Singapore Night Festival + Supper at Swee Choon Dim Sum Restaurant

It's Time for TGIF ! This weekend (30 /31 August 2013)  is the 2nd and last weekend for Singapore night festival held around town. 

It was tough finding a parking lot, after going round and round we managed to find parking at Pacific plaza hotel. 

We cross the street and went to our 1st stop at CHIJMES.

Art Flea Market at CHIJMES.  

We reached CHIJMES around 0830 pm and the place was packed. 

There are many stores selling clothing, food, stationary , customised jewelries ( I almost bought a Tutu kueh bracelet).  It was novel and fun to be shopping at a flea market during the night. 

We then proceed to the Singapore Museum. 

It was packed inside and outside the museum, with lots of activities and performance going on at different area 

The museum is open and there is free admission for some selected galleries. A good time for tourists to visit the place. 

Last stop was at Armenian Street 

The road was closed for the festival. 

There is band performance in the middle of the road (near the substation), and Singapore own food truck selling fusion food along the road. It created a nice and different ambiance. 

The Sedap street was also around the corner beside the Peranakan museum. It was quite a disappointment with only one store selling Tutu kueh and some traditional food. 

I hop into the Peranakan museum for a visit and sign off for Singapore Night festival 2013. 

Overall, the night festival is a great idea to attract Singaporean to come and appreciate the Arts, will definitely come again next year.  

Since my stomach is not fill, we decide to drive over to Swee Choon Dim Sum. 

  

There was a long queue outside the restaurant but since we did not request for a air con seat, we were immediately brought to a seat at the BACK ALLEY.
It was a dark and lonely corner right at the back of the alley. 

We were hungry and happy that we did not have to queue so we did not complain. 

 Portuguese Egg Tart - definitely not the best I have tried.

The pastry seem a little undercook with a weird buttery smell.

Salted egg custard bun- The skin of the bun is a little thick, but taste delicious.

 Mee Sua kueh- A must try at this restaurant.

It is super delicious : Crispy with the aroma of mee suan.

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 Carrot cake - The crispiest carrot cake I have tasted.

Xiao long bao- Average tasting 

The dim sum are freshly made and taste are slightly above average for most of the items. A great place for late night supper, (opening hours :1700-0600). 

But seating in the back alley is a really bad idea. 

A RAT made a mad rush for my feet when I was about to finish my food. We scream and immediately left the place.

This is the first time (and hopefully the last) I was scared off by a RAT while eating.   

Blueberry crumble (easy recipe)

 

 

As a food lover, we should not waste food. So I decided to finish the last pack of blueberry that has been sitting in my fridge for the past week and make it into a blueberry desert for teatime.

 

After browsing through the Internet, I decided to bake blueberry crumble as all the ingredients can be easily found in my house.

 

I found the recipe found on Allrecipe.com, and modified it to suit me.

 

The baking process was fun and simple. 

 

                           Blueberry Aroma fills the Air as the crumble was baking in the oven.

Ingredients :

 

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoonbaking powder

3 cups plain flour

1 cup butter

1egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 pinch cinnamon

A handful of sliced almond

 

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup fine sugar ( to be added to blueberry)

3 teaspoons cornstarch

 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. ( I do not have a 9x13 pan- so I just use my tart and souffle pan)
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and cinnamon,. Use a fork to blend in the butter and beaten egg. Dough will be crumbly. Press firmly half of dough into the prepared pan.

1. In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust.
2. Sprinkle a handful of sliced almond on top of the blueberries and crumble remaining dough over the almonds.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown and the blueberries are bubbling. 

 

The result was a delicious, crunchy blueberry crumble that my whole family enjoys.

 

London Boat Quay (Lunch Special)

My friend got to know the owner of this bar, so we decided to head down for lunch (TGIF).

We were quite lonely walking along boat Quay at 2 in the afternoon, when we reached the place there was no one in the bar. But since we have promise to give this place a go we sat down and was offered the lunch special menu.

There was only a limited selection of food for their lunch special.

2 courses at S$12 nett or 3 courses @ $14.50 (include ice cream).

I chose cream of mushroom at my appetiser.

It is quite of watery and served lukewarm. But it is still tasty and has lots of mushroom.

 

Main course is Egg and ham with fries

Not my kind of food for lunch.

The ham taste raw and seems to come straight from the supermarket. The fries are nice, making me think that the Londoners are good at fries (fish and chips people).

 

They do serve other food beside the lunch special menu.

 

Overall not the best dining experience.  But its a BAR and not a restaurant.

 

Why go to London Boat Quay?

 

A : With a nice ambiance, cosy sitting at the riverside to enjoy lunch with a group of friend at a reasonable price.

XO Crab Beehoon Soup (香港街珍宝记-分行）

When to my regular weekend dinner place at Blk 721 Clementi West St 52, 香港街珍宝记 for XO crab been hoon. As usual the ambiance at this zi char place is fantastically Singaporean. During dinner time there are tons of shouting among the staffs, mad scrambling among the junior staffs to serve the food, long waiting time and come with that angry and hungry customers.

We waited for more than 30 minutes before the food is served. But the sweet and juicy crab is worth the wait. After  digging in to one of the crab claw, we discover that the crab only has one claw! (I want my crab !)

We checked with the staff and she told us that we will have a refund as the chef might have accidentally gave ours to somebody who ordered the same dish. You can imagine the disappointment on my face.

5 minutes later a junior staff left a bowl of soup on our table. WOW in the bowl we saw a new crab crawl. We all burst out laughing and this is what I call customer service.

Good food, great ambiance and good service makes this place my all-time favourite zi char place.

If you live in the west remember to drop by this stall.