My friend told me that this stall sells good 'Bak Ku Teh' and has an almost signature hot spicy peppery 'Bak Ku' Soup. I have always preferred 'Bak Ku Teh' that are of a much peppery taste, thus i purposely made my way down to Jurong East and try them out.
Hidden in a hawker centre in Jurong East, this shop was located at the circumferences of the hawker centre. So, one simply needs to walk round that hawker centre and you will be able to locate this store. It should be considered as one of the biggest 'Bak Ku Teh' store in that entire hawker center as it occupies two shop spaces instead of a normal one.
They have quite a few certificates (makansutra, where the queue starts, etc) pasted on the store, this indirectly indicate that their 'Bak Ku Teh' would be of a certain standard. Of course, this had also increase my expectation on this store.
Their varieties found on the menu was pretty similar compared to other 'Bak Ku Teh' store. Beside pork ribs, it also have intestines and pork trotters. The 'Bak Ku Teh' comes in two different portion and starts from 4 bucks for the smalles portion.
I ordered the smallest portion of the 'Bak Ku Teh' and it comes with three pork ribs. This portion was pretty similar as compared to other 'Bak Ku Teh' store. However, i find that their pork ribs were bit too small and have much fats in them. Perhaps, pork ribs with fats would made the 'Bak Ku Teh' more tasty but still, i would prefer those of a leaner pork.
As for the 'Bak Ku' soup, it was indeed peppery, however this peppery taste may be too much for those who cannot accept spicy stuffs. Combined with the garlic, it forms a pretty tasty soup overall. But still, i wish that the garlic taste would be bit stronger. :)
They were pretty generous when it comes to refilling the 'Bak Ku' soup where they would refill it up to the rim of the bowl. Although, they only refill the 'Bak Ku' soup for once, they are still willing to refill the soup for me when i asked for the second time. Pretty customer oriented in this case.
The ION orchard food hall was like a maze to me. Every food store looks so similar (in terms of exterior decoration) to me. After several turns, we still can't decide what to have. In the end, we decided to just settle with the store right in front of us. This store is non other than “The Taiyaki”.
"The Taiyaki” food store basically made use of the ‘see-through’ idea to allow customers to have a closer distance with the chef. In this case, customers will be able to see how their food is being prepared and at the same time, be assured that the chef will not short change them in terms of quantity and hygiene. Personally, I feel that such ‘see-through’ concept is a pretty good idea as one will not need to ask the chef what they are cooking or how it was being prepared, etc.
“The Taiyaki” sells Japanese style crispy pancakes and these pancakes were all shaped as a fish. Wonder why the Japanese liked the ‘Fish’ shape so much as I have saw similar ‘fish’ shape pancakes selling elsewhere. Perhaps the ‘fish’ shape is a pretty simple shape to mould or perhaps it holds some special meaning for the Japanese themselves.
This store sells about six different varieties of crispy pancakes, which can be divided into two categories – the sweet and the savory ones. The sweet pancakes include the red bean, the banana chocolate and the apple cinnamon. As for the savory ones, there are bacon and egg, Italian and german potato. Recently, they also came out a new curry flavor of crispy pancake.
We ordered the Italian flavor crispy pancake. It consists of tuna, cheese, corn, tomato sauce and sausage. Can you imagine how a small size pancakes can packed so many ingredients inside? Well, it sure did and the end product was a big fat fish pancake. :) At first, I was pretty wary that the taste may be weird as each of these ingredients has its own unique taste. After the first taste, I realized that these thoughts were unnecessary. When savoring the mixed product of these ingredients, I find it pretty alright and am still able to taste each ingredients unique taste.
I liked the special batter that they used, making the pancake to taste very crispy. The amount of ingredients was pretty substantial, making the entire pancake to be very filling. For a cost of less than 3 bucks for each pancake, I feel that this pancake is pretty worth the price. To compare with those of very thick batter, I still prefer this pancake over those. However, I dislike the fact that the pancake gets burnt easily with few black patches on the pancake. Perhaps, the temperature of the oven was pretty high that day to accommodate faster time to make the pancakes. However, it would definitely be better if they would slowly bake the pancakes at an optimal temperature.
