Dates with Daddy

My dad and I have this lil tradition that we started early this year or so. As our spouses typically don't enjoy western fine dining as much as we do, we date each other out to check out such places or simply when there is a craving, and we take turns to pay for the meal.

For the recent Father's Day, I brought him to a place I was dying to check out: Au Petite Salut, where he had the executive set lunch ($58++) and I had the usual set lunch ($30++).

His menu:
Starter -- Fois Gras. Exceedingly generous portions. I had a good chunk of it from his plate.
Main -- Duck Confit. Best I've tried, but considering I've tried like 3 in my lifetime, I may not be the best judge. Still, it's good stuff -- crispy round the edges, juicy and tasty.
Dessert -- Cheese platter. Not the best choice, considering how rich his other courses were, but they gave a great selection and generous portions.

My menu:
Starter -- Garlic butter escargot. Slather the garlic butter on toast and you'd be so happy.
Main -- Red wine braised beef cheeks
Dessert -- Profiteroles (choux pastry with vanilla ice cream, choc sauce and slivers of almonds.) Their profiteroles are TO DIE FOR. The best part of the meal, IMHO, was the profiteroles.

Details of the gluttony aside, what we really enjoyed was the father-daughter bonding that it allowed. As we were having a French meal, he told me of his travels to France (tales which he told me like a thousand times, but it's alright, it's good to cherish these moments while we still have them) and how his colleague / friend taught him how to save money in Paris by eating at where the students hang out, rather than where the tourists hang out. All these while shooting comments like "Cut the food with your elbows close by your side! So unlady-like!" at me. *roll eyes affectionately*

Just last week, we had another such outing. This time, we went for Italian food as he was hankering after a good pizza. After some consideration, we went to Riccioti by the Riverwalk where we had a salad, a sandwich and a pizza, all excellent.

As I think about my own relationship with my dad, it amazes me that it is what it is today, considering how 10 years ago, it was the polar opposite. I would never imagine in a million years that I would be having dinner alone with him, VOLUNTARILY. The only reason I can attribute this change to, is that I started going to church regularly at about the same time after having gone through my own personal crisis. I guess when change happens within, it's a matter of time before relationships around you start to change as well.

My dad's hair is graying and I can see his age reflected in the lines around the eyes as well as his sagging skin. I'm just thankful for the time we can spend together, enjoying one meal at a time. He's my best daddy in the world, and may your dad be your best daddy ever, too.

The Best I've Ever Had

There is nothing quite like chomping into a juicy strawberry so big that after taking a good, big bite off it, you still have at least half left to enjoy. No extra sugar needed, tis sweet enough as is.

Strawberries provided by my uncle at my house warming.

"Chap Goh Meh"

21 Feb 2008 the 15th day of Chinese New Year, and at this time of posting, CNY 08 is officially over. Work and life can go on as per normal now.

In keeping with the Chinese tradition, we gathered at my grandmother's place for a veritable feast. Let your eyes feast on the spread; I promise you it tastes better than it looks here:


My grandma is the best cook, ever =) She's also got incredibly green fingers. I had a whale of a time photographing her potted plants. Alas, I don't do her plants justice. View the full photo set here.

I Ate The Super Burger

After lurking around at the esteemed foodblog ieatishootipost and drooling over the pictures he took of the Astons ieatsuperburger for the longest time, I finally found a makan kaki to go try out the burger and to check out Astons, as I've heard so much about it.

My first visit to Astons was my brother's graduation dinner celebration, where the family decided to spend the evening queueing for the steaks and to indulge in some good food. We arrived at 6.40pm, by which there was a long queue already, and so we waited in line for close to 40min. When it was our turn to order, many of the side dishes were sold out and the super burger wasn't available. I settled for the sirloin steak, my brother took the tenderloin and my mum took the ribeye. The steaks were tasty but a tad small. The side-dishes were disappointing though; I had like, 5 onion rings. The house salad and potato salad were just ho-humm and the fries were sold out. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed by the food, but I thought I'd give it a try again, seeing how we went there a bit late and most of the sides were sold out by the time we arrived.

