Dec 27, 2014

Twenty Grammes @ North Bridge Road




Iced Mocha @ $6.50
The moment we stepped into Twenty Grammes, I was overwhelmed by the butterscotch smell, which I so badly wanted to soak in. :P

Prepare yourself to be served by the friendly staff over there. Some of their ice cream flavors are home made.

As the front yard of the cafe wasn't able to accommodate 5 of us, we're ushered to the back yard, where walls have no design but the cement-ish layout, which pretty much looks like nothing but a boom shelter, which is very near to the washrooms. But we're fine as long as we're not separated by different seats.






Christmas deco




Waffles w/ 2 scoops of ice cream @ $12.50
"Triple C" and Butterscotch (my favorite)


Mint Chocolate Cake @ $8.00


English Breakfast Tea @ $4.90
Obviously May spammed too much milk


Latte @ $5.00



Twenty Grammes
753 North Bridge Road
Singapore 198721
Tel: 6717 1733


Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.

Nov 29, 2014

Rice & Fries @ Changi Road


We reckoned that we needed mouthwashing desserts after the nauseating lunch at Oishii Halal Buffet.

Our only nearby choice was Rice & Fries, along Changi Road. Apologies but only desserts are featured in this blog post because we had lunch somewhere else.


Latte @ $5.80


Crème Brûlée @ $8.80


Caramelized Banana w vanilla ice cream @ $5.80


Dark Chocolate Lava Cake w ice cream @ $9.80

You might want to check out their Facebook page as well. If I’m not mistaken, the restaurant is run by a family and it’s interactive whereby there’s a certain degree of intimacy between the owners (the husband and wife) and the customers which you will see from the photos uploaded to their Facebook page. It makes Rice & Fries more than a restaurant but a big family.


LVE
This photo was taken by the wife while cuddling her baby on her left arm. :)
Besides offering to take us photos, she also friendly reminded us to tag them on Facebook.


Rice & Fries
484 Changi Road
Singapore 419896
Tel: 9738 6648


Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.

Oishii Halal Buffet @ Jalan Masjid



Oishii Halal Buffet
Having bought the deal from deal.com.sg (thanks to Boon Kiat), each $12 voucher entitles everyone with their so-called "Unlimited Authentic Shabu Shabu + Ala Carte Buffet At Oishii Japanese Restaurant - Over 40 Items Including Beef, Chicken, Prawns, Squids, Mussel, Lalas & Sliced Fresh Fish With Tomyam, Ramen, Chicken Or Miso Soup Base".

Jason drove the Bukit Panjang-rians and it too us a while to find a suitable parking at the Kembangan Plaza basement car park along that narrow Jalan Masjid. It didn't seem to us that there's any Japanese-looking restaurant along that district.

Walking to the junction, staring at the restaurant sign, for a jiffy we thought we came to the wrong place.
Look at the picture on the right, it's really self-explanatory.
There's no way anyone could associate that with the image we had in our mind. Yes, and it's halal, so forget about pork.

Well, the interior does look different from the exterior, with a conveyor belt that is not serving sushi but raw ingredients that you throw into the steamboat. Well done!



Drinks are obviously made from syrup and taste awful.

There were 7 of us and we chose the ramen soup base which was pretty tasty probably due to MSG. Whatever we're entitled to were those ingredients which are to be cooked in the pot, plus cabbages and noodles.


And where's our shabu-shabu? LOL... what about shabby-shabby?

Describing the eating experience in Oishii Halal Buffet as 'exotic' is courteous. Otherwise, 'horrible'.
Good luck to the next batch of customers who have bought the deals but have yet to visit.
* Thumbs down *


Oishii Halal Buffet
10 Jalan Masjid
Singapore 418930


Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.

Aug 20, 2014

Yosemite, USA


19 Aug 2014 (Sat)

Lodging: Comfort Inn Yosemite Area, Oakhurst



4 of 7, fortnight USA trip
ArizonaLas Vegas Mammoth LakesYosemiteSan FranciscoCoastal CaliforniaLos Angeles




Tioga Road
I once thought this place has got something to do with Japanese, as it sounds pretty Japanese in the first place.

Yosemite, a national park in Northern California, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, owing to its wondrous nature beauty, spreading across over 3,000 km² - it's darn huge.



Tuolumne Meadows



Tenaya Lake




Yosemite Valley

Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.

Aug 19, 2014

Mammoth Lakes, USA


19 Aug 2014 (Sat)

Lodging: Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa



3 of 7, fortnight USA trip
ArizonaLas Vegas Mammoth LakesYosemiteSan FranciscoCoastal CaliforniaLos Angeles





Room 139, Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa
We've left Death Valley, ahead of us is a foresty town - Mammoth Lakes.

Make sure you fill your car with petrol or get enough food and water supply before you get to a less populous place like Mammoth Lakes or Yosemite. There's either limited sources of the supply you need or a very expensive one.

We didn't intend to visit Mammoth Lakes, it's just our lodging for our visit to Yosemite. We picked this resort out of the relative affordability because the location is far from Yosemite.

It seemed like we underestimated the distance and thought we could visit the east side of the Yosemite National Park, get back to Mammoth Lakes, and continue on the second day towards the west side. The chances are, we were only able to get back to the resort after late midnight. Thus, we decided to look around Mammoth Lakes and have a full Yosemite expedition the next day instead.






Notice how two lakes are connected thru a narrow channel

Lake Mary





People are camping at the lake when it was so shivering cold...

Horseshoe Lake

One of the most dispirited corners of the world I've seen...



Twin Falls





Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa
Sky turned dark pretty fast, thank goodness we didn't stick to our initial plan of visiting Yosemite and come back here. It was bone-chilling with the wind out there, it's neither warm indoor.

We got back to the resort and guess what, we met another group of GRDPs from Singapore who started their fortnight-long trip southwards from San Francisco while we're going in the opposite direction northwards.

Tiny little world, that we're even staying in the same resort without any of us knowing, it reminded me of bumping into a friend on a random street in Amsterdam 2 years ago.

Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.