Zhou's Kitchen @ Square 2 (Part II)

Part II of the High tea buffet.

When you sit down, you get this basket of delicious keropok!
Keropokman LOVES these keropok! They go so so well with the thai style chilli sauce. yum! ;-)



The drunken chicken.
It was nice, but if it was colder it would be even nicer.



Beef slices. Can't really remember the name of this dish.



Steam Pork Ribs.



Phoenix Claws.
I realise without my colleagues who are mad about these eating with me, it's not as enjoyable eating the claws. haha...



The kids on the table loves this. Fried Fish Skin.



This sliced pork with garlic is very delicious. I think I ate quite a lot of this!
It goes well with porridge too!



This is pork slices with jelly fish.



Dough Fritteres with Mayo.



Century Egg porridge with lean pork.



If you want more century egg, you can order this.



BBQ Pork Bun. I kinda like this because I ate a few of it! LOL...



Deep fried chicken that looks small and dry. But somehow it was quite appetizing and I ate quite a bit of it.



Nice place to pig out without costing too much.
You got to make a reservation. The place is very very packed with people.

Zhou's Kitchen
Square 2
10 Sinaran Drive
#01-73
Singapore 307506

Tel: 6893 1123
Fax: 6397 6474

Zhou's Kitchen @ Square 2

We were invited to our cousin's birthday tea at Zhou's Kitchen during the past weekend. Happy Birthday E!

Uncle and Aunt booked the tea buffet at Square 2.



Look at the price for the buffet. It's quite reasonable right?
The food's not too bad too. It's a Tung Lok Group restaurant, so it's usually quite good. ;-)




I realise we ate quite a bit! There was like a big group of us, so we nearly ordered everything.
If you are interested in it, you can continue to scroll down.
Here's Part I of the food we ate:

Char Siu Pastry. These are good stuff.



Siu Mai.



Celery and Prawns. I picked more veg than the prawns. hehe...



The Meat Roll.



I love french beans and this is a bit spicy, so it's very appetizing.



For carbo load fix, here's the Lotus Leaf Rice.



It's like a rice sandwich inside. The meat sandwich between two layers of rice.



Har Gow.



If you have 6 persons or more having the buffet, you get the Crab Glutinous Rice.



The Egg tarts here are delicious!



The fried rice here is also very fragrant. I like it.



Sweet and Sour soup.
(psst, don't bother).



Part II to continue tomorrow.


Zhou's Kitchen
Square 2
10 Sinaran Drive
#01-73
Singapore 307506

Tel: 6893 1123
Fax: 6397 6474

Craving for CKT...

Every now and then, I suddenly have a craving for Char Kuey Teow. But I won't go all the way to somewhere far away to satisfy it. When you reach there, you might already have lost your appetite. haha...

This was a simple CKT at a coffee shop near my home. Good enough to satisfy temporary cravings for carbo. This was dinner some time last week when I just wanted fried carbo with black sauce. LOL...



Very busy today that I did not have time for lunch. Meetings after meetings and trying to solve so many problems. Lunch today was only at 5 pm! With lunch so late, I did not have dinner. I just ate something from the fridge just now.

Colleague went for porridge buffet today! (and I was hungry....)

Vietnamese Food @ NUS Business Canteen

A quick post as I have been extremely busy these few days. This was lunch few days ago when I ate at the NUS Business Canteen.

What a coincidence that I met an old friend there. I seldom come to this canteen, and he works in Science Park and also seldom come here, I think it's the first time this year here.

This is food from the Vietnamese stall. With the swine flu around, I guess I will still eat pork. The lady stacks the food up very high.

The rice is hidden behind, and no I did not do adjust the vegetable and meat. ;-)
Around 5 pieces of Vietnamese style pork, and 1 big scoop of greens. $2.



Oh yes, a bowl of complimentary soup.
Simple, satisfying and cheap lunch.

I was also tempted to 'add extra ingredients', but decided I should eat less. LOL.
The other stew looks good too.

Vietnamese Stall,
NUS Business Canteen

Chiharu Sake Bar and Seasonal Specialties @ Bukit Timah Road

Continuation from yesterday's post.

These photos are the food from the "Deep Fried Dishes".
From this section, this is my favourite - Tempura Moriawase. Oh, the ebi was so nicely done. So light and crispy.

We had to keep reminding ourselves, don't order double even if it is nice. We want to try every single thing in the menu! Yeah, we think we were crazy, but we actually did it!



Here are the other delicious deep fried stuff. Most were quite nice, except I think the Ika Tatsuta Age. (Deep fried marinated squid). It's a little too tough.




This next section is my favourite. The Warm Dishes.

Buta Shioyaki. Oh, we love this pork! I am sure all other pork lovers will too!



We also love this Gyu Teriyaki. OK, for this we ordered a few rounds of it, because we the meat eaters love it.



