Life

I happen to chance upon this wonderful image filled with beautiful quotes regarding the sanctity of three most intangible elements in the world: Love, Happiness and Life itself, and uh-huh, I want to share it with all of you! I guess Aristotle is right; happiness does depend on ourselves. Me? Well, I find my happiness in...... food. Food is the simplest joy ever, yes! :D

Hope you're having a Magnificent Monday, everyone! 

Fork & Spoon food court @ Toa Payoh

Hi everybody and every soul!

Another entry before I drag this butt and run in this perfect weather!

So this time, it's at the Fork & Spoon food court at Toa Payoh. It's halal, everybody! It's even stated in a website run by Islamic Events: http://www.islamicevents.sg/halal/587. However, if I remember correctly, NOT ALL the food stalls there have a Halal certificate by MUIS. Hence, if you feel dubious about it, do clarify with the person working at the respective food stalls, yeah? :)

Okay, but the Western food stall is indeed halal. Confirmed, plus a million chops and signatures. I saw the halal cert with my own eyes lah, that's why. 

So I bought the promotion set (tak habis-habis nak promotion HAHA) consisting of Chicken Chop + Soup of the day, while my food buddy bought Grilled Fish with Spaghetti! And cheap too! Yayyy!

Fork & Spoon Food Court (Toa Payoh) is located at:

Blk 470 (walking distance from NS19 Toa Payoh MRT Station)

Lorong 6 Toa Payoh (Above Courts)

#02-70

Singapore 310470

Review of food

Super generous amount of gravy on the chicken/fish which are well-fried/grilled, I like! The mashed potato is awesome too; the potato  is mashed appropriately and served with a different gravy which tastes good as well. Coleslaw, well..... tastes like normal coleslaw, I guess. I gave my lot of coleslaw to my food buddy teehee! The soup-of-the-day (mushroom soup) which is super addictive and delicious with a generous amount of chunky bits of mushroom in it. The spaghetti ordered by my food buddy is not too bad too, but it has a very strong tomato taste in it which is not really to my liking for a spaghetti sauce. But all you toe-may-toe lovers out there, this spaghetti is for you!

Ambience & Service

Well like a typical food court such as Banquet, Kopitiam, Koufu and errr, Foodclique? (currently a hotspot for NUS students to have lunch hahahaha!) Very culturally localized, noisy and well-lit. Service wise, it was okay. We had to wait for a while for our western food though, since there was quite a number of orders before us. 

Budget (for each person)

$6-7

Must-try

Chicken Chop, Grilled Fish, Mashed Potato & Mushroom soup! The stall also sells mixed grill consisting of almost everything they sell (chicken chop, lamb chop, chicken sausage, mashed potato and coleslaw) for just $9.90, hence it is really worth it! Share the mixed grill with your loved ones ;)

Recommended for

Western food lovers & avid consumers of mashed potato (which is served generously as a side dish or you can order separately as well)

Nearby praying area(s)

1) Toa Payoh HDB Hub (easily accessible once you exit NS19 Toa Payoh MRT Station) 

• Staircase exit at level 2 beside Koufu / level 3 beside Kiddy Palace (my apologies for not having photos for this T-T)
• Staircase area is clean, rather spacious and not frequented by shoppers
• Remember to bring your own praying mats and telekungs!

2) Muhajirin Mosque

• Take bus 88 from Toa Payoh Bus Interchange and alight 5 stops later

OR

• 9-minutes walk from NS18 Braddell MRT Station (Exit C)

3) An-Nahdhah Mosque

• 5-minutes walk from NS17/CC15 Bishan MRT Station (Exit D)

Other than Western food, there is a variety of food stalls for you to choose from at Fork & Spoon food court. Yong Tau Foo, Ayam Bakar Ojolali (Indonesian-style), Beef Noodle, Mongolian Chicken Rice, Japanese food, Malay food etc! There is a stall selling hot and cold desserts too (try their red ruby!!) so again, don't limit yourselves! ;)

Oh oh, I have this added feature here which acts as some sort of rating, in the form of cute little ice creams! Hehe! I've added my rating for the previous post too :D

And I would like to say a big thank you to those who spend some time reading this humble blog of mine. Thank you for the lurrrveee! :D 

Couple Set Meal @ Al Azhar Eating Restaurant

Oh yeah baby, my first food post! 

I have a lot of food places to write about, but I'v decided to choose Al Azhar Eating Restaurant as my first one. Erm, why?

BECAUSE THE COUPLE SET MEAL IS SOOOO WORTH IT!

