CreatureS @ 120 Desker Road

It was an impromptu decision to visit. All of us were packed into Ivan's car, and Kris punched a few numbers on her phone, talked abit and voila, we had a table at CreatureS on a Saturday evening. Interesting district, this Desker Road. Think dark lanes, some cafes and plenty of traffic. Parking was tricky, though there was one pretty near the junction about 100 metres away from the shop.

menu

Our table was upstairs and noted that there's an alfresco seating at Level 2 as well. Place was well decorated with plenty of flowers and plants. The washroom has a spa-ish feel to it.

centerpiece at Level 2

table for party of 8

table with a view

Ordered desserts as we already had our dinner elsewhere. Got two of their bestsellers to try, and some fries for munchies.

The Asian Herb Fries tasted a bit like, uhm...twisties. Haha, yeah. Mainly of curry, pepper and salt seasonings. Bar food for the cocktails, perhaps. Speaking of cocktails, spotted one that I'd like to try in future; Creamy CreatureS thats concocted with dark rum, gula melaka, and rosemary perfurmed milk froth. Sounds good but didn't order that night since we were there for desserts. Desserts and cocktail? Hmm, not for me.

Asian Herb Fries @$12++

If you'd like a cake with local flavours, try the orh nee (yam) or durian cake. Since we had to make a choice, we chose the durian cake. Made of pandan genoise sponge, pandan vanilla chantilly cream and of course, most importantly, the mao shan wang durian paste. Pardon my ignorance, had to look up the wiki for genoise (genoese) cake which is basically Italian sponge cake, where whole egg is used as opposed to yolk and white beaten separately.

Durian Cake @$12++

I like sponge cake, cream and durian and this slice had all of those, so this was pleasant. The durian paste tasted good and has strong fragrance but unfortunately, there were some dry bits in there as well.

Next up, was the heavy duty CreatureS Chocolate Cake. If the item carries the shop's name, it better live up to the expectation! No worries, as this one did and did it well. Bouncy espresso chocolate sponge layered with thick soft layers of chocolate sitting ontop of homemade salted caramel sauce and sprinkled with himalyan salt, resulted in a very intense and right-in your face saltiness and chocolatey gooeyness. Yums. When it gets a tad too heavy, the coconut ice-cream is there to balance things up a bit.

CreatureS Chocolate Cake @$18++

Would strongly suggest that the cakes to be shared. Durian cake as desserts between 2 pax, and the Chocolate Cake between 4 pax (at least!).

FATCAT Ice Cream Bar @ 416 Bedok North Avenue 2

"Journey to the East" That's practically what it was. Moving via MRT from North-West to the Eastern region took about an hour and 15 minutes with one train transfer. Subsequently, took bus 255 from Bedok Interchange to Blk 416. Someone just told me that it was within walking distance from the MRT. Hmph. Now only you say. Haha! But that's alright, the bus stops directly opposite of the block, so one needs to just cross the road to get there. Yes, it was true. The notorious queuing time was an hour, so thank you msginginly for securing our table. Kopi time with fellow hoppers; msginginly, jellylovesfood, runningman and chubbybotakkoala.

le menu

pondering over the many choices

The place was forever busy, with people waiting outside and packed to the brim inside. Was there on a weekend, around 430pm. For sharing, we had the (by now much raved about) charcoal salted egg waffles with two scoops of ice-cream and a deconstructed strawberry shortcake. The service staff at the ice-cream counter seemed harried, so one better quickly tell her what you want to try!

While waiting for the desserts to be prepared (which took quite a long while of probs more than 15 minutes), one could order the alcohol spiked spheres. Friend who tried it, liked it.

lime mojito sphere @$4.50

If not, how about a cuppa coffee? The regular 5 ounces or the smaller 3 ounce glass.

latte

Finally, the dessert arrived. Liked that the staff took the time to explain/introduce the desserts that we ordered.

Deconstructed Strawberry Shortcake @$12

The Strawberry Shortcake came in a carefully assembled deconstructed manner. An interesting dish with soft fluffy cake strewn ontop of chili/curry crumble and decorated with some elderflower, some cream, fresh strawberry slices and some dried thin strawberry gelly, and ice-cream flavours of fior di latte and raspberry. All eaten together for that contrast in texture and taste where one gets sweet, spicy, salty and sour. The marshmallow had a texture that wasn't what I had expected...

yummy fluffy cake and ice-cream

The charcoal waffles came less decorated than the deconstructed cake but can still see the effort in plating.

charcoal waffles with two scoops of ice-cream @$15.40

Poured the sauce all over the waffles and we dug in soon after.

let's dig in!

