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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Welcome to the reptile restaurant, Cafe Iguana

Hi dear readers,

This is Food King and welcome back to our blog as we bring smiles to your life through food.

Memories memories... What wonderful memories Food Queen and I have just by going out to eat. This is just a fraction of our wonderful memories that we share with our readers and there's many more to come in the future.

Happy Birthday to you*!~
Happy Birthday to you*!~*!~
Happy Birthday to Food Queen*!~*!~
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu*!~*!*~*!~
Shhhhhh... I LOVE YOU*!~
^^


We celebrated Food Queen's birthday in Singapore and she chose to go to one of her favourite restaurants, Cafe Iguana. We like the place cos they serve really good Mexican food there. Everytime Food Queen comes back from NZ, we're bound to patronise Cafe Iguana =)

Cafe Iguana is a restaurant and bar which serves authentic mexican cuisine, plus it's a good hangout place for teens, working adults and families.

This is the logo that identifies the restaurant which I think is pretty unique.




View from our table




Although it looks like a hang out place where adults patronise, kids are also allowed to dine there. There is no dress code and they even have a Kid's Menu. Haha, how cute right. Families can bring their kids and enjoy the view of the lights at the Singapore river.



Before we carry on, please take note that all prices are stated in Singapore Dollars (SGD).

Food Queen just told me that quite a few of her friends have been asking what the exchange rate is between Singapore and New Zealand dollars. The Singapore dollar is currently stronger than the New Zealand dollar due to the recent financial crisis. I know that the exchange rate constantly changes, so this rate was taken on the 14th of April at 11pm: 1 SGD: 1.1396 NZD

If you are interested, you can check the rate of different currencies through this website: http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/currency

As for overseas readers, do take note that all restaurants in Singapore add an extra 7% GST charge to the total bill while restaurants decide if they want to add the extra 10% Service Charge. So far Cafe Iguana has not been charging Service Charge, which is another reason as to why we should go there more often :)

So let's get started...

Nachos with salsa dip. They normally serve you this after you've finished ordering for free :)





I thought the salsa dip was quite spicy but it went well with the nachos. Good portions too.
We ordered quite a few dishes and shared among ourselves.



For appetizers, we had Quesadillas with grilled chicken @ $16.98

We had flour tortillas filled with chicken and melted cheese... Yum!




This tasted nice as the melted cheese went really well with the grilled chicken. It tasted nice on it's own, but dipping it in the salsa adds extra flavour. Do take note that the salsa sauce can be quite spicy for people who can't take spicy food.



This dish is called Fajitas @ 19.99 - 24.99 (depending on what you order)

This was what I had... Sizzling meat on a hotplate with onions and peppers served with sour cream, Pico de Gallo, guacamole and flour tortillas.








When I stated that the prices varies, it depends on what meat you want to choose. The most expensive is Grilled Prawn Fajitas @ $24.99 and the cheapest is the Grilled Vegetables Fajitas @ $19.99.

For mine, I requested for a mix of Flanked Steak and Grilled Chicken and I was charged with the more expensive price out of the two which is the Flanked Steak Fajitas @ $23.99

The flour tortillas that was served with the sizzling platter





This is the Pico de Gallo (red colour), guacamole (green colour) and sour cream (white colour) that was also served together.



I love the Pico de Gallo and the guacamole. The Pico de Gallo gave a refreshing taste as there was a mix of onions and tomatoes. The guacamole was smooth in texture and it tasted very nice.

So this was how I ate it since they were served separately =P Let me show you the steps, haha.

Step 1 --> Wash your hands!!!

Step 2
--> Place a slice of grilled chicken or flanked beef or both on the flour tortillas.

Place it in the middle of the flour tortillas and add the sauteed onions, sour cream, guacamole and salsa on top of the meat.

Leave a space at the bottom of the tortilla so that you can fold it at step 3




Picture of the meat with sauteed onions, green pepper, salsa, guacamole, sour cream on the flour tortilla




Step 3 --> The reason why I leave a space is so that I can cover the bottom and eat without worrying about the meat or the other food dropping out.




Step 4
--> Fold the left side then the right side of the tortilla. At the end of it, it should be wrapped up nicely.






TADAAAAA!!!!!!!








Looks yummy right? I'm already feeling hungry just by looking at the pictures. I love the Pico de Gallo and the guacamole as it add colours and unique flavours to the food. =)

I was very satisfied with this dish as the portion was quite decent. After eating the tortillas, I still had leftovers that I slowly enjoyed.



