SINGAPORE: Fika and 320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe

SUP LADLES AND JELLYSPOONS~

Jia here~ As with most of our posts this is one that is looooong overdue, and I thought I'd pick up the slack a little since the mid-semester break has started. This post is from way back in January-ish when we were in Singapore. 320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe is a icecream place that makes their icecream with liquid nitrogen. It is located in several locations(Geylang, Paya Lebar, and in Tampines) and claims to be the only Nitro Cream cafe in Singapore. The one we decided to go to was located all the way in Paya Lebar's OneKM mall and we wanted to go with our friends so it took a while to organise. Eventually we decided on a good time and met up at the Paya Lebar MRT(mass rapid transport) station, then walked to OneKM mall.

Our lovely companions Amanda and Louise

Of course, by the time we got there we were pretty hungry since it was lunchtime, and we walked around the mall trying to think of a good place to eat. Eventually, Fika Swedish Cafe and Bistro caught our eye and we went in.

Fika Swedish Cafe and Bistro

It was a bit odd, like a little piece of suburban neighborhood just plonked in the middle of the mall, complete with hanging pot plants, lampposts, a white picket fence, fake grass and other homely decor.

Atmosphere

As I said, the decor was really suburban neighborhood, which was cute I reckon. This is probably rather novel because Singapore is a very urban city and majority of the housing is in flats and those with houses have a rather different sort of neighborhood; beautiful houses all crammed together with usually very little garden space if any, and high security imposing gates and such, nothing like the typical American Dream white picket fence house type. It was also very.. white, which made for good photos when the food came. 

 "Jia Wen, go behind that fence and look through it""Like some creepy stalker?""Yeah"

Food

 

We didn't want to be too stuffed when it came to dessert time, so we only got 3 dishes between the 4 of us. This turned out to be quite enough, as we struggled to finish it all. 

The first dish was the Smoked Salmon Salad. I don't know why but this year I've really been getting into the whole smoked salmon and cream cheese and salad kind of thing, I just find it absolutely delicious. I wasn't too keen on the random hard rye crispbread as I was more focussed on the salmon. It was pleasantly tangy, with the mixture of feta cheese, cucumbers, lemon, cherry tomatos and mixed greens. I'm not too sure what dill mayo is but it tasted like normal mayonnaise to me. 

The second dish was the Meatball Melt, and oh my gosh  they were good. I'm writing this review like 8 months later and I still remember it. On the other hand I was really hungry at the time and let's be honest, any combination of meatball and cheese is a winner. And that is exactly what this was. The only gripe I'd have about this dish is that ciabatta bread at the bottom, it was a bit of a pain to cut up. I'll admit when the dish first came I looked at Songie and like "Really? this is what you ordered?" but I definitely enjoyed it.

The third dish was the Pasta Bake which was apparently a family recipe. This consisted of melted cheddar cheese, creamy sauce and pasta, minced beef and those little cherry tomatoes on top. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the picture but still pretty filling, and I liked it but probably not as much as the meatballs? The pasta was a bit too creamy and cheesy and I honestly had no stomach for it in the end.

Presentation

It's pretty hard to dress up pasta, salad and meatballs so there's not much to judge here.. it didn't look awful, I can say that at least haha.

Service

Service was fine, food was fairly prompt and the staff were friendly enough. We didn't have much interaction with them beyond ordering, really.

Price

The salad was $19.90, the meatballs also $19.90, and the pasta bake was $17.50. It is quite pricey but that is generally the price range of Singapore cafes when you're out of the hawker centres. Average pricing, in general I guess.

Overall
Pricing aside, I found this place to be quite nice. Due to it's location and the abundance of cute cafes around Singapore, however, I probably would not find myself travelling out to eat there again.

OK back to the main point of our expedition, we located 320 Below near the entrance where we walked in, and quickly made our way down.

320 Below

I discovered this place because my friend raved about the coconut ice-cream and chocolate lava cake(shout out to Kerry!) It was really awesome because you got to watch the ice-cream being made right in front of you, and the cooling sensation of the nitrogen was a  nice contrast to the hot weather(albeit in the mall you don't feel the heat). 

There are tubs available for takeaway, which I will probably try to get next time, but this time I just had a scoop, being too full from the lunch. I tried the Earl Grey flavour, Songie tried theapple cinnamon icecream and the chocolate lava cake, and A and L got apple cinnamon and coconut.

