Teh Tarik Ice cream? Taste it at Island Creamery

After hearing CC raving about it for the upteempth time, and seeing so many good reviews about it in so many blogs, the pingsters headed to ‘Island Creamery‘ for a dose of ice cream.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

The place

Located in Serene Center, Island Creamery is a very cosy and a great place to chill out with friends. One of the thing that struck me was how cheerful and inviting the area was, as seen from the walls decorated with personal photos. You could request to print a photo here using your camera’s memory card.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

I looked at the pictures on the wall and by sheer coincidence, I spot out a picture of the Vesporeans during one of their outings last year!

As the place is popular gathering place, it is quite vibrant and can be quite noisy at times, thus it isn’t a recommended place for anyone to do their studies!

The service

The folks running Island Creamery was very friendly, ready with a smile and quick to assist you. No surly faces here! There was this pretty waitresses who was more than willing to help Paced and me while we requested for a printing paper even though it was a very busy day for the staff.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

The gentleman who were serving us ice cream was even kind and patient enough to wait while we pondered on which ice cream to get for our table.

The ice cream

A single scoop is $2.50, double scoop is $4.00 and a 500ml tub is $8.00. We shared among us four tubs of different types of ice cream – namely Nutella, Reverso, Burnt Caramel and the very popular Teh Tarik. I digged in and had my taste.

Ping.sg at Island Creamery

It was a divided camp with Paced, Dhope, Malique, Ethan, Claudia, Aaron, CC, Arzhou enjoying their ice cream while NTT, Attilio and I think that although it was nice, but it didn’t meet our expectations. As we’ve tasted good Italian gelato before, our expectations were higher. Thus we found the ice cream a little overrated, judging from the reviews from many blogs. I would have liked it better if their ice cream were more flavourful.

However, I do have to give credit for the rather tasty teh-tarik ice cream – my favourite out of the four. They actually managed to make it taste just like the actual teh tarik tea!

Here is a clip of the pingsters at Island Creamery

In a nutshell

Island creamery is a great place to chill out with friends to have nice ice cream at affordable prices with friendly and helpful staff to assist you. A highly recommended place to visit.

Island Creamery
10 Jalan Serene, Serene Centre #01-01

Links:

My first and last time at Pasta Cafe

My favourite dinner partner, Geri, recommended me to head to Pasta Cafe at Takashimaya. She recommended me this place after raving about how wonderful the pasta was here before it underwent renovations.

Pasta Cafe @Takashimaya

When reached there on Wednesday night, the place was already quite full of diners. We queued behind a group of roughly 6 people.

Pasta Cafe @Takashimaya

The place

It was a nicely decorated place, clean and bright, it looked like an American styled diner. I observed the waitresses manning the area. They all looked pretty and young.

The service

We had to wait for a significantly long time for an empty table. Geri noticed that there was an empty table that were left for about 10 mins and that the group queueing before us had to finally request the waitresses to sit them there.

After waiting for another 10 minutes, I asked Geri if she wanted to have dinner at another place, when we were finally led to a table.

The food

Geri and I decided to have the $22 set meal consisting of soup+pasta+gratin. For the first course, we both chose mushroom soup

Pasta Cafe @Takashimaya

The mushroom soup wasn’t bad. It was thick and full of mushrooms. But it was slightly bland and I had to add pepper to it. I always believed that good meals should not need additional condiments to it.

Pasta Cafe @Takashimaya

I then had the Seafood Pasta with Tomato. I thought to myself, “No one could ever get a Tomato Pasta wrong. It is such a simple dish”. I took a bite.

The pasta sauce was so diluted that you can see the watery sauce in the picture. It wasn’t satisfying at all. It would have been significantly nicer if the cook would have drained the pasta and used better sauce. I chewed listlessly at the prawn and crayfish.

