Pasir Ris was fun, but Tampines was better.
Pasir Ris, Singapore. May, 2009.
Tag: Pasir Ris
Hygiene Standards at White Sands McDonald’s Are Lacking
I went to the McDonald’s at White Sands Mall in Pasir Ris last night and I was disgusted by the lack of proper hygiene and knowledge of simple concepts of cleanliness I encountered. This was the second time I’d seen the same behavior, so I took the time to send a feedback message to McDonald’s Singapore.
This is that message:
To Whom It May Concern,
I’m concerned about the standards of hygiene that are being implemented in your White Sands, Pasir Ris branch, and possibly all of your branches if this one location is any indication.
Last night I approached the service counter for ice cream and asked the young man behind the counter for a hot fudge sundae. He was polite enough, but when he presented the sundae he set the plastic spoon down on the counter.
This is completely unsanitary as nearly every customer that makes a purchase at this counter puts his or her hands on it, and puts money on it. People’s hands have been in places that I don’t want to think about, and the money they’re handling has also been in many unsanitary locations, including the ground in some cases. For example, I paid 1.50 for that sundae. The 50 cent piece I used to make that purchase came from the floor of Tampines Mall where I found it just prior to leaving and getting on the train to head to Pasir Ris.
To make matters worse, when I told him I didn’t want a spoon that had been placed on the counter, because the counter is dirty, he gave me a new spoon, but immediately afterwards picked up the first spoon from the counter and put it back in the container with the clean spoons. Seriously? I just said I didn’t want it because it was dirty from being on the counter, so why contaminate all of the other spoons? It makes me wonder if the replacement spoon was even clean.
The employees at this branch need some lessons in proper hygiene and proper handling of eating utensils. If this is how they handle utensils then I’d hate to see how they handle the food.
Please. Train your employees. This is McDonald’s in Singapore, not a hut in the middle of a jungle somewhere, where cleanliness and hygiene is an alien concept.
I look forward to your response.
Regards,
Bradley Farless
Update: The manager for the outlet called me on my mobile phone and apologized for the poor service. He said that this is definitely not the standard that McDonald’s Singapore wants to set and told me that corrective action would be taken to ensure that it didn’t happen again. He asked for a description of the employee, and then asked me if there was anything he could do to compensate me for the bad experience. I told him to just make sure it doesn’t happen again. I wasn’t trying to get free stuff out of this. I just want to know that when I go to McDonald’s, the food I’m eating is clean and the utensils are clean. I’m glad to see that McDonald’s takes this issue seriously.
“Chan” Graffiti
I found this random bit of graffiti art on what I think is a power box for the pedestrian crossing light where the Park Connector path crosses Pasir Ris Drive 1 at Pasir Ris Town Park.
I don’t know what the significance is, but the word “chan” makes me think of the popular internet image boards 4chan and 2chan, where it’s short for ‘channel’. Or… it could be someone’s name. Who knows? It also looks like there used to be a robot graffiti and some sort of square shaped graffiti on there too.
Pastamania at Downtown East – GREAT Service
This is just a short note I wanted to write to praise the customer service at Pastamania at Downtown East.
Tonight, we went up there to have dinner and there was a problem with the pizza I ordered. Within a few minutes the manager came out, addressed the situation, apologized for the inconvenience and made sure that a replacement dish was made.
To follow up on that, he came back to let me know the pizza would be out in a few minutes and apologized again for the problem.
I was happy and impressed with the level of attention that was given to our problem.
When the replacement pizza came we finished our meal and then got up and walked out of the restaurant.
Surprisingly, we hadn’t gone more than five feet out the door when I heard the manager calling after us and running to catch up with us. He said the problem with the food shouldn’t have happened, apologized for the extra time we had to wait, and that he hoped we’d be coming back in the future. Additionally, he gave us a voucher for a free pizza.
That’s what I’m talking about! This manager has a great personality and does his job well. Pastamania in general has always had a great attitude in regard to customer service. You can see it in how every cashier, waiter / waitress, and manager handles themselves. Well, at the Tampines and Pasir Ris branch at least.
