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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
Beard Papa Sweets is famous for their cream puff from Japan, with a tagline similar to that of Carlsberg, “probably the best cream puff in the world!”. I think i am kind of slow here, since Beard Papa has landed on our shores for quite some time, but i am only trying it now.
Today you can find Beard Papa throughout Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, US, Uk, and of course, Singapore. And there are currently 6 stores island-wide.
Besides their original vanilla cream puff, there’s also the cookie choux puff, strawberry puff, eclair puff, coronet, chocolate eclair, fondant chocolat, cheesecake stick, and tiramisu. All in the range of 2 dollar plus per piece.
It’s always a burden on the pocket eating and trying so many different type of food, so when i saw they are having a promotion of $1.60 for their original cream puff, i didn’t think twice before buying the cream puff. But pity they only have it for the original flavor, i wanted to try their strawberry and chocolate too!
Anyway there’s always this promotion coupon on Sunday times where a cream puff also cost $1.60 each, but i was lazy to cut it out everytime though.
Original Vanilla cream puff ($2.20) I’m a sucker for cream puff, so the following comment would certainly be bias, and even exaggerating. The first bite of the cream puff brought me to the heavens, the fluffy and airy filling was a perfect complement to the light, chewy and slightly crispy pastry.
And i think at even at the $2.20 usual price, where else can you get such a big and awesome cream puff? I can hardly think of any place else, the durian puffs at Goodwood park hotel is excellent, but i don’t eat durian, and they are not exactly cheap.
After tasting the cream puff, i was reluctant to pass it to my friend who also wanted a bite, and was tempted to get a few more if not for the fact that i had dinner afterwards. I think i won’t have any trouble eating a dozen of it anytime.
Cheesecake stick ($1.30) The cheesecake stick at $1.30 is the only item at Beard Papa sweet that sells for less than 2 bucks. And i think at #1.30, its definitely a good deal for a cheesecake stick that is cheesy in flavor, and has a biscuit crust base to go along with the cheesecake.
Total bill was $2.90 for two nice piece of desserts, and i won’t stop myself the next time i pass by another Beard Papa Sweets, oh the tiramisu, the chocolate and strawberry cream puffs, and the chocolate eclair!
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!
Jollibean has been around for many years, and sometimes you tend to take things for granted when they are always there, so it is until now that i actually try something from them. Jollibean actually has 35 branches island-wide till date, so it’s no surprise seeing them in your heartland halls or even downtown.
Soyabeans are one of the world’s richest natural foods, high in quality, low in saturated fats, contains no cholestrerol, are a good source of soluble fiber, so how much more can you go?
Unfortunately, i only had eyes for pan cakes, or “mee chiang kueh” that day. The selections from Jollibean did pose quite a problem to me as there were four different kinds of pancakes to choose from. The traditional one, the round one, the crispy flat one or the twisted one. The traditional one is always steady and reliable, while the round one seems more like those Japanese pancakes, and the twisted one nearly got me there since i didn’t try any kind of those before.
Jolli pancake selections ($2.20) In the end i got the pancake box which comes with three different flavours, namely peanut, red bean and cheese.
Peanut pancake The peanut pancake is easily the best out of the 3 flavours, the peanuts fillings were generous, and who can resist the crunchy peanut? I guess i am more tradition when coming to pancake, stick to the peanut one!
Red bean pancake The red bean pancake was all right, but somehow i found their red bean to be too sweet for my liking. And i think i don’t quite fancy the pancake skin, i should have gone for the traditional pancake, but there’s always a first time for everything.
Cheese pancake This was a disaster. Okay maybe i’m exaggerating, but the cheese was too plain, not cheesy enough, and i think cheese isn’t a very suitable filling for pancake, unless they are those hot cheesy, and will melt-in-mouth kind.
Total bill was $2.20 for a box of pancake. I think i chose the wrong kind of pancake, will be trying the other types next time. And i didn’t have a drink of their famous soyabean milk which is $1.60 for the original flavor, and they have other special flavours available. There’s also Mr Bean around if you don’t fancy Jollibean, competition is always good for us.
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!
There are so many stalls in one hawker centre alone, so how do you make your choice which one to order from? This is especially a problem when you want to order a particular food, say for example char kuay teow but found yourself staring at a few similar stalls. Which one do you order from? Being Singaporeans the first thought will be to see which stall has the longest Q, well if so many others like their food, it can’t be that bad right?
