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The verdict. With better chicken, better mashed potatoes, better biscuits and better sides, Popeye’s wins KFC hands down! Well yes, I did raved about KFC’s bigger, juicier and much more tender chicken pieces across the causeway previously. But to tell you the truth, if there were more Popeye’s outlets on the island, I won’t be caught in any KFC diner.

There you go. Popeye’s super amazing buttermilk biscuits and crispy chicken!

We ordered 2 sets of the Turf ‘N’ surf Couple Meal. That’s the promo going on now at $18.80 for 4 chicken, 2 buttermilk biscuits, 6 popcorn shrimp, 1 regular mashed potato, 1 regular corn and 2 regular sjora juice. You can have the choice of New Orleans Spicy or Louisiana Mild for the chicken flavors but the staff don’t really care. You should let them know and not wait for them to ask. Yes the service is awful. Will come to that shortly.

I was quite happy to know that they did not ran out of biscuit this time! Months ago when I visited the Changi T3 branch, they ran out of this soft, crumbly and buttery biscuit! Yeah it’s so weird that they can ran out of such signature stuff. Oh well. We were given raspberry jam to go with it but I think it is best eaten warm with some maple syrup! What you think? Ah and the chicken! I loooove Popeye’s chicken because it is so crispy yet not too dry. The skin is much better, fresher, and it seems like it used better spices than KFC’s!

Erm did you asked if there are any cons about Popeye’s chicken? Well unfortunately yes. The birdies were miserly pieces of lean chicken. 8 pieces of chicken and 4 biscuits were in that box! I do think that 8 pieces of KFC’s chicken would not have fitted into that box.

If you are not a fan of Popeyes light-weight crispy chicken, I shall assure that you’ll fall in love with the mashed potatoes. Popeyes mashed potatoes have the richest gravy with small chicken bits in it! The gravy is so full of punch and blended extremely well with the smooth mashed potatoes.

Stank said that 7-11 BBQ flavoured mashed potatoes’ (only available in certain outlets) could help satisfy cravings for Popeyes mashed potatoes because the gravy tasted somewhat similar. I shall verify that.

I shall briefly introduce the other side dishes we had that evening.

Hello, popcorn shrimp. You looked ravishing but we are sorry that we found nothing spectacular about you. In fact, you were a tad too dry and tasteless.

Hello, Cajun Fries. Though we loved you and anticipated your coming, we grieved at the first bite because the evil counter/kitchen staff served you cold.

Hello, Sjora juice. You were included in the couple set. I had one of your kind at Yoshinoya recently and frankly, I hated him. Your mango cousin was too thick. But surprisingly, your pineapple-ish and mango-peachy flavours were pretty ok this time round. Touted as a healthier and all-natural alternative to soda, I’m proud of you and thought that you did went well with biscuits. Alas, you do not mix well with the fried chicken.

I shall stick with Coke.

So now you know. Popeyes is just great for its chicken and mashed potatoes. The cajun fried would had been as good as Long John Silver’s if it was not served cold.

By the way, if you were to take MRT to City Hall and walked from there to Popeyes at Flyer, it’s really a hassle. The location is pretty out of the way. And honestly, I have no idea why the service at Popeye’s is freaking bad! We had the same crappy experience with the service staff at Flyer and Changi! I actually had to clean my own table because the cleaner was no where to be seen and there wasn’t any vacant table in sight so yeah. It’s either that they are horrendously understaffed which probably explains their unfriendly dead-pan face over the counter, or HR sucked at hiring/training.

Sigh. On account of the to-die-for chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits, Popeyes shall remained one of my favorite fast food. But I really hope the management there could get their act together. Hello? Are you listening?

On the other hand, though KFC chicken sucks in comparison to Popeye’s, I gotta give the Colonel Harland Sanders credit for the commendable service staff, decent popcorn chicken, am porridge, egg tarts! and coleslaw. Actually, for the coleslaw, my compliment only applies to the JB KFCs. SG KFCs serve soggy, pathetic coleslaws! Bluek.

Ok I’m done complaining.

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Oh there’s this fried chicken place that is not a franchise outlet. Arnold’s Fried Chicken. Have yet to visit and try the fried birdies there. Will do so soon!

I like Clarke Quay on off-peak days. This historical riverside quay is so much more pleasant without the crazy human traffic. So we took a stroll along the river on a weekend night after enjoying a Japanese dinner and guess what? We chanced upon blinking UFOs hovering and spinning over the open field beside Riverside Point! It’s so pretty!

They were hovering, spinning and doing somersaults in the pitch-black sky that was void of clouds that night.

