Remember my suggestion to have Seafood for your Chinese New Year dinner?

Since there’s still a few more days before Chinese New Year ends, if you are still looking for a restaurant to toss Yu Sheng, Palm Beach Seafood restaurant at One Fullerton might just be the place. Instead of the typical salmon yusheng, we had the Alaskan King Crab Yu Sheng (S$58 or S$88).

My weekdays, by and large, are similar to the weekends of most people. I had a fabulous dinner on Monday night, attended my friend’s big night on Tuesday, and now we have a seafood feast on Wednesday. It’s probably going to be Japanese cuisine tomorrow, and Russian food on Friday. Okay, I am muttering to myself.

Anyway, a seafood feast sounds pretty good right? Chili crabs, sashimi, lobster, seafood platter. Have I got your attention? Good. Make yourself comfortable.

Lets try again: air-flown Hokkaido scallop, huge gleaming oysters, live poached prawns, fresh salmon sashimi, and the gigantic bamboo clam. That’s better. I could vaguely recall the oysters that I had, unprocessed and fresh. A wedge of lemon is all you need for the perfect oyster.

I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely order the Seafood Deluxe Combination ($23.00 per person) with a selection of five seafood items.

I don’t know if there’s anything special about Palm Beach’s signature Chili Crab ($4.50 per 100g), but I absolutely love it! My feelings for the Singapore famous dish very much depends on two things: a) thick and spicy-sweet chili gravy, and b) deep fried mantou.

The pincers were long gone by the time I was done with the deep fried buns. It’s easy to choose between crabs and mantou (with gravy) – I’d go for the latter anytime.

The award winning Double Baked Cheese Crab ($4.50 per 100g) reminded me of the baked cheese lobster that I’ve before, with its strong cheesy taste. Baked parmesan cheese and crab? Sounds like a winner! If you do not want to get your hands dirty, ask for help from the staff. Catherine got her crab de-shell the easy way.

I first had lobsters when I was a very young boy. Back then, I had no idea how much a lobster was worth. To me, it looked like a GIANT prawn. But what mattered then, was that it tasted good. As I grew up, I realized that lobsters are very expensive seafood, and they can be prepared in many different ways; baked, steamed, fried, sashimi, salad – whichever ways it pleases your palates.

The one that we had was very different from the ones I’ve before. Usually I’d go for either baked or salad lobsters, but we couldn’t miss out on Palm Beach’s awarding winning Coco Lobo – Australian Lobster with Vermicelli in Superior Stock ($16.80 per 100g). It came piping hot in individual claypot, with the lobster meat and vermicelli absorbing the essence of the flavorful stock.

Sweet and tangy, intense yet refreshing. It’s also not too spicy. The Honey Tangy Marble Goby ($7.50 per 100g) is fried till golden-brown: crispy and soft and appetizing, drizzled with just enough of the terrific sauce. Ju had the blissful look after she finished the dish – it was awesome!

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This is the third part of a series that I’m doing on the waterfront restaurants in One Fullerton. I’ll like to thank Fullerton Heritage, Karin of Palm Beach Seafood and Gail for arranging and hosting this dinner.

From what we observed, most Singaporeans seem to dine in the comfort of the air-condition, while the tourists prefer the al fresco area with the waterfront view. Will you dine indoors or outside at the al fresco area?

Restaurant Review
Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant
1 Fullerton Road
#01-09 One Fullerton
Tel: +65 6227 2332

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

Even though I can’t really take spicy food well, I do enjoy Indian cuisine. Many people dream of opening their own restaurant or cafe one day, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has what it takes to be a restaurateur.

There are so many aspects to make a good restaurant; other than delicious food, there’s the training of your staff, gorgeous interior design, an accessible and attracting location, a good wine list, visual-appealing menu, handling the suppliers and one, ten, twenty other small minor details.

The Muthu’s Flavors is the latest brainchild by renowned Muthu’s curry on Race course road. Now you get to enjoy the same good Indian food in a contemporary restaurant setting, with everything plated nicely, in the lush Dempsey hill.

Interior design wise – I’m a sucker for white. It’s interesting to see a traditional Indian restaurant using a bold and unique orange-white combination, and this actually makes The Muthu’s Flavors different from the  original Muthu’s Curry. Well I can’t say for all the staff service wise, but I do think that they have a good manager in Joseph, and his assistant is equally knowledgeable about all the food.

Photo Credit of the second interior shot: Monoxious.com

When a restaurant is located in Dempsey, it’s difficult not to get noticed by people. While I used to think that Dempsey is all about three things: over-rated, over-priced, and over-crowded; but there are some really good restaurants there.

If you know me well, I’m very particular when it comes to the menu, it shows everything about the restaurant. Well it may not be true for all places, how much can you expect when they do not even put in effort into doing out a good menu? Small tiny details like the font, the positioning of the words, the use of colour of font and background, the visual aspects of having some good photos (it can works either way) and the pricing of the dishes; while some restaurants’ menu disgusted me with either messy layout or lousy photos, there are efforts put into Muthu’s flavors menu.

Pappadam, the Indian flat bread was used instead of the typical toasted bread for the Pappadam Bruschetta ($5.50). I always have a thing for diced tomatoes. I’m not sure why, but somehow, they just look so appealing when it’s diced into tiny squares.

Eating the Crab meat stir-fried with fennel ($18.9), it makes me think that I’m eating chicken floss, with the addition of green chili and onions.

I was tweeting the previous night before this dinner, that I’m craving for some awesome curry, lo and behold, the famous Muthu’s Fish Head Curry ($25). Served with ladies finger and pineapple chunks in a rich gravy of aromatic spices, the tangy, slightly spicy sweet curry gravy makes me blush, like a young boy meets love.

Why do we even bother to order the other dishes? This is as good as it gets, and no, we are not going to debate on the ‘best curry fish head in Singapore’ topic. Pour the curry gravy on fragrance white rice, and that’s my dinner.

Tomato and garlic marinated chicken served with Cheese naan, frankly speaking, I could not recall much of the Chicken Tikka Masala ($15.5). Barring the fact that I was already sweating profusely after the sensation from the curry fish head, I stuffed myself with cheese naan.

Between the Massala prawn and the Muthu’s Prawns 65 ($17.9), we decided to go for both. I have no idea of the reason behind the inclusion of 65 in the name, but all of us agreed unanimously that Massala prawn was a better choice as the freshness of the prawns were lost in the deep-frying process.

The Massala Prawns ($23.9) were definitely much better. Huge tiger prawns cooked with a combination of chilies, tomatoes and spices. It’s one of the sweetest thing in life to have someone peeling prawns or crabs for you, some love to get their hands dirty, while others either try to use a fork and spoon to shell the prawns, or simply refused to eat it.

In between our debates over the proper terms of whether it is called de-prawning or de-shelling the prawns, here’s my version of ‘how to peel a prawn‘. 1) Use both hands and hold the god-damn prawn steady. 2) Remove the head and all the tiny legs. 3) De-shell the shell starting from the legs area 4) Pull off the tail and eat your prawn.

Okay fine, so I got greedy. We were full but still, the Lamb Rack Ananas ($22.9) was too alluring for us (or rather, me) to resist. I like how they barbecue the pineapple and add the distinct fruity flavor to the meat. They look good. They smell good. I like to hold it by the bone, gnaw it right up and finish every single bit.

Lamb rack aside, I didn’t know barbecued pineapple can actually taste so good! The others were too full to finish the rack. If the lamb isn’t attractive enough – there’s the tantalizing tandoori chicken beckoning to us.

This Tandoori Chicken ($16.9) is a wonderful all-weather kind of food: I’d imagine holding the drumstick and biting off the meat on a cold rainy day, and feasting on the flavorful chicken during summer. I usually don’t like chicken breast because it’s tough, dry and unappetizing (at least to me), but you know what?

I absolutely love the chicken breast here. It was so tender, and moist. This is the first time I’m giving such high praises to a chicken breast, and I actually like the breast as much as the drumstick.

