ryan's food talk

Ramen: Not just your "noodles in soup" (Ramen Champion, Trial 2)

2011-10-30T18:19:00.000+08:00

Following my research on Ramen Champion @ Bugis Iluma and our first trial for Who's the Ramen Champion?, I've learned to stereotypically explaining ramen as "noodles in soup" does not do justice to represent what ramen really is. Although at my level of skills, I am unable to put "ramen" in words, I think it's best for one to explore "ramen" in their food adventures, or hopefully with the photos and comments below.

I actually went to Ramen Champion three times in this two weeks, but not planning to write them in order, because I want to put this two ramen side by side for a comparison. This covers part of my 2nd and 4th visit.

The one type of ramen that most Japanese/ramen restaurants in Singapore never have on their menu is the tsukemen ramen. Tsukemen literally means "dipping noodles" - yes, ramen don't just come in soup! The soup broth is prepared so thick that makes "dipping" the best way to taste your noodles.

First up, we have Tetsu's version of tsukemen - the Very Rich! Paitan Tsukemen! Describing the soup as "very rich" is an understatement. I'd like to call it "concentrated" - as if it has gone through a distillation process to retain just the essence of the broth. No kidding! (Not advisable to drink the soup alone.) Concentrated to the point that they serve you a third bowl worth of broth.

Pros: The paitan ("white soup") broth is super thick and flavorful (salty), generously garnished with fresh leek, and is a perfect complement with the plain soba noodles. ♥
Cons: Noodles has been aired for too long, and I prefer my ajitama to be warm. :o

Very Rich! Paitan Tsukemen from Tetsu
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★★

Fluid egg yolk and egg white on the inside. (Unfortunately, quality is not always maintained.)

Ajitama from Tetsu
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Next up, we have Taishoken's Tsukemen Deluxe. It is said that Taishoken invented tsukemen, the "dipping noodles"!

From the looks of it, Taishoken's tsukemen appears more flavorful with the traditional ramen topping, narutomaki. The broth looks different, instead of the paitan, Taishoken's tsukemen clear soup broth is boiled from pork, chicken and anchovies.

Pros: Noodles are "smoother". I like the anchovies broth. The cha-shu has a nice roasted aroma and the fatty parts are soft that melts in your mouth. *thumbs-up!*
Cons: Although the broth is rich and good on its own, it still seems too bland to complement with the plain noodles. Taste of the broth doesn't "stick" onto the noodles by just dipping. :(

Tsukemen Deluxe from Taishoken
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★

You've just seen Trial 2 of the Ramen Championship!

Read more on the "Ramen Championship Adventure" series:

Intro: Ramen Champion @ Bugis Iluma
Trial 1: Who's the Ramen Champion?
Trial 2: Not just your "noodles in soup" ← you are here!
more to come....

Crab Bee Hoon Soup & Chicken Pies @ Don Your Personal Pie Club

2011-10-22T21:15:00.000+08:00

Don Your Personal Pie Club (waiting for food)
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Here is a strange shop at China Square Central, China Court, that looks like it's a pie shop - also from its name, Don Your Personal Pie Club (or "Don Your Pie" for short), but with a wonder surprise inside. Not unless you came with someone who already knew, or that you drop in for the pies (which then you would have noticed the sign by the counter) would you have known that the surprise they kept so well inside was actually, Claypot Crab Bee Hoon Soup.

I'm not sure how many have tasted crab bee hoon soup before in Singapore, because it is not a dish that we often go looking for. I have eaten chilli crab, pepper crab, butter crab, and sliced fish bee hoon soup (my favorite), now to eat them together as one dish is actually a first for me!

Three of us arrived at Don's around 11:30am on a Monday for an early lunch. Shop is nearly empty except for a few queuing for pies. Food came at around 11:50am.

Claypot Crab Bee Hoon Soup
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★★

Their signature dish: Claypot Crab Bee Hoon Soup.

To be honest, I am very impressed with the freshness of their crabs. I was a little disappointed with the soup though, which is still good, but I felt it could have a richer herbal/wine taste and bit less "milky".

Black Pepper Crab Bee Hoon (dry)
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★

For myself, I had the Black Pepper Crab Bee Hoon. Black Pepper Crab is my favorite crab dish, but I really had no idea how this would turn out. Anything in the name of "black pepper" could go totally bad if the chef had a different kind of "taste" - if you know what I mean.

Luckily for me, this dish turned out just fine. It could be a little more spicy (more black pepper!) being the usual me, although the current level of spiciness is good enough and acceptable for most people who claim they can take spicy food. I do have one suggestion, which is to make the black pepper taste cooked more integrally with the crab - you know like how black pepper crabs at the seafood restaurants are done! Right now, it is more like fresh crab with black pepper sauce over the top. I won't complain too much though, because fresh crabs are already a +1. :)

At a pie shop, it just doesn't make sense to not try their pies at all!

Chicken pie, quarter-size box
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Chicken pie, quarter-size
Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

I guess I didn't do the pie justice by eating it cold. :\ Pies need to be eaten hot! From the cold pie that I ate, the filling is typical local/asian pies filling - mashed potato with pieces of chicken and boiled egg. I like the texture of their mashed potato, but I've never liked boiled egg, even in my curry puffs. Cold pies are cold pies after all, unfortunately. So no rating for this time. :(

But according to wx, he was very satisfied with the Chicken Shepard Pie he got! (He heated it up of course)

If you are interested in trying this out, Don Your Pie is located at 20 Cross Street, China Square Central - China Court #01-34. The crab bee hoon dishes are $19 each. (Apparently, it was only $12.50 four years ago, as reported on ieatishootipost.sg!) They also have nice "concentrated" lime and pink guava juices! The pies are an average $5 for a fair 1-person portion.

If you work in the vicinity of Raffles Place, Shenton Way, and Chinatown, they do free deliveries for orders $30-50. Check out more information on their website.

Skinny Pizza is really skinny!

2011-10-16T00:12:00.000+08:00

Skinny Pizza. You might be thinking: Well, how "skinny" can a pizza get? -- VERY.

The skinny pizza crust from Skinny Pizza has a totally revamped taste and texture from the traditional bread crusts. For one, it cracks!!

To get an idea, it's just like Indian papadum that tastes like unsalted crackers. Crunchy and 'cracky', accompanied with freshly prepared toppings and lots of greens, it makes a light meal that keeps your stomach just satiated and not bloated. Definitely a healthier choice of pizza!

Since it was our first time there, we decided to go all out in experimental mode. We picked the 'strangest' or arguably the 'most special' pizza available. Ever seen a black pizza before? :p

Squid Ink @ Skinny Pizza
Photo edited by Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★★

Skinny pizza is really 'skinny'!
Photo edited by Pixlr-o-matic

We also tried their pasta. Our comments? Not too bad, but unless you really want to have pasta, should just stick to what they are known for next time :)

Bay Prawn Capellini @ Skinny Pizza
Photo edited by Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★

Spaghetti Aglio Olio @ Skinny Pizza
Photo edited by Pixlr-o-matic

Rating: ★★★

Is a little pricey - averages $20 per person (assuming 1 entree each - pizza or pasta) if you are okay sticking with "just water". Their pizza is definitely more worth the price considering the "healthy" value. Great for dinner!

Who's the Ramen Champion? (Trial 1)

2011-10-15T01:20:00.000+08:00

Ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen....

I'm saying "ramen" six times because this is really what this dining place is about - Ramen.

For a ramen place, wx and I would usually just hit a RamenPlay. But this day, on a friend's recommendation, we decided to give this "authentic Japanese ramen" a try - Ramen Champion @ Bugis Iluma.

The problem was, there were actually six different ramen stalls there - Ikkousha, Gantetsu, Menya Iroha, Bario, Taishokan, and Tetsu. And since we didn't do any research beforehand (not even asked the friend what's the best there!), we could only rely on the picture menus and our instincts for good food. We literally went from stall to stall, thinking to ourselves - "ok, this one sells ramen...and this one....ramen. next one...erm, ramen too. right...that's ramen as well. so which is the one that's really really good?"

(For an overview of each of the ramen stall's specialties, read the post "Ramen Champion @ Bugis Iluma".)

I guess my instinct failed me. As I was sucked in my usual spicy-rules-all mentality, I ended up having the Spicy Miso Ajitama Ramen from Menya Iroha. For someone at my spiciness capacity, this spicy ramen is, of course, way way too mild. :p I was quite disappointed because it says in large text, "麻辣" (mara), on their menu. I also felt that the soup was too salty that this became one of the few times where I actually failed to clean my soup bowl completely. Nevertheless, I am giving credit for their tender cha-shu and half-boiled seasoned egg, ajitama.

Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Spicy Miso Ajitama Ramen

Rating: ★★

Turns out, Iroha's ajitama wasn't the best there either.

Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Where we usually see the seasoned eggs served in halves, Bario expresses their uniquely strong style by serving their ajitama as a whole egg! We were drawn to believe that perhaps this half-and-whole thing could be the secret technique to making the best seasoned eggs! Either that, or Bario's chefs are just more skillful in controlling the timings in the seasoning process, because their whole eggs, when sliced open, reveals a perfectly crystal orange-colored egg yolk. "Woah," we reacted as if we've just witnessed the Seven Wonders in the world.

