Violet Oon Restaurants at Jewel, Singapore, Clarke Quay, National Gallery, Singapore - just watch the opening and serving hours

Entrance to the Violet Oon restaurant in Clarke Quay. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

We were looking for somewhere to eat after a film show in the Warehouse at Clarke Quay. 

We liked the look of the Violet Oon Restaurant in Clarke Quay, Singapore. Satay bar and grill, just what we wanted. 

I later looked up Oon to see who the Oons were, where they came from and what the name means. The Chinese name Oon is popular in Malaysia and Singapore (once both part of Malaya). The name means warm, soft or tender. A suitable name for a restaurant. I have friends named Oon as a family name (followed by the two one syllable first names). I am glad I looked that up.

We were shown to a lovely table for two by the window. Perfect.

Table for two at Violet Oon restaurant, Clarke Quay. Photo by Angela Lansbury

However, before we could order, the waiter told us, "I am so sorry. We are  that serving only desserts and coffee." 

Desserts 

Now, I am a desserts person. Typical British, with a sweet tooth, from years of eating Cadbury's chocolate every day, not knowing that daily sweets, or sweets several times a day, is bad for teeth. The Swedes have known that for a long time and have a sweets only on Saturday policy. They sell huge volumes of sweets on Saturdays, yet have perfect teeth, according to a recent report. 

I have since looked up the desserts. The set menu which you must order days in advance costs well over 100 dollars!  So a chance to sit in a swanky restaurant and to try just a dessert at 10 or 15 dollars plus plus would have been a bargain. For ten dollars I could have had coconut ice cream. With cashew nut crumble. Does that mean crumbled cashew nuts, or a crumble with scattered cashew nuts? Either suits me. I love coconut. I love cashew nuts. Other desserts, of which I saw four listed, feature Gula melaka (sugar syrup). Yum.

However, meanwhile, my husband was intent on the kebab promised in the name of the restaurant. Clarke Quay has so many places. So he immediately jumped up to depart.

Alas, we have to try them another time. We and you, if you are ever anywhere in Singapore, have lots of opportunity, as they have branches at Ion, Orchard, right in the centre, by Orchard MRT station, and the National Kitchen  in the National Gallery, 1 St Andrews Road.

Now that I know the meaning of the name I shall find it easy to remember them. Oon, like on, the O and the N in Ion, and O for Orchard. O for soothing. Oo, oon, soothing, soon.

I recall the good old days in Hatch End in North West London, England, when the little Italian restaurants were owner operated. If they closed for lunch at 2.30 pm or 3, but you were lunching and sat there drinking up your coffee, or ordering another cup, you could continue doing so. They never shut until the customer left. The same in the evening. Arrive early, sit by the bar and choose your drinks and order food. Ask for food which was not on the set menu, they would cook if for you, or suggest something similar, also off the menu. Sit beyond 11 pm or even midnight, the owner would stay, the chef would stay, you would get a free drink and the owner would, if you asked him, sit down at the table and talk. 

I think that things have changed worldwide. Staff want to go home. Licensing hours are restricted. Workplace hours and rules have changed. Unionised thinking of that's my job or not my job has imposed a mindset. Or maybe I am used to effusive staff in Italy, England and the USA, rather than the Japanese and Chinese style of 

I must say that the staff at this branch were prompt to approach us, told us what we needed to know immediately, and were polite and apologetic.

Despite this disruption, I did well out of my foray. Two venues in one hour. I love seeing new places. We found another outlet, Warehouse, which you can read about in my subsequent post. And still Violet Oon outlets to look forward to.

Violet Oon Opening times at Clarke Quay

6.00 to 10.30 pm. 

Last orders for food 9.30 pm. Last orders for drinks, 10 pm.

Useful Website

www.violetoon.com

https://violetoon.com/festive-offerings/

I like the look of the white coconut log cake. If price were no object. 68 Sing dollars. 

Come back soon to see more photos.

About the Author

About the author of this blog

About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including: Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Orchards and Dairies - what place names tell you - and my baked apple recipe

Dairy Farm Road, 1963. Singapore.
 

In Singapore the central shopping street is called Orchard Road. But the orchard is long gone. To the north west a major landmark or routing point for taxis will be, turn off at Dairy Farm road. No more cows to be seen.

No dairy in Dairy Farm, no orchard in Orchard Road. We would have fresher food and less carbon footprint if we grew more food. Some streets have fruit trees. Roll on 3030 - the Singapore government plan, for when we are growing 30 percent of our own food by the year 2030 in Singapore. 

In the UK in Hatch End every garden on the housing estate had a row of apple trees. The houses still have an abundance of apples, which are often shared with neighbours. We also had pear trees. The pear tree died and we have not cut it down or replaced it. I did plant a triple apple. I did not know which variety to plant. I thought that if I bought a triple apple, at least one variety of the apples would be a success.

