broylim / catalog

Tour of FOOD!!

I wonder how much was my calorie intake yesterday because all I could remember was that I had been eating, eating and eating.

I can’t help it though because they were my meals (lunch, dinner and dessert??) but they were just better food as compared to the normal rice and veggies you eat everyday. Can’t blame me right? :P

And besides, I spent less than 30 dollars on food yesterday, you know? Well, it’s actually a little difficult to believe because… You’ll see… :)

I had lunch at Astons Express which is located somewhere near Marsiling MRT station; 5 minutes walk, 3 minutes run. In case you don’t know, Astons is actually a restaurant that specializes in western food and this express is something like a dumb-down version of the restaurant located in a coffee shop. BUT!! It’s so much cheaper!!

I’m serious about the cheapness! This receipt should be big enough for you to see… 2 mains for just $11.80! The chicken dishes range from around $5.90 - $6.90 and so are the fishes. The steaks are slightly more costly, around 10 bucks but that’s still cheaper as compared to the restaurant. Quality wise……..

NOT BAD RIGHT? This is what I had, Crispy Fried Chicken with broccoli and potato salad. The chicken is really really crispy and succulent~ The potato salad is not bad but it feels more like a baked potato spread with mayonnaise. The broccoli is extremely disappointing because it’s too soft. But for $5.90, it’s actually not bad~

Anyway, at Astons, you get to pick your sides and I was unlucky enough to pick the yucky broccoli so if you don’t want those, you can pick something else.

I actually wanted to have this, the Lemon Lime Chicken thingie. It’s basically grilled chicken with this sweet lime (irony?) sauce. Instead of the greens, this came with onion rings which are good!! Too bad fries ran out yesterday… Otherwise I would have gotten those.

What I like about Astons Express is that you don’t have to get drinks from them! Okay, that’s because they don’t offer drinks but at the restaurant, you’ll have to pay more for the beverages. At the coffee shop version, you get to pick your favorites like lemon tea and iced Milo!

Iced Milo on a rainy day… Crazy but OOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!

After lunch, we had a break and walked back home. Saw lots of birds around, probably feasting on the worms who got disturbed by the endless rain. This is the best shot of a bird I’ve ever taken in my entire life!! Thanks to the 50mm lens~ Does wonders~ And the marvel of cropping photos digitally…

Walked to Causeway Point after resting at home and took this pretty shot of the sunset. Well, I edited the picture SLIGHTLY but not much~ If you want to take shots like this, try underexposing your photo in Photoshop or something if your camera doesn’t allow that. The results are pretty stunning. :)

Round 2!! Dinner at Pastamania~

Met up with Yahya and the gang for dinner. Actually, the Pastamania idea was quite a last minute one because we were actually planning for something better (You’ll see!! :D).

For some reason, I had the feel to have these Penne pasta. Probably because I saw a really nice photo of it in a magazine the other day.

Garlic bread. Apparently, it’s not very nice although I’ve never tasted it.

My pasta; Alfredo!! Creamy chicken goodness with my favorite green peas! People who don’t like green peas are just plain weird, no?

Creamy chicken topped with LOTS OF CHEESE and LOTS OF CHILLI FLAKES! Slightly perverted, no? I may love cheese but I won’t use the cheese till this extent~

Now now~ Are you ready for the best part of the day? I believe this order form will give away some hints… :)

GELARE!! My virgin trip to this ice-cream parlor! I had always wanted to try the waffles because so many people had told me that it rocks. The main purpose of us meeting up is to prove what others said true~ Plus, on Tuesdays, the waffles are half-priced!! The ice-cream topped on it is not though so… :(

The fantastic people I dined with… Ice cream makes people smile.

Alvin had this fruity, almost yoghurt-like ice-cream that looks terribly sweet to me. I can feel my face feeling cramp from the imagined sweetness. But it sure looks colorful though…

And the waffles arrived! Look at how thick the waffles are!!

Disclaimer though… I would highly recommend people to share the waffle, especially if you had dinner earlier because it’s so FILLING! I was struggling to finish this waffle topped with peaches, whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate ice cream all by myself~ It costs slightly under $10 for a single scoop for the waffle with fruits and ice-cream. Love the color combination!

Another photo to make you go gaga for ice-cream. :) The waffle is thick and warm when served and I think it’s heavenly when you spread the ice-cream over the waffle and deliver it to your mouth. Yummmmmmmmmy~~~ Thinking of it makes me yearn for more! Bring a friend or lover next time to share. It’s worth it~

And all these cost me less than $30!! Isn’t that amazing? Nobody said good food comes at hefty prices right? :) So find one day and go tour around Woodlands to satisfy your taste buds!!

Now~ For the Chinese New Year “war”… :)

“SEVEN DAYS WAR 戦うよ～”

Lunch @ MOF

HELLO Y’ALL!!!
Did you miss me!!

Just so you know, I’m fine and alive and kicking! No army can bring me down, yes? And~ I’m feeling better physically too~ All that physical training is actually quite good (even though I hate the process but it does bear results.)

