Jamie's Italian

I have been wanting to go to Jamie's Italian ever since its opening. So, on the eve of my birthday and after Dharshiney's College Day, she suggested that we have a meal at Jamie's Italian! Both of us were so excited that even the 45 minutes wait did not deter us from wanting to trying their food.

I don't think I will ever learn how to appreciate Italian breads. THEY ARE SO HARD. :/

Wild Truffle Risotto - $16

I know that this dish looked so simple and ordinary but yet it is the perfect example of hearty Italian cuisine. Every grain of the rice is so rich and creamy! The shaved truffle was subtle enough to linger on our tongues and I like it that it was not too overpowering for the dish.

Wild Mushroom Ravioli - $16

This was incredibly addictive. The breadcrumb mixture gave the dish a unique texture and we could not resist dipping our breads in it! Even though the wild mushrooms could not really be tasted, the filling was amazing. That goes to show that the ingredients were fresh and every dish served was cooked with care. We ordered this without chili (because sadly I can't take spicy food) but I am sure the slightest hint of chili will definitely give the dish a kick. 

Lamb Chop Lollipops - $29.90

The lamb chops were well marinated and cooked to Dharshiney's liking, but unfortunately not mine. I felt as if I was eating the actual uncooked sheep. I must have been a sheep in my previous life. :/ The chutney that came with it tasted of mint, yogurt, chopped nuts and went well with the lamb.

Chuf: The ice cream melt very fast leh.

Dhar: 'Cause they use metal bowl. Metal tends to absorb heat easily. 

Chuf: Why they don't know?

Dhar: They are chefs, not scientists.

For dessert, we chose Dark Chocolate, Vanilla and Honeycomb flavor for our ice cream that came with smashed honeycomb pieces. The vanilla ice cream had specks of actual vanilla bean and the dark chocolate ice cream was rich and comforting. Honeycomb ice cream was uniquely different and the toppings made the ice creams better. To have a taste of heaven, I would't mind paying the $10. (Well, in this case, Dharshiney paid for it. Hee.)

Would love to dine in their alfresco area if the sun was not so merciless that day. Heh.

Their staff were very accommodating when we requested to change table because our table was too small to fit all our dishes. They were also very friendly and even gave us suggestions when we could not decide what to order. Despite all that, we find that the restaurant did not have enough staff as it was quite difficult to get their attention.

But because this place is so worth going back, we will definitely recommend you to try it yourself!

P.S. Thanks for the treat, Dharshiney! <3

Jamie's Italian
1 Harbourfront Walk, Vivocity

• Singapore 098585
• Monday to Thursday: 12pm to 10pm
• Friday and Saturday: 12pm to 11pm
• Sunday: 12pm to 10pm

Koh Grill & Sushi Bar

After seeing SO MANY Shiok Maki flooding Instagram and seeing how people were so hyped up about it, I suggested dinner at Koh Grill & Sushi Bar when Glenn and I were out window shopping at Orchard one day. We reached at about 6pm and had to wait slightly over 10 minutes before we got counter seats. 

Some food might not be to your liking, and you might not appreciate it, but we must appreciate the efforts put into it. 

Itadakimasu. 

Katsu Curry Rice - $10

Glenn decided to order their curry rice as Japanese curry is one of his favorite dish, and also because the choices of ramen were quite limited. The curry tasted alright, like all classic Japanese curry, sweet and not spicy at all. The rice quality felt sub-par though, it looks like they have been compressed to give it the clumpy feel of Japanese rice. As for the katsu, it felt slightly tough, and by Glenn's standard, it wasn't crispy enough. 

Aspara Buta Maki - $3

Seeing that their Toyko Ramen only cost $8, I decided that I just had to order that! 

But when it was served, I was greatly disappointed. I know pictures on menu are usually glorified to entice people to order, but the difference was just too shocking. What was worse was that the soup was too salty and not flavorful at all. The springy noodles and soft char siew pieces were probably the only items that saved the ramen. Otherwise, it was a total letdown.

