Saturday Lunch @ Home

This was lunch yesterday. Something whipped out in less than 20 minutes.

Tumeric pork chops with homestyle cha jiang mian with tomato, chilli and parsley salad.



It's something really really easy to make. Quick description on how to make it.

The pork has been marinated for 2 days in the fridge, stored in a vacuum container. It's marinated with tiny bit of corn flour, soy sauce, abalone sauce, pepper and tumeric powder. So all I did was to take it out and pan fry it with one tablespoon of oil.

While the meat's on the pan, leave it to brown. Do not need to keep turning it. Use the time to cut up the tomatoes, chilli and thai parsley. Mix up the salad with juice of 5 limes.

The keropokman 'cha jiang mian' is a taste that was made up while eating out. Sis and I imagine the taste of food and we try to make a quick version similar to it.

The 'mian' is spaghetti, the thinner version. Use Barilla, it always turns out better in all the taste test that I serve. The sauce is the 'mushroom and pork mince with bean paste'. It's the one that comes in a small tin, imported from China that many Asians grew up eating. After spaghetti is done (al dente or not, up to you), mix in some sesame oil and one and a half tablespoon of the paste in it. Give it a good stir and it's yummy!.

Steamboat Session @ Work

This was yesterday's lunch. A colleague who is on leave (clearing his National Day in-lieu leave?) said that he will organize it. Onz!! A few of us brought other things to 'jia cai' a bit.

We got a secret location to have it. A location that the whole office will not come and ask us to feed them too. LOL...

The 'initiation round'. The yong tau foo stuff.



We are a bit picky, we need parsley and cut chilli too. LOL



One of the rounds that has prawns to sweeten the soup.



One of the vege rounds. The inoki and veg round.



This is the last round. We had two scoops of tomyam paste added in the last few rounds. This is the one with the crabs and 'tang hoon'. When the soup thickens, it is so yummy!



The crap that one colleague ate. It seems half of us just like the taste of crabs in the soup, but don't like to pick the crabs. The crabs are full of roe.



One of the things that you can't really waste time. (though this is one of the most time wasting eating activities). Gotta start on time and finish on time so we can get back to work. LOL..

The rainy season's the best season to have steamboat.

Dian Xiao Er @ VivoCity

On Thursday, a colleague said he wanted to go to VivoCity to buy mooncakes. He also wants have lunch at Dian Xiao Er.

OK. Mooncakes, not interested, Dian Xiao Er can consider. He managed to convinced all of us, and off we went.

When we were going in, we saw two banners outside, Citibank discounts and UOB discounts. UOB's looks better with a free dish too.

So when we were seated, some were looking at the set menu, but we were told, the free marmite chicken (the free dish) does not apply if you order the sets. Immediately we closed the set dishes menu. (how realistic are we??)

We went for the a-la-carte. Which turns out to be a wise choice.





We had 3 types of ducks to choose. (Ginseng, Angelica Herbs (tang gui) and 10 herbs combi).We had the 10 herbs version and we had the medium. I like it because it is a bit sweetish. Other colleagues said it was too sweet. Aiya, see everyone has different taste buds.

All the small talks we have during lunch. One of it is about the origin of the duck. Is this fresh duck from Malaysia or frozen duck from Taiwan. Oh. we did not bother to find out. LOL...



The poach spinach with century eggs and salted eggs. Quite yummy. Ordered medium size too.



Their house special tofu. We had small for this.



Ah. This is the free marmite chicken. hehe...



Mongolian spare ribs. Medium. We called it Sarawak Pepper Spare ribs instead. It's for those who like peppery stuff.



Dian Xiao Er @ VivoCity
VivoCity
1 HarbourFront Centre Walk,
#02-137/8
Singapore 098585

Just realised they have a website too at www.dianxiaoer.net

e.BlackBoard II @ Clementi Ave 3

Continuation from yesterday's post. Other than the burger I ate, the others who ate the Lor Mee shared a bowl of tuscan fries.



Almondjelly's husband had the Grilled Chicken Chop $6.50



'Old Cat' decided he should have sausages. Think he has sausage cravings because he has been eating sausages! He had the e.BB Mixed Sausages $8.00 (chicken cheese and pork sausages)



Picky fella, he liked the cheese one but not the pork. The prices above are before the discount. Not sure when the discounts will be over though.

e.BlackBoard II
San Po Food Court
Blk 431 Clementi Ave 3
#01-296
Singapore 120431

e.BlackBoard II @ Clementi Ave 3

It was so funny. A colleague Yahoo IM me and asked: "Wanna go to e-Blackboard?"

