As always, I have been on the lookout for the ‘Best Wanton Mee in Singapore‘, and when one of my friend mentioned that the Pontian Wanton Noodles which has several branches in Singapore, is very good – I was kind of skeptical. It’s not that I don’t believe his taste buds, but rather because having tried the authentic Pontian Wanton Mee in Pontian, Malaysia, I seriously doubt that the local franchise can be as good as the original one.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Parkway Parade, and for once, I was actually craving for KOI Bubble Tea, but KOI Cafe wasn’t open yet. While waiting for the bubble tea, Pontian Wanton Noodles at Marine Parade Market happened to be just beside, and there’s no prizes for guessing what happened next.

Ketchup > Chili

I love all things ketchup and that includes having the ketchup version of wanton mee. There were three choices of the sauce base for the wanton mee: ketchup without chili, chili or black sauce with chili. Looks-wise, it appeared to be quite similar to the original Pontian Wanton Mee that I had in Pontian. Small, dainty portion that’s hardly enough to fill a man’s stomach, and two bowls of noodles are always a must if you want to walk away satisfied. That’s all fine with me since we were paying 3 Malaysian ringgits back then and it’s really cheap for a bowl of good wanton mee.

Unfortunately, this is SGD$2.80 that we are talking about right here. To be fair, the Singapore version of Pontian Wanton Mee wasn’t as bad as I thought it will be. But the char siew was too thinly sliced, while the deep-fried wantons were too tiny and lacked any substantial bite. The only saving grace was the bouncy and firm noodles, but portion-wise, it really wasn’t enough.

Tell me, where’s the best Wanton Mee in Singapore that you always go to?

Hawker Food Review
Pontian Wanton Mee
Blk 84 Marine Parade Central
Marine Parade Hawker Centre Singapore
Directly opposite KOI Cafe

After sharing a nutella tart at Everything with fries, we continued our rendezvous at The Garden Slug, and having desserts at The Cheesecake Cafe in the middle of the night never tasted so good. Slurping down KOI Bubble Tea, checking out a new yogurt place and wandering around Parkway Parade for a Sushi high tea; all seems part and parcel of the perfect Saturday. We took everything With a Pinch of Salt and now I’m left wondering: what’s next?

I know honey, lets have Thai food tonight! Mmmm, but, but I am craving for a burger too! Two Fat Men is a no-frills cafe/bar located at East Coast road which serves Thai street food and Western Bar food.

Actually, I’m quite hesitant to describe them as a cafe since it isn’t one technically. Lets try again: Two Fat Men is somewhat like a watering hole set in a kopitiam setting, and interestingly, their menu has both Thai and Western influence.

The Grilled Pork Neck with tamarind spicy sauce ($8.90) was divine. Seriously, that’s all you need to know. No matter how much I raved about it, no amount of words would do justice to the beautiful and rosy pork neck, with a railway track of proportional fats running along the side of the meat. It was fatty, yet not cloying, luscious and so, so tender!

The shot of the Basil Chicken Fried Rice ($6.50) was less than flattering and all of us were obviously visual creatures when it arrived on the table.

“Eh, why did we order the fried rice?”

It was wrong for us to judge the fried rice by the plain appearance. I’m quite critical when it comes to fried rice, it’s either good or bad, no in between. But Two Fat Men’s Basil chicken fried rice totally won me over. Every Grain of rice seemed to capture the essence of the wok-hei. Honestly, I had no idea how to describe the fried rice – this was simplicity at its best. I’d definitely recommend you to try the fried rice and the grilled pork neck at Two Fat Men.

Like what I’ve mentioned in my previous post, size does matters when it comes to burger.

In this aspect, Two Fat Men didn’t really meet the requirement. The burger patty was substantial but not filling. My dining companion had the Cajun Chicken Burger ($6.90) which I felt was better than the Two Fat Men’s Beef Burger ($7.90).

After having a ‘main course’ each, there were still room in the stomach and we decided to order the Brats with fries ($6.90). It was an unfortunate closure for the dinner at Two Fat Men as the sausages and fries were run-of-the-mill.

Two Fat Men is somewhat like the Smok’Inn Frogz Kitchen of the East. Both Aston Specialties and Everything with fries are kind of over-hyped popular now, if you are looking for cheap and affordable food in the East of Singapore – I’d definitely recommend With a Pinch of Salt Cafe, and Two Fat Men. I’m so coming back again to try the other Thai food!

Restaurant Review
Two Fat Men
376 East Coast Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6346 0046
Open Daily 5pm – 3am

While we were discussing on how to celebrate our birthday, my evil twin Miss Tam Chiak suggested that we should go on a food trail looking for the best hawker food in Singapore.

I am not sure if it’s a coincidence, but whenever I go out with Maureen, we tend to spend a crazy amount on hawker food. Like the $28 Kurobuta pork from Big D in a coffee shop, and the $8 prawn noodle from Noo Cheng Adam Road Prawn Mee at Zion road food market. So it is only fitting that for our belated birthday celebrations, we go for a food trail to look for the best hawker food in Singapore.

For this first series of our best hawker food trail, Maureen did her research and came up with a list of famous hawkers in Bedok. Our first stop is Bedok Interchange Food Centre!

Will the best Chwee Kueh in Singapore please stand up?

I have eaten Jian Bo Shui Kueh from Tiong Bahru food market since I was a kid. Naturally, I have strong attachments towards it. The famous Bedok Chwee Kueh had the better first impression as it had a generous spread of the chye poh on the steamed rice cake. On the other hand, the toppings on the Jian Bo Shui Kueh was miserable in comparison to the Bedok Chwee Kueh.

Between the two of us, we unanimously agreed that Bedok Chwee Kueh is better than Jian Bo Shui Kueh. The latter’s chye poh (preserved radish) was over-done, which resulted in the loss of sweetness of the radish.

Whatever.

I am still upset that my favorite Jian Bo Shui Kueh isn’t as good as the Bedok Chwee Kueh. It’s time to make another trip to the original Jian Bo Shui Kueh at Tiong Bahru food market.

We completed our first stop at the Bedok Interchange Food Centre by having the Selegie Soya bean and bean curd.

While we were frantically looking for our #2 stop Hon Ni Kitchen Nasi Lemak at Bedok Blk 216 Food market, a nice couple overheard our conversation and told us that the famous nasi lemak stall was closed on Sunday.

As we were looking for the Hon Ni Kitchen Nasi Lemak, Chris’s Kway Chap caught our attention with a long line in front of the stall. It couldn’t be that bad if there were so many people queuing for it right? There were around 7-8 of people in front of us, and we actually waited 20 minutes for the kway chap!

