The Mid-Autumn festival falls on the 15th of Aug of the Chinese lunar colander every year. People celebrate the festival by eating moon cakes, sipping a cup of tea while appreciating the round moon, while children run about holding their colourful lanterns.
Moon cakes are Chinese pastries eaten during the Mid-Autumn festival, while they traditionally comes in lotus seed paste, the food & beverage experts have constantly come up with creative and exotic ingredients to pair up with the moon cake. Snow skin moon cakes are not uncommon now, with most places offering it as an alternative to the traditional moon cake.
I was given the opportunity for a moon cake-tasting session with Yan Ting’s snow skin moon cake. They are available at the lobby of St Regis hotel, the snow skin moon cake comes in 6 different flavours, and there’s also the traditional baked moon cake to choose from.
St Regis, with the 6 Star luxury hotel tag, pays full attention to detail. According the Yan Ting’s manager, Mr Danny Chan, the box containing the moon cake samplings are made of superior wood and does not come cheap.
Besides the lobby booth, you can also pick up their moon cake directly outside the restaurant on the second level after you finished a meal there.
The box for 8 snow skin moon cakes is also nicely designed, with majesty gold set as the theme. This is a great box to give to relatives, or business associates as gift during the Mid-autumn festival. Alternatively, there’s also another premium gift set which features Yan Ting six uniquely flavoured snow skin moon cake with two tins of Dammann Frères tea, set in an elegantly designed casing.
For the mini snow skin selection, there are 6 different flavours to choose from, you can either have 8 of the same flavour, or choose a mix of all the flavours.
Almond snow skin, martell cordon bleu cognac truffle, custard paste ($8 per piece) Martell drinkers would rejoice with the martell cordon bleu congac moon cake. Made with almond, the snowy-white skin like all the other moon cake bears the signature Chinese name of Yan Ting on the surface.
Beneath the snowy white almond skin, there’s the custard paste filling with the luxurious martell cordon bleu cognac truffle in the heart. The almond taste was quite heavy, together with the strong martell cognac, the overwhelming taste covered the custard paste.
It was interesting to try martell truffle inside a moon cake, and it came in a generous portion. There’s a strong after-taste of the martell truffle. Overall an interesting take on snow skin moon cake, and if you like Martell and almond, this novelty might just work for you.
Seven perfumes snow skin, martell cordon bleu cognac truffle, white lotus paste ($8.5 per piece) This one was quite similar to the previous one, with the use of martell cordon blue cognac truffle, but in place of the almond skin and custard paste were seven perfumes snow skin and white lotus paste respectively.
I love the aromatic and subtle seven perfumes snow skin, which was made from St Regis’s exclusive Dammann Frères tea from France. And at the centre of the moon cake, the martell cordon bleu cognac truffle. There’s no clashing of flavours because the subtle tea snow skin and white lotus paste seemed to blend in perfectly with the stronger Martell truffle.
Almond snow skin, advocaat egg liqueuer truffle, black sesame paste ($5.25 per piece) Besides having custard and lotus paste as fillings, Yan Ting also used the fragrant and rich black sesame paste. Under the dainty white snow skin, the black sesame provided a good contrast to the colour of the moon cake.
I felt that almond worked better with black sesame than custard paste. The advocaat egg liqueur truffle was also unique in its own right. Advocaat is a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, its smooth taste was rather similar to the almond skin. And the liqueur taste wasn’t as robust as the martell cordon bleu cognac truffle.
Bloody mary snow skin with custard paste ($5.25 per piece) Inspired by the iconic signature cocktail at the original St Regis New York, Yan Ting introduces the first-ever Bloody mary moon cake. The bloody mary snow skin brought the innovation level for moon cakes to another level.
The unique use of bloody mary is worth mentioning, but bloody mary being a mix of vodka and tomato juice, having a stronger taste, covered the custard paste. Personally, I felt that it would be better by combining bloody mary and white lotus paste instead. But I guess Chef Chan Siu Kong and his culinary team would have experience with many different combinations and felt that this is the one that provides a different view.
Seven perfumes snow skin with single yolk and white lotus paste ($6 per piece) Moon cake purist need not fret; the seven perfume snow skin came closest to the traditional moon cake with your white lotus and egg yolk, the only exception the snow skin. The scented Seven perfumes snow skin gave it an edge over other normal snow skin with white lotus paste.
This was the most ordinary and simple moon cake among the snow skin offered by Yan Ting. The superior quality of the white lotus paste meant that it’s not overly-sweet, smooth and silky. Together with the salty egg yolk, like they say, simple is beautiful.
