Oink Noona: Teppanyaki Hamburg Nihonbashi Keisuke Bettei, Tanjong Pagar

"I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door."

Just now Noona attended a lunch time zumba class and the instructor happened to play Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved for cooling down track. Maroon 5 used to be Noona's most beloved band and she often (shamelessly) sings their songs in KTV with some friends. Nowadays we don't really sing a lot of Maroon 5's songs anymore because we think their old albums are way better than the newer ones. Aigoo, now Noona feels like going to KTV. Time to plan for a session soon. Hahaha.

While we were humming on This Love, we have reached our Saturdate venue, Teppanyaki Hamburg Nihonbashi Keisuke Bettei. Yep, we have joined the snaking queue to try the pretty new beef hamburg restaurant from Japan which located at Peck Seah Street in Tanjong Pagar area. We have reached the restaurant slightly after 5.30PM and the queue was already pretty long. Noona hopes that means this restaurant is really that good. 

The queue has become more and more gruelling after 30 minutes have passed because of the humid weather of this island of Singapore. Thankfully, the restaurant provides self-service iced Hojicha for patrons who are about to faint from thirst. Noona herself has taken and gulped down three cups of iced hojicha because it was so damn hot and humid. Arghh. 

She was so excited when the waitress finally let her and her friend in. The set meal at Teppanyaki Hamburg Nihonbashi Keisuke Bettei comes with free flow salad. Diners will be given salad bowl and you can fill up the bowl with basically what your heart desires from the salad bar. The salad bar is pretty extensive and it does not only provide vegetables like cucumber, tomato, corn, carrot, etc. It also has a variety of pasta and potato salad. Fruits are also available toward the end of the salad bar. 

This bowl of salad/ pasta is actually enough to fill in Noona's stomach without having even started on the main hamburg steak. Everything which comes with the term "free-flow" is basically a blow to all kind of self-control required for a good diet. Hahaha.

After waiting for roughly around 20 minutes or so, our Beef Hamburg set meal has finally arrived. The set meal consists of a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, a shrimp tempura, two pieces of tofu, several sprouts, tartar sauce for the tempura and of course, the beef hamburg. You can choose the sauce for the hamburg. If Noona is not wrong, some of the choices for the sauce are BBQ, yakiniku, etc.

The plate is hot so be careful not to accidentally touch the place with your bare fingers. 

This is basically what happened after you cut the beef hamburg open, cheese filling oozing out asking to be eaten. Taste wise, the beef hamburg is not bad at all. Noona got very very full after finishing her hamburg though up to the point she was kinda reluctant to move. #foodcoma

Teppanyaki Hamburg Nihonbashi Keisuke Bettei is located at:

72 Peak Seah Street

Tanjong Pagar

Opening hours:

Daily 11.30AM - 2.30PM, 5.30PM - 10PM

Noona's MyFitnessPal's Journey Day 10

Anyeong! Noona has never thought that the day when her boss got laid off really happen during her time of employment. Well it is no surprise nowadays knowing that nowhere is safe if you are working in the year 2017 but to witness this laying off happen to your own boss is no joke. Everybody assume that you are safe if you are pretty high up there and seems to have good connection with everybody. Turns out that's not enough to save your ass. Oh well. Not sure what Noona is going to do next but for now, since the holidays are booked, let's go enjoy life first. 

BREAKFAST (306 KCAL):

1 piece of Chocolate Danish (170 kcal)

0.5 piece of Chikuwa Cheese Bun (136 kcal)

LUNCH (833 KCAL):

1 bowl of Nabeyaki Udon with Shrimp Tempura (542 kcal)

3 pieces of Kani Mentaiko Sushi (147 kcal)

1 cup of Lychee Alishan Tea (144 kcal)

 Noona did not really have the chance to tell her lunch buddy about what's going on in the office. Instead, we talked about common friend who's currently enjoying her life in Sydney. She just showed off about how sweet and lovely her current beau is treating her currently. Instagram is really the app to show that life is all good and rosy. Add the filter effect and you'll see good good life. Not saying that Noona does not have a good life currently since she feels grateful she can still enjoy the yummy pot of nabeyaki udon from Sushi Tei. Yumz.

