So Pho, Singapore

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Lately, I’ve been kinda cutting my budget on food because of the upcoming Japan trip (and its associated expenses). So whenever I hang out with my friend (or even boyfriend), we tried to choose something costs less than SGD 20. Good thing is my friend just came back from her Taiwan trip and hence, she does not mind having meal which does not cost a bomb. However, she wanted to go for grocery at Fairprice so we had to choose somewhere which has Fairprice and near her house in the west. Thankfully, I noticed that Clementi Mall has So Pho, a Vietnamese restaurant which sells a rather reasonably priced Vietnamese food like pho (Vietnamese noodle) and rice. 

 

I prefer dry pho to the soup version I’m not sure why. Probably it’s because the sauce (which is on the sweet rather than spicy side) goes better with the spring rolls, the chicken and the noodle when they are dry. But then again, this is probably just tastebud preference which differ from one person to another. I don’t know. So Pho’s rendition of noodle with lemongrass chicken and spring rolls taste pretty good and look at how much veggies they throw on this bowl of noodle. The noodle is pretty a lot for me and I kinda regretted eating too much of it because I ended up a bit too full for my liking. Hahaha. 

 

Oh right, this is actually the first photo of Piggy Brown which I asked my friend to help me buy from Line Friends store in Taiwan. Actually the fake version is way way way cheaper (and you can find them in Bugis Junction) but the real one is of course, better done and cuteeerrr. With the price I’m paying for this bag charm/ my meal companion, I do expect a very good quality made Piggy Brown of course. The real version costs me around SGD 20 omg. I’m so tempted to buy fake Foxy Brown at SGD 6 but I suppose maybe next time. XD

 

Right, back to the noodle (I’m so easily distracted, really). Price-wise it’s pretty wallet-friendly because it’s less than SGD 20 even after tax and service charge. So yeah, I’m quite happy with this meal. I should probably eat more at hawker centre on weekdays for this wallet-dieting regime that I’m currently living with. Unti next time!

Arbite, Singapore

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 It has been raining so often in Singapore, I’m kinda reluctant to make a trip outside shopping malls. Hahaha such excuse I know. But one Saturday, bae and I decided to have a little adventure to Serangoon Gardens where the famous Chomp Chomp Food Centre is located. It was not easy to reach Serangoon Garden because you have to take bus trip from Serangoon MRT station and go few stops away until you reach the bus stop at the centre of Serangoon Gardens area. 

This neighbourhood has a few restaurants, cafes, a hawker centre and even a shopping mall (albeit small but it has some restaurants and cafes too). I could not really decide what to eat initiatlly but bae said the quality of food at Chomp Chomp may not be as good as what have been registered in his memory (not sure how long ago). So we decided to go for dinner at Arbite. The decision came quick because it started to drizzle as soon as we alighted from the bus. 

The dinner crowd has not really formed at Arbite around 6.40-ish so we did not have to wait for a table. What perks my curiosity upon checking Arbite’s menu is the fact that they have this dish called Rendang Mac & Cheese. I know how a regular Mac & Cheese taste and I’m not sure if the local twist of putting rendang (hmm, it’s some kind of spicy meat dish, usually beef) in mac & cheese will work. However, since I have not tried this rendition of mac and cheese before and I’m always up for challenge as long as it’s not disgusting or too raw for my liking, I decided to order it. Bae has decided to order something less peculiar, Pork Chop. 

The rendang mac and cheese surprisingly taste pretty good although it becomes a bit too much upon a few bites, bae has to help finishing at least the meat pieces. Arbite is pretty generous with the amount of meat they throw inside the mac and cheese, really. It comes with a small side of greens (which I suddenly forgot what’s it called). Bae’s pork chop taste good too and since it did not make him super-full, he has enough tummy space to spare to help me eat waffle and ice cream from our next stop, Little Wimbly Lu. After all, we had travelled all the way here, it’s such a waste not to try as many things as possible, right? 

Mellower Coffee, Singapore

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It has been raining lately in Singapore so it seems to be a good time to hide yourself in a cafe while looking at the wet window (if you are able to secure the seats near the window though). One of the cafes in Singapore which gives you the chance to do that is Mellower Coffee. The cafe actually has two locations in Singapore, one in Bugis and one in Tanjong Pagar area. I went to the the one in Bugis because bae said it’s bigger and we may have some peace sitting at the level 2 of the cafe. Level one of the cafe is so crowded, I initiatlly thought we had no chance to secure any seats/ table in Mellower Coffee. But turns out there are more seats at level 2 of the cafe. Phew. 

