Archie B's, Hong Kong

Everytime I head back to the apartment, I feel like I've been mummified in dust and particles.

On a good note however, I FINALLY met up with Diana in Hong Kong and she took me to Archie B's, a New York style deli in Central. The deli dishes out sandwiches and burgers, and was even featured in Time magazine. However the deli clearly caters to the lunch time office crowd as it was almost empty on a Thursday evening. Good for us though as we had loads to catch up and the last thing we wanted was to be chased out of a crowded restaurant.



The not so great stuff first.

If you weren't thinking of having salad, well don't start because our Chef Salad was unforgettable in a don't-remind-me kind of way. The haphazardly-strewn turkey ham and Cheddar Swiss, and packaged salad dressing is the reason why people make fun of those who eat salad.



The fried mozzarella sticks was extremely likable but the marinara sauce was distractingly sourish. However, points scored for the stretchy mozzarella tug of war .



As if to further my point that salads are not Archie B's strength, the macaroni salad that came with our sandwich was blah blah and blah.



Luckily our NYPD Blue was saved the dish from being sent to the doghouse. It set off sirens with layers and layers of glazed baked ham tucked between a Hoagie Roll, slathered with with honey mustard. "Hoagie Roll"? It's like a cross between hot dog bun and baguette, awesome when warm and toasty.





After Archie B's, D and I headed off Honeymoon Dessert at IFC for desserts and I had a kiwi juice with vanilla ice cream. Healthy yeah? Smug look.

Archie B's
7-9 Staunton Street
Central

Honeymoon Desserts
Shop 3013, Level 3 IFC Mall
8 Finance Street
Central

Itacho Sushi, Hong Kong

My sister was telling me about Itamae Sushi and how people waited close to two hours for awesome recession-friendly sushi. I was tempted to brave the way but on my way there, I walked past another sushi restaurant that spotted a queue - definitely a more acceptable one.

Itacho Sushi was its name and no. 3229 my queue number.

I snagged a seat by the sushi counter ten minutes later and soon found myself in company of some good sushi.





I knew I had to order the grilled Japanese Grade 5A beef and grilled otoro sushi. Just imagine mouthfuls of devastingly oily creamy sushi! How can one say 'No' to a dish like this? They didn't disappoint and best of all, they didn't burn a hole in my pocket. Get this, each nugget only cost about $ 6 - $7. EACH. UNO. I'm sorry folks but you could never get this in Singapore.



I tried not to order the usual suspects but I couldn't resist unagi nigiri and smoked salmon. The thickish unagi made me smile with its familiar richness.



The only letdown was the Itacho Sushi, a maki made of squid, salmon, lettuce, topped with uni and ikura, wrapped with bonito flakes. Odd, very odd. Maybe there was too much going on.



Though you can tell the rice wasn't exact the best grade, the top-heavy sushi more than satiated. I walked past Itamae and spied an almost identical menu - turns our Itacho is Itamae's sister restaurant! Except I think Itamae has a conveyor belt but not Itacho. Restaurants like Itacho Sushi probably won't gain Michelin or Miele recognition but they definitely deserve some credit for keeping the masses happy.



Oh yeah, on a really random note, my sister lives opposite BO Innovation and this place called 'Shake em' Buns'. Funny.

Itacho Sushi
At various locations

Hello from Hong Kong

Hello there, I've been here for a day.

Hong Kong hasn't changed much since I last came. The place smells far-nie, people still walk into me (or do I intentionally walk into them), and chaos more or less thrives in every nook and cranny.

How am I going to occupy myself over the next couple of weeks? Beats me but I'm maybe for once, I will have a real relaxed vacation.

Also, I finally joined Facebook.

Yes, finally!

Please don't laugh...

Royal Pumpkin Cheesecake, TCC

When I peeped into the box, the sunset-amber hue made me think, "Hmm orange cake..." Yet as soon as a forkful hit my tastebuds, there was no denying the irresistible pumpkin scent.

PUMPKIN!



YAY!

Just when I was lamenting over the lack of pumpkin goodies, TCC's Royal Pumpkin Cheesecake appeared in my life. This was even better than the chocolate cake I was hoping for. We need more pumpkin stuff!



Curious Foodie Amelia likes it too.

There aren't many Singapore-made show that we local can be proud of but The Noose is surprisingly funny.

PS Cafe with Emma, Harding Road

Last week was unofficially my last week of school. I tried not to get overly sentimental because it's just not me to get emotionally attached to people. Hey, I have a soft side too ok? And it's not just the jiggly cellu-bits.

The end of term also signaled the departure of exchange students, Emma included. Emma really liked PS Cafe at Palais Penaissance so I took her to PS Cafe at Dempsey for our kind-of-farewell brunch. Sad.



Emma fiddling with her new camera.



