I realised that I have not update the blog for a long time.Today I am back!
Last Friday, I went with boss to Tonkichi for a lunch. The signature dish is the deep fried pork cutlet. That's what Tonkatsu means.
I just ordered the signature dish.
Well well, the pork cutlet was good. The serving includes rice, miso soup, 4 pieces of Tonkatsu and cabbage. The pork cutlet is crispy and gender inside. Nothing I want to complain, it is just good.
I went to City Square during one of the weekend when they had some promotion. The mall is at Serangoon area near Mustafa. A brand new mall with residence behind it.
The is a city garden in front of the mall. The garden is quite a disappointment, without vibrant colour flowers and plants.
Many shops have promotion in conjunction with the mall opening. Sushi Tei was offering 20% discount on final bill, quite a good offer. That's the primary reason for me to walk in.
After going through the menu, I decided on this plate of sushi, which was half boiled. Something special to try.
Aburi Norikura (half broiled sushi assortment) - tuna belly, yellow tail, salmon belly, swordfish, raw shrimp, squid.
The taste was rather disappointing. Item like tuna belly, yellow tail come with fat. Once you boil it, the taste has been transformed to cooked taste. It lost the freshness taste, which comes with the raw meat. I think I will never try half cooked sushi again.
I heard of Lei Cha (擂茶) for quite a long time, but never try it before. One night after the seminar at Suntec City, I went to Food Republic to look for things to eat. Since it was quite late, I guess I better eat something healthier. Lei Cha seems to fit the purpose.
Thunder rice mixed with different ingredients and brown rice. The ingredients are a bit salty, not as healthy as initially thought.
Tea is a mixature of green tea and other leaves.
Overall, it tastes good.
I was at Tampines 1 around lunch time. Imperial Treasury Nan Bei restaurant was having take away set at 5.80 for roast pork rice, char siew rice etc. The price is double of roasted stall but consider cheap for restaurant.
The rice come with rice, roast pork, cooked vegetable and sauce.
Roast pork with perfect balance of fat and lean meat.
The rice was nothing special, but the roast pork is really heavenly. It is crispy with perfect balance of fat and lean meat. It is so tender and favourful. I will think it is money well spent. The yellow sauce is another surprise - wasabi sauce. It complement the meat well. I will come back for more.
In one of the colleague farewell lunch, we went to Pu Tien at Tampines Mall. One of the signature dish is the Lor Mee. The waitress are generally polite and service was ok. The order process was speedy and after a while my Lor Mee is here.
Pu Tien Lor Mee is not your usual Hokkien style lor mee which in black soya sauce.
The soup is clear base and the hand made noodle is cooked together with some seafood. Really can't recall what's inside the big bowl already. It taste really good. I guess that's the sweetness of the seafood which make it so tasty. A big bowl at $6 only, what else can you ask for?
One of the hottest topic in town is Wendy's Singapore, American fast food chain return to Singapore, operated by Kopitiam group.
It was featured in the newspaper, stating the lunch queue was so long, people have to wait till 20min. My colleagues and I decided to check it out. We went in evening to avoid the crowd. However, it turn out, we waited even longer time. It was 30min and the queue hardly move in the process. There are only two counters and the speed is slow. I still cannot figure out why fastfood is slow. Perhaps it can be called slow food.
Ok, back to the burger and food quality. There are few choices - beef burger, chicken and fish. I choose the set number 1 - quarter pound burger. If you use the Kopitiam card, you can get 5% discount, but make sure you top up the card before going.
Wendy's burger choices - 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 pound
The meat party is square, yes square, kind of interesting. The flavour and quality is there. The bun is one of the nice one, among fastfood chain in Singapore. There are more vegetables in the burger too. Overall, the burger is good.
The fries is too dry as you can see. I give it a big cross.
In the past Copenhagen climate change conference, all the leaders gathered to discuss way to reduce carbon emission. But the meeting yield no tangible result. Believe it not, saving the earth can start from you. Beside the 3R - reduce, reuse and recycle. There is another way to save the earth, by eating vegetables only.
When I was back home, Sinchew Daily run a special to promote eating vege to save the earth. The key reasons are
1) Animal farming consumes crop that could feed more people
2) Crop which used to feed animal yields less food for people
3) Cow dung release methane which cause more green house effect than carbon dioxide
Well, I think I would try to eat less meat and be more vegetarian.
Yesterday, I told my colleague that there is no good chicken rice at Tampines area. The famous store at Downtown east I haven't have a chance to try. Today, she drive us there to eat the chicken rice. The queue is long but service is fast.
