For The Homebody 🏡

NUS students at the Kent Ridge campus may be all too familiar with Reedz but this is a GODSEND to us tucked away behind the Botanic Gardens. Here's my chicken salad ($5.90 nett) consisting of chunks of grilled chicken on a base of lettuce, and topped with capsicum, carrot, chickpeas, onions and feta (choice of cheddar, parmesan or feta). Somedays they have edamame too. You can choose the toppings you want, and I asked for extra capsicum and onion (hohoho) and left out the canned pineapple and orange. As for dressings, there are Caesar, Thai Mango Chili, South Asian and Balsamic Vinegar. I chose the Thai, which tasted just like Thai chili sauce so it wasn't that impressive. There's usually a decent portion of chicken, but a nice middle-aged uncle served me today and he gave me LOADS of chicken. Enough for 2 salads! Yup, so the point of this review is to look out for this friendly server when you visit Reedz ;) A minor gripe: oil from the chicken sometimes pools at the bottom of the bowl so you get some oily leaves urgh.

A mixture of greens, including arugula, purple cabbage and lettuce, with sautéed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, quail eggs, orange slices and 2 hefty pieces of Cajun-spiced chicken breast. Was pleasantly surprised by how tender and flavourful the chicken was :D I rarely just have salad for dinner (in fact, this is my first time) so I was thankful for the meat and eggs, and yummy addition of fruit and mushrooms to break the monotony of raw vege. I had a choice of lemon or balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The fresh vegetables tasted pretty good on their own too. This salad costs $10+ for a good portion, but I had the salad + pizza set ($13.80) which I felt was more value for money :)

This is my takeaway meal obsession right now! The people at Ginza Bairin do it so well - the Tonkotsu is always crisp, warm and juicy. It stays crisp for hours too! Perfect for takeaway. I'm most tempted to say that Ginza really does serve the best Tonkotsu and for the best value. At $10 nett (includes a choice of hot or cold green tea), this is a really affordable and satisfying option for the workaholic in you who doesn't want to (or can't) go out for lunch. The only drawback is that miso soup is not available for takeaway, and I do love miso.

Ichiban Boshi offers a variety of bentos, many of which are less than $10. The teriyaki chicken bento comes with teriyaki chicken (of course haha), and 2 sides of a gyoza and a piece of sweet potato croquette. There's also a choice between white and brown rice (I chose brown). My bento was freshly made, and the sides were still crispy :)

I NEED to express how impressed I am with the takeaway service at restaurants nowadays. In the not so distant past, takeaways were rather troublesome cause the condiments were messily packed and some parts of your meal would be missing cause the restaurant found them too much of a hassle to pack. This takeaway of 10 xlbs came with plastic sachets of vinegar and bowls of chopped ginger. Sorry no pics cause I've poured the vinegar into the bowls, but vinegar sachets... How cute!

Nothing beats warm soup on a cold rainy day! Here's my favourite Chicken and Mushroom Ragout in the cutest takeaway bowl. This made for a really filling lunch, and consisted of more ingredients than soup actually. Happy weekend, everyone!