We ordered medium, and see it's nicely done.



But if you can't take beef, you can take the chicken version of it.



Here are the other dishes in the warm dishes section.




We did not forget our veggies.
Here are the dishes from the Salad Section.




The Main Dishes Section.
The Zaru Soba. I like soba, so I love this. This is super cold too! Nice nice ;-)



If you like cold udon, you could try the Zaru Udon.



We were wondering how the porridge would taste like, so we ordered 1 person's portion to try. Very light!




Finally, we reached the Dessert Section.
In the menu, it just states "ice cream selection of the day".

So we did not expect much, but we tasted it, we liked it that we ordered almost all the available flavours to try! Somehow if it's good ice cream, there's always space in the tummy for it!

Here are the top 3 flavours I like.
The raspberry ice cream.



The Bailey's Ice Cream.



I love this the most. Chocolate Ice Cream. It's so good.
You can even mix it with the Bailey's :-)




It was such a satisfying meal. The food and company were excellent!
Momo and I might come back again for the sushi and sashimi. It's too much to eat if we eat the all you can eat all over again.

But if you go in a bigger group, maybe you can order half the portions for the group and share it. That way you can taste everything. The dishes I think changes, the menu that I see today seems to be a little different. So check out the menu first.

Not much description of individual dishes for this post. You can read what Camemberu thinks about the food at her blog post of this place.

You can view all the photo at a glance at my flickr site here.


Chiharu Sake Bar and Seasonal Specialties
779 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 269758
Tel: 6769.1929

Hours
Lunch: Monday to Sunday,12pm to 2.30pm
Dinner: Monday to Sunday, 6.30pm to 10.30pm

Chiharu Sake Bar and Seasonal Specialties @ Bukit Timah Road

Last Saturday, Camemberu, BlackTieWhiteLie(Nic), XiuLongBao, Momo and I met up for the long awaited lunch meet that we wanted to have. There are others who was suppose to come but can't make it due to prior engagements.

We went to Chiharu Sake Bar because we got tempted by Camemberu who posted the menu link to us. By looking at the menu, I was already salivating. LOL...

It's a weekend chef treat Omakase. S$48++ per person on weekends and public holidays.



We have not had a more satisfying Japanese lunch for a long time. The last time Momo and I had a really satisfying Japanese meal was at Inagiku too long ago. ;-)

So, what did the chef prepare for us? This is the Sashimi that was prepared. Everything was so nice. I can just eat this 4 or 5 times over, but this is a one serving item. LOL...



The sushi that was prepared for us by the chef. Oh, so so good. The 5 of us came here, sat down, Nic and Camemberu armed with their dSLR, we were prepared for a long slow meal. So, the two experts were slowly taking their photos, the other 3 of us were slowly enjoying our meal.



I realised I have over 40 photos of the food that I took! How am I going to post it all here? I shall put in some of it in mini photos, if you want to see the usual big photos, click on them. ;-)

We were really enjoying the food. The chef and servers in the restaurants were suddenly curious why are these people taking photos, who are they? They were nice people though, very accomodating when we asked for the light right above us to be turned on, so we can have clearer photos. LOL..

Here are some of the cold dishes.

A few of us could not get used to the sticky grated mountain yam paste (right bottom) that was with the cube tuna. I think like Naato, it's acquired taste.



These are some of the of my favourites in the cold dishes section.
The Chiharu Karupacho - Thinly sliced raw fish salad.



Kamo Roast Yaki - roasted duck breast. It's very very thinly sliced. :-)



I like this Hiyashi Tomato (chilled tomato) a lot too!




Now to the Grilled Dishes....

Momo seem to be missing this Tori Tsukune (Grilled Chicken Meat Ball) the next few days. She has been msn-ing me about it. LOL... Ya, it's not dry, but very juicy and tasty.



Here are some of the other dishes in the grilled section.
Can you imagine that the 5 of us ate so much? I guess when you are with fellow friends who love food, it keeps you going!

I guess it was not only the food, but also the conversations we had at the table.




Oh, there are so many more photos, I shall continue in the next day's post.


Chiharu Sake Bar and Seasonal Specialties
779 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 269758
Tel: 6769.1929

Hours
Lunch: Monday to Sunday,12pm to 2.30pm
Dinner: Monday to Sunday, 6.30pm to 10.30pm

Sushi Tei @ Holland Village

It was one of our colleague's birthday on Tuesday and we asked the birthday girl, what she would like to eat. She said Sushi Tei, because it can save us money.

(how considerate of her. we treat the birthday boy/girl lunch on their birthdays, and she has the Sushi Tei card that gives the holder 20% off on their birthday month).

There was a long story to get everyone here, as everyone had so many last minute stuff to do. But we all made it. :-)

We went to the branch at Holland Village. As we had 7 persons, we were seated upstairs.
Here's some of the things that we had. Table's too cramp, and it was difficult to take photos of food on the other side. LOL...