This store should have existed for a very long time now. I can still vaguely remember how my mom would buy their tau kwa for me to eat when i am just a kid. Yes, am indeed surprised that this store still exists after so many years. Perhaps, its special and unique recipe can indeed satisfy the taste buds of many people here.
Mary corner is located in a coffeeshop near the traffic junction. Although the coffeeshop is a pretty small one but still there is some difficulties in locating this store. Thanks to its numerous signs, notices and newspaper cuttings that shed some light to me. I managed to find this store at an un-noticeable corner of the coffeeshop.
Mary corner sell quite a few items but their 'tau kwa' seems to be the most popular item of all. As such, we decided to order their 'tau kwa'. Afraid that its portion may not be filling enough, we also ordered a bowl of laksa. The total cost of a plate of 'tau kwa' and a bowl of laksa is 8 bucks. A pretty acceptable pricing, i can say.
One plate of their 'tau kwa' hold two big pieces of bean curd. On top of this deeply fried bean curd were sprinkled with some bits of ingredients. From what i can see, these ingredients consist of boiled egg, cucumber and some form of crispy cracker. To top it off, theses 'tau kwa' were drizzled with some special sauce. The overall 'tau kwa' tasted pretty average, but i do like the big portion of the bean curd and the chopped ingredients. Also, if they managed to make the whole dish slightly warmer, it will definitely taste nicer. ;)
Their chilli is also worth abit of mentioning as i find it’s to be rather special. Their chilli is a special blend, besides the chilli sauce, they have also added in the green chopped chillies. It does not taste like the normal chilli sauce as it appears to be rather watery. Also, it does not have an extremely spicy taste. In fact, i can actually taste some sweetness in them. However, if you would like to have an additional spicy shot, you can taste the green chopped chilli provided in their bowl of chilli.
As for their laksa, it’s pretty normal. Their laksa is normal, in the sense that it does not have any extraordinary ingredients. Only the normal ingredients such as prawns and 'tau pok' are seen. Personally, find that their laksa gravy is bit too watery for my liking. I would definitely prefer a thicker version of the gravy. A point worth mentioning for their laksa is the substantial amount of prawns. One would be able to find at least 4 prawns in a single bowl of laksa. Believe that this is the most number of prawns that i have eaten in a normal bowl of laksa.
If you are sick of the normal plain fried ‘tau kwa’, you may wish to try out Mary corner famous ‘tau kwa’.
I admit, I’m spoil. And I blame everything on Yanting. If I have not had better dim sum before, the ones at Wen Dao Shi might be consider pretty decent, but the truth is – they are not.
They need not be anyway, people come here for the nostaglic feeling of sitting by the roadside in the red district area. People come all the way here because there’s not much options when you suddenly have a craving for dim sum in the middle of the night. And people like it here because it’s unpretentious and affordable.
This is not a food review, it’s a night where old friends come together and have fun. I will tell you absolutely nothing about the food here, because on this night the food becomes secondary. But I can’t do that can I? You are after all here to find out more about the place, so here’s a few snippets about the dim sum:
For around ten dollars per person, we had quite a lot of food. There was the usual Siew mai & Har gau, the former was pretty decent while the latter did not impress. The skin of the shrimp dumpling cracked even before we picked it up.
You probably want to go with the fried stuff instead. The fried prawn dumpling that came with the mayo dip was pretty competent and the xiaolongbao was fairly average.
We had the steamed pork-ribs, and also the cheong fun. The rice roll came with a different type of sauce that I couldn’t make out, and there’s too little fillings inside.
If you are there, don’t bother to get the Char siew sou, the taste was completely flat – the puff lacked the crispy buttery flakes, and the char siew did not have the attributes to earn the rights to be inside the char siew sou. But I was surprised by the char siew bao, the buns were fluffy and soft, and it came pipping hot.
