Deli Turk Turkish Cuisine - Suntec Mall

ABBEY: We were looking for a place to dine at Suntec City Mall and was about to order a meal at Pangat. Suddenly, Wilma asked if we can try Turkish Cuisine diner. We were warmly welcomed by their staff and handed us the menu upon seating. We looked for shawarma but they don't serve it and asked us if we would like to try pide, an oval shaped pizza like bread. I got the vegan one. The crust is crunchy and the toppings has a good aroma which makes you crave for more. We had a complimentary apple tea served in a fancy shot glass.

WILL: I am lucky girl. Every time I am craving for something, the food is just around us, its either we can directly buy it from any store or Abbey will cook it for me. Last August, I am really into shawarma, that was up to point that I asked Abbey to cook and wrap the pork left-over meat. Haha.

      So this craziness hits me when we are roaming around the Suntec, very blessed, we saw the Deli Turk Tukish Cuisine. Upon settling down, I immediately asked their staff if do they have shawarma, they advise us to take the Kebab and they will wrap it for me. Immediately agreed to the offer. Husband went for vegetarian pizza pied. The chicken kebab taste so nice, the sauce coming out from it gave an instant bliss to my mouth. The pizza pide is extrmely nice, you will never know that the topping is all vegies. Oh darn, I almost eat all the pide, haha..

      As usual, Abbey and I are talking over the food, we normally discuss everything and anything. That time, we are talking about the progress of this couple's blog, we reminisce how it started and on now having a thousand of views from different parts of the world. Very fulfilling. 

      We send over some compliments once we have a good dining experience in every restaurant we pig-out. After saying thank you for serving a good food to us, a complimentary apple tea made its way to our table. Oh darl, I will tell you this is my cup of tea. I can drink a pitcher of that. Haha! 

      This is located at Suntec #03-04 and they have another brach at 162 Upper East Coast Road. 

Pizza Hut Tropical Hawaiian

ABBEY: Pizza Hut revealed again another innovation for their pizza. Cheese and were combined in perimeter of their crust. One more reason to bite the pie from the other end. For sgd27.90, you can have 1 regular pizza, 2 soups and drinks. I wonder what would be their next creation.

WILL: This month of October I am into pizza. When Abbey told me that we will be starving while waiting for our meeting that night, I suggest to go to Harbourfront Centre and in to Pizza Hut. I really miss the distinctive taste of their dough, of the oil around the pan and specially their stuffed crust, omg!!! 

      So there we were, sitting and waiting for our order of super pan delight meal costs $27.90 consisted of 2 sparkles, 2 soup of the day and regular pan pizza. Then food went their way to our table. Excitedly we ate the soup then the pizza. Every bite on every slice  is extremely amazing, extremely satisfying. I am pretty sure we really miss pizza hut. Thanks for this dinner. You made us so full that night. 

La Cantina Operetta

ABBEY: This was a newly-opened shop at Prinsep Street. They invite diners to come and taste their pizza that was cooked in a one of a kind oven, . I was skeptical by the size of what they call a 5-dollar pizza during their promotion. 

Lo and behold the margherita pizza is larger than my big hand. It was charred in perfection giving the crust a good crunch. The sauce compliments well with the dough which gives you a flavorful bite. Putting some of their chili oil will make it more aromatic. We also tried their four-cheese pasta. It was so delicious. Good comfort food after a day's work. It costs 22sgd and 3sgd per drink.

WILL: If you really love breads or pizza, the mere smell of it you will know if it was cooked from an industrial o from a firewood oven. L'Opera Group recently opened their Prinsep St. Branch, to cater the tourist checked-in to the hotel around the area and the celebratory students of SOTA.

      We once dined to one of their sister company Pizzeria L'Operatta located at Icon Village, so here we know somehow what to expect. We arrived at La Cantina Operatta just in time for a dinner. Hubby and I was just out from the office then, so we are really starving to death. 

      When we got in the place, I am so amused, this is not the ambiance I am expecting. My mind imagined that their place is like a customary eatery that I can see in the malls, but I brain was very wrong. This place is great to unwind, when you will stay inside most specially on the second floor, you will not here any noise of the vehicles, nor the music of the neighboring restaurants , here you can focus to your dining mate and to your plate. Haha. Very romantic lighting indeed. 