I have been searching for the perfect kway chap for the longest time.

There used to be a food stall in the old Holland Drive food market that had the best kway chap. I used to have it for breakfast all the time and suddenly one day — they were gone. Nobody knew where they shifted to, or if they had closed down. Ever since then, all the kway chap that I had were sub-standards.

The owner was highly skilled. He’d use the ladle to scoop the pork intestines from the boiling pot, tossed it upwards and grabbed it with his bare hands. I swear that it was a piping hot pot, yet he repeated the same step for every order as though the pork intestine wasn’t hot.

I’m not very certain if this is the best kway chap in Singapore, but I love how the braised hard boiled egg, mixed pig offal, bean-curd and the preserved salted vegetables blended together as one with the drizzled of the dark soy sauce. The ‘kway’ (flat rice sheets) had a very consistent and smooth texture, and it tasted very well with the rest of the ingredients.

Which is the Original Katong Laksa in Singapore?

This has always been a tricky and controversial topic. Up till now, I still do not have any idea which is the first stall that came up with the real katong laksa that has become famous today.

Anyway, The Original Katong Laksa (name of the stall also known as Marine Parade Laksa) is currently located in a coffee shop at Blk 128 Bedok North St 2. The laksa gravy was seductive with a familiar distinct taste that all laksa-fans would love, and the ingredients of cockles and prawn were the perfect foil for the rich coconut laksa.

After ordering the legendary Hill Street Char Kway Teow, both of us were intrigued by a commotion forming at Ah Wah Rojak. The queue lasted just five minutes shorter than our wait for the Hill Street char kway teow.  To be fair, I thought that the rojak was pretty decent, but Maureen didn’t like it as the youtiao wasn’t nor crispy.

We had a great day exploring the different food markets in Bedok, and there are still plenty of good food in Bedok like the famous Bedok 85 bak chor mee that we have not covered. I am planning for the next hawker hunt, which area will you recommend for a food trail?

Best Singapore Hawker Food in Bedok

Bedok Chwee Kueh
Blk 207 New Upper Changi Road
#01-53 Bedok Interchange Food Centre

Jian Bo Shui Kueh
Blk 207 New Upper Changi Road
#01-24 Bedok Interchange Food Centre

Selegie Soya Bean
Blk 207 New Upper Changi Road
#01-46 Bedok Interchange Food Centre

Chris’s Kway Chap
Blk 216 Bedok North Street 1 Market and Food Centre #01-80

Ah Wah Rojak
Blk 16 Bedok South Market and Food Centre #01-197

Hill Street Char Kway Teow
Blk 16 Bedok South Road Market & Food Centre #01-187

Char Kway Teow has a very important position in my heart. It is the Singapore local food that I missed the most when I went for holiday in Sydney. Ever since I started this Singapore Food Blog three years ago, I have been on the look out for the Best Char Kway Teow in Singapore.

Given a choice between a plate of char kway teow against the other Singapore local food like chicken rice, or bak kut teh, I will definitely go for the former. Our hunt for the best char kway teow in Singapore brings us to Hill Street Char Kway Teow at Bedok South road food market.

Hill Street Char Kway Teow is famous for serving up plates and plates of the delicious stirred fried noodle. They are probably one of the few stalls that most people will think of when it comes to best char kuay teow in Singapore.

Dear fans of Hill Street Char kway teow, I am not saying that your beloved char kway teow is not good, but the problem is it isn’t wet enough, and maybe it isn’t my type of char kway teow.

The more sinful it is, the better!

To me, a plate of good char kway teow should be oily and moist enough. For the healthy conscious folks, I am sorry, but char kway teow must be oily! Nobody, I repeat, nobody can resist a plate of luscious and aromatic char kway teow.

I wouldn’t mind if there’s no queue, but to wait 20-25 minutes for it is kind of insane, and I probably will not go all the way to Bedok South just for it.

Honestly, I went there with high hopes, thinking that this could be the one – you know – the best char kway teow in Singapore. I am not sure if it’s a case of over expectation, unfortunately Hill Street Char Kway Teow didn’t wow us. It was good, but not good enough to be the best char kway teow in Singapore. My personal favorite is still the No 18 Zion Road Char Kway Teow.

Many readers have asked me to blog more about our popular hawker food in Singapore through formspring and twitter. In case you are not following me on twitter, I went on a hawker food hunt with Miss Tam Chiak last weekend, and I will be blogging a series of Best hawker food in Bedok next.

Hawker Food Review
Hill Street Char Kway Teow
Blk 16 Bedok South Road
#01-187 Bedok South Road Market & Food Centre
Tel: +65 9042 1312

More cafes and restaurants are coming up with fanciful and catchy names to get the attention of customers. On the few times that I passed by the Tanjong Katong area, I noticed that there’s a bright cheerful cafe, With a Pinch of Salt.

With a Pinch of Salt is a cafe at Tanjong Katong in the East of Singapore. If you haven’t seen it before, the cafe is situated directly opposite the LICK little ice cream Kafe and the famous Punggol Nasi Lemak.

‘It’s only a cafe, don’t take it so seriously.’

Stepping inside With a pinch of salt, this was the first sign that greeted us. The color theme of the cafe has a close resemblance to that of a nursery, very warm, jolly and friendly. It’s one of those places that will make you smile no matter how bad your day was.

When the waitress brought the plate of Jumbo Chick’s Leg ($11.90), we were stunned like we’d been tasered. “No way..!” The portion was way bigger than what we’ve expected!

“NO WAY..! No, no, no.. Yes!”

‘OMG‘ was the only response we had for the chicken leg. I took a look at the menu again, it was only twelve bucks. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and looked at the menu once more. It’s either my eyesight had deteriorated or the restaurant had made a mistake. But either way, we were not complaining.

Another item that we picked was the Old Uncle Mac’s Favorite ($16.90). Steak, lamb chop, pork, chicken, bacon, ham, potato wedges, and a sunny side up – this dish had it all! I would totally order this on my next visit!

The Beef Stew ($11.90) was definitely not the most attracting item on the table. I wasn’t even confident that my photoshop skills were able to give it a makeover so much so that I did not put up a photo of it. Picture this: a bowl of rich, mellow and tender beef with potatoes that absorbed the essences of the stew.

I had my favorite Chicken Corden-Bleu ($11.90): deep fried chicken breast stuffed with ham and melted cheese – splendid! It would be even better if they had used drumstick instead of chicken breast as the latter was slightly dry after the deep frying process.