DINNER (579 KCAL):

1 piece of roasted chicken thigh (289 kcal)

1 meal of pasta marinara (290 kcal)

SNACKS (80 KCAL):

4 pieces of M&S Chocolate Chip Cookies (80 kcal)

Did not really have the chance to snack a lot today because Noona's gotten disturbed by some people who ask technical question at 5+. Oh my gawd, could we please don't be so workaholic? Although 5+ is still considered working hours but Noona is a human being who needs a break. 

EXERCISE (782 KCAL):

1 hour of Les Mills' Body Combat (441 kcal)

11,434 steps of normal-pace walking (341 kcal)

Pissed off by various annoying instances, thankfully there is a Body Combat class where you can punch and kick while burning calories. But new release is coming up soon and heard the movement is so damn complicated. Simple is better, no?

REMAINING: 184 KCAL

Surprised to find out that there is calorie balance left for the day since Noona had a pretty high-calorie lunch and dinner today. LOL.

Noona's MyFitnessPal's Journey Day 9

"I still don't have the reason

And you don't have the time."

Anyeong! Oh my gawd, where did the time fly? May's gonna be over soon and Noona has not finished the task that she's supposed to finish by...uhm, end of June. Oh well, there is time to go and she has decided to think one thing at a time. Kinda pity her unnie but then again the unnie's acting like bitch to here sometimes. Like don't even act like you are going to help if you're not gonna do it at all. But then again, unnie is in-charge of approving Noona's annual leave so let's not get on bad terms with her. Geez. Dunno what is her problem sometimes. 

BREAKFAST (117 kcal):

1 slice of multigrain toast bread with ham and cheese

LUNCH (761 kcal):

3 pieces of Din Tai Fung's xiao long bao (183 kcal)

1 bowl of Din Tai Fung's zha jiang mian (482 kcal)

1 cup of Koi's green tea macchiato (96 kcal)

Bitching session at Din Tai Fung in Chinatown is kinda risky because Chinatown is frequented often by people from both Noona's office and bitching buddy's office. After checking our surrounding, we have deemed to place to be safe from unwanted spies and intels and we can bitch all day (ok, at least 1 hour+) about those nuisances at work. Noona does not think she can last without releasing all those raging feeling that she had endured at work. By the way, do you know that girl friend make the best bitching buddy (but pick the right one, of course)?

DINNER (456 kcal):

1 bowl of shredded chicken breast with green soba (Penguin) from Wheat

Wheat has come up with calorie information on their menu which is super useful for people who use MyFitnessPal app like Noona. Let's hope their calorie counting for each menu is accurate. Hahaha. 

SNACKS (426 kcal):

1 bar of Melty Kiss Rum & Raisin (81 kcal)

1 pack of Pretz (100 kcal)

1 piece of M&S flapjack (65 kcal)

0.4 package of Cheetos (60 kcal)

3 pieces of M&S chocolate cornflake mini bites (120 kcal)

EXERCISE (745 kcal):

1 hour of Zumba (475 kcal)

9,000 steps of normal-speed walking (300 kcal)

OVERALL:

GOAL 1,200 kcal - FOOD 1,760 kcal + EXERCISE 745 kcal = REMAINING 185 kcal

 Cannot believe it's only day 9 of using the app. Noona starts wonder if she's gonna see significant improvement after one month. Hmm, we'll see.

Oink Noona: Curious Palette, Prinsep Street

"Time seems to say forget the world and its weight."

Thanks God there is weekend. Otherwise, Noona really does not know how to take a breather from all the dramas and tiring work she has been enduring throughout the week. Sometimes a chillax session with friend is all you need to unwind for a while especially when the venue for the session is cozy and perfect for lazing (and chatting).

If you are looking for such place in Dhoby Ghaut area, you may want to consider coming to Curious Palette at Prinsep Street.

This was Noona's second time visiting the cafe and she has never need to wait because a table for 2 is quite easy to secure here. Curious Palette has an extensive list of coffee and chocolate drink. 

Food wise, Curious Palette serves waffles and other brunch items like egg Benedictus and stuff. The spam fries are so good but we had ordered that before so it's time to try out other stuff from Curious Palette. 

Momo, who totally enjoyed her rare day as single lady (since her hubby is off for some work-related-outing), needed her White Magic caffeine-fix which taste pretty good. It kinda tastes like latte and yet not too sweet, not too bitter. Just nice. 

