Monthly Archives: January 2008

Mellben Seafood on Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 Blk 232

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It’s been welcome week for INSEAD so there have been quite a few events going on for them and I’ve also been quite busy with work. You know it is after you’ve been on vacation for a while… it can be difficult to get back into work.

Tuesday night we had Bar of the Week at No. 5 Emerald Hill, which we’d been to last year as well. Ron and I shared lychee martinis and had a good time catching up with all our friends and hearing what they did on their winter break. It was pouring rain that day though so that part wasn’t so fun.

Friday night we again went to Samy’s Curry and this time it was a bit more expensive per person because I think we had less people but ate the same amount! Well I’m exaggerating… but the food was still really good. They’ve remodeled since the last time we’ve been there and there’s some new restaurants open next door. It was extremely jammed packed with people and cars. It’d probably be better to go on a weekday when it’s not so busy to try their fish head curry.

On Saturday we went to Sentosa as Bain & Company hosted their welcome week party at the KM8 bar. We missed the bus to Sentosa because we went to have dinner first so ended up taking a cab. But funny enough, the bus was still waiting at the ticket counter so we got off the cab and boarded the bus instead to be taken inside to KM8. It was a nice cool night to relax on the beach.

Today we had the best crab I’ve every eaten. One of the students, Jackson, who’s lived in Singapore many years invited a big group of us to try the best crab he’s ever eaten. Apparently this place, Mellben Seafood, usually has a long long line and they have plastic chairs set out especially for those who have to wait. They open at 4:30pm so we arrived at 4pm so that we wouldn’t have to queue as long.

It was a really good thing that we arrived early because it started storming really heavily, complete with thunder and lightning right above our heads.

But the food was worth the danger. We had fresh steamed shrimp, fish cake, chili crab, black pepper crab, crab bee hoon, and my favorite (!) butter crab.

The best was using the fried steam buns and dipping it into the butter crab sauce. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it again…


We had to roll ourselves home as we were so stuffed. I don’t want to know what my cholesterol is like after this.. I think I’d better eat fruits all week!

El Patio at Holland Village

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It’s quite funny and seems like it’s becoming a trend that we go out to Holland V with our friends after returning from each break. After the last break we also had Mexican food at the restaurant next door and now we had dinner at El Patio. It was a surprisingly cool night so we had dinner outside on the patio and enjoyed catching up with each other about our breaks.

I had some sort of chicken enchilada burrito (don’t ask me how it can be an enchilada and burrito at the same time):

and Ron’s dish:

Heading back to Singapore…

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Today we flew left Macau and had a 4 hour layover at the Manila airport in the Philippines. Since we had such a long layover, we thought we could take some time to leave the airport to see the city a little bit but the staff at the airport kept on suggesting that we shouldn’t leave or else we’d miss our flight. The airport also had very high security, they have all these blockades and security checking you in where you entered and exited. It was a rather frustrating few hours and boring. But we passed the time and boarded the plane back to Singapore.

We arrived with twice as much luggage as we left with and of course purchased our allotment of alcohol from the airport (1 Liter of liquor, 1 Liter of wine, 1 Liter of beer per person).

We have one day to relax before having to head back to work and school.

Second day in Macau, Last day of vacation

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Today is our last day of vacation before we head back to Singapore tomorrow. We had the breakfast buffet this morning at our hotel before taking the hotel shuttle bus to the Macau Jockey Club. From there we could walk to different sites.

We visited the Four Faces Buddha, Macau Stadium, Tin Hua & Pak Tai Temples, and Rua de Cunha. The temples had very these very interesting incense hanging from the ceiling.

We ended up at the Taipa Houses Museum which showcases a Macanese House, a House of the Islands, a House of the Portuguese Regions, and an Exhibition Gallery.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Pana. We had mussels, Portuguese chicken, and seafood fried rice.

The funny (but maybe gross) thing was that Ron found a baby crab inside one of his mussels. I guess the mussel was having a meal when it was caught.

After lunch we got totally lost again. We really couldn’t figure out the bus system. We were trying to go to the Go Karting place but ended up on the wrong island. So we ended up just visiting the casinos. We visited Hotel Lisboa, Wynn, and MGM.

MGM just opened but only one of its towers. They were passing out free juices of calimansi and orange plus water. And you know where there are Chinese people and free stuff, there’s a swarm. It was hard to get our hands on these but it was worth it because they were quite refreshing after breathing all the smoke in the casinos.

Afterwards we headed to the Ferry Terminal again to take the free shuttle to the Venetian. We were in search of a good casino buffet but none of the other hotels have one, we hoped that Venetian wouldn’t let us down.

A view of our hotel (Grand Waldo) from the Venetian, very very bright!

We went shopping for a bit at the Venetian Canal Shoppes and it’s huge! Much bigger than Las Vegas. It was a good way to kill some time before we had our dinner and I also got to shop at a great Hello Kitty store called Ki La Ra.

We were happy though to find a buffet at Bambu Asian Feast. They had prime rib, fresh seafood, and mostly Asian food but the desserts were my favorite. Ron only shared the 1st plate with me, the other 2 plates I ate myself… 😛

After a satisfying meal, we headed back to our hotel by taxi and played video games until 11pm. Ron is out gambling a bit and I’m going to sleep. We leave in the morning for Singapore.


The Sights of Macau

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Our flight was delayed to Macau so didn’t arrive until after lunchtime. Although the flight was short, they served us breakfast/brunch which was a bit weird as it was a mix of Chinese and Western food.

When we finally arrived in Macau. We caught a cab to our hotel, The Grand Waldo Hotel & Casino. We stayed in a bit to figure out what to do in the afternoon. Luckily our hotel offered free shuttle service to the Ferry Terminal where there are buses to the sights of Macau.


The first place we went was to the area near the Ruins of St. Paul but our first stops included snacks. I love Portuguese egg tarts and even though I wasn’t supposed to take a picture, I did.

Doesn’t it make your mouth water? The crust is very flaky and yummy and the custard is very egg-y and just the right amount of sweetness. As we continued on our way to the Ruins of St. Paul, we also stopped by Pasterlaria Koi Kei Macau which sells lots of snacks like peanut candy, pineapple cake, cookies, and pork/beef/chicken barbeque meat. All so good.

We finally made it to the Ruins:

The sun was going down so we decided to quickly see Mt Fortress and its canons. We stayed there while the sun set and Ron took this photo:

We stopped by Sedano Square, St. Domnic’s Church, the Cathedral, and Holy Mercy commemorative statue.

We decided to have dinner at Fat Siu Lau, the oldest restaurant in Mcacu opened in 1903. It’s supposed to be Portuguese cuisine.

We had for appetizer, French style baked escargot (Caracois A Francesa):

Main courses of Spicy African Chicken (Galinha Africana) and Minute Steak (Bife “Amalo”):

We got quite lost on the way back to our hotel as we were on Macau island and our hotel was on Taipa island. The bus we took didn’t take us where we wanted to go but we finally did make it to the Ferry Terminal to catch our free hotel shuttle back to the hotel.