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Ladyironchef's namecard v1.0 was all given out, so it was to be a new look for the card. But as all the namecard was finished before i got the time to ask my friend to design a new card, so there's kind of rush to print the cards, so we just made some minor changes to the font, remove some pompous parts and the overall new look's, much simple and sleeker.
I did my first namecards with Tommy Print @ Funan, and i believe many people are familiar with them because they provide name cards at just $24 for 2 box. Needless to say as i was quite please with my first cards with them, i went back to them again for my second set.
A couple of months ago when i last went to Tommy Print at funan, there's only one branch, but they have since expanded to 2 new additionals at Square 2, and Anchorpoint. And since I'm a lazy person to go all the way to Funan, and Anchorpoint is much nearer to my place, it looked like a viable option for my future place to print my cards.
The location at Anchorpoint's much bigger than their original Funan one, for one its a proper shopfront here rather than the "kiosk" at Funan. There's one lady tending to the shop since there isn't much traffic enquiries everyday, the shop looked rather empty though, i wondered whether they really need the whole shop for their business, the one at Funan now look more than suffice. But nevertheless, a better shop means better reputation and looks better when you need to entertain yr customers.
Like what i did the last time, i saved my namecard format into thumbdrive and bring it there. But this time the lady wasn't like what her counterparts at Funan was. The last time they were very attentive to details, and went right down to guiding me to choosing the different things required for my namecard like the exact colour, font, and confirmation on a few other things, but this time there wasn't any such thing.
The lady just asked me to fill up my particulars, i paid up, and poof! It's done. No doubt it's fast, but i was quite sceptical since she didn't ask me anything about my namecard. I told her i done one before with Tommy Print and she asked for a sample of my old name card and said that she will do according.
After about 3-4 working days, i went back to collect my namecard, and to my horror, another staff showed me my "new" cards, they were my old version of the card. The staff on duty that day wasn't very sure what exactly happened. But she promptly called her boss or whoever to check, and when she checked the computer she saw the copy of my format saved, and it was indeed my new version saved there, which was different to what was print.
Anyway to cut the long story short, the staff was nice enough to apologise for the mistake made, and did the necessary "customer-service" by saying they will re-print my cards, the new one, and of course there's no additional charges. I accepted, and waited for another week before going back to collect the cards.
In conclusion, the incident could have been quite unpleasant when they print the wrong cards, but they did the necessary things to make sure that i got my new cards, and even though i had to wait an additional week for my name card, i was glad to get my new cards. Luckily i didn't need my new cards in a rush, if not the consequence will be a lot different. Anyway, i got two box of my old cards, and another two box of my new cards now!
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What determine whether a dish is good? There are several factors, the freshness of the ingredients itself, the skill of the chef, and of course the sauces that are used in cooking the food. Sauces are vital to the overall taste of the dish, in simple terms, they helped to “colour up” and enhanced the food.
What will you say if chili crabs are served without the thick and spicy gravy sauce, or how about your burger without any mayo sauce? These are some simple examples, but i’m sure you got the idea. Village Wok Restaurant is a showroom for The Village Wok sauce room. Their core business is actually being a sauce distributor, and the restaurant itself is the place for their customers to sample the sauces.
Village Wok restaurant is located at Far East Square, Telok Ayer Street. I had the chance for a food tasting session there organised by Yebber, courtesy of Village Wok’s owner Miss Dawn. A table of 10, consisting of long-time yebbers and some new faces join us for this meal. The Central Business District (CBD) is virtually a ghost town on weekends, and when we went for lunch during a Sunday, there wasn’t anybody around, and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves.
Although the restaurant isn’t their main business, that doesn’t mean that the food there isn’t good, in fact it has to be good so that their customers get to taste their excellent sauce with the good food. The food at Village Wok has a large part to do with their sauces, so i thought it will be appropriate to introduce some of the sauces that we had.
I sweared by their sweet and spicy chili dip (top picture), like the name implies, the sauce is spicy with a hint of semi-sweet, excellent to go along with finger food like chicken wings and fries. There’s also the chili dip (right) which can be use for all kinds of dishes, but go especially well with chicken rice.