So, it was a choice between Kulfi or Masala Chai Flan ($7.9), I never enjoy the Indian style ice cream, and having a good impression of a flan dessert helps. The ladies thought that the flan was too sweet; if you’re anything like me, I bet you’d happily finish the whole dessert on your own – I did.

This, is the Beetroot Halwa ($6.9). I know what you are thinking. Beetroot, and dessert? Weird? Yes. As much as I agree that beetroot is always very interesting as it provides the natural reddish purple coloring, but I’m sorry darling; beetroot just don’t work very well with dessert, for me.

Photo credit of restaurant exterior: Monoxious.com

Being a new restaurant, there are still a lot of teething problems to sort out, but it will be interesting how people react to the new Muthu’s Flavors concept. Purist and loyal supporter of Muthu’s Curry at Race course road may, or may not receive well to the idea of dining in such a classy and contemporary Indian restaurant, but I’m sure the younger crowd, and especially those who frequent Dempsey often, will be happy to have a new option for good and affordable Indian food.

I’ll like to thank Rayner from Contagious and the folks behind Muthu’s Curry for the invitation to the food tasting session.  If you are keen to try out the food, The Muthu’s Flavors, Dempsey is having a 25% off total bill promotion from now until 28th Feb, and they have a new outlet at 313 @ Somerset too.

Restaurant Review
The Muthu’s Flavors
Blk 7 Dempsey Road
#01-01 (Near B&J)
Tel: 6474 5128

They call Singapore, the food paradise, and I agree. Here, on this tiny island, influx of different cuisines from all over the world meant that we get to try all sorts of food; Mexico cuisine, Lebanese kebabs, French Degustation, Spanish Tapas – you name it, we have it.

It’s particularly intriguing when I come to know of a new restaurant in Orchard Central, Duo Le that serves Shanxi cuisine with a combination of influences from Guangdong, Sichuan, and Shanxi.

Starting off with the Boiled sliced chicken with homemade chili oil ($9.8) was a wise move, tantalizing chili oil covered the softly boiled sliced chicken – just what you need to awaken the taste bud.

Pork Knuckle is a term associated with beauty. I cannot imagine anyone who will not be attracted by it. The Secret recipe pig’s knuckle ($12.8) arrived on our table – a cold dish – not quite like what I’ve expected. My mind had subconsciously conjured images of deep-fried knuckles, so sinful, but yet so good. Still, Duo Le’s rendition of the pork knuckle came thinly sliced, it was enjoyable in a different manner.

Walnut kernels with black fungus ($8.8)

Fresh Celery with homemade seasoning ($8.8)

We were told that the chefs prepare the noodle from scratch, tasting the Handmade Shanxi Cold noodle ($6.8), I could understand why, there was just something different; cold, smoothing noodle, drizzled with chili oil. To cut a long story short, for someone who usually do not like cold noodle, I had more of it than what I’d usually have.

I couldn’t quite make out the Seafood mashed potatoes ($26.8). On one hand, I enjoyed the generous amount of seafood in the dish, and I can imagine that the gravy would go along well with white rice. But on the other, the mashed potato was more like an acquired taste; it did not work for me.

Prepared in a hot pot of sorts, the Special Si Chuan chill sliced fish ($38.8) was very intimidating with the dry chili on top the thick layer of the spicy-looking chili oil. I was hesitant in picking up my spoon, but the others took up the challenge with much enthusiasm. They convinced me that it was not as hot as it appeared to be, I took a tiny nibble of the sliced fish with some gravy, although the fish was not extremely hot, but it was enough to make me sweat.

Winter melon is a firm favorite of my mom’s when it comes to soup. She’d boil the melon with pork ribs for many hours until the melon became so soft that it could almost dissolve in your mouth. It was almost the same case here, the Dry scallop stew with Winter melon ($26.8) had a smoothing texture, with a sweet subtle fragrance from the dry scallop.

I believe whoever that came up with the idea of deep-frying prawns must be a genius, otherwise how else do you explain something that’s so simple, and yet taste so good? All of us unanimously agreed that the Deep Fried prawn wrapped with homemade sauce and potatoes ($28.8 for 8 pieces) were the highlight of the meal.

The chef actually peeled the potatoes into thin tiny strips, stuck them around the prawns and deep fried it until golden brown. The result? A crispy prawn ball that explodes in your mouth, so good that it reminded us of popcorn chicken. No, it’s definitely much, much better than popcorn chicken.

Shanxi Steam marinated Noodle with vegetable and pork ($12.8)

By all accounts, I’m a rather safe eater. I’d never touch stuff like fried insects, chicken feet, duck tongue, or durian. Chicken gristle ($16.8) seems pretty tame compared to those that I’ve mentioned, anyway when you took a bite of it, crunch, crunch, crunch. Sensational. Although I did not really enjoyed it, but at least now I can proudly say that I have tried chicken gristle before.

What I like, without a qualm, is the robust meat found within the shao bing. The Special Shanxi Marinated meat in baked Pancake ($6.8) is a local delight, there’s nothing fascinating about it, just a hearty pancake with lots of meat stuffed inside.

Given a choice between the Shanxi Marinated meat pancake and the Spicy tenderloin, served with pancakes ($16.8, and $2.5 for one pancake), I’d definitely go for the former. It’s not that the spicy tenderloin wasn’t good, but the tiny chunks of meat were not as satisfying as the marinated meat pancake.

I will like to thank Fenix from Edelman, Natalie from Far East for the invitation to the food tasting session, and Eric for hosting us.

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Food Outing
Date: 30th Jan
Time: 1 pm
Cost: $25 nett per pax

If you are keen to try out some Shanxi food, why not join us for my food outing next Sat? Take a look at the menu, to register for the outing, send an email to bradleyfk@gmail.com, let me know your name, contact number, and the number of pax.

Restaurant Review
Duo Le
181 Orchard Road
#08-09 Orchard Central
Tel: 6509 8616

The irony of staying in the west is that I always tend to travel further away from the west for food. They call this the-grass-greener-on-the-other-side theory. Sweet Salty Spicy at the railmall is just five minutes away from my place, but I have never visit it until now.

The Miang of prawns & pomelo ($3.5 per portion) marks the start of our Thai dinner. The correct method of eating this is to roll up the betel leaves with all the fillings within, and eat it in one mouth – or at least that’s how I ate it.

If there is a perfect appetizer, it will surely be the Salad of green mango with crispy salmon ($9). Spicy, sour, and refreshing – it has everything you can ask.

And other than the mango salad, the Hot & sour tom yum soup ($12) is definitely the other classic representative of Thai cuisine. On the surface, the slightly-marred soup appeared to be harmless, but the first slurp hit me in an instant and I was already grasping for water.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Traditional Thai fish cakes ($8 for 4 piece) that came with the sweet spicy dipping sauce. The fish cake was good, but it was the sauce that made it even better.

From the Wok menu, the Crispy Pork knuckle ($10) caught our eyes immediately. I don’t know about you, but I like pork a lot, and this certainly works for me. The others like to have it with the spicy nahm prik relish, but I prefer to have it on its own.

Let’s be honest: what’s there not to like about the tender Pork collar ($14)? They were more delicate and fragile than the pork knuckle, but they were delicious. They were slightly crisp on the outside, just as I wanted, and the meat was so tender and soft. It was a very close replication of roasted pork, not as crispy, but in some ways, I liked it even better. So I finished everything on my own. And my conclusion: these were keepers.

I was pretty skeptical when we ordered the Angus Beef cheek with flat rice noodle ($16), I mean this is Angus beef cheek that we are talking about and they probably will just give a tiny winy piece of meat with lots of noodles. But the result, as you can see in the picture, was a huge serving of the most flavorful and tender of tamarind glazed Angus beef cheek in the fragrant ginger broth. We didn’t manage to finish the flat rice noodle since we were saving our stomach for the other dishes, but if you ever come here; trust me, you will want to finish this bowl of noodle.

Sweet Salty Spicy has five curries in their menu, and we had the Curry Triplets ($24 for 4 person) that allowed us to choose three out of the five. There was the Jungle curry of scallops and prawns, Panang curry of Angus beef in addition to the Mussaman curry of chicken, Green curry of baby snapper and roast duck red curry that we had.