Tequila Grilled New York Steak @ $26.99

Our meat was cooked medium. They served the meat with vegetables kebab and potatoes, which was quite yummy. The steak was marinated quite well and it was cooked to perfection. The meat wasn't tough, which is something I hate whenever I order my meat to be medium and they over cook it.







Grilled Prawns Chimichangas @ $21.99

This was Food Queen's dish. It's her favourite and she orders this quite often =) The tortilla is fried so towards the end she got a little sick of it. However, she really liked the prawns inside the tortilla because they were pretty big and they tasted quite sweet.
She liked the Mexican rice that was placed under the tortilla although on the 3rd/4th occasion we patronised Cafe Iguana, they gave very little rice which was a disappointment.

The Mexican rice was unique and it went well with the guacamole and sour cream. I like the fact that they gave lots of sauce because it really complements the grilled prawn and fried tortilla. Btw, the price varies according to the type of meat you choose.







We ordered another set of Grilled Prawn Chimichangas







Grilled Chicken Chimichangas @ $18.99




This dish is similar to the Grilled Prawns Chimichangas just that the meat is grilled chicken.

Both chimichangas tasted quite nice although I personally prefer the grilled prawns because the meat was sweeter and it wasn't as dry as the chicken meat.
Taking into consideration that the flour tortillas are deep fried, it makes the tortillas crispy and the cheese and guacamole complemented the taste of the meat. The taste of the cheese and guacamole wasn't too strong thus not overpowering the taste of the chicken or the prawn.

It was a good idea to have the lime scented rice as it gave a totally different taste to the wrapped tortilla. It was good to able to try 2 completely different tastes because you can get tired of the fried tortilla after awhile. Good portions because we were really full after having this.



Green Chile Stew Platos @ $14.99



I liked this dish although I thought the pork was a little too spicy for my liking. The flour tortillas went well with the pork, as the rice and beans did. We couldn't finish this, haha.


I cannot remember what this dish was but it is within the Platos category.



This dessert is called Ancho Chile Chocolate Cake @ $10.99

It is a flourless cake served with ice cream and it was stated that this cake made Cafe Iguana famous. As for Food Queen and myself, we like Cafe Iguana for their main dishes.





Food Queen was glad they gave us this cake because we heard that this cake was nice but we never got round to trying it since we're always so full after our main courses. This cake taste totally unique because it is flourless, yet it still tasted nice.

It tasted a little like chocolate brownie and it was nice eating it together with the ice cream. If I had to pay $10.99 for the cake, frankly speaking I might not order it because although it is unique, it is too costly. The ice cream was Vanilla whereas we were hoping for something with more flavour, like Bailey's ice cream.

Cafe Iguana is always bursting with people and they never fail to attract customers. They have quite a variety of dishes on their menu plus they serve awesome drinks. I like their magaritas and we tried a few drinks such as the house margarita, ultimate, etc and cock/mocktails. They put salt around the tip of the glasses for the margaritas, which I liked. We also thought the prices for their mocktails are much more reasonable as compared to the ones at Timbre.


We went to the outlet at Riverside Point and it was a very nice place to eat and celebrate Food Queen's birthday =) We didn't make reservations cos they don't allow any after 7pm and we only went around 8pm. Good ambience because you have a nice view of the Singapore river and it's located right next to Clark Quay, where some of Singapore's popular nightspots are.
One thing I noticed was that it was quite hard to catch the staff's eye on more than one occasion. They always seem to be running back and forth while we were waving our arms like lunatics.

After such a fab dinner, our tummys were bulging so we decided to walk around Clark Quay and take some pictures of Singapore's nightlife.











Cafe Iguana decor






Café Iguana Riverside Point

30 Merchant Road
#01-03 Riverside Point
Singapore 058282
Tel: (65) 6236 1275

**No reservations after 7pm.

Opening Hours
Mon - Thurs: 6pm - 1am
Fri & Eve of PH: 6pm - 3am
Sat: 12pm - 3am
Sun: 12pm - 1am

Café Iguana Greenwood Avenue (new outlet)

Greenwood Avenue
Singapore 289204
Tel: 6462 1533

Opening Hours
Mon to Thurs - 4pm to 12am
Fri - 4pm to 1am
Sat - 11am to 1am
Sun - 11am to 12am

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Oreo Shake



My #1 Addiction - Oreo Shake. It's my favourite drink in the entire world... An icy blend of crushed oreo bits, cream milk (I think?), sugar syrup and lots of ice. Omg, it's the best drink ever. Throughout my 3 month stay in Singapore, I had this almost everyday. In total I had 60-70 cups in 90 days, muhaha. And no, I don't care about the fat/cream whatever.
Btw, they use actual oreo cookies and mix it with the ice in the blender.
You can get this drink pretty much anywhere, from Smoothie Passion to Sweet Talk, etc. The only Smoothie Passion outlet I know is at Pasir Ris, near the MRT station and Sweet Talk is practically everywhere.


