I’ll be honest. The only reason why I went to Old Hong Kong Legend at Raffles City Shopping Mall was because Royal China was fully booked that day. Surprisingly, they have pretty good dim sum at reasonable prices.

If you have not heard about the Old Hong Kong Group, they currently have four restaurants: Old Hong Kong Kitchen at Novena Square 2, Old Hong Kong TasteMyVillage at Serangoon Gardens, Old Hong Kong Teahouse at Katong Village and of course, Old Hong Kong Legend at Raffles City Shopping Mall.

The dim sum menu at Old Hong Kong Legend has around 20 items, with prices ranging from $3.2 to $5.5 per basket. From the steamed items like Steamed Shrimp Dumping, Steamed Beef Balls, and Steamed Glutinous rice; to deep fried items like Deep Fried Prawn Dumpling, Deep Fried Spring Roll and Deep Fried Chives Dumpling; and baked items like Mini Egg Tarts, Baked Bo Lo Bun and Barbecued Pork Puff Pastry – there are options for every one.

Ever since I tried the Chicken Feet from Tim Ho Wan (One Michelin-Star restaurant in Hong Kong), my opinion about the dish has changed. For me, it used to represent one of those gruesome punishments in Fear Factor, but now, it is more like a yummy dim sum treat. Old Hong Kong Legend’s Steamed Chicken Claws with Black Bean Sauce ($3.2) was the perfect way to start one’s meal.

The Steamed Egg Yolk Custard Bun ($3.2) was good, but not life changing (read: not the best custard bun in Singapore). That said, I’ve paid $3 for one custard bun before, so the ones here are worth a try. Imagine: taste of happiness for merely a dollar each.

Three dim sum items arrived in quick succession: Steamed Glutinous Rice ($4.5), Pan Fried Radish Cake ($3.2), and Steamed Barbecued Pork Bun ($3.2). Except for the Glutinous rice in lotus leaf, the other two items were run-of-the-mill and nothing worth mentioning.

When I was scanning through the menu, the baked items like Char Siew Sou, Egg Tarts and Baked Bo Lo Bun were screaming ‘EAT ME’. Unfortunately, the oven was spoilt that day and we couldn’t order any of them. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced this, but it is not a nice feeling to see something, and not being able to eat it.

Thankfully, the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling ($5.5) and Steamed Pork Dumpling ($5.5) were decent and we quickly forgot about the baked dim sum.

All in all, Old Hong Kong Legend at Raffles City Shopping Mall (City Hall) is a competent restaurant to have dim sum. If not for the fact that there are so many good dim sum restaurants like Royal China, Man Fu Yuan and Wah Lok in the area, I’d come back more often for lunch.

For more recommendations, read my list of dim sum restaurants in Singapore

Singapore Food Blog Review
Old Hong Kong Legend
252 North Bridge Road
#02-18 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6336 3038

I’m eating at a much faster rate than I blog, and this is a problem when there are so many food places in Singapore that I want to blog about.

In the Singapore food scene, Lei Gardens Restaurant is known to be one of the best Cantonese restaurants, and it has been on my list of must try restaurants in Singapore.

They have recently undergo a makeover to freshen up the image of the restaurant. Having never visited Lei Gardens at Chijmes previously, I cannot comment on the changes, but the new interior is classy and contemporary, while retaining the touch of a Chinese restaurant. On my two visits, services were flawless, the staff members were polite and friendly, conscious of diners need yet not overly intruding.

Best Roast pork in Singapore

Friends who have been to Lei Garden always raved about their to-die-for roast pork, and now I finally understand why. Especially if the Roast Pork in question happens to be this one in the picture; succulent and tender pork with a crispy top that’s roasted to a perfect shade of golden-brown. Every bite was so good that I hated the fact that there’s only nine tiny cubes. Oh no, there’s only eight pieces left.. five.. three.. last cube! Seriously, this is the best roast pork ever!

I’m a big fan of dim sum and having been to many Dim Sum restaurants in Singapore, I was keen to try out Lei Garden to see how their dim sum would fare against the best dim sum that I’ve before.

Lei Garden’s menu has the standard dim sum items like Har Gau, Siew Mai, Cheong Fun, but unfortunately they do not have  my favorite Custard buns and Char Siew Sou.

Anyway, we ordered Steamed Pork Dumpling ($5.80), Steamed Shrimp Dumpling ($5.80), Panfried Carrot Cake ($4.80), Steamed BBQ Honey Pork Bun ($4.30), Baked Mini Egg Tarts ($4,30), Steamed Cheong Fun ($5.80) and Steamed Shanghai xiaolongbao ($5.80).

* * *

Most of the dim sums were fairly competent, but there wasn’t any particular one that stood out. In my opinion, Lei Garden’s dim sum are well-executed, they are definitely above average but personally, they probably are not among my top 5 dim sum restaurants in Singapore.

Tell me, which is your favorite Cantonese restaurant?

Restaurant Review
Lei Garden Restaurant
30 Victoria Street
#01-24 Chijmes
Tel: +65 6339 3822

* * * The giveaway is now closed, will announce the winners shortly * * *

It’s that time of the year again – the hairy crab season.

The October and November period is the time for harvesting the tiny crustacean; while they are definitely not the biggest in size, it is often touted as the king of crabs (maybe with the exception to the Alaska king crab).

Almost every decent Chinese restaurant will be offering this delicacy; it’s either you have this, or be square. And they are also not exactly cheap, the better quality ones can cost up from fifty to hundreds of dollars. I was invited to a tasting session by Food Junction recently – they are the first and only food court in Singapore to offer hairy crabs.

The highlight of the hairy crab is definitely the rich roe within; the main difference of the male & female hairy crab will be the latter having more roe.

Here’s the step by step guide provided by Food Junction on “How to eat Hairy Crabs”

Step 1: Lift flap on the underside of the crab. remove the heart.

Step 2: Pry open the toe shell to enjoy the roe.

Step 3: Remove gills

Step 4: Hold on to the legs & break the body in half.

Step 5: Cut crab leg into smaller segments.

Step 6: Push it through to the narrower segment of the claw into the other to extricate the flesh in the latter.

Step 7: Remove Pincer from crap and snip into smaller segments.

Step 8: Cut along the sides of the pincer to extricate the flesh.

The hairy crab set consists of one crab and ginger tea, with the necessary tools like the scissors and gloves (if you need one). We also had some side dishes of steamed pork dumpling (xiaolongbao) which I found to be ordinary; the skin cracks when I tried to lift them up. Order the fried pancake instead, it is a better appetiser and fares much better than the xiaolongbao.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of crabs in general. I don’t understand why people spend so much time and effort to pry out so little meat hidden within the shell; fine I admit, I’m lazy – I don’t like to get my hands dirty! Anyway if you are keen to have a hairy feast, the hairy crabs will be available at three Food Junction food court (Bugis Junction, Great World City and The food place @ Raffles city) from now until 20th December; with the male ones priced at $18.80 and the female one at $23.80. I will like to thank Pris & Racheal and Food Junction for the invitation.

* * *

HOW TO ENTER THE HAIRY CRAB GIVEAWAY

I bet half of you just scroll right to the bottom when you saw the word Giveaway on the top! So for all the lurkers silent readers out there – here’s the reason for you to finally leave your first ever comment on my blog.

I totally understand how it feels to be on your end, reading my blog from the screen and feeling hungry in the middle of the night; so I’m happy to announce that Food Junction has kindly agreed to giveaway FIVE SETS (1 male & female hairy crab worth $42) to five lucky readers. If you want a chance to win, here is what to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post

Tell us why you want to try the hairy crabs. And ONE entry per person, just write a short and simple line. It doesn’t really matter what else you say, as your impressive or witty comment will not affect the results,  but obviously you can’t just write two or three words. Anyway the point is – nobody wants to read an essay here.

2. Use a valid & contactable email

Please use a contactable email when you post the comment, I will email the winners shortly after to direct you on how to redeemed the hairy crabs from the Food place @ Raffles City.

3. And the Five lucky Winners . . .

The five lucky winners will be decided by a highly sophisticated method, and I reserve the right to re-pick if there’s any discrepancy or foul-play involved (of course there won’t be, all of you are nice people but yeah just in case).  The contest will run until 20th Nov Friday Midnight, and so you have exactly three days before it ends.