Talking about curry, my favorite will definitely be curry fishhead, but unfortunately they did not have it here. The Mussaman curry of chicken was passable, while the others like the snapper curry. I don’t know about you, but somehow green curry is a turn-off for me; it reminds me of the puke when you are overdosed with liquor from a boys/girls night out.

If I have to choose my favorite, it will be the roast duck red curry. I always have a fetish for roast duck, so it’s a fascination how they manage to blend the taste of the tasty roast duck and curry together. It was a little on the sweet side, from the addition of grapes and fruits to cook with the curry.

I always remember about the Pad Thai that I had in Phuket. In retrospect, it seems funny that I should say that, since I can’t hold my chili very well. But Sweet Spicy Salty’s rendition of the Pad Thai ($12) was not spicy at all, I’m not sure if all Pad Thais are not supposed to be spicy, but the one that I had back then was definitely hot and fiery.

In fact, I like the localized version better, it was somewhat sweet and the stir-fried Thai rice noodle was very fragrant. The addition of peanut added crunch to it, but it would be even better if they’ve threw in more beansprouts.

I like prawns. And so it make sense to order the Jumbo prawns ($4.50 each). But there’s a snag, the de-prawning is always an issue for a lazy bum like me, and luckily they shelved it for us. We also ordered the Grilled squid ($12) that had the same marination as the prawns: the taste was pretty run-of-the-mill.

Despite hearing horror stories on the possibilities of the ways they treated Soft-shell crabs ($13) to make it soft, we went ahead and order it. Often, it’s the dressing that makes the dish taste better, there wasn’t any spectacular about the soft shell crabs, wellt hey were crispy, and eh, soft, but it was the the chili jam & lemongrass dressing that enhanced the taste.

At this point of time, our stomachs were already quite full, but when the staff told us there’s a signature dish that we did not order; we were greedy and went for the Deep fried silken tofu ($18). It was a pretty high price to pay given that it’s only fried tofu stuffed with minimum crab and maximum minced pork. The sauce was good though, but the price tag doesn’t justify for tofu.

The only reason why we made some last minute orders like the soft shell crabs and tofu was because we thought there wasn’t any desserts available. So it came as a surprise to us when they showed us the separate dessert menu, and boy I was excited when I saw the long list of selections they had. And it was even better when I found out that the desserts are made in-house.

We were debating over the white layer in the Devil’s chocolate cake ($8), the menu wrote raspberry ripple so we tasted the layer on its own and tried to convince ourselves it was raspberry. But it was actually mascarpone cream cheese, if you looked closely – the raspberry ripple is a thin layer in between of the cream cheese and the chocolate cake, which explains the reason for the pinkish tinge in the cream cheese. The chocolate cake was a little dry, and personally I felt that cream cheese does not goes well with chocolate cake.

Sometimes luck is very important when it comes to food. You may be scarred by a bad experience and refuse to try a particular dish just because it was bad during the first time you had it. Well, my previous and only encounter with the Sticky Date pudding ($6) wasn’t exactly memorable, but I decided to give it another shot. The problem arises when I do not know how a good sticky date pudding taste like, so there’s no comparison. The one here was fairly competent, it was very date-ish, if there’s such a word, and it would be better if there’s a scoop of cold ice cream to go along with.

All the citrus junkies will absolutely go crazy over this Lemon & wine tart ($7). With the strong and distinct lemon taste lingering on the tongue, the crispy tart crust goes crunch, crunch in your mouth.

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This is last part of the 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.

Sweet Salty Spicy
394 Upper Bukit timah road
The Railmall
Tel: +65 6877 2544

//  Read my list of Thai Restaurants in Singapore.

It was only my second time to Mount Faber, so I was pretty happy when I know that we are going up to the Jewel Box for lunch. And I was impressed within five minutes after arriving, the toilets have this amazing view – it’s even better than the ones in 6 star hotels!

The beauty of the traditional soya smoked fish ($10) lies in the simplicity of it; the use of soya sauce to enhance the sweetness of the delicate fish.

First thoughts, wow, it’s my favorite sweet & sour pork! Until someone pointed out it was actually youtiao. The crispy dough stuffed with seafood mousse ($8), was drizzled with the appetizing sweet & sour sauce. Who will have thought that youtiao can taste so good!

From afar, I smelt blood. And suddenly I felt awaken deep inside. I want blood, give me the pig liver!

The Spinach and pork liver soup ($8 per portion) is one of the more delicious soup that I had in a while (other than my mom’s homecook soup). It’s definitely no easy task to prepare liver; if you under cook it, the surface will be too raw, while if you leave it for too long the whole thing will be hard and tasteless. The liver, I have to say, was lovely; it was done just right with a pinkish tinge in the middle.

Paper wrapped salt-baked chicken ($24 whole chicken)

You know every year during relatives gathering, I’m always known as the-boy-who-love-fish, so i was quite excited to see the steamed white pomfret ($48) on our table. A restaurant wouldn’t dare to serve steamed fish unless it’s very fresh, or do they? Unfortunately there will be no answer because we were doing the programme recording halfway when the fish arrived. And it was already cold when they distributed it into individual portions after we finished.

I like prawns. And I dislike prawns too. Well, I like to eat them but I’m a lazy person when it comes to shelling prawns. King Caramelized King Prawns Har Lok ($26 per portion 2 pcs)

If there’s one thing that I can eat everyday with white rice, it would definitely be the shrimp omelette. A fried egg on its own will never taste as nice as one that has shrimp. The Old fashioned Whampoo fried noodles ($20 per portion) were served with eggs and shrimp on top, while I enjoyed every bit of the egg, the crunchy shrimp came across as a tad too salty.

Empress Jade prides itself on serving heritage Chinese food – the taste of 1970s. I have to agree that the food evokes nostalgic memories of childhood but prices seem slightly steep when you are paying for home cook food. Still, It is a good place where you can impress your date and his/her family. Getting up to Mount Faber might be a hassle if you are not driving, fortunately there’s free shutter bus going up every 30 minutes from Harbourfront Tower 2.

I will like to thank Jiafa & Peifen from YES 93.3 for inviting me to join them on the show. You can listen to our conversation during the dinner, the programme will be aired on YES 93.3 this Wednesday 14th October from 6-7pm. Do stay tune!

Express Jade
109 Mount Faber road
3rd floor (The Jewel Box)
Tel: 6337 9689

It’s a love-hate relationship with Dempsey; you either rave about the place, or you hate it being overcrowded, over hyped, and over priced. I used to be the latter, but that was before I paid a visit to Dempsey, and you ought to admit, despite the crowds there, there’s still plenty of places to check out, and who could resist the lush atmosphere?

The first dish is always of utmost importance; how the meal will eventually turn out – depends on this humble appetiser. You may think its not a big deal, but according to scientific researches done by Dr. Bradley, the first dish will usually dictates the mood for the upcoming dishes; humans are emotional creatures. Almost everybody else felt that the Rock shrimp tempura ($15) was ordinary, but I on the other hand, totally love it! It was a shrimp rendition of my favourite sweet & sour pork, and I wiped the whole plate clean since everybody was saving their stomach for the rest of the food.

Without further ado, let me introduce to the one-that-you-have-been-waiting-for, Sashimi of course, Mango sashimi ($29) to be precise. There was mango, avocado wrapped together with three kinds of fish in thin rice paper.

The Carpaccio ($25) was delicious. Thinly sliced, laid in the pool of savoury yuzu sauce; it was squeaky-fresh – it seemed to be swimming in the plate.

When we dine out, people usually want to try out some of the restaurant’s signature dishes. And the Tuna pizza ($22) was one of them at Zento. If skinny pizzas are your kind of thing, then this would be it. Raw fresh tuna on top of the oh-so-thin dough, crunch, crunch, the pizzas were gone!

