Buffet at The Fern Tree Cafe

Groupon featured this buffet deal at Hotel Miramar 2 weeks ago and I decided to try it as it is super 'wu-hua'! For $35 nett, you get dinner buffet on a Friday night with FREE-FLOW Tiger Beer. 'WU HUA' right!! Here's the deal:

Fatty (sillyb's new nickname) and I went down last Friday, and here are some pictures taken for that night:

Appetizers - Salads and Sushi Platter

Sashimi - Salmon & Tuna

I did not manage to take more shots of the buffet as the Chef said no photo-taking allowed. So, I will roughly sum up what's available based on what I ate and saw..

Seafood on Ice
No oysters though

Salmon Sashimi
Served in individual portion. We had at least 6 portions of this.

FATTY's creation. 
Tofu from the Hot dishes with Brocolli from Appetizers in Prawn Soup lol

 There were around 8-9 hot dishes that night. 

As they serve international buffet, there was a combination of Western and Asian food. For Japanese they have Sliced Dory in Teriyaki Sauce. Western styled dishes were Spaghetti with Mushroom in Tomato Sauce, Mashed Potato, Sliced Lamb. For Asian style, they serve Sambal Mussels/Squid, Stir-fry seasonal greens, Pork Ribs, Silken Tofu with Shrimp, Pad Thai and White Rice. Most of the hot dishes were average and I guess my favorite would probably be the mash potato.

FATTY's 2nd creation - Sliced Lamb with Achar
He commented that the '羊骚味' is very strong, but still finished it. lol.

FATTY's cheese platter

Sambal Sotong and Pork Ribs in Hot and Sour Sauce
I couldn't taste any hot and sour in the pork ribs. The texture of the meat was to my liking as there was a nice ratio of fats and tender meat. However, it could have been more flavorful.

Mashed Potato, Silken tofu with Shrimp and Stir-fry French Beans with 'Lak Cheong'
The mash potato was smooth and thick, has a hint of buttery and milky flavour, and the sauce was good that I wish they had served more of it! The other two dishes were average, pretty much tasted like home-cooked dishes.

Dim Sum: Mini Soon Kueh, Siew Mai, Mini Popiah
Missing item here is the fried scallop, which I liked with the sweet Thai chilli sauce.

Roasted Duck and Pork with Plum Sauce
They have a station which resembles a chicken rice stall, just that they are serving roast duck and pork. The duck is one of the best dishes that night. The meat was juicy enough, and the plum sauce went so well with it. Roast Pork was so-so as the skin was hard and not crispy.
On a side note, the chef really need to brush up on his 'chopping' skills. The presentation of the dish simply does not do justice to it.

Century Egg Porridge
I liked this porridge as the century egg was soft and the porridge has '银鱼' in it. Usually when you order century egg porridge, they wouldn't cook the century egg in the porridge, causing it to be cold and hard sometimes.

Black Pepper Crab
FATTY and I has been waiting for this all night long. The waitress said that it would be served around 7.30pm and we were there since 6.15pm! No choice have to wait lor.
My verdict: 7.0/10.
Frankly , it's not like the best I have tasted, but I liked the fact that there was enough gravy and the meat was juicy and fresh!! Craving satisfied!

Strawberry Mousse Cake, Nonya Kueh, Mini Durian Swiss Roll, Cream Puff, Mango Mousse Cake, Pandan Creme Brulee.

Pandan Creme Brulee
To me, the dessert presentation was unappetizing. I totally skipped the dessert until FATTY brought this to me. Actually, I have not tried Creme Brulee before as I do not have a sweet tooth. But, the layer of hard caramel totally brought character to this dessert.

Of course, the buffet was not limited to those few dishes which I have talked about. There is a station offering Wanton Noodles Soup and Seafood Noodle Soup. It did not look appetizing enough so I decided to save on the calories. There was a DIY station serving Prawn Noodle Soup, which I only drank the soup to again, save on the calories. It was a little too sweet for my liking. They also had a Prata station, serving those frozen pratas you can get from NTUC, with Fish Curry. Oh, they also serve 4 types of ice cream, which I missed as I was too damn full and busy drowning myself with Tiger Beer. Surprisingly, they have a soft drinks dispenser for non-alcoholics. I mean, it is seldom for hotel buffets to serve soft drinks as beverage is their other source of revenue, where a Coke can cost up to $7++ each.

