Chatterbox at Meritus Mandarin

after hearing much about legendary chicken rice at chatterbox from my sister, I finally got to try out the dish, along with my sis at Meritus Mandarin over wed evening... her main motivation to go was to catch the exquisite night scenery at the top of the hotel as well as to see if it is still the revolving 'top of the M' while I mainly wanted to check out if the food is as good as its price...

there are some renovations outside the hotel itself, so in order to get to the entrance, we need to further in from last time..and i would say that there has been quite a big change to the appearance of the hotel. It is smaller but brighter and cleaner than the last time i went there, during company DND abt 4 yrs ago...

Meanwhile, we had to take two different lifts in order to reach 39th floor. (and there are actually staffs stationed at lift lobbies just to direct customers to correct lifts..) In order to reach 39th flr, we need to take a short flight of stairs up. The scene at 38 lounge was very lovely though humid... In contrast, 39th was cooler but has a rather over-exaggerated red veneer dining atmosphere. As a result, all the photos we took w/o flash was practically tinted with a shade of red lighting.

This was the first time I try the food so I couldnt really comment if there is any difference.. but my sis commented that the portion of rice was much bigger... true enuff, the bowl is so big i think two person could share one portion.

However, there was generous serving of chicken meat (can choose between chicken drumstick or chicken breast meat) and although the meat is cold, it is tender and rather juicy. The rice itself is moist and fragrant and FILLING... in order not to waste $, we finished the whole bowl of rice. Burp*!

Aside from the meat, there are also cherry tomatoes as accompaniments apart fr the usual cucumbers. The soup is also quite nice, with atypical vegetables(which I think is lettuce shreds) and small piece of toufu. Did i forget to mention that their chicken rice chilli sauce is really hot and spicy..wooh! almost make me cough...

In all, the dining experience was good and the food is quite up to standard. However, this is mainly becos we had a one-for-one dining offer. Suppose we have to pay full price, then we would have hesitated. One suggestion though, the management ought to do something to the ambience, there seem to be a misconception of red lightings=oriental setting.

By e way, heard that the original chef was retrenched years ago and had since started his own shop "Mr Chicken Rice" at E!Hub, Downtown East. There were good and bad reviews abt it.. so next time i shall go try it out myself....

by e way, found this christmas tree made up of cute little teddies at taka, and they are soo lovely i feel like grabbing them home...

Wake me up when the Semester ends

gosh. finally the hectic weeks are over soon. Two more reports to be handed in, plus 1 exam and this smu study journey will end. How nice. Hope I wont change this opinion half a yr later from now. Not that I dislike my sch, it is just that 3.5 years at smu is ... enough. We once discussed that if we are to restart this whole journey again, hw would we react? Erm. the answer we gathered was that, we didnt even dare think about it.

But of cos there are still the plus sides of being a student, like getting student discounts, having concessions, and of cos, lamenting and complaining to our working friends how poor we students are..haa (note: the last pt might not be really accurate cos u might be amazed to find out how the pocket money of some students might be higher than an avg worker, sigh...).

anw, setting aside these grumbling... we girls took some time to have lunch outside sch... and we went to a 'cha chan teng', Chinese tea house at raffles city- Streets Cafe. Seems like we have some obsession with chinese food and dim sum, esp since we just went rivercity restaurant for its lunch buffet a week ago. But, seriously I dun mind cos dim sum and chinese food are actually my all time fav...cos they are yummy!

Honey Butter French Toast (Trust me, it is really scrumptious but beware,

u better get another person to share this (fat). Got my hint?)

Honey Butter Thick Toast (didnt try this, but lixian requested for more

honey to go with it. so guess it is def more plain than the butter toast)

Cafe Club sandwich. Ooh... I am gg hungry just by looking at it now..

sh*t. no wonder i put on weight recently.

Eat All You Can Lunch Buffet at River City Restaurant

Have you guys been to River City Restaurant at Excelsior Hotel for their Dian Xin, a-la-carte lunch buffet ? I just did over last Friday, together with my promo mgmt team mates. A pity joyce couldnt join us there...

This was my second time eating at the restaurant being the first time during Chinese New Year early this year where I went there for "Lou Hei" with my ex-colleague buddies. During that visit, I ate till I was so full that I had difficultly walking.haa.. so this time round, I was careful in choosing the dishes.

But since this is a buffet, it means that you can order any amount of a-la-carte food between 11am to 2pm. You get to choose dishes mainly from a list of steamed items, lots of Chinese deep fried food, and some desserts...

and my recommendations are:

In the photo below: 蚝皇叉烧包 Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (Top Left),
上汤小笼包 Steamed dumplings with superior soup (Bottom Right Corner)

Photo below: 芝麻叉烧酥 Baked Sesame BBQ Pork Pies (Top Left, 2 plates of 3s combined),香煎萝卜糕 Grilled Carrot Cakes (2 plates of 2pcs),

湘城鲜虾饺 River City Steamed Shrimp Dumplings (4pcs)

三丝素卷 Deep Fried Vegetarian Spring Rolls (3 pcs)

Close Up of 芝麻叉烧酥 Baked Sesame BBQ Pork Pies, one of my favourite dishes

One of the must tries:

香脆炸鸡翅 Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Wings

The price is at $12.90++ per person for adults and half price for children, on weekdays but plus the small plate of peanuts and such, the bill is about $17 per person... Not very cheap actually...in all, the food are quite nice, and I would give it a rating of 3.5 out of 5...

Can I ask for 36 hrs in a day...

How I wish there are 36 hours in a day. of which i will allocate 10 hrs for slp if possible.

There seems to be so many things to be done, and I am still figuring out why my final semester of just 4 modules seem to be as busy, if not, busier than previous sem.

A week ago, I had heard one of my schoolmate being so cheery in declaring that she will officially graduate in 4 weeks time. Then, it suddenly ring a bell to me tat yeah, I am saying goodbye to smu life at the same time too... mixed emotions again...

and yeah, wish me luck for the interviews....

.....

Looking fwd to tmw's dim sum lunch! ... now at least there is something for me to be cheery about now. =p