For only $25, you'll get:

• BBQ Stingray
• Tom Yam Soup 
• Sambal Kangkong
• Fried Egg
• Two plates of plain rice

Of course you have the ability to choose. For the fish dish, you can choose your preferred fish (Stingray/Siakap etc) with your prefered sauce (Sweet& Sour/Tiga Rasa/BBQ etc). For the Tom Yam soup, you can opt for vegetable/chicken/mixed, which basically determines what your soup contains. For the vege, you can choose, but unfortunately I forgot what are the available ones hahahaha. They also serve fried egg, and last but definitely not the least, two plates of plain rice.

Review of food

I LOVE THE BBQ STINGRAY, HANDS DOWN! It is that gooooood! The paste, or Malays call it sambal, on top of the fish is thick and given in generous amounts. The fish is cooked well too! However, it is a tad too spicy due to the chilli padis in the thick paste. So, ensure that you have a glass of cold drink on stand by! The Tom Yam soup tastes really good too. Not too tom-yammy (hahaha), not too sour I mean. Just nice and it is pretty addictive to drink the soup! Slurrrrps! Again, it is a lil bit spicy so after a while, my throat was on fayahhhhh! But so syiok! Well, someone forced me to eat the kangkong (I am not really a fan of vegetables hahaha) but the taste is okay. And the egg is fried well too and not too oily.

Oh oh, as seen from the photo above, I bought Yam milkshake while My Food Buddy bought Chendol. The Yam milkshake is really good and even has a scoop of yam ice cream in it! There are other flavours for you to choose from if you wanna purchase a glass of milkshake. Chendol is awesome too! It has this natural, kampung-taste with a right amount of coconut milk and a tinge of gula melaka. And again if you look at the photo, I bought one Red Velvet cupcake but I was so freaking full, I only ate it later in the car instead of consuming it straightaway hahahahahaha! I can be so greedy....... But anyway, the red velvet is not bad :)

Ambience & Service

Very vibrant, noisy and 'so Singapore', really! Service is good and efficient.

Budget

$25-$30

Must-try

BBQ Stingray, Tom Yam soup and Chendol!

Recommended for

Those with empty tummies that can expand widely. Trust me, I felt so bloated after eating the meal!

Nearby praying area(s)

We prayed maghrib at Masjid Darussalam (Clementi) before driving to this restaurant hence, I do not know of mosque near to the place. I don't remember chancing upon any empty and clean space to pray either, unless you go to the nearby Beauty World Plaza to pray at some empty spot near the staircase, perhaps. Alternatively, you should plan your timing well before coming to dine at Al Azhar so that you won't miss your prayers! :)

Ohh oh, the place also serves other food varieties such as naan (which i heard is good), Western food (which is served on a sizzling hot plate!!), satay etc. So don't limit yourselves! :D

Check out their menu here: http://al-azharrestaurant.com/v1/?page_id=12

Details of the set meal offers are however not displayed online, so you have to check out the menu at the place itself for the deals :)

That's all from me. Toodles!

Chapter 1

Assalamu'alaikum everyone!

I love to eat. I love to travel to food places and try new food every now and then. And I've always wanted to start a food blog and I've been waiting for the opportunity to do so. So this is it, welcome to my food blog! :)

The main reason I decided to create a food blog is for the benefit of my fellow Muslim comrades out there in Singapore. Being a small minority group in this tiny speck of land on Earth, there is undoubtedly a limited number of halal-certified food places for us to venture. I hunt for halal food places all over the country (not only restaurants with BIG names but also those small, hidden food places which are less known too) and I sincerely hope this humble online space of mine benefits Muslims out there who are looking for a place to dine in with your loved ones! And of course, non-Muslims are welcome too :)

In every post, as much as possible, I'll try to include:

1) Personal reviews of the food

2) Ambience of the place (if it catches my attention more, that is haha! Usually I am more interested with the food) and Service

3) Budget

4) Must-try dishes

5) Recommended-for

6) Nearby mosques/musollahs/any clean area that I discover

As a Muslim myself, I understand how hard it is sometimes to find a proper place to perform our daily prayers. Some food places that are more ulu usually do not have a mosque nearby. Even there is, it will either be too far OR you won't have the time to pray if it takes a lonnnnngggg time to travel to the mosque. Hence, as much as possible, I'll try to keep a lookout for empty and clean spaces that are suitable to pray. But you need to bring your own sejadahs and praying veil etc, yeah? :)

InsyaAllah, all the food places that I'll post here are either halal-certified OR Muslim-owned (this especially applies to local bakeries or cafes which I've done my research on) hence rest assured, my Muslim buddies! Me no consume pork or liquor, no worries.. Heh heh.

Currently I have a list of food places that I plan to visit and post it up here! *jumps around* And I also have drafted a few reviews already, so keep a lookout okay! Oh oh, if any of you have any food recommendations for me, feel free to inform me too :)

In the meantime, let me beautify this blog! Weeeee~~