Feast @ East - A pretty decent Nyonya Buffet

We have been to the Sunday lunch time Nyonya buffet at Feast @ East (Grand Mercure Hotel) twice in the past month, primarily because of our Accor card which affords us a 50% discount on the buffet (about SGD45 for 2 of us with tax included).

The spread of food is nothing to shout about - in fact, I'll say that you would be sorely disappointed if you were looking for quality. In fact, the Japanese sashimi section is limited to just salmon.

The focus is on Nyonya food and on some days, they have Ngoh Hiang which is very good according to my Teochew in-laws and my CEB. However on other days they have lamp chop instead or poh piah. I've loved poh piah since young and could not wait to help myself to unlimited rolls of the good stuff when I spied the item at the food counter. However, the experience was disappointing because despite the superior quality of the skin used, the skin was hard and tasteless.

The buffet also serves Or Lah - Fried oysters in flour. I don't eat this dish at all but my mother and CEB both thought that the restaurant did a bad job on this one too.

So why the return trips? The Laksa. It's been a long time since all of us have had really good laksa and the thick flavorful gravy of the laksa had us coming back for more - round after round. I had 3 bowls one visit, and 4 the next! It was that good. The laksa does not come with prawns - just fishcakes, 1/2 a egg and clams but one can always add prawns from the cold spread (prawns, mussels, scallops).

It also helps that the restaurant does a pretty decent durian puree and serves slices of cheese cakes, chocolate brownies and durian cakes for desserts.

There is also a chendol and ice kachang machine in addition to tubs of ice-cream, and trays full of kuehs - the rainbow colored ones, the rice based ones (See pic above) and all sorts of sweets from the 80s. I had some of the Rabbit ones which I loved when I was a kid! The sago and corn dessert were also very good!

The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The spread of food is limited and the quality of the cooked food very average. Having a buffet here only makes sense if one wants to have Nyonya / 80s food to gorge on, or if one gets a one for one buffet.

Dim Sum Buffet at Chynna Hilton Hotel at KL Sentral

During our weekend jaunt up to KL last weekend, we decided to abandon our reservation at Jogoya because we had a late checkout (3.30pm) from the hotel and we had to catch the 5pm bus (which was just next to the hotel) to the airport.

After some last minute searches on the net, we found out that one of the top 5 Chinese restaurants in KL was located about 20+ floors down from our room - Chynna. I made reservations for 12noon but we were too stuffed from the breakfast buffet that we ended up going down at 1pm instead.

The decor of the restaurant was definitely Chinese-style with all the lanterns but far from being gaudy, the decor was tastefully done up without being overdone (too "cheena"). For the dim sum buffet, one could either have the buffet with 1 bowl of seafood soup at RM55++ or buffet with 1 bowl of sliced abalone soup at RM98++.

After we were seated and had made our selection from the menu, a waiter dressed in traditional Chinese Manchu Garb came over to our table and poured us a cup of welcome tea from this tea pot with an extremely long spout. I think only a few Chinese restaurants have that! Anyway, other than that one cup of welcome tea, drinks were not part of the buffet.

We placed our order for the dim sum items about 1pm and it took the restaurant 15 mins before serving the first item - fried Thai fish cakes which was very good. We finished the dish in about 2 mins and waited for the next dish which took another 5 mins to come. There was some sort of a cooking/steaming area at the side of the restaurant but it didn't seem like anyone was manning the counter at all. So we got a tad worried about how long it would take for all the rest of the items (this is a buffet, mind!) to be served given that we had to check out at 3.30pm.

After asking the waitress to hurry with our orders, the next dish was finally served - char siew baos. Warm and soft fluffy buns with sweet juicy fillings. Very good stuff.

My CEB ordered the porridge which I didn't have any of but he said it was decent. I on the other hand ordered siew mais which looked rather unappetizing but was in fact done very well. The pork was tender and wet, and when poked with my fork, fell apart in nice bite-sized pieces.

As you can see from the picture below, we also had beef balls, har gaos (prawn dumplings), and rice rolls with scallops. Every item except the rice rolls (which was too plain and tasteless) is worth a try!