They had their menu on these screens

 The Earl Grey one was nice, having the faint taste of the tea without being bitter. I actually really enjoyed the texture of the icecream, it was rather like frozen yoghurt but a little more brittle than that, if cream can be brittle... then it just melted away in your mouth with a refreshing feeling, perhaps similar to shaved ice? We all sampled each other's and I must say I wish I'd gotten the Thai coconut one too because that was really nice, capturing the essence of a sweet coconut without being overpowering.

Songie's Lava cake looked reeaaally good I have to say, and it had a rich, dark chocolate tinge to it, which was enhanced with the ice-cream. I liked the fact that the apple cinnamon had apple bits in it too, rather than just the flavouring.

Now I don't remember the price but I do know it was definitely under $10, which is pretty normal for icecream. Songie didn't find it too amazing but I would probably head back to 320 Below to try all the flavours and maybe take a tub or two home if it could last the train ride home in the blistering heat of Singapore. 

Cheers for reading this long post!!

Just the one Lamb

Ebisu

Helloo Ladles and Jellyspoons~

As mentioned previously it was Songie's birthday(yes I realise it was more than a month ago...) and we went to Ebisu to celebrate. We left around 7pm because you can't make reservations for dinner; you have to physically go there, "book" a table and wait for it(unless you are a group of 8 or more, which we weren't). Now, they recently had a change in menu that introduced some new things that are apparently rave-worthy, but I reserve judgement I suppose.

Atmosphere

 The decor of the restaurant was pleasantly classy and they made use of floral ornaments, with orchid pot plants scattered artfully around, and then(probably fake but I didn't check) sakura trees in a row behind a glass screen, warm tones to their seats, either with wooden chairs or tan, leather(?) seats. I guess you could say it had a kind of relaxing, zen vibe to it, especially with the low lighting. It's not so low you can barely see your dining companions but neither is it overly wonderful for your instagram photos, and you'd probably need a few lightening filters to see the food in the lower quality cameras of phones.
I suppose that like the seating, the whole area had a warm colouring. The brick walls patched up with concrete here and there left something to be desired but for once it wasn't the ceiling that was construction like. I guess the brick wall adds a bit of a edgy feel to it, like a warehouse or something, especially with all the open space.

view from the bar

View from our seat

Jia and the sakura background and edamame

Despite the relaxing decor, the place was just buzzing with chatter and it was quite hard to hear ourselves, let alone the waiter. In fact at one point a group of women were seated near us and they nearly broke our eardrums with their extremely loud laughter. I winced every time they laughed, and counting the number of times I did, there must have been quite a few comedians in that group. I probably looked like I had a tic or something. I do know it's a lot quieter at lunch though, so perhaps a lunch setting it would be better if you're looking for quiet.

Food

We started off with Edamame, as everyone should. They're delicious. Steamed/boiled immature soybeans still in their pods, that are salted lightly. You can alternatively suck or encourage the bean with your teeth out of the husk(both together for maximum enjoyment!). In my opinion they're best eaten warm because the bean hardens up a bit when it gets colder and it's not as nice. We ended up getting a second order of it.

The next dish to come was the Hamachi Kingfish sashimi.

This. This was my favourite dish of the night. It didn't have a strong fish taste(which I usually hate and therefore end up not eating any sashimi but salmon) but it had the slightly crunchy flesh feeling of some sashimi. I'm not really sure how to explain it if you've never had it. On top, they sprinkled crunchy potato(?) crisps, and rolled inside were paper-thin slices of radish. The overall result? A refreshing, slightly tangy, mix of textures and flavours, with the slight aftertaste of the vegetables, but not strong or cloying. Oddly satisfying but not filling, and leaves you wanting a little more. It might have benefited from a sauce that gave a hint of saltiness though. Then again they do give you soy sauce at the table that I didn't try it with, maybe that's what I was looking for.

 Free-range karaage chicken 

I'm a fan of this one. The skin was a bit hard but it was thick and crunchy and just perfect, not dry or anything. It also came with Japanese mayonnaise which we all know is great.  

 Steamed prawn dumplings

Apparently this one was the most popular dish of the moment but personally I did not find it all that great. Maybe it was the factor that as an Asian, I eat delicious dumplings a lot and also the fact it was spicy so I couldn't really find it comparable. People love the sauce apparently(it has almonds so watch out you nut allergic people) and ask the servers for spoons a lot. I mean it's not bad; not too spicy, homemade almond oil and bit tangy. (Song here: The sauce is actually kind of addicting. It's incredibly oily, but the tangy-ness keeps you craving more. Not entirely sure if thats a good thing or not but I reckon this dish is worth a try just for the sauce alone.) The dumpling itself I found to be disappointing, I find the prawn dumplings at Yum Char to be much better. The skin was thick and the filling didn't taste of much, so I guess that whole appeal is in the sauce.