But that was not all to the Bario ramen. As I mentioned, Bario's ramen is "uniquely strong," or bold.

Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Bario Ramen

Rating: ★★★★ (subject to individual's taste)

Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

wx slurping on his bowl of Bario Ramen

Whole ajitama, a bold gesture to the presentation - check. Milky-white tonkotsu (pork bone) soup base, ultra-rich - check. Bread flour noodles, thick and heavy - check. Large handful of bean sprouts/cabbage piled to a mountain-high, another bold gesture - check. Thick, bold cuts on the cha-shu - check. Garlic, for the strong taste - check. To eat the Bario Ramen is to be a bario man, which means super and strong, just like how the ramen is designed to taste. Some may not like this as much due to the strong taste.

For side dish, we went with Ikkousha's Chicken Gyoza. You should see that we enjoyed this dish very much:

Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Chicken Gyoza

Rating: ★★★★★

We had a second plate! And as soon as it arrived, wx stole a piece, thus leaving only four pieces in this photo.

Conclusion

Anyone who enjoys a single bit about Japanese ramen should find the time to dine at Ramen Champion. The wide variety allows for groups of family and friends (with different taste for food) to all enjoy their meal here.

Photo edited with Pixlr-o-matic

Bario storefront

Favor thick tonkotsu soup? Try the Bario Ramen! Definitely not the typical kind of ramen you would find elsewhere, so I would strongly recommend that you try it at least once. Find it too strong, and you can always go for something lighter next time.

As you can see, I have named this post as "Trial 1". This means that there will be more reviews on Ramen Champion coming on this blog. We are hoping to try as many different ramen at the six stalls to come up with a fair judgment of the ramen champion for the Ultimate Ramen Champion 2011 competition. So do come back for more reviews!

To learn more about Ramen Champion and the Ultimate Ramen Championship, visit their website and Facebook Page.

Ramen Champion @ Bugis Iluma

2011-10-15T01:19:00.004+08:00

Another weekend right ahead! Are you running out of lunch/dinner ideas?

If authentic Japanese ramen interests you, then be sure to check this place out at Bugis Iluma.

Ramen Champion is a Marché-style (or food court-style) dining place where you can choose to dine from a selection of food stalls, charge all your orders to a card given, and only pay when you exit. Well, as the name suggests, Ramen Champion is all about ramen! You can find six ramen stalls there, each carrying their own specialized ramen flavor representative of different cities in Japan!

Here's an overview of all six ramen stalls at Ramen Champion:

Gantetsu [Sapporo]

See Gantetsu's menu

This one was actually recommended by a friend. But both wx and I were turned off by the massive portion of corn on the pics. 3-year award winning ramen from Sapporo - miso soup base with classic yellow ramen noodles.

Menya Iroha [Toyama]

See Iroha's menu

Toyama's ramen - the black shoyu ramen! Menya Iroha has been a 2-year ramen champion in Tokyo. Specializes in the black shoyu ramen and traditional miso with chili mara ramen.

Tai-Sho-Ken [Tokyo]

See Taishoken's menu

One of the most famous ramen shop in Tokyo. Known to have invented the tsukemen ("dipping noodles") soup broth - made from pork, chicken and anchovies, and served with soba, either on the side or in the soup.

Ikkousha [Hakata]

See Ikkousha's menu

Rich pork bone soup base with thin flat cut noodles is this Hakata ramen shop's killer combo. Ikkousha pays much attention to its ingredients. It is said that their pork bone soup base does not have the strong smell of pork bone that most ramen shops have. Their chicken gyoza is pretty good as well.

Bario [Tokyo]

See Bario's menu

Listed by Guardian UK as one of the "50 best things to eat in the world," no one should ever miss out on Bario's Jirokei (Jiro style) ramen. Super milky-white rich kyushu-style tonkotsu (pork bone) soup with thick and heavy bread flour noodles - the Bario Ramen!

Tetsu [Tokyo]

See Tetsu's menu

What used to be a small shop in quiet town is now one of the top spots for ramen in Tokyo (like a chain ramen cafe). You'll probably see Tetsu in Tokyo as much as you find a fast food restaurant in US. Tetsu's signature is also the tsukemen soup broth with soba on the side.

What kind of ramen (soup base + noodles) do you like?
Which ramen at Ramen Champion will you go for?

Find out which ramen we went for on first impression and whether we like it on the "Ramen Championship Adventure" series!

These six branded ramen shops are competing for the Ultimate Ramen Championship!! Support the ramen shop you like on Facebook:

'Like' the Ultimate Ramen Champion 2011 Facebook page
Go to 'Questions' (the FB polling app)
Click on 'Who's your favorite Ultimate Ramen Champion 2011?'
Vote!

Soya Bean Pudding

2011-10-08T01:15:00.001+08:00

Recently fallen in love with this dessert at RamenPlay:

Soya Bean Pudding!

Taken with Instagram @ RamenPlay, Bishan Junction 8

Rich soya bean fragrance, slightly sweet, nice presentation of colors white, red and green. It's like eating the beancurd dessert but in pudding form!

*thumbs up!*

Rating: ★★★★★

Making a Return...for REAL.

2011-10-05T09:13:00.002+08:00

I decided to remove the previous post and scrap all my pending drafts so I can have a clean start again. Yes, I can feel that an urge to come back now, after a whole year of no-blog. I've also been increasing my activity on Facebook and LinkedIn, hopefully for Twitter as well. I took up Instagram photography lately too! More cat and food photos. I've had plans to link up a FB page to this blog, posting from FB will a lot easier and less resistant for me, so going to make that happen as well.

Finally, a comeback photo to kickstart it all. These days I need a milk tea (teh-si) a day to keep myself going at work.

This was taken with Instagram @ The Prata Place

This might be old news to you, just because I have been MIA for so long - but have you seen the new Blogger interface and template design (am using one now)? Foodbuzz is not going to like this - all my ads are gone now. :p

I'M ON A DIET (!!)

2010-10-03T15:48:00.001+08:00

Hmm I have not updated my foodie adventures for over two months now. Getting busier with my day job and have no time to keep up with the updates. And sadly, you will see less and less good food recommendations from me for the next month or two (at least), because I am now on a special DIET, which just doesn't allow me to anything and everything I want anymore. In the meantime, I will try to compensate with some mouth-watering food shots that has been piling up all this while. :)

Now a little more about the special diet! I heard of this from my sister, proven to be effective by big-size colleague of hers, who successfully lost 19lbs in 3 weeks just by following the diet framework. But before I share any details of the framework here, I shall take on the challenge and see for myself the effectiveness. The overall idea is simple: Each day you would have something more to give up (eating) for the rest of the week - mainly sugar and carbohydrates. (Yes, no carbo!!) The best part - NO EXERCISE REQUIRED and you are free to eat ANY AMOUNT you like.

Starting my 2nd week on the diet today (it begins on a Sunday, ends on Friday. Saturday is a Free-to-Eat day!). 1st week was just tough. Inexperienced and lack of preparation, there was hardly anything left for me to eat by Friday. This week, I made plans - bought lots of veggies and mushrooms (the best duo for this diet) from Fairprice earlier. Oh, and eggs too!

Erm don't ask me the result from 1st week just yet. Because the "sotong" (blur) me forgot to weigh myself before I started on the diet! Hehe but according to my sister, who is also experimenting the diet with me, she has lost 3kg by Friday. This was really a great encouragement for the both of us, because we were almost giving up by the end of Friday. Seems like our determination is paying off. Now we just need to persevere.

Lets keep it up!!

Paradise Inn @ Thomson Plaza

2010-07-30T00:48:00.000+08:00

Wanted to have Sakae Teppanyaki the other day, so headed to the nearest location at Thomson Plaza only to find out that the Sakae outlet there had already closed down. :( The storefront had been replaced by a Chinese restaurant - Paradise Inn. I dined at Paradise Inn @ West Coast Plaza before, but the food was not too impressive. Anyways, since we were already there, we thought we would give it a try.

Whenever we dine at a new place, we love to try the special and the new. So this was our first pick - Fragrance Tea with Lavender, Rosemary, Chrysanthemum and Dried Longan for a refreshful start!

Next, we went for a typical Chinese dinner setup - 1x vegetable, 1x meat, 1x tofu or egg, 1x soup.

For soup:

As you can see from the photo, soup at Paradise Inn looks professional - big pot, continues to be heated while you dine, plus lots of ingredients ("liao") in it!

The egg trio refers to: chicken egg, century egg, and salted (duck) egg. A usually very flavorful vegetable dish, but we find this one a bit too watery and bland. The Soup Restaurant serves the same dish and is a lot tastier.

Looks good, taste good - Soft and not too oily!

Here's a mistake we tend to make whenever we see Ma Po Tofu on the menu. Bottom-line: If you like your Ma Po Tofu to taste what the name suggests (ma po), then never order this dish in a non-Sichuan style restaurant! You will only be met with disappointment. To us, this was just a normal tofu with minced meat dish.

