Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Raffles City. Show all posts

I Eat Alone at Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats, Raffles City

Small plates and value lunch set menu from Comnam Raffles City

Fragrant rice menu from Comnam Raffles City

Buzzer to collect food at Comnam Raffles City

Lemongrass chicken fragrant rice from Comnam Raffles City

The blazing sun recently does not make me feel like going to have lunch at hawker centre or the famous fish soup stall at Arcade (although it’s air-conditioned but you won’t feel it because of the heat from the kitchen + crowd). So when I have no lunch appointment, I ended up wandering in the shopping mall because oh boy, I think all the shopping malls in Singapore blast their air-conditioning system to the max because I really feel comfortably cool inside the mall. So with the blast of air-conditioner in Raffles City, I am deciding what to have for lunch by myself. I’ve been spending me-time so often at Saboten Express, so I decided today is not the day to go to Saboten Express.

That’s when I saw that there is no queue line at Comnam. I quickly scanned the eatery to see if it can be considered friendly enough for a solo diner and ohh, there’s a guy who’s eating alone there. Comnam has table for two/ section with high chair/ communal table which I feel will not make solo diners feel uncomfortable. Since seating seems to be no problemo, I just walked inside and reserve a small table while thinking of what to order. There’s ordering chit and menu on each table so you can take your time to decide what to eat if you manage to reserve a table beforehand.

Comnam has a variety of rice and noodle dishes in its menu. You can order small plates to go as side dishes for your main noodle/ rice too. But since its sister restaurant Nam Nam (which is located right beside Comnam) specialises in pho, which is a form of noodle, I would think that Comnam should be better with its rice dishes. So with this way of thinking, I chose lemongrass chili chicken fragrant rice for my lunch. It costs SGD 9.90 so I suppose it’s still within my SGD 10 budget for lunch in shopping mall. I left my cute Cony to guard the table while I made my way to the counter to make order and in return, the cashier gave me a buzzer. That’s good since I don’t have to stand there forever to wait for my order.

The lemongrass chili chicken fragrant rice comes with onsen egg which I don’t think it’s delicacy in Vietnam, so I suppose this dish must have been touched with an element of fusion-ism. But the lemongrass and chili sauce that they use to marinate the chicken soak into the meats perfectly. The rice that Comnam serve is not normal white rice. It seems to have a bit of quinoa texture although I don’t think they are quinoa (because quinoa would make the price of the dish increase exorbitantly). I quite like the whole dish and polish it together with Cony (ok kidding, I polish it all by myself).

Atmosphere wise, since there are many solo diners having lunch there, I don’t feel awkward at all to eat alone here at Comnam. So I think I would probably come back again for another visit here when I’m by myself.

I Eat Alone at Saboten Express, Raffles City

Chicken and loin katsu set from Saboten Express

Yummy chicken and loin katsu from Saboten Express

I am kinda excited to start this new lifestyle breakthrough: eating alone 1x a week without ordering a takeaway. I suppose the older I become, the more embracing I become toward this independent solo lifestyle. Maybe being an introvert helps? Hahaha I’m not really sure to be honest with you but there is something addictive about eating with yourself.

Of course for this new experience, I will not expose myself to “hostile” environment toward solo dining. So I chose one of the easy restaurants to have my solitude lunching experience, Saboten Express. The non-express outlets of Saboten offer more expensive menu which is kinda outside of my weekday lunch budget but they sure looks so yummylicious though. Okay refocusing on the express version of Saboten here...

Basically Saboten Express is actually designed as a takeaway place but it has few seats (albeit not many) in its small unit in the basement level of Raffles City. It also offers single seats facing...uhm not really the wall, but the partition between Saboten Express and KOI. I’m so tempted to make order of bubble tea via the partition but I suppose they won’t let me order by this backhanded manner. Saboten Express have a few set menu but since I’m a cheapska...ahem, frugal lady (payday still far away), I ordered the cheapest set on the menu i.e. chicken and loin katsu set at SGD 10.90. The set comes with miso soup and green tea (sachet) so I’ll be good for a while here. While it is the cheapest, the chicken and loin katsu taste oh-so-yummy and it comes with Japanese rice, salad, and the fantastic katsu and salad sauce. Yummy yummy~

Since the katsu(s) have been fried beforehand, I don’t have to wait for a long time before my order arrive (yeay!). Plus, since I chose the seat facing the wall, I don’t really have to deal with people staring. But at the same time, I can’t do people-watching too. I suppose there’s always two sides of the same coin. Hahaha.

VERDICT: Yummy food, seats catered for solo diners, reasonable price, airconditioned, nobody give a look when I take picture of Cony. Saboten Express is approved by anti-social Fel.