I had a second order of the scallops dumplings (pic on the right) and another dim sum item which looks like stuffed balls of some sort - I can't really recall. My CEB had a second order of the Thai fried pan cakes. We also had other dim sum items in between but I can't recall what they are because I was too busy eating to take more pictures.

We ended with dessert - one gets to choose one dessert from a choice of 4 desserts on the menu. I ordered ice cream with red bean and this dish gets a huge thumbs down from me. Not because this is Chynna and I expected the dessert to be of a certain quality but because on its own, the dessert tasted awful - the red bean was tasteless and watery and of course, a heap of flavored ice mixed in did nothing for the dish at all.

Before we left the hotel, my CEB bought mooncakes from Chynna for his mama-in-law. A box of 4 mooncakes cost about RM80 for 2 snow skin mooncakes and 2 baked mooncakes.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. While the large majority of the dim sum items at Chynna are definitely palate-pleasing, Chynna would do better if the service was much faster (there were only a few tables occupied at that hour and they were still so slow!) and if the quality of the desserts on the buffet menu was improved. Still, I would definitely visit Chynna if in KL and the urge for dim sum strikes me. Will be back.

Lago Restaurant at Boat Quay

So, we had 3 places reserved for my birthday dinner, thanks to my generous CEB who had offered to let me celebrate at any place I wanted.

Well, I wasn't in the mood for miniscule portions so I cancelled our reservation at Forlino in the afternoon. Red meat also didn't tickle my appetite the least so I decided to go to the place with the "Best Pepper Crab" according to my sister. I figured that given her lifestyle (fine-dining on the regular), we couldn't go very far wrong.

So, I called Lago to confirm the reservation I made 1 week ago and what do you know, they didn't have a record of it. No matter, they assured me that a table for 2 would not be a problem.

We made the mistake of parking at UOB which was all the way to the other end of Boat Quay. Lago is nearer the South Bridge Road of Boat Quay. The boss/manager was an aunty with a sling pouch across her body and she was a jolly friendly soul who gave us drinks (soft drinks) on the house when she heard it was my birthday. And that's where the good part ends.

So, the food right? She recommended kangkong which was the first dish to be served. I can find no fault with the cooking but it certainly was far from lip-smacking delicious. It was severely overpriced at SGD12 given the lack of quantity!

Even worse was the sambal stingray. It certainly tasted fresh but I think the restaurant has a darn lousy cook. Nevermind the size - smaller than 2 of your palms joined together - but the method of cooking was far below average. The fish was fresh but not juicy, just bland...and slices of onion heaped on top with some lemon slices did nothing for the dish. IT sucked and it cost SGD22.

Now, we came here for the crab and let me tell you, although the crab was huge (2kg right?), it was crap. It took forever to come which led my CEB to wonder if they had run out of crabs and had to go get one from another restaurant. After he took a couple of bites, he had his answer: It was probably defrosted. I am not so sure - it seemed to me that the crab was severely overcooked - barbequed to the point where the meat was all tough and tasteless instead of succulent and fleshy. It was truly again to me, an absolute horrific waste of SGD100 eating this dish. We would have done so much better at Jumbo or No Signboard.

The only thing good about the restaurant was of course, the view we had dining facing Fullerton Hotel where there was a local band playing next to the hotel. Then again, this view could be had from anywhere along the river on this side. And not at such a steep cost. The total bill for the 3 dishes above came up to over SGD150 (There is no GST payable but there is service charge of 10%)

The Slog Reviews: 1/10. The 1 point is for the service by the Aunty. This place, it deserves the one star it got on Hungry Go Where (Click here). I don't blame the (quality of the)food so much as the cook(s) who display an appalling lack of skills for a restaurant where so many tourists frequent by pure bad luck. I am not returning to this place. Ever.

Ramen Champion at T3 is now open - Power Riki Ramen (Toyko)

To my CEB"s delight. And mine too, having been subject far too many times to my CEB insisting he had to have his noodles at the food-court at T3.

The concept is the same as that of Ramen Champion at Iluma - at the entrance, one gets a card with a band to slip over one's wrist and that card is used to record one's purchases which one pays for by producing one's card to the cashier at the exist.