Despite there being something wrong with the dish I ordered, I’ll definitely be going back to the same location again. Good service is worth repeat business.
Buddy Hoagies at Downtown East
The first time my wife and I saw this place we kinda scoffed at the name. It sounds pretty lame right? So, we didn’t bother trying it out. We didn’t even bother looking it up online.
I was really in the mood to try something new, though, so when a Friday night rolled around and we couldn’t decide where we wanted to go, I said, “Well, how about that Buddy Hoagies at Downtown East?” My wife couldn’t think of anything she’d rather have, so that’s where we went.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing I noticed was that the place has a nice ambiance.
The place is really relaxed. The lighting isn’t too bright either, though it seems that way in the second photo. That’s just a bad shot! I think it helped that there weren’t too many other people in the place at the time. It gave the whole dining experience a relaxed feel and was conducive to conversation.
The place also has a fun look to it, with nifty little pictures up on the wall, a cafeteria style bar, and (though you can’t see them in the photo) a section of seating with nice, cushioned seats that help you relax.
The service was pretty good. I got the impression that our waitress wasn’t having a good day, but she still forced a smile and was passably polite, if a little brusque.
The food itself was another surprise. For what we paid I wasn’t expecting a miracle, but you definitely get a lot of value for your money. I was so happy with our food in fact that at the time I snapped these photos on my phone and put them out on Twitter. Some of my Twitter followers were quite jealous of my meal that night!
The Sirloin Steak
The veggies were crunchy, the meat was well cooked, and I was actually kinda shocked to see baked potatoes. I think this was the first time I’d had one in over a year. Too bad there was no sour cream, chives, and bacon bits to go on it, but hey, can’t have everything right?
Overall, Buddy Hoagies was a great dining experience. The food was fantastic and the value for the food was great too. We’ll definitely be going back.
Cosplayers in Pasir Ris, Singapore
Sunday afternoon, my wife and I were on our way to the Pasir Ris MRT station when we saw this couple strolling down the sidewalk. I was surprised and my wife told me we should run and get pictures with them, so of course we did.
Their outfits are really cool, but I have no idea what anime or game this is supposed to be from. Maybe someone can help me out here?
Just Acia
Just Acia is a restaurant located in the Downtown East Mall in Pasir Ris, Singapore. My wife and I went to the mall to meet up with friends we hadn’t seen in months. Singapore is such a small island, but life gets so hectic that we still seem to only find rare opportunities to hang out with our friends.
When we arrived, the first thing on everyone’s minds was dinner, so off we went. One of our friends already had a place in mind that she said was fantastic, and had a great deal. We’re always keen to find places that are both “fantastic” and have a “great deal”. She didn’t disappoint!
Just Acia is on the ground level, back past a huge children’s play area. We’d probably never have even found it without her taking us to it. I didn’t even realize that the mall had a back area before tonight.
As we walked up to the restaurant I saw a sign that said all “set meals” come with freeflow (as in free refills) ice cream and drinks. That got my interest up, because free refills on anything isn’t common in Singapore. I was extra excited about the ice cream, because ice cream in Singapore is sold for a fairly high price. Most dairy products here are quite a bit more expensive than what I was used to in the US, because it all has to be imported. For those of you who don’t know and don’t care to Google it, Singapore is an island nation and a city-state.
When we got to the table and flipped through the menu, I was surprised again. The set meals were reasonably priced and the food looked really good. My wife placed an order for beef bulgoggi and I got the deep fried chicken, as well as a side dish of steamed dumplings. Right after ordering we were given cups and small metal dishes so we could start getting our drinks and ice cream from a buffet style bar near the front of the restaurant. The drink choices included Pepsi, Mountain Dew, some teas, cappuccino, lattes, and mocha. Again, impressive for the price.
By the time we sat back down our orders were hitting the table. The meal came with a bowl of rice (no surprise, this is Asia), a small bowl of broth soup (standard fare in Singapore), and a small dish of what I think was kimchi, though I could be wrong.
