Anyeong Noona

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Anyeong! It has been a while since the last time Noona updates this blog because of some technical glitch and so on. She was kinda pondering on whether she should just abandon this blog entirely but then again, it's so troublesome to create a new blog so Noona is back again now.

Recently, there have been more and more Japanese cafes opening up in Singapore, especially in the busy area of Tanjong Pagar. Tanjong Pagar is a nightmare if you visit the area on weekday lunchtime (but so is all other CBD area in Singapore). The best time to do cafehopping in Tanjong Pagar area is actually during the weekend. Noona did some exploration at the latest addition in the region, Tanjong Pagar Centre last Saturday and oh wow, the place is so quiet it makes chilling out there so enjoyable. Tanjong Pagar Centre houses the cafe that Noona wants to talk about for today, Hattendo Cafe.

Oink Noona: Hattendo Cafe, Tanjong Pagar

Hattendo Cafe specialises in cream buns and it is currently offering 5 different flavors of cream buns including custard, whipped cream (seriously?), matcha, azuki beans and chocolate. One cream bun costs SGD 2.50 while you can get five buns for the price of SGD 12.50. The chocolate cream bun seems to be the most favorite flavor because Hattendo Cafe has already run out of its chocolate cream bun by the time Noona visited the cafe at 4.30PM-ish on Saturday afternoon.

Menu from Hattendo Cafe at Tanjong Pagar Centre

Savory items are available at Hattendo Cafe too. These items are probably included to cater for the lunch crowd at Tanjong Pagar area on weekdays. Some interesting selection includes Iberian Ham with Mozzarella (SGD 8), Okonomiyaki Sausage Rosti (SGD 13) and the DIY Mason Jar Salad (SGD 7 for 1 jar).

Sandwich and salad menu from Hattendo Cafe

Occasionally, Hattendo Cafe will offer seasonal flavour like Matcha Melon Cream Bun (SGD 3). Each cream bun has been wrapped individually and kept in the fridge. The cream buns are best eaten when they are chilled. So if you don't want to eat them immediately, you have to keep them at the fridge at home. The staff behind the counter has informed us that the cream buns last for two hours outside the fridge.

Cream buns from Hattendo Cafe at Tanjong Pagar Centre

This is the serving size of the cream bun. They look rather big when displayed inside the wrapping but once you open the wrap, the cream bun is not as big as what Noona expects. The texture of the buns for the Matcha Melon Cream Bun is rather unique because it resembles the outer skin of Japanese favourite bun, Melon Pan. I am an avid fan of Melon Pan despite its high calorie content. Why everything that taste good to Noona seem to be fattening? *sigh*

Matcha melon cream bun from Hattendo Cafe

XxThe filling of the cream bun taste rather milky just like what the Japanese seem to enjoy. Noona finds the cream bun to be rather sweet, it will taste even better if Hattendo lower down the sugar level by one notch. But since Singapore is a country which love sweetness in their food, Noona does not see her suggestion happening anytime soon. Overall, Hattendo Cafe is a nice cafe to chill out on a weekend. Hmm, just wondering if the cream bun will make a perfect pairing for a cup of flat white. Maybe next time.

Custard and matcha melon cream bun from Hattendo Cafe

Hattendo is located at:

7 Wallich Street,

Tanjong Pagar Centre #01-05

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday 10AM - 9PM

Saturday and Sunday 11AM - 8PM

Singapore is a country which derives a huge portion of its income from tourism. Hence, it is no wonder that all kinds of accommodation are offered in this tiny island in the Southeast Asia region. Having residing for long term, Noona has received a lot of questions on where to stay in Singapore whenever her friends/ family members want to go holiday here. The thing is, price has always come up in the discussion.

Other than being famous for tourism, Singapore is also famous for its well-known high living cost in the world. Yep, Noona is staying in one of the most expensive cities in the world oh my gawd.

Is Airbnb or short term stay allowed in Singapore?

Frugal travellers for sure have considered the cheaper option of staying in Airbnb (if you have not heard on this Airbnb trend, you can check it out here). In a gist, homeowner can advertise and rent out its room in Airbnb to guests for a fee which either charged per day or per week.

Some rooms advertised in Airbnb are really good-looking and some owners even give out amenities to use like towels, toothbrushes, shampoo, soaps and hairdryer. Noona used Airbnb during her stay in Sydney before and yeah this kind of arrangement works and it was pretty affordable too. After all, not everyone is willing to churn out a huge amount of $$ even though the view from the hotel room up there is quite nice, right?

