Aston's Specialties

Had an intense craving for steak yesterday, so YY and i trotted down to Aston's at The Cathay (4th floor).

It was our first time there despite all the ra-ra about their huge portions and nice food at affordable prices. We heard bout the snaking queue too!

And yes! There was indeed a queue though it was still relatively early for dinner (bout 7-ish). We didn't have to wait super long though. Customers (those in front) were given menus and orders were taken in the queue - good for facilitation and efficiency.

The Filipino lady who took our orders was friendly and polite. Good impression despite the wait =)
We were then ushered to our table, where we waited about 10-15 mins for our orders.
The teenager who brought our food to the table wasn't really knowledgeable though. YY ordered the New York Strip while I had the Prime Ribeye, so we wanted to doubly confirm that we got the right cuts. When the first plate came and I asked if that was the New York Strip, the youngster merely agreed with me that it was and hurried away. Being highly suspicious about the cut, we proceeded to ask a older staff who told us that it was the Prime Ribeye. Now I am convinced by his answer because it looked more like the Ribeye cut.
But oh wells, shall pardon them since it was a busy evening and they are so young!

Ok more bout the food. Hmm..every main gets you a choice of 2 side dishes. I had the corn-on-cob and onion rings while YY had the corn and house salad. The onion rings were pretty good I must say. Very tasty. Salad was OK...but not more. Corn-on-cob was quite disappointing cuz it was really soggy. Think they must have boiled it for too long.
As for the meats, both were done to our liking - we requested medium. The texture was pretty good too. I personally feel that steak done medium should have some blood oozing out when you slice thru, and I wasn't disappointed. It was juicy, yet not undercooked or overcooked. =)

Ah! But I was disappointed by the portions. Was actually expecting to be really full after the meal. But it wasn't exactly a huge portion like what others said. Just merely enough, or perhaps the Ribeye wasn't very big. Maybe I should go for the Xtra Cut next time! Haha.

Price-wise, we paid a total of $33.20 including GST. No service charge. We had two steaks and two IBC rootbeers. =)
The ribeye was around $14 and the NY strip was $15.

Apologies for the lack of pictures!!

Cravings

I have cravings on a nearly daily basis, sometimes even up to more than one craving at a time. A couple of days ago, I had really, really bad craving for katsu-don, didn't matter what kind, I just wanted the soft, sweet and wet rice in my mouth coupled with the caramelized onions. It was really that bad. My stomach was roaring the more I thought about it, the more I tried to put a taste to the picture in my head.

Thankfully..... I did got to satisfy my craving.

And I definitely wasn't disappointed.
Come Tuesday, two of us will be off to Bangkok - Land of Smiles... tom yum soup, spicy glass noodle salad, mango sticky rice, pad thai... I could go on and on. We'll be back with more mouth-watering food photos which means more updates!

Hong Kong

Was in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago so this post is kind of overdue, as usual. Hence, I shall not procrastinate further and here are pictures of the most amazing dinner I had in Hong Kong.

The girl had this, chicken hor fun soup. The chicken skin was really good and the hor fun was yummy!!! Really different from the ones we had in Singapore.


PM had the char siew rice. The char siew was really roasted to perfection and the pork was soft and there was just a tinge of sweetness to it. Their rice was also really fluffy and soft!


We had free iced milk tea with our meal. Somehow the other tables didn't have this so we were wondering was it because they knew we were tourists, haha.


Saved the best for the last. I had the duck rice and this is the most god awesome duck rice I have ever had. There is seriously no words to describe it. Just look at the photo and marvel at the perfection. Oh god, I am hungry again.


Okay... and this was a couple of minutes later. It was gone all too quickly. ): And yes, I hate eating my greens!


It was kind of a pity we didn't get enough of the food in Hong Kong, there was so much more for us to try but because it was a package tour, they brought us to crappy restaurant to have Chinese food that tasted horrible. ): Hopefully we'll be able to go back soon and have more amazing duck rice.

Table for Four - the sequel =D

Elinn Kong went to Don's Pie. Now its my turn!!!

This time, we headed to Bonta, an Italian fine dining restaurant that has caviar at 500bucks!
BUT hey, don't order caviar lah...folks can still go for the mains that are reasonably priced for the quality of ingredients used and how yummy it tastes!
Mains or pastas start from 20-ish.
Its all worth it I would say. Chef Luca takes absolute pride in his heritage and dishes out fantabulous Northern Italian cuisine with a modern touch!

I was extremely excited when the first dish was presented to us!
Swordfish carpaccio with grapefruit and roe!!!
Omg. The thinly sliced sashimi-grade swordfish simply melted in my mouth.
Its the perfect "wrap" to the tangy grapefruit, salty roe and crisp salad.
My favourite dish!!
Next was another appetizer.
24 month old Parma ham with rock melon!!
The ham's saltiness is nicely toned down with the sweetness of the rock melon :)

They change our cutlery after every dish, so when they placed the fork and spoon on my table, I knew it was pasta!!!
When Chef Luca placed the dish on my table, I swore I could smell the freshness of the sea!
Home-made angel hair pasta (yes, Chef Luca makes it himself everyday) with chunks of crab meat and salmon roe, drizzled with pesto sauce!!
The pasta is so good and so al dente that I finished it even before I cleared up the toppings! Haha.

