Cliff(y) Goes Dining

Unique dips by a Singaporean chef! UPDATE (30/06/2019):  The restaurant has closed down. Alright, first of all, I guess this shall be the last review of the year. This entry on Dip's would also close the chapter on Paris for now. No worries, I'll definitely come back to Paris one day to do a food trail, especially to pâtisseries !

Great croissant for breakfast! CISP stands for les Centres Internationaux de Séjours de Paris , and I stayed in their Kellermann branch during the weekend trip to Paris. Apparently, the hostel has good ratings online. 

Served cold, but fulfilling! Literally means 'meal trays', Plateaux-Repas  from Serge Magner looked really awesome. Serge Magner is a company that not only specialises in catering for special events, but also owns quality restaurants. I had the chance to try them twice during the summer school: one for the welcome lunch, and another for the farewell lunch.

"One is never enough... Buns to die for!" Sorry for being tardy in updating my blog lately; there's been quite a number of stuff preventing me from even sitting in front of my laptop nowadays. Anyway, today I'm going to write a short review on Rotiboy Bakeshoppe that hails from Malaysia. The bakery has more than 50 outlets in Indonesia, but none is left  here in Singapore. :/

It's a chocolate museum! I didn't know there exists a chocolate museum in Paris until I saw its pamphlet in the hostel I stayed. I was glad I could convince some friends to come with me to the museum. By paying an additional €3.00 ( ~S$5.25 ) to the entrance fee, you'll get a cup of hot chocolate drink at the end of the visit. The chocolate block was dunked into a cup of hot milk until it melted. Here's the interesting part... Have you ever tried the original Aztec recipe? Continue reading to find out!

Filling, satisfying bowl of salad! A friend of mine recommended Salad Stop! owing to the freshness of the ingredients used, as well as the variety of salad bowls they offer. When I was walking around in Suntec City Mall, I didn't expect to find one of the branches there. Even though I already promised to meet someone for dinner, dropping by wouldn't do any harm, right? Yeah, me and my big appetite...

Sweet temptation specially made in front of us! Today I'm going to write a special review about the sweet stuff I had during my visit to Institut Paul Bocuse, a school of hospitality and culinary arts. Paul Bocuse is a prominent chef based in Lyon, famous for his innovative approaches to cuisine. Oh, the school building looks like a castle!

Oyster omelette: hotplate style! In search for tasty oyster omelette around, my friend and I went all the way to Tampines to try the one offered by Warong Kim's Seafood which has been around since 1965. The Tampines branch has also obtained Halal certification.

Secret donut??? One free morning, my friends and I went to Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs (Museum of Fabrics and Decorative Arts). It was raining, and we happened to reach there a bit too early and thus had to wait for a while till it opened. Since we hadn't had breakfast, we dropped by Times Donuts to try some of their donuts and drink hot chocolate to warm ourselves up.

The only eatery selling martabak manis in Singapore? For those who're not familiar with martabak manis , it's actually an Indonesian version of 'pancake' (for the lack of a better word) which is usually thick and sinful due to the liberal use of butter (or margarine) and toppings such as sweet condensed milk, chocolate sprinkles, grated cheese, ground peanuts, etc. Does it sound mouth-watering enough? Continue reading to find out more!  Pika's advice 1: Those of you who're craving for martabak durian , you really have a reason to visit this eatery as soon as possible! I'll let you judge since I dislike the 'king of fruits'. XD

Unique ice cream and sorbet flavours! This restaurant is located on Bastille Hill, Grenoble. Although the sun was shining so brightly the other day, it was really worthwhile having lunch here while enjoying the beautiful scenery of the French Alps.

Thai buffet, not at its best though... UPDATE (11/02/2020):  The restaurant has closed down. I don't eat Thai food that often, but o n one rainy Wednesday, my friend and I patronised Suanthai. The restaurant offers a la carte  buffet with 20+ food items to choose from. Since I had a weekday lunch there, I shall put down the price here.  Adult   S$16.90 Child   S$12.00

Heavenly curry and  crème brûlée ! One clear day, armed with our cameras, my friends and I spent hours walking around in a huge park located not very far away from our hostel in Lyon. The scenery was really awesome that we forgot it was almost 9.00pm. Desperately looking for a place to eat dinner, we finally decided, after another round of long walk from the park, to try this bar-cum-restaurant in Concorde Hotel.

