Voglio viaggiare per il mondo!

Taiwan: Shihlin Revisited

2007-12-19T11:48:00.000+08:00

The Shihlin Night Market is so huge that one cannot possibly hope to polish off all the great snacks on one visit. So, we went back to Shihlin another day for lunch and dinner and opened ourselves to the many more choices that Taiwanese street snacks offer.

鲁肉饭 (minced meat rice)

This is one of my favorite Taiwanese street snacks, and it's also the simplest. I introduced Huey Woon to it, and I think she loves it too! ;) Just a bowl of good rice (I love Taiwanese rice, they're of the same breed as Japanese rice) topped with minced, cubed or ground fatty that has been stewed in soy sauce and spices. This stall that I tried was one of the few stalls at Shihlin that opened during the day. They provide very good and spicy chilli that goes well with the rice. At NT 20, it's a steal.

臭豆干 (smelly tau pok)

My second time trying this smelly dish, and although this stall serves the smellier version of the fare, I still wasn't put off by it. This time round, tau pok is used instead of tofu, and it's fried to an even crispier level. Also, this stall serves the tau pok with cabbage instead of preserved veg. I love the crunchiness of the deep fried tau pok, which is totally in contrast to the smooth fried tofu that I tried at Hsi-men Ding. I think I'm really starting to appreciate this local favorite.

台南棺材板 (Tainan coffin bread)

As inauspicious as the name sounds, this Tainan street snack is now a national favorite and can be found in most night markets. It is not hard to understand why this dish is so popular. Essentially, it is similar to French Toast, but filled with savory fillings, such as Black Pepper Beef or Curry Chicken. Thick cut bread is dipped in egg, deep fried, cut along three sides, opened and then filled with the various toppings. Joanna and Joel shared the shrimp one, whilst Huey Woon and I tried the bacon and cheese. It is highly sinful, but very enjoyable, as with all unhealthy foods. It definitely does not look difficult to make... someone should perhaps open a stall in Singapore. With so many toppings, I believe it will attract the Singaporean crowd as well. NT 40 each.

大肠包小肠 (Big Sausage wrapped over small sausage)

Taiwanese sausages are very popular in Singapore. This snack (NT 40) combines the fatty pork sausage that has a sweet taste with a rice sausage. Customers can select the flavor of the pork sausage, for example garlic or black pepper, and the sausage will be wrapped in a glutinous rice sausage (糯米肠), and served with cucumber and radish (something like the German Sauerkraut). It is quite messy to eat, and it would have been better if the rice sausage had been made a little bigger to at least contain the pork sausage properly. Anyway, do take note to stay away from this snack for awhile because the Taiwan health authorities have detected preservatives and chemicals in the factory-made rice sausages that are harmful to the body. If you really must try this, only eat from stalls who hand make their own rice sausages.

Other snacks

Joel and I went to try other snacks from stalls that are not situated at the main night market of Shihlin. In the narrow and less crowded roads off Shihlin, there are also some good finds worth trying. I had the tough crispy version of the scallion pancake (蔥油餅), a flour pancake with many thin layers, made with scallions. I usually have the soft fluffy ones, so this is a first for me. I asked for an egg on top (NT 23, NT 18 without). It was perfectly done, sunny side up and the yolk tasted great with the hard pancake, which is eaten with a fantastic soy sauce and chilli combination. I think this stall should be quite famous as there are newspaper cuttings pasted on the cart (a common tactic used by Singaporeans to locate good food). This is probably the only stall that serves such a variation of the scallion pancake. Thumbs up!

Joel had this kueh like thing that is stuffed with pork and mushrooms (NT 25). I think it's called He Fen Bao. The outer kueh is made out of rice flour (it's actually hor fun skin), like the chwee kueh of Singapore, but instead of serving it with salted radish and chilli like us, it is filled with savoury pork and mushrooms. Very tasty and I enjoyed the chewy soft texture of the rice flour crust.

Taiwan: Food Galore (Hsi-men Ding)

2007-12-19T10:56:00.000+08:00

Any Taiwanese will tell you that the absolute die die must try stalls at the popular teenage hangout Hsi-men Ding are Ah Zhong Mian Xian (阿宗面线) and Ya Rou Bian (鸭肉扁).

Ah Zhong Mian Xian (阿宗面线)

I tried a bit from Joel and Huey Woon who were sharing a bowl. Ah Zhong has maintained the standard of the mee sua really well since the last time I tried. The starchy gravy is savoury and makes you want more. The mee sua is so smooth it slithers down your throat and the pig intestines are very chewy. The price has increased to NT40, like most stalls in Taiwan, and you have to stand outside the stall to eat the noodles.

Ya Rou Bian (鸭肉扁)

This stall is extremely popular among the Taiwanese and it is not surprising to see any 2 Taiwanese schoolgirls sharing half a duck. You can choose to order a bowl of noodles or beehoon (NT50), but only one slice of duck is given. So, on top of that, we ordered another plate of duck (NT150) to share between 3 people. The soup based noodles/beehoon has a generous serving of beansprouts and the soup is very tasty. The duck meat served at Ya Rou Bian is actually a breed between duck and goose. Thus, the taste is slightly gamier than duck but also more tender. You cannot find anything that tastes quite like this in Singapore (you might be able to find it in Hong Kong), so pls try!

Smelly Beancurd (臭豆腐)

You will never ever catch me near any smelly tofu stall in the past. So, for me to try this famous snack is a real shocker. Credits to Wen Wei and Joel for forcing me to try. We went to this vegetarian smelly tofu place which I specifically remember avoiding last time due to the pungent smell. This time round, I actually went into the shop to sit. The smell didn't seem that bad anymore, maybe cuz I was more open to trying the dish after seeing it on Discovery Travel and Living (my fav tv channel btw). It was surprisingly good. They gave some pickled vegetables and chilli to go along with it. It's like durian, it's all in the smell but the taste is definitely not as bad as the smell. It's like eating normal tofu, except of a different variation. Basically, I'm fairly open to anything fried, but as for the steamed version of smelly tofu, I think that'd take me another couple of years to pluck up the courage! It's times like this when the foodie in me disappears for awhile ;)

Taiwan: A Foodie's Haven (Shihlin Night Market)

2007-12-19T09:12:00.000+08:00

In this next travel blog, I will update on all the Taiwanese snacks and cuisine that I tried during my 9 day trip to Taiwan. I've been to Taiwan twice previously, but this time I tried and re-tried everything that I've tasted and never tasted before.

大饼包小饼 Da bing bao xiao bing (literally translated as big biscuit wrapped over small biscuit)

Essentially this consists of a crispy pancake with sweet or savoury filling wrapped in a crepe. There are many fillings to choose from, such as peanut, yam, sesame, red bean, coconut, curry, mala chilli, crispy fillings, salty yam, salty peanuts and black pepper. Once you have made your choice, the person will wrap the crispy pancake or biscuit in the crepe. Then, using a pestle-like instrument, the crepe is pounded so the crispy biscuit is crushed into tiny crunchy bits. I had the yam filling. In Taiwan, the sweet fillings (yam and red bean) are more popular than savoury. The texture of this snack is highly unique. The soft and chewy outer layer, coupled with the very crispy inner layer reminds me of the crispy popiah from Malaysia. Most places sell it for NT30 (SGD1.40), or 4 for NT100. Worth a try!

苦瓜凤梨加蜂蜜 bitter gourd and pineapple juice with honey

Predicted to replace the long outdated bubble tea craze, this is what most people are drinking in Taiwan now. Bitter gourd (you can choose the white or green one) and pineapple juice with honey. This drink is as refreshing as coconut juice and it finishes with a bitter aftertaste. Those who do not like bittergourd should still give it a try with the green bittergourd, whereby the taste is much milder. At NT60, it is slightly pricey, but oh well, it's supposed to be good for you and as we all know, good things don't come cheap!

芒果冰 mango ice

A dessert often shown on tv, I definitely recommend everyone to try this at least once. It is not like our ice kachang in Singapore, where the ice is really shaved from a big block of ice. Over here, their ice is made out of condensed milk and ice, so it's sweeter and evokes a melt-in-your-mouth type of sensation. Along with the mango syrup and real mango fruit, there's only one word to describe it: Buonissimo! (italian for extremely good-tasting) NT80

豪大大鸡排 XXL Chicken Cutlet

This is probably the most famous of Taiwanese street snacks, and there's probably only one stall that does it real well. XXL chicken cutlet (NT50) at Shihlin Night Market. You can't miss it. First row, longest queue. Go figure. I always ask for the EXTRA SPICY (超辣), which is really hot. it's a must for me, i love my food extra spicy. Always. This stall refuses to cut the chicken cutlet as the owners feel it compromises on quality. The skin is crispy and the meat under is very tender - the skin and meat are kinda separated so you can really taste the difference. Have the extra spicy chicken cutlet in one hand, and a huge cup of bubble tea or shaved ice in the other. That's the way to walk around in Shihlin!

The other version is the Taichung one where the chicken cutlet is chargrilled, and marinated with dark bbq sauce. The more famous stalls have queues that are even longer than XXL at Shihlin. That I have yet to try, must go to Taichung some day and hit their night markets!

Turkish Ice cream
I see this alot in Taiwan, but I never try it since we have it in Singapore. The only different thing about the Taiwanese version is the height. They make the ice cream extra tall and it's interesting to watch people try to balance and eat it. My friends tried it and told me that it didn't taste too good. It's a mix between the icy and creamy kind of texture, so that made it kinda weird.

Adelaide - Day 13

2007-12-18T13:52:00.000+08:00

I've been wanting to blog about this day since like forever... one of the reasons why i wanted to go to Aussie, and I mentioned this b4, was to go horse-riding and wakeboarding. I didnt manage to accomplish the wakeboarding part cuz i'd have to go to special schools allocated for the sport. However, i did go horse-riding!! one of the ocf member's churchmates opened their house for international students and lydea, weiqin, rach and i went to their farm at Coromandel Valley to ride their horses. On the way there, i bought myself a hotdog from a barbie (BBQ, it's very Aussie) stand. it's a bbq hotdog on bread along with grilled onions and sauce.

The family has two dogs, Benjamin and Grace (in pic with lydea). Sadly though, Ben was set to be put to sleep the following week cuz he had cancer. Margie, who owns the farm with her husband, accompanied us throughout the whole horse-riding experience. They have 3 horses - Sprat (blue reins), Jess (green reins) and Kaoru (blue blanket). I rode Sprat first. He's a very naughty horse and kept pulling the reins out of my hand. Then he would gallop off, so i had to grab the saddle or i'd fall off. Jess is much tamer, but less exciting as well. Kaoru is the sweetest thing. We couldnt ride him, cuz in human years he's like 90years old alr. all of them are covered with blankets since it's winter, and margie had to take the blankets off Sprat and Jess and replace them with the saddles. She told us that there were 3 main stages of horse-riding. First would be the walk, which is slow and steady, then the trot, which goes faster and bumpier. Finally, the gallop which is very quick and smooth. I had a great time..it's been quite long since I've riden a horse so I really enjoyed the wonderful morning.

After that we went back to Flinders and had our lunch in the car. Then rach and i headed out for Brighton beach. This is the second brighton beach that we visited, the first being in Melbourne. Like Glenelg, it had little shops along the street and the sea was just fab. Rach also brought me to this Marilyn Monroe cafe that she had been tellin me about. We split a malteasers cheesecake (yes, you can imagine how good it was) before we saw that they had Mars cheesecake too! dang.. would have so loved to try the mars cheesecake but the malteasers one was too rich. After Brighton, we went to dan murphey's to get some wines. We got another long flat moscato and a gossips sweet wine. For dinner we cooked Chinese consisting of veg, satay chicken and mushroom omelette. We also had the ice cream mooncakes (sago cream with mango and pomelo) that I bought for rach, plus we drank the wine too! That was my last night in Australia and this post wraps up the whole Australia travel blog ;) Buon appetito!

oh btw, just a couple of photos of where I stayed for the one week in Rachel's room in Adelaide - my nice airbed and sleeping bag!

Adelaide - Day 12

2007-12-18T11:18:00.000+08:00

Today we went to Hahndorf!! It's this nice german village place with little cottages and nice food. Finally got to try the pot belly pies that dee had been raving on and on about. haha. they are home-made by this very nice australian guy who still remembers Rach when we went to the shop, although 2 weeks had already gone by! I had the chicken mango and rach had the beef pie. check out the photos! i think i'm getting better at taking photos of food.. haha. just kiddin..these were some lucky shots, and dont they look good! they do look better than they taste though. I feel that the crust wasn't rich or crumbly enough, although some ppl might prefer less crumbly crusts which hold fillings better. He prob used less butter when making the crust, hence it was less salty and tasty. The filling was generous, and I enjoyed the tangy sweet chilli combined with the fleshy mango fruit and chicken. Overall, i preferred the pies at pie in the sky (best pies i've ever tasted!), but these ones were not that bad either.

Took quite alot of photos at Hahndorf, and we also had ice cream at Natura's. Dee and rach missed this the previous time. apparently their fig ice cream is really good, but i think rach and i dint enjoy it much. we got to try all the flavors before we chose ours, and i chose nectar and banana. Nothing special, but i did enjoy the banana. Definitely prefer chunky monkey though!

After Hahndorf, i made my first visit to Rundle Mall and then we went to central market again. Rundle's this street/mall full of shops like most shopping centres in SA. Accompanied rach to have her yang chow fried rice at this chinese place near central market. Haven't been to Aussie in 8 years, and their portions are still so big!

Adelaide - Day 11

2007-12-18T09:40:00.000+08:00

It was another wine-filled affair as we kick-started the day with a visit to McLaren Vale, another wine region approximately 35 km south of Adelaide in South Australia and renowned for the wines it produces. Once again i drove and this time Mabeline and Denise, 2 girls from NTU having their exchange at Flinders, joined us. We visited a few cellars such as Pertaringa and tried some of wines there. I was very lucky to try an open-bottled premium shiraz (Over the Top Shiraz 2005) at Pertaringa, which was the last cellar out of 3 that we visited, and the other girls only tried the moscato. We walked out of the cellar with a bottle of moscato each. It's such a ladies' wine!

Next, we went to Victor Harbor. We drove up to the Bluff, which is the highest point of the harbor and took pictures of, in my opinion, the most beautiful scenery in South Australia. We ended a day with a shopping trip to Colonnades, a huge mall 15min drive away from Flinders.

This is one of my favs of Rach's many culinary successes - Nikujaga! but she makes it using minced pork instead of minced beef. Very sweet and crazily addictive! I love the kuniyaku noodles especially, adds a lot of texture to the dish. Best eaten cold! Weird..but that's the best way to go ;)

Adelaide - Day 10

2007-11-28T20:58:00.001+08:00

This is the beat-up old Mitsubishi that faithfully took us to Barossa Valley and back. The Barossa Valley is a major wine-producing region and tourist destination of South Australia, located 60 km northeast of Adelaide. It produces some of the best wines in the world, some of which are not commercialised and you can only try or buy them at the cellars. So its definitely a place that wine lovers must visit. Rach and I visited Barossa Valley Estate and Two Hands, and quite a few others. Absolutely gorgeous the wines at Two Hands. We were sooo reluctant to part with the sermillion and moscato. The sermillon was quite highly priced - it cost around AUD50, as compared to other wines that you purchase from cellars, it's definitely steeper. We bought a bottle of moscato (AUD18) for weiqin. Thank goodness, or else we'd have to pay a AUD5 tasting fee per pax to try the wines. Barossa Valley Estate was not as good, but it wasnt too bad either. Rach bought a bottle of Rosè there, which I believe she enjoyed on her birthday. For lunch we had Tim Tams and microwaved Russian donuts (see pic for beef and mushroom upclose). We also visited Angas Park, where you can find the greatest dried produce, fruits and nuts. It was a really nice drive, and we derived scenic pleasure from the vineyards, cows grazing, sheep mehh-ing and flowers blooming (yes, in winter). It was, however, a little tiring - I had to stop by at macDs and eat a cookie hot fudge sundae to 'gain' energy. It would be better if 2 people take turns to drive, but I LOVE DRIVING. So I had a really good time navigating around aussie roads. OK fine..rach did the navigating. i'm like a map-idiot. But hey! at least I'm a good driver haha ;)

Adelaide - Day 9

2007-11-28T19:19:00.000+08:00

OK! After receiving many requests for me to update my blog (rach you're not the only one haha).. here's a long overdued continuation of my OZ travel blog. Day 9! the first day that we returned from melb and I actually did some touristy things. Rach had class in the morning, so dear weiqin and lydea brought me to Glenelg first. Glenelg's this lovely beach in South Australia, and is comparable to the many beaches that you can find in the land down under like Bondi in Sydney and Gold Coast in Brisbane. The sand is really white and the beach is clean, unlike our local ECP and PRP. It was a really great feeling to just hang out at the beach in the morning and take in the sea breeze, despite it being winter. Anyhow, it's one of the few occasions where I get in touch with mother Earth. Era bellissima! Credi in Dio? when you experience nature, it's hard to ignore the presence of God and His work on this planet.

After strolling along the beach and the shops at Glenelg, we went to this chocolate place (yes, if you're wondering, of cuz i put on weight in OZ..which i've subsequently lost ;)) called Bracegirdles, according to rach.. haha truthfully. i cannot rem the name. gotta dig out the namecard that I have and i'll correct it if it's wrong. I tried one of their chocolates (1pc for AUD1.50). It wasnt mind blowing, but it was definitely good. We headed up to the second deck, got ourselves a nice table and ordered our stuff. I had white hot chocolate, sth that i had been craving for since I arrived in OZ. Lydea and Weiqin had the brownie and mudpie respectively. It was a fantastic chocolate lunch, to say the least. I think it was really in OZ where I developed a ridiculous love for the cocoa goodness. Coming back to Singapore, i've more or less lost the craving for it. Thank God, if not I'd have to gym more to make up for it.

Rach met us at the place and we went to Central Market while Lydea went to settle some school stuff. For all foodies, the central market in every country tells you what the place is truly like. It has everything that the locals eat, and you get to interact with the stall owners as well. It's where to get to experience the life of the country/city. We walked around and I was absorbing all the colours of the place - the fruits, the vegetables, etc. I've been hearing about central market all the time, since it's where the girls do their weekly grocery shopping. We also got Russian donuts at the discounted price of AUD1 - something that I had been planning strategically even b4 i left Singapore...cuz the stall only offers the donuts at this price just b4 the stall closes, so it's around 4:45pm thereabout..usually they cost AUD3 each ;) I bought a beef and onion, a spinach and cheese, and a jam one. Weiqin and I shared the beef and onion one on the spot. I tell you, it's my kinda thing.. here's why. mashed beef and onion in a goulash-y type of texture wrapped in deep fried flour. need i say more?

