The Fault in Our Stars Movie Review

Photo from Imbd

Well, this movie is quite a topic now all over the social medias. The novel was a top selling hit too.

I didn't know about this movie, till my sister came telling me that how touching this movie, and had made a lot of people cried in cinemas. She even came telling me that her friend brought with her a box of tissues, and it wasn't enough for her.

So yesterday, we decided to catch this movie together at 11pm, and my sister really brought along with her a big pack of tissues.

Honestly, i have no comments on this show. It is just a typical romance story. The tears that i had came from my yawning, and somehow in this movie, i had forced myself to be awake. My sister too. After the movie, she was ranting that it is not worth the watch, and she said that the only 1 piece of tissue she used was to dig her nose out of boredom.

Personally i think the reason that this movie didn't move me because their love story was too short to make me feel their deep love, so after they had went their separate ways, it didn't hit me and make me cry.

Probably i should read the novel, novel always turns out to be better than movies.

To watch or not to watch? I recommend to watch on line than in cinemas. :D

The French Table

How about a French Cuisine at an affordable rate?

The French Table is a newly open restaurant locate at West Coast Plaza. It has quite a good ambience, being located at the end of a row of eating shops. The items on the menu was fairly reasonable. I was catching a quick lunch over there and i think it is worth a post. I ordered their lunch set meal, which i think it is worth all the price.

The set menu consist of a drink, a soup and a main at only $12.90++.

You can see how thick my iced lemon tea is. The tea don't really taste like those syrup made kind of tea, it is full of lemon tea flavours.

Mushroom Soup

This is the best mushroom soup i ever had. The soup that has a very rich flavour of mushroom, and bread crumbs added on it. This soup tasted so authentic that you won't doubt if there is any mushroom in it. But this soup must be consumed when it is hot, otherwise it tasted a bit sick when it turns cold.

Fish and Chips

 I ordered fish and chips as my main. The fries were remained crispy, despite having it as the last portion on my plate, but it is still just french fries.
Sadly i didn't finish up my fish, eating only 1 slice of the fish, because it was a little too salty for me. Probably the marination of the fish was overly done with salt.

Chocolate Mousse- Dessert

You are able to add a $3++ to the main course for a dessert. The dessert of the day was chocolate mousse with vanilla ice cream. Desserts are my favourite! This dessert comprises of dark chocolate mousse, vanilla ice cream and some crumbs on top. Well, i would say this is good for the price. :D

I will still visit The French Table again for their food. Because the money i am paying is worth on what's going into my mouth!

Ratings:
Food: 3.8 / 5.0
Ambience: 4.0 / 5.0
Service: 4.5 / 5.0
Price: $$ - $$$

Address:
154 West Coast Road,
#02-26 West Coast Plaza
Singapore 127371
No Reservations are Required.

Portico - 5th Year Anniversary

It was our 5th dating year together yesterday. Chosen a newly opened restaurant - Portico, located at Alexandra Road.

This restaurant location is a little bit off site from where usual crowds would be like Holland Village, Club Street, Tanjong Pagar etc. But it's location is quite convenient where MRT(Labrador MRT) is just less than 1km away.

Portico is serving fine dining food in a reasonable and affordable price, not those kind that the plates come with 1 prawn and it gonna cost you $100.

Setting of Portico 

The ambience was comfortable, you don't feel tense up like how you are in a fine dining restaurant, afraid of the noise coming up from the brushing of utensils. This place is a good place for friends to hand out too.

Foie Gras with Bread and Tomato Sauce

This was a complimentary dish from the kitchen. I had a bad experience with foie gras before, and it really took me some courage to try this appertiser. The ones that i had previously was so awful that i couldn't swallow, and hoping to spit out immediately (Do not wish to name that restaurant, quite famous in Singapore). This, was different, though i still don't enjoy much of the taste, but it doesn't have the foul taste that i had the other time. Going with the bread and tomato sauce was kind of interesting.