The food was fantastic! The first thing I tried was the dumplings. They were so much better than I had hoped. I’ve had a lot of dumplings in Singapore and these were the best so far. The deep fried chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It wasn’t over cooked, and it tasted like the oil they used was fresh. My wife and I swapped a portion of our meals and her beef bulgoggi was great as well.
The cappuccino I had after my meal was fairly strong. It was nothing special, but I have no complaints about it either. The ice cream also wasn’t anything premium, but it did have a good taste to it, and I wound up getting three servings.
The last thing I’d like to mention is that the staff is very friendly and very helpful. They were always smiling and always quick to ask if you needed any help. The only drawback I found was that the hostess seemed a bit hard of hearing. She spoke English, but she either didn’t listen to or didn’t understand what I said back to her. When we first approached the restaurant, two of our group had gone on ahead, with the rest of us lagging behind. I tried to explain that we were with the other two people, but she kept saying, “Group of four? Please come this way!” Finally, we just ignored her and walked past her into the restaurant to where our friends were waiting. Later, I stepped out for moment and when I came back, she asked me if I wanted to be seated, as if she hadn’t just seen me 4 minutes previous. Still, this is Asia, so you can’t expect everyone to be as proficient in English as a native speaker, so I can’t even call this a bad mark against the restaurant. It was just a minor annoyance that most foreigners have probably come to occasionally expect while traveling abroad.
All in all, this place serves some great food for a great price, and we’ll definitely be visiting them again.
Amigos; Western Food
When I moved to Asia I knew I was going to be giving up a few things. One of those things was easy access to cow meat. Singapore doesn’t have much in the way of cheap beef, or reasonably priced steaks. Or, so I thought.
During my first visit to Singapore in March of 2008 I saw that a typical diet here consists of mostly chicken, pork, or fish and rice or noodles with a small portion of some green leafy vegetable. Soups containing those ingredients are also popular. That’s pretty much all I’ve eaten for the last year as well. Not that I’m complaining! A lot of those dishes are delicious! But, I had a craving for something a bit more solid than that, and the last time I had a good amount of beef was on my birthday in the Philippines in March of this year. Even then it wasn’t a steak dinner as most Americans would envision it.
I had resigned myself to the belief that I would only have a good steak dinner when I was back in the US, so I wasn’t actively looking around for good deals. I didn’t want to break my budget to get something I can easily do without.
When my wife and I first agreed to rent our current place in Pasir Ris, the agent that located the property for us gave us a short tour of the area. Well, actually we went on an hour long walk around a good portion of the neighborhood but it was so exciting that we hardly noticed the distance we covered until we looked at it on a map later.
During this walk, we passed a small shop that was part of a hawker area. It’s called ‘Amigos; Western Food’ and doesn’t have a very impressive exterior, but the agent went into detail about how good the food they serve is. I smiled and nodded, but I wasn’t really convinced, and wasn’t in any hurry to try it. A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with a guy from Egypt, who also had nothing but good things to say about the place.
Last night, my wife and I finally got around to checking it out. Good thing the place is open late, because we didn’t make it over there until about 1am! I think we were the only customers there. We took a look at the menu, and I was surprised to see that there was a steak available for only 13.90, so I ordered it. My wife got a plate of lamb chops, which was also reasonably priced at about 9 dollars or so. Still, it was cheap, so I wasn’t expecting much. I certainly wasn’t expecting something that looked better than the picture on the menu. That’s sort of a joke, where what you order rarely looks as tasty as the picture. This time, the opposite was true, and we were more than pleasantly surprised to find such great looking dishes at a hawker stall.
The lamb chops.
The steak.
So, I suppose the real question is, how did it taste? That was the second surprise. The stuff was better than great! It was fantastic! In anticipation of a potential fail whale, we asked for Tabasco sauce, but we wound up not needing it. As you can see from the pictures above, both dishes came with a sauce. Each had a distinct taste that seemed appropriate to the meat. The potato wedges were also fantastic and the veggies used for the small salad were crisp and fresh. As for the meat, it was tender and had just the right amount of fat on it. My steak was a little undercooked, but it had been so long since I’d had a good steak dinner, and it tasted so good, that I didn’t care. I gobbled the whole thing down, then cleared the rest of the plate, and was very satisfied. My wife and I traded bites of lamb for steak, and her lamb was just as good.
