Singapore Arts, Beauty and Inspirations Male Blogger

The search for a good and affordable buffet became a constant tinkling in my mind and ultimately becoming part of my lifestyle for a few years already. It sounds so exaggerated but a non binge eater would not understand that. The need to force myself to quit this habit ever since I looked through my external hard drive and realized that I ate an average of 10 buffets per year, with the most hitting up to 14. As age keeps going upwards and cannot be reverse, I dared not continue this sort of food spamming. I admit that I usually ended up bloated with food that would take many hours to digest after a buffet session. Not to say buffets, I sometimes eat dinner twice in just less than an hour apart - a bowl of noodles + burger. WTH right...?
Enough of being a anti-buffet person for now since I am about to share a Japanese buffet experience.

I got to know about this outlet located at UE Square after scanning through my Entertainer App for 1 for 1 food deals. Check out some of the other deals using the app here! Not my best interior shot but I felt that the sushi bar is the essence of any Japanese restaurant.



It is an ala carte buffet where we ordered through the Ipad. Obviously the first thing I would usually look for would be the sashimi. My eyes literally lit up upon seeing the word 'swordfish'! How rare to have buffets serving swordfish sashimi nowadays. Even many hotel buffets remove swordfish from their buffet line. Could it be because of the price? The reason why I like swordfish is because their smell is really faint as compared to tuna, the texture is firmer and slightly chewier than salmon and taste wise would be harder to describe till you try it. Anyway, I easily wiped out 20+ slices of each (salmon and swordfish).



The ramen was just so-so to me but my friend really love it a lot. I guess it is just individual preferences. My other 2 favourite dishes that are not featured here due to ugly pictures were the unagi sushi and the pumpkin chawamushi. They were just amazingly delicious!


Besides the usual Japanese items like handrolls, sushi, sashimi, they also have grilled items! Too bad the pork belly we had was tough and dry, so we did not bother trying the rest unless it was stated that the grilled items were their specialty.

Need cups of tea to cleanse my tummy! Too busy with food that I did not take much pictures.

CooperVision may sounds quite familiar to those who wear contacts lens, since they are one of the world's leading manufacturers of soft contact lenses and related products and services. As most of us usually go for the 'normal' lens of near/far sightedness or even astigmatism (散光), we have no idea CooperVision actually carries another type of lens specially catered to people with presbyopia. 

 

Huh??? What the heck is presbyopia??? Never heard of that word before. 

 

Normally people around my age (mid 20s, not exactly young already), but still have not heard of this term before. Not until I googled its exact definition and spotted the Chinese word '老花'. Sounds familiar right?? Usually the older generation like our grandparents would mention the Chinese word instead.

In short (cut all those scientific explanations), it is when you feel like you need a pair of longer arms to clearly read newspapers or any articles because objects close up gets blurry. Usually affect everyone once you reach the age of 40-45.

 

Can you tell from the cartoon above which man actually have presbyopia??

 Man from cartoon: ''Hey, need some help here!''

contact lenses for presbyopia are getting popular since everyone wants to look good at all times, especially during occasions, attending gathering or events. 

Source from CooperVision

Before you actually purchase your lens, why not experience a 5 day trial session with CooperVision?

Check out the link here! http://coopervision.com.sg/trial-lenses 

   

 

 

The last time I visited Chinatown Food Street for a meal was a year back. The experience was definitely not the same last week since Chinese New Year is just around the corner. The streets were tainted red with New Year stuffs, lights and lanterns hanging overhead, vendors shouting for attention to promote their products, and I trying to squeeze my way through the crowded streets to get to my destination - Chinatown Food Street. Despite the horrible jam and everyone being forced to walk slowly in tiny steps, I could feel everyone's impending joy and excitement for this festive season.
 

Finally reaching Chinatown Food Street - From 30 Jan to 18 Feb, the operating hours of Chinatown Food Street will be extended to 2am daily! In order to cater to the supper fans, an additional 120 seats has been added and bringing the total capacity to over 800 pax! Not to forget the range of 24 hawker stalls to order from too.

Chinatown Food Street will be closed on 19 Feb (Chu Yi) and will resume operations on 20 Feb with its original operating hours of 11am to 11pm. 

The Event kick-started off with the Yusheng (S$28 for small, S$38 for large), also known as lo hei. It is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor. I read through the cheng yu (4 word Chinese idioms) with my cannot-make-it mandarin during each addition of ingredients before we all started lo hei-ing wildly! Bits and pieces raining everywhere across the whole table....


Posing with the rows of electronic firecrackers which 'exploded' with realistic crackling sound every hour from 8-10 that night. This is the only yearly season when I get to pose with firecrackers.
 

After the lo hei, we were all ready up for the game! Each groups were to purchase 10 different dishes from any stall along Chinatown Food Street and to take a photo with the (hashtag) #Chinatownfoodstreet ! Below are some of the food pictures I have taken for your reference. (Not according to any sequence, just the nicer pictures.)
 

