LIC One Anniversary
I have move to
Please relinked me, re-bookmark me and remember my new place!
Time flies, it has been a year already since ladyironchef (LIC) was started. With each post published, and each month flying by, the counter has jump twelve times, and LIC reach its first Anniversary!
Contrary to what many readers or visitors have thought that LIC was a female because of the nick “lady” in lady-ironchef, LIC is actually a Guy! Well just to clarify to prevent any future misunderstanding. Some of the common questions LIC encountered are as follows;
” Why ladyironchef? ”
” Why not gentlemanironchef? ”
” Are you pretending to be a female-blogger so that you can get more visitors? ” …
And the list goes on and on. Well i’ll like to say i can’t really remember the main reason for choosing ladyironchef as the name of my blog a year ago. In the first place i started this blog, it was more of a hobby, a place to document all the place that i had eaten at. It wasn’t begin with being a “foodie” in mind.
That was the main reason for the lack of direction, organisation, and even the content of the posts. Then slowly more and more visitors started to come in, and that was then LIC realise more have to be done, if not it’ll be quite disgraceful to show the visitors the low standard of the writing and the food blog.
LIC took pain, blood, sweat and whatever you can think of, to improve his writing of the food, much more time was spent writing the reviews, from mere mins to a few hours now for writing a single review. Its not as easy as you think because you’ll have to think of what to write, how to describe the food, how to phrase the sentences, everything will be easy if you are good in language, and this unfortunately is where LIC isn’t that strong in.
Following the improvement in the style of writing the food reviews (not that the current reviews are all very well-written), you must know people will get bored and won’t read the long paragraphs of writing (that is only human nature), and to attract readers’ attention, nice photos are needed, this is like what they say after all, pictures tell a thousand words. So LIC learn the better uses of his Canon Ixus, the different angles to take nicer photos (not that the current photos are very good, but slightly nicer than last time)
A shareholder is someone who has some involvement, or stake in, i shall hereby coined the term sharereaders for all the readers at LIC, for all that i’ve written are all shared with you. Thank you all for supporting my blog, be it positive or negative, you’re always welcome at LIC.
ladyironchef.wordpress.com has 47,906 total visitors as of today 6 April, even thought 47k is not a lot (given that some websites have tens of thousands a day), but i’m really satisified with the result. In addition, the first few months of the start of LIC there wasn’t much visitors, the numbers really pick up towards the last few months.
This marks the First Anniversary of LIC, and i hope to share with all my sharereaders many many more years of gastronomic food escapade. And with that, LIC is proud to present you with ladyironchef.com! LIC is moving to my own domain and hosting so as to provide my sharereaders with better, and more enriching food reviews. Please relink me, re-bookmark me, re-remember my website, there’ll be no ladyironchef.wordpress.com from now on it will all be ladyironchef.com !!
Well, this speech can go on and on because LIC really has a lot of thoughts to share with everybody, but i know it is tedious to read each and every word, and most people might not have even read until this part, so i shall end this post here and now. With this, i shall mark the last post on ladyironchef.wordpress.com and begin a whole new chapter at ladyironchef.com
I’ll also like to apologise for the seemingly lack of posts on LIC, no LIC has not stop eating, in fact LIC is eating faster than he blogs, thus the slow pace of the release of new posts. Be sure to check the up & coming posts like Absolute Haven, Rio Brazilian Restaurant, MINT, Social Media Breakfast, Relish, Melvados and many more …
You are always welcome at ladyironchef.com. Whatever written herein are my geniune feelings about my food adventure, expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias.
Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. You can always click on the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments or drop me a email at bradleyfk@gmail.com, may it be positive or negative : )
Filed under: ladyiron | 11 Comments
Hotpot
Hotpot Culture at Marina Square is a steamboat restaurant (just in case you can’t tell from the name). Although its a steamboat restaurant, there are many variety of cooked food to choose from the menu, in contrast, i thought the steamboat selection seems less when compared to the cooked food variety.
The food for the steamboat wasn’t that great, and the usual suspects for steamboat are there. While for the cook food selection, order your picks with the staff, and they will serve it to you warmly cooked. Everybody gets a mini-pot for their steamboat, and we hit a problem here. The thing that they used for the fire for the hot, when it is lit-up, it created a funny sensation in the eye, which i’ll say isn’t pleasant at all.
Yebber’s gathering at Hotpot was during the last day of Chinese New Year, which was like two months ago? I’m very sorry for this very late post, didn’t have the time to blog, and i’m eating way faster than the rate i’m blogging. Thus the delay, anyway i finally make time for this post because i wanna get it up before i make my next post on Yebber’s 1st Anniversary Party @ Mint Museum. Do watch out for that next post!
I didn’t have much photos to show, mainly because i was hoping to get some photos from the rest using their powerful DSLR, but in the end i decided to take some quick shots, and didn’t really get much nice shots.
Fried Garlic Chicken
I like this one! It taste quite like “rojak”, except it got chicken instead of “you tiao”!
Sweet Sour Fish
The Sweet Sour Fish here is not bad too. Being a huge fan of sweet sour food, think sweet sour pork, fish, chicken, i’m always on a lookout for good sweet sour food.
