If you thought the day you come across a chirashi don under $11 is the day pigs can fly, then you haven't been to PigsFly. The Kazoku Don ($10.90) comes complete with salmon, swordfish, tuna, octopus, scallop and ikura. Granted that the sashimi is half as thick and not as fresh as the one's you pay a premium for, honestly, at such prices, set no expectations and you won't be disappointed. The chirashi don at PigsFly will satisfy your immediate cravings without busting a hole in your (boyfriend's) wallet.

The Beef Don ($8.90) is also excellent. It may not be wagyu, but the sirloin steak slices are done medium-rare, still juicy and flavorful. Oh and we forgot to mention, each don also comes with a bowl of miso soup. Now that's some good value.

S is on an instagram giveaway winning steak -- 3 in a month! With a $10 Kokomama voucher in hand, we headed down to the cafe at SOTA for lunch. To be honest, we weren't expecting much of Kokomama, having read some rather unflattering reviews of this place.

For some reason, Bingsu is so darn expensive in Singapore. It's just shaved ice and syrup for goodness sake. There's something cheaper called ice kachang out there. Kokomama's Bingsu is priced about mid-range, a notch cheaper than the more popular chains. They also serve a baby version, which is cute, but probably not worth your money because the prices don't seem to have scaled down proportionately with the size (on the poster).

There is a decent array of korean fushion dishes on the menu. Prices, we felt it were a little on the high side, considering the clientele. Perhaps there's a student meal deal somewhere that we missed out on. Wanted to try the highly raved chilli crab (black) bread bowl but decided against it due to the 2 chillis (need to train Sher to eat spicy food).

S had the Jumping Prawn Aglio Olio ($12.90), which was quite a huge & generous portion and looked photogenic. Probably one of the least korean dishes on the menu, it tasted decent enough.

For just $2, you can add on a drink. It's a huge drink though, and perfectly shareable between two people. The weather was a little on the hot side, so we had the refreshing honey lemon drink.

S has been eyeing Snack Culture's 9-course omakase degustation dinner ever since we came across rave reviews of the place. Unfortunately, soon after, the prices went up to $59 from $49 and we had second thoughts. So when Snack Culture decided to offer a $49 promo for its one-year anniversary, we immediately decided that we had to head down (with S' mom in tow). Do note that the degustation menu is only available for dinner, on Thursdays to Saturdays, and by reservation only. On Snack Culture's website, there's a rather entertaining recount of the origins of this menu.

To get to Snack Culture, be prepared for a long walk. That's because it's located at CT hub and the nearest MRT (1.2km walk away) is Lavender. Alternatively, there's a bus stop right outside CT hub that has bus 67, 145 among others. From the outside, it just looks like an ulu office/industrial building, you can't tell that the Snack Culture is lurking inside.

The restaurant itself is pretty small, seats about 30 at most and the far wall are shelves displaying their homemade goodies with a local twist e.g. cookies with flavors such as haebi hiam, laksa and rojak ($16.90 for a small jar). Unfortunately, as there wasn't much direct lighting, some of our photos didn't come out to par. We were desperately trying to use our phone torchlight as a backlight so that we could get the camera to focus properly - still trying to figure out how to operate our new cammie :/

Looks like the menu has changed a little since their opening. The Ter Kah Chor Scotch Egg and Har Jeong Soft Shell Crab Capellini were gone. In their place, Snack Culture has put in renditions of the Lobster Roll (but using squid) and Yangzhou Fried Rice. If you haven't done your research -- unlike us -- you can have a go at the riddles on the menu while waiting for your food. The answers would be provided, on plastic cards, just when your food arrives. It's an interesting concept, and a great conversation starter.

To our dismay, the Snack Culture doesn't serve tap water. Or perhaps the waitress thought we were atas people that only drank bottled water. Nevertheless, expecting lots of spicy food, we paid $6 for a 750ml bottle of Coralba? No idea what's that brand or why people need to drink bottled water in Singapore anyway. (Later on, we saw other tables being served glasses of water?! So we suppose they did have tap water after all.)

Here comes our starter: Japanese Edamame with Thai Tom Yum Espuma, essentially a non-traditional take on Tom Yum soup. Firstly instead of soup, what you get is a foamy delight that lingers on your tongue. With the addition of fragrant Rojak Flower (bunga kantan), and the sweet edamame, which they leave you to peel for yourself, this creation packs a serious punch, albeit quite a spicy one. Sher's chili training seems to have paid off, she said it wasn't that spicy. Our only grouse was perhaps the tiny portion -- although mostly necessary in the grand scheme of things.

Next up, Korean Mandu in Singapore Bak Kut Teh Consomme. Served chilled, the consomme was the peppery variation of Bak Kut Teh with a mild aniseed flavor. This went nicely down our throats. Accompanying the clear broth, were two bite-sized pork dumplings that were juicy and tasty, but nothing too out of the ordinary.




