Carlton City Hotel Breakfast

[Throwback, Dec 2024] It was Saturday and before checking-out, I went for my extravagant brunch.

well, why not?

it was already paid by the company after all😀

The breakfast buffet ends at 10:30am....and all the dishes will be kept away after then.

So i took all the food to my table and leisurely enjoy them till 11am

My favorite is the shrimp dumpling (aka 'har gao' dim sum)....

The shrimp were fresh and bouncy with the quality equivalent to Chinese dim sum restaurant standard.

I hardly see such good quality dim sum served as breakfast in hotels.

I also have some stir fried napa cabbage with assorted veggies from the Chinese section.

Miso soup, the last bowl from a big pot.

Most hotel in SG that I stayed serves miso soup and Japanese rice/porridge in breakfast buffet mainly because this country has many Japanese expats/visitors.

Having breakfast with a view of HDB flat😂

Look at my table full of food....like some sort of food offering on ancestor prayer table😂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the day before (on Friday), I also had the same extravagant brunch, so that I can skip lunch and work straight till the dinner party at 7pm.

My first plate of chapalang - fried rice, fried noodles, samosa, curry dhal...

Only the rice is OK....the others just below par.....coz taste and texture not right😅

noodles and samosa were soggy

dhal is diluted and tasteless

I did not finish 80% of this....sorry for the waste...

2nd plate of chapalang - sausages, hash brown, ham, glutinous rice (from Chinese section), pain au chocolat, fried egg, scrambled egg, pork bacon...etc

They have non-halal food served in the buffet such as pork siu mai. I can never find porky items in Malaysian hotel breakfast buffet.

Chwee kueh with preserved radish toppings....always my favorite.

My brunch that lasts me till evening.

BON APPETIT!

Business as usual around the neighbourhood

After CNY over, things got back to normal....no more fireworks and firecrackers (phew...finally!) and no more sale rush...The neighborhood mall is also quieter after all the festive decorations removed and the stalls/kiosks gone.

[Below] Looking at the empty walkway while sipping my latte at Coffee Bean. That space was previously occupied by pop-up stalls selling CNY goodies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nasi lemak from D'Nats, an established Malay food stall (and caterer) that have been around for 20++ years. I had sambal sotong with lots of sambal....

Their sambal is not spicy, just pungent only.

The peanuts/anchovies are packed in a tiny packet, hence can opt out and not take them for people who can't take peanuts/anchovies.

This plate of nasi lemak costs RM10.60 nett.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yong Tau Foo from a stall in the neighborhood Thong Kee kopitiam. RM2 per piece, this bowl consists of 2 bitter gourds, 1 brinjal, 1 okra and 1 stuffed tofu, altogether RM10.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Claypot chicken rice (RM9) and salted veggie tofu soup (RM6) from the famous neighborhood claypot restaurant run by a Malay couple....

Good business ever since they got 'publicity' from the social media 'accusing' them of using non-halal ingredients in the claypot rice....

This shop is the most 'harmonious' I've ever seen in the neighborhood as it has Malay, Chinese and Indian customers every time I visited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BrewMaster bistro/pub with its Super Value Lunch promo daily. I only managed to try their peri peri chicken chop before they discontinued this promo after CNY. 

Now they are having different items with free soup + bread for their lunch promo. I will blog about it in my next post.

McD SG - Cheesy Truffle Beef Burger

[Throwback Dec 2024] On my first day, I stayed in the office until 6 something before walking over to the hotel for check-in.

It is only a 10 minutes' walk, but I took my leisure time enjoying the evening scenery along the way (and taking pictures like a tourist), hence only reached the hotel half an hour later😂

Reached the hotel check-in counter but there was a group of airline staffs checking-in...

Hangout at the lobby first😐

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check-in was a breeze. I got my keycard in 5 minutes then head up to the room to put my luggage and laptop bag before heading out for dinner.

Here are some pictures of the room....

[Below] Complimentary tea/coffee

[Below] Not complimentary snacks

Queen size bed

Bathtub

Desk, mirror, flat screen tv

The fridge is placed inside the cabinet

Yellow dim lights

Shower room

There are 2 taps at the basin....one of it is drinking tap.