Almond snow skin with premium bird’s nest and custard paste ($28.5 per piece) The moon cake with edible gold foil and premium bird’s nest screams extravagant. The gold foil on the top looked magnificence, I’m not sure about the taste of gold though. This among the 6 flavours, is the most expensive at $28.5 per piece, while the rest are all in the $5-8 repertoire.
Manager Mr. Chan mentioned that 1 “jin” of premium bird’s nest goes into making 4 bird’s nest moon cake. And for once, i thought that the use of custard paste worked very well with the whole-strand bird’s nest. The ultimate indulgence, glittering gold and top-grade bird’s nest.
The total cost of this particular box of 8 snow skin moon cake (mix-and-match) comes up to a princely $75.25. According to St Regis, customers usually get a box of 8 of the same moon cake, otherwise they will purchase St Regis Premium gift set at $98. But as this was a moon cake tasting session, I had the mix of the 6 flavours.
Yan Ting’s extensive use of custard meant that if you do not like custard, then your judgement of Yan Ting moon cake will likely be affected. Nevertheless, they uses top-notch lotus paste, and their unique seven perfume snow skin is very aromatic and i will definitely recommend you to try that at least.
The exotic ingredients such as martell cordon bleu cognac truffle, advocaat egg liqueur truffle, and bloody mary fits the price tag of the moon cakes, and if you do not like liqueur, there’s also a range of traditional baked moon cakes, top quality lotus paste and yolk, fragrant and rich black sesame paste, pandan paste, Jin Hua ham and assorted nuts, all based on recipes of Chef Chan.
The moon cake pricing is indeed hefty, but that is the least you can expected coming from St Regis, the glamorous and prestigious 6 star hotel. Yan Ting. The St. Regis moon cakes are available from special retail booths at Change Alley in Raffles Place and the hotel lobby, by visiting Yan Ting restaurant in the hotel or by placing orders over the phone or email.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
ReiKosaid: Omg.. It look so yummy.. but abit ex... =P 29 Aug 2008 at 10:29 am
claudsaid: Wah!! Mooncake u can also write such a long review! Pei fu! Anyone wants to buy for me? ^_^ 29 Aug 2008 at 10:36 am
Lucardiasaid: The mooncakes are how big sia? Scaly is those uber small 8 per box mooncake at that price. omg. 29 Aug 2008 at 1:37 pm
claudsaid: Looks like it leh. 29 Aug 2008 at 2:10 pm
ladyironchefsaid: hahah! i used to writing long liao, now write short dunno how to write. the mooncake is those uber small one yeah. 29 Aug 2008 at 2:50 pm
There are different types of restaurants, those that started out small and humble, and then go on to become popular among the connoisseur, and eventually moving on to up-market, and also there are restaurants who started on a bang, but decided to go the other way round, New York New York, of course belongs to the latter.
New York New York (NYNY), started well, with the maiden restaurant at the ever-busy Citylink, which by far a good location, witnessing the everyday crowd moving from City hall to Marina Square, Suntec area.
My initial impression of New York New York was good, even though people told me that their food was average, but i still proceed on to my first visit there. But slowly and surely, NYNY started to venture into the heartlands, with new restaurants at Lot 1, Amk Hub, Heartland mall and downtown east.
Not that NYNY is a very classy restaurant in the first place, but i still find the overall feel to be above average. But it seems that the move into the heartlands is reaping dividends for NYNY, with most of the restaurants being filled up easily every day, especially so during the weekends where the whole family comes out to dine.
New York New York (NYNY), with its big white & green signage, and the trademark light green comfy furnitures, stands out from far. NYNY used the copy-and-paste method for their interior decor to good effects. The particular branch is at Lot 1, taking over the place of the former tenant, Pizza Hut.
By and large the location is a good place as its on the ground floor, and just beside the entrance near the taxi stand. This makes me wonder why Pizza Hut chose to vacant it in the first place.
Caribbean Breeze ($5.90) Frozen pink guava and pineapple juice, which came across as rather sour to us.
Lime lemonade soda ($5.90) Real traditional American lemonade, good and reliable.
Spaghetti Bolognese ($12.90) The spaghetti bolognese with giant meatballs. The pasta is done “al dente” firm yet not too hard. The meatball was really gigantic, well i’m not really a meatball person but my brother seemed to enjoy this simple pasta.
Tagliatelle mushroom alfredo with crispy fish ($12.90) Fish and creamy pasta instead of chips. The pasta was average, i preferred tomato to cream base, and the fish was average nothing spectacular.
Smoked salmon velvet ($9.90) Smoked salmon, tuna mayo, marinated tomatoes, grilled vegetables and sauteed onions made up the Smoked salmon velvet. I felt vegetables in sandwich would be better off being fresh than grilled.