Meanwhile, Noona stick to the lighter drink, Iced Seven-Spice Chai Latte (SGD 6.90). She's able to sleep at midnight despite drinking chai latte. That means the caffeine inside chai latte is really low or there is no caffeine at all inside this drink. But in any case, that's good for her. Hahaha. 

Our concept for chillaxing dinner today is brunch-for-dinner. So both our orders has an integral element of brunch, egg. Noona orders Crab Cake with Sweet Potato Fries. While the fries are great and hopefully, slightly healthier than normal fries, the crab cake does not really have the "crabby" taste and more like fried mashed potato. Maybe they should use more crab meats inside the crab cake? 

Momo ordered Corned Beef Scotch Egg which looks kinda interesting. The scotch eggs are served with healthy sides from tomato salsa, guacamole, brussels sprouts and a big spoonful of quinoa. She got full after eating half the scotch egg. That's not a surprise because she consumed a bag of Taiwanese crispy fried chicken right before our chillax session. Greedy Momo. LOL. 

Curious Palette is located at: 

64 Prinsep Street

Nearest MRT: Dhoby Ghaut MRT

Opening hours:

Sunday - Monday, Wednesday - Thursday 9AM to 10PM

Friday and Saturday 9AM to 12AM

Closed on Tuesdays

Noona's MyFitnessPal Journey Day 8

Anyeong! The challenge to update this project has become more and more apparent especially when you are busy shielding yourself from a lot of attacks at work. People are not helping in times of needs, really. If there is someone who's helping you in time of needs with no return expected, cherish them at all costs. They are rarity in the end times. Really. 

BREAKFAST:

One blueberry cream roll (186 kcal)

One piece of super nuts bar (51 kcal)

 Proofer's blueberry cream roll is a dope and it's so worth the price tag SGD 1.80 because it's big. The only cons that Noona can think of is that bigger size means bigger calorie. Oh well. 

LUNCH:

Niku yasai teishoku from Yayoiken (538 kcal)

Iced mocha from Jewel Coffee (150 kcal)

Noona has been eyeing that iced mocha from Jewel Coffee for a long time and today turns out to be the great day to have it because she immediately faced shit when she came back to office. Office prank is rampant on single ladies at work. Really freaking irritating. Thanks goodness, mocha does not disappoint. 

DINNER:

Norwegian cod fillets with brown rice (611 kcal)

This was the first time Noona tried something from SMOR, a Scandinavian deli located at the basement level of One Raffles Place. It tastes pretty good but you may need to wait for a while before your food is ready because they take time to cook the meal. 

SNACKS:

Mini chicken egg tart (125 kcal)

0.8 package of Cheetos (120 kcal)

Could not help munching some Cheetos because snacking makes you happi-er. Probably this is because snacking has become a habit of Noona since her younger days. 

EXERCISE:

One hour of Les Mills' Body Jam (475 kcal)

9,886 steps of normal-speed walking (292 kcal)

Nothing beats an awesome dance class after dealing with irritating prank and people in the office. It gives you the confidence that you are sexier than all of those assholes. Hahaha. Not sure if this is an illusion or reality. But who cares?

OVERALL:

Goal 1,200 kcal - Food 1,781 kcal + Exercise 767 kcal = Remaining 186 kcal

Not much calorie left but since today has been pretty cruel on Noona, she decided to let it go. LOL. 

Oink Noona: Lola's Cafe, Kovan

"I could've been a princess, you'd be a king"

Once upon a time, there was a Queen, a Princess and a Prince living in their wonderful castle served by many maids. Fast forward to the modern days, the Queen, the Princess and the Prince somehow have no escape from the brutality of high living cost and now they have to work in an office. However, despite the change in season, they still demand certain service from someone who they think are not worthy i.e. Noona. Once their meets are not met, they have succumbed to their irrational behaviour and end up exploding to bits and pieces much to Noona's amusement. Too bad the last part has not happened yet. Instead, the Prince gave rude attitude and keep making up excuses when his work does not meet standard, the Princess simply refuses to do what she's supposed to do since Noona can't help but doing the task since Princess kept someone as hostage, and the Queen file a complaint to...wait-a-minute, what's higher than Queen and female? Queen Mother? Fairy Godmother? Oh well, let's just say the Queen file a complaint to the higher-up and act like she's a victim or something. Epic. You guys deserve an Oscar. Really.

