Grasso Coffee

On the way to my sister's place, we took the MRT from Changi to Simei. We need to take a bus from Simei in order to reach my sister place. While my sister went to fetch my niece and nephew from their kindergarten, she bought me a latte from Grasso Coffee and asked me to wait there.

Grasso Coffee is your local coffee shop with a twist. They serve your local Nanyang kopi and gourmet coffee. I asked one of the co-owner are they using Italian coffee bean for my latte (because Grasso is an Italian name), he told me that their coffee bean is from Australia which is milder than Italian to cater for the local taste bud.


True enough, once I took sip of my latte it's not as bitter as the coffee I made in my office, which uses Segafredo coffee bean. Grasso is mostly cater for on-the-go customers, there's only one table there or you can choose to sit at the counter. Pricing wise is quite affordable. My latte cost SGD$3.30 (about Starbucks' tall size).

Grasso is your friendly neighborhood cafe, student gets 10% discount and they are very friendly and know most of their customers.

There's light snack available too, very good for those that needs a quick lunch or light tea time. My niece seems to like their Ham and Cheese Crossaint very much.

Old school on one side.

Modern coffee machine on the other.

According to the co-owner, Anthony, what's the meaning of Grasso. He told me that it means fat man in Italian and the logo is based on one of his partner that is a quite stout.

To help lessen the stress on the environment, customer is encouraged to reuse the paper sleeve by giving rebate on the next coffee if the same sleeve is reused.

If you happened to be at Eastpoint Mall, then you can come a try out the coffee from Grasso which is just in the row of  shops next to the mall. I will say that it taste as good as Starbucks if not better.



Address:

Grasso Coffee
Blk 248 Simei Street 3
#01-132 S(520248)
Email: GrassoCoffee[at]gmail[dot]com
Facebook Page: Grasso Coffee FB

Itacho Sushi (板長壽司), Terminal 3, Changi Airport, Singapore

Hello everyone. I've arrived safely in Singapore although the flight is not exactly a smooth ride due to minor turbulence because of bad weather. Once I've reached Terminal 1 and switch on my mobile phone, I got a SMS from my sister telling me to take the shuttle train to Terminal 3 to meet her for lunch at Itacho Sushi (板長壽司).

For those of you that watches programs from Hong Kong TVB would be very familiar with Itacho Sushi because they are the sponsor for some of the TVB's popular game show such as the Super series (将门人). Itacho Sushi is owned by Taste of Japan Group from Hong Kong. It seems that recently they've expanded to Singapore. I didn't get to try it when I was in Hong Kong but hey, I can do it now in Singapore.

I started off with Avocado Crab Salad SGD$6.30++, I'm a fan of avocado and salmon roe. If I see the item in the menu has any of these two ingredients, chances is high that I will order. Very refreshing salad, the avocado is nicely ripe. The only downside is that the crab meat is not real crab meat -_-

Cod Fish Liver SGD$9++, yums. Although it's not as creamy and flavourful as the Ankimo (Monk Fish Liver) that I had in Tomton but still this not too bad.

Currently there's a promotion on Yellow Tail (Hamachi). One piece of Yellow Tail nigiri sushi only cost SGD$1.90 instead of SGD$2.40. I tried the one with Black Truffle Sauce. Hamachi itself is already a nice fish, with the black truffle sauce, it's just added a new dimension to it.

Uni (sea urchin) SGD$8.20++ and Ikura (salmon roe) SGD$3++ gunkan sushi are my favourites. I will say that the uni and ikura here are fresh. 一乐也.

Last but not least, Wagyu Beef Roll SGD$13.60 (I forgot which prefecture the beef is from, most definitely not Kobe). It's not easy to find beef sushi in Malaysia, cooked one yes but not raw beef. Never thought beef sushi can be this nice even my mom and sister give a thumb up. Tender and fresh.

Overall, the quality of the food here it good albeit the so call crab meat. Price is quite reasonable for the quality ingredients it's serving. Go for their promotional items and one can saved up quite some money.