Carrot cake 'omelette'! We're still on Bukit Timah Food Centre. I just found out that He Zhong Carrot Cake has been around for more than 30 years. Anyway, for those who're not familiar with the Chinese carrot cake, note that 'carrot' here doesn't refer to the orange root vegetable, but instead it refers to radish which is loosely translated as 'white carrot' from Chinese. This carrot cake is made of rice flour and shredded turnips.

My first time eating bee hoon drenched in peanut sauce! I can't exactly remember why I had to go to Upper Bukit Timah the other day. When I went to the hawker centre for lunch, I saw quite a long queue which definitely stood out from the rest. To my delight, I finally found a stall serving satay bee hoon  (lit. rice vermicelli). I'd been wanting to try it out earlier, but I rarely had the chance to go to a hawker centre for a meal.

Cheap macarons indeed... Getting bored while waiting for our turn to get into the Catacombes-de-Paris (Catacombs of Paris), two of my friends decided to get out of the queue for a while to get us some macarons from the McCafé nearby. Actually, we'd already been thinking about trying them much earlier haha...

Responsible cocktails, a.k.a. mocktails! I really want to finish all the entries on my France trip the other day, but I guess we need more entries on Singapore eateries as well this month, so I think I'll do them alternately. Anyway, tucked in an enclave of eateries in the popular Bugis vicinity, Ignite Music Café is a H alal café offering a wide range of what they name the 'responsible cocktails', or what we commonly know as mocktails.

It's not in Rome; it's in Paris! Situated in the middle of the prestigious avenue of Champs-Élysées, Café di Roma has a huge signboard. Because of that, in addition to the fact that there were many diners inside, my friends and I couldn't help but be attracted like a magnet. Luckily we didn't have to wait for a long time to get a table.

Multi-cultural Asian cuisine under one roof! Ayza's Restaurant looks more like a kopitiam  (Singlish terms which meaning is close to 'food court' in this case) than a restaurant with a few stalls offering Malay cuisine, Indian food, grilled items, etc. You can just mix and match your food by ordering from the different stalls, and then pay everything later at the end of the meal. Pika's advice:  Do ask them for the menu booklet so that you can choose easier rather than looking at the pictures of the food at the different stalls.

Dreaming of another bite of raspberry chocolate cake :P This entry features another quick meal that I had in Marseille. However, while most of my friends ordered sandwiches, I tried to diverge from the majority and instead ordered the two following items for lunch.

Yummylicious garlic mussels! Alright, it's time to review a proper meal I had in Marseille. There are simply too many eateries in Vieux Port, and that day we were quite confused which restaurant should we go to. In the end we chose Chez Laura, and one of the reasons was that the waitress outside could actually respond to us in English haha... Anyway, the restaurant offers a value-for-money  Set Meal  priced at  €15.00 ( ~S$26.30 ) which includes appetiser, main course and dessert. Hmm, since all of us ordered different dishes, I'll just select a few and write about them here.

Pesterella = Pesto + Mozzarella! UPDATE (15/05/2018):  The eatery has closed down. Have you ever heard of this al fresco eatery located at The Foundry, Mohamed Sultan Road? I couldn't exactly remember what I had to do the other day, but I happened to walk past The Better Burger (or TBB in short), and so I thought I should give it a try. I'm not that a huge fan of burgers, but my sister is! Let's see what's her response when she sees this entry. :P

Fill your stomach with salami sandwich! Okay, please bear with me as I try to settle all the quick bites I had during the trip last June. The other day I followed some of my friends to the Eiffel Tower as they were assigned to check whether it would be possible to buy tickets in advance for others (apparently not, LOL!). Along the way, between the Bir-Hakeim métro station and the Eiffel Tower, we found this snack car. Since we were quite hungry, we decided to grab a sandwich each, as usual...

Fries inside your sandwich =O Back to quick meal :P Since I only had a few hours to spend in Frioul Island, which is located approximately 4 km from Marseille, I had no choice but to grab a sandwich for lunch so that I had enough time to walk around.

Croissant with savoury fillings...? UPDATE (18/04/2018): The café has moved to 63 Brighton Crescent. Let's start with a light review this month. I chanced upon a small bakery café in Bukit Timah, which offers a Croissant Set Meal  at S$5.00 , to chill out. Choices include Tuna Mayo Croissant, Egg Mayo Croissant and Chicken Mayo Croissant, and the croissant comes with a pot of tea. I came there on a weekday at a very odd hour, and thus no other customers were inside. It really felt as if I owned the café LOL...