No, I was not think of food, but on the e-learning software with a similar name. I thought oh, are they going to introduce a new product to our workplace and are we to go evaluate it? I said "ok, where and when?"

She pasted this link from iEat then I realised that the e-Blackboard she was talking was not the software, but a food stall! *blushing*

Anyway, we went to try. This branch in Clementi Ave 3 is called e.BlackBoard II. The original stall is at the other part of the island in Bedok.



Wondering what to eat, (and since I have this 'burger mood' these few days,) I ordered the e.BB Beef Burger. $7.

This is it, the coleslaw, tuscan fries and a grilled beef patty in between a bun.



The patty is very thick. It's like a giant meatball that has been flattened.
You can bite bits of tendon in it, if you are a tendon person, you might like it. If you don't, order another different burger :-)



If you are interested, here's how it looks inside. Juicy.



It taste very very beefy. It's a beef burger after all. It's also quite filling because of the size of the patty and also the fries that goes with it.

But somehow, I was thinking of blee cheese. LOL. Have I got addicted to the smelly stuff?
This place is kind of like Botak Jones. There's other stuff to try, will post them tomorrow. :-)
It's next to the Lor Mee stall that we rediscovered.

We noted that there was a 15% discount for lunch too. So the burger today was $5.95

e.BlackBoard II
San Po Food Court
Blk 431 Clementi Ave 3
#01-296
Singapore 120431

Sheng Yi Fa Lor Mee @ 431 Clementi Ave 3

Colleagues were lamenting that the Lor Mee at Clementi Block 328 have moved away. (the one that beside the famous Claypot Rice).

Lo and behold! A meal at Block 431 at Clementi Ave 3 spotted a familiar aunty's face. Hey, that's the lor mee lady right?? You could have seen the bright spark at dpuk's face! It is as if he found a long lost relative!

It was the consistency of the thick goeey gravy that draws many to eat this. My sis hates gooey stuff, so if you are like my sis, you will hate it. LOL

This is 'pirate's' bowl of lor mee. All the ingredients are hidden below. I find photographing lor mee the hardest! A bowl of dark gooey stuff!



So while he was going to take a bite, I quickly sneak a photo of it. Pirate says the not very nice. He has higher standards.



Dpuk's bowl with kuey teow. Both ordered the $2.50 version.



Almond jelly also had a bowl. Both Almond Jelly and Dpuk said since they moved here, it seems the ingredients in it has kind of returned to the pre-oil-induced-inflation standard. It is tastier and satisfying now.

I will come back and eat it another day. I was eating something else :-)
Posting this so that people who was wondering where the stall moved to, knows where it is now.

Sheng Yi Fa
San Po Food Court
Blk 431 Clementi Ave 3
#01-296
Singapore 120431

Opening hours: 8 AM - 2 PM, Closed on Mondays.

Popiah and Kueh Pai Tee Party

Last Saturday evening, a few of us met up at a friends house for a Popiah (Spring rolls) and Kueh Pai Tee party. It was fun and yummy. So fun and yummy that the whole night, I only took 3 photos!

We were too busy wrapping and eating and chatting (really its gossiping. LOL)

These shells looks so pretty doesn't it?



The filling. (shredded turnip). That can be used for both the pai tee and the popiahs.



We had other food too, but too excited to wrap and eat, forgot to take photos of them.
I did take a photo of the popiah that I wrapped though.

In it, sweet sauce, sambal paste, lettuce, bean sprout, prawns, eggs, fried shallots and of course the shredded turnip.



Have you all had popiah parties before? ;-)

Pardon the dim and grainy photos. It's during the night time.

Mien by Firstpasta @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Was at Bukit Timah Food Centre today. Wondering what to eat, I saw aunt having this. It looks very tempting and it smells so good too. Mushroom and Chicken Pasta with Laksa sauce from Mien. (Think the laksa sauce is a recent addition?)



I was wondering what I should eat, so I walked around the food centre. The smell of the laksa sauce made me want to order it as well. So I did. I had the Seafood pasta with Laksa sauce. $4.



Yummy. But be careful. Sauce splashes happens. (all the time!) Arrgh. I had some laksa sauce splattered on my shirt.

