Chateau Les Agates Bordeaux 2005

Château Les Agates Bordeaux Contrôlée 2005, 750ml ($21)

Another Gold medal bottle from Macon - Competition of wines of France. This rose wine made from Red Bordeaux blend was from the 2005 harvest and stood out in the 2007 event.

Mouth feel was immediately dry, but smoothed out after a few more sips as the palate got used to the squawking, thereafter it was easy to drink.

The bottle to mark a new chapter of my career as i embarked on a new phase.
Wish me well. Cheers!

Taipei Cafe, Bugis

Japanese Green Tea Snow Ice ($5.50)

Taipei Cafe, Bugis drew my attention with their many online deals they were collaborating with deal-of-the-day websites; and their offers were pretty low cost. So we went to check out the place with this $2.60 for an authentic Taipei night market XL snow ice deal before making any big plans with them.

It turned out well, and we like this place enough to return. The spacious cafe is comfortably cool and clean; HD music video playing on the large LCD TV with good sound speakers makes this a chic place to chill with friends.

While we have yet try out their cooked food, i presume it can't be far from acceptable - judging from our bowl of authentic Taipei snow ice.

手拉手, Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant

小笼汤包, Mini Steamed Bun, 5 nos ($4.80+)

Due to the influx of China men in Singapore, we are easily pampered by good and low priced Chinese dim sum. And this makes it doubley hard to justify the more expensive but similar dim sum from their Taiwanese counterparts.

Today, we are in Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant, Jalan Besar main branch for their Groupon offering of $12 for $25 deal. If you spot future offers from them, remember to buy, for their food is effortlessly good by our standards.

With the exception of their hand-pulled noodles; the broth is a comforting delight but has much MSG.

三鲜韭菜盒子，Chinese Chive Puff ($6.80+)

三鲜韭菜锅贴, Pan Fried Seafood Dumpling ($6.80+)

香辣加州牛肉汤拉面, Noodles with Braised Meat ($6.80+)

Burger King Mushroom Swiss XL

 Large Coke, at East Coast Park ($3.20)

Just for 1 day, Burger King gave out free XL sized mushroom Swiss burger with purchase of 1 large (32 oz.) Coke. And we had to be here; whether this a gimmick or not, cos we are fans of their Whopper and Mushroom Swiss. Still, it holds true that curiosity does kills the cat.

The 2 slices of Swiss cheese are awesome! But the flatten and dried out beef patty left much to be desired. It is an XL patty, in terms of diameter; with the smallness of their regular burger bun and this is probably the same amount of meat that should form a burger patty of decent thickness.

But the value of a $3 lunch with drinks? Not bad lah.

风味小厨, Changi Village

Changi Village, stall no. 01-83

We went round and round the bustling Changi Village Hawker Centre but could not decide on what to have; or rather, which is good to have - comfortable seating, good food and short waiting time does sounded like asking for too much on a Saturday night? But all is not lost.

This new cze char stall which Ric screened is located away from the block that houses the vitality of the many Nasi Lemak stalls and popular Chinese food. We thus have a sitting area that is airy and of lesser commotion. With a hawker who is kept confidently active by his steady stream of food orders; this seems close to what we were looking for.

Bean sauce Bittergourd with Angoli Fish head ($12), Oyster Omelette ($6)

It was the exact of what we had wished for; especially after we tasted their home-styled cooking.

The egg omelette is fluffy and oilless, swelling up with 6-7 plump oysters. Even when i started with just the bare omelette, it was easy to detect hints of oysters freshness. Ask for their belacan chili to go with this!

But the star of the ocean is their Angoli (红哥里) fish head; stir-fried in flavorsome bean sauce that was perfectly concocted - not too salty and not too bland, lest it become uninteresting.

An odorless and deliciously fresh fish head; the fish-eater (me) had to share her portion with the non-fish-eater (Ric). The dish is better than what we usually ordered from Guang Xing - the ever popular cooked food stall in this same hawker centre.

We really enjoyed the awesome fish head - fine meatiness and gooey goodness like a rich BBQ Stingray dish. It is lip-smacking! Home-cooking at its best; all done without Ajinomoto.

Dining out on weekends doesn't have to be like on ground zero :>

喜相逢, Xi Xiang Feng Yong Tou Fu

It is always exciting to watch queues outside of food stalls. If you are hungry at Blk 724, Ang Mo Kio Food Centre Ave. 6, jump right in front of this Yong Tou Hu stall, select your ingredients, pass it back to the stall owner before joining the queue for collection.

If you are troubled and have no peace, Jesus will give you peace - the sticker on their signboard say so. Amen!

 Yong Tou Fu Noodle, Soup ($6.60 for 2 bowls)

Yong Tou Fu Bee Hoon, Dry

The 30 mins of waiting in line begin to trouble us... before peace of satisfaction reign in after the frenzy of receiving these delicious looking bowls. It was eyes catching that the soup bowl came, lavished with loads of soft soy beans and giant anchovies! Drink up!

And we can't be more convinced now that the queue was not bogus; this stall does serve good fresh Yong Tou Fu ingredients (both the fried stuffs and those of the raw fish paste) with robust soup or tangy sweet sauce option. Try their special bee hoon that's firm and springy or the uncommonly suggested cheong fun.

I would really love to return for their Yong Tou Fu, with an extra of chee cheong fun!