Popiah DIY $20 /set
We started off our meal having some hands-on experience with the popiah DIY set. Now there isn’t much places which actually allow their customers to do-it-yourself (DIY) with popiah, and i have to admit the process’s very much fun and all of us enjoyed “playing” with the popiah. From what i understand, each popiah set can serve 6 people, personally i felt that the price was rather steep but for the experience of doing our own popiah, its rather worth it.
The restaurant prepared the ingredients like shrimp, lettuces, cucumbers, and the turnips (bangkuang), the popiah skin, and the sauces needed for the popiah. Everything was done in an orderly manner, you’ll just need to put all the sauces, and ingredients onto the popiah skin.
And there we have it, our very own DIY popiah. Please don’t be deceived by the ugly appearance of the popiah, i guess our popiah-making skills aren’t up to the mark yet, some of us managed to do the popiah quite decently, while some were out of shape and doesn’t resemble a popiah at all. Nevertheless, the popiah fillings were fresh, and the sauces used greatly enhanced the flavor of the popiah, not to mention that it’s made from our very own hands.
Chilled crab with special vinegrette sauce ($30 per crab)
The chilled crab on its own was fresh, but eaten with Village Wok’s special vinegrette sauce it did really compliment the meat very well. Their vinegrette sauce was made from top grade vinegrette with their special recipe of course, and it taste slightly sweeter than your normal sourish vinegrette. Having said that, i’m neither a fan of crab nor vinegrette.
Fried Brinjal with crispy squid in BXO sauce ($15)
Unfortunately, the next dish wasn’t my favorite neither, i also didn’t like bringal. But for food tasting sake, i gave the fried bringal a try and to my surprise it doesn’t taste as bad as i had expected bringal to be. The purple vegetable was fried with crispy squid using their special BXO sauce, and it wasn’t as brinjal-ish as i thought. The crispy squid added some extra crunch to the dish, but overall it wasn’t to my personal liking.
The Phoenix soars ($21 )
Very nice name indeed, the phoenix soar is quintessentially roast and white boneless chicken. Both chicken tasted as nice, so we were having a debate as to which one was nicer. Some preferred the roasted chicken, while some found the white chicken tastier.
The yin-yang chicken came with lettuces wrap, together with some cucumbers, tomatoes provided it with some healthy touch. And of course chilli and garlic sauce, this made an excellent dish which we couldn’t get enough of, the chicken was gone in a flash.
Black pepper ham leg ($23 )
The black pepper ham leg or pig trotters was really one dish that lingered in my mind even after the meal. Usually I didn’t really fancy eating pig trotters because of the thick layer of fatty meat, but this one was exceptionally good. Under the skin was a layer of fats, the meat below was lean to eat. And it came with Village Wok’s black pepper sauce.
For those health conscious eaters, simply remove the layer of fats below the skin. We lamented the fact that we took too long taking photos of this, which resulted in the crispy skin being a tad soft when we started eating.
Village Wok Celebration Parade ($22 )
A combination of Village Wok mustard roast pork and BBQ pork char siew. Again we couldn’t agree on whether the roast pork or the char siew was better. The char siew was tender, juicy and fulsome with the BBQ sauce. Another thing to note, Village Wok didn’t use any colouring, so the char siew here wasn’t red in colour which was evident in the usual ones.
But I always favoured roast pork over the char siew counterpart, the mustard roast pork did not disappoint, crispy layer with really tender meat. The portion of fats to meat was well balanced, not too fatty and not too lean.The roast pork, or sio bak, was really one to die for.
Steamed Pating fish with preserved vegetables ($44 )
I always had the belief that fresh water reared fish won’t be as nice and fresh as seawater fish, but the pating fish here proved that there’s always an exception to everything. According to Miss Dawn, Village Wok actually had their own fish farm to rear the fishes, so freshness was definitely guaranteed.
They used preserved vegetables, or chye poh to steam the fish. It wasn’t came out to be as salty as i had expected because they had specially soaked the chye poh in water to reduce the saltiness of the preserved vegetables. Nevertheless, i preferred my fish to steam with either salted soy bean, salted vegetables, or light sauce.