Address:
Itacho Sushi
Outlet 1 : ION Orchard #B2-18, 2 Orchard Turn
Outlet 2: Plaza Singapura, #02-35, 68 Orchard Road
Outlet 3 : Bugis Junction, 200 Victoria Street, B1-05
Outlet 4 : Changi Airport T3, 03-30/31
Outlet 5 : JCube 02-35
Singapore, Singapore

Today 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

Stars Studded Louis Vuitton Island Maison Opening, Sands Marina Bay Mall

I was in Sands Marina Bay Mall yesterday evening and saw a lot of people around the Louis Vuitton Island Maison. I heard from my sister that Chow Yun Fat and about 20 more celebrities will be coming for the opening ceremony. I was able to capture some of them making their entrance through the elevator. There were Vivian Hsu, Vicky Zhao, Lisa S, Ana Rivera (not Amanda S, sorry :p), Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chow Yun Fat. In between there were also Korean celebrities like Kwan Sang Woo, Japanese football player Hidetoshi Nakata, Bollywood stars and Cate Blanchett.

Here's the video that I edited. Sorry for the dark lighting.

No question that Chow Yun Fat was the friendliest and was love by the crowd there.

The Slide @ T3

Do you know that if you shop at Changi Airport, the 7% GST is waived? So, if you come to visit Singapore, you should really drop by Terminal 3 at Changi Airport to shop. Yesterday evening I went to have dinner in Imperial Treasure, Crowne Plaza Hotel at Terminal 3. I found out that you can exchange for rides on The Slide @ T3 for every $10 you spent but a maximum of ten passes in one receipt.

What is The Slide @ T3?

It's actually a 12 meter slide that spans from the level 3 till B1 of Terminal 3.

You can exchange for a slide pass for each $10 you spent in Terminal 3, so remember to keep the receipt and exchange it if you feel like sliding. The minimum height to slide is 130 cm and the maximum is 200 cm. I luckily were 20 cm short of the maximum height.

Every $10 spent at T3 will get you one ticket.

I tried it once from the 10 tickets we got from the receipt in Imperial Treasure. I know why there's a maximum height to play, I found the slide is very slow if you are tall like me. At the end of the slide, I couldn't even make it out without using my leg to get myself out lol. Another thing is that my Crocs are too large with will have friction with the slide that will slow the ride down. Think twice before you take the ride if you are 180cm and above because you won't get a smooth ride down.

You just have to scan the ticket and go in the entrance to the slide. If there's someone still not out of the slide yet, you won't be able go into the entrance. My brother in law told me that the fastest speed someone done for the slide is 4 seconds.

Red light means someone still in the slide or haven't exited yet from the exit below.

This one nice way to give back to the shoppers and diners in Terminal 3, Changi Airport. Maybe KLIA should do the same to attract more people to shop there since KLIA is so much further from the city than Changi Airport :p

It's Hari Malaysia but I am in Singapore

Happy Malaysia Day! Ironically, I am in Singapore now :p

I reached Singapore yesterday afternoon taking Nice++, usually I prefer to fly Air Asia because my sister's place is near Changi Airport but recently there's surcharge added on the airfare, so it's not that worth it anymore. Then my colleague told me that Groupon has a Nice++ deal. RM88 (normally will cost RM190) for return trips on Nice++? Straight away I charged it to my Maybank Debit Card and bought the deal. Terms & Conditions are that cannot exchange for rides on Friday, Saturday or Public Holiday. No sweat, I already took 3 weeks of leave so going on Thursday coming back on Monday is not a problem for me.

The Nice++ ride is very comfortable and it comes with a touch screen LCD running on Android. I can surf the web, play games or watch HD movie during the ride. How cool is that? One complain is that after departing from KTM pick up point, the bus went to KL Sentral and another pick up point to pick other passengers, wasted 30 minutes there. Another thing is that it we have to change to another bus in Johor Bahru Custom because the bus will continue on to drop the passenger in Johor Bahru and another bus will take the rest to Singapore.

On the other bus, a Japanese elderly woman suddenly asked me a question. So, I spoke back in Japanese that I almost forgotten already. I learned Japanese more than 10 years ago after I watched Long Vacation :p Nowadays most probably Korean is the more popular foreign language to learn. Found out that from the elderly woman that she's a volunteer in Japan Club in KL teaching Japanese. She come to Singapore just to have her passport stamped, Japanese gets a 3 months staying visa automatically in Malaysia, so before the 3 months is up, she has to leave the country to 'renew' her visa. She's been working in Sri Lanka for 12 years on precious stones. She told me that her hometown in Ibaraki is affected by the radiation dust, so even if she goes back to Japan, she have to stay in a friend's house in another unaffected perfecture. So sad to here that. Pray that the trouble in Japan will be over soon. She also told me that Fuji Mountain is a sleeping volcano and if it wakes up, there will be more trouble in Japan.