All in all...

Old Cucumber with Pork Ribs Soup, Rating: ★★★★
Chinese Spinach with Egg Trio, Rating: ★
Dong Po Pork, Rating: ★★★
Ma Po Tofu, Rating: ★★

Sakae Adventure: July's Special Seafood Promotions

2010-07-25T18:54:00.001+08:00

This month's Sakae Adventure...

It has been a while since we dined in at Sakae (we usually call for delivery), so we went to Sakae Sushi @ Junction 8 on a week night just to try something new! Ehh actually it was because they don't have Sushi Buffets at this branch lah... Well, it was a good chance for us to explore a different part of the Sakae menu, plus I could use some of the Sakae Dollars that I had accumulated on my Sakae Card :)

We were there at the right time - July's theme for the Sakae Signature promotion is on Seafood!

We could hardly give this a miss, so we ordered the Special Ika Maki ($9.99).

You might wonder what about this grilled ika (squid) is so special.. and why do they call it a maki (rolled sushi)?

Well it is just as the name suggests. The ika maki is special because it's sushi rice wrapped up in a squid! And it's not just the usual white sushi rice though, it's sushi fried rice.

That didn't taste too bad at all! It was a lot lightly flavored than the color might suggest. The sushi fried rice was slightly sweet (I think it's tomatoes) and complemented well with the not-too-chewy grilled squid in a thin layer of teriyaki sauce. I would like to point out that it was quite professionally done too - the rice didn't just fall out of the squid rings when you pick it up with chopsticks.

On top of that, we also had some side orders, sushi from the conveyor belt, plus 5-pc gyoza on offer ($3.99)! For our entrees, wx got a Unagi Don ($14.99).

That was a huuuge portion even for someone the size of wx :p I was a lot smarter of course hehe. Since Sakae Delivery Menu does not offer any noodle dishes (except cha soba as side order), I settled for some soupy noodles to end my occasional craving for udon - the Niku Udon!

Sprinkle some Japanese chili powder and the soup becomes perfect. I would prefer if the beef were in thinner slices. But the udon noodles were very Q. sluuurpy!

Total: $67.05
I paid just 5 cents for this meal. The rest were deducted from my Sakae Card :) Don't you wish to be a Sakae eJournalist too?

Rating: ★★★

If you want to be like me, it's never too late! Join Sakae on Facebook and take part in the following contests:
Sakae Monthly Bloggers Affair
Sakae Monthly Photo Contest

Dining vouchers to be won!

Crispy Fluffy Waffles

2010-07-25T00:38:00.001+08:00

YAY It's waffles time again!

Do you like your waffles crispy or chewy, crunchy or fluffy?

Well, I like mine like this:

Yes...crispy on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside!

So this is what we had:

The Passion Fruit Mango ice cream was a little too strong taste (sour & sweet) for me - some might like the rich passion fruit sorbet-like mix in it though.

If you like the crunchy type of waffles, read my post on the Waffle Place Cottage last year.

Gelare is still around! They serve the fluffy type of waffles too. And I think they still have half-price waffles promotion on Tuesdays. A little out of reach for me though, so Haagen Dazs @ Junction 8 is my best choice. Plus, for every $10 you spend at Haagen Dazs until 8 August 2010, you get 5 letters to complete the crossword puzzle for the Haagen Dazs Word Hunt Contest! Hehe.. I just like little games like this. Fun, simple to do, and a chance to win great prizes :)

Rating: ★★★

Mushroom Park, the Mushroom Paradise

2010-07-18T19:38:00.002+08:00

Weeehee! Chanced upon a restaurant called Mushroom Park (while cleaning up the database for a new dining app) and well, being a Super Mushroom Lover, of course I was dying to check it out! We made reservation on the website a day earlier so we could get 10% off our bill :)

We managed to arrive just before 7pm for our reservation (phew!). Anyway, it was alright because the restaurant was practically empty on a Tuesday night. The experience was great - it was a very nicely renovated place, peaceful and undisturbed, with "personal" attendants. Like VIPs!

We were impressed by the whole interior - glass table top with marble pebbles underneath, and a built-in stove right in the middle. You can tell that this place is really dedicated to serving their healthy mushroom steamboat cuisine. Classy!

The dishes were unique too! For starters, we had Mushroom Sashimi, Crispy Mushroom (like dried fruit crackers) and Shredded Mushroom (meat floss-like snack). Wow, didn't think we would be eating mushrooms like that! We probably looked like total newbs, wow-ing at everything like we're from the outerspace hehe. Oh, and the perfect drink to go with a healthy meal? The Chinese Eight Treasures Tea! (This is real stuff ok, not some instant 8-in-1 packet drink.)

This restaurant really goes all out in ensuring that its customers enjoy their mushroom steamboat the proper way. There is a process to follow and actually they will serve you for the most part so you can just sit and watch until you are ready to do your "shabu shabu" thing. First, they invite you to taste the original mushroom soup base, before anything else is added. Then, they add in the mushrooms, cabbage, Taiwanese frozen tofu, and a kind of herbal yam (explaining what each ingredient is as they are added). A kitchen timer is set on our table: Time left to devour is exactly 6 minutes. :)

Once again after it's ready for our chopsticks to make a dive, we were invited to taste the soup again - it had a nice extra sweetness to it from the mushrooms and vegetables added. Finally, we were ready for "shabu shabu"!

Fresh thin slices of beef and pork, and the soup were perfect complements for each other! So fresh and sweet that we ate it plain (without any sauce) after cooking it to just right in the soup. And the soup was just filled with the rich essence of the meat, the mushrooms, the vegetables - we couldn't help but finish the entire pot of soup in the end. :p

Another of our favorite dish was the special Mushroom Treasure (Steamed) Rice. Try their special red chilli sauce! The slight sweetness blends in perfectly with the steamed rice.

Now for the desserts :D Green Tea and Plum Jelly! It's nothing like the normal jelly or the Japanese konnyaku that we usually eat. This jelly is really soft yet still spongy (like jelly!). I love the Plum Jelly, lightly-flavored and not too sweet (I thought the Green Tea one was too sweet though).

That's it! All of the above are part of a set meal. There are five types of steamboat set meals, and an ala-carte menu as well. The cheapest, Healthy Set Meal is priced at $26.80++. The most valued (imo), Natural Set Meal or Creamy Dory Set Meal is priced at $36.80++. (There are also the Dynasty Set Meal, the Vegetarian Set Meal, and the Tilapia Fillet Set Meal, which were slightly over our budget.) We both picked the Natural Set Meal. But don't feel restricted that you have to pick the same set meal as your partner (even though you will still be sharing the same pot of soup)! The variations are only on the type of meat/fish and the rice/noodles. With the Natural Set Meal (& above), you get a free upgrade to the Mushroom Treasure Rice, which is otherwise $3 on the ala-carte menu.

This is definitely a thumbs-up place for me. In fact, I've already recommended it to my family, and I dined there for the 2nd time the same weekend - yes, I went there twice in 5 days! The restaurant was full house on the weekends though. So I would suggest to go during the week if you don't like the crowds and noises.

But hurry up if you are keen on trying this place, because they are closing down on 1 August 2010. Sobs, it's really sad. I wished I had found out about this place sooner. We only learned about the closing by chance when we asked them about their signature Mushroom Fishball, which they won't be serving anymore. So quick quick, if you are even considering about checking them out - I would say, go for it - why not! Only half a month left before it's gone forever!

Mushroom Park is located at 87 Serangoon Garden Way (near Chomp Chomp). Reserve online today so you can get 10% off like I did! [website]

Rating: ★★★★★

Crispy Prata for Supper?

2010-07-11T05:12:00.001+08:00

I'm sure many are already fans of The Prata Place in Springleaf Garden (Thomson). If you are a prata fan, this is probably the first place you should hit up.

Took a break in the middle of our family mahjong tournament. This place opens till midnight, so it's great for supper.

We went there around 10:30pm and it was already packed with people. We had to wait quite a bit before our food is served. If you want to beat the crowd, best time to arrive is ~11pm, you'll still have an hour to eat. :)

Prata is crispy just as it is known for. But suggest to order those flavored pratas (rectangular ones), like cheese prata, as they are a lot thinner and crispier than the kosong type (round ones). If you're feeling a bit adventurous, perhaps you would like to try their chocolate prata or durian prata! (Too weird for me personally hehe)

All in all, we ordered 3 cheese pratas, 1 onion prata, 3 kosong, 1 mutton curry, 1 cabbage side dish, 3 iced milo, and 3 teh haliah (traditional ginger milk tea) for just $26.90 - ~$5+ per pax.

Rating: ★★★★

I can cook! : Steam Meat Loaf with Mushroom

2010-07-11T04:04:00.001+08:00

As a special dedication to my new foodie blog, let me present you my very own steamed meat loaf with mushroom!!

Just randomly decided to cook something, it's my my first attempt (using my own recipe!) so still in the experimenting stage...