Chili Squid
The Chili Squid is really spicy! Hot hot hot!
Yu Sheng
At the end, we had Yu Sheng, it was fun having yu sheng with the yebbers!
One person at Hotpot Culture cost $19.80 (i think), with one person having mini-pot which entitles unlimited serving on the steamboat and cook food selection. And oh ya, they also have free-flow ice cream, and guess what? Chocolate Fondue!! Yeah, thats quite generous right? We had fruits to go along with the fondue, sweet! But one thing i didn’t like was one person can only have one free-drink, and after that you need to pay $2 for free-flow of drinks.
I’m not sure whether i’ll be back at Hotpot Culture again, partly because i’m not really a steamboat person, and also i’ll like to try more of other place. So your call, if you think they are worth a try, you can always find them at;
Hotpot Culture
Marina Square #02-138D Centre Stage
Tel: 6333 9844
” Hotpot, one pot many cultures “
Filed under: # Blurbs, # Chinese, + Marina Square, - Steamboat | 6 Comments
LIC Monthly Gathering I
Chapter 1
My Prologue for Ladyironchef (LIC) has been getting quite good response, so let the first of many chapters in LIC monthly gathering begin! It is quite a task organising a gathering because of various reasons.
The budget. Everybody have different budget, so its not easy to choose a place which everyone is comfortable to, so i thought since its the first time, i’ll choose a place which is not very high in budget, should be comfortable for most people
The Time. Everybody also have different time that they are available, so its not easy finding a common time slot to satisfy everyone.
The Location. The place can’t be too ‘ulu’ otherwise people who are staying out of the way will have difficulty going right?
The Food. This should be the main focus since we’re having a food gathering after all, if LIC introduce a lousy place, everyone will be blasting me from left right centre, or asking for refunds!
Having said all that, the place LIC has chosen is Wild Rocket’s Relish, a gourmet burger restaurant.
Date is tentatively set on 6 April. If too many people cannot make it, then we’ll see how and shift it around, but it should remains on a Sunday lunch. And just in case you don’t know, King’s Arcade is just beside Coronation Plaza (see map). The bus services there are 171, 67, 852, 961, 66, 74, 151, 154, 156, 157, 170, 174.
Wild Rocket’s Relish
504 Bukit Timah Road
#02-01 Cluny Court
Date: 6 April, 2008 (Sunday)
Time: 12 noon
Please let me know asap because i’ll need to confirm the number of people attending, and do the necessary organising stuff. Send me your mobile number to bradleyfk@gmail.com, everybody is welcome to join!
See you there!
Filed under: ladyiron | 12 Comments
Fortunate Yum Cha Restaurant
Fortunate Xin Fu Yum Cha Restaurant should be quite a familar name with most people, largely due to their heavily advertisements on TV. The other being Yum Cha restaurant which also did a lot of TV advertisements. Their main branch is located at Toa Payoh, with a second added at Intenational Building, Orchard Road (beside Lido Scotts) which i say makes it easier for patrons to visit them because of the accessible location.
Anyway, Fortunate Yum Cha is currently having a promotion, 50% off Dim Sum during weekdays 3-5pm, and i must admit that’s the main reason which draws me to the place.
The restaurant is old-school traditional restaurant, with the decors your typical chinese restaurant style. When my buddy and I arrived at 245pm, we went into the place and browse through the menu until 3pm for the promotion to start.
We asked politely whether we can used the powerpoint for our laptop, but we were told they’ll charged us a fee of $5 per hour for the usage. This rather turn us off as we needed the laptop for some discussions, and we even contemplate leaving to find another place which allow us the use of powerpoint. But we decided to stay, have some dim-sum and get off.
Well, thats the main issue, if they had allowed us to use the powerpoint, I believe we’ll have stay longer and order more Dim Sum, but due to the fact that we aren’t allow to use, we order just about 7 Dim Sum between the two of us.
Another issue which we encountered was that the staff told us that the Dim Sum promotion from 3-5pm will be only 30% instead of 50% which we saw on the newspaper, because the 50% is for Dim Sum during 8-10am. We accepted it without much questioning because there was still 30% discount anyway.
But shortly after that, when the assistant manager passed by, I inquire her on the promotion and she told me it was 50% during 3-5pm also. Well, speak of double standards.
Oh ya, and as the place wasn’t really crowded, they didn’t have their usual staff pushing the trolley around to offer Dim Sum. Instead, we ordered the dim sum, and they bring it to our table.
Siew Mai ($4)
Like i said before during my visit to Red Star previously, I always felt the true test for a dim sum restaurant will be its Siew Mai, and the ones here are good! The prawn in the siew mai is big, real big!
Prawn Dumplings ($4)
The Prawn Dumplings or more commonly known as Har-Gau, is also excellent. The skin of the Har-Gau isn’t too sticky like some of the one available elsewhere, one bite into the prawn dumpling, and you will get the result below!
A big prawn inside the skin of the Har-Gau. Simply goodness!