Since most places do not serve dim sum at night, and even for places that have dim sum for dinner, they close early and Wen Dao Shi is probably one of the few places that can satisfy your dim sum cravings in the middle of the night. While there are others who felt that the dim sum here is over-priced, on the contrary I thought that the pricing is pretty reasonable.
But the next time I have a dim sum craving? I will sulk, go to bed with an empty stomach, dream about it and wait till the next day for my favorite dim sum.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
It's rare to find a place serving western food with vegetarian and we decided to try it out since none of the others were attractive to us. I ordered the fruit salad topped with strawberries. Some mixing were needed since the strawberry cream was only on top. It tasted better after I figured the mixing part out.
I was tempted to try out the spicy fries but thought the better of it and it was a good idea since I was full from my main course; somehow, I can't recall what I ordered. Apparently, it was acceptable for my taste buds.
My favourite part of the meal was when dessert from my boyfriend's set dinner was served. It took at least 2 tries with the waiters and waitresses before it finally arrived. Vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate and muffin. It was heavenly.
Service was polite although the food needed to be cooked more deliciously.
It was down to Chinese cuisine and at Changi airport, choices were far and few. I was generally sick of Crystal Jade Shanghai Kitchen so Imperial Treasure it was. It definitely helped that I had a positive experience at Imperial Treasure Teochew Cuisine before.
Located in the main lobby of Crowne Plaza Hotel at Changi Airport, the restaurant utilizes a dark wooden paneled facade to portray an air of exclusivity and class. Plush cushion seats amidst a carpeted flooring complete the picture.
Roasted Goose - Geese are a scarce commodity nowadays, especially after the banning of birds from China and Taiwan during the bird flu outbreak a couple of months back. And I baulked at paying $30 for probably just a quarter of a goose. But I did so nonetheless and am glad that it turned out splendid. A thin layer of fat sandwiched between crackling crisp skin and succulent meat, lying in a shallow pool of oily fluid. If you are the sort to squirm in the presence of excessive oil, it would be in your best interests to steer clear of this dish.
Sauteed Scallops with Truffle Oil - I loved this dish, especially with the aroma of truffle oil. The four scallops were huge, juicy and came served on a bed of lip smacking egg white. There is actually an option of having this dish without the truffle oil (its quite a fair bit cheaper too) but my advice would be to stick to truffle oil.
Broccoli with Mushroom - I personally thought that the broccoli was a little undercooked, rendering it a tad too hard for my liking. However the plentiful mushrooms more then made up for it and overall a very decent dish.
A most gratifying dinner for 2 didn't make it past the century mark, standing at a shade over $90, which was still reasonable in my context. I did think that $3 for a bowl of rice was a little over the top though. Service was good and I can't really find any reason not to return.
Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?
We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.
How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.
Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.
The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.
This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.
I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?
It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.
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This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
It started with another email thread again, this time Camemberu suggested to check out the famous Founder Bak Ku Teh and a date was set. I don’t usually write posts about hawker food. It’s not like I don’t eat hawker food, but the problem is I have too many backlogs of the nice places that I went recently.
Founder is one of the few popular choices that most people will think of them when you mention Bak Kut Teh. You know a place is famous when we actually queued up twenty minutes for a table by the road side of Balastier road, watching the others slurping down their warm peppery soup.
The fact that the walls are filled with the numerous photographs of famous celebrities, and there’s hardly any empty space for new photographs that they probably paste it over some of the fallen-stars. Or the fact that even when we left the place, there’s still a snake-like queue waiting outing for their turn to get in – just for a bowl of bak ku teh.
While the highlight of the show should be the pork ribs, but the pork trotters was even better. Surprisingly, the proportion of lean meat to fats was just right; there wasn’t much fats like the usual pork trotters. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly.
We also had an pig organ soup that consisted of kidney, liver and small intestines. I like how the medium-rare liver retained it’s tinge of pink, and the robust flavour of the kidney, but the soup lacked the wow factor.
The Bak kut teh was quite a let-down – we were expecting a lot for the fact that we queued twenty minutes for this. Or for the fact that we ordered wrongly and had the normal tough pork ribs instead of the supposedly superior loin ribs. There was the usual side-dishes like youtiao, beancurd skin, salted vegetable, and braised taupok (beancurd).
