Date of visit: 21st July 2010
As our last real day (day 5 would be our flight back to HK), we decided to visit China Town, but first, some more shopping!
We began Orchard Road's 313 @ Somerset mall, and then lunch was at the more touristy Newton Food Centre. We arrived at around 3pm, so many stalls weren't open yet (all of them open for dinner, but not lunch). After walking around we decided on a Laksa ($5?), some BBQ Stingray ($10), Singaporean Chilli Crab ($32), and a plate of fried Kang Kong ($10).
Laksa was S's brave choice. Not a person for spicy food, she still managed to enjoy this. This bowl of noodles consisted of dried tofu (doufu pok), fishballs, cockles, rice stick noodles and of course a spicy curry broth with a visible amount of chilli oil. Hong Kong laksas are much milder in my opinion, as any bowl you find in Singapore is almost always quite spicy. This particular bowl (save for the quite fishy cockles) was good nonetheless, and the fishballs were damn good.
I had to try the Singaporean Chilli Crab because A. I've never had it and B. its their bloody national dish! I told the man I wanted it less-spicy and it was for one person but I guess he gave me a bloody big one any way and just charged me more. Whatever. The crab was very meaty and good, but I thought the sauce was prepared poorly - should probably have asked for black pepper crabs instead?? The sauce was more like sweet and sour sauce... the chefs poor attempt to make it 'less spicy' I'm guessing? Wasn't bad, just not what I expected or wanted....
This Kang Kong was not bad, slightly chilli and much like the one I had at the Thai restaurant Cafe Sapunsa night before.
Initially I was going to order either this or the crab...but I gave up debating in my head and went for both. Not a good idea since I was stuffed for 7 hrs after this meal, but good because I've never tried stingray and this stingray was damn tasty. I didn't think a BBQ stingray would be dressed in a thick layer of chilli sauce but it was...more lemon would have helped cut the heat but it was so good I didn't care. This is a piece of the fin of a stingray, which has bones which are attached together so it forms one big piece, and the meat sits on top ready for you to scrape it off the bone. Stingray's flesh is quite meaty, soft and succulent...definitely something I'd eat again.........
and again....and again....=P
[This lunch was S's fave meal of the trip because it was a really unique and tasty experience for her. So so proud! =)]
Before we hit China town we decided to get a caffeine fix back at 313@Somerset. We went to the newly opened Oriole Cafe (this was a new branch), and after looking at their relatively short drinks menu, S went for a vanilla latte, and me a cappuccino.
Vanilla latte was very aromatic, quite milky but enjoyable for S.
My cappuccino certainly looked impressive - latte art and all - but it tasted more like a latte and the use of whole milk was so apparent I couldn't bring myself to like this drink... the foam was also sacrificed for the bit of latte art =(.
K Ki on Ann Siang Hill was one of the patisseries I wanted to visit, but sadly when we visited they were sold for the day.... the aroma of baked goods was soooo strong just sitting in there felt as if we were consuming something........
At around 9.30pm hunger struck us and so we walked over to Robertson Walk's Queens Tandoor for some indian fooooooodddd. The restaurant was very fragrant of the many spices and so we opted to sit al-fresco tonight.
The menu was pretty long, lots and lots and lots of choices, be it chicken / fish / lamb / vegetarian.... yummm.
A fish tikka (S$7 - bar size) was my choice. This was cooked in high temperatures so the exterior was nicely charred and flavourful. The fish was I think a bass/cod variety, soft and oily =)
How I ate my fish tikka ..... wrapped it in a chappati of course!
Paneer Makhanwala (S$17.90) was your standard butter chicken but with paneer cubes instead. The paneer was slightly chewy / rubbery, which is what I think paneer is meant to taste like, but S didn't like the texture too much... softer would've been better in her opinion and I agree. The sauce however was simply heavenly...and with the rice it topped any butter chicken sauce I've tried in HK.
The chapati (S$2.9) was hot and very soft, much like a tortilla and not like the ones I've sampled in HK. Plain Basmati Rice ($4.90) was pricey, but well-cooked - fluffy and none of the grains stuck to each other. Our total came to S$38.50, and this was expected given this area is more touristy and 'up-scale', not that we minded because the restaurant is actually very decent and we would have dined inside if we weren't afraid of smelling like Indian food when heading out to the bars nearby after....
After several random bars and clubs in Clarke Quay, I went into Nectarie, a pastry shop (still open at 1am...why doesn't HK have this????) between the many bars and chose two desserts for myself after a talk with the very sweet lady working in there. I chose a kiwi blueberry tart and she suggested I try their strawberry shortcake which doesn't have cream like the many other shortcakes available in Singapore (people love their shortcakes here).
The fruits on the tart was fresh and custard was okay (using real vanilla pods like Mandarin Oriental's would have made a big difference), but I didn't like the pastry base so much - it was made with ground almonds and was just too thick... not so good.
The strawberry shortcake on the other hand was really good. The best cake for me on this trip. It was a sliced cake, consisting of layers of sponge (moist), custard (same as the tart) and sliced strawberries, which came together very well. The outside rim of the cake was also coated with sliced almonds...
For the two pastries I paid S$14.20, although I think I was overcharged because I didn't have it dine-in but to-go...(service charge and gst was on my receipt) didn't notice until now so nevermind! I'll definitely visit Nectarie for other yummy pastries on my next trip to SG!
