Charcos
608 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5

89 Marine Parade Central

603 Clementi West Street 1 #01-43

http://www.charcos.com.sg/


Skip the Mains, Go for the Salad Bar
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 6
Ambience & Setting: 2
Food & Beverage: 7
Service: 1
Value For Money: 6
Spent about SGD $8 per person.


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Heard about Charcos through an acquaintance, and having been here a few times and tried nearly everything on the menu, thought I'll put some thoughts down.

Service: Self-Service. Do help yourself to the BBQ Sauce! Oddly enough, the Charcos franchise overseas actually specializes in Chicken, but this stall in Singapore seems to have got it the other way around.
It's Halal, so you can bring your Muslim friends here. I would definitely recommend this place for the salads, but not anything else.

Must Tries!
Most of the Salads in the Salad Bar. Made fresh daily, it's served in pretty big portions, whether you order it alone, or with a Main.

Charcos is unusual in that the Salads and Sides far outweigh its Mains in both taste and quality. My favorites in order would be:
- Egg Salad
- Potato Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Greek Salad
- Tuna Pasta Salad
- Potato Creme
- Chicken Avocado Salad
- Coleslaw

The only main at Charcos which I feel is a Must-Try would be the Rack of Lamb Ribs. Covered in excellent BBQ sauce, its slightly spicy, tangy and tasty enough that you would lick your fingers when done. However, the meat doesn't fall off the bone.

So-So.....
Close behind are the Chicken Schnitzel and Kebab Meat (Lamb / Chicken). Passable as mains, not too oily, cooked just nicely, with good taste.

The Chicken Schnitzel is a little bit better than your average coffee shop chicken cutlet due to the extra seasoning that goes in. Not something I would travel all the way here for though. Their Seafood Salad and Pineapple Fritter is OK as well.

Don't Try!
In my opinion, it would be best to miss these completely:
- Roast Chicken: Horrible. Dry, and overcooked. Accompanying sauce is sour.
- Portuguese Chicken: Nice spices, but dry just like the Roast Chicken.
- Roast Peas: Overcooked, and not really fresh.
- Roast Potatoes Cubes: Hard, overcooked..... Terrible.


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Quarter Roast Chicken With Peas & Potato Creme

Quarter Portuguese Chicken With Tuna Pasta Salad, Caesar Salad & Seafood Salad

Rack Of Lamb Ribs With Potato Salad, Egg Salad & Greek Salad

Schnitzel With Chicken Avocado, Roast Potato & Coleslaw

Pineapple Fritter

Lamb Kebab With Potato Creme, Egg Salad & Caesar Salad

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Nando's
163 Tanglin Road
#01-14 Tanglin Mall

200 Victoria Street
#01-85 Bugis Junction

http://www.nandos.com.sg/


Great Sauce, Good Chicken, Forgettable Sides
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 8
Food & Beverage: 8
Service: 4
Value for Money: 6
Spent about SGD $27 per person.


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I have good memories of Nando's Chicken and its accompanying flaming hot peri-peri sauce from my time in Australia, so I was pretty excited to hear about its opening in Singapore.

Wanted to avoid the crowds and infamous queues in Bugis, so brought the family over to Nando's Tanglin outlet.

Even though we arrived quite late (around 9pm) on a Tuesday night, there was still a queue outside the outlet, and we had to wait for around 10 minutes. I do have to compliment them on providing cute little booklets with information about Nando's to while away the time while queuing. (Interesting Reading Material!)


Ambience
Nice design and layout, place was a bit noisy though, so by just speaking to the person next to you, you would have to raise your voice slightly or lean over.


Service
Had to wave a couple of times to attract their attention, and we were even told to wait by one waiter. (And he wasn't polite about it. Didn't even say anything, just held out his hands in a "wait, I'm busy now" gesture.) They looked really busy and stressed, rushing around the place. Seemed really hectic in there. Perhaps because its a new outlet? Food didn't take long though, we only waited around 7-8 minutes before the appetizer was served. Had a minor problem with billing, at first they gave us the wrong bill. Luckily we checked, and the second time around, they gave us the correct bill.


Food
The Petisco is a sampler dish, consisting of 2 types of Dips (Peri-Peri Salsa & Hummus), Olives, Pita Bread, mini Peri-Peri Chicken Thighs and Peri-Peri Chicken Wings. Thought it was a great starter for sharing, and the Dips were fresh and tasty. The Pita Bread was warm and fluffy, tasted great together with the dips. Olives were fresh and came in Green & Black varieties. And the Peri-Peri Sauce on the chicken was exactly as I remembered, spicy, slightly salty, with a sourish kick. Really Good!

Petisco

The Peri-Peri Chicken (Quarter) had a nice char-grill, tender, juicy, and with little fat. Great! This is their signature dish, so it can't really go wrong. You can douse it with even more Peri-Peri sauce provided at each table.

Quarter Chicken With Old Style Chips & Peri Corn

The Cataplana was something new.... didn't see it in Australia. Basically a huge pan bed of spiced rice, covered with peri-peri chicken thighs and grilled vegetables. I thought it was a bit underwhelming. The grilled vegetables were good, but the rice was just average, couldn't really taste much of the spices. The portion of chicken thighs was a bit too little, felt they could have put in 1 or 2 more pieces. Not value for money.

Cataplana

I ordered the Espetada very frequently in Nando's Australia, as I like its unique presentation style. Didn't disappoint. 4 peri-peri chicken thighs and grilled vegetables served on a skewer. Good as usual.

Espetada

Sides of Old Style Chips, Peri Corn, Peri 3 Bean Salad, Potato Lime Leaves Skewer. All the sides were average. Not particularly tasty or memorable, and not disastrous. In fact, if you give them a miss, your dining experience wouldn't be worse off. The Peri 3 Bean Salad looks good when presented due to its many colors from the different beans. The Potato Lime Leaves Skewer has good potatoes, but I couldn't taste the lime. Also couldn't figure out if the lime leaves were for display, or were supposed to be eaten..... In the end, just left them aside.

