Birthday 2015: Lady M + Just Acia + D' Good Cafe + Japanese Gourmet Town

Saturday 25/7/15

Right after our tasting at Criollo Cocoa Cafe, we immediately went to Lady M to have sweet indulgence. So glad we were there early because queues started forming after us. Lady M's signature cake is Mille Crêpes that features no less than twenty paper-thin handmade crêpes layered with ethereal light pastry cream. 

We decided to go for Lady M Green Tea Mille Crêpes.

The green tea powder was infused into the Mille Crêpes, bringing out the vibrant green tea flavors gently. Super nice. We went to count the number of layer and it was more than 20.

After satisfying our tummy, we walked over to Plaza Singapura to book our tickets for movie. I haven't been to cinema for movie for a couple of months so I wanted to watch Minions before it stopped airing. Treat Grace to the movie because she treated me to lots of good food today

Since we have one hour buffer time, we went to try llao llao. This was my first time trying, it was chilling delicious. No wonder it attracted such a long queue every time I past by llao llao. Good food always brighten up my day.

After the movie, we walked over to The Cathay for dinner at Nihon Mura Express 日本村.

Nihon Mura Express offers a wide variety of Japanese sushi and dishes at a plate of $1.60. You can either grab the dish from the conveyor belt or order using the tablet that was placed at the side of our seats. We keyed in our order using the tablet because we wanted the food to be served fresh from the kitchen.

Some of the plates we ordered:

Hotate mentai is a must try when you are at Nihon Mura. Japanese-style baked scallops in mentaiko sauce were soft and succulent. The sauce further enhanced the flavour of the scallop. It was so addictive that we kept ordering it. Though they placed 3 hotate mentai in a plate, do note that 1 otate mentai costs $1.60. They stacked the other 2 plates below.

Totally in love with it.

Thanks Grace for the generous treat and dedicate your entire Saturday to me.

We have so much things to chat about, we even discuss our plan to travel overseas together next year. Simply enjoy going out on weekend because there is no need to worry about time constraint.

A photo of us 5 years ago. Wow, we have known each other for so many years. Time flies.

I am really glad to have you as one of my closest friend, one that I can count on when I have difficulty and will always be there for me. Now that we are all studying and working, the frequency of us meeting  in a year is countable using 2 hands, our friendship still remain strong. Let's try to meet up more and more often.

Thanks for making my birthday a memorable one.

Monday 27/7/15

Met up with GF on a Monday afternoon for lunch at Just Acia, our usual hangout place. We loved coming back here for our meal because of the affordable set meal that comes with free flow of drink and ice-cream.

GF ordered a gyoza for sharing, the Japanese dumplings tasted normal. Dipped it with the broth to enhance the flavour.

Just Acia has a different promotion menu that is only available for lunch. Both of us ordered the same set - Fried Chicken Ramen. The ramen tasted delicious and the chicken was crispy good.  

Thanks GF for the delicious lunch treat and the birthday pressie. Most of all, thanks for making time to just have a simple meal with me before your Japan trip. I appreciate it very much. 

Thursday 30/7/15

Happy birthday to me!
Took leave off to laze around and give myself a break from the never-ending work. For most of my life, birthday has never been a big deal to me since teenage. Remember when I was young, my mum will always  bought me a cake. When I grew older (during Secondary School time), I told my mum not to buy me cake, it's a waste of money because we couldn't finish it all. So instead of cake, she will make me Chinese red eggs (红鸡蛋). So to me, birthday is usually just another day.

KP brought me to D' Good Cafe for afternoon tea.

Was really surprised to see the cafe so crowded during a weekday afternoon. It was crowded with students and teenagers. It was full house on level 2 so we went up to level 3.

I got a gigantic size of chocolate chip frappuccino that could be shared among 6-8 pax.

Our drink was attracting too much attention. The table besides us, the 3 of them took turn to secretly take photo of the drink. Think I don't know meh?

Onlookers were astonished when passed by our table, one girl even spueaked "Omg!"