Yummy buttermilk biscuit with strawberry jam! I've known Popeyes even before I came to Singapore. When it first came to Indonesia loooooooong time ago, it was  a big hit, especially because of the Cajun Fries. Anyway, the other day there was an ongoing Like-a-Chicken promotion where you could get one free chicken with every purchase of a combo meal (which includes one biscuit, o ne regular side, and one regular soft drink) when you clicked 'like' the Popeyes Singapore page on Facebook. Perhaps I should've written this earlier to let you know, eh? Sorry...

The first time I ate a main course that was like an egg custard... I'm going to thank my three French friends: Arthur, Axel and Marine once again for being very nice to my friends and I, and bringing us to various places even though it was during their exam period the other time. On one of the days, they introduced Bouchon Lyonnaise , or simply put, traditional Lyon cuisine,  to us. In the restaurant , you can get a Set Menu  comprising one appetizer and one main course of choice for  €14.50 (~S$25.50) .

Fall in love with the almond cream pudding! When you've got a chance to go to Holland Village, drop by Al Qasr, a restaurant serving Middle Eastern cuisine. To be honest, I can count with my own fingers the number of times I've tried Middle Eastern fare so far :P Oh, if you come on Saturday night, you'll be able to see belly dance performance (based on the sign I read inside the restaurant).

Singapore's very first frozen soy! UPDATE (11/08/2012): The stall in Bugis Junction has closed down. However, you can still find Soyato at Fresh Healthy Café @ Alexandra Retail Centre and The Plant Story @ Hort Park. You don't like the sour taste of frozen yoghurt? You're craving for guilt-free ice cream? Give Soyato a try, freshly made with soy milk. Oh yes, did I tell you before that I actually hate soy milk? But anyway, since my friend said that Soyato's ice cream tasted like the usual ice cream, I gave it a try. And yup, my friend wasn't lying. For those of you who dislike soy milk, fear not!

Healthy snack (lunch) on the go! Rushing to go to various places of interest in France, my friends and I had no choice but to resort to eat lunch on the go (as you can tell from some of my previous entries haha...) and eat big meal for dinner. On the way back from Château de Versailles (Palace of Versailles), we thought of covering Catacombes-de-Paris (Catacombs of Paris) on the same day. We grabbed our lunch from this small café called Class' Croute not very far away from the Versailles-Rive Gauche train station.

Satisfactory white coffee, I guess... :P I rarely had breakfast outside, but the other day I had to wake up early for an appointment and so I dropped by OldTown White Coffee at Suntec City Mall. My friend helped me order one of the breakfast sets which had kaya toast, soft-boiled egg and white coffee.

Value-for-money Chinese fast food! UPDATE (09/04/2020):  The eatery has closed down. October is here! Anyway, let's take a break from France stuff. Ruyi is a Chinese fast food eatery founded by the famous Tung Lok Group of Singapore. You could expect a wide variety of rice and noodle dishes in this particular eatery. I visited the branch at Resorts World Sentosa the other day for dinner.

Crispy hot dog on the go, but pretty dry... It was another lunch on the go in Paris. Since the café displayed quite huge hot dogs, I was really tempted to grab one, and I did!

Sweet temptation of homemade yogurt with honey! When I was in Paris, I visited this small eatery for a quick lunch after visiting Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (lit. The National Museum of Natural History) where my friends and I got our free passes, thanks to one of our coordinators' friend who worked there. 

Extra cheesy gnocchi! I shall continue with another restaurant I found in Marseille. The other day we were pretty indecisive as to what we'd like to eat for dinner. After walking around for almost half an hour, we decided to give Chez Mario a try. From the outside, I seemed like the restaurant had a very romantic ambience with its dim lights.

Grab a snack in the zoo! Sorry that I keep writing very short reviews nowadays because I haven't had the time to dig through the food pictures that I have, thanks to all the assignments that keep piling up. Anyway, I grabbed a sandwich for lunch when I visited the zoo located in Parc de la Tête d'Or, Lyon. My friends and I had to rush back to school for our NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectra interpretation class, and so we ate on the go.

Very cheesy omelette! During the summer school in France the other day, I got a chance to visit Avignon for a few hours and went into the part of the city surrounded by walls built by the popes residing there in the past. I didn't get a chance to try various food because I used most of the free time to explore the region. In fact, I only had less than 30 minutes to eat before the bus left! In the end, my friends and I chose one of the restaurants in front of Hôtel de Ville.

Light snack during the festival :P 17日に早稲田渋谷高校に行った。 On the 17th (of September), I went to the Waseda Shibuya Senior High School. As part of the continuous assessment for the NUS module LAJ2203 (Japanese 4), we were expected to join the school's yearly festival called 星蘭祭 ( seiransai ) and write a thank you letter to the school. Anyway, the students converted one of the classrooms into a café during the festival. I got to try one of the cakes they baked.