So sometime this week, I went to Astons with DarkRed to check out the food there. Seeing how there usually is a horrendous queue, we decided to pop by earlier to avoid that. Going earlier also meant that there were still side-dishes and the superburger available ; )

We ordered a superburger each plus 2 sides--french fries and onion rings. The fries were yummy and the portions for that was generous. The onion rings... well, they were tasty, but I can count with both my hands the number of onion rings we were given.

As for the (HUMONGOUS!) burger, I had mixed feelings towards it. I liked how you can really taste the beef in the large patty. I liked the toasted sesame bun, the crispy fried oniony thingey in it, the generous chunk of tomato in it, and that they don't stinge on the bacon. I like how it's so huge that you can't decently fit the burger into your mouth without everything spilling out from the other side.

I didn't like how the patty was rather dry, and the burger wasn't very warm when we got to it. Granted that we took an inordinate amount of time photographing it, but still I had thought it would be a little warmer than that (room temperature). Generally, it was also rather dry, like not enough mayo / ketchup / BBQ sauce. Perhaps it's also my personal preferance at play, as I like juicy burgers.

Still, it was a pretty decent burger. After finishing the burger, we were so full that there was truly no space for dessert (and everyone knows that there is a separate compartment in the stomach for dessert, right?). We can't even finish the two onion rings that were staring back at us.

Will I go back to Astons? Probably only when there isn't such a queue for the food. It does taste not bad and is rather value for money, but not so much that I will spend 30min queueing and another 5-10 waiting for my food.

Will I go back specially for the burger? I doubt it, as there are several other places whose burgers I prefer. To each his own, I guess. Personally, I prefer the beef burgers at Carl's Junior, Werner's Oven and Burger Queen. For a perfect substitute for beef burgers, I'd say that the steak sandwich at The Tuckshop is pretty hard to beat; I'd eat that over the super burger any given day.

Kreme-ing the Competition

There is no contest, really.

Krispy, my sincere apologies for ever doubting you. You're the best, ever. Please, won't you come to Singapore? Begging every friend who happens to visit a country where you reside to bring a box back is rather unbecoming.

Munchkins, how you've hurt me...

Dear Munchy Donuts,

I'd like to just declare my adoration for your yummy donuts. The one with the oreo cookie topping is sheer genius. I also like the one filled with coffee cream, sinful though it may be. I should also commend your sales strategy: buy 1 for $1.20, buy 6 for $6.50 and buy 12 for $12. Brilliant! It makes greedy penny pinchers like me immediately justify buying in bulk.

Nonetheless, this I have against you: your packaging and customer service leaves much to be desired.

The first time I went there, I wanted to buy 6 donuts, since 12 is a bit too many even for me. You smiled so sweetly and told me that the boxes that held 6 donuts were no longer available, would I mind the 12 donut box? I said sure, just put 6 in there, I'm cool. Smilingly, you informed me that if I took the 12 donut box, I have to buy 12 donuts, cannot buy less. Buy 8 can or not, I asked. Cannot, you smiled. That's okay, that's okay, there will be more for everyone in the office, so I bought 12 and went on my way.

The second time I visited another of your chain, it seems like the person standing in front of me had the same problem. What? Out of 6 donut boxes again? Is this part of the sales strategy too, hmmm munchkins?

Today, I brought Intuition there, eager to impress him with your delectable donuts. He was suitably tempted by all the sugary treats and wanted to buy 2 boxes of 6 donuts, 1 box for his family and a box for mine. Just nice! 12 donuts for $12, no? No? You mean, "no"? But we're buying 12, we protested, just in 2 boxes of 6. 6 times 2 equals 12, and if we buy 12, we pay $12, no? You mean, if we buy 2 boxes of 6, we must pay $6.50 x 2? It does not make sense! You really mean it? You do not jest?

Sigh.

It's so sad, munchkins, it really is. It's not that we want to quibble over $1, but it's the small things like that that makes or breaks the customer's experience. I would like to dismiss it as a one time case, but your track record makes me unable to deny this undesirable trait in you. We could have had a really good relationship, but now, I see limited possibilities.