Smiling fortune noodle ($8 )
The smiling fortune noodle was Village Wok’s rendition of prawn noodles. Tangy noodles harmonised with delectable fresh prawn essence, topped with big fresh prawns. The stock base was no doubt tasty, but too salty for our liking. There was a rush for water after finishing the noodle.
Home-made Nonya Kaya with bread
We had a plesant surprise when they served bread with nonya kaya for our first dessert. The Nonya kaya was home-made from Miss Dawn’s grandmother recipe.The kaya was made without any flour, and was very eggy in taste. I liked it, but i did find the kaya flavor a tad strong, nonetheless we generously spread our thin slice of bread with super thick layer of kaya!
Black glutinous rice with coconut ice cream ($4.50)
I did not find the glutinous rice with coconut ice cream that special since i didn’t really like black glutinous rice. But the rest unanimously agreed that this was the must-have dessert.
Lemongrass ice cream
The lemongrass ice cream was another mystery to me as i couldn’t figure out the flavor of the ice cream initially until somebody pointed out it was lemongrass. I guess its due to the fact that Thai cuisine isn’t really on my radar often, but like what the others mentioned, the lemongrass flavor was very evident, and if you like the scent of lemongrass, this will do it for you.
All in all, Village Wok Restaurant did a great job matching the food with their speciality sauce, there was a different sauce for every dish, and it complimented each other very well. Prices are generally slightly higher, but given the comparison with other Chinese restaurants, they are still considered within range.
I heard that they are very crowded during weekday lunch as the office working crowd like to frequent the place, so do make reservations in advance before going. Once again, i’ll like to thank Yebber, and Miss Dawn for the food tasting session.
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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Located within the Arena country club at Upper Jurong Road, opposite the Singapore Discovery Centre, Tung Lok Seafood is the mainstay of the Tung Lok group (TLG). This dinner took place actually very long ago, five months to be precise. I was hesitant in writing the post since the food was unremarkable, typical at best, and there were too many photos to handle.
We chose to have their dinner a la carte buffet priced at $33.80 for adult. The buffet had a wide range of food like Japanese cuisines, cold cut appetizer, soup, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice & noodles selections, and desserts. With a total of 50 items to choose from, we managed to eat close to 30 variety.
I would say that most of the food was average, and we tried quite a lot of variety, so i won’t go into details for each and everyone of them. I’ll highlight the ones that stood out, and the rest are really up to your own judgement if you ever go to Tung Lok to try their dinner buffet.
The pictures were taken with my old canon ixus before i got my present DSLR, so do pardon the poor photos.
Poached prawns (limited to 100g per person)
The poached prawns were one of the few dishes that had limits, which meant that they were not available for re-ordering. Not that the poached prawns were that fantastic anyway.
California Maki
The California maki was actually the saving grace for the dinner. I wouldn’t say that the sushi was exceptionally fresh, but they were acceptable and we had two servings of them.
Barbeque roast meat platter
The barbeque roast meat platter was also one of the few that stood out. The char siew was not bad, but the roast chicken was better. We were in half-mind whether to have second servings but later decided not as we were too full.
Beijing roast duck (limited to two slice per person)
The Beijing roast duck was no doubt one of the more pricer dishes, hence the limitation of two slice per person. The waiteress brought the whole roast duck in front of our table to slice it on the spot and served with spring onion, cucumber and sweet sauce. One of the better dish, but pity the limitation of the serving.
Chili crab A La Tung Lok (limited to one per table)
Tung Lok’s renown for their Chili crab, they are after all a seafood restaurant. Without a doubt, the best dish among the 50 selections, the chili crab was spicy and there was a sweet hint in the thick and wonderful gravy. Served with man tou (soft white bun), i’ll say that their chili crab is on par with Jumbo, NoSignBoard and Mellben. But again, there’s the limit of one per table. Nevertheless, if you are ordering a la carte, this definitely is a must order dish.
Old cantonese style sweet and sour pork
I’m a huge fan of sweet and sour pork, but Tung Lok’s rendition didn’t have the “wow” factor to entice me for second helpings.
