Lunch At Kopi Tiam, Vivocity

We try to eat much more healthily at home these days. We also try to clear our stocks in the fridge and in the freezer. I have been cooking and baking a lot. So much more than before. At the end of the week, we treat ourselves with something tasty. I am honestly a bit tired of restaurant food, I do not look forward for a waiter to come, take our order and come back with the food. And sometimes, we really have to try hard to get their attention to get refill for ur drinks. I like to go to a clean food court with air conditioner, because it has been super hot here in Singapore. 

We picked a place and decided to go to Vivocity. There are two food courts over there that we are aware of, but I prefer a brighter place in the basement called Kopi Tiam. It was lunch time by the time we arrived. First of all getting a table. I waited a tiny bit and we got it. Next, while DH sat down, I looked around for what I wanted to buy.

There were many that I was tempted to get including some from Indonesian food stall and the vegetarian one. In the end, I opted for Yong tofu. I picked several items (looked like all fried ones in the picture, but some of them were not). I also chose small noodles (mee kia). Upon seeing this, DH wanted to have some. 

So we went with getting one dish at a time and sharing them. DH went and got a plate of bean curd, egg, etc with noodles and rice. After that,  I wanted ice kachang for dessert. That's when DH saw a beef ball stall and he wanted a bowl. It was actually quite delicious. 

Mixed Berry Oatmeal Crumble

This mixed berry oatmeal crumble is perfect for anytime of the day. It is great for breakfast, as dessert or for supper. Basically, anytime. It is healthy and taste delicious. 

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of mixed berries (I used blackberries, raspberries and blueberries)
1 Tbs flour
1Tbs coconut sugar

1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup grated coconut (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar
a dash of cinnamon powder (optional)
a dash of nutmeg (optional)
1/4 cup coconut oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. Combine berries with  1Tbs flour and 1Tbs coconut sugar (or more if needed), toss to coat
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oatmeal, coconut, brown sugar, cinnamon powder, nutmeg and coconut oil
4. Spread about a half of the oatmeal mixture on the base of the greased ramekin (pan), cover with the berries and top with the remaining half of the oatmeal mixture
5. Bake about 30 minutes until golden brown and the berries are bubbly.

Let's Eat, ION Orchard

From time to time, we eat in this place in Ion Orchard, called "Let's Eat". The food is inexpensive and taste quite good. We normally get these two dishes, Fried Kway Teow and Oyster Omelette.

King of Thai Noodles, San Francisco

San Francisco. It rained and rained. Such a poor timing that we came and it rained so much. Well, California needed water, I guess, so the rain was good for the state. Finally, the much needed free water came pouring down.

We passed by this Thai noodles restaurant around Union Square and we thought it was just perfect to have a bowl of hot soup while it was wet and cold outside. 

My eyes and my heart set on beef ball noodles above while DH's pick was noodle soup with sliced fish cakes. My soup was a little bit sweet, but it did not bother me too much. The portions are American portion, i.e. ginormous. We were not able to clean up, it was no surprise. We, however, were satisfied with the flavor we had.

Yank Sing Stevenson, Dim Sum - San Francisco

Sunday morning in San Francisco. It rained and rained so much. I was under the weather, my nose was stuffy and I was not feeling well in general. It was our last full day in the city before flying back the next day. It's time for dim sum and DH chose Yank Sing Stevenson. 

We had reservation so we got a table immediately upon arriving. Somehow, I did not find the table pleasant, the table is small, the space was tiny. We had bags, wet umbrellas and thick jackets and there's no place to put them. I kept on reminding DH not to get too much food because we did not have space on the table. We needed to finish before we getting more. 

Sadly, what I imagine to have, i.e. rice porridge, was not on their menu. I had to settle with other dim sum items. So here we went with lots of them, including the glorious xiao long bao.

Scala's Bistro Dinner, San Francisco

Back to Scala's Bistro for dinner again. We have been here many times, probably each time we come to San Francisco. Sometimes, it's not my choice to come, but when you go with others, you just have to follow the rests.  It is a rather dark place and it is challenging to take pictures. My Leica did quite a good job with taking pictures with very minimal lighting.

We had Fritto Misto to start with.

A pizza was ordered by Miss K, but we participated a little bit.

Who else, but DH, orders Seafood pasta,

My order was Ricotta Gnocchi, served with roasted forest mushroom, asparagus, parmesan brood and fine herbs.

Royal Rangoon Lunch, Berkeley

Now, it's our time to head down to San Francisco. It drizzled in the morning when we left our hotel. We first drove to and around Napa Valley. It's beautiful, but it rained and we could not do much in the rain. After getting a cup of my beloved coffee from Starbucks in Napa, we drove to Berkeley. DH had errands to run over there, including checking a couple of stores that sell Berkeley t-shirts. We may or may not meet Ms K, depending on what we were having for lunch.

Our plan was to have lunch at a Thai restaurant in Oakland, recommended by a dear IG friend. Unfortunately, they are closed for lunch and we had had a reservation for dinner elsewhere in San Francisco.  Miss K suggested us to have lunch at a Burmese restaurant nearby and that's where we went for lunch. She, of course joined us for lunch.

We ordered quite a bit of them. 

My first try on Tea Leaf Salad. It was delicious, much needed and longed for greens.

