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Sport & Recreation
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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
Rating given:
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.
* * *
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
Rating given:
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
Rating given:
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:
This small eatery was featured in a Singaporean food variety shows as well as a number of local newspaper lifestyle reports for its unique variety of waffles e.g. oreo, durian, honey.
From 10am to 10pm daily, you can experience an all-you-can-eat buffet of waffles of many different flavours. You can also pick from a (One-time) selection of ice-creams and drinks to complement your waffles. All these for just $8.80! If somehow you are still hungry, you can top-up $3 for a main course e.g. spaghetti.
However, you should also take note of some house rules e.g. the standard buffet wastage charges. As the Durian flavor waffles is the most requested flavor at Waffle Factory, each buffet diner is entitled to only 1 Durian flavor waffle. You just have to try the waffle to understand why - instead of a durian-flavored paste, this is a real fresh durian filling!
We tried a total of 12 waffles - each waffle is about the size of a palm and there are many flavours to choose from. Some must-try flavors include Oreo and Sweet Corn.
We ordered a chocolate float and ice-cream waffle cone (included in the buffet price). They complemented the hot waffles perfectly.
Perhaps because its still early (11am+), there wasn't anyone else in the cafe so service was quite fast. We are allowed to order 3 waffles at one time and the service staff were friendly and helpful to recommend us the best flavors to try.
For $8.80, this is actually quite a worthwhile buffet if you really like waffles although you could get quite sick of waffles after this treat. We stayed off waffles for quite some time. :-)
For more info, check out: http://www.passportchop.com/asia/singapore/waffle-factory-buffet/
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Located at the heart of Mongkok, it served as a good pitstop from hours of shopping at nearby Tung Choi Street Market (Ladies Street). There are lots of cafes and even a cinema (showing just 2 Cantonese movies) around the hotel.
While there is limited walking space in a Standard Double Room at Stanford Hong Kong Hotel, the cool view of Hong Kong’s environment and the spacious writing table more than makes up for it. However do take note that the small bottle of water on the writing table is booby-trapped! It will cost you HKG40 (almost S$8) to drink it!
The beds are really comfortable and the LCD TV offers a number of cable channels ranging from HBO for the latest movies to ESPN for the latest sports update. The hotel package we bought also included free Wi-Fi – just bring your laptop, get the network password from the hotel reception and you are good to go!
The shower and toilet facilities are pretty much what you would expect from a 3-star hotel. What’s unique is that instead of providing you with bottles of shampoo and bodywash, Stanford Hong Kong hotel had combined hair soap shampoo shower gel conditioner into one solution available from a dispenser in the toilet!
For more pictures and reviews, check out: http://www.passportchop.com/reviews/accommodation-reviews/hong-kong-standford-hotel-review/
Rating given:
Not coming back.
This was my first visit to Aston after hearing so much about it. No doubt I did not have steak which was what they are famous for, but I'm writing this review based on what I have. I still feel that as a restaurant you should take care of your other dishes as well.
This outlet feels like a family place and packed with families and students on a Saturday evening. I was seated next to a group of 10 students on an outing so was rather noisy.
Minestrone ($3.50) - didn't have this but heard it was diluted and not good.
Clam chowder ($3.50) - thick creamy but bland. I found chicken instead of clam. Hmmm. Both soups came really lukewarm and we asked to heat it up. The staff said he needed to check with the manager (???). When they returned the 2nd time, it was still lukewarm. We gave up.
Spinach salad ($6.90) - Really just spinach leaves anda few sundried tomatos on top (we had asked to replace bacon bits with it), nothing else. The balsamic vinegrette was okay but too tart for my liking.
Chicken provanacle ($10.90) - I forgot to take pics of this but no loss. A cut of chicken laced with mushroom sauce, accompanied by wedges and buttered mushrooms (you could choose any 2 side dishes from a list). The chicken came with too much, and wedges served cold. The mushrooms were not too bad though.
It may be forgivable to neglect your non-famous dishes a little but I think serving hot soup should be a basic. Not going back there, even though prices are really attractive.