Have a hairy crab feast, I hope you enjoy the little gift I have for everyone!

Looking back my archives, I realized it’s been a while since I last blog about dim sum. Actually, I have been putting off this post for very long, I wasn’t sure if I want to blog about it. Their famous baked BBQ pork buns and char siew sou were sold out, but I reckon you can do with some dim sum.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it almost impossible to resist Egg tarts ($4), not when they are baked straight from the oven. How can one ever be enough? I can easily have a dozen on my own!

I wanted custard buns, but they did not have that, instead we got Baked custard pastry ($4). Surprisingly it was quite good, the custard wasn’t the flowy lava type, but who cares? Sprinkled with icing sugar, the thin and moderately crispy pastry was a perfect re-enact when custard bun meets char siew sou.

For the life of me, I couldn’t remember when I started to like dim sum. Red Star introduced me to dim sum when I was young, but it’s Yan Ting that made me fall in love over again. Coming back, it’s hard to know what to say about Steamed pork dumpling ($5.60), I mean it’s siew mai, and how bad can it get? It’s pork and prawn, and they always taste good together.

It’s a different story for Steamed prawn dumpling ($6.80 for 4) all together. For har gau, it’s either very good, or very bad. I’m very particular with the thickness of the skin, it cannot be too thin, otherwise it’d cracked easily. But if the skin is too thick, it doesn’t taste good and get stuck the teeth easily. The har gau was fairly competent, but I cringed at the price tag.

Before I say anything else, I thought that it’s fair to tell you that I normally do not like yam, with the exception to yam cake and Deep-fried yam roll ($5.70). There’s just something which makes deep-fried yam so irresistible.

If you ask me to pick between steamed or fried carrot cake, the answer is obvious, I will definitely go for the latter. Why will anyone in their right mind choose the healthy steamed way over the sinful-but-delicious fried ones? Unless, there’s the steamed rendition taste really good, or there’s no fried ones available. In this case, it was a combination of both, Wah Lok’s Steamed carrot cake ($4.50) was pretty decent.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I’ll never order Steamed pork ribs ($5.60) on my own accord. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ll never come to appreciate chewing on tiny ribs with no meat, not unless you are talking about huge baby ribs. Now that’s another story all together.

* * *

Answering my own question, I will probably not come back to Wah Lok for dim sum again. Even though all the dim sum were pretty competent, but it lacked the draw without their char siew sou and baked char siew bao. And not to mention that their prices are much higher than what it used to be before. You know the good thing about being in town? There are plenty of better options in the same area.

How about you? What’s your favourite dim sum place?

Wah Lok Cantonese restaurant
76 Bras Basah road
2F Carlton Hotel
Tel: 6311 8188

Weekends are the best time for dim sum, it is when everybody is free to have a long lunch, and what can be better than to yum cha?

My friend wanted to try the Beancurd prawn roll ($4.50), and I have never been a big fan of beancurd skin. Since a lot dim sum has prawns, we decided to go for the Char siew cheong fun ($4.50). The savoury light sauce always enhance the flavour of the cheong fun.

After trying so many different har gau ($4.50), it has somewhat become rather ordinary to me. I know it’s the dim sum queen; all right if you must, fresh crunchy prawns held firmly within translucent skins. But I’m indifference to it, at least for now.

I was craving for custard buns badly, and to my delight it’s listed on the menu; but the initial euphoria half evaporated when the captain said that it’s been replaced by the Baked custard buns ($3.50 for 3). So feeling half skeptical and half excited, we approached it. Judging from appearances, the baked buns look like those hard, baked pastry kind. We took a bite, and it was astonishing so soft! I would prefer those molten custard on any other day, but this was just as good!

Siew mai and har gau always come together in pairs, there isn’t one without the other. But unlike the har gau, I’m not so sick of Siew Mai ($4.50 for 4) since it has a combination of porky and prawny bite.

I’m insanely in love with Char siew sou ($4 for 3). The ones here reminded me of my old flame; the buttery crispy flakes, the oozing oh-so-sweet juice from the char siew. Delish! You know like they say, your first love is always the most memorable, if I’ve not had better before, I’ll say this is quite good. But then again, I’m biased against char siew sou.

The fragrant glutinous rice ($4.50) enveloped within the leaf; the salted egg yoke bursting through your tastebud with it’s strong and distinct taste, the little bites of chicken shreds, a pity the Chinese sausages were missing here. Almost perfect.

Pan-fried carrot cake ($3.50) used to be a favourite of mine, but after trying several half-hearted versions, I’m leaning towards some of the better steamed ones that I had. Packed the carrot cake full with relish, lots of them. Then lightly-seared it until golden brown, leaving a crispy surface with soft relish beneath it. Sounds easy? Do one for me.

Actually I’m undecided if I will come back to Asia Grand for dim sum again. And it’s not because they are not good, the variety of dim sum available was very comprehensive. But the main reason was the existence of a better option just directly opposite them. I’ll probably drop by again for their Peking duck, which is definitely much cheaper than the one I had at Peach Garden.

Asia Grand
331 North Bridge road
#01-02 Odeon towers
Tel: 6887 0010

In life we have dreams; they are our goals to work towards to, one step by one step, and approached it. I’ve always wanted to visit Spain; the country, with its rich culture and vibrant cities appeal to me, and of course, Spanish food.

I simply love the idea of Tapas; the option of having more variety of food in smaller bite sizes, seduces me. Why have two dishes when we can have four? And so our Spanish adventure started with the Plamuk tod ($12), tempura style calamari rings. Limon did a thinner version using less batter which allowed the taste of the squid. But the amazing thing was the strawberry yoghurt dip which came along with the calamari!

Tartar sauce? That’s so last season. Mayonnaise? That’s so passe. Try strawberry yoghurt dip!

Tapas has many similarities with our Chinese Dim sum; it’s the communal way of sharing food. Both encouraged people to try out more varieties, and at the same time shared the food with others. The Patatas bravas ($10) was essentially Spanish fried potatoes.

A little bit of this, plus a little bit of that

No I’m not talking about our saliva! We get to share food and try a bit of everything without getting full, isn’t that a brillient idea? There’s no beef in the Moo curry ($12), instead there was pork & potato cubes pan-fried, with the red curry sauce being a tad strong.

How come the sausage tasted like brinjar?

It was hilarious when we mistook the eggplant for sausages at first bite, I’m never a fan of the purple plant. The fusion aspect was on display by preparing the Spanish Bibao (sausages) with Thai green curry sauce. Chorizo con curry verde ($14)

Honey, they shrunk the prawns!

I was sceptical when the “king prawns” that they’d mentioned was so tiny, but for what was lacking in size, the prawns more than made up in taste. The “tiny” creature was so prawny and crunchy! With ingredients like olive oil, lemongrass, black pepper, garlic, nameko mushroom; it was a mixture of flavours.

The Gazpacho con vino blanco ($12) was a traditional Spanish cold soup, with the novelty level upped by serving it in a baby coconut husk. The white wine flavour was subtle, but the experience of drinking soup was redefined into drinking coconut!

Tom-kha Guy ($10)

Besides the “coconut soup”, Limon has a few other soup available for selection, and you know I never like such soups, so use your own imagination how it would taste like.

Pumpkin fusion soup with strips of Serrano ham ($13)

Tomato, Orange and lemon soup ($10)

Paella. This was THE dish besides churros that I was looking forward to. And I had problem pronouncing it the whole night, so I came up with a simple way of remembering it, paella (my own pronunciation: Pie-ya). It was done with a Thai twist; incorporating tom-yum with the Spanish paella, there was plentiful of mixed seafood. It was delicious, every grain of rice tasted so good. Since I did not have paella before, there was no way I could make comparison, but it was good enough for me. And the tom-yum flavour wasn’t even strong (at least to me). Paella de tom yum ($20 for main size)

You like fish?

You will definitely love the Bacalao ($36)! The blue cod fillet was so fresh that it seemed alive on my plate, but I would prefer it to be slightly more pan-fried on the surface. Every piece of flesh was so delicate when our utensils touch it, oh baby, I’m gonna eat you up!

The lomo de cordero ($35) was a perfect sight to behold. There’s something about the Rack of lamb, which always make it so sexy! But somehow the ingredients like rosemary, oregano, mint, white wine, lemongrass sauce did not manage to cover the gamey taste.