True to the fame. The chicken rice is good. There are few components of a plate of rice - rice, chicken, chili and soup. The rice has good fragrance and taste. The chicken is tender and skin is smooth. Chili has distinctive sweetness and not too spicy. The cabbage soup neutralise the oiliness nicely.
I would say I would come back to visit them again.
How do you define good food? To me, it is something tasty, and worth the money you pay for. Only when you perceived there is value for the food, then you would keep visiting the stall/restaurant.
Singapore in recent years has evolved to be an eating country. Newspaper and media keep featuring the good food store, people flocking to the store based on recommendation. Believe it or not, not all are really good. When you walk past the hawker centre, there are many stalls with newspaper article. Some "famous" stall even penetrated the coffee shop, setting up many branches of their famous bak chor mee. To me, it is all hype, having many branches does not mean the food is really fantastic.
Today I tried the fish soup at one stall in Bedok area. The stall is just another stall in hawker centre, with no newspaper article. However, you can see the crowd waiting for their food patiently around the tables, sensing there must be something which draws the crowd, I also joined the wait. When the food is served, I realised the reason.
The fish soup maintains the sweetness as other stall. The key draw to the store is plenty of fish slices and vegetables. You can find many slices of fish and different vegetables like lettuce, chai sim, cabbage, all inside the bowl. It is really value for money - balance of taste, cost and healthy. So, the crowd knows which is good.
I just saw the advertisement of one famous fresh milk brand. On the pack, it is stated that "Trans fat Free". Maybe consumer would think that this brand is healthier and buy their product? Do you know that very little trans fat exist in natural product?
Transfat is produced by hydrogenating the oil to make it more stable. In this way, the food could last longer, e.g. baked products. Only in these few years, more people pay attention to the danger of consuming product with trans fat. I think the manufacturer is trying to gain point by stating their product is free of cholesterol, trans fat etc, despite the fact that these substance might not exist naturally at all. Same situation happen for peanut butter with "no cholesterol" label. It doesn't exist in the first place.
I came across the TWG tea brand from blog and newspaper. They are opening the flagship store in Ion Orchard. I decided to give it a try.
TWG tea Kwai Flower Superior (Osmanthus) from Takashimaya counter. 50g tea leaves.
The fragrance is great. It is a kind of Oolong tea infused with Osmanthus flower. The taste is light, without the usual oolong woody taste, full of fragrance. You pay for the quality.
This afternoon, went to Tampines 1 food court to eat at the KL roasted stall - Restoran Selayang. The wanton picture looks good, so decided to order the wanton mee. But the wanton itself is disappointing, too small and doesn't match the picture.
The char siew is ok as usual. But I find their char siew quality is not always consistent. It depends on which part of the meat you got. Some tender, some rather hard, despite the fact they are using meat with fat.
The surprise is actually the noodle and sauce. They claim to use Pontian noodle, somehow the " "Pontian noodle" has made a name in Singapore scene. Ignore the name, the noodle is curly, springy and chewy. The sauce is good, I can't figure out how they made the sauce. But it goes very well with the noodle.
You can try it as Plaza Singapura or Tampines 1 food court.
This is a mixed post. Still have a few pictures haven't posted.
135 Fishball noodle at Tampines. The fishball is really good, very Q and tasty. The sauce also mixed very well.
Roti Prata at Ang Mo Kio Ave 2/3. Place near my friend's new house. The prata is crispy.
Fish and Co offer, 9.90 per dish. This is the Thai Sauce Fish. The curry sauce is spicy yet complement the fish well.
Pasta at Pizza hut. Going for under $10, cheap yet tasty. The tomato sauce is good.
On the same day I went Ion Orchard, I also tasted the first outlet of Itacho Sushi. It has many stores in HK and first time open shop in Singapore.
I came during lunch time, so it is less crowded. They were having the lunch set at 9.90 only. I ordered the Matsu lunch set with 10 sushi, plus two a la carte sushi. You have choice to order sushi in one piece only.
Let's talk about the 10 piece Matsu sushi set. The sushi were being displayed on a long plate, layout in a straight line. This make it looks nice. By the way, your sushi is being made only after you order. This guarantee the freshness and I was satisfied with the quality.
The other two that I ordered were Lobster and Mango salad roll and Cod Liver Scallop Sushi. The lobster mango roll is nice, but the sweet mango overpower the lobster taste. I can only tell it is a mango roll.
Next is the cod liver scallop sushi. Looks tempting right. This is very nicely done that it melts in the mouth.
My verdict: it is worth your dollars. Visit them next time.
Sushi Tei has a new shop at Tampines 1. Last Friday, I went with colleagues for a enjoyable relax dinner. I decided earlier to have something different this time, compare to the usual item I ordered.
