Chongqing Hotpot

Hope you all had a great CNY now that all 15 days are over! Everyone probably gained a little weight, but really, doesn't matter as long as you are happy.

E and I went to The Magic of Chongqing Hotpot for our reunion dinner, just us two. A yearly tradition to meet during CNY period. Plus I really love this place. If you can appreciate Sichuan hotpot, then you'll enjoy this place.

It works as a buffet style, and I find it really worth every cent you pay. You get 2 cooked appetizers to begin with. Then free flow of tea and the food of course.

Fried Dumplings and Xiao Long Bao

I really like the service here, since I'm really lazy, the waitress will just bring you EVERYTHING on the menu and you just throw in what you want. Whatever you don't want, they'll send back to the kitchen. But please be considerate, don't throw in 1 tofu then send the rest back.

Extensive menu. I can see my pineapple tarts beside the menu! Made by our friend. She's amazing! Do order from her next year!

You get to pick 2 different soups. We chose the medium spicy Sichuan soup and chicken soup. The Sichuan soup can get a bit numbing... So if you're not that hardcore, medium is good enough. But if half way you cannot take the spiciness, the waitress will help you remove the spicy oil. Did I mention I love their service?

My mouth got all numb. :(

I've heard from the waitress in my previous visit that the Ba Bao Cha is the best tea to counter the numbness from the Sichuan spice.

All the food will be sent on trays. Those that you don't want you can send back.

MEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAATTTTSSS!!!

Their homemade noodles and meatballs. REALLY GOOD!

Halfway through your meal they'll send this dish to you. It's Mantou, Water Chestnut Cake and Tapioca Kueh? I don't know. It had icing sugar on top. It's supposed to help you clean off the Sichuan spiciness also.

I don't know what to call this course. I always save this for last.

THEN we had dessert. So that wasn't dessert. There are no photos of our dessert. It was ice-cream.

Highly recommended place!

The Magic of Chongqing Hotpot

19 Tanglin Road

#04-06/07 Tanglin Shopping Centre

Tel: 67348135

Paul

You know there's always that restaurant, that you walk past and you go "wow, looks nice" but you never try it?

Well that was Paul's for us. Now, I think most of you are going "where's this?", but I can assure you, you all have DEFINITELY seen this restaurant before.

It's at the 3rd Floor of Ngee Ann City, beside Kinokuniya. That big restaurant that you can see while taking the escalator up, ringing a bell now? Yep, that's the one. Always gives me the Tai-tai feel kind of restaurant, where I'd expect to see middle aged ladies sipping tea and talking about manicures after a yoga class from California Fitness that's located on the top floor of the same building.

I've heard about it from my chef friend that the pastries are good, but the bread was hard, stale kind of hard.... So we didn't order any of that.

Nice bistro feel/setting.

I can imagine that this place, in France, perhaps...? Would be at a little corner by the main road, where customers can sit and enjoy fresh bread and coffee while watching motorists and pedestrians pass by. But we were in Takashimaya, so all I could enjoy really, was people going up and down the escalator.

Smoked Salmon on a flat potato pancake

Yeah yeah, I don't remember the names of the dishes exactly. I would have preferred if the potato was piping hot and crispier... Maybe if filled with a bit of melted cheese too... 

I felt that the dish was so-so really, just a new dish experience at best. But the salad was good though, because of the vinaigrette.

Sautéed mushrooms with flat potato pancake.

For dessert, E and I shared a Lemon Meringue Tart. WOW IT WAS SOUR. It's so sour that my saliva just collected my mouth while thinking of it. Need more of that meringue to sweeten it up.

My God, it was sour.

Well, a new experience, it was.

Paul's

391 Orchard Road

#03-16/16A/17 Ngee Ann City

Tel: 68365932

S'mores COOOOKIIIESSSS!

I've heard/read a saying:

 You can be unhappy before eating a cookie, you can be unhappy after eating a cookie, but you can never be unhappy while eating a cookie - Unknown source

HENCE, E and I decided, we needed to be very happy people. So we got together with the help of another of my friend, AND MADE S'MORES COOKIES. (S'mores was added because we needed to be extra ultra happy).

You may wish to find the recipe here.

The cookies were really, really sweet and probably added more calories than you can burn off in a marathon. But who could care when you are this happy?!

                                                           

LOOK AT THE COOKIE DOUGH!!! It was a huge bowl.

Piling it up. The smores are precariously perched on the cookie dough. E has skilled and stable hands.

The difference between the one packed with smores and the ones without. 

While E and I were baking this, my phone buzzed like crazy. My friends were Whatsapping me for a cookie. 

1st batch of cookies. GOD SPEED. 

I prayed so hard for the cookies. 

WE DID ITTTTT!!!!!

I think E really did a great job. I just stood around snapping photos and.... yeah.

The perfect s'mores cookie.... You may drool now.

Let's take a look inside. MELTED MARSHMALLOW AND CHOCOLATE. Oh wow my mouth just watered up.

A MOUNTAIN!!! 

E and I did stare at the amount of cookies we made... We can't seem to just be normal and make a normal amount. We made probably close to 30. Yeah, we don't like being normal. Don't know who we were planning to feed.

What should we bake next? Any suggestions?

Kith cafe

I always look forward to our quarterly girl's outing. Though not all of us show up all the time, I strongly believe that all of us will make the extra effort to come (er-hem, excuse me if I'm wrong). Planning a dinner date with the girls is always hard as all of us work in different industries with some strange working schedule (of course I am referring to myself :( ). And deciding where to eat is always a chore, AS USUAL. Thankfully, Jayne suggested Kith Cafe and since there is no objection (because nobody else actually have a place in mind), that is where we went.

To be really upfront and straight forward, this is one cafe I would not go back again. Their beverages were average and really blend, nothing special. Food wise....... I believe we can find similar food elsewhere which would actually taste better. I have nothing else to comment and I am really great I had good companion to offset the disappointing meal.

So pictures..

Our appetisers

Some fruit soda... Lacking.... Fruit taste.

J's linguine

Mine

Jayne's lasagne

Cheryl's Maninara

Short of one main because I was too engrossed in our conversation and food. For your information, this always happen to J and me. We never remember to take pictures of our food first before tucking in. That is why.... we are BFFs ;)