So it was a win-win trip. I get to have them as company and they get to celebrate their anniversary!

I was dealing with the Hotel a lot, since we had an official delegation coming. I told them that my parent’s were coming for their anniversary and they generously offered to have a bouquet of fresh flowers and a cake delivered to their room on their arrival.

And this was the cake. It was De-Li-Cious! It reminded me of Opera chocolate cake with the crispy cereal inside. Although it does seem small but it was quite filling. We were eating it for two days!

In case you’re wondering, we stayed at the Fullerton Hotel. I highly recommend it.

On that Saturday we went to have brunch at Jones, mix of grocery store and cafe.

And now let’s take a look at their mouth-watering display of  tartlets

And best of all they make all their pastries right in front of you!

The pastry chef here was preparing pastry to make croissants.

Since it was a weekend, it took us at least 30 minutes to get seated but it was worth the wait!

My cappuccino!

My Eggs Dish which was fantastic! The tomato sauce, the bread the perfectly cooked eggs and the spinach…all beyond excellent!

My sister’s dish: Poached eggs, mushrooms and bread. You can never go wrong with perfectly cooked poached eggs but my dish was far more superior and yummier!

Although I just had lunch, I am salivating as I remember my egg dish. It was THAT good. So if you happen to be in Singapore be sure to check this place out. It’s located at the top floor of the Mandarin Gallery on Orchard Road.

And oh yeah! I have a brunch post coming up soon!

I will start posting only my interesting and worth-mentioning food experiences in Singapore (which won’t be many as I was crazy busy my last week there)

So we finally went to the hawker’s center to try their satay. It looks and feels like the Singapore version of the Mubarkiya food-area.

let’s take a closer look…

Made me very hungry!

And I present to you the star of that night.

I overdosed on the chicken and the beef satay. We also ordered shrimp satay. I didn’t take a picture of it which kind of says a lot. It wasn’t that great. We also ordered a leafy green dish that is drenched in garlic! My breath was garlicky all night, even after mints and brushing my teeth.

We walked back to the hotel and saw the other side of the hawker’s center.

This was where all the Chinese food stalls are and this being Singapore, there was a band playing.

Those Singaporeans know how to have a good time!

Lunch:

Very cute cafe/bookshop/music store

Of course I forgot the name of the place but it is right next to the museum.

This is what I ordered:

spaghetti with prawns in olive oil and chili sauce

I wanted to take my parents and sister to the Malaysian restaurant for dinner but when we got there it was already closed, which was a shame because I was really looking forward to it! I will have to take them there for lunch.

We went to an Italian restaurant instead that was just around the corner from the Malaysian one. I had lunch there once before and I knew they had good pizza.

I ordered a pizza and a green salad to share with my sister.

A very satisfying day especially that it ended with chocolate and coffee gelato…

I miss home. I miss home-cooked meals. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner and I just feel like I lost my enthusiasm for taking out my camera and snapping pictures.

…. Until today!

This is where we (thats me, my parents and my sister!) went: Eastcoast Seafood Centre

I went there 10 years ago with my family on my first trip to Singapore. It has changed quite a bit but the food is still very fresh and exciting!

It’s a strip of seafood restaurants right on the beach. We picked the largest and busiest one, Jumbo!

This is what we ordered:

For larger view, please click on the image. I didn’t want to upload one by one, I would shoot myself by the time I am done.

After leaving the restaurant, the taxi driver showed us this area, which is very close to our hotel, with a line of food street vendors and it’s open till very late at night!  Can not wait until we explore that street! Very excited!

Although I woke up 2 hours later than what I had planned for, I still managed to do everything on my list for today. I was quite impressed with myself as I have no sense of time management.

First on my list: museum hopping

I went to the Singapore Art Museum and National Museum of Singapore. Both were fantastic but the national museum made me envious, it was so beautiful!

National Museum of Singapore

I went to Little India afterwards to go to this veggie eatery that’s part of an art project.

It’s called Food #03 and it’s part of the PostMuseum project, which the website explains more.

They only served pizzas this week, so I ordered the mixed vegetables one.

It was light and crispy. I quite liked it! It’s also a very relaxed place to just go hang out, read a book or meet up with friends. I would go back if I have an unplanned afternoon.

And then I finally went to Max Brenner. At first, I was disappointed about the size of the place. It was tiny, in comparison to the one in New York and so was their menu but the dessert was still very satisfying.

I had chocolate-filled crepe with caramel sauce, vanilla sauce, bananas and crystallized nuts.

Needless to say, it was yum-mee!

The shop was located at the Esplanade Theatre mall, Singapore’s main theatre, close to the marina bay. Since it was the weekend, they had a band playing outside, just by the bay. It was lovely.

I stayed for a few hours, listening to them play and just enjoying it. At around 9, I decided to head back to the hotel. I had a very long day so I picked up food from the nearby thai restaurant, ThaiExpress.

I was honestly not expecting it to be good but to my surprise, it was! I ordered spicy beans fried in a shrimp paste sauce (left) and seafood pad thai (right).

Back to work tomorrow at the museum…

But on the brighter side, my parents are coming in tomorrow! Now I can’t wait to finally try Singapore’s fine dining restaurants.

