Singapore Zam-zam Restaurant :: Briyani Galore!!

Andy again, our Singapore food expert, and Najib.

Everytime I go to Singapore, I end up here. And of all the clean restaurants in Singapore---because you won't believe how clean Singapore is---I would say this one is the most comot of all. It comes very close to a Malaysian mamak restaurant: hustling, bustling, with floors needing a good scrub. The only clue that it's outstanding are the customers lining up outside waiting for a table. 

Menu. Click to enlarge.

I won't say that Zam-zam's briyani is spectacular (I just said it didn't I), but its definitely Very Very Good. A trip to Singapore is definitely incomplete without a visit to Zam-zam, even though you're just here to accompany your husband on a business trip and slow him down because you wore your least favourite high heels and its killing you. Slowly.  

Chicken briyani. Hot stuff!

kurma. A!

Here with Andy again, and Najib, another one of Mazlan's colleague. I have to say, my husband has very cool colleagues. All they do is talk about how wonderful their wives are and how much they miss them. When I am with my girlfriends, we usually talk about work. And where to get the best prices for everything. 

I ordered briyani with ayam kurma (4.5/5) Mazlan and Najib had chicken briyani (4/5) and Andy had murtabak singapore kambing version (4/5). I loved my kurma. It was delicious. Mazlan's was a bit hot but it was good too. Service was fast and after we were done we were almost ushered off our chairs and out onto the street. I noticed a big sign on the walls along the lines of "eat quickly and give your seat to our other much important hungry customers please".

Outside of the Masjid Sultan.

Interior. Men's place.

Road facing masjid. Around 10 pm. Awesome shot MM!

Masjid Sultan is right across the street from the restaurant and I fell instantly in love with it. It was old and ancient and Mazlan said the chandelier is the same as the one in Masjidil-Haram in Mecca (I guess they nicked one). I would have definitely liked to explore the mosque and the area around it further but I am reminded of the fact that I am here on a business trip and not on a Jalan-Jalan Makan Angin excursion. We don't want Mazlan to be the only husband who doesn't talk about how wonderful his wife is. :O

Singapore Zam-Zam Restaurant

North Bridge Road, Singapore 
near Masjid Sultan (Waze it!)

Cleanliness: C

Food: A

Price: A -- Reasonable

Service: B+ , food arrived fast, but so hard to get the waiters attention!

Atmosphere: B 

Satisfaction Level: B -- felt a bit rushed

Rise :: And Shine...in Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Hard at eat work.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel is this marvellous piece of modern architecture in the heart of Singapore (heart, kidney, lung..one wonders). It is 3 awesome buildings connected together with a huge platform on top that looks like a surfing board and I had the priveledge of having a buffet lunch there right under the second tower with hubs and his colleagues on a good working Wednesday.

Honeycomb and nuts to eat
with some dry biscuits

Desert was a vast selection

Strawberries for the chocolate fountain.
I know if my kids see this they go crazy

Little tiny sauces of condiments

I do not think Rise is halal, so I had only the seafood and fish dishes. And some biscuits and honey. And salads. Regardless, I am still putting in an entry here, because you might get some fantastic ideas when you (or I) open our own restaurants in the kitchen. Five stars to Rise. It is the best lunch buffet I have experienced to date. And that's not even touching their meat dishes.

They had sushi--mostly fish and fish eggs, salads and sauces of all kinds, indian briyanis and curries, italian and pasta, western dishes, seafood raw, biscuits, breads and cheese, soups and lots and lots of desert and one very happy selection of chocolate fountain dippers.

Mine!

And again.

Hubs!

This all cost SGD$57/pax which is around RM130. For the beautiful scenary, presentation, food selection and comfortable table and chairs, I would say that RM130 is okay (and I shouldn't even be thinking in ringgit!). Perhaps a tad expensive for paying out of your own pocket, but for coperate meetings and lunches (i.e., on the company), it is just perfect. If my vendor treated me to lunch here, lets just say, it would take a lot of effort to say no to the proposal.

Fresh fruits for grabs...

Sweets and cookies. These remind me of my kids. They would go crazy I am sure..

Bread pudding. Eat with vanilla and chocolate sauce. A++

So many types of bread. But I was too full already..

Array at Indian section

Salmon in Teriyaki sauce

Prawns

Fresh seafood

cous-cous

I don't know what this is. I think Tuna and feta cheese..

Loved it, definitely loved it and what started out as a formal business meeting turned into very lively friendly conversation. Rise, when you go halal, please let me know and I will put you in my top recommended list!

Here it is from afar. The three buildings with surf board on top.

