Collins Grill and Bento @ Hougang St 11 Foodloft

So glad this shop opened nearby. It sells inexpensive western and Japanese food. Western one is so so only but the Japanese menu, taste and quality is so much better than those you find at typical food courts. All 3 dishes below only came to a total of $14. Bargain! And let me tell ya, the Udon soup on the right, they used the good japanese udon that has that slight chewy texture, not the cheaper version you can find in the cheaper normal supermarket fridge. The curry was really good too. The only really bad food at this joint, and it's been twice already so I know it's not a  one off, is the corn. It's overcooked and very very tasteless! I'm a corn lover and both times unfortunately I couldn't even finish the corn...that's how bad it is.....The Aglio Olio spaghetti accompanying the grilled black pepper chicken was overcooked - so was not al dente. My guess is the noodles have been cooked earlier and have been sitting around too long. They should perhaps cook it less than al dente earlier, then finish it off when they get an order.

Japanese Ebi (prawn) curry rice, Udon soup, Grilled Black Pepper Chicken with Aglio Olio spaghetti, corn and coleslaw.

Shabu Sushi Restaurant at Hougang Mall and NEX

I like the concept of this restaurant where the items for your steamboat comes around a conveyor belt just like the sushi places. Would could be funner than that! We've eaten at the NEX outlet several times. It's inexpensive especially for kids and senior citizens and students. Which would explain why it's getting more and more crowded these days and since it's a buffet waiting for a table can take forever. The NEX outlet is also a bit cramped.

You get to choose from 2 or 3 different stocks - sukiyaki, Tom yum and chicken I think it was. Nothing fantastic really, standard stock, we usually choose sukiyaki and Tom yum.

NEX outlet

Recently we tried the Hougang Mall outlet. It was TERRIBLE! Not sure if it's always like that but you can bet we'll never go back there again. Staff attention was pretty lame and they ran out of ice for the drinks (at 8pm!). The sushi and other 'hot food' was pretty crummy too. One of the worst things there is the lighting. They have this horrible disco light affect overhead that changes from green to red to yellow to blue. Argh it was horrible, gave us a headache.

NEX outlet. Lots of dipping sauces available.

Fresh prawns are available at both outlets.

So in short, try the NEX one and avoid the Hougang one if you can!

Angry Birds fish cakes,

some other shaped fish cakes....these were tough

happy camper :)

Tom Yum soup base with the overhead funky lights reflecting off the soup (at Hougang)

Faulty Indesit oven Thermostat (in Singapore)

I have a built in Indesit oven that's been around for about 9 years. For a couple of years now it hasn't really been working well. It's always too hot and my Mum kept blaming it on the grill heating elements on the top part of the oven. But I kept on telling her it's normal for the oven to turn on the top heating element too as that's how it heats up the oven. But more often than not, it keeps burning my food or if underbaking whatever cake or bread I'm making, so much till I've pretty much given up baking altogether.

Like I said, it's been a couple of years not that it hasn't been working well, and only now did I decide to research as to what the problem could be. From looking around at different forums and sites etc, it seems to be that the thermostat is faulty, that's why no matter what temperature you put the oven on, it's always at its hottest. Unfortunately there's nothing much on how much thermostat repairs would cost in Singapore. So I've written this to share with anyone else who's got similar problems. I've called up a couple of repairman and their basic transport cost to come take a look is $35-$40 and then if there's need to change anything, the spareparts alone would cost a whopping $200-$400!!!

So I've decided I'm just going to just replace it with a new oven, you can get a brand new oven for just a little bit more. Better than getting it fixed and a couple of years down the track there's some other problem with it!

Hot Tomato at NEX

Not a bad place to eat. There's not many places that offer steaks for under $15 in a restaurant setting. The food quality was quite good, only wish there was more of it but hey for the price you're paying I guess can't complain much. I ordered the steak and prawn combo plus the lunch set which included a drink and soup of the day. Including gst and service charge all up was about $18.