A sweet suprised from my BF due to my birthday. It nice of him to brought me a special cake from prima deli.
1 Roses Fantasy (Chocolate) ($30.80 / 600g)
Blooming pink chocolate roses on luscious hazelnut cream within layers of chocolate sponge enveloped within dark chocolate pieces.
Piece by piece of chocolate form up a heart shape by the side of the cake. On the top is fill with pink roses which is made from white chocolate. Inside the cake there is layer of chocolate sponge cake follow by lots of hazelnut and at the bottom with another layer of chocolat sponge cake. The hazelnut is very crunchy. It taste good with the sponge cake and taste abit light.
Overall the cake is not bad. Thanks to my BF for the special cake.
A little suprised from my close lunch bubbies for buying me an ice-cream cake from Swensen when we were out for lunch. We have the mini celebration at our office area around tea break time.
1 Swensen's Special cake ($40.00 per Kg)
A thin layer of sponge cake at the bottom. Inside there is 3 flavours sticky chewy chocolate, stawberry and vanilia ice-cream. follow by a thin layer of sponge cake on top with fresh cream. With some chocolate chips and fruits for decoration.
The fruits were hard to eat as it has already freeze. The ice-cream were very cold and good. Espcially the sticky chewy chocolate. For the rest of the flavours were not bad too.
Sponge cake is in thin layer, Overall the cake were not bad. Thanks to my lunch bubbies.
While we have the restaurant setting a stall in the coffee shop (think Cilantro), and there’s also the restaurants invading the heartlands, and we can’t possibly forget about Angmohs, or Caucasians setting up a stall in the coffee shops selling western food. Botak Jones was the benchmark, and now we have our latest entrée, Crazy Angmo!
Crazy Angmo was featured in the papers, with the trend of more Angmohs selling western food in the local heartlands. Having their first stall in Bishan, the owner, Paul, had opened his second stall at Bukit Batok. Whether it’s coincidently or not, Botak Jones happened to just set up an outlet in Bukit Batok too, just one bus stop away.
Chicken Parmagian ($7.90) The chicken paramagian was one of the more expensive item on the menu, other than the steak and the lambchop. There’s cheaper options like the express meal chicken cutlet, chicken chop at $4.80. But for “higher-end” options, the rest are priced at $6.90-$7.90.
Coated with a thick layer of melty cheese and tomatos, the chicken paramagian was quite good, i especially like the melted cheese which tasted great with the crispy chicken. But i did find the layer of tomato sauce, which was in between the cheese and the chicken, a tad sour. You needed to eat the chicken fast as it became soggy after a while. Nonetheless, the generous sides like the mashed potatos, and salad provided a hearty meal.
Crazy Burger ($7.90) The crazy burger, being one of Crazy Angmo speciality, deserved a try. I think it’s better value for money than the Botak Jones burger, since this came with cheese and egg, while the latter at $8 only had the burger plus one additional topping of either cheese or egg. The Botak Jones burger was $7 at a set, and to add egg and cheese, it’ll be $9 already.
I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of pineapples within the burger, and the melty cheese together with the runny egg was excellent. However, i did find the beef patty being over marinated with pepper. The bun was rather hard and toasted to char. And the fries were simply ordinary and forgettable.
But overall, i did think that the crazy burger at $7.90 was not too bad, and definitely better than Botak burger. The owner Paul was very confident of his burger, “This is the best burger mate!“
Total bill was $15.80 for two western meal sets. Prices are a tad higher than your usual hawker centre western food, but like what i mentioned before, if you compared Botak Jones, Crazy Angmo with the normal western stalls, prices certainly will be more expensive. On the other hand, thinking it as a cafe western food, these stalls will be much cheaper than the cafes and restaurants.
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!
This is a tale about the chicken and the duck. Yesterday, we have discussed why chicken is more popular than duck. But if you asked me, i’ll tell you i love my ducks more than my chickens. Just ordering half a chicken, i can actually get a bit sick of eating finish the meat, but for duck, i can have the whole duck and i can still carry on.
My friends have always complaint my blog feature nice food from Bukit Batok, is there truly no delicious food around? Actually yes and no, since different people have different taste bud, its quite hard to determine what is considered nice and delicious. But since we are on the topic of chickens and ducks, let me show you what i think is one of the better duck rice in Bukit Batok.
This particular stall is no strangers to Bukit Batok-ians, and even foodies living elsewhere. Their duck is the toast of the crowd, and it always sold out pretty fast, and sometimes if you are there at the wrong time, you’ll need to wait for them to roast the duck as they didn’t roast all their ducks at one go.