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”
The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.
There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.
SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.
And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.
I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.
I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.
Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.
And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.
Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.
* * *
This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
It took me a year to finally visit Raw Kitchen Bar. Actually I dropped by when they just opened a year ago, but I did not have my dinner there back then. And despite staying just 10 minutes away from the place, it took me until now to pay them a visit. Yes, I’m a year late, but it’s better to be late than never isn’t it?
And boy oh boy, December is almost here. I like the year-end, for one it’s the month of celebrations with Christmas and New year, and I get to sum up my adventure for the whole year. Food-wise, this has been a fulfilling year, and I thought my winner for the best new restaurant is already decided, until I visit Raw.
Stepping inside, there’s just something different about this place. There’s the flimsy light bulb with different pieces of whimsical furniture to begin with. Then you have the quaint and charming backyard that looks like an awesome place to throw a tea party. The chef/owner Javier comes out and greet every table, all in all, you have the feeling of dining in the chef’s house.
The food is pretty good too. While we looked through the menu debating over spaghetti mentaiko, and commenting that the bun noodle sounds cute; we finally decided on the Capellini cream of ebiko and sauteed prawns ($19). Every slurp of the angel hair pasta seems to make its existence for your taste of the food. The portion might be a tad small, but it should be adequate for one person’s serving. We also like how the succulent prawns and flavorful ebiko enhanced the taste of the al dente pasta.
The Balsamic duck ($23) was a bit of let-down though, and not that it wasn’t good. The duck drumstick was firm and quite unlike that of a duck confit, but it had an uncanny similarity to the Chinese braised duck in terms of the smell and taste. We would probably enjoy it more if we did not have braised duck before; fusion dishes don’t work in this case, but maybe it’s just us. And for someone like me who usually don’t like mashed potato, the ones that came together with the petite drumstick here, was gorgeous in all sorts of ways.
The choice of the pizza was through an elimination method since there was only three to choose from. Spring vegetables pizza didn’t sound exactly appealing to us, and my friend did not want the mozzarella basil rosemary pizza, so we were left with the Prawns & chili pizza ($19). It was an irony that Raw Kitchen Bar was housed in the former premises of a firestation, wewe were about to call in the fire brigade for help – this pizza’s one kick-ass, fiery, spicy pizza.
This might not sounds convincing since I do not have high tolerance for chili to begin with; but even my friend who claimed that she grew up eating chili, agreed that this pizza was literally hot. And for the price, we weren’t expecting it to be so huge, which sort of compensate for the petite portions in the other two dishes.
Now I have a tough choice for the best new restaurant (among the places that I went to), and I know there’s probably a few more like Spruce & Hacienda (I have not been there yet) that will probably make the cut too. See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
1=SGD 0.0587
My friend told me that this stall sells good 'Bak Ku Teh' and has an almost signature hot spicy peppery 'Bak Ku' Soup. I have always preferred 'Bak Ku Teh' that are of a much peppery taste, thus i purposely made my way down to Jurong East and try them out.
Hidden in a hawker centre in Jurong East, this shop was located at the circumferences of the hawker centre. So, one simply needs to walk round that hawker centre and you will be able to locate this store. It should be considered as one of the biggest 'Bak Ku Teh' store in that entire hawker center as it occupies two shop spaces instead of a normal one.
They have quite a few certificates (makansutra, where the queue starts, etc) pasted on the store, this indirectly indicate that their 'Bak Ku Teh' would be of a certain standard. Of course, this had also increase my expectation on this store.
Their varieties found on the menu was pretty similar compared to other 'Bak Ku Teh' store. Beside pork ribs, it also have intestines and pork trotters. The 'Bak Ku Teh' comes in two different portion and starts from 4 bucks for the smalles portion.
I ordered the smallest portion of the 'Bak Ku Teh' and it comes with three pork ribs. This portion was pretty similar as compared to other 'Bak Ku Teh' store. However, i find that their pork ribs were bit too small and have much fats in them. Perhaps, pork ribs with fats would made the 'Bak Ku Teh' more tasty but still, i would prefer those of a leaner pork.
