The Royals Cafe, Upper East Coast Road (Siglap)

I first discovered "Royals" and their wonderful pies at the Tampines Mall basement, where they have a stall. Eversince, I have been a silent fan hehehe. Zach found out through his sister that they actually have a full coffee shop in Siglap so of course we had to go.

We went on a fine saturday afternoon to have late lunch and I must say, I so love the Siglap area. It has a different homey vibe, the streets being lined with shops, cafes, restos and what have you. Plus the houses are just beautifully breathtaking. It really lives up to the name of the street - Upper East Coast, for those in the "Upper" socio-economic bracket, gets?? hehe. Darn, when can I ever afford to live in such a pricey area...

Anyway, the cafe itself was also very inviting. Who can resist their wonderful display of cakes and pies.


Despite the cafe being in a pricey area, their prices were ironically very affordable. Most of the cakes were less than S$2. The portions were of course a bit smaller but isn't that better for both your pocket and your health? :) Plus, you get to buy more hehehe.


There are very few places where you can buy Shepherd's Pie here in Singapore (or at least based on my experience) so I had to sample this from their menu.



Can you believe all of the above was for less than S$5?? S$4.90 to be exact. Now I think that is definitely value for money. The shepherds pie was also quite good. a little bit more beef would have made it even better.

Zach ordered the Mee Siam, being the patriotic die-hard fan he is of Malay food :) Thank God he ordered this because this has got to be the best, and I mean the BEST, Mee Siam I have ever tasted across Singapore!! It wasn't too spicy and the soup was very tasty and not too oily.

Some Iced Mocha (I think) to go with the desserts.

Finally, dessert! We had carrot cake, dark chocolate truffle, apple crumble and chicken pie. My favorite was the dark choc truffle, a perfect balance of bitter and sweet.

We really enjoyed our meal and I will definitely come back for the Mee Siam (and the cakes :P) in the very very very near future hehehe. The staff were friendly and service was quick. Most importantly, the food was superb.

Here is my rating for Royals:
Ambiance - 5.0
Service - 5.0
Food - 5.0
Presentation - 4.5
Value for Money - 5.0
OVERALL - 4.9 (!!!)

19 Upper East Coast Road,
Crescendo Building
Telephone: (65) 6445-6457

Read more on "The Royals Cafe, Upper East Coast Road (Siglap)"!

Salmon Pesto Spaghetti

So one Friday night I just decided to cook something special. For some reason, my yearning to cook has been stirred lately (stirred, isn't that the perfect word haha). Zach wanted salmon pasta using whole wheat fettucine but I couldn't find whole wheat fettucine so I opted for wholemeal spaghetti. All these healthy terms are confusing me, whats the diff between wholemeal and wholewheat anyway?!

I remember cooking with wholemeal/wheat pasta before and I remember how tough it was when I tried to cook it 'normally'. So now I decided to boil it a little longer than usual to make it more 'al dente' and not bordering on raw.

It was very simple actually, I just threw in the olive oil, onions, garlic, olives, capers, pesto sauce, salmon and the lemon (also in that same order). Saute, saute and saute some more then season with pepper, salt and italian seasoning.

Finally, toss in the noodles, mix mix mix then top it off with parmesan cheese. Voila!! Salmon Pesto Spaghetti!

It was quite good I must say (of course, haha). Though the noodles were still a bit tough or maybe I'm just not used to it. Bon Appetit!

Read more on "Salmon Pesto Spaghetti"!

Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies

I don't have work today (Friday) because our office is closed due to our relocation (We are moving to Bukit Batok and I live in Tampines, ugh stress!). To put my long weekend to good use, I decided to put my rusty baking skills to the test by baking some fudge brownies - ready mix brownies though :P.

Ok, I will let you in on a secret - the brownies were supposed to be "best before October 11, 2008", Har Har Har. But it didn't say "consume before" or "expiration by" which means it's all good :) But seriously, I did see this show on Discovery where they experimented with "expired" goods and they found out dry goods are the least likely to expire even years after the "expiration date".


I modified the ingredients a bit by adding canola oil instead of regular vegetable oil then I added bit of butter to make it taste better. I also threw in a few drops of vanilla for another layer of flavour.


Tadaaa!!! Here are my "expired" brownies!!! hehehe. Doesn't it look exactly like the one on the packaging? Yes? Yes! :)

By the way, it tasted great! I love homemade fudge brownies. And it didnt taste funny at all or gave me any stomach problems hehe. Read more on "Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies"!

Outback Steakhouse, Millenia Walk

I got a free $20 Outback voucher when I purchased my digicam at the IT Fair last March. Now, the voucher was actually supposed to be good for a month only (eventhough there was no stamped or signed date on the back of it). It was obviously more than a month from March but luckily they didn't really mind. It didn't say anyway where we got the voucher from (and they didn't ask).

Annyyywwaayy, we walked to Millenia Square from the gym in Bugis so as not to feel guilty after we ate, haha. I mean, c'mon, when I hear Outback the first things that come to mind are meat, cholesterol, carbs and calories.

It's been at least a year since the last time we ate out Outback. We normally don't eat in expensive fancy restos (anything above $20 per meal is fancy to me) and I actually forgot they serve free bread with their own whipped butter cream, so this was a welcome treat.

Click HERE for their full menu.

I wanted to have the onion rings for starters but we decided to get the chicken wings anyway. A full order at S$15.90 comes with around 8 pieces of wings plus carrot sticks that were really badly sliced (look at the irregularly sized pieces). Terrible presentation. Good thing the wings tasted good. Very flavourful without the need for their "homemade" sauce (which was actually like sour cream but a bit more runny).

I had the "Swiss Mushroom Burger" - S$18.90. The fries were really huge and actually very good, (despite knowing the fact that fries are one of the worst foods you can eat in the world, oh well). The burger was just Ok. I took out the top bun to at least 'try' to lessen the carb intake.

Zach had "Chicken on the Barbie" - S$20.90. Someone has to teach them food styling and presentation. Look at how dirty the the plate is. Plus, the veggies were overcooked. In fact, by looking at the picture you can see how limp that slice of cucumber is. The chicken was ok, nothing special.

Dinner came up to S$53.55 (including taxes & service charge, less the $20 voucher). All in all, it was just ok. My rating may not be fair because we didn't really order steak given that they are a steakhouse, but that doesn't mean they can neglect the other food items on their menu. Service, on the other hand, was impressive. The manager made sure to always refill our drinks and asked us how our food was.

Here is my rating for Outback:
Ambiance - 4.0
Service - 5.0
Food - 2.5
Presentation - 2.5
Price - 3.5

OVERALL - 3.5

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE
9 Raffles Boulevard
#01-101, #01-114 to #01-120
Millenia Walk
Singapore 039596
Telephone: + 65-68373242
Fax: + 65-837-3241
email: outback@singnet.com.sg

Read more on "Outback Steakhouse, Millenia Walk"!