I always have a thing for prawns, especially deep-fried ones. Naturally, I like the Volcano ($25) pretty much, with the focus in the middle of the futomaki. But some didn’t take quite well to it as they felt that the freshness was gone after the deep-frying process. Alongside the shrimp tempura, there was smoked salmon, avocado and crabstick too.

The combination of seven skewers ($48) was the perfect showcase of the different ingredients, and of course, it’s for sharing! Most of them were pretty decent, but if I were to choose one, I’ll go for the separate tasty foie gras ($15) instead.

The sushi rolls had fascinating names like fantasy, rainbow, and even monkey roll. But we had the Green river ($30) instead. Toro, eel, avocado and plum paste, with seaweed powder on the outside.

After the rounds of appetisers, yes, all the food you saw were just starters to warm us up. The first main course was the Roasted marinated duck breast ($48), and it was indisputably the best. The first impression of the duck was from a conversation when we saw the photo of it in the menu.

“Ah! they served char siew rice here too!”

The photo of the duck in the menu looked exactly like char siew rice! Anyway not many places serve duck, and do it well; the duck meat was done just nice, retaining the tinge of pink beneath the charred skin.

I love prawns, baby! Big, big prawny prawns. The Jumbo shrimp tempura ($42) was dazzled with the sweet and slightly sour pineapple sauce, and there was wasabi fried rice alongside too. Jumbo in size, great in taste, and a huge hole in the pocket too!

We weren’t expecting any surprises from the chicken since it’s a done-to-death item. And the Roasted spring chicken ($38) turned out to be what we expected, just chicken.

Besides the duck breast, I also enjoyed the Chilean seabass ($45). The miso-infused flavour was subtle, bordering on bland, but it actually enabled us to taste the sweetness of the fish.

I could almost hear the cat say, “purrfect!”

Every main course at Zento is paired with different types of rice, the same goes for the Rack of lamb ($45) which comes with almond raisin rice. Lets just put it this way, for the price, we’ve had better elsewhere.

We pointed to “the most expensive main course” on the menu, the Wagyu stripped loin ($75). We had it done medium, but it came slightly more at medium rare.

“Do you have stomach for more?”

It was towards the end that this simple question was posed to us,  Well we were glad that we did, otherwise we would have miss out on the amazing Crunchy spicy tuna handroll ($12). It was O-M-G. Instead of the typical seaweed roll, they used soy paper as a substitute, maybe we shouldn’t call it a substitute because it’s definitely a better option than seaweed. The soy paper simply dissolved when it touched our mouth; every bite was so good!

Most of the folks were stuffed by now, but how can we say no to desserts? So another dessert-holic and me tried most of the ones available; we started with the Coffee parfait ($12). It was frozen custard made with cream, with ice-cream texture minus the melting part.

We lamented about the quality of the chocolate within the Chocolate lava cake ($16). It could/should have been better. Nonetheless, you can’t go wrong when there’s icy cold vanilla ice cream together with the warm chocolate lava.

Dyana, the co-owner of Zento advised us against ordering the Green tea creme brulee ($12) but we decided to try it anyway. The taste was, forgettable, which explained why I couldn’t recall how it tasted like.

There was a period of time long long ago where the fried ice cream at the old Tiong Bahru food centre was in the rage. They called it the Tri colour fuzzes bomb ($14) here. and rightfully so. Underneath the crispy fried skin was cold ice cream. I was fascinated by the fact that the ice cream didn’t melt during the frying process.

* * *

Zento was quite unlike any other Japanese restaurants that I went to before, stepping inside you probably won’t know it’s a Japanese restaurant until you see the menu. Contemporary and chic design, with bold and innovative creations in their menu. My appreciation to Hungrygowhere.com for the invitation to the food tasting session, and Dyana for her warm hospitality.

Zento Asian Global cuisine & Sushi Bar
18B Dempsey road
Tel: 6474 0378

Somehow the name langkawi remains me of kawaii, not that they have anything in common. It is with the same cheerful tone that we stepped ashore at the beautiful island; you can’t be too upset when the scenery around is so magnificent.

There ought to be a bug inside my stomach. If not how do we explain the fact that it is constantly growling? The never-ending-of-food going down to it.

Among the seven sins of Mankind, gluttony must surely be my greatest peccadillo. Dear whoever-it-may-concern (since I don’t believe in God), I have sinned. I’m a glutton, I eat too much and I’m constantly harbouring secret thoughts of eating even more. I think of lunch when I just started breakfast, and lust after dinner when I’m with lunch. I also missed supper when I goes out with dinner.

I envisage a life living in the kelong, just the two of us, away from this world. Waking up beside you every morning, to see the beautiful sun-rise, you look fabulous like the morning dew. We sat there locking into each others eyes, wishing this moment would hold still.

We would walk down the pristine white beach against the backdrop of Tiffany blue, hands in hands, with the tiny sands slipping through our toes. The ocean breeze blows your long silky tresses afloat. We watched the amazing sunset on this exact spot, and we repeat it, everyday, until the end of the end.

And how can we come to Langkawi without having seafood? It’s like going to Beijing without climbing the Great World of China. And we feasted. The seafood was so good, and unbelievably dirt-cheap!

My initial plan was to get salted-egg prawns since I had good memories of anything-cook-in-salted-egg. But it was foiled as the restaurant mysteriously did not have that dish even though it was stated perfectly clear on the menu. Nonetheless, the sambal prawn (RM16 for 200g) was a worthy substitute, and for once I actually thought that it wasn’t spicy enough!

I know it must be boring to see my cze-char posts since we always had the same dishes. But we love sambal kangkong (RM8), and here it is!

I love, love chilli crab (RM45 for 1kg). And my affection isn’t for the crustacean creatures; the chilli gravy was the one I’m after. Thick, spicy with a hint of sweetness, eggy chilli gravy, it was so, so good. I dipped the mantou in it, I poured it over the white rice, I had it with all the food that’s on the table.

Sweet and sour pork was supposed to be in this frame, but since I was the only one who was interested in that, the Thai-sauce chicken (RM10) made the appearance instead. And it was good! The fried chicken was drenched in sweet and slightly spicy; the Thai-influence sauce was very refreshing!

And since everything was so bloody cheap here, we had a snapper (RM45). Steamed Teochew style, the fish was very fresh and sweet, but it was a little too bland; I dipped it into the chilli gravy and finished every bit of it!

I bided you farewell here, send me no further, for I will not be able to let go. I know we will meet each other, one day.

* * *

Read the other stories of The City Kid here.

The first of the many to come, Wan Hao Chinese restaurant at Marriott hotel.

Now what can I say? I totally love roast pork belly! The dish is often an indicator of the standard of a Chinese restaurant; Wan Hao’s rendition was nicely done – crispy top with a thin-and-nice layer of fats. “One cube definitely wasn’t enough”, I protested! But hey, there’s still thirty more dish to go!

Although I couldn’t exactly tasted which seven spices were use, but the combination was seductive to the palate, the Seven spices sea perch fillet.

And just before you are thinking Chinese restaurants are boring and served the usual-you-know-what food, the Hokkigai and salmon sashimi would certainly prove you wrong! Just look at the thickly-and-generous slices of the fresh sashimi. It-is-to-die-for.

For the tasting at Wan Hao, only Catherine of Camemberu fame and myself was present among the five of us. And she absolutely loved the Jelly fish with cucumber. Tangy and Q, it was a refreshing appetiser.

Like the no-smoking campaign slogon which asked you to say ‘No‘ to cigarettes, I could never say no to roast duck. My interpretation of a good roast duck: crispy skin with a layer of fats and tasty duck meat. This one had it all, and say it with me, Oomph-la-la!

Vermicelli with pork fillet. There wasn’t anything spectacular but this is just one, good, comfort food, which stood out among the delicacies we tried.

Beef tendon with white radish

In my humble opinion, Wan Hao has the best Ha Gau among the four places that we tried. All of them used top-quality fresh prawns, but what made the one here stood out was the the skin; some places would do it too thick, and some too thin – it was done perfectly here. Bravo!

I actually preferred the spring roll filled with smoked duck meat to the roasted duck. The smoked duck meat lived up to its name – the very smoky taste within the crispy spring roll.