My friend has been ordering the Dory Garlic Crusted ($9.90) whenever she comes to With a pinch of salt. Naturally, I was curious about the appeal of the dish. With a thick crust of garlic coat around the dory fillet, the whole dish was very appetizing in both smell and visual sense. But it’s probably not the best thing to order if you are not a fan of garlic.

The portions of the food at With a pinch of salt surprised us. Now now, what trouble have we gotten into? Among the 7 of us, we ordered 3 appetizers, 7 main courses, and 2 desserts. Under normal circumstances, this shouldn’t be an issue since there’s seven of us to share three starters and just two desserts. The problem came when each main course was almost big enough for two. Uh-oh!

One of the starters was a dozen of Escargot ($16.90 for 12). It was funny when we counted the leftover shells and discovered that there’s only eleven escargots. After looking at the photos that I took to confirm it, we came up with a conclusion: the snail must be camera shy!

Love at first sight is Chocolate souffle ($4.90). This dessert was the main reason why we were at With a Pinch of Salt for dinner. My friend was raving about it for the whole night and I couldn’t take it anymore! All the pictures of chocolate souffle floating in my mind were driving me nuts.

We had two chocolate souffle. Our lives are complete (for now).

With a Pinch of Salt is a nice and cheap cafe in the East of Singapore that offers decent food at huge portions, and affordable prices. Forget about the hyped-up-and-always-crowded Everything with Fries, I am coming back to With a Pinch of Salt soon.

When I tweeted about my dinner at With a Pinch of Salt, some folks commented that they had encountered bad service in the cafe. Other than the mystery of the missing snail, the dinner went pretty smoothly for us.

Have you been to With a Pinch of Salt, and is it true that the service there is trashy? Will you go back to a cafe that has good food, reasonable prices, but lousy service?

Restaurant Review
With a Pinch of Salt
297 Tanjong Katong Road
Tel: +65 6348 2297

I wasn’t kidding when I said that I have been hanging out in the East of Singapore. That’s probably good news for the folks who are living in the East as I will be blogging more about the best food places in the East of Singapore.

Stepping inside The Cheesecake Cafe at East Coast road near the Frankel Estate, I was caught off guard by two things: 1) the place is huge for a cafe that only offers cakes, finger food, and drinks, and 2) the Victorian-style interior design of the cafe.

Prior to this visit, I heard nasty rumors that there’s a no-sharing rule for The Cheesecake Cafe, but we didn’t have this problem when we were there. Somebody was disappointed that the popular Peach Jelly cheesecake was sold out, so we had the chocolate banana cake, tiramisu and the Vanilla Chocolate chip cheesecake instead.

Coming in the form of a triangular sliced cake, the Tiramisu ($7.20) at The Cheesecake Cafe surprised me with the unusual appearance. I’m accustomed to seeing tiramisu in cups or squares, and it took a while to get used to the sight of a sliced version.

The tiramisu was decent, with a strong espresso and vaguely weak liquor taste. It’s amazing how fast we could gobble down desserts, especially when it was directly after our dinner at The Garden Slug.

By normal circumstances, I’m not a big fan of the banana + chocolate combination. But The Cheesecake Cafe’s Chocolate Banana cake ($7.20) was acceptable as the banana taste wasn’t potent enough. The darkly chocolatey cake layer tinkered on the tongue, silently dissolving into a subtle banana composition.

I know this sounds kind of silly; it’s like having chicken rice without the rice, or chili crabs without the gravy, but I like the simplicity of the chocolate cake without the undue influence of the banana. It’s comforting to know that there’s banana present, yet it didn’t disrupt the taste of the cake.

Out of the three desserts that we had, my vote would go to the Vanilla Chocolate Chip cheesecake ($7.60). There wasn’t much of the vanilla, but I like the big, dotty chocolate chips that were on top. They melted seamlessly with the layer of thick and heavy cheesecake that had an uneven edge with a crunchy base.

All of us were charmed by her effortlessly, and it’s enough, really, to make me believe that happily-ever-after fairy tales ending do exist.

* * *

The Cheesecake Cafe is a great dessert cafe in the East of Singapore to chill out over a sliced of cake and drinks. Even though they do not have that many different types of cheesecake on the menu, the prices are reasonable and if you have not been here before, give it a shot.

Restaurant Review
The Cheesecake Cafe
685 East Coast Road
Frankel Estate
Tel: +65 6448 7725

I don’t get it. I don’t get the fuss over KOI Cafe’s Bubble Tea, but here I am queuing up for it behind twenty people. Please keep your calm, but I have to confess that this is my first time having bubble tea in Singapore.

I know there are plenty of bubble tea shops like Sweet talk and Each a cup that have been around for ages, but I wasn’t really tempted to have bubble tea even during the bubble tea craze a couple of years back.

Okay, stop looking at me like as if I’m a weirdo. Even though I only have my first bubble tea in Singapore last month, I’ve tried bubble tea when I was in Taiwan two years back. The milk tea was great; smooth and silky and wholesome, with lots of big chewy black pearls. The size of the drink is huge and it’s very cheap too – now that’s what i called a true Taiwan bubble tea.

Speaking of that, I asked a very silly question on twitter: Why is bubble tea called bubble tea? From the response, I was told that the marbled-size pearls resembled little pops of bubbles, but is that really the reason? (Corrected after comment by btlover)

Sorry for the rants and lets get back to Koi cafe’s milk tea. There’s so many different flavors available on the menu but I had the original Pearl milk tea on both occasions that I went to the Koi cafe outlet at Marine Parade. Are they worth the queue and price? The Pearl milk tea is almost a dollar more than the other bubble tea shops in Singapore. It’s good, but I wouldn’t queue up specially for it.

Will all the Koi Cafe lovers stand up and tell me why is Koi Cafe’s bubble tea so awesome?

I still don’t get it.

* * *

Koi Cafe Ang Mo Kio
Blk 704 Ang Mo Kio Central #01-2545 Tel: +65 6459 1518

Koi Cafe Bishan
513 Bishan street 13 #01-503 Tel: +6258 1729

Koi Cafe Illuma
201 Victoria Street #01-15 Iluma At Bugis Tel: +6884 6817

Koi Cafe People’s Park
1 Park Road #01-16 People’s Park Complex Tel: +65 6536 8330

Koi Cafe Marine Parade
Blk 83 Marine Parade Central #01-562 Tel: +65 6440 4869

Koi Cafe Toa Payoh
190A Toa Payoh Central #01-562 Tel: +65 6256 1169

The Garden Slug’s Waga Wagyu Beef burger ($18.90)

Of late, I have been hanging out in the East almost every week. I’ve mentioned on twitter that I needed some suggestions for my list on the best food places in the East of Singapore.

