The World is My Oyster

This post is about my food experience on our first day at Siem Reap. For full coverage of the trip, refer to my previous post titled Siem Reap Day 1.

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One of the reasons I’m traveling is to EAT local food muahahaaa! So it’s only fair for me to have separate post for food. It shows respect ;D

Golden Temple Villa

As told on my story for the first day at Siem Reap, we arrived at the hostel in the afternoon. Too hungry to wander around outside, we decided to try the hostel’s restaurant.

Turned out the dishes would be the best I had during my entire stay in Siem Reap.

This set for 2 people cost $5.
Starting from far left clockwise: amok fish, pork, then beef in Khmer sauce, and of course, white rice.

The Amok Fish was HEAVENLY! Amok Fish is one of the most popular Khmer dishes. Amok is actually the style of cooking. So you can choose fish, or other meat or seafood. It’s like Thai curry, but more sweet than spicy. The curry is mixed with beaten eggs. Yuuumm.. *drooling* I tried another Amok fish another time after that, but it’s not as good as the one at my hostel.

In fact, the pork and beef dishes were very good as well, and hardly defeated by any other dishes we took during our entire stay. Here we started to learn that Khmer food consist of HEAPS of VEGGIES and HERBS. But veggies had never tasted that good. They were great!

I have a hobby to taste after food and try to guess what’s in it. And in my opinion I do pretty good :). But I couldn’t guess what was in the dishes even after numerous attempts. A lot of foreign herbs for sure. Khmer dishes in general are somehow close to Vietnamese dishes, with their strong herbs and leaves, and Thai, but not as spicy.

Golden Temple Villa
Steng Thmei, Svaydongkum
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Ph: +855 12 943459
www.goldentemplevilla.com

Snacks

Bought these snacks when we were looking for soap around the town. Prawn and spicy beef cracker. Then 3 instant noodles. Which I brought back to Singapore and have not cooked until now.

Khmer House

At night we were looking for Khmer Kitchen as recommended by Travelfish, but it was closed! We were too late, it was past 10pm. So we went for its neighbor, Khmer House.

A brief look at the menu showed Khmer House was generally more expensive than Khmer Kitchen. Although the place is nicer.

Had curry and beef mushrooms. Liked the curry, it’s like Thai curry. But the mushroom beef was just so-so, almost like Chinese dish. By this time we learned that all the dishes in Siem Reap came in good (read: big) portion.

All these with 2 rice and the banana shake cost around $7. Dishes at Khmer House cost around $3-$4 each. Drink was around $1-$1.5 each.

Not long after, we had a little fight. Ggggrr Ruf Ruf!

UNHAPPY.

Lucky this flower-selling kid came to the rescue! A stem of rose for $1 ;)
(Whatever happened to him with all those bandages?)

And that ended our culinary adventure for day 1.

Khmer Kitchen
The Passage, behind Bar St
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Ph: (063) 964 154. Daily: 10:00-22:00.

~ All prices in USD.

On a side note, there’s a very loud noise coming somewhere around my building, someone speaking with extremely loud speaker. Saying something like “starbucks” a million times, then moved on to “botak” another million times, and move on to another meaningless word. (Obviously he’s speaking in some weird Chinese dialect). I hate it so much I imagine going down and ripping this guy’s heart out with my bare hands. And his eyeballs. He’s lucky he sounds far from my building (I’m SURE HIS VOICE IS GOING AROUND KILOMETERS WIDE!), so I don’t bother to come down myself. I called Eunos Neighbourhood Police Post (Tel: 1800 – 443 9999) and we’ll see if the Singapore police actually do their job. This is my first time ever to call the police because of loud noise, mind you. SO YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW LOUD HE IS. GAH!

To close my day I’m posting this short post on QQ Rice Ball! Boy I AM hungry right now, at this very second! Hence the post. It somehow soothes me to see pictures of food when I can’t have any.