While some people found that the addition of fish roe to the top only served as an adornment; I thought that it’s fine so long the tiny orange eggs wasn’t in excessive to overwhelm the taste of the siew mai.

I ain’t a big fan of asparagus – the word alone put me off; but I had to try this translucent pretty-looking asparagus dumpling, which tasted decent.

The sea perch fillet with garlic appeared squeaky-fresh; it seemed to be flipping on my plate! The golden mushrooms and tofu were integrated with the sea perch, and I love it!

I knew it was close. I could smell it. The strong alcohol scent. You can smell it from far away. The drunken prawns were as suspected, very strong in liqueur taste; the prawns were big and fresh. I must emphasized, the quality and freshness of the ingredients at Wan Hao was really what set them aside.

Bean curd sheet filled with shrimps

The presentation of the Scallop and asparagus with spicy XO sauce was faultless. Succulent and juicy scallop.

The mere presence of duck shreds greatly enhanced the flavour of the congee. And not to mention there’s sliced fish maw, squid too! All the natural goodness in the bowl of Congee.

It was sensational. Tender, let me tell you, the whole experience: the chewing and swallowing, we couldn’t speak. There was a lump stuck in my throat; I just allowed myself to quietly finished the meat, and inside I was secretly hoping there was more of this.

I was struck in awe of the flavour and texture of the meat, this was certainly my most memorable and favourite dish of the meal. And I couldn’t bear to speak of its name, Kurabuta pork, all the way from Americaaa!

The meal was a late boomer. Just when I thought that the few dishes in front were all good, it got better and better. Or maybe they were saving the best for the last, either way, the Chilli prawns with crispy buns had the “made in Singapore” brand stamped all over it. Spicy, fresh, with the mini mantao bun to dip in to the sauce, it was a superb interpretation of prawns done in our local favourite Chilli crab. A Singapore classic.

I could not, believe how tender the meat actually was. It literally melted in my mouth – I know this phase sounded exaggerating and often over-used, but trust me, it’s true for the Beef tenderloin with black peppercorns. Oh my! I would gladly go back another time just for the kurobuta pork, chilli prawns, and the beef tenderloin alone.

All right, back to the basics. Not many places can do a mean version of the Ee-fu noodles. All of us agreed that this one was just right in terms of the oilyness and bite. Not too oily, not too dry, just exactly how we liked it.

For the first time, I was actually sorry to see the desserts coming – for it signalled the end of the wonderful meal. But Wan Hao dessert did not disappoint as well, the first to arrive, the Lemongrass jelly with lime sherbet was equally pleasing in aesthetic senses. Very refreshing, and a fine finish for us.

There was a big fan of the mango pudding among us, and he was right! I took a nibble without adding in any milk for the original taste; even eaten alone the smooth and creamy texture of the aroma mango was evident.

If you know me, you must know that I’m an anti-durian person. For the sake of sharing with everybody, I popped one durian mochi inside – the mochi was very sticky, the smell of the fabled durian king of the fruits wasn’t very apparent until I took a bite of it, and that’s when I say, Shit!

I love egg tarts, and I always questioned the fact why Chinese restaurants always do their egg tarts in mini sizes. And like the manager of Wan Hao put it, the small bite was just right, anything bigger it would be too much. Crisp golden brown pastry with equally good egg fillings.

* * *

I must admit, I’m impressed with Wan Hao Chinese restaurant. The freshness in the quality ingredients, with the management’s emphasis on this, plus the service of the staff, were all top-notch. I’m not talking about their good service because it was a tasting session, after we finished our meal, we went down to their bakery; the staff was very knowledgeable about their bakes and was very professional.

The 31 items which we tried for this tasting session was half of their weekend brunch buffet which had 70 items, priced at $55 per head. For the sheer quality and variety, the sum is fair, will I be back? Definitely, See you there!

I entered the Marriott hotel on an empty stomach, and I left with a full one; I’m a happy man. My appreciation to the folks from Wan Hao for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read Catherine’s review on Wanhao here

Wan Hao Chinese restaurant
320 Orchard road
3F Marriott hotel
Tel: 6831 4615

Wan Hao is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Slumdog millionaire made an big impact on me; millions of people living in poverty while here we are, fretting about the hot weather, how long the bus took to arrive. I, want to learn more about their culture. I, want to visit the Taj Mahal. I, want to experience their food; their cuisine which has stood against the test of time.

With a glass of mango lassi, we toasted to the world, to good health, and to the glorious food. The sea. The sea. Facing the calm and still of the blue, we feasted. We ate, and ate; a feast for the king.

And so, my adventure with Indian cuisine started. The first to arrive was the Lamb Kakori Malai kebab ($20). And frankly speaking, it looked more like otah to me – but it tasted much better than that. The sensational melt-in-the-mouth-lamb was enough for me to dig several times.

It’s all about prawn, prawn, prawn, daddy-o. You like prawn? You’ll love the Prawns with garlic butter ($24). The distinct garlic butter taste, the teppanyaki style, oh my. But it was slightly salty, more lemon would have solve the problem. But then again, the tone-down version wouldn’t be the real deal, so I say, keep it that way!

And besides the prawn, we have a fish as well. If there was a dish which piped my curiosity, it ought to be the Fish three pepper ($22). With its unique name, and the exotic Indian herbs & spices, I enjoyed every bite, it was good.

Street-food. Read: what the locals eat. Crisp papris topped with chopped potatoes, the crust was awesome; crunch, crunch. One of my favourite, Aloo Papri Delhi Chat ($10).

Slightly sourish, with Indian spices filled within the semolina baked cups. I preferred the Aloo Papri Delhi Chat to the Raj Kachori Chat ($10). , but I enjoyed using my spoon to break down the potato crust; destroyed the wall, and the Indian prince conquered the city!

And how can we not have biryani when eating Indian food; rice is a staple for us Asians after all. We had two different types of biryani, the dum biryani lamb and the Hyderabadi chicken biryani ($18). The chunks of chicken bites were good, but to shelve out eighteen bucks for a bowl of rice? I don’t think so.

Tangy, creamy coconut sauce, with crab patties. Massala crab cake ($24)

The Indian bread, Garlic Nann ($7). It was my first time trying it of course, and the nann was good to go with almost all the dishes; a bite of nann, a mouth of meat. Or simply dipped the nann into the curries!

This was another of my favourite! Compared with the lamb Kakori Malai kebab, the Lagan Ke lamb ($14) was better seasoned with the spices; which resulted in a less gamy taste.

The Lalla Mussa Dal ($18) was Black lentil, speciality of the house. But it wasn’t my type; I’m just not that into you.

By and large I couldn’t remember the Dum Methi prawn ($24) much. It was prawns tossed wth methi, cashew nut onion paste. But somehow after I noticed its presense on our elongated table, there wasn’t a single prawn in sight. Everybody finished it – without even leaving a prawn for me!

As much as I appreciated that the restaurant provided some sweets to complete the meal, but the Tutti Frutti ($10) didn’t pretty much fit into what I had in mind for Indian desserts.

Neither was the Hot chocolate brownie ($8), which was not made in-house.

But luckily there was the Kulfis ($10) – traditional pistachio Indian ice cream to save the day! There’s always a first time for everything, and it’s my first time trying Indian ice cream. The texture was very different; solid and dense – it took forever to melt.

It was, oh-my-god, so sweet. I did not bother to ask what is it; it is enough, to taste it. But I wasn’t about to let Cinderella leave without asking for her name, just before the clock struck twelve, Garam Gulab Jamun ($8).

* * *

I’ll like to thank Hungrygowhere.com for inviting me to the food tasting session. I always wanted to try other cuisines other than the-usual-western-Jap-Chinese-food. Having taken the first step out of my comfort zone, it’s time to try more exotic food, and this meal has certainly aroused me to try some of the other Indian places that I’ve heard so much of.

