About time I update!

I shall update as much as I can at one go before I embark on a journey to TAIWAN and gain loads of weight. I can already imagine all the food there yelling "eat me!"

As I've taken loads of pictures since my last entry, I guess I would blog by the canteen that I visited.

First up - complete my Canteen A mission! (since my previous posts were all about can A)

I'll save the best for last so you can just scroll right down if you want to see what's good only.

And sorry if I can't remember the exact names and prices, I AM forgetful!

From the very bottom - Korean Food.

Rice with chicken in curry sauce - less than $3 I think

I don't even think this is Korean food for that matter. It's just downright bland that it tastes a bit disgusting. I didn't finish even half of this. Why waste your calories on bad food? From what I remember, you get to choose between teriyaki sauce of curry sauce so I chose the latter - it was the most diluted curry sauce ever. Give me anything else, anytime. I don't know if their other dishes are better, but this one - I will avoid. AVOID.

Okay next! The chinese Caipeng at can A which everyone patronizes because it serves the closest thing to home, it's filling and it's cheap.

Long beans, spinach and 1 drumstick - also about $3

Usually when I asked for 1 meat + 2 vegetables the bill comes out to about $2.30. But beware of their "premium" meats! The drumstick has a $1.50 sign to it which basically blows up the price. Sadly the drumstick wasn't even good. It wasn't well marinated so after the initial tasty sauce surrounding it you'll find.. nothing. So you're probably better off ordering their usual meats (I really like their steamed egg with meat - it seems really cheap but tasty!). The veggies are decent.

We shall move on to one of my favourite places to eat - The Palette! A Western food cafe.

Located opposite canteen A (downstairs where McDonalds, Subway etc are), the food there is also priced slightly higher than your usual canteen food but might be cheaper than your fast-food restaurants, depending on what you order.

Every morning they have breakfast sets that costs $2.50 or less. That includes your toast, sausages, egg, ham or bacon.. I can't really remember much as I haven't had that for the past semester. But at half the price of a McDonalds breakfast meal, you get as much food (or even more) which are slightly healthier.. oh and they taste not bad too. It's a breakfast I highly recommend. More on it when I actually do get there for breakfast!

And everyday at lunch time, they serve their lunch sets.

Set C: ribeye with black pepper sauce. Plus soup of the day and one drink. $6.70

I don't remember it tasting very good, but it was decent. The sauce made the ribeye much tastier and I used the remaining sauce for my potatoes as well. The salad tasted okay to me (you can't go too wrong if the ingredients are fresh enough). The soup was a homely one so don't expect too much (it's in school after all and you get this much for $6.70) and you'll be satisfied.

I remember why it didn't taste that good - the food was cold! It was served the caipeng way - you ask for the set, they pick the food up from different trays and serve that to you. No wonder the food had gone cold. But it is the fastest way to settle our growling tummies at lunchtime.

Spinach & Salmon linguine + 1 drink - $5.80

The is the dish I ordered on my very first visit to Palette. Salmon isn't cheap, and spinach isn't that easy to prepare, and I like both. I wasn't really expecting much but this dish is good. It IS my favourite pasta dish there and just about every other pasta sold there pales in comparison. Creamy linguine, I don't care if by certain standards it's too creamy or not creamy enough (it tasted just nice to me) with a rather generous filling of salmon cubes (overcooked, but don't expect too much) and spinach. Yum.

Lamington Burger - $3.50

Last and foremost, the Lamington Burger!! I'm quite surprised how many people like/reblogged my burger entries on tumblr (many many people love burgers I guess) It's much, much, much better than any beef burger you get at Macs, and at $3.50 - what else can you ask for? The serving might not be enough for a guy though, but you can always add more fries ($1) and/or add an egg ($1) to your burger.

It says to be served only after 2pm at Palette, but you can always try ordering it earlier as they're usually prepared =) The lettuce, tomato, a kickass homemade patty, bacon, a layer of gleefully melted cheese and even butter below the top bun - sinful but it's really worth your $3.50. The fries, being thicker than those served at Macs, are considered healthier as well.

Eat it with your hands for an even more shiok experience.

It's the exam period!

Sorry (to myself and readers if there are any) that I haven't been updating!

I usually upload my pictures to my tumblr blog and then link the pictures to here for convenience. So even though I haven't been updating here, I still upload pictures there often!

The add is http://sueheartsfood.tumblr.com/ =)

Will update after I'm done with exams!

Can a muslim food

The very last stall at canteen A (if you come in by the door near the outdoor staircase/LWN library/most places) sells Muslim food. Muslim food tends to contain lots of spices and sauces, and asking them to eat blandly as akin to.. making me eat papaya, I guess. So you can expect an explosion of tastes when you order muslim caipeng because if their food isn't loaded with flavour, it is probably deep-fried. Which is still tastier than boiling.


