717 Trading Durian Stall

Address: 22 Yio Chu Kang Rd, Highland Centre #01- 01, Singapore 545535

Tel No: 64872777

Opening Hours: We went at 830pm. by 10pm, the durians were running out.

Type of Place: Roadside Durian Stall

Recommended Attire: No restrictions

Type of Cuisine: Not applicable

Average price spent per pax: $30

Who went with me: Myself, Adrian, Isaac, Jeff's family including Doris, Jed & Jadyn, Daniel's family including Rachel and Thad.

Rating (out of 5) –

Food quality: 4.5

Service quality: 4.5

Ambience: 4.5

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1  = Poor

2 = Below Average

3 = Average

4 = Good

5 = Excellent

We parked at Highland Centre's basement carpark.

They have their cakerie there too, and they sell fresh coconut drinks, durian puddings, durian-related food stuffs etc :)

There was a steady flow of human traffic at the durian stall, which stood out amongst a quiet street.

Their stall front, very bright, clean and well-kept.

Doris & Rachel had a bag of these. Doris was not feeling well so durians was out, while Rachel preferred mangosteens :) Verdict - Sweet! No complaints! The two ladies were yakking away to their hearts' content ahahha.

Ah ha, here are the D24s! It was excellent table service, by the boss himself, Mr Goh. He was friendly, down-to-earth and perspiring a lot. It was a humid night :)

Check out the thick flesh that filled up the whole shell. I love this colour, coz it often means that it's more bitter than sweeet! :D

If I'm this durian, I'll be very proud of myself.

Thad enjoying himself thoroughly. He seems to be quite an expert in eating durians.

Adrian and Jeff. We are becoming good friends, coz we meet so often for Feilouship review sessions wahahaha.

Pardon the colour.. The lighting and background wasn't very favourable and my editing skills are super amateur! But just check out the size, and the layers and layers of flesh.

another angle. I had problems trying to hold it in position. haha.

The D24s were fabulous. Thick, satisfying and can i add - nearly as good as sex!

Here's Mr Goh!! He's so nice!

See the crowds.. non-stop can!

Toppled Esplanade xD

We started on Mao Shan Wang after the D24s. Apparently the durian lovers will know that one has to eat the D24 first and the MSW last. If we eat it the other way round, we will not taste the full flavour of MSW.

Okay.........

As you can see, MSW's seeds are much smaller, but the flavour is very different from D24. It has a stronger burst of taste! My personal opinion - I prefer the D24 to MSW. D24 costs $10 per kg and MSW cost $16 per kg. We ate 8.5kg of D24 and about 4kg of NSW.

I prefer D24's thick flesh that filled up my mouth entirely, very satisfying wahaha. Okay I am starting to sound a bit 'off'!!!!

Isaac's a regular there and here are his comments on 717..

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"...they are honest and nice people. I go very often and although expensive had always found the quality of durians n service to be much better than many places. The only place I would say rival 717 trading is this small little durian stall at Dempsey road. My own take on the durians were good but not the best I had there. On a scale of 1-10, I'll give it a 7.5."

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Adrian gave his comments too. he also preferred the D24, coz they were really fantastic value for money!

Daniel said the durians were okay, but the 'feilouship' was priceless! I agree too :) Food does bring people together!

Will I go back again? Actually, 1 week later, Adrian and I went back AGAIN and dabao-ed 2 packets of D24. Standard is as good!!!!! Yes we are going back there again, whenever we feel like having durian xD

Inle Myanmar Restaurant at Peninsula Plaza

Address: Peninsula Plaza Outlet, 111 North Bridge Road, #B1-07 Peninsula Plaza, Singapore 179098
Tel No: +65 6333 5438
Opening Hours: 11am ~ 10pm Daily

Type of Place: Casual Dining

Recommended Attire: No restrictions

Type of Cuisine: Myanmese

Average price spent per pax: $20

Who went with me: Myself, Adrian, Jeff, Doris, Claudia and Joseph

 

Rating (out of 5) –

Food quality: 3.5

Service quality: 3.5

Ambience: 4
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1  = Poor

2 = Below Average

3 = Average

4 = Good
5 = Excellent

Taken from the restaurant's website:

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"The cuisine of Myanmar is heavily influenced by the respective cuisines of China, India, and Thailand. However, in spite of the many influences, Myanmar cuisine has unique preparation techniques and distinct flavours unlike any other. It is richer than Chinese but not as spicy as Thai or Indian.

The methods of food preparation vary depending on the region and ethnicity as the country itself is populated with multi-ethnic diversity. In addition, the influx of Chinese and Indian immigrants in the past has also given birth to a unique flavour of sweet, sour and mildly spicy Myanmar cuisine."



Claudia and I reached at 6pm and I immediately started snapping! Might as well, since there weren't many customers yet.

The decoration is pretty cool! There's this huge sword!! It's a sword, right?

I am personally not a lover of rattan and straw. But the interior of this restaurant gives a homey and clean feel.

The picture above our table.

As we were kinda hungry, we decided to go for the buffet!! It has everything! It's $16.90+++ for weekdays, but no drinks and dessert. We all had iced water.

The 2 chic ladies, Doris and Claudia!

Close up of the ala carte items in the buffet menu. I think we had nearly everything.. tats the good thing about eating in a bigger group :)

Buffet dinner starts from 530pm :)

And here's their opening hours and contact details.

Don't think our leftovers amounted to 500g :)

Pickled Tea Leaves Salad - I have never tried anything like this before, and neither have everyone else. And it's our favourite salad among the lot! It's spicy, salty, appetizing and refreshing. After the first mouthful, you will definitely take the next mouthful. It has nuts inside too. Man, i am already running out of adjectives. and I have like 20 more dishes!

