Great family fun!! - with Jackie's family

So thankful to my BFF -- Jackie --for having Yinghong & BC for a one night sleep-over at her place. Joined them the next day and we did bowling in Kallang leisure park, followed by lunch at her place -- healthy and refreshing vietnamese rolls --, blockus game , napping, and the 2 mothers sneaked out to Marine Parade central to get herbal tea, and had some soft ice with mangoes (yummy). And while the fathers brought kids to rollerblade in ECP, we prepared dinner (I only helped with some easy stuff like mashing potatoes.. hee) -- Roasted Lamb, chicken legs, vegetables, mashed potatoes.. yummy! Ended the great evening with a round of charade games where the kids took turn to pretend to be animals, movie characters for adults to guess. Sooo much fun!

Food thoughts...

Want to share some of my recent food adventures (some, not so recent but had no time to write about) : The goods and the bads. It was yesterday's dinner at a new dim-sum restaurant in Neil Road with the funny gang (cookie,Ali,Clee) that made me want to warn all the innocent folks out there NEVER to go to this place, unless you want to throw money away and get very disappointed.. and puzzled (is this dim sum?) ... ok the list from rank of 1 (lowest of all = DON'T GO!) to 10 (Must try at least once)
1 : DONT GO - "Dim Joy" along Neil Rd - waste of time. Only gullible tourists who happened to walk past and think the conservation house building looks pretty will drop in to surprise themselves with the tiniest servings of dim sum they will ever find. True blue hongkonger comment from cookie (Linda) : "Wah!!!!! never seen dumplings so small!!! Claypot rice has no black soy sauce taste?!" (funny thing is , we asked for a dish of black soy sauce to add, when it came, each of us tasted and were so shocked--Tasteless!) ---- sorry Ali, I know you are about to start your "Alidontgo.com" domain, but you are so slow and I am just so impatient I have to write about this super-CMI restaurant lah... shocking!

2: GO IF NOWHERE ELSE TO GO - "Max Sandwich Grill & Creamery" - B1 in "Tampines1" - talk about value, this one definitely rank at low end. Just a open cafe with a counter and some seats scattered around the atrium of B1, serves focaccia sandwiches, but so flat lor!!! Can hardly see or taste any fillings in the sandwich. The scrambled eggs and cheese one I ordered is slightly bigger than my blackberry, and so flat I think there was only 1 tablespoon full of scrambled egg in it... Price? $6+ . Coffee is half the size of a small one from starbucks but charged close to 5 bucks. Feel ripped-off. Don't know why they think they can charge a premium, when there is totally no ambience or service to talk about...

6 : ENJOYABLE - "TeaDot" in "Tampines 1" level 3 - nice cafe with cute seats and ambience.. definitely worth spending time here over a nice cuppa..only downside is the staff are slow at clearing the tables.

8: GOOD FOOD WITH CLASS - "ShinYeh" restaurant in Liang Court - Traditional Taiwanese cuisine with fresh ingredients, an extensive and exciting menu, a classy decor, good service, plus a nice view of Clarke Quay. Go for a quiet weekend lunch with familly... lovely.

9 : MUST TRY - "Vansh" at Indoor stadium promenade - good quality Indian food in a posh setting with hip Bollywood music, and very professional waiting staff. Entrance of restaurant looks intimidating, but once stepped in you feel welcome. Not sure about price though..((didn't pay.. heee). See the picture of the papadum rolled like a cigar..