The rest of the day was spent soaking in the sights and sounds of Adelaide city, and finally enjoying the gorgeous sunset from Flinders University. What an awesome way to spend the end of my summer hols (in a winter climate)...and oh yea.. for dinner, I cooked! to the dismay of rach haha...i'm not exactly a very disciplined kinda person, so I mess up the diff knives and stuff. but yea ANW.. managed to whip up some sambal chicken fried rice to bring over to lydea's for dinner, accompanied with some great veg and stew that lydea prepared. cheers to good food, my lousy cooking and great company!

Back in Adelaide! - Day 8

2007-09-19T16:43:00.000+08:00

Day 8 was basically like day 1.. we were sooo tired after the coach ride. There was this guy who talked so loudly on the phone that the bus driver had to stop the bus to tell him off. I couldn't sleep throughout, and i've never had problems falling asleep on the bus. Then after a break at a gas station, he decided to talk to this girl who was sitting behind me and rach. And that led to more talking for the next hour...

Anyhow, we made it back to rach's room and fell asleep until rach had to go for her lessons. I went with lydea and weiqin to marion and had ice cream from cold rock after rach came to join us! it's really interesting cuz you can choose whatever flavors you wanna have, and a topping, then the girl will mash everything up for you. And you'll have a flavor that you created! We have this here in sg, it's called Ice Cream Chef and is located at East Coast Road..but i've never been there before. Anw, I chose white chocolate ice cream, butterscotch ice cream and a brownie for the topping. It's quite a safe choice, so as expected, it tasted really good. We got it on a 1-for-1 offer thanks to shopping at Coles. So it was like AUD6+ for 2 regular cups. The serving was really huge and i split it with wei qin. rach had hers with roche and malteasers, which was pretty good as well..

It was a lazy day, cuz we were too tired to do anything. You can tell from the dinner we had - fish n chips popped into the oven!

Melbourne - Day 7

2007-09-19T15:31:00.000+08:00

This was our last day in Melbourne and it was a Sunday! which meant that we were going for the Planet Shakers service in the afternoon. In the morning, we prepared our pasta lunches before setting off for Brighton Beach. It was a cool breezy morning, not the perfect weather for the beach, but good enough. Brighton Beach is a whole stretch of the sand and the sea, and a whole row of colorful houses. These are bathhouses that actually belong to ppl, but they're only used in the summer. Each house is numbered and painted a diff color/design. It was a pleasant sight, walking down the whole row. I love the green and yellow one with a picture of a kangaroo in boxing gloves, and the one with the aussie flag painted on. Rach took pics of every house (there were like 80!)

We left Yuting's place kinda late (what's new), so we resorted to having lunch in the car just to make it in time for the service at 3:45pm. And were there a whole lot of ppl! It was really grand, so huge and so packed we had to go 3 levels up to get a seat. Planet Shakers is a charismatic church, which explains the extremely LOUD music and some practices that we didn't really follow. It was an interesting experience, but some things that the church practiced were quite controversial. I guess i need to read up more.

After the service, we went to Koko Black, this chocolate place that Wei qin was promoting back in adl. It's really famous in Melbourne, and apparently every Singaporean who stays in OZ should know about it. We went to the one at Lygon Street. Yuting and I ordered a hot choc each (AUD5), and rach had the choc ice cream (AUD7.50). I must say that the chocolate is really of high standard (check out the price! haha..nah it wasn't that ex), and i thought they were even comparable to the Belgium ones. But yea, then I found out that Koko Black's chocolates ARE imported from Belgium..haha. The ice cream was really rich, but it wasn't so sweet that it made you sick of it. The hot choc (signature item on the menu) lived up to its name. Nothing like a hot choc on a winter night. Once again, it stimulates endorphins like all chocolate does and causes a superb sensation --> the root of happiness? hehh.

Yuting dropped us at Southern Cross station, where it was time to say goodbye to her and Melbourne. We were taking the night bus (AUD51) back, which meant a 10hr bus ride all the way to adl. Stocking up biscuits, chocolates and making the final dash for the loo, we got on the bus and headed back to the more peaceful part of OZ...(more pictures comin' up)

SMART cars (part of Benz) stacked up in the Mercs centre in the city

Flinders Train Station

My first time seeing a kiwi knife (frog in the well, mountain tortoise, etc), so I was quite fascinated..

me n yuting in her room

Can't blame her, it was national day period...

Melbourne - Day 6

2007-09-19T13:49:00.000+08:00

I woke up to a lovely breakfast of golden crumplets with jam and honey, and a cup of international roast coffee. Life is good =) After breakfast (by then it was already noon), it was off to wine tasting and Mount Dangdenong in yuting's trusty little hyundai. The two wineries that we visited were Whispering Hills and Serville Hills. At the first winery, we tasted 3 in-house (of cuz) wines - a sparkling semillon, a chardonnay, and a shiraz. The top fav was the semillon..haha what else can you expect from 3 ladies. The wine tasting was matched with cheese and crackers, which rachel was very pleased with.

Serville Hills had a larger variety of wines, consisting of their unwooded chardonnay, shiraz and merlot. I loved the shiraz in particular, spicy yet smooth. Yuting and rach stopped at the first wine. I went on for another 5 types. Really taking after my dad in terms of wine interest. Serville Hills sold homemade olives as well, and I tried the preserved chilli ones, which were fabulous. So enticing i almost bought a bottle. But it was not cheap.

After wine tasting, I had to take over yuting in driving cuz she was a little woozy..haha. it was off to one of the villages on Mt. Dangdenong, where antique shops (that dee is so love with) can be found. We stopped at Pie in the Sky, this pie cottage that sells the most wonderful pies i've ever tasted. I had the plain steak pie (AUD3.50). One word - awesome. The generous beef filling oozed out with the first bite. The flakey and crumbly crust tasted great, and yet was firm enough to prevent the pie from falling apart. Rachel had the beef rendang, and yuting the steak and mushroom. They should franchise it and allow it to spread across the globe. We went over to the shop next door - which sold antiques. Yuting bought a jewellery stand at AUD15. I'm not one who would purchase antiques or accessories, but I did enjoy that short span of time in a rusty old shop that evokes a nostalgic feel.

We went to Salvation Army Church at Boxhill where Yuting's ministry had a booth set up at the mini missions exhibition. We stayed there for quite awhile, and when the ABC youths came out from the service, we joined them in finishing the whole lot of food that was at the snack counter ;) haha.

Zion Road Riverside Food Centre

2007-09-19T12:40:00.000+08:00

There's always a reason why things happen. As for my weight gain, it has to be due to too much good food on this tiny island. My colleagues at Lexus told me that the char kway teow at Zion Road was not only famous, it was actually quite good. However, we were around the area to try the even more famous River Valley Nasi Padang (which i will blog about when i go again next time), so being the foodie that I am, I had to make another trip down to check it out.

I was not disappointed. The stall has so many awards, they hang all the way to the bottom. But as most ppl might agree with me, such awards are not as accurate anymore. Almost every stall has at least one newspaper cutting or certificate hanging in front of it. This one however, i guarantee you, is worth trying. The rice noodles are tossed in a wok full of flavor, absorbing all the essense that the owner has accumulated over the years. The sauce is slightly sweet, and the wetness of the dish is just right. Not too wet like Apollo char kway teow at Marine Parade Food Centre, and not dry like the hill street one at Bedok South. I felt that the chilli could be more spicy though, to enhance the dynamic kick of the fatty goodness. One serving ($3) is not too big though, so that helps in portion control. The uncle is pretty generous with the cockles and lap chiong, and that's always a good thing. Plus they were really fresh too.

No 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow
Zion Road Riverside Food Centre

I think i've found my top 3 char kway teow stalls in singapore, and here they are in order of merit:

1) 91 Fried Kway Teow - Golden Mile Food Complex
2) Hill Street Char Kway Teow - Bedok South Food Centre
3) No 18 Fried Kway Teow - Zion Road Riverside Food Centre

Next up, another unhealthy but national favorite - fried carrot cake, teochew style. You can choose either black or white, as usual. I asked the uncle to give me half of each, and chilli at the side. He was very accomodating, which was a bonus. The carrot cake was done very nicely, crispy for the white, and sweet for the black - the way i like it. Another stall that should improve on the chilli - not spicy enough (maybe it's just me) and lacks fragrance. I'm very particular about chilli, since it's something i can eat on its own and i feel that it can really add punch to your food, if its good. I felt that the carrot cake was not particularly unique though, despite the name. But its good nevertheless ;)

I didn't take down the name of the stall, but its the only teochew fried carrot cake in the food centre, so you can't miss it.

something sweet?

2007-09-17T02:35:00.000+08:00

Craving for a light dessert? There's plenty at the marine parade food centre, which boasts more than desserts of cuz. but for now, how does beancurd in gula melaka sound? pretty weird huh? but its all good i tell u.. just good. i love gula melaka - it might be too sweet for some of you maybe. but beancurd is kinda tasteless, so the combination surprisingly works. It goes for just $1 at Selegie beancurd.

Another recommendation is the chendol. At $1.50, its a refreshing and affordable treat, but it adds alot of calories, so don't have it too often. Chendol in a cup - NICE.

For more tau huay, try the Rochor one at Geylang. It's smooth and slides down your throat. I feel that it's not sweet enough though, and definitely not the best i've tasted (i can almost hear daniel protesting). The one at my place is better. I would have the rochor tau huay again, but I wouldnt drive down specially to get it. if i do, i must rem to ask them for more syrup. unhealthy, but tastes better ;)

To top this post off, fancy some cantonese desserts at the Hong Kong Tea House? Went there with pris and anhua and we tried the peanut and sesame paste, and the glutinous rice balls in peanut paste. The portion is really small and for the price, it's not the best deal out there. I'm a fervent supporter of Ah Chew Desserts. The peanut paste at HKTH was not thick enough for me. But i love the ambience of the place. Its the biggest cha chan teng in singapore, and just a great place to hang out with friends. I guess that makes up for the average food.

Hong Kong Tea House

Katong Village #01-09/10

local insert

2007-09-17T02:18:00.001+08:00

Enough of melb for now.. just a short little insert of the food in singapore.. the pictures are piling up as well. so here i've got ikea fish n chips (only available on fri) - i like the chives sauce. nothing to shout about (i mean, its ikea), but it's filling. I always like a hearty meal, although its a weird description for fish. at $4.50, cant really complain. even those at the hawker centres cost more.

Next up: bimbimbap at tiong bahru plaza kopitiam ($6). my first taste of the rice in a hot stone bowl. Not bad at all. I love the variety one gets in bimbimbap, plus the hot and savoury sauce. Give it a stir with the egg yolk and we're good to go. Perfetto!

Melbourne - Day 5

2007-09-17T01:21:00.000+08:00

Day 5 kicked off with a trip to Chadstone, fashion capital, shopping mall that we didnt manage to go to the previous night. Chadstone's pretty big, but pretty much the same shops again. We did buy sth though.. GELATO! our second round of gelato was at trampoline, voted the best gelato in melbourne. So the flavors we had were "open sesame" (sesame obviously), white choc with raspberry swirls, and ferrero rocher. mama mia! again.. not authentic gelato, but all expensive ice cream's good..has to be. we paid like AUD 5.70 for the whole thing i think. there's krispy kremes at chadstone's, we were supposed to get it for wei qin but we had no time to grab them from the train station b4 we left for adl on the last day.

Anw we proceeded to Queen Victoria Market, which meant even more shopping. but in a flea market kinda setting. I love queen vic. There are clothes, souvenirs, food, shoes, everything. I bought more food and a wine holder! Great bargain at like AUD8. After queen vic, we went shopping at smith st (factory outlets like nike, adidas, etc) and spencer st (huge factory outlet at Southern Cross train station) b4 we met yuting for dinner. We had dinner at Pellegrini's, a traditional italian espresso bar at 66 Bourke St. Food was alrite, the lagsana was really good. But the thing i like about the place is the old italian feel and its cosiness. The owner even washes the dishes at the bar, so you see everything that's happening. It was really crowded when we went, and the place is really small so we had to wait for our seats. There were only a few choices when it came to the food. The menu that hangs from the ceiling had been there since 1954. Cool huh? I took a picture with the Italian owner, who taught me how to say "the food is good" in italiano. I didnt manage to catch the phrase then, but after having learnt italian for awhile (studio italiano solo da quattro settimane), I finally know what he said: il cibo è molto buono!

After dinner we walked along the Yarra river towards Crown complex, where the famous casino is. To my amazement, Nobu is in Crown! no needa go to Malibu anymore! haha..the no. 1 restaurant in the world. Can't believe I forgot that there's a branch in Melb. and omg rockpool's in Melb too.. ok I thought its only in Sydney. Café Greco's in the Crown too. Famous for its cheesecakes, it has queues as long as the Donut Factory's. It's cheaper to take-away than dine in though, about AUD3 cheaper. We caught the 10pm fire display outside crown complex afterwards. Its quite massive and happens every hour. reminds me of the fire display at Vegas, but definitely less impressive.

Melbourne - Day 4

2007-09-17T00:47:00.001+08:00

Haha..back for a month already and now i'm starting to blog about day 4 in melb.. procrastination hits even when its nothing to do with work. che novità!

So the day started lazily.. woke up at 11am.. everyone thinks i'm mad cuz we should be spending more time out since its the touristy thing to do.. haha..but when i woke up i found rach doing her assignment at the dining table, and the lotus root soup that she cooked was already boiling on the stove. talk about efficiency! We went to Springvale (vietnamese suburb) for lunch and had vietnamese food (what else)!

rach and i had pho, which is vietnamese beef noodles where rice noodles are cooked in a tasty broth and raw beef is soaked in the boiling soup. it was pretty good, although i felt that it could be tastier. nothing special though as pho can be found anywhere in the world nowadays. yuting had fried noodles with beef and chinese broccoli (apparently its kai lan..i never knew). i had a bit of the noodles --> it was great. love the thick gravy and the oily noodles..perfect to get those calories counting. we went to do abit of grocery shopping at the vietnamese supermarket after lunch. then it was lazy shopping for me n rach at the Glen (glen waverly). the stores at all the shopping centres in OZ basically have the same shops. so its mainly just walking around cuz there's nothing much to buy. most of my shopping was done in the supermarkets ;) food glorious food.

we wanted to go to Chadstone but we kept missing the buses and it started raining. so the day ended for us at Dan Murphey's, a huge place that sells so many types of wine. u cant even start to imagine the size of it. It was wine galore for me. CHEAP. but i couldnt buy much! this is when you wish you lived overseas. when you go wine tasting and places like these. anw i bought a bottle of Jacob's Creek 2005 shiraz at AUD 7.99. its not an expensive wine in sg. but still 7.99 is a bargain. Went back to yuting's for dinner which consisted of leftover risotto and rach's lotus root soup ;) taste of home in kangarooland...

Melbourne - Day 3

2007-08-09T19:36:00.000+08:00

I woke up a little later today at 10+am, but I still felt quite tired. Had some international roast coffee which perked me up (yeaa, i'm back to coffee after 4months of abstaining and detoxification..it's hard not to revert when u're in Australia where the coffee is so good and can be found everywhere), then it was off to the Asian minimart at Clayton's to get some groceries for the week. The minimart is probably the best solution to getting authentic Asian food and snacks, only the prices are abit steep. Then again, it's melbourne.

After dropping off the groceries at Yuting's place, we made our way to the city (train stop: melbourne central), where we had lunch at Stalactites, a rather well-known restaurant for its genuine Greek cuisine. I've never had a good impression of greek food (it's all greek to me), but Stalactites was not too bad. It served food very similar to that of the Turks and Middle East. We ordered a platter of mixed dips (AUD6 for small but we paid AUD9.50 cuz the waiter wrote down our order as large instead) which consisted of Tzatziki (the white dip), Hommus (light brown dip with paprika), Tarama (pink) and Melitzanosalata (darker brown), pita bread (AUD1.50), mixed souvlaki (AUD9.50) and the Kokinisto (AUD10.50 for entree). I absolutely adore the dips - my fav dip has always been the hummus from cafe le caire, but at Stalactites, i enjoyed the Melitzanosalata most as it had the strongest flavor and went perfect with pita. The Kokinisto I really enjoyed - esp the beef cuz it was so tender. But the rice was too separated for my liking. As for the mixed souvlaki, which contained lamb and chicken in pita bread, it was really value for money. The portion was huge and the fillings were crazily generous. Everything was spilling out. anw, i was too full to eat by then..so i packed my half of the souvlaki to go. I did try a bit of it though. It basically tastes like kebab in pita, only less chewy than kebab. I really really love the pita - reminds me of our prata ;)

After lunch we visited the state library's exhibition of famous people, but we didnt really understand the point of having such a gallery (it just had pictures of celebrities hanging on the wall and a description of them next to it - not description of the picture, but the filmography of the artiste/famous person).

We also walked around QV shopping mall and Melbourne Central until it was time to meet Christine at Hungry Jack's. As promised, Christine brought us to her favorite gelato place, Fredo's, where she swears by the roche gelato. We ordered a triple gelato to share (4 flavors - AUD 7). Tried the roche, cookies, berries and durian. To me, the best gelato can only be found in Italy, but this one was nevertheless very enjoyable (since when was ice cream not enjoyable?) I love the cookie flavor, very unique and it cant be found in Singapore. The durian tastes very much like the D24 gelato at Suntec city.

Next Christine brought us on a tour around the University of Melbourne. Huge campus, so many buildings. I would love to swim in the indoor pool, although it is quite small and there's only one lane open for non swim squad people. I cannot imagine what it's like to study in such a big campus. Melbourne uni reminds me a little of University of Toronto, alot of greenery and pathways. We hopped onto the tram towards the chinatown in melb city, where we bought some Japanese snacks at the Asian supermarkets. After parting with Christine, we walked around abit more b4 making our way back to Alice street. We'll be going to the city again on Friday (meeting Christine to go to Smith St. and prob having dinner together) to experience the nightlife in Melbourne. Looking forward to that ;) and I also got good news from Lydea that we can go horseriding next Sat! It's like one of my main purposes in coming to Aussie (of cuz there are other reasons like taking a break and visiting friends..heh), but yea..really looking forward to that as well =)

This is Yuting's place where I stayed at in Melbourne.