Their duck meat was considerately fatter than the normal ones, with a thick layer of fats beneath the unhealthy, yet-so-good duck skin. The meat was tender, and you must eat it together with the fatty skin to get the “oomph” kick! The only gripe - the serving was rather small even for half a duck, you couldn’t get enough of the meat.
Roast pork I also enjoyed their roast pork, with a super crispy skin. This is no joking matter, biting into the roast pork, will give you the “crisp” sound, that alone would tell you the crunchiness.
Char siew Their char siew was actually the weaker of the three. Althought it’s rather juicy, but the char siew meat somehow lacked the “wow” factor, and the sight of the bright red colouring also put me off. They also sell soy sauce chicken, but it’s not good compared to the rest.
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!
One fine day, the duck met the chicken and ask it a question, “why is it that you guys are more popular than us?” The chicken answered confidently, “Of course, we are the superior birds!”…
Have you ever wondered why is chicken more popular than duck? Ask a group of Singaporeans what are among their favourite local delights, and there are bound to be chicken rice, laksa, char kuay teow, and many others. But have you ever heard “Singapore duck rice”?
Looking at the offical statistics will tell a clearer picture, chicken consumed in 2007 was 33.0kg per capital compared to 3.2kg that of duck. That’s like 10 times the difference in the total amount consumed! Right, let’s discuss why chicken, is more popular than duck. First, the methods of preparing chicken are much more than duck, you can fried, steamed, stir-fried, boiled, roasted, chicken, but how about duck? You heard of fried chicken, but is there fried duck?
Half a chicken ($13) This particular stall in Bukit Batok block 273, always had long queues for their chicken. Actually i did try their chicken for quite a lot of times already but didn’t bother to feature it since you don’t bring your dslr to the market. The chicken was quite good, smooth and tender with the meat being flavourful, but rather on the salty side with the “over-generous” use of the light soy sauce.
The rice was fragrant, and not too oily. And the chili, was red hot spicy! I found it to be one of the more spicy chicken rice chilis around. But even though the chicken rice was quite good, i wouldn’t bother queuing up for it unless i really got the urge. Still, i dared say this is one of the better chicken rice stall around, in Bukit Batok. Watch out for “the tale of the chicken and duck part 2” tomorrow!
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!
I walk into this shop and was greeted by Calvin Chan, Assistant Retail Manager.
I was looking for a particular ring. He showed me a few but not what I am looking for. He wasn't abit irriated, he asked me to look around while he tried searching his stock but to no avail.
He took my contact number when I have to leave and offered to check his other outlets for me and will ring me when he find any similiar ones.
He's not pushy and not abit irriated even I didn't get anything from him when I leave. This is a good sign of customer service.
This is my 1st visit to the shop as I have no much chance visiting Jurong Shopping area since I stay in Punggol.
They having 20% storewide, fashionwear and bags. I bought 2bags, a black and white. The 2 staffs are very friendly, Samantha who attended to me, even offered the bag she reserved for herself to me after I spotted some black spots on the white bag.
I must say she really have the company's interest as well customer service. I have come across before, walking into a shop wanting to buy a dress and was told it was reserved by a STAFF, (note: not customer reservation).
For me, besides the goods in the shop must be of interest to me, customer service is also v important.
Walk in to this shop if you happens to be in Jurong Point. :)
What constitutes to a nice bowl of Teochew Fish Porridge? Ask HFB, and he will tell you its “fresh fish, tasty stock and the grains not overcooked” over and over. Started way back in 1966, HFB would dare say 泉香鱼口粥 (Quan Xiang Fish Porridge), now located at Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, is one of the best in the west.
With choices of the usual Batang Fish ($3, $5 and $7) and the pricier Red Garoupa ($5, $7 and $10), what one gets is a bowl of piping hot “Cheng” fish porridge, with a minimum dash of fried shallots. HFB opted for the $5 batang option and it gotten him a good 10 or so slices of fish – even if he finds them too thinly sliced for his liking. Fish slices were smooth and fresh without the lingering fishy smell, but HFB did find it frustrating at the lacked of bite.
The soup though was a delight – it was sweet and light on the palate, and it has HFB’s favourite Tang O, or Garland Chrysanthemum added within – definitely a good choice these days for those feeling under the weather.
The grains were excellently cooked to bite – every grain was firm and not mushy – HFB resisted to call it al dente, but that’s what came closest to mind. And of course, a Teochew Fish Porridge experience cannot be completed without the Fermented Bean Sauce as dip.
