With more and more of our heritage hawkers getting in their ages, it is difficult for them to continue whip out the delicious food that they have been doing everyday for so many years. And being a hawker isn’t a glamorous job, compared to being a banker, lawyer, teacher or other professionals. Therefore, most of the heritage hawkers don’t any successor, and we risk losing out all the good food, which our future younger generations will not live to eat.
Hock Lam Beef is the golden testimonial to beef kuay teow. Having been around since 1911, it is a wonder to see it continue serving out bowls of beef kuay teow everyday rain or shine up till today, for 97 years already! We have Tina, the 4th generation owner, who gave up her professional job and rather slug it out in the kitchen, so as to ensure our beef kuay teow will still be there.
To commemorate their 97th anniversary, Hock Lam decided to donate all their sales proceed on 1st Oct to to Operation Smile which is a worldwide movement to fix cleft palates in kids.
As proceeds for that day was all going to charity, Tina came up with a special menu, instead of their usual $4 a bowl beef kuay teow. There was three different selections, the beginner at $15 which had sliced beef plate. The original at $20, a mixed beef plate which included sliced beef, tendoin, tripe, shin and beef balls. And the “give me the whole cow” premium gourmet set at $30 which had the same stuff as the $20 set, with the exception of the sliced beef, and instead there was marbled shabu shabu beef.
Give me the whole cow gourmet set ($30) The Gau lau mian (traditional dry noodles) was nice, with their sauce used. Besides having fresh beef, the other thing that makes or break a good beef kuay teow will definitely be the soup base. And Hock Lam’s one certainly was excellent. Personally i did not really like to eat beef kuay teow or noodles because from far i could detect the very strong beefy smell of the beef soup.
Hock Lam soup did not have a very strong beefy smell, but that did not mean that their soup wasn’t good, rather, the soup was very intense with beef flavours, which was evident of the many hours put in to cook the soup.
For the older generation and the traditional beef kuay teow purist, they might resist the idea of shabu shabu in a traditional shop like Hock Lam. But times are changing, and having gourmet beef at one of the best store serving Beef kuay teow, will be an interesting concept, which i believe appeals to the younger generations who will pay more for quality.
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!
Happened to be at Far East Square and was looking for a cheap lunch venue when I stumbled upon Su Korean Cuisine, which offered a set lunch at $10 /pax - a seemingly good deal in this part of town.
Located at the basement of this teenager centric shopping mall, Su spots a cafe like interior with plenty of booth seats and minimalistic decor.
Sides - I've always had the notion that the side dishes in Korean meals make the entire meal more bang for the buck because of the variety of dishes you get to sample. However, more often than not, the quality would be very average (based on the limited experience I have with Korean food). Su's offerings weren't an exception.
BBQ Chicken Fillet - As mentioned in my post on Auntie Kim's, I've never really been able to appreciate Korean food and whatever it entailed. The chicken slices were tender but I didn't quite take to the sugary sweetness of it. The proportion of garnishes to chicken meat was also quite high, which meant that the meat ran out pretty fast.
BBQ Beef - Another overly sweet dish to me, the beef slices were relatively tough and dry without much beefy taste. As with the BBQ chicken, portions were also found wanting.
I guess $24 for a relatively filling lunch in an airconditioned environment in town is still reasonable by certain yardsticks. Food quality is average to me but that may be due to the fact that I can't really appreciate Korean food.
Great place for chilling out with a group of friends. Comfortably priced alcohol for all. Local uni students get 30% off listed price too! (How I wish I was still a student lah!)
Have been to ICB several occasions for gatherings with friends. Located in the center of Singapore, its easily accessible for people staying anywhere. This place serves over 38 types of bottled beers, and also martinis, spirits and sodas. Happy hours from 11am to 9pm daily and all day long on Sundays!
If you're planning to go there for decent meal, you can forget it. But if you just need something to bite, I'll recommend going for the beef wrap ($6) and big bowl of popcorn ($5). Works all the time for me with these and beer! (Avoid the hotdog bun, go for the beef wrap. Trust me! It's more worth it!)
There's also a pool table to play and every Thursday night, there's also free wii games!