Likeable and tasty. How could one say no to salted egg yolk sauce? We chose two scoops of ice-cream that has similar colours. Should have taken the sea-salt matcha flavour but then, this one came with salted egg yolk sauce already. Hmm. Could do with more salted egg yolk sauce though. The butter beer ice-cream was interesting and tasted of beer! Butterscotch was sweet and creamy.

Good to try.

Wee's Family Coffee Shop 黄家咖啡店 @ 117 Bedok Reservoir Road

When you think of a zhichar (煮炒) stall, what comes to mind? Would it be a plate of delicious silky 滑蛋何 (flat noodles) that has been infused with the fiery hot wok's breath topped with savoury smooth eggy sauce? Or, a simple tasty yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭)? How about the Singapore noodles ( 新洲米粉) that's popular in neighbouring country?

A zhichar place to me, is about communal dining. When parents are too tired to cook, then zhichar would be a good choice to feed the family. My family of 5 would usually order steamed assam fish, another meat (either chicken or pork), vegetables and claypot tofu.

Went cafe hopping around Bedok area, and when it was time for dinner, we trooped over to Wee's Family Coffee Shop. The uncle and aunty at the shop were friendly and got us seated at a table that was reserved but the guests won't be here for another hour or so.

signboard at the coffeeshop

chalkboard specials

We ordered handmade hae zhor 虾枣, prawn paste chicken wings 虾酱鸡, salted egg prawns 咸蛋虾 (de-shelled), stir-fried sweet potato leaves 番薯叶 with belachan and the shop specialty of mushroom tofu. Heehee, five dishes for the five of us. That's akin to one person eating up the whole plate of sweet potato leaves. Wahaha! Ordered all small portions, but still quite substantial for us to finish.

虾枣 hae zhor, served with sweet sauce @$8

mushroom beancurd 松菇豆腐 @$12

salted egg yolk prawns @$16

stir fried sweet potato leaves with belachan @$6

har jiong gai aka prawn paste chicken wings 虾酱鸡 @$8

The deep fried dishes, were all done very well. Crisp skin, golden brown and moist inside. Loved the tangy pickles that came with the deep fried dishes. The hae zhor was about two bites size, and tasted more of the minced pork. Homely dish. 

The mushroom beancurd was delightful and the taste was well balanced. Loved the deep fried enoki and the sauce that went so well with the rice. Was impressed by the size of the salted egg yolk prawns. Evenly coated, well fried and it was simply a joy to bite into them.  

Prawn paste chicken was good as its inside was still juicy. The prawn paste taste was rather mild though. Pair it with the fiery sambal sauce, equates to yums!

must-have for the prawn paste chicken

 
Lovely dinner, reasonably priced. Best to make reservations or turn up early before 630pm for a table on a weekend.

Hokkaido Fish Market @ Novena Square 2

Prices have gone up. Still, this place is popular with lunch crowds. Here was what I ate way back in 2011 (subsequent revisit was not documented lah...). Fast forward 4 years later, am still ordering the same. Heh heh.

 Hokkaido Fish Market is a place with nett prices. This place is at Level 2 and near the Koufu food court.

sashimi 3 kinds (三色) @$18

mekajiki, maguro and sake

At times, it might not be served on ice. That day, the mekajiki was really good. The salmon slices could be slightly thicker though.

The bento set @$12 and available in limited quantities, are so popular that usually they'd be sold out before 1pm.

saba fish set @$14

The new wagyu beef bento set looked pretty good. My colleague who had it, said it was nice.

wagyu bento @$18

Skyve Wine Bistro @ 10 Winstedt Road

This time round, managed to do dinner. Usually, we'd just have drinks and some snacks like chicken wings and fries. Was in the mood for some mains, but discovered that its delicious beef kalbi is no longer in its menu. Sads...

chardonnay to start the night @$14++

For mains, we tried the Parmesan Beef Burger and the Ancho Cod.

Parmesan Beef Burger @$34++

The beef burger parmesan infused patty, red onion confit, bacon jam, foie gras butter, spinach, kaiser brioche bun and a small bucket of truffle fries. Didn't recall the taste of foie gras butter though. Bun was nice since its a brioche. Hmm, the beef patty was a tad tougher than expected.

lovely truffle fries

The Ancho Cod was a surprise though. It was sitting atop of some white sauce but was packed with some lovely heat. Yums. The seasoning for the fish was good. Flavourful and with some kick. The yam and potato chips were good.

Ancho Cod @$38++

A dinner with two mains and two alcoholic drinks, would cost around $75 per pax. Thanks to the Entertainer App, we saved $34 off our meal here.