Overall, it would have been a satisfying experience if not for the measly serving – would probably opt for 2 portions of $3 instead on my next visit.
I've always been an advocate/fan/fanatic/supporter of dim sum so when Dim Joy hopped onto the bandwagon a couple of months back, I was tempted to have a shot at it especially in this recession period where Yan Ting and Royal China are seemingly out of reach for my shallow pockets. Of course it helped that Dim Joy reportedly specialises in dim sum and sells only dim sum items throughout the day - a psychological effect?
And I finally got the chance to dine there on a Saturday morning. Playing anchor to a row of beautifully restored shophouses along Neil Road, Dim Joy oozes sublime old world charm with its facade and simply done up interior that allows natural light in. Cool airconditioning coupled with a nice warm glow from the sunlight make for a soothing and relaxing environment.
Lingnan Egg Tart - Although the lingnan egg tart didn't fall into the buttery crust category which I personally prefer, I have to admit that it was almost in a class of its own. A flaky crust that compounded the oven baked goodness with a smooth, wobbly and not too sweet custard filling that had an almost surreal semi liquid feel. Very delicately done if I may say so.
Savoury Beancurd Skin Roll - Not your usual beancurd skin roll, this one looked like it had tempura batter sporadically coated on it before deep frying. And there was no crackling crispy skin either. Instead, the roll was a tad crisp yet moist, not to mention fragrant with a light savoury aftertaste that complemented the filling of mushroom and radish.
Custard Bun - I wasn't too impressed by Dim Joy's rendition of the custard bun even though the the custard filling was semi molten and oozed out with ease with a break in the skin. The quintessential egg yolk taste was sorely lacking and I could make out some granular substance in the custard which I presume to be partially undissolved sugar (I'm just guessing). There were traces of egg yolk as well from the slightly rough texture but as mentioned earlier, the taste was minimal.
Honey Syrup Char Siew Bao - Unlike the custard bun, the Char Siew Bao was excellent, for lack of a better word. The dough was soft and fluffy with an ample bite to it. However the char siew filling came across as rather lacklustre, mildy sweet from the honey but with a rather high proportion of fat meat in my humble opinion. Having said that, the dough itself is enough to warrant seconds for me (Not that I did though).
Barbecued Pork & Celery in Rice Rolls - The rice roll aka Chee Cheong Fun was a little different from the usual silky smooth ones in that there was an oily finish to it, very much like kway teow or flat noodles. However, as with the char siew bao, the char siew filling in the rice roll was forgettable and overall a rather bland dish.
Century Egg with Lean Pork Congee - I personally dislike century eggs but this porridge was surprisingly decent, especially the pork cubes (actually they looked like chicken cubes), which were tender with a nice salty tinge to it. The porridge itself wasn't too starchy and the ginger slices kept nausea at bay. One serving can feed 2 pax easily.
King Shrimp Har Gao - I would have preferred one large prawn in my har gao instead of 3 medium sized ones but I'm not complaining. The skin did seem a whisker too thick and elastic for my liking but on the upside, the har gao didn't carry the overwhelming prawn taste that plagues alot of har gaos.
Crispy Pumpkin Balls - This came complimentary with every spending of $30 and above. I'm not exactly a big fan of such stuff so I won't comment much except that it reminded me uncannily of those rounded pieces of chewy flour coated with sesame seeds on the outside that are being sold at most dough fritter stalls.
Durian Snow Pearl - This signature dessert reminded me of durian snow skin mooncakes except that the skin on this one was soft and excellent. No elasticity or excessive flour taste that I have a particular disdain for. The skin seemed to meld in rather well with the durian filling and cream when I popped one into my mouth. The only thing I didn't really appreciate about the dessert was the cream, which I personally felt marred the taste a little.
It does seem that Dim Joy is giving the bigger boys a run for their money with its relatively high quality of dim sum at a slightly lower price to boot. The 2 of us spent about $52 for a rather enjoyable and filling dim sum session in a nice soothing environment. Service was good but I wasn't exactly too pleased at being charged $1 for iced water.
Canelé Patisserie Chocolaterie, the fame dessert restaurant that had been making waves with its delicate and dainty small bites. With the mention of patisserie, the immediate reaction would be Canelé, which tells you something about the reputation that they had built up in a short period of time. Besides cakes and other desserts, Canelé also offered a variety of chocolates.
Canelé Patisserie has done a very good job with its marketing and branding strategy. The chic sounding name, the cool sun-shape logo, coupled with its stylish interior, and of course their “designer” cakes and desserts. Not to mention Canelé is under the Les Amis group, which has strong capital funding to make all these possible.