I wish you all the best. I must find other donut pastures now. I'm sure I won't be missed, you've always had a queue of admirers awaiting your sweet favours.

Cravings

- Sukiyaki beef bowl @ Waraku. Savoury and oh so yummy!
- Pork katsu curry udon @ Waraku. Served piping hot and crispy. A dream to tuck into on a cold day.
- Matcha ice-cream @ Haato. Just sweet enough with enough Matcha flavour for a good kick.
- Steak sandwich @ The Tuckshop. Juicy, tender, very tasty. I am drooling thinking about it.
- Kaya toast @ Katong (Chin lee chin or something...??). What a delicious mess!
- Coffee flavoured donut @ Munchy Donuts. I'm a donut fiend, what can I say?
- Double-choc donut @ Donut Factory. I'm a donut fiend and a dark chocolate fiend. This is a donut with dark chocolate filling. Am I to resist?

This list of cravings came about because a couple of friends are discussing a meet up on 10 Nov for someone's bday (you know who you are!) and we're discussing possible places to eat. As I go through my mental list, the cravings hit me like a tonne of bricks and since I've not had my dinner, I am downright miserable right now. *whine*

It Never Rain But Pours

We interrupt today's programme to bring you this:

Yesterday afternoon, there was a dearth of food in the office. My colleagues and I went around asking for food from one another, to no avail. No food means no food. We were reduced to munching on dry, tasteless crackers to appease our growling tummies.

Today, there is a surfeit of food. Some kind souls (bless them!) decided to buy us tea-break and delivered boxes of Don's chicken pie to our busy busy office. It's peak period, you see, and they wanted to give us poor souls something to brighten our day. What better way than to satisfy our physical hunger? :D

Just as we were revelling in the good news, another colleague brought in a tub of delicious chee cheong fun. It's not the usual sweet-sauce-chilli-sauce cheecheongfun, but the Vietnamese variety :D It's made with high-quality ikan bilis, chilli padi with a great big punch, fresh lettuce, Vietnamese ham and Vietnamese fish sauce. Soooo refreshingly gooood.

The office smells great now ^^ unfortunately, my new pretty blouse feels a bit too tight. Darn it, my tummy is not the bottomless pit people make it out to be, it's more like a balloon (blimp?) that expands with the contents. Lest I sound remotely ungrateful for the glorious oversupply of food, let me assure you, nay nay nay. I am most deliriously happy, except for that irritating constricting feeling around my waist. My clothes doth protest.

Simple Pleasures in Life

Right now, I'm feeling really sleepy and sated despite the pile of work on my desk waiting for me to tackle. And why is that so?

It is because I had a really yummy lunch of prawn noodles + a munchy donut after that.

(Ingrish lesson digression: Did anyone go through this in their Primary school english lesson before? The lesson where you're not supposed to start a sentence with "because"? Because It is because it is bad writing. So when answering comprehension passages questions like "Why did Andy take the apple?" you don't say "Because Andy was blahblahblah" BUT "It is because Andy was blahblahblah." Funny how blogging triggers the strangest memories in the dusty recesses of one's mind.

If one has a mind.)

Oh I could go on about the pleasures of the Katong prawn noodles, of how I love love LOVE the sweet soup, the chilli powder, the guilty pleasure of biting into lard pieces while chomping down on a large sized prawn, the crispy oily salty yummy ngoh hiang that is a must to order...

... but I shan't. Because It is because the work on my desk is giving me a massive guilt trip and lunch took long enough as it is.

Burger Queen

"If you don't study hard, you will end up flipping burgers at MacDonald's!"
"If you don't study hard, you will end up studying in MacDonald's university!"
Such were the threats motivational speeches of my childhood to keep me fearful motivated to hit the books. I mean hit the books metaphorically, not literally ^_~ Perhaps it's these psychological scars that kept me from lovin' the MacD's bleah burgers, but I digress.