On a side note, I’ve been extremely busy the past weeks or so. Moved house and all. So I have good reason :). Believe me, I’VE BEEN EATING. Wish I have all the time in the world to show all of them! Anyway, let’s just make do with whatever we have kay.

I knew about this place first time from Joice, who is a fan of food show on TV. I myself don’t really watch TV. But these pictures were taken the second time I went there to pick up Passion Run running pack with Waiming. Story about that another time. In short I ran 5km at East Coast and it wasn’t so bad, I should run more often.

When you try to find the place, keep in mind that the stall entrance is outside, not inside the building. The stall is very small, so most of the time you can only have take-outs. They did have 2 tiny tables with 2 tiny chairs for each table the last time I went there, and one of them was empty so we sat and ate, while praying that the chairs wouldn’t crumble into pieces in the middle of savoring our rice ball.

So this is how it works. You pick your choice of rice (out of 6: purple rice, brown rice, mixed grain rice, wheat germ brown rice, red rice, and ice lake wild rice) and 5 fillings (out of 46: a few types of floss, some types of meat, vegetables, etc), then they will put the fillings inside the rice and makes it into a rice ball (although it’s more of an oval than a ball or onigiri shape).

It’s all about the fillings! I had a good time choosing what I wanted! First time I went there there was quite a long queue, so everybody picked up a piece of paper that they provided at the entrance which has list of the fillings with tick boxes on the side. You can then (try to) make up your mind while waiting. Second time I went there, it was quite empty, so we could just point.

Before we go to the rice ball, there’s reason why I chose this place out of many on my to-show list.

Me with short hair! +D

My hair actually looks pretty fine here, hence the need to show it ;D. Other times it can look weird. It’s mighty comfortable, but I think I start to miss my long hair..

Nuff with the hair! Let’s go to the rice balls!

I tried the mixed grain rice first time (because they ran out of purple rice, the one I wanted!), and second (finally) the purple rice. I love the purple rice!

YUMMY! I don’t really remember what I chose for the fillings. I think it’s dried spicy shrimp, mushrooms, crispy yellow beans, omelet egg, and floss.

This one is Waiming’s piece.

According to them, it’s best to mix dry (e.g. crispy yellow beans, meat floss) and wet juicy fillings (e.g. emperor vegetables, minced chicken meat). If you can’t make up your mind, you can order the recommended package ones. Personally I think you’d lose all the fun that way.

SO HUNGRY!

The rice ball cost from S$3.20-S$3.90. Add $1 for a drink (purple rice drink, soya purple rice, milk purple rice, etc). Add 80c for pudding (purple rice or mixed grain pudding). Tried the soya purple rice drink and purple rice pudding. The soya purple rice drink was so-so. It wasn’t cold and they didn’t have the (plain) purple rice drink that I wanted *disappointed mode here*. Come on, they should really prepare enough stock for everything! First time they ran out of purple rice. Second time they didn’t have any other drinks apart from soya purple rice and it wasn’t even cold! Not enough effort to satisfy customers I’d say.

I didn’t have a good picture of the whole rice ball. I found good ones here by Camemberu. Really wish I can have the rice ball now…

QQ RICE BALL
10 Sinaran Drive
Novena Square 2 #01-06
Singapore
www.qq-rice.com

Plus: Yummy rice balls! Love it! Note that this depends on how you can mix and match the fillings…

Minus: They seemed to always run out of stock of something. First was the purple rice, second was ALL drinks except for one!

Haven’t posted food for a while and I claim myself hungry!

In Bali, since we stayed in Kuta area, of course we wouldn’t miss the famous Warung Made (Made’s Warung). Just ask anybody there, most people, if not everyone, should know this eating place. During the 4 days of our stay, we went here twice ;). Note that Made is read muh-day, not made as in past tense of make, na-ah.

The place has lower floor area and upper floor (overlooking the lower floor). I quite like the overall ambiance. When you like it quiet, you can choose the upper floor, otherwise you can hang out at the front patio, looking around the busyness at the small street outside.