I had my order done in less than 2 minutes. The best stall to order if you want really fast food.


Mien by Firstpasta
Stall 195
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

Ming Jia Korean Food @ Bukit Timah Plaza

Colleague wanted to go try the same Korean food after reading what I posted.

2 colleagues order the bibimbap to try. 2 ordered the Korean instant noodles. They said although it is instant noodles, it was done so nicely. I laughed. Instant noodles, cooked by someone else still taste better. Maybe I should cook for them and they pay me instead. LOL

Anyway, this is the 'shared' food. The rice cakes. Mixed reviews. Some liked it, some did not.



Well for me, I wanted to try the Kimchi soup. I think it was $5.50
Another colleague also wanted to try it too. Well, I like it. Like it a lot (because I like kimchi haha). It's very very appetizing, in fact the more you taste it, the more hungry we became. It is kimchi with some tofu, with two pieces of almost invisible piece of pork.



It came with white rice.



We could choose one of the veggies that they have. I took the seaweed.



Dpuk took the bean sprouts.



Will try the other stall the next time we visit Bukit Timah Plaza.
(The Korean show on Channel U, Couple or Trouble ends Monday nite)

Ming Jia Korean Food
Bukit Timah Plaza
B1-07
1 Jalan Anak Bukit
Singapore 588996

Hotshots Burger @ Lau Pa Sat

Was tempted to eat this because Southernoise sent me a link in my FB inbox few days ago. It so happened that last night, a few friends wanted supper and we went to Lau Pa Sat. Aha. Time for me to try the Hotshots Burger.

Have seen this stall, but have never ordered from it. I usually will order the CKT from its neighbour instead. No CKT today. It's burger day. (or rather night.)




Not sure of which burger to eat, I asked the lady at the counter. She said try this. So, I had the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. With real Bleu Cheese.



After ordering and paying. I was given this card. I had to wait for my burger. It told me why I needed to wait too. LOL



The guy that was packing my burger did it with so much care. It's so neat too!
This is it, back on my seat.



After carefully opened it, this is what I saw. Oh, the smell of the bleu cheese. Either you like it or you hate it. People beside me could smell it immediately!



The bun was really soft. The meat was juicy. You need lots of serviettes or better still, prepare to come here with 'wet ones', because the juice will be dripping. Enough said. You try it and let me know.

p/s I think it is Ice's favourite burger? by her description in HGW ;-)



Hotshots Burger
Stall 76 Lau Pa Sat Festival Market
18 Raffles Quay
Singapore 048582

Ming Jia Korean Food @ Bukit Timah Plaza

Last nite, sis and I wanted a quick and fast dinner so we can then proceed to do some groceries. We were at Bukit Timah Plaza and wondering what to eat. There's only 13 places to eat in this place, (counted from the mall directory) and most of it is closed for dinner.

We saw a shop lot that has the sign board Ming Jia Korean Food. We walked nearer and saw that there's people eating here. We thought why not? Let's try it.

If you watch Korean dramas, this place looks like those little shops, where in the dramas people come in for a quick and cheap meal. (not restaurant looking, but more street side stall look) We saw that the lady boss is Korean too. We know she's Korean because when she speaks she sounded like how the speak in Korean dramas. (i.e. when you turn on the Dual Sound mode on TV, switch to the Korean mode and listen to the actors and actresses begin to speak English.) We were getting excited. (LOL... like mad Korean drama fans)



Sis ordered the bibimbap. $5.

It does not come in hot stone plates like in other fanciful restaurants. It comes in a steel bowl, just like how they eat at home in Korean dramas. (You know in the dramas they will always mix their rice in steel bowls and always say how delicious it is. LOL)

Looks plain right? But surprisingly it taste good. It comes with a bowl of seaweed soup too. Sis loves the soup that taste like how mum cooks it. The egg is only fried when we ordered the rice too.



I had the "Black Noodles". (That's how it is named on the board) $4.50
Looks so instant noodles right? But it is kinda addictive. The more you eat it, the more you like it. Think its the sauce. ;-)



It comes with a small saucer of Kimchi. It's definitely made there, because when we were there, the Korean lady was mixing the Kimchi in a huge container. I guess it's for either tomorrow's or day after's. The one I had was taken from the fridge. Nice and cold. Yums. This kimchi goes well with the noodles. Makes it more addictive!



Sis said, we shall come back again to try other things on the menu. The meals taste very homely and it is cheap too. Two persons meal for less than $10. Anyone been here and can recommend what is good here so we can try next time?