 

Mellower Coffee is well, as its name says, well-known for its fancy coffee rendition but I can’t sleep at night if I drink coffee around 7PM so I let bae to choose their fancy creation, Sweet Little Rain (SGD 9.80) while I’m settling for a cup of hot chai latte (SGD 6). I wanted my chai latte to be cold because the cold cup is nice for photography purpose but Mellower Coffee only serves it hot. Oh well, hot latte is more suitable in the cool days of this tropical island anyway. We also ordered citrus cake which I forgot costs how much (maybe SGD 7-ish?), cakes are not cheap in Singapore sadly. 

 

Sweet Little Rain is totally an expensive coffee I would say but it comes with a huge piece of cotton candy. So the idea is to place the cotton candy on top of the piping hot americano so that the cotton candy will melt bit by bit in a form resembling rain. It’s sugary rain and hence, the name “Sweet Little Rain”. You won’t be able to see it clearly without further observation but make sure you don’t put anything underneath the cotton candy for a long time. Otherwise, your things will be “baptised” with sugar. I saved Brown and Cony before that happened of course. I asked bae if the droppings of cotton candy makes his coffee sweeter but it doesn’t seem to be the case unless he takes a bite of cotton candy and sip his coffee immediately afterward. But that beats the concept of this drink!

 

Moving on, the citrus cake tastes pretty good but the base is a bit tough to break, even with metal fork. Other than the tough base, we kinda enjoyed this tart. My chai latte taste ok, but I still had difficulty to sleep at night despite it should have less caffeine. Bae, who is normally able to sleep under caffeine influence right before bedtime, also told me that he had difficulty sleeping that night. I suppose Mellower Coffee sells pretty strong caffeine fix. Beware if you are weak like me and stick to hot chocolate after 7PM okay.  

Tachihara Coffee, Singapore

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I did not plan to go Tachihara Coffee at all on Tuesday. My initial plan was to just get a bread for the next day’s breakfast from Pullman Bakery since my bae and I were strolling around Millenia Walk to let our stomach digest the chicken rice that we just had at Wee Nam Kee in Marina Square. However, upon paying for my bread, bae received a 50% coupon for any coffee drink from the next door Tachihara Coffee. The coupon is only valid for that day (unless bae see the words wrongly) and since we had no idea where to continue our date next we decided to just chill and drink something at Tachihara Coffee.

 

I wanted to have cake too but the only cake available at Tachihara Coffee is a small cup of tiramisu which is stored in the fridge. I suppose I should just have a drink at this quaint little cafe which seems to be share the same owner with Pullman Bakery. Other than drinks and cookies/ some dessert displayed on the table and in the fridge, Tachihara Coffee also sells sandwiches, hot dogs and soups. It’s probably often frequented by office crowd on a weekday but the cafe is pretty quiet on public holiday. And it closes at 8PM too so we only had an hour to enjoy our coffee and tea. 

 

I chose an unusual flavor of tea which I seldom see anywhere else, Ice Lavender Milk Tea (SGD 4.50) while bae chose to use the 50% coupon on his regular Hazelnuts Latte (SGD 4.80). Even without the coupon, I feel that the regular price tag for Tachihara Coffee’s beverages is relatively cheaper than other cafes out there. My lavender milk tea really has a good dose of lavender...I’m guessing syrup because I can taste the lavender flavor pretty strongly in my drink. While it’s probably making my milk tea flowery, I kinda enjoyed the weird combination. And the best part is, I could sleep soundly that night even though I had my milk tea at 7PM to 8PM-ish. It must have been low in caffeine level. Hehe. 

 

Would pop by for quick me-time lunch fix if I can muster my willpower to go all the way to Millenia Walk from where my office is located. Hahaha. 

8D Avia Japan Trip: Ocean Club Buffet at Odaiba

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The last day of 8D Avia Japan Tour ended in Tokyo with a visit to the ever-crowded Shibuya crossing and Odaiba, a reclamation land located a distance away from downtown Tokyo. I know that Shibuya has always been a popular meeting spot but I was so overwhelmed with the number of people lingering around in front of Shibuya station where Hachiko statue is located on a Sunday. There is street performance there too with a band playing out some music and the noise of the crowd is enough to mumble out the sound of their performance. If you play Persona 5 on Playstation 4, you will be amazed at the details of Shibuya in the game. Because they are exactly the same with probably exception of political speech because it’s not yet election season. Haha. 