Without the Groupon deal, the dinner buffet is priced at $42++ and comes with free-flow Tiger Beer too!

 For a price of $35 nett, I would say it is damn worth it for us. We had at least 5 glasses of Tiger beer that night. Although not every dish was fantastic, none tasted bad in my opinion and we enjoyed our Friday night dinner there. 

PS: We reached at 6.15pm and left at 9.45pm - 3.5 hours!

Summary of the menu that night:

Appetizer

 Mesclun with 3 dressings

4 types of Assorted Salads

Assorted Cheese

Sashimi and Sushi

Soup

Bah Kut Teh

Cream of Pumpkin

Seafood on Ice

Prawns

Mussels

Scallops

Hot Dishes

 Sliced Dory in Teriyaki Sauce

Sliced Lamb with I-forgot-what Sauce

Spaghetti with Mushroom in Tomato Sauce

Mashed Potato

Sambal Mussels/Squid

Pork Ribs in Hot & Sour Sauce

Stir Fry Seasonal Greens

Silken Tofu with Shrimp

Pad Thai

White Rice

Live Station

Wanton Noodle Soup

Seafood Noodle Soup

Prawn Noodles Soup (DIY)

Black Pepper Crab

Roasted Duck and Pork with Plum Sauce

Century Egg Porridge (DIY)

Prata with Fish Curry

Dim Sum

Mini Soon Kueh

Siew Mai

Mini Popiah

Fried Breaded Scallop 

Fried Thai Fish Cake

Dessert

Nonya Kueh

Strawberry Mousse Cake

Mini Durian Swiss Roll

Cream Puff

Mango Mousse Cake

Pandan Creme Brulee

Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Grass Jelly Drink

Assorted Ice Cream

Assorted Fruits

Free Flow Soft Drinks

More information on The Fern Tree Cafe, Hotel Miramar:

401 Havelock Road

Singapore 169631

Tel: +65 6631 3021

Valentines Day in JB

Restaurants all over Singapore would probably be packed on this day, so sillyb and I went to JB instead. We took AC7 from Yishun Interchange and the bus ride was pretty quick as it was a weekday. Cost SGD2.00/pax for the ride. 

We headed to KSL to try the fried oyster which left us a deep impression on our last JB trip.  

Oyster King located at basement level of KSL

Lala Fried Bee Hoon 6.5/10

Nothing really special.

Garlic Oysters 4/10

Oyster tasted weird with the condiments.

Fried Oyster 4/10

The fried oyster tasted weird and had a weird smell.

The texture of the flour was not right either.

The meal was quite disappointing, because on the last trip, we could literally smell the fragrance of the fried oyster from afar. It was so crowded that we had to wait 45 mins for one plate of fried oyster.

Anyway, we went to catch a movie titled "The Wedding Diary 2".

The movie was heart warming and funny. It has insights to life after marriage, mainly problems within married couples, in laws, and your little one. Of course, the movie ended happily with all problems resolved. 

We headed back to City Square and settled for an awesome looking Korean BBQ Restaurant to have dinner. There was only two couples in front of us in the queue yet we waited for around 30 minutes before we got a seat. I have to say that they were really slow and disorganized.

Anyway, here's some pics of the place, and food!

BORNGA

Sillyb in his waiting pose

 Our choices for the night

 

 Always wanted to have ice cold Tiger beer with Korean BBQ! Shiokkk

Look who's using handphone now?!

Side dishes - mostly veggie.
i miss korean ikan bilis!

 

The meats look super fresh and they taste fantastic, especially the beef as the marinate was superb. The korean boss cooked the beef for us as it's very thin and it required some skills to perfect the meat.

Chef Chris in the house YO!

Total damage RM 94.60.
SGD less than $40. Cheap rightttt!!

We had a satisfying dinner which made up for the unsatisfying lunch. Took AC7 from JB customs back to Yishun Interchange again, this time at RM 2.00. 

I love the exchange rate man.

Some might be wondering about the missing gifts for our V Day celebrations. Well, we exchanged it last midnight. I would say it's a pretty special gift with much much love and effort. 