Lobster, I love lobster! And I’m not going to share with you. No, get your hands off, it’s mine, it’s all mine! I was freaking excited when the Live lobster krapow ($38) arrived on our table. Every bite of the oven-baked lobster was so good, but there wasn’t enough meat for me! Taking a fork, I tilted the lobster head upside down, and dug at the shell beneath it, and yes, there was more lobster meat there!

On first look, I thought it was panna cotta, the Italian dessert. But it wasn’t. The dessert in picture was a Lemon caramel egg custard flan ($10). The texture was very similar to panna cotta, but I couldn’t quite figure out what was the difference.

And yes, I know chocolate cake has nothing to do with Spanish or Thai, but apparently the pastry chef at Limon does such a good chocolate cake that they decided to put it in the menu. And boy, it was true. The Homemade Chocolate cake ($9) paired with vanilla ice cream was a delight! If you could look at the plain chocolate cake up there, there’s the lava-flowing chocolate on top of the moist chocolate cake. Even though it was a pity there wasn’t any vanilla bean ice cream, but a scoop of cold icy one was enough to bring out the best of the chocolate cake.

I love to share food. But somehow the evil twin in me took over when we had the Crema Catalana con frescas ($10). There are times where you eat something that was so good, yet you couldn’t tell what it was, so you just ate, and ate, and ate. This was what I did, I took a spoonful of the egg based cream, put it in my mouth, and I couldn’t taste what it was. And the second bite became even better. So I simply took up the whole glass, dug, and dug further into, until the whole dessert was finished.

* * *

It was a medley of flavours when the Spaniards and the Thais come and play together. This was my first time trying Paella, and I’m glad I tried it! My appreciation to Towie, the owner of Limon, and Nicole for hosting us for the food tasting session.

And now for the good/great/terrific/fantastic news, I’ll be doing a food outing event (yes finally), at Limon on the 10th August for dinner. It would be a public holiday so I hope to see all of you there. The details of the outing will be in my next post.

Limon restaurant
7 Purvis street #01-01
Tel: 6333 9004

You know in life, there’s usually only one opportunity, and like they say, if you missed the train, it’s gonna be gone forever. That is why, gracious and forgiving, as cliché as it may sound, is important. Second chance.

Making the wrong choices once is bad enough, this time, we are going for the safe option. What better than their signature Le Royale ($7). If I’m to be a scientist, all the cures and breakthrough will never occur. But call me a mathematician, the cake had 64% of dark chocolate mousse. Of hazelnut feullitine and praline, I could never differentiate them apart. But I love them both, yes I do. So it doesn’t matter, anything with hazelnut & feullitine works for me. You know I love you, xoxo Le Royale.

Some of the female companions that I know, does not like to drink coffee. Yet they always frequent Starbucks, well just for their green tea frapp. Yes, call it irresistible, healthy, or whatever, our ladies love their macha. The lovely light shade of green tea mascarpone mousse was appealing. I’m no expert when it comes to green tea, but what I do know, the macha was very subtle. And the chestnut cremeuex was an interesting choice for the middle layer. Not that i’m a fan of chestnut. Oh yes, simply named,  the macha ($7)

Oh dear, if looks can kill, so can Tarte Citron ($5.50). The beautifully burnt effects from the blow torch was a sight to behold. Italian meringue with lemon cream on almond tart. My, my. This really is a beauty. And if you think she is a bimbo, the taste was as good as the looks too.

I never know Canelé has good ice cream. Well, they are known for their cakes, and chocolates, but ice cream! I love surprises. And Nougatine ($8) is all about that. Praline ice cream with hazelnut nougatine was always my beloved. But it was the salty caramel dripped alongside the ice cream, which really made it so good.

Total bill was $33 for three cakes and one ice cream. Well I thought that the ice cream was pretty decent even at eight dollars per pop since it was more than the size of two scoops elsewhere. The raffles city branch is canelé restaurant instead of patisserie, since they offered main course as well. But I resisted putting the word restaurant on my title since we didn’t try any of their main course. That will be another time of course.

Usually opportunities only come knocking once, but I’m gonna knock on the door a few more times.

Canelé Restaurant
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-81 Raffles City shopping centre
tel: 63347377

An oasis of blue, with a glimpse of gold. Royal China. There are places which you will proudly recommend to your friends when they want suggestions for food, and I raved about the best dim sum before. Indeed, my fond memories of the exquisite Chinese-tapas still lingers in my heart. My perennial return was long overdue.

But perhaps it was my mistake not to check with the restaurant before going, that I didn’t realise they had a special dim sum menu for the Chinese New Year period. With just a selection of 12 different dim sum, all priced at $6.80++ instead of the normal price, I did feel being rip-off, but that’s Chinese New Year for you, and it was my fault for not checking beforehand.

In place of the usual red roe on top of the steamed minced pork dumpling with abalone ($6.80++, usual price $4.80), we had tiny abalones instead. Right, the siew mai was up to standard, but I’ll not say the same having pay two dollars extra for the tiny abalone on top.

From the outside, the steamed prawn dumplings with black moss ($6.80++, usual price $4.80) looked the same. The exotic ingredients kicked in with the addition of black moss (fa-cai), an ingredient that is never missing from Chinese New Year menu. I certainly understood the significant of the auspicious ingredient, but I must admit that there wasn’t any enhance in the flavour of the har gau.

The Crispy prawn rolls with sesame ($6.80++) was one of the item which I did not try before, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Fundamentally prawn roll with mango, fried crispy with the sesame stuck on top. A dip into the mayo dressing completed the whole taste.

My love, the Baked barbecued pork puff ($6.80++, usual price $4). Royal China’s rendition was very good, with golden butter flaky skin and juicy red char siew. The only problem, this was exactly the same without any addition of “exotic ingredients” and I had to pay almost three bucks more for it.

Total bill was $43. 90 for 4 dim sum, 1 appetiser, and of course the other charges. Was I disappointed by the second visit? Certainly, counting by per piece, it’s close to $2.60 each, even more expensive than Yan Ting. But you can’t fault them for the quality in dim sum, it’s just that I’m sore over paying more than usual for my char siew sou. Will I go back again? Certainly, I still have good impression of them even though this was a bad experience.

And one more thing which I was not pleased about. For those of you who had been there, you’ll know that in their middle seating area, it used to be square tables with the nice white chairs. But they had removed them, and placed round tables with ugly brown chairs instead. I presumed this was done to increase the seating capacity,  but the different furnitures was certainly not pleasing to the eyes, and the seating arrangements were not comfortable at all. After checking with a friend who went after the cny period, it seems everything is back to normal.

One thing’s a definite. We will find out the next time I revisit the place.

Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: 6338 3363

Royal China @ Raffles exudes the prestige and grandeur as the famous colonial Raffles Hotel. Housed in the 3rd level of the hotel, Royal China definitely strikes out to be a cut-above-the-rest with its impressive name, and location. Having heard rave reviews about Royal China’s dim sum, it was about time that I patronised the restaurant, and boy I was charmed.

I decided to go against the norm this time round, usually i’ll write out my conclusion at the end, but Royal China isn’t any normal restaurant serving run-of-the-mill dim sum. I’ll rate them in the same league as Yan Ting, but definitely cheaper. Given the varsity in prices, I say Royal China certainly serves the best dim sum among the places i tried so far.

You can be forgiven if you think that Royal China comes with some Chinese background since the name China indirectly implied the meaning. In fact, The Royal China group is eminent in London, and the foray into Shanghai was just a recent event. Royal China @ Raffles remains the exclusive restaurant in the whole of South-east Asia.

Stepping into Royal China, the contemporary interior which comes in wave of ocean blue makes it a swanky restaurant. No doubt you wouldn’t believe this was actually a Chinese restaurant, and i must say I enjoyed the ambience as it’s very different from the traditional red and gold setting which you find in Chinese restaurants. The blue and white backdrop ooze a certain calm and tranquil, which made you feel right at home.

Baked Barbecued pork puff ($4 for 3)

The baked barbecued pork puff or char siew sou, was definitely the must-order dim sum at Royal China. Within the flaky, crispy pastry skin was the most delicious, sweet and juicy char siew that you could find. I regretted not having second serving of this, the next time round, i’ll have one basket for myself!

The best char siew sou that i tried so far was at Yan Ting, and Royal China’s rendition is certainly on-par with that. The thought of the excellent BBQ pork puff is enough for me to make a perennial return.