 

We spent probably around 15 - 20 minutes in Shibuya crossing because we wanted to capture a selfie of ourselves crossing the famous 6-way crossing. I suppose only tourist do that so some people (mostly foreigners) photo-bomb our shots. It was fun experience though. After we got tired of crossing the crossings, we made our way to the last stop of our tour that day, Odaiba. The reservartion for our dinner was made at 7PM so we had a bit of free time to explore Odaiba. However, we were advised not to run so far because of the risk getting lost and moreover, the tour guide did not inform us our dinner place so unfortunately, we did not dare to go see Gundam statue. Diver City is located at quite a walking distance from our drop-out point (Aqua City if I’m not mistaken) and it’s not feasible to make my Mum run back-and-forth from Diver City to Aqua City. 

 

I did not really shop much at Aqua City except for a polo t-shirt for my bae from Adidas Originals and Sukiyaki Pringles from the souvenir store at basement level. There is Disney store too so you can get your Disney goodies at Aqua City. At our appointed meeting point, we met up with the tour guides and the rest of the tour participants and made our way to mall called Decks Tokyo Beach to go to Ocean Club Buffet, where our dinner is booked. Buffet in Japan is so interesting because you can see the replica of the food offered in the buffet in front of the restaurant. It seems that Ocean Club Buffet offers international selection of cuisine because I saw all kind of food including Singapore chicken rice. Can you believe that?

 

There are 2 types of plates being used in Ocean Club Buffet, one has 9 slots while the other has 6 slots. These plates are so cute and at the same time it makes you not to be greedy if you want to have 9 variety of dishes on your plate. Hahaha. I wonder if they purposely use these kind of plates to give the kitchen enough time to cook the dishes. Probably that’s the case since Ocean Club Buffet is mostly filled with group tours. Oh my. 

 

Taste-wise, they are pretty good although some items taste so-so. I love the pasta and the pizza though I don’t know why. Italian-Japanese fusion works well for my tastebud I suppose. If you have your dinner here, make sure to take a quick walk to the balcony area of the restaurant to catch pretty view of Odaiba at night. 

8D Avia Japan Trip: Tokyo Skytree and Ueno Park

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It’s already November and I haven’t finished documenting my travel log from March. But the good news is we are coming toward the end of the travel log and I’m gonna start a new one in December. After our challenging walk at Nakamise Street, we boarded the tour bus again to go to our next destination Tokyo Skytree and Ueno Park. However, the tour does not book a visit to Tokyo Skytree for us so it’s more like photo stop with Tokyo Skytree as a background. Thankfully I’ve been to Tokyo Skytree before although I did not want to spend $ to go up to the observatory deck since I have been to one at Tokyo Tower. But I feel it’s really a pity not to at least stepping into the tower and take a look around the shopping mall underneath the tower. There’s even a huge Totoro shop there. 

 

Oh well, the tour participants seem to be happy enough to pose with Tokyo Skytree as its background so what can I say. After spending 20 minutes here to take picture, we made our way to where the bus could park and then boarded the bus again to next destination, Ueno Park. The road between these two popular tourist destinations is heavily congested especially since that day was a Sunday. So we were stuck for nearly 30 minutes with Japanese cemetery view from our bus window. We saw that each tomb seems to have names imprinted on the wooden sticks. Our local tour guide explained that usually the tomb consists of a family of 4 so you will see many sticks at the top of one tomb. I suppose they layer the casket on top of each other inside one tomb plot. 

 

Someone asked what if the family is huge, would they be able to be buried together? In this case, the tour guide explained that it is common for a big family to be buried separately or even, cremated. Hmm, I suppose land is also scarce and expensive too here in Japan. Not just in Singapore. Haha. 

 

45 minutes later we finally reached Ueno Park and since back then we were at the last week of sakura season, festivity vibe could still be felt right at the centre of Ueno Park where people have picnic  while viewing the sakura tree. In addition, there are many food/ drink stall (which is mostly offering beer I dunno why) and also, street performances because it was Sunday. Not sure if the weekday vibes of Ueno Park is that jolly though. There is no entrance fee to Ueno Park so you can just stroll inside to enjoy the beauty of the park for free. To be honest, I prefer Shinjuku Park to Ueno Park for sakura-viewing but the entrance free to Shinjuku Park is not free and you are not allowed to bring alcohol inside the park. Plus minus I suppose. 

