Davyd's Review on AIWO Restaurant

I had lunch at AIWO Restaurant again today (my second visit), but this time with Francesca, as she wanted to try the food here since she was absent in the recent FCAS Food Trip to this place. The last time I came here, I ordered the OMEGA TREAT Set Meal, which I really loved it to bits! This time, AIWO is having a 1-For-1 Lunch Promotion... all the better!

As I was extremely hungry, instead of having 1 main course per person, we ordered double the portion - that means 4 main courses! We ordered 1 Atlantic Seabass, 1 Cod Steak marinated with sea salt, lemon parsley and olive oil, 1 Lemon Chicken Tenders and Rosemary with Crunchy Iceberg, Peppers and Sesame Dressing (Crepe), and 1 Stuffed Chicken Marinated with Lemon, Rosemary and Grilled. Man, was I so full after eating all of that!

Francesca absolutely loved the food. I was very impressd with the quality of the food served - the fish meat was especially tender, and although healthy ingredients were used to prepare the food (which supposedly means less tasty?), the flavours were not compromised at all. However, I didn't really fancy the Crepe dish (not much of a fan), and the chicken used to fill the Crepe was chicken breast meat (I'm more of a drummer). As for the pricing, it is good value if you go now during their 1-for-1 Lunch Promotion, but rather steep if you're thinking of having a feast. AIWO should reduce its prices for its Set Menu, and drop its prices for its A-La-Carte Menu by a few dollars, to make it better value for money.

From this experience, I am of the opinion that AIWO does its fish dishes exceptionally well, and I will recommend anyone who comes here to try them. Overall, I will give this restaurant 7.5 stars out of 10, and I will definitely come back here again. Well done!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about AIWO Restaurant, click here.
For another review by AsiaOne Wine & Dine, click here.

Address: Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road, #02-20
Contact: 67377597, Operating Hours: 11.30am - 2.30pm (Lunch) & 5.30pm - 10.00pm (Dinner)

Chalet cum BBQ @ Costa Sands, Downtown East

Today, we organised a chalet cum BBQ at Costa Sands, Downtown East. I was very pleased with the event as we saw the largest turn-out for FCAS so far of about 18 people, and almost everyone was involved in helping out with the BBQ.

Anqi, Shuling, and Shuqin helped to buy, marinate, and bring the chicken wings. Zhizhong and Qiuling helped to buy the disposable cups and plates, sausages, and hot dog buns. Angeline and Ian helped to buy the BBQ netting and charcoal, and Ian single-handedly set up a whole BBQ pit himself! Angeline also helped collect the money from almost everyone. Shawn and Clara even added some variety to the food by buying marshmallows to BBQ! Indeed, everyone played a part in making this event possible - all of you contributed in one way or another.

We even had our very own informal Awards Presentation Ceremony! These Certificates of Membership were personally designed and printed by me, and the nice paper was selected by Francesca. I hope all of you liked it! Here are some pictures taken at the BBQ:

Although nobody stayed overnight at the chalet (as most had to work or attend class the next day), it was indeed a memorable and heartwarming night as all of us caught up and got to know one another better. We even played some games like 'Grabble' and 'Settlers'! May FCAS continue to grow, relationships within the society continue to blossom, and may future events be as successful as this one!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To view more photos for this occasion, click here.
To learn how to play 'Grabble', click here.
To learn how to play 'Settlers of Catan', click here.

Singapore's Mega World Food Fair 2006

Singapore's Mega World Food Fair 2006 was held from the 6th - 10th September 2006, at the Singapore Expo, Hall 5. Organised by Eastern Directories Ptd Ltd, the 5 days showcased an extensive line-up of the latest food and beverage products from all over the world, ranging from Asian food to Japanese, Thai, German and our very own local favourites! There were more than 150 stalls present at the gala event, and it sure was a 'gastronomical adventure' for both Francesca and I.

However, we felt that the quality of food served were not up to our expectations, and most of the food we tasted were disappointing. Take for example, our local favourite "Sharks' Fin Soup"; stalls promoting this delicacy had it served filled with "glue" rather than sharks' fin (or at least crab meat!). There were also huge queues for this meat filled "Man Tou", which I didn't even think was fantastic at all. We also waited about half an hour for deep fried chicken drumstick from the same stall, where the staff cooked extremely slowly, taking their own sweet time. Many people seemed rather annoyed, and we suspect that it was a deliberate attempt by the stall to create a long queue.

I attend such Food Fairs almost every year, but was so disappointed as I could not find my favourite "Malaysian Otah"! This Otah is fried with onions on a hot pan, tastes really spicy hot, and is served on banana leaf, but all I saw there today were the usual Otah which could be found almost anywhere along the roadside. But special commendation goes to the stall "Chun Man Yuan", whose Chicken Satays and Otah were delectably good, and which we subsequently catered for our BBQ later on at night. Everyone agreed that the food was superb!