INGREDIENTS:

Minced meat
Garlic, diced
Mushrooms, diced (need Chinese Mushrooms, but I've only got button mushrooms :\)
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Sesame oil
White pepper
Corn flour
Some water

Just mix them all up and put to steam for ~10 mins!

Not too bad for first try, says my family. :D

A simple way to eat this is meat loaf bread:

A Hungry Night @ The Soup Restaurant

2010-07-11T03:00:00.000+08:00

You know how hungry we were? Here's an idea.
We wanted to take photos first, but as soon as the food came we dived right into it. By the time I remembered that I forgot to take the photos, our table of dishes became like this:

wx was holding his chopsticks all ready to pounce on the food again when I managed to snap a shot of the mess.

Here's what we ate:

Samsui Ginger Chicken, Rating: ★★★★★
Hand Chopped Minced Pork with Salted Egg, Rating: ★★
Claypot Tofu, Rating: ★★★/★
Fried Noodle with Fish Slice, Rating: ★★★
Lotus Roots with Pork Ribs Soup, Rating: ★★★★

Total was $60.50. A little pricey though. For about the same number of dishes, Din Tai Fung costs around $50 for two.

Well what is The Soup Restaurant without having their famous Samsui Ginger Chicken!? Their specialty lies in their ginger sauce. Even the sliced cucumbers goes well with it. They also sell this sauce in small bottles at $4.80 per bottle.

I would recommend the Claypot Tofu, though perhaps they could add couple of those big mushrooms to complete the taste. For one that doesn't like egg tofu, I actually ate quite a bit of this. So 3-4 stars for this!

I was quite disappointed with the meat loaf actually, especially when they were advertising it as "Painstakingly hand chopped...," so only 30 servings per day. Trying it for the second time, the first was with salted fish. They added water chestnut in the minced meat to make it crunchy. But I would suggest to dice up the water chestnut even more, so it would mix more evenly with the minced meat - I was tasting the water chestnut more than the meat in every bite.

Swensen's 1-for-1 is (still) ON!

2010-07-10T18:26:00.001+08:00

If you ever walked pass a Swensen's in the day and wondered why it's been so crowded all afternoon, it's because their 1-for-1 lunch treats is still on!

Check out our favorite picks:

We also ordered a Celebrity Brownie for dessert! (All desserts and ice cream are not part of the 1-for-1 deal.)

Totals out to only $30+ for 2 fully satisfied tummies ^^

Rating: ★★★★

Best Picks @ Bedok 85 Market

2010-07-10T17:14:00.005+08:00

4 months! I've abandoned my blog for so long! Someone might be complaining - I have not done my part as a Sakae e-Journalist for that long too. So I'm back now... & with a new home too :) I've moved all my food posts to this new domain, and will be blogging only about food here. (Yes, I'm trying to become a casual food blogger! ;])

So here's a welcome back post for myself - dinner at Bedok 85 Market, the best picks!

This is the best chai tow kueh (carrot cake) I've had so far that I actually eat it with the eggs. My favorite non-eggy (on special requests) chai tow kueh is at the Bedok Reservoir Blk 600+ market.

Unique - the top layer skin is crispy fried - & Fresh - the flesh toughness is just nice. Don't go to the wrong stall though, there's another seafood bbq on the side of the famous bak chor mee and sugarcane stalls. This stall has been there for 20 years already, I think about 2 rows after.

This is the famous traditional bak chor mee. Pretty much the only bak chor mee that you eat only in soup. They pride themselves on their soup (filled rich with the sweetness of the minced meat), their QQ noodles, and their hand-made meat balls.

Don't forget to get a sugarcane juice with lemon - original sugarcane taste!

Rating: ★★★★

13 Lo Hei Ingredients & Their Meanings

2010-03-06T20:11:00.004+08:00

Of all the Chinese New Year food, I hate Lo Hei (Yu Sheng) the most. Gosh it's like randomly throwing everything together, give them a meaning, and give them a representative color to fit their meaning. They simply don't taste right to me. And raw fish is just not my type.

But this Chinese New Year, I had 3x Lo Hei. Once at Din Tai Fung, once in Malaysia, and once at Tung Lok. The coolest thing for me was just the procedure to pour the ingredients together. Then the actual "lo hei".

Do you know what are the ingredients and the meanings behind their colors? How many can you name?

I picked up a flyer from Ichiban Boshi with 13 lo hei ingredients, and their respective meanings in both English and Chinese. Of course the ingredients here are tailored for Ichiban Boshi's Yusheng set this year. I read on wiki that they are 27 ingredients in the original dish.

1. Chuka Kurage
Excellence, 锦上添花

2. Red Sweetened Ginger
Luck, 鸿运当头

3. Peanut Crunch
Wealth, 金玉满堂

4. Pickled Leek
Divination, 妙算如神

5. Sweetened Lime
Merit, 苦尽甘来

6. Pickled Cucumber
Advancement, 平步青云

7. Winter Melon
Harmony, 甜甜蜜蜜

8. Fried Sesame
Prosperity, 生意兴隆

9. Chuka Wakame
Youth, 青春长驻

10. Pickled Melon
Tranquility, 风调雨顺

11. Pok Chui Biscuits
Affluence, 遍地黄金

12. Five Spice, Cinnamon and Pepper Powder
Fortune, 招财进宝

13. Salmon Sashimi
Abundance, 年年有余

Do you like Lo Hei? What was your favorite or least favorite Chinese New Year dish/snack?

Sakae Adventure: Who Says No Money Cannot Eat?

2010-02-26T20:13:00.003+08:00

Hmmm....it's been 3 months now since my last pay! What the heck... & Always in the last week, we try to scrimp and save. But who says no money cannot eat?

In times of need, we were so glad to have my Sakae Card around!

..with $55 Sakae Dollars from the e-journalists program. Just in time to celebrate wx's birthday too! Hehe

3 colored plates, $2.29 each + 1 red plate, $5.59

Nabeyaki Udon, $11.99

Tempura with Yuzu Soba, $13.99
Totals to $46.50. We paid only 50 cents!!

The yuzu soba was quite interesting. We were given this raw quail egg (poked with a small hole) and for a while we weren't sure what to do with it.

Do you know the correct way to eat your yuzu soba?

Rating: ★★★

Sakae Adventure: T for Teppanyaki

2009-12-17T19:36:00.001+08:00

Finally found the chance to dine at Sakae Teppanyki @ Century Mall on Monday, been a long time! Everything looked strangely familiar - the chefs, the waitresses. In the past, I've talked about the food and I've talked about the service. I want to write about something different this time - the Teppanyaki cooking! :) Keep reading to also find out something new at Sakae Teppanyaki.

I think teppanyaki is awesome! It's really fun to observe how they prepare and cook, then slowly enjoy the food. Wx and I would even discuss different chef styles. You know, like gourmets :D

For instance, how many eggs and how much soy sauce to use for 3 servings of the garlic fried rice...

To get...

This!!

Even the shrimpy topping can make a difference in the overall taste. Some chefs will heat it up a bit after the rice is done (this I think is optimal); some set it on the metal plate longer (but I feel it makes the shrimps too dry); and some just sprinkle directly onto the rice without extra heating.

Remember, what is the one best ingredient in teppanyaki? Garlic!! There is the garlic fried rice and seafood stir-fried with garlic. Seriously I think there needs to be more more garlic :p

Besides stir frying, there are other styles of cooking in teppanyaki. Try the lobster stew! Prepared and served in nicely folded aluminium foil trays. These trays are also used in making beef sukiyaki.

Then there is the steamed kind like chawanmushi. Just spray some water and cover it up with a big round lid!

Here's something cute from Sakae:

Green tea icecream served in Sakae froggie trays!! Hehe I took home the trays :p

Eating @ Hand in Hand

2009-12-05T13:17:00.001+08:00

Lunched at Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant (手拉手京华小馆) - dad saw it on the newspapers I think, so he wanted to try it out.

A variety of Chinese dishes - Hunan, Beijing, and Sichuan flavors in dim sum, noodles, soup and traditional style. But was quite disappointing, judging by the few dishes we tried.

In reverse taste rating:

5. Tianjin Goubuli (Go Believe) steamed buns
My dad always boasts about how yummy Goubuli buns are. But I've never tasted any up to standards. Sad to say, it's the same for this. Not enough filling and doesn't taste "hot and fresh" (still newly steamed though).

4. Suan xiang niu rou
There wasn't much "sauce" and the beef I felt was a little bit less than tender.

3. Fried dumplings
Not "fried" enough. It's halfway between boiled dumplings and fried ones.

2. Fried spring onion pancake
Not much of the spring onion flavor. But still quite acceptable IMHO.

1. Pork and cabbage dumplings
Taste quite good. It's just dumplings. I recommend adding mushrooms to the filling, will taste better.

Perhaps I should have tried their noodles. I believe they are known for that? Anyways, highly unlikely that I would go again. If you do go there, tell me if you like it there :)

Rating: ★

Teppanyaki Chef exercises Favoritism

2009-11-30T12:52:00.002+08:00

I actually planned to talk about this in my long pending post along with few other recent happenings until I realized that I actually have a lot more to say for this.