Singapore Food Log: Hvala, Chijmes

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This weekend I finally had the chance to check out Hvala at Chijmes. Hvala is actually not new in Singapore since I have seen its shop at basement level of 313 Somerset. However, getting seat at the common area of 313 Somerset basement is a huge pain in the ass especially on weekends. So, I don’t feel like buying anything from Hvala Somerset due to seating challenge. However, I read in the news that Hvala has set up a teahouse/ cafe at Chijmes and there are seats where people can chill and take picture of the food/ drink that they buy. Getting excited by this news, I drag bae and my four little friends to Hvala. Hehe. 

 

I was kinda worried about the crowd but the cafe was not crowded around 7PM. Well, I guess most of people are enjoying dinner at this timing but we had finished our dinner by then at the nearby ramen shop. So we are ready to chill and eating dessert at Hvala. Since Hvala is somewhat a teahouse, I always want to try out their matcha latte. Bae ordered matcha houjicha latte instead. You know, I always think that matcha latte has no caffeine (maybe due to what Starbucks always says) but I could not sleep easily that night so I figure the matcha used by Hvala probably is stronger than what Starbucks use. I don’t know but it’s probably just me. 

 

Other than this insomnia risk, Hvala’s Matcha Latte (SGD 5.80) taste pretty good and it’s not the super bitter kind of matcha. Bae’s Matcha Houjicha Latte (SGD 5.80) taste exactly the same except for the addition of houjicha at the bottom of the drink. Turns out the combination of matcha and houjicha taste pretty good too. We wanted to try one of Hvala’s cakes too but were in a dilemma on what to decide. We figured matcha cake would somehow be an overkill since our drinks are full of matcha so we ordered Goma Cake instead. Goma cake is basically black sesame cake and it’s not often to see this kind of cake on display so I found this to be pretty interesting cake. It’s not so sweet and yet, I love it. Especially when it’s paired with match latte. 

 

The crowd started to come in around 9PM-ish and when the crowd has come, you are expected to share the communal table because somehow the concept of seating in Hvala seems to either encourage sharing/ big group customers. Kinda weird but I don’t know, maybe that how the owner pictures its teahouse to be. 

How to spend 30 minutes at Nakamise Street, Tokyo?

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If you are visiting Tokyo with a tour group, chances are you will have an opportunity to visit Asakusa Temple and Nakamise Street. One thing to take note is that you probably will not have a lot of time to explore these two places and if you visit these two places on a weekend, oh boy, the challenge has become way higher because this area is packed with people. In order for us to go through the crowd until we reach Kaminarimon Gate, we had to spend around 15 minutes. And since we are only allocated 45 minutes in this whole area (oh yes, are you freaking kidding me), we have to move in an orderly planned manner. 

 

After the tour guide let us roam freely, we quickly explored the alleys to enjoy some street food. If you think you can just eat while strolling like what you do in any kind of street food, you may have to remember not to do that here at Nakamise Street. Eating and drinking while strolling is completely against the rule of Nakamise Street. You can only eat or drink whatever you buy in front of the shop. Yikes, I suppose we have to chomp faster if we want to try as many food as possible here. 

 

Considering that we had to queue before securing our food, being able to eat 5 kind of different food at Nakamise Street within 30 minutes is a satisfying result to be honest with you. However, I did give a feedback to the tour group about this crazy amount of short time given to us to explore the area. Oh well, I’m sure they are not going to do anything about it and it’s not like I’m gonna join another tour group if I’m coming back to Tokyo so yeah, whatever. From all the food shop that we visited within 30 minutes, the longest queue is gotta be at the whipped cream melonpan and Funawa Patisserie. Funawa Patisserie seems to be a famous sweet shop in Nakamise Street as its shop is huge and it even has its own eating area (i.e. a few tables where people can stand while eating their food). 

 

There are actually a lot of shops selling souvenirs too but we totally had no time to even check them out in that kind of time limit so yeah, I hope I have the chance to revisit this street again in the future. But until then, I suppose I have just to be grateful to be able to catch a traditional Japanese cart carrying a couple in Japanese traditional wedding gown. Did they just really get married or is this just a parade for tourists? I can’t be sure but still, happy to be able to catch that. Haha.