So it is with great amusement that my brother watched me flip hamburgers for today's lunch and my dad polishing it off, pronouncing it "the best burger I've ever had!" Coming from someone who steadfastly avoids red meat, this is high praise indeed. My brother reminded my dad of his oft-repeated phrase and proclaimed it a prophecy, as I was indeed flipping burgers, though not for a living.

If you think that my burgers are anything like that of MacD's, HAH you're WRONG! A pox on you if you dare compare the two! My burgers have got thick 80gm beef patties that are juicy and crumbles at the bite, topped with an oh-so-juicy portebello mushroom and oodles of caramelized onions. My parents polished up all of it and picked at the onions that slithered out of the burger. It's goooood. *slurpz*

Burger Queen Burgers
Burger Toppings:
4 portebello mushrooms
3/4 white onion, sliced

Burger Patties:
320gm minced beef
1/4 white onion, finely chopped
1 Jacob's cream cracker, crumbled into crumbs.
1 tbspoon corn flour
1 egg
A squirt of ketchup
A squirt of worceshire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
A generous dash of pepper
Mix it all together in a large bowl, making sure that everything is mixed evenly.
Shape the meat into 4 patties and let it sit for a while.

Panfry the portebello mushrooms with a drizzle of olive oil and salt; that's all you need. Fry until juicy and soft. Remove from saucepan.

Reheat the saucepan (that's all I have, no fancy grills for these burgers of mine) and place the patties in it. Cover the saucepan! Leave it there for 2min, then flip the patties, cover saucepan and leave it there for another 2min. After that, switch off the flame and let it heat through for a min or two with the saucepan covered again. Then voila, the patties are done =) The reason for covering the saucepan? It retains the heat and moisture in the patties, letting it cook faster while retaining the juices as much as possible. I tried frying them without being covered and they cook slower, thus are more dry. Learn from my mistakes.

Remove the patty, drizzle some olive oil, sugar and salt on the suacepan that's still covered in burger juice and fry onions in there. It should be done in about 7min? Dump onions on the burger patties and viola, lunch =D

We like our burger buns lightly toasted and buttered. Cheese, tomato ketchup and mustard were piled on to add to the messy burger feel, but these are really up to the individual. I like mine without a chunky slice of tomato as I thought it detracted from the lovely onion + mushroom + beef combo, but my brother liked it with the tomato. No photos for this post, as my house was devoid of AA batteries and my camera was out of juice. T-T

A Humbled Food Snob

In case you can't tell yet, I'm a bit of a food snob. I scorn the food that the masses scarf down undiscerningly. Food trends are a result of masses of blind being led by masses of blind. If it's so massed produced, it can't be good. Down with Cafe Cartel / KFC / McDs / Burger King / Pasta Mania and the icky like. And on and on I go.

During the bubble tea craze, I avoided the sugared coloured health-damaging-agents fastidiously. And, by the way, you really shouldn't drink too much of it. My colleagues learnt how to make it recently and the amount of sugar that goes in to make it taste halfway decent is enough to give a whole ant colony a sugar buzzzzzzzzz.

When roti boy took the island by storm, I took a bite of it and ho-hummed through the rest of the craze. It's just coffee flavoured buttered buns! What's the big deal? Ditto when the Bread-talk pork floss bun came out. Anyone remember the long Qs waiting for those buns? Hands up those of you guilty ones, Q-ing for something as pedestrian as porkfloss + mayo on bread. I will always remember my Princess friend who said this of the bun, "When it comes out of the oven, you don't have to ask any questions! Just GRAB!" She's a dear friend and to each his / her own. If she likes it, good for her! But it's just mehhh for me.

And now, it's the donut craze! People Q-ing up in ridiculously loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong Qs for boxes and boxes of multicoloured donuts. What's the big deal, really? I've had donuts before, they're nothing to scream about, much less Q so very long for. Have you seen those Qs at Raffles City? Good gosh. And now there's one at Suntec City, which is quickly gathering a long snaking Q too.