Steamed pork dumpling ($4.80 for 4)

Making a strong case for Royal China, the steamed pork dumpling, or siew mai was also another staple in the menu. Like most siew mai, the beautiful red roe adorns the top, and how can you not order this when you are having dim sum!

Steamed prawn dumpling ($4.80 for 4)

As with most, if not all good steamed prawn dumplings, a whole fresh and luscious prawn shroud within the thin and light skin had the right amount of bite. And at $1.20 each, they are really worth the money, compared with the ones at Peach Garden which are higher in price.

Steamed BBQ pork buns ($3.60 for 3)

Like i mentioned before, I love to eat char siew buns from Chinese restaurants because they are usually in three parts which have gaps to tease you with the char siew fillings. And at $1.20 each, I’ll rather have one of these any time over the sub-standard buns elsewhere.

Steamed seafood roll with minced garlic ($4.80 for 2)

Coming on the recommendation of the staff, the steamed seafood roll with minced garlic was one of the more expensive dim sum at Royal China. Each basket only serves two person, nevertheless, each serving came in the form of a huge crunchy prawn wrapped around wisp of noodles. An interesting and novelty take.

Carrot cake with preserved meat ($4 for 1)

There wasn’t anything fantastic with the carrot cake here, No complications of XO sauce, no carrot cake wannabe cheong fun just a good and reliable portion of the dish which we are all familiar with.

Glutinous rice in lotus leaf ($4.80 for 2)

We decided to have just one basket of the Glutinous rice not because it wasn’t good, but rice makes you full easily, and we wanted to keep our stomach for the other delectable dim sum. The rice was enhanced with the fragrant emitted by the lotus leaf.

Royal China Cheong fun ($4.80 for 3 rolls)

We had the Royal China Cheong fun, which was a combination of the three different ingredients, namely, prawn, char siew and scallop. You can also get just one of the ingredient in a serving, but since we wanted to try all three, this was a good choice.

The cheong fun rice rolls were silky-smooth, and encompassing within were fresh scallops, crunchy prawns and juicy char siew. I couldn’t quite decide which ingredient was better, but i’m leaning towards the crunchy prawns.

String beans crystal dumpling in chilli oil ($3.6 for 1)

This was the only upset from the otherwise perfect meal at Royal China. Coming as a last minute before the last order at 2.45pm (lunch’s from 12-3pm), the staff told us this was special because not many places uses string beans in dim sum. And i agreed, only with the part that you seldom see string beans.

The string bean crystal dumplings had fillings of string beans, and soaked in chilli oil. We did not like the combination, the chilli oil was too spicy and oily. But being the nice people, we didn’t want to waste food, so we took one each and gulped it down.

Deep fried prawn dumpling served with Mayo ($4.80 for 3)

Another of the last minute order, the deep fried prawn dumpling fared better than the string bean crystal dumpling. Covered with almonds, the inside was minced prawn. My friend was looking out for the big prawn which was evident in the prawn dumpling, and the seafood roll. But the prawn here was minced nicely and filled in the dumpling instead.

Baked duck meat roll in Portuguese sauce ($4.80 for 3)

The baked duck meat roll was also on the recommendations of the staff, it came as a surprise to us when it arrived, looking like meat roll dipped in curry-like colour sauce. In fact, it was Portuguese sauce, now i’m not too sure what exactly was Portuguese sauce, but the flavour was too strong, and overwhelmed the duck meat roll.

But eaten without the Portuguese sauce, the duck meat roll on its roll was actually quite good. The fillings were generous within the roll, pity the Portuguese sauce though.

Total Bill was $95.10 for 5 people. Most of the earlier dim sum that we ordered came in 6 portions because another friend didn’t come in the eleventh minute. I listed out the normal pricing for the standard pieces of dim sum available so as not to confuse you. You could also do it like us, say you have 5 people order 5 pieces instead of getting two basket of 3 each.

Prices are reasonable given the quality of the dim sum. We paid about $19 per person, definitely not expensive, but we didn’t exactly eat a lot, one of each dim sum. I preferred to appreciate each piece of quality dim sum than to gorge myself silly with a lot of sub-standards one.

Dim sum at Royal China was an excellent one, standards are comparable to Yan Ting, yet prices are cheaper than the latter. There are some other dim sum which i haven’t try, and a perennial return looks to be a certainty, and I’ll definitely recommend Royal China if you are looking for good dim sum. The restaurant’s also famous for their lobster noodles, but unless you got deep pockets, i suggest you stick to the dim sum. See you there!

Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: 6338 3363

Royal China is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

It’s a shame that Dim sum isn’t getting the recognition as its Sushi counterparts. The Japanese sushi is also like what Dim sum is to the Chinese cuisine, just that it comes in the form of vinegared rice topped with ingredients like fish, various meats and vegetables.

With the entrée of more Spanish restaurants in the local dining scene, more people knows about tapas, and degustion has always been a firm word on the menu of the French restaurants here. How about dim sum? I think that most youngsters nowadays are not really into dim sum, since it’s often seen as a more traditional meal. Youngsters want to break out of the tradition, they want something hip and cool, and dim sum is not that. Which is cooler, saying you had dim sum, or tapas at the latest Spanish restaurant and a 6 course degustion dinner?

Dim sum is akin a piece of artwork crafted by the chef, so exquisite and refine. No offence to the Sushi-fanatic, but give me dim sum over sliced raw fish anytime.

Every hotel will have their own flagship restaurants in the different cuisines, and at Carlton hotel, Wah Lok is the Cantonese representative. Our latest dim sum adventure brings us here, together with hautestuff and ladies, we had a great time over our dim sum lunch.

Wah Lok is located on the second level within the Carlton hotel, the high ceiling of the restaurant makes the interior looks very spacious. The decor is typical of most Chinese restaurants, with a very comfy and homely feel. There are two different dining halls and can easily fill up on a normal day, which shows the popularity of the restaurant.

Char siew sou ($3.80 for 3)

The Baked BBQ pork pastry or more affectionately known as char siew sou, has always been one of the dim sum that i will order first. Wah lok’s version of the char siew sou did not disappoint, within the buttery surface of the pastry were juicy and sweet char siew fillings.

The rendition at Wah lok may not be as refine as the one i had at Yan Ting, nevertheless it’s still better than most char siew sou that i had before, and all of us were tempted to order second helpings.

Baked BBQ pork buns ($3 for 2)

We asked the captain for recommendations, and he promptly suggested that we have Wah Lok’s signature, char siew bao. We were rather surprised when the char siew bao came, as it’s not the normal steamed buns which has white pillowry exterior. Instead, the baked counterpart is browned and glazed, more like bo luo bao.

The juicy and sweet char siew was enveloped within the baked pastry. Although we just had the char siew sou which is a different variety made with puff pastry, the pork buns were gone in an instant.

Baked egg tarts ($3.20 for 3)

The petite baked egg tarts had smooth and eggy fillings within the puff pastry. The miniature size of the egg tart was the only problem as we only had one each.

Steamed prawn dumplings ($5.40)

The steamed prawn dumplings, or “Har Gao” at Wah Lok had fresh, succulent prawns contained by the thinly light skin. Solid and reliable prawn dumplings.

Steamed pork dumplings ($4.60)

The steamed pork dumplings or “siew mai” is another dim sum which i would not fail to order. The siew mai was well-balanced, not too porky.

Fried XO carrot cake ($10)

The fried xo carrot cake was off-the-menu, which we requested for instead of the steamed carrot cake. However this was a mistake as the carrot cake was bland and too soft for my liking. We couldn’t taste much of the supposedly “oomph” xo sauce. At $10, we would be better off ordering two other basket of dim sum.

Steamed chicken claw with chili ($3)

I am never a fan of chicken claw, but the three ladies certainly enjoyed it, munching the chicken feet and spiting out the small bones.

Deep fried beancurd ($5.6)

We wanted one more dim sum after our first round, and the waiter recommended this. The deep fried beancurd skin with prawns was excellent. Normally, the beancurd skin would be more than the prawn, but in this instance, the succulent prawn fillings threatened to overshadow the beancurd skin.

Fried mango ice cream ($6)

We ended off our dim sum lunch with a very non-chinese dessert. Fried ice cream was a craze a few years back, and i remember there’s even a store at the Tiong Bahru market which used to sell fried ice cream. But not anymore, where can you still find fried ice cream nowadays?