The miniuscule interior had few seats available. When we went around 3pm, the place was packed fully, and had to be put on the waiting list.
Seating are largely from the Al fresco area, built in mind to create the Parisian road-side cafe ambience, albeit it wasn’t prefect with the busy orchard road, and McDonald located just a stone throw away.
With the inauguration of their latest branch at Shaw centre, this brings the tally to four with the others located at Paragon, Raffles city, and Robertson quay. Like Starbucks, the opening of each outlet almost guaranteed full-house customers. This really makes me wonder why is there no other worthy competitor to come out and vie a share of the market.
Cafe caramel ($8.50) Milk chocolate coffee mousse, chocolate genoise with expresso, salty caramel and hazelnut feuilitine. Canele’s signature cake with the usage of the salted caramel, which gave an unique taste to it. However, there was only a single layer of salted caramel right in the middle of the cake, which my companion and I felt was a tad too little.
The strong chocolate, with the subtle coffee flavour, overwhelmed the salted caramel taste. But i love the hazelnut feuilitine which added crunchy bites to the cake. Having heard rave reviews for Cafe caramel, it fell short of our expectations. And we felt that the caramel didn’t really compliment the chocolate sponge cake.
Strawberry shortcake ($6.50) Japanese shortcake sponge, kirsch creme chantitlly, and fresh strawberries. Another famous cake, the strawberry was not very sweet, but it’ll be better if it’s those sweet tasting Japanese imported ones instead. We felt the cake was too tame, there wasn’t much flavour.
However, it could work either way, as it’s good for light tasting, the cream wasn’t overly heavy, the sponge was light, but not for me because i would prefer more intense flavour. Overall I felt it was mediocre as it lacked the kick and “wow” factor. But then again, its strawberry shortcake, what else could you expect?
And how can we forget Macarons? Canele’s ones are divided into two different type, with the classic and the signature flavours. With a total of 12 variety to choose from, I’ll definitely come back to try the rest.
The pricing however, remained a mystery to me. If you would do some simple maths, buying 6 pieces of macarons at $2.3 will be only $13.8 instead of $14.50 per box. So is Canelé charging extra for the cost of the box? I’ll thought that buying more will cost less, since it can encourage sales.
Hazelnut Praline with roasted hazelnut ($2.30) I told you, i loved my hazelnut! It was an obvious choice when my companion wanted 4 macarons. Hazelnut was supposed to be a safe and full-proof flavour for desserts, not lest macarons. But the one here was rather weak in flavour. The hazelnut taste was mild, and i’ll prefer it to be stronger. Obolo had a stronger case for its hazelnut macarons. Nonetheless, the hazelnut was still detectable, and there’s after taste of it.
Milk Chocolate feullitine ($2.30) How can anybody resisted the temptation of milk chocolate? Not me, that’s for sure! The silky milk chocolate, with crunchy bites of feullitine, was one of Canele’s signature flavours. There was nothing intriguing about it, just a reliable and safe option to taste the chocolate while munching on the chewy shells.
Rose ($2.30) We also picked the rose classic flavour for one of our macarons. The first taste of the lovely pinkish delight was subtle, the rose wasn’t very strong. But we did questioned whether real rose was used, as it tasted like rose syrup. Nonetheless, the rose should be a crowd favourite with the ladies.
Salty Caramel ($2.30) Introducing the saltey caramel once again! Even though we chose the cafe caramel, but we couldn’t miss out having the saltey caramel macarons. Like mentioned above, the salted caramel had a very unique taste, and compared to the Cafe caramel cake, this one was much better as you could taste the saltey caramel, whereby the former was overshadowed by the stronger chocolate companion.
Total bill was $28.45 for 2 cakes and 4 macarons. I’ve to confess, amidst all the high anticipation of Canelé, my first visit fell short of expectations. I think maybe it’s a case of ordering the wrong desserts. Or because i had high hopes, which resulted in the not-as-good outcome. Such is the magic of Canele, that i’ll definitely visit them again to try out the other cakes, even though the first escapade wasn’t really what i want.
There’s plenty of others which i’ll love to try, the le royale, canele pastry, jupitar, and many more. I think the next time round, i’ll probably go to the raffles city branch, since the “in-thing” is to be seen hanging around at their Shaw centre branch, seats are hard to get here. And one thing i noted, if the area behind that is housing The Canteen (another Les Amis restaurant), is used to expand Canelé instead, i’m pretty sure it will also fill up pretty easily.
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
A sweet suprised from my BF due to my birthday. It nice of him to brought me a special cake from prima deli.