However, there is one huge difference - the Power Riki Ramen stall at Ramen Champion at T3 Changi Airport which is not found at Iluma. Below is a pic of the stall found near the entrance. The chef is a genuine Japanese chap who speaks rather good English and was able to give me a full description of his broth, compared to the others around.

And he indeed has good reason to be proud given what the Power Riki ramen stall is dishing out. Out of all the ramen that we've tried (there is the Ikkousha station at this Ramen Champion too), we think that the Power Riki Ramen which hails from Japan is the best. Not just in terms of taste, but more importantly, it is CONSISTENTLY good.

Especially the broth which isn't just plain chicken broth as is the case for the other ramen station with the red sign called SuKe (the ramen there tastes like a watery version of Campbell's chicken soup).

The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Solid good ramen full of healthy flavourful ingredients. And in portions that aren't overwhelming but just right. Great job, chef!

Bario Ramen at Ramen Champion at Iluma

Ever since being introduced to Ramen Champion at Iluma last year December where I tried out the Ikkousha station (click here), I was quite determined to introduce my CEB to the good stuff.  My CEB, having lately developed a penchant for spicy stuff, ordered the spicy ramen from the Bario stall which looked like this - a mountain of noodles in some fiery and oily looking gravy.

I on the other hand, ordered the normal Bario Ramen which looked like this but came with a heaping of noodles and fresh beansprouts. Both bowls were pretty aesthetically pleasing I'll say and we fell upon the bowls as soon as we had the chopsticks in our hands.

The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10 (my CEB said 6/10 for the record) for the generous portions of fresh thick noodles and beansprouts. The noodles were a bit heavy though on the stomach, and plentiful but somehow the broth didn't hit the spot the way 1 other stall's ramen did. Will post about that later.

Indo Padang Restaurant at Cathay

1 of my first buys on Groupon was 3 vouchers for SGD90 worth of meals at Indo Padang restaurant at SGD45 (SGD15 x 3 vouchers).

That was the worst buy ever. Not only did I not have the time to use the vouchers till the week before they expired, but it was an absolutely horror altogether. The ambiance was nice, the servers were friendly, the food didn't take forever coming...BUT the quality of the food! Awful doesn't even begin to describe the food.

Food from a Malay/Indonesian stall at a food court beats the food coming out of this restaurant's kitchen hands down.

I'll start with the beef rendang, the dish on the left of the picture. That was the only semi-decent dish out of everything we ordered. The dish cost almost SGD10, and the meat was tough, but not too touch to spoil the dish. No great shakes, but edible.

I wanted to order the giant prawns dish but was told they didn't have that. So I ordered the udang petai, prawns cooked with the petai vegetable. That is the dish on the right. It came with potato cubes and those were the only bits of the dish which were pretty good. The prawns were smallish, very tough and totally dry. Not the least bit of juice or sweetness. I, a noobie at cooking, have cooked sambal prawns and those were much better. Oh, and there were all of about 8 small prawns for SGD 10! What a rip off! Even with a voucher giving a 50% discount, I would not have paid SGD5 for this dish.

And sambal kangkong...how do you mess up such a simple dish! My sister and I love kangkong and we attacked the dish with great gusto, only to look at each other with wrinkled noses after taking the first bite. The gravy was overly sweet, almost to the point of being syrupy sweet. Ugh. And it was such a tiny portion for that price! Less than what you would get in a food court mixed dish stall.

Now, the fish. I intended to use 2 of the vouchers so I was looking to order SGD60 worth of food. Since the fish head curry was SGD22 and there were 2 of us, it made sense to order this dish. The fish head came in a pot with thin looking yellow gravy. Which was a put off but never mind, maybe it would be nice. My sister took 1 bite and spat it out. And I soon found out why. The fish was not fresh. Not even the curry (which was awfully thin) could mask the "Cao Seng" (rotten) taste of fish that was not fresh. We told the waitress who took it back to the kitchen. She said the fish came that day. If it did, it must have been left in the open too long. It was bad. And that was the only fish head the restaurant had that day.

So I decided to order another dish. The next most expensive fish on the menu. Only to be told it was not available. So I ordered the belachan fish. And tada,...look at the picture of the fish that came deep fried, about 8 inches long, had belachan paste dumped on its body and cost SGD 8. What a rip off! I mean, look at the size of the bowls...that should give you an idea of the size of the fish!