Hello! It's finally Friday and while everyday is a weekend for me since I have not found a new job yet, it still feels good when Friday is finally here. Sometimes I wonder if it is really a wise decision to quit my last job without finding a new job yet but then again, I really hate being stressed up so much for work up to the point I could not sleep peacefully at night. So yeah, I suppose sometimes in life you just gotta do what you really need to do. Which in my case, taking a break from work.

One of the good thing when you are not working is you suddenly have all the time in the world to do what you want to do all along. While the thing that you want to do all along may have been something revolutionary or YOLO-ish like travelling around the world for some people, what I want to do all along is rather simple actually. I just want to try out those restaurants which I have not had the chance to go before. After all, a happy stomach leads to happy soul, no?

The decision making part is rather hard because apparently I have spent around 50 hours per week chained to my cubicle for the past I-dunno-how-many-years so I end up with many restaurants to select from. When you cannot make your own decision, it's time to use the helpline of phoning a friend and let the friend decide instead. The friend that I called, Lee Lee (shortformed to LL), has suggested Cafe & Meal Muji (i.e. Cafe Muji) because she wanted to try to eat healthier. Uhh, okay. Not really a fan of healthy meals but I suppose it won't kill to eat healthy once in a while. Hahaha.

We went to Cafe Muji which is situated inside Muji store at Level 2 of Raffles City, one of the shopping centres at City Hall. Cafe Muji's website states that Cafe Muji promotes simple food consists of natural ingredients for a nutritious well-balanced meal. Oh wow, the Japanese is known for its affinity for healthy eating and natural ingredients stuff so this kinda make me curious. The cafe offers pick and mix ordering system but you can also go for its ala-carte options if you want to. I chose the selection of 3 dishes (which Cafe Muji refers to as "deli") which comes with a bowl of grain rice at the price of SGD 12.90.

Singapore Eats: Cafe & Meal Muji, Raffles City

For the selection of 3 deli, you can choose 2 cold deli and 1 hot deli complete with a choice of bread or rice. I opted for grilled salmon, frittata (egg-tofu dish) and salad with half piece of daikon. I don't know why but the food served at Cafe Muji gives you the "homey" feeling in Japanese way (because I don't think my Mom will ever cook something like this at home) and I love the brown rice so much, it goes well with the other deli on my plate. My favourite deli item is surprisingly the frittata instead of the salmon.

Deli selection at Cafe Muji in Raffles City

LL ordered one of the ala-carte menus, butter curry chicken served with rice (SGD 14.90). I tried a piece of the chicken and it taste pretty good and the curry taste pretty clean without being too rich. The rice served together with the butter curry chicken is the same as the rice that I opted to go with the delis above.

Butter curry chicken at Cafe & Meal Muji

After we had finished our meal, LL made another move to the counter and oh-my-gawd, is she placing another order? Turns out her appetite that day is as huge as the mountain boar's (oops, she's surely gonna kill me if she read this). If you are still hungry after your meal (like this boar LL), you can check out the dessert range offered at Cafe Muji. There is a wide variety of desserts from cream puff, swiss roll, pudding to ice cream. LL is so into cakes with strawberry so she came back with not one but two swiss roll. The left one is green tea red bean swiss roll (matcha azuki swiss roll) while the right one is yuzu swiss roll. Both swiss rolls are priced at SGD 6.90. I prefer the yuzu swiss roll as there is the tangy flavor of yuzu which mix together with the sweetness of the sponge cake and cream. If you like your desserts to be light, you will like the yuzu swiss roll.

Matcha and cream roll cake from Cafe Muji

I would consider going back in future to try other deli items but since the price tag of SGD 12.90 is not exactly cheap in my wallet's dictionary, I would not come back to Cafe Muji that often I suppose. At least not until I have secured new lifeline in my cashflow life. Oh gosh, life's tough.

Cafe & Meal Muji's address:

252 North Bridge Road, #02-020/022

Raffles City

Nearest MRT: City Hall MRT

Opening hours:

Daily 10AM - 10PM

There are days where I feel like I have lost faith in humanity. I know that we are social creatures that need interaction on probably daily basis but sometimes what we receive from this interaction is dejected feeling. This kinda makes you wonder why did you bother to interact in the first place. Today, some stuff happened which kinda make me feel this way but thankfully it happened toward the end of the day so it did not really affect the whole day if I put it that way.

In times like these, it's best to visit an exhibition with nobody but yourself and there's a free and cute exhibition which is currently underway at Raffles City, a popular shopping complex at City Hall area.

Tian Tian Shang Xiang Exhibition, Raffles City

Danny Yu, the creator of Tian Tian Xiang Shang (TTXS), has brought these cute children figurines to the shore of Singapore and I was so surprised to see the big white TTXS figurine at the entrance of the shopping complex.