1 Roses Fantasy (Chocolate) ($30.80 / 600g)
Blooming pink chocolate roses on luscious hazelnut cream within layers of chocolate sponge enveloped within dark chocolate pieces.
Piece by piece of chocolate form up a heart shape by the side of the cake. On the top is fill with pink roses which is made from white chocolate. Inside the cake there is layer of chocolate sponge cake follow by lots of hazelnut and at the bottom with another layer of chocolat sponge cake. The hazelnut is very crunchy. It taste good with the sponge cake and taste abit light.
Overall the cake is not bad. Thanks to my BF for the special cake.
Rating given:
A little suprised from my close lunch bubbies for buying me an ice-cream cake from Swensen when we were out for lunch. We have the mini celebration at our office area around tea break time.
1 Swensen's Special cake ($40.00 per Kg)
A thin layer of sponge cake at the bottom. Inside there is 3 flavours sticky chewy chocolate, stawberry and vanilia ice-cream. follow by a thin layer of sponge cake on top with fresh cream. With some chocolate chips and fruits for decoration.
The fruits were hard to eat as it has already freeze. The ice-cream were very cold and good. Espcially the sticky chewy chocolate. For the rest of the flavours were not bad too.
Sponge cake is in thin layer, Overall the cake were not bad. Thanks to my lunch bubbies.
Total bill: $42.80 ($2.80 is for the 7% GST)
Rating given:
While we have the restaurant setting a stall in the coffee shop (think Cilantro), and there’s also the restaurants invading the heartlands, and we can’t possibly forget about Angmohs, or Caucasians setting up a stall in the coffee shops selling western food. Botak Jones was the benchmark, and now we have our latest entrée, Crazy Angmo!
Crazy Angmo was featured in the papers, with the trend of more Angmohs selling western food in the local heartlands. Having their first stall in Bishan, the owner, Paul, had opened his second stall at Bukit Batok. Whether it’s coincidently or not, Botak Jones happened to just set up an outlet in Bukit Batok too, just one bus stop away.
Chicken Parmagian ($7.90)
The chicken paramagian was one of the more expensive item on the menu, other than the steak and the lambchop. There’s cheaper options like the express meal chicken cutlet, chicken chop at $4.80. But for “higher-end” options, the rest are priced at $6.90-$7.90.
Coated with a thick layer of melty cheese and tomatos, the chicken paramagian was quite good, i especially like the melted cheese which tasted great with the crispy chicken. But i did find the layer of tomato sauce, which was in between the cheese and the chicken, a tad sour. You needed to eat the chicken fast as it became soggy after a while. Nonetheless, the generous sides like the mashed potatos, and salad provided a hearty meal.
Crazy Burger ($7.90)
The crazy burger, being one of Crazy Angmo speciality, deserved a try. I think it’s better value for money than the Botak Jones burger, since this came with cheese and egg, while the latter at $8 only had the burger plus one additional topping of either cheese or egg. The Botak Jones burger was $7 at a set, and to add egg and cheese, it’ll be $9 already.
I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of pineapples within the burger, and the melty cheese together with the runny egg was excellent. However, i did find the beef patty being over marinated with pepper. The bun was rather hard and toasted to char. And the fries were simply ordinary and forgettable.
But overall, i did think that the crazy burger at $7.90 was not too bad, and definitely better than Botak burger. The owner Paul was very confident of his burger, “This is the best burger mate!“
Total bill was $15.80 for two western meal sets. Prices are a tad higher than your usual hawker centre western food, but like what i mentioned before, if you compared Botak Jones, Crazy Angmo with the normal western stalls, prices certainly will be more expensive. On the other hand, thinking it as a cafe western food, these stalls will be much cheaper than the cafes and restaurants.
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:
This is a tale about the chicken and the duck. Yesterday, we have discussed why chicken is more popular than duck. But if you asked me, i’ll tell you i love my ducks more than my chickens. Just ordering half a chicken, i can actually get a bit sick of eating finish the meat, but for duck, i can have the whole duck and i can still carry on.
My friends have always complaint my blog feature nice food from Bukit Batok, is there truly no delicious food around? Actually yes and no, since different people have different taste bud, its quite hard to determine what is considered nice and delicious. But since we are on the topic of chickens and ducks, let me show you what i think is one of the better duck rice in Bukit Batok.
This particular stall is no strangers to Bukit Batok-ians, and even foodies living elsewhere. Their duck is the toast of the crowd, and it always sold out pretty fast, and sometimes if you are there at the wrong time, you’ll need to wait for them to roast the duck as they didn’t roast all their ducks at one go.