Yesterday, I had my second IPPT and I actually managed to improve my 2.4km run! That’s something that I never thought I could do because I hate running! That means that I can actually pass something that I never thought was possible for me.

YEAHNESS!

But because of the test, and the fact that I woke up at 4:30am yesterday, I fell asleep around 10:07pm (that was the last time I checked the time before I fell asleep) and woke up only at 11:30am this morning. Haven’t been sleeping for so long for a long time~ 

Anyway, I went for lunch this afternoon at MOF at AMKHub. I forgot what MOF means but they have great food! 

This is their menu. If you know what the MOF means, please tag in my tagboard or something. MOF is a Japanese cafe that serves Japanese food (like bentos, sushi, pasta) and desserts (gelato, dumplings, etc). The pricing is reasonable because the food was not bad.

This is their iced green tea! I was expecting something clear and greenish looking but this is pretty opaque. It tastes like green tea with milk (actually, I think it is??). Tastes like green tea with a powdery texture but I like it!

This is what I had; Salmon and Avocado Pasta! I love the fresh salmon and pasta accompanied with the tomato sauce~ This pasta made me go “AH HA~~vibrato here~~!!” But the avocado tastes tasteless though; probably because the tomato overpowered it and I think it can be do away with. However, considering what health benefits avocados can bring you (e.g reduce heart problems, regulate blood pressure, antioxidant thingies, etc), it’s not bad to just eat them up.

Salmon and avocado~ This picture makes me want more pasta!!

This is Japanese curry pasta with chicken. The curry is mild and the carrots are sweet~ But I prefer the salmon pasta more though.

I’m getting hungry!! (It’s almost dinner time~)

Besides pasta, MOF serves desserts (as mentioned earlier). This is some soft-served gelato with fruits (like strawberries and apricots), dumplings (or glutinous balls) and agar-agar-like jelly. I LOVE the dumplings even though they are just plain ones but they are extremely chewy! When you put it into your mouth with the gelato, it’s “AH-HA~~vibrato here~~” again!!

I had this mango gelato (which is just a classier name for mango ice-cream with fresh mangoes, I guess). It’s also pretty “AH-HA~~vibrato here~” but I think the previous dessert scores more points because of the unique combination of items (dumplings!) But nevertheless, I love this dessert too!!

And altogether, this whole set costs under 40 bucks! Isn’t that value for money?! Good thing we didn’t decide to go to Ichiban Sushi for lunch because they don’t have sushi buffet. I prefer to eat sushi at buffets because I can stuff my face~

Sadly, I will not be getting any CDs this weekend because there are no good releases. Still awaiting for ayumi hamasaki’s “MOON/blossom” to arrive~

Okay~ Shall go bathe and have dinner~~

MORE FOOD!! Because I’m worth it~

FOOD!

I woke up late for class today, again. But at least I went to school this time okay? I went to submit the stuff for my graduation show website. After that, I went to deposit some money into my bank account because I was terribly broke. Actually, I still am.

I promised to treat someone to Pastamania and I finally got to pay back that promise today. AND~ It was a great steal!

Pastamania’s Dory Baked Rice. The dory was really tender and nice! So is the cheese and the rice~ Furthermore, it was served within 7 minutes after we placed the order and I say that’s fabulous speed!

Speaking of speed, I was queuing in the bank today and it took over half an hour just to reach the front of the queue because there were only 2 counters open out of 6. I never understand why banks always have so many counters but they are always under-utilized. If you know that you won’t be stationing so many staff, then jolly well not construct so many counters! Waste of resources and space!

And because of the horrible, snail-paced speed, I gave them an “Unsatisfactory” for their service speed when I reached the counter. They had this device for feedback and I must say, this is the FIRST time I ever did that.

This is what I had, Turkey Bacon with lots of Parmesan cheese topped with MORE Parmesan cheese and some chilli sprinkles. This was actually very nice, just that the cheese made the whole pasta really dry and this is not a good pasta to have if you don’t have a drink (I didn’t but I had a water bottle :P). The turkey bacon tasted like BBQ pork (you know, the 肉干?) It was great!

And do you know how much I have to pay for these 2 great food? Only $2.70!! Let’s do the Math together. Each dish costs around 7 bucks. For students, you get a 30% discount. Plus on top of that, remember the previous post where I said that the clams were bogus? For the feedback I gave them, they sent me 8 dollars worth of vouchers.

Minus this and that, I only had to pay $2.70! You can see that on the bill~ Even without the vouchers, the 30% discount for students is actually quite a big deal!

And I must say, Hougang Mall’s service is definitely better than Causeway Point’s. Simply because they use Singaporean staff, not MICs.

After the extremely cheesy meal, we went to have shaved ice! This store at Hougang Mall, I believe it’s called Dessert Story, has really special fruit ices. The one you see here is the Kiwi with Vanilla ice. Looks refreshing, no? Not to mention, today is perverted HOT AND SUNNY!

It’s actually something like crushed ice or ice kacang but this is shaved in a layered way; something you don’t see everyday. Furthermore, it’s not just water; it’s something else! This ice is flavored with vanilla and it tastes like ice-cream and ice. Something like a sorbet.