Warung Made’s ‘Nasi Campur Special’ (special mixed rice), cost Rp45.000,- (~S$8), significantly more expensive than the normal ‘Nasi Campur’ below.

Warung Made’s ‘Nasi Campur’, cost Rp20.000,- (~S$3.5). I think the normal one is best value for money, while not losing any of the tasty bits. The special one had prawns and more meat. However they were both very tasty! We could tell they used a lot of coconuts as ingredient (shredded coconut and coconut cream/milk).

Another delicious dish, Sate Bali (Pork Satay Bali style). The chunks of meat were so properly done, juicy, generous, and yummy! Woo I didn’t expect it to be that good!

Rendy gulping down the Avocado juice, looking very happy.

Me and my satisfied look. The avocado juice was yummy but was a bit too heavy for me, but the Banana Honey juice that I sipped in the picture was HEAVENLY! Even the fruit juices were that good! We were all giddy with happiness ;)

View from the upper floor. Have I told you I love Bali architecture?

Warung Made
Kuta area, Bali
Indonesia

Plus: Yummy ‘Nasi Campur’, yummy ‘Sate Bali’, yummy fruit juices.

Minus: Mmm if I try to find something to complain about, the place was a bit dark and had no air-con. Although if you take away these two then it wouldn’t be an authentic ‘warung’ anymore (warung=traditional eating place). I would leave it as it is :). Oh and we did try another dish the second time around, some kind of pork soup, and it was very ordinary.

I went to the army market last Sunday with Waiming and Callista to buy hiking gears (going tomorrow!). Then we found this precious hidden gem just right in the heart of Beach Road hawker’s center. (How to find a good food stall Singapore way: find the ones with longest queue, then start queuing too even when you’re not sure what you’re queuing for)

I present you:

Note the “ang moh desserts” text in the corner. I saw an ang moh there, so I guess the name board doesn’t just bluff ;)

Look! Real ang moh!

And this is all what we’ve been waiting for:

THE WAFFLES! Yes people, they were as good as they look. SOOOO YUMMY!! The gelato and chocolate dip are nice too! Oh man I keep drooling for the past week when ever I think about these waffles. They’re sweet, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I can taste the rum in the chocolate and the gelato is light. *DROOL*

(If you see the red camera in the background, that’s mine. Waiming happened to take better picture of the waffles so I used his photo. Everybody thank Waiming! ;)

A peek on the menu: (all prices in SGD)
Waffle $1.80
Waffle + Gelato $3.60
Waffle + Chocolate dip $2.50
Gelato $1.80

They also have some more expensive packages such as fondue (around $7) and family packages. Will try the fondue the next time I go there. But the waffle is the definite winner!

While queuing I saw a fat guy with a mountain of waffles on his table. I could only imagine I had a mountain of waffles. Lucky fat guy! Maybe the next time I’ll have TWO waffles! I registered on their website and supposedly I should get a free waffle or gelato for my next visit with my loyalty card. So that’s my extra waffle. I have reason to eat more muahahaaa!

The Sweet Stone Parad’Ice
Golden Mile Food Centre
505 Beach Road, #01-67/76
Singapore 199583
www.thesweetstone.com

Plus: WAFFLES WAFFLES HEAVENLY WAFFLES!

Minus: Nothing, they’re all good. Good service too, the guy suggested packages that ended up cheaper for us. But that could be because Waiming and I took pictures like food journalists wannabe. They should be nice to us just in case we publish the review on some famous blog *grin*.

Somewhere in March ’07 a group of friends and I went to Cosafe Maid Cafe in Chijmes (it’s a short distant walk from City Hall MRT). That night it happened to be school night, so all the waitresses (maids?) wore school girl outfit instead of French maid outfit.

To start, I kinda like the overall ambiance. But that’s probably Chijmes in general. Chijmes is pretty ;)

Okay this is the front door, but we didn’t go through it at all. In fact I wanna know what’s inside, because it looks so secluded. The seating area is outside, open air. I don’t know what they do if it rains.

