Oink Noona: CUT by Wolfgang Puck, Marina Bay Sands

"Who's the sexy thing I see over there?"

The sexy thing is most likely not Noona because she has been stuffing herself with so many good food over the two weeks break. Anyeong! It has been a while, isn't it? Noona is alive and well, fatter. It's probably time to break the habit of slacking and binging food over Netflix and K-dramas starting tomorrow. Hahaha.

Noona would probably need to stop eating steak for a while since her last visit to CUT because the steak was so good (and so expensive), it's hard to beat the lingering feeling that Noona felt after eating this steak.

CUT is a celebrity chef restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck, who Noona has no idea who he is until one day before dining at his restaurant. Prior to ordering the meat that you'd like for your steak, the waiter/ waitress will show you how the meats look like. Noona ain't meat expert and hence, all meats look the same in her eyes except for each degree of red-ness. But her noob eyes can tell that these meats are not gonna be cheap. Nuh uh. Do you want to guess which meat that Noona and her dinner date end up choosing for their dinner?

Steak goes well with wine but that's the case only if you like to drink wine in the first place. Noona gave these bottles of wine a miss because she does not really like drinking wine except moscato. 

Complimentary breadsticks are given to our table upon ordering. Noona does not know why but all these celebrity chef restaurants serve superb complimentary bread. 

More complimentary breads are given but this time, the waiter will ask you which bread you'd like to have from his tray. He also advised us not to have too many breads because the steak that we ordered is HUGE. However, the impression that both of us are petite diners gone the moment he saw us gobbling the meat. #shameonus

We still ordered an appetiser despite knowing that the steak is huge. But the maple glazed pork belly taste so good. Yumz. 

The steak comes with two side dishes to select. Noona wanted to try mash potato because what is steak without some potato? Noona kinda feels like a minion sometimes. Po-ta-to people! Oh right, how does the mash potato fare? The Yukon Gold Potato Purée tastes so heavenly but it does not taste that yummy once it is cold. So eat it fast! 

Noona's dinner date ordered a bowl of onion rings and oh my gawd, this is the best onion rings that Noona has ever tasted in her whole life so far. Bye bye Burger King's onion rings. To be fair, the price is different so Noona probably should not even compare both of them in the first place. 

Here comes the Porterhouse steak. You can choose what kind of sauce you want to have with your steak but we decided to go with the homemade sauce because after all, this was our first time dining at CUT. You can also ask the waiter to cut the steak and divide the portion equally but no worry, you can take picture of the whole steak before they cut them up. 

What's left from the steak, the huge bone. Noona really feels like a hunter who enjoys the bounty despite the fact that she's not the one hunting. 

Different kind of sauces and condiments are put on table to go with the steak. 

Bon appetit! Looking back at the dinner picture, we were such a glutton back then. Really. 

But, what's dinner date between two girls without a dessert to complete them all? On top of that, we would be kicked out (albeit, politely) if we don't order anything else. Hmm, so many interesting selection for the dinner but most of them involved some kind of ice cream, which we kinda tried to avoid. 

Eventually, we gave up on our resolution not to eat more ice cream and ordered Strawberry Shortcake. Guess what, this is the best Strawberry Shortcake that we have ever tasted ever. Oh my gawd, can Noona just come back here for the dessert? Hahahaha. 

  

Complimentary chocolates are also given toward the end of our meal. We kinda left it on the table because we were busy chatting until the waiter asked us politely to leave the place since there were so many people waiting for table at 9.30PM. Can you believe it? Noona would not want to dine at 9.30PM to be honest with you but apparently, these people is willing to do that. 

CUT by Wolfgang Puck is located at: 

2 Bayfront Avenue, #B1-71

Galleria Level

The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands

Opening hours:

Sunday to Thursday 5.30PM - 10PM

Friday and Saturday 5.30PM - 11PM

Oink Noona: Dal Komm Coffee, Somerset

"Let's not fall in love, we don't know each other very well yet."

