Cavana chicken rice, Geylang beef kway teow

Fried chicken wings and chicken rice

Ever since it was at Funan Centre, Cavana chicken rice (formerly known as Corona i think) has consistently produced their tasty take on a local favourite - Chicken rice. Nothing much has changed since those days, except maybe for the price, which is now almost double the original, at $4.50 a plate. Overall, this is one of the evergreens.

Geylang Beef kway teow

The beef tastes rather rubbery, almost synthetic, and the kway teow lumpy and undercooked. Suffice to say, this certainly isn't worth the hype. Unless, of course, it is 1130pm and you've just seen Singapore beat Malaysia on penalties. Then it tastes just fine...

Yeah baby, they like it too

As always, the princess's taste buds are hard to please, haha

Peranakan food, muthu's curry and donut factory

Satay was pretty good

Clockwise from left: Sambal prawns, Tauhu Goreng, Mee Goreng

Went to this quaint Peranakan eatery in this ulu part of Thomson. Not bad lah, reasonable prices, no crowd on weekends, I don't mind. And the satay is pretty good too...

I forgot the name of the place though...

Taste: 3/5
Value: 4.5/5
Ambience: 4/5

Mr Yeo looking through the menu at Muthu's curry thinking
"how am I going to avoid the calories??"

The much-vaunted fish head curry. Nope, no way to avoid the calories.

One and a half hour donuts from the donut factory

Sigh. Yes, they look nice. But seriously. One and a half hours for donuts?? Thats just...nuts...

Donut Factory (Raffles City basement)
Taste: 3/5 (Donut itself is not particularly tasty, toppings taste like they look, nothing special)
Value: 4/5 (Not counting the waiting time, $11 for a dozen flavoured and topped and glazed donuts is pretty decent)
Ambience: N.A.

World of Warcraft burning crusade launch at Suntec with crazy geeks queuing overnight

View from the office table.

Is it me or does something sound wrong with "Why not bring your spouse for a great bargain" coming right after "Buy/Sell/X-Change (New/Used)"?

Made Jole wear "Birthday girl" badge on her birthday last week

Bali Thai

Tauhu Telor, Tom Yum Goong

Ayam Pengang

The food at BaliThai is pretty decent, with some hits and misses. First, the good. Tauhu Telor is one of the restaurant's recommendations, and rightly so. The dish arrived slightly colder than I imagined deep-fried beancurd and egg to be, but boy did it taste good. Especially with the peanut sauce, heaven.

The Ayam Pengang also deserves a mention. So far the best version of this dish I've tried (though I've not really tried alot, about 4-5 stalls) is at Plaza Sing foodcourt. Balithai's version is really pretty good. The chicken is tender, the marinade is tasty and the bird is grilled to perfection. What's not to like?

Now the bad. Good Tom Yum soup surely is the hallmark of a decent Thai restaurant/eatery. Even if it's not authentic, so long as it tastes spicy/sour and has fresh ingredients, most people (including me) won't really mind. But their version is way too sour. Like...cringe-worthy-sour.

Didn't finish it. (I NEVER EVER NEVER FINISH FOOD)

Another thing to note: THE SERVICE SUCKS. How can any restaurant afford to have nobody jaga the main door during peak hour? Waited like 10 minutes before a waiter looked at us... then turned away like never see us... wth.

Then, when we were finally ushered in (actually herded is a more accurate word), we saw a whole bunch of tables...empty. *up yours*

Bali Thai West Mall

Taste: 3.5/5
Value: 3 (Total bill for 4 dishes - $47)
Ambience: 3/5
(Service: 1/5 the one point is for the waiter who served us.)

Goodbye Ann, hello Toysrus

Goodbye, Ann

Fellow intern Ann-Katrin left yesterday to climb her mountain. They threw her a little going away party! Poor girl sounded like she was going to cry while giving her going-away speech. Aww... we'll miss your chirpy-ness at the media monitoring table!

A toast to the singlish-speaking German lass!

Things you can do at Suntec during lunchbreak

• Walk aimlessly around carrefour
• Play arcade at the Star Factory
• Go shopping at G2000 for the shirt you need because you spilled laksa all over your old one
• Watch a movie...trailer
• Challenge your office mates to a hula hoop contest

J: Hey, I know how to hula hoop!

A: Really ah, challenge ah!

J: er...

A: Ready, one, two, eh where you all going?

New year, new food

This Cheng Tng stall is damn popular

I had to wait about 15 minutes for this...