Thank you for the awesome V day, sillyb. ♥

Sibu - AhYou Kelong Dec 2012

Silly boy is an avid fan of fishing. Together with his buddies, they formed a group named 'Sharp Hook Fishing Team' where all has passion for fishing. Ahyou Kelong was my first trip with Sharp Hook.

Day 1

Jingwen came to pick us up at 4.45 am and we had some coffee before meeting up with the rest. Everyone assembled at Marsiling MRT and we split up into 2 cars. The journey began and we headed to Johor Bahru for Bah Kut Teh breakfast.

At the Bah Kut Teh place, I realized there were many uncles who were going too. Altogether, there were 25 of us.

Claypot Bah Kut Teh

Bah Kut Teh with rice was a bit too much for a breakfast. The Bah Kut Teh was pretty awesome, so I managed half a bowl of rice. Also, I learnt to appreciate 油条 with Bah Kut Teh.

while waiting for the 'peet-boat' wahahaha

The 'peet-boat' (that how Uncle Ah Soon says 'speedboat') ride was around 15 minutes. 

Ahyou Kelong right ahead!

they even have websites!

4 meals a day with free flow of coffee and crackers.

FAT FAT FAT!!

charges

the entire row of bunk beds were occupied by us

silly boy preparing to fish!

i call this ‘无底洞’

my first catch! 

small but significant to me ok!

We had dinner at 5.30pm. Everyone cleared the food within 15 minutes. I realized that our table was always the first to clear. Not that the food was very fantastic, but rather, we were hungry from all the fishing. Around 6pm, everyone went to get ready for Selar fishing. According to them, Selar fish usually swim pass in herds around that timing.

fishmen at work

Ikan Selar!

After the Selar marathon, it was shower time! Silly boy warned me before that there is no water heater and it gets pretty chilly at night. It's been so long since I last showered with cold water. Actually, it was quite fun. :x

Later at night, the guys gathered around the 无底洞 for more fishing. 

Jingwen was said to be affiliated with puffer fish. And it is true.

 

Two different puffer fishes. The baby one was 'hornier' :x

WAKAKAKAKA 

The night was quiet with hardly any catch apart from Jingwen's puffers. The guys had their fishing lines hanging there most of the time while they chatted and drank the night away.

Sleepy, silly boy and I went off to bed after brushing teeth. 

Day 2

Breakfast was served as early as 7am. Being a lazy bone, there was no way I would wake up for white porridge at that timing. I lazed on the bed and finally decided to join in the fishing after I had my 'adequate rest'. 

 

Breezy Sunday - all relaxed

trying to look stern but still silly to me. 

wahahahaha.

Jingwen caught this fish which has pointed mouth - forgot what name. The fish swallowed the hook and got stucked deep inside the throat. Leaving with no choice, he had to snip its mouth. 

silly boy holding on to the fish while Jingwen tries to remove the hook

Then, something different got hooked.

seaworm?!

Excited, I showed silly boy my worm, and realized he caught one in the morning too! wahahaha! We are the wormy couple :x

silly boy's catch

Jingwen relaxing on the bunk bed

 Oops! stucked :x

In the evening, the fishermen started their Selar marathon again. Selar fishing to me is something challenging. Why? Because I always end up having 炒米粉, and silly boy had to clear the mess for me. Sorry and Thank You, uncle!

Day 3

By the time I woke up, there was only rice and sambal chilli left from the Nasi Lemak breakfast. The ferry will be taking us back to the jetty after lunch and we had a few more hours on the kelong. The guys went for some last minute fishing and Jingwen caught a slipper fish.

 catch of the day - satu slipper

See the slipper print on the head?

that explains its name!

Silly boy told me these slipper fishes can always be found sticking underneath the shark. The slipper print is like a suction thing which sticks to surfaces it comes in contact with. Learnt something new!

saw some fishes in a pail and took this shot. *muack*

Time pass quickly and it was time to head home. We packed our stuff and got ready for the ferry. No 'peet-boat' this time round :x

Uncle Ah Soon was talking about Tinggi trip in March 2013 and told silly boy to bring me along. Silly Boy told me before that the water in Tinggi is very clean and good enough for snorkeling! *Excited*

Let's hope Tinggi has water heater and I'll remember to bring sunblock this time!