If anyone’s looking for a reasonably priced place to get a great steak or set of lamb chops, this is definitely the place to go!
Seashell Park
When my wife and I first moved to Pasir Ris we noticed that there are lots of parks in the area. That’s great, because we enjoy taking walks, or jogging. Lately, we don’t seem to have time to just wander around on weekdays, but the last two Saturdays we’ve made sure to get out of the house for a while.
Last week, we went to Pasir Ris Park, which was incredible! That park is huge! We’re looking forward to going back, but we also wanted to check out the other parks in the area. So, this week, we decided to take a look at Seashell Park.
Seashell Park isn’t quite as big as I’d hoped. We looked through it all in about 20 minutes, in fact. It’s a small park nestled in behind the shopping center we usually go to for dinner.
The first thing I noticed about Seashell Park is that it seems to be a bit rundown, at least compared to the other parks we’ve walked through in Singapore. By rundown I don’t mean horribly run down though. I just mean it hasn’t been well kept up.
As we walked into the park we were greeted by this fish head under the sign. It’s a bit hard to read in this photo, but it says “Seashell Park.” I looked at the fish head and the area around it, and it looks as though there was water flowing through it at some point. I wonder if there used to be a constant stream of water that sprayed out of it? As we walked up the stairs to the back of the fish head, we saw that it was fed through a channel from higher up on the hill. It looked terraced, and each terrace had its own fish head and a channel leading down from the higher area.
My wife’s theory is that these fish heads are just an artistic way of setting up a good drainage system. The majority of the park sits at the top of the hill, and it rains a lot in Singapore, so erosion is definitely an issue here. It makes sense.
One of the best parts of the park is that it has a 400 meter track that runs around the top of the hill. It’s not completely even, which is nice in a way, because it provides for some variety in your run. Also, there’s a great view all the way around. We’ll probably go back there in the future to give it a go.
There is a playground in the park, but I didn’t include any photos of it because it was littered with garbage when we passed through. I’m sure that’s not common, but … well, even Singapore can become dirty if people don’t take care of things.
Two Tiered Bicycle Stands
Everyone knows that in Asia, bicycles are used quite frequently as a means of transportation. It’s even used in jokes occasionally, but it’s true. People do use bikes quite a bit, for quite a few reasons, here in Singapore at least. It’s cheaper, as opposed to buying, fueling, and maintaining a car. It’s also smaller and easier to park or store. In fact, there are some foldable bikes here that you can take on the buses with you. That could be perfect for a family outing to a nice park that you want to bike through, but that’s too far away to bike to. Plus, it’s a great way to get where you want to go and get some exercise at the same time.
The problem with having so many bike riders is that there’s rarely enough room to accommodate all of the parked bicycles, especially in major traffic hubs or around the malls. For example, if you go to the Tampines MRT area, you’ll see bicycles jammed in at the bike racks, but you’ll also see bicycles chained to poles, fences, gates, or basically anything that’s stuck to the ground. In some extreme cases you’ll find bicycles that aren’t chained to anything at all, but just have a chain through the wheel spokes instead, because there’s just no space available.
It all seemed crazy and amusing to me and I never really gave it any thought. Apparently, someone did though. At the Pasir Ris MRT station there are also bike racks, but the bike racks there are two tiered. I guess they figured that if there wasn’t enough horizontal space to accommodate all of the bicycles, they could go vertical with them. It looked like it worked well too. There was more space to park bikes, and as a result, the area looked a lot nicer and neater, which seems to be something Singapore as a whole looks highly upon.
This isn’t the only measure I’ve seen to accommodate the bicycle riders in Singapore, but it’s definitely the neatest. There are also bicycle only lanes that run parallel to sidewalks on most major roads, as well as Park Connectors that run between major parks in different regional areas. Also, there is a wide path that follows the MRT tracks that seems to get used pretty heavily by cyclists. I think I noticed a bicycle lane there as well.
Bradley Farless 