The crispy exterior had a strong hint of coconut taste, while the interior was icy cold ice cream, simply magic, how did they do that?

Total bill was $63.75 for 4 person, which worked out to be around $16 per person. We didn’t really ordered a lot, so the price might seem deceptive, nevertheless, the dim sum at Wah Lok is still priced reasonably given their quality. The portions are quite petite, but it will do for our ladies. I foresee i’ll be coming back to Wah Lok quite often in the near future to try out the rest of the dim sum.

Wah Lok Cantonese restaurant
76 Bras Basah road
2F Carlton hotel
Tel: 6311 8188

Seah Street Deli has an American air around it, it is after all a restaurant serving your good old American food. Don’t let the name Seah Street fool you, the place is call Seah Street deli because the restaurant is located in Raffles Hotel, which is just beside Seah Street.

Step into Seah Street Deli, and you will be transported back in time to 1950s New York. The restaurant does imitates the look of a Big Apple Deli quite well, the lightning, the decors and the furnitures all oosh a certain classical American touch.

Located at the colonial Raffles Hotel, Seah Street Deli is just a 5 minutes walk away from Raffles City. Certainly an accessible place for a meal if you are in the area and do not want to be in the crowd.

Nowadays where else can you find a jukebox? Talk about nostalgic, they certainly roll back the good old time.

Wild Pacific Dory Fillet ($18.50)

Served with natural organic vegetables, baby potatos, and lemon wine sauce. The wild pacific dory fillet comes up to be quite ordinary actually. The dory is fresh, but not much of a surprise there, and at $18.50, its a tad expensive. Serving size is definitely huge, well it should be, we are talking about American food after all.

Grilled Salmon Steak ($18.95)

Salmon marinated with mix herbs, grilled zucchini, garlic mashed potatoes and dill cream sauce. The Grilled salmon steak taste to us slightly under-flavored, it will be better if the flavor can be stronger.

The garlic mashed potatoes are plentiful, and really, you can’t finish them off unless you really got a big appetite.

Southern Style Chicken ($17.50)

Deep fried chicken, served with fries. The portion is gigantic, but really thats it. The chicken is deep fried, done in your American style, fries are decent. But at $17.50, the Southern Style chicken is a suspect for rip-off

Seah Street Burger ($14.95)

Seah Street Deli’s very own freshly ground all beef patty with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions served on a toasted sesame bun. If you think the Seah Street Burger is big, think again. You haven’t seen the bigger burger.

Their Texas Burger a 12 ounce sized beef patty. Granted i heard quite good things about the Texas burger, but the stomach didn’t have room for it, so i ordered Seah Street burger instead.

Seah Street Burger is not too bad, the beef patty is nicely mashed, put together with the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions inside the sesame bun, you will be wondering how do you start eating the whopping burger.

Having eaten burgers in restaurants like Relish and Seah Street, not at your fastfood joints, i came to realise the only feasible way to consume them will be to cut by bites, otherwise you can always choose the alternative, take a big mouthful!

Chocolate Decadence cake ($11.95)

The all time favourite chocolate decadence cake at $11.95 do seems a bit steep. But the serving size of the cake more than make up for it. The cake is ginormous (gigantic & enormous)! Seriously, i have never seen places cutting such a big size of cake.

The chocolate decadence cake is made up of 7 layers, and each layer is sweeter than the other. Even though i have a sweet tooth, i find the cake to be too sweet. But its good to indulge in such decadence once in while. After having our main courses, the four of us actually struggle to finish the cake. A must-try if you visit Seah Street Deli.

Total bill is $95.76 for 4 mains and 1 desserts. But Citibank is offering a 15% discount for Seah Street Deli, so our bill after the discount is $81.90. Prices are slightly steep here considering the fact that the food is not bad, but not to the point excellent. At around the same price, there might be some other places which can be better.

Portions are definitely huge, this is where we made a mistake. I think for 4 person, just order 3 main course to share will be more than suffice. The chocolate decadence cake is a must try for desserts. If prices can be cheaper, then i say Seah Street is a nice and cheerful place to dine out, until then, maybe once is enough.

Seah Streel Deli
1 Beach Road #01-22
Raffles Hotel

” Roll back the good old times “

I remember when Donut factory and Dippin’ just started out, people will queue one two hours just to get that dozen of donuts. Now many more others have jumped into the wagon which includes the likes of Missy donut, Donut & Donuts, Munchy Donut, Summer house donut.

And of course, the latest and by far the one with the cafe concept to be found in our local shores, J Co Donut.

J Co Donut chooses Raffles city basement as their entrance to the Singapore market, of course where other than the battleground with Donut Factory. Since the opening of the donut cafe at Raffles city, the sales of Donut Factory has pale in comparison. And Donut factory isn’t really giving up the fight, with the cafe concept at Velocity@Novena, and Suntec city.

A couple of weeks ago, i wanted to try J Co Donut but the seats were all fully taken up, so we ended up at Cedele. This time when we go there was quite a lot of seats available, so i guess the timing must be right.

We were rather confuse because there are two counters inside J Co, one on the left which are where all the folks are queuing up for their donuts, and there’s another one on the right which we thought that its where the drinks counter is. We buy from the normal queue, but after that we saw people getting a menu from the drinks counter and ordering from there.

Furthermore, as we were having the donuts there, we were wondering whether will it be serve on plates or boxes, we saw people having it on plates, but ours are given in box. So i guess these are really some parts where J Co can do better to let us know, or perhaps the problem are just occurring to us and not ours.

Nonetheless, all the donuts look really really nice, and they are the sort that you know eating them will mean lots of calories, but you cant stop yourself from having them. O well, eat and exercise more!

Just for your info, I tried Dunkin Donuts when i were in KL last time, and i think i’ll preferred J Co Donut to Dunkin’s

From left to right, Don Mochino, Choco Cavier Strawberry, and the new Hazel Dazzle

I were rather surprised because they offer box for 3 donuts, and even when there are boxes for minimum of 2 donuts. If my memory didn’t fail me, it was at least half a dozen donuts for box last time.

Don Mochino ($1.30)

Dark Belgian chocolate topping perfected with light cappucino cream filling. Pleasure you shouldn’t feel gulity about.

One thing i really like about J Co donut’s is that they come up with really fanciful descriptions for all their donuts.

Anyway, the Don Mochino looks really nice with the beautiful chocolate toppings, but somehow the cappuccino cream fillings are a tad too light to the tongue.

Choco Cavier Strawberry ($1.30)

Sprinkle Premium chocolate with strawberry that will tickle your mouth.

The small chocolate balls on the choco cavier strawberry donut are quite nice, brings back a certain childhood memory.

Hazel Dazzle ($1.30)

Be sexy with dazzling hazelnut chocolate and get surprised with coffee cream.

The Hazel Dazzle donut is one of the new additions to the J Co donuts. I always like hazelnut, so this always work for me.

Ice chocolate ($5)

The ice chocolate comes in two sizes, $4.50 for the medium, and $5 for regular. We were discussing whether the regular is really a bigger size than the medium, because regular just sounds, regular. Smaller in size you know?

Tira Miss U ($1.30)

Dear Tira, it’s been so long i haven’t meet you. Now, i really miss you.

The tiramisu donut is really nice, i come to love tiramisu and this one is definitely the one i’ll try again when i revisit J Co. Because we brought 3 donuts at first, when i go and get one more, this tiramisu, i tell the manager i want one, he stared at me, giving me the nobody-buy-one-donut look!

It was so funny, i guess, nobody really go in and buy one donut. But i guess i’ll do it often, just to get to see that expression on their face. You all should try also yeah! Alright, i’m joking, we shouldn’t do doing such things to the service staff who work so hard selling our favourite donuts.

Total bill for 4 donuts and one ice chocolate is $10.20. J Co Donut is certainly very impressive, their first outlet in Indonesia was open on 26 June 2005, and within three years of operations they have 39 outlets throughout Asia with presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

I think despite the sinful and guilty feeling after eating donuts, i think i will be back to try other donuts at J Co. It’ll be quite a good place to chill out with your friends, munching donuts and sipping a cup of coffee, while sitting down at the cozy couch.