Time for more mains!
Monkfish wrapped with pork belly on asparagus, served with beans and balsamic vinegarette dressing if I'm not wrong!
The texture of the monkfish was fantastic. Bouncy!
The entire dish had a sweet tinge to it and everything complemented so well.

Next main!
Roasted pork with blue potato and cranberry sauce!
While I'm not a fan of cranberry sauce, I must say that the meat and potatoes were awesome!
The pork was juicy and had a nice woody-roasty taste in every bite =)
Potatoes were neither too hard nor soggy. Just right.

Dessert!!!
Mind you, its not like any other. Its award-winning, and the waiter even brought out the medal to show us! Hahaha.
Nice warm chocolate cake served with rum & raisin ice-cream and fresh strawberries!
I was delighted when warm thick fudge oozed out of the choco cake!
I usually refrain from Rum & Raisin ice-cream but this one was different.
The raisins were nicely infused with rum and the ice-cream was light and refreshing.
The ice-cream was also served on a little cookie medallion :)
Smart. It won't cause a mess and ruin the presentation if it melts!

We were supposed to have one more main course before our dessert.
It was Wagyu Beef Cheek!!!!
Oh man.......... I was so sad when the chef told us about it.
The table skipped it cuz everyone was so stuffed.
But I will be back!!!!

Dinner at Sushi Tei

I had dinner at Sushi Tei a couple of weeks ago with the girl. We ended up trying two of the seasonal dishes they are having at the moment.

A trip to Sushi Tei wouldn't be complete without ordering this.. Ebi Mentai. We're huge fans of the amazingly grilled roe spread ontop a prawn. The roe just melts in your mouth and godddd, isit fantastic!


One of the seasonal sushi, maguro (tuna) with avocado maki. The creaminess of the avocado really coupled the goodness of the maguro really well making every bite a splendid one. Awesome match, if I must say!


The girl had this, ebi tempura with pasta. One of the seasonal dishes. It was good, the tempura was delicious and went really well with the pasta.


I was craving for yummy japanese rice and this was just screaming out to me from the menu. The chicken katsu was supremely delicious and the curry was sweet and yummeh.


Sadly... it was all gone in mere minutes. ):


Baby ordered edamame to end off the meal. Wonder why she didn't order it before all the mains came though, but oh wells, still good.


Satisfying and simple dinner to put a good end to a day. Life should be filled with more of such good meals.

Sushi Tei
Check out their different outlets in Singapore and other countries here.

Table 4 Four - Don's Pie

I took part in The New Paper's Table 4 Four and was part of the trio that went for Monday's lunch at Don's Pie. Don's Pie has an array of outlets over Singapore and is famed for their Specialty Chicken Pie. I thought all they had to offer was pies, pies, pies but boy, was I wrong.

First up was the Sri Lankan Cold Crabs. The meat was really juicy and had a lot of 'oomph' factor to it and there were a lot of roe in those crab.


Then we were served the Crab Bee Hoon (Dry). I personally didn't enjoy this dish though the crab was good. I found the black pepper taste to be too overwhelming that is covered the overall taste of the dish. It's probably good for curing blocked noses though.


Being famed for their pies, how could we miss out on trying those! Don served up their Specialty Chicken Pie and boy, was it real good. The pie crust was flaky enough but wasn't overly flaky to cause you to choke on it. The filling was AMAZING!!!! The chunks of chicken were everywhere and the potatoes and all were so hearty and delicious. No wonder it's their specialty!


We also had the Crab Bee Hoon (Soup). I loved this. They cooked the soup with tang kuey - a type of Chinese herbs for women, especially - and I was quite surprised I liked the taste of it with the soup. I felt it brought out the taste of the crabs really well and the yam were delicious! I never ate that many yam in one sitting before!


We also had the Black Pepper Chicken Pie. Don't really know why but they seem to enjoy using black pepper extravagantly in their dishes. Once again, I thought the use of black pepper was over the top and I didn't like this.


The was the first drink I had when we sat down - Avocado Juice. Everyone enjoyed this so much it was one of the featured dishes! Creamy and not overly sweet, you could still taste the avocado! Yummmm.


Later on during the meal, I had a glass of Lime Juice. It looked really mild because of the color but godddd, was it sour!


Last but not least, the dessert! Cheesecake! Which is what they are known for as well. They use Philly's Cream Cheese so you can be sure it taste real good and the jam on the bottom helps to accentuate the taste of the cheese and complimented it really well!

And that was the end of it! The whole experience was really fun and I got to try really nice food and made new friends as well. Check out this Sunday's TNP for the coverage! Pray to God, I don't look like shit.

Don - Your Personal Pie Club
20 Cross Street
#01-34/35/36
China Square Central, Singapore 048422

Check out their website HERE!