There were many responses pointing to the stretch of restaurants along East Coast road, with Aston Speciality and Everything with Fries among the more popular options there. But the whole area was a little hyped-up and I preferred a quieter place for a simple dinner.

I’ve been to The Garden Slug previously for a food photography workshop organized by Samsung Singapore. When my partner said that she wanted comfort food for dinner, the cafe immediately came to mind.

Housed in the same cluster together with a few pet stores, The Garden Slug is somewhat like an indie cafe at Lorong L Telok Kurau. It serves homely comfort food – think big portions of Western food at reasonable prices.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Rustic Bolognese pasta ($9.90). There wasn’t any fanciful ingredients, just a light tomato sauce created with topside beef and carrot chunks and topped with zucchini. It was a very simple yet satisfying pasta done the Garden Slug way – comfort food in large portions.

The Hickory Babyback ribs ($29.0 for full and $18.90 for half rack) was bright, and hearty. The perfect dish to whet your appetite when you don’t feel like eating, and it’s also the dish to make us hungrier when we are feeling hungry. Having half a rack alone was probably not enough, so we ordered the full rack to share.

Risotto looks like baby food, except that it’s much nicer.

I have a love-hate feeling for the risotto. It’s heavy, yet comforting. It’s a dish that I will want to order every time, but never wise to do so since I always can’t finish it on my own. It’s silly and downright foolish to try and finish a serving of risotto alone. Risotto is meant to be shared.

Subconsciously, I found myself scooping mouth after mouth after mouth of the Grilled Ocean Scallops with Mushroom risotto (on the weekend special menu). I adored the huge chunks of mushroom, and the risotto was somewhat similar to porridge. It’s warm and charming – the perfect thing for rainy days. This is comfort food at its best.

The portions of the dishes at The Garden Slug are big and filling, and the Pan Seared Dory Fillet ($17.90) is no exception.

* * *

Like what I have mentioned, most people would probably think of the stretch of restaurants along East coast road, or Siglap centre when they think of the best food places in the East of Singapore.

If you are looking for a place that is away from the crowded East Coast area, The Garden Slug is a great hidden gem to bring your family, friends or date to. The cafe is simple and unpretentious. Most of the main courses are priced under $20, and I can see myself returning to the garden slug for their all day breakfast soon.

Restaurant Review
The Garden Slug
55 Lorong L Telok Kurau
#01-59/61 Bright Centre
Tel: +65 6346 0504

The Garden Slug is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore.

Sunday symbolizes all the good things in life. The day where we get to laze in bed and have all day brunch. It is also the day where we get to have a leisurely afternoon tea and I think Sushi is the ideal snack for the meal in between lunch and dinner.

You know, the thing about sushi is you can pretty much have it at anytime of the day. Sushi for breakfast? Sushi for lunch? Sushi for high tea? Sushi for dinner? Sushi for supper? Sushi Mushi, we just can’t get enough of it.

Even though there’s plenty of cafes and restaurants at Parkway Parade, we couldn’t decide on one. Since there’s no Sushi Tei at Parkway Parade, the choice of venue for our high-tea sushi last sunday was Ichiban Boshi.

I blame someone for my recent cravings for Japanese food. Since there are as many sushi varieties at Ichiban Boshi as there are girls; let me give you my thoughts on some of the girls sushi.

I’d like to compare the California Roll at Ichiban Boshi to the School Belle. She’s the crowd-pleaser; the one that you can present to your friends knowing that everyone will like her. She’s the dream that we all desire for. On the other hand, the Ebi Oyako dazzled with the prawn tempura. With a combination of prawn tempura, sakura ebi, carrot and lettuce, it was almost impossible to eat the maki in a mouthful.

The Double Salmon roll ($3.90) is like the kind of girl that you will fall in love with at first sight. Sweet, pleasant, and dreamy, the presence of fried salmon together with cucumber in the middle of the sushi roll gave the fresh salmon that extra dimension to complete the taste.

Brash, feisty and spunky, the Soft Shell Crab roll ($3.90) is the sassy girl that is always so irresistible. With the spicy flakes and spicy sauce, she is unpredictable, and spontaneous – this is one sushi roll that you will either love or hate.

* * *

With both Ichiban Boshi and Ichiban Sushi located across Singapore, it’s very convenient to just drop by one and grab some sushi. I have not yet had the chance to try Sushi Tei, but I hope it will be very soon.

Restaurant Review
Ichiban Boshi Parkway
80 Marine Parade Road
#02-56 Parkway Parade
Tel: +65 6342 1013

Everything With Fries Cheese Burger

I was joking on twitter that restaurants are coming up with all sorts of fanciful name to catch the attention of diners. We have Mad for Garlic (an Italian restaurant at Suntec that is obsessed with Garlic), Once Upon a Milkshake (the ice cream/milkshake parlour), and now Everything With Fries (but apparently not everything comes with fries).

Gimmicky names are fine since they help customers to remember and associate the restaurant’s brand identity. For example, if it’s just called ‘another Italian restaurant’, chances are no one will take notice of it. But you know, if it’s up to me, I’d totally call my cafe Death by Nutella!

Okay that aside, I have been to Everything with Fries’s original outlet at Joo Chiat before, but I only had their popular Nutella tart that time. Fast forward half a year later, now they have a new branch at Lorong Mambong, Holland Village.

Everything With Fries Lamb Burger

Top of their main course list on the menu is the Cheese Burger ($9.90). All mains at Everything With Fries are served with a choice of fries and a coleslaw or baby caesar. While this is not as confusing, nor as complicated (or comprehensive if you prefer to say it in a nicer manner) as Aston Specialties just a stone throw down the road, there was some problems when it comes to deciding the fries.

Given it’s call Everything With Fries, nobody expects it to have just one type of fries. There’s two types to choose from, shoestring and straight cut – and five different ‘flavors’: Original, Curry, Salt & Vinegar, Sour Cream and Onion, Garlic and herbs.

I’m just guessing here, but they probably got the inspiration from potato chips. Doesn’t Sour cream and onion reminds you of Lays potato chips? Anyway among the few of us, we preferred the Straight cut (thick fries) to the Shoestring (skinny fries).

The staff strongly recommended the One Egg Soup. It was pretty value for money granted that the soup was only $3.90. Taste wise, it was not too bad, with a deep fried egg in the middle of chicken broth. But personally, I’d rather order an additional dessert.

Among the main courses that we have tried, I like the Pork Cutlet Sandwich ($8.90). There’s something about a pork cutlet sandwich that makes it so nostalgic.