Outlet name: Chong Chong Ngoh Hiang Prawn Fritter



Outlet name: Newton Circus Admad Ibrahim Satay

Outlet name: Maxwell Road Soon Soon Popiah . Laksa

Outlet name: Chinatown Enak Fritters



Outlet name: Chinatown Crab Master

Outlet name: Food Street Fried Kway Teow Mee 





Outlet name: Chinatown Food Street Hot/Cold Beverages

It would be great if only I could try the food from every single stall, provided my stomach could digest in time before sleep. I kept mentioning that we all needed a coconut drink to cool off the heat as well as to quench our thirst! Our table really ended up with mainly coconuts and lime juice!
 

Evilbean and I posing with our coconut!
 

By the way, the winner of the game was my group!!! We were all so siao-on, dashing off to order the food and back busy with the hashtagging! From 13 Feb to 3 March, spend $10 in a single receipt at Chinatown Food Street and get a 20% discount voucher off Trick Eye Museum admission tickets. T&Cs apply: Voucher is valid until 31 March 2015 only

Photo Credits: Lunarrive blog

 

Too bad you can't reserve the whole Chinatown Food Street for yourself! (I so love the bright light at this spot!)


Thank you Rachel, Chinatown Food Street for the invite and Charmaine, Peishan for the hosting!
 

Domino's once again launches something new, something golden

 right before this coming Chinese New Year!

Not 1 but 4 exciting new baked Golden Chicken that comes with different sauce and toppings!

No pizzas, rings or drumlets picture in this post since these Golden Chicken are snatching the limelight for now! (You can check out my older posts for their pizzas here and here if you want.)

 Golden Mexican Chicken

Golden Outback Chicken

When these Golden Chicken arrived on our table, all of us could not wait to try all 4 Golden Chicken! (Not without taking pictures first of course.)

''Which is which?''

''This one taste really good!''

''This one quite spicy!''

''I also find this too spicy.''

''I don't know which one I am eating but it taste so good!''
''It is quite convenient to eat these.''

Mainly positive feedback started flowing, like the chocolate molten lava cake that Domino's have.

Anyway, the base may look a bit charred and hard because of the cheese. I guess the base was meant to gather the bite-size 'chicken balls' together.  

Right now Domino's is running the GOLD RUSH PROMOTION!!!

Key in these discount codes for these benefits!! (Valid till 8th March!)

Not only that, check out this link on how to win attractive prizes when you purchase from Domino's!

Thank you The Influencer Network and Domino's for hosting us.

Thankfully I did not add 'No buffets' to my list of New Year Resolutions this year because that point would surely be in vain, just like the previous years. It was so shocking that I already went to my first buffet session so early this year...Yeah, that early...
I need to stop ... as my records for the average number of buffets I had each year was 10. (8 - 14)

I love it when the place is nicely furnished, giving me the impression of a greenhouse feel, maybe because of the glass panels that allows natural light to pass through. I felt like a dwarf sitting right beside a giant artificial potted plant.

Admiring the splendid architectural design.

There was quite a wide spread of international selections, including Indian food section which I got to savour some of those hardly eaten before Indian cuisine. (Not shown here)


I felt that the concept of the buffet was more towards the market place style. Not just because of this picture that shows an extensive array of vegetables fit for a monk's spread here.

My jaws literally dropped when I saw this section of breads! Gosh, what a spread. That's not all, check out below.

The first thing that actually came into my mind was how much wastage would there be at the end of the day? Maybe not for me but do people actually go for bread during buffet? Let's not talk about breakfast since it could be a stable food for most people, especially foreigners. Buffets sure have plenty of wastage in the first place anyway and leftover bread would usually end up in bread and butter pudding since the basic ingredients for it are just eggs, milk, cream and sugar.

The sashimi section never fails to put a smile on my face! Quite fresh I would say.

Just trying out (almost) everything available. Was a bit disappointed as I had expected a large slab of beef on a chopping board, ready to be sliced on the spot. Too bad chicken was in place.


I kind of liked the design of the counter display chiller where the pastry chefs could place their buffet refills in. Most probably the pastry kitchen would be on a different level due to space constraints. Only the culinary side have that privilege because they had to cook ala minute.   

Last week I was invited to The Entertainer Launch Party 2015, located at Lime House! Lime House is Singapore's first Caribbean restaurant that serves really unique Caribbean dishes. I got to try 3 of the tapas and they were nicely marinated, mainly infused with a blend of herbs.

We were served some alcoholic drinks that night. So sorry I still couldn't finish my drink despite adding plenty of ice... I am just not suitable for alcohol ...

While hanging around chilling with some tapas and having ice cream from Marble Slab Creamery, I got to know new blogger friends who had similar passion (in food) as me. Had a chat with my blogger friend Monice who was at the event too!

P/s: I actually took many pictures with them as well as with the mascot. Too bad the pictures did not turn out decent enough to be post here. =/ There is always a next time...