Kyo-Nichi Ramen

A couple of weeks ago, the girl and I tried out this small, quiet ramen store at a corner of Marina Square. I passed it by a couple of times but there never seemed to be much people there so I just assumed it wasn't that good but since they serve mainly ramen.. I was tempted to give it a shot!

We got a set and ordered an extra bowl of ramen.

An appetizer ($5 and below) comes with the set we ordered. We got this since it was recommended by the chef and the girl loves prawns. It was crispy and good and the prawns were fresh.

I got the Kyo-Nichi Ramen which the house ramen. A slice of chashu with egg, bamboo shoots and wakame. The chashu is fantastic, it really melts in your mouth as you eat it!

The girl had the Tom Yum Ramen. The soup base was good, albiet a little too salty but you can taste the tanginess and the prawns were hugeee!

Kyo-Nichi's soup are cooked using collagen, hence their soup are thick and really tasty. Each set cost either $13 or $16 depending on your choice of ramen and all set comes with an appetizer and a drink. Alternatively, you can enjoy a bowl of ramen at $8 and above, depending on the type. You can choose to 'upsize' your noodles as well as a choice of 'Thick' or 'Spicy' soup base.


We walked over to Canelé at the basement of Raffles City and bought a chocolate macaroon to try. Each macaroon goes for $2.50 and their standards is really a step up from Bakerzin's.


Before we left, we went to Changing Appetites thinking of getting a dessert. Got this huge mug of chocolate drink instead. It was pretty good, but I expected it to be better. I might give their waffles a try another day. Waffles are at 50% off on Saturday nights!

Addresses:

Kyo-Nichi (Marina Square)
#03-249, Marina Square
6 Raffles Boulevard
Singapore 39594

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie
252 North Bridge Road,
#B1-81/82 Raffles City Shopping Centre,
Singapore 179103

Changing Appetites
#01-204, Marina Square
6 Raffles Boulevard

Rainy Afternoon

The girl and I had great plans for Monday afternoon but the unexpected downpour made us scraped it and we went to Sixth Avenue with YY instead.

Had pies at Piper's Pies. The girl had their Piper's Special which had very generous chunks of beef that were lightly spiced and I had a Bacon Quiche which was tasty and went down well with the Flat White coffee that came together as a set, along with a salad. Check out Piper's Pies HERE!

Went to Corduroy and Finch after that. It was still early so the place was pretty quiet and was great to sit by the window and read. Relaxing!


Shared Earl Grey tea with the girl.


YY had a Hot Chocolate.


And we had lovely shortbread cookies to go around.

Brenda joined us after her work and we went down to Chinatown for dinner. Tried out a super old school Teochew Restaurant along Mosque Street. The place was crowded with people, mostly families celebrating birthday and such and their menu didn't have a price to the dishes! The decor of the restaurant was really like a typical chinese restaurant, more commonly found a couple of years back. It felt nice to have dinner in such kinda place once again.


We ordered Shark Fin with Crab Meat Soup to go around. The soup was definitely worth the money ($40) as it was filled with chunky, sweet, flavourful pieces of crab meat and a generous helping of shark fin's as well. We couldn't stop raving about the soup!


We had Salad Prawns too. Prawns were amazingly huge and amazingly fresh!


This Claypot Seafood with Tofu was super worth the money! It has fresh prawns in it and tons and tons of tofu. The gravy of it was delicious especially when you pour it over your rice. We all had second and third helpings of the tofu but still failed to finish it. That is how huge the portion was.


We wanted to try Goose Meat but the restaurant only had in extravagant amount, along with extravagant prices so the nice uncle/waiter gave us a $16 portion instead. What we got was definitely worth the $16! It was a generous enough amount and the meat was carved to perfection. The layer of fat beneath the skin was soft and flavourful and melts in your mouth. The meat was so juicy and tender too! YUMMMMEHHHHH!!!

We'll definitely be back for more goose meat and Brenda and I are eager to try the Cold Crab and Raw Fish!

Poor Sally is really getting mouldy. It's not like all of us haven't been eating and taking photos of nice food, we've just been procrastinating too much.

Since it's late and I have to wake up early tomorrow, I'll just make a quick post of my favourite food - RAMEN!!!! Most of the ramen I ate so far uses pork soup base so this ramen that uses chicken soup base was the first I've tasted so far. Good too though, because the girlfriend doesn't like pork. :\



Spicy Chicken Ramen, $13
When it was served before me, I thought it wouldn't been spicy at all. There wasn't a single hint in the soup to prove it was spicy. Turns out, the soup was even spicier than any of the other spicy ramen I had previously! The ramen was super good, springy and had that extra 'oomph' to it. The extra egg I added was worth the money, it had the strong taste of shoyu that I love.


Tamago, $8
The girlfriend loves tamago. The store only sells a limited amount of this, judging by the way the plate of egg doesn't get replenish despite it being only the start of dinner hours. The tamago was sweet and moist and it comes served with shredded radishes at the side, yum!

Store is located at The Central
MRT Station: Clarke Quay
Beside Waruku. (I'll edit this with the exact address asap.)