If you do not want something so sinful, then go for the Grilled ham and cheese sandwich ($8.90). Lightly toasted bread with ham and cheese enveloped in between, accompanied by shoestring Sour cream and Onion fries, and coleslaw.

For desserts, we opted for the Mille Crepe ($5.90). On it’s own, the crepe was weak, bordering on bland. But when I dipped it in the chocolate sauce from the nutella tart, everything tasted so good! Maybe it’s the chocolate sauce then.

Mention Everything With Fries, chances are people will reply Nutella Tart ($4.90), which is one of their popular items on the menu. For five dollars, I am not complaining, but it will be perfect if it comes with a bigger scoop of ice cream.

* * *

It’s a very simple formula: Decent food + Catchy marketing + Affordable prices. But most places just don’t get it. They either tried and failed completely, or missed out on one of the factors.

I am hoping that the folks at Awfully Chocolate who are the ones behind Everything With Fries (EWF), will not go down the cafe-chain route. It’s cool to have two to three branches so that we can visit Everything With Fries without having to go all the way to Katong, but I think it will be a mistake if they are going to open a dozen cafes all over Singapore.

Everything with Fries is affordable, serve pretty decent Western food and now that there’s a new branch at Holland V, I’m very sure they will have many new supporters in the West.

Restaurant Review
Everything With Fries
458 Joo Chiat Road
Tel: +65 6345 5034

40 Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Tel: +65 6463 3741
(Closed on Monday)

The most amazing thing about having a food blog, is knowing the other food bloggers. Besides the food blogs in Singapore, I got to meet up with the KL food bloggers during my trip up north last year, and when I went for a holiday in Australia during December, the good Sydney food bloggers hosted and brought me around for the best food in Sydney.

When Howard & Linda (eatshow&tell) told me that they were stopping-over in Singapore for a few hours before flying to Hong Kong, I knew that I had to bring them to have our famous Chili Crab.

It’s a tough decision trying to choose a place, since there’s so many restaurants claiming to serve the best chili crab in Singapore. I finally decided on No SignBoard restaurant because it has always been one of my family’s favorite place for crabs. As there were 6 of us, the staff advised that we probably need two crabs, so our second choice was the Salted Egg Yolk crab ($40 per kg). It was an irony since No SignBoard is famous for their white pepper crabs in Singapore, but I’m not a fan of pepper. Besides, I know I want the salted egg yolk, and I wanted it immediately. You know, like now!

Drop-dead gorgeous.

Look at that, the golden cluster of the salted egg yolk! I licked off the salted egg yolk coat on the crab pincers, and it simply disintegrated. The sauce reminded me of the salted egg yolk in custard buns, both equally as good but this one was slightly saltier, and very fragrant.

Hand over your passports, nobody leaves Singapore without trying Chili crab.

Photogenic it is not, but in the mouth, one struggles for words, and everything is forgiven. There’s different renditions of Chili crabs, with each claiming to be better than the other; so how do you actually define what’s a good Chili Crab? I like it slightly sweet, and spicy. I like to dip my beloved deep-fried mantou into the thick and awesome gravy, pour a whole bowl of it onto the white rice and finish everything.

Six deep-fried Mantou please, no wait, make it twelve. Okay, give us another six more. Oh those incredibly delicious, tiny devils.

Coming from a poor chili eater, I find the Sambal Kangkong extremely spicy. Herein lies the question: do we like sambal kangkong because it is hot, or do we like it hot so we like sambal kangkong?

Anyway, I like my sambal kangkong to be hot even though I can’t take chili very well. And the one here, is damn hot.

I’m not sure about you, but it seems to me that people always order Cereal prawns not so much because of the prawns, but rather they like the crispy cereals. I’m not going to talk about the niffy gritty part on how to peel a prawn, forget every single thing that I’ve said – just swallow the whole prawn.

Without a doubt, Chili Crab is the face and ambassador of the Singapore food scene, and No Signboard has the best chili crab in Singapore – because I like them. And no, we are not going to start the controversial debate on ‘where is the best chili crab in Singapore’. Whichever crab you like, is the best crab.

If you have hang around for long enough, you’d know that I’m not a big fan of steamboat, so it’s always an once-a-year thing for Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Most reputable fine-dining Chinese restaurants are probably fully booked by now; so instead of having steamboat, how about Seafood for Chinese New Year? Sounds like a plan to me.

Restaurant Review
No Signboard Seafood
414 Geylang Road
Tel: +65 6842 3415
Daily 12pm – 1am

It’s that time of the year again. This is the time when we party & make merry, wear fanciful bunny ears, feast like kings & queens,  drown in lychee champagne – and get away with it. Did I mentioned party? Oh yes I did. Impromptu is our middle name, there’s nothing like a Christmas party that is planned just a few hours beforehand.

Darling, lets skip the turkey, uh-uh, no baked ham either. And I don’t want any Yule log cake. So instead of all those, how about the perfect char siew sou, and a fresh-out-of-the-oven egg tart? Even better, top it up with a peanut-butter chocolate cupcake, and follow by a lemon meringue tart. This is Christmas, isn’t it?

Christ-mas is all about gifts. It’s about giving and receiving; it’s the thoughts that count, it’s about the adrenaline when you are exchanging gifts & tearing the gift wrapper; and it’s about watching the wide smile & surprise on your face when you receive the present.

And above all, Christmas is the perfect excuse for us to feast. This is the night when we can eat to our heart’s content; this is the night when we can ignore our waistline, gorge ourselves silly and make friends with calories; this is the night we have a special Vietnamese spread to go with lychee champagne, and countdown to Jesus’s day with a ginormous burger in hand.

We braved the crowd, did some last-minute shopping, feast like a king, drown in champagne, mix white wine with red, laugh like mad, chat like old friends, and wish each other the best of luck for the coming new year; Xmas is all about food, friends & you. Merry Christmas to all of you!

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.

Wen Dao Shi
126 Sims Avenue
Tel: 6746 4757

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.

Tung Lok Seafood
1000 East Coast Parkway
2F Marine Cove
Tel: 6246 0555

Time really flies, the last time I was back here it was during Christmas and look, it’s almost Yule soon. Before we start getting emotional and reflect on the activities for the past year, lets have some wine shall we?

The idea of pairing wine with food is not new for western cuisine, and there’s an increasing demand for wine appreciation with our Chinese cuisine too.