Price: $2 (an increase from $1.50)





It's such a simple drink but it brings great joy to my taste buds. It even cured my migraines! I suffer from migraines and once I had quite a bad one due to the Sg heat so I was going back for a rest and Smoothie Passion was along the way... Lalala. Bells went ringing in my head and my heart skipped for joy, thinking I could have my precious drink.
Once I got it, sensor alarms went off throughout my body, sending signals to my brain that the antidote was about to be consumed. It was so good! Shortly after, my migraine disappeared. True story, I am so not joking. That's how powerful the Oreo Shake is.

I don't bother trying anything else cos I am just so happy with my Oreo Shake. Food King tried a few others like Oreo Chocolate, Oreo Shake Banana, etc and he didn't like them. Nothing can match up to the Oreo Shake.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Let's have Pepper for lunch! Pepper lunch!

Dear Readers,

Food King here and our Food Queen had her test on Wed, hope she did well!

Today's entry will be on a Japanese restaurant called Pepper Lunch.

They describe themselves as an affordable D.I.Y. fast food steakhouse with over 200 outlets in Japan.

I remember the first time this restaurant open their outlet in Takashimaya there was such a long queue and they were so busy. I could smell the food from a distance and I was practically salivating outside the restaurant. It's a DIY place so the smell of grilled food was all around! I think almost every Singaporean would have tried the food here because it's pretty popular.

Sad to say, the queue only lasted for a few weeks then it died down like any other craze in town. I personally prefer the outlet at Takashimaya although the outlet at Lido is pretty full most of time for dinner, especially on weekends. There are also lunch express outlets at Bugis and Raffles City (can't remember the others) and the outlets are in the food court so the food is like a dollar or two cheaper since the ambience is different.


Beef Pepper Rice @ $8.90.



This is my favourite dish at Pepper Lunch and I only order this although I heard their steak is pretty good too. The beef is served raw on a sizzling hot plate and there's rice mixed with butter, corn and spring onion in the centre of the hot plate. I think it was rather smart of Pepper Lunch to place that white paper thing around the plate cos people might often burn their elbows in the process of cooking and eating. Food Queen always leaves it there cos she's scared she might burn herself... Good safety pre-caution, haha.



The following pictures will show the steps needed to mix the rice.

Step 1: Enjoy the view of the beef sizzling on the hotplate (You can skip this step... Haha)



Btw, the beef cooks pretty fast so be sure to turn your beef over the moment you get your dish and start mixing the rice and butter inside. Mmm.



Step 2: You can add different sauces to give it more flavour. I've tried just mixing the rice and butter without any sauces but it was really bland. From then on, we always mix loads of sauce because it makes the rice sweet and it brings out the flavour of the beef. There's Honey Brown sauce, Garlic sauce & black pepper. Yummy!





Step 3: You start mixing all the food together and eat!




The food comes piping hot and it's cooked on the spot, so it tasted really good. The first time I ate this with Food Queen, we didn't know how what to do and we were quite lost, haha. I find it quite fun because you can be your own chef. The portion is pretty good, I always get full everytime I have this so it's worth $8.90 although of course I hope it would be cheaper :p
They also have student discounts as well.




This dish is the Salmon Pepper Rice. Instead of using beef, salmon is used instead. The process is repeated all over again. Be careful as to not cook the salmon for too long, it may get stuck onto the hot plate and get charred. I've only tried this once but I didn't really like it... I thought the beef was waay better.





Food Queen ate pepper lunch with her friends and the above picture is a glass of green tea. I think she told me the green tea was really weird :S


Pepper Lunch also has plenty of other dishes available so be sure to check out their website at
http://www.pepperlunch.com.sg/default.asp

I hope that they would open more outlets around Singapore because the 2 main places are at Orchard Rd and I just love the food there. Wish I could have one now :)