Hai Tien Lo Brunch Buffet (24 Aug)

Yoohoo!! Another yummy buffet. Ala carte style. $58++ per pax from 11.30am to 2.30pm. But I tell you, it was really worth it. Every cent of it! I'm not kidding! Better than One-Ninety at Four Seasons Hotel haha!!

Went with Yen and Stephane, on his birthday - a coincidence actually hehe.. The company was great of course, especially since we could try more dishes with more people mah... hehe... So here are some pictures. The menu has many many many items including tim sum and chinese delicacies hehee... SHIOK!! Well worth a return. All who are reading this, please GO! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

view from the 37th floor, Pan Pacific Hotel, Marina Square

3 of us. Yen and Stephane were all dressed up! Didn't even warn us!! My hubby and I were in t-shirt and jeans haha! Fortunately, we were not the worst dressed. Someone came in berms and one in shorts (probably a hotel guest lah...)

佛跳墙 - fantastic! Like double-boiled, so it was very fragrant!

Sharks fins - all the better! There was more than enough for me!! This is the first time I come across a restaurant who is just so so so so generous with the amount of sharks fins!! I'm not kidding! By the way, one can only choose between the 佛跳墙 or sharks fins hoh... and only one serving.. hehe..

Bird's nest egg tart. One serving and one per person only hehe... smooth egg tart - bird's nest ok lah..

Lobster dumpling - one each too. Can't tell whether it was prawn or lobster inside. But very fresh and crunchy lah.. ;)

Sea perch with preserved vegetable (梅菜) - very nice!! Fresh fish and the 梅菜 is not too salty! We ordered a 2nd round ;)

Cod fish... errrmm.. can't remember cooked with what haha! But nice, of course!

Diced beef - Stephane didn't take it too well. He said too sweet haha!! The beef's tender but I find it a bit salty.

Wasabi prawns

Tofu and mushroom. Very smooth tofu!!

Fried white bait fish. Stephane's favourite! Quite nice actually but the dish that came 2nd time was "too fried" and so too crunchy - like eating keropok haha! But I like leh.. hah!

Roast pork and duck
宫保 Monkey head mushroom. Those who have not tried, monkey head mushroom has a texture similar to that of meat! They are quite expensive in vegetarian restaurants.

Fried beancurd skin with I can't remember what's inside haha!! Tasted like fish cake within so nothing unusual. We call it a dish that wasted our tummy space haha!!

虾饺 - very fresh ingredients
焼卖
Errr.. some vege & scallop? Can't remember haha!
北京饺子
Vege with lily buds and wolfberries - good for eyes haha!!
Pan-fried chee cheong fun. Tasteless on its own so it came with a sauce. Nothing spectacular lah.. err.. this was another "waste tummy space dish" hahaha!!

Ohhh!! These prawns were the bestest of best! VERY FRESH AND SWEET!! AND BIG TOO!! Haha!! It took quite a while before these were served so we didn't get to re-order. Anyway, we were all quite stuffed with food already haha!!

Spring onion garoupa. Fish was fresh but plain lah..

Garoupa (again haha!) cooked with century egg in supreme soup. I had expected it to be better given that it was "supreme soup" mah but quite plain also... hehe

Finally, desserts!! Of course there were more than just these pastries. There were some Chinese style desserts which were also the only buffet dishes served for all to take, anytime.

All in all, the meal was superb!! As you can see, we had lots and lots of seafood especially fishes!! Think should have enough fish oil to last us through for a month haha!!

How? Yen and Stephane? Game for a 2nd round?? Hahah!!

P/S (20 Oct 08): I realised I forgot to put how much it cost - S$58++/pax. Our damage was S$75nett/pax including tea.

6 Years! (21 Jul)

Yes, we’ve been married for 6 years! Not too long nor is it short.

We took ½ day leave to go "park-tor". Watched "Dark Knight", sipped coffee, go shopping at Vivocity before heading to Four Seasons Hotel for ala carte dinner buffet at its One-Ninety restaurant. We came to know about this from someone else’s website hehe..

For S$52++, the “Smaller Bites” buffet allows one to choose from 30 dishes of appetizers and main courses (ranging from cod fish to lobster and foie gras) as well as 9 different types of desserts. You can take a look at its menu from http://www.fourseasons.com/singapore/menu_120.html.

It’s called “Smaller Bites” for a good reason – all of its dishes are really of bite size per serving. Given the variety, it was quite a pity that 2 of us couldn’t savour everything on the menu but we did try all the 9 types of desserts, which I especially reserved stomach space haha!! Perhaps we had too high an expectation, we felt there were only a few good dishes and desserts deserving of our praises ;p. The best of all? WARM CHOCOLATE CAKE!! I had 2!! Yum yum!!!

Anyway, I gained more than just a dinner treat from my hubby. He sent a bunch of flowers to my office, bought me a BIG watch and a new moo-moo wallet. What did I give my hubby? Errrr…. Nothing! Hahaha!!! OOppss..!!

KL again (28 Jun-1 Jul)

Another KL trip, the 2nd this year. This time round, my hubby found a website introducing the kopitiam/ hawker style makan places from http://www.journeymalaysia.com/M2_foodkl.htm.

We reached KL close to 3pm cos there was a slight jam at the Tuas Checkpoint, all thanks to Mr Selamat. We wanted to eat lunch at Weng Heng Coffee Shop (one end of Jalan Imbi, opposite Honda Showroom), which was said to serve the best pork ball noodles, Penang kway teow and popiah. Unfortunately, by the time we reached there, the stalls were already closed!! No choice, we had to eat at the coffee shop next door. We ordered chicken rice and Ipoh hor fun. Very tasty!! I love my hor fun - very smooth kuay teow and tender chicken breast meat! The wanton soup was a bit too salty for me hehee...

At least our walk from Times Square wasn’t a wasted effort. Including a bowl of wanton soup and 2 glasses of lime juice, the bill came to RM$20. Can lah… hehe…

Dinner was settled at Chinatown, Petaling Street. My hubby recommended this claypot rice – very nice! Ours was chicken + salted fish. I love the salted fish! Thinly sliced and very fragrant! Bak kut teh was another not to be missed.

We also ventured to another coffee shop, which according to the above website served “great wanton noodles with roast pork” and “yuan yang” (mix coffee and tea). So we walked all the way from Impiana (the hotel we stayed) to the end of Jalan Bukit Bintang where this coffee shop is, called Toong Kwoon Chye. It’s along Jalan Bintang, across the road from Century Hotel. Quite disappointed actually, cos nothing that special. I think my Segamat wanton noodles are better haha!! Worse is, the bill came to RM14 for 2 plates of wanton noodles and 2 glasses of cold “yuan yang”!!! Felt ripped off!! We are not misers or are stingy, just didn’t think simple dishes like these will cost so much in a coffee shop setting. Anyway, not recommended for you guys out there unless you stay nearby and wanna just give it a try ;)

The last night before our departure, we went for something more high class but were equally disappointed. It’s a Spanish restaurant called "La Bodega" at Pavilion (the newest shopping mall in KL). We ordered its tapas dinner promotion which cost RM78++ – came with 4 choices of tapas and paella (pronounced as “pa-eh-ya”). Aiyoh, these dishes REALLY CANNOT MAKE IT! So, I'll not go too much into introducing each of these dishes ;p cos these were the worst tapas dishes I’ve had before hahah!! The place I've tried really good tapas? Barcelona haha!!