One fine afternoon, my colleague dropped me off at Suntec. I had about 15min to spare and lo, I decided to find out Why There's A Perpetual Q: A Case For Donuts. And so I Q-ed for the take-away line, whereby you can only take 2 donuts away, max. "Fine!" I thought, while mentally rolling my eyes. 2's plenty anyways. I'll just find out what's the biggie with these things.

As I Q-ed and waited, I noticed svelt office girls digging into these donuts on premise, 2 per person! They look like really dainty eaters... no Atkins for them? And the elderly couple further up! Also 2 per pax?? No dietary constraints?? What's going on here? I surveyed the flavours before me and my eyes popped when I saw this: Double Chocolate. (Dark chocolate filling.) Oh dear me, please please please let there be double chocolate when I get there, please pretty pretty please.

God was kind, He allowed me to have both the flavours I was begging for (apple & cinnamon; double choc). I was going to meet Intuition, and now the question is, do I want to share my loot? I mean, he's my boyfriend and all, but these are donuts I've Q-ed long and hard for. Surely he doesn't need the extra calories. Perhaps he won't enjoy them. Don't I want to eat them by myself? If I don't tell him, he won't know! What he doesn't know won't hurt him! As I question myself, my eyes strayed to the handbag in my arms, a bag he bought for me not too long ago in a bid to give me a pleasant surprise.

Sigh. I suppose I must share.

The donuts were wolfed down in a matter of seconds. I didn't want to share the double chocolate, but Intuition had a crazy gleam in his eye and snatched the remaining half away from me while pushing his half-eaten apple-cinnamon donut towards me. "I don't wanna share mine! I dun wanna!" I cried, to no avail. Sadly, I started munching on the apple and cinnamon, and was duly comforted.

These donuts. They bring out the worst in people.

And I need some now.

The Perfect Night-cap

Dear Gara,

Thank you for your generousity.
Rest assured that your bottle of Baileys is in good hands.

Yours Truly,
The Quirkie Inebriate

*hic*

Perfect Substitute #7: E-Blackboard

Those of you looking for restaurant grade food at cafe prices, look no further: E-Blackboard is the answer to our cheapie-foodie prayers. I would say that this is the perfect substitute to Overpriced Yuckyfood Establishments such as Cafe Cartel and perhaps Bakerzin. (Bakerzin's food is actually not half bad, but it's horrendously overpriced and they don't serve tap water, milking their customers for all they're worth. Makes me cheesed off.)

If you think this sounds rather like Botak Jones, I'd agree with you. The concept of E-Blackboard and Botak Jones is rather similar--good western food (and I don't mean the Singaporeanized coffee shop chicken chop with baked beans and fat fries type!) in the heartlands,affordably priced and zero ambience. To me, the main difference between the two is that Botak Jones delivers tasty comfort food for pigging out while E-Blackboard is good for finer food at daintier portions (but still filling) =) So each is good, just in a different way.

Check out this tempting dish =) The mashed potatoes were tasty and smooth while the grilled fish was still tender and juicy. At $8.90, it's worth every cent.

I tried their fish & chips which costs $6, which is the same price as Botak Jones' regular sized fish and chips. I much prefer Botak Jones' fish & chips as they use the Pacific Dory fish which has a cleaner taste, rather than Cream Dory which E-Blackboard uses. Cream dory has a fishy taste which I don't like. Furthermore, the fish and chips were not crispy when I had it, unlike Botak Jones (+1 for Botak Jones here!). Having said that, their fries and coleslaw were good--but those were the supporting roles, not the lead. A pity that the lead actor disappointed =(
Despite this little gripe, I'll definitely be going back to E-Blackboard. Perhaps this time, I'll try their spaghetti vongole and finish my meal with a slice of their cheese-cake =)

Eating @ The Arthouse

A quiet place Intuition and I like to visit for good ambience, good value for money pizzas and simple, satisfying desserts is the Earshot Cafe @ The Arthouse (aka The Old Parliament House).