Tagliatelle aglio with fresh seafood ($12.90) Simple and delicious. Extra virgin olive oil with lots of garlic and chili combined perfectly with mixed seafood. I never liked aglio because i found it too dry, and too spicy. But then again, its personal preference.
Juicy beef tenders ($13.90) Under the cloud of the creamy mashed potatos, the beef chunks with gravy was too salty for our liking. We struggled to finish the dish.
Hawaiian pizza ($13.90) The hawaiian pizza came in the thin form with the typical hawaiian toppings like pineapple and ham. 8 slices to share around the table. However, i lamented the fact that the pizza wasn’t cheesy enough.
Total bill was $103.81 for a table of 6, which worked out to an average of around $17 per person. Prices are still within the reasonable range for a mid-tier restaurant. The menu is comprehensive with lots of choices like salad, pasta, pizza, main course, and desserts. Food at NYNY is average at best, judging from the lines of people queuing up for a table at NYNY, I believe we will see more of NYNY opening in other heartland shopping centre.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
It’s a shame that Dim sum isn’t getting the recognition as its Sushi counterparts. The Japanese sushi is also like what Dim sum is to the Chinese cuisine, just that it comes in the form of vinegared rice topped with ingredients like fish, various meats and vegetables.
With the entrée of more Spanish restaurants in the local dining scene, more people knows about tapas, and degustion has always been a firm word on the menu of the French restaurants here. How about dim sum? I think that most youngsters nowadays are not really into dim sum, since it’s often seen as a more traditional meal. Youngsters want to break out of the tradition, they want something hip and cool, and dim sum is not that. Which is cooler, saying you had dim sum, or tapas at the latest Spanish restaurant and a 6 course degustion dinner?
Dim sum is akin a piece of artwork crafted by the chef, so exquisite and refine. No offence to the Sushi-fanatic, but give me dim sum over sliced raw fish anytime.
Every hotel will have their own flagship restaurants in the different cuisines, and at Carlton hotel, Wah Lok is the Cantonese representative. Our latest dim sum adventure brings us here, together with hautestuff and ladies, we had a great time over our dim sum lunch.
Wah Lok is located on the second level within the Carlton hotel, the high ceiling of the restaurant makes the interior looks very spacious. The decor is typical of most Chinese restaurants, with a very comfy and homely feel. There are two different dining halls and can easily fill up on a normal day, which shows the popularity of the restaurant.
Char siew sou ($3.80 for 3) The Baked BBQ pork pastry or more affectionately known as char siew sou, has always been one of the dim sum that i will order first. Wah lok’s version of the char siew sou did not disappoint, within the buttery surface of the pastry were juicy and sweet char siew fillings.
The rendition at Wah lok may not be as refine as the one i had at Yan Ting, nevertheless it’s still better than most char siew sou that i had before, and all of us were tempted to order second helpings.
Baked BBQ pork buns ($3 for 2) We asked the captain for recommendations, and he promptly suggested that we have Wah Lok’s signature, char siew bao. We were rather surprised when the char siew bao came, as it’s not the normal steamed buns which has white pillowry exterior. Instead, the baked counterpart is browned and glazed, more like bo luo bao.
The juicy and sweet char siew was enveloped within the baked pastry. Although we just had the char siew sou which is a different variety made with puff pastry, the pork buns were gone in an instant.
Baked egg tarts ($3.20 for 3) The petite baked egg tarts had smooth and eggy fillings within the puff pastry. The miniature size of the egg tart was the only problem as we only had one each.
Steamed prawn dumplings ($5.40) The steamed prawn dumplings, or “Har Gao” at Wah Lok had fresh, succulent prawns contained by the thinly light skin. Solid and reliable prawn dumplings.
Steamed pork dumplings ($4.60) The steamed pork dumplings or “siew mai” is another dim sum which i would not fail to order. The siew mai was well-balanced, not too porky.
Fried XO carrot cake ($10) The fried xo carrot cake was off-the-menu, which we requested for instead of the steamed carrot cake. However this was a mistake as the carrot cake was bland and too soft for my liking. We couldn’t taste much of the supposedly “oomph” xo sauce. At $10, we would be better off ordering two other basket of dim sum.
Steamed chicken claw with chili ($3) I am never a fan of chicken claw, but the three ladies certainly enjoyed it, munching the chicken feet and spiting out the small bones.
Deep fried beancurd ($5.6) We wanted one more dim sum after our first round, and the waiter recommended this. The deep fried beancurd skin with prawns was excellent. Normally, the beancurd skin would be more than the prawn, but in this instance, the succulent prawn fillings threatened to overshadow the beancurd skin.