Go India
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-152 Vivocity
Tel: 63769644

We are all old friends, yet we never met before. We visit each other on the web, that is how we “meet” everybody. Food brings us together, finally we can put a face to each other instead of just a nickname. From online, to offline, our food blogger outing.

While waiting for everybody to arrive, we ordered some fried dim sum for the photo shoot first. Hua Ting have more steamed items than fried ones, and the baked chicken & mango tart ($3.90) headed the list. This reminded me of the one that I had at Man Fu Yuan, and personally I felt it was well executed with the sweet mango zing and crust pastry.

I am not a big fan of bean skin roll dim sum, but since this was one of the few fried item and came highly recommended by the staff, we ordered the Deep-fried bean skin with prawn ($4.80).

Oh, the prawns were fresh. Yes they were. But, but the skin was too thick, and well they are not the best Steamed crystal prawn dumpling ($4.80) I had before.

There was the option of doing it steamed or pan-fried. But who could resist yummy-sinful fried food? Not us, we went for the pan-fried carrot cake with canopy ($3.90). Eat first, worry later! For some unknown reasons that continue to evade us, we are seeing restaurants not frying their carrot cake enough. Is it for the health conscious customers, or is it because it requires more oil? I wished they will just pan-fried it longer.

The first page of the menu comprises of the signature dim sum Hua ting serves, yet i was surprised not to find the Steamed siew mai with shrimp roe ($4.80) there. I felt that it was better than their har gau. And oh yes, there was also mushroom mixed within the siew mai.

There was nothing to fault for their Steamed BBQ pork bun ($3.90). I love my char siew bun, and when there was no char siew sou, I comforted myself by indulging in every moment of this.

Drum roll! Announcing the award for the best performer for the meal, I presented to you, Deep fried scallop pastry with onion and garlic ($4.50). My personal favourite out of the 12 dim sum that we tried that day. The pastry literally melted in my month when I took a bite. And I simple love the strong garlic taste within.

I will also like to mention the good service of the staffs at Hua Ting. While I was causally asking my friend what was inside the Steamed dumpling in Teow Chew style ($3.90), one waitress who was walking by overheard us and stopped to explain. While she couldn’t get all the ingredients in it, she went to the kitchen to ask and came back to tell us. So here it is, peanut, turnip, mushroom & celery.

You definitely will have tried char siew and prawn cheong fun before. Okay, how about scallop? Aye most restaurants have that too! All right, I give you Steamed cheong fun with sliced fish ($4.80). Now that’s something new isn’t it? It was a unique and bold creation, and while personally I still preferred char siew and prawn for my cheong fun, you need to give credits to the chef for trying something new.

Steamed soya bean skin rolls with chicken and mushroom in superior oyster sauce ($4.20). With such a long name, I was caught dumbfound and the staff had to kindly explained a few times what it was. It was actually the same as the deep fried bean skin we had earlier. But somehow I like this one more, the oozing out of the oyster sauce when I took a bite into the bean skin rolls. Oh my.

The others wanted lo mai gai, but there was none. We just have to make do with the Steamed glutinous rice with abalone ($5.20) and it was competent enough. There was the grimicky tiny abalone on top to up the prestige level, but I felt it would be better to give me Taiwanese sausages instead of that.

Not many restaurants use duck for their dim sum, it is always like what I mentioned, char siew, prawn & scallop. Therefore we chose the Pan fried shredded duck rolls ($4.20) out of curiosity.

I never like ordering Steamed pork ribs ($3.90) in dim sum restaurants. I felt they were overpriced, and under-portion. Honestly I will rather order another steamed char siew bun to give me more meat. I’m a carnivore!

Total bill was $120 after a 15% credit card discount for 6 person. We tried 14 out of the 20 dim sum available, and that’s quite a lot! I was confused between Orchard hotel with Orchard Parade hotel, so do check your maps before going down.  In my personal opinion, the staffs at Hua Ting merit the good service tag, all of them were friendly and knowledgeable. Thank you!

The six of us ended up somewhere for more desserts after this filling dim sum lunch. When floggers come out to eat, there is always food, fun, joy and laughter. Oh yes, Dslr, snap snap! Look out for my next post on the after-desserts that we had!

Hua Ting Restaurant
442 Orchard Road
Orchard Hotel
Tel: 6739 6666

Read about my dining companion post:
Catherine @ Camemberu
Evan @ Bossacafez
Julia @ AromaCookery
Leroy @ The Hungry Cow
Nic @ Black Tie, White Lie

There are a few things in life which you can never forget. Your first love, the first time flying on a plane, the wonderful taste of food, and of course, my first visit to the prestigious 6 Star St Regis Hotel, and not to mention, the most expensive and excellent dim sum that I’ve there.

I can never forget the taste of Peking duck after trying it for the first time a couple of years back. The perfectly crispy skin with a thin layer of fats beneath. Yan Ting’s Crispy Peking duck ($60 whole duck) served with traditional condiments arrived within minutes after making our order. Instead of wrapping in the typical pancake, the chef decided to use flour skin instead.

Like the usual practice for Peking duck, the remainder of the meat was done in other methods. The one that we had was diced duck meat, which came across as salty. It would be a great compliment with a bowl of white rice, but other than that, there wasn’t much hint of the duck meat. I wondered where the rest of the duck meat actually went. And the second serving ($27) came at a cost of 3 bucks per head.

While I didn’t try any “San Bei Ji”, or claypot chicken with basil & golden garlic ($20 for medium serves 4) before, the rendition here was satisfying. The fragrance of the meat announced the arrival of the dish, the chicken was tender, with some fatty meat and the tasty sauce was the icing on the cake, or rather chicken.

The question mark on my face was evident when I couldn’t figure out what the vegetable on the table was. I was told, the Dou Bei ($26 for medium serves 4) was the superior cousin of the more common Dou Miao. An expensive plate of greens this was, for the seemingly average taste of the vegetables.

We also tried the Crispy garlic pork ($28 for medium serves 4). The pork ribs were crispy, and had a strong garlic taste. The dish also came across as a tad salty. Nonetheless, we dutifully whipped clear the plate of the ribs.

I can never forget my penchant for cod fish. Taking a bite of the Deep Fried Cod Fillet coated with Crispy Cereal ($28), the fish immediately melt-in-the-mouth, with the cereal giving an added crunch. There’s barely enough for all of us a piece each.

I ain’t a big fan of scallop, so this line could be pretty bias. The Pan Seared Scallop filled with Shrimp Mousse ($32 for medium serves 4) was big in size indeed. However, the scallop was overwhelmed by the strong shrimp mousse taste.

I can never forget my mother’s rendition of French bean. I’m of the belief that simplicity is beauty. Using garlic to stir fried the vegetables can always bring out the fragrance of the garlic without covering the freshness of the greens. So I was rather sceptical initially when i saw the Wok Fried French Bean with Minced Pork and Chilli ($20 for medium serves 4). But it did proved me wrong with the wok hei of the beans. And the minced pork didn’t complicate the taste.

Instead of the typical deep fried prawn with mango, the Deep Fried Prawn filled with Fresh Mango ($36 for medium serves 4) came with a twist. Prawns and mangos were wrapped in beancurd skin, and deep fried. To be frank, I dislike beancurd skins, especially those served during dim sum. But this one was decent, the mango could be sweeter though.

With the name Chef Chan Signature Baked Spring Onion Chicken ($28 for medium serves 4), the dish certainly was bundled with expectations. You can’t go wrong ordering the signature dishes, or so it seems. The chicken was plain ordinary, and definitely didn’t warrent the hefty price tag.

I can never forget the best char siew sou ($1.8 per piece) I had before, from Yan Ting of course. Dim sum is not served during dinner, but we made a request to the manager, who to our delight, agreed to ask the chef to make it for us specially. Maybe we were saddled by the huge expectation that we had, but we are guessing it’s most probably because of the shorter baking time, that the char siew sou didn’t turn out to be as good as before. Nonetheless, it was good of the restaurant to do it specially for us, and I’ll be back again for it.