We also had Rangoon Rainbow Salad, which was also nice.

Next was coconut rice and Sesame Tofu.

Finally, it's Burmese Pad Thai. Yum.

Breakfast Crepes

I make crepes all the time, they are quite easy to prepare and do not need that many ingredients but egg, milk, salt and flour. That's all. You could add a bit of sugar in some instances, but I normally do not. You could have them for dessert, but I love to have them for breakfast too. I am a believer of breakfast being the most important meal of the day. I've gotta have something that please both my stomach and my heart too.

Pan seared bananas are easily a favorite of mine too and I love having them for breakfast as well. I had some maple syrup with my crepes too. 

Sukhothai Dinner, Suisun City, California

It's our time to say goodbye to Oregon and continue our road trip to California. We left Medford and headed closer to Bay area. I never heard of Suisun City prior to arranging this trip and here we were.  By the time we arrived, it was about time for dinner. Our dinner was Thai again, of course. Might as well, after a series of Thai food everyday? Let's just continue with it. 

DH's pick was a nearby place called Sukhothai. First of all, this place has a very good service. we were pleased to have dined over there. The staff gave us full attention, they regularly checked if we needed water or anything else.

It was a cold evening and DH wanted to have a cup of ginger tea. Unfortunately, the restaurant did not have such. The waiter instead brought us a few slices of ginger and two cups of hot water. How nice! It warmed my heart to experience kind gestures from strangers. Here, in the country where I live, I barely or almost never encounter such thing. We have to pay for tap water when they serve them in a glass in the restaurant. 

We ordered Tom Yum Soup this time. It came in a big bowl and immediately served into individual bowls, so I did not get the chance to take pictures of it. The soup was good, but for medium in spiciness, it's practically burning. Originally, we opted for spicy but the waiter told us it was really spicy.

For starter, we picked Royal Shrimp, they were deep dried, crispy and served with sweet and sour sauce. Delicious.

And... we were back with our old time favorite Pad Thai with prawns.

We were very full by now, but we still wanted to try their dessert. We had this black sticky rice with mango and coconut sauce. We have had better version of this else where, the mango was a Philippine mango and it was rather disappointing.

Lemon Grass, Medford

From Eugene, we drove further down and made a stop in Medford. Our plan was to stay overnight here.  First thing to do after putting our bags in our hotel room was to find a place to eat. Leaving the task to DH, we ended up with another Thai restaurant. Again, to our surprise, there are many Thai restaurants in Medford and vicinity. The one that we went to, Lemon Grass, seems to be run by a Thai family. The waiter we spoke to was from Thailand. 

For a change, small one, but still counts, we had fresh rolls. They were served with plum sauce and peanut sauce. The sauces definitely elevate the flavor of the rolls.

With our ability for eating much, being unavailable, we only ordered one more dish, i.e Pad See Ew, which was written as spicy noodles. Not bad.

Chao Ra Ya Dinner, Eugene - Oregon

We drove down to Eugene from Seattle, mostly in the rain. We could not make a stop in Portland as planned because it rained way too heavily. We made in to Eugene by afternoon and got our room. Our bags grew heavier each day although we constantly trying to minimize our purchase. Well, we did not try too hard in this department. 

Come dinner time, it was DH again that pick a place and it was another Thai restaurant to have dinner. We were in awe at the numbers of Thai restaurants in the places that we had been to so far. Americans seem to love Thai food.  The winner was a place called Chao Raya. 

We know that the portions are always huge in the USA, but we always want to try more dishes and we always order more than we can chew. We know it's bad, but we can't help it. We are greedy, especially DH.

For starter we got ourselves a huge plate of what they call Fish On Fire. The pieces were big, but delicious and we stopped ourselves from eating more than one.

We ordered Pad See Ew.  This dish was also yummy.

Finally, our old time favorite, Green Curry Chicken. The dish was cooked with bamboo shoots, bell peppers and green beans. It tasted good too. Good dinner, Eugene!

Buddha Ruksa - Seattle, Lunch

While feeling unwell, DH managed to do a little research on Thai restaurants in Seattle and he picked a place for lunch after we were done with the park.

Just off the bridge in West Seattle, we found Buddha Ruksa. It was rather quiet, it was after lunch time.

After placing our orders, we were given soup as starter, it was a vegetable soup that was quite nice. 

This place is popular with their Crispy Garlic Chicken, so we really had to order the dish. It did not disappoint. It was really good. 

We always try to order a vegetable dish and this one is basically a stir fry with tofu.

For carbs, we tried their Pad Thai with prawns. Both are good too. It's definitely a place that I'd like to return to when I go back to Seattle one day.

And.... we got fortune cookies, from a Thai restaurant. This is America anyway. Good lunch, Seattle!

Green Lake Park, Seattle

We had nothing scheduled for the day, but trying to rest and relax. We woke up to a nice weather in Seattle, but DH did not feel too well. We basically were very tired. The travel, the time change and the lack of rest. After many days, our body started to wear out. We tried to have enough rest and drove to a park nearby. We picked Green Lake park.

Seattle is a lovely place and it was quite pleasant to drive here too. It's much less stressful compared to Chicago, San Francisco or New York. Life is more enjoyable. 

Green Lake park is wonderful too. We saw people walking the dos, jogged and simply took a slow stroll and took some pictures like us.