Cliff(y) Goes Dining

It's a chocolate museum! I didn't know there exists a chocolate museum in Paris until I saw its pamphlet in the hostel I stayed. I was glad I could convince some friends to come with me to the museum. By paying an additional €3.00 ( ~S$5.25 ) to the entrance fee, you'll get a cup of hot chocolate drink at the end of the visit. The chocolate block was dunked into a cup of hot milk until it melted. Here's the interesting part... Have you ever tried the original Aztec recipe? Continue reading to find out!

Filling, satisfying bowl of salad! A friend of mine recommended Salad Stop! owing to the freshness of the ingredients used, as well as the variety of salad bowls they offer. When I was walking around in Suntec City Mall, I didn't expect to find one of the branches there. Even though I already promised to meet someone for dinner, dropping by wouldn't do any harm, right? Yeah, me and my big appetite...

Sweet temptation specially made in front of us! Today I'm going to write a special review about the sweet stuff I had during my visit to Institut Paul Bocuse, a school of hospitality and culinary arts. Paul Bocuse is a prominent chef based in Lyon, famous for his innovative approaches to cuisine. Oh, the school building looks like a castle!

Oyster omelette: hotplate style! In search for tasty oyster omelette around, my friend and I went all the way to Tampines to try the one offered by Warong Kim's Seafood which has been around since 1965. The Tampines branch has also obtained Halal certification.

Secret donut??? One free morning, my friends and I went to Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs (Museum of Fabrics and Decorative Arts). It was raining, and we happened to reach there a bit too early and thus had to wait for a while till it opened. Since we hadn't had breakfast, we dropped by Times Donuts to try some of their donuts and drink hot chocolate to warm ourselves up.

The only eatery selling martabak manis in Singapore? For those who're not familiar with martabak manis , it's actually an Indonesian version of 'pancake' (for the lack of a better word) which is usually thick and sinful due to the liberal use of butter (or margarine) and toppings such as sweet condensed milk, chocolate sprinkles, grated cheese, ground peanuts, etc. Does it sound mouth-watering enough? Continue reading to find out more!  Pika's advice 1: Those of you who're craving for martabak durian , you really have a reason to visit this eatery as soon as possible! I'll let you judge since I dislike the 'king of fruits'. XD

Unique ice cream and sorbet flavours! This restaurant is located on Bastille Hill, Grenoble. Although the sun was shining so brightly the other day, it was really worthwhile having lunch here while enjoying the beautiful scenery of the French Alps.

Thai buffet, not at its best though... UPDATE (11/02/2020):  The restaurant has closed down. I don't eat Thai food that often, but o n one rainy Wednesday, my friend and I patronised Suanthai. The restaurant offers a la carte  buffet with 20+ food items to choose from. Since I had a weekday lunch there, I shall put down the price here.  Adult   S$16.90 Child   S$12.00

Heavenly curry and  crème brûlée ! One clear day, armed with our cameras, my friends and I spent hours walking around in a huge park located not very far away from our hostel in Lyon. The scenery was really awesome that we forgot it was almost 9.00pm. Desperately looking for a place to eat dinner, we finally decided, after another round of long walk from the park, to try this bar-cum-restaurant in Concorde Hotel.

Carrot cake 'omelette'! We're still on Bukit Timah Food Centre. I just found out that He Zhong Carrot Cake has been around for more than 30 years. Anyway, for those who're not familiar with the Chinese carrot cake, note that 'carrot' here doesn't refer to the orange root vegetable, but instead it refers to radish which is loosely translated as 'white carrot' from Chinese. This carrot cake is made of rice flour and shredded turnips.

My first time eating bee hoon drenched in peanut sauce! I can't exactly remember why I had to go to Upper Bukit Timah the other day. When I went to the hawker centre for lunch, I saw quite a long queue which definitely stood out from the rest. To my delight, I finally found a stall serving satay bee hoon  (lit. rice vermicelli). I'd been wanting to try it out earlier, but I rarely had the chance to go to a hawker centre for a meal.

Cheap macarons indeed... Getting bored while waiting for our turn to get into the Catacombes-de-Paris (Catacombs of Paris), two of my friends decided to get out of the queue for a while to get us some macarons from the McCafé nearby. Actually, we'd already been thinking about trying them much earlier haha...

Responsible cocktails, a.k.a. mocktails! I really want to finish all the entries on my France trip the other day, but I guess we need more entries on Singapore eateries as well this month, so I think I'll do them alternately. Anyway, tucked in an enclave of eateries in the popular Bugis vicinity, Ignite Music Café is a H alal café offering a wide range of what they name the 'responsible cocktails', or what we commonly know as mocktails.

It's not in Rome; it's in Paris! Situated in the middle of the prestigious avenue of Champs-Élysées, Café di Roma has a huge signboard. Because of that, in addition to the fact that there were many diners inside, my friends and I couldn't help but be attracted like a magnet. Luckily we didn't have to wait for a long time to get a table.

Multi-cultural Asian cuisine under one roof! Ayza's Restaurant looks more like a kopitiam  (Singlish terms which meaning is close to 'food court' in this case) than a restaurant with a few stalls offering Malay cuisine, Indian food, grilled items, etc. You can just mix and match your food by ordering from the different stalls, and then pay everything later at the end of the meal. Pika's advice:  Do ask them for the menu booklet so that you can choose easier rather than looking at the pictures of the food at the different stalls.

Dreaming of another bite of raspberry chocolate cake :P This entry features another quick meal that I had in Marseille. However, while most of my friends ordered sandwiches, I tried to diverge from the majority and instead ordered the two following items for lunch.

Yummylicious garlic mussels! Alright, it's time to review a proper meal I had in Marseille. There are simply too many eateries in Vieux Port, and that day we were quite confused which restaurant should we go to. In the end we chose Chez Laura, and one of the reasons was that the waitress outside could actually respond to us in English haha... Anyway, the restaurant offers a value-for-money  Set Meal  priced at  €15.00 ( ~S$26.30 ) which includes appetiser, main course and dessert. Hmm, since all of us ordered different dishes, I'll just select a few and write about them here.

Pesterella = Pesto + Mozzarella! UPDATE (15/05/2018):  The eatery has closed down. Have you ever heard of this al fresco eatery located at The Foundry, Mohamed Sultan Road? I couldn't exactly remember what I had to do the other day, but I happened to walk past The Better Burger (or TBB in short), and so I thought I should give it a try. I'm not that a huge fan of burgers, but my sister is! Let's see what's her response when she sees this entry. :P

Fill your stomach with salami sandwich! Okay, please bear with me as I try to settle all the quick bites I had during the trip last June. The other day I followed some of my friends to the Eiffel Tower as they were assigned to check whether it would be possible to buy tickets in advance for others (apparently not, LOL!). Along the way, between the Bir-Hakeim métro station and the Eiffel Tower, we found this snack car. Since we were quite hungry, we decided to grab a sandwich each, as usual...

Fries inside your sandwich =O Back to quick meal :P Since I only had a few hours to spend in Frioul Island, which is located approximately 4 km from Marseille, I had no choice but to grab a sandwich for lunch so that I had enough time to walk around.

Croissant with savoury fillings...? UPDATE (18/04/2018): The café has moved to 63 Brighton Crescent. Let's start with a light review this month. I chanced upon a small bakery café in Bukit Timah, which offers a Croissant Set Meal  at S$5.00 , to chill out. Choices include Tuna Mayo Croissant, Egg Mayo Croissant and Chicken Mayo Croissant, and the croissant comes with a pot of tea. I came there on a weekday at a very odd hour, and thus no other customers were inside. It really felt as if I owned the café LOL...