21 on Rajah

Hello everyone!

I love May. Firstly, because it's the school holidays for me and it's the month of my best friend's birthday! Since it was her 21st birthday, we wanted to have a lunch buffet and after researching we decided on 21 on Rajah. The place received really good reviews and for the price of $32++ for lunch buffet on a Saturday seemed reasonable considering all the positive reviews.

Living in the NorthEast side, I must say it was a little inconvenient for me to travel all the way to Jalan Rajah. Nevertheless we were all excited to try the much talked about restaurant. When we first arrived, it wasn't so hard to locate the place as it was rather prominent from the bus stop near Moulmein CC. 

When we arrived I cannot deny how much I loved the interior, it was decorated in white tiles and bird cages were hanging from the top (how cute!). I wish I had taken a picture of the interior to show you guys. The place was big and it was able to accommodate really large groups. I was hoping that a large space will also be catered to display their food and I have to say I was really disappointed with the variety of food they had. Let me take you guys through what they really had on that day.

Cold Seafood Section - Prawns and Mussels

You can accompany the seafood with any of the 3 sauces available. They had garlic Garlic Salsa, Wasabi Mayo and Tomato Coriander Chilli Salsa. I went with the Garlic Salsa and some lemon as I am not a big fan of wasabi and I wanted something light.

I must say the seafood was really fresh and juicy. I was going back for multiple helpings because this was the best thing they had for that day.

4 types of Sushi

My hopes of eating some salmon that day was dashed. I love sushi and this was definitely not the best I've eaten but it was decent. The inari sushi and California sushi was not too bad. 

Salad Section

The ham used in the salad was very fresh and the cherry tomatoes were a delight to my taste buds. 

"Did you come here to eat tomatoes?" (Roslina, 2014)

But the cherry tomatoes were really yummy. They also had a DIY salad station where you could mix rocket leaves, romaine leaves and a few stuff with any sauce of your choice. 

Roasted Carrot and Baby Potato

I liked this dish but then again, how can anyone dislike potatoes. PLUS IT'S ROASTED MINI POTATOES.

Oven Baked Boneless Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

They also had Lamb Stew, Garlic Sautéed Asparagus and Baby Carrots, (Bland) Mac and Cheese, Sweet and Sour Fish, White Rice, (Unseasoned) Fish and Malay Style Mee Goreng which I did not get a picture of. 

Dessert Section

We decided to take the desserts last but this was what was left. I really wanted to try the Tiramisu but sadly it was all gone within an hour. I have high expectations for desserts (I secretly blame my family members for spoiling my taste buds with fantastic desserts). But this was nowhere near meeting my expectations. The Ondeh-Ondeh was really thick which did not give enough room for the gula melaka syrup. The Carrot Cake was so dry. The Panna Cotta lacked flavour and the chocolate syrup overpowered the taste. The jelly (Agar-Agar) was too sweet. 

"Even my worse attempt on agar-agar would taste better than this" (Roslina, 2014) 

The cheesecake and black forest cake was pleasant but not enough to salvage my opinion on the desserts. They also had a fruit section where you can select from 3 different fruits.

Nazreen baked a cake for Roslina and it tasted better than the desserts that they had on that day. 

Side note: Nazreen has her own business so do check her out. She has cakes, cupcakes and brownies (TRY HER BROWNIE)

Instagram: @nazspasteleria

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nazspasteleria

The total bill came up to $112 for 3 people and DBS/POSB card holders were entitled to 15% discount. Overall, I was greatly disappointed with my experience with 21 on Rajah. They did have really fresh seafood and salad but the other food were of average standard. One would expect to have a wider range especially during a weekend but I guess I should not have dined in with such high expectations. 

"I am not full, but I do not know what to eat anymore." (Roslina, 2014) 

Roslina does not have a very big appetite and for her to say this just shows the lack of variety they offered.

The menu does rotate and perhaps some other day you may get better dishes but judging from my experience I am not very sure. 

For $32 it was definitely not value for money and it will probably be my last time here. This is just my opinion and preferences vary. If you would like to patronise them someday, the venue is below. If you are going in big groups or going on a weekend it is safer to make a reservation. You might want to consider going for dinner instead of lunch since most of the positive reviews came from Dinner experience.

Venue

Days Hotel At Zhongshan Park

1 Jalan Rajah

Tel: 68086868

www.dayshotelsingapore.com

Operating Hours: Weekdays

Breakfast - 6.00am til 10.30am

Lunch - 12.00pm til 2.30pm

Dinner - 6.00pm til 10.30pm

Operating Hours: Weekends

Breakfast - 6.00am til 11.00am

Lunch - 12.00pm til 3.00pm

Dinner - 6.00pm til 11.00pm

https://www.facebook.com/21onRajah

Comment down below if you have visited 21 on Rajah and had a different experience from me!

