Pu Tien Restaurant (莆田菜馆) @ Vivocity

Located at Level 3, within Food Republic. From what we observed, usually this place is not that crowded. Though it was part of the food court, this small corner of a restaurant has its own seating area and service crew. In fact, I felt that the service here was quite good.

interior

table setting

appetiser of preserved vegetables (those kind usually eaten with teochew porridge)

We ordered items such as drunken cockles, braised intestines, sweet and sour squirrel fish, lor mee and dou miao (recommended by the captain).

drunken cockles(@$5.90++)

The cockles (sea hum) was really small, served cold and came with loads of garlic and drenched in light wine marinade sauce. Addictive (if you like it), but my tummy couldn't take too much of this. Can't really taste the wine though.

Next, was the braised pig intestine. There's some effort in presentation, though unnecessary as there were only a few pieces of the intestines for that dish.

braised pig intestines (@$9.90++)

closer view

The intestines were nicely tender and Q. No funky smell, and light tasting. Quite yummy, but it's just for tasting since there're 3 of us. Not enough to go around!

We liked the deep fried live squirrel fish very much! Nicely presented too. Pretty and vibrant in colour.

deep fried live squirrel fish (@$35.90++)

The fish was nicely large, and deboned. Meaty and tasty. The sauce was appetising and not overly sweet. Nice.

Forgot to take a picture of the Putien Lor Mee, but just the smallest serving size of the noodles (@$7.90++) can easily feed 3 pax! We shared amongst two ladies and each had about 3 small bowls portion. Quite a feat to finish the noodles, considering that we had other dishes to eat as well. But who's complaining? Not us!

The chili sauce on each table, was quite nice and match well with the lor mee. It added some oomph to the noodles.

chili sauce

We had a pot of tea, to aid digestion and to wash away all the oil but the dishes that we ordered weren't oily at all.

nice big teapot of pu-er, and water was filled to the brim!

Special mention, was the vegetable dish. Part of Putien's Eating Well menu, it's called braised chicken with dou miao. So imagine our surprise, when it was served. Didn't see any chicken meat, so thought it was the wrong dish....even the dou miao looked different...but the waitress verified that it was indeed what we had ordered. Hee!

braised chicken with dou miao

The dish is supposedly to be resembling 'fresh greens sprouting in a field of melting snow'. Hahaa, our plate of 'snow' probably melted way too fast? But still beautiful to look at. It tasted good and healthy. Liked the egg white blended with chicken fillet bits. The dou miao was tender and soft but not limp. Generous with the shredded dried scallops too. Yummy.

Spring Hokkaido Fair @ Takashimaya

The fair is happening from 30 March till 8 April 2012, at Food Hall B2 of Takashimaya Department Store. Absolutely loved these fairs! Been to the one last year too! So this year, concentrated on getting stuffs that I didn't manage to try last year. Heh heh.

This year decided to get one of those freshly made bento from Kani Kobo (is it literally translated as crab factory?). Bought the seafood bento (@$24).

Seafood Bento from Kani Kobo

salmon, ikura, uni and shredded crab meat

star of this dish, was the marinated ikura

closer look on the shredded crab meat

uni~

salmon was pretty run of the mill

here's an indication of the 'depth' of the rice

The bento was enjoyable. The rice was soft and sticky, and each mouthful of rice with ikura was just another form of happiness. Pure bliss. The shredded crab meat was rather bland though, and the uni wasn't as creamy.

Next, got myself something from Petite Mervielle. Last year, I've enjoyed the pumpkin pudding, so this year got the Mel Cheese Mix (plain and pumpkin) @$18 per box of 8 pieces.

Mel Cheese Mix (Plain and Pumpkin)

inside the box

mini cheesecakes!

I liked how Japanese confectionary items are always so prettily packaged.

plain

soft and fluffy

pumpkin

slightly denser and sweeter

The Mel Cheese cheesecakes were really tiny. Just two bites and it's gone! Good things don't really last, do they?

Next up, the 'Rare Cheesecake' from Komagatake Gyunyu. It was sold out last year, so this was one of the must get items for this year and went there on Day 2, so lots of bottles left.

the loot from Komagatake Gyunyu

Bokujo Rare Cheesecake (@$6)

after unwrapping

yummy cheesecake!

If you've bought the White Pudding (mascarpone cheese), then it's better if the White Pudding is eaten before having the Rare Cheesecake. The White Pudding has a much milder taste with natural sweetness and texture as bouncy as tofu. The Rare Cheesecake on the other hand, is exactly like a very dense, tasty cheesecake. Cheesecake in a tiny milk bottle is a novelty for me!

Also bought the milk chou by Maoi. Kept the milk chou inside the freezer for about 20 minutes before eating it. The fresh cream was so cold and creamy that it tasted like ice-cream! I like the chou pastry. It's similar to those cream puffs that I ate many years ago when I was still a child. Yums!

milk chou (@$3)

nice skin, nice filling

it's like eating ice-cream~

Currently, there's a sure-win lucky dip if you've spent above $50 at the fair and amongst the first 5000 customers. Not much luck though, so got the default prize of either butter candy or postcard.

butter candy?

Wine Connection Tapas Bar & Bistro @ Robertson Walk

The place was really crowded, even on a weekday evening. The music playing was rather loud, and the atmosphere was boisterous.

table setting and menu

paper coaster

For some odd reason, I'd forgotten to look at the tapas menu. Oops. So for food, we had mushroom risotto and bangers & mash, from their regular menu.

bangers and mash

mushroom risotto

We enjoyed the bangers and mash. It has a somewhat mellowed taste. The cooked onions added sweetness to the dish. Nice.

Mushroom risotto was nicely fragrant, and had a likeable taste. However, the texture of the rice, I didn't quite like. Overall, the risotto wasn't that creamy nor  as soft as I would like. The rice was somewhat 'dry'. Quite generous with the mushrooms though.

Thirsty? There are many types of wines, beers and other drinks to choose from. Prices ranges from $6 onwards for a glass of wine. But as the night progresses, one may find that certain drinks might become unavailable. So if you see something that you like, do order it at once!

We had beer, and because we ordered later, there was only 3 types of beers (on tap) left to choose from. Tried Barbar (@$9++) and Belgien Kriek (@$6++).

Belgian Kriek (front) and Barbar (back)

The Belgian Kriek, a type of sweet fruit beer. Taste of cherry, and so it reminded me of...of all things, cough syrup! Sigh. It wasn't bad, in fact, it was quite alright, if you don't mind the subtle syrup-py flavour.

But Barbar was easily likeable, and a thirst quencher too. Sweet and has hint of honey. Leaves a bitter aftertaste though.

For desserts, we ordered the brownie. But it didn't materialise after quite some time, so we enquired again. Apparently, our friendly service crew did not place that item into our order list. The waiter informed us that the brownie will be served cold. Hmm, we prefered warm brownies with cold ice-cream though, so we ordered the apple crumble instead.

apple crumble with ice cream

The apple crumble was not too sweet, and beneath the crumble, there were lots of apple pieces. Nice end to our meal.

Total bill came up to $66 for 2 pax.