A whopping 22 ingredients go into this little bowl of heaven

The texture of this stall's version of an all-time favourite local dessert is incredible. In one spoonful you may get bits of sweet potato, barley, white fungus, dried longans, preserved persimon, ginko nuts, dates, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't name.

At $2 a bowl it's not your cheapest hawker dessert but it sure is worth it. Even malays are joining the queue to have it! The taste could be slightly less sweet, but then again I was having the hot version so perhaps the cold one would do just fine.

Where: Chomp chomp-styled food centre opposite Bedok camp (I travelled 1 hour from town on bus number 14 for this)

Taste: 4/5
Value: 5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

There's also a famous hokkien mee stall next to this one but that really wasn't worth the wait. Not nice lah, so so only.

Mai siao siao ok. The ART of Mee Pok

40 mins of waiting for this...

Ok, to be fair, it really is THE best mee pok I've tasted. Ever. Every aspect was perfect, the noodles, fishballs, prawns, lard, only the soup was too sweet.

5 stars for this. No, wait, 4.5.

Where: The Art of Mee Pok Ptd Ltd, near Tanah Merah MRT

Taste: 4.5/5 (minus 0.5 for the soup so if you don't mind it's a full score)
Value: 3.5/5 (Top-grade ingredients, but at 4 bucks a bowl is nowhere near value)
Ambience: 2/5

Duck and Char Siew rice

Finally, we walked last friday from suntec to liang seah to have this. The duck at this place is pretty good, but the char siew is the star. If you love your char siew very burnt and slathered with thick, calorie-laden black sauce, (like I do) then you'll like this place.

Where: Opposite Shaw towers, by day it sells roast meat, by night turns into budget steamboat place.

Taste: 3.5/5 (If you're a weight-watcher, don't bother)
Value: 4/5 ($4 a plate for charsiew + duck rice)
Ambience: 2.5/5

Well, it's been back to work this week. A few new faces, a couple have left. 23 funky fridays to go!

Tell me, what is the point. Put poster outside big big some more.

Himalayas from the plane

Himalayans from the plane, originally uploaded by ireallylovedanny.

For all Indian trip photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/41669868@N00/sets/72157594448071363/

Mai siao siao

Kuali High Tea

Have always wanted to try this buffet at Suntec just opposite the roti prata, and last Sunday, we finally did. Can't fault them on variety, but at $25 pax, the quality just didn't cut it.

Tossed salad

Fettucine with pork ribs

Assorted fruit tarts

They have a pretty decent spread, but everything just seemed rather obligatory. Like, there was Hainanese chicken rice (Asian/Oriental), smoked salmon (Norwegian/Icelandic), Cheese and chocolate fondues (European/American), a crepe station, fruit station, etc.

Sigh. Somehow it just wasn't enough for me. Classic case of quantity over quality.

Kuali (Suntec City)

Food:2/5
Value: 2/5
Ambience: 3/5

9,000 species of birds in 4 hours

I've never been to Jurong Bird Park, so we decided to pay 16 dollars to do just that today. There were these tame looking birds that could be fed for 2 bucks.

Tame...

Tame...Argh...

WAH LAO EH GET OFF ME!!

Stupid birds look harmless but actually damn fierce in getting the food ok.

Conqueror of the red lory

The Bird Park's contribution to this food blog:

Bongo Burger!

$11.80 for a super thick beef burger, thick fries, jug of coke. Okay lah.

Bongo Burger
Taste: 3/5
Value: 3.5/5 (considering it's at a tourist destination)
Ambience: 4/5 (The staff were all in cute safari uniforms)

World's highest man-made waterfall

Nice lah, but nothing to shout about. Man-made after all.

For all birdie pics:http://www.flickr.com/photos/41669868@N00/sets/72157594410864195/

Momma's fish n chips

Homestyle cooking rocks

So we had a few guests over the other day and mumsie decided to whip up her style of healthy fish and chips (without the chips and a whole lot of other stuff).

Fish, corn, tossed salad, grilled chicken, mushroom soup (non-campbell), garlic bread and red wine make Danny a happy boy.

Arab street groovy ice cream parlour

Funky decor, funky flavours

Bitter chocolate (left) and D24 Durian (right)

Woah. Awesome ice cream parlour at Arab Street. At first xf thought it was a branch of Island Creamery, but we found out that they actually just purchase ice cream from all three famous local ice cream parlours and, in the process, choose only the good stuff.