Pasta Cafe @Takashimaya

Finally, I had the Salmon gratin which was slightly better than the Seafood Pasta. But to me, it wasn’t anything special as it tasted similar to the baked pasta at Swensens or Amirans (which has since ceased operating)

After our dinner, we asked for the bill, and to our horror, we found out that it totalled to $63 with the 10% service charge and GST. My mouth almost reached the floor.

No. We wont be going to this place anymore. For that price, we’d have a nicer and lovelier and more genuine pasta dishes at La Forketta.

Dinner at the Manhattan Fish Market

Geri asked me out for dinner at the Manhattan Fish Market last night.

This was the first time that I’ve eaten here. Interestingly, there doesnt seem to be much publicity about this place. The only time when I heard about the Manhatan Fish Market was when fellow blogger, PniiWof wrote about it not too long ago.

The restaurant was nice and cosy. Geri thought that the place felt more upmarket. I thought that the reason could be because we were at Plaza Singapura where there were more well heeled people around. I spent quite a while thinking of what to order. There was a good range of varieties there.

Sizzling Louisiana Prawns

For our appetizer, we had the Sizzling Louisiana Prawns. I really liked the cream sauce. It was a nice mix of savoury and tang which made it perfect for dipping with the baguette bread that accompanied it.

For our main course, we shared a Manhattan Seafood Platter for two. The way that it was served was quite interesting. I was quite surprised to see the person who served us arrived with a flame blower and proceeded to torch our food.

Flame Blowing our Manhattan Seafood Platter

I suppose that this process was supposed to make it tastier than regular oven bake?

Manhattan Seafood Platter

Nevertheless, I liked the colourful array of our generous platter of Shrimp, Calamari, Mussels and Fish served on a bed of garlic rice and fries.

The garlic rice was delicious. I do love the savouriness of the calamari with the lovely herbs in it. I wish that it was juicier and tender though. Chewing on it was a little tough.

As for the rest, I’m quite neutral for the shrimp, the fish and the mussels. Though it tasted pretty good, it wasn’t anything to cheer about.

Nevertheless, I think its a nice place for seafood. A nice and cosy ambience and competitive prices. Geri and I spent about $25 each for our food and drinks. Quite worth the price.

The Osim Upapa - Ps. Geri is so skinny. I am jealous.

As a sidenote, after dinner, Geri and I chanced upon the Osim Upapa. Immediately we went to give it a try! Geri wanted to try out her new Nokia n73 and filmed this :

Ok. The real reason why I’m putting up that clip is because I’m very very very narcissistic and I like to look at myself 😛

A nice day spent with friends at Far East Plaza

Far East Plaza is a nice place to hang out. As it is in the city, it tends to get quite crowded. But there are loads of things to buy and see there. I like it namely for the affordable and wide variety of apparel sold there.

I recently bought some clothes at Far East Plaza. Each of the apparel that you see in this picture here averages at about 30 dollars each. One could easily go crazy with the range of clothes here.

Yesterday, I was at Far East Plaza again. But it wasn’t for shopping. Instead, it was a day for meeting of friends.

My good friend Juli, asked for help in designing a logo and namecard. We met at Far East plaza as designated. As I turned around, she pointed to a guy who was right next to her and introduced him.

“Marina, this is Man”

Man is Juli’s boyfriend. We’ve talked about him quite a bit during our girl sessions and it was nice to finally meet him in person. Over lunch, we got to know each other and I can’t help to think of what an adorable couple they were.

Man and Juli

Man and Juli were always teasing each other. It was so cute. They said that they planned on getting married at the end of the year, God willing. We spent the time talking to each other. Man seemed a funny and friendly guy.

After we were all happy with the final look of the logo, we waved our goodbyes and I headed to try to find the ping.sg gang. There was a buybuttonz event going on. I saw a white booth outside of Far East Plaza, but where on earth are the pingsters? I twittered in desperation.