OK. Just found a newspaper article that has this place mentioned. Upper Bukit Timah Road is a mini Koreatown. There's 4 korean outlets in this area, plus a Korean Supermarket too.

Ming Jia Korean Food
Bukit Timah Plaza
B1-07
1 Jalan Anak Bukit
Singapore 588996

Petit Provence @ The Central

Our bro got off work earlier than usual, and he went to The Central which is next to his office and brought this back to us. We used to buy this from the Holland Village branch.

The Choco Wassant and the Cream Wassant. Comes with a pack of 10, 5 of each flavour and cost $6. This was what was left behind for me this morning.



Yes, they tasted as yummy as ever. Light and fluffy, very tasty.



Here's the snapshot of the bag. It has all the details you need to find it.
You should really go to this place and buy it and try it. Pictures do injustice to it. ;-)
(ok ok, some people might say its overrated, but our family loves it!)



Petit Provence
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
#B1-29 The Central
Singapore 059817

Thunder Tea Rice @ Amoy Street Food Centre

I saw this stall last week while I ate at Amoy Street Food Centre. Over the weekend, I saw an article appeared in the newspaper. While walking to the food centre for dinner, I headed straight to it.

Some people says it is an acquired taste, but is it really so?
Anyone who like veggies will like it. I had it from the same franchise few months ago at VivoCity branch too.




If you want to know how much and what they have, just look here.



I had the brown rice version. Since I am eating healthy, might as well eat healthier right?



The green stuff for its name sake. The "lei cha".



I am not sure if there's a proper way to eat it. I just stir everything up!



I like it. Maybe I like all the ingredients in the rice.


Thunder Tea Rice
Amoy Street Food Centre
Stall 01-29
MND Building Annexe B
7 Maxwell Road
Singapore 069111

Dinner @ Aunt's Kitchen

Last night's dinner was at Aunt's place. Dinner was earlier and was eaten at home because the few children all wanted to catch the 730pm show. What show? The Olympic table tennis match. ;-) Oh, so badly beaten, but the kids were so excited and emotional. LOL...

So, Aunt and her sis whipped this up for us.

Fried Bee Hoon. (Plus rice for those who 'die die' (absolutely) must have rice)



Curry Chicken. 2 big bowls of it.
With lots of chicken feet that our little cousin actually enjoys eating. She ate so many of it!



Fried Prawns.



Fried Shishamo Fish



Fiery Sambal Sotong.



The soup, Bak Kut Teh, a bowl each.



Today at work, a few colleagues was asking. Which channel were everyone watching?
Badminton or Table Tennis? What did you watch?

By the way, we were quite disappointed that both the matches were not shown on HD5! We wanted to catch it on HD.

Food @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Today, our family dropped by the Bukit Timah Food Centre to have lunch. I had duck rice which was err, not really nice. Wrong choice to pick.

But sis and aunt felt like eating 'ngo hiong', so they picked a plate to share. The rest of us got to eat it too.



Aunt said that this new stall selling 'Hokkien Mee' is not too bad. So she ordered a bigger portion to share. It's on the left when you come up the main steps, facing the church / Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School.



On the next row, (the same row as the Chwee Kuey stall), the BBQ Chicken wing stall is also fairly recent addition. Their chicken wing's nice. $1 each.



Hope you had a great weekend.

Bukit Timah Food Centre
Upper Bukit Timah Road

Mr Sushi Grill Shop @ Takashimaya Basement 2

The dinner that Momo and I had last night was at Takashimaya Basement 2. We were wondering around and saw this little stall/kiosk near Aji Tei that seems to be popular. It has name that will 101% tell you it's Japanese food. Mr Sushi!

You sit at the counter bar that surrounds the kiosk. Food's ordered over the counter and served rather quickly. You might like this place if you like fish. Almost everything on the menu has fish. It looks reasonably priced too. It looks like they only serve set meals, with around 8-10 sets to choose from.



What did we have? Momo had the Unagi Set. $8. Looks decent. It comes with a bowl of miso soup too.



While we were waiting, we noticed this pot of stew in front of us. In fact everyone's sitting at the counter's staring at it. The soup's telling us, try us, try us, and we did!

We ordered the "Oden". $4. The lady was saying, it's Japanese Yong Tau Hoo. Two slices of daikon, seaweed, an egg, 2 different kinds of fish cake, and one big piece of konnyaku below. Also a teaspoon of mustard (karashi) as well. It's light and it's a nice appetiser.