Till then, have a nice day!

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Jai Siam, Halal Thai Food Corner

Hello everyone!

It's June and GSS is everywhere which is the perfect time to go shop for all the items you've been eyeing for quite sometime now, myself included. I've been waiting for the big sale especially at H&M to get myself pretty printed pants which has been in my shopping list for a long time.

I met Roslina and Nazreen to shop at town. Since we were going to shop we decided to dine in somewhere affordable. It is rather hard to find cheap and quality food places that are halal in town but there is a small corner in Dhoby Xchange where you can find halal Thai Food called Jai Siam or Jai Thai.

I have been there a few times and I've been wanting to write about it but I didn't have enough pictures at that time. Now that I do, please refrain from staring at the photos if you are starving right now because I have done that many times and it is not fun.

Just a little information on this food corner, majority of the staff there are Thai. I found out from the accent and the service really good. For those muslims who have difficulties finding Halal food places which only sells Thai Food, this is a place you would want to visit.

This is part of their menu. They have individual set meal that comes with a main course, drink and a small dessert. They also have family set lunch where dishes are already preset. I find set meals so much easier because it definitely makes ordering faster.

For starters, you can consider getting this Mixed Platter which comes in 3 different sizes. This is the small one which costs $7. It consists of fried tofu, prawn cake, fried fish bites, spring roll which is served with the sweet and spicy Thai chili sauce.

Drinks comes with the set meal. I would recommend the lime juice. But I love the Thai Ice Milk Tea which you can get if you top up $1.50. Do not get mixed up with the Thai Ice Lemon Tea because I tried it once and it was a huge mistake.

I love this Pad Thai Dish. It is basically Thai noodle served with seafood, tofu, beansprouts and peanuts. Thai Food are generally spicy and if you cannot take the heat, try this dish because contrary to most Thai dishes the spice is this one is very mild.

I tried my first Green Curry dish at this place and I absolutely love this. For the set meal you can only choose the chicken but it comes with beef. It has the right amount of spice and richness and went so well with the white rice. If you are someone who can't take the heat, request for less chili. You can choose to have it either with the noodles or rice but I would recommend eating this with rice.

They have 2 types of Tom Yam soup. This is the clear based soup.

This is the chili based soup. Just like the green curry, you can choose to have this either with the rice or noodles.

This is the small dessert that comes with the set meal. Usually it is coconut jelly but it depends on what they have on that day.

Mango Glutinous Rice is one thing you must have when you go to Thailand. The last time I went to Thailand was ages ago and I can't remember eating this (kill me now). For someone who hasn't eaten this dish from where it was originated, I enjoyed eating this. But Roslina said it was okay compared to the one she had BKK. Once you have tried the best it is very difficult to match up to that standard.

As someone who pays frequent visit to this place, I must say they have tried their best to maintain the standard of the service and quality of food. If you decide to drop by do make a call because if I am not wrong on weekdays they are not open from 3pm - 6pm at Dhoby Xchange (not too sure about the other outlets). I would definitely recommend this place to my friends.

Check out their website for more information on their outlets, menu and even catering services.

I mentioned earlier that we were so excited to get our printed pants from H&M but sadly they are no longer available. It was so disappointing, so Nazreen treated us to Cold Stone at 313 (yay!). Plus the weather is being so mean we had to treat ourselves with something.

Just some unrelated pictures of ourselves. Take care everyone, the weather is so bad so drink up lots of water and try to stay indoors as much as possible. There are so many fun ways to spend your time wisely at home and I'll tell you how on my next post. So stay tuned!

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Pancakes Recipe

Hello Guys!

Lately, I've not been so busy with work and tuition because most schools just ended their exams and are about to go on 1 month holiday! Which means, I am sitting at home and trying my best not to get fat. As much as I am proud of myself restraining from the super good food, I always remember to treat myself with something nice. Besides, I have taken a liking to baking/cooking and love how it turns out on camera. I should put it more effort into the photography because I just indulge once I snap with my iPhone. 

Anyway, today I wanted to show you a pancake recipe. My family members and I have tried a few recipes and I finally found the pancakes that I really love. (FAT AND FLUFFY). Enough of all the talking, I found this recipe on YouTube months back and it is the best recipe I have found so far. It's really easy to make so don't waste your money buying the ready-mix one.