Rach and Yuting outside the house

Look familiar?

This is another of Christine's recommendations. We got this egg tart (AUD 1.40 each) in a chinese/cantonese bakery along Chinatown. Apparently it's quite famous and the tarts get snapped up very quickly, so it was lucky that we managed to get them fresh out of the oven. Very nice aroma, sweet and crispy crust, with an even sweeter and softer egg custard. Probably one of the best egg tarts I've tasted. It's quite different from those in sg.

Adelaide and Melbourne - Day 1 & 2

2007-08-07T22:40:00.000+08:00

Finally...my well deserved break after 4 months of internship. Arrived in Adelaide around 7:30am (adl time) on mon morn'..and met Rach at the airport! After so many months of talkin about the trip, it finally materialised. we took a bus to flinders uni, which is where rach, lydea and wei qin are studying at. Having slept only 1hr on the plane (i watched spiderman 3 and the rest of the time was mainly spent listening to the two British kids next to me having their talk..haha), i thought i would just be sleeping when rach was having her class. But the offer to join lydea, wei qin and their friend betty on a shopping spree to Harbortown (factory outlet) was too tempting to resist. and so i went. we had lunch at this fast food place called Red Rooster, and their 1/4 chicken with fries was on offer (AUD3.10), so that was what I had. It's basically good ol' oily stuff, but too salty for my palate. anyhow, it was a good start to my trip. wei qin was tellin me all the places that i should go to and that she'll bring me to. looks like i have a lot of good things to look forward to ;)

Harbortown is the equivalent of the factory outlets in USA, but most of the brands are Australian. There are some really cheap bargains there. Havaianas are relatively cheap there too. Bought a pair of slippers and polo tees for my bro, and a t-shirt for myself. less than 5 hours in adl and i alr bought things hahaha. this is what happens when you haven't shopped in 4 months. Most shops in Aussie close at 5pm (i rem this although it's been 8 years since i've been to OZ) and its really interesting to see my friends checkin the bus timings list to see when the next bus is coming and when we should go to the bus stop. since some buses come only every hour, it was crucial not to miss the bus. for dinner, rach n i cooked jap curry and basmati rice. talk about a good and cheap meal. in sg i just eat out for every meal cuz its so cheap. over here cooking can save u lotsa cash.

Day 2 - went for a 45min walk with lydea to Marion, which is a huge shopping mall in adelaide and both of us almost killed ourselves cuz we were in boots. anw it was just a really short trip cuz we reached at like 11am and had to catch the 12:12 bus back. so i only got chips and energy bars. but the food selection at marion's is pretty impressive - donut king, hudson, gloria jeans, cold rock, pretzels, wendy's (diff from usa), this yogurt place that gives out samples which will shame all gelato shops in s'pore (since our samples usually come in tiny spoonfuls), etc... will go back next wk to buy chocolates and stuff back for ppl at home..

it was quite a rush back for lunch (left over curry and rice) and off with rach to catch the J7 bus to the airport, where we boarded the Jetstar plane to Avalon, Melbourne. The plane ride was alright, except for the screaming kids and the pilot's attempt to bring us on some roller coaster adventure -_- it took about an hour, and we landed at the Jetstar owned 'airport', which looked more like a warehouse to me. no complaints though, i payed only AUD36 for the flight, including fuel and taxes. we then took the shuttle bus (AUD19) to melb city and a train to Huntingdale station, where Yuting picked us up.

Afterwhich we went for Italian food at Sofia. Amazing, amazing, amazing. HUGE portions at reasonable prices. we shared a 'pasta for two' which consisted of 3 pastas of our choice. I chose the cream-based risotto with chicken and mushroom, Yuting had the Sofia's spaghetti (scallops and prawns in napoli sauce) and rach chose the seafood tagliatelle. That meal contained 6 servings i tell u..and the seafood was so fresh..prawns were huge..and there were so many scallops. It cost AUD29.50..total value for money. The risotto was creamy and smooth to taste - somewhat like porridge, not very authentic Italian, but enjoyable. we had to pack almost all the risotto to go, cuz all of us were too full.

After dinner, it was off to Yuting's house. I love her house! such a nice little house at one end. the funny thing about the neighborhood is that there are no headlights so it gets really dark. anw i'll be here for 5 nights. will be gg to melb city tmr..and grocery shopping at coles =) we gotta buy food to cook for the week.. it's really diff traveling on my own and bunkin with friends. i haven't decided which is better cuz its only the start of my trip. but i do like traveling with my family, esp when we tour cuz then i learn alot about the history of the place. anw i'm lookin forward to many good things ahead!

these are the mooncakes that i brought for rach cuz she wanted to eat the bing pi kind. right now only bengawan solo is sellin such mooncakes cuz the festival has not arrived yet.

the first car ad i saw in Aussie..yayy Lexus ;) not my fav car though..bring on the LS 600 hL!

Ministry of Food - Japanese Express

2007-07-31T21:41:00.000+08:00

I LOVE ICE CREAM. Never used to love it so much until recently. Think its due to stress..haha. Anw I chanced upon this new place at Raffles City, which is a small branch of Ministry of Food (MOF). Started by a small group of uni grads, the place serves Japanese gelato. I tried the cookies and cream, green tea with red bean, and berries. All are quite good, not too sweet but a little too milky for my liking. The must-try at this place is the fried sweet potato with soft serve ice cream. Crispy shell with soft mashed sweet potato, accompanied with vanilla soft serve and red bean paste, topped with your choice of syrup - mocha, strawberry, mango, macha or chocolate. For only $3.80! You can try the fried yam ball too. Sinful decadence...as with all good desserts.

P.S.: Since we're on the topic of ice cream, I would also like to recommend Island Creamery's Reverso, Cookies & Cream and Teh Tarik flavors. The bubble milk tea uzumaki at Bugis B1 and Great World City (near MacD's) is really good too - nai cha flavored jap ice cream with small pearls.

Ministry of Food - Japanese Express

#B1-49

Raffles City Shopping Centre

MIX - healthy food with lotsa flavor

2007-07-31T20:58:00.000+08:00

If you go down to the basement of Raffles City, you'll notice a relatively colorful shop tucked behind Gloria Jeans Cafe and Donut Factory. It's called MIX - Asia's first and only healthy-lifestyle Juice & Smoothee Café. As the name suggests, there's a huge variety of mixed juices catered for individual purposes such as detoxification and boosting immunity. I haven't tried the juices and smoothies yet, but what I really like are their wraps and sandwiches. They're fully packed with ingredients and totally bursting with flavor. Take the tandoori chicken wrap, for example. Its a delightful mix of tandoori chicken, cheese, salad and tandoori yogurt. What I love about MIX is that they provide the nutritional information for the food, so you know exactly what you're taking in. Despite the increasing awareness of nutrition, few places bother to state the nutritional value of their food. One should definitely try the bacon chicken avocado sandwich. The chicken is so tender, and combines perfectly with the avocado puree, which makes a sandwich so wonderful to bite. Not stale-tasting at all. At 390 calories, it's perfect for a light lunch. Prices are quite steep though - $7.50 for the wrap and $6.50 for the sandwich. Can't have it everyday although its healthy and tastes oh-so-good.
MIX
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-81/82 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Tel: 6337 6270

Hong Kong Style Wanton Mee <=> Made in Singapore

2007-07-31T20:49:00.000+08:00

Sometimes its in the smallest, most hidden places where you find good food. This is true of the wanton mee at Lye Seng Coffee Shop situated around Bukit Merah area. It's a tiny coffee shop which only sells wanton mee, ramen and economic rice. What I recommend is the wanton mee, which is different from what you usually get. Here there's no veg and no char siew. Only wanton and mee. It reminds me of the wanton mee I had in Hong Kong. The chilli is similar to Japanese la-yu, only hotter. This chilli is exceptionally spicy and tear-inducing. I love it. However, for those of you who can't really take spicy food, don't be too ambitious. The chilli seeds will send you crying. The noodles are nothing to rave about. They are my least fav part - I feel that they can do with more bounce. The wanton, on the other hand, is what's worth trying. Each wanton wraps a whole prawn and minced pork. The filling is generous and very satisfying. A longer time spent marinating the meat would probably make it more flavorful, but its definitely worth a try no matter what.

Lye Seng Coffee Shop

(opp. Redhill MRT Station)

More worthy selections at Adam Road

2007-07-08T01:31:00.000+08:00

Adam Road Mutton Soup

The popular kambing soup is located at No. 10 Adam Road (Adam Bahrakath Mutton Soup) but the one I happened to try is the Chinese mutton soup (also at Adam Road Food Centre). If you like mutton soup, do give this one a try. You can hardly find good mutton soup at chinese stalls but this one is really worth recommending. There's a slight herbal taste to the soup. Not too strong, subtle and neat. The meat is awfully tender and soft. There is a little of the mutton taste that everyone is afraid of, but its not enough to stop you from finishing a bowl of the meaty soup. You can choose to have the soup with rice, kway teow or simply on its own. One of the best Chinese mutton soups around.

Adam Mutton Soup

No. 17 Adam Road Food Centre

Teck Kee Hot and Cold Dessert

I came specially for the Tau Suan, but sadly it was not ready even though I waited 30 mins for it. But it was time to leave, so I have to go back for it some other time. Apparently, the ice kachang is rather good too, since the flavoured syrup is actually made from gula melaka. Gotta try that too. Anyway, I had the bubur hitam, or black glutinous rice, which didn't excite me much. Taste is equilavent to what you can pick up from your nearby hawker centre. But a little difference lies in the sweetness of this dessert. It's not too sweet and the coconut milk blends in well, giving a nice after taste. Plus, at $1 a bowl for quite a big portion, I'm not gonna complain about that ;)

Teck Kee Hot and Cold Dessert

No. 31 Adam Road Food Centre

12pm to 12am

Closed on Mondays

Noo Cheng Adam Road Prawn Noodle (亚当路27大虾面)

2007-07-08T01:06:00.000+08:00

Finally! Something comparable to the famous Beach Rd Prawn Mee.

Something different, yet equally good. One thing similar though - they're both expensive. One bowl of spare ribs prawn mee (medium prawns) costs $5. But the money is well spent, especially for the dry version at Adam Road.

The noodles (thick bee hoon, if you want the yellow noodles pls request) are soaked in savoury gravy and a mix of chilli, lard and pork oil. So oily, so good, so unhealthy. I love the generous serving of kang kong added to the mee, which gives the crunch to the noodles. The pig skin is a delight as well. Gorgeous flavour when marinated in the gravy and covered with chilli powder. The noodles are the kind you can't stop eating, although it's all carbs. And you almost forget about the prawns and spare ribs if you're not careful.

The prawns and spare ribs are put into a bowl of soup, which I found not salty enough. The beach road prawn soup is flavored with more essence of prawn heads and boiled longer, hence the better taste. It's the kind that will cause you to lose your hair and yet you don't care. The Noo Cheng one does not provide that kinda punch. It still packs a mean taste, just not mean enough. The prawns are generous (5 medium prawns) but not fresh enough. The thing about noo cheng for me (besides the mee and spare ribs) is that they're there but not there yet. Good but not good enough. Know what I mean? The spare ribs are really good but they only gave two pieces. I prefer generosity, ALWAYS. The meat is so tender, it falls right off the bone. Really soft.

For the price, I would say it's a good bowl of mee, and something worth traveling for. Not over-filling, so that's good. But prawns can be fresher, since it IS all about the prawns. But thumbs and toes up for the noodles. Yummy-licious!

Noo Cheng Adam Road Prawn Noodle
2 Adam Road #01-27
Singapore 298876
9.15am to 4pm
6.30pm to 2am

Adam Road Nasi Lemak: Stall No. 1 vs Stall No. 2 (The Ultimate Battle)

2007-07-07T23:50:00.001+08:00

If you go to Adam Road food centre, the first thing you'll notice is two long queues, side by side. They belong to (arguably) the two most popular and famous nasi lemak stalls in Singapore. And if it's your first time there, you'll probably have a hard time deciding which stall to eat from. But one thing's for sure: if you're at Adam Road for the first time, you have gotta eat nasi lemak and nothing else. Other things can wait. So here's the comparison review - one thing at a time. I'll use ratings (out of 10) so it's easier to tell which is better. But first, let's identify both stalls.

Adam's Nasi Lemak is situated at No. 1 Adam Road, while Selera Rasa (No. 1 Nasi Lemak) is situated at No. 2 Adam Road (which explains the confusion). I wanted to order the Adam's Special ($4, consists of chicken wing, bergedil, egg, ikan bilis, peanuts, achar and mutton rendang). Unfortunately, it was sold out so i got the sutra special ($4, instead of the bergedil and mutton rendang, it comes with otah). The auntie only charged me $3.50 cuz the otah was small that day, so I must say she is kinda honest. At Selera Rasa, I ordered the Royal Flush ($4.50, consists of chicken wing, otah, bergedil, egg and ikan bilis). Upon ordering, you can ask for their sambal sotong and achar as well (available until sold out). And the best thing is, they come without extra cost! Usually an addition of sambal sotong can cost at least another dollar. But Selera really knows how to pamper their customers. Comparing each ingredient, I can only say that personal preference matters. It really depends on what you think is the most important in nasi lemak, because each stall has its strengths. Many people say that chilli is the most important, so i'll start with that.

Chilli

Adam's Nasi Lemak: I love the chilli. Although it's not spicy, it's goes very well with the rice and ikan bilis. (7.5/10)

Selera Rasa: The chilli is really sweet and mild. Too mild for my liking. I still like my spice and this is not really equipped with the true Malay flavor. (6.5/10)

Rice

Adam's Nasi Lemak: The rice that I tried was a little cold and separated. Don't get me wrong, rice that does not stick is good, but this one was quite stiff and a little hard. Very fragrant though. Compared to Selera, this version is much more sinful due to the larger quantity of coconut milk added. Definitely the more fragrant choice. (7.5/10)

Selera Rasa: It hits you in the face how good nasi lemak can get when you try the first mouthful of rice at Selera. How often can you find short grain basmati rice at nasi lemak stalls? Adam's uses basmati too, but its the medium grain variant. However, after you've chowed down 1/4 of your rice, it kinda loses the fragrance. I think it's due to the lack of coconut milk used. But all in all, I like it better cuz the rice is healthier and easier to down. (9/10)

Chicken Wing

Adam's Nasi Lemak: The chicken wing is seasoned with a lot of pepper. Too peppery and not crispy enough for my liking. But if you like your pepper, this might be the wing for you. Not too oily, not too jelat. (6/10)

Selera Rasa: This chicken wing is soo crispy and oh-so-good. Yet, being someone who won't stop until I've had my fill of crispy goodness, this is not something that I can have more than one at a time. It's way too oily. Very good, but gotta stop at one b4 the jelat feeling hits. (8/10)

Otah

Adam's Nasi Lemak: The otah is good, but nothing to shout about. Very smooth without any irritating bits of fish bone or chilli. (7/10)
Selera Rasa: The otah that I had was bigger and with more texture. Equally good, but once again, you don't have to go all the way to Adam Road to have this. (7/10)

Ikan Bilis

Adam's Nasi Lemak: Very crispy, very good with chilli. (8/10)

Selera Rasa: Selera provides the chewy version of the tiny fish. Good too, but I prefer crispy. (7.5/10)

Egg

Adam's Nasi Lemak: Must we compare the egg too? haha..Adam's version is a little too oily for me. But I like the yolk. Its the 'cooked but not too cooked' type. I won't rate this one. It's really just egg after all.
Selera Rasa: Once again, quite oily and presentation does not match up to the other ingredients. My dad thinks its too small.

Bergedil, Sambal Sotong, Achar (Selera Rasa)

I did not manage to try the bergedil at Adam's, but it is 1/2 the size of Selera's and doesnt look quite appetizing. Its the yellow kind, whilst I prefer the brown crispy type. I did not try their other dishes (but the fish cake in their photos is more generous than what the auntie provides - she only gives 2 tiny pieces). The sambal sotong is quite tough and chewy, didn't really enjoy it. But it's free, and the sambal is really good, so no complains there. I really love the achar - every bite is full of crunch and really refreshing. Be sure to ask for it.

Overall, I would go for Selera Rasa because of the friendly uncle (actually the auntie at Adam's is quite friendly too), the larger variety, nicer presentation imo, and most importantly, the queue that actually moves (like 3 times faster)! You will get quite frustrated while queuing at Adam's because the queue hardly moves, and it only gets worst when some people (queuing behind you)decide to find acquaintance with people (queuing in front of you) and ask them to order another 3 more packets for them. You can almost hear my silent screaming when that happened. That's when I remember I'm in Singapore. Oh the unique culture. Oh how I lament!

Adam's Nasi Lemak

No 1 Adam Road Food Centre

8.30am to 9.00pm

Closed on Tuesdays

Selera Rasa (No.1 Nasi Lemak)

No 2 Adam Road Food Centre

7am to 10pm

Monday to Sunday

*For easier viewing and differentiation: the white plate belongs to Adam Road and the green, Selera Rasa. Btw, despite my complaints, I urge everyone reading this to go try either stall at least once. This is how nasi lemak should taste like, without the luncheon meat and taiwan sausage that you get from the $1.90 chinese nasi lemak stalls.

Roti Prata, Blk 828 Tampines St. 81

2007-06-30T21:49:00.000+08:00

There's a newly renovated coffeeshop at Blk 828, Tampines St. 81, which serves various foods, some which are above average. I wanted to try the godzilla bao from the dim sum stall. Went the day b4, and the auntie told me to come the next day, when the baos would be ready by 7am. So i went, and i was disappointed. had to wait until 11am. So instead, i tried the roti prata from the stall next door.

The pictures make the prata look so visually appealing, and the real deal did turn out looking fluffy and attractive. Taste-wise, it did not match up. Sometimes beauty and brains really dont go together. The chicken curry ($4 for a set with 2 plain pratas) was spicy enough, and the chicken thigh was tender and generous. One piece of potato and tomato are added. I liked that the curry was very characteristic of Indian curry (the spices used), and yet had the thickness of Chinese chicken curry. The prata (60cents for plain, $1.20 for egg) was disappointing, however, mainly due to the fact that it was not hot enough even though it was freshly made (can't understand why). The set, for me, is too heavy for breakfast, but if you just order the prata, the curry that comes along with it is just a waste of time.