Rise
Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore

Cleanliness: A
Food: A++
Price: Expensive. But it's buffet. In Singapore, of all places!
Service: A
Atmosphere: A. Very comfortable. There were trees inside. It was like a giant greenhouse.
Satisfaction Level: A.

NoorJannah's Kitchen, Singapore :: the one and only Opeh place in the entire world~

 [thanks to Mazlan for the pictures! click to enlarge]

Andy, in front of Al-Jannah restaurant (behind him)

My husband dragged me along with him on his latest business trip to Singapore. And I thought he is such an awesome guy. So I bought him a shirt while he met his bosses i.e., went shopping (tips rumahtangga bahagia #30) and blogged this down.

The first night we were there, Andy, his friend and colleage took us to this little place for dinner and I thought it was worth a review. It is unique and different and a fun night out of our little hotel room that is the size of a shoebox but equipped with modern gadgets. That's Singapore for you: small and expensive.

otak-otak: sotong, udang and mackeral flavours

Sotong goreng tepung. The batter tasted suspiciously of Adabi Tepung goreng pisang.

We started off with otak-otak. One piece is SGD$1.80 and you have to get five minimum. Don't be surprised but it tasted nicely like the ones at home, except the shape and size has gone through somewhat of a drastic transformation (its not cone-shaped but a big flat square). We hesitated to try some but the kindly lady at the next table said it was very good and we should try it. And it was.

Andy, our Singapore food expert.

Owner of the restaurant, a very kind elderly pakcik (melayu)

The guys ordered the beef hor fun in opeh dish and I noticed the couple at the next table had gear box mee hun opeh which looked increadibly tasty too. But me myself just ordered nasi and telur dadar (A!) that night because I didn't feel so adventurous. I tasted some of Mazlan's though and it was not bad (average of 3.5 out of 5 from the guys). I would say a good sound B from my few spoonfuls. The opeh leaves are worth the drive all the way from Chinatown nevertheless, its the only time you can relate to all those Lat cartoons. You can't find it no where else in the world. 

Enjoying Singapore. 

Inside Noorjannah's Kitchen. 

The mosque at Changi Road, Kembangan, Singapore.
Very conveniently located across the road from Al-Jannah.

Masjid Kassim is just across the street less than 30 m away from the restaurant (waze it!) and after dinner we went and had our jama' ta'khir maghrib and isya' prayers there. Side note, be careful of smoking in Singapore because it's illegal and you could be fined SGD$300 or thrown into jail for polluting the air and jeopardizing the health of others. Don't say I didn't warn you. They have cameras all over in this small country. And RFID detectors for that card they make you buy for your car.  :O

Noorjannah's menu. Click to enlarge.

NoorJannah's Kitchen
Kembangan, Singapore (waze it!)

Cleanliness: B
Food: B; A for being creativity though!
Price: A -- for Singapore, it was OK
Service: B+
Atmosphere: B
Satisfaction level: A -- enjoyed the night out immensely

Travel Destination :: Fraser's Hill Olde Smokehouse Hotel :: Very English~

Ye Olde Smokehouse

This was a Groupon Coupon Holiday so while I am at it I am going to give you some Groupon tips, derived from more than 365++ days of valuable Groupon experience. First of all, carefully read the disclaimer on the hotel deals. Secondly read the room description and get the hotel number for questions. This Groupon we bought was a suite at an old English Hotel for RM270/night. But then because we went on a weekend we had a surcharge of RM110. This resulted in an RM380 /night stay---RM5 less than if we booked the hotel direct. So we didn't exactly get a spectacular money saving deal from Groupon.

Garden where we had breakfast

Signboard near entrance

But nevertheless, it was a wonderful English holiday. And Fraser's Hill is wonderfully clean. The weather wasn't cool, in fact it was the warmest of all the highlands I've been to in Malaysia. There are very few activities to do if you want to have a family weekend though. It's more suitable for oldish married couples who want to come and relax and enjoy dinner and breakfast in each others company. Because that's all we did really.

The bed. And our bag.

Fire place by living room.

The hotel has 12 rooms only. Our room had creaking wooden floors, a gigantic old wardrobe, a little sitting area and all the makings of possible supernatural activities. A chat with the managers enlightened us on the hotel's history: it used to be a hospital. In fact, it's mere existence was donated by some Iluminati sect. Nevertheless, we slept amazingly sound that night. I mean, just look at the bed, its like sleeping on a fluffy cloud.

Lilies. I loved these. The whole house
and garden was filled with lots of flowers.

Breakfast on the terrace overlooking the garden.