  

INGREDIENTS

3 Eggs

600 ml Milk

450g Self Raising Flour

170g Sugar

3 tsp Baking Powder 

PROCESS 

1. Break the eggs in a large bowl and pour the milk into the eggs. Whisk them together.

2. Add the dry ingredients (Flour, Sugar and Baking powder) and whisk them together.

3. Leave the batter to rise for about an hour. Then use a large spoon and beat the batter to a thick dropping consistency. If think that it is too thick you can add a splash of milk.

*my batter did not rise up like how it was shown on the video but it still turned out great!

4. Heat a large frying pan or griddle on a medium heat. Wrap a piece of butter on a paper towel and grease the pan.

5. Turn the heat up and use the spoon to dollop the  batter onto the pan. Leave the pancakes to cook until bubbles appear and the edges look dull. Then flip them. Leave them to cook on the other side for about 2-3 minutes.

6. Serve them with your favourite topping! Or you can even eat it on its own.

The recipe said that you can get about 20 pancakes but I got about 30 probably because it was smaller in size. I topped it with Peanut Butter Chocolate Sauce, Maple Syrup and some almonds.

You can substitute self-raising flour with plain flour but it won't be as fat as you can see from the picture above but it will still tastes great. You can even freeze it and just heat it up whenever you feel like having them because I know it can be chore to make pancakes every time you crave them. Have fun and enjoy some pancakes! 

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Riverwalk Tandoor, Landmark Village Hotel

Hello everyone! I feel so guilty for not updating this blog as regularly as I wanted to. To be honest, there are lots of things I want to share but due to the lack of good quality photographs I had to delay my posts (yes, I know it's not a very good reason)

Back to topic, it was my bestfriend Roslina's 20th birthday and we wanted to celebrate somewhere nice. Without fail, I usually go for buffet whenever there's a celebration. That being said, we did go for a lunch buffet at Riverwalk Tandoor. If you have not heard of this restaurant, just a quick background information. From the name "Tandoor" you would be able to tell it's a North Indian Buffet. They have a total of 4 outlets (click on the link for more information). We decided to go to Landmark Village Hotel which is located opposite Raffles Hospital at Victoria Street, mainly because Nazreen had been there before. The restaurant is not halal-certified because they serve alcoholic drinks upon request but their ingredients used are halal so not to worry!

Just a few irrelevant snapshots of us.

It is located on the 5th level of the building and it has both an outdoor and indoor setting. I love how it looks classy and posh inside.

They did not have a wide selection of items, but they had the common North Indian Dishes. 

Our spread for round 1. We wanted to taste in small amounts before selecting our favourite dishes to have with the naan. (yummy!)

I was pleasantly surprised that they had mushroom soup in the appetizer and salad corner. I was definitely excited because I absolutely love mushrooms and it is always nice to start with soup. But I was rather disappointed with this dish because the garlic in the soup was overpowering and the soup watery for my liking. Always stick to Indian dishes in an Indian Buffet. 

When you go to a North Indian restaurant, you cannot leave without eating the naan. Garlic and Butter naan are my favourite type of naans but this one was not great but it was nice and went really well with the dishes. From the visible oil you can tell it is hot from the kitchen.

Everything on this plate was an absolute delight. Eat it either with the rice or naan because it can get a tiny bit salty as you slowly fill your tummy. As an Indian myself I should be accustomed to the amount of salt they use in dishes, but too much is never good.

I expected the garlic fish to have an overpowering garlic taste but to my surprise, it tasted really nice with the naan and the saffron rice. They had used a boneless fish fillet and the sauce was neither too thick nor too watery. The mutton has got to be one of my favourites. I love mutton and it had the right amount of spices and the meat was really tender. As much as I love this version, I still think my mum's mutton dishes are the best. hahaha

The tandoori chicken was a slight disappointment. It was dry and not fresh because I could taste the meaty taste (blame it on my sensitive taste buds) but it was not too bad if you dip it in the mint sauce.

Credits to Roslina for this pretty picture. Photoception? *winks*

Finally, the dessert section. These were the 3 items that they had. It was so refreshing to have really sweet watermelon especially on a hot day. The Gulab Jamun was really sweet and I would prefer it to be softer.  I don't enjoy rice puddings, always thought it was weird and this version didn't change my mind. But Roslina and Nazreen liked it. 

That's an irrelevant picture of me trying pose. hahaha, ...

This is the outdoor setting which and I am sure it will look amazing if you were to come for dinner.

It even has a pool! Awwww, can you imagine how romantic it will be at night? 