Beef + long bean + cauliflower and broccoli - $3.30

I casted the long bean aside within seconds because it. tasted. really. raw. Like. Crunch. No matter which bean I took, it gives a really loud Crunch and my brain tells me "how can you eat this! it's uncooked!" I let my friends try too and they reacted the same way that I did.

Other than that, the meal went by peacefully. The beef, loaded with curry, is pretty good and the relatively plain cauliflower and broccoli cleansed my palette.. a little. It still has lots of taste though. I'm quite sad that the ratio of cauliflower to broccoli is like 10:1, but that's probably because the latter is a lot more expensive.

I enjoyed my meal. Without the beans, of course.

Can a vegetarian

We are usually spoilt for choice when it comes to food like caipeng (aka 菜贩, where you choose your dishes that go with a plate of rice), whether they're Chinese, Muslim, Indian, or Vegetarian. But once thing we can't really choose - for the food to be hot. Hence we tend to eat caipeng that has already gone cold as the ingredients have been exposed to the atmosphere for.. a time period that we don't know. Managed to get hot caipeng? You're lucky (:

I usually order brown rice at vegetarian stalls because they're cheap when they're supposed to be expensive (you don't find brown rice being cheaper than white rice at supermarkets, do you?), and a lot less oily than fried rice/beehoon etc. And I like the slight crunch when I sink my teeth into the brown rice.

The brown rice here has an added twist - the occasional bits of corn that peaks out of the rice from time to time. I like corn, so I have no complaints.

Eggplant + some veg + spring roll + curry "meat". Forgot the price.

It wasn't me who ate this, but I did kope my friend's spring roll which was the only item that was still hot. I like it, but I don't eat spring roll very often so I can't really comment. As long as it's hot, I'd say that it's decent.

Spinach + kai lan + fried egg. $2++

It is really hard to find someone that cooks spinach well in NTU. I'm not expecting restaurant standards (I love that spinach + century egg dish they serve in Chinese restaurants) but.. this is pretty tough. And tasteless. The other vegetable was naturally tougher and didn't help things at all. The fried egg was well-cooked; the yolk is totally solid. I prefer runny yolk but I guess for hygiene sake they make it totally cooked. It also makes stacking easier.

But I chomped down the meal anyway because I was hungry.

P.S. will someone tell me what's the difference between kai lan and cai xin? I only know that the former is tougher, but I can't see the difference with my eyes!

First dish - can a chicken rice

Canteen A - which NTU has not been there before? Located at the tip of the north spine along with LWN library and LT1A, it houses the greatest variety of food in NTU. It has a foodcourt, MacDonalds', Subway, Canadian Pizza, Old Chang Kee, the Executive Cafe, Palatte and even Sakae Sushi. And a vending machine selling toasted sandwiches if you don't feel like having any of the above.

So today we start with a Singaporean favourite - the Chicken Rice.

(My friends and I tend to takeaway from the foodcourt as it stinks real bad according to them. I know da-bao isn't the most environmentally friendly thing and it tends to change the taste of the food a little, but I don't want them to suffer either)


Roasted chicken and char siew rice - $3.20

Edible? Yes. Spectacular? Not at all. And I could feel the pain when I parted with $3.20 because the chicken OR char siew rice alone would only cost $2.00. Adding on either ingredient means you pay 60% more. However I personally feel that the $2 portion looked really dismal.

I like the sauce that came along though, being more on the sweet side but not overwhelming. I ordered roasted chicken but the lack of skin makes it taste a lot more bland. Healthy eating, oh wells. The char siew is mostly on the lean side, which I am fine with because I don't like char siew that contains a lot of fats.

Something I would eat from time to time, but definitely not something I'd recommend to a visitor. There are better things to eat at this canteen.

By the way this stall sells soup too! Since they're pretty much the only stall that sells soups I can't compare. But being a soup lover I'd say paying $2.50 for a soup + rice is much more worth the money than getting chicken rice!

First post - hope I'll keep up with this!

Some eat to live, and some live to eat.

I have always been pretty much the latter (with the exceptions of orientation camps in which I eat everything). I've been blessed with a grandmother that was really experienced in cooking, a mother who cooks the best she can, a father who truly appreciates good food, a very picky eater of a sister...... oh, and a boyfriend who loves anything that tastes good and refuses anything that tastes otherwise.

I love good food, and I am game to eat anything with the exception of papaya. I hate tofu as well, but I eat tau huay so I guess it isn't really counted.

I don't have a very good memory as well. So I tend to forget that forgettable food are forgettable and end up going back to the same stall.. only to realize it isn't that nice once again.

Hence this blog. So that I'll remember what is nice and what is not.. in my opinion.