With this kind of drama, Noona needs a nice and cozy place to spend time hanging out with her BFF while venting about this drama. And there's one nice cafe at Kovan which seems to be the perfect venue for this occasion.

Turns out Lola's Cafe is pretty big, it uses two side-by-side units and yet, don't get deceived by its big premise. It's still recommended to reserve seats before you make your way all the way to Kovan to avoid disappointment or long waiting time. Since Kovan is considered far far away from where Noona's staying, it seems wise to just make a booking nonetheless. 

Even with the booking, Noona still has to wait for 5 minutes or so. Hmm okay, she could wait for 5 minutes. No biggie. We should not live a rushed life all the time. Especially when it's time to unwind and chill. 

Noona was more excited than her cafehopping buddy to check out the menu. This is normal considering that her cafehopping buddy has been at Lola's Cafe so many times before since this cafe is located near to the TCM that she often visits for health check-up. 

Lola's Cafe is famous for its coffee too but it was already quite late at night and Noona did not want to risk insomnia since she wanted to just lie on bed and doze after this dinner. Hmm, let's see what we should order other than coffee then. 

The tarts on display at Lola's Cafe look so damn good seriously. So many diners are requesting for these tarts for takeaways so Noona feels these tarts must be quite good. 

But tonight is the night meant for booze. So let's drink our ice cold (watermelon) beer and cheers for good days ahead. Noona was quite surprised this watermelon beer taste so good. 

And the beer goes super well with the two starters that we ordered, the nacho cheese fries (SGD 9) and the honey paprika chicken wings (SGD 10). The nacho cheese fries taste so good, we ended up finishing the whole bowl. 

The honey paprika chicken wings also taste so crispy and yet tender and well seasoned. Since the serving portion of the starters are quite big, it was a wise decision for both of us not to order anymore food other than these two. For your information, we often over-order during our course of cafe-hopping adventure. Sometimes our eyes got the better of us. 

Lola's Cafe is located at: 

5 Simon Road

Opening hours:

Closed on Mondays

Tues - Thurs, Sun 10AM - 11.30PM

Friday and Saturday 10AM - 12AM

Noona's MyFitnessPal Journey Day 7

Anyeong! Hope everyone has an amazing day. It has been a series of up and down here at MyFitnessPal journey. Noona has never thought her daily calorie intake looks like a yo-yo. Hahaha. Needless to say, her weight at the end of day 7 of using MyFitnessPal has not moved to the desirable direction. Thankfully, the weight scale does not move to the undesirable direction either. Phew. 

 BREAKFAST:

Egg cheese toast (200 kcal)

LUNCH:

Pad ee sew with grilled chicken (690 kcal)

Yakut grapefruit green tea from Woobee (257 kcal)

 Noona's friend who is currently working at Harbourfront agreed to meet at Chinatown Point for lunch and she wanted to try Kincow. Noona was initially not really interested in Kincow because it seems that the restaurant only sells brisket beef noodle soup and Noona is not really a fan of brisket. Turns out Kincow has other things such as dry noodle/ kway teow. 

Noona's healthy broth lunch plan has turned into this Pad Ee Sew which turns out to be quite similar to char kway teow with grilled chicken. You definitely cannot close eyes on the calorie intake for this carbo-loaded food. But anyway, since it's a friend request (blame the friend, lol) let's just enjoy the food and repent later.  

DINNER:

Roasted pumpkin soup from Soup Spoon (152 kcal)

One bread roll from Soup Spoon (120 kcal)

4 sticks of Pretz butter flavor (65 kcal)

The only way to repent is by choosing something low calorie for dinner. That's when Soup Spoon comes to the rescue. Hahaha. 

SNACKS:

0.5 Japanese strawberry shortcake (126 kcal)

Jelly cheese tarts from Jelly Hearts (290 kcal)

1 piece of M&S chocolate cornflake bites (53 kcal)

Working in an office does not help diet sometimes because there are so many cakes and stuff provided to cheer you up (and fattening you) during your work.  Must be grateful always though. 

EXERCISE:

50 minutes of Les Mills' Sh'bam (396 kcal)

10,938 steps of normal-speed walking (325 kcal)

OVERALL:

Goal 1,200 kcal - Food 1,953 kcal + Exercise 721 kcal = Remaining (32 kcal)

If you eat so much high calorie food, even exercise will not be able to help you unless you do a rigorous exercise (e.g. Back to back two hours classes). Sighhhh. 