Their duck meat was considerately fatter than the normal ones, with a thick layer of fats beneath the unhealthy, yet-so-good duck skin. The meat was tender, and you must eat it together with the fatty skin to get the “oomph” kick! The only gripe - the serving was rather small even for half a duck, you couldn’t get enough of the meat.
Roast pork
I also enjoyed their roast pork, with a super crispy skin. This is no joking matter, biting into the roast pork, will give you the “crisp” sound, that alone would tell you the crunchiness.
Char siew
Their char siew was actually the weaker of the three. Althought it’s rather juicy, but the char siew meat somehow lacked the “wow” factor, and the sight of the bright red colouring also put me off. They also sell soy sauce chicken, but it’s not good compared to the rest.
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:
One fine day, the duck met the chicken and ask it a question, “why is it that you guys are more popular than us?” The chicken answered confidently, “Of course, we are the superior birds!”…
Have you ever wondered why is chicken more popular than duck? Ask a group of Singaporeans what are among their favourite local delights, and there are bound to be chicken rice, laksa, char kuay teow, and many others. But have you ever heard “Singapore duck rice”?
Looking at the offical statistics will tell a clearer picture, chicken consumed in 2007 was 33.0kg per capital compared to 3.2kg that of duck. That’s like 10 times the difference in the total amount consumed! Right, let’s discuss why chicken, is more popular than duck. First, the methods of preparing chicken are much more than duck, you can fried, steamed, stir-fried, boiled, roasted, chicken, but how about duck? You heard of fried chicken, but is there fried duck?
Half a chicken ($13)
This particular stall in Bukit Batok block 273, always had long queues for their chicken. Actually i did try their chicken for quite a lot of times already but didn’t bother to feature it since you don’t bring your dslr to the market. The chicken was quite good, smooth and tender with the meat being flavourful, but rather on the salty side with the “over-generous” use of the light soy sauce.
The rice was fragrant, and not too oily. And the chili, was red hot spicy! I found it to be one of the more spicy chicken rice chilis around. But even though the chicken rice was quite good, i wouldn’t bother queuing up for it unless i really got the urge. Still, i dared say this is one of the better chicken rice stall around, in Bukit Batok. Watch out for “the tale of the chicken and duck part 2” tomorrow!
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:
I walk into this shop and was greeted by Calvin Chan, Assistant Retail Manager.
I was looking for a particular ring. He showed me a few but not what I am looking for. He wasn't abit irriated, he asked me to look around while he tried searching his stock but to no avail.
He took my contact number when I have to leave and offered to check his other outlets for me and will ring me when he find any similiar ones.
He's not pushy and not abit irriated even I didn't get anything from him when I leave. This is a good sign of customer service.
Rating given:
This is my 1st visit to the shop as I have no much chance visiting Jurong Shopping area since I stay in Punggol.
They having 20% storewide, fashionwear and bags. I bought 2bags, a black and white. The 2 staffs are very friendly, Samantha who attended to me, even offered the bag she reserved for herself to me after I spotted some black spots on the white bag.
I must say she really have the company's interest as well customer service. I have come across before, walking into a shop wanting to buy a dress and was told it was reserved by a STAFF, (note: not customer reservation).
For me, besides the goods in the shop must be of interest to me, customer service is also v important.
Walk in to this shop if you happens to be in Jurong Point. :)
Rating given:
What constitutes to a nice bowl of Teochew Fish Porridge? Ask HFB, and he will tell you its “fresh fish, tasty stock and the grains not overcooked” over and over. Started way back in 1966, HFB would dare say 泉香鱼口粥 (Quan Xiang Fish Porridge), now located at Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, is one of the best in the west.
With choices of the usual Batang Fish ($3, $5 and $7) and the pricier Red Garoupa ($5, $7 and $10), what one gets is a bowl of piping hot “Cheng” fish porridge, with a minimum dash of fried shallots. HFB opted for the $5 batang option and it gotten him a good 10 or so slices of fish – even if he finds them too thinly sliced for his liking. Fish slices were smooth and fresh without the lingering fishy smell, but HFB did find it frustrating at the lacked of bite.
The soup though was a delight – it was sweet and light on the palate, and it has HFB’s favourite Tang O, or Garland Chrysanthemum added within – definitely a good choice these days for those feeling under the weather.
The grains were excellently cooked to bite – every grain was firm and not mushy – HFB resisted to call it al dente, but that’s what came closest to mind. And of course, a Teochew Fish Porridge experience cannot be completed without the Fermented Bean Sauce as dip.