  

Anyeong! Do you ever have this feeling of having a crush on someone and yet the more you know that particular someone, you feel like suddenly there's a background song with TOP's voice saying "Uri saranghaji marayo"? Noona is having this weird feeling at the moment because she thinks that her crush has turned out to be crazy. Not in a criminally psychotic way but weird kind of psycho. Okay, Noona does not know how to explain this weirdo but...oh well, further observation required perhaps? Hahahaha. 

Talking about TOP, Noona hopes he recovers soon. Sobs. 

When girls are in doubt, the next thing that they do is to meet up with other girls and talk about their life's problems away, including guy problem. Noona admits she herself often does this kind of things and thankfully her stories so far has not irritated any of her girl friends despite how weird/ unusual her storytelling skill is. This time, we are visiting one of the most-often-featured-cafe in K-drama worlds, Dal Komm Coffee. It was featured in Descendants of the Sun and Goblin and the famous cafe has opened an outlet at Centrepoint in Somerset. 

If you recalled watching Goblin, Eun Tak was drinking a peach looking drink named Honey Grapefruit. Noona was kinda curious on how good the drink is so she ordered one glass of grapefruit juice. It tastes so refreshing and hopefully the drink is really filled with Vit C instead of sugar. Well, there's honey added to it though otherwise it will be super sour. 

Cake-wise, we were not really attracted to the cake display at Dal Komm Coffee but decided to try out one of their cheese cake after all. The drinks taste better than the cakes. 

Noona's other two chingus ordered sweet potato latte and hot version of Honey Grapefruit. The sweet potato latte tastes pretty unique and it is categorised under the non-caffeine drinks. So you will still be able to sleep even though you drink the latte pretty late at night. 

The hot version of Honey Grapefruit taste not bad either although Noona prefers the iced one. 

Dal Komm Coffee is located at:

176 Orchard Road, #01-01/02, 03/04, 05/06, 102/103

The Centrepoint

Opening hours:

Daily 10AM - 10PM

Oink Noona: TWG Tea Salon, Marina Bay Sands

"Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid."

This is Noona's current favourite bible verses because recently all the things that she has experienced are really not good for her heart. So many uncertainties, unknown challenges and question marks which left to be answered and yet, there is no point thinking so much about these problems until losing sleep. Or losing appetite to eat. Hahaha. 

And with that mindset plus one very supportive friend, here we are at TWG Tea Salon one stop away from our office. That was the day where both of us got an approval to leave office two hours earlier than usual. We had actually made dinner reservation at 6PM but since we were early, we decided to just chill at TWG Tea Salon. Contemplating on what to have without jeopardising future dinner, we ended up ordering two scoops of tea-infused ice cream (SGD 9) and a pot of tea.

There are only three kinds of tea ice creams offered at TWG Tea Salon, Earl Grey Fortune, Napoleon Tea and Vanilla Bourbon Tea. Noona chose the vanilla bourbon tea while her dongsaeng chose Earl Grey Fortune. Dongsaeng was a tad confused when she saw the Earl Grey Fortune came looking very similar to chocolate ice cream. Thankfully Noona remembered that she saw the word "chocolate" under the description of Earl Grey Fortune. Noona prefers the Vanilla Bourbon Tea ice cream though. 

The tea that Dongsaeng chose was pretty good and soothing. Could not really remember the name but it is probably Vanilla Bourbon Tea (in real tea version not ice cream). TWG has so many tea selection, it is kinda futile trying to remember all its name. The ambience of TWG Tea Salon at Marina Bay Sands is really nice for chillaxing. Both of us feel like we are living a "tai-tai" (re: wife of rich husband who does not have to work) lifestyle enjoying our high tea while the commoners are working their asses off in the office. 

While we were enjoying our tea and ice cream, we talked about so many things from shitty workload, annoying people at work, people that we love, our family to our favourite band, Coldplay. Noona still put their songs on her Spotify's playlist few months after their concert in Singapore. The performance of "Something Just Like This" was just awesome. 

