Eat Only Lar!

It has been a while since I last met up with Kit Yee and Jefrey. When we finally had the time, we decided to visit somewhere nice. After a bit of research by Kit Yee, we agreed on Table Manners in Changi City Point.

Changi City Point was a relatively new shopping mall. Since it was our first few visits, we found it difficult to locate the restaurant.

The restaurant was situated in The Oasis area, it was an al fresco dining with a garden view.

There were a number of other pubs and restaurants located in the same area, and there were live music played by jazz band as well. The ambiance was nice and relaxing.

Kit Yee and I ordered a drink each before happy hour ended. She had a Honeydew Basil Saketini which was priced at $13. The cocktail was sweet and cooling, not a bad choice for ladies who something light.

My choice was the Rosemary Cooler, similarly priced at $13. This cocktail was very appetising with a tinge of sourness in it, I enjoyed it a lot.

Since there were three of us, we ordered food to share. Priced at $18, we had the Snacks Sampler which allows us to choose four items from the snacks column. Clockwise from the top right corner was the Truffle Fries, Chicken Quesadilla, Zesty Wings and Ebiko Mussels. My favourite would be the Zesty Wings, which was slightly citrusy and appetising. The Ebiko Mussels were quite good as well.

Priced at $15, the Pasta al Fungi was a recommended dish by the restaurant. The mushroom, garlic and pesto cream fettuccini was cooked simple but tasty. We all loved it!

Last but not least was the TM Ribs served with potato wedges and house salad. Priced at $36 for the full rack of ribs, I found the pork ribs delicious. The sauce was thick and flavourful and it complemented perfectly with the ribs. I would love to have it again!

Overall it was a very pleasant dining experience in Table Manners. Service was good and we will return for more!

Restaurant Information
5 Changi Business Park Central 1
#01-69/69 The Oasis, Changi City Point,
Singapore.
Tel: 66047669

On our mutual off day, Jefrey brought me to an ice-cream place which he promised that I would like.

We arrived at Island Cremery, an ice-cream place located next to McDonald’s in Serene Centre. The ice-cream place opens from 11am to 10pm daily and offers a good range of ice-creams with local flavours.

The café was rather small but lively and cosy. There were many diners after dinner, enjoying their dessert in Island Cremery.

The walls of the café were decorated with cheerful photos of their customers.

Jefrey had two scoops of ice-creams – Durian and the Nutella ice-cream. Priced at $5.20 for double scoop in a cup, the Durian ice-cream was fantastic, it was very rich in durian flavour but not too sweet at the same time, we loved it! The Nutella ice-cream was nice as well, no doubt any Nutella lovers would enjoy the ice-cream!

As for me, I had the Pulut Hitam and Chendol ice-cream topped with peanuts. I have always been a fan of Pulut Hitam, a traditional Malay rice pudding dessert flavoured with coconut milk. It was my first time having Pulut Hitam in an ice-cream form, and it was delicious and I would highly recommend this to my readers! The Chendol ice-cream was another item which I would recommend also.

Island Cremery gave me a very unique experience with ice-cream, being able to have ice-creams in local flavours! For those who have not been to this place, I highly recommend you to do so! For more information, please visit their official website.

Café Information
10 Jalan Serene
#01-03 Serene Centre
258748 Singapore.
Tel: +65 64688859

On my last day of my trip in Phuket Island, we drove to Kata Beach to explore different places.

We passed by a viewpoint and also a couple of restaurants on our way there and stopped by to take some photos and also for lunch.

The view from the restaurant was magnificent and it was peaceful and comfortable to dine in there.

The restaurant interior was mainly made out of wood, which was nice and pleasant.

This was where we were seated. We noticed that the restaurant was quite popular among tourists.

Service was good and our food arrived shortly after we ordered. We ordered a few dishes and two plates of rice. Priced at 160 Baht, the Spicy Pork Massaman Curry was a dish that I enjoyed eating a lot. the curry was thick and fragrant and the peanuts in the curry gave the dish an extra kick.

The Spicy Thai Style Chicken was priced at 220 Baht. It was good but I didn’t like it personally because it was mixed with abundance of finely chopped raw onions. It was a very healthy dish though, served with a lot of green vegetables.

The rice was served in star shape. I thought it was quite special.

Overall it was a nice place to dine in, although the price was slightly on the higher end. Service was very good almost everywhere in Phuket and I wouldn’t mind traveling there again for a vacation.

Restaurant Information
69/15 Kata Noi Road
Kata Beach
Phuket, Thailand.