Overall, it would have been a satisfying experience if not for the measly serving – would probably opt for 2 portions of $3 instead on my next visit.
You can view all the photos here.
Rating given:
I've always been an advocate/fan/fanatic/supporter of dim sum so when Dim Joy hopped onto the bandwagon a couple of months back, I was tempted to have a shot at it especially in this recession period where Yan Ting and Royal China are seemingly out of reach for my shallow pockets. Of course it helped that Dim Joy reportedly specialises in dim sum and sells only dim sum items throughout the day - a psychological effect?
And I finally got the chance to dine there on a Saturday morning. Playing anchor to a row of beautifully restored shophouses along Neil Road, Dim Joy oozes sublime old world charm with its facade and simply done up interior that allows natural light in. Cool airconditioning coupled with a nice warm glow from the sunlight make for a soothing and relaxing environment.
Lingnan Egg Tart - Although the lingnan egg tart didn't fall into the buttery crust category which I personally prefer, I have to admit that it was almost in a class of its own. A flaky crust that compounded the oven baked goodness with a smooth, wobbly and not too sweet custard filling that had an almost surreal semi liquid feel. Very delicately done if I may say so.
Savoury Beancurd Skin Roll - Not your usual beancurd skin roll, this one looked like it had tempura batter sporadically coated on it before deep frying. And there was no crackling crispy skin either. Instead, the roll was a tad crisp yet moist, not to mention fragrant with a light savoury aftertaste that complemented the filling of mushroom and radish.
Custard Bun - I wasn't too impressed by Dim Joy's rendition of the custard bun even though the the custard filling was semi molten and oozed out with ease with a break in the skin. The quintessential egg yolk taste was sorely lacking and I could make out some granular substance in the custard which I presume to be partially undissolved sugar (I'm just guessing). There were traces of egg yolk as well from the slightly rough texture but as mentioned earlier, the taste was minimal.
Honey Syrup Char Siew Bao - Unlike the custard bun, the Char Siew Bao was excellent, for lack of a better word. The dough was soft and fluffy with an ample bite to it. However the char siew filling came across as rather lacklustre, mildy sweet from the honey but with a rather high proportion of fat meat in my humble opinion. Having said that, the dough itself is enough to warrant seconds for me (Not that I did though).
Barbecued Pork & Celery in Rice Rolls - The rice roll aka Chee Cheong Fun was a little different from the usual silky smooth ones in that there was an oily finish to it, very much like kway teow or flat noodles. However, as with the char siew bao, the char siew filling in the rice roll was forgettable and overall a rather bland dish.
Century Egg with Lean Pork Congee - I personally dislike century eggs but this porridge was surprisingly decent, especially the pork cubes (actually they looked like chicken cubes), which were tender with a nice salty tinge to it. The porridge itself wasn't too starchy and the ginger slices kept nausea at bay. One serving can feed 2 pax easily.
King Shrimp Har Gao - I would have preferred one large prawn in my har gao instead of 3 medium sized ones but I'm not complaining. The skin did seem a whisker too thick and elastic for my liking but on the upside, the har gao didn't carry the overwhelming prawn taste that plagues alot of har gaos.
Crispy Pumpkin Balls - This came complimentary with every spending of $30 and above. I'm not exactly a big fan of such stuff so I won't comment much except that it reminded me uncannily of those rounded pieces of chewy flour coated with sesame seeds on the outside that are being sold at most dough fritter stalls.
Durian Snow Pearl - This signature dessert reminded me of durian snow skin mooncakes except that the skin on this one was soft and excellent. No elasticity or excessive flour taste that I have a particular disdain for. The skin seemed to meld in rather well with the durian filling and cream when I popped one into my mouth. The only thing I didn't really appreciate about the dessert was the cream, which I personally felt marred the taste a little.
It does seem that Dim Joy is giving the bigger boys a run for their money with its relatively high quality of dim sum at a slightly lower price to boot. The 2 of us spent about $52 for a rather enjoyable and filling dim sum session in a nice soothing environment. Service was good but I wasn't exactly too pleased at being charged $1 for iced water.
See all my pictures here.
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Canelé Patisserie Chocolaterie, the fame dessert restaurant that had been making waves with its delicate and dainty small bites. With the mention of patisserie, the immediate reaction would be Canelé, which tells you something about the reputation that they had built up in a short period of time. Besides cakes and other desserts, Canelé also offered a variety of chocolates.
Canelé Patisserie has done a very good job with its marketing and branding strategy. The chic sounding name, the cool sun-shape logo, coupled with its stylish interior, and of course their “designer” cakes and desserts. Not to mention Canelé is under the Les Amis group, which has strong capital funding to make all these possible.