Oh! And if you're sitting along the stretch of seats with pillows and red back rest, please sit with care k! The seats are NOT soft and the entire sit may just pop up at the side if one sits too fast at the edge of it. Don't say i didn't warn you ah!
Yebbers! Anyone wants to go party on a Thursday at ICB?
The second installation of my mini Sentosa food trial brought me to Thanying Restaurant at Amara Sanctuary Resort. Famed for its authentic Thai food that is also served to the Thai Royal Family, Thanying is also unfortunately known for its steep prices to boot.
Thanying is housed in a classy standalone unit reminiscent of a small chapel with its wooden arches and high ceilings, just across from the main lobby of Amara Sanctuary. Huge wooden frame windows offer a clear view of the surroundings and time slows to a crawl in this beautiful and relaxing space. However conversation can be a little restrained as a blanket of silence covers the whole area, probably due to the lack of customers on a Saturday evening.
Tom Yam Goong - Tom yam soup is one of the hallmarks of Thai cuisine and Thanying's rendition of this ubiquitous dish was nothing short of excellent. The soup was sweet, salty and spicy all at the same time and the spice hits you smack at the back of your throat. The taste of lemongrass permeated through rather strongly and I'm guessing thats due to the use of fresh lemongrass instead of the dried ones.
Kai Jiaw Moo Sub (Fried Egg with Minced Pork) - Its really strange to be ordering fried omelette in a Thai restaurant or in any fine dining place for that matter but I couldn't resist the promise of juicy minced pork covered with a crisp layer of frothy egg sinfully deep fried in high temperature oil. Call it comfort food if you wish. The only downside to this dish was of course the excessive oil, which rendered me nauseous after a while due to the huge portions. And its $16 mind you.
Gai Hor Bai Toey (Pandan Leaf Chicken) - Another quintessential dish in Thai cuisine, the pieces of pandan chicken were quite a size and crispy on the outside while remaining tender and moist on the inside. There was a light hint of pandan taste as well, which gave the chicken a nice faintly sweet edge.
Pineapple Rice - What I found interesting about the pineapple rice was the presence of curry powder, or at least the taste of curry powder. I liked this dish for the fact that it was nicely done without being too dry even after being laden with pork floss but I did think that the chicken cubes that came alongside were overly dry and tough.
Pad Thai - Thanying serves up the drier version of Pad Thai, which I personally prefer. However I did find the fish sauce on this one rather overwhelming or maybe its just me being overly sensitive. I appreciated the relatively generous servings of prawns and chicken cubes though.
With the bill just over $108 for 2 pax, this is one expensive and belly bursting Thai experience. Food quality is consistently decent but not exactly fantastic. Service is excellent though and professional to say the least. If your pockets are as shallow as mine and you want a decent romantic dinner at Sentosa, Thanying might just be a viable option, considering that the other "fine dining" restaurants on the island could set you back by at least twice the amount.
Was in the vicinity of Joo Chiat so decided to pop down to this kid on the block after reading rather favourable reviews of it by some food bloggers. It also helped that I was financially strapped and had to eat on a tight budget.
Located right at the junction of Joo Chiat Road and Koon Seng Road, Tai Shek Hei has only been in operations for about 2 months or so and the decor is typical of a Chinese type eatery. According to the writeup in the menu, Tai Shek Hei specialises in bamboo noodles, which are purportedly unique in the sense that the dough used in making the noodles are beaten with a long thick bamboo pole that promises a springy product without the lye (alkaline) taste.
Speciality Tobiko Dumpling - I had a go at the bamboo noodles, topped with their speciality tobiko (flying fish roe) dumplings. The noodles were thing and springy with lots of bite while the dumplings were quite good with the skin not too thick and the prawns crunchy with a little help from the roe. The soup base was supposedly made from boiling sole fish, prawn shells, dried scallops etc but though rather tasty, it didn't exactly wow me.
Cai Xin - A very normal dish and something you can find at any random cze char stall. $6 is still reasonable I guess.
Roast Combination - We opted for the Soy Chicken and Roast Duck combination which was surprisingly quite good. The meat was tender yet moist and had a nice chewy sensation to it. The amount of fats beneath the skin was also minimal, which is good for health conscious folks. I would have liked the skin to be a little crispier though.