We started with the Jia Wei Deluxe combination which consisted of scallop dumpling, smoked duck, wasabi prawn, lobster paste roll and marinated octopus from top left clockwise. The ordinary-looking scallop dumpling was given a make-over with the touch of roe but otherwise it’s pretty much run-of-the-mill. And while I could never say no to smoking duck, I was actually eying the wasabi prawns that I had pleasant memories of, but unfortunately Jia Wei’s take of the famous dish had a choking sensation which I didn’t really take to. And I love the lobster paste roll simply because of the fact that it’s lobster paste roll.

The last time we were here, the superior shark’s fin soup in hot stone pot was fabulous. So I was rather skeptical when the shark’s fin arrived in normal bowl this time round. I mean, hot stone pot is like the best thing to keep the soup warm and nice, so how are you going to beat that? Well, they upped the stakes by throwing in a gigantic crab pincer and I had to admit – it was good. Well personally I would prefer it to be served in a hot stone pot, but stone pot or not, it’s not going to stop me from finishing the Braised Shark’s Fin with crabmeat in golden stock.

My, my, what a gorgeous photo. I’m so glad that the picture does justice to the Steamed cod fish with special sauce. Sometimes I get real irritated when a restaurant or chef says it’s top secret, it’s secret recipe – you know that kind of stuff. I mean even if you tell me what’s the secret ingredient, I wouldn’t be able to replicate it. But anyway, I figured that it’s of no importance to me since I rather enjoyed the food than to crack my brains over what the ingredients are. The special sauce, was all in all, rather special. It’s kind of sticky, yet tangy and sweet, and it actually blended well to give a refreshing change to the cod.

I’m just a pretty face. And I’m superficial. Whatever.

If there’s a dish to describe the line, this would be it. As much as the Broccoli with scallop and dry conpoy in oyster sauce looked pleasing to the eyes, it’s just another pretty face. There wasn’t anything special about it, but still, I appreciated the effort by the chef to make this thing so delicate.

Don’t ever, underestimate this thing you see here. I call this the Upper East side goreng pisang. The fried fritters retained the distinct banana taste, but with the addition of kiwi fruits and scallops – it just gets better and better.

We had five different wines to pair with the different dishes. There was the Famille Castel Sauvignon Blanc to go with the Deluxe platter, with the light acidity of the Sauvignon to enhance the intensity of the dish. And the Bascand Pinot Noir from New Zealand which you see in the picture here goes well with the braised shark’s fin. I was under the impression that in general you will have white wine with fish, but instead we had another red (Les Hauts De Goelane) with the steamed cod. The Terra Andina Cabernet Sauv was recommended for the Broccoli with scallop, and lastly I liked the Bascand Riesling for the fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf.

I’ll like to thank Keane from Grand Mercure for the invitation to the food tasting session. All the five wines together with a few other selections are available at Jia Wei restaurant, so if you ever want some wine to go along with Chinese food, this will be the place.

Jia Wei Chinese restaurant
Level 2 Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel
50 East Coast road, Roxy Square
(Opp parkway parade)
Tel: 6340 5678

It probably seems that I belong to the live-to-eat camp, everything I do revolve around food and that includes tweeting. And you probably envy me for the feasts and good food that I have all the time, right? Actually not quite. The truth is, there are many times where I get sick of everything.

Initially I thought it was because I had too much good food – that my taste buds were numbed so I didn’t even feel excited, not even when there’s so many delicacy in front of me, But really, it’s a lot more serious than that. My problem is nutella. I can give up everything when there’s chocolate hazelnut around, all I need is white bread, no I don’t even need bread – I eat nutella from the jar.

I will never forget that fateful day, flashed back many many years ago; I was young and inquisitive, which was not a good combination. I saw a jar with white lid on the table, it smelt good, and I wondered if it tasted as good. So out of curiosity, I turned the top and stuck my finger into the dreamily sexual-looking spread. My shoulders shuddered as I carefully placed my thumb that had the glossy, brown spread, into my mouth. It tasted like chocolate, and there’s something nutty about it. And I felt like I was in heaven, and you know what? I still feel the same way, every single time when I have it. Nutella is sex, no, nutella is even better than that.

It’s one of those defining moments in life where you know everything will never be the same again. I blame nutella for everything.

As we entered the place, my eyes scanned through the menu and I knew immediately what to order – nutella tart. The thing about it was, you can never go wrong with nutella, unless, you put too little of it. And here, they manage to grasp this simple, yet profound logic. They drizzled tons and tons of nutella with the tart; the half-melted chocolate hazelnut on top of a oreo-based tart, perfect! I enjoyed every bite of it, and it tasted even better when you shared it. We also had the vanilla eclair, while it was pretty good, but it pales in comparison beside the nutella tart.

Everything with fries
458 joo Chiat Road
Tel: 6345 5034

I met Bob Blumer, the Surreal Gourmet.

Calm down people, calm down! I know you are excited at the sight of your favourite chef!

I’m going to be frank, I didn’t have any idea who Bob is when I received the invitation from Discovery Travel & Living, well the name sounds familiar and I know he’s a celebrity chef. It was only when my friends went gushing over, “his toaster van.. “, then I remember seeing his show before. I didn’t really notice the chef’s name back then, but I definitely do now.

And I’m not about to go, “oh Bob you know I love the episode where you ran a marathon and drank twenty one wine in France..” The idea is simple enough, Bob’s in town, and he wants food, the local Singapore food! So the group of us (media and bloggers) had the pleasure to bring Bob exploring some of the places in the East.

Our first stop was at Kway Guan Huat, for Popiahs! I’m really excited about this because I’ve been craving for popiahs, and here, they do all their popiah skins by hand. It sure wasn’t easy to do so, Bob had some fun trying to do the popiah skin, and learning to wrap a perfect popiah from Zita, the owner. Benjamin (Mr. Miyagi) took a cool video of the whole popiah-making process too!

Bob eating his very delicious popiah, which he would gladly pay ten bucks per roll!

We had the premium roll which had more ingredients; lots of vegetables, and of course our orders were “special” so we had extra shrimps too! The popiah at Kway Guan Huat is Nonya style, I couldn’t exactly remember all the ingredients; but there’s omelette, garlic, turnip, and lots of greens.

But I actually preferred the kueh pie tee to the popiah! It was awesome; using about the same ingredients, they were placed within the crunchy shells instead of the soft popiah skins. And I finished it, in a bite, or at least I tried to!

There was some time while waiting for the food to be served at our second stop, Old Mother Hen, so we hopped across the street and look at the local fruit stalls.

The folks at Old Mother Hen were indeed good hosts, the big table was filled up with so many dishes! We tried a bit of everything, but my favourite was definitely their claypot rice! And despite knowing there’s more food after this, I couldn’t stop myself from having more helpings of the rice.