Aww, I just want to shy away from the crowds to enjoy our meal.

Oh yeah, just to share with you this, you can get this gigantic frappuccino of your choice on your actual birthday. Just flash your identification card to the staff will do.

Sea Salt Caramel Cheesecake. It was appetizing, perfect to go with coffee.

We also ordered a buttermilk bread bite-sized in hazelnut flavour, dipped it in the fresh milk. A simple snack to enjoy with.

We spent the afternoon, enjoying the cakes and trying our best to drink as much as we can. We could only cleared half the glass.

Thanks cousin for the afternoon tea treat and also take leave to accompany me. I always feel appreciated when people make time and effort for me. 

Friday 31/7/15

Another round of birthday dinner with my awesome poly peers. So happy to see them again. I always love meeting them because they are only brunch of people who never use their phone (to surf net or login to social media accounts) when we have our meal because we have neverending topics to chat till we don't have time to take out our phone to check. 

I suggested to have dinner at Japanese Gourmet Town because they have dinner promotion which include a ramen, drinks and side dish. The four of us opted for fried toufu, baby octopus, takoyaki and gyoza.

I opted for Miso Buta Shabu Ramen which was non-spicy. I was having cough so I decided to abandon my plan of having my usual pork curry ramen.

Dinner will never be complete without dessert. 

We went ice-cream indulgence at cold stone creamery. Grace knows me so well, she guessed that I will choose the mint chocolate chip flavour. Bingo!

We only left the place when the staff chased us off. How I wish the night will be longer. Hope to see you guys soon again.

Oops, realised we haven't took our mandatory group photo after Grace left.

Thanks Chan Lin, Maggie and Grace for the dinner treat. Thanks Maggie for the birthday gift, I love it very much. Thanks Chan Lin for the ice-cream treat. So glad to have you guys in my life, I really really appreciate it, made me feel so loved (:

Food Tasting: Peranakan Feast at The Square @ Novotel

August is the month for Peranakan feast at The Square at Novotel.

The Square is a restaurant located at Novotel Clarke Quay a 4-star hotel situated just besides Liang Court. Take a lift up to 7th floor, The Square restaurant offers a daily Lunch and Dinner buffet with interactive live cooking stations feathering international and local cuisines.

The hip and modern restaurant makes me feel at ease and cosy upon entering. I like the relaxing and elegant ambience.

The Square restaurant international buffet includes Singaporean favorite Dishes like fresh prawns & mussels, roasted meats, homemade Dim Sum, delicious A-la minute Risotto and a wide range of curries with condiments.

Presenting to you seafood on ice. The seafood looked fresh and succulent.

The Square offers a wide selection of astonishing variety of food. Be sure to try each dish.

Chicken sharwama, one of my favourite station.

The crab of the night was black pepper crab. 

Different flavour of crab will be served on different days. They have chilli crab, salted eggs and many more.

The chef introduced us to all the stations served. We came to a stop at the dessert corner.

Totally spoilt for choice when it comes to dessert. There are so many variety of cakes available specially created by their chefs. Aww, so many different flavours of cake. They have devil chocolate, orange with earl grey, mango cake, lemon tart and etc.

A group photo with the lovely and friendly girls. 

Thanks Reka for the photo.

Everything was great except the mussel. There was a strong fishy taste not to my liking.

I mentioned earlier that in August, The Square will be rolling out their Peranakan buffet line. Our main highlight of the food tasting is to be among the first to sample the Peranakan dishes. Here's what you will be having in August:

Chicken Devil Curry

The Chicken Devil Curry definitely live up to its name, the level of spiciness is no joke. They spice ingredients used was purely chilli padi.  It indeed spiced up my appetite, I could feel the burning sensation lingering in my throat and stomach. I can't stop myself from eating despite the spiciness. A love-hate relationship.

Nonya Style Asam Fish (Steamed)

Nonya Style Asam Fish (Fried)

We were being served with steamed and fried Nonya Style Asam Fish. I preferred the fried style because it added a little crunchiness to the fish. The asam flavour was not as strong, it wasn't hot and sour enough to bring our the flavour.