Fried Carrot Cake ($3.80)
The waitress came up with a stove and fried the carrot cake right in front of us. I suppose its not bad, at the orginal price of $3.80 i probably won’t take it again. But having 50% discount, i guess $1.90 isn’t that expensive considering we had 4 pieces of carrot cake.
Char Siew Chee Chong Fun ($3.50)
Chee Chong Fun is always one Dim Sum which i’ll always order when I go to dim sum restaurant. No exceptions here, the chee chong fun is like your usual chinese restaurant one.
BBQ Pork Bun ($2.50)
There is no problem with the char siew bun, the bun is good, but the only thing is if i’m not wrong, usually char siew buns come in 3 instead of 2? I got a feeling that because there was two of us so they served two buns instead of three? Maybe this is how Fortunate serve their char siew bun, can someone enlighten me on this?
Pork Ribs ($3.80)
The pork ribs were not to my liking. N’uff said!
Century Egg Congee ($3)
Usually i don’t really facny century egg congee, but since my buddy wanted some, so we order this to share. And to my surprise, the congee was not bad! But again, $3 for a bowl of congee is probably too high a price for me to order again, unless there’s a promotion again of course.
Mango Pudding ($5)
The mango pudding was really ordinary like all normal mango pudding, and at $5 you can call me a miser, but I won’t pay the money for it. Simply its not worth the five bucks
Total Bill was $21.10 for 2 person, 7 dim sum, 1 dessert, chinese tea. The total price before the 50% discount was $30. I must say the dim sum at Fortunate Yum Cha is quite average, i’ll still prefer Red Star over Fortunate, but given there’s a 50% discount again, i won’t mind going back to Fortunate for some dim sum.
Service-wise you shouldn’t really be expecting any, and go during weekdays where there’s 50% discount. But then nowadays many other restaurants are offering 50% discount on their dim sum, such as Ah Yit abalone restaurant, and Tung Lok Seafood.
Fortunate Yum Cha Restaurant
360 Orchard Road
#02-01 International Building
” I love dim sum, dim sum love me “
Filed under: # Blurbs, # Chinese, + Orchard, - Dim Sum | 12 Comments
Seasons Reasons
With Seasons Reasons, the reasons is every seasons! With a passion for a different dining experience, Seasons Reasons is designed based on a quest of the 4 seasons – Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring.
Well, I am back at Raffles City again, just after two weeks since last visiting OChaCha, but then i can’t help it, nowadays there are simply too much to eat at Raffles City! So don’t be surprise if there are more new posts coming up.
Seasons Reasons is a small restaurant among the many new restaurants at Raffles City basement, but it stood out for its simple and comfortable setting. The menu is simple, with the usual starters, salad, soup, sandwiches, and main course. No doubt there are not much variety under each category, but i’ll say its more than enough for the average diners.
Appetizers start at $8.50 for their “hot pick” Golden potato prawn, to $13.80 for their seafood combo. Prices for the main course are pretty reasonable too, ranging from $11 to $20. But they are quite short on their spaghetti selections though, only two types are available. And i lamented the fact that they didn’t have much desserts to choose from.
Like mentioned above, the settings for the restaurant is simple and elegant, and there are also the cozy corner seats for diners who will like to enjoy some privacy.
My buddy and I didn’t have much trouble choosing what we want for lunch, after going through the simple menu once, we decided on Fish & chips, and lamb chop. We didn’t have any starters or soup as it was a simple lunch for us.
Fish & Chips ($14.80)
Cod fish tempura and wedges served with lemongrass chili. To be honest, my first impression of the dish, it looks like just any other ordinary Fish & chips at other restaurants. But, my buddy commented that the fish was crispy on the outside, and where some other restaurants fish might get too dry, the one here is just nice. The interior of the fish was soft and not too dry.
Another point to note will be most places served their fish & chips with just tartar sauce, but Seasons Reasons had the tartar sauce, and also lemongrass chili which i find rather special.
Lamb Chop ($19.80)
Baby rack of lamb char-grilled to medium well served with a glazed of honey mustard and fork mashed potato. The lamb chop at $19.80, is the most expensive dish served on the menu. And it did not disappoint, with a generous serving of 4 lamb racks, i believe it will fill most people.
The honey mustard sauce adds flavour to the grilled lamb chop, the meat is slightly tough, you’ll need some effort in biting and chewing the meat. But i do find the price of the lamb chop slightly steep, and most probably won’t order it again.
Total Bill was $40.72 for 2 person, not really expensive given we are dining in a restaurant. If you are looking for a simple dining place while you are at Raffles City, look no further than Seasons Reasons. The restaurant do put in effort in the food presentation, no doubt taste is the vital factor, but one tastebud will definitely open up if the food is presented nicely.
With so many restaurants at Raffles City, i don’t think i will be visiting again any sooner, unless they got new menu or promotions. I won’t say the food is excellent, but i’ll say its worth a try if you haven’t been there before.
Seasons Reasons
252 North Bridge Road
Raffles City Shopping Centre #B1-72
Tel: 6100 0122
” For everything, there is a Reason “
Filed under: # Blurbs, # Western, + City Hall, - Fish, - Lamb Chop | 7 Comments
Bread Pig 