Being dessert freaks, we went light on the savoury and shared the Big Breakfast Sandwich, a chunky sandwich stuffed with fried eggs, bacon, grilled tomatoes, lettuce, asparagus, served with baked beans on the side. It wasn’t exactly a Big Mistake; just that it was ho-hum and my jaw really ached from chewing on those toasts.

Gosh, what was the bread made off? I had to dunk them in baked beans to soften them up.



Emma fiddling with her camera again. For dessert, we shared the berry chocolate brownie cheese cake and lemon pudding.



The light lemon pudding cake was bound by jolty lemon soup and topped with a vanilla ice cream. Bearing in mind that I’m going rough a “citrus” phase, the lemon pudding treat was insanely good.

Sweet Jesu-, ok it’s probably not a good idea to get biblical but the tarty lemon and sweet wholesome vanilla were MFEO. The dessert resembled the love child of two gorgeous delicious individuals like Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubrey.

I LURRRRRVE YOU!

By then Emma was stuffed and I did the most logical thing. No, not doggy bag the dessert but finished single-handedly. I did say “Emma was full,” not me.



I was probably emotional eating. Semester ending… Friend leaving.. Exams blah. I got to admit the substantially dense cheesecake and rich brownie did help block out those thoughts momentarily.

The cheesecake and brownie were as opaque and air-hole-less as one would expect substantially dense cakes to be. The sourish berries center did nothing for me but being an impromptu emotional eater meant not being picky to begin with.


pretty flowers in a vase

Needless to say, we had a great time. One waiter in a cap was plain bo chap while the other waiter in a pink t-shirt was smiley, friendly - someone please nominate him for Employee of the Month!

Birthday Dinner at Tanyoto, Liang Court

Many of us are guilty of idol-worship.

Some grew up wanting to be Elvis or the next Paris Hilton; while many now would look up to Obama 44. Me? I grew up worshipping my elder sister.

When we were kids, I thought she was the coolest person in the world. I wanted to play with her and hang out with her friends. And I also pretty much traced her footsteps. She had ballet and tennis lessons, so did I. She danced for the school’s drama club- ditto. She said tortoise-shell spectacles were en vogue and I wore them despite looking like the President of the Fashion Victims R Us club. I remember being so envious of her when she started wearing jeans while I was still stuck in party frocks.

Happy Birthday!



My sister flew back from Hong Kong to celebrate her birthday with us and we had the first of her birthday dinner ats Tanyoto, Liang Court. Originally we were supposed to have dinner at Kaiho Sushi but something came up so we had steamboat dinner instead.



The Chinese franchise specializes in Sichuan hot pot cuisine and we had the tomato-based soup and spicy peppery soup; I loved the tomato soup, which was rich but not overpowering.



We ordered a whole bunch of stuff but I didn't take much pictures because steamboat isn't exactly a photo-friendly affair. I mean one can't be expected to snap a picture of every pork ball, beef slice, chicken fillet right?



We were given a special dip made up of stuff I can't recall but I didn't use the dip anyway.



One of the small dishes we had was the pork slices with garlic and chili sauce that was milder than it looks but still packed with flavour...



... and the thinnest ever scallion pastry. I like my carbs... and my pan-fried dough so this to me was ok-but-not-mind-blowing.



For dessert, we had this red bean thing with flower-petal jelly top (I'm clearly hopeless with Chinese dessert names). It was nice enough - I like the red bean niblets.

Can't wait for sushi tomorrow!

* *

While googling for “Tanyoto Singapore”, I came across this article, ‘Where To Find The Sexiest Girls In The World (Outside The US)’ and was somewhat surprised to see Singapore made it to the writer’s list!

Disclaimer: I’m surprised because I thought we usually only make it into foreign media for our Free Trade Agreements and capital punishment system.

In no particular order:

• Mendoza
• Havana
• Tokyo
• Dubai
• Istanbul
• Prague
• Zagreb
• Amsterdam
• Seoul
• Singapore, which the writer said:

It’s all about the accent. Singaporean English (Singlish) is at once sophisticated, endearing, cute, and sexy. Somewhere between public school Londoner, New Delhi socialite, and urban Chinese, this is English as it should be spoken… Fashion-conscious, self aware, and demure, Singapore is smoldering!

Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed. Now people will think we are part of China AND we talk funny.

By the way, there is also a “Sexiest Men in the World, Outside the US” article and no surprises here but we ... er weren’t ... er listed. However before you start accusing the writer of being a Europhile, our neighbours (namely Bangkok, Manila and Kuala Lumpur) made it to the list. I’m thinking travel agencies and budget airlines could really work with this unofficial unvalidated piece of information.