As for the 'Bak Ku' soup, it was indeed peppery, however this peppery taste may be too much for those who cannot accept spicy stuffs. Combined with the garlic, it forms a pretty tasty soup overall. But still, i wish that the garlic taste would be bit stronger. :)
They were pretty generous when it comes to refilling the 'Bak Ku' soup where they would refill it up to the rim of the bowl. Although, they only refill the 'Bak Ku' soup for once, they are still willing to refill the soup for me when i asked for the second time. Pretty customer oriented in this case.
Rating given:
The ION orchard food hall was like a maze to me. Every food store looks so similar (in terms of exterior decoration) to me. After several turns, we still can't decide what to have. In the end, we decided to just settle with the store right in front of us. This store is non other than “The Taiyaki”.
"The Taiyaki” food store basically made use of the ‘see-through’ idea to allow customers to have a closer distance with the chef. In this case, customers will be able to see how their food is being prepared and at the same time, be assured that the chef will not short change them in terms of quantity and hygiene. Personally, I feel that such ‘see-through’ concept is a pretty good idea as one will not need to ask the chef what they are cooking or how it was being prepared, etc.
“The Taiyaki” sells Japanese style crispy pancakes and these pancakes were all shaped as a fish. Wonder why the Japanese liked the ‘Fish’ shape so much as I have saw similar ‘fish’ shape pancakes selling elsewhere. Perhaps the ‘fish’ shape is a pretty simple shape to mould or perhaps it holds some special meaning for the Japanese themselves.
This store sells about six different varieties of crispy pancakes, which can be divided into two categories – the sweet and the savory ones. The sweet pancakes include the red bean, the banana chocolate and the apple cinnamon. As for the savory ones, there are bacon and egg, Italian and german potato. Recently, they also came out a new curry flavor of crispy pancake.
We ordered the Italian flavor crispy pancake. It consists of tuna, cheese, corn, tomato sauce and sausage. Can you imagine how a small size pancakes can packed so many ingredients inside? Well, it sure did and the end product was a big fat fish pancake. :) At first, I was pretty wary that the taste may be weird as each of these ingredients has its own unique taste. After the first taste, I realized that these thoughts were unnecessary. When savoring the mixed product of these ingredients, I find it pretty alright and am still able to taste each ingredients unique taste.
I liked the special batter that they used, making the pancake to taste very crispy. The amount of ingredients was pretty substantial, making the entire pancake to be very filling. For a cost of less than 3 bucks for each pancake, I feel that this pancake is pretty worth the price. To compare with those of very thick batter, I still prefer this pancake over those. However, I dislike the fact that the pancake gets burnt easily with few black patches on the pancake. Perhaps, the temperature of the oven was pretty high that day to accommodate faster time to make the pancakes. However, it would definitely be better if they would slowly bake the pancakes at an optimal temperature.
Rating given:
This store should have existed for a very long time now. I can still vaguely remember how my mom would buy their tau kwa for me to eat when i am just a kid. Yes, am indeed surprised that this store still exists after so many years. Perhaps, its special and unique recipe can indeed satisfy the taste buds of many people here.
Mary corner is located in a coffeeshop near the traffic junction. Although the coffeeshop is a pretty small one but still there is some difficulties in locating this store. Thanks to its numerous signs, notices and newspaper cuttings that shed some light to me. I managed to find this store at an un-noticeable corner of the coffeeshop.
Mary corner sell quite a few items but their 'tau kwa' seems to be the most popular item of all. As such, we decided to order their 'tau kwa'. Afraid that its portion may not be filling enough, we also ordered a bowl of laksa. The total cost of a plate of 'tau kwa' and a bowl of laksa is 8 bucks. A pretty acceptable pricing, i can say.