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Not too bad ~
Picked this for a family dinner and was quite surprised that it was not packed on a Sunay night. It was a bit chilly maybe because of the small crowd at about 6pm but that also meant I had a staff standing right beside our table trying to look inconspicious while waiting for us to need his service.
I have to say I can't remember the exact names of the dishes but these are what the 4 of us had:
Spinach tofu with mushrooms - homemade tofu with a layer of spinach on top, covered in stir fried mushrooms and sauce. The tofu was quite nice and not too soft, with the mushrooms adding a bite to the dish.
Fried kailan and mushrooms - Didn't know if the kailan was the main thing or mushrooms, but this was the best dish of the evening. Kailan was done just crunchy and mushrooms sauce was a very nice savory addition to the greens. Alongside it was a basket of beehoon filled with deep fried mushroons, a nice treat to the stir fried ones. Nicee~
Seafood beehoon soup - clear warm stock filled with loads of bee hoon and diced everything: green beans, prawns, squid, etc. I like it for the fact it was comfort food. Its a huge portion for 1 order (the pic shows individual bowl after they've portioned it out)
Curry crab - the biggest disappointment of the evening. It was one M-size crab drowned in heavy curry. I have to admit we ordered it due after much persuasion and recommendations by the staff, but it turned out to be a strange combi on the palette. Maybe I didn't like the too-strong taste of the coconut milk but it wasn't my cup of tea. It came with a plate of oily garlic bread which was not good either.
Service was okay, and nothing exceptional. This was definitely a much better choice than the other side of east coast where jumbo and gang was though, less quiet amd I'm quite sure the prices are about the same. The location's good mostly for those who drive as parking's typically not an issue.
Saw that they have an ala carte buffet lunch at $26.80 per pax (if I remember correctly), but not sure what's on the lunch menu. They had a 10% with DBS / POSB cards that night so that's a bonus.
They also have quite a number of private rooms so good for corporate guests too.
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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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It’s that time of the year again – the hairy crab season.
The October and November period is the time for harvesting the tiny crustacean; while they are definitely not the biggest in size, it is often touted as the king of crabs (maybe with the exception to the Alaska king crab).
Almost every decent Chinese restaurant will be offering this delicacy; it’s either you have this, or be square. And they are also not exactly cheap, the better quality ones can cost up from fifty to hundreds of dollars. I was invited to a tasting session by Food Junction recently – they are the first and only food court in Singapore to offer hairy crabs.
The highlight of the hairy crab is definitely the rich roe within; the main difference of the male & female hairy crab will be the latter having more roe.
Here’s the step by step guide provided by Food Junction on “How to eat Hairy Crabs”
Step 1: Lift flap on the underside of the crab. remove the heart.
Step 2: Pry open the toe shell to enjoy the roe.
Step 3: Remove gills
Step 4: Hold on to the legs & break the body in half.
Step 5: Cut crab leg into smaller segments.
Step 6: Push it through to the narrower segment of the claw into the other to extricate the flesh in the latter.
Step 7: Remove Pincer from crap and snip into smaller segments.
Step 8: Cut along the sides of the pincer to extricate the flesh.
The hairy crab set consists of one crab and ginger tea, with the necessary tools like the scissors and gloves (if you need one). We also had some side dishes of steamed pork dumpling (xiaolongbao) which I found to be ordinary; the skin cracks when I tried to lift them up. Order the fried pancake instead, it is a better appetiser and fares much better than the xiaolongbao.
To be honest, I’m not a big fan of crabs in general. I don’t understand why people spend so much time and effort to pry out so little meat hidden within the shell; fine I admit, I’m lazy – I don’t like to get my hands dirty! Anyway if you are keen to have a hairy feast, the hairy crabs will be available at three Food Junction food court (Bugis Junction, Great World City and The food place @ Raffles city) from now until 20th December; with the male ones priced at $18.80 and the female one at $23.80. I will like to thank Pris & Racheal and Food Junction for the invitation.
Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you
Rating given: