Best Friends and Halia Restaurant

The Association was formed back in 1994, back when Mrs Pancakes (then Miss C), Mrs R (then Miss S), Miss M and Miss C were still in Secondary School.  Back then we coined ourselves "SCAM" but due to certain reasons along the way it came to be "SCCM".  Friends for 15 years, we have braved storms together, laughed and cried together.  The girls have went through roller-coaster rides with me, been by my side through the toughest times and laughed with me in happy times.  We are brutally honest with each other at times (or rather, most of the time :p), which keeps me grounded.  I feel blessed to have found such wonderful friends, who have been supportive of me and I believe I have not thanked them enough for always being there for me.  So this post is dedicated to them.  Love ya girls! Hugzzzzz...

Mrs R accepted a job posting in London and the rest of the Association decided to fulfill their wish of photographing their youth before it slips away (which is already slipping away... ha!). Mrs Pancakes decided to get the "association" together for their shots before Mrs K leaves for London which will put them beyond their 30s when she returns.  Thus, within the tight schedule that Mrs R has, we managed to fix a date and together with Mrs R's friend, Mr Y,  who kindly agreed to be our photographer for free(a million thanks!)!  On 21 Nov 2009, we journeyed to the Botanical gardens for our long-awaited photoshoot!

We met Mr Y at the Information counter where he was already armed with the map of the Botanical gardens.  We then waited for Miss M who is late (as usual).  About 5-10 mins later, we were on our way!  Mrs Pancakes has not been to the botanical gardens since she was in primary school and the place looks very different now.  Much more beautiful than she remembers.  Mr Y told us to ignore his existence and to be natural.  Initially, everyone was very conscious.  It is also due to the fact that the rest of us did not know Mr Y before the shoot.  But after the first few corny shots, we started to warm up :).  Here are some of the shots that we took from that day...

After a hard day (morning) at work, we went to Halia Restaurant for brunch. For drinks, I ordered the Halia Infusion which was a nice refreshing drink.  Do not order if you do not like the taste of ginger as it is pretty strong. The Association shared the Pork and Portabello sandwich,

Pina Colada Pancakes,

Egg Benedict (which goes by a different name that Mrs Pancakes can't remember),

Ceasar Salad and Garlic Bread.

 Food overall tasted fine, but a little pricey.  The Pina Colada Pancakes was something special that Mrs Pancakes did not find in other restaurants.  Not one of the best she's tried, but special. After the meal, we had desserts!  We tried a dessert which is basically chocolate dip with coffee ice shavings, to be taken with biscotti (Mrs Pancakes can't remember the name of this, argh!) but it was very tasty.  Love it!  Warning! take this after other desserts you've ordered.  Otherwise everything else will taste very ordinary.

We also tried the brownie (after the previous dessert, so reviewing this would not do it justice),

In thanks for his help, the Association treated Mr Y to brunch.  Honestly, we did not feel that the brunch was thanks enough for his help.  We felt bad that Mr Y did not have his brunch in peace as he was busy taking photographs of us.  This was what Mr Y ordered:

Beef steak sandwich and Pulut Hitam with ice cream. Then it was home sweet home for Mr Y while the girls went on to shopping at Ion! Best wishes to Mrs R in her stint.  We'll see you back in Sg 2011!

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Asia Grand Restaurant

Supposed to treat the department when Gabriel left the ship.  Somehow it ended up being his birthday treat and thankfully I was invited.  It is supposed to be their usual clique outing, so yah guys, thanks for inviting me again.


The little dynamite, Gabriel, is just like a Duracell Bunny. Never stops in doing whatever is expected of him.  And always striving to do more.  Like the whole department, he is someone you can trust that the task entrusted to him will be done. And be done well. We can learn a lot about commitment and perfection from this man.  He is short (literally) but stands tall for what he does. Thanks for the memories Dude.


On to the food.


Even though Mr Pancakes had walked past Asia Grand quite a number of times but never had the impetus to go in to dine.  And Terence did claim that "it's my recommendation, sure good one.", so I was really looking forward to this dinner. And of course to meeting the birthday boy himself.


Apparently this is not the first time that the clique had visited this place. And some of the good stuff they had previous were ordered again.


The condiment served was this mixture of bell peppers and cucumber with vinegar , sugar and some chilli.  The taste was rather refreshing and readies us for the food that is to come served later.


