tesss

~Invited Session~ If you have missed the "Taste of New Zealand" event at Plaza Singapura from May 23-29, fret not...their featured products are still on sale at Cold Storage outlets islandwide. This annual fair is back to tempt and tease shoppers to pay New Zealand a visit through food and drink! Word has it that during the first few days of the fair, most of the hot favourites had been sold out. Key Highlights at Taste New Zealand Take a virtual tour! For the first time at Taste New Zealand, we got to travel to the vast natural landscapes of New Zealand through a virtual reality experience and it was fun! Spotted a few cows along the way too. Wine and dine...healthily! There is so much to see and sample at the fair and I had a field day picking at every single stall. These are some of the several booths that we stopped at! Annie's fruit and vegetable bars captured the goodness and natural flavour from some of New Zealand's best fruit and they come in such handy s

Jin Hua is a household name for fish soup in CBD , very much so that I have joined the relentless queues during lunch just for a bowl of steaming hot goodness. Hurray to this franchise which also sports queues but more forgiving ones! Even way past 2 pm, the queues were neverending. Sliced Fish Soup ($5) Bland broth in comparison to Hougang Hai Zhen Yuan's, the sliced fish slices made it worse since they were barely seasoned too.   It may problems with a franchise but I still prefer their fried fish version over sliced. Given now I have found an alternative, I'd probably be switching camps.  Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon (金华鱼头米粉) Old Airport Food Center #01-120

Old Airport Hawker Center ranks as one of my favourite ones around - a foodie's haven literally with each district's best featured all at once. Hougang Hai Zhen Yuan is one of those, located right smack next to Jin Hua's franchise from Maxwell Market - fiesty move but it prodded us to try. Mixed Fish Soup ($5) Batang Fish The broth at first glance already looks richer than the other fish soups attempted and with the addition of fried scallions and seaweed, it smelt just too good for further snaps. Uber fresh batang fish slices in a broth so flavourful, this is one for the those who prefer a strong flavoured broth  possibly derived from hours of simmering and plenty of bones. Get a bowl of rice and be ready for a delightful meal. Judge the stall not for the crowds for I think I've found my idea of best mixed fish soup in town! Plus, their menu specialises in just fish soup - think fish head and sliced fish too! 后港海珍圆 Old Airport Hawker Center #01-121

Since patronizing The Lokal, a new perspective on brunch was born. Their menu comprises of house cured meats and brunch options in man-portions, more meat than eggs and equally filling desserts. To say I have tried everything on the menu is not true, I always stick with the perennial favourites, I call it inertia. The same dishes attempted this time round. I'm getting boring already, I sense.  Pork Sausage Burger ($25) I enjoy their burgers because of the generosity of ingredients and pork burgers are a breath of fresh air from the usual beef suspects. It was unfortunate the first arrived not fully cooked and rare pink bits embedded within but the kitchen replaced it. Juicy, charred and a beautiful touch of grilled pineapples and melted cheese in the same burger. Thick fries and their homemade chilli sauce is always a call for a yummy meal. Their onion jam is a must order for me, handmade and oh-so-tasty. Warm Mackerel Salad ($18) Warm salads are a rarity, more so when they ar

The bane of running promotions on Groupon means the bargain hunter of a consumer like me would not visit on a normal basis but rather wait for the descent of the next voucher promotion to visit. Grand Pavilion is one of those places I would head back in a heart beat with a Groupon, and that was exactly what happened. Who does not love a good deal, anyway? Whole Peking Duck ($58) Face it, I cannot resist peking duck. It must be the sorcery in that egg crepe, sweet sauce and thin as wafer crispy duck skin that makes me order it every single time. Not forgetting these keropoks! Having the duck chopped up is also a preferred way to eat it except the herbal sauce does make this taste like a herbal duck more than peking duck. Crispy goodness, mmmm! Half Crispy Chicken ($20) Another poultry dish nailed well on crispy skin and crunchy keropok. Sweet and Sour Pork ($27.80) A childhood favourite that usually sees more batter than meat but Grand Pavilion's has a lovely crunch, tangy swe

Para Thai came to mind one rainy evening, I am not even sure how thai food and cold weather goes hand in hand especially when spicy food is not the forte of Para Thai even. I'm not sure if these are considered thai appetizers per se since I have seen them at Indonesian restaurants too. Nonetheless, keropok's always hard to resist and that mouth watering chilli sauce is worth the $3 price tag. I sounds ridiculous but I probably could get more than a bag full of keropok if I bought them outside anyway. Baked Prawn Glass Noodles ($16.90) It could be the presentation of the dish in the menu that made the difference so stark - the first question that came to mind was, where are the three prawns? Turns out they were buried deep at the bottom of the pot. Rice vermicelli was delicious though a tad oily and the prawns were a let down with their mushy contents. Black Olive Fried Rice ($11.90) Yet another that defied the photography presentations, chicken was fried with the rice together

I love heading back to CBD over the weekend for meals because the crowd is more dispersed and there is none of the maddening city traffic to battle and meals can be enjoyed without hurrying to end the seating. Unlike most other Japanese outlets, Hakumai Sushi entertains diners who would prefer bento sets to the more premium and pricier kaiseki and omakase options.  Salmon Avocado Don ($26.80) Salmon Avocado and Roe On Rice Truffle Sauce Chawanmushi Soup / Salad / Fruit Amongst their range of affordable bento sets is this particular don that was considerably cheaper than the chirashi going at $39.80. Think thick cuts of salmon sashimi and avocado dressing a bowl of furikake rice. Sukiyaki Gozen ($26.80) Beef and Vegetables Cooked with Sweet Sauce Salmon Sashimi / Truffle Sauce Chawanmushi / Rice / Soup / Salad / Fruit Beef sukiyaki for the already hot weather, it strangely did not heat the temperatures up in the restaurant.  Individual pot for cooking. This would suit colder temperature