J Co Donut
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44M/N Raffles City Shopping centre
Tel: 6333 4258

” Munching donuts & sipping coffee – perfect! “

Cedele by The Bakery Depot was founded by Ms Yeap Cheng Guat in July 1997. After spending many years in the multi-nationals, Ms Yeap decided to put her baking passion to test.

The flagship store in East Coast is the first of many more to come, till date Cedele has 14 outlets island-wide.

Cedele Bakery is known for their wide range of sandwiches, delicious repertoire of bread, and cakes.

There are two outlets in Raffles City (I didn’t know until later), one in basement and another in level 3. A friend and i visited the one at basement of raffles city.

I like their concept of self pick-up for some of the pastries and bread.

For the sandwiches, you get to choose from different type of bread, milk bap, oatbran, country white, wholemeal linseed, and organic wholewheat.

Tuna Salad Sandwich ($6)

Savory tuna sandwich with chopped red bell pepper and celery, and finished with a lot of cold fresh lettuce.

My friend chose country white for his bread, but he found it a tad too dry and hard. The fresh lettuces are refreshing and there’s a generous spread of the tuna.

Mocha ($3.50)

I’m not really a big fan of mocha, but my friend find it to be all right. And at $3.50, its really cheaper than your Star Bucks and Coffee Bean.

The emphasis for Cedele is more on their bread, sandwiches and pastries. I applause them for their affordable price range for their coffees.

Chocolate Banana Espresso Cake ($6)

Melts in your mouth, this is a soft chocolate cake sandwiched with fresh caramelized banana, topped with espresso chocolate frosting, and finished with crunchy walnut strussel, oat strussel.

The banana taste is evident in the Chocolate Banana Espresso cake, and the walnut adds a crunchy bite to the cake. But I’m still not quite convince by chocolate banana cakes. Not that the ones here aren’t good, just that chocolate and banana doesn’t really suits my taste bud.

Total Bill was $18.13 for one sandwich, one drink and one cake. Cedele looks promising with its wide range of sandwiches, and cakes. Furthermore, the drinks like mocha and latte isn’t very expensive, price ranging from 2 bucks to 4-5 bucks. I think i will be back to give their sandwiches and pastries another try.

Just for your information, LIC usually does not like to repeat going to a same restaurant or cafe because he’ll rather spend the money trying out new stuff at other places.

But in the case of Cedele, their prices are quite reasonable and affordable, so yeah, look out for Cedele II!

Cedele
#B1-01 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6334 4828

” The Bread bakery cafe “

ladyironchef’s Food Event Outing at Ochacha!

A total of 20 people graced the event, with bloggers, readers of LIC’s blog, and their friends joining us for the green tea appreciation at Ochacha.

There was supposed to be more, about 15 more, but they all last minute had something on, anyway 20′s a big number, considering it’s LIC first time organising an event.

Dinner was supposed to start at 730pm, but you know Singaporeans tend to come late, so we actually started the ball rolling at 8pm.

Ochacha’s boss Miss lee arranged her cafe and gave us half the space, so thankful for that.

The menu is as follow :

Drinks: Matcha Rocks, Azuki Freezie, Ochacha Rocks, Ochacha latte or ochacha silk (3 cold and choice of 1 warm)

Soup: Shiitake Mushroom or tomato soup

Sandwiches: Sakura Egg, Wasabi Tuna, Furikake Salmon

Desserts: Matcha Cotton, Matcha Azuki, Financier, Matcha Panna Cotta

Its $17.50 per person to try the wide range of items in this menu. For all the food i’ll be putting the normal price beside it.

Reserved for LIC food event outing!

And apparently our ladies like green tea more than guys, hence the bigger differential in the numbers.

Complimentary chips

The chips were on the house, for our hungry guests before everyone turned up

Salad

The salad was also not included in our original menu. Miss lee thought that it will be better if there are some greens to go along with.

From left to right: Matcha Rocks, Ochacha Rocks, Azuki Freezie

Matcha Rocks ($4.95)

Chilled Matcha with sugar (no milk). I think most people preferred the Matcha Rocks one to Ochacha rocks which has milk

Ochacha Rocks ($4.95)

Chilled Matcha Latte. The Ochacha rocks is the middle one, coming with milk, its a lighter shade of green than the Matcha Rocks

Azuki Freezie ($6.50)

Ice blended matcha with azuki (Jap red beans). I believe the Azuki Freezie won quite a number of fan tonight, it stood out with the matcha taste on ice blend.

Please be reminded that what you are seeing are shooters, not the actual size of the drinks. The prices indicated are for the normal size.

Shiitake Mushroom soup

I think quite a number of people found the shiitake mushroom soup to be a tad too salty for their tastebuds.

Tomato soup

The tomato soup is more on the sweet and soup side. It really depends whether you are a fan of tomato and soup or not. I’m not a soup person though.

Sakura Egg Sandwich ($4.80)

The sakura egg sandwich is still my favourite among the three sandwiches at Ochacha. See here for the picture of the normal size sandwich on my last visit.

Wasabi Tuna Sandwich ($5,90)

Wasabi (spicy!!) tuna mayo fills up the delicious bread. This is my first time trying this, on the previous visit i had only the egg and the salmon ones.

For the wasabi tuna sandwich, i like tuna, but i don’t like wasabi.

Furikake Salmon Sandwich ($5.90)

Smoked salmon with Japanese seaweed. I had the Furikake Salmon sandwich on my previous visit too.

The Japanese seaweed added the salty aspect to flavor the salmon, but i found it to be a tad on the salty side.

Matcha Financier ($2.90)

French cake named after its shape like gold bar. The Matcha Financier did not disappoint, but then again i could be bias as i’m totally a dessert person.

Matcha Azuki ($4.90)

Layered matcha cake with azuki beans & cream. The Matcha Azuki totally rock my world, the usage of azuki red beans gave the matcha cake a sweet twist.

I had this on my second visit too!

Matcha Cotton ($2.90)

Fluffy Japanese souffle cake with fresh cream in the center. The extremly soft sponge matcha cake simply melts in the mouth!

Matcha Panna Cotta ($4.90)

Italian creamy dessert with matcha flavor. This dessert had mixed reviews, some didn’t like it and found it to be too soft for a panna cotta, while others adored it and find the soft texture, coupled with the matcha flavor a delight to have.

Again this shows that taste is subjective, what some might like, others might not like.

Ochacha Latte ($4.80) or Ochacha Silk ($4.80)

Hot matcha latte & soy milk with matcha. We had the choice of either one for our warm green tea.

Total Bill was $350 for 20 people ($17.50 fixed price for each person). For $17.50, i think its definitely a very good price as we got to try out a whole wide range of green tea, sandwiches and desserts.

If you go on your own, i highly doubt that you’ll be able to have so many items unless yours are a big group.

I didn’t have much tonight, mainly because as the host i need to walk around and entertained my guests, and its really stressful organizing an event. But its all right because i had most of the dishes on my previous visits.

Its a real pleasure for me to organize this event, and i sincerely hope that it’s good for all the diners. Do pardon me if any of you guys did not enjoy the dinner. And no refunds please (if any)!

I always believe that food is a very wonderful gift to us, it can bring like-minded people who love food together, people from different ages, background, to come together and enjoyed the good food.

Its an honor to have some of the food bloggers and readers of LIC, their friends, who in turn bring more friends to this event. See you all at the next LIC food outing, it’ll be soon : )

OChaCha
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44F Raffles City
Tel: 6333 5886

PS: Let me know once you guys make write your reviews on this post, will linked everyone here!

Michelle’s @ Never Trust a Scrawny Foodie
Sihan @ Befuddlement
Jia ying @ Brownbread girl
Zheng Ning @ The Blue Plate
Styke @ Creations Wing

For those who went, got blog, but haven blog about it

Evan @ bossacafez
Jon @ newfoodie
Hisham @ mhisham
Vicki @ My Sweet Niblets
Claudia @ Claud talk

The rest who went but no blog

Christine, Melissa, Andy, Jane, Estelle, Shu qing, fz, Elisa

Thanks to all for coming, without you guys the event will go on smoothly!

Here’s a sneak preview of what to expect for LIC food event @ O Cha Cha next tue!

A friend and I went down to O Cha Cha last week after i got my DSLR, we went to discuss the menu with Ochacha’s boss Miss Lee Yin Siau.