Conclusion: There are better prata stalls around.

Roti Prata

Blk 828 Tampines St. 81

East Coast Lagoon Chicken Curry Puff

2007-06-30T21:38:00.000+08:00

You would think that there’s nothing much to write about an old traditional Malay pastry. I thought so too. But not until you’ve tried the curry puff at East Coast Lagoon food centre. Thank goodness it’s $1 each – it means you can buy more and still have change. Don’t expect to stop at one, because they’re just too good to be true. Peel open the flaky crust and it’s like eating curry chicken with the gravy. The tongue-burning sensation is awesome when you eat the curry puff that's just out of the wok. The filling is generous, with visible chicken chunks. There was no egg though, but that makes it even more traditional and simple, so you can really taste the goodness of the pastry. The crust is very crispy and not too thick or floury, which makes the treat rather light and not too oily, despite the deep frying. Do not be disappointed when there are no curry puffs left at the store front, it only means the owner is frying more at the back (I asked the owner – they only close around 9 or 10pm). I only bought one to try and when I wanted to get more, there was nothing left. But the store lights stayed on, and it was to my great delight when a whole new batch of piping hot curry puffs was displayed. Got two more, one for photo-taking and one to eat right there and then. So have two, or three, and there’s no need to be afraid of the ‘jelat’ (too much of it) filling that you might get when eating fried stuff.

P.S.: The pictures are quite bad due to the lighting.

Lagoon Chicken Curry Puff
East Coast Lagoon Food Centre
Opened from 2:30pm - 9+ or 10pm

Botak Jones: Not for the weak-hearted

2007-06-29T08:26:00.000+08:00

When half the country has been raving about a place, you don't just sit at home and think about it. At least make a trip down once to try the food, even if finding 1 branch (out of 5) that is located near the east is harder than striking lottery. Yup, the five branches of Botak Jones are at Tuas, AMK, Toa Payoh, Depot Lane and Clementi. The new branch that just opened at Depot Lane two months ago made things better, since two of us are working around Redhill/Queenstown area. The dinner crowd at the Depot branch is relatively slow, one of the guys at Botak tells us, so it's good to visit the Depot one for dinner. Avoid AMK and Clementi at all costs, or subject to waiting for 1hr for your food to arrive. That's easy for me, I wouldn't have been able to make my way to those two branches even if u had given me a map.

So when we arrived, we were handed a yellow menu (which can be found on their webbie) with lotsa descriptions of the food. Alvin found it a tad confusing, and suggested that they should add pictures to the menu. But the guy told us that the lack of pictures actually tied in with them not wanting customers to have visual images of the food b4 they try it, as it might change their expectations (cuz signboards usually display gorgeous photos that sometimes turn out quite differently from what is in front of you). As such, they will be able to over-deliver. Actually, they do have pictures - on their website. And with so much talk about Botak Jones, i'm sure ppl have high standards for the place, even without pictures on the menu. We did. And we were not let down. But it was not all a bed of roses. I ordered the fish and chips, Daniel had the cajun chicken, Alvin ordered the rosemary lamb chop and we had a triple cheese beef burger to share.

Before the food is served, you'll be given a whole range of condiments. We loved the selection - there was mustard, horseradish, chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, malt vinegar and hp sauce (the last two are our favs, although i cant figure out what hp stands for). First up was the fish and chips. I ordered the regular ($6), which consisted of two pieces of fish (don't go expecting 2 pcs, they actually go by the weight), a whole lot of their mmm-melicious seasoned fries, huge serving of coleslaw and homemade tartar sauce. Portion is quite big, so i was wondering what their large ($10) would look like. The fries are addictive i tell u..amazing seasoning with the right amount of salt and spice. Dip them in malt vinegar to enjoy fish and chips in true London fashion. The coleslaw was pleasantly creamy and easy to down. There was only cabbage in it, no carrots, so it lacked the crunchy bite. But i liked it, cuz you kinda eat it without realising you're eating it - note to self: that's bad for the calorie intake. I enjoyed their tartar sauce. It's different from your filet-o-fish types with the pickles, and there is only a very subtle tinge of vinegar. It was time to try the fish. First bite resulted in total disappointment. I could pick up a filet from the supermarket and fry it myself. No needa comment on the freshness, 'fresh' is hardly associated with frozen fish. I don't know why i read so many raving comments about the fish & chips. What was everyone thinking? Have u not eaten fish and chips b4? Good fish and chips should be made with a thicker, fluffier fresh dory fried in batter that evokes a buttery yet crispy sensation. I ended up just dipping the fish into malt vinegar and hp sauce to improve the taste. The pictures look good though (click to see larger view) - as the Cantonese may say "ho tai m ho sek" or the Hokkien "hor kua bor hor jia". I think i totally got both the sayings wrong, not a very dialect person..haha..but you noe what i mean. Anw the guy looked quite scared when he saw me taking pictures of the food - he thought i was a reporter...
Next up was Alvin's rosemary lamb chop, cooked to a nice medium. he opted for the 300gm order, which came up to $14.50, definitely reasonable for lamb. The 200gm portion costs $11, and i think that would result in two pieces of lamb chop. Same generous serving of fries and coleslaw (comes with every plate set). The lamb chop was covered in mushroom gravy and on the side, mint sauce was included which i felt was rather special because sometimes even at restaurants they dont provide mint sauce. The lamb was very tasty, and cooked to a nice heat. I loved that you could taste the lovely char-grilled flavor of the lamb. It was a little tough to cut, but wonderful to chew on. Lamb goes really well with mint - perhaps if mint leaves were added during the grilling the taste would be even better.

The cajun chicken ($7.50 for regular, $12.50 for large) i thought was not too bad. It is grilled with mozerella cheese and topped with their own spicy cajun sauce. Definitely one of the better and higher quality grilled chicken breasts (if they used the chicken thigh it would have tasted more tender, but will def cost more) you can find in a coffee shop setting. The sauce is very special, but i felt that it was not spicy and generous enough. And the cheese tends to coagulate after awhile, so it loses the nice melt kinda feeling. But overall, it's not sth you will regret ordering.

Another Botak Jones guy came to our table to check our receipt and see if we had anything else that was not served. Throughout the meal, they constantly came over to ask how the food was, if we were enjoying it, etc. True American Style. thumbs up for the service at Botak Jones. He saw that we still had a triple burger on the line, then he looked at us and asked "are you guys that hungry?" I told him that we came all the way from the east to try the food so no choice, must order everything. And how can we miss out on the star of the show? Actually, we asked them and they feel that their steak is the best on the menu. I think Daniel was hitting himself on the head cuz he actually wanted to go for the steak. Maybe next time. Prices for the steak are definitely steeper, but still value for money. Anw he was v happy that easterners came all the way to Depot, plus he is an eastie himself, so he said "like that i must give you a slice of cake". Alritttee! I know Botak Jones only serves cheesecake, and I've been cravin for cheesecake for sometime now. So what better dessert can I ask for? ;) Another thumb up (i'm running out of thumbs -__-) for the good service.

At this point, i must say that the food arrived pretty quickly cuz I asked the counter guy how long we had to wait and he said 15min. But my fish & chips came in about 1/2 the time. Finally, our triple burger (known as U-CRAZY-WHAT?! on the menu - $12 for the set) arrived. Yea man, really crazy. It's not manageable for one person for sure, so good thing we shared. Anw, just to note, the beef patties do not come wrapped in cheese like you see in their website. You have to add-on cheddar cheese (2 slices at $1 for each patty) or other add-ons like garlic sauteed shitake mushrooms and bacon (the whole list is in the menu) if you want. I suggested to the guy that they should add a portobello mushroom on their single Botak burger as a fixed ingredient..hopefully we'll see it soon. The juice of the mushroom will marinate the beef very well. Maybe next time i'll try the single Botak with the mushrooms, cheese, onions, bacon and a fried egg. ;) When i asked the guys if they wanted cheese, they looked at me as if i was crazy. "YA LA!" was their reaction... ....so anw I took the top patty (couldn't wait any longer) which was beautifully coated in cheddar. The first bite was absolute bliss. It was sensational. We all had the same reaction with the first bite. Alvin decided that Botak Jones is so much better for the red meat than the white. Not the best burger around (have you tried Aston's?), but good enough. Its one of the better ones (although i thought they should have grilled the bun..it was quite soggy..but then again with the triple deck u hardly have any room left for the bun - with the single patty the bun should def be grilled with a little butter), and you dont get such hand-made burgers in Singapore readily. Each patty is a generous 150gm of handformed beef. With melted cheddar on top, you cant really go wrong with such a combination. Yes, heaven DOES exist.
Last but not least, we had to try the complimentary cheesecake (priced at $4/slice). He gave us a slice of chocolate cheesecake to share and I couldn't stop man. 1/4 way through, Alvin gave up. But I was still going strong. So bloated yet so uncontrollable. I felt that the cheese flavor was not strong enough, but the chocolate was just right. Not too sweet nor bitter. The crust at the bottom i really liked. But try to share, as it tends to get a little dry. All in all a great end to the meal.
So should you try this place? DEFINITELY, but leave the fish and chips out. It's still their most popular item on the menu, so maybe if you visit a different branch, you might wanna 'not listen to my advice'. But easties, dun count on them locating in the East just yet. At least not this year. The boss (Jones) actually had (and still has i think) restaurants opened in the East b4 Botak Jones, so the easterners alr know what the food is like. Thus he wants to venture to other parts of the island. The next branch that is opening soon will be at Woodlands... (why? tell me why??). So, if you wanna try the food, choose toa payoh (opened everyday of the week) or depot lane. We also found out that the toa payoh branch (located near SPH) comes with their own bar. Dang, should have gone to that one. The food would have been nice with a beer, if we weren't so full. The meal was very satisfying albeit the fish fiasco, so much so that i'm still full this morning.

Blk 118 Depot Lane
#01-02 Stall 10
Singapore 109754
Phone / Fax: 6272-3-225
Tuesday - Sunday 11:00 am-10:00 pm
Closed on Mondays
http://www.botakjones.com/

P.S.: Been trying alot of food this week and blogging quite regularly, so my health plan and exercise regime has been put on hold cuz i usually end up too full at night to run *shakes head*. All plans will resume tonight - 7km brisk walk/run and 3hrs gym each on sat & sun. But i doubt that my regular 6hours weekend gym routine is enough to get all that Botak Jones goodness off me. Argh.. the contradictions in life..the trials and tribulations that we hafta face.. detox here i come..

"Chong Pang" Nasi Lemak, Food Republic, Vivo City: A lesson learnt to always go for the original

2007-06-28T11:24:00.000+08:00

When you swear by food, the greatest disappointment hits when you get shitty food from stalls that tag the most famous names. This is exactly what i got from the fake Chong Pang at Vivo City. Not to mention exorbitant pricing! I think they should really state their food prices, it's quite unethical to charge unknowing customers such high prices just for nasi lemak, which doesn't even taste good. Even the well-known stalls like the real Chong Pang and the one at Adam Rd dun have the audacity to do that.

But i should've known, really. I saw another stall selling the famous Depot Road Claypot Laksa at $6.90, when the original one sells at $4/claypot. Besides, the lady b4 me, who ordered her rice with 3 types of vegetables had to pay $4.40. As i was looking down at my plate with sweet and sour chicken wings, ikan bilis (the fat flat kind) and cabbage, i started shaking my head. YUP! the cash register rang up $5.70. The uncle had insisted on leaving 2 wings and a drumstick on my plate, after my request not to give me so much, and telling me that he would charge me the same price even if i didn't take it. why would anyone eat 2 wings and a drum??

anw the lady after me...i was like woah when i saw her plate. On it there was an egg, a sausage, hash brown, luncheon meat, curry vegetables and a huge fried chicken drumstick. And when she reached the counter, the uncle asked if she would like the otah. She said yes! i was interested to know how much she had to pay for hers. so i lingered for awhile. the kaypoh Singaporean in me. $8.10!!! what kinda hawker nasi lemak costs $8.10?? yes, the variety is a lot, but i mean egg, sausage, luncheon meat? how much can that cost? Oh, and a side note: I dun think its good to eat so much for lunch, esp when one is kinda on the larger side.

But anw, let's get back to my food. i tried the cabbage first. not too bad..the usual economic rice type. v simple. (TOO SIMPLE FOR $5.70 - ok enough about the price-complaining). next i tried the rice. started shaking my head. i can taste a slight hint of coconut milk in the rice but that's about it. that's not how nasi in nasi lemak shld be. where's the fluffiness and fragrance of the coconut milk? the chilli was good, i must admit, so i ate it on its own. then i picked up the sweet and sour chicken drumstick. and to my horror of horrors, it was cold. not the leave-it-there-the-whole-morning kinda cold, more like freezing cold (excuse my somewhat over-the-top exaggeration). why would anyone serve customers sth like that? anyway, i tried it. if you're expecting woah it's good despite the coldness man..i'm sorry to disappoint. yup it was cold, terrible and tasteless. the sweet and sour sauce failed to flavor or marinate the chicken. the sauce itself was tasteless. pls stick to sweet and sour pork or fish btw. chicken (& chicken wings at that) just doesnt cut it with such a tangy type of sauce. next i tried the ikan bilis. the one at Holland Village is really good - very crispy and crunchy, and the spiciness is just right. this one is chewy, and uh..chewy.. and.. tough.. just dun try it. so, in the end, this is what i left on the plate: all the rice, remnants of the chicken (incl. 1 whole wing still intact) and the ikan bilis. I paid $5.70 to eat cabbage and chilli. Are we back to the price topic again? haha.

it's so easy to give a rating for this stall. and i never give ratings cuz i'm not expert enough. but here's my rating - 1.5/5. Remarks: A nice attempt at cooking cabbage and a darn mean chilli. Well done! *Disclaimer: I must put some blame on myself - perhaps i didn't order their more well-known dishes like the fried chicken wing and small ikan bilis, but i def wont be giving them another try! simple reason: the rice, and the PRICE. (i knew i shld've just ordered the bao from Bao Today, they were having black sesame baos too! but then again, "Chong Pang" has kinda spoilt the whole Food Republic's reputation in my book, since there are so many other 'famous' names in the food court. i wonder if they are real...

"Chong Pang Nasi Lemak" (Do us a favor and change the name pls)

Food Republic

Vivo City 3rd Floor

A nice treat

2007-06-28T11:01:00.001+08:00

If you are an ice-cream lover like me, you'll be pleased to note that amongst the calorie-laden types of ice-creams like Ben&Jerry's (just mentioning B&J's makes me crave), Haagen Daaz and Italian gelato (no, it is not much healthier than the creamy types, unless you buy from Bravissimo where they swear by their 99% no fat policy), there exists a nice little quite healthy treat that you can get from any 7-11 store (it's a store & more! - k i'm mad). Master Bean ice cream. Some of you might have already seen it in the supermarkets, cuz i saw a box of 6 consisting of two green tea with red bean filling ice creams, two green tea with glutinous rice filling ice creams, and 2 other red bean ones (cant really remember) going at $4.45. I tried the red bean filling one, which is covered in a green tea ice shell. At 120 calories, it is the highest of the lot, but compared to 1 serving (1/2 cup) of B&J's, which is at 240 calories, it would still fit into a snack slot in most of our diets. The green tea ice has a very pleasant and subtle taste, so you dun get the anti-oxidant rush coming to you all at once like when drinking green tea itself. The red bean inside is not red bean ice cream, it's real red beans. very nice match because the red beans are kinda mashed so they provide the creamy feel to the otherwise 'ice' type of ice cream. I tried it straightaway after i took it out of the freezer. Like mochis, i think this one would taste better if it was a bit softer, cuz i was kinda biting through the ice cream, instead of it melting in my mouth. Leave it in the open for about 2-5 min and you should get a nicer softer option. Give it a shot on a hot day or for a afternoon snack!

Master Bean green tea ice cream with red bean filling

Available at all 7-11 stores ($1.20/stick) or

supermarkets (pack of 6, incl. other flavours) at $4.45 (price varies)

IMO one of the best rojaks in Singapore

2007-06-28T10:29:00.001+08:00

Bedok Central (the hawker centre at Bedok Interchange) has a lot to boast about. Any self-respecting food blogger would have at least one post featuring one of the stalls in Bedok Central. And this is where mine comes in, although i'm no professional at food blogging. Just about six stalls down from Lee Kee goreng pisang, four stalls down from Hollywood desserts, and 2 stalls down from Katong (Tong Kee) laksa [ok...you get the idea], there's this stall called Qing Tian Niang Dou Foo. The very interesting thing about this stall is...they do not have yong tau foo for sale. From far i saw min. order $2, 20cents per pc. That's like 10pcs for $2. Since when did yong tau foo become so cheap? As i inched closer, i realised that it was really referring to rojak. In fact, no one really looks at that board, since they sell the rojak in different types of sets. I've eaten this quite a number of times but this is the first time i checked out the name of the stall. I always go for set B - $2 for 2 tau poks stuffed with bean sprouts and cucumbers, and a serving of you tiao.

With century egg and cuttlefish on the side, it costs $3.50. The sauce that accompanies really smacks your taste buds. The tangy heat from the chilli sauce and the savoury black dipping sauce never fail to hook me. The generous serving of chopped peanuts just add on to the already perfect combination. The rojak, which is really quite normal (although i must give credit to the nice crispiness of the tau pok and you tiao - BBQ-ed on the little griller), is brought to a whole new level cuz of the sauce. the chilli is quite spicy though..if you are not in love with spice as much as me, you might wanna ask for lesser chilli to be mixed with the sauce. one more thing.. you can ask for more sauce if you run out! i did (yes, it was that kinda 'so good it can be eaten on its own' sauce), and the lady gave another whole generous serving of chopped nuts! talk about satisfaction ;) Definitely a must-try for rojak lovers!

I actually went there specially to try Hollywood Desserts (although i've tried a spoonful of their ice jelly b4 - which was really refreshing i must say, but not enough for me to give a review), and of cuz to meet up with my long-time-no-see pal, Loong Huat, but i decided i was not in a dessert mood when i arrived. however, after my rojak escapade, i decided that i couldnt stand to see ppl queuing for the desserts and not having one myself. so i ordered the ice kachang ($1.50) despite LH tellin me that it was nothing special, esp since the uncle only added red bean and corn to it. I would think that this is not one of their best desserts, since i've heard raving comments about the chendol, soursop and ice jelly (which i will try in time to come). But I liked it. I'm not a very corn person, so what really sealed the deal was the red bean. it came in a mushy pasty form (rem i'm a paste-loving person!) but still had identifiable solid red beans in the mixture. The fragrance of the red beans went well with the flavoured ice and atap chee. but that's it. a nice alternative to the usual too-colourful ice kachang with chin chow jelly and the works. simple. true ice+kachang in its most basic form.