The total bill came up to about $52.60 for 3 people. Overall, it was a good experience in Riverwalk Tandoor and the service was excellent, something that I am particular about. The food quality and taste was reasonable for the price we paid. Plus, the ambiance looked posh for the amount that we had paid. One downside was that the food was not warm enough. Nonetheless, If you're looking for a cheap North Indian Buffet, Riverwalk Tandoor is the place for you. 

*They do offer catering services. I first heard about them from my aunt because her workplace had ordered from them for Deepavali Celebrations.

Website: http://www.riverwalktandoor.com.sg

It's always great to hang out with these girls. I tried out something new for Roslina's birthday. She said "NO GIFTS" so I made a little something which I am so excited to show you guys. I hope you will check this page regularly even though I take ages to update. Have great day guys!

PS: Most of the photos were taken using Roslina's Canon DSLR, can't remember the model. It made me want to use mine. I've been neglecting my Nikon D3100 for a while now. booo me.

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The Chicken Rice Shop

Hello everyone! It's been almost a month since my last post and it feels so good to be back. Well, I didn't have a proper job so I tried my best not to go out and spend money. Plus my mum is one great cook, can't bear to dine out. My sister's birthday just passed a few weeks back and we went to Sofra for a good lunch. (Check out my review by clicking the link)

That being said, now I finally got a decent job as a relief teacher and I also got a few students to tutor so my holidays are rather meaningful. More importantly, I can treat myself to good food with really awesome company. So last Friday, Roslina and I went to have lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop at Vivocity. It was my first time there but Roslina was telling me that the place served really nice food with excellent service which was what we needed with our stomach growling. Some background information: The Chicken Rice Shop is a Malaysian company which has originally started in Malaysia. Now it has franchises in Malaysia as well as abroad such as Singapore, Philippines and Taiwan.

One good thing I like about this shop is that they have preset meals to choose from. In our case they 3 different sets to choose from. When asked for recommendations, the staff kindly shared his opinions and we went for the Set B (Priced $25.90nett) which introduced their new chicken, "Ayam Sodap Belado" which will be further shared in the post.

Photos were all captured with my iPhone 4S and blame my tummy for the poor photography skills. I couldn't wait to dig in so that explains why my pictures didn't turn out as well. Another thing I like about this restaurant is that they serve all the dishes together so you can enjoy the meal without having to wait for the other dishes. The picture shown above was our spread for two.

The rice was fragrant and had nice flavors. I have tasted rice which has an overpowering ginger and garlic taste but this was to my liking. We were served with the chilli as well as some ginger paste. The chilli was not too spicy and went well with the other dishes. I am not a fan of ginger so I did not like it but Roslina said it was nice.

We chose the Roasted Chicken over the steamed one and the chicken was tender and the sauce was light. Nothing special about this chicken but it was well made.

This is the Ayam Sodap Belado. We were told this was rather new and as a chilli lover I absolutely loved this dish. It had a bit of a sourish spicy taste which I didn't mind at all. Plus the chicken meat was really tender and soft.

I am sure most people are familiar with this dish, Pak Choy with Oyster Sauce. It was nice having some greens along with the other fattening food. I loved this. The greens were not overcooked which is plus and the sauce complemented the chicken rice dish. It tasted good just by itself as well.

This is called the Pai Tee which I found it rather interesting. I am sure everyone has tried the popiah. This was another version of it. They had the radish and carrot filling stuffed in a crispy pastry topped with crushed peanuts. Although it was quite big, we were able to fit the whole thing into our mouths. It was a nice twist to the normal popiah you find in coffee shops or food kiosks.

We were also served some fishball soup which I did not really like it because the taste of the fishball was really fishy. Yes, it might sound lame cause after all it is FISHball. But in defence, I have tasted my mum's fishball soup and never once it has tasted fishy.

Overall, this place filled our empty stomach and we even had to force ourselves to finish the food so that we won't waste them. I am rather particular about service and this restaurant provided us excellent service as they will check with us how our food was and if we needed anything else. I was really surprised that we only had to pay $25.90 because the set meals were already inclusive of GST and service charge with was another plus point from me. We spent about $13 per person. I would definitely visit this place again and it's HALAL.

The Chicken Rice Shop

Vivocity

1 Harbourfront Walk

#B2-37

Singapore 098585

Tel/Fax: 02-6376 9388

OR (another outlet)

Causeway Point

Woodlands Square

#B1-16

Singapore 738099

Website: http://www.thechickenriceshop.com

We were so full afterwards we went to my favorite coffee place Starbucks to redeem my free coffee (yay!) and chill. The place I was sitting at seemed to be emitting too much light which explains my white face.

PS: I made some fudge brownies today and they were really good so I will share it in the next post. Stay tuned! 

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