Some of the apples are sweet enough to eat. Others are sour and need cooking. What can you do with all those apples?

Dice them into your yogurt at breakfast time for a healthy start to the day. Have a slice instead of cake for elevenses (the eleven o clock morning break) and/or at tea time. I have been losing weight consistently with three methods. a) fruit instead of cake for coffee breaks. b) Skimmed or semi-skimmed milk in coffee. Keep moving all the time. If I wake in the night I do exercises for an hour. 

Now let's go back to the apples. After lunch or dinner, you can bake an apple in the oven. Slice it around the equator so it does not burst out of the skin. Remove the core and replace with mincemeat from a jar or to cut down on unknown ingredients and sugar, make your own filling of sultanas and currants and come grated apple and honey or ginger in syrup, ground almonds, flaked almonds, or poppy seeds or or any nuts or seeds which you have.

If you are not on a diet, or not fussy, even breadcrumbs from a stale loaf, or biscuits.  Try two or three mixes and note which are most successful. 

The traditional UK tart is apple crumble. Before I learned to cook (and cooking is just mixing and heating) it was all a mystery. I thought crumble was complicated and clever. On the contrary, it's easy. It is just rubbing the pastry into bits with your fingertips, instead of going to the trouble of ironing it flat with a rolling pin. 

And pastry is only flour and water. To make bread or crackers or cakes. You can add milk or oil or eggs to get different results. 

To make holes you add yeast. To make layers, you flattern it with a rolling pin and fold it over several times. for savoury, add salt, for sweet, add sugar. You can make a pie base, a pie topping, a bread, fried or baked, or a cake with an egg and milk.

The simplest cake is the French quarte quart, four quarters, equal amounts of four ingredients. Add apple and you have apple cake. Add banana and you have banana cake. Add carrot and you have carrot cake. Best to start with the simplest recipe to get it right first time. But if you have an orchard or a tree, you just keep trying different things. 

In Singapore at every festival they have little trees with what look like miniature oranges. We rescued three trees which other people had thrown out. Two of them died. The third one was a success and produced two crops a year. We asked a neighbour to water every couple of days, and planned to give him whisky, after questioning him at length about what he liked to drink and eat. 

The orange tree had bitter oranges. No good for eating. Eventually we realised that seville oranges are bitter and we had used them years ago to make marmalade.

If you were afraid of cooking, once you grasp that, and think of eating instead of saying I don't cook, say I love eating, and take the ingredients and think when you will eat or surprise the family.

If I were in charge, I would make it a rule that for every three trees or plants that you plant, one must provide fruit or nuts. I would make every seller of houses or flat give a potted edible plant, or three, for the balcony or garden, and a herb for the kitchen windowsill. If the whole world did this, nobody would go hungry.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Bargain Shopping in Asia

JAPAN
Mitsui outlet malls near Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kobe, Nagashima, Yokohama.

MALAYSIA
Mitsui mall in Selangor. Also check for Asics.

SINGAPORE
Daiso in Ion and other locations.
Zalora in Ion mall, Orchard MRT, Singapore. Clothes for men and women. Also online.

http://thesmartlocal.com/read/factory-outlets-wholesale-stores

See my posts on Japan Home and other cheap fashion shops in Singapore.

Author
Angela Lansbury

Chinese Decorations and Statues at Toa Payoh in Singapore

Toa Payoh is easy to get to, on the red North-south train line, only four stops north of Orchard (which is the central stop, the Piccadilly of Singapore). Here's the arch you see as you exit from the MRT (mass railway transit).

At the other end, walking towards the community centre, is a pair of amusing statue groups, next to Starbuck coffee shop.

If it rains, inside the indoor mall by the MRT are more decorations and the Popular book and stationery store, as well as Fairprice supermarket.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, writer, author, speaker.

Fellini, Hatch End - second cup of coffee free - UK, France, Singapore and worldwide

UK and worldwide
Lots of places in England and worldwide do this. But you have to know and remember where. At least one of the coffee-patisserie chains does this. It is on their menu. If you check out the coffee chain websites you'll be able to see what is in your area. They should make a feature of it, as Fellini has done.

Singapore
I used to meet a friend in the coffee bar near Orchard station. We chose the branch opposite Isetan, next to the big bookshop on the corner. We could have a second coffee and just sit. Most people drank just one coffee and went off. But the shop got our business on a regular basis. My friend would often offer to buy me something to eat later as well.

Some of the coffee shops in Singapore city centre have signs up, no homework. Otherwise groups of schoolchildren, ten to twenty of them, might fill up the shop for hours after ordering just one drink.

France
French restaurants have an unwritten rule, my French au pair girl told me years ago, that you can sit as long as you like so long as you order a coffee every hour.

Do you know which places near your home, office, and business or social areas offer a free second coffee? Make a note in your diary. I'll do the same.