The miniuscule interior had few seats available. When we went around 3pm, the place was packed fully, and had to be put on the waiting list.
Seating are largely from the Al fresco area, built in mind to create the Parisian road-side cafe ambience, albeit it wasn’t prefect with the busy orchard road, and McDonald located just a stone throw away.
With the inauguration of their latest branch at Shaw centre, this brings the tally to four with the others located at Paragon, Raffles city, and Robertson quay. Like Starbucks, the opening of each outlet almost guaranteed full-house customers. This really makes me wonder why is there no other worthy competitor to come out and vie a share of the market.
Cafe caramel ($8.50)
Milk chocolate coffee mousse, chocolate genoise with expresso, salty caramel and hazelnut feuilitine. Canele’s signature cake with the usage of the salted caramel, which gave an unique taste to it. However, there was only a single layer of salted caramel right in the middle of the cake, which my companion and I felt was a tad too little.
The strong chocolate, with the subtle coffee flavour, overwhelmed the salted caramel taste. But i love the hazelnut feuilitine which added crunchy bites to the cake. Having heard rave reviews for Cafe caramel, it fell short of our expectations. And we felt that the caramel didn’t really compliment the chocolate sponge cake.
Strawberry shortcake ($6.50)
Japanese shortcake sponge, kirsch creme chantitlly, and fresh strawberries. Another famous cake, the strawberry was not very sweet, but it’ll be better if it’s those sweet tasting Japanese imported ones instead. We felt the cake was too tame, there wasn’t much flavour.
However, it could work either way, as it’s good for light tasting, the cream wasn’t overly heavy, the sponge was light, but not for me because i would prefer more intense flavour. Overall I felt it was mediocre as it lacked the kick and “wow” factor. But then again, its strawberry shortcake, what else could you expect?
And how can we forget Macarons? Canele’s ones are divided into two different type, with the classic and the signature flavours. With a total of 12 variety to choose from, I’ll definitely come back to try the rest.
The pricing however, remained a mystery to me. If you would do some simple maths, buying 6 pieces of macarons at $2.3 will be only $13.8 instead of $14.50 per box. So is Canelé charging extra for the cost of the box? I’ll thought that buying more will cost less, since it can encourage sales.
Hazelnut Praline with roasted hazelnut ($2.30)
I told you, i loved my hazelnut! It was an obvious choice when my companion wanted 4 macarons. Hazelnut was supposed to be a safe and full-proof flavour for desserts, not lest macarons. But the one here was rather weak in flavour. The hazelnut taste was mild, and i’ll prefer it to be stronger. Obolo had a stronger case for its hazelnut macarons. Nonetheless, the hazelnut was still detectable, and there’s after taste of it.
Milk Chocolate feullitine ($2.30)
How can anybody resisted the temptation of milk chocolate? Not me, that’s for sure! The silky milk chocolate, with crunchy bites of feullitine, was one of Canele’s signature flavours. There was nothing intriguing about it, just a reliable and safe option to taste the chocolate while munching on the chewy shells.
Rose ($2.30)
We also picked the rose classic flavour for one of our macarons. The first taste of the lovely pinkish delight was subtle, the rose wasn’t very strong. But we did questioned whether real rose was used, as it tasted like rose syrup. Nonetheless, the rose should be a crowd favourite with the ladies.
Salty Caramel ($2.30)
Introducing the saltey caramel once again! Even though we chose the cafe caramel, but we couldn’t miss out having the saltey caramel macarons. Like mentioned above, the salted caramel had a very unique taste, and compared to the Cafe caramel cake, this one was much better as you could taste the saltey caramel, whereby the former was overshadowed by the stronger chocolate companion.
Total bill was $28.45 for 2 cakes and 4 macarons. I’ve to confess, amidst all the high anticipation of Canelé, my first visit fell short of expectations. I think maybe it’s a case of ordering the wrong desserts. Or because i had high hopes, which resulted in the not-as-good outcome. Such is the magic of Canele, that i’ll definitely visit them again to try out the other cakes, even though the first escapade wasn’t really what i want.
There’s plenty of others which i’ll love to try, the le royale, canele pastry, jupitar, and many more. I think the next time round, i’ll probably go to the raffles city branch, since the “in-thing” is to be seen hanging around at their Shaw centre branch, seats are hard to get here. And one thing i noted, if the area behind that is housing The Canteen (another Les Amis restaurant), is used to expand Canelé instead, i’m pretty sure it will also fill up pretty easily.
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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