Luckily, Tstar picked up my message and adviced me to head up to the second floor where the fair was. It was then when I saw quite a number of booths being set up. I walked to each booth trying to find a familliar face. I must have made an entire circle around the fair and that was when I finally noticed DK. Finally! A familliar face!

Me : Hi! (DK doesnt hear me)

A guy who happened to stand in the middle reciprocated instead.

Guy : Err .. hi. You are?

Me thinking : Who the heck is this person?

Guy : Hi I’m Farinelli.

Me : Alamak! Hi! I’m rinaz!

How embarassing! What a way to start to know another. Luckily for me, Farinelli was very friendly and easy to talk to. All feelings of embarassment quickly disappeared.

I quickly scanned around the booth and saw Uzyn and his girlfriend, Sek Ling, I finally got to meet Nicole and her boyfriend, Hendri. There were also arzhou, Ridz, Miccheng, Veron, Estee as well as others whom I unfortunately did not managed to catch their names.

Lets beat them up!

It was so funny to see the gang acting so silly. It seemed like everyone was goofing off. I guess this pose was inspired by the picture that was made infamous by DK.

We headed off for dinner afterwards at the Ayam Penyet Ria restaurant . I’m crazy about this stuff. Ayam Penyet is an Indonesian dish that consists of a deep fried chicken with floss sprinkled on top, served with some raw vegetables and rice as well as extra hot chilli.

A picture of Ayam Penyet

Unfortunately, as our group was a little too big, we were split into two groups to fit a table. Everyone at our table seemed to like the speciality ayam penyet there. Here is a quick video of our dinner

Click here to watch in youtube

Clockwise from left to right : trecillia3678, Hendri, Nicole, Ridz, Veron, Miccheng, NTT, DK, CJ, Uzyn, Sek Ling, Farinelli and me.

After dinner, we chilled out for a bit at Starbucks and had a bit of a chit chat. Just for fun I thought I’d do a quick interview of everyone there.

Click here to watch in youtube

What a lovely evening it was. Anywhere can be a lovely place, with great company 🙂

A lovely evening with the peeps of Ping.Sg at Essential Brew

Ping.sg is a bloggers community that I’ve been with for some months now. I don’t remember exactly how I stumbled onto this website, but it is a great place for Singaporean bloggers to gain some eyeballs to their blogs as well as finding interesting posts by Singaporeans.

After much contemplating, I decided to go for the meetup last night.

The evening didn’t start very promising. My lion hair decided to puff up and while riding my scooter on the road, the sky decided to rain. I went to seek shelter at a petrol station nearby and listened amusedly to two Indian men chatting amiably together.

At long last the rain abated and I went forward to the journey.

Pic of Holland Village, Singapore

Holland Village! It has been quite a while since I last been here. It isnt really my type of place as I was more of a heartlander, a neighbourhood person. But its a lovely place to go to. I should have brought Cartcart here.

There were heaps of well dressed people and expatriates there getting their groceries, having dinner in nice looking restaurants and people just walking about enjoying their saturday evening.

At length, I reached Essential Brew where the gathering was held. It looked very cosy. The decor was a mix of zen and homeliness. It looked like a good place to spend time with friends.

The first person I saw was Uzyn (Yes thats his real name!) as he waved at me from the room upstairs. As I entered the room, I saw Kevin, NTT and DK whom I met previously from the Nexus meet. As I sat down, I met this very sweet lady. She introduced herself as Tstar. She was very friendly! We hit it off instantly.

I was curious to see Ridz, who was sitting beside her. He was wearing the army uniform.

me : Did you just got off camp, Ridz?

ridz : Oh no, I am doing this because Tstar said that she’ll only come to this meeting if I wore my army uniform. She said she loves men in uniform. I’ve already completed my army training.

me : Ohmygosh. I cant believe you actually did that!

ridz : Yeah, too bad I couldnt find my camoflage cream for the face. I would have put that on too!

