Dining With Jewelle

Of course, hubby will not miss going for a Japanese food when he was over at Singapore last week. But since he was only there for one day, he only managed to check out the Ichiban Sushi.

Here, hubby thinks he has found the origin of our Brunei’s Excapade Restaurant

From the layout of the menu to the variety of dish, he thought it was a Brunei Excapade with a Singaporean size. He declared that the salmon sashimi portion was, I quote, “pathetic” as compared to Excapade’s.

I guess that was why he didn’t take any picture of that dish!

During out trip to Sentosa Island during our Singapore trip a week ago, we dropped by the Rasa Sentosa Resort for lunch since we just finished touring the Underwater World and it was on the next block.

Silly us, we didn’t know that the restaurant was at the beach front and so we struggled uphill towards the main entrance of the resort (which was 5 floors up!)

Hubby spotted a Mini parked at the front and being car-crazy, insisted that I snap it up (luckily it wasn’t a Ferrari or he’d be drooling all over it already!). FYI, the Mini is sold for $100K-$140K in Singapore (I know, for that TINY car?! I often wondered myself). In Brunei, we don’t get it new but my walking-car-encyclopedia said that we get second hands from Singapore and is sold on the market here for around $40K. Still so (ridiculously) expensive, even for Brunei car market standard!

The hotel foyer wasn’t that impressive. It was in fact very dim. But since we were in a hurry for lunch, didn’t have time to look see and headed straight for the Barnacles, their main restaurant which as I said was on the beach front. We had to go down 5 floors (by lift of course!) and walked a long long way around the huge swimming pool under the hot sun as it was at the far end of the area.

When we reached the Barnacles, it was still empty as most of the hotel guests were still at the pool (at noon time, imagine! I don’t know why they needed tan so bad).

We sat besides the window and it was a quite interesting to see the many ships that plied the area.

I was surprised that their menu was very limited. In fact, they have less than 10 main dish! It’s all western fare and the only thing that interest me was the lamb rack while hubby had the surf and turf, seafood and meat combo.

My lamb was very good. In fact even Eu kept asking for a piece that with that kind of portion, I was not even half full. This is the kind of western food that to me is a waste of time. Looks so pretty but with so little portion, what’s the point? Asian food for me any time!

The do have kids menu but there was no rice dishes and Eu is not the spaghetti eating kid. So I gambled with the chicken nugget as she is partial to fried chicken (skin - one of the rare trait that she takes after me!). It didn’t look appetizing and Eu nearly choked when she took a scoop (with my back turned) of the mayonnaise, thinking it was butter (yes, she loves butter).

That was the only smarter dining place we went to in Singapore as with 2 kids, you just want to eat quickly and leave!

We came across Raku Ninja Restaurant as we were walking along the Singapore CityLink. I was glad to find it because it was past noon and I didn’t pack Qi’s lunch so we were desperate for a place that serves food for her.

Raku Ninja, a Japanese restaurant has a huge menu board at the entrance and I made up my mind the moment I saw that they serve porridge. Despite its Japanese name, they also offer some Chinese and Western food. I was amused that dishes such as green vegetable with oyster sauce are offered as side dishes and priced for less than $4 (I think).

I asked for their fish porridge for Qi with instruction to omit pepper (Singaporeans love their white pepper!) and salt. But I forgot to tell them to skip the MSG and when the porridge came, it was very tasty. But Qi was too hungry to mind the tastier-than-usual porridge (she’s used to naturally flavoured porridge and usually refuses restaurant food).

Hubby ordered their sashimi set which for the quantity and price, was a rip-off if we compare it to what we get at Brunei’s Excapade. However his claypot rice got his thumbs up for taste and portion. I had their pork chops which was okay but I thought it was ridiculously small (but actually just right for $9).

We are usually the one drink family as hubby always have water and I’ll be the one ordering drinks. For this place we had no choice but to order drinks!

The decor was quite elegant, mostly dark tones with plush sofas. When we arrived, the place was blissfully empty and we had the waiter’s full attention.

The service was attentive and quite value for money. If I like Japanese food, I think this would be my kind of place.

The last time we went to Singapore, hubby dragged us over to the Smith Street a.k.a Chinatown Food Street for dinner. Although I liked how the buildings around this area looked like, all restored and beautified, the food street itself did not impressed me.

This time around, we stayed in Chinatown so obviously, there is no escaping it and we had dinner there one night when hubby had a craving for fried “kueh tiaw” as he noticed that most food courts did not serve this dish.

Even though Chinese New Year is long over, the red lanterns were still up around this area and it looked so festive and I stop every few minutes taking pictures.

Since I’ve fed both the girls earlier on and did not have to order food for them, I decided to be adventurous and tried their “Mee Rebus” which is a little spicy. It’s thick but I kind of like it, although I’m not sure I’ll try it ever again. While hubby, faced with so many choices (he walked up and down the streets a few times), finally decided on some fried mee (I think he had forgotten about this fried kueh tiaw craving then!).

I didn’t check out the other stalls but I think they serve mostly Chinese food. The shoplots behind the stalls were mostly Chinese restaurants.

After our simple dinner, we walked through the bazaar and had I been on my own, I’d surely be stuck there for ages as there were just so many interesting things to see. I only managed to get 3 shirts from 1 store and even then my entourage was about to complain

because I took a little too long! Lesson learnt : go shopping alone.

I was not impressed with the Food Street on my first visit and that did not changed much on my second. For one, they did not have my ultimate Singaporean dish, tonic soups.

But it’s worth going to feast your eyes on the restored historical buildings and to stock up on Singapore souvenirs at the bazaars.

One thing about travelling with kids is that eating is no longer a case of whatever and whenever.

Meal time is fixed and the menu can’t be too adventurous (Eu complains on the slightest taste of pepper!). And trying to eat at restaurants with two toddlers can be a test of patience with one kid fond of climbing out of her high chair (Qi) and one kid fond of playing drums with the chopsticks/singing with gusto/exaggerated chatting (Eu).

That is why when we contemplated having dinner down at the Hotel Cafe, my response was, if eating in, then eat in the room! After all, you might as well eat in peace without having to worry about looking less than glamourous!

So hubby had no choice but to try the Furama Hotel’s Beef Tenderloin in the room after both the kids were asleep. I was disappointed that their Chicken Curry Madras and Bak Kut Teh as listed in the menu were no longer available and nothing else caught my fancy.

But the beef was surprisingly good. It was thick and big and at the requested medium rare, it was done perfectly. It was about $20+ I think.