Century Egg Salad. Century egg is the typical SG fare. Both Doris and I sidetracked and decided that Hong Kong's century egg is wayyy better. Anyway. the salad above the egg is quite normal, with a generous serving of onions, which I love.

Chicken Curry - Adrian's comment "very Indian, not spicy but contains a lot of spices".. and he likes it!

Pork in Black Bean Paste - very Chinese dish, flavourful but not very tender.

Penny Wort Salad - our next favourite salad. the leaves has a herb taste and reminded us of the Chinese LeiCha dish. It has plenty of nuts too. A very nutritious appetizing dish.

Left - Fish Soup. Right - Veg Soup. The fish soup did not taste like fish soup at all. Adrian thought it tasted more like mutton soup (?!) It has a rich and heavy taste, slightly spicy. The veg soup was like mild tom yam soup with veg :)

Prawns in Tamarind Sauce - Fakely succulent (treated chemically), so the prawns were crunchy and juicy. The sauce is sour, naturally. Quite Thai, in my opinion.

Fish Fillet with Sweet Chilli - Like Thai Style Sweet and Sour fish, but I do like the kind of batter they used on the fish. Slightly crispy even after all the sauce~!

This, is a item of great debate. This item is called Tofu Fritters.

2 of us said it tasted like sweet potato.

1 person said it tasted like fish cake.

But we all had 1 united comment --> STRANGE DISH.

Gourd Fritters. The batter is quite okay and it's about the only thing nice about the dish. The gourd inside the batter is juicy, crunchy BUT tasteless. The sauce doesn't do much help in enhancing the taste, so it was quite a letdown.

Kang Kong with Garlic. It was strange for me coz I am used to eating spicy kang kong. This tasted too.... GREENY. I tasted too much chlorophyll! haha. Generally, the vegetables are fresh and crunchy.

This, is another item which we all thought was soft shell crab.

IT'S NOT.

It's called Shrimps on Green Net Fritters. What a strange concept. Jeff tasted it and said it was okay, but the rest of us did not like it The vegetable fritters had an earthy taste to it, so it was a bit bitter. =.=

oOh this has to be my ultimate favourite. Fresh Spring Rolls. Vietnamese cuisine has this dish as well, but I haven't tried it before. I had 3 of these!! The skin is translucent with a sticky elastic feel to it. The vegetables were crunchy and everything else in it was great. Very refreshing combination!! It has coriander inside too.

aerial view

close up view xD see how much i like it haha.

mutton curry - everyone liked it coz there wasn't any mutton smell and it was very tender. for me, i prefer it with some mutton smell..if not i wun be able to identify the type of meat..

The bill came up to be 20bucks per person. Okay for a decent meal that burst our pants :)

Doris, Claudia, Jeff, Joseph and Adrian.

Me in the middle :)

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Will I go back again? Probably yes, becos of the pickled tea leaves salad, pennywort salad and fresh spring rolls. I love vegetables :) The staff were very gentle, nice and polite, although the food took quite a while to arrive. One thing to note, do visit the loo first before going into the restaurant, coz the nearest toilet is at the next building, which you go by a short underpass! =.=

Thru the dinner, the air conditioning did not seem to be working very well too. Or maybe we got too heated up talking about the recent political news :) It was a fun time overall, coz we jus couldn't stop eating and chatting!



Earle Swensen's @ Changi Airport Terminal 3

Their Facebook page can be found here.

Here's the salad bar picture found on their Facebook page. Perhaps this is from the other branch, because the airport branch doesn't look like that i.e. the bowls are not tubs as you see in the picture. The dishes are all in white bowls that make the food look quite little.

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Their official website can be found here. Not much details, just the menus.

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Address: Changi Airport Terminal 3, Viewing Mall Central, Level 4

Tel No: 6443 7123

Opening Hours: 1030am to 1030pm Daily

Type of Place: Casual Dining

Recommended Attire: No restrictions

Type of Cuisine: Western

Average price spent per pax: $15

Who went with me: Myself with a few colleagues

Rating (out of 5) –

Food quality: 3.5

Service quality: 3.5

Ambience: 3.5
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1  = Poor

2 = Below Average

3 = Average

4 = Good
5 = Excellent
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I had only the salad bar buffet which costs $11.30 before the pluses. I was hoping for some Ponderosa lookalike, but I was greatly disappointed as the salad bar was probably only half the length of the old Ponderosa salad bar. Another 2 boohoos were that they don't serve wild rocket and blue cheese dressing!! Only a few varieties of lettuce and the very usual dressings. :S

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There were also some cooked appetizers that went along with the raw vegetables. I liked the sauteed mushrooms and the spicy tau gua, which added much flavour to the meal. Oh the alfafa sprouts were wonderful too!! I had lots of that! I could just have that all day long haha. Their leaves are crunchy and fresh, thats the most important for salad lovers!

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There were also stuff like chips and deep fried wanton skins, my colleague had a lot of that while I touched none of it, coz its CARBO. heh.

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Overall, the food was okay for me as I am someone who likes to eat a lot of the same food (provided that they are nice lar). So I had 3 big bowls of salad with mostly the same variety, and i was greatly satisfied. Value for money too, 3 big bowls of salad for just $15!

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Service was good, staff knew what they were doing. Only thing I noticed.. their uniforms were un-ironed and they looked quite messy! Ambience was nice, airport is always a nice place to be at :)

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Will I go back? YES!!! For someone like me who doesn't eat carbs, this is a great hangout :)

Indulge at Park

Going there with a group of friends tonight! I've been there several times, and I find the food pretty okay, but note that I am a soft-hearted person and I tend to give higher grades than food critics wahaha.

I hope I have time to take nice pics, coz my girl's going along (with another 2 pre-schoolers) .. so...u can imagine la...