Peri 3 Bean Salad

Potato Lime Leaves Skewer

Try the Crimson Cola, I thought it had a unique taste. Expected it to taste like Cherry Coke, but the fruit taste was a lot stronger, and slightly more sourish. Good.

Madeira Red

Crimson Cola

I loved the Butterfly Chicken Breast With Sweet Potato Mash. The butterfly chicken breast was nice, moist and tender, not dry at all, and came apart easily. And boneless! The sweet potato mash had a hint of cinnamon, which lent a sweet profile to this side dish.

Butterfly Chicken Breast With Sweet Potato Mash

Butterfly Chicken Breast

Sweet Potato Mash

Spinach

Grilled Veg

Overall, would come back to Nando's for the food, but the service needs work.





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Roma's Deli
100 Beach Road
#01-23 Shaw Towers

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53984046817


Go for the Mushroom Soup & Pasta, Skip the Baked Rice
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 6
Food & Beverage: 7
Service: 7
Value for Money: 9
Spent about SGD $7 per person.


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Eaten at Roma's Deli a couple of times, first came upon this hidden gem by recommendation of a friend.

At first sight, you wouldn't be able to tell Roma's Deli serves Vegetarian food, it looks more like a cosy Italian cafe.

Prices are very affordable, though their set lunch (SGD $6.90) is more value for money than their set dinner (SGD $10.90), because the $4 difference only gets you 1 drink.

The highlight for me at Roma's Deli would definitely be their Mushroom Soup. Tasty, with a thick consistency and succulent mushrooms, it's served on a large plate, and enough for 2. Could almost be a meal in itself. The only drawback would be the Toast it's served with. Looks like garlic bread, but isn't, it's hard and not particularly tasty either. Order their Bread Bowl for a more satisfying experience.

Mushroom Soup

Toast

Their pasta comes with great tasting sauce, and is very filling too. However, they have only a few options of toppings to choose from, and it's all served with Spaghetti. Would have preferred a few more options of pasta to choose from.

Vegetarian Cheese Bolognese Spaghetti

Roma's Deli's baked rice is average..... have eaten better. The baked rice doesn't come with much ingredients, so eating it feels to me like eating just rice and cheese. It's also not as cheesy as most baked rice.

Vegetarian Baked Chicken Mushroom Rice

The food is served fast, and the service staff and owners are friendly.

Pretty unique experience, especially for vegetarians.





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Zac's Cafe - Closed
17 Jalan Pinang


Decent Food, Decent Atmosphere, Weird Service
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 6
Ambience & Setting: 6
Food & Beverage: 6
Service: 5
Value for Money: 5
Spent about SGD $13 per person.


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We were looking around for a Halal Cafe for a casual dinner, as we had a few Muslim friends with us, when we stumbled upon Zac's Cafe, and decided to give it a try.

The indoor air-conditioning wasn't strong enough, which made the place seem stuffy. So we opted to sit outdoors instead, which in hindsight, was a better option, as it was actually cooler (We came at night around 9pm). The cafe wasn't crowded, and relatively peaceful, with only a few other families around. Overall decor of Zac's Cafe gave it a laid-back, rustic kind of feel.

Food - I had Harira Soup, Lamb Bamya, and a Latte. My friends ordered Doner Kebab, Pari-Pari Chicken, Banana Split, and a couple other dishes I can't recall. We also ordered Cheesecake (recommended by the waitress), and Chicken Wings to share.

Oddly enough, the Desserts (Banana Split & Cheesecake), arrived at the same time as our appetizers (Chicken Wings). First time I've ever been served desserts before the meal.....

The Chicken Wings and Banana Split were passable.... Nothing too special or disastrous about them.

Cheesecake: Weird. Didn't taste like your normal cheesecake would. It wasn't cheesy enough, and the consistency was more like a dense sponge cake. My friend took a bite and decided she wouldn't eat the rest of it. Actually, it was not bad as a cake, just that it failed as a cheesecake.

Harira Soup: In my opinion, probably the best dish I had here. More like a stew than a soup, and filled with chucks of lamb, chickpeas, and other vegetables, it was both heartening and fortifying. (I was feeling a little under the weather, and this really hit the spot).

Harira Soup

Pari-Pari Chicken: Tasted almost similar to Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken, tender, but not as juicy. The spicy kick from the chili did taste like Nando's, just less sourish.

Doner Kebab: A huge kebab roll stuffed with lamb meat and vegetables. Extremely filling and satisfying. The meat was juicy and succulent.

Lamb Bamya: The arabic rice and grilled vegetables with vinaigrette were a nice accompaniment to the Lamb and Lady's Fingers smothered with gravy. The lamb meat was tender, and fell of the bone. My only complaint with this dish was that there was too little meat, and too much lamb fat on the bone. Weight-Conscious folks may want to stay away from this dish.

Lamb Bamya

Note: They charge for water, at 20 cents a glass, so don't order water unless you're prepared to pay.

May come back again during lunch next time, as their lunch menu looks to be even more value for money.





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Lost Generation
by Jonathan Reed

Source Credits

I am part of a lost generation
And I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
"Happiness comes from within"
Is a lie, and
"Money will make me happy"
So in 30 years I will tell my children
They are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
Work
Is more important than
Family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
But this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this Earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope


And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.


*Hint: Now read each line, from the bottom up.





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The Thing That Couldn't Be Done
by Edgar Albert Guest

Source Credits

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face, if he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.






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Newsletter 2010 2nd Quarter






























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Newsletter 2010 1st Quarter






































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