The person beside us saw what we had, ordered it. Before long, everyone on the counter bar ordered one too! LOL...



I had the Mirin Saba set. $10. My set came with this delicious eggplant. I love this.
(I usually order many helpings of these if I am at a Jap buffet :-) )



The mirin saba. It taste quite good. I love fish, so maybe I am biased. The bottom part of it is reddish. Maybe from the mirin marinate?



The usual pickle and salad that goes with it.



A big bowl of rice.



And a bowl of soup that's similar to Momo's set.

Looks plain, it is quite flavoursome. It has lots of salmon pieces in it. Think they used the extra salmon from the sushi to make this soup.



Just a new discovery Momo and I had and it's quite reasonably priced and fast.

Mr Sushi Grill Shop
Takashimaya Shopping Centre,
Basement 2 Food Court.
391 Orchard Road
Singapore 238873

Sun Asian Bistro @ NUS Staff Club

Today's lunch was at NUS Staff Club's Sun Asian Bistro. A colleague over at another building wanted to meet for lunch and suggested this place.

The colleague had seafood pasta. Simple and nice.



I had the set meal, which had the soup of the day, a pasta and fruits for desserts.
This was the mushroom soup. Mushroomy... If there's such a word ;-)



This is the Sarawak Black Pepper Chicken Pasta.
It's quite delicious.



It was a great chat with another colleague.

Sun Asian Bistro
National University of Singapore Staff Club
30 Lower Kent Ridge Road
Singapore 119075

Tel: 6776 6315
Catering: 6776 6392
Fax: 6776 6805

Xin Chen Bak Kut Teh @ VivoCity

This was last Sunday's lunch. A quick grab of food at the Food Republic Food Court.

Our little cousin and I had the same thing. She wanted to eat Bak Kut Teh, but 'dare not' go buy food herself. Why? Where we are sitting is at the other side and the 'scary cat' inside her took over. LOL... So walked with her to the stall.

Anyway, we had two bowls of this Bak Kut Teh. It's one that is very peppery. I did an online search and found out that this stall Xin Chen is known for its peppery soup. It's from some traditional recipe from Old Balestier Road. (where from Balestier? never mind, it's not mentioned. haha.. ) Meat is tender and juicy.



We also ordered a bowl of 'Xian Cai" (Salted Veg) to go with it. This is quite nice.



Goes just nice with rice. But today's rice is a bit on the dry side. Since it's Bak Kut Teh, just add the soup in. :-)





Xin Chen Bak Kut Teh
Food Republic VivoCity
1 HarbourFront Walk
Singapore 098585

BBQ @ Quong's Residence

Today we had a BBQ. Our Care Group from church, we feed on physical food that's a bit different once a month. This month we decided to have a BBQ, (and yes) in the middle of the week. We had it at AQ's apartment that had BBQ pits.

Here's the cooking process. 6 slabs of lamb, pre-marinated from Cold Storage. Just add charcoal. hehe... The marinate herby, so there's not much lamb smell. Nice. AQ is an expert in setting up the perfect fire for BBQ.



A large pack of salad, from Fairprice. We all had to rush from work, and had to time to really prepare, so it's ready made salad. The 'dressing' is really simple. Cut up one big orange and squeeze the juice over it.



These are Gardenia's sour dough rolls. Here they are, packed in foil, ready to be heated up on the BBQ pit after the rest of the meat, fish etc comes off the pit. These rolls are kinda nice. First time I tried it.



The finish product. Sis, Doc and AQ prepared them.



These were done by sis and our newcomer who joined our CG a month ago.
These are from Cold Storage as well. A bit salty, but nice.



We had 2 squid / sotongs. 2 fillet fishes as well. OK, we ate the food above, and forgot to take photos of the rest. :-p

Grace brought some cakes as well. These are the same ones from "Love Confectionery" the ones that I posted a few days ago.



At the same time we celebrated someone's birthday. A birthday that was nearly 2 months overdue! This is the Fruit Gateau from Bengawan Solo.



What a wonderful time we had. It's a small little BBQ party, so it was manageable and you do not spend lots of time in preparation and cooking.

AQ was saying, for smaller parties, you can get better food. Lamb and gourmet sausages. If it's a party with 20 people, the menu changes to cheaper options like chicken wings and frankfurters. Do you agree?