Qing Tian Niang Dou Foo, Hollywood Desserts

Bedok Central Hawker Centre

Bedok Interchange

"Toad-in-the-hole" aka "Egg in the basket"

2007-06-28T10:04:00.000+08:00

This is an English concoction turned Singaporean. I was pleasantly surprised to find my first ever toad-in-the-hole in a not so pleasant bakery in Cheers, the branch just outside Tampines MRT station. I went there at like 11:30pm, hoping to grab a bun to satisfy my hunger fix, so u can imagine my delight when i chanced upon sth that i've been meaning to make for myself. The traditional toad-in-the-hole is a British dish comprising sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and gravy. The other kind (the one i had) is a fried egg cooked within a piece of toast, usually buttered (for a healthier alternative, wholemeal bread may be used). What you do is you cut a hole in the bread, butter it, and pan fry. After the bread browns slightly, you crack an egg in the middle of the bread. You can then choose how well you want your egg done, or flip it both sides to crisp it. The result is like toast with a soft boiled egg in the middle. when eaten, the bread and egg yolk mix readily, and its kinda like dipping your bread into soft boiled eggs, the Singaporean way. The one i had, however, was quite substandard due to the timing at which i bought it. but when u have hunger pangs and its that late and you just finished training, you kinda dun really care whether the yolk is soft or hard. what i like about it is how they improvised it. instead of 1 slice of bread, 3 slices are used. the bottom slice is not cut, and ham & cheese is laid on top of it. next is the 2nd slice, in which a hole is cut. following that is the 3rd slice of bread where the egg is placed, right in the middle. if i'm not wrong, it is done separately and then put together, using the cheese that melts due to the heat of the egg to allow the bread to stick together. i only realised that there was ham and cheese after i bought it, so it was a bonus (i was wondering why they needa use 3 pcs of bread).
At $1.50, it is value for money and quite filling, although i ate steamed crabs, 1 mini cupcake and panna cotta when i got home..hehh. if you've never tried a toad-in-the-hole b4 and would like to, but you're too lazy to make one urself, you can give this one a shot. Just ignore the stall menders who are quite rude and the stale atmosphere of the place.

my fav char kway teow

2007-06-26T21:28:00.000+08:00

A self-proclaimed foodie, it is weird that i dun like garlic. but it really turns me off when i taste garlic chunks in my char kway teow, which happens very often. and i will never order from that store again. so it was to my great pleasure to be introduced to this char kway teow stall at golden mile food centre. the first thing you'll inevitably see is the pic of the char kway teow topped with lotsa chye sim. which is interesting cuz no stall in sg or msia does that. and it tastes invariably good too! a healthier alternative to the otherwise sinful dish. of cuz there's the cockles and ikan bilis (other unique factor) that adds to ur cholesterol and calories, but whats all that when u got a good plate of char kway teow to enjoy =) i love the addition of the ikan bilis, which i'm 100% sure u wont find anywhere else. sprinkle over the noodles to enjoy a crispy and crunchy sensation. adds to the saltiness of the char kway teow too. best of all..no garlic! i'm sure they use it, but at least i dun taste any.. i have to tag this one a must-try too ;)

91 Fried Kway Teow
Golden Mile Food Centre
11am to 9pm
Closed on Mondays

Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon, East Coast Lagoon Food Centre

2007-06-26T15:58:00.000+08:00

Why should i even bother giving my two cents' worth about this place? if i'm not wrong, everyone knows about it. I've eaten here since i was young, so it always puzzles me when ppl say they haven't tried it, or even heard about it. my take? go try it. at least ONCE. the peanut sauce is so creamy and good on its own. its like lapping up peanut paste in its spicy form. the generous helping of cuttlefish and cockles is a bonus. love the meat and liver. love the kangkong. love the beehoon =) Having it for supper last night made me realise how deprived i was..havent had this in like a year? i bought back a packet for my dad and i shared it with him! talk about not having enough. i like this stall too cuz the $2 portion is enough for me, even though prices go up to $5. but then again, you can never have too much of meng kee's satay beehoon. to think it was our 3rd choice of places to go to. 1st was old airport road for fu chou fishball noodles and oyster omelette: parked the car at the multi-storey car park, walked all the way down, realised all the stalls were closed - either they are relocating, or its cuz it's monday. 2nd was geylang for yong he and beef kway teow: went a few rounds and still failed to get a parking lot. since my previous meal was at 12noon, i really thought i was gg to pass out in the car, after which daniel will probably just roll me out and leave me along the roadside.

anw, back to meng kee's: i never fail to have sth to complain though. if you've seen the uncle making the beehoon, you'll know why the queue is so long. maybe it's just his style, but i am almost convinced that he is being slow on purpose. i cannot understand why he takes some meat and puts it on ur plate, then removes a piece, puts it back into his big bowl of meat, then takes the exact same piece and puts it back onto ur plate. and he does it repeatedly, for every single customer. oh well..the things in life...

Ming Kee Satay Bee Hoon

East Coast Lagoon Food Village

6pm to 11.30pm

Closed on Tuesdays

ABC Food Centre

2007-06-26T15:14:00.000+08:00

We decided yest that we were gonna make our way to ABC food centre for lunch today, despite the distance. and coincidentally, i was reading the all-time famous ieatishootipost blog. plus some other blog that said the crispy roti prata is good. so being the ambitious me, i decided to give everything a go, in expectation that we might not come back to that food centre again, since it was quite far. turned out that it was actually about the same distance as AV market, so looks like we'll be going back to ABC more i guess ;) so anw, our famous doctor cum local food blogger got me all excited about the char siew rice at fatty cheong's and the char siew bao at bao zai, on top of my plan to try the crispy roti prata. like that how can? i have another list of desserts that i wanna try after reading his blog. so much for my health plan..yayy me.

so anw, let's start with the prata. there was no queue, which is good and bad. i decided to order just one plain prata ($0.60) to try (shld be enough to tell), since my boss gave me a plain of beehoon and a piece of carrot cake at 11:45am, just 15min b4 lunch (everything has to come at the same time). now the size of the prata = 4 mouthfuls. you cant tell from the pics cuz i took close-ups. i was staring at the prata and wondering how anything can be that small. ur normal prata would be 2-3 times the size of that at Crispy Roti Prata. perhaps any other day i would complain about portion size, but today, in anticipation that i got lotsa other food to try, i closed one eye. the prata is really nothing to shout about. i expected crispy, which would prob mean fluffy as well. nope..could hardly taste any hint of that texture through the 4 mouthfuls. curry was commendable, very fragrant and thick. not like the usual watery kinds. well, its the only prata stall at ABC, so i guess when ur prata cravin' hits and you're strutting around in the area, this stall should be enough to satisfy.

next i went to order the char siew and roast pork rice from fatty cheong's. after the fiasco from the roast duck rice stall at Alexandra Village, i was kinda skeptical about any other char siew stalls that people were raving about. but i thought, at $2.50, it was worth a shot. so i took a whack at it. and thank God i did. AMAZING. the tenderness in the meat combines perfectly with the thin layer of fat in the char siew. comparatively, the roast pork was way more fatty than the char siew, but just as succulent, and crispy. i must comment on the chilli sauce, the saltiness and spiciness of the chilli really grows on you. so good it can be eaten on its own. the black sauce that was poured over the meat was just as good. not too salty, just makes you wanna have more of it. i didn't finish the rice (see the pic with leftover rice) but i did scrape off everything that had the sauce on it. as i type i realise that they didnt give cucumbers..not complaining but just wondering why.

next the bloated me went to bao zai to grab one of their char siew baos ($0.50). mmm..b4 u even tear open the bao you can see the red char siew. for a bao 1/2 the size of your fist (everything seems to be small at ABC..heh), the filling is rather substantial. the roasted char siew comes with its fat, and i like it because the sauce is tasty and the meat is not over-dyed in the sauce. the bun is handmade, it's so soft and folded so neatly at the top you almost dun wanna tear it apart. but split it open and you will see in all its glorious splendour, a must-try char siew bao waiting for you to devour!

p.s.: vanessa says that the char siew bao at SMU's kopitiam ($0.40) is better. its the kind without the fat, redder, but the same size. i like small char siew baos which are more in line with the HK style. i must try it when i go back to school. which is not that soon. i hope =)

ABC Brickworks Food Centre

1) Crispy Roti Prata

2) Fatty Cheong

3) Bao Zai

6 Jln Bukit Merah

p.p.s.: i should really start blogging about my travels soon. that's the purpose of this blog and besides, there are some that are like a few years overdue. but i have to select photos and do some recollection, which might take me sometime.. ahh..procrastination strikes again..

AV market...again!

2007-06-25T13:21:00.000+08:00

Promised to blog about the avocado juice stall next to mr. avocado..so here i am. the whole row of avocado juice stalls that i was talking about? i'm quite convinced that they all taste the same.. if there's any diff, its quite slight.. but i prefer mr. avocado cuz of the avocado bits and the juice is more fine..less 'sandy' than the stall next door. only thing is that they dun have a smaller order size. $2 is really too much..oh well, at least it tastes really good. anw the lady at mr. avocado was staring at me cuz when melissa was ordering from her and she asked me if i wanted anything, i said no. then i went to the next stall to order. heh.. so i wanted to walk away quickly after getting my drink..and guess what? i forgot to pay.. talk about embarrassment. but the uncle was quite nice..he asked me "u havent eaten rite?" haha..too weak to think properly..

so for lunch i finally tried the chee cheong fun and porridge that i saw sometime ago. they have quite a few varieties - fresh prawn ($2.80/2 rolls), char siew, vegetable or turnip ($2.30/2 rolls) - with regards to the chee cheong fun. porridge comes in the usual variants - sliced fish, minced pork, century egg, etc. The cool thing is you can order the chee cheong fun and porridge together as a set. but the porridge here is standard, comes with some minced pork and century egg.

i ordered the char siew set, which cost only $3.

i would say its value for money, although i didnt finish the porridge, which was more or less what you can get at other stalls. The chee cheong fun is rather special, besides the char siew filling, they put lettuce as well. i would prefer it with more sauce (it's a light kinda sauce, not the dark one) though..perhaps you can ask for more on the side. the chilli is not hot at all, its more like the chee cheong fun sauce than chilli - good for those who dun take spicy food.

i wanna say that its good for a light lunch, but i'm so full from the avocado juice as well..so i didnt really have a light lunch. heh.. man the calories are packin in again =(

but anw..its worth a try if you're a dim sum kinda person.

note: going to Botak Jones on Thursday ;) must bring camera.

Margarita's, East Coast Road

2007-06-22T15:28:00.000+08:00

I cant believe I almost forgot to blog about this place..thought i wrote about it alr. one of my fav cuisines in the world, besides Italian and Japanese - Mexican! Tucked away cosily next to Al Forno is Margarita's, a favorite restaurant of mine when it comes to Mexican food. those who stay at east coast are really lucky..so much good food! they have another branch at faber drive. another mexican place that is alright is cafe iguana at riverside point.. but Margarita's wins hands-down.

For starters they serve you tacos and salsa, before you place your order.

Went there with Daniel and I ordered beef enchiladas ($18.90). knowing him, anything with tequila lime as seasoning is enough to get him gushing. we were sharing so i actually wanted to try the fajitas ($18.90-$23.90) as well. but he ordered chicken with tequila lime (true enough) [$20.90 if i'm not wrong] instead. we ended up being envious of the europeans at the next table who were enjoying their fajitas =(

but anw the enchiladas were really good. minced beef was gorgeous and i would describe the sauce that accompanied it as v good pasta sauce...haha. it looks quite messy but the taste is definitely not messed up. they added avocado to it, which really upped the standard.. i really love avocado man..soft and undescribable taste-wise..gotta try for urself.

the chicken was just alrite..couldnt really taste the tequila lime. but the gravy was thick and very appetizing. the chicken had a very nice bbq smell to it, really whets ur appetite. again, pls excuse the pics. i must learn to curb my hunger to rem to take pictures first next time.

both dishes came with mexican rice, re-fried beans and salad. i really love the rice. so much flavor in every spoon. the beans are typical mexican food.. not many ppl will like it though..taste is quite distinct..but i enjoyed them and the salad too.

finally, what is Margarita's without a margarita? lovely lime margarita ($10) on the rocks that we had (shared with daniel cuz i drove)..salt on the rim. mmm..let the pics speak for themselves ;)

Alexandra Village

2007-06-22T13:58:00.000+08:00

Been there quite a few times for lunch since its just a 10-15min walk from my work place, but never blogged about the food there. Met alvin for lunch today and i finally tried the avocado juice that melissa was telling me about (although i tried like one sip b4). If the $2 order is too big for you, I think u can opt for a smaller portion. I never knew that cuz i always see ppl drinking from the big cup, which really, imo, is kinda big if you are alr eating a main meal.

So this avocado drink thingy..i think its a filipino dessert drink. from wat i taste, they prob put in condensed milk, milk powder and white sugar. with the flesh/puree of the avocado, of cuz. this is wat i saw on the web, so i shall quote it: "The thickest, creamiest shake you will ever taste. If the thought of drinking avocado scares you, then you don't know what life is all about. Try it and you will see what I mean." It really expresses how I feel, although it does not refer directly to the avocado drink at Alexandra Village (AV). avocado is not scary, really. tastes kinda like chendol, and is as sweet as gula melaka.

Recently, i've been reading up on avocados and started eating more of it. I dun actually buy the fruit though, i usually eat it in sushi. But i must say, i love this fruit a lot. high in fat, but good fats.monosaturated fats that can help you fight cholesterol. but if you are one who is concerned about the number of calories you take in, dun drink this too often. 1 serving has about 480 calories, which is more than a MacD's milkshake or ice cream sundae. it is equivalent to 2 servings (1 cup) of Ben & Jerry's ice cream =) haha..i spend alot of time reading about body, nutrition, health and sports so i'm quite into the whole calories thingy. but dun mind me. anw i think the drink is so high in calories cuz of the condensed milk. although avocado is high in fats and calories, 1 medium sized fruit contains only about 250-300 calories.

The name of the stall that i patronised is mr. avocado exotic juice. the ppl there are v enthusiastic. I got asked if i wanted a drink 3 times in less than 5min. a little irritating, but cant blame them..the whole row of stalls sell avocado juice! imagine the competition. I highly recommend this drink, so do try it..no regrets! ;) just a note: the stall next to mr. avocado is apparently the older one (run by an old man) so it might be better but mr. avocado is definitely the more popular stall, perhaps due to the more enthusiastic staff. maybe i'll try the stall next to it and blog about it soon..

Also tried the char siew rice ($2.50/$3) from roasted duck rice stall next to mr. avocado. supposed to be good cuz it was on tv b4 or sth..but i wanted to try it cuz i saw a boy eating it the other day and the char siew looked really good. so anw, alot of ppl were eating from the stall.. v disappointing.. the char siew is so forgettable. the sauce is too little (i should have asked for a separate bowl of sauce) and the rice is dry. the only good thing is the soup (and i had to ask for it). it consisted of some bitter gourd like veg which is so soft u can just swallow it. and its boiled with pork, so its really tasty. maybe i shld try the roast duck some other time..give the stall another chance. i saw two guys who ordered roast duck, roast pork and char siew..looks good. i think the aesthetic appeal is so much better than the taste. quite sad actually.

alvin had the bak chor mee ($.250) which he says is really good. i tried a little..not too bad.. but common.. can get it elsewhere so there's no need to specially go down. AV market really has soo many stalls..it's worth going down to try some of the food there. yong tau foo, teo chew porridge and claypot laksa (very popular) is not too bad..

10 course dinner at Swa Restaurant

2007-06-22T08:35:00.000+08:00

I visit this restaurant twice every year to celebrate my grandparents' birthday. Overall, the standard of food is alright..quite authentic Teochew cuisine. This post is mainly to introduce what a 10 course chinese teochew dinner is like.

A birthday dinner usually starts off with longevity buns, which are the pink color buns with lotus paste. I didnt take photos of those. I like lotus paste..so i had two of those..

Following the longevity buns, comes the cold dish. I love it cuz of the variety, and also cuz I'm usually hungry by then. The chicken is really good - tender and full of flavor. The prawn balls are not bad too. And i'm a sucker for century egg yolks ;)

The next course is very well-liked by everyone i know. I don't like it though, so my brother always gets another serving. Shark's fin. The one at Swa's is not bad, I feel it tastes better cuz there are no crab meat pieces in the way.

After the shark's fin comes the best part - suckling pig!! omg i love the preserved cucumber and carrots that come along with it. its like achar, but it's preserved in vinegar. quite sweet and zesty. i love dipping it the cucumbers into the plum sauce that comes with the pig. can eat like 2 plates of those. haha but back to the main dish..this time round the suckling pig is not as crispy, but it's still good. layer of skin, followed by a little fat, then a thin layer of meat. heavennn...

my dad doesnt eat pork so he always looks forward to the angel fish that comes after that. the gravy is very light, since the fish is steamed. That's how you really taste if the fish is fresh. the fish goes very well with the skin, and i love the mushrooms that come along with it.

I must have forgotten about the following dish when i said the suckling pig's the best part. there is more to come. GOOSE. when this dish arrives i'm super quiet..too busy eating. I can eat non-stop until the plate is cleared. my grandfather will always tell me to eat when this dish arrives, cuz he knows i like it..but i told him "no need to call me i will also eat"..haha.. tender goose meat stewed in black sauce and placed over beancurd. dip in chilli sauce for the perfect combination. how can i miss out on it?

The next two dishes are for me to calm down and take a breather.. haha.. prawns and luo han vegetables. I like them and I eat both dishes, but in moderation =) 1 person usually gets only one prawn anw, but the veg that comes along with it (i duno what its called) is quite crunchy and goes well with the starchy gravy.

as for the luo han veg, it's prob one of the dishes that is not quite up to standard. very normal and doesnt quite match up to other places.