We were also offered extra belachan mayo, in case we desired more kick. Even if you are a fan of black fungus, we recommend adding more of the creamy sauce, it helps in making the spongy fungus more palatable. In the dish, there's also jing zhen (should tie a knot to make it crunchier) and particularly potent tasting black mushrooms (S's most hated ingredient). There was also some fried sweet bean curd, which came as a welcome surprise to us.


For the fourth dish, we were served a trio of bite-sized Asian treats. We were instructed to start from the left and work our way to the right, as the flavors would get progressively stronger. The Vietnamese spring roll came deftly wrapped in rice paper, and was filled with tender bulgogi and mint leaves. It was served with the traditional sweet chili sauce.

In the middle, was the Ayam Buah Keluak Wanton. S' mom said that the buah keluak taste was quite mild. Apparently it's something of an acquired taste. But having never tasted Ayam Buah Keluak before, we could not identify any unique taste and so to us, it was just a normal, yummy chicken wonton.


Lastly but not least, was the highly raved dry laksa on a homemade haebi hiam cookie. The haebi hiam cookie was delightfully buttery like good old shortbread and the dried shrimp flavor was intense. Paired with the flavorful laksa spread (more laksa leaves please), we wished we could reach out for another one.


Upon reaching the halfway mark, we were treated to a take on one of our favorite Chinese New Year dishes -- Pen Cai. The tasty broth was made of only 2 ingredients - dried scallops & a secret ingredient that we didn't manage to guess and shan't spoil ;)


Unwrapping the intricately wrapped parcel to reveal the delicious goodies inside: scallop, mini abalone and that potent black mushroom again.


Next on the menu was a creation inspired by the popular lobster roll, but with local ingredients and spices - deep fried squid, a la Old Chang Kee, and salted egg yolk sauce. For garnishing and added flavor, we also had deep fried curry leaves i.e. the ones you find in your cereal prawns. Impressive looking dish, however, we found it a bit hard to eat as the squid would poke our faces. Hence, we resorted to using our knives to cut the squid up first.


Our 7th course was a culmination of Singaporean's favorite breakfast treat, Fan Choy, and Yang Zhou Fried Rice. Tri-colour Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), which resembled tiny grains not unlike couscous, was stir fried with typical fried rice ingredients such as char siu and french beans together with the atypical bulgogi that's laid on top. To eat, just chop it up and mix in the garnish. Careful though, the chili padi is extremely spicy (intentionally not de-seeded).


While we were having our Quinoa Fan Choy/Fried Rice, we could already smell the intense garlicky aroma of the this dish wafting from the kitchen. A play on the cajun seafood boil, our 8th dish was Seafood En Papillote (French for 'In Parchment') consisting of fresh prawns and mussels baked in a parchment paper pouch so that the seafood steams in their own juices and infuses with the piquant Louisiana seasoning. Instead of bread to soak up the delicious sauce, we were served one of the crispiest and lightest roti prata we've ever had.


Portions were pretty generous -- two prawns, 3 mussels and as much prata you can eat. The prawns were fresh and very easy to shell with just the fork and knife, although nothing's stopping you from getting your hands dirty. S kept reaching out for more prata (wonder how can he stomach this much food), and using them to soak up every last bit of the flavorful garlic broth.


The Snack Culture Company
Address: #02-17, CT Hub, 2 Kallang Avenue, 339407
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun, 9:00-19:00; Closed Sun
Website: http://snackculture.com
Contact: +65 6443 2006
Damage: $49+/pax (u.p $59+/pax)

Oops, slightly blur menu as we were baffled with the auto focus on our camera. Violet Herbs brands itself as semi-formal fine dining, with rather interesting European/Asian offerings themed around herbs. We had a tough time deciding what to order as they all sounded so good. And from the pictures we've seen online, they all looked exquisite too. So in the end, we settled on one of each except the Roasted and Poached Foie Gras (Sher wasn't too keen on eating a mouthful of fat) and Chicken Roulade. This way, we get to sample as much of the menu as we could.

Pre-appetizers! Home-made focaccia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip. We weren't too thrilled by the lone bread though. Yes, there was the characteristic chewiness and the exterior had the ever slightest crunch. However, we kind of expected it to taste and smell of fresh herbs and we were sorely disappointed. Furthermore, the balsamic vinegar was rather bland tasting.  

First up, Hokkaido Scallops & Salmon Belly. All this could fit in a tablespoon ): We wish we had more. The puree was silky smooth and tasted luxurious, not bad at all considering it's made from the humble sweet potato. We loved the scallop, which was seared to perfection.

The Mushroom Cappuccino looked great and tasted great. That foam is actually truffle foam and it's reassuring that they exercised restraint on truffle oil usage -- the gasoline-like taste/smell wasn't too overbearing. We could still taste the richness of the mushroom soup. Still can't figure out if that smudge at the side was intentional or accidental though (a bit of OCD going on).