One plate of their 'tau kwa' hold two big pieces of bean curd. On top of this deeply fried bean curd were sprinkled with some bits of ingredients. From what i can see, these ingredients consist of boiled egg, cucumber and some form of crispy cracker. To top it off, theses 'tau kwa' were drizzled with some special sauce. The overall 'tau kwa' tasted pretty average, but i do like the big portion of the bean curd and the chopped ingredients. Also, if they managed to make the whole dish slightly warmer, it will definitely taste nicer. ;)
Their chilli is also worth abit of mentioning as i find it’s to be rather special. Their chilli is a special blend, besides the chilli sauce, they have also added in the green chopped chillies. It does not taste like the normal chilli sauce as it appears to be rather watery. Also, it does not have an extremely spicy taste. In fact, i can actually taste some sweetness in them. However, if you would like to have an additional spicy shot, you can taste the green chopped chilli provided in their bowl of chilli.
As for their laksa, it’s pretty normal. Their laksa is normal, in the sense that it does not have any extraordinary ingredients. Only the normal ingredients such as prawns and 'tau pok' are seen. Personally, find that their laksa gravy is bit too watery for my liking. I would definitely prefer a thicker version of the gravy. A point worth mentioning for their laksa is the substantial amount of prawns. One would be able to find at least 4 prawns in a single bowl of laksa. Believe that this is the most number of prawns that i have eaten in a normal bowl of laksa.
If you are sick of the normal plain fried ‘tau kwa’, you may wish to try out Mary corner famous ‘tau kwa’.
Rating given:
I admit, I’m spoil. And I blame everything on Yanting. If I have not had better dim sum before, the ones at Wen Dao Shi might be consider pretty decent, but the truth is – they are not.
They need not be anyway, people come here for the nostaglic feeling of sitting by the roadside in the red district area. People come all the way here because there’s not much options when you suddenly have a craving for dim sum in the middle of the night. And people like it here because it’s unpretentious and affordable.
This is not a food review, it’s a night where old friends come together and have fun. I will tell you absolutely nothing about the food here, because on this night the food becomes secondary. But I can’t do that can I? You are after all here to find out more about the place, so here’s a few snippets about the dim sum:
For around ten dollars per person, we had quite a lot of food. There was the usual Siew mai & Har gau, the former was pretty decent while the latter did not impress. The skin of the shrimp dumpling cracked even before we picked it up.
You probably want to go with the fried stuff instead. The fried prawn dumpling that came with the mayo dip was pretty competent and the xiaolongbao was fairly average.
We had the steamed pork-ribs, and also the cheong fun. The rice roll came with a different type of sauce that I couldn’t make out, and there’s too little fillings inside.
If you are there, don’t bother to get the Char siew sou, the taste was completely flat – the puff lacked the crispy buttery flakes, and the char siew did not have the attributes to earn the rights to be inside the char siew sou. But I was surprised by the char siew bao, the buns were fluffy and soft, and it came pipping hot.
Since most places do not serve dim sum at night, and even for places that have dim sum for dinner, they close early and Wen Dao Shi is probably one of the few places that can satisfy your dim sum cravings in the middle of the night. While there are others who felt that the dim sum here is over-priced, on the contrary I thought that the pricing is pretty reasonable.
But the next time I have a dim sum craving? I will sulk, go to bed with an empty stomach, dream about it and wait till the next day for my favorite dim sum.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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It's rare to find a place serving western food with vegetarian and we decided to try it out since none of the others were attractive to us. I ordered the fruit salad topped with strawberries. Some mixing were needed since the strawberry cream was only on top. It tasted better after I figured the mixing part out.
I was tempted to try out the spicy fries but thought the better of it and it was a good idea since I was full from my main course; somehow, I can't recall what I ordered. Apparently, it was acceptable for my taste buds.
My favourite part of the meal was when dessert from my boyfriend's set dinner was served. It took at least 2 tries with the waiters and waitresses before it finally arrived. Vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate and muffin. It was heavenly.
Service was polite although the food needed to be cooked more deliciously.
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It was down to Chinese cuisine and at Changi airport, choices were far and few. I was generally sick of Crystal Jade Shanghai Kitchen so Imperial Treasure it was. It definitely helped that I had a positive experience at Imperial Treasure Teochew Cuisine before.