OH, I want something...

...just like this. 

Doo-doo-doo-doo. We totally sang along with Chris on this part. Hahahah. What an awesome night indeed, Noona did not regret that event for even a bit. 

TWG Tea Salon is located at: 

2 Bayfront Avenue, #B2-65/68A

Marina Bay Sands

Opening hours:

Sunday to Thursday 10AM - 10.30PM

Friday and Saturday 10AM - 12AM

Oink Noona: New Green Pasture Cafe, Fortune Centre

"I think I was so happy without anything."

 Currently listening to Big Bang's One Last Dance and reading news about TOP being hospitalised. The life of these Korean idols are tough up to the point they need to consume drugs and get high. Hope he recovers soon and well. He's really a great artist and Noona thinks Big Bang will not be complete without him. Haiz. Such news making Noona feeling so blue. 

One fine afternoon, Noona's unnie at work invited her out for lunch. Since she happened to be free, Noona just agreed to the invitation and the Unnie wanted to try out vegetarian food at Fortune Centre, which is not located not near to our office at all. But Noona is not Noona if she is not up for a lunch time adventure. After changing MRT line and walk for a few minutes under the sun, they have finally reached New Green Pasture Cafe at level 4 of Fortune Centre.

New Green Pasture Cafe was opened by a cancer survivor who since then turned vegetarian. The food sold here are made from organic stuff and hence, premium price. Unnie ordered a bowl of Thunder Tea Rice, a dish which Noona can't understand why people like to eat. The soup is minty and Noona could not get the idea of eating rice with minty soup logical in their mind. Nah. 

But the bowl of thunder tea rice really looks good on its own though. Probably Noona can eat this without the minty soup. Hahaha. You can take the radish soup from the pot near the counter but you have to pay SGD 1 for unlimited amount of serving. Quite a good deal, but the ladle is so hot you need to be careful when taking the soup. 

Noona ordered a plate of sesame soba instead. Are these giant bean sprouts? The portion of giant bean sprouts and seaweed are generous but I suggest you not to eat this dish if you are on a date or important lunch meeting because the seaweed bits and sesame can easily get stuck on your teeth. Taste wise, quite light and yummy (Noona loves sesame) but you will get hungry again around 4PM-ish. 

New Green Pasture Cafe is located at: 

190 Middle Road, #04-22 

Fortune Centre

Opening hours:

Tuesday - Sunday 11AM - 8PM

Closed on Mondays

Oink Noona: CreatureS Restaurant, Farrer Park

"When we go crashing down we come back every time, 

cause we never go out-of-style."

Noona was totally out of ideas on where to hang out last Saturday so Chingu came to the rescue. Chingu's sister was actually the one who suggested the place which is named like somewhere from Harry Potter's world. Welcome to CreatureS! Please take out your wand and get ready to capture the magical creatures flying inside.

Okay, just kidding. CreatureS is a nice quaint little cafe located at the stretch of the road just a few blocks after the happening area of Mustafa Center. We reached the cafe around 5.30ish and we were informed that the table that was gonna be assigned to us was only available until 7.20. Hmm, okay, since Noona and her chingu were only going to have coffee and cakes, we figured that we would not sit for that long. 

No idea why the limited time was given to us because there were not many diners at that particular timing. Well, we might be wrong though, who knows that most people will start to flock in after 7.30pm? If you are looking for a cafe to chill solo, you may want to consider to come to CreatureS around the same timing as us and sit at this particular corner because it looks so nice (although there is no backrest provided on that kind of chair). 

Chingu's order of cafe mocha came first and it looks so pretty on the table mat. 