To be honest, I think the food was quite decent and it wasn't exactly expensive either, standing at about $28 for 2 pax. Its a pity about the location and the lack of crowds though.
This is one of the latest fast food outlet at Compass Point. When it first opened, the crowd was overflowing. The queue is super long and there'll never be any tables available. Everyone is curious when new things arrived. But after the initial fanfare, things just seem to slow down. And now I know the reason why!
Like the rest of the curious customers, I gave Curry San a go. Although the smell of Japanese Curry filling the outlet was overpowering, we thought it should probably be worth while to give it a try.
Ordered Curry Chicken Katsu - $6.80 (which was recommended as their best seller) and Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp - $7.90. When the food came, both of us lost our appetite. If we had not pay for the food, we'll probably kick a big fuss and walk away.
Curry Chicken Katsu came burned. The fried chicken was tough and tasteless. The rice was overcooked and was too mushy. The curry was no way near tasty too. Very sad! Even the two little girls (around 4-5 yrs old) sitting next to us commented that its not nice!
When I thought mine was bad, the Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp was worst! Diluted cream sauce with plain looking pasta, few seeds of sesame and sad looking fried shrimp. I could see the total disappointment in his eyes. One word to describe this dish - tasteless.
I wonder if the boss themselves are tasting what they're serving. Too much improvements need to be made. Unless there's a new crowd forming again at Curry San (because of great improvement to the menu), I'll not be stepping into it anymore.
Just beside the “old-school” Love confectionery at Alexander Village which I just recommended, there’s another one by the name of Chinatown Tai Chong Kok Confectionery, which is also similarly traditional.
Egg cupcake ($1 for 3 small one) I’m a devotee after just one bite of their egg cupcake. Soft, light, and fluffy, the egg cupcakes are really very good. And 3 for one dollar is cheap okay! I can easily finish half a dozen on my own. Gosh, i’m going to get more of them the next time.
Egg cupcake with red bean fillings ($1 for 1 big) There’s also the bigger egg cup cake, which had red bean paste fillings at the bottom. But i was rather disappointed with it because there wasn’t anything special with the red bean paste, and the filling was just a little. I’ll think that three small ones are more than a big one, so take the 3 small one for a dollar instead.
Red bean biscuit Their red bean biscuit was also worth the try, crispy pastry skin with generous fillings of the red bean paste.
Egg tart Initially i was unsure about the egg tart because it didn’t seem to be very nice. But boy I had to take back my words after eating it. The egg custard was those watery kind, smooth and eggy!
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!
The constant upgrading and renovation of our heartlands, together with the ageing of the older chefs will mean that many delicious food will be soon extinct, and forever gone from us. We have seen many of your favourite childhood hawker stalls, and the old-school bakeries disappearing from our sight.
Love confectionery is located just beside the Alexander Village food centre, opposite of Queensway shopping centre. Having been there for very long, I knew about its presence before, but just didn’t pop in, until now.
Cream puffs ($0.40 each) The cream puffs was merely 40 cents each, yes 40 cents! They came in two flavours, cream and custard. We immediately grabbed half a dozen of this, and looked around to see if there’s other steals, but to our disappointment, most of the their other bakes were sold out already.
The custard puffs were not too bad, i wasn’t too sure whether i’ll like them or not, so i only had two out of the six i got. The eggy taste was evidently present, and you could do yourself no harm since they are only 40 cents each.
The cream puff was good, the pastry skin was soft and fluffy, the only gripe - it wasn’t sinful enough. Of course you can’t compare it with the one at Beard Papa with such a big differential in price, but i did find that the cream used here wasn’t that fantastic, if only it’s made with the superior Japanese cream.
I think i’m asking too much for a cream puff which was 40 cents. Given the price, and the nostalgic of the cream puff, do grabbed a dozen the next time round.
Butter cakes ($0.90 each) They also had two types of butter cakes that day, with the body being the same, peanut and almond separating both. It’s so old-school! The butter cake was very soft, and to say it melt softly with a deft bite wasn’t exaggerating.