Ga-Hock Seafood @ Upp Bukit Timah Road

We last came here in June, and we are back again. It was our Sunday night family dinner. With 9 of us, this is a very economical place to eat and the food's good too.



This time Aunt and her sis ordered the following to feed us. :-)
Roast chicken. Juicy and tender. With kids around, they always love it. We notice that kids love to squeeze the lime over food. If you let them do it, you can see a big smile after they are done with it. It's like a great accomplishment for the little ones!



This is braised pork ribs. It was delicious. The meat was so soft and the sauce is delicious and addictive. You add some sauce to your rice and you can wallop half a bowl of rice kind. haha.. It's a tad oily though. Eating it once in a while is nice.



One of the favourites that people order here. Long beans with crispy 'hae bee'. (dried shrimps). You will love to nibble on the hae bee. It's addictive.

Aunt's sis, a super skinny lady had the urge to eat pork crispees! So she asked them to add them in. Look at the big piece they gave her. We save it all for her and her alone. LOL



This is a vegetarian dish. They have a fanciful chinese name for it, when translated sounds like multiple mushroom with vegetables.

It was good. All the veg have been braised till its super soft, including the carrots you see. There are various types of mushroom as well.



This is the cereal prawns. So so lah.



This is wonderful. The sambal kangkong. It smell so so good the moment it was served, a hint of the wok char, spicy enough and taste wonderful to the tongue.



All of the above, you pass the 2 $50 notes, you still get a $5 change. ;-)

If you have lots of time, eat their crabs. It's one of their popular dishes there. We did not have the mood to eat crabs when we went there, but as everyone ordered, we saw the crabs being prepared, we also wanted some. Aunt said next week she will prepare it for us at her home! (yey....)

Ga-Hock Seafood
794 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 678175
Tel: 6314 57 259

Thaksin Beef Noodle @ Clementi Avenue 3

Last Wednesday, our Care Group met at Clementi to have dinner again. It has been a long since we had this, and all of us went to the same stall to order it!

Everyone had the same thing, so here's mine.



The same bowl, zoomed in...

Now that I have zoomed in, it seems we get less mint leaves etc than previously if you compare to previous time I was here.



Here's another bowl that another friend had.



Still tasty, just a bit 'adjustment' that almost every stall in Singapore is doing now.

Comes in 4 sizes: Standard at $3.50, Value at $4, Supreme at $5 and Super at $6.
I had the supreme version. (first 2 photos)


Block 449 Clementi Ave 3
#01-211
Singapore 120449

Ah Chew Dessert @ Liang Seah Street

After watching the fireworks last night, a group of friends we went for supper. Liang Seah Street is full of food to eat, but we ended up having desserts because we wanted something light. We went to Ah Chew Desserts.

It occupies two shop lots and it's packed with people. But you do not need to wait long. How can do you take to finish your desserts? :-)



"Eels" wanted something warm. So she had the black sesame paste. $2.30
It looks good eh? Overflowing some more...



"Miss Librarian" had Honeydew with Sago. $2.80



Momo had Mango Sago and Pomelo. $3.80



"Sime" and I had something similar, Mango and Sago (without pomelo) $3.50
It was tasty. Lots of mango pieces, this is halfway through and I thought I shall take a snap of it.



(The place's not very bright, so the photos are a bit dark and grainy. Apologies)

It's a nice place to have nice desserts when you are around that area.


1 Liang Seah Street
#01-11 Liang Seah Place
Singapore 189022

Singapore National Day - Merlion Welcome Chocolate

Today is Singapura's National Day.

Today's post with from a hotel room the view of the National Day Parade stage. One of our friend booked a hotel room with a view of the stage. We all chipped in to pay for the room and can't wait to catch the fireworks later.

This is the hotel's welcome chocolate. Merlion chocolates for a National Day post?



The chocolate is ok only.



Wishing all Singaporean readers a Happy National Day.

Malay Food Stall @ NUS YIH Canteen.

Looking at Rasa Malaysia's post about Nasi Melayu, it sure got me hungry and salivating. At the same time yesterday, colleagues and I went to YIH to have lunch.

Everyone just headed straight to the Malay stall. I head to the Malay stall because of RM's post. LOL... Here's what I ordered. Rendang, Sambal Goreng and a veg. $2.20



Dpuk also had something similar. 2 meat and 2 veg.