Again, in no particular order:

• Berlin, Germany
• Paris, France
• Rome, Italy
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• London, England
• Madrid, Spain
• Sydney, Australia
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Manila, Philippines
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hoi, I didn’t come up with this list so guys, steer your frustration else where. Oddly enough, where are the Scandinavians?

Bodega y Tapas, Orchard Hotel

Ever since my trip to Spain, I have found it nearly impossible to find good AND authentic Spanish tapas in Singapore. Too many restaurants attempt to pass off tiny-portions-smalls-plates as tapas. LIARRRSSS! Gimme my Tortilla Espanola… Where’s my Pulpo Gallega?

One Friday night, mum and I checked out Bodega y Tapas, part of the Esmirada Group. Located at Orchard Hotel next to Esmirada restaurant, Bodega provided a chill pill to those seeking out relatively authentic tapas. I took a liking to the warm interior, open-kitchen concept right away but a verdict couldn’t be drawn without tasting the food.



The Gambas al ajillo, chili garlic prawns, arrived sizzling away in a bath of olive oil and chili flakes. Prawns were crunchy and fresh, and we conveniently sopped up the excess olive oil and chili flakes with our baguette. Somehow I stupidly disregarded the sizzling pan as a warning, scalding the roof of my mouth as a result.



What is tapas without the Tortilla Espanola? We tucked into a hunk of traditional Spanish omelette that was at least an inch thick, layers and layers of thinly-sliced potatoes and onion encased in egg sheath. It was cloying but the tangy garlic mayo alioli dip relieved us off its heaviness. You know it was probably even better than the one I had in Spain since this was served hot off the pan. By right, the side salad should have been overshadowed by the tortilla but it ducked that fate with an unsuspectingly good dressing.



The Piquillos rellenos de pollo con salsa Espanola, red peppers stuffed with minced chicken baked in Spanish sauce and cheese, was pretty good too. It was messy comfort food that could have easily tasted store-bought but didn’t.



The Costillas de cordero a la parilla con salsa de pimiento, lamb racks with black pepper sauce, was more average than the others. Two out of three pieces were pink-in-the-middle tender while the other was on the tough side. Why the difference? No idea.

On our way out of the restaurant, I saw a couple digging into their lamb shank with Moroccan cous cous - will / must / going to try that soon!

Service was very good; though it was one-for-one happy hour, mum and I gave our Bobby-Chin-look-alike waiter our complementary Bodega Bodega Margarita since we were not drinkers to begin with. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Bodega; my only grip was the uncomfortable bar stool and uneven log tables that made juggling our tapas dishes seem like a perilous act.



Zhu! Tried test and approved!

Lunch at Moomba Tuckshop, Bank of China building

Growing up, it was always 'Mum and Dad with the kids' or 'Mum with the kids'. Finally it was Dad's time with the girls when Yang and I accompanied Dad to The Moomba Tuckshop, his favouritest sandwich deli.

Dad visits this place so much that he is actually onto his SECOND stamp card. I don't know about you but I have never managed to complete a loyalty stamp card. This secret hideaway at the basement of the Bank of China building was crowded during lunch time - no wonder Dad usually takes away.



We had 3 sandwiches, a soup and dessert. The one that had the highest novelty factor was the the tea smoked chicken with multigrain bread. It was really good, considering how much of a yawn I find chicken. However, it doesn't taste like 'tea smoked anything' but rather sweet, caramelized barbeque char-siew-inspired chicken.


I chose the sugar cured salmon with dark rye, which might have seemed like a boring choice initially; however I found the fattiest white-streaked smoked salmon challenging any preconceived judgment.



The pink-within roast beef with walnut bread was pretty good. It was perhaps one of the tenderest offerings out there and it made Subway's roast beef sub look like roadkill.



That's my pile of food waiting to be polished off. Easy peasy.



I'm not fawning over the mushroom soup although it was a pretty decent. Guess I'm just really used to the intense headier variations out there.



Thumbs up to the apple crumble too and I defnitely prefer this to their walnut carrot cake. As you can see, the apples are sliced thinly and there is an overwhelming proportion of butter crumble, which equaled overwhelming quantities of love and gratification.


Awarded by TimeOut Magazine.

Strike a pose!

High Tea at Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge, Takashimaya

"Speaking of bad decisions, America's going to vote soon ... "

- Gerald, who was last seen at Iggy's oohing over his Wagyu burger.

Obviously you can see how backdated this post is as we didn't know who had won the elections yet. As soon as I heard that, I burst out laughing before launching into a what's-up-with-McCain-Palin debacle with Gerald.



It was great catching up with say-it-like-it-is Gerald, who would soon to leave our shores to pursue a Master's Program at NYU.

Gerald's more of a romantic than I am so he chose Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge for the "lovely flowers on the China". I'm guessing between the both of us, he has a higher chance of becoming a tai tai. We went for the Royal Copenhagen High Tea set that consisted of 2 open-faced sandwiches, 2 scones, 2 slices of cakes and 2 cups of tea or coffee.