      We ordered 2 Pizza Margherita for $5 each and a plate o Penne Alla Quattro Formaggi. Abbey is very hesitant that we only ask for those, he say they might have a small serving, but when the pizza made its way to our table, he was so astounded how huge it is. bigger than his hand (Abbey is 6-foot tall, yes he have a big hands) Haha. Pizza alone can make my tummy full. They gave us their specially made chilli oil, and as hubby knew what I will do, I poured a lot oil on top of my pizza and every bite of those was really appreciated by my mouth. I finished my whole pizza haha. Then the pasta is a good choice also, the yummy cheese is so tasty with its al-dente penne pasta. I want to eat more but my stomach will be bursting anytime soon. Haha. 

The Wedding Dress: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

ABBEY:  The gallery entrance is worth 12sgd but it was an open house during the Night Festival. The gallery is located at basement 1 of National Museum. It features wedding dresses used years ago and how they evolve throughout the time. 

It showcases also the gowns wore by Avril Lavigne and Sarah Jessica Parker (on her wedding day in Sex and the City).

WILL: The Wedding Dress Exhibition runs until 31st of October. We are so lucky to this gallery of wedding gowns fro free. That was because the National Museum of Singapore held an Open House last Night Festival.
      Here we saw many designs from different countries, from different culture with different climates and famous dressed from blockbuster Holly wood movie. There also a video that shows the royal weddings. They also have giving some guided tour for free from English, Mandarin and Japanese.
      When you are planning walking in the aisle in the near future, this exhibit will help you to design your own wedding gown.

Cheese Sticks Recipe

Spring roll wrapper

Cheese (not quick melt)

Cut the cheese into stick and wrapped it just like a spring roll.

Heat oil and deep fry the cheese stick until golden brown.

VERDICT

WILL: Cheese sticks are very popular in Philippines in every party, so popular that the many people now selling this for an afternoon delight together with their gulaman refreshments.

Of course who will not miss this kind of food on your native land, so Abbey, to surprise me, he cooked this. 

      Well, his effort was not wasted, I am so happy to see that cheesesticks on our table. After my dinner I immediately those and delight my taste buds to the salty taste of cheese combined with the sweet 100 island dip. Abbey really knew what I like. Haha! 

Beef Pares Recipe

1/2 kilo of beef (uncut, brisket part)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 medium onion (minced)

2 tbsp ginger (minced)

2 beef cubes

3 pcs star anise

Salt and pepper

4 cups of water

Boil the meat until tender. (maybe an hour in a cooking pot or 20 mins in a pressure cooker). Once done get the beef out of the stock and cut in cubes.

Saute ginger, onion, and garlic. Put in the beef and stir fry it. Next is the soy sauce and 1 cup of beef stock from earlier procedure. Bring it to boil. Once boiling put in the beef cubes and star anise. Add water as necessary to make the beef more tender. After 10-15 mins, put the sugar, salt and pepper. Let the sauce thicken and serve the pares with hot rice.

VERDICT

WILL: I saw a photo of beef tapa and my mind immediately gave a signal to my salivary gland to moisten my mouth. Drooling, so ai requested Abbey to cook that for me, but he was hesitant so I just asked him to cook a morcon for me. 

      I was so excited to go home yesterday since I know that Morcon and gravy is waiting for me. When I am about to sit, there is a bowl of thick sauced meat, and asked Abbey what was that,  with his poker face told me that it was a beef pares as per request. Hearing that I jumped my way to him, squeeze him tight and murmur how much I love him. :) 

      While eating my beef pares, Abbey aked me to take a look and taste off the morcon, I just told him I will eat those later. Haha. The beef pares really reminds me of tapsilogan along 9th avenue caloocan. Haha. So delicious. After I put down my spoon and fork, there is a feeling within that my tummy will be exploding. Haha. I really miss this food. Love it a lot :) 

Savages

ABBEY: What if you got addicted to "Mary Jane"? What if you had the best pot in the world and have knowledge to nurture it? That means business and trouble also. That's what Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and O (Blake Lively) did. They grow the plant and sell for medicinal use; but the big money comes from black market. Ben and Chon are buddies since college. They share the same house, clothes and girl. Yes they do that. As their business prospers a lot of people is getting envy. The Mexican drug cartel founded by late husband of Elena (Salma Hayek) along with her right hand Lado (Benicio del Toro) kidnapped their shared girlfriend and ask for a cut in their profit along with passing of knowledge for the plant. 

