Opens only on the weekdays from 12pm-3pm, i knew i had to grab the sister along when i went to check out this place on the day i was delivering biscuit to her office.

I’ve been to Spruce but not Spruce Taqueria.

It was raining when we were there that afternoon and not-surprisingly, i find it more pleasant and definitely an added bonus. :)

Perhaps it was the weather, there were only 2 other patrons when we arrived. However, in between our meal, quite many humans trotted by for take-away and i think most of them were housewives staying nearby :P

Tacos set

We stared hard at the blackboard.

At least i did. I couldn’t decide between quesadilla and tacos. In the end, i went with tacos because the sister picked quesadilla.

The special item that was not on the menu that day was crab. We were told it was rather amazing. So i had my tacos with crab while the sister had short ribs quesadilla. We opted for the $9 set meal.. which was pretty reasonable. The set came together with salsa, chips and drinks!

Ooouuuu! Check out the crab in my tacos!

Amazing will not be the word i’d use for my crab tacos.

The sister and i agreed that crab wasn’t that suitable for tacos. Somehow, it wasn’t that special or tasty. If you must, it was rather forgettable actually. I think i might have preferred the tacos with either the fish or mushrooms…  But one thing though, they were quite generous with the crab. For this special $12 set, they really ought to! :P

Short-rib quesadilla

Aheeemmm.. this, was good.

Like Chubby Hubby, i practically wolfed it down too! Heeeee! The meat was tender and juicy, not the mention, flavourful! Very tasty! Of course, the cheese… oh the melted cheese…  need i say somemore? ^_^

Believe or not, what i really really enjoyed was neither the guacamole, salsa, chips, quesadilla nor the tacos but the watermelon juice and errrr, the rain! Grin. You can’t tell from the picture below but there was something in my watermelon juice… which made it a winner..

Can you guess what it was? :)

A not too small wedge of lime!

p.s : i will return for more! i really enjoy being amongst the greens when there are plenty of raindrops :)

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Spruce Taqueria
320 Tanglin Road

I thought it would be impressive.

After all, it’s St Regis for Pete’s sake!

Just look at the macarons!

Aiyoh…

What filling?!?!?!?

psstt : it wasn’t even buttercream inside! instead, you’ll find some sticky-and-sweet-dunno-what in it!

It was so pathetic that i didn’t bother trying all the flavours.

For $56+++, i expected a lot. It’s perfectly alright not to have many variety of food to choose from. I can’t stomach that much of food anyway. But when there’s no quality in that tiny quantity of food served, i really do not what to say except to sigh in disappointment.

To be fair, the scones were good. They were warm and crispy on the outside, and soft in the inside. The bite-size sandwiches were decent too and the teas, well.. it was enough to make you go, hmmmm.. which one should i go for?? and all teas were from TWG. But that was it.

Macarons aside, i was not impressed with the pretty looking tarts too. Hmphhh!

They were either cloyingly sweet or too normal.

Definitely not those tarts that make you go WOW, YUMS! sort. To be honest, i think an egg tart from KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken – is better tasting than any of these tarts served at St Regis.

Out of 5 tarts for 3 of us, we probably just ate 1. Out of 4 macarons for 3 of us, we probably just ate 1 as well! (uh uh, we can actually pick that many tarts and macarons only)

Oh well, thank goodness i was not there for the food but more for the girlfriend who swung by for the weekend. But we didn’t leave feeling grumpy and all…. because the girlfriend and i got coaxed into hitting the dance floor (yes, right here in full view of all other patrons!)  by the dance instructors for countless twirls and spins and some serious hip swinging moves just before we left.

That, was fun fun fun!

Oh, did i mention there’s live band too?

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Brasserie Les Saveurs

The St. Regis Singapore

• 29 Tanglin Road
• Singapore,
• 247911

The girls have been talking about a meal at Mellben for the longest time.

For the uninitiated, Mellben.. well, Mellben is da place for the famous Butter Crab and Crab Bee Hoon :)

I’ve always thought Mellben was a stall at a kopitiam.. you know, those normal looking kopitiam at suburbs.. but man, it wasn’t! The truth is, it looks very much like a restaurant! A spanky new restaurant! Then the girlfriends told me Mellben just received this new look not too long ago.

Aaaahhh.. that explains it!

check out the Q man.. i was armed with 50mm lens so i couldn’t quite capture the whole Q. the real deal was longer than this!

The girls got there early.. around 6pm and the queue was already long!

By the time the orders got taken, it was almost 6.40pm and the food was scheduled to arrive at 7.45pm only. Like any Malay would say, makan pun susah! :P

But we were pretty lucky. Our Crab Bee Hoon came at 7.15pm, much to our delight! *yay*

When the girls were discussing on the items to order over the emails, i got pretty skeptical when they insisted on the crab bee hoon.