Noona's MyFitnessPal Journey Day 6

Anyeong! Noona has some free time now so let's get this project started before the laziness bug bites her and she rolls back to the bed to nap. Hahahaha. Sometimes singlehood is awesome when you just want to laze around and doing nothing.

BREAKFAST:

1 Market O's brownie (120 kcal)

1 Crown's cheese cracker (18 kcal)

1 Bourbon biscuit (42 kcal)

7 M&S chocolate cornflake bites (371 kcal)

LUNCH:

1 almond waffle biscuit (120 kcal)

2 Tohato's green tea cookies (34 kcal)

1 Tip Tip's tom yum puff (246 kcal)

Laziness does kill in terms of MyFitnessPal (MFP) project because if you are living on snacks, the calorie that you consume from those snacks and tidbits are crazy high. It can be even higher than real meal such as rice, etc. The morale of the story is, the next time you want to laze around, make sure you have proper meal in stash. On another thought, maybe singlehood is not the best way after all, you have nobody to "ask around" for help to buy food. Noona got a feeling that her hubby may be the one ordering her around though since her need to lose weight is probably more critical than the hubby's needs. LOL. 

DINNER:

1 glass of iced chai tea latte (240 kcal)

0.5 plate of crab cake with sweet potato (270 kcal)

0.5 plate of scotch egg (289 kcal)

Noona is not the type who can laze around for one whole day at home. Especially when she does not even stay at her own home, she can't even turn on aircon when the landlord is at home. Driven out by the hot weather, she made appointment with Momo, who is living her singlehood lifestyle since her hubby is out of town for the whole week. Momo's doing that lifestyle better than Noona, the real singleton. For a start, Momo was only fully awoken up after noon and then she's busy procrastinating on whether she wanted to clean the house or not. Obviously after procrastinating and turning on her laptop to do some browsing, she rolled back to her bed and continue dozing until it's time for her to at least, taking a shower before meeting Noona. She even pushed back the meeting time to 4.30PM because she needed more time to wash her hair. Epic singleton (who unfortunately got married), this Momo.

Anyway, to cut story short, our cafe-hopping date at Curious Palette has given Noona a chance to finally try out crab cake which turns out taste like potato patty because there is not even a lot of crab put inside the cake. Hahaha. Oh well.

SNACK:

0.5 pack of Taiwan crispy chicken (154 kcal)

This unnecessary calorie intake is purely Momo's fault because she just has to buy this snack before making our way to Curious Palette. And this bitch is damn slim. Why did Noona keep the friendship again? 

EXERCISE:

15,586 steps of normal-speed walking (463 kcal)

No amount of walking can burn those calorie intake from snacks. Lesson learned. 

OVERALL:

GOAL 1,200 KCAL - FOOD 1,904 KCAL + EXERCISE 463 KCAL = REMAINING (241 KCAL)

 Not much thing to say about today. It's a failure after all. U_U. 

Oink Noona: Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant, Bugis

"Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song, I have faith in what I see"

Anyeong! Noona is seriously feeling the boredom of living a monotonous lifestyle again in Singapore. She does not know why it is so freaking easy to lose out the having fun soul once you are stuck in a 9 - 6 job everyday. Even the weekends has become somewhat typical because you will surely need to recover from the weekdays' burnt out. Despite being a hardcore believer of her own "work-save-travel-repeat", it seems that the need to travel has become bigger and bigger. Soon, the mojo will turn into work-save-TRAVEL-repeat. Wonder what the bank account gonna say. Probably scream. Hahahaha.

Since we are currently in the saving period, let's just try to have fun with the activity that Noona and friends love the most in Singapore, cafe-hopping. This time around, we are going to make ourselves comfortable at all Clinton St Baking Company & Restaurant.

Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant in Singapore is apparently the same as the one originally created by chef-husband & wife, Neil Kleinberg and Dede Lahman. Sounds like a very beautiful dream comes true story. Noona is actually pretty inspired by this kind of dream but she does not know how to bake and where is the capital going to come from. Oh well, for now, let's just check out the menu. 