Fried mango ice cream ($6) We ended off our dim sum lunch with a very non-chinese dessert. Fried ice cream was a craze a few years back, and i remember there’s even a store at the Tiong Bahru market which used to sell fried ice cream. But not anymore, where can you still find fried ice cream nowadays?
The crispy exterior had a strong hint of coconut taste, while the interior was icy cold ice cream, simply magic, how did they do that?
Total bill was $63.75 for 4 person, which worked out to be around $16 per person. We didn’t really ordered a lot, so the price might seem deceptive, nevertheless, the dim sum at Wah Lok is still priced reasonably given their quality. The portions are quite petite, but it will do for our ladies. I foresee i’ll be coming back to Wah Lok quite often in the near future to try out the rest of the dim sum.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Lucardiasaid: Fail, i ate there and the standard is merely passable. Service sucks too unless you speak cantonese. 27 Aug 2008 at 3:53 pm
claudsaid: But the photos looks very good! LIC is getting better and better! ^_^ 27 Aug 2008 at 3:57 pm
ladyironchefsaid: luc: i wont say its fantastic, but mayb above average. claud: no la, still got a lot of things to learn, always have the out-of-focus problem 27 Aug 2008 at 4:14 pm
Lucardiasaid: LIC, u need to go to Yan Ting and Royal China. Period 27 Aug 2008 at 4:15 pm
ladyironchefsaid: dude my yan ting review is already out long time ago, and i jus went to royal china last week. wah lok is certainly not in their league, but its above average. 27 Aug 2008 at 4:28 pm
Fisherios Fish N Chips is one of the many new-comers in the busy basement of Bugis Junction, which has seen the arrival of many food & beverage entrées after the demolition of the food court. Personally, i welcome this move and the management of Parco Bugis Junction is indeed moving in the right direction by providing a good mix of food.
I reckon it will take quite a while before conquering all the stores at the basement level, any takers want to volunteer to explore the area? Anyway, my friend and i decided on Fisherios because i saw it previously at Ngee Ann city basement, and also heard some rather positive comments online about it’s fish & chips.
The seating arrangement did remind me about the one at Bratwurst, simple furniture in a small enclosed area. The similarity between the food basement of Bugis Junction, Plaza Singapura, and Ngee Ann city is very apparent to all.
Fish fillet beer battered ($7.90) For all the different type of fish, you can have it done in three different ways, breaded, grilled, and in our case, the beer battered method. Price varies of course, with beer battered being the more expensive option. Choose from fish, salmon or snapper fillet.
Service was prompted and quick, but my first reaction when the dish came, what’s with the wrapping paper? Was the wrapping paper there to absorb the oil, or was it there so as to make it some sort of “fast food” type (pun intended). In any case, if they wanted to absorb the oil from the fish & chips, I’ll preferred it to be done before serving, so that customers won’t actually see all the oil stains on the paper.
The difference between wrapping it in the paper, and laying it out nicely on the plate. The presentation of the fish was poles apart. I found the beer battered fish to be quite strong, au contraire my friend thought that the beer flavor was acceptable.
In conclusion, the fish wasn’t really worth the price tag of $7.90, and with the small servings of the fries, we could easily got better fish and chips elsewhere. But i guess if you want a quick meal and don’t really mind the quality of fish, it is decent enough, which reminds me of Fisherman’s Wharf
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rong Guang BBQ seafood has two outlets where you can enjoy your fix on barbecue seafood, one at Ulu Pandan road near Sunset way, and the other at Alexandre Village. Dinner was at the latter, and they are the only stall selling barbecue seafood in the whole food centre.
Alexandre Village like most food centres are divided into three parts, the right, centre and the left. When you got almost all the tables on one side of the food centre eating from a particular stall, you need not guess the popularity of it. BBQ seafood in hawker centres are always a common sight, especially in well-known ones like Chomp chomp, and Newton market, they always draw in the crowd, we just love our sambal chili don’t we!
BBQ stingray ($8) The obvious choice when ordering BBQ seafood, people just love their BBQ stingray, it almost seems like when you mentioned BBQ seafood, stingray will immediately spring to your mind. The sambal chili packs a whole punch, plus the accompanying sauce which is sourish, goes every well together with the hot spicy chili.
We regretted ordering the small portion at $8, with the medium and big is $10 and $13 respectively. My brother finish the stingray in double-quick time and i only managed to get two bites. And i craved for BBQ stingray now.
Sambal potato leaves ($6) I know people usually order sambal kangkong which is an extremly popular dish, and so do we. But this time we decided to have a change and ordered sambal potato leaves instead. I’m not exactly sure about the name of the vegetable, but potato leaves is the direct translation from Chinese.
The belachan, strong fried prawn sauce is hot and spicy, i’m not really a chili person, but i can’t help eating more of it while sweating profusely at the same time.
