elb's hovel of thoughts

Saturday, August 25, 2007

This Wendy Cheng Xia Xue?

Not sure if it is at all, since I don't follow her (literally or literary). The only thing I remember was some scuffle with certain Malaysian bloggers about comments over something (toilets, if I remember) some time back.

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Shot somewhere along Orchard Road at some random day at some random time.

From what I remember, she had quite a following, of both people who adore and loathe her. Surely one of the fanboys(girls) can enlighten me?

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Restaurant Din Tai Fung

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This particular branch of Din Tai Fung was located in the lower level of Raffles City, Singapore.

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Shot of the kitchen area

Famished after a long day of walking around, I ordered:

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Beef brisket ($10) noodles. Had quite a bit of flavour and this filled my hungry stomach.

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Xiao Long Bao ($6?). Not too bad.

Din Tai Fung
Various Locations (Raffles City)
Various Countries (Singapore)

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

African Cuisine @ Addis

We ate here one evening.
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Salt and pepper and something else shakers.

A view of the inside
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We called for injera (Ethiopian bread). Sounded good, but in reality it tastes more like sour apam.
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Our tilapia fish soon arrived. It was just that: a deep fried fish. No discernable spices, no sauces, no nothing else. Needless to say, it was pretty low on taste.
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The Ethiopian way of eating communally: add the food (lamb curry introduced at this point) on top of the injera and tear off your portion.
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Verdict: Overall, the food was rather bland; the lamb curry had kick but little flavour, the fish appeared to be tossed straight into oil with no prior or subsequent seasoning of any kind, add both of that to the predominantly sourish injera, and you don't quite have a winner....

42 Caledonian Road
London
N1 9DT
United Kingdom

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Bakezin

I paid Bakezin a long overdue visit.

Cold chocolate drink with mint.
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Mush the mint leaves and drink.

No better way than to fill the stomach with a light dish of escargots with asparagus.
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We also sampled their spaghetti with ham. This dish (no photo available) did not impress.

However, I still do believe that Bakezin is all about the desserts. Nothing more so than this interesting take on strawberry cheesecake reinforces it:
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Cheese ice cream with strawberries and shortbread. Its been a few years since I last had this, and I still found it fascinating (as did my partner)!

Note: This post is a mash of more than one visit.

Bakezin
Multiple Locations
Malaysia

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Saturday, August 04, 2007

Ristorante Italiannies

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The fantastic bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip.
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Spinach and Artichoke Fromaggio
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Mushroom Soup
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Stuffed mushrooms. By the time this dish was eaten, we were stuffed, no thanks especially to the delicious bread. And we had 3 main dishes to come....
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Beef Lasagne
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Spaghetti with Deep Fried Chicken Cutlet
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Seafood Cioppino
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Overall verdict: The food is not authentic Italian, but on the other hand, seems targeted at the stereotype of Italian food: full of cloying cheese and tomato puree, and with rather American-sized portions. Good for the occassional visit; the cloying cheese would probably get you tired of this place rather quickly (hardcore 'cheese' fans: you have absolutely no idea what cheese really is if all you seem to eat are commercialised parmesan and mozarella).

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