Total bill was $362.85 for 9 person, after a 25% discount using the Astor card. This came up to about $40 per person, which was totally cheaper than what we expected. And if we didn’t drink tea ($40), and no desserts ($48), the add up will probably be around $283 or $30 per head. With the ambience of the place, the prestige of the restaurant, and the decent quality of the food, the price was definitely reasonable. I’ll definitely be coming back for their dim sum, Yan Ting IV. There are a few things in life, which you can never forget after all.

Read about my dim sum visit to Yan Ting here
& Yan Ting snowskin mooncake here

Yan Ting
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
Tel: 6506 6888

Yan Ting is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Everyday, with the newspaper headline screams the unspeakable “R” word, or some country’s government scrambling to put together a package to rescue their too-big-to-fall banks, times are indeed bad, and no doubt we’ll need to cut down on our spendings to prepare for the storm ahead. But that is not to say that we can’t enjoy good food without spending big money.

My predilection for dim sum has brought me to the attention of Peony Jade restaurant. And since we are on the topic of economics, Peony Jade certainly attracted me with the prices for their dim sum, which i saw from their online menu. There’s two different branch, one at Clark Quay, and the other, Keppel club. Since my friend was driving, i opted for the latter, as it wasn’t a daily affair that you could go to the ulu Keppel club.

Peony Jade is smacked right at the entrance of the Keppel club main building. The main problem will be getting to Keppel club from the outside, just a few minutes drive from Vivocity, but if you are going by public transport, it’s at least 15 minutes walk in from the main road.

Red lanterns adorned the ceiling, with the black traditional walls giving a contemporary look. The whole restaurant was spacious and when we got there around 2pm on a weekday, i was surprised by the small crowd there for lunch.

There was both the steamed prawn & scallop rice roll ($4.50), and coming with an empty stomach, we ordered both. I liked the prawn which was crunchy and fresh, while my friend preferred the scallops which was light. But the rice roll was a tad  thick.

And how can i missed out ordering the Char siew pastry ($3.6 for 3). The very first dim sum i always looked out for. With the main ingredient char siew sticking halfway out, the visual impact was already there. But like they say, after you had the best before, everything else tasted average. How very true.

It was already 2pm when we arrived, and i was starving. The mini oven baked egg tart ($3 for 3) was helpless as i wolfed down 2 easily. The dainty portion was sufficient for my friend, but the petite size was never enough for me.

The squarish basket box caught my attention instead of the steamed pork and crystal shrimp dumpling ($3 for 3). That’s not to say that the siew mai wasn’t attractive. Bright red fish roe, mushroom bits, pork and shrimp, how can anybody resisted the temptation? A pretty decent take, but light’s the word to describe the flavour. Beware of it’s relative, cousin, the steamed butterfly prawns, which was really, just a more expensive rendition of siew mai, with slightly bigger shrimps.

If anyone were to ask me how should a good Har kau be like? In my humble opinion, the shrimp would be the key of course, fresh and crunchy, but you couldn’t miss out the skin too. Most places either do their skin too thin or too thick, which is the fine line between a good and average har kau. The steamed peony jade crystal shrimps dumpling ($4.5 for 3) here unfortunately, fell into the latter category, with the skin coming as a tad thick.

Eating on my own, i’ll never order the Steamed spare ribs black bean sauce ($3.50). I’ve no luck with this dish in all my escapade thus far. So i’ll avoided them far far away with a arm and feet. Give me another basket of siew mai or har gau instead of this.

I’m gonna get into trouble with save-the-sharks organisation after I’m done with this post. My friend wanted the double boiled shark’s fin broth with dumplings ($6), and how can i say no? There was just a few tiny strand of shark’s fin anyway. What? Are you really expecting a whole shark’s fin at this price? Nonetheless, there was plenty of other friends accompanying the lonely fins. Mushroom, prawn, pork, all wrapped within the ginormous dumpling. And oh, the soup base was rather salty for my average MSG indictator.

Just like how I always must have my desserts and dim sum regularly, the chef’s signature deep-fried filo crusted seafood roll ($5 for 6) is surely the must-try gourmet dim sum at Peony jade. There wasn’t any warning to inform us there was going to be 6 seafood roll coming our way. It came as one of the last few dim sum, and by that time we were full. But it didn’t stop me from finishing all of them. As always. And not to mentioned the seafood roll’s about 80 cents each, surely one of the cheapest in town. I’m lovin’ it!

Similarly, the Deep-fried goose liver and prawn ball with almond flakes ($7.50) also gave us a pleasant surprise when it came in 6 instead of their standard 3 piece. Speaking of exotic, how does some goose liver in your dim sum sounds? I didn’t discover any goose liver, or maybe my taste buds wasn’t sensitive enough. It did however, reminded me of the prawn balls that i had before, i wasn’t impress then, and definitely not now too.

When a Japanese asked you to play roulette with her, i wouldn’t bet on the Deep-fried beancurd roulette with shrimps and Japanese seaweed ($4). While the shrimp was fresh, and wrapped inside the deep-fried beancurd, everything’s prefectly fine, it wasn’t my type. You know, some things couldn’t be force. But then maybe i was too full, to find out her true beauty.

I lamented the fact that the pan-fried radish cake ($3) came too late. The very same carrot cake you can find in your market, this one was pan-fried slightly char on the outside, and the radish taste was just right. A pity our stomach finally gave in, and refused to budge.

Total Bill was $70.85 for 2 person, which was much more than what i usually ordered as i always thought that eating 70% full is enough. Its better to eat a bit of here and there, to appreciate the beauty of the dim sum, than to gorge yourself silly. But we couldn’t help ourselves ordering more, the rather cheap prices played a huge role in it of course.

Peony Jade restaurant prided itself in Szechuan and Cantonese cuisine, but surprisely the Szechuan factor seems to be lacking out. I’ll say that the dim sums here are one of the lighest in flavour i ever had before, not that they are not good, just that sometimes you’ll think it should be something more. However, for people who like light flavours, this’s the place for you then.

Prices are absolutely cheap given the restaurant standards and ambience. I’ll be hard-pressed to find another such restaurant which served dim sum at such prices, even Kam boat is more expensive without the 30% discount. And although the quality of the dim sum isn’t comparable to Royal China, and Yan Ting, but the pricing factor certainly win hands-down. I’ll go to their branch at Clark quay when my cravings come again.

Peony Jade restaurant
Keppel Club
Bukit Chermin road
Tel: 6276 9138

I’ve always love my cakes and desserts, so it also came as a surprise to me that i only visited Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge now. Furthermore, it helped that the place is located in town area, right in the middle of level 2, Takashimaya. I went to the second level all right, but couldn’t find the place until my companion told me it’s beside Burberry. And it’s until then i realised i been passing by the place last time but didn’t notice it.

The restaurant interior surprised me as i thought it was bigger on the outside. With an elongated L shape area, customers enjoying their meal can look out to the busy street of Orchard road. While others are rushing around, you’re enjoying your cup of tea with some light desserts. Life’s bliss.

Having the other tables so closed to each other, and with no walls in the whole area, the place was very noisy with all the chatterings and crying sound of the kids. This on the whole, dampened the relaxing mood slightly.

High Tea is served from 2.30pm to 6.30pm. There’s their high tea set for one person at $20.90, and two person at $ 26.90. Obviously the set for one person isn’t worth the price, so if you’re going alone, you’ll be better off ordering a la carte instead. We had the high tea set for two person since it’s our first time there.

The tea that came along with the set was really just, your normal lipton tea. The porcelain tableware with its blue foral prints had a very English feel.

A blueberry cheesecake ($4.90 a la carte) that didn’t taste like blueberry. I usually didn’t quite fancy blueberry but this one was very good. The blueberry was very sweet and flavourful, layering on top of the slice of cake. The taste was very similar to the one that i’ve at Caffe Beviamo.

Cheesy yet not to the extent overwhelming. The biscuit crumb layer underneath the cake added the crunch to the soft and fluffy cheese cake. The “oomph” taste immediately announced its presence. It’s light and airy, and unlike some cheesecakes which are really heavy, you won’t feel sick of eating this one.

