24 Apr - Azure Cafe, Mt Hawthorn

Aunt Jen's birthday this year was at Azure Cafe out in Mount Hawthorn. The menu in Mondays and Tuesdays are supposedly more homely and are found in Italian households, although the pork belly with lychee salad and kim chee doesn't sound Italian.

I decided to try Kopparberg pear cider, which was a little too sweet for my liking.

CB and I shared starters. We ordered bruschetta and a side of chips. The bruschetta was nice, nicely charred bread with a fresh tomato topping. The chips weren't that fresh, they must've ben sitting on the pass for awhile.

For mains, I had the pappadelle pasta which was served with a bollognaise sauce. The freshly made pasta had a good bite to it and the sauce had nice meaty chunks.

I wasn't going to have dessert but a hiccup with our order and delays with both entree and mains prompted the matrie d to offer complementary desserts. I chose the carrot cake and was presented with a nice thick slice with icecream and some raspberry sauce. The cake was quite light, and the cheese icing was very sweet. Eaten together with the icecream and it was well enjoyed, tasting even better cos it was free.

6 Apr - The Beaufort Street Merchant, Highgate

Brunch on Good Friday was with CB and friends. This place was packed and the prices were fairly high, with an added 15% public holiday tax.

Being Lent, I decided to have smoked salmon and eggs with hollandaise. Whilst I do like smoked salmon, I was feeling a little sick of it after eating this dish, there was a lot of it! The food and coffee were good but it was a little noisy inside to talk properly.

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Old Chang Kee, Kopitiam, Starbucks, Velocity Mall, Singapore

Breakfast consisted of a final Sardine-O, final Starbucks with a prawn chee cheong fun. The prawns were sparse, only a few chopped up bits of prawn were present, but the rice noodle was freshly cooked and rolled and was wonderfully soft.

Mixed Rice Stall, United Square, Singapore

I chose three dishes from the various bain-maries that were on display at this stall. I chose the vegetarian omelette, steamed fish and stirfried ong choy. The fish was cooked nicely but the other two dishes were pretty bland.

Swensens, United Square, Singapore

It was highlighted that this trip had only one previous Swensens experience, so we decided to grab one last sundae before picking up our luggage from the hotel to go to the airport.

Singapore Airlines flight to Perth

SIA didn’t have a fish option on the way home, so I had to have the chicken instead. It was served with a mushroom sauce and vegetables, prawn and tuna salad, cheese, crackers and a bread roll. For dessert, an Indonesian Magnum was served.

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Noodle place opposite Value Hotel Thomson, Singapore

This noodle place came highly recommended by my aunt. We picked the $4 noodle option with fatter noodles and chilli. The chilli sauce was hot and the noodles were al dente. Coupled with 1.5 lime juices (3 were ordered instead of 2, due to miscommunication), this breakfast went down a treat, and was cheap too.

Chinese Hamburger Stall, Bugis Markets, Singapore

This hamburger of sorts is supposedly Taiwanese in origin and we were on the lookout whilst we were in Taiwan for a chance to eat it. It wasn’t till we hit Singapore that we found a version of it. This burger seemed to have a leaner cut of pork (the originally supposedly has belly pork) and coriander, whilst this version had cucumber. The pork was similar to a version Mum cooks with braised pork belly, whilst the bun was like a chewy, non sweet bao dough.

Old Chang Kee, Bugis Junction, Singapore

Due to tomorrow being the last day and not eating meat on Fridays during Lent, I decided to have one last Curry-O before the trip ended.

Beard Papas, Bugis Junction, Singapore

Beard Papas here in Singapore have these round choux pastries, similar to the Paris Brest ones in Taipei. These were also filled with custard, however they weren’t filled as much as the Taiwanese counterpart. The choux pastry was also a little stale, most likely due to the humidity and the age of the pastries.

Sakura International Buffet, Shaw Plaza, Singapore

Another cousin invited us to dinner, this time, dinner was at Sakura near the hotel. I didn’t eat as much as previous buffet excursions, probably because I didn’t want the uncomfortable food feeling that occurs when stuffed full from buffets. This time round, they had this dish called Durian Fire Ball, which was a piece of deep fried durian in a crumbed coating. It was warm and gooey, and whilst I like durian, wasn’t my cup of tea. The jackfruit icecream was however, with little bits of jackfruit throughout the scoop of icecream.

All throughout the savoury courses, I kept on having nuggets. They weren’t anything special, but for some reason, I felt like eating them. Most likely because the body is hanging out for some western flavours.

