Jpot

Hotpots (otherwise known as steamboat) = comfort food. At least to me. Basically anything soupy is comfort food, and so, hotpots are no different. One thing about having hotpots is that it's a communal affair, so the table tends to be rather full, with all the various dishes, and the huge hotpot in the middle. What I loved about Jpot is that instead of one huge hotpot for everyone at the table, everybody gets their own individual mini hotpot. There are several types of soup bases for hotpots, so at Jpot, everyone gets to have their favourite soup base, no squabbles at all.

 Jpot Vivocity

Li Bai

It's been a long time since I last posted a new dining place on the blog. I'm still happily eating out as usual, just that I've gotten lazy at editing the pictures. Or I'm just busy re-visiting the same old places (cue *coughs House *coughs*). ^^

Anyway, the last time I had dim sum, I visited a Chinese dining establishment that I've never been to before - Li Bai.

Li Bai

Paradise Dynasty

I kept seeing the advertisements for Paradist Dynasty's famed xiaolongbaos. The bamboo basket filled with  eight xiaolongbaos in rainbow hues against a black backdrop was seriously everywhere. In the newspapers, on the Internet, magazines etc. It was like a sign. I knew somehow that I would definitely be trying those devilish morsels that were seducing me right from their unattainable position in the ad pages.

Paradise Dynasty

群众 (Qun Zhong eating house)

Some time back, my girlfriend brought the few of us pals to this really yums eating place at Neil Road. It was simple, fuss-free, authentic northern style Chinese food at its best. One bonus point is that it was also cheap. :)

The place is reputed to be quite crowded at peak times (and also a bad service reputation to go along too). My girlfriend who brought us there said that there's always a long queue, and the place is frequented by a lot of Japanese people most of the time too. I arrived around 6-ish pm, I walked there after work as it is quite near my work place at Tanjong Pagar. I think I was the last of our group to arrive, and my friends were saying that the uncle wouldn't give us a table as not all of our party was present (whoops, sorry pals!). But thankfully, we only had to wait a while more before a table was available and we were ushered straight in.

Pictorial menu

Royal China

Can I just add in a note that before we got to the below scene, it took us several tries to book a table at Royal China for a weekend dim sum affair. Yes. Several tries. While I've been to Royal China twice before, both for its ala carte dinner (which was awesome), I had heard good things about the dim sum treats at the restaurant. Thus, I was determined to get myself there by hook or crook. But the past attempts of booking just one or two days before the dining date, we were informed over the phone that reservations were full. (insert incredulous look)

So, after a long haitus from dim sum, I decided that it was time again for some yummy dim sum love, and started questioning everyone early in the week on their availability. Armed with the knowledge of everyone's availability, I called the Royal China hotline early in the week for a weekend dim sum brunch. HO! And I managed to book a table!

Table with loadsa goodies, more to come...

Taste Paradise

Yay to the PC Show 2010. I've finally gotten my new laptop! A Sony VAIO (I know I know, what happened to the Mac? Haha.) cos afterall, Windows interface is still the best! ;) The venue was jam packed with people, but thankfully, we managed to enter the place, locate the booth and get out within about ten minutes. It helped that I already knew what I want before heading down to the show. I was going to get the pink, but upon reaching there, the Hot Pink was really way too bimbo (even for my standards), and the only colours left were black and pink. The white on display was damn gorgeous. But although they had like three to four white sets, they were for display purposes and not for sale. :( So I went with safe black in the end. Am now still thinking about that Sexy White cover. Maybe that explains why Safe Black is still in its box...unopened and untouched. Snigger.

I'm waiting for the Sister's boyfriend to help me set it up, internet, programs and all. I'm such an IT idiot (okay, it's just me being plain lazy arse). Anyway, hopefully that means I can get to my lost files. Soon. Here are pictures for another dim sum brunch with the family. This time at Taste Paradise @ Ion. We wanted to go Royal China for dim sum but when we called the place, it was already fully booked. :( So Taste Paradise it was.

 

Tea; Appetizer; Dim sum; Taste Paradise

Lei Garden

Dim sum. Two simple words that mean so much. There's nothing better than waking up late on a lazy weekend, and then heading out for some yummy dim sum brunch. Perfect little tiny morsels that are meant to be shared among many, just so you can have the excuse of ordering more.

Lei Garden @ Chijmes