We ordered individual meals, and a few communal items.
Here's mine. I had the Tonkatsu & Cold Chasoba. I think I am addicted to chasoba?



The tonkatsu this time was dry though. So what I did was to dip the meat into the soba sauce! LOL...



"Wire" ordered what he always orders when he goes to Sushi Tei. Sansai Udon. I think he likes this as I like chasoba.



The birthday girl had Chirashi. We realised that the birthday girl always orders Chirashi too!



"Old Cat" ordered this. We also realized he always orders this!
We concluded that most of us just orders the same things when we visit Japanese places! See, the above are proof!



"Pirate" ordered something different though. It's the Seasonal Promotion, and this is the Salmon Burg Baked Rice. (we realized Burg stands for Burger haha)



Two other colleague's food too far away for my hands to reach. Did not want to trouble them as well. ;-)

Here's the communal or shared stuff. Also a new item, this is the Collagen Nabe, we had the miso soup base.



After the soup is poured in. This is quite delicious....



The soft shell crab.



This one is quite good too. Beef slices wrapping the inoki.



Lastly, the Shio Octopus. We kinda like it. It was done nicely where it was not tough and still juicy. yums!



Happy Birthday Ms T.

Sushi Tei @ Holland Village
20 Lorong Mambong,
Singapore 277679

Telephone +65 6463 2310
Facsimile +65 6463 2316

Opening Hours
11.30am to 10.00pm daily
(last order 9.30pm)

Li Xiang Curry @ Dover Food Centre

Colleagues and I had lunch at Dover Market and Food Centre today. It has been a long long time since I ate food from this stall.

We realised that they have moved. They were previously at the 'main section' of the food centre. (the section further away from the market), they have moved to the food section that is right next to the market section.

Out of curiosity, we asked why they moved. The lady boss said, the person whom they leased the stall previously wanted the stall back. But the stall they are now occupying was vacant and they could get it directly from NEA.

No, the lady is not scolding me. haha.. She is asking if it's only one bowl of rice I wanted.



Another colleague is sharing, that's why we could order 3 different kinds of curry.
This is the vegetable curry.



The pork rib curry.

This photo has the pork that is submerged under the curry 'lifted and stacked up'. So it might look it is a lot, but it is not.



The fish curry. For the fish curry, you got to wait a while for them to prepare, the rest were almost instant.



The curries all have their own distinct flavour and it's always enjoyable to have their curry. They are one of the more popular stalls at the food centre. If we had another person sharing, we could have ordred the chicken curry as well!

Comparing the curry sauces, we like the sauce from the fish the most, then vegetable, then pork.
Everything above with 2 plates of rice, $9.50


Li Xiang Curry Fish
Dover Market and Food Centre
Stall 01-89
33 Dover Road
Singapore 130033

Sapporo Ramen Bishamon @ Bukit Panjang Plaza

This was lunch on Sunday afternoon. We needed to return a few library books. There are no library near where we live, so we needed to choose one that is convenient.

The public library at Bukit Panjang is in Bukit Panjang Plaza itself. This should be convenient. We could return the books, settle lunch, etc...

[The books in Bukit Panjang seems to be newer it seems, the books that we borrow. But the magazines are quite 'well read'. The magazines in Jurong East library seems to be 'cleaner' though :-) Hmmm people at Bkt Panjang are magazine readers while Jurong East residents prefer books? ]

Lunch was at Sapporo Ramen Bishamon. We noticed that it was opened a few weeks ago so we thought we shall try it out this time.



It's only 4 of us this time.

We had 2 Special Miso Ramen. Looks pretty usual, but we kinda took a liking to it after we tasted the soup. Nice.....



The meat is not the 'melt in your mouth' kind, but it was not bad. The soup's not too salty but salty enough. (Not for those who like it extremely salty. LOL)
Ramen was quite 'q' as well.



After eating the meat, I thought I will now try the egg. When I picked up the egg, I realised it was soft and bouncy. Hmm... could it be a soft yolk egg?

(It was a whole egg,) so I bit a hole in the egg, and 'tada!' it was soft inside. I love soft yolk eggs! Most places only give half an egg, I like it that they give you a whole egg here.



The other 2 had the Beef Rice. Gyu Don.



Another of the fancy can drinks you can find in Japanese eating places. At least this one has 30% juice, compared to the pineapple drink I had that was totally artificial but nice. LOL.... This is $4.50 though!



Sapporo Ramen Bishamon
Bukit Panjang Plaza
1 Jelebu Road
#01-64/65
Singapore 677743
Tel: 6462 2001

Curry Fish Head @ Aunt's Place

Since I am posting on Aunt's cooking, here's another to add to the collection. This was dinner last night at Uncle and Aunt's home.