Ben wanted to give all to them and start a good new life but it wasn't easy for Chon. He wants to fight. They asked for help from their protector, a corrupt government agent, but he can't do a thing about it. They find their own way to get O in whichever way possible. The movie is kind of alarming but its happening. People will kill and die for that. But in the end you will only sole responsible for yourself and your actions.

WILL: Well, when the things were meant for you, you will have it no matter what. Haha. 

      Yeah we were the lucky ten of Singapore FHM when they posted their movie ticket giveaway of Savages. 

      After office, I immediately ran to Orchard Shaw Lido and met Abbey and see the movie. That flick is a story of two good friends who shared anything and everything and even the girl they love. How complicated life that the illegal drugs brought them. 

      9/10, quite long movie but I enjoyed it a lot specially the ending. This movie is prohibited for underage children. 

Eatzi Gourmet Restaurant

ABBEY: We got another round of vouchers from our bank. Before heading to our archery session we had out lunch at Eatzi Gourmet in Safra Country Club. Eatzi Gourmet is one of the diner chains of JP Pepperdine. I got their October promo of N.Z. strip loin steak at less than 20sgd. Top it with 5sgd more and you've got soup of the day, dessert and hot drink. 

The steak come with baked potato topped with sour cream, and vegetable side dish. The taste is great. My jaw got tired as I chew the big steak. The dessert os a slice of crumble pie. Small as it is but the flavor will have a big  burst in your mouth. We ended the lunch with coffee and tea. The place is homey and light.

WILL: Weekend and you want to go out and looking somewhere to eat your lunch or dinner without the buzzing business of crowded place? Why not go here at Safra Yishun Country Club, here located is the Eatzi Gourmet.

      From Punggol we just took bus and got there for only 40 mins. As we entered the building, a lovely receptionist smiled us and told Abbey to just let the green footprints lead our way to the restaurant. We followed and gladly reached this relaxing and family oriented place.

      As we sat down, they gave us menu and Abbey went for steak, and for me was Norwegian Salmon Smothered. The baked salmon when hits the sauce is a really clicked tandem. It costs $18.50 and we topped up $4.80 to have a soup, dessert and hot drinks.

      Oh my, I cannot finish the salmon because I really squeezed in my stomach all the mashed potato. I had only two spoons of the lovely crumb pie and the half cup of the tea. Gosh, my tummy is so full.

      Citibank really rocks! We have this opportunity to taste the foods from Eatzi Gourmet because of the points-system of their credit cards.

Choco Lava Recipe

250g of chocolate (semi sweet or dark)

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

3 eggs

3 tsp of vanilla extract

1/4 stick of butter

Put eggs and sugar in mixer for 10mins until the color is off-yellow. 

Melt the chocolate and butter in double-boiler.

Preheat the oven to 400F (206C)

Put the choco-butter mixture into the eggs and sugar while continuous stirring to avoid the eggs to be cooked. When the chocolate covered all the mixture, slowly put the flour by folding.

Generously butter the ramekins; this will help to take out the cake from the mold. Bake it for 12mins. Once time elapsed remove from oven and let it cool. Slide a knife in the side of ramekins and take out the cake. Serve with ice cream or strawberry.

VERDICT

WILL:  There is something that I know what Abbey is up to, haha, so every surprise was busted! I keep on calling that Monday morning checking him what he is doing, what he is cooking, he says he is doing nothing. On my nth call, maybe he can't handle now his phone ringing and ringing, he admitted that he baked Ate Stella's request, the choco lava.

       Again, it was a hit in our home and at my office. When I saw the finish product that was still in the ramekins, I told to myself that this may taste like his brownies, when he served that hot dessert on my table, the oozing chocolate that melts really looks appetizing. After my dinner, I get a small portion and tasted it. Damn, the moisture, the sweetness and the liquefied chocolate tandem really a nice combo with the freshly sliced strawberry.

       Nice one Abe!

DM Archery

ABBEY: Yellow 4, Legolas, Katniss, and Hawkeye have one thing in common; they have bow and arrows. Give them a vantage point and they will slay their enemies in no time. When I watched them showing their skills its as if archery is very very easy. When I was a kid we also have bow and arrow as a toy; and just like those times my first shoot on DM Archery range is slightly of target. 

We got the voucher from Groupon, 15 arrows for 5 sgd, and booked a schedule. It was located at Orchid Country Club in Yishun. It was fun. Seeing your arrows off target after concentrating for the bull's eye will make you laugh. Handling of the bow made my left arm almost numb as it was heavy. So our friends didn't finish their session but had fun taking snaps.