I also ordered tauhu goreng. And for some strange reason, despite the horrible fish, prawns and all, we were envisioning a mountain of warm toufu...but no, we were served with the above dish whcih consisted all of 6 pieces of over cooked deep fried toufu. At least the toufu was not spoilt, like the fish, but the dish had been so overcooked that the outer lawyer was hard and dry and chewy. And the inside was all shrunken. This cost SGD5...I wouldn't pay a dollar for this.

And the drinks! My sister ordered ice strawberry which cost SGD 4 and I ordered lime juice which was the same price. After one mouthful of the drink, she abandoned the glass together. Ice strawberry? It wasn't even blended ice but just water mixed with strawberry powder. My own drink was so overpoweringly sweetly sour that I could not finish it either. So that was SGD8 for you.

The Slog Reviews: ZERO/10. I've never rated a local restaurant zero before but any restaurant that serves food that is just so awful really shouldn't be in this business. The bill came to SGD62 but in effect I'd only paid SGD30 for this meal.

And it was not worth SGD30. If I hadn't already paid using Groupon vouchers, I might have sent every dish back to the kitchen after 1 bite and just walked out. And I did mention I bought 3 vouchers right? I just let the third one go to waste. I wouldn't give a voucher for Indo Padang restaurant to my worst enemy...or maybe.

Ramen Champion at Iluma - Ikkousha

I was in town today for work and met a fellow legal eagle I hadn't met for months (he has a 2 month old daughter now!). Because I wanted ramen, he suggested we go to Ramen Champion, somewhere I'd never heard of before! Ramen Champion is a "Marche-concept" restaurant where there are 6 different ramen stalls in one large restaurant and at the entrance, one is given a card where one's purchase is recorded. Payment is made at the exit based on the card.

At my friend's recommendation, I had Ikkousha's version of Hakata Ajitama Ramen, which he said was the most popular of the 6 ramen stalls here. The lady at the stall persuaded me to opt for the ramen bowl which had 7 slices of fatty pork meat and cost a hefty SGD17+ a bowl (regular version). The Slog Reviews: 6/10. The broth was so darn salty that finishing the soup base was not possible, and I was thankful to have my cup of bubble tea which I'd bought earlier with me to clean out my mouth between each bite. The noodles were firm and springy, no complaints but the meat had loads of fat, and being soaked in salty broth did nothing to improve the taste of the meat. I wouldn't go back to this stall again.

My friend on the other hand chose Bario, because he was starving. I understood what he meant when he carried his bowl of ramen to the table - a veritable mountain of ramen indeed! I think I'll try Bario the next time I go back!

When I complained to him about the saltiness of the Ikkousha ramen, he said I should try the Sappora Ramen because that had corn in it and would be sweeter.

Going to Ramen Champion today makes me wish I still had a job in town - just so I could savor the better fare instead of the stuff that passes for lunch in the boondocks. :D

Address: 201 Victoria Street Bugis Iluma #04-08/09/10 S(188607).

Operating Hours: 11.30am to 10.30pm

Te: +65 6238 1011

Sunday Brunch at Ku De Ta at Marina Bay Sands

Ku De Ta is one of my sister's favorite places to be and to dine (if that word can be used given how very little she eats to preserve that figure which has been on the covers of magazines). So naturally, to celebrate my mother's birthday this year, we found ourselves having Sunday brunch at the restaurant. And at a window table indoors to boot, given how last minute the reservations were. But that's my sister we are talking about - given how she is a frequent diner there, and how last Xmas she and her Mister racked up more than SGD700 on Xmas dinner for the 2 of them alone....

Anyway. Ku De Ta for brunch buffet cost SGD68++ per pax. Which was not overly priced given the view, the ambiance, the "name" of the place, and the quality of the food. This was an ala carate menu buffet which meant that one could order the dishes one wanted of their (somewhat limited) menu. In the mean time, there was a spread laid out for desserts, cold cuts and cheese and bread, as well as mushrooms and soba which one could part-take of freely. The menu had black angus beef but at 1pm, they had run out of beef which made me most upset. I mean, what kind of buffet runs out of a dish, and they had less than 15 dishes on the brunch menu! So we made do with the oysters, foie gras, chicken teriyaki, yellowfin tuna steak, prawn skewers, tempura, fried rice, all of which were rather limited in portion-size wise. There was also the breakfast menu one could order a chicken steak from, or crumpets even with eggs. Milkshakes like banana something, lychee with coconut milk, coffee (latte, mocha) and tea were also available in unlimited quantities.