I’m a bit disappointed on their uniforms. French maid is much more interesting than school girl. School girl is just.. dull.. ordinary.. and it reminds me about Lolita syndrome. Especially on Singaporean girls, who are mostly bonny skinny. Maybe it’s just me, but it looked like most guys that come to the place threw each other sheepish perverted smile and/or body language. As if they felt guilty to actually come to the cafe just for the girls. *roll eyes* This included our guy friends, mind you. SHAME ON YOU GUYS! :D

As a side note, I hate to disappoint you, but none of the maids was underage :). I heard the boss was 16 years old that like to cosplay though. That’s almost underage, isn’t it? So that’s how this cafe got to be. We saw the mother and the brother however. The boss was probably too busy cosplaying somewhere else. I got a feeling she doesn’t really get involved in this cafe thingy. The 16 yo old boss idea may just be there for publication purposes. *shrug*

While waiting for the food, we took picture with one of the schoolgirl/maid, but she looked just like one of our friends, hiding her number one asset, the costume! The management should have some kind of training for the maids about taking good pictures with the customers. In fact, the management should train them much much more in basic waitressing for a start. I don’t know about the other maid cafes, as I’ve never been into one, but from what I heard they maids are supposed to ACT LIKE MAIDS and not waitresses in maid costumes! What’s the difference you would ask, well YOU tell me :). Just on top of my head, shouldn’t they act more Japanese-y? You know, with the yelling of Japanese words everywhere, get all cute and excited, etc. Most of the time the maids just stood around or talked to each other. We had to ask for our water to be filled in all the time, when there were free maids everywhere near our table. They were lousy waitresses, and even lousier maids. BAD SERVICE.

Most of us ordered their signature dish, Baby Pork Ribs. It SO NOT justified the price! Cost about $20 I think. It didn’t come out hot, as if they grilled it a long time ago. The ribs was indeed really big, but it’s just meh. Most of the taste came from the bbq-like sauce. I chose mashed potatoes instead of fries and it was very little :(. The fries were actually quite good though (stole some from Arti’s plate), they were huge. The last time I ate big fries was at KFC Australia, the only fast food I know that serves big french fries (as in each piece is individually big, not big serve).

Bandi ordered pizza that came out looking pretty pathetic. I don’t know why he ordered pizza in Japanese little cafe. It’s SO NOT matching. Arti ordered hamburger which didn’t look bad. We all also had fruit juices. I can’t even remember what I had, but it’s alright.

At the end of the night, the waitresses (maids?) had some kind of game. So we stuck around a little bit just to see what’s going on. It was just Japanese paper-scissor-rock ‘game’. Each table has one person to represent to have a go against the maid. We sent Antono but he disappointed us :). I think they had bookmarks or the like in their baskets and you’d get one if you win.

To conclude, the only thing memorable about this cafe is how bad the service and the food were. Paying that much money and with all the hype being a maid cafe, people have higher standard of what they expect from the waitresses (I can’t stop calling them waitresses cuz that’s how they acted like!). The next time you want to bring someone over (that would be the only reason I would go if there’s a next time), go only for a drink. The food is so not worth it. I guess the maid costumes would still attract people (note the use of words ‘maid costumes’ and not ‘maids’).

Last picture is a shot from Bandi with his new SLR. It looks good except for the branch of tree that blocked almost a quarter of the picture unintentionally. Still, the credit goes to him for showing us the pretty Chijmes :). The next time we go to Chijmes, we planned to try Hog’s Breath.

Cosafe Maid Cafe
30 Victoria Street
#01-11 CHIJMES
Singapore

Plus: Waitresses dressed in interesting costumes. Pretty good ambience (at night, when it doesn’t rain). Fruit juice is nice.

Minus: No maids, just waitresses in maid costumes. Bad food, or to be fair, bad baby ribs and pizza. Expensive food for its quality. The girls were pretty nice, but they didn’t know how to waitress.