Deep fried “soon hock” fish
We were not a fan of rear fish like soon hock, so we were not really expecting much from this dish. And it turned out to be what we thought, the fish wasn’t fresh.
Crisp fried baby squids
You would thought that seafood dishes were be better at Tung Lok, but the baby squids were over-fried, too charred and dried.
Ice cream puff
The ice cream puff was your normal ones found in the neighbourhood deli, but i was actually quite hooked with it. Well this actually show how desirable the other dishes were.
Total bill was $142.65 for 4 person dinner buffet. Although it came with a huge selections of 50 dishes, but most of them were mediocre and not worth trying. If you don’t really mind the quality of the food, the dinner buffet does makes a rather value option since you get to try so many dishes. But if you are the type who cares about the quality, I say skip the buffet and go for their a la carte menu instead.
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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Tiong Bahru Market is often associated with good food, and stalls obviously want to put in “Tiong Bahru” into their stall names for two reasons; first they are really the original stalls from the old Tiong Bahru, or they probably added in to give the impression that they are “old name” when they are actually not.
What’s the difference between curry noodle and laksa? Actually I’m not quite sure myself too, but i guess the obvious differences are their ingredients, curry noodles has chicken, potatoes which are not found in laksa.
Curry Noodle ($3)
The curry noodle was decent, with a rather generous serving of shreded chicken, tau pok, and potatoes. But it still can’t beat the famous one at Hong Lim food centre though. Besides curry chicken noodle, they also got quite a variety of other chicken dishes like lemon chicken rice and curry chicken feet.
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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I have been looking for nice kway chap for a while now, but I can’t seem to find them though.My latest hunt brought me to Tiong Bahru Market, a quick glance around resulted in two stores selling kway chap, and i chose this store over the other because this store had a slightly longer queue than the other on that day.
On a personal note, I felt that kway chap stalls does not usually have a standard rate, the charges are to their discretion and can differ on a rather wide range. I’m not saying all kuay chap stalls do that, but obviously there will be some rouge stalls around.
The kway (rice noodle sheet) was a tad too thick for my liking, and i found the soup average.
Kway Chap ($4 for one person serving)
For a person serving at $4, there’s one whole egg, taupok, and pig intestines. Even though the portion should suffice for a person, but i found the variety rather miserable, there’s no pork belly, no small intestines, no duck meat no beancurd, you know the usual stuff for kway chap.
Of course there is, but you just have to pay more for more variety. That’s why i say $4 can’t really get you much for kway chap. Nevertheless they did a passable kway chap, but there isn’t the “oomph” factor to make me try them again. Probably will test out the other kway chap stall in Tiong Bahru Market the next time round.
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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Food are always associated with places, like when you think of Laksa, Katong laksa instantly comes into mind. And there are also instances when you passed by a particular place, say Maxwell food centre, i dare say people will remember Tian Tian chicken rice as one of the stalls to go to.
Let’s shift our focus to Tiong Bahru, there are quite a lot of food that can triggered your fond memories, like the Tiong Bahru Lor mee, roast meat, bao, chicken rice and a few others. For some food like Nasi Lemak, you can probably named a few good ones like the Adam road and Punggol ones. But how about Chwee Kueh? When you think of Chwee Kueh, Tiong Bahru immediately comes into mind. This only goes to show how good the Tiong Bahu Chwee Kueh is!
Since Tiong Bahru is synonymous with Chwee Kueh, a few other stalls have since then come up and claimed that they are the original Tiong Bahru Chwee Kueh, so who really is the original stall that sells this humble, yet delicious Kueh? For me, there can only be one stall, and that is Jian Bo Shui Kueh.
Jian Bo has been around for as long as I can remember, saying that I have grown up eating their Shui Kueh is not exaggerating. They have been in operations for 50 years already, thats like older than Singapore? Anyway, i dare say the other competitors that uses the “original Tiong Bahru Chwee Kueh” are not as good as them. Even if they are, i also refused to acknowledge it, I’m bias, and Jian Bo Shui Kueh does have sentimental values to me.