I realised later that the man who was sitting at the head of the table was Ebie, one of the owners for Essential Brew. He is a ping.sg member too! He sat with us for a while, but couldn’t stay long as it was a very busy night for him.

Pic of the Ping.sg group

From left to right : Tstar, Ridz, Kevin, NTT, Ebie, DK and Uzyn

Clappingtree arrived shortly after. She told me that she just came from mass from her church and that she lived nearby. It was really lovely to talk to her upclose. She was very friendly, warm and very easy going. The first time I saw her was at the Nexus meet, some weeks back. But I only managed to see her from a distance away and we didn’t get a chance to talk.

Any meetup with the Ping.sg gang will bound to have a plentiful of cheerful laughter. I am always amazed at how friendly these group are. I chuckled at the jokes and conversation. The topics ranged from the Pingnation netcast that Kevin planned to host, to the spontaneous netcast that Clappingtree suggested, to my cloudy drink ( Uzyn : It’s cloudy because its going to rain ) and practically everything else under the sky.

I looked at everyones dinner. Ridz had this yummy looking fish and chips. Uzyn had a plate of cream pasta. I think Tstar had a plate of beef and she looked like she enjoyed it. I decided to have the Vegetarian Verdure Pomodoro pasta. It was pretty good. So good that Tstar and I forgot to take a picture of our dinner 😛

Kevin and NTT had to leave after dinner, due to prior engagements but shortly after, Eastcoastlife and her husband arrived. She jokingly introduced him as her boyfriend. True to as what DK mentioned, she was a charismatic and attractive lady. When she talks, her eyes sparkled and it seemed that everyone warmed up to her.

Actually, I suspected that there could be something going on with Eastcoastlife and DK. Whenever they were in the chatroom, their chatting would dominate the entire chatroom that I got disgusted by it, quite frankly.

But DK explained that he has never met her before and regarded her as his “aunt”. They were both so funny and friendly that it was hard to stay mad at them.

Pic of the Panna Cotta Dessert

Ebie was so kind as to give us complimentary desserts after our dinner. Thank you Ebie! You rock! Each of us had a Panna Cotta with strawberries on top. It looked too pretty to eat. But when I started, it was so delightful to eat that I sighed when it was all gone.

Pic of the Ice Cream Bombe Dessert

We also had a plate of Ice Cream Bombe. I had to take a picture of this really quickly as everyone were eyeing on it. They couldn’t wait to devour it.

And it really was very very good. It had an entire medley of yummy treats like ice cream and lovely crunchy hazelnut bits in it. In no time at all, it was gone!

Rinaz wants more!

See!

It was a very lovely evening, well spent with the group. The night seemed to end too quickly and we had to say goodnight to each other. I waved goodbye to clappingtree, saw Eastcoastlife walk the opposite direction, hand in hand with her hubby, saw chilvarous Ridz accompany Tstar to the bus stop. Uzyn and DK still wanted to to have coffee though.

Saying goodbye

I had to decline as it was nearly 11 pm. My parking was only valid till 10.30pm. Clappingtree said that this was a hot spot for parking wardens. Ack! I really didn’t want to get fined!

I had a really lovely time. It was definitely a great meetup! Here is a short clip from during dessert. Enjoy 🙂

Click here to watch in youtube

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The days my dearest visited finale

“Hey you! Yes you lurking there! Its National de-lurking week. That means you MUST post a message and say hi! 🙂 “

Saturday, I wanted to show cartcart the science center . Being the science and maths enthusiast that he was, I was sure that he’d enjoy it. We strolled to Jurong East, had a late lunch at my favourite Vegetarian stall and marvelled at how closely it tasted like actual meat.

Then we stopped by a local supermarket where Cart had the time of his life comparing as well as learning about local foodstuff.

He poured over the curry spices, the dried herbs, the noodles, basically things that Singaporeans use to cook on a day to day basis.

He was most excited.

Cartcart even quipped that he found this experience as enjoyable as our trip to the underwater world.