So usually i’ll go and look around the tables, to see which plates dominate the area, and its a good gauge how popular a stall is. Of course, you can’t judge a stall by its queue, or you ain’t the type that will bother to queue a good fifteen to twenty minutes just for food. So what’s next? Through word-of-mouth recommendations, “stall B at that hawker centre is very good, must-try!” Alternatively, continue your blog-reading at ladyironchef to find out more!
Anyway, one of the common methods will be to look at the stall for any media recognition, there are so many TV food programs which recommend on food, and very often they will issue their own “certificate” to acknowledge that hawker stall is good. Again, this method can also be flaw as the stalls that they recommended might not be that good sometimes, but usually the sales at that particular stall will go up after featured on TV, Singaporeans are Singaporeans after all.
Nevertheless, this is one method that i use quite often when i don’t have no idea which stall to order from. And i decided to order from Teng Yu chee cheong fun porridge stall after i saw their “media recognition”, coming in the form of a video recording showing on the TV no less.
Char siew cheong fun ($2.30) Teng Yu stall offers four different types of cheong fun, prawn, turnip, char siew and one more. All of them come with the option of having your cheong fun with porridge. And they have quite a few selections if you just want porridge alone, century egg, sliced fish, fish head, and seafood porridge.
The skin of the char siew cheong fun was smooth and easy on the palate, topped with plenty of sesame seeds, it came with light sauce. However, the char siew meat were all in very small bits and pieces, and i would prefer them to come in bigger pieces even if there were less of them in that way.
The char siew bites were rather soft, in fact too soft for my liking, and it did not have the sweet and juicy taste that’s in good char siew. Furthermore, they added in some vegetables in it which i did not like. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat greens, but cheong fun with greens simply did not work out.
The overall taste is quite weak, as in not much flavour in the chee cheong fun, maybe its lighter in flavour because it’s suppose to go together with the porridge, or maybe it’s just me. So you have to try out for yourself to try out. I missed out on the previous post for Mr Avocado, the Alexandra Village hawker centre is opposite the Queensway shopping centre, don’t mistake it with ABC food centre which is nearby.
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
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!
Rating given:
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:
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!
Rating given:
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!
Rating given:
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!
Rating given:
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!
Rating given:
Beard Papa Sweets is famous for their cream puff from Japan, with a tagline similar to that of Carlsberg, “probably the best cream puff in the world!”. I think i am kind of slow here, since Beard Papa has landed on our shores for quite some time, but i am only trying it now.
Today you can find Beard Papa throughout Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, US, Uk, and of course, Singapore. And there are currently 6 stores island-wide.
Besides their original vanilla cream puff, there’s also the cookie choux puff, strawberry puff, eclair puff, coronet, chocolate eclair, fondant chocolat, cheesecake stick, and tiramisu. All in the range of 2 dollar plus per piece.
It’s always a burden on the pocket eating and trying so many different type of food, so when i saw they are having a promotion of $1.60 for their original cream puff, i didn’t think twice before buying the cream puff. But pity they only have it for the original flavor, i wanted to try their strawberry and chocolate too!
Anyway there’s always this promotion coupon on Sunday times where a cream puff also cost $1.60 each, but i was lazy to cut it out everytime though.
Original Vanilla cream puff ($2.20)
I’m a sucker for cream puff, so the following comment would certainly be bias, and even exaggerating. The first bite of the cream puff brought me to the heavens, the fluffy and airy filling was a perfect complement to the light, chewy and slightly crispy pastry.
And i think at even at the $2.20 usual price, where else can you get such a big and awesome cream puff? I can hardly think of any place else, the durian puffs at Goodwood park hotel is excellent, but i don’t eat durian, and they are not exactly cheap.
After tasting the cream puff, i was reluctant to pass it to my friend who also wanted a bite, and was tempted to get a few more if not for the fact that i had dinner afterwards. I think i won’t have any trouble eating a dozen of it anytime.
Cheesecake stick ($1.30)
The cheesecake stick at $1.30 is the only item at Beard Papa sweet that sells for less than 2 bucks. And i think at #1.30, its definitely a good deal for a cheesecake stick that is cheesy in flavor, and has a biscuit crust base to go along with the cheesecake.
Total bill was $2.90 for two nice piece of desserts, and i won’t stop myself the next time i pass by another Beard Papa Sweets, oh the tiramisu, the chocolate and strawberry cream puffs, and the chocolate eclair!