Very quickly i'm down to the 9th dish - noodles! pls excuse the pictures, i only remembered to take photos after some of it was scooped up. the noodles are a little oily (can tell from the pics) but they're the kind that you still wanna eat even though you are alr so full. it's basically noodles fried with chicken chunks, egg, bean sprouts, mushrooms and red chilli. but its really fragrant and wat i would also consider comfort food. gotta have a bowl. or two =)

CAN YOU HEAR BELLS RINGING? The absolute perfect end to the dinner! Yam paste with pumpkin. Everyone thinks I'm mad cuz I'm like in love with this dessert (and all other paste-y desserts). my bro and cousin dun like it..but this time they finished it. still dun believe me when i say it's good... some ppl think it's too sweet, but to me its just right. what good is a dessert if its not sweet? and this is coming from a person who doesn't have a sweet tooth - i just dun crave for chocolates. yam and pumpkin joined together in perfect harmony..i'm tellin u..marrying the two is a really good dining decision. pumpkin is not sweet and when it's boiled its kinda mashed up. that provides the smoothness to the sticky yam paste. so there's the 'melt in your mouth' feelin'. omg droolin as i type..maybe i shld get a bowl for lunch later. the yam paste at Swa's is more watery so you dun really get sick of it real quick. i can definitely have more than one bowl of it..heavenly goodness :)

Mutton Chop

2007-06-21T15:32:00.000+08:00

This was my lunch at Redhill Food Centre (diagonally across from redhill mrt station). I forgot to take note of the stall's name but it's the Indian stall in the middle lane of the food centre. very different from our usual western stalls, this mutton chop ($4) is soaked in a spicy, very red, gravy. it comes with fries and a fried egg. for a hawker centre stall that also sells roti prata, roti john and the works, they do quite mean fries. fried almost to perfection - not too soggy, not too stiff. and i can tell that they use the same oil for the fries as they do their roti prata. eating the fries is like eating roti prata. if you want a change from the typical slab of lamb chop, you can try this place, where the mutton chop is served in chunks instead of one single piece.

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, Takashimaya

2007-06-21T11:12:00.000+08:00

You know this review is gonna be good when I waited 30mins for a seat and am still willing to blog about it. What I hate though, was that the lady at the door said that since there were only two of us, we only had to wait for 10min. Why couldn't she just say 30min? or at least 20min? I hate it when they try to keep you there that way. But that aside, it was a good thing the food made up for it, because we were almost dying of hunger.

Since the branch was called La Mian Xiao Long Bao, it really prevented us from trying anything else except for their la mian and xiao long bao. I have tried xiao long baos from diff parts of the world, and in singapore. Not enough to conclude, but up to date, Crystal Jade does serve one of the better ones ard. if you wanna try Ding Tai Fung's xiao long bao, pls go to taiwan. the singapore branches spoil the name. back to crystal jade, the xiaolongbao (4 pcs $3.60) is lined on cabbage leaves and placed in the typical dim sum 'long'. I'm sure everyone knows how to eat xiaolongbao the traditional way: bite the top skin off, drink the soupy gravy, dip the rest in vinegar and eat it. Pure ecstacy. My only gripe is that there was not enough soup in each bao, so you dont really get enough satisfaction from drinking the soup.

I ordered the most basic ramen - handmade noodles in spring onion oil ($5) - because I was very attracted to something else on the menu: beef brisket and dumplings in chilli oil ($7.80). So we decided to order that to share, and i can have some beef and dumpling with my mian. The noodles came quickly, before the beef, but i decided to go ahead and try it first. Definitely good enough on its own. The oil is fragrant, and the long shallots accompanied the noodles well. The handmade noodles were up to standard too - the taste of flour did not overpower like other handmade noodles. The beef brisket that arrived was oh-so-good. The tenderness of the meat allowed for easy enjoyment of the dish. The dumplings tasted like firmer versions of the xiaolongbao, but it was definitely a treat served with chilli oil since 2 xiaolongbaos each were not enough to satisfy. They tasted really good with vinegar (although I think I just like vinegar) too. I drizzled some chilli oil onto my noodles and the zest of the spice just brought the taste up another level.

daniel had the pork and shredded cabbage noodles ($7.90, if I'm not wrong). the special thing about this dish is that they use udon-like handmade thick noodles and they slow boil the entire bowl with the gravy, noodles and ingredients. although it took a longer time for the noodles to be served, it really was worth the wait. The soup/gravy was bursting with flavor, the noodles were soft yet chewy, and the soft shredded cabbage and pork provided a very homey feeling - almost like comfort food. the gravy was cleared to the very last drop, yet it was not too salty. very professionally done.

thumbs up to crystal jade for a great meal! my only regret is that i did not notice the desserts on the menu, or else i'd definitely order some. some side snacks look really appetising too. Ah, looks like another trip is on the brew...

P.S.: Crystal Jade should really start a website, considering that they are so huge and have so many outlets. Unless they do have one, just that I can't find it...

1) Xiao Long Bao
2) La Mian with spring onion oil

3) Beef Brisket and dumplings in chilli oil

4) Pork and shredded cabbage noodles

5) Pork and shredded cabbage noodles 2

Famous Pontian Wanton Noodles, Marine Parade Road

2007-06-21T10:32:00.000+08:00

They call themselves famous. Well, I suppose they do have the right to..kinda stand out from other wanton noodles since they handmake their noodles, resulting in the springy, chewy and more bouncy noodles.

I saw many ppl eating the wanton mee when I was there with my church camp group. We were there on an amazing race like game, so it was quite a fluster as we were trying to find the famous Apollo Char Kway Teow at the Marine Parade food centre. But what caught my eye, and I couldnt help noticing, was that a lot of ppl were eating the same thing - Pontian Wanton Mee. So I told myself that I have to try those. And yesterday, I went down specially to try out those noodles. Initially, i thought i made a wasted trip when I saw a wanton mee stall that was closed. But when I went to the next lane, there the stall was. You can't really miss it - bright signboard with pictures of crispy wanton and them calling themselves famous.

I ordered the dry wanton mee ($2.50/$3). Their chilli is quite good, although if you are concerned that it might musk the taste of the noodles, you might want to order it without chilli, in which case they will add some kinda dark sauce and tomato ketchup (if requested) to the mee. They ran out of fried wanton so everyone had to queue for quite sometime b4 getting our food. When my mee came, I was pleasantly surprised that there were 2 boiled wantons in the soup and 2 fried ones with the mee. Portion was small, so I would say that the $3 order would be manageable for the ladies. The char siew is typical but good. And the pork lard is fried to a wonderful crisp - to me that was one of the best parts ;) to think i never used to eat lard. Now to review on the boiled wanton - like all local wanton mee stalls, this one disappoints with the lack of filling. you only get the real deal with pork and a whole prawn in HK style wanton noodles. but i hafta give credit to them, for the pork was well seasoned and the soup was quite flavorful. The finale comes when you try the crispy wanton (then you realise why they are famous). It tastes like fried chicken (not the correct symbolism perhaps). but the wanton crumbles when you take the first bite. That's how crispy it is. Definitely recommended for a light slightly decadent treat. It's not expensive too, going at 14 pcs for $2.50 - it's a must try! Just don't order their wanton soup ($2.50)..judging by the tiny wantons in my soup, I dun think it'll be any good as compared to their crispy counterparts.

Finally, I must talk about their green chilli. Well-known local chef Sam Leong ever said that wanton mee is not wanton mee without green chilli. If you take green chilli, you'll be pleased to note that Pontian serves freshly cut green chilli. Beautiful color too. It irks me to see dying green chilli drowning in vinegar. No aesthetic appeal there that's for sure.

New offers at Burger King (exclusive @ Tiong Bahru Plaza)

2007-06-21T09:44:00.001+08:00

Since BK does not do advertising for individual outlets, I just thought I'd let everyone know the promotions which are only available at the Tiong Bahru branch.

At $1, you can get 4 chicken cheesesticks OR 1 red bean pie OR 1 taro pie
the red bean pie is really good. maybe cuz i love red bean paste. but i duno if it can be found at other outlets cuz that's the first time i saw it.

$1.50: King Snack (consisting of 2 chicken tenders and 2 chicken cheesesticks) OR medium fries OR medium onion rings OR some drink

$2: Whopper Jnr OR Rodeo King (Burger with beef patty, American cheese, 3 onion rings and BBQ sauce) OR crispy chicken burger OR hershey's sundae pie

Sizzling chicken with mushroom sauce

2007-06-21T09:34:00.000+08:00

If you are a korean bbq or hotplate kinda person, the selection of sizzlers at Tiong Bahru Plaza Food Court are worth trying out. And it's not just cuz of the price. Costing an average of $3.50 per set, it's probably the cheapest of its kind in Singapore. Doesnt taste too bad either, maybe just a tad salty. Accompanied with rice and a bowl of shark's fin-like starchy soup, it makes a rather fulfilling meal. I didn't eat the rice though, so I went to buy a HK style char siew bao from the dim sum stall in the food court.

Side-tracker: it's the usual fluffiness you get from HK char siew baos, but it's so small you can finish it in 2 mouthfuls. and the filling is miserable. oh well.. what to expect from a 60cents bun..taste is alright.

"Zhi Char"

2007-05-17T22:45:00.000+08:00

I can never understand why "zhi char" is so popular in Singapore. What is so great about hor fun, or fried rice? Ok, maybe ordering dishes to go with rice makes a satisfying meal, but other than that, I don't see the appeal. Nevertheless, a new stall just opened at Upper Changi Rd. Its along the way to Anglican High School, before Simpang Bedok. Didnt bother to take note of the name cuz I didnt think I'd blog about it. But for all zhi char fanatics, the fried bee hoon is rather tasty. The fried rice is too, but its too oily for me. Don't bother trying the sliced fish bee hoon. The soup is ridiculous, I cant decide if its too milky, or just plain weird. Oh, and dont patronise the place b4 12nn. They dont have anything - no tea, water not boiling yet, etc.

Sudanese Restaurant, City Square JB

2007-05-17T22:41:00.000+08:00

if you drop by city square, which is the first shopping mall after the M'sia customs, you might wanna try the food at the Sudanese Restaurant, level 2. They have the set lunches, which contain smaller portions, perfect for a light lunch. Typical spicy Singaporean/M'sia/Indonesian fare. For dessert, make your way to Robin's portugese chicken for some portugese egg tarts. YOU CANNOT FIND THOSE IN SINGAPORE. I can go to JB specially to get those egg tarts. Rating (egg tarts): 8/10

Taman Sentosa, Johor Bahru

2007-05-17T22:33:00.000+08:00

This used to be a popular seafood destination for many Singaporeans, but lately, the crowd has been dwindling, according to stall owners there. The quality of the food hasn't changed since I've last been there. The price is still cheap, as compared to sg. It's a good place to try catfish, cereal prawns and sweet potato leaves. 3 of us ordered cereal prawns, egg fu yong, sweet potato leaves, kung pao fish, sotong kia and rice. along with drinks, per pax cost ard SGD9. Portions are substantial. 5 dishes for 3 ppl was really gg a little overboard...heh. The location is about a RM 6-7 cab ride to city square, relatively close to customs. One really downside to the place is the hygiene and ambience. You really have to force yourself to ignore everything ard you and focus only on the food. call me spoiled..but oh well..those who have been there shld know wat i mean..

Delifrance Bistro

2007-05-17T16:42:00.000+08:00

You can find Delifrance everywhere, but really, how good is the food? Read on.

One of the more acceptable Plat Principals at Delifrance - the Ragoût au Boeuf ($12.95). The great tasting combination of braised beef bourguignon served with mashed potato is an absolute delight for a light, quick meal. Something you do not expect when there is beef on the table.
The presentation of their Steak d’Espadon ($15.95 - Fillet of swordfish lightly seasoned & grilled for full, natural flavour with boiled potatoes, fresh mixed salad & laksa cream sauce) is horrendous, which translates into the price being horrendous as well. Plain. Plain. Plain. Absolutely no aethestic appeal. Not good, when we're talking about food.
Another horrific presentation of western food - the rump steak (now on offer at Delifrance at $9.95). Enjoy the stiffness and toughness of the PLAIN and tiny steak. Better still, compare to their advertisements. Be awed.
Why the sudden picture of simple bread and butter? This is precisely the order in which the food came. The bread came shortly after the main course. Weird, but good for dipping into the Ragoût au Boeuf gravy.
They should not call this the signature bread pudding. nothing special about it. no comment.
Delifrance's one and only redeeming factor - and trust me, it saves the whole bistro. Fondant de Chocolat Chaud: unbelievably moist chocolate cake oozing with fudge, served with vanilla ice-cream. This is dessert in its most top form. FANTASTIC. Watch as the chocolate fudge spills out as your spoon breaks the cake. Visual fantasy.

Al Forno Italian Restaurant

2007-05-17T16:05:00.000+08:00

One of my most favorite restaurants in Singapore. Al Forno. One of my favorite cuisines. Italian. From my favorite country in the world. Italia. I've been to Italy twice and I think the food at Al Forno matches the authencity of what you get at ristorantes in Sicily, Venice or Florence. And Rome. This can definitely be attributed to the fact that the chef/owner is from Italy. Be greeted with "Ciao!" and "Grazie!" when you leave the restaurant. Where the exit is, you can see the fireplace oven used to bake the pizzas. Great impression.

Seafood Pizza (there is of cuz the fancy Italian name, but I'll state it in layman terms which can be found in the menu descriptions - in case any of you wanna order) - $21

Always ask for additional toppings. See the mushrooms on the pizza? Guess the cost.

$1. Totally worth it.

The seafood serving is generous and extremely fresh. They do deliveries too. Try Al Forno's pizza and you'll never turn to Pizza Hut for another seafood pizza. Ever again. The crust is quite thin, and its crispy. I like to dip the crust (like bread) into olive oil and balsamic vinegar. True Italian Style.

The crayfish pasta ($21) is an ultimate fav and a MUST-ORDER everytime I visit. Once again, generous serving. Go on an empty stomach for this one - even guys find it only manageable. The sauce is oh-so-good, you can actually finish the spaghetti on its own without crayfish. Swensen's crayfish spaghetti is not bad too. Puts up a good fight against Al Forno with a lot of extra ingredients, but imo, loses face flat. Simple is good.

This has got to be one of the BEST cream pastas ever. GENEROUS amt of seafood - even more than the penne. The sauce does not irk you after a few mouthfuls (alot of ppl stay away from cream pastas cuz of the overpowering taste). Change your opinion of cream pastas at Al Forno today. Notice I'm hard-selling this restaurant, but only cuz it's REALLY good.

Glutton's Bay (Near Esplanade Mall)

2007-05-17T15:40:00.000+08:00

Went night cycling the other day (I mean nite) with church friends. Cycling from 11pm-7am definitely warrants supper. En route from East Coast Park to Sentosa, we stopped over near the Esplanade for supper at Glutton's Bay. Quite a disappointment cuz the carrot cake and chicken wings stall was closin (same stall - try to go b4 2am if you want to eat those), but here's some of the things we had:

Kaya fondue ($3.50). Give it a try, the bread has a different texture from the normal kaya toast - it melts in your mouth. very light and crispy.

Hokkien Mee ($4) - fatal attraction
Bummer: prawns are unpeeled

Oyster omelette ($5)

I don't particularly like eating this, so I'm not sure why I was cravin for this that night. Anw I ordered it and as usual, its too oily. What else can you expect? This stall is satisfactory to fulfill that once-off yearn for the dish.

Random post

2007-05-17T15:26:00.000+08:00

I have a few pics here and there so decided to combine all into one post. here goes the picture-tellin':

Gyoza
Koufu Food Court, Sentosa

Priced at $3 (for 5 pieces), the cost is average. So is the taste. Plus point: there's vinegar to go along with the gyoza - anything with vinegar should be alright...

Japanese Curry
Home-made

I bought the sauce from Japan - they sell it here too, just that its much cheaper in Japan & the directions are in Jap (and over here they also sell the powdered version). It's magical - just dump the entire packaging into boiling water for 3min and you're good to go. Prepare chicken cubes, diced potatoes and carrots and onions - to be stir-fried. After which, pour the curry over and mix well. Serves 4.
Taiwan Hong Zao Chicken Mian Xian
Tampines Mall Food Court

The appearance of this dish is weird. Red. Surprisingly, it doesnt taste too bad. According to my mum, its a Hakka dish. For something different, go try it ;)

Sakae Teppanyaki

2007-04-15T00:36:00.000+08:00

I have got to stop with the Japanese food! Another jap eatery to introduce..a sideline from the famous Sakae Sushi.. the Teppanyaki line. The chefs use alot of garlic and shoyu to flavor the food, so if you enjoy a milder taste, this might be too salty for you. The dinner menu is more colorful than its lunch counterpart, thus accounting for the difference in price as well. The chicken set, for e.g. includes chicken, salmon, oyster, mushrooms, rice and soup ($17.90++). The seafood set had tiger prawns (they were quite tiny imo), scallops, duck (how weird is that? but the duck is really good - flavorful to a T), mushrooms, rice and soup ($18.90++). It is quite enjoyable to watch the chef while waiting for your food. something to do at least. well, i took quite a number of photos =) enjoy!

p.s.: if you're thinkin between sakae sushi and the teppanyaki though, dun think further..go for the sushi

Curry Favor

2007-04-15T00:26:00.000+08:00

If you like curry, definitely visit this place at least once, or everytime the cravin' hit. and if u like ur spice, ask for their spicy instead of regular. it's goooood i tell u, gooood... japanese curry with the heat. the rice matches up to jap standard, along with the pickles. and i love it that the curry comes in the pot (if you order katsu and the likes instead of the stewed stuff). portion is huge. go for the lunch offer which comes with a salad/soup and a drink...totally worth it. i'll let the pics say it all.. hopefully.

Curry Favor
39 Stamford Road, #01-08 / 09,Stamford House, Singapore 178885
Price: $11-$15 (lunch)
Ambience: *** (out of 5)
Service: ****
Pic #1: Chicken and Fish Fry
Pic #2: Katsu

high-end restaurants

2007-04-07T21:17:00.000+08:00

i have to start keeping a list of high end restaurants that i wanna visit. good way to spur myself on towards making it big ;)

1) Tetsuya's, Sydney, Australia
2) Nobu Malibu, California USA
3) Ristorante Enoteca Pinchiorr, Florence, Italy

I've been to all these places before (havent been to Malibu but i've been to california), but wasnt so into food then. shites. shld've visited these restaurants last time. i'm sure there'll be more added to this list, where i'll dine someday...