Okay, that's my little adventure while on the way to Singapore. I just had supper two hours after I had my dinner. My cousin sister drove by with her husband and son and took me to TP 802 Food House to have hokkien mee and a lot of other food. OMG. I am stuffed. I will write about it in another day. Time to watch some YouTube videos and the take my flu medicines and then go to sleep because the medicine will make me drowsodod..df.m.

Oh, by the way, have you registered to be a voter? If not, then please take a look at this video. Undilah, Jangan Tidur!

Si Chuan Dou Hua 四川豆花饭莊, UOB Plaza, Singapore

Woah, this is quite a backdated post during February Chinese New Year when I went down to Singapore to visit my family there. The 2nd evening I was there, my uncle that live in Singapore invited my sis, bro-in-law, my mom and the children to have dinner at a place that is very high, 61st floor to be exact. Located at the top UOB Plaza 1, this outlet of Si Chuan Dou Hua 四川豆花饭莊 has one of the best view over Singapore.

View of Singapore Flyer and Sands Marina Bay from the restaurant.

I was quite hungry, so ate a lot of tidbits while waiting :p

Also, you can see tea pouring performance here.

While we are concentrating on eating, suddenly a long brass pipe will appear out of nowhere to refill your tea lol.

It's CNY, so we started with Lou Sang. The version here comes with salmon sashimi and fried salmon skins. This is the first time I tried lou sang with fried salmon skins. Yums.

Yee Sang

Husband & Wife Lungs Slice (夫妻肺片) a dish consist of beef stomachs, beef, beef, beef heart but no beef lungs. The name is so misleading lol. It's slightly spicy and a bit of tangy sweetness. Quite suitable for those that can't take spicy food but still want to get spiced :p

Husband & Wife Lungs Slice (夫妻肺片)

Stir-fried Spicy Diced Chicken (辣子鸡)， this dish is definitely not for the fainthearted, not only that it is very spicy, it also will numb your tongue. But the spicier it gets the more I want to eat it. It must be my Endorphin acting up.

Stir-fried Spicy Diced Chicken (辣子鸡)

It's time to watch the chef perform. Slicing the Peking duck. To be honest, this is the first time I eat Peking.

The duck is sliced thinly with a bit of meat sticking to the duck skin. Wrap it with the rice flour wrapper with cucumber and spring onion slice. Put in a bit of the special sweet sauce. Not too bad. The rest of the duck is then taken back into the kitchen to be used for other dishes.

While waiting for that, let's move on to other dishes first. Time to cleanse the intestines with some green. Fatt Choy Hou Shi (发财好事), which actually is fatt choy (hair vege?) and dried oyster. Nothing to shout about.

Here it is, the rest of the duck meat are diced and stir-fried. Wrap it with lettuce to eat. This is quite nice.

Hong Kong Kailan in double boiled broth is a good way to balance things out with the meat I ate. I recommend this dish, it's very good.

Coincidentally Singapore Chingay 2011 is on going, so there's fireworks.

What better to end this delightful dinner with Tao Fu Fah, the name of this restaurant is named after Dou Hua, so this must be good. Yes, it is good.

Don't ask me the price because I couldn't afford it :P

P.S. There's also a branch in Malaysia in Park Royal Hotel. So, if you are interested but don't want to travel so far to Singapore, then it is a good option.

Address:

Si Chuan Dou Hua 四川豆花饭莊
TOP of UOB Plaza
80 Raffles Place, #60-01 UOB Plaza 1,
Singapore 048624
Tel: (65) 6535 6006
Fax: (65) 6534 5875

Opening hours:
Lunch : 11.30am - 2.30pm
High Tea : 2.30pm - 6.00pm
Dinner : 6.30pm - 10.30pm


Parkroyal on Beach Road
7500 Beach Road, Singapore 199591
Tel: (65) 6505 5722
Fax: (65) 6298 0716

Opening hours:
Lunch : 11.30am - 2.30pm
High Tea : 2.30pm - 6.00pm
Dinner : 6.30pm - 10.30pm


Malaysia

Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (603) 2782 8303
Fax: (603) 2145 2352

Opening hours:
Lunch: 11.30am –2.30pm
Dinner: 6.30pm –10.30pm

Lim Chee Guan (林志源) 肉干Bak Kwa, Chinatown, Singapore

Many of us in Malaysia will be very familiar with Bee Cheng Hiang the bak kwa (pork jerky) chain from Singapore. If I were to buy bak kwa in Malaysia, I will prefer Wing Heong (永香) which has been selling bak kwa for a few decades in Kuala Lumpur.