Total bill was $4.80 for half a dozen cream puffs and two slices of cakes. They have other type of bakes, but it was either sold out or wasn’t available when i was there that day. I’ll probably get a dozen of those cream puffs the next time i’m in the area. And oh by the way, just to not mislead you, they don’t serve the pastry there, i brought them home to put on nice plates for the photos!
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!
Momoteapots has been around for a bit and has quite a large following. I chanced upon it a couple of months ago and have been drooling over their pretty clothes.
What I like about this blogshop is how they maintain being polite. Even when they talked about fraud in their site, they didn't sound unnecessarily angry and explained their reasons for requesting for receipts from customers. They even apologised for the inconvenience caused, which is great!
The prices are very reasonable. Not only that... the photographs they take are good and they try to show the clothing in all angles which is what I love most. Somehow some other shops when trying to make the clothes look nice, they forget to show you what the back looks like. But Momoteapots always shows the best they can which I think it really commendable.
They have a wide range of clothing, needless to say I'm not a fan of ALL their clothes because they have to cater to different tastes but I do like quite a number of stuff they have. They mostly have dresses (which are easier to buy online anyway) and sometimes bags and belts.
They even maintain a facebook account to keep in touch with their customers!
My only grievance is that I wish they would update more often!!!! But then I would spend money much more often toooo haha :)
The Silk Road or 丝绸之路 was an important cultural and trade route that linked China and the Far East to the West in ancient times. This was the very route that legendary explorer Marco Polo took from North and South China back to Venice during the 13th century. Banking on the success of this historic route, the Silk Road group of restaurants was born, with Silk Road of the Sea at Sentosa being the latest addition to the family.
Nestled on the ground floor in a standalone building along Palawan beach, Silk Road shares the premises with Braise, a modern European restaurant that occupies the second floor. This cosy Chinese restaurant offers both air conditioned indoor dining and al fresco if you wish to experience the sea breeze and the sand that tags along with it. The interior is done up simply with white washed walls and pillars but more importantly, comes with floor to ceiling windows to allow an unobstructed view of the beach (provided no one blocks your view by sitting in front of you in the al fresco area).
Pumpkin Soup - An off the menu item as well as a signature dish of Silk Road, the pumpkin soup cost a hefty $18. Portions were big and the soup was probably just sufficient for 1 person. However I must give it credit for its rather interesting presentation - served in a pumpkin with its insides carved out. The soup came across as mildy sweet with a relatively strong hint of the raw ocean, which can be quite unsettling at times. I also thought that for the price, there would be a more generous serving of scallops, prawns, squid and seaweed in it.
Chef's Homemade Signature Beancurd - Besides the gravy being a wee bit too salty, I couldn't find any fault with the beancurd, which was a little crisp on the outside yet smooth and silky on the inside. Personally, I liked the layer of spinach atop which accentuated the savoury aftertaste. Polishing off this dish would have child's play to me.
Sichuan Smoked Duck with Camphor & Tea Leaves - My experiences with smoked duck in Singapore are limited to only Szechuan Court and Peach Blossoms, both of which doesn't exactly serve up good smoked duck I must say. Although Silk Road's rendition was better then both places, it still didn't impress me much. The duck meat was reddish (a little too reddish at some parts though) but not overly dry and carried a floating hint of smokiness. There was the problem of the missing tea taste though.
Stir Fried Asparagus - How bad can stir fried asparagus get? This dish was normal with the asparagus cooked just right, not too soft nor hard. And thats about it.
Supreme Fried Rice with Seafood - I thought that the rice was evenly fried, as evident by the homogeneous colour but lacked the quintessential wok hei taste. Fortunately, the rice still came across as relatively tasty with a reasonably generous amount of ingredients.
Dinner is a most relaxing environment coupled with a nice view of the beach cost the two of us about $98. Expensive? Definitely. However, if you take a look at the individual pricing of items, its more or less Crystal Jade prices except for the pumpkin soup, which is really over the hill IMHO. Take that away and suddenly, the total bill does seem a tad more reasonable. However, having said that, I don't see myself returning, especially with an upfront $7 ($6 entry $1 parking) charge.