Fish and Chips with Mint Peas

Beef with Pear and Mashed Potatoes

The fish was my main and the beef was my boyf's main. It was good, but i really don't like the minty peas. Other than that, everything was really good. :D

Dessert

Before ending, we ordered a dessert to share as we were kind of full. This raspberry dessert was nice, the white shattered parts were actually meringues, and it goes so well with the raspberry sorbet. OMG, THIS IS GOOD. 2 THUMBS UP. The meringues were not too sweet, so the ice cream complements the meringues, not forgetting the white chocolate mousse there too.

Blueberry Cheesecake

This was a surprise. The chef had done this for us. Isn't that very sweet of the staffs over there?

This is definitely a place i would recommend to all, whether you are a local or tourist, visit this place, with amazing and friendly staffs, they will brighten your day and shine your nights.

Ratings:
Food: 4.0 / 5.0
Ambience: 4.5 / 5.0
Service: 4.5 / 5.0
Price: $$$ - $$$$

Address:
991B Alexandra Road
#01-10
Singapore 119970
No reservations is required, but if you are afraid of weekends disappointment, best is you book a table. :D

Maple and Market

 

 

Yesterday went out with my poly classmates after our last meeting a year plus ago.

JS had suggested a place called "Maple & Market" which is also my first time hearing this little bakery café. It is located at Cassia Street, near to Dakota MRT, only a few minutes walk from the MRT. This small bakery café is situated at the ground level of HDB blocks, which I didn't expect that at first.

The place is small with only 3 tables, that's why I called it a "small" bakery café. But inside, the ambience and setting of the place was sweet and cosy, which makes me feel very comfortable sitting in there. They have a shelf which consist of bakery books which you can browse through them while having your meals there.

The book shelf that sells some paper market stuffs like birthday cards, craft papers etc.

 



Their menu for buttermilk waffles

100g Parma Ham

Biscuit to be served with the Parma Ham

Caramalised Banana Buttermilk Waffle

Fruity Buttermilk Waffle

I would say, if I am going to this bakery shop for the second visit, it would be the waffle.  The waffle was light and fluffy, and tasted great.


Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

Maple and Bacon

 The peanut butter chocolate cake has no much peanut butter taste. More of like cream cheese with peanut butter scent, which makes the whole cake tasted disgusting. Mine was the chocolate cake. The cake was dry, the chocolate ganache was so thick, thicker than the cake layer itself. And the consistency was so bad that I thought I might be some brown play dough sticking on top of my cake.

Out of the 3 dessert, the most unappeasing was the maple and bacon, but it had the best taste among the 3 dessert. The cake consist of cinnamon, and together with the bacon and some maple syrup it actually tasted quite well.

I won't order their cakes anymore. It doesn't cost cheap either.

Our desserts
Photo credits: JS

Our Waffles
Photo Credits: JS

 



Location: 34 Cassia Street, #01-82, S(390032)
Website: http://mapleandmarket.com
Opening Hours:
Mon: 12pm-8pm
Wed-Fri: 12pm-9pm
Sat: 10.30am-10pm
Sun: 10.30am-9pm
Closed on every Tuesday.

Ratings:
Ambience: 4.0/5.0
Food: 3.0/5.0
Service: 3.5/5.0

Recommended for small friends gathering. (:

Gusto Italiano 2014 at Etna Italian Restaurant

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend an evening dinner given by Sphere Exhibits (Subsidiary of SPH) to Etna Italian Restaurant for a gastronomy dinner. My younger sister, Zoella, accompanied me to this dinner, and to say we both had really enjoyed ourselves there.

Etna Italian Restaurant is located at Duxton Road, where you can find rows of restaurants and bar around that area. The group executive chef was Chef Anna Borassi, the first and only female Italian chef in Singapore. She is a very friendly lady, and the way she talks to you just make you feel like you've known her for long.

Let me start off with the dishes. First they had canapés, which I didn't get a chance to photo them down. It has 3 selections, but I got to eat one of the choices only.