Meanwhile, Noona tried to be more adventurous by trying out something-out-of-the-norm such as Coconut Latte but turns out coconut does not go well with latte according to Noona's tastebud. Noona did not really fancy the coffee served at CreatureS because it's kinda too strong for her lousy caffeine intake level but at least there's Lotus biscuit provided at the side. #consolationpoint

We also ordered a slice of Thai Milk Tea Cheese Cake to share between the two of us because the sweetness of the cake will make our bitter life taste sweeter. Excuses, she knows but we like it anyway. 

The Thai Milk Tea Cheese Cake from CreatureS tastes not bad although it does not reach the word "fantastic" in our cake-review-vocabulary. Hard to please, this crowd. 

The seats at the corner has pretty nice lighting for selfie, so take note of this location if you need to take selfie before eating. #selfiepoint

CreatureS Restaurant is located at:

120 Desker Road

Singapore

Opening hours:

Monday: Closed

Tuesday - Thursday, Sunday: 12PM - 10.30PM

Friday and Saturday: 12PM - 11.30PM

Oink Noona: Lola's Cafe Revisited, Kovan

"Cause tonight I'm feeling like an astronaut, sending SOS from this tiny box."

Anyeong! Noona is back at Lola's Cafe again but this time around, she came with a different chingu. And since this time around we visited Lola's Cafe around 5PM-ish, we dare to order matcha latte and cafe mocha and oh boy, both drinks taste so good. The coffee sold at Lola's Cafe is on par with the ones sold at Paddy Hills.

Chingu wanted to try out pasta so we order Swimmer Crab and Prawn Pasta (SGD 18). There is an option to make the pasta spicy or non spicy but since we are both spicy lover, we prefer it to be spicy. Noona is more of a fan of cream pasta rather than soupy ones but at least Lola's Cafe is pretty generous with the amount of crabmeat given on this pasta. 

Chingu does not want to relent on giving up ordering Nacho Cheese Fries (SGD 9). Haizz, being a very good friend, Noona let her go ahead with her order. Despite having ordering this starter before, it still tastes quite good. Apparently, it's hard to get bored of something which has cheese on top of it. 

There are so many cakes to select from the cake display at Lola's Cafe but since we are having some tarts for take-always, we decided to try Lola's Cafe's signature chocolate cake. Hmm it is so-so. It's kinda hard to judge chocolate cake, to be honest with you. Maybe Noona should have gone with Lychee Rosewater Cake instead. 

But Lola's Cafe does serve ah-ma-zing tarts. The price tag for each tart is not cheap at SGD 5. But the Black Sesame Tart and Lemon Meringue Tart  are really really worth the price tag. If Noona ever comes back to Lola's Cafe again in the future (well, Kovan is pretty far from where Noona lives so...), she will definitely buy the tarts again. 

Cony is a happy bunny to receive lemon meringue tart from Lola's Cafe. Are you gonna share the calorie with Brown?

Lola's Cafe is located at: 

5 Simon Road

Singapore

Opening hours:

Monday closed

Tuesday to Thursday 10AM - 11.30PM

Friday to Saturday 10AM - 12PM

Sunday 10AM - 11.30PM

Why MyFitnessPal does not work for weight loss?

Anyeong! As you can see from previous few posts, Noona has been trying to religiously key in her calorie intake in a health app named MyFitnessPal. After a month of logging in, unfortunately, she does not see any weight loss despite the target of losing 0.5kg per month. Hmm...

Based on Noona's personal observation, these few points may be the main reason of why MyFitnessPal does not work for weight loss:

(1) The misconception of you can burn your over-consumed calories

While this is technically true if you are looking at it from mathematical point of view, Noona tends to eat higher calorie food for dinner especially when she sees she has enough calorie "quantity" left to consume for the day. So yeah, most of the time after gym session, she will see a whopping available calorie of 900 - 1000 kcal. Instead of sticking to the plan to eat healthy, she usually succumbs to food such as this bowl of fried rice. Uhm...