Shiok Maki - $16.80

And after almost half an hour of waiting, the highly anticipated dish finally arrived! The Shiok Maki is essentially just over-hyped California roll. It is overloaded with so many ingredients, making you think that it is very much with the price, but in actual fact all you can taste is the cheesy mayonnaise you see in the first picture. Being traditional sushi lovers who prefers simple sushi such as the tamago sushi, I think that was why the Shiok Maki didn't appeal to us. 

Overall, the experience in the restaurant was relatively pleasant, though the food wasn't really up to our standards. Perhaps we didn't order the correct dishes so don't take our word for it. Go ahead and check it out for yourselves. 

Koh Grill & Sushi Bar
435 Orchard Road
Wisma Atria Shopping Centre, #04-21
Daily: 11.30am to 10.30pm
91803805

Windowsill in the Woods

Internship has made it challenging for me to meet up with friends as our schedules often do not match. So, when I finally got the chance to meet up with Shu Jia, we decided to catch up over pies at Windowsill in the Woods. 

Love how this place exudes the warm and homely feeling with so much wood and grey walls.

Even though our pies were served on plates, I insisted on using the wooden tray because it is just too cute!

Grasshopper Pie - $7.50

The mint in this pie is simply too attractive not to order. Plus, who could resist ordering something that is of a combination of mint and chocolate? No one. Initially, I was worried that the mint might be too overpowering. Instead, the mint was refreshing and balances nicely with the chocolate cake. 

Banana Almond Brittle - $7

I am not a big fan of any banana products, except the fruit itself. It came as a surprise to me as the banana cream was not too gelat at all and the nuts at the base are big and chunky, I like! Both of us agreed that the two layers provided a good contrast and that the caramel bites gave our taste buds a tasty surprise.

Plus point for this space is that they stock up magazines such as Kinfolk (MY FAVORITE), Lucky Peach, Oh Comely and Juxtapoz! I have heard a lot about Kinfolk and to be able to find it in this cafe was such a nice surprise for me.

Asked for their name card and was quite surprised to receive this! Love the illustration!

The service staff here are friendly and even introduced the pies when one of them saw us pondering over which pie to get. And guess what, no service charge and GST! Awesome much. I thought that this cafe would be suitable for birthday parties, with the small stage in the middle and all. It would be such a cosy event.   

P.S. Just realised I mentioned 'surprise' thrice. This cafe is just full of surprises!

78 Horne Road, Singapore 209078
Closed on Mondays
Tuesdays to Thursdays: 11am to 9.30pm
Fridays: 11am to 10.30pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 10am to 10.30pm
90047827

Simple recipe: Fudge Muffins

When it comes to baking, Glenn has always been the one taking charge. I provide the recipe, he bakes. He only allows me to help him with minor chores like pouring a tablespoon of milk. -.- Ah well. Nevertheless, I am always glad whenever I can be of some help to him. Haha! 

Last Thursday, we baked some fudge muffins! I got the recipe here but we tweaked it a little by replacing peanut butter with nutella and because our muffin cups are bigger, we could only make two muffins. 

You will need: 

1 pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon oil

1.5 tablespoon Nutella  

Banana slices

Chocolate chips

Step 1: 

Put 2 tablespoon of sugar, 2 tablespoon of flour, 1/2 of teaspoon baking powder and 1 pinch of salt in a bowl. Mix well. 

Step 2:

Add 4 tablespoon of milk, 1 tablespoon of oil and 1.5 tablespoon of Nutella in the same bowl. 

Step 3 (optional):

Add in banana slices and chocolate chips to top it off. 

Step 4: 

Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 180C. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 155C.

Tada, you are done! We thought the muffins turned out especially moist, so you might want to cut down on the milk. But this is by far the best and easiest muffins we have ever made! We have no idea why but the muffins we previously baked, all look like huat kueh hahaha. 

Give this a try and let us know how it turns out! Have fun baking! 

Paradise Dynasty

My grandparents wanted to treat me to lunch for my birthday and we decided to accommodate to their palate so here we are at Paradise Dynasty. By the way, this is like, 2 months ago, so ya.

The decor and furniture, coupled with the slightly dim lights gives the place an elegant feel to it. The place is quite crowded, but wasn't very noisy. But it could be due to our seating location.

Their service was fast and efficient. Once, my mom turned her head over to look for a waiter, and a wild waiter appeared! She didn't even have to raise her hand or anything. The staff were very prompt which made us feel like he was the dedicated waiter for our table.