Fried rice ($3) Surprisingly, the fried rice was actually quite good. I wasn’t expecting much and just thought that its normal fried rice when i happened to see another table ordering it, so i thought we would have fried rice instead of plain rice. The fried rice was very fragrant, i felt that it wasn’t the ingredients that made it good, but more of the skill in cooking the fried rice in the wok.
Total bill was $18.19 for 2 person, the pricing is similar to most zi-char stalls, and is definitely good for your pocket. The BBQ seafood is excellent even though i only try one of them, but i guess most of them are the same since the sambal chili is the key, and the rest will only depends on the freshness of the seafood.
I’ll certainly go back to Rong Guang again for my BBQ seafood cravings, and the one at Ulu Pandan is so near to my place. Look out for the next post on it!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
1=SGD 0.0587
Moon cakes are Chinese pastries eaten during the Mid-Autumn festival, while they traditionally comes in lotus seed paste, the food & beverage experts have constantly come up with creative and exotic ingredients to pair up with the moon cake. Snow skin moon cakes are not uncommon now, with most places offering it as an alternative to the traditional moon cake.
I was given the opportunity for a moon cake-tasting session with Yan Ting’s snow skin moon cake. They are available at the lobby of St Regis hotel, the snow skin moon cake comes in 6 different flavours, and there’s also the traditional baked moon cake to choose from.
St Regis, with the 6 Star luxury hotel tag, pays full attention to detail. According the Yan Ting’s manager, Mr Danny Chan, the box containing the moon cake samplings are made of superior wood and does not come cheap.
Besides the lobby booth, you can also pick up their moon cake directly outside the restaurant on the second level after you finished a meal there.
The box for 8 snow skin moon cakes is also nicely designed, with majesty gold set as the theme. This is a great box to give to relatives, or business associates as gift during the Mid-autumn festival. Alternatively, there’s also another premium gift set which features Yan Ting six uniquely flavoured snow skin moon cake with two tins of Dammann Frères tea, set in an elegantly designed casing.
For the mini snow skin selection, there are 6 different flavours to choose from, you can either have 8 of the same flavour, or choose a mix of all the flavours.
Almond snow skin, martell cordon bleu cognac truffle, custard paste ($8 per piece)
Martell drinkers would rejoice with the martell cordon bleu congac moon cake. Made with almond, the snowy-white skin like all the other moon cake bears the signature Chinese name of Yan Ting on the surface.
Beneath the snowy white almond skin, there’s the custard paste filling with the luxurious martell cordon bleu cognac truffle in the heart. The almond taste was quite heavy, together with the strong martell cognac, the overwhelming taste covered the custard paste.
It was interesting to try martell truffle inside a moon cake, and it came in a generous portion. There’s a strong after-taste of the martell truffle. Overall an interesting take on snow skin moon cake, and if you like Martell and almond, this novelty might just work for you.
Seven perfumes snow skin, martell cordon bleu cognac truffle, white lotus paste ($8.5 per piece)
This one was quite similar to the previous one, with the use of martell cordon blue cognac truffle, but in place of the almond skin and custard paste were seven perfumes snow skin and white lotus paste respectively.
I love the aromatic and subtle seven perfumes snow skin, which was made from St Regis’s exclusive Dammann Frères tea from France. And at the centre of the moon cake, the martell cordon bleu cognac truffle. There’s no clashing of flavours because the subtle tea snow skin and white lotus paste seemed to blend in perfectly with the stronger Martell truffle.
Almond snow skin, advocaat egg liqueuer truffle, black sesame paste ($5.25 per piece)
Besides having custard and lotus paste as fillings, Yan Ting also used the fragrant and rich black sesame paste. Under the dainty white snow skin, the black sesame provided a good contrast to the colour of the moon cake.
I felt that almond worked better with black sesame than custard paste. The advocaat egg liqueur truffle was also unique in its own right. Advocaat is a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, its smooth taste was rather similar to the almond skin. And the liqueur taste wasn’t as robust as the martell cordon bleu cognac truffle.
Bloody mary snow skin with custard paste ($5.25 per piece)
Inspired by the iconic signature cocktail at the original St Regis New York, Yan Ting introduces the first-ever Bloody mary moon cake. The bloody mary snow skin brought the innovation level for moon cakes to another level.
The unique use of bloody mary is worth mentioning, but bloody mary being a mix of vodka and tomato juice, having a stronger taste, covered the custard paste. Personally, I felt that it would be better by combining bloody mary and white lotus paste instead. But I guess Chef Chan Siu Kong and his culinary team would have experience with many different combinations and felt that this is the one that provides a different view.