I did not take photos of all the dishes, except the curry fish head. We had pork trotters in black sauce, 2 fish heads, xiao bai cai for the 8 of us.

Despite the crazy warm and humid spells these few days, we still wanted to eat Curry Fish Head. You know there are many types of curry, and this is the Indian Curry Fish Head. The moment you taste it you know. We ate it and recognised Indian Curry. Yummy!!

We asked aunt how she mixed the spices up so nicely. Whose recipe? Or which brand of sauce she used. She told us, the secret is Tesco! (Not the UK one, but the Malaysia one) It has been so so so warm these few days, everyone wants to go somewhere cooling like shopping malls. Uncle, Aunt and cousin decided to not squeeze with the 4 or 5 million people in this city that's all rushing to the shopping malls here, so they drove across the causeway. They went to Tesco at Tebrau City, Johor Bahru.

While doing groceries there, there was this curry powder place inside Tesco that is so so popular with the locals. The person seeling the curry mix will be asking you what are you going to cook. Fish? Chicken? If chicken, how big is the chicken etc... They will then mix the powder up for you.

Guess what, they also provide the amount of onion and garlic etc to cook with. They will be blending the onions etc there for you. Guess how much it cost? RM3.80 (SGD 1.58 / USD 1.05)
Better value and fresher than the prepack sauces!

(Fish, ladies finger, brinjal are all bought in Singapore and cooked in a Singapore kitchen, so it can appear in this blog. haha.. )

The taste was good. The 8 of us, including aunt thinks that we should add more water next time, so we get more sauce.



After dinner, we made this super easy and cooling dessert.

Earlier in the afternoon, we went to buy the ingredients for the dish above and also bought fruits.

3 Thai mangoes are selling at Giant for $1.99 only. Korean strawberries are also on sale. We bought 1 kg tub of Aloe Vera. Can't remember the brand, but it's around $4.20. Can of Longan from our own pantry. (Hosen brand seems to be nice, and it's on sale at Fairprice)

Cut the mangoes into big chunks. Add in the Aloe Vera tub, including the water, it's not very sweet, so its ok. Drain the syrup off the longan and pour in only the longan, halve the strawberries, a whole punnet of it, squeeze in juice from about 8 lime and add in LOTS and LOTS of ice!!



This dessert's easy to make and very very refreshing. The weather's insane these few days, so I am sure you will like this. The strawberries I think are end of season, so they are a bit sourish! But it complements the rest of the sweet stuff.

Dinner at Aunt's

It has been some time since I posted any photos of food prepared by our Aunt. We eat at her place once almost every week. (Sis and I feel so so so blessed.)

So, here are some photos of the dinner dinner we had last week.

Soy sauce braised chicken. It's the kampung chicken so it has less fats. Yummy! I like the thick braised sauce.



Since aunt's braising stuff, she put in extra chicken wings in to braised as well.
Like many people who cook, it's easier to cook more, and then have it for lunch the next day if there are leftovers. Braised food usually taste nicer the next day right?



This is bittergourd with eggs. Can you spot what other ingredients are in there?
We all seem to like eating bitter gourd. A family gene thingy? hmmmm

Some say we are sweet people, so we need to balance up with bittergourd or the people around us might get diabetes. LOL



Steamed Mullet with Fermented Black beans.

Aunt said it's the first time she bought this fish. The fish monger says you must try it, very soft and tender. It's very cheap too, so aunt bought it and try. Not bad. Except don't eat the flesh near the gills, there's a hint of 'muddy taste' if you are sensitive to freshwater fish.

This fish seems to be talking to you right? Have pity on me, don't eat me!
We took pity of it and then immediately finished it off. LOL...



Rayfish with Sambal Assam.
We were quite full from the above and most of us touched a bit only. It's to be the next day's lunch. :-)



Have a great weekend!

Benkei Japanese / Korean Cuisine @ NUS Science Canteen

Many friends who are students in NUS are updating on their Facebook status or twitters that it's their last lecture as an undergrad. I suddenly thought: "wah.. i feel so old! my last lecture as an undergrad was more than a decade ago!"

Anyway, since we are talking about NUS, we shall talk about eating in NUS. The canteens in NUS offers quite decent food at very cheap prices. This week, as Singapore's economy is projected to go worse, colleagues and I have been eating value for money meals at NUS Canteens.

I realise I have 3 sets of photos from the same stall in my camera this week. 2 eaten by colleagues and one by me. All from Benkei Japanese Cuisine at the Science Canteen.



This is the Korean BBQ Chicken Set that I had. $4.
That's quite a generous portion of meat too right? Taste is not too bad lah.



This is colleague's Japanese Saba and Teriyaki Chicken Set. $4.
The Saba has already been eaten when I took this photo. hehe....



The Korean BBQ Beef Set. $4.50
Colleague says it is nice, and very spicy too!



The sets comes with a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso soup.