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Fishball Noodle Stall, Whampoa Hawker Centre, Singapore

This mornings breakfast was at the hawker centre next to my aunt’s flat on Whompoa Drive. Feeling like something light, I went for a dry fishball noodle. The horfun noodles were seasoned with a ketchup based sauce and garnished with spring onions and fried shallots. Simple yet tasty. The soup, with slices of fish cake, fish ball and even pork balls (real mince, not the springy pork balls you can buy frozen) all went well with the salty broth. All for the low price of $3.

Nasi Lemak Stall, near Jurong East MRT, Singapore

This hawker centre was hot and muggy, but we needed to grab a bite to eat as it was past 2PM. There wasn’t much of a selection and I ended up having nasi lemak. It came with fried chicken, ikan bilis, peanuts, a fried egg, cucumber and chilli sauce. The ikan bilis was really salty but was crunchy. The fried chicken was quite tasty and I ended up eating most of my rice with the chicken.

Wee Nam Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice, Novena, Singapore

My cousin recommended this place and then it was decided to catch up again over dinner at the restaurant he recommended. It also came recommended by the aforementioned aunt who lives in the area. The chicken rice did not disappoint. Rich, tasty and soft chicken rice, served with tender, moist and perfectly cooked boiled/roasted chicken. The ginger and chilli sauce served on the table was goooooooooood. Definitely one of the best chicken rice I’ve eaten in a restaurant, but not sure if it beats my aunt’s homemade version.

The accompanying dishes were also very nice, a highlight for me were the pork and prawn wontons, where they managed to wrap a whole prawn, along with pork mince into the wonton skins. And they were boiled and served in soup, my favourite!

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Bakery at Aljunied MRT, Geylang, Singapore

This mornings breakfast was bought last night as we were starting later than usual due to high tea. I bought 3 kaya buns, which were a sweet bread with kaya jam in the middle. The kaya made this sickly sweet, I ended up eating 2 and giving the last to CB.

Rose Verandah High Tea, Shangri La Hotel, Singapore

We had high tea at the Shangri La today. The seating was from 11:30AM to 2:30PM. I personally thought the spread was smaller than previous high teas that we’ve went to, but most of the food was nice. I think the sweets were better than the savouries though. I drank two teapots worth of tea and spent the rest of the afternoon frequently visiting the toilet.

Famous Amos Cookies, Wisma Atria, Singapore

Whilst wagg was deciding on the breakdown of the 2kg Famous Amos she was going to buy, I cut in and bought a chewy chocolate pecan cookie. This was sweet, chewy and chocolatey, but I couldn’t taste any pecan. I prefer the smaller crispy cookies from Famous Amos though.

Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant, Velocity Mall Novena, Singapore

Dinner was out with cousins and my aunt at a vegetarian restaurant near our hotel. We had the steamboat option which consisted of some fried and prepared foods, along with some raw stuff to put into a pot of simmering stock. I used this as an opportunity to eat some much needed greens and with the salty stock, it was good.

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Old Chang Kee, Velocity Mall, Singapore

A quick snack this morning as we started off later than usual. I had a Sardine-O.

Hooters, Clarke Quay, Singapore

Lunch today was in Clarke Quay, at Hooters. We’ve always joked about having food here and this trip was finally the trip in which it happened. There were a number of $10 lunch specials which came with a drink and icecream. I opted for the Hooters Burger, which contained a beef patty, lettuce,  pickles, onion and tomato, along with a side of baked beans. Sauces were already on the table, I slathered tomato sauce over my patty.

The burger was moist, although not seasoned. I added some salt and pepper to make it better. The burger was missing some mayo, but all in all, it went down well.

No Signboard Seafood, Geylang, Singapore

Assorted vegetables.

Fried fish dumplings and a yam dumpling.

Cereal prawns

Sweet and sour spare ribs

Salted duck egg crab

Deep fried mantou

Steamed fish

Chilli crab

After walking around Geylang for awhile, we eventually had dinner at ‘No Signboard Seafood’. We opted for the 6 person set menu (even though there were 8 of us) and added 3 bowls of rice and some fried mantou buns.

All of the dishes were enjoyed, however highlights for me were the duck egg crab and the steamed fish. Dessert was a mango sago which had more canned pureed mango than sago, so I gave it a miss. Including drinks and GST (no service charge here), the cost came to $43 SGD per person which was acceptable for a meal including 2 crabs.