Overall, this year's Food Fair was rather disappointing, and I feel that the Hall was flooded with more stalls serving healthy living foods, ginseng, tit-bits, desserts, and wheat grass (though I did enjoy drinking it). The organisers should invite more restaurants and hawker centres to showcase their foods, and restrict the number of stalls serving packaged products.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

For more information on the event, click here.

To cater food from Chun Man Yuan Food Industries Pte Ltd, click here.

China Food at Geylang?

Geylang is mainly known for 2 things- being the red light district of Singapore and having lots of good food. Here's a 'foodie' recommendation:

Location: Geylang Lor 8 Opposite You Tiao Da Wang (Yong He Dou Jiang) - Next to the restaurant selling Frog's Legs Porridge. By the way, the Frog's Legs Porridge are famous and tastes superb too!

Name of restaurant: Zhong Hua Mei Shi Guan (I think that's how you pronounce it).

Type of food: Original Chinese Food from different parts of China.

Specialty:
1. The Original Chinese 'Kebabs', Yang Rou Chuan, and the BBQed corn 'chao yu mi'.
2. The Dong Gu Rou Shi Chao Mian (i.e. mushroom fried noodles).
3. The soups are good too.
4. Imported Beer that you hardly find anywhere else - Harbin Beer @ $6 per Big bottle which is really cheap for beer that size. I don't usually like beer, but Harbin is quite light, so I like it.

Price range: A little more expensive than your coffeeshop's wanton mee or chicken rice but definitely cheaper than GRAZE (which we went previously)! $6-$10 depending on whether there's beer. The soft drinks are expensive, I usually buy my drinks from the nearby 7/11.

Customer Service: Good. they cater to your every need.

Ambience: Your standard coffeeshop ambience. You know Geylang, so lower your standards when you dine here! There're no rats or cockroaches scurrying around, but don't expect much.

I've brought about 8 people there to eat, and ALL of them have good comments/feedback. If you've been to China and you miss the food there, this is almost the real thing. The cooks, waiters and waitresses are all from China.

Article written by Daniel Ho.

To find out what others have to say about Good Food in Geylang, click here.
To find out more about Harbin Beer, click here and here.
For some insider tips on Geylang by Virtual Tourist, click here.

Davyd's Review on 'Graze' Restaurant

By Shawn's (one of our FCAS members) recommendation, we decided to dine at 'Graze' restaurant today. Located near the famous chill out spot 'one rochester', this is a place definitely not to be missed in terms of 'dining experience'. The ambience was fantastic - it was as if we were dining in a bungalow-like setting, by a pool-side, with a lush garden and fountain, giving customers a rather 'posh' feeling. There was even a large screen by the pool side showing some movies, adding some sort of a 'cinematographic' effect to the experience.

I was impressed with the layout and the whole concept, but the only problem was that it became rather stuffy after a while due to its 'Al Fresco' nature. For those who swear by air-cons almost 24 hours daily (like me), it felt quite uncomfortable after a while. I had to park my car quite some distance away from the restaurant at this HDB multi-storey carpark, and by the time I got to the restaurant, it was already getting a bit too 'warm'. Graze actually solved this problem by providing a valet parking service outside its restaurant, but the charges were way excessive for poor students like myself!

Next, there were lighting problems. I found myself 'sitting in darkness' while eating my food, and this can be quite frustrating at times. Some people like such dimly-lit settings though (according to them, this creates a 'romantic' effect), but I'd prefer to be in the 'limelight' (or at least my food)! If not, how can I tell what I'm eating or where I'm cutting?

The food tasted not too bad. Graze serves Australian/BBQ food, and they have quite a wide variety of meats and seafood on their menu. Their famous dish is the 'Wagyu Ox Cheek with Coconut Rice, Papaya, and Pomelo Salad' (which I ordered), and it tasted pretty good. However, these came at a price! Not only were the main courses very expensive (my dish alone was more than $30), the portions were very small. It's like eating at a very expensive French restaurant - something to the likes of Fine Dining; very tasty dishes but extremely stingy in terms of servings. Some of my other friends ordered the Seafood Platter, which cost them a bomb - if I remember correctly, it was more than $90! Many of us were left pretty unsatisfied and hungry even after such an expensive meal, and I had to order a bowl of fries for myself to satisfy my 30% filled stomach. For those poorer FCAS members, it was quite a 'painful' experience.

Other recommended dishes (according to AsiaOne Wine, Dine and Unwind) would be the ginger wine oyster shooter with wasabi and cucumber oil, the soy-drowned beef tataki, cumin spiced crispy onions, hot cucumber sorbet and baby cress, king prawns three ways (tempura, chilled, pan-tossed) and the hand-rolled pork hock.