Soft shell crab 

It's basically deflated crunchy stuff. It's quite oily because it was deepfried, the wasabi sauce was quite buttery, which is good because otherwise it would be too potent for me. The crab itself has no discernable taste so the wasabi sauce is the main flavour. I recommend you dip it with sauce in the container; it becomes a pleasant creamy mix of buttery wasabi, the odd texture of the soft shelled crab, and the sauce that is salty and strong.

 Seared Hokkaido scallops 

I'm not really a scallop person and I think if I'd had more than one I'd be less praising but for now, I found them to be plump and tender, buttery but not too oily, and overall it was pleasant but still not something I'd eat a lot of. There's just something about scallops that's a tiny bit nauseating, I can't put my finger on it. Others love it though. 

Tuna Ceviche Roll

All I tasted was ginger, which was put inside of the roll instead of on the side as usual. It tasted a lot better with soy sauce, but it still did not have much of it's own flavour.

Seared Cambridge Duck Breast 

This was my second most favourite dish of the night. I am quite partial to the taste and soft texture of braised duck rather than the typical crunchy skin duck of Chinese restaurants, and this was no exception. In addition to the duck, there was an arrangement of sliced pear on the side with two piles of different powders; chilli powder and some type of green looking salt. The idea is to eat them all together. I tried the salt+Sliced pear+duck combination and that was nice, but i think the salt isnt necessary unless you like stronger flavours. Otherwise the simple flavours of the sweet pear and braised duck would be a perfectly compatible mouthful for one's palate also.

Service

The staff were friendly, but because they were really busy they forgot things sometimes and were a little difficult to get the attention of. The manager went around constantly and talked to everyone, so kudos to him.

Presentation

As with most Japanese foods, all the dishes were presented beautifully.

Price
I didn't get the receipt because someone treated us and it's kind of awkward to as gok for the receipt but I gather it was around $120 give or take. It is a bit pricey but it feels reasonable. Top 3 are definitely the kingfish hamachi, the seared duck and the chicken karaage.

Thanks for reading~
The Lambs.

P.S. Thank you to those who have been asking after the blog, made me(Jia.. And maybe secretly Songie) feel warm and fuzzy :D

O Chef! My Chef! - A Change of the Blog Content?

Hello Ladles and Jelly-spoons~

Hello all~ Jia here,  and yes that was a play on the famous "Oh Captain! My Captain!" from Walt Whitman's poem, but I heard it first from the 'Dead Poets Society' movie(which is pretty good by the way). The topic of today's blog is the European-Asian buffet restaurant My Chef on Queen Street. Some of the images weren't mine because I thought I'd taken them but realised I hadn't once I got home.

Credit: https://wooh.co.nz/mychef-page-299-1-550.html

 I was working on this during my exam period and I shouldn't have but the temptation was too great. However, exams are now over and I can blog guilt-free. Recently we went out for the first time in ages because it was Songie's birthday. Which brings up something important. We started this blog because at the time we were eating out fairly often and could try many different places but as of late we realised we haven't been going out as much because we're not exactly social butterflies.

Yeah I guess we're pretty similar to Heimlich from A Bug's Life.

In fact this is probably me when we finally go out.

Credit: http://disneypixar.tumblr.com/image/94853751796

We do have a lot of posts to catch up on but besides that, we are thinking of making this a food and lifestyle blog. We do some travelling after all, though mostly to Singapore. It's just a thought at the moment, we're still on the fence about it right now. Just a head's up though, so you all don't start wondering why we've suddenly become a lifestyle blog as well as a food one. I mean we've already done something like that with the previous blogs, such as the China one, but you know, it will be slightly different.

Back to the food blog about My Chef, even though it's a buffet my friends and I just know it as a Korean BBQ place because honestly, it is the main reason anyone goes as far as I know. I went there on the last day of the semester with Brad, as a small reward for getting through half a year of uni, even if there's still exams. Our other friends weren't able to make it but it was alright since we ate enough to make up for it!!

Credit: https://wooh.co.nz/mychef-page-299-1-550.html

To get there, you have to go upstairs or up the ramp next to St Pierres Sushi in Mid City and it's opposite the Japanese place, Nikko.