Located in the main lobby of Crowne Plaza Hotel at Changi Airport, the restaurant utilizes a dark wooden paneled facade to portray an air of exclusivity and class. Plush cushion seats amidst a carpeted flooring complete the picture.
Roasted Goose - Geese are a scarce commodity nowadays, especially after the banning of birds from China and Taiwan during the bird flu outbreak a couple of months back. And I baulked at paying $30 for probably just a quarter of a goose. But I did so nonetheless and am glad that it turned out splendid. A thin layer of fat sandwiched between crackling crisp skin and succulent meat, lying in a shallow pool of oily fluid. If you are the sort to squirm in the presence of excessive oil, it would be in your best interests to steer clear of this dish.
Sauteed Scallops with Truffle Oil - I loved this dish, especially with the aroma of truffle oil. The four scallops were huge, juicy and came served on a bed of lip smacking egg white. There is actually an option of having this dish without the truffle oil (its quite a fair bit cheaper too) but my advice would be to stick to truffle oil.
Broccoli with Mushroom - I personally thought that the broccoli was a little undercooked, rendering it a tad too hard for my liking. However the plentiful mushrooms more then made up for it and overall a very decent dish.
A most gratifying dinner for 2 didn't make it past the century mark, standing at a shade over $90, which was still reasonable in my context. I did think that $3 for a bowl of rice was a little over the top though. Service was good and I can't really find any reason not to return.
See all my pictures here.
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Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?
We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.
How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.
Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.
The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.
This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.
I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?
It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.
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This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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It started with another email thread again, this time Camemberu suggested to check out the famous Founder Bak Ku Teh and a date was set. I don’t usually write posts about hawker food. It’s not like I don’t eat hawker food, but the problem is I have too many backlogs of the nice places that I went recently.
Founder is one of the few popular choices that most people will think of them when you mention Bak Kut Teh. You know a place is famous when we actually queued up twenty minutes for a table by the road side of Balastier road, watching the others slurping down their warm peppery soup.
The fact that the walls are filled with the numerous photographs of famous celebrities, and there’s hardly any empty space for new photographs that they probably paste it over some of the fallen-stars. Or the fact that even when we left the place, there’s still a snake-like queue waiting outing for their turn to get in – just for a bowl of bak ku teh.
While the highlight of the show should be the pork ribs, but the pork trotters was even better. Surprisingly, the proportion of lean meat to fats was just right; there wasn’t much fats like the usual pork trotters. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly.
We also had an pig organ soup that consisted of kidney, liver and small intestines. I like how the medium-rare liver retained it’s tinge of pink, and the robust flavour of the kidney, but the soup lacked the wow factor.
The Bak kut teh was quite a let-down – we were expecting a lot for the fact that we queued twenty minutes for this. Or for the fact that we ordered wrongly and had the normal tough pork ribs instead of the supposedly superior loin ribs. There was the usual side-dishes like youtiao, beancurd skin, salted vegetable, and braised taupok (beancurd).
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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One of the reasons why I hardly blog about Japanese food is because I always have difficulty in remembering all the mind-boggling names. I heard of Standing Sushi Bar a while back when it just opened, and the first question on my mind: “are there seats inside?”
The catchy name certainly helps to pique the curiosity of most people, and I found out that the theory of stand, order sushi and eat only applies to lunch where there are no seats. For dinner you can sit down comfortably (although it’s kind of cramp) and enjoy your sushi.
There was six pieces of the California roll ($6) each; since the others were saving up their stomach for the other courses to come, I had the lion’s share of it. There’s just something about California roll that attracts me; this is the kind of thing I could keep eating and still never get enough. Okay fine, that’s just an excuse – I’m a glutton.
SSB’s owner Howard made the selections, and he chose a platter of five nigiri sushi for us; Maguro ($2), Sake Toro ($2), Hamachi ($4), Aburi Hotate ($4), Shime Saba ($3). I particularly enjoyed the scallop which had a tangy sauce to further enhance the sweetness of it.