Main page of the event dinner menu

Menu for dinner and the wine paired for each selection

Red Snapper Bite with Warm Vegetable Carpione
Wine Paired: 2010 Falanghina, DOC

 This fish was fresh, and the sweetness of the fish goes well with the vegetable carpione. The vegetable carpione sounded so "atas". To me, the taste was similar to "Acar", or mixed pickled vegetables.

Home made biscuit by Chef Anna Borassi

This was a side dish not stated in the menu. It is a homemade biscuit by Chef Anna herself. It's not sugar at the top, but salt. The saltiness makes me want to eat more, but overall the biscuit taste is considered average.

Seared Tuna Loin with Fennel Dust, Celery Heart Salad
Wine Paired: 2010 Fiano di  Avellio, DOCG

Next was Seared Tuna. Cooked at the top, raw in the middle. I am not a sashimi lover, so this tuna wasn't in my favourite list. Zoella is a sashimi lover, and based on her reviews she said that this was good, the rasins and celery makes a good complement to the tuna.

Cannellini Beans Soup, Sage Roasted Prawn, Crispy Pancetta
Wine Paired: 2009 Greco di Tufo' DOCG

This soup was really appeasing!! The soup tasted like potato soup, and the roasted prawns give out a sweet touch to the soup, and the pancetta tasted like Chinese fried onions, which also enhance the taste of the soup. Looking at this picture is making me salivate again.

Garganelli Pasta, Porck Cheese Ragout, 24 months cured Parmigiano Reggiano, Fresh Rosemary
Wine Paired: 2005 Aglianico, DOC

 

This plate of garganelli had a very difference taste from the pasta you had outside. The pork was very tender, and the cheese had this salty taste and I would say this is a good dish! I finished them ALL.

"Menu" Black Olives Crusted Lamb Rack, Olive Oil, Whipped Potatoes, Red Onion Jam
Wine Paired: 2005 Taurasi Riversa, DOCG

This dish. This dish. Almost all made up of something that I don't like. Lamb. Olives. The potato was fine, the red onion was sweet though. I can't really take the taste and smell of lamb meat. But out of all the lamb meat that I have tasted or smelled, this was the best from all I have had. The lamb meat wasn't that strong(I am not saying that totally have no lamb meat taste, a minor smell is still there but not as strong as it is) and I had to eat it with the red onions and whipped potatoes to cover the taste away. After finishing up the potatoes, I passed it to my sister to finish up for me. :X

Etna Signature Pistachio Scented Tiramisu
Offered Liqueur: Galliano Ristretto (Coffee Liqueur)

This was the last dish, which is also the dessert served. By it's name, I guess you can tell that it will be a good dish with the "Signature" word as the name of the dessert. YES, THIS IS VERY AWESOME!!! It has a coffee taste, and also there is this greeny paste in the middle which I think is the pistachio paste, and this dessert gave me a shock. I didn't know that pistachio dessert can taste so good! I think I shall try to make this on my own.

Overall, I had a very good experience at Etna Italian  Restaurant. I supposed if this dinner was good, their daily menu should be good too. A passionate chef will whipped up a delicious meal at all time. I will try their menu some day. (:

Bad Neighbours & Nihon Sushi Express Review

It's a MONDAY! The most dreadful day of the week huh?

After work, had a movie session with Zoella (My little sister).

Bad Neighbours Poster
Picture adapted from: Movie Hole

Our movie tickets! Bought with NTUC card at $7 per ticket only!

Bad neighbours is a R21 show, and yes, there are some nudity and obscene scenes just right at the beginning of the show. This show is a good show to watch (not with your kids please), almost laughing through the entire show. Zac Efron is becoming hotter than he was in high school musical! And, this baby simply melts the girls in the cinema than Zac Efron did.

TADAH! The cute little baby that melts the heart of almost half of the girls in cinema.
Picture adapted from: Daily Mail

If you haven't watch the trailer, here you go:

Sadly, the toilet scene got cut off in the cinema. Personal rating: 4 stars out of 5 stars if you are a comedy lover. :D

Next would be a short review on my experience to the Nihon Sushi Express at Cineleisure. It was kind of bad for the service.