Atmosphere
 It's got a friendly vibe, being a noisy buffet area. It's not so noisy that you have to shout to talk to your table mates though. Each of the tables are set with gas fueled BBQ hot plates and the whole place as a warm sort of aura(yes the fact it's a BBQ place helps), due to the wooden floors and furniture and beige walls. I did notice that it's quite a tight squeeze between chairs which is a pain when you all want to go get food and all that. ALSO: you have to pay attention very carefully to where you're walking. I didn't get a picture but the wooden floors were somehow very uneven and I nearly tripped over a couple of times, and I'm sure the table near me would have appreciated the raw meat flung on them.

We were sat in a more private walled table, and they helpfully provide spare cans of gas to use if you run out. They also usually provide aluminium foils which you do constantly need to change.

The wooden screen doors on the walls also give it a more Korean feel to the place.

Food

Credit: https://wooh.co.nz/mychef-page-299-1-550.html

The drinks bar had self-serve drinks, presumably coffee at the corner there, and two containers of drinks. I sampled the milky off-white one, which was a strange sweet liquid with rice bits floating around it. I'm not totally sure what it was but it was quite nice.

 The food, being a buffet, was spread out at the walls, having a range of cooked foods on one side, then transitioned to the raw meat in one section. 

There's also a freezer at the side should you feel you want even more selection but the best stuff is in the meat bar already.

Credit: whangareinz.com 

I didn't try much of the cooked food because I was more interested in the BBQ, but I have sampled the kimbob(basically Korean sushi) and the fried chicken wings. The cooked food isn't bad either, and I especially like the crispy skin of the chicken which is cooked to perfection. It does soften after a while though of course so it may not be crispy when you eat it. 

Now, the BBQ itself. For those of you who haven't tried Korean BBQ, and are wondering about the difference between normal BBQ and this, its probably just the smaller grill that you use and the type of meat. While there's charcoal grills like Faro, more commonly the grill is like a hot plate that has a small portable stove underneath, and to keep it relatively clean you are given a foil to cook your meat. These get filled with oil and burnt bits over time so you have to change foil after a while. We started off with Bulgogi and Fresh Pork Belly, because it seems like a logical choice seeing as when I eat Korean usually I go for the Bulgogi. I do, however, have a preference for marinated meat and these, well, weren't. There was one container that had sauce in it but was generally empty of any meat so I didn't really pay attention to it; Galbi. 

Just when there was some meat, and I got up to try it, this guy was in front of me so I patiently waited seeing as there was enough for both of us, but he just kept taking putting it on his plate. He just would not stop. I watched in disbelief as he took all the remaining Galbi and returned to my seat disappointed. However the efficient staff were quick to notice it and returned to refilled it completely so ha! jokes on him now. On the other hand because the meat that he got, sat in the marinade for a while it was able to soak up more of the sauce... oh well. It was still really good. I quickly filled up the plate(and left some for others like a polite person would) and went back to the table. 

Pork Belly and a piece of Galbi

Delicious Galbi grilling<3

 The bone wasn't as troublesome as I thought it would be, it separated fairly easily from the meat. Marinated meat is the best though, seriously.

Yay I didnt have to cook!

Service

Being a buffet you don't really have much need for service. There is a bar at one end and that's where most of the staff congregate if they're not refilling food or attending to customers. As noted earlier though, they were efficient and put aside spare foils and gas cans around the tables. They're also fine with helping you restart your stove grill when you decide that perhaps taking a break and turning the flame off is a good idea(which, by the way, is not). I'm serious, this happens every time at any Korean BBQ I go to. And every time, we can't get the flame going again, and have to ask the staff to help.

Presentation

Being a buffet I suppose the presentation is up to you, so I'll have to pass on this.

Price

The price is reasonable and student friendly, which explains the amount of students in the place, and you can eat as much as you like. They do have a stipulation that if anyone does not finish what they took then everyone at the table will pay a $10 extra fee. I reckon this is a good idea so that it ensures that people don't take too much and waste food. Us, we took in small amounts but many times, and took a break between plates so we could digest a little.

Conclusion

I think this place is worth a try whenever you're craving some Korean BBQ. The only other one I'm aware of in city that's not more upscale like Faro is the one at 492 Queen St, Auckland CBD, but it's a bit of a walk for uni students compared to this one just upstairs in Midcity at 239 Queen St. If you want to make a booking, call them at 09-3770855. Again, watch out for the floor and don't forget to finish all the food!

Thanks for reading,
Just the One Lamb