Food, glorious food, waiting to be served, waiting to be tried, tasted, discussed, revisited.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
The Coffee Connoisseur
@ Millenia Walk on 5/22/2006.
Went down for lunch last Tuesday to celebrate Chloe's birthday, as you can read from here.
Top row left from right: Me, Chloe, KW. Bottom row left from right: ZC, Alvin, JW.
Who knew that they had actual food?!?! I always thought that TCC was a place selling cakes, pies and 20 different variations of coffee. Otherwise known as a cafe.
The decor of the place was bright and modernish. Very cosmopolitan. There was a variety of seats to choose from, from chairs to sofas. We were a fairly big group, and the chairs were made for groups of 3 or 4 so we choose to be seated at the sofa seats.
At first, we felt funny sitting there because the seats were the same height as the table! There was no problem if we were gonna drink coffee and chill out, but we were gonna have lunch! We resigned to having to eat stooping over our food.
Normally, I wouldn't order any drinks other than iced water to go with my meal, but since everyone was ordering something, i gave in and joined them.
I forgot what our drinks were called. I only remember what flavour, and that they were mostly milk based.
Clockwise from the bottom: Peach, Banana, Forgot, Coffee, Passion fruit and Peach.
One word to describe the drinks: Medicinal.
Especially the passion fruit one which seriously tasted like liquid Panadol. And the banana one just tasted too diluted, most probably because the banana they used wasn't sweet enough?
The only reason that i can describe the drinks was because i was shamelessly tasting here and there. The only drink i didn't touch was the coffee, but seriously, how disgusting can coffee taste?
Luckily mine was peach, which tasted ok at first but became increasingly disgusting as i was eating my meal.
We weren't exactly spoilt for choice for main courses, but if you take the sandwich section into consideration (the sandwiches are huge, by the way), the menu was pretty much adequate.
Just when i was done taking this shot, the waiter came and whisked my salmon away! I was kinda stunned at first, but i realised that they served me the wrong order when the waiter brought the salmon to another table instead.
That was the TCC Kahlúa Salmon, which i had wanted to order initially, but changed my mind after KW informed me that Kahlúa had something to do with coffee.
Kahlúa: coffee-flavored liqueur made in Mexico.
I didn't like coffee in the first place, so i doubted that i would have liked my salmon to be dribbled with coffee sauce.
JW wanted to start eating very badly, but evil me stopped him.
Don't let the picture fool you. Although the Teriyaki Sabayon Salmon didn't look as scrumptous as the coffee sauced one, it was HEAVENLY.
The meat of the salmon was done just right, with it being firm, yet retaining the moisture and flavour of the fish. There wasn't much of the teriyaki sauce but i felt that it was a perfect combination.
The mashed potatoes more than made up for the lack of carbo in this meal to fill up my stomach. And it was also delicious to boot! None of that powdered crap you find at fast food chains.
Throughout the meal, we were complaining that it was so awkward to eat when the table was so low! KW even suggested to sit on the floor instead of the sofa, but i said it'll look so beggarish! Anyway, the food was so good that it quelled our discomfort.
At around $20+ per pax, this is definitely a place to come back to, even though you might walk out with a backache.
ps, you might have realised that the quality of the food photos suck as compared to the first one in this entry. Or you might have not.
This is because the first photo was taken directly from flickr while the food photos were uploaded through blogger itself, which caused the quality to deteriorate.
Until i find out how to widen the space of this section where the entry is posted, you guys have to be contented with bad quality photos because flickr's "medium" sized photos are too big for this space, causing the sidebar to end up below the posts.
Hailing from Australia, it has the best steak i've ever tasted for a long long time. The last time i had steak so nice was when i went to Jack's Place when i was still in Primary School.
Now their steak taste like old tires.
Coming back to the topic, i loved their service. Everyone there was all smiles and seemed so genuine, especially my server, Lily, who had a tongue stud and was damn cute.
Scarly they thinking, "Nabeh cb cannot rest must climb up and down take orders. knn!" If they were thinking that, they didn't show it.
And yes, got a upper level one. Decor was very country-ish and everything was made of wood. The music was damn retro also, all the evergreens.
I had the Avocado Prime Rib (for some reason, they call their steaks ribs) and it was done medium and damn juicy. Heaven.
The servings were freakishly large cos, to quote Lily, "they're meant for Australian stomachs..." Lucky we didn't order any starters.
I'd highly encourage going on an empty stomach cos even i nearly couldn't finish my potato. Speaking of potatos, they had a choice of mashed potatos, curly fries or baked potatos. And they also had a choice of having vegetables or a salad to go with the meal. I penged at all the choices.
In the end, i chose their baked potatoes and salad. The baked potatoes tasted like roasted chestnuts. You know, gao lak?