]]> http://theovenexperiments.com/2010/01/31/singapore-episode/feed/ 8 Budour National Museum of Singapore Food #03 Singapore pizza at food #03 chocolate crepe and max brenner band by the bay singapore thai food singapore http://theovenexperiments.com/2010/01/30/singapore-episode-7/ http://theovenexperiments.com/2010/01/30/singapore-episode-7/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:07:48 +0000 Budour http://theovenexperiments.com/?p=537 ]]> Today’s choice of food was uninteresting!

I didn’t have breakfast because I forgot to put the alarm and of course overslept. I rushed to the museum and worked half day. After resting a little bit back at the hotel. I got ready and left to go swimsuit shopping. The weather channel website lied to me. It told me that it will be raining every day, all day. It rained twice. First time you can’t even consider it as rain and the second time was today for 5 minutes. It’s usually partly cloudy and hot and humid, perfect weather for pool!

Anyway, I went to a specific mall looking for a specific store, I couldn’t find what I was looking for and then I realized I still haven’t eaten. My options were fine dining restaurants that were actually closed, so not really an option, or a place called The Coffee Club. I see it everywhere!

So Coffee Club it was. I didn’t want to walk more, it was already 3:30pm.

As I was waiting to be seated, I was hoping, for some reason, that they had fish and chips on their menu. Well they did!

It wasn’t so bad, at least it satisfied a craving.

After that I walked a bit and arrived to the hotel exhausted. I was planning on going to Max Brenner and indulge in some chocolate but I just couldn’t. I needed to rest.

I had nothing planned for tonight so I booked a ticket to go see the movie, Brothers. I booked at another cinema complex. The crowd was very different from the one last night. It was much younger and more chaotic, I suppose. Around the complex, I saw at least two musical performances on the street. The entire place was very alive!

I arrived there an hour early so I sat in one of the outdoor cafes.

I ordered a salmon and cream cheese bagel and sat to see the live band performances.

The bagel was the worst I’ve had. It was terrible! I couldn’t even finish it! I stupidly agreed for them to heat it. I thought they were going to toast it but I am pretty sure they just microwaved it, very high and longer than needed. It was hot, doughy and tasteless!

But then I had popcorn at the theatre, so it wasn’t so bad.

Tomorrow is my only day off this week so I have planned a schedule for me, which hopefully will include this place!

We’ll see tomorrow…

We tried the Indian this time.

I placed my order…

White rice with Dhal, accompanied with a cabbage dry curry and eggplant pickle

It was a very good meal. I personally prefer black dhal over the yellow one but it was good nonetheless. Also, the eggplant pickle went perfectly with the the rest of the meal. I still think the Malay one was much, much better and the flavors were much more exciting. This was just average Indian food.

After finishing off from the museum today, I went back to the hotel, searched for a movie and took off! I was quite hungry by the time I arrived to the cinema, which is located at the Cathay Building. I had about an hour to kill so I went over to Caramel and ordered their tonight’s special, cheese soufflé with cream sauce.

Quite a satisfying meal.

I watched Everybody’s Fine. I thought it was going to be a silly, happy movie but I was wrong, VERY wrong. I left sobbing with a heavy weight on my chest. This is not what I wanted! But it is still a very good movie. So if you want to go cry, go see it!

]]> http://theovenexperiments.com/2010/01/29/singapore-episode-6/feed/ 0 Budour indian cheese souffle at Caramel http://theovenexperiments.com/2010/01/28/singapore-episode-5/ http://theovenexperiments.com/2010/01/28/singapore-episode-5/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:26:06 +0000 Budour http://theovenexperiments.com/?p=527 ]]> Day 5: Started work at the museum after brunch (an egg sandwich from Toast)

After leaving the museum, I went straight to Orchard Road to buy a few things I needed. After doing my shopping at ION Orchard mall, I decided to have dinner at The Marmalade Pantry.

I ordered a spicy tomato sauce with beans

Very comforting after my (beauty products) shopping spree and very delicious!

Then for my main meal, I had grilled to perfection salmon accompanied with a cold noodle salad.

As I was heading to the metro station, conveniently located in that same mall,  I passed by TWG tea salon, which I recognized from the tea bags we get complimentary in the hotel room. They had a display of French pastries, all infused with their tea.

I asked for a box of tea-infused macarons, which I’m currently enjoying with TWG’s jasmine tea.

I can’t wait until my parents get here so I can explore Chinatown, especially that the Chinese New Year is on the way, Arab Street and Little India!

I basically had breakfast on the run because I woke up late, not that the hotel’s breakfast is anything to look forward to.

For lunch, I wanted to try a sandwich/soup/salad place next to where all the banks are (very close to my hotel and the museum).

So I went there…

And had this…

Grilled vegetable sandwich. It was good, nothing spectacular.

After finishing my sandwich, the weather was beautiful, so I decided to take a lemon cupcake and put my lime juice in a plastic cup and sit outside with all those bankers.

After finishing our work at the museum at 5pm, the weather was getting hotter and stickier. We saw the ice cream vendor. I see them all the time but never got the courage to actually get ice cream from there. My DAI team members went straight to the ice cream man and I asked for chocolate.

He cuts them in thick rectangular slices and sandwiches them between two wafers, and sometimes bread!

I went back to the hotel and never left. I ordered room service.

And this is what I ordered…

Mushroom risotto. And again it wasn’t anything spectacular..

I guess you can’t always have exciting food discoveries every day…