A close-up of the shaved ice and fruit with syrup. The portion is bigger than any large sized ice-cream cups you can find outside and it costs only $3.70! Flavors include mango, chocolate, black sesame, kiwi, mango, etc. I think they have another outlet elsewhere but I’m not sure where…

This is mine! Strawberry! Wallace will hate this but I love this~ The ice tastes really like strawberry sorbet and it’s served with slices of strawberries and if you leave the strawberries within the ice long enough, it will get slightly frozen and it’s delicious~ Something special about this ice is that the ice actually tastes like something else; not just plain water!

Tomorrow’s the eve of Chinese New Year and I’ll get to see all my family members coming to my house for the reunion dinner. Actually, I’m starting to get the mood of Chinese New Year now. Although it’s not a very strong mood, it’s there…

Hopefully, the mood will affect me more so I might actually get to enjoy this Chinese New Year…

Hopefully, no one will terrorize Mao-mao tomorrow…

Hopefully, I’ll take more pictures than last Chinese New Year (Which was under 15 shots! Worst of all times!)

Last dinner of 2009…

Great news! My fever had finally bid me farewell! Good good~ Though I still feel slightly weak but at least I’m feeling so much better.

Must be the magical “medicine” and “treatment” I got today. Cures everything EVERY TIME. Well, like they say, smiles are the best medicine.

This evening, I was treated to pasta! THANKS SO MUCH!!! :) We were considering between Pizza Hut and PastaMania but one of the biggest factor against the both of these restaurants are that they both disappointed me big time.

So big that I actually sent complaints against them…

But eventually, we settled for PastaMania because it’s cheaper and it’s definitely faster than Pizza Hut (or at that moment, that’s what we thought). Besides, why would someone go to Pizza Hut to have pasta? Maybe I will though one day…

And I glad we picked PastaMania… :)

Arrived at Hougang Mall’s PastaMania at around 7pm and it was packed! Luckily, we got a table inside the restaurant. And this time, we were not positioned near the entrance! More privacy!

So this is what we had for dinner…

This is their Chicken Caesar Salad. I say the portion is pretty small but not for today because I don’t think my just-recovered stomach can take so much food too. The chicken is nice, the salad cream is nice, the vegetables are crunchy and at least they are not dry! So much better than Pizza Hut’s retarded salad.

This salad inspired me to make my own salad too because of the extremely simple ingredients but put together, it’s quite a good combination. The salad consists of romaine lettuce, hard-boiled egg and chicken. For the toppings, you have bacon bits, the salad cream and bits of garlic bread. Isn’t that easy to make? :)

We totally forgotten the existence of the cheese beside us and we finished the salad just like that~ It’s good enough!

How bad can salad get? Unless you’re talking about Pizza Hut’s one… Sigh~ Huge disappointment.

This pasta is called the Mar…something. Aren’t those sausages huge and juicy looking? They are! I didn’t have this one though… :)

Delicious stuff! It costs less than 10 bucks too. Not to mention, the staff there were efficient and fast. While we were still chewing on the veggies, this pasta arrived hot. Was the restaurant busy? Yes. Was there enough staff? Yes. Was the food hot? Yes. See what I’m targeting at?

This is mine! I forgot what it’s called exactly but I know I wanted a cream-based pasta and this attracted me because it has green peas! Many people hate green peas and I have no idea why. They are so nice! It also has ham and chicken in it. The color of the spaghetti looks a little overcooked though but it sure isn’t.

And it was served fast! And warm!

Look at those peas! They are good! So good that a sick person can finish everything. :P I’m pleasantly pleased with the service and food today of PastaMania, maybe because we didn’t have anything with clams. Otherwise, we would be opening shells just to find the inside empty. At least I have no complains today…

After dining at PastaMania, we went to the NTUC to get drinks because the ones at PastaMania are way overpriced. Decided to go for Nutri-Tea and we kicked ourselves in the butt hard. Both of the “teas” above are dreadful. I had the Water Chestnut & Sugar Cane and it’s sweetness is really odd. I tasted the Herbal Tea and it’s bitter and ugh~

Should have went for the barley. What can go wrong with barley?

After walking around Hougang Mall, we went to the interchange and there’s a game store there and we entered, only find ourselves with a couple testing out a Wii. We were just browsing and when we were about to leave, the following conversation took place:

Shop Keeper: 你要找什么吗？(Are you looking for something?)

Me: 没有，我要走了，bye bye~ (Nope, I’m leaving, bye bye~) -really quickly-

Then, I pushed the door though it stated “Pull” and left the shop. After awhile, I started laughing because I realized that it’s very comical. :P Oh well~ Hopefully the person isn’t offended. :P

Well, okay. That’s about all for my “celebration” to year 2010. Actually, I’m not looking forward to it because next year, I can sense that lots of shit is going to happen.

Come on, tell me. Is going to the army not shit happening? Are deadlines reaching not shit happening?

But again, some things are going to be pretty pleasant I guess.

Like finally graduating… Finally going to get a live for a few months… Etc…

Well, anyway, I wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR and all the best for 2010!

For me, I shall continue to strive for a happy life. :)