Back to why you shouldn't order any starters, a mother and son pair came in and ordered nachos as their starter. It came in a freaking huge plate that could have been shared by 5 people! I heard the son exclaim, "OMG, so much." By the time they finished their starter and their steaks came (their order was same as mine), they couldn't finish even half of the main course.
The mom, being the Singaporean auntie that she was, asked for a container to tapau the food. She was like, "Ok, pack this (son's steak) and this (her steak) and ummm this (the potato). I don't want this (the corn)."
So funny.
The meal totalled up to around $30+ each, a little steep, but it was well worth it.
From the name, you'd have to be an idiot not to know that this place is Italian.
With the intention of only having a snack, we went in and ordered an appetizer and a pizza.
Of cos, as you would have read here, we ate half the appetizer before remembering to take a photo of it. So don't get turned off by the phallic-ness of the dish and how it's such a pathetically small serving, because it's not.
According to the website, our appetizer, Augusto, was thinly Sliced Parma Ham and Rock Melon. And it rocks. Seriously.
The sweetness of the melon eaten together with the slightly salty ham was such a total clash that it blended!
The pizza was, well, what can i possibly say about an ingredient-less pizza except that it was nice?
Actually, if an ingredient-less pizza was nice, imagine one with pineapple slices, ham, tomatoes and everything else you can dump on a pizza.
Must be wonderful...
Oh oh! The glasses that the water came in were made of real crystal!
I would know because i made one hell of a din with all the wung wung sounds i was making by running my fingers along the rim of the crystal.
I can't tell you much because i wasn't really out to blog about food when i ate this so i'll just stop here. All i can say is that whenever you feel like something Italian, pray don't turn to the nearest Pastamania. There are better options!
Not like this place is expensive, with a large pizza going for $19 and the appetizers going for $9.
The staff were friendly and the interior was cosy. Recommended for couples celebrating their anniversary/just out for a romantic meal.
Located a few roads away from Sim Lim, it is an inexpensive yet tasty way to cool off after a day of shopping!
The only problem is that the roadside seats are always taken and sitting inside the shop in Singapore's stifling heat, with only the occasional breeze from the fan, can kill.
Met up with Xinhe and Boon Kian, my best buds from FDC to try out this newly opened restaurant.
Don't expect to fill up your belly there unless you order surplus, us being the poor NSFs that we are obviously didn't order more than one set each.
I'll advice you against ordering what i ordered, i forgot the name, but it was a seafood set. Order the meat set cos it seemed more filling.
The slice of fish (note i used the word slice) i had was so pathetic. If i were to have left it there any longer, the whole thing would be stuck onto the stone, never to fulfil it's destiny of being eaten. That's how thin the slice was.
Also, due to everyone's food being cooked on the stone infront of their eyes, the whole restaurant was filled with smoke which sticks onto clothes. You'll end up smelling like you just went for a BBQ at East Coast beach instead of to a restaurant.
At $20+ per set, i felt that what i got wasn't really worth the price.
The staff were friendly, but overzealous in promoting their desserts and various other after-meal condiments. Even after giving them a firm "No, thank you", they continued yakking about how the pears were soaked in red wine for several hours yadah yadah. It got irritating after awhile.
Verdict: It's just a novelty, and after you've tried it once, you wouldn't really think of going back.
Don't even bother visiting their website, they have nothing useful and the song that plays when it loads is damn irritating. If you still want to take a look, it's here.
With a blackboard touting it as the "Best Authentic Fish & Chips", i had to try!
Ordered the Fish & Chips set, which includes a drink and coleslaw, and a choice of either chips or fries. I'd suggest the fries cos they taste better. The chips just taste like a soggier version of the fries.
The interior was surprisingly cosy for something this open. (it's located right by the main road)
After finishing half a can of coke, the food finally came in baskets. What a good excuse not to wash up.
Ahhhmmm!
Despite the ambience, and the nice furniture, the main thing i was there for was for the food, and fish was a little let down.
It didn't taste very fresh, and was even a little on the tough side. And the fish kept poping out of the breaded layer la! So i ended up having to eat the fish and the outer layer seperately, which kinda defeated the purpose of it being breaded fish. It was more like fish and chips and breaded layer.
But seriously, you guys should just go try it for something new. It's quite a change from hawker center anyway.
At less than $10, it's quite a bargain, what with drinks and coleslaw too!
They don't have a Singapore website, but the San Francisco one is here.
Hey everyone, i've decided to set up a seperate blog for the (glorious) food that i've been sinning with.
Why the sudden decision? Cos i realised i've been posting so many entries on the many delectable delights that i might as well dedicate an entire site and join the food-blogging industry!
Not as if i can even pit myself against the blogkings and blogqueens of food out there.
Ok, i've crapped enough. The only reason for this entry is because i have to have one entry up before i can preview my template to change it anyway.