What if I am in Singapore, the hometown of Bee Cheng Hiang? Yes, Bee Cheng Hiang is easily available and be found in Singapore because there are so many outlets there. In fact, you can even find BCH in Hong Kong. For a Malaysian taste bud like me, I prefer Lim Chee Guan another famous bak kua store in Singapore, which only recently expanded their operation to 3 outlets (including the main branch). I found that their pork jerky is not too sweet like BCH's.

Since 1938.

I think Lim Chee Guan wanted to ensure that the quality control and assurance is there, hence the lack of expansion. Even though there aren't many outlets but still people will wait in queue for hours to buy LCG bak kwa for Chinese New Year. So I think most of the locals here also prefer Lim Chee Guan. That's why my sister purposely asked me to come to Chinatown to buy 500gm of bak kua for my uncle before the dinner at Si Chuan Dou Hua (四川豆花饭莊) later that evening.

It's already the 9th day of CNY, yet there's still a queue.

On the wall in this main branch at New Bridge Road, Chinatown there are newspaper cutting showing the long queue of people trying to buy bak kua on past Chinese New Years. I heard this year the queue is still that long.

If you ever come to Singapore, then you can try to buy Lim Chee Guan's bak kwa and compare it with the one in Malaysia. For me, I found it to be as good as Malaysia's. Those that prefer sweeter one might like Bee Cheng Hiang instead though.

Address:

Lim Chee Guan

Main Branch:
203 New Bridge Road (Chinatown MRT Exit A)

Branch:
People's Park Complex #01-25 (Chinatown MRT Exit C, just directly opposite the main branch)
ION Orchard #B4-37 (Orchard MRT)

Website: www.limcheeguan.sg
Email: info@limcheeguan.sg

Other Ppl's View:

Eat Like Us

Singapore Chingay 2011

No wonder the Singapore government is rich in cash until they can give SGD $40,000 to their citizen when buying their first HDB apartment. Even a traditional festival like Chingay can be turned into an annual money making event and a tourist attraction.

Singapore Chingay 2011 is unlike the Chingay in Penang or Klang, it is much like an event such as Singapore F1 GP at a tone down scale. For a good view of the Chingay parade, tickets have to be bought. There are also a lot of activities going on in the different zone of the Chingay festival. Luckily, there's an area that the public will be able to see part of the parade without having to buy the ticket. This is where I went to catch a piece of the action near Marina Bay.

I took some pictures of a part of the parade from the Free Zone. Leading the way are some girls dressed in bunny ears and bikers riding on their Harley Davidson motors.

Sorry, no Playboy Tuxedo Bunny outfit here. I recently found out that the Playboy Tuxedo Bunny costume is patented.

Will ya look at those bikes.

Coming up next is the fire breathing Dragon Car. Sponsored by Singapore Flyer apparently. Kaching $_$

Beauties and the Choy Sans 财神 (God of Fortune).

A very distinctive icon of a Chingay Festival, the giant flag bearers. See, even the flags have sponsor. The Malaysian government should learn from Singapore government in terms of getting additional income. Especially our Tourism Ministry, spent millions visiting other countries like the Tourism Minister own vacation but has done almost nothing in promoting our traditional festival and make some money from it.

It's not only a Chinese affair here, the Indians also take part in it. So, Datuk Seri, if you want to promote 1 Malaysia, this is the way to do it.

I like their Peacock parade car very much.

Here comes the Immortals (神仙)

A very pretty 仙女 here.

Of course there's a sponsor for this parade car. Money, money, money.

If those 仙女 are working in Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant, I'll be first one to go eat there :p

Last but not least, a parade car from Resort World Sentosa. While Sans Marina Bay is nearer, Resorts World trying to pull away their customer here eh, lol.

Is thang Zheng He (郑和)?

It's very nice to see the parades and the crowds there. There's also fireworks two nights in a row. Guan Eng should really plan something like this for Penang.