There's no air-conditioning in the room but the night air was cool and breezy thanks to a small fan on the dresser. There's no TV set in the room either and since we had room service, we just stared each other down over dinner. Then we had a good conversation about the latest technology trends. I am not going to post our dinner pictures. The room was dark and the pictures came out all wrong.

Study room. On second floor

Front living room. Reminds me of the B&Bs back in the UK. Friendly kitchen at the back.

Our suite name. Suites were named and not numbered. How sweet.

English breakfast that came with room. Included in room rate.

The quaint mosque in Fraser's just a few metres from our hotel.

Tips for Fraser Hill visitors:

1. The road up to Fraser's is only 30 km uphill but the twists and turns were horrendous and some parts of the road was a bit too narrow for comfort. There were also encounters with tanah runtuh and tanah terbakar areas that looked like we were heading for trouble. I recommend going up and down the mountain only during sunlight and good weather. 
2. Make sure you have a full tank when you head up the mountain. There are no petrol stations in Fraser. The local jimat store has them on sale for RM10 per 1.5 liters (and even then the bottle isn't full). The jimat store dude didn't even want to sell us the petrol. He said they were for emergencies only (read: unless your car is dead stay away from my petrol). I had to use my Level 5 Blooms Taxanomy communication skills to get some petrol off of him. 
3. Don't bother packing any warm clothes. The weather is as warm as it is in your house with the aircon turned off. Just pack some regular clothing and some comfortable all-terrain shoes. Its nice to have a walk of the area in the mornings and evenings.
4. Fraser's may be a bit too quiet for children. We recommend you take them somewhere else. Like a hotel with a swimming pool. There are lots of Groupon's for that.
5. Things to do in Fraser's: golf, walk, run, horse-riding, boating, eat and sleep. I recommend two nights in Fraser's for a perfectly well-rested holiday.

The godfather. Be warned.

Thanks to my husband for his companionship and good company :)

Moussandra, Solaris :: Mediterranean Cusine!

The bloggers!

When Shing from Hungrygowhere messaged me for a food tasting session at Moussandra I was quite amazed. Somebody actually takes my reviews seriously, I thought. My sisters and close friends usually laugh my blog off like it's the weather report. Well, today the weather is hot with no sign of rain, and again Syabas does not live up to it's name.

So after a hard days Friday work, me and my official photographer--who takes such good pictures they're almost delicious-- drove off to solaris for a food tasting session at Moussandra.. And there we clumsily ventured into the world of Medditeranean cuisine and made some new friends.

We were served several dishes and these are the ones that made an impression on me and cameraman's minds. That's the thing about me and cameraman; when it comes to food, we can come to an agreement almost immediately. On other matters, it may take 5 mins to an hour.

The creme brulee was simply marvellous. It was served on a shallow bowl with a thin layer of crunchy caramelized sugar on top. It was definitely made from fresh milk and eggs and you could literally smell the vanilla with your taste-buds as your throat muscles undergo peristalsis.

Vanilla Creme Brulee. Go for small. Its very filling.

Dates wrapped with beef~

The beef bacon wrapped around dates and almond was good too, and very CGI. Who would have thought that pieces of beef jerky work so well with dates? The experience is like eating meatballs with grape jelly at IKEA. Or cold toast splurged with kaya and eggs in the dimly lit MRSM canteen. The unlikely pairing goes so well you can't believe it.

Crunchy brinjal pizza~~

Then the pizza, which actually tastes more like a crunchy brinjal sandwich compared to your regular pizza. But I think that's because the pizzas of the world left its real identity behind in Italy. I have a feeling this is what pizza actually looked and tasted like when the Italians first gave birth to it. Brinjalish and crunchy.

Lamb lasagna. Why don't you give it a try. Wink wink!

And finally lamb lasagna. My cameraman liked it a lot and had a second serving. When I asked him how much he liked it, he rated 6 out of 10 to my surprise. Which means, if a guy likes you, don't get too excited; its just a little over neutral.

Thanks to Shing for the invite. We enjoyed the drive to from Bangi to Solaris on a Friday night in the drizzling rain and we enjoyed the food so much more. Haven't been to Solaris for ages and definitely saw some very cool restaurants about. When I am done evaluating the restaurants around Bangi and Cyber like some NGO, I will definitely turn my attention to Solaris. 

Until then, ciao..!

Moussandra
Solaris, KL

Cleanliness: A
Food: B
Price: B tad expensive
Service: A+ excellent. Everybody was really friendly~
Atmosphere: Friendly
Satisfaction level: B


“This food tasting session was organised by HungryGoWhere Malaysia – Discover, Eat, Share today!”