Seven perfumes snow skin with single yolk and white lotus paste ($6 per piece)
Moon cake purist need not fret; the seven perfume snow skin came closest to the traditional moon cake with your white lotus and egg yolk, the only exception the snow skin. The scented Seven perfumes snow skin gave it an edge over other normal snow skin with white lotus paste.
This was the most ordinary and simple moon cake among the snow skin offered by Yan Ting. The superior quality of the white lotus paste meant that it’s not overly-sweet, smooth and silky. Together with the salty egg yolk, like they say, simple is beautiful.
Almond snow skin with premium bird’s nest and custard paste ($28.5 per piece)
The moon cake with edible gold foil and premium bird’s nest screams extravagant. The gold foil on the top looked magnificence, I’m not sure about the taste of gold though. This among the 6 flavours, is the most expensive at $28.5 per piece, while the rest are all in the $5-8 repertoire.
Manager Mr. Chan mentioned that 1 “jin” of premium bird’s nest goes into making 4 bird’s nest moon cake. And for once, i thought that the use of custard paste worked very well with the whole-strand bird’s nest. The ultimate indulgence, glittering gold and top-grade bird’s nest.
The total cost of this particular box of 8 snow skin moon cake (mix-and-match) comes up to a princely $75.25. According to St Regis, customers usually get a box of 8 of the same moon cake, otherwise they will purchase St Regis Premium gift set at $98. But as this was a moon cake tasting session, I had the mix of the 6 flavours.
Yan Ting’s extensive use of custard meant that if you do not like custard, then your judgement of Yan Ting moon cake will likely be affected. Nevertheless, they uses top-notch lotus paste, and their unique seven perfume snow skin is very aromatic and i will definitely recommend you to try that at least.
The exotic ingredients such as martell cordon bleu cognac truffle, advocaat egg liqueur truffle, and bloody mary fits the price tag of the moon cakes, and if you do not like liqueur, there’s also a range of traditional baked moon cakes, top quality lotus paste and yolk, fragrant and rich black sesame paste, pandan paste, Jin Hua ham and assorted nuts, all based on recipes of Chef Chan.
The moon cake pricing is indeed hefty, but that is the least you can expected coming from St Regis, the glamorous and prestigious 6 star hotel. Yan Ting. The St. Regis moon cakes are available from special retail booths at Change Alley in Raffles Place and the hotel lobby, by visiting Yan Ting restaurant in the hotel or by placing orders over the phone or email.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!Omg.. It look so yummy.. but abit ex... =P
29 Aug 2008 at 10:29 am
Wah!! Mooncake u can also write such a long review! Pei fu! Anyone wants to buy for me? ^_^
29 Aug 2008 at 10:36 am
The mooncakes are how big sia? Scaly is those uber small 8 per box mooncake at that price. omg.
29 Aug 2008 at 1:37 pm
New York New York (NYNY), started well, with the maiden restaurant at the ever-busy Citylink, which by far a good location, witnessing the everyday crowd moving from City hall to Marina Square, Suntec area.
My initial impression of New York New York was good, even though people told me that their food was average, but i still proceed on to my first visit there. But slowly and surely, NYNY started to venture into the heartlands, with new restaurants at Lot 1, Amk Hub, Heartland mall and downtown east.
Not that NYNY is a very classy restaurant in the first place, but i still find the overall feel to be above average. But it seems that the move into the heartlands is reaping dividends for NYNY, with most of the restaurants being filled up easily every day, especially so during the weekends where the whole family comes out to dine.
New York New York (NYNY), with its big white & green signage, and the trademark light green comfy furnitures, stands out from far. NYNY used the copy-and-paste method for their interior decor to good effects. The particular branch is at Lot 1, taking over the place of the former tenant, Pizza Hut.
By and large the location is a good place as its on the ground floor, and just beside the entrance near the taxi stand. This makes me wonder why Pizza Hut chose to vacant it in the first place.
Caribbean Breeze ($5.90)
Frozen pink guava and pineapple juice, which came across as rather sour to us.
Lime lemonade soda ($5.90)
Real traditional American lemonade, good and reliable.
Spaghetti Bolognese ($12.90)
The spaghetti bolognese with giant meatballs. The pasta is done “al dente” firm yet not too hard. The meatball was really gigantic, well i’m not really a meatball person but my brother seemed to enjoy this simple pasta.
Tagliatelle mushroom alfredo with crispy fish ($12.90)
Fish and creamy pasta instead of chips. The pasta was average, i preferred tomato to cream base, and the fish was average nothing spectacular.
Smoked salmon velvet ($9.90)
Smoked salmon, tuna mayo, marinated tomatoes, grilled vegetables and sauteed onions made up the Smoked salmon velvet. I felt vegetables in sandwich would be better off being fresh than grilled.