This actually happened at Sakae Teppanyaki, Bugis Junction. Before I plunge into the story, just want to make it clear that this is by far the first time I had experienced such unfair treatment at Sakae. (Favorite branch still in Tampines!!) It's not a total big deal, but it's very unprofessional, especially coming from a teppanyaki chef, where everything is transparent - customers see everything you are doing.

So wx and I were seated at this booth with another family of three. They were there before us, already served with some food, and were chatting with the chef quite frequently. After the chef confirmed our orders with us, he started making our garlic fried rice. For the next 10 mins, the chef only prepped food for that family. In fact, we literally finished our rice before we were served with ours. I really wondered how much food that family had ordered, because even when the chef was finally cooking for us, he was still cooking for them! Then here's where it got worse...

First dish up is the squid. Squid is a common dish in both seafood and beef set. Apparently, that x amount of squid was to be split amongst the five of us at the table - ie. 20% for the each of us. To get an exact even split is tough, but I've always seen the past teppanyaki chefs try their best at it. Do a rough split first then spread the remaining bits among those who got a smaller portion. Seriously, I think I got 10-12 pieces, plus what wx got, we got only approximately 15%. The chef, in his dear judgement, served the remaining bits (1%) to the man of that family. Okay..he is a lot bigger in size but that does not make him deserve more food than I do. We pay the same price, and the chef has no rights to deprive me of what I should be getting for him to suck up to his other customers!!

And... Should teppanyaki chefs talk while they cook? Some hygiene concerns here eh.

In direct contrast, I have seen very nice teppanyaki chefs. Not those chatty slash "friendly" type, but real service. Chinese chef at Plaza Singapura branch, very polite and the only person who bothered with us when the Malay (?) waitress was busy trying to appear occupied - slowly laying out plates at an empty table instead of serving customers first.

Maybe a training program would help? :p Would strongly suggest studying the customer service at Din Tai Feng. Even an appetizer is weighed for every customer, and waitresses are usually friendly.

Ah can't wait to have my grand teppanyaki feast in December! How grand? I should have $90 to spend on my Sakae Card soon :) That's roughly 2 meals for two at Sakae Teppanyaki.

Sakae Adventure: Family Dining @ Sakae Sushi

2009-10-31T22:39:00.002+08:00

So I finally took my family to Sakae Sushi @ Wheelock Place earlier this month to use my $50 voucher. Picked this location particularly because I saw on the website that it has tatami rooms!

But we didn't get the tatami room :( It was all dark as if that part of the shop is not yet open for business. What's worse was that one of the waitresses actually told us to not put our stroller beside our booths (my niece was still in there at that time). A little disappointing but understandable, as I really thought that the waitresses should offer us a tatami room if they didn't want us to have the stroller in the walkway - could be dangerous with them serving hot food. (We should have requested then too :\) Reason is simple. We were a big party with 4 adults 1 child 1 baby plus a baby stroller. It's very inconvenient to eat while carrying a baby, you know. Instead of asking your customers to adjust to your store plan, you should be trying to accustom to all your customers' needs at all times. That's what customer service is about, right?

So then we ordered 2 unagi-don, 1 gyuu-don, some side dishes, and some colored plates off the sushi train. I must say that the Enoki Niku Maki is quite disappointing - overflowing with teriyaki sauce, too sweet! It's a lot darker (black sauce) than in this picture. But the Saba Shioyaki is not bad for my dad - I think he enjoyed it.

The meal totals out to be $95 - $50 (voucher) = $45. This is my first time ordering ala carte at Sakae Sushi, and I believe it would be my last LOL. To be honest, Sakae Sushi's food is not top grade, though still lot better than those really cheap ones. Ala carte..sure, but cost-wise, is a little too pricey for me. So their buffets are the best - value deals especially if you eat a lot or eat a wide variety! & you have my honest opinion here :)

Just one thing to note when eating buffets:
If you want to use Sakae Sushi vouchers or if you want to benefit from 10% discount and/or 12% rebate from your Sakae Card, then you have to go ala carte. Sad, but the buffets are in fact a "promotion", so not valid with any other promotions.

Oh, and why Sakae Sushi is not ideal for families?

Sakae Sushi's primary seating areas are the booths, because of the sushi train. But not great for a big family with kids. That's why a tatami room is perfect! Best to come in twos, so both can get their hands on the sushi train running by them :D

If you're interested in trying out at Sakae Sushi, check out Sakae Sushi's on-going promotions!

Oh, I noticed that there's a Sakae Pasta Shop @ Wheelock Place! Worth a try next time :)

Sakae Adventure: Sashimi Buffet @ Atrium

2009-09-23T16:11:00.001+08:00

note: check out all the Sakae bloggers here! and err sorry no photos this time round lah. :\

Remember that I won a $50 Sakae Sushi voucher sometime early August? Well, I am now also officially part of the Sakae e-Journalist programme where I get to eat and blog at the same time.

So here is my first post of my eat-n-blog venture! (2nd if you count my entry blog post on Sakae Teppanyaki)

A few weeks back wx and I decided to use our $50 Sakae Sushi voucher. The idea was to eat well and still save money. So wx suggested that we try the Sashimi Buffet at The Atrium @ Orchard. Ehh we sort of did our calculations beforehand: if we just had the normal sushi buffet, it would cost us $18.90 per person ($37.80++ total) - ie. we lose out on $12.20 voucher value and we are only entitled to only 2 'red plates' (sashimi) total; sashimi buffet costs $24.90 per person ($49.80++ total) and we get unlimited 'red plates'!

3 Reasons Why Sakae's Sashimi Buffet Is Better Than The Sushi Buffet
1) 'Red plates' are more than just sashimi! Though I don't fancy them all, it's always good to bring along someone who loves them. *points at wx*
2) Sushi buffet has more limitations. For example, 1 'red plate' per person and 1 'mini udon' per person. Most of items (except a few) are unlimited in sashimi buffet.
3) To be charged at the sushi buffet value, you need to finish your food within an hour! Anything beyond that time period is charged additionally. Whereas for the sashimi buffet, no need to rush - you can just eat at your own slow pace and eat MORE! muahahaha

In the end, we realized we couldn't use the $50 voucher because buffets are considered as promotions (T&C states that voucher is not valid with other discounts or promotions). Okay, that's what I didn't quite expected. The buffets have been on-going for so long that I thought it was a part of the usual menu. >< Quite a wasted trip in that sense, but I've decided to bring my family to Sakae Sushi instead! Planning for sometime next month (Oct), in time just before the voucher expires. And that would be the highlight of my Oct's Sakae blog post. Good idea eh? Lastly - a shoutout to Sakae Sushi - wx and I suggest to have the Sashimi buffet across more Sakae Sushi outlets in Singapore. Currently only available at The Atrium, which is kind of out of the way for us. :p The Sushi & Teppanyaki buffet ($24.90 per person) sounds cool. Eager to try it someday - Funan DigitaLife Mall only.

Sashimi Buffet
Rating: ★★★★

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More Sakae Sushi's promotions at sakaesushi.com.sg.

Old Airport Road Food Centre

2009-08-08T05:52:00.002+08:00

Location: Old Airport Road Food Centre
Address: Blk 51, Old Airport Road
Map:

#1.
Hua Kee Hougang Famous Wanton Mee #01-02
Rating: ★★★
It's cheap and delicious

#2.
Cho Kee Noodle 曹记 #01-04
Rating: ★★★★
Another wonton noodle store (just a store away from Hua Kee). Done in a similar style,

#3.
??? #01-04
Rating: ★
Rather fail seafood

#4.
Freshly Made Chee Cheong Fun #01-15
Rating: ★★★
Soft and smooth skin.

#5.
ABC Yong Kee Famous Fishball Noodle #01-107
Rating: ★★

#6.
??? #01-107
Rating: ★★★

#7.
San Gu Dessert 三姑糖水 #01-115
Rating: ★★★

Sakae Adventure: Magic of Garlic

2009-08-01T22:51:00.003+08:00

update:
Sakae is awesome~ Not only did I win the $50 Sakae Sushi Cash Vouchers, they are also offering me free Sakae card, topped up with $30 monthly!! :D All I got to do is blog about my Sakae experience every month. Haha so nice, I can save up on my food expenses :)

You would be surprised that my favorite foodie places would most seldom appear on my blog. Well, 1) because I eat there very often, sometimes 2-3 times a week and 2) because each time I'm there, I just want to EAT. But ultimately, being my favorites will have to make their way to my blog some time. Here, you get to hear about the first. :)

Sakae. The Sakae chain has a very cute froggie mascot. In their sushi bars, they even have froggie mouses hooked up to a monitors that display promotions and a navigable menu (possibly click-to-order as well?). I wondered, do they actually sell those froggie products? The fact is, they do! I think you would have to ask them at their counter if you're interested in purchasing any of the Sakae mascot merchandise. I've seen a number of them displayed in glass windows of some branches, though haven't seen the mouse in display before. I hope they sell that too. I should ask that next time. :p (Am a keen collector of cute computer mouse..)