Nihon Mura 

Sashimi - Salmon

Tuna Mayo Sushi

Unagi Sushi

Tamago Sushi

Salmon Mentai Sushi

Nihon Sushi Express is located at B1 of Cineleisure. Every plate serve there cost $1.50. Cheap huh? If you are looking for a lower quality sushi(as the price speaks), you may head down there for a meal. 

To me, it wasn't worth the cost. The rice was kind of hard, that makes swallowing difficult. The choices were kind of few. I really got disappointed of the service attitude over there. 

On my first moment at that place i got myself a plate of fried ebi sushi. It was kind of good, so i decided to order from the menu system, but i couldn't find this item on the electronic menu, and so i ask the staff to help me order a plate. After waiting for quite some time, i asked the same waiter again, and he told me that their Ebi (Prawns) ran out of stock and so it is not available! Fine, it goes. Flipping through the electronic system, i saw Fried Ebi as a side dish selection, and so i click to order to see if the Ebi is really out of stock. And after a few minutes, here came my piping hot Fried Ebi. Ermms?

I don't think i will go there the second time again, not even for it's cheap price, because i don't think the price is worth for what i am putting in my mouth, and not allowing myself to be treated with such staff service. But a small tip for you, if you are interested to give it a try, you might want to try their smoke duck and also their fried items. Because they will be serving you the really hot fried items right from their pot, and this is a good thing. :D

Rösti

What have you done over the weekends? For me, I've learnt to make Rösti! My first time eating Rösti was at Marche, Singapore.

Rösti is a Swiss dish, also known as the potato pancakes. It goes well with sausages, sour cream, ketchup sauce, chili sauce, and what ever toppings you would like to have it on your potatoes. Making this Rösti was as simple as it was shown in the Youtube videos, just that on my first attempt I missed out one very important step! WASH THE POTATOES AFTER SHREDDING!

I didn't shred my potatoes using the conventional method, I let the BOSCH Food Processor to do the job, it only took less than a minute to get my potatoes shredded. Since I was preparing earlier, I just kept these potatoes in the fridge. And holy, it turned pink?!?! I knew there was some oxidization taking place in the potatoes, so I didn't really bother about the color.

Melted my butter in the pan, and cooked the pink shredded potatoes, and the potatoes didn't brown, instead it turned black! EWWWW, the color was so aweful looking and it turned sticky after cooking them. It went right to the bin afterwards.

So, what's the correct way to maintain the nice yellow color looking of the potatoes? After shredding the potatoes, rinse them through the tap water, till the water runs clear. This is to remove the starch on the potatoes that cause them to turn pink. After rinsing, pat dry the potatoes so when you fry these potatoes, they will turned out crunchy, instead of serving a plate of soggy potatoes.

Chelle's Simple Rösti Recipe:
Serve: 1 person  Time: 20mins

Rösti with sour cream topping

Ingredients:
1. 2 potatoes, Shredded (I prefer using russet potaotes)
2. 1 knot of butter, melted in pan
3. Sour cream / Ketchup Sauce / Chili Sauce (Whatever toppings you would like)

Methods:
1. Peel and wash the potatoes, shred them and rinse till the water runs clear.
2. Melt butter in the saucepan and place shredded potatoes in the saucepan. (You may want to use a shallow saucepan, so that you could flip the Rösti more handy)
3. Fry till the potatoes are a little translucent and leave them o the saucepan to cook. Cook on low heat for 3mins till the base of the potatoes turned brown.
4. Use a plate, place on the potatoes and flip the saucepan over. (Please be careful because it can get really hot on the plate or the saucepan can be heavy for ladies, get a guy to help you with that if needed.)
5. Heat the other side of the potatoes for another 3mins.
6. Again, flip the Rösti on your serving plates, and top with your favourite toppings!
7. The most important step: ENJOY!