Reminds me of ayam kuning at home... Having heard about an ayam penyet  restaurant along the stretch of Liang Seah Street, I eventually decided to walk there to grab my lunch after I requested for my financial standing letter from the DBS branch in Raffles City earlier this week. It was an oppressively sweltering day, but luckily I managed to get a seat inside the air-conned restaurant.

Kueh pie tee, anyone? I'm going to write just a short review today... School is driving me crazy; I have tons of assignments piling up on my desk, not to forget the two Chemistry mid-term exams I'm going to sit for next week. Anyway, after the first CCA session of the semester at Geylang Methodist Primary School in the morning, I dropped by the World Food Fair 2011 at the Suntec City Convention Centre and bought a few kueh pie tee  from a stall run by Red Lips, one of the leading suppliers of kueh pie tee  cups in Singapore.

Warm agedashi tofu to combat the cold weather! Today I shall write an entry on another Asian (Japanese, in particular) restaurant in Lyon called Noboru (昇る: to rise). Anyway, this restaurant was recommended by one of my trip mates, Samantha Lee. After a long day of walk around Lyon, my friends and I decided to dine at this small, but comfortable restaurant. I ordered the Menu Étudiant II  set by flashing my student card. For  €16.00 (~S$27.80) ,  here are the list of stuff that you can have. Appetiser:   Soba  OR Agedashi Tofu, Miso Soup, Assorted Sushi (4 pcs) Main Course:   Assorted Skewers (5 pcs), Fragrant Rice Dessert/Drink:   Ice Cream (2 scoops)  OR Fried Nian Gao  OR Green Tea

Unique French-Asian taste :P "Mendo"? Hmm, that doesn't sound French... Yep, indeed it's an eatery serving Asian food introduced by my friend, Samantha Nelwan who is currently studying in INSA Lyon. I'm glad I could meet her during the immersion programme; the last time I met her was in 2004 before I came to Singapore to further my study. Well, maybe you're wondering why in the world I asked her where to find nice Asian food. Nope, not because I missed rice, but I'd really like to try how Asian food tasted like in Lyon.

Fresh suppions of the port city! On one of the days in Marseille, my friends and I dined at a restaurant near our hostel. It was indeed the first time the word suppions  passed through my ears. Apparently it's a type of edible cuttlefish which is small in size as you can see in the photo below.

Let's have a quick meal at Quick! Haha, this is the first entry of an eatery in France during my summer school, but I'll start with a fast-food chain originated from Belgium. It was already past 10.00pm the other day when I was in Lyon, and my friends and I hadn't had dinner yet. Well, you know, most shops and restaurants were already closed, so we decided to have our dinner (supper?) at Quick in Part Dieu.

Tea time with bubble tea! I managed to drop by a new shopping mall in Alam Sutera, a housing complex where my school (St. Laurensia) is located, a few days before I returned to Singapore. Well, actually it wasn't my intention to drink bubble tea because my family and I just had a heavy lunch at Bakmi GM (cool, there's an even nearer branch to home now!). It was my greedy sister's idea haha, whoops...

"It's time to play with your food!" UPDATE (11/10/2019):  The restaurant has closed down. Why play? Read to find out more! Before I begin, actually the Sanpou Tonkatsu Ramen is said to be their specialty, but neither my friend nor I ordered that the other day. I shall save it for next time!

Aromatic roasted pork belly! I was craving for a nice Chinese nasi campur when I was in Indonesia in July. The Chinese Indonesian nasi campur is one of the dishes I've been craving for (yes, even now). Without further ado, I'll introduce to you what it's all about.

Fried chicken worth trying! Internet connection seems pretty reliable today, and so I'll write a quick review of a restaurant in Jakarta which offers authentic Indonesian, in particular, Javanese cuisine. However, to be honest, I'm not really a big fan of Indonesian food.

No-frills Indonesian style noodle!  UPDATE (06/01/2020):  The eatery has closed down. I'm going to do a review on Indonesian style noodle again. I chanced upon this small eatery, flooded with office people during lunchtime. when I went to United Square. Indeed, it has been a while since I went to this mall. The last time was in 2008 on the Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day haha...  

Delicious Halal noodles and rice dishes! Alright, this is going to be my first post on the series of restaurants based in Indonesia. As I've mentioned in my Facebook status two days ago, I'll begin with the eatery which I've visited, at least, one hundred times in my life. Everytime I go back to Indonesia, I'll drop by this eatery once (or twice).