Another dessert which we selected for one of the two home-made pastries was the bakewell tart. I didn’t have much similar tarts before, but i must say the tart was excellent by its own standards. The crispy texture of the top, together with the soft body provided a nice compliment to each other. And there was a layer of jam in between which also added flavour to the tart.

A good try if you are going to Royal Copenhagen.

The shrimp sandwich was one of the two mini opened face sandwich ($10.90 a la carte) of the chef’s choice. Basically a sandwich without any top, it consisted of shrimps, caviar and lettuces. Coupled with the mayo sauce, the opened face sandwich reminded me of the one I’ve at Caffe Cova. The shrimps serving was generous all right, the caviar added intense flavour to it, but the lettuce wasn’t very crunchy, and somehow I don’t think I really enjoyed the dainty petite sandwich. After finishing it, i was wondering, was that it?

The big slice of smoked salmon was a surprise, but again opened face sandwich and me just don’t click. My friend enjoyed the popular shrimp sandwich more than this. The thing about opened face sandwich is you feel that you are just eating the fillings without any bread, which doesn’t have the sandwich-feel.

It was the famous Copenhagen scones ($6.90 a la carte) that we eyed for. The one which got everybody talking about. Royal Copenhagen chef’s speciality, fresh daily baked scones served with butter, whipped cream and jam.

There were five types of Danish fruit spread selection, namely blackcurrent, raspberry, strawberry, orange marmalade, and rosehip with apples. We were contemplating between the safe choice of raspberry or the adventurous rosehip with apples. In the end the spirit won, and we chose the latter.

This was the very first time both of us tried scones, while i spread my cream, jam, and butter in the middle of the scones, my companion preferred to tear bits of the scones and dipped them into the jam and butter to eat. The scones were very fragrant, slightly hard on the exterior, soft & fluffy inside. The only gripe – it wasn’t warm! It would be prefect if the scones were warm and freshly baked from the oven.

Total bill was $31.65 after the extra charges for the 2 person high tea set. The experience was a pleasant one, although it was blotch by the rather noisy atmosphere. Service wise was still acceptable, there were a couple of staff which we thought wasn’t very happy serving people, but there was one staff whom was the saving graces with her friendly smile and services.

I’ve called up beforehand to make a reservation, but the staff told me there was no need to for a weekday high tea. And when we reached the place at around 4pm, it’s packed to the house, but luckily there was still seats for us. Which made me wonder whether was it coincidence that they saw a rush in crowd that day, or it was always busy everytime but the staff didn’t want to take the reservations.

Frankly speaking, i didn’t fancy the opened face sandwich, so chances are if i come back again, i probably won’t order the high tea set. The cakes and pastries are really good, and at $4.90 they are a lot cheaper than patisserie like Canele, even though they are not as attractive looking, but it’s the inside that counts isn’t it?

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge
391 Orchard road
Level 2 Takashimaya
Tel: 6735 6833

Located within the Arena country club at Upper Jurong Road, opposite the Singapore Discovery Centre, Tung Lok Seafood is the mainstay of the Tung Lok group (TLG). This dinner took place actually very long ago, five months to be precise. I was hesitant in writing the post since the food was unremarkable, typical at best, and there were too many photos to handle.

We chose to have their dinner a la carte buffet priced at $33.80++ for adult. The buffet had a wide range of food like Japanese cuisines, cold cut appetizer, soup, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice & noodles selections, and desserts. With a total of 50 items to choose from, we managed to eat close to 30 variety.

I would say that most of the food was average, and we tried quite a lot of variety, so i won’t go into details for each and everyone of them. I’ll highlight the ones that stood out, and the rest are really up to your own judgement if you ever go to Tung Lok to try their dinner buffet.

The pictures were taken with my old canon ixus before i got my present DSLR, so do pardon the poor photos.

Poached prawns (limited to 100g per person)

The poached prawns were one of the few dishes that had limits, which meant that they were not available for re-ordering. Not that the poached prawns were that fantastic anyway.

California Maki

The California maki was actually the saving grace for the dinner. I wouldn’t say that the sushi was exceptionally fresh, but they were acceptable and we had two servings of them.

Barbeque roast meat platter

The barbeque roast meat platter was also one of the few that stood out. The char siew was not bad, but the roast chicken was better. We were in half-mind whether to have second servings but later decided not as we were too full.

Beijing roast duck (limited to two slice per person)

The Beijing roast duck was no doubt one of the more pricer dishes, hence the limitation of two slice per person. The waiteress brought the whole roast duck in front of our table to slice it on the spot and served with spring onion, cucumber and sweet sauce. One of the better dish, but pity the limitation of the serving.

Chili crab A La Tung Lok (limited to one per table)

Tung Lok’s renown for their Chili crab, they are after all a seafood restaurant. Without a doubt, the best dish among the 50 selections, the chili crab was spicy and there was a sweet hint in the thick and wonderful gravy. Served with man tou (soft white bun), i’ll say that their chili crab is on par with Jumbo, NoSignBoard and Mellben. But again, there’s the limit of one per table. Nevertheless, if you are ordering a la carte, this definitely is a must order dish.

Sichuan style dumpling with spicy sauce

Pan grilled miso marinated beef tenderloin

Old cantonese style sweet and sour pork

I’m a huge fan of sweet and sour pork, but Tung Lok’s rendition didn’t have the “wow” factor to entice me for second helpings.

Roast Spring chicken (half)

Another typical dish, nothing exceptional but still acceptable.

Deep fried “soon hock” fish

We were not a fan of rear fish like soon hock, so we were not really expecting much from this dish. And it turned out to be what we thought, the fish wasn’t fresh.

Deep fried fritters with salad sauce

Pork ribs with fruit sauce

Crisp fried baby squids

You would thought that seafood dishes were be better at Tung Lok, but the baby squids were over-fried, too charred and dried.

Vegetarian Spring rolls

Fried hor fun with sliced fish in egg gravy

I was undecided whether to order the hor fun and mee goreng, and the hor fun proved to be a disappoint choice.

Poached Chinese spinach with fresh bean stick and garlic

Deep fried prawn paste chicken

Ice cream puff

The ice cream puff was your normal ones found in the neighbourhood deli, but i was actually quite hooked with it. Well this actually show how desirable the other dishes were.

Glutinous rice balls with peanut crumbs

Chilled herbal jelly with honey

Chilled honeydew with sago cream

Chocolate ice cream

Dessert of the day

Total bill was $142.65 for 4 person dinner buffet. Although it came with a huge selections of 50 dishes, but most of them were mediocre and not worth trying. If you don’t really mind the quality of the food, the dinner buffet does makes a rather value option since you get to try so many dishes. But if you are the type who cares about the quality, I say skip the buffet and go for their a la carte menu instead.

Tung Lok Seafood
511 Upper Jurong Road
The Arena Country Club
Tel: 6262 6996

I always have weakness for crustacean, with the exception of crab. Think lobster, crayfish, and of course prawn. I am a lazy person, so eating crab do seems a hassle for me, but lobsters, ah they are easy to eat and simply out-of-this-world. Crayfish is good too as it provides a cheaper alternative to lobsters, yet they got rather similar taste to their more expensive cousin.

Prawn has always been a personal favourite since young, be it steamed, deep-fried, cereal, stir-fried, there are so many different ways which can bring out the flavor of the prawn. Actually the cooking method can be anything, but the key will be the freshness of the prawn.

Sambal chili prawn

300g prawn
3 tbps sambal chili
2 tbps cooking oil
1/4 tps salt & sugar

Remove the prawns from the refrigerator to de-freeze. Shell the prawn body, leaving the head intact. Rinse clean with water and let the prawn dry.

To start cooking, heat oil in pan. Fry the sambal chili until you can smell the fragrance of the chili. Add the prawn in to stir fry until the body of the prawn becomes red. Note that you do not need to stir fry it for too long, otherwise the prawn will become over-cooked, and the freshness will escape. Squeeze a lime to complete the taste, and the sambal chili prawn is ready to serve!

” I got my inspiration for this post after reading the yummylicious food from didally, credits to her! “