1=SGD 0.0587
With more and more of our heritage hawkers getting in their ages, it is difficult for them to continue whip out the delicious food that they have been doing everyday for so many years. And being a hawker isn’t a glamorous job, compared to being a banker, lawyer, teacher or other professionals. Therefore, most of the heritage hawkers don’t any successor, and we risk losing out all the good food, which our future younger generations will not live to eat.
Hock Lam Beef is the golden testimonial to beef kuay teow. Having been around since 1911, it is a wonder to see it continue serving out bowls of beef kuay teow everyday rain or shine up till today, for 97 years already! We have Tina, the 4th generation owner, who gave up her professional job and rather slug it out in the kitchen, so as to ensure our beef kuay teow will still be there.
To commemorate their 97th anniversary, Hock Lam decided to donate all their sales proceed on 1st Oct to to Operation Smile which is a worldwide movement to fix cleft palates in kids.
As proceeds for that day was all going to charity, Tina came up with a special menu, instead of their usual $4 a bowl beef kuay teow. There was three different selections, the beginner at $15 which had sliced beef plate. The original at $20, a mixed beef plate which included sliced beef, tendoin, tripe, shin and beef balls. And the “give me the whole cow” premium gourmet set at $30 which had the same stuff as the $20 set, with the exception of the sliced beef, and instead there was marbled shabu shabu beef.
Give me the whole cow gourmet set ($30)
The Gau lau mian (traditional dry noodles) was nice, with their sauce used. Besides having fresh beef, the other thing that makes or break a good beef kuay teow will definitely be the soup base. And Hock Lam’s one certainly was excellent. Personally i did not really like to eat beef kuay teow or noodles because from far i could detect the very strong beefy smell of the beef soup.
Hock Lam soup did not have a very strong beefy smell, but that did not mean that their soup wasn’t good, rather, the soup was very intense with beef flavours, which was evident of the many hours put in to cook the soup.
For the older generation and the traditional beef kuay teow purist, they might resist the idea of shabu shabu in a traditional shop like Hock Lam. But times are changing, and having gourmet beef at one of the best store serving Beef kuay teow, will be an interesting concept, which i believe appeals to the younger generations who will pay more for quality.
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:
Happened to be at Far East Square and was looking for a cheap lunch venue when I stumbled upon Su Korean Cuisine, which offered a set lunch at $10 /pax - a seemingly good deal in this part of town.
Located at the basement of this teenager centric shopping mall, Su spots a cafe like interior with plenty of booth seats and minimalistic decor.
Sides - I've always had the notion that the side dishes in Korean meals make the entire meal more bang for the buck because of the variety of dishes you get to sample. However, more often than not, the quality would be very average (based on the limited experience I have with Korean food). Su's offerings weren't an exception.
BBQ Chicken Fillet - As mentioned in my post on Auntie Kim's, I've never really been able to appreciate Korean food and whatever it entailed. The chicken slices were tender but I didn't quite take to the sugary sweetness of it. The proportion of garnishes to chicken meat was also quite high, which meant that the meat ran out pretty fast.
BBQ Beef - Another overly sweet dish to me, the beef slices were relatively tough and dry without much beefy taste. As with the BBQ chicken, portions were also found wanting.
I guess $24 for a relatively filling lunch in an airconditioned environment in town is still reasonable by certain yardsticks. Food quality is average to me but that may be due to the fact that I can't really appreciate Korean food.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Great place for chilling out with a group of friends. Comfortably priced alcohol for all. Local uni students get 30% off listed price too! (How I wish I was still a student lah!)
Have been to ICB several occasions for gatherings with friends. Located in the center of Singapore, its easily accessible for people staying anywhere. This place serves over 38 types of bottled beers, and also martinis, spirits and sodas. Happy hours from 11am to 9pm daily and all day long on Sundays!
If you're planning to go there for decent meal, you can forget it. But if you just need something to bite, I'll recommend going for the beef wrap ($6) and big bowl of popcorn ($5). Works all the time for me with these and beer! (Avoid the hotdog bun, go for the beef wrap. Trust me! It's more worth it!)
There's also a pool table to play and every Thursday night, there's also free wii games!