After going through the menu, I finally settle with this item:
HOURAI (6 kinds) tuna belly, sea urchin, sea bream, yellow tail, raw scallop, salmon belly
Friend's fried sotong. Don't ask me about the Japanese name. It is simply delicious to dip with mayonnaise sauce.
Associated sushi item ordered by them with the usual stuff - squid, scallop, tuna, salmon, egg etc
Need to fill up the stomach first, I was having this Salmon handroll.
Finally, my Hourai came. raw scallop, sea bream, yellow tail (row above). salmon belly, tuna belly, sea urchin.
This is supposed to be the premium item. I need to take time to slowly enjoy it. The scallop sushi, sea bream sushi and yellow tail sushi has their own distinct sweetness. For the real taste, I dip the fish slightly into soy sauce, the rice must not touch the soy sauce and with minimum wasabi. The salmon belly taste just like the usual salmon. Maybe I didn't really try hard to appreciate its difference.
Sea urchin or Uni sushi. This is the very first time I try it, having seen it in tv for quite a number of times. It was really good. It tastes a bit milky or cheesy, but not exactly the same.
Tuna Belly sushi. I never thought it tastes so heavenly. The meat is tender with fat distributed evenly on the surface. I would say this is one of the item I would want to try again.
It was a small gathering with my usual Poly gang. I suggest to go Iluma Bugis, since the place would be less crowded than the Buigs junction itself. Friends arrived there early and suggested to go Empire State at level 4.
When I reached there, two of them already sit inside the shop. Helping themselves with fries. The fries come with topping like tomato, cheese, italian sauce. A nice twist to the usual boring fries.
I ordered two - mushroom soup and potato salad. The mushroom soup is really good. The soup is filled with real mushroom and rich in flavour. Not the usual canned campbell soup. No picture taken.
Next on the table, Potato Salad. Quite a nice presentation and the taste is good also.
LK ordered the mushroom pizza. It is not like the usual pizza hut style. The crust is crispy but thick with lots of mushroom and cheese. A big portion, for big eater.
Food ordered by other friends also taste good. The price is not too expensive. A good choice for dining at Bugis area. Try it out, but the place is always quite occupied.
I just happened to eat at this Tampines Blk 802 coffee shop with friend on Friday. We ordered different food individually.
While waiting, we realised that this fried oyster stall was having very good business and selling at $5. Tempted, we ordered one plate to try ourselves. Really long queue.
Fried oyster delivered to us after sometime. Notice the oyster at the corner, it was really big. But, in total, there are only three of them. Three big oyster with flour is selling for $5! This is Singapore. A place where even average food is asking for sky high price. Seriously, the taste is only so-so.
This is an unexpected find, right at the Singapore Expo food court. I was hungry and wanted to find something to eat inside the food court. After I entered the door, I saw few aunties eating the Satay Bee Hoon, it looks good. I was a little bit curious.
The stall mainly sells noodles, from bak cho mee, to beef noodle and satay bee hoon. Beside that, there is one newspaper article on the wall. I guess it must have some standard and decided to order the satay bee hoon. The price is on the high side, maybe because of the low human traffic in Expo.
The lady took a while to cook my bee hoon. I seldom eat satay bee hoon. If not the aunties, I won't order one. But the taste is good.
Satay bee hoon covered with thick peanut sauce. It comes with the kang kong, pork meat, pig liver, cuttle fish, tau geh, tau kua and cockle. I really like the taste. Everything seems to mix perfectly. The meat, liver, cuttle fish and cockle is cooked just nice. The kang kong and tau geh is cruncy enough. Together with the thick peanut sauce, I guess this is really a tasty treat.
Waraku is a new Japanese food brand rising fast in this two years. Today this is the first time, I step into the shop at Changi Terminal 2. The aim is to try out the squid ink pasta (seppia nero) and also to test the food quality.
Generally, the food is not expensive. I ordered a pasta set which consist of pasta, curry rice, corn soup and salad for 15.80.
Japan style corn soup. This is first time I am having corn soup, surprisingly good with cruncy corn.
Small portion of salad. Taste nice.
Curry rice with prawn, scallop and green pea. As a standalone dish, the curry flavour complement the seafood well. The portion is small, as it comes with the pasta set.
Ikasumi pasta or squid ink pasta or seppia nero. On the menu, this is Japanese crab with black ink sauce. What attract me is really the colour of squid ink and how it can stain the teeth and mouth. The sauce itself is just average, maybe since this is the first time I eat this, no benchmark can be established. The pasta is alright and springy. But it is quite tough to find the crab meat that is supposed to be inside. Try it if you never have it before. If got chance, I would try to search for better taste version.
Overall, the food quality is good, portion is big and price is not that expensive. Worth your visit.