And how can we do without Sashimi? The Chef’s special ($25) will definitely delight all the sashimi fans out there; I bet you are already salivating at the prospect of putting the thickly sliced, fresh sashimi with a pinch of wasabi into your mouth.
I was particularly intrigued by the Anago nigiri ($6) when it arrived on our table. The long and slimy salt-water sea eel looks so tantalizing with a coat of sauce, and there was the challenge of gobbling it up with one bite.
I have mentioned it before, but girls seem to love their Salmon a lot. And the Salmon Yuzu Yama-mayo yaki ($15) will be the perfect choice; the fish crumbled at the lightest touch and it was tasty with the appetizing sauce, but I would prefer it to be slightly more charred on the surface.
Besides all the raw nigiri sushi and sashimi, there was also some cooked food available and we had the Mix Kinoko Foil Yaki ($10) which by all accounts, wasn’t cheap for just mushrooms, but I have to say it was delicious. There was the special-sauce-which-the-chef-absolutely-refused-to-divulge that is supposedly the success behind the three mushrooms.
And we also had the Tori Karaage ($6) which was quintessentially fried chicken wrapped with seaweed. After having so much raw food, it was nice to have some sinful, deep-fried food for a change.
Standing Sushi Bar has a pretty value for money set lunch, so if you are working in the area, check them out, but you have been warned – there’s no seats during lunch.
* * *
This is the first part of a series that I will be doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.
Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given:
It took me a year to finally visit Raw Kitchen Bar. Actually I dropped by when they just opened a year ago, but I did not have my dinner there back then. And despite staying just 10 minutes away from the place, it took me until now to pay them a visit. Yes, I’m a year late, but it’s better to be late than never isn’t it?
And boy oh boy, December is almost here. I like the year-end, for one it’s the month of celebrations with Christmas and New year, and I get to sum up my adventure for the whole year. Food-wise, this has been a fulfilling year, and I thought my winner for the best new restaurant is already decided, until I visit Raw.
Stepping inside, there’s just something different about this place. There’s the flimsy light bulb with different pieces of whimsical furniture to begin with. Then you have the quaint and charming backyard that looks like an awesome place to throw a tea party. The chef/owner Javier comes out and greet every table, all in all, you have the feeling of dining in the chef’s house.
The food is pretty good too. While we looked through the menu debating over spaghetti mentaiko, and commenting that the bun noodle sounds cute; we finally decided on the Capellini cream of ebiko and sauteed prawns ($19). Every slurp of the angel hair pasta seems to make its existence for your taste of the food. The portion might be a tad small, but it should be adequate for one person’s serving. We also like how the succulent prawns and flavorful ebiko enhanced the taste of the al dente pasta.
The Balsamic duck ($23) was a bit of let-down though, and not that it wasn’t good. The duck drumstick was firm and quite unlike that of a duck confit, but it had an uncanny similarity to the Chinese braised duck in terms of the smell and taste. We would probably enjoy it more if we did not have braised duck before; fusion dishes don’t work in this case, but maybe it’s just us. And for someone like me who usually don’t like mashed potato, the ones that came together with the petite drumstick here, was gorgeous in all sorts of ways.
The choice of the pizza was through an elimination method since there was only three to choose from. Spring vegetables pizza didn’t sound exactly appealing to us, and my friend did not want the mozzarella basil rosemary pizza, so we were left with the Prawns & chili pizza ($19). It was an irony that Raw Kitchen Bar was housed in the former premises of a firestation, wewe were about to call in the fire brigade for help – this pizza’s one kick-ass, fiery, spicy pizza.
This might not sounds convincing since I do not have high tolerance for chili to begin with; but even my friend who claimed that she grew up eating chili, agreed that this pizza was literally hot. And for the price, we weren’t expecting it to be so huge, which sort of compensate for the petite portions in the other two dishes.
Now I have a tough choice for the best new restaurant (among the places that I went to), and I know there’s probably a few more like Spruce & Hacienda (I have not been there yet) that will probably make the cut too. See you there!
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
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