We ordered one sweet and one savoury dish to share amongst the two of us. For the sweet dish, we ordered Pancakes with Warm Mapple Butter (SGD 19) which comes with three options: Blueberry, Banana Walnut or Chocolate Chunks. We were in the mood for some Ba-na-na moment so we chose banana walnut. The pancakes are fluffy and thick, which are exactly what Noona likes. 

We were kinda having difficulties to decided on what to order for the savory items because all the items on the menu look quite similar to each other. This is especially after reading so many "egg" words in the menu. Our choice of egg savory dish finally fell on Spanish Scramble (SGD 21) which consists of three eggs, chorizo, tomatoes, caramelised onions, scallions, melted Monterey Jack with hash brown and sourdough toast. Noona does not really fancy sourdough toast but the hashbrown tastes so good. Yummy. 

We did not feel like eating dessert at Clinton St Baking Company & Restaurant because we had just finished the pancake. So we decided to go for a walk around Bugis area before eventually settled down at Llao Llao which is located at the 4th level of Bugis+. It is not easy to secure a table here because the yoghurt place is not big in the first place. 

Since we were sharing the yoghurt, we decided to go for Sanum (SGD 6.95). In a gist, Sanum gives you the choice of many toppings from chocolate to fruits to sauce (which makes the yoghurt questionable in its healthy value). 

Seriously Noona does not think this yoghurt from Llao Llao is going to help her diet in any way. But it tastes good and weekends are meant to be enjoyed in any case. So yeah, all is well. Hahaha. 

Clinton St Baking Company & Restaurant is located at: 

31 Purvis Street

Singapore

Nearest MRT station: Bugis

Opening hours:

Monday to Thursday 9AM - 6PM

Friday, Saturday and Public Holidays 8AM - 10PM

Sunday 8AM - 8PM

Noona's MyFitnessPal Journey Day 5

Anyeong! Noona has troubles keeping up with her own project, the MyFitnessPal (MFP) journey. There are some days where Noona just does not feel to write anything to be honest with you, don't know why. Apparently you need to have some "inspired" moment when the mood to write is in the air. But if Noona relies on this kind of feeling every time she needs to write something, she probably should not consider full-time career as a writer. Her salary will be so turbulent like a plane flying through cloudy weather. Oh gosh. 

BREAKFAST:

One piece of french toast (120 KCAL)

One piece of banana cake (144 KCAL)

Noona usually does not eat more than one item for breakfast but she was feeling kinda starving that morning and she would not be able to drag her butt to the gym for lunch-time exercise in starvation mode. So yeah, there you go the french toast and the banana cake. 

LUNCH:

One smoked turkey on ciabatta bread (450 KCAL) 

Noona did not realise that there is a small sandwich shop (which is part of a mini market) in the passageway between One Raffles Quay and Marina Bay Link Mall. Why is this sandwich shop catching Noona's eyes? It's because the sandwich here is way cheaper than those sandwiches sold at Cedele or Swissbake. Noona can get her smoked turkey on ciabatta bread for 6.50 SGD. Woots!

DINNER:

4 pieces of chicken wings (445 KCAL)

0.5 bowl of nacho cheese fries (440 KCAL)

1 glass of wheat watermelon beer (150 KCAL)

Noona was so excited to finally be able to visit Lola's Cafe despite its far location at Kovan. The cafe is so popular up to the point that prior reservation is required to secure seats here. It is a sister cafe of On The Table which is located at Pasir Panjang. No wonder the chicken wings looks kinda familiar. Fabulous wings, worth every calorie.

EXERCISE:

60 minutes of Les Mills' Body Combat (441 KCAL)

11,299 steps of normal-speed walking (336 KCAL)

Thankfully Noona managed to squeeze some gym time in the afternoon otherwise she could just consider this day a failure. 

OVERALL:

GOAL 1,200 KCAL - FOOD 1,749 KCAL + EXERCISE 777 KCAL = REMAINING 228 KCAL

Whoa, 228 kcal remaining? Noona starts to wonder if she keys in the portion wrongly for all her food log in MFP. But there is no way to find out unless she buys food scale and brings that food scale everywhere she goes. That can be pretty much embarassing. 

Oink Noona: Patbingsoo Korean Dining House, Plaza Singapura

 "I won't give up on us, even if the skies get rough."