I wish I could say it was impressive but it wasn't. The foie gras was of course done well, but how much of the extremely rich tasting liver one can realistically down is limited. The chicken teriyaki was burnt, the oysters took a long time coming although they were fresh (we had to ask 3 times), and my mum thought her fried rice was better than the one at Ku De Ta. The prawn skewers were unimpressive, and so were the eggplant and tempura dishes.

The dessert spread was pretty good and there was a fair selection of unique chocolate desserts all of which tasted delicious, like the balls which had a hint of banana. My mum thought I'd taken this plate below to share with the rest of the table, but no mdm, I finished all of it on my own,

And at the end of 3 hours of eating (the buffet brunch is from 10 to 3pm), I was so stuffed I could not open my eyes. It was raining outside and the aircon was slightly chilly so I took out my burberry cashmere shawl which is as soft, rich and fluffy as, well, I don't know, and wrapped it around myself...and almost dozed off. The rest carried on with their lattes and mocha shakes.

And I resisted going outside to take photos (since I'd been twice already) but my mother was insistent. Since it was her birthday, I had no choice but to walk around with the rest of the tourists and snap pictures which are probably duplicated a million times on facebook. The weather was pretty awful today and we got off the rooftop just before it started pouring really heavily.

The Slog Reviews: Not going back to Ku De Ta anytime soon for the brunch buffet. Although the place was packed (mostly with tourists), and some felt that it was not expensive given the quality of food, I know of an even better place to drop one's dollar and feel satisfied, as one should when going for an all-out-pig-out.

Xu in Ho Chi Minh Vietnam - 1 of the best fine dining experience I've ever had

It is 8pm and I am still stuffed from the buffet brunch at Ku De Ta. I'll write about that later but first, let me share this absolutely fabulous dining experience I had in Ho Chi Minh. I'd walked past the restaurant on the way to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner the day before, and the simplicity of the menu outside, the glimpse of the interior, and 2 Japanese girls carrying a map and scurrying in, caught my attention. So, the next night, we were back for dinner at Xu. The first level is the bar area which appears to be highly popular among the local folks and expats. Men and women can choose to sit at the bar, high bar tables or sprawl in comfy couches. The dining however, is on the second floor which looks like this. We did not have reservations (duh) but the sincerity (and not menace, I hope) written all over our faces got us in. Don't be fooled by the empty tables - the tables filled up really quickly by 7.30pm.

The servers spoke pretty good English and were helpful and friendly. Upon their recommendation, I ordered the fresh spring roll filled with ribeye. Now, my mother dislikes eating beef and when I mentioned that to the server, he was quick to check with the kitchen and offer to have the spring rolls filled with shrimp instead. However, given that the cost was VND200,000 still, I thought we should still stick with the ribeye.

When the dish was served, truth be told, I was aghast at the size of the portions. SGD12+ for just one spring roll which was sliced into 4 pieces. Yes yes, I know, fine dining, not pig out session but still. But the moment I bit into the spring roll, and the juices of the perfectly done ribeye flooded my mouth mixed with the accompanying greens within the roll, I was in gastronomy heaven. I kid you not. The right doneness, the right portions in each quarter, the sweetness and succulence of the meat, of the entire roll...even my mother said there wasn't any trace of "beefiness" at all. Yet it was still beef to a beef lover, and 1 of the best I ever had...in a spring roll at that!

The next dish is my mum's favourite out of all we had for dinner. Lemongrass skewered seabass. It sounds deceptively simple, and if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have ordered seabass at all because that is a cheap fish. And one that I have caught so many times, F.O.C. So why would I spend VND300K (SGD 18+) on a fish dish in Vietnam.

But..and I mean a huge but here...thank God I had my mother with me. Because the chef in the kitchen worked a miracle with the fish. No, not the Jesus kind of miracle by multiplying the fish. In fact, the opposite. I thought with the price tag on the dish, we would get a whole fish at the least, even if it was a small one. But wrong. Just 4 portions of fish. No kidding. For SGD20, I could get 4 whole seabasses in the market/fish pond.

The sweet onions, coconut milk and mushrooms accompanying the fish were so delicious that I wiped the plate clean. I don't care if those were there to beautify the dish because...they were so  delicious. And the fish, when I say the chef worked a miracle, I meant it. He managed to turn this ordinary-tasting fish, into pure chunks of heavenly sweetness and flavor. And I mean flavor, the kind that bursts in your mouth and makes you think that if the world were to end with this fish dish in your mouth, you have absolutely no regrets. It is THAT good.

Out of deference to my mother again, I ordered the chicken roulade. Out of all the meat, chicken is at the bottom of my list but my mother loves chicken so...Anyway, when the dish was served, I was pretty immune now to the appalling portions. Again, for VND250 (SGD15+), the food was beautifully presented but so, so, so, limited in quantity. Esp when viewed by a glutton.

Now, the puree that accompanied the chicken which was more than ordinary slices/cuts of chicken somehow enhanced the experience of eating the chicken meat which appeared to be wrap around some sort of center. I am sorry I can't describe this dish better but believe me when I say the chicken was the most tender I've ever had.

Up next, coconut braised pork belly. Hey, all I am going to say is that...have you watched Masterchef? Because this dining experience made me feel like....wow, so this is what the really good food in life must taste like. I haven't been eating grass my entire life, and had the good fortune to eat at pretty pricey places both in Singapore and overseas (esp when travelling for work with the "Higher Beings"), but nothing I've eaten so far has moved me as much as the food in Xu. So. Order the pork belly (but only after you had the seabass which is still more awesome)

And surprisingly despite the little portions of everything, I was quite full by the end of the main courses. I suspect it has to do with the fact I ordered morning glory to go with the one bowl of rice that we shared. This was the only dish that didn't have me waxing lyricals because the entire dish was all stems. For VND60,000, I think we should have at least some green leaves!

We had room to spare for dessert and thankfully the server warned us the portions would be really small. I had no idea how small till dessert was served. Now, each dessert cost between USD 75cents to USD2, so we figured we could order 4 and share, so that we could try more. The coconut che (in the shotglass at the end) was ordinary, the durian one failed to impress in anyway, and the pandan pannacotta was just passable. The only one slightly more interesting was the sugar and cinnamon soursop parcel which was recommended by the server.

And...after having the 4 desserts, we ordered another 4 because frankly, a teaspoonful for 2 pax isn't quite going to cut it. The chocolate brownie with ice cream was a waste of money, the white chocolate custard was good, chocolate kumquat truffle was boring and I forget what the last one is. But you should get the drift by now - desserts at XU...not fab. Main courses...Fab.

The Slog Reviews: Don't, please don't miss out dining at Xu if you are ever in the bustling city of Ho Chi Minh...and especially if you are staying in District 1! If I ever have to (touch wood) go back to that city, you can be sure that I'll definitely be back for more of the good stuff.

One Bite Puff from Taste Better at Jusco Bukit Indah

Thankfully the husband is away from SG on a work trip today (and for a week ~ yes brilliant marriage life we have with us spending half a month apart, when I travel and he travels the same month).

My mum had absolutely insisted on buying for her daughter (despite spending most of the car ride taking photos on her cellphone of my bulges sigh) a box of durian puffs at a shop that we just happened to pass by. It was the herd mentality - the sight of the queue there had her making a beeline for the shop despite my telling her that I did not NEED a durian puff. (At the time of writing this sentence, I have eaten all the puffs :( ).

Now, this picture below was taken right before I'd started eating - you will note that the box is full of the 6 puffs (cost RM8 for the entire box). I didn't notice what was written on the lid but I really should have heeded the suggestion there, despite the stupid smiley face at the end.