Old cat had 2 veg, sambal goreng and chilli mussels.



Almond jelly had fish. Plus veg as well.



The portions seems to have shrunk and prices gone up, but the queue for this stall seems to have grown longer. Hmmm

Malay Food Stall
NUS YIH Canteen.

Keng Eng Kee Seafood @ Alexandra Village

Yesterday, our colleague 'pirate', IM a few of us, asking if we want to go to KEK? Another colleague 'old cat' wanted to go to Ikea to buy something. We could all have lunch at Alexandra Village first before walking over to Ikea. Sure!

On the way there, a colleague 'almond jelly' said she wanted to eat the 'platter thingy' that was posted here before. So when we came, while wondering what to eat, we saw that there's a set menu for 4-6 persons for $78. We just decided to order it.

So.... in the set menu there was:

The Platter of Three. The name in Chinese sounds better, it was Golden (Huang Jin) Platter of 3. They are all quite yummy. The portion's also quite big for the 5 of us.



It had Golden Pork Ribs as well. "Got standard" lah. Not superbly good or bad. ;-)



The set menu is suppose to serve Chinese Spinach with Ikan Bilis. No one really wanted that, and they said we could change to another veg dish if we want. So we opted for Sambal Kangkong. Spicy!



This is the Steamed Seabass with Brown Bean Sauce. Can't really take photo of fish. I seldom take nice photo of them!

The fish was fresh and nice. The brown bean sauce is also full of 'lard pieces'. Is that why it was so fragrant and delicious?



The set meal ends with a dessert that was Almond Jelly with Longan.

Since we were here, we thought we should not miss out on their famous kway teow.
So, we ordered a plate of it as well. Yes, it's the famous raw egg that goes on top of kway teow :-) Yup... with the wok hei, lard pieces, etc...



Heart clogging, but happy lunch. ;-) Too much food actually, should have omitted the Kway Teow, but we were glad we ordered it.

(This is one of the stalls that appeared on the Straits Times last week or week before.)

Keng Eng Kee Seafood (also known as KEK Seafood)
Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-136 Alexandra Village
Singapore 150124

Daily: 11.30am -2pm, 5pm-11pm

Love Confectionery @ Bukit Merah

Today after lunch with colleagues at Bukit Merah, we walked past this shop that had so many people! We wondered what is so special and when one colleague saw some pandan cakes she likes and people are all queing up for them, she quickly joined the queue. :-)

What a lovely name isn't it? There are more people inside the shop!



What we saw on display is only 2 kinds of cakes. Cupcakes and pandan cakes slices. Everything else has been wiped out. Oh, there was also a few loaves of cakes on another table.



The place must be around for a long time. Everything has stayed as it is I think. The postcode on the box still has the 4 digit postcodes that has been phased out long ago.



This is colleague's breakfast for tomorrow. We shall find out from her if it's good tomorrow.
It did smell very good to us! 70 cents each.



Anyone there knows more about this shop?
Maybe we should go back again and try the other cakes. Everything seems to be sold out this time.


Blk 122 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-60
Singapore 150122

Fried Kway Teow @ Amoy Street Food Centre

After posting yesterday's post. I had the cravings for Fried Kway Teow! (Don't laugh!)

So, for tonight's dinner, I went to Amoy Street Food Centre and had Fried Kway Teow at the corner store. It also happens to be Stall 01-01! The stall does not have any fanciful time, but just the name of what it sells.



I was really hungry, so I opted for the $3 version.
Yummy. It had around 16 cockles in it.



Where is your favourite Fried Kway Teow stall?

Fried Kway Teow
Stall 01-01
Amoy Street Food Centre
MND Building Annexe B
7 Maxwell Road
Singapore 069111

The official address states Maxwell Road, but it's along Telok Ayer Street ;-)

History of Char Kuey Teow @ National Museum of Singapore

Have you wondered how Char Kuey Teow originated? I have wondered and never knew anyone who had the answer. But last month while visiting National Museum of Singapore last week, I saw this at the "Singapore Living Galleries - Food" section.



This is their version of how it was first sold. I believe there are other versions.
(no citation etc.. so how we know right? haha..)



Hey, I think you should pop by to visit. The food section's not very big and you don't get to eat anything there, but it's quite interesting to have a look at it. :-)

You can visit this website http://nationalmuseum.sg/ for info about timing and admission fees. (they have certain time of the day where it's free). Also, from now till 15 Aug, you can visit the various museums in Singapore for free after 3 pm.