View from Swissotel at Merchant Court in Clarke Quay

While the thoughts of renting a room via the listing offered at Airbnb in Singapore are tempting, the regulation and law involve properties rental in Singapore is very strict. After further research before letting Noona's cousin know whether he can rent accommodation from Airbnb, Noona has found out that a new law about this has been passed in early 2017. And the law said that short term home rental is in fact ILLEGAL. Omo omo!

Some points extracted from the news by Straits Times:-

It is illegal for homeowners to rent out its entire apartments for less than 6 months.
Number of unrelated tenants living in the same apartments is limited to 6

Oh well, while the door seems to be shut (at least, for now) for visitors to use the seemingly wonderful option from Airbnb. The Singapore Government has promised that there are proposals in consideration to allow such arrangement for short term staying in Singapore. But Noona suspects it will come with its own set of rules and regulations. So yeah, fingers crossed.

If you still want to rent from Airbnb at your own risk, you must be prepared if there is suddenly an inspection by the government officials. You may have to be prepared to be thrown out from the accommodation that you rent and forced to find out accommodation immediately. Noona thinks this would be very disruptive to your otherwise fun day so please be safe than sorry.

"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.

Oink Noona: CUT by Wolfgang Puck, Marina Bay Sands

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?

Meat selection from CUT by Wolfgang Puck at MBS

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.

Wine selection from CUT by Wolfgang Puck at MBS

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

Breadsticks from CUT by Wolfgang Puck at MBS

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

Complimentary breads from CUT by Wolfgang Puck at MBS

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

Maple glazed pork belly from CUT by Wolfgang Puck

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!

Yukon gold potato purée from CUT by Wolfgang Puck

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.

Porterhouse Australian Angus Grain Fed from CUT

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.

Mustards and sauces for steak from CUT at MBS

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

Nice Friday night dinner at CUT by Wolfgang Puck

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.

Desserts menu from CUT by Wolfgang Puck at MBS

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.

Strawberry shortcake from CUT by Wolfgang Puck

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.

Complimentary chocolates from CUT at MBS

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

"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.

Cute dolls from Dal Komm Coffee at 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.

Grapefruit drink from Dal Komm Coffee at Somerset

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.

Cheesecake from Dal Komm Coffee at Somerset

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.

Sweet potato latte and hot honey grapefruit from Dal Komm Coffee

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

Hot honey grapefruit from Dal Komm Coffee

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

"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.

Oink Noona: TWG Tea Salon, Marina Bay Sands

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.

Earl grey and vanilla bourbon tea ice cream from TWG Tea Salon

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.

Something Just Like This song from Coldplay

OH, I want something...

Coldplay concert in National Stadium Singapore

...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.

Coldplay Something Just Like This performance at Singapore National Stadium

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

"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.

Oink Noona: New Green Pasture Cafe, 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.

Thunder Tea Rice from New Green Pasture Cafe

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.

Thunder tea rice from New Green Pasture Cafe at Fortune Centre

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.

Sesame soba noodle from New Green Pasture Cafe at Fortune Centre

New Green Pasture Cafe is located at:

190 Middle Road, #04-22

Fortune Centre

Opening hours:

Tuesday - Sunday 11AM - 8PM

Closed on Mondays

"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.

Cafe mocha from CreatureS at Farrer Park

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

Coconut latte from CreatureS at Farrer Park

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.

Coffee and cake from CreatureS at Farrer Park

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.

Thai milk tea cheese cake from CreatureS at Farrer Park

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

"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.

Oink Noona: Lola's Cafe Revisited, Kovan

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.

Swimmer crab & prawn pasta from Lola's Cafe

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.

Nachos cheese fries from Lola's Cafe at Kovan

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.

Black sesame and lemon meringue tart from Lola's Cafe

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

Lemon Meringue Tart from Lola's Cafe at Kovan

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

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Anyeong Noona

Oink Noona: Hattendo Cafe, Tanjong Pagar

Is AirBnB or short term rental allowed in Singapore?

Oink Noona: CUT by Wolfgang Puck, Marina Bay Sands

Oink Noona: Dal Komm Coffee, Somerset

Oink Noona: TWG Tea Salon, Marina Bay Sands

Oink Noona: New Green Pasture Cafe, Fortune Centre

Oink Noona: CreatureS Restaurant, Farrer Park

Oink Noona: Lola's Cafe Revisited, Kovan