The three ice cream shops are: Island Creamery (no website), The Daily Scoop and Ice Cream Gallery.

To be fair, I had one from each. The bitter choc is from DS and D24 is from ICG. The bitter chocolate is pretty good stuff. Unfortunately there are many other dark chocolates out there that are pretty comparable, like the one from Venezia and/or Movenpick. Don't be mistaken though, that is still pretty wicked company.

But hey hey hey, the Durian is just out-of-this-world-awesome. I can see why other bloggers are raving about the durian ice cream from ICG. It IS that good. Smooth and with just the right amount of sugar, the richness of D24 durian is perfectly captured in one teaspoonfull of the yellow stuff.

Normally you know for most Durian ice cream, the more pulp there is the better it tastes? This one doesn't have the most pulp I've had before but it doesn't have to. It's so incredibly... decadent that you don't really care.

On the flip side, Benjy pointed out that the richness of the D24 ice cream would overwhelm the other ice cream flavour I had chosen. "Sure cannot taste anything one," - Li, B.

There are only five smallish tables that seat about ten people comfortably, so don't bring an army with you when you do decide to visit this interesting and quirky shop. It sells vintage wear and accessories too, if you want to know.

Ok, this is weird, because I think I should just rate the shop where the ice cream originated and not the retailer.

Oh. One more thing to note, their scoops are pretty small, so not exactly value for money, relative to where they are originally sold.

The Daily Scoop Bitter Chocolate
Taste: 4/5
Value:3/5
Ambience: N.A.

Ice Cream Gallery Durian
Taste: 5/5
Value: 3/5
Ambience: N.A.

Cost of double scoop: $4

Of Ice cream, duck and looftop football

Horlicks and Apple Pie Ice cream in a cup

And in my mouth!

Now, I've never been a Horlicks fan, but the horlicks ice cream from island creamery is something else altogether. It is incredibly rich without being overpoweringly malty, like the drink is prone to be.

I can't wait to try their other wacky flavours. I've always been conservative with my ice cream choices. Dark chocolate, choc-choc chip, Belgian chocolate, Midnight cookies and cream, you get the idea.

Big thanks to Deejay xf for her recommendation.

What more could you ask for?

Island Creamery
Food: 4/5
Value: 3/5
Ambience: 4/5 (If you're into Jack Johnson cos they play him on loop it seems)

1F, Serene Centre
10 Jalan Serene, 258748
Tel: 64688859

They have another branch at Arab Street

Made my own sundae at HD

The grand old dame of ice creamery, at her irresistable best.

Old-school taiwanese porridge place

Oasis taiwan porridge is a rocking old-school joint that opens till late. The best dishes there are the kong ba and chye poh neng. Equally sinful and delightful. I like many many.

Oasis Taiwan Porridge Restaurant

Food: 5/5 (for the two specialities and 4/5 for the rest)
Value: 3/5
Ambience: 4/5

Oasis Building
50 Stadium Boulevard, 397796
Tel: 63464418

Johnson Duck 1/2 Duck for $10

Simple. Plain. Unadorned. I like.

Unlike their flashy neighbours BTK, Johnson Duck continues to dish out the same fare in the same way they've done for the last decade (or however long they've been around).

No service charge, reasonable prices and good food. Irresistable. I think I shall be coming here much more often.

Johnson Lock Roasted Duck & Chicken
Food: 4/5
Value: 5/5
Ambience: 3/5

11 Upper Boon Keng Road #01-939 Singapore 380011
Tel : 6741-1438

Musking tape football on the loof

Exams are playtime for c.s. folk it seems. Then again, maybe there's just something about the loof that makes us just wanna be kids again. Felt like primary school again. Too poor to afford the real thing, musking tape balls and balled-up drink packets were all we knew. But yeah, it was probably more fun anyway.

Sigh...285 views and counting

Loof Fool

6 hours after the party began, no one could move any longer

Clarence kept trying to set fire to Bacardi-soaked paper... it worked

Brokeback Benji

Journos turned up in full force

Mama Mia Thatsa power pizza

Hang on hang on. Sarpino's is really really good. It's so awesome I'm never ordering Pizza Hut again. Frickin rip-offs. Its what, 31.80 for two large pizzas!

Woot!

But damn heng the food was enough. Was scared there wouldn't be enough food, but hey, it's all good.

People who turned up in hats (Dong's is out of frame)

Sayheng. With bunny ears. awesome.