Oh! And if you're sitting along the stretch of seats with pillows and red back rest, please sit with care k! The seats are NOT soft and the entire sit may just pop up at the side if one sits too fast at the edge of it. Don't say i didn't warn you ah!
Yebbers! Anyone wants to go party on a Thursday at ICB?
Rating given:
The second installation of my mini Sentosa food trial brought me to Thanying Restaurant at Amara Sanctuary Resort. Famed for its authentic Thai food that is also served to the Thai Royal Family, Thanying is also unfortunately known for its steep prices to boot.
Thanying is housed in a classy standalone unit reminiscent of a small chapel with its wooden arches and high ceilings, just across from the main lobby of Amara Sanctuary. Huge wooden frame windows offer a clear view of the surroundings and time slows to a crawl in this beautiful and relaxing space. However conversation can be a little restrained as a blanket of silence covers the whole area, probably due to the lack of customers on a Saturday evening.
Tom Yam Goong - Tom yam soup is one of the hallmarks of Thai cuisine and Thanying's rendition of this ubiquitous dish was nothing short of excellent. The soup was sweet, salty and spicy all at the same time and the spice hits you smack at the back of your throat. The taste of lemongrass permeated through rather strongly and I'm guessing thats due to the use of fresh lemongrass instead of the dried ones.
Kai Jiaw Moo Sub (Fried Egg with Minced Pork) - Its really strange to be ordering fried omelette in a Thai restaurant or in any fine dining place for that matter but I couldn't resist the promise of juicy minced pork covered with a crisp layer of frothy egg sinfully deep fried in high temperature oil. Call it comfort food if you wish. The only downside to this dish was of course the excessive oil, which rendered me nauseous after a while due to the huge portions. And its $16 mind you.
Gai Hor Bai Toey (Pandan Leaf Chicken) - Another quintessential dish in Thai cuisine, the pieces of pandan chicken were quite a size and crispy on the outside while remaining tender and moist on the inside. There was a light hint of pandan taste as well, which gave the chicken a nice faintly sweet edge.
Pineapple Rice - What I found interesting about the pineapple rice was the presence of curry powder, or at least the taste of curry powder. I liked this dish for the fact that it was nicely done without being too dry even after being laden with pork floss but I did think that the chicken cubes that came alongside were overly dry and tough.
Pad Thai - Thanying serves up the drier version of Pad Thai, which I personally prefer. However I did find the fish sauce on this one rather overwhelming or maybe its just me being overly sensitive. I appreciated the relatively generous servings of prawns and chicken cubes though.
With the bill just over $108 for 2 pax, this is one expensive and belly bursting Thai experience. Food quality is consistently decent but not exactly fantastic. Service is excellent though and professional to say the least. If your pockets are as shallow as mine and you want a decent romantic dinner at Sentosa, Thanying might just be a viable option, considering that the other "fine dining" restaurants on the island could set you back by at least twice the amount.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Was in the vicinity of Joo Chiat so decided to pop down to this kid on the block after reading rather favourable reviews of it by some food bloggers. It also helped that I was financially strapped and had to eat on a tight budget.
Located right at the junction of Joo Chiat Road and Koon Seng Road, Tai Shek Hei has only been in operations for about 2 months or so and the decor is typical of a Chinese type eatery. According to the writeup in the menu, Tai Shek Hei specialises in bamboo noodles, which are purportedly unique in the sense that the dough used in making the noodles are beaten with a long thick bamboo pole that promises a springy product without the lye (alkaline) taste.
Speciality Tobiko Dumpling - I had a go at the bamboo noodles, topped with their speciality tobiko (flying fish roe) dumplings. The noodles were thing and springy with lots of bite while the dumplings were quite good with the skin not too thick and the prawns crunchy with a little help from the roe. The soup base was supposedly made from boiling sole fish, prawn shells, dried scallops etc but though rather tasty, it didn't exactly wow me.
Cai Xin - A very normal dish and something you can find at any random cze char stall. $6 is still reasonable I guess.
Roast Combination - We opted for the Soy Chicken and Roast Duck combination which was surprisingly quite good. The meat was tender yet moist and had a nice chewy sensation to it. The amount of fats beneath the skin was also minimal, which is good for health conscious folks. I would have liked the skin to be a little crispier though.