Less presence of the froggie mascot at Sakae Teppanyaki, but the better of the two imo! It is where wx and I would always complain about my garlic breath the day after. But as always, rather inevitable as garlic is what makes the best of Sakae Teppanyaki. :)

(I used to ask for an extra dishful of really-spicy-garlic, but wx has forbidden me so because of the aftereffects :\)

A Teppanyaki Night

wx and I have our standard menu :)
1 Beef and 1 seafood set. Change both rice to garlic rice. Change assorted vegetables (for seafood set) to assorted mushrooms (add $2). 1 hot and 1 cold green tea. Each set comes with a salad, miso soup, and a dessert (ice-cream). - Total $52++

For starters, I would eat 2 servings of salad! Why 2? Because wx never liked veggies and tomatoes, so I get to eat his share too.

If you know me, I hate salads. All that Caesar's dressing, Ranch and Thousand Island just makes me puke. The only kind I would eat is the Japanese style salad dressing, with a unique sweet and sour taste. The first time I had it was in a Jap restaurant in Atlanta.

& While finishing up my salad, we would watch our teppanyaki chef cook..

Garlic rice!! Sprinkled with Japanese dried shrimps. (I like to top mine with extra scoop of fresh garlic!)

Next up, squuiiidd! (Dip dip, more garlic!)
Hmmm, I eat the seafood set because of this..

Bamboo clams!! (Tastes even better with extra garlic!) :D

Oooh, jumbo prawns.. (Moree gaarrrrlicc!!)

Original seafood set comes with assorted vegetables. But mushrooms is just much better, don't you think!!? (& I need more garlic!)
By this time, my tongue's usually scalded by the spiciness of the garlic. I could almost taste nothing else! Now, a hot miso soup really helps to soothe my taste buds.

Oooh ahhh~

Finally gulping down a cup of warm green tea or two to neutralize the overwhelming taste left in my mouth.
But that is not all!

A scoop of cookies & cream ice-cream served in an iced bowl. Usually good to have another cup of green tea at this point.

:)

Rating: ★★★★

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Dedicating this blog post to Sakae's Monthly Bloggers Affair :p chance to win $50 Sakae voucher!!

Cupcakes for My Niece's 1st Birthday (A Children's Cookbook Recipe!)

2009-07-01T11:11:00.002+08:00

CUPCAKES NIGHT 2!

Over the weekend, my sis, qiqi and I baked cupcakes (again) to celebrate xiaoyu's 1st birthday :) The recipe was taken from Children's First CookBook by Annabel Karmel.

Making cupcakes...
First heat the oven to 180°C or 350°F. Then prepare the following.

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
125 g sugar
125 g butter
125 g raising flour
chocolate chips

This makes about 30 small cupcakes.

From previous experience, the cupcakes were too sweet and greasy. So we tweaked the formula a little - reducing both sugar and butter - to suit our taste preferences. (experiment with the right amounts for yourself!)

Mix all the ingredients together!

Add in some flavor! We threw in some chocolate chips, but raisins or blueberries would work too.

Lay out paper cones onto the tray and fill each cone to 1/2 or 2/3 the capacity. Put in the oven! Bake for 18 to 20 mins. (watch out for the color yourself!)

Meanwhile, prepare icing...

25o g icing sugar
125 g butter
1 tsp water
coloring

Again play with the proportions to get the right taste.

Baking for kids is simple. Just mix everything up and add any coloring you would like! We had green and pink. Then put the icing in a corner of a small plastic bag. Cut off a tiny corner.

Ohh the cupcakes are almost ready!

Remove the cupcakes from the tray and leave out to cool down. (IMPT or your deco will melt!)

Making our second batch of cupcakes.

Ta-da! We wrote HAPPY 1st BDAY XIAOYU! on the cupcakes!

Next morning on webcam...

Opps, qiqi already started feasting on the cupcakes!

So good to see her again, she has grown so much and very talkative now! (keeps saying "da-da-da") I miss carrying and napping with her :)

Singing a birthday song for xiaoyu... Wah she was all ready to cut her cake!

Ok, no more talking. Just eat ;)

NEW Cheap Eat near HDB Hub

2009-06-25T23:34:00.002+08:00

Lunched out today with wx at Toa Payoh Central, and found a new Chinese food store called Origins (aka 元庄). It's right behind the row of shophouses facing the HDB Hub/SPH Buzz pod. Features Laksa, Curry/Vegetable Rice, soups and desserts! Not bad and is cheap.

We ordered:

Hainanese Curry Rice - curry chicken, cabbage, bean sprouts plus a sunny-side-up. This is so-so.

Katong Laksa - Tastes quite good, my favorite. :)

Watercress Soup - Okay. A good amount of ingredients used, but I would prefer using ribs than chicken feet as the soup base. :x

Beancurd with Ginko Nuts - The beancurd is not bad, but ginko nuts were a bit "old" (not soft enough) and not fresh.

Almond-flavored Soya Milk - Not too sweet, which is good. A little bit dilute, but still much better than what we can get at most hawker centers these days.

All for under $15!

Rating: ★★★ for the laksa!

NEW Triple Prawn Burger!!

2009-06-25T01:26:00.001+08:00

Went to J8 to pay my Singtel bills after work today, and bought MOS Burger back for dinner. Try their latest addition:

TRIPLE PRAWN BURGER!

Three deep-fried prawns topped with XO and tartar sauce plus shreds of lettuce.
Ermm didn't look as glamorous as this eh?

IMO not really worth the 40cents "upgrade" from my favorite fish burger. Although the prawns were fresh, I couldn't taste much of the XO sauce which was also a highlight of this dish.

Rating: ★★

Nevertheless, MOS Burger remains to be one of my favorite burger place locally! A little small portioned and expensive, but love the fat fries, croquette, and minestrone soup! (I give high ratings to those :D)

& Oh! New Scallops Rice Burger... wx might just like it :)

PS: MOS Burger needs delivery service in Singapore :x

Office Tea-time with Cute Cupcakes!

2009-06-24T23:53:00.003+08:00

Yum yum yum~ Don't know where exactly these came from, but we've had a nice little tea-time (minus the tea) in office yesterday!

A whole box of cute and soft chocolate cupcakes. :D
(Someone ninjaed one before I took the picture T_T)

A poodle. (or sheep?)

A bear.

A butterfly.

Which is your favorite?
I like the poodle most. :)

The deco tastes a bit like dough but is candy sweet! And the chocolate cupcakes (base) were made just nice - not too sweet, soft, and not too dry either. Truly delicious! - I sneaked one out for wx in the end. hehe

PS: Gave me some ideas for next cupcakes session with my niece... :p

Feifei Wanton Mee @ 72 Joo Chiat Place

2009-06-22T17:04:00.002+08:00

I think no Singaporean who enjoys good (& not necessarily expensive) food would not know about FeiFei Wanton's Mee (aka. 飛飛雲吞麵). But beware, because like other food chains, not all Fei Fei outlets taste the same or as good.

I was highly recommended by wx to this particular 24-hour outlet at 72 Joo Chiat Place. I finally went with rather high expectations. :)

Rating: ★★★ to ★★★★

This was my type of noodles :) and FeiFei takes pride on that being handmade. The wonton was superb! Soft, thin and smooth skin, and makes a *slurping* sound when you eat it!

Disappointment #1: Noodles were not as QQ as I thought. :x

Soup! wx was telling me how you need to finish your noodles before going to the stall front personally to get your soup. The case here is, soup is not served with noodles by default. You need to ask for your soup. Wow (so dao), I thought the soup must be DA LEET!

Disappointment #2: And a rather big one. The soup was...tasteLESS. :o

Well, at least this side dish (prawn roll) was pretty good. I would visit again for their silky wonton skins but skipping the soup part hehe :D

Personally, I think I'm quite picky with the type of wonton noodles that I eat. The HK style (noodles and sauce) is just not my type! My favorite wonton noodles still remains - after my visit to FeiFei - to be in Malacca. :p & The closest version found in Singapore so far is either FeiFei's or Pontian's. But I'm not a fan of Pontian's fried wontons. Well, rather subjective pertaining to the style of wontons, noodles and sauces for different individuals.

PS: Not sure of the location in Malacca, will update later once I ask my parents. Photo first!

Last eaten: Jan '09

Father's Day Dinner @ ChongQing Hot Pot

2009-06-21T12:16:00.002+08:00

Happy Father's Day
to all fathers in the world!

Rating: ★★★

Went for a dinner celebration at ChongQing Hot Pot in Tanglin Shopping Centre!

Not bad at the start, it really has the 麻辣 ("numbing spicy") taste to it!

And look at all the ingredients we have! All included in the buffet. Approx. $38 per person, comes with desserts (eg. sticky rice cake, water chestnut jelly, ice-cream) and some special snacks (eg. spring roll, dumplings, 1-slice abalone and salmon)!

