Wednesday, February 27, 2008,8:40 PM
heres another food post for u guys.
me and OH have always been avid lovers of nice cuppas of tea (i mean those dat look pretty in their pretty cups and teapots, and not those kopitiam-style teh-O ah!) and trying out new F&B places, so Tea Cosy seems to fit our needs well enough!
I 1st knew about this place through a food programme quite long ago which featured various cosy tea places dat serves food too. And coincidentally, we came across this cosy place while browsing Plaza Singapura (but it still didnt strike me dat this was the same place i heard about long ago den), attracted by their classy European decor and furniture (its actually a small cafe in a small furniture shop).
Until last week, we were looking for a place for drks and dessert after dinner, so i suggested Tea Cosy, and its only when we reached the place dat i realised it was the shop we were looking at all these while!
They serve main courses and breakfast too, but heres wat we had:
a mini-cakes sampler($6.50 i tink) and 2 cups of tea($4.50 each)
the mini cakes sampler is a two-tiered porcelain tray with 5 of their supposedly best-seller cakes in mini bite-sizes. we also tried two flavours of their hot tea (coz it looks so pretty lah!), the reddish one at the background being raspberry-something, which was some raspberry flavoured tea (duh!), and the lighter yellow-coloured one in front was called Thousand Nights, which is a lemon-based tea with lemongrass flavours in it. Not too sure abt the raspberry tea coz i didnt get to try it, but the lemon one was pretty refreshing, and helped in washing all the sinful cakes down. My only grouch was that the cup is too small for $4.50! But 1 nice thing was dat the lady boss (i think) came and offered to refill our cup with hot water so dat we could have a second helping of our tea. :)
so heres an introduction to our cakes! The 3 cakes above were (clockwise, starting from left)tiramisu, choc fudge and mango cake (sry for the poor quality of pics again!). Personally, i dun think the cakes tasted very great, but they weren't too bad too. the OH liked the cakes though. Generally, all 3 are soft enough and not too dry, but i still prefer my cakes softer, like the melt-in-your-mouth kind. The coffee taste in the tiramisu was pretty evident, but not the alcohol though. I still prefer my tiramisu with more alcohol! :) the choc fudge was nothing to rave abt. the mango too, but at least the mango tasted fresh.
the last 2 cakes are choc brownie and banana cake. choc brownie was pretty normal too, but i think it might have been better if they warm the brownie up, and i eat it str8 upon serving, coz i still very much prefer a warm brownie! the banana cake too, wasnt special enough for me. the OH liked the banana cake most of all, but i didnt feel that the banana flavour was strong enough for me. shrugz.
For those who like European style decor, cosy ambience and pretty things, can give this place a try. :)
Tea Cosy
Level 5, Plaza Singapura (inside a furniture shop called The Ecclectric)
people can be really good at counting money, counting time, counting possessions and material goods, but they just cant seem to count their own blessings, can they?
me, for one, prob cant.
i admit.
i am pretty lucky.
not those "damn bloody heng", walk-every-few-steps-also-can-pick-up-money-on-the-streets-kind (excuse the crude language), but i didnt have to worry much from young.
not about food, clothes, education or wateva it is that constitutes "basic necessities".
prob the things i worry about were "will there be pple playing with me today?" (before pri sch), "do i have enough frens to go recess with me and talk to me during class?" (pri sch), "am i cool enough? does so-and-so like me? can i pass the exam?" (sec sch), "where to go pa-toh later ah? how to improve my bowling?" (in JC), and so on.
dad & mum always made sure there was food in the house everytime we were hungry (it doesnt matter whether the food was wat we wanted or not, as long there must be food).
they made sure we had new clothes for occasions and dragged us out to buy clothes if there isn't.
they tried to let us learn wateva we wanted to as long as it is not harmful, which resulted in me picking up tennis, drama & speech, organ, guitar, swimming, badminton, volleyball, soccer, bowling, cycling, blading and dunno wat else, but ended up being half-bucket-of-water in most of them.
