Freshly Baked by Le Bijoux, Killiney Road

Beware for you gaze upon death by chocolate salty balls. Lol! Kidding. This was quite a delicious salted caramel chocolate mousse tart from Freshly Baked (57 Killiney Road, #01-01, tel: 6735 3298). I liked that the light chocolate mousse wasn't excessively sweet. The salted caramel added to the tart a swab of savoury sweetness that was accented by the cocoa powder. Creamy and rich as a whole....and made crunchy by those chocolate balls. Quite a few sensations triggered by a tart eh?

We decided on a piece of brownie which didn't look promising at all from first glance. Sometimes... just sometimes it pays to go against instincts in the spirit of adventure. Because one just might discover something good unexpectedly. This was definitely not one of those times. I didn't like the brownie. It lacked the fudge factor. There wasn't enough chocolate in it too. It didn't even have enough chocolate to match many other regular chocolate cakes. What in the world was it doing there as a brownie, I don't know.

Burgers from Dubliners

Well, here's a burger from the Irish watering hole Dubliner (165 Penang Road, #01-00 Winsland Conservation House, tel: 6735 2220) and it pretty much looked like any of the other burgers that they serve here. The differences are the cheeses and whether if there was bacon or not. I'd say that the burgers here were pretty decent with a nice firm patty that wasn't too crumbly. Decent if not spectacular. My gripe was that it could've been a little bigger since the patty was noticeably smaller than their very regular sized bun. This was in no way a match for the one at Molly Malone's which had better toasted buns and a heartier patty.

The unexpected surprise was the salad on the side. It was a mix of romaine lettuces, rocket, diced tomatoes and bits of onions tossed with some mayo dressing. What's good was that this guys really tossed the salad instead of giving a token dressing drizzled over the top. Which coated the greens nicely and the raw onions added a much appreciated depth. A sharp aroma not over the top. So despite its relatively simple appearances, this salad was actually pretty good.

I had a blue cheese burger and as I've mentioned, was pretty decent but lacked the satisfaction of volume. I recall something similar which I prefer. Also, crinkle cut fries aren't really my thing.

Riverside Indonesian grilled chicken rice

What was majorly compelling for this Riverside Indonesian BBQ stall (68 Orchard Road, Level 6 Kopitiam Food Court, Plaza Singapura) at Plaza Singapura was the coconut ladened curry which made the rice irresistible. That and the convenience of the location in spite of their ever present queue. So I'm back here again and this time round, I decided to try the chicken option which included a grilled chicken thigh. In truth, the chicken was probably cooked in advance already and just brought out from the kitchen to be grilled just for a little bit before being served. The result was a soft and totally unremarkable skin that wasn't even crispy in the slightest. At least that curry and slice of omelette was pretty good still.

Sin Sian Yuen Roasted, Chong Pang

Wow, this roasted duck stall (Swee Sian Yuen Eating House) at Chong Pang wasn't bad at all. With these portions for four persons inclusive of rice, it costed about $20 which I thought was pretty reasonable for a coffeeshop. It would have been great if they deboned the duck, but I'm certainly not complaining here.

I'm talking tender lean slices of meat with just that little bit of fat underneath the layer of crisp skin. An accompanying order of roasted pork was also pretty good as well with their crispy crackling. And their rice was the soft type which I liked even without any accompanying gravy. This shop would be good for returns just like Circular Sumptuous Square.

Porn Croque Madame

We came by the new Canelé outlet (1 Scotts Road, #01-01A Shaw Centre, tel: 6738 9020) for some coffee. I had previous mentioned that a spot for a good simple cuppa would be La Strada but now we've found somewhere that serves the same brew for a dollar less. Then the croque madame on the menu beckoned. We gave in. It was actually not bad. The portion was larger than I had expected. Since this was basically cheese and ham and eggs on toast, I won't say more beyond that I enjoyed this in its heart clogging goodness. A picture paints a thousand words, so more pictures for your ogling pleasure....

Dim sum at Shang Palace

Headed down for some morning dim sum at Shang Palace (22 Orange Grove Road, Lobby Level Shangri-la Hotel, Tel: 6213 4473) after hearing about the early bird discount of 30% for the early seatings. I suppose that I had expected more of them since they were a restaurant located in Shangri-la Hotel, but I left without being impressed. Honestly, it wasn't bad at all. I was just hoping that it might have been something noteworthy. Apart from the pretty delectable custard and salted yolk bun which tends to burst and spill their scalding contents if you took a bit too big of a bite, I couldn't really say much about the food. Here're most of the stuff that we had...