One complaint:
The place is quite small and cramped, and the soup base is bit too salty. I didn't get to enjoy the soup in the end. :\

Just Noodles @ Suntec

2009-06-17T21:55:00.001+08:00

Simply cheap and yummy :)

Rating: ★★★

[prologue]
So I thought I could grab some ice-cream waffles at Gelare (Tuesday's 1/2 price offer) then head to a Singtel store to fix my mobile plan upgrades...

Happily cabbed to Suntec (bearing $2 ERP cost), found out that Gelare is closed from June 16-18, and realized that the Singtel stores there are only "dealers" NOT "Hello Singtel". Change of plans. So what's for dinner instead?
[/prologue]

Came to Just Noodles in B1 - the fountain area. If you've never heard of this name, Just Acia might just ring a bell to you. (There's a huge chain at the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station..) The food may not look very appetizing at first, but don't run! If you are not so picky, this restaurant will serve you the best food at the best bargain!

1) Great value.
Free Flows!! If you love free flow drinks, how about some free flow ice-cream!? XD It's self-service, like the drinks, with 6 flavors to choose from. Definitely try mango and vanilla! Be surprised, they don't taste as cheap as they appear to be. Set meals include both free flow drinks & ice-cream. For ala-carte, you can also add $2.75 for the free flow offer. Entrees range from $6-$18 approx; side dishes from $1-$6 approx.

2) Decent food.
If the ice-cream is good, the entrees can't be too bad right? A mixture of korean, japanese, and some chinese style, their kimchi soup is actually much better than those you can get at food courts. Although not the highest quality, it's definitely good enough considering how much you are paying for. Also try their Unagi Kabayaki and prawn rolls!

3) Fast service.
It's really a come, eat, and go place. Well maybe stay longer for the ice-cream :p but guaranteed low waiting times. Since drinks and desserts are self-served, it helps with reduced serving time too. You can change to a different drink and a different flavor of ice-cream anytime you want.

I would definitely go there again. :)

Read more reviews here.

Dinner @ Manhattan Fish Market

2009-06-09T15:18:00.001+08:00

(Another overdue post. ><; Actual day: June 2 - the night I bought my Monopoly Deal.) Rating: ★★★★

This was my first time at Manhattan Fish Market. Not bad!

Soup of the day was Seafood Chowder. My only complain was too much of tomato taste (bit sour) for my preference. I would try their Cream of Mushroom or Clam Chowder on next visit.

I ordered black pepper grilled salmon with chips. Salmon was fresh and the fries were tasty too. Anyways, I felt this was a little too expensive or "not worth it" (~$18) when I saw wx's platter for 1 below...

His plate was that much fuller than mine - 2 jumbo prawns and a catch of the day, dora fish, plus both fries and baked rice! Only $3 more (~$21)

On second thought, I should have ordered baked rice - which tasted a bit like the garlic rice from Sakae Teppanyaki. I even DIY-ed and added more garlic to make it "asian"! :D

Where to find crispy waffles in Singapore?

2009-06-08T21:26:00.001+08:00

Rating: ★★★

Yum yum yum. Went to West Coast Plaza with my family and found this great waffle place:

the Waffle Place Cottage!

Ordered strawberry ice-cream at Qiqi's request (I was sharing it with her). $6.80 for single scoop. Wanted to add strawberries, but was told that they ran out of them (there's a Cold Storage right downstairs you know!) >

West Coast Plaza, #02-27
Suntec City Mall, MY PLAYground, #03-05G/071A
SMU, School of Economics & Social Science, #01-74

Their website is in the making.. Hope to see their menu and pictures of their delicious waffles soon!! XD

I recommended Gelare's waffles to @nikipaniki sometime last month. Personally, I prefer the Gelare's waffle type - the softer and fluffier kind, or if you still remember, the A&W waffles kind.

There are 4 Gelare locations in town:

Citylink Mall, #B1-26B
Far East Plaza, #01-23
Plaza Singapura, #05-20
Suntec City Mall, #02-084

Visit their website for a full list of outlets in Singapore.

And while surfing their website...

Look what I found!
TUESDAY! That's tomorrow!!! :D

Cupcakes Night!

2009-05-26T11:36:00.001+08:00

Here's a recommended weekend activity for families with kids:

Note: These were decorated by my sis and niece.

BAKE YOUR OWN CUPCAKES!

My 3-year old niece enjoyed it. It's almost like playing Cooking Mama on Wii or the iPhone!
Instructions were very simple from a children's cookbook. (I'll add the recipe next time)

*imagine the missing cupcakes recipe*

Ta-da! Yummy cupcakes, but a little plain eh? Here comes the fun part of decorating your cupcakes!
The cookbook featured really cute ideas using marshmallows to turn your cupcakes into sheeps and pigs. We skipped that part because it would only make my niece even more hyper than she usually is. Lets make our own icing first. :)

*icing recipe in the works*

Add a bit of coloring! We had pink and green.

A DIY icing bag!

Look at all the cupcakes I decorated!
And the adults (me, sis and mom) decided to have a cupcakes deco competition. Each of us submitted 2 cupcake designs. Judges were my 2nd sis and bro-in-law.

I was proud of my Doraemon idea. But nobody picked it! T_T
My other design (face with spectacles) was more successful, nominated twice. No one knows about this but guess what? It's a face of wx's.

:)

Mother's Day @ Cherry Garden

2009-05-11T19:18:00.002+08:00

Haha I've been delaying my Mother's Day post for as long as I could (2 wks now!) And the photos took me way longer than I expected. Woah I'm slow!) So here you go. :)

Cherry Garden, Mandarin Oriental

Showdown: BK Spicy Chicken vs. McSpicy!?

2009-05-11T15:12:00.003+08:00

So I was making my way to McDonalds last Thursday to check out the Happy Meal toy-of-the-day (qiqi was missing #7 of the Cinnamoroll series), I passed by Burger King and saw the ad: "Spicy meets Crispy." I thought, how can I not give it a try? It's like a BK version of McSpicy!! :D

Being a McSpicy Lover, I was eager to see if BK's new Spicy Tendercrisp was anywhere comparable to McD's McSpicy. Well, turned out that it wasn't. Not at all.

McSpicy's spicy chicken is just much spicier, crispier, more tender, and juicier. And bit simpler too: just the chicken, some lettuce and tartar. BK's Spicy Tendercrisp added in tomatoes. Bad pick IMO: tomato juice spoiled the taste of the chicken for me.

Spicy Tendercrisp Rating: ★★
McSpicy Rating: ★★★★★

P.S. This was the Cinnamoroll series from McD's Happy Meal. Qiqi simply loves the "milo" color ones.

January Babies Birthday Party in the office

2009-01-17T18:51:00.002+08:00

2nd blackforest birthday cake I had yesterday. Tastes not bad actually.

5 January babies in the office!! 2 of them were missing. And the cake still barely made a piece each. Cake cutter Roslinda now has more cake cutting experience for next month's feast. ;)

P.S. I randomly took a beer from a colleague. >< And got a scolding from 祥祥... ah he was scary. :s That was the first time he ever really yelled at me for something I did. sobs.

Pasta Cafe @ Takashimaya

2009-01-17T13:49:00.002+08:00

Rating: ★★★★

Finally had the chance on Thursday to try the Pasta Cafe that my sister strongly recommended. Quite yummy~

For two of us:

Fried Chicken (S$5.90)
~$1 per ball is just too expensive for my grade. (3 had been eaten in this photo, there were 6 to begin with.) But taste and texture is comparable to McSpicy chicken, meaning good. But I might as well eat McSpicy for the extra spiciness. :\

Soup of the Day: Clam Chowder (S$3.00)
Tastes okay. Not enough of the Clam Chowder flavor though.

Metaiko Spaghetti (S$12.90)
祥祥's entree. "Mentaiko" is marinated cod fish roe. It says on the menu, "Spiced with mild chilli." Don't be misled. It doesn't taste any tinge of spiciness at all. :p An interesting pick from the menu, claimed to be one of the most popular from Japan.

Boscaiola (S$14.90)
my entree. 祥祥 was eyeing on my pasta throughout! Topped with sauteed mushroom, tuna, and chicken sausage "with garlic and chilli." Again, don't be misled by the word "chilli" haha. "Boscaiola" means "woodman".. not sure where that came from.. the color?? (Personally, I like to turn all my food into the Chinese style.. so a little soy sauce would perfect this dish imo. :D)

Introducing MEGA McSpicy!!!

2009-01-08T19:30:00.003+08:00

Rating: ★★★★

Aiyayaiii!! I've been so busy at work these days that I have no time to blog! Five drafts and a pending one waiting for me to dwell on. meh.

Start of the year, many things we are going to push forward. So it's deadlines deadlines and deadlines. Helping with this and that, and so on... But now, I am going to dwell on my foooood instead.........

MEGA MCSPICY!!!!! :D

Yesss, really fat, juicy, spicy, and yummy!!!