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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Jollibean has been around for many years, and sometimes you tend to take things for granted when they are always there, so it is until now that i actually try something from them. Jollibean actually has 35 branches island-wide till date, so it’s no surprise seeing them in your heartland halls or even downtown.
Soyabeans are one of the world’s richest natural foods, high in quality, low in saturated fats, contains no cholestrerol, are a good source of soluble fiber, so how much more can you go?
Unfortunately, i only had eyes for pan cakes, or “mee chiang kueh” that day. The selections from Jollibean did pose quite a problem to me as there were four different kinds of pancakes to choose from. The traditional one, the round one, the crispy flat one or the twisted one. The traditional one is always steady and reliable, while the round one seems more like those Japanese pancakes, and the twisted one nearly got me there since i didn’t try any kind of those before.
Jolli pancake selections ($2.20)
In the end i got the pancake box which comes with three different flavours, namely peanut, red bean and cheese.
Peanut pancake
The peanut pancake is easily the best out of the 3 flavours, the peanuts fillings were generous, and who can resist the crunchy peanut? I guess i am more tradition when coming to pancake, stick to the peanut one!
Red bean pancake
The red bean pancake was all right, but somehow i found their red bean to be too sweet for my liking. And i think i don’t quite fancy the pancake skin, i should have gone for the traditional pancake, but there’s always a first time for everything.
Cheese pancake
This was a disaster. Okay maybe i’m exaggerating, but the cheese was too plain, not cheesy enough, and i think cheese isn’t a very suitable filling for pancake, unless they are those hot cheesy, and will melt-in-mouth kind.
Total bill was $2.20 for a box of pancake. I think i chose the wrong kind of pancake, will be trying the other types next time. And i didn’t have a drink of their famous soyabean milk which is $1.60 for the original flavor, and they have other special flavours available. There’s also Mr Bean around if you don’t fancy Jollibean, competition is always good for us.
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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There are so many stalls in one hawker centre alone, so how do you make your choice which one to order from? This is especially a problem when you want to order a particular food, say for example char kuay teow but found yourself staring at a few similar stalls. Which one do you order from? Being Singaporeans the first thought will be to see which stall has the longest Q, well if so many others like their food, it can’t be that bad right?
So usually i’ll go and look around the tables, to see which plates dominate the area, and its a good gauge how popular a stall is. Of course, you can’t judge a stall by its queue, or you ain’t the type that will bother to queue a good fifteen to twenty minutes just for food. So what’s next? Through word-of-mouth recommendations, “stall B at that hawker centre is very good, must-try!” Alternatively, continue your blog-reading at ladyironchef to find out more!
Anyway, one of the common methods will be to look at the stall for any media recognition, there are so many TV food programs which recommend on food, and very often they will issue their own “certificate” to acknowledge that hawker stall is good. Again, this method can also be flaw as the stalls that they recommended might not be that good sometimes, but usually the sales at that particular stall will go up after featured on TV, Singaporeans are Singaporeans after all.
Nevertheless, this is one method that i use quite often when i don’t have no idea which stall to order from. And i decided to order from Teng Yu chee cheong fun porridge stall after i saw their “media recognition”, coming in the form of a video recording showing on the TV no less.
Char siew cheong fun ($2.30)
Teng Yu stall offers four different types of cheong fun, prawn, turnip, char siew and one more. All of them come with the option of having your cheong fun with porridge. And they have quite a few selections if you just want porridge alone, century egg, sliced fish, fish head, and seafood porridge.
The skin of the char siew cheong fun was smooth and easy on the palate, topped with plenty of sesame seeds, it came with light sauce. However, the char siew meat were all in very small bits and pieces, and i would prefer them to come in bigger pieces even if there were less of them in that way.
The char siew bites were rather soft, in fact too soft for my liking, and it did not have the sweet and juicy taste that’s in good char siew. Furthermore, they added in some vegetables in it which i did not like. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat greens, but cheong fun with greens simply did not work out.
The overall taste is quite weak, as in not much flavour in the chee cheong fun, maybe its lighter in flavour because it’s suppose to go together with the porridge, or maybe it’s just me. So you have to try out for yourself to try out. I missed out on the previous post for Mr Avocado, the Alexandra Village hawker centre is opposite the Queensway shopping centre, don’t mistake it with ABC food centre which is nearby.
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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