Tagliatelle aglio with fresh seafood ($12.90)
Simple and delicious. Extra virgin olive oil with lots of garlic and chili combined perfectly with mixed seafood. I never liked aglio because i found it too dry, and too spicy. But then again, its personal preference.
Juicy beef tenders ($13.90)
Under the cloud of the creamy mashed potatos, the beef chunks with gravy was too salty for our liking. We struggled to finish the dish.
Hawaiian pizza ($13.90)
The hawaiian pizza came in the thin form with the typical hawaiian toppings like pineapple and ham. 8 slices to share around the table. However, i lamented the fact that the pizza wasn’t cheesy enough.
Total bill was $103.81 for a table of 6, which worked out to an average of around $17 per person. Prices are still within the reasonable range for a mid-tier restaurant. The menu is comprehensive with lots of choices like salad, pasta, pizza, main course, and desserts. Food at NYNY is average at best, judging from the lines of people queuing up for a table at NYNY, I believe we will see more of NYNY opening in other heartland shopping centre.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!$17 per pax is not mid tier boss. More like low tier.
29 Aug 2008 at 1:38 pm
lol! from our point of view mayb low tier, but from people i know, is mid tier. lol
29 Aug 2008 at 2:54 pm
With the entrée of more Spanish restaurants in the local dining scene, more people knows about tapas, and degustion has always been a firm word on the menu of the French restaurants here. How about dim sum? I think that most youngsters nowadays are not really into dim sum, since it’s often seen as a more traditional meal. Youngsters want to break out of the tradition, they want something hip and cool, and dim sum is not that. Which is cooler, saying you had dim sum, or tapas at the latest Spanish restaurant and a 6 course degustion dinner?
Dim sum is akin a piece of artwork crafted by the chef, so exquisite and refine. No offence to the Sushi-fanatic, but give me dim sum over sliced raw fish anytime.
Every hotel will have their own flagship restaurants in the different cuisines, and at Carlton hotel, Wah Lok is the Cantonese representative. Our latest dim sum adventure brings us here, together with hautestuff and ladies, we had a great time over our dim sum lunch.
Wah Lok is located on the second level within the Carlton hotel, the high ceiling of the restaurant makes the interior looks very spacious. The decor is typical of most Chinese restaurants, with a very comfy and homely feel. There are two different dining halls and can easily fill up on a normal day, which shows the popularity of the restaurant.
Char siew sou ($3.80 for 3)
The Baked BBQ pork pastry or more affectionately known as char siew sou, has always been one of the dim sum that i will order first. Wah lok’s version of the char siew sou did not disappoint, within the buttery surface of the pastry were juicy and sweet char siew fillings.
The rendition at Wah lok may not be as refine as the one i had at Yan Ting, nevertheless it’s still better than most char siew sou that i had before, and all of us were tempted to order second helpings.
Baked BBQ pork buns ($3 for 2)
We asked the captain for recommendations, and he promptly suggested that we have Wah Lok’s signature, char siew bao. We were rather surprised when the char siew bao came, as it’s not the normal steamed buns which has white pillowry exterior. Instead, the baked counterpart is browned and glazed, more like bo luo bao.
The juicy and sweet char siew was enveloped within the baked pastry. Although we just had the char siew sou which is a different variety made with puff pastry, the pork buns were gone in an instant.
Baked egg tarts ($3.20 for 3)
The petite baked egg tarts had smooth and eggy fillings within the puff pastry. The miniature size of the egg tart was the only problem as we only had one each.
Steamed prawn dumplings ($5.40)
The steamed prawn dumplings, or “Har Gao” at Wah Lok had fresh, succulent prawns contained by the thinly light skin. Solid and reliable prawn dumplings.
Steamed pork dumplings ($4.60)
The steamed pork dumplings or “siew mai” is another dim sum which i would not fail to order. The siew mai was well-balanced, not too porky.
Fried XO carrot cake ($10)
The fried xo carrot cake was off-the-menu, which we requested for instead of the steamed carrot cake. However this was a mistake as the carrot cake was bland and too soft for my liking. We couldn’t taste much of the supposedly “oomph” xo sauce. At $10, we would be better off ordering two other basket of dim sum.
Steamed chicken claw with chili ($3)
I am never a fan of chicken claw, but the three ladies certainly enjoyed it, munching the chicken feet and spiting out the small bones.
Deep fried beancurd ($5.6)
We wanted one more dim sum after our first round, and the waiter recommended this. The deep fried beancurd skin with prawns was excellent. Normally, the beancurd skin would be more than the prawn, but in this instance, the succulent prawn fillings threatened to overshadow the beancurd skin.