The video is by Celebrity Chef - Gordon Ramsay. Just want to show how you could flip the potatoes over if you do not understand what i'm trying to describe here in my post:

Chocolate Delice with Salted Caramel

Hi People,

Next i am going to post about the Chocolate Delice with Salted Caramel that i did last weekend for Mother's Day and also a farewell dessert for my parents as they are going China for a short getaway.

I didn't have the chance to snap shot my dessert as i was busy serving the salted caramel sauce because when it cooled down, it actually turns sticky which is hard for me to scoop them up onto my plate. By the time i've done that, they have started eating. And when everyone was commenting how good it taste, i couldn't help but to get it into my mouth, then i realised, PICTURES!! Too late.. Doesn't matter, cause there are always pictures floating around the internet.

Chocolate Delish with Salted Caramel
Picture adapted from Eamon Eats

Inside of the Chocolate Delice
Picture adapted from Eamon Eats

Well, for my dessert, i didn't go into the extra effort of doing the white chocolate on top and almonds around the ring of the dessert. Basically my white chocolate got burnt in the microwave, and the shop was out of stock for almonds flake. This look like a simple dessert, but OH NO, it really requires a lot of your time and patience. It took me 8 hours for it to be done and the mousse set, i have actually underestimated my timing.

Why this dessert, and why a lot of bakers online are making them? This is the dessert created by Eamon Sullivan, which also crowned him a celebrity Masterchef from Masterchef Australian 2009. This dessert is made with the assembling of crème brulee, a biscuit base, chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze, and tipped with a spoonful of salted caramel sauce. The salted caramel really do makes a difference in this dish. Hmmm.. But the process of making this the second time will make me pause for a second.

You could find the full and accurate recipe at Eamon Eats. It was said that the recipe uploaded on Masterchef website is missing on some details and steps which have caused failure in some areas.

For my dessert, i did not use any cake rings, because it is kind of expensive to buy them and keeping them can be quite space consume. So i used transparency sheets to cut them into my desired size, and i also used them to replace the cookie cutter mentioned in the recipe. It worked perfectly well!

I have made a printable version for this recipe so you can get handy at all times! Today it's a Friday, which makes tomorrow a Saturday! Probably you could make this over the weekends! T.G.I.F !!

  Chocolate Delice With Salted Caramel

Skinny Teatox

Been sometime since i last did my post!

This post will be a review on what I've been drinking for the past 2 months everyday and night. (Note: No products were being sponsored. Reviews are based on own experiences.)

Skinny Mint Teatox
Picture adapted from www.skinnymint.com

Well, these tea bags honestly, it don't cost cheap, estimated is SGD$60 for 28 days teatox. They have a unknown retailer in Singapore, received my parcel in 2 days after placing my orders online. Parcel came in 2 packets of 14 day teatox, which 14 + 14 makes it a 28days. YAA, MATHS. Cause initially i thought i was cheated because they have a packaging for 28 days, which i was expecting that package. MORON ME.

Back to topic, Each 14 day teatox bag consist of 14 bags of morning boost teabags and 7 bags of night cleanse. The morning boost taste like fruit tea, sweet smelling. The purpose is to boost your metabolism rate and consist a little caffeine, and this tea is advisable not to be consume after a certain timing as it might makes you stay awake for the night if you are a highly caffeine sensitive person like me. So i always take this tea in the morning with my breakfast.

The night cleanse is to cleanse the body and as mentioned by it's name, it's taken at night. Instead of taking this tea everyday, you are supposed to take this tea on alternate days. Mentioned on their leaflet tea can gives you diarrhoea after the bowel are cleanse, and usually this happen after 8 hours of drinking, depending on your body. Mine took half a day to get the bowel cleansed. I don't like the taste of the night cleanse tea bag, as it smelled funny and the taste of it sometimes leaves my mouth a bit minty and numb. Hmmm... Do anyone have this experience?