From left anticlockwise, is Mr.Ochacha Mondo, on its right is our friend Miss Matcha Panna Cotta, and followed by Ochacha Rocks, and the top is Gyokuro.

Gyokuro uses the same tea leave made into Matcha, just that the whole tea leave is being use for Gyokuro which is evident inside the tea.

Say hello to Ochacha Rocks! He rocks all righty! There’s also Matcha Azuki at the left background of the picture!

And Miss Matcha Panna Cotta! We will be seeing all of them next tue!

Just in case you do not know what’s going on, LIC is proud to organise a food event outing at Ochacha, raffles city basement next tue 13th May.

The Place: OChaCha

The Date: 13th May Tuesday

The Time: 730pm

The Price: $17.50 per person

The Menu:

Drinks: OChaCha Rocks, Azuki Freezzie, Passion Rocks, OChaCha Latte, Chado

Sandwiches: Sakura Egg, Wasabi Tuna, Furikake Salmon

Soups: Shiitake Mushroom

Desserts: Matcha Cotton, Matcha Azuki, Financier, Matcha Panna Cotta

All the cold drinks will be served in the shooters while the hot latte in individual cups.

Attendance:
1. LadyIronChef
2. Claudia
3. Jiaying
4. Sok Peng (2)
6. Qiu Gui
7. Caleb
8. Hisham (2)
10. Elisa
11. Christine
12. Peter Tan (2)
14. Jasmin (2)
16. Zheng Ni
17. Vicki (3)
20. Andy
21. Michelle (2)
23. Estelle (2)
25. Jon (2)
27. Anonymous (2)

Currently a total of 28 people have signed up for the event, the maximum capacity is 30, so RVSP now! Drop me a sms at 9623 2581 to confirm your place or should you have any enquiries. All are welcome, and feel free to bring along your friends too!

See you all at Ochacha next tue!

With Seasons Reasons, the reasons is every seasons! With a passion for a different dining experience, Seasons Reasons is designed based on a quest of the 4 seasons – Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring.

Well, I am back at Raffles City again, just after two weeks since last visiting OChaCha, but then i can’t help it, nowadays there are simply too much to eat at Raffles City! So don’t be surprise if there are more new posts coming up.

Seasons Reasons is a small restaurant among the many new restaurants at Raffles City basement, but it stood out for its simple and comfortable setting. The menu is simple, with the usual starters, salad, soup, sandwiches, and main course. No doubt there are not much variety under each category, but i’ll say its more than enough for the average diners.

Appetizers start at $8.50 for their “hot pick” Golden potato prawn, to $13.80 for their seafood combo. Prices for the main course are pretty reasonable too, ranging from $11 to $20. But they are quite short on their spaghetti selections though, only two types are available. And i lamented the fact that they didn’t have much desserts to choose from.

Like mentioned above, the settings for the restaurant is simple and elegant, and there are also the cozy corner seats for diners who will like to enjoy some privacy.

My buddy and I didn’t have much trouble choosing what we want for lunch, after going through the simple menu once, we decided on Fish & chips, and lamb chop. We didn’t have any starters or soup as it was a simple lunch for us.

Fish & Chips ($14.80)

Cod fish tempura and wedges served with lemongrass chili. To be honest, my first impression of the dish, it looks like just any other ordinary Fish & chips at other restaurants. But, my buddy commented that the fish was crispy on the outside, and where some other restaurants fish might get too dry, the one here is just nice. The interior of the fish was soft and not too dry.

Another point to note will be most places served their fish & chips with just tartar sauce, but Seasons Reasons had the tartar sauce, and also lemongrass chili which i find rather special.

Lamb Chop ($19.80)

Baby rack of lamb char-grilled to medium well served with a glazed of honey mustard and fork mashed potato. The lamb chop at $19.80, is the most expensive dish served on the menu. And it did not disappoint, with a generous serving of 4 lamb racks, i believe it will fill most people.

The honey mustard sauce adds flavour to the grilled lamb chop, the meat is slightly tough, you’ll need some effort in biting and chewing the meat. But i do find the price of the lamb chop slightly steep, and most probably won’t order it again.

Total Bill was $40.72 for 2 person, not really expensive given we are dining in a restaurant. If you are looking for a simple dining place while you are at Raffles City, look no further than Seasons Reasons. The restaurant do put in effort in the food presentation, no doubt taste is the vital factor, but one tastebud will definitely open up if the food is presented nicely.

With so many restaurants at Raffles City, i don’t think i will be visiting again any sooner, unless they got new menu or promotions. I won’t say the food is excellent, but i’ll say its worth a try if you haven’t been there before.

Seasons Reasons
252 North Bridge Road
Raffles City Shopping Centre #B1-72
Tel: 6100 0122

” For everything, there is a Reason “

OChaCha, the matcha latte people

At OChaCha, they specialise in matcha, the premium green tea served in traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. O-Cha means green tea in Japanese and Cha is tea in Chinese, as tea orginates from the chinese. Hence OChaCha is the coming together of different cultures & they hope that there will be many coming together of friends over cups of matcha latte.

OChaCha quest for good tea brought them all over the world, they found that while tea is very much part of our eastern culture, it is not considered cool or hip. Yet tea is part of our heritage – tea was first discovered by the Chinese emperor Shen Nong in the year 2700 B.C! What’s more, the health benefits of C-Cha are simply amazing. OChaCha is determined to make it fun and cool to drink O-Cha!

So OChaCha is all about marrying tradition and modern technology; of great tastes & healthy drinks; of simply being different. So be cool, be hip, be discerning, be kind to your body. Be one of the Matcha Latte People!

The new basement of Raffles City saw many additional of tenants to the place, one of which is OChaCha. My buddy & I were wandering around when we saw OChaCha, it was rather empty, but being kaypoh people, we ventured into the cafe and did not regret ever since.

A chat with the friendly female boss Miss Lee Yin Siau (or rather she call herself everybody’s boss) we find out that OChaCha just opened for business at Raffles City for two weeks only, thus the emptiness of the place.

After we got seated a while, customers start to come in, i guess its only human nature, people are afraid to go into a place that has no one, but starts to rush into the place when there is crowd.

My buddy made his orders while i did not have anything partly because i was full from my lunch at Tuckshop, and partly I must admit green tea does not appeals to me. Miss Lee chatted with us and explained her concept for OChaCha, which impressed me, and i decided to support her by ordering food to try out.

There are many types of different matcha, from the Matcha Latte Hot, to Matcha On the rock which is chilled latted as well as the ice-blended Matcha Freezzie. There is also two chocolate drinks for anti-matcha people. To go with these great drinks, there are also savoury sandwiches, quiches & pies, matcha slices, matcha cakes and many more.

OChaCha Mond ($5.35)

This is the main character of the show. OChaCha matcha latte almond, there isn’t a very strong green tea taste, but the fragrance of the matcha is evident in the smell of it. I don’t really fancy drinking green tea, but after drinking it, i feel that its rather good, not like the usual green tea. Well, OChaCha is great news for non-green tea lovers like me.

Furitake Salmon Sandwich ($5.90)

Furitake gives an added crunch to the taste. The Furitake Salmon Sandwich comes with fresh garden salad topped with Japanese citrus dressing & nori-flavoured chips. I like the bread, it was suprisingly soft when we make the bite into it. Even without any ingredient, i think the bread can be eaten on its own. Nevertheless, this makes a good meal for the Salmon lovers out there.

Sakura Egg Sandwich ($4.80)

I like this one! Sakura denbu perks up the dish. Similarly as of the other sandwich, there is salad greens and chips as sides. The Sakura Egg Sandwich may look ordinary, but eaten together, it is very yummy. Who says ordinary dish can’t be extraordinary in taste?

For sandwiches, there are only three different types of sandwiches, with the other being wasabi tuna sandwich. When asked why isn’t there more variety, Miss Lee simply replied, “we do what we are best at, Matcha! ” That certainly make a impression on me, the direction of OChaCha is not just to make money, they want to bring good tea to the public.

Spong Cotton ($2.90)

This is on the house, courtesy of Miss Lee. However, being a free item should not affect the judgement of the food, the green tea spongcake was extremely soft, there is a layer of cream within the centre of the cake. I can’t have enough of the cake! A trip back to try the other cakes look to be high on the priority list.