If you order the Japanese set emals, you get 3 pieces of mini jelly. If you order the Korean, you get a small saucer of Kimchi.



The kimchi that another colleague had was not as nice as the one I had on a different day. Hmmm different batches taste different?

We suddenly realise we miss the Japanese stall that was at the Arts Canteen long long ago. We think that was the best. Anyone remember them? ;-)

Benkei Japanese / Korean Cuisine,
NUS Science Canteen.

Ah Poh BBQ Seafood @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

2 friends came over our place last Saturday. We had gelato, onions rings and chicken nuggets that they brought over. It was an afternoon of Wii for 2 of them and sis.

After 'exercising', it was dinner time. We went over to Bukit Timah Food Centre for dinner. Everyone ordered and ate different things. But there are some things that we shared.

We were sitting in front of this stall, and was tempted by the Stingray that everyone seems to be ordering.



The stingray's quite nice. The sambal on it makes it quite delicious. (It's also quite oily haha...)



We also had Satay from another stall few doors/stalls away.




Ah Poh BBQ Seafood
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
02-119/120
Singapore 588172

Tasty Thai Hut @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

I thought I had posted something about Tasty Thai Hut, but going through this food diary, I realised I have not although I have eaten here so often. Anyway, Tasty Thai Hut at the Bukit Timah Food Centre is what I call Thai Fast Food.

This Thai lady can whip up your orders rather quickly! If you are first in the queue, it will be ready in 2 or 3 mins.

This is the Basil and chicken with Rice. $4. I have had this countless times and I still enjoy it. It's very spicy and with all the fragrant aromatic leaves in it, makes it taste yummy! Do be careful of the chilli seeds if you can't take spicy food. It's simple and nice.



The other day I decided to order something to share while eating dinner here. I saw the Glass Noodle Salad ($4) and decided to try it.

The dressing for the salad is quite delicious. The glass noodles are boiled only when you order, so it's a bit warm. I like it a little cold, so I wait a while and at the same time let the glass noodle soak up all the dressing. It's interesting that it has white fungus in it too!



Hint: If you order their Phad Thai, make sure no one else is ordering it. If more than 1 person orders it, the lady will cook them all together and separate it. The portions tend to be smaller. If you are the only person ordering it, the portions are larger. Many friends confirm this as well. :-)


Tasty Thai Hut
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#02-159
Singapore 588172

Ming Jia Korean Food @ Bukit Timah Plaza

This was a quick dinner on the way home from work. Met sis on the way home, we sat in the same bus and we were sms-ing each other, what to eat. Shy to talk in the bus loudly. LOL...

We suddenly thought of the very "home-style" Korean food stall. So we got off the bus and walked a short walk to Bukit Timah Plaza.

We had the set meal, which is to choose 1 meat and 2 vegetables. Sis had the beef with fried chilli anchovies and kimchi.



I had the chicken, long beans and kimchi.



We kinda like the kimchi here because it's cold. ;-)
Straight from the fridge when you order it.



The set meal comes with rice and seaweed soup, both in steel bowls.
Oh yes, the flat and heavy chopsticks which I find kinda difficult to use. (Is it only me, or do you all think that flat korean chopsticks are difficult to use as well?)



It's $9.50 for the above. Very reasonable and very home style cooking. Food's prepared by a Korean lady and it is quite tasty.


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

Tanglin Eng Kee Bak Kut Teh @ Amoy Street Food Centre

This was lunch last Saturday with a group of friends after our Bible Study. We were famished and the famous food stalls at Amoy Street Food Centre had queues that were so so long.

Then someone bought back to our table, a bowl of Bak Kut Teh. She came back so quickly and we were surprised. We asked her where is the stall? And before you knew it, all of us went to queue at that stall. LOL...



The BKT, how shall I describe it?
Only the soup is nice. It's the peppery type and it is quite tasty and fragrant.
However, the meat's not so 'ru wei'. (is it because it's Saturday?)



The 'lor' on the rice is not the thick kind that I like.
As it was a Saturday, so the lady only sells limited stuff. (I asked if she had the 'kiam chai')



The early birds who ate first. We later occupied 3 tables and everyone on the 3 tables except for 2 did not eat Bak Kut Teh. You can see someone opted for Char Kuey Teow instead.



Hmmm.. Come if you want to drink soup only. LOL...


Tanglin Eng Kee Bak Kut Teh
Stall 02-106
Amoy Street Food Centre
MND Building Annexe B
7 Maxwell Road
Singapore 069111

Manpuku @ Tampines 1

Here's more of the stuff that we ate yesterday at Manpuku. Here's a mix of what we got from all the different stalls. I am not sure which stall it is, so just visit this place yourself and walk around ;-)


We were very hungry, so the sushi stuff was the quickest. Pick up, show them your card, bring back to table and eat. The Inari that sis almost always order. $2.