Overall, i think it is worth the buy. I know you don't have to buy Skinny Mint to make yourself skinny, we are saying the effectiveness of the product here. Whenever i eat something oily and sinful, drinking this tea somehow lessen my guilt towards the food i've eat, and also self-experience that this tea really does the job well by cleaning my bowels. AND, IT HELPS SOLVING MY BLOATED STOMACH EFFECTIVELY which happens whenever i skipped my meals due to work load.

I will be doing my next purchase again because it's totally the worth even the night tea tasted awful. :X

Food Blogging (2)

Another food review!

Yesterday was Uncle's Birthday and we decided to head down to Causeway Point Shopping Mall for Swensens.

As remembered, Swensens was up for their name for their Ice Creams. I had Swensens countless time, and this, i have to say, the quality have gone way way down our expectations.

I guess in this post, i have to put on nasty comments about the food.

Bread Bowl Mushroom Soup

This mushroom soup, look nice on the menu cover, and nice on the plate, but awful in your mouth. YUCKS. There is a funny taste to it, and i really can't describe what taste was it, it was like some sourish taste, AHH, its just a ewww.

Onion Rings

No comments to the onion rings. It just tasted like this.

Mozerella Cheese Sticks

I dont know what to say about this. The mozerella have absolutely no fragrance at all, and when you bite off, the mozerella was so rubbery and unbreakable that you could pull it across the table. WAIT, was that even edible?

Fries with Barbecue Sauce and Mayonaise

Used to be my all-time-favourite. The barbecue sauce was a great disappoinment.

Come down to our main courses:

Grilled Salmon Topped with Pesto Sauce
Served with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables-of-the-Day

Grilled Fish Sambal
Served with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables-of-the-Day

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Lets talk about the Aglio Olio first - It was the nicest among all 3 dishes! Haha! Spaghetti was cooked to the perfect timing, and the aroma of the garlic oil is doing its job to flavour the spaghetti. Yums!

Next, Fish Sambal. The sambal was good, but not the fish. The fish was overly cooked, leaving the fish to be so dry. So don't get cheated by the caption of "Oh so good fish....".

Lastly, the salmon. BAD BAD BAD! How does a piece of unfresh salmon taste like? Try that. and the gravy was OMG! It looks like some expired gravy, where it was so watery and you could even see the oil floating above the sauce, and the texture was similar to what a vomit looks like. So in the end we asked for a tar tar sauce to replace that gruesome sauce right on our plate.

Topless Five!

At last our desserts are served. So the flavour we chose for our ice cream was: Macadamia, Supreme Durian, Chendol, Cookies & Cream and Hazelnut.

If you want to give it a try, i would recommend Hazelnnut and Durian. The drurian was good (I love durians!) so does the hazelnut. I am not a macadamia nut fan, but heard that it is not bad.

Never you would want to order Cookies & Cream, it just tasted very normal. Chendol is good, but its a little bit too sweet. Sso if you have a strong sweet tooth, it can be recommended, the taste of the gula melaka is quite strong in it too.

Rating:

Staff Friendliness: 1.5 / 5.0 (Poor staffs attentiveness, that you might just want to approach the counter yourself to place your orders. Oh! and remember to go with a good mood, the sulky face of the staffs wont pleasant your dining there.)

Food: 2.0 / 5.0 (Sorry not my choice of restaurant to visit unless for their ice cream)

Variety: 4.0 / 5.0 (Yes, there are quite a number of varieties. I didn't get to try all, so probably if you have ate any nice food, you can comment and let me know! >.<)

Ambience: 3.0 / 5.0 

Price: $$-$$$

Address:

1 Woodlands Square,

Level 2, #02-08/09

Causeway Point Shopping Mall (Woodlands MRT)

Tel: +65 894 2086 (No Reservations are allowed. First come first serve basis.)

Website: www.swensens.com.sg

I have visited the above outlet, and there are more outlets in Singapore. My reviews are based on Causeway Point Swensen's standard.