In conclusion, this restaurant is only good for couples planning for an expensive and romantic date, or rich expatriates, and certainly not recommended for those who have a humongous appetite or those who frequent buffets! Come here for the experience, but not for the food - don't expect too much from your meal. Other than these, Graze has quite a small homely chill-out bar at the second level (air-conditioned) called 'Mint', with lots of comfortable looking sofas, but the drinks are also quite highly priced.

So is this restaurant 'Graze' worthy? Perhaps aesthetically, but not palatably. I give this restaurant 6.5 stars out of 10 for the quality of food served, but 8 stars for the concept.

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about Graze Restaurant, click here.
To check out the review by AsiaOne Wine, Dine & Unwind, click here.
To find out what other critics have to say, click here and here.

Address: 4 Rochester Park, Singapore 139215
Contact: 67759000, Operating Hours: 6.30pm - Midnight (Dinner)

Celebrating Anqi's Birthday @ New York New York

'Featuring the Best of NY Culture and cuisine! All the great Burgers and Ribs, incredible Deli Sandwiches and phenomenal Desserts and Cakes that made NY the Big Apple! You'll Love NY NY'.

We had a wonderful time dining at one of City Link's latest restaurants today - New York New York! Also, it was meant to be a surprise birthday party for our very own FCAS member, Anqi, who has been with us since the birth of our 'foodie' society!

I really like this new restaurant. Located in City Link Mall at B1-47A, it had such a warm, friendly ambience, and the food served was quite good - the typical American type food that you find in Swensons, Kenny Rogers, or Country Manna. I ordered the ribs and thought they tasted quite good, and the portions were huge! The waiters/waitresses provided good service, and I must say that it was truly an enjoyable experience dining here. To add to the 'fun' atmosphere, each of us were even given a stick of candyfloss at the end of our meal for free, and when we tried asking for more, they did not hesitate or act 'stingy' to our requests! Somehow, this place also reminds me of Fish & Co Restaurant near Park Mall - having a very informal ambience with nice, friendly staff.

However, there were some major problems with the seats. Somehow, I felt that layout for this restaurant was very poorly crafted, and space was not 'effectively utilised'. Also, some of the seats were rather uncomfortable (due to the structural flaw in the design). I guess this partly contributed to the long queues outside the restaurant, which was exacerbated by its popularity and recent entry into City Link.

Other than this, I would recommend this place for dinner anytime! Prices are reasonable, ranging between $10 - $25, and the service, food, and even the vibrant colours in the restaurant made the experience all the more 'fun' and enjoyable. It is also a great place to bring a friend or celebrate birthdays! Overall, I give this restaurant 3.5 out of 5 stars, and I will definitely come back here again. Well done!

Article written by Davyd Chong.

To find out more about New York New York!, click here.
To explore City Link Mall, click here.

Address: New York New York Citylink, 1 Raffles Link, #B1-47A, Singapore 039393
Contact: 63419695, Operating Hours: 11.30am - 11.00pm

About Us

The Food Connoisseurs Association Singapore (FCAS) is a food society established by Davyd Chong and Jason Soh, together with their team of passionate food lovers. Calling themselves 'foodies', these food junkies have a common goal, which is to promote the consumption of good food in Singapore and the rest of the world.

Officially founded in January 2004, this is a rapidly expanding organisation in Singapore. Food trips are usually held once a fortnight, where members are given the opportunity to taste a wide array of food ranging from the traditional Chinese and Western cuisines, to the more exotic Russian and Turkish cuisines.

Not only does the FCAS take pride in the enjoyment of food, it is also a great platform for social networking and establishing lifelong contacts. You can expect to meet lots of friendly people here, apart from satisfying your tastebuds. The most remarkable thing about this club is that everybody knows everyone, which will greatly ease your transition into the society, so you'll feel totally comfortable and at home in no time!

The FCAS is also an organisation which does not discriminate against any race, religion, language, age, gender, or colour, in any way. But do note that the FCAS makes food trips to both HALAL and Non-HALAL restaurants.

Membership is only available to those who are related to or are friends of current members in this society up to the 3rd degree. This ruling ensures that at least one FCAS member knows the newbie, so as to facilitate transition of the newbie into the society. There is no membership fee to join FCAS.

The Members of the FCAS Executive Committee for 2006 are as follows:

President: Davyd Chong
Vice-President: Jason Soh (currently in Adelaide)
Treasurer: Raymond Goh
Secretary: Kwan Shuqin

If you would like to know more about FCAS, do feel free to e-mail us at FCASingapore@yahoogroups.com. Join us, if you desire the best taste in life!