First up was the Peking Duck (SGD30). *promotion item

The roasted duck was skinned right next to our table and wrapped in crepe, with the usual roast duck sauce and either cucumber sticks or a sprig of spring onion. (and some on Ron request, no-veg.)


The skin was crispy, tasty and strikes a real good balance with the crepe and sauce.  The cucumber/spring onion gave a refreshing edge to the palate.

Next up is the soup.  The group was so blown away by it the other time that they had to order this again.  The double boiled soup of the day ($36) comes served separately with its contents on a plate and the soup in a clay soup pot.  The ingredients used were corn, carrot, green carrot, chicken feet and pork ribs.  The soup was thick and very flavourful.  This large serving easily feeds 2-3 soup bowls for each of us.


The mains is next:

From left to right: Wasabi Prawns (SGD39), Deep-fried Soon Hock in sweet and sour sauce (SGD67.50, 750g), Three Egg Spinach(SGD24), Fried Rice with Duck Meat (from Peking Duck) (SGD15)


The Wasabi Prawns were great! Crunchy to bite into and the wasabi mayonnaise wasn't overpowering.  In fact, it lifted the freshness of the prawns.  The deep fried Soon Hock was a bit too over-fried with some parts of the meat dried up.  The sauce was wonderfully done and was a great match with the fish. A very good fish with tender and white meat.
Mr Pancakes is not a fan of the 3-Egg Spinach (salted egg, century egg and egg) but the one that is served here is delicately balanced.  And not full of MSG as some places serves it.  The freshness of the eggs combined with the spinach cooked in (chicken?) broth was a good last dish to wash down all the oil.


The fried rice with duck meat just tasted like any fried rice.  Mr Pancakes was intrigued by the fried noodles with XO sauce that you can use the duck meat with.  May give it a go on the next visit.


And yes, happy birthday to you, Gab.

Overall a good meal and reasonable price, considering the location at the heart of town. Total spending was SGD252.80 for 6 grown men.


UOB and AMEX cardholders enjoy 10% off total bill, before service charge and GST.

Asia Grand Restaurant
331 North Bridge Road
#01-02 Odeon Towers
Tel : 6-887-0010








oh yah. We saw Dawn Yeoh with her family(?)/friends.  Nice.  No pictures though. People eating don't disturb la. :)




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New York New York

Chocolate Chip Cookies have never understood what's so great about New York New York until they tried it one day. For a fast food chain, NYNY certainly exceeded their expectations, much to their surprise!

Besides having stylish and eye-catching décor in bright attractive colours, NYNY’s service is impeccable (at the City Link branch, at least). I didn’t fancy a small normal table for 2 (too much like speed-dating style) and the staff were quick in arranging the next sofa set for us. Looking at the pretty menu, we were at a loss, no thanks to the wide variety of food available, but NYNY’s page of top 8 dishes certainly helped us to make up our minds.

Our dish for sharing arrived in a huge plate. We thought that the reason behind it was that if the food couldn’t make it, at least its packaging makes a statement. The 5th Avenue Appetizer Platter consists of fries, fried calamari rings, Buffalo wings and deep fried battered mushrooms, along with 3 types of sauces, one of which tasted like peanut butter sauce! The Buffalo wings were not what we had expected (they tasted like McWings) but the mushrooms scored with us – succulent, juicy and tasty.

My ‘Give Me Liberty’ Chicken Cheese Burger (without onions) was nothing really amazing, other than its size and a very flavourful chicken patty. Notably and thankfully, the buns were not dripping with oil, but in fact, very nicely toasted.

Chocolate Chips’ Crispy Fish Burger nearly caused him to fall off the sofa. It was twice the size of its picture in the menu! There were not one but two pieces of fish so big that they were jutting out of the buns.

Putting these together, we realized we had over-ordered. We gave up on the buns and concentrated on the meat and we couldn’t finish most of the fries. However, we insisted on sharing a root beer float, having seen the staff churn out many such orders for the diners, perhaps now that A&W is extinct in Singapore. Not surprising, the float came in a huge tall mug that may make you think the drink is worth the price, but think about it, root beer float can be easily created at home.

NYNY is perfect for those who want value-for-money quick bites as their serving size would certainly blow you away. Just an advice: do not be too ambitious when placing your order.

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