Ayam Buah Keluak

This was one of my favourite dish that night. The chicken was braised in a keluak nuts gravy, giving it a unique and delicious taste. Each bite tasted so flavourful and the chicken was juicy.

Bakwan Kepiting

Instead of the usual pork and crab meatballs, the chef replaced the crab with chicken. The texture of the meatballs were juicy and firm. However for the soup base, it was too salty. If the taste of the soup could be lighter, it will be perfect.

Kueh Pai Tee.

Kueh Pai Tee is a popular Peranakan dish. It has a crispy exterior filled with a mix of eggs, sliced vegetables and prawns. It has a combination of sweet and spicy taste. Indulge in the mouthful of crunchiness.

Babi Pongteh

The chef used pork ribs together with fermented soya beans to make Babi Pongteh. The pork rib was very tender and the flavour was well mixed with taste of sweetness and a hint of saltiness.

Traditional Nonya Kueh

We had the traditional cakes and colourful pastries to round up our sumptuous dinner. 

Meet the man behind the scene.

Thank you Chef Kishen for preparing such a sumptuous spread. Little did you know, he was being trained by a Peranakan master previously.

A surprise dish prepared for us by Chef Jimmy.

The oysters fritters tasted heavenly delicious. It was fried till perfection in order to get the fluffy and crunchy taste. Coated with chilli sauce, it enhanced the flavour of the oysters, bringing the shiok level to the max. Having just one is seriously not enough for me!!!

Come celebrate SG50 with Peranakan buffet at The Square @ Novotel.

The Peranakan buffet is available during dinner for the month of August. 

Daily dinner Bbffet: $58++  (6.00pm to 10.00pm) 

Weekend lunch buffet: $48++ (12.00pm – 2.30pm)

Weekday lunch buffet: $38++ (12.00pm – 2.30pm)

Nuffnang Lovin' x Criollo Cocoa Cafe

With the increasingly craze in cafe hopping, cafes are in high demand in Singapore. My Instagram timeline is always filled with foodie and latte art photos from different cafes in Singapore. Yeah, Latte Art is the in thing now! I am really amazed, how many cafes are there in Singapore? How can one has so many cafes to visit without repeating them???

Today I am going to introduce you a nice cafe to hang out at in town, 

Criollo Cocoa Cafe

Criollo Cocoa Cafe is located at Orchard Gateway, a perfect hangout spot to fuel and recharge for shopping sprees. They are selling all day breakfast, burgers, waffles, ice cream and drinks.

Here's what we were having:

Piperade

The dish was prepared with baked egg, tomato, bacon and onions. It was served crispy toast. The dish was shared among groups of 4. Mine was shared between 6 person because we have a larger group.

Portobello Mushroom Burger with fries

My favourite of all because the staff prepared an additional plate for our table so Grace and I have this all to ourselves.

We were skeptical about trying the mushroom burger initially because we were so used to have a meat burger. Upon the first bite, we immediately fall in love with it. The mushroom was juicy and delicious, and the cheddar cheese enhanced the flavour of the burger. It definitely does not lose out to the meat burger. The fries on the other hand was slight salty.

Seafood Tagliatelle in Spicy Laksa Sauce

A great combination of laksa sauce together with pasta. It immediately spiced up my appetite with the laksa sauce.

After filling our stomach, we then went on for a demo session on Latte Art, an up and coming hobby that many coffee enthusiasts are taking up.

The barista was patiently teaching us the steps and technique on making our fresh cuppa.

The barista demonstrated 2 different types of latte art. The one she was currently doing was free pour. The height of pouring and control is important.

The end result.

The second one she was doing was drawing a design on the white foam.

The end result. Which design do you prefer?

Thanks Nuffnang for organising this get together session. 

Criollo Cocoa Cafe

Orchard Gateway, 277 Orchard Road 

#02-01, Singapore 238858