This was the stir fried fallopian tubes that got everybody attention. We also had KL style black Hokkien mee, the very good home-made beancurd, claypot frog legs, herbal kampong chicken, and steamed shark’s head.

Our last stop was supposed to be trying out three katong laksa and let Bob determine which is his “favourite authetic” one, but due to some unforeseen reasons, we ended up at Seng Kee for bak chor mee (minced pork noodles) instead.

We wished there was more time for us to try out more places, but Bob had a busy schedule during his short stay here so our tour ended here. It was really cool to chat with Bob and hang out with the other bloggers for the day. We had fun chatting on the mini-bus (no toaster van) while moving from point to point, busy snapping photographs of food, and of course enjoying the food with great company! My appreciation to Priya and Rita of Weber Shandwick, and to Discovery Travel and Living for the invitation.

Kway Guan Huat
95 Joo Chiat road
Tel: 6344 2875

Old Mother Hen
136 Sims avenue
Tel: 6841 8789

Seng Kee
316 Changi road
Tel: 6345 7561

Glutton for Punishment 3 premieres Thursday at 2230hrs starting July 23. Encores air on Sunday at 0200hrs and Tuesday at 0800hrs on Discovery Travel & Living (Starhub Channel 16).

The Angel on my right says she is innocent and pure. The Devil on the left rebuts, she is gullible and inexperience. A simple play of words, show the different perception of people. The same word could mean two totally different thing. Naive, is all about the absence of artificiality, in a good way.

Rather than a vegetarian restaurant, the owners of Naive know exactly how human perception is, most people tend to associate vegetarian with distasteful food, so lets just call them the first meatless restaurant.

Tofu is always a staple in the meatless cateogry, and it was no surprise we had it for the Golden Oats ($8.80). Essentially crispy deep fried soft golden tofu with oats and fragrant leaves. I didn’t get to try much of this, but it was a good rendition of the cereal prawn. The tofu was a fitting replacement with its crispy texture and soft interior going well with the oats.

Not the best in terms of the looks department, but the Penang Rendang ($9.80) was better than expected. Pan-fried mushroom on bed of greens. Red, hot, and spicy.

When red riding hood ($7.80) meets the big bad wolf. How apt. It was almost like the real deal. Imagine sweet and crispy,and instead of pork you get beancurd. Sweet & sour pork wannabe? This is even better than some of the ones I had before.

The ladies man. He have all sorts of tricks in his bag, and can please all of you. Battered organic oyster mushroom ($9.80). If you have been avoiding fried food for a while now, because of the double damage; unhealthy fried food and too much meat. This is the one for you.

Tangy and refreshing. The mango tofu cake ($12.80) was all about that. Slightly sweet, slightly sour. Crispy skin, soft body. Talk about contrast.

With a cheesy tag line like mega in taste, and mini in size, the Mega mini mushroom ($10.80). While I ain’t a big fan of Sze Chuan cuisine, one bite was enough to tell me the flavourful spicy szechuan sauce.

Enchanted forest ($12.80). Indeed, I was smitten by her charming ways, her strong perfume smell of wolfberry, her strong and wilful texture.

From the braise, you would certainly associate it with cooking for many hours. Yes, but somehow for monkeyhead mushrooms, it does not turn soft. We were expecting the meat-lookalike to be tender, but instead it was still rather tough in texture. Heartwarmer ($13.80)

I always love to order garlic rice when I frequent Japanese restaurants. They are so oh-so good! And I think the same could be for Naive, their Oliver twist ($3.80). Instead of the Japanese pearl rice, we have the fragrant Thai rice, with a olive twist. And I agreed, so good it can be eaten on its own.

Naive promises to offer healthy food without compromising on taste. And I will like to say they did it. I never knew vegetarian, or rather, meatless could taste so good. However, prices are rather steep given the small portions. And their main courses are all monkeyhead mushrooms.

I’ll like to thank Hungrygowhere.com for inviting me to the food tasting session. And to Naive’s owner Phyllis for hosting and educating us for the healthy yet delicious food.

Naive
99 East Coast Road
Tel: 6348 0668
Website here

I was pleasantly surprised when i knew that Jia Wei also served Chinese dim sum, so my companion and i couldn’t stop helping ourselves to some dim sum even though we were full having the oriental Christmas feast. A quick glance at their dim sum menu shows that almost all of them are priced at $4 per basket, a very reasonable price for a good Chinese restaurant.

The first to arrive on the dim sum platter, the siew mai ($4 for 3) was exactly what you’ll expect, fresh prawns with lean pork. The bigger-than-normal size also added brownie points to the overall taste. A staple.

While some will come across being overly dry and too oily, Jia Wei’s rendition of the fried prawn dumpling was well done. Fresh crunchy prawns wrapped in the midst of the crispy dumpling skin.

With dim sum mostly fried and steamed, it is common to see them coming in golden brown colour. But how about green colour? That definitely caught our attention and made our imagination ran wild! We were guessing the ingredient used to produce the green, was it pandan? Nope! The skin was actually naturally infused with spinach. No artificial colouring used! There was fresh prawns as usual, topped with a piece of scallop. I presented to you, the steamed spinach prawn dumpling with scallop!

Somehow or rather, mango and prawns always go well together, perhaps it’s the combination that brought out the unique taste. So the chef sticked to the winning recipe, and created this fried prawn & mango roll. The only hitch, the mango fruit was too sour!

For my regular readers, you’ll definitely know that i love my char siew sou ($4 for 3). Ever since i had my best char siew sou, i’ve been on the lookout for worthy rivals, and sadly, this one couldn’t match what i had before. While the char siew within was very sweet, the pastry could be more flaky.

As with most steamed prawn dumpling ($4 for 3), the main problem would usually be on the skin, since most places definitely used fresh prawns (well if the prawns aren’t even fresh, then simply get out of there!). Again, we see the continuation of crunchy prawns, enveloped within overly thick skins. You could even see the tearing of the translucent skin from the picture.

The Chinese restaurants always seemed fascinated by XO fried carrot cake ($12 for one portion). I mean what’s so special using XO to fry your carrot cake, when we couldn’t even taste the XO? Right, the one here, was very eggy, done exactly how i love it. If i were to see this as a normal plate of carrot cake, i’ll certainly rate it very high. Unfortunately, this was a serving of XO fried carrot cake, which meant that it had a high price tag of $12! Speaking from this new revelation, it was totally not worth the price, and i’ll rather order another three basket of dim sum instead.