 

WILL: Abbey as always hesitant when I am introducing a new activity for us. This is better than to stay at our room thinking how happy our family and friends in Manila. Hehe. We are here in Singapore to work, live and explore things and places, balancing out our personal life and our job. 

      Even having a second thought, Abbey agreed to buy Groupon vouchers. This is to test our skills, our eyes, and calculations of things against gravity. 

      David of DM Archery patiently taught us how to hold the bow, how to place the arrow, how to target and how to get the arrow from the board. We were not in the hurry since we are waiting for one my colleague, April. David saw we are taking time to pose and shoot, he asked to go to the VIP lane. Haha. 

      I got two bull's eye then the 12 of arrows just went to black and red. Me and my husband had a great time to know my colleagues out of the office. 

      You can contact DM Archery at 63464788 or just straight go to Orchid Country Club for 30minutes unlimited arrows for only $9. 

Bucket of Gold

ABBEY: Wilma and I agreed to put one-dollar coin from our pockets and wallets to our Malteser-bucket-turned-into-piggy-bank. Day by day until up to two years we saved 518 $1-sgd-coins. We rolled them in sheets of paper (20 SGD per roll). 

Oh my, they're heavy. Putting them in a bank costs fees. 0.075 SGD per piece. So the 500-dollar savings became almost 475 only. Lesson learned but we enjoyed saving extra money that now became a habit for us.

WILL: "Oh my, Singapore's piso($1) is so cute!" As I exclaimed with delight Abbey got an idea to make a piggy bank and put only $1 inside. When we will open it?, we don't know. It started two years ago, its getting heavier and heavier every time I lifted it when I am doing a general cleaning of the room.

      We received a great news that Nuffnang will cash-out the earnings from our blogs and from there, we made that the Nuffnang cheque as a sign that we need to open the bucket once we received it from our sole advertiser.

      That day came, we received the 2 year earnings from our blogs then hurriedly open the Maltsers's bucket. Total of $518 coins was invested. Delighted?, yes too much. I don't expect this huge amount of money. On the next day Abbey went to Citibank to deposit those, there it will stay together with the Nuffnang's cheque until we made a decision where we will invest that sum.

      Happy but quite disappointed since the bank charged us $40+ coin counting fee. Huhu.. We learned our lessons in saving coins and that deduction will never happen again since our next project is to save for $2.00. I hope we can go for thousand plus.

Bay Hotel Singapore - Rumah Rasa

ABBEY: Heard about buffet? Yes. But ala carte buffet, no. We got this deal from worth 45sgd. An ala carte Indonesian dinner buffet at Rumah Rasah in Bay Hotel (near Harbourfront MRT). In ala carte buffet you will not see the typical dishes served in huge plates and you will pick what you like and eat. Instead they will give you a menu, tell what you want and it will be served in small portions. As it is a buffet order as many as you want repeatedly.

First serving we had gado-gado (boiled vegetable with peanut sauce), sweet and sour fish fillet, and potato croquette.

Third is our favorite fish fillet and potato croquette again. Each serving comes with beautiful presentation. The staff are polite to explain what is in the menu. I was very full after the dinner ended. I had enough of good food. Sadly they announced that they will only cater Indonesian cuisine until October 7, 2012. It will be replaced by European cuisine by then.

WILL: After the Singapore GP drained all our adrenaline, all our energy and our voice. Its a great time to re-fuel. While scheduling all the vouchers we have, I immediately asked Abbey if we can have dinner at Rumah Rasa for that night. He agreed, I called for reservation then I am on my way to bathroom. 

      We entered the Bay Hotel's restaurant and awed by the its serene effect on us. We sat opposite with each other and hailed the waiter to introduce us to the different viands in the menu. 

      As ordered, we tasted and we enjoyed every bite of every ordered food we had that night. But my favorite is the garlic clams. I think I asked three servings of it. Rumah Rasa is ala-carte buffet so there is no need to stand your way to the buffet table. 

     Persuaded by the surroundings and we talked like we are dating before, we took our time and linger on every words we spoke to each other. We went back to the days before I saw him again, to the days we are dating and to the days my wall is up and very hard to tumble down. Indeed this is a great night. Peaceful place and nice food with the man I love. 

     Glad before Bay Hotel decided to turn Ruma Rasah to western cuisine, we have this chance to taste their Indonesian food. Thanks to Plus Big Deal for this voucher :)