To be honest, I think the food was quite decent and it wasn't exactly expensive either, standing at about $28 for 2 pax. Its a pity about the location and the lack of crowds though.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Once and never going to return
This is one of the latest fast food outlet at Compass Point. When it first opened, the crowd was overflowing. The queue is super long and there'll never be any tables available. Everyone is curious when new things arrived. But after the initial fanfare, things just seem to slow down. And now I know the reason why!
Like the rest of the curious customers, I gave Curry San a go. Although the smell of Japanese Curry filling the outlet was overpowering, we thought it should probably be worth while to give it a try.
Ordered Curry Chicken Katsu - $6.80 (which was recommended as their best seller) and Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp - $7.90. When the food came, both of us lost our appetite. If we had not pay for the food, we'll probably kick a big fuss and walk away.
Curry Chicken Katsu came burned. The fried chicken was tough and tasteless. The rice was overcooked and was too mushy. The curry was no way near tasty too. Very sad! Even the two little girls (around 4-5 yrs old) sitting next to us commented that its not nice!
When I thought mine was bad, the Ebiko Cream Fried Shrimp was worst! Diluted cream sauce with plain looking pasta, few seeds of sesame and sad looking fried shrimp. I could see the total disappointment in his eyes. One word to describe this dish - tasteless.
I wonder if the boss themselves are tasting what they're serving. Too much improvements need to be made. Unless there's a new crowd forming again at Curry San (because of great improvement to the menu), I'll not be stepping into it anymore.
Rating given:
Just beside the “old-school” Love confectionery at Alexander Village which I just recommended, there’s another one by the name of Chinatown Tai Chong Kok Confectionery, which is also similarly traditional.
Egg cupcake ($1 for 3 small one)
I’m a devotee after just one bite of their egg cupcake. Soft, light, and fluffy, the egg cupcakes are really very good. And 3 for one dollar is cheap okay! I can easily finish half a dozen on my own. Gosh, i’m going to get more of them the next time.
Egg cupcake with red bean fillings ($1 for 1 big)
There’s also the bigger egg cup cake, which had red bean paste fillings at the bottom. But i was rather disappointed with it because there wasn’t anything special with the red bean paste, and the filling was just a little. I’ll think that three small ones are more than a big one, so take the 3 small one for a dollar instead.
Red bean biscuit
Their red bean biscuit was also worth the try, crispy pastry skin with generous fillings of the red bean paste.
Egg tart
Initially i was unsure about the egg tart because it didn’t seem to be very nice. But boy I had to take back my words after eating it. The egg custard was those watery kind, smooth and eggy!
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:
The constant upgrading and renovation of our heartlands, together with the ageing of the older chefs will mean that many delicious food will be soon extinct, and forever gone from us. We have seen many of your favourite childhood hawker stalls, and the old-school bakeries disappearing from our sight.
Love confectionery is located just beside the Alexander Village food centre, opposite of Queensway shopping centre. Having been there for very long, I knew about its presence before, but just didn’t pop in, until now.
Cream puffs ($0.40 each)
The cream puffs was merely 40 cents each, yes 40 cents! They came in two flavours, cream and custard. We immediately grabbed half a dozen of this, and looked around to see if there’s other steals, but to our disappointment, most of the their other bakes were sold out already.
The custard puffs were not too bad, i wasn’t too sure whether i’ll like them or not, so i only had two out of the six i got. The eggy taste was evidently present, and you could do yourself no harm since they are only 40 cents each.
The cream puff was good, the pastry skin was soft and fluffy, the only gripe - it wasn’t sinful enough. Of course you can’t compare it with the one at Beard Papa with such a big differential in price, but i did find that the cream used here wasn’t that fantastic, if only it’s made with the superior Japanese cream.
I think i’m asking too much for a cream puff which was 40 cents. Given the price, and the nostalgic of the cream puff, do grabbed a dozen the next time round.
Butter cakes ($0.90 each)
They also had two types of butter cakes that day, with the body being the same, peanut and almond separating both. It’s so old-school! The butter cake was very soft, and to say it melt softly with a deft bite wasn’t exaggerating.