Ok you got me. That’s not a UFO. It’s an electronic kite with colourful LED lights! Woah remote-controlled kites. How techie is that? Pretty much but the mood was quite romantic as these beautifully lit flying objects were dancing in the air with soulful music playing over the background.

Caught the show from a quiet spot on the field with him. We were hypnotised by the smooth gliding movement of the kite. Sweet. I really love Clarke Quay on weekdays!

OMG I realised that I love such cheap thrills! Then again in a sense, I think short-lived enjoyment or satisfaction is not so bad after all? This way, I can quickly move on to the next pleasure! Supper! Lots of sinful food housed in the five blocks of restored warehouses house vied for my attention. You get what I mean. I better run more rounds this week.

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I visited Sakae Teppanyaki one evening when I felt like having some time alone. I wasn’t feeling sad or anything. It was just one of those moments where I just want to enjoy a meal with no one else but my thoughts.

And so, I was very pleased to let my mind roam freely while I stared blankly at the chef cooking my food before my eyes. He’s a shy chap. Hope I did not frightened him. I was ogling at the food. Not him.

I was lucky. It was dinner time but I was the only one at the counter! Usually it would be so crowded. Surprisingly, it wasn’t awkward at all as I sat alone at the teppan counter. Instead, it felt like I had a personal chef that evening, showering me with dishes of freshly stir-fried food. The setting at the counter was perfect for anyone who wanted to indulge in a casual dinner. As I was enjoying my teppan meal, there was a long queue for Sakae sushi booth seats.

I hate queues.

Advice: jump the queue by requesting to sit at the teppan corner. Then, on top of a teppan meal, simply order sushi as side dishes to satisfy your strong sushi cravings.

Sakae Teppanyaki set meals are pretty decent. At a reasonable price of $19.99 I had the beef dinner set that came with salad, seafood teppan chawanmushi, salmon, garlic rice and Miso soup. I couldn’t finish everything. The portions were generous for 1 pax.

I enjoyed the garlic-ky rice and loved the even more garlic-ky teppan beef covered with delectable teriyaki sauce. However, the best dish was tied between the Seafood Teppan Chawanmushi and Mixed mushrooms.

The Chawanmushi was housed in the bowl-shaped onion. Very cute! Waited patiently as the egg steamed on the griddle. I simply couldn’t wait for it to be ready!! The moment my personal chef served the Chawanmushi, I immediately scooped the perfectly steamed egg out from the onion husk and crushed the tender chunks in my mouth. It was sweeter than usual because of the onion! OMG I’m such a garlic and onion lover!

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I could smell the mushrooms when it was still half-cooked and the hard-to-describe-peppery-sweet aroma was tantalising. Don’t you agree that mushrooms smell wonderful? I liked how spongy and flavoursome these mushrooms were. This is one dish where I don’t mind having more! Honestly, I rather have more mushrooms and do without the salmon.

Here’s the menu if you want to find more on Sakae Teppanyaki offerings. I shall try the lobster dinner set at my next visit! Probably with more fans of teppanyaki, they can start training chefs to do some entertaining stunts for us at the teppan counter. How about stacking onion slices to produce a flaming onion volcano or flexing some muscles performing wild spatula and knife stunts! It’ll be so cool!

Sakae Sushi
Lot 1 21 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4
#03-10 Lot 1 Shoppers’
Other outlets with Sakae Teppanyaki

Pizza Hut hosted a tasting for Ladyironchef and his ardent readers! And I was one of them. Thanks Pizza Hut. Thanks Brad. You’re the best! Hehe. I did an interview with him 2 weeks ago and his blog got me drooling all over the fantastic pictures of food, food, glorious food! Love his recent post on Prive Bakery Cafe. Will pop by this weekend if possible.

Ok so Pizza Hut?  Here’s the reason why I was there that evening.

I was there to taste the Soft Shell Crabbiatta. Does it looked crabby to you?

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They named this dish the Soft Shell Crabbiatta because it is a combination of crab with Arabbiatta sauce! Basically, Arrabbiata sauce is a light marinara that is has an extra spicy flavor simply by adding hot peppers to the sauce. Pizza Hut’s latest offering has a piquant taste and is pretty delightful on my taste buds. I enjoyed the soft shell crab with the earthier, smoky sauce. No doubt that the Crabbiatta sauce is tangy and luscious but the pasta kinda lacked texture and was a little too soft. Nevertheless, it’s a quirky twist to how pasta should taste like. Just imagine Singapore chili crab cooked in the Italian way.