Shanghai Dumplings (10 pcs) - $21.60

Looking at the pricing, I just realised that the xlb costs $2 each man! But trust me, it is worth your every cent. The xlb skin is thick enough to withstand you taking it out of the basket, but thin enough for you to savour the actual goods; the juice and the meat.

La Mian with Sliced Pork - $9.80

Usually, Chu Fang is able to finish a bowl of ramen on her own. But surprisngly, she couldn't finish the noodles here. BUT! It doesn't mean that the food is not nice. In a Chinese restaurant, having leftover food means that they give out big servings.

Radish Pastry (3 pcs) - $3.90

Honestly, I can't remember how this tastes like, but since there is only 1 out of 3 remaining when this picture was taken, it shouldn't be that bad. But I wouldn't recommend ordering this though. Save your stomach for more space for other more yummy foods!

Pan-fried Pumpkin Paste (3 pcs) - $3.60

Chu Fang's cousin recommended that we try this dish which kind of reminded me of fried nian gao. It has a sticky chewy feel to it so for those who like fried nian gao, do not hesitate to order this.

Ending off with a self timer photo! 

2 Orchard Turn
#04-12A ION Orchard
Singapore 238801
Mondays to Fridays: 11am to 10pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 10.30am to 10pm
65099118

d’Good Café

To be able to enjoy a good breakfast on a weekday morning is indeed a privilege; one which I rewarded myself last Friday morning with Chu Fang after a hectic week of school. I have never quite found the opportunity to step into random quaint cafes to enjoy a slow breakfast or lunch meal before (life moves just too fast most of the time), thus when we both could find some time to meet, I jumped at the opportunity to enjoy a nice meal. 

Holland V. That's all we agreed on. The next thing I knew, we were in the cozy d'Good Cafe. We sneaked in via the backdoor into the three-storey establishment where there are two levels of seating area in four different settings- The Bar, The Lawn, The Attic and The Balcony.

Before we got seated, we curiously explored the entire place and were wowed by the simple yet beautiful deco as well as the conduciveness of the place for studying or even holding a birthday party (there is a hidden lift to bring all your guests up!). Cool aircon (refuge from the heat outside), beanbags to rest on, lovely view of the outside and a great music playlist; all made the cafe a definite choice for us that morning!

Hungry and a little greedy that morning, we chose the largest meal on the menu - the English breakfast set ($16.50), topping the meal with an ice chocolate drink ($3) to share. That's not all, we wanted to try more; A thick waffle ($4), topped on with French Vanilla ice cream ($3) followed after. We returned to our seats with a buzzer that rang when our food was ready to be collected.

Food arrived swiftly and we were happily (but irritatingly) snapping pictures and instagramming them. The appeal of both dishes was really strong, we couldn't decide which to start on first, so we had both at the same time.

Although the cafe specializes in coffee, we aren't coffee lovers so we had an ice chocolate instead. We expected it to be somewhat like ice milo but it turned out to be much better. Rich in cocoa and appropriately sweet, it was interesting to have it cold because chocolate is usually served hot.

The English breakfast set was normal but wholesome - scrambled eggs, a baked tomato, bacon strips, a bockwurst sausage, baked beans, toast and herb-seasoned mushrooms. We really enjoyed the bacon strips although they were a little too overcooked while the herb-seasoned mushroom pieces were baked nicely with a tinge of pepper. The scrambled eggs were sweet to our surprise, not the peppery kind. We were glad we shared the set because it would have been too much a portion for us to have one individually.

Fragrant, thick, warm, soft and yummy; adjectives most apt to describe a waffle which was simply just good! The French Vanilla ice cream was rich in flavor, not too sweet and went well with the waffle.

Two hours in the cafe was definitely insufficient, I would have loved to stay there for the entire afternoon! Coming in earlier in the morning to secure a good seat is advantageous as the cafe gets crowded with both students and office workers towards lunchtime. Would definitely be back for a longer period of time, earlier!

Words by Esther Ho

d'Good Cafe
273 Holland Avenue #02-01/02
Singapore 278992
Sundays to Thursdays: 10am to 10pm
Fridays & Saturdays: 10am to 11pm
62199807