Fried mango ice cream ($6)
We ended off our dim sum lunch with a very non-chinese dessert. Fried ice cream was a craze a few years back, and i remember there’s even a store at the Tiong Bahru market which used to sell fried ice cream. But not anymore, where can you still find fried ice cream nowadays?
The crispy exterior had a strong hint of coconut taste, while the interior was icy cold ice cream, simply magic, how did they do that?
Total bill was $63.75 for 4 person, which worked out to be around $16 per person. We didn’t really ordered a lot, so the price might seem deceptive, nevertheless, the dim sum at Wah Lok is still priced reasonably given their quality. The portions are quite petite, but it will do for our ladies. I foresee i’ll be coming back to Wah Lok quite often in the near future to try out the rest of the dim sum.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!Fail, i ate there and the standard is merely passable. Service sucks too unless you speak cantonese.
27 Aug 2008 at 3:53 pm
But the photos looks very good! LIC is getting better and better! ^_^
27 Aug 2008 at 3:57 pm
luc: i wont say its fantastic, but mayb above average. claud: no la, still got a lot of things to learn, always have the out-of-focus problem
27 Aug 2008 at 4:14 pm
I reckon it will take quite a while before conquering all the stores at the basement level, any takers want to volunteer to explore the area? Anyway, my friend and i decided on Fisherios because i saw it previously at Ngee Ann city basement, and also heard some rather positive comments online about it’s fish & chips.
The seating arrangement did remind me about the one at Bratwurst, simple furniture in a small enclosed area. The similarity between the food basement of Bugis Junction, Plaza Singapura, and Ngee Ann city is very apparent to all.
Fish fillet beer battered ($7.90)
For all the different type of fish, you can have it done in three different ways, breaded, grilled, and in our case, the beer battered method. Price varies of course, with beer battered being the more expensive option. Choose from fish, salmon or snapper fillet.
Service was prompted and quick, but my first reaction when the dish came, what’s with the wrapping paper? Was the wrapping paper there to absorb the oil, or was it there so as to make it some sort of “fast food” type (pun intended). In any case, if they wanted to absorb the oil from the fish & chips, I’ll preferred it to be done before serving, so that customers won’t actually see all the oil stains on the paper.
The difference between wrapping it in the paper, and laying it out nicely on the plate. The presentation of the fish was poles apart. I found the beer battered fish to be quite strong, au contraire my friend thought that the beer flavor was acceptable.
In conclusion, the fish wasn’t really worth the price tag of $7.90, and with the small servings of the fries, we could easily got better fish and chips elsewhere. But i guess if you want a quick meal and don’t really mind the quality of fish, it is decent enough, which reminds me of Fisherman’s Wharf
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Alexandre Village like most food centres are divided into three parts, the right, centre and the left. When you got almost all the tables on one side of the food centre eating from a particular stall, you need not guess the popularity of it. BBQ seafood in hawker centres are always a common sight, especially in well-known ones like Chomp chomp, and Newton market, they always draw in the crowd, we just love our sambal chili don’t we!
BBQ stingray ($8)
The obvious choice when ordering BBQ seafood, people just love their BBQ stingray, it almost seems like when you mentioned BBQ seafood, stingray will immediately spring to your mind. The sambal chili packs a whole punch, plus the accompanying sauce which is sourish, goes every well together with the hot spicy chili.
We regretted ordering the small portion at $8, with the medium and big is $10 and $13 respectively. My brother finish the stingray in double-quick time and i only managed to get two bites. And i craved for BBQ stingray now.
Sambal potato leaves ($6)
I know people usually order sambal kangkong which is an extremly popular dish, and so do we. But this time we decided to have a change and ordered sambal potato leaves instead. I’m not exactly sure about the name of the vegetable, but potato leaves is the direct translation from Chinese.
The belachan, strong fried prawn sauce is hot and spicy, i’m not really a chili person, but i can’t help eating more of it while sweating profusely at the same time.
Fried rice ($3)
Surprisingly, the fried rice was actually quite good. I wasn’t expecting much and just thought that its normal fried rice when i happened to see another table ordering it, so i thought we would have fried rice instead of plain rice. The fried rice was very fragrant, i felt that it wasn’t the ingredients that made it good, but more of the skill in cooking the fried rice in the wok.
Total bill was $18.19 for 2 person, the pricing is similar to most zi-char stalls, and is definitely good for your pocket. The BBQ seafood is excellent even though i only try one of them, but i guess most of them are the same since the sambal chili is the key, and the rest will only depends on the freshness of the seafood.
I’ll certainly go back to Rong Guang again for my BBQ seafood cravings, and the one at Ulu Pandan is so near to my place. Look out for the next post on it!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef
for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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