education was sumthing they ranked high on their "Important for Kids" list, and something they made sure they will scrimp and save for, at least until a degree.
resenting as i may seem, over their countless naggings, punishments for not doing homework or poor test results, not letting me go out and play 2 days before an exam, and now STILL trying to coax me to consider taking a 2nd degree or further studies with a Masters (but this time with my own $ though), i am finally starting to count my blessings one-by-one.
i do forget them occasionally, i will.
but i know eventually, they will come back.
i know even if one day, i may be down-and-out, with no money, no friends, i know there will always be food at home for me.
so people, learn to count your blessings.
even if u think u dun have much of it from young, just count the few blessings you have, because at least you are better than those who don't have any.
ok, on a happier note, heres how i spent Valentines Day.
rented a car, and met the OH for dinner after work.
and nearly half of Singapore was out lah, the roads started to get crowded after 6pm (i could have beat the congesting crowds and parked my car by 6pm, but due to plain old boo-boo me, i ended up going round and round the west and central areas before i finally parked my car close to 7pm!).
anyway, had dinner at Harry's @ Chjimes, coz they had this Valentines Day set dinner @ only $35nett per pax, inclusive of 1 complimentary champagne. quite cheap for a dinner at Chjimes rite?
so we happily went to look for the restaurant, and realised its in the basement level, which is away from the romantic centre stage!!!
so ok, fine, at least STILL in Chjimes lah, high class place leh, so juz enjoy our "er ren shi jie" loh.
den when the menu came, it was a 3-course dinner, appetizers were a choice of either Fresh Tasmanian Oysters or Lobster Bisque, mains were choice of Beef Wellington or Grilled Ocean Trout, and dessert was a normal brownie with ice cream.
so we were thinking "ok lah, not bad ah, $35 got champagne still got lobster or oysters, okok".
so i had the oysters and the beef, OH had lobster and beef.
when the food arrived, it still looked ok, maybe coz its quite dark there so cant really see much of the food lah. but the 5 shells of oysters i had were quite pathetic lah! the meat was quite flat and scrawny, not the "fei mei" kind loh (those who like raw oysters will understand)! but lucky it wasn't very fishy in a bad way, so the 2 pathetic lemon slices were enough for me.
but the lobster bisque that the OH had was REALLY BAD. it smelled AND tasted fishy, so i suspected that the lobster (or whatever they used) was not fresh. I just had 2 mouthfuls and i gave up. urgh. poor OH tried to finish nearly half of it before no more could go in. if it wasnt a happy occasion, i would have half a mind to call the manager over and ask for an explanation. but oh well, its Valentines Day mah.
after dat came the Beef Wellington. for those wondering wat the hell is that, its actually beef tenderloin steak pan-fried with enoki (i think) mushrooms and wrapped in a filo pastry over a bed of potato mash. this was pretty average, but defintely better den the appetizers. the filo was so-so only, but the bottom part soacked up some of the juices from the meat and the mash and tasted abit like roti-prata in sauce. lol. the beef was pretty ok, at least i see blood in it, so its prob done medium-rare (i tried to tell the waiter how i wanted our beef to be done when ordering, but he answered me "so sorry, our beef is all pre-fried already" lol). the jaw gets abit sore from chewing meat towards the end, but other den dat its ok. mash n mushrooms are ok too, so generally the dish is pretty ok.
den came the dessert. when the waiter served ONE plate of dessert for the both of us to share, i thought he got it wrong, until he placed two forks down. and i thought i ordered TWO sets? but anyway, we were both quite full already, so we just let it be lah. anyway its just a normal heart-shaped chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. normal stuff too.
oh, and the champagne! I happily drank a few sips before I was reminded of the "sad" fact that I was supposed to be the driver for the whole nite! so i left the rest of it sitting prettily in the champagne glass in front of me and asked for ice water (and it took nearly an hr for 2 glasses of water to come lah!!) instead. urgh.
after dat nite, i decided, if we were to go Chijmes again, it better be in a much better restaurant, or at least on the 1st floor lah! and hopefully i dun have to drive there?? :p
after dinner, went to pick a friend and went clubbing together with the usual grp of pple.
after clubbing, went for dim sum supper at Geylang (PL gang, muz go there tog if we can 1 day leh, the dim sum not bad de! den after dat can play tong xiao MJ at someone's hse!), fetched fren home, played the car awhile den went home. End of Valentines Day!