My first reaction was, crab bee hoon?!?!?!?!? How good can that be?!? -- don’t hammer me, girlies! –

It looked so plain and unappetizing in the photos. Afterall, it was just some milky soup with no other ingredients but crap crab. But you know what? I was very wrong!

The crab bee hoon was very soothing to the palate, the soup especially. It was light, robust and the natural sweetness (from seafood)… it was, oh wowwee!! In another word, addictive! I couldn’t help but had quite a bit of it. :P

It kinda reminded me of laksa soup though..  sans the coconut milk and spiciness.

Shortly after the arrival of our first dish, our second dish came.. Butter crab!!!

The only let down was the fried mantou. After waiting for it for more than 10mins, i got up (could wait no more!) and reminded the service staff about it, and it came straight there after.

I heart the butter crab to bits!

Love the gravy most, to be honest. :P

I have only 1 thought on my mind then.. which was to wipe clean the plate with my mantou and the girls + i did just that! Not an ounce of the gravy left by the time we finished. Heh.

As for the crabs, personally.. i prefer the ones in crab bee hoon. They were much sweeter. Importantly, they weren’t overcook.. unlike the other dish. Uh huh.. much to my disappointment, the crabs in butter crab dish were overcook! So cooked that i almost didn’t wanna eat my last piece.. It was really quite dry.

Oh well, hits and misses.. inconsistencies.. that have been the review of Mellben of late. However, it will not steer me away from patronizing this place though. I simply cannot forget the Crab Bee Hoon’s soup and the Butter Crab’s gravy with fried mantou. Hee!

Oh, wait. How can i forget this!

Check out the crab roe!! (the whole lump of it.. not just the visible front side)

We had many heavily pregnant crabs in both our dishes. So much so until we had enough and didn’t want it anymore…

Did i tell you the girls are the loveliest bunch?

They are always full of surprises!

Pâté, lovingly lugged back from France by a girlfriend and as for the cupcakes miniature, you won’t believe what it is! – Lip gloss! -> This particular girlfriend has an eye for everything cute and will not hesitate to buy us all whenever she spots any.

Pretty awesome of her, aye? :)

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Mellben Seafood

#01-1222, Block 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 S(560232)
Ang Mo Kio
Tel: 6285 6762

The friends cannot stop talking about the very famous chili pan meen at downtown (in KL).

Because Kin Kin is only open for lunch during the weekdays, 1 of the girlfriends who is in between jobs insisted on bringing Darcy and i there right after our KK trip. Awww.. how could i say no right? ^_^

Then the girlfriend warned, “The place is not exactly OK-looking. It’s a little ewww ewwww at a ewww ewwww place.. so, u must not complain ah!”

Aiyoh!

As though i’d complain like that. I love street food! – Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta.. i’ve done it all! Squat and eat all the better… more feel okie?!

But errrrrrr… as long there’s no rat sighting, i’m fine :P

It was a Tuesday.

We had to leave at 10.50am so that we can reach there by 11.30am.. “Before the maddening crowd sets in”, said the girlfriend.

True to her words, the kopitiam (cannot call it a restaurant, right?) was almost empty when we arrived. But once both short and long hands on the clock points up right, the crowds from the offices nearby started pouring in.

Within 5 minutes after ordering, the food came. Excellent! The growling stomach was definitely very grateful :)

Ooouuuuuuuuu!!!! Lotsa fried ikan bilis and what a beautiful sunny side up!

The highlight of the whole chili pan meen trip gotta be the chili. If you were to come all the way here and not mix in the chili, you might as well not come because without the chili, the pan meen will just be any other dry pan meen found all over KL!

Very very spicy, toilet bombing guaranteed!, the gf cautioned when she saw me scooping in 2 heap spoonfuls of the chili. LOL. And i actually added half a spoon more after that!

You see, i really wanna eat until i sniff and cry and sniff some more. Heh.. It’s been a long time since i experienced that, y’know.. :P

Verdict?

I like it!!

Well, it’s different for sure… pan meen and chili, not to mention, dry pan meen, not soup! But the chili.. hmm.. it kinda reminds me of mee pok tah ‘s chili which i eat every Sunday, yes.. every Sunday(!!), rain or shine…

And the pan meen used at Kin Kin, i love it! Very QQ, got bite!

(Not sure if it’s the usual practice, but at Kin Kin, they process their ‘raw noodle’ right on the spot.)

So 2 and 1/2 spoonful of chili later, did i sniff and cry?

Nope!

So called toilet bombing?

Nope nope nope!!

Aduhh… next time, i’ll try 4 spoons!

Oh, because they are so famous.. copycats pop up everywhere!

In the street alone, where Kin Kin sits.. i spotted at least 4 wannabe… So, make sure to hop into the right kopitiam if you’re giving this place a go, yeah?

They do have another branch, re – photo above, but apparently, the Cheras branch which runs by owner’s son ain’t as good.