Forture Seafood Steamboat @ Bukit Timah Road

A colleague IM us about another reason to go have a nice lunch. An 'edict' from the big boss requires that one of our colleagues shift his office nearer to the big boss'. This move to around 35 - 40 mins walk away calls for a 'farewell lunch'. Mad right? But we all said, yes, we need a farewell lunch.

We had initially wanted to go Smok' Inn Frogz Kitchen, but oh silly billy us, we did not check the opening hours. It opens from 4 pm on weekdays!

So we decided to just walk around, and found this shop at the other corner of the same block. We were like, hey, another place with a weird spelling. Is it suppose to be Fortune or Forture?



We don't have very long lunch hour, so we decided to just try it anyway. We discovered it had ratings from Makansutra when we went in. That comforted us a bit.

Like the usual makan places, they earn a bit by serving us this little appetizers. Achar, and it's quite spicy, but yummy.



Hmm. Usually it is one type of appetizer, achar or peanuts. It seems we got both. The hungry bunch of us finished all at lighting speed.



We did not really know what to order, so we asked the boss to 'kai siao' (recommend to us their specialty). We had a simple veg.



We also had their BBQ Sauce spare ribs. 6 of us find this ok, but 1 colleague just did not like it.



This is the makansutra chopstick rated dish. The Herbal Chicken. OK lah. 6 of us some say its nice, some say so so.



We also had a tofu. The sauce is spicy and most of us liked it.



The main dish or the star of the day is the Curry Fish Head. It was quite delicious. Asam style. The sauce was very addictive.



I told a friend about this place and he said arghh, he had a horrible experience at this place, both with the food and service. Maybe we went during lunch time, so the kitchen is not rushing and the servers were more responsive. :-)

Forture Seafood Steamboat
887 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 279896

Business Hours: 11 am to 2.30 pm, 5 pm to 11.30 pm daily.
Tel: 6469 5957 / 6463 0479

Pai Ku Mian yet again @ NUS Science Canteen

Not sure if you all like to go to the same stall to eat the same thing. We realise that we do! A few colleagues and I, when we feel like having lots of meat and have it cheap, we head to the Noodle Stall at the NUS Science Canteen.

Though they have also joined the rest of stalls in Singapore in raising prices, it is still a big portion in comparison to the price we pay elsewhere.

Yes, we are eating the same thing over and over, but we try to make it a bit different each time. One thing though, we always seem to ask for 'kuey teow'. This just happens to be our lunch few days ago, and realised we ordered the same thing, but it is still quite different.

Dpuk likes to add extra veg and have a 'lu dan'. (soy stewed egg)
He does not like to add chilli or the tomato sauce in it. Just plain old soy sauce. He says this is how he likes it.



For me, I think I eat enough eggs so I usually omit the eggs.

But I am now fond of the tomato sauce that they will add in if you do not ask for chilli. Somehow it gives some tangy taste to the noodles. (I used to hate the tomato in it) I love the green chilli and a scoop of garlic to go with it. The scoop of garlic just makes it taste so good! I give it a good stir and enjoy. (Without any addition it cost $2, usually around 5-6 pieces of meat)



'Wire' another colleague likes to add in veg and 'lu dan' too. The difference is that he likes it very very spicy. If I am not wrong, he already has the 'sambal' added to his noodles. He adds in more potent 'chilli padi' as well, plus the garlic.



How do you like your noodles? All dark soy, tomato sauce or spicy chilli?

Stall No 1 @ NUH Staff Canteen

This was our lunch few days ago. Colleagues and I went to the NUH Staff Canteen to eat. Colleagues heard that the pale looking noodles from Stall No 1 (ok we can't remember the name haha) seems to be quite popular. So they wanted to try it.

(Pardon the ugly spoon arrangement, but that's how it comes LOL)
Well, the verdict, they said its ok lah.



I don't fancy yellow noodles, so I had the Xin Zhou He Fen. It's nice, but oily, really oily. Paradox? Nice but oily?



Somehow, someone will order the dumpling to share. Well, one thing for sure, everyone says this stall's dumplings are nice.



I am also not a dumpling person. I don't like to eat the skin. Breaking it up so that you can see what's inside. Think I have mentioned it before, you can order the uncooked dumpling home if you are having a dumpling party ;-)



Stall No 1 @ NUH Staff Canteen
Lower Kent Ridge Road