When i tell you about BBQ platter, naturally you would assume there’s definitely char siew and roast pork, or even roast duck right? We thought so too, but it turned out that Jia Wei defined BBQ platter ($26) differently. It came in the form of char siew and soy sauce chicken. The char siew was fine, tasted sweet and it’ll be better if was slightly more charred. The soy sauce chicken was decent, but i still preferred roast chicken. And i didn’t get to eat roast pork, which was what i originally wanted to eat!

Towards the end, my companion and i were very full from all the food. But we couldn’t missed Jia Wei’s signature Peking duck, so we had a sampling portion of it instead. With the crispy skin, the duck meat was good, but not there yet. It’s only when you ate it together with the layer of fats which made the whole taste divine. Oh yes, with the slightly sweet sauce too!

Jia Wei’s dim sum is above average given the ones that we tried. While its not a whole picture of the dim sum served, we covered the basics, and the rest should be not too far away. For the price it’s rather reasonable since its a 4 star hotel restaurant, and i’ll go back to try the rest of the dim sum next time.

Read about the Oriental Christmas menu at Jia Wei here.

Jia Wei Chinese restaurant
Level 2 Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel
50 East Coast road, Roxy Square
(Opp parkway parade)
Tel: 6340 5678
Note: This was an invited food tasting session

They have been away for a long time now; the feel, touch, sight, smell were always in their mind, but its gradually fading away with each day passed. How they wished they could be back, but reality often gets the better of man. He missed the food, while she yearned for the familiar environment.

It struck them after entering the place, the comfortable and cozy environment, just like home. Jia Wei restaurant. How apt.

To have Christmas without the festive turkey and ham (both sets), it’ll be like to have the Mid-autumn festival without the mooncakes, or going through Halloween without pumpkins. He found the meat was too tough and dry, while there was the wasabi sauce, it was insufficient and wasabi didn’t exactly compliment the turkey meat well. Luckily there was the fresh fruits salad to save the day.

The highlight of the menu will definitely be Jia Wei Superior Shark’s Fin soup (Festive cheers menu) in hot stone pot. Thick and generous portions are discovered, the excitement just like discovering a treasure cove. The hot stone pot played a vital role in keeping the rich stock base warm and nice, a notable fact after they tried the other shark’s fin soup which wasn’t served in the stone pot. This bowl of treasure will most likely cost you a bomb if you have it elsewhere, but at Jia Wei, they do it cheap and good, its available on their a la carte menu too. Eating a Chinese delicacy for a frosty Christmas, the thought of home seem so far away.

While the superior shark’s fin soup with Conpoy (Christmas glow menu) offered the same ingredients as the previous one in hotpot, but the differential in price obviously meant that the higher priced festive cheers menu had slightly more shark’s fin. This one was lukewarm by the time they started eating, while the hot stone pot one remained piping hot. The dumpling-wannabe actually had water chestnut, vegetarian mushrooms and crab rob.

The layer of fats aroused her inner feelings. There was a struggle to ignore the calories and enjoyed the bliss. The grilled special rack of lamb (Festive cheers menu) made her succumb to temptation. If they were not to mention anything, you’ll never know the use of Chinese wine, together with a bit of Japanese Sake created a wonderful sauce which covered the usual strong lamb/mutton smell. Without the fats, the rack of lamb wouldn’t be as good, since they largely contributed the tenderness to the overall taste. And, the sweetness of the meat was actually extracted by chewing and sucking the bones. Sinful, yet so good!

One of the dish which he missed a lot from home was pork. The pan-fried fillet of pork spare-rib (Christmas glow menu) was exactly what he needed to satisfy his needs and homesickness. The special seasoning was very peculiar, the inital guess of fruits were proven wrong. Done in Japanese style, the sauce was slightly sweet and sour, which provided a tangy robust taste. The pork was pan-fried that the crispy layer was just right for the meat. It was very delicious. The downside? Portions were dainty considering it’s the main course.

While the braised bai ling mushroom with broccoli (Festive cheers menu) was what his mother used to prepare, he didn’t quite enjoyed the dish since the overall taste was a tad too subtle for his liking. Yes, although this vegetables dish was supposed to be light since the previous few dishes were rather strong in flavour, so i guess its more of different taste buds.

The similar dish on the Christmas glow menu, braised dry scallop with sea cucumber and bamboo piths. The vegetables were fresh, but being neither a fan of scallop nor sea cucumber, they didn’t know how to appreciate it.

There’s reasons for relatives to look alike. Was it baby lobster? Or is it crayfish? Gosh, wait a minute, it does rather looks like a big prawn instead! The home-made noodles were springy and smooth to the palate. The big prawns were fresh and succulent. But, there’s always the big BUT to look out for. Having used stock base for the Shark’s fin, the vegetables dish, and now the noodles. They couldn’t finish the home-made noodles with prawn (both sets) because the excess usage of stock base did seem a bit too much.

The simple, yet refreshing chilled lemon jelly (Festive cheers menu) was definitely a welcoming dessert. With the robust lemon sorbet, and the light lemon jelly, the all-lemon combination provided a sweet ending to the Christmas feast.

On the other hand, there’s the chilled mango pudding (Christmas glow menu) which wasn’t as good as it lacked the bouncy and chewy texture that a good pudding should have.The whole mango flavour was also not very strong, but you’ve to give credits to them for making the mango pudding so pretty.

The oriental Christmas feast at Jia Wei brought them closer to home, and the whole meal took 3 half hours to complete.

Christmas Glow ($78++)
Festive turkey, ham and fresh fruits salad
Superior Shark’s fins soup with conpoy
Pan-fried fillet of pork spare-rib with special sauce
Braised dry scallop with sea cucumber and bamboo piths
Homemade noodles with prawn and conpoy
Chilled mango pudding

Festive Cheers ($98++)
Festive turkey, ham and fresh fruits salad
Jia Wei superior Shark’s fin soup in hot stone pot
Grilled special rack of lamb with Chinese wine
Braised bai ling mushroom with broccoli
Homemade noodles with prawn and conpoy
Chilled lemon jelly

Enjoy a 30% discount on the Christmas feast from Monday to Thursday, except on 24, 25, 31 Dec 2008 & 1 Jan 2009. This was an invited food tasting session, I’ll like to thank Keane and Shu Ling representing Grand Mercure Roxy hotel for being a wonderful host. I’ll also like to take the chance to praise Jia Wei’s assistance manager, Jessica who was very professional and knowledgeable about the cuisines. And also to my dining companion for being a good company (you know who you are).

Read Camemberu review on the Christmas feast here
Hisfoodblog review here
and my previous visit to Feast @ East

Jia Wei Chinese restaurant
Level 2 Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel
50 East Coast road, Roxy Square
(Opp parkway parade)
Tel: 6340 5678