The Handburger, SOMERSET 313 ORCHARD RD, SINGAPORE

As I was heading home from work, i walked past this relatively new burger joint that caught my attention. "The Handburger" with the very clean and simplistic decor. I expected premium price to be paid for the handburger and suprisingly, the prices were reasonable. It is definitely not comparable to those fast food joint like McD, Carl's Jr and Burger King. This was different to me, it oozes boutique burger.

The decor and ambiance of the place is rather simple and non pretentious. Despite the openness of the place, you still get your privacy and wont be bothered too much with the crowd around you.

We were sitted as soon as we walked in to the shop and placed nicely at the corner of the room. Menu was placed on the table right after we were seated. As we peruse through the menu, i realized that there was a wide variety of gourmet burger choices to choose from.

So we both decided on having the burger set. My friend ordered "The works" with Calamari rings and garlic aoili with green tea. Added on the chunky mushroom soup as well.

The mushroom soup was very tasty and pure. Definitely made in the kitchen with real mushroms and not those from the cans! It got a good 7/10 from my friend.

The burger arrived not long after we ordered. It was definitely very pleasant to the eyes. The burger is stacked with a a generous portion of beef pattie, onion rings, sunny side up eggs, bacon pieces, cheese, sauce and coral lettuce.
The calamari was crispy on the outside and had the perfect texture on the inside. It is easy to get this wrong. if it is overcooked it gets tough and rubbery.

I had the duck leg confit burger topped with mandarin oranges, tomatoes, sprouts, coral lettuce and their home made sauce. It was a different take from the ordinary beef burger one would indulge in. This was rather different. Taste wise, I will give a good 6.5/10. Perhaps, it takes a little getting use to.

We also ordered some fries to share.

All in all, it was a great dining experience for my friend and I. We both agree that the quality of the food is good and definitely beats any burger joint out there. Despite being slightly pricier than your regular burger joint, it is definitely worth the try! The burger buns are made freshly daily in the shop itself. The service provided was admirable. The staff was friendly and the ambiance is good. We paid $46 for both our meals. Looking forward to my next burger meal with them.

p.s:// Sorry for the quality of the pictures as it was taken with my phone!

Macau Trip (First Trip) - Day 1 and Day 2

Greetings from Cassie here! To all of our blog's viewers, I'm a new team member for these blog. Same as the rest of our team members, I'm a foodie and I love food.

In this very first post of mine, I'm going to share my Macau Trip's experiences with you guys. Fyi, my sis and my bro-in-law were based at Macau for working purposes, so, I've eventually became a frequent visitor of Macau. During last summer, May'2009, I was there with my mom for a short holiday.

Lately, I've been quite depressed with my life as everything doesn't goes really well. When my mom suggested a short trip to Macau, immediately I jump-off from the sofa and agreed. Dad was busy and wouldn't have the time to accompany mom during this trip, so, it will only be me and mom who's going to Macau and visit my beloved sister and bro-in-law.

First day touching down at Macau, sis brought us some Portugese Egg Tarts as snack and bring us to a Dessert House for tong shui.

Portuguese Egg Tarts  HKD 48.00

By having the warm Portuguese Egg Tarts, I can felt the warmness that my family had given me. It is always the best to have our beloved family around us whenever we are feeling down. The Portugese Egg Tart's pastry was crispy and the egg custard was soft and smooth that it can easily melt in my mouth.

Black Sesame Soup HKD 12.00

My sis brought us to a famous Dessert House, Yee Shun Milk Company in Macau for some locals dessert. Their Black Sesame Soup was heavenly good. It was thick and smooth. Flavourful with strong black sesame taste but not too sweet.

After the dessert, we went back to my sis's house and have a rest before dinner. Sis planned to bring us for a special Thai Food dinner on that night.

According to sis, Thai Food is not a common food in Macau and Tuk Tuk Thai Kitchen serve very good Thai Food. Sorry that I couldn't recalled the price of the food. It was paid by my bro-in-law and I didn't had the initiative to ask.

Fried Tunghoon

The dish was not too oily, seasoning was just right and the taste is truly Thai but made in Macau. Bravo!!

Fried Noodle with Seafood

My sis highly recommended the Fried Noodle with Seafood. It was fragrantly good and had the savoury 'wok' flavour. The Seafood was fresh and the whole dish was appetizing.

Minced Meats with Basil, Fresh Lettuces

One of the must-have dish whenever we had Thai Food is always the Minced Meats with Basil. The right way to eat the minced meat was to wrapped it into the Fresh Lettuces. The minced meats was rich in herbs flavour with a little spicy and tasted very refreshing when eaten together with the Fresh Lettuce.

Thai Fish Cake

Crispy Thai Fish Cake dipped with Thai Sauce was yummilicious! This is the only way I could described it.

Thai Green Curry

I personally don't really like thick coconut milk flavour. The Thai Green Curry although tasted not bad with strong curry flavour and spiciness, it was too rich with coconut milk and quite creamy.

Stir-Fried Kangkung

The Stir-Fried Kangkung tasted just like our local dish. While having the vegetables, it reminded me of my hometown in Sabah. Fortunately, I was surrounded by my family's members.

Second day in Macau was quite relaxing. We had most of our meals at home. While my bro-in-law was off to work, sis brought us out for a walk to unwind ourselves.

The building structures in Macau are really special. I'm kind of feeling myself lost in the space when passing-by the beautiful scenery in Macau. It does looks like I'm living in a Western country but surrounded with Asians.

I was salivating in front of the Haagen Dazs's stall for a while and little do I know that my sis noticed it. By looking at my cute expression, my sis couldn't resisted herself from buying me some ice cream. I just looked like a small little girl in front of her begging for some ice cream.

Food is always for us to share. We share the ice cream while continue walking around the streets. It tasted more flavourful with the warmness from my family. I really enjoy my trip very much.

Life in Macau was so beautiful! For once, I've been wondering how good it can be if I'm staying at Macau. As people always said 'the grass always looks greener at the other side of the fence'. It is such a crying shame life if this is how I seems to see things.

For MU fans, you will have to shout out loud when you see the shop at the photos below. I have plenty of MU fans and I guessed that they will be very excited if they happen to be in Macau.

KEDAI KOPI ILHAM @ Menggatal

Kedai Kopi Ilham
Location: Near 7 Eleven and Sabah Lotto
$
Ratings:
Food: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Cleanliness: 3/5
Visit reviewed: 22/03/2010

It was well-known that Menggatal is famous with Ngiu Chap and Soto. We had blogged about the Ngiu Chap before but had yet to mention about the Soto. Kedai Kopi Ilham is the most popular shop for Soto and Mee Rojak at Menggatal. It was easily to spotted by the number of patrons in the shop.

Soto Daging Campur, RM4.00

The Soto Campur was rich in beef flavour. For the price of only RM4.00, it comes with beef, beef tendons and beef 'stomach'. A good tip we found from other patrons, while having Soto, it is best to add-in some lime juice, chili sauce and dark soy sauce. However, it is an optional choice as the Soto itself already had a strong taste.

Rojak Special, RM5.50

The Rojak Special was great. It is hard to find a good rojak in KK. It tasted like the Indian Rojak in West Malaysia but the ingredients used was quite different. Rojak Special comes with beef, beef ball, beef tendon, beef stomach, egg wedge, beancurd , cucumber slices and bean sprouts. The peanut sauce was thick and had the right hint of sweetness.

Lunch, RM9.50 (Sky juice, free, self-serviced)