Chicago-style pizza

2007-04-07T16:00:00.000+08:00

Tell me...should i not fly to Chicago just to get a taste of this gorgeous goodness? Why dont we have this here?? Wiener's Circle here i come...

1) Chicago style deep dish pizza

2) Chicago style thin crust pizza

Waraku Japanese Restaurant

2007-03-29T10:37:00.000+08:00

(*was trying out a sample article for http://www.funkygrad.com/lifestyle/displayarticle.php?artID=911&subcat=eat, that's y this post is so long)

where: WARAKU JAPANESE RESTAURANT
who: my cell group
occasion: my birthday ;)

The first impression that hit me about the east coast branch of probably the most authentic Japanese restaurant chain in Singapore was its crowded waiting area. Especially on a rainy, Saturday night and 10 minutes of trying to get my car into the tiny parallel lot, it just served to make the experience more memorable. One piece of advice – place a booking at least one day before, or resort to asking for a menu while sitting in a small waiting room with Japanese magazines that you probably cannot comprehend, just so you can save time later thinking of what you should eat. As luck would have it, we got a place in the restaurant after 40 minutes of waiting (yes, we had to pick a weekend to come in a big group of 7).

There was a lot of shouting going on, which is a rather common phenomenon in local Japanese eateries. This is very different from Japan, where I got to enjoy my meals in a much valued quiet environment, with Japanese waitresses asking politely if you needed more tea. In the midst of all the loud Japanese versions of ‘welcomes’ and ‘bill please’, we managed to get down to ordering. The menu is a grand sight – there are over 200 choices of authentic Japanese dons, hot pots, sobas and sushi. It would be a tough mission to come only once and hope to try most of the favorites on the menu. One of the must-haves, recommended by yours truly, is the Beef Kaminabe ($12.80, beef and vegetables cooked over fire in a paper pot). You can choose from 3 kinds of kaminabe soup bases – “Wafu”, “Miso” or “Chige”. Translated to English, it means with soy sauce, with misoshiru or spicy. We had the spicy soup, an excellent choice in my opinion. It went well with the medium rare beef and cabbage. The portion is small, but surprisingly filling. Guys, however, should probably opt for the Kaminabe Wazen set ($19.80). For an additional $7, you get the Beef Kaminabe, rice, sweet radish, salmon sushi and an array of tempura.

Waraku boasts authenticity. This is extremely obvious from the Sukiyaki ($16.80) it serves. Sukiyaki is thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, dashi, sugar, and sake. Participants cook at the table then dip food into their individual bowls of raw egg before eating it. At Waraku, you get your personal ‘furnace’, whereas in Japan, it is more commonly eaten in groups of four, buffet style. The Shōyu used by the restaurant is not too strong, and a little sweet, which makes the soup delightful to taste. It is an exact replica of the Sukiyaki in Tokyo, only one would have more fun eating in Japan during the winter since the meat, eggs and vegetables come in a free-flow fashion. We also had the Niku (beef) Curry, one of our favorites. Definitely go for the regular size ($12) instead of the medium ($10). At just $2 more, the regular Niku Curry Noodles is 3 times the size of its medium counterpart. Talk about value for money. The noodles are thick and spongy, and the flavorful curry blends everything wonderfully. The generous amount of beef was an added bonus, since we only had 3 slices of beef for the Kaminabe and Sukiyaki.

To top off the beef section, we had the Gyu-Yanagawa ($12, sliced beef topped with egg in a sizzling pan). Do not be fooled by the gargantuan picture in the menu, which will probably leave you salivating. The miserable portion was barely enough for one person, and they do not serve rice (available at $2/bowl) along with it. To give the restaurant due credit, however, the dish is handled with a unique touch relatively differently from other Japanese restaurants, where sauteed gobo root and sweet sauce are added. Here, the egg is mixed with the fresh beef in the pan, unlike the way Sukiyaki is eaten.

After 4 beef dishes, the Una Tama Don that came along was a pleasurable treat. Once again, go for regular ($12.80). Unagi with egg, on top of traditional Japanese rice, the don is worth every dollar. It is said that to differentiate Japanese rice from other types, stick your chopsticks into the rice and when you lift them up, rice will stick to every part of the chopsticks. Try it at Waraku. Another don to attack would be the Kanimi Ankake Don ($12.80) – crabmeat in thick gravy on rice. Other dons that you have tried in food courts or other Japanese restaurants will pale in comparison. The famous Japanese crabmeat is surprisingly substantial in portion, despite its known extravagant cost. The restaurant had a promotion for crab legs once. At $52++, one is allowed to have free flow of the crab meat for 90min. Interesting. Makes me wonder how many crab legs you have to eat to satisfy the ‘kiasu’ Singaporean mentality.

Why go for anything else when you can get reasonably priced and most importantly, AUTHENTIC Japanese cuisine at Waraku? Thumbs-up for the food, but do bear with the noise, stuffy atmosphere and average service.

WARAKU JAPANESE RESTAURANT
1020 EAST COAST PARK WAY SINGAPORE 449878(Located next to Tennis Centre in East Coast)

Ah Chew Desserts

2007-03-08T15:19:00.000+08:00

Just a few stalls away from Tong Shui café – there’s only one word to describe this place – shiok. Thanks to Eugenia and Sue Ann, I have found dessert haven. Traditional Cantonese and Chinese desserts can be found here, ranging from hot desserts such as almond cream, sesame cream, peanut cream and red bean paste ($1.80 for small, $2.30 for regular). The red bean paste is v special, its cooked with orange peel and lily bulb, hence its fragrance. The peanut cream is sieved before its served, thus what you get is a smooth peanut paste which you wont get tired of eating because there is minimal oil. I polished mine off in about 1 min or so. For mango-lovers, there is no better recommendation than to try their mango sago ($3.50) or the mango sago with pomelo ($3.80), better known as 杨枝干露, a Chinese New Year dessert. The coconut milk is refreshing, along with the slightly chewy sago (tapioca balls), fresh mango and bits of pomelo that gives a tinge of bitterness to the otherwise sweet dessert. The almond cream and red bean ice with ice cream ($3.00) are most famous here. The red bean ice ($2.50) tastes like ice kacang, only that its served in a glass like in Hong Kong. Apparently, the owner of Ah Chew could not find similar desserts that he had in China over here, and hence set up this dessert stall. How enterprising, and how benefiting for us, especially me ;)

i) L:Aloe vera with lemon and honey ($3), R: Gingko barley ($1.80, cold)

ii) Red bean ice

iii) Grass Jelly with Peach ($2.30)

iv) Peanut Cream (small) *MUST TRY

v) Mango sago with pomelo

vi) Closer look

vii) Look at the amt of mango!

viii) Yes, it's that good...

ix) Pulat Hitam with vanilla ice cream

x) Fresh milk steam egg (cold)

xi) Fresh milk steam egg with red bean (cold) - v. good *MUST TRY

Tong Shui Cafe

2007-03-08T13:42:00.000+08:00

Located in Liang Seah Street, this Hong Kong mirrored Cha Chan Teng, as it is commonly known, is dressed in its fine pink and green. The oldish look of the furniture gives unique flavor to the shop. Accompanied with the modern paintwork, the place is interesting to dine in. Another self-ordering place this is, where you place your orders by writing the numbers of the food on the food ticket. Didn't really try much there, since it was close to midnight and I was saving space for dessert at Ah Chew's. The food is cheap, as compared to other Cha Chan Tengs in Singapore. Of course, if you go to JB, 'cheap' is totally brought to another level. The famous nissin noodles ($3.88) have a light taste to them, unlike the ones that you cook at home with lots of msg. So yes, it is worth paying to have your instant noodles cooked by Tong Shui Cafe. Topped with a sunny side-up, greens and luncheon meat, it is sure to leave u satisfied. I tried the chee cheong fun with egg as well ($2.88). Nothing special, really. What is really worth mentioning and what I will label as a "if you dont try you will regret" specialty is their thick toast with peanut butter and condensed milk ($2.88). The thick piece of bread is so well-toasted, crispy on the outside. When you cut into it, the peanut butter oozes out. Matched with the sweetness of the condensed milk, I tell you, it's heaven. Every bite you take leaves you silent for 30secs or so, not only cuz its so good, but also cuz the stickiness of the generous gooey peanut butter prevents you from talking. GOOD STUFF. everyone shld really try this. No regrets, coming from me at least.

i) Chee cheong fun with egg

ii) Nissin noodles with luncheon meat and egg

iii) Peanut butter toast with condensed milk

24hr Srisun Parata Paradise

2007-03-08T13:24:00.000+08:00

Blk 822, Tampines St. 81

This round-the-clock prata stall is the place to satisfy all kinda hunger pangs. The drinks and prata are bound to leave u wanting for more, not forgetting the mee goreng, beehoon goreng, indian rojak, roti john, etc. The array of drinks are fantastic, ranging from the famous teh/kopi tarik, teh/kopi cino, milo dinosaur, milo godzilla, etc... As for the prata, try their egg and onion ($1.40) or masala prata ($2.50). The paper prata is a glorious sight. Build like a pyramid, you can choose to have urs drizzled with condensed milk ($2.50), chocolate ($3) or have it plain with sugar and curry ($2). The prata is so thin you have to use your hands. The fork and spoon method just doesnt cut it. Check out the coin prata and puri prata. This is the first place i've seen with these two newbies on the menu. The coin prata features six small round pratas. With sardine its $3, with mutton curry its $4. I was a little skeptical abt it, since the price is rather steep. After trying, all I can say is I'm going back for more. You have no idea how much mutton curry they give. The helping of meat is highly generous --> you cannot find this any place else. With the coin prata, its a perfect combination, only that there's quite a bit of curry left over after the prata is devoured. The range of cheese pratas and thosais are worth a try too, although the cheese pratas are quite ex as well. Be prepared to wait for your food if you go around 10-1130pm, when the crowd gathers. The vendors are a little 'blur' too, but all in all, its a good place to have your good ol' comfort food.

i) Coin prata with mutton curry

ii) Paper prata (a.k.a. tissue prata)

iii) Egg prata with onion

iv) F: Kopi Cino, B: Kopi Tarik

記得吃

2007-03-03T04:16:00.000+08:00

i was telling my bro that i have to remember this place because of the walnut paste that i was having. and when i looked up at the signboard i knew i wouldnt forget it -
記得吃 (translated to eng, it means remember to eat) - how can i forget? the walnut paste ($2) is fantastic, can hardly find it in singapore. also tried the red bean paste which was not to my liking.. i thought it was PASTE..turned out to be red bean soup with sago..quite ridiculous..the mango ice with grape fruit is delightfully refreshing..real mango fruit..pure joy for just $3.50.

since this post is quite short, here's a pic of my mum's tiger prawn spaghetti to top it off (each prawn costs more than $2):

Indulgz Bistro

2007-03-03T03:43:00.000+08:00

Birthday dinner! chose this place cuz.. i duno why actually. decided on uber burger initially..but they serve nothing else except burgers..so being the considerate person that i always am.. i picked indulgz -_- ANYWAYZ.. the ambience is really nice. wine bottles, white furniture, mirrors, lighting. a true gourmet atmosphere..until the point where i dropped my knife and disturbed the tranquility. the food is good but not filling. so dun choose indulgz when u r feeling ravenous. for starters, we had the tomato&basil soup ($4.50), creamy&chunky mushroom soup ($4.90), Deep-fried Camembert Cheese with Berry Compote ($9.90) and Breaded Fried Mushrooms with Garlic Mayo ($5.50). i expected the tomato&basil soup to be much better. thicker and hot, at least. it was a disappointment. the mushroom soup on the other hand boasted a grander taste - prob cuz of the chunky bits in it. hardly like any other mushroom soup i've ever had. try the deep-fried cheese, its sth diff that u cant find elsewhere. will prob go well with a Chardonnay. for mains we had butterfish steak ($19.80, the fish was wayyy fresh, accompanied with a fine truffled mash potato and caesar salad - made up for the portion size), beer battered fish fillet ($15.50, just normal fish and chips, but really crispy) and the Chef’s Crispy Pasta with Chicken Mushroom Cream Sauce ($14.80, this, for sure, u cant find anywhere else - its Angel Hair Pasta, deep fried to crispiness, soaked in a heavenly cream sauce, with sliced mushrooms & chicken silvers - it wasnt like out of this world though). apparently, they have good-looking waitresses there. my bro found one eye candy.. so added bonuses to indulgz. pics are not that clear due to the romantic lighting of the place, but hopefully they'll still be somewhat visible...

1) creamy&chunky mushroom soup 2) tomato&basil soup 3) Deep-fried Camembert Cheese with Berry Compote and Breaded Fried Mushrooms with Garlic Mayo 4) Oozing cheese with berry compote on the side 5) Chef’s Crispy Pasta with Chicken Mushroom Cream Sauce 6) Butterfish Steak 7) Beer battered fish fillet

Ajisen - again

2007-03-02T17:44:00.000+08:00

no need to intro again..i've been eating at Ajisen's v frequently cuz of the good discounts and good food ;) but i found the best ramen choice there. yayy me =) TRY the NAN-KATSU ramen. v v good. soup base is great cuz of the pork flavor. and the pork is so soft it melts in ur mouth. thats y its called 软骨拉面 in chinese. and the sashimi is seriously fresh. at least at the tampines branch. really didnt expect ajisen to have good sashimi. they have a salmon don, which is sashimi on rice - $10 during lunch time. shall try that sometime. the portion is huge. anw i went to the tamp branch with bing and rach the day b4 rach left for Aussie. had the nan-katsu at $10, then added two sides at 90cents each. the dumplings and salmon sushi. eat until cant move. the lunchtime promotion is as such - ramen of ur choice, side dish of ur choice and a drink at $10.90++. not bad la. with the discount card i get 10% off. rach had the volcano ramen (i always eat this in the past cuz its basically the spiciest ramen on the menu) and bing had the tomato ramen. just monday i went to the funan branch with aiwei n i had the paiku ramen - it was just ok, didnt think that the paiku will be fried heh. but it was cheap. $5 only - every 3rd mon of the mon ala carte ramen items are 50% off. great place, great food, great price ;)

pic#1:paiku ramen

pic #2: nan-katsu ramen
pic #3: rachel's iced green tea and baby octopus (the iced green tea really cmi - spoil the image of japanese green tea!)
pic #4: dumplings (not gyoza, more like jiao zi) and salmon sushi

pic #5: Tomato ramen

pic #6: Volcano ramen

Carls' junior

2007-03-02T17:12:00.000+08:00

been to the marina sq branch quite a long time ago.. not much of a big deal..only that the burgers are big. to me, the best burgers in the world can only be found at IN-N-OUT burgers. sadly, the chain operates only in California, Nevada and Arizona. once u eat there, burgers elsewhere dun matter anymore...hahaha.. then again, i haven't tried the $101 wagyu beef burger at Uber Burger yet.. i'll try it soon (when i make it big..like how i'll fly to Tetsuya's in Sydney for the $200++AUD 10 course meal)..totally side tracking..back to carls' - went to the vivo branch with bro and cousins. had the portobello mushroom burger ($8 just for the sandwich). it was ok, not bad, but the mushrooms were just normally handled. anw i dun think portobellos shld be so highly priced..they're quite cheap actually..UNLIKE TRUFFLES. the beef chilli cheese fries are always soggy and not hot.. WHYYY.. again, the best chilli cheese fries can only be found in USA.

Fish & Co.

2007-03-02T16:54:00.000+08:00

This is a place i go to very often..with jc mates and family.. so sometimes i get shocked that many ppl havent tried the food there..used to think its a v common place so i dun find anything interesting abt the food. but recently, i realised sth on the menu which is rather good and quite neglected. the seasonal fish (cajun) with rice. the rice at fishyco is always great, v tasty. i love the cajun seasoning..which goes perfect with the lemon butter. always ask for more lemon butter. it distinguishes fish n co haha. the seafood platter for 2 never disappoints i guess..for first timers its a must try..but go for the seasonal fish if u're sick of the place =)
pic #1: seasonal fish (cajun) with rice

pic #2: seafood platter for 2

Day 3 - Mount Fuji (updated with breakfast pics)

2007-02-17T17:03:00.000+08:00

forgot to post..this was at the same hotel at Lake Kawaguchi where I had my fulfilling dinner..the breakfast was just as fulfilling..haha check out the pics.

pic #1: some preserved side dishes

pic #2: RICE, seaweed, fish cake and clam miso (super tasty)

pic #3: my very own udon hotpot and takopachi

all these make up ONE breakfast meal

Temaki and Maki

2007-02-12T16:17:00.000+08:00

Felt like some sushi and sashimi (since when do i not feel that way?) so I went to Jason's at Raffles City for some cheap grabs. apparently my grabbing resulted in $7+ for a box of maki, a salmon temaki and a ebi prawn temaki. not that cheap but ok. the maki ($3.60/box) is surprisingly good. the salmon 'sashimi' not only looks fresh, it tastes fresh too. (maybe cuz I bought it before noon) the wasabi taste was not over-powering, unlike the salmon temaki ($2). The ebi prawn one ($1.50) is a waste of time, the prawn was so small, I could hardly taste it. The ebi prawn temaki from Sakana Express ($1.90)wins hand down.

pork knuckles and spaghetti

2007-02-12T16:08:00.000+08:00

my mum bought pork knuckles from cold storage (i think) at $10. tasted ok, but cant be compared to the one I had in Black Forest, Germany - I mean, that was accompanied with German beer and followed up with a slice of black forest cake...'nough said.