Firstly, I'd told my mum it would not be good just from the look of the puffs because the outer crusts looked so hard and slightly brown, nothing like those durian puffs which melts in the mouth from our good old 717. The crusts were hard for a reason - to contain the durian goo within which was lacking in substance...very thin and watery, not a paste at all, or real durian meat for that matter

Hence, the advice on the box to put the entire puff in one's mouth. Because half a bite would result in the same disaster that I had - durian goo flowing down my chin, on my chest, on my nightgown...after I'd bathed. However, the puffs are so large that it is a challenge putting the entire puff in one's mouth...and I assure you with all my eating, I do NOT have a small mouth. So figure. And the thick crust just tastes horrid and doughy. Combine that with the lousy durian goo (I can't make myself write paste as it isn't), you have a right sh*t puff.

There is a reason why the brand is called Taste Better. The sh*t puffs really need to taste better because after eating the entire box of puffs and having 3 puffs burst on/all over me (not that I didn't learn my lesson but I could not fit the puff in at a go), the aftertaste in my mouth is not one of durian but a strangely bitter one of lousy crusts

Hard Rock Cafe in Ho Chi Minh City

I've been to Ho Chi Minh (HCM) a couple of times but never knew that there was a hard rock cafe there despite staying at the District 1 area hotels like Park Hyatt, and hotels at the Riverside like The Majestic. I always thought that the Hard Rock Cafes would be centrally located or at least in a popular district with visible presence. However, it took a 15 min slow walk from my hotel (Sheraton) to get to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner as the restaurant was located at/next door to Intercontinental Hotel (a 6 min walk from Park Hyatt). Click here for the address. Because we got there about 6+pm, there was some rehearsal going on for a show that night and it was really really loud. The server informed us that if we wanted to stay until the show started, we would have to pay for tickets for the show. I told her that given the noise level, I could not wait to be out of the place fast enough. Snap. The manager was at my side in all of 5 mins explaining that the rehearsal would be over soon and we could get to enjoying our meal without our eardrums throbbing.

We started with the Jumbo Combo: This consisted of the Santa Fe Spring Rolls, Hickory-Smoked Chicken Wings, Onion Rings, Potato Skins and Tupelo Chicken Tenders. The dish came with 4 different sauces for mixing and matching, 1 of which was Blue Cheese. Presentation of the dish was good, impressive, and portions large enough for 3-4 pax. The server suggested that this dish was enough for 2 for the evening, (hint: I should not order any more). But hey, I am Stuff-Thy-Face-If-Stressed-When-Travelling-For-Work. So after demolishing most of the smoked chicken wings, onion rings and chicken tenders, and leaving most of the potato skin behind because it was so hard and not worth me wasting any calories on, I waved the server over and to her horror (Are you SURE? *high pitched tone), ordered the Smokehouse Trio Combo (slightly more expensive (almost VND400K) than the Jumbo Starter which was about VND320,000+).

Smoked chicken, smoked ribs and smoked pulled pork. The ribs were so good that it had me licking my fingers and wishing that I'd ordered all ribs instead. The chicken tasted like well, chicken...and I was so so incredibly stuffed that the taste of the pulled pork did not register much. I think it tasted porky even though it was coated with heaps of some sticky thick sauce. Needless to say, to the smug triumph of the server behind us, we had to ask for bags to take away the fries, and the other half of the Jumbo Combo. Note: I managed to down the entire glass of milkshake before leaving as a final gesture of defiance.

As you can tell from the picture above, the ambiance at Ho Chi Minh's Hard Rock Cafe is really very nice with all those pretty red lanterns at the bar. The servers speak reasonably good English and on a Thursday evening, the restaurant appeared to be popular with expats (no local folks here) and other tourists. I really like Hard Rock Cafe. The atmosphere and servers there (from USA to Ho Chi Minh) somehow make me feel welcome and less alone when I am travelling for work.

Oh and of course, I had to get my HRC fridge magnet. For some strange reason, they did not have the guitar-shaped magnet so I had to make do with this one. And the Love All Serve All bit is missing too. Oh well. I'm not sure if this is true but the guy manning the cashier told me that there would be a Hard Rock Cafe in Hanoi sometime in 2012. I'm so not going to back Hanoi ever if I can help it (more posts on that later) so despite preferring to always buy my own magnets from places I have been, I'll have to get my colleagues to send the guitar-shaped magnet to SG. I bet it'll have a picture of Halong Bay!