Singapore #013 - The Exchange

Karen found a gem in the business district area and only the royal ladies went to check the place out! At The Exchange Bar, all ladies are entitled free flow of martinis (choice of Lychee, Apple, Cosmopolitan) on every Wednesday/ladies night from 6 - 9pm! That's so cool right?

First, you need to go get your martini glass. They will give you a stamp on your hand. The collection area is just right in front of the bar. Note you are only given just one glass for the night so don't misplace it. Afterwhich, just go to the bar and tell the bartender what martini will you like to get.

We ordered some food to go along with the martinis.

Truffle Fries

Duck Confit - Highly Recommended!

Mini Burgers

This place is really crowded and you will probably have to call them 2 days in advance to make reservations. Be punctual as they will release the tables after 15 mins if you fail to turn up.

8 Marina View
Asia Square Tower 1
#01-05
Singapore 018960
Mon - Fri 8am - 1am
Tel: +65 6636 1200

Singapore #012 - Au Chocolat Bistro

We had the 'Back to school' theme to celebrate the Libras' birthdays in the Royal gang.

Karen got a good deal to book a night stay at MBS with her mum's membership.

After looking through the list of dining places in MBS, we found Au Chocolat Bistro that can fit into our theme. If you have a big group like us (we have total 9 ppl!), call them to make your reservation first. Otherwise, you might have to queue during the dinner timing.

I like this toy train that is moving around... and also the nice pictorial on the ceiling. <3

This bulldog is the iconic symbol of Au Chocolat. They even sell its plush toy here.

We were so hungry (after all the photo shots at the pool) that we ordered a lot of food.

Spicy Chicken Wings ($16) - Fried Chicken Wings with spicy buffalo sauce

 Battered Calamari Rings ($14) - Served with green tartar sauce

Aglio Olio Vongole ($24) - This is one of their recommendable dish and it's also my favorite among the rest!

Three-cheese Macaroni ($24) - This is really rich, recommend for sharing only.

P.S. double check your order with the waiter. we ordered 1plate of three-cheese macaroni and they came serving us with 3 plates. they misheard 3-cheese with 3 plates. in the end they gave us the other 2 plates as complimentary but we couldn't finish them 

Au Chocolat Mega Club ($25) - This was quite disappointing since supposedly to be their recommended dish. The chicken tender was not cripsy and hard

Au Chocolat Chef's Salad ($20) - I like the toasted walnuts that went well with the other ingredients like roast chicken, ham, etc. Its secret dressing sauce is also nice and refreshing.

Parma Ham Crepe ($18) - We just couldn't skip ordering the crepe since crepe is everyone's favorite!

Duck Confit ($27) - The meat is very tender and the orange sauce is superb

"Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal"

We went over to Au Chocolat Confiserie to get the desserts.

Chocolate Orange Macaron ($7)

Pistachio Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Bay Level L1-03
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
2 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956
10am - 11pm
Tel: +65 6688 7227

Singapore #011 - Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong

Craving for Hong Kong food?

I will recommend you to visit Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong at TripleOne Somerset.

The menu board looks exactly the same as 大家樂！

Food tasted exactly the same too!

Fried kway teow was not very fantastic.... I felt there was not much ingredients and the chinese sausage was too salty. Unlike the fried kway teow, the fried rice was very nicely cook. You can see every grains of rice and very generous with the prawns and char siew.

Both kway teow and fried rice come with a beverage. You can choose coffee, tea or soy bean milk.

Each set is around $12 if I remembered correctly.

We also ordered club sandwiches too. Quite a good choice for snacking.

Lastly we had the 3 meat combination. The roasted meat (燒肉）was sold out (we were there around 6.30pm) so I assumed it must be really nice.

In the end, we chose the roasted duck meat, char siew and steamed chicken.

The meats were really tender and yummilicious.

Comparing with other HK cafes like Kim Gary & Xin Wang, I find Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong the most authentic and the one I will return to each time I miss HK Cha Chan Teng food!

Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong
TripleOne Somerset #01-K1/24/25
111 Somerset Road
Tel: +65 6732 8798

Singapore #010 - Necessary Provisions

Dad suggested we should go for brunch today and so I decided to choose Necessary Provisions.

A place that is totally inconvenient to travel to if there's no car. Located at Eng Kong Terrace (that's in Bukit Timah if you have no idea where's that), it sits at the end of a row of shop houses.

The brunch menu is really limited. They only serve cakes and sandwiches.

Not a wise choice this time since my dad doesn't like bread.

The dinner menu (available after 6pm) seems to be better. It has pasta and fried rice.... (suits my dad more)

Our Orders

Tuna Wich Capers, Cucumbers & Chili ($9)

Rosemary Chicken with Watercress & Parmigiamo ($9)

The bread looked hard and was difficult to cut. But when you bite it, it was not so tough to chew.

And the sandwiches really went well with the lattes.

Overall, it was simple and healthy but probably not very satisfying for a brunch.

It has quite nice laid back atmosphere to enjoy if you stay around the area.

Otherwise, it's not really worth traveling down from the north to the west.

21 Eng Kong Terrace
Singapore 598993
Tue - Thu: 10am - 10pm
Fri - Sat: 10am - 12am
Sun: 10am - 6pm
Tel: +65 9231 7920

Taiwan #002 - Aranzi Cafe

During my last business trip to Taiwan last month, I chanced upon this cafe in Shinkong Mitsukoshi (Taipei Nanxi), Aranzi Cafe for dessert with my colleague after our dinner at Xin Yeh.

This place is absolutely adorable, filled with lots of Aranzi characters. Like me, you may probably not know who the Aranzi characters are. But once you see them, you will know who they are. They are commonly found on the notebooks/diaries that are selling in Artbox.

 The panda is definitely very familiar to most of us!

Aranzi cafe is very detailed. Even their cakes are in the shapes of the characters.

We ordered the White Rabbit Strawberry Cake (NT$180)
The top of it is made of full fresh cream and the two layers of sponge cakes sandwiching the strawberries.

I ordered a latte and my colleague had a mocha.
And wahhhhh the drinks had the characters too!
Totally adorable. We tried to drink it without ruining the shape.

Arzani Cafe (阿朗基阿龍佐)
12 Nanjing West Road, Zhongshan District,
Taipei City
新光三越南西2館4F
Tel: (02) 25224608

Korea #007 - Twosome+ Studio

The man behind all 2ne1 hit songs like "I am the best", "I don't care", "Fire", etc. - Teddy had opened his own Twosome+ Studio cafe in HongDae. 

During my last recent trip to Korea, I decided to pop by his cafe for tea break.

It's very easy to find this place as it is located on the left side of the entrance of Hongik University.

Once you walk into the cafe, you can see Teddy photos around and his merchandize like t-shirt, mugs, umbrella, USB thumbdrive, etc. for sale

I ordered Bailey Cappuccino and Chocolate eclair. Since it's a franchise of Twosome cafe, the coffee is nicely done and the eclair pastry is soft and the chocolate cream is not too sweet, just right.

I also spotted CL and Dara's signatures!

On the third floor of the cafe, there's art collection done by popular artist, Kwon Mina

Twosome+ Studio
서울특벌시 마포구 서교동 338-48
Mapo-gu Seogyo-dong 338-48
Seoul, South Korea