The Unagi Sushi Set of 5. $7.80 This is quite nice.



Aunt was also with us and she picked some things from the grill shop.



The pork and asparagus roll was quite nice. $1.60
The other stuff behind the scallops $1.80 and chicken yakitori $1.20.

Aunt told us something quite funny. The Japanese chef was trying to teach this new boy who is helping him. He was asking him to keep repeating the name of the order in Japanese, but the boy just could not say it out. He said to my aunt "wo jiang bu chu" his tongue simply can't twist to speak Japanese. The chef (like the ones on TV), refuse to take the order from the boy until he says it correctly and in Japanese. LOL..

But aunt noticed the Japanese chef is super particular when grilling her order. Unlike the ones we usually see, where the people working are just human versions of machines, this chef was so careful and so dedicated in what he's doing. See it's so nicely done without burnt marks!



When you enter this place, the first thing you see are the cakes that looks as if they are plastic replicas. No they are not plastic but the real thing! This person was carefully cutting sis' order.



The beautiful looking orange and grapefruit tart. $6.80



I was thirsty and I ended up drinking this because I was attracted by the bottle. Pineapple Squash. $3.80

It you can read the Japanese words (this one looks chinese), it says no fruit juice. Yes, the whole thing taste so chemical. It's one of the fancy chemical tasting pineapple juice. But I think it's nice. (am i mad??? haha...)



Manpuku - Gourmet Japanese Town
Tampines 1
10 Tampines Central 1
#03-16/17/18
Singapore 529539

Aoba Hokkaido Ramen @ Tampines 1

There's a new shopping mall right at the East of Singapore at Tampines. It's called Tampines 1. It opened yesterday, and you might wonder what is the person staying in the West doing all the way here in the East? It's because we attended the English Presbytery Easter Convention Good Friday service at Expo.

When we got to Tampines, the whole place is so jammed up. The 3 malls here was packed like sardines. We wondered if we did the right thing. Anyway, we decided we would just go over to the new mall and eat there and leave. We saw that there's a place called Manpuku - Japanese Gourmet Town, a place that has 10 different famous Japanese food places on the 3rd floor. So we decided to eat here.

Here's what sis, momo and I ate. We ate Ramen from Aoba Hokkaido Ramen, one of the shops inside this 'Marche like - you get a magnetic strip card to order food' place.



This is what I had. Sho-yu Corn Ramen. $9.80

Only when I got my food that I realised they got my order wrong. I ordered the Miso Butter Corn Ramen. We ordered by the number on the menu, so they definitely got it wrong. But anyway, was nice to them and just took what they prepared although they wanted to changed it. It's only their 2nd day of opening and the staff must have been overwhelmed.

The soup's quite delicious. The noodles are nicely done too. The noodles look really instant noodlely (curly wurly kind), but did not taste like it though. :-)



Sis had the Sho-yu TanToro Ramen. $14.80.
The pork slices are really really yummy. It's so tender and it reminds us of the ones from Santouku. (Sis said Santouku's a little nicer. lol)



Momo had the Shio Cha-su Ramen. $10.80.
This is a little different from the two soy sauce based one above. This salt based broth is quite tasty too.



There's so many ramen places suddenly sprouting all over Singapore in the last few months. Everyone has a different style. This one here, the egg is the normal hard boiled egg. The broth here is quite nice. This place is another place by the Ajisen group.

Aoba Hokkaido Ramen (inside Manpuku)
Tampines 1
10 Tampines Central 1
#03-16/17/18
Singapore 529539

Beppu Dining Restaurant @ China Square

These are dinner photos from Anthea and Alvin's birthday we celebrated a few days ago. We initially met at Far East Square, but the restaurants that we wanted to go had closed down!

The other restaurants did not look too good and most could not really host the 19 of us easily. So we walked across the street to China Square and somehow ended up at Beppu Dining Restaurant.

It seems most restaurants here are quite empty nowadays, this is the financial district and the finance people are really watching their wallets really tight. After we sat down and was going to order our food, we saw promotion that if we spend $50, we get a $10 voucher for the next visit.

We thought, maybe we can ask for the vouchers to be used immediately. We asked them and they said no, but since there was so many of us, one of our friends who has thicker skin asked again. Cut the story short, we spent over $200 and we got $20 off. We are easily satisfied.

Anyway, the folks here are really nice and they provided us with small plates for our delicious cake posted few days ago. The place is quite cozy too for big group outings.

Here's the food we had:
From the other table, a paper hot pot.



Sorry, I forgot to ask what hot pot it is and I can't tell from the photo. LOL..



From our table:
Hiyayakko - Cold Tofu $3.20



The Tori Karaage. $6.10
Another shared item from our table - Fried chicken pieces always taste good right? It's not too dry so it was not too bad.



We realised later that two other persons also ordered food that has Karaage in it.