Anyeong! Noona has realised that one of the things that annoy her the most was the cracking sound of her fantasy. The scar that it leaves may not be as bad as the real heartbreaking situation but it's enough to make her feeling annoyed and emo for one day. After that she can have enough heck-care attitude to start afresh with newly-patched fantasy (taking into account new information which crack the previous fantasy) and live on with it until it become reality or crack again. Living a life as a daydreamer is indeed kinda tough. Hahaha. 

At times like these, it's good to have someone to share stories with despite the stories may or may not be too exaggerating but Noona feels she's one freaking good story-teller. Despite the lack of the audience. Well, this kind of personal life stories must not be shared with any random audience, to be honest with you.

The venue for Saturday's story-telling is Patbingsoo, a Korean dining house which is based on its name is specialising in Korean dessert, Bingsut. But if you are not into eating a bowl full of ice, you can also have other Korean meals here from ramen to ddeokbokki to galbi. 

If you need some picture references to help you order, you will be kinda impressed by how good the picture of the food is. Really. 

But when the real food arrive, they look pretty different from the picture menu. Patbingsoo takes a while to serve the food despite its in-house rules that diners can only dine for 90 minutes. Noona wonders if the staff will really ask the diners to leave after 90 minutes. It did not happen to Noona because we ate pretty fast (starving girls) and immediately moved to next dessert location after finishing our meals at Patbingsoo. 

We shared two main dishes at Patbingsoo. The first is Seafood Sundubu Pasta which comes with egg, some seafood (squid, crab cakes, prawns) and 8 pieces of tofu. This is so weird although the seafood spicy sundubu sauce taste not bad and goes well with the pasta. In a glance the portion looks pretty big but since the pasta is served on a thin hot plate, the portion is actually not big at all. 

The next meal that we ordered looks way different from the picture menu because it seems that cheese just exploded on top of the ddeokbokki and tofu skin. While Noona kinda hopes that the taste would be BOOM, the Cheesy Ddeokbokki taste so so. Kinda disappointing because the expectation was set too high. Morale of the story: don't expect. 

Patbingsoo Korean Dining is located at: 

68 Orchard Road, #B2-47

Plaza Singapura

Opening hours: 

Sunday to Thursday 11.30AM - 10PM

Friday and Saturday 11.30AM - 10.30PM

Oink Noona: Caffe Vergnano 1882, South Beach

"When you're happy like a fool, let it take you over."

The beauty of a Wednesday off is you only have to work for 2 days and then a holiday and then another 2 days and it's weekend, guys! Every Wednesday should be a holiday, no? Noona told this to her next-table colleague and this colleague announced it to the boss within split second. Noona kinda wonders if this colleague just loves to tease her or wants to put her career in jeopardy, really.

The last time Noona visited South Beach at Esplanade, she actually wanted to bring her friend to drink chocolate at Caffe Vergnano 1882 but the cafe was closed somehow. Weird since it was only 7PM-ish when we visited South Beach for the first time. Anyway, being a never-give-up kind of friend, Noona's friend now dragged Noona back to South Beach to re-visit Caffe Vergnano and this time, her perseverance paid off.

It seems that the speciality for Caffe Vergnano is the drink. The cafe has a variety of coffee and brewed coffee to choose from but Noona did not feel like having some caffeine dose back then. 

So she immediately flipped the menu right into Chocoholic section. There are so many good-looking chocolate drinks here at Caffe Vergnano, Noona and her friend were kinda having some difficulties to decide which one to order. 

If you are into desserts, Caffe Vergnano also has some sweet items to offers on its display case from muffins, to slices of cakes. 

And even pastries like croissants and bagels. However, Noona do notice that the price-tag for these desserts seem to be on the high-end. 

Here comes our order of Nocciolino (SGD 6) and Delizioso (SGD 6). Nocciolino is described as chocolate hazelnut latte while Delizioso is described as nutella latte. Both drinks taste a bit similar although Delizioso is more on the sweeter side compared to Nocciolino. Caffe Vergnano is a nice place to chill and chat over life with a good mate and chocolate is definitely one of the best chatting companion when you are chilling out with friends. 

Caffe Vergnano 1882 is located at: 

26 Beach Road, South Beach Avenue

#B1-17

Nearest MRT: Esplanade MRT

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday - 7AM to 8PM

Saturday and Sunday - 10AM to 7PM