Calling them "2 open-faced sandwiches" is such a misnomer because the sandwiches were really tiny; in fact, they were more like huge canapes -dum dum dum-I got over them quickly literally and figuratively since I was here for the sweet and butter-filled anyway.





It was a good thing they served the scones after the sandwiches huge canapes because lukewarm scones are apPALINg. The darling warmed scones were served with cream, our choice of jam (in this case, we chose Rosehip Apple) and butter curls. Soft chewy butter biscuits that break open with minimal crumbling - great because I hate losing crumbs to plates.



We shared a couple of cakes too, one being the cranberry cake that looked and felt like a giant marzipan slice but tasted 10 000 times better than the offending almond paste.



I liked the orange cake too. A dependable butter pound cake replete with the warm scent of oranges.

The one thing we didn't like was the 2-prong cake fork, which made it flipping difficult / impossible to pick up cake crumbs! Here's a tip: press the fork against the crumbs to pick them up. Think of sleazy desperadoes and Pretty Young Things while you are at it.

"Obsessing over my future is severely handicapping any chance I have at obtaining happiness in the present."

- Reannon
Taken from Life Lessons Learned on the Road

I am going to repeat this to myself every single day and try to stop obsessing about job applications. By the way, I received two wedding invitations for the next couple of months, guess this means I've officially entered the Attend Friends' Weddings phase in my life.

Garibaldi, Purvis Street

Although Garibaldi's has been around the block, I only recently visited it for the first time last week. My friend and I went for a couple of ala carte dishes and the Menu Degustazione, which featured tasting portions of Wagyu beef carpaccio, grilled US Scallop, black Ink Tagliolini, roast lamb tenderloin and aromatic herbs jelly.



However none of the Degustazione came close to matching the Osso Buco Con Risotto (braised veal shank with saffron risotto), in terms of flavour and satisfaction. Maybe I don't quite buy the Italian Fine Dining Experience thing as Italian has always set out to be a hearty, family-affair type of meal.



The Osso Buco Con Risotto was Os-so-lovely comfort food and fitted right into the latter category. The one-pot-favourite braised veal shank was tender but tuggable. The al dente risotto was amazingly rich, each full-bodied grain bursting and coated with luxe creaminess; yet contributing to the overall smooth consistency of the risotto.

Garibaldi is worth returning for this dish alone.

Ice3 Cafe, Upper Thomson

You light up my life. No, I didn't swallow a Precious Moments gift card. I'm referring to my new room chandelier or-is-it. Isn't it beautiful? Many thanks to a couple of individuals who bought / carried / shipped it back from Urban Outfitters New York.

After our Euradian meal at Herbs & Spices, we decided to head somewhere else for dessert. Initially we wanted to head to Icekimo for ice cream but we decided to check out the newly-opened Ice3 Cafe instead.

Their website quipped, "Our place has the essence of warm and cozy ambience". Well, I thought Ice3 Cafe's interior was decidedly masculine- dark tones with light-saberish illumination, very sci-fi-underground-laboratory like.

Warm and cozy if you are a Jedi or Darth Vadar.



I think their ice cream mud pies are famous but we didn't try their award-winning Alcoholics Anonymous Mudpie "the only mudpie awarded platinum rating in Sweetest Things, Singapore's Best desserts".

Instead, we followed our instincts and went with the Cookie Monster Mudpie, a block of cookies and cream ice cream with Oreo crust, topped with KoKo Krunch cereal, Oreo cookie chunks and chocolate fudge.

I thought it was pretty ho-hum. To begin with, I didn't find the presentation appealing because it reminded me of a tofu block. The store-bought KoKo Krunch cereal and Oreo cookies were vaguely awe-inspiring, and the cookies and cream ice cream was very "commercial-tasting".

Still it was better than the apple crumble.



To cut Ice3 Cafe some slack, I didn't realise they served the apple crumble with cinnamon ice cream, instead of the regular vanilla ice cream; and more importantly, how much I hated cinnamon ice cream.

I never thought I would use the word 'hate' on ice cream because I've always preached universal love for all kinds of ice cream. However the cinnamon ice cream here tasted just like chilled toothpaste! Since then, cinnamon ice cream was relegated to the 'No Way Jose' category, right up there with licorice and marzipan.

Shudder.

On its own, the apple-chunks-filled crumble could have probably shared the limelight with the mud pie; but topped with cinnamon ice cream and it became the abomination of the century.

We were the only patrons around as it was still early but service was a little patchy. We had to remind our waiter about the water and that we needed three, instead of two forks. Couldn't he tell that there were one - two - three of us?

So much for being adventurous, looks like I will just stick with Icekimo in the future.