The bed is visible from the toilet thru the see thru glass window.

This is the tap for drinking water. Yes, it is safe for drinking.

This one....no need say....

Soaps and moisturizer

Magnesium bath flakes

Here's the view from the bathtub

Left (drinking water) Right (normal cleaning water)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After refreshing myself, I walked to the McD Springleaf Tower for a quick dinner.

I remembered having Korean gochujang burger last time....this time I'm going to try another odd stuff.

Cheesy truffle beef deluxe burger!

with potato pop and add-on Chicken McCrispy....

The burger has deep fried mozzarella sticks in it which is unnecessary. I prefer to eat these separately (outside of the burger) instead. Overpowering of flavors with beef + truffle + cheese sticks combination in one burger.

I removed the cheese sticks and eat them with truffle sauce instead.

Total bill is SGD14.50 nett.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the heavy meal, went for a walk to burn-off the calories.

I noticed this eco umbrella dryer at SGX Centre; sometimes little things like this bring convenience to our lives.

The artistic Christmas tree at Raffles Quay

to be continued....

Tanjong Pagar

Many years ago (while I was still a student), I took the KTMB train back to KL from the Old Railway Station in Keppel Road. It's a bit of walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT to that railway station. I passed by the corporate offices in the CBD area, some posh hotels/restaurants/bars on the way, while dreamt of working in one of the offices in CBD one day😂

Fast forward today, I walked past the same stretch of road but from the office to the hotel.

It is located nearby Tanjong Pagar MRT, along Robinson Road.

 Here are some pictures captured during one fine evening.

Traffic/vehicles and people move in orderly manner. Strictly no jaywalking.

Clean and well-maintained roads.

Some familiar sights...

[Below] Robinson Road

Office lobby....this was taken in December last year, hence the Christmas tree.

Sea view as seen from the office. On the left is "V on Shenton" luxury apartment...which I dream of staying one day😂

I will continue to dream on!😂

Yang Ming Restaurant

Family dinner at the neighborhood Chinese restaurant, which is located next to Ipoh Chicken Rice shop.

We ordered 4 dishes for 5 pax:

Claypot curry fish fillet

Claypot tofu in assorted veggies

Stir-fried leafy greens

Sweet & sour pork

Dishes taste alright. My favorite is the claypot curry which has thick gravy that is nice to go with rice. Claypot tofu tastes good too.

Total bill came to RM138.10 nett.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below are a few dishes from "FUHU Pop-up by Zouk" at Crockfords Genting....what a name for a restaurant!

Chicken leg in herbal broth and steamed tiger prawns

Stir-fried beef with choy sum

Black pepper fish fillet

BON APPETIT!

CNY 2025

Pavilion Bukit Jalil decoration for this year, nothing extraordinary....Just some fake flowers and lotsa lanterns!

I went there on the 2nd Day of CNY to have dinner with family.

Nope, we don't go to those crowded steamboat/hotpot or extravagant Chinese restaurant....

Guess where?

Flower Girl!

*coz it has ample tables and space with less customers compared to the other restaurants😂

we opted to avoid crowds and unnecessary service charge hike!

Ordered the same ol' stuffs....

Chicken salad (with lotsa avocado and mango cubes) RM20.80++

This is my hoisin sauce chicken chop (RM25.80++). Mashed potato is hidden beneath the chicken chop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the dinner, we adjourned to Dao for soybean desserts.

Ordered a large taufofa for sharing. There are 3 options to choose - white sugar syrup, ginger or brown sugar syrup. We had the white sugar syrup. Silky smooth taufofa served hot in a bowl. The beancurd texture is as good as Funny Mountain Ipoh.

Also had a beancurd softserve which tastes very much like taufofa.....

It reminds me of Mr.Bean soybean softserve which I had 20 years ago in SG. 

Mr.Bean SG has recently opened outlets in TRX and Genting SkyAvenue, but nowadays I can always get a similar one in Dao, which is closer to home.

Grandmama's menu with all the attractive food pictures. The last time I dined here was more than 3 years ago. Their curry mee and cendol were quite nice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some cheapskate watches on sale at RM29 each. I used to wear such watches to school last time.

Which one looks good on my wrist?