(2) The calorie database in the app may not be accurate

Some of the portion used to count the calorie in MyFitnessPal are quite vague, to be honest with you. A cup/ a bowl depends on the size of the cup or the bowl. There is no way to gauge the calorie accurately unless you can weigh your food intake (which is not convenient at all). So most of the times, you may end up under-estimating your calorie intake from food. On the other hand, you may also end up over-estimating your burnt calorie from exercising. 

(3) You cannot always find the food in the apps' database

Some of the food that Noona consumes are not available in the database and she has to log in using similar food to key in the calorie intake. The thing is, while both food may be named as "fried kway teow" or whatever, they may have a way different calorie numbers contained in the dish. Because after all calories do depend on a lot of factors such as the way the food is cooked, the condiments used in cooking, the sauces, etc. 

With those reasons being mentioned, MyFitnessPal seems to be able to give more accurate calorie data on more popular food such as McDonalds' or hawker food (if you are living in Singapore). So yeah, while it is not foolproof, you can still check estimate number of calorie for those popular dishes. Hopefully, it will help you to choose healthier option when you are eating out. 

Meanwhile, the weight-loss journey continues. Let's just hope we can find a better way to reach our ideal body weight.

Fighting!

Oink Noona: Hoshino Coffee, Holland Village

"I saw your face in a crowded place, but I don't know what to do."

Anyeong! Noona has a trip coming up in the next 2 weeks but she has not reached the ideal summer body shape yet. Eottoke? Based on what she googled, she has to go for such an extreme diet like what those celebrities went through if she wants to reach her targeted body goal by then. Oh my gawd, that sounds pretty much impossible because well, Noona was purely a glutton. Hahahaha. 

Well, for instance, you will not see any on-diet K-celebrity eating at a cafe during their crazy regime, right? But Noona has to maintain her social relationship with friends so here goes diet at Hoshino Coffee.

Hoshino Coffee is a Japanese Italian cafe specialising in Omurice and Pasta dishes. In a glance, Hoshino Coffee's pasta kinda reminds Noona of Miam Miam's pasta, she starts to suspect both restaurant chains are owned by the same management. 

Hoshino Coffee has a pretty interesting coffee and teas. Noona was quite interested at the Sakura Latte. But oh my gawd, why does the price have to be that expensive? 9 dollars for a hot latte is kinda too much because Starbucks does not have even price their latte that expensive, right?

If you are visiting Hoshino Coffee recently, you will see additional menu for their 4th Anniversary in Singapore. Hmm it feels like just yesterday that Hoshino Coffee appears in Singapore. Time really flies. 

Despite the 9 dollars price-tag, Noona succumbed to the pinky sakura latte drink. Thankfully, the taste is not bad being sweet without overpoweringly sweet like macaron. But seriously, 9 bucks? This will be once in a lifetime event, my dear sakura latte. Hahaha. 

Noona's chingu ordered matcha latte instead because she likes to play it safe in ordering food (boring, no?). The hot matcha latte is slightly cheaper at SGD 7.50. 

Since Hoshino Coffee is having limited edition menu for their 4th Anniversary in Singapore, we decided to order one of their anniversary menus, Omurice and Angus Beef Steak Rice with Salad (SGD 18.80). Kinda wish the beef steak to be thicker but other than that, the dish is pretty good. Noona likes the way salad is prepared with Japanese sesame sauce. Yummy~

Since we both know that our hunger will not be satisfied by just sharing a plate of omurice + beef steak, we ordered Shrimp, Avocado, Mozzarella with Tomato Sauce (SGD 15). The pasta served at Hoshino Coffee is leaning more toward al-dente style which Noona likes so much. She does not like her pasta to be soupy, which is what usually happen to cream pasta generally sold in Singapore. 

Hoshino Coffee has a lot of branches in Singapore but the branch that we visited is located at:

118 Holland Avenue 2,

Raffles Holland V #02-02

Opening hours:

Monday - Friday, PH Eve: 11AM - 10PM

Saturday, Sunday and PH: 9AM - 10PM