The Oniyama Jigoku - Crispy Chicken on Ramen from Hell. $9.30
Why from hell? I don't know and I wonder why.

The ramen dishes all have a 1, 2, 4 of 8 chilli rating. 1 is spicy, 2 is for the more daring. 4 and 8 are for the insane. LOL



Yup, another person who likes fried chicken had the Kara Age Don. $8



The braised pork ramen. $10.50
Look at the fatty meat. Fat lovers will like it, fat haters will flee. LOL
Our friend did not have any chilli, because we were told 1 chilli is spicy. Most of us think that 1 is just nice.



I had the Beppu Ramen $13.80 because the person said it's their best noodles and most people eat it. I had it with 1 chilli.

It's OK lah. Think we have so many new ramen shops around that has been raising the standards higher and higher, this has become so so only.



Another friend who is an Unagi fan had the Unagi Ramen. $11.50



As usual, company was great, much greater than the food. Had a great night out.

Beppu Dining Restaurant
20 Cross Street
#01-19 China Court,
China Square Central

Tel: 6438 0328 / 6438 556

Lunch @ Holland Village Food Centre

Quick post today. Today our lunch was at Holland Village Food Centre. All of us walked around wondering what to eat. In the end, one colleague ate the Economic Bee Hoon, another Char Kuey Teow, another Beef Noodles.

This is his beef noodles. He said it's very nice. It's as nice as the beef noodles you get opposite at Crystal Jade but half the price. $4 ;-)



I ended up eating at this stall, I can't seem to find the name of the stall. Do you see it?



I ate here before. It's not super nice food, but it's rather quick and I think the 'uncle' is quite funny. He jokes with you. I had 'San Bei Ji'. It comes with rice and a fried egg. The uncle said you should add in their sambal. He opened a container that was covered in front of the cash machine and yes the sambal thing was quite nice.




The above eaten at:
Holland Village Food Centre

Happy Birthday Alvin and Anthea

A group of around 19 of us met up with each other to celebrate two of our friend's birthday. We ate dinner at China Square and then had a cake for them.




Happy 21st Birthday Anthea. ;-)



Happy 21st birthday too Alvin.



Yes, all our friends are always 21. We shall not reveal their real age.
The cake is Chocolate Truffle Cake from Royal Cakes.

Tampopo @ Liang Court

After church yesterday, aunt was saying that she has not been to Liang Court for a long long time. So, off we went to Liang Court to have lunch. Looking at the options of places to eat, we finally settled to have Japanese at Tampopo.

Uncle and I both had the BBQ Black Pork Ramen. The broth's good!



The two slices of BBQ Black Pig hidden inside were yummy too!



And the ramen just nice for our liking. Delicious.



Aunt had the seafood fried rice. It was quite fragrant too.



Our cousin has been addicted to sashimi lately. She had the tuna chirashi. It's quite a large portion too. (There's eggs hidden behind too.)



The shared items we had: Octopus tentacles. Our cousin liked it that we ordered another portion. But I did not really like it. I think it's because I don't like tentacles :-)



This is the potato croquet. I remember the price for this. A $4.50 piece of croquet.
But you know what's inside?



There's kurobuta, wagyu pieces inside! Aunt said this is so far the best croquet she has eaten. (we told her, of course lah, there's pampered cow and pork inside. haha)



We had to wait quite a while for the croquet to arrive, we nearly cancelled it because there was some mixed up perhaps?



We were glad we chose to eat here. For those who asked who usually asked me to post prices, I can't remember. The total bill plus drinks and taxes was around $90.

Tampopo
177 River Valley Road #01-23/24
Liang Court Shopping Center
Singapore 179030
Tel: 6338 3186

Che Saigon @ PGP Residences Food court

Yesterday, colleagues and I went to PGP Residences food court for lunch. The last time we came here was probably in 2008. We noticed that many of the food stalls have changed.

Lunch was so so, but we thought that this dessert stall was a mini highlight of the lunch. It sells only desserts.



Our colleague, "Mrs Jiao Sou Fu Ren" ate very little and we asked her if she is on a diet? She said no... She is having a small lunch because the desserts stall has caught her eye.

So while we were finishing up lunch, she came back with things to let us try. Yam and Sago. $1.20 We tasted it and though hey, it's not bad.



But what got us interested was the other dessert that she was having. It was called Vietnamese Ice Kachang. $1.80

You know the 'three colour' or 'four colour' dessert (not sure of the name, but in Melbourne previously, I remember we order it by calling it 3 or 4 colour), it is usually very fakingly bright and colourful. But this 'natural colouring' dessert looked kinda pale.

We noticed Mrs JSFR was enjoying her drink/dessert and we asked her if she thinks the rest of us will like it. She said "Yes!". So off I went to queue up and bought 3 more cups of it.