Earshot Cafe is a place to read, chill and enjoy hushed conversations. It houses a collection of books and music written by Singaporeans of various genres, ranging from History books to art-publications to raunchier stuff. You can browse the books there and listen to the music. There are comfortable chairs and sofas for you to curl up and read for as long as you like, as long as you don't overstay your welcome by sitting past their closing time. The service is quick and non-intrusive--yet another reason to pop by.

I like it for its quietness and the good, simple fare it offers. A medium sized pizza costs $12.50 and is enough to feed 2 medium sized appetites (read: neither Intuition nor I :P). They have only 3 types of pizzas available, but I like all 3 flavours, especially the tomato and mozerella cheese one. The crust isn't thick and starchy but fairly thin and crispy, just the way I like it.

The desserts don't disappoint either. The apple-crumble with a scoop of cinnamon ice-cream is just sweet enough, nicely crumbly and has a good hint of cinnamon in it--definitely good stuff. Personally, I like their peach pastry with honey ice-cream, but last night's ice-cream tasted more like coconut milk than honey, so that seemed rather mismatched.

Check out the place when you want to peruse the literary and musical talents of Singaporeans; when you want to take your time to finish your meal and your book without being rushed by the wait-staff to "moveitmoveitmoveit-others-are-waiting-for-your-table-dammit"; and when you want some peace and quiet in the midst of the city bustle.

Eating Mush

Ever since my extraction on Monday, I've had mushy lukewarm porridge for my meals. I try to break the monotony during breakfasts where I have something tastier, even if it's still soft, such as half-boiled eggs. Still, lunch and dinner consists of chicken porridge (which my mum cooked by the cauldron. For just me.) By the third day, I've had enough of chicken porridge / pork porridge and the like. The thought of any such porridge causes my stomach to shrivel up and whimper, so I decided to have something mushy and yummy for a change (not that my mum's porridge is not yummy :P it's just... you know, too repeated).

So for last night's dinner, I chopped up some potatoes, celery, half an onion and 3/4 of a carrot, boiled it all til it's soft and threw in a can of Campbell's mushroom soup. I added the remains of the shredded chicken from my mum's chicken porridge, fried some bacon and threw that into the soup as well. I bought some local baguettes to dip into the soup. The result? A savoury, rich mish-mash of flavours that is still gentle on the gums and a cinch to put together.
Gara came over to my place to 1. laugh at my uncanny resemblence to Popeye and 2. to have dinner with me. We gossiped, laughed, indulged in girl-talk bordering on neurosis and laughed some more at each other. It was refreshing to have some connection with the outside world besides my internet connection; my life-saver while I hole up at home.

It's now day 4. The swelling has gone down *very slightly*. My brother took a look at me this morning and laughed out loud, "You look like a tomboy who got beaten up!" Ah well, it won't be long before I face the world again. If you see a girl whose jawline resembles Popeye and has a short crop of faded red hair wincing as she eats in some cafe over the weekend, be kind to her. It's probably me.

Heart-Stopper

Drizzling the pao generously with gravy, I salivated as I held back my primal urge to just shove the whole thing into my face. I gave up scraping out the lard off the succulent and fork-tender braised pork belly. When the stars are aligned and the pao threatening to break, I succumbed to the incredible temptation of taking a big bite off the kong-bak-pao with the soft, fragrant lard running down its sides. The slightly chewy skin added just the right amount of gumminess to the whole equation and fireworks burst in the horizon as I took a second bite.

Truly, my grandmother's kong-bak-paos are worth getting fat for.

Cravings... (Perfect Substitute: Fish & Chips)

Okay I know this is not a very good photo but trust me, it tastes much better than it looks here. I blame the poor lighting. I have a craving for it right here, right now. Sadly I'm many miles away from the nearest Botak Jones outlet, all the way in Toa Payoh. I really love their fish & chips. (And their cajun chicken, the jumbo sausage...) The fish is crispy and fresh and comes with a generous dollop of their homemade tartar sauce. I also love the mountain of coleslaw and fries that accompanies. I need a platter. NOW.

*GROWL*

Oops, that was my tummy. Not me. Sorry.