Look! A genuine Italian brand!

We took our time and when we finally reached the Science Center, I looked quizzedly at the ticket booth which had no one manning it. Then I realised that we went there 5 minutes too late to last entry! Even shows at the Omnimax theater till 9 pm were fully sold out.

That’ll teach me to be so ill prepared. We walked out dejectedly past children who were laughing happily in the water pool which was side by side to the pathway.

But the day was still young! We were at Jurong East! I hang out here a lot. And what better way to spend it by watching a movie together with your partner 🙂

The show that I was interested in watching was Night at the Museum, but it started much too late and the only show that was remotely watchable was Charlottes Web . I guess that would have to do. *chuckles*

The movie was pretty okay. Even with the many many changes from the original book, I think I got teary eyed when Charlotte died.

It’s a good thing that the arm rests in the movie theatre were movable and we were able to cuddle 🙂

On our bus journey back, we passed by Pasta Fresca and after hearing its jingle being played regularly on 938 live, I thought it would be nice to have dinner there.

A slightly bitter, fizzy drink that is well known in Italy

The decor looked nice enough. Cartcart mentioned at how authentic the place was decorated and even noticed that the type of fabric the curtains made were the actual type of fabric used in Italy.

Cartcart ordered arrabbiata, just to compare how it tastes to the pasta we had yesterday.

So cartcart, how much does this one rate?

5

Wow, a whole point compared to yesterday 😛

Yes, now I can safely say that this is the best pasta I’ve eaten in Singapore 😛

Heaps of cars lining up next to the mosque

Sunday, Hari Raya Haji.

Mum had just completed sewing Cartcart’s baju kurong the day before. She seemed unconfident that the outfit would fit him well because of some of the pertinent additional measurements that I didn’t take.

But when Cartcart put it on, it fitted him perfectly. When he came out to show me, I was floored at how stunningly handsome he looked in the green baju kurong. So handsome that I forgot to take a picture of him wearing it.

My Mum and dad gave him generous compliments at how good he looked. Cartcart was putting on the capal, the Malay sandals that we bought during our trip to geylang. He really looked so elegant. Mum thought that if he wore the samping (waist cloth) and songkok (hat) it would be more complete.

But cartcart seemed to be doubtful. “It has long sleeves!” He whispered to me. “I might perspire badly in this

However, during the entire journey to my grandmother’s house, cartcart didn’t break a sweat due to the cooler December weather and the air conditioned train coach.

When we reached the doorstep, in my mind, I was wondering and hoping that everything would go al-right.

My aunts were there and the first to greet us, then my uncles, and then my cousins. We talked, and then had lunch together and just chilled. I see one of my cousin, Eusoff, deep in conversation with cartcart while the rest of the clan seemed transfixed in a Malay soap opera that was premièring.

It was pretty relaxing.

But I got nervous again when grandmother came out of the room, gave that slow and knowing smile of hers and asked me that question that grandmothers always asks.

So when are you going to get married?

Uh … Um …

When you go out with him, don’t hold his hands.

Oh …

But all in all, everything seemed okay. My worries about a drama happening was for naught. I feel quite relieved that everyone seemed pretty cool with it.

The same evening, we had new years eve dinner together at the community centre. Mum suggested that cart and I go to have a local national feel. But I think it was kind of a bad idea.

The entire concert was like a hungry ghost festival concert with music blaring at a million decibels and the singers wearing clothes that is so shiny that it will leave you momentarily blind. It was pure torture. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. But cartcart had the patience of a saint and thought it would be better to wait till the dinner course ended.

By then it was too late to take public transportation. I asked cartcart if he was game enough to ride on the scooter with me. He was! And he managed to squeeze in one of my helmets and off we went and we managed to reach the bed and breakfast in time to see the fireworks from the new year countdown from the city skyline.