Tian Tian Shang Xiang white figurine at Raffles City

Tian Tian Shang Xiang literally means making progress making day and it comes from Chinese proverb which was made famous by Mao Zedong in 1950s to motivate children. Inspired by the proverb and the ever-curious habit of children, Danny Yung created TTXS's white and three dimensional body and treats it similarly to blank piece of paper where people can write or draw on. The "clothes" that are drawn on TTXS's bodies displayed in the exhibition are designed by various artists both local and international.

Figurines of Tian Tiang Shang Xiang at Raffles City

Oh no, one of TTXS is hanged like clothes. O_O.

A tied in Tian Tian Xiang Shang at Raffles City

If you have time to spend, you should zoom closer to each TTXS's figurine to see the design and the words written on them. Some of them are really relatable to the daily life of Singaporean while some may require a bit of imagination to capture the meaning of the design. After all, child-like imagination cannot be limited by any boundary, right?

Local Singapore artist design Tian Tian Shang Xiang

Walking further inside to the central part of the shopping complex, you will see more abstract design of TTXS. For instance, this particular TTXS figurine does not really have cloth like the other. It has a lot of mini TTXS grown on him. A bit like mutant, I can say but that is most likely not the meaning of this art piece. Do check out the note and the designer's name on the card below each TTXS figurine if you are curious.

Multiplied Tian Tian Shang Xiang figurine

My favourite design of TTXS is gotta be this one and it makes me even want to read the card (uhm yeah, now you find out that I am a lazy exhibition visitor). The idea behind the design is to show that you can be anything in life, you can have whatever style and be yourself no matter what other people say because after all only you can limit yourself. I guess you can be a nerdy, a superhero and wild fashionista at the same time if you want to.

Geeky Tian Tian Shang Xiang at Raffles City

There are also non-figurines type of TTXS at the left side of Raffles City (near the escalator). The TTXS kinda looks a bit like monkey here but since it is full of question marks, I started to wonder if this particular TTXS has lost its identity or busy questioning life. He's probably just wondering about life like what I usually do on daily basis. Life is a mystery like what Madonna sings, no?

Lost identity Tian Tian Shang Xiang at Raffles City

On the other side of Raffles City, you will find shelves of smaller TTXS which are designed by Singapore school children. Aww. These kids are amazingly talented. I don't think I have such talent when I was in elementary school. My TTXS would probably end up in one color. Hopefully it's not black because that will look so bleak. And depressing.

Singapore students design Tian Tian Xiang Shang

Tian Tian Shang Xiang exhibition is currently running from 28 July until 21 August at:

Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road

Singapore

Nearest MRT: City Hall MRT Station

"You might be a big fish in a little pond. Doesn't mean you've won cause along may come a bigger one."

Today, it feels that Queen Cersei has come back into King's Landings and oh boy, she came back with her old time attitude. The irritating one unfortunately. Anyway, life is too short to bother yourself with Queen Cersei so yeah, whatever. I do wonder why challenges keep on coming in my life one by one. The peace moment never lasts that long in life, at least in my life. Hahaha.

Shucks.

But anyway, thanks goodness for friends in life because there is always someone to rant to when life has become unbearable. Tonight's ranting venue is located at Raffles City. Actually we planned to eat at Din Tai Fung but the queue at Din Tai Fung is forever long so ranting buddy started to survey the surrounding for alternatives. That's when she saw the picture of this legendary grilled fish from a restaurant named Riverside Grilled Fish.

Singapore Eats: Riverside Grilled Fish, Raffles City

Just like the name suggests, the restaurant's speciality is the jumbo size grilled fish. I suppose you can never go anti-social here at Riverside Grilled Fish because there is no way you can finish the whole fish by yourself (or maybe you can?). There are many sauces to select from but since my ranting buddies love to eat spicy stuff, we chose for Ma La Grilled Fish. If you don't know it yet, Mala sauce is a popular oily, spicy and numbing Chinese sauce. If you accidentally bite the peppercorn, be prepared to be numb for a while. You can add side dishes to go with the grilled fish. We only add the tofu skin as side dish to our Ma La Grilled Fish and it seems that all the tofu skin is hidden underneath the fish.

Mala sauce grilled fish from Riverside Grilled Fish

Turns out the fish is not big enough to satisfy the three hungry girls which are full of rant about unfair treatment in the office and life. So we continued our second round of ranting to nearby cafe, Tiong Bahru Bakery. We ordered its famous patisserie item, the Kouign Amman which I think consist of layer and layer of butter and sugar and dough. It tastes so yummyyyyyy (despite the calorie).