Total bill was $4.80 for half a dozen cream puffs and two slices of cakes. They have other type of bakes, but it was either sold out or wasn’t available when i was there that day. I’ll probably get a dozen of those cream puffs the next time i’m in the area. And oh by the way, just to not mislead you, they don’t serve the pastry there, i brought them home to put on nice plates for the photos!
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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Momoteapots has been around for a bit and has quite a large following. I chanced upon it a couple of months ago and have been drooling over their pretty clothes.
What I like about this blogshop is how they maintain being polite. Even when they talked about fraud in their site, they didn't sound unnecessarily angry and explained their reasons for requesting for receipts from customers. They even apologised for the inconvenience caused, which is great!
The prices are very reasonable. Not only that... the photographs they take are good and they try to show the clothing in all angles which is what I love most. Somehow some other shops when trying to make the clothes look nice, they forget to show you what the back looks like. But Momoteapots always shows the best they can which I think it really commendable.
They have a wide range of clothing, needless to say I'm not a fan of ALL their clothes because they have to cater to different tastes but I do like quite a number of stuff they have. They mostly have dresses (which are easier to buy online anyway) and sometimes bags and belts.
They even maintain a facebook account to keep in touch with their customers!
My only grievance is that I wish they would update more often!!!! But then I would spend money much more often toooo haha :)
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The Silk Road or 丝绸之路 was an important cultural and trade route that linked China and the Far East to the West in ancient times. This was the very route that legendary explorer Marco Polo took from North and South China back to Venice during the 13th century. Banking on the success of this historic route, the Silk Road group of restaurants was born, with Silk Road of the Sea at Sentosa being the latest addition to the family.
Nestled on the ground floor in a standalone building along Palawan beach, Silk Road shares the premises with Braise, a modern European restaurant that occupies the second floor. This cosy Chinese restaurant offers both air conditioned indoor dining and al fresco if you wish to experience the sea breeze and the sand that tags along with it. The interior is done up simply with white washed walls and pillars but more importantly, comes with floor to ceiling windows to allow an unobstructed view of the beach (provided no one blocks your view by sitting in front of you in the al fresco area).
Pumpkin Soup - An off the menu item as well as a signature dish of Silk Road, the pumpkin soup cost a hefty $18. Portions were big and the soup was probably just sufficient for 1 person. However I must give it credit for its rather interesting presentation - served in a pumpkin with its insides carved out. The soup came across as mildy sweet with a relatively strong hint of the raw ocean, which can be quite unsettling at times. I also thought that for the price, there would be a more generous serving of scallops, prawns, squid and seaweed in it.
Chef's Homemade Signature Beancurd - Besides the gravy being a wee bit too salty, I couldn't find any fault with the beancurd, which was a little crisp on the outside yet smooth and silky on the inside. Personally, I liked the layer of spinach atop which accentuated the savoury aftertaste. Polishing off this dish would have child's play to me.
Sichuan Smoked Duck with Camphor & Tea Leaves - My experiences with smoked duck in Singapore are limited to only Szechuan Court and Peach Blossoms, both of which doesn't exactly serve up good smoked duck I must say. Although Silk Road's rendition was better then both places, it still didn't impress me much. The duck meat was reddish (a little too reddish at some parts though) but not overly dry and carried a floating hint of smokiness. There was the problem of the missing tea taste though.
Stir Fried Asparagus - How bad can stir fried asparagus get? This dish was normal with the asparagus cooked just right, not too soft nor hard. And thats about it.
Supreme Fried Rice with Seafood - I thought that the rice was evenly fried, as evident by the homogeneous colour but lacked the quintessential wok hei taste. Fortunately, the rice still came across as relatively tasty with a reasonably generous amount of ingredients.
Dinner is a most relaxing environment coupled with a nice view of the beach cost the two of us about $98. Expensive? Definitely. However, if you take a look at the individual pricing of items, its more or less Crystal Jade prices except for the pumpkin soup, which is really over the hill IMHO. Take that away and suddenly, the total bill does seem a tad more reasonable. However, having said that, I don't see myself returning, especially with an upfront $7 ($6 entry $1 parking) charge.
See all my pictures here.
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