysters 

The escargot came next. I waited for the dish to cool down a bit first as I always had a habit of eating the escargot immediately and singing my tongue. The escargot was baked with cream cheese and garlic, I took a bite. The escargot was juicy and not at all rubbery to chew, soaked up the left over cheese, garlic and oil with bread. This was another favourite dish.

Half a dozen Escargot

After which we were served with some seasonal asparagus and Alaskan Crab salad (both I didn't manage to take a photo). The seasonal asparagus was something new to me as I have never tried 'yellow' asparagus before? I took a bite and it gave me this interesting nutty earthly flavour. This is something new to me as I'm a carnivore who avoids eating vegetables to the best of my ability. Haha. I had three of that because it was something really curious to me. The Alaskan Crab salad was really, really fresh. The crab meat did not taste frozen at all unlike some buffet places with Alaskan Crab legs that I have tried. It was really fresh and sweet. Thumbs up to that. We were served the Berry Sorbet before our main course to cleanse our taste buds. 

Berry Sorbet to cleanse the palate before the main course.
Very refreshing!

I ordered the cod fish and it came in a slab. I was taken aback as I was expecting a thin slice or something like other restaurants. Wow. I loved the taste of the cod, it was seared to perfection. The marination they rubbed onto the codfish gave it a peppery taste. I love this dish. 

Codfish

My sister had the lobster with mushroom sauce. I stole a bit from her. Very fresh and succulent. 

Lobster

I also took some of my brother's wagyu steak, cooked medium rare. Oh, the flesh melted into my mouth. This dish was also another winner. 

Wagyu Steak

We were almost bloated at this stage, but as the saying goes, there's always room for dessert! 

My godpa ordered the Crepes Suzette with Vanilla Ice-cream. The butler came in and cooked it fresh for us. He meticulously prepared the sugar, took a bit of the orange peel into the pan and squeezed each orange individually just to prepare the sauce for this dish. Afterwards, he poured in what I assumed was the rum, put in the crepe, sealed the pan, reopened it and voila! There's fire. Very theatrical. 

Finally, we were served the dish with a scoop of ice cream. I took a bit of ice cream, a bit of the crepe and a bit of the sauce, placed it into my mouth. And there it was, an explosion of flavours, sweet from the ice cream, sour from the orange, blended with the 'blandness' of the crepe that married both flavours together. I really like this dish, it looks simple but a lot of work went into making the sauce that makes this dish a success. A must try. 

Crepes Suzette with Vanilla Ice-cream. 

With the dessert, our delightful dinner at The Tavern ended. The price was not cheap, but the experience and the food made it worth it. No wonder this place has a lot of regular customers. Definitely a place to try at least once in your life. 

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.

Belated birthday lunch at Marina Mandarin's Aquamarine

Celebrated Easter and my belated birthday at Marina Mandarin's Aquamarine. The fiance and I also took this chance to take a look around the hotel as Marina Mandarin is one of my choices for our wedding banquet. 

But that's another story. For now, let us focus on Aquamarine. One thing awesome about Aquamarine is their huge variety of food and the best part is, it's HALAL. 

Well, I'm not a muslim but I thought that will be an awesome fact as the variety is really, really fabulous. Take a look at the photos. 

Boston Lobster

Alaskan Crab Legs and Sea Whelks

Seared Tuna

Smoked Salmon

Mussels

                                     

A whole wheel of Parmesan Cheese

As it is Easter, they had Easter Themed Desserts 

Peach Mousse Cake.. too pretty to cut but some sadist cut off the bunny's face when I came back to look at it. :( 

Look at all the kuehs

Macaroons? Check, Tarts? Check. Fruits? Check.

Seabass

Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

Yogurt Ice cream dispensing machine with a tree of ice cream cones. 

 The buffet also had fresh sashimi, sushi, local delights like chicken rice, indian food like curry, pasta, chicken kebab, steak, mashed pumpkin, lamb.. and the list goes on.. there were so much food that I gave up taking photos. Definitely worth a try.

As this is Easter, they also had a clown walking around making balloons for the restaurant patrons.

My mom told him it was my birthday, so he asked me what I wanted. I requested for a crown.

My aunt went "Why not a tiara?" I told her "A tiara means I'm still secondary to the king, hence I would rather ask for a crown." I'm such a realist. LOL.

Anyway he made me a crown, which I made my fiance wear.

Look at his unhappy face, he's worried that it will mess up his hair. *roll eyes*

The clown then asked me what else I wanted. I requested for a cat. And he made me.... a Hello Kitty. I'm sorry, but what is it with people assuming I might like Hello Kitty?! I know a lot of girls/women like Hello Kitty (god forbid, I can never understand the reason why) but I am one of the very rare few that can't stand it. In fact, I'm still smarting over the fact that my dad swapped my Zoukout EZ Link card for a My Melody one.. I was like "NOOOOO, WHY MY MELODY, I WANT MY ZOUKOUT CARD..." T____T I decided to just be grateful that he had the thoughtful intention to change my EZ card for me because he was worried my Zoukout one might be expiring.

Anyway I guess the clown meant well, so I'm grateful for the Hello Kitty balloon. Also took my nephew's balloons for the below photo... just for fun.

Me with my balloons

There was also an Easter egg hunt outside the restaurant. The clown dude went to change to an Easter Bunny costume and asked us to go out to hunt for the eggs. Well, it's mainly for kids but as my nephew and cousin are both below 1 year old... I was nominated to help them to 'hunt' for the egg. Felt pretty bad finding the eggs so quickly while the kids below 13 are searching desperately for the eggs. I found two and offered one to a boy hunting near me but he rejected me and said he wanna find one himself. Fine. So I gave one to my nephew and one to my cousin.

Overall, it was an awesome meal and an awesome Easter experience at Aquamarine. Felt like I was below 13 again in Primary School hunting for eggs during Easter. Miss the experience. Glad to have relived it again before I get married next year. Now that's one item off my imaginary bucket list.