Monday, New Year’s day

Today is the last day that cartcart will be staying here. I really think that a week is just not enough to spend here … I haven’t shown him everything that I wanted to show him …

Juli was free to have lunch with us today. Cartcart and I took the scooter to vivo city, where the parking area was so large, that it was so easy to get lost in there.

We went to a cafe which I thought it would be good, but turned out that the food there was below par.

Coffee with a piece of pen?

I wasn’t enjoying my fig and apricot sandwich. I have no idea what cartcart was eating. And Juli wasn’t thrilled with her fish dish either.

But it was a pretty casual affair, the three of us talking together. There is few things as satisfying as talking to friends

After we said our goodbyes to Juli, we had to rush to Chinatown to buy presents and souvenirs for his family. We only had about less than two hours before needing to reach back to my place to say his goodbyes to my family.

Cartcart bought a mask for his sister, and a lovely Chinese tea pot set for his mom and dad. We reached the temple again. And this time, Cartcart decided to enter and see the interior of the temple and witness purification a ceremony where the priest was at the altar, washing a large utensil. It was too far for me to see as non Hindus were not permitted into the holy area.

When we reached home, mum asked us to have dinner together, “I promised to make you Nasi Lemak!” We sat down together, where our family had our last meal together with cartcart.

As I walked out of the kitchen to clear the plates, I overheard mum talking to cartcart, “She’s a good daughter. I hope you will take care of her. Will you take care of her?” “I hope to do that

I went deep in my thoughts …

At the airport terminal, even with mum, sis, aunt and my cousins there, I still couldn’t control my sadness and the tears began to roll down. One week just isn’t enough. “Why cant I spend all days with you?” I looked in cartcart’s face as he gave me a hug before reluctantly leaving for his flight.

Sometimes I feel like this is all a dream. That we are all asleep and then we wake up to our reality.

In all honestly I don’t know how long I can take this. Such happiness when we are together, and then heartbreak when having to part.

Why cant I spend all my days with him? That would be such a beautiful. He is kind, gentle, romantic, patient, wise and the sweetest person I want to spend the rest of my days with you.

Ayam penyet is delicious!

I think I’m addicted to ayam penyet.

The first time that I ate it was during the hotel hunt with Juli and we stumbled upon this small restaurant, the Ayam Penyet House, next to the Hotel81-Bugis, facing Shaw tower.

The picture doesnt justify how tasty it is

When our dish arrived, it came with large piece of chicken which was deep fried and then smashed with a hammer (penyet means flat in Indonesian/Malay) – covered with a generous amount of chicken flakes and there were some pieces of tempe, cucumbers and a variety of crunchy raw vegetables. The best part was the red hot sambal belacan. It was spicy hot and I love it! Delicious!

My appetite was so whetted that I finished my rice disappered completely in just a few minutes.

Mmm!

Nowadays, there are many hawker centers selling them around the neighbourhood. They are pretty good and I’ve been eating it quite frequently. But I doubt that it could light a candle to the one that we went to at Bugis, namely because their sambal isnt hot enough!

Hot is when your nose starts sniffing and your mouth starts to twinge, your head starts to tinge and then you feel that high.

Yum!

Here is a video of some friends enjoying ayam penyet :

Have you ever eaten ayam penyet before? Do you like hot food? And how far is too hot for you?
Update : Check out a video of us enjoying our ayam penyet

The only thing that’s real is food

Lonelygirl15 isnt real, Emily isnt real … Julie isnt real … Who knows whats genuine on the net anymore. Regardless, they all made entertaining viewing.

The thing is, that the lines between reality and fiction now being blurred with companies using personal mediums such as blogs, myspace and youtube to bring their conception to life.

Sometimes its easy to spot out some of the idiosyncracies but in time its possible to have a work of fiction that seems to be so realistic that everyone would be confounded.

Maybe *I* might turn out to be a marketing concept too. Its possible right? 😉

In other news …

Anyone interested to go to the Cafe Vienna with me? 🙂