Not sure if Pizza Hut Malaysia has this dish but Singapore branches are serving this until 30 April only. It cost $16.90 for a Soft Shell Crabbiatta with a soup of a day and a choice of cooler drinks. I like set meals. It saves me the trouble of making choices. Heh.

Tried Pizza Hut’s zesty fruit delight. Green Harmony ($4.50) was a mix of green apple and passion fruit. Had to take teeny-weeny bites at the mint leaf so my drink can be flavoursome. Felt a little sorry for the mint leaf because most people just ignored them. They were either left swirling around the glass while we stir, looking for bits of Aloe vera or they sank right to the bottom of the glass, forgotten of the role they should play in accentuating the flavour of the drink.

Next, Baked Beef Balls ($5.80)!!! I actually think this tasted on par with IKEA’s meatballs, minus the scrumptious brown sauce and lingonberry jam. Liked that the beef balls were beefy enough. Certainly didn’t felt like I was biting into chucks of flour.

The dish that shone that evening was the Chicken Riblets $5.80. Do not be deceived by it’s uncouth look. Yeah it looked macho and chunky but I was impressed. It was as if I never knew chicken had ribs before this.

Honestly, these whole muscle pieces took me by  surprise at the first bite. Didn’t expect it to be that tasty. It was amazing that the flesh beneath that crispy outer layer was moist, tender and succulent. Had no idea what magical concoction they used to marinate these ribs but it certainly worked on me. Would make a point to order this in all my future visits to Pizza Hut!

Shared the Beef Lasagna ($9.20) with Calvin because I just can’t resist juicy ground beef layered between sheets of thin dough. Its gets even harder when it is baked to perfection with a thick layer mozzarella cheese. As expected, the taste was decent enough.

I used to fix my lasagna cravings at Pizza Hut back in secondary school days. So yeah. I enjoyed reminiscing the familiarity of this dish.

Well of course, a visit to Pizza Hut is never complete without a slice of piping hot pizza.

On a sightly related topic, it came to me that if I ever was to be a pasta, I would like to be a penne. Yeah that cylinder-shaped pasta. It has a very practical design. How the hollow center allows it to hold some sauce and the angular ends makes it easier to scoop? I also like the ridges which gives it a chewy ruffles-like texture.

The point is, I need to be more practical. Like a penne.

(:

Thanks to Carlyn, I was invited to the exclusive launch party of the first Restaurant Week in Asia/Singapore at The Tower Club! Ah Jacelyn my lady, has fast fingers! She booked a romantic dinner at Il Lido right after she caught me micro-blogging during the event.

Organised by DiningCity.com Singapore, Restaurant Week is actually a highly successful event, a culinary event in countries such as The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and USA. Thus, the launch of Restaurant Week in Singapore instead of anywhere else in Asia sorta amplifies and establishes Singapore’s position as the food capital of Asia. Gotta give credit to this tiny island for beating Shanghai for winning this launch.

After the event, I am officially a fan of Veuve Clicquot! It was lively, delicate yet powerful. Moet & Chandon, Cape Mentelle and Terrazas was also served to my pleasure.

Photo credit to Glenn!

Not to mention those exquisite canapés I sampled from four of the participating restaurants: Julien BOMPARD, Garibaldi Italian Restaurant & Bar, The Song of India and Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant. The event was tastefully done.

This one-week culinary event is a darling for lucky peeps who managed to book limited seats! They can enjoy a special three-course meal at affordable fixed prices of S$35++ for a three-course dinner and S$25++ for a three-course lunch during the Singapore Restaurant Week from 22 to 28 March 2010. Just the perfect opportunity to taste a varied range of unique dining experiences at a wide selection of choice restaurants.

That’s the guys from Tatsuya. Oh when you book your reservations, do check if the particular restaurant is a DiningCity Star Awarded restaurant. If yes, you may be charged a fixed supplement of S$15 for lunch and S$20 for dinner. Also check the menu to see if you like the offerings.

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Bookings can ONLY be made online via www.restaurantweek.sg. You gotta hurry if you are interested because the last time I checked, empty tables are fast filling up. There are in total 58 participating restaurants. Unfortunately, Julien BOMPARD and Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant have NO MORE SEATS! 18,000 seats gone so fast! It’s just been a day! Must be those American Express Cardmembers. Yup American Express actually offers early booking privileges to their Cardmembers! Jealous.

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Not that I’m going to sign up for an American Express card anytime soon. So next year, I shall set my alarm clocks to be the first to reserve some Restaurant Week tables!

*Pete was resting at home so I had to grab pictures from Kyle. Thanks Kyle!*