Fuscili di Bosco and Beef Bolognese! haha..k so i cooked them myself..but still can give fancy names la heh ;) (sorry if my self-concocted dinners gave anyone a lousy appetite =) but doesnt taste that bad haha)

Shihlinsnacks.com.tw and quick bites (Jap takeaway)

2007-02-12T15:57:00.000+08:00

what is that? u may wonder. basically i threw everything that i bought into the shihlin box la. anw, the drumlets and soft shell crab mess in the middle that you see - i bought them from quick bites at far east plaza. the drumlets are 5 for $3.50 and the soft shell crab costs $3.50 too (2 for $6). no point eating from there again. the crab tastes like any normal fried thingy..got a bit of crab taste but that's abt it. the drumlets are so-so only. BUT what is worth mentioning is the mushroom cheese crepe ($3.20 for a huge serving) that I got from Shihlin Snacks. Perfect match of cheese and brown mushrooms wrapped in a slightly crispy egg omelette crepe. omg..heaven.. it's a must try.. even when it's not hot it's good. but still nicer to eat it hot =)

with flash and without flash ;)

Ajisen

2007-02-09T14:54:00.000+08:00

I forgot to bring my phone out on monday, so I was quite irritated cuz I was gg to Ajisen for dinner.. anw since their website has such nice pics, i might as well use those. my parents each had a bowl of crayfish ramen, which was ok in my opinion. I felt that the soup was too tomato based. I had tom toro ramen - the meat is actually pork cheek..sounds weird but it actually tastes like bacon. that was good..the soup was fantastic. I actually finished my ramen, what with all the side dishes that we had - sashimi..soft shell crab..white fish..almond prawns..cuttlefish. the price? reasonable. we paid a total of abt $45. (any ramen with a side dish and a drink costs $13.80, if you order a ramen, the 3mix side dish and a drink, its $17.80)I had a 10% discount though. applied for membership on the spot. 1year membership at $5 which entitles you to 10% at ajisen or ajitei (their dessert chain) at anytime, 15% off during your bday mth and 50% off ala carte ramen every 3rd monday of the month. tell me where can you find such a good membership deal? heh..it's worth it even if you only use it once or twice the whole year.

Day 4 - Kyoto/Nara/Osaka

2007-02-09T14:31:00.000+08:00

Back to the Japan travel blog.. so on day 4 we started out to see a kimono show..modern day kimonos look so fashionable. and yukatas are like so common.

Anw, we had lunch at the same place - tempura lunch
along the way, we saw geishas! (male/female?)

the afternoon was spent visting touristy places and at night we went to shinsaibashi in osaka - one of my fav places in Japan. its a whole long stretch of shopping and food. like a milan at night, except that it's much more Asian (of cuz), crowded and a lot busier. and for dinner we had my FAVORITE (how do I manage to have so many favorites in just one type of cuisine) shabu shabu!

its hot pot, but instead of stock, its just water. the soup at the end is seriously good though, cuz its boiled with the meat and veg. LOVE shabu shabu, and have i mentioned that i love jap rice too?

Dim Sum Buffet - Excelsior Hotel

2007-02-05T22:16:00.000+08:00

Went with Rach and Daniel to Excelsior Hotel last monday for dim sum buffet..its under the same branch as Hotel Miramar, under the sterling group of restaurants. so for $10.80+++, we had har kaw, siew mai, carrot cake, chived dumplings, guo tie, xiao long bao, sweet and sour pork, black pepper beef, shrimp paste chicken wings, fried rice, pork ribs, chicken feet, char siew bao, fried shrimp dumplings with salad cream, pork wrapped in beancurd skin, mango pudding, gui ling gao, gingko barley...FREE FLOW.. and there were more that we ordered..char siew pastry, omelette..that never arrived.. i think they're quite smart.. u can indicate that u want two portions of the dish, and they only send one, then they tick it off the paper.. but the thing is, most ppl wont bother to ask for it again.. smart way to maximise profits heh..anw with the tea, peanuts and towels, we paid $14.50 each. so be prepared to pay 1.5 times the stated price. all in all its still worth it for the variety.. the only thing about dim sum is..you can't really go beyond a certain amount..it'll kill the taste.

something seems to be wrong with blogger. click on the pics to view closeup.

Day 3 - Mount Fuji

2007-01-19T14:46:00.000+08:00

If there's one place you have to go in Japan, I guess it would be Mount Fuji. Honestly, I have no idea what the mountain really looks like, even though I went up to the fourth station. I'm not even sure if the fourth station is ON the mountain. Compared to Jungfraujoch in Switzerland, Mt Fuji has nothing much to offer. At the base of the mountain, however, was this crazy theme park called Fuji-Q Highland which has what looks like the scariest roller coasters in the world. If you are looking for thrill, this is the place. It has at least 5 REAL rides that will require you to throw your guts out. Later we took a ride on the Shinkansen a.k.a bullet train (can't really feel the speed when you're inside) and spent the night at Toyohashi city. Stayed at Nikko Toyohashi - my fav hotel of all. It's huge and there's a mall next to it. Awesome.

At Mount Fuji

Fuji-Q Madness

One of the few rides that we went on, not cheap cuz it was a pay-per-ride thing

Go-karting

This ride I went on called the Mad Mouse. I thought it was some stupid ride but when I got off I couldn't speak for 30secs.. haha.. there's a reason for the name

Yakiniku lunch at Fuji-Q

It's something like Yakitori..you dip the meat and veg into the sauce before bbq-ing or you can dip after it's cooked

one last look at the scary roller coaster which was under renovation that day

Shinkansen (bullet train)

Hamamatsu Station

Buffet dinner at Nikko Toyohashi..the blueberry mousse, mango mousse and japanese curry were good.

check out this Bentley outside Hotel Nikko!

still prefer the ford mustang '05, but this backside is hottt too ;)

Sakana Express

2007-01-15T20:45:00.000+08:00

One of my new fav hunts.. Sakana Express. It just opened on 1 Jan 2007 and is located just outside Tampines MRT station. I like it cuz you can go in, grab a couple of temaki handrolls and satisfy any temaki or soft shell crab cravings that come along. I've tried the ebi prawn, soft shell crab and unagi handrolls ($1.90 each) - the ebi prawn is the best although it's usually my least fav. Also had the soft shell crab bento ($6.90). The soft shell crab is great and I like the rice too, esp since I accompanied it with this japanese condiment that I bought in Japan (the pink box). I'm not sure about the name, but it goes fantastic with rice. also, my all time fav 唐幸子(jap chili powder)to go along with it =)

Soft Shell Crab Bento Set

Day 2 - Lake Kawaguchi

2007-01-06T19:18:00.000+08:00

Went to Disneysea today. It was quite good actually since we managed to go on most of the rides. We didn't choose Disneyland cuz we've already been to the one in Anaheim, LA. I really love anything Disney man..I even took photos with Chip and Dale! call me childish but seriously, it's a great feeling. At night, we stayed at a traditional Japanese hotel which had it's own area for us to try out the Onsen bath. We wore yukatas and slept on mattresses - all in all, a great experience (although it took a bit of courage for us conservative Singaporeans to try out the Onsen bath).

the hotel room

Dinner was, as usual, fulfilling (haha, apparently I've run out of adjectives)

Spring rolls, meat balls and rice

Ebi fry, chawanmushi and a side dish

Egg miso soup and yes...our very own pot of Sukiyaki ;)

- End of Day 2 -

Most recent trip - Japan (Tokyo, Nara, Toyohashi, Kyoto, Osaka)

2007-01-06T18:45:00.000+08:00

I should really start blogging about my trips before some memories fade. So the first travel blog will be about JAPAN and japanese cuisine, one of the best in the world (apart from mexican, italian, thai, etc..haha). The Japanese really put in a lot of effort into each meal, some of which so painfully prepared that it almost looks too good to eat.

For starters, a Japanese snack - jap sweet cake

the white one is the original flavor, and the green one is green tea.

My first meal here: the only thing missing from the pic is the rice (i love jap rice) but this is what a typical japanese meal looks like.

And for dinner, one of my favorite meals - SUKIYAKI
It's kinda like the steamboat we have here, but instead of chicken stock, japanese soy sauce (Shōyu) is used. The way to eat is as such: you crack a raw egg into a bowl and leave it as a side dish. The meat is then swiped (in our case, pork) and once cooked, it's dipped into the bowl of raw egg. Then you eat it. It's great, but if you are afraid of eating raw eggs, you can actually crack the egg into the steamboat and dip the pork into the semi cooked egg.

here's what it looks like before cooking starts

warming up...

nothing beats a good meal of sukiyaki during winter

Looks like I have to blog about the trip according to each day. It's too long for one entry =)

Miss Clarity Cafe

2007-01-06T02:30:00.000+08:00

Many people have blogged about this place, although it's relatively new. Went to try the food with Daniel. The cafe has a very cutesy theme going - the main color is PINK. The unique color choice for the decor does not overshadow the quality of the food, though. There are a lot of choices on the menu, many of which are worth a shot. I tried the Chicken Cordon Bleu, which is part of French Cuisine - ham and cheese stuffed in deep fried chicken. SINFUL, but nevertheless enjoyable. Served with roast potatoes and german sauerkraut, the portion was big and value for money ($8). daniel had the roasted chicken leg with mushrooms, also served with roast potatoes. I'm beginning to think that anything with a good mushroom gravy gives it a good name...and taste. Will definitely be going back for more. Wanna try that Chicken Ballotine (oven-baked chicken thigh with fresh shitake mushroom stuffing served with mushroom sauce) - is it just me or does that make you drool?

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken with mushrooms

http://www.missclaritycafe.com/index.php?page=home

KimGary

2007-01-06T02:22:00.000+08:00

The only reason I am blogging about this restaurant is because my favorite HK actor, Wong Chung Chak, is endorsing the place. KimGary is a cantonese restaurant which serves local cuisine from Hong Kong. Went there last Thursday, the branch in City Square, JB for dinner. Food was just average but price is cheap for us. There's one branch in Singapore at VivoCity. I would expect the prices here to be steeper. Good for a late dinner when you have no place to go in JB (last order at 10pm), just before coming back to Singapore.

Stone Rice @ KimGary's

Kolo Mee @ Jia Xiang Sarawak, VivoCity

2007-01-06T02:14:00.000+08:00

Went out with my dear friend Lydea last week and had a chance to try the Kolo Mee that everyone's been talking about. Verdict: What's the fuss about? It's not bad, but definitely nothing to rave about. $5.90 for the basic Kolo Mee - definitely can't be compared to those $1.50 authentic Kuching noodles. The noodles are bouncy and QQ (i think it means chewy) and the prawns are fresh. Good for one try, after which the price should come into consideration ;) Reminds me of Fei Fei Wanton Mee at Joo Chiat Road, but Fei Fei is much better.

Kolo Mee, Jia Xiang Sarawak

My favorite dessert

2007-01-06T02:04:00.000+08:00

Two months ago, I went to two formal dinners with my family on two consecutive days. Talk about too much good food. To my delight, the dessert on the second day happens to be my favorite - glutinous rice balls in red bean paste. Absolute heaven. Not that I know exactly what Heaven is like...yet. The sesame tang yuan in red bean paste at bedok central are FANTASTIC, in my opinion. I don't know any other stall that serves such good cantonese desserts/pastes. The yam paste with gingko nuts are good too. I've tried the sesame paste, almond paste and also the peanut paste. They also have different flavors of glutinous rice balls, but the best is still the sesame rice balls and red bean paste =)

Tang yuan in red bean paste

A few more posts coming up.. before school gets me really busy ;) been wanting to blog about the different eating places I've been to for quite some time. Perhaps I'll get down to the traveling part of this blog in summer..haha

Baba King Nonya Deli

2007-01-06T01:51:00.000+08:00

There's this nonya restaurant at Singapore Expo that I went to the other day with my parents. It's called Baba King. The owner is very friendly, giving me the impression that he wishes to network with his customers and trying to remember everyone who enters the place. Anyway, their sambal fish spaghetti should really be commended. It's really spicy (coming from me, it would be considered hot since my tolerance for spicy food is VERY HIGH). but its great. the sambal fish and italian noodles make such a great combi. the beef rendang spaghetti, on the other hand, pales in comparision. Both are priced @ $8.90, but while the pieces of fish were substantial, there were only 3-4 tiny pieces of beef rendang (which makes me wonder why the price is as such), although the rendang, I must admit, tasted quite good. We also had the chicken wrapped in Roti Jala, which is rather creative. Roti Jala is something like roti prata, a Malay/Indian pancake. However, Baba King's version is too starchy for me. The chicken can hardly be tasted too. For the price, it is not exactly a place to visit often. Perhaps once in awhile, when that craving for nonya delights surface =)

Beef Rendang Spaghetti

Roti Jala and Chap Chye

cafe le claire

2007-01-06T01:36:00.000+08:00

one of my all time favorite dining place - cafe le claire - a middle eastern cafe which serves good and simple fare. at reasonable prices too. my personal recommendation: the hummus with pita bread. at only $3.90, its a gem. order their basket of wedges to go with the hummus and this can easily be supper for 4 ppl.

went with cuifen and daniel the other time --> cuifen and I shared the Crispy Chicken
served with mushroom sauce, wedges or rice. daniel had the mixed sausages. the hibiscus tea is worth trying, it's rather special. and some other great things to try on the menu - shish kebab (the rice is great, but the wedges are the best i've had, so its kinda hard to choose - go for the rice, then order the basket of wedges.. haha best of both worlds..won't be able to finish though)and Ba’mia (which is okra and lamb stew with rice or bread). if you just want to fill your tummy without spending too much, the sharwama (lamb and beef rolled in Arabic Bread)is worth taking a whack at. Priced at $6.50, it's cheap and makes up for a filling meal.

Mixed sausages

from L to R: Hibiscus tea, Crispy Chicken and Hummus

http://www.cafelecaire.com/index.php

goodwood park hotel

2006-10-21T21:10:00.000+08:00

havent posted in a long time = havent had good food in a long time

i went to goodwood park hotel on wednesday! huge array of food.. so little space in my tummy. i would do a comparison with phoenix hotel's buffet if i had time, but noooo...i even have school on a public holiday so here's in 4 words: phoenix hotel is better. The desserts win hands-down. i'll post some photos here first, update the captions later..

for starters, cold seafood - crayfish! oysters, salmon and sushi. there's sashimi at a different area though, apparently its different from the cold salmon.

mmm...oyster ;)

ok on this plate there is roast veal, sea bass, roast potatoes, popiah and fish curry

if there's one lesson i learn from eating buffets at hotels, ALWAYS leave space for dessert..here's (from left): chocolate mousse, apricot delight and brownie

apple crumble with vanilla sauce and movenpick ice cream - lime and lemon sorbet, strawberry

last but not least, the deciding factors that phoenix hotel is better --> mango mousse and peach tart

the dinner buffet cost $28.80++ it was worth it for the variety..the main dishes were of high standard, but the desserts, disappointing

chippy...again!

2006-09-17T02:32:00.000+08:00

I went to Chippy's again on Thursday to get the beer-battered fish ($4.45) and cheese sausage on mash potato ($3.15) for my parents to try (of course I tried too..heh). Had the BBF with salt and malt vinegar, was a little too salty for my liking and I'm one who likes my salt. Too bad they can't separate the condiments like they do for the triple c and the BBF if you choose mayonnaise and ketchup. Overall, serving was huge and it probably would taste very good if it's eaten once served. One thing I was rather impressed with was the battered fries that were included with the BBF. The Chippy's girl told me that fries would be included but when we were eating, everything looked like fish, so I was wondering where are those fries (I mean, we all already have a pre-conception as to how french fries should look like). Apparently, they battered the fries using the same batter as the fish, so the fries are the "smaller fishes". Haha, it's actually potato in batter, not fries in batter. Anyway, it's great. My mum liked the cheese sausage. I didn't like it too much though, it definitely was not cheesey enough for me. As for the mash, I don't like mash potato in general, so shall not comment ;)

dinner at lagoon

2006-09-17T02:19:00.000+08:00

just to post a picture of the food my cell group had at east coast lagoon, to have a good meal with our brother Gabriel before he goes to... NS ;(

The food was relatively good. the all-time favourite and famous satay bee hoon arrived only after 45 mins of queuing. it's not like "oh-so-fantastic", but its definitely a must-try. As for the stingray, sambal kangkong, chicken wings and fried oyster, there are just too many stalls there to differentiate what's good and not. Only thing is that the fried oyster stall that's next to the satay bee hoon gives such small portions (even the $5 plate is barely enough for 2ppl). The next time I go I'll take note of the stall no. cuz people have told me that there's definitely significant difference in the quality of those dishes.

first post - result of boredom

2006-09-08T14:34:00.000+08:00

so here i am..sitting in class..reading food blogs, and i decided to start my own. its quite surprising cuz i'm not the kind of person who even reads blogs (see what boredom can do?), let alone have one. anw..anything for food ;) so during the break, i walked briskly to Chippys @ raffles city to try the fried mars bar (SGD2.95) and triple c (cheesy curry chicken).

the service was relatively fast and unique, they take your name down and call u when its done. as promised, the mars bar (4 small pieces) served with vanilla or choc ice cream (i chose vanilla and it came with choc syrup) was served in 2min. and the chicken, about 2min later. i finished the mars bar while walking back. not too oily, greasy, and the warm taste of the mars bar tangled with melted caramel was really good. oddly though, it didnt complement the ice-cream, or should i say the ice-cream didnt complement the mars bar, unlike that of a warm brownie and ice cream. much much better than the fried mars bar at New York New York @ city link. 1/3 the price too.

as for the triple c, i chose extra spicy. initially i thought that the batter would be cheesy. However, it was fried curry chicken pieces coupled with a thick cheddar cheese dip (so u decide if u just want the spicy chicken or the spicy chicken in cheese dip). the portion is big, so its relatively cheap at $3.45, unlike those chicken pieces at shihlin which dont really taste that good - cant compare to the original in taiwan costing only NT40 (SGD2.00), where they serve it in a huge chicken chop piece on its own.

to top this post off, i went to the dinner buffet at hotel phoenix yesterday. the dessert was fantastic - creme brulee (warm custard pudding with caramelized sugar), tiramisu (with an aromatic coffee flavour), cheesecake, durian mousse (their signature dessert), and more which are not really worth mentioning. also, their roti prata is one of the best. went a couple of yrs back, until now I feel the same way. With mutton or chicken curry (its a buffet so u can have both), or even on its own, its delightfully crispy and fluffy - the way roti prata should be - not stiff and cold and hard to tear. btw, i saw an american eating the roti prata with tartar sauce and thousand island (maybe i should try that someday heh). the buffet also consisted of hainanese chicken rice, which i didnt realise was there until i was almost full, laksa, fried dory fillets, the usual buffet stuff, cold section with mussels and prawns, sushi (just two types, i didnt bother trying) and a salad bar. the caesar salad was surprisingly good, reminded me and my mum of the caesar salad that we had in Toronto, Canada in June. Was in the CN tower having lunch which cost like 70++CND per person. the salad alone was priced at CND 15. but it was award winning and very very worth it.

So, hopefully i'll have more eventful food experiences to blog about. i shall get back to my cheesy curry chicken now ;) will add pictures in the future