On our second day of the trip, we woke up to a bright, cheerful weather in Phuket Island. We embarked on our scooter and drove up to the north west area of Phuket to Chalong, to visit one of the most important Buddhist temples in Phuket, which was the Wat Chalong.

It was a short drive from Rawai and we arrived at the Buddhist monastery. The temple was beautiful. It was opened from 7am to 5pm daily and tourists were allowed to visit the temple and ascend the stairs for a better view of Wat Chalong.

The photo was taken from the top of the temple. The area was peaceful and serene.

From the leaflet, I read that the temple was dedicated to two highly respected monks, Luang Pho Chaem and Luang Pho Chuang, who with their knowledge of herbal medicine, helped the injured of a tin miners rebellion in 1876.

A closer shot of the temple with the elephant statues.

Surrounding the temples were a couple of souvenir shops and drink stalls. One of these stalls were selling coconuts at 30 Baht each. As we were dehydrated during the visit, we bought one each and quenched our thirst with the juice. After finishing the drink, I requested the vendor to open the coconut for me to eat the flesh of the coconut, very delicious indeed! After quenching our thirst it was time to satisfy our growling stomachs. Back on our scooter, we made our way back to Rawai for a late lunch.

We came across this restaurant which looked welcoming to both locals and tourists.

The eatery wasn’t the most glamorous place around but nevertheless very airy, comfortable and pleasant.

We ordered a couple of dishes and rice to complement them. Priced at 80 Baht, the Grilled Fish with Salt was delicious. With only salt as its seasoning, I can taste the freshness of the fish.

Similarly priced at 80 Baht, the Massaman Pork Curry was something that I enjoyed a lot. Although not spicy, the Thai curry dish was fragrant with coconut milk and peanuts. The pork was nice and tender while the potatoes soaked up the mouth-watering curry broth.

The Seafood with Broccoli, which was priced at 70 Baht, was simple, healthy and delicious. Extra points was credited for the freshness of the prawns and squid.

Lunch was reasonably priced and delicious. When it was close to evening, we took a cab to Patong and enjoyed the night life there, which was vibrant and an eye-opening experience.

Restaurant Information
Rawai, Phuket.
Tel: 088-4428852

Despite growing up in South East Asia, it wasn’t until recently that I made my very first trip to Thailand, and that was to visit the well-known Phuket Island.

I made my booking through TripAdvisor, as usual, and I booked Phu Nana Boutique Hotel for a 2 night stay in Phuket. The hotel was located in Rawai, and the journey from the airport took around an hour. The hotel was located in a quiet neighbourhood, it was a family-run business, very small but it has everything that we needed, clean and very pleasant.

We were very impressed with our rooms as well, clean and comfortable. The proprietors were very nice and friendly, helpful and always smiling.

After getting directions from the locals, we rented a scooter and went sight seeing around the southern part of the island. We drove to Nai Harn Beach, which took us around 10 to 15 minutes. The beach was packed with tourists, many were sunbathing on the beach, a very popular place among the Caucasians.

The view was beautiful, blue horizons and peaceful sea view with silky soft sand beneath us. It was a great place to unwind and relax.

As we strolled along the beach, we came across a stream flowing towards the sea, there were children playing in the area.

As the evening drew closer, more people packed and left the beach.

We stayed in Nai Harn and watched the sunset.

Since there were a couple of restaurants located in that area, we decided to have our dinner there.

The view was serene and tranquil.

When it was dinnertime, we chose Food Mama, a restaurant located on the beach. The restaurant were covered by a number of big umbrellas and dimly lit, creating a peaceful and calm ambiance.

Please pardon for my carelessness of forgetting to note down the name and price of the drink. The drink was good and I liked the presentation, with an orchid as a decoration.

We were served with Som Tam first. The Spicy Green Papaya Salad consisted of green papaya, beans, chilli, tomatoes and peanuts. I liked the spicy and sourness of the dish, which increased my appetite for the main courses.

For our mains, we had a Steamed Fish with Soy Sauce. The portion was huge and the fish was fresh. However, we thought that the fish can be made more flavourful, it was slightly bland to our liking.

Dinner in Thailand will not be completed without a bowl of Tom Yum Soup. The spicy soup was nicely fragrant with strong sense of coconut milk and lemongrass. We enjoyed the soup a lot, very delicious when eaten with rice.

We ended our dinner with a plate of complimentary fruit platter consisting of watermelon, pineapple and banana.

Service was very good. The waiter was extremely friendly, although his command of language was limited, he did his best to assist us with our needs. Food was good and the environment was peaceful and relaxing. Please stay tuned for more travel and adventures in Phuket in the next post!

Restaurant Information
Nai Harn Beach
Rawai, Phuket
Thailand.