Dining at Dian Xiao Er

2008-12-28T02:24:00.002+08:00

Rating: ★★★★

Went for dinner with my family at Dian Xiao Er @AMK Hub yesterday, and it was packed with people. A rather ineffective queue system though. We started queuing for a table for 5+1, not knowing exactly how long it would take. "Not too long," was what I heard them tell everyone. There was no number, so we had to stand in the line at the exact same location throughout the wait. That's how they differentiate who came first. Finally, we got our seats after standing for 45 mins. We could however order first, so food actually arrived shortly after we'd taken our seats.

Overall, queuing up for seats was the bottleneck for me. I guess we were unlucky too because we had a large group right before us. 15 of them. Two groups of 3 who came after us were seated first. It appeared that they would give seats according to the party size whenever a table had cleared up, reasonably. It was very strange then, because when we saw traffic OUT, there was no guarantee of traffic IN. When we were finally seated after another 10-15 mins, the 15 sat down at a large rectangular table in the corner. We took a separate smaller rectangular table towards the middle of the space. The party of 7 behind us took a separate round table. ie. For the past 10-15 mins, at least, we can be sure that the smaller rectangular table and the round table were already empty, since we did not see any more traffic coming out of the restaurant during this period, and tables were separate so we need not depend on the 15 to get our seats, vice versa. Furthermore, we stood for 10-15 mins more, at least, because the waitresses were just trying to settle seats for the larger party, or so it seemed.

I'm not sure of the situation at other Dian Xiao Er branches. This was also my first time to one of them. But I did think that the food wasn't bad, ratings as follow.
Favorites: the wintermelon soup, which had a light and natural sweetness from scallops; Poached Spinach with Century and Salted Egg, quite a unique taste.
Quite good: Prawn Ball with Mayo Sauce; Duck Roasted with Ten Wonder Herb.
Not recommended: Mongolian Spare Ribs, I personally thought it had a weird taste.
Some pictures available on their web.

I might go there again for lunch. :) HUNNGRRRRYYY!

Jackson Square's Kopitiam

2008-12-11T15:25:00.002+08:00

updated tasty ratings (Apr 15):
ECONOMY RICE STALL Rating: ★★
NOODLE SOUP STALL Rating: ★
(yes, I started to eat at this stall again. so far no other bad incidences)
CHICKEN RICE STALL Rating: ★★
(closed down!?)
ROTI PRATA STALL Rating:
(still haven't try yet)
FRUIT & DRINKS STALL Rating: ★★
(their pineapples usually quite juicy and sweet. despite watermelon juice being too plain, the starfruit juice is good)
-----

EEEK!! MY GAWD! I was happily eating my fish beehoon soup today @lunch until I realized some weird looking thing in my spoon.. WOORRRRRRRRM!!! Eeeeeeeeeee~ And I thought it tasted not bad the first time, so I ordered it again today. So gross that I lost my appetite. Here is the evidence:

-----
This kopitiam (cafe) was opened just recently, downstairs of my office complex. Convenient location for people working @Jackson Square, Toa Payoh. There are 5 stalls: 1) 菜饭 economy rice stall 2) noodle soup stall (the one that sells $4 fish beehoon soup) 3) chicken rice stall 4) roti prata stall 5) fruit & drinks stall. So I guess I'm never eating the noodle soup there again. Have a slight noodle soup phobia now.

GG, just look at the color!! Plus, the first time I bought this, it was like 2/3 of this size. Same price. Kaya + butter toast was $1.20 for 2 slices. A mini cup of ginger tea (those instant packets) is $1. I have yet tried the other 2 stalls, but I heard the Indian stall charges insanely as well.

THE ONLY GOOD VALUE: the chicken rice stall is good! GREAT service/attitude and cheap!! Only $2.50 for a plate of chicken rice and a small bowl of soup (refillable)!! The first time I ate there (off peak hour ard 3pm), the towkay even came to refill my bowl with HOT soup!!

Back in Singapore: Day 1-3 Quick Updates

2008-08-30T02:44:00.003+08:00

Day 1: Airport + Cargo Center (Wed, 8/27)
i hurried to the baggage claim area and skimmed through the row of spectators at the viewing glass. i saw my family.. but where's my hunny!? there!! a tall dark dude with a bear-like hairstyle just appeared beside baba. i beamed. :D we spent our next few hours together, settling the paperwork for chibi. my special post-flight snack (durian and mango cheong fun) went stale because of that. :'(

Day 2: Home visits + Comex (Thu, 8/28)
this is the beginning of our dating/family rep farming (actually this began on airport night) fiesta. breakfast with my parents near my house, "short" visit to wx's house, followed by the computer exhibition (comex) and dinner with baba at suntec city. hunny will be advising my new-to-be-custom-built desktop!! :p

Day 3: Science Center + short Bugis trip (Fri, 8/29)
i saw hunny's sister today but was too shy to talk! :x she took us into science center.. (whispers, for free)

we spent 3.5 hours at the science center!! (whispers, that's basically for kids) tried on several mini games, two of which test your memory. the first one is a typical color memory game: 4 colors (red, blue, green yellow); repeat chain in the same order as instructed, each time the chain increases by 1. one of the ogre dailies in blade's edge mountains is a direct copy of this. the longest chain i can remember is 7. hee hunny is 6. :p the other is a alpha memory game: a long seemingly random string of alphabets GPOSBVCRMTVCSIANASAOBKDBS. how much of this can you remember? there is a good way to remember it (for singaporeans). i'm the leeter one here of course. (whispers, hee hunny is epic fail :p) other games include this quiz testing how unique you are among science center visitors. hunny's uniqueness was higher than mine T_T

then we went to bugis and stopped by sim lim square's food court to eat 牛肉饭+小笼汤包! hunny says it's lvl 2.5-3 food. i think not bad!

Rating: ★★

speaking of food, i am already hungry!! D: nasi lemak for tomorrow's breakfast, but hunny cannot come with me. sad :(

P.S: 2 more books sold on amazon! whee! and new socks to go with my new shoes :D

SweetWater Beer Tasting

2008-08-21T09:14:00.001+08:00

Rating: ★★★★

Visited a small beer brewery this evening.. they have a beer tasting/tours session every Wed, Thu, and Fri starting at 5:30pm. Pay $8 and get a "SweetWater" glass + 6 "beer" tickets! Didn't tour the brewery BUT drank 3 almost-glassful of beer, 3 different brews. 1st glass: Blue. Light ale with a hint of blueberries, 4.9% alcohol. 2nd glass: 420. West coast style pale ale, 5.9%. 3rd glass: Roadtrip. A summer only brew, 5.4%. I only drank 3 glasses and couldn't drink anymore. My head was feeling absolutely bloated after the second. Needed to pay attention to my footsteps so I walk like normal. Came home with my sweetwater glass and 3 beer tickets. Sigh, I know I'm not a good drinker. :(

Front view. See the crowd?

Back view. The brewery basically has a lot of those big containers you see here.

Pay $8 to get a stamp on your hand, collect your beer glass and tickets!
Oh, and your ID pls.

Grab your beers!! :D

xiao guo (2nd) and baba (4th).. mm the difference between the driver and the passenger.

End. :)

World's Best Fish Tacos: Taqueria del Sol

2008-07-26T07:21:00.002+08:00

Rating: ★★★★★

I've never been a fan of mexican cuisine. Growing up in Singapore, my knowledge of mexican food was: beans, burrito, Taco Bell. Maybe more if I was from a richer family. In any case, I hate beans. So bleh.

However, I admit there are good mexican food in this world after all. Taqueria del Sol. Fish tacos. No beans. Yum yum. If you ever come visit Atlanta, you must try this! Even my mama, who never enjoys any food other than her own cooked food, enjoys it. And my baba, who hates to wait, is happily willing to stand in the long line and wait. And they never take too long to serve. Great service, great food.

Heard that it's world's 3rd best.
Soft taco shell. Fresh fried fish. Mayonnaise. Jalapeño peppers.
You'll never get sick eating it. :)

I can cook! : Curry Chicken

2006-12-18T07:54:00.002+08:00

...can be turned into CURRY CHICKEN!! Meal of the day: Curry chicken rice with potatoes. Does it look oishi to you? :P

I can cook! : Fried Rice

2006-10-15T10:13:00.002+08:00

Started watching Cooking Master Boy again recently...and I was inspired!! All the oishi Chinese food...*DROOOOL* So I made fried rice myself!!!

I can cook! : Bak Kut Teh

2006-10-07T07:45:00.003+08:00

entree: rice & eggs with green beans again! chilli is always a must.
served with: bak kut teh with too much dark soy sauce
dessert: no more Jell-O...only corn left. *sniff*

I can cook! : Black Pepper Pork Chop & Long Bean Eggs

2006-09-30T08:24:00.004+08:00

entree: 1 small piece of "grilled" pork chop + boiled carrots + eggs with green beans
served with: egg noodles with lots of chilli + sesame oil + bit dark soy sauce
dessert: Jell-O!!

Eat Me!

2006-09-27T10:40:00.001+08:00

Tis the Season of Strawberries
Sha-la-la-la-la~ La-la-la-la~

Isn't it so? :D
Bright red strawberries calling out to you with their candy sweet fragrance...you just cannot resist!

edit:
ok, they weren't as sweet as they looked. :(