The tasty fried chye poh, so good yet so sinful, but at the same time that you can’t help youself saying, “Aunti, 4 Shui Kueh add extra chye poh please!“
The original, one and only Shui Kueh (4 for $1)
You ain’t seeing wrongly, 4 delightful Shui Kueh for one dollar. Judging by their good business, I reckon they must have sell at least thousands of Shui Kueh everyday. Otherwise how else do you maintain the rental and expenses just by selling Shui Kueh, and not least 50 years!
Jian Bo Shui Kueh has got a very smooth texture for the cake, add some savoury chye poh and you are done! For the health conscious, maybe you can have less of the chye poh, but the shui kueh still taste just as nice.
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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You remember when you were a kid, you told your mother “Ma, ma, i dreamt of a pig which was black in colour!”, and your mother chided you for telling ties, since pig is always pinkish in colour, and you shouldn’t spot the colour wrong since pigs in fairy tales and cartoons are always pink. Well, it won’t be a problem next time when you visit Tampopo and tell your mother that the pig there is really black!
Tampopo’s famous for their black pig, or Kurobuta, which is known to rear in Kagoshima prefecture. Kurobuta is to the pig, like what wagyu is to the beef. They are supposed to be stress-free, making the meat more tender and superior to the other form of pork.
Tampopo recently shifted to its new premise on the ground floor on Liang court, a far cry from the old one at the basement within Mei-di-ya supermarket. The new restaurant boost seating capacity of more than 80 (my rough estimates). The use of wooden bamboo forms a good contrast to the contemporary decorations, and the conveyor belt completes the interior.
I had made a reservation for 4 people after doing some research online as people mentioned that they always got a long queue, especially so during meal times. True to the comments, there was a surging line outside Tampopo when we got there at 7.30pm.
The conveyor belt within Tampop isn’t what you see in Japanese chains like Sakae sushi, the one here is special because it can automatically deliver food from the kitchen to your table. And you can’t “pick up” the food on the conveyer belt since the plates are programmed by magnetic fields, which are designated to deliver to the particular tables.
But from what i understands, the conveyor belt is still a experiment in progress, and not all of the dishes can be delivered using the belt, only particular items like sushi and some other smaller dishes can go through the belt for now.
Gyoza ($5.80)
We started off with Gyoza, the Japanese version of our Chinese dumplings or “jiaozi“. The notable difference between the Japanese style Gyoza and the Chinese style “jiaozi” are the rich garlic flavors in the Japanese rendition, and Gyoza is served with soy-based dipping sauce. I’m not too sure whether its just me, but I found that the Japanese version had a thicker skin compared to the chinese style.
The gyoza here was slightly “charred” on the outside, but below the skin, the mixture of minced pork and garlic was very balanced. A good appetizer to share around and start your meal.
Normal grade loin cutlet ($21.80)
I had the normal grade loin cutlet with rice set only because their top grade loin was sold out! I was actually quite frustrated because i had came with the sole purpose of trying their signature top grade loin, and how could a restaurant sold out so quickly by 7.30pm on a Saturday dinner!
Nevertheless, i must say that their normal grade was already very good. Pork cutlet in the hands of less skillful chef would be ruin by over-fried and too oily and dry, but the one here was done just right, the breaded crust was light and had a melt-in-your-mouth effect, and under the crispy exterior was juicy, tender meat.
I’ll say Tampopo’s pork loin is on par with the one that i had at Tetsu, although the one here was smaller and leaner. Tetsu definitely had a more generous cut of the pork loin. But the one that i had here was only the normal grade and i hate to think what will Tampopo’s top grade pork loin be like.
Omelette rice ($10)
The omelette rice was done very nicely, with Japanese pearl rice wrapped within the soft and thick layer of omelette to good effect. As you all know, Japanese pearl rice is very different from the Thai rice very commonly used in Singapore. The pearl rice has a soft and moist texture, which is very light on the palate. Although there’s nothing spectacular with the omelette rice, it’s a simple dish which you couldn’t find fault with.
Pork loin Yanagawa ($16)
We also had the pork loin Yanagawa a la carte, add $4.80 to get a set with rice, miso soup and fruits. I think i’ll prefer my pork loin cutlet to this. The pork loin Yanagawa was literally wet with the egg mixtures, i thought pork cutlet would be nicer dry and crispy than wet and soggy.