-shagged-
Sunday, February 03, 2008,7:40 PM
after MIA-ing for awhile, am finally bk again!
didnt have anyting much to blog abt, luckily except for some spur-of-the-moment pics i took of stuff i fed myself with
went for a dessert break 2 fridays bk as i had alot of time to kill b4 my appt, and i was craving for cheesecake the day b4.
so since i was in plaza sing, i popped into the Secret Recipe cafe for cheesecake as alot of frenz were raving abt how nice their cheesecake was!
so this was wat i had:
cheesecake and coffee! i would rather pair cheesecake with tea, if not for the fact dat i was half sleeping dat day and i desperately needed coffee to wake me up a little.
so i ordered a raspberry cheesecake (which was frozen cream cheese blended with raspberries on a choc biscuit base) and a cup of brewed coffee.
ordered this flavour mainly coz i dun wanna try those usual boring flavours like american cheese, oreo cheese, strawberry or blueberry cheese, but yet i like the pairing of berries and cheese. so ta-dah! raspberry+cheese!
and honestly, it was really not bad! the cheese was creamy and solid but not overpowering, and the fact dat is was frozen instead of fridged suits my palates more coz its more wholesome. the raspberry coulis dat was blended with the cheese was sweet enough to partner the otherwise tasteless cheese, yet providing a slight tartness dat berries shld have. the base was more crumbly den cakey, which is not bad to provide a slight crunch among the cheese.
at $4.90 a piece, it isnt very expensive as most cafes charge ard dat price too. and they have alot of varieties, which means i wun get bored so easily!
but an impt note, DON'T order their brewed coffee! it sucks! really. ignoring the fact dat it is pretty thin for brewed coffee, the coffee have a very weird taste dat i cant put my tastebuds to. i was thinking its probably the coffee beans they use, if not the barista's method of brewing. wateva it is, it sucks. dun believe me? go try it for urself den. i would much rather have their smoothies or sodas or prob even tea instead.
was doing canvassing with a friend of mine on a weekday, but unfortunately, our 1st choice already had an AIA roadshow booth there, and our 2nd choice had a very bad crowd. and i guess we were both pretty bo-chap to work dat day, so we decided to go for lunch at bugis instead b4 going to temple to pray. after lunch, my friend treated me to dessert nearby as she did quite well this mth, so we went to this cantonese dessert shop called "Ji de chi" (translated as "remember to eat") along liang seah street, juz a few shops down the lane from Lai Lai Beef Noodle. it was featured in a food show on tv recently too!
as it was a hot afternoon, i had the usual yang zhi gan lu (mango with pomelo and sago).
and boy, it came with a huge serving of shaved ice (see below)!
but since it was a hot day, i didnt mind.
juz a short intro to this dessert for those who don't already know wat is it, its actually fresh mango blended with mango juice, to which fresh pomelo sacs and sumtimes pomelo juice and sago are added to it. after which, cubes of fresh mango are thrown in, and topped off with sum shaved ice to kp it cool.
so the little bits of pinkish thing u see below are the pomelo sacs, which are supposed to provide some sourness to the sweet mango, creating a nice contrast of flavours (apologies for the poor quality of the pics by my miserable 2-megapixel hp)
and after mixing in the ice with the mango, u get the pic below, mango dessert!
another reason i figured why they have to put ice, other den to kp it cool, is oso to water down the thick mango puree, so dat it becomes more drinkable and people wun get sticky throat and start looking everywhere for water after eating it.
