Category: dining

Few days back, my friend Handy told me that there is a nice padang* restaurant near Somerset MRT, namely The Warung M Nasir (WMN). Well, it’s Saturday night and I don’t want to spend my weekend at home, so I asked him to have our dinner there.

We were supposed to meet at 7PM, but I arrived slightly earlier. While waiting for him, I saw an advertisement of a cafe called “J-Town”, which at first I thought have something to do with Japanese culture. Turned out the J stands for Jakarta, and they sell Indonesian light meals like siomay or sweet martabak. Sticking to the plan, we still went to the WMN, and planned to get some dessert at J-Town afterwards.

WMN occupies a small building in Kiliney Road, and they serve several types of food to choose, just like in a Malay economic rice stall. I ordered a chicken rendang with daun singkong (cassava leaves) and boiled egg, with a carbonated soft drink. It costed $6.80, pretty affordable though more expensive than normal nasi padang.The place itself is quite cozy, with the theme of 80’s. Probably that’s why we saw several expatriates dining there, too.

Afterwards, as planned we headed to J-Town, which is located at the basement of Midpoint Orchard building. It is a small shop with only few tables, but the martabak was very nice.They serve basic flavors like chocolate and cheese, as well as a special one which is durian flavor. For hardcore fans of martabak, also available is the plain one, without any additional flavorings. Other than martabak, they also sell basic meals like fried rice and fried noodle, but we haven’t tried them yet.

One tip if you, like us, tried to save money by buying drinks in 7-11 instead of at the stall, forget it. The bottled water there may be a bit expensive for about $1.40, but turned out the 7-11 in Orchard Road sells them even more expensive, $2.15 for Indonesian brand Aqua. However since it was Saturday night, we don’t really mind about the extra dollars though.

Warung M. Nasir is located at N° 69 Killiney Road, Singapore 239526, while J-Town is at Midpoint Orchard Building B1-04, N° 220 Orchard Road, Singapore 238852. Both are a stone throw away from Sommerset MRT.

* Refers to either a city in West Sumatra or a Bahasa term for “field”, usually used to refer certain style of food with specific spices.

Sorry for not posting lately, I’ve been busy with school. I did try to write some reports, but most of the time interrupted with my assignments. In the end, I was already bored or forgot the details of the event so I just discard them. Here’s an article on culinary spot. I’ll try to keep it short.

It was Saturday afternoon, and I’ve been in my campus’ lab for few hours, and expected to spend few more hours there. Not wanting to stay with the computer to spend the weekend night, I contacted some friends from Indonesia, asking them to give Lau Pa Sat a try for its infamous satay for dinner (some, including me, have had dinner there before, anyway). For those who don’t know, Lau Pa Sat is a Victorian style medium-class hawker center in the Singapore CBD area. What makes it interesting, other than live bands on weekends, is the Boon Tat street next to it . After sunset, this road is closed for vehicles and turned into a satay food stalls area. There are about ten satay stalls, in which I personally don’t really know the different other than they are identified with different integer numbers.

I’ve managed to invite 4 friends, and we were to meet at 7 PM.

When the clock showed 5 PM, I saved my work and quickly took bus to the MRT (train) station. Since I have plenty of time, I decided to go to City Hall first, to find some supplements my dad asked me to look for. Even after that, I still have almost one hour before 7. So I decided to buy an ice green tea at nearby JCo outlet to let me sit there for few minutes.

About 15 minutes to 7, Handy called and said he’s already in Raffles Place MRT station (the nearest station to Lau Pa Sat) so I went there and met him. It was his first time to Lau Pa Sat, so he asked me “is the satay good?”. I’ve gone here and eat the satay for several times, but as far as I remember the taste is more or less standard. Even not much different than the satay I ate the day before at a small hawker near my place. So I explained to him that it might be the ambient that makes this place famous.

While waiting the others to come, we ordered a “fried fritter” from a nearby seafood stall. It was the name that tickled us to order. As far as I know, neither “fried” nor “fritter” is a seafood. Only when we ask to the seller, we knew it was squid covered with fritters then deep fried.

After the others came, we started to order the satays and eat. Yet after eating them, I felt a bit disappointed. The satays were smaller and too sweet compared to the ones I bought in Commonwealth. And it’s also $0.10/stick more expensive, too. So that supports my theory that it’s only the ambient that makes this place popular. Moreover, when we finished eating, the live band started to play with some good music. So that where the $0.10 goes to.

Take Exit I from Raffles Place MRT station to go to Lau Pa Sat.

This is one good Indian Restaurant I found in Singapore. Well, if you don’t like Indian food/style, don’t go here because (at least for me) the food tastes very authentic and the ambience is very India-nish. While waiting for your meal (or eating it), you can watch the Indian dances or listen the music from the TV and sound system provided. Near the dining area, there are some statues of Indian people. Hmm.. not sure if it’s a representation of folklore or something.