Unagi Yanakawa ($12.80)
The reason why my friend chose the Unagi Yanakawa was because she wanted unagi, and within budget. This was the cheapest option for Unagi in the menu. I didn’t mind unagi, but i’m not really a fan of Yanakawa-style.
Unagi and tempura box ($18.80)
The set came with unagi, prawn tempura, tamago, fruits, and miso soup. Nonetheless, I must say it’s rather value given there’s unagi and tempura. Serving size is certainly not comparable to the one we had at Kyomomoyama, but this one was part of a set, and cheaper too.
The tempura was lightly battered and the prawn was decent in size. However my friend found it to be too oily for her liking, and i nearly fainted when she mentioned that Waraku got better ones. Not that i disliked Waraku, but i just don’t think Waraku is that good, price is reasonable, but food-wise average.
Total bill was $102.65 for 4 people. I do not think that prices at Tampopo are expensive, in fact they are actually quite reasonable, in the range of high tens, to twenty for per person. If you visit Tampopo, their Kurobuta pork loin is certainly one dish you must try.
I wanted dessert but the rest were too full, within Tampopo there was limited choice for desserts, but if you would just head to the basement to Tampopo Deli, a standalone shop for their chiffon cakes and other desserts. Tampopo is actually famous for their ramen, while their sister restaurant Tomton at Central focus on kurobuta pork. I’ll definitely go Tampopo Deli for their chiffon cakes, and Tomton for the top-grade pork loin next time!
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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Mellben Seafood needs no further introduction in the local scene. Renowned for their claypot crab bee hoon, many food lovers have braved rain and storm to queue up in its heartlands outlet, all just for their crabs. The first Mellben Seafood has been around at Ang Mo Kio for several years now, and it’s until last year where they open this one at Toa Payoh, and i recently also heard that they have a third branch at Pasir Ris.
Prawn paste chicken ($10)
The prawn paste chicken or “har cheong kai” is always a dish on our list to order when my family had zi-char. Personally i’ll prefer sweet sour pork to this anytime, but my brother is a fan of chicken. The chicken came pipping hot and the fermented puréed shrimp taste was very evident in the crispy skin. But at $10, the price is slightly higher, as most zi-char stalls offer this dish at $8.
Fried sambal Kangkong ($10)
We also seem to have the habit of ordering sambal kangkong. Mellben’s rendition was truly hot and spicy. Again at $10 for a vegetable dish, it was priced higher than the usual $6-8 repertoire.
Chili Crab ($41.80)
While patrons to Mellben always order their signature claypot crab bee hoon, we decided to buck the trend and had the chili crab ($38 per kg) instead. Our decision was vindicated, the chili crab proved itself no less than the more popular claypot crab bee hoon counterpart. The thick chili gravy was spicy and slightly sweet, and i particularly enjoyed the eggy taste.
My family’s always has a soft spot for crabs, not me though, i’m too lazy to eat crab. But when i do eat crab, i always take the big pincher, because they are by far the easiest to eat and with the most meat. One bite settles everything, all the fleshy meat into my stomach!`
i’m a sucker for those fried mantou that always come together with the chili crab. Some people will like to drench the whole bun into the chili gravy, but for me i always like to poke a hole in the middle of the bun. After which i’ll put some thick spicy eggy gravy into the middle and let it flow inside. And after the first wonderful bite, i’ll then dipped the remaining bun to get the maximum soak of chili gravy. Heavenly!
Total Bill was $71.50 for 4 people. This is actually quite reasonable for 4 people, but if you examine closely, the price range of the food at Mellben is substaintially higher than the normal zi-char store. This is partly due to the popularity of Mellben, and they are able to commend a slight premium over the rest. The chili crab was excellent, and we will be looking to try the rest of the crab-mates next time.
One thing to note about Mellben though, the two branch at Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh are both not within walking distance from the MRT station, which means to say you will need to take a feeder bus in from the interchange which can be quite a chore. Nevertheless, they are selling out the crabs every night, this tells you something about them!
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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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!
Rating given:
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!
Rating given: