Bespoke cocktails are still all the rage but it's tough to find a decent one in town, since most of them are in the Tanjong Pagar area. Well, if you are looking to enjoy a tipple in Orchard Road, a great place to head to is Elixir Bar in KUVO. We previously visited KUVO for brunch and tea (read about my KUVO dining review), and were rather satisfied. This time, i headed to the bar for their latest cocktail and tapas promotion which is going on till 31 May 2015, daily from 5 to 8pm.

Another waffle cafe that is on the hit list of SG Instagramers is the FATCAT Ice Cream Bar, located in sleepy Bedok. Do a quick Google search and you'll definitely see photo after photo of what i call the the 'Salted egg yolk Pour-over method'. And here's my contributing photo to add to that never ending list. 

Fatcat is known for their waffles first and there are 2 types- Original Waffles ($4) and Gourmet Waffles ($6). The first is a brown butter waffle served with salted caramel, chocolate fudge sauce and a sprinkle of lavender and the latter is slightly more fancy looking with its dark charcoal appearance. It has an added element of salted egg yolk sauce.

I think people are kinda too easily distracted by the waffles. If i can bring your attention to their name, it's Fatcat Ice Cream Bar and not Fatcat Waffles Bar. Get your priorities right people because the ice cream is pretty yums! It's $3.90 for standard flavor (white tag) and $4.50 for premium (black tag). Some of the popular flavors include butter beer, hay and honey and thai milk tea. 

We added pistachio and thai milk tea ice cream to our charcoal waffle. Don't you love the big round spheres of ice cream? The pistachio was very creamy and had an intense nutty flavor. It's a little on the sweet side though. I thought the Thai milk tea was so so, but it's definitely better than Sunday Market's which was more icy and diluted.

I liked the waffle at Fatcat. They are crispy on the outside and didn't get too soggy even with the ice cream. The plus point is that they are CHEAP. I wouldn't mind paying a little more for that extra bit of salt in their batter though. Having tried the charcoal waffle with salted egg sauce, i thought the normal ones would be sufficient. The superb smokey salted caramel and that hint of lavender were more than enough actually (it wasn't like the salted egg sauce was anything close to spectacular. i found it diluted in fact). I would however gladly have more of the salted caramel.

I suppose it's possible to finish 1 waffle on your own.

Fatcat also does a plated dessert menu that changes once every 2-3 weeks. Desserts come with an amuse bouche as well. Well, it's a gimmick that works i guess, though i think that Fatcat's waffles and ice creams can hold their ground. 

FATCAT Ice Cream Bar

Blk 416 Bedok North Avenue 2 #01-25 Singapore 460416

12/1pm till 10/11pm
Closed Tue

I've always been a fan of the curly yellow Sapporo ramen because i love love miso ramen. Well, that's till i had the most famous variant of ramen, right from ramen city that is Hakata, Fukuoka. This is the birthplace of famous ramen chains like Ichiran 一蘭 and Ippudo 博多一風堂 and any decent ramen fan ought to visit Hakata at least once. 

It's been a couple of months since Japanese bakery chain Asanoya Boulangerie opened its first-ever outlet outside of Japan in Singapore but i wasn't too quick to join the queue at the Queen Street outlet. Well i guess that's a good thing since when i recently visited, i found the place quiet and peaceful (also empty) during brunch time on a Saturday. 

The only reason why i'd want to go to a buffet would be for the sheer variety (must be quality item of course) but i wouldn't mind going for a crab buffet since the meal wouldn't be that heavy (so i thought). On that note, if you're a crab fan, then you should check out Brizo Restaurant & Bar at Park Hotel Clarke Quay as they are presenting their second run of ‘Crazier about Crabs’ Buffet from 1 April to 28 June 2015.

It's terribly ironic that i'm a food blogger and a yogi at the same time but i guess it allows me that much needed balance in my diet. I typically eat light on weekdays and brunch/tea on weekends. That said, one can never be too sure that they are getting all the required vitamins for daily sustenance (and beauty) and that's where Swisse comes into my life! Here's introducing Australia’s #1 Multivitamin brand, which has just launched in Singapore.