Total Bill comes up to $15.05 (excluding the $2.90 for the spong cake). There is no GST or service charge, and the warm welcome by Miss Lee and her staff do shows that there is hope for the falling-standards of the service industry in Singapore.

Initially, i was skeptical about the place because I’m not a fan of green tea. Despite that, OChaCha won me over, and I must say my perception of green tea has been changed greatly. The next time in a cafe, rather than a cup of coffee or soft drink, drink OChaCha Matcha instead!

Both of us sat inside the cafe for roughly two hours, sipping matcha latte and savouring the sandwiches, OChaCha is a great place to hang out and chill with your friends. The next time you go to Raffles City, rather than the coffee cafes, give OChaCha a try!

OChaCha
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44F Raffles City
Tel: 6333 5886

” The Green Tea of Starbucks “

Well, always one true to my words, i said i’ll be back at Miss Clarity during my first visit. And here i am again. Nothing much has changed since my last visit, the kiddy decor, the colourful environment, the cute menu. Most importantly, the service has remained true to the Miss Clarity spirit, the food remains as good as well, with the price remaining the same.

As usual, we choose a main and add on $3 for an additional salad/soup, drink (barley/lime), and a dessert of the day.

Chicken Cordon Bleu ($8.80)

Deep fried breaded chicken breast stuffed with ham & cheese, served with tartar sauce and potato/vege as side dish. Chicken Cordon Bleu was ordered on the last visit as well, but my brother wanted to try so here goes. Steady and reliable. And did i mention the price?

Fish & Chips ($7.50)

Crispy breaded fish fillet with fries & clarity’s homemade coleslaw, served with tartar sauce. The fish & chips was decent, given its served in a cafe, the price is reasonable for the quality provided. The fillet layer’s bread crust was nice, and added a different dimension to the usual fish fillet served.

Total Bill was $22.30 for 2 person which i emphasis again is pretty reasonable for the amount of food served. What i really like about Miss Clarity is the fact that they provide good service, yet do not charge service charge for it. In addition, they even absorb the 7% GST. That will save you in the pocket to the tune of 17% for your meal. A jug of iced water with lemon slices are also given to each table even if you had ordered drinks.

Hello to the many people reading this entry, please do share your comments may it be good or bad : )

Miss Clarity Cafe
5 Purvis Street 188584
Tel: 63394803

” I refuse to pay service charge and GST when there is no service provided “

New York New York (NYNY), the eye-catching restaurant located at the underground of Citylink. NYNY stands out with its dazzling name, and always caught the attention with its alluring interior decorations. The green and cozy furnitures are the signature of NYNY. Having pass by NYNY many times but fail to go inside, a timely visit is always due on the cards as my companion and me went there for lunch.

The interior of NYNY

The front page of the Menu, a copy of the New York Post

Seafood Platter for 2 ($33.90)

We ordered the Seafood Platter for 2 to share. A platter fit for the Kings and Queens of New York! Cold Crab, prawn fritters, crispy fish salmon and calamari rings, compose of the delightful meal. Having ordered Seafood platters previously before at Manhattan Fish Market and Fish & Co, i was rather pleasantly surprise when the platter arrive. All right i admitted, i did not pay much attention when i made the order, so i didn’t really notice the word “Cold Crab” on the menu. Yep, thats the surprise, neither was my companion ready for it. Nonetheless, let us take a peek into what is present in the platter.

Crispy fish & chips

Well you know the ever-present fish & chips? Steady and reliable

Prawn Fritters

The prawn fritters were excellent. I loved this one. No doubt the prawn might not be very big, but then the bigger the prawn, i feel the less tasty it is. The prawn here is deep-fried, coupled with the Tata sauce, it is simply irresistible.

Fish Salmon

The Fish salmon here eaten raw, a tad too fishy for me, so i’ll give it a pass

Calamari Rings

Now then, everybody should know Calamaris are actually fried squids right? O well just in case. The calamari rings here are up to the mark, tender and juicy. In my humble opinion, i consider the calamari rings here to be one level up from the one at Fish & Co. The main explanation being the ones at Fish & Co are too salty for my liking.

Cold Crab

North Altantic Fishermen love their chilled steamed crabs. Just some background information on the crustacean. In case you don’t know what is a crustacean, they are large group of arthropods, comprising approximately 52,000 described species. Baffled already? All right all right, to put it in short, some of the names we are familar with; lobsters, crabs, shrimps, crayfish,

The sea creature with the claws that are ready to pinch you if you are not too careful. To be honest, i am not a big fan of crabs. Why? Because i am lazy, yes pure lazy.

It takes skill to eat a crab you know? there are so many different parts of the crab to be eaten, well i like the big hammer of the crab, there’s lots of meat there. The small leg? Nah, you can have it. You’ll have to slowly suck the meat out of the thin skinny leg. Well be careful while you are having a suck at it, the cute guy or pretty girl next table might just be looking at you.

Nevertheless, both of us took quite a long time to finish it, the Cold Crab is fresh, too bad we are not crab lovers huh? hahaha!

Some might say New York New York is not good, they excel in the decorations but failed in the food. But my contrarian view tells me that they are good and a excellent place to hang out with your friends. The decorations are well done, in fact the environment of a restaurant plays a huge role as to whether the food is good. The food might not be the best, but they are still good. The crucial factor to this will be the price, its within reasonable pricing, and all this only sums up to one equation, i will be back.

Total bill was $39.90 for 2 person, which i find it to be inexpensive. NYNY @ Citylink is strategically located to tap on the huge crowd travelling from City Hall to Suntec/Marine Square. Thus, the restaurant being full even when it is not during lunch or dinner time is not an uncommon sight. NYNY, like Big O belongs under the same management of N.Y.D.C There are more to try from the comprehensive menu of NYNY. Until then!

1 Raffles Link, Citylink Mall, #B1-47A
Tel: 63419695

” Food all the way from New York City “

All of us choose a main and add on $3 for an additional salad/soup, drink (barley/lime), and a dessert of the day. The starter salad was quite good it starts our meal up, but the salad dressing was a tad too little

Chicken Cordon Bleu ($8.80) - deep fried breaded chicken breast stuffed with ham & cheese, served with tartar sauce and potato/vege as side dish. The cordon bleu was not as good as the one i had at the french stall few weeks ago, i think the main reason is because the french stall use chicken drumstick while this one is chicken breast. Nevertheless, it is quite good, just that i had a better one at french stall before

Chicken Bollorine ($8.80) – oven baked chicken thigh stuffed with fresh mushroom, drenched with mushroom sauce. Thigh was done quite nicely, the comment was the mushroom stuffed inside the chicken was too much! Mister ong gets a bit sick of eating so many mushroom. lol!

Black Pepper Crispy Chicken ($7.50) – breaded chicken thigh cooked till golden brown & drenched with clarity’s special black pepper sauce. The chicken was quite crispy, but because it is drenched with the pepper sauce, after a while the crispy skin becomes soaky. Guess it will be better if they can put the sauce by the side, or you just have to finish it fast.

Desserts of the day – crepes with cream, but seems to be more like popiah with cream ( :

Total bills add up to $34.10 for 3 person, no GST charged, no service charge. All the dishes get 3.5 and none above 4 because i feel that there is nothing spectacular. But i will definitely go back again if i am in the area. Why? For a simple meal at affordable prices, you can’t eat very good food everyday u know? Sometimes just keep it simple. At clarity, they do it simple and good.

Check out my second visit here

5 Purvis Street, 188584
Tel: 63394803  

Have you Blurb? 

Hog’s Breath Cafe

After dinner, we went to Chijmes to watch FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea. Wanted to go to the fountain area, but they need spending of $40 per person. So we end up at Hog’s breath cos there is no minimum spending needed. We ordered two glass of ice lemon tea and coke at $5.80 each, they are fillable which means we can have as many glass as we want. We also ordered Finger food combo (buffalo wings, fried chicken, baked potato skin) because we can’t just sit there whole night only order two glass of drinks? ( :

The spicy-sweet sauce and the tartar sauce is good, the combo cost $17.95. Total bill for watching the boring FA Cup is $34.45 for 3 person. Had a quick glance at Hog’s menu, most of the food price range is in the high $10s to $20s. There is a dessert called mud pie which seems quite good, and many of the other diners had it, so i guess its quite good.

#01-26/ 27, CHIJMES
30 Victoria Street, 187996
Tel: 63381387  

Have you Blurb?