however, there are varying tastes, some pple like more ice so dat it becomes more liquidified and "soupy", and prob less sweet too. some pple weill prob choose not to put any ice if they have their way, as they wanna taste the pureness of mango such dat it becomes sumting like mango cream, without the cream dat is.
personally, i need the ice. but i feel dat this stall gives a tiny bit too much of ice, such dat it is palatable, but at the expense of abit of richness of the mango. maybe i shld try asking the auntie to reduce abit of ice for me? heh. but as a whole, its not bad. and i like it that they have more varieties den the usual dessert shops too. price is juz a little bit higher, $3.50 for this yang zhi gan lu, and $2/$2.50 for the usual sesame/walnut/almond cream. as for the rest of the desserts they offer? go find out urself. :)
this is really random.
was grabbing a quick dinner at amoy food centre, but surprised that 80% of the stall were already closed! shrugz.
but luckily, i found this stall which has tv posters on it, and is selling noodles at very cheap prices!
it is run by an old cantonese couple, selling noodles like wanton mee, dumpling mee, chicken mee, hor fun, etc. and the smallest portion is only $2! (ok maybe i haven seen $2 noodles in an outside eating place for a long time, lol).
so i ordered the $2 portion coz i wasnt dat hungry, thinking dat it will prob be quite miserable. but surprisingly, its not! i forgot to take a pic to show u guys, so u juz have to go try it urself yeah? the amount of noodles is substantial for a female eater, but they give quite alot of ingredients for dat price, which includes a bunch of veg, 5/6 dumplings and quite a handful of charsiew! generally, its not a bad plate, juz dat i prefer it to be a little saltier, prob give me more soya sauce? heh. if u guys are ard that area and wan a cheap meal, can pop by this stall
the mini cakes sampler is a two-tiered porcelain tray with 5 of their supposedly best-seller cakes in mini bite-sizes. we also tried two flavours of their hot tea (coz it looks so pretty lah!), the reddish one at the background being raspberry-something, which was some raspberry flavoured tea (duh!), and the lighter yellow-coloured one in front was called Thousand Nights, which is a lemon-based tea with lemongrass flavours in it. Not too sure abt the raspberry tea coz i didnt get to try it, but the lemon one was pretty refreshing, and helped in washing all the sinful cakes down. My only grouch was that the cup is too small for $4.50! But 1 nice thing was dat the lady boss (i think) came and offered to refill our cup with hot water so dat we could have a second helping of our tea. :)
so heres an introduction to our cakes! The 3 cakes above were (clockwise, starting from left)tiramisu, choc fudge and mango cake (sry for the poor quality of pics again!). Personally, i dun think the cakes tasted very great, but they weren't too bad too. the OH liked the cakes though. Generally, all 3 are soft enough and not too dry, but i still prefer my cakes softer, like the melt-in-your-mouth kind. The coffee taste in the tiramisu was pretty evident, but not the alcohol though. I still prefer my tiramisu with more alcohol! :) the choc fudge was nothing to rave abt. the mango too, but at least the mango tasted fresh.
the last 2 cakes are choc brownie and banana cake. choc brownie was pretty normal too, but i think it might have been better if they warm the brownie up, and i eat it str8 upon serving, coz i still very much prefer a warm brownie! the banana cake too, wasnt special enough for me. the OH liked the banana cake most of all, but i didnt feel that the banana flavour was strong enough for me. shrugz.
cheesecake and coffee! i would rather pair cheesecake with tea, if not for the fact dat i was half sleeping dat day and i desperately needed coffee to wake me up a little.
ordered this flavour mainly coz i dun wanna try those usual boring flavours like american cheese, oreo cheese, strawberry or blueberry cheese, but yet i like the pairing of berries and cheese. so ta-dah! raspberry+cheese!
and after mixing in the ice with the mango, u get the pic below, mango dessert!
it is run by an old cantonese couple, selling noodles like wanton mee, dumpling mee, chicken mee, hor fun, etc. and the smallest portion is only $2! (ok maybe i haven seen $2 noodles in an outside eating place for a long time, lol).