Starting off 2012 at The Marmalade Pantry @ Ion Orchard

My "Multiply" friends had a meet-up on New Year Day!  We ordered lots of food to celebrate 2012 and also, to celebrate our friend - Hazel's 32th Birthday!

The making of future celebrity star.

I ordered "Clockwork" smoothie - Avocado, Banana, Yoghurt and Skimmed milk.

Salad for sharing

Nice club sandwiches (according to my friends) but I was too full to try them :(

I ordered the crabmeat linguine which came in a huge portion.  It was tasty with generous serving of crabmeat but I had a hard time trying to finish up the whole dish on my own.

Two of my friends ordered the grilled salmon with soba.

4 different types of cupcakes for sharing, including "Hazel" the chocolate cupcake.

Gindako @ Ion Orchard

Got to go to Borders to get some storybooks for my "Multiply" friend's son. Hubby dropped me at Orchard and I went for my brunch first at Ion Orchard. As it was pretty early, many shops were not opened yet and I decided to take the set meal from Gindako.  This time round I ordered the Matcha Soy drink which was quite refreshing and most importantly, it made you less guilty eating the 6 tako balls after reading the posters on the benefits of Matcha at the seating area.  Haha... Self-deceiving?

Freddie's Burger @ Ion Orchard [Closed]

Update @ 20 Apr 2010: 6 food stalls from Ion Orchard closed down including Freddie's Burger. Click here to read more

My Burger - "The Aussie", a beef burger that comes with cheese and egg

I feel that the meat was too minced, suffering from a mealy texture.  I wouldn't use "tender" to describe the beef patty.  The combo set was quite value for money as I bought it during a promotion.  Not too sure whether they still have the promo or maybe they have lowered the price of their burgers?  The set comes with curly fries and a drink.  The staff who was serving me was quite friendly.

R Burger @ Ion Orchard

Ok... this is another novelty food product brought into Singapore.  As a typical Singaporean, I would also like to have a taste of this since this is one of the food kiosks that brought in quite a lot of excitement in Ion Orchard.  Read some reviews saying that the mantou standard is not quite consistent.  Sometimes too dry, sometimes too moist.  The one that I had is just right, I think.  Quite fluffy, but the presentation was not really very good.  As it was being wrapped up, the "skin" of the mantou as you can see from the picture, was a bit moist and looked quite wrinkled.  I will advise you to consume it as soon as possible, otherwise the whole thing may turn mushy. 
Side track a bit... I have always been a fan of avocado.  When I was young, we grew our own avocado tree (or plant?) and our avocado fruit was much much bigger than the avocado that you can find in NTUC.  Nowadays, we cannot find the big fleshy avocado in Singapore.  Sort of miss those days....
Back to this R Burger kiosk.  I ordered the avocado cheese burger.  To my disappointment, the avocado in the burger was really quite mashed up as seen in the photo.  Naturally, it doesn't taste like a avocado burger.  Of course, taste is always very subjective.  Sometimes, you have to try it yourselves before you know whether you like it or not.
Just read a review from ieatishootipost, think I will also like to try the Godzilla Da Pao recommended by ieatishootipost at Elias (Near to my place), only $3.80 :)

Scotts Beef Noodles @ Food Opera, Ion Orchard

I ordered the mixed beef noodles (dry).  I presume this is one of the cheaper food (at a price of $5) at Food Opera.  Hubby ordered Bak Kut Teh soup, with rice and preserved vegetables and all these cost him $11.50!

Ok.. back to this beef noodle stall.  The bowl of beef noodle had a good serving of thick noodles, sliced beef, brisket, tendon and beef balls (got 3!) :)  I was really really full after finishing this bowl of beef noodles. The gravy was very thick and the sliced beef was not tough.  Found out that this stall was quite famous when it was located at then Scotts Shopping Food Centre.

Quoted from SoShiok.com:

Stall No.15: Scotts Beef Noodles

There's no need to introduce this famous stall. Scotts Beef Noodles has been around for more than 60 years, since Kiang Kin Nam’s father started selling the Hainanese beef noodles from a tiny stall on Bain Street in the 1940s. Kiang subsequently moved the operation to a coffee shop across Odeon Cinema (currently the National Library), and then to the now-defunct Scotts Shopping Centre Food Court. Now the noodles are back across the road at Food Opera.

Modern Peking Duck @ Ion Orchard

This stall is likely to capture the attention of many as they place a big roasted pig at their stall! Not too sure why the stall is named "Modern"... probably because they introduce a new trend of eating peking duck? Usually we can only have this when dining in at the Chinese restaurant but now we can have it as a takeaway snack. They pre-packed the rolls of Peking Duck in boxes and you just pay and take.... almost no wait time when I was there around 1pm.

5 rolls of Peking Duck cost $6.
The duck meat is tender. Of course, when you eat Peking Duck, the skin is very important. It should be crispy with some fats I suppose? I find that the skin of the peking duck here is too thin and not crispy enough. Although the sauce is good but I hope for a thicker and crisper duck skin. Another disappointment is that it is not served with spring onion or cucumber that is commonly put together in the crepe to give it a more refreshing taste.

Taiyaki @ Ion Orchard

I bought the Italian Taiyaki ($2.60) and Japanese Premium Azuki Taiyaki ($2). The Italian one has 1 whole sauage inside with tuna, corn and tomato paste. I like this better but find that the pricing is a bit too expensive. I will still try out the other favours in near future since I will be patronizing Ion Orchard quite often. =P

Gindako @ Ion Orchard

The first time I dropped by Ion food basement, there was a very very long queue at Gindako so I didn't get to try this the other time. The second time I came, on a weekday afternoon, there was absolutely no queue at all. Without any hesitation, I bought 1 set for my lunch.

You can choose 6 or 10 takoyaki balls. Saw a man who was lunching alone, ordered the bigger set! I wonder how he can finish them?! After I finished the 4th one, I was already full!

6 takoyaki with Matcha float ($4.80)

Ingredient includes lots of spring onions, 1 small piece of octopus and also seaweed. Personally, I don't really fancy the favour of seaweed, but it is just a personal preference. =P