Can't complain about the lack of coffee spots in the East anymore with so many sprouting like mushrooms! I actually visited Craftsmen Specialty Coffee at Siglap V, just opposite Siglap Centre, when they first opened (that was months back). Well, it took this long because well.. it's just another cafe... who gets its beans from somewhere else, and in this case from Dutch Colony Coffee Co., which opened its outpost a few streets down... And as the story goes....

In the process of clearing backlogs and found this one on Grand Mandarin, which is touted to have really good roast meats by Wong Ah Yoke of Straits Times. Well, if you're a lao ban (businessman) looking for a place entertain your Chinese clients, i guess Grand Mandarin would make the cut. It's one of the few restaurants that sell the crazy expensive Empurau fish (忘不了) in Singapore and that's sure to impress (it's all about 面子 'face' with them). 

A sampler of appetizers first. We had the deep fried prawn coated with crème lemon sauce ($32). Firm succulent crystal prawn was used and the dressing was decent and masked the blandness of the meat. I found the crispy soft shell crab coated with chicken floss and curry leaves ($18) rather interesting though it could be kinda dry. 

The honey glazed barbecued pork loin ($15) had fats that melted in my mouth. The meat was firm but juicy. This char siew is done slightly differently being first coated with brown sugar and then baked, giving the meat a crunchy creme brulee shell  that will satisfy any sweet tooth. It's  would come back just to take away some char siew for dinner. 

The Double boiled chicken soup with cordycep flower ($9) was very soothing on the tummy with a flavorful broth but i wouldn't recommend eating the chicken which was rather tasteless after being stripped of its juices.

I love my cod fish and the Steamed silver cod ($22/pax) kinda does it, if only they would go easy on the amount of pink ginger on top. It was a pity that the smokiness of the bonito sauce couldn't cut through the light spice. Put the ginger aside and eat as required.

Next, the roasted duck with Perigord truffle ($28). Loved that paper thin crispy skin but the meat was semi dry and tough. :/ Also, we couldn't see or taste much of the truffle. 

While the tofu with crab meat and egg white in carrot broth ($24) sounded healthy and refreshing, I'd advise you to skip it. We couldn't quite see the oil but we could taste it in every bite. Also, the tofu had a strange wok hei (burnt) taste even though it wasn't burnt at all. 

The meal somehow got oilier with the stir fried crystal vermicelli with pork collar in X.O. chili sauce ($22) The noodles did not match the description at all and 'oily and bland fried noodles with rubbery cuttlefish' would be more apt in fact. Hardly a hint of X.O. sauce was detected as well.

I was hoping that desserts will somewhat save the meal from going downhill. The Liu Sha Bao ($4.80) had a rich and viscous salted egg custard that was decent on the first few bites before punching you out with the sweetness. Listen to the doc and just stick with one.

The Green Apple jelly with lime sorbet and aloe vera ($8) helped to get rid of the residual oily mouth feel from the mains. It tasted very homemade in fact and reminded me of a boiled apple drink that my mama makes. The lime sorbet gave the dish a slight acidity which lifted the flavor, and our mood.

Hits and misses at Grand Mandarin located at the fringe of Chinatown. It's located near one of the exits of Outram Park MRT (which one annoying dining companion we had can't seem to figure out. i wonder what his smartphone is for). May head back for dim sum since it's a daily affair here. 

Grand Mandarin

325 New Bridge Road, Singapore 088760
Tel: +65 6222 3355

Daily: 11.30am - 2.30pm, 6.30 - 10pm

It is a brainless solution really, to do the Norway in a nutshell ® trip when visiting Norway. Surely it would be wonderful to take your time to experience the fjords, but it's a case of too-many-things-too-little-time. The 14 hour journey (between Oslo and Bergen, also available from Voss) takes you on/through the Bergen Railway, Flåm Railway, the Aurlandsfjord, the Nærøyfjord and the steep hairpin bends of Stalheimskleiva (only from May-September), which IMO is sufficient sightseeing. You can of course opt for longer transits at the fjords if you wish.

A special occasion called for celebration and S surprised me with treat at Shinji by Kanesaka, an extension of 2-star Michelin Chef Shinji Kanesaka’s Edo-style sushi restaurant first set up in Tokyo’s exclusive Ginza district. There are 2 outlets in Singapore and S went with the charming Raffles Hotel (good on him) and we had the pleasure of having Master Chef Koichiro Oshino serve us.