The cup is actually quite big and it is quite filling! The lady put in about 5 or 6 tablespoons of red beans in it, top it up with corn custard and then chendol. After that she added a layer of ice and then covered it with coconut milk.

After stirring it, we enjoyed it. We realised why we liked it. The coconut milk is not plain old coconut milk. She scooped it from another dessert that she's selling. It was a banana dessert that has coconut milk sauce on it. Ah...



We were so so full. Maybe the next time we are here, we shall have a mini portion of lunch and enjoy the desserts. (and maybe try other things that she sells)

OMO [One (wo)Man Operation] so it might be a bit slow. Patience needed. :-)

Che Saigon
PGP Residences Air Conditioned Food Court
National University of Singapore.

Ke Ai Ji (Golden Rooster) @ Clementi

Yesterday, our colleague drove us to Clementi Town Centre because he needed to do run some errands at the Post Office.

Wondering what to eat, we finally ended at the Varinice food court beside Clementi Fairprice A. (There are two Fairprice in Clementi, thus they call it A and B)

Remember when there was a time, Ke Ai Ji was everyone's favourite? Due to a million kinds of excuses, they raised their prices so so so many times, many of us just decided to give it a miss. Their standard also dropped. (I am sure many of you agree right?)

Few weeks ago, sis tried it again and said, ey, they have repented. The food's not that bad anymore. lol...

Since we are sitting at this coffee shop, I decided to give it a try.






It tasted better than what I remembered the last time I had it. I remember it being so bloody that I gave up on it. This time it is not bad lah... (or is it because I have not had it for a long time?)

The chilli is nice though. ;-)



Price of 1/2 chicken is now $4.50

Golden Rooster / Ke Ai Ji
Blk 450 Clement Avenue 3
#01-305
Singapore 120450

Thai Express @ Holland Village

One of our colleague got her 'Orange Card' from Thai Express and proudly proclaimed: "let's go there to have lunch". So, off we went to Thai Express at Holland Village.



We ordered a few things to share. 3 starters to start our appetite going...
The prawn toast. We always liked it though it's a little oily. :-)



This is a free dish. (I think, courtesy of colleague's Orange Card.) Pineapple Salad that's quite refreshing. You see more cucumber and tomatoes than pineapple right? Haha..



This is something I have not tried. Fried Calamari with salted eggs sauce.
The combination's not bad at all. "Old Cat" obviously love it a lot, that he's picking up all the salted eggs. :-)



One 'O card' colleague had the Green Curry Vegetable with rice. This is all vegetables and no meat in it.



"Old Cat" decided to have tomyam noodles to give him a 'shock' in his head. When his dish came, he said: "Oh so mild." But... don't be deceived. It's quite potent!



Dpuk and I, we knew that this was the potent dish. (Yellow Ginger Chicken) But still, we wanted to be suicidal. We ordered it and as usual, the person taking our order warned us that it's super spicy. We said yes, bring it on!

The last time we tried it, dpuk 'tak ada rasa' (did not feel the spiciness) about it. But this time, you could see that the nerves of his tongue functioning normally. Our tongue's crying for help!

(You all should try this if you think you can take very spicy food. haha...)



Oh, when we ordered, we asked that by using the coupons that has given us discount (and also a free starter), if we pay using a DBS card, do we still get the free dessert? They said yes! So we got this tapioca dessert FOC.

(One thing about Thai Express we realised is that they are not so 'ngiau' like some places. They seem to be genuine with their offers. I hope this don't stop.)



Oh, it's Ms Orange Card's birthday month, so she got a bottle of wine to bring home too. Not bad eh.. She treated us this time. She said to give her a big meal on the real birthday date.

(We jokingly asked her, is this her month long Royal Princess celebration? It's only the start of the month, and her birthday's not so soon. haha....)

ThaiExpress @ Holland Village
16 Lorong Mambong
Singapore 277677

Tel: 6466 6766

Happy Wanton Noodle @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

I was deciding to skip dinner tonight because I am not really hungry. Sis texted to say that she's at Bukit Timah Food Centre, and I can join her there. So I detoured a bit and met her there.

Walking around to look for something quick and easy, I had a 'Happy Meal', not from Mcdonald's but from the food centre.

Wanton Noodles from a stall called Happy Wanton Noodle. Hey, this stall's really really popular. The queue's always very long. But at around 7:15 pm, there's no queue at all. ;-)



The wanton and the soup. The soup's saltish and sweetish. Nice for a few mouths, but not the whole bowl. ;-)



The wanton noodle is surprisingly quite springy and delicious. I am not a big fan of wanton noodles, but I think this one's quite nice.



$3 for the above. Much cheaper than the Happy Meal from the two Mcdonald's that around 200 metres away from this food centre. But you don't get any toy here though. LOL...

Pardon the dark blur photos. If you know this food centre, there's not much light!


Happy Wanton Noodle
Stall 02-197
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 58817