And by the way, this would really work as a perfect substitute for fish and chips in Fish & Co :P It doesn't have that strong buttery taste that seems so heavenly on first bite, but as you work your way to the end, you just can't stand it anymore. This one works really, really well.

Best part is you get all these for just $6.00. Nope, no typo here.

I hope dinner will be good >_< ARGH.

Perfect Substitute # 5: Burgers @ Botak Jones

In QuirkieKai's burger rankings, McDonald's is right at the bottom, all the waaaaay doooowwwn theeerreeee... It's small, it's got zero nutritional value (in fact, it's got negative nutritional value.. it takes away from your health rather than add to it!) and it's yucky. Ick. Do yourself a favour and don't ever go McD's for meals. Go spend your $6 at a hawker centre and knock yourself out with char kway tiao instead. Even if you eat up all the lard bits, it's probably still healthier than one of their upsized meals with all the trans-fats choked fries and DNA altering-soft drinks :P

Burger King used to be better, but recently their burgers also CMI (cannot make it). Their mushroom swiss burger used to be a thing of delight! A glorious, cheesy, mushroomy mess of calories and cholesterol! But now, it's small, dry and a sad shadow of what it once was.

The burger scene in Singapore would have been downright sad if not for the entry of Carl's Junior, with all the droolworthy messy burger ads. I love their burgers and their criss-cut fries with that tangy salsa sauce! The grilled chicken burger and the mushroom burger are yummilicious! However, their meals aren't exactly cheap, though you could easily share some of the meals.

Thanks to Singing Tigger (again :P hahah! she's my food resource person!), who introduced me to Botak Jones, there is a light at the end of the Burger Tunnel... the tunnel being lined with cholesteral, but sometimes we have to live life on the edge. The patties are THICK and juicy, nothing like the paper-mache pieces they pass off as beef patties at McD's, and they are completely coated in cheeeese... For an additional $1, you get a mountain of coleslaw and fries that threatens to overflow from the big plate the burger comes in. You can also customize your burger.. wanna add bacon? more cheese? more veg? Just let them know, and they'll bill you accordingly =) Think Billy Bomber portions at just-slightly-above-Burger King prices, with home-made beef patties. Heavenly, no?

The strategy for eating at Botak Jones is to make sure that half the crowd DON'T order the side-dishes! Share the coleslaw and fries! I assure you, there will be more than enough to go around :P When I went to the one at Depot Road last Thursday, there were many plates with fries and coleslaw still untouched in it... It's a sad sight to see good food go to waste =( While I'm all for indulging, let's just play our part and not over-order when we know that food will go to waste. Will be going to the Toa Payoh branch with my colleagues tomorrow =) Shall take some pictures then!

Mushrooms

As I have been indulging in too much good food recently, I thought I would eat something light for lunch today. Half a packet of mushrooms and some slices of bread have been languishing for want of attention in my kitchen, so I thought I'd just use whatever was available.

Fresh button mushrooms are wonderful emergency food. They taste tonnes better than canned button mushrooms (ugh, what a way to spoil them!) and are just as easy to use. Chop it all up and toss them into cream sauce for creamy mushroom pasta (duh...). Saute them in garlic for a light side dish to any meal. Add them into cheese sandwiches for an instant oomph! The light fragrance and juiciness of these fresh mushrooms are all lost when canned, not to mention that canned mushrooms probably come along with a whole host of preservatives, so I like to use fresh ones whenever possible.

After chopping up the mushrooms, I tossed it with some salt, olive oil, garlic and dried basil and baked it for 5min on low heat. Dump the mushrooms between two slices of buttered toast with cheese and you've got yourself a light and healthy (I think it's still healthy, despite adding cheese and butter) lunch ^-^

Unfortunately I took a little too long posing the sandwich for the shot, so my sandwich was less warm than I'd have liked it to be. How silly ^_^b

Red, Sweet, Juicy.

One of the best desserts in the world: a slice of ripe, red dragon fruit, chilled and naturally sweetened.
How to eat: Chomp, chomp, chomp. And it's gone! ^^ Don't forget to wipe the red juice off your mouth if you don't want to look like Count Dracula.